D Lepofsky
Biographic Data
| ID | 10980 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D Lepofsky |
| GIVEN NAMES | D |
| FAMILY NAME | Lepofsky |
| SIGNATURE | LEPOFSKY D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Simon Fraser University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1858-0432 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 50 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 324 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship of seagrass ecosystems
Seagrass meadows sustain biodiversity, fisheries, and human well-being, yet remain undervalued and often overlooked in marine governance. This review examines the central role of Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship in maintaining and restoring seagrass ecosystems, grounded in relational worldviews that recognize humans, seagrass, and associated marine life as kin. Drawing on scientific literature, Indigenous scholarship, and evidence derived from com…
Ła alˈalgya̱g̱̱a la̱xyuuba Gitḵˈaˈata (The Territory of the Gitgaˈat Speaks)
Place‐names in Indigenous languages have long been researched as indices of multidimensional layers of knowledge in, and connections to, Indigenous territories. This paper discusses new research on the place‐names of La̱xg̱a̱ltsˈa̱p, a sacred watershed of the Gitḵˈaˈata (Gitgaˈat First Nation), a Smˈalgya̱x‐speaking people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. These names are best understood when seen through an Indigenous lens by people with lived kno…
Landowner perspectives on conserving Indigenous archaeological heritage on private property, Xwe'etay/Lasqueti Island, British Columbia
Living Archaeological Sites
This study advocates for shifting archaeological praxes to ones that include ecological heritage-biotic features of a landscape that hold cultural, educational, and historical significance. Historically, archaeologists have tended to overlook ecological heritage, such as "living sites," emphasizing built heritage and manufactured tools and features over ecosystems shaped and stewarded by people. We bring together archaeological, ecological, and a…
Indigenous cultural heritage policies as a pathway for Indigenous sovereignty and the role of local governments
Indigenous cultural heritage (ICH) is threatened worldwide, driven by factors like development, private property rights, and colonial planning. Indigenous communities are increasingly navigating the inadequacies of ICH protection by exerting their rights through laws, protocols, and policies. These initiatives assert sovereignty and relational responsibility to ancestral cultural heritage outside of the mandated colonial systems of management. Th…
Settling the record
For Indigenous people across the globe, being connected to traditional lands and histories continues to be of paramount importance. To document this connection on one river system in the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, we compiled archaeological evidence from 14 settlements occupied between 3,000 years ago and the early 20th century. We demonstrate how households and lineages persisted inter-generationally, expanded demographically and …
Reply to Oswald et al
Historical ecology of forest garden management in L a xyuubm Ts’msyen and beyond
Cultural land-use is an important driver of ecosystem change, influencing the composition of species across landscapes and through time. Recent research in northwestern North America has shown that historical Indigenous land-use and forest management has resulted in relict forest gardens dominated by edible fruit, nut, and berry producing trees and shrubs – many of which continue to grow adjacent to archaeological village sites today. Our researc…
Wil Luunda ‘Waada aks (Where the Waters Meet)
The geomorphological dynamism of estuarine landscapes provides challenges to archaeologists trying to understand the long-term, intertwined histories of people and place in these ecotones. This is especially the case in regions like the Northwest Coast of North America, where the location of the interface between river and coast has shifted in tandem with changing relative sea level (RSL) positions in the late Pleistocene through the Holocene. We…
Digging Deep
Understanding the social and ecological contexts of past agricultural systems in complex societies requires expansive and nuanced data sets that recognize the role of all players in the production system. Such data sets are not often available and thus, there is a tendency to generalize across polities and ecosystems and to homogenize place- and time-specific variation. Here, we bring together ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological data …
Scientists' Warning to Humanity on Threats to Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems
The knowledge systems and practices of Indigenous Peoples and local communities play critical roles in safeguarding the biological and cultural diversity of our planet. Globalization, government policies, capitalism, colonialism, and other rapid social-ecological changes threaten the relationships between Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their environments, thereby challenging the continuity and dynamism of Indigenous and Local Knowle…
Seeking a More Ethical Future for Ethnobiology Publishing
