ABSTRACT
For thousands of years, tribal peoples have gone to ridgelines of the Northern Rockies for many reasons, including gathering foods and medicines, hunting and making prayers and offerings. Throughout that vast period of time, the people have known the tree that grows only there. In the Salish language, it is called sč̓iɫp̓álq͏ʷ. English speakers refer to it as whitebark pine. In this chapter, we describe the efforts of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) to save and restore sč̓iɫp̓álq͏ʷ, which is now threatened with extinction from accelerating and intensifying effects of the climate crisis and disease. To restore whitebark pine forests in the Mission Mountains of the Flathead Reservation, the CSKT adopted an Indigenized concept of restoration called “biocultural restoration.” Sč̓iɫpálq͏ʷ biocultural restoration illustrates the power of seeing with both eyes, through the eyes of Native wisdom and Western science, to conserve and restore whitebark pine and revitalize cultural relationships between humans and the biotic communities that support them.
