indigenous

We call on Buu Nygren to take concrete steps to SHUT DOWN PINYON PLAIN uranium mine near Grand Canyon, adjacent to Sacred Red Butte.

Haul No! was founded in late 2016 as a Diné-led initiative aimed at stopping both the Canyon Mine (now rebranded Pinyon Plain) and the White Mesa Mill, with proposed transport through Diné Bikeyah, our traditional homelands. Co-founders Leona Morgan, Sarana Riggs, and recently-transitioned Klee Benally led an awareness and action tour in 2017, educating and training communities along the haul route starting at the uranium mill in Ute territories to its point of origin: the mine in Havasupai homelands.

In a March 14, 2014 Democracy Now! interview, focused on Pinyon Plain/Canyon Mine and the greater problem of uranium mining, Klee referred to the estimated 15,000-20,000 abandoned uranium mines across the so-called United States as “a toxic legacy that impacts us to this day. It’s really a slow genocide of the people, not just the Indigenous Peoples of this region.”

Haul No! was founded specifically to take on this work, as volunteers, to prevent further contamination to our lands, water, air, and future generations by the company Energy Fuels at both ends of the haul route, from Pinyon Plain/Canyon Mine to the White Mesa Mill.

Regarding water and environment, Klee stated, “There are no winners when we destroy Mother Earth, when we destroy the water that we need to drink, [when] we destroy the air that we need to breathe and the ground that we need to feed ourselves from.” Haul No! works toward protection, not destruction of our Mother Earth. In Klee’s words, “Wherever there’s an environmental crisis, there’s a cultural crisis because we are people of the Earth.”

Haul No! has been consistent in our call to SHUT DOWN THE MINE and to STOP THE MILL. After the transition of our brother, our colleague, comrade, mentor, and friend, we continue the fight for the protection of our Peoples, to defend the sacred, and to put an end to nuclear colonialism.

We are done being a resource colony! We are done allowing our Peoples to suffer and die, only to power and fuel the outside world. We are done with poor quality or NO CLEANUP of all extractive industries, including an impending new wave of so-called clean energy that only rapes our Mother Earth.

On January 14, 2024, Navajo Nation President Nygren issued a statement via social media dated January 11, 2024 regarding Pinyon Plain uranium mine. In response to this statement, Haul No! demands that President Nygren MAKE A FIRM COMMITMENT WITH CONCRETE STEPS TO STAND UP FOR OUR PEOPLE! We need action behind words.

We demand that Buu Nygren use his authority as the President of the largest Indigenous Nation (by surface acreage) to work with Governor Hobbs of Arizona to DEMAND A SHUT DOWN by limiting Energy Fuels’ mining permit to closure and post-closure activities with the highest quality cleanup of the mine and surrounding public forest lands.

We demand a commitment of the Navajo Nation President to use his authority to work with President Biden to correct the loophole, the environmental racism and cultural assault of the new national monument that allows Pinyon Plain and others with “valid existing rights” to desecrate our sacred homelands.

Beyond the world of western legalese and the limited quasi-sovereignty of our colonial Navajo Nation government, we demand Buu Nygren to step up to the obligations of our Diné teachings to protect our sacred places, our lands and waters, and our future generations.

We invite Buu Nygren and all Diné leaders to join us on the frontlines to stop this mine and to stop the transport if it comes to that. We are done with prepared statements and hollow gestures. WE DEMAND ACTION NOW!

link: https://haulno.com/2024/01/15/haul-no-calls-on-navajo-nation-president-nygren-to-shut-down-pinyon-plain-uranium-mine/

On Jan. 17, 1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate. The coup led to the dissolving of the Kingdom of Hawaii two years later, its annexation as a U.S. territory and eventual admission as the 50th state in the union.

The first European contact with Hawaii was made in 1778 by Capt. James Cook. In the 19th century, traders and missionaries came to the islands from Europe and the United States. They often opposed the Hawaiian monarchy, favoring instead a British-style constitutional monarchy where the monarch held little power.

In 1874, David Kalakaua became king and sought to reduce the power of the white Missionary Party (later Reform Party) in the government. In 1887, angered by King Kalakaua’s extravagant spending and his attempts to dilute their power, a small group of Missionary Party members, known as the Hawaiian League, struck back against the king.

Led by Lorrin A. Thurston and Sanford B. Dole, the Hawaiian League drafted a new constitution that reduced the power of the king and increased the power of the cabinet and Legislature. It also extended voting rights to wealthy noncitizens, while excluding Asians and restricting access for native Hawaiians through land-owning and literacy provisions. Backed by a militia, the group used the threat of violence to force King Kalakaua to sign the constitution, which became known as the Bayonet Constitution.

King Kalakaua died in 1891 and was succeeded by his sister, Liliuokalani, who proposed a new constitution that would restore powers of the monarchy and extend voting rights for native Hawaiians. The queen’s actions angered many of Hawaii’s white businessmen, who formed a 13-member Committee of Safety with the goal of overthrowing the monarchy and seeking annexation by the United States.

The Jan. 29, 1893 edition of The New York Times recounted the events of the coup. On Jan. 16, Hawaiian Marshal Charles B. Wilson attempted to arrest the committee members and declare martial law, but his attempts were turned down by other government officials who feared violence. The next day, after a police officer was shot and wounded trying to halt the distribution of weapons to the Committee of Safety’s militia, the committee decided to put its coup into action. Near the queen’s ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu, the committee’s militia gathered and were joined by 162 U.S. Marines and Navy sailors who were ordered by John L. Stevens, U.S. Minister to Hawaii, to protect the committee. The queen surrendered peacefully to avoid violence.

The Committee of Safety established a provisional government headed by Mr. Dole. U.S. President Grover Cleveland opposed the provisional government and called for the queen to be restored to power, but the Committee of Safety established the Republic of Hawaii and refused to cede power. In 1895, Hawaiian royalists began a coup against the republic, but it did not succeed. Queen Liliuokalani was arrested for her alleged role in the coup and convicted of treason; while under house arrest, the queen agreed to formally abdicate and dissolve the monarchy.

