- Environmental Sociology, Environmental Studies, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Environmental Justice, Environmental Education and Play, Environmental Philosophy, and 37 moreEnvironmental Education, Environmental Sustainability, Philosophy, Environmental Justice in Education, Cultural Landscapes, Development Studies, Geography, Rural Development, Cultural Tourism, Postcolonial Theory, Political Ecology, Environmental Ethics, Environment and Development, Nomadic/Indigenous People, Sustainable/Responsible Tourism, Critical Geopolitics, Critical Development Studies, Climate Politics, Global (North/South) Environmental Politics, American Indian Studies, American Indian & Alaska Native, Environmental Justice (Sustainability), Indigenous Peoples Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Adaptation, Indigenous Politics, Native American Studies, Adaptation to Climate Change, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Knowledge, Native American, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Climate Change, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Sally Haslangeredit
- Kyle Whyte is a faculty member at the University of Michigan where he is George Willis Pack Professor in the School f... moreKyle Whyte is a faculty member at the University of Michigan where he is George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, and Professor of Philosophy in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Kyle teaches in the SEAS environmental justice specialization. He is founding Faculty Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment, Principal Investigator of the Energy Equity Project, co-Principal Investigator of SEAS' Global Center for Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Transboundary Waters, Faculty Associate of Native American Studies, and Senior Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. His research addresses environmental justice, focusing on moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organizations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Kyle is currently a U.S. Science Envoy and serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the National Academies' Resilient America Roundtable, and the National Academies’ Committee on Co-Production of Environmental Knowledge, Methods, and Approaches. He has served as an author for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, including on the National Climate Assessment, and for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II. He is a former member of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science in the U.S. Department of Interior and of two environmental justice work groups convened by past state governors of Michigan. He is President of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and the Pesticide Action Network North America.
The National Science Foundation has been a major supporter of Kyle’s research and educational projects for over a decade. Supporters also include the NorthLight Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Builders Initiative, Mellon Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, Crown Family Foundation, Sustainable Michigan Endowed Program, Spencer Foundation, Marsden Fund, and Health Research Council of New Zealand. Kyle’s publications appear in journals such as Climatic Change, Weather, Climate & Society, Science, Daedalus, WIREs Climate Change, Environment & Planning E, Synthese, and Sustainability Science.
Kyle is involved with a number of organizations that advance Indigenous research and education methodologies, including the Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup, the Sustainable Development Institute of the College of Menominee Nation, the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence. He is a certificate holder of the Training Programme to Enhance the Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking Capacities of Indigenous Peoples’ Representatives, from the United Nations Institute of Training and Research.
He has received the Breaking Barriers Award from the Michigan Democratic Party, the Superior Teaching Award from the Student Governing Board of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, the Community Engagement Scholarship Award and Distinguished Partnership Award for Community Engaged Research from Michigan State University, the Bunyan Bryant Award for Academic Excellence from Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, and the Forty Under 40 Alumni Award and Don Ihde Distinguished Alumni Award from Stony Brook University. Kyle has served as Austin J. Fagothey Distinguished Visiting Professor at Santa Clara University, Rudrick Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Waterloo, Timnick Chair in the Humanities at Michigan State University, and Distinguished Visitor at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.edit
Indigenous peoples’ consent has an important relationship with the speed of progress toward stopping the climate change crises. Certain dimensions of “climate crises” are perhaps instead “consent crises.” Recognizing that there are... more
Indigenous peoples’ consent has an important relationship with the speed of progress toward stopping the climate change crises. Certain dimensions of “climate crises” are perhaps instead “consent crises.” Recognizing that there are “consent crises,” as opposed to simply “climate crises,” bears important lessons about what types of climate action can expeditiously stop the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
Before moving on to make this point, I’d like to just take a pause and write about my intended
meanings of Indigenous peoples, climate action, and consent
Before moving on to make this point, I’d like to just take a pause and write about my intended
meanings of Indigenous peoples, climate action, and consent
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Ethics, Environmental Philosophy, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, and 15 morePolitical Theory, Human Rights, Resilience, Environmental Ethics, Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Law and Human Rights, Food Sovereignty, Environmental Justice (Sustainability), Climate Justice, Decolonial Thought, Climate Science, and Sustainability
Typically, terms like “the wild” signal a culturally specific set of assumptions about how humans relate to land, plants, and animals. One of the assumptions is that such relationships can be understood in terms of degrees of human... more
Typically, terms like “the wild” signal a culturally specific set of assumptions about how humans relate to land, plants, and animals. One of the assumptions is that such relationships can be understood in terms of degrees of human influence on ecosystems and on plant and animal behavior. On this understanding, wild lands or wild animals have been influenced little by humans. Numerous Indigenous peoples of what’s currently called the US never really used anything like wild concepts to describe their relationships with land, water, plants, animals, and ecosystems. They were more concerned with respecting and enacting specific relationships of interdependence within ecosystems and with nonhuman beings, flows, and entities. Given the colonial origins of wild concepts in settler societies like the US, does it even make sense to divide up the world as wild and not-wild, or even in terms of degrees of wildness? I am unclear on what advantages accrue to me or the planet when I use the term “wild” to understand certain places or living beings, whether from a traditional, scientific, or ethical standpoint. Moreover, given the painful history and the current suffering associated with the protection of wild places, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples risks being greatly hindered by any further proliferation of concepts of wildness. I think the issue of reconciliation is critical here. If more people today are committing to reconciliation, that involves undoing erasure of Indigenous culture, history, self-determination, and governance. I’m just not familiar with any contexts where wild concepts would bubble up from attempts to undo the suppression of knowledge about Indigenous peoples. My solution is that people should look to how Indigenous conservationists today, throughout their own tribal parks and 'wilderness areas', are focusing carefully on language and history, and finding ways to express relationships that can motivate spiritual experiences and stewardship knowledge without having to ignore the consent status of any lands or the colonial genocide that has occurred.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Development Studies, and 15 moreEnvironmental Education, Wilderness (Environment), Postcolonial Studies, Environmental Studies, Environmental History, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Wildlife Conservation, Environmental Humanities, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Human dimensions of wildlife, Environmental Racism, and Wildness
This chapter examines Indigenous environmental justice issues through the lens of consent. In it, I seek to show why environmental injustices against Indigenous peoples are problems of consent. I compare the current situation of consent... more
This chapter examines Indigenous environmental justice issues through the lens of consent. In it, I seek to show why environmental injustices against Indigenous peoples are problems of consent. I compare the current situation of consent today with Indigenous traditions that privilege consent in terms of how a society is organized. Part of colonialism in contexts like the U.S. and Canada has been the reorganizing of societies in North America to undermine Indigenous consent. The dismantling of traditions of consent is one way to understand how colonialism attacks self-determination. Although the U.S. is a unique context, many of the consent issues in relation to environmental justice arise in other contexts around the world. Readers should come away from this chapter with a good sense of why consent matters in relation to injustice, and why affirming consent is a strategy for achieving environmental justice for the sake of future generations.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, Conservation, and 15 moreIndigenous Health, Indigenous Politics, Indigenous Knowledge, Informed Consent, Air Pollution and Health Effects, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Peoples, Water Pollution, Environmental Justice (Sustainability), Climate Justice, Environmental Racism, Free Prior and Informed Consent, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and Critical Indigenous Studies
Climate change is often discussed in terms of linear units of time. This essay covers the meaning of linear time and its implications for how climate change is narrated. There are concerns about how narrating climate change in this way... more
Climate change is often discussed in terms of linear units of time. This essay covers the meaning of linear time and its implications for how climate change is narrated. There are concerns about how narrating climate change in this way can eclipse issues of justice in the energy transition. There are of course different ways of telling time. This essay provides a narration of climate change inspired by particular Indigenous scholars and writers. These conceptions of time narrate time through kinship, not linearity. One implication is that issues of justice are inseparable from the experience of climate change.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience, and 13 moreEnvironmental Ethics, Resilience (Sustainability), Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Space and Time (Philosophy), Time Perception, Spatio Temporal Analysis, Climate Justice, Environmental Racism, Climate Change Politics, Energy transition, and Renewable Energy and Climate Change
It may be too late to achieve environmental justice for some indigenous peoples, and other groups, in terms of avoiding dangerous climate change. People in the indigenous climate justice movement agree resolutely on the urgency of action... more
It may be too late to achieve environmental justice for some indigenous peoples, and other groups, in terms of avoiding dangerous climate change. People in the indigenous climate justice movement agree resolutely on the urgency of action to stop dangerous climate change. However, the qualities of relationships connecting indigenous peoples with other societies' governments, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations are not conducive to coordinated action that would avoid further injustice against indigenous peoples in the process of responding to climate change. The required qualities include, among others, consent, trust, accountability, and reciprocity. Indigenous traditions of climate change view the very topic of climate change as connected to these qualities, which are sometimes referred to as kin relationships. The entwinement of colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization failed to affirm or establish these qualities or kinship relationships across societies. While qualities like consent or reciprocity may be critical for taking coordinated action urgently and justly, they require a long time to establish or repair. A relational tipping point, in a certain respect, has already been crossed, before the ecological tipping point. The time it takes to address the passage of this relational tipping point may be too slow to generate the coordinated action to halt certain dangers related to climate change. While no possibilities for better futures should be left unconsidered, it's critical to center environmental justice in any analysis of whether it's too late to stop dangerous climate change. Free access here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.603
Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, and 15 moreResilience, Environmental Studies, Climate change policy, Indigenous Politics, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Political Theory, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Climate Justice, Renewable Energy and Climate Change, and Climate Change Research and Climate Justice
Feminist and Indigenous philosophies of science have much to dialogue about regarding the relationship between science and consent. Some Indigenous scientific traditions emphasize consent as a significant characteristic of empirical... more
Feminist and Indigenous philosophies of science have much to dialogue about regarding the relationship between science and consent. Some Indigenous scientific traditions emphasize consent as a significant characteristic of empirical inquiry. Consent means that responsibilities are acted out in ways that are accountable to the animacy of diverse beings and entities of the world. Responsibility and consent are significant to the role of science in governance systems, or its governance value. Consent is not a restriction or regulation on science, nor is consent a characteristic that merely increases the objectivity of empirical inquiry. By focusing on Indigenous accounts of knowledge and science, the essay builds concepts for understanding science and consent.
