Death and folly in the Gulf of MexicoBy Steve NewcombFrom an indigenous perspective, this catastrophic event is the culmination of runaway greed accompanied by ecological ignorance, blindness, and destruction. This Armageddon-type catastrophe has been in the making for generations. The devastation of the vast majority of our indigenous forests, the theft and damming of our waterways, the destruction of salmon and other species of fish, the Tar Sands oil extraction in Canada, and the radioactive uranium mill tailings left behind on indigenous lands are other examples, not to mention the intentional annihilation of millions of North American bison in the 19th century.
What makes this oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico all the more significant is the fact that Mother Earth seems in some sense to have been eviscerated; her bowels have been ripped open and breakage on the ocean floor at the drill site means that BP does not have the technological capability to stop the oil from continuing to gush into the Gulf waters for months.Comment: For more on the subject, see
Oil Spill Shows American Values and
Ecological Indian Talk.
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