Prior to European arrival, North America was not simply untouched wilderness. Indigenous communities had developed important land management techniques to work with nature to create unprecedented levels of abundance.

Sustainable Human is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to evolve human consciousness such that our society becomes capable of living in harmony with each other and the biosphere.

In this video story for Sustainable Human, Dr. Lyla June challenges the idea that humans are a burden to the earth and argues that we actually belong here and can be a critical piece of the ecological puzzle.

Drawing from indigenous land management techniques, the speaker explains how native people have been active agents in shaping the land for thousands of years, becoming a keystone species and refining keystone cultures over time.

Rather than trying to control the Earth, indigenous people have tapped into and aligned themselves with the forces of nature, creating nonhuman-centric systems and intentionally expanding habitats.

June makes the case that if we applied these strategies today, we could transform dead systems into living ones and protect and augment life on a holistic regional scale. When we become allies with the Earth, we can live within her processes and become a part of her system as we were born to be.