Indigenous People

France Continues To Sell The Artifacts Of Genocide

June 17, 2015 Robert A. Williams Jr., www.truth-out.org Educate! France, Genocide, Indigenous People

By Robert A. Williams Jr. in Truthout - The French government has once again failed to stop an auction of sacred Hopi artifacts by a Paris auction house, this one occurring on June 10. France's continuing complicity in this artful form of cultural genocide is particularly disturbing, given its own complicated history of involvement in the Nazis' systematic plunder of tens of thousands of works of art from the private collections of European Jews. The French should be particularly sensitive to the provenance of the claims of the Hopi tribe of Arizona. The Hopi (who call themselves Hopitu, or "the peaceful people") have suffered religious persecution along with theft, plunder, destruction and appropriation of their ceremonial and sacred art objects since their first contacts with European-derived colonizers in the 16th century.

Universities Answer For Founders’ Roles In Massacre

June 13, 2015 Ned Blackhawk, www.yesmagazine.org Resist! Genocide, History, Indigenous People, University

By Ned Blackhawk in Yes Magazine - November 29, 2014, was the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre, one of the most violent days in American Indian history. On that fateful morning, a force of American cavalry officers, led by Colonel John Chivington, and settler militia forces mounted an attack in southeastern Colorado. Through the day, into the night, and again the next morning, nearly 700 soldiers raped, mutilated, and killed peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians allied under the leadership of Black Kettle. In the lead-up to the 150th anniversary, both Northwestern University and the University of Denver issued detailed reports on Sand Creek. Those investigations were inspired by the demands of students and community members that the universities examine the role of John Evans, Colorado’s second governor. Evans helped found Northwestern before moving to Colorado, where he subsequently founded the University of Denver.

Summit Brings Together 25 Indigenous Nations For Resistance

June 11, 2015 Fionuala Cregan, www.intercontinentalcry.org Resist! Argentina, Indigenous People, Land Rights, Oil & Gas

By Fionuala Cregan in Intercontinental Cry - From May 27-29, 2014, Indigenous leaders from across Argentina’s 17 provinces met in Buenos Aires and presented dramatic testimonies of human rights violations and dispossession from their ancestral lands. In all corners of the country, these Indigenous Peoples have found themselves at the forefront of the battle against oil and gas exploration, fracking, mining, hydroelectric dams and deforestation for soy cultivation. As they defend the environment and their ancestral territories, many have suffered death threats, judicial harassment and other forms of persecution. Solidarity was expressed in particular with two emblematic cases – the Mapuche community Winkul Newen and the inter-ethnic organization QOPIWINI.

Newsletter: See You At The Barricades

June 6, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese at Popular Resistance, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Coal Mining, fast track, Fracking, Human Right, Human Trafficking, Indigenous People, Militarization, NSA, Patriot Act, Slavery, Solar Energy, TISA, TPP, TTIP, USA Freedom Act, Wikileaks

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese at Popular Resistance. We are at a crossroads to either a future of global corporate governance or a chance for democracy. As Chris Hedges writes in his new book, "Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt," a revolution is coming but we can't guarantee which way it will go. Will you be there to fight for justice? You have an opportunity to do that now. This is the critical week to stop Fast Track legislation from passing in Congress. Fast Track could last for the next six years and would enable passage of not just the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but also the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA). There are different ways to define security. Some would say that security means a police or military force to protect people from those who might cause harm. Others would say that security means the government has a responsibility to make sure that the basic needs of its people are met which in itself would reduce crimes and the need for a violent security force. This is your food for thought for this week. How do you define security?

Green Economies Need Alliances B/W Labour & Indigenous People

June 5, 2015 Harsha Walia, www.ricochet.media Strategize! Capitalism, Environment, Imperialism, Indigenous People, Labor Unions, Land Rights, Public Health

By Harsha Walia in Ricochet.Media - The bold leadership of unions that revive principles of social unionism ensures that unions are not simply advocating mobility within capitalism and state structures, but are primary allies in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. As Herman Rosenfeld, a former GM worker, writes, “Job security is key, but what kind of jobs? Is the job security strategy one that works against the interests of the rest of the working-class and First Nations peoples, or in partnership with them? Moving away from the narrow focus on the short-term sectoral interests of a relatively small group of workers, whose jobs are currently defined by their employers, is a critical way of building unions as fighters for the class as a whole, and for a different, sustainable, and hopefully anti-capitalist future.” Simply put, workers shouldn’t have to extract toxic sludge. Workers want and need clean air, clean water, and a more equitable future.

