Indigenous Sovereignty

Canada: Supreme Court Upholds Sinixt Nation’s Right To Land Across Border

April 25, 2021 Olivia Stefanovich, CBC.ca. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Land Ownership, Legal System

Canada's highest court has upended the federal government's 65-year-old claim that an Indigenous nation from British Columbia's Interior no longer exists. In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada said the Sinixt Nation, whose reservation is in Washington state, has constitutionally protected Indigenous rights to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border. The ruling means that if Indigenous groups outside of modern-day Canada can prove they descended from a pre-contact society in what is now Canada, they can claim Section 35(1) rights under the Constitution, which recognizes and affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples. "Persons who are not Canadian citizens and who do not reside in Canada can exercise an Aboriginal right," the decision said.

Haudenosaunee Chiefs Declare Development Moratorium

April 21, 2021 Brett Forester, APT News. Create! Development, Indigenous Sovereignty, Land grabs, Treaty Rights

Traditional Six Nations chiefs have declared a formal moratorium on development within the Haldimand Tract, a broad swath of land spanning 10 kms from either side of the Grand River as it winds its way from Dundalk, Ont. down to Lake Erie. Standing outside the Longhouse, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council said construction can’t proceed without the people’s consent — doubling down on their support for the land reclamation in Caledonia that now enters month 10. “The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council endorses, supports and recognizes that development should not be proceeding on our lands,” Deyohowe:to Roger Silversmith, Snipe Clan chief of the Cayuga Nation, told reporters on Tuesday.

Saving The Salmon

April 18, 2021 Matt Simmons, The Narwhal. Create! Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Salmon, Water

Canada - B.C.’s free-entry mining system allows any individual or company to stake a claim — and subsequently explore for minerals on that claim — anywhere in the province that is not already set aside as a protected area. This includes private land and Indigenous territory. Under provincial laws, which date back to the mid-1800s, no consent or consultation is required. “It’s so archaic. It’s so colonial,” Marsden says. In the mid-2010s, mineral exploration and mining companies started staking claims on Gitanyow territory. A tenure allows a company to conduct exploratory work, and if it finds enough evidence of minerals, it can then propose a mine. But even exploratory work has impacts on the landscape, Marsden says.

Indigenous Youth Rally To Demand Biden Stop Pipelines

April 6, 2021 Jen Deerinwater, Truthout. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Joe Biden, Pipelines, Youth Activism

On Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Sacred Stone Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), frontline Indigenous youth and organizers held several actions in Washington, D.C. The activists called on President Joe Biden to end DAPL and the Line 3 pipeline and to “Build Back Fossil Free.” “It was our youth that led today,” explained Waniya Locke (Diné, Lakota, Nakota and Anishinaabe). The youth-led actions included a rally at the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) headquarters, where organizers delivered petitions with 400,000 signatures demanding ACE withdraw its permit approving Line 3.

Tribal Nations Fight Proposed Gold Mine Near Death Valley

March 16, 2021 Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times. Resist! California, Environment, Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining

Lone Pine, CA - Perched high in the craggy Inyo Mountains, between the dusty Owens Valley floor and Death Valley National Park, looms a rugged, nearly roadless chunk of desert terrain teeming with wildlife and scarred by mining operations. Conglomerate Mesa’s charcoal smelters helped give birth 150 years ago to the nearby rip-roaring silver town of Cerro Gordo, where ingots were produced and shipped off to the small pueblo of Los Angeles by steamboat and a 20-mule team. Now, the 22,500-acre tableau of Joshua trees, piñon pines and limestone boulders bristling with fossil shells is turning to mining again. Spurred by the rising price of gold, K2 Gold Corp., of Vancouver, Canada, is drilling and trenching in hopes of selling its findings or partnering with a bigger company that would, perhaps, transform the public lands into an open pit cyanide heap leach mine, just a few miles from Death Valley.

A Conversation With Leaders Of The Mayangna Nation

February 21, 2021 Stephen Sefton, Alliance for Global Justice. Educate! Hurricanes, Indigenous Sovereignty, Nicaragua, Sandinista

In November of 2020, between hurricanes Eta and Iota, Stephen Sefton interviewed Indigenous leaders and others in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. The interviews mainly address long standing misapprehensions and outright falsehoods about Nicaragua’s Sandinista government’s defense of Indigenous people’s rights, an issue inseparable from defense of the natural environment. More immediately, the interviews exposed several poorly researched, inaccurate reports of the Oakland Institute, published in 2020, clearly seeking to damage Nicaragua’s economy by means of misleading, sensationalist and simply false allegations of abuse of Indigenous people’s rights and environmental depredation.

Activists Warn Resumption Of Armed Conflict In Western Sahara

February 19, 2021 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! Indigenous Sovereignty, Morocco, Wars and Militarism, Western Sahara

The collective of the Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara (CODESA) has called for global support to save the lives of Sahrawis as occupying Morocco resumed its oppression in the region fighting for self-determination. Last week, CODESA appealed to international organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross for solidarity and action in “saving lives and humanity in Western Sahara.” CODESA appealed to the Red Cross to immediately establish a permanent mission for humanitarian operations in Western Sahara. It also asked other international organizations and individuals to sign a petition to that effect. The campaign to collect signatures had started on January 20 and ended on February 15.

