Resistance and Redemption: Indigenous Environmentalism in the Age of Extraction
Buy Books by Robert Lundahl (Author) on Amazon
Resistance and Redemption: Indigenous Environmentalism in the Age of Extraction
"The blueprint for survival in a landscape under siege."
If my films are the unblinking lens and the radio series is the voice of the frontline, Resistance and Redemption is the strategic record of the fight. This book chronicles the relentless work of indigenous elders, tribal members, and their allies to halt the next wave of colonial erasure: the global race for "green" and "strategic" minerals.
As the West faces a new gold rush for Lithium, Uranium, Copper, and Gold, ancient sacred sites and biodiversity hotspots are once again being sacrificed in the name of progress. Resistance and Redemption documents the specific tactics and spiritual resilience required to stop utility-scale energy facilities from bulldozing the Mojave and beyond. This is more than a history of environmentalism—it is a modern-day manual for reclamation, proving that the most effective resistance is rooted in a deep, unshakeable connection to the land itself.
Table of Contents:
Chapter One– The Land You Know Has Been Given to You
Chapter Two– Oak Flat: The Story Behind the Story
Chapter Three– The Fight to Save Thacker Pass
Chapter Four– Thacker Pass, An Archaeological Perspective
Chapter Five– What Do We Mean by Environmental Justice?
Chapter Six– Chasing the American Dream in Lithium Valley
Chapter Seven– Dorece Sam: SLAPP Suits and Dirty Deals
Chapter Eight– A Story Told: Benefits or a Curse at Thacker Pass
Chapter Nine– rewilding LA/Massacre in the Rocks
Chapter Ten– Rose Bowl Genocide
Gathering Fire: The Peopling of the Americas
Buy Books by Robert Lundahl (Author) on Amazon
"A 15,000-year conversation between evidentiary science and the unblinking memory of a continent."
Before the "conquest" and before the "frontier," there was the arrival. Gathering Fire is the definitive story of the first peoples to enter the Americas—a sequence of understanding that tracks the ingenious strategies and enduring values that allowed for a successful 15,000-year migration and adaptation to a new world.
In this modern work of scholarship, we move beyond the "whitewash" of traditional history by giving equal weight to tribal oral histories and scientific evidentiary data. Ben Potter, PhD, a leading anthropological archaeologist from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, "sets the table" with the latest archaeological analysis, while Indigenous voices provide the lived context of a culture that has never forgotten its origins. Gathering Fire is more than a history book; it is a dialogue between equals, reconstructing the "Peopling of the Americas" as an active, ongoing story of human consciousness and environmental integrity.
Table of Contents
Chapter One– Into New Land
Chapter Two– Growing Up Unangan
Chapter Three– One Bad Day
Chapter Four– The Bering Sea Report
Chapter Five– The Boarding School Era
Chapter Six– Crisis in the Tundra
Chapter Seven– Biodiversity and the Coastal Marine Ecosystem
Chapter Eight– Finding Our Purpose
Chapter Nine– Making The Connection
Chapter Ten– Gathering Fire
Paiute Lands: Democracy in the Early Americas
Buy Books by Robert Lundahl (Author) on Amazon
Conversations with Matthew Leivas Sr. (Chemehuevi Hereditary Chief) and others.
"The American experiment didn't begin in Philadelphia—it was already thousands of years old."
While history acknowledges the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) influence on the formative democratic traditions of the United States, a parallel truth remains hidden in the vast expanses of the West. Across four states, the lands of the Paiute and Chemehuevi held a sophisticated, egalitarian governance structure long before the arrival of the first European settlers.
Through a series of unblinking conversations with Chemehuevi Hereditary Chief Matthew Leivas Sr. and other tribal leaders, this work uncovers a democratic nation that existed before and within a nation. These were self-governing bodies united by common beliefs, shared values, and deep family structures—a diaspora now engaged in a modern-day Reconstruction. This is the forensic record of a people reclaiming their originative principles, proving that the roots of American consensus are buried deep in the desert soil of the Great Basin.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter One– Puha
Chapter Two– Gertrude Hanks
Chapter Three– Underground River
Chapter Four– The BIA Made a White Man Out of Me
Chapter Five– Experiencing Sherman Institute and Sherman Indian High School
Chapter Six– Water in the West
Chapter Seven– Hostile Territory
Chapter Eight– Is Southern California Drinking Las Vegas’ Reclaimed Water?
Chapter Nine– Chemehuevi Sweet Corn
Chapter Ten– Rocket Fuel
Epilogue– The Gold Rush and the Californios
Credits
A True Source of Wonderment
Buy Books by Robert Lundahl (Author) on Amazon
"The spirit of the first Earth Day made real: A 'True Source of Wonderment' in a world of climate uncertainty."
To understand the climate frontlines of 2025, we must first look back to the "logical dreamers" of the 1960s. This work steps back in time to chronicle a generation that wanted to heal the planet before it was too late, and then projects forward into our new world of climate uncertainty.
A True Source of Wonderment tells the story of Clifford Humphrey, the architect of modern recycling who launched the very first curbside program as a UC Berkeley student in 1968. This is the unblinking record of how a single idea became a life force—rebuilding our home world one bin at a time. It is a necessary reminder that the active process of reclaiming our planet began with grassroots action, providing a powerful, hopeful counter-narrative to the "brutal tales" of extraction we face today.
Table of Contents
Introduction- Bloody Thursday
Chapter One- A True Source of Wonderment
Chapter Two- Why The Native Nations Have Been So Successsful
Chapter Three- The 9000 History of the Oasis of Mara
Chapter Four- Blowout
Chapter Five- Batttling Goliath
Chapter Six- Traditions of the Heart
Chapter Seven- The Importance of Simple Things
Chapter Eight- The 100 ft. Wave
Chapter Nine- The Economics of Greenwash
Me and Joaquin: A Journey into the Heart of the California Myth
Buy Books by Robert Lundahl (Author) on Amazon
Beyond the Yellow Journalism' of the frontier:, A forensic search for the truth behind the “Robin Hood of El Dorado."
Growing up in Pasadena, the silhouette of the San Gabriel Mountains wasn't just a landscape; it was a boundary line for a legend.
Beyond those peaks ranged the ghost of Joaquin Murrieta—the "fearsome outlaw" of settler lore and the "Zorro" of my childhood television.
But as an Emmy®-winning filmmaker and practicing anthropologist, I came to realize that the stories written by the pens of 19th-century gold-seekers were often fabricated constructions designed to sell newspapers and hide the facts of a brutal, difficult birth of California statehood.
Me and Joaquin is the story of a lifelong homecoming. It documents my journey from the cultural pastiche of Anglo-American Pasadena to the heart of the Mojave, where I met the living descendants of the Murrieta bloodline.
This is not a mere recalibration of lore; it is a forensic look at the miasma of "yellow journalism" and the racism that continues to trigger and manipulate our world today.
Table of Contents
Introduction– Me and Joaquin
Chapter One– Who Are My People?
Chapter Two– The Music of Early California
Chapter Three– Placido Garcia
Chapter Four– Trincheras, Antonio Murrieta
Chapter Five– The Corrido
Chapter Six– Lowell Bean, Anthropology in California
Chapter Seven– The Battle of Blythe
Chapter Eight– Heroica Caborca
Chapter Nine– Native Group Asks Federal Court to Halt
Chapter Ten– Detention