<+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+>
 

>Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 09:50:49 -0800
>From: Native Americas Journal <bfw2@cornell.edu>
>Subject: In the Arctic, Ice is Life-And it's Disappearing
>
>The following article is provided from Native Americas' special-issue
>on "Global Warming, Climate Change and Native Lands." Published by
>the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University's American Indian Program,
>Native Americas Journal keeps you informed of issues and events that
>impact indigenous communities throughout the hemisphere. You can find
>more information on this topic, as well as how to subscribe to Native
>Americas on our website at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----------------------------
>
>In the Arctic, Ice is Life-And it's Disappearing
>By Fidel Moreno/Native Americas Journal
>© Copyright 2000
>
>Last November in Albuquerque, N.Mex., Native leaders, elders,
>researchers, and community members from throughout Indian Country
>were brought together with some of the leading NASA scientists and
>researchers to discuss local, regional and global climate changes and
>to listen to Native experiences and observations. At the "Circles of
>Wisdom" Native Peoples/Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop,
>Caleb Pungowiyi, a Yupik Native from Nome, Alaska was among the
>presenters. Pungowiyi, the director of natural resources with
>Kawerak, Inc., and a member of the Qewami clan, addressed the impact
>of climate change in the Arctic region and the effects on Native
>peoples. Fidel Moreno, a Yaqui/Huichol writer, interviewed many of
>the conference participants. Native Americas has excerpted Moreno's
>interview with Pungowiyi here.
>
>Native Americas: Caleb, you come from a community that survives by
>the ocean. Tell us more about your life there.
>
>Caleb Pungowiyi: The village I come from, Savoonga, is a very small
>community of about 500 people. Savoonga means the land where the
>water is squeezed out of it. We primarily live off of resources from
>the sea. We are a small island, harvesting seals, walrus, polar bear,
>whales, and other food from the sea such as salmon, trout, whitefish,
>and other fish. Before the white man came, we had about 20
>communities on the island that we could identify. Then when the
>whalers came in the 1800s, and started decimating whales and walruses
>in the Bering Sea, it had a dramatic impact on our people. Between
>1880 and 1881, 80 percent to 90 percent of the people starved on our
>island. Today our village is a very modern community in terms of
>modern housing, water and sewer, electricity, television, telephone,
>etc., although our only means of transportation in and out of the
>community is by air since we are not connected to the mainland.
>
>NA: How does your community sustain itself?
>
>CP: Most people depend on sealskin products, carvings, slippers,
>jackets, mittens. Many people are very skilled artists and make
>things like dolls, figurines, sculptures.
>
>NA: What are some of the changes that your community is experiencing
>in terms of the water, the land, the air? What changes are you seeing
>as a result of global climate change?
>
>CP: Our community has seen real dramatic effects as a result of the
>warming that is occurring in the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic
>environment. In the springtime we are seeing the ice disappearing
>faster, which reduces our hunting time for walrus, seals, and whales.
>The ice freezes later. Ice is a supporter of life. It brings the sea
>animals from the north into our area and in the fall it also becomes
>an extension of our land. When it freezes along the shore, we go out
>on the ice to fish, to hunt marine mammals, and to travel. Ice is a
>very important element in our lives. We see ice in different ways.
>When the quality of ice, in other words, its hardness, its
>durability, and our ability to walk on it, hunt on it, changes, then
>it affects our lives. And it affects the animals too. They depend on
>the ice for breeding, forpupping, denning, lying, and having their
>young. They molt on it, they migrate on it. And so ice is a very
>important element to us. When it starts disintegrating and
>disappearing faster, it affects our lives dramatically.
>
>Ice forms in two ways: one from the cold air from the top and in the
>fall time when the Earth cools, it forms on the bottom of the ocean
>in the shallow areas. This ice that forms on the bottom of the ocean
>carries with it sand, mud, sediment, and nutrients from the bottom of
>the ocean. In the springtime, when this ice starts melting, these
>nutrients are food for the shrimp and other plankton and species in
>the ocean. So it is a cycle that creates the productivity of the
>Bering Sea. Now with the water so warm, the ice doesn't form on the
>bottom like it used to. Now it is forming from the top and reduces
>the productivity of the ocean. It has tremendous impact.
>
>NA: What is causing the disintegration, the meltdown of ice?
>
>CP: To us, it is warming. There is no doubt the cause of the ice
>disintegrating and the changes that we see in the Arctic are caused
>by global warming. The exact cause is probably debatable, but it is
>most likely a result of emissions from the developed countries; the
>greenhouse gases that are being emitted into the air are causing the
>Earth to warm up. But nobody has a silver bullet and nobody will step
>forward and say we have to do something about it.
>
>The causes of the disintegration of ice are the warm water and warm
>temperatures; whether it is global warming or local warming, we're
>feeling the effects of what is happening with the warming trend.
>While the effects we're seeing today are dramatic on our people in
>the present, the effects for our future generations are going to be
>much greater. When I mention that the ice melts earlier, in the
>springtime, in March, when the seals are having their pups, and the
>ice breaks up, their pups will not be fully weaned so a lot of them
>will starve and will not be fully developed. Twenty years from now,
>we'll see a reduction in animals because that generation of pups will
>not reproduce. We'll see a major reduction in seals that we depend
>upon. So our future generations will feel a major impact as a result
>of what's happening today. It will be felt in 20 years.
>
>NA: When you were growing up did you hear your elders talk about what
>changes were coming? Did they talk about those changes, could they
>see the changes coming?
>
>CP: I think my father and his father saw some of the changes that
>were coming. We had prophets like any other group around the world.
>Some of the other Inuit people have talked about the seven disasters
>that will happen to the Eskimo people. We have experienced four of
>them. We have three more to go that are not yet identified as to what
>they are going to be. The first one was a flood. The second was the
>Ice Age, when the world froze. The third one was starvation that our
>people encountered. The fourth one was the diseases that our people
>died from, diseases that the white man brought. The [next] three-we
>don't know what they are going to be. But we know they are awaiting
>and will eventually come around.
>
>NA: Is there something positive that can happen to avert the
>disasters? Something that can be changed?
>
>CP: The seven disasters are warnings of things that are going to
>happen to our people. Whether we can avert them, I don't know. We can
>only try to prepare for them. For example, with the global warming,
>as part of our preparations for the effects, in our region we're
>collecting samples from seals, from walruses and whales. We're
>collecting blubber and skin, reproductive tracts, and teeth. We're
>having some of these tested for contaminants and pollutants. We're
>looking at the reproductive tracts for their productivity of the
>animals in the event that in the future there are changes in the
>animals, we'll be able to tell these changes. With the teeth we're
>looking at the age samples, so that if there is a change in the age
>structure in the animals, in the future, we can go back and look at
>the samples of today and examine the changes. We are also collecting
>baseline harvest data. How much people are catching, what sex, what
>age group, so that we can compare it to the future catches. Same
>thing with the fish. If there are changes we will be able to take a
>look at the changes that are occurring.
>
>NA: What is the significance of this conference having brought
>together scientists, federal agency people with Native people? And
>what do you think can come of this?
>
>CP: The significance of our gathering is very important. We are
>trying to tie in scientific data with what we, as permanent residents
>in the Arctic, are experiencing. If the Arctic should melt, our
>people are not going to move south, or someplace else where it is
>easier to live, because this is our homeland. This is something we
>are going to have to live with. So by gathering what we know, what we
>observe, it will help the scientists and us understand the changes
>that are occurring and help to mitigate or address the problems that
>are going to be brought forth by global warming.
>
>NA: As a result of this process, do you think the science community
>is arriving at the same findings and understanding that Native people
>have known for so long?
>
>CP: Science is very exacting. You have to have positive proof of what
>is causing this occurrence. If you don't have a silver bullet that
>says this is what is causing this change, they are not going to say,
>I'll put my Ph.D. on what is causing this warming. Science is
>limiting. We are feeling the effects and we need to work with that.
>The other problem that we're seeing is an economic impact. I was in
>Greenland last summer and one of the presenters said, 'If you can't
>show that your economy is impacted in taxes or in government labor
>statistics, it doesn't exist.' And that's how we are. Our subsistence
>economy, living off of seals, gathering of plants, is nonexistent. If
>there was a disaster today and the seals died, a lot of the birds
>died and plants were gone, the government is not going to say, 'We
>are going to come and help you.' Unless I was a commercial fisherman
>or a tour operator who can show economic loss, [the loss] doesn't
>exist. I cannot get economic help from the government because I
>cannot prove the loss. These are some of the things that we need to
>address. We have to get the government and the state to recognize
>that [subsistence] is an economy that we live off of.
