Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Traditional ecological knowledge highlights indigenous understanding and ecological practices developed by native populations over generations, often exploring the connections between biological ecosystems and cultural approaches. Learn more about this interdisciplinary field with key works selected by RCL editors. Resources for College Libraries (RCL) features 90,000+ core titles for academic libraries, curated by Choice/ACRL subject specialists and available at rclweb.net.

Updated September 25, 2025
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Braiding sweetgrass
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member...
Traditional ecological knowledge : learning from indigenous practices for environmental sustainability
Nelson, Melissa K.
Paper Book
This book examines the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and how it can provide models for a time-tested form of sustainability needed in the world today. The essays, written by a team of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, explore TEK through compelling cases of...
Native American medicinal plants : an ethnobotanical dictionary
Moerman, Daniel E.
Paper Book
This illuminating reference book is a complete guide to medicinal plants used by hundreds of Native American tribes. Let anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman be your guide as he describes the various uses of more than 2,700 plants. Information--adapted from the same...
Native Americans and the environment : perspectives on the ecological Indian
Harkin, Michael Eugene
Paper Book
Native Americans and the Environment brings together an interdisciplinary group of prominent scholars whose works continue and complicate the conversations that Shepard Krech started in The Ecological Indian. Hailed as a masterful synthesis and yet assailed as a problematic...
Keepers of the central fire : issues in ecology for indigenous peoples
Lambert, Lorelei A.
Paper Book
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Ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge : ethnobotany and ecological wisdom of Indigenous peoples of northwestern North America
Turner, Nancy J.
Paper Book
Volume 1: The History and Practice of Indigenous Plant Knowledge. Volume 2: The Place and Meaning of Plants in Indigenous Cultures and Worldviews. Nancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In...
Traditional ecological knowledge and natural resource management
Menzies, Charles R.
Paper Book
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Management examines how traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is taught and practiced today among Native communities. Of special interest is the complex relationship between indigenous ecological practices and other ways of...
Indigenous traditions and ecology : the interbeing of cosmology and community
Grim, John.
Paper Book
A new perspective on religions and the environment emerges from this collection. The authors, a diverse group of indigenous and non-native scholars and environmental activists, address compelling and urgent questions facing indigenous communities as they struggle with threats to their own...
Indigenous food sovereignty in the United States : restoring cultural knowledge, protecting environments, and regaining health
Mihesuah, Devon A.
Paper Book
"All those interested in Indigenous food systems, sovereignty issues, or environment, and their path toward recovery should read this powerful book." --Kathie L. Beebe, American Indian Quarterly Centuries of colonization and other factors have disrupted...
Keeping it living : traditions of plant use and cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America
Deur, Douglas
Paper Book
The European explorers who first visited the Northwest Coast of North America assumed that the entire region was virtually untouched wilderness whose occupants used the land only minimally, hunting and gathering shoots, roots, and berries that were peripheral to a diet and culture focused on...
What kind of ancestor do you want to be?
Hausdoerffer, John
Paper Book
As we face an ever-more-fragmented world, What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? demands a return to the force of lineage--to spiritual, social, and ecological connections across time. It sparks a myriad of ageless-yet-urgent questions: How will I be remembered? What traditions do I want to...

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