Truthsgiving

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

I often think about the concept of learning from my mistakes. We learn the most by making mistakes. In photography I purposely look for images that will be difficult to capture because of lighting, contrast, depth of field, or complex composition. Although the resulting photo is probably not going to be exactly what I was hoping for, I will see what did turn out right, or not, and can apply that information in the future for similar images.

One of the first principles of beginning to engage with people who have different beliefs, customs and experiences than you do is to know you will make mistakes along the way.

On the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, we spent the night inside a large building at the Boone Country Fairground. It was pouring rain outside. This photo was at dinner that evening. Some buffalo was served. I remarked that it would have been nice if the real Thanksgiving dinner would have been like this, with friends (some newly made) sharing a meal.

The calm response was, “we call it Thanks-taking“.

I learned from that mistake. Getting embarrassed is often part of the learning process (as in this case). Don’t let that make you timid about taking risks. I think of this as “if you’re getting embarrassed, you’re doing something right”.

First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, Boone County Fairgrounds, Boone, Iowa

The Thanksgiving holiday is an opportunity for White people to do some decolonizing for themselves. My friend Christine Nobiss, MA (Religious Studies), Plains Cree/Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation and Decolonizer with Seeding Sovereignty, explains why she organized Truthsgiving in resistance to Thanksgiving. The title of her article is Thanksgiving Promotes Whitewashed History, So I Organized Truthsgiving Instead.

There are many settler colonial mythologies about Native Americans. These widely held but false beliefs are rooted in deeply entrenched discriminatory attitudes and behaviors that are perpetuated by institutionalized racism. One of the most celebrated mythologies is the holiday of Thanksgiving, which is believed, since 1621, to be a mutually sanctioned gathering of “Indians” and Pilgrims. The truth is far from the mythos of popular imagination. The real story is one where settler vigilantes unyieldingly pushed themselves into Native American homelands, and forced an uneasy gathering upon the locals.

In the words of Wamsutta Frank James, Wampanoag, “the Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors, and stolen their corn, wheat, and beans.” These words came from his 1970 Thanksgiving Day speech, which he wrote for the annual celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims held every year in Plymouth, Massachusetts. However, this speech was never presented; the organizers of the celebration reportedly asked to see his speech ahead of time, according to James’ obituary in the Boston Globe, and allegedly asked him to rewrite it on the basis that his words were not aligned with the popular mythology. He instead declared Thanksgiving a National Day of Mourning.

It’s past time to honor the Indigenous resistance, tell our story as it really happened, and undo romanticized notions of the holiday that have long suppressed our perspective. As an Indigenous decolonizer, I call this time of year the Season of Resistance. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I ask you to please take the time to educate your peers about Thanksgiving’s real history; to support Native people as they resist the narrative of the holiday; and to organize or host alternatives to this holiday.

An essential part of decolonizing Thanksgiving is to start educating our children with the authentic history of this country. A book that re-examines basic “truths” about Thanksgiving in an educational context is Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years. Considering that much of the Thanksgiving mythology is based on sharing food, it is ideal to discuss the importance of Indigenous first foods or food sovereignty with our children as well. The book Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition discusses the traditional process of growing and harvesting corn, de-commercializing what we eat, and promoting culturally appropriate foods and agricultural systems of North America. Decolonizing Thanksgiving: A Toolkit for Combatting Racism in Schoolsis a quick read where more resources are listed; it even has sample letters that can be sent to your children’s school concerning problematic Thanksgiving activities.

Generations of American values are responsible for institutionalizing the Thanksgiving mythology, but ultimately, change can occur as individuals awaken to the reality that their Thanksgiving meals celebrate a violent, whitewashed history, and begin the process of truth-telling, healing and reconciliation.

Thanksgiving Promotes Whitewashed History, So I Organized Truthsgiving Instead by Christine Nobiss, Bustle, Nov 16, 2018.

Truthsgiving
Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
El Banditos Iowa City

Posted in #NDAPL, climate change, First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, Indigenous, Native Americans, Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

GUILTY OR NOT-GUILTY: YOU DECIDE

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

Following is the statement written by my friend Miriam Kashia. This statement was written to be delivered during yesterday’s trial of the Climate Defenders Five (detailed here). She wasn’t permitted to read the entire statement then, so it is published here.

