Today, in the United States, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It is a day that for far too long had been celebrated as Columbus Day, commemorating Christopher Columbus’ landing in the Bahamas in 1492, which for his fellow Europeans marked the discovery of the “New World”.

Since the 1940s, Indigenous Peoples have spoken out against dedicating a day for honoring the enslavement, theft, violence, and massacre of Indigenous Peoples across the Americas which was the direct result of European invasion. In 1977, at the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, held in Geneva, Switzerland, Native Americans demanded the replacement of Columbus Day with a day that would express solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. This kicked off a movement that, in 1992, led to the city of Berkley, California, to declare the day as “Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People”. Since then, 19 states, and over 50 cities, have rejected official celebrations of Columbus Day and replaced it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 2021, President Joe Biden proclaimed the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day to “honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today”. However, the proclamation did not make it a federal holiday – which Columbus Day still is.

Today, Land is Life joins the celebration and honoring of Indigenous Peoples and their cultures. We encourage all states of the US to officially recognize this day as an act of respect to Indigenous Peoples who are the guardians of the Earth. Celebrating Columbus alongside Indigenous Peoples’ Day is paradoxical and should not be tolerated.

“Indigenous Peoples’ Day reminds us that we are all Indigenous! Regardless of where we live, our gender, race, age, religion, or species, we are all made of the same basic elements of life: Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Ethers. Somewhere in our genetic lineages we come from a small tribal community who knew how to respect the Earth for all that she provides – she is the life giver of all. And today with mass environmental destruction, it is time to return to that basic understanding of how to live and be on this earth as stewards for our future generations. Thank you for supporting Indigenous peoples around the word whose ways will help everyone return to a more simple and peaceful life.”  – Lisa Grayshield, PhD, Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, Washiw Zulshish Goom Tahn-Nu, Lake Tahoe, Nevada

El cargo Land is Life Celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States apareció primero en Land Is Life.

“Our legend stories take us to the stars – we are people from the stars, we were planted here, on top of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, as peaceful people, to live with all the other nations of the Earth, the plant nations, the animal nations, the ones that fly, the ones that swim, the ones that crawl upon the Earth. We are here to be part of this circle of life. Washoe people have been here since time immemorial, and we are not going away.” – Lisa Grayshield, PhD, Washoe Tribal Member

Washiw Zulshish Goom Tahn-Nu (“Washoe Warrior Society”, WZGT), was established in 2009, when a group of Elders came together to discuss a shared concern for cultural loss and disconnection within the Washoe community. The Washoe people have inhabited the lands surrounding Lake Tahoe, at the border of Nevada and California, in the western United States, for thousands of years. As a result of colonial exploitation that started with the gold and silver rush in the mid-1800s, the Washoe have suffered loss of land and livelihoods. The resulting historical trauma has led to a drastic decrease in the number of youth committed to carrying on the traditions of their ancestors, and speaking their language.

To respond to the severe situation, WZGT is carrying out a powerful mission to revive the Washoe’s understanding of themselves as a cultural people, with a unique and valuable heritage, by preserving their traditional knowledge and practices into the future. This includes knowledge sharing, for example, on the use of wild plants as part of traditional, healthy diets, and as medicine. However, in order to revitalize such cultural traditions and enhance the passing of traditional knowledge from one generation to another, there is a strong need for a proper gathering place that the community has been missing since the early 1900s. Therefore, WZGT is striving towards building Washiw Tahn-Nu Ung-Gahl, a People’s House – a place to gather, talk and learn Washoe language, conduct ceremonies, pray, and remember the values that their ancestors held as stewards of the land.

Lake Tahoe is the center of the universe for the Washoe people. The lake has suffered severe degradation due to long-lasting, unsustainable land use, climate change, as well as the construction of casinos, housing and roads. WZGT, among other groups, has been actively involved in restoring the lake towards a healthier state. They are also advocating for Lake Tahoe to be granted rights as a legal person. Over recent years, Indigenous-led efforts to gain legal personhood for lakes and rivers has become a strong movement towards incorporating Indigenous worldviews into environmental protection. WZGT stands with Indigenous Nations around the world who seek to reinstate their Indigenous values and encourage a world-wide change of consciousness towards care for Mother Earth. Currently, negotiations are ongoing for obtaining a piece of land on Washoe territory along Lake Tahoe, where Tahn-Nu Ung-Gal will be built and the people can once again gather as a symbol of the healing of the land, the water, and the people.

