Land Reform

Venezuelan Cooperatives

July 25, 2022 Ithaca DSA, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Communes, Cooperatives, Land Reform, Venezuela

Dario Azzellini tells Theresa Alt about Venezuelan cooperatives. The Chavez government supported the formation of cooperatives. Many formed; few really succeeded in operating cooperatively. Liberation theology also had been encouraging cooperatives. Other cooperatives arose when entrepreneurs and landowners left Venezuela and the workers took over. Later initiating cooperatives was given to the local-government communes. Local communes have played a more constructive role than central government. Recorded June 8, 2022.

The Maasai’s Peaceful Fight Over Their Homeland

May 24, 2022 Robert Bociaga, Fair Planet. Resist! Africa, Conservation, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform

Native to the north of the country, Tanzania’s Maasai people have been protesting against the government’s renewed efforts to strip them of the right to occupy and use their ancestral lands. What would it take to defend their homeland? "I am born to live my life," says Denis Moses Oleshangai, a Maasai youth activist hailing from northern Tanzania, in the Ngorongoro province’s village of Endulen. "But to live my life I need to achieve my dreams, so I will be fighting even if there is any danger, or obstacle for community and myself." In recent years, many Maasai activists were arrested for speaking out. In 2017, around 200 Maasai houses were burned in Loliondo, their livestock confiscated.

Niskithe Prayer Camp Launched In Resistance To Development Project

May 9, 2022 It's Going Down. Resist! Indigenous culture, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Nebraska

Lincoln, Nebraska - On May 2nd, in so-called Lincoln, Nebraska, the Niskithe Prayer Camp was established in opposition to the “Wilderness Crossing development project, which would significantly encroach on sacred Native American purification/sweat ceremonies and disrupt an existing pristine nature park.” According to Nebraska Public Media: Lincoln City Council approved a housing development for 162 single-family homes, 134 townhomes, and 205 apartments near Wilderness Park in Lincoln, across from the only two Native American sweat lodges within the city, last week. Now, a group of Native American community members set up a prayer camp on the approved land in protest. Seven native teepees surround Native Americans while they burn cedar and pray for the sanctity of the sweat lodges across the street. In the 1970s, Chief Leonard Crow Dog set up those lodges on private land surrounding Wilderness Park for Native Americans to hold traditional ceremonies, pray, and heal.

From Alcatraz To Moss Lake, The Land Back! Movement Is Not New

April 17, 2022 Lee Beason II, Last Real Indians. Resist! colonization, Indigenous Activism, Land Reform, Landback

Land Back! is a popular slogan among Natives on social media in the form of memes, hashtags and posts advocating decolonization. It is spray painted on the sides of buildings and bronze statues of euroamerican colonizers (preferably in red), as well as appearing as a talking point on an episode of Reservation Dogs. Although the term has gained popularity via social media and perhaps viewed as a recent trend, Land Back! actions have been in effect since the Red Power movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. One of the more well-known Land Back! events from that era was the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, a former federal prison near the San Francisco Bay. Hundreds of angry and motivated Natives arrived by the boatload and demanded the deed to the island.

‘Historic’ Aboriginal Land Title Trial To Begin In B.C. Supreme Court

March 21, 2022 Jason Proctor, CBC News. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, UNDRIP

When Captain James Cook encountered the ancestors of the Nuchatlaht people in 1778, the British explorer wrote in his journal that he had "no where met with Indians who had such high notions of every thing the Country produced being their exclusive property." Those words may come back to haunt the Crown in the coming weeks as the Nuchatlaht embark on an uncharted journey of their own: a legal quest to obtain Aboriginal title over 200 square kilometers of land off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Members of the First Nation will be in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday for the beginning of what some observers expect to be a groundbreaking trial as they attempt to prove their right to Crown land mostly comprised of Nootka Island.

Six Nations Lawsuit ‘Will Result In A Significant Damage Award’

October 10, 2021 Brett Forester, APT National News. Resist! Canada, Colonialism, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform

Officials at Crown-Indigenous Relations worry the Crown may lose a lawsuit launched by Six Nations of the Grand River’s elected council over the community’s numerous outstanding land claims, internal documents suggest. Negotiators with the Treaties and Aboriginal Government branch informed their deputy minister, the department’s top public servant, of the law department’s opinion in an August 2020 briefing package obtained by APTN News. “The First Nation is claiming approximately 900,000 acres of land that was improperly surrendered in southwestern Ontario,” the memo explained. “Justice Canada advises that portions of the Six Nations litigation claim poses high risk for the Crown, and will result in a significant damage award.”

How New Zealand’s Maori Are Reclaiming Land With Occupations

September 23, 2021 Don Rowe, The Guardian. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Maori, New Zealand

Two years ago, a small pocket of land three kilometres from Auckland’s international airport became the most prominent site of a struggle by Māori, New Zealand’s indigenous people, to reclaim land confiscated by the crown more than 150 years ago. Ihumātao contains evidence of New Zealand’s first commercial gardens, where thousands of hectares were planted with kumara, a tropical sweet potato which thrived in the warm and nutritious soil. The adjacent stonefields, today a category one Unesco heritage site, are rich with ancient nurseries and storage pits. When William Hobson, then-governor of New Zealand, founded Auckland in 1840, the produce of Ihumātao sustained the growing population.

