[m2c] Rape of the Land by Andrea Smith (Part 2)

[usman x]

Chpater 3 from "Conuest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide"
by Andrea Smith. 2005. pgs 55-78

[continued]

HUMANS VS NATURE

One reason for tensions between Native and mainstream environmental
activists is the environmentalists' use of rhetoric — usually concern
for the well-being of the earth—that obfuscates colonialism and
racism. For instance, in his discussion of deep ecology,26

Michael Zimmerman argues in favor of eradicating the dualism between
humans and nature: "Only by recognizing that humanity is no more, but
also no less, important than all other things on Earth can we learn to
dwell on the planet within limits that would allow other species to
flourish."27

Yet some deep ecologists and other environmental theorists apply this
theory inconsistently. For instance, writers in /Earth First!/ journals
have said that "the AIDS virus may be Gaia's tailor-made answer to
human overpopulation" and that famine should take its course in Africa
to stem overpopulation.28 And as the platform for Deep Ecology states:
"The flourishing of nonhuman life requires...a decrease [in human
population]. 29

Such sentiments reinforce, rather than negate, the duality between
humans and nature. They imply that humans are not a part of nature,
and that their destruction would not also mean environmental
destruction. In addition, it is noteworthy that the people who are
targeted as expendable (people with AIDS and Africans in the foregoing
examples) are people of color or Global South people who have the
least institutional power or access to resources in society. Once
again, the notion that certain populations are inherently "dirty" or
"polluting" prevails, even within environmental discourse.

While these may be extreme examples, I often hear pro-population
control environmentalists say that the world would be much better off
if people just died or that the world needs to cleanse itself of
people. Again, this sentiment assumes that people are not part of the
world. This sentiment also assumes that all people, not just those
with wealth and institutional power, are equally responsible for
massive environmental destruction. It Is racist and imperialist to
look at the people who are dying now from environmental degradation
(generally people of color and poor people) and say that it is a good
thing that the earth is cleansing itself. As Native activist Marie
Wilson, a Gitksan-Wet'suwet'en tribal councilor, says,

            I have to say that the Indian attitude toward the natural
            world is different from environmentalists. I have had the
            awful feeling that when we are finished dealing with the
            courts and our land claims, we will then have to battle
            the environmentalists and they will not understand why. I
            feel quite sick at this prospect because the
            environmentalists want these beautiful places kept in a
            state of perfection: to not touch it, rather to keep it
            pure. So that we can leave our jobs and for two weeks we
            can venture into the wilderness and enjoy this ship in a
            bottle. In a way this is like denying that life is
            happening constantly in these wild places, that change is
            always occurring. Human life must be there too. Humans
            have requirements and they are going to have to use some
            of the life in these places.30

NATIVE WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION

Katsi Cook, a Mohawk midwife, argues that attacks on nature are also
attacks on Native women's bodies, and by extension, attacks, on the
bodies of Native children.31 Toxins are generally stored in fat, and
during pregnancy and lactation, women's fat is metabolized, exposing
fetuses and newborns, at their most vulnerable stages of development,
to these chemicals.32 According to the National Wildlife Federation,
most people receive up to 12 percent of their lifetime dose of toxic
chemicals in the first year of their life.33

In a similar vein, a 1996 University of Minnesota study found that the
children of farmers who rely on pesticides have a higher rate of birth
defects than the children of those who do not. The highest rates were
among children conceived in spring, when crops were most intensely
sprayed.34 A Michigan study found that 11-year-olds whose mothers had
consumed Lake Michigan fish during pregnancy scored six points lower
than their peers on IQ tests.35

Unlike adults, children cannot excrete or store contaminants, so they
are more vulnerable to toxins. Some studies are underway to determine
if environmental toxins, such as DDT, PCBs, dioxins, mercury, lead,
benzene, and toluene, disrupt the endocrine system. It is believed
that these chemicals mimic naturally occurring hormones secreted by
the endocrine system, which regulates immunity, reproduction,
behavior, metabolism, and growth, disrupting it and having an effect
like DES (diethylstilbestrol)36 on pregnant women. This theory may
explain why certain toxins are correlated with lower IQs in children,
reduced fertility, genital deformities, and abnormalities within the
immune System.37 In addition, certain toxins bioaccumulate, becoming
more concentrated as they move along the food chain.38

Indigenous peoples living near the Arctic, such as the Inuit, are at
particular risk because the region lacks the soil and vegetation that
absorb pollution elsewhere. In addition, the cold temperatures prevent
the toxins, emitted from industries largely In the U.S., from breaking
down. These toxins make their way into the fat of whales, walruses,
and seals, which form the diet of indigenous peoples in the Arctic,
who have few other food options. Notably, there have been a number of
reports of animals with abnormalities, including seals without hair,
and polar bears with reproductive organs of both sexes.39

This combination of a high-fat diet and toxins in the fat that have
bioaccumulated seems to have contributed to disproportionate
reproductive health problems among indigenous women in the Arctic. For
instance, in Nunavut, Inuit mothers' breast milk has twice the level
of dioxin as does women's breast milk in southern Quebec, even though
there are no sources of dioxin within 300 miles of Quebec. The major
source of this dioxin pollution is the U.S.40

In 2002, a Centers for Disease Control study found that the U.S.
government had underestimated the impact of another environmental
toxin — radiation poisoning — on Native communities because
researchers did not factor in the large amount of fish consumed by
some communities. (During fishing seasons, fish may be all that some
families eat.) Radiation poisoning may be linked to the astronomical
rates of lupus, an immune system disorder, among Nez Perce women
living near the Columbia River in Washington State. Wastes from the
Hanford Nuclear Reactor, which began production of weapons-grade
plutonium in 1943, were improperly disposed of in the river. And while
most of Hanford's reactors were closed down in the 1960s, nuclear
wastes will likely remain in the area until 2030.41 Today, the
incidence of lupus among Nez Perce women is five times greater than
among other Native women.

One tribal member, Justine Miles, reports that she has suffered lupus,
several miscarriages, broken bones, endometriosis, life-threatening
infections, and meningitis.42 Jane Caputi writes of the devastating
impact of the Hanford Nuclear Reactor on nearby residents, including
this narrative by Tom Baile:

As "downwinders," born and raised downwind of the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation in Washington, we learned several years ago that the
government decided—with cold deliberation—to use us as guinea pigs by
releasing radioactivity into our food, water, milk and air without our
consent. Now, we've learned that we can expect continuing cancer cases
from our exposure in their "experiment." Is this what it feels like to
be raped?43

Baile's narrative illustrates how environmental racism is another form
of sexual violence, as it violates the bodies of Native and other
marginalized peoples. As mentioned in Chapter 1, a patriarchal system
based on violence operates by appearing "normal" and attacking
alternative systems that might challenge its legitimacy. Similarly,
the effects of environmental degradation are often not questioned
because they are termed "normal." Comments Baile: "Unknowingly, we had
been seeing the effects for a long time. For us, the unusual was the
usual!" The effects he perceived to be "normal" included the
following:

I was born a year after my stillborn brother. I struggled to breathe
through underdeveloped lungs, and suffered to overcome numerous birth
defects. I underwent multiple surgeries, endured paralysis, endured
thyroid medication, a stint in an iron lung, loss of hair, sores all
over my body, fevers, dizziness, poor hearing, asthma, teeth rotting
out and, at age 18, a diagnosis of sterility.44

In areas where uranium is mined, such as the Four Corners (where the
Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada borders, meet) and the Black
Hills in South Dakota, Indian people face skyrocketing rates of
cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects. Men and women who grew up in
Four Corners develop ovarian and testicular cancers at 15 times the
national average.45 Meanwhile, Indian women on Pine Ridge in the Black
Hills experienced miscarriage rate six times higher than the national
average.46 And on the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve in New York, one of the
most polluted areas in the country, the PCBs, DDT, Mirex, and HCBs that
are dumped into their waters are stored in women's breast milk.47
Through the rape of the earth, Native women's bodies are raped once
again.

Perhaps the indigenous women who have suffered the most devastating
effects of environmental racism are the women from the Marshall
Islands in the Pacific. After World War II, the U.S. exploded a bomb
that was 1,300 times more destructive than the bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki; this test was the first of 66 nuclear tests
conducted in the Marshall Islands. The people from one of the islands,
Rongelap, were directly in the fallout and have continued to suffer
cancer and major birth defects (including "jelly fish babies" — babies
born without bones), and from the contamination of their food sources
since the first explosions. Residents were told that the effects of
the radiation were not serious until 1982, when a study by the U.S.
government found that the island was too unsafe to live on. With the
help of Greenpeace, the residents of Rongelap relocated to another
island. One midwife of the islands describes the islanders' rage:

We are very angry at the U.S. and I'll tell you why. Have you ever
seen a jelly fish baby born looking like a bunch of grapes, so the
only reason we knew it was a baby was because we could see the brain?
We've had these babies—they died soon after they were born.48

Between 1954 and 1958, one in three births in the Marshall Islands
resulted in fetal death.49 Neal Palafox, associate professor of family
practice at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and an ad vocate for
Pacific Islander health, points out that the rate of hepatitis B, a
risk factor for liver cancer, is approximately 30 times higher in the
Marshall Islands than in the mainland U.S. In women of the Marshall
Islands, cervical cancer mortality is 60 times greater than in the
mainland U.S., breast cancer and gastrointestinal cancer rates are
five times greater, and lung cancer rates are three times greater.50
Among men, the lung cancer mortality rate is nearly four times greater
than overall U.S. rates, while oral cancer rates are 10 times greater.
Lijon Eknilang of the Marshall Islands provided this testimony of the
impact of nuclear testing:

           Not long after the light from Bravo, it began to snow in
           Rongelap. We had heard about snow from the missionaries and
           other Westerners who had come to our islands, but this was
           the first time we saw white particles fall from the sky and
           cover our village.

           Of course, in 1951, Marshallese children and their parents
           did not know that the snow was radioactive fallout. My own
           health has suffered very much as a result of radiation
           poisoning. I cannot have children. I have had miscarriages
           on seven occasions. On one of those occasions, the child I
           miscarried was severely deformed — it had only one eye. I
           have also had thyroid surgery to remove nodules. I have
           lumps in my breasts.

           Marshallese women suffer silently and differently from the
           men who were exposed to radiation. Our culture and religion
           teaches us that reproductive abnormalities are a sign that
           women have been unfaithful. For this reason, many of my
           friends keep quiet about the strange births they have had.
           In privacy, they give birth, not to children as we like to
           think of them, but to things we could only describe as
           "octopuses," "apples," "turtles" and other things in our
           experience. We do not have Marshallese words for these
           kinds of babies, because they were never born before the
           radiation came.

           Women on Rongelap, Likiep, Ailuk and other atolls in the
           Marshall Islands have given birth to these "monster
           babies." Many of these women are from atolls that foreign
           officials have told us were not affected by radiation. We
           know otherwise, because the health problems are similar to
           ours. One woman on Likiep gave birth to a child with two
           heads. Her cat also gave birth to a kitten with two heads.
           There is a young girl on Ailuk today with no knees, three
           toes on each foot and a missing arm.

           The most common birth defects on Rongelap and nearby
           islands have been "jellyfish" babies. These babies are born
           with no bones in their bodies and with transparent skin. We
           can see their brains and hearts beating. The babies usually
           live for a day or two before they stop breathing. Many
           women die from abnormal pregnancies, and those who survive
           give birth to what looks like purple grapes that we quickly
           bury.51

Native Hawaiian activist Haunani-Kay Trask reports that the life
expectancy on the Marshall Islands has sharply declined what it is now
— only 40 years.52 Mililani Trask notes that the people of the
Marshall Islands have been genetically altered as a result of these
tests. Some communities have decided to stop reproducing and go
extinct.53 Some area activists believe that the testing was a planned
effort by the U.S. government to examine the effects of nuclear
radiation on humans.

Many Marshall Islanders have complained that many of the studies that
have "proven" that they are not suffering from radiation fallout are
studies funded by the Department of Energy.54 Medical research often
conveniently overlooks the environmental causes of disease, placing
the blame on Native peoples themselves. Governments and multinational
corporations are then left unaccountable for their policies of
environmental contamination. Native bodies will continue to be seen as
expendable and inherently violable as long as they continue to stand
in the way of the theft of Native lands.

-- 
"Until all of us are free, the few who think they are remain tainted 
with enslavement." Lee Maracle
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