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As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock
The story of Native peoples' resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions, and a call for environmentalists to learn from the Indigenous community's rich history of activism
Through the unique lens of "Indigenized environmental justice," Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long As Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.
Throughout 2016, the Standing Rock protest put a national spotlight on Indigenous activists, but it also underscored how little Americans know about the longtime historical tensions between Native peoples and the mainstream environmental movement. Ultimately, she argues, modern environmentalists must look to the history of Indigenous resistance for wisdom and inspiration in our common fight for a just and sustainable future.
Through the unique lens of "Indigenized environmental justice," Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long As Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.
Throughout 2016, the Standing Rock protest put a national spotlight on Indigenous activists, but it also underscored how little Americans know about the longtime historical tensions between Native peoples and the mainstream environmental movement. Ultimately, she argues, modern environmentalists must look to the history of Indigenous resistance for wisdom and inspiration in our common fight for a just and sustainable future.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2019
About the author
Dina Gilio-Whitaker
2 books61 followersDina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is the policy director and a senior research associate at the Center for World Indigenous Studies and teaches American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos. She is the coauthor, with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, of “All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans. She lives in San Clemente, California.
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December 7, 2018
Native Americans have been enduring an unremitting hell ever since the white Europeans arrived 500 years ago. It continues even today. Zero respect is the main problem. It can also be called White Supremacy, as Dina Gilio-Whitaker does often in As Long As Grass Grows. The vehicle for her analysis is Environmental Justice (EJ) and in particular the Standing Rock protest against the Dakota Access oil pipeline, where she spent a lot of time researching and reporting. But there is no doubt the real issue is It reeks of white supremacy, she found.
The book delves into the differences between whites and natives, and how those differences are neither recognized nor respected by government or even well-meaning co-protestors. Whites have co-opted Indian spirituality, assigning it white-oriented meaning, refused to abide by the rules of the natives on their own land at Standing Rock, and of course, nearly wiping out the natives in a slow moving genocide over centuries. Whites do not accept or appreciate natives for who they are – not whites.
The legal history of EJ is laced with white supremacy, as settlers get more say than the natives, as the State denies them standing, and corporations have the most rights of all. But there’s more than just legal setbacks in preserving water, land or sacred places. There is a long tail of displacement, child removal, forced religion, lack of equal rights, and genocide.
The concept of genocide was created by Raphael Lemkin in just the 1940s, Gilios-Whitaker says. He postulated that genocide begins with oppression and suppression of a culture, followed by suppression of the people of that culture. It clearly and obviously applies to native Americans, and speaks to why it is taking so long to establish environmental justice. Whites have yet to acknowledge the natives they evicted.
Capitalism has despoiled the land and poisoned its inhabitants. And native lands most of all, it seems. Of 1322 Superfund sites that are the biggest recognized disasters in the country, 532 are on native lands. This is hugely disproportionate for what little land remains in their hands.
The chapter on women is particularly instructive. Women have traditionally been equals in native tribes. They have always worked, could own land and make decisions on their own. They alone were always responsible for children, so there was no such thing as an illegitimate child. This collection of differences was highlighted in the 1920s when the USA deigned (at long last) to offer American citizenship to natives. Native women actually had to lower themselves and give up rights they always had (including their religion) in order to accept that offer.
Whites simply appropriated aspects of native spirituality as part of America’s Manifest Destiny. “The function of indigenous ceremonies was primarily for the perpetuation of particular communities, not for personal enlightenment,” Gilio-Whitaker says.
Sacred places of natives cannot be moved around. Unlike western religions which can consecrate houses of worship anywhere they want, native religion is a relationship to a place. But white supremacy extends only as far as white-style religion. Nothing else is valid.
The book concludes with descriptions of tactics the natives are employing to fight EJ cases, with some success. While encouraging, they are not a lock. It boils down to playing the white man’s game in organizing, co-opting, lobbying, and of course, suing. 150,000 people closed their accounts at banks that backed the pipeline.
What struck me most is the very perversity of the entire EJ system. The term environmental justice in the USA refers only to real or potential damage where an identifiable group might suffer a financial loss. So EJ can be pursued by poor blacks, or by native/indigenous groups. But they must prove a financial hardship or burden. Tradition, sacred mountains and prehistoric tradition don’t count. The concept of environmental justice for the environment is not recognized. But making snow out of recycled sewage for a ski slope on a sacred mountain is wrong. Diverting a river to a surfing paradise to accommodate a new toll road is wrong. Running a dangerous oil pipeline through a major clean water source is wrong. But the Earth has no standing in American law. And no one speaks for Earth.
Except maybe native Americans.
David Wineberg
The book delves into the differences between whites and natives, and how those differences are neither recognized nor respected by government or even well-meaning co-protestors. Whites have co-opted Indian spirituality, assigning it white-oriented meaning, refused to abide by the rules of the natives on their own land at Standing Rock, and of course, nearly wiping out the natives in a slow moving genocide over centuries. Whites do not accept or appreciate natives for who they are – not whites.
The legal history of EJ is laced with white supremacy, as settlers get more say than the natives, as the State denies them standing, and corporations have the most rights of all. But there’s more than just legal setbacks in preserving water, land or sacred places. There is a long tail of displacement, child removal, forced religion, lack of equal rights, and genocide.
The concept of genocide was created by Raphael Lemkin in just the 1940s, Gilios-Whitaker says. He postulated that genocide begins with oppression and suppression of a culture, followed by suppression of the people of that culture. It clearly and obviously applies to native Americans, and speaks to why it is taking so long to establish environmental justice. Whites have yet to acknowledge the natives they evicted.
Capitalism has despoiled the land and poisoned its inhabitants. And native lands most of all, it seems. Of 1322 Superfund sites that are the biggest recognized disasters in the country, 532 are on native lands. This is hugely disproportionate for what little land remains in their hands.
The chapter on women is particularly instructive. Women have traditionally been equals in native tribes. They have always worked, could own land and make decisions on their own. They alone were always responsible for children, so there was no such thing as an illegitimate child. This collection of differences was highlighted in the 1920s when the USA deigned (at long last) to offer American citizenship to natives. Native women actually had to lower themselves and give up rights they always had (including their religion) in order to accept that offer.
Whites simply appropriated aspects of native spirituality as part of America’s Manifest Destiny. “The function of indigenous ceremonies was primarily for the perpetuation of particular communities, not for personal enlightenment,” Gilio-Whitaker says.
Sacred places of natives cannot be moved around. Unlike western religions which can consecrate houses of worship anywhere they want, native religion is a relationship to a place. But white supremacy extends only as far as white-style religion. Nothing else is valid.
