For Further Study: Environmental Grief Sources and References
The Crazy Mountains in south central Montana. The Apsáalooke (Crow) people are the traditional stewards of these lands. (photo by J. Shaw)
This is Part Three of our series on Environmental Grief. Part One is "Understanding Environmental Loss as Disenfranchised Grief" and Part Two is “Expanding Our Understanding: Alternative Frameworks for Environmental Grief.”
Primary References
Nature Connectedness and Wellbeing Research
Capaldi, C. A., Dopko, R. L., & Zelenski, J. M. (2014). The relationship between nature connectedness and happiness: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 976.
Lumber, R., Richardson, M., & Sheffield, D. (2017). Beyond knowing nature: Contact, emotion, compassion, meaning, and beauty are pathways to nature connection. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0177186.
Martin, L., White, M. P., Hunt, A., Richardson, M., Pahl, S., & Burt, J. (2020). Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 68, 101389.
Yao, W., Zhang, X., & Gong, Q. (2021). The effect of exposure to nature on life satisfaction: The mediating roles of positive affect and meaning in life. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 74, 101572.
Zhang, Y., Mavoa, S., Zhao, J., Raphael, D., & Smith, M. (2020). The association between green space and adolescents' mental well-being: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), 6640.
Zhou, X., Dong, B., Zhang, K., & Sun, S. (2024). A lower connection to nature is related to lower mental health benefits from nature contact. Scientific Reports, 14, 7419.
Cajete, G. (2000). Native science: Natural laws of interdependence. Clear Light Publishers.
Deloria, V. Jr. (1999). Spirit and reason: The Vine Deloria Jr. reader. Fulcrum Publishing.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
LaDuke, W. (1999). All our relations: Native struggles for land and life. South End Press.
LaDuke, W. (2005). Recovering the sacred: The power of naming and claiming. South End Press.
Simpson, L. B. (2011). Dancing on our turtle's back: Stories of Nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence and a new emergence. Arbeiter Ring Publishing.
Simpson, L. B. (2017). As we have always done: Indigenous freedom through radical resurgence. University of Minnesota Press.
Whyte, K. P. (2017). The Dakota Access Pipeline, environmental injustice, and US colonialism. Red Ink, 19(1), 154-169.
Whyte, K. P. (2018). Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 1(1-2), 224-242.
Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and Climate Change
Berkes, F. (2012). Sacred ecology: Traditional ecological knowledge and resource management. Routledge.
Cameron, E. S. (2012). Securing Indigenous politics: A critique of the vulnerability and adaptation approach to the human dimensions of climate change in the Canadian Arctic. Global Environmental Change, 22(1), 103-114.
Cruikshank, J. (2005). Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination. UBC Press.
Ford, J. D. (2012). Indigenous health and climate change. American Journal of Public Health, 102(7), 1260-1266.
Harper, S. L., Edge, V. L., Schuster-Wallace, C. J., Berke, O., & McEwen, S. A. (2011). Weather, water quality and infectious gastrointestinal illness in two Inuit communities in Nunatsiavut, Canada: Potential implications for climate change. EcoHealth, 8(1), 93-108.
Huntington, H. P. (2000). Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: Methods and applications. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1270-1274.
Huntington, H. P. (2011). Arctic science, international law, and climate change: Legal complexities and political realities. Polar Research, 30(1), 17456.
Maldonado, J. K., Shearer, C., Bronen, R., Peterson, K., & Lazrus, H. (2013). The impact of climate change on tribal communities in the US: Displacement, relocation, and human rights. Climatic Change, 120(3), 601-614.
Pearce, T., Ford, J. D., Willox, A. C., & Smit, B. (2015). Inuit traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), subsistence hunting and adaptation to climate change in the Canadian Arctic. Arctic, 68(2), 233-245.
Pierotti, R., & Wildcat, D. (2000). Traditional ecological knowledge: The third alternative. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1333-1340.
Wildcat, D. (2009). Introduction: Climate change and indigenous peoples. University of Nebraska Press.
Indigenous Concepts of Grief and Loss
Brave Heart, M. Y. H. (2003). The historical trauma response among natives and its relationship with substance abuse: A Lakota illustration. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 35(1), 7-13.
Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. M. (1998). The American Indian Holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56-78.
Duran, E. (2006). Healing the soul wound: Counseling with American Indians and other native peoples. Teachers College Press.
Evans-Campbell, T. (2008). Historical trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska communities: A multilevel framework for exploring impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(3), 316-338.
Gone, J. P. (2013). Redressing First Nations historical trauma: Theorizing mechanisms for indigenous culture as mental health treatment. Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(5), 683-706.
Sotero, M. (2006). A conceptual model of historical trauma: Implications for public health practice and research. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 1(1), 93-108.
