Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Nature Way
    The Nature Way
    The Nature Way
    Ebook163 pages2 hours

    The Nature Way

    By Corbin Harney and Tom Goldtooth

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Corbin Harney’s long life encompassed remarkable changes in the lives of Native Americans and in the technological and political development of the world. Born into an impoverished Western Shoshone family on the Nevada-Idaho border and orphaned as a newborn, he was brought up by grandparents who taught him the traditional ways of their people and the ancient spiritual beliefs that sustained their culture. As an adult, Harney found his calling as a traditional healer and spiritual leader. Soon he became involved in the Shoshone struggle for civil rights, including their efforts to protect and heal their traditional lands in what became the Nevada Test Site. This involvement led Harney to his eventual role as a leader of the international antinuclear movement.The Nature Way is a rich compendium of Corbin Harney’s experience and wisdom. His account of his life incorporates the tragic history of Native Americans in the Great Basin after the arrival of Euro-Americans, his realization of his own identity as a Native American, and his long study of his people’s traditions and spiritual practices. His summary of the Shoshone and Paiute use of indigenous plants for food and healing highlights their understanding that the Earth and her denizens and products must be respected and protected in order to preserve the connection that all creatures have with sacred Mother Earth. Finally, his account of his role as an antinuclear activist expands on his awareness of the human responsibility to protect the Earth, especially from the extreme danger posed by nuclear technology and nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Corbin Harney’s voice is one of the clearest expressions yet of the values, concerns, and spirituality of contemporary Native America. He offers all of us an eloquent plea that we respect and cooperate with Nature to ensure the survival of the planet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Nevada Press
    Release dateSep 9, 2009
    ISBN9780874178043
    The Nature Way

    Related to The Nature Way

    Related ebooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ANCIENT wayfinders

      May 30, 2024

      ANCIENT wayfinders
      6 min read

    • Article

      Let Us Walk Together

      Jun 1, 2021

      WHEN I WAS YOUNG my dad often took me to the woods. He is a person who believes in hugging trees — and not in a metaphorical way. If a tree was too big to fully embrace, he’d stretch out his arms and press his body, head turned to one side, against t

      2 min read

    • Article

      “The Bush Is Ready To Blow Again”: Intelligent Planning Through The Indigenous Estate

      Sep 2, 2024

      Australia demands a special kind of land management plan.1 For millennia, Aboriginal people have lived as one with their environment, in harmony with all things alive – Country (the land, waters and sky), animals and birds. They have existed without

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cultural Heritage is a Human Right. Climate Change is Fast Eroding It.

      Nov 27, 2023

      Flooding, coastal erosion, wildfires, thawing permafrost, and extreme weather events are causing unprecedented loss and damage of places and customs.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Our Culinary Heritage

      Oct 3, 2024

      Our Culinary Heritage
      2 min read

    • Article

      After Nearly 200 Years, The Yuchi Tribe Of Oklahoma Reconnects With Bison

      Mar 26, 2023

      Tribal members say the new herd will strengthen ceremonial practices and connect them not only with the animal but also with other Indigenous nations.

      3 min read

    • Article

      On Country

      Mar 1, 2021

      On Country
      5 min read

    • Article

      Jamie Graham-blair

      Nov 17, 2021

      TRAWLWOOLWAY PAKANA ACTIVIST AND ECOLOGY STUDENT First Nations’ wisdom must be at the core of how we address climate change. Indigenous peoples make up roughly five percent of the world’s global population, yet as a minority we oversee the protection

      2 min read

    • Article

      An Open-hearted Journey

      Feb 1, 2022

      I WANT TO TALK TO YOU about the land. About how it inspires me, grounds me, makes me feel alive. About how passionately I feel that landscapes and ecosystems and species should be protected. But we can’t talk about the land without also talking about

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Spirit Of The Rillito

      May 1, 2023

      The Spirit Of The Rillito
      5 min read

    • Article

      Nicola Chester

      Oct 20, 2022

      Nicola Chester
      2 min read

    • Article

      From Dominance To Stewardship

      Nov 1, 2022

      From Dominance To Stewardship
      6 min read

    • Article

      Medicine Festival

      May 1, 2023

      Medicine Festival, an alcohol and drug-free event, is the antithesis to the hedonism of Glastonbury and Reading, something that may strike a chord with all soul seekers. The event takes place from 17-21 August, 2023 — and this year it will be bigger

      1 min read

    • Article

      Faith for Earth

      Apr 8, 2022

      Faith for Earth
      4 min read

    • Article

      Gillian Burke

      Jun 2, 2022

      Gillian Burke
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Nature Way

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Nature Way - Corbin Harney

      issues.

      Preface

      by Alex Purbrick

      I first met Corbin Harney in January 2000 when I visited his healing center, Poo-Ha-Bah, in Tecopa, California, as a work volunteer. I had heard nothing of Corbin before other than what a friend had told me: that he was an elder and spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone, or Newe (which, literally translated, means The People), and was recognized as an international figure in the global antinuclear movement.

      The Western Shoshone are the western band of the Shoshone tribe, whose homeland spans five states—Nevada, Utah, Idaho, California, and Montana. The Western Shoshone call their home Newe Sogobia (The People's Land) because traditionally there were no territorial boundaries and they did not claim to own the land or to call themselves anything other than The People.

      When I met Corbin, I only stayed at Poo-Ha-Bah for a few days because I had to return home to Europe. But fascination with the beautiful Mojave Desert and interest in Corbin's work and the projects at Poo-Ha-Bah lured me to return to America later in the year. It was at this point that Corbin talked to me about an idea he had to write a book about Nature and the stories of the Newe. I naively offered to help him with this project, and I say naively because I had never written a book before nor undertaken a project as huge as this. However, Corbin seemed to have faith in me and reassured me that it wouldn't be too difficult a job. Now, after working on this book for eight years, I know that writing a book can be more complicated than it first appears.

      Corbin knew exactly the subjects and places he wanted to talk about, so in late summer 2000 we set off in his old camper van, following the tracks of thousands of generations of his ancestors across Nevada, southern Idaho, southern Utah, and California. Our travels ranged from sacred sites, old campsites, and hot, healing mineral waters to land devastated by nuclear testing. Everywhere we traveled, I photographed the things Corbin talked about and showed me, such as rocks, plants, mineral springs, and cave petroglyphs, so that we could refer to them as we developed the book.

      It wasn't until we returned to Poo-Ha-Bah in the winter that Corbin had the chance to study all the photographs from our travels. Sitting in his trailer home in Tecopa, I recorded on tape his stories about all the various sites and subjects we had seen. Corbin had such a clear image in his mind of what he wanted to say in his book that I rarely had to ask him any questions or remind him of places we had been. I simply pressed Play on the tape recorder and listened to Corbin's voice until the tape ran out.

      We didn't record every day, because Corbin had other commitments, whether it was his healing work at Poo-Ha-Bah or giving a talk at events throughout the southwestern states. By spring 2001, I had started to transcribe Corbin's recordings and rearrange everything into sections so that his thoughts would flow in an orderly sequence. I tried as best I could to keep the essence of his stories in the editing process to enable his voice to be heard throughout the book, with most accounts being word for word as they were recorded. However, some editing was required, because some sentences weren't as clear in print as they were when he spoke them.

      Once I had completed several drafts of the manuscript, I told Corbin the section headings and showed him how I had put the stories together. He seemed content with the book at this stage, but we still had the task of finding a suitable publisher.

      When I left the United States in 2004, I became somewhat despondent about how I was ever going to keep my promise to Corbin to get the book published. Fortunately, in March 2006 a good friend of Corbin's, Dixie van der Kamp, offered to help. Before she even approached a publisher, she printed out a copy of the manuscript for Corbin to read to ensure that he agreed with the final draft of the manuscript, that it contained everything he wanted to speak about, and that it was set down in a manner he approved of. Corbin said he wanted to read the text by himself, from beginning to end, and didn't want anyone else to read it to him. In November 2006, Dixie and her family visited Corbin at Poo-Ha-Bah. During their stay, Dixie talked to Corbin about the manuscript and asked him if he was happy with it. He said he had finished reading through the manuscript himself and had asked his caregiver to reread certain sections to him. He seemed enthusiastic about the work and thought it was real good. Dixie asked him if he wanted to make any corrections or changes now that he had seen the final draft. As he looked through the manuscript, he made further comments about the importance of certain subjects such as the plants the Newe used for medicine, the various sites where Shoshone people had been massacred, and some of the places he had visited during his world travels. I have added his comments on these topics to the main body of the text where appropriate or have inserted his quoted revisions in a footnote in the section relevant to the subject. Some of Corbin's comments concerned topics he had already spoken about in the manuscript, so I did not feel it was relevant to repeat the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1