Judy Bluehorse Skelton
The Cheyenne and the Environment
Arlie Neskahi:
When Europeans arrived in North America, they were awed by the vastness of the forests, rivers and mountains. These gifts of creation became natural resources used to build towns and railroads and personal fortunes. Native American professor and author, Vine Deloria Jr., introduced the concept, “natural relations” to more accurately express the interdependence of humans with all of Creation. In today’s Sacred Landscape, Judy Bluehorse Skelton talks about the Northern Cheyenne and their commitment to protect their traditional lands from the coal industry.
Judy Bluehorse Skelton:
Native cultures believe that humans are not above or ‘separate’ from the gifts of Creation, but are as intricately woven into the circle of life as the mountain and the ant. Humans are to serve as caretakers of the land, stewards that maintain balance and help to create a good life and insure abundance for future generations. Native people take care of the land, and it takes care of them in return. This relationship of reciprocity is valuable for survival.
Part of Lewis and Clark’s mission was to assess the land’s forests, rivers and mineral deposits for future development of natural resources for an expanding United States. When Lewis and Clark traveled through the Northern Plains, they made numerous observations of coal deposits in the hills and believed these deposits to be responsible for the frequent fires they observed.
As federal and state agencies took control of tribal lands, their policies were based on extraction and development. Forests were cut, rivers diverted, and mountains were dynamited and mined for the minerals they had held for millennia. The face of the landscape began to change quickly. As gold was discovered in places like the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, U.S. treaties and Native American sacred sites were violated.
Photos below courtesy of a2zcds. Click to enlarge. www.a2zcds.com
At the Ford. Cheyenee. Photo by Edward S. Curtis.
Music:
La Primieda Tierra
Burning Sky
Blood of the Land
Canyon Records
The Cheyenne, known in their language as Tsetsestah, meaning “the beautiful,” are also known for their strong opposition to large-scale coal development, and for defending their clean air, earth and water, and their quality of life. Although the economic figures for reservations are some of the lowest in the U.S., quality of life reflects the traditional values of culture, language, and community, not dollars.
Crying to the Spirits. Photo by Edward S. Curtis.
Tribal member, Gail Small says, “Before the mid 1960’s, we were a small, isolated Indian tribe, living on a small piece of land in one of the last and least settled regions of the continental U.S., land for which our ancestors fought and died. Our ancestors left that land to later generations in a sacred trust.”
Just as the plow used in pioneering faming was believed by native culture to tear the breast of Mother Earth, to the Cheyenne, mining represents ripping and clawing at her heart even today.
Without the Cheyenne’s knowledge, the Bureau of Indian Affairs leased their land to multinational corporations to mine the coal. Over 60 per cent of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation was slated for large-scale coal development. The Northern Cheyenne actually sparked off a revolt against the substandard mineral leases. Leases offered only 17 cents a ton for coal and the devastating environmental impacts on their lands were not considered. After a decade of working to untangle the web of federal and corporate mismanagement, the Northern Cheyenne found violations and forced Congress to void the illegal mining leases.
Music:
La Primieda Tierra
Burning Sky
Blood of the Land
Canyon Records
Old Cheyenne. Photo by Edward S. Curtis
Now there are new pressures to develop the methane gas found in the coal beds beneath their land. This natural gas is in increasing demand by power plants, as it’s considered a premium clean fuel source. Methane gas development requires the de-watering, or drawdown of the fragile aquifer system, and would create as much as 8 million gallons of waste water per day. That’s more than the combined water usage of all Northern Cheyenne. In the nearby Powder River Basin, the water level in the aquifer has already dropped over 200 feet due to new developments. The Southern Ute Tribe of Colorado, who developed the methane gas from their coal fields, now face a major set of fires within the coal bed itself, larger than any known in past history. The Southern Ute will spend almost one million dollars this year trying to extinguish the fires.
Lame Deer Monuments. Photo by Edward S. Curtis
The Northern Cheyenne have decided to stand firm and not develop their methane gas, choosing their tradition of respect for Mother Earth and healthy land, water and air, over monetary wealth. As the world consumes more and more energy, the Cheyenne have remembered the sacred trust their ancestors made to preserve the land. The Tsetsestah, “the beautiful people” continue to honor and protect the gifts of creation for generations to come.
Neskahi:
Educator, writer and herbalist Judy Bluehorse Skelton is Nez Perce, Chickasaw and Cherokee. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.