Putting the Heart Back in the Valley by Putting the Fire Back in the Ground
“Restoration of habitats and regenerative, localized food production need to be foundational in our economies moving forward. We should be turning resources towards these efforts with the same vigor the destruction and depletion was carried out with. Sucking the life out of our lands while polluting the water to grow human fodder void of nutrition […]
Lakota call out inequity in law enforcement at U.S. Capitol riot
PHILIP, South Dakota – The difference in law enforcement handling of peaceful Native pipeline resisters compared to that of the violent mob that breached the U.S. Capitol Building was an inequity not lost on Indian Country. “At a time when white rioters are being let off the hook after raiding the nation’s Capitol and driving […]
Defending the Birthplace of the Sun
It’s been a decade now since Mexico experienced its Standing Rock moment. It was the native Wixárika people—better known internationally by their Spanish name, the Huicholes—who galvanized a global movement with their call for help. In the north-central state of San Luis Potosí, one of their most sacred sites—the Birthplace of the Sun—was being readied for […]
Deb Haaland: First Native woman tapped for Interior Secretary
“Haaland’s appointment gives us a voice in a department that has long been responsible for our exploitation.”
Enlightening Our Way Together with Chief Phil
For many thousands who have tuned into his work, Hereditary Chief Phil Lane has been a beacon in a time of powerful transition. His work over the decades to unify the human family through his Four Worlds International Institute has taken him all over the world, and now he is consolidating that work in a […]
Diné grassroots sow precedent in clean energy history
KYKOTSMOVI VILLAGE, Arizona – Some 30 years ago, when Navajo Nation member Nicole Horseherder returned to her Native land after college, her hopes of building a home like her grandmother’s near here were dampened because wells had dried up with massive coal strip mining and power plant development that drained the underground water tables while polluting Diné and Hopi communities.
Camp Mni Luzahan launches community Covid-19 testing
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Isolating herself from family after her Covid-19 diagnosis on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, Sicangu Lakota great-grandmother Cheryl Angel found little choice but to traipse from one lonely hotel room to another for shelter. Angel, a veteran Water Protector and self-described Sacred Activist, vowed that if she survived the deadly contagious […]
A Spiritual Health Shield: For the Huicholes, and For the World
We recently sat down (at a distance) for an interview with Paola Stefani, producer of the movie Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians. Together with the director of the film, Hernán Vilchez, and with the collaboration of the protagonist, Wixárika Mara’akame or spiritual leader José “Katira” Ramírez, and with the approval of the authorities of two […]
Bringing the Pachamama to the Presidency
For those of us who cherish the wellbeing of life on Earth, for those of us who love and long for peace, for those who envision a future that lifts up the peoples of our millenary cultures and all cultures, we celebrate as we enter an era of new possibilities. In the US, we are […]
Treaty advocates set up tipi shelters for homeless
The legacy of Lakota Territory treaty violation came back to haunt city officials in the freezing wake of South Dakota’s 2020 Native American Day, as #Landback activists defied city ordinance to set up the tipi encampment to shelter homeless people.
Great Plains historians share hope for future
DEADWOOD, South Dakota – Descendants of both the original residents and the settlers of the Great Plains brought their experience and philosophies to bear on contemporary challenges of race relations at the 28th West River History Conference Oct. 8-10, here in the heart of ancestral Lakota Territory. “Hope is the only thing that ties us […]
Standing Rock Water Protectors Sue Police, Security Forces
BISMARCK, ND — Law enforcement and private security agencies that employed attack dogs, pepper spray and water cannons against Standing Rock water protectors will have to stand trial next August — not for use of excessive force, but for closing a road. Water protectors have secured an August 2021 jury trial date in their class […]
Oct. 12: Celebrating Survival In the Shadow of Columbus Day
“There’s nothing to celebrate.” It’s a common refrain every Columbus Day. The anniversary of October 12 comes and goes and it seems as if things have only gotten progressively worse for Indigenous peoples since the day Christopher Columbus first stepped foot on Native American land. There’s nothing to celebrate about the 212 documented assassinations of […]
Rez Connectivity, Human Rights ‘Necessity’
“Having access to reliable connectivity is a necessity, not a luxury anymore,” said Petra Wilson, adding, “It’s going to give tribes control over it.”
