The intent of this thesis is to explore the role that social norms and values play in natural resource management systems and to see how communities may spread their social norms through ecological storytelling. The Maine lobster industry and Wabanaki communities in Maine are used as two examples for resource management systems. The Maine lobster fishery is known for being one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world. Their history is examined for how their environmental values and social norms influenced their behavior and what led to the establishment of their strong conservation ethic. Wabanaki groups in Maine are known for their traditional ecological knowledge and their use of storytelling to share environmental values. The groups are examined for their shared use of social norms in resource management and how their differing backgrounds and worldviews may influence those social norms and the effectiveness of them. The Maine lobster industry is found to have several key strengths and weaknesses—determining that ecological storytelling may serve as a method to enhance their community and avoid future conflict.

At the turn of the 21st century, truth commissions arose as a new possibility to address the violence and trauma of removing Indigenous children from their families and nations in what is now known as North America. The creation of two truth and reconciliation commissions in Canada and Maine marked an important step in addressing Indigenous demands for justice and the end of harm, alongside Indigenous calls for truth-telling. Holding Indigenous conceptions of justice at its core, this dissertation offers a comparative tracing of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2009-2015) and the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2013-2015) as they investigated state practices of removing Indigenous children from their homes and nations. More specifically, this dissertation examines the ways these truth commissions have intersected with Indigenous stories and how Indigenous stories can inform how we understand the work of truth and reconciliation commissions as they move to provide a form of justice for our communities. Within both commission processes, stories of Indigenous experiences in residential schools and the child welfare system were drawn from the perceived margins of settler colonial society in an effort to move towards truth, healing, reconciliation and justice. Despite this attempted inclusion of stories of Indigenous life experiences, I argue that deeply listening to Indigenous stories ¬¬in their various forms—life/ experiential stories, and traditional stories—illuminates the ways that the practice of reconciliation has become disconnected from Indigenous understandings of justice. As such, I argue that listening to Indigenous stories, not just hearing the words but instead taking them to heart, engaging with them and allowing them to guide us, moves toward more informed understandings of what justice looks like for Indigenous communities. / Graduate / 2022-09-12

Alliés aux Français dans le désir de repousser les Anglais, les Abénaquis ne se gênent pas pour harceler les colons anglais établis le long de la frontière de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. S'ils agissent ainsi, c'est qu'ils désirent repousser les Anglais hors de leurs territoires de chasse de la côte Atlantique. Au cours des divers conflits entre Français et Anglais, les Abénaquis se sont forgé une réputation de féroces guerriers. C'est d'ailleurs celle-ci que le major anglais Robert Rogers cherche à mettre à l'épreuve lors de la Guerre de Sept Ans. C'est donc accompagné de 200 de ses Rangers qu'il s'enfonce dans les bois avec comme seul but, venger les nombreuses familles victimes des attaques abénaquises. Au matin du 4 octobre 1759, Rogers met le village à feu et à sang, avant de s'en retourner péniblement vers le fort No.4 à Charlestown. Avec l'effondrement de leur mission et le départ des Français, les Abénaquis se retrouvent devant de nouvelles autorités coloniales, cette fois-ci britanniques. Maintenant gouvernés par l'ennemi, l'expédition de Rogers sur la mission abénaquise de Saint-François a déclenché un processus de repli et de crainte face aux nouveaux dirigeants. S'assurer de la docilité des Indiens constitue la meilleure façon de les contrôler et d'empêcher une révolte. Il en résulte une nouvelle relation, basée sur la crainte et la menace, facilitant l'adhésion des Abénaquis à la politique diplomatique des Britanniques. Durant les premières années du régime britannique, les autorités vont grandement se servir de cette crainte de représailles, dans le but de s'assurer de l'obéissance des Indiens envers la couronne britannique. Que ce soit pour mater la révolte qui se prépare dans les Grands Lacs avec Pontiac, durant la Guerre d'Indépendance américaine ou durant la Guerre de 1812-1814, les Indiens vont sans cesse appuyer la couronne. Cela n'est pas dénué de sens, puisque lorsque vient le temps d'effectuer des demandes auprès des autorités coloniales, ils ne se gênent pas pour rappeler la fidélité qu'ils ont maintenue à l'égard des Britanniques. Une fidélité auparavant dédiée aux Français, puis conquise par les armes et les traités, à la faveur de Sa Majesté britannique.

Due to escalating carbon-based emissions, anthropogenic climate change is wreaking havoc on the natural and built environment as higher near-surface temperatures cause arctic ice-melt, rising sea levels and unpredictable turbulent weather patterns. The effects are especially devastating to inhabitants living in the water-worlds of developing countries where environmental pressure only exacerbates their vulnerability to oppressive economic policies. As climatic and economic pressures escalate, threats to local resources, living space, safety and security are all reaching a tipping point. Climate refugees may survive, but they will fall victim to displacement, economic insecurity, and socio-cultural destruction. With the current economic system in peril, it is now a matter of urgency that the global community determine ways to modify their behaviour in order to minimize the impact of climate change. This interdisciplinary comparative analysis contributes to the dialogue by turning to environmental history for similar scenarios with contrasting outcomes. It isolates two North Atlantic water-worlds and their inhabitants at an historical juncture when the combination of climatic and economic pressures threatened their survival. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Hebrideans in the Scottish Insular Gàidhealtachd and the Wabanaki in Ketakamigwa were both responding to the harsh conditions of the ‘Little Ice Age.’ While modifying their resource management, settlement patterns, and subsistence behaviours to accommodate climate change, they were simultaneously targeted by foreign opportunists whose practices and perceptions inevitably induced oppressive economic pressure. This critical period in their history serves as the centre of a pendulum that swings back to deglaciation and then forward again to the eighteenth century to examine the relationship between climate change and human behaviour in the North Atlantic. It will be demonstrated that both favourable and deteriorating climate conditions determine resource availability, but how humans manage those resources during feast or famine can determine their collective vulnerability to predators when the climate changes. It is argued that, historically, climate has determined levels of human development and survival on either side of the North Atlantic, regardless of sustainable practices. However, when cultural groups were under extreme environmental and economic pressure, there were additional factors that determined their fate. First, the condition of their native environment and prospect for continuing to inhabit it was partially determined by the level of sustainable practices. And, secondly, the way in which they perceived and treated one another partially determined their endurance. If they avoided internal stratification and self-protectionism by prioritising the needs of the group over that of the individual, they minimised fragmentation, avoided displacement, and maintained their social and culture cohesion.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Comparative Religion, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-64) and discography (p. 65).

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