“Aboriginal rights refer to practices, traditions and customs that distinguish the unique culture of each First Nation and were practiced prior to European contact. These are rights that some Aboriginal peoples of Canada hold as a result of their ancestors' longstanding use and occupancy of the land. The rights of certain peoples to hunt, trap and fish on ancestral lands are examples of Aboriginal rights. Aboriginal rights vary from group to group depending on the customs, practices and traditions that have formed part of their distinctive cultures. Aboriginal rights are protected under s.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.” (Government of Canada 2010).

Cultural Heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present, and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural Heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).

 A cumulative effect includes the total effect on a natural resource, ecosystem, or human community due to past, present, and future activities or actions of federal, non-federal, public, and private entities. Cumulative impacts may also include the effects of natural processes and events. Accordingly, there may be different cumulative impacts on different environmental resources.

 “A systematic analysis of the potential impacts of proposed development projects on the natural and human environment, for identifying measures to prevent or minimize impacts prior to major decisions being taken and project commitments made” (Noble 2013). In Alberta, an EIA report must be prepared in accordance of the final terms of reference issued by the Director under section 48(3) of the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, RSA 2000, c E-12. As described in section 49 of the Act, the report must include:

(d) a description of potential positive and negative environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts of the proposed activity, including cumulative, regional, temporal and spatial considerations;

(e) an analysis of the significance of the potential impacts identified under clause (d); 

(f)  the plans that have been or will be developed to mitigate the potential negative impacts identified under clause (d).

 A component of environmental assessment; a process to monitor possible environmental effects before, during, and after a project is initiated. In general, monitoring means to observe a place or situation for changes over time, usually with tools and indicators to measure these changes. Monitoring programs may be set up to measure change in the bio-physical environments of land, water, and air, and also changes in the human environments.

 A cumulative body of knowledge, know-how, practices and representations maintained and developed by people with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment. These sophisticated sets of understandings, interpretations and meanings are part and parcel of a cultural complex that encompasses land use, resource use practices and includes management that is based on Indigenous laws, values, and principles, language, naming and classification systems, ceremony, spirituality and worldview (International Council for Science and The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization 2002).

 Indigenous use of the land for harvesting plants and animals and for other cultural purposes, based on knowledge including carrying capacity, population dynamics, biological cycles, and experience passed on through generations and rooted in long-term residence in a particular place.

 In the context of Indigenous Land Use Studies, a 'Value' is defined as a specific place, resource, or interest reported by community members during the study that is considered integral to the ongoing practice of land use and cultural heritage, including Aboriginal Title and Rights. A mapped Indigenous Land Use Value is a specific and spatially distinct place that may be mapped (though locations may be considered confidential). Mapped Values, such as cabins, burials, trails or hunting areas, reflect specific instances of use that anchor the wider practice of livelihood within a particular landscape. An Intangible Indigenous Use Value may be specific to a resource or other concern but is spatially indistinct or difficult to map. Intangible Values include critical conditions or elements that must be present for the continued practices, such as the hunting and gathering of wild foods. As such, Intangible Values range from the direct presence of traditionally hunted animals and other wild foods on the land to continued access to traditional hunting areas and non-contaminated sources of wild foods. Intangible Values also include intangible cultural resources, such as the transmission of cultural knowledge that includes ecological and phenological knowledge across generations and the continued use of traditional place names. 

Historical and Traditional Ecological Knowledge that is remembered and transmitted through oral storytelling, which may or may not be represented in narrative form.

The Seasonal Round is a land use management pattern involving a strategic movement on the land that promotes sustainability of resources and prevents depletion of resources.  A Seasonal Round includes travelling over land and water to access well-established hunting, fishing, plant harvesting, ceremonial, gathering and trading sites. The Seasonal Round is a planned rotational use of seasonally available resources based on in-depth Indigenous ecological and phenological knowledge of a Territory. It is not a random or “nomadic” practice.

“[T]he cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment” (Berkes 1999:8).

(TUS): A type of social science investigation that brings together ethnographic, archival and sometimes archaeological techniques with oral histories held by members of an Indigenous community to identify places and values of cultural, economic, heritage or community importance for the maintenance and reproduction of an Indigenous community or society. Traditional Land Use Studies can provide a baseline from which to understand and assess the potential adverse impacts of a proposed industrial development on Traditional Land Use, Aboriginal, and Treaty Rights.

(Also, Traditional Lands) An area used by a specific Indigenous group of people over time, as related to their history, culture, economy, political organization, and kinship network.