Research Interests: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Technology, Indigenous Studies, Feminist Theory, Science Education, and 13 moreTraditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge, Informed Consent, Feminism, Native American Literature (Literature), Environmental Justice, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous science education, Science and values, STEM Education, Feminist science and technology studies, American Indian Studies, and Science and Technology Studies
Indigenous peoples have ancient traditions of conceptualizing and practicing environmental justice. Today, they face some of the most severe harms and inequities due to pollution, land dispossession, and cultural appropriation. Many such... more
Indigenous peoples have ancient traditions of conceptualizing and practicing environmental justice. Today, they face some of the most severe harms and inequities due to pollution, land dispossession, and cultural appropriation. Many such harms and inequities stem from historic and ongoing forms of colonialism that Indigenous people endure globally. From a North American Indigenous perspective, this article describes some of the environmental injustices that Indigenous peoples face today, focusing on U.S. and Canadian contexts, but making global connections too. Indigenous peoples, in some of these struggles, often express their own solutions as involving the establishment or repair of kin relations. Kin relations can be understood as moral bonds that connect humans and non-humans, modeled after certain ideals of family life. Kinship represents a central approach to environmental justice that has its own place among other leading theories and practices.
Research Interests:
This chapter discusses how humans envision futures, especially environmental futures, including the climate crisis, the Anthropocene, and mass extinctions. Although the philosophy of technology has traditionally examined the forecasting... more
This chapter discusses how humans envision futures, especially environmental futures, including the climate crisis, the Anthropocene, and mass extinctions. Although the philosophy of technology has traditionally examined the forecasting of technological risk and arguments about whether to embrace or reject the growth of technological mediation of human lives, the field has yet to fully investigate environmental futurisms and imagination. To begin a conversation for the philosophy of technology, philosophies of science fiction narrative discuss the different roles that imagination plays in projecting our concerns with the present onto futures that have not occurred and future generations who are not yet living. One of the key issues that the chapter explores is how science fiction imagination is based on assumptions and values about the history of technological change, including industrialization, capitalism, and colonialism. These issues reveal ways in which technology, future narrative, and climate justice are related.
Research Interests:
People who perpetrate colonialism often defend their actions as necessary responses to real or perceived crises. Epistemologies of crisis involve knowing the world in such a way that a certain present is experienced as new. I will discuss... more
People who perpetrate colonialism often defend their actions as necessary responses to real or perceived crises. Epistemologies of crisis involve knowing the world in such a way that a certain present is experienced as new. I will discuss newness in terms of the presumptions of unprecedentedness and urgency. In contradistinction to an epistemology of crisis, I will suggest that one interpretation of certain Indigenous intellectual traditions emphasizes what I will just call here an epistemology of coordination. Different from crisis, coordination refers to ways of knowing the world that emphasize the importance of moral bonds—or kinship relationships—for generating the (responsible) capacity to respond to constant change. Epistemologies of coordination are conducive to responding to expected and drastic changes without validating harm or violence.
Research Interests: Indigenous Studies, Resilience, Crisis communication and management, Indigenous Politics, Environmental Ethics, and 10 moreFuturism, Science Fiction, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Communication Theory, Just Sustainability, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Indigenous Futurism
In my experiences, most Indigenous peoples have complicated stories to tell about anthropogenic climate change that often start with their being harmed by fossil fuel industries. The stories continue on to discuss how current laws and... more
In my experiences, most Indigenous peoples have complicated stories to tell about anthropogenic climate change that often start with their being harmed by fossil fuel industries. The stories continue on to discuss how current laws and policies render them more vulnerable to climate change impacts. Climate injustice against Indigenous peoples is insidious, as it involves years of coupled colonial and capitalist domination. Is there a succinct way to convey an Indigenous perspective on climate justice that makes the connections between capitalism and industrialization and colonialism? This short essay uses a story of vessels, in allegorical form, to describe the complexity of Indigenous climate justice. The allegory seeks to convey how in the absence of a concern for addressing colonialism, climate justice advocates do not really propose solutions to climate change that are that much better for Indigenous well-being than the proposed inaction of even the most strident climate change deniers. Decolonization and anti-colonialism, understood in senses appropriate to the allegory, cannot be disaggregated from climate justice for Indigenous peoples. Indigenous climate justice movements are distinct in their putting the nexus of colonialism, capitalism and industrialization at the vanguard of their aspirations.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, and 18 moreClimate Change Adaptation, Environmental Studies, Climate change policy, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, South American indigenous languages, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Climate Justice, Climate Change and Food Security, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Lifeboat Ethics
Indigenous peoples are among the most active environmentalists in the world, working through advocacy, educational programs, and research. The emerging field of Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences (IESS) is distinctive,... more
Indigenous peoples are among the most active environmentalists in the world, working through advocacy, educational programs, and research. The emerging field of Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences (IESS) is distinctive, investigating social resilience to environmental change through the research lens of how moral relationships are organized in societies. Examples of IESS research across three moral relationships are discussed here: responsibility, spirituality, and justice. IESS develops insights on resilience that can support Indigenous peoples' struggles with environmental justice and political reconciliation; makes significant contributions to global discussions about the relationship between human behavior and the environment; and speaks directly to Indigenous liberation as well as justice issues impacting everyone.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education, Community Resilience, and 14 moreResilience, Environmental Studies, Sustainable Development, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Resilience (Sustainability), Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Decolonial Thought, Environmental Racism, Decolonization, and Climate Change and Resilient Dryland Systems
Political reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and settler nations is among the major ethical issues of the twenty-first century for millions of Indigenous peoples globally. Political reconciliation refers to the aspiration to... more
Political reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and settler nations is among the major ethical issues of the twenty-first century for millions of Indigenous peoples globally. Political reconciliation refers to the aspiration to transform violent and harmful relationships into respectful relationships. This essay discusses how efforts to achieve reconciliation are not feasible when settler nations and some of their citizens believe Indigenous peoples to be clamoring for undeserved privileges. Settler colonialism often includes the illusion that historic and contemporary settler populations have moral grounds for their mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. This illusion masks historical and ongoing practices of settler colonialism that thwart effective practices of reconciliation.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Applied Ethics, Indigenous Studies, and 15 moreResilience, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Transitional Justice, Restorative Justice, Justice, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Peoples, Reconciliation, Feminism and Social Justice, American Indian Studies, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, Transitional justice and reconciliation processes, and truth, reconciliation, Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations
The essay offers reflections on the purpose of Indigenous environmental education. Indigenous peoples engage in wide-ranging approaches to environmental education that are significant aspects of how they exercise self-determination. Yet... more
The essay offers reflections on the purpose of Indigenous environmental education. Indigenous peoples engage in wide-ranging approaches to environmental education that are significant aspects of how they exercise self-determination. Yet often such educational practices are just seen as trying to genuinely teach certain historic traditions or scientific skill-sets. Through reviewing the author's experiences
and diverse scholarly and practitioner perspectives, the essay discusses how Indigenous environmental education is best when it aims at cultivating qualities of moral responsibilities including trust, consent and accountability within Indigenous communities. The concept of collective continuance is one way of thinking about how moral responsibilities play significant roles in contributing to social resilience. Understanding education in this way can be used to address some of the major issues affecting Indigenous peoples everywhere, including environmental justice, gender justice and the resurgence of traditions.
