“The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth” details the centuries of Indigenous resistance that created the movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline and what movements centering justice for Indigenous people must look like.

On Earth Day, we speak with two of the more than two dozen Indigenous authors of a new book that looks at the history of resistance against colonialism and capitalism and lays out a vision for the future to address the climate crisis.

“The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth” details the centuries of Indigenous resistance that created the movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline and what movements centering justice for Indigenous people must look like.

The book offers a “people’s program to prevent extinction,” says Melanie Yazzie, assistant professor of Native American studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico and co-author of “The Red Deal.” “The plan is really clear. The stakes are really clear,” Yazzie says. “We draw centrally from Indigenous movements over the last couple of decades for decolonization.” We also speak with Uahikea Maile, an assistant professor of Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto – St. George and one of the book’s co-authors.

On Earth Day, we host an extended conversation with two of the two dozen Indigenous scholars behind the new book, “The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth,” described as “not simply a response to the Green New Deal nor a ‘bargain’ with the elite and powerful. It is a deal with the humble people of the earth; an affirmation that colonialism and capitalism must be overturned for human and other-than-human life to live with dignity. It is a pact with movements for liberation, life, and land for a new world of peace and justice that must come from below and to the left.”

In Albuquerque, Melanie Yazzie is a co-founder of The Red Nation, a grassroots Indigenous liberation organization, and chair of the board of directors for Red Media, an imprint of Common Notions. Yazzie is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and an assistant professor of Native American studies and American studies at the University of New Mexico.

We are also joined from Toronto by Uahikea Maile, a Kanaka Maoli scholar and activist from Maunawili, O’ahu. He is also a member of The Red Nation and an assistant professor of Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto.

WEB EXCLUSIVEAPR 22, 2021

Part 2: Extended Interview With Red Nation Members About An Indigenous Plan to Save Our Earth

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