Wabanaki Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Wabanaki Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario Netukulimk refers to the Mikmaq way of natural resource conservation and stewardship. The root words mean getting provisions and making a livelihood from the land, and elders translate it as „taking only what you need in order to avoid not having enough.‟ Barsh, 2002 Prepared for EPA in collaboration with the Maine Tribes by Dr. Barbara Harper, DABT, AESE, Inc. and Professor Darren Ranco, PhD, Environmental Studies and Native American Studies, Dartmouth College July 9, 2009 Wabanaki Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT This project was a coordinated effort among the five federally recognized Tribal Nations in Maine and the US EPA. It was produced under a Direct Implementation Tribal Cooperative Agreement (DITCA) awarded to the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians on behalf of the five Tribal Nations in Maine. A DITCA is a unique funding mechanism authorized by law and developed by EPA for the purpose of awarding Cooperative Agreements to Federally Recognized Indian tribes to assist the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in implementing Federal environmental programs in Indian Territories. EPA is required by law to have sufficient information to protect designated tribal uses when reviewing or approving water quality standards applications and this funding mechanism allowed EPA to work cooperatively with the Maine tribes to collect sound scientific data documenting tribal cultural practices and resource utilization patterns in the form of tribal exposure scenarios. This project has resulted in the development of the Wabanaki Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario („Scenario‟), a numerical representation of the environmental contact, diet, and exposure pathways present in traditional cultural lifeways in Maine. These traditional uses are described as a single best representation of subsistence-traditional lifeways. This project report is intended to reflect the lifeways of people fully using natural resources and pursuing traditional cultural lifeways, not lifeways of people with semi-suburban or hybrid lifestyles and grocery-store diets. Present-day environmental conditions may not allow many people to fully engage in a fully traditional lifestyle until resources are restored, but this is still an „actual‟ and not „hypothetical‟ lifestyle. This project will help to ensure that exposure pathway information that is collected for the Tribes in Maine will not be biased by contemporary consumption rates. The Exposure Scenario is presented in a format typically used by regulatory agencies during development of environmental standards and evaluation of baseline environmental risks. This project enables EPA to assess the relation between traditional cultural lifeways (sometimes referred to in the report as the shorthand term „subsistence‟) and contemporary applications of this information (development of standards or risk assessment). Keywords: Native American, exposure, scenario, lifeways, cultural, diet, Maine For more information contact Valerie Bataille at EPA - New England, Region 1 5 Post Office Square, Suite 100 Mail Code MGM Boston, Massachusetts 02109-3912 617-918-1674 [email protected] ________________________________________________________________________________________ July 9, 2009 2 Wabanaki Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario _________________________________________________________________________________________ Advisory Board Valerie Bataille Fred E. Corey Regional Indian Specialist Environmental Director EPA Region 1 Aroostook Band of Micmacs John Banks Sharri Venno Dan Kusnierz Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Penobscot Indian Nation Trevor White Passamaquoddy Tribe - Indian Township With the assistance of: Ann Jefferies (EPA Region 1) Art Spiess, Maine Historic Preservation Commission ________________________________________________________________________________________ July 9, 2009 3 Wabanaki Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario _________________________________________________________________________________________ “It is true we have not always had the use of bread and of wine which your France produces; but, in fact, before the arrival of the French in these parts, did not the MicMac live much longer than now? If we have not any longer among us any of those old men of a hundred and thirty to forty years, it is only because we are gradually adopting your manner of living, for experience is making it very plain that those of us live longest who, despising your bread, your wine, and your brandy, are content with their natural food of beaver, of moose, of waterfowl and fish, in accord with the custom of our ancestors and all of the MicMac Nation.” Anonymous, MicMac, 1676. ________________________________________________________________________________________ July 9, 2009 4 Wabanaki Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure Scenario _________________________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS March 9, 2009 ............................................................................................................................ 1 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 7 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 10 1.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Process and Quality Assurance ...................................................................................... 10 2. CONTEXT OF THIS SCENARIO ..................................................................................... 13 2.1 Regulatory Context ........................................................................................................ 14 2.2 Traditional Cultural (“Subsistence”) Context ................................................................ 16 3. METHODS ......................................................................................................................... 18 4. HISTORY OF WABANAKI IN MAINE........................................................................... 22 4.1 Introduction to the Wabanaki......................................................................................... 22 4.2 Paleo (Post-Glacial) Period ............................................................................................ 24 4.3 Archaic Period ............................................................................................................... 25 4.4 Woodland or Ceramic Period ......................................................................................... 27 4.5 Contact Era..................................................................................................................... 27 5. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING ........................................................................................ 30 5.1 General Approach .......................................................................................................... 30 5.2 Maine ............................................................................................................................. 32 5.2.1 Maine Climate and Weather ................................................................................... 33 5.2.2 Forest Types ............................................................................................................ 34 5.2.3 Wetlands ................................................................................................................. 36 5.2.4 Watersheds .............................................................................................................. 38 5.2.5 Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Rivers .................................................................... 40 6. WABANAKI RESOURCE USE ........................................................................................ 44 6.1 General Foraging Theory ............................................................................................... 44 6.2 Historical Seasonal Patterns ........................................................................................... 45 6.2.1 Dietary Breadth, Abundance, and Food Storage .................................................... 49 6.3 Inland Hunting and Fishing ........................................................................................... 51 6.4 Coastal (Bays, Islands, Estuaries) .................................................................................. 51 6.5 Gathering Plant Foods, Medicines, Materials ................................................................ 53 6.5.1 Baskets, cordage, and material plants ..................................................................... 56 6.5.2 Environmental Management ................................................................................... 57 7. THE WABANAKI DIET ................................................................................................. 58 7.1 Dietary Components of Risk Assessment .................................................................... 58 7.2 Nutritional Analysis ......................................................................................................