OTTER SKINS, CLEARCUTS, AND ECOTOURISTS: RE-RESOURCING

Joel Martineau Department of English University of (Canada)

Abstract: This essay traces a history of re- colonizing discourses that have positioned source extraction on Haida Gwaii, the archipel- Haida Gwaii as a source of primary re- ago that is sometimes called the Queen Charlotte sources that could be extracted and trans- Islands and is situated off of British Columbia’s ported to centers where they would be proc- northwest coast. I argue that, beginning with essed. Various manifestations of these the in the 1780s, visitors have discourses of resource extraction have domi- viewed the archipelago as a source of raw mate- nated social and economic relations on rials that could be advantageously extracted and Haida Gwaii (and much of the Northwest processed in various colonial and neocolonial Coast) ever since. However, during the last centers. I then argue that, since the 1970s, the quarter of the twentieth century, the dis- discourse of ecotourism has contributed to an course of ecotourism has offered Haida and alternative way of viewing the islands. It has non-Haida residents of the islands a means provided the Haida nation with a means to ques- to challenge long-standing colonial and neo- tion the rhetoric of progress through resource colonial discourses. I believe that the dis- extraction and to regain control of some of their course of ecotourism is helping local resi- lands. dents, especially Haida, regain control of

their lands. Keywords : Haida, Haida Gwaii, natural resources, resource extraction, ecotourism, land claims, cultural resources A History of Resource Extraction

on Haida Gwaii

Introduction ’s third expedition (1776-1780)

set out from England with instructions to Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of one hun- sail north through the Pacific, locate the dred fifty islands, lies between the parallels Northwest Passage that led into the polar of 54º 50’ and 51º 50’ North, thirty to ninety sea, and then sail eastward through that sea miles off the northwestern coast of and out into the Atlantic. The objectives mainland British Columbia. The tip of the were exploratory and scientific. However, Alaska panhandle reaches to within thirty- while careening the ships at King George’s five miles of the archipelago, while Vancou- Sound (later named ) in ver Island is one hundred fifty miles south- March and April 1778, officers and crew east and Vancouver is four hundred miles traded for many sea otter skins. Following southeast. There are two large islands in the unsuccessful searches for a Northwest Pas- archipelago: Graham Island to the north, sage in the summers of 1778 and 1779 that and Moresby Island to the south. Spanish bracketed Cook’s untimely death in Febru- sailors on board the frigate Santiago re- ary 1779, the expedition turned homeward corded the first visit to the islands by Euro- with stops at Petropavlovsk and Macao. Americans in 1774 (Beals, 1989; W. Cook, There the pelts acquired at Nootka, and 1973). Soon thereafter, the maritime fur some additional skins acquired in Sandwich trade brought the first in a series of Sound (later named Prince William Sound), 238 Martineau fetched such high prices that the crew on the North West Coast of America” (1789, threatened mutiny, hoping to force an im- p. ix). The financiers assumed that their mediate return to the Northwest Coast for captain-traders would implement trade rela- more furs. However, the officers prevailed tions modeled on British understandings of and the ships returned to England, arriving law, property, and commerce. Specifically, in October 1780. to “secure the trade of the continent and the islands,” Portlock and Dixon were “to estab- When reports of Cook’s voyage began circu- lish such factories” as they deemed neces- lating in Europe, they ignited the maritime sary, purchasing from the natives such fur trade to the Northwest Coast (Cook and tracts of land as the captains thought best King, 1784; Scofield, 1993). Given the high suited for the purpose of trading while pay- demand for sea otter furs in Canton, traders ing the natives “in the most friendly and from England and New England hoped to liberal manner for the same” (Howay, 1929: parlay this “soft gold” from the first leg of 61-62). According to this line of thinking, their voyages into silks, teas, spices and por- the natives were the same as Europeans celain in China and finally return to their (owning and trading tracts of land and wel- home ports bearing Oriental treasures (Gib- coming commercial expansion) yet different son 1992). By the 1790s, British and Ameri- from Europeans (unable to determine and can fur traders had identified Haida Gwaii, obtain the value of their lands). The consor- which they respectively named Queen Char- tium’s instructions to Portlock and Dixon lotte’s Isles and Washington’s Isles, as a were consistent with imperial perspectives, prime source of sea otter skins. Information but at odds with the situations the com- about Cook’s voyage and the possibilities manders encountered en route to and upon for a lucrative fur trade on the Northwest arrival on the distant coast (for example, Coast spread rapidly, with accounts marvel- concern about scurvy, challenges in acquir- ing at the ease with which furs had been ing provisions, fear of native attacks). obtained on the Northwest Coast and the desire they had elicited in Asian markets. Portlock and Dixon acquired few furs in James King, who had assumed command of 1786, their first season on the Northwest the expedition during its final stages, out- Coast. After wintering at the Sandwich Is- lined a comprehensive plan for commerce. lands (later named the ), His proposal detailed the types of ships that they experienced further disappointments at should be used, the various trade commodi- Prince William Sound in May 1787. Dixon ties they should carry, the seasons during struck out in a southerly direction and ar- which they should sail, the arrangements rived at Haida Gwaii on July 2, where, he that should be made with the East India writes, “A scene now commenced, which Company, and ways to procure victuals for absolutely beggars all description.” Haida the voyage (Cook and King, 1784, III: 437- paddled out to the Queen Charlotte in canoes 40). The British expedition that would bring bringing “most beautiful beaver [otter] Haida Gwaii into this web of exploration, cloaks,” and “fairly quarrelled with each capital and trade responded to King’s pro- other about which should sell his cloak first; posal. A consortium of financiers hired and some actually threw their furs on board, George Dixon and , offi- if nobody was at hand to receive them.” cers on Cook’s third voyage, to command The Haida yielded their furs so avidly that the expedition, which departed England in the British had to “take particular care to let September 1785 and returned in September none go from the vessel unpaid” (1789: 201). 1788. Dixon pinpoints the motives of the These events so impressed Dixon that two expedition in the introduction to his account days later he “distinguished” the bay with of the voyage: Cook’s final voyage had “laid the name “Cloak Bay” and then similarly open to future Navigators . . . a new and honored the islands with the name of his inexhaustible mine of wealth” available “by vessel. The questions Dixon and other mer- trading for furs of the most valuable kind, chant explorers raised in their imaginings Martineau 239 and representations of Haida Gwaii were with transforming the social environment primarily those of capital — opportunity, that he encountered. He saw the Haida as risk, return — rather than those of theology, heathens who needed to be saved, yet his philosophy, or science. Dixon’s account, goal exceeded converting subjects through published in 1789, furthered the premise baptism: he sought to implements British advanced in King’s 1784 account: Euro- forms of law and order, British dress codes, Americans should approach the Northwest and European rules of economic regulation. Coast as a resource-based economy that His project was to transform the Haida into could be best understood in terms of re- ideal imperial subjects (Collison, 1981). source extraction. The resources would be brought from the frontier to various eco- Such colonizing schemes accelerated as Brit- nomic, political, and cultural centers where ish Columbia was drawn into the new Ca- their value could be realized. In short, King nadian confederation. Geologist George M. and Dixon appropriated the area into an Dawson was one of the first representatives imperial discourse, aspects of which endure of the federal government to visit Haida to this day. Gwaii. In 1878, the Geological Survey of Canada assigned Dawson to explore the By the end of the 1790s, traders from New archipelago and to assess its potential for England came to dominate the sea otter resource exploitation. His report trade on the Northwest Coast (Gibson, 1992; cartographically erased Haida presence and Busch and Gough, 1997). The American reterritorialized the islands into a national traders redirected capital that the War of (and by extension, international) geological Independence had displaced from its pre- scheme (Dawson 1993; Braun 2000). In es- Revolution applications. Their efforts to sence, his survey cataloged the islands as a develop trade were crucial to the economy fount of resources waiting to be incorpo- of the newfound nation, which was sud- rated into the new nation and its progres- denly isolated from England, the main sive economy. In addition to his profes- source of its pre-Independence exchanges. sional duties, Dawson used his visit to the Alas, the sea otter population on the North- islands to pursue his avocations of ethnol- west Coast could not withstand the pres- ogy and photography. Following the 1878 sures brought to bear by the maritime fur excursion, he published a lengthy article trade. As the number of otters decreased about Haida culture and history, entitled and trade dwindled, foreign interest in “On the Haida Indians of the Queen Char- Haida Gwaii abated, to be revived only lotte Islands,” in the Geological Society’s sporadically by prospects for base metals Report of Progress for 1878-79 and an ex- (Poole 1972) and a short-lived gold rush in cerpted version in Harper’s Magazine in 1882. 1851. The reports of gold on Haida Gwaii Dawson assumes that the most advanta- led the British government to fear excessive geous use of resources is commercial, and American presence in the area. In a pre- recognizes that Haida participation in the emptive strike, Governor James Douglas new resource-extractive economy has been annexed the Queen Charlotte Islands to the and will be limited. He believes that Haida colony of Vancouver Island in September should take up agriculture, a means of pro- 1852. When the amount of gold proved in- curing food that is consistent with English consequential, interest in the archipelago ideals, but “the task of clearing the ground again dwindled and remained quiescent is quite beyond the energy of the Indian” until the 1870s, when the first missionaries (1993: 107). In Dawson’s view, the Haida arrived on the islands. The intentions of are vanishing while the land is not. He as- Reverend William Collison, who arrived in sumes that the Natives will disappear and 