System Earth: Agriculture for the Millennium, Part 2--Where the Sacred Waters Flow
Thirteen miles downstream from the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Isleta Pueblo has obtained permitting authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for upstream discharges into the Rio Grande. Pueblo Governor Verna Williamson coaxed EPA head William Reilly to swim in the river and take home water and soil samples. He came, he swam and he recognized tribal authority. Members of a sovereign nation within a nation, these Native Americans have begun the process of holding the dominant culture to a higher standard of environmental responsibility.
Beyond the technical and legal hurdles they have encountered, they may ultimately defend the river before the United States Supreme Court on the basis of the First Amendment, the constitutional protector of religious freedom, in this case, the right to an undefiled sacrament. “If we can’t drink the water, we cannot complete our ceremonies. Our religious freedom is being impinged upon,” Governor Williamson said.
Can we survive with an environmental standard this stringent? Perhaps we should turn the question around: Can we long survive without such a standard?