Waldram, J. B. (2004). Revenge of the windigo: The construction of the mind and mental health of North American Aboriginal peoples. University of Toronto Press.
Relational Worldviews and Kinship with Nature
Cajete, G. (1999). Igniting the sparkle: An indigenous science education model. Kivaki Press.
Cajete, G. (2000). Native science: Natural laws of interdependence. Clear Light Publishers.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2002). Weaving traditional ecological knowledge into biological education: A call to action. BioScience, 52(5), 432-438.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2011). Restoration and reciprocity: The contributions of traditional ecological knowledge. In D. Egan, E. E. Hjerpe, & J. Abrams (Eds.), Human dimensions of ecological restoration (pp. 257-276). Island Press.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2015). The gift of strawberries. In Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants (pp. 22-32). Milkweed Editions.
Pierotti, R. (2011). Indigenous knowledge, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Routledge.
Pierotti, R., & Wildcat, D. (2000). Traditional ecological knowledge: The third alternative. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1333-1340.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Emotional Wisdom
Berkes, F. (1999). Sacred ecology: Traditional ecological knowledge and resource management. Psychology Press.
Drew, J. A., & Henne, A. P. (2006). Conservation biology and traditional ecological knowledge: Integrating academic disciplines for better conservation practice. Ecology and Society, 11(2).
Huntington, H. P. (2000). Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: Methods and applications. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1270-1274.
McGregor, D. (2004). Coming full circle: Indigenous knowledge, environment, and our future. American Indian Quarterly, 28(3), 385-410.
Nadasdy, P. (1999). The politics of TEK: Power and the "integration" of knowledge. Arctic Anthropology, 36(1-2), 1-18.
Indigenous Language and Environmental Concepts
Harrison, K. D. (2007). When languages die: The extinction of the world's languages and the erosion of human knowledge. Oxford University Press.
Nettle, D., & Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world's languages. Oxford University Press.
Whorf, B. L. (2012). Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. MIT Press.
Solastalgia and Environmental Distress in Indigenous Communities
Albrecht, G. (2007). Solastalgia: The distress caused by environmental change. Australasian Psychiatry, 15(1), 95-98.
Albrecht, G. (2011). Chronic environmental change: Emerging 'psychoterratic' syndromes. In I. Weissbecker (Ed.), Climate change and human well-being: Global challenges and opportunities (pp. 177-201). Springer.
Cunsolo Willox, A. (2012). Climate change as the work of mourning. Ethics & the Environment, 17(2), 137-164.
Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2013). Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate-related ecological losses. The Lancet Planetary Health, 2(7), e261-e262.
Middleton, J., Cunsolo, A., Jones-Bitton, A., Wright, C. J., & Harper, S. L. (2020). Indigenous mental health in a changing climate: A systematic scoping review of the global literature. Environmental Research Letters, 15(5), 053001.
Sacred Responsibilities and Generational Trauma
Alfred, T. (2009). Peace, power, righteousness: An indigenous manifesto. Oxford University Press.
Coulthard, G. S. (2014). Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition. University of Minnesota Press.
Simpson, A. (2014). Mohawk interruptus: Political life across the borders of settler states. Duke University Press.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40.
Vizenor, G. (2008). Survivance: Narratives of native presence. University of Nebraska Press.
Ritualized Mourning and Community Support
Cajete, G. (1994). Look to the mountain: An ecology of indigenous education. Kivaki Press.
Deloria, V. Jr. (1973). God is red: A native view of religion. Fulcrum Publishing.
Gill, S. D. (1987). Native American religious action: A performance approach to religion. University of South Carolina Press.
Hultkrantz, Å. (1987). Native religions of North America: The power of visions and fertility. Harper & Row.
Irwin, L. (2000). Native American spirituality: A critical reader. University of Nebraska Press.
Contemporary Indigenous Environmental Activism
Estes, N. (2019). Our history is the future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the long tradition of indigenous resistance. Verso Books.
Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2019). As long as grass grows: The indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Beacon Press.
Grossman, Z. (2017). Unlikely alliances: Native nations and white communities join to defend rural lands. University of Washington Press.
LaDuke, W. (2016). The Winona LaDuke chronicles: Stories from the front lines in the battle for environmental justice. Fernwood Publishing.
Pellow, D. N. (2017). Total liberation: The power and promise of animal rights and the radical earth movement. University of Minnesota Press.
Smith, A. (2005). Conquest: Sexual violence and American Indian genocide. South End Press.
Maori and Pacific Islander Perspectives
Durie, M. (2004). Understanding health and illness: Research at the interface between science and indigenous knowledge. International Journal of Epidemiology, 33(5), 1138-1143.
Harmsworth, G., & Awatere, S. (2013). Indigenous Māori knowledge and perspectives of ecosystems. In J. Dymond (Ed.), Ecosystem services in New Zealand (pp. 274-286). Manaaki Whenua Press.