How Laws Keep Indigenous People From Protecting Sacred Spaces

August 22, 2021 Debra Utacia Krol, USA Today. Educate! Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Law, Sacred sites

Phoenix – Tourists speeding toward Grand Canyon National Park rarely notice the rocky protuberance that juts above the flat expanse of Arizona's Coconino Plateau. But to the Havasu 'Baaja, known to the world as the Havasupai Tribe or "People of the Blue-Green Water," the isolated hill forms the center of their lands and spiritual life. Red Butte (Wii'I Gdwiisa or "Clenched Fist Mountain") is the abdomen of Mother Earth. Mat Taav Tiivjunmdva, a meadow about 3 miles north of the distinctive mountain close to the Canyon's South Rim, is her navel. But Red Butte and Mat Taav Tiivjunmdva are part of the Kaibab National Forest and do not lie within the trust land borders of the Havasupai, who were evicted from Grand Canyon National Park in 1919.

Confederated Salish And Kootenai Win The Day

August 12, 2021 Tara Sweeney, Indian Country Today. Educate! Bison, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Montana

Congratulations to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on their recent acquisition of the National Bison Range. In September 2018, I made my first official trip as assistant secretary-Indian affairs to the homelands of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The purpose of the trip was to learn about the irrigation project on the Flathead Reservation. I learned about the challenges with rate setting, aging infrastructure, the differing needs of Indian and non-Indian water users, water rights, the history behind the project and the need for a fair and just water claims settlement with the federal government. In addition to the irrigation project, I had the opportunity to visit the National Bison Range and learn about the cultural significance of the bison, and the range, to the Salish and Kootenai peoples.

Stories Of Resistance From El Maizal Commune

August 7, 2021 Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert, Venezuelanalysis. Create! Land Reform, Socialism, US Sanctions, Venezuela

El Maizal Commune lies in the fertile lands between the Lara and Portuguesa states in western Venezuela. Founded in 2009, this rural commune has since become an important political and economic force in both the region and the country. It not only produces huge amounts of corn every year, but also raises cattle and pigs, along with a growing number of additional side enterprises. Most importantly, El Maizal Commune forges new social relations and new human beings: people committed to the socialist project that Chávez promoted during his lifetime.

Peace In Colombia Should Mean Land Reform And An End To Hunger

June 3, 2021 Vijay Prashad and Zoe Alexandra, People's Dispatch. Resist! Colombia, Human Rights, Hunger, Land Reform

Since the end of April, Colombia’s streets have smelled of tear gas. The government of Colombian President Iván Duque imposed policies that put the costs of the pandemic on the working class and the peasantry and tried to suffocate any advancement of the Havana peace accords of 2016. Discontent led to street protests, which were repressed harshly by the government. These protests, Rodrigo Granda of Colombia’s Comunes party told us in an interview, “are defined by the wide participation of youth, women, artists, religious people, the Indigenous, Afro-Colombians, unions and organizations from neighborhoods of the poor and the working class. Practically the whole of Colombia is part of the struggle.”

Land Exchange For Alaska Native Veterans

May 15, 2021 Becky Bohrer, Associated Press. Create! Alaska, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Veterans

Juneau, AL - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday proposed letting Alaska Native Vietnam War veterans exchange promised federal land allotments that many say are not available in their cultural regions for state lands. Details would need to be worked out through the legislative process, with lawmakers eyeing adjournment in about two weeks. Several legislators attended Wednesday’s announcement, along with Alaska Native veterans. Dunleavy said he sees this as an opportunity to “right a wrong” the federal government should have addressed long ago. “We’re going to help them get land as close as possible to where they grew up or where they hunted or where they berry picked, especially where they want their families to take part,” the Republican governor said.

Minnesota Returns Land To Lower Sioux Indian Community

February 22, 2021 Joseph Choi, The Hill. Create! Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Minnesota

The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) officially returned 114 acres of land to the Lower Sioux Indian Community, four years after the transfer was approved by the state legislature. The Star Tribune reports the land transfer became official on Feb. 12, with the MNHS returning around half of its southern property along the Minnesota River back to the tribe. "I don't know if it's ever happened before, where a state gave land back to a tribe," Lower Sioux President Robert Larsen told the Tribune. "[Our ancestors] paid for this land over and over with their blood, with their lives. It's not a sale; it's been paid for by the ones that aren't here anymore." The decision was finalized when the MNHS board cast its votes in January.

Justice In Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast

February 5, 2021 Telesur English. Create! colonization, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Nicaragua

We have prosecuted six cases of usurpation of the communal domain of Indigenous peoples, where people who are not natives of that community misappropriate land of Indigenous peoples. So, how has this procedure been carried out? In the territories, the owners of the land, who are the presidents of the territorial governments, file a complaint with the National Police. The National Police receives these and it does all the investigative work. Then they refer the cases to the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the Public Prosecutor's Office files the accusation before the Single Local Court. We have sentenced these people with the maximum penalty of 3 years and have thus sent them to the penitentiary in Managua or Matagalpa.

Prayer Walk Demands Justice For Native Man Assaulted By US Feds

January 3, 2021 Telesur English. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, Land Reform, National Park, Police violence

Native groups have taken to Petroglyphs National Monument in Tiwa Territory, commonly known as Albuquerque, New Mexico, to demand justice for Darrell House, a native man who was brutally tasered by rangers of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), while he offered prayers on a hike with his sister and dog one week ago. A prayer walk from Ogahpogeh (Santa Fe) arrived to the site on Saturday afternoon, as reported by The Red Nation's Nick Estes, who tweeted, "#JusticeforDarrell walk ended at Petroglyphs National Park. Askia Trujillo from Ohkay Owingeh led the prayer walk. Walkers are demanding the firing of the two rangers who brutalized Darrell and an apology and restitution, as well as #LandBack."

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