Mark Steinbuck

Critical Coastlines, our special program created in homage to the 2004 Tsunami and all that it forebodes, is funding five amazing non-profit groups, each working on a different coastline with their own solutions to a local problem. Themes that run through each of these grantees are coastal conservation, economic sustainability, pollution cleanups, scientific research, and direct community involvement. All of these themes are critical to helping vulnerable coasts build resilience to a changing… Show more

Critical Coastlines, our special program created in homage to the 2004 Tsunami and all that it forebodes, is funding five amazing non-profit groups, each working on a different coastline with their own solutions to a local problem. Themes that run through each of these grantees are coastal conservation, economic sustainability, pollution cleanups, scientific research, and direct community involvement. All of these themes are critical to helping vulnerable coasts build resilience to a changing planet. Show less

As with most protected areas, the limits of the Boundary Waters end at an often-arbitrary line inscribed on a map, usually cutting indiscriminately through the middle of lakes and along narrow portages. Unfortunately, the geology of the Arrowhead knows little of these recent political discriminations. Underneath the surface lies a vast network of interconnected drainages that extend well beyond the Wilderness Area and into areas long sought after for mining and other forms of development.

We, now descended from El Norte, strike out in the afternoon from Costa Careyes toward the pristine Pacific coastline of Playa Teopa to meet with Careyes Foundation’s staff: Alejandro, Sarah, Nacho, Kate, Katie, and Noelle. Through our grant program, Careyes Foundation is working alongside 10 local villages surrounding the tiny, developed enclave of Costa Careyes to help build positive, resilient, communities through outdoor experiences and education. How could we not visit?

We are stoked to announce the next round of KEEN Effect grantees. BUT…this is not just any round. This grant cycle marks the 5-year anniversary of the KEEN Effect grant program—created from a feeling that we at KEEN should put out a call to all the grassroots organizations working in their own backyards to build stronger communities and a healthier planet.

We are discovering the best grassroots organizations developing youth in the outdoors worldwide. They are breaking down the silos of outdoor activities, embracing creativity and ingenuity in educational programming, growing scientific literacy, and showing urgent conservation needs while addressing racial, economic, gender, ability and environmental justice.

On the outskirts of Tucson, Ariz., the Saguaro National Park stands guard over two million iconic saguaro cacti and myriad charismatic carnivores scattered across lush, upland “sky island” landscapes. This is a land few Tucsonans have actually visited, especially the young Latino population that comprises 50% of the city. But efforts are underway to change the human landscape of the national park.

Gathered from a field season of research on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota, this work explores the author's engagement in a community mapping project with Oglala Lakota elders in 2012. Theories of participatory development are explored as the project intends to “map” the indigenous "tiospaye," or traditional family groups in the Porcupine District of Pine Ridge. Instead of a cartographic map, narrative representations of place develop. A discussion of the mapping project… Show more

Gathered from a field season of research on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota, this work explores the author's engagement in a community mapping project with Oglala Lakota elders in 2012. Theories of participatory development are explored as the project intends to “map” the indigenous "tiospaye," or traditional family groups in the Porcupine District of Pine Ridge. Instead of a cartographic map, narrative representations of place develop. A discussion of the mapping project leads to a wider explication of the general practice of mapping indigenous lands throughout time and place. How indigenous perceptions of place and landscape are represented through acts of cartography is discussed to show the potential for empowerment or disempowerment of indigenous worldviews. The work concludes that a divestment of power to local communities is necessary for sustainable development, and further that the knowledge and perceptions of the traditionally-inclined Lakota elders need to be validated on their own terms in order to decolonize the relationship between the tiospayes and the tribal government. Show less

This study draws causal links between the re-localization of socio-ecological food systems and community resilience. With evidence from two case studies, one from and indigenous community in Idaho and the other from an urban community in Cuba, it is argued that horizontal and vertical linkages of scale create necessary networks that provide a medium for social learning, ultimately resulting in more resilient social-ecological systems. It is cautioned that extreme localization is an ideal… Show more

