Lunch Club provides affiliates of the Stanford Archaeology Center with a community-oriented forum for engagement with current issues in archaeology. On February 25, 2026,  we will host Dr. Camilla Speller from the University of British Columbia.

Abstract:

Pacific salmon have been a cornerstone of Indigenous cultures and economies in the Pacific Northwest for millennia. This talk presents collaborative research that integrates biomolecular archaeological methods with Indigenous knowledge to investigate the deep history of Indigenous fisheries stewardship prior to colonial disruption. In partnership with First Nations communities, we document how traditional stewardship practices supported sustainable salmon populations, even under changing environmental conditions. Using ZooMS and ancient DNA analysis, we analyze archaeological salmon bones to explore questions of biodiversity, resilience, and fishing strategies—including evidence for sex-specific harvesting—across changing environmental conditions. By centering Indigenous research priorities and collaborative approaches, this work highlights how biomolecular archaeology can contribute to Indigenous-led cultural heritage research, deepen our understanding of past human-environment interactions, and support Indigenous governance over ancestral fisheries.