GUILTY OR NOT-GUILTY: YOU DECIDE

On November 12, I and four others were tried for a simple misdemeanor trespass. Our “crime” was for entering a privately owned parking lot while protesting for climate action at a Trump fundraiser event in West Des Moines and refusing to leave.  We pled “not-guilty” based on a clause in Iowa Code that says in essence: if you are justified in trespassing, it is not illegal. As of this writing, there is no verdict. I was not allowed to read the statement for my defense that I had prepared for the trial. I am sharing parts of it with the public here. You get to decide: GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?

I am native Iowan, a retired psychotherapist, who has chosen to commit my remaining time, energy, knowledge, skills and resources to combating the rapidly emerging climate Apocalypse.   I hold a lifelong love, awareness and concern about the preciousness and fragility of our Earth. In 2014 I walked 3,000 miles from Los Angeles to Washington DC for 8 months with the Great March for Climate Action.  Then, as now, my goal was to raise public awareness about the looming climate disaster.

Why would I spend my “golden years” enduring the many hardships required of dedicated activists – including costs to my personal: time, energy, limited resources, and comfort. Why would I risk arrest at age 76 when I could be living a comfortable retirement?

BECAUSE EVERYTHING I LOVE IS AT STAKE. EVERYTHING!!
And my government is making it worse.

Our government, which is charged with protection and wellbeing of its citizens, is instead protecting and benefiting the fossil fuel corporations.   Our two Legislative bodies are gridlocked, and the Executive branch denies climate science, refuses to work on solutions with the nations of the world, and, according to the New York Times, our president has unilaterally voided over 80 environmental protections. We need the Judiciary, the third pillar of our government, to dig deeply and act boldly and in accordance with the original intent of our constitution: to uphold the people’s right to protest non-violently with precedent-setting decisions to help avert this crisis before it is too late. 

Science tells us if we move immediately and comprehensively, with the knowledge and technology that is now available, we may be able to avert the worst of this calamity, but we only have about a decade to do it.  I will be 86 years old by then if I am still around, and I have some very serious questions to pose:

  • What about the young people all over the planet who are striking and desperately fighting for a livable future?
  • What about the estimated 200 species per day going extinct right now and a million more species researchers expect to go extinct in the next few years?
  • What about climate chaos implications for Iowa’s farmers and declining food production here and elsewhere?
  • What about the millions of people who will die from storms, heat, starvation, drought, fire, rising sea levels, climate-exacerbated conflicts and wars, and the spreading of existing diseases and the emerging of unimaginable new ones?
  • What about the millions of families who will flee from these threats in migrations like we have never imagined, creating more global chaos, conflict, suffering and death.
  • And what about the children?

This is from 11,000 scientists from 153 nations in a statement recently published in the journal BioScience.  “We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency. There is no time to lose. The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.”

So, given these realities, I reflect back to the question, “Why would I risk arrest?” 

Because the historical record of social justice and environmental progress in the United States tells us that the great shifts in public awareness and opinion have happened because people took to the streets and were willing to risk arrest to fight injustice.

October 12, 2019 from REUTERS news: “In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest. “We believe that the continued governmental inaction over the climate and ecological crisis now justifies peaceful and non-violent protest and direct action, even if this goes beyond the bounds of the current law. We therefore support those who are rising up peacefully against governments around the world that are failing to act proportionately to the scale of the crisis. The urgency of the crisis is now so great that many scientists feel, as humans, that we now have a moral duty to take radical action.”

Life on our planet is imperiled. We have got to act – and quickly.  How could I not be justified in peacefully risking arrest to try to stop this from happening?

I vehemently maintain that we were totally justified, under Iowa law, to bring our message to that gathering.

Guilty or Not-Guilty? You decide – when you vote.

Miriam Kashia

Posted in #NDAPL, civil disobedience, climate change, First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Climate Necessity Defense by Bold Iowa

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

Yesterday’s article, Climate Defenders Five Trial, gives the background for the case that was heard at the Polk County Justice Center yesterday.