1876, differed from those of previous visi- thus free up the resources of the land, the tors in that the resources Collison sought resources (such as coal deposits) that he were human rather than natural; unlike his hires Haida guides to reveal. He sees abo- predecessors, he was overtly concerned riginal people not as full citizens, but as 240 Martineau vanishing natives who hinder the extraction in the case of these people, will be a matter of important resources. of considerable difficulty, for . . . they hold their lands not in any loose general way, but An attitude common to most modern visi- have the whole of the islands divided and tors to the northwest coast is evident in apportioned off as the property of certain Dawson’s ethnography. It pivots on the families, with customs fully developed as to belief, however vaguely articulated, that the inheritance and transfer of lands” (1993: modernization will first degenerate then 166). Dawson’s vision is specific: to dispos- ultimately annihilate the aboriginal popula- sess Haida of their lands and to establish a tion. This line of thinking reasons that resource-extractive economy in which modernization is so antithetical to aborigi- Haida are trained as dutiful workers. He nal ways that it will erase them. Dawson believes that the new and proper culture recognizes that the imposition of the culture will overwrite Haida culture and absorb the that he is importing is responsible for the most fortunate individuals. degeneration of aboriginal cultures. How- ever, he fails to question whether the invad- The depopulation of native villages that ing culture has the right to extinguish (as he Dawson witnessed on Haida Gwaii (and in assumed it would) previous cultures. He other nations on the coast) in 1878 was ar- realizes that the modern and aboriginal cul- guably the deepest reflection of the shock tures are founded on different ways of that aboriginal cultures experienced from viewing the world, but assumes the superi- contact with Europeans; it contributed to the ority of his culture’s cosmology. “The forest invaders’ conviction that natives would dis- of carved posts in front of the village,” he appear. In his thorough review of the his- writes at one point, “doubtless presents to torical literature, Robert Boyd notes that, the native eye a grand and awe-inspiring beginning with Dixon’s visit, smallpox and appearance and brings to the mind a sense venereal diseases ravaged Haida popula- of probably mysterious import, which pos- tions. He estimates the Haida population sibly does not in reality exist” (1993: 110). In prior to 1836 as more than nine thousand; other words, the aboriginal thought world is following the 1836 smallpox epidemic as already a thing of the past, while the less probably one-third less; and by 1882 as mysterious, more rational way of knowing about one thousand six hundred. The num- the world that has replaced it is the present ber of major inhabited villages declined and the future reality. The rational way is from approximately thirteen in the mid- properly progressive. nineteenth century, to eight in 1883, and to three in 1890. By the turn of the century, In the final paragraph of “On the Haida In- only the modern settlements of Skidegate dians,” Dawson summarizes his 1878 visit and Masset remained (1999: 217). Historical and the social restructuring he sought to geographer Cole Harris estimates that the initiate. He concludes that despite “the number of Haida reached a nadir of some alarmingly rapid decrease of the Haida peo- eight hundred (1999: 146), while Haida art- ple” during the nineteenth century, they are ist Robert Davidson cites a figure of five unlikely to disappear as a nation. Their te- hundred (Kittredge 1987: 146). Depending nacity can be turned to the advantage of the upon which numbers one uses, the depopu- new powers, as Haida “show a special apti- lation during the nineteenth century was tude in construction, carving, and other approximately ninety to ninety-seven per forms of handiwork.” Therefore, “those cent. The replacement of Haida economies interested in their welfare” should “promote with voracious colonial economies that co- their education in the simpler mechanical incided with this cataclysmic depopulation arts, by the practice of which they may be was most flagrantly manifested in the twen- able to earn an honest livelihood” (1993: tieth century by the clearcutting of Haida 165). First, however, Haida title to the is- Gwaii’s forests. lands’ resources “must be disposed of. This, Martineau 241

Slowing the Onslaught leading to extensive soil erosion and slides; its methods have destroyed spawning rivers An article entitled “Queen Charlotte Wil- and coastal marine areas; and the Forest derness: Unique and Threatened” and au- Service has, “in direct contravention” of its thored “by the Islands Protection Commit- own guidelines, “quickly approved” tee” appeared in the February 1976 edition Rayonier’s logging plans for the southern of Nature Canada, the magazine published areas. Three color photographs are ar- by the Canadian Nature Federation. A note ranged on one page to mark the contrast at the bottom of the first page explains: “Is- between further exploitation and preserva- lands Protection Committee is an associa- tion. A low camera angle shows a tangle of tion of residents of the Queen Charlotte Is- roots and stumps in a washed-out stream- lands dedicated to preserving the unique bed, with a clearcut receding up the slopes. quality of life on the Islands. They oppose The caption beneath the large image reads, plans by the forest industry to log the “A cut over area on the northern part of Mo- southern part of Moresby