Land Rights

Michigan Sells Treaty-Protected, Public Land For Limestone Mine

April 25, 2015 Indian Country Today Media Network, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Educate! Indian, Land Rights, Mining

A group of American Indians in Michigan have lost their bid to block a land transfer of nearly 9,000 acres to a company proposing a limestone mine—the “largest single public land deal in Michigan history,” according to theDetroit Free Press. The attempted injunction was the last legal line of defense against the mine, which would cover as many as 13,000 acres, according to theDetroit Free Press. In the deal, which was approved in March, the state will sell 8,810 acres of “surface land or underground mineral rights” to Graymont, a Canadian mining company, for $4.53 million so it can build the limestone mine in the Upper Peninsula, the Detroit Free Press said. The group—comprised of members of several tribes—had filed suit in Grand Rapids trying to stop the Michigan Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh from transferring land to Graymont Mining Co., based on treaty rights.

Victory! Saskatchewan To Remain Nuclear Waste Free

April 20, 2015 Sandra Cuffe, www.intercontinentalcry.com Educate! Canada, Environment, indigenous, Land Rights, Nuclear Energy

Residents of northern Saskatchewan are celebrating an important victory this month after a four-year, hard-fought campaign to keep the province free of nuclear waste. On March 3, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announcedthat Creighton was no longer a contender in the organization’s siting process. It was the last of three Saskatchewan communities in the running to host a deep geological repository for the long term storage of spent fuel bundles from Canada’s nuclear reactors in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick. “This announcement is the culmination of four years of research, sacrifice, networking and hard work by a group of dedicated people with one goal: to keep nuclear waste out of Saskatchewan,” said Candyce Paul, a founding member of the Committee for Future Generations.

Fears Grow For Indigenous People In Path Of Dam

April 18, 2015 Chalachew Tadesse, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Ethiopia, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Water

A United Nations mission is due to take place this month to assess the impact of Ethiopia’s massive Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectric power project on the Omo River which feeds Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake, lying mostly in northwest Kenya with its northern tip extending into Ethiopia. The report of the visit by a delegation from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) from Ethiopia’s state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) comes amid warnings by Survival International that the Kwegu people of southwest Ethiopia are facing severe hunger due to the destruction of surrounding forests and the drying up of the river on which their livelihoods depend. The UK-based group linked the Kwegu’s food crisis to the massive Gibe III Dam and large-scale irrigation taking place in the region, which are robbing the Kwegu of their water and fish supplies.

Squatters Invade Building To Become Luxury Hotel

April 9, 2015 Associated Press, www.theguardian.com Resist! Brazil, Land Rights

A vast Art Deco residential building in Rio de Janeiro that Brazil’s one-time richest man was supposed to transform into a luxury hotel ahead of the 2016 Olympicshas been invaded by squatters. Around 100 people moved into the building overnight Monday and Tuesday, slipping through a breach in the wrought-iron fence. The squatters, many recently evicted from another site in downtown Rio, said they were determined to remain in the building until city officials agreed to provide them housing. “We’re only leaving here with a house. If not, we’re staying right here,” said Alexandre Pereira da Silva, an unemployed father of three, one of several squatters who spoke to reporters across the iron fence, their faces shrouded from cameras by blankets.

3 Days Of Protest At The Mackinac Bridge

March 30, 2015 Martin Reinhardt, www.facebook.com Resist! Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Water

Beginning on Friday, March 27 at 9:00am, everyone who cares about the future ecological health of the UP is invited to join us in protest against the proposed Graymont mine near Rexton, Michigan and other concerns like the Enbridge pipeline that is in disrepair under the Mackinac Bridge, and the proposed Eagle mine road (County Road 595) that would cut through a fragile ecosystem near Marquette, Michigan. It is time for us to stand up and speak loudly about these serious issues that are impacting our communities now and in the future. We will meet at the rest stop on the UP side of the bridge at 9am each day for three consecutive days to symbolizeour deep concern about these issues. Dr. Martin Reinhardt, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and an assistant professor of Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University, initiated this demonstration to cast a light on how the State of Michigan is violating the treaty rights of Michigan tribes.

