Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America

10 / Tlingit Horticulture: An Indigenous or Introduced Development?

Chapter 10 Tlingit Horticulture An Indigenous or Introduced Development? madonna l. moss Due to its geographic position at the extreme northernmost end of the Northwest Coast, Tlingit territory has the lowest diversity of terrestrial plant resources of any subregion of the culture area. While ethnographers have listed culturally important plants and recorded some gathering methods, the economic and dietary importance of plants in Tlingit subsistence has been neglected. As far as I know, there has been no previous focused eªort to systematically examine the evidence of cultivation of indigenous plants among the Tlingit. Similarly, Tlingit cultivation of potatoes and other introduced plantshasnotbeenseriouslyinvestigated.Inthispaper,Iexaminetheevidence for pre-contact and post-contact horticulture, with reference to developments occurring elsewhere on the Northwest Coast. I will employ ethnographic and ethnohistorical data to document the intensification of gardening for production of the potato and other introduced crops in the nineteenth century. I will also evaluate the archaeological record of gardens in an eªort to assess the importance of horticulture and its eªects on land use and settlement patterns during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Because the Tlingit had access to fewer species of culturally significant plants than any other Northwest Coast group, this analysis will assess whether the Tlingit relied less on plants than other Northwest Coast groups, or intensified their use of available plants in response to fewer opportunities. Environmental Background Extending from Icy Cape, Alaska, in the north to the international boundary between the United States and Canada in the south, Tlingit territory is most frequently referred to as “Southeast Alaska.” It encompasses the islands of the Alexander Archipelago and the adjacent narrow strip of coastal mainland. The northern boundary marks the northern limit of the ethnographic territory of 274 the Yakutat Tlingit in addition to an important physiographic discontinuity. The coastline northwest of this point to Cape Suckling is straight and highly exposed, unlike the highly convoluted shorelines to the southeast. Dixon Entrance and the Canadian boundary provide a convenient southern border for the area to be discussed here. Distinctive named groups (kwaans) of Tlingits occupied this region at European contact, and Tlingit people make up the largest component of the region’s contemporary Native American population. At some time prior to European contact, the Kaigani Haida settled the southern half of Prince of Wales Island, Dall, Sukkwan and Long islands, displacing Tlingit groups (Blackman 1990: 240; Langdon 1979). Annette Island is home to the descendants of Christianized Tsimshian Indians who moved from the Prince Rupert region of British Columbia in 1887 to found “New Metlakatla” (Dunn and Booth 1990). For the purposes of this paper, however, I will draw upon Tlingit archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistorical sources (which are strongest for the central and northern areas of Tlingit territory) to address questions related to horticulture in aboriginal Southeast Alaska. Due to its northernmost position, Tlingit territory has a lower terrestrial biodiversity than the Northwest Coast subregions to the south. Latitudes in Southeast Alaska range from 54o 30' N to 60o 8' N, limiting the range and, in some cases, the abundance of a number of economically important plants found to the south. Most notable among these is western red-cedar (Thuja plicata), which is restricted to areas south of Frederick Sound at an approximate latitude of 57o N. Also absent are plants associated with the comparatively dry Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests, a vegetation zone entirely absent from Southeast Alaska. Plants with edible bulbs or roots used in the south that do not occur in Southeast Alaska include camas (Camassia spp.), two species of onions (Allium cernuum, A. acuminatum), two fawn lilies (Erythronium revolutum, E. grandiflorum), harvest lily (Brodiaea coronaria), a chocolate lily (Fritillaria lanceolata), wild hyacinth (Brodiaea hyacinthina), Tolmie’s mariposa (Calochortus tolmiei), seashore lupine (Lupinus littoralis), wild caraway (Perideridia gairdneri), and spring gold (Lomatium utriculatum) (PojarandMacKinnon1994;Suttles1990).Inaddition,theeconomicallyimportanttuber ,wapato(Sagittarialatifolia)isrestrictedtosouthernBritishColumbia andareassouth.EdiblerootsusedbyTlingitpeoplesthathavebeendocumented intheanthropologicalliteraturearelistedinTable10.1.WhileSoutheastAlaska does have its share of berries and fruits, the following Northwest Coast species are absent or extremely rare: common gooseberry (Ribes divaricatum), sticky gooseberry (R. lobbii), red-flowering currant (R. sanguineum), trailing blackberry (Rubusursinus),blackcap(R.leucodermis),woodlandstrawberry(Fragaria vesca), two huckleberry species (Vaccinium membranaceum, V. ovatum), two species of wild rose (Rosa gymnocarpa, R. pisocarpa), Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis), and Solomon’s seal (Smilacina racemosa, S. stellata) (Pojar and MacKinnon 1994; Suttles 1990). Nut-bearing trees and shrubs absent from Southeast Alaska include hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) and Garry oak (Quercus garryana). Clearly, Southeast Alaska...