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| <blockquote> In the Great Lakes region, a number of Anishinabeg communities have undertaken restorative programs for traditional ecological knowledge
| | [[Traditional Ecological Knowledge]] has been employed by Indigenous Nations since time immemorial and provides a framework necessary to transition away from capitalism and industrial agriculture towards true [[Food Sovereignty]]. [[Winona LaDuke]] explains this concept: |
| and the recovery of control over land on which people live.<br>
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| On the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, the White Earth Land Recovery Project seeks to recover control over more than one-third of all reservation lands in the next two decades. At least that much is held by government agencies, including 21,000 acres designated as a National Wildlife Refuge, which the people seek to have returned. The White Earth people will seek to restore traditional resource management schemes to those parcels they recover. To the south of White Earth, the Mille Lacs Band of Anishinabeg is litigating against the State of Minnesota, seeking to secure harvesting access to lands within the 1847 treaty boundary that were unceded by the band. These traditional people have been restricted to only 4,000 acres of land, of which only 1,500 are secure for harvesting. The remainder is greatly diminished in wealth by environmental degradation and the encroachment of non-Indian settlers and tourist industries. The Mille Lacs Commissioner of Natural Resources, Don Wedll, documented the subsistence requirements for the band members' future to establish the amount of territory required by band members to ensure their sustenance. This approach underscores their political strategy, which, in turn, is based on cultural values and long-term self-sufficiency brought about by careful stewardship. <br>
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| In northern Wisconsin, similar approaches to securing adequate food, clothing, shelter, and sustenance are forwarded by Anishinabeg bands within the 1847 treaty area. For example, a comanagement plan drafted by native activists Walt Bresette (Anishinaabe) and James Yellowbank (Winnebago) speaks to proposals for indigenous values and the common sense of rural communities trying to survive.<br>
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| Similarly, the Wabigon Lake Wild Rice Management Program has been advanced by the Anishinabeg of southern Ontario. While Canadian government legislation has demarked wild rice harvesting zones in the area according to resource management districts, the Wabigon Lake people have noted that their traditional territory extends into two districts and that the Canadian government management proposals are not based on traditional resource management practices of the Anishinabeg. The Wabigon Lake Anishinabeg have responded with their own demarcation and regulation program, including provisions for traditional (canoe) harvesting followed by mechanical (airboat) harvesting. Their organically certified wild rice (by the Organic Crop Improvement Association) is marketed internationally, returning substantial revenues to their community and illustrating the potential of using traditional economies and value systems as the foundation for community control of economy and destiny. They have also developed Wabuskang Wildfruits, which hopes to continue marketing 10,000 jars of organically certified blueberry spread annually.<br>
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| Other examples in the region abound, but perhaps none is so striking as the Menominee Forest Enterprises in northern Wisconsin. This reservation contains the most age and species diversified stands in the region and retains the same amount of timber today as a century ago, all due to
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| indigenous forestry management practices paired with careful harvesting techniques. The Menominee forest is the only "green cross certified" forest
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| in North America.<br>
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| These examples illustrate the application of traditional ecological knowledge within the cultural areas of those peoples from whom the knowledge originates. Sustainable practice with continuous harvest is critical for the environmental movement to recognize; it is a practice in which
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| humans are a part of the land and of ecosystems. Equally important is applying this knowledge within the cultural fabric of cohesive societies-
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| something that North Americans (including environmentalists) have yet to attain-and linking sustainable practice and governance over territory.
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| There will not be the former without the latter. Native peoples must be accorded the proprietary interest in those lands that sustain their communities; that is the only way that sustainability will be insured. However, this point remains a divisive one in terms of the North American environmental movement.<Ref>www.uky.edu/~rsand1/china2017/library/NOTES/LaDuke - Traditional Ecological Knowledge - Notes.pdf</Ref></Blockquote>
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| | <Blockquote>"[[Minobimaatisiiwin]]," or the "good life," is the basic objective of the Anishinabeg and Cree people who have historically, and to this day, occupied a great portion of the north-central region of the North American continent. An alternative interpretation of the word is "continuous rebirth." This is how we traditionally understand the world and how indigenous societies have come to live within natural law. Two tenets are essential to this paradigm: cyclical thinking and reciprocal relations and responsibilities to the Earth and creation. Cyclical thinking, common to most indigenous or land-based cultures and value systems, is an understanding that the world (time, and all parts of the natural order-including the moon, the tides, women, lives, seasons, or age) flows in cycles. Within this understanding is a clear sense of birth and rebirth and a knowledge that what one does today will affect one in the future, on the return. A second concept, reciprocal relations, defines responsibilities and ways of relating between humans and the ecosystem. Simply stated, the resources of the economic system, whether they be wild rice or deer, are recognized as animate and, as such, gifts from the Creator. Within that context, one could not take life without a reciprocal offering, usually tobacco or some other recognition of the Anishinabeg's reliance on the Creator. There must always be this reciprocity. Additionally, assumed in the "code of ethics" is an understanding that "you take only what you need, and you leave the rest."<Ref>http://www.uky.edu/~rsand1/china2017/library/NOTES/LaDuke%20-%20Traditional%20Ecological%20Knowledge%20-%20Notes.pdf</Ref></Blockquote> |
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| = Sources = | | = Sources = |
Traditional Ecological Knowledge has been employed by Indigenous Nations since time immemorial and provides a framework necessary to transition away from capitalism and industrial agriculture towards true Food Sovereignty. Winona LaDuke explains this concept:
"Minobimaatisiiwin," or the "good life," is the basic objective of the Anishinabeg and Cree people who have historically, and to this day, occupied a great portion of the north-central region of the North American continent. An alternative interpretation of the word is "continuous rebirth." This is how we traditionally understand the world and how indigenous societies have come to live within natural law. Two tenets are essential to this paradigm: cyclical thinking and reciprocal relations and responsibilities to the Earth and creation. Cyclical thinking, common to most indigenous or land-based cultures and value systems, is an understanding that the world (time, and all parts of the natural order-including the moon, the tides, women, lives, seasons, or age) flows in cycles. Within this understanding is a clear sense of birth and rebirth and a knowledge that what one does today will affect one in the future, on the return. A second concept, reciprocal relations, defines responsibilities and ways of relating between humans and the ecosystem. Simply stated, the resources of the economic system, whether they be wild rice or deer, are recognized as animate and, as such, gifts from the Creator. Within that context, one could not take life without a reciprocal offering, usually tobacco or some other recognition of the Anishinabeg's reliance on the Creator. There must always be this reciprocity. Additionally, assumed in the "code of ethics" is an understanding that "you take only what you need, and you leave the rest."[1]
Sources