AMERICAN INDIAN MOTHER EARTH
For Native Americans, every day is Earth Day. Traditionally and culturally, it is the duty of Native Americans to care for Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth). “We are the land ... that is the fundamental idea embedded in Native American life - the Earth is the mind of the people as we are the mind of the earth.” -Paula Gunn Allen, Laguna Pueblo
The Native connection to Mother Earth is far deeper than that of conservationists. All life flows through her. Earth, fire, water, and wind each play a vital role for Native Americans—those of the past and many still today.
The earth is my mother, and on her bosom I shall repose." Attributed to Tecumseh in the early 1800s, this statement is frequently cited to uphold the view, long and widely proclaimed in scholarly and popular literature, that Mother Earth is an ancient and central Native American figures/
Perhaps, most profound are the words of Chief Seattle in his Treaty Oration of 1854-
"Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event of days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.”
Chief Oren Lyons (Onondaga), Onondaga Territory, New York, Speaks Out
“We have been working with Sierra Club and environmental groups more than ever now because they have values for life. Our foundation is our ceremonies. Nothing has changed in that way, but corporations are taking us down and all life is suffering like never before. We are experiencing the contamination that corporations created. We are creating contamination from a war Russia started for no good reason. Nature cannot take this activity.
Everything Winona is saying about racism is true: our children are buried in mass graves in schoolyards. Only schools in America have mass graveyards of Indian children. This was done by Christianity. The USA is living in an existential crisis; the human species is in a severe circumstance that is causing ecosystems to collapse. Newspapers and media are reporting that global warming and climate change are happening at a faster rate. Scientists and Indigenous people are saying that we need to change the ways that we are polluting life.
We need to bury our guns and weapons of war. We need to make peace for our future generations. There is no time or place for racism or hate. Corporate leadership is taking us down fast for their profit. The oil industry does not want to give anything up. Winona is a hundred percent right: this environmental genocide is what Western ideology gave Indigenous people because there is no unity for Mother Earth now, or her children, or anyone's children! That is all I can say for now. We are running out of time and we will continue to work with environmental groups.”
Indigenous citizens, farmers, activists, and environmentalists are being murdered in South America at an alarming rate. Their governments, knowing of the atrocities and murders, are doing nothing but hiding the truths and facts. The crimes of missing and murdered women in Canada and the USA have been unsolved crimes to Indigenous people, with no focus by governments on stopping the racism and murder rates of Indigenous people here in Canada. In 2022, 52 Indigenous people were found murdered in Panama, Chile, Brazil, and more. The people being murdered are Indigenous to the land.
Like the flowers and trees of their country, like the animals, birds, fish, and insects, they have been on Mother Earth living in harmony. Like all Indigenous people of the world, they need fresh water, farming, and building communities that have a culture of building homes for their families. Many Indigenous people live from farming the land. Every time prospectors, developers, ranchers, miners, or loggers come onto Indigenous territories, they want to take away resources from Mother Earth for profit.
We are now in a time where every day could be our last simply because we were told to stop destroying Mother Earth by the past generation of Indigenous Elders and farmers, Chief Dan George, Henry Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Black Elk, Roberta Menchu, Josephine Mandami, Winona LaDuke, Chico Mendez, Jake and Judy Swamp, Harriet Jock, Alice and Lehman Gibson, Norm Jacobs, Chief Arnie General, John Mohawk, Tom Porter, Bob Staffanson, Guujaaw and so many more.
The world can see citizens, women, and children murdered in Ukraine. Terrorism at its worst should be taken very seriously. Indigenous people or Indians are being killed in South America for their homeland and natural resources. What kind of civilization are we living in when injustice is hidden, so world banks and governments can support legal corruption and murder? Many farmers are murdered because they are in the way of exploitation. The same exploitation is happening in Canada. Here some Indigenous people are being brainwashed into thinking Mother Earth can be sold.
Only a few years ago, our Elders and spiritual leaders would say how can you sell Mother Earth? She cannot be bought and sold. Building more roads into forests where all life forms live and multiply goes against life itself, but how do we make businessmen see Mother Earth in a sacred way? Something positive should be happening now with all the communication with universities, lawyers, and unions.
The planet took billions of years to become a garden planet, but human beings are decimating it in one hundred years with machines. The Amazon and Boreal forest are the lungs of Mother Earth. We need to protect our forests, rivers, living species, and Indigenous people and keep saying this while we make an effort in positive thinking and action.
Our Native elders hold the key to living in balance on Mother Earth. Listen to their stories, their lessons, and their advice. “When the people’s connection to the land is broken, something vital will be lost forever,” says Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Elderly.
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW: HOW MANY AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES IN UNITED STATES? The federal government recognizes 574 American Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities in the U.S.
THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE: AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE
ZNTRAVELER SAYS: Want to be smarter than the average bear...learn to live in balance with MOTHER EARTH.
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