Indigenous Rights

A Secretive Network Is Fighting Indigenous Rights

October 11, 2023 Geoff Dembicki, DeSmog. Educate! Atlas Network, Australia, Canada, Indigenous Rights

A campaign to deny Indigenous peoples a voice in Australia’s national Parliament is using tactics similar to an earlier conservative legal battle against First Nations communities in Canada, a new research paper argues. That’s no coincidence, according to the paper’s author Jeremy Walker, because think tanks linked to these efforts in Canada and Australia belong to a secretive U.S. organization called the Atlas Network that’s received support from oil, gas and coal companies and operates in nearly 100 countries. “The coordinated opposition to Indigenous constitutional recognition by the Australian arm of the Atlas Network we can assume is motivated by the same intentions underlying the permanent Atlas campaign against climate policy [globally],” writes Walker.

Indigenous Resistance, From Wounded Knee To Standing Rock

October 10, 2023 David Barsamian, The Progressive. Strategize! American Indian Movement, Indigenous Resistance, Indigenous Rights, Red PowerMovement

On February 27, there was a fiftieth-anniversary commemoration with three days of powwows, dance competitions, and an oral history project . . . documenting the role of American Indian women and their leadership within the Red Power movement. In many ways, it does resonate today because you have the children of the Red Power movement who are leading today’s movement. Whether it’s the protest at Standing Rock, [the] Line 3 [oil pipeline], or the attempts to get the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa, back to the Lakota Nation, these are all generational struggles. In many ways, the Red Power movement and the legacy of Wounded Knee just continued.

Indigenous Leaders, Allies Honor Orange Shirt Day

October 4, 2023 Will Hodgkinson, Workers' World. Resist! Boston, Indigenous Rights, Orange Shirt Day, Residential Schools

United American Indians of New England (UAINE), the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB) and their allies took over the entrance of Boston’s Basilica Church Sept. 30 to commemorate the “National Day For Truth and Reconciliation” in so-called Canada. Commonly known as Orange Shirt Day, Sept. 30 commemorates the tens of thousands of Indigenous children kidnapped and imprisoned by Canadian settler authorities in residential “schools.” The U.S. government also operated a murderous system of boarding “schools,” where settler authorities forced kidnapped Native children to “assimilate” into white settler culture.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Act Reintroduced In Congress

October 4, 2023 Native News Online. Create! Columbus Day, Congress, Indigenous Peoples Day, Indigenous Rights

The bicameral Indigenous Peoples’ Day Act to replace Columbus Day as a federal holiday and designate the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been reintroduced in Congress. The legislation was reintroduced by Representatives Sharice Davids (KS-03), Norma J. Torres (CA-35), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), and Suzan DelBene (WA-01), along with Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM). The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Act has garnered 56 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. “Our country has long failed to recognize and acknowledge its dark history of erasure and harm brought upon the first inhabitants of the Americas,” Norma Torres (CA-35) said.

Colombian Indigenous And Social Organizations March Against Violence

October 1, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Colombia, Gustavo Petro, Indigenous Rights, Mass Action

Over 15,000 Indigenous people from 10 departments of Colombia arrived in the capital Bogotá between September 25 and 27 to draw the national government’s attention to the humanitarian crisis faced by Indigenous communities in their territories due to paramilitary violence. On Wednesday, September 27, they held a massive march from Street 60 to the Bolivar Plaza via highway no.7, demanding that the government of President Gustavo Petro implement immediate measures to end violence in their territories and stop the assassination of community and social leaders. They also demanded respect for the right to territory and self-determination of the Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities.

Protests Against Mining Concession Given To Company Intensify In Panama

September 30, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Canada, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Panama

Since early August, Panamanian trade unions, Indigenous groups, and people’s movements have been taking to the streets in different parts of the country in rejection of a concession contract signed in March between the government of President Laurentino Cortizo and Minera Panamá S.A., a subsidiary of the Canadian multinational mining company First Quantum Minerals Limited. The contract allows the mining company to continue operations at one of Central America’s largest open-pit copper mines, Cobre Panamá, for 20 years, with the possibility of extending the period for another 20 years. It also authorizes the company to build a power plant, a process plant, and an international port—providing services that would be charged, but from which the state would not benefit.

Judge Dismisses Charges Against Water Protectors In The Interests Of Justice

September 18, 2023 Climate Defense Project. Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Indigenous Rights, Line 3 Pipeline, Minnesota, Pipelines, Victory, Water Protectors

As three Native women Water Protectors prepared for trial next week in Aitkin County, Judge Leslie Metzen dismissed all remaining criminal charges against Winona LaDuke, Tania Aubid and Dawn Goodwin late Thursday afternoon, September 14, 2023. The nearly three-year-old charges stemmed from a peaceful and prayerful gathering on the banks of the Mississippi River on ceded Anishinaabe land as Enbridge began construction of its Line 3 tar sands pipeline. Joined by several dozen other Water Protectors, the three women wore ceremonial jingle dresses, and sang, danced, and prayed for the water as heavy construction equipment tore into the earth.

Violence, Harassment, and Surveillance On Unist’ Ot’ En Land

September 16, 2023 Nati Garcia, Cultural Survival. Resist! Canada, Gas Pipeline, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Police abuse, RCMP, Unist' Ot' En

In December 2019, the British Columbia Supreme Court issued an injunction allowing construction of a 669-kilometer-long Coastal GasLink pipeline that will cut through 22,000 square kilometers of unceded Wet´suwet´en land. The injunction gave the Coastal GasLink pipeline unlimited access to the ancestral lands of the Wet´suwet´en, and was firmly rejected by the Wet´suwet´en people. On January 7, 2020, the Wet´suwet´en Hereditary Chiefs served Coastal GasLink with an eviction notice, effective immediately. Despite the Hereditary Chiefs’ opposition to the pipeline, the Wet´suwet´en elected band council—a form of Indigenous governance established by the Canadian government...

