Third Annual Prayer Horse Ride traverses Native mine-affected communities in Nevada
Walkers, runners, riders join to honor memory of journalist, a defender of land and culture Josh Dini learned and practiced his calling as a water protector under the tutelage of Myron Dewey, his elder brother. Dewey was a beloved Paiute Shoshone filmmaker, photojournalist and drone pilot who founded Digital Smoke Signals. This independent media outlet […]
The Sacred & The Law in San Antonio, Texas
Author’s note: Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled that members of the Lipan-Apache “Hoosh Chetzel” Native American Church would be allowed space to worship at a sacred site in the headwaters of the San Antonio River within a city-owned park. However, in his preliminary ruling, he wrote that they were to be […]
Land defenders caravan to Mexico City to defend Chimalapas
Editor’s note: Last year we featured a two-part series by award-winning Zapotec journalist Diana Manzo about Indigenous community forestry initiatives to defend the biodiversity hotspot that is the Chimalapas forest reserve against illegal logging, mining, territorial invasion and other threats. The situation has continued to deteriorate and the government has failed to respond to community […]
Oaxaca Mural Documents Struggle to Defend Native Corn
In a noisy entrance to one of the oldest markets in Oaxaca City, not far from one of the sites where corn culture originated 9,000 years ago, muralist Mariel García stood on a scaffold in the hot sun for three weeks and painted her heart out. The mural she was creating, more than a year […]
Mine Resisters Denounce the Dangers of the New "White Gold" Rush
Editor’s Note: The U.S. eleventh-hour climate policy — to pin global greenhouse gas reduction on the proliferation of individual electric vehicles made with lithium exclusively from the American continent — appears to be having a domino effect nationally and in countries south of the border. In April, when Chile’s President Gabriel Boric announced his intention […]
Maya Villagers Resist Mega Hog Farms in Yucatán
“The smell was what woke us up. The green flies, the mosquitoes. The headaches. The pestilence, which at night no longer lets us sleep. Then something appeared in the fruit, as if it were smoke. The bushes looked sad and would soon dry up. When we realized it, the Kekén farm had already been running for a year.
Hope Amid Climate Chaos: A Conversation with Rebecca Solnit
From throwing soup against paintings, to blocking roads, to striking for the climate, to stopping private jets from taking off, activists worldwide are pushing harder than ever for action to address global warming. And they are delivering a clear and consistent message: What has long been accepted as the status quo — expanding fossil fuels, […]
50th anniversary of 1973 standoff honors women of Wounded Knee
Fifty years ago, on Feb. 27, 1973, around 200 Native treaty rights defenders, among them American Indian Movement leaders, occupied the trading post of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The site was historically significant for the 1890 massacre there in which federal troops killed up to 300 Lakota men, women and children. […]
Vision Council - Guardians of the Earth returns after 5-year hiatus
Renowned artists, healers, wisdom keepers, scientists and changemakers will be among the participants in a unique transformational gathering that celebrates its 16th encounter with “Embrace of the Amate” in Tepoztlan, Morelos — returning to the place where it was born. The Vision Council has been carried out for more than 30 years and “has been […]
The Rainbow Path of the Coyote: EcoSapien Interview with Alberto Ruz
One of the principal founders of the Vision Council – Guardians of the Earth is also an icon for the World Rainbow Community since the seventies. “Coyote” Alberto Ruz Buenfil is a visionary revolutionary who has been planting seeds of change in every step of his way. Alberto, a native of Mexico born in 1945, […]
Small-town citizens get creative in Black Hills uranium mine fight
This summer, Hot Springs citizens scored a breakthrough: They collected enough signatures to obtain a ballot measure that would declare mining a “nuisance” in Fall River County.
Call of the Turtle Mini Vision Council at a Glance
For those of you who joined us this weekend for the epic Call of the Turtle Mini Vision Council, and indeed for any of the brilliant EcoSapiens who shared their stories and insights with us during the monthlong Restoring Sacred Culture in the Americas Convergence, we are so grateful to you. You, in fact, are […]
LIVE TODAY at 11 am CDT: Gaia University founder Liora Adler on 'Retrotopia'
Since the turn of the century humans have been building communities structured on technological and industrial practices that are steadily destroying the ecosystems that support life on this planet. “Retrotopia”** is an alternative vision that supports the re-emergence of sustainable community living focused on ecosystem regeneration and restoration. Register HERE to join us for this weekend’s lineup […]
Call of the Turtle: LIVE Mini-Vision Council on Sunday
The Call of the Turtle, a Mini Vision Council Sun. Aug 7, gives a small taste of this south-of-the-border phenomenon that has transformed lives and communities throughout the continent.
