Author Daniel Wildcat recently wrote the following article on Indigenuity in sustainability for Native News Online.
Let us start at the beginning. Before there were “Land Acknowledgments,” as written pledges of recognition of the first Earth-Keepers living in North America, Indigenous Peoples of this land, now known as the United States of America, had lifeways that embodied respect for the land.
Yes, they offered invocations, prayers, blessings, thanksgivings, and ceremonial traditions of gratitude. However, the need to acknowledge the importance of the land, air, water, and the life surrounding them came quite naturally to humans who understood themselves as a part of the natural world, who understood they lived among kinfolk—different-than-human persons—in communities inclusive of plant and animal relatives. Tribal languages, customs, habits, clan systems, social organization, and totems speak volumes about these relationships.
For my Tsoyaha or Yuchi People, removal from our homelands nearly two hundred years ago through the depredations of US policy constituted a climate change event.