Indigenous Resistance

Indigenous Peoples Are Using Ancestral Organizing Practices

August 6, 2020 Valerie Croft, Inequality.org. Resist! COVID-19, Guatemala, Indigenous Resistance, Mining

As the effects of Covid-19 continue to be felt unequally around the globe, Indigenous peoples, such as the Xinka in Guatemala, are finding ways to organize and care for each other, while firmly rooting their response in ancestral practices that have sustained them throughout time. The Xinka people mostly live in southeastern Guatemala, in the municipalities of Santa Rosa, Jalapa, Jutiapa, and Escuintla. Since the time of Spanish colonization, the Xinka have fought to protect their land and culture. Today, they continue asserting their rights to self-determination, to fight for recognition from the Guatemalan government, and to resist transnational mining companies set on extracting large amounts of silver from their territory, which hosts one of the largest-known deposits in the world.

Land-Based Ethics And Settler Solidarity In A Time Of Corona And Revolution

July 29, 2020 By Natalie Avalos, The Arrow. Strategize! COVID-19, Indigenous Resistance, Land Rights, Rebellion2020

Settler colonialism has been defined as a structure, not an event, meaning that settler societies like the U.S., Canada, and Australia endure over time through racist laws and ideologies that naturalize the dispossession of Indigenous populations.1 One of the most effective strategies that settler states rely on to eliminate Indigenous peoples and their power is the idea that their knowledge is primitive and superstitious, examples of failed epistemology.2 This view is rooted in an Enlightenment-born materialism that asserts that legitimate knowledge can only be produced through narrow empirical methods, relegating the negotiations of immaterial life to the social margins.3 As the colonial project progresses, legitimate knowledge production is simultaneously tethered to race and power (reserved to the white and landed), resulting in what we have come to know as modernity.

Confederate Statues And Christopher Columbus Toppled

June 11, 2020 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance. Resist! Christopher Columbus, Confederate memorial, Indigenous Resistance, Racism

People are showing their anger at the white supremacy and racism that continue in the United States in multiple ways. Confederate statutes have become a target in Richmond, which served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for almost the whole US Civil War. On Monument Avenue, the statue of Davis, a Mississippi Democrat who served as the president of the Confederacy from 1861 until 1865, was among three statutes torn down within the past week in Richmond. Saturday, a statue of Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham was toppled from its pedestal. Tuesday, a statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down and dumped in a lake.

Guatemalan Water Protectors Persist, Despite Mining Company Threats

April 2, 2020 Jen Moore, Inequality.org. Resist! Gold Mining, Guatemala, Indigenous Resistance, Water Protectors

Guatemala - The hard work of protecting water and land from the long-term harms associated with gold and silver mining takes place daily on the frontlines of tenacious struggles throughout Latin America and around the world. Indigenous people and affected communities face many reprisals for their resistance, including a mounting number of arbitration suits against their governments from mining companies suing over projects that people have managed to halt through direct action and in the courts. This month, in Guatemala, the Peaceful Resistance “La Puya” celebrates eight years of struggle against a gold mining project that threatens to pollute or dry up already scarce water supplies in an area just north of Guatemala City. Day after day, since March 2012, community members have rotated in shifts to keep 24-hour watch over the access gate to the “El Tambor” gold mining project.

Indigenous Youth Occupying Office Of Minister Of Energy, Mines, And Petroleum Resources

January 21, 2020 Indigenous Climate Action. Resist! Environment, Indigenous Resistance, Oil and Gas, Pipeline

Over 45 international actions in support of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have taken place so far in 2020, including actions in Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Halifax, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and New York state. Statements in support of the Wet’suwet’en have been issued by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, numerous Nations, academic institutions, youth groups, anti-poverty groups and others. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was legislated by the province in November, 2019. Additionally, the BC Human Rights Commissioner and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) have called for a cease to construction and the immediate withdrawal of the RCMP.

Save Oak Flat

January 21, 2020 Haryaksha Gregor Knauer, AZ, U.S. and George L. Pauk, Popular Resistance Resist! Indigenous Resistance, Oak Flat, Save Oak Flat

Resolution Copper, owned by two foreign companies, has been maneuvering for years to acquire and destroy the oasis of Oak Flat. Traditionally the Apache have come here for edible and medicinal plants. Various native bird species live here, and there’s lots of water. According to Roy Chavez who once served as mayor of Superior, an ocelot road-carcass was found nearby, indicating that Oak Flat is evidently within the range of this rare and elusive cat. The huge rocks and ancient oaks are treasures that must be protected for their environmental and their sacred value. They are part of the culture that has flourished here for thousands of years. It would be infinitely horrible to destroy this site.

The Criminalization Of Indigenous Land Defenders Is A Global Concern

January 19, 2020 By Brent Patterson, Rabble.ca Resist! Indigenous Resistance, Land conflict

On April 24, 2019, a United Nations media release highlighted: "Indigenous peoples face a worrying escalation in their criminalization and harassment, especially when defending and exercising rights to their territories and natural resources, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today as it continued its third day of discussions." The Inter‑American Commission on Human Rights has defined criminalization as the "manipulation of the punitive power of the State by State and non-State actors in order to control, punish, or prevent the exercise of the right to defend human rights." Land Rights Now adds, "Portraying community leaders and activists as obstacles to development, a risk to national security, undermining traditional values or contributing to disruptive violent events is a common strategy."

Anti-Pipeline Solidarity Protests Across Canada And Beyond

January 9, 2019 CTV Regina. Resist! Gas Pipelines, Indigenous Resistance, Sovereignty, TransCanada

People gathered in front of the RCMP in Regina on Tuesday to show their support for the people of the Wet’sawet’en territory in British Columbia who are trying to stop the construction of a pipeline through the area. This follows the police-lead breach of a camp blocking a remote forestry road in British Columbia meant to stop Coastal Gaslink Pipeline Ltd., part of energy company Transcanada, from doing work on a portion of the Coastal Gaslink Project. Similar protests were held across the country over the course of the day.

Hundreds Gather To Protest Enbridge Line 5 In Michigan

September 3, 2018 Staff, Native News Online Resist! Blockades, Indigenous Resistance, Oil Pipelines

Several groups of American Indians and environmental advocates spent their Saturday of this Labor Day weekend protesting Enbridge Line 5, an outdated oil pipeline that needs to be retired according to Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians Chairperson Aaron Payment, who also is the vice president of the National Congress of American Indians. They sought to decommission Line 5, this is the fourth year protesters have taken to the water in support of shutting down the 65-year-old pipeline.

What We Learned From Standing Rock: Chase Iron Eyes’ In-Depth Analysis

August 27, 2018 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast #NoDAPL, Indigenous Resistance, Pipelines, Standing Rock

Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and an attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project, describes the movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and his almost two-year fight against felony charges. His work to develop a necessity defense led to the uncovering of corruption and collusion between industry, law enforcement and government. Chase also gives his analysis of what the mobilization at Standing Rock means in the greater context of colonialism, capitalism and the absence of democracy.

Cherokee Nation Hosts Send-Off For ‘Remember The Removal’ Bike Riders

May 28, 2018 Levi Rickert, Native News Online. Organize! American genocide, Colonialism, Indigenous Resistance

Tahlequah, Okla. — The Cherokee Nation will host a send-off ceremony for the nine young Cherokee cyclists who leave Tahlequah on Tuesday for the 2018 Remember the Removal Bike Ride. This year’s cyclists range in age from 18 to 24. They will meet eight cyclists from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina for a ride that begins in New Echota, Georgia, on June 3, and concludes around 950 miles later in Tahlequah on June 21. Cyclists follow the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears, spanning Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, to retrace the path of their ancestors.

Water Protectors Shut Down Pipeline Construction In Wisconsin

November 16, 2017 Staff of Makwa Iniative, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Blockade, Indigenous Resistance, Indigenous Rights, Lockdown, Pipelines

By Staff from Makwa Initaitive. Water Protectors from the Makwa Initiative halted the last piece of construction for the Wisconsin section of Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 pipeline project. Two water protectors locked themselves to construction equipment halting work at the site. Police arrived approximately 15minutes after the lockdown began. At this time there are 2 Water Protectors known to be under arrest in Superior, WI and 2 Water Protectors still locked onto machinery. A water protector stated, “We have attended public hearings, marches, and rallies. At this point we feel like the only way we can make are voices heard is by locking our bodies to the equipment. The state has recorded our comments, catalogued them, and say they factor them into their decision on whether or not to permit the project. We want them to stop expanding tar sands infrastructure. We need to be thinking about our children’s futures.”

Standing Rock Police Violence Lawsuit Moves Toward Trial

November 15, 2017 Water Protector Legal Collective, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! #NoDAPL, Indigenous Resistance, Indigenous Rights, Police abuse

By Water Protector Legal Collective. Dundon v. Kirchmeier is a federal civil rights class action lawsuit challenging police violence on the night of November 20-21, 2016, at Backwater Bridge near the water protector camps and the site of the DAPL pipeline just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. The case was filed on November 28, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota by nine named plaintiffs on behalf of everyone who was injured by law enforcement that night. “American Indians have felt the sharp end of a sword and the blunt end of a projectile too often in this country’s history. The brutal and militarized police violence on Backwater Bridge on November 20, 2016, should not have happened and must never happen again. The preliminary injunction is denied, but we will continue our fight for a permanent injunction and to ensure that the State pays for their indiscriminate use of excessive force,” said WPLC Executive Director Terry Janis.

The Struggle Is Never For Nothing

June 29, 2017 Leonard Peltier, www.counterpunch.org Resist! Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Resistance

By Leonard Peltier for Counter Punch - Well, here we are, another year, another memorial. After 42-years this does not get any easier. It seems as if you get lost for words. At times I feel as if it has all been for nothing, but I know that’s just weakness speaking. The struggle is never for nothing. So many of our children, grandchildren and in my case now, great-grandchildren, depend on us to try and save our lands, our Nations, our culture, religion and our People. But the young people should know many of us are growing old and soon it will be our time to leave this world. The next generation has to step into our shoes and become leaders. As they say, they will have to step up to the plate and be a strong hitter of the ball. These are words that I have repeated many times over the years. To see the younger Sisters and Brothers who are doing just that is an enormous relief from the stress that stems from feeling we may have lost the Battle for Survival as a Nation of Peoples. From in here all I can see is a lot of areas where we are losing ground. Like the young drinking, drugging and gang banging – KILLING our own kids on our Rez. Streets with these drive by shootings, “How cowardly is that!” Then there are so many children who are living in this world of oppression. They take their own lives because they believe it is their only way out.

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