How Greenwashing Attacks Indigenous People and Our Environment
- Nohham Cachat-Schilling
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Unsustainable Projects from Massachusetts to Bolivia -
Sold As “Green” - That Erase Indigenous People
and Harm the Environment
Greenwashing means posing practices that damage the environment and add to climate crisis as “sustainable,” “climate-friendly,” and “green.” Greenwashing has sold citizens toxic and unsustainable profiteering projects from international scale to local under a cloak of misinformation. Greenwashing preys on lack of awareness and relies on willingness to ignore difficult truths.
The new wave of “the green industry,” comes at the expense of Indigenous communities and our shared environment. The Green-rush mirrors in destruction and violence the goldrush of the 19th century. The 6.2% of the world population that is indigenous stewards 80% of the world’s biodiversity (Food and Agriculture Organization; World Resources Institute; Convention on Biological Diversity https://www.cbd.int/kb/record/newsHeadlines/135368 ), while also conserving vast resources. As a result, attacks on Indigenous lands are also attacks on biodiversity and environmental health. Indigenous nations have historically also borne the brunt of toxic dumping across the United States.
The Congo persists as a glaring case of resource theft in the name of tech and “green energy.” Rich in rare minerals and gold, for decades Congo has experienced Western-led assassinations, multi-national fomenting of perpetual rebellion in prime resource regions of the nation, and overall silence from the West and Free World about their agony. Stopping foreign mercenaries, foreign illegal arms, and interference in the Congo is not even a topic of serious international effort, despite decades of increasing devastation caused by those actions. Precious minerals continue to flow out of the Congo to the US, EU, China, and Middle East oil nations, but Congolese receive only violence, ecological harm, and destruction of cultural legacy in exchange.
Like gold and silver that brought death to Indigenous people from Alaska to Peru, the semimetals and heavy metals of neo-tech energy storage are bringing destruction and death to Indigenous people from Papua and nearby islands to the Congo to Bolivia and Nevada. For just one example, the timeline of gold production in California neatly correlates to the genocide of California Indigenous nations:
Millions of South American Indigenous Face Forced Removal
Bolivia holds the world’s largest reserves of lithium, estimated at about 23 million tons and just shy of 22% of the entire world reserves. 2.2 million Aymara live on the lands targeted by Bolivia and Chile for mining. The extraction of lithium was seen by Indigenous democracy movements in Bolivia as their key to prosperity and assertion of national sovereignty after centuries of colonial interference. Trillions of dollars’ worth of hot “green energy” deposits promised national prosperity and release from oppression at last.
Instead, the discovery led to a coup against the first Indigenous president of the nation, and subsequent restoration by will of mass Indigenous resistance in a majority Indigenous nation. Still, the result is thus far destruction of Indigenous land, forced displacement of traditional communities, failure to compensate Indigenous peoples for their resources, their losses, and restoration of their lands, and violence.
“A 2020 report by the UN said that mining has consumed 65% of water around the Atacama Salt Flat, “causing groundwater depletion, soil contamination and other forms of environmental degradation, forcing local communities to abandon ancestral settlements.” Mar 13, 2024
Learn more at:
Western Tribes Face Erasure of History and Loss of Prime Lands
At Thacker Pass, Nevada, the site of two horrific massacres against Paiute and Shoshone people is also the recently permitted site of the largest lithium mine in the USA. Lithium is used for energy storage at all scales, while its production and refinement are toxic and pollute vast amounts of water. This is planned in a dry region where drinking water and water for agriculture are already in a state of critical shortage.
Not only is the site the resting place of hundreds of unburied victims of genocide by the US Army, but it is also a hub of archaeological and historic legacy for the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe communities. By treaty, the land is theirs, but it has long been seized by the Bureau of Land Management. The Department of the Interior under Deb Haaland and the Biden Administration greenlighted this erasure of history and violation of the graves protection act (NAGPRA).
As noted earlier, what attacks Indigenous people attacks biodiversity and environmental health. The “green energy” mine at Thacker Pass not only threatens Indigenous heritage, violates graves and covers up genocide, destroys treaty land and precious clean water, but it also threatens to ruin some of the last high elevation sage prairie habitat for vulnerable pronghorn antelope.
The company intending to mine Washoe and Ute land is also now suing tribal elders who filed objections to their seizure and destruction of Indigenous sacred land and drinking water systems.
Hear Indigenous voice speak for their homelands on the Thacker Pass crisis:
Mass. Historical Commission Rubber Stamps Attacks on Tribal Heritage
"At the Massachusetts state-wide rally Honor the Earth on July 31, 2021, Indigenous people and allies came together in a powerful way to raise awareness about this destruction. Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe President Melissa Ferretti and Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Member and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) David Weeden informed and inspired the crowd with their powerful words." This struggle continues in 2025 - look for our update soon.
"Sand mining and large ground mounted solar projects subsidized by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker under a “renewable energy” program is responsible for most of this destruction. With open space and small towns unequipped to deal with unscrupulous and politically connected developers, Southeastern Massachusetts not only ground zero for colonization but also for ground-mounted solar and sand mining. This is worse than a forest clear-cut: it obliterates trees, stumps, vegetation, soils and up to 30,000 years of Indigenous history that is one with the earth. It leaves the land unfit for use in human time."
From a report at: https://www.ethicarch.org/post/mhc-silently-approves-dozens-of-industrial-scale-solar-projects-on-top-of-known-indigenous-sites
Officers from the Herring Pond Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanog and Mashpee Wampanoag speak on this issue; watch here:
Hobby Farms, Pet Projects Attack Indigenous Heritage and Rights
Rural towns across Massachusetts are under pressure from multinational corporations and hedge fund barons to turn prime farmland and Indigenous heritage sites into solar farms. Big money engages with town administrators to wedge their capital interests against the will of citizens, pushing to overturn town bylaws and force solar projects where they are destructive or unwanted. Healthy forests are being cut down to make space for solar arrays that are recommended by the Commonwealth to be placed on rooftops, disused commercial lots and other lands that are already compromised.
Across Massachusetts, battles are taking place between the Commonwealth that is pushing commercial logging on publicly-owned land in state forests during climate crisis and the citizens who want to protect against climate change, protect forest health, and preserve biodiversity. The Commonwealth is also pushing industrial solar on prime farmlands and forests in contradiction with the Commonwealth’s own model solar bylaw, which states that solar is best located on rooftops and post-industrial lots, specifically discouraging solar installation on farmlands or forests.
Two examples of local greenwashing that harms environment and Indigenous people at the same time are typical of the greenwashing conflict:
Shutesbury – The state’s biggest land baron and town administration forced logging and solar fields on land that two recognized tribes advised as suspected burial ground, where stone prayers were also destroyed. Neighboring private homeowners and town roads endured flooding, mudslides and other damage. The same company and family that received millions in tax remittances converted conservation land to industrial use after collecting these entitlements.
Northfield – Foreign multinational companies are pushing for installations outside the town solar overlay district. A “sustainable” hobby farm attacks Indigenous archaeology while imposing outsized and unsustainable infrastructure - on a tiny farm with minimal produce output. The carbon footprint of the structures, equipment and crew for a couple of acres of nut trees is so great that generations will pay the debt. Fortunately, most farms are comparatively efficient, despite their own enormous inputs. The owners knows this is archaeologically sensitive land but allowed no archaeological investigation or preservation while claiming to be someone who ‘loves’ and ‘respects’ Native Americans.
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