Culturally Driven Monitoring: The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indicators in Understanding Aquatic Ecosystem Change in the Northwest Territories’ Dehcho Region
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the Social–Ecological Lens
1.2. Indicators Based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge
1.3. Governance
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.2. Monitoring Activities in the Hay River and Buffalo River Basins
2.3. Methodological Approach
2.4. Semi-Structured Interviews
2.5. Content Analysis
3. Results
3.1. The Significance of Freshwater Systems to Kátł’odeeche First Nation
My people are from Buffalo River and they would live over the winter in Buffalo River, but they would come to the delta here, or along the banks of the Great Slave Lake to set nets and dry fish for the winter … The water is very important to us logistically, as well as locally. This is our entire existence right here, our entire history.(Youth 1)
I have got to eat fish, I have got to have fish. I crave for fish … That’s our life out there, the [Great Slave] lake is part of us, it’s part of me. I think the lake is part of our spirit because even me I go out on the beach and sit there. I can heal myself by doing that … the lake it’s powerful … the air, the lake, the smell. You know it’s beautiful. It makes you strong again.(Elder 6)
3.2. Perceptions of Fish Health
If you do the things that I do over the last 50 years or so and you get to see all these changes … Like say research started 5 years ago and they tell you all this and that … They think that everything’s normal because it’s only 5 years back and not the 50 years that I know.(Elder 5)
I guess years ago, I don’t think you really had to worry about fish being different, or infected … I remember in my younger days, you go to Buffalo Lake, you go to Fish Point, you go to Buffalo River and when you catch a fish, it’s always a clean fish. There’s no mark on the fish … That’s how it used to be, but now … it’s different altogether … it’s different than what it used to be like years ago …(Elder 7)
The ones that you watch for are the ones that have a puncture wound … they form some kind of pus inside … When I opened it up the pus just burst open and started leaking … There’s lots of growth on some on them from inside. Even those [fish] I won’t give to the people. I always watch stuff like that. If they’re scarred or really bad I just throw the fish away.(Harvester 1)
I’m fishing all the time [in the Hay River], so I see the fish that are coming in … I see that they’re healthy … I ran into a few here and there that were getting some growth and stuff on them, but nothing majorly … I mean that’s one out of maybe 5000 fish, so I know everything is still pretty healthy.(Harvester 4)
We’ll go out 5 km for nice fish, so it’s not river fish where it’s dirty and has silt and stuff inside the stomach. It would have a nice clean and clear stomach content … It tastes better being from the lake, as opposed to the river. It tastes soapy in the river … the whole fish smells funny, it tastes funny … It seems like the further you go out, the cleaner the fish.(Harvester 3)
3.3. Perceptions of Water Quality, Quantity, and Ice Thickness
3.3.1. Deteriorating Water Quality: Spatial and Temporal Differences
The water in the river is dirty … On the lake, along the shores it’s really dirty … I remember going swimming here in the Great Slave Lake along the beach and me and my sister were pretending to be mermaids at the time. We were so young, and we opened our eyes underneath the water and we couldn’t see each other like at all … It was really dirty, like really brown, but once you go out into the lake it actually gets really clear … The water looks blueish in the middle of the lake.(Youth 2)
If you go far enough out to the lake, away from where the Hay River, or Buffalo River, or Slave River feeds into the lake and you get out to the open water [where] it’s more clear, you can just take water from there and drink it.(Youth 1)
The water quality has changed since I was a kid … You can tell when you are getting closer back to the [Hay] river … the water starts to change colour and it gets almost yellowish. But when you’re out there, you can grab a glass and drink it … it’s ice cold and it’s amazing and it’s so clean! … [But] now you probably have to travel quite a ways out [on the lake]. I’m going to say maybe about 3 km, but before it was just over here, not very far …(Elder 4)
One year when we were in the river I told him to get some water for me to make coffee and when he brought that water up, he said I don’t think you should make coffee because all over in the river there was little tiny green stuff.(Elder 2)
