Volume 13 Spring 2002 Issue #3

In This Issue
Sustaining Our Future

Resource Guide: Sustainability at your fingertips

by Dr. Diana Morris

The United Nations has defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." While this has confused the industrialized nations of the world, this statement has been much clearer to indigenous nations, who have always looked to the future and attempted to live sustainably. This resource guide gives a sampling of the ever-growing body of scholarly books, articles, handbooks, guidebooks, videos, and web sites on sustainability issues, especially those that include indigenous approaches.

WEB SITES AND ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS

Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT)

This organization of tribes is sponsoring a national conference to define sustainability from a tribal perspective March 21-22, 2002, in Denver. Contact: (303) 282-7576 for more information or www.CertRedEarth.com.

First Nations Development Institute

This 20-year old organization works with tribes, Native communities, and rural or reservation-based Native nonprofit organizations to build sustainable economies. The organization's annual Oweesta Conference focuses upon asset-based sustainable development. The website lists several publications, including "Building partnerships for community-based development," which can be ordered. Contact FNDI at 11917 Main Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22408 or call (540) 371-5615. www.firstnations.org

Global Village Network

This site has a wealth of information on sustainable development topics. It has a resource library and a searchable database of full-text articles. A search inquiry on "Native Americans" returned 180 articles of interest. Contact: (719) 256-4421. www.gaia.org

Indigenous Environmental Network

"An alliance of grassroots indigenous peoples whose mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening, maintaining, and respecting the traditional teachings and the natural laws." Contact: ien@igc.org. www.ienearth.org.

Native Americans and the Environment

As the creators of this site note, their purpose is to "(1) provide bibliographic materials. . .on native environmental issues and (2) provide focused and relevant hypertextual links . . .". This site is easily navigated and contains a substantial amount of valuable information. Contact: (703) 237-7500. www.indians.org/library/naehome.html

Native American Renewable Energy Education Project

The site provides an entire 63-page book for download as well as three issues of the newsletter, "Indian Sustainable Energy News." The 1998 book is Native power, a handbook on renewable energy and energy efficiency for Native American communities. For hard copies of NAREEP publications, contact Vivian Gratton at vgratton@cruzio.com. http://eetd.lbl.gov/nareep/Publications.html

Sustainable Development Institute at the College of the Menominee Nation

For over 5,000 years, dating back to the earliest traces of the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin, the forest has been central to the lives and well being of the tribe. The Menominee have created a powerful example of a sustainable society that is a part of the modern world. The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) is dedicated to examining sustainability issues and applying them to the Menominee model of sustainable development. This web site explores questions about sustainable development through multimedia presentations, essays, and conversations on the Menominee, their forest, and their spirit. The site also includes an annotated bibliography of scholarly resources and references on Sustainable Development. Contact: hyoungbear@menominee.edu or www.menominee.edu/sdi/home1.htm

Sustainable Sources

The purpose of Sustainable Sources is to provide a solutions-based environmental site. This site provides practical information through subject links, articles, and a searchable database. It contains relevant information for Native American people. Contact: webmaster@greenbuilder.com
www2.planeta.com

ARTICLES

Brewer, S. (2001, May/June) Blowing in the wind: Tribal colleges lead the way in renewable energy. Native Peoples: Art & Lifeways, 14(4), 46-47.

Focusing on Turtle Mountain Community College and Blackfeet Community College, Brewer describes the renewable energy projects and curricular innovations in which tribal colleges are engaged.

Chernela, J. M. (1995) Sustainability in resource rights and conservation: The case of an Awa biosphere reserve in Colombia and Ecuador. In L. Sponsel (Ed.) Indigenous peoples and the future of Amazonia: An ecological anthropology of an endangered world. (pp. 245-261). Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.

The article addresses the complex interaction of institutions and organizations for "sustainability of indigenous self-governance within a larger institutional context." Focusing on the Awa Biosphere, the author explores motivations and strategies of Indians in the "negotiating processes that determine policy formation and implementation."

Hassel, C., O'Kelley, K., Gailfus, P., Brummer, A., Ramczyk, L., Wold, A. & Price, M. (2001) Woodland Wisdom: Tribal Colleges take action to improve community health across North America. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education 13(1), 36-38.

