Environmental Injustice and Racism Against Native Americans

With the recent oil spill at the Dakota Access Pipeline, the public has been once again reminded how our nation’s legacy of racism overlaps with conserving the environment. The pipeline has been swamped in controversy since the beginning of its construction by a private corporation on land that is part of sacred Indigenous land. The risk of water and land contamination has also been a major question. However, this pipeline is just one instance where Native Americans have faced the brunt of both racism and environmental injustice.

Research has shown that, in part because of the mining of precious minerals on their land, Native Americans have the poorest health out of all the country’s racial groups (Lynch). Some have compared the pollution of reservations to the mass slaughter of the buffalo and important crops because of their racialized impact on the natural world (Lynch).

You may be wondering why would the native peoples allow such dangerous materials on their property? There are several reasons, one of the most blatant being the treaty violations by public and private entities (Scientific American). The Dakota Access Pipeline is an example of this, considering that the lands it was being built on were part of sovereign nations. The United States government has also offered many tribes large sums of money in exchange for storing hazardous waste materials (Scientific American). The high rate of poverty on these reservations means that many tribal leaders would be eager to accept the money, in spite of the grave health risks (Scientific American). One study argued that many our military policies allow for nuclear and chemical waste to be dumped on these reservations, exploiting the indigenous people for our White government’s energy and militaristic needs (van der Linden).

This renewed interest in American Indian activism will hopefully renew a resistance movement to hold the government, military, and private corporations accountable of their racism and disregard for the natural world. Ever since the European settlers came to the Americas, the indigenous peoples have been victim to this genocide and war. If we are ever to truly atone for what has been done to them we must begin by securing their basic human rights and needs, including safe drinking water, food, and land.

Sources: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2004/12/10/79014/- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talk-reservations-about-toxic-waste/ http://greencriminology.org/glossary/native-american-people-environmental-health-and-justice-issues/