Island. You can resby Island.” Arranged beside the scene of support the Committee by writing to Islands wreckage are two smaller photos. One Protection, P.O. Box 302, Masset, B.C.” zooms in on a nesting raptor and is cap- (1976: 39). The article describes the south- tioned, “Peale’s falcon, a distinct race of the ern third of the archipelago as “the living peregrine falcon, is limited to the Char- fabric of a Pacific wilderness,” unique and lottes.” The other sweeps a panorama of special. The islands are home to peregrine coastline and is accompanied by the infor- falcons, sea otters, trumpeter swans, whales, mation that “One of the greatest single re- eagles and other endangered species; they sources in the Charlottes is the rich life of host endemic plant species and contain the coastal marine areas” (1976: 40). world’s largest red cedar, yellow cypress and sitka spruce trees; and they are rich in The article then explains that in “the au- Haida history and legend. However, the tumn of 1974 a group of Queen Charlotte article warns that the traditional harmony residents formed the Islands Protection that existed during some 8,000 years of abo- Committee to voice concerns over riginal inhabitation has been disrupted by Rayonier’s scheduled logging of the South the ethic of the colonists to such an extent Moresby area.” It describes how the Skide- that, for instance, a whaling station helped gate Band Council expressed similar con- “to convert the world’s largest and least un- cerns and how Islands Protection supported derstood mammal into lamp oil, corsets and the Haida, then “went a step further” by shoe polish.” The article appears “at a criti- outlining a “wilderness proposal” for cal moment” in the archipelago’s history, southern Moresby. Islands Protection sub- when “the balance may be cast either way mitted what was essentially a resource — towards preservation or towards in- management plan to the Premier of BC, to creased exploitation.” The area “now faces the Minister of Lands, Forests and Water a threat of unprecedented magnitude,” as Resources, and to the Minister of Recreation Rayonier Canada, “a subsidiary of the and Conservation. “Reaction on the Char- world’s largest multinational corporation, lottes, where logging is the principal indus- I.T.T.,” plans to clearcut many of the “virgin try, was surprisingly favorable” (1976: 42). forests” (1976: 41). Having outlined its con- The submission resulted in a moratorium on cerns, the Committee provides details sup- logging in the area. However, the text con- ported by striking photographs. We read cludes with a warning that Rayonier could that the subsidiary of the multinational cor- quickly move its operations into the con- poration has already clearcut extensive ar- tested area: “Reportedly the Environment eas further north on the archipelago, with and Land Use Commission will take a look devastating results. It has logged slopes at the area in the summer of 1976, but with steeper than forestry regulations permit, the new change of government in B.C. — who knows” (1976: 43). 242 Martineau

The campaign to preserve South Moresby time another tree fell, the dream and the from the exploitative fate that has befallen conviction to achieve it only grew more northerly portions of Haida Gwaii stronger.” (Broadhead 1989: 53) lasted from the fall of 1974 to July 1987. Broadhead argues that significant social “Queen Charlotte Wilderness: Unique and change can occur only with a broadly Threatened” is but one article (albeit the shared experiential base: “In the case of a first major article on this topic to appear in a wilderness proposal, a sufficient number of national periodical) in a long and complex people must know the place and share a gut conflict. Yet, it introduces the key organiza- feeling for the values at stake, before the tion of preservationists; it recognizes the ‘critical mass’ of opinion capable of precipi- primacy of Haida responsibility in the dis- tating political change can be attained.” pute and defers to Haida initiatives; it de- Islands Protection therefore enacted “a sim- lineates two thirds of the exploitation axis as ple, two-pronged strategy: start talking and the forces threatening the environment (the start bringing people to the place” (1989: forest companies and the government forest 54). bureaucracy insist on business as usual, while workers are generally willing to re- Island Protection’s determination to “start consider forestry practices); and it intro- talking and start bringing people to the duces several of the tactics that the preser- place” as a means to rupture the usual ways vationists will use during the conflict. of doing business in the islands’ forests in- volved three tactics.1 The first focused on For the Islands Protection Committee, the the rhetoric of science. When industry re- battle lines were drawn between, on one sponded to criticism of its practices by sug- side, the corporations and provincial gov- gesting that matters were best left to its pro- ernment obliged by its own legislation to fessionals with their scientific expertise and allow rapid, large-scale clearcut logging that little would be gained by consulting the and, on the other side, the preservationists poorly informed public, Islands Protection who advocated the wisdom of keeping identified scientific analysis as an important coastal temperate rainforests intact. The weapon (Pinkerton, 1983: 76). The Commit- issue was the same at the outset as it would tee lobbied various agencies to conduct field be thirteen years later. As IPC spokesperson studies in South Moresby and funded scien- John Broadhead wrote, would the industri- tists to research such topics