Native News
Native News
Guest post by the Action Group for Indigenous and Human Rights
To mark this year's Women's Day, the first guest post by the Action Group for Indigenous and Human Rights appeared here on my blog. Women once again play a leading role in this newsletter. Not only in the exhibition "Warrior Women of Wounded Knee" in Munich, Germany.
By Monika Seiller
The following are the latest reports on indigenous developments and news:
Exhibition „Warrior Women of Wounded Knee”
The exhibition, which was developed by the Warrior Women Project, portrays the indigenous women of the Wounded Knee resistance on 16 panels and provides a new perspective on indigenous resistance in the 20th century.
The exhibition can be seen from 8/1-31, 2024, in the EineWeltHaus (OneWorldHouse) Munich. Vernissage with introduction on 08/01 at 7 pm. On 08/03, 2024, at 7 pm we will show the documentary film "Warrior Women".
Rejection of Leonard Peltier's application to the US Parole Commission
In our last newsletter, we called for support for the seriously ill political prisoner Leonard Peltier, who has been in prison for half a century, to enable him to spend his last years in freedom with his family.
On June 10, 2024, the parole release hearing took place. To our great disappointment, the application was rejected. Even though we had high hopes for the hearing, the decision came as no surprise, as his opponents were once again relentless.
He would not be able to submit his next application until 2039. If he is still alive, he would then be 94 years old. However, efforts to secure his release continue - including with regard to a pardon from President Biden.
50th anniversary of the First Treaty Conference 1974
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The IITC was founded as a result of the First Treaty Conference, which took place from June 6-8, 1974 on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. 5,000 delegates from all over America came together to raise their voices for the rights of indigenous people and, above all, to demand their treaty rights and protest against the ongoing oppression.
They formulated their demands in the "Declaration of Continuing Independence", which became the founding document of the IITC. In 1977, the IITC was the first indigenous organization to be granted official consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations when indigenous representatives of the Americas met for the first time at the "International NGO Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas" at the United Nations in Geneva in September 1977.
Representatives of 300 indigenous peoples and nations traveled to Standing Rock to celebrate the 50th anniversary, but also to decide on strategies for the further implementation of indigenous rights. The topics were correspondingly diverse - from the fight against violence against indigenous women to resistance against resource exploitation, the protection of sacred sites and the effects of climate change. A special focus was placed on the active participation of indigenous youth in the defense of indigenous identity.
20th anniversary celebration of the National Museum of American Indian in Washington D. C.
The museum in Washington, D.C. celebrated its anniversary with a big party and hosted a six-day "Smithsonian Folklife Festival", which was attended by more than 250 artists, musicians, dancers and cultural representatives - not only from the USA, but also from Canada, Mexico and South America. Incidentally, Menomimee musician Wade Fernandez, who is appearing as a consultant at the Karl May Festival this summer, also interrupted his engagement in Germany to perform in Washington.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) delivered the keynote address, emphasizing the power and vitality of indigenous cultures in the 21st century. The museum, which was created with the participation of indigenous people themselves, is an expression of the "beauty and diversity" of indigenous cultures. Director Cynthia Chavez Lamar, who is the first indigenous woman to head the museum, referred in particular to the role of the institution for the visibility of indigenous cultures.
The museum opened its doors in Washington in 2004, complementing the Smithsonian Museum in New York City, which was founded in 1989.
And another anniversary: "Indian Citizenship Act"
100 years ago, on June 2, 1924, US President Calvin Coolidge signed the "Indian Citizenship Act" (also known as the "Snyder Act"), which "granted" US citizenship to all indigenous people born on US territory. Of course, the "new citizens" were not asked whether they wanted to become citizens and "subjects" of the USA. However, the law explicitly states that citizenship would in no way restrict their Indian tribal or property rights.
Nevertheless, the law was a clear step towards the assimilation of indigenous people. Many had already fought on the side of the USA in Europe shortly before in World War I, which is why citizenship was also seen as recognition of their service. However, only a few decades earlier, the indigenous people had painfully experienced what this assimilation policy meant for them when the Dawes Act or General Allotment Act robbed them of large parts of their traditional land - with serious consequences to this day. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) in particular vehemently resisted this forced appropriation - which not least prompted Deskaheh Levi General to travel to Geneva in 1923 to (unsuccessfully) demand support for indigenous rights from the League of Nations.
The real reason for the "Indian Citizenship Act" was the intention to make all indigenous people taxpayers, but not to grant them new rights such as the right to vote. The decision was left to the US states. Indigenous people in Alaska, for example, were not granted the right to vote until 1945 with the Alaska Equal Rights Act. It took until 1965 for the Voting Rights Act to guarantee all indigenous people the right to vote. However, they still have to contend with obstacles and harassment to this day - even in the upcoming congressional and presidential elections in November 2024.
Kw’tsán National Monument
President Joe Biden has - not least with the support of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and numerous indigenous advisors in the administration - taken a number of measures (including financial ones) to support the indigenous peoples. These measures range from the expansion of protected areas, participation rights in the administration of land and forest management to investments in infrastructure measures - even if they are nowhere near enough to remedy the failures and injustices of the past (and present).
