This book examines ways of conserving, managing, and interacting with plant and animal resources by Native American cultural groups of the Pacific Coast of North America, from Alaska to California. These practices helped them maintain and restore ecological balance for thousands of years. Building upon the authors’ and others’ previous works, the book brings in perspectives from ethnography and marine evolutionary ecology. The core of the book consists of Native American testimony: myths, tales, speeches, and other texts, which are treated from an ecological viewpoint. The focus on animals and in-depth research on stories, especially early recordings of texts, set this book apart. The book is divided into two parts, covering the Northwest Coast, and California. It then follows the division in lifestyle between groups dependent largely on fish and largely on seed crops. It discusses how the survival of these cultures functions in the contemporary world, as First Nations demand recognition and restoration of their ancestral rights and resource management practices.

Our Traumatized Planet explores the state of the environment and some of the major issues faced today and asks what we can learn and apply from contemporary traditional peoples, ancient societies, and our own successes and failures. Providing straightforward information on some of the serious environmental issues we face so that non-scientists can understand them, this book explores what is at stake so that we can choose to make a difference. Combining the latest data from environmental, anthropological, and archaeological science allows for fresh perspectives and an empirical approach to describing these problems that eliminates hopeful denial, speculation, wishful thinking, and downright lies. Using archaeological data, the authors provide examples of success and failures in the past that could be used to make decisions about the future. They also highlight examples of how traditional peoples, past and present, have dealt with these same issues. Seeing the current crisis through the eyes of two experienced anthropologists broadens our understanding and allows us to set contemporary issues in the context of the past and traditional knowledge. However, this is not a book of easy solutions from the past to solve our future; rather, it is an impassioned plea to people today to read and understand what state the planet is in and encourage them to find the will to change. This book is for students of archaeology, anthropology, and environmental science and all those wanting to, in a clear and readable way, understand the fate of our planet.

With a long history and deep connection to the Earth’s resources, indigenous peoples have an intimate understanding and ability to observe the impacts linked to climate change. Traditional ecological knowledge and tribal experience play a key role in developing future scientific solutions for adaptation to the impacts. The book explores climate-related issues for indigenous communities in the United States, including loss of traditional knowledge, forests and ecosystems, food security and traditional foods, as well as water, Arctic sea ice loss, permafrost thaw and relocation. The book also highlights how tribal communities and programs are responding to the changing environments. Fifty authors from tribal communities, academia, government agencies and NGOs contributed to the book. Previously published in Climatic Change, Volume 120, Issue 3, 2013.

Radical Mindfulness examines the root causes of injustice, asking why inequalities along the lines of race, class, gender, and species continue to exist. Specifically, James K. Rowe examines fear of death as a root cause of systemic inequalities and proposes a more embodied approach to social change as a solution. Collecting insights from powerful thinkers across multiple traditions—including Black radicals, Indigenous resurgence theorists, terror management theorists, and Buddhist feminists— Rowe argues for the political importance of seemingly apolitical practices such as meditation and ritual. On their own, these strategies are not enough, but integrated into social movements that are combating structural injustices, mind–body practices can begin transforming the embodied fears that feed endless fuel to supremacist ideologies and yet are not targeted by most political actors. Radical Mindfulness is for academics, activists, and individuals who want to overcome supremacy of all kinds but are struggling to understand and develop methods for attacking it at the roots.

Timely both in its topical relevance and time-space themed discursive interventions, analysis and recommendations, this edited volume examines and prospectively expands, with the critical as is performative construct, upon contemporary intersections of education, knowledge and social wellbeing.

Indigenous scholars strive to produce research to improve Native communities in meaningful ways. They also recognize that long-lasting change depends on effective leadership. Living Indigenous Leadership showcases innovative research and leadership practices from diverse nations and tribes in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. The contributors use storytelling to highlight the distinctive nature of Indigenous leadership. Native leaders, whether formal or informal, ground their work in embodied concepts such as land, story, ancestors, and elders, and their leadership style finds its most powerful expression in collaboration, in the teaching and example of Eders, and in community projects to promote higher education, language revitalization, health care, and the preservation of Indigenous arts. This inspiring collection not only adds indigenous methods to studies on leadership, it also gives a voice to the wives, mothers, and grandmothers who are using their knowledge to mend hearts and minds and to build strong communities.