The Earths Blanket

Earths Blanket

Jared Sonnleitner

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I think one of the most impactful statements in this chapter was on page 14, “This is not to say that they have not made mistakes or that all of their choices and methods have been the best ones”. The part of this I like is its honesty and ability to internally reflect not only on the mistakes of others but the mistakes of your own culture. What I hear when reading this chapter is the connection the first nations had with the land; it’s its most evident in the title “The Land and the People”. As the author begins by talking of British Columbia, she speaks the same whether talking about the grasses, trees or the people. I believe this is symbolic of how they picture themselves, not as being in the landscape but rather a part of it. Just because they are part of the landscape doesn’t mean however they are immune to problematic habits. At some time in history some individuals or tribes may have taken more than they should have like that of European colonizers. One major distinction is that it is their land and home, if they were to have overused the resources it would have long lasting impacts on their livelihood. If they were to overfish the returns would be lower the next year. When the Europeans came over, this was not their home so exploiting the resources was not of a concern to them, and if they had no fish for the next year they could simply travel back to Europe. They had no stake in keeping the landscape sustainable.

“One of the key lesson we learned is never take too many roots from one tree, or it will harm the tree, if you take just a few from one tree and a few from another, the trees will recover easily and produce more roots in the following years” pg 163-164. This is one lesson learned easily by the children of first nation communities, but cannot seem to be understood by Harvard educated politicians, billion dollar companies, or even ourselves.

Nancy Turner. (2005). The Earths Blanket; Traditional Teaching for Sustainable Living. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington press. 11-177

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