By Suzanne Forcese in WaterToday Ohio on December 9, 2021

I have lived all my life beside Lake Erie, drinking her water. When my mom was pregnant with me she lived in Cleveland and drank Lake Erie water. If you consider that our bodies are 70% water…then I am Lake Erie. I was Lake Erie before I was even born.

–Tish O’Dell, CELDF Community Organizer

Tish O’Dell works with communities in the U.S. and globally and most recently assisted the people of Toledo with their effort to pass the historic Lake Erie Bill of Rights, the first law on United States settler colonial land to recognize the rights of a specific ecosystem.

For the past 10 years, Tish O’Dell has been involved in community rights and Rights of Nature work starting in her own community of Broadview Heights, Ohio. Today, she is a CELDF Democracy School lecturer and board member of the Ohio Community Rights Network. Her work has been featured globally.

What is the force that propels a woman forward in taking a courageous stand for water and the environment water creates?

Here is what Tish O’Dell told WATERTODAY Ohio.

 

WTOH: What are your earliest childhood memories of water?

 

O’Dell: I was born under the water sign of Pisces, so it is natural for me to be connected to water.

My first recollections had to do with always wanting to be close to Lake Erie. I have lived in the same community of Broadview Heights my whole life, which is about 10 miles from the lake’s shore.

My greatest excitement was when my Dad would drive us into town because then I could see the lake. I was always pressuring him to take us for a ride just to get that glimpse. In those days, the Cleveland Stadium was on the Lake, and I always wanted to go to sporting events. Not to see the event. I did not care about the event. I just wanted to sit in the stadium and see the view of the Lake.

 

WTOH: What most inspired your career choice?

 

O’Dell: Broadview Heights, where I have lived my entire life, is located on the Traditional lands of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee (The Five Nations). But I did not know that until recent years.

Ohio has had a sad history with the Indigenous peoples. I mean look at the name of our baseball team – The Cleveland Indians — it was an embarrassment. Thankfully, the name has now been changed to The Cleveland Guardians.

What is important is the whole Indigenous culture’s connection to water. It has been so inspiring to me to speak with and learn from the Tribes. Two books were my watershed moment. An Indigenous Peoples history Of the United States; and Braiding Sweetgrass.

I was raised in the same colonized culture as everyone else. The knowledge I have gained from the Indigenous has been such a gift. Their whole connection to water instilled in me new meaning.

Water is Life – we all say that. It’s so common that it has become trite. It didn’t click with me until I learned about Traditional culture. It is ALL life – the birds, the insects, the animals, the trees – everything. Knowing that is knowing that we are not just connected to Nature. We are Nature. Water affects all life. It’s not just what we put in our bodies. It’s what we put into all of creation.

My work is transitioning more to that realization.

When I was pregnant with my child, it was the whole realization that he was protected in water. And when he was born the realization that I had a responsibility to this tiny human being to make sure everything I put into his body was pure.

Now my baby is an adult. We have conversations all the time about protecting the water. You can’t keep polluting the water without consequences…

See the full transcript HERE.