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii. Hawaii was administered as a U.S. territory until 1959, when it became the 50th state.

Hawaiian scholar Dr. Keanu Sai has written about the illegality of the U.S. occupation and annexation, citing an 1893 Executive Agreement between President Grover Cleveland and Queen Lili'uokalani. On June 1st, 2010, Sai filed a lawsuit against President Obama on this basis, demanding the restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom government.

An Act of War of Aggression: United States Invasion of the Hawaiian Kingdom on August 12, 1898

Jan. 17, 1893 | Hawaiian Monarchy Overthrown by America-Backed Businessmen

Speaking Truth To Power- Investigating The Illegal U.S. Military Occupation Of The Hawaiian Islands

Meet the native Hawaiians fighting U.S. occupation | AJ+

Nation of Hawai'i'

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It’s been a very cold spell and with so many residents in the community with improper housing, trying to keep everyone warm has been a scramble against time, but local organizers are very thankful for all the donations and assistance. So far: • a U-haul full of mutual aid items has been delivered • Permanent shelter has been gotten for an elder • Extra wood has been sent • A shipping container of goods will be sent from Toronto • 40lbs of woollen socks has been donated and is being sent

This has helped many in need but there’s still so much to be done - please help out if you can @ $ZitkatosTinCan, or through the GoFundme https://gofund.me/14c27f48

Please check out the linktree to follow and find out more http://linktr.ee/chunkalutanetwork

Local Native nonprofits in Rapid City, S.D., are serving Indigenous homeless people unwilling to stay at other local shelters

RAPID CITY, S.D. – As temperatures dipped below zero Friday, January 12, Rapid City officials decided to close a makeshift warming shelter that was to serve Indigenous homeless people.

Two Native-serving nonprofits – Woyatan Lutheran Church and Wambli Ska Society – had planned to open the military grade warming tent as an additional shelter. But Friday afternoon, city administrators issued a stop work notice to organizers.

“When city staff went to the property to issue an order not to proceed with the use of that tent, it was with the acknowledgment that the permits had not been secured, but that we had a bigger crisis on hand,” said Vicki Fisher, Rapid City community development director. “We have a cold spree that we've not experienced in a long time. And we have a lot of vulnerable people that need to be sheltered. So the message was you don't need to take down a tent. Just please don't use it. It is so frigid that the action of trying to heat it would put those people in jeopardy of a fire.”

Around 4:30 p.m. Rapid City Police Officer John Olson, escorted by Lt. Tim Doyle, arrived to issue the stop work order. Chris White Eagle, leader of the Lakota Center at Woyatan Lutheran Church, spoke with Olson and Doyle and said he was told the Pennington County Jail could be used as a temporary shelter if the Cornerstone Mission and Care Campus hit max capacity.

“We looked at him like, ‘Are you saying that’s our option, to save your life you need to go to jail,’” White Eagle said.

Brandyn Medin, the police department’s community relations director, confirmed that if all other options were exhausted the Pennington County Jail could be used as a temporary shelter.

read more: https://ictnews.org/news/city-closes-shelter-for-natives-amid-arctic-freeze

The aroma of coffee wafts out from a communal kitchen tent at a Guatemala City protest encampment where people are counting down the days until the inauguration of the country’s next government. For months, leaders from autonomous Indigenous governance structures have spearheaded a movement to defend democracy by ensuring the transition happens, and they have maintained the protest camp outside the public prosecutors’ office around the clock for more than 100 days.

Miguel Ángel Alvarado, the Indigenous Maya Achi mayor of Rabinal, has repeatedly traveled the 55 miles south to the capital to participate in protests. “We are defending our vote. We are defending the little democracy left in our country,” he tells Truthout. “We are here, the various Maya, Garifuna, Xinka and non-Indigenous peoples from around the country are here, demonstrating peacefully.”

Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo, a progressive congressman and sociologist, is set to take office on January 14, but his inauguration was never a given. Political and judicial backlash to his victory was swift and sustained, essentially amounting to a slow-burn coup attempt. Grassroots protests and international pressure have also had staying power and have evolved over several months, working to rein in efforts to prevent Arévalo from taking office.

Arévalo’s party, Movimiento Semilla, grew out of mass anti-corruption protests in 2015. Combating corruption is a cornerstone of Arévalo’s plans for government. His victory presented a threat to Guatemala’s “pact of the corrupt,” an informal coalition of parties and interests that has been consolidating power across all three branches of government in recent years.

read more: https://truthout.org/articles/indigenous-leaders-in-guatemala-are-camping-out-to-prevent-post-election-coup/

It’s almost 3:30 p.m. on Thursday and José López, a resident of Totonicapán, uses a megaphone to encourage the representatives of the indigenous peoples who are holding a sit-in in front of the Public Ministry of Guatemala. It is day 102 of the resistance. Today it is the turn of the members of their community. They have traveled the almost 125 miles that separate their territory from the capital to stand guard in front of the gray cement mass that serves as an operations center for those they accuse of undermining democracy in his country: the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, the prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, and judge Fredy Orellana.

The three have been accused by the elected president, Bernardo Arévalo, of perpetrating a coup d’état through judicial attacks to prevent his inauguration. With just a few hours left before he takes office, the rally has a festive atmosphere. The goal of a peaceful transfer of power and preserving democracy in Guatemala seems to be getting closer and closer. But let no one be confused, the cantonal authorities present at the sit-in repeat over and over again with their staffs of office that distinguish them: this is an apolitical movement.