The book concludes with descriptions of tactics the natives are employing to fight EJ cases, with some success. While encouraging, they are not a lock. It boils down to playing the white man’s game in organizing, co-opting, lobbying, and of course, suing. 150,000 people closed their accounts at banks that backed the pipeline.
What struck me most is the very perversity of the entire EJ system. The term environmental justice in the USA refers only to real or potential damage where an identifiable group might suffer a financial loss. So EJ can be pursued by poor blacks, or by native/indigenous groups. But they must prove a financial hardship or burden. Tradition, sacred mountains and prehistoric tradition don’t count. The concept of environmental justice for the environment is not recognized. But making snow out of recycled sewage for a ski slope on a sacred mountain is wrong. Diverting a river to a surfing paradise to accommodate a new toll road is wrong. Running a dangerous oil pipeline through a major clean water source is wrong. But the Earth has no standing in American law. And no one speaks for Earth.
Except maybe native Americans.
David Wineberg
April 20, 2019
Disclaimer: I won a copy via a Librarything giveaway.
I suppose I could just say that I was reading this on the way back from work and when I looked up, somehow, the trolley had gotten to one stop from mine without me knowing. It was that absorbing. Gilio-Whitaker makes what might have been a somewhat dull topic and engages the reader.
But I suppose you want more than that.
When I mentioned I was reading this book to my friend who teaches in the Urban Studies department and who has worked one various community environmental projects, he admitted he wasn’t sure about the term environmental justice. He believes that justice somewhat confuses the issue and prefers the term morality.
In the opening section of the book, Gilio-Whitaker does take the time to defend what she means by environmental justice as well as statistics that show the impact on minority groups. Donald Trump JR’s inane comment aside, if you have read anything about cities and neighborhoods, you must know the truth of those statements. Gilio-Whitaker then separates Indigenous populations from other minority groups because, quite correctly, she deals with the issues of being dispossessed, broken treaties, and so on.
What is more important is that for those not of Indigenous heritage or lack of knowledge, she clearly shows not only differences in belief systems, but also how Indigenous populations are more closely tied to the environmental – an environmental that they manipulated long before the arrival of European settlers. The section of the book that traces the history of the environmental movement as well as the development of national parks tying it to the issues of racism and white supremacy.
There is a very good discussion about the devices used to terminate and move Indigenous populations – slavery, starvation far more than dieses. Particularly gutting wrenching is when the Federal government decided who and who wasn’t an Indigenous tribe, allowing them to take away even more and wrecking more destruction upon the culture.
Gilio-Whitaker set out and wrote a good about environmental justice and the Indigenous population, but she also damns the education system in American that does not go into depth about the injustices committed to Indigenous populations. Most schools just mention the land stealing. But there is so much more.
If Coates put forward an eloquent reason for reparations, Gilio-Whitaker puts forward an equally compelling one for Environmental Justice.
I suppose I could just say that I was reading this on the way back from work and when I looked up, somehow, the trolley had gotten to one stop from mine without me knowing. It was that absorbing. Gilio-Whitaker makes what might have been a somewhat dull topic and engages the reader.
But I suppose you want more than that.
When I mentioned I was reading this book to my friend who teaches in the Urban Studies department and who has worked one various community environmental projects, he admitted he wasn’t sure about the term environmental justice. He believes that justice somewhat confuses the issue and prefers the term morality.
In the opening section of the book, Gilio-Whitaker does take the time to defend what she means by environmental justice as well as statistics that show the impact on minority groups. Donald Trump JR’s inane comment aside, if you have read anything about cities and neighborhoods, you must know the truth of those statements. Gilio-Whitaker then separates Indigenous populations from other minority groups because, quite correctly, she deals with the issues of being dispossessed, broken treaties, and so on.
What is more important is that for those not of Indigenous heritage or lack of knowledge, she clearly shows not only differences in belief systems, but also how Indigenous populations are more closely tied to the environmental – an environmental that they manipulated long before the arrival of European settlers. The section of the book that traces the history of the environmental movement as well as the development of national parks tying it to the issues of racism and white supremacy.
There is a very good discussion about the devices used to terminate and move Indigenous populations – slavery, starvation far more than dieses. Particularly gutting wrenching is when the Federal government decided who and who wasn’t an Indigenous tribe, allowing them to take away even more and wrecking more destruction upon the culture.
Gilio-Whitaker set out and wrote a good about environmental justice and the Indigenous population, but she also damns the education system in American that does not go into depth about the injustices committed to Indigenous populations. Most schools just mention the land stealing. But there is so much more.
If Coates put forward an eloquent reason for reparations, Gilio-Whitaker puts forward an equally compelling one for Environmental Justice.
September 10, 2020
If you care about the major social movements happening in our society right now (which you absolutely should), then this is required reading. Published in 2019, this book is an excellent historical work by Colville Confederated Tribes researcher & activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker, that highlights past & current wrongs against Indigenous peoples in America & additionally offers advice & important words of warning for non-Indigenous allies. Not only is this filled with need-to-know American history, but it’s also written in an easy to approach way, meant for anyone to pick up.
I found myself highlighting & dogearing every other page, filled with history I never learned in school - for example, I learned that the uranium it took to create the Manhattan Project came from the lands of Navajo Nation, at the cost of human lives & destruction that Navajo & other Native peoples are still dealing with today. Many of us, myself included, have participated (whether knowingly or unknowingly) in the erasure of peoples who lived & thrived on the land long before us & *continue* to live & survive against so many odds. This book clearly shows how so many systemic & systematic choices push a white supremacist narrative of Manifest Destiny & the glossing over of the genocide & erasure of Indigenous peoples in American history. I’ll end with this poignant quote;
“If American Indians are to experience real environmental justice - which means not only ending the poisoning of their environments but also regaining access to and protection of their sacred sites and ancient territories - it means confronting a ‘state built on the pillars of capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy.’ The confrontation must occur at all levels, from the individual to the institutional, and ultimately dismantle the legal, social, and policy frameworks that uphold an ongoing system of domination.” (p. 149)
I found myself highlighting & dogearing every other page, filled with history I never learned in school - for example, I learned that the uranium it took to create the Manhattan Project came from the lands of Navajo Nation, at the cost of human lives & destruction that Navajo & other Native peoples are still dealing with today. Many of us, myself included, have participated (whether knowingly or unknowingly) in the erasure of peoples who lived & thrived on the land long before us & *continue* to live & survive against so many odds. This book clearly shows how so many systemic & systematic choices push a white supremacist narrative of Manifest Destiny & the glossing over of the genocide & erasure of Indigenous peoples in American history. I’ll end with this poignant quote;
“If American Indians are to experience real environmental justice - which means not only ending the poisoning of their environments but also regaining access to and protection of their sacred sites and ancient territories - it means confronting a ‘state built on the pillars of capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy.’ The confrontation must occur at all levels, from the individual to the institutional, and ultimately dismantle the legal, social, and policy frameworks that uphold an ongoing system of domination.” (p. 149)
May 20, 2019
Right off the bat, I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I am grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this. I'm also a white settler-descendent living in the territory currently known as the United States.
This book is really solid read on indigenous issues with regard to environmental justice, and how indigenous communities need specific frameworks that are not covered by State initiatives. Gilio-Whitaker crams a LOT into this relatively short book, and somehow makes it all pretty accessible, though there are maybe some terms that could be explained more? (I'm wondering at a US settler-descendent's introduction to settler colonialism through this book, and if they felt like they would understand it.) She manages to use the #NoDAPL protests from 2016 as a solid frame, while not exclusively focusing on or fetishizing what happened there. Her citational practice is super solid, and it's very easy to find more books to read on the topic after hers. Her topics are also cover a lot of ground--not only what we might think of as issues of environmental damage, like toxins etc., but also food sovereignty and tribal sovereignty as well. Overall a really good, accessible book for people interested in understanding issues surrounding environmentalism, environmental justice, and indigenous issues in a fairly complex way.
This book is really solid read on indigenous issues with regard to environmental justice, and how indigenous communities need specific frameworks that are not covered by State initiatives. Gilio-Whitaker crams a LOT into this relatively short book, and somehow makes it all pretty accessible, though there are maybe some terms that could be explained more? (I'm wondering at a US settler-descendent's introduction to settler colonialism through this book, and if they felt like they would understand it.) She manages to use the #NoDAPL protests from 2016 as a solid frame, while not exclusively focusing on or fetishizing what happened there. Her citational practice is super solid, and it's very easy to find more books to read on the topic after hers. Her topics are also cover a lot of ground--not only what we might think of as issues of environmental damage, like toxins etc., but also food sovereignty and tribal sovereignty as well. Overall a really good, accessible book for people interested in understanding issues surrounding environmentalism, environmental justice, and indigenous issues in a fairly complex way.
June 14, 2021
I can't do this book justice with my silly reviews but I am so so grateful for this book and the ways in which the author expanded my knowledge and challenged me and unsettled me. Every non-Native person in the so-called US needs to read this book to begin understanding the historic and ongoing impacts of colonization on indigenous folks, the environment, and everyone/everything.
June 24, 2022
There are times when I look back many years (well, several decades) at my youthful environmental activist, focused on forest protection and seas – things in my neighbourhood - and wonder at the ways our organisations called for public ownership through state, totally failing to recognise that it was this state that had stolen this land from its original owners over the previous 140 years. While my youth was spent in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s focus on Turtle Island reminds just how deeply ingrained colonialism is.
In the course of the discussion she does three key things. She makes clear the distinction between notions of environmental preservation (with its fantasy of a pristine environment) and environmental justice, with its focus on questions of oppression and inequality. Second, she grounds struggles across the Americas in histories of colonisation, marginalisation and dispossession. Third, she highlights and stresses the crucial role of coalitions in those struggles, and the ways all too often the needs and concerns of Indigenous peoples are written out of those coalitions’ narratives.
Not surprisingly, given its profile, the narrative begins at Standing Rock, in Oceti Sakowin territory, with the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline that came to a head in 2016 and into 2017. Her sense of the long run nature of Indigenous struggles as related to environmental justice means that she does not fall into the trap others have in many media outlets of suggesting this ‘came out of nowhere’, but is part of long running struggle for justice (Nick Estes’ Our History is the Future is an excellent way into that aspect of Lakota/Dakota/Nakota history).
This, however, is a tale of an environment movement that, like my youthful associations, is firmly grounded colonialist outlooks including practices that implicitly justify the genocide of Indigenous peoples. But it is also a tale of the links between Indigenous community health and well-being and the land and wider environmental associations. It tells stories of strange and unusual alliances around things such as extractivist economic ‘development’ that threaten First Nations and settler farmers in similar ways – and at times the unexpected insight that comes from those associations.
Those Indigenous movements do not get a free pass, however, and there is a powerful exploration of the patriarchal aspects of movement politics and the ways women in Indigenous networks organised around and despite much of the ‘leadership’. This section, perhaps more than others, unpacks the exploitative character of much that styles itself as solidarity activism, partly because of the crucial role women played in leading struggles at Standing Rock, and the widespread non-Indigenous solidarity participation in the camps. Gilio-Whitaker unpacks these tensions clearly and firmly, in places showing some empathy for settler women’s discomfort, while also asserting the integrity of Indigenous expectations while in Indigenous spaces.
It might be because of parts of my working life that I found the discussion of sacred sites so compelling and unsettling (I used to work in a negotiations team focused on return of ‘sacred sites’ as part of the settlement of breaches of State-Indigenous Treaty provisions), while also reminding myself just how complex the situation is in the USA with its various forms of recognition and the persistence of legislation that is both paternalistic and controlling. More importantly, this is the discussion that shows most explicitly the complex and problematic character of some of the alliances built around issues as well as the potential for this kind of work to educate citizens and state officials about the nuances of justice in environmental struggles. It is a discussion that is concurrently uplifting and a reminder of the exploitative relations that can exist within alliances.
As powerful as these discussions are the kicker lies in the discussion that closes the book that among other things shows the continuing complicity of parts of the environmental movement in continuing the expropriation of Indigenous peoples, through land management, occupation and ownership provisions for instance that exclude traditional owners. Equally significantly her discussion of the ‘rights of nature’ strand of environmental justice struggles, which she links explicitly to amendments to the Bolivian and Ecuadoran constitutions and decisions in Aotearoa that recognise the personhood of rivers, points to ways that environmental justice can be interlinked with Indigenous struggles, while also implicitly pointing to the limitations of major modes of economic thinking underpinning capitalist, socialist and other left forms of analysis, that accentuate forms of extraction. It’s a powerful case that deserves to be further developed (the recent The Red Deal looks as if it may start to do that).
While focused primarily on struggles in the USA, so with some distinctiveness given historical and constitutional provisions there, the lessons go much wider, and not only to other settler colonial states – the rights of nature model is a compelling way to think and do environmental justice, especially when interwoven with other forms of social justice struggle. Clearly and accessibly written this is an excellent way into multifaceted contemporary social justice struggles. Vital reading, to make sense of our times.
In the course of the discussion she does three key things. She makes clear the distinction between notions of environmental preservation (with its fantasy of a pristine environment) and environmental justice, with its focus on questions of oppression and inequality. Second, she grounds struggles across the Americas in histories of colonisation, marginalisation and dispossession. Third, she highlights and stresses the crucial role of coalitions in those struggles, and the ways all too often the needs and concerns of Indigenous peoples are written out of those coalitions’ narratives.
