Above photo: The Shasta River flows through a field near Mount Shasta Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local.
No Green For Go.
Settler colonialism has caused the destruction of indigenous lands around the world and, as a result, the environment in which we all live. The path forward is an global struggle against these forces.
The ideology and praxis of settler-colonialism are widely understood to be one of the most violent, brutal, and inhumane systems ever constructed by humanity. In every corner of the globe, dominant Western nations hailing from Europe and North America have systematically enforced their rule throughout the Global South by way of coercion, economic dominance, and, most importantly for the sake of this work, environmental destruction. One of the less focused aspects of settler-colonialism and its means of enforcement is the destruction of not only the Indigenous population but the indigenous ecosystems as well. In order to assert an essentially European way of life onto the colonized countries, colonial powers decimate the indigenous flora and fauna to reproduce an ecosystem that resembles those of the Global North- primarily those that can be found where the settlers arrive to the colonized land from. This practice has most notably been carried out in the United States against its various Indigenous populations, in apartheid South Africa against its native Khoisans, and in the colonial borders of Israel against the Palestinians. Through environmental destruction and the forced transformation of human relationships with nature, colonial powers dominate Indigenous populations with what has been dubbed by scholars as the ecology of settler-colonialism.
Given the nature of the topic, it is important to utilize sources produced by Indigenous activists, scholars, and authors. Who else would better understand the ecology of settler-colonialism than the affected Indigenous peoples themselves? With the three case studies being the United States, South Africa, and Israel, sources will primarily be gathered from the First Nation peoples of these countries. However, given the internationalist nature of settler-colonialism and Western dominance, it would not be difficult to apply the findings of the cited works to any example of colonialism throughout recorded history.
To begin, it would be useful to define settler-colonialism so that the reader and I can conceptually be on the same page, so to speak:
Settler colonialism refers to complex social processes in which at least one society seeks to move permanently onto the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial places lived in by one or more other societies who already derive economic vitality, cultural flourishing, and political self-determination from the relationships they have established with the plants, animals, physical entities, and ecosystems of those places.[1]
Settler-colonialism accomplishes these social processes through three main principles: (1) land grabs, (2) land clearing, and (3) massacring the Indigenous peoples[2]. When the phrase “ecology of settler-colonialism” is used, it specifically refers to how the social and political systems of settler-colonialism change the relations between organisms as well as their physical surroundings. Potawatomi activist and scholar Kyle Whyte writes that these three principles ultimately culminate into two practices: vicious sedimentation and insidious loops. These two practices are how environmental degradation of indigenous ecosystems reinforces racist stereotypes of Indigenous peoples as well as how the effects of settler-colonialism compound onto one another, leading to a positive feedback loop in which the amount of harm done to Indigenous communities grows exponentially. The principles and practices of the ecology of settler-colonialism completely decimate the sovereignty of both Indigenous humans and wildlife, jeopardizing the collective continuance of native communities.
The Threat Against Collective Continuance
Collective continuance is the “Indigenous conception of social resilience and self-determination”[3] that has been utilized by Indigenous peoples since they, to grossly oversimplify it, made contact with their would-be oppressors, be it Americans or Europeans. Grounding himself and his analysis of the ecology of settler-colonialism, Whyte utilizes the Anishinaabe[4] traditions of interdependent relations, systems of responsibilities, and migration to demonstrate the threat that settler-colonialism poses to indigenous environmental sovereignty. It is widely known that Indigenous peoples have a fundamentally different relationship with their natural environment than non-Indigenous peoples. It is so widely known, especially in the United States, due to the total commodification of Indigenous goods and ideology[5]. Apart from the turning of Indigenous relationships to the environment into commodities, it is no secret that “particular human societies are entangled in relationships of interdependence with the environment and have habituated themselves to particular ecosystems.”[6]
One such particular human society is that of Palestine. To quote the Institute for Middle East Understanding, “For countless generations, Palestinians have lived and worked sustainably and in harmony with the natural environment in Palestine, maintaining the indigenous landscape, sharing common resources, and growing a wide variety of crops.”[7] The Palestinian interdependence with their indigenous environment can be easily summarized by looking at their relationship with the olive tree. Olea europaea in Palestinian culture serves as “a powerful symbol for Palestinian identity, with their roots representing ties to the land and their branches forced displacement from it.”[8] Olive trees in Palestine do not just represent a cultural significance to the Palestinian experience, they are also one of the most economically important crops grown in the region. Nearly half of all cultivated land in the West Bank contains 10 million olive trees with an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 families relying on olive trees as either primary or secondary sources of income.[9] With olive trees making up more than 70% of Palestinian fruit production and 14% of the local economy, it is not a stretch to say that “Olive trees are more than fruitful; they are vital to life in Palestine.”[10] [original emphasis]
