Interview with Narragansett Tribal Elder, Bella Noka
In April 2022, Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse issued a call to all peoples and all faiths around the globe to come in unity for the protection and healing of Mother Earth.
“Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, calls on people from around the globe to gather at sacred places on June 21 and join in prayer for the healing and protection of Grandmother Earth.” All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer
Narragansett Indian Tribal Elders, in partnership with Native Green, echoed that call and held a sunrise and a sunset ceremony by the Ocean on January 21st on unceded territory in what is now known as the state of Rhode Island. NESAWG interviewed Bella Noka, Narragansett Tribal Elder.
NESAWG: Thank you for echoing the Indigenous call. Bella, would you like to start with a brief introduction of yourself?
Bella: Asco Wequassin. My name is Bella Noka. My traditional name is Red Wind Mishqi Waupi. I am a Tribal Elder with the Narragansett Tribal Nation, and I am a part of Native Green’s Executive Leadership Team.
NESAWG: Thank you, Bella, for echoing the Indigenous global call and for helping organize two sacred ceremonies in what is now known as the state of Rhode Island. Can you share your perspective on what got us here to today, and the importance of the Indigenous Peoples call?
Bella: I believe that this is a Spirit call for ALL people not just Tribal Nations. The Tribal Nations are the People who will lead the way because they were meant to lead the way. They were sent and put here to be the stewards of this Land - the Land which has been taken out of our hands with colonization, and we can see the destruction that has come from that.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse published the global call for all people to join in prayer for the healing and protection of Mother Earth. As important is the call to protect Grandfather Ocean. I believe that the Ancient Ones have a concern for their People and for generations to come. The Ancient Ones have put up a call through Spirit and have reached people like the Chief, so that we are able to take necessary action. It is an emergency. Animals and species are being killed off at a great rate. We are seeing fish life and whales dying off, and tens of thousands of animal and plant species being killed every day. The Aboriginal People are going to be the People that make certain that creatures survive everything that they are going through because they are no different than you and I. Animals and creatures have a heartbeat; they have their own understanding; they have their own eyes, their own heartbeat; and we have to respect and protect this. We are witnessing and watching the suffering and the abuse of Nature; watching the abuse of Mother Earth herself, and the abuse of Grandfather Ocean; the animal life that is in that beautiful Ocean; and the trees and the animal life that Mother Earth produces. It is like witnessing a Trail of Tears. These animals have no place to go. They are killing them off, and killing species of insects and plant life, medicinal plants and things that can heal us through ancient healing. They have taken away our ceremonial plants; they have taken away and killed our fish. It is an emotional thing because this is real, and it is not just a bunch of pretty words. It is important that people hear these words and respond. It is important that people get attached to the heartbeat of another person other than their own or they just become selfish and they only care about self. Those who care only about their “self” need to realize that without this plant life, without this ocean life, without the things that Mother Earth and Grandfather Ocean provide, there is no Us. And we have to realize that we have to work together to regain the balance. The balance is totally off, and as Indigenous People, as the Aboriginal People of this Land, we have the responsibility to protect. Nobody was there to protect our People when our Ancestors were forcefully displaced, and had to walk the Trail of Tears. No one was there to protect our People when genocide was committed against us, but Our People are here today to protect from the genocide that is being committed on Mother Earth and Grandfather Ocean. It is our responsibility to lead the change and to call a STOP to this genocide.
NESAWG: Thank you for lifting this issue up, Bella. It is so important to raise awareness about the genocide that is taking place on our plant life, our animal life, our marine life. They are all part of the Sacred Circle of Unity that connects All life - all people and all living beings. And when one part of this Unity is being affected, we are ALL being affected. When one part of this Unity is taken off balance, we are ALL off-balance. When creatures and plant-life are being exterminated and thousands of species are going extinct, genocide is being committed on the most vulnerable. It is important to also understand that this compromises everyone’s survival. Bella, can you expand some more about the contributions and the financing of this genocide?
Bella: The large and Deep Pockets of funding and their paid scientists. They still seem to make a bad place for all people to live in. They have raped and abused Mother Earth so greatly that it's time to have this stop. We need to come together in unity so that we can heal, and so that we can protect Mother Earth. So that She can continue to do what She has always done and will always do even when we're gone. So definitely this climate crisis has brought about the Indigenous global call. It is the ongoing colonizer’s practices and the extractive ways of this economy that we are responding to with our June 21st Global Call.
It is necessary for us to come together because they (funders/ funding sources) find different ways to channel funding, and different ways of directing responsibility and ownership that continues to abuse Mother Earth. These funders and funding channels direct resources into other people's hands. They don’t fund or support Aboriginal People’s expertise and initiatives. They fund the hands of the colonizer’s sons & daughters and their children; they fund the hands of the new corporations, the non-profits (driven by the industrial complex); they fund those who have no relationship with Mother Earth and/or who don't know how to even start a relationship with Her. And everything is done in a pretty way, appropriating from the Indigenous People’s Ways. They try to find ways that go about mimicking the respect of Mother Earth, but Mother Earth can feel Her People. She knows their hand. She knows their footsteps. She knows when people are there for the right causes. You cannot trick Spirit. You cannot pretend you are there for Spirit. If you're there to do the right thing then the right thing will happen, and for those who are in leadership positions receiving the funding, I think it's time to turn over those positions to the people who are here for the right reasons, who are the rightful leaders; who are the inherent Caretakers, Keepers and Protectors of this Land; who live in right relationship with Mother Earth and who have the expertise to restore the balance of Mother Earth.
NESAWG: In closing, is there anything else that you would like to add?
Bella: We need to look at next steps in the climate crisis, and beyond the imbalance that has been brought about for hundreds of years. The handprint that we all leave here for generations to come is important. This can be done so that the next seven generations benefit from the work that we have done to protect Her, and that the winds blow in favor of Her. Moving towards the next seven generations, it's imperative that we move swiftly and quickly and we start getting things done, and that these words don't just sit on your heart and in your mind because it's not about self, it's about the next seven generations. This is our responsibility. We are not here just to exist. We are here for a purpose. We are here to make a difference, and if you're not making a difference in the life of others - especially the most vulnerable and the most impacted - it is very problematic
NESAWG: Well thank you, Bella. We will be together in ceremony on June 21st. We appreciate the sharing of your thoughts, and reaching the whole NESAWG Community with these words.
Update:
After this interview, on 6/29/22 the US Supreme Court issued a decision on the Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta case case stripping the rights from tribes and further undermining Indigenous Sovereignty by giving power to the state to prosecute non-tribal members who commit crimes against Native Americans on Tribal territory.
“Justice Kavanaugh's majority decision {wrote].... Indian Country is part of the state, not separate from the state, he said, and therefore, unless Congress says otherwise, a state has jurisdiction over all of its territory, including Indian territory.”
Furthermore in Oklahoma “Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt praised the court’s opinion…” “Stitt has been fighting for state sovereignty on the issue and had expressed fear that if his side were to lose, it could open an avenue for individuals to gain access to abortion on tribal lands, as a way of sidestepping the state's strict abortion rules.” (On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade)