Can Indians Save the Planet?

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Can Indians Save the Planet?

http://mnweekly.rian.ru/world/20080313/55316172.html

 

 

13/03/2008

PALENQUE, Mexico (AP) - North American Indians assembled in the

shadow of ancient Mayan pyramids Monday discussed how their tradition

wisdom could help save the planet, and were told that even indigenous

cultures have struggled with environmental abuse.

 

More than 200 leaders from 71 American Indian nations in Mexico, the

United States and Canada came together in this Mexican jungle to find

indigenous solutions to pollution and ecological problems threatening

the planet.

 

" Our Mother Earth is being polluted at an alarming rate, and our

elders say that she is dying, " said Raymond Sensmeier, a Tlingit

leader from Yakutat, Alaska. " The way the weather is around the

world... a cleansing is needed. "

 

The conference began with a pre-dawn ceremony that included fire,

copal incense, chants in Lacandon Maya and blasts from a conch shell.

 

Speakers reminded attendees that even Indian cultures have battled

with environmental abuse and pointed to theories that deforestation

contributed to the collapse of the Maya who built the temples at

Palenque.

 

" As we stand here, very near Palenque, I am mindful that some

scholars have suggested that environmental stressors contributed to

the decline of the Mayan civilization, " said U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency regional administrator Elin Miller. " The planet-

wide stress on the environment today means that collaborative

efforts... are not just good things. They may well be essential for

our survival. "

 

But, as Bill Erasmus, a representative of the indigenous people of

Canada's Northwest Territories noted, " part of our role is to wake up

the world. It is very obvious to us all that the climate is

changing, " he said. " As people from the land, we are the most

vulnerable. "

 

Mexico's environment secretary, Juan Elvira Quesada, said the

gathering is meant " to present the teachings of the original peoples

of North America. "

 

" In this way, the indigenous communities can become the natural

guides to restoring balance and harmony in the world, " he said.

 

The lessons they have to teach are simple - based on reviving Indian

notions about ownership, use, compensation and respect.

 

" I sometimes talk to scientists, " said Sens­meier, " and they

compartmentalize things, put things in boxes and disconnect them, and

doing so promotes disharmony and imbalance. "

 

Indian cultures have concrete examples to share.

 

Kayum Garcia's Lacandon people plant small, dense, rotating fields of

jungle-friendly crops in southern Mexico and avoid pasture-hungry

cattle.

 

" Cutting down a tree just because you want to, I just can't

understand that, " Garcia said.

 

The Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs were able to use Mexico City's extensive

lake system as both a source of food and a flood-control mechanism.

The lakes were drained after the Spanish arrived, and now the

metropolis suffers a constant threat of floods.

 

Some of the lessons are even simpler, reminiscent of advice

grandparents often use.

 

" You'd catch one fish, just one, and you never played with your food,

never wasted it, " said Sensmeier. " We used everything. "

 

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