DNA-based species identification of ancient salmonid remains provides new insight into pre-contact Coast Salish salmon fisheries in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, Canada

•aDNA analysis is used to identify the species of salmonids harvested in pre-contact times.•Chum salmon are found to dominate all assemblages during all periods.•Other salmonids were harvested at much lower frequencies.•Sampled settlements were likely occupied during fall-winter and perhaps spring. This study uses ancient DNA analysis to identify the species of salmonids from a number of pre-contact Coast Salish settlements in Burrard Inlet, Canada dating from about 390 BCE to CE 1600. Our results indicate that chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) dominates all Burrard Inlet zooarchaeological assemblages through time, followed distantly by pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka), coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch), and Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), indicative of very stable local fisheries. These results indicate that the four well-sampled sites appear to have been occupied during the fall and winter and perhaps during the spring.