PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #50: Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Presiding: J. Ford
Wednesday, August 7. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Greenlee Meeting Room, TCC.
Healing the people, healing the land: Traditional Resource Management and environmental justice.
Stevens, Michelle*,1, 1 Sacramento State University of California, Sacramento, CA
ABSTRACT- Understanding the specific knowledge of indigenous practices and their ecological effects is crucial to any attempt to restore ecosystems, empowering our ability to create and manage productive and self-sustaining ecosystems.In this paper I will discuss the ecological and cultural aspects of specific Traditional Resource Management practices of wetland and riparian plants by California Indians. Today, tribal homelands are being aggresively sought after for their vast energy resources and as dumping grounds for America's waste. Many traditional gathering and harvesting sites are contaminated by mercury, selenium, pesticides, heavy metals and excessive fertilization. Large-scale restoration planning efforts such as the Cal-Fed Bay Delta Program and Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Comprehensive Study do not even consider the TRM or TEK of indigenous cultures in their restoration planning or implementation. There is no provision for access to traditional materials for food, basketweaving or medicine; restraint in pesticide application with consideration of increased exposure and risk to basketweavers; or concern for longterm sustainable management through TRM of the restoration projects themselves. What is at stake is the last remaining knowledge possessed by the indigenous people of the natural curative powers and world renewal of the spiritual environment. A major benefit of restoration of ecological and cultural health is to provide re-connection to the earth, to other cultures, to ourselves, and to all living things. Each tribal group has a unique relationship to a specific place, language, prayers, ceremony and connection to the spirits. By re-establishing this essential ecological relationship we can contribute to restoring the spiritual, cultural and eoclogical integrity of the world around us.
KEY WORDS: Traditional Resource Management, Environmental Justice, Ecological Restoration, Basketweaving