Without Green, We'll Grieve: Environmental Preservation

By : Pearletta Calvert

Ohkay Owingeh & Navajo Nation

Where I come from

Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo

“Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh Flag.” Infobase, Facts On File. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&iid=244850. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.

Navajo Nation

“Navajo Nation Flag.” Infobase, Facts On File. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&iid=202375. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.

Pearletta M. Calvert

Calvert, Pearletta. "Dine College." June 2025

Calvert, Pearletta. "State Fair." September 2025

Calvert, Pearletta. "blownupredbox." April 2025.

Personal Connection

I wanted to focus on land preservation, to emphasize the damage that is being done to our land. Growing up, I realized how impactful your environment can be to your future self. I was in different environments and go to a school where different perspectives and traditions are discussed. In my own community, our land and our environment plays a significant role in terms of resilience. We use our land and the resources given to us to honor keep our traditions alive. Without a healthy environment, it would be impossible to keep these traditions alive and thriving. After hearing the perspectives of other students from different tribes and pueblos, it’s hard to imagine that the land isn’t important to them, like it’s important to my community.

IG Skill #7

Identify contributing factors to community issues, understand the scope, and develop suitable solutions

I plan to improve on this IG Skill, because I want to be able to educate others on how to solve problems in a community. When perserving land, it helps maintain and keep traditons and culture resilient. Following, I want to give back to my community by going into an environmental field to help continute our cultural identity. Doing so, IG skill #7 would be a vital skill to learn.

Calvert, Pearletta. "Farmers Market." August 2025.

Calvert, Pearletta. "Zozobra." August 2025.

Foundational Topic

Two foundational topics that connect back with environmental perservation, are environment and education.

Environment ties in because it's the main objective and main source I want to advocate for. Education is vital, as the lessons and information can be passed down from generation to genertation.

Research Questions

How does your environment influence you cultural aspects in your daily life?

What are sustainable solutions to help solve, address, and prevent these problems from occuring?

Research Log #1 - Identity

Article One

"Sharing One Skin"

By: Jeanette Armstrong

Article Two

"How place names impact the way we see landscape."

By: B. Toastie

Article Three

"And then I went to School"

By: Joe Suina

Calvert, Pearletta. "My brother and I." date: ??

In this article, we are able to learn from a Native American background and perspective. Jeannette touches on how she knows what comes with the indigenous identity and resposiblities. Then, she goes into explaining the four capacities within ourselves; the physical self, the emotional self, the intellectual self, and the spiritual self. Here, she share how each self connects to how we are human. The main objective of this article is to emphasize the fact that we are losing our traditonal connctions from technology and "depersonalized communication." Finally, Jeannette, she speaks of resiliences and how crisis could form communities, and make them stronger.

Armstrong, Jeanette, 1996 "Sharing One Skin: The Okanagon Community." pg. 460-470 in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds.), The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco, CA Sierra Club Books.

Calvert, Pearletta. "Trip to Shiprock from Tsaile, AZ ." June 2025.

In this article, Toastie talks about the importance of names and how they connect with comunities. They highlight how place names are often influenced by colonizaers and/or settlers, and in result have no relation to the land. Choosing simple names and translating them to a traditional language gives meaning and is respected by those in the community. Toastie uses examples such as Tse Si ani/Lupton. Through this, she makes a statement saying, "They are giving power to the dead." In the end, Toastie ends by mentioning how stories have the power to thrive and they won't go away unless we let them.

Oaster, B. Toastie. “How place names impact the way we see landscape.” High Country News, 1 May 20, 2022, http://www.hen.org/issues/54.5/people-place-names-impact-the-way-we-see-landscape/print_view. Accessed 3 September 2025.

Calvert, Pearletta. "Sunset." December 2025.