Maine Told To Tighten Tribal Land Water Rules

March 21, 2015 Collin Woodard, www.pressherald.com Resist! Land Rights, Maine, Water

The federal government has ordered Maine to tighten its water quality standards for rivers and lakes on tribal lands to ensure fish taken there are safe to eat in large quantities. Tribal leaders hailed the move as a historic assertion of federal oversight of Maine’s relationship with federally recognized tribes here. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled Monday that clean water standards proposed by the state Department of Environmental Protection are inadequate to protect sustenance fishermen – those who fish as a primary means of feeding their families – on the reservations from certain toxins, because they eat much greater volumes of fish than the average Mainer.

Rural India Fights For Its Rights

March 18, 2015 Saif Khalid, www.aljazeera.com Resist! Food and Agriculture, India, Land Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

It took eight days of walking for 80-year-old Dhanmatya Mumat to reach New Delhi. Like thousands of other farmers from rural India, Mumat - from the state of Bihar - made the 1,000km-long trip to the Indian capital to protest proposed changes to a little known land law that he said would destroy his life. "We came with the hope that our land will be saved, if the government takes away our land, we will die of poverty," Mumat told Al Jazeera. "I request the politicians of the country to kill me rather than taking away my bread and butter." Organisers say some 7,000 people arrived by foot to demonstrate in New Delhi to coincide with a parliamentary session on Wednesday that will decide on proposed changes to the land act - revisions that have raised the ire of many rural Indians.

Indigenous Nations Rally For Sacred Site Protection

March 13, 2015 Protect Medicine Lake, www.protectmedicinelake.org Resist! Environment, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights

Today the Pit River Tribe, Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, Save Medicine Lake Coalition, Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment, with their attorney Deborah A. Sivas of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and supporters, optimistically exited the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today following oral arguments in Pit River Tribe vs. US Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, & Calpine Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. Today the Pit River Tribe, Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, Save Medicine Lake Coalition, Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment, with their attorney Deborah A. Sivas of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and supporters, optimistically exited the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today following oral arguments in Pit River Tribe vs. US Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, & Calpine Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. Screen Shot 2015-03-13 at 10.39.16 AM“Medicine Lake is a sacred place and it needs to be protected at all costs,” said Pit River Tribal Chairman Mickey Gemmill.

The Apache Way: The March To Oak Flat

March 5, 2015 Roger Hill, www.truth-out.org Resist! Food and Agriculture, Indigenous Rights, Indigenous Women, Land Rights

For years, Standing Fox and a dedicated core group of Apache activists have joined with a coalition of national tribes, environmentalists and concerned retired miners to oppose the land exchange transfer of the Oak Flat region to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, a mining company headquartered in London. Over the past decade, Arizona Republicans have attempted unsuccessfully to pass the land exchange legislation - twice in 2013 failing to get enough votes to bring it to the floor of the House of Representatives. The land exchange also violates a 1955 executive order by President Eisenhower that explicitly puts the Oak Flat Campground land off limits to future mining activity. Standing Fox joins us in the car to give us a quick tour of San Carlos.

These Neighbors Got Together To Buy Vacant Buildings

March 5, 2015 Olivia LaVechhia, www.yesmagazine.org Create! Community, Housing, Land Rights

In 2011, a group of dedicated neighbors came together to change that. In November of that year, five of them, including Watson, became the founding board of the Northeast Investment Cooperative, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S. cooperative engaged in buying and developing real estate. NEIC created a structure where any Minnesota resident could join the co-op for $1,000, and invest more through the purchase of different classes of nonvoting stock. The group began spreading the word to prospective members, and started looking for a building to buy. One year later, NEIC had enough members to buy the two buildings on Central Avenue for cash. The co-op quickly sold one of the buildings to project partner Recovery Bike Shop, and after a gut renovation, which it funded with a 2 percent loan from the city and a loan from local Northeast Bank, it leased the other building to two young businesses that had struggled to find workable space elsewhere, Fair State Brewing Cooperative and Aki’s BreadHaus.

