“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
“One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover – our Creator (God) is the same God. You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our land: but you cannot.
“This we know: All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. But we will consider your offer to go to the reservation you have for my people. We will live apart and in peace.”
Return of Acknowledgement of Natural Law and Respect for Mother Earth
It may be the time to devolve into the Traditions of Natural Law and begin to seek some answers to the pathology of the current governments. The new Indigenous generations are waiting for direction. The reintegration of Tradition into Tribal Public Policy’s time has come.
The Indigenous Peoples around the world have a tremendous reserve of both oil and gas under their lands. They have historically received small royalty payments, many times below 5%, for their oil and gas. The Federal governments have created contracts transferring the rights of those land-use to multinational corporations, and the Tribal governments were left out of any control over their lands and their economic rights.
Many Indigenous people have educated members of their Tribal societies who can create new Tribal Public Policy which accounts for the health of Mother Earth as a part of Indigenous generated public policy contracting. Tribes and First Nations now have a path to control their natural resources and to contribute directly to healing Mother Earth.
There are over 360 million Indigenous people on the planet and they have massive oil and gas resources under their lands. The United States and Canada Tribes, and First Nations, each have $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion of value in oil and gas under their lands.
Socially responsible departments of major international corporations have resources with which to make physical assessments of these lands. This will require a proposal from an Indigenous Think Tank group funded by the Indigenous People’s assets to secure that the data is controlled by the Indigenous people and can be used for the purposes of their Tribal governments.
Toward a New Indigenous Energy Governmental Public Policy
New Indigenous Legislation and Resolutions are needed to give authority to the modeling of extraction of oil and gas resources on Indigenous lands. Accountability for the assets based on the 350.org model, which acknowledges that there is a final point in which the levels above 2 degrees will result in planetary destruction, require a response to manage oil and gas resources to prevent that result. Models may have some of these regulations:
a. All oil and gas interests report annual inventories and revenues to Tribe.
b. Compliance with Tribal law, requiring all oil and gas sales and revenues to rebate 20% into a fund to pay for CO2 pollution remediation and renewable energy research and development.
c. Integrate the Indigenous Energy reporting system with global internet accountability, assessing in real time the impact of all oil and gas extraction and effects on CO2 levels within Indigenous lands.
The young members of the Indigenous Tribes and First Nations have the energy and knowledge to begin the journey to heal Mother Earth. They carry the messages from their ancestors and await, through community respect, the authority of their Tribal Governments to begin the Sovereign Movement to Heal Mother Earth.
Hear the ending of a new poem, called “A Blessing,” from the first Navajo Poet Laureate, Professor Luci Tapahonso, which she wrote for a class of Tribal college graduates:
“May we fulfill the lives envisioned for us at our birth. May we realize that our actions affect all people and the earth. May we live in the way of beauty and help others in need. May we always remember that we were created as people who believe in one another. We are grateful, Holy Ones, for the graduates, as they will strengthen our future. All is beautiful again.”