Caring For the Plants/ Caring For the Land: Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and use of plants

Nancy Turner and Fiona Hamersley Chambers, School of Environmental Studies,

University of Victoria

Acknowledgement:The WSÁNEC�/ Saanich Nation and other First Nations of the Salish Sea, who have lived her since time immemorial and cared for the lands and waters that sustained them…And especially: Chris Paul Sr., Philip Paul Sr., Chris Paul Jr., Kevin Paul, Anna Spahan, Davis Elliott, Sr., John Elliott, Elsie Claxton, Vi Williams, Dr. Earl Claxton Sr., Earl Claxton Jr., Seliliye Belinda Claxton, Nick Claxton, J.B. Williams and Sellemah Joan Morris Thanks, too, to the many other knowledge holders and teachers from BC First Nations and beyond who have contributed to our talks!

Seliliye

And, Thanks so much! To:

• Mayne Island Conservancy Society (Chair, Malcolm Inglis) and Trisha Glatthaar: Thanks for your hospitality!• Mayne Island Parks & Recreation

Commission and Parks Canada • Elizabeth May, OC MP and Green Party• Dr. Tim Montler, Dr. Richard Hebda, Dr.

Darcy Mathews, Dr. Brenda Beckwith, Kate Proctor, School of Environmental Studies, and all our friends, colleagues, students

Our Talks this evening…

• Tradi&onal Ecological Knowledge, and Tradi&onal Land and Resource Management• Overview of tradi&onal

management prac&ces• A few examples: camas, berries,

springbank clover• Concluding remarks

Tradi&onal Ecological Knowledge

�A cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission� (Berkes 1999:8)

Helen Clifton teaches granddaughter Janelle to pound halibut at Gitga�at seaweed camp

Above: Fikret Berkes, author of Sacred Ecology

Aspects of Traditional Ecological Knowledge• Practical strategies and observations

(what, where, when, how?)• Worldview, belief systems (respect and

gratitude)• Communication and passing on of

knowledge (language, stories, experience, participation)

• Governance institutions (specialization, division of labour, leadership, ownership)

• cyclical time frame extending far into the past

Berries – knowing their names, where they grow, when to pick them, how to prepare them, taboos and traditions about them, how to look after them. Above: Violet Williams, Pauquachin, 1990

Language: Saanich Song of Swainson’sThrush (weweles’; Catharus ustulatus)

• nenel�q'xelíqw ('the little black/dark red-headed ones')

• nenel�pq�íqw ('the little white-headed ones')• nenel�kwemíqw ('the little red-headed ones')• nenel�pxwíqw ('the little blond/golden-headed

ones')• "xwexwelexwelexwelexwesh!� (�ripen, ripen,

ripen, ripen!�) [from Elsie Claxton, Tsawout]

Rubus spectabilis, and the salmonberry bird, Swainson�s Thrush Photo by Glenn Bartley

e.g. Medicine Elsie Claxton�s �10 Barks�Medicine…She taught us just how

important these medicines are for survival; one day Belinda and I went out with her to learn how to make this medicine

Deep Lessons: e.g.�[Plants]…the Covering or Blanket of the Earth� (Nlaka�pamux)

�Flowers, plants & grass especially the latter are the covering or blanket of the earth. If too much plucked or ruthlessly destroyed [the] earth [is] sorry and weeps. It rains or is angry and makes rain, fog & bad weather.�(ethnographer James Teit, unpublished notes, ca. 1900)

Embedded in oral histories: e.g. ArbutusḰEḰEIȽĆ (qwəqwəy-ílhch)“Once it rained and rained un7l the water of the sea began to rise. People twisted cedar branches into a very long rope so that they might anchor their canoes to some rock or stump…” (Diamond Jenness notes, n.d.). Christopher Paul and Philip Paul explained the rest. People 7ed their canoes to an arbutus at the top of ȽÁWELṈEW̲ (lhewəlngəxw) (Mount Newton). Because of its generous role in saving people, Philip Paul said, they never burn arbutus….

Traditional Land and Resource Management: part of any Traditional Knowledge System

• Practices to maintain, sustain and enhance resources and habitats• Working with natural processes

(e.g. succession, regeneration, nutrient cycling)• Often grounded in beliefs and

worldviews: responsibility and contingent proprietorship Seliliye Belinda Claxton of Tsawout

harvests a strip of cedarbark after giving thanks to the tree; the tree is still living, 10 years later

Bri$sh Columbia First Peoples: Dense popula$ons using many resources from land & waters intensively

The Indigenous Peoples of western North America are often called “hunter-gatherers,” with the implication that they simply took what resources they could find from the land and the sea. But…this is a simplistic label!

