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The Struggle for Life: An Essay on the Documentary Yakoana I wish it could be said, with confidence, that modern civilizations were willing to forgo luxuries, like televisions, fast food, and cars. We as society are not eager to let go of our creature comforts. Unfortunately, this vice has cost millions of people their resources, their culture, and their homes. Americans are not the only people responsible for this. All of the industrial nations worldwide share the blame. The conflict between "whites" and Indigenous Peoples is based on two world views; those that see humans as a part of nature, and those that view humans as separate entities from nature. June 3-14, 1992, the United Nations held the first Earth Summit on the environment. This meeting of global leaders was supposed to address the issue of natural resource depletion, and the solutions to slow or eliminate this problem. Not one Indigenous nation or tribe was represented at this crucial assembly. In fact, there is no member of the U.N. from any Indigenous group. After protesting the U.N. to be allowed a voice in the conference, the Indigenous Peoples were permitted one speaker to be the mouthpiece for 5,000 tribes, and he or she would only be allotted five minutes to rectify 500 years of silence.
Approximate Word count = 746
Approximate Pages = 3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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