Real Ecological Indians

Winona LaDuke. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge, Mass: South End Press, 1999. vii + 241 pp. $40.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-89608-599-2. Paul E Minnis, Wayne J Elisens, eds.. Biodiversity and Native America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. x + 310 pp. $34.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8061-3232-7. Reviewed by Greg O'Brien Published on H-Environment (August, 2001) Real Ecological Indians: Connecting Culture anthropologist Shepard Krech demonstrated re‐ and Ecology in Native America cently, Indians sometimes killed more animals Ecological practices and beliefs among Ameri‐ than they needed for food, sometimes outstripped can Indians, of long-standing interest in popular certain resources such as trees, and certainly al‐ consciousness, are receiving well-deserved atten‐ tered local landscapes and environments.[1] The tion from scholars in history, anthropology, and two books under consideration here suggest the biological sciences, as well as Indian activists. strongly, however, that not only did the diverse The intense gaze of academia on Indian ecology Indian peoples understand and utilize the Ameri‐ has produced controversy, usually over whether can natural environment in a manner more apt to or not the "noble savage" stereotype is employed preserve biological integrity than did Europeans, too readily in an attempt to portray all Indians as those Indians who preserve traditional culture to‐ the frst American environmentalists or is used as day (language, religion, lifeways, and so on) seem a straw man to deny that Indians interacted with to be much better equipped to preserve biodiver‐ the natural environment in a manner significant‐ sity and healthy ecosystems than mainstream ly different than the European intruders. Both American society. views are, of course, vast oversimplifications. As H-Net Reviews Culture makes a difference, and Indian peo‐ Each community discussed by LaDuke has a ples throughout North America have linked cul‐ unique history of coping with environmental and tural survival with preservation and restoration cultural degradation, but they all have common of original ecosystems. In many cases, Native enemies among corporate despoilers and govern‐ knowledge of the intricate relationships between mental negligence. On the eastern US-Canadian flora and fauna in a given ecosystem surpasses border lies the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation, scientific information; witness the 1993 han‐ downstream from 25 percent of all North Ameri‐ tavirus outbreak in the Southwest solved by Nava‐ can industry around the Great Lakes. PCBs and jo medical knowledge that mice feeding on piny‐ other contaminants have killed fsh and other on nuts are carriers of the disease. Clearly, there wildlife and polluted the groundwater. Mohawk are environmental lessons to be learned from In‐ mothers discovered PCBs in their breast milk in dian people. the late 1970s and have identified a neighboring Winona LaDuke is an enrolled member of the General Motors plant as the likely source of con‐ Mississippi Band of Anishinaabeg in Minnesota, tamination. In response, Mohawks created the Ak‐ an environmental activist, a writer, a member of wesasne Mother's Milk Project in 1985 and went the White Earth Land Recovery Project and of the to battle against GM and other polluters. They national Indian environmental rights organiza‐ continue to seek restoration of healthy lakes, fsh, tion Honor the Earth, as well as a two-time Green and people. Party vice presidential candidate. She provides a In the Florida Everglades live the nearly-ex‐ snapshot of ongoing efforts by Indians throughout tinct Florida Panthers and traditional Seminole the United States and Canada to preserve and re‐ Indians. The causes of their decease are largely store traditional culture along with natural the same: loss of habitat (especially wetlands) to ecosystems. LaDuke insists that "[t]here is a direct industrial and residential development and pollu‐ relationship between the loss of cultural diversity tion of the environment by industry. Thanks to and the loss of biodiversity. Wherever Indigenous some private foundation help, traditional Semi‐ peoples still remain, there is also a corresponding noles are reacquiring property in the Everglades enclave of biodiversity" (p. 1). In nine case studies area and working to save the panther. Innu (Mon‐ LaDuke investigates Indian communities across tagnais) peoples in northeast Canada fght against North America by giving a brief history of Euro‐ destruction of the forests by hydroelectric projects pean-Indian relations there, the expropriation of and military bases. The U.S. Air Force conducts the Native land base by Europeans, and the effects low-level fights over the region disrupting animal of industrial forms of resource exploitation on routines and harming Native people. The Innu are land and people in the nineteenth and twentieth fighting in the courts and through direct action by centuries. What makes her case studies different appealing to the U.S. and Canadian governments, from other recent works on American Indian en‐ occupying runways, and insisting on living as vironmental issues is her incorporation of Indian they always have in their homeland, including religious beliefs and land ethics, her frsthand traveling where they want and hunting and fsh‐ knowledge of the issues and peoples she discusses ing as they always have. The Northern Cheyenne (she interviewed and visited folks in each of the in southern Montana are working to correct the communities), and her detailed presentation of monumental destruction left by decades of coal Native efforts to correct environmental problems strip mining, most of which was approved by the while simultaneously protecting traditional cul‐ Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of the tribe ture.[2] with little to no input from tribal members. Be‐ cause the semi-arid region of southeastern Mon‐ 2 H-Net Reviews tana takes decades, if ever, to recover from strip est" (p. 127). Similarly, on the Plains, Indian na‐ mining, Cheyenne activists such as Gail Small tions are trying to build up their own buffalo formed Native Action to prevent any further min‐ herds in order to restore the prairie ecosystem ing through legal challenges. LaDuke criticizes and reestablish cultural ties with their buffalo west coast environmentalists for adopting a NIM‐ brothers and sisters. By so doing, Plains Indians BY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard) approach to this issue such as the Lakotas fnd themselves at odds with and failing to assist the Cheyennes, since much of white cattle ranchers and with government offi‐ the power generated on and near the Cheyenne cials who authorize the slaughter of buffalo who reservation fows west to major coastal cities, wander beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone whereas the pollution and ecosystem devastation National Park. Yet, their efforts are succeeding remains out of sight in rural Montana. and there are hopes of restoring vast areas of the LaDuke's ffth chapter discusses nuclear pow‐ Plains to their pre-ranching biodiversity. er, uranium mining, and nuclear waste, an envi‐ LaDuke's last two case studies take us to ronmental issue she has written about before and Hawaii and the Hopi reservation in northern Ari‐ which is of particular importance within the set‐ zona. Native Hawaiians occupy lands that the U.S. ting of our current president's energy proposals. Government has converted to military bases and [3] Native activists have long pointed out that ap‐ national parks, though they have succeeded in proximately one-half of American uranium re‐ getting the Kaho'olawe Island--used as a bombing serves are on Indian land but about 80 percent of range by the navy--restored to Native ownership. all uranium mining has occurred on Indian land, Issues of land repatriation (from governmental with 1,000 uranium mines on the Navajo reserva‐ and private claims), toxic waste cleanup, and tra‐ tion alone. The same underhanded way that the ditional fshing and farming methods are front- federal government acquired less than satisfacto‐ and-center among traditional Hawaiians. LaDuke ry mining contracts on Indian land is now occur‐ closes with Hopi efforts to selectively use modern ring with regard to nuclear waste disposal. technology, especially solar power, to address LaDuke highlights the Western Shoshones, on present needs while preserving ecological and whose land the Nevada Test Site and the Yucca cultural integrity. Electricity-generating plants Mountain nuclear waste storage site reside, and and power lines are viewed by traditional Hopis their efforts to fght against further radioactive as too intrusive, and alternative energy supplies contamination. are viewed as an answer to the need for some Forest preservation and restoration, land re‐ electricity. covery, and hunting, fshing, and gathering rights All Our Relations is written clearly, com‐ are the focus of traditionally-minded Anishi‐ pellingly, and with reasoned judgement. Excellent naabeg on LaDuke's own White Earth Reservation maps at the start of each chapter add to this in Minnesota. After a century of rampant clear- work's usefulness as an undergraduate and gener‐ cutting of the forests by outside interests, such as al audience text on American Indian environmen‐ Weyerhauser, LaDuke and others formed the tal issues. Winona LaDuke has become one of the White Earth Land Recovery Project in 1989 to leading voices within the environmental move‐ reacquire land. "The struggle to preserve the trees ment and among Indian activists, and she has im‐ of White Earth," LaDuke contends, "is not solely portant things to tell all of us. about forest preservation and biodiversity. It is In the opening to their book, Paul Minnis and also about cultural transformation, for the Anishi‐ Wayne Elisens echo LaDuke's plea to listen to naabeg forest culture cannot exist without the for‐ what Native North American people have to say 3 H-Net Reviews about environmental stewardship: "Native peo‐ mals for food and medicine, and Fowler describes ples have been neither passive consumers of na‐ ongoing efforts among Shoshones and others to ture's economy nor primitive rapists of pristine retain this knowledge.

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