Indigenous interdependent relationships are grounded in what academics like Robin Klimmerer cite as the “covenant of reciprocity,” which can be further defined by the Potowatomi term, emingoyak, or “‘that which has been given to us,’ a gift that must be reciprocated with our own.”[11] This holistic, egalitarian view is fundamentally dichotomized by the settler’s ideology of nature. As Vanessa Watts claims, “the measure of colonial interaction with the land has historically been one of violence…that land is to be accessed, not learned from or a part of.”[12] In contrast to the violent colonial interaction that Watts speaks of, Indigenous relations to the environment can be best described by using an account of Tobasonakwut, an Anishinaabe elder, “His people were the lake, and the lake was them…As the people lived off fish, animals, the lake’s water and water plants for medicine, they were literally cell by cell composed of the lake and the lake’s islands.”[13] Where the colonizers sought to control nature, becoming its unconditional master, the Indigenous populations of the now-settled nations believe they are part of nature, that living in harmony with nature leads to humanity’s prosperity, and the colonizer’s idea of owning land is ridiculous. Indigenous reverence for nature extended to more than just land, as is exemplified by the Anishinaabe belief that, “There is also no privileging of humans as unique in having agency or intelligence, so one’s identity and caretaking responsibility as a human includes the philosophy that nonhumans have their own agency, spirituality, knowledge, and intelligence.”[14] Taking these ideological traditions into account, “Aboriginal peoples developed spiritual, political, and social conventions to guide their relationships with each other and with the natural environment. These customs and conventions became the foundation of many complex systems of government and law”[15]
As previously stated, the settler’s beliefs on nature are inherently incompatible with those of the Indigenous populations. In apartheid South Africa as more Indigenous citizens were pushed onto plots of land that were dubbed “tribal homelands,” leading to half of the Black population living on only 13% of the nation’s land, environmental conditions greatly worsened. Due to the South African economy’s dependence on mineral exports, and a desire to be independent from anti-apartheid oil-producing nations who would levy sanctions and embargoes against the Boer regime, the Afrikaans government invested heavily in coal mining. This industry was free from regulations that “led to artificially cheap coal that ravage[d] the land when it [was] mined and fouls the air where it [was] burned.”[16] South African electric plants that were powered by coal were not equipped with sulfur-removing scrubbers, causing thick screens of smog and acid rain to form that severely threatened the crops that Black South Africans relied on for their livelihoods[17]. The homeland system also led to the topsoil becoming unusable due to the overfarming and overgrazing of the land. Wood consumption also far exceeded reproduction rates at usage amounts between 200 kg and 800 kg per capita per year, leading the forests in QwaQwa to disappear completely during apartheid.[18] The environmental impact of apartheid in South Africa cannot be overstated, “By 1980 in the Ciskei alone 46 per cent of the land was moderately or severely eroded. With an average of two hectares of land per family and a general lack of capital for essential farming inputs and conservation measures, land in the homelands deteriorated to the point where it could no longer sustain the people who lived on it.”[19]
Vicious Sedimentation and Insidious Loops
As mentioned previously, the threats against collective continuance based on the principles of attacking Indigenous interdependent relationships with nature, land grabs and clearings, as well as massacring the aboriginal peoples culminate in producing two main outcomes: vicious sedimentation and insidious loops. These effects of settler-colonialism compound with already existing negative results of capitalism, climate change, and imperialism as the Global South bears the brunt of these systems and natural phenomena.[20] Thus, as these superstructures continue to ravage the entire planet, Indigenous peoples will continue to suffer the most from their causes and effects alike, further jeopardizing their ability to engage in collective continuance and hampering their ability to preserve themselves and their livelihoods.
The compounding threat of the dangers to Indigenous peoples as outlined above, or rather, “the pattern of how historic settler industries that violated Indigenous peoples when they began are also implicated many years later in further environmental violence, such as climate injustice”[21] is what scholars and activists refer to as insidious loops. Essentially, insidious loops are positive feedback cycles created by the countless ways settler-colonialism works to both actively and passively destroy the Indigenous peoples and ecosystems, a few of which have been discussed thus far. The insidious loop that is perhaps the most obvious to the audience of this work is how the rising sea levels in regions such as the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico are endangering Indigenous life.
