The Ethno-Ecology of the Waswanipi Cree: Or How Hunters Can Manage Their Resources.

• Main Author: Feit, Harvey A.
• Other Authors: Anthropology
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: McClelland and Stewart 1973
• Subjects: Ethno-ecology; Local Resource Management; Aboriginal Rights; Subsistence Hunting Strtategies; Aboriginal Consent; Conservation by Hunters; James Bay Cree; Waswanipi Cree; Arctic; Cris; James Bay
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24143

This chapter is an initial statement of some of the main findings of my PhD thesis research based on an early thesis draft. The original French version of this article appeared in a special issue of Recherches amèrindiennes au Quèbec that was published in the fall of 1971 shortly after the announcement of the James Bay Hydro-electric Project in April of that year. It was a rare intervention by a scholarly journal in response to a need for a public debate on a planned development project, assembling articles by ethnographers, natural scientists, administrators, journalists and residents of the region, including reports of responses in Cree villages. My contribution was: “L'ethno-écologie des Cris Waswanipis, ou comment des chasseurs peuvent aménager leurs ressources,” Recherches amérindiennes au Québec 1 (4-5):84-93, available at http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23942 . This 1973 chapter is a revised English version. 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 ...