“We have always said it: we are not supporting any party, not even a president, we support the rule of law and democracy so that our country can breathe. We don’t need anything to be given to us. We just want to work, we just want to be given the conditions to work, and that is what we demand from any government,” López says. And he gives way to a group of students who delight the audience with a double marimba concert: seven play the national instrument and two others support with maracas and percussion. In this movement that promotes the common good, nothing is understood without teamwork.

The powerful movement was started by the authorities of the 48 cantons of Totonicapán. The indigenous organization with a long history of peaceful resistance, which represents around 140,000 people — mainly the K’iché Mayan people of western Guatemala — began on October 2. Its first acts were the seizure of town squares and setting up a road blockade and they were quickly joined by other communities in the country, inhabited by other Mayan peoples — such as the Ixil, the Kaqchikel, and the Mam — as well as the Xinka people.

Although all the assemblies’ decisions are made by consensus, Luis Pacheco — president of the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán in 2023 — became the most recognized leader of these protests last year. As he explains, what moved his community to begin the strike were the “attacks” they saw on the part of the Public Ministry to undermine the results of elections that had been duly audited.

full article

As a boy, Blas Omar Jaime spent many afternoons learning about his ancestors. Over yerba mate and torta fritas, his mother, Ederlinda Miguelina Yelón, passed along the knowledge she had stored in Chaná, a throaty language spoken by barely moving the lips or tongue.

The Chaná are an Indigenous people in Argentina and Uruguay whose lives were intertwined with the mighty Paraná River, the second longest in South America. They revered silence, considered birds their guardians and sang their babies lullabies: Utalá tapey-’é, uá utalá dioi — sleep little one, the sun has gone to sleep.

Ms. Miguelina Yelón urged her son to protect their stories by keeping them secret. So it was not until decades later, recently retired and seeking out people with whom he could chat, that he made a startling discovery: No one else seemed to speak Chaná. Scholars had long considered the language extinct.

“I said: ‘I exist. I am here,’” said Mr. Jaime, now 89, sitting in his sparse kitchen on the outskirts of Paraná, a midsize city in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos.

Those words kicked off a journey for Mr. Jaime, who has spent nearly two decades resurrecting Chaná and, in many ways, placing the Indigenous group back on the map. For UNESCO, whose mission includes the preservation of languages, he is a crucial vault of knowledge.

His painstaking work with a linguist has produced a dictionary of roughly 1,000 Chaná words. For people of Indigenous ancestry in Argentina, he is a beacon that has inspired many to connect with their history. And for Argentina, he is part of an important, if still fraught, reckoning over its history of colonization and Indigenous erasure.

full article

Jared Qwustenuxun Williams of Quw’utsun shares the story of how the landmark also known as ‘Mount Prevost’ got its original name

Every landmark in the Cowichan valley has an ancient name, almost every place that wears hwunitum sne’ once wore a Hul’q’umi’num sne’. But in less than 10 generations our landscape has become dominated by hwinitum sne’, so much so that even many hwulmuhw people don’t even know the Hul’q’umi’num place names.

One of these places is Mount Prevost, renamed so for the British captain James Charles Prevost, and I shared that story here. This story is about a dog named Swuq’us and his master, Stutsun.

The story of Swuq’us is akin to a Genesis story from the Bible. Our first people were those who fell from the sky and among them was a man named Stutsun. In this story, Stutsun was the first who fell from the sky and he prayed for a companion and so Tsitsulh Siem sent him Swuq’us.

But to give you the fullest and most accurate version of this story, I reached out to my friend Ts’ules (Chuck Seymour), who is a cultural and language teacher in Cowichan. I was honoured to be given this chance to share the story, as many of our stories are sacred and some cannot be shared.

read more: https://indiginews.com/first-person/the-ancient-story-of-the-mountain-swuqus

On January 11, 2024 Havasupai released this statement on the startup of uranium extraction at the Pinyon Plain uranium mine. They express their heartbreak and their continued determination to shut down this mine. The Pinyon Plain Mine threatens their only source of water.

Haul No! stands with our Havasupai relatives, the Guardians of the Grand Canyon.

We say Haul No! Protect the land and all relations from transport of uranium and radiation exposure!

—————————

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HAVASUPAI TRIBAL COUNCIL P.O. Box 10 • Supai, Arizona 86435 (928) 448-2731 • Fax (928) 448-2551

CONTACT: ABBIE S. FINK afink@hmapr.com/602-957-8881

January 11, 2024

Statement from the Havasupai Tribe Regarding Energy Fuels

It is with heavy hearts that we must acknowledge that our greatest fear has come true. Despite decades of active and tireless opposition, Energy Fuels, a foreign for-profit mining company, has acted in its own self-serving interest and extracted toxic uranium at the Pinyon Plain Mine (formerly the “Canyon Mine”), desecrating one of our most sacred sites and jeopardizing the existence of the Havasupai Tribe.

As Guardians of the Grand Canyon, we the Havsuw ‘Baaja, the Havasupai Tribe, have opposed uranium mining in and around our Reservation and the Grand Canyon since time immemorial. We do this to protect our people, our land, our water, our past, our present and our future. And yet, despite the historic and current assistance and advocacy from numerous allies, and the countless letters, phone calls, and personal pleas, our urgent requests to stop this life-threatening action have been disregarded.

Our tribal community’s only source of water is fed by aquifers, which unfortunately sit directly below the Pinyon Plain Mine. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the federal EPA claim there is no danger to us, that no harmful effects will come our way from this alleged “clean energy” source. But how can they so confidently make such a claim when Energy Fuels has already contaminated one of the two aquifers while digging the mine shaft, which then led to the company spraying toxic water into the air, only to be spread to the precious plants and animals by the blowing winds. A whole set of unknown and new problems will exist when the company begins transporting uranium over the land.

