Indigenous Rights

Indian Country’s Forever Chemical Problem

August 17, 2023 Zoya Teirstein, Native News Online. Organize! Environment, health, Indigenous Rights, PFAS, Public schools

Laurie Harper, director of education for the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, a K-12 tribal school on the Leech Lake Band Indian Reservation in north-central Minnesota, never thought that a class of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, would be an issue for her community. That’s partly because, up until a few months ago, she didn’t even know what PFAS were. “We’re in the middle of the Chippewa National Forest,” she said. “It’s definitely not something I had really clearly considered dealing with out here.” Late last year, tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that her school’s drinking water wells were contaminated with PFAS.

Indigenous Coastal Guardians Receive Park Ranger Authority

July 30, 2023 West Coast NOW. Create! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Restoration, Victory

It’s a historic moment for the Coastal Guardians of B.C. The B.C. government announced last year it would designate Coastal Guardians from two Nations with equivalent B.C. Park Ranger status in an unprecedented memorandum. This week, the designation was made official as Kitasoo Xai’Xias and Nuxalk Guardians received their badges in ceremonies on their respective territories along the Central Coast of B.C. The Coastal Guardian Watchmen program is a collaboration between Indigenous Nations on the B.C. coast to manage and monitor their respective territories, overseeing duties such as search-and-rescue missions, fisheries management, and wildlife conservation.

Removing Dams From Klamath River: A Step To Justice For Native Americans

July 24, 2023 Beth Rose Middleton Manning and Robert Lusardi, Resilience. Create! California, Dam Removal, Indigenous Rights, Klamath River, Salmon

The Klamath River runs over 250 miles (400 kilometers) from southern Oregon to the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. It flows through the steep, rugged Klamath Mountains, past slopes of redwood, fir, tanoak and madrone, and along pebbled beaches where willows shade the river’s edge. Closer to its mouth at Requa, the trees rising above the river are often blanketed in fog. The Klamath is central to the worldviews, history and identity of several Native nations. From headwaters in Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin-Paiute lands, it flows through Shasta, Karuk, Hupa and Yurok homelands. The Yurok Tribe has legally recognized the personhood of the river.

Navajo Chapters Oppose Huge Pumped Storage Projects

July 21, 2023 Last Real Indians. Resist! Arizona, Black Mesa, Energy storage, Indigenous Rights, Navajo

Black Mesa, Arizona - Tó Nizhóní Ání, Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment and the Center for Biological Diversity submitted resolutions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today from Navajo chapters and agencies opposing three pumped storage projects on the Navajo Nation’s Black Mesa, southeast of Kayenta. A total of 18 chapters and agencies have passed resolutions opposing the projects. “People who live here don’t want these projects, and we don’t want more damage from industrial energy development to the land and aquifers that we depend on,” said Adrian Herder of Tó Nizhóní Ání. “Asking for federal approvals before the consent of Black Mesa’s communities is the height of arrogance.

Tijuana Groups Protest Border Wall Construction At Friendship Park

July 21, 2023 Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Border Wall, California, Immigration, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mexico

Tijuana, Mexico — Eduardo seemed not to notice the soft midday rain slowly dampening his clothes and beading up on the sleeves of his jacket. Just a couple hundred feet from where the Pacific lapped the beach of both Mexico and the U.S., drawing no distinction between the two, Eduardo pointed out the native and culinary plants he and his friends tend to each week. The corn, fennel and spinach grow just a foot or two from a row of tightly spaced, 18-foot-tall bollards reinforced with tightly woven steel mesh that mark the international border. On the Mexican side, the rusting metal is covered with brightly colored murals that attempt to lend the miles-long barrier a glimmer of humanity.

We Knew Vancouver’s Ecosystem Was Damaged; The Truth Is Much Worse

July 20, 2023 Lauren Kaljur, Resilience. Create! Canada, climate crisis, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Vancouver

More than a century after colonization nearly eradicated key fish populations around Vancouver, British Columbia, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation is looking to the past to restore the ecosystem. Within just a few decades of Europeans beginning to develop what is now Vancouver, British Columbia, in the 1870s, 99 percent of Pacific herring, surf smelt, and eulachon had been wiped out in nearby waters. According to new research, the three species of forage fishes, which feed whales, salmon, seabirds, and many other animals, were quickly decimated by destructive fishing practices, industrial activity, and pollution.

Governments Are To Blame For The Winnipeg Landfill Blockade

July 18, 2023 James Wilt, Canadian Dimension. Resist! Blockade, Canada, Indigenous Rights, MMIWG2S

The City of Winnipeg is poised to secure an injunction enabling police to remove the families and loved ones of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S) from their ongoing blockade of the main entrance to the city’s Brady Road landfill (contra the city’s initial claims, the side entrance to the landfill remains open, allowing the continued dumping of waste). The blockade was erected last Thursday following Premier Heather Stefanson’s announcement that the province wouldn’t fund a search of Prairie Green landfill, where the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran—alleged to have been murdered and dumped by white supremacist serial killer Jeremy Skibicki—are presumed to be located.

Influx Of Supporters Join Landfill Blockade After ‘Act Of Hate’

July 10, 2023 CBC News. Resist! Cemetery, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, MMIWG2S

Protesters blocking the Brady Road landfill south of Winnipeg say their resolve is even stronger after a man shovelled a truckload of soil and debris onto an MMIWG mural near the blockade Sunday. The blockade went up last week after the province refused to fund a search of Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of two Indigenous women. The city ordered those blocking the roadway to vacate by noon Monday. "Screw it. Who cares what they have to say? Who cares what they want? I'm not going to take no for an answer anymore," said Cambria Harris, whose mother's remains are believed to be at another landfill outside the city.

Argentina: Protests Continue, Indigenous Communities Demand Repeal Of Constitutional Reform

July 7, 2023 Pagina 12, Orinoco Tribune. Resist! Argentina, Constitution, Indigenous Rights, Mass Action

Raúl Choquevilca—the president of the indigenous community of Ocumazo, in Humahuaca, Jujuy province of Argentina, and member of the Assembly of the Third Malón de la Paz—confirmed on a local radio interview that a new day of protests was beginning in Jujuy against the express and unconsented regional constitutional reform, promoted by Gerardo Morales, the governor of Jujuy province. In a communiqué released this Thursday, July 6, Choquevilca informed that all roads will be blocked and that no traffic will be allowed “until the constitutional reform is repealed,” although they clarified that they will allow the transit of essential services.

Thousands Rally Across Australia In Support Of Indigenous Reform

July 2, 2023 Al Jazeera. Create! Australia, Constitution, Indigenous Rights, Voting

Thousands of people have rallied in cities and towns across Australia to back a campaign to recognise the country’s Indigenous people in the constitution in advance of a referendum later this year. The gatherings on Sunday, organised by the Yes23 campaign, were part of a nationwide “day of action” to rally the public after a recent dip in support for the constitutional change. The proposal, which will be put up for a referendum between October and December, seeks to establish an advisory body – the Indigenous Voice to Parliament – to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a direct say in policies that affect them.

Indigenous Activists Respond To Gutting Of Affirmative Action

June 30, 2023 Jean-Luc Pierite and Mahtowin Munro, Popular Resistance. Educate! Affirmative Action, Higher Education, Indigenous Rights, Supreme Court, Systemic Racism

Boston, MA - Indigenous activists in Boston reaffirm their commitment to overcome historic barriers to higher education for students in light of today’s ruling delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that guts Affirmative Action in college admissions at institutions of higher education across the country. The Indigenous activists demand the passage of two bills in the state legislature specifically addressing Native issues in public education. Today’s SCOTUS ruling overturns a longstanding precedent that had previously benefited Black, Indigenous, and Latine students in higher education due to a demonstrable historic lack of opportunities for those students.

Lula Faces Powerful Opposition As He Seeks To Protect The Amazon

June 28, 2023 Farai Shawn Matiashe, New Lines Magazine. Resist! Amazon Rainforest, Brazil, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Lula da Silva

Surrounded by thousands of supporters, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known simply as “Lula”) was sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2023, at a colorful inauguration ceremony held at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. It was not Lula’s first time assuming the highest office of Latin America’s largest country. He was first sworn in two decades ago and served two terms as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010. The 67-year-old is a true veteran of Brazilian politics: He was the presidential candidate of the leftist Workers’ Party in 1989, 1994 and 1998, losing each time. In the October 2022 elections, he narrowly defeated the right-wing populist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, with 50.9% of the vote.

Supreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting For Water

June 27, 2023 Anna V. Smith, Umar Farooq and Mark Olalde, ProPublica. Resist! Arizona, Indigenous Rights, Navajo nation, Supreme Court, Water

More than 150 years after the Navajo Nation signed treaties with the United States establishing its reservation and recognizing its sovereignty, the country’s largest tribe still struggles to secure the water guaranteed by those agreements. Decades of negotiations with the state of Arizona have proven fruitless. The state has been uniquely aggressive in using the scarce resource as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the Navajo Nation and other tribes, dragging out the talks while Indigenous communities await desperately needed water and infrastructure, a recent ProPublica and High Country News investigation found.

Creating America’s First Native Public Housing Complex

June 26, 2023 Kasey R. Keeler, Next City. Educate! History, Indigenous Rights, Minnesota, Public Housing

During the second half of the 1960s, on the heels of the civil rights movement and in the midst of a steadily growing urban Indian community, American Indian community members in Minneapolis and Saint Paul began to meet to discuss the many issues urban Indians across the Twin Cities were facing. These community gatherings eventually became the foundation for the politically minded American Indian Movement, widely recognized as AIM. It would not be long before “AIM and its leaders saw the need for a native-oriented housing development to help American Indians transition from the reservation to the city without losing touch with their traditional values” researcher Robert G. Style writes.

Lithium Nevada Lawsuit Aims To Stop Praying At Sacred Site

June 21, 2023 Last Real Indians. Educate! Indigenous Rights, Lithium, Mining, Nevada, Sacred sites

Reno, Nevada — Lithium Nevada Corporation has filed a lawsuit against Protect Thacker Pass and seven people for opposing the Thacker Pass lithium mine. The lawsuit is similar to what is called a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, aimed at shutting down free speech and protest. The suit aims to ban the prayerful land defenders from the area and force them to pay monetary damages which could total millions of dollars. “This lawsuit is targeting Native Americans and their allies for a non-violent prayer to protect the 1865 Thacker Pass massacre site,” said Terry Lodge, attorney working with the group.

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