TSI SHONKWAIENTHO:WI TANON OHONTESHONAH IE SMALL PLANTS AND GRASSES

The Challenges facing the Small plants and Grasses

The biggest challenge faced by the small plants and grasses is the ignorance of humans toward the natural world. Some of the most devastating impacts experienced by plants have come as a result of massive development projects promoted by profit oriented individuals and corporations who turned our environment upside down, Hydro-electric dams have flooded the land and killed many important plants including grasses, berry bushes and medicine plants. Economic development along rivers and ways has resulted in the dumping of wastes into the water and air, killing or damaging many of our small plants. The dredging of rivers for shipping has turned earth upside down by carelessly placing clay from the bottom of the rivers on top of the soil. Everyone knows that clay belongs underneath the top soil. Deprived of nutrients, no plants or grasses can grow on clay. These are only a few examples of how our environment has been turned upside down. Development projects around the world have thrown the natural world way out of balance and as a result, plants have experienced a shock to which many can not recover.

The diversity of plants has been devastated by many other human activities such as mining, habitat destruction, deforestation, pollution, the introduction of exotic species, global warming, ozone depletion increasing human population, to name a few. One of the most damaging impacts to plant biodiversity has come from monoculture. Humans have destroyed, degraded and simplified plant ecosystems. We have replaced thousands of diverse and interrelated plants with one kind of crop or one kind of tree. We have wiped out hardy, diverse species of plants and replaced them with a single plant variety which we have deemed valuable, useful or beautiful. For example, we have plowed up thousands of acres of diverse grasses and replaced them with one type of grass, such as corn, wheat or rye. Farmers often use hybrid plants that are weak and don’t even reproduce. This is very bad for sustainability because we then have to spend a lot of time, energy and money trying to protect these monocultures from pests, diseases and weather that could wipe out a whole crop in a matter of minutes. Wild plants have resistance to pests and diseases. They also are the gene pool from which new species and resistant types of plants will develop. This is how plants have survived for millions of years. It is only recently that humans have gone and altered their environment so they can no longer live and reproduce.

Lawns are another example of our destruction of plant diversity. The majority of people in the US and Canada completely exclude most forms of life from their communities by growing lawns, which are really nothing more than green deserts. For some strange reason, humans have decided that they want a uniform lawn composed of a single species with no weeds. They spray pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertil­izers in order to maintain this monoculture. Not only have we eliminated the diversity of grasses and small plants, which supports life, but we have also contaminated our soil, lakes, rivers, streams, air and even our children with chemicals. Some commu­nities even pass laws to make everyone in their town or village have a well kept lawn. This is very hard to understand, since it runs completely against the way the natural world works. Despite the fact that people around the US and Canada like to use the word biodiversity, current practices reinforce the idea that uniformity is good and diversity is bad. We continue to inten­tionally kill off plants that are not only useful to us, but critical to the survival of the rest of creation. All plants on Mother Earth have a purpose. We must learn to appreciate them for who and what they are.

Onkwehon:we (Native people) understand that many plants, called weeds by Non-Natives, are actually medicines. This is the reason why many of us don’t cut our lawns so they look uniform and pretty like suburban areas. When my grandmother was growing up, she said that her clinic was her backyard. Our people didn’t have health clinics back then like we do now. To this day, many Native people continue to feel that planting grass and cutting your yard would be the same thing as destroying your pharmacy.

Over harvesting is another challenge that the small plants must face. Humans tend to go after particular species of plants in the woods or fields. Often, because they really don’t know anything about these plants, they pick them at the wrong time of the year, before they have been able to reproduce. People will thoughtlessly pick flowers, eliminating a whole generation new plants. If they don’t harvest every plant, they tend to pick the biggest strongest and hardiest of plants, leaving young, weak and frail ones to bring up next generation. Every plant has a lea among their family group. When we take the leader and discard the others, weaken the entire remaining family group. Humans have a long history of over harvesting and destroying plants we consider valuable because they are medicines, such as ginseng, or because they have beautiful flowers such as rare wildflowers. At the same time, we destroy plants we consider weeds without even knowing the important role they play in the ecosystem. The outcome is the same –we push plants to extinction. Often, we do this out of ignorance.