The academic publishing world is rapidly changing. These changes are driven by and have implications for a range of intertwined ethical and financial considerations. In this essay, we situate Journal of Ethnobiology (JoE) in the discourse of ethical publishing, broadly, and in ethnobiology, specifically. We consider it an ethical imperative of JoE to promote the core values of the field of ethnobiology as a platform for scholarship that is both r…
Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity
Armstrong, C., J. Miller, A. C. McAlvay, P. M. Ritchie, and D. Lepofsky. 2021. Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity. Ecology and Society 26(2):6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12322-260206
Adopting a Root
In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition of the role humans play in the structure, composition, and function of ecosystems. Ethnoecological documentation of traditional management systems of Indigenous Peoples in northwestern North America has contributed significantly to this rethinking. A less well-recognized but foundational part of traditional management of this region is the practice of transplanting plants and plant propagu…
Understanding the Past for the Future
“A Part of the People”
Many Indigenous People value dogs as hunting aides, draft animals, sources of fiber and food, protectors, and as companions. To better understand the close human-dog relationship among the Northern Coast Salish Tla'amin, we bring together several lines of evidence, including ethnographic information, interviews, and ancient DNA of archaeological dog burials. All indicate that dogs were an important part of ancestral Tla'amin culture and society. …
Re-evaluating “Conservation Implications of Native American Impacts”
Commentary On: Oswald, W. W., Foster, D. R., Shuman, B. N., Chilton, E. S., Doucette, D. L., Duranleau, D. L. Conservation implications of limited Native American impacts in pre-contact New England. Nature Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0466-0
From local to regional and back again
Ethnobiology through Song
Music is recognized as an essential constituent of the diversity of life on Earth and is enshrined in the concept of biocultural diversity. While research shows that song is an untapped library of biocultural memory, ethnobiologists have not yet explored the many areas in which studying songs and music through an ethnobiological lens could bring into focus the multi-dimensional relationships among humans and their biological worlds. The research …
Conflict and Territoriality
Coast Salish ethnohistory describes how various locations associated with settlements were used for defense within the Salish Sea region of southwestern British Columbia. During times of conflict, these linked places formed defensive networks that functioned to maximize defensibility at both the settlement and allied settlement scales. Examining the distribution of such defensive networks in time and space provides insights into the role of confl…
Reflecting on Ethnobiology from 1978 to 2018
Assessing continuity in the ancestral territory of the Tsleil-Waututh-Coast Salish, southwest British Columbia, Canada
Obsidian in the Salish Sea
Response to
Gauvreau, A. M., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. 2017. Response to: “Everything revolves around the herring”: the Heiltsuk-herring relationship through time. 2017. Gauvreau, A. M., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. Ecology and Society 22(3):29. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09542-220329
Everything revolves around the herring
Gauvreau, A., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. 2017. “Everything revolves around the herring”: the Heiltsuk–herring relationship through time. Ecology and Society 22(2):10. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09201-220210
Ancient Shellfish Mariculture on the Northwest Coast of North America
While there is increasing recognition among archaeologists of the extent to which non-agricultural societies have managed their terrestrial ecosystems, the traditional management of marine ecosystems has largely been ignored. In this paper, we bring together Indigenous ecological knowledge, coastal geomorphological observations, and archaeological data to document how Northwest Coast First Nations cultivated clams to maintain and increase product…
Historical Ecology of Cultural Keystone Places of the Northwest Coast
For many Indigenous peoples, their traditional lands are archives of their histories, from the deepest of time to recent memories and actions. These histories are written in the landscapes' geological features, contemporary plant and animal communities, and associated archaeological and paleoecological records. Some of these landscapes, recently termed "cultural keystone places" (CKPs), are iconic for these groups and have become symbols of the c…
Climate Change and Culture Change on the Southern Coast of British Columbia 2400-1200 Cal. B.P
The Marpole phase of the Gulf of Georgia, SW British Columbia (2400–1200 cal B.P.) is recognized by many archaeologists as a significant period of culture change. Concurrent with this cultural phase is a climatic regime characterized by a substantial increase in forest fires associated with persistent summer drought: the Fraser Valley Fire Period (FVFP). Culturally, the Marpole phase is characterized by the widespread appearance of large houses, …
Cultivating an Ecological and Social Balance
Anthropological views of past human-environmental interactions are influenced by the data sets used and the subjects of study. In this article, we seek a balanced view of ancient human-environmental interactions in the Society Islands. We explore the social and ecological contexts of agricultural production by incorporating archaeological and ethnographic data as well as the motivations and actions of Ma'ohi elites and commoners. Both elites and …