The trial was about the simple misdemeanor trespass charges against Todd Steichen, Martin Monroe, Miriam Kashia, Kathy Byrnes, and Ed Fallon, who deliberately moved onto the property (Hy-Vee) where Donald Trump was going to be speaking at a fund raiser. Thirty Bold Iowa supporters called out the president’s climate denial to him and attendees. Initially, protesters blocked one of the entrances to the facility’s parking lot. Later, five carrying a banner approached the building, hoping to enter and bring their urgent message to the attention of the president and the audience. At that point, they were arrested by West Des Moines police for simple misdemeanor trespass.

Earlier this summer, President Trump visited West Des Moines for a GOP fundraiser. Bold Iowa was there to expose the president’s climate denial to the donors who came to support him. Five of us — Todd Steichen, Kathy Byrnes, Miriam Kashia, Martin Monroe, and Ed Fallon — blocked an entrance to the facility’s parking lot. We then carried our banner toward the building and were arrested by West Des Moines police. We were charged with simple misdemeanor trespass.

We risked arrest because it’s urgent that we capture the attention of politicians, the press, and the public. Our message is that climate change threatens our very survival, and a president who denies the problem — whose policies in fact greatly exacerbate the threat — must be called out and challenged.

We knew we had to do something creative. So we held a sign reading “Climate denier in the White House scare the S#*T outta you? IT DOES US!” To further bring home the urgency, we dressed in black and wore adult diapers.

Climate Justification Trial on Facebook

“This was a difficult action to plan and implement, and yes, it was a little embarrassing, too, to wear a diaper in public,” said Kathy Byrnes, a grandmother of three who lived on the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. “While we would have preferred to share our message with the president’s audience and not be arrested, our upcoming trial is an important opportunity to prove that non-violent action in defense of our very survival is justified.”.

Because of the worsening climate emergency, the Iowa Climate Defenders Five felt called to act in the interest of present and future generations and the planet.

Similar cases across the country have seen courts responding more sympathetically to the climate necessity defense:

— On March 13, 2018, a district court in Washington allowed a defendant who participated in a protest blocking a freight train transporting coal and oil to present a necessity defense.
— On March 27, 2018, a Massachusetts district court judge acquitted 13 defendants who protested the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline.
— On October 9, 2018, a Minnesota trial court dismissed felony and misdemeanor charges against three activists in connection with their participation in a “valve turner” pipeline protest.

Ed Fallon,Miriam Kashia, Martin Monroe, Kathy Byrnes and Todd Steichen

The urgency of climate change is also shared by Iowa scientists in the Iowa Climate Statement and in a report by the Iowa DNR. Both warn about the harm being done because of our dependence on fossil fuels.

One of the authors of the Iowa Climate Statement, David Courard-Hauri of Drake University, testified to the increasing severity of climate change and its impacts in Iowa.

The two documents mentioned above were an important part of the trial, because they were given to the arresting officers to explain the justification for trespassing. A video of the arrest was played. That showed the attempts to give the documents to the police. In court, the arresting officer said he had not read the statements, and indicated it was not unusual to refuse to accept documents during arrest. The lawyer for the defendants spent a lot of time on this point, suggesting the police should have taken the statements because he felt they were relevant to the justification for the trespass.

The prosecutor repeatedly said a justification was not relevant to the case. He also said, many times, he respected the urgency of climate change and the defendants’ efforts to call attention to that.

A lot of time was spent asking several of the defendants if it was not possible to use other, legal, alternatives to spread their message, like writing letters to Congress. Each of the responses were about the years of frustration of trying to use those options, with total lack of any effective response. Thus the justification for nonviolent direct action.

The prosecutor also asked several of the defendants to tell how many people died from climate events today. Or how many were injured today. No one could give specific numbers, or course, but annual statistics for injury and death from environmental damage are increasing dramatically. I thought the defendants attorney should have talked about the long time response between when greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere, and the years before the results of those effects are seen.

I found the trial fascinating to watch. It went on for a full three hours. The judge did not make a ruling the day of the trial.

Do you think Bold Iowa’s actions were warranted, and/or effective? Isn’t it time for all of us to consider what more we can do?