as eagle-nesting alists process the area’s unique ecological densities, intertidal communities and the features into two-by-fours or would the wil- effects of logging on salmon habitat (Broad- derness campaigners’ dream of “a better head, 1984: 130-33; 1989: 54). As it collected world, of respectful relations and mutual information, Islands Protection gained suffi- benefits among two-leggeds, four-leggeds, cient material to argue for the preservation no-leggeds, beaks, no beaks — the works,” of South Moresby on scientific merit alone. prevail? Islands Protection sought to As Bristol Foster had written years before, change the number who shared that dream. Haida Gwaii hosted so many endemic spe- Broadhead writes, cies that it should be recognized as the “Ca- “Such a dream had a remarkable effect nadian Galápagos” (May 1990: 30). Thus, as upon those who became its advocates. early 1976, in the Nature Canada article, Is- The Haida, having lived in the place for lands Protection was arguing that the 10,000 years, had been the first to uniqueness of South Moresby as an intact awaken to it. It was conveyed to a ecosystem was of greater value than the handful, and then to hundreds, then to timber that could be extracted. The preser- thousands of visitors who came to see vationists also gained expertise in the dis- for themselves, only to fall under its course of forestry management itself. spell. It inspired the unshakable convic- Through their preparation of court affida- tion that it was only a matter of time vits and their participation in the Public before the logging would end. Every Advisory Committee, Island Protection Martineau 243 members gained knowledge of cutting rates, to “do a show on South Moresby,” Suzuki logging waste, soil erosion and related mat- visited Haida Gwaii. As Elizabeth May re- ters. By 1980, the Islands Protection Society, counts, Suzuki “had no intention of getting aided by a growing network of sympathiz- involved in the campaign to save South Mo- ers, was able to counter the claims of the resby. He had never been a champion of forest industry with an elaborate critique of Indian rights and he was leery of environ- forestry practices and policies phrased in mental activists who seemed constantly to the industry’s own language (Pinkerton, demand his help” (1990: 62). However, 1983: 79-80; Wilson, 1998: 190).2 back in Toronto, reviewing footage of inter- views conducted during his visit, he real- The second tactic involved the use of im- ized that his thinking had been profoundly ages. Photographers contributed thousands changed. He had asked IPC founder Guu- of “photographs of wildlife and ancient eco- jaaw why the Haida cared about the area. systems,” as well as “devastating shots of Guujaaw responded, “Our people have de- landslides and debris-choked salmon termined that Windy Bay and other areas streams,” which Island Protection members must be left in their natural condition so “then winnowed down into ever-improving that we can keep our identity and pass it on slide shows for public presentation.” The to following generations. The forests, those slide shows and their accompanying narra- oceans are what keep us as tives were then “taken on the road at every today.” opportunity, presented to small-town natu- “So if they’re logged off?” ralists’ groups; to politicians, singly and in “If they’re logged off, we’ll proba- groups, from the municipal to the federal bly end up the same as everyone level; to assemblies of thousands in confer- else.” (May 1990: 63) ence halls; and to impromptu audiences in railway cars” (Broadhead 1989: 54). To dis- In other words, wilderness is more than an seminate the images and narrative further, environmental matter, it is identity — a Islands Protection Society produced Islands message that would resonate with many at the Edge — Preserving the Queen Charlotte Canadians when Suzuki devoted three The Islands Wilderness, an abundantly illustrated Nature of Things shows to the wilderness collection of seven essays written from abo- proposal. By bringing the “war of the riginal, ecological and environmentalist per- woods” to television, these interventions in spectives. Released in time for Christmas the conflict extended the debate to a na- 1984, the book became a national bestseller, tional audience and brought the discussion resulting in nation-wide publicity for the to a more popular level than had representa- wilderness proposal. tions in newspapers and courts. The con- cern that initially had been mobilized locally The third tactic involved bringing people to through petitions, letters to the editor and South Moresby to experience the area di- affidavits, was thus disseminated through rectly. Islands Protection sought writers, the electronic media. A movement that had photographers, artists, scientists, industrial- started at the grass roots level as a wilder- ists and politicians who, it was hoped, ness proposal to prevent the plundering of would network the message, exponentially resources in the southern portion of Haida spreading it to a national and then interna- Gwaii was asking Canadians to reconsider tional audience (Broadhead, 1989: 55). The the role wilderness plays in contemporary case of David Suzuki, host of the widely constructions of national identity. watched television show The Nature of Things, affords an example of how bril- The tactic of inviting visitors who would liantly this tactic would succeed. In 1982, experience the natural wonders of the area when Islands Protection supporter Jim Ful- and then share their enthusiasm reached a ton, who was Member of Parliament for zenith early in 1987, with word of a forth- Skeena (and Haida Gwaii), implored Suzuki coming article in National Geographic. Moira 244 Martineau

