Our View: World-class conference from the Kumeyaay

By: North County Times - Editorial | Wednesday, February 11, 2004 9:35 PM PST ∞

The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians are giving back to the community in a big way by co-sponsoring, with San Diego State University, this weekend's two-day conference on the "Spirit of the Land" at SDSU. Featured speakers will include two of the world's best writers on the environment ---- Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder and author Peter Matthiessen, whose dozens of books, fiction and nonfiction, are an extended inquiry into man's place in the environment.

Less well-known but equally impressive speakers include Gary Paul Nabhan of Arizona, a leader in the effort to preserve the genetic heritage of native plants; American Indian singer Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman; author Mike Davis, whose "City of Quartz" was a best-selling excoriation of the environmental and social devastation wrought by Los Angeles; American Indian law expert Sam Deloria of New Mexico; and a number of academic and tribal specialists in Indian traditions, including Pechanga Band Chairman Mark Macarro and Kumeyaay Chairman Anthony Pico. Other speakers include scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, historians, lawyers, policy-makers, urban planners and on and on.

The Viejas Band is underwriting most of the costs of this top-flight conference, details of which are available at http://spirit.sdsu.edu/schedule.html.

With the success of the multibillion-dollar Indian casino industry, California tribes have emerged from obscurity and become major political players and the subject of immense public interest, much of it critical.

That's good. We think the tribes can stand it. They have been good neighbors, good citizens and major contributors to local charities. Their record is by no means perfect ---- their claims to exemption from state political contribution laws and state and federal labor and environmental laws come to mind. Even the Indians' well-earned respect for their reverence for nature is getting a second look from academics and historians.

Environmental degradation by native tribes almost certainly contributed to the collapse of many pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Maya, the Anasazi and the Hohokam. Many native American practices, such as setting the range on fire to drive the buffalo over cliffs, obviously are impossible today. But there is no question that the more we all know about each other, the better. And after all, just about everything we do has an environmental impact.

Local environmental groups have sued the Homeland Security Department over its plans to build a new border fence south of San Diego, claiming the design would wreak havoc on the environment. Environmental issues have remade the California political landscape, changing everything from our cars to the gasoline we put in them to our restaurants, our industries, the way we farm and the way we plan ---- or fail to plan ---- our cities.

Experts at the "Spirit of the Land" conference will take a look at all of these issues and more. The Kumeyaay have used some of the profits from their casino to put together a world-class conference. In doing so, they are making a major contribution to the cultural life of our region.