Ktunaxa Nation: Community Report 2015

Since 2010, the Ktunaxa Nation Council Lands and Resources Sector has been involved with several technical studies. This community report summarizes two of those studies: the Ktunaxa Diet Study and the Qukin ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa Interests and Use Study. These two studies have contributed to several technical reports and environmental assessments. Ktunaxa citizens participated in research for these studies as trainees and co-researchers, and as knowledge holders in interviews, community meetings, and focus groups. Ktunaxa Lands and Resources Sector staff provided guidance, took part in field research, helped develop maps, and co-wrote reports with technical support from researchers at The Firelight Group. These studies help support the rights and interests of Ktunaxa citizens and governments within the territory. They are helping strengthen Ktunaxa stewardship over lands and waters, strengthening Ktunaxa ability to negotiate with companies and governments proposing development in our traditional lands, and helping us protect our traditional knowledge and language, sacred sites and special places, traditional foods, medicines and resources, and our ability, as the Ktunaxa Nation, and as individuals, to take care of and benefit from lands and waters. The diet study shows that, despite multiple barriers to harvesting, Ktunaxa households have maintained a very active presence on the land, with most households reporting having fished, hunted, and gathered berries in the preceding year.