The Original "Free Trade": Exchange of Botanical Products and Associated Plant Knowledge in Northwestern North America

Abstract

Abstract: Long-standing and far-reaching trade networks for culturally important plants are documented for British Columbia and neighbouring areas from archaeological, historical and ethnographic records, as well as recollections of contemporary Aboriginal people. Plant resources and products manufactured from plants comprised a substantial portion of traditional and contemporary traded goods. Examples include: dried edible seaweed, commonly traded from coastal communities inland; dried soapberries, saskatoon berries and other berries; hazelnuts; cedar-root and cedar-bark baskets; basket materials; and Indian-hemp fibre and twine. In addition to the plant materials, knowledge associated with these resources was exchanged, and trade has had cultural and ecological implications extending well beyond simple subsistence.Resume: Dans cet article nous presentons les reseaux d'echange, de longue date et de grande portee, de plantes culturellement importantes de la Colombie britannique et de regions adjacentes a partir de sources archeologiques, historiques et ethnographiques et de souvenirs d'autochtones contemporains. Les ressources vegetales et les produits d'origine vegetale formaient une partie substantielle des produits echanges traditionnellement et de facon contemporaine. Les exemples presentes incluent: les algues marines comestibles sechees, echanges couramment entre les communautes de la cote et celles de l'interieur; les pommes de savon, les petites poires et autres petits fruits seches; les noisettes; les paniers en racine de cedre et en ecorce de cedre; les materiaux pour fabriquer les paniers; et la fibre et le fil du chanvre du Canada. En plus des materiaux d'origine vegetale, des connaissances associees a ces ressources etaient echangees. L'echange cut de nombreux effets cultureIs et ecologiques et n'etait pas restreint a la simple subsistance.Introduction Trade between villages was necessary to provide a continuous supply of food and accumulate wealth. Goods were exchanged by sharing, bartering, or trading a gift for a gift. Trade included sharing land that had a profusion of berries or hunting grounds full of game. As there was an abundance of seafood on the coast, and similarly, an excess of meat and berries among the Gitksans, the exchange offered variety in our diets. (Watts, 1997: 1)Indigenous peoples around the world have a cultural heritage that includes extensive and intimate familiarity with their local environments. Such knowledge is an essential attribute of societies that not only have survived, but have thrived, in close connection with the natural world (Inglis, 1993; Williams and Baines, 1993). However, few, if any, natural environments provide a complete and reliable array of resources to a given group of people at a given time. Trade has long been recognized as a means of countering instabilities in resource supply and abundance, and of introducing variety to those resources. Indigenous peoples of North America certainly have been well acquainted with the advantages of trade. Archaeological and historical records show that they developed extensive and sophisticated trading networks and institutions dating back thousands of years. However, the pervasive nature of Indigenous trade, and its many implications both before and after contact have rarely been explicitly considered. In particular, the importance of exchange of various types of plant resources, technologies and knowledge has received little direct attention.In this study, we discuss plant exchange, in a broad context, among Indigenous peoples of British Columbia and adjacent areas. General characteristics of this exchange are delineated, as well as its cultural and ecological significance both in the past and today. Information is derived from available archaeological, ethnographic and historical data, as well as documented consultations with Aboriginal people in recent decades. …