'Command Center' sought for Native homeless amid pandemic
RAPID CITY – Participants from numerous grassroots groups tackling life-or-death issues of Native homeless and other community members highly vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic here rallied for an autonomous “command center” at a Sept. 11 gathering outside the civic center. Organizers, speaking with a megaphone, pressured the Rapid City Police Department representative in attendance at […]
Pandemic and Power on Native Lands
Strengthening the socio-ecological systems of Indigenous communities is an urgent priority for achieving global “sustainable development” and environmental goals. For Indigenous people to remain resilient stewards of ecosystems and culture in the face of anticipated threats like climate change and territorial exploitation, however, as well as unanticipated threats like the COVID-19 pandemic that induced present […]
Exploring Sovereignty with the Women of Standing Rock
We are inviting all women-folk/femme-folk to join some panels and talking circles by sisters, aunties and grandmas of all nations as we discuss the meaning and practice of sovereignty.
Covid, Culture and the Codices
This is what is happening, because the Earth is defending herself. The Earth herself is being cleansed.
Native Women Bikers Rally for Missing and Murdered Sisters
BEAR BUTTE – About 100 people from all across the land gathered at this native sacred site Aug. 9 to pray and participate in the Sturgis Medicine Wheel Ride 2020 to raise awareness about the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Children and Two-Spirit relatives. Native women motorcyclists led the 70-mile ride from Bear […]
'Eviction Notice' for the Black Snake
Inspired by the indigenous-led Black Hills #Landback demonstration here earlier this summer, the Great Plains Action Society and other non-profits began circulating an “Eviction Notice” to the Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as the Keystone XL Pipeline.
DAPL Owner Appeals Shutdown Decision
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nicole Ducheneaux had it right: As lead counsel on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s case to stop the oil flow of the Dakota Access Pipeline in unceded 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory, she could claim a win when a federal judge recently ordered a shutdown.
Natives seize Trump stump at Mount Rushmore
KEYSTONE, South Dakota – U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign-stop here at Mt. Rushmore National Memorial on the eve of the national Independence Day holiday provoked a rally of some 400 Native Americans and allies, who seized the opportunity to remind him he was trespassing on sacred Black Hills Indian treaty land stolen in violation of the Constitution.
Tribes nationwide cheer DAPL shutdown
FT. YATES, North Dakota — Tribal leaders and constituents across Lakota Territory and elsewhere welcomed a hard-won court order on July 6 to shut off the oil flow in the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) within 30 days. “Today is a historic day for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many people who have supported […]
Still Standing at Standing Rock
After years of legal battle and a historic grassroots resistance, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has achieved a long-sought victory.
Joining Hearts & Hands: From Movie to Movement
“It’s mind blowing to us that 3,770 people registered for this event and more than 40,000 joined us online for the panel discussion,” said film co-director Clement Guerra. “This event connected us from North to South in a powerful and historic collective moment for the climate justice struggle.”
The Condor & The Eagle: Portrait of a Movement
“If taking a pen and writing a book would have been more effective than making a movie, that’s what we would have done,” said Clement Guerra, director of The Condor & The Eagle, a documentary about four indigenous women leaders in a transcontinental adventure, from the boreal forests of Canada to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, reflecting the indigenous struggle to protect land and water.
No More Sacrificed Communities
A soon-to-be-released feature film exemplifies how independent media initiatives can be powerful tools for social and environmental justice organizing. Challenging the isolation and impotence that many are feeling in the face of the current health and racial crises, the internationally acclaimed documentary The Condor & The Eagle and its impact campaign “No More Sacrificed Communities” bring us […]
A Natural Alliance: Science + Indigenous Wisdom
The longest running successful experiments in sustainable human land use are found within the collectively held lands of traditional communities, who have lived for generations in balance with the ecosystems of their ancestral territories. Looking to Indigenous socio-ecological systems, traditional knowledge, and integrated interpretations of what “nature” is and how to live in balance with the natural […]
Spinning a Lifeline in Zapotec lands
High up in the southern sierra of Mexico’s state of Oaxaca, an innovative nonprofit business inspired by Mohandas Gandhi is helping Indigenous Zapotec families to weather the economic storm that COVID-19 has brought to the Mexican countryside. San Sebastian Rio Hondo, a Zapotec highland village like many others, has traditionally supplemented its agrarian way of […]