by Tom Ribe
There is a vivid trend in progressive and environmental thinking today. All compasses point toward a focus on Indigenous people and the discrimination they’ve faced under European colonialism. This seemingly new-found awareness has hit with such force that much of the environmental movement seems transformed into a social justice movement.
While justice toward Native Americans, Indians, Indigenous, First Nations is long overdue, we may want to step back for a big-picture reality check.
There are no “Indigenous people” in North America.
Every culture in the United States, Canada, Mexico and beyond in the Americas immigrated here from somewhere else. Nobody originated in the Americas.
Human beings are indigenous only to central Africa. We all evolved from a common ancestor there about 8 million years ago. And there were many species of early humans over the eons, but by the time we left Africa and began to disperse into Asia and Europe about 2 million years ago, we were down to two species. Ultimately, we reached island continents like Australia (60,000 years ago) and the Americas (18,000 years ago) with only homo sapiens surviving. We adapted to the environments where we settled over time.
Of course, some cultures have been in the Americas for 14,000 to 20,000 years while others have only been here for decades, or a few centuries. Native people have been here for a long time, and they truly are…
