To the Tseshaht, these islands are not a wilderness but a homeland
February 28, 2020 10:50 AM   Subscribe

Across the Americas, scientists robbed graves, pillaged cultural items, and at times trafficked in baseless theories about the inferiority of Indigenous people. [...] This history made archaeologists unlikely allies in the fight to reclaim First Nations lands in British Columbia. But the Tseshaht Archaeology Project had a track record: Its leaders, Denis St. Claire and Alan McMillan, both white, had been working in the region for decades, talking to elders and asking for the approval of Nuu-Chah-Nulth leaders. Their work came at a time of tidal change in the field, when a growing number of researchers began working collaboratively with First Nations, rather than exploiting their history and territory. St. Claire was even adopted into the Tseshaht, and given the rare opportunity to speak on behalf of the tribe. “They’ve always been so respectful,” Watts says of the men. They wanted to do archaeology in service of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth. A First Nation, a Fight for Ancestral Lands, And an Unlikely Alliance -- The Tseshaht people are working with archaeologists to write a new chapter in a fraught history. (Atlas Obscura)
In Canada, a national park with “reserve” status, like Pacific Rim, connotes ongoing negotiations between the federal government and Indigenous groups over the status of the land. Though First Nations retain some rights to hunt and harvest resources in what would otherwise be protected territory, management is a contested issue. In the case of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the Tseshaht and eight other groups, all from the 14-member Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council, have traditional territory inside the park.

In 2000, many felt that these limited rights were no substitute for the autonomy that First Nations peoples once enjoyed. The three-year archaeology project on C̓išaa aimed to right some of those wrongs. With support from anthropologists and the Parks Department, the Tseshaht set out to prove just how deeply entwined they were with the islands—and why they deserved to manage the islands’ future.
[....]
Karen Haugen, a member of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation and current superintendent of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, began working for the park in 2003, shortly after the Tseshaht Archaeology Project was completed. The park had already moved toward more cooperative management, Haugen says; in 2009, it closed Benson Island to overnight campers. During her tenure, parks staff began meeting quarterly with all the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council nations, including her own. The hope was that by making time to talk, they could address problems early. “We are tight on time, but our First Nations partners are just as tight,” Haugen says.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and the Tseshaht have now been holding cooperative management meetings for seven years. Considering that the Nuu-chah-nulth nations had absolutely no say in what happened to their traditional lands in the park up to 1990, this may seem to be enormous progress, and at least a partial success of the 1999-2001 Tseshaht Archaeology Project. The park now includes a Nuu-Chah-Nulth trail and other opportunities for learning about the First Nations whose territory falls within the park.

Watts agrees that the relationship between the nations and the park has deepened and become more fruitful. “I’m pretty proud of some of the things we’ve done with Parks,” he says. But there is plenty of work left, from small issues like financial support for year-round monitoring of the islands, to the large issue of reconciliation with the federal government. On this point, Watts has strong opinions: “You want to talk about reconciliation, how about you give us our land back?”
posted by filthy light thief (2 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
There are some videos of the project linked at this page. The leadership of the project from the archaeology side has passed along to Iain McKechnie, he is a good follow on Twitter @iainmckechnie and @hecalab. There's more detail on the geoduck finds here. I'm peripherally involved in the archaeology side if anyone has any questions about that.
posted by Rumple at 2:02 PM on February 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Thanks for these links. I'm always interested in seeing models of good practice for white people working with Indigenous communities. One thing that always interests me especially is how authorship acknowledgement is practised. In linguistics we are starting to do better (although by no means universally!) about acknowledging the labour and scholarship of our collaborators through co-authorship status even if they didn't do the physical writing of the book (i.e. not privileging writing over other forms of communication that the writing is often parasitic on).

I thought the book linked here (which is open access! yay!) is interesting in the unusual way it handled this. Only St. Claire and McMillan are listed as authors on the front of the book, but some of their collaborators are given authorship status of the appendices, and the authorship listed on the website includes them. I suspect that does mean they won't necessarily be included as co-authors in reference lists, citations, and library catalogues, though, unfortunately. I wonder what factors went into deciding to do it this way, and I wonder what practices around this issue are like elsewhere in archaeology. I suspect St. Claire's status as having the right to speak on the behalf of Tseshaht people plays a role, for example.
posted by lollusc at 7:31 PM on February 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


« Older You’re only as healthy as the least-insured person...   |   You can't be Ceres-ous Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments