School of Earth Science and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA,
Hum Biol. 2020 Nov 17;92(1):19-26. doi: 10.13110/humanbiology.92.1.01.
Environmental justice is a prominent issue for Native American nations within the United States. One example is the abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation that have been left unremediated since the Cold War. Often, environmental policy is developed for issues facing Native American nations that do not include input from those nations. Instead, Native American nations should have the opportunity to address environmental issues using their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). TEK has ties to natural laws long respected by tribal communities; these laws provide the foundation for addressing the complex relationship between nature and humans. Often, policy development addressing environmental concerns is determined by non-Native American stakeholders, which can have negative effects on the Native American communities. These policies harm Native Americans rather than ultimately helping them. The focus of this discussion is how TEK can play a role in environmental policy development for the Navajo Nation surrounding abandoned uranium mines.
环境正义是美国原住民部落面临的一个突出问题。一个例子是冷战时期留下的纳瓦霍部落废弃铀矿,这些铀矿至今未得到修复。通常情况下,环境政策是针对美国原住民部落面临的问题制定的,并没有包括这些部落的意见。相反,原住民部落应该有机会利用他们的传统生态知识(TEK)来解决环境问题。TEK 与部落社区长期以来一直尊重的自然法则有关;这些法则为解决自然与人类之间的复杂关系提供了基础。通常,解决环境问题的政策制定是由非原住民部落利益相关者决定的,这可能对原住民社区产生负面影响。这些政策对原住民有害,而不是最终帮助他们。本讨论的重点是 TEK 如何在纳瓦霍部落废弃铀矿周边的环境政策制定中发挥作用。