Transcending Time: The Impact of Contact on Houses and Social Behaviour at an Ethnographic Village Site in the shíshálh Nation

The ethnographic village of ts’unay is one of the shíshálh Nation’s first four villages of creation. No archaeological work had been done at ts’unay as of 2020, so at the request of the Nation research was conducted to fill this gap in knowledge as the basis for this thesis. Findings were that social behaviour changed at ts’unay after Contact, which was expressed spatially within households. Taking a household archaeology approach, this thesis uses archaeological information alongside oral history, historical documents, and interviews with community members to establish family affiliation between the households at ts’unay and the shíshálh Nation. Fieldwork and interviews were conducted in 2021, and analyses were done in the following years using spatial mapping and content analysis respectively. This thesis demonstrates that change occurred in social behaviour at ts’unay due to forced shifts in shíshálh worldview after Contact. Despite the many changes that occurred, community and identity remained fundamental to ts’unay social organization.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Archeology

Grantor

University of Saskatchewan

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Burant, Angela I

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Clark, Terence

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Stuart, Glenn
• Greenfield, Tina
• Barnes, Susanna

• Northwest Coast
• house
• household
• ethnography
• social organization
• status
• Coast Salish
• historic

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10388/16872

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/16872