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Everything is interconnected.
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As a Shinnecock Indian, I was raised to know this.
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We are a small fishing tribe
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situated on the southeastern tip of Long Island
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near the town of Southampton in New York.
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When I was a little girl,
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my grandfather took me to sit outside in the sun on a hot summer day.
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There were no clouds in the sky.
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And after a while I began to perspire.
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And he pointed up to the sky, and he said,
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"Look, do you see that?
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That's part of you up there.
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That's your water that helps to make the cloud
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that becomes the rain that feeds the plants
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that feeds the animals."
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In my continued exploration of subjects in nature
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that have the ability to illustrate the interconnection of all life,
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I started storm chasing in 2008
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after my daughter said, "Mom, you should do that."
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And so three days later, driving very fast,
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I found myself stalking a single type of giant cloud called the super cell,
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capable of producing grapefruit-size hail
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and spectacular tornadoes,
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although only two percent actually do.
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These clouds can grow so big, up to 50 miles wide
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and reach up to 65,000 feet into the atmosphere.
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They can grow so big, blocking all daylight,
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making it very dark and ominous standing under them.
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Storm chasing is a very tactile experience.
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There's a warm, moist wind blowing at your back
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and the smell of the earth, the wheat, the grass, the charged particles.
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And then there are the colors in the clouds
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of hail forming, the greens and the turquoise blues.
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I've learned to respect the lightning.
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My hair used to be straight.
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(Laughter)
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I'm just kidding.
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(Laughter)
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What really excites me about these storms
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is their movement, the way they swirl and spin and undulate,
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with their lava lamp-like mammatus clouds.
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They become lovely monsters.
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When I'm photographing them,
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I cannot help but remember my grandfather's lesson.
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As I stand under them,
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I see not just a cloud,
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but understand that what I have the privilege to witness
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is the same forces, the same process in a small-scale version
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that helped to create our galaxy, our solar system, our sun
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and even this very planet.
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All my relations. Thank you.
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(Applause)
