The Coast Salish Defensive Sites are rock wall features constructed by Coast Salish peoples that have been excavated by Kisha Supernant in 2008 near the Fraser River Canyon

Fraser Canyon

The Fraser Canyon is an 84 km landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley...

, Yale, British Columbia

Yale, British Columbia

Yale is an unincorporated town in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was founded in 1848 by the Hudson's Bay Company as Fort Yale by Ovid Allard, the appointed manager of the new post, who named it after his superior, James Murray Yale, then Chief Factor of the Columbia District...

. The functions of these features may have included defense, fishing platforms, and creation of house terraces. House pits and stone tools have been found in association with certain sites. Methods used include use of a total station

Total station

A total station is an electronic/optical instrument used in modern surveying. The total station is an electronic theodolite integrated with an electronic distance meter to read slope distances from the instrument to a particular point....

 for mapping the sites as well as the creation of simple test pits

Shovel test pit

A shovel test pit is a standard method for Phase I of an Archaeological survey. It is usually a part of the CRM methodology and a popular form of rapid archaeological survey in the United States of America and Canada.It designates a series of A shovel test pit (STP) is a standard method for Phase...

 to probe for stratigraphy

Stratigraphy

Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....

and artifacts.