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Indigenous
Policy
Journal of the Indigenous Policy Network
(IPN)
Formerly American Indian Policy
| XX | Vol.
XVIV, No. 1__ __ Fall, 2008 ONGOING ACTIVITIES Compiled by Steve Sachs
Activities in the U.S. Tribal energy organizations and experts in the U.S. have been asking Congress to amend energy legislation so that tribes can be eligible for incentives to produce wind and other renewable energy. The Hoopa and Yurok tribes of California continue to work to preserve salmon and other fish on the Klamath River and last fall were engaged, with American Rivers, other environmentalists and groups of area fishermen in confidential settlement negotiations with PacifiCorp, who owns dams on the river. Recently, as a condition of license approval, two federal agencies ordered PacifiCorp, an electricity provider that operates four of the six dams, to install devices to help fish travel upstream on the dams. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was completing an environmental impact statement, as part of the licensing procedure that was expected completed by the end of 2007. Almost all of the parties, except PacifiCorp spokesman would like the dams to be taken down. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) national convention in Denver, in November, made a top-priority issue of the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. All tribes and NCAI members have worked to convince Congress that the act needs to be reauthorized. NCAI organized a phone campaign to senators, to try to achieve reauthorization of the health care act before the end of 2007. Other major issues were the Native Vote campaign (see below), and improved relations between states and tribes. Energy as an economic development tool for tribes was also stressed, with Tribes running their own energy programs. NCAI President Garcia said the tribes could help the country with energy production and conservation, with an approach to supply the neediest with free energy created by the tribes and still have energy left over to sell to power companies. The new attempt at a BIA modernization or reorganization proposal is high on the list of goals set by NCAI. Carl Artman, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, spoke to the conference and listened to proposals for BIA improvement. Other top priorities for Indian country and NCAI include improving law enforcement and reducing methamphetamine use on reservations. Joe Garcia, President of the National Congress of American Indians gave the State of the Indian Nations address, January 31, noting numerous achievements across Native nations and on Capitol Hill, including the direct funding of tribal governments for homeland security purposes, the implementation of a reform agenda for community safety, federal recognition of Native code talkers in the nations' wars, the United Nations adoption of a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, and a successful business enterprise begun by Navajo children who heard from an elder that they could be earning money instead of asking for it. Garcia’s main theme was youth. After honoring their promise, he took full note of tragic endings too. ''Looking at the world through the eyes of an Indian child,'' Garcia said, ''there's often more risk than opportunity.'' Suicide and alcoholism rates for Indian youth are far higher than for others, life expectancy is much lower, educational accomplishment lags behind and, for many, poverty remains a pervasive presence. The NCAI president suggested a number of solutions, most of them turning on ''more champions'' in Congress, a reference to the frequent statement that while the backers of Indian people and issues on Capitol Hill will back them all the way, there aren't enough of them. In 2008, Garcia vowed, more Indians will vote than ever before. Among the more immediate programs he urged on Congress were more investment and basic financial literacy in Native communities, along with more ''8a'' minority preference contracting to create more economic development opportunity. Tax-exempt bond financing to stimulate economic activity should also be available to tribes as it is to state and municipal governments, said Garcia, a former governor of Ohkay Owingeh pueblo in New Mexico. ''When our children grow, they need to know there will be jobs and business opportunities for them.'' He stated that it is also time for equity in Indian education funding, adding that the approximately $3,000 spent per Indian student at BIA schools is less than half the sum spent per capita in public schools. Personal health and community safety both depend on early intervention and prevention efforts, in Garcia's view. Personal involvement and community backing ''is what turns around Indian lives,'' and more funding for juvenile detention centers will help, he said. As for health care, he expressed frustration at the latest setbacks in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorization effort. ''We need the Senate to pass the bill now.'' In closing, Garcia said, ''Yet in the face of all this need, I think of the day I held my own children. I think of the day I held my grandchildren. ... Our ways will remain, our people will thrive, and our nations will stand through time.'' The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) released a detailed platform, May 7, urging all candidates in the current political season to support government-to-government relations between tribes and candidates for Congress and the executive branch, the cultural rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives, and the adequate funding of their health needs. NCAI has adjusted its demands in a collapsing economy, with budget restrictions being felt across the board. Current NCAI