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Protection of Traditional Crops


This article is from the twice monthly newspaper, News From Indian
Country. It is published by Indian Country Communications, Inc.
with offices at Rt.2 Box 2900A, Hayward, WI 54843. They may be
contacted by calling (715) 634-5226; FAX (715) 634-3243. 


          Native group asks EPA protection of traditional crops

    During November of 1994, the California Indian Basketweavers
Association (CIBA) filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency asking that changes be made in the Agency's
definition of crops to extend protections to a wide variety of
plants used by Native Americans for food, medicine, and religious
purposes.
    The petition, in particular, raised registration and labeling
issues as relates to 40 C.F.R. parts 156 and 170 (Worker Protection
Standard) and requests that EPA:
    - Clarify the FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act) regulatory definitions to include a) protection
for Native American crops harvested for food, food implements,
medicine, commercial, cultural, and spiritual uses and b) Native
American gatherer (farm worker) risks relevant to registration and
labeling, and reporting pursuant to FIFRA;
    - Reexamine the extent to which existing registration and
labeling requirements take into consideration the above uses and
values and include a determination as to whether the pesticides in
question are even registered for use on Native American crops;
    The petition piggybacks on a petition filed July 8, 1994 by a
NASDA (National Association of State Departments of Agriculture),
which seeks changes to certain worker protection standards. Sara
Greensfelder, CIBA's executive director, said CIBA is using the
NASDA proceeding to seek relief for Native American basketweavers
who risk exposure to toxic herbicides when they harvest and use
basketry plants currently considered "weeds" by EPA. "We're trying
to take advantage of a procedure that is already underway to enter
our concerns and request relief," said Greensfelder.
    CIBA bases its request for relief on traditional use of the
land and natural resources, treaty and religious rights, the Indian
trust relationship with federal agencies, EPA Indian Policy of 1984
and 1994, and Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice, as
well as other policies and findings.
    Many of the plants targeted by herbicide spraying of forests
are the same plants which provide Native Americans with foods and
teas, are used in baskets and regalia, or for healing, ceremonial,
and other traditional purposes.
    People may come into contact with the poisons when gathering,
processing, ingesting, or using the plants or plant products. In
preparing basketry materials, the weaver usually places them in
their mouth. Basketweavers have complained of numbness and other
ill effects after processing materials that may have been sprayed.
In addition, crops such as acorns are an important source of food
for many tribes, yet oak trees and other broad-leafed plants are
often doused with herbicides because they "compete" with
commercially-harvested conifers.
    The CIBA petition asks that weavers be considered as
susceptible to the deleterious effects of pesticides as
farmworkers. CIBA's  membership views the unregulated pesticide
contamination of culturally important plants and wildlife as a
district threat to Native American gatherers and the continued
productive use of the materials and wildlife that constitute a high
percentage of Native Americans' subsistence diet. Neither the
exposed individuals nor the affected materials and wildlife are
currently protected by EPA standards or regulations for pesticides.
    The petition states, "The EPA has consistently resisted
recognizing the spiritual and cultural dimensions of environmental
protection inherent in Native American relationships to the Earth.
    We are concerned that the issues of subsistence, spiritual and
cultural uses of natural resources, being raised by members of
Native American communities, are not being recognized as an
environmental justice issue in EPA's interpretation of
environmental and federal Indian law, including treaty rights and
the federal trust responsibility, cooperative agreements, and
federal policies.
    "The 1984 EPA Indian Policy and the 1994 Environmental Justice
strategy fail to recognize that there are subsistence, spiritual
and cultural dimensions to the way environmental protection is
defined and implemented."
    The California Indian Basketweavers Association would like to
hear from other traditional crop gatherers who are being impacted
by pesticides. They may be reached at: CIBA, 16894 China Flats
Road, Nevada City, CA 95959, phone (916) 292-0141.

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 "When we walk upon Mother Earth, we always plant our feet carefully
  because we know the faces of our future generations are looking
  up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them."
                                 -Oren Lyons, Onondaga Nation
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      Michele Lord          + Alpha Institute   + Tel: 303-343-4114
alphai@scicom.alphacdc.com  + P.O. Box 110998   
  milo@scicom.alphacdc.com  + Aurora CO  80042  + Fax: 303-360-9118
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