This is not just a problem that affects our remote Tribe. Rather, millions of people will now be forced to pass by an active uranium mine on their way to the majestic Grand Canyon. Every being should be able to freely experience this natural wonder without risking their lives. Shame on Energy Fuels, and those who were not brave enough to do what is right and necessary.

read more: https://haulno.com/2024/01/12/havasupai-issue-statement-the-threat-is-real/

another source: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/01/havasupai-water-and-existence.html

Mere months after the long-awaited and widely celebrated designation of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, a controversial uranium mine within the monument boundaries is starting operations, according to the mine's owner.

Although the monument bans new uranium mines, Canyon Mine (renamed Pinyon Plain Mine) was grandfathered in after years of attempts by the Havasupai Tribe, the Grand Canyon Trust, and many others to stop it in the courts.

The White House Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument fact sheet mentions two mining operations within the monument that would be able to operate. The second one is likely Arizona One uranium mine, on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, but that mine has been mined out since 2014.

read more: https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/uranium-mine-starts-new-grand-canyon-monument

Hermosillo, Mexico, Jan 10 (EFE).- The Attorney General’s Office of the Mexican state of Sonora announced Wednesday that it is investigating the femicide of the governor of the Cucapah ethnic group, Aronia Wilson Tambo, and that it has a suspect in custody.

The crime occurred on Tuesday in the binational indigenous community of Pozas of Arvizu, in the municipality of San Luis Río Colorado, next to the border wall between Sonora and Arizona (United States), in northwestern Mexico.

The preliminary expert report dismissed the connection between the crime and the Indigenous leader’s political or social activities.

The investigation is now focusing on femicide, the murder of women and girls because of their gender.

Aronia, 64, was a city councilor, but also a defender of the culture and traditions of the Cucapah people and one of the few speakers of their language.

full article

Towards the end of last year CLN was able to help out one of the elders get home to Pin Ridge Reservation. While this was wonderful, he is still living in temporary housing and sleeping on a cot in full winter clothing owing to how cold it is out there. Thus, the group is trying to raise an extra $2K to get him permanent housing by getting him a trailer- and here’s the good part, the trailer is worth up to $15K plus it will be delivered. To make things even better he has offered the group some land to use where CLN is planning on setting up shelters for local organizer: WIN-WIN-WIN!!! Please share this with your friends, family and colleagues- even a $5 helps. Thank you for taking the 2 min to read through. (Cash app and links in the picture)

With a major operation coordinated between Interpol, the Federal Police of Argentina, and Airport Security Police, on January 4, the activist Facundo Jones Huala, considered a leader of the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM), was extradited to Chile from Argentina.

The Lonko, as Mapuche chiefs are called, was detained on August 27, 2018 in Argentina, while on house arrest at his grandmother’s home. Neither his lawyer, his family, nor him had received any previous notification. Since then, the Supreme Court of Argentina has confirmed the ruling that the Mapuche leader would be extradited on charges of arson and the illegal possession of a handmade firearm. He was sentenced to nine years in prison, although his sentence was later reduced to six.

In 2022, his lawyer obtained his conditional freedom after he completed two-thirds of his sentence in CCP Temuco. Not long afterwards, the resolution was revoked and an arrest warrant ordered by the Chilean Supreme Court seeking his extradition.

Huala had traveled to Argentina and was considered a fugitive until he was detained in January 2023 in the southern part of the country.

The government of Gabriel Boric, the current president of Chile, activated the extradition order of the activist so that he complete his prison sentence. The Mapuche activist, via an audio, called on the Argentinean justice system to not be extradited to Chile because he is a “political prisoner.”

In prison, he went on a hunger strike to avoid extradition, and demanding an end to the political persecution again him. At that moment the activist declared that the principal demand is “territory and autonomy for our nation…the state must return everything (to the Mapuche people) or assume the consequences,” he warned.

Today he is extradited to Chile where he will remain detained for at least one year, four months, and seventeen days, the time in which he will finish the six-year prison sentence that was dictated against him in December of 2018.

The Mapuche leader arrived approximately at 10:40 in the morning on Thursday to the Pichoy airport in Valdivia. According to Chilean authorities, the Lonko was transferred to the city of Valdivia, 850 km from Santiago, to be presented at the court.

The prosecutor, Sergio Fuentes, said that “the appellate court of Valdivia, after reviewing the legality of the extradition process, ordered Huala to be placed at the disposal of the Guarantee Court of Rio Bueno, which in turn ordered him to be transferred to CCP Temuco to finish the rest of his sentence,” he said.

The prosecutor added that “the extradition process was made possible by the coordinated activity between the Chilean prosecutor, through the International Cooperation and Extradition Unit, together with Argentinean police, judicial and administrative authorities.”

The ancestral Mapuche territory, known as Wallmapu, is vindicated by Mapuche people from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans. Historically, since before the European invasion, the Mapuche people have lived in the Argentinean and Chilean Patagonia.

RAM is considered the “political military organ” of the Puel Mapu Autonomous Mapuche Movement, an organization that Huala admitted being a participant in the extradition trial that was carried out in Bariloche, in February of 2018. He sustained that he was “a combatant at one point in the RAM, as well as a combatant in the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), and in other situations of political territorial conflict developing acts of self-defense.”

This organization reclaims the sovereignty and recognition of the Mapuche community and its ancestral territories, which cover the length and width of both Argentinean and Chilean territories.

The organization has been accused of a series of things, from provoking more than a dozen fires, stealing livestock, and even carrying out armed attacks against employees of the Compania de Tierras Sud Argentino Limitado, property of Carlo Benetton, part of the Italian textile empire of the Benetton Group S.P.A. In 1991, the Benetto family, in Patagonia, bought 900,000 hectares in which they raise almost 100,000 sheep, producing 10% of the wool of the Benetton Group S.P.A. firm. Most of these lands belong to the Mapuche people.

Amid this scenario, a group of fifteen Mapuche political prisoners who are part of the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) in Chile, including leaders like Ernesto Llaitul, Esteban Henríquez and others, have been on a hunger strike, some since November 13, protesting a collective sentence of more than 15 years and demanding the annulment of these rulings. With this action, Consuelo Contreras of the National Institute of Human Rights has emphasized the necessity for inclusive dialogue to address violence in the region.