and diverse scholarly and practitioner perspectives, the essay discusses how Indigenous environmental education is best when it aims at cultivating qualities of moral responsibilities including trust, consent and accountability within Indigenous communities. The concept of collective continuance is one way of thinking about how moral responsibilities play significant roles in contributing to social resilience. Understanding education in this way can be used to address some of the major issues affecting Indigenous peoples everywhere, including environmental justice, gender justice and the resurgence of traditions.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Education, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education, and 15 morePhilosophy of Education, Indigenous education, Resilience, Environmental Studies, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Sustainable Development, Indigenous Knowledge, Place-based Learning Theory, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous science education, Decolonial Thought, Decolonization, Place-Based Education, and Indigenous Peoples and Educational Research
Settler colonialism is a form of domination that violently disrupts human relationships with the environment. Settler colonialism is ecological domination, committing environmental injustice against Indigenous peoples and other groups.... more
Settler colonialism is a form of domination that violently disrupts human relationships with the environment. Settler colonialism is ecological domination, committing environmental injustice against Indigenous peoples and other groups. Focusing on the context of Indigenous peoples' facing US domination, this article investigates philosophically one dimension of how settler colonialism commits environmental injustice. When examined ecologically, settler colonialism works strategically to undermine Indigenous peoples' social resilience as self-determining collectives. To understand the relationships connecting settler colonialism, environmental injustice, and violence, the article first engages Anishinaabe intellectual traditions to describe an Indigenous conception of social resilience called collective continuance. One way in which settler colonial violence commits environmental injustice is through strategically undermining Indigenous collective continuance. At least two kinds of environmental injustices demonstrate such violence: vicious sedimentation and insidious loops. The article seeks to contribute to knowledge of how anti-Indigenous settler colonialism and environmental injustice are connected.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Ethics & Social Sustainability, and 15 moreResilience, Environmental Studies, Feminist Philosophy, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Transitional Justice, Restorative Justice, Justice, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Reconciliation, Anishinaabe, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Environmental Equity and Justice
Portrayals of the anthropocene period are often dystopian or post-apocalyptic narratives of climate crises that will leave humans in horrific science-fiction scenarios. Such narratives miss the populations of people, such as Indigenous... more
Portrayals of the anthropocene period are often dystopian or post-apocalyptic narratives of climate crises that will leave humans in horrific science-fiction scenarios. Such narratives miss the populations of people, such as Indigenous peoples, who approach climate change having already been through transformations of their societies induced by colonial violence. This essay discusses how some Indigenous perspectives on climate change can situate the present time as already dystopian. Instead of dread of an impending crisis, Indigenous approaches to climate change are motivated through dialogic narratives with their descendants and ancestors. In some cases, these narratives are like science fiction in which Indigenous peoples work to empower their own protagonists to address contemporary challenges. Yet within literatures on climate change and the Anthropocene, Indigenous peoples often get placed in historical categories designed by non-Indigenous persons, such as the holocene. In some cases, these categories serve as the backdrop for allies’ narratives that privilege themselves as the protagonists who will save Indigenous peoples from colonial violence and the climate crisis. I speculate that this tendency among allies could possibly be related to their sometimes denying that they are living in times their ancestors would have likely fantasized about. I will show how this denial threatens allies’ capacities to build coalitions with Indigenous peoples. [open access @ http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/enea/0/0]
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, Dystopian Literature, and 24 moreResilience, Indigenous Politics, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Science Fiction, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Dystopian Fiction, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Environmental Humanities, Anthropocene studies, Climate ethics, Climate Justice, Indigenous knowledge systems, American Indian Studies, Anthropocene, Climate Crisis, Culture and the Anthropocene, and The Anthropocene
Indigenous peoples are widely recognized as holding insights or lessons about how the rest of humanity can live sustainably or resiliently. Yet it is rarely acknowledged in many literatures that for Indigenous peoples living in the... more
Indigenous peoples are widely recognized as holding insights or lessons about how the rest of humanity can live sustainably or resiliently. Yet it is rarely acknowledged in many literatures that for Indigenous peoples living in the context of settler states such as the U.S. or New Zealand, our own efforts to sustain our peoples rest heavily on our capacities to resist settler colonial oppression. Indigenous planning refers to a set of concepts and practices through which many Indigenous peoples reflect critically on sustainability to derive lessons about what actions reinforce Indigenous self-determination and resist settler colonial oppression. The work of the Sustainable Development Institute of the College of Menominee Nation (SDI) is one case of Indigenous planning. In the context of SDI, we discuss Indigenous planning as a process of interpreting lessons from our own pasts and making practical plans for staging our own futures. If there are such things as Indigenous sustainability lessons for Indigenous peoples, they must be reliable planning concepts and processes we can use to support our continuance in the face of ongoing settler colonial oppression.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous education, Community Resilience, Resilience, and 15 moreSustainable Development, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous science education, Sustainable Architecture, History of Indigenous Peoples, American Indian Studies, and Tribal studies
Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—creating the #NoDAPL movement. I am concerned with how critics of... more
Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—creating the #NoDAPL movement. I am concerned with how critics of #NoDAPL often focus on defending the pipeline’s safety precautions or the many attempts the Army Corps of Engineers made at consulting the Tribe. Yet critics rarely engage what LaDonna Brave Bull Allard calls “the larger story.” To me, as an Indigenous supporter of #NoDAPL, one thread of the larger story concerns how DAPL is an injustice against the Tribe. The type of injustice is one that many other Indigenous peoples can identify with—U.S. settler colonialism. I seek to show how there are many layers to the settler colonial injustice behind DAPL that will take me, by the end of this essay, from U.S. disrespect of treaty promises in the 19th century to environmental sustainability and climate change in the 21st century. Updated in July 2020, and will be republished in updated form in 2020 (or 2021) in Contemporary Moral Issues 5th Edition, edited by Lawrence Hinman and published by Taylor Frances. May be cited with this pagination and referencing academia.edu URL. Originally published as Whyte, K. 2017. The Dakota Access Pipeline, Environmental Injustice, and U.S. Colonialism. RED INK: An International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Arts, & Humanities: 19 (1): 154-169. Republication (2019) in The Nature of Hope: Grassroots Organizing, Environmental Justice, and Political Change. Edited by C. Miller and J. Crane, 320-337. University of Colorado Press.
Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Politics, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Peoples Rights, and 10 moreEnvironmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Activism, Settler Colonial Studies, Climate Justice, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Petrocultures, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Dakota Access Pipeline
Research Interests:
Indigenous peoples often claim that colonial powers, such as settler states, violate Indigenous peoples' collective self-determination over their food systems, or food sovereignty. Violations of food sovereignty are often food injustices.... more
Indigenous peoples often claim that colonial powers, such as settler states, violate Indigenous peoples' collective self-determination over their food systems, or food sovereignty. Violations of food sovereignty are often food injustices. Yet Indigenous peoples claim that one of the solutions to protecting food sovereignty involves the conservation of particular foods, from salmon to wild rice. This essay advances an argument that claims of this kind set forth particular theories of food sovereignty and food injustice that are not actually grounded in a static conception of Indigenous culture; instead, such claims offer important contributions to how settler colonial domination is understood as a form of injustice affecting key relationships that support Indigenous collective self-determination through food sovereignty. The essay describes some of the significant qualities of reciprocal relationships that support food sovereignty, referring widely to the work of Indigenous leaders and scholars and Tribal staff on salmon conservation in North America.
Whyte, K.P. 2018. Food Sovereignty, Justice and Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Settler Colonialism and Collective Continuance. Oxford Handbook on Food Ethics. Edited by A. Barnhill, T. Doggett, and A. Egan, 345-366. Oxford University Press.
Whyte, K.P. 2018. Food Sovereignty, Justice and Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Settler Colonialism and Collective Continuance. Oxford Handbook on Food Ethics. Edited by A. Barnhill, T. Doggett, and A. Egan, 345-366. Oxford University Press.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Food Science, and 32 moreFood Safety, Indigenous education, Indigenous Health, Community Resilience, Sociology of Food and Eating, Resilience, Food Security and Insecurity, Anthropology of Food, Sustainable Development, Indigenous Politics, Food History, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Food and Nutrition, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Food ethics, Agriculture and Food Studies, Food Sovereignty, Food Science and Technology, Native American Anthropology, International Law and the Indigenous Peoples, Food Security, Food Studies, American Indian Studies, Food Justice, Critical Food Studies, Pacific Salmon, Treaty Rights and American Indian Education, and Food Sovereignty & Food Security
Indigenous and allied scholars, knowledge keepers, scientists, learners, change-makers, and leaders are creating a field to support Indigenous peoples’ capacities to address anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Indigenous studies... more
Indigenous and allied scholars, knowledge keepers, scientists, learners, change-makers, and leaders are creating a field to support Indigenous peoples’ capacities to address anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Indigenous studies often reflect the memories and knowledges that arise from Indigenous peoples’ living heritages as societies with stories, lessons, and long histories of having to be well-organized to adapt to seasonal and inter-annual environmental changes. At the same time, our societies have been heavily disrupted by colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization. As a Potawatomi scholar-activist working on issues Indigenous people face with the U.S. settler state, I perceive at least three key themes reflected across the field that suggest distinct approaches to inquiries into climate change:
1. Anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is an intensification of environmental change imposed on Indigenous peoples by colonialism.
2. Renewing Indigenous knowledges, such as traditional ecological knowledge, can bring together Indigenous communities to strengthen their own self-determined planning for climate change.
3. Indigenous peoples often imagine climate change futures from their perspectives (a) as societies with deep collective histories of having to be well-organized to adapt environmental change and (b) as societies who must reckon with the disruptions of historic and ongoing practices of colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization.
In engaging these themes, I will claim, at the end, that Indigenous studies offer critical, decolonizing approaches to how to address climate change. The approaches arise from how our ways of imagining the future guide our present actions. The article is forthcoming in English Language Notes.
1. Anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is an intensification of environmental change imposed on Indigenous peoples by colonialism.
2. Renewing Indigenous knowledges, such as traditional ecological knowledge, can bring together Indigenous communities to strengthen their own self-determined planning for climate change.
3. Indigenous peoples often imagine climate change futures from their perspectives (a) as societies with deep collective histories of having to be well-organized to adapt environmental change and (b) as societies who must reckon with the disruptions of historic and ongoing practices of colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization.
In engaging these themes, I will claim, at the end, that Indigenous studies offer critical, decolonizing approaches to how to address climate change. The approaches arise from how our ways of imagining the future guide our present actions. The article is forthcoming in English Language Notes.
Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, and 25 moreIndigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Environmental Education, Climate Change, Environmental policy, Action Research (Indigenous Health), Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience, Environmental Studies, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Climate change policy, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Environmental Policy and Governance, Ecology, Indigenous Peoples Rights, South American indigenous languages, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Native American Anthropology, Climate Justice, South American Indians, Air Pollution, Climate Change, Atmospheric Studies, Environmental Research, Sustainability, and Public Policy
This essay is written to address conversations about the best ways to engage in knowledge exchange on important sustainability issues between Indigenous knowledges and fields of climate, environmental and sustainability sciences. In terms... more
This essay is written to address conversations about the best ways to engage in knowledge exchange on important sustainability issues between Indigenous knowledges and fields of climate, environmental and sustainability sciences. In terms of sustainability, a crucial facet of the self-determination of peoples such as Indigenous nations and communities is the responsibility and the right to make plans for the future using planning processes that are inclusive, well-informed, culturally-relevant, and respectful of human interdependence with nonhumans and the environment. Indigenous knowledges often play a crucial role in Indigenous planning processes. In my work, I have found that scientists often appreciate what I will call here the supplemental-value of Indigenous knowledges—the value of Indigenous knowledges as inputs for adding (i.e. supplementing) data that scientific methods do not normally track. In the domain of supplemental-value, Indigenous people’s planning processes will improve, in turn, by having access to the supplemented and hence improved science. But it is also the case that Indigenous knowledges have governance-value. That is, they serve as irreplaceable sources of guidance for Indigenous resurgence and nation-building. Scientists should appreciate governance-value because it suggests that for some Indigenous peoples in knowledge exchange situations, we need to be assured that the flourishing of our knowledges is respected and protected. I hope to make the case for why it is important for scientists who work with Indigenous peoples to understand governance value in the hopes that this understanding will improve their approaches to knowledge exchange with Indigenous peoples.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Earth Sciences, Environmental Science, Multiculturalism, Indigenous Studies, and 33 moreIndigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Environmental Education, Diversity, Indigenous education, Ethics & Social Sustainability, Indigenous Health, Environmental Studies, Sustainable Development, Indigenous Politics, Environmental Management, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, Native American Literature (Literature), Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Diversity & Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Diversity, Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, 'Decolonization' and the politics of settler state/Indigenous relations, Indigenous Communication Theory, Settler Colonial Studies, Knowledge Exchange, Settler Colonialism & Its Legacies, American Indian Studies, Settler/Indigenous relations, Multiculturalidad, Settler colonialism, Climate Science, and Nomadic/Indigenous People
Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—creating the #NoDAPL movement. I am concerned with how critics of... more
Starting in April 2016, thousands of people, led by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members, gathered at camps to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—creating the #NoDAPL movement. I am concerned with how critics of #NoDAPL often focus on defending the pipeline’s safety precautions or the many attempts the Army Corps of Engineers made at consulting the Tribe. Yet critics rarely engage what LaDonna Brave Bull Allard calls “the larger story.” To me, as an Indigenous supporter of #NoDAPL, one thread of the larger story concerns how DAPL is an injustice against the Tribe. The type of injustice is one that many other Indigenous peoples can identify with—U.S. settler colonialism. I seek to show how there are many layers to the settler colonial injustice behind DAPL that will take me, by the end of this essay, from U.S. disrespect of treaty promises in the 19th century to environmental sustainability and climate change in the 21st century. Updated and republished (2019) in Nature of Hope: Grassroots Organizing, Environmental Justice, and Social Change. Edited by C. Miller and J. Crane. University of Colorado Press, pgs. 320-337. Originally published in Whyte, K.P. 2017. The Dakota Access Pipeline, Environmental Injustice, and U.S. Colonialism. RED INK: An International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Arts, & Humanities: 19 (1): 154-169.
Research Interests: Business Ethics, Environmental Engineering, Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Ethics, and 28 moreApplied Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, Community Resilience, Resilience, Environmental Studies, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Political Theory, Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, Resilience (Sustainability), Australian Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental political theory (Philosophy), Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Settler Colonial Studies, Native American Anthropology, Ethics and economics, Climate Justice, Settler colonialism, Sustainability, UNDRIP, and Dakota Access Pipeline
We seek in this essay to distill rather briefly for philosophers of race a few of the concepts and arguments advanced within complex literatures in Indigenous studies, including Indigenous feminisms and Indigenous gender studies. The... more
We seek in this essay to distill rather briefly for philosophers of race a few of the concepts and arguments advanced within complex literatures in Indigenous studies, including Indigenous feminisms and Indigenous gender studies. The entanglement of Indigeneity and patriarchy is part of Indigenous experiences negotiating settler oppression in our work and personal lives in the U.S. context. In this paper, we will try to give voice to the structures of erasure behind some of our experiences by bringing together a range of cases from academic literatures of how oppressive impositions of Indigenous identities are interwoven with patriarchy. An important pattern of oppression emerges when we reflect on these cases: patriarchy is a fundamental part of the structure of settler colonial erasure. U.S. settler patriarchy, as part of the structure of erasure, issues specific tactics that accomplish erasure by delegitimizing Indigenous political representation and diplomacy, breeding distrust and creating oppressive dilemmas within Indigenous communities, and justifying and obscuring violence against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit persons. We conclude by gesturing to the idea that the resurgence of Indigenous identities as part of decolonization movements must simultaneously be tied to the decolonization of Indigenous relationships to gender and land.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Social Identity, Critical Race Theory, and 16 moreRace and Ethnicity, Social Justice, Gender, Feminism, Postcolonial Feminism, Philosophy Of Race, Native American, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Transnational Feminism, Settler Colonial Studies, Feminism and Social Justice, Settler colonialism, Philosophy of Race and Gender, Critical Philosophy of Race, Latin American feminisms, and Philosophy of Race and Racism
[http://www.esf.edu/indigenous-science-letter/] To the March for Science, DC and satellite marches across the nation and the world: As Indigenous scientists, agency professionals, tribal professionals, educators, traditional... more
[http://www.esf.edu/indigenous-science-letter/]
To the March for Science, DC and satellite marches across the nation and the world:
As Indigenous scientists, agency professionals, tribal professionals, educators, traditional practitioners, family, youth, elders and allies from Indigenous communities and homelands all over the living Earth we endorse and Support the March for Science.
As original peoples, we have long memories, centuries old wisdom and deep knowledge of this land and the importance of empirical, scientific inquiry as fundamental to the well-being of people and planet.
Let us remember that long before Western science came to these shores, there were Indigenous scientists here. Native astronomers, agronomists, geneticists, ecologists, engineers, botanists, zoologists, watershed hydrologists, pharmacologists, physicians and more—all engaged in the creation and application of knowledge which promoted the flourishing of both human societies and the beings with whom we share the planet. We give gratitude for all their contributions to knowledge. Native science supported indigenous culture, governance and decision making for a sustainable future –the same needs which bring us together today.
As we endorse and support the March for Science, let us acknowledge that there are multiple ways of knowing that play an essential role in advancing knowledge for the health of all life. Science, as concept and process, is translatable into over 500 different Indigenous languages in the U.S. and thousands world-wide. Western science is a powerful approach, but it is not the only one.
Indigenous science provides a wealth of knowledge and a powerful alternative paradigm by which we understand the natural world and our relation to it. Embedded in cultural frameworks of respect, reciprocity, responsibility and reverence for the earth, Indigenous science lies within a worldview where knowledge is coupled to responsibility and human activity is aligned with ecological principles and natural law, rather than against them. We need both ways of knowing if we are to advance knowledge and sustainability.
Let us March not just for Science-but for Sciences!
We acknowledge and honor our ancestors and draw attention to the ways in which Indigenous communities have been negatively impacted by the misguided use of Western scientific research and institutional power. Our communities have been used as research subjects, experienced environmental racism, extractive industries that harm our homelands and have witnessed Indigenous science and the rights of Indigenous peoples dismissed by institutions of Western science.
While Indigenous science is an ancient and dynamic body of knowledge, embedded in sophisticated cultural epistemologies, it has long been marginalized by the institutions of contemporary Western science. However, traditional knowledge is increasingly recognized as a source of concepts, models, philosophies and practices which can inform the design of new sustainability solutions. It is both ancient and urgent.
Indigenous science offers both key insights and philosophical frameworks for problem solving that includes human values, which are much needed as we face challenges such as climate change, sustainable resource management, health disparities and the need for healing the ecological damage we have done.
Indigenous science informs place-specific resource management and land-care practices important for environmental health of tribal and federal lands. We require greater recognition and support for tribal consultation and participation in the co-management, protection, and restoration of our ancestral lands.
Indigenous communities have partnered with Western science to address environmental justice, health disparities, and intergenerational trauma in our communities. We have championed innovation and technology in science from agriculture to medicine. New ecological insights have been generated through sharing of Indigenous science. Indigenous communities and Western science continue to promote diversity within STEM fields. Each year Indigenous people graduate with Ph.D.’s, M.D.’s, M.S.’s and related degrees that benefit our collective societies. We also recognize and promote the advancement of culture-bearers, Elders, hunters and gatherers who strengthen our communities through traditional practices.
Our tribal communities need more culturally embedded scientists and at the same time, institutions of Western science need more Indigenous perspectives. The next generation of scientists needs to be well- positioned for growing collaboration with Indigenous science. Thus we call for enhanced support for inclusion of Indigenous science in mainstream education, for the benefit of all. We envision a productive symbiosis between Indigenous and Western knowledges that serve our shared goals of sustainability for land and culture. This symbiosis requires mutual respect for the intellectual sovereignty of both Indigenous and Western sciences.
As members of the Indigenous science community, we endorse and support the March for Science – and we encourage Indigenous people and allies to participate in the national march in DC or a satellite march. Let us engage the power of both Indigenous and Western science on behalf of the living Earth.
Let our Indigenous voices be heard.
In solidarity,
ADD YOUR NAME BELOW, AND SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES https://sites.google.com/view/indigenous-science-letter
If you are an ally, please write "ally" under tribal affiliation.
To the March for Science, DC and satellite marches across the nation and the world:
As Indigenous scientists, agency professionals, tribal professionals, educators, traditional practitioners, family, youth, elders and allies from Indigenous communities and homelands all over the living Earth we endorse and Support the March for Science.
As original peoples, we have long memories, centuries old wisdom and deep knowledge of this land and the importance of empirical, scientific inquiry as fundamental to the well-being of people and planet.
Let us remember that long before Western science came to these shores, there were Indigenous scientists here. Native astronomers, agronomists, geneticists, ecologists, engineers, botanists, zoologists, watershed hydrologists, pharmacologists, physicians and more—all engaged in the creation and application of knowledge which promoted the flourishing of both human societies and the beings with whom we share the planet. We give gratitude for all their contributions to knowledge. Native science supported indigenous culture, governance and decision making for a sustainable future –the same needs which bring us together today.
As we endorse and support the March for Science, let us acknowledge that there are multiple ways of knowing that play an essential role in advancing knowledge for the health of all life. Science, as concept and process, is translatable into over 500 different Indigenous languages in the U.S. and thousands world-wide. Western science is a powerful approach, but it is not the only one.
Indigenous science provides a wealth of knowledge and a powerful alternative paradigm by which we understand the natural world and our relation to it. Embedded in cultural frameworks of respect, reciprocity, responsibility and reverence for the earth, Indigenous science lies within a worldview where knowledge is coupled to responsibility and human activity is aligned with ecological principles and natural law, rather than against them. We need both ways of knowing if we are to advance knowledge and sustainability.
Let us March not just for Science-but for Sciences!
We acknowledge and honor our ancestors and draw attention to the ways in which Indigenous communities have been negatively impacted by the misguided use of Western scientific research and institutional power. Our communities have been used as research subjects, experienced environmental racism, extractive industries that harm our homelands and have witnessed Indigenous science and the rights of Indigenous peoples dismissed by institutions of Western science.
While Indigenous science is an ancient and dynamic body of knowledge, embedded in sophisticated cultural epistemologies, it has long been marginalized by the institutions of contemporary Western science. However, traditional knowledge is increasingly recognized as a source of concepts, models, philosophies and practices which can inform the design of new sustainability solutions. It is both ancient and urgent.
Indigenous science offers both key insights and philosophical frameworks for problem solving that includes human values, which are much needed as we face challenges such as climate change, sustainable resource management, health disparities and the need for healing the ecological damage we have done.
Indigenous science informs place-specific resource management and land-care practices important for environmental health of tribal and federal lands. We require greater recognition and support for tribal consultation and participation in the co-management, protection, and restoration of our ancestral lands.
Indigenous communities have partnered with Western science to address environmental justice, health disparities, and intergenerational trauma in our communities. We have championed innovation and technology in science from agriculture to medicine. New ecological insights have been generated through sharing of Indigenous science. Indigenous communities and Western science continue to promote diversity within STEM fields. Each year Indigenous people graduate with Ph.D.’s, M.D.’s, M.S.’s and related degrees that benefit our collective societies. We also recognize and promote the advancement of culture-bearers, Elders, hunters and gatherers who strengthen our communities through traditional practices.
Our tribal communities need more culturally embedded scientists and at the same time, institutions of Western science need more Indigenous perspectives. The next generation of scientists needs to be well- positioned for growing collaboration with Indigenous science. Thus we call for enhanced support for inclusion of Indigenous science in mainstream education, for the benefit of all. We envision a productive symbiosis between Indigenous and Western knowledges that serve our shared goals of sustainability for land and culture. This symbiosis requires mutual respect for the intellectual sovereignty of both Indigenous and Western sciences.
As members of the Indigenous science community, we endorse and support the March for Science – and we encourage Indigenous people and allies to participate in the national march in DC or a satellite march. Let us engage the power of both Indigenous and Western science on behalf of the living Earth.
Let our Indigenous voices be heard.
In solidarity,
ADD YOUR NAME BELOW, AND SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES https://sites.google.com/view/indigenous-science-letter
If you are an ally, please write "ally" under tribal affiliation.
Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Native American Studies, Earth Sciences, Environmental Science, Computer Science, and 28 moreInformation Science, Materials Science, Health Sciences, Philosophy of Science, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Social Sciences, Climate Change, Science Education, Indigenous Health, American Indian History, History of Science, Political Science, Indigenous Politics, Science, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous science education, Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Indigenous Communication Theory, History of Indigenous Peoples, American Indian Studies, Climate Science, Indigenous Knowledge and Science, and Nomadic/Indigenous People
Research Interests:
Find at https://inhabitingtheanthropocene.com/2017/01/25/the-roles-for-indigenous-peoples-in-anthropocene-dialogues-some-critical-notes-and-a-question/. I bet there have probably been more than a hundred events organized for the purpose... more
Find at https://inhabitingtheanthropocene.com/2017/01/25/the-roles-for-indigenous-peoples-in-anthropocene-dialogues-some-critical-notes-and-a-question/. I bet there have probably been more than a hundred events organized for the purpose of fostering dialogue of all kinds on what meanings and futures are presupposed by the “anthropocene.” I have been to some of them. However, at least in the North American context, one observation is not lost on me: I have not heard of any Indigenous society or collective, such as an Indigenous people, Indigenous organization, or Indigenous inter-governmental group, holding their own explicitly anthropocene-themed events. Scholars including Zoe Todd, Heather Davis, Audra Mitchell, Vanessa Watts-Powless, Donna Haraway, Noah Theriault, Karsten Schulz, Chris Cuomo, among others too numerous to reference here, are making critical and nuanced points about the euro, settler, and other oppressive assumptions guiding various visions of the anthropocene. They also point out the dangers of either disappearing colonial and other systems of domination in these visions or even naturalizing them, as Mitchell points out well. Todd and Davis, in a forthcoming paper project, discuss how the anthropocene becomes an issue for settler populations when they see themselves at risk for the types of harms associated with the landscape-scale terraforming that settler societies forced onto many Indigenous peoples. Having been engaged in the politics of the anthropocene for about 5 years now, I can definitely identify with much of what the scholars referenced above are describing. Especially since I entered into these dialogues as a Potawatomi scholar working on environmental and climate justice. In this world we live in, there are thousands of topics that get created without the initial leadership or involvement of any Indigenous persons or groups. Yet, in many cases, the outcomes of any actions taken on these topics could affect Indigenous peoples (usually negatively) everywhere. Solar radiation management (geoengineering) is one example. So is the anthropocene, in its many scientific and political meanings. Given more of these topics exist than there are Indigenous persons who have the time to get involved in them or even just respond to myriad invitations to participate, I feel we have to pick carefully what we decide to engage with. Of course, once we decide to engage in dialogues on a topic that was basically created without our leadership or involvement, it is typical that some of the topic’s initiators have already articulated a number of different roles for Indigenous peoples—roles Indigenous peoples can play in absentia or roles they are strongly expected to play when they show up. Indeed, Indigenous persons usually walk right onto well-scripted plots and stages. Regarding the politics of the anthropocene, I have noticed rather informally, through attending events and scanning publications and having text-message exchanges with various people, that there are at least three roles in anthropocene dialogues that are already scripted for Indigenous peoples. And perhaps these roles are not so different from those Indigenous peoples have been expected to play in their engagement with other environmental topics and environmental movements.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Political Philosophy, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Participatory Research, and 25 moreParticipatory Action Research, Political Ecology, Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Sustainable Development, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Sustainability (Organisational Strategy), Indigenous Knowledge, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Diversity & Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Social Inclusion, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Environmental Humanities, Political Ecology (Anthropology), Anthropocene studies, Climate Justice, American Indian Studies, Anthropocene, Ontological Turn, and Sustainability
I posted these resources for people interested teaching NoDAPL in ethics and other philosophy courses, but they are certainly relevant to a broader range of courses. All the links should work in this document, but the exact same list and... more
I posted these resources for people interested teaching NoDAPL in ethics and other philosophy courses, but they are certainly relevant to a broader range of courses. All the links should work in this document, but the exact same list and links are on my webpage (links definitely work there), http://kylewhyte.cal.msu.edu/nodapl/. I hope these materials are helpful to you. They include some of my work on NoDAPL, the excellent syllabus resources and writing of Indigenous Studies scholars, the online essays and articles of both NoDAPL and pro-Pipeline advocates, and some of the primary source documents surrounding the situation.
Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Social Movements, Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Environmental Economics, and 46 morePhilosophy, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Science, Normative Ethics, Applied Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education, Environmental Law, Political Theory, American Indian History, Resilience, Environmental Studies, Virtue Ethics, Environmental History, Social Movement, Water quality, Sustainable Development, Environmental Management, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Environmental Policy and Governance, Environmental Politics, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Pipeline, Social movements and revolution, Environmental Justice, Global Environmental Change, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Social and Political Philosophy, Contemporary Political Theory, Earth and Environmental Sciences, International Political Theory, Ethics and economics, Climate Justice, Decolonial Thought, American Indian Studies, Environmental Sciences, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Decolonization, Anti-Colonialism, Global (North/South) Environmental Politics, Pipeline Issues, and Dakota Access Pipeline
Short piece on #NoDAPL and decolonization and climate justice for Indigenous peoples: Over the past months, hundreds of indigenous persons and their allies have gathered near the crossing of the Missouri and Cannon Ball rivers in the... more
Short piece on #NoDAPL and decolonization and climate justice for Indigenous peoples: Over the past months, hundreds of indigenous persons and their allies have gathered near the crossing of the Missouri and Cannon Ball rivers in the ancestral territories of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Using nonviolent means, their goal is to stop the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that would connect production fields in North Dakota to refineries in Illinois. Their primary fear is that an oil leak would threaten water quality for many members of the tribal community. On Sept. 9, a federal judge denied the tribe’s request for an injunction to halt completion of the pipeline. But shortly after, federal officials said they would temporarily stop construction pending further review. As a scholar of indigenous studies and environmental justice, I’ve been following these developments closely. The pipeline’s construction has already destroyed some of the tribe’s sacred burial grounds. During protests, the protectors – as many gatherers prefer to be called – have endured violence, including being pepper-sprayed, attacked by dogs, denied nourishment and threatened by lawsuits. But despite the national attention to this case, one point has gone largely ignored in my view: Stopping DAPL is a matter of climate justice and decolonization for indigenous peoples. It may not always be apparent to people outside these communities, but standing up for water quality and heritage are intrinsically tied to these larger issues.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, American Indian History, Climate Change Adaptation, and 11 moreClimate change policy, Sustainable Development, Social Justice, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Climate Justice, American Indian Studies, and Dakota Access Pipeline
The denial of ACE’s easement is undoubtedly a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux. The tribe and its allies in the #NoDAPL movement opposed the pipeline over risks to water quality, the destruction of cultural heritage and the injustice... more
The denial of ACE’s easement is undoubtedly a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux. The tribe and its allies in the #NoDAPL movement opposed the pipeline over risks to water quality, the destruction of cultural heritage and the injustice of, once again, having to make sacrifices for the economic gains of others. But as we start a new year, many people are convinced that the need for resistance has not ended even after the tribe’s monumental victory. As an indigenous scholar and activist, I agree that the water protectors’ underlying causes in this high-profile resistance have not been addressed – even if ETP truly halts all construction. Here are five developments people should consider as the incoming Trump administration takes power. Article web location is: https://theconversation.com/five-reasons-why-the-north-dakota-pipeline-fight-will-continue-in-2017-70782
Research Interests: Business, Business Ethics, Native American Studies, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, and 24 moreIndigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Environmental policy, Indigenous Health, Community Resilience, Resilience, Sustainable Development, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Environmental Policy and Governance, Native American Literature (Literature), Sustainable Water Resources Management, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Native American Anthropology, Native American (History), American Indian Studies, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, Enivronmental Policy, and Dakota Access Pipeline
The following are some reflections from my own experiences in academic peer review in the case of some types of Indigenous scholarship. My reflections are prompted by some recent controversies over the scholarly quality of the academic... more
The following are some reflections from my own experiences in academic peer review in the case of some types of Indigenous scholarship. My reflections are prompted by some recent controversies over the scholarly quality of the academic peer review of articles. Though I focus only on my experiences, outside and inside the field of philosophy, regarding Indigenous scholarship and academic peer review processes. A few paragraphs posted here on academial.edu, read the entire article on DailyNous at http://dailynous.com/2017/05/07/systematic-discrimination-peer-review-reflections/.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Native American Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Science, and 15 moreIndigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Peer Assessment, Research Ethics, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Critical Race Theory, Discrimination, Native American, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Peer-to-Peer, Indigenous Peoples, Peer Review, Decolonizing Methodologies, Aboriginal Studies, and Decolonizing Philosophies and Methodologies of Education and Educational Policy Studies
The Native American-led protest against the Dakota Access pipeline has gained global attention. In an e360 interview by Katherine Bagley, Kyle Powys Whyte talks about the history of fossil fuel production on tribal lands and the role... more
The Native American-led protest against the Dakota Access pipeline has gained global attention. In an e360 interview by Katherine Bagley, Kyle Powys Whyte talks about the history of fossil fuel production on tribal lands and the role native groups are playing in fighting climate change. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/at_standing_rock_battle_over_fossil_fuels_and_land/3052/
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Sustainable Development, Environmental Ethics, and 10 moreIndigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Climate Justice, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights, Water Rights, Extractive industries, and Dakota Access Pipeline
A growing body of literature examines the vulnerability, risk, resilience, and adaptation of indigenous peoples to climate change. This synthesis of literature brings together research pertaining to the impacts of climate change on... more
A growing body of literature examines the vulnerability, risk, resilience, and adaptation of indigenous peoples to climate change. This synthesis of literature brings together research pertaining to the impacts of climate change on sovereignty, culture, health, and economies that are currently being experienced by Alaska Native and American Indian tribes and other indigenous communities in the United States. The knowledge and science of how climate change impacts are affecting indigenous peoples contributes to the development of policies, plans, and programs for adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This report defines and describes the key frameworks that inform indigenous understandings of climate change impacts and pathways for adaptation and mitigation, namely, tribal sovereignty and self-determination, culture and cultural identity, and indigenous community health indicators. It also provides a comprehensive synthesis of climate knowledge, science, and strategies that indigenous communities are exploring, as well as an understanding of the gaps in research on these issues. This literature synthesis is intended to make a contribution to future efforts such as the 4th National Climate Assessment, while serving as a resource for future research, tribal and agency climate initiatives, and policy development.
