In Class Writing Assignment

The first major theme of Luther Standing Bear's writing is the concept that the people of the Lakota tribe are in a mutual relationship with nature, as opposed to being the conquerors and dominators that he portrays the white Europeans to be. By having reverence for nature, the Lakota are able to have a higher respect to for all living things, humans included. The second theme of Luther Standing Bear's writing is that understanding and engaging in nature's "formative processes" allows cultures to have a more intimate relationship and history with the land.


The idea behind Chief Seattle's speech is that the time of the Native American is coming to an end. He acknowledges that the white man will inhabit their lands, but he contends that "Red Man" will continue to love the beautiful land in spirit and memory. 


The controversy over Chief Seattle's speech is whether he really gave this speech, or whether the man who recounted the speech, Dr. Smith, crafted it to reflect a popular sentiment at the time. This sentiment being the extinction of the native person by "civilized" culture. The fact that- Smith didn't speak Chief Seattle's language, that there is only one piece of evidence documenting this speech (Smith's newspaper article 30 years after the speech), and the fact that there is another "speech" by Chief Seattle that surfaced to be fake, all suppose that Smith's documentation of Seattle's speech is fake as well.


Arnold Krupat, in his article "Chief Seattle's Speech Revisited", contends that Dr. Smith may have possibly heard Chief Seattle speak, but it is doubtful that Chief Seattle gave a speech about Natives moving to reservation when Dr. Smith heard him speak on Seattle's Main Street (Krupat). Chief Seattle didn't begin negotiations concerning reservations until months later at Point Elliot (Krupat). Dr. Smith states in the preface of his article that he heard to Seattle's speech on Main Street, proving that he wasn't in the location where Chief Seattle most likely would have made a speech concerning the extinction of his people. Krupat states "Smith stated clearly that he produced Seattle's speech from notes he took at the meeting in Seattle in front of Dr. Maynard’s office. But those notes cannot have included matters that Sealth could only have raised at a later time." (Krupat).


I believe Arnold Krupat's theory as to what most likely happened. Dr. Smith was impressed by Chief Seattle's oratorical powers (from when he heard him speak on Main Street)(Krupat). During the 30 year period before he published his article, Dr. Smith most likely, whether on purpose or not, misconstrued the two speeches that Seattle gave into one (Krupat). Smith had access to notes taken at Point Elliot and he could have combined Seattle's oratorical powers that he had previously heard, with the notes he read expressing Seattle's sentiments at Point Elliot (Krupat). The controversy over Chief Seattle's speech isn't whether it actually occurred, but really where it occurred and whether Dr. Smith was present to witness it or not.

The Real Chief Seattle Speach

There has been controversy over whether Chief Seattle really gave the infamous speech that was portrayed by Dr. Smith. As stated in the preface of the article, some people believe that Smith "crafted" this article to portray a popular sentiment of the time, the disappearance of Indians. The fact that- Smith didn't speak Chief Seattle's language, that there is only one piece of evidence documenting this speech (Smith's newspaper article 30 years after the speech), and the fact that there is another "speech" by Chief Seattle that surfaced to be fake, all suppose that Smith's documentation of Seattle's speech is fake as well.


In his article, "Chief Seattle's Speech Revisited", Arnold Krupat contends that Dr. Smith may have possibly heard Chief Seattle speak, but it is highly unlikely that Seattle spoke about settling into a reservation when Dr. Smith heard him speak on Seattle's Main Street. Chief Seattle didn't begin negotiations concerning reservations until months later at Point Elliot and it is documented by Dr. Smith that he did not attend this speech. Krupat states "Smith stated clearly that he produced Sealth’s speech from notes he took at the meeting in Seattle in front of Dr. Maynard’s office. But those notes cannot have included matters that Sealth could only have raised at a later time." (Krupat)


I believe Arnold Krupat's theory as to what most likely happened. He believes that Dr. Smith was impressed by Chief Seattle's oratorical powers (from when he heard him speak on main street, not at Point Elliot where they negotiated about reservations). During the 30 year period before he published his article, Dr. Smith most likely, whether on purpose or not, misconstrued the two speeches that Seattle gave into one . Smith had access to notes taken at Point Elliot and he could have combined Seattle's oratorical powers (he witnessed this at an earlier date) with the notes he read expressing Seattle's sentiments at Point Elliot.


