Environmental Justice and Indigeneity
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 June 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0269
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 June 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0269
Introduction: Indigenous Environmental Justice
Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) is distinct from the broader EJ field, which has been found to exhibit certain limitations when applied to Indigenous contexts. Indigenous scholars have observed, for example, that EJ scholarship generally does not consider Indigenous sovereignty, laws, and governance. Attempts to ensure the relevance and applicability of EJ to Indigenous contexts and realities have resulted in what can be thought of as an “Indigenizing” of the EJ scholarship. Recent scholarship thus recognizes that Indigenous peoples occupy a unique position in terms of historical, political, and legal context, and that this requires specific recognition of their goals and aspirations, such as those outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN General Assembly [UNGA] 2007). Achieving IEJ will require more than simply incorporating Indigenous perspectives into existing EJ theoretical and methodological frameworks, as valuable as these are for diagnosing injustice. IEJ offers a theoretical and analytical framework that goes beyond “Indigenizing” and “decolonizing” existing EJ scholarship and extends to frameworks informed by Indigenous intellectual traditions, knowledge systems, and laws. Indigenous nations and societies are diverse and no single IEJ framework will serve all contexts and situations. There are, however, commonalities among suggested frameworks as evidenced through various international environmental declarations prepared by Indigenous peoples over the past three decades that convey key concepts relating to IEJ. First, Indigenous knowledge systems should be utilized as a theoretical framework for analysis. In this frame, justice applies to all “relatives” in Creation, not just people. EJ is not just about rights to a safe environment, but it includes the duties and responsibilities of people to all beings and, conversely, their responsibilities to people. IEJ is regarded as a question of balance and harmony, of reciprocity and respect, among all beings in Creation; not just between humans, but among all “relatives,” as LaDuke 1999 and Kanngieser and Todd 2020 show. Second, Indigenous legal traditions should form the basis for achieving justice. Scholars have noted how Western legal systems continue to fail Indigenous peoples and the environment. In this sense, grounding conceptions of justice and injustice in Indigenous intellectual and legal traditions opens up possibilities for achieving justice. Finally, IEJ must acknowledge the historical and ongoing role colonialism has played in perpetuating injustices.
Kanngieser, Anja, and Zoe Todd. 2020. From environmental case study to environmental kin study. History & Theory 59.3: 385–393.
DOI: 10.1111/hith.12166
Instead of “case study,” the authors propose “kin study,” a grounded, material, and respectful approach to working with people and the land. By reading with Indigenous scholars from North America and the Pacific, kin studies reorient scholarly work in the field of environmental history from abstraction toward an embedded, relational, and more capacious politics and praxis.
LaDuke, Winona. 1999. All our relations: Native struggles for land and life. Cambridge, MA: South End.
Nine case studies offer a glimpse of how Indigenous communities across North America reveal the deep struggles relating to lands and resources, with roots in a colonial history. Her work emphasizes how different communities approach environmental degradation and seek justice based on traditional values and lifeways.
UN General Assembly (UNGA). 2007. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Geneva, Switzerland: Office of the Commission for Human Rights.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is an international instrument adopted by the United Nations in 2007 that outlines the obligations and responsibilities of signatory nation-states to ensure the rights of Indigenous peoples are recognized and implemented. Indigenous peoples have asserted that UNDRIP offers an important strategy for realizing justice in a few key areas relating to lands and resources.
