By Christine Smith<\/p>\n
Another Earth Day has come and gone, but for 65-year-old Dorene Wiese and other American Indians living in the Chicago area, the celebration and remembrance of Mother Earth continues.<\/p>\n
Wiese and approximately 30,000 other American Indians living in Chicago promote the protection of nature\u2019s beauty through activities like Native Scholars. The after school tutoring program setup by Wiese\u2019s American Indian Association of Illinois serves 10-13 tribe-affiliated students. Tribes represented include the Ojibwe, Navajo, Lakota, Oneida and Menominee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re, like, one of the 17 states that have no reservations,\u201d says Wiese, a member of Minnesota\u2019s White Earth Band of Ojibwe. \u201cAnd we\u2019re the tenth largest population of American Indians in the whole United States. We\u2019re larger than most Indian reservations\u2026and have representatives from over 150 different tribes here, so it is important we come together to prevent more destruction to our land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through Native Scholars, Wiese and a handful of volunteers educate the next generation of American Indians about the history and culture of the Chicago community and why they should protect Mother Earth. The days leading up to Earth Day are just another opportunity to teach them about nature.<\/p>\n
And while one may suspect a lack of enthusiasm from their students, Native Scholars\u2019 students are just as eager to participate in activities as their tutors are to teach them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like coming to the after school program because I get to learn more about nature and my culture in a way that I don\u2019t get to at school,\u201d says Jade Roy, 18, a high school senior at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center. \u201cWe believe in praying to Mother Earth and appreciating her, so it\u2019s good that we can come here to learn more about her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roy is just one of about a dozen students currently involved with the program. Students ranging in age from 5 years old to 18 years old meet weekly in the basement of St. James Presbyterian Church, about two blocks north of West Ridge\u2019s culturally diverse Devon Avenue. It has existed and met at this location for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
For her Earth Day after school assignment, Roy draws Mother Earth surrounded by recycling symbols.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m clearly not very good at drawing,\u201d Roy shyly says, \u201csince I forgot to draw Latin America. But it\u2019s ok. You get the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Roy of Ontario, Canada\u2019s Algonquin Band of Ojibwe, other students draw pictures for Earth Day and share why they think it\u2019s vital to learn about nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimals are important because they\u2019re like humans,\u201d says 10-year-old Oneida tribe member Anaka Kayotawape as she colors a seascape complete with fish and turtles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t kill a human,\u201d she emphasizes, seemingly unsure as to why someone may think of animals as anything but mankind\u2019s equal.<\/p>\n
Anaka\u2019s friend and Lakota tribe member, Evian Cloud, 8, is midway through drawing a tree.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to keep Mother Earth clean,\u201d Evian says. \u201cIf you don\u2019t keep Mother Earth clean, then you\u2019ll die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pictures complete, the students discuss their drawings, take photos with their tutors, and then head home for the evening. They will do another nature-inspired lesson at next week\u2019s after school program.<\/p>\n
But caring about nature goes beyond Earth Day, says Wiese. It is engrained in American Indian culture through the use of totems with nature-inspired names, the belief in the Mother Earth spirituality, and the participation in powwows. Protecting and responsibly using nature, consequently, predates the settlement of non-native Americans in the Chicago area, when indigenous Americans lived entirely off of the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have Walgreens,\u201d Wiese says. \u201cYou did not go to McDonalds for food. For our people, you went in your backyard [for medicine]. Your food you had to go out and kill.\u201d<\/p>\n
A combination of game, crops and wild plants sustained early native communities, including Chicago\u2019s Potawatomi, Miami and Illinois tribes.<\/p>\n
Over time, non-indigenous Americans became increasingly interested in nature. In 1970, Earth Day was started by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in order to annually commit to keeping clean water, air, land, and other environment-related issues on the national political agenda. Roughly 20 million Americans demonstrated throughout the country on that first Earth Day. This led to Congress\u2019 decision to authorize the creation of the EPA, the first U.S. agency dedicated to environmental issues, in December of that year.<\/p>\n
As a result, programs like Wiese\u2019s Native Scholars and the American Indian Center of Chicago\u2019s Medicinal Garden and Indigenous Science Days were created to encourage American Indian youth to take an active part in understanding and celebrating Mother Earth 365 days a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really looking to bring classrooms to the outdoors,\u201d says David Bender, Community Science Organizer and Facilitator at the American Indian Center and member of the Lakota and Ojibwe tribes. \u201cWe need to make the Earth a habitable place and\u2026we want to keep it that way for the next seven generations, so we need to teach the lessons we\u2019ve learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wiese shares similar sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal really is to every day, to live a sacred life and to live in appreciation for the creator and for the great gifts he has given us,\u201d Wiese says, \u201cso we try to celebrate that thankfulness everyday and to teach our children to celebrate that thankfulness too.\u201d<\/p>\n
