Shellfish harvesting in Boundary Bay - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 111

politics of calculation. In order to participate legally in the harvest, the tribal
members must navigate a foreign bureaucracy with a matrix of rules and regulations.
The particulars of when, where, how, whom, and how much are all meticulously
outlined and governed by state officials such as the Washington State Department
of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington State Department of Health. The wording
and procedures of the regulations reflect a Western scientific approach to wildlife
management rather than a Traditional Ecological Knowledge approach, which shifts
the process of harvesting from an inherent right to a conditional right - a
fundamental distinction (Cajete, 2000; Little Bear, 2000; Nadasdy, 2004).
Participating in population surveys and estimates, reporting catch and providing
written notification of intention to harvest are all management techniques that
place the right to harvest in the context of a policed system (Nadasdy, 2004). To
many Coast Salish community members, the old adage, “when the tide is out, the
table is set” is seen as a fundamental part of the traditional family-based tenure
practices for harvesting this resource. Similarly, as one fisherwoman recalls, “When
we needed fish for our family, we set out our nets and had food on our table in
the evening. We did not need to wait for someone to tell us that the season was
'open' and then have to report our 'catch' to an external agency” (personal
communication with author, 2009). This continual monitoring is perceived as a
form of colonization and an affront to core values associated with what it means
to be a Coast Salish person (Bierwert, 1999). The rules for harvesting are both
internally and externally policed. The tribes themselves are responsible for working
within the defined foreign system and reporting “aberrant” behavior. For the foreign
system to function within tribal territory, the tribal members have to accept or
internalize the regulations, thereby reinforcing the norms of a colonial present.
Participation in surveys, calculations, and reporting transforms the act of shellfish
harvesting into a Western-based science. For the Coast Salish fisherperson, however,
distinct rules for access to resources are embedded in cultural norms and passed
down through generations. In this system, in which an intricate organizational
scheme exists within a tribe and inter-tribally, everyone in the community has a
role in harvesting, from net mending to cooking and all family members are
provided for (Suttles, 1954, 1990; Boxberger, 1989).
However, working within the usual and accustomed system, shellfish are treated
as countable objects, disconnected from traditional rights of access. This reporting
system also reinforces distinct power relations in which State bureaucracies control
key aspects of the harvest. The physical demarcation of political borders - the
Canada-U.S. border, reserve boundaries, and usual and accustomed harvest areas
- separates cultural landscapes and further contributes to the weakening of the
historical-cultural act of harvesting. Each of these bordering practices, although
serving different means, are interrelated in that they create a paradigm of regulation
over resources. This is problematic particularly in Washington State, where the
tribes must access the tidelands through private lands.
The process of enumerating shellfish further places the harvest into a quantifiable
framework, reducing the complexities of shellfish harvesting into a calculable (and
manageable) quantity (Mitchell, 1991, 2002). This framework lends itself to