How the beaver is teaching Indigenous communities about ecological balance and reciprocity

For as long as he can remember, Alvin First Rider says there have been frequent droughts in Blackfoot territory in Alberta, making water a valuable resource.

“Our tributaries are not getting the water they historically would have,” said Furst Ryder, an environmental scientist and environmental manager at Blood Tribe Land Management. Tributaries are small rivers or streams that flow into larger bodies of water.

First Rider hopes the beaver will help keep water on the land by building the equivalent of a beaver dam—a man-made dam built using natural materials such as dirt, rocks and willow branches—to better manage the community's water supply, especially during periods of drought.

“It essentially mimics what a beaver does,” he said. unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild.

These structures slow the flow of water, which helps restore the natural ecosystem and reduce the risk of environmental problems such as floods or wildfires.

Beavers are found throughout North America and have spiritual significance to many indigenous cultures. They are tenacious builders, an important species to the environment, and carry a message of reciprocity and family bonds.

First River says Indigenous land management practices combine Indigenous knowledge with modern science to help solve problems facing the environment.

“We try to think holistically: how we treat the landscape and how we interact with it,” he said.

Over the past two years, First Rider has helped build four equivalent beaver dams in the Bloody Preserve, and he says their presence has already had a positive effect. This year, one area that was previously completely dry held water for several months. Water is important for livestock and agriculture.

“It also improves the quality of our traditional plants such as willows and sweetgrass,” First Rider said. “And we were able to see those kinds of direct impacts that help our Blackfeet way of life.”

Beaver connection to wild rice

Beavers also play an important role in Anishinaabe culture due to their relationship to manoomin, the Anishinaabemowin name for wild rice.

Mickey Garrity is studying this connection for his doctoral dissertation at the Fairfax Beaver Laboratory at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“It is widely believed that beavers change the water levels in wild rice beds, and this can harm the rice,” she said. Her research aims to determine whether beavers are harming wild rice habitats or whether they can help create suitable habitat.

She says that while the relationship between Anishinaabe and Manoomin has changed since colonization, it remains important to understanding themselves and their relationship to their homeland.

“It makes sense that our ancestors obviously understood some of the work that beavers did and saw beavers creating wetlands where manoomin would then grow,” Garrity said.

Displacement and resettlement through colonization, as well as major changes to the natural landscape as a result of development, have impacted manoomin's gathering areas.

Garrity believes that pre-colonial relationships were reciprocal.

“Beavers, rice and people have existed here in these fluid, dynamic ecological and cultural systems and relationships for a very long time.”

Restoring relations with beavers

Brynn Lavallee-Heckert says it's important to remember those moments in history where relationships with beavers weren't always one of reciprocity.

Lavallee-Heckert is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and executive director of the Festival du Voyageur, the largest francophone winter festival in Western Canada that celebrates the history of francophone and First Nations peoples in Manitoba.

From the 1600s to the 1800s, thousands of beavers were trapped for their pelts, fueling the fur trade. It was then that the Métis Nation was born.

“This demand was without any respect for the lives of the beavers that were used to make these materials,” Lavallee-Heckert said.

She says she strives to educate people about the fur trade as a way to honor the many beavers lost when the Métis Nation emerged and their relationship with beavers evolved from a relationship to a relationship with a commodity.

“We need to be truthful about how we treat animals on our properties,” she said. “Whether you are First Nations, Métis or Settler, I think most of us depend on animals to some degree every day.”

Lavallee-Heckert admits she wouldn't have Métis status if it weren't for beavers and the fur trade, but says relationships based on reciprocity are important to moving both sides forward.

“We need to make sure we do everything we can to ensure their survival because beavers have an important role to play,” she said.

This story is part of a series from Unreserved called Sacred Seven. The series explores seven sacred teachings and introduces us to the Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers and community members who bring these teachings to life.