The article discusses the Woodland Wisdom project, a collaborative effort of six tribal colleges and the University of Minnesota. "The goal of Woodlands Wisdom," according to Dawn Muir, project director, "is to improve the overall health of American Indian people by enhancing regional community consciousness around food how food and nutrition impact community health and well being." To this end, the Woodland Wisdom project is dedicated to research and education programs in the fields of food science and nutrition that integrate traditional customs and practices.

LaDuke, W. (2001, September/October) Under the wild rice moon: A clash of cultures and corporate economies. Native Peoples: Arts and Lifeways, 14(5), 42-45.

LaDuke describes how Manoomin (wild rice) "exemplifies the worldwide debate on issues of biodiversity, cultural rights, and globalization."

Morito, B. (2000) Language, sustainable development, and indigenous peoples: An ethical perspective. Ethics and the Environment, 5(1), 47-60.

While the WCED report's definition of sustainable development appears to coincide with indigenous values, Morito argues that a close analysis of its holistic language actually "turn out to exclude rather than include Aboriginal perspective, values, and virtues, except in so far as they are compatible with the dominant program."

Schueller, G. (2001, May) Eat locally, think globally. Discover, 22(5), 73-77.

This article focuses on the work of Gary Paul Nabhan, who advocates eating foods, particularly indigenous and traditional sources, grown within a 250 miles radius from where one lives as one of "the simple solution to the planet's environmental problems."

Spears, Patrick. (1999) The Great Plains: a decade of drought and blizzard. Global warming, climate, and native lands. Special issue of Native Americas: Hemispheric Journal of Indigenous Issues. 9 (3-4), 49. www.nativeamericas.com

Chronicling the severe weather patterns of the last decade on the Great Plains of the North American continent, Spears argues that Plains tribes play a critical role in using the one renewable energy resource that is unlikely to be effected by changing climatic conditions: wind.

Suagee, Dean. (1999) The sun solution: A change of codes would help. Global warming, climate, and native lands. Special issue of Native Americas: Hemispheric Journal of Indigenous Issues. 9(3-4), 83-87. www.nativeamericas.com

After reviewing the federal and state policies on energy conservation with particular regard to building codes and noting that tribal governments were once again left out of the process, Suagee argues that tribal governments should take the lead to favor the one energy source--the sun--that offers a sustainable solution. Because it is easier and more cost efficient to apply energy conservation technology to new construction, Suagee suggests that tribal governments use their legislative power to write three simple requirements (overall energy efficiency, orientation, and thermal mass) into their building and land-use codes.

BOOKS

Arizpe, L., Paz, F.., & Velázquez. M. (1996) Culture and global change: Social perceptions of deforestation in the Lacandona Rain Forest in Mexico. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. 115 pp.

Briefly providing a socio-political history of the economically and culturally diverse region, the authors statistically chronicle the residents' attitudes and perceptions of the rain forest and its endangered status. The excerpts from the authors' interviews are noteworthy.

Bernard, T. & Young, J. (1997) The Ecology of hope: Communities collaborate for sustainability. East Haven, CT: New Society Publishers. 231 pp.

Bernard and Young traveled across the United States from Monhegan Island, ME, to Plumas County, CA, looking for stories of urban and rural communities that were faced with environmental constraints They recorded how these communities learned to develop and manage their natural resources in a sustainable way that benefited both the environment and the human inhabitants. A chapter is devoted to the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin Reservation.

Browder, J. O. (Ed.). (1989). Fragile lands of Latin America: Strategies for sustainable development. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 301 pp.

A collection of essays that explore the use of traditional and indigenous resource management strategies and techniques for the ever-worsening environmental crisis in Latin America. The text is unique in that each contributor demonstrates the financial viability of the presented strategy or technique. As the editor notes, "Within the varied social and cultural contexts in which they are practiced, these strategies warrant serious attention by broad-minded development planners and lending institutions. "

Clow, R. L. & Sutton, I. (Eds.)(2001) Trusteeship in change: Toward tribal autonomy in resource management. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. 353 pp.

The collection of essays "explores the evolution of Indian Affairs policies and administrative practices regarding the management of trust lands from treaty days to contemporary partnerships."

Hosmer, B. American Indians in the marketplace: persistence and innovation among the Menominees and Metlakatlans, 1870-1920. (1999) Lawrence, KS: The University Press of Kansas. 309 pp.

The text focuses on the economic development of two tribes at the turn of the century and historically chronicles how these tribes "engaged the market in a complex dialogue. . .and attempted to forge accommodations with it. . .that protected their homes and values." (Hosmer 1999, p. xii).