[see M. Kat Anderson. 2005. Tending the Wild. Environmental Management by Native Californians. UC Press, Berkeley]

springbank clover, camas and red huckleberries

Camas photo by Joseph Pallant

Land and Resource Management Prac2ces

• Use of fire to maintain prairies, upland meadows, and other habitats and to renew individual species• Pruning and coppicing trees and shrubs• Tilling, weeding and selective

harvesting of root vegetables• Re-planting, scattering and

transplanting propagulesSalmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)v Using perennials’ capacity to

regenerate through partial harvesting

Land and Resource Management Prac2ces, cont.

• Creating habitat through structural alterations• Ownership and

proprietorship• Distributed use and

harvesting across landscapes and over time• Multi-generational

monitoring of plant and animal populations

Edible root of Pacific silverweed (Potentilla egedii), often enhanced by “traditional root garden” cultivation on the Northwest Coast

Learning about plant regenera/on from the animals…

Beaver-pruned willow re-sprou1ng; Ridgefield Na1onal Wildlife Refuge

Saanich Reefnet Fishing -a way of life

Drawing Courtesy John Elliott

The late Dr. Earl Claxton, Sr.showingreefnet sites around Gulf Islands

Willows, Salix sitchensis at Tl’ches, Chatham Island

Ceremonial Plants: First Salmon Ceremony, ȾIXEN Tsawout Seafood Festival

KEXMIN(q’əxmín)

Sword Fern SŦXÁLEM(sthxéləm)

Using perennial species…Plants have amazing regenerative powers; many can be used, in part, year after year, generation after generation; e.g. cattail leaves and tulestems [SȻELEL (skwaləl’)]

Above: SȾA,ḴEN (st’thé7qən) (�something with hair on the top�) – cattail; left – 4-m long tule mat, Museum of Anthropology, UBC

Case examples • Coast Salish Camas management• Berry & fruit management• Ne6les and springbank clover

Camas flowers; salal; stinging nettle; evergreen huckleberries

Camas bulbs – a staple root vegetable of the south coast

- Two species (Camassiaquamash, C. leichtlinii); Lily Family (Liliaceae)

- Edible bulbs: but must be cooked for a long @me to convert main carbohydrate, inulin, to fructose

- Harvested by the millions annually: ~10 million per year on Vancouver Island

- Maintained by burning and other means

Fer$le Plains….

• On reaching the south end of the [Vancouver] island, a decided improvement was observed in the appearance of the country. …the forest is replaced by a more open and beautifully diversefied [sic] country presenting a succession of plains with groves of oaks and pine [Douglas-fir] trees for a distance of 15 to 20 miles… The plains are said to be fertile and covered with the most luxuriant vegetation (Captain McNeill, 1831, in Rich 1941:286-287, my emphasis).

Ownership/proprietorship & control

• Ownership was explained by MG and AG from Sooke (as recorded by Suttles 1952, pers. comm. to N. Turner 1996): “[T’souke people] had lots [of plots]. They didn’t dig just anywhere. Stakes marked them. Women owned them, and they would fight for their claims. If someone came on to a woman’s plot, she would quarrel. If the owner died, a near relative got the plot.”

Looking a)er the Camas beds

One of Wayne Suttles� consultants stated that she was responsible for burning the camas area that belonged to her grandmother once they had finished harvesting for the season (Suttles1974:60). Other people were allowed to harvest from this site, but responsibility for managing the resource site through landscape burning was clearly delegated to ensure that the resource would be available in following years.

Camas bulb production

• Photo of Camassia leichtliniibulbs rescued and grown with tender loving care out in coldframes at Government House (Dr. Brenda Beckwith’s work and photo)

Selec%ve harves%ng: Camas bulbs from 1 square meter of garry oak savannah at the Somenos Garry Oak Preserve near Duncan (Kate Proctor’s master’s research)

Feasting, gifting, story telling

• Camas bulbs most widely traded product on S coast aside from salmon (Erna Gunther)• Featured in “The Star Husband tale” and

other stories• Served at feasts and given at potlatches

Camas practices: a summary

• Burning and clearing to maintain prairies (enhancing deer & other plants)

• Ownership of plots

• Timing of camas harvest (dormancy/ seed produc=on)

• Selec=ve harves=ng & replan=ng

• Transplan=ng

• Ceremonial harves=ng & serving

• Large-scale cooking

• Trade & exchange; potlatches

• Stories and teachingsDr. Pakki Chipps, Beecher Bay

Berries and fruits

Berries and other fruits are par0cularly important resources and are o5en managed in various ways: pruning, coppicing, burning, patch ownership…

Mixed berries, Evergreen huckleberry, blackcap, soapberry, Pacific crabapple

Berry Bushes: PruningAs soon as they pick all the berries], we tl’exw7id (break off), we breaks them so...[the berries would grow plentifully later]. See, a lot of people think we never touched the wild... berries. But we did. We cultivated it. We pruned it... Especially that gwadems (red huckleberries), when they finished picking the gwadems, you know, they pruned them. They break the tops off (Clan Chief Adam Dick, pers. comm. to NT).

