This is an important moment for everyone in the US to recognize the value of indigenous lifeways, traditional ecological knowledge, and spirituality centered in connection and care. The ancient wisdom held by indigenous peoples around the world is exactly what we need to counteract our unrooted global civilization’s trend toward separation and fear, apathy and anomie, greed and violence, mental illness and environmental devastation.

Of particular interest to the CR movement is understanding how indigenous ways demonstrate the Responsibility to people and planet that is a necessary counterbalance to our Rights to self-determination and community democracy.

As the CRUS team plans our path forward, we are committed to wrestling with what it means to be good stewards and democratic citizens on stolen land. We don’t know the answers yet, but we intend to bring this conversation to the forefront of the Community Rights movement, which we know will benefit immensely.

Indigenous Peoples Day is a time to remember past injustices, such as cruel and genocidal actions by some of our culture’s heroes, like Columbus, Andrew Jackson, even Abraham Lincoln. But much more importantly, it is a time to celebrate indigenous peoples and cultures that have survived.

It is so important, now more than ever, to uplift and act in solidarity with indigenous peoples who are fighting to protect their lands, waters, and communities right now. Here are just a few inspiring indigenous-led organizations in the “so-called US.” We encourage you to check out these groups, learn more about their movements, and support them in any ways you can.

  • Movement Rights is an indigenous-led Rights of Nature group
  • Indigenous Environmental Network is a more traditional advocacy organization, well-connected to many important issues in “Indian country” across the Americas
  • LANDBACK is a movement seeking to return vast tracts of land to indigenous stewardship
  • Indigenous Mutual Aid is a grassroots network helping neighbors meet basic needs during tough times
  • Uplift is a network of youth climate activists, native and non-native, on the Colorado Plateau (just one example – it’s likely that there are similar networks in your area too!)
  • Seeding Sovereignty is a radical collective in Albuquerque. They have a very good resource if you want to give a land acknowledgment

In our daily work at CRUS, we act in solidarity with indigenous-led movements defending land and water. We advocate and educate about Rights of Nature laws, and we seek to learn more about current RoN campaigns around the world and to further develop and spread this transformative new paradigm. In some cases, rights-based ordinances are not a viable strategy, but individual members of CRUS support these important struggles in other ways.

Founding Director Paul Cienfuegos is currently participating in the campaign to stop the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. A dedicated group of activists camping on the proposed mine site insist that they will stop this massively destructive project from desecrating sites sacred to the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone nations and draining all the water needed to sustain local settlers. They are asking for support for their non-violent blockades of excavation work – read more here.

Our new Director Tyler Norman has made several trips to northern Minnesota, where Ojibwe Water Protectors and their many native and non-native allies have been fighting against the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline for years. In 2021, the battle has come to a head, and at the time of this writing, despite constant non-violent opposition leading to over 1000 arrests, the pipeline construction is nearly complete.

In the face of numerous serious legal challenges, Enbridge builders have rushed construction, trying to get the unpopular project finished before it can be quashed by regulators, and corporate agents claim that oil will flow through Line 3 within weeks… but the Water Protectors are not giving up. They too are asking for supporters to come to their multiple camps, and to donate to legal defense funds – read more here.

Both of these stories reverberate with the historical traumas of colonization, in which a privileged few from another continent have gobbled up wealth and resources from lands and peoples considered “savage,” aka “not as important as us.” Nowadays corporations and politicians know that the exploitative colonial paradigm is ever more unpopular, so they use different words, they shed a crocodile tear as they lament the necessity of “sacrifice zones.”

But today’s extraction and infrastructure projects are merely bigger faster versions of those that have ravaged the Americas for over 500 years. The original “crown corporations” were created explicitly for the purpose of securing resources from colonies by any means necessary. Our modern corporations have not changed all that much.

When we challenge corporate rule, we are taking a stand against colonization. Many of us cannot imagine what lies on the other side. “Democracy” sounds good, but what does real democracy look like? As we work together to end corporate colonization, we must learn how to live in other ways – perhaps most urgently we must learn from those who understand how to be rooted in local ecosystems, working with the land, water, and other species to proliferate abundance and connection.

Today, there is a rapidly growing movement to decolonize, re-indigenize, and create a new way of living that is more democratic and more relational. It is a diverse and messy movement that we are happy to join – each of us have our own unique insights to contribute, in addition to all that we can humbly learn. We ask ourselves, “How can I challenge colonized thinking in my community? How can I decolonize my life? How can I give back to ecosystems, rather than only taking?”

We all must strive together to build a world beyond colonization, to envision a new paradigm that encourages solidarity, sustainability, and interconnection with all our neighbors and relatives and our living planet. Please celebrate this Indigenous Peoples Day by learning who are the traditional inhabitants of your local territory, how you can connect with currently existing tribes and nations, and if possible, one or more local species traditionally used for food, medicine, or crafts.

Take time to feel the ground under your feet, the sun and rain above you, your human and non-human neighbors, and be grateful for all who have stewarded and defended our shared home. Then get out there and stand arm-in-arm with them!