Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Human Rights Law Blogs -> Never In Our Names

Human Rights Law

: Never In Our Names

Science and tradition - allies in the Salish Sea

By melvin

(from Truth & Progress)

The Coast Salish peoples' sacred inherent right is to restore, preserve, and protect our shared environment and natural resources in our ancestral homelands - the Salish Sea.

To that end, some of the Coast Salish participating in this year's intertribal canoe gathering of Northwest native peoples will be monitoring and recording water quality continuously, with the assistance of the US Geological Survey.

Details from the monthly USGS newsletter:

A canoe is an ideal platform for towing the water-quality probe: "If you go too fast," said Schuster, "the probes don't work." Motorboats, even at their slowest speed, move fast enough to cause air pockets to form around the water-quality probes (a process known as cavitation), which interferes with the probes' performance. The solution is to use new technology with old. Waterhouse and his paddling partners towed a 15-lb, torpedo-shaped water-quality probe off the stern of their canoe, measuring surface-water temperature, conductivity (salinity), nutrients, pH, and total dissolved solids.
~~~~~
"The Coast Salish have extensive traditional ecological knowledge of their environment and patterns of change across the Salish Sea," said Grossman, noting that the plan to collect water-quality data during the 2008 Tribal Journey "will provide a unique opportunity to use traditional ecological knowledge and western science to improve understanding of ongoing change to the region's ecologic and cultural resources and the processes that affect them."

The Salish and the USGS were sold on the idea after its utility was demonstrated in last year's Yukon River Healing Journey. While this year's data will provide a static impression, tribal scientists and others hope to repeat and expand the program in future years.

Some of the more distant participants in this year's gathering, Paddle to Quw'utsun, have already begun their journey. Quw'utsun (or Cowichan) lies north of Victoria on the east side of Vancouver Island.

Shortly after the official gathering of the canoes on July 28, Cowichan will also host the 2008 North American Indigenous Games.

_____________________________

It is a bit odd to see the USGS use the term Salish Sea (shown with its watershed, right) in its official publications. The designation is practical in that what is described is a distinct ecosystem, something not conveyed by listing its component parts: the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

There have been on-again off-again moves through the years to make the designation official, most recently by some in the BC government. A typical First Nations response is telling:

One native leader, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said it would represent only a symbolic gesture on the part of the province.

"I believe that there are much more pressing issues facing First Nations in terms of the deepening poverty in our communities," he said. "We need much more than symbolic gestures."

He said his people need fundamental legislative reform.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).