In this article, Joe Suina told his audience his story and experiences at a boarding school he was takened to at the early age of 6. He explains how being in an enivornment that highly encourages assimulation ultimately made him insecure of his identity. He uses the example of having to lay awake staring at what he describes as "crooked" adobe walls that he grew up in. Meanwhile, at the boarding schools, there was nicers and straighter walls. However, towards the end, he talks about reconnecting with family anf relatives which helps him to remember who he is and where he comse from. In the end, he returned to the boarding school, unwillingly, but acceptingly

Suina, Joe. 1985 “And then I went to school: Memories of a Pueblo Childhood” New Mexico Journal of Reading. 5(2)

Research Log #2 - History

Article One

"Native Americans and the environment: a survey of twentieth-century issues"

By : David Rich Lewis

In this article, it starts off with descibring the land throughout the 19th-century. David talks about how the land is aplce of spiritual value, but viewed as useless by white standards. Then, he leans into the land value of the 20th-century, and how they used the land for agricultural purposes. It was mentioned that field distribution systems had shaped the land that euroamericans claimed as wilderness. After that came many problems such as well-delling, irrigation, dry land farming techniques, and the introduction to pest and weed killers. This caused the pace of change in Native Americn cultures and increased environment use on euroamerican contact.

Lewis, David Rich. “Native American and the environment: a survey of twentieth-century issues.” The American Indian Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 3, summer 1995, pp.423+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A18540982/AONE?u=nm_s_santafeis&sid=ebsco&xid=f06caf61.

Article Two

"The effects of Climate Change on American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes"

By: Daniel Cordalis and Dean B. Suagee

In this article, it talks about the importance of natural land resources and wildlife to indigenous people in Alaska and other tribes. The article described how with a loss of land, come a loss of traditional cultural practices. Because of this, people issued a "call on consiciousness" where they called on people to respond to "collective human responsiblity to the seventh generation." Then, the article goes into the history of fossil fuels, and how they have been extracted from indigenous land. Fossil fuel extraction and other human impacts have been impacting land harshly. Some examples of these would be, pollution, deforestation, loss of habitat, etc.

Cordalis, Daniel, and Suagee, Dean B. “The Effects of Climate Change on American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes.” Natural Resources & Environment, vol. 22, no. 3, 2008, pp. 45–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40924927.

Article Three (Film)

"Indigenous Wisdom to Heal from Fire: The Restoration of Santa Clara Canyon."

By: Speaking Earth Productions

In the film we are able to get a first hand example of the importance of land and ancestral domains to tribes and indigenous communties. The video explains fires and floodings that have contributed to impacting Santa Clara Creek. It tells the story of how the people from the Pueblo of Santa Clara went about this situationi while still maintaining and perserving the land sacred to them. It's important because it teaches TEK, known as Traditional Ecological Knowledge. TEK is to work in harmony with the land to make more reslient, rather than destructing or using modern techinques to change the environment. The film highlights how land is important to cultural identity and learning about you traditions and culture. In the end, it demonstrates the significance of working with the natural environment.

Southwest Fir Science Consortium. “Indigenous Wisdom to Heal from Fire: The Restoration of Santa Clara Canyon.” YouTube, 27 Nov. 2024. https://youtu.be/XrEsOs0Us1g?si=Po7l1vcdrAvIEvZ7

Porter Article

Indians of North America: Conflict and Survival.

By: Frank W. Porter III

In this article, it talks a lot about the history of Indian Americans with their land. Porter emphasized colonization and how the Spanish conquistadors wanted Natives and laborers. Later they (Indians) started to be percieved as "noble savages" or "wild indians". Doing so, they tried to kill out the culture, language, and traditional practices because they were motivated by thinking Natives were on the verge of extintion. However, in the end Indians continued to stay resilient and not give into white society and standards. Porter then ends with several examples that were significant in terms of land and environment, such as the Louisana Purchase.

Porter III, Frank W. “Indians of North America: Conflict and Survival.” Literatures of the American Indian (1990). Pg. 7-11

Research Log #3 - Current State of the Issue

McNamee, Win. A brown pelican coated in oil struggles on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana, on June 4, 2010. National Geographic, 4 June 2010, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/how-is-wildlife-doing-now--ten-years-after-the-deepwater-horizon

"Risk of longer-term neurological conditions in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Coast Guard Cohort Study - Five years of follow-up."