Nowadays there’s so many things that get in our water system … all that stuff that’s coming through from the mines up there [from the south] … I know people are concerned here … what happens when that stuff starts getting into our lake, how do we stop it from getting it into our lake?(Harvester 2)
Well I was always told that you never drink any water unless it’s from some place way far out. I wouldn’t trust drinking anything on the Hay River, just because of the simple fact that I know that there’s a lot of different water basins that empty into it. Like I know the Chinchaga River empties into it and I know up that way there’s [pulp] mills …(Harvester 4)
3.3.2. Declining Water Levels
It seems like we’re losing more water every year and I noticed creeks that used to flow, they no longer flow at all … I go out to Buffalo Lake and there’s one spot where that little creek overflows just before I think it’s in December … there’s no water there now … The water’s going to be a big problem I think in the future.(Elder 5)
The problem is the water is getting lower and lower every year … In the past I used to just go out and I didn’t see any islands. Now I go out there and on the other side of the river, there’s a big island way over there … trees are growing on there. I never saw that when I was growing up.(Elder 1)
I think that the hydro dams they’re putting up … they’re talking about [site] C dam in the newspaper and Slave River I think at Fort Smith … It’s going to be more of a problem if there is no water … Even now I used to go fall hunt, but the water is so low I couldn’t go to Buffalo Lake, to go hunt moose in the fall. The water is so low, so if they put up the dam pretty soon we’ll be able to walk across the river.(Elder 8)
Water is a living thing. The way it flows, it’s alive. If it’s not flowing, what is it going to be like? … You know I think about my great grandchildren … I won’t be around to see, but what are they going to have? … I pity my grandkids … Now all those guys who are fighting to put a pipeline into the north or wherever … My grandkids … my great grandkids are going to fight for a water pipeline to go that way [from here to BC someday]. It’s sad …(Elder 1)
3.3.3. Decreasing Ice Thickness
Now today, the lake doesn’t freeze. When I started going with my uncle … when he set nets there was just about 7 feet of ice. He used to kneel on his knee … he used to try to get to the bottom. Today he’s lucky … he won’t even hit 3 feet of ice now. When I grew up, oh I tell you, it was 30, 40 [degrees Celsius] below every day. Today, it gets to 20 [degrees Celsius below] sometimes, but not often … It’s a lot warmer …(Elder 1)
It’s not as thick as it used to be. I remember a hole being 7 feet down … like to jig a hole and to drill it out and everything. It was like 7 feet thick and now it’s … you’ll be lucky if you get 2 feet. That’s how it was last year and I’ve never seen that before in my life.(Harvester 3)
4. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Interviewees | Male | Female |
---|---|---|
Elders | 6 | 2 |
Harvesters | 2 | 2 |
Youth | 2 | 1 |
Indicator | Indicator Frequency (# of Interviewees Who Referenced Indicator) | Observations (Most Commonly Reported by Interviewees) | Questions for Future Monitoring |
---|---|---|---|
Spawning and Fish Eggs | 6 | Recent changes in fish spawning patterns (e.g., difficult to predict when fish spawn up the Hay River in the fall time). | Are the fish spawning in different areas, at different times of year? Are fish spawning up the Hay River in the fall time? Are there eggs in the fish? Are there more or less than normal? What colour are they? Are they bigger or smaller in size than usual? |
Abundance and Fish Populations | 4 | A lot of healthy whitefish are being caught in the Hay River. More trout are being caught in the Great Slave Lake in recent years. | Are there more or less fish (whitefish, jackfish, pickerel, trout etc …)? Are there new fish species? Are there more trout, pickerel being caught in recent years? |
Size | 4 | The fish appear to be round and fat in Sandy Creek. | Are the fish skinny/bony? Are the fish round/fat? |
Presence of Abnormalities/Deformities | 7 | Increasing numbers of fish are being caught with abnormalities in Great Slave Lake. Fish with pus are not being consumed by humans or being fed to the dogs. | Are there any scars, sores, bruising, puncture wounds (pus), growth, worms, and bugs found outside or inside of the fish? Are the fish safe for humans to consume? Are the fish safe to feed to dogs? |
External and Internal Colour | 5 | Whitefish in the Hay River are darker than in the Great Slave Lake. Whitefish are pale/white in the lake. | Are the whitefish pale/white? Is the meat or liver discoloured? |