Given how the Indigenous nations of what is now called the United States were forcibly relocated to relatively small plots of land compared to what their historic territories were, and that this land has less-than-desirable adaptability- which is precisely why the United States government chose these lands for the First Nations people to live on-Native Americans face serious harm as the Earth continues to warm at the hands of human activity. Kyle Whyte traces the causes of this indigenous vulnerability to, “the looping effect of US strategies to undermine Indigenous qualities of responsibilities through land dispossession/shrinkage and the pollution/emissions of many industrial activities whose operations are/were secured through colonial land dispossession/shrinkage.”[22] As has hopefully been made clear by now, these insidious loops affect far more than just people:
The looping effects of undermining qualities of responsibilities, such as consent or trust, are evident in how climate change also opens up more Indigenous territories, such as in the Arctic, to pressure from colonial exploitation, as thawing snow and ice create access to resources, such as oil and other hydrocarbons, that were previously hard to access. This climate-related development, as well as booms in extractive industries due to other causes, increases detrimental effects already experienced with past extractive industries. The workers camps, or “man camps,” created to support drilling and mining, intensify sexual and gender violence through increases in the trafficking of Indigenous women and children.[23]
When these effects of settler-colonialism are taken into account, it paints a picture that is truly deserving of the title “insidious.” Settler-colonial projects fundamentally lack any regard for the indigenous environment, let alone the human population. As long as the project can establish more settlements and continue to exploit the land and sea of its natural resources and wealth, then all is well in the eyes of the settler.
In addition to the insidious loops worsening the environmental effects of settler-colonialism, the actions of such regimes as they relate to the indigenous ecosystems bolster the dehumanizing stereotypes that settlers utilize against the native population to validate their terroristic endeavors, known as vicious sedimentation. Whyte defines this social phenomenon as, “the pattern of how environmental changes compound over time to reinforce and strengthen settler ignorance against Indigenous peoples.”[24] One does not have to look far for confirmation of vicious sedimentation if they live in the United States of America, they can simply step out into their front yard.
Lawns, the non-native and boring excuse for “good” landscaping, are the direct result of European settler-colonialists grabbing Native land, clearing it of its indigenous ecosystems, massacring First Nations peoples, and creating a status symbol that was carried over from the so-called “Old World.”[25] Nature preserves in the United States are viewed as a spectacle, as something unique to be marveled at. While these preserves are indeed beautiful, it should not be forgotten that entire regions of the country looked like these sanctuaries before the settlers came and decimated the indigenous environment.
This almost dumbfounded reaction to native ecosystems is an inadvertent effect of the ecology of settler-colonialism that leads, “People who participate in settler colonial domination [to be] perhaps more likely to have their discriminatory beliefs about Indigenous peoples confirmed by the prevalence of settler ecologies that have forcibly overlaid Indigenous ecologies substantially and dramatically.”[26] This can effectively be seen in historic Palestine where the Israeli Occupation Forces regularly uproot trees and other native wildlife to build their illegal settlements, which reinforces the Zionist belief that Jewish settlers are superior to the Indigenous Palestinians who have lived on and toiled the land for centuries. In 2021 alone, Israel removed, uprooted, and burned more than 19,000 native trees[27] and has historically built settlements in the West Bank on the grounds of nature preserves.[28] This utter disrespect for not only the Indigenous Palestinians, but the indigenous ecosystems as well, psychologically aids the Israeli settlers to justify their indiscriminate destruction of the region through policies such as segregation, dispossession, and exclusion across all territories within their borders.[29]
Conclusion
It should be made clear that through all the brutality and otherwise despicable actions of the settlers in their conquest to impose an image of their own making on foreign lands, the environment is the oft-forgotten casualty. In all the cries from mainstream climate activists to save the planet, rarely is it shouted from megaphones and written on protest signs that the United States military is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels[30] or that since October 7, 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces’s genocidal campaign against Gazans has produced more carbon dioxide emissions than the annual amount generated by entire nations such as the Central African Republic and Belize.[31] Like countless other issues of social justice, environmental issues simply cannot be fundamentally solved unless the systems of capitalism, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism are smashed through means of popular revolution and the total liberation of all oppressed peoples, by any means necessary.