Not surprisingly, given its profile, the narrative begins at Standing Rock, in Oceti Sakowin territory, with the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline that came to a head in 2016 and into 2017. Her sense of the long run nature of Indigenous struggles as related to environmental justice means that she does not fall into the trap others have in many media outlets of suggesting this ‘came out of nowhere’, but is part of long running struggle for justice (Nick Estes’ Our History is the Future is an excellent way into that aspect of Lakota/Dakota/Nakota history).
This, however, is a tale of an environment movement that, like my youthful associations, is firmly grounded colonialist outlooks including practices that implicitly justify the genocide of Indigenous peoples. But it is also a tale of the links between Indigenous community health and well-being and the land and wider environmental associations. It tells stories of strange and unusual alliances around things such as extractivist economic ‘development’ that threaten First Nations and settler farmers in similar ways – and at times the unexpected insight that comes from those associations.
Those Indigenous movements do not get a free pass, however, and there is a powerful exploration of the patriarchal aspects of movement politics and the ways women in Indigenous networks organised around and despite much of the ‘leadership’. This section, perhaps more than others, unpacks the exploitative character of much that styles itself as solidarity activism, partly because of the crucial role women played in leading struggles at Standing Rock, and the widespread non-Indigenous solidarity participation in the camps. Gilio-Whitaker unpacks these tensions clearly and firmly, in places showing some empathy for settler women’s discomfort, while also asserting the integrity of Indigenous expectations while in Indigenous spaces.
It might be because of parts of my working life that I found the discussion of sacred sites so compelling and unsettling (I used to work in a negotiations team focused on return of ‘sacred sites’ as part of the settlement of breaches of State-Indigenous Treaty provisions), while also reminding myself just how complex the situation is in the USA with its various forms of recognition and the persistence of legislation that is both paternalistic and controlling. More importantly, this is the discussion that shows most explicitly the complex and problematic character of some of the alliances built around issues as well as the potential for this kind of work to educate citizens and state officials about the nuances of justice in environmental struggles. It is a discussion that is concurrently uplifting and a reminder of the exploitative relations that can exist within alliances.
As powerful as these discussions are the kicker lies in the discussion that closes the book that among other things shows the continuing complicity of parts of the environmental movement in continuing the expropriation of Indigenous peoples, through land management, occupation and ownership provisions for instance that exclude traditional owners. Equally significantly her discussion of the ‘rights of nature’ strand of environmental justice struggles, which she links explicitly to amendments to the Bolivian and Ecuadoran constitutions and decisions in Aotearoa that recognise the personhood of rivers, points to ways that environmental justice can be interlinked with Indigenous struggles, while also implicitly pointing to the limitations of major modes of economic thinking underpinning capitalist, socialist and other left forms of analysis, that accentuate forms of extraction. It’s a powerful case that deserves to be further developed (the recent The Red Deal looks as if it may start to do that).
While focused primarily on struggles in the USA, so with some distinctiveness given historical and constitutional provisions there, the lessons go much wider, and not only to other settler colonial states – the rights of nature model is a compelling way to think and do environmental justice, especially when interwoven with other forms of social justice struggle. Clearly and accessibly written this is an excellent way into multifaceted contemporary social justice struggles. Vital reading, to make sense of our times.
January 21, 2022
While the fight for saving the environment for mankind and the systemic racism against Native Americans are both important topics, I found this novelization of Dina Gilio-Whitaker's doctoral thesis to be too dry and repetitive. It was tough reading to be reminded of the outright theft of millions of acres of land or the exchange of good land for bad, the lack of respect for tribal customs especially honoring burial grounds as well as disrepecting their close bonds with nature, and the senseless decimation of the American buffalo species. Also, it seems that the only time environmental protests by Native Americans were successful were when they were able to find other constituents to support their battles, such as the Standing Rock pipeline or the protection of the southern Californian coastline. What a shame.
September 28, 2019
In As Long as Grass Grows, Dina Gilio-Whitaker connects a grand arc of social history in a powerful narrative exposing the white supremacist underpinnings of the modern American environmental movement. Drawing on indigenous and environmental justice activists and scholars from across disciplines, Gilio-Whitaker disrupts mainstream white assumptions about environmentalism and posits an essential perspective into contemporary social justice movements.
Gilio-Whitaker's logical precision and outstanding writing produce a comprehensive tome in relatively few pages and decipher complex epistemological conflicts, tying philosophy to actionable recommendations for policymakers and movement builders.
Gilio-Whitaker's logical precision and outstanding writing produce a comprehensive tome in relatively few pages and decipher complex epistemological conflicts, tying philosophy to actionable recommendations for policymakers and movement builders.
September 23, 2019
Very informative of historical and current issues regarding land, water, mineral rights legal battles waged and being waged for the Indigenous American peoples. Could be used as a text book.
April 24, 2021
I think this book just ruined everything for me but in a “good for the environment” way. I’ll never look at a national park or a cute hippie fit the same 🥺
November 30, 2023
Foundational. Paradigm-exploder.
December 9, 2023
The thing that stood out the most to me about this book, was how unemotionally Gilio-Whitaker wrote about such horrific things from her people’s history. It’s not meant to inflame, condemn, apologize, or even soften the hard truths she talks about. It’s truly just a statement of facts as they exist for indigenous people.
I am not qualified to write in depth about this book. It is one of those books that half makes me want to go back to school to study environmental justice, just so I can write about and talk about this book, and the topics introduced in it.
What I am qualified to do, however, is determine that if a nonfiction makes you feel things, and then makes you want to do something about the things you feel, it is achieving its goal as a work of nonfiction.
And this book definitely made me feel things. Some of which were:
Shame
Horror
Embarrassment
Despair
Hopelessness
Hopefulness
Intense curiosity
And finally a determination to do and be better, and educate myself more on this very important topic, at the very least.
I am not qualified to write in depth about this book. It is one of those books that half makes me want to go back to school to study environmental justice, just so I can write about and talk about this book, and the topics introduced in it.
What I am qualified to do, however, is determine that if a nonfiction makes you feel things, and then makes you want to do something about the things you feel, it is achieving its goal as a work of nonfiction.
And this book definitely made me feel things. Some of which were:
Shame
Horror
Embarrassment
Despair
Hopelessness
Hopefulness
Intense curiosity
And finally a determination to do and be better, and educate myself more on this very important topic, at the very least.
Lesen
September 3, 2022I learned a lot reading this on audiobook -- I didn't know a lot of the history, especially recent history (1980-2020) because I wasn't born/very young for a lot of it, but this was a very informative history that presented an argument for Indigenized environmental justice.
Listened on audiobook from my library at 2-2.5x speed.
