Sunday, June 27, 2021
Winona LaDuke: Native Environmentalism
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Spirit Horse Falls
Enola Hill, a densely forested, pristine watershed ridge on Mount Hood (Oregon), was under the threat of logging operations. A coalition of Native Americans, historians, and environmentalists appealed and delayed the U.S. Forest Service's timber sale, pending ethnographic studies to determine the area's cultural significance. The ethnographic studies revealed that Enola Hill is a tawyash, a Sahaptin Indian word for a place where spiritual power can be obtained and maintained. In fact, there is no other site in the Pacific Northwest with such great cultural significance. For thousands of years, Enola has been a Native American Mecca -- a revered and sacred place for pilgrimages, ceremonies, and vision quests.
As I continued to read the article, I came across a reference to a spectacular waterfall known to natives as Spirit Horse Falls (Devil Falls on USDA maps). The falls got its name from vision questers who saw a spirit horse rising from the mist. As I read these words, I was overcome by a profound sense of euphoria and resolve. I knew that this sacred waterfall was the "Spirit Horse" that Jade had told me to find. I expressed my gratitude for this gift in a prayer to Creator.
Two weeks later, I stood for the first time on Enola Hill, overlooking Spirit Horse Falls. The power of the roaring falls and the beauty of the rain forest filled my senses with a lucid-like awareness. I felt a holistic connection to my Earth Mother. In my heart I felt that I had finally come home. I drummed and performed a ceremony for the protection and preservation of this sacred place that provided spiritual power for this region. I prayed that this nerve center in the web of life would continue to distribute vital energy throughout the surrounding natural systems.
Afterwards, I made the three-hour drive back to my home in Bend, Oregon. That night, and for many nights to follow, my dreams were filled with drums, Enola Hill, and Spirit Horse Falls. In my dreams, I saw myself drumming at all the waterfalls around Mount Hood. I was told that the rivers that flow from this mountain are sacred. These rivers feed the spirit. This water will awaken the people when you drum at the falls. All who touch this water will be awakened. I was told that a home would be provided from which I will go out to drum the sacred places. It is time to consecrate these sacred places. The time has come to awaken them.
Three months later, a friend contacted me regarding a caretaker position in the Mount Hood area. I soon relocated to a community near Enola Hill and Spirit Horse Falls. I spent the entire summer, hiking to waterfalls and drumming the sacred waters. By the end of the summer, I had completed a circuit around Mount Hood. Having completed my mission, I sensed that my work there was done. I moved back to Bend, Oregon, yet Spirit Horse Falls will always be a significant power place for me. I still make pilgrimages to the falls to drum and pray.
Unfortunately, the threat of logging persists at Enola Hill. Though ethnographic studies reveal otherwise, the Mount Hood Forest Supervisor has determined that there are no traditional cultural sites on Enola Hill. The Forest Service contends that Indian cultural use of the site was transitory and doesn't qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. The U.S. Forest Service hungrily eyes the mature forests on Enola. This greed for more timber to cut makes the agency loath to acknowledge the native cultural and religious value of the area. The continuing degradation of sacred sites stems not only from colonial attitudes about the lands where native people live and worship, but also from prejudice and disrespect for native religions. Indian religious freedom is an environmental issue, and the destruction of sacred sites is the ultimate environmental racism.
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Native American Vows to Decolonize Native Burials
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Native Americans Welcome Shutdown of KXL Pipeline
Montana tribal members, fearing water contamination, are relieved as the Keystone XL pipeline is blocked. When Cheyenne Foote heard that President Joe Biden blocked the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, she cried. Foote, 68, is an elder of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, and she feared the pipeline, which passes through a portion of Montana near the Fort Peck Reservation, would contaminate the tribes' water supply. "Water is life," she said. "You can't live without water. The Creator gave it to us, and it's our job to take care of it."
Tribes in South Dakota have been opposed to and protesting the pipeline's construction for more than a decade. President of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Kevin Killer, said Wednesday night the cancellation of the pipeline permit "sends a strong message to tribal nations, and symbolizes a willingness to build on government-to-government relationships established through our treaties," referencing the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties of the Great Sioux Nation.
Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Harold Frazier, said the project posed a danger to tribal land and people. "This project has scarred our territorial and treaty lands with its presence and threatened our people like a dagger to our throats," Frazier wrote Wednesday night. "We have witnessed the invasion of our land and the genocide of our families -- this project is an extension of the racial, environmental and social injustices we have suffered."
Indigenous justice organizer for the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Candi Brings Plenty, said Wednesday night Indigenous people have been at the forefront of the "fight for environmental justice and protection." The ACLU South Dakota intervened in a "riot boosting" bill last year. In March, Gov. Kristi Noem signed a revised version, which revived the state's criminal and civil penalties for rioting and inciting a riot. A federal judge said part of the state's laws were unconstitutional because they targeted those protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The Lakota People's Law Project said Wednesday the decision to cancel the pipeline is a "pivot point" to recognize "the health of our Earth." Rescinding KXL's permit is a promising early signal that the new administration is listening to Native American concerns and will take issues of climate and Indigenous justice seriously. We have to insist that it not stop there. It's also high time to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). Tell president-elect Joe Biden to stop DAPL once and for all. Protect the planet and the Lakota people. No destruction of the earth. No endangering our water. Mni wiconi -- water is life. Sign the petition.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Beau Dick: The Legendary Indigenous Woodcarver
Beau Dick was a Canadian art legend and enigmatic carver from Alert Bay, a small remote village on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. The Kwakwaka'wakw artist was a heredity chief and cultural activist whose generous and prolific nature exemplified the spirit of potlatch (a gift-giving feast). His remarkable masks have been celebrated across the global art scene as vibrant expressions of West Coast Indigenous culture and a sophisticated crossover into the contemporary art world. Dick had an unprecedented ability to tap into the collective memory of his people and breathe new life into age-old traditions.
Born Benjamin Kerry Dick in Kingcome Inlet, British Columbia in 1955, he first learned the art of traditional woodcarving from his father and grandfather at the age of six. While his carving career began as an assistant to his family in creating totem poles, one of which remains among the world's tallest, Dick's calling lay in making masks. His talent for combining traditional Indigenous techniques with contemporary influences, such as Japanese anime and Mexican art, makes him a standout in the art world, with critics citing him as "one of the most important artists since contact."
The late carver is the subject of the acclaimed 2017 documentary film "Maker of Monsters: The Extraordinary Life of Beau Dick," which follows his life, career and activism. Written, directed, and produced by curator, author, and filmmaker LaTiesha Fazakas and Natalie Boll, the film gives an intimate look into the life of one of Canada's greatest artists. Beau Dick worked within an ancient tradition and rose to the ranks of international success within the world of contemporary art while never forgetting his roots. This moving film captures the essence of Beau Dick and his mysterious enigma as an artist who symbolized Canada's history with the First Nations and the ethical dilemmas faced in reconciling with that colonialist history. Beau was able to use his celebrity to call attention to the injustices done to his people and the environment.
Even in his activism, Beau relied on his culture to inform him on how to be political. He didn't simply stage protests; he enacted ancient ceremonies, creating a public display infused with spirituality. He challenged the Canadian government on his own terms by using traditional Kwakwaka'wakw political protocol, with slight adjustments for the contemporary situation. He performed a traditional copper-breaking ceremony to shame the Canadian government on two occasions. First, on the steps of the Parliament Building in Victoria, BC, and then one year later on the steps of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Striking stone against metal, Dick and his entourage broke large copper shields into pieces. They placed the copper fragments in a folded piece of canvas artwork and left it on the steps.
The copper-breaking ceremony is a spiritual and political act that had not been performed in over 100 years. The ritual was a call to action in dialogue with the Indigenous grassroots movement, Idle No More, and a revival of a shaming rite prohibited for over 60 years under the Indian Act. Copper-breaking was once practiced by First Nations across the Pacific Northwest. Endowed with supernatural power, copper occupies a central position within potlatch ceremonies. Since copper was highly valuable and expensive, breaking it represented an act of shaming someone after a breach of law or protocol.
