All We Are Doing is Giving Peace a Chance

By

Erin Servey

2015 Intern for the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries

 

With Columbus Day being rethought of as Indigenous People’s Day, it was timely that the United Nations Association of Centre County chose to invite Dr. Polly Walker as the speaker for its September 2015 social event in Foxdale Village, a Quaker-Directed Retirement Community in State College, Pennsylvania.  Dr. Walker, a member of the Cherokee Southwest Township, a satellite community of the Cherokee Nation, and Director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, gave a talk titled “Dancing in Two Worlds: Indigenous Peacemaking and Transitional Justice”. In her presentation, Dr. Walker reflected on her indigenous heritage and her academic career in the Western world: a world most of us inhabit.

After pursuing baccalaureate and master’s degrees at New Mexico State University, Dr. Walker received her doctorate at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia in 2001.   Before coming to Juniata College in 2011 to teach in its Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, she worked in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), as well as in the United States. Dr. Walker’s career has focused on reducing violence toward indigenous peoples and on the role of indigenous ritual and ceremony in transforming conflict. She serves as the Chair of the Indigenous Education Institute, a national organization dedicated to the revitalization of Indigenous Knowledge. The information shared by Dr. Walker in her presentation highlighted efforts being currently employed to minimize racial conflict and create world-wide peace with indigenous peoples.

In September 2007, The United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the UN General Assembly.   This statement would “guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples to enjoy and practice their cultures and customs, their religions, and their languages” and give them “the right to be free from discrimination, and the right to a nationality”. One hundred and forty four nations were in favor of the UNDRIP.  Four nations, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and, disturbingly, the United States, voted against it in the General Assembly. By 2010, these four countries had issued official statements of support for UNDRIP, but some critics (this article) believe these nations are still not fully in support of UNDRIP.

Dr. Walker noted that aspects of peacekeeping between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures include: creating new relationships between humans and the natural world, redressing epistemic violence, placing emphasis on renewal, rebalancing, revitalization, and effecting symbolic and/or transformational measures of justice. Dr. Walker spoke of the Australian aboriginals who were forced to leave their traditional homes at a young age. She presented the audience with the specific examples of the forced assimilation of Australian Aborigines into the dominant Western culture. That enforcement has resulted in today’s high rate of aboriginal incarceration in Australia; a problem, that is, in her words “impossible to ignore”.

Some progress has, however, been made toward reconciliation. The Foxdale audience was shown a video of a ceremony in which Australian government officials made amends for their cruelty to Aboriginal peoples. The then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, apologized on behalf of the Australian government, and through a traditional ceremony, Matilda House invited the Prime Minister and Leader of the opposition into a kinship relationship; putting responsibility on the Australian government to redress injustices toward Aboriginal peoples

It isn’t just Australia, however, that is making progress toward acknowledging and apologizing for its past behavior. Canada has created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address the issue of its Indian residential schools. These schools, like those in the U.S., performed cultural genocide on Native children.  In Canada, roughly 150,000 First Nation children and their families were affected during the residential school era. TRC chair, Justice Murray Sinclair, has revealed over 6,000 documented deaths of residential school students as a result of their school experience.  In October 2015 an article was released describing the progress of the TRC. The Canadian government appears to be taking seriously the commission’s recommendations for positive social change and assurance has been given that the 94 TRC recommendations would be adopted. If these recommendations become reality, a truce will have been struck between First Nation peoples and the Canadian government.

Dr. Walker described how traditional ceremonies can be incorporated into policy to achieve some measures of justice. She also talked about how indigenous peoples are bringing their issues to the world’s attention through UN DRIP and the Canadian TRC. These examples illustrate how we, as students, can promote peacemaking and transitional justice in our daily lives, our classes, and the working world. Penn State’s Student Society for Indigenous Knowledge (SSIK) has taken a first step by advocating that the Columbus Day holiday become Indigenous Peoples Day.  This change would highlight the slaughter of indigenous peoples that began in the “New World”, a continent that had been occupied by indigenous tribes for millennia.

Recently, an article authored by SSIK members was featured on Penn State’s OnwardState website.  The title was, “How to Find the Perfect and Appropriate Halloween Costume” /.  The SSIK article was distributed through the ICIK and SSIK list serves and Dr. Walker posted it on the Juniata College website, illustrating clearly that we can all begin to increase awareness of social issues and how peace can be built and conflict transformed through dialogue as described by Dr. Polly Walker.

To contact Dr. Walker you can email her at walker@juniata.edu.

 

 

Penn State Undergraduate Student to Walk Across the Country

By

Erin Servey

2015 Intern for the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries

 

In spring semester, most students will be returning to their academic classes, but one Penn State student will be undertaking a 3600 mile trek across the country—for a very important cause. Kelli Herr, a Junior CED (Community, Environment, and Development) major, and current president of SSIK (Student Society of Indigenous Knowledge), will be embarking on “Longest Walk 5” starting February 13^th in Lajolla, California, and, tentatively, arriving on July 15^th in Washington, D.C. After more than a year of planning, walkers will span many states including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (for a map of the journey visit). What is this walk all about? The walk is, essentially, a war on drugs, specifically methamphetamine, better known as meth. The goal is to call attention to the devastating drug abuse problem on Indian reservations in the United States and Canada. Unfortunately, meth abuse also correlates with high suicide rates.  On some reservations, suicide rates can be ten times higher than the national average. The goal of “Longest Walk 5” is to call attention to the devastating drug abuse problem on Indian reservations in the United States and Canada.

Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, once said: “The question of Meth is a very complex one. We don’t know the depth of participation that our young people are engaged in with Meth or other drugs like heroin, cocaine, prescription and manufactured drugs. The walk will bring us closer to finding the answers and what we must do to win this war against meth”. (Dennis Banks 6/8/15)

Over the course of the five month walk, the travelers will collect information at each reservation they visit. They will talk to community members, high school students, parents, grandparents, spiritual leaders, Indian Health Service staff and tribal officials in an attempt to understand how many people use meth, heroin, cocaine, and other drugs on Native reservations. Not only may this information help to solve a serious problem, it will also provide a clearer picture of the drug abuse problem on the reservations and what must be done to address it.  The participants will hope to learn whether reservations observe early warning signs of drug abuse and whether they have adequate drug treatment and post-treatment facilities. Once the walkers reach their destination in Washington D.C. they will present their findings to government officials, in the hope that something will soon be done about this critical issue.  Kelli realizes that with all the complex problems facing Native reservation communities, it is hard to pick just one problem to address. Yet, this walk, she believes, will give a voice to Native American communities on the particular issue of drug abuse.

Longest Walk 5 is being coordinated by the American Indian Movement which was co-founded by Dennis Banks in 1968. Kelli first met Dennis in the spring of her freshman year on a trip to three Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota as part of the CED 401 course, Exploring Indigenous Ways of Knowing among the Ojibwe, offered by Penn State’s CED Program and taught by Dr. Bruce Martin. It was on this trip that Kelli and the others in her class were invited to participate in the Longest Walk.

Along with Kelli, there will be three other Penn Staters on the walk. They have already graduated and Kelli will be the only currently enrolled student.  Two RVs will follow the walkers in case of an emergency and/or dangerous weather conditions. Kelli says, she will pack light and will not bring many valuables because “you never know what could happen”. The group will stay on reservations along the way and will rely on donations and housing provided by local churches, universities, and other organizations.

Kelli’s participation in such a major social movement proves that college students have the ability to help change the world. If you’d like to indirectly help reduce drug abuse on Indian reservations, you can make a donation to Kelli, she is taking personal donations to fund her travel–an estimated $20 per day. Also, you can join SSIK to learn more about the current activities of the American Indian Movement.

Kelli has created an Instagram account for her trip, which you can follow at @the_sacred_3600; representing the 3,600 miles she will be walking. You can learn more about SSIK through its Facebook page or  website. For more information on “Longest Walk #5” or about SSIK, you can contact Kelli at – kelliherr1771@gmail.com.

 

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Immersion Within US Borders: a New Way of Knowing

By

Erin Servey

2015 Intern for the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries

On Tuesday, September 1st in Pattee Library’s Foster Auditorium Dr. Bruce Martin, and ten of his students, were heard speaking about their unique excursion achieved through a course offered at Penn State. It is a course like no other. Actually, it is the only course like it in the entire United States.

This course, CED (Community, Environment, and Development) 401–Exploring Indigenous Ways of Knowing Among the Ojibwe, started and taught by Dr. Bruce Martin—takes students to 3 Ojibwe reservations in northern Minnesota for 2-3 weeks. They go to Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth nations in Northern Minnesota in May to take part in this cultural engagement experience.

Rather than traveling by plane the class travels by vehicle following the path of the great migration to really become immersed as well as to have bonding time before they arrive. Once there they not only get to canoe down the Mississippi, but also have the chance to witness and participate in the lives of their host families, take part in traditional Ojibwe ceremonies, and along the way learn about a way of life foreign to them.

This course, however, does have a prerequisite which also includes traveling: CED 400, Exploring Indigenous Ways of Knowing in the Great Lakes Region. CED 400 provides similar field opportunities to explore concepts and values distinctive to indigenous knowledge in the Great Lakes Region. Students can learn new ways of thinking in both classes in relation to issues of ecology, science, and worldview.

CED 401 revolves around average American students going into a highly indigenous place which Americans seldom visit although this course only captures the essence of 3 reserves out of the 568 federal recognized reserves in the country.

At one point Dr. Bruce Martin recounted how he has been asked why he does this, he responded, “To make us all a little less ignorant.”  Not that ignorance is necessarily negative, but it can simply mean only having been exposed to a singular view of the world. This experience makes students less ignorant by providing them with exposure to a completely new view of the world—a new way of knowing.

Many of the students spoke of life-altering experiences and encounters with people which gave them something to carry with them through their life journey.

 A few of them even still keep in touch with people they’ve met through the experience.

Dr. Bruce Martin has a special background and special connections in regards to CED 401; he was raised in northern Minnesota very near the Ojibwe tribes and attended school with some of them. Without the connections he has this trip would not be possible. Not anyone can walk into an Ojibwe reservation because of their vigilance in regards to current racism and history of conflict.

At the seminar, he enlightened the audience with some fascinating tidbits such as how 75% of words in the Ojibwe language are verbs whereas the majority of English is nouns. It is little facts like this that can make a person realize the vastness of knowledge, of how singular our worldview can be. In other words, how different worldviews can be in contrast to our own.

Any student at any of the Penn State campuses can register for either/both of these courses. To find out more about the courses or how to register, you can contact Dr. Bruce Martin (Adjunct Instructor, College of Agricultural Sciences): makwahmartin@gmail.com; you can also contact Danna Jayne Seballos (Teaching Assistant, CED 400 and 401): dms520@psu.edu

For the flyer for the course visit this link.