My research is intertwined with material legacies of people of and on the Pacific coast.  I’ve been fortunate to work in partnership with Tsimshian and Musqueam people as friends, colleagues, and teachers.  My endeavors as a result inhabit intersections of colonialism and race, of materiality and text, of knowledge and experience, of landscapes and sentience. Seeking to work collaboratively with Indigenous communities as a non-Indigenous person creates a fundamental interdisciplinarity between the traditions of western and Indigenous scholarship. My recent work is an explicit evaluation of the links between the science of material history and the literature of Indigenous oral records over the Holocene. This work has demonstrated the capacity of Indigenous oral records to accurately record millennia of history, something that while obvious to Indigenous communities is less well understood in the non-Indigenous settler-colonial state. These results also cast some light on the vulnerabilities of different knowledge frameworks, including those of science, to ethnocentrism in the description and explanation of history. My work explores these in both anthropological theory and, increasingly, the interpretation of archaeology in Canadian legal history of Aboriginal rights and titles and in the realm of Indigenous law. I am part of a joint Musqueam-UBC platform for research and teaching partnerships focusing on history and archaeology. I also work with First Nations communities using archaeological methods to locate unmarked cemeteries and graves, including those associated with Indian Residential Schools.

Photo credit: Brian Thom.

I am trained as an anthropological archaeologist and my research and teaching has focused on the material landscapes of Northwest Coast of North America. I have at times thought that this work includes the history and archaeology of Indigenous communities, the archaeology and ethnohistory of cultural contact and colonialism, archaeology and law, space-syntax analysis of architecture and households, radiocarbon dating and chronology-building, and the use of Indigenous oral records in archaeology (and vice versa). I explore the practices of archaeology as constituted by attempting these things across the wide distances of colonialism and racism.

My current work includes a long term partnership with the Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla First Nations that explores their history over the Holocene via  archaeological data in the context of oral records.

I also work with Musqueam First Nation in a partnership to offer UBC undergraduate courses that advance the analysis of archaeological research conducted in their territory.

Graduate Supervision:

Current Students:

• Lucy Brown (Killam Postdoc)
• TJ Brown (PhD)
• Steven Daniel (PhD)
• Eric Simons (PhD)
• Malika Hays (MA)
• Veronika Murray (MA)

Past Students:

• Barbara Oosterwijk (MITACS Doctoral Fellow)
• Tatiana Nomokonova (Killam Post-Doc)
• Chelsey Armstrong (SSHRC Post-Doc)
• Eric Guiry (PhD, SSHRC Post Doc)
• Chris Arnett (PhD)
• Bryn Letham (PhD)
• Iain McKechnie (PhD)
• Jonathan Duelks (MA)
• Jordan Handley (MA)
• Timothy Allan (MA)
• Steven Daniel (MA)
• Kyla Hynes (MA)
• Raini Johnson (MA)
• Marina La Salle (MA)
• Angela Ruggles (MA)

2023

• 2023 (Andrew R. Mason and Andrew Martindale). Rethinking Cultural Heritage in the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards. Advances in Archaeological Practice. 1-14. doi:10.1017/aap.2023.26
• 2023 (Hadden, Carla, Ian Hutchinson, and Andrew Martindale). Dating marine shell: a guide for the wary North American archaeologist. American Antiquity. 88(1):62-78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2022.82
• 2023 (Martindale, Andrew, William L. Wadsworth, Eric Simons, Brian Whiting, and Colin Grier). The Challenges of Signal Interpretation of Burials in Ground-penetrating Radar. Archaeological Prospection.
• 2023 (Martindale, Andrew).  Authorship as Social Relations. Australian Archaeology.
• 2023 (Gupta, N., A. Martindale, K. Supernant, and M. Elvidge). The CARE Principles and the Reuse, Sharing, and Curation of Indigenous Data in Canadian Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Practice, 11(1), 76-89. doi:10.1017/aap.2022.33

