Defending Mother Earth
Subtitle: Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice
Publisher: Orbis Books
Published: October 1996
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 205
ISBN-13: 9781570750960
Subjects: Christian social thought & activity; The Environment; Religion; Indian philosophy; Human Ecology; Native Americans; History; Environmental Studies; North America; Indians of North America; Environmental Conservation & Protection - General; Environmental Science; Social conditions; Native American; Civil rights
First sentence: If asked the question What do you value in life?, you might pause for a few seconds and then three or four things would immediately come to mind.
Description: Defending Mother Earth brings together important Native voices to address urgent issues of environmental devastation as they affect the indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. The essays document a range of ecological disasters, including the devastating effects of mining, water pollution, nuclear power facilities, and toxic waste dumps. In an expression of "environmental racism," such hazards are commonly located on or near Indian lands.

Many of the authors included in Defending Mother Earth are engaged in struggles to resist these dangers. As their essays consistently demonstrate, these struggles are intimately tied to the assertion of Indian sovereignty and the affirmation of Native culture: the Earth is, indeed, Mother to these nations.

In his concluding theological reflection, George Tinker argues that the affirmation of Indian spiritual values, especially the attitude toward the Earth, may hold out a key to the survival of the planet and all its peoples.