Working with indigenous communities: The original caretakers of crops and crop wild relatives

Abstract

Indigenous peoples are numerous, both in population and the number of distinct cultures across North America. They have managed plants in natural and agricultural environments for thousands of years in North America. Many of these domesticated, cultivated, and wild plants remain important within the indigenous cultures and across the globe. In order for these resources to be used to their full potential, there is a need for cooperative governance of the plants as well as the need to treat each tribe/First Nation as an individual government entity. Select case studies from the Northern Great Lakes region illustrate the ongoing natural resource management by tribal/First Nation governments in an effort to demonstrate strategies that researchers might employ to achieve productive working relationships with these original caretakers of crops and crop wild relatives.