Our Mother Is Sick

One of the greatest obstacles we, as the Nez Perce Tribe, face is making non-Natives understand how we see the environment and how much precedence we give it. The Nez Perce Tribe (as well as other tribes around Hanford), Hanford, the Department of Energy, and The Environmental Protection Agency are all working to clean up the environment around nuclear plants (1). However, each of these groups differ in their goals. The Nez Perce tribe feels that great priority should be given to cleaning up the site and all the area around it as soon as possible. Hanford, the DOE, and the EPA would all like clean-up but do not show as much concern as does tribal nations. I believe this is because they don’t put the environment and every living thing on it at the same level as humans.

The greatest education I ever received is from an ongoing school. The school is called “Wahlutsut” (Long House or Seven Drum). I have learned everything I need to live a good life. I was taught through the proceedings of services on Sunday or on trips to participate in cultural traditions such as root digging and huckleberry picking. These teachings were taught orally to me by my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and much of the community. Each experience taught me that we as people are not above anything else and that when we do consume a plant or animal that we must pray and ask for its use and then in return show thanks by making sure that the life form is healthy and will last for the next seven generations.

“The Earth is part of my body. I belong to the land out of which I came. The Earth is my mother.” Too-hool-hool-zute

If everyone could accept this way of thinking about the environment then there would be more priority given to its safety. The environment is in bad condition and it is taking far too long to heal it. If one would look at mother earth as if it were human then Hanford would be seen as a deadly disease and the process of it as a disease could be explained as follows:

“Hanford originates in a single cell somewhere in the body. The cell divides and grows in the organ of origin, causing a localized tumor. Hanford cells then spread to adjacent tissues or regional lymph node drainage areas, and then advance to distant organs or structures, creating metastatic tumors. Hanford can spread directly from the organ of origin through the bloodstream into distant organs without involving adjacent organs and regional lymph nodes.”(2)

Mother Earth has cancer and if it isn’t treated soon it will spread all through her body and kill her off. This is a very drastic thought but it is a reality that far too many are not seeing or hearing.

Through all the teaching I have learned throughout my life in school, in work, and in Seven Drums this is how I see it. The earth is sick. Our mother is in deep pain.

(1)Department of Energy- Hanford- http://www.hanford.gov/geninfo.html, (2) SEER’s Training Website. Staging Defined: The Disease Process of Cancer. In the explanation of cancer process. http://training.seer.cancer.gov/module_staging_cancer/unit01_sec03_disease_process.html