Johnston’s “Canada’s Queen Charlotte Is- vincial and Haida) negotiated a resolution lands: Homeland of the Haida,” appeared in to the South Moresby conflict. Yet the tacti- the July 1987 issue. It features the dramatic cal leverage the article afforded the preser- tropes and lambent photography for which vationists preceded its publication. The National Geographic has become renowned specter of what would surely be yet another (see Lutz and Collins 1993). Johnston begins exposé of government-industry collusion by sharing the awe with which she views and insensitivity to the increasingly linked the islands. They “are among the globe’s concerns of environmentalism and cultural rare jewels,” a wilderness “abounding in preservation hastened politicians to re- treasures.” Their “brooding rain forests” spond. May reveals that as the federal gov- contain “some of the finest surviving stands ernment became eager to resolve the conflict of ancient cedar, spruce, and hemlock,” by creating a park, Islands Protection while their millennia of isolation have re- spokespeople could mention the impending sulted in “an evolutionary crucible that article and inform McMillan that National forged dozens of unique endemic (sic) varie- Geographic “has a direct circulation of four- ties of both plants and animals” (1987: 104). teen million people. Any story on a possible Whatever the natural wonders of the archi- tourism destination results in an average of pelago, these islands are, above all, “Haida a hundred thousand immediate inquiries. Gwaii, ‘homeland’ of the Haida, the sea- Tourism for the park is an increasingly at- roving lords of the coast” and creators of a tractive proposition” (1990: 200). The notion culture that became “the apogee of the of a park gained an economic aura. Politi- Northwest Coast; unequivocally the most cians could take up the cause of saving the advanced of any hunter-gatherer’s.” After environment and a threatened culture even documenting the threat that resource extrac- as they committed to economic progress. tion has brought to the islands and to Haida Federal negotiators also introduced green culture, Johnston outlines a logging contrac- tourism as a vaguely defined but persuasive tor’s concerns that jobs will be lost if South concept at a crucial point late in their nego- Moresby is protected. She then quotes the tiations with British Columbia premier Bill response of Miles Richardson, president of Van der Zalm (May 1990: 221). The novelty the Council of the Haida Nation: “We’re not of the concept allowed federal negotiators to talking about 70 jobs. . . . We’re talking appeal to Van der Zalm’s grandiose dreams about forever. The issue is not logging ver- without having to provide hard data. sus ‘eco-nuts.’ It’s our ability to sustain our culture. And that lies in our relationship — As the political changes initiated on Haida as a people with a 10,000-year history — to Gwaii brought negotiations to save South the land and the sea and their resources” Moresby to a climax, the Bruntland Com- (1987: 126). Immediately after juxtaposing mission advocated sustainable development the different temporal horizons of those in- strategies in its report, Our Common Future, digenous to the islands and those who published in April 1987. The report defines merely seek its resources, Johnston presents sustainability as “development that meets the current hope for alternatives: “Jobs the needs of the present without compro- would be more than compensated by estab- mising the ability of future generations to lishment of a national park and increased meet their own needs” (Bandy, 1996: 543). tourism,” said [Minister of the Environ- Economic development ministries and tour- ment] Tom McMillan, expressing the com- ism marketers began referring to ecotourism mitment of the federal government in Ot- as a promising manifestation of sustainable tawa to preserving South Moresby “for Ca- development. However, “ecotourism” is a nadians yet unborn and for the international neologism that has yet to settle into a firm community” (1987: 126). definition. I define ecotourism as nature- based tourism that involves education and Johnston’s article appeared in July, just as interpretation of the natural environment the three levels of government (federal, pro- and that aspires to ecological and economic Martineau 245 sustainability. It does not necessarily in- Ecotourists and Cultural Strategies clude a cross-cultural component.3 Ecotouring has become the most frequently Concepts of sustainable development were imagined and imaged way to visit Haida central to the new economic approaches ad- Gwaii, so that contemporary representations vocated by the Islands Protection Society of traveling to Haida Gwaii tend to incorpo- and the Council for the Haida Nation rate images and descriptions of ecotours. (CHN) throughout the South Moresby con- When a popular magazine such as West- flict. The preservationists attempted to re- world targets consumers likely to travel to define growth and development qualita- the islands in recreational vehicles, it in- tively by emphasizing equitable and sus- cludes color photographs of kayaking and tainable forms of political ecology, and thus carefully avoids images of recreational vehi- mitigate the traditional quantitative empha- cles (see, for example, Scott 2001). This sis on economic modernization.4 In 1984, linkage between Haida Gwaii and ecotour- pressed to provide specific alternatives to ism began during the campaign to slow cle- logging, IPS founder Thom Henley ad- arcut logging on the islands and became vanced ecotourism as a relatively