secretary, former treasurer and president, W. Ron Allen, described the impact of the economy's falling on tribes. ''We're losing ground big-time. All domestic programs are, but Indian programs are just getting devastated, categorically. The BIA, IHS, HUD. The only area I can see where we're making good progress is transportation.... But we're getting hammered. We're getting hammered. And you gotta keep remembering: the majority of tribes just don't have any other resources. This [the federal budget] is their resource base to advance their mission of empowering the tribal government [to provide services to citizens]. So this is a big deal.'' Allen testified, May 13, before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on the tribal self-governance compacting process with the BIA and IHS, saying the momentary reduced expectations in a draft bill proposed by tribes is the acceptance of ''just a political reality factor that we're weaving in here.'' NCAI executive director Jacqueline Johnson agreed that a ''political reality factor'' influenced the platform. On government-to-government relations, the platform states, ''We believe that the federal government must consult with tribal governments on a government-to-government basis to develop Indian policy goals into planning and management activities, including the budget, operating guidance, legislative initiatives, management accountability systems and ongoing policy and regulation development processes.'' This plank reflects frequent, often strong, complaints from tribal and Native-organizational leaders about the alleged penchant of federal agencies for settling on onerous ''guidance,'' budgetary decisions, and administrative systems for tribes without their genuine prior participation - only notification and after-the-fact meetings designed to go through the motions. In the House of Representatives, Representative Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, has held a hearing on the consultation process and drafted a bill to address tribal complaints, while the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has heard considerable testimony on lack of meaningful consultation, at recent hearings. On cultural rights, the platform calls for a policy to protect and preserve inherent Native freedom of belief, expression and traditional religions with all they entail of sacred places, objects, ceremonies and rites, and the repossession of human remains and associated funerary objects. ''In addition, the rights of tribal members must be protected to continue to hunt, fish and gather on traditional lands and places and engage in subsistence practices.'' The plank on health and health care emphasizes fuller funding of the many programs that assist Native people, including the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, nutrition program; child immunization programs; Healthy Start; and the Drug Free Schools Act, stating, ''Until tribal governments have the resources to combat the epidemic impacts of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, suicide and alcoholism - each disproportionately severe in Indian country - our very existence is at risk.'' Also called for is Congressional reauthorization, with strengthening and fully funding, of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. For more information go to: http://www.ncai.org/. The Sheila Wellstone Institute and the Wellstone Native American Leadership have been running Voter Engagement Schools, for a training on voter engagement in Indian Country, teaching Native organizational leaders and community members the skills of civic engagement and nonpartisan voter organizing, in Minnesota. For information, contact Lonna Stevens, (651)414-6034, swi@wellstone.org. The International Treaty Council joined several other Indigenous organizations, on March 7, filing alternative or ‘Shadow’ reports for the consideration of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in reviewing the US‚ compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and calling for the US to apply the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The CERD released its recommendations (see below in International Developments) in response to the United States‚ Periodic Report which was submitted to the Committee last year, voicing strong concerns regarding environmental racism and the environmental degradation of Indigenous areas of Spiritual and Cultural significance, without regard to whether they are on ‘recognized’ reservation lands, noting the negative impact of development activities such as nuclear testing, toxic and dangerous waste storage, mining and logging. In addition to the IITC delegation, Indigenous delegations representing the Western Shoshone Defense Project (including the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program from the University of Arizona), the Boarding School Healing Project, the Navajo Nation, the Cherokee Nation, the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council and Indigenous Peoples of Hawaii’s, among others, also filed Shadow reports and were present for the examination in Geneva Switzerland. Representatives of the US government were questioned regarding the contents of its own report as well as the ‘Shadow reports’ filed by Indigenous Peoples and a number of other groups on February 19th and 20th. The CERD US Conclusions and Recommendations, including comments on additional matters, can be found online, at: http://tinyurl.com/65eyng. The Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report is found at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/ngos/usa/USHRN8.doc. For more information on the ITTC actions and views, contact Contact: Alberto Saldamando IITC General Counsel, (415)641-4482, alberto@treatycouncil.org, http://www.treatycouncil.org/home.htm.
