Reasserting tribal identities involves more than focus on the people.
It also involves focus on the things that surrounded the people, in nature, in previous generations.
So the Karuk Tribe is elevating its preservation of natural resources significant to the tribe, with the opening of the Tribal Herbaria. Herbaria, the plural of herbarium, are collections of plants; in this case, plants native the to the lands in which the Karuk are native.
This is believed to be among the first native plant collections managed by an indigenous people. We get a lesson in the reasons for the collections and their contents from Karuk Food Security Project Coordinator Lisa Hillman, Natural Resources Director Leaf Hillman, and UC-Berkeley biologist Dr. Tom Carlson.
