Paper short abstract:

Conservation, as the conference abstract says, can only be accomplished with indigenous peoples. More importantly for our future, this paper argues that it can only be truly achieved by people who practice what it means to be native, to be settled with the land.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropology is still often consulted by conservation when conservation practices reach Indigenous peoples. This paper argues that we should look at all peoples engaged with conservation from an anthropological perspective. At the bottom of the present ecological crisis lies alienation from the land. The question for our future is, then, how we can practice being native. Beyond respecting those who have been on the land for a much longer time than us, this also means becoming conscious of our own relationships to the land on which we live.

This paper discussed some obstacles to these practices, showcases some solutions, and takes the northern plains as an example for a landscape in which people have become native. I argue that especially recent events around resource extraction showcase that ancestral-based categories of Settlers and Natives need to be refined based on practice and relations.