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Accepted Paper
Returning to Gather: Cherokee Relationships to Land and the Making of a Plant Gathering Agreement at Buffalo National River
Clint Carroll
(University of Colorado Boulder)
Clint Carroll is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, he works at the intersections of Indigenous studies, anthropology, and political ecology, with an emphasis on Cherokee land-based resurgence and conservation.
Paper long abstract
This paper assesses a historic agreement between Buffalo National River (BNR) and the Cherokee Nation regarding the implementation of a federal rule that allows tribes to gather within national parks with which they are traditionally associated. Members of the Cherokee Medicine Keepers lent their expertise on land-based knowledge that provided the basis for such a landmark agreement. Gathering within BNR offers Cherokee people a way to continue our stewardship of plants that are impacted by climate change in eastern Oklahoma, and to reestablish our connection to the park lands as a collective source of traditional sustenance, cultural knowledge, and health.