Above photo: Photo description: Climate Justice Coalition holding a banner that reads “Stop Fueling Genocide” at COP29. Lorenzo Serna.
As Indigenous Peoples, organizers, and as an organization, we have been clear about the threats we face. Our Peoples are on the frontlines confronted with the worst aspects of American politics and identity; white supremacy, settler colonialism, resource exploitation, environmental destruction, forced assimilation, political violence, and an ongoing genocide. This is why at NDN Collective we will always stay committed to Defend, Develop, and Decolonize. Protecting rights, building collective power, and organizing for systemic change is our pathway to liberation.
The United States election results merely determined whether or not the threats we face would accelerate or move at a slower pace. The country’s leaders, particularly within the Trump administration—are ruled by special interests, whose “solutions” to complex challenges include suppression and violence. As many around the country and around the world wonder how facism came out victorius in a democratic election, the answer is that there was never a real choice in the first place. Systemic barriers and injustices that affect every aspect of equal and just participation were compouned by the influence of a foreign government lobby, AIPAC, that invested millions to influence election choices and outcomes all across the ballot. It did not help that the principles of movement organizing were completely overlooked and devalued in the Harris/Walz campaign strategy. They underestimated how much of their base could not accept the promise of the protection of some of our rights, while witnessing gross violations of Palestinian human rights.
The battle we have seen played out hasn’t been between two parties but between a predatory class and systemically exploited peoples. Disinformation, fear-mongering, and inaction have gotten the best of voters panicked by crumbling economic and government institutions. Our unsustainable dependence on an economic model catered to the predatory class facilitates ecosystem destruction in an era of climate crisis. Regardless of the election results, we can’t vote our way to solutions that were never on the ballot in the first place.
As Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island, we all bear witness to the most well-documented genocide in history happening to our Palestinian relatives by Israel and the United States. Our peoples experienced similar tactics of relocation, destruction of our homelands and food systems, forced starvation, and the murder of our relatives. The call for a ceasefire and an arms embargo of Israel grows louder with each inaction.
Our Palestinian relatives and relatives around the globe, from Ecuador to the Caribbean Islands to the Congo, are resisting systemic violence and climate inaction with the only thing they have left, their lives. That is worth mourning. And that is worth committed, principled action. And that is worth committed, principled action. NDN Collective will continue to hold the frontline for human rights, environmental rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, migrant rights, meaningful climate action, Landback, Black reparations, and building a multi-racial democracy.
We ask you to remain in solidarity with us and with those most vulnerable to these economic, political, and social conditions. What lies ahead is clear; we will face accelerated threats to our lands, territories, and resources. We will see financial and philanthropic resources be withheld, threatening our critical work of investing in Indigenous-led solutions. We will see increased threats to the self-determination, sovereignty, and rights of Indigenous Peoples, in an attempt to silence us, stunt our movement growth, and limit our ability to practice our ways of life.
The threats outlined are not limited to Tribal Nations in the United States. Indigenous Peoples’ throughout the Americas and across the globe are experiencing increased threats against their rights, well-being, and safety. Domestic institutions and foreign policy serving special interests have become the primary vehicles to carry out these agendas for the predatory class.
This is why we have and continue to advocate at every level of government, including within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP). With so much on the line for all of us, we shouldn’t have to do this alone. We call on all our allies, relatives, comrades, and accomplices to organize using every tool we can access. Now is not the time to turn on one another, to blame, or shrink back to a mindset of scarcity or fear. Instead, we must reflect, understand, and grow in our political and movement analysis to mobilize the silent majority and to work past the limitations and inherent shortcomings of domestic institutions. We also call on the philanthropic community to take more risks, understanding that they are the least institutionally vulnerable to current threats. They must match the courage of movement organizations by investing in 30-50 year strategies, fund endowments, and move assets to support the resiliency of those taking the most risks.
We have a small team deployed in Baku, Azerbaijan for the UN Climate Change COP29. When all else failed our peoples (e.g. exhausting every avenue available through colonial institutions in our homelands) fighting for and obtaining international safeguards has been critical in advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We engage in international climate negotiations because building collective power with ALL Indigenous relatives across the globe is crucial for our survival! Our liberation is tied to one another, our black snakes (hint: extractive companies) have similar faces, and we will always fight and organize where Indigenous-led solutions are being championed because we still believe, the best days of our people are in front of us.