Areas of interest
I am interested in integrating archaeological data with ethnohistoric sources and oral history to learn about aspects of Indigenous history, culture, and landscape use in the Salish Sea and Northwest Coast. My interest in these subjects derives from their significance to the Indigenous people that I work with and relevance to many important contemporary issues.
Education
- PhD., (University of British Columbia)
- M.A., (Simon Fraser University)
- B.A., (Simon Fraser University)
Biography/Introduction
I am an anthropological archaeologist with 15 years of experience working directly for Sts’ailes, a Coast Salish Halkomelem speaking community on the Harrison River. During this time, I have led and supported multi-disciplinary initiatives designed to promote and enhance ecological health and resiliency, social well-being, and cultural revitalization in Sts’ailes and elsewhere in the Salish Sea. I continue to work closely with Sts’ailes Chief & Council on matters relating to land use planning, environmental stewardship, governance, and negotiations. In 2020 I was honored by the Sts’ailes with the traditional name: Xá:tl’hiqelemtel, which translates to: “Strong Winds, Rough Water” in recognition of my service to, and adoption by, the community. I have coordinated and instructed numerous research-based archaeological field schools and excavation programs. I am also a Northwest Coast Permit Holder and Field Director and have been involved with CRM archaeology throughout my career.
Research
My research focus has been on the archaeology, ethnohistory, and oral history of settlements, landscapes, waterways, demography, technology, and social change in the Sts’ailes-Coast Salish region. Publications have featured in international journals including Journal of Anthropological Archaeology and Ethnohistory. In 2021 I was recognized by the American Society for Ethnohistory for the Best Article in the field of Ethnohistory for a paper relating to Indigenous oral history and sustainable salmon fishing.
Current research continues to focus on interpretations of society, socio-political processes, governance, traditional law, historical events, environmental entanglements, and technological change through diachronic, multi-scalar, and multi-disciplinary studies.
Other Activities
When I’m not doing archaeological fieldwork, reading, and writing, I love to spend time with friends and family hiking and canoeing, playing soccer, and travelling.
Publications
Ritchie, M., J. Morin, J. Ritchie, N.Waber, M.Blake, R.McMillan. 2022 Embedded Household Specialization: The bifaces from YāçkEtE on the Northwest Coast. Journal of Field Archaeology. DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2022.2087017
Ritchie, M. and B. G. Miller. 2021 Social Networks and Stratagems of Nineteenth Century Coast Salish Leaders. Ethnohistory 68 (2):237-268.
Ritchie, M. and B. Angelbeck. 2020 “Coyote Broke the Dams”: Power, Reciprocity, and Conflict in Fish Weir Narratives and Implications for Traditional and Contemporary Fisheries. Ethnohistory 67 (2): 191-220.
Ritchie, M. and D. Lepofsky. 2020 From local to regional and back again: Social transformation in a Coast Salish settlement, 1500-1000 BP. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. December 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101210.
Ritchie, M. and R. Hatoum. 2020 Creation and Legacy of Historic Silences in Anthropological Traditions: An Ethnohistorical Re-Analysis of 19th Century Coast Salish Genealogy, Leadership, and Territoriality. History and Anthropology. DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2020.1862105
Ritchie, M., D. Lepofsky, S. Formosa, M. Porcic, and K. Edinborough. 2016 Beyond Culture History: Coast Salish Settlement Patterning and Demography in the Fraser Valley, B.C. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 43 (2016) 140-154.
Lyons, N., and M. Ritchie. 2017 The Archaeology of Camas Production & Exchange on the Northwest Coast: With Evidence from a Sts’ailes (Chehalis) Village on the Harrison River, British Columbia. Journal of Ethnobiology, 37 (2): 346 – 367.
McMillan, R., Waber, N., Ritchie, M., Frahm, E. 2022 Introducing SourceXplorer, an open-source statistical tool for guided lithic sourcing. Journal of Archaeological Science. 144(2):105626. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2022.105626
Morin, J., D. Lepofsky, M. Ritchie, K. Edinborough. 2017 Assessing Continuity in the Occupation of a Tribal Watershed: 3000 Years of Coast Salish Settlement of Burrard Inlet, Canada. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
Morin, J., T.C.A.Royle., H.Zhang,. C.Speller.,M.Alcaide., R.Morin., M.Ritchie.,A.Cannon., M.George., M.George.,D.Yang. 2021. Indigenous sex-selective salmon harvesting demonstrates pre-contact marine resource management in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, Canada. Sci Rep 11, 21160. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00154-4
Toffolo, M.B., Ritchie, M., Sellers, I., Morin, J., Lyons, N., Caldwell, M., Albert, R.M., Letham, B. & Berna, F. 2019 Combustion features from short-lived intermittent occupation at a 1300-year-old Coast Salish rock shelter, British Columbia: The microstratigraphic data, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 23, pp. 646-661.
Armstrong, C., J. Miller, A. C. McAlvay, P. M. Ritchie, and D. Lepofsky. 2021. Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity. Ecology and Society 26(2):6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12322-260206
Armstrong, C.G., N. Lyons, A.C. McAlvay, P.M. Ritchie, D. Lepofsky, M. Blake. 2022. Historical Ecology of Forest Garden Management in Ts’msyen Lahkhyuup and Beyond. Ecosystems and People. 19:1, 2160823, DOI: 10.1080/26395916.2022.2160823