First blog post in a new blog series about how race fits into environmentalism.
In this first blog of this new series, I am going to go back in time and dive into the history of environmentalism.
The conservation movement in the United States really started to take steam after the Industrial Revolution and it became apparent that the pollution caused by the increased production was not doing anybody any favors. At the time, the free market was the main course of action and many thought that the best way to achieve solving social and environmental problems was through the free market. However, the “true” conservationists at the time didn’t like this idea and thought that the government should be protecting the environment directly. Then came the first National Park, Yosemite along with the Sierra Club and other environment-designated organizations and departments of government. Seems super awesome, and innocent right? Well, when you put that initiative up against the motive to take land away from Indigenous people it can be seen in a whole new light.
Ever since the beginning of colonization, one of the biggest trends in European and American ideology is the undermining of Indigenous farming methods and ways of life. One of the biggest campaigners of establishing the first national park, John Muir easily talked of the Miwok tribe as having “no right place in the landscape” and being frankly “dirty” and “altogether hideous.” According to the Sierra Club, Muir apparently did not push for the genocide of Native Americans but perhaps just thought that he and his fellow conservationists could help them do things right, also known as the “white savior complex.”
Image from Sierra Club
This semester I had the amazing opportunity to go to Australia on an environmental study abroad program and was able to visit a lot of Heritage sites and beautiful natural areas. One of the things that opened my eyes was how often an Aboriginal sacred site was transformed into a tourist attraction. I began to wonder… if this is the case in Australia, then it seems pretty likely that this is how it is back in the States. Researching this topic, I came across the beautiful Grand Canyon that is visited by more than 5 million people each year. What a lot of people may not know, is that within the Grand Canyon there is a place called Beaver Falls. The home of the Havasupai people for thousands of years. And apparently, one of the Havasupai people’s primary sources of revenue is the $140 they get from people that want to hike Beaver Falls.
It is not a secret that Indigenous people, in what is now known as the United States, are at a much lower financial level than the average American citizen. Therefore, even if the Havasupai tribe didn’t want to share their land with non-Indigenous visitors, I believe they really do not have a choice.
As proud environmentalists, we can’t change the past no matter how hard we try. But what I believe we can do is to learn about the history of the environmental movement and do everything we can to be different from our predecessors. Give Native Americans a voice they deserve in environmental problems and respect their way of life while learning from them at the same time. In order to create a brighter future, we have to learn from the past.
Written by Dominique Agnew, Senior at Cornell University and Climate Justice Now Intern