Indigenous Rights

Apache Stronghold Takes Case Against Copper Mine To The Supreme Court

September 12, 2024 Debra Utacia Krol, Arizona Central. Resist! Copper Mine, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites, Supreme Court

After a two-month pilgrimage across the nation, Apache Stronghold formally presented its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a final bid to stop a massive copper mine from obliterating one of the Apache peoples' most sacred sites. The high court was the last hope for the group after the full 29-justice 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to review the case. Opponents of the mine say the case will be a test of how the court and the government view the religious rights of Indigenous people. Apache Stronghold in April asked the full Ninth Circuit panel to review its lawsuit against the U.S. and Resolution Copper. That move followed an opinion issued by a panel of 11 appeals court judges that ruled narrowly against Apache Stronghold in March, about a year after oral arguments.

Oglala Sioux Tribe Wins Legal Case Against Powertech Uranium Mine

September 11, 2024 Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. Resist! Black Hills, Indigenous Rights, Oglala Sioux, Uranium mining, Victory

Powertech (now a subsidiary of enCore Energy) planned to start mining uranium in the southwestern Black Hills in 2009. Thanks to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the BHCWA and its allies, and you — they are not mining and its 2024. And this decision means that they won’t be anytime soon. In the Press-Release open from the Oglala Sioux Tribe they state: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has ruled in favor of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in a case involving a proposed uranium mine in Fall River and Custer Counties, South Dakota. The EAB sent the EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) permits for the proposed Powertech Dewey-Burdock uranium mine, owned by parent company enCore Energy, back to EPA Region 8 (located in Denver, CO) to reconsider the permitting decision.

Global Indigenous Leaders Condemn New Zealand Treatment Of Māori

September 11, 2024 Indigenous Environmental Network. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Maori, New Zealand, Treaties

A collective of global Indigenous leaders and environmentalists have expressed their extreme concern regarding the Treaty Principles Bill as the New Zealand government presents it to the cabinet. They express their solidarity with Māori and call upon the government to act in good faith and with respect for the treaty “upon which the legitimacy of their existence rests”, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The statement of solidarity was endorsed at the Protecting Mother Earth Conference, held by The Indigenous Environmental Network and supported by the Indigenous embassy Tonatierra in Eastern Cherokee Nation (co-existent with North Carolina) 1-4 August 2024.

Native Boarding Schools Were Genocidal: Healing Starts With Truth

September 10, 2024 Abaki Beck, Truthout. Educate! Boarding School, colonization, Genocide, History, Indigenous History, Indigenous Rights

When I was in middle school, at a majority-white public school in Montana, I was given an assignment to interview a grandparent about their childhood. The questions were designed to help us better understand what we did and did not have in common with each other. When I interviewed my maternal grandmother, I asked her whether there was ever a bully at her school. Her answer surprised me; she said she was the bully. “I always had soap in my mouth,” she said, punished for “talking back” to her teachers—and punished for speaking her first language: Blackfeet. My grandmother was a student at the St. Ignatius Mission and School, a church-run, assimilationist boarding school on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana.

Apache Stronghold Continues Journey Of Prayer To The Supreme Court

August 5, 2024 Apache Stronghold, Popular Resistance. Resist! Caravan, Indigenous Rights, Oak Flat, Sacred sites, Supreme Court

Today, August 4, 2024, the Apache Stronghold will be continuing our prayer journey to stop the shattering of human existence and to protect Mother Earth. The prayer journey began in the Lummi Nation, north of Seattle, in July, and it will conclude on September 11, 2024 when the Apache Stronghold files their appeal at the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, with stops along the way visiting tribes and supporters for prayers and ceremony. The full route is outlined below. We will be traveling to Thacker Pass, Nevada for a prayer gathering on August 6. This will be our second stop on the journey.

Amazonian Indigenous Organizations Threaten To Boycott FSC

August 1, 2024 Survival International. Resist! Amazon Rainforest, Deforestation, Forestry Stewardship Council, Indigenous Rights, Peru

Three key Amazonian Indigenous organizations have issued an unprecedented joint statement, accusing the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) of deliberately delaying a decision on whether to withdraw certification from a notorious logging company on uncontacted peoples’ land in the Peruvian Amazon. They have threatened to boycott further “pointless” negotiations with the FSC concerning the case. The company, Canales Tahuamanu, has already bulldozed more than 120 miles of logging tracks deep into the territory of the uncontacted Mashco Piro people, whose images were broadcast around the world two weeks ago.

Canada Owes First Nations Billions After Making ‘Mockery’ Of Treaty Deal

July 29, 2024 Leyland Cecco, Portside. Resist! Canada, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Legal System, Treaties, Victory

An “egregious” refusal by successive Canadian governments to honor a key treaty signed with Indigenous nations made a “mockery” of the deal and deprived generations of fair compensation for their resources, Canada’s top court has ruled. But while the closely watched decision will likely yield billions in payouts, First Nation chiefs say the ruling adds yet another hurdle in the multi-decade battle for justice. In a scathing and unanimous decision released on Friday, Canada’s supreme court sharply criticized both the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around a 174-year-old agreement, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources in order to enrich themselves. But while the closely watched decision will likely yield billions in payouts, First Nation chiefs say the ruling adds yet another hurdle in the multi-decade battle for justice. In a scathing and unanimous decision released on Friday, Canada’s supreme court sharply criticized both the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around a 174-year-old agreement, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources in order to enrich themselves.

