.
Overlooking Lake Tahoe stands Cave Rock, a geological formation on the eastern side of the lake which straddles the California-Nevada border. Historically and spiritually significant to the Washoe Tribe, Cave Rock is considered a sacred site where tribal leadership discourages tourism to honor the elders who steward the land. Yet, beginning in the late 20th century onward, the site became a popular destination for recreation – once described by recreational climbers as offering “some of the most gymnastic routes in the state.” This paper, co-authored with a leader of the Washoe Tribe, examines the contrasting conceptions of care held by the Tribe and the recreational users of Cave Rock. Drawing on archived surveys, newspaper articles, and interviews, we trace the tensions between Indigenous land stewardship and public land use, culminating in a legal case that illuminates broader themes of care, access, and the enclosure of the commons.
My paper focuses on claims about mineral rights and responsibilities in Anishinaabe and settler narratives of gold mining around the Great Lakes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As Treaties were negotiated on both sides of the colonially imposed border, mineral rights were always under discussion. Gold-seekers, including geologists, surveyors, and even missionaries, sought mineral rights sanctioned by cosmologies of land that valued gold on the terms of capitalist profit and by way of providential claims rooted in Christian theologies. They were challenged by Anishinaabe leaders such as Mawedopenais, quoted in my title, who played a key role in the 1870s negotiations for Treaty #3 in what is now called northwestern Ontario. Examining Anishinaabe-settler exchanges reveals anew how Anishinaabeg claimed spiritual jurisdiction given to them by the Creator when challenging settler-colonial claims to mineral rights and the right to extraction.
On July 5th, 2024, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that several species of giant clams in Guåhan (Guam)–-known among the Indigenous CHamoru people as “hima”–-will be designated as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This threatens CHamoru cultural and religious practitioners who harvest and carve hima as a religious practice. This paper situates the 2024 NOAA conservation policies within the tumultuous history of U.S. conservation policy in Guåhan, while eliding how U.S. imperialism and military occupation are the source of environmental catastrophe in Guåhan. This paper will conclude by offering an Indigenous model of conservation rooted in “In-Place” preservation practices and contemporary LANDBACK! politics in Guåhan.