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| Photo copyright Wings, 2003, 2014; all rights reserved. |
Author's Note: This piece first appeared at Daily Kos on August 24, 2012, as an entry in the site's "Climate Change SOS" Blogathon. It is reposted here with very minor edits as part of my Scars Upon Sacred Land series. Sadly, in the nearly two years since, conditions have only worsened.
Just over a year ago, in July, 2011, the National Wildlife Federation issued a report, largely ignored by most of the rest of the country. Even I didn't know about it at the time of release; like many other people, I was consumed with the immediate danger posed by the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and my focus was directed toward fighting that threat.
That was a mistake on my part - and on the part of every other environmental activist who didn't pay attention, but especially for those of us who belong to indigenous cultures.
Called FACING THE STORM: Indian Tribes, Climate-Induced Weather Extremes, and the Future for Indian Country, the report is actually fairly brief: a mere 28 pages, including covers and graphics. But it packs a hell of a punch, and it complements a whole body of work being done by tribes and allied partners in recent years that goes too often unknown, unremarked, and unheeded.
One thing FACING THE STORM does really well — exceptionally so, considering that it's published by a non-Indian organization — is to refrain from telling Indians what they "must do," instead urging the rest of our society to listen to and heed the millennia worth of wisdom of our ancestors and elders. It also places the deadly threats posed by climate change to the continent's indigenous peoples and lifeways squarely within the context of our nation's tortured and torturous treatment of tribal sovereignty issues. And that's a topic that needs to be pursued, but it's far too complex for this diary. Also, please note that while I'm painfully aware of this year's terrible heatwaves, drought, and storms that have affected much of the country as a whole, that is also beyond the scope of this diary. Many other diaries in this week's series have addressed those issues, and addressed them well. My focus today - in now way comprehensive; merely the briefest of snapshots - is on the myriad threats, direct and indirect, that climate change poses to Indian Country specifically, and to our peoples' cultural and physical survival.
