Indigenous women are the guardians of the environmental foundations of life on Earth. From the Idle No More movement to the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline to countless camps, sit-ins, political campaigns, and litigations, Indigenous women defend Earth from the extractive onslaught she experiences. Importantly, they are not just “climate leaders” who function at the proverbial altitude of 30,000 feet: they also organize to protect the lives and livelihoods of individuals. For 37 years, I have been present with Amazigh, Nubian, Coptic, Waorani, Lakota, and Levantine Bedouin women as they stood in the paths of bulldozers and soldiers eager to destroy the lands of families in their communities.

Indigenous women also restore what was taken. From traditional fire to Tatanka (the Lakota term for bison) to seed rematriation to LandBack, Indigenous women are the bees—both workers and queens—of ecological restoration. As living repositories of ecological knowledge, they hold the collective intelligence of ancestral lands, waters, and cultures. Were it not for my grandmothers and aunties, I would be ignorant of the traditional foodways of my Amazigh and Nubian ancestors: foodways that were in use over 30,000 years ago and today allow me to store food without refrigeration.

Among Indigenous women, one common quality that makes them effective environmental leaders is that they do not remain neutral or objective. While in Ecuador working with Kichwa and Waorani communities in 2023, I joined a protest against illegal mining. I stood by the side of Indigenous women, filming them as they took over a city, faced down the local governor's soldiers, forced the governor out of his office, and made him answer to the people. The reason I had the privilege of a front-row seat to the action was because these women were not only my Kichwa and Waorani language teachers but also ecological knowledge holders in the communities with whom I was staying. They also frequent Ecuadorian courtrooms to litigate against the predatory industries that exploit their resource-rich lands in the Amazon (eg agribusiness, logging, oil, mining). These mismatched battles often involve legions of well-paid commercial lawyers facing off against local leaders from rural communities. The women shoulder these burdens while often working more than one job to pay the bills and simultaneously acting as caretakers, mothers, and community leaders.

The natural resource abuses by the Global North often involve blurred lines between governments, multinational corporations, and criminal enterprises such as drug cartels. State-sponsored terrorism on Indigenous lands, supported by companies with regional interests, is—when not conducted by soldiers—seized upon by opportunistic criminal enterprises. In the Amazon, oil and mining companies put constant pressure on local governments and Indigenous communities to allow roads to expand ever deeper into the forest. These tentacles of exploitation in turn provide drug cartels with access to hitherto impenetrable Indigenous territories, where they are encouraged by the companies and corrupt government officials to carry out campaigns of intimidation against local populations. Because Indigenous women are the nurturers of both land and people, and the primary voice of resistance, they tend to suffer the brunt of the consequences of this ecological terrorism. During the past decade in Ecuador, the rate of kidnapping of Kichwa and Waorani women and girls has sky-rocketed, mostly driven by oil and mining activities in the region.

The degree that Indigenous women suffer for their heart work (not a typo) illuminates the depth of colonialism. Though accounting for only 5% of the global population, Indigenous people make up 40% of the climate activists who are assassinated every year. Those individuals and communities who are targeted for violence are vilified through “alternative facts” reported by state- and lobby-funded media, the willful ignorance of a majority settler population, and flagrant political corruption. For example, the Mapuche of Chile and Argentina, who maintain their distinct Indigenous culture and defense of their ancestral ecologies, have been labeled as terrorists by non-Indigenous “educated” elites who propagate ersatz multiculturalism and sustainable development. Certain Philippine officials too have deemed Indigenous climate activists as terrorists for supporting community land rights in the Cordillera region. This settler-colonial tactic of “red-tagging” is a common weapon used to intimidate, vilify, and dehumanize Indigenous environmental leaders, the majority of whom are women.

The persecution of Indigenous women, politically and existentially, is another silent spring! Their suffering reverberates for generations in their communities and stifles efforts to protect lands, waters, and cultures. Because such efforts are ubiquitous worldwide and across ecoregions, the well-being of Indigenous women should be a top priority in global climate action and policy, for everyone's sake.

土著妇女是地球生命环境基础的守护者。从“不再闲置”运动到针对达科他输油管道的抗议，再到无数的营地、静坐、政治运动和诉讼，土著妇女捍卫地球免受她所经历的掠夺性攻击。重要的是，他们不仅仅是在 30,000 英尺海拔地区工作的“气候领袖”：他们还组织起来保护个人的生命和生计。37 年来，我一直在阿马齐格、努比亚、科普特、瓦拉尼、拉科塔和黎凡特贝都因妇女身边，见证她们站在推土机和士兵的道路上，渴望摧毁她们社区家庭的土地。

土著妇女也会恢复被夺走的东西。从传统的火到 Tatanka（拉科塔语中对野牛的称呼），再到种子再移植到 LandBack，土著妇女是生态恢复的蜜蜂——既是工蜂又是蜂后。作为生态知识的活宝库，它们拥有祖传土地、水域和文化的集体智慧。如果没有我的祖母和阿姨，我可能不会了解我的阿马齐格人和努比亚祖先的传统饮食方式：三万多年前就已经使用的饮食方式，今天让我可以在不冷藏的情况下储存食物。

在土著妇女中，使她们成为有效的环境领导者的一个共同品质是她们不保持中立或客观。2023 年，我在厄瓜多尔与 Kichwa 和 Waorani 社区合作时，参加了一场反对非法采矿的抗议活动。我站在土著妇女的身边，拍摄她们占领一座城市、对抗当地州长的士兵、迫使州长离开办公室、并让他对人民负责的过程。我之所以有幸坐在前排观看这次活动，是因为这些女性不仅是我的基奇瓦语和瓦拉尼语老师，也是我所居住社区的生态知识持有者。他们还经常在厄瓜多尔法庭对掠夺性产业提起诉讼，这些产业剥削了他们在亚马逊地区资源丰富的土地（例如农业综合企业、伐木、石油、采矿）。这些不匹配的战斗往往涉及大量高薪商业律师与来自农村社区的当地领导人的对峙。妇女们肩负着这些重担，同时常常从事不止一份工作来支付账单，同时还要充当看护者、母亲和社区领袖。

北半球国家对自然资源的滥用往往涉及政府、跨国公司和贩毒集团等犯罪企业之间的模糊界限。在原住民土地上由国家支持的恐怖主义，得到具有地区利益的公司的支持，如果不是由士兵实施的话，就会被机会主义犯罪企业所利用。在亚马逊地区，石油和采矿公司不断向地方政府和原住民社区施加压力，要求允许道路向森林深处扩展。这些剥削的触角反过来为贩毒集团提供了进入迄今为止无法进入的土著领土的机会，在那里，他们受到公司和腐败政府官员的鼓励，对当地居民进行恐吓活动。由于土著妇女是土地和人民的养育者，也是抵抗的主要声音，因此她们往往首当其冲地遭受这种生态恐怖主义的后果。过去十年，厄瓜多尔基奇瓦族和瓦拉尼族妇女和女孩的绑架率急剧上升，主要原因是该地区的石油和采矿活动。

原住民妇女因她们的心脏工作而遭受的痛苦程度（不是打字错误）说明了殖民主义的深度。虽然原住民只占全球人口的 5%，但每年被暗杀的气候活动人士中却有 40% 是原住民。那些成为暴力目标的个人和社区受到国家和游说资助媒体报道的“另类事实”、大多数定居者的故意无知以及公然的政治腐败的诽谤。例如，智利和阿根廷的马普切人保持着独特的原住民文化并捍卫其祖先的生态，却被非原住民“受过教育”的精英贴上恐怖分子的标签，他们宣扬仿制的多元文化主义和可持续发展。某些菲律宾官员也将原住民气候活动人士视为支持科迪勒拉地区社区土地权利的恐怖分子。这种殖民者的“红色标签”策略是用来恐吓、诽谤和非人化土著环境领导人的常用武器，其中大多数是女性。

对原住民妇女的迫害，无论是在政治上还是在生存上，都是另一个无声的春天！他们的苦难在他们的社区中影响了几代人，并阻碍了保护土地、水域和文化的努力。由于此类努力在全世界和跨生态区域中无处不在，因此为了每个人的利益，土著妇女的福祉应成为全球气候行动和政策的重中之重。