New Plants, New Resources, New Knowledge: Early Introductions of Exotic Plants to Indigenous Territories in Northwestern North America

Plants have always been important for the Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America. Collectively, these peoples named and used hundreds of different native plant species, along with diverse animal species. When traders and settlers from Europe and other parts of the world arrived in the region, they brought many new species of plants with them. Some (e.g., turnips (Brassica rapa) and onions (Allium cepa)), were from Europe, and some (e.g., potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)) were from South America or elsewhere. Other plants, like dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, probably arrived unintentionally, as weeds. Examining the ways in which the Indigenous Peoples have incorporated these new species into their lexicons and lifestyles provides insight into processes of acquiring and embracing new products and expanding the cultural knowledge base for human societies in general.

“From the beginning of time”: The colonial reconfiguration of native habitats and Indigenous resource practices on the British Columbia Coast

Indigenous Peoples’ lives, cultures, and values are defined largely by their long-term relationships with the lands, waters, and lifeforms of their territories. Their stories, names, ceremonies, and connections with the plants and animals on which they have depended over countless generations are cornerstones of their knowledge systems, systems of governance and decision-making, traditions of intergenerational knowledge transmission, and values and responsibilities associated with natural and human domains alike. For First Nations of North America’s Northwest Coast, as for many other Indigenous Peoples, the arrival of European newcomers disrupted both the natural world and associated cultural practices in interconnected ways. The industrial exploitation of lands and resources had wide-ranging effects: traditional land and resource appropriation; impacts on culturally significant habitats by industrial-scale fishing, logging, and mining; and discrimination and marginalization contributing to resource alienation. This paper documents some experiences of Kwakwaka’wakw and other Coastal First Nations in coping with the cultural effects of environmental loss. It highlights their concern for the ecological integrity of lands and waters formerly under their stewardship but reshaped by non-Native extractive economies, and describes how these losses have affected the cultural, social, and physical health of Kwakwaka’wakw peoples up to the present time.

Using historical and palaeoecological data to inform ambitious species recovery targets

Historical data are a valuable resource for addressing present-day conservation issues, for example by informing the establishment of appropriate recovery targets. However, while the recovery of threatened species is the end goal of many conservation programmes, data made available through the efforts of palaeoecologists and historical ecologists are rarely consulted. The proposal of a 'Green List of Species' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will soon change this. The Green List of Species measures recovery against historical baselines; in particular, the method requires estimates of species range and abundance in previous centuries. In this paper, we present the case for why setting species recovery against a historical baseline is necessary to produce ambitious conservation targets, and we highlight examples from palaeoecology and historical ecology where fossil and archival data have been used to establish historical species baselines. Finally, we introduce Conservation Archive (https://conservationarchive.shinyapps.io/ConservationArchive/), a database of resources that can be used to infer baseline species conditions, and invite contributions to this database. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation?'

Possible similarities between the folk medicine historically used by First Nations and American Indians in North America and the ethnoveterinary knowledge currently used in British Columbia, Canada

AIMS OF THE STUDY

This paper compares sixty-four plants used as ethnoveterinary remedies in British Columbia with First Nations folk medicine.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In 2003, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 participants obtained using a purposive sample. The data was then compared with historical documents on First Nations plant use.

RESULTS

Exact parallels between First Nations/native American folk medicine and ethnoveterinary remedies used for farm animals and horses were Acer macrophyllum Pursh, Epilobium angustifolium L. and Lonicera involucrata (Richardson) Banks ex Spreng., used as stimulants and tonics for goats; Achlys tripylla DC. as a fly repellent in barns, Alnus rubra Bong., for rabbits' dental care, Berberis repens Lindl., Rumex crispus L., to treat sores and rashes on horses, Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex C. Lawson for stomach problems and Bovista pila Berk. and M. A. Curtis and Dolichousnea longissima (Ach.) Articus used on wounds.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed the parallel uses between sixty-four plants used as ethnoveterinary medicines in British Columbia and the folk medicines used by the First Nations peoples and by native American groups.