By: Hristina Denic-Roberts

In this article, Denic-Roberts lets the readers fully understand the event of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill that occurred on April 10, 2010. In the process, there were also multiple issues, threats, and effects that came along with it as well. When the BP Oil rig exploded about forty miles off the coast of Louisiana, it sent an estimated 4.4 - 5 million barrels of crude oil into the water. 87 days later, the BP Oil rig was capped, and the oil spill still affects human, wildlife, and environmental health to this day. The spill had made multiple problems related to the respiratory system, and created neurological effects such as headaches, dizziness, cognitive impairment, and vision and hearing damage. In addition, there were records of poor memory, poor attention span, and poor motor function. As if for the wildlife, the aquatic animals like whales and dolphins were exposed to the spill. Dolphins exposed were rechecked in 2023 and found to still be suffering from lung problems and experiencing reproductive issues. From the spill, a large layer of oil formed that sat on top of the water. This layer created a major problem, causing fish to lie above the oil to fry when they would jump. Then, it led the pelicans to dive into the layer to retrieve their food. When the pelicans would arise from the water, they would now be covered in a coat of oil, which they would fly back to their nest. Arriving at the nest, the pelicans cover their nest, chicks, and eggs, leaving them to fry when the pelician would leave again.

Denic-Roberts, Hristina, et al. "Risk of longer-term neurological conditions in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Coast Guard Cohort Study - Five years of follow-up." Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, vol. 22, no. 1, 25 Jan. 2023. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org.sfis.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/s12940-022-00941-0.

Chaco Canyon. (11 May 2016.) knau.org. http://www.knau.org/earth-notes/2016-05-11/earth-notes-around-chaco-canyon-a-different-kind-of-energy-boom

"Upcoming Reforms to the Federal Oil and Gas Programs"

By: Rachel Rothschild and Max Sarinski

In this article, Rachel Rothschild and Max Sarinsky touch on Chaco Canyon and how there are upcoming reforms planning to be made to benefit the federal oil and gas program and development. The reasoning for this is because current society depends on oil and gas primarily as an energy source. Majority of the governments actions were and are being made under Trump's Administration. The article discusses how Interior's strategic five-year plan did mention climate change once. From 2017 to 2020, public lnads were leased for fossil fuel extraction, and the current leasing process isn't structured to sufficiently account for environmental and public health externalities that can affect communites near drilling sites. Following the article, the article doesn't fail to mention the signifiance of Chaco Canyon to the surrounding indigneous communties. Because of extraction and drilling, there is constant threat to sacred and ceremonial sites. If Chaco Canyon is lost, then there would be tons of history and culture gone along with it. The drilling and extraction doesn't only affect humans, but also ecosystems, and reduce biodiversity. Further into the article, Rothschild describes how in 2023, the Biden Administration announced it would commence a 20-year Administrative Withdrawal of non-indian federal lands in the 10-mile buffer zone. On October 31, 2025, Trump Administration released a statement condemning President Trump to fully revoke the protections around Chaco Canyon.

Rothschild, Rachel, and Max Sarinsky. “Upcoming Reforms to the Federal Oil and Gas Program.” Toward Rationality in Oil and Gas Leasing: Building the Toolkit for Programmatic Reforms, Institute for Policy Integrity, 2021, pp. 1–6. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep45790.4.

Fall Action Plan

Historical Events

Chaco Canyon (900 BC)

Starting point for Indigenous communities.
Used as housing and for multiple other features.
A special gathering place where people and clans coverged for cermonies, traditions, and knowledge.

History and Culture - Chaco Culture National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service). www.nps.gov/chcu/learn/historyculture/index.htm.

The Forest Reserve Act (1891)

Gave the President complete authority to create reserves.
President Harrison was the first to designate an area of land
- known as Yellowstone National Park
- Designated a total of fifteen forests.

Forest Reserve Act – Theodore Roosevelt and the National Parks. njdigitalhistory.org/TR-national-parks/index.php/why-is-conservation-important/forest-reserve-act.

The Dust Bowl (1930s)

Low crop prives and high machinery cost were conributing factors
- High machinery caused soil erosion
Horrific dust storms
The Works Progess Administration reported that 21% of all rural families in the Great Plains were recieving federal emercency relief.

Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1948)

An act for water pollution control activites in the public health service.
Goal was to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological intergrity of the Nation's water.
implemented pollution contorl programs.

India's Bhopal Cyanide Gas Leak (1984)

Chemical leak in 1984 in the city of Bhopal, Madhya predesh state, India.
The deaths totaled to be between 15,000 and 20,000.
The half million survivors suffered respiratory problems, eye irritation, or blindness because of the exposure to gas.

China Floods from Yangtze River (1998)

1/5 of China was affected.
3, 004 people died, and 15 million were made homesless.
15 million farmers lost their crops.
Servere damage to health clinics, schools, water supplies, and other infrasttructure like roads, bridges, and irrigation systems.

Page updated

Report abuse