"Maker of Monsters" illuminates a man whose art and life continue to transcend expectations and boundaries. Beau was more than an artist. He was a leader, an activist, a teacher, a humanitarian and a virtuoso who was larger than life. When he was asked what gets him excited in the world, he thought for a moment, then answered, "Creating an opportunity for somebody else to do something." Watch "Maker of Monsters" on Tubi TV.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Six Native Candidates Elected to Congress
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Anarchism Has Indigenous Roots
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Decolonizing Indigenous Cultural Protection
In 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux and legions of their allies protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would carry Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, crossing underneath Lake Oahe, the reservation's water source. Tribal members opposed the pipeline over fears of water pollution and climate impacts; it also crossed their ancestral lands, and they argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not adequately surveyed the burial grounds in its path. But because the pipeline wasn't on tribal lands or under tribal jurisdiction, there were few legal options. As Indian law attorneys Hillary Hoffmann and Monte Mills write in their new book, A Third Way: Decolonizing the Laws of Indigenous Cultural Protection, after almost 200 years of treaties, court cases and federal infringement, "The tribe had lost almost every source of legal authority to regulate or stop it." The pipeline was ultimately constructed, though its legality is still in court over potential environmental violations.
The battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline exemplifies how difficult it can be for tribal nations to assert their sovereignty within the existing legal structure to protect culturally important land, water, wildlife and ancestral objects. Over the last decade, however, Hoffmann and Mills argue that a new era of Indian law has emerged that protects Indigenous cultures based on Indigenous value systems. This "third way" -- neither solely Indigenous nor European, but rather both -- shows tribal nations working within those legal constraints in novel ways, or changing them altogether, to better reflect their values. This could mean different outcomes in future cultural protection conflicts.
In A Third Way, Hillary Hoffmann and Monte Mills share what they've learned over their combined 31 years of teaching Indian law and working with tribal nations. They explore the myriad ways Indigenous people are decolonizing laws around cultural protection. The book details the history, context, and future of the ongoing legal fight to protect indigenous cultures. At the federal level, this fight is shaped by the assumptions that led to current federal cultural protection laws, which many tribes and their allies are now reframing to better meet their cultural and sovereign priorities. At the state level, centuries of antipathy toward tribes are beginning to give way to collaborative and cooperative efforts that better reflect indigenous interests. Most critically, tribes themselves are building laws and legal structures that reflect and invigorate their own cultural values. Taken together, and evidenced by the recent worldwide support for indigenous cultural movements, events of the last decade signal a new era for indigenous cultural protection. I highly recommend this important book to anyone interested in the legal reforms that will guide progress toward protecting indigenous cultures.
Sunday, September 6, 2020
Standing Rock Developing Wind Farm
To aid in that effort, Standing Rock over the years has secured small grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to study wind development potential on the reservation, as it's long been something the tribe has wanted to pursue. With that work done and with the right approach moving forward, the tribe now hopes to attract a developer aligned with its values to build the project.
Standing Rock is pursuing the idea amid its fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has spurred efforts to harness renewable power on the reservation. A small solar farm already exists in Cannon Ball. Standing Rock is working with advisers, including LIATI Capital, Connexus Capital and Hometown Connections, to make the wind farm come to fruition.
The wind farm would be named "Anpetu Wi," which in Lakota means "the breaking of the new day." The Lakota people traditionally have prayed at that time, SAGE General Manager Joseph McNeil said. "You're praying for guidance, you're praying for wisdom, you're praying for what's best for the day for your family, for the people," he said. "This is really how we look at this project, as a prayer to guide our people into the future, into the new day."
The wind farm would have a 235-megawatt capacity with the potential to expand down the road. SAGE recently filed an interconnection request with the Southwest Power Pool, which oversees the power grid in a number of central states, including in parts of North Dakota. McNeil said he anticipates the interconnection process to take at least two years as the grid operator studies plans for the wind farm. In the meantime, SAGE plans to work on other aspects of the project, including building access roads through the area this year in an effort to make use of the Production Tax Credit, a federal wind incentive expiring at the end of 2020.
