Native Americans and the Environment

Dan Wildcat
Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center
Haskell Indian Nations University
Lawrence, KS

The Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Center began three years ago as part of a Native vision about the places where we live and how we choose to live as Native peoples. The cultural expression of all human existence, e.g., language, dwellings, production modes, the arts and religion, is one of the richest aspects of life on the planet. Recently, we have begun to understand that in many respects our cultures in all their various sites, sounds and ways of living are largely reflections of the rich diversity of geography and biology of places on the Earth. Let us hope that the realization has not come to late. It is particularly telling that this awakening is occurring at a "time" when the central problem we now face is the creation of a culture -- one monolithic global culture -- with the distinguishing feature that it makes a sense of place, or more properly, natural landscapes irrelevant. As James Howard Kunstler has so forcefully argued, we are creating a Geography of Nowhere, and I might add "Nowhere" men and women.

From a Native perspective, environmental justice is about the democratic respect and provision for all members of all communities -- including the plant, animal, and geo-logic/graphic "persons" which are members of all communities. The HERS Center is committed to pursuing research, tech-transfer, and educational goals for American Indian Nations, Alaska, Native communities, and other minority populations based on our indigenous understanding of politics and ethics, which mandates environmental justice based on the implicit indigenous environmental ethos of biological diversity and democracy.

It should be obvious to everyone that the defining feature of culture in modern industrial or post-industrial societies is their mass consumerism. In the "age" that we live in the land and natural places of the planet are not nearly as important in our lives as they homogeneously designed and produced sites of consumption most human beings depend on. The shopping mall and its convenience seems more important to most people than the wetlands, rivers and grasslands. This is the height of what might be describes as a modern false-consciousness.

Of course, it should be obvious that as natural landscapes and the ecosystems existing on them are destroyed, so too are the human cultures built on these natural landscapes and nestled in the attendant ecosystems. That recognition of this connection is viewed today as insightful and is indeed an ex post facto demonstration of the degree to which the environments mot of us live in are artificial. The fact that people living in modern industrial societies (MIS) or post-industrial societies (PIS) are not fully conscious of this is indicative of several conditions. First, a large number of people living in MISes and PISes have been so engulfed in a way of living that so little values the land its ecosystems. Second, what awareness most people have of the crisis facing the peoples and places of the planet is not the result of an intelligence borne of direct experience. It is an awareness brought by distant, rather abstract media images, which are immediately eclipsed by images of consumer comfort which avoid any acknowledgment of the direct relationship between these sensuous consumer products and the ecosystem/culture nexus that is in crisis.

Our human communities are in crisis because of the manner in which we are living. Most human beings no longer recognize the ecosystems and the biosphere, as the site for political and ethical action. Environmental justice, whether one lives in a city, suburban or rural setting, must be framed in the big picture of our [human being] relatedness and connectedness to the natural world of which we are but one small part: the sustainability of healthy cultures, communities, and provision for future generations rises and falls with this realization.

I would like to leave this conference with a piece of wisdom offered by Bill Tallbull, the late Cheyenne Elder and beloved board member of the HERS Center. It speaks to what I hope all of us are about.

Prayers are important. Elders look to the younger people to see the future. The concern I have is for the future. Environmental Protection -- I look to the young people to develop Environmental Policy to protect the sacred lands, plants and animals. You people listen to the Elders.

I have talked to many environmental focus groups about protecting the land. We live in a spiritual world. Who is taking care of our spiritual world,. Listen to an old man. The tribal council will not -- they are too busy. The tribes have given away too much. The Elders look to the young -- for you -- to protect our reservations.

Some tribes are looking to their traditional leaders and communities. As you know every Indian is a politician. We are confused.

It seems the Elders were right -- we might just simply fade away. You (my students) are the future. Take my stories and pass them on. The traditional have become vocal. We have knowledge to share. Wouldn't it be a great thing to communicate with an Elder.

Mr. Tallbull used to say when he would speak -- listen to an old man. Bill was not just old -- he was a wisdom-keeper. We all have wisdom-keepers in our communities -- let us never forget that. The HERS Center is based on drawing principles from the wisdom of our Elders in order to advance environmental justice. We cannot use the technology, information or knowledge, we work so hard to develop and attain, without wisdom. Let us not forget to listen to an old woman or old man when they have something to say. Environmental Justice depends on learning. We too often forget how much we learn simply by listening to the members of our communities -- our cultural and biological diversity depend on it.