Defending Mother Earth

by Means, Russell

• ISBN13: 9781570750960
• ISBN10: 1570750963
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-10-01
• Publisher: Orbis Books

Summary

Defending Mother Earth brings together important Native voices to address urgent issues of environmental devastation as they affect the indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. The essays document a range of ecological disasters, including the devastating effects of mining, water pollution, nuclear power facilities, and toxic waste dumps. In an expression of "environmental racism", such hazards are commonly located on or near Indian lands. Many of the authors included in Defending Mother Earth are engaged in struggles to resist these dangers. As their essays consistently demonstrate, these struggles are intimately tied to the assertion of Indian sovereignty and the affirmation of Native culture: the Earth is, indeed, Mother to these nations. In his concluding theological reflection, George Tinker argues that the affirmation of Indian spiritual values, especially the attitude toward the Earth, may hold out a key to the survival of the planet and all its peoples.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Russell Means
Preface	xv
Jace Weaver
Introduction: Notes from a Miner's Canary	1	(28)
The Struggle for Our Homes	29	(18)
Indian and White Values and Tribal Lands
Donald L. Fixico
Our Homes Are Not Dumps	47	(12)
Creating Nuclear-Free Zonez
Grace Thorpe
Custer Rides Again-This Time on the Exxon Valdez	59	(13)
Mining Issues in Wisconsin
Justine Smith
A Legacy of Maldevelopment	72	(13)
Environmental Devastation in the Arctic
Norma Kassi
Beyond the Water Line	85	(14)
Phyllis Young
Family Closeness	99	(8)
Will James Bay Be Only a Memory for My Grandchildren?
Margaret Sam-Cromarty
Triangulated Power and the Environment	107	(15)
Tribes, the Federal Government, and the States
Jace Weaver
Malthusian Orthodoxy and the Myth of ZPG	122	(22)
Population Control as Racism
Andrea Smith
TEK Wars	144	(9)
First Nations' Struggles for Environmental Planning
Duane Good Striker
An American Indian Theological Response to Ecojustice	153	(24)
George E. Tinker
Afterword: Where Do We Go from Here?	177	(16)
Thom White Wolf Fassett
Resources	193	(5)
Participants: North American Native Workshop on Environmental Justice	198	(3)
Index	201