Friends of the planet earth, they have always understood the value of kindness. Reciprocity, collective wellness and fierce commitments to roots- rootedness in the earth from which the trees that offer up clean fresh air spring. Streams that mimic the expanse of the time; free-flowing and connected - no separator for its currents - well that was before your pipelines. Still, they remind us water is life. Most of us are not from their loins but through the violence of white settler greed are here in this here place, on this sacred land. In recognition of our lack of consent, the ways we have also been rendered disposable, they have said join us- let us teach you how we can flourish in this shared space. Sit at the feet of Native astronomers, agronomists, geneticist, ecologist, engineers, botanists, zoologists, watershed hydrologists, pharmacologists, physicians and more (Streeby 35); these teachings are how we counteract the dispossession wrought by settler relations to this place- follow us in doing what we have always done.
And so
People from Indigenous nations throughout the Americas have joined climate activists, members of Black Lives Matter movement and other allies to insist that the construction be stopped on the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines (Streeby 44 ). More than being populations most affected by the environmental consequences of extractive industries, this is how we save the life of our kin. The river and the water [are] living persons (Streeby 45).
We must remember like Silko’s Sterling When the rain clouds had been plentiful (Streeby 53), can you imagine as they do the fulfillment of the Lakota prophecy that the buffalo will reappear. How do we guard against the terrible winds and freezing, and burning dry summers? (Streeby 54)
Museum of Anthropology: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Killer Whale Has a Vision and Comes to Talk to me about Proximological Encroachments of Civilizations in the Oceans, oil on canvas, 2010. Photo embedded in Indigenous Futurisms: Reimaging Reality to inspire and indigenous Future
This is what Indigenous futurism offers, maybe not the treasure but the map. Where are we now? Where have we been? Can you see it, do you see liveness and freedom before the first contact? Then go back and you can move forward. If you can remember before the western progress narratives, before the mining when the air was fresh- if you can remember an education that centers reciprocal relationships between human beings and the biosphere- if you can remember the species that are now rare- if you can remember beyond western science (itself bound up in white supremacy) then you are navigating toward a decolonial future. Remember, the past didn’t just happen it is present in where we are now. Remember and restore, first within our communities and hopefully, the settler state will also hear us. But will they listen? Maybe not but we can do what we have always done :
Stay rooted-grounded normativities
Build solidarities with communities experiencing varying degrees and scales of harm
Insist upon tribal sovereignty
Notice where we are now in relation to where we have been, insisting that we see the crisis.
As Streeby has shown us through her analysis of different moments and different genres in which indigenous futurism is at work, indigenous science and futurisms are powerful in our recent past and present, animating social movement struggle and making deep connections across time and space (Streeby 65). She writes: the water protectors and their allies contribute to a revitalized politics of place at a time when some have argued the conditions of postmodern life make place-based organizing unsustainable (44). Here it is the place-based knowledge systems that will help with the conservation of biological and species diversity. A reciprocal relationship with the environment, as opposed to an extractive one, is the only way to stem the climate disasters associated with capitalism. As Kimmerer has argued, when the natural environment is appreciated as living and breathing much like human beings we are less likely to inflict harm. Or well, maybe.
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