The progressive government of Boric has maintained a distant posture toward the demands of autonomy of the Mapuche people, showing little interest in addressing ancestral land claims and self-government.

link: https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/01/09/mapuche-leader-extradited-to-chile-from-argentina/

Two tribes called on the group of descendants of Wounded Knee Massacre survivors to not burn repatriated artifacts as planned on the massacre’s 133rd anniversary

RAPID CITY, S.D. – More than 150 recently repatriated artifacts from the Wounded Knee Massacre were set to be burned December 29. Instead, tribal leaders from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and later the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe asked to halt the ceremony.

On December 29, instead of burning the artifacts, descendants of Wounded Knee Massacre survivors gathered to pray, sing and remember the over 300 Lakota men, women and children killed by the United States military.

The issue stems from disagreements over what to do with items repatriated from the Woods Memorial Library’s Founders Museum Collection in Barre, Massachusetts. While one group of descendants planned to burn artifacts, others requested more time to consider alternatives.

In November 2022, the Woods Memorial Library’s Founders Museum gave items back to a group of descendants of Wounded Knee survivors. The group, Si’Tanka Ta’ Oyate O’mniceye (Descendants of the Si’ Tanka (Big Foot) Nation), is comprised of Mniconju and Hunkpapa Lakota survivor descendants most of whom live in the Oglala area on Pine Ridge.

Following the massacre, several survivors chose to settle in the Oglala area, said the group’s historian Michael He Crow, Mniconju Lakota. He Crow’s own family settled in the Oglala area after the massacre.

The repatriated artifacts had been taken from the mass graves of Wounded Knee Massacre victims killed in 1890. The military had been sent to Pine Ridge to stop a potential “Indian uprising.” Instead, they encountered a band of mostly Mniconju Lakota led by Chief Spotted Elk (nicknamed Big Foot by the military). The military misinterpreted the group’s ghost dance songs as an intent to attack and opened fire on the band.

The items returned from the Founders Museum were stolen from the graves of Wounded Knee victims. Most of the items are clothing – moccasins and ghost dance shirts. Some moccasins have blood splatters on them. The rest of the items are several peace pipes, hand drums, a few dolls, two tomahawks, a bow with arrows and a few beaded lizard and turtle amulets/pouches containing umbilical cords.

Mixed in amongst the artifacts are items from other tribes – Ojibwe-style moccasins, Dakota and Cheyenne beadwork and other items.

read more: https://ictnews.org/news/wounded-knee-group-decides-not-to-burn-artifacts-plans-next-steps

The City of Martin, South Dakota, wants the Oglala Sioux Tribe to either waive its sovereign immunity or pay an unknown amount of attorneys and administrative fees upfront to receive public records related to the city’s new redistricting map.

A statement from the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) says the city’s action is an attempt to intimidate the Tribe into withdrawing its request for documents that could shine light on any new Voting Rights Act violations that could prevent Native Americans from having an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice.

The Tribe, represented by the NARF, ACLU of South Dakota, and Public Counsel, is appealing the City of Martin’s actions to the South Dakota Office of Hearing Examiners.

“The City of Martin’s attempt to block the Tribe from obtaining public documents about its redistricting process is alarming given the long history of voting violations against Native Americans in South Dakota. NARF will continue to join with Tribes to resist,” Samantha Kelty, NARF senior staff attorney, said in a statement.

“The Oglala Sioux Tribe understands it may have to pay a reasonable fee for the records it requested, but charging attorney fees is simply not reasonable,” OST President Frank Star Comes Out said in statement. “The City of Martin has no legal right to charge Native Americans a higher rate for copies of public records. The Tribe will not stand by while the city attempts to put up these illegal roadblocks. The Tribe demands the same transparency to which every other member of the public is entitled.”

Charging a reasonable fee for city staff time to fulfill a public records request is permissible. The City of Martin, however, did not calculate a potential fee and simply stated that the “request may cost many, many hours of both attorney and city employee time.”

Charging attorney fees is not allowed under South Dakota law. South Dakota law also does not require Tribes to waive sovereign immunity to obtain public records.

The Tribe first made a request on Aug. 25, 2023, for records relating to potential violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The records requested span 20 years and include election results, redistricting maps, agendas from meetings where redistricting was discussed, any and all analysis of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and more.

The city denied the request on Sept. 11, 2023. A letter penned by the cit’s attorney’s, Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore, LLP, stated, “[i]f full payment is not received upfront,” the city requires the Tribe to “waive sovereign immunity to account for the possible non-payment of the requested materials. The Oglala Sioux Tribe must include the waiver in its written confirmation that it will pay the associated fee for gathering the twenty years of records.”

The letter also stated the hourly cost to acquire the requested materials could total nearly $500, between attorney’s fees and hourly wage for city employees.

“Imposing attorney fees on public records requests will act as a deterrent, rendering them financially inaccessible to the vast majority of the public,” Mustafa Filat, Justice Catalyst Fellow at Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law Project, said in a statement.

On Nov. 29, 2023, The Oglala Sioux Tribe objected to the city’s conditions outlined in the letter. On Dec. 9, 2023, the city issued a statement affirming its stance.

The Tribe has since reduced the request from 20 years of records to 10 years of records.

“In a democracy, people are entitled to information about the work the government is carrying out on their behalf. The Oglala Sioux Tribe is no different,” Stephanie Amiotte, ACLU of South Dakota legal director, said in a statement. “But the city’s conditions are unreasonable, not grounded in South Dakota law, and undermine the objective of governmental transparency at the heart of the public records request process. The city’s conditions also treat Tribes in South Dakota differently than other requesters who are making public records requests.”

