Evon Peter.

What work do you do?

I am the executive director of Native Movement.

What does your organization do?

Native Movement is a collective of around 15 organizers who work on a myriad of projects focusing on youth leadership development, sustainability, protection of sacred sites, and social, political, economic, and environmental justice. We work mostly with Indigenous peoples in the Southwest and Alaska, although we consciously outreach to the non-Indigenous community as well.

We host vigils, marches, concerts, workshops, youth summits, and press conferences. We speak at conferences, write essays, make giant puppets for parades, support local environmental and Indigenous youth groups, and provide alternative education programs. On the Navajo and Hopi nations, we build natural homes from local materials, grow crops using traditional permaculture techniques, and run summer youth programs.

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment, we are going through a significant growth spurt with more projects and events than I have space to elaborate on here. Youth of the Peaks, a predominantly Indigenous youth group within the collective, is hosting a Southwest tribal youth summit this month to support developing chapters of their organization throughout the Navajo and Hopi nations. We plan to expand and develop our work in Alaska in the coming year. Our administrative capacity is also rapidly developing to support the groundswell of energy and projects.

How do you get to work?

I have an office within my home. On a typical morning, I will get out of bed, stretch, and walk through the living room in pajamas to start my computer. We also recently opened an administrative office about three miles from my house, so you’ll have to check back with me in a few months to see if I can manage to mostly ride my mountain bike or jog to the office when I need to be there.

What long and winding road led you to your current position?

I was born an Indigenous person in North America, and as such had to decide how to deal with the impacts of several hundred years of exploitation, genocide, and ethnocide that continue in varying forms to this day. I went the high-school dropout and alcoholic path, but it didn’t work out for me. There was something inside of me that just couldn’t accept the situation I found my people, the earth, and myself facing.

I argued my way into college at 17 and four years later received a B.A. degree in Alaska Native studies with a minor in political science. While at school, I cofounded a statewide Native youth organization. I went on to administer a rural university campus in a Gwich’in village south of mine. A couple of years later I returned north to my village, Vashraii K’oo, and became a chief in my early 20s. I spent the next three years struggling to lead my people and learning the realities of being an Indigenous leader subject to the powers of the state and federal government. It doesn’t feel good being both exploited and controlled in your own homeland.

While still a chief, I cofounded Native Movement with my wife Enei Begaye, who is Navajo. I promised her grandfather that after our baby was born we would move to Navajo country so that the child could be closer to her mother’s people for a while. So I temporarily stepped down as a leader for my people, and we moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., and have been here for almost two years. I am now committed full time to Native Movement, and I’m also supporting a few other organizations in strategy and development.

What environmental offense has infuriated you the most?

I can’t remember feeling infuriated, but I know that I feel sadness about things, such as the impact to the earth, people, and animals from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

How do you spend your free time (if you have any)?

I enjoy hiking in the San Francisco Peaks. The trails start about a 10-minute bike ride from my house. I also enjoy walking, jogging, and spending time with my family.

What’s your favorite meal?

Caribou meat and rice.

Which stereotype about environmentalists most fits you?

I think I am a little too Indian to fit cleanly into an environmentalist stereotype.

What’s your favorite place or ecosystem?

What are now called the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. They are the traditional lands of my people and where we still live to this day.

What’s your favorite TV show? Movie?

I don’t watch TV. I think that The Fast Runner, Whale Rider, and Rabbit-Proof Fence are great films. I think that Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, an award-winning environmental-justice documentary on Indigenous peoples in North America, is important (and not because I’m featured in it).

If you could have every InterActivist reader do one thing, what would it be?

If you are in a position to contribute to our work, please donate. Any amount is helpful.

Aside from making a contribution, I would ask that if you are in a position to support the growth of a young leader, choose one and make a long-term investment in that person.

Evon Peter, director of Native Movement.

Return of the Native Movement

I’ve heard that some Indigenous peoples in Alaska support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while some sturdily oppose it. How do you feel about the proposal to drill? And what do you think the division is doing to the communities there?    — Joshua Moro, Laramie, Wyo.

There is no simple answer to this question. The history of unjust acquisition of land and resources through the Treaty of Cession (1867), the Statehood Act (1959), and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (1971) heavily impacted, through theft, exploitation, and assimilation, Indigenous peoples here in Alaska. The Gwich’in nation, from which I come, is unanimously opposed to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration or drilling. My tribe, the Neetsaii Gwich’in, also rejected ANCSA and the corporate structure it forced on most other Indigenous peoples in Alaska. There are also many traditional people from the Inupiaq nation north of us who are opposed to the drilling. But their corporate entities, which are led by their own people, are supporting development because it is in their corporate charter to maximize profits for their shareholders. It is a common Western tactic in colonizing Indigenous peoples and our lands — incite division, co-opt leaders, and force assimilation.

What are the most important environmental issues facing Alaska today?    — Diane Heath, Bend, Ore.

