Table 2.

Selected descriptions of wild harvest/management principles identified from interviews with traditional Knowledge Holders from the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation

Principle name (Type)	Principle descriptions (Knowledge Holder Code)
SEASONS (Moral and Causal)	• “The life of our people, they were guided by the seasons so that there were only certain activities conducted in each season, like the fall season was harvest time, the spring time was new life, and so because there was new life there, especially young being born and so forth, they wouldn’t bother with those creatures because those creatures are being renewed and they’re newborn so to make sure that they are going to be sustainable, you never kill a deer that’s carrying her young, things like that.” (J)
	• “At certain times we knew that we don’t go hunting because of the reproduction, because you have to let wildlife and fish reproduce.” (E)
	• “In the fall we had whitefish. We also had them in the summer (whitefish); they’d come to shore. They spawned in June. That was seasonal.” (G)
NEEDS (Moral and Causal)	• We were always told not to take more than you need. You don’t go out and fill up ten freezers. You always looked ahead and say I know that I am going to be giving some away. (E)
	• We used common sense in deciding how much to take, for example, you don’t destroy what you eat and you only take what you can use, share or cure. (F)
	• “Just because the fish is there you didn’t fish to the extreme where you caught more than you could actually use.” (H)
THANKS (Moral)	• Everyone gives thanks in their own way, its part of the culture. (C)
	• “You’d leave tobacco where you killed the animal or some other token that you had with you but it was mostly tobacco. It meant that you were thanking Mother Nature for the provision of food and then you are also giving thanks for that animal giving its life for your existence, that’s what it meant.” (A)
	• “Grandma used to put tobacco down when they got sweet flag.” (D)
WASTING (Moral and Causal)	• “We were always told what you kill you eat because it was given to you for food and it was there for a purpose so we didn’t waste.” (A)
	• It comes back to you because it haunts you, because now, you’ve left that animal out there to rot. You’ve left that thing out there to rot, and that’s what haunts you, you shouldn’t have done that. You shouldn’t have, if you weren’t going to use it, why kill it. Let it be, it has a right to live too, just like anything else has a right to live. A bird has a right to live, and trees have a right.” (A)
	• “You were obligated not to waste in some fashion. Because if you wasted, it was always thought that it was less for the next time around or the next person in line.” (H)
	• “I know even parts of the fish, like take the sucker for example… it had a lot of bones but we used to take the bones out and make fish pie out of it. And then there was sucker heads that were used to make fish soup. Every part of the heads was consumed and all the bones that were left were the jaw and the facial bones. Even the eyes were floating around in the soup. I remember my parents really liked sucker head soup. Even the eggs were good to eat too, the sucker eggs.” (J)
SHARING (Moral)	• Always share if you get fish or animals. (D)
	• “I remember I got four moose that one year. Far too many eh. A few of us went and we got four moose. So I spent all day cutting it up and just called the people, come and get moose, come and get moose.” (I)
	• “Most of them I think used to hunt for their family and then if there was any extra it was given out to the community or the Elders that would like some but didn’t have a chance to get any.” (H)
	• “ The community used to be a food bank. You never used to have to go to the community to get your 2 bags of groceries. It would be on the porch secretly, or sometimes people would go around the community and collect what people could spare for others they knew to be in need.” (Liaison)