This week on Sustainable Idaho, Scott and Rachel speak again to Diana Yupe, a Native American interpreter and Salmon expert for the U.S Forest Service, about the cultural significance of Salmon to indigenous populations. Scott and Rachel discover that successful Salmon recovery will require multiple components of sustainablity, and that for Native people, this topic is representative of a bigger issue.
In the last couple of weeks, we have had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Rachel Brinkley and Camden Kay, graduate students at Idaho State University, about the ecological importance of Salmon within Idaho. We also talked, to Diana Yupe, a Native American interpreter and salmon expert for the U.S Forest Service, about the cultural significance of salmon to indigenous populations. You can listen back to these episodes at KISU.org. All of our guests have done a great job in illustrating why the topic of salmon should matter to Idahoans. But, they have also shown us why the topic of salmon is representative of a bigger issue. In our first episode, we talked about the three pillars of sustainability: environmental protection, economic viability, and social equity. It is important to remember that sustainability cannot be reached without all three pillars. When Chris Brown explored this topic for Sustainable Idaho in the summer, he focused on the financial side of dams and salmon to the Idaho economy. Camden and Rachel stressed the environmental importance of salmon to local ecosystems, and Diana Yupe illustrated that Salmon are critical within Native-American culture.
If we want salmon recovery to happen, we have to include all three pillars of sustainability, and recognize that the issue of Salmon for Native Americans, is representative of a larger challenge relating to social equity. We need an open and inclusive dialogue where all the stakeholders have a voice at the table. Unfortunately, the recent management decisions will not bring back the salmon back from the brink of extinction – more of this in next week’s episode.
To keep the conversation going, we talk again to Diana Yupe, but this time about how education and inclusion are important for both Salmon recovery and Native American culture.
“The way we believe as Indian people, is that everything is alive. Everything from that little rock to our spiritual animals and the Earth. We call Earth, Mother Earth, which is Swabia, and the creator which is Damaatba, meaning our father. And so that coordination and the unification between those two entities is highly respected within our people - and everything that comes with it.”
As Diana explains, the Native-American people hold a deep reverence for nature, and believe in the coordination and unification of two entities, Mother Earth and the Creator. Clearly, we can all learn something about respect for the natural environment from the spirituality of the Native people. They have been able to sustainably manage environmental resources for a very long time. For Native Americans, caring for the environment is not an inconvenience, or an after-thought, like it is for many of us, but rather, it is an intrinsic and fundamental part of their spirituality. If more of western society adopted these principles, achieving sustainability would be far easier. We asked Diana how these important aspects of Native American culture, can be used to teach others about environmental respect and stewardship.
“I don’t think you can get somebody to believe something unless they want to – so our (Native American) history is not well known. People are being taught about wild Indinans, but not about the beauty of our culture, the respect with have for nature, the trees, the sky. The only way to teach it, is not have Native Americans teach it, so now we have Native American educators.”
If you want to hear more from Diana Yupe, you can listen back to our full interview with her at KISU.org, under the Sustainable Idaho Program Link.