Local Traditional Knowledge Reports (Tracking Change)
Contains Local Traditional Knowledge Reports from the Tracking Change Project.
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Item Open Access Literature Review: Local and Traditional Knowledge in the Lower Mackenzie Watershed(2016-10-01) Parlee, BrendaThe Lower Mackenzie sits within the jurisdiction of the Government of the Northwest Territories. The watershed is recognized internationally as an important area of ecological biodiversity. It is one of the largest deltas in North America and has been a focus of exploration and development for many decades. The Mackenzie Delta is home to many Inuvialuit and Gwich’in peoples who value the region and its resources according to a rich and diverse number of socio-economic, cultural, and ecological values. In addition to being an important area of subsistence, the channels of the lower Mackenzie Delta have always been important travel corridors for Indigenous peoples as well as explorers, whalers, trappers, missionaries, and those seeking to discover and extract natural gas resources. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and later the Gwich’in Renewable Resources Parlee, B.P. 2 Board, Inuvialuit Fisheries Joint Management Committee, Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute as well as anthropologists, such as Milton Freeman, have documented many details about the aquatic ecosystem and its value to Inuvialuit and Gwich’in peoples. There is a greater number of documented and available sources of traditional knowledge associated with Gwich’in communities in comparison to those detailing Inuvialuit knowledge.Item Open Access Literature Review: Local and Traditional Knowledge in the Peace River Sub-Basin(2016-10-01) D'Souza, Amabel; Parlee, BrendaThe Peace River Watershed is home to many Aboriginal peoples of the Treaty 8 region who have lived in the area since time immemorial. The Peace River and its tributaries have always been an important travel corridor for First Nations, Metis, and other settlers and was a foundation for subsistence fishing for many generations. The watershed has undergone significant change in recent decades as a result of resource development, including hydro-electric (e.g., WAC Bennett Dam), forestry, and petroleum industries. Although there is some documentation of the combined social and ecological changes, much local and traditional knowledge has not been documented. This report was developed for the Tracking Change… project with the aim of synthesizing existing documented local and traditional knowledge about social and ecological change in the Peace River Watershed. The identification, synthesis, and reporting on Traditional Knowledge for this region is complex, owning to the large number of Aboriginal groups who have documented historical and contemporary land and resource use and interest in the region, the absence of documented Traditional Knowledge research conducted, as well as the socio-economic and political inequities and tensions that exist between regional and provincial governments and many Aboriginal communities.Item Open Access Literature Review: Local and Traditional Knowledge in the Great Bear Lake Watershed(2016-10-01) Parlee, BrendaThe Great Bear Lake Watershed is home to the Sahtú Dene communities of Fort Good Hope, Délįne, Tulita, and Colville Lake and is also an area historically used by other Indigenous peoples, including the Tłı̨chǫ and Inuit communities of the Kitikmeot region. A significant body of local and traditional knowledge has been documented by early anthropologists such as Rushforth, through the Sahtú Renewable Resources Board (SRRB), the Sahtú Land Use Planning process as well as the protected areas process associated with the Great Bear Lake region. Compared to other regions of the Mackenzie River Basin, there is a relatively significant body of knowledge documented and publicly available for this region, and fewer gaps. The key areas of documented local and traditional knowledge have been in the area of oral histories, place names, as well as details about fishing culture, practices and socio-economic patterns of fishing across the region. A large body of work about the impacts of resource development is in development. The region has been a major focus of land and water protection when compared to other areas of the Mackenzie River Basin. Most notable is the work done to document local and traditional knowledge related to the governance of the watershed, and defined through the review document titled ‘The Water Heart—A Management Plan for the Great Bear Lake and its Watershed, directed by The Great Bear Lake Working Group (2005/2006). Gaps determined through this review include documented sources of knowledge about the health of fish populations and other aquatic resources, knowledge related to water quality, quantity and flow as well as observations or knowledge that may be climate-related, including that associated with climate change. The historic and contemporary impacts as well as the future legacy, of oil and gas activity in the Norman Wells area and its impacts on the aquatic ecosystem are poorly documented. There are, however, a great number of documented sources of knowledge related to the community of Délįne when compared to other Sahtú communities and other Indigenous groups that might have overlapping interests in the region, including the Tłı̨chǫ and Kitikmeot Inuit peoples.Item Open Access Literature Review Local and Traditional Knowledge In the Athabasca River Watershed(2019-06-01) Parlee, Brenda; D'Souza, AmabelGiven the limits of resources and time established for this project, this report should not be considered a comprehensive overview of all available documented Traditional