Environmental Warnings From Native American Elders

Jennifer Lance — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:13:32 +0000

Last week, I had the honor of listening to When the ancestors whisper…Stories From Native California, produced by my friend Neil Harvey of the Bioneers for the California Indian Storytelling Association (CISA). Sitting in my neighbor’s rustic log cabin sipping local wine, the elders’ voices reached my soul and I lamented for the lack of oral history within my own culture. When the ancestors whisper… features Native American storytellers Darryl “Babe” Wilson (Itam Is/Aw’te), Georgiana Sanchez (Chumash/O’odham) and Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) coming from the California forests, deserts, and sea. One story, in particular, I felt carried wisdom for the environmental movement and the future of our planet.

Told by Darryl “Babe” Wilson, “Two Moons” is a “warning” story of what might happen to the Earth if we don’t heal the “sickness” of our planet. “Jui ja wa. The old people would say jui ja wa. Jui ja wa, that means the Earth is sick.” Darryl was born on the north side of Sul’ma’ejote (Fall River) at its confluence with It’ajuma (Pit River), which is east of Mt. Shasta. He has doctorate in English and the author of The Morning the Sun Went Down, a honest autobiography about what it is like to grow up Native American in rural California. Based on the recommendation of a Modoc colleague, I read this book over seven years ago, but the story has remained in my heart as if I read it yesterday.

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Environmental Warnings From Native American Elders