A race to save Indigenous trails may change the face of archaeology

Wind jostles the helicopter as we skim over dense forest and the snow-covered peaks of the Coast Mountains. We are flying over northwestern British Columbia, and from this aerial vantage point, it’s easy to see how mid-19th century European fur trappers called this land wild. But then, as now, that image is a mirage.

Snaking somewhere below us is the old Babine Trail network, a “grease trail” likely used for millennia by the Gitxsan people to carry goods such as eulachon, a type of smelt rich in oil, from the coast to inland communities. The crew I’m traveling with — which includes archaeologists, locals versed in this region’s ecology

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