Immobilizing Polar Bears/Inuit: Productivity and Interspecies Wildlife Management in the Canadian Arctic
Schreiber, D. 2013. “Immobilizing Polar Bears/Inuit: Productivity and Interspecies Wildlife Management in the Canadian Arctic.” Anthropologica 55: 157-176.
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Abstract: In this article, I describe polar bear research in the Northwest Territories in the 1970s and 1980s. This research operated through understandings of biological productivity that biologists used to civilize Arctic environments. Wildlife biologists saw inefficiency, instability and waste in polar bears' fluctuating fat stores. The Inuit hunt was similarly scrutinized for its conversion of polar bears into cash and its management of energetic resources. With the body as the locus of their concern, scientists monitored the circulation of energy in and between individuals and populations and, in doing so, demarcated the limits of normal biological function for both humans and bears.
"They Had a Deep Respect for the Earth:" Teaching Ethnoecology in the Settler-Canadian Classroom
Schreiber, D. 2010. “ 'They Had a Deep Respect for the Earth:’ Teaching Ethnoecology in the Settler-Canadian Classroom.” New Proposals 3(3): 32-40.
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Abstract: In courses on Indigenous peoples and the environment, the classroom becomes a potent site of Native-settler encounter, where the settler-Canadian student deploys and reinterprets existing narratives about Indigenous peoples and the land. A central character in these stories is a phantom-like Indian figure who is just on the brink of disappearing, and who has “deep understandings” ready to be transferred to the morally prepared student. In this view, being Indigenous is simply one of many mental alternatives in which the Indigenous “feeling for nature” promises to restore sustainability and simplicity to once-Indigenous westerners. These narratives silence ongoing disputes over Indigenous lands and resources and constrain teaching about the history and politics of Native-settler relations.
"A Liberal and Paternal Spirit:" Indian Agents and Native Fisheries in Canada
Schreiber, D. 2008. “ ‘A Liberal and Paternal Spirit:’ Indian Agents and Native Fisheries in Canada.” Ethnohistory 55(1): 87-118.
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Abstract: In the 1890s native fisheries stood in the way of expanding industrial and sport fisheries in Canada. Federal regulations denied a commercial component to native fisheries, restricted harvesting to designated open seasons, and outlawed the technologically specialized and place-based fisheries on which native communities had depended for millennia. Although fisheries officers enforced these rules, Indian agents—the field workers of the Department of Indian Affairs—were the ones who oversaw day-to-day life in native villages, including the fisheries. This article examines the responses of Indian agents across Canada to an Indian Affairs circular sent in 1897, requesting information about native fisheries. The Indian agents' letters of reply suggest that it was the ordinary confrontations and administrative decisions over fishing spaces, gear, closed seasons, and licenses, rather than the official policies of the Department of Indian Affairs, that worked to redefine native fishing in accordance with settler interests. By extending so-called privileges to native fishers, Indian agents worked to conserve the resource for a settler society and assimilate native fishers into state management practices.
Collaborations on the Periphery: The Wolcott-Sewid Potlatch Controversy
Newell, D. and Schreiber, D. 2007. “Collaborations on the Periphery: The Wolcott-Sewid Potlatch Controversy.” BC Studies 152, Winter 2006/07: 7-33.
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First Nations, Consultation, and the Rule of Law: Salmon Farming and Colonialism in British Columbia
Schreiber, D. 2006. “First Nations, Consultation, and the Rule of Law: Salmon Farming and Colonialism in British Columbia.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 30(4): 19-40.
Negotiating TEK in BC Salmon Farming: "Learning from Each Other" or Managing Tradition and Eliminating Contention?
Schreiber, D. and Newell, D. 2006. “Negotiating TEK in BC Salmon Farming: Learning from Each Other or Managing Tradition and Eliminating Contention?” BC Studies 150, Summer 2006: 79-102.
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Salmon Farming and Salmon People: Identity and Environment in the Leggatt Inquiry
Schreiber D. 2003. “Salmon Farming and Salmon People: Identity and Environment in the Leggatt Inquiry.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 27(4): 79-103.
“Our Wealth Sits on the Table:" Food, Resistance, and Salmon Farming in Two First Nations Communities
Schreiber, D. 2002. “Our Wealth Sits on the Table: Food, Resistance, and Salmon Farming in Two First Nations Communities.” American Indian Quarterly 26(3): 360-377.
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The Framing of Farmed Fish: Product, Efficiency, and Technology
Schreiber, D., Matthews, R., and Elliott, B. 2003. “The Framing of Farmed Fish: Product, Efficiency, and Technology.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 28(2): 153-169.
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Co-management Without Involvement
Schreiber, D. 2001..Co-management without involvement: the plight of fishing communities. Fish and Fisheries 2(4): 376–384.
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Abstract: This paper discusses the role of fishing communities in the stewardship of their adjacent fish resources, and the benefits associated with community participation in co-management. Contrary to the view of most fisheries management agencies, local communities are able to design institutions that can successfully restore equity and limit access to the fishery. The dismissal of local concerns may be at the root of biological and social crises in fisheries, and the privatization of common fishing rights world-wide through individual transferable quotas (ITQs) is contributing to these problems. Community involvement that is embedded into a network of management at larger spatial scales would allow fishing communities to regain some control over their livelihoods. Meaningful co-management arrangements must go beyond consultation by redirecting the flow of social and economic benefits from the fishery back into communities. Unless geographically defined communities are allowed to share power and responsibility with government fisheries managers, both fish stocks and fishing as a way of life are in danger of vanishing.