Norton-Smith, Kathryn; Lynn, Kathy; Chief, Karletta; Cozzetto, Karen; Donatuto, Jamie; Hiza Redsteer, Margaret; Kruger, Linda E.; Maldonado, Julie; Viles, Carson; Whyte, Kyle P. 2016. Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-944. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 1-138.
Norton-Smith, Kathryn; Lynn, Kathy; Chief, Karletta; Cozzetto, Karen; Donatuto, Jamie; Hiza Redsteer, Margaret; Kruger, Linda E.; Maldonado, Julie; Viles, Carson; Whyte, Kyle P. 2016. Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-944. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 1-138.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Community Resilience, Climate Change Adaptation, and 22 moreResilience, Adaptation to Climate Change, Climate change policy, Sustainable Development, Indigenous Knowledge, Risk Management, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Climate Change Impacts, Climate Justice, Indigenous knowledge systems, Climate Change and Food Security, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, Climate Change in Developing Countries, Indigenous People and Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change, and EFFECTIVENESS OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION ON AGRICULTURE
Indigenous peoples are among the most audible voices in the global climate justice movement. Yet, as I will show in this chapter, climate injustice is a recent episode of a cyclical history of colonialism inflicting anthropogenic... more
Indigenous peoples are among the most audible voices in the global climate justice movement. Yet, as I will show in this chapter, climate injustice is a recent episode of a cyclical history of colonialism inflicting anthropogenic (human-caused) environmental change on Indigenous peoples (Wildcat). Indigenous peoples face climate risks largely because of how colonialism, in conjunction with capitalist economics, shapes the geographic spaces they live in and their socio-economic conditions. In the North American settler colonial context, which I focus on in this chapter, U.S. settler colonial laws, policies and programs are ‘both’ a significant factor in opening up Indigenous territories for carbon-intensive economic activities and, at the same time, a significant factor in why Indigenous peoples face heightened climate risks. Climate injustice, for Indigenous peoples, is less about the spectre of a new future and more like the experience of déjà vu.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Political Philosophy, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, and 19 moreClimate Change Adaptation, Adaptation to Climate Change, Climate change policy, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change Impacts, Native American Anthropology, Climate ethics, Climate Justice, global Climate change, Climate Change and Food Security, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Climate Politics
Anthropocene discourse often describes futures characterized by climate destabilization leading to the extinction of certain species. Often these futures are described using dystopian themes. As a Potawatomi person and scholar-activist, I... more
Anthropocene discourse often describes futures characterized by climate destabilization leading to the extinction of certain species. Often these futures are described using dystopian themes. As a Potawatomi person and scholar-activist, I wondered how might some Indigenous peoples interpret such futures? While similarities are present given Indigenous concern with conserving native species, it is more accurate to claim that indigenous conservationists focus more on sustaining particular plants and animals whose lives are entangled locally, over many generations, in ecological, cultural and economic relationships with human societies. Indigenous peoples learn from, adapt, and put in practice these relationships to address the conservation challenges we face today, especially the environmental destruction of settler colonialism in North America. What is more, the environmental impacts of settler colonialism have made it so that quite a few indigenous peoples in North America are already no longer able to relate locally to many of the plants and animals that are significant to them. In the Anthropocene, then, some indigenous peoples already inhabit what our ancestors would have likely characterized as a dystopian future. So we consider the future from what we believe is already a dystopia. The paper explores these ideas in relation to case examples from Indigenous conservation and restoration.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, and 26 moreConservation Biology, Conservation, Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience, Environmental Studies, Climate change policy, Indigenous Politics, Cultural Heritage Conservation, Heritage Conservation, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Food Sovereignty, Climate Change Impacts, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Anthropocene studies, Climate Justice, American Indian Studies, Anthropocene, Culture and the Anthropocene, and The Anthropocene
2016. In Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race. Edited by N. Zack, 91-101. Oxford University Press. Written for the field of philosophy, Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Race: In the US context, Indigenous identity presents many... more
2016. In Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race. Edited by N. Zack, 91-101. Oxford University Press. Written for the field of philosophy, Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Race: In the US context, Indigenous identity presents many difficulties, ranging from problematic understandings of blood degree to peculiar census definitions to accusations of identity fraud. I will discuss in this essay a brief outline of my view that these difficulties are oppressive dilemmas and disappearances that are built into those structures of US settler colonialism that seek to erase us in our own homelands. Looking forward, I will appeal to Kim TallBear’s work, which I will interpret in relation to my own work on environmental justice, to suggest at least one possible alternative for addressing issues associated with Indigeneity and settler erasure.
Research Interests: Ethnic Studies, Native American Studies, Philosophy, Philosophy of Biology, Indigenous Studies, and 19 moreRacial and Ethnic Politics, Critical Race Studies, Race and Racism, Critical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Identity politics, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Philosophy Of Race, Native American, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Indigenous Peoples, Ethnicity, Critical Mixed Race Studies, Settler Colonial Studies, Ethnicity and National Identity, Federal Indian Law, Critical Philosophy of Race, Indigenous Identity, and Philosophy of Race and Racism
Literature Review: Despite its relevance, little research has analyzed the ways in which gender shapes climate change experiences. Even less research has focused on the impacts of climate change on Indigenous masculinity. With this... more
Literature Review: Despite its relevance, little research has analyzed the ways in which gender shapes climate change experiences. Even less research has focused on the impacts of climate change on Indigenous masculinity. With this backdrop, we foreground Indigenous men and masculinities with respect to climate change vulnerability and resilience. We open this chapter by briefly describing pre-contact Indigenous conceptions of gender in the U.S., followed by a discussion of how settlement has affected gender roles, relations, and gendered traditional knowledge in Indigenous communities. We then describe some of the ways in which Indigeneity and masculinity are intersecting (or may intersect) with climate change in four key arenas: health, migration and displacement, economic and professional development, and culture. We follow this with a discussion of Indigenous men's roles in political resistance and climate change resilience. We conclude by summarizing the key implications for Indigenous climate change initiatives and for the ongoing reconstruction and reassertion of Indigenous gender identities.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Gender Studies, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Sex and Gender, and 38 moreFeminist Theory, Climate Change, Gender History, Indigenous Health, American Indian History, Climate Change Adaptation, Adaptation to Climate Change, Climate change policy, Gender and Sexuality, Indigenous Politics, Gender, Gender Equality, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Feminism, Theories of Gender and Transgender, Postcolonial Feminism, Gender and Development, Black feminism, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Transnational Feminism, Feminist Literary Theory and Gender Studies, Climate Change Impacts, Feminism and Social Justice, Climate ethics, Climate Justice, Indigenous Feminisms, Women and Gender Studies, American Indian Studies, Climate Change and Food Security, Indigenous Feminisms, Native Pacific Islander Cultural Studies, Transnational Genders and Sexualities, Climate Change in Developing Countries, Latin American feminisms, Indigenous Feminism, and Indigenous Feminist Theories
Whyte, K.P. 2015. Indigenous Food Systems, Environmental Justice and Settler Industrial-States. Global Food, Global Justice: Essays on Eating under Globalization. Edited by M. Rawlinson & C. Ward, 143-156, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.... more
Whyte, K.P. 2015. Indigenous Food Systems, Environmental Justice and Settler Industrial-States. Global Food, Global Justice: Essays on Eating under Globalization. Edited by M. Rawlinson & C. Ward, 143-156, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Environmental injustices impacting Indigenous peoples across the globe are often described as wrongful disruptions of Indigenous food systems imposed by settler-industrial states such as the U.S. I will discuss how focusing on Indigenous food systems suggests a conception of the structure of environmental injustice as interference in Indigenous peoples’ collective capacities to self-determine how they adapt to metascale forces, from climate change to economic transitions. This conception of environmental justice can be contrasted to conceptions focusing on wrongfully disproportionate allocations of environmental hazards. I conclude by making a connection between environmental justice, the movements of global settler-industrial states, and the food and environmental justice issues of other populations, such as African-Americans in the Detroit, Michigan area.
