Indigenous Knowledge

Where Fire Back Means Land Back

September 29, 2024 Ashli Blow, Resilience. Create! Forests, Indigenous Knowledge, Land Back, Restoration, Wildfires

On his tribe’s land, enveloped by the state of Oregon, Jesse Jackson stood at the threshold between two ecosystems: On one side of him, an open canopy bathed grasses and white oak trees in sunlight; on the other, a thick cover of evergreen trees darkened the landscape. A forget-me-not wildflower bloomed in the clearing. This is where the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians have been restoring their oak savanna meadows, after decades of fire suppression and the removal of large, fire-adapted trees under federal management. In addition to land they bought from private owners, in 2018, the Tribe received 17,519 acres of land from the U.S. government for the Tribe to manage under its own authority.

The Hé Sapa Resolution Could Help ‘Indigenize’ Wilderness Conservation

September 22, 2024 Greg Harman, Resilience. Strategize! Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Knowledge, Wilderness

Internationally recognized conservation leader Vance Martin, recent recipient of the IUCN’s Fred Packard Awards for Outstanding Service to Protected Areas and former long-time Wild Foundation president, speaks with Deceleration about restoring wilderness through deepening relationships and practicing love. Last month, delegates attending the 12th World Wilderness Congress in the Black Hills adopted a string of resolutions expected to help ‘indigenize’ wilderness conservation and the conservation sciences in the months and years ahead. Resolutions ranged from reforming conservation efforts to recognize “Indigenous science, knowledge, thought, and wisdom” (Hé Sapa Resolution)...

Humanity Must Choose A New Path To Avoid Rapid Ecological Breakdown

September 14, 2024 Greg Harman, Resilience. Organize! Biodiversity, climate crisis, Ecological breakdown, Indigenous Knowledge

Rapid City, S.D.—Humanity stands at a crossroads and must come together to realize dramatically different and supportive relationships with one another, the Earth, and all life on the planet, if we are to surmount cascading ecological and social crises now underway. That was the message of Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples, who welcomed hundreds of attendees to the 12th World Wilderness Congress convening the last week of August in the Black Hills, or Hé Sapa in the Lakota language. Though these gatherings, dedicated to assessing and often resetting global conservation work, date back to the 1970s, this is the first such congress being convened by a tribal authority.

Biospheric Cognition

May 23, 2024 James R. Martin, Resilience. Strategize! Biosphere, Ecosystems, Environment, Indigenous Knowledge

Biospheric Cognition is a radical innovation in human cognition which is emerging now, and could only have emerged and evolved in our time in history. It could not have emerged or evolved in the ancient world, or before modernity, because the sciences which enable biospheric cognition to fully realize itself didn’t exist then. “The term “biosphere” was coined in 1875 by geologist Eduard Suess, who defined it as the place on Earth’s surface where life dwells.” – Wikipedia, Biosphere That we live within ecosystems has been well known by traditional people for a very, very long time, since a time even more ancient than ancient civilizations.

Yurok Tribe Becomes First To Steward Land With National Park Service

March 25, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! California, Environment, Indigenous Knowledge, National Park Service

California’s Yurok Tribe had 90 percent of its territory stolen during the mid-1800s gold rush. Now, it will be getting a piece of its land back that serves as a gateway to Redwood state and national parks. For decades, the ancient redwoods on former Yurok lands were decimated for lumber and a sawmill built to process it. Now, in a first-of-its-kind agreement between the Yurok, the National Park Service, California State Parks and nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, the Tribe will become the first to manage Tribal land alongside the National Park Service, a press release from Save the Redwoods League said.

‘Operation Al Aqsa Flood’ Day 70: A Deteriorating Public Health Crisis

December 15, 2023 Anna Lekas Miller, Mondoweiss. Educate! disease, Gaza, health, Indigenous Knowledge, Israel, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

After heavy rains and hail storms ushered in the beginning of harsh winter weather in Gaza earlier this week, displaced people in Rafah have been faced with even more challenges as tents flooded, and they found themselves homeless and freezing, without their winter clothes. “Most of those who evacuated from the northern area left without bringing their winter clothes,” wrote Gaza-based journalist Hind Khoudary, on Twitter. “They have been knocking on the doors of people whose houses were not bombed, asking for clothes.” One enormous problem that the displaced are facing is a lack of sanitation in overcrowded shelters—according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is an average of one shower per 700 people and one toilet per 150 people in Gaza, which has contributed to the rapid spread of infectious diseases.

Tribes Take The Lead On Regenerative Agriculture

July 21, 2023 Eva Tesfaye, Barn Raiser. Create! Food and Agriculture, Indigenous Knowledge, Regenerative Farming, Water

Not only do the bees produce honey that is sold, but the tribe’s agricultural operation, Ioway Farms, also uses the bees to pollinate its orchard. It’s all part of the work the tribal nation is doing to better farm the land. Rhodd says just a few years ago they used the same row cropping practices as the rest of the Midwest. “What folks didn’t see was the financials of our operation. We were spiraling downwards,” Rhodd says. “Financially we weren’t a profitable farming operation, and it’s due to the mindsets that’s been instilled in us.” The tribe decided to stop “chasing yields” and start implementing practices that are better for the soil, such as prescribed burns and cover crops that keep the ground planted all year round.

As Acidification Threatens Shellfish, Sea Gardens Offer Solutions

December 8, 2022 Jen Schmidt, Resilience. Create! climate crisis, Environment, Indigenous Knowledge, Ocean Acidification

It’s low tide in Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco, California, and Hannah Hensel is squishing through thick mud, on the hunt for clams. The hinged mollusks are everywhere, burrowed into the sediment, filtering seawater to feed on plankton. But Hensel isn’t looking for living bivalves—she’s searching the mudflat for the shells of dead clams. “I did lose a boot or two,” she recalls. “You can get sunk into it pretty deep.” Hensel, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis, is studying shells, which are composed of acid-buffering calcium carbonate, as a tool that could one day help shelled species survive in the world’s rapidly acidifying oceans. The inspiration for Hensel’s research comes from Indigenous sea gardening practices.

Putting Indigenous Knowledge Into Practice For Climate Change

November 19, 2022 Jessica Milgroom, Resilience. Strategize! Adaptation, climate crisis, Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous people developed deep knowledge about their environment that they built through relationships with land and with place over hundreds and often thousands of years. They have learned how to live off the gifts of the earth and take care of them so that they will be healthy for many generations to come. This knowledge offers another way of seeing and understanding the world, one that is necessary to address climate change. Now scientists, governments and communities are finally recognizing that taking action to adapt to climate change is urgent and an increasing number of people are looking to indigenous knowledge for insight. If you live in a place where indigenous knowledge has been buried under centuries of colonial culture, the idea that you could use it to adapt to climate change may feel vague.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day: A Call To Higher Consciousness

October 10, 2022 Wakinyan LaPointe and Thorne LaPointe, Last Real Indians. Create! Capitalism, Earth, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Day

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a call to higher consciousness, and it is one that is not solely defined by human beings but emerges from the original instructions of what the Lakota people also call wotakuye (relations with all life). Lakota children are taught that the earth is their grandmother, and that they are participants in her story. She gives us life, shelter, food, warmth, joy, and many other gifts. In contrast, the settler-colonial was taught that Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth) was property and meant for exploitation and one’s capitalist ambitions. However, it is time for the settler colonial to divest from this concept, to listen to Indigenous voices, and invest in Unci Maka as a relative that deserves inherent respect, honor, and reverence.

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