SAGE also intends to do other work, such as identifying the exact location for each turbine with the help of Standing Rock's Tribal Historic Preservation Office, which will survey the area for any cultural resources that should be avoided. The project also will need various environmental analyses.
Sunday, August 2, 2020
Hydropanels Bring Water to Navajo Nation
The panels come from Zero Mass Water; the company's Source hydropanels use sunlight to absorb water vapor from the air, even in arid climates. Zero Mass Water partnered with local Navajo governments and Navajo Power, a public benefit corporation working to install solar panels on tribal lands, for an initial demonstration project in which 15 homes received two Source panels each, for a total of 30 panels. Those initial panels were funded by Barclays and The Unreasonable Group, an accelerator for socially minded startups.
Each Source hydropanel can make up to 3 to 5 liters of water a day; with two panels, a home can get up to 10 liters a day, and each panel can store 30 liters of water, or 60 16-ounce bottles of water, for when cloud cover may affect production. The panels last for 15 years.
The Navajo Nation has at points during the pandemic had the highest COVID-19 infection rate per capita in the U.S., worsened by the fact that residents can't easily access water to wash their hands and have to make frequent trips into town to buy water. Zero Mass Water first started communicating with the Navajo Nation about three years ago, but the pandemic has heightened the urgency for this partnership. The company worked with chapter leaders -- the Navajo Nation has 110 chapters, which are geographical divisions like counties -- to find the people most in need.
Sunday, July 12, 2020
Major DAPL Victory for Standing Rock
We commend the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and their legal team at EarthJustice for years of dedication and persistence in this struggle to defang the Black Snake. And we are proud of the amicus brief that our legal team submitted in the lead up to this decision. We're also elated that Judge Boasberg cited many of the questions we and our allies have raised since the beginning of the NoDAPL struggle. First, that it's simply wrong to conduct an environmental assessment of a pipeline after it's already been built. Second, that DAPL's leak detection abilities are so poor it could be leaking more than 6,000 barrels of oil every day without detection, and Energy Transfer's abysmal pipeline safety record raises that risk even further. Third, that there is no proper cleanup plan for a wintertime spill, when freezing Dakota winters make response the most difficult. Boasberg even went one step further, concluding that the drop in oil demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic makes shutting down the pipeline now less harmful to North Dakota's economy.
So what comes next? First, Energy Transfer has to drain and shut down DAPL by August 6th. The Army Corps of Engineers then has 13 months to further study potential pipeline leaks and the dangers they pose. This ruling could still be appealed in the Federal District Court of D.C., but our analysis tells us that such an appeal is unlikely to succeed. Thank you to each and every one of you for your tireless support, and for staying with us throughout this journey.
Wopila tanka -- Thank you for standing with us to protect our water, our land, and our families!
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Saturday, July 4, 2020
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Victory in US Court
While this decision is an important step toward righting centuries of wrong against the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, our collective work is not finished. Many who stand in solidarity with the Tribe await a final positive determination on Mashpee’s homelands once and for all. We must stay vigilant to ensure that the Department of the Interior recommits itself to the restoration of homelands, the trust obligation, and Tribal sovereignty. What Can You Do To Help? Sign the petition to protect the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's reservation land.
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Stand with the Lakota on Giving Tuesday
Beginning today, everyone who donates to their #GivingTuesdayNow campaign will receive an invite to join Chase Iron Eyes and Lakota People's Law Project chief counsel Daniel Sheehan for a live, interactive online talk on Saturday, May 9 at 5 p.m. PDT!
Right now, your love and support mean more than ever. Only by working together during these uncertain times can we win justice for the Lakota People. Use this link to donate. After you contribute, you'll get the details for the online chat with Daniel and Chase. Thank you for standing with the Lakota!
Sunday, April 26, 2020
The Trees are My Grandparents
Life is governed by their ancestors, with family history passed down orally from generation to generation. Yet traditions are being undermined as the young are tempted away by modernity, while their fragile ecosystem faces man-made destruction.
But now, the same technological developments so often deemed a threat to traditional ways of life, have offered the Achuar people, and other remote tribal people, the opportunity to preserve their legacy and fight back against the eradication of their histories.
