Nancy J. Turner – författare

This is a thought-provoking look at Native American stories, cultural institutions, and ways of knowing, and what they can teach us about living sustainably.

The European explorers who first visited the Northwest Coast of North America assumed that the entire region was virtually untouched wilderness whose occupants used the land only minimally, hunting and gathering shoots, roots, and berries that were peripheral to a diet and culture focused on salmon. Colonizers who followed the explorers used these claims to justify the displacement of Native groups from their lands. Scholars now understand, however, that Northwest Coast peoples were actively cultivating plants well before their first contact with Europeans. This book is the first comprehensive overview of how Northwest Coast Native Americans managed the landscape and cared for the plant communities on which they depended.Bringing together some of the world's most prominent specialists on Northwest Coast cultures, Keeping It Living tells the story of traditional plant cultivation practices found from the Oregon coast to Southeast Alaska. It explores tobacco gardens among the Haida and Tlingit, managed camas plots among the Coast Salish of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, estuarine root gardens along the central coast of British Columbia, wapato maintenance on the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, and tended berry plots up and down the entire coast.With contributions from ethnobotanists, archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, ecologists, and Native American scholars and elders, Keeping It Living documents practices, many unknown to European peoples, that involve manipulating plants as well as their environments in ways that enhanced culturally preferred plants and plant communities. It describes how indigenous peoples of this region used and cared for over 300 different species of plants, from the lofty red cedar to diminutive plants of backwater bogs.

Volume 1: The History and Practice of Indigenous Plant Knowledge. Volume 2: The Place and Meaning of Plants in Indigenous Cultures and Worldviews.Nancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge, she integrates her research into a two-volume ethnobotanical tour-de-force.Drawing on information shared by Indigenous botanical experts and collaborators, the ethnographic and historical record, and from linguistics, palaeobotany, archaeology, phytogeography, and other fields, Turner weaves together a complex understanding of the traditions of use and management of plant resources in this vast region. She follows Indigenous inhabitants over time and through space, showing how they actively participated in their environments, managed and cultivated valued plant resources, and maintained key habitats that supported their dynamic cultures for thousands of years, as well as how knowledge was passed on from generation to generation and from one community to another. To understand the values and perspectives that have guided Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge and practices, Turner looks beyond the details of individual plant species and their uses to determine the overall patterns and processes of their development, application, and adaptation.Volume 1 presents a historical overview of ethnobotanical knowledge in the region before and after European contact. The ways in which Indigenous peoples used and interacted with plants - for nutrition, technologies, and medicine - are examined. Drawing connections between similarities across languages, Turner compares the names of over 250 plant species in more than fifty Indigenous languages and dialects to demonstrate the prominence of certain plants in various cultures and the sharing of goods and ideas between peoples. She also examines the effects that introduced species and colonialism had on the region's Indigenous peoples and their ecologies.Volume 2 provides a sweeping account of how Indigenous organizational systems developed to facilitate the harvesting, use, and cultivation of plants, to establish economic connections across linguistic and cultural borders, and to preserve and manage resources and habitats. Turner describes the worldviews and philosophies that emerged from the interactions between peoples and plants, and how these understandings are expressed through cultures' stories and narratives. Finally, she explores the ways in which botanical and ecological knowledge can be and are being maintained as living, adaptive systems that promote healthy cultures, environments, and indigenous plant populations.Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge both challenges and contributes to existing knowledge of Indigenous peoples' land stewardship while preserving information that might otherwise have been lost. Providing new and captivating insights into the anthropogenic systems of northwestern North America, it will stand as an authoritative reference work and contribute to a fuller understanding of the interactions between cultures and ecological systems.

This book draws on world-wide experiences and valuable lessons to highlight community-ecosystem interactions and the role of traditional knowledge in sustaining biocultural resources through community-based adaptations. The book targets different audiences including researchers working on human-environment interactions and climate adaptation practices, biodiversity conservators, non-government organizations and policy makers involved in revitalizing traditional foods and community-based conservation and adaptation in diverse ecosystems. This volume is also a source book for educators advocating for and collaborating with indigenous and local peoples to promote location-specific adaptations to overcome the impacts of multiple biotic and abiotic stresses.Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

Linguistic and Genetic (mtDNA) Connections between Native Peoples of Alaska and California: Ancient Mariners of the Middle Holocene traces the linguistic and biological connections between contemporary Aleut people of southwest Alaska and historic Utian people of central California. During the Middle Holocene Period, Aleut and Utian languages diverged from their common parent language, Proto-Aleut-Utian (PAU), spoken by people who resided on or near Kodiak Island in coastal southwest Alaska. Around the time of divergence, Utians departed the PAU homeland, migrating by watercraft along the eastern Pacific coast to the San Francisco Bay Area. The affiliation between Aleut and Utian languages is strongly supported by comparative linguistics and by the genetic link (mtDNA) of groups speaking these languages. On their migration, Utians encountered coastal groups speaking languages different from their own. Through these prolonged and intimate interactions, words were borrowed from Utian into the languages of these native coastal communities. Other significant findings explored in this book are the lack of compelling evidence for the kinship of Eskimo and Aleut peoples, despite scholarship’s long-term acceptance of this proposal, and the discovery of language-structure features shared by Yeniseian and Na Dene, indicating an historical connection for these circumarctic languages.

A Snuneymuxw ethnobotany guide grounded in Indigenous knowledge and deep ancestral connection to the landPlant Teachings from My Auntie: Gathering Coast Salish Plants for Medicine, Textiles, Nourishment, and Ceremony is a richly illustrated compendium of the many culturally significant wild foods and herbal remedies found in the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.Each entry features plant descriptions complete with both their Hul'q'umi'num and botanical names, typical native habitat, and traditional uses. Particular attention is paid to the sacred Western Red Cedar or "tree of life." The book also offers a selection of healing recipes; tips for respectful, sustainable harvesting; ethical and responsible preparation techniques; and a guide to local gathering sites.Snu'y'ulh refers to teachings handed down through generations. Snuneymuxw Elder and Knowledge Keeper Geraldine Manson, whose traditional name is C'tasi:a, draws on the sacred knowledge passed on to her by her "Auntie Ellen," Dr. Ellen White, also known as Kwulasulwut. Central to these learnings is the fundamental concept or protocol of honoring gifts from the land by gathering and preparing in ways that respect the history, culture, spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge associated with each species.This powerful work is a rare treasure that will appeal to those seeking to foster greater cultural understanding and ecological responsibility while deepening their commitment to meaningful reconciliation.

In this groundbreaking, collaborative book, Indigenous knowledge keepers and Western scientists offer a revolutionary blueprint for environmental healing.Reconciling Ways of Knowing invites readers into a powerful, ongoing conversation about how to bring together Indigenous knowledge systems and Western science in ethical, practical, and transformative ways. Rooted in the insight that Indigenous Peoples hold expert, place-based knowledge of lands, waters, and more‑than‑human relatives—knowledge built over millennia—this book argues that true reconciliation must also be an epistemic one: a reconciliation of ways of knowing.Conceived by longtime collaborators and friends Kilslaay Kaaji Sding Miles Richardson (Haida leader) and Dr. David Suzuki (geneticist and environmental leader), and convened with Anishinaabe Elder Dr. Dave Courchene and ethnobotanist Dr. Nancy Turner, this project brought together an impressive range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, Elders, scholars, and practitioners. During the Covid‑19 pandemic, they met online in a series of rich, nearly monthly dialogues to ask tough questions:How should we care for the Earth, not merely “manage resources”?What does ethical collaboration between Indigenous and Western knowledge actually look like in practice?How can we transform decision‑making in nation‑states such as Canada, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand—societies shaped by centuries of colonization?Curated by the lead organizers of the Reconciling Ways of Knowing: Indigenous Knowledge and Science project, this book gathers the most urgent ideas, critiques, and proposals that emerged from those conversations. It shows how Western science, while responsible for many advances, has also produced grave unintended harms—from ozone depletion and toxin biomagnification to the worsening climate emergency—and why integrating Indigenous knowledge, values, and responsibilities is essential to charting a different course.At once sobering and hopeful, Reconciling Ways of Knowing offers:Inspiring examples of cross‑cultural collaboration and environmental leadershipA clear-eyed critique of the limits of Western science when it stands aloneA forward-looking vision for living respectfully with each other and our more‑than‑human relativesFor readers of environmental studies, Indigenous studies, science, policy, and anyone seeking pathways toward a just, sustainable future, this book is both a call to action and a guide for rethinking how we come to know—and care for—our shared planet.Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the production aspects of rabbit rearing. It is based on rearing practices that have been adopted in India, and it offers specific information on topics related to rabbits. The author has drawn on their extensive professional experience, research findings, and the latest data from unmatched sources to provide this information. The book is intended for use by students, teachers, and academics in institutions that specialize in Veterinary Sciences, Animal Sciences, and Livestock Production. It is also a valuable resource for field functionaries in the Animal Husbandry Department and livestock farms in both the public and private sectors. The book includes a variety of topics related to rabbit production.