Listened on audiobook from my library at 2-2.5x speed.
January 2, 2021
Oh my, how to do this brief and imperiling book justice? This revealed so much to me about how all kinds of environmental justice-seeking in 2020 actively self-sabotage without the direct inclusion of both Indigenous consultation + consent.
Chapter 4, "Food Is Medicine, Water Is Life: American Indian Health and the Environment" and Chapter 6, "Hearts Not on the Ground: Indigenous Women’s Leadership and More Cultural Clashes" taught me the most new information about how continuing U.S. policies of domination and treaty abrogation endanger native health + lifestyle in addition to their land + nationhood. Within a single generation of separation from their ancestral hunting grounds + agricultural lifeways, for instance, Native communities (who were notably among the healthiest civilizations worldwide) began experiencing disproportionate problems of obesity — something they named the "commod bod," for the high-caloric, low-nutrient government provisions that replaced previously robust, diverse and widely plant-based Indigenous diets. "Hearts Not on the Ground" includes discussion of some internal politics at Standing Rock to frame white women's self-serving justice seeking, or "taking," in direct opposition against Indigenous matriarchal principles of communal power + giving.
Dina also writes about the uncounted millions of enslaved Native people. I had no idea of California's aggressive policies of genocide and indentured servitude against Indigenous communities, which tore apart generations of families at a time when they were already fighting being pigeonholed into reservations hundreds of miles from their ancestral lands.
Simply written, powerfully stated. This was recommended by Jolie Varela of @IndigenousWomenHike and although it does not appear to be well-publicized, it is incredibly informative + important. I chose this as my 100th read of 2020 as a symbolic gesture prioritizing Indigenous literature in my worldview + reading plan for next year, #NoWhiteAuthors2021 — which I hope others will consider joining me in (it's exactly as it sounds). Please look for this title (and others! I have a whole bookshelf of Indigenous authors I've been building if you're not sure where to start) at your local library if you cannot purchase yourself, or better yet, consider using your annual purchase requests to add it to your library system for your neighbors' benefit too — I did this in Nashville and they added many audiobooks + ebooks the next day!
Chapter 4, "Food Is Medicine, Water Is Life: American Indian Health and the Environment" and Chapter 6, "Hearts Not on the Ground: Indigenous Women’s Leadership and More Cultural Clashes" taught me the most new information about how continuing U.S. policies of domination and treaty abrogation endanger native health + lifestyle in addition to their land + nationhood. Within a single generation of separation from their ancestral hunting grounds + agricultural lifeways, for instance, Native communities (who were notably among the healthiest civilizations worldwide) began experiencing disproportionate problems of obesity — something they named the "commod bod," for the high-caloric, low-nutrient government provisions that replaced previously robust, diverse and widely plant-based Indigenous diets. "Hearts Not on the Ground" includes discussion of some internal politics at Standing Rock to frame white women's self-serving justice seeking, or "taking," in direct opposition against Indigenous matriarchal principles of communal power + giving.
Dina also writes about the uncounted millions of enslaved Native people. I had no idea of California's aggressive policies of genocide and indentured servitude against Indigenous communities, which tore apart generations of families at a time when they were already fighting being pigeonholed into reservations hundreds of miles from their ancestral lands.
Simply written, powerfully stated. This was recommended by Jolie Varela of @IndigenousWomenHike and although it does not appear to be well-publicized, it is incredibly informative + important. I chose this as my 100th read of 2020 as a symbolic gesture prioritizing Indigenous literature in my worldview + reading plan for next year, #NoWhiteAuthors2021 — which I hope others will consider joining me in (it's exactly as it sounds). Please look for this title (and others! I have a whole bookshelf of Indigenous authors I've been building if you're not sure where to start) at your local library if you cannot purchase yourself, or better yet, consider using your annual purchase requests to add it to your library system for your neighbors' benefit too — I did this in Nashville and they added many audiobooks + ebooks the next day!
April 20, 2021
I marked up my copy and it is a book I’m excited to keep for my grown up home library / office :-) anybody on stolen lands should read this
August 23, 2022
A helpful reframing of environmental justice as necessarily involving deconstructing colonialism and centering indigenous expertise. I especially loved the chapter on food as health/water as life for its public health approach. Though a short book this was packed with examples (maybe too many?) and I was rushing through it in time for discussion. Read for Storytelling Animals Book Club.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
March 26, 2024I tried. I really did. But this read like an academic paper in that it was not written for the average reader. The subject matter is incredibly important, but I wasn't absorbing any of the information because I was too busy trying to decipher every paragraph-long sentence.
August 29, 2019
While it is commonly understood that undesirable land uses have historically (and still) been located near/in poor communities, which are often of color. In this book Gilio-Whitaker looks at how that has affected Native Americans in ways that are different than other poor/black/brown communities--and what they have tried and are continuing to try to remedy these situations.
This book is full of information about Environmental Justice--what it means and how it applies to whom, with lots of examples and lots of legal information. It was much more academic than I was expecting. This is not narrative nonfiction.
She gives some excellent explanations focused around several key points:
• North American Native peoples are living in a post-apocalyptic world. In the last 500 years their populations were wiped out, their land stolen, and they were the victims of genocides and are the victims of continued abuse at the hand of governments and settlers.
• Native peoples have lost most of their land, and have thus lost the ability to live their life traditionally. Reservations are actually held in Trust by the US government, to be managed for the Natives' benefits. But they have always been managed in the best interests of corporations and the government itself, as reservations have been sold off to setters (Oklahoma), used for corporate interests such as uranium mining (desert Southwest), and, as DAPL/Standing Rock show, this is still going on today. This loss of land and places has affected food sovereignty and traditional medicine, health, and spirituality.
• Natives have a fundamentally different worldview than those of European descent. Their sacred spaces are in the place--they cannot be moved as a church or synagogue can be moved. Natives traditionally see themselves as part of nature, with nature having agency as well. But laws and the trusts are written in and run by the Euro-American way of seeing time and a linear line. She discusses the method of getting "Rights of Nature" written into laws, as has been done in several other countries--giving Nature "person" status as the US has given it to corporations.
• Why environmentalists and Native activists so often don't see eye-to-eye, historically and currently. In California the two groups successfully worked together to save Pahne and Trestles from a freeway, but the camps at Standing Rock had issues between the two groups and how they saw their own purpose of being there and what they were trying to do, and how they behaved. Historically, Natives were removed from National Parks because of the European way of seeing people as not part of nature and of Natives as not been agents in nature.
• Methods of moving forward: land purchases, gaining recognition of specific sacred sites, fighting--as at Standing Rock--for consultations required by treaty. How groups with different world views can work together and use the legal tools that each has to improve environmental justice for all.