Exploring Stó
Social scientists recognize a complex and iterative relationship between the built environment and social identities. Here, we explore the extent to which household and settlement remains may be used as archaeological correlates of collective identities among the Stó:lō-Coast Salish peoples of the Fraser River Valley. Using data from six recently tested archaeological sites we begin with the household and explore expressions of identity at variou…
The Archaeology of the Scowlitz Site, SW British Columbia
This paper summarizes the results of six seasons of archaeological fieldwork conducted at the Scowlitz site located at the confluence of the Harrison and Fraser Rivers in SW British Columbia, Canada. Research beginning in 1992 has revealed a complex sequence of site use beginning with a residential occupation about 3000 years ago. After some 1500 years the site became a cemetery, featuring some of the best preserved examples of the burial mound a…
Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity
Armstrong, C., J. Miller, A. C. McAlvay, P. M. Ritchie, and D. Lepofsky. 2021. Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity. Ecology and Society 26(2):6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12322-260206
Modeling ancient plant use on the Northwest Coast
The Ethnobotany of Cultivated Plants of the Maohi of the Society Islands
Arboriculture in the Mussau Islands, Bismarck Archipelago
Adopting a Root
In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition of the role humans play in the structure, composition, and function of ecosystems. Ethnoecological documentation of traditional management systems of Indigenous Peoples in northwestern North America has contributed significantly to this rethinking. A less well-recognized but foundational part of traditional management of this region is the practice of transplanting plants and plant propagu…
More on Sampling for Richness and Diversity in Archaeobiological Assemblages
Archaeobiologists and ecologists have a long-standing interest in how best to estimate the number of species in an assemblage (past or present) with limited samples. The sampling to redundancy method for evaluating species richness and diversity is a well established approach for assessing sample adequacy and has been used by archaeologists for various classes of remains. In a recent article in this journal, Lyman and Ames (2004) explore the util…
Ethnobiology and Fisheries
A Bird's Eye View of Northern Coast Salish Intertidal Resource Management Features, Southern British Columbia, Canada
Marine intertidal modifications are a prevalent part of the archaeological landscape of the Northwest Coast. These modifications are physical manifestations of resource management activities foundational to the cultures of the region. However, the ability to identify and record the regional variation in these intertidal feature complexes is hampered by the large distances that need to be covered within extremely short and rare low tide sequences.…
Historical ecology of forest garden management in L a xyuubm Ts’msyen and beyond
Cultural land-use is an important driver of ecosystem change, influencing the composition of species across landscapes and through time. Recent research in northwestern North America has shown that historical Indigenous land-use and forest management has resulted in relict forest gardens dominated by edible fruit, nut, and berry producing trees and shrubs – many of which continue to grow adjacent to archaeological village sites today. Our researc…
Historical Meadow Dynamics in Southwest British Columbia
Lepofsky, D., E. K. Heyerdahl, K. Lertzman, D. Schaepe and B. Mierendorf 2003. Historical Meadow Dynamics in Southwest British Columbia: a Multidisciplinary Analysis. Conservation Ecology 7(3):5. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00559-070305
From local to regional and back again
Everything revolves around the herring
Gauvreau, A., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. 2017. “Everything revolves around the herring”: the Heiltsuk–herring relationship through time. Ecology and Society 22(2):10. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09201-220210
Metric Analyses of Prehistoric Morphological Change in Cultivated Fruits and Nuts
Digging Deep
Understanding the social and ecological contexts of past agricultural systems in complex societies requires expansive and nuanced data sets that recognize the role of all players in the production system. Such data sets are not often available and thus, there is a tendency to generalize across polities and ecosystems and to homogenize place- and time-specific variation. Here, we bring together ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological data …
Living Archaeological Sites
This study advocates for shifting archaeological praxes to ones that include ecological heritage-biotic features of a landscape that hold cultural, educational, and historical significance. Historically, archaeologists have tended to overlook ecological heritage, such as "living sites," emphasizing built heritage and manufactured tools and features over ecosystems shaped and stewarded by people. We bring together archaeological, ecological, and a…
Settling the record
