Why Land Matters to Native Americans: Ep 5 of Crash Course Native American History

Key Concepts

• Connection to place: Deep, multi-generational relationship with the land, embedded in language, stories, and traditions.
• "Emingoyak": Potawatomi term for land, meaning "that which has been given to us," emphasizing its life-sustaining gifts.
• First Salmon Ceremony: Coast Salish tradition honoring the sacred agreement between humans and salmon.
• Native languages: Reflect and reinforce ties to nature, often incorporating sounds and stories of the land.
• "Since time immemorial": Ancient timescale of Native American connection to the land, predating records or memory.
• Hopewell Earthworks: Ancient Indigenous ceremonial site in Ohio, demonstrating trade networks and specialized ways of living with the land.
• Colonialism: System of domination and subjugation that led to the removal of Native people from their land.
• Land stewardship: Restoring and caring for ancestral homelands, healing harmed places, and ensuring tribal sovereignty.

Native American Connection to Place

• Native American connection to a place is deeper than just being "from" somewhere; it's embedded in language, relatives' stories, and traditions, stretching back generations.
• Many Native nations, like the Yuki, have continuously lived in the same place for thousands of years. Others, like the Cherokee, maintain a connection to their homeland even after forced removal.
• This connection encompasses the physical land (trees, rocks) and elements like water, sky, plants, animals, thunder, wind, seasons, and stars, viewed as a living whole.
• The Potawatomi describe the land as "emingoyak," emphasizing its life-sustaining gifts (sunlight, water, food, shelter, medicine) offered freely.
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist, describes land as "identity, the connection to our ancestors, the home of our nonhuman kinfolk, our pharmacy, our library, the source of all that sustained us… it belonged to itself; it was a gift, not a commodity, so it could never be bought or sold."

Examples of Connection in Traditions and Language

• The Coast Salish First Salmon Ceremony exemplifies the sacred agreement between humans and salmon, where people care for salmon in return for their sustenance.
• California tribes weave baskets from native materials, embedding traditional stories of their homeland into their creations.
• Native languages reflect close ties with nature. Lushootseed, spoken by Coast Salish tribes, shares the perspective that every part of the land has a voice.
  • Examples: k̓aʔk̓aʔ (crow), stuləkʷ (river), x̌ʷəlč (saltwater).
• The Ojibwe word "onaabani-giizis" refers to "the hard crust on the snow moon," describing the month of March.
• Haudenosaunee counting incorporates their creation story, reaffirming their ties to the land.

Historical Context and Impact of Colonialism

• Native American connection to the land dates back "since time immemorial," thousands of years before European contact.
• Researchers confirmed human footprints in New Mexico dating back 23,000 years.
• North America was not an untamed wilderness but a land with Native villages, farms, nations, and trade networks.
• The Hopewell Earthworks demonstrate sophisticated trade networks, with goods transported from across North America.
• Native people developed specialized ways of living with the land, such as the Zuni's moisture-trapping grids and the Hidatsa's riverfront farming.
• Tribal nations used fire as a tool to manage the landscape, boosting plant growth and preventing wildfires.
• European colonization brought diseases, invasive species, and colonialism, leading to the removal of Native people from their land.
• Tribes were forced onto reservations, and allotments further shrank tribal lands, allowing non-Native people to claim more land.

Reclaiming Stewardship and Restoring the Land

• Many Native communities are reclaiming stewardship of their ancestral homelands, healing harmed places, and caring for them.
• The Onondaga Nation regained stewardship of 1,000 acres of forest, including the headwaters of the creek that flows into Onondaga Lake, which they consider sacred.
• The Iowa Tribe has regained ownership of one-third of their taken land, turning it into a tribal national park.
• Restoring land to Native stewardship has led to the restoration of bison, eagles, trumpeter swans, and herring populations, elimination of invasive species, and revival of habitats.
• Iowa tribal vice chairman Lance Foster: “We’ve been here for a thousand years now, and unlike other people who can buy and sell land and move away, we can never move away. This is our land forever.”

Conclusion

From a Native perspective, the land is more than just what we see and touch; it's everything: home, responsibility, sustenance, and identity. Restoring land to Native stewardship acknowledges Native peoples, ensures tribal sovereignty, and provides a future for Native youth. Native Americans have thousands of years of experience taking care of the land, and this knowledge is passed down through generations.