benign more apparent with the creation in 1987 of and sustainable alternative to the traditional Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, with resource-extractive economies of Haida the declaration of Ninstints as a UNESCO Gwaii, while warning that, “From 1978 to World Heritage site, and with the increasing 1982 the number of visitors to South Mo- media portrayal of the archipelago and resby on organized commercial tours in- Gwaii Haanas as tourist destinations out- creased eleven-fold. . . . In addition the standing for their aboriginal culture and numbers of private individuals who visit natural settings. the area . . . has also increased dramatically. At present, with no legislation to curtail The Council for the Haida Nation has used logging and mining development and no this discourse of ecotourism, the appeal of official park status to safeguard against visi- the national park, and the leverage afforded tor abuse, South Moresby is suffering the by their joint-management understanding impact of both” (1984: 145-46). In other with Parks Canada, to assert its rights to words, the impact of ecotourism would administer traditional Haida lands, rights have to be monitored, since it seemed to be the Haida never relinquished in treaties. generating too much new industry. Propo- The quota system that was established dur- nents suggested that ecotourism would pro- ing the 1990s to regulate admission to Gwaii vide immediate employment that would Haanas is one example of a CHN strategy compensate for the loss of logging jobs. that targets ecotourists yet has ramifications Taking a longer-term view, they also hoped for intergovernmental relations, especially that ecotourism would promise ecological land claims. By controlling and or restrict- preservation and economic sustainability. ing access to the park, Haida reestablish The drastic depletion of mature forests and their sovereign right to the area. By July the rapidly dwindling fish stocks signaled 1997, visitors wishing to ecotour South Mo- that the logging and fishing industries were resby had to comply with the terms laid out failing on both counts. in an information circular entitled “Planning to Visit Gwaii Haanas?” The circular, dis- On July 11, 1987, the three governments an- tributed by the Skidegate band and Queen nounced an agreement in principle to save Charlotte Tourist Information, states that the southern portion of Haida Gwaii as ecotourists “traveling” to Gwaii Haanas South Moresby / Gwaii Haanas National must take “the mandatory orientation” at Park Reserve, to be jointly managed by one of the times and locations specified, or Parks Canada and the Council for the Haida phone a toll-free number and make “an ad- Nation (Doern and Conway, 1994: 186). vance reservation” for “a small fee,” or

246 Martineau

“grab” one of the six daily “walk in der,” the American travel writer Tim Cahill spaces.”5 The orientation sessions are not recounts an ecotour in which he and nine difficult and the fees are reasonable. The fellow kayakers visit Sgan Gwaii, the importance of the strategy is that to meet the UNESCO World Heritage site that is also requirement, ecotourists must implicitly known as Ninstints. There the Watchman acknowledge Haida control of the region. Wanagun articulates a history of the site The mandatory orientation sessions are an that passionately and learnedly contests or- adjunct to the long-dormant Haida Watch- thodox Euro-American histories (Cahill, men program, which the CHN has revived. 1997). In Haida Gwaii: Journeys through the In the earliest photographs of the islands, Queen Charlotte Islands, ecotourist Ian Gill small, crouched human figures, wearing arrives at Sgan Gwaii, having “spent the hats with high crowns, sit atop all frontal past few days in a high state of anticipation poles. As Hilary Stewart explains, they are of this moment, coming at last to this Pan- known as “Watchmen,” with supernatural theon of Haida culture” (Gill, 1997: 113-14). powers: “from their lofty position atop the Gill first recounts much of the lore of the pole, they look out in several directions to encounters between Haida from Sgan Gwaii keep watch over the village and out to sea. and early traders, then turns to the present They protect those within the dwelling by by quoting at length Wanagun, “a patient warning the chief of the house of any ap- and solicitous storyteller and guide,” who proaching danger, alerting him to canoes gathers the ecotourists “in a sort of Socratic arriving or anything else he should know. semicircle” and brings to life the history of The high-crowned hats worn by the Ninstints (: 116). Gill cites several Euro- Watchmen symbolize the status of the chief American histories of Sgan Gwaii — as re- whose house they guard” (1996: 36). Three corded by copper-miner Francis Poole, cen- Watchmen sit atop most house frontal poles sus-taker John Work, ethnologist John — one peering up the shoreline, one gazing Swanton, and anthropologists Newton Chit- directly out to sea, and the third watching tendon, C.F. Newcombe, and especially Wil- down the shoreline. Haida artist Robert son Duff — while allowing the knowledge- Davidson stresses that the three Watchmen able Haida Watchman to comment on those “represent the different tenses: past, present histories (: 116-22). The passage illustrates and future.” As “interlinked figures” they the potential of ecotourism to immerse trav- “suggest communication and a presence in elers in past and present cultural features of the world while regarding the future” a significant destination. Gill’s research, (Thom, 1993: 92). That tradition has been lively writing and access to Wanagun’s wis- revived as