Extractive Values and Indigenous Rights: A Call to Action with Jay S. Ritchie
Written by Ronnie Mason on August 27, 2024
Written by Leslie Jimenez
Recognizing the rights of the land has been a long-standing practice of Indigenous Laws. These Laws acknowledge that humans and the natural world are relatives to one another and emphasize respect for beings and a responsibility to steward the land and water. But what happens when the land is treated as a resource, rather than a relative?
In this segment, Jay S. Ritchie highlights the impacts and consequences on current and future generations of today’s extractive values, inequitable health impacts, business practices, malpractice risk assessments and research methodologies.
Jay, an enrolled member of the Mississquoi Band of Abenaki, Cree from Saskatchewan, is a graduate of Vermont Law School, with an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington. Jay is Partner and shareholder at Jay S. Ritchie, PLLC. While at Vermont Law School, Jay worked with the Mississquoi Band of Abenaki, focused on Energy Law and Regulation. At the University of Washington, Jay focused on unequitable health impacts, the Hanford Nuclear Waste Sites, and environmental issues impacting Indigenous peoples. Jay’s current area of focus is family, litigation, Indian, and business law.
Understanding the ways in which the land is currently viewed as a resource, and how extraction is justified through commodities and private property, Jay explains extractive values as “the belief that natural entities are resources that can be used for human benefit with little regard for their well-being and longevity.”
This is a significant discussion when it comes to addressing soil contamination as the result of ineffective regulation. These impacts, along with fatigue and absence of Indigenous knowledge systems, lead and contribute to the barriers to practicing environmental justice and accountability. Spotlighting the commodification, capitalization, and exploitation of the land, Jay leaves us with a call to action to come together, insist on accountability, and take concrete steps to secure a future for generations yet to come.
Other Resources
Decolonized research Methodologies
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Native women Infant Mortality Rates
“Why Native Stories, and the Impacts of Land Contamination” is a collaborative series, in partnership with King County, that explores the environmental legacy of the ASARCO Tacoma Smelter on Native communities. Through storytelling, this initiative highlights their resilience, examining how environmental challenges intersect with their rights, culture, and future, while advocating for justice and sustainability.
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