This report shares current environmental issues and developments in Environmental and Federal Indian Law. This report is a little different. I have written some articles and the last article is an essay about a conference I attended where Vine Deloria spoke.

2. Water Pollution: Mixed Sex Fish, Estrogen and Medical Waste

3. Court Overturns Exxon Valdez Award

4. ESSAY: Vine Deloria Spoke: I listened, will you?

Mother Earth provides us with the things we need to survive. She has special instructions that provide her with knowledge. She has duties, just like humans do, to work together to maintain balance and peace with all the Natural World.

When Mother Earth is too hot, she calls on the waters, the thunders, and the winds to bring a storm to cool her body. Thus, balance is restored and humans and the rest of the world can live together in peace.

Our Mother Earth is amazing. The things Mother Earth can do to heal herself still remains a great mystery. Today and each day we offer Mother Earth thanks for all she does for us and the rest of the Natural World. Nia:wen kowa.

This environmental report is dedicated to our Iethi'nistenha Onhwentsia. May we put our heads together to become of One Mind for the good of all.

Acid rain is having a devastating impact on lakes, trees, and wildlife throughout Eastern Canada and the United States. The term acid rain is somewhat a misnomer. Acid rain comes in two main forms: Wet and dry. The wet forms of acid rain are rain, snow, and fog. The dry form of acid rain comes back to earth as gas and particles. Acid rain, in its numerous forms, falls back to earth and negatively impacts the ecosystem.

Acid precipitation impacts plants and animals in a variety of ways. First, I should mention that there is a natural occurring acid rain. Our Mother Earth has natural ways to neutralize acid waters. She uses alkaline chemicals found in the air, soils, lakes, and streams to neutralize the harmful acid rains.

However, humans, especially through the emission of sulphur dioxide from coal fired power plants, are producing more acid precipitation than Mother Earth can naturally restore to balance. In some areas impacted by high levels of acid rain, Mother Earth's natural buffering chemicals are not enough or are becoming depleted. As a result, the waters, plants, trees, and animals are suffering.

Waters with a ph balance of 6.0 begin to show a reduction of insects and plankton. Waters below a 5.0 ph are mostly devoid of fish. As a result, the entire Circle of Life becomes impacted. Amphibians and fish die or lose their breeding grounds and other wildlife dependant on the water become jeopardized. In addition, sugar maple trees and red spruce are beginning to die.

It is believed that acid precipitation is responsible for the decline. Perhaps the soil is becoming too acidic for trees to live. Additional studies are needed to determine the impacts of acid precipitation and other pollutants on the maple's sap. Maple syrup is an important traditional medicine, a spring tonic, of the Haudenosaunee. The process of making syrup could remove pollutants, or it could make matters worse by condensing them. No one really knows because the scientific data is not yet available.

What can be done? Scientists are looking to biotechnology. They are looking at isolating microbes that reduce sulfur from the coal used to run coal fired power plants. Some groups are looking to restoring Mother Earth's natural buffers like lime stone. In the Adirondacks there are groups using lime in trout streams to neutralize acid precipitation, which is having a negative impact on trout survival. Trout are what scientists call an "indicator species". Trout are a sensitive fish that can reveal hidden dangers in the water body that alert us to negative impacts in the ecosystem.

As Individuals we can save electricity by shutting off lights, not leaving computers running when not in use, and to look for alternative modes of transportation. Environmentalists believe that tougher environmental laws are a necessity. They are fighting for stricter regulations to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.

I believe Mother Earth can heal herself, if we, the human beings, would reduce or stop releasing these emissions and give Mother Earth time to recover.

If you would like to read more about Acid Rain please see:

U.S EPA Acid Rain articles and general information

Canada FAQ about Acid Rain

Recent Article: Tackle Acid Rain, New Report Urges

What is in sewage that produces mixed sex fish? The answer is estrogen. Sewage being released into water ways like the Great Lakes is producing hermaphrodite fish (they have both male and female characteristics). Dr. Chris Metcalfe, professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University in Ontario, has discovered in the Great Lakes, hermaphrodite white perch. Metcalfe believes that the fish are being exposed to estrogen hormones released from sewage treatment plants. The types of estrogen that caused fish in his aquarium study to become mixed sex included estrogen found in birth control pills and estrogen naturally released by women.

In some waters, the high levels of estrogen in the water is causing there to be more female fish than males. It is scary to think of the implications of mixed-sex fish. Many questions come to mind. Can mixed sex fish propagate? What does eating these fish do to the animals in the food chain? Does estrogen bio-accumulate? If it does, what is the effect of eating fish high in estrogen to humans?

Another report I read mentioned medical and veterinarian drugs making their way into drinking water. Environmentalist are concerned that, "Drugs in drinking water as a possible factor in phenomena such as infertility, falling sperm counts and early onset of puberty."