This book is full of information about Environmental Justice--what it means and how it applies to whom, with lots of examples and lots of legal information. It was much more academic than I was expecting. This is not narrative nonfiction.
She gives some excellent explanations focused around several key points:
• North American Native peoples are living in a post-apocalyptic world. In the last 500 years their populations were wiped out, their land stolen, and they were the victims of genocides and are the victims of continued abuse at the hand of governments and settlers.
• Native peoples have lost most of their land, and have thus lost the ability to live their life traditionally. Reservations are actually held in Trust by the US government, to be managed for the Natives' benefits. But they have always been managed in the best interests of corporations and the government itself, as reservations have been sold off to setters (Oklahoma), used for corporate interests such as uranium mining (desert Southwest), and, as DAPL/Standing Rock show, this is still going on today. This loss of land and places has affected food sovereignty and traditional medicine, health, and spirituality.
• Natives have a fundamentally different worldview than those of European descent. Their sacred spaces are in the place--they cannot be moved as a church or synagogue can be moved. Natives traditionally see themselves as part of nature, with nature having agency as well. But laws and the trusts are written in and run by the Euro-American way of seeing time and a linear line. She discusses the method of getting "Rights of Nature" written into laws, as has been done in several other countries--giving Nature "person" status as the US has given it to corporations.
• Why environmentalists and Native activists so often don't see eye-to-eye, historically and currently. In California the two groups successfully worked together to save Pahne and Trestles from a freeway, but the camps at Standing Rock had issues between the two groups and how they saw their own purpose of being there and what they were trying to do, and how they behaved. Historically, Natives were removed from National Parks because of the European way of seeing people as not part of nature and of Natives as not been agents in nature.
• Methods of moving forward: land purchases, gaining recognition of specific sacred sites, fighting--as at Standing Rock--for consultations required by treaty. How groups with different world views can work together and use the legal tools that each has to improve environmental justice for all.
July 12, 2020
77 / C+
As Long As Grass Grows is a really good book for those committed to Indigenous and environmental justice. The book uses the NoDAPL protests, the largest and most visible act of Native resistance against environmental racism in recent memory, as a frame for understanding how Indigenous and environmental issues have intersected historically and contemporaneously. The book shows how settler-colonialism has systematically caused harm to Indigenous people through depriving Native communities of their connection to land and clean water, and also explains how settler-colonialism has performed "ecocide" (ecological genocide) against Native people by disrupting their environments and confining them to reservations, causing starvation and a bevy of health issues. The book also details the complicated relationship Native communities have to taking advantage of the natural resources on their land-- trying to survive under settler-colonialist capitalism while simultaneously being responsible to the land. The most interesting part of the book is the section on how Native communities often find themselves at odds with non-Native environmental activists, as "envirommentalism" has a historically Western settler-colonialist framework that erases Indigenous concerns. Overall, this is a really useful book for specifically understanding this intersection of Indigenous and environmental issues; however, I found the writing really dry and also feel the book's focus tends to stray at times and can become meandering.
As Long As Grass Grows is a really good book for those committed to Indigenous and environmental justice. The book uses the NoDAPL protests, the largest and most visible act of Native resistance against environmental racism in recent memory, as a frame for understanding how Indigenous and environmental issues have intersected historically and contemporaneously. The book shows how settler-colonialism has systematically caused harm to Indigenous people through depriving Native communities of their connection to land and clean water, and also explains how settler-colonialism has performed "ecocide" (ecological genocide) against Native people by disrupting their environments and confining them to reservations, causing starvation and a bevy of health issues. The book also details the complicated relationship Native communities have to taking advantage of the natural resources on their land-- trying to survive under settler-colonialist capitalism while simultaneously being responsible to the land. The most interesting part of the book is the section on how Native communities often find themselves at odds with non-Native environmental activists, as "envirommentalism" has a historically Western settler-colonialist framework that erases Indigenous concerns. Overall, this is a really useful book for specifically understanding this intersection of Indigenous and environmental issues; however, I found the writing really dry and also feel the book's focus tends to stray at times and can become meandering.
January 20, 2023
This is such an important topic and the summary was so engaging and promising (as were the reviews!), but I would very much not recommend this book for anyone hoping to learn about Indigenous EJ due to its flawed execution. The writing is needlessly complex in word choice and sentence structure, which is an odd feature for a book intended to inform and inspire. The dense content is delivered in an incredibly dry way lacking in both narrative and focus - it really is all over the place with no emotional appeal (which should not be difficult to incorporate in this subject matter). Extremely disappointing. One star because the citations do reference some great material I'm using instead to learn about this concept.
May 10, 2023
Informative and approachable! Based on my limited engagement with environmental justice this felt like a good introduction. An overview of recent efforts, some historical context, a brief intro into Indigenous worldview about the land vs western thoughts - it has a little bit of everything you need to begin understanding and grappling with what environmentalism ought to look like and how racism impacts it. Highly recommend!
Lesen
September 2, 2020I picked up this book for a few reasons: first, because I am interested in environmentalism but often struggle to see the scope of environmental justice movement beyond small individual choices, like whether it's OK to eat meat, to drive a car, to compost, how to avoid plastic packaging, etc. I was also interested in the topic because while I was aware of Standing Rock and the #NoDAPL movement, I felt that I didn't have a good grasp of exactly what happened there and why, and wanted to contextualize those events in a broader Indigenous history.
The book delivered much more on the second question than the first: the author's goal was not to fulfill my vague wish of becoming a better environmentalist. But it did help me to re-envision what the actual goals of environmental justice ought to be.
Some of the concepts seemed obvious in retrospect, but were things I hadn't really given thought to before, like the myth of untouched wilderness. I'm so used to thinking of humans as the enemies of nature, believing that Earth needs to be protected from the innately harmful instincts of human beings. It felt truly revolutionary to imagine humans as part of a mutually beneficial relationship with animals, nature, land, rivers, or mountains (a "system of responsibility," as the book describes). It's an idea that is revolutionary to me now, but reflects how life was lived on this continent for thousands of years before colonization and rampant industrialization. I think of recent news articles I've read preaching the "newly rediscovered" wisdom of using controlled burns to manage outbreaks of wildfires, and the frustration that Indigenous environmentalists must feel to see longstanding practices like this finally acknowledged after centuries of being treated as inferior.
Gilio-Whitaker was thorough in showing the ways that colonization has caused chain reactions of damage to the environment and Indigenous people, such as through resource extraction that can leads to polluted water that not only poisons people, but disrupts fish populations and kills medicinal plants, ultimately altering the food supply and making certain cultural practices impossible for a whole area. Or the practice of buffalo extermination that was deliberately done to starve Indigenous people and force the ones who survived onto reservations where their nutritious food practices were replaced with government-subsidized, inadequate foods.
