What may look just like a ‘wild westcoast forest’ isn’t actually wilderness, but instead, a garden that has been stewarded by Indigenous peoples for thousands and thousands of years.
This Western Redcedar is a Culturally Modified Tree that was utilized by Tla-O-Qui-Aht peoples hundreds of years ago, whom have been stewarding these lands since time immemorial, and there’s a lot we can learn about these relationships to help guide us towards a better future.
These subtle scars are from bark strippings, in which sections of the trees bark were removed to be used in numerous ways, from weaving, to rope making, clothing, boxes, and so much more. Most importantly, this is only done on a small part of the tree, leaving the cambium layer intact so that the tree could continue to grow and thrive within this ecosystem, slowing rolling over this wound with layers of bark to seal it off.
Many big older trees have had many bark pullings done over their lives, gifting their bark back to the human peoples they shared these ecosystems with, the peoples who steward salmon and allow these trees to thrive, yet you wouldn’t ever know it because the bark has sealed off the would, showing no sign of the pulling. Instead, we know this because when modern logging practices clearcut forests and cut down ancient trees, the patterns left in the heartwood denotes bark pullings at several points over hundreds of years…but now those trees are gone, all so that some fat cat on wall street can make a little bit more profit.
Contrary to this mindset, Indigenous worldviews like that of Tla-O-Qui-Aht often view human people as just one type of person amongst all these other non-human people in these ecosystems, all working together sharing gifts of reciprocity to survive together, as one big family.
With over 72,000 culturally modified trees within 100 meters of the coastline, forests like this are NOT wilderness, but instead gardens where human peoples have reciprocally participated in and stewarded these lands to create abundance that allows for all to thrive.
@tlaoquiaht.tribal.parks
#CMT #indigenous #relationship #cedar #treeoflife #westernredcedar #forest #ecology #wilderness #nature #forestry #logging #nonhumanpeople #worldview #dobetter #betterfuture