Knowledge for this watershed. The Athabasca River Watershed comprises both Treaty #8 and Treaty #6. There are at least nine Aboriginal groups with historic or contemporary connections to this watershed. Many of these groups relocated to British Columbia with the settlement of Alberta in the 19th century. Definitions, methods, and formats of documented Traditional Knowledge vary significantly. While libraries, the internet, and scholarly journals house some sources of knowledge, there are many kinds of reports prepared by and for Aboriginal communities that are not available to the public for political, cultural, and socio-economic reasons. There are many kinds of Traditional Knowledge indicators of ecosystem health and ecological change; some of these indicators are synergistic with Western Science. Other kinds of indicators are unique to Traditional Knowledge and may be difficult to integrate into a standardized ‘State of the Watershed Report.’ There is significant spatial differentiation related to where such knowledge is documented; some communities in the lower Athabasca have been more active in documenting Traditional Knowledge due, in part, to the resources and pressures to do so that have come with planning, assessment, and monitoring of oil sands mining and its impacts.Item Open Access Literature Review: Local and Traditional Knowledge in the Liard River Watershed(2016-10-01) Parlee, BrendaThe Liard River Basin is a complex, multi-jurisdictional watershed. The Liard River begins its journey in the Pelly Mountains of southeastern Yukon, flows through northeastern British Columbia, and then crosses into the Northwest Territories, where it drains into the Mackenzie River. There are roughly 9,000 people living in the Liard sub-basin. Most of the population is centered in Fort Nelson, BC and Watson Lake, Yukon. Fort Simpson, which lies at the confluence of the Liard and Mackenzie rivers is considered those in the Mackenzie-Great Bear Basin. First Nations people make up approximately 27% of the population. There are at least nine Aboriginal groups with historic or contemporary connections to the Liard River Watershed. Many of these groups relocated into British Columbia with the settlement of Alberta in the 19th century. There are limited sources of documented and available sources of local and traditional knowledge about most aspects of aquatic ecosystem health. As with other areas of the Mackenzie, these gaps do not reflect a lack of local and traditional knowledge, but limited resources and opportunities for research as well as a lack of socio-political security around intellectual property rights. Media reports suggest the need for more research; there are many concerns about the increasing pace and scale of resource development activities and their implications for First Nations and other communities in the Liard Basin and downstream communities. A cumulative effects perspective on resource development may prove valuable, given the long history of fur harvesting, forestry, mining, and petroleum extraction and the compounding problems of climate change.Item Open Access Literature Review Local and Traditional Knowledge In the Hay River Watershed(2017-06-01) Wray, KristineThe Hay River Basin has played a vital role in the social, economic, and cultural well-being of many Aboriginal peoples. Given their reliance on and stewardship of its resources, many Aboriginal peoples have developed valuable knowledge about the state of the basin that can contribute to our understanding of historic and contemporary issues of planning, management, and monitoring. The Hay River Basin is a part of the Mackenzie River system, which drains into the Arctic Ocean, drawing water from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. “Kátło’dehé is the South Slavey Dene name for the Hay River, or an earlier spelling Xatlo Dehe” or from the K’átł’odeeche First Nation report, K’átł’odee ‘willow grass river,’ referring to the origins of the river in Hay Lakes, northern Alberta, which is a prairie-like area. In Chipewyan, the Hay River is Hátł’oresche. In Cree, it is Maskosï-Sïpiy” (AANDC 2014). The Hay River is named for the abundant hay fields, which were nourished by the floods periodically experienced at the river mouth, which also brings driftwood into the Great Slave Lake (Piper 2009:261). The Hay River Basin is considered to have been home to at least six Aboriginal groups: the Sekani, Dane-zaa, Dene Tha’, Dene, Métis, and the Woodland Cree. Each has their own cultural belief systems as well as systems of knowledge and practice that has led to the development of local and traditional knowledge about the Hay River Basin. However, a very limited base of this knowledge has been documented. Specifically, there were no sources of documented local and traditional knowledge related to observations about changes in water quality, quantity, and flow. Only a limited understanding emerges from early anthropological sources as well as land use and occupancy studies about the history and cultural significance of sites in the watershed (e.g., limited place names studies). Some observations have been made about water as it related to the impacts of resource development and climate change. There is also a very limited amount of documented local and traditional knowledge related to local observations about changes in fish species diversity, condition, population dynamics and distribution as well as other resources harvested for subsistence and commercial use such as ducks/geese, beaver, etc. There is, however, a valuable body of work related to fishing practices and use of the Hay River as a travel corridor, which stems from research with K’átł’odeeche First Nation. The limited availability of documented sources of local