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19 Articles

2 min.

FROM the EDITOR

ONE OF THE things I love most about working at National Geo graphic is the continual learning. We spend our days looking into what is fueling new thinking in a wide variety of fields. It’s our hope that by staying on the leading edge, we in turn will provide you with stories that provoke thought and advance your own knowledge. Globally, Indigenous communities have always produced forward-looking models of innovation and sustainability, though these have often been overlooked. I became more acutely aware of this soon after I joined National Geographic in 2022. We already had plans to publish a story, funded by the National Geographic Society and the Climate Pledge, from photographer Kiliii Yüyan, about the promising ways Indigenous peoples are leading conservation initiatives. But the more I immersed myself,…

3 min.

IN THEIR VIEW

“Future Ancestral Technologies: New Myth,” 2021 Based in Glorieta, New Mexico, Luger places an optimistic emphasis on Native peoples’ proven ability to adapt to a changing world. He delves into speculative fiction to present a future “where we’re in right relationship with our environment and our kin.” The work shown here (and on the cover) is part of a series that uses installation, video, and performance art to tell an ongoing narrative about combating societal ills. Among these, according to Luger, are capitalism and colonialism, which manifest as corporeal monsters. Set in an undetermined time, the video shows heroic “monster slayers” bringing water to a barren landscape. The desert reciprocates, providing tools for confronting the evil forces. CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER MANDAN, HIDATSA, ARIKARA, LAKOTA “Teewinot,” 2021, acrylic on canvas Drawing inspiration for this painting from…

5 min.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS

KILIII YÜYAN PP. 22, 42, 66, 120, 130 Based in Seattle and of Hèzhé (Nanai) and Chinese descent, Yüyan is a photographer who focuses on Indigenous land stewardship, which he documents in this issue. An Explorer since 2021, he chronicled Indigenous sovereignty for a 2022 cover story. VICTOR ZEA DÍAZ P. 46 A resident of Cusco, Peru, he reconnects with his Quechuan roots through photography and hip-hop. His projects, such as this month’s story on the Quechua rap scene, show the complexities that define identity. He’s been an Explorer since 2019. YAGAZIE EMEZI P. 96 Emezi, of Igbo and Tamil heritage, is based in Lagos, Nigeria, and has contributed photography to National Geographic and the New York Times. For this issue, the Explorer since 2019 focused on Nigerian creatives rejecting colonial gender norms. KEOLU FOX P. 116 A UC San Diego…

10 min.

DEFENDERS OF THE REEF

ON A CLEAR MORNING IN DECEMBER 2020, at the southwestern edge of the Palau archipelago, rangers from the Helen Reef Resource Management Program were starting their day, tidying up around their station and checking spearguns for afternoon fishing, when they heard a motor and soon spotted an unknown vessel. This could only mean trouble. They would have been notified about a legitimate craft coming to Hotsarihie, as Helen Reef is known to the Hatohobei people, the traditional stewards of the area. “That boat was coming in with a lot of goods,” recalled Petra Tkel, a conservation officer—or ranger, as the program staff call themselves—whose mother comes from Hatohobei, an island 40 miles west of the reef. It was part of a small fleet of six motorboats from a Chinese vessel poaching…

5 min.

ELEVATING INDIGENOUS INNOVATION

UNDER THE SUN of a chilly May afternoon in 2022, I stood with members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, part of the tribes’ ancestral homelands. Tall blades of prairie grasses rustled in the breeze. A nearby sign, inscribed with greetings in Seliš—X. est Sx. lx. alt—and Ksanka—Ki’su’k kyukyit—welcomed visitors to the Bison Range. That day was a day for celebration. Several tribal members lifted their heads in unison and sang, their voices filling the air in full-throated swells and falls. Standing next to me, then CSKT chairman Tom McDonald listened. Traditionally, he’d explained, his ancestors summoned the bison in song before a hunt—a gesture of respect. I imagined their gratitude for Creator’s gift, the living beings that for millennia provided much…

3 min.

OUR FIRE

THE EARLIEST MEMORY I have of Biri Biri, or fire, comes from when I was six years old. A soft smoky smell lingers, in from the rain. I’m sitting on the old couch in an open house made of corrugated iron sheets and wood, listening to my babysitter tell stories. I watch her cook over a bush-made stove, built from the same iron and timber as the house—the same timber I still hear crackling today. As Indigenous peoples of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage site, on the vast coast of northeast Australia, we practice cultural fire management to keep our spirits, soils, and vegetation intact. It is living knowledge, a relationship that we practice on Country; we walk and observe the changes with our old people and youth. Biri…

6 min.

