HISTORIES OF RESILIENCE IN HUMAN-ANIMAL RELATIONS IN THE CIRCUMPOLAR
NORTH CISU5
Session Organizer: David G. Anderson - University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom (UK)
Westman, Clint (University of Saskatchewan)
Bouncing Along on a Cree Moose-Hunting Trip in Northern Alberta, Autumn 2013
In late September, 2013, I participated in a week-long moose hunt with a Cree elder and members of his
extended family. I will be reflecting directly on this experience and what I learned from it as I discuss the
importance of both tradition (history?) and renewal (resilience?). The moose hunt is a key cultural activity and is
important in maintaining family members’ connections to the land, animals, and tradition. This is particularly the
case for those who are not active hunters. Yet many changes are notable! One might even argue that, in spite of
changes in technology and context – including massive changes in the land wrought by industrial operations, as
well as the presence of Euro-Canadian hunters – moose hunting is still a kind of cultural core for many Cree. I
want to consider how Cree relations with animals are being maintained in this context of cultural, linguistic, and
environmental change.
Anderson, David G. (University of Aberdeen)
Arctic Animal Pedigrees: Towards a Pragmatic Understanding of Domestication
Circumpolar fauna are often seen to be iconic of a rugged and uncontrolled landscape. However, in contrast to
the stereotype, most local Arctic residents perform careful, cultured and controlled relationships with the animals
that guarantee their lives. This paper surveys attempts by both local hunters and laboratory scientists to develop
local breeds – where ‘breeds’ are understood as long-term, stable, ‘natural’ relationships with non-human
animals. The fieldwork data is taken primarily from reindeer herding families in Siberia and Fennoscandia with
occasional reference to human-caribou relations in Canada and various ‘translocated’ species such as muskrat
and muskoxen. The paper criticizes the idea of a pure pedigree and instead shows the complex or ‘messy’ way
that breeds are concocted either in a laboratory or in the taiga. The paper calls for a study of the ‘pragmatic
science’ of human-animal relations which is specific to Arctic settings. This science will be characterized as
contingent, flexible and deeply personal in contrast to the authoritative genealogies dictated by genetic science
or the most common general theories of domestication.
Losey, Robert (University of Alberta)
Exploring the Life Histories of Dogs in the Circumpolar North Through Archaeology
Sled dogs are often described as a fundamental part of many traditional northern societies, but their long-term
history in this region remains very poorly understood. While dogs were present in the arctic for many thousands
of years, how such animals were interacting with their human counterparts is unclear. For example, it is unknown
if these early dogs were pulling sleds, carrying burdens on their backs, or assisting in hunting, nor is it clear how
such practices could be identified in the archaeological record. Our project is developing the archaeological tools
necessary for better understand ancient dogs’ life histories. Using skeletons from northern dogs and wolves with
known life histories, we investigate 1) how dogs’ skeletons respond to the stresses of pulling sleds; 2) how
experiences of trauma and disease differ between northern wolves and dogs; and 3) intensive practices of
controlling dog behavior such as intentional tooth removal.
Loovers, Jan Peter Laurens (Peter) (University of Aberdeen)
‘Hard Times Are Coming’: Indeterminacy, Prophecies, Apocalypse, and Dogs
Building on Gwich’in elaborations on the Biblical End of the World, and incorporating vernacular prophecies of
such indeterminate ending, the frequently expressed statement ‘hard times are coming’ – by Gwich’in (Elders) in
Northern Canada – sheds different insights into human-animal relations. Thus to counteract these apocalyptic
hardships, the Gwich’in have emphasized their reliance on "working dogs". The argument follows that whilst
snowmobiles depend on monetary funds for gas and mechanical parts, the "working dogs", and subsequently
Gwich’in, can live off the land without such dependency on the broader economic system. In this paper I
exemplify how the revitalization of the use of "working dogs" by a number of Gwich’in can be understood as a
possibility made by Gwich’in with dogs to break away from the uncertainties and indeterminate collapse of the
capitalist system.
Wishart, Robert (University of Aberdeen)
The Wrong Kind of Fish: Gwich'in Fish Camps and Questions of Sustainability in the
Mackenzie Delta, NWT
This paper will introduce the importance of fish camps to the Gwich'in ideas of sustainability while attempting to
reconcile why fishing and the ethnography of the fish camp has gone largely unnoticed in academic accounts of
Gwich'in human-animal relationships. The paper puts forth an explanation for why fishing has been neglected,
introducing local arguments about how they might just catch the wrong kinds of fish, while at the same time
introducing the corpus of fishing activities included in the yearly round. It historically situates fishing as an
important, but largely underestimated, part of the Canadian fur trade and returns to an older anthropological
observation that the fish camp has been central to Gwich'in social life throughout history. Fishing is thus entagled
in Gwich'in history and their current way of life, and this paper challenges the idea that it can be easily
separated from other land based activities.
Moritz, Sarah Carmen (McGill University)
‘It had the biggest spring salmon run, it was a ‘Valley of Plenty’ for all’: Remembering
and Restoring St’át’imc Fishing in the Bridge River Valley
This paper seeks to highlight the fact that fishing in the Bridge River ‘Valley of Plenty’ used to be and continues
to be vitally important for the St’át’imc local economy despite of detrimental impacts of hydro-electric
development and despite of (related) counter-narratives and underestimations in scientific and prevalent
discourses of St’át’imc fishing and salmon. It proposes a revisionist view to such discursive oversight, one that
emphasizes the historical and contemporary entanglements between fishing and other land-based activities,
between various animal and St’át’imc persons within a relational ecology that relies on social metaphors of
‘respect’, ‘reciprocity’ and ‘sharing’ as frameworks for ecological knowledge. Remembering fishing within a
‘Valley of Plenty’ has recently become part of a vision and strategy Elders teach for the restoration of the area
upon potential decommissioning of hydro facilities. It will conclude with this key (re-)vision for protecting and
recuperating St’át’imc livelihood, environmental integrity and institutional autonomy.