“There is that within our bodies – we are organic beings – to live in balance with the Earth, to respect the Earth as a living being, and to re-learn how to be stewards of the Earth. It is important for everybody to stand up for the rights of nature and recognize that we have industrialized ourselves to the point of stressing the Earth. We need to reverse that by recognizing Indigenous peoples in these places and learning how it is that we maintained a  peaceful existence for thousands of years.

It is important to recognize that Indigenous ways of thinking and being in the world are still alive, and by supporting tribal groups in their areas we are making a statement that an Indigenous way of being in the world is different from the industrialized way that has formed as a result of colonization. Now it is the time for all of us to return to a more simple way of living, in balance and harmony with the Earth, and to revive the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples. That knowledge is in our language, it is in our culture, and it is in our ceremonies. It is important not just for Washiw, it is important for everybody; that Indigenous peoples maintain their knowledge because that teaches us how to be and how to take care of the Earth.” – Lisa Grayshield, PhD

Land is Life’s partnership with WZGT is currently in support of their realization of the People’s House on Washoe land. Learn more about WZGT by watching this video.

El cargo Partner Highlight: WZGT Encourages Washoe Youth to Sustain their Culture, Language, and Heritage apareció primero en Land Is Life.

At the same time, it is Indigenous peoples who tend to be hit the hardest by the impacts of climate change and ecological destruction, and it is them who are increasingly at the forefronts of the resistance to destructive development. Nevertheless, it is primarily not Indigenous peoples and their knowledge that are valued and listened to in discussions on how to preserve the planet for future generations.

That is why, on this Earth Day, we would like to shift the focus of nature conservation on Indigenous stewardship. Today we are shedding light on one of our partners, the Gwich’in Steering Committee – an Indigenous organization that fights for the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, where oil drilling keeps posing major threats to the very existence of their culture.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, located in northeastern Alaska, is America’s largest wildlife refuge and the homeland of the Gwich’in and Iñupiat Indigenous peoples. The area is abundant in biodiversity – it hosts millions of migrating birds yearly and works as an important denning area of the polar bear whose habitat is constantly diminishing due to the changing climate. The refuge is also home to the Porcupine caribou – a species that the Gwich’in have depended on for food, clothing, tools, and spiritual guidance for millennia.

Despite the fragility of Arctic ecosystems, the natural resources of the area keep attracting economic interests. For decades, the fossil fuel industry has been insisting to commence oil and gas drilling on the refuge’s coastal plain. The “Sacred Place Where Life Begins”, as the Gwich’in call it, is where the caribou give birth to and nurse their calves. In 1988, Gwich’in elders addressed the tremendous threat to the caribou and thus the entire Gwich’in culture, and called upon the chiefs of all Gwich’in villages across Alaska and Canada to gather to discuss the issue. That is when the Gwich’in Steering Committee was established. Ever since, the Gwich’in Steering Committee’s work has been crucial in halting the oil and gas exploration and successfully including Indigenous voices in the debate.

The fight that the Gwich’in keep leading, is not only about the ecological values of the refuge but also about Indigenous rights. The Gwich’in are fighting to preserve their territory, livelihoods, food security and an entire culture that is dependent on the caribou, for future generations. These perspectives are too often ignored when the environmental impacts of extractivism are debated.

In 2017, the resistance suffered a setback, as President Trump’s administration decided to open the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing without a single public hearing. Even though President Biden’s administration suspended the drilling leases in 2021 to conduct an environmental review, the coastal plain remains threatened by fossil fuel development as the halt is only temporary. The Gwich’in responded to the devastating situation by launching an extensive divestment campaign targeting major banks and insurance companies to pledge not to finance or insure oil and gas development in the Arctic. The initiative has already proven to be powerful as six largest banks in the US and five in Canada, as well as 12 international insurance companies have stated to keep their operations out of the Arctic Refuge.

Land is Life joins the Gwich’in Steering Committee’s calls for the permanent protection of the Arctic Refuge to fully prevent the fossil fuels industry from entering the territories of the Gwich’in and Iñupiat. Indigenous territories, and the fragile ecosystems of the Arctic, are already existentially suffering from the impacts of climate change, and cannot bear the pressure from extractivist industries.

El cargo Support the Gwich’in Peoples of Alaska this Earth Day apareció primero en Land Is Life.