Shannon Rivers Speaks on the Climate Crisis

A Bronco community discusses a an impending global danger

Santa Clara’s tUrn invited Shannon Rivers, a member of the Akimel O’otham River People, to speak at a virtual evening keynote about how Indigenous Peoples have been affected by poverty, inequality, mass media, and the climate crisis for the past 100 years on Oct. 12, which was Indigenous People’s Day.

Kristin Kusanovich, Senior Lecturer for the Department of Theatre and Dance at Santa Clara, hosted the event and started out the evening by reading out a Land and People Acknowledgement created specially for the day. 

Rivers told a story about the Indigenous Peoples who were forced off of their land in the deserts of Arizona where water was scarce. President Calvin Coolidge decided to take their water away, which was sacred to them. Yet, they decided to stay on their land.

“What happens when you take away the environment?” Rivers said. “What happens when you destroy their environment? [What happens] is that you remove people and you remove their livelihoods and for us that was the water. Water is sacred.”

About 20 years later, the assimilation program began. Indigenous Peoples were moved from their homes into cities around the country. But, they were placed in ghettos and left in poverty. So, the Indigenous Peoples cut wood and sold it to the Europeans and Americans in exchange for food. They received sugars, which were new to their bodies.

“What eventually happened of course is diabetes came in,” Rivers said. “We had sugar and we started eating processed food. We did not have access to our fields, we could not grow our squash and our beans and our melons...We continued to struggle.”

Rivers went on to talk more about the poverty the Indigenous Peoples faced.

“We do not have the riches, we do not have the new car or the new house or whatever it may be, but we are rich in culture, we are rich in ceremony, we are rich in song,” Rivers said.

Rivers also talked about the inequality the Indigenous Peoples faced by telling a story from his grandfather, who was a farmer. The Dawes Act of 1887 divided Indigenous Peoples’ lands and territories. It told natives that they could farm, but they had to do fine rows and use machines.

When Martin Luther King Jr. passed away, Rivers said that time was really hard for native people because they felt that their voices were finally being heard by someone who cared to talk about their struggles.

Rivers spoke again about assimilation and how Indigenous Peoples had to assimilate in order to survive. He said assimilation was hard on natives because they were forced to go to Christian and Catholic schools and cut their hair.

“In traditional culture, they say that the reason you cut your hair [and] share that with someone that you love and someone in your family is because your hair holds memory,” Rivers said.

Rivers ended his speech by asking the 114 students in attendance to take action against the poverty and inequality that surrounds the Indigenous Peoples.

Alex Fessler, a Junior at Santa Clara, asked whether any native communities in Arizona and across the nation were affected by the pandemic.

Rivers answered that the people of the Five Fingered Clan and other natives on the Navajo Reservation were all impacted by the Coronavirus due to the lack of relationship between the natives with the United States government. Some natives on the Reservation even needed to be airlifted to bigger cities to receive better treatment.

Pamela Davoren, a Santa Clara alumni, asked what steps are being taken to educate children in their schools about the history and contributions of Indigenous Peoples.

Rivers said that a new curriculum would be established within the school system to have Indigenous People’s Day recognized. They are asking scholars to be participants in the meetings to make changes in the public school curriculum.

Kusanovich also mentioned that Indigenous People’s Day is not officially adopted and undergraduate students from Santa Clara could go to the city council to make Santa Clara declare Oct. 12 as Indigenous People’s Day.

“There are those of us who honor [Indigenous People’s Day] because we want to, but it is not officially,” Kusanovich said. “It could be really wonderful [if] little by little, town by town...we reclaim this history and help our Indigenous brothers and sisters be more present, be more visible, be remembered, and be known.”