As Long as Grass Grows

The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock

By: Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia

The story of Native peoples’ resistance to environmental injustice and land incursions, and a call for environmentalists to learn from the Indigenous community’s rich history of activism

Through the unique lens of “Indigenized environmental justice,” Indigenous researcher and activist Dina Gilio-Whitaker explores the fraught history of treaty violations, struggles for food and water security, and protection of sacred sites, while highlighting the important leadership of Indigenous women in this centuries-long struggle. As Long As Grass Grows gives readers an accessible history of Indigenous resistance to government and corporate incursions on their lands and offers new approaches to environmental justice activism and policy.

Throughout 2016, the Standing Rock protest put a national spotlight on Indigenous activists, but it also underscored how little Americans know about the longtime historical tensions between Native peoples and the mainstream environmental movement. Ultimately, she argues, modern environmentalists must look to the history of Indigenous resistance for wisdom and inspiration in our common fight for a just and sustainable future.

Narrator Almost Ruined It

This book deserves a 5, but the narrator was 1 step above AI. Because if the importance of the subject, I struggled through. I will actively avoid this narrator in the future.

Intersectional and Informative

As a counseling student passionate about public health, food sovereignty, and community wellness, I found As Long as Grass Grows incredibly powerful. Dina Gilio-Whitaker weaves history, activism, and Indigenous perspectives into a compelling narrative that connects environmental justice to healing and autonomy. Essential listening for anyone who cares about decolonization, health equity, and Indigenous rights.

Required Reading

If you want access to the perspective of Indigenous Americans, Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s book is an excellent start. Deep dive into the legal, political, cultural framework forced upon Native Peoples by Settler Colonialism and the historical and continuing damage it inflicts on them.

Powerful Book

I thought this book was excellent. Provides a good (as good as possible in one short book) overall background to contextualize the Indigenous experience with and in relation to nature and environmental injustice. Though the subject matter is obviously and necessarily “heavy” I love that the author ends on a relatively hopeful note and with several suggestions of concrete things the reader can do to be a part of the solution instead of the problem.

Important, powerful, but a bit tendentious

First of all, I probably agree with virtually everything the author presents in this book, regarding native genocide, environmental racism, institutional sexism, the evil of settler colonialism, the inadequate support of liberalism to affect change for indigenous empowerment, and on and on. The book provides many examples of these problems and many more. I highly recommend the book as a primer for those people unfamiliar, or unwilling to accept, the issues facing indigenous peoples. But there's the rub, while it does delve deeply into some particular issues like the establishment of a workable environmental justice program, and what it might look like, it touches only tangentially on supporting issues. There are many citations of other, better books, like "The Other Slavery" by Andrés Reséndez, "Killers of the Flower Moon", by David Grann, and (a much lesser book, imho) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, making me think at one point this was merely a book of compilations.

In addition, the last half of the book descends into a polemic screed, using a reductive "with god on our side" argument, though I'm not entirely sure she's aware of her own narrowness. While like-minded people can all agree that environmental protection and respect is pragmatic and culturally important, the inextricable linkage to native spirituality, much less to the sacred, is rather counterproductive. Not the least reason being that the author herself acknowledges, in dealing with those pesky "hippies", there is no spiritual wisdom to be imparted by indigenous people, it's just a magical myth created by the dominant western culture. But, when it suits her cause, she's more than willing to jump on the magical, mystical native bandwagon.

I was tempted to give this 3 stars, as that denotes "pretty good", by Audible standards. But to be honest, my issues with the author's integrity notwithstanding, I do agree with the theme of the book, and the need for real progress for not only indigenous survival, but for everyone. I respect the effort made in the book, even if I find some parts dubious.