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FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF JANUARY 15, 1999
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
NASA LOOKS TO NATIVE ELDERS TO HELP SAVE THE EARTH
The Nome Eskimo elder lamented that nowadays his homeland in winter is too
warm for the life system to sustain itself -- only 20 degrees below zero
instead of 70 below. His people have learned to live in balance with the ice
and cold.
But now the Bering Strait is sick. Sea ice is forming later, affecting the
animals who breed on it. The sea pups aren't ready to leave when the ice
melts, so they die or are abandoned. The hunters say the walrus are skinny,
and
they have to hunt farther into the tundra because the caribou know the thin
ice
won't sustain their weight.
In the old days, the elders in Alaska could forecast the weather by watching
the stars. But now, says one Siberian Yupek elder, "The Earth is so fast now.
We can't predict the weather anymore."
Many native prophesies warned of a time when the people would be confused,
and the old and the young would die first. The prophesies said the trees would
die from the tops down and the world would be in danger.
Using "eyes" from space, NASA officials have seen that the elders are right.
Its officials conclude that the "Earth is a living system that is distressed."
So now, NASA has turned to native elders for counsel as it examines the effect
of climate change on the U.S. population, environment and economy. NASA
brought together a gathering of several hundred elders for a five-day
climate-change workshop in Albuquerque, N.M., last fall. NASA is seeking to
merge the knowing and wisdom of people who understand the responsibilities
that
humans have to the Earth with the knowledge of nonnative scientists.
The elders who attended the conference, called the Circle of Wisdom Native
Peoples/Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop, stated: "It is this
spiritual connection to Mother Earth, Father Sky and all Creation that is
lacking in the rest of the world. ... We call upon the people of the world to
hold your leaders accountable."
According to documents issued by the workshop, temperatures will become
warmer in the Northern Hemisphere by 5 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit within the
next 20 years. The primary source of human-induced climate change is the
burning of oil, gas and coal. The melting of sea ice "affects the exchange of
energy continuously taking place on the Earth's surface," according to NASA.
While it might seem a distant problem to many people in the United States,
all
life is interconnected.
We have long said that native prophesies are misunderstood. They not only
are spiritual visions, but often also come from a life-science observation of
the natural world. When people understand that they are not separate from the
natural world, they will seek to honor and understand it. This is why Chief
Joseph said long ago that the Earth was part of his body and they were of one
"mind."
Native people traditionally have understood that the Earth and universe have
a mind and a spirit, a cosmic intelligence that in fact responds to us, to our
intentions. "Earth is a living mother, an organism. I know none of us would
think of abusing our birth mother. She is a spiritual woman ... that gives
life. Through our ceremonies, we honor her life-giving power so that she can
continue to nourish us," says Cheyenne elder Henrietta Mann.
When people no longer live and learn from the land, their disconnection to
it leads to the abuse of Mother Earth. Along with the land, native people's
traditions die: their food, their ceremonies, medicinal plants, their fibers
for making sacred baskets. And much of it has been through the greed of market
economies and the perversions of science and technology that have claimed or
contaminated the land, particularly native lands, through deforestation,
pesticides, industrial waste, radioactive poisoning and mining. "What good is
an economic system if our children die anyway?" asked a Kanaka Maoli elder
from
Hawaii. A nearby flip-chart read, "There is no post-environment economy."
There are myriad things to be done, including requiring companies to factor
the environmental impact of their projects into their businesses, and
demanding that all public projects invest in clean and renewable forms of
energy. But most of all, we must begin to value life in all its
manifestations.
Corbin Harney, a Shoshone elder, says the spirits of the land and the
ancestors are waiting for people to recognize their responsibility to Mother
Earth. "They want to hear us pray so that they can work with us, so everything
can heal."
COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
* Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN
0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit.
Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN
0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the
antibook, The X in La Raza II and Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human. They
can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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