Indigenous Leaders Speak Out Against Maritime ‘Energy East’

March 3, 2015 Miles Howe, www.halifax.mediacoop.ca Resist! Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Oil & Gas, Pipelines

If Indigenous voices in the Maritimes had up until now been relatively silent in publicly opposing TransCanada's 'Energy East' pipeline, on Monday, February 23rd, a cross-sectional panel of Indigenous grassroots leaders spoke collectively, and firmly, against TransCanada's latest and largest proposed pipeline to date. Their message was simple and clear: The pipeline will not pass through the Maritimes, and they are prepared to name and out Indigenous collaborators with TransCanada. Ron Tremblay, a member of Negutkuk (Tobique) First Nation and a member of the Wolustuk (Malicete) Grand Council, likened the process in front of Indigenous grassroots leaders to turning over a large rock on a sunny day and watching the insects scatter from the sunlight.

Stop Theft Of Apache Land

February 28, 2015 Serene Fang, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Arizona, Energy, Land Rights, Mining

A place of great natural beauty, popular among rock climbers and campers, a part of Tonto National Forest known as Oak Flat has been under federal protection from mining since 1955, by special order of President Eisenhower. On the nearby San Carlos Apache reservation, many consider Oak Flat to be sacred, ancestral land – the home of one of their gods and the site of traditional Apache ceremonies. But Oak Flat also sits on top of one of the world’s largest deposits of copper ore. Resolution Copper Mining, a subsidiary of British-Australian mining conglomerate Rio Tinto, has sought ownership of the land for a decade, lobbying Congress to enact special legislation on its behalf more than a dozen times since 2005. Year after year the bills failed to pass. But in December, the legislation was was quietly passed into law as part of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.

Native American Tribes Unite To Fight The Keystone Pipeline

February 27, 2015 Robert Boos, www.pri.org Resist! Environment, Indigenous Rights, Keystone XL, Land Rights, Water

The Keystone XL pipeline may have divided advocates and lawmakers in Washington, but the controversial project has also united a wide group of Native American tribes whose lands the pipes would cross. The proposed pipeline would run for 1,179 miles from southern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, crossing through six states and the territories of numerous tribes from the Dene and Creek Nations to the Omaha, Ho-chunk and Panka tribes. These tribal nations say the US government has failed to adequately consult and negotiate the matter with them, despite the direct effect the pipeline’s route would have on their lands “I think that a lot of tribes are really frustrated at the lack of inclusion in this process that's guaranteed through our treaty rights,” says Dallas Goldtooth of theIndigenous Environmental Network. Goldtooth says their primary concern is that the State Department’s permitting process has overlooked tribal treaties with the federal government.

Occupy Oak Flat Protest Against Resolution Copper

February 25, 2015 Miriam Wasser, www.blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com Resist! Environment, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining

Leaders of Occupy Oak Flat say they won't give up until the U.S. government repeals the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange. The San Carlos Apache Tribe, leading a three-week protest at the Oak Flat Campground, vows to remain there until the federal government bends. The controversial exchange gave Australian-British mining company Resolution Copper (a subsidiary of the largest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto) access to a vast underground copper reserve under Oak Flat. The deal trades 2,400 acres of previously federally protected land for 5,300 acres of company property. The land exchange was attached to the 2015 United States National Defense Authorization Act as a midnight rider after it failed to pass as a stand-alone bill multiple times during the last decade.

County Man Makes His Case At Dominion Lawsuit Hearing

February 21, 2015 Calvin Trice, www.newsleader.com Resist! Dominion, Energy, Environment, Land Rights, Oil & Gas

If Dominion asks a landowner for permission to survey property for a pipeline route and the homeowner says "no," can the company come onto the land anyway? Churchville homeowners William and Wendy Little believe their "no" means no. Dominion's representatives say the company still has the right to survey the couple's 5 acres. The Littles' lawyer argued in a hearing for their federal lawsuit Thursday that the state law that grants natural gas companies the right to study private land without the owner's permission doesn't speak to the Littles' case. Virginia's statute allows such private property entry and doesn't count it as trespass if the company asks to study the land and doesn't receive permission.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources