Description of All Our Relations.
This non-fiction debut by acclaimed Native environmental activist Winona
LaDuke is a thoughtful and in-depth account of Native resistance to environmental
and cultural degradation.
LaDuke's
unique understanding of Native ideas and people is born from long years of experience,
and her analysis is deepened with inspiring testimonies by local Native activists
sharing the struggle for survival.
On each page of this volume, LaDuke speaks forcefully for self-determination
and community. Hers is a beautiful and daring vision of political, spiritual,
and ecological transformation.
All Our Relations features chapters on the Seminoles, the Anishinaabeg,
the Innu, the Northern Cheyenne, and the Mohawks, among others.
Awards
2001 Independent Publisher Book Award Winner, Current Events
OutstandingAcademic Book Award Winner, CHOICE magazine
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Akwesasne: Mohawk Mothers' Milk and PCBs
2 Seminoles: At the Heart of the Everglades
3 Nitassinan: The Hunter and the Peasant
4 Northern Cheyenne: A Fire in the Coal Fields
5 Nuclear Waste: Dumping on the Indians
6 White Earth: A Lifeway in the Forest
7 Buffalo Nations, Buffalo Peoples
8 Hawai'i: The Birth of Land and Its Preservation by the Hands of the
People
9 NativeSUN: Determining a Future
10 The Seventh Generation
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Excerpt
From Chapter 2, Seminoles: At the Heart of the Everglades
Where the
natural world ends and the human world begins, there you will find the Seminoles.
There is no distinction between the two worlds-the Creator's Law governs all.
It has always been like that, since the beginning.
"The
Creator made our people and gave us the laws on how we're supposed to conduct
ourselves," explains Danny Billie, spokesperson for the Independent Traditional
Seminole nation, which consists of about 300 people in the midst of the Florida
Everglades. He is trying to keep that law: the Creator's Law, the Breathmaker's
Law.
The Independent
Traditional Seminole nation of Florida steadfastly keeps their traditions-language,
culture, housing, ceremony, and way of life-against the forces of colonialism,
assimilation, globalization and all that eats cultures. The presence of these
traditions in the Native community provides a yardstick against which to measure
your own values, your own way of life, and your choices. That is the lesson
these traditions will teach without speaking. And that is a great gift.
In the center
of their chickee (traditional house) Seminoles keep a fire-always, it seems.
It is the fire of culture, the fire of life. I am not so different. I tend my
fire, that one in the woodstove, which keeps my northern house warm. Watch the
fire, nurture it, and it will feed y...
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Praise
"A brilliant, gripping
narrative."
—Ralph Nader
"One of the pleasures
of reading All Our Relations is discovering the unique voices of Native
people, especially Native women, speaking in their own Native truths."
—Women's Review of Books
"...as Winona LaDuke
describes, in moving and often beautiful prose, [these] misdeeds are not distant
history but are an ongoing degradation of the cherished lands of Native Americans."
—Public Citizen News
"...a
rare perspective on Native history and culture."
—Sister to Sister/S2S
"Hers
is a beautiful and daring vision of political, spiritual, and ecological transformation.
All Our Relations is essential reading for everyone who cares about
the fate of the Earth and indigenous peoples."
—Winds of Change
"No
ragtag remnants of lost cultures here. Strong voices of old, old cultures
bravely trying to make sense of an Earth in chaos."
—Whole Earth
"[It]
is a thoughtful, candid, in-depth account of Native resistance to environmental
and cultural degradation....LaDuke provides a unique understanding of Native
ideas....offering a beautiful and daring vision of political, spiritual...transformation."
...
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