Indigenous Perspectives
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(Re)connecting Community to the Awataha Stream
Our modern ways of living have created an environmental crisis that threatens the very survival of humans and many other species. Yet awareness of this situation, though it may create an urgent sense of responsibility and even guilt, does not necessarily translate into action to change our ways. A narrative of “ecological disaster” can alert the public to the need for action, but the scale of the crisis and lack of wisdom to act can be overwhelming.[2] So how can communities become motivated to respond?…
Future Rivers of the Anthropocene
One meaning of the word Tlingit is “people of the tides.” Immediately, this identification with tides introduces a palpable experience of the aquatic as well as a keen sense of place. It is a universal truth that the human animal has co-evolved over millennia with water or the lack of it, developing nuanced, sophisticated and intimate water knowledges. However, there is little in the anthropological or geographical record that showcases contemporary Indigenous societies upholding customary laws concerning their relationship with water, and more precisely how this dictates their philosophy of place…
On Madweyaashkaa: Waves Can Be Heard with Moira Villiard
In February 2021, artist Moira Villiard debuted her installation, Madweyaashkaa: Waves Can Be Heard as the fourth installment of the Illuminate the Lock series at the closed Upper St. Anthony Lock and Dam in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On three chilly February evenings, 2,500 people walked through the snow on top of Upper St. Anthony Lock and Dam to watch what Villiard calls an “animated video collage” projected on the 49-by-400-foot concrete walls of the no-longer-functioning lock.
COVID-19 data on Native Americans is ‘a national disgrace.’ This scientist is fighting to be counted
Woven Ways of Knowing
Sky Watchers, Earth Watchers, and Guardians of the Former and Future Garden
What to consider when acknowledging you are on stolen Indigenous lands
Land acknowledgement statements are increasingly common practice, but as they are developed, this article reminds us to ask “Are you doing it to make yourself feel better or to ease your guilt? Are you doing it because you agree that education is really important? Is there something that can come out of it?”
Misi-zaaga’iganing (Mille Lacs Lake)
Mille Lacs Lake is the second largest lake in Minnesota and archaeological evidence suggests that it was one of the first areas that humans settled in the region. Many different groups of people have called the area around the lake home. A number of Native American tribes have lived around the lake throughout time.
