The Tribal Perspective of Old Growth in Frequent-fire Forests—Its History

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Anyone who has not lived in "Indian country" cannot understand just how extensively the United States government and its laws affect Native Americans and their natural resource management. These effects are sobering, and touch upon sensitive issues that all Native Americans hold within us. In this article, I outline the historic cycle of tribal entities, and characterize today's tribal self-determination in forest management. I provide an historical account from the "colonial" period and its use of the Doctrine of Discovery to the relations between the United States government and Native Americans from the 18 th through the 20 th centuries, during which time Native Americans struggled to establish their legal status as tribes, and solidify their land base to sustain and conserve culturally important lands, including areas of old-growth forests, to the current self-determination and self-governance potential of Indian tribes. More importantly, I discuss the cultural connectivity that Native Americans have to the land, and address the unique inherent right of tribes to integrate this cultural view into current forest management, including the protection of old-growth forests, on their reservations.

A culture of conservation: How an ancient forest plantation turned into an old‐growth forest reserve – The story of the Wamulin forest

“…Although many studies indicate that forest plantations can provide multiple forest-based products and play an important role in carbon sequestration (Baishya et al, 2009;De Stefano & Jacobson, 2018;Lai, 2004;Quine, 2015;Sang et al, 2013), there are doubts regarding their relative capacity for long-term carbon sequestration and harboring a comparable diversity of organisms to natural forests (Barlow et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2018;Sohngen & Brown, 2006;Yu et al, 2019). In addition, forest plantations are not often associated with the unique cultural and biodiversity conservation values that characterize many old natural forests (Sutherland et al, 2016;Yazzie, 2007) because the vast majority of forest plantations are relatively young and therefore lack clearly established cultural connections to people.…”

Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Understand the Diversity and Abundance of Culturally Important Trees

“…Relative to the time scales of conventional industrial harvest rotations (Binkley 1987;Mathey et al 2009), these types of old trees cannot meaningfully be considered a renewable resource. Such a perspective is not new; scholars and Indigenous groups have questioned the sustainability of industrial cedar harvesting for decades (Green 2007;Minore 1983;Russo and Zubalik 1992;Yazzie 2007;Zahn et al 2018). The failure to adequately account for the importance of cultural resources often stems from thinking about species and the environment as homogenous, substitutable commodities, instead of considering their diverse values and the broader ecosystem and cultural services they provide that may not be reflected in economic markets (Blicharska and Mikusin 'ski 2014;Chan et al 2012;Russo and Zubalik 1992;Turner et al 2009).…”

“…The loss of many of the world's Indigenous knowledge systems creates a gap during conservation planning because of its important role in defining and interpret-Journal Ethnobiology 2021 41(2): 209-228 2008; Polfus et al 2014), cultural processes, such as the use of fire (Lake et al 2017), or cultural trees around the world (Diamond and Emery 2011;Turner et al 2009;Yazzie 2007), TEK has proven valuable in understanding species and management systems that can account for local contexts. When thinking about the management of long-lived species with rapidly shifting distributions and levels of abundance, such as LCC, the knowledge base underpinning stewardship strategies should have a temporal scope that reflects the developmental pathways of the resource.…”

Social science research on Indigenous wildfire management in the 21st century and future research needs

“…Reasons for burning by Native Americans included, but were not limited to, burning to facilitate hunting, crop management, improving growth and yields, fireproofing areas, insect collection, pest management, warfare and signalling, economic extortion, clearing areas for travel, felling trees, clearing riparian areas and ceremonies (Loscheider 1977;Phillips 1983;Stewart 2002;Williams 2002). As in Canada and Australia, in the USA the loss of fire in the landscape can be directly linked to the removal of Native Americans from their traditional lands and following policies of fire suppression (Gruell 1983;Kimmerer and Lake 2001;Rasmussen 2005;Murphy et al 2007;Yazzie 2007). However, some Native American tribes are making a concerted effort to bring fire back to their traditional territories (Terence 2012).…”