Sacred Indigenous life and Corn People
By Danny Beaton
A farmer for his entire adult life, Clayton Brascoupe, a Mohawk/Algonquin Elder, is a Traditional farmer, artist, teacher, and much more. Clayton is the director of the Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA), founded in 1992 in New Mexico, United States, with his wife Margaret and four children. I asked Clayton: “Could you talk about what is threatening Mother Earth and traditional Indigenous farming and the importance of sacred Indigenous life?”
Clayton reflects and responds.
“We Corn People are trying to educate the world of the threat of GMO, genetically modified organisms, a threat to traditional seed heritage and Indigenous farming. Traditional farmers understand that through growing our own food and cooking it, having that traditional diet, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and many other illnesses can be healed and prevented. Today, traditional farmers say the current threat is if genetically-engineered corn cross-pollinates with traditional corn. The current laws are in favour of the corporations; they will now own the genetics of the traditional corn [that] it may have crossed with. This has been a threat for some time now. The document, ‘Seed Protecting’, is a list of SW that could enable the corporations to ‘own’ the genetics of the traditional corns. The Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA) based in New Mexico, has been proactive in protecting the seeds by hosting workshops and events on the topic of threats of GMO corn especially. We have been pushing to create our own seed banks, seed policies, not only here in SW U.S.A., but also with our Mayan relatives in Central America and Mexico where it has been said corn originated. That was one of the focus points of the International Indigenous Peoples Corn Gathering in Belize. We have also been hosting a regional seed exchange here in New Mexico since 2006. Climate change, climate chaos will be and perhaps already is impacting farm production. It’s our own firm belief that the traditional seed diversity will be critical now and in the future for a healthy and secure diet. Traditional varieties have the resiliency needed to address climate changes, along with traditional agricultural practices. I hope this information will help others.”
Indigenous people of America have been protecting Creation and all life species on Mother Earth for generations. Society has created a super crisis with global warming and turbulent weather, and for the past 40 years, scientists and Indigenous people have been sounding the alarm that Mother Earth has become so fragile, and what the Great Hopi Nation calls a “World Out of Balance”. Ecosystems that protect life are in a catastrophic state. Oceans, which produce photosynthesis and half of the world’s oxygen, are rapidly dying throughout the Great Coastal Reef. Heat is being trapped in the upper atmosphere and upper oceans, thus impacting oceanic currents and decimating life-supporting systems on all Mother Earth. Mother Earth cannot live without healthy oceans.
Many leaders keep talking about regulations, but they break their own rules, agendas, and laws, creating dangerous consequences for Indigenous people and all humans. They don’t seem to care about their own children’s future. They are not connected to life forces or an earth-based economy with real values that sustain life. Developers, global and local leaders, and world banks can’t see the difference between positive and negative activities; they seem more focused on exploiting everything for profit, using our pure clean water to extract oil and gas, contaminating rivers, lakes, aquifers, and vital ecosystems.
After 50 years since the media started bringing the environmental crisis to our attention, there is a collective understanding now in society that climate change is real, with turbulent weather, global warming and consequently millions of refugees. If leaders who strive for business and financial gains do not step aside, they will be the ones responsible for all environmental catastrophes. Indigenous leaders understand that oneness with Mother Earth and Natural Law supersedes man-made law, which keeps being broken, just as treaties have in North America. Our Elders, Chiefs, and Clan Mothers have been sending this message to the ones exploiting Mother Earth for profit. Indigenous peoples understand natural life and follow natural law, as everything on Mother Earth is sacred.