“The requests are vague and broad, leaving it difficult for a layperson to determine whether a statutory exception applies,” Sara Frankenstein, an attorney representing the City of Martin, told The Rapid City Journal. “Many of the requests require legal analysis as to whether the documents sought are excluded from public disclosure pursuant to South Dakota law. Additionally, the request sought documents spanning over twenty years. Such a huge and broad request is taxing on the City of Martin’s resources and its citizenry. The City of Martin is small, and resources are thin.”

The city asked that the Tribe wave its sovereign immunity — which protects it from both private and commercial lawsuits, like any other nation — to ensure the request would be paid should it be fulfilled.

The Tribe is appealing to the South Dakota Office of Hearing Examiners, alleging the conditions sought by the City of Martin are unreasonable at best or were sought in bad faith at worst.

read more: https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/south-dakota-city-asks-oglala-sioux-tribe-to-waive-sovereign-immunity-to-fulfill-records-request

Hey everyone, so the network managed to get the mutual aid delivered to Indigenous organizers on the ground and also managed to get a used truck but the truck needed some electrical repairs. We’re hoping to be able to cover the costs of the repairs ($600) but that cash is needed today! This truck will be vital to organizing on the Reservation especially with winter coming in this week. Every bit helps.

• Following 80 years of displacement, Indigenous Siekopai communities regained ownership of their ancestral Amazonian homeland on Ecuador’s border with Peru.
• The provincial court of Sucumbíos ruled in favor of the community, saying the environment ministry must deliver a property title for 42,360 hectares (104,674 acres) to the Siekopai, as well as a public apology for its violation of their collective territorial rights.
• The ruling is historic because it’s the first time an Indigenous community whose ancestral territory lies within a nationally protected area will receive title to the land.
• According to experts, this new ruling may change the approach communities use to obtain their ancestral lands in Ecuador, and the country may see more communities filing similar lawsuits to obtain lands locked away for state conservation.

After winning a historic lawsuit, an Indigenous community in Ecuador has finally obtained legal ownership of its land in a protected area — 80 years since being forcibly displaced. According to experts, this new ruling may change the approach communities use to obtain their ancestral lands in Ecuador, and the country may see more communities filing similar lawsuits to obtain lands locked away for state conservation.

Ecuador now recognizes the 42,360-hectare (104,674-acre) ancestral Pë’këya territory in the northeast of the Ecuadorian Amazon, which is also home to some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, as under the legal ownership of the Indigenous Siekopai nation.

The decision by the provincial court of Sucumbíos means that the Siekopai people now have legal rights to the place where their ancestors are buried. It also means the community is free to sustainably manage the local natural resources as it sees fit.

full article

In Chiapas, 42% of indigenous people who were arrested did not receive the assistance of an interpreter in any part of their legal proceedings. Today, they serve their sentences without understanding what was said during their trials.

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO — At 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning, people line up to visit their imprisoned relatives. It’s a visiting day at Centro Estatal de Reinserción Social para Sentenciados No. 5, better known as CERSS 5. At a concrete table beneath a canopy of palm fronds sit Petrona Hernández Pérez and Lucía Pérez, the spouses, respectively, of Agustín Pérez Domínguez and Juan Velasco Aguilar, from the neighborhood of K’a’ni’ in San Juan Cancuc. Both men are being held at CERSS 5. The women, accompanied by some of their children, have brought bean tamalitos, along with other items they managed to carry for the monthly visit.

“Our family on the outside is suffering because we can’t take care of them,” Pérez Domínguez says.

He was detained in K’a’ni’ in May 2022, together with Velasco Aguilar and Manuel Sántiz Cruz, accused of the homicide of a local police officer. Two additional men, one of whom is Pérez Domínguez’s brother, were arrested outside CERSS 5 three days later, after having testified in favor of the accused men. One thing they have in common, besides being speakers of Tseltal, is that none of them knows how to communicate in Spanish, the only exception being Pérez Domínguez, who only speaks a little of it.

In May 2023, the men were sentenced to 25 years in prison. This followed a legal process they say contained inconsistencies due to a lack of translation and interpretation into their language because the person assigned to provide those services did not produce a certificate or other document accrediting his knowledge of Tseltal.

full article

Three accused are charged with criminal contempt over Coastal GasLink pipeline blockades

The trial is underway for three people charged with criminal contempt for breaking a court order forbidding them from blocking access to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Sleydo’ stands trial alongside Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet’suwet’en family ties; and Corey Jocko, a Mohawk member of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy from Ontario.

The three appeared in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers, B.C., on Monday to face one charge each of criminal contempt of court related to arrests made during a police raid to enforce the pipeline injunction in November 2021. They each pleaded not guilty. Justice Michael Tammen is hearing the case.

Among the accused is Sleydo’, also known as Molly Wickham, who has been the public face of a high-profile Indigenous land rights movement. She is a Wing Chief of Cas Yikh, a house group of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

Coastal GasLink was contracted to build the 670-kilometre pipeline to carry natural gas across northern British Columbia to a terminal in Kitimat, B.C., for export to Asia.

The company signed benefit agreements with 20 elected band councils along the project’s route in 2018, but several Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders refused to allow the pipeline to cross their territory.

Pipeline opponents, who call themselves land defenders, launched a series of protests and blockades on behalf of the hereditary leaders.

In December 2019, the B.C. Supreme Court granted Coastal GasLink an injunction barring protesters from impeding the construction.

The three accused were arrested on Nov. 19, 2021, when RCMP moved in on a resistance camp that had been occupying a key work site.