Wild leafy vegetable use and knowledge across multiple sites in Morocco: a case study for transmission of local knowledge?

BACKGROUND

There are few publications on the use and diversity of wild leafy vegetables (WLVs) in Morocco. In order to address this gap, we conducted ethnobotanical field work in Taounate, Azilal and El House regions.

METHODS

Ethnobotanical collections, free listing, qualitative interviews and a 7 day food frequency questionnaire.

RESULTS

More than 30 species in 23 genera of WLV were identified. Of these 4 had not previously recorded as WLVs used in Morocco in the literature. WLVs were used by 84% of households surveyed in Taounate (N = 61, in March 2005), and were used up to 4 times a week. Qualitative data revealed both positive and negative perceptions of WLVs and detailed knowledge about preparation among women. The greatest diversity of WLV knowledge and use was in the Rif Mountains (Taounate). There was significant variation in nomenclature and salience of WLVs, not only between regions, but also between villages in the same region. Within the same region (or even village) different local names were used for a given species or genus, and different species were identified by the same local name (including species from different botanical families). Data showed greater overlap in knowledge among villages using the same market.

CONCLUSION

We believe the results suggest that markets are important sites for WLV knowledge transmission.

Phylogeography of Camassia quamash in western North America: postglacial colonization and transport by indigenous peoples

Recent human activities have spread numerous plant species across the globe, yet it is unclear to what degree historical human activities influenced plant dispersal. In western North America, Camassia quamash was one of the most important food plants for indigenous peoples, who transported its propagules either intentionally or accidentally. We investigated how human and natural dispersal might have contributed to the current pattern of spatial genetic structure in C. quamash by performing phylogeographical surveys at two geographical scales. We sequenced two noncoding regions of chloroplast deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 226 individuals from 53 populations of C. quamash as well as 126 individuals from 21 populations of the non-food plant Zigadenus venenosus. Contrary to the expectation of anthropogenic transport, C. quamash populations did not exhibit weaker genetic structure than Z. venenosus populations. We also failed to find convincing evidence for signatures of transport. Instead, our data showed strong effects of past glaciation and geographical barriers of the mountains in the Cascade Range, Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island. West of the Cascades, the species appears to have largely migrated northward from a southern refugium after deglaciation, whereas few populations having a highly divergent haplotype might have survived in southwestern Washington. Our data suggest that despite substantial ethnobotanical evidence for anthropogenic transport, the current pattern of genetic structure of C. quamash does not show any detectable signatures of transport by indigenous peoples and is better understood as the result of natural dispersal processes.

Gitksan medicinal plants--cultural choice and efficacy

BACKGROUND

The use of plants for healing by any cultural group is integrally related to local concepts of the nature of disease, the nature of plants, and the world view of the culture. The physical and chemical properties of the plants themselves also bear on their selection by people for medicines, as does the array of plants available for people to choose from. I examine use of medicinal plants from a "biobehavioral" perspective to illuminate cultural selection of plants used for medicine by the Gitksan of northwestern British Columbia, Canada.

METHODS

Consultant consensus, "intercultural consensus", independent use of the same plants by other cultural groups, and phytochemistry and bioassay results from the literature, were employed in analysis of probable empirical efficacy of plant uses.

RESULTS

70% of 37 Gitksan medicinal plants were used similarly by other cultures where direct diffusion is not known to have occurred; eleven plants, including the eight most frequently mentioned medicinal plants, also show active phytochemicals or bioassays indicating probable physiologically based therapeutic effects.

CONCLUSION

Analysis of intercultural consensus revealed that the majority of cultures in the British Columbia region within the plant ranges use the same plants, or closely related species, in similar ways. The rigor of this analysis is effected by the lack of consistent data on all taxa of interest for all cultures within the region.