The paradox of boundaries in Coast Salish territories

Abstract

This article grapples with the seeming paradox in the notion of representing cartographic boundaries for an indigenous community whose core social relationships are embedded in a moral ethos of borderless kin networks. While ethnographic maps of the Coast Salish people (southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington) have traditionally represented territories as discretely bounded, continuous regions, contemporary land claims maps submitted by Coast Salish political leaders reveal a nest of overlapping and interlocking lines. The paper argues that delineating territories based strictly on land use and occupancy does not take into account broader relationships between people and place. Property, language, residence and identity are categories also appropriate to Coast Salish territorial boundaries, while ideas and practices of kin, travel, descent and sharing make boundaries permeable. The paper considers the boundary lines created by Coast Salish leaders within the context of land claims, which potentially, have the power to transform Coast Salish social and political relations.

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