When Native Americans talk about family, they may not be referring to mom, dad, two kids and a dog. In their worldview, everyone and everything is related, including the plants that spring up from the ground.
It’s a view shared by Indigenous cultures across the planet.
That was the gist of a presentation at the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, 2522 Marshall St. NE, on Saturday, April 26. It was sponsored by the Hennepin History Museum.
Tara Perron (Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ), Dakota and Ojibwe, led the panel discussion which included Simone Rendon, Ojibwe and Lakota; Jenna Grey Eagle, White Earth Ojibwe; and Travis Bush, Dakota and Mohawk.
Before the panelists introduced themselves to the audience, Perron, whose Dakota name means Blue Hummingbird Woman, set the perspective: “We are very young. We are young to this planet. We need to cherish the water, we need to cherish the plants. They will go on without us.”
The following responses have been edited for length.
Simone Rendon
Jenna Grey Eagle
Travis Bush
Tara Perron
What are the key factors affecting our local rivers and water?
Rendon: One of the things that’s hard to watch is the runoff. To watch, over 40 years, to see more and more things built along the river, and the population increasing along the river, which directly affects what’s in the river. What we do here affects Mother Earth all the way down. The Earth is round. I think of the river like our bloodstream. If you inject something into your upper arm, it affects your big toe. What we do to those waterways affects everything.
Grey Eagle: The general sentiment of seeing nature as a commodity is leading to the lack of health in our Mother Earth. Not seeing nature as a relative is causing a lot of harm. Turf grass can hold about two inches of water, whereas native plants can hold up to a foot of water. We know, as Indigenous people, if we don’t take care of native plants, it leads to degrading the environment.
Bush: The Dakota people are very connected to the water. The name of our state, Minnesota, shows how important water is to the Dakota people. Mni is water. We talk about how the Amazon rainforest is the lungs of the Earth. The Mississippi watershed is the blood of the Earth. Blood is important to keep life moving forward.
How can the Dakota perspective of having plants as relatives change the course that we’re on?
Rendon: I forage a lot, and I look at all the plants as relatives. Root systems talk to each other. What we do here really does affect what happens in China, in Africa. The root system goes into the ground, the ground goes beneath the oceans — it is all connected. When I’m harvesting, I talk to the plants. If I’m crabby and don’t talk to them, when I go back the next week, the harvest is not as plentiful. It really matters how you engage with them. Water is alive, too. There have been scientific studies: if you talk to water, the molecules change.
Grey Eagle: Building actual relationships with plants is vital. Looking at plants with reciprocity is what Indigenous people have always done. “I take care of you, you take care of me.” In this day and age, it’s common to walk in nature and not know what you’re seeing.
There are many Dakota who were exiled from Minnesota. Many of them are still in Canada. Their [plant] knowledge went with them. It would be good to welcome them and the plant relatives back. Dakota people aren’t allowed to forage in certain areas. Indigenous people were foraging for thousands and thousands of years. When explorers came to Minnesota, this was the most pristine land they’d ever seen. That was purposeful. That was because Dakota people took care of it. They used prescribed burns to take care of the oak savanna that was here in the Twin Cities. It’s one of the rarest ecosystems in the world.
Bush: As human beings, we radiate energy. We can walk in beauty, or walk in destruction. That’s why the Earth is off balance now. There’s too many who walk in destruction. Treat the plants like they’re your relatives, your grandmother, your grandfather. Learn from them.
Perron: When I’m out there foraging, I always think of what my grandmother said: “You wouldn’t go into someone’s house and just take what you want from the cupboard. You say, ‘Hello, how are you? How have you been?’ and then you have tea.”
For it to be illegal for us to forage — we use these plants as medicines. We don’t have a CVS on every corner. This is our drugstore. To say that I can’t take this medicine for my mom who doesn’t use Western medicine hurts my heart. Our people have been here for a long time and we know these relatives. They’re here for us, and we love them.
My son, for his naming ceremony, had to tend to a seed. He tended to that seed, he sang to that seed, he loved that seed that grew into a little tiny pepper. Then he had to cook with that seed. He said, “I can’t. I don’t want to cut it.” It showed him that all of that love you put into the plant, goes back into you.
As a Native person, how do you monitor climate change and what changes are you seeing now?
Rendon: My first response is that Mother Earth is really sick.
I was raised that dreams are really important. When I was a little girl, my oldest sister would wake up (we all shared the same bedroom) and say, “When we are 50 years old, it’s going to snow in July. The world is going to be messy and not okay.” My sister will be 50 in two years. I look at how we used to play in the snow and now we don’t get enough snow for a good run of maple syrup. The seasons are changing. I just recently called my sister and asked if this dream was my imagination. “Did you say this?” She said she was afraid to say it out loud — she thought it was just in her head.
Two years ago, we decided not to tap the maple trees. Although the trees were running, the sugar wasn’t there. There wasn’t enough cold and snow that winter to make good maple syrup. The syrup people collected that year is cloudy, and it molded faster. It just was off. I just pictured a really anemic person with a transfusion going in one side and coming out the other.
Grey Eagle: There’s no snow. Summers are getting hotter. It feels as if invasive plants are spreading faster. When I was a girl I was told there would be a time when the birds don’t come back. I think about how unhappy they must be to not want to come back. It must be a lack of food, water.
I monitor climate change from a global mindset. I met a young woman from Australia — she’s only 25. Her family used to go to an island to forage and it’s flooded. One grandma who is an Aboriginal from Australia said, “We’re gonna be fine. We’ve survived all this before.” Indigenous people are so resilient! Our plants all want to be cared for.
Bush: During my time at AmeriCorps, the thing that stood out to me about climate change was that invasive species feel the stress. It’s hard on them, too. If the invasives are under stress, what are the native species feeling?
How can we empower people to join in river stewardship?
Rendon: By showing up, by going back to your homes and families and friends and say, “How do we get more people to come to these kinds of events?
Grey Eagle: The first thing that came to mind was “get rid of your turf lawns.” We’re lucky, here in Minnesota, that there are programs that will actually pay you to get rid of your turf lawn. Grass is kinda fun to mow, but not really. Why not have something that’s going to support habitat and food?
Bush: Something I feel deeply is to welcome our people home from exile. Not just the humans, but the switchgrass, the native plants. Welcome us home.