e d u c a t i o n e l e m e n t s d i s c u s s i o n n a t i o n s

Serious environmental issues threaten the economic and cultural future of indigenous peoples on a global basis. Traditional methods of agriculture are being replaced by widespread timber harvesting and cattle grazing in rain forest ecosystems--the people forced into urban areas with little or no hope of employment. Estimates of rate of species lost, many of which are yet unknown to western scientists, escalate year by year. The vast cultural knowledge of these species carried by indigenous peoples is also lost; potential food sources and medicines, as well as cultural identity, vanish. In North America, indigenous people are struggling to cope with a wide array of environmental crises: Native American tribes in the Great Lakes region are experiencing a decline in wild rice harvests due to water diversion and pollution; the salmon, upon which numerous Northwest tribes depend for their livelihood and cultural identity, have declined dramatically as a result of logging practices; and here in the Southwest, tribes are dealing with environmental issues as diverse as lack of safe drinking water, habitat degradation resulting from coal and mineral extraction and increased visitor impact following the development of tribal gaming. Devising solutions to existing and emerging environmental issues on tribal lands requires the education and input of Native People in problem-solving and decision-making roles. Tribal EarthVision provides the educational, ecological, discussion, and technological support for American Indian students grades 1-12 on several Indian Community lands as they investigate, inventory and learn to protect by means of understanding and effective planning (both environmental and economic), the land and the natural resources which they will inherit.