A story that can provide hope for a future where indigenous lands are returned to their rightful owners occurred in early 2024. California’s Klamath River region was once inhabited by Indigenous nations such as the Shasta who were murdered or otherwise forced off their ancestral lands due to being “viewed by newly arriving Europeans as an obstacle to mining.”[32] After mining operations ceased, the development of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project began in the early 1900’s. What little land the Shasta still maintained after the mining industries left, was seized for construction of the hydroelectric dams. The construction of these dams was an injustice against the Shasta and decimated the ecosystems of the Klamath River, particularly the salmon populations. The salmon population of the Klamath River once was the third-largest on the West Coast but collapsed largely due to the hydroelectric dams blocking the fish habitats. As is the case with Palestinians and olive trees, “[f]or Indigenous groups in the Klamath Basin, including the Shasta people, salmon were not only food but a spiritual and cultural staple.”[33]
Despite this destruction, hope remains for the Shasta people that they will be able to restore their ancestral lands and livelihoods. In order to pay for the removal costs of the dam, the company that owned the hydroelectric plants, PacifiCorp, forfeited 8,000 acres of land to the states of California and Oregon.[34] Government officials in the state of California are, at the time of writing, currently in negotiations with Indigenous leaders of the Klamath River region to transfer land in Siskiyou County, where the dams were constructed, back into the hands of First Nations like the Shasta.[35] The transfer of ownership also includes repopulation programs for native plants of the Klamath River’s ecosystems which encompasses, “More than 17 billion seeds [that] are slated for planting, representing 97 species of grasses, forbs, shrubs and trees.”[36] Tribal secretary for the Shasta Indian Nation, Connie Collins, underlines the essentialness of the land surrounding the Klamath River to life for the Shasta people, “We’re tied to that land…It’s inseparable from us, from our tribe. It’s one of the things you feel when you’re there and drawn to when you’re not. That connection is hard to describe, but if you know, you know.”[37]
Examples such as the victories won by the Shasta should serve as an immortal recognition of accomplishment in the struggle against settler-colonialism. A world in which ancestral lands are returned to their rightful owners is possible, but it must be fought for. Historically across the globe, not a single group of people has ever complicitly sat idle when faced with being occupied by a foreign force- it is antithetical to human behavior to do so. Native peoples have marched, performed sit-ins, occupied spaces, and in the case of all other options being exhausted, have engaged in armed rebellion, which is upheld as an international human right.[38] Humanity cannot expect to live on this planet for much longer unless these superstructures are destroyed unless we govern ourselves through cooperation and not competition, and unless we establish a more equitable way of living not just for ourselves and for our neighbors, but for Mother Nature as well.
Bibliography
Alexander, Kurtis. “As Massive California Dam Removal Project Nears Completion, Who Gets the Once Submerged Land?” San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 2024. http://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/klamath-dam-land-tribes-18651607.php .
Amnesty International. “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime Against Humanity.” Amnesty International, February 1, 2022. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/ .
Borrows, John. 2002. Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Bunten, Alexis. “Why & How to Decolonize Your Yard.” Bioneers, January 3, 2024. https://bioneers.org/why-how-to-decolonize-your-yard-zmbz2206/ .
Defebaugh, Willow. “The Olive Branch.” Atmos, November 10, 2023. https://atmos.earth/overview-palestine-olive-trees-symbolism-ceasefire/#:~:text=Like%20a%20number%20of%20its,branches%20forced%20displacement%20from%20it
Dervis, Kemal. “Devastating for the World’s Poor: Climate Change Threatens the Development Gains Already Achieved.” United Nations Chronicle, 2007. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/devastating-worlds-poor-climate-change-threatens-development-gains-already-achieved .
Erdrich, Louise. 2006. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. New York: Harper.
Institute for Middle East Understanding. “Israel’s Environmental Apartheid in Palestine.” IMEU, November 3, 2022. https://imeu.org/article/environmental-apartheid-in-palestine .
“Israel’s Environmental Apartheid in Palestine.” IMEU, November 3, 2022. https://imeu.org/article/environmental-apartheid-in-palestine#:~:text=For%20countless%20generations%2C%20Palestinians%20have,latter%20of%20which%20form%20a .
Kimmerer, Robin. 2010. “The Giveaway.”” In Moral Ground, ed. Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, 141–145. San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press.
Lakhani, Nina. “Emissions from Israel’s War in Gaza Have ‘immense’ Effect on Climate Catastrophe.” The Guardian, January 9, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change .
