Were the ancient Coast Salish farmers? Conventional anthropological wisdom asserts that the ethnographically known communities of the Northwest Coast of North America were “complex hunter-fisher-gatherers” who lacked any form of concerted plant food cultivation and production. Despite decades of extensive ethnobotanical and paleoethnobotanical study throughout the Pacific Northwest demonstrating the contrary, this “classic anomaly” is still a cornerstone of anthropological and archaeological canons. The recent discovery of a spectacularly preserved wetland wapato (Indian potato, Sagittaria latifolia) garden, built 3,800 years ago in Katzie traditional territory near Vancouver, British Columbia, has helped recast this picture, alongside evidence for other forms of resource management practiced by Northwest Coast peoples. This article examines “origins of agriculture” stories from three distinctive perspectives: Coast Salish Katzie people who cultivated wapato for millennia; settlers who colonized the Fraser River Delta historically, bringing with them their own ideas about what constitutes farming; and archaeologists, who are challenged by these data to reevaluate their own understandings of these cultural constructs. These perspectives have critical bearing on the historical appropriation of lands and waterways by settler communities in British Columbia as well as contemporary questions of sovereignty and stewardship in this region and well beyond.

古代海岸萨利什农民是？传统的人类学智慧断言，北美西北海岸的人种学已知社区是“复杂的狩猎-捕鱼-采集者”，他们缺乏任何形式的协调一致的植物性食物种植和生产。尽管在整个太平洋西北部进行了数十年的广泛的民族植物学和古民族植物学研究表明相反，但这种“经典异常”仍然是人类学和考古学经典的基石。最近发现了一种保存完好的湿地 wapato（印度马铃薯，Sagittaria latifolia) 花园建于 3,800 年前，建于不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华附近的 Katzie 传统领地，与西北海岸人民实行的其他资源管理形式的证据一起，帮助重新塑造了这幅画。本文从三个不同的角度审视“农业的起源”故事： 数千年来种植瓦帕托的海岸萨利什卡齐人；历史上殖民弗雷泽河三角洲的定居者，带来了他们对农业构成的自己的想法；和考古学家，他们受到这些数据的挑战，需要重新评估他们自己对这些文化结构的理解。