- The Nuu-chah-nulth Youth Warrior Family, also known as the Warrior Program, fosters leadership skills in boys and young men across several Indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth nations on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
- This youth-led program involves taking younger community members into ancestral lands for a variety of traditional activities, among them building and reviving clam gardens, an ancient maricultural method.
- Clam gardens consist of terraced rock walls built across small coastal bays that allow tidal sediment to accumulate and transform rocky or steep shores into flat, productive areas for clams.
- Clam garden construction and care, along with other cultural practices, such as hunting, spearfishing and medicinal-plant foraging, serve as rites of passage, helping Warrior Program youth reconnect with their heritage.
VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C., Canada — Three young men follow a winding trail through a lush spruce, hemlock and western cedar forest. Their destination is a clam garden they look after on Meares Island in Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory in British Columbia, Canada.
The journey starts with a cultural lesson at the trailhead to the clam garden. “This is Wanačas — it represents a whale breaching out of the water and the rain from the mountain to the clam garden,” Hayden Seitcher, one of the men, says about the trailhead.
Arriving at a clearing, they gaze over the garden at low tide, a serene interaction of land and sea. The shoreline, covered in a mosaic of green, red and brown seaweed, holds an expansive, semicircular wall of different-sized rocks, deliberately placed in May 2023 to revive an ancient maricultural technique. The wall retains a flat, stable terrace of mud and rocks: the clam garden. The group shifts a few rocks in the garden, uncovering large butter clams (Saxidomus gigantea), a clear sign of the garden’s early success.
The three young men — Seitcher, 22, along with KC Hale, 15, and Bryson George, 20, are youth leaders with the nonprofit Nuu-chah-nulth Youth Warrior Family (Warrior Program). Building, restoring and monitoring clam gardens is just one of the program’s many initiatives to foster leadership skills in youth across several Nuu-chah-nulth communities.
The program engages around 100 boys and men aged 9-25 in outdoor activities that promote community support, employability and climate resilience. Guided by mentors and elders, this youth-led program involves taking younger community members into ancestral lands for hunting, spearfishing, seafood harvesting, trail building and medicinal plant foraging, even in pouring rain. The program meets one night per week and one weekend per month. The outings serve as rites of passage, helping the youth reconnect with their cultural heritage. The aim is, in part, to help participants withstand the distinct adversities Indigenous youth face stemming from the long-lasting effects of colonization and residential school systems. Suicide rates among them are six times higher than in non-Indigenous Canadian populations, and they are at a 2-6 times greater risk for alcohol-related problems.
The program started in 2015 in Ucluelet First Nation after the youth there asked for ways to build stronger brotherhood. Ricardo Manmohan, a leadership development professional focused on First Nations men’s health and a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, guided its development; it’s now facilitated through partnerships with government entities and NGOs and funded through government grants.
The Nuu-chah-nulth are a group of Indigenous peoples from the west coast of Vancouver Island with a rich history of using ocean resources. Today, after decades of loss, they focus on preserving their culture and managing their natural resources sustainably. Fourteen Nuu-chah-nulth nations are spread across three regions, each distinct with its own territory, with an estimated total of about 10,000 people.
Within the Nuu-chah-nulth territories, the nations of Tla-o-qui-aht, Ucluelet, Ditidaht, Huu-ay-aht, Ehattesaht and Kyuquot/Checleseht actively host Warrior Programs, where individuals like Seitcher, Hale and George, who were once members themselves at younger ages, have stepped into leadership roles. Several times a year, the programs join together for multination efforts, channeling their combined energy into larger sustainability initiatives.
Plentiful clams
It is 8° Celsius (46° Fahrenheit) outside and drizzling on Meares Island. The trio, shod in rubber boots, scatters about, lifting up rocks using shovels and waterproof gloves to check for clams. Seitcher wears a navy blue wool sweater, dark pants and a jacket around his waist, his long dark hair tied back in a ponytail.
“When we move those rocks, we create space for the clams on the surface to breathe and create their air holes. When clams release their eggs, the rocks help retain them within the wall area as the tide recedes,” says Seitcher, mild-mannered with a kind smile. The leaders go themselves or take their youth out to check on the garden’s progress about once a month.
“[The garden] creates space for more life when the water goes through. You can even find squid and crabs,” he adds. The community harvests depending on need. There isn’t a set schedule, but Seitcher says families tend to gather more during the summer for events like potlatches.
Clam gardens consist of terraced rock walls built across small coastal bays, allowing tidal sediment to accumulate and transform rocky or steep shores into flat, productive areas for clams. For each garden, the Warriors collaborate with elders, knowledge keepers and heads of land and resources departments to select a suitable site for development or restoration.
The project has completed two builds so far: this one in Tla-o-qui-aht territory and another in Huu-ay-aht territory. The next is planned in Kyuquot territory in July, and a restoration of a former garden is planned in Toquaht territory in November. Each nation assumes responsibility for ongoing maintenance, removing predators such as sea stars and crabs, controlling when and how much is harvested and aerating the sediment.
Clam gardens have fed coastal First Nations communities for generations. Carbon dating has shown the earliest-known clam garden to be around 4,000 years old. Over the millennia, communities have adapted to changing sea levels by modifying existing walls, constructing new ones at different tidal heights or relocating to new sites.
