Indigenous knowledge, also known as Indigenous ways of knowing or Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), is a philosophy and worldview that reflects the language and lifeways of Indigenous peoples. Here in the Ceded Territories of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, this knowledge is known as Anishinaabe Ways of Knowing or, as Red Cliff elder Marvin Defoe says, “Anishinology.” Anishinaabe Ways of Knowing encompass the precise knowledge and understandings of landscape ecology, movement and behavior of fish and wildlife, medicinal plant knowledge, seasonal change, and harvest traditions. This knowledge base has sustained Anishinaabe people for millennia in the Great Lakes region and contributed to their identity as a distinct culture.
GLIFWC works to integrate the language, culture, and philosophy of Anishinaabe people into contemporary science and policy so that the management of fish, wildlife, and natural resources is culturally relevant and sustainable. GLIFWC honors and protects our non-human relatives in accordance with Anishinaabe values, while at the same time, honoring and protecting treaty rights and tribal sovereignty within the Ceded Territories of 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854.
GLIFWC has been transcribing and summarizing interviews and comparing observations with the western science-based results of the vulnerability assessment. The interviews are also providing GLIFWC with insights and observations not captured through the standard techniques of scientific ecological knowledge gathering. Increasing and decreasing trends in particular beings/species populations are becoming more apparent as additional interviews occur. From the interviews so far, the most commonly mentioned species are white tailed deer, paper birch, northern white cedar, wild rice, and various berries, with interviewees noting paper birch as having the biggest decrease.
Anishinaabe Insights: A closer look at TEK - Indigenous knowledge finds its way into science & policy
By Michael Waasegiizhig Price, GLIFWC TEK Specialist
Originally published in Mazina’igan, Winter 2022-2023
In November 2021, the President of the United States issued an Executive Memorandum ordering all federal agencies to integrate Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) into federal decision-making. This memorandum is meant to strengthen relations between federally recognized tribal nations and the federal government, as well as tap into the rich wisdom that Indigenous people possess about the landscape. But what does this really mean? The term, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), has been around since the mid-1990s. It refers to Indigenous knowledge and wisdom that have existed for thousands of years among Indigenous communities. A good definition: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is a body of localized ancestral knowledge and wisdom about the landscape, passed down through the generations in the form of stories, songs, placenames, and traditions, that have sustained a people for millennia and contributed to their identity as Indigenous people. Knowledge of trees, animals, waterways, and seasons contribute to the ability of a people to subsist and thrive in a particular landscape. But, just as there are diverse landscapes, so are the diverse knowledges of Indigenous peoples. Anishinaabe people are experts on wild rice beds in Minnesota; Lakota people are experts on buffalo rangeland in the Dakotas; the Inuit people are experts on arctic tundra and pack ice. Federal decision-making taps TEK.
Parent is a Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe tribal member where he grew up practicing his treaty rights, including Manoominike. He has an associates degrees in journalism and 3D digital animation from Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, MI. Parent also studied agriculture and natural resources at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University. He works in the position of Manoomin Wiidookaage, where he helps to mend the relationship between humans and Manoomin.
Parent's work experience is diverse, he has worked as an intern at LCO Conservation alongside the US Forest Service and WDNR as a youth crew leader in 2014. He has work experience as a project coordinator. Parent worked as a teacher’s assistant at Washtenaw Community College, where he was also a contributor to the student newspaper—The Washtenaw Voice. Most recently he worked with traditional indigenous ingredients at Owamni by the Sioux Chef in Minneapolis, and as a game developer on the Ojibwemowin language immersion video game project, Reclaim!, with the nonprofit, Grassroot Indigenous Multimedia.
TEK Outreach Specialist serves as a member of the Climate Change Team under the
Division of Intergovernmental Affairs