Save a Language, Save the Planet
Discussing language preservation as a way to advance climate justice with Oglala Lakota Oyaté environmentalist Anpo Jensen at the U.N.
It wasn’t lost on Anpo Jensen the significance of her Oglala identity at the United Nations, this week. It was, after all, a band of Lakota activists who were among the first Native Americans to march to the global headquarters in New York and Geneva demanding recognition of their Fort Laramie Treaty rights. That was five decades ago. Today, Jensen represents a new generation of advocates carrying on causes that have long-motivated organizing by Indigenous Peoples worldwide.
A recent graduate from Stanford University and an environmentalist with the International Indian Treaty Council, an organization at the forefront of the Indigenous human rights movement, Jensen arrived this week at the 21st Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues addressing unfinished business. The languishing protest over the federal government’s illegal land grab of the holy lands of the Oceti Sakowin, the Black Hills, “He Sapa,” was and remains a centerpiece to Lakota-led activism. In an era faced with climate catastrophe, this struggle has taken on new meaning for Jensen.
