Cherokee River Cane Initiative: Combining Western scholarship and Traditional Ecological Knowledge toward sustainability, conservation and cultural significance

In the spring of 2011, Northeastern Oklahoma and Northwestern Arkansas experienced a massive river cane “die-off.” As a result, local Cherokee tribal members were concerned and petitioned the Cherokee Nation Environmental Protection Commission to declare river cane as an official “culturally protected species” on all 52,381 acres of tribal land holdings in Oklahoma. From this legislation Cherokee Nation collaborated with the University of Arkansas’ Department of Anthropology’s ethno-biology specialist, Dr. Justin Nolan, to begin the Cherokee Nation River Cane Initiative which identifies, documents and maps spatial distributions of existing river cane ecosystems, located on Cherokee Nation land, for future study. Utilizing global positioning system technologies with Cherokee traditionalists and plant specialists via Traditional Ecological Knowledge Systems, this initiative interweaves Western scholarship and Indigenous knowledge to develop a plan for river cane ecosystem sustainability and future conservation efforts.