“When the Wild Roses Bloom”: Indigenous Knowledge and Environmental Change in Northwestern North America

Abstract

Indigenous Peoples in Northwestern North America have always worked with predictable cycles of day and night, tides, moon phases, seasons, and species growth and reproduction, including such phenological indicators as the blooming of flowers and the songs of birds. Negotiating variability has been constant in people's lives. Long‐term monitoring and detailed knowledge of other lifeforms and landscapes of people's home territories have assisted in responding and adapting to change. Aspects of cultural knowledge and practice that have helped Indigenous Peoples navigate nature's cycles at different scales of time and space include kin ties and social relationships, experiential learning, language, storytelling and timing of ceremonies such as “First Foods” celebrations. Working with ecological processes, Indigenous Peoples have been able to maintain optimal conditions for preferred species, reducing variability and uncertainty through taking care of productive habitats, leaving ecosystems intact, and allowing other species to change in their own cycles. Since the onset of colonization, however, Indigenous Peoples' lifeways have been changed drastically, culminating with the current impacts of global climate change and biodiversity loss. This paper, based on contributions of numerous Indigenous Knowledge holders from across Northwestern North America, outlines some of the key ways in which Indigenous Peoples have embraced predictability and change in their environments and lifeways, and addresses the particular threat of climate change: its recognition, ways of adapting to it, and, ultimately, how it might be reversed through developing more careful, respectful relationships with and responsibilities for the other‐than‐human world.

Rhythms of the Earth—Editorial Introduction

“…As a methodology of hope, we then focus on the anticipatory potential of ecological calendars based on more contemporary research with Indigenous communities. In “‘When the Wild Roses Bloom’: Indigenous Knowledge and Environmental Change in Northwestern North America” (Turner & Reid, 2022 ), a senior ethnobotanist with a lifetime of substantive community‐based experience and a younger Indigenous critical thinker provide historical and contemporary evidence of the use of phenological indicators by diverse Indigenous peoples. Knowledge of this rich biodiversity and its stewardship set the stage for a discussion of ecological calendars in our own research work in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia and the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North America.…”

Gendered Crafts in the Great Salt Lake Desert: A Comparative Analysis of Late Holocene Cordage and Coiled Basketry

“…), and cliffrose ( Purshia stansburiana ) were often more expediently processed, and they were generally weaker and ill-suited for nets and traps (Haas 2001), with exceptions (see Frison et al 1986; Sundstrom and Walker 2021). Raw material itself has cultural significance within a community of cordage makers and users because of potential rules shaping harvesting rights or division of labor for the preparation process (Turner and Reid 2022). Preparing fibers would have required decisions based on the proposed function of cordage, following a standardized method of isolating fibers.…”

Navigating Legal and Regulatory Frameworks to Achieve the Resilience and Sustainability of Indigenous Socioecological Systems

“…A vital concept when delving into a discussion of the relationship between IP and their socioecological systems is that of kincentric ecology [10][11][12][13]. The concept hinges on the view that human beings are essential components of a broader ecological network, thereby redefining their function as responsible custodians and engaged participants in the intricate web of life [14,15].…”