After President Biden has already issued several proclamations for the (unfortunately insufficient) protection of important indigenous sites such as Chaco Canyon and, in August 2023, the "Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument", the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe hopes that Biden will use his powers under the Antiquities Act to declare part of their traditional territory in the Californian desert a "Kw'tsán National Monument". In particular, they want to stop gold mining at Oro Cruz in the Caro Muchacho Mountains and are asking for support: https://www.protectkwtsan.org/actnow.
No uranium mining on indigenous land!
As welcome as the designation of protected areas or national monuments is, they are ineffective when it comes to the economic interests of the corporations, because although the protected area at the Grand Canyon is intended to prevent uranium mining in the Havasupai's habitat, the US Congress has persistently refused to eliminate a fundamental problem of this situation: the disastrous Mining Act of 1872, which still protects corporate mining interests.
The Havasupai have been resisting uranium mining for decades, not least because it threatens their drinking water (and that of many others). In December 2023, Energy Fuels opened the Pinyon Plain Uranium Mine (formerly Canyon Mine) at Red Butte, because Biden's proclamation only protects the region against new mining projects, not existing ones - and the mine was approved back in 1986.
The Navajo Nation is also fighting back against the effects of the new mine. As early as 2005, it issued the "Diné Natural Resources Protection Act", banning the mining, processing or transportation of uranium on Dineh land. The uranium rock extracted from the Pinyon Plain Mine is still on site, but transportation to the White Mesa Mill in Blandings, Utah, would pass through indigenous land. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren therefore called on President Biden on April 30, 2024, to sign a law that would prohibit transportation through the Navajo Nation Reservation.
Energy Fuels plans to send six trucks a day with uranium rock to the "uranium mill" more than 300 miles away in Utah. The problem for the indigenous people: Although they have issued a ban against uranium transportation, the state of Arizona allows the transport on its highways 89 and 160, which run through the reservation. Petition: https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/navajo-nation-asks-biden-stop-uranium-transport-grand-canyon-mine.
Success: Land restitution to Shasta Indian Nation in California
Most of the time we have to report on problems, challenges and negative impacts faced by indigenous people, but now there is a success to report.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (who has been touted as a possible Democratic replacement candidate for Joe Biden in this year's presidential election) has declared his support for a bill to return traditional lands to the Shasta Indian Nation in California. The announcement by Newsom, who has been governor of California since 2019, marks the fifth anniversary of the state's official apology for the historic injustice to the indigenous people.
The land restitution covers 1,133 acres in Skiyou County and is part of the Klamath River Dam Removal Project, the long-fought project to remove the dams that nearly destroyed salmon habitat. Previously, California had also returned ancestral lands to the Fort Independence Indian Community, the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation, the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria and the Wiyot Tribe.
After indigenous people were driven off their land during the gold rush in California, they also had to make way for the first dam construction in 1911. In the meantime, the US federal government has also admitted that the dam project was a major mistake and a serious injustice to the indigenous people, as a report recently published by the Ministry of the Interior shows. The 73-page document, "Historic and Ongoing Impacts of Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes," concludes that "the government gave little, if any, consideration to the devastating consequences the dams would have on tribal communities, including their culture, sacred sites, economies, and homes."
Unfortunately, no good news from Canada: criminalization of the Wet'suwet'en
On June 21, 2024, the annual "Indigenous Day" in Canada, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once again adorned himself with flowery declarations of "reconciliation" with the indigenous peoples: "Despite Canada's previous attempts to eradicate indigenous cultures, traditions and languages, indigenous peoples have persevered. Today, we celebrate their achievements, their courage and their unwavering resilience." The Wet'suwet'en in British Columbia are painfully experiencing the consequences of the "resilience" of the indigenous people so praised by Trudeau.
Since 2019, they have been resisting the Coastal GasLink pipeline from operator TC Energy, which is intended to transport liquefied natural gas through their traditional territory to the coast of British Columbia. Their resistance to the project has been brutally suppressed time and again by the RCMP and private security services. More than 75 "land defenders" who want to protect the land against destruction have been arbitrarily arrested over the years and their resistance criminalized.
In January 2024, Shaylynn Sampson, Corey "Jayochee" Jocko and Molly "Sleydo" Wickham, spokesperson for the resistance, were found guilty in court. They were accused of disobeying court orders and "trespassing" by defending their land on site. The three convicts had counter-charged, claiming that the RCMP had violated their rights during the raids on the Indigenous camp. The trial will continue in September 2024. The verdict against Chief Dtsa'hyl, a hereditary chief of the Wet'suwet'en, is to be announced as early as July 2024. He faces up to nine months in prison.
Indigenous people, activists and human rights organizations called on the government of British Columbia to drop all charges and stop the criminalization of indigenous people in an open letter from Amnesty International Canada at the beginning of July.
This text was first published in German in the 2024/03 newsletter of the “Aktionsgruppe Indianer & Menschenrechte“ (Action Group for Indigenous and Human Rights) and translated into English by Rebecca Hillauer.
The Action Group publishes the quarterly magazine "Coyote. It is intended "as a forum for the work of support groups for North American Indians and therefore publishes articles sent to it on this topic."
The links have been set by the operator of this Substack blog, i.e. by me.