One Year Anniversary Of Wet’suwet’en Protests, Blockades

February 12, 2021 Adam Olsen. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

The protests were a result of the BC NDP’s decision to press ahead with the Coastal GasLink pipeline through the Wet’suwet’en territory using militarized RCMP to enforce their decision. I had just returned from a visit to the territory. I was invited by the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to witness firsthand their beautiful lands and the violence delivered by the BC NDP government. As the protestors pulsed with anger, solidarity blockades popped up on rail lines and other infrastructure across the country. Just a few short weeks after passing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in November 2019, it looked like 2020 was going to be a difficult year for Crown-Indigenous relations in British Columbia.

Mary River Mine Protesters End Blockade, Announce Next Steps

February 11, 2021 Randi Beers, Nunatsiaq News. Resist! Blockade, Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining

After a week of blockading an airstrip and road to an iron mine on north Baffin Island, a small group of protesters are packing up their tents. That’s according to protesters’ spokesperson Marie Naqitarvik, wife of protester Tom Naqitarvik. She sent out a news release late Feb. 10, announcing the group would be decamping and moving to an observation position at a nearby hunting cabin, before heading to Pond Inlet Saturday to prepare for face-to-face meetings with community leaders and Inuit organizations. The protesters call themselves the Nuluujaat Land Guardians, and they have been blocking access to Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s Mary River iron mine since the evening of Feb. 4.

Protesters Say Mine Expansion Ignores Nunavut Agreement

February 8, 2021 Beth Brown, CBC News. Resist! Biodiversity, Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining

Protests continue in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, on Saturday, as a two-week environmental hearing on an expansion at the Mary River iron ore mine wraps up. At noon Saturday, around 50 residents gathered outside the community hall where the hearings are happening. It was – 32 C with the windchill, according to Environment Canada. "We protested and chanted, 'Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, protect our rights, protect our people, protect our animals'," said resident Sheena Akoomalik. At the protest, she brandished a copy of the Nunavut Agreement. She said the legal agreement between Nunavut Inuit and the Canadian government, and its protections for land and harvesting rights, are being ignored.

How The Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions Changed Their Lives

January 30, 2021 Emily Fagan, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

It was the first week of Kolin Sutherland-Wilson’s final semester at the University of Victoria. But he wasn’t there. Instead, on a chilly January morning in 2020, he sat alone on the front steps of the British Columbia legislature, dressed warmly and holding signs that called on provincial leaders to stand with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs opposing the Coastal GasLink project in their traditional territory. For a week, he spent all day on the steps. MLAs and staff who passed by barely glanced at him. But soon friends, classmates and community members joined him. The growing group took on bigger actions — a ferry blockade and a sit-in at the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum resources.

Corporations Battle Apache Tribes To Build North America’s Biggest Copper Mine

January 27, 2021 Sue Lannin, ABC News. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Rio Tinto, Sacred sites

"This place is very holy and religious to us." Wendsler Nosie Senior, an elder of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, is describing his people's land, Oak Flat or Chi'chil Bildagoteel, in the Arizona desert in the US south-west. The site in the Tonto National Forest is a popular camping and hiking ground and contains sacred cultural heritage locations that include rock carvings, burial sites and the Apache Leap, where Apache warriors jumped to their death after being driven to the edge of the cliff by the US cavalry. But earlier this month, in the dying days of the Trump administration, the US Government handed over Oak Flat to two of the world's biggest mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP.

Indigenous Land Grab On The Horizon

January 22, 2021 Madeline McClure, AFGJ. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

BHP and Rio Tinto, two of the world’s largest resource extraction companies, have earned themselves a solid reputation for obliterating native lands and communities throughout the world. Leaders in the international mining market, the British-Australian companies are globally condemned for their labor, environmental and human rights abuses. Today, they’re hard at work to expand that reputation to Arizona, where their jointly-owned company Resolution Copper advances toward the destruction of ancestral Apache land Oak Flat. Following the outcry caused by Rio Tinto’s deliberate gutting of 46,000-year-old Aboriginal sacred site Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, Rio Tinto and BHP voiced public concessions to work cooperatively with First Nations.

California Truth, Healing Council Begins Historic Work

January 18, 2021 KolKickingWoman, Indian Country Today. Create! American genocide, California, Indigenous Sovereignty, truth and reconciliation

Two years ago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a formal apology to tribes in the state for atrocities committed against them and for the history of genocide and oppression they endured. He also decided to put action, and money, behind his words. Through an executive order, the governor established the California Truth and Healing Council to provide an avenue for Native Americans “to clarify the record – and provide their historical perspective – on the troubled relationship between tribes and the state.” This first-of-its-kind panel recently held its initial meeting to discuss what it hopes to accomplish. “Telling the truth is only one small part of this whole healing cycle,” said Caleen Sisk, a council member and chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “It’s taking action and doing things so tribal ways can continue to exist.”

Apache Stronghold Lawsuit Over Oak Flat Halts Transfer To Mining Company

January 17, 2021 Apache Stronghold, Popular Resistance. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Mining, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

Apache Stronghold, on behalf of traditional Apache religious and cultural leaders, placed a lien on Oak Flat on Wednesday, January 13, with the Pinal County Recorder’s Office. The lien prevents the planned transfer of Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Bildagoteel, to a foreign mining company until the recently filed ongoing Apache Stronghold lawsuit is finalized. The lien and one of the lawsuit claims are based on the Treaty of Santa Fe of 1852 between the United States and the Apache which promises that Apache lands, at the center of which lies Chi’chil Bildagoteel, are to remain in Apache ownership. The Treaty of Santa Fe is still in force.

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