Settler violation of reciprocal land ethics caused cascading ecological and cultural loss

Evidence

Had the new people learned what Original Man was taught at a council of animals—never damage Creation, and never interfere with the sacred purpose of another being—the eagle would look down on a different world. The salmon would be crowding up the rivers, and passenger pigeons would darken the sky. Wolves, cranes, Nehalem, cougars, Lenape, old-growth forests would still be here, each fulfilling their sacred purpose. I would be speaking Potawatomi. We would see what Nanabozho saw. It does not bear too much imagining, for in that direction lies heartbreak. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 763

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Settler violence and dispossession are ecological harms when measured by relational resilience — Kyle Whyte, Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and…, 97; Buffalo decimation caused the Lakota’s spiritual and ethnic death — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 748; Land-based cultures tied their survival ethics to maintaining the land’s carrying capacity. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1425 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Sweetgrass recolonizing disrupted land teaches that brokenness lies in human-land relationship #qualifies (0.82) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1232