Indigenous Groups and Development

For one of my other classes, I am writing a paper on the Karuk tribe in Northern California.  The second largest tribe in California, they are currently facing the reality of no longer having access to their ancestral lands in the ways that they traditionally have.  To name just a few of these issues, there has been tree removal and the building of a road on lands they consider sacred, that has prevented them from completing their traditional spiritual practices, mining in their river that has decimated the salmon populations that they have traditionally depended on for food, and they are prevented from practicing their traditional land management practice of prescribed burns, which has harmed the health of the acorn plants they depend on and put them at risk for a large and uncontrollable wildfire that could threaten their community and homes.  It is the result of this interference with their traditional practices and systems that have caused them poverty, lack of resources, health effects, danger, and other problems.
It is well known that Native Americans in our country are currently facing tremendous economic and social problems, directly stemming from the history of persecution and marginalization of their people by colonists in our country.  This situation is also true for indigenous groups around the world.  A common theme that I have come across through my studies and readings regarding these issues is how most of these problems stem from the breakdown of the traditional system and connection that indigenous groups have built with their land.  I was recently reading about the Indigenous Nationhood Movement, a movement for  "Indigenous nationhood, resurgence, and decolonization."  In a recent article published on their website, Jeff Corntassel, a Cherokee associate professor at the University of Victoria, describes this situation by stating, "Whether disguised as states, corporations, non-governmental organizations etc., colonial powers treat the planet as a tradeable commodity to be militarized and exploited. In the quest for unlimited growth via new versions of the Doctrine of Discovery, each state/corporate extraction project attempts to disconnect Indigenous people from their collective and individual roles and responsibilities to land, culture, and community."  http://nationsrising.org/we-belong-to-each-other-resurgent-indigenous-nations/
 This association that Corntassel makes between NGOs and states and corporations, describing them asll as destructive forces of colonialism, led me to consider aid work and its organizations' roles in working with indigenous groups.  Much of aid work is focused on development and economic growth, but it is important to scrutinize whether or not these efforts actually work in reverse by breaking the traditional systems that indigenous people have with each other and with the land, therefore impoverishing them further .  This also relates to our discussion on participation, by reinforcing the idea that consultation and involvement by indigenous groups should be necessary when doing any kind of work in areas that they have traditionally inhabited.  I have not heard of many poverty or development organizations that aim to help restore indigenous practices or systems, but this would be interesting to look into and an interesting idea to contemplate. A main theme of my Agroecology class this semester has also been on how indigenous farming systems are in general much more productive and sustainable, in environmental, economic, and social ways.  It is when this system was thrown out of balance that we began to see the environmental degradation and the poverty originating from modern agriculture practices.  All of these factors emphasize the idea that in development and aid work, respecting the views, practices, and rights of indigenous groups is essential, and that indigenous systems may very well be worth conserving rather than the constant focus on growth, development, and modernization.