First Foods Management: A tribal approach to intergrated resouce management

Background/Question/Methods

Historically, western management approaches have often struggled to integrate applied, natural resource management disciplines. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has organized its management functions and responsibilities through a focus on traditionally gathered resources identified by the Tribal community as “First Foods.”  The ecological, physical, and temporal organization of First Foods manifested in the serving order is also observed in the active ecological and physical processes occurring on the landscapes on which the community depends. Traditional culture and contemporary science reinforce the First Foods paradigm.  We utilize First Foods to bring attention to ecological processes that may be devalued outside of Tribal culture and to prioritize efforts to re-naturalize those processes that produce and sustain First Foods.

Results/Conclusions

By applying the First Foods approach, we expect increased emphasis on restoration of physical and ecological processes that contribute to sustainable production of First Foods for the CTUIR community. Additionally, natural resource co-managers can better recognize processes important to native organisms and tribal culture within the co-manager's resource domain. First Foods management provides a direct and culturally appropriate means to monitor and report restoration effort and progress to the Tribal community; the diversity and regularity of First Foods available to serve in the community are a direct reflection of our success as managers. Application examples are provided in the form of the CTUIR DNR’s mission, River Vision, and floodplain restoration efforts.