The Ethno Ecology of the Waswanipi Cree: Or How Hunters Can Manage Their Resources
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It is a common assumption that game animal hunters exercise little control over the resources on which they depend or the environments in which they live, unlike agriculturalists and pastoralists. But many biological and ethnographic studies show that it is possible to anticipate the consequences of hunting or harvesting practices on some species of animal populations in a territory. It is therefore possible for hunters to control some of the critical parameters of the harvested animal populations on their hunting territories through their choice of hunting strategies and their decisions. Hunters can exercise some control over the distribution and reproduction of the animal populations which they harvest, and in this sense they manage their resources. This paper indicates how one group of sub-arctic hunters, the Waswanipi Cree, utilize the animal resources available to them on their hunting territories. The paper provides an initial statement of parts of a more detailed doctoral thesis study. It demonstrates that the Cree hunting leaders on their territories are managing their resources in accordance with culturally distinct ethno-ecological system of knowledge, some of which I formulate as hunting recipes and strategies. They use techniques such as rotational harvesting of lands, hunting mainly at highly efficient seasons, using alternative animals for subsistence when they want to limit harvests of the most efficiently hunted game, and monitoring visible indicators of the reproductive conditions of the most intensively hunted animals to decide whether and when to limit harvests of that animal (indicators that are often also recognized and used by wildlife biologists or managers). The evidence collected as well as government surveys of the game populations that were most intensively harvested indicate that population numbers varied moderately and were not in decline, a finding compatible with hunter conservation. In the Afterward I indicate that the Cree people of the region must effectively shape the decisions about regional development. Their agreement should be obtained before their lands are affected by industrial resource developments.
