Indigenous peoples’ legacies of plant cultivation and management can have profound effects on contemporary forest structure and species composition long after cultivation has ceased. Despite rich ethnographic accounts of practices like orcharding and fruit tree management in the Pacific Northwest, archaeological and ecological research documenting these practises have been lacking. To investigate ancient and historical land-use and cultivation in Nuchatlaht (Nuu-chah-nulth) territory, we undertook a multidisciplinary study combining archaeological surveys on Nootka Island and ecological analyses of seven anomalous plant communities found adjacent to former village sites. Fifty-seven archaeological sites were inventoried, and 16 previously recorded sites were updated, including six notable village sites. Intensive botanical surveys were subject to indicator species analysis, NMDS, and ANOSIM analysis, which suggest that three putative orchard sites were highly enriched for culturally important and edible fruit and root plants, such as Pacific crabapple (Malus fusca), saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia), salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), and wild rice root (Fritillaria camschatcensis), and are highly distinctive compared to nearby sites and regional floristic patterns. Four shell midden sites were characterized by plant communities distinct from both orchard sites and control sites. Our archaeological and ecological analyses, alongside ethnohistorical data, strongly suggest a pattern of ancient and/or historical cultural landscape modification by Nuchatlaht peoples to produce food-bearing plant communities in their territories. This compliments findings in other literature, and what Indigenous peoples have long told researchers, that plant resources were routinely encouraged and harvested across their inhabited landscapes.

在停止种植很久之后，土著人民的植物种植和管理遗产会对当代森林结构和物种组成产生深远影响。尽管对太平洋西北部果园和果树管理等实践进行了丰富的民族志研究，但记录这些实践的考古和生态研究一直缺乏。为了调查 Nuchatlaht (Nuu-chah-nulth) 地区的古代和历史土地利用和耕作，我们进行了一项多学科研究，将 Nootka 岛的考古调查和在前村庄遗址附近发现的七个异常植物群落的生态分析相结合。清点了 57 个考古遗址，更新了 16 个先前记录的遗址，其中包括 6 个著名的村庄遗址。Malus fusca )、萨斯卡通浆果 ( Amelanchier alnifolia )、鲑鱼 ( Rubus spectabilis ) 和野生稻根 ( Fritillaria camschatcensis))，并且与附近的地点和区域植物区系模式相比具有高度的独特性。四个贝中点的植物群落与果园和对照点不同。我们的考古和生态分析，连同民族历史数据，强烈表明努沙特拉特人改变古代和/或历史文化景观的模式，以在他们的领土上生产食用植物群落。这补充了其他文献中的发现，以及土著人民长期以来告诉研究人员的内容，即植物资源在他们居住的景观中经常受到鼓励和收获​​。