“This is a very ancient practice that people have been caring for many generations,” says Nicole Smith, an independent archaeologist affiliated with the Clam Garden Network, a community of First Nations, researchers and resource managers from coastal B.C., Washington and Alaska, who collaborates with the Warrior Program and other researchers to study clam gardens. “These structures are a testament to these communities’ deep environmental understanding and ecological wisdom.”
Indigenous communities in British Columbia and tribes in the U.S. states of Washington and Alaska are actively reviving clam gardens, which bring many environmental benefits. The terraced structures create ideal conditions for other marine life, help stabilize the coast, prevent erosion and support efforts to combat climate change by capturing carbon through the growth of seagrass and kelp.
Research also shows they are effective. A 2014 study found that over time, clam gardens produced four times more butter clams than coastal areas without walls and more than double the littleneck clams (Leukoma staminea). Another study revealed several benefits of clam gardens, notably that butter clams in them had twice the biomass as in comparable unmodified beaches.
The Warriors have seen these kinds of results in their own gardens. “When we first started building the clam gardens, we could grab 2-3 clams in a scoop. Then, the next time, that would increase 5-8 clams. Now, we can get up to 10-12 clams in a scoop. It just keeps growing,” George says.
He wears a bright pink hoodie with the program logo. His dark brown hair is slightly tousled. He picks up a large butter clam from under one of the rocks, smiling brightly. It is light brown with a smooth texture.
Adapting ancient methods
After digging around the garden to check its condition, the group gathers near an inlet framed by dense forest. They seem unfazed as the rain falls harder. They joke around, catch up and discuss the Warrior Program’s upcoming activities.
Seitcher emphasizes the program’s role in reviving traditional practices and promoting self-sufficiency. “Food security is important so that in emergencies, like when highways close and store supplies dwindle, or during situations like the pandemic, when affording food gets tough, we can still sustain ourselves and our families,” he says.
George, the storyteller of the group, adds more. “Knowing where all the food sources are is one of the main things we need to keep track of. Projects like the clam garden help us to teach people in the community how to be self-sufficient for the future.” He recalls his great-grandfather Thomas, a chief, cooking clams — “native gum” — on hunting and harvesting trips. “They hydrate you after hiking, my great-grandfather would tell me. He would boil or steam them for a little or put them over the fire with plants, like Labrador [tea] or licorice fern,” George says.
Smith says the Warrior youth have typically worked on clam garden builds at the lowest tide marks, a traditional practice, for native species like butter clams, littlenecks, cockles (Clinocardium nuttallii) and horse clams (Tresus capax), which thrive in those conditions. However, in the Huu-ay-aht territory, they are adapting traditional clam garden techniques for modern use by building walls higher where the tide comes in and out to accommodate manila clams (Venerupis philippinarum), an important commercially farmed species new to the coast.
“They have only been here for about a hundred years. And they live in a different part of the beach,” Smith says — higher up than native clams, where lower tides are not needed for access, which allows for easier harvesting. This shift in technique is an example of how the community has been proactively adapting to their changing environment to ensure resource sustainability.
Nuu-chah-nulth communities have encountered obstacles in their clam work, including environmental damage. Many former gardens, including ones in Tofino, the town directly across from Meares Island, were demolished for urban development. Others are contaminated by pollution.
Gisele Martin, a Tla-o-qui-aht and Nuu-chah-nulth language and culture educator, says the Meares Island clam garden site was part of a traditional fish trap. “[It] was destroyed decades ago when the pipeline for Tofino’s water was installed,” she says. The site selection was symbolic for the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, representing both a connection to their heritage and a reminder of the disruptions caused by modern infrastructure.
‘Nothing more magical’
Three hours after the group set out early in the morning from Tofino, they gather their shovels and buckets and walk back to the boat launch, where a water taxi will take them back to the mainland. George is pensive as he looks up at the tall trees.
“The Warrior Program changed my life. It helped me escape a time of immense struggle — and to me, is always a safe place,” he says. He adds that he often wished he had this mentorship and brotherhood when he was younger, especially when he lost both his parents.
For his part, George says the program and its activities, including the clam work, learning about his culture and connecting with other youth and his community, have given him genuine purpose.
”There’s nothing more magical than being able to provide for your own people,” he says.
Banner image: Gisele Martin, Hayden Seitcher and Hughie Watts bless the Meares Island clam garden upon its construction, on May 20 2023, carrying out a small ceremony to honor the land and ocean to ensure the garden’s success. Image by Chris Adair.
Robyn Huang is a Canadian independent journalist covering culture, gender issues and mental health. Find her at www.robynhuang.com or on X.
Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: A discussion with archaeologist Dana Lepofsky about her research on clam gardens of the Pacific coast of North America, some of which have been found to be 3,500 years old, listen here:
See a related feature:
Last of the reef netters: An Indigenous, sustainable salmon fishery
Citations:
Groesbeck, A. S., Rowell, K., Lepofsky, D., & Salomon, A. K. (2014). Ancient clam gardens increased shellfish production: Adaptive strategies from the past can inform food security today. PLoS ONE, 9(3), e91235. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091235
Jackley, J., Gardner, L., Djunaedi, A. F., & Salomon, A. K. (2016). Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems. Ecology and Society, 21(4). doi:10.5751/es-08747-210420
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