*7.2. Building Sustainable Native Nations*

In the movement toward building sustainable Native nations it is important to emphasize renewing and revitalizing Indigenous communities and economics which are sustainable in the "lived" reality of the community. This means that the work being done must make sense to community members and have direct and practical application to their everyday life. This consideration is enacted through engaging the enterprise of appropriate and relevant education at every level around the project of sustaining Indigenous communities and cultures. Building Native nations is most sustainable when initiatives emerge from Indigenous communities themselves.

#### *7.3. Creating a Framework for Introducing Sustainable Indigenous Knowledge*

The broader conceptual framework of "sustainable" development forms a hospitable context for the introduction of principles of Indigenous science into community education, planning, development, and policy. Within this framework, traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) can provide models and creative insights necessary to renew and revitalize Native communities. However, this requires vision, commitment, research, and sustained effort on the part of community members and allies to consciously create a long-term plan for community renewal.

#### *7.4. A New Generation of Indigenous Studies*

The development of a sustainable emphasis in building Native nations will also require the development of a new kind of Indigenous studies that moves beyond the constraints of Western academe and its various institutional expressions and hegemonies. Such studies should be predicated on involving students in the exploration of the practical application of the vision of creating renewed and revitalized, sustainable, and economically viable Indigenous communities related to the lived realities of Indigenous Peoples and relating their stories through their voice and forms of communication.

As a community-based rather than institution-based activity, Indigenous studies can help us find balance and orientation as we move forward. On the one hand, it can feed our steps of renewal and revitalization with Indigenous knowledge and science. Furthermore, it can train us in the practice of critical thinking and self-awareness. With these skills, we can adjust our course and keep moving in directions true to our Indigenous values, ways, knowledge, and goals.

In this re-envisioning of Indigenous studies, we as Indigenous people must take a hard, honest look at our current economic and community development policies, planning, and process, which may at times make us "complicit" with our own continued exploitation and less resilient in the face of the challenges of climate change and globalization.

Dependency, silence, and conformity to modern notions of social development simply perpetuate colonization in ever-recycling forms, both subtle and overt. As Indigenous people we are continually required to make ourselves understood in dominant society. This is particularly the case in business, government, and higher education and its various expressions in academia. When we Indigenous people must struggle to make ourselves understood—to try to explain and justify what we think, why we think what we do, and why we do what we do—we inadvertently become complicit with the system that dominates us. We get caught up in a never-ending cycle that takes attention and energy away from the more essential questions and tasks of preserving or rebuilding Indigenous societies.

There is a dynamic to this lack of awareness by those in the colonizer/dominating role. They fail to recognize that dominating is what they are doing. Not having been on the receiving end, they often fail to recognize this learned pattern in their behavior and policies. So, the various expressions of this inherent and unacknowledged bias continue to impact open and creative communication. It will take critical awareness on all sides to break the pattern and disrupt its self-perpetuation.

#### **8. Strategic Considerations for Sustainable Indigenous Community Building**

Making sure that we have orientations that align with the visions that we have and what we want to accomplish is essential as we plan for change and challenge. To this end, I offer the following considerations for building a community of educational and sustainable practice that provides firm foundations for teaching, learning, and acting in community toward engendering resilience and sustainability of Indigenous communities now and in the future. They are simple precepts, but in their implications and implementation form they can be profoundly effective.
