01 June 2009

Toward a Worldwide Indigenous Network

Indigenous students in Ufa-Shigiri, near Yekaterinburg, Russia, in ceremonial costumes, celebrate a cultural exchange event.

By Jonathan Hook

Jonathan Hook is the director of a new program at the University of North Texas (UNT), the International Indigenous and American Indian Initiative. Hook, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has worked extensively with American Indians and indigenous groups around the world. He was formerly director of the Office of Environmental Justice and Tribal Affairs with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Dallas, Texas. He has also worked with the U.S. State Department and UNT on a series of international indigenous student videoconferences.

Through the convention hall windows I see a rare Anchorage sun dancing on the eastern slopes of not-too-distant mountains. Inside, multinational listeners in brilliantly colored regalia adjust translation headsets and clap. In this summit to discuss international indigenous perspectives on United Nations climate change response and mitigation actions, passions run high.

There are many issues of common concern to indigenous communities around the world, most of which result from European physical and cultural expansion during the past 500 years. Uncountable similar personal experiences weave into patterns of historic trends that create the tapestry of who and what we are today. These include loss of land and language, retention of cultural autonomy, coexisting with conflicting worldviews, and the escalating impacts of climate change. Governments, NGOs, universities, and community groups are working diligently to address these topics, including the University of North Texas. My personal journey has intertwined with broader historical processes leading to the creation of UNT’s International Indigenous and American Indian Initiatives program, which is the first of its kind in Texas.

I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, one of almost 600 indigenous nations inside the United States. As a child, I listened repeatedly to stories of forced removals, struggles, and survival. I was a delegate to the Cherokee Nation Constitution Convention and I’ve always been interested in indigenous communities and their issues.

A few years ago, I sat with leaders of the Sutiava people in western Nicaragua listening to the daily afternoon downpour. They showed me a small dictionary and lamented a great cultural and personal loss — the recent death of the last speaker of their language. Perhaps the greatest marker of cultural identity, this demise of language is of tremendous concern to indigenous people everywhere. 

Subsequent trips to indigenous communities in Sarawak, Malaysia, and the Russian Ural Mountains confirmed parallel concerns about language retention, cultural continuity, environmental protection, land preservation, and economic viability. There was always a great hunger to discuss the American Indian experience and a desire to meet with the Native peoples of the Americas.

Travel funds are always difficult to locate, so a Russian host suggested that we utilize technology to hold a videoconference. The idea was taken up and facilitated by the U.S. Consulate in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia, and the U.S. Department of State, and we held our first International Indigenous Student Videoconference on Culture and the Environment for secondary school youth. The American Indian community was represented by Kialegee Creek Tribal Town, Kiowa Nation students and the chairman of the Ponca Nation Council. The issue raised as most critical internationally was that of climate change.

The videoconference led to an invitation for several American Indian students to visit Altai, Siberia. Two of Kiowa students and a Kiowa elder accompanied me to Siberia, where we camped with Altai students and adults along the Katun River. Upon our arrival, we formed a circle, seated on benches. Into the center rode a magnificent Altai man, in full Mongolian-style regalia with drawn bow. He dismounted and demonstrated both stringed instruments and Altai “throat” singing. During the cool evenings we sat around campfires, and sharing stories and songs from our respective cultures. Afternoon rains found us drinking tea and sheltering inside the warm, round yurta tent, exploring cultural similarities and sharing visions for the future. The bond between Kiowa and Altai was visible and almost immediate.

This was followed a few months later by a visit of four young Altai educators to meet with American Indian leaders and communities in Oklahoma and New Mexico. We visited Keetoowahs and Cherokees in northeast Oklahoma and Kiowas and Comanches in the western part of the state. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Siberians joined a meeting of the All Indian Pueblo Council and Governor Bill Richardson. Later, just north of Santa Fe in the home of a Tesuque Pueblo leader, they were treated to a completely indigenous meal of corn, venison, elk, local salt, garden vegetables, and fruit from our host’s orchard.

The University of North Texas expressed great interest in our videoconference and related activities. Its president offered to host our second annual International Indigenous Student Videoconference.  More American Indian students participated in the event and shared cultural dance exhibitions with the university community.

When I was director of the Office of Environmental Justice and Tribal Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Dallas, Texas, I worked with the tribal leadership, environmental directors, and communities from 65 Native nations.  UNT partnered with my office on efforts such as pursuing a Native-driven cumulative risk assessment on tribal land and supporting American Indian education opportunities through collaboration with Haskell Indian Nations University. I began working with the University of North Texas on other projects related to American Indians, diversity, and multiculturalism.  

International Indigenous and American Indian Initiative program director Jonathan Hook

The state of Texas has the fourth largest American Indian population in the United States, yet has no infrastructure to support its Native population. There is no state liaison or Indian Commission, and no university in the state had an American Indian program until 2009, when UNT inaugurated its International Indigenous and American Indian Initiatives (IIAII) program. Its name reflects the continuity of shared issues among indigenous peoples around the world. The vision of this new program is to bring about institutional and indigenous community growth through listening, responding and collaborating non-paternalistically with domestic and international Native communities.

For millennia, Native peoples have valued education and the ability to creatively adapt. Exceptional love, care, and instruction through modeling were given to American Indian children in their tribal setting. Five hundred years of disease, genocide, and cultural decimation stripped many Native generations of the tools to adapt and surmount the obstacles facing them in Western-derived educational, employment, and social systems. Typically, Western religious, political, and educational institutions paternalistically imposed their cultural paradigms on Native communities. This led to increased cultural loss and an aversion by American Indians to imposed programs. Today, UNT has the largest number of American Indian students of any university in the state.

Mechanisms for effective engagement include meetings with our recently created Indigenous Advisory Council (IAC), careful observations during community site visits, reading Native and non-Native publications, and listening actively to tribal government and tribal organization requests. The Advisory Council comprises American Indians from Texas and Oklahoma. It offers a broad range of expertise from nursing, education, law, community activism, tribal government, environment, and business to spiritual leadership. The IAC is well-prepared for its dual role of ensuring cultural integrity and identifying projects of interest to communities. Being responsive to indigenous communities means reactively complying with specific requests and proactively working to become an “Indian-friendly” institution. To that end UNT offers:

• A variety of Native-oriented courses;

• An Indigenous Studies major /minor, a significant presence of Native faculty and staff at all levels

• Ongoing Native student recruitment and funding;

• Leadership in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act;

• Language preservation;

• Significant Native-generated library holdings;

• A viable indigenous student organization;

• Indigenous-related research;

• Mentoring by Native professionals;

• Strong relations with Native nations, tribal colleges, and American Indian organizations.

The international focus is in response to shared concerns by worldwide indigenous communities regarding the current and potential impacts of climate change and UNT’s unique ability to engage the topic. Real program success will be measured by changed lives at the university and in communities around the world. As I listened in Alaska to stories about the impacts of climate change on indigenous communities, my mind drifted back many years to a presentation made by my daughter. She had a circle of seated children throw a ball of yarn back and forth to each other, creating what looked like a spider web. Then she asked each child successively to pull on their strand of yarn. All were able to feel the tugs, demonstrating the impact that each of us has on each other and all living things. Our new program exists to celebrate, nurture and support this global circle of life.

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.