There is a concerted effort by corporations and government to extract what is left in Alaska, so we are in a situation of having to protect many places. A few of the hotspots right now are the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, which need protection from oil exploration and development. Pebble Mine and Donlin Creek are proposed gold mines that need protection as well.

Do you think it is inevitable that Big Oil is going to take over Alaska and the Arctic Circle? What, if anything, can stop them?    — Will Watt, London, U.K.

I am not one to predict the future. I do know, though, that we are losing pristine and sacred places, as well as human and other life, in every moment because of our destructive path as humanity. The insatiable human drive for greater profits and power is beyond my comprehension. It is certainly an illness. I feel that we all need healing to know ourselves and be guided through our hearts to move in ways to reach others and minimize the damages, as what is unsustainable collapses upon itself.

What do you think about subsistence whale hunting for Indigenous peoples?    — Greg Didomenico, Cape May, N.J.

Traditional ways of life have been a point of contention between the environmental movement and Indigenous peoples. Our peoples have worked out our relationships with these lands and animals over thousands of years. To deny us our ways of life is a violation of human rights. Beyond this, it would be like telling the whales they can no longer eat fish and plankton. They are both sustainable and natural practices, when not tainted by Western greed and overconsumption.

How are Native people affected by global warming? Will they be able to adapt to the changes and still keep their cultural values?    — Jerry Broadbent, Bucoda, Wash.

Indigenous peoples are being heavily impacted by climate change because we live from the land and rely on it for our livelihood. In my lifetime, I have experienced a 10-degree change in winter temperatures within my village in northern Alaska. We will have to adapt; there is no other choice for us. My hope is that people will continue to wake up to the reality we are living in and mobilize to transition away from fossil fuels.

Young artists in one of Native Movement’s collaborative groups paint a mural in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Photo: Cy Wagoner.

How does your organization work to gain and sustain the involvement of young people, our future community leaders? Also, how can I obtain a copy of Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action?    — Rebecca Elmore, Carrboro, N.C.

Within Native Movement, we are all between the ages of 15 and 30 years old. We outreach in high schools and at universities. We also have programs in the arts and host events such as hip-hop tours and poetry slams. The movement we are inspiring is about living a life rich with culture while also healing ourselves, protecting the land, and building sustainability at a bioregional level.

You can order a copy of Homeland from the Katahdin Foundation.

How can Energy Action and other youth-based organizations collaborate with Native Movement on global warming and energy issues?    — Katy Nicholson, Cambridge, Mass.

I offered a keynote address for Energy Action in January, 2005, in Washington, D.C. Since that time, we have built relationships with Energy Action through the Black Mesa Water Coalition and the Indigenous Environmental Network. Our leaders have traveled away from their homes to build relations with Energy Action on several occasions. It would be a meaningful gesture for Energy Action leadership to visit in some of our communities, so that they can have greater understanding of where we are coming from.

I was really interested in your response, “I think I am a little too Indian to fit cleanly into an environmentalist stereotype.” How do you define your — and your organization’s — environmentalism? And what is it like being a Native who is part of the American environmental movement?    — Salma Monani, St. Paul, Minn.

I am not interested in putting a specific title to the work that I do; I feel that would be limiting my reach, when I see all realms as being related. The worldview of many Indigenous peoples is this way, wherein our understanding about how we live as human beings incorporates maintaining our relations with all of creation. This means that the environment is inseparable from us; we are one and the same. So environmentalism, in a conservative sense, does not make sense to many Indigenous peoples because it excludes human beings as being an integral part of the natural world. At the same time, environmentalism gives many of our people hope that those of European descent are beginning the process of healing and understanding how devastating the path of greed and overconsumption is to themselves and all life.

I hear a lot of hype about opening up oil exploration in the Arctic and, of course, a lot of economic justification for it. I also understand that it is a precious home to many people and wildlife who would suffer immeasurable loss. In addition to those obvious things, what are we not hearing?    — Deborah Carlton, Yarmouth, Maine

Check out the “Resources” page of the Gwich’in Steering Committee website.

Thanks for doing such great work in the world. I have friends on Pine Ridge in South Dakota. How can I work with you to establish a similar youth leadership program there?    — Wynne Coplea, Springfield, Ill.

I, too, have friends among the Lakota. When I am invited and it works out for me to be there, I am excited to build relationships and offer support to the leaders from those lands.

Have you invited much private philanthropy into your work arena?    — Anna Huntington-Kriska, Fairbanks, Alaska

We are in the process of raising $425,000 to support our work this year. Our approach is to seek funding through foundations, individuals, and fund-raising events such as concerts and luncheons. We are planning to open a social entrepreneurship that supports our work as well. So far, about half of our support has come through private philanthropy, and we are open to building relationships with more people who are moved by our vision and work.

Where is the best place for those of us who want to help the Native American cause to donate money and/or time?    — Tasha King, Brighton, Mich.

I find myself moving more and more into a position of building relations between philanthropists and the Indigenous community. I am open to dialogue with anyone interested in this question of how to financially, and otherwise, support the Indigenous cause. Feel free to for more information.