2022

• 2022 (Robert L. Kelly, Madeline E. Mackie, Erick Robinson, Jack Meyer, Michael Berry, Matthew Boulanger, Brian F. Codding, Jacob Freeman, Carey James Garland, Joseph Gingerich, Robert Hard, James Haug, Andrew Martindale, Scott Meeks, Myles Miller, Shane Miller, Timothy Perttula, Jim A. Railey, Ken Reid, Ian Scharlotta, Jerry Spangler, David Hurst Thomas, Victor Thompson and Andrew White). A New Radiocarbon Database for the Lower 48 States. American Antiquity, 1-10. doi:10.1017/aaq.2021.157
• 2022 (Hoffmann, T., N. Lyons, M. Blake, A. Martindale, D. Miller, C. Larbey).  Wapato as an important staple carbohydrate in the Northwest Coast diet: A response to Martin. American Antiquity

2021

• 2021 (Lyons, Natasha, Tanja Hoffmann, Debbie Miller, Andrew Martindale, Kenneth M. Ames and Michael Blake). Were the Ancient Coast Salish Farmers? A Story of Origins. American Antiquity.
• 2021 (Simons, Eric, Andrew Martindale, Alison Wylie). Caring for Ancestors: An Archaeological Contribution in an Indian Residential School Context. In Learning from the Ancestors: Collaboration and Community Engagement in the Care and Study of Ancestral Human Remains. Routledge.

2020

• 2020 (Lyons, Natasha, Tanja Hoffmann, Debbie Miller, Andrew Martindale, Kenneth M. Ames and Michael Blake). “Were the Ancient Coast Salish Farmers? A Story of Origins.” American Antiquity.
• 2020 (Wadsworth, William TD, Andrew Martindale, Colin Grier, and Kisha Supernant). “The application and evaluation of remote sensing techniques to household archaeology on the Northwest Coast.” IN Studies in Archaeometry, M. Ramírez Galán and R. Sandifer Bard, eds. Oxford: Archaeopress.
• 2020. (Martindale, Andrew and Thomas J. Brown). “Creación de un Archivo Mundial de Datos de Radiocarbono en Arqueología.” IN Metodos Cronométricos en Arqueologíca, Historia y Palentología. Juan A. Barceló and Berta Morell, eds. Madrid: Dextra Editorial
• 2020 (Martindale, Andrew and Chelsey Geralda Armstrong).  “The Vulnerability of Archaeological Logic in Aboriginal Rights and Titles Cases in Canada: theoretical and empirical implications.” Collaborative Anthropologies 11(2):55-91.
• 2020. (Letham, Bryn, Andrew Martindale, Kenneth M. Ames). “Endowment, Investment, and the Transforming Coast: Long-Term Human-Environment Interactions and Territorial Proprietorship in the Prince Rupert Harbour, Canada.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 59.

2019

• 2019. (Menzies, Charles R., and Andrew Martindale). “’I Was Surprised’: The UBC School and Hearsay — A Reply to David Henige.” Journal of Northwest Anthropology. 53(1):78-107.
• 2019. (Patton, Katherine A., Andrew Martindale, Trevor J. Orchard, Sage Vanier, and Gary Coupland). “Finding Eulachon: The Use and Cultural Importance of Thaleichthys pacificuson the Northern Northwest Coast of North America.” Journal of Archaeological Science. Reports. 23:687-699.
• 2019. (Martindale, Andrew, George MacDonald, and Sage Vanier). “Bending but Unbroken: The Nine Tribes of the Northern Tsimshian through the Colonial Era.” IN Power, Political Economy, and Historical Landscapes of the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Chris DeCorse, ed. Binghamton: SUNY Press.

2018

• 2018. (Martindale, Andrew). “The Future of History in Archaeology.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 50(1).
• 2018. (Martindale, Andrew, Sara Shneidernam, and Mark Turin). “Time, Oral Tradition, and Technology.” IN Memory, P. Tortell, M. Young, M. Turin, eds. Vancouver: Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
• 2018. (Martindale, Andrew, Gordon T. Cook, Iain McKechnie, Kevan Edinborough, Ian Hutchinson, Morley Eldridge, Kisha Supernant, and Kenneth M. Ames). “Estimates of Marine Reservoir Effects (MRE) in Archaeological Chronologies: Comparing Three ΔR Calculations for Evaluating Marine Influenced Radiocarbon Dates in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia, Canada.” American Antiquity.
• 2018. (Letham, Bryn, Andrew Martindale, Nicholas Waber, Kenneth M. Ames). “Archaeological Survey of Dynamic Coastal Landscapes and Paleoshorelines: Locating Early Holocene Sites in the Prince Rupert Harbour Area, British Columbia, Canada.” Journal of Field Archaeology. 43:3, 181-199, DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2018.1441575

