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Abstract
This study uses an indigenous perspective, paradigm, and methodologies along with western methodologies to understand the impacts of environmental injustice on indigenous cultures whose cultural survival is interdependent and intricately linked to the environment. The research was conducted in Akwesasne, the central fire of the Mohawk Nation; and, one of the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Akwesasne is a community inundated with environmental degradation that has resulted in severe human health ills and environmental health impacts caused by the building of the Saint Lawrence Seaway; and, the Hydroelectric Project that attracted polluting industries to set-up plants upriver from the Saint Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation.
A cultural tool was developed based on an Haudenosaunee foundational traditional teaching, known in Mohawk, as the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen (Words before all Else), and also known as the Thanksgiving Address. This tool, which has application with other indigenous cultures, was essential for easing the minds of the people, who have been abused by researchers for years, for it provided interviewees with a format that they could relate to and were familiar with, which enabled them to provide in-depth information about the Haudenosaunee culture that would have been missed by other methods.
The Haudenosaunee are linked socially, physical, spiritually, and culturally to the environment, the Natural World. The links are numerous, reciprocal, and depend on each being in the Natural World living one's life according to the Haudenosaunee traditional teachings. This requires specific acts and beliefs between people and the rest of the Natural World for there to be peace and justice and continuity of the culture.
Identifying the cultural links, via a culturally relevant methodology, is crucial and should be part of a researcher's arsenal and part of environmental assessments, so that proper remedies and actions can be taken to protect indigenous peoples and cultures.
Deconstruction of the Haudenosaunee core revealed that the beliefs, the ceremonies, medicine societies, and traditional practices remain strong in Akwesasne. However, immediate action must be taken to remedy the broken links and understand the complexity of the links between humans and the environment for the people and culture to survive.