'Mother Earth has issued a red alert'

Several noted speakers, including Daniel Wildcat, delivered messages

on indigenous ways of caring for the natural world during ''Mother

Earth,'' a concert at the National Museum of the American Indian in

Washington, D.C., July 7.

Tremendous knowledge and wisdom resides in American Indian and Alaska

Native traditions. Right now the planet requires that humankind

listen to what indigenous people are saying. Indigenous people -

those who take their instructions for living from the sacred powers

of this creation, the environment, ecosystems and climates - possess

useful knowledge much needed today. Mother Earth has issued a red

alert. And indigenous peoples have been echoing this alert a very

long time.

In order to appreciate this red alert, the prejudices and stereotypes

that have kept people from paying attention to indigenous thinkers

and their life ways must be set aside. One of these prejudices is

instructive: the idea that civilization results from the human

control and manipulation of nature has had deadly consequences for

life on our planet. Native peoples around the world can speak

directly to this point. The same logic that established a war between

nature and so-called civilized humankind too often continues to

justify wars against Native peoples so they and their lands can be

controlled.

Modern societies are too infatuated with the powerful technologies

humankind produced to serve OUR ends of comfort, convenience and

control of nature. Too many of our leaders unrealistically think

humankind stands above and independent of the rest of the natural

world. This misguided notion holds that humankind can always rise

above the forces of nature through our rationality and use of

technology.

This is wrong.

Fortunately, tribal elders possess worldviews and life ways

(including technologies) closely tied to the unique environments

where they have lived. Many Native peoples continue to find their

identities, cultures, in the broadest sense, and most important life

lessons in the landscapes and seascapes that they call home: their

indigenous knowledge emerges from their natural environments. Their

main message is that nature and culture cannot be divorced - that

biological diversity and cultural diversity are inextricably

connected.

Look inside the magnificent building behind me - the National Museum

of the American Indian. Here, scholars and scientists curate objects

of material tribal cultures that reflect great symbolic meaning and

the finest of talent. It is full of examples of the integration of

power and place and peoples emergent from the constant nexus of

nature and culture.

Amazingly, indigenous peoples are still here. This museum is not

about dead Indians - it is the embodiment of living traditions - but

traditions now threatened throughout the Americas, and around the

world, as a result of what might honestly be called global burning.

As new ways to thrive in life-enhancing cultures are sought out,

Native traditions and worldviews must be acknowledged. Many

scientists now recognize the knowledge of indigenous peoples. Groups

like the American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working

Group are encouraging Native students to play to their strengths as

indigenous ''holistic'' thinkers and enter scientific fields. Tribal

colleges and universities are working to ensure that our indigenous

tribal knowledge of landscapes and climates are valued and

incorporated into geosciences education and research.

Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation,

and many of our elders remind us that if we see the natural world as

full of relatives - not resources - good things will happen.

American Indian and Alaska Native wisdom is a cooperative

construction built on generations of attentive interaction between

humans and the diversity of life found in the unique ecosystems and

environments which we call home. How will we protect our homes and

homelands? Why not through indigenous life-enhancing systems of

knowledge promoting homeland maturity - a human maturity that shows

we respect our mother, the Earth.

Daniel R. Wildcat, Ph.D., is a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of

Oklahoma. He is co-director of the Haskell Environmental Research

Studies Center and American Indian Studies faculty member at Haskell

Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas