By Irene Zhao, Sidwell Friends School
Long before the beginnings of the modern-day environmentalist movement, Native Americans perfected a lifestyle that allowed their people to flourish in harmony with the Earth. Indigenous peoples continue to practice conservation today, remaining mindful of the limitations of natural resources and cultivating crops that keep the soil fertile for generations to come.
As corporations continue to pillage the planet in the name of profit, Indigenous homes and lands are still the first to be plundered, and Indigenous peoples the first to defend their planet. For example, Oak Flat, an Apache Nation sacred site in Arizona, currently faces the threat of destruction. Despite years of Indigenous protest, multinational mining company Resolution Copper aims to begin mining in the region next year. Apache Stronghold, an organization protecting Native rights and land, continues the fight to save Oak Flat by organizing protests and sending members to speak at conferences. Apache Stronghold’s voice has echoed into the chambers of Congress with 19-year-old activist Naelyn Pike’s testimony. “When corporate companies or the United States’ government want to take those sacred areas and use them for profit, Apache people are the first people on the forefront to protect [them],” Pike says. “For us, it’s much more than profit. It’s much more than land. It’s our way of life.”
Furthermore, the U.S.’ continued reliance on fossil fuels doubly affects Indigenous tribes. Not only do they disproportionately face the indirect results of increased greenhouse gas emissions, but they also grapple with the pollution and destruction of sacred lands as a result of the construction and operation of oil pipelines. One such oil pipeline is the Dakota Access Pipeline, which connects the North Dakota oil supply to storage facilities in Illinois. As the pipeline crosses the Mississippi River, any major oil spill would impact 68 million people, including the inhabitants of Standing Rock reservation, whose main source of water would be catastrophically affected by leakages.
In protest, Indigenous organizers have chained themselves to construction equipment and trees to slow operations, risking their lives for the movement. For example, Indigenous youth activists organized a relay run spanning the thousands of miles from Standing Rock to Washington D.C. in order to deliver a petition calling for the closure of the pipeline. Sixteen-year-old Sioux activist Cadee Peltier spoke in Washington at the conclusion of the relay. “We as Indigenous people are done being silenced,” Peltier says. “We will not allow our sacred lands and waterways to continue to be desecrated.” Already, environmentalists’ dedication has protected some land from damage, notably from the effects of the Keystone XL pipeline. Decades of unrelenting protests and Indigenous resistance finally succeeded this January, when President Joe Biden signed an executive order revoking the permit for the pipeline’s completion.
Even as the seemingly endless fight for Indigenous rights and land drags on, Native activists remain tirelessly dedicated. Tara Houska, the founder of Giniw Collective, an environmental activism group elevating the voices of Indigenous women, has devoted years to protecting Indigenous rights, and has even faced arrest for her work. Still, Houska confronts her setbacks with perseverance. “I don’t think that it’s radical to protect the Earth,” she says. “I think it’s deeply powerful and it’s reconnecting to our own humanity, and who we are as people. We can’t live without the Earth. It’s that simple.”
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