Davis, T. (2000). Sustaining the forest, the people, and the spirit. Albany, NY: State University of New York. 244 pp.

Davis explores the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin's conception of sustainable development and cultural commitment to sustained-yield forest management.

LaDuke, W. (1999). All our relations: Native struggles for land and life. Cambridge, MA: Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. 246 pp.

LaDuke describes the local efforts of 10 Native American tribes to protect their land and life ways from the environmentally destructive practices of the federal and state governments of United States.

Mander, J. (1991) In the absence of the sacred: the failure of technology and the survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Mander explores and caustically criticizes the effects of technology on contemporary society with emphasis on its effects on indigenous people and the healing potential of their ways of life.

Nazarea, V. (Ed.) (1999) Ethno-ecology: situated knowledge/located lives. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. 285 pp.

A wide-ranging collection of essays that cover topics as varied as the "Navajo Hogan" through "Sustainable Production and Harvest of Medicinal and Aromatic Herbs" to "Intellectual Property Rights."

Opie, J. (2000) Ogallala: water for a dry land. (2nd ed.). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

This text discusses the fragile ecosystem of the Ogallala aquifer from its formation through today. Two chapters address water conservation and sustainability issues.

Peterson, T. R. (1997) Sharing the earth: The rhetoric of sustainable development. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. 236 pp.

Peterson uses rhetorical theory (primarily, Kenneth Burke) to examine the difficulties in implementing sustainable development practices in three "international" situations: one of global magnitude - the Rio Earth Summit - and two of more local concern: the Wood Buffalo National Park (which is jointly managed by the Cree and Dene/Metis nations and the Canadian government) and the city of Brownsville, Texas (which is divided from Mexico by the Lower Rio Grande River).

Vecsey, C. & Venables, R. W. (Eds.). (1980) American Indian environments: ecological issues in Native American history. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. 208 pp.

This collection of essays examines environmental impacts and ecological issues for Indian people through time and territory from initial contact with Europeans into contemporary uranium mining.

Weisman, A. (1998) Gaviotas: a village to reinvent the world. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. 231pp.

Weisman sensitively documents the evolution of a sustainable community in one of the world's harshest regions: Colombia's barren, rain-leached savannas. With the exception of the vision of its founder, Paolo Lugari, the village of Gaviotas had little to recommend it in 1971. It was a brutally inhospitable natural environment further ravaged by periodic guerilla warfare. Lugari's persistent vision of a self-sufficient and sustainable community, however, drew an eclectic group of innovators, inventors, and pioneer-technicians to the region. Drawing upon the local knowledge of their Guahibo neighbors and working with what the region did offer, the Gaviotans set about "engineering" a community.

PUBLICATIONS

Sustaining Nations. Sustainable Development Institute at College of Menominee Nation. P.O. Box 1179, Keshena, WI 54135

The newsletter, published twice a year, covers the research and activities of the Sustainable Development Institute.

Tomesh, R. J. (2001) Home environmental stewardship: the complete assessment manual for home and property contamination risk management. Madison, WI: Desktop Images. This edition prepared by the Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation.

The guidebook contains information on soil management, yard maintenance, environmental landscaping, air quality, hazardous products, groundwater, wastewater, fertilizer and pesticide use, etc.

VIDEO RESOURCES

Bullfrog Films

This site has a wealth of videos on environmental studies, indigenous issues, ecology, human rights, and sustainable development. Contact: (610) 779-8226 and/or www.bullfrogfilms.com.

First Run Icarus Films: Films and Videos on the Environment

This site has a variety of films on various subjects, including the environment, sustainability, and indigenous issues. Resources can be located by title, by subject, or through a searchable database. Contact: (718) 488-8900 or email info@frif.com.
www.frif.com/index.html

The Video Project: Educational Videos on the Environment, Science, and Social Studies

This site has an abundance of videos in various subject categories that focus on the environment, sustainable development and living, and indigenous issues. Contact: (800) 475-2638 or email video@videoproject.net. www.videoproject.net

Dr. Diana Morris directs the computer science programs at the College of Menominee Nation, where she also serves as a Sustainable Development Institute faculty member. She is currently self-study coordinator for the tribal college's 10-year re-accreditation process. For more information about the institute, contact Morris at dmorris@menominee.edu.