Environmental Protection Agency administrator William Yellowtail '69 emphasized in a speech Friday the necessity of education and partnership to confront the environmental challenges of the coming centuries.
Yellowtail's address about environmental responsibility kicked off the Dartmouth Environmental Network's sixth annual Environmental Issues Symposium, which is designed to discuss environmental sustainability.
"We are victims of our own ignorance of the environment," Yellowtail told the crowd of about 200 people in Dartmouth Hall.
Yellowtail spoke of "the sacred trust," saying "before us, we have to keep this vision that all things are interrelated."
An important aspect of this trust is engaging the community, he said. In terms of protecting the environment, Yellowtail said the EPA has been more effective by persuading companies and individuals to "join them at the table" rather than by threatening legal action.
Yellowtail said this "sacred trust" is deeply rooted in his Crow Indian heritage and beliefs, as well as in his homeland of Montana.
Yellowtail spoke passionately against the proposed New World Mine Project, which would mine gold in an area next to Yellowstone National Park. The plans are to hollow out a mountain and leave "an enormous poison pile," Yellowtail said. "And for what? So we can wear gold chains?"
He said he is appalled at the possibility of such an atrocity, which he called "an assault on the magnificent ecosystem."
He cited gold mining as an example of the enormous irreversible damage that has been done to the environment in the West. Not only did it leave abandoned open pit mines that continue to drain "almost blood-red poison into streams," but the gold rush's legacy continues to damage the environment today, he said.
At the end of his speech, Dartmouth Environmental Network President Tom Burack '82 presented Yellowtail with one of the group's two annual awards. Part of the citation reads "for the strength of your convictions and the just nature of your cause."
