Even as climate change and biodiversity loss disproportionately jeopardize their lands, waters, and customs, Indigenous communities have always found a way to lead on environmental solutions.

This Native American Heritage Month, NRDC asked five Indigenous writers to share original works of poetry that speak directly to future generations about the environment. Their poems grapple with both the legacy of colonization and the current resistance led by Indigenous advocates to protect their lands, people, and ways of life. The artists hope for a future that honors their people’s stewardship and defers to ancestral knowledge.

This week, we spotlight Tanaya Winder, who comes from an intertribal lineage of Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Duckwater Shoshone Tribe. Watch Tanaya perform her piece “Stone Mother” and read an excerpt below.

I.
I was born in the desert
learned to cherish water
like it was created from tears.
I grew up hearing the legend, the lesson
of the Stone Mother who cried
enough cries to make an entire lake
from sadness. From her, we learned
what must be done and that the sacrifices
you make for your people are sacred.
We are all related
and sometimes it takes
a revolution to be awakened.
You see, the power of a single tear lies in the story.
It’s birthed from feeling and following
the pain as it echoes into the canyon of grieving.
It’s the path you stumble and walk
until you push and claw your way through to acceptance.
For us, stories have always been for lessons.

II.
I remember my grandmother was well versed in dirt,
the way the earth clung to her hands as if it were a part of her.
We come from the earth. So she tended the seeds
as living beings, planted her garden full of foods
traditional to the land and handled them with care.
Every tree, plant, or rock has a spirit, she said “hear it.”

Read the rest of Tanaya’s poem, as well as pieces by the other poets, here. >

Plus, How Indigenous Advocates Are Leading the Way

Whether it’s taking on a major pipeline or politicians in power, here are a few ways Indigenous communities are advancing climate and biodiversity work:

• Young Indigenous activists organized against pipelines that contaminate their drinking water.
• First Nations joined the push against the destruction of Canada’s boreal forest.
• Tribes across the continent worked to restore land and safeguard the climate and biodiversity.
• A matriarch continued a decades-long fight for federal recognition of her tribe and the restoration of ancestral fisheries.

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