Next time your drinking water is tested perhaps you need to ask them to check for unhealthful levels of anti-depressants, blood pressure medication, antibiotics and birth control agents. In addition, perhaps new regulations need to be placed on water treatment facilities so that these levels of estrogen and drugs are reduced or removed from the waste before it is put back into our ecosystem.

Water Pollution Leads to Mixed Sex Fish

More About Dr. Chris Metcalfe

EXCERPT:

The $5 billion punitive damages award against Exxon Mobil Corp. in the 1989 Valdez oil spill is excessive, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The court ordered a judge to determine a lesser amount.

A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, had ordered the oil giant in 1994 to pay the sum to thousands of commercial fisherman, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the nation's worst oil spill.

Exxon, which later merged with Mobil, argued that it shouldn't have to pay any punitive damages. The oil giant said it learned its lesson and spent more than $3 billion cleaning up the Prince William Sound area and to settle federal and state lawsuits.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said some damages were justified to punish the company for its harmful behavior, but that $5 billion, at the time, the largest punitive damage award in history, was excessive. The amount was equal to a year's worth of Exxon's profits.

I personally think the punitive damages are reasonable. I remembered when the Exxon Valdez crashed and leaked oil into Prince William Sound. Numerous birds, fish, and sea mammals died as a result of the tanker's crash. Those poor animals became coated with oil and drowned. What price can one put on the life and position in the circle of life of these mammals who died such a horrific death? Not to mention the impact of the loss to the Alaskan natives who depends on these animals for subsistence.

To read more see:

Exxon Valdez Opinion reversing the 5 Billion Punitive Award

by Barbara Gray (Kanatiiosh)

On March 6, 2001, Arizona State University College of Law held a Symposium on Cultural Sovereignty: Native Rights in the 21st Century. The keynote speaker was Vine Deloria Jr.. He is the author of numerous articles and books. Some of his works include God is Red: A Native View of Religion (1994) and Red Earth White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact (1997).

Vine Deloria shared with the audience an important message. A message that many of the people present may not have wanted to hear, but one they needed to hear. I listened to him very intently. I can only hope that the people there had their ears open, too, and they absorbed his message.

Deloria's address had three main messages:

1.) The Anti-Indian movement is heightening and Indian tribes should not use the word sovereignty.

2.) Educated genetic Indians who do not know their culture and think they know better than their elders are dangerous to their communities.

3.) Federal Indian law should not dictate our political and legal relationships.

Deloria felt the Bush administration would soon be targeting our Nations. He said they will attempt to deny Indian programs, funding, and our status as "tribes." As we can see with the Bush Administration's recent denial of federal recognition to three Indian tribes, that Clinton had given status to in the 12th hour of his presidency, Deloria's warning was prophetic.

In addition, Deloria explained his fear on how the legal definition of sovereignty could simply be denied, with a stroke of a pen, Indian tribes without federal recognition. What is the "legal" definition of sovereignty? Black's Law Dictionary defines sovereignty as:

The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which any independent state is governed;...the international independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign dictation.... The power to do everything in a state without accountability, to make laws, to execute and to apply them, to impose and collect taxes and levy contributions, to make war or peace, to form treaties of alliance or of commerce with foreign nations, and the like.... (pg.1396).

Looking at the legal definition, one could see how, especially within the parameters of the fiction of federal Indian law, this definition could be used to deny that we have "the legal definition of sovereignty." The Major Crimes Act that gave federal jurisdiction to certain criminal offenses committed by an Indian against another Indian within Indian country is an example of the limitation of tribal sovereignty from the federal Indian law perspective. The Major Crimes act was upheld using the "domestic dependent" terminology found in John Marshall's decision in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1(1831).

However, our sovereignty is not based on the fictions created by the parameters of Federal Indian law, it is based on the fact that we were Nations of people occupying Turtle Island long before the Europeans came to our lands. The Kaswentha (the Two Row Wampum) expresses the Haudenosaunee understanding and importance of protecting our independence, our sovereignty. The treaty signifies that we are to travel the same river together in our own vessels, one a birch bark canoe for the Haudenosaunee, the other, a ship for the Europeans. Each having their own forms of government, laws, protocol, traditions, political and spiritual culture, and world view. As we travel this river together, we are to help each other from time to time, but we are not to try and steer the other's vessel. This means we will not impose on each other.

In essence, treaties are made with Nations. The Haudenosaunee treaties are proof of our Nations' sovereignty. Our Nations retained all the rights of the "legal definition of sovereignty", even though unilaterally the United States and the Canadian government have tried to redefine this relationship.