The Save
the Peaks Campaign has continued its activity to oppose expansion
of the Ski Area and use of teated sewage water for snow making,
on the San Francisco CCNS News Update (of Plants of the Southwest, located in Santa Fe at 3095 Agua Fria, and in Albuquerque at 6680 4th Street NW) reported that, on November 15, “three people were violently arrested by University of California (UC) police officers at a midnight prayer vigil at the long-standing Oak Grove tree-sit on UC Berkeley's campus lead by a group of Indigenous peoples,… to show support for Human Rights and Sacred sites and hold a prayerful candlelight vigil at the area, which is a sacred Ohlone burial ground.” The protest included a Native American Graves and Repatriation (NAGPRA) Coalition protest that th University refuses “to comply with NAGPRA by holding 13,000 of our ancestors remains and now they assault us while we pray at our burial grounds." On December 20, a number of self-dentified Lakota Sioux Indian representatives, consisting of Russell Means, Women of All Red Nations (WARN) founder Phyllis Young, Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr., and Garry Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders, declared sovereign nation status today in Washington D.C. following withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the United States Government, hand delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the State Department, The group stated that their action immediately and irrevocably ends all agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the United States Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie Wyoming. Means stated that the action did not represent the tribal governments of any of the Sioux Nations. Subsequently, a number of officials of various Sioux tribal governments stated that while they agreed with Means group that the U.S. had not properly honored its treaties with their tribes, they did not support the group’s indipendence action, which a survey of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people indicates does not have significant support of tribal members. The U.S. government has taken no official action on the matter. For more information, visit the groups website: www.lakotafreedom.com. On, January 7, a coalition of individual property owners, their legal representatives, and Native American and border community leaders held a national telephonic media conference and briefing announcing their intent to fight the Department of Homeland Security's threatened seizure of their property along the United States-Mexico border. DHS is attempting to use its powers of eminent domain in order to seize private lands and build the controversial border security wall. Representatives of Indigenous peoples, whose lands have been bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border, shared historical and current stories of their experiences along the hyper-militarized international border region. "Our lands are not for sale. The U.S. government must stop its illegal attempts to intimidate us. The Department of Homeland Security cannot take away our homes and neighborhoods for border militarization," declared Eloisa Tamez, a member of the Lipan Apache people and Basque-Ibero descendents living in the Lower Rio Grande region. Mrs. Tamez and other owners whose properties abut the border are threatened by federal agents' unwelcomed entry at any time into their properties and homes and the increased militarization of their neighborhoods. They are calling on DHS to stop its intimidation tactics and respect their property and human rights. The Texas communities along the international boundary zone are largely made up of Native Americans and of land grant heirs who have resided on inherited properties for hundreds of years. DHS plans to complete the Texas portions of the fence before the end of the 2008 calendar year. DHS has already built walls along much of the California and Arizona international boundary zone with Mexico, despite opposition from the government of Mexico. In Arizona, the wall cuts through Native American ceremonial crossing areas as well as through a national wildlife park. Indigenous communities are calling on the U.S. government to stop this land grab and respect the rights of migrants, Americans and indigenous peoples at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Hawaiian Kingdom Government, one of several Hawaiian sovereignty groups in the Islands, at the beginning of May, occupied the grounds of Iolani Palace, in Honolulu, saying they did not recognize Hawai’i as part of the United States, and would begin governing from the palace. The sixty or so occupiers said they were prepared to go peacefully, if arrested, and arrest warrants were being issued. Early this spring, members of the Penobscot Indian Nation were spearheading opposition to a congressional resolution that would designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. James Sappier, former Penobscot Indian Nation chief, and Erlene Paul, the head of Penobscot's Human Services Department, said House Resolution 1049 threatens not only a program in which the South American country has provided free heating oil to hundreds of American Indian and low-income communities for the past three winters, but would also jeopardize the good relationships tribal members have developed with Venezuelans and could impact oil imports for the entire U.S. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has been dissolved and replaced by the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC), incorporated in the State of North Dakota. The committee is putting on an on-line petition campaign to urge U.S. President George W. Bush to look into the case of Leonard Peltier, becuse “There is sufficient evidence that this Anishinabe/Lakota human rights activist is innocent.” The petition is at: http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm. For more information contct: Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC), P.O. Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106, (701)235-2206, contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info, www.whoisleonardpeltier.info. About 75 protesters, including American Indian activist Russell Means, were arrested, in October, after blocking Denver's downtown Columbus Day parade, honoring the Italian-born discoverer Christopher Columbus, an event the protesters denounced as "a celebration of genocide." With Colorado Governor Bill Ritter proclaiming April as Native American Sexual Assault Awareness month in Colorado, Our Sister's Keeper Coalition held a candle light vigil in front of the state Capitol, in Denver, April 4, to honor Native and non-Native victims of sexual violence. Our Sister's Keeper Coalition served 420 women who were victims of domestic violence in the state in 2007. The National Society for American Indian Elderly (NSAIE) works to improve conditions allowing American Indian Elderly to stay in their homes as respected members of their communities and keepers of their traditions. The NSAIE is among more than 1,200 AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) projects nationwide. As a branch of the Corporation for National Community Service, AmeriCorps VISTA has a mission to end poverty in all its forms. For more information contact NSAIE, 200 E. Fillmore Street #151 Phoenix, AZ 85004.
International Activities
Indigenous peoples representing regions from around the world protested outside the climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, in December, voicing their objection to being shut out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. On one occasion, a delegation of indigenous peoples was forcibly barred from entering the meeting between UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer and civil society representatives, despite the fact that the indigenous delegation was invited to attend. For more information contact Hubertus Samangun, Indigenous Focal Point to the UNFCCC, (Bahasa, English) 0813-1077-8918 Orin Langelle, Global Forest Coalition Media Coordinator stated, December 10, that Environmental groups (including many Indigenous people) at the United Nations climate talks in Bali urged governments to reject a new World Bank initiative promoting the inclusion of forests in carbon markets, known as the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), to be launched on December 11, in Bali as part of the discussions on Reducing Emissions through Deforestation in Developing countries' (REDD). The initiative, which would allow tropical forests to be included in carbon offsetting schemes, fails to combat climate change, the groups said, because it allows industrialized countries and companies to buy their way out of emissions' reductions. Many Indigenous and Environmental activists believe that FCPF would continue the World Bank’s fostering of high carbon polluting projects, pointing out that the World Bank has a particularly appalling track record in relation to funding forests and carbon projects, not least because it provides substantial funding to oil, gas and mining projects; and as a broker, has a vested interest in promoting carbon trading. Its planned Forest Carbon Partnership Facility would have serious negative social and environmental impacts, the groups said. Torry Kuswardhono, Energy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI): said: "Carbon offsetting is extremely unfair. Forests provide livelihoods for over one billion Indigenous and other forests peoples. Wealthy companies and countries are able to buy the right to continue to pollute, while poor communities in developing countries can find themselves locked into unfavorable, long-term commercial contracts over forest management." Sandy Gauntlett, Pacific focal point of the Global Forest Coalition and chairman of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition said: "Indigenous Peoples and local communities will bear the real costs of forest-related climate mitigation projects based on carbon finance because they will increase the pressure on their lands and territories and undermine land rights claims. With this proposal, the World Bank is violating the principle of Prior Informed Consent, which is enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples should not just be consulted on this facility. Without their full and prior informed consent this facility should be disbanded." World Rainforest Movement spokesperson Ana Filipini stated: "Carbon finance mechanisms in developing countries result in forests being transferred or sold off to large corporations who hope to acquire profitable `carbon credits' associated with those forests at some point in the future. The current proposals are set to reward logging and palm oil corporations and countries with high deforestation rates whilst undermining Indigenous Peoples' and other forest-dependent communities' rights, in particular those of women." Some of the genuine and urgent measures needed to address the deforestation problem include: 1) Giving the highest priority to halting the development, production and trade of agrofuels, and suspend all targets and other incentives, including subsidies, carbon offsets and public and private finance related to the development and production of agrofuels. 