Posted in #NDAPL, Arts, civil disobedience, climate change, integral nonviolence, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Defend DACA Rally Today

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

A DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) solidarity event happening today at 12:15pm in Des Moines at the Shattering Silence monument near the Iowa Supreme Court building. Please join us if you are able to mark the US Supreme Court’s hearing oral arguments on the DACA program today- decision expected Spring 2020. 

Hello Everyone,
Today’s an important day for DACA families in our state. The SCOTUS will hear arguments on DACA. Many across the country are organizing events to stand in solidarity with us!
Ceci and I are planning a rally near the Iowa Supreme Court and we need your help to spread the word!
Check out our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/519535191960347/?notif_t=plan_user_associated&notif_id=1573492072948928
Below you will find a graphic we created to be shared on IG and Twitter.
We will be gathering during the lunch hour today at the Shattering Silence Monument.

Kenia Calderon
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Climate Defenders Five Trial Today

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Jeff Kisling
http://boldiowa.com/climate-activists-go-to-trial-2/

DES MOINES, IOWA — The trial of the Iowa Climate Defenders Five (Todd Steichen, Martin Monroe, Miriam Kashia, Kathy Byrnes, and Ed Fallon) is scheduled to move forward on Tuesday, November 12 at 2:00 at the Polk County Justice Center, 222 5th Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50309. Before the trial at 1:30, the five will hold a press conference outside the building.

On June 11, 2019, President Trump visited Hy-Vee’s Ron Pearson Center in West Des Moines for a GOP rally and fundraiser. Thirty Bold Iowa supporters called out the president’s climate denial to him and attendees. Initially, protesters blocked one of the entrances to the facility’s parking lot. Later, five carrying a banner approached the building, hoping to enter and bring their urgent message to the attention of the president and the audience. At that point, they were arrested by West Des Moines police for simple misdemeanor trespass.

“Women’s right to vote. Civil rights. Stopping the Vietnam War. Environmental protections. The Women’s Movement. LGBTQ rights and marriage equality. These and so many other significant social justice shifts were accomplished because ordinary citizens were willing to take to the streets, and in many cases, willing to commit civil disobedience,” said Kashia. “History tells us that this is what has turned the tide.”

“We risked arrest because it’s urgent that we capture the attention of politicians, the press, and the public in this unprecedented moment where saving human life and the planet is on the line,” said Fallon. “We wanted to emphasize to those gathered at the rally and fundraiser that climate change threatens our very survival, and a president who denies the problem — whose policies in fact greatly exacerbate the threat — must be called out and challenged.”

The urgency of climate change is also shared by Iowa scientists in the Iowa Climate Statement and in a report by the Iowa DNR. Both warn about the harm being done because of our dependence on fossil fuels.

Furthermore, earlier this year, the Iowa Supreme Court stated in its ruling in Puntenney vs the Iowa Utilities Board (the Dakota Access Pipeline case), page 37, “We recognize that a serious and warranted concern about climate change underlies some of the opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline.”

Because of the worsening climate emergency, the Iowa Climate Defenders Five feel called to act in the interest of present and future generations and the planet. Similar cases across the country have seen judges responding more sympathetically to the climate necessity defense.

The Climate Necessity Defense: A Legal Tool for Climate Activists

The climate necessity defense is an argument made by a criminal defendant to justify action taken on behalf of the planet. It’s offered by activists who have been arrested for protesting fossil fuel extraction and government inaction on climate policy.

The climate necessity defense is associated with the tradition of civil disobedience — the deliberate violation of the law to confront a moral problem. People who commit civil disobedience believe that they are obeying a higher moral law or code. Sometimes the existing criminal law doesn’t align with this higher morality, and so disobedience is required in order to live morally. Climate necessity defendants argue that their actions were not really illegal: they were acting in the public interest, which the law protects.Instead of seeking a plea agreement or trying to win an acquittal, defendants offering the climate necessity defense admit their criminal conduct but argue that it was necessary to avoid a greater harm. The basic idea behind the defense — also known as a “choice of evils,” “competing harms,” or “justification” defense — is that the impacts of climate change are so serious that breaking the law is necessary to avert them.

By admitting their conduct and asking a judge or jury to find them not guilty by reason of necessity, activists draw attention to injustice and the failure of the law to protect the planet.

