Perceptions of Wilderness:An Examination of Native American Utilization of Traditional Plant Resources and Public Lands Management

Presenter Information

Kelli Shoaf

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Campus where you would like to present

SURC Ballroom C/D

Start Date

15-5-2014

End Date

15-5-2014

Keywords

Native American Cultures, Ethnography, Public Land Management

Abstract

In 2011, the National Park Service proposed a change in regulations that would allow all federally recognized tribes to request permission to gather plants on parklands for traditional purposes. This modification would reverse decades of exclusionary management to extend the scope of tribal gathering beyond specific parks with treaty-based agreements. My research uses ethnographic methods to conduct a case study of tribal and community responses to the proposed change in the Olympic National Park area. My goal is to understand how people perceive wilderness and how these perceptions reflect people’s reactions to plant gathering on parklands. Documenting people’s opinions on wilderness in context of the proposed change in regulations will add to existing literature on multiple-use land issues, expand public knowledge, and envision the direction in which collaborative land management may be shifting.

Poster Number

29

Faculty Mentor(s)

Pedersen, Lene

Additional Mentoring Department

Anthropology and Museum Studies

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May 15th, 11:30 AM May 15th, 2:00 PM

Perceptions of Wilderness:An Examination of Native American Utilization of Traditional Plant Resources and Public Lands Management

SURC Ballroom C/D

In 2011, the National Park Service proposed a change in regulations that would allow all federally recognized tribes to request permission to gather plants on parklands for traditional purposes. This modification would reverse decades of exclusionary management to extend the scope of tribal gathering beyond specific parks with treaty-based agreements. My research uses ethnographic methods to conduct a case study of tribal and community responses to the proposed change in the Olympic National Park area. My goal is to understand how people perceive wilderness and how these perceptions reflect people’s reactions to plant gathering on parklands. Documenting people’s opinions on wilderness in context of the proposed change in regulations will add to existing literature on multiple-use land issues, expand public knowledge, and envision the direction in which collaborative land management may be shifting.