2) Keeping tropical forests out of carbon finance mechanisms, which are unpredictable, inequitable and discourage the reduction of emissions at source. This includes keeping forests out of the Clean Development Mechanism and all carbon trading initiatives; and rejecting the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). 3) Redirect the very substantial amounts of public funds, tax exemptions and other forms of subsidies currently provided to the fossil fuel and agrofuels industries, into avoided deforestation assistance funds, the effective promotion of public transport and the development of solar, wind, geothermal, wave and energy efficiency industries. 4) Strengthen weak forest conservation policies and institutions, encouraging bans or moratoria on industrial logging and forest conversion, and addressing corruption and lack of enforcement. For more information, contact: Sandy Gauntlett, Oceania focal point, Global Forest Coalition and chairperson of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition, +62-813-38938574, sandyoceania@yahoo.com, Torry Kuswardhono, Energy Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI): +62- 811383270, torry@walhi.or.id, or Fay, media officer, WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia), Indonesian mobile number +62 815 8070717. An Open Letter was sent, on October 10, to John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights and Business collectively by ESCR-Net’s Corporate, Accountability Working Group, Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), with the much input and review of several additional individuals and organizations. “This letter offers our common perspective on four issues critical for further exploration within the current UN debate over business and human rights: 1) deepen the focus by the UN on the perspective of victims so as to illustrate the scope and nature of actual cases; 2) analyze the factors driving the failure of states to adequately discharge their duty to protect the rights of individuals, communities and indigenous people; 3) assess the inherent limitation of voluntary initiatives; and 4) spread awareness of the compelling need for global standards on business and human rights. While this letter responds to these significant areas of concern, we have attempted to constructively suggest beneficial ways forward as the Special Representative enters the third year of his mandate.” For more information, contact the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) Secretariat, 211 East 43rd. St., Suite 906, New York, NY 10017 (212)681-1236, oreloisanglen@gmail.com, www.escr-net.org. At the beginning of April, of this year, Indigenous people from 11 Latin American countries, and Native observers from Indonesia and Congo, net in Manaus, Brazil, to form the International Alliance of Forest Peoples, working to give Indigenous nations a voice in international climate change discussions. A major concern is to stop deforestation. To that end, the alliance supports proposals for carbon credits to be paid by developing countries to insure that remaining forests are not cut down. When the forests to be protected are the lands of Native peoples, the alliance wants the payments to go to the Indigenous nations, and not the governments of the countries in which they are located. (For more see: Alexi Barrioneuvo, “Indigenous Latin Talks Add Voice to Climate Talk,” The New York Times, April 6, 2008, p. 6.). More than 200 leaders from 71 American Indian nations Mexico, the United States and Canada gathered in early March to light incense, pray and sing in the shadow of ancient Mayan pyramids in Mexico, asking the contaminated earth for forgiveness, and then to hold a conference offering Indigenous wisdom about ways to save the polluted planet. Mexico’s environment secretary, Juan Elvira Quesada, said the gathering is meant, “to present the teachings of the original peoples of North America.” “In this way, the Indigenous communities can become the natural guides to restoring balance and harmony in the world.” The International Conference on Sustainable Forest Management and Poverty Alleviation: Roles of Traditional Forest Related Knowledge, organized by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, the UN FAO and others, took place December 17-20 in Kunming, China, providing a platform for sharing of information and exchanging experiences related to traditional forest-related knowledge in the Asia-Pacific region. For more information, contact: Liu Jinlong, Chinese Academy of Forestry: liujl@caf.ac.cn, http://www.iufro.org/download/file/1928/3500/kunming07-tftfk-1st-. Kent Paterson, “Mexico's Prophets of Climate Change: Women Forest Defenders.“ Americas Program (http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4544>http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4544), writes, “Long before climate change became a trendy cause, the Campesino Environmentalist Organization of the Sierra of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catatlan (OCESP), emerged as a grassroots group dedicated to saving Guerrero's forests. Throughout their efforts, the movement has faced repression, threats, and even lost members to the conflict with loggers and the Mexican army. Now, ten years after the OCESP burst onto the world stage, its leaders and a growing cadre of poor rural women quietly carry on the work of defending and restoring Guerrero's forests, and are even taking the struggle to new levels. Once in the background, women are now in the forefront of the movement.” Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) (while continuing its projects in the United States) advanced its efforts with Advancement of Maori Opportunity of New Zealand (http://www.amo.co.nz/) and Indigenous peoples and groups in Bolivia to develop Advancement of Global Indingeneity – to provide Indigenous input into globalization, and give it an Indigenous face – with a joint meeting in Bolivia, this spring, followed by a Bolivian Indigenous Delegation meeting with AIO in Albuquerque. For more information, contact Americans for Indian Opportunity, 1001 Marquette, ABQ 87102 (505)842-8677, aio@aio.org, http://www.aio.org. Survival International, amongst its many efforts to support the rights and well being of Indigenous People (see their reports in Indigenous Developments, below), Spoke with British MPs and peers at a reception in the House of Commons, in mid May, to press the British government to ratify International Labor Organization Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ILO 169) - the only international law for tribal peoples. The UK has refrained from ratifying ILO 169 on the basis that there are no tribal peoples in the country. But this ignores the impact of British companies and development projects on the lives of tribal peoples across the world. A current Survival concern is that a subsidiary of UK registered company Vedanta plans to mine bauxite on the sacred mountain of the Dongria Kondh tribe in Orissa, India, which would destroy a large part of the mountain and its forests, on which the tribe depend, which is also sacred to the tribe (for details see International Indigenous Developments). Survival is urging shareholders, including major British companies Coutts Bank, Standard Life, Barclays Bank, Abbey National and HSBC, as well as Middlesbrough and Wolverhampton Councils, to disinvest unless Vedanta abandons its plans. Vedanta's subsidiary, Sterlite, is currently awaiting permission from India's Supreme Court to mine bauxite, the raw material for aluminum, from Niyamgiri Mountain in Orissa, eastern India. The Court is expected to announce its decision imminently. For more information on the situation with the Dongria Kondh tribe, see the report in International Developments, below. Survival‚s director Stephen Corry said today, 'People who care about human rights should boycott British companies which dispossess tribal peoples. That means not buying their shares. The days of companies successfully sheltering behind local legislation and carrying on violating international law are gone. 'Vedanta', the reaching for the divine beyond knowledge, is one of Hinduism‚s core religious principles - what a paradox that a company using the name might destroy one of India‚s most spiritual tribes. Survival's director Stephen Corry discussed the organizations campaign to stop the mine on the Dongria Kondh's land with members of Parliament, along with other concerns, including the Bangladesh government's violent repression of the Bawm and the other 10 'Jumma' tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, with a member of the Bawm Lal Amlai participating in the discussion. Survival’s ''Stamp it Out'' campaign, which aims to challenge racist depictions of tribal people in the world's media, gave its The Most Racist Article of the Year Award for 2007 to a Paraguayan newspaper that published an editorial describing Native people as ''a cancer'' and as having ''filthy habits.'' Indigenous advocates point to economic aspects and severe oppression as being parts of the reason for the media attack. Survival has been working with the Organization of American States (OAS) to overcome the lack of identity stemming from the fact that 18% percent of all children, and a much higher percentage of Indigenous children, in Latin America do not have their births registered with their governments. Nonregistration leaves many without access to state services, including education, passports, or the ability to vote. Indigenous people who attempt to register often face discrimination, misrecording of their names, and other barriers. In May, Cultural Survival contributed to a regional effort to improve state protection of indigenous peoples' right to identity by facilitating a consultation at the Organization of American States (OAS) in which indigenous leaders and intergovernmental officials discussed ways to improve the situation in an inclusive, multicultural manner. For more information, contact Miriam Ross in London at (+44) (0)20 7687 8734, mr@survival-international.org, http://www.survival-international.org. Brenda Norrell, “Indigenous Peoples Vow to Bring Down Apartheid Border Wall,” Americas UPDATER, Vol. 5, No. 17, December 6, 2007 (http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4775), writes, “The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007 began with a human rights delegation visit to the border, and after four days of activities concluded with a vow to ‘bring down the wall.’ Indigenous delegates to the borderland on Tohono O'odham Nation land took a tour of the conditions and returned in outrage. The Border Summit ended by declaring an end to discrimination against migrants and the need for a new era of human rights. Participants renewed their determination to halt the border wall and hold the Tohono O'odham Nation responsible for the deaths of men, women, children, and unborn children who have died on O'odham lands ‘for want of a drink of water’." On January 7, a coalition of individual property owners, their legal representatives along with Native American and border community leaders held a national telephonic media conference and briefing to announce their intent to fight the Department of Homeland Security's threatened seizure of their property along the United States-Mexico border. DHS is attempting to use its powers of eminent domain in order to illegally seize private lands and build the controversial border security wall. The telephonic media conference took place on the same day that DHS 30-day notices expire, leaving Texas landowners along the international boundary terrorized by the possibility of losing ancestral land. Owners whose properties abut the border say they are threatened by federal agents' unwelcomed entry at any time into their properties and homes and the increased militarization of their neighborhoods. They are calling on DHS to stop its intimidation tactics and respect their property and human rights. In Arizona, the wall cuts through Native American ceremonial crossing areas as well as through a national wildlife park. Indigenous communities are calling on the U.S. government to stop this land seizure and respect the rights of migrants, Americans and indigenous peoples at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Guatemala Radio Project is a partnership between Cultural Survival and 168 indigenous community radio stations across Guatemala. The project's goal is to build a network among these stations and help them produce programming that will reinforce indigenous culture and give people the means to fully participate in their national government. The project is helping stations broadcast professional-quality news, information, education, and entertainment for all of the country's eight million indigenous citizens--in their own languages. The project has four broad strategies: reform the nation's telecommunications law to make the stations legal; train station volunteers to produce professional programming and pass on their expertise to others; upgrade the stations' equipment; and help the stations and the project as a whole become self-sustaining within five years. The project has begun to implement the second stage of the wireless network experiment, which will eventually allow 168 community radio stations to share information and program content electronically (it now has to be hand-carried on a disk). Although indigenous peoples' rights to community radio are guaranteed in the country's constitution and the 1996 Peace Accords, the stations are still illegal under the old telecommunications law, which allows only commercial and government stations, in January 2008, following the inauguration of the new president and the 93 new members to the Assembly (out of a total of 158), the project launched a new lobbying efforts to have the law changed. Part of the problem is confusion over the definition of "community" radio. Currently, there is no official distinction between true community radio-which is publicly supported and open to all voices-and the religious stations and small commercial stations that cater to specific demographics or opinions. Through publications and personal visits, the project is helping legislators understand the difference and encouraging them to fully legalize community radio stations. Meanwhile, a Radio Drama Master Course is training community radio volunteers to conceptualize and realize solid, professional programming to air on local community radio stations. The volunteers are collectively creating-from the ground up-a new radio drama to be aired on all 168 community radio stations, in the Mam language, ACESOGUA produces them in Quiche, AMECOS in Kachiquel, and ARCG will produce the shows in Spanish. The programs being developed by the project provide essential information to indigenous listeners, and they are made possible by underwriting. Dean's Beans Organic Coffee of Orange, Massachusetts, sponsors the program "Coffee Talk." This show tells indigenous audiences about how to grow organic coffee and how to most effectively participate in the fair trade system, providing an understanding of the local and international price of coffee; the influence of coffee production on the local community; the organization of coffee production into local co-ops or associations; and the commercialization of coffee. Support from the Sociedad San Martin de Porres of Houston, TX has made able the broadcast medical interviews on the program "Life and Health" as well as health-related episodes of the radionovela "Aura Marina." Waiting in the wings are programs on the environment, human rights, women's rights, indigenous rights, children's rights, and citizen's rights. “All of these subjects are vitally important to indigenous listeners, who cannot get this information anywhere else, and the programs themselves are ready to be produced--all we need is the support of underwriters.” For more information go to: http://tinyurl.com/56ah4n }~~~---->>>>>>>-=+=-<<<<<<<----~~~{ |
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