Heroes for a Better World

Rebecca Adamson
(1949-)

American Indian Rights Activist,
Founder, First Nations Development Institute &
First Peoples Worldwide

birthdate: ?
birthplace:
Akron, Ohio

QUOTES

ECONOMICS
Economic development, more than any single issue, is the battle line between two competing world views. Tribal people's fundamental value was sustainability, and they conducted their livelihoods in ways that sustained resources and limited inequalities in their society. What made traditional economies so radically different and so very fundamentally dangerous to Western economies were the traditional principles of prosperity of Creation versus scarcity of resources, of sharing and distribution versus accumulation and greed, of kinship usage rights versus individual exclusive ownership rights, and of sustainability versus growth.

In the field of economic development, economists like to think Western economics is value-neutral, but in truth, it is not. Success is defined according to production units or monetary worth. The contrast with successful indigenous development is stark. For example, since they understand the environment to be a living being, the Northern Cheyenne have opposed coal strip mining on their reservation because it kills the water beings. There are no cost measurements of pollution, production, or other elements that can capture this kind of impact. There is an emerging recognition of the need for a spiritual base, not only in our individual lives, but also in our work and in our communities.

INDIGENOUS
For Indigenous people, the goal for our land is definitely about protection, but it’s also about use. We see ourselves as so integrated with our territory that our protection is tied to our use and our use is tied to our protection. We use the resources on our territory to live.

In every Indigenous community I’ve been in, they absolutely do want community infrastructure and they do want development, but they want it on their own terms. They want to be able to use their national resources and their assets in a way that protects and sustains them. Our territories are our wealth, the major assets we have. And Indigenous people use and steward this property so that they can achieve and maintain a livelihood, and achieve and maintain that same livelihood for future generations.’

In Indian country, we should probably insist, first off, that our ancestors have never gotten the credit they deserve from this country for surviving. Survival wasn't as easy then as it seems now, and they never would have made it if they'd spent centuries wandering in a daze until they came across a dead buffalo beside a cold spring, with a lightning strike for fire somewhere in the background. To the contrary, tribes cooperated with and among each other on everything from buffalo hunts to the fish catch and crop harvests, none of which could have happened if our tribes had not known all about self-governance.

INTERCONNECTION
The interdependency of humankind, the relevance of relationship, the sacredness of creation is ancient, ancient wisdom.

The indigenous understanding has its basis of spirituality in a recognition of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all living things, a holistic and balanced view of the world. All things are bound together. All things connect. What happens to the Earth happens to the children of the earth. Humankind has not woven the web of life; we are but one thread. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

In a society where all are related, simple decisions require the approval of nearly everyone in that society. It is society as a whole, not merely a part of it, that must survive. This is the indigenous understanding. It is the understanding in a global sense. We are all indigenous people on this planet, and we have to reorganize to get along.

NONVIOLENCE
It takes four generations to recover from every act of violence.

WE CAN CREATE A BETTER WORLD
It's crucial to understand that as a society, we can reorganize. We can reorganize socially, politically, and economically, and we can reorganize according to our values.

 


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