Sleydo’ and Sampson were arrested in the same cabin structure along Morice Forest Service Road, which was at the centre of the injunction, and Jocko was arrested at a second cabin structure along the same road.

read more: https://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2024/01/08/trial-of-prominent-wetsuweten-leader-and-land-defenders-begins/#more-19047

This is only one of the many shitty statues in this godforsaken bordertown. Theyre all private property too so cant be removed by legal means besides by the owner. Theres so much bullshit about that place fucking hate it. Gonna start regularly using hexbear more so hopefully people like hearing me rant about Rapid City because I got a whole ass post Im gonna make and you know how my effort posting goes. GWB will get the least of it by the time Im done haha

• Several companies registered in Latin American countries claiming to have U.N. endorsement have persuaded Indigenous communities to hand over the economic rights to their forests for decades to come, a Mongabay investigation has found. The companies share commercial interests across various jurisdictions, and have not been able to demonstrate experience in sustainable finance projects.

• Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were promised jobs and local development projects in exchange for putting on the market more than 9.5 million hectares (23.5 million acres) of forests. According to community sources, the claims of U.N. backing were the main selling point for agreeing to put their forests on the market.

• All three U.N. entities cited by the companies have rejected any involvement. Mongabay has found that the methodology employed for valuing natural capital has not been used before; there are no public details regarding its scientific and technical basis; and the company that created the methodology refused to share information about it.

• Experts have raised concerns that a lack of regulation in the fast-growing sustainable finance industry is allowing abuses against communities that act as guardians for critical ecosystems.

IQUITOS, Peru — On the Peruvian side of the Yavarí River, overlooking the lush Brazilian shore, a weary Matsés man deletes the latest anonymous threat he received on his cellphone. He thought he and his people had seen it all: invasive logging and oil giants; the marauding cowboys of the first carbon credit rush; the quiet encroachment of illegal fishing and drug-trafficking rings into the Amazon. But then came a new disappointment.

“The hopes for jobs, stipends, study grants, were high,” he said of the scheme that promised to bring connectivity, income and opportunities to his community. He requested anonymity to avoid reprisals.

As pressure increases on governments and companies to boost climate action, sustainable finance initiatives are on the rise. But so are actors looking to profit from forest-dependent communities, well-meaning investors, and companies looking to meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments.

In Peru, Bolivia and Panama, entities purportedly specialized in sustainable and climate finance have falsely claimed United Nations endorsement to talk Indigenous communities into handing over the economic rights to their forests for decades at a time, a Mongabay investigation has found. Since 2022, the companies, which share commercial interests across various jurisdictions, have presented the forest communities with promises of the life-changing benefits that commodifying their forests and respective ecosystem services can bring.

Full article

• Although there wasn’t much to celebrate at the COP28 climate summit for Indigenous peoples, who were vastly outnumbered by fossil fuel lobbyists, leading advocate Sara Olsvig points to some progress made.
• Olsvig is adamant that efforts to tackle the climate crisis must not infringe on the rights of Indigenous peoples, and that the approach to take must be centered on respect for human rights.
• She also successfully pushed for the final text of the summit to distinguish between Indigenous peoples and local communities, saying the long-held practice of conflating the two has often been to the detriment of Indigenous groups.
• “We have already reached the tipping points in a climate sense,” Olsvig says. “Now we are also reaching tipping points in a human rights sense. And this is a very, very worrying development for the world.”

DUBAI — It was Sara Olsvig’s love of ice that brought her to the desert of Dubai for the 2023 U.N. climate summit, COP28.

As an Inuit child growing up in a village in Disko Bay, Greenland, Olsvig would often dogsled and fish on the frozen sea and lakes, so she can tell how much has now changed: The sea ice is often wet and mushy, the air is humid or foggy, and the snow is sticky, making hunting and fishing harder.

Although Indigenous peoples’ ways of life are typically the most sustainable, they’re also often the most threatened by climate change — as well as by activities meant to mitigate its impact, such as the mining of minerals for the renewable energy transition. That’s what drives Olsvig, as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and a leading voice in the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus at COP28, to push for greater Indigenous participation and recognition of Indigenous rights at climate talks.

full article

The moon has long been revered by many Native American tribes. So, when Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren recently discovered that NASA is planning to launch a rocket headed to the moon in early January with cremated human remains to be placed there, he sent a letter to NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation asking to delay the launch.

“It is crucial to emphasize that the moon holds a sacred position in many Indigenous cultures, including ours,” President Nygren wrote. “We view it as a part of our spiritual heritage, an object of reverence and respect. The act of depositing human remains and other materials, which could be perceived as discards in any other location, on the Moon is tantamount to desecration of this sacred space.”

NASA is planning on launching the Vulcan Centaur carrying the Peregrine Mission One by Astrobotic Technology on January 8, 2024. Among 28 payloads are some by Celestis and Elysium Space, companies known for providing memorial services by shipping human cremated remains.

Nygren has asked NASA and the federal Transportation Dept. to consult with the Navajo Nation before sending human remains to the moon.

In a Dec. 21 letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and Transportation Assistant Secretary for Tribal Government Affairs Arlando Teller, President Nygren expressed what he called “our deep concern and profound disappointment regarding a matter of utmost importance.”

In his letter, Nygren asked that the launch be delayed and immediate consultation take place.

“We believe that both NASA and the USDOT should have engaged in consultation with us before agreeing to contract with a company that transports human remains to the Moon or authorizing a launch carrying such payloads,” he wrote.

read more: https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/navajo-nation-president-objects-to-nasa-sending-cremated-human-remains-to-the-moon

HANAPEPE, Hawai'i — On a warm summer afternoon, Tina Taniguchi was on her hands and knees scraping dirt off an oblong depression in the ground. Thick brown hair peeked out from her coconut leaf hat. Splotches of mud stuck to her T-shirt and speckled her smiling face.

Taniguchi smiles a lot when she's working in her corner of the Hanapepe salt patch on the west side of Kauai — a terracotta plot of land about the size of a football field — dappled with elliptical pools of brine, crystallizing in clay beds.

"It's hard work, but for me it's also play," Taniguchi said, adding with a laugh, "I play in the mud all day."