>
>NA: What do you think will happen if the science community does not
>work with Native people to understand the impact of these changes?
>
>CP: I don't know if the science community is the decisive [factor].
>It is the politicians, administrators, and the leaders that are going
>to decide how to address some of the problems that are occurring.
>Science can definitely play a role, but many times scientists will
>not become political. They will not go to Congress or policy makers
>and say this is our finding and this is what you should do and here
>is how to do it. We need to make that connection between the findings
>of the scientific community and the policy makers to make those
>changes.
>
>NA: Why should the public, why should science, why should federal
>agencies listen to Native people about what is happening in the
>communities and the changes we are seeing in the Earth?
>
>CP: The scientists and the leaders of our countries need to listen to
>us because, as Native peoples, we are the ones that live the closest
>to the land, to Mother Earth. We live with it, we experience it, with
>our hearts and souls, and we depend upon it. When this Earth starts
>to be destroyed, we feel it. We have to do something before it is too
>late. We can't wait until the economic community of the world is
>destroyed and we finally come to our senses. If we don't do something
>now, that economy is going to be impacted in an even greater way
>further down the road. It is something that needs to be done now. The
>world has to address the problem now in order to avert a future
>disaster.
>
>NA: If you could give a message to the Native youth, or all young
>people, what would you tell them?
>
>CP: The message that I would send to young people in terms of the
>impacts of future problems associated with global warming would be to
>keep passing on our knowledge, our values associated with nature, the
>love for Mother Earth, and protection of the environment. The other
>day I talked to my kids about some of the things that I feel are
>occurring and it seems to go in one ear and out the other. But then I
>think back to my youth, and my father talked to me and taught me. I
>think my father felt the same way, that it all went in one ear and
>out the other and that I didn't learn anything. But when I think
>back, I value those things that I was told. Whether we think they are
>listening or not, we need to keep telling the younger generation
>about our values, our beliefs, and how we need to protect the
>environment. They'll pick it up. There is no doubt in my mind that
>the younger generation will continue with the things that we believe
>in.
>
>NA: What would you tell other Native people about what you have
>experienced in the north and what might we do as communities of
>indigenous peoples?
>
>CP: You need to work on your own people and your own communities and
>with the scientific community to make sure that your community is
>going to be assured of its future. In many ways our people are going
>to be the ones that are going to be the Green Belt. We will probably
>be the last ones to have the last green areas remaining on the Earth
>in the future because of all the development in other areas. And we
>should continue to hold our values. We treasure nature and it shows
>in our Native lands. When it comes to development,we have, for the
>most part, been very cautious about how we developed the land and our
>resources. And I think that this is something our Indian brothers
>should continue to do.
>
>NA: Do you think the government will hear what Native people have to
>say? It seems like if we don't remember the lessons of the past, we
>are condemned to repeat them.
>
>CP: I think the United States government, if it wants to be a leader
>in the world, in terms of convincing other countries of the problems
>associated with global warming, they need to listen to the First
>Peoples who have the closest relationship with the Earth, who are
>feeling the effects. We can be a useful resource for the government
>to send this message to the rest of the world saying, 'Hey, we have
>got to do something. It is already happening and we have to do
>something in order to protect the future of our world.'
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----------------------------
>Fidel Moreno, Yaqui/Huichol, is director of Native Visions Media Arts
>Center and president of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of
>New Mexico.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----------------------------
>
>
>"Nowhere else will you be able to find such powerful-knowledge filled
writing."
>-Wilma Mankiller, Editorial Board Member of Native Americas Journal
>
>Native Americas Journal
>Akwe:kon Press
>American Indian Program
>Cornell University
>450 Caldwell Hall
>Ithaca, NY 14853-2602
>
>Tel.   (607) 255-4308
>Subs.  (800) 9-NATIVE
>Fax.   (607) 255-0185
>Email. nativeamericas@cornell.edu
>
>Native Americas Journal
>       http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu
>
>American Indian Program
>       http://www.aip.cornell.edu
>
>               **Help us put Native Americas in your library.**
>          Please request that your local libraries subscribe to
>Native Americas.

<+>=<+>
KOLA Information: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
KOLA Petitions: http://kola-hq.hypermart.net
KOLA Greeting Cards: http://users.skynet.be/kola/cards.htm
<+>=<+>
if you want to be removed from the KOLA
Email Newslist, just send us a message with
"unsub" in the subject or text body
<+>=<+>