and traditional knowledge from this region, when compared to other regions (e.g., Gwich’in Settlement Area) should not be interpreted as a lack of knowledge, but rather a reflection of limited resources and institutional insecurity (e.g., no settled land claim, no co-management arrangement) that characterize this area of the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta.Item Open Access Literature Review: Local and Traditional Knowledge in the Peel River Watershed(2016-06-01) Parlee, Brenda; Martin, ChelseaThe Peel River Basin is an important trans-boundary watershed that sits within the jurisdictions of the Government of the Yukon and the Government of the Northwest Territories. The watershed is recognized internationally as an important area of ecological biodiversity, but it is also home to many Gwich’in as well as northern Tutchone peoples, and is thus an important landscape with many integrated socio-economic, cultural, and ecological values. The Peel River Watershed is a mountainous area that boasts numerous tributaries, such as Bonnetplume, which are currently valued and recognized by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples for their beauty, pristine waters, and biodiversity. Unlike many other sub-basins of the Mackenzie, the Peel River Watershed has, until recently, been little disturbed by resource development. The recent decision of the Yukon Government to open up the area for mining exploration and development has thus been met with significant concern and opposition by those living in the region and internationally. Early ethnographic work describes the importance of the Peel to local Indigenous communities, including the importance of many of the rivers as transportation corridors and the fish within these rivers as critical to the food security of families who lived and traveled throughout the area. A significant body of local and traditional knowledge has been documented by the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute that stems from the livelihood practices, observations and experiences of the Teetł'it t Gwich’in peoples, including place names, ethnographic material. The Gwich’in Renewable Resources Board, also has also produced many reports which speak to the health of the aquatic ecosystem. With growing recognition of the importance of the Peel River Watershed as a critical area of biodiversity, there are more opportunities for local Indigenous communities from both the Yukon and Northwest Territories to document their knowledge of this area. However, many gaps exist with respect to the availability of documented local and traditional knowledge in respect of all indicators of aquatic ecosystem health defined in this report.Item Open Access Literature Review Local and Traditional Knowledge In the Hay River Watershed(2016-12-01) Wray, KristineThe Hay River Basin has played a vital role in the social, economic, and cultural well-being of many Aboriginal peoples. Given their reliance on and stewardship of its resources, many Aboriginal peoples have developed valuable knowledge about the state of the basin that can contribute to our understanding of historic and contemporary issues of planning, management, and monitoring. The Hay River Basin is a part of the Mackenzie River system, which drains into the Arctic Ocean, drawing water from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. “Kátło’dehé is the South Slavey Dene name for the Hay River, or an earlier spelling Xatlo Dehe” or from the K’átł’odeeche First Nation report, K’átł’odee ‘willow grass river,’ referring to the origins of the river in Hay Lakes, northern Alberta, which is a prairie-like area. In Chipewyan, the Hay River is Hátł’oresche. In Cree, it is Maskosï-Sïpiy” (AANDC 2014). The Hay River is named for the abundant hay fields, which were nourished by the floods periodically experienced at the river mouth, which also brings driftwood into the Great Slave Lake (Piper 2009:261). The Hay River Basin is considered to have been home to at least six Aboriginal groups: the Sekani, Dane-zaa, Dene Tha’, Dene, Métis, and the Woodland Cree. Each has their own cultural belief systems as well as systems of knowledge and practice that has led to the development of local and traditional knowledge about the Hay River Basin. However, a very limited base of this knowledge has been documented. Specifically, there were no sources of documented local and traditional knowledge related to observations about changes in water quality, quantity, and flow. Only a limited understanding emerges from early anthropological sources as well as land use and occupancy studies about the history and cultural significance of sites in the watershed (e.g., limited place names studies). Some observations have been made about water as it related to the impacts of resource development and climate change. There is also a very limited amount of documented local and traditional knowledge related to local observations about changes in fish species diversity, condition, population dynamics and distribution as well as other resources harvested for subsistence and commercial use such as ducks/geese, beaver, etc. There is, however, a valuable body of work related to fishing practices and use of the Hay River as a travel corridor, which stems from research with K’átł’odeeche First Nation. The limited availability of documented sources of local and traditional knowledge from this region, when compared to other regions (e.g., Gwich’in Settlement Area) should not be interpreted as a lack of knowledge, but rather a reflection of limited resources and institutional insecurity (e.g., no settled land claim, no co-management arrangement) that characterize this area of the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta.