tagged w/ Indigenous Peoples
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Video showing tribal people on the Andaman islands apparently being forced by police to dance for tourists in causing a storm in India.
The video, published by the Observer newspaper, shows a policeman ordering two naked girls to dance. He reminds them at the start of the video: “I gave you food.”
The Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal are home to a number of indigenous tribes who are protected and all contact is supposedly banned with them.
But the video shows dozens of vans full of tourists traveling on a road — which was ordered closed by India’s Supreme Court a decade ago — through the spectacular jungle. Tourists throw food to the tribes people, as you might to animals on a safari.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/indian-tribe-forced-to-dance-for-tourists-for-food-video.html#ixzz1k2MnBa00
http://youtu.be/HkilueCoafIVideo showing tribal people on the Andaman islands apparently being forced by police... more
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A U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change.
The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would ensure that countries will be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.
The deal doesn't explicitly compel any nation to take on emissions targets, although most emerging economies have volunteered to curb the growth of their emissions.
Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for at least another five years under the accord adopted Sunday — a key demand by developing countries seeking to preserve the only existing treaty regulating carbon emissions.
The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.
The United States was a reluctant supporter, concerned about agreeing to join an international climate system that likely would find much opposition in the U.S. Congress.
"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about," said U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern. But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected, he told the delegates.
Sunday's deal also set up the bodies that will collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of dollars a year for poor countries. Other documents in the package lay out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the deal represents "an important advance in our work on climate change."
But the deal's language left some analysts warning that the wording left huge loopholes for countries to avoid tying their emissions to legal constraints, and noted that there was no mention of penalties. "They haven't reached a real deal," said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. "They watered things down so everyone could get on board."
Environmentalists criticized the package — as did many developing countries in the debate — for failing to address what they called the most urgent issue, to move faster and deeper in cutting carbon emissions.
"The good news is we avoided a train wreck," said Alden Meyer, recalling predictions a few days ago of a likely failure. "The bad news is that we did very little here to affect the emissions curve."
Scientists say that unless those emissions — chiefly carbon dioxide from power generation and industry — level out and reverse within a few years, the Earth will be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead to ever greater climate catastrophes.
Sunday's breakthrough capped 13 days of hectic negotiations that ran a day and a half over schedule, including two round-the-clock days that left negotiators bleary-eyed and stumbling with words. Delegates were seen nodding off in the final plenary session, despite the high drama, barely constrained emotions and uncertainty whether the talks would end in triumph or total collapse.
The nearly fatal issue involved the legal nature of the accord that will govern carbon emissions by the turn of the next decade.
More at the linkA U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching... more
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In this extract from his book, To Cook A Continent, Nnimmo Bassey argues that climate negotiations, from Durban in late 2011 onwards, will increasingly confront the issue of climate justice.
The atmosphere is a common space, a global commons. Industrialised nations pumped a disproportionate amount of emissions into the atmosphere and they have cornered a disproportionate amount of global resources, largely by exploiting nations that are on the other side of the coin. Climate impacts are already being felt in a severe way in Africa as well as in other regions of the global South. Centuries of exploitation have weakened the resilience of these regions and in tackling climate change these historical facts must be addressed. One way of addressing this is by the payment of climate debt to make the needed financial and technological resources available to these vulnerable regions.
The Conference of Parties at Copenhagen and the following one at Cancun did not generate outcomes consistent with scientific warnings that the world faces a severe climate crisis. Copenhagen ended with an accord spearheaded by President Barack Obama of the United States with the backing of the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) concocted in a 'Green Room' dreamed up by Denmark's conservative ruling party. In that room, Patrick Bond recalled, were 26 countries 'cherry-picked to represent the world. When even that small group deadlocked, allegedly due to Chinese intransigence and the overall weak parameters set by the US, the five leaders (Obama, Lula da Silva, Jacob Zuma, Manmohan Singh, and Wen Jiabao) attempted a face-saving last gasp at planetary hygiene.'12
The demand of climate justice is that those who created the climate problem must be the ones to mitigate it, and in the process must transform their economies and societies.13 There are two ways to go about making this happen. First, rich nations must reduce rapacious consumption patterns and address the climate crisis with real solutions and not ones that have been seen to be false. Second, the rich nations have to support the poor nations who are being forced to adapt to a situation they did not create. One practical way of making that happen is through support for sustainable, green development paths.
Among governments, the Bolivians have made the clearest call for climate justice while India and China have used related arguments to defend their growth paths. At a time when the world has been calling for a curtailment of polluting industrial establishments, China has been building new coal-fired power plants at a prodigious rate.14 It is interesting to note that while China is massively expanding its coal-powered plants, it is also quickly assuming leadership in the utilisation of wind power. The discourse on how much both China and India must do in tackling global warming must not overlook the fact that vast numbers of people in both India and China still require electricity supply and that meeting that gap requires huge financial outlays.
Following the catastrophic outcome of the United Nations climate negotiations held in Copenhagen in December 2009, President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced that the world would meet in Bolivia for a thorough and inclusive discussion on this vital issue.
The summit, held in Cochabamba in April 2010, attracted 35,000 participants from 140 countries. The summit stood in sharp contrast to the Copenhagen event in many ways. First, this was an assembly of governments and peoples. In Copenhagen no effort was spared in keeping civil society out of the conference: the conference was marked by lockouts of civil society, detentions of climate activists and outright brutality towards non-violent protesters on the streets. In Cochabamba the police were offering assistance and were also participants. Whereas Copenhagen showed a disdain for the voices of the people, Cochabamba was about raising the voices of the people. The only similarity between the events is that they were both held in cities whose names start with letter 'C' followed by nine letters.
The key outcome of the Cochabamba conference was the People's Agreement. This agreement demanded that countries cut their emissions by at least 50 per cent at source in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013–17), without recourse to offsets and other carbon trading schemes. In terms of finance, the People's Agreement demands that developed countries commit 6 per cent of their GDP to finance adaptation and mitigation needs. The financial suggestions of the Copenhagen Accord are a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to secure vulnerable peoples and nations. The peoples of the world also affirmed that there is a climate debt that must be recognised and paid. The payment is not all about finance but principally about decolonising the atmospheric space and redistributing the meagre space left. Developed countries already occupy 80 per cent of the space.
The climate debt is also about taking actions needed to restore the natural cycles of Mother Earth and one clear way of achieving this will be through the proclamation of a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, with clear obligations for humans. Bolivia is in the forefront of promoting the adoption of this declaration at the United Nations. The People's Agreement recognises that the causes of climate change are systemic and that systemic changes are needed to tackle them. On this note, the model of civilisation that is hinged on uncontrolled development can only compound the crisis. The world needs to move towards living well and not continue on the path of domination of others and of conspicuous and wasteful consumption.
An area glossed over in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations is the role of industrial agriculture in climate change. The People's Conference debated this key sector and reached the agreement that the way to a sustainable future is through the enthronement of food sovereignty based on agro-ecological agricultural systems. The issue of access to water being a human right was also affirmed by the people and later on in the year by the United Nations.
In all, the People's Agreement recognises that real strategies to tackle climate change must be based on the principles of equity and justice in dealing with the structural causes. Without climate justice it will also clearly be impossible to achieve the much talked about Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Cochabamba resonated with calls for urgently securing the rights of Mother Earth as a means of reconfiguring our relationship with the earth and with each other – in a way that respects the past, today and the future. All these will be a pipe dream unless peoples' sovereignty is supported, restored or built across the world. Cochabamba was a turning point in the march to transform our world from the path of conflict, competition, exploitation and domination to a path of solidarity and dignity. It held a ray of hope for Africa.
More at the link
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I posted this excerpt from this article because it hits the nail on the head about the mechanisms involved in the schemes being put forth by industrialized nations, the World Bank and corporations (industrial agriculture especially) looking to use this planetary emergency as a way to profit from it without really doing anything to address it. And that includes our seeds and water. Our voices now can make a dfference and they must be heard.In this extract from his book, To Cook A Continent, Nnimmo Bassey argues that climate... more
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Durban, South Africa (6/12/11)–Members of the Canadian Youth Delegation and the Indigenous Environmental Network held a welcome party to formally receive Environment Minister Peter Kent and his tar sands pushers to the UN climate negotiations. As conference delegates entered the negotiations this morning, the welcoming committee handed out samples of tar sands on behalf of Kent, along with tourism brochures for
Canada’s scenic tar sands.
Canada’s refusal to commit to a binding climate agreement has made it a pariah state at the negotiations. Members of the Canadian Youth Delegation and the Indigenous Environmental Network hope their humble gifts will make the tar sands pushers feel right at home.
“Canada’s cozy relationship with oil industry has inhibited them from making real progress at these negotiations,” said Karen Rooney. “It’s clear that they have chosen to put the needs of polluters ahead of people.”
Over the past few months, Canada has been lobbying foreign governments to weaken both their climate policies and fuel quality standards to protect the trade of tar sands oil.
Meanwhile, the health and livelihoods of many Indigenous communities downstream from the tar sands continue to be threatened due to toxic tailings and the destruction of the boreal forest.
“Indigenous communities have been turned into sacrifice zones in Canada to feed our fossil fuel addiction. We are here to stand up for those communities against Canada’s pollution peddling and support just climate solutions,” stated Ben Powless, of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
A press conference will follow at 3:30pm in the Kosi Palm press room in the ICC.
More at the linkDurban, South Africa (6/12/11)–Members of the Canadian Youth Delegation and the... more
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Thousands of demonstrators have marched through the South African city of Durban demanding faster action on climate change.
The annual UN climate summit is being held at the city's convention centre.
Protesters were particularly angered by the stance of rich countries such as the US and Canada.
In London. former UK Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott said the approach of these nations was "appalling".
Halfway through this summit, some progress has been made, but a few countries including the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia are holding out on important issues such as the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
Fourteen years ago, Lord Prescott played a leading role in the UN summit in Kyoto that brought the protocol into existence.
Speaking to the BBC, he was scathing about nations trying to delay progress now.
"Let's have a reassessment of it by 2015." he said. "But if you don't finish in time for the ending of Kyoto Two, which is next year, 2012, then, you know, it will actually wither on the vine and that's what Canada and America wants - and one or two other rich countries.
"It's a conspiracy against the poor. It's appalling. I'm ashamed of such countries not recognising their responsibilities."
The European Union wants talks on a new global agreement covering all nations to start as soon as possible.
It is backed by most of the world's poorest countries and small island states vulnerable to rising sea levels.
But even if resistance from the US and others can be overcome, it is hard to envisage anything being agreed that can start to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions before 2020.
And that is the timeframe science suggests is necessary if the most dangerous climate impacts are to be avoided.Thousands of demonstrators have marched through the South African city of Durban... more
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Cancún, Mexico -- As representatives of Indigenous peoples and communities already suffering the immediate impacts of climate change, we express our outrage and disgust at the agreements that have emerged from the COP16 talks. As was exposed in the Wikileaks climate scandal, the Cancun Agreements are not the result of an informed and open consensus process, but the consequence of an ongoing US diplomatic offensive of backroom deals, arm-twisting and bribery that targeted nations in opposition to the Copenhagen Accord during the months leading up to the COP-16 talks.
We are not fooled by this diplomatic shell game. The Cancun Agreements have no substance. They are yet more hot air. Their only substance is to promote continued talks about climate mitigation strategies motivated by profit. Such strategies have already proved fruitless and have been shown to violate human and Indigenous rights. The agreements implictly promote carbon markets, offsets, unproven technologies, and land grabs—anything but a commitment to real emissions reductions.
The Voices of the People Must be Respected
Indigenous Peoples from North to South cannot afford these unjust and false ‘solutions’, because climate change is killing our peoples, cultures and ecosystems. We need real commitments to reduce emissions at the source and to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Because we are on the front lines of the impacts of climate change, we came to COP-16 with an urgent call to address the root causes of the climate crisis, to demand respect for the Rights of Mother Earth, and to fundamentally redefine industrial society’s relationship with the planet. Instead, the Climate COP has shut the doors on our participation and that of other impacted communities, while welcoming business, industry, and speculators with open arms. The U.S., Industrialized nations, big business and unethical companies like Goldman Sachs will profit handsomely from these agreements while our people die.
Women and youth in our communities are disproportionately burdened by climate impacts and rights violations. Real solutions would strengthen our collective rights and land rights while ensuring the protection of women, youth and vulnerable communities. While the Cancun Agreements do contain some language "noting" rights, it is exclusively in the context of market mechanisms, while failing to guarantee safeguards for the rights of peoples and communities.
The failures of the UN talks in Copenhagen have been compounded in Cancun. From the opening day to the closing moments of the talks, our voices were censored, dissenting opinions silenced and dozens ejected from the conference grounds. The thousands who rallied outside to reject market mechanisms and demand recognition of human and Indigenous rights were ignored.
The Market Will Not Protect Our Rights
Market-based approaches have failed to stop climate change. They are designed to commodify and profit from the last remaining elements of our Mother Earth and the air. Through its focus on market approaches like carbon trading, the UNFCCC has become the WTO of the Sky.
We are deeply concerned that the Cancun Agreements betray both our future and the rights of peoples, women, youth, and vulnerable populations. While the preamble to the Cancun Agreements note a call for "studies on human rights and climate change," this is in effect an empty reference, with no content and no standards, that will not protect the collective rights of peoples. The market mechanisms that implicitly dominate both the spirit and the letter of the Cancun Agreements will neither avert climate change nor guarantee human rights, much less the Rights of Mother Earth. Approaches based on carbon offsetting, like REDD, will permit polluters to continue poisoning land, water, air, and our bodies, while doing nothing to stop the climate crisis. Indeed, approaches based on the commodification of biodiversity, CO2, forests, water, and other sacred elements will only encourage the buying and selling of our human and environmental rights.
The Cochabamba People's Agreement Points the Way Forward
There is another way forward: the Cochabamba People's Agreement represents the vision of everyday people from all corners of the globe who are creating the solutions to climate change from the ground up, and calling for a global framework that respects human rights and the Rights of Mother Earth.
If any hope emerges from Cancun, it comes from the dramatic demonstrations we saw in the streets and from the deep and powerful alliances that were built among indigenous and social movements. The Indigenous Environmental Network joined thousands of our brothers and sisters to demand real climate solutions based in the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the rights of Mother Earth, and a just transition away from fossil fuels. We will continue to stand with our allies to demand climate justice.Cancún, Mexico -- As representatives of Indigenous peoples and communities... more
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Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people -- appalling, and largely ignored -- compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson in this bold, courageous talk from TEDxDU.Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge... more
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Approximately six months ago, campesino farmers in Trujillo, Colon organized in the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, the MCA, were awarded provisional title to a farm which neighbors their community, as part of a long standing negotiation with Dinant Corporation, a biofuel company, whose land claims are illegitimate.
Since that time, the small farmers worked the land. In recent weeks they had noticed incursions into their land by armed security forces employed by the biofuel company, Dinant.
On Monday, November 15, the farmers went to their fields but were then attacked by Dinant security. Six were killed in the massacre and two more are in critical condition.
The massacre occurred the same day that the de facto Honduran president Pepe Lobo had planned to meet with the director of the US government development fund, the Millennium Challenge, in Denver to ask for funding for so called "renewable energy" - in Honduras, principally biofuels and dams.
World Bank And Other "Development" Groups Share Responsibility for the Massacre
The "renewable energy" plan Lobo is shopping around may be the result of an Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) funded technical support grant (T-1101) to the de facto government ushered in after the June 28 military coup. In November 2009, under a coup government and amidst grave human rights violations, the World Bank's (WB) International Finance Corporation gave Dinant Corporation a $30 million loan for biofuel production, and now shares responsibility in the massacre.
Policies supposedly intended to stop climate change are in reality fueling climate change. The world must invest in a renewable way of life, not destructive "renewable energy". Scientists have analyzed that biofuel industry together with the climate change prevention mechanisms currently promoted could actually result in the destruction of half of the planets forests.
In the same way that massacres cannot be stopped when justice systems are destroyed by military coups, the destruction of our planet cannot be stopped when the systems of governance have been hijacked by corporations who can buy off, or that failing, militarily intervene in nations attempting to build just forms of governance. Human rights and the environment cannot be separated.
US Military Base Bought for Agrarian Reform And Stolen for Agribusiness
During the past decade, campesinos in Honduras have challenged a series of illegitimate land titles obtained by agro-businessmen in a massive former US military training center known as the CREM.
On this land, over 5,000 hectares, the US military trained military forces from across Central America, particularly the Contra paramilitary forces attacking the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Once the CREM center's operations ended, the Honduran government bought the land from a US citizen through the Honduran land reform program.
However, instead of being sold to small farmers, as the government was obligated by law to do, the land was illegally divided up between several large landholders as a result of corruption and fraudulent titling processes. A coalition of land rights organizations in Honduras organized in the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, the MCA, to challenge the illegal titles. Little by little the land titles were awarded to groups of campesinos organized in the MCA.
The titling process has been slow and marked by violent attacks by the large landholders who have influence in the government, police and military forces. Among the last of the CREM lands to remain in the hands of agribusiness interests is the farm called El Tumbador, approximately 700 hectares controlled by the Dinant Corporation, property of Honduras' most powerful agro-businessman, Miguel Facusse.
A biofuel businessman with interests in several corporations, Miguel Facusse is infamous for the use of fraudulent methods, including intimidation and violence, to obtain lands throughout the country.
The World Bank Backs The Corrupt And Violent Dinant Corporation
Since the military coup in June 2009, Honduras has been ruled by illegitimate, repressive regimes.
In November 2009, the WB extended a loan of $30 million to Dinant for its biofuel production in that region, despite a widely documented history of violence and corruption by the biofuel company. The WB failed in its human rights obligations in this case and shares responsibility for this massacre.
Given the conditions in Honduras, the WB must suspend both private and public sector funding to Honduras, and freeze funding of biofuels in the region. The biofuel industry in Central and South America violently displaces small farmers and contributes to global warming.
Another multinational public fund that finances international private investment, the Interamerican Investment Corporation, has also recently funded Dinant.
cont
(Annie Bird is co-director of Rights Action , www.rightsaction.org. Feel free to re-publish this article, citing author & source)Approximately six months ago, campesino farmers in Trujillo, Colon organized in the... more
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This is a simple performance by Olegario Cahamarra Monha, from the indigenous community of Puerto Pizario on the shore of the the Bajo San Juan river in the Pacific Cost of Colombia, Buenaventura, Valle.This is a simple performance by Olegario Cahamarra Monha, from the indigenous... more
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A new "gold rush" is under way in the American West, but this time the prospectors are out for another metal: uranium.
The Grand Canyon region in the US state of Arizona holds one of the nation's largest concentrations of high grade uranium, the fuel for nuclear power.
As global demand for nuclear power has increased so has interest in the metal and, across the south-west, companies are seeking permission to restart uranium mining.
In the US, President Barack Obama has called for an increase in nuclear power to help reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil.
The US government is currently weighing the costs and benefits of mining, with Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva proposing a ban on mining near the Grand Canyon.
But with the increase in uranium exploration come concerns about the future of the Grand Canyon, a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of America's foremost natural wonders.
And Native American populations living near uranium mines fear exploration could contaminate their drinking water.
For now, the sole active uranium mine near the Grand Canyon's northern rim is run by Denison Mines Corporation, a Canadian firm.
The Arizona 1 mine employs 30 miners, and the firm says it goes to great lengths to protect them in the hazardous environment.
Among other precautions, large fans pump clean air into the mine and suck out most of the radioactive radon gas, while workers spray water across the site to keep down potentially harmful dust. The firm also says past accidents were swiftly and effectively cleaned up.
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On a recent trip into the mine, none of the miners wore masks, and their hands and face were caked with uranium ore.
"It washes off," miner Cody Behuden, 28, told the BBC while licking his ore-caked lips.
Vice-president of US operations Harold Roberts said the miners were under no danger from ingesting uranium.
***************************************A new "gold rush" is under way in the American West, but this time the... more
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THE MORNING STAR INSTITUTE
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JUNE 18-23 SET FOR 2010 NATIONAL SACRED PLACES PRAYER DAYS
Washington, DC — Observances and ceremonies will be held across the country from June 18 through June 23 to mark the 2010 National Days of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places.
The observance in Washington, D.C. will be held on Monday, June 21 at 9:00 a.m. on the United States Capitol Grounds, West Front Grassy Area
Descriptions of certain sacred places and threats they face, as well as times and places for public commemorations are listed below.
Some of the gatherings highlighted in this release are educational forums, not religious ceremonies, and are open to the general public.
Others are ceremonial and may be conducted in private. In addition to those listed below, there will be observances and prayers offered at other sacred places that are under threat and at those not endangered at this time.
“Native and non-Native people nationwide gather at this time for Solstice ceremonies and to honor sacred places, with a special emphasis this year on sacred waters and those beings that depend on them,” said Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee).