2017

• 2017. (Edinborough, Kevan, Marko Porčić, Andrew Martindale, T. J. Brown, Kisha Supernant, and Kenneth M. Ames). “A Radiocarbon Test for Demographic Events in Written and Oral History.” Proceedings of the National Academuy of Sciences. 114 (47) 12436-12441; DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713012114
• 2017. (Martindale, Andrew, Bryn Letham, Kisha Supernant, TJ Brown, Jonathan Duelks, and Kenneth M. Ames). “Monumentality and Urbanism in Northern Tsimshian Archaeology.” Hunter Gatherer Research. 3.1: 133-163. https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2017.8
• 2017. (Letham, Bryn, Andrew Martindale, Kisha Supernant, Thomas J. Brown, Jerry S. Cybulski, Kenneth M. Ames). “Assessing the Scale and Pace of Large Shell-Bearing Site Occupation in the Prince Rupert Harbour Area, British Columbia.” Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. DOI: 10.1080/15564894.2017.1387621
• 2017. (Martindale, Andrew, Susan Marsden, Katherine Patton, Angela Ruggles, Kisha Supernant, David Archer, Bryn Letham, Duncan McLaren, and Kenneth Ames). “The Role of Small Villages in Northern Tsimshian Territory from Oral and Archaeological Records.” Journal of Social Archaeology. 17(3):285-325.
• 2017 (Jillian Harris, Alex Maass, and Andrew Martindale). “Practicing Rconciliation.” IN Reflections of Canada: Illuminating Our Opportunities and Challenges at 150+ Years. Philippe Tortell, Margot Young, Maxwell Cameron, eds. Vancouver: Peter Wall Institute for Advances Studies.

2016

• 2016. (Letham, Bryn, Andrew Martindale, Rebecca MacDonald, Eric Guiry, Jacob Jones, and Kenneth M. Ames). “Post-Glacial Relative Sea Level History of Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia, Canada.” Quaternary Science Reviews. 153C:156-191.
• 2016. (Edinborough, Kevan, Andrew Martindale, Gordon T. Cook, Kisha Supernant, Kenneth M Ames). “A Marine Reservoir Effect ∆R Value for Kitandach, in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia.” Radiocarbon. July 2016:1-7.
• 2016. (Martindale, Andrew, Natasha Lyons, George Nicholas, Bill Angelbeck, Sean P. Connaughton, Colin Grier, James Herbert, Mike Leon, Yvonne Marshall, Angela Piccini, David M. Schaepe, Kisha Supernant, Gary Warrick). “Archaeology as Partnerships in Practice: A Reply to La Salle and Hutchings.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 40(1):191-204.

2015

• 2015. (Martindale, Andrew and Irena Jurakic). “Glass Tools in Archaeology: Material and Technological Change.” Oxford Handbooks Online.
• 2015. (Michelle A. Chaput, Björn Kriesche, Matthew Betts, Andrew Martindale, Rafal Kulik, Volker Schmidt and Konrad Gajewski). “Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Ancient Human Populations in North America.” PNAS.
• 2015. (Letham, Bryn, Andrew Martindale, Duncan McLaren, Thomas Brown, Kenneth M. Ames, David J.W. Archer, and Susan Marsden). “Holocene Settlement History of the Dundas Islands Archipelago, Northern British Columbia.” BC Studies.

2014

• 2014. (Martindale, Andrew and Natasha Lyons). Guest Editors of “Community-Oriented Archaeology” a special section of the Canadian Journal of Archaeology Volume 38(2). 
• 2014 (Martindale, Andrew and Natasha Lyons). “Introduction: Community-Oriented Archaeology.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 38(2):425-433.
• 2014. (Martindale, Andrew and George Nicholas). “Archaeology as Federated Knowledge.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 38(2):434-465.
• 2014. (Ames, Kenneth M. and Andrew Martindale). “Rope Bridges and Cables: A Synthesis of Prince Rupert Harbour Archaeology.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 38(1):140-178.
• 2014. (Martindale, Andrew). “Archaeology Taken to Court: Unraveling the Epistemology of Cultural Tradition in the Context of Aboriginal Title Cases” In From the Margins: The Archaeology of the Colonized and its Contribution to Global Archaeological Theory. Neal Ferris and Rodney Harrison, eds. pp. 397-422. Oxford University Press.