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Rejects DAPL Environmental Impact Statement

September 15, 2023 Darren Thompson, Native News Online. Resist! DAPL, Environmental Impact Statement, Indigenous Rights, Pipelines, Sioux, Standing Rock

The Dakota Access Pipeline was the impetus for the resistance at Standing Rock that lasted from April 2016 to March 2017 where tens of thousands of tribal citizens from all over Indian Country and environmentalists protested. The pipeline was built through the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s unceded treaty lands, less than a half mile upstream of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and beneath the Missouri River. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) Chairwoman Janet Alkire said the draft EIS should be invalidated and the Corps should “start from scratch” a new environmental review. The tribe is opposed to the firm that the Corps hired to conduct the environmental review that has strong ties to the American Petroleum industry.

‘You Can’t Mine Your Way Out Of A Climate Crisis’

September 13, 2023 Brandi Morin and Geordie Day, The Real News Network. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Joe Biden, Lithium, Nevada, Thacker Pass

In Nevada’s remote Thacker Pass, a fight for our future is playing out between local Indigenous tribes and powerful state and corporate entities hellbent on mining the lithium beneath their land. Vancouver-based Lithium Americas is developing a massive lithium mine at Thacker Pass, but for more than two years several local tribes and environmental organizations have tried to block or delay the mine in the courts and through direct action. The Thacker Pass Project is backed by the Biden administration, and companies like General Motors have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the project, looking to capitalize on the transition to a “green energy economy,” for which lithium is essential.

Blackfeet Nation Statement On Badger-Two Medicine Court Settlement

September 2, 2023 Patrick Armstrong, Jr., Last Real Indians. Resist! Blackfeet Nation, Indigenous Rights, Montana, Oil and Gas

Browning, Montana - The Blackfeet Nation has, since time immemorial, remained committed to protecting our sacred cultural lands in the Badger-Two Medicine. This area has forever been Blackfeet traditional territory, a place of refuge for our People. For decades, we have opposed plans to industrialize our cultural homeland. We want to acknowledge our many Blackfeet elders at the forefront of this struggle, who no longer are with us and who did not live to see the Badger-Two Medicine protected from development. We are grateful for their leadership. After these many years of struggle, our People are relieved that agreement finally has been reached between the U.S. government, tribal and conservation partner organizations, and the leaseholder—Solenex, LLC—to retire the last Badger-Two Medicine oil and gas lease.

First Nations Say They’re Not Wildfire Evacuees, But Climate Refugees

August 31, 2023 Emma Paling, The Real News Network. Educate! Canada, climate crisis, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Wildfires

Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by wildfire evacuations and thousands of these evacuees have been displaced for the long term, like Michell and his family. Indigenous peoples make up five per cent of Canada’s population but experience 42 per cent of wildfire evacuation events, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. This year, 25,000 people from 79 First Nations have had to leave home because of wildfires, Indigenous Services Canada told The Breach by email. In the past decade, 70,824 First Nations people have been evacuated from their communities because of wildfires, the department’s data shows.

After Wildfires, Native Hawaiian Farmers Resist Attempt To Shift Blame

August 29, 2023 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Resist! Farmers, Hawaiʻi, Indigenous Rights, Sovereignty, Wildfires

Fires that began on August 8 have devastated the landscape of Maui, Hawaii, taking the lives of at least 115 people and leaving thousands displaced and thousands of residences burned to the ground. Native Hawaiians, who are already the most impoverished populations in Hawaii and are falling victim to rapid gentrification, are expected to be hit the hardest by the long and short-term effects of the fires. To add insult to injury, a group of Native Hawaiian farmers are witnessing a coordinated attempt by the government and land developers to shift the blame of the fires away from the root causes of colonialism, and on to Indigenous water rights.

Playbook For RCMP’s Wet’suwet’en Raids Provided By Former CIA Director

August 20, 2023 Sidney Coles, Ricochet. Educate! African People's Socialist Party, CIA, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Petraeus, Wet’suwet’en

The RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), a special unit that polices Indigenous resistance against resource extraction in British Columbia, has adopted the playbook from former CIA director David Petraeus, according to a presentation at a summit held on Wet’suwet’en territory this week. Kai Nagata, communications director at Dogwood BC, spoke at the third annual Peace and Unity Summit for Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan hereditary chiefs, elders and allies from human rights organizations from around the world. Looking around the room, those in attendance sat in shock at what they were hearing and seeing.

Industry Plans Thousands Of Miles Of New Gas Pipelines For LNG Exports

August 18, 2023 Sara Sneath, DeSmog. Educate! climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, Gas Exports, Indigenous Rights, Pipelines

U.S. fossil fuel firms are pushing to build more than 2,900 miles of natural gas pipelines to feed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and Alaska, in a bid to send more of the fuel to Asia and Europe, a new analysis by Global Energy Monitor shows. The pipeline projects would transport fracked natural gas from drilling sites to compressor stations and onto LNG export terminals where the fuel would be supercooled and loaded into tankers. The proposed build-out also includes 20 new LNG export terminals. But as coastal communities and tribes watch the infrastructure build up around them, many worry about the impact it may have on their safety, livelihoods, and culture.

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