like a lot of Penobscot Indians I come
from a basket-making family for Wabanaki
people which is the collective name for
all of our tribal nations here in Maine
including my tribe the Penobscot nation
as well as the past Makati mallocing
Mi’kmaq tribes basket-making
is an important tradition for a variety
of reasons it is a source of income for
families it connects us to traditional
places and resources and it is part of
one of our creation stories it is also
the oldest documented arts tradition in
New England and it is at the risk of
being destroyed for our basket makers
brown ash trees are the primary source
material for our tradition in Maine
there are three species of ash tree
green brown and white and collectively
they make up about 4 percent of our
forests brown ash trees grow in much
wetter areas compared to the other ash
trees and this is part of what makes it
such a good basket making material after
processing it can be made supple again
by wetting it after removing the bark
processing is traditionally done with
the butt of an axe head pounding out and
separating the different layers of tree
rings slowly working your way into the
heart of the tree after further
processing and stripping the material
becomes so smooth and silk like it’s
what makes it such a phenomenal basket
in 2013 the invasive species called the
emerald ash borer was found in the trees
in New Hampshire
this has potentially devastating
consequences
once it is discovered here in Maine
most likely over the next couple of
years it will kill most of our ash trees
over the course of a couple of decades
in particular you’ll kill most of the
trees rely on for our basket making
tradition first discovered in Detroit in
2002 the invasive emerald ash borer came
from Asia in the 1980s or 90s on
shipping pallets it kills all species of
ash tree slowly girdling it underneath
the Bark’s of the growth of its larvae
this is what makes it so hard to detect
additionally the adult ash borer it’s
less than an inch long and likes to hang
out up at the top of trees also making
it very difficult to find human beings
have also played a really important role
in making it spread much more quickly
than we first thought transporting
unwittingly firewood from one location
to the next you might see the signs
don’t bring any firewood into Maine
please don’t a lot of our problems in
society are like the emerald ash borer
there’s no clear or technical solution
and requires us to bring many kinds of
knowledge and many groups of people
together to solve in their 1973 seminal
article theories on a general dilemma of
planning I know you all read it
by the way Ritalin Weber talked about
two classes or problems that we a
society faced pain problems and wicked
problems pain problems require know-how
technical expertise will but they are as
they sound able to be tamed through
enough will and resources
like delivering water to remote
locations in the aftermath of a
hurricane wicked problems on the other
hand are much more difficult to define
in our often society’s most difficult
and urgent issues they also force us to
confront our social cultural and
experiential differences because they
require many points of view to solve the
emerald ash borer is a wicked problem
when I returned to Maine in 2009 I was
intent on making putting my fancy
privileged education to use by
supporting our cultural traditions in
whatever way I could through the through
education and research the thought of
the emerald ash borer threatening our
tradition scared me so I reached out to
a group of allies and friends and figure
out what could we do about this emerging
threat as a native scholar committed
doing research that benefits native
people I also knew that a thoughtful
culturally appropriate process would be
required to address this wicked problem
it’s a wicked problem we quickly put
together a diverse group of people
basket makers tribal government folks
state and federal foresters university
researchers to come together to address
this problem we also put at the
forefront of our research project
Wabanaki knowledge in diplomacy Wabanaki
diplomacy which is rooted in our
Confederacy the Wabanaki Confederacy a
historic and culture cross-cultural
multinational alliance between the
Penobscot Paso Quoddy McMackin Maliseet
tribes not only up not only of Maine but
also of the Maritime
of Canada as reflected in our
Confederacy Wabanaki diplomacy is a
cross-cultural set of protocols on how
to solve problems how to work together
and we grew great inspiration from this
I noticed something as we are doing our
work
contemporary claims by native people and
Wabanaki in particular are similar in
tone an issue to 18th and 19th century
speeches and petitions that we issued so
long ago in the 18th century we were
intent on signing treaties that would
prevent European incursion into our
homelands and by the 19th century we
were intent on maintaining our
relationships to natural resources there
are also guaranteed in treaties one of
our petitions from 1821 shows something
special about Wabanaki diplomacy in it
we while we could make a claim to treat
Indians and non-indians differently we
actually say something more critical
about who knows a resource and who could
make a decision about planning for it
especially in a time of scarcity in this
petition it states in the time of our
forefathers the Penobscot River provided
for us all that we needed to make a
living we ask that you make a law so
