The Environmental Crisis on Native American Lands

This week at 3G, we were so proud to hear of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s win against the 10-term incumbent representative, Joseph Crowley. After the 2016 election, the new Democratic nominee for Congress was working as a bartender when an activist she knew at Standing Rock told her the camp could use more women. The then-27-year-old Ocasio-Cortez and two friends set up a GoFundMe page and set out on a road trip to South Dakota. Ocasio-Cortez knew the importance of ‘bearing witness’ after seeing the disturbing aftermath of President Trump’s election. She and her friends brought a camera and set out to see a “first-person idea of what was going on”, as she told Mother Jones in 2017. She knew that being neutral or silent only encourages the tormentor and never the tormented. On behalf of the Native population and the country in general, Ocasio-Cortez, and many others like her, instinctively knew they could not stand idly by and fail to protest the horrible injustices taking place around them.

The community of people at Standing Rock, who also shared these sentiments, inspired Ocasio-Cortez and, by doing so, facilitated her historic win this month. She has credited her success to everyone who has helped her along the way. Watching her journey and all she has done, not just for her home of the Bronx but the nation, has reinvigorated our mission here at 3G as well. We must always take sides, as indifference is, as Elie Wiesel said, the “epitome of evil”.

Because of this, we have continued to support and strengthen our relationship with the Indigenous Women’s Media Network, founded in the heart of Standing Rock, which “[brings] updates to the rest of the world about the mass social injustices and human rights violations that were occurring to the Indigenous people and their non-native allies." Given the assault on environmental protections and regulations under the current EPA administration, now more than ever, we look to the courage and vision of water protectors, like the women of the network, to lead the way on protecting Mother Earth.

As such, we love the idea of the Indigenous Film Festival, which explores a diverse range of Indigenous storytelling to strengthen heritage and cultural identity in not only local communities but the global community as well. Watch this space for more news on the film festival which takes place in August!