Fire and Landscape BurningMany kinds of berries and wild root vegetables are known to have been enhanced by landscape burning

Ownership & Responsibility…

“Everybody had their own berry patches, just like everybody had their own clam beds. Things like [salal patches], Yeah, salmonberries and all that, all kinds of berries, wild crabapple, you just don’t go [out and pick] .... There’s a certain places that a certain family goes, especially that wild crabapples. Our family used to go over here. And the other families go over here. They got markers too, for celxw [crabapples]. Oh, yes, they have pegs, you put pegs all around the tree…. You just pick up those little sticks and you just peg, put it around the [tree]. … Anything that’s pegged, you know it’s someone’s.” (Chief Adam Dick, pers. comm. to NT, 1997).

A staple fruit in W North America; berries rich in iron; used as a sweetener for other food; many varieties named; bushes sometimes transplanted, pruned and coppiced, also burned to enhance their growth and productivity; not just for berries, but for withes for basketry (Mary Thomas, Secwepemc)

Saskatoonberry, or Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

e.g. Crabapple (Malus fusca): tended and owned by individuals

• Trees carefully tended, sometimes pruned to enhance production

• Trees owned by chiefs and individuals through inheritance

• Several distinct varieties• Widely used as feast food and

Chiefs’ food, as well as for trading

Highbush Cranberries(Viburnum spp.)

• Bushes pruned• Bushes transplanted• Patches owned by chiefs &

matriarchs

Viburnumedule & V. opulus (top rt)

Transplanting: Nass Valley (Nisga’a’)

Emma Nyce’s grandmother at Gitwinksihlkw was blind. She s:ll loved picking berries, so her grandfather transplanted frui:ng bushes (Saskatoons, black hawthorn, crabapple) behind her house to make them more accessible to her. Some are s:ll there (Emma Nyce, pers. comm. 2013)

“People used to do that all the -me; they would bring plants and plant them around their houses.” (pers. comm. 2013)

Heiltsuk Berry gardens, Roscoe Inlet

• Special sites, sunny, beside waterfalls• Berry bushes fertilized with

fish remains and trapping remains, clamshells and ashes• Berry bushes sometimes

transplanted to these sites• You an pull the berries off by

the handful…• Cyril Carpenter and Pauline

Waterfall (pers. comm. to NT, April, 2002), from their grandmothers, Bessie Brown and Beatrice Brown

A resource management constellation at Hauyat (Heiltsuk territory)…

Giant ne(lesè, çcrabapples, CMTs; gooseberries, ê

Orchard Gardens of Dałth Gyilakyaw(“Robintown’) (Kitsumkalum Ts’msyen)

Crabapple, hazelnut, highbush cranberry, Saskatoonberry, red elderberry, nettles, riceroot and many more….

Integrated mul--resource management systems

• Combined management strategies• Working together across mul5ple resources and

habitats

e.g. Hunter Island, Heiltsuk territory: salmon weirs, clam gardens, root gardens, berry patches, hunting areas, culturally modified trees = immense populations of people in the past

River estuary, and bear manure in root “garden” area

Trifolium wormskjoldii(Springbank Clover)

• “[clover plots] …have been in the family for many genera3ons. These hereditary possessions cannot be sold nor given away; …. Clover land is very valuable, because the roots… are regarded as indispensable to good health and hence can readily be sold at a high price. For this reason the land is well cared for. The main root stocks are never taken, and such pieces as are not deemed good for food are put back into the ground…”(E.S. Cur3s 1915, The Kwakiutl p. 43)

Keys to Perpetuating Indigenous Knowledge

• Connect with Communities and Places• Celebrate Intergenerational Learning and Teaching; Revitalize Languages • Recognize Holistic Relationships and Interacting Processes • Instill Gratitude, Accountability, and Responsibility• Value and Support Diversity• Embrace Different Teaching Approaches and Learning Styles• Food for Biocultural Renewal• Integrate Old and New Materials and Technologies• Renew and Re-create Vibrant Ethnoecosystems

Thank-you!