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Relatedness to the Land. Two weeks ago, you viewed some video footage in the film, “In the Light of Reverence”, involving the Black Mesa Coal Mine on the Navajo Nation (the Navajo are neighbors of the Hopi). I want to provide you with a little more information. The Navajo were relocated to that area through a genocidal initiative known to them as “The Long Walk” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Walk_of_the_Navajo). They were forcibly marched from their original homelands to where they are now located, in the desert Southwest (mostly in the area of what you may refer to as Arizona and New Mexico). It is often cold in this region and there are very few woody trees for burning. Additionally, the carrying capacity of the land is very low, so people are extremely spread out. That said, the children are still sent away to boarding schools for education because of the great distances between people. Additionally, there is very little water and very little electricity available even today in the vast territory of the Navajo Nation. These factors create a challenge: shortages of wood, scarcity of youth to gather it, and an absence of modern electric alternatives for heating and cooking. The Elders left at home on the Navajo Nation, have come to rely on coal mined in the region, which they can obtain for free, to alleviate this problem. The youth rely on the coal so they can travel to study ways to improve the wellbeing of their nation as part of the contemporary landscape, free from worrying for the heating and cooking needs of their Elders. However, that coal also ruins environmental quality leading to multiple health problems. You saw in the video that very little information was provided to the Navajo about the potential environmental and health related ramifications of the mine. I am telling you this to illustrate how there are no easy fixes to healing injured relationships with the Land; it will only be through significant thought and reflection that we will be able to change our behavior to head down a new, more sustainable path. We do not do this as a selfless act for the planet, but rather as a reflection of realizing that we ARE part of the planet—the Earth’s health IS our health. This has been a problem for years and it is intensifying with the current situation. Listen to the following report on how it is impacting the Navajo Nation today: https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1514251/lacking-water-and-electricity-navajo-covid-19-cases-surge?fbclid=IwAR2-e2YL7vluvmjAq4bvNV5lfJryq3xXM5uq26KJi_2ybtUCntq2FQh3lVc (there is a 4 min podcast at the top of the page and a short article to read).

A. What are your thoughts on this, what has happened in the past, and how that impacts what is currently happening on the Navajo Nation (provide information from the podcast and the article to support your answer) ?

B. What is your understanding of how we must balance our need to participate in the economy with our concern for sustainable ecology? How do you think Indigenous worldview can provide insight to the dominant worldview to help meet this challenge?

2. Engagement with Land. Robin Wall-Kimmerer is of the Anishinaabe like me, so I hope you recognized similarities to what I discuss with you. Additionally, I know Dr. Wall-Kimmerer from both the Intertribal Food Summits I help facilitate as well as my engagement with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Read BraidingSweetgrass.pdf

A. What are your thoughts on Wall-Kimmerer’s telling of Skywoman Falling (provide details from the chapter to support your response)?

B. What are your thoughts on the Council of the Pecans (provide details from the chapter to support your response)?

C. What are your thoughts on the Gift of Strawberries (provide details from the chapter to support your response)?

D. From last week’s readings and our previous discussions, what are your thoughts on the difference between commodities and gifts—between natural resources and Natural Relatives? How does framing the two differently through the use of language change how we behave in the world? How are you seeing people’s behavior shift through the current health crisis, maybe to be considering these things?

E. This is Robin Wall-Kimmerer discussing some of her other ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz1vgfZ3etE (18 min in length). What does she discuss in the video that resonates with you and why (provide examples from the video to support your response)?

3. Indigenous Science. I have always loved Cajete and Wall-Kimmerer’s words. Cajete is Tewa from the Southwest and Wall-Kimmerer is Anishinaabeg from the Northeast. The way they speak is different but they share much of the same message. In the last book I reviewed for the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, there was a chapter by Cajete followed by a chapter by Wall-Kimmerer, so I do not think I am alone in noticing how their work compliments each other to promote understanding.

A. Read AIT: Chapter 5 (p. 45-58). What resonates with you from this chapter and why (provide details from the chapter to support your response)?

B. Even though the style of writing is very different, what similarities in the content do you notice in the discussion that Cajete and Wall-Kimmerer share (provide examples from both the Braiding Sweetgrass PDF as well as AIT Chapter 5 to support your response)?

4. Inner Strength. It is both challenging to live, yet necessary to be endowed with inner strength—something my people know as a ‘Gwiingwa’aage’, an inner wolverine. We are taught about him because if we do not learn to live with him well, we will inadvertently and for no-good-reason awaken him; he does not like to be awakened and will react by clawing at your insides and lashing out unnecessarily at unsuspecting others in your life over things that they are not to be blamed for. However, if you learn to live well with him, there is no greater ratio of size to power in the world. An inner wolverine is a tremendous source of potential strength that can be aligned with transformational change that needs to occur in times of crisis AND it can fit inside of each of us, no matter how small we may seem. It is an intentional part of Creation. Read HowToLiveWithAWolverine.pdf  .

A. Different from my thoughts, what uniquely resonated with you from the reading (provide details from the article to support your ideas)?

B. What has been your relationship between you, your inner wolverine, and the world around you?

C. How can you intentionally draw upon the strength of your inner wolverine as we face both individual and collective challenges in these unprecedented times?

5. Coyote and the Ducks. Many of you liked my story last week, so I would like to tell you another that I think relates to this lesson. If you have trouble listening to it with your device, please email me so I can send you the recording to you. I don’t want you to miss out on anything due to incompatibility in our software. Listen to  .

A. What happens in the story (provide details from the recording to support your response)?

B. Why do you think I want to tell you this story in relation to what you have been looking at in this lesson?

C. How does this relate to what you learned about in the films that discussed what is happening with the Shoshone, Lakota, Hopi, Wintu, and the Anishinaabeg?

D. What are your final thoughts on how we imagine opportunities with the Land, how we choose to engage with the Land, and how we are ultimately related to the Land and the choices we make?

Answer the questions like .. 

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