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www.culturalsurvival.org



The work of...[the Totem Project].. is an example of the positive strides that can be made when governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples cooperate...[including] an expansive vision of future international cooperation between Russia and Mongolia."

Brian Donahoe, Anthropologist, USA



"Thanks to your [Totem Project's] leadership here in Buryatia, we learned how to do professional conservation work with international partners."

Yangima Vaselyeva, Director, Buryat Buddhist Etigelov Project



"We've learned how quickly many NGO's come and go.  But surely the consistent work of the Totem Project has made possible the many year's dream of the remote native Dukha reindeer herders to have their issues finally represented to the Mongolian Government.  We pledge our cooperation in these key discussing during 2003."

Dr. Demdiin, Director, International Protected Areas Cooperation, Ministry of Nature and Environment, Mongolia



"The disappearance of reindeer and the demise of [these] cultures would mean a decline in biological and cultural diversity and the loss of unique and valuable cultural knowledge. The need for documentation and assistance for community-based revitalization efforts is urgent.  Given the contemporary  evidence of the centralization and cultural diversity to the maintenance of global ecosystems, it remains imperative to find ways to facilitate the survival of these vital, reindeer-herding cultures."

Brian Donahoe and Susan Crate, Anthropologists

The Troubled Taiga: Survival on the Move for the Lost Nomadic Reindeer Herders of South Siberia, Mongolia, and China Cultural Survival Quarterly,

Spring 2003, Volume 27, Issue 1

Cultural Survival, Inc

Defending the human rights and cultural autonomy of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities since 1972. Cambridge, MA.

The Totem Peoples Project, founded in 1999, is a special project of Cultural Survival, - dedicated to the rights, voices and visions of native peoples worldwide.

How did Dan Plumley's career journey take him from north of the Mohawk River where he was raised in New York State's Capital Region to Lake Baikal in Siberia?

"As way leads on to way, it began on family trips to Adirondacks when I was about nine years old," says Dan.  "Summers were a formative experience in terms of my love for the Adirondacks and identifying first with nature.  My brothers and I hiked, sailed, canoed and explored the Adirondacks as Boy Scouts, which led me on to extensive winter mountaineering with a "gang" of climbing peers in the High Peaks, and then to forestry college majoring in park management."

Dan began his career as a park ranger in Lake George for three years; then was hired as Director of Park Protection for the Adirondack Council.  "My true initiation in advocacy came in that position in fighting for both wilderness protection and acid rain control legislation in Congress with the guidance of key, inspiring mentors, including Paul Schaefer," Dan  observes. "Paul spent his life protecting the New York State Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks, and, through his passion, educated me about conservation battles, preservation values, and motivating people to take action on behalf of a worthy cause.

Dan's deep interest in indigenous cultures began in the 1980's when he worked with Mohawk Indians on acid rain control and efforts to pass the Clean Air Act of 1990. In 1993, noted ecologist George Davis, who led land-use planning teams in both the Adirondacks and Russia's Lake Baikal region, invited him to Siberia to meet and work with that region's indigenous peoples. Together with numerous Adirondack and U.S. specialists, they implemented 11 pilot programs on sustain-able development for the globally unique Baikal region over five years as funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Dan notes, "The Baikal challenge we faced presented an incredible opportunity to explore the interconnectedness of sustainable energy policy; sound forestry; land-use planning; organic agricultural practice and medicinal plants; animals and native livestock in their habitat; ancestral lands; fresh and healing waters; moun­tain landscapes; native cultures; ecotourism, and viable economic development. All must occur within a preserved, globally unique ecoregion that requires international support within a framework plan to protect precious natural re­sources, cultural heritage, and sustainable economic diversity."

"The highest honor for me," Dan continues, "has been to work with and be 'adopted' as a native son by the settled, semi- and fully-nomadic native Buryat and Soyot Peoples of the Eastern Sayan Mountains of Siberia, Russia. These are wonderful mountain peoples facing great challenges! We completed many success­ful projects together, and not a few failures, but we learned from each other and from the traditional, most remote elder natives. As representatives of the first human beings in this geographic region and high mountain terrain, they have been hunter-gatherers, yak, cattle, horse, sheep and reindeer herders for thou­sands of years. In this length of time, their nomadic livestock, such as the reindeer, provided them with transportation and a whole way of life, forging an ancient link between man, animals and the environment."

"What better example of sustainable development exists than that shown by native cultures that evolved over centuries in rather harsh environments?" Dan asks. "There are global lessons to be learned right now from native cultures about supporting and sustaining a way of life in relative harmony with the environment, culture and society, the economy, and even spirituality."

"During speaking engagements, I get such comments as, 'These people will have to change; their way of life will give way in the face of reality and progress.' Here's my response: "The world - through government initiatives, scientific programs, and the United Nations - is spending millions if not billions of dollars to try and define sustainable development, all the while failing to learn from the essential examples found among indigenous peoples who have literally evolved in ecosystems they have neither impaired nor destroyed over thousands of years.

Coming full circle, Dan is leading the project's third cultural exchange in an autumn tour to Baikal and the Eastern Sayans with Mohawk Indian specialists and an interdisciplinary team from the Adirondack Park. This "Partner Parks" Exchange is a joint project of the Totem Project and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding of New York City and private donations.



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