Ina makoce daca yusbemakina: identifying environmental impacts and changes within Alberta's Isga nation

Abstract

This qualitative research was conducted within Alberta’s Isga Nation, specifically Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Paul First Nation in central Alberta, Canada. The Isga are located in a hub of industrial activity such as oil drilling and development, sour gas drilling, coal mining, agriculture, and forestry. Despite the whirlwind of industrial activity surrounding them, the Isga people continue to carry out their traditional harvesting activities in and around Alberta, Canadas’ foothills and Rocky Mountains. The research objective was to better understand environmental impacts and changes in Alberta’s Isga Nation. More specifically, document concerns traditional land use harvesters have about: i) the decline in the health and abundance of medicines and berries; ii) the state of health the waterfowl and other wildlife are in; iii) testimony that industrial activity is causing environmental degradation; iv) the health of our lakes and rivers; and v) and worries about how the continuation of the Isga way of life will be affected in the future. The methods, or Isga ways of knowing provide first hand knowledge that the Isga are forced to seek areas outside their traditional harvesting territory to seek medicines and berries; that the wildlife, particularly moose, are showing abnormalities when they are harvested; that the health of the rivers and lakes is rapidly decreasing; and that the survival of the Isga way of life is being threatened today. Moreover, Isga voices will illuminate that their traditional territory is rapidly decreasing in environmental health and abundance because of oil drilling and development, sour gas drilling, coal mining, agriculture, and forestry.