Because the climate necessity defense asks people to make judgments about individual responsibility, legal obligation, and the good of society, it is essentially a moral argument couched in the language of criminal law.

Climate Disobedience Center http://www.climatedisobedience.org/necessitydefense
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Iowa climate activists go to trial

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

Miriam, Kathy, Ed and I walked together on the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March.

Miriam Kashia. [Photo by Michel Younadam]
Photo of Miriam by Michel Younadam

My Friends,

We’ve had four continuances (that’s legal speak for “postponements”) of our trial for our arrest on June 11, 2019 in West Des Moines at a GOP fundraiser, where we used non-violent direct action to raise awareness among Trump supporters about the urgency of the climate crisis.

Our trial is set for Tuesday, November 12 at 2:00 pm at the Polk County Justice Center, 222 5th Ave in Des Moines, 50309. We’ll hold a press conference before the trial at 1:30.

For those from out of town, please consider carpooling to stand in solidarity with me and my four Bold Iowa fellow arrestees. Last minute updates will be posted on the Climate Justification Trial Facebook event page. You can also show your support and make a difference when you:

— Click “going” or “interested on the Facebook event page and leave a comment.

— Donate to Bold Iowa to help with the costs of our trial.

The judge and prosecutor have both said this will be an important trial. The more support we gather, the greater our impact.

Women’s right to vote. Civil rights. Stopping the Vietnam War. Environmental protections. The Women’s Movement. LGBTQ rights and marriage equality. These and so many other significant social justice shifts were accomplished because ordinary citizens were willing to take to the streets, and in many cases, willing to commit civil disobedience. History tells us that this is what has turned the tide.

Again, we’d love to have you join us. If you’re coming from eastern Iowa, members of  100 Grannies for a Livable Future are discussing carpools.

A word about the Grannies: We … Educate. Advocate. Agitate. We do it all!

With gratitude for your support,

Miriam Kashia

Posted in #NDAPL, civil disobedience, climate change, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Will your children be happy with what you have left for them?

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

How we live our lives reflects (or should reflect) our beliefs. Quakers try to be attentive to what the Spirit is saying to us at all times, though we often lose our focus.

One of the reasons I treasured my early experiences with Native Americans in Indianapolis as we worked to raise awareness about, and to defund the Dakota Access Pipeline, was because I felt an immediate, deep spiritual connection. And from what I have seen and continue to learn is Native lives do reflect their beliefs.

Brandi Herron and Joshua Taflinger and others

I had a very strong leading to participate on the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March. This blog post and the video below are about some of the ways faith played a role during the 94 miles we walked along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline in central Iowa.

I’ve been reading “Deer and Thunder, Indigenous Ways of Restoring the World” by Arkan Lushwala. I’ve described an opportunity I had to hear Arkan speak: https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/2018/05/10/the-answer-to-what-can-i-do/

“Arkan Lushwala is a rare indigenous bridge of the global north and south, carrying spiritual traditions from the Andes in his native Peru as well as being adopted and initiated by the Lakota people of North America.”

Throughout my life, it has been an honor to watch my elders make medicine in their mouths and feed the world with their tender sacred speech. Following their example, I want to share the words that make waterfalls, lakes and rivers, and offer some medicine to those who are wondering how we will continue living when the Earth that sustains our lives is so damaged. What I share here, far from being my own creation, is ancient memory that belongs to all of us.

My intention is to share the spiritual depths of a culture that creates individuals like my tayta, ones with a real capacity to have an influence on the health of the Earth. I am one of those who believe all of humanity can regain an ancient way of being that allows us to talk to our Mother Earth to resolve dangerous imbalances of the environment under her guidance. The state of humans and the state of the Earth are completely intertwined, and the full recovery of the best of our human nature will be the healing of Nature.

In the thick of the current environmental crisis, it is useful to know there are still people who have the power to call rain or to move clouds when there is too much rain.

Deer and Thunder, Indigenous Ways of Restoring the World by Arkan Lushwala

I am being increasingly led to see our success in protecting Mother Earth will come from our spirituality (all different expressions of spirituality).

You may think that you are different than what he (Arkan Lushwala) describes. You may be happy in your home and in your neighborhood right now. But will your children be happy with what you have left for them? Will your children’s children be happy with no water to drink or sun to warm their faces?