She is President of The Morning Star Institute, which organizes the National Sacred Places Prayer Days.
“Ceremonies are being conducted as Native American peoples engage in legal struggles with federal agencies that side with developers that endanger Native sacred places,” said Ms. Harjo. “Once again, we call on Congress to build a door to the courts for Native nations to protect our traditional churches. Many sacred places are being damaged because Native nations do not have equal access under the First Amendment to defend them.”
All other peoples in the United States can use the First Amendment to protect their churches, but the Supreme Court closed that door to Native Americans in 1988.
The Court, from 1988 to 2009, has declined to allow federal religious freedom statutes to be used to protect Native American sacred places or the exercise of Native American religious freedom at sacred places.
“Today, Native Americans are the only peoples in the United States who do not have a constitutional or statutory right of action to protect sacred places or our exercise of religious freedom there,” said Ms. Harjo. “That simply must change as a matter of fairness and equity.
Native nations have been cobbling together protections based on defenses intended for other purposes.
Some may permit a place at the table when development is being contemplated, but Native peoples are not taken seriously because the agencies and developers know that the Supreme Court does not appear inclined to hear lawsuits which lack a tailor-made cause of action.”
“The Obama Administration is strengthening consultation and sacred sites Executive Orders,” said Ms. Harjo, “but executive orders do not create legal protections.”
During his presidential campaign in 2008, Sen. Barack Obama addressed this issue as part of his Native American policy platform for religious freedom, cultural rights and sacred places protection:
“Native American sacred places and site-specific ceremonies are under threat from development, pollution, and vandalism. Barack Obama supports legal protections for sacred places and cultural traditions, including Native ancestors’ burial grounds and churches.”
“Native American people are heartened that President Obama is fulfilling his promise,” said Ms. Harjo. “And we look forward to the day when the President calls on Congress to create a right of action so we can defend our holy places. Over 20 years have passed without Congress creating a door to the courthouse for Native Americans. Now, with the support of the President, we pray that this will be the last year we are denied justice.”
The 2010 observances will be the eighth of the National Prayer Days to Protect Native American Sacred Places.
The first National Prayer Day was conducted on June 20, 2003, on the U.S. Capitol Grounds and nationwide to emphasize the need for Congress to enact a cause of action to protect Native sacred places.
That need still exists.
Native peoples also are encouraged that the U.S. is reviewing the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and consulting with tribal leaders about whether or not to adopt it.
The Declaration includes the following statements regarding sacred places:
“Article 11, 1: Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artifacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.
“Article 11, 2: States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs.”
“Article 12, 1: Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practise, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains.”
“Article 25: Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard."
In addition to those listed separately below, prayers will be offered for the following sacred places, among others:
All Waters and Wetlands
Antelope Hills
Apache Leap
Badger Two Medicine
Badlands
Bear Butte
Bear Medicine Lodge
Black Hills
Black Mesa
Boboquivari Mountain
Cape Wind
Cave Rock
Chief Cliff
Coastal Chumash sacred lands in the Gaviota Coast
Coldwater Springs
Colorado River
Columbia River
Eagle Rock in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Everglades
Fajada Butte
Gulf of Mexico
Haleakala Crater
Hickory Ground
Hualapai Nation landforms in Truxton and Crozier Canyons
Indian Pass
Kaho’olawe
Katuktu
Kituwah
Klamath River
Lake Superior
Mauna Kea
Medicine Bluff
Medicine Hole
Medicine Wheels
Mokuhinia
Moku’ula
Mount Shasta
Mount Taylor
Mount Tenabo
Nine Mile Canyon
Ocmulgee Old Fields and National Monument
Palo Duro Canyon
Petroglyphs National Monument
Pipestone National Monument
Puget Sound
Puvungna
Rainbow Bridge
Rattlesnake Island
Rio Grande River
Sweetgrass Hills
Sutter Buttes
Tse Whit Zen Village
Tsi-litch Semiahmah Village
Valley of Chiefs
Walking Woman Place
Woodruff Butte
Wolf River
Yucca Mountain
Zuni Salt Lake
Sacred places of all removed Native nations
2010 National Sacred Places Prayer Days events across the U.S.;
Turtle Island Project blogs:
http://turtleislandproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/2010-national-sacred-places-prayer-days.html
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/201nationalsacredplacesprayerdays/
Navajo Lutheran Mission blogs
http://navajolutheranmission.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/navajoarizona2010nationalsacredplacesprayerdays
http://navajolutheranmission.blogspot.com/2010/06/navajo-nation-2010-national-sacred.html
Indian Country Today newspaper three-part series on Suzan Shown Harjo, president of Morning Star Institute
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28180329.html
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28180139.html
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28180009.htmlTHE MORNING STAR INSTITUTE
611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, DC
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Shell Oil is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer and asked a federal appeals court Thursday to rule quickly on a challenge by environmentalists concerned about the risk of a major spill after the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Kathleen Sullivan, an attorney for Shell, said the company has spent at least $3.5 billion on Alaska operations in the past few years as it prepares for exploratory drilling set for July in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
"Shell has waited years to recover its investment," Sullivan told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland. "We're ready to go."
"I'm sure Shell would like to win," replied Chief Judge Alex Kozinski.
But a coalition of environmentalists and Native Alaska groups who are challenging the drilling plans told the court the federal Minerals Management Service failed to consider the potential threat to wildlife and the risk for disaster before it approved the Shell project.
