Indigenous Stewardship
Indigenous approaches to environmental care that emphasize long-term relationships, responsibility, and reciprocity with ecosystems.
What is Indigenous stewardship
A culturally and economically important fish species often central to tribal fisheries in the Pacific Northwest.
What is salmon
This process where Indigenous land is permanently occupied and the people are displaced.
What is settler colonialism
The inherent authority of Indigenous nations to govern themselves and their resources.
What is tribal sovereignty
Tribes in the Pacific Northwest advocate for this process to restore fish populations impacted by dams.
What is fish ladder construction
Indigenous stewardship often involves harvesting only what is needed and leaving enough resources for this group.
What is future generations
These nearshore ecosystems of underwater vegetation provide important habitat for many marine species.
What are kelp forests or eelgrass beds
Settler colonial policies often disrupted Indigenous access to these essential resources.
What are land and water, or usual and accustomed fishing and hunting grounds.
This legal framework in Washington reaffirmed tribal fishing rights and led to modern co-management systems.
What is the Boldt Decision
These structures, often built on rivers, can inundate or destroy traditional harvesting sites, such as shellfish beds or fishing locations.
What are reservoirs created by dams
Indigenous stewardship systems often rely on this method of knowledge transmission through stories, teachings, and lived experience.
What is oral tradition
This inland sea of the Pacific Northwest, bordered by Washington and British Columbia, is a key marine ecosystem managed by tribes and state agencies.
What is the Salish Sea
This attempted to eliminate Indigenous cultural practices and governance systems through force.
What is assimilation
The recognition of tribal sovereignty in resource management is often rooted in these legally binding documents between tribes and the U.S. government.
What are treaties
This river, historically blocked by multiple dams, is central to the fisheries and treaty rights of several Northwest tribes.
What is the Columbia River
Many Indigenous stewardship practices emphasize harvesting resources in this way so ecosystems remain healthy for future generations.
What is sustainable harvesting
These microscopic drifting organisms form the base of many marine food webs and support fish, whales, and other marine life.
What is plankton?
In the Pacific Northwest, conflicts over tribal fishing rights in the 1960s and 1970s came to be known by this term.
What are the Fish Wars
The 1974 Boldt Decision established that Washington State tribes were entitled to this proportion of harvestable fish under their treaty rights.
What is 50% of the harvestable catch
This historic cascade on the Columbia River was a major Indigenous fishing, trading, and cultural hub for thousands of years before it was submerged by the reservoir of The Dalles Dam in 1957, profoundly impacting tribal salmon harvest practices.
What is Celilo Falls
Rather than separating humans from nature, Indigenous stewardship views people as part of these interconnected environmental systems.
What are ecosystems
These traditional coastal management structures—rock walls built in the intertidal zone—were used by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest to enhance clam habitat and increase shellfish productivity.
What are clam gardens
The forced relocation of Indigenous peoples from traditional lands to designated areas was commonly carried out through these government-designated territories.
What are reservations
This landmark 1974 federal court ruling reaffirmed tribal treaty fishing rights in Washington State and established co-management of fisheries.
What is the United States v. Washington
Many Northwest tribes view these large marine mammals as central to cultural teachings, ceremonial practices, and the health of coastal ecosystems, guiding stewardship and sustainable use of marine resources.
What are whales