By Susan Anderson
August 30, 2024–I recently represented Apalachicola Riverkeeper at the 18th Protecting Mother Earth Conference hosted by the Eastern Band of Cherokee in Cherokee, North Carolina. The conference was organized and sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Network in coordination with the generous hospitality of the host Nation and people of Qualla Boundary, who live in the mountains of what is now known as Western North Carolina. This land, and most of five surrounding states, is the original homeland of the Cherokee Peoples. Qualla Boundary is the small remainder of this once vast homeland that is federally recognized as the sovereign territory of the Nation of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. 
Protecting Mother Earth (PME) Conferences are all-outdoor events, held in native nations annually. This year, the event was set against the beautiful backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains along the shores of the sparking clear Oconaluftee River. The PME is Indigenous initiated, organized, and led to elevate the critical voices of those fighting the frontline battles against the violation of treaty rights, self-determination, environmental injustice, and climate change. IEN welcomed Indigenous Peoples, frontline grassroots groups, tribal nation representatives, allies and human and environmental justice advocates from every corner of the lands we call Turtle Island (the Americas) to participate. I was honored to be able to introduce the work of Apalachicola Riverkeeper and acknowledge our respect for how the ancient indigenous heritage of caretaking informs our mission as current and future caretakers of the land and waters we cherish.
Every detail of the conference spoke of family, respect and relationship with the lands. Traditional foods for the over one thousand attendees were planted in the spring on Cherokee lands, tended by volunteers and then harvested and prepared to feed the conference guests during the four-day event. Wild foods and game were harvested and prepared as well. Along with presentations, talent shows, games and music, uplifting days included plenaries and break-out sessions addressing the following key themes:
• Climate Justice
• Extreme vs. Renewable Energy
• Mining/Oil Extraction Impacts
• False Solutions to Climate Change
• Food Sovereignty
• Environmental Health
• Indigenous Just Transitions
• Rights of Nature / Mother Earth
While education, networking and coalition building certainly occurred, the tone of this conference was unlike what you might expect from most conferences across this Westernized country. There was no conference fee, only donations, elders and children were cared for, meals were unique and culturally appropriate, no trash was created, most attendees camped on site and in the evenings came together to join in traditional dances and enjoy each other’s talents and good company. Laughter was the background music and smiles as bright as the morning Sun greeted each passerby.
Attendees gathered prayerfully each morning before work began to respect the traditional values of holding a loving kinship relationship with the earth and all people. What followed throughout the day informed and enlightened through emphasizing the continuing stakeholder interests held, and traditions followed, by all Indigenous People to their ancestral homelands that are now mostly occupied by non-natives across the Americas. A new way of thinking about the world as a living relative rather than objectified property, and through that lens, a new way of being an environmental steward, was demonstrated time and again. The busy days wound down peacefully with ceremonies, just as they had begun. The closing of the circle from Sunrise to Sunset helped unify the body, mind and spirit and remind us that every day and in every way, the reality is that we are One with a Sacred Universe that sustains all life.
I took a lot away from the conference and feel that I was able to leave something useful behind as well. Our work here over the last 25 years has been an education and I felt the power of how that experience helped others when shared. The event reminded me that organizing should be fun, never polluted with disrespect or self-interest, and that it should always be reciprocal, shared freely with an open heart like the earth, the river, the universe shares with us. Pollution and exploitation of the treasures of the natural world is a predatory instinct that never serves humanity, only the few. Caretaking and conservation are generous instincts that serve the community and build identity and regard.
We all live in One World that is connected. Colonial political borders are not real in nature and cannot be used to address ecological issues. While immersed with my indigenous relatives, I was returned to my Center, to my own indigenous connection to Mother Earth as her Relative. It made me recall the spiritual connections that are exemplified in our Stories, the magical words that weave our collective mind into a fabric of Related Life. Here on the Mighty Apalach, we know Our Rivers are Life because we have many lifetimes of stories about her. We feel life in her ebb and flow; we breathe it in the marsh air; we taste it in the sweet/salt elegance of the oyster; we see it in the migrations; we hear it in the songs that float on the breeze; we become it when we claim the River we Come From. We are from the Apalachicola! This Sacredness of Relationship with Water doesn’t translate well into English, so we must speak of it on a heart level that is deeper than words.
I came home from the mountains thinking about the womb of life that is the Apalachicola Estuary and all the connections that must happen before we have an estuary. The waters that create the nutrient rich lining of that womb have their beginning in the homelands of my Cherokee ancestors. Mountain springs trickle from the foothills in North Georgia, Western North Carolina and Southeastern Tennessee gathering the ingredients that create the Chattahoochee and eventually become our Apalachicola. No borders, just connection and contributions that happen along the way. I came home thinking about the way our organization works a lot like that river. It is the connections and contributions of thousands of individuals all giving and believing in what is right. To forget what is right, is pollution. To remember and remind those who have forgotten, is restoration. This is the joy of the work we do, the inspiration that I believe comes from the deep indigenous truth that all people carry at their center. When we work together, we can replace a broken exploitative system with sustainable values that respect the waters and the people who work the waters and depend on them. We can reclaim our children’s future from a broken destructive past. We can build a healthy economy on lifeways that have existed since time began, a living economy that ensures the life of all.
I came home to my River reenergized to invite you to come together and place your bodies, hearts, minds, prayers on the front lines with Apalachicola Riverkeeper to Create and Tell Your Own Story of a healthy, restored and protected Future for the Mighty Apalach and the People who know and love her well!
Please go to our donation page and join us by volunteering and contributing to strengthening the work we do. Thank you.
Susan Anderson, a founding member of Apalachicola Riverkeeper, serves as Executive Director. She can be reached at [email protected]