Another challenge facing the plants is human overpopulation. World-wide, our population has been increasing at an alarming rate and as a result, people are destroying critical plant habitat. For example, more and more people are filling in wetlands to build their homes and other businesses. Wetlands are extremely important because they are some of most productive and diverse habitats on face of the planet. They support countless varieties of plant and animal species. The only areas with more diverse plant species are the rain forests, which are also being cut down at an alarming rate to sustain the needs of an ever increasing human population. We are destroying these valuable plant habitats for firewood, to homes, to grow crops and to raise stock, such as beef for hamburgers sold fast food restaurants in the US and Canada. When we dry up a wetland or clear forest, we lose a wide variety of plant species. As a result, their gene pool is often lost forever.

Another factor in the decline of plant diversity is technology transfer. Habitat action has increased twice as fast as population because of technology transfer. As technology has advanced over years, we have been able to clear cut forests much more quickly and effectively using less time and money. We now have machinery that can fill in a wetland and build a townhouse or shopping mall within a matter of weeks. The faster we build, the more land we need, and the less land is available for wild plants. When we alter the environment and pave over the earth, we take away the soil, minerals, and habitat that plants need to survive.

Other challenges faced by plants include the loss of pollinating insects and soil. Today, pollinating insects such as honey bees are disappearing at an alarming rate due to pollution and disease. They are critical to the survival of wild plants. If these tiny animals disappear, what will take their place and do their important job? Our fertile soils are turning into deserts because

of past agricultural practices. Overgrazing and the loss of soil holding grasses and wild plants are allowing soils to blow away into the air and erode into our waterways. Millions of acres of fertile topsoil get lost every year and our lands become deserts. We need to better manage our lands if we are to stop this loss of soil.

The introduction of exotic species has also had a major impact on indigenous plant species. Many of these exotics are aggressive plants, such as purple loosestrife and phragmites. These plants have taken over thousands of acres of wetlands and fields and choked out the indigenous plants that formerly were there. Very few species of animals or insects will eat these exotic plants and when the indigenous plants are lost, wildlife lose their food source. These species do not belong here - they belong across the ocean. Many plants we see today that are growing out of balance were brought over here by the Europeans. We need to find ways to restore the balance and focus on plants that are indigenous to North America.

A wide variety of indigenous plants can often be found growing in and around Native communities. Sometimes, they are the only place you can find certain rare and endangered plants. For example, a Native community in New Mexico had some rare plants which dated back to the Paleozoic era. A uranium mining company came in and mined the area, killing everything.

When we lose the species found in native communities, often we lose the last islands of diversity that exist anywhere on the planet. As a result, some of these plants will be gone forever.

Another problem that the grasses and small plants are facing is that Onkwehon:we are becoming modernized. We are adopting many non-Native practices and beliefs, including their need for material goods. We want a better life for our children and advertising, TV and the educational systems have convinced some of us that material goods are the way to a better life. As a result, we stop believing that our way of respecting the natural world and supporting bio-diversity is a good way to live. Many organizations around the world are turning to Onkwehon:we for the answers to saving endangered plants. What is going to happen when we don’t know what to tell them because we too have lost our ties to the natural world? Who will speak out on behalf of the grasses and small plants? We need to be reminded that when the environment was green, we were mentally, physically and spiritually healthy. Now that our environment is turning brown and barren, we are sick and poor.

One of the biggest problems that the world is facing is the fact that there is no religion or belief system that promotes a spiritual connection between humans and the grasses and plants in the natural world except for Native cultures. Many religions today have become institutionalized no longer give people the tools that the to live sustainably and peacefully with other species and other cultures . By focusing only on humans, western society encourages people to fulfill their own needs at the expense of all other species. Perhaps this is why many people have no remorse for what they have done to the natural world. Despite increasing material wealth, more and more people are left feeling empty and void because they have no means of interacting with each other or the rest of creation. Some people are finally understanding that the pursuit of the American dream may not be the key to happiness. At the same time we have come to realize this, we are trying to force third world nations to exploit their resource economic gain if they want a better life for their people. The problem with these deep seated values is that economic gains tend to benefit a few. The majority of people, as well as plant and animal species suffer in the end. We must learn that humans cannot experience stewardship, and perhaps real happiness, without equality and justice for all of Creation.