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October 2021
Chief Crazy Horse, an Oglala Sioux chief, said, "I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred tree of life and the whole Earth will become one circle again."
October 11 is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. To honor the original inhabitants of this land, this month we’re talking all about sustainability as it relates to Indigenous peoples. Make sure to read on for more information about our next quarterly event, a workshop with Cornell Cooperative Extension. |
Indigenous People and the Environment
Graphic by Eric E. Doxtator
Land Acknowledgement
We wanted to start this newsletter by respecting the land and acknowledging the nations that were here before us and are still here today. The land acknowledgment used by Paul J. Burgett Intercultural Center states, “We acknowledge with respect the Seneca Nation, known as the “Great Hill People” and “Keepers of the Western Door” of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. We take this opportunity to thank the people on whose ancestral lands the University of Rochester currently resides in Rochester, New York.” Learn more information about the indigenous lands on which we live and work.
Are you interested in learning more about what a land acknowledgement is and why it's important? Read more here.
Sustainable Indigenous Practices
An Indigenous (Cochiti/Kiowa) lawyer and director of the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Program at the First Nations Development Institute, A-dae Romero-Briones explains, “Indigenous people are as much part of the land as the land is part of us. We cultivate the land while the land cultivates us. This relationship that has supported my people since time immemorial is remembered daily when we place our fingers in the dirt, pull the weeds from our fields, or plant our seeds with water, prayer, and hope, cook the food which we grow, and ingest the world with each bite of food we eat.” The respect that Romero-Briones has for the environment and our connection to it reinforces that it is unnecessary to take more than what we need.
Environmental Justice
Throughout the world, there are many Indigenous Peoples who are living in areas that have been most affected by climate change and forms of development that are damaging to the natural environment. For example, the Inuit People in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland are facing the destruction of their homes due to flooding and the destruction of ice, which impacts sea and land mammals in the Arctic. In a 2005 statement, Inuit leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier explained, “Inuit are an ancient people. Our way of life is dependent upon the natural environment and the animals. Climate change is destroying our environment and eroding our culture. But we refuse to disappear. We will not become a footnote to globalization.” Check out the rest of her statement.
Ganondagan Community
The Ganondagan State Historic site is located in Victor and is the only Seneca town developed and interpreted in the United States. Ganondagan is the original site of a 17th-century Seneca town. The culture, art, agriculture, and government of the Seneca people influenced our modern understanding of equality, democratic government, women’s rights, ecology, and natural foods. Currently, the Iroquois White Corn Project focuses on restoring the farming, consumption, and distribution of Iroquois White Corn to Indigenous communities, offering these products to the community at large. Iroquois White Corn, beans, and squash are often called the three sisters. Learn more about the Legend of the Three Sisters.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants is the 2021 Rochester Reads selection, a program of the local literary organization Writers and Books. In this book, you will learn about how deeply connected Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge are. Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert describes it as “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.”
Dr. Kimmerer describes herself as “a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.” She is the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.
Green Reads from around the Web
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Upcoming Events & Announcements
Photo from Cornell Cooperative Extension Facebook
Quarterly Event: Reducing Food Waste through Food Preservation Practices Workshop
October 26, 12PM - 1PM, Location TBD
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will not be able to hold our sustainable cooking class this month. However, Michele Conners, a Master Food Preservation team member of the Cornell Cooperative Extension will be leading a workshop to help us learn best practices for preserving food. Late summer and fall are times of abundant fresh produce, why not ensure you can enjoy your harvest all year long? In this workshop you’ll learn ideas and methods for filling your pantry with home preserved products you can enjoy year-round. Email us by October 19 to RSVP.
14th Annual E-Cycle Day
Friday, October 29, 6:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. • Zone 3 South
E-Cycle Day gives University students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to safely and conveniently recycle broken, obsolete, or unwanted personal electronics.
View a complete list of acceptable materials. Note: Appliances containing Freon (e.g., refrigerators and air conditioners) as well as broken cathode ray tubes (CRTs), alkaline batteries, CDs, DVDs, and tapes will not be accepted.
Download a directive map of the event location and see the poster for details. You can also learn more about the event on the Green Dandelion blog.
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Sustainability Superstar
Anne Wilcox, Associate Professor, Program of Dance and Movement
Solveiga Armoskaite, Assistant Professor, Linguistics Department
 Photo provided by Anne and Sol
With World Mental Health Day on October 10, Sol and Anne ask the question, “What is your inner dialogue? How do you speak to yourself in your head?” So often we become so wrapped up in taking care of others and of nature, that we forget to take care of ourselves. Don’t forget, you can’t expect to take care of anybody or anything else without first taking care of yourself.
Anne and Sol work together to teach a course about ecolinguistics. Ecolinguistics is a subfield of linguistics that equates language as a system, similarly to how we understand science to be a system. In their course, they start by asking students to check in with themselves. Unit one includes topics such as memory and forgetting, expertise and evidence, and translation and transformation.
A lot of the conversation in the course is structured around the students’ experiences and their understanding of their required text. Both instructors aim to encourage students to shift their understanding from one thing being better than another to an understanding that things are different from one another. The hope is to dislodge entrenched beliefs, learn that instead of needing to replace that entrenched belief, students can instead dance with doubt.
According to Anne and Sol, there is a need for us all to learn to appreciate the difficulties in breaking our patterns. They remind us the importance of sitting with our silence to learn, “Space is good, space is healing. What happens in that space time is just as important as what you’re giving out.”
Know someone who’s made progress with sustainability on campus? Whether their victories are big or small, we’d love to hear about them! Email us today. |
Your Green Reps Challenge for October
Photo by J. Adam Fenster
Try to implement at least one of these action items in your area this month:
- Email us to RSVP for our next quarterly event, a talk from the Cornell Cooperative Extension on reducing food waste through food preservation practices.
- How do you commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day? Email us to share your traditions and rituals with us.
- Read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, this year’s Rochester Reads! selection and attend one of the community events or author talks that will be held in the upcoming weeks.
- In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Month, begin your next staff or departmental meeting with a land acknowledgement, or request that this be done with the appropriate person in your department.
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