2020 40(3): 305–328 Journal of Ethnobiology decades later, with nostalgia and delight, as their taste and fragrance, and the ways of life they invoked, were revived and re- experienced. In Mary’s case, the “candy” of her memories was a sun-dried mixture of wild berries—raspberries (s7aytsqwu), thim- bleberries (st ´ iqwu), blackcaps (matsúkw), huckleberries (wenáx), and wild straw- berries (tqítq'a) (see Table 1 for scientific names). Her granny would mash up these sweet, juicy berries, in various combina- tions, and spread them out on a tin plate to dry in the sun, first on one side and then on the other; the inside was like a sweet, sticky jelly. These berry cakes are called syeq’ (western dialect) or syaq’ (eastern dialect) in the Secwepemc language. Mary’s childhood memory reflects both tradition and change in the role of sweetness and sweeteners in northwestern North American Indigenous Peoples’ diets. Mary’s granny did not add refined sugar to this fruit mixture. However, she did “That Was Our Candy!”: Sweet Foods in Indigenous Peoples’ Traditional Diets in Northwestern North America Nancy J. Turner 1 Abstract. At least 50 different plant foods in Indigenous Peoples’ traditional diets in northwestern North America—including berries, root vegetables, greens, and tree sap and inner bark—are known for their sweet taste. Some were, and are, appreciated as confections themselves and others were used to sweeten foods and medicinal preparations. These sweet foods were remembered fondly by many elders from childhood times. However, many of these original sweet foods are no longer widely consumed, having been largely replaced by imported molasses, brown sugar, white sugar, syrup, and honey, which were readily incorporated into Indigenous Peoples’ food systems following their introduction by Europeans in the past couple of centuries. This shift in use of sweeteners—as well as the adoption of wheat flour, and other introduced and refined carbohydrate foods—has had both positive and negative implications for First Nations’ health and well-being. Today, Indigenous cultural revitalization movements in northwestern North America are drawing on the elders’ knowledge and memories of their healthy, time-honored foods to recreate and celebrate ancestral dishes, especially those fondly remembered for their sweetness. Keywords: Indigenous Peoples, traditional diet, sugars, dietary change 1 School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (nturner@uvic.ca) Introduction That [wild berry fruit leather] sure used to be a treat! When we saw her [Granny] getting those out of the sugar bag we knew we were going to get a treat. She’d get them, cut and divide one up, and that was our candy! (Mary Thomas, pers. comm., 1998) As Secwepemc elder Dr. Mary Thomas described her childhood memories of this special wild berry confection that her grandmother used to make for her siblings and her, her eyes lit up and she smiled broadly, as she was transported back in time to the excitement and anticipa- tion of this delectable treat—a reward for their help with household chores or just for good behavior. So many other elders from her generation have had similarly fond recollections of special sweet foods, harvested from the land, that marked the happiest times when they were grow- ing up. They remembered these treats