We are the middle of forever : Indigenous voices from Turtle Island on the changing Earth

Title:

Author:

Jamail, Dahr, editor.

ISBN:

9781620976692

Publication Information:

New York : The New Press, 2022.

Physical Description:

xxi, 340 pages ; 24 cm

Contents:

Strength / President Fawn Sharp -- A sense of permanence / Gregg Castro -- Living from the heart / Ilarion Merculieff -- Awareness / Raquel Ramirez -- Trust / Lyla June Johnston -- Kinship / Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte -- Sacred feminine and sacred masculine / Terri Delahanty -- Returning to fire / Steven Pratt -- Change / Marita Hacker -- Balance / Shannon Rivers -- Healing / Edgar Ibarra -- Stewardship / Alexii Sigona -- The courage to remember / Tahnee Henningsen -- Dispelling delusion with alchemy / Melissa K. Nelson, PhD -- Cultural competency / Kanyon Sayers-Roods -- Restoration / The Honorable Ron W. Goode -- Recognition / Corrina Gould -- The capacity of language / Natalie Diaz -- Paradigm shift / Melina Laboucan-Massimo -- Medicine.

Abstract:

"A powerful, intimate collection of conversations with Indigenous Americans on the climate crisis and the Earth's future"-- Provided by publisher.

For the Indigenous people of the world, radical alteration of the planet, and of life itself, is a story that is many generations long. They have had to adapt, to persevere, and to be courageous and resourceful in the face of genocide and destruction. Their experience has given them a unique understanding of civilizational devastation. The essays in this book place Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today's environmental crisis. People from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities, generations, and geographic regions share their knowledge and experience, their questions, their observations, and their dreams of maintaining the best relationship possible to all of life. -- adapted from jacket

Subject Term:

Indian philosophy -- United States.

Climatic changes -- Effect of human beings on.

Indians of North America -- Interviews.

Climatic changes -- Effect of human beings on. (OCoLC)fst01766583

Indian philosophy. (OCoLC)fst00969168

Indians of North America. (OCoLC)fst00969633

Genre:

Interviews.

Added Author:

Jamail, Dahr,

Rushworth, Stan, 1945-

Document ID:

SD_ILS:2402739

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Collection	Collection	Call Number	Status
Searching... Atwater Branch Library (Merced Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-Fiction	970.004 WE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Auberry Branch Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-fiction Area	970.00497 WE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Bear Mountain Branch (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-fiction Area	970.00497 WE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Gillis Branch Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-fiction Area	970.00497 WE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Los Banos Branch Library (Merced Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-Fiction	970.004 WE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Merced Main Library (Merced Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-Fiction	970.004 WE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Author Notes

Dahr Jamail is the author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq as well as The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption and (with Stan Rushworth) We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth (both from The New Press). He has won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism and the Izzy Award. He lives in Washington State.

Stan Rushworth is a teacher of Native American literature and the author of Sam Woods: American Healing, Going to Water: The Journal of Beginning Rain, Diaspora's Children, and (with Dahr Jamail) We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth (The New Press). He lives in Northern California.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

A welcome compilation of interviews with Indigenous Americans about climate change. Jamail is a Martha Gellhorn Award--winning journalist, and Rushworth is a California-based teacher of Native American literature. As the editors demonstrate, all of the contributors to this dynamic collection are rooted in ancient cultural philosophies that radically challenge non-Native ideas about climate change. "For the Indigenous people of the world," writes Rushworth in the preface, "radical alteration of the planet, and of life itself, is a story many generations long." Jamail goes on to point out that Native Americans have already witnessed massive destruction in the past few centuries, ranging from the annihilation of the buffalo from the Great Plains to the decimation of Native populations "as a result of sanctioned settler mayhem." Consequently, Indigenous Americans are uniquely equipped to philosophically and practically tackle climate change. At the heart of these interviews is a rejection of current practices. Before colonization, Native peoples like the Hopi spent centuries perfecting systems that successfully cared for the Earth. This balance was disturbed by European colonizers who created what Ilarion, a Yupik elder, describes as a "reverse society" or "inside out society." Ilarion argues that the only way to cope with climate change is to reject Eurocentric notions of "normal" and to adopt Indigenous ways of thinking and being. Interviewees suggest a variety of abstract and concrete avenues for doing so--e.g., Potawatomi scholar Kyle Powys Whyte's recommendation to alter our relationship with clock time or Quinault President Fawn Sharp's idea to use Native knowledge to preemptively shift her constituents' homes to flood-safe areas. Throughout, contributors remind us that the Earth has survived for billions of years and will survive for billions more; humans, however, may not. Readers will be impressed by both the depth and breadth of the interviews as well as the contributors' evocative, vivid storytelling and palpable emotion. A refreshingly unique and incredibly informative collection of vital Indigenous wisdom. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

This timely compilation of interviews shines a spotlight on the environmental knowledge of 20 individuals who belong to Native Nations. Rushworth, a Native American educator and activist, and Jamail, an award-winning journalist, spoke with a wide variety of Indigenous academics, artists, and community leaders, seeking to center their voices in the ever-intensifying debate about how to heal a hurting planet. Rushworth poses this question of enormous urgency to Edgar Ibarra, a college student and abolitionist activist: "Our focus is the disruption of Earth; how did we get here? How do we move on in the right way?" The interviewees speak freely, generating the warmth of intimate conversation and pointing to numerous solutions already at work in Indigenous communities. Dr. Melissa K. Nelson, a proponent of tribal food sovereignty, sees the COVID-19 pandemic as proof of humanity's failure to understand that every natural resource, including air, is communal. Musician Lyla June Johnston acknowledges that since many Native Nations have survived previous epidemics and social collapse, there's much to learn from intertribal conflicts. Pulitzer Prize--winning poet Natalie Diaz elucidates arising emergencies in the English language itself. Insights like these, and dozens more, deserve deep attention and will hopefully spur readers into action to save the planet and themselves.

Preface	p. ix
Early Warnings	p. xi
The Interviews: Editors' Note	p. xxii
1 President Fawn Sharp	p. 1
Strength
2 Gregg Castro	p. 16
A Sense of Permanence
3 Ilarion Merculieff	p. 30
Living from the Heart
4 Raquel Ramirez	p. 48
Awareness
5 Lyla June Johnston	p. 61
Trust
6 Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte	p. 73
7 Terri Delahanty	p. 96
Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine
8 Steven Pratt	p. 108
Returning to Fire
9 Marita Hacker	p. 124
Change
10 Shannon Rivers	p. 140
Balance
11 Edgar Ibarra	p. 159
Healing
12 Alexii Sigona	p. 180
Stewardship
13 Tahnee Henningsen	p. 193
The Courage to Remember
14 Melissa K. Nelson, PhD	p. 210
Dispelling Delusion with Alchemy
15 Kanyon Sayers-Roods	p. 229
Cultural Competency
16 The Honorable Ron W. Goode	p. 247
Restoration
17 Corrina Gould	p. 263
Recognition
18 Natalie Diaz	p. 283
The Capacity of Language
19 Melina Laboucan-Massimo	p. 301
Paradigm Shift
20 Medicine	p. 315
Acknowledgments	p. 341

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Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Table of Contents