The Desert has a Memory

foreign

good morning everybody how are you guys

doing today

good

yeah so my name is Ashley hemmers

of Eco Manwich

so one of the things that I’m going to

do is share with you about the desert

and its memory

um I’m Mojave I’m from Avi Kwame which

is Spirit Mountain which is about 40

minutes south of here right in the

Desert Canyon that the the last speaker

was talking about I believe we have some

slides that are coming up right

and so I wanted to talk a little bit

about

um co-stewardship place and position

because when we think about Coast

stewardship we do the things that we

think about in terms of building

relationships with nature and building

relationships that can help us engage

and live with it

this this slide area shows where I’m

actually from it shows Avi Kwame

and it’s a large expansive place and for

Mojave people we believe we came from

that mountain and so for

people of the river we believe that we

were built out of the clay in the mud of

the Colorado River and that the

mountains and the animals and the

relatives were all here before us and so

the plants the birds the insects the

Scorpions The Gila monsters all of those

things are part of my natural landscape

my natural habitat and one of the things

that we do from a very young age for our

children is we teach them those things

when they’re small we teach them how

small they are in comparison of their

natural landscape of their natural being

and we share it through indigenous

ecological knowledge through shared

story so that when they grow they have

deeper conversations about what their

interaction with their environment means

and how that’s impacting everything we

have to live around and so I’m going to

take you down a little bit of

positionality in terms of what we what

we can think of when we think of the

history of the Mojave Desert there’s

three pictures here they’re kind of

small but we’re going to talk a little

bit about the vanishing Indian Sin City

and the Antiquities act so around the

turn of the 20th century there was this

notion called The Vanishing Indian there

were so many people moving into the

American southwest that

we didn’t know if mojave’s or other

people who look like me were going to be

around because of assimilation because

of interaction because of policies meant

to hurt my people because of policies

meant to remove my people those are

things that are part of American history

and so the first picture is a picture

from the Library of Congress from and

it’s entitled Musa which is Mojave girl

and it’s from a uh a very well-known

historical photographer of Native

Americans called Edward S Curtis and

when we think of the vanishing Southwest

and the vanishing natives of the

Southwest

oftentimes this picture of the Mojave

girl is posted but one of the things

that we like to tell people or share

with our friends is that Musa

was actually an entrepreneur

she was a businesswoman the railroad is

close to where my Village is and so when

Edward S Curtis

um made his way to Mojave territory he

was looking for people who look like me

and at that time we did what we did what

we do now we go to coffee shops we go to

Railroad stations we have cell phones we

weren’t set aside into our Villages not

uh knowing that there were other folks

who were there so when we think of these

Indian territories we have to think of

them not as separatists but as engaged

ways of people interacting with one

another and building those relationships

and so for him

his his vision of capturing the Mojave

people is actually asking someone hey

would you dress up in your regalia would

you wear your regalia so I can take a

picture of you because at the beginning

of the 20th century it was a scare that

there would be no more mojave’s in the

way that we were living before then

fast forward 100 years and I’m still

here dressed as a Mobby living on my

homelands right so people don’t really

know too much right

needless to say that second picture is

very instrumental for Las Vegas because

that’s a picture of the Fremont depot

which is the railroad station a couple

blocks from here so when we think about

the place and the position of the desert

there were people migrating into the

desert 100 years ago 150 years ago and

we were having these same discussions

about the vanishing Indian in the

environment and what Revolution or

Industrial Revolution or technology was

going to do with it

the the final picture there is of

President Theodore Roosevelt who signed

the Antiquities act has anyone ever

heard of the Antiquities act probably in

like eighth grade government right

and what the Antiquities act did was

that it allowed the federal government

to protect large Parcels of public land

for public trust and that’s something

very familiar with Indian communities

because when we made our negotiations

with the federal government when we

became government to government

um when we built our government to

government relationship with the federal

government the federal government told

us that hey we will put these lands in

Trust

as part of the United States and we will

protect them in the way so that we can

keep them stable for the whole country

right and so for us we’re like okay cool

they’re in trust we’re still going to

have this conversation and so the

Antiquities act came about because those

public trust lands were then looked at

as a place for easily establishing

development in what looks like

non-existent parent land right hey

government can I put something here to

help develop a railroad to help develop

technology to help develop energy and so

in this conversation of the vanishing

Indian

Sin City coming to be and also the

Antiquities act what ended up happening

was that

through that Act Congress said well wait

a minute before we start releasing all

of these lands right not having a

conversation like hey we made we made

agreements with tribal governments but

before we start releasing all these

lands for development maybe we need to

protect those that have a cultural or a

scientific or a physical

or physically special to what it is that

is America

and so this Joshua tree is the largest

Joshua Tree in the state of Nevada

and it is located only 30 minutes south

of where we are right here now Joshua

trees take two to three inches of water

a year

this Joshua tree is 24 feet high so it’s

a two-story Joshua Tree

28 feet wide

and so from what we can understand about

this Joshua tree is that it’s around 96

to 150 years old

and when we think about how

we protect things like this we use it

with the Antiquities Act is it cultural

for me as a Mojave woman that’s medicine

to me

we teach our children how to use its

roots so that they can heal it provides

a shade and culturally we have stories

about the resilience it takes to live in

the desert

32 species of birds live in the Joshua

tree from our stories 32 birds all at

once and so when we think about the

cultural significance yes there’s a

cultural significance when we think

about the scientific significance how

did a Joshua tree live for 150 years and

