Ethnobotany of Tl'azt'en Nation: Plant Use and Gathering Site Characteristics
Abstract
Aboriginal people have intimate and venerable relationships with the environment, and plants were and still are important for food, medicine, and cultural purposes. The present research is a collaborative project between Tl'azt'en Nation (located in northcentral British Columbia, just north of Fort St. James) and the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). The objectives of the study were to collect Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to gain an understanding of the criteria for gathering individual plants for food or medicine use, and to understand why traditional plant gathering sites may fall out of use. Multiple methods were used to gather information from knowledgeable Tl'azt'enne community members including focus groups, interviews, and field trips. Community members possess deep understandings of plants and their gathering sites. People’s concerns include the loss of TEK and changing landscapes due to the effects of disturbances on their lands. The knowledge gathered and documented throughout the study can be used to promote the preservation of the culture and language of Tl'azt'en NationReferences
Anyinam, C. 1995. Ecology and Ethnomedicine: Exploring Links between Current Environmental Crisis and Indigenous Medical Practices. Social Science Medicine 40:321-329.
Austin, M. A., D. A. Buffet, D. J. Nicolson, G. G. E. Scudder and V. Stevens, eds. 2008. Taking Nature’s Pulse: The Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia. Biodiversity BC, Victoria, BC.
Brown, D. 2002. Carrier Sekani Self-Government in Context: Land and Resources. Western Geography 12:21-67.
CSTC (Carrier Sekani Tribal Council). 2007. A CSTC Background. Available at: http://www.cstc.bc.ca/cstc/7/about+cstc. Accessed on January 15, 2012.
Davis, A. and J. R. Wagner. 2003. Who Knows? On the Importance of Identifying “Experts” when Researching Local Ecological Knowledge. Human Ecology 31:463-488.
Fondahl, G., P. Wright, D. Yim, E. Sherry, B. Leon, W. Bulmer, S. Grainger and J. Young. 2009. Co-Managing Research: Building and Sustaining a First Nation-University Partnership. The Community Development Institute at UNBC. Prince George, BC, Canada.
Furgal, C. and J. Seguin. 2006. Climate Change, Health, and the Vulnerability in Canadian Northern Aboriginal Communities. Environmental Health Perspectives 114:1964-1970.
Grainger, S., E. Sherry and G. Fondahl. 2006. The John Prince Research Forest: Evolution of a Co-Management Partnership in Northern British Columbia. The Forestry Chronicle 86:1-12.
Halcomb, E. J., L. Gholizadeh, M. DiGiacomo, J. Phillips and P. M. Davidson. 2007. Literature Review: Considerations in Undertaking Focus Group Research with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Groups. Journal of Clinical Nursing 16:1000-1011.
Houde, N. 2007. The Six Faces of Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Challenges and Opportunities for Canadian Co-management Arrangements. Ecology and Society 12:34.
Johnson, L. M. 2006. Gitksan Medicinal Plants - Cultural Choice and Efficacy. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2:29. Doi:10.1186/1746-4269-2-29.
Johnson, L. M. 2008. Plants and Habitats – A Consideration of Dene Ethnoecology in Northwestern Canada. Botany 86:146-156.
Johnson Gottesfeld, L. M. 1993. Plants, Land and People, a Study of Wet’suwet’en Ethnobotany, Master’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Karjala, M. K. 2001. Integrating Aboriginal Values into Strategic-level Forest Planning on the John Prince Research Forest, Central Interior, British Columbia, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.
Karjala, M. K. and S. M. Dewhurst. 2002. Including Aboriginal Issues in Forest Planning: A Case Study in Central Interior British Columbia, Canada. Landscape and Urban Planning 64:1-17.
Lantz, T. C. and N. J. Turner. 2003. Traditional Phenological Knowledge of Aboriginal Peoples in British Columbia. Journal of Ethnobiology 23:263-286.
Miranda, T. M., M. C. Amorozo, J. S. Govone and D. M. Miranda. 2007. The Influence of Visual Stimuli in Ethnobotanical Data Collection Using the Listing Task Method. Field Methods 9:76-86.
Morris, P. K. 1999. Negotiating the Production of Space in Tl’azt’en Territory, 1969-1984. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Geography, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.
Morris, P. and G. Fondahl. 2002. Negotiating the Production of Space in Tl’azt’en Territory, Northern British Columbia. The Canadian Geographer 46:108-125.
Ohmagari, K. and F. Berkes. 1997. Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge and Bush Skills among the Western James Bay Cree Women of Subarctic Canada. Human Ecology 5:197-222.
Parlee, B. F. Berkes and Teetl’it Gwich’in Renewal Resource Council. 2006. Indigenous Knowledge of Ecological Variability and Commons Management: A Case Study on Berry Harvesting from Northern Canada. Human Ecology 34:515-528.
Ritch-Krc, E. M, S. Thomas, N. J. Turner and G. N. H. Towers. 1996. Carrier Herbal Medicine: Traditional and Contemporary Plant Use. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 52:85-94.
Shaw, L. R. 2010. The Ecology of Food and Medicine Plants and their Gathering Sites as Defined by Tl’azt’en Nation. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.
Sherry, E., R. Halseth, G. Fondahl, M. Karjala and B. Leon. 2005. Local-level Criteria and Indicators: An Aboriginal Perspective on Sustainable Forest Management. Forestry 78:1-27.
Thornton, T. F. 1999. Tleikw aani, the “Berried” Landscape: The Structure of Tlinglit Edible Fruit Resources at Glacier Bay, Alaska. Journal of Ethnobiology 19:27-48.
Tl’azt’en Nation. 2009. About Us. Available at: http://www.tlc.baremetal.com/About%20Us.htm. Accessed on January 15, 2012.
Turner, N. J. 1995. Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples. Royal British Columbia Museum, Vancouver, BC.
Turner, N. J., M. B. Ignace, and R. Ignace. 2000. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Wisdom of Aboriginal Peoples in British Columbia. Ecological Applications 10:1275-1287.
Vitousek, P. M., C. M. D’Antonio, L. L. Loope, M. Reimanek and R. Westbrooks. 1997. Introduced Species: A Significant Component of Human-Caused Global Change. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 21:1-16.
Young, J. and A. Hawley. 2010. Plants and Medicines of Sophie Thomas. Based on the Traditional Knowledge of Sophie Thomas, Sai’Kuz Elder and Healer. 3rd ed. Available at: http://sophiethomas.org/. Accessed on January 15, 2012.
Copyright (c) 2012 Ethnobiology Letters
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content and grant Ethnobiology Letters (the “Journal”) and the Society of Ethnobiology right of first publication. Authors and the Journal agree that Ethnobiology Letters will publish the article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits others to use, distribute, and reproduce the work non-commercially, provided the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly cited.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must make clear the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
In publishing with Ethnobiology Letters corresponding authors certify that they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. They warrant, on behalf of themselves and their co-authors, that the content is original, has not been formally published, is not under consideration, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. They further warrant that the material contains no matter that is scandalous, obscene, libelous, or otherwise contrary to the law.
Corresponding authors will be given an opportunity to read and correct edited proofs, but if they fail to return such corrections by the date set by the editors, production and publication may proceed without the authors’ approval of the edited proofs.