Taniguchi's family is one of 22 who over generations have dedicated themselves to the cultural and spiritual practice of "paakai," the Hawaiian word for salt. This is one of the last remaining salt patches in Hawaii. Its sacred salt can be traded or given away, but must never be sold. Hawaiians use it in cooking, healing, rituals and as protection.

Over the past decade, this tract has been under constant threat due to development, pollution from a neighboring airfield, sand erosion from vehicle traffic and littering by visitors to the adjacent beach.

In addition, climate change threatens to obliterate the practice with rising sea levels and modified weather patterns. This year, the salt-making season lasted barely three months from July to September because of above-average rainfall. During a good year, work typically begins in May and ends in November.

Taniguchi drives about an hour to get here. For her, it's church and play rolled into one — the time she forges a spiritual connection to the land.

"This would be a religious practice of mine for sure," Taniguchi said. "My dad raised us saying that these mountains are his church, and the ocean is where you get cleansed."

Malia Nobrega-Olivera's grandfather was instrumental in forming the group of salt-making families called Hui Hana Paakai. She is also an educator and activist who leads efforts to preserve this centuries-old tradition. The organization's goal, she said, is to speak with a collective voice when communicating with the landowner, the state of Hawaii, whenever issues arise. Nobrega-Olivera said the salt patch is part of lands taken away from Native Hawaiians after the U.S.-backed overthrow of Hawaii's monarchy in 1893.

"Regardless of what a piece of paper might say, we are stewards of the area and this land is our 'kupuna' (elder)," she said.

Nobrega-Olivera looks fondly at black-and-white photos of her grandparents, uncles and aunts from about five decades ago, standing near hillocks of shimmering salt. Back then, they would give away 5-gallon buckets. Today, they hand out salt in sandwich bags. Trading salt for other items continues to this day, she said, adding that her late father once traded salt with a man who was selling piglets on Craigslist.

Born from the need to preserve fish and other meats, the process of turning sea water into salt can be slow and grueling. The season begins once rain stops and waters recede, exposing the salt beds. Ocean water travels underground and enters the wells. Each family has their own well, known as a "puna." As water enters the well, so do tiny, red brine shrimp, giving Hanapepe salt its unique sweetness, said Nobrega-Olivera.

Eventually, water from the wells is moved into the salt beds, which have been cleaned and lined with rich black clay. There, layers of salt crystals form. Typically, the top layer, which is the whitest, is used as table salt. The middle layer, pinkish, is used in cooking while the bottom layer, with a deep red hue, is used in blessings and rituals.

After the Maui fires in August that claimed 100 lives, spiritual practitioners there specifically requested white Hanapepe salt from Nobrega-Olivera to bless and "calm" the traumatized island, particularly areas that housed makeshift morgues. The salt makers continue to send their salt to survivors who are rebuilding their lives, so they can "make their food delicious and bring some of that joy into their lives," she said.

Nobrega-Olivera believes Hanapepe salt has the power to ward off bad energy.

"When I walk into a difficult meeting, I put a salt crystal on my tongue as a reminder to watch my words."

Many of the salt-making families are Christian. Nobrega-Olivera said reconciling their Christian faith with their spirituality as Native Hawaiians can be challenging, but it happens organically.

"There are some gatherings where we may honor our deities," she said. "Other occasions may call for a Christian prayer in Hawaiian or English, or both. You do what feels right for that space."

Nobrega-Olivera believes Western science and Indigenous knowledge can combine to combat the effects of climate change and save the salt patch. The steps include building up the wells' edges so when sea levels rise, the water won't inundate the area. Another important step: preventing sand dune erosion from vehicle traffic to the beach, which causes the waves to crest and flood the patch.

"Some ask us why we can't move this practice to a different location," she said. "That's impossible because our cultural practice is particular to this land. There are elements here that make this place special for making this type of salt. You cannot find that anywhere else."

Those working on the salt patches enter with reverence. Nobrega-Olivera said menstruating women typically do not come and red clothes are avoided.

Kanani Santos said he removes his shoes before entering because he likes to "be connected to the ground." He enjoys walking there at sunset, when the brick-red patch of land appears bathed in gold and the salt crystals sparkle like magic dust.

"I say a little prayer, ask for blessings to have a good harvest, to have a quiet soul and to embrace the moment," he said.

Kurt Kuali'i, a chef whose family has made salt for 10 generations, choked up when speaking about this as his "kuleana," which means responsibility.

"I get moments of silence here like church," he said. "I believe in akua (god), a higher power. This is where I come to connect with that higher power, teach the children and be with family. There's good energy here."

Even when rain disrupts an entire day's work, Kuali'i says he knows it's "God telling us it's not time yet, to slow down." The best part of salt making is giving it all away, he said.

"Sharing is Hawaiian. This is something you make with your hands. I may not be the best at everything, but I can make Hawaiian salt."

Kane Turalde has been coming to the salt patch since he was 7. He is 68 now, a Native Hawaiian educator and canoe-racing coach. He has protested in the past to block luxury homes and other development near the salt patch, which he says would have created more traffic and pollution.

"I always come here in the spirit of akua," he said. "Before I leave home, I call my ancestors here so when I arrive, they are here."

In his family's home, Turalde's grandmother kept a bowl of salt by the door. Everyone would take a pinch and say a prayer before going out, for protection, he said.

With the resurgence of Hawaiian culture and language on the islands, Nobrega-Olivera said she now thinks about how to transmit this knowledge to younger generations.

One way she honors the Hanapepe salt patch is by composing "mele," or Hawaiian songs and chants. She recently taught some school children one of those chants whose chorus is "aloha aina," which means "love of the land." Her eyes welled up as she saw their enthusiasm to learn the mele.

"Aloha aina captures our philosophy, the reason we do this," Nobrega-Olivera said. "You take care of the land, and the land takes care of you."

read more: https://ictnews.org/news/native-hawaiian-salt-makers-combat-climate-change-to-protect-tradition