I ask you to read every word, ponder each sentence that my brother from another country writes with all of his heart intact. It is in his words and in his message that we will find each other again as one heart, one love, and one single energy flow.

My brother talks of a word haywaricuy – which means to hand someone something with tenderness. I hand you this book with tenderness as a loving gesture to mankind, as sacred movement towards that which seems hopeless but is so easy to heal. We can come back together as one loving heartbeat for the good of all living things on this planet. For this, we need to recover our spirit. In spirit, there are no judgments, no words like hate or greed or mine or war. There are no guns; there is no destruction! Spirit will live on even if our precious Earth does not!

We are spirit, and my brother asks you to remember who you are, to wake up to the beauty that is, and to honor the beauty of life at all times just as your ancestors once did a very long time ago.

I stand next to my brother just as I support you in love! As Arkan says over and over: the essence of humanity can be one heartbeat, one movement of sacred direction! When we go against this direction we destroy. When we open to the spirit that we are and surrender to the sacred motion, then we prosper, we thrive, we love, and we live!

Foreward by Jeannie Kerrigan for the book The Time of The Black Jaguar by Arkan Lushwala, Booksurge. Kindle Edition
Posted in #NDAPL, climate change, Indigenous, Quaker, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Protest, Protection, Spirit and Whiteness

Posted on November 9, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

From my teenage years I’ve been a student and tried to be a practitioner of the principles of nonviolence and civil disobedience. In the Quaker atmosphere of Scattergood Friends School I struggled with the decision every 18 year old male faces regarding registering with the Selective Service System. I chose the civil disobedience of draft resistance. Mine is one of the stories Don Laughlin collected, Quaker Young Men Face War and Conscription: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Avb9bFhezZpPiehsFVjPxK_gjjR4Ig?e=VdoY02

In 2013 I was trained by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to plan, organize and execute nonviolent direct actions as part of the national Keystone Pledge of Resistance. We held multiple rallies to try to bring attention to the Keystone Pipeline.

“Congratulations on completing your training this past weekend!  As an Action Lead, you are now a living, breathing, nonviolent threat to the Keystone XL Pipeline.  We at Rainforest Action Network are very glad you have stepped up, and ready to support you in your role.  All of us at Rainforest Action Network are honored to be working with you on this historic effort.  You inspire us.”

Rainforest Action Network (RAN)

RAN @RAN May 15
@ran activist @jakislin calls out @sendonnelly on willfully ignoring the dangers of #KXL a_ran.org/iS #NoKXL

Since 2016, though, I have been learning about protection as opposed to protest. On becoming a water protector rather than a fossil fuel/pipeline protestor. Water protection is much more in line with my Quaker beliefs. Those beliefs have broadened and deepened as I learned more about our sacred connections to Mother Earth and all our relations.

Water protectors are activists, organizers, and cultural workers focused on the defense of the world’s water and water systems. The water protector name, analysis and style of activism arose from Indigenous communities in North America, during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, that began in April, 2016, in North Dakota.

However, the concept of protecting the water as a sacred duty is much older. Water protectors are distinguished from other forms of environmental activists by this philosophy and approach that is rooted in an Indigenous cultural perspective that sees water and the land as sacred.

From this perspective, the reasons for protection of water are older, more holistic, and integrated into a larger cultural and spiritual whole than in most modern forms of environmental activism which may be more based in seeing water and other extractive resources as commodities.

Wikipedia

As I’ve become increasingly alarmed at the climate catastrophe we are rapidly moving into, and feeling we might be past the point of no return, I’ve been praying and searching for what to do now. I explore that in this PowerPoint presentation, Native and non-native peoples.

I’ve come to believe our hope to deal with environmental chaos will be found in spiritual practices, such as Quakerism and the spiritual and environmental ways of Native peoples.

In searching to make connections with Native people, I try to keep in mind that “whiteness” is a fundamental problem. One of the basic struggles in this country has been and continues to be the White colonization inflicted on Native peoples and people of color. I’ve learned one way to reduce these Whiteness influences is to listen very closely to, and follow the lead of Native peoples and people of color.

Though the work of other white environmental activists is incredibly important, this world still applauds, supports, encourages, and emulates ”whiteness” and the culture created out of the doctrine of discovery. Christine Nobiss

Let’s break the money cycle that stays in white circles

We are in this climate crisis together….but not all of us will be affected by this change in the same way. It is well known that Indigenous communities and communities of color everywhere are the most immediate recipients of climate change disaster. Greta Thunberg just arrived on the shores of the USA. Though her work and the work of other white environmental activists is incredibly important, this world still applauds, supports, encourages, and emulates ”whiteness” and the culture created out of the doctrine of discovery.

Imagine if the same amount of people made the same big deal about Indigenous youth from any of the tribal nations that are protecting 80% of the world’s biodiversity. What about Autumn Peltier, Wikwemikong First Nation, who began her advocacy for the environment and clean water at age 8? Why are US environmentalists and philanthropists falling over themselves for a Swedish activist when our people have been teaching our children these ways for hundreds of years? Our children have not only stood at the front lines repeatedly but have DIED PROTECTING our territories and our ways. We have some of the most dedicated youth in the world fighting in our own backyards against environmental disaster and climate change. Indigenous Peoples are not activists or environmentalists. Our work at the frontlines is motivated by deep ancestral ties to sacred landscapes and from first-hand effects of environmental racism.

Let’s look at the Indigenous Peoples that have survived genocide and continue to carry on their ways—ways which can save the world. Let’s look to our tribal nations for an Indigenous-led regenerative economy created through traditional ecological knowledge. An effective way we can protect, preserve and restore the climate is by seeing and taking the word of people who fight colonial oppression by tenaciously holding onto traditions that tell a different story about this planet.

Let’s get funds to Indigenous Peoples first. We have answers.

Christine Nobiss, Seeding Sovereignty

My friend Joshua Taflinger, who I worked with regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline in Indianapolis, expresses these connections between spirituality and activism.

I am inspired to share with you all more directly a post I wrote, because I consider you an established & effective nature/spiritual warrior, and believe that there is a need for the perspectives shared in the attached post to be more common thought in the minds of the many.

If you feel truth from this writing, and are inspired, I highly encourage you to re-write your own version, in your own words/perspectives, and post to your network.

With the intention of helping us all wake up, with awareness, clarity, and direction.

..spreading and weaving reality back into the world….

What has risen to the surface at Standing Rock is a physical/spiritual movement. Learn how to quiet your mind. To find the silent receptive space to receive guidance. To learn to adapt and follow the pull of synchronicity to guide you to where you will find your greatest support and strength.

What I have found in my time praying in the indigenous earth based ways, is that it’s not about putting your hands together and talking to god…. It’s about quieting and connecting with the baseline of creation, of nature. Tuning into the frequency and vibration of the natural world, the nature spirits. The beings and entities that have been in existence, for all of existence, the examples and realities of sustainability and harmony.

It’s about becoming receptive to these things. Being open and flowing with them. The spirit guides us, but we have to make ourselves receptive to feel, sense, and respond to this guidance.

Joshua Taflinger

There is a new art exhibit at Drake University named Visual Disobedience

The exhibit includes some photos from the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March.

Posted in #NDAPL, Arts, civil disobedience, climate change, First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, Indigenous, Keystone Pledge of Resistance, Native Americans, Quaker, Spiritual Warrior, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Effective Model for Social Change

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

Last night I was honored to be able to share some of my experiences in building relationships with Native peoples with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). You can see my slide presentation here: https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/native-and-non-native-peoples/

In the early 1970’s I moved to Indianapolis and was horrified to see the city enshrouded in clouds of smog. This was before catalytic converters were being used. It broke my heart to envision my beloved Rocky Mountains hidden in clouds of auto exhaust. I decided I could not contribute to that, and have lived without a personal automobile since then.

As a Quaker I was taught the way we make change in the world is by exemplifying our beliefs. Then others might follow our example. That totally did not happen regarding giving up cars.

That led me to consider who has provided an example of what I call environmental integrity. The answer, of course, being Indigenous peoples. The answer in this case led to the question of how I could connect with Native peoples.

