Climate Change Impacts to the Indigenous Community

I took a Native American History class in college and during that class we talked quite a bit about the atrocities committed against the Native American communities throughout history. In my recent research on climate change, I can see that the Native American community is still suffering from systematic oppression and inequality. I recently read a book called As Long As Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker which provides an in depth look at “Indigenized environmental justice”.

Environmental justice means that everyone should receive the same protection against environmental hazards and should have access to a healthy environment, regardless of race, color, or income. Unfortunately, climate change and the fossil fuel industry has caused the most suffering to the marginalized and poor even though these communities cause the least pollution.

In the beginning of Whitaker's book, she says the following, "As this chapter asserts, the origin of environmental injustice for Indigenous peoples is dispossession of land in all its forms; injustice is continually reproduced in what is inherently a culturally genocidal structure that systematically erases Indigenous peoples' relationships and responsibilities to their ancestral places". Below are just a handful of the many examples Whitaker brings up in her book.

In 1830 Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act to forcibly relocate Native American tribes to modern day Oklahoma. This is now known as the Trail of Tears because the Native Americans were subjected to physical abuse and rape. Indigenous women and young girls were frequently raped by the soldiers and the elderly were either shot and killed or left to die on their own.

Then in 1887-1934 there was the forced removal of Native American children from their families where they were forced to attend Catholic Mission boarding schools. At these boarding schools they endured sexual and physical abuse. The purpose of this was to erase Indigenous identity, languages, cultures, and religious practices. Of course this would have long-lasting effects on the mental health of a community.

If we look at Hawaii, you may not know that the indigenous group of Hawaiians called the Hawaiian Kingdom Government was overthrown by US Marines and a group of American and European businessmen in 1898. The businessmen were interested in protecting their economic interests, specifically the sugar plantations. This was considered illegal military occupation and resulted in the displacement of Native Hawaiian families and loss of culture. This also led to environmental degradation due to activities like the Red Hill water crisis which was a fuel leak that contaminated well water.

Moving on to 1948, the Kerr-McGee Company setup uranium mining operations in New Mexico within the borders of the Navajo Nation. The company exploited cheap labor by employing the underemployed Navajo people. Within minutes of blasting, Navajo miners were sent into tunnels without any equipment to protect them from breathing radioactive dust where they had to load radioactive ore into wheelbarrows. After years of uranium mining, all the mines were abandoned, and radioactive mine tailings (waste by-products) were left open which contaminated water sources and ecosystems. Within a few decades lung cancer death rates skyrocketed and Native American children suffered radiation burns. This was considered deliberately negligent since it was known that radioactivity in uranium mines was linked to lung cancer.

Let's take a look at more recent years. In Montana the Northern Cheyenne reservation is surrounded by the largest coal strip mine in the US. Four coal power plants are situated adjacent to the reservation border. Electricity generation from the plants produce such bad air quality that it causes respiratory disease and low birthrates. During the Obama administration, a moratorium was put in place to study the climate impacts of coal mining. In March 2017, the Trump administration officially lifted the moratorium on federal coal leasing, aiming to boost the coal industry.

Let's look at another recent example. In 2014 Energy Transfer Partners presented plans to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). There are 2.4 million miles of oil, gasoline, and natural gas pipelines in the US. Hundreds of pipeline leaks and ruptures occur each year. When I looked online, it said, "For 15 Years, Energy Transfer Partners' Pipelines Leaked an Average of Once Every 11 Days" (link here). The DAPL route is less than a mile from the reservation boundary and crosses under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe. This route was well within the boundaries of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. This treaty guaranteed land ownership to the Sioux Tribe. Because of the risk to the Sioux Tribe water supply, they disagreed with this pipeline route, which created a huge conflict. In 2016 there were massive protests which led to violence against the protesters. Energy Transfer Partners brought in private security armed with attack dogs and mace. The Obama administration paused the project for an environmental impact statement in late 2016. In 2017, President Trump expedited approval and oil began flowing in June 2017. The Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren donated quite a bit of money to the Trump campaign. So now the Sioux Tribe faces loss of sacred sites and environmental risk to their water supply. Native Americans were forced to re-locate to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears in 1830, and then a pipeline was put under their land without their consent in 2017. Certainly seems unjust, right?

This blog post isn't about politics or specific political people. I personally don't care about politics or politicians, as I think there is corruption in both political parties. What I care about is the human species and I believe that every human matters. Everyone is a soul and is incarnated on this planet right now for a specific purpose. Everyone deserves a chance. You can see in these examples how the fossil fuel and extractive industries afflict marginalized communities. 99% of climate scientists are in agreement that climate change and fossil fuels are degrading our planet by creating a greenhouse effect. There are solutions to climate change which are clean energy options like wind, electric, and solar power, and humanity can phase off fossil fuels. However, not much has been done because historically the fossil fuel companies have had power and money. Nonetheless, I believe that humanity is waking up and the time has come to take a long look at our planet. Thus, I share this information so that more people know the facts so that we can make wiser choices for our fellow humans and our planet.

Of course there's a spiritual purpose to all of this at the collective level. At the collective level, the purpose of this darkness on our planet is to transmute the dark into light. We incarnate in a universe of duality which means that when we incarnate, we experience the dark and the light in order to learn and evolve. Reading this information about how the marginalized have been treated, we know intuitively that it isn't right. Thus, the purpose of this darkness is to motivate us to create change on our planet. In order to start anew, we need to get rid of the old, and fossil fuels are part of an old archaic system that didn't work for the betterment of all humans.

Humanity is waking up now and we are going through a reset on our planet and soon we will need to rebuild. When we are ready to rebuild, there are a few things I think we need to consider:

• Electing political officials that are in service to humanity instead of service to self

• Expecting corporations to adopt mission statements focused on helping humanity and the planet

• Creating a reality where everyone has food, clean drinking water, and shelter

• Providing equal education to all children

• Phasing off fossil fuels and using the renewable energy options that climate scientists have been communicating for decades

Because there is nothing more profound then wanting all humans to someday thrive.