REGENERATING KIN: A CRITICAL DIALOGUE ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND INDIGENOUS PRINCIPLES A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Regenerative Studies By Anna Cook 2020 SIGNATURE PAGE THESIS: REGENERATING KIN: A CRITICAL DIALOGUE ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND INDIGENOUS PRINCIPLES AUTHOR: Anna Cook DATE SUBMITTED: Summer 2020 John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies/College of Environmental Design Dr. James Blair _______________________________________ Thesis Committee Chair Geography and Anthropology/Regenerative Studies Dr. Sandy Kewanhaptewa-Dixon _______________________________________ Ethnic and Women’s Studies Professor Claudia Serrato _______________________________________ Ethnic and Women’s Studies/Regenerative Studies ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research takes place from within the structure of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, on the land of the Gabrielino-Tongva, but also extending into Cahuilla, Luiseo, Serrano, and Acjachemen lands. In fact, this research includes both space, and people, in tribal lands across this continent and this earth. I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Gabrielino-Tongva people and all Indigenous inhabitants of this land, who have been stewards of this area throughout generations. In unratified treaties, this land was ceded to the United States under the violence of settler colonialism. Thank you to this land who has sustained my family, though we are not Indigenous to this area. Generations before me, and those after me, are guests on this land which has taken care of us, despite our own participation in settler colonial structures. I’m so grateful to everyone on my thesis committee for their support, guidance, and mentorship. Thank you to Dr. James Blair for thorough feedback and thought- provoking questions and suggestions. Thank you to Professor Claudia Serrato, always decolonial, my fellow plant advocate, for encouraging a thesis that takes steps towards deconstructing the status quo. Thank you to Dr. Sandy Kewanhaptewa-Dixon for centering Indigenous voices and sovereignty issues, and connecting me with Barbara Drake. Each committee member challenged me to be realistic, to maintain integrity, for both plants and people, and question my own boundaries. And thank you to Dr. José Aguilar-Hernández for being a mentor, even when I am not his current student. Thank you to the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies for allowing a topic which challenges the structures in place, and pursues more interconnected relationships between humans and nature than are typically found in Western academia. Thank you to Dr. Pablo iii LaRoche, Debbie Scheider, Karen Mitchell, and Jillian Gomez for keeping the Lyle Center going amidst challenges and frustrations, excitement and successes. Thank you to Tongva Elder Barbara Drake for her support, her generosity, and kindness. Thank you for welcoming me to the Tongva Living History Garden and Native village, as a guest and steward. Caring for, and talking to, the plants there began the journey from my undergraduate thesis to this master’s thesis. Thank you to my family: my parents, Michael and Alicia, and my children, Amelie and Sophia, and my aunt Rosemary. You have all listened to my complaints and also shared in my excitement. Thank you for research advice, feedback, moral support, and guidance particularly in the grueling final stretches of this process. Thank you to Felicia Reinert for accountability, you know what it took to finish this in a pandemic, and you helped make it happen. Thank you to all the participants, who shared with me their time, voices, thoughts, knowledge, and space. Thank you for being open to creating relationship with me, and furthering a conversation for the land, the plants, and the people. Your contributions are valuable beyond measure in this research, and I’m glad to have met each of you. iv ABSTRACT Most Indigenous cultures historically employed regenerative methods in their human-environment relationships, interactions, and resource use. Many of these methods stemmed from the Indigenous concept of kincentric ecology, an approach which guides human relationship with ecosystems from a perspective of family connections. Hardly a new scientific concept, kincentric ecology puts a name to a foundational element of Indigenous cultures and Indigenous knowledge: kinship with the environment. This research centers Indigenous land rights in an examination of relevant environmental policy related to foraging. Additionally, interviews with community members, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, about foraging, as an expression of intimate interaction with plants and landscape, illuminates the development of relationship with land. This research highlights Indigenous scholars and Indigenous voices in the next phase of environmentalism, as humans face ever-increasing degradation to the planet, and highlights the importance of a multispecies emotional connection to landscape as inclusive of more-than-human elements of nature. Incorporating concepts of aliveness, relationality, landscape stewardship, and a dialogue between traditional ecological knowledge and Western science illustrates some of the dynamics at play in kincentric ecology. v TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE .......................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 3 Plant profiles ................................................................................................................... 5 Note on language and terms ............................................................................................ 5 CHAPTER 2: METHODS .................................................................................................. 9 Data collection .............................................................................................................. 11 Data analysis ................................................................................................................. 14 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................... 20 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 20 Indigenous Studies ........................................................................................................ 21 Feminist Anthropology of Kinship ............................................................................... 25 Regenerative Studies ..................................................................................................... 32 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 37 vi CHAPTER 4: SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS - ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND LANDSCAPE STEWARDSHIP ............................................................. 38 Plant profile: Oak (Wet) ................................................................................................ 38 Environmental policy .................................................................................................... 44 Expression of relationship to landscape ........................................................................ 50 Caretaking and connection ........................................................................................ 50 Human involvement .................................................................................................. 55 The power of place .................................................................................................... 60 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER 5: ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP IN ACTION - PEOPLE ON THE LANDSCAPE ................................................................................................................... 68 Plant profile: Mustard (Tongva name unknown) .......................................................... 68 Foraging ........................................................................................................................ 70 What is foraging? ...................................................................................................... 72 Populations ................................................................................................................ 77 Ethics and protocols .................................................................................................. 83 Access ..........................................................................................................................