2013

• 2013. (Martindale, Andrew). “Thresholds of Meaning: Voice, Time, and Epistemology in the Archaeological Consideration of NW Coast Art.” IN The Construction of Northwest Coast Art: An Anthology. Ki-ke-in (Ron Hamilton), Jennifer Kramer, and Charlotte Townsend-Gault, eds. UBC Press.
• 2013. (Pitcher, Tony, Mimi Lam, Cameron Ainsworth, Andrew Martindale, Katrina Nakamura,Ian Perry, and Trevor Ward). “Improvements to the ‘Rapfish’ rapid evaluation technique for fisheries: integrating ecological and human dimensions.” Journal of Fish Biology. doi: 10.1111/jfb.12122
• 2013. (Burchell, Meghan, Hallmand, Nadine, Andrew Martindale, Aubrey Cannon and Bernd R. Schöne.). “Seasonality and Intensity of Shellfish Harvesting on the North Coast of British Columbia.” Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. 8:152-169.
• 2013. (Hallmand, Nadine, Meghan Burchell, Natalie Brewster, Andrew Martindale, and Bernd R. Schöne). “Holocene climate and seasonality of shell collection at the Dundas Islands Group, northern British Columbia, Canada-A bivalve sclerochronological approach.” Paleo 3. 373:163-72. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.12.019

2011

• 2011. (Martindale, Andrew and Bryn Letham).“Causalities and Models within the Archaeological Construction of Political Order on the Northwest Coast of North America.” IN The Archaeology of Politics: the Materiality of Political Practice and Action in the Past. Peter G. Johansen and Andrew M. Bauer, eds. pp. 323-353. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.
• 2011. (Brewster, Natalie and Andrew Martindale). “Faunal and Settlement Patterns on the Dundas Islands.” IN The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries. Madonna Moss and Aubrey Cannon, eds. pp 247-264. University of Alaska Press.
• 2011. (McLaren, Duncan, Andrew Martindale, Daryl Fedje, and Quentin Mackie). “Relict Shorelines and Shell Middens of the Dundas Island Archipelago.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 35:86-116.

2009

• 2009. (Martindale, Andrew, Bryn Letham, Duncan McLaren, David Archer, Meghan Burchell, Bernd R. Schone). “Mapping of Subsurface Shell Midden Components through Percussion Coring: Examples from the Dundas Islands.” Journal of Archaeological Science. 36:1565-1575.
• 2009. (Martindale, Andrew and Kisha Supernant) “Quantifying the Defensiveness of Defended Sites on the Northwest Coast of North America.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 28(2):191-204.
• 2009. (Martindale, Andrew). “Entanglement and Tinkering: Structural History in the Archaeology of the Northern Tsimshian.” Journal of Social Archaeology. 9(1):59-92. 

2006

• 2006. (Martindale, Andrew). “Methodological Issues in the Use of Tsimshian Oral Traditions (Adawx) in Archaeology.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 30(2)159-193.
• 2006. (Martindale, Andrew). “Tsimshian Houses and Households through the Contact Period.” IN Household Archaeology on the Northwest Coast. E. Sobel, A. Trieu Gahr, K. M. Ames, ed. pp.140-158. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.
• 2006. (Martindale, Andrew and Irena Jurakic).” Identifying Expedient Glass Tools in a Post-Contact Tsimshian Village.” Journal of Archaeological Science. 33(3):414-427.

2005

• 2005. (Martindale, Andrew). “A Method for Analyzing Vernacular Architecture: A Case Study from the Ramaditas Site,” Chile. IN Arqueologia del Desierto de Atacama: La Etapa Formativa en el Area de Ramaditas/Guatacondo. M. Rivera ed. pp.133-173. Editorial Universidad Bolivariana Coleccion Estudios Regionales y Locales: Santiago.