Mallinder, Lorraine. “‘Elephant in the Room’: What Is the US Military’s Carbon Footprint?” Al Jazeera, December 12, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/elephant-in-the-room-the-us-militarys-devastating-carbon-footprint#:~:text=The%20environmental%20impact%20of%20the,nations%20like%20Portugal%20and%20Denmark .
Ofran, Hagit, and Dror Etkans. “Construction of Settlements and Outposts on Nature Reserves in West Bank.” Peace Now, February 13, 2007. https://peacenow.org.il/en/nature-reserve .
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. “Issues a Press Release on This Year’s World Environment Day on the Theme of ‘Only One Earth.’” PCBS, May 6, 2022. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?lang=en&ItemID=4253 .
Steyn, Phia. “The Lingering Environmental Impact of Repressive Governance: The Environmental Legacy of the Apartheid-Era for the New South Africa.” Globalizations 2, no. 3 (February 16, 2011): 391–402.
“Study Says Apartheid Hurts the Environment.” The New York Times, May 13, 1990. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/world/study-says-apartheid-hurts-the-environment.html .
United Nations. “Right of Peoples to Self-Determination/Struggle by All Available Means – Ga Resolution – Question of Palestine.” United Nations, December 14, 1990. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-184801/ .
Watts, Vanessa. 2013. “Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency Amongst Humans and Non-Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go on a European World Tour!).” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 2 (1): 20–34.
Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26879582 .
————————————————-
[1] Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26879582.
[2] Idib.
[3] Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26879582.
[4] The group of indigenous nations surrounding the Great Lakes of North America that include, but are not limited to, such nations as the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Algonquin, and Odawa.
[5] Many non-indigenous peoples in the United States purchase dreamcatchers, miniature totem poles, headdresses; cherry-pick their practice of indigenous spirituality; and mystify indigenous peoples as if they were druids or nymphs.
[6]Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26879582.
[7] Institute for Middle East Understanding. “Israel’s Environmental Apartheid in Palestine.” IMEU, November 3, 2022. https://imeu.org/article/environmental-apartheid-in-palestine.
[8] Defebaugh, Willow. “The Olive Branch.” Atmos, November 10, 2023.
[9] Idib.
[10] Idib.
[11] Kimmerer, Robin. 2010. “The Giveaway.”” In Moral Ground, ed. Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, 141–145. San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press.
[12] Watts, Vanessa. 2013. “Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency Amongst Humans and Non-Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go on a European World Tour!).” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Edu-cation and Society 2 (1): 20–34.
[13] Erdrich, Louise. 2006. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. New York: Harper.
[14] Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26879582.
[15] Borrows, John. 2002. Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[16] “Study Says Apartheid Hurts the Environment.” The New York Times, May 13, 1990.
[17] “Study Says Apartheid Hurts the Environment.” The New York Times, May 13, 1990.
[18] Steyn, Phia. “The Lingering Environmental Impact of Repressive Governance: The Environmental Legacy of the Apartheid-Era for the New South Africa.” Globalizations 2, no. 3 (February 16, 2011): 391–402.
[19] Idib.
[20] Dervis, Kemal. “Devastating for the World’s Poor: Climate Change Threatens the Development Gains Already Achieved.” United Nations Chronicle, 2007.
[21] Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44.
[22] Idib.
[23] Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44.
[24] Idib.
[25] Bunten, Alexis. “Why & How to Decolonize Your Yard.” Bioneers, January 3, 2024.
[26] Whyte, Kyle. “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice.” Environment and Society 9 (2018): 125–44.
[27] Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. “Issues a Press Release on This Year’s World Environment Day on the Theme of ‘Only One Earth.’” PCBS, May 6, 2022.
[28] Ofran, Hagit, and Dror Etkans. “Construction of Settlements and Outposts on Nature Reserves in West Bank.” Peace Now, February 13, 2007.
[29] Amnesty International. “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime Against Humanity.” Amnesty International, February 1, 2022.
[30] Mallinder, Lorraine. “‘Elephant in the Room’: What Is the US Military’s Carbon Footprint?” Al Jazeera, December 12, 2023.
[31] Lakhani, Nina. “Emissions from Israel’s War in Gaza Have ‘immense’ Effect on Climate Catastrophe.” The Guardian, January 9, 2024.
[32] Alexander, Kurtis. “As Massive California Dam Removal Project Nears Completion, Who Gets the Once Submerged Land?” San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 2024.
[33] Alexander, Kurtis. “As Massive California Dam Removal Project Nears Completion, Who Gets the Once Submerged Land?” San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 2024.
[34] Idib.
[35] Idib.
[36] Idib.
[37] Idib.