For Indigenous people across the globe, being connected to traditional lands and histories continues to be of paramount importance. To document this connection on one river system in the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, we compiled archaeological evidence from 14 settlements occupied between 3,000 years ago and the early 20th century. We demonstrate how households and lineages persisted inter-generationally, expanded demographically and …
Wil Luunda ‘Waada aks (Where the Waters Meet)
The geomorphological dynamism of estuarine landscapes provides challenges to archaeologists trying to understand the long-term, intertwined histories of people and place in these ecotones. This is especially the case in regions like the Northwest Coast of North America, where the location of the interface between river and coast has shifted in tandem with changing relative sea level (RSL) positions in the late Pleistocene through the Holocene. We…
Conflict and Territoriality
Coast Salish ethnohistory describes how various locations associated with settlements were used for defense within the Salish Sea region of southwestern British Columbia. During times of conflict, these linked places formed defensive networks that functioned to maximize defensibility at both the settlement and allied settlement scales. Examining the distribution of such defensive networks in time and space provides insights into the role of confl…
Determining the availability of traditional wild plant foods
Forty‐two plant foods known to have been used in the past by native people of the Nuxalk Nation, Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada, were studied. To estimate the availability of the most prominent plant food resources, field estimates were made using modifications of standard techniques for quantifying plant species. Assessments of accessibility, abundance and frequency of food species were made. In addition, harvesting efficiency of 24 speci…
Arboriculture in the Mussau Islands, Bismarck Archipelago
A Radiocarbon Chronology for Prehistoric Agriculture in the Society Islands, French Polynesia
I discuss a suite of 29 radiocarbon age determinations from four valleys on the islands of Mo'orea and Raiatea in the Society Archipelago. These dates provide the first sequence for the development of prehistoric agricultural production and human-induced environmental change in the Society Islands. Indirect evidence of small-scale agriculture, and by association, human occupation, dates to at least the 7th–10th centuries ad. Agricultural sites th…
Metric Analyses of Prehistoric Morphological Change in Cultivated Fruits and Nuts
The Archaeology of the Scowlitz Site, SW British Columbia
This paper summarizes the results of six seasons of archaeological fieldwork conducted at the Scowlitz site located at the confluence of the Harrison and Fraser Rivers in SW British Columbia, Canada. Research beginning in 1992 has revealed a complex sequence of site use beginning with a residential occupation about 3000 years ago. After some 1500 years the site became a cemetery, featuring some of the best preserved examples of the burial mound a…
Long-Term Fire Regime Estimated from Soil Charcoal in Coastal Temperate Rainforests
Lertzman, K., D. Gavin, D. Hallett, L. Brubaker, D. Lepofsky and R. Mathewes 2002. Long-Term Fire Regime Estimated from Soil Charcoal in Coastal Temperate Rainforests. Conservation Ecology 6(2):5. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00432-060205
Modeling ancient plant use on the Northwest Coast
Historical Meadow Dynamics in Southwest British Columbia
Lepofsky, D., E. K. Heyerdahl, K. Lertzman, D. Schaepe and B. Mierendorf 2003. Historical Meadow Dynamics in Southwest British Columbia: a Multidisciplinary Analysis. Conservation Ecology 7(3):5. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00559-070305
The Ethnobotany of Cultivated Plants of the Maohi of the Society Islands
More on Sampling for Richness and Diversity in Archaeobiological Assemblages
Archaeobiologists and ecologists have a long-standing interest in how best to estimate the number of species in an assemblage (past or present) with limited samples. The sampling to redundancy method for evaluating species richness and diversity is a well established approach for assessing sample adequacy and has been used by archaeologists for various classes of remains. In a recent article in this journal, Lyman and Ames (2004) explore the util…
Climate Change and Culture Change on the Southern Coast of British Columbia 2400-1200 Cal. B.P
The Marpole phase of the Gulf of Georgia, SW British Columbia (2400–1200 cal B.P.) is recognized by many archaeologists as a significant period of culture change. Concurrent with this cultural phase is a climatic regime characterized by a substantial increase in forest fires associated with persistent summer drought: the Fraser Valley Fire Period (FVFP). Culturally, the Marpole phase is characterized by the widespread appearance of large houses, …
More on Sampling for Richness and Diversity in Archaeobiological Assemblages
Archaeobiologists and ecologists have a long-standing interest in how best to estimate the number of species in an assemblage (past or present) with limited samples. The sampling to redundancy method for evaluating species richness and diversity is a well established approach for assessing sample adequacy and has been used by archaeologists for various classes of remains. In a recent article in this journal, Lyman and Ames (2004) explore the util…
The Past, Present, and Future of Traditional Resource and Environmental Management