A team from the global genealogy website MyHeritage has been spending time with groups like the Achuar in an attempt to preserve their family heritage.
Entsakua Yunkar, shaman of the Achuar Sharamentsa community in Ecuador, said the project was helping to ease his fears that "history can disappear" very quickly.
"I feel like the father of this community," Yunkar said. "If I don't exist here, this community can't have power and be successful. I feel that I give positive energy to the communities and families here.
"The big trees are my grandparents. They speak to me. I feel very sad when I think about what will happen in a long time. The world is changing. Our goal is to protect this area and our culture so it will be alive for many years."
The very existence of tribal communities around the world is threatened by a whole host of factors. Imported diseases, such as influenza, measles and chickenpox, can prove deadly when tribes people have not had the chance to develop any immunity, according to Survival International, the global charity for tribal people's rights.
Deforestation and climate change are also huge threats, while technology and modernity risk destroying communities by luring younger members away to urban regions.
The genealogy project is the brainchild of Golan Levi, a qualified architect who earlier in his career spent years creating giant sculptures with tribes around the world.
"I heard fascinating stories [during his time as an architect]," he said. "They had a history of oral tradition, but they didn't have a means to preserve their heritage.
"The oral tradition keeps the essence of their communities but they're losing the pieces. They might know the meaning behind a ceremony but they wouldn't be able to tell you the name of their great great grandparents.
"When I started working at MyHeritage I realized it was the perfect fit to document those stories."
The group's first project was with the Himba people of Namibia in 2015, with subsequent delegations visiting the Nenets in Siberia, the Emberá, Ngäbe, Naso and Guna in Panama, and several tribes in Papua New Guinea.
"Everything varies from tribe to tribe … but family and how they collaborate with each other is key," said Levi.
He explains the groups have initially been met with skepticism, but their willingness to muck in breaks down barriers with the tribes people, who eventually agree to be photographed, filmed and interviewed. "It takes time to build trust," he adds. "We live as they live in order to understand how they view the world and this is something they greatly appreciate."
Franklin Wasump, an Achuar who hails from the Wayusentsa community, echoed Entsakua Yunkar's concerns about his culture disappearing.
"In many years the Achuar culture may disappear, as happened with other nationalities, because there are many young people that don't want to preserve the culture," he said. "I am sad because although today it is still preserved, in the future it might not.
"It is the responsibility of the father to teach, to talk to the young children in order not to lose the culture."
Yampia Santi, an Achuar leader from the Wayusentsa community, said he hoped the project would raise awareness. "The Achuar tribe will be around for many more generations, which is why we ask you tell your friends about the rainforest and the Achuar people who live there."
This story originally appeared in The Guardian (April 2020).
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Stand With the Mashpee Wampanoag
Anpetu Waste (Good day)! I hope you are staying well, and I want you to know that we're praying for all our relations impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. One benefit of sheltering in place is that we're able to keep our eyes peeled for important news. In case you missed it, I wanted to highlight a recent attack on Indigenous sovereignty and ask for your solidarity for our Mashpee relatives.
At the end of last month, the Department of Interior announced that 321 acres of land will be taken out of trust, effectively revoking the reservation status of the Mashpee Wampanoag people of Massachusetts. For those who learned the Thanksgiving story in elementary school, the Wampanoag people broke bread with the Pilgrims in Plymouth colony, and it was Wampanoag land that the Pilgrims took. And now, in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic, President Trump's cabinet is moving to rescind the sovereign status of these people.
President Obama placed the land in question into trust in 2015, but that decision has been reversed under Trump. A reinterpretation by our executive branch of a 2009 Supreme Court decision now only grants trust status to tribes recognized before 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act was signed. Because the Mashpee weren't federally recognized until 2007, they've now lost their status. As Jessie Little Doe Baird, vice chair of the tribe, said "they came for our children and took them to Carlisle because we were 'too Indian.' Today, they tell us we are not Indian enough."
The Mashpee, who have lived in the Massachusetts area for over 12,000 years, are being denied their right to autonomy. With federal trust status comes the right to manage, develop, and tax a parcel of land. This "disestablishment" of the Mashpee reservation will likely force the closure of the tribal court and police department; it will cost Native people their livelihoods in an already barren economic landscape.
