ABSTRACT
Despite the commonalities between Indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge identified in Chapter 1, the historical relationship between these two ways of knowing the world have been rife with misunderstanding, conflict, and contestation. In this chapter we examine the origins of these two approaches to knowledge and the processes that resulted in Indigenous knowledge being subordinated to science on a global scale. Understanding the history behind this epistemological conflict is essential both to interpreting the current status of Indigenous knowledge relative to science and natural resource management and to articulating a shift in the current knowledge hierarchy as it relates to natural resource stewardship that not only accommodates but also truly integrates both ways of knowing.