The book thoroughly covered many treaties and legal cases that show how Indigenous land rights have been consistently eroded for generations. To be honest, I found it difficult to absorb a lot of the facts and nitty-gritty details about the legal history of Indigenous displacement, but was mainly struck by the absurd injustice that people with such longstanding relationships to the land were forced to participate in a colonial legal system at all, just to have any hope of preserving rights to live on the land. The concepts of sovereignty and federal recognition are clearly essential for present-day Indigenous people to reclaim rights through the legal system, but it's incredibly shitty that the battle still has to be fought on the colonizers' terms.
I was also challenged by the chapters that focused on the idea of sacred places. I understand and respect the value of preserving areas of spiritual significance, but it is difficult for me to fully internalize what those sites mean to the tribes that use them in spiritual practices--it's just very different from what concepts of sanctity mean to me, and my own relationships to land and places. That said, I don't need to personally share Indigenous understandings of sacred sites in order to support their right to protect them.
The final chapters of the book focused more on the relationships between mostly white environmentalist groups and Indigenous tribes, which is where my initial interest in the book was most addressed. Gilio-Whitaker shows the clashes between groups as well as collaborations, using Standing Rock as a particularly detailed example of how movements can center and follow an Indigenized framework for environmental justice. I was glad the book included the names of a few Indigenous-led environmental groups, such as the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Seventh Generation Fund, which I hope to turn to become more informed and to support in their efforts.
The book delivered much more on the second question than the first: the author's goal was not to fulfill my vague wish of becoming a better environmentalist. But it did help me to re-envision what the actual goals of environmental justice ought to be.
Some of the concepts seemed obvious in retrospect, but were things I hadn't really given thought to before, like the myth of untouched wilderness. I'm so used to thinking of humans as the enemies of nature, believing that Earth needs to be protected from the innately harmful instincts of human beings. It felt truly revolutionary to imagine humans as part of a mutually beneficial relationship with animals, nature, land, rivers, or mountains (a "system of responsibility," as the book describes). It's an idea that is revolutionary to me now, but reflects how life was lived on this continent for thousands of years before colonization and rampant industrialization. I think of recent news articles I've read preaching the "newly rediscovered" wisdom of using controlled burns to manage outbreaks of wildfires, and the frustration that Indigenous environmentalists must feel to see longstanding practices like this finally acknowledged after centuries of being treated as inferior.
Gilio-Whitaker was thorough in showing the ways that colonization has caused chain reactions of damage to the environment and Indigenous people, such as through resource extraction that can leads to polluted water that not only poisons people, but disrupts fish populations and kills medicinal plants, ultimately altering the food supply and making certain cultural practices impossible for a whole area. Or the practice of buffalo extermination that was deliberately done to starve Indigenous people and force the ones who survived onto reservations where their nutritious food practices were replaced with government-subsidized, inadequate foods.
The book thoroughly covered many treaties and legal cases that show how Indigenous land rights have been consistently eroded for generations. To be honest, I found it difficult to absorb a lot of the facts and nitty-gritty details about the legal history of Indigenous displacement, but was mainly struck by the absurd injustice that people with such longstanding relationships to the land were forced to participate in a colonial legal system at all, just to have any hope of preserving rights to live on the land. The concepts of sovereignty and federal recognition are clearly essential for present-day Indigenous people to reclaim rights through the legal system, but it's incredibly shitty that the battle still has to be fought on the colonizers' terms.
I was also challenged by the chapters that focused on the idea of sacred places. I understand and respect the value of preserving areas of spiritual significance, but it is difficult for me to fully internalize what those sites mean to the tribes that use them in spiritual practices--it's just very different from what concepts of sanctity mean to me, and my own relationships to land and places. That said, I don't need to personally share Indigenous understandings of sacred sites in order to support their right to protect them.
The final chapters of the book focused more on the relationships between mostly white environmentalist groups and Indigenous tribes, which is where my initial interest in the book was most addressed. Gilio-Whitaker shows the clashes between groups as well as collaborations, using Standing Rock as a particularly detailed example of how movements can center and follow an Indigenized framework for environmental justice. I was glad the book included the names of a few Indigenous-led environmental groups, such as the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Seventh Generation Fund, which I hope to turn to become more informed and to support in their efforts.
April 25, 2021
Book Review ☕️ As Long As Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Summary: Gilio-Whitaker explores environmental justice through the lens of the Indigenous community. We look at how colonization and white supremacy have used environmental degradation to impact the Indigenous community and how Indigenous people have worked to be at the forefront of environmental justice. ⚖️
Nonfiction Book Review: I loved how in-depth this book went on how the United States government used environmental degradation as part of the war on Indigenous bodies. Gilio-Whitaker discusses the genocide of native peoples through not only removal from their historic lands, but killing off food sources, placing them on lands no one wanted, and allowing the contamination of water and soil from resource mining such as uranium. I learned so much about indigenous nation sovereignty and how different native nations have to use different tactics to protect sacred sites in legal battles based on whether the nation is federally recognized. 🌳
ALAGG is pretty dense at first when Gilio-Whitaker is discussing the legal terms and going over some of the laws regulating indigenous nations. I listened to the audiobook while I read and it really helped me get through the dry beginning. The case studies discussed in this book were super interesting!! It was definitely cool to learn more about the Standing Rock protests of the DAPL pipeline. 🌲
⚠️ CW: discussions of genocide, slavery, and racism ⚠️
This was incredible and so enlightening. I highly recommend, especially if you love environmentalism. I gave As Long As Grass Grows 5 stars.
🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿
Summary: Gilio-Whitaker explores environmental justice through the lens of the Indigenous community. We look at how colonization and white supremacy have used environmental degradation to impact the Indigenous community and how Indigenous people have worked to be at the forefront of environmental justice. ⚖️
Nonfiction Book Review: I loved how in-depth this book went on how the United States government used environmental degradation as part of the war on Indigenous bodies. Gilio-Whitaker discusses the genocide of native peoples through not only removal from their historic lands, but killing off food sources, placing them on lands no one wanted, and allowing the contamination of water and soil from resource mining such as uranium. I learned so much about indigenous nation sovereignty and how different native nations have to use different tactics to protect sacred sites in legal battles based on whether the nation is federally recognized. 🌳
ALAGG is pretty dense at first when Gilio-Whitaker is discussing the legal terms and going over some of the laws regulating indigenous nations. I listened to the audiobook while I read and it really helped me get through the dry beginning. The case studies discussed in this book were super interesting!! It was definitely cool to learn more about the Standing Rock protests of the DAPL pipeline. 🌲
⚠️ CW: discussions of genocide, slavery, and racism ⚠️
This was incredible and so enlightening. I highly recommend, especially if you love environmentalism. I gave As Long As Grass Grows 5 stars.
🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿
March 29, 2019
A comprehensive and, to many communities involved in environmental issues, instructive history of the native peoples of North America and their relationships and conflicts with federal agencies and the environmental movement. It's a well-researched survey of their struggle, beginning with the early land confiscation, population displacement and outright genocide, and continuing to the present day. We learn of the native peoples' ties to the land and their separation from traditional food sources, cultural sites and habitation by major dam and irrigation projects, by national parks, by road and energy projects. We learn that instead of the fabled "pristine wilderness," the native peoples had tended the land for food (a concept the author describes as "food sovereignty") and to manage the landscape and foliage -- for instance, that Yosemite valley was better-tended before the park displaced its native inhabitants.
It's also a valuable look at the interaction between native peoples and the environmental movement, not always beneficial to the former. We do learn that in recent years the causes coincided to fight egregious projects like a toll road at San Clemente that endangered both a popular surfing beach and a native cultural site, or like the Standing Rock pipeline battle. Even then, we find tensions and cultural misunderstandings between the native people fighting for their land and water rights and the non-native activists who moved in during the dispute. The author also notes the fact that Federal recognition of one tribe but not another could be arbitrary, and that the legal and social status of native women was far better in the original society than under U.S. citizenship.
The author has researched a number of disciplines and made them understandable, everything from land and water law to the local controversies over casino development, tribal government and corporate-native joint food projects. In all, it's a work that can serve as a resource and a source of enlightenment for the environmental movement, for university departments and activists generally. Above all, it presents environmental justice as a concept that must not only address a threatened environment but the impacts and insights of the peoples who originally tended it. Given the latest struggles over the Bears Ears National Monument and the Dakota Access Pipeline, it's timely.
(Reviewed from advance reading copy via Amazon Vine.)
It's also a valuable look at the interaction between native peoples and the environmental movement, not always beneficial to the former. We do learn that in recent years the causes coincided to fight egregious projects like a toll road at San Clemente that endangered both a popular surfing beach and a native cultural site, or like the Standing Rock pipeline battle. Even then, we find tensions and cultural misunderstandings between the native people fighting for their land and water rights and the non-native activists who moved in during the dispute. The author also notes the fact that Federal recognition of one tribe but not another could be arbitrary, and that the legal and social status of native women was far better in the original society than under U.S. citizenship.
The author has researched a number of disciplines and made them understandable, everything from land and water law to the local controversies over casino development, tribal government and corporate-native joint food projects. In all, it's a work that can serve as a resource and a source of enlightenment for the environmental movement, for university departments and activists generally. Above all, it presents environmental justice as a concept that must not only address a threatened environment but the impacts and insights of the peoples who originally tended it. Given the latest struggles over the Bears Ears National Monument and the Dakota Access Pipeline, it's timely.
(Reviewed from advance reading copy via Amazon Vine.)
October 3, 2021
This book gives a very comprehensive overview over indigenous peoples in North America and their fight for climate justice. A very interesting insight into how government policies and even well meaning people often hurt those they are supposed to support and how the climate crisis affects indigenous peoples disproportionately.
December 7, 2022
I feel like everyone should read this once in their life.
April 25, 2023
Reading this book was like getting smacked by a brick. It’s dense and tough to read because of its’ jargon and complex topics. But it’s also foundational and powerful to anyone who makes it through. I’ll definitely be thinking about this one for a while
January 17, 2022
Easily the best book I’ve read this year and one of my favorites of all time. So perfectly describes past and present indigenous struggles and provides ample context for the current state of Native environmental affairs. Required reading for anyone interested in environmental justice.
November 10, 2023
What a great read! Infuriating, shameful, hopeful, and informative! It takes us through the history of abuse of the peoples and the land by the white settlers who came and infested this beautiful country. And how the various native peoples try to save our planet despite our ignorance! Wonderful book, if a tad behind the times.
May 21, 2020
I listened to As Long As Grass Grows on Audible, which definitely wasn't the best choice—with so many dates, court cases, laws, treaties, etc. to keep track of, it was harder to soak up the overall message of each chapter. A lot of other reviewers have mentioned this too, so in the future I'll try to take those warnings a little more seriously (especially since I've struggled with academic books in the past).
Another issue I had was the lack of meaningful coverage of Indigenous communities outside the United States. That's not to say there wasn't any mention of it, but here in Canada, we have a long, rich history of Indigenous resistance. This is deserving of a book all its own though, so maybe it's not fair to criticize what would otherwise have to be an extremely long book.
That said, I really enjoyed Chapter Five: (Not So) Strange Bedfellows: Indian Country’s Ambivalent Relationship with the Environmental Movement, as I hadn't yet learned how Euro-centric and racist the environmentalist movement can actually be. For example, we think of national parks as the restoration of the ideal pre-contact landscape, untouched by humans. Yet for thousands of years, this land was inextricably tied to Indigenous culture and intervention—they were as much a part of that land as any of the plants or animals the parks now try to protect.
I also agree with other reviewers when they point to Chapter Six, Hearts Not On The Ground, as the place where the book really starts to hit its stride. It was very interesting to learn that American citizenship actually burdened Indigenous women with greater legal restrictions than their own matrilineal and matriarchal systems of governance had. The book also mentions the imposition of heteronormativity—this was particularly exciting for me, as I had just finished another book that only managed to provide a disappointingly white perspective on that very topic.
Overall, this is an important and timely book that I'd recommend in its physical or digital (not audio) format.
Another issue I had was the lack of meaningful coverage of Indigenous communities outside the United States. That's not to say there wasn't any mention of it, but here in Canada, we have a long, rich history of Indigenous resistance. This is deserving of a book all its own though, so maybe it's not fair to criticize what would otherwise have to be an extremely long book.
That said, I really enjoyed Chapter Five: (Not So) Strange Bedfellows: Indian Country’s Ambivalent Relationship with the Environmental Movement, as I hadn't yet learned how Euro-centric and racist the environmentalist movement can actually be. For example, we think of national parks as the restoration of the ideal pre-contact landscape, untouched by humans. Yet for thousands of years, this land was inextricably tied to Indigenous culture and intervention—they were as much a part of that land as any of the plants or animals the parks now try to protect.
I also agree with other reviewers when they point to Chapter Six, Hearts Not On The Ground, as the place where the book really starts to hit its stride. It was very interesting to learn that American citizenship actually burdened Indigenous women with greater legal restrictions than their own matrilineal and matriarchal systems of governance had. The book also mentions the imposition of heteronormativity—this was particularly exciting for me, as I had just finished another book that only managed to provide a disappointingly white perspective on that very topic.
Overall, this is an important and timely book that I'd recommend in its physical or digital (not audio) format.
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