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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 26 augustus 2022

Native groups seek to repair lands damaged by colonization

badly polluted island that was and fields into a “highly pro-
“This is basically where the the site of an 1860 massacre ductive food forest” of native
first impact of colonization that nearly wiped out the trees and shrubs beneficial to
of this country happened,” tribe and, more recently, was both people and wildlife.
she said. “It’s very significant home to a ship repair facility.
that it’s been returned to us.” “It’s not just about restoring
Michelle Vassel, the tribe’s the physical land,” said Saskia
The Wampanoag Common administrator, said the years Vanderhoop, who founded
Lands is part of a growing of environmental work on the organization with her
movement of Indigenous-led Tuluwat have contributed to husband, David Vanderhoop,
conservation efforts helping better water quality and ma- an Aquinnah Wampanoag el-
to preserve and reinvigorate rine habitats across Hum- der. “It’s also about restoring
Native culture and identity, boldt Bay. the culture.”
said Beth Rose-Middleton, a
professor at the University of “For us, it’s a responsibility. At the nearby Wampanoag
California, Davis, focused on Indigenous people are tied to Common Lands, old sum-
(AP) — Asa Peters Lands, as the project is called, Native American environ- a place,” she said. “This work mer camp buildings were
marched into a thicket of seeks to restore a 32-acre mental policy and conserva- is also healing. The history of torn down and pavement,
Japanese knotweed in the (13-hectare) former Catholic tion. the massacre has always been athletic courts and other hard
woods of coastal Massa- summer camp on the banks a scar on the broader com- surfaces scraped away this
chusetts this month and of the Muddy Pond in Kings- The efforts are also critical munity. This was a way to year.
began steadily hacking the ton to something closer to in the face of climate change, change that history.”
towering, dense vegeta- what it might have looked which has acutely harmed Even large, nonnative Nor-
tion down to size. like before European coloni- Native communities, she Tribes in Wyoming and other wegian spruce trees were up-
zation transformed it. said. Alaska tribes facing in- Great Plains states, mean- rooted by the prior owners
The 24-year-old member of creased erosion, flooding while, have been reintroduc- at the conservancy’s request,
the Mashpee Wampanoag The Native Land Conser- and thawing permafrost have ing bison herds brought to leaving mostly a bare clearing
tribe was among a cadre of vancy, the local Native group weighed relocating from near-extinction by European near the water’s edge.
volunteers rooting out inva- that received the donated their coastal and riverside settlers. Those in Washing-
sive species and tending to land this year, envisions a lands. Louisiana bayou tribes ton state and other parts of In their place, conservancy
recently planted native veg- natural environment filled still reeling from Hurricane the Pacific Northwest are staff and volunteers this sum-
etation on a wide swath of with indigenous plants and Ida last year are bracing for focused on protecting gla- mer planted dozens of native
forest acquired on behalf of animals where Wampanoags ever-powerful storms, while cial rivers vital for migrating species significant to Wampa-
his federally recognized tribe can practice cultural ceremo- across the American West, salmon from warming waters noag culture, such as white
and other Wampanoag com- nies and educate new genera- tribes are contending with a and the effects of dams and oak trees, blueberry bushes,
munities. tions in traditional ways. historic drought that has up- industrial pollution. witch hazel, goldenrod and
ended their way of life. hay-scented ferns.
“It’s hard. You got to keep Ramona Peters, a Mashpee And on the Massachusetts
pulling and pulling. Starting Wampanoag who founded “Many of our land and wa- island of Martha’s Vineyard, Wildlife cameras have been
to really sweat, but it’s cool,” the conservancy, said the ef- terscapes have been pressed the Native-run Sassafras set up to survey and moni-
he said as he took a quick fort is all the more meaning- into extreme uses and deplet- Earth Education has been tor otters, deer and other lo-
break in the sweltering Au- ful because the land is some ed,” Rose-Middletown said. teaching youths and families cal fauna. The conservancy
gust heat. “We’re in the early 5 miles from where Pilgrims “Land stewardship and care traditional Wampanoag culti- is also building bat houses
stages, putting in the work to arriving on the Mayflower work are necessary for creat- vation practices for decades. and considering reintroduc-
create a special place where established the English col- ing resilient landscapes.” ing threatened and rare na-
we can do all kinds of great ony of Plymouth, near the The organization’s Land tive animal species, such as
things.” remnants of a Wampanoag In northern California, the Culture Project seeks to northern red-bellied turtles,
community wiped out by Wiyot Tribe has spent more transform roughly 20 acres said Diana Ruiz, the Native
The Wampanoag Common European disease. than two decades restoring a (8 hectares) of forested land Land Conservancy’s director.

Black August uplifted as alternative Black History Month

(AP) — For Jonathan Pe- butions to a country where like Jackson and his contem- began studying the words of Lenin and Chinese Commu-
ter Jackson, a direct rela- they were once enslaved. But poraries. revolutionary theoreticians nist leader Mao Tse-tung.
tive of two prominent Black History Month has an such as Karl Marx and Vladi-
members of the Black alternative: It’s called Black “It’s important to do this now mir Lenin, who advocated Jackson became a leader in
Panther Party, revolution- August. because a lot of people who class awareness, challenging the prisoner rights move-
ary thought and family were on the radical scene institutions and overturning ment. His letters from prison
history have always been First celebrated in 1979, Black during that time period, rela- capitalism through revolu- to loved ones and support-
intertwined, particularly August was created to com- tives and non-relatives, who tion. Founding leaders of the ers were compiled in the
in August. memorate Jackson’s fight for are like blood relatives, are Panthers, including Huey P. bestselling books “Soledad
Black liberation. Fifty-one entering their golden years,” Newton and Bobby Seale, Brother” and “Blood in My
That’s the month in 1971 years since his death, Black said Jonathan Jackson, 51, of were also inspired by Marx, Eye.”
when his uncle, the famed August is now a monthlong Fair Hill, Maryland.
Panther George Jackson, was awareness campaign and cel-
killed during an uprising at ebration dedicated to Black George Jackson was 18 when
San Quentin State Prison freedom fighters, revolu- he was arrested for robbing
in California. A revolution- tionaries, radicals and politi- a gas station in Los Angeles
ary whose words resonated cal prisoners, both living and in 1960. He was convicted
inside and out of the prison deceased. and given an indeterminate
walls, he was a published sentence of one year to life
author, activist and radical The annual commemora- and spent the next decade at
thought leader. tions have been embraced by California’s Soledad and San
activists in the global Black Quentin prisons, much of it
To many, February is the Lives Matter movement, in solitary confinement.
month dedicated to celebrat- many of whom draw inspi-
ing Black Americans’ contri- ration from freedom fighters While incarcerated, Jackson