Environmental injustices impacting Indigenous peoples across the globe are often described as wrongful disruptions of Indigenous food systems imposed by settler-industrial states such as the U.S. I will discuss how focusing on Indigenous food systems suggests a conception of the structure of environmental injustice as interference in Indigenous peoples’ collective capacities to self-determine how they adapt to metascale forces, from climate change to economic transitions. This conception of environmental justice can be contrasted to conceptions focusing on wrongfully disproportionate allocations of environmental hazards. I conclude by making a connection between environmental justice, the movements of global settler-industrial states, and the food and environmental justice issues of other populations, such as African-Americans in the Detroit, Michigan area.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, and 27 moreIndigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Environmental Education, Environmental Studies, Indigenous Politics, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Environmental Policy and Governance, Justice, Environmental Politics, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Food Sovereignty, 'Decolonization' and the politics of settler state/Indigenous relations, Settler Colonial Studies, Decolonial Thought, Settler Colonialism & Its Legacies, American Indian Studies, Environmental Racism, Food Justice, Settler/Indigenous relations, Settler colonialism, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Social aspects of food production and ecological farming systems, and Nomadic/Indigenous People
The Flint water crisis was a preventable tragedy that has decimated an entire community. This crisis is particularly appalling because Flint is an Environmental Justice community –a community in which the majority of its residents are... more
The Flint water crisis was a preventable tragedy that has decimated an entire community. This crisis is particularly appalling because Flint is an Environmental Justice community –a community in which the majority of its residents are racial minorities, many of whom live below the poverty level, and bear the disproportionate burdens of environmental risks. As this vulnerable community continues to suffer, we at the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition are reminded of the Michigan Environmental Justice Plan, and how its implementation may have helped to prevent this catastrophe from happening.
Research Interests: Criminal Justice, Ethics, Environmental Law, Access to Justice, Water, and 22 moreWater quality, Water resources, Social Justice, Water and wastewater treatment, Global Justice, Environmental Ethics, Water Treatment, Justice, Theories of Justice, Social Justice in Education, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Educational Equity and Justice, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Watershed Hydrology, Water Pollution, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), International Environmental Law, Environmental Justice (Sustainability), Feminism and Social Justice, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Michigan History
Environmental justice (EJ) commonly refers to the problem that people of color, Indigenous peoples, women and people with disabilities, among others, are more likely than privileged white populations to live in toxic environments that are... more
Environmental justice (EJ) commonly refers to the problem that people of color, Indigenous peoples, women and people with disabilities, among others, are more likely than privileged white populations to live in toxic environments that are bad for human health and community cohesion. The idea underlying this conception of EJ is that justice concerns how the distribution of certain environmental nuisances, such as pollution, or environmentally-related harms, such as asthma in children, burden populations who already face multiple forms of oppression, from structural racism to systemic poverty. Environmental nuisances and harms are treated as so many objects or states of affairs for which social institutions bear responsibility either to distribute equitably or to strive to lessen and, if possible, eliminate. The conception of EJ just outlined covers many important dimensions of the nature of injustice, especially the impact of social institutions on the distribution of environmental quality across different populations. Yet Indigenous peoples’ EJ movements and scholarly work focus on additional dimensions of injustice beyond the responsibility of social institutions for the distribution of nuisances, harms and goods. For many Indigenous peoples, I will argue, injustice also occurs when the social institutions of one society systematically erase certain social-ecological contexts, or horizons, that are vital for members of another society to experience themselves in the world as having responsibilities to other humans, nonhumans and the environment. Injustice, here, involves one society robbing another society of its capacities to experience the world as a place of collective life that its members feel responsible for maintaining into the future. I seek to show how this understanding of environmental injustice is highlighted in theories and research from the domain of Indigenous peoples and settler colonialism. Settler colonialism can be interpreted as a form of environmental injustice that wrongfully interferes with and erases the social-ecological contexts required for Indigenous populations to experience the world as a place infused with responsibilities to humans, nonhumans and ecosystems.
Forthcoming in Nature and Experience: Phenomenology and the Environment. Edited by B. Bannon. Rowman & Littlefield.
Forthcoming in Nature and Experience: Phenomenology and the Environment. Edited by B. Bannon. Rowman & Littlefield.
Research Interests: Landscape Ecology, Native American Studies, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, and 22 morePolitical Ecology, Landscape Architecture, Phenomenology, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Phenomenology of the body, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Architecture and Phenomenology, Phenomenology of Space and Place, Ecophenomenology, Phenomenology of Temporality, Settler Colonial Studies, Feminism and Social Justice, Experience, South American Indians, Settler colonialism, and Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection
Indigenous peoples in North America have a long history of understanding their societies as having an intimate relationship with their physical environments. Their cultures, traditions, and identities are based on the ecosystems and... more
Indigenous peoples in North America have a long history of understanding their societies as having an intimate relationship with their physical environments. Their cultures, traditions, and identities are based on the ecosystems and sacred places that shape their world. Their respect for their ancestors and 'Mother Earth' speaks of unique value and knowledge systems different than the value and knowledge systems of the dominant United States settler society. The value and knowledge systems of each indigenous and non-indigenous community are different but collide when water resources are endangered. One of the challenges that face indigenous people regarding the management of water relates to their opposition to the commodification of water for availability to select individuals. External researchers seeking to work with indigenous peoples on water research or management must learn how to design research or water management projects that respect indigenous cultural contexts, histories of interactions with settler governments and researchers, and the current socioeconomic and political situations in which indigenous peoples are embedded. They should pay particular attention to the process of collaborating on water resource topics and management with and among indigenous communities while integrating Western and indigenous sciences in ways that are beneficial to both knowledge systems. The objectives of this paper are to (1) to provide an overview of the context of current indigenous water management issues, especially for the U.S. federally recognized tribes in the Southwestern United States; (2) to synthesize approaches to engage indigenous persons, communities, and governments on water resources topics and management; and (3) to compare the successes of engaging Southwestern tribes in five examples to highlight some significant activities for collaborating with tribes on water resources research and management. In discussing the engagement approaches of these five selected cases, we considered the four " simple rules " of tribal research, which are to ask about ethics, do more listening, follow tribal research protocols, and give back to the community. For the five select cases of collaboration involving Southwestern tribes, the success of external researchers with the tribes involved comprehensive engagement of diverse tribal audience from grassroots level to central tribal government, tribal oversight, ongoing dialogue, transparency of data, and reporting back. There is a strong recognition of the importance of engaging tribal participants in water management discussions particularly with pressing impacts of drought, climate change, and mining and defining water rights.
Research Interests: Social Psychology, Indigenous Studies, Water, Action Research (Indigenous Health), Indigenous Research Methodologies, and 13 moreWater quality, Sustainable Development, Water resources, Collaboration, Indigenous Knowledge, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Water Pollution, American Indian Studies, Tribal studies, and Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights, Water Rights
Indigenous peoples often embrace different versions of the concept of food sovereignty. Yet some of these concepts are seemingly based on impossible ideals of food self-sufficiency. I will suggest in this essay that for at least some... more
Indigenous peoples often embrace different versions of the concept of food sovereignty. Yet some of these concepts are seemingly based on impossible ideals of food self-sufficiency. I will suggest in this essay that for at least some North American Indigenous peoples, food sovereignty movements are not based on such ideals, even though they invoke concepts of cultural revitalization and political sovereignty. Instead, food sovereignty is a strategy of Indigenous resurgence that negotiates structures of settler colonialism that erase the ecological value of certain foods for Indigenous peoples.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Studies, Food Security and Insecurity, and 16 moreEnvironmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Environmental Policy and Governance, Food and Nutrition, Environmental Politics, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Food Sovereignty, Food Science and Technology, Food Security, Philosophy of Food, Food Security and Social Justice, Food Justice, Food System Sustainability,Food Security and Food Sovereignity, and Food Sovereignty & Food Security
The proceedings of the National Science Foundation supported WIS2DOM workshop state that sustainability scientists must respect the “protocols” of practitioners of Indigenous sciences if the practitioners of the two knowledge systems are... more
The proceedings of the National Science Foundation supported WIS2DOM workshop state that sustainability scientists must respect the “protocols” of practitioners of Indigenous sciences if the practitioners of the two knowledge systems are to learn from each other. Indigenous persons at the workshop described protocols as referring to attitudes about how to approach the world that are inseparable from how people approach scientific inquiry; they used the terms caretaking and stewardship to characterize protocols in their Indigenous communities and nations. Yet sustainability scientists may be rather mystified by the idea of protocols as a necessary dimension of scientific inquiry. Moreover, the terms stewardship and caretaking are seldom used in sustainability science. In this case report, the authors seek to elaborate on some possible meanings of protocols for sustainability scientists who may be unaccustomed to talking about stewardship and caretaking in relation to scientific inquiry. To do so, the authors describe cases of Indigenous protocols in action in relation to scientific inquiry in two Indigenous-led sustainability initiatives in the Great Lakes/Midwest North American region. We claim that each case expresses concepts of stewardship and caretaking to describe protocols in which humans approach the world with the attitude of respectful partners in genealogical relationships of interconnected humans, non-human beings, entities and collectives who have reciprocal responsibilities to one another. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of Indigenous protocols for future dialog between practitioners of sustainability and Indigenous sciences.
