In order to live, love, learn and understand our roles in life, we must look to our Elders and grandparents to show us the real way to accomplish these responsibilities. They are our direct link to our ancestors who gave us our spirituality, language, history, culture, heritage, traditions, customs and values. Our Elders and grandparents are our first teachers. We must learn, understand, practice and appreciate our heritage of the spiritual culture of respect. We must develop and maintain the life long practices of respecting all of creation the land, water, the air we breathe, ourselves, our families, our community members, our mother earth, our sisters and brothers that fly, roost, climb, walk, crawl, slither, burrow and swim. Above all we must respect the one that made it all, our Creator. We can do this by linking our past (our ancestors) through our Elders to our present (ourselves) and our future (our youth, our children and our infants).
Session 5: Living Tradition: Native Elders Speak on Plants, Animals, and Culture

I will discuss the indigenous uses and tending of California's oak woodlands, emphasizing findings from field work and archival research conducted with the Western Mono, Sierra Miwok, and Foothill Yokuts groups of the central and southern Sierra Nevada. Potential ecological effects of tilling, knocking, pruning, sowing, and burning will be explored. An alternative explanation for why domesticated agriculture was not adopted by tribes in parts of California will be put forth. Finally, I will suggest ways in which traditional ecological knowledge and management practices of California Indians can be used in cultural and ecological restoration work today.
Session 6A: TEK, Landscape Perceptions, and Resource Management

Wixárika people of western Mexico continue to cultivate and use amaranth species despite the suppression of amaranth use by the Spanish during the colonial period. The Wixarika use wild and cultivated amaranth species. The domesticated Amaranthus hypochondriacus is represented in Wixárika oral traditions that inform how and why one harvests its grain to be used in religious ceremonies. Specific growth-phase names also inform Wixárika management of A. hypochondriacus. Although the wild A. hybridus is cleaned out of garden plots during the rainy season, it is collected and consumed, forming a nutritionally significant part of the local diet.
Session 6A: TEK, Landscape Perceptions, and Resource Management

In Dena’ina Athabascan traditional cosmology places could both absorb and exude information about historic events that occurred there. This historic information existed as a kind of scent and could be good, (beggesha), or could be bad (beggesh). Thus the landscape was not strictly a spatial domain, but a geo-historic space/time domain of places and the moral history of their use. Individuals had varying abilities to detect geo-historic information with shaman and those achieving a state of k’echeltani (true belief) having the most acute perceptions. Sentient animals, ancestor spirits, and other spirits could also detect the moral history of a place.
Session 1: Alaskan Cultural Landscapes

Documenting and communicating local beliefs and world views is challenging for forest-dwelling communities. Much knowledge about the land is transmitted in the form of stories and legends that use metaphor and sophisticated terminology. Common forms of communication fail to capture the depth and power of the relationship (both physical and spiritual) with the land.
Researchers at the University of Victoria undertook a project that explored the potential for communities to use computer-based interactive maps in conjunction with digital video and photography to manage and present their knowledge related to ancestral lands and traditional land stewardship practices. These tools became known locally as Community Information Systems (CIS). This presentation will describe the process and impacts from developing CIS in two communities in West Kutai, Indonesia.
Session 4: Collaborative Information Systems Projects

The Secwepemc of southern interior British Columbia traditionally ate black tree lichen (Bryoria fremontii) as an important vegetable. Chemical variation within the species may make some populations toxic, and there are also similar-looking species that are toxic. As well, the unprocessed carbohydrates of lichens are indigestible to humans. In this study, Secwepemc elders were interviewed for traditional knowledge of lichen harvesting and preparation. Lichen was harvested and analyzed from sites in Secwepemc territory. The results indicate that traditional harvesting may preferentially select non-toxic populations of lichen and that traditional preparation may remove toxins and hydrolyze polysaccharides into digestible sugars.
Session 3: Plants in the Human Landscape

While the ethnoecology literature documents the way people classify the natural environment, how such perceptions influence land-use/land-cover change and community forest management is rarely addressed. We quantify changes in forest cover before and after initiation of a community forestry program and examine how conservation practices are shaped by forest classification and perception. Remote sensing and participatory mapping were used to develop land cover maps from 1976 to 1997, and interviews with ejido presidents and local farmers served to document local forest classification and land-use rules and regulations. The results indicate that distinctions recognized between different forest community types are significant for interpreting both land-use patterns and for understanding local priorities for forest conservation. The relevance of these results for promotion of community-based conservation programs is discussed.
Session 6B: TEK, Landscape Perceptions, and Resource Management

The Wanyjirra language group has kinship relationships within the isolated east Kimberley region of northern Australia. The Wanyjirra knowledge of plants, animals, and environmental processes is being lost as it passes away with the knowledge holders. The purpose of this project is to document this information.

In May 2004 contact was made with the Wanyjirra people. A comprehensive consultation process was the starting point, to address cultural concerns, establish project guidelines, ensure positive outcomes for participants, and to establish a familiarity between the researcher and the Wanyjirra people.

Using the Wanyjirra project as an example, this paper will discuss the reasoning behind and purpose of ethnobiological fieldwork in a remote part of Australia, and will briefly compare Indigenous and western scientific knowledge systems.
Session 4: Collaborative Information Systems Projects

High Rolls Cave (ca. 1260 to 950 B.C.) is an Archaic dry shelter that lies along a high canyon wall in the Sacramento mountains. Archaeological investigations have revealed a variety of perishable materials including fragments of culinary experimentation, and of many plant based manufacturing processes. Identifying processed material required considerable exploration of methodologies. Nearby larger Fresnal shelter indicates the two shelters were used differently, and apparent in variable taxa. A comparison of functional implications of floral remains for the two sites has the potential of shedding some light on the multiplicity of Archaic adaptations in the Sacramento Mountains.
Session 10: “It’s Not Just About Corn”: Ethnobotany South of the 38th Parallel

The people of Kaktovik, Alaska, call their homeland Inuuniagviat Kaktovikmiut. This is a territory that encompasses about 90,000 acres, from 100 kilometers into the Beaufort Sea south to the Continental Divide, and from the Canadian border west to Prudhoe Bay. Inuuniagviat Kaktovikmiut also includes parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, specifically the “1002 Area,” which is important habitat for the Central Arctic and Porcupine Caribou herds and possibly contains millions of barrels of crude oil. This paper will explore some mechanisms developed by the people of Kaktovik for dealing with their dynamic and politicized environment.
Session 1: Alaskan Cultural Landscapes

Uivvaq was a coastal community in western Alaska occupied between A.D. 900 and the 1950s. Uivvaq’s proximity to pack ice, caribou migration routes, chert outcrops, bird colonies, and open leads placed it in an ideal location. It became the second most important settlement in the Point Hope area. Fauna from the site were primarily small and medium seals, caribou, and some small whales. After the meat was removed, seal bones were burned for fuel, and caribou long bones were broken to remove marrow. Despite the coastal setting, fish and gastropods were rare and are likely from pinniped stomachs.
Session 2: Animals in the Human Landscape

The earliest settlements thus far noted in the large and productive Titicaca Basin center on ceremonial spaces where gatherings occurred to feast the ancestors. Evidence for these early gatherings come from the Formative site of Chiripa. Memoralizing the lineages through these food activities is seen in the architecture, plant and animal remains, the ceramics and the contents of the ceramics, via stable isotopes. These meals do not include maize until late in the sequence, but focus on meat, fish, quinoa and potatoes. Ritual and quotidian foodways will be discussed as they relate to the spiritual world of the lake dwellers.
Session 10: “It’s Not Just About Corn”: Ethnobotany South of the 38th Parallel

In recent years, linguists, anthropologists and ethnobiologists have increasingly pointed to an explicit link between biological diversity and linguistic diversity, and
thus between language, culture and environment. What specific role, then, does an indigenous language play in the maintenance of traditional ecological knowledge, and subsequently, of ecological diversity and sustainability? Based on examples from the Pacific Northwest and Interior Plateau of British Columbia, this paper will explore how knowledge about complex ecological inter-relationships and interactions is encoded in oral histories and stories, often in subtle ways that employ the lexical, grammatical and pragmatic categories specific to an indigenous language. The fact that Aboriginal languages in Northwestern North America are critically endangered, coupled with changed environments and species, is leading to an imminent “extinction of experience” as knowledge is increasingly told, validated and disseminated in English. This paper will also explore what is at stake for the future of the knowledge and use of environments, and what can be done to revive languages and the traditional ecological knowledge they entail.
Session 9: Science, Language, and Classification

Echinacea angustifolia has been used medicinally by the Lakota for thousands of years. Recently, Echinacea has also become a popular “herbal remedy” for non-Indians. This new-found fame has promoted serious over-harvesting, which has caused the decimation of my Echinacea stands on the Standing Rock Reservation. Methods of protection must be implemented if we are to save this plant for future generations. Our elders feel that the Standing Rock Nation’s tribal government must take immediate action by promoting sustainable use and harvesting of Echinacea – using both traditional management techniques and creating legislation to protect Echinacea under tribal, state, and federal law.
Session 6A: TEK, Lansdcape Perceptions, and Resource Management

Rubus chamaemorus (bakeapple, cloudberry, Rosaceae) has been a popular food source with many communities living in subarctic and arctic areas of North America. The berries, which are high in Vitamin C, likely served as a major source of this vital nutrient to these northern communities, which had limited access to fruit. While there has been considerable documentation concerning the use and importance of bakeapple to communities, there has been little research on bakeapple use by groups living on the east coast and on the specifics of its use with any group. My general objectives were to document ethnobotanical knowledge about bakeapple in a local Métis community from Labrador. I gathered information regarding: 1. history of bakeapple use by the community; 2. local observations about habitat characteristics and influences on fruiting; and 3. Traditional gathering and processing practices. My results show that this fruit was a valuable food source in this community traditionally, and is still important despite numerous changes (e.g. in subsistence and economy) that have occurred in this area.
Session 3: Plants in the Human Landscape

In this study I will evaluate how humans perceive animals and how proximity influences these decisions. I will examine how liked and disliked animal categories are guided based on their interactions with populations. Therefore, the studied population consists of individuals who primarily self-identify as either Northern or Southern. In other words, the people included in this analysis are from different environmental and social areas within the United States, and will incorporate different animals into their liked and disliked categories based on their respective interaction levels. The methods of data analysis are most closely linked to ethnoscientific methods and are used paying close attention to both cultural and ecological salience of animals that are included under each category. The primary objective of this research is to see why people systematically like and dislike certain animals, and if it relates to a spatial component.
Session 7: Poster Presentations

Aconite (monkshood) is a hardy perennial in southern Alaska. Highly toxic alkaloids are present in the plant, particularly in its roots. The pre-contact use of aconite poison in whale hunting has been well documented in the Kodiak area and is a subject of debate in the Aleutians. Among the Koniags, the preparation of poisoned darts, along with other whaling knowledge and ritual, was closely guarded by an elite group of whale hunting specialists. This paper explores contemporary and recent historical uses of aconite in Alaska, and attempts to discover threads of continuity between indigenous practices and present-day sea mammal hunting.
Session 2: Animals in the Human Landscape

By exploring their living environmental knowledge with Yuin people, this project illustrates how indigenous knowledge transforms and also demonstrates the modes of transmission that are ensuring knowledge creation and maintenance. My preliminary fieldwork shows both continuity and change in a distinctly modern and indigenous environmental worldview. I propose that indigenous people of south coast New South Wales possess a system of environmental knowledge which is neither wholly traditional nor western but which is identifiably indigenous and that indigenous people are actively involved in its formulation and transmission.
Session 6B: TEK, Landscape Perceptions, and Resource Management

Examination of the diversity and expanse of use of Sumac (Rhus trilobata) by California Indians. Presentation includes power point presentation demonstrating manipulation of Sumac for basket weaving material. The presentation will also include a segment on the preparation of materials for basket weaving. From San Diego County to Modoc County, Sumac is a major resource utilized by many Tribes for weaving baskets. In addition, the berry produced by the Sumac was eaten or a drink was made from the berry. Sumac is known by several common names to include: Squaw Bush, Skunk Bush, Lemonade Berry, and Sour Berry. It is also an indicator plant when searching out archaeological sites.
Session 3: Plants in the Human Landscape

The Naso people live in the Bocas del Toro Province along the Teribe and Changuinola Rivers. They practice subsistence agriculture of domesticated and semi-domesticated plants within small plots on the Talamanca mountains. They select agricultural plots to reduce any negative effects on the surrounding biological diversity. Preliminary field plant interviews were done last year and the results are presented at this meeting. Plots near the community of Sieykin will be mapped using G.P.S. Floristic inventories will be done to assess the diversity of plants and to identify the maintenance of domesticated, semi-domesticated and wild species in each agricultural plot.
Session 10: “It’s Not Just About Corn”: Ethnobotany South of the 38th Parallel

Lower Kuskokwim River Native elders explain that most traditional Yup’ik place names relate to subsistence resources. Under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, Section 14(h)(1), interviews conducted with Yup’ik elders in the 1980s have documented geographical names within a 5,000-square mile area of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. These toponyms can be used to interpret cultural landscape perspectives, delineating subsistence use areas in association with freshwater networks and flora and fauna. Contextual meanings, past and present, of intergenerational Yup’ik place names offer potential for resilient interpretation of landscape despite sociocultural and biophysical change at local levels.
Session 1: Alaskan Cultural Landscapes

For untold generations, Inupiat of northern Alaska constructed complex drivelines out of stone cairns, or inuksuk, for funneling migrating herds of caribou into lakes or corrals for slaughter. Archaeologists have documented the remnants of these lines and have interviewed village elders about them. This paper provides an overview of the literature on caribou drivelines and suggests possible avenues of research for archaeologists. A broad focus on the drivelines as but one of many features and sites on the landscape, which functioned together as critical components of an overall prehistoric hunting strategy, is discussed as one fascinating avenue to pursue.
Session 2: Animals in the Human Landscape

Although camas continues to grow in and around the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, concentrations are scattered and declining, due to agricultural and urban development. Few local residents are aware of the plant or its importance to regional Native Peoples. As a community education project, we planted a small camas swale. For the past two years, we have harvested and cooked camas and other traditional pit-cooked foods in an earth oven, raising awareness within the local community of the importance of this plant and its place in the traditions of the Rogue Valley’s Native Peoples.
Session 3: Plants in the Human Landscape

Meanings of words are rarely stable over time; factors causing change include shifts in cultural salience of species or objects, introductions of new products and ideas, and environmental alterations. We focus on semantic changes involving botanical categories in Interior Salish. Changes in meaning of terms have resulted from shifts in lifestyles and land use patterns. The identified shifts in the meanings of “grass” to “hay” and “low growth” to “weeds” are aligned with many other changes in Interior Salish culture relating to acquisition of new knowledge, materials and practices that have in large part replaced older concepts and lifestyles.
Session 9: Science, Language, and Classification

This information is part of an collaboration between Shishmaref and the Army Corps of Engineers funded project to document subsistence land use and local values. This research project explores the relationship between contemporary subsistence land use by Shishmaref residents and traditional Bering Strait territorial boundaries, as well as how the intersection between locally-generated traditional ecological knowledge of lands and resource harvesting contribute to a sense of identity. This work articulates the importance of maintaining relationships to traditionally used and occupied lands and will contribute to a document exploring different community relocation alternatives in response to erosion of Sarichef Island.
Session 7: Poster Presentations

The K’Beq site is a late prehistoric/early historic Athapaskan site near Cooper Landing in southcentral Alaska. In 2001, the Chugach National Forest, in partnership with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, partially excavated three depressions which had been previously identified as cache pits, although no testing had taken place in or around them. As is usual for Athapaskan sites, and as expected here, no artifacts, fauna, or radiocarbon samples were recovered. Samples were collected for phytolith analysis by the Duluth Archaeology Center. The results show that phytoliths are present, and corroborate ethnohistoric information regarding cache pits for salmon storage.
To be presented by Sasha Lindgren (Kenaitze Indian Tribe, Cultural Programs Director)
Session 6B: TEK, Landscape Perceptions, and Resource Management