We live in a world where biological and cultural diversity are being lost at dizzying rates. As ethnobiologists we know that losses of diversity in both of these realms are inextricably intertwined. The loss of habitats and species, in combination with a plethora of socio-political factors, prevents local and indigenous peoples from interacting with their surrounding environments in traditional ways (e.g., Deur, Turner et al., Weiser and Lepofsky…
Ancient Land Use and Management of Ebey's Prairie, Whidbey Island, Washington
Anthropogenic prairies or meadows along the Northwest Coast of North America are herbaceous lowland openings in a forest-dominated landscape that were historically maintained by indigenous people through intentional burning and other management techniques. These anthropogenic ecosystems were once relatively common in the Northwest, but today are threatened because of the cessation of traditional resource management practices often coupled with wi…
Exploring Stó
Social scientists recognize a complex and iterative relationship between the built environment and social identities. Here, we explore the extent to which household and settlement remains may be used as archaeological correlates of collective identities among the Stó:lō-Coast Salish peoples of the Fraser River Valley. Using data from six recently tested archaeological sites we begin with the household and explore expressions of identity at variou…
Ethnobiology for a Diverse World Ethnobiology Emerging from a Time of Crisis
Taking Stock In Ethnobiology
For ethnobiology as a field to achieve its full relevance in the scientific and social realms, ethnobiologists need to take stock of the field as a collective. In 2008, the members of the International Society of Ethnobiology (ISE), Society of Ethnobiology (SoE) and the Society of Economic Botany (SEB) were surveyed to determine the demographics of the societies, member interests and priorities, and the future they envision for each society and f…
Cultivating an Ecological and Social Balance
Anthropological views of past human-environmental interactions are influenced by the data sets used and the subjects of study. In this article, we seek a balanced view of ancient human-environmental interactions in the Society Islands. We explore the social and ecological contexts of agricultural production by incorporating archaeological and ethnographic data as well as the motivations and actions of Ma'ohi elites and commoners. Both elites and …
A Bird's Eye View of Northern Coast Salish Intertidal Resource Management Features, Southern British Columbia, Canada
Marine intertidal modifications are a prevalent part of the archaeological landscape of the Northwest Coast. These modifications are physical manifestations of resource management activities foundational to the cultures of the region. However, the ability to identify and record the regional variation in these intertidal feature complexes is hampered by the large distances that need to be covered within extremely short and rare low tide sequences.…
Mapping S x wó x wiymelh
Maps and mapping are fundamental to archaeology. Archaeologists sometimes fail to recognize that the maps we use and create are fraught, like material culture, with interpretive complexities. These complexities arise from the fact that maps are created with social meaning dependent on the context in which the map was created and used. Here, we relate our experience with maps and mapmaking at the pithouse settlement of Sxwóxwiymelh, in southwester…
Ancient Clam Gardens Increased Shellfish Production
Maintaining food production while sustaining productive ecosystems is among the central challenges of our time, yet, it has been for millennia. Ancient clam gardens, intertidal rock-walled terraces constructed by humans during the late Holocene, are thought to have improved the growing conditions for clams. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the beach slope, intertidal height, and biomass and density of bivalves at replicate clam garden and n…
Ancient Shellfish Mariculture on the Northwest Coast of North America
While there is increasing recognition among archaeologists of the extent to which non-agricultural societies have managed their terrestrial ecosystems, the traditional management of marine ecosystems has largely been ignored. In this paper, we bring together Indigenous ecological knowledge, coastal geomorphological observations, and archaeological data to document how Northwest Coast First Nations cultivated clams to maintain and increase product…
Beyond culture history
Response to
Gauvreau, A. M., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. 2017. Response to: “Everything revolves around the herring”: the Heiltsuk-herring relationship through time. 2017. Gauvreau, A. M., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. Ecology and Society 22(3):29. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09542-220329
Everything revolves around the herring
Gauvreau, A., D. Lepofsky, M. Rutherford, and M. Reid. 2017. “Everything revolves around the herring”: the Heiltsuk–herring relationship through time. Ecology and Society 22(2):10. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09201-220210
Geography (38 works) · Archaeology (25 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (24 works) · Ecology (23 works) · Biology (20 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (16 works) · History (13 works) · Indigenous (12 works) · Anthropology (11 works)