Indigenous Transcendence, Rights, and Relationality: Navigating Ontologies, Cultural Resource Management, and Epistemic Violence.

This panel brings together complex Indigenous perspectives on transcendence, cultural resource management, and relational ties to land. The first paper introduces the "ethics of belonging," emphasizing kin relationality and ecological belonging as foundational to Indigenous notions of transcendence. The second paper focuses on Indigenous nations’ engagement with the National Forest Service to address neglected religious claims in consultations and suggest ways to rectify inherent asymmetries. The third paper investigates land-based epistemology of 18th-century Mohican and Lenape Moravian Christians, showcasing their resilience in sustaining cultural practices and connections to land despite displacement. The fourth paper analyzes Traditional Cultural Resources (TCRs) to combat epistemic violence in cultural resource management policies, highlighting Indigenous communities’ advocacy efforts for their cultural legacy and well-being. Collectively, these papers offer critical insights into Indigenous resilience, engagement, and cultural preservation strategies while navigating relationships with the environment and federal entities amidst colonial legacies and rights-based legal structures.

The first paper by Yuria Celidwen, "Kin Relationality and Ecological Belonging: An Indigenous Perspective on Transcendence." Abstract: A consensual notion of transcendence can be drawn from the movement on the defense of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the rights of Nature that I define as the “ethics of belonging” and its two constitutive concepts: kin relationality and ecological belonging. Kin relationality predicates that all living beings and phenomena share a familial identity. Within the value system of ecological belonging, an individual’s identity concerning the natural environment is centered on the sentiments of responsibility. Indigenous perspectives on transcendence differ from Western religious and scientific accounts regarding the motives, scope, and rewards of ritual action. Grounded in this understanding, I profile the two concepts above compared to three commonly self-transcendent states, as understood in Western contexts: compassion, gratitude, and awe. I draw similarities across Indigenous traditions, and with Western approaches to the science of religious experience, and how kin relationality and ecological belonging give rise to cultural variations.

The second paper by Greg Johnson, Justin Richland, and Maeve McAllister, "Reimagining Consultation in Native California: The Owens Valley Paiute Wildfire Project." Abstract: How might small tribal nations in California's Owens Valley productively engage federal entities such as the National Forest Service when seeking to protect cultural resources and advance tribal interests? This question is at the heart of a new project focused on wildfire science, management, and mitigation in the Eastern Sierra region. Proposed by the authors of this paper to several small Owens Valley tribes, including the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, the Big Pine Paiute Tribe, and the Bishop Paiute Tribe, and now sponsored by the National Science Foundation, this project began in 2022 and will continue at least until 2025. Our paper will address two primary topics. First, we will reflect on the nature of religious and cultural claims made by our partners that have thus far escaped legibility in consultation settings. Second, we will discuss ideas for rethinking the asymmetries inherent in most consultative practices so this problem is diminished.

The third paper by Anca Wilkening, "Turtle Marks, Medicine Gatherers, and the Sap of the Side Wound: Tracing Relations with Other-than-Human-kin and Land-based Epistemologies in Eighteenth-Century Indigenous/Moravian Archives." Abstract: This paper draws on eighteenth-century manuscripts from Indigenous and non-Indigenous sources, located in Moravian archives. It explores how a spatial and environmental perspective can be used to understand the practices of eighteenth-century Mohican and Lenape Moravian Christians, rooted in a land-based epistemology. Moravian Munsee and Mohican Christians continued to prioritize the gathering and trading of medicines, as well as the protection and cultivation of ancestral corn despite being incarcerated and removed from their land. The archives also reveal the importance of traditional hunting practices and grounds, and the marks of relations with animal kin, such as clan animals. Finally, the paper examines how Indigenous interpretations of the so-called Moravian blood and wounds Christology were formed through a relation to the natural world. This includes engaging with the side wound and blood of Christ through the consumption of nurturing Maple tree sap, hiding in sheltering rock caves, and honeybees sucking nectar.

The fourth paper by Jeremy Sorgen, "What Is A Tribal Cultural Resource?" Abstract: This paper investigates how TCRs are being operationalized in ways that overcome the epistemic violence and injustice of cultural resource management policies. Through semi-structured interviews with Tribal Chairs, Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs), agency planning staff, and archaeologists, I describe ongoing conflicts of interpretation between Tribal and agency approaches to state-run cultural management. Despite applications of the term that perpetuate colonial legacies by attempting to limit Indigenous relationships with the Land, Indigenous groups routinely reappropriate this and cognate terms (such as Tribal Cultural Properties, Cultural Landscapes, and Cultural Places) to advocate for their cultural heritage and the biotic health of their communities. By comparing how Tribal and agency authorities in California interpret cultural resource protection policy and, especially, the language of “cultural resources,” I offer critical insight into how conflicts over land and resources are meted out through rights-based legal structures.