http://www.chiefseattle.com/history/chiefseattle/speech/speech.htm
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_indian_quarterly/v035/35.2.krupat.html

Something Remarkable

While walking to English today, I passed a funny looking car. It resembled an oversized golf cart, but still retained the funny little wheels that golf carts are notorious for. Wrapped around the entire exoskeleton of the car was obnoxious advertising say that this car was "completely electric"!! The car was designed and advertised in such a way that it lets every single person that comes across it know that this isn't just any ordinary car. 


Electric cars will only become assimilated into society when they are not made to create a scene. We are going to have to make the move over to a more sustainable means of transportation, but this needs to be done slowly and as unobtrusive possible. A comfortable transition to electric cars needs to be done by retaining classic body styles and colors that we are already accustomed to. 

There is already enough opposition towards moving away from combustion engine cars. The easiest way to deviate from our old technology is to do it slow and steady. Being loud and boisterous over every electric car that is produced is not the way.

Conservacion Patagonica

(The future National Park)

The region of Patagonia that spans much of the southern region of South America is one of the last truly pristine and wild places left in the world today. In my opinion it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. 

Patagonia is currently being threatened by numerous ecologically damaging factors, one of which being plans to place massive damns on two of largest rivers in the region. The organization, Conservacion Patagonica, is devoted to creating a massive wild life preserve which will protect not only the land, but also the many ecosystems that are being threatened in this region.

It has been the goal of the Chilean Government to unite the entire region under one large National Park, but lack of funds have prevented this. Concervacion Patagonica plans to obtain the last portion of land necessary  to unite this region (The Chacabuco Valley), and then donate it to the Chilean Government.   The combination of Conservacion Patagonica's Chacabuco Valley, and the Chilean Governments Tamango and Jeinimeni National Reserves, will upgrade the three tracts of lands from Reserves to one large National Park. This will increase the level of protection over the entire region. The picture above maps the three respective tracts of land.

http://www.conservacionpatagonica.org/index.htm

A Sustainable Fishery??

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/spiny+dogfish+making+history+world+first+sustainable+shark+fishery/5434285/story.html

A London based environmental group by the name of The Marine Stewardship Council has officially named a Canadian Dog Fish Shark fishery as the first sustainable shark fishery in the world. The council found that the fishery met standards for minimal ecological impact as compared to other fisheries.

Critics claim that this certification is just a badge to attract business in European market and that the fisheries main goal is still to make large profits.

I personally don't believe that any fishery is sustainable on any level. There is no way that catching massive quantities of fish for profit is a sustainable way of living. As stated in the article, the Dogfish shark has one of the longest pregnancy's and one of the slowest reproductive rates. These sharks are not sexually active until the age of 35.

This certification is more of a public relations and business tactic. I believe a more sustainable solution would be to disassemble all fisheries and let the population of all endangered fish regenerate.

Katerva Most Sustainable Ideas Contest

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2011/09/19/the-worlds-best-sustainability-ideas/

A sustainability intelligence and recognition company by the name of Katerva is in the final stages of a contest that they have created. The purpose behind the contest is to recognize and promote the most sustainable and revolutionary ideas that have developed within the last two years. These ideas and innovations must be directly related to creating a more sustainable environment and world, and they must be things that can be reproduced and scaled up to fit the needs of our world.

Within this contest there are 10 different categories:
Food Security, Behavioral Change, Economy, Protected Areas, Gender Equality, Materials & Resources, Human Development, Energy & Power, Transportation, and Urban Design.


The Contest is down to its top 5 contenders for each subcategory.
Some finalist include 350.org under the behavioral change category, and Crop Trust for the food security category. 


I think this is a great competition because it allows for innovations that can potentially increase our level of sustainability to be targeted and developed. The grand prize winner will be introduced to companies and business leaders who will help develop the grand prize winners concept into a full fledged solution. 
Although only one grand prize winner will be named, I think its superb that ideas are being targeted because it allows for constant innovation and refinement on a subject that our world desperately needs.