Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

This is Part Two of our conversation with tribal elder and matriarch Casey Camp Horinek. We discuss why a tribally led movement is the best hope for the planet, and how the unique legal and political relationship between tribes and the U.S. federal government is advantageous in efforts to truly protect ecosystems. Casey also discusses the journey her tribe is taking as they explore the best ways to incorporate rights of nature into their legal framework. Artwork for this episode includes tintype photography by Will Wilson (willwilson.photoshelter.com/index) and collage art by Mer Young (meryoung.com/). For more information and transcript, visit the episode page: https://bioneers.org/indigenize-the-law-tribal-rights-of-nature-movements-casey-camp-horinek-2/Casey Camp-Horinek, a tribal Councilwoman of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and Hereditary Drumkeeper of its Womens’ Scalp Dance Society, Elder and Matriarch, is also an Emmy award winning actress, author, and an internationally renowned, longtime Native and Human Rights and Environmental Justice activist.Resources:Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program Rights of Nature InitiativeRights of Nature Bioneers Media HubCasey Camp-Horinek: Aligning Human Law with Natural Law | 2019 Bioneers Conference Keynote AddressThis is an episode of Indigeneity Conversations, a podcast series that features deep and engaging conversations with Native culture bearers, scholars, movement leaders, and non-Native allies on the most important issues and solutions in Indian Country. Bringing Indigenous voices to global conversations. Visit the Indigeneity Conversations homepage to learn more.

In this first part of a two-part program, we travel back and forth in time to explore the battle between democracy and plutocracy. In today’s new Gilded Age of rule by the wealthy, rising anti-trust movements are challenging the stranglehold of corporate monopoly. This is “Democracy versus Plutocracy: Behind Every Great Fortune Lies a Great Crime” with leading democracy defenders Thom Hartmann, Stacy Mitchell and Maurice BP Weeks.

“If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do, then how would I be and what would I do?” asked visionary designer Buckminster Fuller. Buckminster Fuller Institute Board President David McConville says our view of the universe profoundly shapes our future as a species, and it’s changing radically.

The idea that a river or other natural feature is a living being, imbued with the right to live and thrive is nothing new to Indigenous Peoples around the world. In this episode with Matriarch Casey Camp-Horinek from the Ponca Nation, we talk about how a burgeoning indigenous-led Rights of Nature movement has the potential to protect ecosystems from destruction by granting legal rights to nature itself, and how many tribes are uniquely positioned for leadership to institute and uphold the Rights of Nature because of their sovereign legal status. This episode features collage artwork by Indigenous artist, Mer Young.For more information and transcript, visit the episode page: https://bioneers.org/indigenize-the-law-tribal-rights-of-nature-movements-casey-camp-horinek-1/Featuring:Casey Camp-Horinek, a tribal Councilwoman of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and Hereditary Drumkeeper of its Womens’ Scalp Dance Society, Elder and Matriarch, is also an Emmy award winning actress, author, and an internationally renowned, longtime Native and Human Rights and Environmental Justice activist. She led efforts for the Ponca tribe to adopt a Rights of Nature Statute and pass a moratorium on fracking on its territory, and has traveled and spoken around the world.This is an episode of Indigeneity Conversations, a podcast series that features deep and engaging conversations with Native culture bearers, scholars, movement leaders, and non-Native allies on the most important issues and solutions in Indian Country. Bringing Indigenous voices to global conversations. Visit the Indigeneity Conversations homepage to learn more.Resources:Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program Rights of Nature InitiativeRights of Nature Bioneers Media HubCasey Camp-Horinek: Aligning Human Law with Natural Law | 2019 Bioneers Conference Keynote AddressCredits:Executive Producer: Kenny AusubelCo-Hosts and Producers: Cara Romero and Alexis BuntenSenior Producer: Stephanie WelchAssociate Producer and Program Engineer: Emily HarrisConsulting Producer: Teo GrossmanStudio Engineers: Brandon Pinard and Theo BadashiTech Support: Tyson RussellWeb Design: Megan HoweMer Young creates the series collage artwork.

As climate chaos and obscene inequality ravage people and planet, a new generation of visionaries is emerging to demand a bold solution: a Green New Deal. Is it a remedy that can actually meet the magnitude and urgency of this turning point in the human enterprise? With the late Tom Hayden, lifelong activist and politician, and Demond Drummer of Policy Link.

Native American students face racism throughout their education, from racist mascots to the historical erasure of the American genocide from textbooks. In this passionate conversation, Indigenous Rights Activists Dahkota Brown, Chiitaanibah Johnson, Jayden Lim, and Naelyn Pike share stories of their own experiences and how they are working to abolish racism in schools.

Deep Ecology extends an inalienable right to life to all beings. Yet as the naturalist Aldo Leopold observed, “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” Either harden your shell, or be a doctor. Joanna Macy decided to be an Earth doctor. A systems theorist, author and lifelong activist, she describes how healing the world and healing your heart and soul go hand in hand.

Hey podcast listeners! We’re launching a new series called Indigeneity Conversations. Produced by Bioneers and hosted by Indigeneity Program Directors Cara Romero and Alexis Bunten. This series is dedicated to amplifying and uplifting Indigenous voices, experiences and solutions. New episodes will be released on this podcast feed, so stay tuned.This series premiere episode features a conversation with Crystal Echo Hawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and President and CEO of IllumiNative and of Echo Hawk Consulting. From racist mascots, to stereotypes in national creation myths like Thanksgiving, we have always faced misrepresentation and disrespect of our cultures and identities. Cultural appropriation and commodification of our cultures is commonplace, but Native activists, artists, youth, educators, legislators and our allies are changing that reality. We are winning battles to ban racist mascots and call out negative stereotypes in the media.

From the Canadian tar sands to the oil and natural gas fields of North America and the Amazon jungle, Indigenous peoples of the North and South are converging in one struggle. It is also the reconciliation of two different ways of knowing and being, between the head and heart, sometimes called The Eagle and The Condor. Five Indigenous women of the North and South are showing us how to keep fossil fuels on the ground and uphold our part of the hoop of life. With: Woman Stands Shining, Patricia Gualinga, Crystal Lameman, Eagle Woman, and Eriel Deranger.

Do you think of the wilderness as something far away? Not in the age of climate change and human population growth. The real wilderness is always underfoot—the complex systems underlying life on Earth that we barely understand. It’s our inheritance, our guardianship to understand traditional and indigenous knowledge of Earth as a vast, cultivated landscape. Land managers such as Miguel Santistevan, Lani Malmberg and Peter Warshall celebrate the fact that we are all gardeners. They reveal brilliant innovations and ancient wisdom for how to get good at it.