moted by the reservation system, in favor of
a free range bison herd in the area of the
park that overlaps their reservation.
Although the idea resonates with the cultur-
al history and ideals of the Oglala, it is
unfortunately not nearly as profitable as
cattle ranching. Furthermore, a large seg-
ment of Oglala society has embraced cow-
boy culture. Rodeos have become one of
the central social events in Oglala society.In addition to these socio-ecological trans-
formations, parks have displaced and
impoverished local people in ways that
almost guarantee antagonistic relationships
between indigenous
communities and west-
ern conservationists. This
in turn almost guaran-
tees that some interest
groups within these soci-
eties will use opposition
to conservation as
ammunition in cultural
debates. In short, these
colonial histories have
shaped indigenous liveli-
hoods and social organi-
sation in ways that have
fundamental implications
for local conservation
values, as well as for the inclination of spe-
cific groups to participate in community-
based conservation.Nevertheless, many of the western conser-
vationists I have interviewed in my work are
dismissive of the idea that colonial histories
have anything to do with what they are cur-
rently trying to achieve. This a-historical
perspective is unfortunate, not only because
it keeps conservationists and indigenous
communities from working together, but
also because it misses out on historical
moments where they have worked well
together, and, therefore, opportunities to
learn from successes as well as from fail-
ures. In Alaska, Australia, Bolivia, andColombia, for instance, indigenous leaders
actively lobbied government officials to
gazette parks in their traditional territories.
Local people became active participants in
the creation of national parks. (Gates of the
Arctic National Park in the U.S., Kakadu in
Australia, Kaa Yia in Bolivia, and Alto Fragua
Indiwasi in Colombia) in the hopes that they
would protect their lands from large-scale
commercial interests.^7 In Brazil, indigenous
people were allowed to live inside of parks
as another type of “endangered species”.^8
While this arrangement causes other types
of problems, it has allowed some groups to
continue pursuing their traditional livelihood
strategies, thereby providing incentives for
them to value protected areas, which they
perceive as protecting their cultural autono-
my.These examples illustrate the need for a
historical understanding of the impacts of
global processes and institutions on local
culture and resource management practices.
Understanding these histories will allow
western conservationists to address the his-
torical grievances of indigenous communi-
ties. It will also illuminate circumstances
under which global processes sparked local
movements to create protected areas or
engage in other types of community-based
conservation programmes. Finally, it will
help us to understand the ways in which
parks have transformed local ecologies and
resource management practices. Such an
understanding is crucial for identifying
obstacles to local livelihood activities that
resonate with people’s cultural values, are
economically viable, and protect biodiversi-
ty. Significantly, these are the very types of
activities that indigenous environmental
activists are likely to instigate and/or sup-
port.Sovereignty and Political Clout
“Very few conservationists could truthfully
say that they would vigorously support sub-
sistence hunting if the natives had zeroConservation aas ccultural aand ppolitical ppractice
Colonial hhistories hhave
shaped iindigenous
livelihoods aand ssocial
organisation iin wways
that hhave ffundamen-
tal iimplications ffor
local cconservation
values, aas wwell aas ffor
the iinclination oof sspe-
cific ggroups tto ppartici-
pate iin ccommunity-
based
conservation