Traditional Knowledge

This chapter will attempt to explore the significance of wolf recovery in the western Great Lakes region to one group of people – those known to others as the Ojibwe or Chippewa, and to themselves as the Anishinabe. It is not written by an Ojibwe, but by an individual who has had the pleasure and privilege of working with and for the Ojibwe for over two decades. It does not purport to extend the concepts discussed to other Native American nations – even those others residing in the western Great Lakes region – though in some cases there will be similarities.

This article is about constitutionalism as an Indigenous tradition. The political idea of constitutionalism is the idea that the process of governing is itself governed by a set of foundational laws or rules. There is ample evidence that Indigenous nations in North America—and in Australia and New Zealand as well—were in this sense constitutionalists.

In the context of debates over the protection, management, and public hunting and trapping of wolves (ma’iinganag) in Minnesota and Wisconsin, this draft book chapter examines a prominent cultural discourse employed by representatives of Ojibwe communities and governments: that of the wolf as a relative whose fate the Ojibwe share. The chapter shows how contemporary communication practices—and concepts of relevant communication forms—are rooted in historically situated ways of conceiving relationships among humans, other persons, and the earth.

The interaction between religious beliefs and hunting practices among the Asiniskawidiniwak or Rock Crees of northern Manitoba is the focus of Robert Brightman's detailed study. 

Key words: Asiniskawidiniwak or Rock Cree, northern Manitoba, interactions between spiritual beliefs and hunting practices, human-animal relationships and differences.

The coexistence between pastoral communities and wolves has given origin to a rich ethnographic heritage, expressed in myths and legends, practices related to medical uses of wolf parts, and constructions for hunting wolves. This article assesses such cultural dimension through interviews with inhabitants, field prospecting and a literature review.

Key words: Iberian Peninsula, wolves, ethnography, oral tradition, rural architecture, traditional knowledge, wildlife management, human-wolf conflict.

Key words: traditional knowledge; Tłı̨chǫ; Bathurst caribou; hunting economy; Tłı̨chǫ culture, language and way of life; cumulative impacts; ecosystem; biological and cultural diversity

Key words: Boots on the Ground; caribou monitoring; Traditional Knowledge; Tłı̨chǫ; Bathurst caribou; “We Watch Everything”; holistic monitoring approach; field-based methodology; "Do as Hunters Do” 

Key words: Boots on the Ground; caribou monitoring program; Traditional Knowledge; Tłı̨chǫ; Inuit; Bathurst caribou; post-calving range; predators; industrial development; “We Watch Everything”; holistic monitoring approach

Key words: Boots on the Ground; caribou monitoring program; Traditional Knowledge; Tłı̨chǫ; Inuit; Bathurst caribou; post-calving range; predators; industrial development; climate change; “We Watch Everything”; holistic monitoring approach; field-based methodology; "Do as Hunters Do” 

Key words: Gitga’at people; stewardship; Guardians; traditional foods; harvest; abundance and quality of resources; health; monitoring; ecological change; Indigenous knowledge