Defending Mother Earth Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice

Defending Mother Earth brings together important Native voices to address urgent issues of environmental devastation as they affect the indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. The essays document a range of ecological disasters, including the devastating effects of mining, water pollution, nuclear power facilities, and toxic waste dumps. In an expression of "environmental racism", such hazards are commonly located on or near Indian lands. Many of the authors included in Defending Mother Earth are engaged in struggles to resist these dangers. As their essays consistently demonstrate, these struggles are intimately tied to the assertion of Indian sovereignty and the affirmation of Native culture: the Earth is, indeed, Mother to these nations. In his concluding theological reflection, George Tinker argues that the affirmation of Indian spiritual values, especially the attitude toward the Earth, may hold out a key to the survival of the planet and all its peoples. Contributors included representative voices from the Oglala Lakota, Shawnee/Sac, Fox, Muscogee, Seminole, Cherokee, Gwichin, Standing Rock Sioux, Cree, Blood, Osage, and Seneca. Defending Mother Earth is a very valuable addition to the growing body of discussion on the pressing needs for conservation and the wise stewardship of a living resourceand the home of all life as we know it.Weaver, Jace is the author of 'Defending Mother Earth Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice', published 1996 under ISBN 9781570750960 and ISBN 1570750963.