that the white people and the Indians be
/ be permitted only to fish 2 days a
week in the time of the salmon shad in
alewife for a period of 5 years if you
do so the fish will become plenty again
as part of our project we are intent
that different knowledge traditions
could answer the fundamental question
a good example of this is how we
collectively decided to map the
potential impacts of the emerald ash
borer on all ash trees in Maine
well government regulators and
university researchers had great maps
and statistical models our basket makers
and resource gatherers were excellent at
providing a level of detail that they
lacked they lived with the resource
every day and could tell us potential
impacts that we just didn’t know about
for us this bringing together knowledge
traditions form a critical basis of our
research project as we progressed we
faced even more difficult and wicked
problems how would we respond when the
emerald ash borer came on to tribal
lands how would we collectively all work
together to find a way to combat this
invasive species as we looked around for
answers to these questions we found that
other states had done almost nothing to
incorporate indigenous people into their
planning in response and we were intent
on doing it differently so we made sure
to sign a series of multinational
multilateral agreements that would
include basket makers into whatever
response we came up with it’s
interesting that I thought first going
into this project that the University
researchers and government regulators
would resist my approach of being
culturally appropriate or inclusive of
other forms of knowledge but it was just
the opposite they knew the fundamental
issues were hard to solve and they would
often thank me in a way that was like
hey we’re finally in the right room at
the right time with the right people
solving the right
issues they were able to let go of their
role as the only expert and really
solved together with others who are very
different than them a really urgent
problem I recognize that Wabanaki
diplomacy which I see as a tool as a
critical tool for solving wicked
problems cannot be used in every
situation I would hope that it’s used
that we use these tools when we as
Wabanaki people are impacted or our
neighbors like all of you whether we use
Wabanaki knowledge and diplomacy in
dressing a wicked problem the lesson is
so powerful don’t assume everyone is in
the room when you’re trying to solve a
wicked problem make sure you try to
understand the problem from a bunch of
different perspectives and speak
yourself to a process that allows for
different points of view and really
stick with it you might just find the
answers you need if not the ones you’re
looking for thank you
[Applause]
from a basket-making family for Wabanaki
people which is the collective name for
all of our tribal nations here in Maine
including my tribe the Penobscot nation
as well as the past Makati mallocing
Mi’kmaq tribes basket-making
is an important tradition for a variety
of reasons it is a source of income for
families it connects us to traditional
places and resources and it is part of
one of our creation stories it is also
the oldest documented arts tradition in
New England and it is at the risk of
being destroyed for our basket makers
brown ash trees are the primary source
material for our tradition in Maine
there are three species of ash tree
green brown and white and collectively
they make up about 4 percent of our
forests brown ash trees grow in much
wetter areas compared to the other ash
trees and this is part of what makes it
such a good basket making material after
processing it can be made supple again
by wetting it after removing the bark
processing is traditionally done with
the butt of an axe head pounding out and
separating the different layers of tree
rings slowly working your way into the
heart of the tree after further
processing and stripping the material
becomes so smooth and silk like it’s
what makes it such a phenomenal basket
in 2013 the invasive species called the
emerald ash borer was found in the trees
in New Hampshire
this has potentially devastating
consequences
once it is discovered here in Maine
most likely over the next couple of
years it will kill most of our ash trees
over the course of a couple of decades
in particular you’ll kill most of the
trees rely on for our basket making
tradition first discovered in Detroit in
2002 the invasive emerald ash borer came
from Asia in the 1980s or 90s on
shipping pallets it kills all species of
ash tree slowly girdling it underneath
the Bark’s of the growth of its larvae
this is what makes it so hard to detect
additionally the adult ash borer it’s
less than an inch long and likes to hang
out up at the top of trees also making
it very difficult to find human beings
have also played a really important role
in making it spread much more quickly
than we first thought transporting
unwittingly firewood from one location
to the next you might see the signs
don’t bring any firewood into Maine
please don’t a lot of our problems in
society are like the emerald ash borer
there’s no clear or technical solution
and requires us to bring many kinds of
knowledge and many groups of people
together to solve in their 1973 seminal
article theories on a general dilemma of
planning I know you all read it
by the way Ritalin Weber talked about
two classes or problems that we a
society faced pain problems and wicked
problems pain problems require know-how