2004

• 2004. (Martindale, Andrew and Irena Jurakic) “Northern Tsimshian Plant Resource Use in the Late Pre-contact to Post-contact Era.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology. 28(2):254-280.

2003

• 2003. (Martindale, Andrew). “A Hunter-gatherer Paramount Chiefdom: Tsimshian Developments through the Contact Period.” IN Emerging from the Mist: Studies in Northwest Coast Culture History. R.G. Matson, G. Coupland and Q. Mackie ed. pp.12-50. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. PDF
• 2003. (Martindale, Andrew, and Susan Marsden). “Defining the Middle Period (3500 BP to 1500 BP) in Tsimshian History through a Comparison of Archaeological and Oral Records.” BC Studies. 138:13-50.

2001

• 2001. (Coupland, Gary, Andrew Martindale and Susan Marsden). “Does Resource Abundance Explain Local Group Rank Among the Coast Tsimshian?” IN Perspectives in Northern Northwest Coast Prehistory, Mercury Series Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 160. J. Cybulksi ed. pp.221-248. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.
• 2001. (Martindale, Andrew). “Late Traditions on the Northwest Coast.” Encyclopedia of Prehistory. P. Peregrine ed. Plenum Press.

2000

• 2000. (Martindale, Andrew). “Archaeological Stories of the Tsimshian: Change in the context of contact.” In The Entangled Past. M. Boyd, J.C. Erwin, and M. Hendrickson, ed. pp.90-97. Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary.

1999

• 1999. (Martindale, Andrew). “Maritime Adaptations on the Northwest Coast.” Revista de Arqueologia Americana. 10:1-42.

1996

• 1996. (Graffam, Gray and Andrew Martindale). “The Archaeology of Spatial Order: An Examination of the Guatacondo Valley, Northern Chile.” Journal of the Julian Steward Anthropology Society: Current Research in Andean Antiquity. 23(1&2):229-267.

Not Peer Reviewed

• 2017. (Martindale, Andrew). “The Importance of Archaeology in Vancouver and Beyond. SAA Archaeological Record. 17(1):7-8.
• 2017. (Martindale, Andrew). “A Galaxy Not So Far Away.” Globe and Mail. January 3, 2017:L6.
• 2016. (Martindale, Andrew). “Journey through the Landscapes of Vancouver.” SAA Archaeological Record. 16(5):7-8.
• 2016. (Martindale, Andrew and Mark Guerin). “Welcome to Vancouver: A Place of Contestation about the Past.” SAA Archaeological Record. 16(4):12-13.

Selected Reports

• 2020.  (Martindale, Andrew). Exploring the Nine Tribes-Nisga’a Territorial Dispute with Reference to Tsimshianic Legal Principles from Published and Archival Sources. Volume 2. Report submitted to the Ministry of Justice, British Columbia.
• 2019A. (Martindale, Andrew). Exploring the Nine Tribes-Nisga’a Territorial Dispute with Reference to Tsimshianic Legal Principles from Published and Archival Sources. Volume 1. Report submitted to the Ministry of Justice, British Columbia.
• 2019B. (Martindale, Andrew). Exploring the Nine Tribes-Nisga’a Territorial Dispute with Reference to Tsimshianic Legal Principles from Published and Archival Sources. Volume 1 Addendum. Report submitted to the Ministry of Justice, British Columbia.
• 2015a. (Martindale, Andrew). A Summary and Analysis of Specific Errors in Lovesik’s (2007) Expert Witness Report Prepared for The British Columbia Department of Justice and Submitted as Evidence in R. v Lax Kw’alaams. Unpublished report.
• 2011. (Martindale, Andrew and Susan Marsden). Analysis of territorial claims made in “Lax Kw’alaams: Review of Historical and Ethnographic Sources” and “Metlakatla: Review of Historical and Ethnographic Sources” documents prepared by the Aboriginal Research Division of the British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General Legal Services Branch. Report prepared for the Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla Indian Bands.

Professor, Archaeology

Northwest Coast archaeology and history; vernacular architecture and engineering; radiocarbon dating and calibration; landscape and settlement analyses; oral records; colonialism and archaeology; archaeology and law. 

Phone: 604-822-2545; Email: andrew.martindale@ubc.ca

Andrew trekking in the alpine of Vancouver Island in 2017. Photo by Andrew Mason.