General Overview of the Edited Volumes and Monographs
Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) is an emerging field of study that has evolved over the past few decades. Initially seen as an “add-on” to the EJ movement more broadly, Indigenous scholars began to conceptualize EJ in relation to Indigenous peoples as something distinct ontologically and epistemologically. An edited volume, Weaver 1997 offers a contrasting narrative to the mainstream EJ discourse by emphasizing that discussion of EJ from Indigenous perspectives requires an analysis of sovereignty and the legal frameworks that govern environmental matters in Indigenous communities. These themes were further emphasized in a series of works—LaDuke 2016 and LaDuke 2020. LaDuke’s works emphasize the resilience of Indigenous peoples in the face of overwhelming environmental colonialism and destruction as they forge ahead with culturally based resistance strategies. Grijalva 2008 analyzes how federal environmental, administrative, and Indian law exacerbates environmental injustice in Tribal lands. An edited volume, Bellfy 2014 outlines the destruction that has occurred over the centuries to the Great Lakes environment and the subsequent struggles of the Indigenous peoples to maintain their lifeways. Bellfy’s contributors offer insights based on traditional knowledge and responsibility to the land. From an international perspective, Lennox and Short 2016 demonstrates how Indigenous peoples continue to face struggles for basic human rights in their ongoing efforts to secure a just and sustainable future. An edited volume, Jarratt-Snider and Nielson 2020 further seeks to distinguish IEJ from the broader field of EJ, emphasizing Native American tribes are governments. Gombay and Palomina-Schalscha 2018, an edited volume, offers international perspectives of IEJ with contributions from Chile, Australia, Finland, Cambodia, Mexico, and Japan. This volume emphasizes the colonial and post/neo colonial expansion has affected Indigenous relations with lands and livelihood, while Indigenous peoples continue to affirm their desire for self-determination.
Bellfy, Phil, ed. 2014. Honour the Earth: Great Lakes Indigenous response to environmental crises. East Lansing, MI: Ziibi.
This volume offers five themed parts in a collection of sixteen essays by primarily Indigenous scholars with contributions from environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) chronicles the environmental history of the Great lakes, including the devastating impacts of colonialism and resulting impacts in food and water insecurity and declining biodiversity and ecosystems. Contributors convey the importance of recognition of treaties, sovereignty, traditional knowledge, language of the relatives/teachers (nonhuman), and ceremonies to heal and move toward a sustainable future.
Gombay, Nicole, and Marcela Palomina-Schalscha, eds. 2018. Indigenous places and colonial spaces: The politics of intertwined relations. London: Routledge.
An international collection of twelve chapters dealing with how colonialism continues to factor into environmental injustices in vastly differently contexts from around the world. The volume emphasizes the importance of lived experiences of Indigenous peoples and recognition of Indigenous relational ontologies as paramount in understanding relations with and the rights of the nonhuman world. Contributors reflect on Indigenous peoples struggles for recognition, aptly expressed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Grijalva, James. 2008. Closing the circle: Environmental justice in Indian country. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
This book offers an example of how EJ theories of distributive and administrative justice create injustice on tribal lands. This work reveals the lack of environmental regulation on tribal lands and thus threatens the survival of Indigenous peoples.
Jarratt-Snider, Karen, and Marianne O. Nielson, eds. 2020. Indigenous environmental justice. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press.
Utilizing case examples, the contributors cover legal, human rights, and environmental rights as well sovereignty issues to distinguish IEJ from the broader field of EJ. Similar to material found in other volumes, the harms of environmental injustices are described along with emphasizing the role of self-determination in moving toward solving such injustices.
LaDuke, Winona. 2016. The Winona LaDuke chronicles: Stories from the front lines in the battle for environmental justice. Halifax, NS: Fernwood.
This work chronicles LaDuke’s illustrious career as an activist. She emphasizes that environmental assaults on Indigenous lands and bodies are due, in part, to humanity’s lack of connection and respect for the Earth as well as to colonialism. LaDuke’s work collectively contributes to a gendered understanding of environmental violence and colonialism.
LaDuke, Winona. 2020. To be a water protector: The rise of the Windigoo slayers. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
LaDuke’s latest work reflects upon some of the greatest challenges facing humanity and the planet and solutions that Indigenous peoples have to offer. This book is focused on her activist work as a “water protector” at Standing Rock and Enbridge Line 3, a tar sands pipeline in Minnesota. She levels criticism at the cannibalistic, or Windigoo, capitalist economy that consumes beyond its needs, and she comments on the rising widespread resistance to such economies.
Lennox, Corrine, and Damien Short, eds. 2016. Handbook of Indigenous peoples’ rights. London: Routledge.