Deloria's warning about the "legal definition of sovereignty" is interesting. Perhaps sovereignty is a bad term, but sometimes you have to use terms in the Ship's vocabulary for them to understand what you are speaking about. I do not think there is any word in our Haudenosaunee languages that would translate to "sovereignty." However, that does not mean that we do not have words to express the ideas and the right of each of our Nations to take care of its people, the natural world, and the future generations yet born.

The "legal definition of sovereignty" is Eurocentric. In addition, the term is anthropocentric in that it is based on a perspective where everything revolves around man. It perpetuates a world view where power is centralized at the top. Whereas, for the Haudenosaunee, power is continuous for it flows circularly in and outward to embrace all the people, the natural world, and the those yet born. When speaking to clan mothers, they often define their relationship as being at the center, not the top, for they hear the concerns, internalize them, and bring them outward to the people for resolution. Our canoe is filled with a different world view, a world view that has allowed us to survive since time immemorial.

At the conference one Indian legal scholar suggested the term dominance. The domain being defined as territory under one government. This is a better term, but it still fails to capture our traditional political/spiritual form of governance and world view.

In discussing the problem with other Haudenosaunee, Kanentiio suggested custodianship. Custodianship is a concept derived from our traditional teachings. It describes our responsibility as Onkwehonweh to the natural world and the future generations to come. Custodianship is a far better term. Perhaps, if Deloria is correct, it would be harder for the federal government to deny our right to be custodians of our lands, peoples, and cultures.

However, I am not sure that changing the term that Native Nations use for sovereignty will do any good. I think it could actually do more harm for it could be mistakenly seen as admittance that we do not have sovereignty. Instead, perhaps the best approach is resistance to the acceptance of the legal definition and the parameters set by federal Indian law and to work towards having the "legal definition of sovereignty" changed so that it takes into account Native Nations. This seems to be a better way to peacefully co-exist with our brothers and sisters of the Ship.

The second message Deloria spoke of concerned the harm that educated Indians, who do not know their culture, cause their communities. They may be genetically Indian but have no idea of their traditional teachings. He spoke about these genetic Indians who participate in powwows, but do not know their Nation's songs and dances. Deloria said that these people go back to their communities, with their education and arrogance, thinking that they have all the answers. They usually do more harm than good.

What does he mean by genetically Indian? He means they have Indian blood. Deloria also seems to mean much more. He is really talking about being a "Generic Indian" one who has lost their traditional teachings, ceremonies, songs, and dances and looks for their sole source of spirituality in a Powwow.

In many ways, these types of Powwows, with paying spectators and contests, have become assimilative. Assimilative in that people of different nations dress the same and do dances and songs not of their traditional cultures. There is nothing wrong with sharing, gathering, and socializing, but when one leaves their culture for the generic Powwow culture, it becomes a problem to the survival of our unique traditional cultures. Another part of his message was directed at the people who do go back to their communities. He warned them not to think their education gives them superior knowledge. He said they should listen to the elders and check their arrogance at the door if they truly want to help their communities.

Deloria warned the legal scholars that Native Peoples should not let federal Indian law dictate our political and legal relationship. This was extremely jarring and eye-opening for the people gathered in the law school listening to his speech. Actually though it was beautiful music to my ears. For others, his declaration conflicted with their understanding of the integrity of federal Indian law.

I spoke to a few Indian law students who were confused because they wanted to hold on to what they had been taught about federal Indian law. What I find hard to understand is how so many Native students and scholars do not challenge the legitimacy of the "federal Indian law box".

What Deloria was saying is that the "federal Indian law box" (these are my words not his to describe this phenomena) should not define us. In essence, we, as Native Nations, exist outside the box first and foremost.

We, the Haudenosaunee, are defined politically/spiritually and legally by our traditional teachings found within such teachings as (The Tsi kiontonhwentsison (When the Earth was made (Creation Story)), the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen (The Words Before All Else (Thanksgiving Address)), and the Kaianerekowa (Great Law of Peace). Our legal relationship with the United States and Canadian governments is based on treaties.

When Deloria spoke about how one goes about not letting federal Indian law define the Native Nations' political and legal relationship, he quoted the Haudenosaunee. He said that Oren Lyons, of the Onondaga Nation, said it best when he said, "sovereignty is practiced. You don't ask for the colonizer to recognize it." Deloria was trying to get across the message that the power is in our hands. Native Nations should not let the "federal Indian law box" dictate your relationships.

Protecting our nations means resistance to becoming assimilated into the "generic Indian" syndrome. Each Native Nation is unique with their own relationship with the United States. Federal Indian law tries to assimilate Indians into a single entity. This was done to facilitate dealings with Native Nations, but in its wake, it disregarded the unique relationship each nation has with the United States. This, federal Indian law attempts to apply rulings against one nation to all.

Resistance does not mean to not do something. One needs to be actively resistant. Resistance is keeping the power alive in our own hands by continuing to live by our traditional laws, and to honor, protect and live our traditional teachings.