The Pacific Lands And Seas Are Neither Forbidden Nor Forgotten

July 19, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! French colonialism, French Imperialism, Indigenous Rights, Mass Action, New Caledonia, RIMPAC, Social Movements, US Imperialism

Since May, a powerful struggle has rocked Kanaky (New Caledonia), an archipelago located in the Pacific, roughly 1,500 kilometres east of Australia. The island, one of five overseas territories in the Asia-Pacific ruled by France, has been under French colonial rule since 1853. The indigenous Kanak people initiated this cycle of protests after the French government of Emmanuel Macron extended voting rights in provincial elections to thousands of French settlers in the islands. The unrest led Macron to suspend the new rules while subjecting islanders to severe repression. In recent months, the French government has imposed a state of emergency and curfew on the islands and deployed thousands of French troops, which Macron says will remain in New Caledonia for ‘as long as necessary’.

Environmental Protesters Under Attack And Often Treated As Terrorists

July 11, 2024 Peter Speetjens, Resilience. Educate! climate crisis, Environmental Activists, Environmental Justice, Free Speech, Indigenous Rights, Suppression

Events in February felt like a legal double whammy for the environment and its defenders. First, the United Nations Environment Assembly declined a Bolivian proposal to grant rights to nature and Mother Earth. Then, Michel Forst, the U.N. special rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention, raised the alarm with his new paper: “State Repression of Environmental Protest and Civil Disobedience: A Major Threat to Human Rights and Democracy.” Although the right to protest is safeguarded by universal human rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, Forst signals a worrisome rise in police brutality in dealing with environmental defenders.

Court Rejects Jail For Wet’suwet’en Chief Who Defied Injunction

July 5, 2024 Amanda Follett Hosgood, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Indigenous Rights, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

A Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief will spend two months under house arrest for interfering with construction on the Coastal GasLink pipeline project nearly three years ago. The sentence comes more than four months after Chief Dsta’hyl, a Wing Chief of the Likhts’amisyu Clan who also goes by Adam Gagnon, was found guilty of criminal contempt for breaching a court injunction obtained by Coastal GasLink. The injunction bars anyone from impeding work on the controversial pipeline project. As he emerged from the Smithers courthouse following Wednesday’s sentencing, Dsta’hyl announced he will appeal his conviction.

The Fight To Free Leonard Peltier Continues

July 4, 2024 Demetrius Johnson, NDN Collective. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Leonard Peltier, Parole, Political Prisoner

On June 10th Leonard Peltier appeared before the US Parole Commission to state his case for freedom for the 4th time– his three previous parole attempts in 1993, 1996, and 2009 were all denied. On July 2nd, the US Parole Commission denied Leonard Peltier parole for the 4th time. At 79 years old and battling multiple serious health conditions without proper medical treatment, Leonard Peltier most likely won’t make it another 15 years for his next parole hearing scheduled for June 2039. But that does not mean the fight for justice is over. In a phone call from Leonard Peltier to Nick Tilsen, President and CEO of NDN Collective, after the US Parole Commission’s decision, Leonard stated, “I am not intending to give up. And I’m hoping none of you give up.”

Leonard Peltier Denied Parole

July 3, 2024 People's Dispatch. Educate! Indigenous Rights, Leonard Peltier, Parole, political prisoners

The federal Parole Commission has denied Leonard Peltier’s request for parole, Peltier’s legal team announced on Tuesday, July 2. This marks a major setback for the longest-held political prisoner in the United States, who had his first parole hearing in over a decade on June 10. Peltier, who was active in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and a beacon for both the Indigenous struggle in the United States and the struggle to free political prisoners, now will continue to languish in prison for an undetermined amount of time. According to Peltier’s lawyer, Kevin Sharp, an interim hearing has been scheduled for 2026, while a full hearing has been scheduled for June 2039, when Peltier will be 94.

First Nations And Allies Resist Radioactive Waste Repository

July 3, 2024 Warren Bernauer, Laura Tanguay, Elysia Petrone, and Brennain Lloyd, Canadian Dimension. Resist! Canada, climate crisis, Energy, Environment, First Nations, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Rights, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste

On April 30, 2024, First Nations leaders organized a rally in Anemki Wequedong (Thunder Bay) to protest a proposed nuclear waste repository in northwestern Ontario between Ignace and Dryden. The speakers included representatives of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation, Gull Bay First Nation, and Fort William First Nation. Michele Solomon, Chief of Fort William First Nation, welcomed all the participants to her traditional territory and stated that her community is “strongly opposed to the transportation of nuclear waste through our territory and we will stand by that, we will continue to stand by that, and we stand with all those who are also opposed.”

Parole Commission: It’s Long Past The Time To Free Leonard Peltier

June 12, 2024 Levi Rickert, Native News Online. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Leonard Peltier, Parole, political prisoners

For the first time in 15 years, Leonard Peltier will be afforded a full parole hearing on Monday, June 10 at the United States Penitentiary at Coleman, Fla. Peltier (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) has been incarcerated for 48 years for the killing of two FBI agents at Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in June 1975. For five decades, Peltier has maintained his innocence and hoped for the chance to clear his name. Monday’s hearing may well be his last chance at vindication. The incident that led to Peltier’s imprisonment happened some 49 years ago, when two FBI agents — Jack Coler and Ronald Williams — arrived at a residence on the reservation to pursue a suspect who had taken a pair of shoes in a robbery.

Indigenous Tribes Lead DC Rally To Shut Down Dakota Access Pipeline

June 12, 2024 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Resist! Dakota Access Pipeline, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Pipelines, Washington D.C., Water Defenders

Indigenous campaigners, climate action groups, and other environmental justice advocates converged in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to amplify the message they have aimed to send to the federal government for more than eight years, since they led a historic, monthslong mass civil disobedience action in 2016 with tens of thousands of supporters in an effort to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe organized Tuesday's rally, calling on President Joe Biden and the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) to revoke all permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and end operations for a project that transports 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day nearly 1,200 miles, running just a mile upstream from the Standing Rock reservation.

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