[PCA] NEWS: Hopi, Navajos say environmentalists not welcome

[Jolie Egert]

HI Olivia, 
I do not see a link here. Can you please post it.  Having spent much time on
the Navajo reservation I understand that the press often spins the story in
an bad light. The politics between the Navajos and Hopis are intense and the
tribal leaders don't represent the wishes of most traditional people. The
tribal government system was put in place by the US Federal Bureau of Indian
Affairs to control and contain the Native Americans and extract resources
from the reservation. In the case of the Navajo and Hopi's there is a lot of
coal and uranium that is at stake and highly desired. So the tribal
"leaders" might not want to support environmentalists, while the more
traditional people living the older ways want help protecting the
environment. I was welcomed out there 20 years ago to help fight destruction
of sacred sites, dewatering and ridiculous coal and uranium mining. Also the
there is a bunch of environmental work being done in coalition with enviro
groups to protect the water (black mesa water coalition
<http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org/> ), transition to sustainable
energy (Just Transition <http://www.jtalliance.org/> ) and protecting sacred
sites and the environment (Indigenous Environmental Network
<http://www.ienearth.org/> ).  
I am currently working on an ethnobotanical garden with traditional Navajo's
and have felt like my environmental ethics are very welcome. 

Having facilitated and created multiple coalitions between native peoples
and environmentalist, I have seen amazing success stories and I have seen
ignorance and arrogance of on the part of environmentalist insult and thwart
shared goals. I advise that environmentalist listen quietly and get educated
on the issues before making assumptions or taking action. And this also
means understanding how the media portrays Indians as well as our own
stereotypes of Native Americans. 

Respectfully, 

Jolie Lonner Egert
 
P.S. Navajo means "thief" and was a name given to the tribe by others. The
Tribe calls themselves the Dineh, meaning the People (Pronounced Din AY). 



Jolie Lonner Egert
Principal 
Go Wild Consulting 
510-666-WILD (9453)
Alt: 415-454-2251
www.gowildconsulting.com



-----Original Message-----
From: native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of
Olivia Kwong
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 6:41 AM
To: native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: [PCA] NEWS: Hopi, Navajos say environmentalists not welcome

Hopi, Navajos say environmentalists not welcome
By Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press Writer -- Wed Sep 30, 7:31 pm ET

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- The leader of the country's largest Indian reservation 
threw his support behind the neighboring Hopi Tribe, whose lawmakers 
declared environmental groups unwelcome on the reservation.

See the link above for the full article text.



_______________________________________________
native-plants mailing list
native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plan
tconservation.org

Disclaimer
Posts on this list reflect only the opinion of the individual who is posting
the message; they are not official opinions or positions of the Plant
Conservation Alliance.

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to
native-plants-request at lists.plantconservation.org with the word
"unsubscribe" in the subject line.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20091005/f64605d5/attachment.html>