In Creation and Idle No More: Heeding Onkwehonwe Prophecies of Earth Changes as Environmental Knowledge

This paper will be an exercise in ethnobiological relativism and an exploration of philosophies of environmental change. Drawing from interviews and conversations with Onkwehonwe at Six Nations of the Grand River, and other places over the last several years, this paper will offer reflections on predicted and observed socio-environmental changes that some interpret as part of the prophesies of their oral tradition. Interestingly, aspects of those prophecies have even been fulfilled through the ongoing Idle No More movement for Indigenous rights and protection of Mother Earth. Through examples of prophetic interpretations I ponder: to what extent do human narratives about scenarios of destruction in the climate of earth’s environmental future influence human actions in the present?  Likewise, to what degree might predictions of changing socio-environmental climates, be they transmitted through oral or written, informal or institutional pathways, determine whether those changes will or won’t come to pass? Do humans create self-fulfilling environmental prophecies? Can we consider Western science alongside Haudenosaunee environmental knowledge as two forms of Creation narrative, both of which warn humans to attend to their responsibilities as stewards of the earth whose actions can influence the outcome of environmental futures?