After all, Wiese notes, it is vital to pass along the appreciation of nature through verbal communication and educational activities, as was done to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of this knowledge is in the hearts and minds of our elders,\u201d Wiese says, \u201cso traditional knowledge transmission is through elders. That\u2019s how our learning took place.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Wiese emphasizes the need for tutoring in the American Indian community. Through in-person exchanges several days a week, she and five tutors can educate their students after school about nature and its value in American Indian culture.<\/p>\n
But why the focus on Earth Day, then, if nature is a regular component of instruction? Wiese elaborates on why she feels it\u2019s important to keep Earth Day on the calendar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say we lose plants everyday,\u201d Wiese says. \u201cPlants and animals are becoming extinct in the U.S., and that\u2019s so tragic because this land was such a rich area, so we need to remind everyone why it is important to protect nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is especially important, Wiese adds, because of the holiday\u2019s ability to renew interest in conservation efforts for non-indigenous residents. And it is for this reason that local nonprofit organizations, like Friends of the Parks, make a conscientious effort to celebrate Earth Day each and every year by hosting its annual Earth Day Parks & Preserves Clean-up.<\/p>\n
Former policy director and counselor of Friends of the Parks Eleanor Roemer says, \u201cIt\u2019s important that this day was set aside in the 70s, because it ensures that we as a society remember the importance of preserving our parks and act in an environmentally-conscious way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other area residents, like Navajo Chicagoan Janelle Stanley of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, also recognize a need to focus on Earth Day on top of their daily appreciation for nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor American Indians, the sense of Earth Day is every day,\u201d Stanley says, \u201cso it\u2019s important for us as a community to celebrate Earth Day like every other day because Mother Earth is so important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all American Indians in Chicago, however, feel that officially celebrating Mother Earth on one day a year is enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarth Day gives a space for everyone to think about how we treat the Earth,\u201d Bender says, \u201cbut for me, in some ways it\u2019s kind of an odd thing because it\u2019s a reminder of our settler colonizer. It\u2019s just really weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
After all, Bender says, American Indians were the first to inhabit the land in Chicago and throughout the country, so it should be up to American Indians when and how to celebrate Mother Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cNative people have kind of become the poster child of Earth Day,\u201d Bender continues, \u201cand that\u2019s fine, but we need to look for more than just the poster child. We need to look for real solutions, and the solution, really, is to change the system. And if the system is simply throwing you a bone, then nothing\u2019s going to ever really get changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is why Bender and others, including Wiese, cite a need for advocacy, conservation and political action outside of their education efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all of our Earth,\u201d Bender says. \u201cIt is what unites us, so we need to come together as a nation to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wiese adds, \u201cIn especially the last two years, our people have joined with other movements like fighting the passage of the Keystone Pipeline, the depositing of nuclear waste in coastal lakes and waterways, the ongoing movements to protect the land from tar sands\u2026but we don\u2019t have a group locally that really does that. That has to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Wiese says that until more actions are taken to protect nature, it is especially important to educate others inside and outside of the community about it and to celebrate it on Earth Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes in our daily lives we forget that we\u2019re all on Mother Earth, and my generation got distracted,\u201d Wiese says. \u201cThis is the only Mother Earth we have, so we need to protect her for the generations of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want clean water for your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren?\u201d Wiese adds emphatically. \u201cWell of course, I do. And Earth Day reminds people that those things are important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earth Day, which occurs annually on April 22, has since its creation grown to include multiple days of nature-related festivities. This year\u2019s Chicago-based celebrations included citywide parks cleanup events, Columbia College Chicago\u2019s One Earth Film Festival screening of \u201cJust Eat It,\u201d and the Lincoln Park Zoo\u2019s \u201cParty for the Planet,\u201d just to name a few.<\/p>\n
By Christine Smith Another Earth Day has come and gone, but for 65-year-old Dorene Wiese and other American Indians living in the Chicago area, the celebration and remembrance of Mother Earth continues. Wiese and approximately 30,000 other American Indians living in Chicago promote the protection of nature\u2019s beauty through activities like Native Scholars. The after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":14065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,436],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-science","category-spring-2015"],"yoast_head":"\n