Red Alert!: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge (Speaker's Corner)

The unfortunate situation for societies that begin to behave as if knowledge primarily resides in words (images) in a book is that they forget we had words before books, stories before books, and analytic abilities before we had texts. For humankind, words—languages—were never only about us, but signifiers of our rich relationships in a complex and

Captain Richard Henry Pratt’s guiding principle for Indian education, as summed up at the nineteenth annual National Conference of Charities and Correction held in Denver, Colorado, in 1892: “Kill the Indian in him and save the man.” This principle resulted in a policy now widely recognized as the embodiment of cultural genocide.

In a world where increasing numbers of people live in highly manufactured landscapes of suburbs and subdivisions, the ancient deep spatial knowledges of people and place held by American Indians and Alaska Natives are crucial if humankind is to find sustainable ways to live in a life-enhancing manner.

Before we focus exclusively on looking for new technological solutions—and there will certainly be some—we should look at indigenous tribal knowledges for insights into how humankind might not merely survive this global crisis, but thrive in indigenously inspired cultures of life enhancement.

the deepest insights are gained in our doing.

a climate shift in our thinking and behavior: a cultural climate shift.

Rather, to know “it”—reality— requires respect for the relationships and relatives that constitute the complex web of life. I call this indigenous realism, and it entails that we, members of humankind, accept our inalienable responsibilities as members of the planet’s complex life system, as well as our inalienable rights.

These removals were done by “friends” of Indians who wanted to solve the “Indian problem” with the classic liberal solution to all social problems: education.

we have a responsibility to live respectfully for our children seven generations into the future.