This blatant land-grab isn't even court-ordered -- the directive came from Trump's Department of the Interior. Now, the Mashpee have asked a D.C. court to issue an emergency restraining order to prevent the dissolution of trust status, and Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have vowed to combat this assault on the tribe's self-determination, saying "We will not allow the Mashpee Wampanoag to lose their homeland."
We Native people have struggled to retain less than 2.5 percent of our lands since European contact. The Indian Wars, in essence, have never truly ended. The United States' long history of systemically suppressing Native rights continues, and in 2020, land trust removal is the latest iteration of that same legacy of colonialism. We are disheartened, but as Indigenous people and allies, we have each others' backs in the face of adversity. You can stand for sovereignty by standing with the Mashpee people in their time of need.
Wopila -- thank you. Solidarity forever,
Chase Iron Eyes
Lead Counsel
The Lakota People's Law Project
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Major Victory for Standing Rock
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the nation, we're aware that it could have an outsized impact on Indian Country. Relief programs may not provide needed tests and medical supplies for us -- or anyone -- on an appropriate scale. Please know we are monitoring this, and as my colleague Chase Iron Eyes mentioned a few days ago, we'll keep you updated on developments. May we all stay safe and healthy.
In the meantime, I write with some wonderful news. Just yesterday, Standing Rock won a big victory in the ongoing legal battle against the Dakota Access pipeline when a federal judge granted the tribe's request to strike down DAPL's federal permits! Watch our video about the win in court and send a note of solidarity to Standing Rock.
The judge ruled that Trump's Army Corps of Engineers must complete a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) -- the much more comprehensive review we've all been demanding since the beginning of this movement (and that President Obama required, only to be reversed by Trump). The Corps fell short in three specific ways, according to the judge.
First, the Corps failed to respond adequately to claims by the tribe's experts that DAPL's leak detection system is wholly inadequate. Second, the company's dreadful history of oil spills wasn't properly addressed. Finally, the oil company failed to account for the adverse repercussions a "worst case discharge" might have on our treaty rights -- our ability to hunt, fish, and perform traditional religious ceremonies near Lake Oahe, which the pipeline crosses under.
I was asked by the tribal chairman to represent Standing Rock's interests at the hearing in Washington, D.C., but I couldn't go because of Coronavirus travel restrictions. I'm gratified that, despite our troubles, we have been victorious, at least for now.
The logic of the judge's ruling suggests the pipeline should not remain operational without a federal permit. The ruling actually references both the Titanic and Chernobyl concerning the possibility of human error, and I'm hopeful shutting down the flow will be the judge's next step. He has now requested legal briefs on that issue.
Please stay tuned, as we hope to share more good news soon. In the meantime, stay safe and please listen to the medical professionals with knowledge about the requirements of this pandemic. We're all in this together.
Wopila tanka -- as always, we're so grateful to you for standing with Standing Rock and Mother Earth.
Phyllis Young
Standing Rock Organizer
The Lakota People's Law Project
Sunday, February 9, 2020
The Last Innu Singer
For thousands of years, before making contact with European settlers, the Mushuau Innu lived nomadically, moving with the seasons across Labrador, following the caribou and other animals to hunt. The traditional way of life of the tribe changed dramatically in the 1960s when they were forced off the land and onto a reserve. When the Newfoundland government decided to shepherd the Innu into community living, the Catholic Church played a key role. The church had a profound impact on the first generation of Innu adults who moved into the community in 1967.
