In honor of Native American Heritage Month beginning this week, we're excerpting a recent essay by former NRDC intern Dominique Nault, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, which has a culture that is deeply tied to the health of our environment. In the piece, Dominique—who grew up picking berries in the mountains of Montana and who watched the supply dwindle each year—underscores the importance of consulting Indigenous Peoples to inform solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises. Her essay is a call to action for all of us.

Before you dive in, we want to thank all of our readers for making Top of Mind possible. This will be our last issue, but we hope you’ll stay with us: Coming up this Sunday, keep an eye on your inbox for a message from NRDC Campaign Roundup, a monthly newsletter. We’ll keep in touch about the latest updates on the issues that NRDC is fighting for and bring you a dose of optimism to keep up your activism on behalf of our planet and each other.

Fighting Climate Change with Tradition

I sit on the passenger side of my father’s black, beat-up pickup truck, my eyes slowly getting heavier with each bump on the rough back roads. I am only 10 years old, but the Bear Paw Mountains, located on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in north-central Montana, are no stranger to me. They are my homeland.

Long ago, a prophecy warned the Ojibwe about the arrival and western expansion of Europeans, urging the tribe to go to the land of the big mountains. This eventually led my ancestors’ band to Montana. The Cree, or Nehiyaw as we call ourselves, have come to these sacred mountains for hundreds of years to give our offerings and to pray. For most Indigenous groups in North America, unique environmental landmarks should be protected and kept clean like any place of worship.

As I look back on that little girl walking through the mountains, I mourn. What will become of us when the climate crisis sickens the forests, rivers, oceans, and soils that we all rely on? What will happen to us when the earth no longer gifts us with sustenance?

Tomatoes. Cacao. Squash. Corn. Beans. Potatoes. Peanuts. An estimated 60 percent of the foods eaten around the globe today originated in the dietary cultures of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. They also contributed to more than 50 present-day medications, including aspirin, the most commonly used drug in the world. Traditional hunting, gathering, and agricultural practices respect the land and its ecosystems and help cultivate crop diversity. In fact, while Indigenous People worldwide make up less than 5 percent of the human population, we protect 80 percent of the planet’s remaining biodiversity.

We certainly deserve a seat at the table in climate, conservation, and other environmental policy decisions, and Indigenous consultation should be a top priority at each step in these discussions taking place around the world. Not only are Indigenous communities often the most at risk from the effects of climate change, but we are also very adept at adapting to them. Uniquely tied to our lands, our knowledge is invaluable.

Read Dominique’s essay in full.

TUNE IN: Bringing the American buffalo back from the brink

The American Buffalo is a new PBS documentary directed by Ken Burns that takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes. The two-part series traces the American buffalo’s evolution, its significance to the Indigenous Peoples of the Great Plains, and the efforts to bring the magnificent mammal back from the brink of extinction. Watch the film and explore additional educational resources here.

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