As restoration professionals, we often talk about restoring ecosystems to pre-European settlement conditions. While referencing historical data helps us to better understand what this reference condition could have been like, it ignores what the cultural-ecological relationship looked like prior European colonization.
We believe it is important to understand the historical cultural relationship that existed with these landscapes, what this relationship looks like today, and how we can restore cultural-ecological relationships in the work that we do as conservation and restoration professionals.
Our Indigenous Heritage Initiative aims to do just this.
The purpose of this initiative is to:
- Reconnect people to the land and water
- Demonstrate the past and present cultural-ecological relationships
- Honor, acknowledge and preserve past and present Indigenous culture
- Facilitate cross-collaboration with conservation professionals and Indigenous communities
- Merge western science with Indigenous knowledge and practice
We do not see it as our role to determine whose stories or lived experiences are valid. Instead, we believe it is essential to engage with both historical and contemporary Indigenous voices, including both recognized and non-recognized tribes, cultural and ecological heritage leaders and Indigenous allies.
While each individual tribal community has their own sets of beliefs, governance, ceremonies, and stories, Indigenous cultures have a shared belief that the entire earth is viewed as one interconnected system.
That worldview is central to this work.
Our first project as part of this effort has been working with Indigenous groups in Lancaster County, PA to create a storymap that demonstrates a cultural-ecological relationship within the Little Conestoga Creek Watershed from an Indigenous perspective.
We are going through final reviews of the storymap now and it will be made publicly available once it is finished.