Marsden, M. (2003). The woven universe: Selected writings of Rev. Māori Marsden. Estate of Rev. Māori Marsden.
Royal, T. A. C. (2003). The whakapapa of land and water. In Indigenous knowledge and the integration of knowledge systems (pp. 266-278). New Zealand: Clarus Press.
Walker, R. (2004). Ka whawhai tonu matou: Struggle without end. Penguin Books.
Sami and Arctic Indigenous Perspectives
Gaski, H. (Ed.). (2008). Sami culture in a new era: The Norwegian Sami experience. University of Washington Press.
Huntington, H. P. (2000). Using traditional ecological knowledge in science: Methods and applications. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1270-1274.
Lantis, M. (1950). The reindeer industry in Alaska. Arctic, 3(1), 27-44.
Pulsifer, P. L., Laidler, G. J., Taylor, D. R. F., & Hayes, A. (2011). Towards an indigenist data management program: Reflections on experiences developing an atlas of sea ice knowledge and use. The Canadian Geographer, 55(1), 108-124.
Australian Aboriginal Perspectives
Bell, D. (2002). Ngarrindjeri wurruwarrin: A world that is, was, and will be. Spinifex Press.
Langton, M. (1998). Burning questions: Emerging environmental issues for indigenous peoples in northern Australia. Centre for Indigenous Natural and Cultural Resource Management.
Rose, D. B. (1996). Nourishing terrains: Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness. Australian Heritage Commission.
Rose, D. B. (2011). Wild dog dreaming: Love and extinction. University of Virginia Press.
Suchet-Pearson, S., Wright, S., Lloyd, K., & Burarrwanga, L. (2013). Caring as country: Towards an ontology of co-becoming in natural resource management. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 54(2), 185-197.
Decolonizing Methodologies and Research
Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts. University of Toronto Press.
Rigney, L. I. (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous anticolonial cultural critique of research methodologies: A guide to Indigenist research methodology and its principles. Wicazo Sa Review, 14(2), 109-121.
Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books.
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. University of Otago Press.
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Fernwood Publishing.
Environmental Justice and Indigenous Rights
Bullard, R. D. (2008). Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Westview Press.
Gedicks, A. (2001). Resource rebels: Native challenges to mining and oil corporations. South End Press.
Hooks, G., & Smith, C. L. (2004). The treadmill of destruction: National sacrifice areas and Native Americans. American Sociological Review, 69(4), 558-575.
Pellow, D. N. (2002). Garbage wars: The struggle for environmental justice in Chicago. MIT Press.
Schlosberg, D. (2007). Defining environmental justice: Theories, movements, and nature. Oxford University Press.
Integration of Indigenous and Western Knowledge Systems
Agrawal, A. (1995). Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. Development and Change, 26(3), 413-439.
Berkes, F. (2007). Understanding uncertainty and reducing vulnerability: Lessons from resilience thinking. Natural Hazards, 41(2), 283-295.
Cruikshank, J. (1998). The social life of stories: Narrative and knowledge in the Yukon Territory. University of Nebraska Press.
Nadasdy, P. (2003). Hunters and bureaucrats: Power, knowledge, and Aboriginal-state relations in the southwest Yukon. UBC Press.
Stevenson, M. G. (1996). Indigenous knowledge in environmental assessment. Arctic, 49(3), 278-291.
Additional Supporting Literature
Anthropological and Ethnographic Studies
Basso, K. H. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. University of New Mexico Press.
Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. Routledge.
Rappaport, R. A. (1999). Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge University Press.
Rival, L. (1998). The social life of trees: Anthropological perspectives on tree symbolism. Berg Publishers.
Psychological and Therapeutic Perspectives
Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. SUNY Press.
Gone, J. P. (2008). Introduction: Mental health discourse as Western cultural proselytization. Ethos, 36(3), 310-315.
Koenig, B., & Devereux, E. (2020). Indigenous healing and wellness approaches. American Journal of Community Psychology, 65(3-4), 329-343.
McCormick, R. (2000). Aboriginal traditions in the treatment of substance abuse. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 34(1), 25-32.
Philosophy and Spirituality
Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. Vintage Books.
Berry, T. (1999). The great work: Our way into the future. Bell Tower.
Callicott, J. B. (1989). Intrinsic value, quantum theory, and environmental ethics. SUNY Press.
Naess, A. (1989). Ecology, community and lifestyle: Outline of an ecosophy. Cambridge University Press.
Note: This reference list prioritizes Indigenous voices and perspectives while including supportive academic research. When engaging with these resources, approach with respect for Indigenous knowledge systems and recognition of the ongoing impacts of colonization on Indigenous communities. Many of these sources represent specific cultural perspectives and should not be generalized to all Indigenous peoples.
