Collectively, we’re faced with a climate crisis. People generally don’t know where they come from. Some people have no access to adequate food, some lack access to quality health systems, said Miijessepe-Wilson, co-director at The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.
“There will be a time when people will be lost because they don’t know where they come from. During this time, they will look to (Indigenous people) to lead them,” Miijessepe-Wilson’s grandfather, Francis ‘Big Man’ Wahwasuck, once said.
“It has been prophesied that we are approaching this time if we’re not there already,” Miijessepe-Wilson said.
On July 11, she spoke to share knowledge of Indigenous ideas for conservation and leadership in a webinar with Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.
“So we cannot only share it, but try to create this world back to a place we already know it can be: A good place, a place that provides for everybody, a place that we’re in relationship with,” she said in the webinar.
She recalled a childhood memory of picking a bouquet of dandelions for her father.
“I almost immediately got reprimanded,” she said.
Her dad walked her through the ways she could have been in relationship with the dandelion instead. He asked, “Did you make an offering?” And explained, “Just because that’s a dandelion doesn’t mean it’s any less than you.”
At a young age, Miijessepe-Wilson learned that all living things have spirit, deserve respect and have value. She learned that all things are connected and that we ought to care for things the way they care for us.
“Humans are not the tell-all, be-all. In fact, we’re only one piece of the puzzle that makes all of this go round,” she said.
Miijessepe-Wilson spoke about the way Indigenous people view other living things in a circular, more reciprocal way.
“If we relate to things in a nonhierarchal manner, we start to know that those things have their own knowledge because the world meant for it to be that way,” Miijessepe-Wilson said.
As people living in any place, our role is to listen and observe and to try to keep everything in motion. The land has taken care of itself for a long time: It already knows what it needs.
“When I think about conservation, we’re actually just trying to listen to what that place already knows,” she said.
Miijessepe-Wilson pointed out that she was initially uncertain about joining Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition because she’s Potawatomi. She felt like an outsider, since technically the coalition is Navajo, Ute Indian, Ute Mountain Ute, Zuni and Hopi.
She realized, however, that she didn’t have to be from those tribes to be in service to them.
“I hope that invites non-native people into this space,” she said.
For people wanting to get involved and learn more about Indigenous teachings, since they’ve been caring for these places for a long time, Miijessepe-Wilson said to check out the Coalition’s Tribal Land Management Plan or to read the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
People should also learn about where they came from and where they live now, since those places may not be the same. And they should also learn to look at nonhuman, living things as equally deserving of life and respect them.
“None of us can be successful unless we are operating in a collective,” she said.
