Jamail & Rushworth (Eds.) - We are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth

We can never destroy the Earth is a message that rings loud and clear in Jamail & Rushworth’s (Eds.) We are the Middle of Forever (2022). However, that’s not a good message. Instead, it is a statement of the ultimate reality of human existence on Earth – regardless if we destroy the environment and our own survivability on Earth, the Earth has and will continue to replenish itself after untold catastrophic transitions over the millennia. This collection of interviews with indigenous Natives of North America tells us that we can do something about environmental destruction but that we must enter the conversation about saving the natural environment with humility. The lesson of humility is critical across all types of leadership but it is particularly relevant in the context of the environment.

These interviews of Native persons from various tribal backgrounds and experiences include highly educated faculty and researchers, community advocates, grass-roots organizers, and more. Each interview is labeled for its focus and includes areas such as strength, sense of permanence, living from the heart, awareness, trust, kinship, and more, all of which contribute to a set of disciplines for saving Mother Earth. The interview summaries begin with a description of each individual and then proceed through the exploration of ideas that each individual views as essential to respecting nature and the Earth. To be honest, I struggled with the first chapters and felt myself frequently asking, “What’s the point?” As the book builds momentum and connections are made across chapters, the ultimate purpose and prospect of each is revealed.

“Turtle Island” is North America, the name reflecting the separation of the continent from other landmasses around the world. When invaders and settlers began coming to its shores, attacking, torturing, and killing natives into submission, grandmothers warned against complying with the invader’s human and resource views, “No, this is not the right way to relate to the Mother, and there will be consequences” (p. xi). Later in the Longest Walk of 1978, Phillip Deere reminded all of the grandmothers’ wisdom when he said, “We are going to continue to walk, and walk and walk until we find freedom for all the Native people. And I will remind you, you may not be an Indian, but you better join us. Your life is at stake. Your survival depends on this” (p. xvii).

The “sense of permanence” interview of Gregg Castro (Salinan/Ohlone) asserted that reliance on science alone reinforces a view of the superiority of humans when, in reality, all creatures have rights and have a role to play in protecting the Earth as a living, breathing, changing place. The work of dismantling human arrogance must start with fixing ourselves and reversing the relatively recent obsession of civilization with possession, the assumption of ownership, and the resulting greed it engenders. Fixing ourselves of course is dependent on awareness, which is a very strong emphasis among Native peoples. Lacking awareness results in our not seeing ourselves in the context of systems, the world, and across time. The interview of Lyla June Johnston (Navajo and Cheyenne) on trust further exposed the perversity of the colonizers who came to Turtle Island with self-perception so low that they sought to dominate the frontier through white supremacy, sometimes even misappropriating the messages of Christ and his teachings of love to justify the slaughter of innocent native men, women, and children. This slaughter occurred sometimes as extermination and in other cases took the form of children being stolen from their families and assimilated in boarding schools away from the influences of their intergenerational tribes.

The bottom line revealed by Shannon Rivers (Akimel O’otham) in “balance” was that “Mother Earth will balance herself. Whether or not we get to see that balance, and whether or not it will happen in our lifetimes, we don’t know” (p. 156). The antidote to obsessive individualism and destructive accumulation for personal gain is Indigenous values, wisdom, and sustainable ways of living (Nelson on “dispelling delusion with alchemy”).  The Anishinaabe tribal grandmothers’ seven teachings include love, bravery, respect, humility, truth, wisdom, and generosity. These seven teachings are mirrored in many Indigenous belief systems and represent a fundamental rebalancing of all living things on Turtle Island.

Melina Laboucan-Massimo (Lubicon Cree) said that “The climate crisis is the direct result of the Western capitalist industrial complex, coupled with patriarchy and all the other ‘isms’ that exist which separate humans from Mother Earth” (p. 302). Averting the crisis through Indigenous wisdom and practice would revive the sacred loop of ‘healing justice’ that opens the way to “unpack and decolonize, in trauma-informed ways” (p. 314). In straight-forward and meaningful terms, Laboucan-Massimo encourages practices of community ritual, singing and dancing and advises, “You say a morning prayer, ‘Thank you for another day of life. Thank you for keeping me pure during the night. Help me to be a good human being’” (p. 332).