technical expertise will but they are as
they sound able to be tamed through
enough will and resources
like delivering water to remote
locations in the aftermath of a
hurricane wicked problems on the other
hand are much more difficult to define
in our often society’s most difficult
and urgent issues they also force us to
confront our social cultural and
experiential differences because they
require many points of view to solve the
emerald ash borer is a wicked problem
when I returned to Maine in 2009 I was
intent on making putting my fancy
privileged education to use by
supporting our cultural traditions in
whatever way I could through the through
education and research the thought of
the emerald ash borer threatening our
tradition scared me so I reached out to
a group of allies and friends and figure
out what could we do about this emerging
threat as a native scholar committed
doing research that benefits native
people I also knew that a thoughtful
culturally appropriate process would be
required to address this wicked problem
it’s a wicked problem we quickly put
together a diverse group of people
basket makers tribal government folks
state and federal foresters university
researchers to come together to address
this problem we also put at the
forefront of our research project
Wabanaki knowledge in diplomacy Wabanaki
diplomacy which is rooted in our
Confederacy the Wabanaki Confederacy a
historic and culture cross-cultural
multinational alliance between the
Penobscot Paso Quoddy McMackin Maliseet
tribes not only up not only of Maine but
also of the Maritime
of Canada as reflected in our
Confederacy Wabanaki diplomacy is a
cross-cultural set of protocols on how
to solve problems how to work together
and we grew great inspiration from this
I noticed something as we are doing our
work
contemporary claims by native people and
Wabanaki in particular are similar in
tone an issue to 18th and 19th century
speeches and petitions that we issued so
long ago in the 18th century we were
intent on signing treaties that would
prevent European incursion into our
homelands and by the 19th century we
were intent on maintaining our
relationships to natural resources there
are also guaranteed in treaties one of
our petitions from 1821 shows something
special about Wabanaki diplomacy in it
we while we could make a claim to treat
Indians and non-indians differently we
actually say something more critical
about who knows a resource and who could
make a decision about planning for it
especially in a time of scarcity in this
petition it states in the time of our
forefathers the Penobscot River provided
for us all that we needed to make a
living we ask that you make a law so
that the white people and the Indians be
/ be permitted only to fish 2 days a
week in the time of the salmon shad in
alewife for a period of 5 years if you
do so the fish will become plenty again
as part of our project we are intent
that different knowledge traditions
could answer the fundamental question
a good example of this is how we
collectively decided to map the
potential impacts of the emerald ash
borer on all ash trees in Maine
well government regulators and
university researchers had great maps
and statistical models our basket makers
and resource gatherers were excellent at
providing a level of detail that they
lacked they lived with the resource
every day and could tell us potential
impacts that we just didn’t know about
for us this bringing together knowledge
traditions form a critical basis of our
research project as we progressed we
faced even more difficult and wicked
problems how would we respond when the
emerald ash borer came on to tribal
lands how would we collectively all work
together to find a way to combat this
invasive species as we looked around for
answers to these questions we found that
other states had done almost nothing to
incorporate indigenous people into their
planning in response and we were intent
on doing it differently so we made sure
to sign a series of multinational
multilateral agreements that would
include basket makers into whatever
response we came up with it’s
interesting that I thought first going
into this project that the University
researchers and government regulators
would resist my approach of being
culturally appropriate or inclusive of
other forms of knowledge but it was just
the opposite they knew the fundamental
issues were hard to solve and they would
often thank me in a way that was like
hey we’re finally in the right room at
the right time with the right people
solving the right
issues they were able to let go of their
role as the only expert and really
solved together with others who are very
different than them a really urgent
problem I recognize that Wabanaki
diplomacy which I see as a tool as a
critical tool for solving wicked
problems cannot be used in every
situation I would hope that it’s used
that we use these tools when we as
Wabanaki people are impacted or our
neighbors like all of you whether we use
Wabanaki knowledge and diplomacy in
dressing a wicked problem the lesson is
so powerful don’t assume everyone is in
the room when you’re trying to solve a
wicked problem make sure you try to
understand the problem from a bunch of
different perspectives and speak
yourself to a process that allows for
different points of view and really
stick with it you might just find the
answers you need if not the ones you’re
looking for thank you
[Applause]
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