Christopher Winter, an attorney for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, said the Interior Department agency "simply ignored key aspects" about the possible effects of drilling operations on bowhead whales, including interruption of feeding patterns.
David Shilton, a Justice Department lawyer representing the minerals service, responded by saying studies have shown noise from drilling has only a "temporary and minor" effect on the whales, whose population is healthy and has been increasing.
Deirdre McDonnell, the attorney for the Native Village of Point Hope in Alaska, the lead petitioners in the case, argued that Shell had not made adequate plans to deal with an emergency, such as a major spill.
The Shell plan, for example, "doesn't say what happens if the drill ship is disabled or has sunk," McDonnell told the judges.
She also said government did not consider the cumulative impact of drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
Sullivan argued, however, the government must consider the facts at hand rather than "speculative" future impact and Shell has made extensive plans that include dealing with "the remote and infinitesimal likelihood of a spill."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced last December the Minerals Management Service had conditionally approved plans by Shell to drill three exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea, saying environmentally responsible exploration is a key component of reducing dependence on foreign oil.
Conditional approval for exploration in the Beaufort Sea came last October, as part of the development of oil leases sold under the Bush administration and upheld by the Obama administration in March.Shell Oil is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer and asked a federal... more
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Feb. 06,2010 at the court house in Boulder, CO a reading from Leonard Peltier, to the people of the world, in honor of the Spirit of Crazy horse, as a political prisoner of the United States of America. He has been incarcerated for over 34 years and still asking for our help. To be seen as a Native American standing up for his people and keeping faith for truth and justice. Ready by Mark Holtzman, music by DJ Tribe and dedication to freedom of speech and the hope for Leonard's freedom! Please Mr. President, free our sun dance brother! All natives involved pray for the agents families to be healed and understand this was a place of fear and protection. As those who fought were not the only one's who were injured or killed. May all who know this man be in a place of reverence and knowledge. The peaceful warriors unite with one soul who wishes to see all united.Feb. 06,2010 at the court house in Boulder, CO a reading from Leonard Peltier, to the... more
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Indigenous communities in the Lacandon Forest in Chiapas are being violently evicted by federal police and army forces , in support of corporate plans for oil palm expansion and other activities, including tourism FALSELY called 'eco-tourism'.
Multinational corporations are coveting strategic natural resources in the Lacandon Forest in the Mexican state of Chiapas. At the same time, the state government is pursuing ambitious plans to surround the Lacondan Forest with oil palm plantations, while disguising the forest around the plantations as ‘eco’- tourism areas.
The corporations are preparing for those projects, by attacking and forcefully removing ('evicting') indigenous communities.
On January 21st and 22nd this year, the indigenous Tselales communities of Laguna El Suspiro and Laguna San Pedro Guanil, both inside the Biosphere Reserve of Montes Azuls in the Lacandon Forest, were evicted --The Montes Azules is home to one third of Mexico’s biodiversity.
The removal operation began with the head of the Federal Agency for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) arriving in Chiapas. A few hours later several helicopters and hundreds of heavily armed policemen and soldiers evicted around twenty indigenous families (120 individuals) from their homes in the region.
Without any official documentation or court order, by using violence and threatening elderly people, women and children, they forced the indigenous people to leave their houses without being allowed to take any of their personal belongings, and took them to the city of Palenque.
Journalists were not permitted to quote the witnesses of the 'relocated' peoples.
Mexican government representatives have stated that the operation was carried out in coordination with the federal police, members of the Mexican Army and of PROFEPA, strangely in the presence of "representatives of the state’s human rights", yet, no details have been given as to who the "human-rights representatives" were.
These atrocities are part of a cynical ‘development strategy’ for the Lacandon Forest, initiated by a multilateral financial organisation and imposed by the Mexican government with apparent international cooperation.
The policy of ‘conservation through privatization’ and ‘green philanthropy is a GREENWASH with dire consequences to human beings, wildlife and the environment.
These green 'policies' are an effort to disguise the ethically bankrupt multilateral financial organisation looking to profit by the commercialization of nature.
The expansion of commercial plantations of oil palms in the Lacandon Forest poses a major risk to biodiversity in the region, as well as to the soil and the sources of freshwater, due to the use of fertilizers and other agro-chemicals.
Destroying rainforests for palm oil plantations worsen climate change, create fragmented wildlife habitat, degrade the soil and water and displace the original communities from their land and territory.
So who is responsible for these projects which are destroying the forest and privatizing from its rich natural resources?
http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/protestaktion.php?id=543Indigenous communities in the Lacandon Forest in Chiapas are being violently evicted... more
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The oil sands is turning Alberta into an environmental wasteland. Habitat, forestland, water quality are all suffering, and cancer is increasing among First Nations communities. We can no longer stand by and watch while one of the most pristine and biodiverse areas in North America is systematically destroyed for greed. And this oil is now also being prepared to be pumped into the US via a new pipeline being built in to the U.S. (the Yankee Clipper) which of course, this administration has not mentioned once in all of its talk about "clean" energy and Co2 caps. It is time to tell the CEO of RBC to stop financing this dirty environmentally destructive crime against nature and send a message to those who deem to make a profit from it by greenwashing their intentions and actions by sponsoring Olympic events. You can do so at the link provided.
Just a note: The video is a mock Olympic ad of RBC made by RAN.The oil sands is turning Alberta into an environmental wasteland. Habitat, forestland,... more
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In December 2009, as the world waited for a global climate change agreement at the UN Copenhagen climate summit that was never resolved, one bright spot for conservation remained - the protection of a paradise of biodiversity, a portion of Yasuni National Park in Ecuador's Amazon.
Ecuador's innovative plan to keep some 850 million barrels of oil underground and avoid nearly 410 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide was heralded as a first step forward for the planetary protection of megadiverse areas.
Yasuni National Park (Photo courtesy Government of Ecuador)
In exchange for keeping the crude oil in the ground in the Ishpingo, Tampococha, Tiputini (ITT) region of the national park, the Ecuadorian government asked for compensation of $350 million a year for 10 years. The money was to go into The Yasuni Trust Fund to be managed by the United Nations Development Programme.
Overall, Ecuador's signing of the environmental trust fund agreement with the UN Development Program at Copenhagen would have stood as a symbol that pathways to protection for ecosystems of the developing world from the peoples of the developed world are possible.
However, on December 14, 2009, just two days before the scheduled signing by Ecuadorian government officials and UNDP representatives, President Rafael Correa sent word via e-mail to his team in Copenhagen not to sign the agreement that had been in high-level negotiations for months.
Roque Sevilla, president of the Ecuadorian Commission for the proposal, said that the group had met with President Correa on December 10, 2009 to review 33 observations that the government wanted to include in the negotiations.
The following Saturday, December 12, final Ecuadorian government observations from the Finance Ministry were included to prepare for the official signing in Copenhagen on December 16.
Yet the Ecuadorian negotiating team came home from Copenhagen without accomplishing their goal - the agreement was not signed.
The Yasuni-ITT proposal, named after the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil field, is pioneering in four ways:
it calls on the world to avoid emissions, rather than pay for over-emitting
it calls for co-responsibility between developing and industrialized countries to pay to keep global diversity hot spots intact
it would form the largest environmental trust fund in the world
it would protect not just the plethora of plant and animal species that inhabit Yasuni, but also the two uncontacted indigenous groups that live within its borders - the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples
cont.In December 2009, as the world waited for a global climate change agreement at the UN... more
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~orn/blog/?p=39
blog and site of the olympic resistance network
their about me:The Olympics Resistance Network is primarily based in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories and exists as a space to coordinate anti-2010 Olympics efforts. In doing so, we act in solidarity with other communities across ‘BC’ – particularly indigenous communities who have been defending their land against the onslaught of the Olympics since the bid itself.~orn/blog/?p=39
blog and site of the olympic resistance network
their about... more
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James Ford has spent eight years researching the effects of climate change on the lifestyles of Inuit people living in the Far North.
He's seen evidence that local temperatures are rising and there's a lot less sea ice floating around, for a much shorter time period each year. Along the Northern Foxe Basin, for example, the ice is taking as much as four weeks as long to freeze than it did 40 years ago, said Ford.
That means it is harder for Inuit people to hunt, fish, and eke out a livable existence, according to their traditional ways.
"Hunting is not just a hobby to Inuit, it's a way of life," the McGill University professor explained in a recent telephone interview from his Montreal office.
In places like Igloolik, Nunavut, where a week's worth of groceries typically cost more than $550 for a small family, there simply aren't a lot of other options.
There are few jobs, many of Canada's 50,000 Inuit live well below the poverty line and there is little opportunity to change the available means of subsistence.
Ford likens the current circumstances for many Inuit to a community where the grocery store moves five kilometers away from your home every year, making it more and more difficult for you to get access to food, as time goes by.
And after enough time passes by, the road starts to crumble away and you're not even sure how to get there with the use of a car -- or in the case of the Inuit, possibly an ATV or a snowmobile.
For Inuit people, "their supermarket is the land," Ford said. The problem is that the supermarket is moving out of reach.
A way forward
In a new study published in the Global Environmental Change journal, Ford and a group of Canadian colleagues have concluded that Inuit must adapt to coming environmental changes that are inevitable and unavoidable.
Climate change, the researchers report, is threatening many aspects of Inuit life, including access to food, the integrity of local infrastructure and the ability to maintain their traditional lifestyles.
But according to Ford and his fellow researchers, things are not completely bleak.
"Despite the fact that our climate is changing, Inuit are adapting," Ford said.
Many Inuit are adapting to climate change on an individual basis through, for example, the use of new hunting techniques that employ modern technology. They are also paying attention to the fluctuations of wildlife populations and migration patterns and adjusting accordingly.
But the researchers contend that individual adaptation is not going to be good enough in the long run, and Inuit people will need government assistance to successfully maintain their lifestyles.
They are calling for all levels of government to work with Inuit communities, taking advantage of both scientific and traditional knowledge, to best develop strategies for dealing with climate change.James Ford has spent eight years researching the effects of climate change on the... more
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A look back at the concerns of indigenous communities during the historic climate talks in Copenhagen last month.
For two weeks in Copenhagen last month climate negotiators debated carbon levels, emissions, and balancing the financial burden of saving the planet among developed and developing countries. Still, even as international leaders wrestled with the complex mix of geopolitics, science, economics, and diplomacy, another important ingredient in the climate crisis was barely mentioned: the effect of the warming planet on the Earth’s freshwater.
The same oversight, however, was not repeated by public interest organizations and water advocates who also were in Copenhagen, especially indigenous representatives from underdeveloped countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and the diminishing access to fresh water.
Numerous groups, such as the Khapi community in Bolivia and the Tagalog in the Philippines, banded together in Copenhagen to explain at a number of meetings and public events how climate change is already threatening their access to food and water, as well as the sustainability of their thousands years old cultures. Some of the strongest voices were heard during the World Water Movements and COP15: Proposals and Strategies for Water and Climate Justice panel.
Debating Water as a Right to Life
“Almost all countries, except those that are victims of climactic disaster, are not interested in dealing with water,” said Riccardo Petrella, author of The Water Manifesto and founder of the Lisbon Group, a think tank that critically analyzes globalization. “Because if they deal with water, they have to deal with the right to life.”
Petrella, one of the members of the World Water Movements Panel, criticized the economic model that categorizes water as a commodity rather than a “precious community resource and fundamental human right.” Currently there is no international law to regulate the right to freshwater supplies, but Petrella argued that the United Nations climate negotiations, which are expected to continue in Cancun, Mexico near the end of the year, should be the gateway to further reform. If water were to be included in the global climate agreement under negotiation, nations would be responsible for ensuring the preservation of both these “common goods,” Petrella said.
“It is not your right to good energy,” he said. “Nor your right to a good car—your four by four powered by green oil. We need to challenge the type of consumption that is part of today’s [climate] negotiations, which should lead to a global contract—not only on energy and on agriculture—but also on water and the right to life for everybody.”
“We should defend water as a common good,” he added, “because it is an instrument of the right to life.”“We should defend water as a common good,” he added, “because it is an instrument of the right to life.”
André Abreu of France Liberté, a French-based foundation that works to improve access to fresh water, also spoke during the discussion and cautioned that identifying the connections between water and climate isn’t enough. Different policy must take shape. Since the right to water and the right to life are synonymously interchangeable, he claimed that water protection should instead be tied to necessity.
“Floods, dryness, temperature—all are main aspects to climate change have a link to water,” Abreu said. “But we know that it is fuel first at these negotiations. Water is not considered with the importance that it deserves.”
Abreu warned that the presence of transnational companies during negotiations at the Bella Center, where the UN Climate Change Conference was held, was very dangerous. He said he was especially weary of businesses that offered to use green technologies to fight food and water shortages.
The Philippines: A Look at the Hydropower Dilemma
Public restiveness around the world over climate and water issues is increasing in developing nations. In the Philippines, for instance, southern areas of the country could experience intense droughts, while erratic rainfall and typhoons are projected for the north. In September, a flood led to 900 deaths.
In November, more than 100 members of the northern Tagalog indigenous communities marched 100 miles to protest the Laiban dam project on the Kaliwa and Kanan rivers, which could potentially displace 4,500 families.
Although this project—located near the Marikina-Infanta earthquake fault line, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer—is not for energy, critics of the project assert it will divert 1.9 billion liters per day for domestic water supply in the nearby city of Metro Manila by flooding 28,000 hectares of rain forests that previously currently serve as a carbon sink.
Around the same time, indigenous communities protested the Pulangi V dam project in Bukidnon, which would increase the city of Mindanoa’s electricity grid by more than 300 megawatts by 2015, but submerge 80,000 hectares of land—including sections of seven towns and the sacred ancestral lands of the Pulangi-Manobo tribe, according to Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources.
Dianne Roa—co-author of a report on alternative power industry reform in the Republic of the Philippines and another panelist for the event—said that hydropower is a complex issue that involves prioritizing amongst domestic water use, downstream agricultural use, or low-carbon energy.
Roa explained that for several years the water district of the southern city of Davao has been fighting for the possession of the last remaining potable river in the area. Meanwhile the Hedcor corporation has proposed a large hydropower project for the Tamugan River. Opponents claim the dam diverts valuable drinking water and destroys the aquatic ecology while giving corporate control to a public entity.
“Hydropower makes use of climate change in packaging itself,” Roa said, “presenting itself to the public as clean energy, therefore it is good. This complicates things—not simply for ensuring access to water for drinking—but also that our need for water is not exploited for private profit at the expense of our climate and the environment.”
Roa argued that the existing framework that has been used for the last century in water management does not have the capacity to address the complex issues of the intimate reflections between climate change and water, as described in her three Philippine examples. Including water in the UN climate agreement would not be enough. In fact, she said, the issue could become even more dangerous if water is treated as a commodity, allowed to succumb to the same problems that energy and carbon emissions have in the market economy.
“Once water is in the UNFCC, the more difficult step will be creating a new framework such that water doesn’t go down the same path as energy,” Roa said.
Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue On the ground with activists from around the world at one of the biggest demonstrations during the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen last month. Grassroots organizers and underrepresented groups banded together to give voice to the water consequences of climate change.
continuedA look back at the concerns of indigenous communities during the historic climate... more
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Diana Arely Pacheco, founder and leader of Diseños Maya de Yucatán/Mayan Designs of the Yucatan, is a 2007 Fellow of the Premio UVM por el Desarollo Social, which is co-sponsored by the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation, the Universidad del Valle de México, and the International Youth Foundation. Diseños Maya promotes economic independence among indigenous people of the Yucatán to preserve Mayan culture.Diana Arely Pacheco, founder and leader of Diseños Maya de Yucatán/Mayan... more
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