thanks to Klee for sending this out and to him and the folks that he works, plays and struggles with: you are a true inspiration. thank you.
www.savethepeaks.org *** www.indigenousaction.org
Time to reflect on other cultures
Prescott Daily Courier 10/9/06
by Randall Amster
Today is Columbus Day, a fitting time to reflect on our relationship with indigenous cultures. Sadly, in some ways things haven’t improved all that much since 1492.
Consider the lawsuit filed last year by over a dozen tribes (recently heard by an appeals court in San Francisco), asserting that the government’s plan to spray frozen wastewater on SnowBowl would materially impact the tribes’ centuries-old religious practices and lead to increased health risks.
It’s hard not to see this as part of an overall view that suggests native cultures are second-class. Indeed, the concept of Manifest Destiny itself was based on such an understanding. When Europeans came to North America and “discovered†an amazing stretch of land, there was only one small problem: there were already people living here. But since they were seen as “savages†and lacked “legal title†to the land, their removal was morally justified.
This was the pattern, and vestiges of it are still with us today. Forced relocations, smallpox-infected blankets, broken treaties, and cultural decimation have defined our dealings with the native peoples. Human rights scholars call this “ethnocide,†yet our history often views it as “progress.â€
In the Snowbowl case, there’s an undercurrent of this legacy that guides our decisions. During the trial last fall in a Prescott federal courtroom, there were moments that reflected deep cultural insensitivities, including asking native religious leaders to quantify their practices and to frame their spiritual values in legalistic language, and subjecting them to tedious and rigorous cross-examination that bordered on mockery. How would anyone feel to see a respected spiritual leader be treated in such a fashion, or to have their belief system viewed as some quaint historical concept that’s no longer useful in the modern world?
Certainly we should be talking about the unknown effects on animals and humans of spraying wastewater on the Peaks, the dubious economic benefits for the region, the absentee magnates that own the ski area, and the government’s right to claim public lands for private use. But in the end this is a question of values, namely the values of nature and native peoples versus the whims and desires of corporate profit. It is, in essence, the same old story of doing as we will with the land and its people, in the belief that it’s legally and morally acceptable. In this sense, we’re practicing what might be called “recreationism,†reflecting a modern tendency toward leisure and short-term thinking at the expense of self-reflection and sustainability.
If only we could hear it above the din of cultural self-assuredness, there’s much in the native belief system that would serve us well today: a sense of sacredness, projecting our actions ahead, living simply and with humility. We reject these values at our own peril. Meanwhile, by acting as if everything here is a resource to be exploited, and isn’t valuable in its own right, we’re replaying a Manifest Destiny tale for future generations to disentangle. Let’s hope the appellate judges get this one right and reverse this troubling trend.
www.savethepeaks.org
www.indigenousaction.org - Independent Indigenous Media
