“We are the ones that we are waiting for” - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 116

sustainability of the Coast Salish peoples”. The Coast Salish Gatherings represent
more than seventy tribes and bands that span and pre-date the Canada-U.S. border,
encompassing approximately 72,000 square kilometers of the Coast Salish region.
The creation of the Salish governing body does not replace participation in other
environmental fora; rather, it provides an organization designed for and by Salish
people that places the Coast Salish belief system at the forefront of the governance
structure.
A key issue that the Gatherings address - and a central theme in this topic - is
creating governance mechanisms commensurate to a scale that makes sense,
ecologically and culturally. The protection of the watercourses of the Salish Sea
is also a practical matter of preserving traditional lifeways. The bioaccumulative
effects of pollution coupled with years of overharvesting have placed tremen-
dous strain on the natural resources of the Salish Sea Basin, thereby disrupting
the political, economic, and cultural fabric of many Coast Salish communities
(Donatuto, 2008). Understanding the importance of these Gatherings provides
valuable insights into the scalar politics of transboundary water governance. That
the new governance mechanisms are, at their foundation, based on Coast Salish
territorial boundaries, rather than institutions representing Canada or the United
States, challenges implicit assumptions regarding constructions of scale, particularly
in a postcolonial context.
This chapter explores the mechanisms that the Indigenous leaders are using to
challenge colonial scalar constructions. Coast Salish Tribes and First Nations are
(re)creating a shared sense of identity congruent with traditional territory and that
reinforces cultural values through techniques that scholars and activists call “critical
cartography” and “strategic essentialism”. As found throughout this topic, exploring
scalar politics provides critical insights into the power dynamics often implicit in
water governance, particularly for watercourses that transgress political boundaries.
This case, which encompasses multiple jurisdictions and interpretations of spatial
constructs, provides an interesting avenue to analyze scalar politics from the lens
of transnational politics for Indigenous communities because Indigenous leaders
are using shared cultural identities to challenge colonial boundary-drawing (see
Figure 6.1).
Drawing the line: borders, power, and Indigenous space
As seen in the previous chapters, the delineation of the Canada-U.S. border and
its subsequent provinces, states, and regions is part of the construction of a cultural
landscape and identity built by culturally specific meanings. The centuries-old
negotiation of territory that is now deemed Canada and the United States were
part of a series of negotiations, disputes, and treaties that defined and redefined
territories as separate spaces. Although documenting the historical processes that
defined the modern Canada-U.S. border is beyond the scope of this chapter, it is
important to acknowledge that the construction of political borders is part of wider
geohistorical processes (see Textbox 2.2).