Unfortunately, church and tradition didn't coexist easily. Most priests discouraged the old ways: drumming ceremonies, the shaking tent, even speaking the language. The Innu way of life was torn asunder. Traditions were lost, people were left adrift. For Piwas, the Catholic faith was one thing that didn't change. Like most First Nations converts to Christianity, Piwas was quite capable of moving between two religious systems on a situational basis, drawing from each those prayers, beliefs, and songs that satisfied the needs of the particular time. The church, and its music, helped her navigate the change. For Piwas, it's a source of strength. Today, she is the only elder who can sing hymns in her dialect. Though some of the old ways have been lost to time, Piwas and others are working to preserve what's left.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Davi Kopenawa Receives Alternative Nobel Prize
Davi Kopenawa has been on the front lines for over 40 years representing a people whose very existence is in jeopardy. From encouraging tribesmen in villages in the heart of the Amazon rain forest to delivering a speech to Britain's Parliament to addressing the United Nations, he's fought for the rights of his people, the Yanomami of northern Brazil. These travels constitute a shamanic critique of Western industrial society, whose endless material greed, mass violence, and ecological blindness contrast sharply with Yanomami cultural values. Wherever Kopenawa speaks on behalf of his people, he delivers the same message: Help defend this region's natural resources and the health of the Yanomami.
In 2010 Kopenawa wrote The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman, the first book by a Yanomami. The Falling Sky paints an unforgettable picture of Yanomami culture, past and present, in the heart of the rainforest--a world where ancient indigenous knowledge and shamanic traditions cope with the global geopolitics of an insatiable natural resources extraction industry. Kopenawa recounts his initiation and experience as a shaman, as well as his first encounters with outsiders: government officials, missionaries, road workers, cattle ranchers, and gold prospectors. He vividly describes the ensuing cultural repression, environmental devastation, and deaths resulting from epidemics and violence. To counter these threats, Davi Kopenawa became a global ambassador for his endangered people.
Survival International, an organization dedicated to campaigning for the rights of the Yanomami and other tribal peoples around the world, has worked alongside Kopenawa for the last 30 years in his campaign to persuade the government of Brazil to set aside and protect Yanomami tribal lands in the northern states of Roraima and Amazonas. In 1992 the Brazilian government designated 96,000 square kilometers (37,000 square miles, an area the size of Portugal) for the Yanomami "Urihi," meaning "forest" in the Yanomami language. Combined with the Yanomami territory in Venezuela, it is the largest area of rainforest under indigenous control anywhere in the world. Indigenous peoples are the best conservationists and have so much to teach us.
Kopenawa has frequently been threatened by the gold miners and cattle ranchers who target the resources inside the Yanomami territory. Indigenous people in the Amazon are under threat from business interests as well as politicians, including far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has a long history of anti-indigenous statements and policies. The current regime in Brazil is trying now to undo decades, generations of progress in recognizing indigenous peoples' rights. The threat has never been more acute and has implications for the rest of the world.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Helping Indigenous Artists Protect Their Work
Still in the early stages of creation, the registry is designed to give artists a place to document designs, control ownership and track works as they are sold and resold. Artists would be given a registry number for each piece of work, so when designs are stolen, they can take action and have a legal document to prove registration. The responsibility to ensure authenticity in part rests with consumers to buy products that identify Indigenous artists on the label.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Greta Thunberg at Standing Rock
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, opened the event with a prayer.
"The old ones tell us through our ceremonies and everyday life we walk with the spirits, and everything has a spirit, we do our ceremonies everyday year round and that's our way of life -- so our prayers and our sacred language is all about the environment," Looking Horse said.
"I am so honored and grateful to be here to visit you in your homelands, to visit Standing Rock, this symbolic place of resistance," Thunberg said. "There was one moment that changed everything. It was a slow process. I started to educate myself about the climate and ecological climate. I just started to understand the urgency. When I understood that, I became furious because I realized that countless people are already suffering and have been for a very long time. These people are being ignored. This is going to affect every one of us in the future, myself included. It is already affecting us in many different ways. I just thought the only right thing to do was to stand back against this and to take a stand and I never regretted doing it."
"It's been very educational I must say, because you get so much experience from meeting all of these different cultures. The basic problem is the same everywhere. It is greed, ignorance, and unawareness -- and basically, nothing is being done to protect our common future. Nothing is being done to save the planet. We as teenagers shouldn't be the ones taking the responsibility, it should be those who are in power... and also it is because you here at Standing Rock, you are on the front line. You are the true warriors. You are the ones standing up for everyone else's future and I have so much respect for you and I am so grateful that you have taken this fight. Just so you know, we look up to you a lot."