Genocide, The Physical Extinction Of A People,

Sensitivity To Nature Is Not An Innate Attribute Of Indigenous Peoples. It Is A Consequence Of Adaptive Choices That Have Resulted In The Development Of Highly Specialized Peripheral Skills. But Those Choices In Turn Spring From A Comprehensive View Of Nature And The Universe In Which Man And Woman Are Perceived As But Elements Inextricably Linked To The Whole.

The Problem Is That Those Of Us Sympathetic With The Plight Of Indigenous People View Them As Quaint And Colorful, But Somehow Reduced To Margins Of History As The Real World [(our World)] Moves On We Will Be Known As An Era In Which We Stood By And Either Actively Endorsed Or Passively Accepted The Massive Destruction Of Both Biological And Cultural Diversity On The Planet.

Change Is No Threat To Culture.

On Paper I Would Be A Rather Bold Individual In Our Culture.

We Accept It As Normal That People Who Have Never Been On The Land, Who Have No History Or Connection To The Country, May Legally Secure The Right To Come In And, By The Very Nature Of Their Enterprises, Leave In Their Wake A Cultural And Physical Landscape Utterly Transformed And Desecrated. What's More, In Granting Such Mining Concessions, Often Initially For Trivial Sums To Speculators From Distant Cities, Companies Cobbled Together With Less History Than My Dog, The Government Places No Cultural Or Market Value On The Land Itself.