Visionary policy: The Tribal Water Stories Project

Graduation Date

2014

Document Type

Project

Program

Other

Program

Project (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, Social Science: Environment and Community, 2014

Committee Chair Name

Marlon Sherman

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

European colonization, Tribal Water Stories, Humboldt State University -- Projects -- Environment and Community, Indigenous people

Abstract

Human beings have inhabited North America for centuries. From the beginning they told stories - stories of creation, values, consequences of one's actions, and respect for all living things. Due to European colonization many tribes were displaced and their land lost for the sake of progress. Developers seized the lands and natural resources. Tribes have been overlooked for centuries. Their ongoing marginalization and acculturation is part of the continuing attempts of genocide against the Indigenous peoples that inhabit the lands we now call California. Part of the genocide has been to take the land and water from Indigenous people without regard to their religious and beneficial sound ecological use of this resources. Clean water is essential to life. This is a deeply held feeling for Indigenous people as water is one of the elements necessary to carry on the Native cultural, traditional way of life. For this project, I was the coordinator and video editor for the Tribal Water Stories. The project consists of personal testimonies about water that were recorded during the first California Tribal Water Summit proceedings, Protect Our Sacred Water, November 4 - 5, 2009, in Sacramento, California. The oral stories and subsequent analysis provide the basis for this current research. Conclusions drawn from this analysis shed light on a dark void that exists between an Indigenous world view and a European overlay imposed on the American West.

https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/z890rw65f

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