This collection of contributions from international scholars, with twenty-eight chapters, includes case studies that focus on the role of human, environmental, and Indigenous rights. This body of work establishes the central role of recognizing Indigenous rights, treaties, and land claims in realizing the survival of Indigenous peoples
Weaver, Jace, ed. 1997. Defending Mother Earth: Native American perspectives on environmental justice. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.
Contributors to the volume emphasize that environmental struggles faced by Indigenous peoples (primarily tribes in the United States) are due to a lack of recognition of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. This book offers an Indigenous ontology of the Earth as a living entity and not as a source of much conflict and destruction. Indigenous ontologies of the Earth based on traditional knowledge provide a pathway forward for humanity to reestablish just relations with the Earth itself.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Africa, Anthropology of
- Aging
- Agriculture
- Animal Ritual
- Animal Sanctuaries
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Anthropocene, The
- Anthropological Activism and Visual Ethnography
- Anthropology and Education
- Anthropology and Theology
- Anthropology of Islam
- Anthropology of Kurdistan
- Anthropology of the Senses
- Anthrozoology
- Antiquity, Ethnography in
- Applied Anthropology
- Archaeobotany
- Archaeological Education
- Archaeology
- Archaeology and Museums
- Archaeology and Political Evolution
- Archaeology and Race
- Archaeology and the Body
- Archaeology, Gender and
- Archaeology, Global
- Archaeology, Historical
- Archaeology, Indigenous
- Archaeology of Childhood
- Archaeology of the Senses
- Archives
- Art Museums
- Art/Aesthetics
- Autoethnography
- Bakhtin, Mikhail
- Bass, William M.
- Beauty
- Belief
- Benedict, Ruth
- Binford, Lewis
- Bioarchaeology
- Biocultural Anthropology
- Bioethics
- Biological and Physical Anthropology
- Biological Citizenship
- Boas, Franz
- Bone Histology
- Bureaucracy
- Business Anthropology
- Capitalism
- Cargo Cults
- Caribbean
- Caste
- Charles Sanders Peirce and Anthropological Theory
- Childhood Studies
- Christianity, Anthropology of
- Citizenship
- Clinical Trials
- Cobb, William Montague
- Code-switching and Multilingualism
- Cognitive Anthropology
- Cole, Johnnetta
- Colonialism
- Commodities
- Consumerism
- Cultural Heritage Presentation and Interpretation
- Cultural Heritage, Race and
- Cultural Materialism
- Cultural Relativism
- Cultural Resource Management
- Culture
- Culture and Personality
- Culture, Popular
- Curatorship
- Cyber-Archaeology
- Dalit Studies
- Dance Ethnography
- de Heusch, Luc
- Deaccessioning
- Design
- Design, Anthropology and
- Diaspora
- Digital Anthropology
- Disability and Deaf Studies and Anthropology
- Douglas, Mary
- Drake, St. Clair
- Dreaming
- Durkheim and the Anthropology of Religion
- Economic Anthropology
- Embodied/Virtual Environments
- Embodiment
- Emotion, Anthropology of
- Environmental Anthropology
- Environmental Justice and Indigeneity
- Ethics
- Ethnoarchaeology
- Ethnocentrism
- Ethnographic Documentary Production
- Ethnographic Films from Iran
- Ethnography
- Ethnography Apps and Games
- Ethnohistory and Historical Ethnography
- Ethnomusicology
- Ethnoscience
- Europe
- Evans-Pritchard, E. E.
