Humans: the keystone species?

Can humans listen to local ecosystems and watersheds for the benefit of all species?

A keystone species is any species that acts as a glue to hold any ecosystem together. It helps define an entire ecosystem, and has a disproportionate effect on its ecosystem relative to its abundance. This influence is exerted through important interactions and relationships within the community, rather than just through dominance, power, aggression or high population size. Without a keystone species, an entire ecosystem could radically change or cease to exist. 

Examples of Keystone species

Beavers are a keystone species of their local ecosystems. They are also known as ecosystem engineers of the forest because they alter the natural environment to create wetlands and ponds, which increase water flow, trap sediments, process nutrients, and filter water and ultimately provide habitat many other species including insects, birds, fish and animals.

Wolves have been seen as a powerful keystone species for Yellowstone National Park.

In contrast with modern human communities which usually extract and harm our ecosystems for “resources” and financial gain, empowered Indigenous peoples across the world (including Tribal Nations in the U.S. or First Nations in Canada) situate themselves as keystone species of their ecosystems. 

Scale: Bioregions & watersheds

I want to emphasize that the scale I’m talking about is not limited to our backyards, kitchen gardens, green patios around pedestrian malls or downtown. Creating pesticide-free native plant gardens is crucial. However, for us to have a significant impact on the global climate and regional biodiversity, I am also considering the scale of watersheds or bioregions which map the Earth based on different—but overlapping—natural systems.

A bioregion is a geographical area defined by natural boundaries—such as climate, terrain, soils, vegetation, wildlife, and human culture—rather than political borders. Consideration of bioregions focusses on holistic integration of ecological, cultural, and spiritual relationships and supports place-based identity, sustainability, and regenerative living rooted in local ecosystems. Most bioregions contain multiple watersheds, and watersheds are often used to define subregions within bioregions.

A watershed (or drainage basin) is the land area where all water drains into a common outlet—a river, lake, or ocean. The scale of watersheds is nested and varies from tiny creeks to massive basins like the entire Mississippi River.  

Relational, functional, living role of Indigenous Peoples

When we speak of Indigenous peoples as keystone species, are referring to a relational, living role that profoundly shapes and sustains ecosystems—just as certain non-human animals do (like wolves or beavers). But Indigenous Peoples’ don’t define their ecosystems as in Western ecological models where ecosystems have fixed spatial terms, or have specific vegetation or species composition or are a bounded “protected area” or discrete conservation parcel. Indigenous views of ecosystems are more fluid, layered, and relational. These views are rooted in their cosmology and how “spirit” world wants them to act.

• Bioregional scale — because many Indigenous peoples shaped whole biocultural regions over thousands of years through fire regimes, tending of wild plants, seed dispersal, soil management, hunting patterns, and ceremonial practices. E.g., the Amazonian terra preta soils, the North American oak savannas, the Australian fire-managed grasslands.

• Watershed scale — because Indigenous relationships often center around water systems (e.g., salmon cultures of the Pacific Northwest, Nile river civilizations, the Mekong basin). Water connects foodways, migration routes, ceremonial life, and intertribal diplomacy.

In the end, when Indigenous peoples are keystone species, it’s not about size—it’s about function and their “cosmology”. Indigenous peoples often manage land at multiple levels, including micro to macro nested scales of garden, farm or forest patches, hill slopes, village territories, seasonal migration circuits, and trans-tribal ecological networks. These actions ripple outward and cumulatively shape landscapes on a scale often missed by colonial mapping.

Case Study: Amazonian Terra Preta

Indigenous peoples created carbon-rich, biodiverse soils over centuries, transforming “wild” forests into intentional, cultivated food forests. This happened across many watersheds and involved cross-tribal collaboration, trade, and shared cosmologies. The ecosystem scale here is:

• Bioregional, because of the extent of shared practices across the Amazon basin.

• Hydrological, because river systems were the arteries of cultural and ecological exchange.

• Civilizational, because these land practices were deeply cultural, scientific, and spiritual.

Treaties with more-than-human world

I had tears in my eyes when I first heard Dr. Lyla June, an Indigenous musician and scholar, explain that many tribes have treaties not just with other human communities but also with more-than-human world e.g., bear nations and oyster nations. There are so many possibilities that opened up when I let my heart take in that fact! All humans have the sacred ancestral potential of taking care of waters, forests and minerals in a way that honors needs of humans, bears, fish, birds, bees and other insects. At some point in deep history, all of our ancestors had intimate spiritual relationships with their lands and were a keystone species for our local environments. How can we reconnect with this sacred potential in these times of global polycrisis? 

I think it is nearly impossible to create a keystone species by bringing together thousands of experts who have been trained in individual fields of studying wind, fire, water patterns or individual birds, insects or trees in a reductionist way by modern western education systems. Keystone species feels, thinks and problem-solves for our local ecosystems by considering the systems-level wellness of human/wildlife, waters, soils, birds, trees and insects simultaneously.  Empowered Tribal Nations in the U.S. and Indigenous communities across the world are tied to a specific geographic area: They possess rich orally transmitted traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), including ways to increase biodiversity and resilience in the face of floods or droughts and ecosystem management practices to increase potency and availability of food, water, fiber, fuel and medicines.

The framework of Reindigenizing

I envision Reindigenizing as a multifaceted and comprehensive pilgrimage —a transformative journey towards becoming the keystone species of our local ecosystems.

The word Reindigenizing might feel difficult and without knowing the whole framework, it might also seem like an “appropriation” of asks of Indigenous peoples. I understand. I have tried using many different words and have found none that do justice to what I’m talking about. You are welcome to use a different phrase: rewilding, revitalization, renewal or resurgence. My framework of Reindigenizing is rooted in a well researched fact that collective survival of humans depends on respecting and integrating (only if and when we have permission) Indigenous wisdom and Indigenous technologies.

My framework of Reindigenizing seeks to make humans a systems-level animist keystone species. I strive to keep learning from local ecologists as well as bees, birds or wildlife experts but I do not think that will be enough. We can’t simply study our ecosystems to hear the needs of all the species in our ecosystems, bioregions or watersheds.

Spiritual evolution

For eons, spiritually rooted change agents have advocated for a three-legged strategy for creating healthy movements. We can  “BUILD” an education system that teaches us about our local ecosystems at a system level by integrating permissible TEK. We can also “BLOCK” toxic educations systems that seek to only make us a pawn in the global capitalist and racist empire. However, we must also to learn to “BE”, shift our consciousness, take care of our trauma loads and begin to belong to our human communities, our ancestors and invisible realms. 

A shift and evolution of spiritual consciousness is necessary for becoming a keystone species. As I have researched Indigenous ways of being, it is clear to me that the ability of Indigenous tribes to be a keystone species of their environment is deeply connected to their spiritualities. Here I list over thirty examples of how spiritual communion with the ecosystem is crucial for “managing” the ecosystems for wellbeing of all species. And this spiritual evolution perhaps needs to pass through the portal of trauma healing and ceremonies to honor our grief and rage.

I am eager to learn more. Please tell me: what are you doing, along with your human friends, to move towards becoming a keystone species of your local watershed, ecosystem or bioregion?