All Western Conservation Events

“What Comes After the Wilderness Act,” a virtual roundtable exploring how we should understand the Wilderness Act on its 60th anniversary—a moment both of Indigenous resurgence and a rising far right. Bringing together historians, legal experts, and impacted community members, this roundtable explores a range of issues around the Wilderness Act, from the settler-colonial ideology undergirding its definition of “wilderness,” to the question of how this historic legislation might be revised or rewritten to serve the movement for land rematriation.

SPEAKERS

*Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet/MĂ©tis), Professor of History at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Red Natural History Fellow

*Heather Whiteman Runs Him (Apsaalooke/Crow), Director of the Tribal Justice Clinic and Associate Clinical Professor, University of Arizona Rogers College of Law

*Christen Falcon (Amskapi Piikani/Blackfeet), Blackfeet gatherer/hunter, Traditional Diet/Land Tenure Research Coordinator for Piikani Lodge Health Institute, and co-owner of Backpacker’s Ferry

*Karl Jacoby, Allan Nevins Professor of American History at Columbia University

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Held on September 25, 2024, this event was organized by Rosalyn LaPier as part of Natural History for a World in Crisis, a programming series organized by the 2023-2025 cohort of Red Natural History Fellows with The Natural History Museum. Made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundations and 4Culture.

“Resisting the Global Land Grab,” is a virtual event exploring how histories of colonialism, apartheid and uneven development have set the terms for today’s “solutions” to ecological crisis, engaging not only the common conditions of oppression faced by Indigenous communities across the world, but also the solidarities they are forging in their shared struggle against neocolonial conservation—and for Land Back. With Speakers Krystal Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota/Cheyenne), Executive Director of Honor the Earth; Nnimmo Bassey, Nigerian architect, environmental activist, author, poet, and Director of the environmental think tank Health of Mother Earth Foundation; and Ashley Dawson, Distinguished Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and the College of Staten Island and Red Natural History Fellow.

“Indigenizing Coastal Conservation,” a virtual event asking what it means to place Indigenous knowledge and tribal sovereignty at the heart of conservation. Focusing on ongoing work to fight coastal erosion on the Pacific coast, this event engages a frank conversation with Native and non-Native ocean conservation practitioners grappling with the complexities of decolonizing the conservation movement and incorporating Indigenous worldviews effectively and appropriately with mainstream approaches.

SPEAKERS
* Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes), Lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, independent educator in American Indian environmental policy, and Red Natural History Fellow
* Leah Mata-Fragua (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Chumash)
Artist, Educator and Council Member, YTT Northern Chumash Tribe
* Calla Allison, Founder and Executive Director of the Marine Protected Area Collaborative Network
* Gus Gates, West Coast Regional Director of the Surfrider Foundation

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Held on June 28, 2024, this webinar was curated by Dina Gilio-Whitaker as part of “Natural History for a World in Crisis,” a virtual programming series organized by Red Natural History Fellows with The Natural History Museum.

Made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and 4Culture

This panel brought together frontline communities, including Indigenous elders from the Pacific Northwest and environmental justice advocates from rural Appalachia and the Gulf South. Drawing on intergenerational knowledge and the lived experience of struggle, speakers shined a spotlight on the costs, public health impacts, and environmental damage caused by extractive and fossil fuel-based energy initiatives. They also addressed the power of people around the world to come together around truly clean energy solutions — solutions that contribute to the regeneration of the air, land, and water, and to the flourishing of communities that have been sacrifice zones for decades and longer.

Moderator * Beka Economopoulos, The Natural History Museum, Pacific Northwest

Speakers

* Rueben George, Sacred Trust Initiative, Tsleil-Waututh Nation

* Yvette Arellano, Fenceline Watch, Texas/Gulf Coast

* Germaine Patterson, Women for a Healthy Environment, Pittsburgh/Mon Valley, PA

* Heaven Sensky, Center for Coalfield Justice, Washington County, PA

* Gillian Graber, Protect PT, Westmoreland/Allegheny County, PA

Roundtable co-organized by @BreatheProject and @The Natural History Museum at @Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Pittsburgh, PA Thursday, September 22, 2022

“We have a warrior right here from Lummi, Jewell James, who has been fighting for decades and decades and decades. He fought with my mother on the same side, and with my oldest sister. Jewell and I work together, so it’s this generational effort of protecting our sacred sites.”

This video interview was recorded during the first Alliance of Earth, Sky and Water Protectors Summit at the Lummi Nation Stommish Grounds, May 27-29, 2022.

Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris is a mother, grandmother, and an enrolled Lummi tribal member. As Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Clinton, Raynell was the first Native American staffer appointed to the White House, and has served as Chief of Staff for the Chairman of Lummi Nation. At Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, she was a key strategist in the successful campaign to block a proposal to build North America’s largest coal port on Lhaq’temish (Lummi) sacred ground.