one of the most drought-ridden areas in

the American southwest and be

undiscovered until 2020

right so when we think about the memory

of the desert the desert has so many

secrets and when you are building a

relationship with the desert it allows

you to build that memory with it because

our short period of time is this small

in comparison to everything else that

the desert protects

a Joshua tree is one of the younger

trees in the Mojave Basin mesquites can

grow even older Willow Cottonwood they

all build there and so when you think

about people people’s time frame within

that environment are very small and

that’s what we teach our little guys

when they’re growing up so we tell them

when you walk with the land know that

you’re only a visitor because people or

our relatives are Joshua Tree relatives

are going to be here much longer than

you

so think about the responsibility that

you have

to help them continue their Journey with

the desert when you are long gone when

your children are here when your

grandchildren are here

now the third aspect of the Antiquities

act because we hit culture we hit

science is physicality right the

position

can we use this act to protect a 150

year old tree you know for for many

people you know when they look at a tree

they’re like well we’ll just grow

another one yeah in 150 years on two and

three inches of water that’s pretty hard

to do right and so what we know as

indigenous knowledge and some people

call you know aspects of its science is

that people we can move right we can use

our arms and our legs to move away from

all of the things that don’t necessarily

have to harm people

and for indigenous communities who have

been found to have been Protectors of 80

percent of the remaining world’s

biodiversity 80 percent in the world are

protected by indigenous cultures and

peoples like

minecuff people of the river people who

understand not why they know that the

river is important but people who have

stories and history that remind us that

we are younger siblings of that river

that we are caretakers of that River and

that we have a responsibility and you

might feel a calling towards that you

might feel a calling towards that when

you come to my homelands and go into the

canyons and visit the Grand Canyon visit

the Havasupai in the Hualapai who

continue to live there in an indigenous

way and then come South through the

canyon through Black Mountain who

continue to to Steward that land to have

the relationship with that land and the

easiest way that I can help explain that

is for a parent to a child that’s what

stewarding is not that we are the parent

but that the Earth is our parent it

gives us life without water we don’t

have life without the sun we don’t have

warmth

these are realistic tangible things in

indigenous mindsets that still continue

to be taught in my homelands throughout

and this is why I’m here sharing it with

you

so I wanted to give you a little

framework because when I’m not taking

pictures of Joshua trees I am a policy

provider and Advocate and I also work

with my nation to help continue these

conversations with the federal

government because one of the things we

know about American society is that we

grow at a rapid rate and so sometimes we

forget those agreements that we’ve made

with governments like mine and we forget

the responsibility that those agreements

hold for protecting the things that we

all can hold and Trust together and so I

call it leading with Merit and the first

part is identifying where you fit in it

me where am I do I have good medicine am

I walking in a good way do I know my

environment do I know where I’m living

do I know the resources I use do I know

how I got here do I know who lived here

also do I know if that is you know

sacred land if it’s not sacred land if

it’s common use these are things that

that we have to think about if we’re

going to lead with Merit the second part

of that Target is to reclaim all right

so sometimes when we have dialogues

about the environment it becomes so big

that it’s like what am I supposed to do

to help this situation I don’t take a

straw right all that’s that’s my I won’t

do that or I’ll recycle I’ll do that but

you have to remember that even though

America is so big it’s also based on the

premise of that individual and so when

you reclaim your voice in that then you

can ask your leaders what they think

about protecting these spaces are they

protecting spaces with cultural physical

or scientific

necessity are they interested in that do

they know about these things that’s how

we can engage together and when we start

to reclaim that process then guess what

leaders who are responsible for looking

at policy

who are responsible for leading to

overcome something when you’re driven

with a goal you’re often tunnel vision

right you’re often thinking how do I get

to that next step but for people who are

working in an indigenous mindset you

have to slow that down and open not only

to think about how I’m getting to that

goal but how that goal is affecting and

impact the people that I live with how

is it impacting the people that rely on

the land that we’re using and how is it

impacting the people or the animals the

plants the birds how is it impacting

them all right

and when we get there it becomes less of

a this or that and more of a how do we

do this and that’s why we’re here having

events like this because we’re talking

and we’re sharing about how we do that

and one of the ways that we can is

through impacts by asking leaders to

think about how they’re reclaiming their

place and their responsibility with

those older agreements to protect this

land and to Steward it alongside one

another

as a Mojave woman I know that America is

not going anywhere

all right we made agreements with

America

made agreements with us

and so now we have to move beyond that

and talk about how we’re going to make

those agreements work

and that’s when we get to transform when

we finally reclaim our place in the

process when we talk about how our

actions impact our everything around us

and our environments in our communities

then we can have transformative

conversation of whether or not this is

the right thing to do whether or not

we’re going to be able to come together

and protect it together

and then we will finally be able to have

that conversation of whether or not

we’re a true friend of the desert this

picture was put in the LA Times I love

this picture and it was recently posted

in 2022 but is a place called Avi Kwame

it’s a sacred place to my people my

people believe that we came from this

mountain but the picture doesn’t just

depict Mojave leaders or Mojave women

it’s a picture of an ecologist of a

Mojave of a cultural preservationist of

a policy leader of an athlete of an

intern of a volunteer and of media and

so if we can come together around this

space then the desert might remember us

as friends

and if we live in a meritorious way and

understand our place and position with

our environment then we can Coast

Steward it together

thank you so much for your time today I

really appreciate it

[Music]