The ecology of food and medicine plants and their gathering sites as defined by Tl'azt'en Nation.

Aboriginal people, including Tl'azt'en Nation, have close and long-standing relationships with the environment. Plants were, and still are, important for food, medicine, and cultural purposes. Western societies have had a negative impact on many Aboriginal communities which can be seen in the loss of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). An examples of this is with TEK regarding food and medicine plant use of Tl'azt'en Nation. This research was a collaborative project between Tl'azt'en Nation and the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). Tl'azt'en community members participated in every stage of the research and assisted in the determination of the research goals and objectives. This ensured that the appropriate knowledge was being documented and it was in a form that was presentable and acceptable to all involved. The study was conducted to collect TEK about the ecology of food and medicine plant gathering sites, to gain an understanding of the criteria for gathering individual plants for food or medicine use, to understand why traditional food and medicine plant gathering sites may fall out of use, and to provide information for a frame work for the protection measure that will be necessary for the continuation of plant gathering activities and sites. In order to gather TEK, fifteen plants were selected to focus on and a total of ten Tl'azt'enne, considered to be knowledgeable about food and medicine plants, participated in various meetings, focus groups, interviews, and field sessions and shared their knowledge about the fifteen plants and their gathering sites. Tl'azt'enne who use plants for food and medicine purposes do not seem to have specific sites where plants must be collected for these purposes, as long as the plant is available in an undisturbed area, away from people and in Tl'azt'en Territory, it can be gathered. Tl'azt'enne community members possess a deep understanding of plants and their gathering sites and have many concerns including the loss of TEK, changing landscapes, and ecolo