Fortunately, I had a model to help me do that, Quaker Social Change Ministry, that I’ve written a lot about.
https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/?s=social+change+ministry

About five years ago the meeting I attended in Indianapolis, North Meadow Circle of Friends, decided to become one of the meetings participating in the pilot year of Quaker Social Change Ministry (QSCM). The model has the following components:

  1. Determine a justice concern that the whole meeting could work on together rather than the usual situation of meeting members working on their selected concerns individually.
  2. Bring a spiritual focus to this work. During QSCM meetings Friends review what has been going by expressing that from a spiritual viewpoint.
  3. Get Friends out of the meetinghouse and into the wider community by finding a group experiencing injustice right now, and forming a partnership with that group. The process for doing so is accompaniment.

We were blessed to be able to connect with the Kheprw Institute (KI) that was doing impressive work related to mentoring and empowering black youth. https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/?s=Kheprw

Accompaniment was one of the key concepts our meeting learned about from QSCM model. We learned that it is essential that we are led by the needs of the community we are working with (KI in this case). That we have to absolutely refrain from putting forth our own ideas. KI knew what they were doing and we (Friends) needed to learn about that. That worked brilliantly. As Friends came to the monthly book discussions at KI, the KI community had time to get to know and trust us, and eventually asked for our help. This can take a lot of time but you can’t force it. We had been going to KI for two years before I was asked to teach photography at KI’s summer camp.

So as I’ve worked to find connections with Native peoples I was able to use what I had learned from QSCM and our relationships with the Kheprw Institute. As occasions presented themselves, I worked from the following principles I had learned from Quaker Social Change Ministry. (PowerPoint presentation here:
https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/native-and-non-native-peoples/ )

ALL THAT WE ARE IS STORY. From the moment we are born to the time we continue on our spirit journey, we are involved in the creation of the story of our time here. It is what we arrive with. It is all we leave behind. We are not the things we accumulate. We are not the things we deem important. We are story. All of us. What comes to matter then is the creation of the best possible story we can while we’re here; you, me, us, together. When we can do that and we take the time to share those stories with each other, we get bigger inside, we see each other, we recognize our kinship — we change the world one story at a time.

Richard Wagamese (October 14, 1955-March 10, 2017)
Ojibwe from Wabeseemoong Independent Nations, Canada

I strongly encourage you to consider learning about and implementing the Quaker Social Change Ministry model. My experiences are the model really does change both the Friends involved and the community we partner with.

Here is information about a couple of webinars to help you get started with Quaker Social Change Ministry.

Do you have a longing to work over time in collective spirit-based social change work in which you get to practice the kind of just community you would like to live in? Do you have an impulse to support folks most impacted by injustice in long-haul work to brings about deeper change?

Working in small groups from a covenant derived from love and care and in a way where we can share our mistakes, be vulnerable together, and learn to support each other as we companion communities facing oppression helps us to experiment with living an alternative to the retributive justice system. The practices of Quaker social change ministry support sustainable, long haul work to lay the foundation for the Beloved Community. This work I will share with you was created by Unitarian Universalist ministers Kelly Dignan and Kierstin Homblette and extended by AFSC and offers a visionary pathway toward co-creating justice.

If so, join me in a two part webinar series on Quaker social change ministry, a powerful model of small group collective social change work that brings mystics and activists together to support one another in long-term sustainable social change work.

The webinars will take place respectively on November 13 and 20, from 8:30 p.m. EDT// 7:30 p.m. CDT // 6:30 p.m.  MDT // 5 p.m. PDT.  The first session will focus on the spiritual practices, the second on accompaniment.

Lucy Duncan, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Director of Friends Relations
Posted in #NDAPL, climate change, First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, Green New Deal, Indigenous, Kheprw Institute, Native Americans, Quaker, Quaker Meetings, Quaker Social Change Ministry, Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Native and non-native peoples

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Jeff Kisling

I’ve been working on a PowerPoint slide presentation for an upcoming lecture. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to integrate and organize my experiences from the past several years.

You can download the PDF version of this slide presentation by clicking the DOWNLOAD button below.

native-and-non-native-peoplesDownload
Posted in #NDAPL, civil disobedience, climate change, Indigenous, Keystone Pledge of Resistance, Native Americans, Quaker, Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, Uncategorized | Leave a comment