part of the joint management of dom result in an ecologically informed nar- Gwaii Haanas. Funded by Parks Canada, rative that offers insights into the rehistori- the Watchmen Program staffs vital Haida cizing of that locality, the possibilities of heritage sites in the park and at other sensi- developing alternatives to primary resource tive locations on the archipelago with extraction, and matters of native rights and Watchmen, many of whom are female, de- cultural continuation. In The Laughing One: spite the gendered appellation. The A Journey to Emily Carr, biographer Susan Watchmen welcome ecotourists to these im- Crean tells of participating in an ecotour portant sites, typically by recounting Haida that visited Hlkenul (Cumshewa) and K’una histories of the locations. When ecotourists (Skedans). She weaves reflections about the represent their travels to Haida Gwaii and stories that the great Canadian painter and relate their meetings with Haida Watchmen, writer Emily Carr wrote of her 1912 visits to they act as ambassadors for the CHN strate- the respective villages with self-reflection gies that seek to reestablish Haida sover- about Crean’s own experiences there in eignty. 1994. She then recounts the lesson in Haida history and the cultural politics of Haida In “The Queen Charlotte Islands: Life and Gwaii that the venerable Watchman Charley death (hee-hee) tales from the place of won- Wesley delivers to her group (Crean, 2001: Martineau 247

332-34). The representations by Cahill, Gill and second, they are interested in and concerned and Crean partake in a project in which for the cultural aspects of those destinations. Haida, in often-uneasy coalitions with pres- Ecotourism by definition requires responsibility ervationists and more recently with Parks toward the physical and cultural features en- countered. The idea that an ecotour will trans- Canada, have successfully overthrown long- form the ecotourist “into somebody keenly in- standing perceptions of the islands’ re- volved in conservation issues” is idealistic. Ecot- sources as primary materials that should be ourists can and sometimes do fulfill the require- harvested and processed elsewhere. ment of respecting the physical and cultural Ecotourists such as Cahill, Gill and Crean qualities of the destination without becoming now disseminate Haida cultural resources “keenly” involved in conserving those qualities. to international audiences. In doing so, they To be fair, Caballos-Lascuria proffered that defi- respect Haida forests, lands and especially nition early in the 1990s, and the discursive for- mations that have evolved around ecotourism in people in ways that may well allow Haida the intervening years have been polymorphous to keep their identity and pass it on to fol- in ways that no fixed definition could have an- lowing generations, to recall Guujaaw’s ticipated. words (May 1990: 63). Goodwin discusses “competing definitions of ecotourism” (1996: 277-80). See Bandy for other definitions (1996: 544). Notes: ______4 Bandy writes that this shift from the quantita- 1 In this essay, I use “tactic” and “strategy” more tive to the qualitative often proposed “strategies or less interchangeably. In Martineau (2001), I of common property resources, incorporation of observe Michel de Certeau’s careful distinction indigenous local knowledge, and of course, ecot- between the terms as I analyze the conflict on ourism” (1996: 543). Haida Gwaii. 5 “Planning to Visit Gwaii Haanas?” is re- 2 Islands Protection Committee changed its name produced in Martineau (1999). to Islands Protection Society in 1979.

3 Hector Caballos-Lascuria is often credited with coining the term “ecotourism.” By 1990, his defi- References nition had evolved to: “that segment of tourism that involves traveling to relatively undisturbed Bandy, Joe. (1996). Managing the other of or uncontaminated areas with the specific object nature: Sustainability, spectacle, and of admiring, studying, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any global regimes of capital in ecotourism. existing cultural features (both past and present) In: Public Culture, 8, pp. 439-66. found in these areas. Ecotourism implies a scien- Beals, Herbert, (ed.) and trans. (1989). Juan tific, esthetic, or philosophical approach, al- Pérez on the Northwest Coast: Six Docu- though the ecotourist is not required to be a pro- ments of his Expedition in 1774. Oregon fessional scientist, artist or philosopher. The Historical Society, Portland. main point here is that the person that practices Boyd, Robert. (1999). The Coming of the ecotourism has the opportunity of immersing Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced infec- himself or herself in Nature in a way that most tious diseases and population decline people cannot enjoy in their routine, urban exis- tences. This person will eventually acquire an among Northwest coast Indians, 1774- awareness and knowledge of the natural envi- 1874. U Washington Press, Seattle. ronment, together with its cultural aspects, that Braun, Bruce. (2000). Producing vertical ter- will convert him or her into somebody keenly ritory: Geology and governmentality in involved in conservation issues” (quoted by Zu- late Victorian Canada. Ecumene, 7.1: 7- rick 1995: 8). 46. Caballos-Lascuria’s definition foregrounds two Broadhead, John. (1989). The all alone stone important aspects of ecotourism: ecotourists manifesto. In: Endangered Spaces: The fu- travel to locations anticipating to gaze upon ture for Canada’s wilderness. Monte scenery, flora, and or fauna in ways or in amounts that mark the destinations as special; 248 Martineau

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