Fat Content | 4 | The whitefish in Great Slave Lake appear to have a high fat content. | Do the fish have more or less fat than normal? |
Texture | 4 | No reported observations. | Is the flesh of the fish firm or soft? |
Colour of Fish Gills | 4 | No reported observations. | Are the fish gills dark pink/red? |
Smell | 3 | The fish caught in the Hay River smell funny. | Do the fish smell funny? Do the fish smell like diesel? |
Taste | 2 | The fish taste soapy from the Hay River, in comparison to Great Slave Lake. | Do the fish taste soapy? |
Stomach Content | 2 | The fish in Hay River appear to be dirtier and have more silt in their stomachs than the fish found further out in the Great Slave Lake. | Is the stomach of the fish clean? Is there dirt or silt in the stomach? |
Indicator | Indicator Frequency (# of Interviewees Who Referenced Indicator) | Observations (Most Commonly Reported by Interviewees) | Questions for Future Monitoring |
---|---|---|---|
Access to Clean and Safe Drinking Water | 12 | The water is safe to drink further out on Great Slave Lake, towards the middle. People are now having to travel further out, away from Hay River, to access clean drinking water. The water is not safe to drink during the spring ice break-up. | Do you have to travel further to access clean and safe drinking water on Great Slave Lake? How many kms from the mouth of Hay River? Where and when is it safe to drink water? Are there times and places where it is no longer safe to drink the water? Does the water have to be boiled before it is safe to drink? |
Colour of Water and Clearness | 11 | The water is darker, murkier, and less clear in the Hay River than it once was. | Has the colour or clearness of the water changed? Is the water dark, murky, dirty or yellow? |
Perceived Risk of Contamination | 11 | Diesel surfaced when puncturing a hole in the ice on Great Slave Lake. Increased concerns regarding the health of freshwater systems located downstream of resource development. | Is the body of water in close proximity or downstream of industry? Are contaminants like diesel present in the water? |
Algae Growth | 4 | More “green stuff” or algae is present in Hay River and Great Slave Lake near the shore. | Is there “green stuff” or algae on the water? |
The Health of Fish and Other Animals | 4 | The fish are not dying (e.g., floating dead in the water). | Are other animals (fish, wildlife) healthy? |
Taste Temperature | 2 1 | The water tastes the best further out on Great Slave Lake. No reported observations. | Does the water taste fresh? Is the water temperature warming? |
Water Levels | 8 | Creeks and streams are drying up and water levels are declining in Great Slave Lake, Hay River and Buffalo River. There are more sandbars in Hay River and Buffalo River and more shoreline appearing on Great Slave Lake. Islands and rocks are emerging in the Hay River. There is increased concern regarding the impacts of climate change and hydroelectric development on water levels. | Are water levels declining in rivers and lakes? Are small creeks and streams drying up? Are there new sandbars/islands appearing in the Hay River, on Buffalo River? Is the shoreline changing on Great Slave Lake? Are certain traditional areas difficult to access (e.g., Alexandra Falls, Buffalo River)? Are you able to walk across certain rivers in the summertime? Is the body of water located downstream of hydroelectric development? |
Ice Thickness | 2 | The ice thickness is decreasing on Great Slave Lake. It used to be 7 feet, now it’s closer to 2-3 feet. | Is ice thickness decreasing? Are winter temperatures warming? |
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Stenekes, S.; Parlee, B.; Seixas, C. Culturally Driven Monitoring: The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indicators in Understanding Aquatic Ecosystem Change in the Northwest Territories’ Dehcho Region. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197923
Stenekes S, Parlee B, Seixas C. Culturally Driven Monitoring: The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indicators in Understanding Aquatic Ecosystem Change in the Northwest Territories’ Dehcho Region. Sustainability. 2020; 12(19):7923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197923
Chicago/Turabian StyleStenekes, Sydney, Brenda Parlee, and Cristiana Seixas. 2020. "Culturally Driven Monitoring: The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indicators in Understanding Aquatic Ecosystem Change in the Northwest Territories’ Dehcho Region" Sustainability 12, no. 19: 7923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197923