This past summer, REACH invited me to participate in the development of its new Decolonizing Conservation Communities program. As former staff of a Maine land trust organization, I was excited to offer my first-hand knowledge and experience to shape the program. Truth be told, I was also grappling with how, as a member of the conservation community, I had come to see myself as a perpetuator of colonization, and I wanted to take an active role in disrupting patterns of continuing colonization endemic to land trust work while also supporting a conversation about how land trusts can shift their work to become agents of decolonization.

At today’s online convening of the Vermont House of Representatives, Rep. Brian Cina offered the session’s devotional by singing the Mi’kmaw Honor Song by George Paul, as translated into Western Abenaki by Jesse Bruchac. This is a powerful moment in a renewal of Indigenous voice in the homelands. Kchi wliwni Brian.

Perhaps we need to join the growing movement called the “Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN)” that’s taking hold in countries around the world and in various communities here in the U.S., a movement that recognizes that our ecosystems — including animals, forests, oceans, rivers, mountains, etc. — have god-given rights just as human beings have god-given rights.

Elnu Abenaki are happy to join in this supportive local opportunity, recognizing that we share common challenges with other area advocacy groups. This program will enable Elnu to better support both the well-being of our own People and that of the larger community of which we are a part. Kchi wliwni — with great thanks!

A scholar in Canada has been attacking Abenaki people in the U.S. Here are some thoughts about that…

As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and ecological systems to reimagine currencies of exchange?

With all of us searching for ways to escape the screen during the pandemic, podcasts are the perfect way to do that. Here are ten of our favorite podcasts featuring Indigenous content. Cozy up and enjoy some great listening.

“I suggested that there was a need to look at all of the people who were here before this became Brattleboro because that period of time is significant,” he said. “We’re talking thousands of years.”

This poem considers the plight of a language, how it — like the child Moses in the biblical story of the Exodus — is vulnerable, and might be in need of someone like the Pharaoh’s daughter to nurture it. In considering the precarious situation of many lesser-spoken languages, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill casts a story of language preservation through the archetype of women helping women in ancient texts.

“I think it was a very wise choice and also a very empowering choice to have representatives from the Native community,” said Carol McGranaghan, now in her third term as chair of Vermont’s Commission for Native American Affairs.

‘Western science is a powerful way of knowing, but it isn't the only one says Robin Wall Kimmerer. A new interview on Tapestry at CBC Radio Canada.

Roll up your sleeves and gather in the kitchen for this virtual instructional cooking class taught by Missisquoi Abenaki chef Jessee Lawyer. Jessee will demonstrate how to create a seasonal dish showcasing Native techniques and pre-colonial, Vermont-grown and gathered ingredients. Recipes will be included so you can create the dish for your own family and friends.

The Squamscott River

grew lazy in early summer—

muskrat rose and dove

heron swept the air and landed

and hemlocks that had survived

another century's practice

of harvesting their bark

were thriving…

Etuaptmumk - Two-Eyed Seeing is explained by saying it refers to learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing ... and learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all.

"The proposed desired conditions in the plan fail to specifically describe the wild nature, solitude and other characteristics that underscore what makes the mountains sacred and worth protecting. The Forest Service also needs to provide tangible benchmarks towards which management goals should be directed."

In this excerpt from the new introduction to her acclaimed book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer draws upon the creation story Skywoman Falling and the wisdom of plants to guide us through our present moment of deep uncertainty. Her words of hope, transformation, and courage feel especially poignant at this moment as we look to find ways to heal and address the monumental challenges that lie before us.

The Amazon is a sacred place. Human Beings do not make sacred places, they acknowledge them, recognize them, and sustain them without developing them. We honor them with languages taught to us by the Earth herself. The Original Nations of the Western Hemisphere understand sacred places where Earth has directed their sensitivities to pure energy being in place. These multi-dimensional quantum physics of Earth languages of the Original Peoples are also a part of the sacred places. They are part of the Cura Da Terra, “Cure of the Earth”, to borrow a phrase from the First Peoples of the Amazon.

Local descendant communities and Indigenous nations continue to be at the center of heritage preservation efforts. While their methods are not always recognized by academic or governmental organizations, they employ innovative, culturally appropriate ways of caring for and keeping alive their heritage in all its manifestations. This panel is comprised of leading Indigenous and Black activists, scholars, and community organizers, providing a renewed focus on contemporary conservation practices, history telling, and ways of being in the world.

Samoset is an Abenaki sôgmô (leader) whose name is often invoked at this time of harvest feasting, although his actual visit to the recently-arrived English colonists at Patuxet (later, Plymouth) was in March of 1621. He was the first Native person to meet them in person, walking directly into the village and making a deep impression upon the surprised, and probably alarmed, survivors of that first winter. The tenor of this video is rather even-handed and it seems worth sharing further.

I remember. How their songs drew us up through the warming earth just for the joy of hearing them. How we stretched in the sun and turned air into sugar, my sisters and I, leaves and roots entwined. It’s lonely without them. Grandfather Teosinte has been gone for so long; where is that gentle guidance when we need it most? And our good people—with toes and hoes in the soil, fulfilling the agreement made so long ago? What happened to the songs we knew? I remember how they celebrated my beautiful children with feasting and honor and passed them hand to hand in thanksgiving. I remember when they knew my name. The people have forgotten, but the seed remembers.