EcoSapien Speaker Series + 'Call of the Turtle' Mini Vision Council
This monumental monthlong convergence features conversations with indigenous visionaries and activists, eco-elders in the fields of bioregionalism, ecovillage design, permaculture, earth-regeneration and humans we see as helping us connect to our animist roots while restoring elements of sacred culture.
Tribes and water protectors ward off new Black Hills gold rush
SILVER CITY, South Dakota — The moment the U.S. Forest Service posted its July notice of a draft decision to permit gold prospecting at Jenny Gulch here in the Black Hills, tribes, water protectors and treaty rights defenders turned out in droves to ward off the project and others like it. The Black Hills make […]
Indigenous Women build movement to tackle ‘Terricide’ in Argentina
As the rising sun lit the Andean foothills above the town of Chicoana in northern Argentina on May 22, 2022, around 300 women circled around a ceremonial fire on the grounds of a rural school. They hailed from Indigenous communities all across the country, from the sweltering Gran Chaco region bordering Bolivia and Paraguay, to […]
18 days of resistance: Women leaders in Ecuador speak out
Today these words can finally come out on paper, because the fear and the lump in the throat — for now — are appeased. The peace agreements with social justice between the organizations and the Ecuadorean government were signed on Thursday, June 30. Now they are in the vigil process with a term of 90 […]
Wixarika Caravan to AMLO: We Want Our #LandBack
Mothers pushing baby carriages, grandmothers and grandfathers in their 70s and even a man in a wheelchair joined the ranks of the 200 Indigenous Wixárika people making their way nearly 1,000 kilometers along the sweltering highways of México in a generations-long battle to recover their stolen lands. The Wixárika Caravan for Dignity and Justice departed […]
I dedicate these farewell lines to Gustavo Esteva, an exemplary teacher of life, who, like his friend and contemporary philosopher Ivan Illich, dared to develop and put into practice revolutionary and comprehensive education systems. His groundbreaking work was aimed above all at “those from below:” peasants, indigenous people, young revolutionaries, and ex-guerrillas. I am not […]
The Change Weavers: From Charity to Justice
Two years ago, Clement Guerrá was immersed in the film project of his life: The Condor & the Eagle, an award-winning environmental justice film documenting the fight of Indigenous people from Canada to the Amazon to defend their territories from petroleum, mining and other extractive industries. But for the French filmmaker, making the film was […]
Removing Racism, one statue at a time
With axes, hammers and ropes, a group of activists called by the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán demolished part of the monument called Los Constructores (The Builders) on February 14.
Violence and Resistance at the Frontlines of Climate Justice
Despite months of struggle by water protectors, the tar-sands oil of Alberta, Canada is flowing through Enbridge Inc.’s controversial Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. But for indigenous-led water protectors, environmental activists and concerned citizens who stood with them, the fight against the “black snake” is far from over. Instead, actions have shifted from the […]
Moira Millán: 'A telluric movement is awakening the women of the Earth'
Moira Millán is a force to be reckoned with — a weychafe in the Mapuche tradition, or as she explains it, a warrior, a fighter, a defender. “To be a Weychafe is to be the defense of the territory, the defense of life. And that is the spirit that inhabits me.” Moira had just traveled […]
The Postman Of The Four Winds: Echoes Of Tlatelolco
Huehuecóyotl, Tepoztlán, Morelos — My first meeting with Maestro Antonio Velasco Piña took place during the launch of his best-known work, Regina: 2 de Octubre no se Olvida (Regina: Oct. 2 will not be forgotten), which took place in the auditorium of the El Sótano bookstore, located on Miguel Ángel Quevedo Avenue in a neighborhood […]
Art to Breathe: A Festival with a Cause
“Art to Breathe” is an international festival that was born in the spring of 2020. The festival came about in the context of the repression and death suffered in many of the participating countries, coupled with the crisis of a pandemic that literally took the breath away and paralyzed to the world. It was necessary to […]
When it rains in the high plateaus of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, the dampened earth releases a scent that showcases its unique biodiversity. During the rainy season, greasewood bushes, mesquites, yucca and a wide variety of cacti flower and give their fruits, while the locals plant their cornfields that grow according to the nourishment they […]
Native independence events snuff out governor’s fireworks dreams
RAPID CITY – Grassroots Native treaty rights events here during the national Independence Day holiday this 4th of July featured a peaceful but spectacular civil disobedience action: Four indigenous technical climbers scaled downtown’s landmark private grain elevator to drop a gigantic, inverted U.S. flag from the top. “An upside-down flag represents being in distress and […]
Winona LaDuke: Return to Rice Lake
It’s Rice Lake Village on the White Earth Reservation – at the site of the mother lode of wild rice, Lower Rice Lake. Lew Murray stands in front of the gathering — about 200 or so people.
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