When Christopher Columbus landed on
Turtle Island, which we now call North America, he brought with him a
goal of making profit—of taking from the land and people to
create commerce. Today, approximately 526 years later, that same
pillaging continues to drive our planet further into the climate
crisis and lead us into ecological collapse. Instead of honoring
the violent colonization Columbus represents, we should use this day
to call for truth and reconciliation—and honor the Indigenous
communities at the forefront of efforts to heal the long-lasting
environmental harm Columbus and his ilk have wrought.
Settler colonialism
has exacerbated climate change and made Indigenous communities
sacrifice zones to this crisis. As we honor the truth of how this
country was founded and continues to exploit Indigenous lands and
territories, we must also recognize that climate change
disproportionately impacts the Indigenous and Native peoples who are
least responsible for this crisis.
Climate change is just another
symptom of colonization. First, our lands were stolen from us or we
were forcibly moved from our original territories and placed into
reservations. Then, those stolen lands were turned into toxic places
for resource extraction. In Navajo Nation, you have uranium mining
and coal plants that continue to cause disease. In Oklahoma, near
Ponca territory, you have fracking that has disturbed the earth so
deeply that earthquakes are happening more often and stronger. In
California and Washington, home to dozens of tribes, dams have
destroyed salmon runs to the point that salmon no longer exist in
rivers.
So, beyond destroying the ecological balance of these places,
these projects and industries also pollute and emit carbon into the
atmosphere, therefore contributing to climate change. Not only are
Indigenous Peoples bearing the brunt of climate change, but it’s
through the colonization of our lands and of our people that climate
change is being exacerbated
We have to recognize that restoring
relationships between non-native and native peoples goes beyond just
replacing the name of a day on the calendar: It means really
acknowledging how colonization has and continues to impact
native and indigenous peoples, especially when it comes to climate
change. And it requires acknowledging that Indigenous communities are
promoting and creating the most innovative and the most efficient
solutions to the climate and ecological crisis we are in.
At this time, governments and
corporations are looking to the carbon market system as the best
solution to climate change, so they are creating mechanisms such as
carbon pricing, carbon trading, carbon taxes and REDD+.
However, these false solutionsonly
allow big polluters to continue to extract and pollute by buying
credits to become “carbon neutral.”
This past September, California
Governor Jerry Brown hosted the Global Climate Action
Summit, where he and his Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force
promoted these carbon market systems. In response, Indigenous Peoples
from across the world also convened in San Francisco for
the Solidarity to
Solutions Week of Action, to demand an end to climate
capitalism—and an investment in real solutions, starting with
keeping oil in the ground.
To continue the momentum that was
started to resist these false solutions, the Indigenous Environmental
Network, where I work, and its allies from across the world have
launched the #SkyProtector campaign. Just as there are
#WaterProtectors who defend water from pipelines and the fossil fuel
industry, we are now seeing a rise of #SkyProtectors who are
protecting the climate from false solutions. To drive that emerging
movement, IEN and the Climate Justice Alliance have created a Carbon
Pricing Reportto educate Indigenous communities about the carbon
market system and how it impacts us.
For Indigenous communities,
education and making the language around climate change accessible
are critical to building our movement for climate justice. Many
of our communities are rural and have limited access to wifi and
technology. Therefore when it comes to carbon markets, or
helping communities understand how the changes they are seeing in
their territories are connected to decisions being made by
governments, we need people who are able to meet communities where
they are at. That is why Indigenous
Climate Action is a leader in climate justice work with
Indigenous communities. Founded only three years ago, ICA is Canada’s
premier Indigenous-led climate justice organization that prioritizes
Indigenous knowledge as the true solution to climate change. Through
training camps in rural communities, toolkits designed to make
information accessible to many generations and a forthcoming podcast,
ICA is building a climate justice framework that centers and affirms
Indigenous knowledge.
At its core, Indigenous Peoples Day
is about truth and reconciliation, which is a process of restorative
justice to reveal and confront the wrongdoings of a government and to
take action to heal relations between oppressors and the oppressed.
Across the world, countries like South
Africa, Chile,
and Canada have
undergone truth and reconciliation processes. While these processes
are nowhere near perfect or complete, they exist. Until very
recently, the United States has failed to initiate a real process of
truth and reconciliation between the U.S. Government and Indigenous
or Native Peoples. In 2012, the first ever government-sanctioned
truth and reconciliation commission was developed in Maine to listen
to testimonies of Indigenous peoples who were forced into foster care
by U.S. government agents. This story is explored in the
groundbreaking film, Dawnland.
While our so-called leaders
continue to ignore Indigenous rights, continue to break treaties, and
continue to drive us into further ecological collapse, we the
people can take initiative to understand how colonization
continues and how we can build right relationship with Native and
Indigenous Peoples. And we need only to look at the most urgent issue
of our time, climate change, to see how colonization is still playing
out, who is impacted the most and who is bringing the true solutions
to the table.
>> The article above was written by Jade Begay, and is reprinted from In These Times.
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