When Christo­pher Colum­bus land­ed on Tur­tle Island, which we now call North Amer­i­ca, he brought with him a goal of mak­ing prof­it — of tak­ing from the land and peo­ple to cre­ate com­merce. Today, approx­i­mate­ly 526 years lat­er, that same pil­lag­ing con­tin­ues to dri­ve our plan­et fur­ther into the cli­mate cri­sis and lead us into eco­log­i­cal col­lapse. Instead of hon­or­ing the vio­lent col­o­niza­tion Colum­bus rep­re­sents, we should use this day to call for truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion — and hon­or the Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties at the fore­front of efforts to heal the long-last­ing envi­ron­men­tal harm Colum­bus and his ilk have wrought.

Climate change is just another symptom of colonization.

Set­tler colo­nial­ism has exac­er­bat­ed cli­mate change and made Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties sac­ri­fice zones to this cri­sis. As we hon­or the truth of how this coun­try was found­ed and con­tin­ues to exploit Indige­nous lands and ter­ri­to­ries, we must also rec­og­nize that cli­mate change dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impacts the Indige­nous and Native peo­ples who are least respon­si­ble for this crisis.

Cli­mate change is just anoth­er symp­tom of col­o­niza­tion. First, our lands were stolen from us or we were forcibly moved from our orig­i­nal ter­ri­to­ries and placed into reser­va­tions. Then, those stolen lands were turned into tox­ic places for resource extrac­tion. In Nava­jo Nation, you have ura­ni­um min­ing and coal plants that con­tin­ue to cause dis­ease. In Okla­homa, near Pon­ca ter­ri­to­ry, you have frack­ing that has dis­turbed the earth so deeply that earth­quakes are hap­pen­ing more often and stronger. In Cal­i­for­nia and Wash­ing­ton, home to dozens of tribes, dams have destroyed salmon runs to the point that salmon no longer exist in rivers. So, beyond destroy­ing the eco­log­i­cal bal­ance of these places, these projects and indus­tries also pol­lute and emit car­bon into the atmos­phere, there­fore con­tribut­ing to cli­mate change. Not only are Indige­nous Peo­ples bear­ing the brunt of cli­mate change, but it’s through the col­o­niza­tion of our lands and of our peo­ple that cli­mate change is being exacerbated

We have to rec­og­nize that restor­ing rela­tion­ships between non-native and native peo­ples goes beyond just replac­ing the name of a day on the cal­en­dar: It means real­ly acknowl­edg­ing how col­o­niza­tion has and con­tin­ues to impact native and indige­nous peo­ples, espe­cial­ly when it comes to cli­mate change. And it requires acknowl­edg­ing that Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties are pro­mot­ing and cre­at­ing the most inno­v­a­tive and the most effi­cient solu­tions to the cli­mate and eco­log­i­cal cri­sis we are in.

At this time, gov­ern­ments and cor­po­ra­tions are look­ing to the car­bon mar­ket sys­tem as the best solu­tion to cli­mate change, so they are cre­at­ing mech­a­nisms such as car­bon pric­ing, car­bon trad­ing, car­bon tax­es and REDD+ . How­ev­er, these false solu­tions only allow big pol­luters to con­tin­ue to extract and pol­lute by buy­ing cred­its to become ​“car­bon neutral.”

This past Sep­tem­ber, Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Jer­ry Brown host­ed the Glob­al Cli­mate Action Sum­mit, where he and his Gov­er­nors’ Cli­mate and Forests Task Force pro­mot­ed these car­bon mar­ket sys­tems. In response, Indige­nous Peo­ples from across the world also con­vened in San Fran­cis­co for the Sol­i­dar­i­ty to Solu­tions Week of Action , to demand an end to cli­mate cap­i­tal­ism — and an invest­ment in real solu­tions, start­ing with keep­ing oil in the ground.

To con­tin­ue the momen­tum that was start­ed to resist these false solu­tions, the Indige­nous Envi­ron­men­tal Net­work, where I work, and its allies from across the world have launched the #SkyPro­tec­tor cam­paign. Just as there are #Water­Pro­tec­tors who defend water from pipelines and the fos­sil fuel indus­try, we are now see­ing a rise of #SkyPro­tec­tors who are pro­tect­ing the cli­mate from false solu­tions. To dri­ve that emerg­ing move­ment, IEN and the Cli­mate Jus­tice Alliance have cre­at­ed a Car­bon Pric­ing Report to edu­cate Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties about the car­bon mar­ket sys­tem and how it impacts us.

For Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, edu­ca­tion and mak­ing the lan­guage around cli­mate change acces­si­ble are crit­i­cal to build­ing our move­ment for cli­mate jus­tice. Many of our com­mu­ni­ties are rur­al and have lim­it­ed access to wifi and tech­nol­o­gy. There­fore when it comes to car­bon mar­kets, or help­ing com­mu­ni­ties under­stand how the changes they are see­ing in their ter­ri­to­ries are con­nect­ed to deci­sions being made by gov­ern­ments, we need peo­ple who are able to meet com­mu­ni­ties where they are at. That is why Indige­nous Cli­mate Action is a leader in cli­mate jus­tice work with Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties. Found­ed only three years ago, ICA is Canada’s pre­mier Indige­nous-led cli­mate jus­tice orga­ni­za­tion that pri­or­i­tizes Indige­nous knowl­edge as the true solu­tion to cli­mate change. Through train­ing camps in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties, toolk­its designed to make infor­ma­tion acces­si­ble to many gen­er­a­tions and a forth­com­ing pod­cast, ICA is build­ing a cli­mate jus­tice frame­work that cen­ters and affirms Indige­nous knowledge.

At its core, Indige­nous Peo­ples Day is about truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, which is a process of restora­tive jus­tice to reveal and con­front the wrong­do­ings of a gov­ern­ment and to take action to heal rela­tions between oppres­sors and the oppressed. Across the world, coun­tries like South Africa , Chile , and Cana­da have under­gone truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process­es. While these process­es are nowhere near per­fect or com­plete, they exist. Until very recent­ly, the Unit­ed States has failed to ini­ti­ate a real process of truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion between the U.S. Gov­ern­ment and Indige­nous or Native Peo­ples. In 2012, the first ever gov­ern­ment-sanc­tioned truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion com­mis­sion was devel­oped in Maine to lis­ten to tes­ti­monies of Indige­nous peo­ples who were forced into fos­ter care by U.S. gov­ern­ment agents. This sto­ry is explored in the ground­break­ing film, Dawn­land .

While our so-called lead­ers con­tin­ue to ignore Indige­nous rights, con­tin­ue to break treaties, and con­tin­ue to dri­ve us into fur­ther eco­log­i­cal col­lapse, we the peo­ple can take ini­tia­tive to under­stand how col­o­niza­tion con­tin­ues and how we can build right rela­tion­ship with Native and Indige­nous Peo­ples. And we need only to look at the most urgent issue of our time, cli­mate change, to see how col­o­niza­tion is still play­ing out, who is impact­ed the most and who is bring­ing the true solu­tions to the table.