The Kw'éts'tel Project

The Kw’éts’tel Project examines a technology that was once essential to the foodways of Stó:lō-Coast Salish families in the Fraser Valley of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Kw’éts’tel is a Halq’eméylem word for a slate knife designed to butcher fish in such a way that the meat can be preserved with wind drying methods. For over two millennia, kw’éts’tel were used for butchering and processing massive seasonal catches of salmon that were integral to the sustenance needs and social lives of extended family households. Although salmon fishing remains a fundamental part of Stó:lō -Coast Salish foodways and identity, traditional kw’éts’tel are no longer used for fish butchery. In the wake of European settlement, Stó:lō communities lost much of the knowledge concerning the production and use of kw’éts’tel. Changes to traditional household economies as well as colonial policies designed to suppress Indigenous culture, not the least of which were compulsory relocations of Stó:lō children to residential boarding schools, disrupted the motivations and ways of passing time-honored technological knowledge to new generations. In the present, kw’éts’tel are seen only in the archaeological record, but their design and unique technological attributes continue to signify a distinctly Stó:lō way of being.

This project aspires to restore knowledge concerning how kw’éts’tel were made. While broken and intact kw’éts’tel blades were recovered with archaeological methods for the better part of a century, much of the evidence for kw’éts’tel production has been ignored. New methods and approaches to archaeological investigations have resulted in the recovery of kw’éts’tel blade-making byproducts and production mistakes. In turn, this has prompted questions about the significance of these artifacts, or the ways that they implicate household labor, knowledge systems, and other intangible cultural heritage: the selection and transport of raw materials, decisions about when and where to execute stages of longer tool-production sequences, the use of various tool-making technologies, and the organization of the human body to the work of crafting usable kw’éts’tel blades. Answers to these questions contribute to broader efforts to restore and maintain Stó:lō traditions and cultural practices at the core of household and community life.

This digital project, developed at Connecticut College in collaboration with Chawathil First Nation, compiles archaeological, oral historical, ethnographic, and ecological information about kw’éts’tel and their significance to Stó:lō lifeways, past and present. Digital scholarship plays a crucial role in making this knowledge accessible to a broader Indigenous community, allowing for the dissemination of research beyond traditional academic circles. By leveraging digital platforms, we can share findings with those who are most connected to this cultural heritage, fostering greater engagement and collaboration. The project also highlights findings from recent experimental archaeological research on key steps in making kw’éts’tel blades. More information on the project’s origins, citation guidelines, and the peer and community review of this digital scholarship is available on the ‘About‘ page.

For optimal experiences, this website is best viewed with the Google Chrome web browser.