- Evolution, Cultural
- Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology
- Evolutionary Theory
- Experimental Archaeology
- Federal Indian Law
- Feminist Anthropology
- Film, Ethnographic
- Folklore
- Food
- Forensic Anthropology
- Francophonie
- Frazer, Sir James George
- Geertz, Clifford
- Gender
- Gender and Religion
- Gene Flow
- Genetics
- Genocide
- GIS and Archaeology
- Global Health
- Globalization
- Gluckman, Max
- Graphic Anthropology
- Grass
- Haraway, Donna
- Healing and Religion
- Health and Social Stratification
- Health Policy, Anthropology of
- Heritage Language
- HIV/AIDS
- House Museums
- Human Adaptability
- Human Evolution
- Human Rights
- Human Rights Films
- Humanistic Anthropology
- Hurston, Zora Neale
- Identity
- Identity Politics
- Indigeneity
- Indigenous Economic Development
- Indigenous Media: Currents of Engagement
- Industrial Archaeology
- Institutions
- Interpretive Anthropology
- Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity
- Kinship
- Laboratories
- Language and Emotion
- Language and Law
- Language and Media
- Language and Race
- Language and Urban Place
- Language Contact and its Sociocultural Contexts, Anthropol...
- Language Ideology
- Language Socialization
- Leakey, Louis
- Legal Anthropology
- Legal Pluralism
- Liberalism, Anthropology of
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Linguistic Relativity
- Linguistics, Historical
- Literacy
- Literary Anthropology
- Lévi-Strauss, Claude
- Magic
- Malinowski, Bronisław
- Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Visual Anthropology
- Maritime Archaeology
- Marriage
- Material Culture
- Materiality
- Mathematical Anthropology
- Matriarchal Studies
- Mead, Margaret
- Media Anthropology
- Medical Anthropology
- Medical Technology and Technique
- Mediterranean
- Memory
- Mendel, Gregor
- Mental Health and Illness
- Mesoamerican Archaeology
- Mexican Migration to the United States
- Migration
- Militarism, Anthropology and
- Missionization
- Mobility
- Modernity
- Morgan, Lewis Henry
- Multispecies Ethnography
- Museum Anthropology
- Museum Education
- Museum Studies
- Myth
- NAGPRA and Repatriation of Native American Human Remains a...
- Narrative in Sociocultural Studies of Language
- Nationalism
- Needham, Rodney
- Neoliberalism
- NGOs, Anthropology of
- Niche Construction
- Northwest Coast, The
- Oceania, Archaeology of
- Paleolithic Art
- Paleontology
- Performance Studies
- Performativity
- Personhood
- Perspectivism
- Philosophy of Museums
- Pilgrimage
- Plantations
- Political Anthropology
- Postprocessual Archaeology
- Postsocialism
- Poverty, Culture of
- Primatology
- Primitivism and Race in Ethnographic Film: A Decolonial Re...
- Processual Archaeology
- Psycholinguistics
- Psychological Anthropology
- Public Archaeology
- Public Sociocultural Anthropologies
- Race
- Religion
- Religion and Post-Socialism
- Religious Conversion
- Repatriation
- Reproductive and Maternal Health in Anthropology
- Reproductive Technologies
- Rhetoric Culture Theory
- Rural Anthropology
- Sahlins, Marshall
- Sapir, Edward
- Scandinavia
- Science Studies
- Secularization
- Semiotics
- Settler Colonialism
- Sex Estimation
- Sexuality
- Shamanism
- Sign Language
- Skeletal Age Estimation
- Social Anthropology (British Tradition)
- Social Movements
- Socialization
- Society for Visual Anthropology, History of
- Socio-Cultural Approaches to the Anthropology of Reproduct...
- Sociolinguistics
- Sound Ethnography
- Space and Place
- Stable Isotopes
- Stan Brakhage and Ethnographic Praxis
- Structuralism
- Studying Up
- Sub-Saharan Africa, Democracy in
- Surrealism and Anthropology
- Technological Organization
- Tourism
- Trans Studies in Anthroplogy
- Transnationalism
- Tree-Ring Dating
- Turner, Edith L. B.
- Turner, Victor
- Urban Anthropology
- Value
- Violence
- Virtual Ethnography
- Visual Anthropology
- Whorfian Hypothesis
- Willey, Gordon
- Witchcraft
- Wolf, Eric R.
- Writing Culture
- Youth Culture
- Zoonosis
- Zora Neale Hurston and Visual Anthropology