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Indigenous culture and adaptation to climate change: sockeye salmon and the St’át’imc people

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Abstract

This paper provides a culturally-informed understanding of the impacts of climate change on a highly important subsistence activity that has been practiced by First Nations of central British Columbia for thousands of years. The paper begins with a review of the science regarding sockeye salmon and climate change. It discusses harvest patterns, and how the timing of runs has changed. A survey was conducted by the first author regarding St’át’imc traditional fishing at a historic site on the Fraser River, in 2005. The results show that the impacts of climate change are apparent to those conducting traditional fishing practices, in terms of changed timing and abundance of salmon runs. These perceptions fit closely with the information available from scientists and management agencies. These changes are highly problematic for the St’át’imc, in that the preservation method (drying) is tied to seasonal weather patterns. The whole cultural setting, and the relevance of salmon for subsistence would be highly altered by climate change that leads to changes in the timing and abundance of sockeye salmon. The paper discusses mitigation and adaptation alternatives, but also indicates the scope of these seem limited, given the resource systems and the context of these activities.

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Notes

  1. The communities include Nxwisten, Ts'kw'aylacw, Sekw'el'was, Lil'wat, Chalath, T'it'q'et, Xaxl'ip, N'quatqua, Xa'xtsa, Skatin and Samahquam.

  2. Traditional territory extends north to Churn Creek and south to French Bar and northwest to the Bridge River headwaters, and to the northeast towards Hat Creek Valley down to the Big Slide, and south to the island on Harrison Lake. It also includes west of the Fraser River and the headwaters of Lillooet River, Ryan River and Black Tusk mountain.

  3. An explanation for the view that the fish are arriving later may be because the early runs are now so small that they may seem to those fishing as if they do not arrive at all. The fish that are arriving later than the historical timing for early stocks are almost certainly late run sockeye, which have been arriving earlier than in the past, since about 1994. See Cooke, et al, (2004).

  4. See endnote 3 for an explanation of the perceived late arrivals of early stocks. Those are far more likely to be late returning stocks, which are arriving earlier than in the past. See Cooke, et al, (2004). The early stocks are now extremely depressed and in 2009, no fishing occurred by any groups.

  5. There are no salmon hatcheries on the Fraser River. On the other hand, the comment that the fish seem tired and stressed is directly supported by considerable research. Early migrating late runs are highly physiologically stressed, and in poor condition (Hinch and Gardner, 2009). See Young et al (2006) for a good description of the ‘syndrome’ found in early returning late run sockeye.

  6. There are no dams on the main stem of the Fraser River. The Seton River, a tributary of the Fraser, is dammed, and is a major obstacle to upstream migration, even though it has a fishway.

  7. See endnote 5 for references regarding distressed fish conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the 24 members of the St’át’imc First Nation for giving their time and drawing on their experience to answer questions for this research, along with others who provided their much valued input towards this work. This research was made possible through support from the Climate Decision Making Center (CDMC) located in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. This Center has been created through a cooperative agreement between the National Science Foundation (SES-0345798) and Carnegie Mellon University. The CDMC provided a subgrant to the University of British Columbia for this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Community and Regional Planning and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Rm 415-6333 Memorial Rd, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

    Colleen Jacob & Tim McDaniels

  2. Department of Forest Sciences, and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, 422-2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Scott Hinch

Authors
  1. Colleen Jacob
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  2. Tim McDaniels
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  3. Scott Hinch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tim McDaniels.

Appendix

Appendix

Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Male_Female_

  2. 2.

    Age: 19 – 29_30 – 54_55+_

  3. 3.

    St’át’imc First Nation Member?

  4. 4.

    Do you participate in traditional fishing activities along the Fraser River near the Lillooet area?

  5. 5.

    How long have you been fishing along the Fraser River?

  6. 6.

    What types of fishing activities do you and your family participate in?

  7. 7.

    What time of the year do you go fishing?

  8. 8.

    How many days of the year do you go fishing?

  9. 9.

    Why are traditional fishing practices important to you?

  10. 10.

    Why are traditional fishing practices important to your community?

  11. 11.

    Have you noticed any changes in the abundance of fish over the last few years compared to previous years? Yes _No_If yes, what do you think the reasons are for this change?

  12. 12.

    Have you noticed any changes in the quality of fish over the last few years compared to previous years? Yes_No_If yes, what do you think the reasons are for this change?

  13. 13.

    Have you ever seen those conditions of fish before?

  14. 14.

    In your own words what is “climate change”?

  15. 15.

    What do you think is contributing to “climate change”?

  16. 16.

    In what way(s) do you think climate change is impacting fishing practices?

  17. 17.

    How much of an effect do you think climate change will have on the availability of fish for First Nations fishing in coming years?

  18. 18.

    Have you ever considered the possibility of not fishing due to the poor quality of the fish, and the smaller number of spawning fish? Yes_No_Comments:

  19. 19.

    How much of an impact would it be to you if you were unable to fish because of low availability of fish due to climate change? Rate 1 – 10

  20. 20.

    How would this impact you?

  21. 21.

    How much of an impact would it be to your community if you were unable to fish because of low availability of fish due to climate change? Rate 1 - 10

  22. 22.

    How would this impact your community?

  23. 23.

    How could you respond to the changes in fish abundance and quality due to climate change?

  24. 24.

    What could be done by your community to respond to the changes in fish abundance and quality due to climate change?

  25. 25.

    In 10 years from now, what would you like to see with respect to traditional fishing practices & climate changes?

  26. 26.

    In 10 years from now, what would you not like to see with respect to traditional fishing practices and climate changes?

  27. 27.

    Any additional comments?

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Jacob, C., McDaniels, T. & Hinch, S. Indigenous culture and adaptation to climate change: sockeye salmon and the St’át’imc people. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 15, 859–876 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-010-9244-z

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