This study draws causal links between the re-localization of socio-ecological food systems and community resilience. With evidence from two case studies, one from and indigenous community in Idaho and the other from an urban community in Cuba, it is argued that horizontal and vertical linkages of scale create necessary networks that provide a medium for social learning, ultimately resulting in more resilient social-ecological systems. It is cautioned that extreme localization is an ideal rarely ever seen in history, as it has the potential to expose a system to high amounts of political, economic and environmental vulnerabilities. However, as is consistent with the food sovereignty movement, local communities must retain the agency to decide and craft their own scalar linkages based upon their unique historical and cultural contexts.
It is through the application of political ecology and socio-ecological systems theories that it is shown that the local scale should be the starting point of all policy decisions that affect the subsistence production and consumption of individuals within communities, regardless of their being labeled indigenous or non-indigenous. Rural hunter-gatherer populations and modern urbanites alike have cultural and social capital with which to understand their environments and manage their own natural resources. Gaining power over a community food system is not the end in itself, but rather a means by which a community can build resilience, attain social justice, and attain a meaningful cultural connection to the environment which surrounds and supports it.
Show less

This thesis discusses the process and results of research gathered from a field season on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. By engaging in a community mapping project with Oglala Lakota elders, I show the benefits and reason behind the theory of participation. The project intends to “map” the indigenous tiospaye groups in the Porcupine District, and ends up gathering narrative representations of place rather than explicitly cartographic ones, a reification of the theorized… Show more

This thesis discusses the process and results of research gathered from a field season on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. By engaging in a community mapping project with Oglala Lakota elders, I show the benefits and reason behind the theory of participation. The project intends to “map” the indigenous tiospaye groups in the Porcupine District, and ends up gathering narrative representations of place rather than explicitly cartographic ones, a reification of the theorized “dwelling space.” A discussion of the mapping project leads to a wider explication of the general practice of mapping indigenous lands throughout history. How indigenous perceptions of place and landscape are represented through acts of cartography is discussed to show the potential for empowerment or disempowerment of indigenous worldviews. The thesis concludes
that a divestment of power to local communities is necessary for truly sustainable development, and further that the knowledge and perceptions of the traditional Lakota elders needs to be validated on their own terms in order to decolonize the relationship between their tiospayes and the tribal government. Show less

This paper makes connections between the historical development of land tenure policy in the United States since the Dawes Act of 1887 and its subsequent effects on the Native American condition. The relationship between the U.S. government and Native American tribal lands is analyzed using critical perspectives derived from political-economy/ecology, post-colonial theory and cognitive anthropology. Through looking at opposing generalized cognitive frames of animist subsistence cultures… Show more

This paper makes connections between the historical development of land tenure policy in the United States since the Dawes Act of 1887 and its subsequent effects on the Native American condition. The relationship between the U.S. government and Native American tribal lands is analyzed using critical perspectives derived from political-economy/ecology, post-colonial theory and cognitive anthropology. Through looking at opposing generalized cognitive frames of animist subsistence cultures against that of Western modernist culture, the argument for a fundamental incongruousness between capitalist and indigenous land tenure systems is made. The land tenure system of “allotment” or parcelization along with neoliberal economic policy has desacrilized indigenous cultural landscapes in multiple sites across America. This paper argues that this ongoing form of development is more akin to international colonialism than internal ethnic oppression. In response to the effects of colonialism, some indigenous peoples have retained their traditional relationships to land in an effort to revitalize their own communities from political violence and assert their own sovereignty to ancestral lands. The Lakota Sioux’s Black Hills of South Dakota, the Navajo Nation’s Dine Bikéyah in the New Mexico, and the Sokaogan Chippewa’s Mole Lake in Wisconsin are all used as case studies to show how indigenous American subsistence culture is treated as an obstacle to colonial development initiatives. As a conclusion, it is suggested that alternative and indigenous frameworks of human-environment relationships be encouraged in effort of both cultural and environmental sustainability. Show less