Native Tribes Declare Sovereignty From Maine

June 1, 2015 Alex Freeman, www.thefifthcolumnnews.com Resist! EPA, Indigenous People, Law, Maine, Sovereignty

By Alex Freeman in The Fifth Column News - The new Order maintains that native tribes in Maine retain their sovereignty, but holds that they now have a “relationship between equals with its own set of responsibilities,” yet declares that tribal lands, forms of tribal governance and natural resources controlled by the native tribes are subject to the laws and jurisdiction of the State of Maine. The takeover of lands was prompted by an EPA letter to the State, and claims that lack of Tribal participation in “the State’s interests” required the usurpation of Tribal sovereignty. The Letter, in fact, actually supports the Tribal position, as the Tribal standards of environmental protection are much stricter than those of the EPA or the State of Maine. Those close to the Penobscot Tribe tell The Fifth Column that LePage threatened to sue the EPA over the proposed new regulations, leading the Agency to back down.

Indigenous Leaders Demand France Stop Sale Of Sacred Artifacts

May 29, 2015 Associated Press, www.abc15.com Resist! Capitalism, Criminal Justice, Indigenous People

Hopi tribal leaders and Arizona's members of Congress are asking U.S. law enforcement to stop the sale of about a dozen sacred Hopi artifacts at a Paris auction house in June. The Hopi Tribe contends the auction house is illegally selling the spiritual objects, known as Katsina Friends, and is urging U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to help recover them. The items resemble masks and are used during religious ceremonies and dances to invoke ancestral spirits. They are communally owned, rarely displayed and never supposed to leave the reservation. This is the sixth time the French auction house, Estimations Ventes aux Encheres, has sold objects sacred to Native American tribes. It has argued that the items legally belong to collectors, and a Paris court has ruled that such sales are legal.

US Cited For Police Violence, Racism In Scathing UNHR Review

May 13, 2015 Natasja Sheriff, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Human Rights, Indigenous People, UnitedNations

The United States was slammed over its rights record Monday at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, with member nations criticizing the country for police violence and racial discrimination, the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility and the continued use of the death penalty. The issue of racism and police brutality dominated the discussion on Monday during the country’s second universal periodic review (UPR). Country after country recommended that the U.S. strengthen legislation and expand training to eliminate racism and excessive use of force by law enforcement. "I'm not surprised that the world's eyes are focused on police issues in the U.S.," said Alba Morales, who investigates the U.S. criminal justice system at Human Rights Watch. "There is an international spotlight that's been shone [on the issues], in large part due to the events in Ferguson and the disproportionate police response to even peaceful protesters," she said.

Federal Judge OKs Uranium Mining Next To Grand Canyon National Park

May 12, 2015 Indigenous Action, www.indigenousaction.org Educate! Clean Up the Mines, Environment, Indigenous People, Public Health

U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell denied a request to halt new uranium mining at the Canyon uranium mine, located only six miles from Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim. The Havasupai tribe and a coalition of conservation groups had challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to allow Energy Fuels Inc. to reopen the mine without initiating or completing formal tribal consultations and without updating an obsolete federal environmental review dating to 1986. At stake are tribal cultural values, wildlife and endangered species, and the risk of toxic uranium mining waste contaminating the aquifers and streams that sustain the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. “We are very disappointed with the ruling by Judge Campbell in the Canyon Mine case,” said Havasupai Chairman Rex Tilousi.

To Defend The Environment Support Social Movements

April 27, 2015 Jeff Conant, www.ipsnews.net Resist! Activism, Central America, Environment, Indigenous People, Social Movements

The 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for Central and South America has been awarded to Berta Cáceres, an indigenous Honduran woman who co-founded the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, known as COPINH. If there is one lesson to be learned from the events that earned Cáceres the prize it is this: to defend the environment, we must support the social movements. COPINH’s leadership has made it a driving force in preserving the country’s cultural and environmental heritage – and earned it the ire of loggers, dam-builders, palm oil interests, and others whose wealth depends on the depredation of the natural world and its defenders.

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