ABSTRACT
On a summer day in 1997, several members of the Semiahmoo First Nation travelled to the tidal waters of Boundary Bay, a small body of water on the Pacific coast of North America, to harvest shellfish. Across the bay, members of the Lummi tribe were also harvesting shellfish. This situation was not out of the ordinary: for centuries, Coast Salish communities relied successfully on these waters as primary sources of food, with clams, crab, oysters, shrimp, and many other species readily obtainable for harvest year-round.
