From Powells.com
A selection of pivotal works by Indigenous authors.
Synopses & Reviews
The story of Native peoples’ resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions, and a call for environmentalists to learn from the Indigenous community’s rich history of activism
Through the unique lens of “Indigenized environmental justice,” Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long as Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.
Throughout 2016, the Standing Rock protest put a national spotlight on Indigenous activists, but it also underscored how little Americans know about the longtime historical tensions between Native peoples and the mainstream environmental movement. Ultimately, she argues, modern environmentalists must look to the history of Indigenous resistance for wisdom and inspiration in our common fight for a just and sustainable future.
Review
“Dina Gilio-Whitaker writes in succinct, powerful, and deeply historical ways about Natives and environmental justice or — almost always — lack thereof.” Andrés Reséndez, author of The Other Slavery
Review
“A masterpiece....Powerful, urgent, and necessary reading.” Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
Review
“Highly recommended for American Indian studies and environmental justice students and scholars.” Library Journal
Review
“As Long as Grass Grows is a hallmark book of our time. By confronting climate change from an Indigenous perspective, not only does Gilio-Whitaker look at the history of Indigenous resistance to environmental colonization, but she points to a way forward beyond Western conceptions of environmental justice — toward decolonization as the only viable solution.” Nick Estes, assistant professor, University of New Mexico, and author of Our History Is the Future
About the Author
Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is the policy director and a senior research associate at the Center for World Indigenous Studies and teaches American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos. She is the coauthor, with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, of “All the Real Indians Died Off” and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans. She lives in San Clemente, California.
Dina Gilio-Whitaker on PowellsBooks.Blog
For many years now I have been studying, writing, and thinking about what environmental justice means for Indigenous peoples. In my most recent book,
As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice From Colonization to Standing Rock, I take on the topic in very broad but specific ways. I see United States settler colonialism as a history of environmental injustice...
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