What was Damaged?: Taking Sacred Ecology into Account in Environmental Impact Assessment

Abstract

How do we assess the damages done to an indigenous community by environmental disaster, by pollution, or by changes in the environment? One way is to look at the direct health impacts on members of a community, for example, the effects of uraniummining on water quality and cancer in the Navajo Nation (Robyn 2010). Another lens is the direct effects on the economic livelihoods of individuals in a community, for example how pollution impacts treaty rights to shellfish harvesting by pollution of shellfish beds (Frank Jr. 2011). A third type ofimpact also needs to be considered: the impact of environmental threats on the beliefs, feeling, and practices by which indigenous communities and individualsconnect in sacred ways with the environment.

My argument inthis paper is composed of three parts. The first point is that many indigenousgroups are connected to their environment, not only through direct resource usebut also through sacred beliefs and practices. The second point is that thesesacred connections with the environment may remain vital parts of indigenouscommunity life, even when these communities have experienced technological orother forms of cultural change. The third point is that these sacredconnections can be severely damaged by environmental pollution. These pointslead us to the inescapable conclusion that any analysis of environmentalimpacts on indigenous communities is probably going to be incomplete if weneglect to analyze the ways in which changes in environmental quality haveharmed indigenous ways of sacredly connecting to the environment.