THE QUECHUA SOUND

It’s a sunny January afternoon in Juliaca, a city near the banks of Lake Titicaca in the high plains of southern Peru. Thousands of Indigenous Quechuan and Aymara people have gathered in the town’s main square to commemorate the massacre of 18 political protesters and bystanders by government security forces one year ago. Among them is a man on a black horse, decked out in a black jacket, a broad-brimmed black hat, and mid-calf black-and-gold boots. He’s dressed to evoke the country’s most iconic revolutionary figure: Túpac Amaru II, the Indigenous cacique, or chief, who led a rebellion against the Spanish Empire and became a symbol for resistance in the Andes. The man is known as Cay Sur—kay (Quechua) plus sur (Spanish) means “This South”—and he’s there to express solidarity…

4 min.

A FAMILY MEAL

MASHPEE WAMPANOAG chef Sherry Pocknett made history last year as the first Indigenous woman to win a James Beard Award, which recognizes exceptional culinary talent in the United States. At her restaurant, Sly Fox Den Too, in Charlestown, Rhode Island, she honors her Northeast Woodlands roots and her family’s rich cooking traditions. The establishment specializes in American classics with unique twists reflecting Pocknett’s heritage, such as quahog “chowdah,” three-sisters succotash (corn, beans, and squash), and sandwiches served on her locally famous fry bread. With her creations, Pocknett—who has recently been battling breast cancer—emphasizes healthful ingredients, such as sustainably raised and hunted meats and fresh produce (much of it grown in her family’s own gardens), prepared using time-tested methods to preserve nutrients. Like many of her fellow Native American chefs and restaurateurs,…

12 min.

THE HUNT

Qillaq Kristiansen directed his kayaM away from the ice edge and onto the open water in pursuit of a narwhal. The 35-year-old Inughuit hunter and his companions had traveled to the spring ice edge last year—half a day by dogsled from Qaanaaq, Greenland. About 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it is one of the northernmost towns in the world. The muffled puff of a whale’s breath escaped the glassy waters near the western end of Qeqertarsuaq, or Herbert Island. The narwhal paused at the surface—seemingly offering itself to the hunter, as some Inughuit might say. In a single sweep of his right hand, Qillaq untethered his harpoon and hurled it into the dapple-gray smudge of the narwhal’s back. Splashing its tail, the whale dived. But the harpoon, its toggle…

8 min.

MORE THAN WORDS

FIVE YEARS AGO, in the heart of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, along the Canadian St. Lawrence River across from Montréal, Kanen’tó:kon Hemlock and Ieronhienhá:wi Tatum McComber pondered a question posed by their friend and mentor, Māori language advocate Sir Tīmoti Kāretu. Kanien’kéha, the Mohawk language, is one of the world’s many endangered Indigenous languages. Over the past two decades, McComber (Bear Clan) and Hemlock (Bear Clan) have been part of a community effort to operate an immersive language school, which surrounds Mohawk students with fluent language speakers. As she put together plans for the school at the turn of the 21st century, McComber looked around the world for inspiration and forged relationships with others who have successfully rekindled their languages. There might not be anyone as well-versed in this endeavor as the…

2 min.

FROM SKY TO SEA

ORGANIZED BY ELEVATION Each ahupua‘a was divided vertically, from a high point to lower elevations on wao (land) or kai (sea). Protected headwaters and sacred forests were typically found at the mountaintops, managed farms and forests at mid-elevations, and housing on lower elevations. 1 Wao akua (sacred forest) The top of the watershed is a pristine area, revered and conserved. 2 Wao kele (wet forest) Rainwater is managed to maximize aquifer recharge and native tree growth. 3 Wao nāhele (remote forest) This zone is for kia manu, or bird catchers, who gather feathers for traditional ornamentation. 4 Wao lā'au (timber forest) Trees here are cultivated for timber, fuel, and rope, as well as medicinal purposes. 5 Wao kānaka (habitation zone) Complex agroecological and aquacultural systems support food production and other daily needs. 6 Kai po ina nalu (breaking waves) This area includes fringing…

1 min.

ANCIENT PRACTICE, FUTURE PROMISE

FOR CENTURIES, the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago were divided into self-sustaining communities called ahupua‘a. Through collective stewardship, they provided people with food, building material, and other basic and cultural necessities. The thriving system, however, was dismantled over the 20th century with the rise of the Western practice of private landownership and the growth of the plantation economy. Today, facing a changing climate and strained resources, Hawaiians on several islands are working to revive this Indigenous practice. Lei Wann, a descendant of one of the original families from a still largely intact ahupua‘a on the island of Kaua‘i, says that combining the “tool kit of today” with ancient systems will help her community keep their ahupua‘a “as environmentally sound as our ancestors once did.”…

13 min.

THE CENTER OF IT ALL

AUTHOR AKWAEKE EMEZI AND DESIGNER ADEJU THOMPSON DISCUSS CREATIVITY AND RESILIENCE. IN ADEJU THOMPSON’S design studio, the walls and ceilings are a rich cobalt blue and every surface is covered with art, from sculptural bronze pieces to piles of books and family photographs. An artisan from his team sits at a large table, using a feather to paint careful lines of cassava paste on a sea of white fabric, creating àdìrẹ cloth with a traditional Yoruba technique. This resist-dyed fabric will be transformed into garments for Lagos Space Programme, Thompson’s luxury fashion label. I’m returning to my home country from New York, a rare visit to Lagos since I launched my literary career in 2018. In the years since, I’ve published seven more books and been on the cover of Time magazine,…

5 min.

A FUTURE IN INDIGENOUS HANDS

WATER AND WEALTH are constructed from the same word in Hawaiian. These terms—wai and waiwai, respectively—are an indelible part of who I am, and who Native Hawaiians are. They’re reminders that we’ve always valued the abundant natural beauty and life-giving resources of our homelands. There is perhaps no better example of this than ahupua‘a land divisions, a socio-economic and geological system that Hawaiian communities designed more than a thousand years ago to apportion the islands into seasonally responsive slices that ran from the mountains to the sea. These land divisions fed snowmelt along irrigation routes to terraced taro patches. They provided valuable bacteria and phytonutrients to fishponds. Those fish then populated the inner reefs and, once mature, the Pacific Ocean. The system itself was highly organized and politically complex. It…

6 min.

‘THIS IS COFÁN LAND. OURS, NOT YOURS.’

WE DIDN’T CARRY WEAPONS when we Ecuadorian Cofán began working as state-recognized guardians of our forests. Machetes, yes, but those were for cutting brush. Our guards had GPS trackers and heavy backpacks, loaded with food and first aid kits, for long stretches of overnighting outdoors. Each team of five Cofán headed out for a month at a time, after training in how to handle the presence of illegal intruders: loggers, poachers, gold miners, drug couriers. As a people, we call ourselves A’i, the speakers of A’ingae. There are about 1,500 of us Ecuadorian Cofán, with a few hundred more over the border in Colombia. Many of our guards had to learn enough Spanish to deliver their warnings: This is Cofán land, they would say. Ours, not yours. Confrontation was not the…

5 min.

A SACRED JOURNEY

LAST FALL, Mongolian herder Bazar Losol led our small group of elders through the Altai Mountains. When the afternoon light bathed the rocky cliffs, it revealed a hidden world of petroglyphs depicting ibex, snakes, birds, suns, and moons. All are revered as messengers, connecting us to the heavens, the Earth, and the underworld. The ancient beauty of Bayan Undur, or “rich heights,” mesmerized me. Yet a faint unease settled in. The scene felt incomplete. Then Bazar stepped out of the shadows. The intricate, shimmering patterns on his dark blue deel, a traditional robe, seemed to mirror the patterns etched in stone. In that moment, I understood the source of my restlessness: the absence of people in this sacred place. Unlike the Western view, which often excludes people from landscapes for protection,…

4 min.

RISING STARS ON THE PRAIRIE

TIM’S MIDTOW N DINER in Tulsa, Oklahoma, used to be just the local greasy spoon where I could get a big waffle and a hot coffee any day of the week. But since appearing on FX’s Peabody Award–winning series Reservation Dogs, it’s become a bit of a pilgrimage spot. (FX and National Geographic Partners are part of The Walt Disney Company.) In one memorable scene, actors Ethan Hawke and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (Mohawk) sit across from each other at a table a few feet from where I was dining. “It brings a lot of people in,” my server said of the show. Co-created by the Tulsa-based showrunner Sterlin Harjo (Muscogee, Seminole) and Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi (Māori), “Rez Dogs” tells the story of four Indigenous teenagers coming of age on a…

1 min.

ON LOCATION IN OSAGE NATION

The Academy Award–nominated Killers of the Flower Moon, about the murders of Osage people in the 1920s, was filmed in and around Tulsa and the Osage Nation Reservation. Guided tours of filming locations begin at the Tall Chief Theater in Fairfax, an hour northwest of Tulsa. (Reserve at tallchieftheater.com/take-action.) Developed by a tribal member, the late Joe Conner, and now led by his widow, Carol, the tour conveys Osage history and culture at stops that include the historic Masonic lodge. For self-guided tours, begin your exploration at the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska. About an hour north of Tulsa, Pawhuska is the capital of the Osage Nation. In addition to visiting film locations, stop at some of the Native-owned small businesses in town, such as Saucy Calf, a new Native food restaurant from…

1 min.

NEW from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

DOCUMENTARY FILM THIS SUMMER National Geographic will release the award-winning film Sugarcane in theaters. Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, it explores the ramifications of abuse on members of the Williams Lake First Nation while they attended St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in British Columbia. This is NoiseCat’s first foray into filmmaking. A Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie, he has worked as a journalist and an advocate, a policy analyst and a political strategist. In 2019 he helped organize an Alcatraz canoe voyage to mark the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco island’s occupation by Indigenous activists pushing for the land’s return. The following year he spearheaded the successful grassroots campaign to nominate Deb Haaland as the first Indigenous U.S. secretary of…

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