Research Interests: Environmental Science, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Environmental Education, and 27 moreEnvironmental Law, Conservation Biology, Conservation, Ethics & Social Sustainability, Community Resilience, Resilience, Environmental Studies, Sustainability in Higher Education, Indigenous Politics, Environmental Management, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Conservation theory and ethics, Resilience (Sustainability), Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous science education, Environmental Virtue Ethics, Environmental ethics (Philosophy) (Philosophy), Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Indigenous Communication Theory, Sustainability Science, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, Environmental Ethics and Environmental Issues, and Nomadic/Indigenous People
Indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics offer a range of related ideas and tools for environmental ethics. These ethics delve into deep connections and moral commitments between nonhumans and humans to guide ethical forms of... more
Indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics offer a range of related ideas and tools for environmental ethics. These ethics delve into deep connections and moral commitments between nonhumans and humans to guide ethical forms of environmental decision making and environmental science. Indigenous and feminist movements such as the Mother Earth Water Walk and the Green Belt Movement are ongoing examples of the effectiveness of on-the-ground environmental care ethics. Indigenous ethics highlight attentive caring for the intertwined needs of humans and nonhumans within interdependent communities. Feminist environmental care ethics emphasize the importance of empowering communities to care for themselves and the social and ecological communities in which their lives and interests are interwoven. The gendered, feminist, historical, and anticolonial dimensions of care ethics, indigenous ethics, and other related approaches provide rich ground for rethinking and reclaiming the nature and depth of diverse relationships as the fabric of social and ecological being.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Gender Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Applied Ethics, and 20 moreIndigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Feminist Theory, Virtue Ethics, Feminist Philosophy, Indigenous Politics, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Feminism, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Feminist Ethics, Care Ethics, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, Feminist ethics (Philosophy), Caring / Care Ethics, The Ethics of Care, Ethics of Care, and Maternal Ethics
Short article in the Tribal Newspaper of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Hownikan focusing on the importance of Potawatomi and other Indigenous peoples taking leadership on addressing climate change issues.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Sustainable Development, and 7 moreIndigenous Knowledge, Native American Literature (Literature), Environmental Sustainability, Oklahoma history, Potawatomi, Chippewa-Ottawa-Potawatomi Studies, and Prairie Band Potawatomi
From U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit: The Institute—a regional service provider for many Tribal Nations—has developed a unique sustainable development model that incorporates traditional knowledges.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Environmental Science, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Forestry, and 14 moreClimate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Sustainable Development, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, American Indian Studies, Community Forestry, Climate Science, Sustainability, and Menominees
Kyle Powys Whyte, the Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at MSU's College of Arts & Letters, was awarded the 2015 Bunyan Bryant award for academic excellence. Dr. Whyte received the award in Detroit, MI as... more
Kyle Powys Whyte, the Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at MSU's College of Arts & Letters, was awarded the 2015 Bunyan Bryant award for academic excellence. Dr. Whyte received the award in Detroit, MI as part of the Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ) 20th anniversary celebration at the Adventure Center on the Detroit riverfront.
Research Interests: Indigenous Studies, Environmental Studies, Social Justice, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, and 10 moreIndigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Peoples, Food Sovereignty, Environmental Justice (Sustainability), American Indian Studies, Environmental Racism, Food Justice, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Social and Environmental Justice
From special issue of "Peer Review" on "Rethinking Preparation for Work: A Civic-Enriched Liberal Education" (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview). Scientists, medical practitioners, and other “specialists” certainly must be prepared to cope... more
From special issue of "Peer Review" on "Rethinking Preparation for Work: A Civic-Enriched Liberal Education" (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview). Scientists, medical practitioners, and other “specialists” certainly must be prepared to cope with public controversies related to their work: from scientists who serve on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to medical researchers and health professionals who explain the dangers of opting out of required vaccinations for personal, not medical, reasons. In many cases, scientists and medical practitioners play an active role in public deliberation on crucial issues. Yet to what degree does higher education in science, medicine, and other technical areas prepare students for these challenges as well as foster deeper knowledge and respect for the communities affected? We write this essay to suggest ideas based on our combined experiences about how the curriculum provides this preparation.
Research Interests: Philosophy of Science, Teaching and Learning, Environmental Education, Participatory Action Research, Science Education, and 8 moreEngineering Education, Indigenous education, Medical Education, Service Learning, Public Understanding Of Science, Community-Based Participatory Research, Science and Mathematics Education, and Town Gown
Hoping to improve Native American tribes’ access to climate science tools, a Michigan State University researcher will use a four-year $450,000 National Science Foundation grant to foster better relations between tribes and scientific... more
Hoping to improve Native American tribes’ access to climate science tools, a Michigan State University researcher will use a four-year $450,000 National Science Foundation grant to foster better relations between tribes and scientific organizations when dealing with climate change.
Research Interests: Environmental Engineering, Native American Studies, Earth Sciences, Environmental Science, Ethics, and 23 moreApplied Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Environmental Education, Climate Change, Research Ethics, Climate Change Adaptation, Environmental Studies, Adaptation to Climate Change, Climate change policy, Sustainable Development, Environmental Management, Environmental Ethics, Climate change biology, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Sustainability, Climate Change Impacts, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Earth System Science, global Climate change, Climate Science, Climate Change and Food Security, Climate Change in Developing Countries, and Science Of Climate Change
An essay exploring the ethical philosophy behind Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives. The essay can be found here,... more
An essay exploring the ethical philosophy behind Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives. The essay can be found here, http://earthzine.org/2015/07/31/the-ethics-of-traditional-knowledge-exchange-in-climate-change-initiatives/. Climate scientists, policymakers and the growing community of citizens engaged in observing global change are increasingly turning to traditional knowledges of indigenous peoples to improve understanding of and strategies for adaptation and mitigation. Indigenous peoples are also recognizing the value of methods and information from western climate science, such as models, risk and vulnerability assessments and monitoring strategies. Unfortunately, policymakers who design and implement climate change initiatives frequently overlook indigenous peoples. While they call for access to traditional knowledge to help inform choices for preparation, adaptation or mitigation in response to climate change, they have little awareness of real risks of harm when indigenous peoples share their traditional knowledges. Currently, there are few protections to ensure that traditional knowledges will remain the property of the indigenous peoples or knowledge holders who choose to share traditional knowledges. These Guidelines are intended to promote the use of traditional knowledges in climate change initiatives in such a way as to protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples, promote greater collaboration with scientists and government professionals and increase indigenous representation in climate change initiatives such as those of the U.S. federal government.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Ethics, Applied Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, and 27 moreClimate Change, Research Ethics, Indigenous Health, Action Research (Indigenous Health), Climate Change Adaptation, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Adaptation to Climate Change, Climate change policy, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Native American, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Traditional Environmental Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous ecological knowledges and practices, Traditional Knowledge, Climate Change Impacts, Climate Research, South American Indians, Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights, Climate Science, Environmental health, Traditional ecological knowledge climate change, Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptations and Vulnerability Environmental Studies: Toxicology and Pollution In Aquatic Ecosystem, Environmental Social Sciences Fisheries, Nomadic/Indigenous People, Science Of Climate Change, and Philosophy of Climate Science
Whyte, K.P. 2016. Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions. Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory. Edited by T. Gabrielson, C. Hall, J. Meyer & D. Schlosberg, 563-580. Oxford University... more
Whyte, K.P. 2016. Indigenous Environmental Movements and the Function of Governance Institutions. Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory. Edited by T. Gabrielson, C. Hall, J. Meyer & D. Schlosberg, 563-580. Oxford University Press.
Indigenous environmental movements have been important actors in twentieth- and twenty-first-century global environmental politics and environmental justice. Their explicit foci range from the protection of indigenous environmental stewardship systems to upholding and expanding treaty responsibilities to securing indigenous rights in law and policy. This chapter suggests that these movements open important intellectual spaces for thinking about the function of environmental governance institutions in addressing complex environmental issues such as clean water and forest conservation. Different from institutional functions based on market mechanisms or appeals to human psychological tendencies, a variety of indigenous environmentalists suggest that institutions should function to convene reciprocal responsibilities across relatives as diverse as humans, non-human beings such as plants, entities such as water, and collectives such as forests.
Indigenous environmental movements have been important actors in twentieth- and twenty-first-century global environmental politics and environmental justice. Their explicit foci range from the protection of indigenous environmental stewardship systems to upholding and expanding treaty responsibilities to securing indigenous rights in law and policy. This chapter suggests that these movements open important intellectual spaces for thinking about the function of environmental governance institutions in addressing complex environmental issues such as clean water and forest conservation. Different from institutional functions based on market mechanisms or appeals to human psychological tendencies, a variety of indigenous environmentalists suggest that institutions should function to convene reciprocal responsibilities across relatives as diverse as humans, non-human beings such as plants, entities such as water, and collectives such as forests.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, and 19 morePolitical Theory, Environmental Studies, Indigenous Research Methodologies, Sustainable Development, Indigenous Politics, Institutional Theory, International Political Economy, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, Environmental Policy and Governance, Environmental Politics, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Environmental Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Indigenous Peoples, First Nations of Canada, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Environmental justice, global sustainability, Environmental Politics and Governance, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability. Global Development and Environmental Protection, and Sustainabiility
This book examines the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and how it can provide models for a time-tested form of sustainability needed in the world today. The essays, written by a team of scholars from diverse... more
This book examines the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and how it can provide models for a time-tested form of sustainability needed in the world today. The essays, written by a team of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, explore TEK through compelling cases of environmental sustainability from multiple tribal and geographic locations in North America and beyond. Addressing the philosophical issues concerning indigenous and ecological knowledge production and maintenance, they focus on how environmental values and ethics are applied to the uses of land.Grounded in an understanding of the profound relationship between biological and cultural diversity, this book defines, interrogates, and problematizes, the many definitions of traditional ecological knowledge and sustainability. It includes a holistic and broad disciplinary approach to sustainability, including language, art, and ceremony, as critical ways to maintain healthy human-environment relations.
Research Interests: Native American Studies, Ethics & Social Sustainability, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Environmental Ethics, Indigenous Knowledge, and 6 moreEnvironmental Sustainability, Ecological restoration, Native Science, Indigenous Land Rights, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights, Water Rights, and Indigenous Philosophy
We invite applications to the inaugural meeting of the Colby Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities. In this Mellon Foundation-funded institute, participants will work closely with seminar leaders Amanda Boetzkes, Stephanie... more
We invite applications to the inaugural meeting of the Colby Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities. In this Mellon Foundation-funded institute, participants will work closely with seminar leaders Amanda Boetzkes, Stephanie LeMenager, and Kyle Whyte for an intensive week of collaborative seminars and workshops on contemporary issues in the field. Applications are due Feb. 1, 2019.
More information can be found at colby.edu/EHSummerInstitute.
More information can be found at colby.edu/EHSummerInstitute.