Waziyatawin & Cheyfitz – Viewpoints on the Environmental Crisis

It’s interesting to read these articles in light of the ongoing Doha climate conference.  From the little I’ve read about this conference, it seems that a large part of it is a blame game between the largest “developed” and “developing” polluters (U.S versus China) and the main proposed solutions to the problem is through monetary support and not national lifestyle changes.  It was refreshing to read the proposals laid out during the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change and the Anchorage Declaration; the transcendence of sovereigns and focus on Indigenous communities shifts focus to human survival and cooperation and not merely the developed versus developing sovereign  discourse that’s playing out in the Doha talks.

Waziyatawin has no illusions about the urgency of climate change and the necessity to act by any means necessary.  In the paper, “Indigenous Survival in the Coming Collapse”, Waziyatawin calls for a seeking of spiritual and cultural foundations, developing a culture of resistance, dismantling colonial structures, defending land at all costs, and taking up arms, among others.  If we are to accept Vine Deloria Jr’s assertion that “there appears to be no solution to modern problems”, then Waziyatawin’s suggestions may indeed be viewed as prudent preparations to ensure survivance.   I especially agree with Waziyatawin’s observation that the capitalist-consumer driven society and the dogmatic culture of righteousness it creates seems to be the root of the problem.  Waziyatawin tells us that: “Americans, especially, are trained by politicians and corporate controlled media to believe in the righteousness of this way of life, because there is still too much money for companies and individuals to make in this capitalist, consumer-driven society.” This is especially evident by the continued denial on behalf of many Americans that climate change is happening (some which are congressman).   Therefore, prima facie Waziyatawin’s suggestions and viewpoints may strike some as unnecessarily apocalyptic or “radical”, but considering the facts laid out in his paper regarding climate change along with the constant refusal to alter the American way of life, Waziyatawin makes very valid points.

Similarly, Eric Cheyfitz’s article, “Balancing the Earth: Native American Philosophies and the Environmental Crisis”, delineates the problems with the Western philosophical system, primarily the split between nature and culture.   Cheyfitz claims there should be no divide between culture and nature and that this possible through a “natural democracy” defined as a kin-based order that extends rights throughout the universe which includes animals, plants, clouds, and all of nature, not just humans.   Again, like Waziyatawin, Cheyfitz believes that elements of the capitalist-consumer driven system are the root of the problem:  “At the center of this indigenous democracy is a community relationship to land as kin in contradistinction to its conceptualization as property.  While the institution of property treats land as alienable, a commodity and hence fungible, the kinship relation to land understands it as absolutely inalienable…” (157)  The underlying message from this weeks readings, for me, was that the root of the environmental crisis is systematic and subsequently cultural and that the response to this problem ought to be through resistance.