Fall 2025 > IndigAg Final > Flashcards

IndigAg Final Flashcards

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1
Q

What misconceptions exist about Indigenous agriculture?

A
  • Indigenous peoples were not farmers
  • primitive Indian stereotype
  • seen as passive observers of nature
  • thought to be only hunter‑gatherers
  • terra nullius assumption.
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2
Q

What is social evolutionism?

A

The idea that societies progress linearly from savagery to civilization, often used to rank agricultural development by technology.

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3
Q

What is the culture area concept?

A

A framework grouping regions by shared cultural traits.

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4
Q

What is an archaeological culture?

A

A set of material artifacts consistently found together across a region and time.

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5
Q

What was the Plains Woodland period?

A

Archaeological cultures across the Great Plains from ~2500–200 BP. (~500 BCE–1800 CE)

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6
Q

What are centres of agricultural origin?

A

Places where agriculture evolved independently, such as the Fertile Crescent, China, Mexico, South America, and Eastern North America.

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7
Q

What is plant domestication?

A

The process of changing wild plants for human use—traits include loss of seed dispersal/dormancy, larger seeds, uniform maturity, and self‑fertility.

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8
Q

What are the 4plant‑human relationship models?

A
  • Scala Naturae (dominance over plants)
  • exploitive/exploited
  • relationality
  • and ‘all my relations’.
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9
Q

What is kincentric ecology?

A

Viewing humans as part of an ecological family with plants, animals, and other beings.

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10
Q

What are subsistence strategies?

A

The ways societies obtain food.

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11
Q

What is polyculture?

A

Growing multiple crops in one area.

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12
Q

What is Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)?

A

Knowledge built by Indigenous peoples over centuries of interaction with the environment.

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13
Q

What was the Little Ice Age?

A

A period of cooling that impacted maize agriculture.

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14
Q

What are the Three Sisters?

A

Corn, beans, and squash grown together.

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15
Q

What is the mound system?

A

A Haudenosaunee method improving soil, spacing, nutrients, and reducing erosion.

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16
Q

What are cultural burning and land management strategies?

A

Controlled fire and practices like selective harvesting, soil enrichment, irrigation, and agroforestry.

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17
Q

What are examples of wild food cultivation?

A

Tree nut tending, wild rice, clam gardens, fish weirs, root gardens.

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18
Q

What is colonization?

A

When one group takes control over another.

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19
Q

What is mercantilism?

A

Economic system where colonies supply cheap raw materials to enrich the home country.

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20
Q

What is the Doctrine of Discovery?

A

Principle used by Europeans to claim Indigenous lands.

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21
Q

What is a treaty?

A

A negotiated agreement between sovereign nations.

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22
Q

What is private property?

A

Individual ownership with power to exclude, use, keep surplus, and sell.

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23
Q

What are Indigenous territorial systems?

A

Joint land holding, autonomy, responsibility to land, shared surplus, no land selling.

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24
Q

What is manifest destiny?

A

Belief settlers were destined to expand westward.

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25
What is a keystone species?
A species critical to an ecosystem’s structure and function.
26
What is a cultural keystone species?
A species central to a culture’s diet, materials, or medicine.
27
What is the bison economy?
Plains peoples relied on bison for food, clothing, tools, and trade.
28
What were major documents in this course?
- Royal Proclamation (1763) - Numbered Treaties - treaty ag clauses - Indian Act - pass/permit system - severalty - peasant farm policy.
29
What is Land Surrender?
Policy encouraging First Nations to give up reserve land to the federal government.
30
What is Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE)?
Process to address land shortfalls in original treaty allocations.
31
What is the TLE equity formula?
Outstanding acres = (% not counted) × (current population) × (acres per person).
32
What are Specific Claims?
Claims addressing treaty violations or mismanagement of land/assets and seeking compensation for said violations.
33
What are Agricultural Benefits Specific Claims?
Specific claims related to unmet treaty agriculture promises.
34
What are First Nations land management regimes?
- Framework Agreement on FN Land Management - RLEMP - and Self‑Government.
35
What private property exists under the Indian Act?
- Certificates of Possession - leasing - customary rights.
36
What is food sovereignty?
The right to healthy, culturally appropriate, sustainably produced food and control over food systems.
37
What is Indigenous food sovereignty?
Indigenous control over food systems grounded in culture, land, and self‑determination.
38
What is food security?
Access for all people at all times to safe, nutritious, preferred food.
39
What are the four dimensions of food security?
- Availability - access - utilization - stability.
40
What is a food system?
All activities and interactions from input supply to consumption and disposal, plus policy and culture.
41
What are key strategies to revitalize Indigenous food systems?
Reviving relationships to land, education/training, partnerships, and diverse food sector engagement.
42
What is terra nullius?
The idea that land was 'empty' if not used like Europeans, used to justify taking Indigenous lands.
43
Why is the “primitive Indian” stereotype incorrect?
Indigenous peoples had complex farming, land management, and ecological knowledge.
44
What is the significance of maize in Indigenous agriculture?
A major domesticated crop central to diets, trade, and farming systems.
45
Why were polyculture systems effective?
- They improved soil health - reduced pests - increased resilience.
46
What is cultural burning used for?
Managing vegetation, improving food species, and reducing wildfire risk.
47
What are clam gardens?
Rock-wall terraces built to enhance clam production on the Northwest Coast.
48
What are fish weirs?
Structures placed in rivers to guide and harvest fish sustainably.
49
Why did Europeans underestimate Indigenous farming?
Different land use practices didn’t match European definitions of agriculture.
50
What was the economic goal of early European colonizers?
Extracting raw materials cheaply from colonies.
51
How did disease shape early colonial contact?
Infectious diseases reduced Indigenous populations and disrupted food systems.
52
What were treaty agricultural clauses?
Promises of tools, animals, seeds, and support for Indigenous farming.
53
Why were treaty agricultural promises often unmet?
Government underfunding, restrictive policies, and racism.
54
What was the pass system?
A policy requiring First Nations people to obtain permission to leave their reserve.
55
What was the permit system?
Restrictions requiring permits for selling farm products or buying equipment.
56
Why did Indigenous farmers succeed in the 1880s?
- Skilled farming - community labour - strong adoption of new methods.
57
What caused the decline of reserve farming after the 1880s?
- Government restrictions - peasant farm policy - lack of support.
58
What was the Peasant Farming Policy?
A policy limiting Indigenous farmers to small plots and simple tools.
59
What was the purpose of severalty?
To break up communal reserve land into individual parcels.
60
What was the impact of bison loss?
Starvation, disruption of food systems, and dependency on rations.
61
How did the railway and homesteading impact Indigenous land?
Increased settler demand for land and pressure for land surrenders.
62
What were early 1900s land surrenders?
Government efforts to acquire reserve land for settlers.
63
Why were many land surrenders unfair?
Coercion, misinformation, and violating fiduciary duties to First Nations.
64
What is the role of TLE trusts?
Hold funds and manage land purchases for First Nations.
65
How did TLE change reserve lands in Saskatchewan?
Added nearly 1 million acres of land.
66
Why is land quality a concern in TLE?
New reserve lands often have lower agricultural productivity.
67
What is moral hazard in leasing reserve land?
Lessee farmers may not care for land as well because they do not own it.
68
Why is much reserve cropland leased out?
Limited access to capital, training, and equipment for community farmers.
69
Why is distance a problem for new reserve lands?
They are often far from home reserves, making management difficult.
70
What is food insecurity?
Lack of reliable access to adequate, nutritious food.
71
Why is food insecurity higher in Indigenous communities?
- Poverty - remoteness - colonial policies - environmental change.
72
What is the utilization dimension of food security?
How bodies absorb nutrients and the safety/quality of food.
73
What does stability mean in food security?
Consistent access to food over time.
74
Why is data collection important for Indigenous food policy?
Without data, governments cannot design effective support programs.
75
What is Indigenous food systems revitalization?
Restoring traditional harvesting, growing, and land relationships.
76
What are community freezers?
Storage programs that increase access to harvested wild foods.
77
What is the Buffalo Treaty?
An agreement supporting bison restoration for cultural and ecological reasons.
78
What is Wâhkôhtowin?
A Cree principle meaning kinship among human and non-human relatives.
79
What is the role of workshops in food sovereignty?
Sharing knowledge and rebuilding community skills.
80
What is a food forest?
A multi-layered, self-sustaining system producing food and medicines.
81
What is the Tea Creek initiative?
An Indigenous-led training farm teaching agriculture and land-based skills.
Fall 2025
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