Indigenous Peoples' Day
10/10/22 02:09
The official website of the Lummi Nation proclaims this statement:
“We are the Lhaq'temish, The Lummi People. We are the original inhabitants of Washington's northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. For thousands of years, we worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and waters of Puget Sound.
“We are fishers, hunters, gatherers, and harvesters of nature's abundance. We envision our homeland as a place where we enjoy an abundant, safe, and healthy life in mind, body, society, environment, space, time and spirituality; where all are encouraged to succeed and none are left behind.”
If you traced my family’s genealogy far enough back, there would be some place on this planet where we once were indigenous. I don’t know that place, however. On my father’s side of the family, we can trace the migration backwards, through Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Russia and Germany. We’ve been on the move for a lot of generations, settling for a while in various locations where we found people who had already been there for a long time. On my mother’s side of the family, folks tended to settle for a bit longer, but the journey includes relatives who came from England and perhaps Scotland. We don’t know all of the stories or even all of the places where family members have stayed. Along the way on both sides of my family there were marriages of people from different origins and members of different tribes. We have family members who were adopted into the family with different origin stories.
It would not be accurate to divide all of the people of the world into two categories: migrants and indigenous, but the categories are interesting in some of the places where I have lived. In South Dakota, the bulk of immigrant people arrived in the last 200 years or so, but they vastly outnumber those of indigenous heritage. The two groups have shared the land, albeit uncomfortably and with a history of exploitation, displacement, and attempted genocide. They have intermarried and mixed their heritages. Some settler families have been in the area for five and six generations and feel that the land is theirs. Some indigenous people have lived their entire lives on reservations and have never experienced ownership of land in ways that is recognized by title companies and registrars of deeds.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, some settler families have been here even longer than was the case in South Dakota, though the largest waves of immigration have been in about the same time frame. The reservations here are even smaller amounts of land. The indigenous people are even a smaller fraction of the total population.
Nonetheless, here as was the case in South Dakota, indigenous people have provided significant leadership in the area of environmental protection and climate change mitigation. Perhaps there is something inherent in having lived in one place for as long as people can remember that attaches one to the land, the creatures, and the intensely complex web of nature. Perhaps there is something inherent in the generational trauma of coming from ancestors who were pursued with the attempt to drive them away from their ancestral lands, force them to abandon their language and culture by robbing them of their means of survival, taking their children to residential schools, and imposing poverty and dependence. I do not know the reasons, but I do know that indigenous leaders are worthy of our careful attention and when they teach us about the care of the environment there is great wisdom that we can learn.
Today is Indigenous People’s Day in the United States. The holiday was called Columbus Day when I was growing up in Montana, but relatively recent attempts at reconciliation between indigenous and immigrant peoples have brought new awareness of this day, a new name and a new emphasis to its understanding.
In the official proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2022, President Joseph Biden declared, “On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor the sovereignty, resilience, and immense contributions that Native Americans have made to the world; and we recommit to upholding our solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations, strengthening our Nation-to-Nation ties.” Later in the proclamation he acknowledges that “for centuries, Indigenous Peoples were forcibly removed from ancestral lands, displaced, assimilated, and banned from worshiping or performing many sacred ceremonies.” He also officially notes that “they remain some of our greatest environmental stewards.”
As we face what may be the greatest moral crisis of human history - the drastic effects of human-caused climate change that threaten the capacity of the planet to sustain human life - it is imperative that we learn from wise environmental stewards. Listening to the leadership of indigenous peoples when it comes to the enhancement, nurture, and protection of natural resources.
Being indigenous does not mean that a person is automatically a better steward of the environment than those who have later settled on the land. One of the effects of deep, generational poverty is that people do not have the resources to embrace some of the technological solutions to the energy crisis. Substandard housing is not marked by solar panels. Impoverished people aren’t purchasing new electric vehicles. When heating with wood is the only affordable choice, one’s carbon footprint is larger that others who have more financial resources. Litter and trash handling are not somehow better on reservations than other places.
The bottom line is that we are all in this together. The effects of climate change - fires, floods, pandemic, environmental refugees, and environmental illness affect all of us. The solutions that will save some people benefit all people. Part of what will be needed is for all of us to learn to consume less, live more simply, and learn to share resources. Every act of pollution and contamination threatens all of us. Each act of environmental stewardship benefits all people.
Today, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I dedicate myself to working to earn trust and strengthen relationships with our indigenous neighbors. I will also listen more carefully to the wisdom of my indigenous neighbors. There is much to learn and today is a good day to begin.
“We are the Lhaq'temish, The Lummi People. We are the original inhabitants of Washington's northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. For thousands of years, we worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and waters of Puget Sound.
“We are fishers, hunters, gatherers, and harvesters of nature's abundance. We envision our homeland as a place where we enjoy an abundant, safe, and healthy life in mind, body, society, environment, space, time and spirituality; where all are encouraged to succeed and none are left behind.”
If you traced my family’s genealogy far enough back, there would be some place on this planet where we once were indigenous. I don’t know that place, however. On my father’s side of the family, we can trace the migration backwards, through Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Russia and Germany. We’ve been on the move for a lot of generations, settling for a while in various locations where we found people who had already been there for a long time. On my mother’s side of the family, folks tended to settle for a bit longer, but the journey includes relatives who came from England and perhaps Scotland. We don’t know all of the stories or even all of the places where family members have stayed. Along the way on both sides of my family there were marriages of people from different origins and members of different tribes. We have family members who were adopted into the family with different origin stories.
It would not be accurate to divide all of the people of the world into two categories: migrants and indigenous, but the categories are interesting in some of the places where I have lived. In South Dakota, the bulk of immigrant people arrived in the last 200 years or so, but they vastly outnumber those of indigenous heritage. The two groups have shared the land, albeit uncomfortably and with a history of exploitation, displacement, and attempted genocide. They have intermarried and mixed their heritages. Some settler families have been in the area for five and six generations and feel that the land is theirs. Some indigenous people have lived their entire lives on reservations and have never experienced ownership of land in ways that is recognized by title companies and registrars of deeds.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, some settler families have been here even longer than was the case in South Dakota, though the largest waves of immigration have been in about the same time frame. The reservations here are even smaller amounts of land. The indigenous people are even a smaller fraction of the total population.
Nonetheless, here as was the case in South Dakota, indigenous people have provided significant leadership in the area of environmental protection and climate change mitigation. Perhaps there is something inherent in having lived in one place for as long as people can remember that attaches one to the land, the creatures, and the intensely complex web of nature. Perhaps there is something inherent in the generational trauma of coming from ancestors who were pursued with the attempt to drive them away from their ancestral lands, force them to abandon their language and culture by robbing them of their means of survival, taking their children to residential schools, and imposing poverty and dependence. I do not know the reasons, but I do know that indigenous leaders are worthy of our careful attention and when they teach us about the care of the environment there is great wisdom that we can learn.
Today is Indigenous People’s Day in the United States. The holiday was called Columbus Day when I was growing up in Montana, but relatively recent attempts at reconciliation between indigenous and immigrant peoples have brought new awareness of this day, a new name and a new emphasis to its understanding.
In the official proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2022, President Joseph Biden declared, “On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor the sovereignty, resilience, and immense contributions that Native Americans have made to the world; and we recommit to upholding our solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations, strengthening our Nation-to-Nation ties.” Later in the proclamation he acknowledges that “for centuries, Indigenous Peoples were forcibly removed from ancestral lands, displaced, assimilated, and banned from worshiping or performing many sacred ceremonies.” He also officially notes that “they remain some of our greatest environmental stewards.”
As we face what may be the greatest moral crisis of human history - the drastic effects of human-caused climate change that threaten the capacity of the planet to sustain human life - it is imperative that we learn from wise environmental stewards. Listening to the leadership of indigenous peoples when it comes to the enhancement, nurture, and protection of natural resources.
Being indigenous does not mean that a person is automatically a better steward of the environment than those who have later settled on the land. One of the effects of deep, generational poverty is that people do not have the resources to embrace some of the technological solutions to the energy crisis. Substandard housing is not marked by solar panels. Impoverished people aren’t purchasing new electric vehicles. When heating with wood is the only affordable choice, one’s carbon footprint is larger that others who have more financial resources. Litter and trash handling are not somehow better on reservations than other places.
The bottom line is that we are all in this together. The effects of climate change - fires, floods, pandemic, environmental refugees, and environmental illness affect all of us. The solutions that will save some people benefit all people. Part of what will be needed is for all of us to learn to consume less, live more simply, and learn to share resources. Every act of pollution and contamination threatens all of us. Each act of environmental stewardship benefits all people.
Today, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I dedicate myself to working to earn trust and strengthen relationships with our indigenous neighbors. I will also listen more carefully to the wisdom of my indigenous neighbors. There is much to learn and today is a good day to begin.
