Honor the Earth is an organization that is giving a voice to those not heard.
Their mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and Indigenous wisdom to ask people to recognize our joint dependency on the Earth and be a voice for those not heard.
Honor the Earth was created to meet the needs of a growing Native environmental movement. How could we let the public know that many of the key environmental battles being waged in North America actually emanated from Native lands and Peoples? We felt it was critical to break from our geographic and political isolation, where our struggles remained invisible or marginalized, and develop a base of allies and financing that would help support change. We wanted to raise our voices, and we wanted to leverage the support of people and groups who might not know of our communities or issues.
It was a prayer and a dream, born of years of organizing work. We met Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers backstage at a 1992 Earth Day Rally in Massachusetts, and they offered to help by headlining a small concert tour for Native environmental issues the following year, in 1993. From that first tour, Honor the Earth has grown into a flourishing national Native environmental initiative and grant making organization.
