The Water Revolution in the Andes: Vilcabamba, Ecuador, on the front lines
How a Small Town in Ecuador is Combining Ancestral Wisdom and Community Action to Regenerate its Valley. VILCABAMBA, Ecuador — While the world debates the climate crisis, in a small valley in Ecuador, an international community is taking action. Their tool: ancient knowledge that could transform modern agriculture. In southern Ecuador, there is a valley […]
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.
Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta: Reversing a Century of Colombian Tragedy
When I visited the floating palafito fishing village of Nueva Venecia in early 2021, I found myself staring out across the calm, reflective expanse of the coastal lagoon complex known as the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. Looking back at that moment, I understand why Ernesto Mancera has spent the past 35 years studying the region’s mangroves […]
“Embrace of the Amate” generates hope, healing and action
In a green valley of Central Mexico, below the distinctive humpbacked mountains that stand like guardians over the itinerant ecovillage that was taking form in the forest near Tepoztlan, the resonant call of the caracol, or conch shell, rang out from the sacred fire before sunrise: It was time to begin the activities of the […]
Remembering Joye Braun: Water Protector, Grandmother, Revolutionary
Last week we lost a powerful voice in the Water Protector and Climate Justice movements. Joye Braun (Wambli Wiyan Ka’win) of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Nation passed away at her home on Sunday, November 13th. Her untimely death at 53 leaves a void that no one can fill. Esperanza Project contributing editor Talli Nauman, […]
Saving the Titicaca 'Scrotum Frog' in the Andean Highlands
“Frog juice” is thought to be an aphrodisiac in Peruvian culture, as well as a medicine capable of curing many ills, so traditionally locals blend parts of the body of the amphibians with fruit and other herbs as a type of tonic. Unfortunately only the giant Titicaca frog will do, and this tradition is leading […]
Traditional fishers defend Colombia’s largest wetland ecosystem
In November, a group of traditional fishers met on the banks of the Cascaloa Ciénaga. Nilton Chacon, a leader of a local association of artisanal fishers, stood to speak.
Mexican Village Sets International Precedent in Water Conflict Resolution
After nearly 17 years of creative resistance and six visits from the man who is now Mexico’s president – three of them in recent months — the tiny colonial town of Temacapulín stands poised to become a model in the resolution of water-related conflicts.
Anti-Pipeline Grandmothers Launch Treaty People Gathering
ST. PAUL, Minnesota – At the state Governor’s Mansion on Anishinaabe (Ojibway) ancestral land, 1,000 grandmothers rallied “for future generations” May 26th. They timed the event to punctuate a call from organizers worldwide urging allies to attend the Treaty People Gathering for non-violent direct actions against oil pipelines during the first week of June 2021. […]
LaDonna fights on in the resistance of Native youth
FORT YATES, N.D. – As the Standing Rock Sioux Nation prepared for services April 16-19 honoring late water protector LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Native youth carried on the crusade to defend treaty land from pipeline construction, which she inspired when she established the Sacred Stone Camp near here five years ago. Known as Tamaka Waste […]
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 […]
'Honor the Earth' vs. Enbridge Line 3 Oil Pipeline
“This would be like ripping out the heart of the Anishinaabe people,” said Sarah LittleRedfeather, Anishinaabe graphic designer, referring to Enbridge’s Line 3 Replacement tar sands oil pipeline. “To us, that water is life. It’s a being and a spirit.”
Caring for Colombia's Dynamic Rivers
From the emblematic Magdalena River, which begins high in the Andes as a Sacred Source and descends into the industrial valleys to a overused and contaminated course, to the groundbreaking case of the Atrato River, which gained international attention in 2017 when it was granted the rights of personhood under Colombia’s Rights of Nature law, Colombia’s rivers have much to teach us.
'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.
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.
Lakota grandmothers fight man camps amid pandemic
The threat “causes eerie memories for us with the infected smallpox blankets that were distributed to tribes intentionally in the 1800s,” said Faith Spotted Eagle, a member of the Brave Heart Society and Yankton Sioux Tribe. “It is absolutely similar, whereby we lost thousands of people in our tribes along the Missouri River.”
Lyla June candidacy takes aim at addiction to fossil fuels
Indigenous Water Protector, environmental scientist, internationally recognized musician sets sights on the New Mexico House of Representatives.
The Town That Refuses to Drown
This remote Mexican pueblo has stepped into the national spotlight, standing up to a total of eight governors in two different states over the years and taking their fight all the way to Los Pinos, the Mexican White House. If the townsfolk get their way, it will probably be the first time that a mega-dam will be dismantled before it is ever used.
Megadam: ‘Obsolete technology’ wreaks havoc across the Americas
A global boom in major dam construction, mainly in developing countries, is currently underway, with an estimated 3,700 now under construction or in the planning stages. Latin America is ground zero for much of this development.
A village of women in resistance
TEMACAPULIN, Jalisco, Mexico — Amid the green of Los Altos de Jalisco, hiding at the bottom of a valley, lies a village in resistance. In Temaca, as it’s affectionately known, a band of women have vowed to fight to the end to preserve their territory and their dignity. The women — and the men — […]
Many Standing Rocks: Three Years and Still Fighting
The third anniversary of the Water Protectors movement at Standing Rock passed by quietly earlier this month. With the pipeline construction industry booming across the U.S. and Canada, Donald Trump seeking to bulldoze the cancelled Keystone XL Pipeline through more than 800 miles of unceded Lakota treaty territory, and at least nine state governments working […]
It’s a long way from Buenos Aires to Panama City – and the distance is not just physical. When Hernán García made his first journey to the country in 2011 as a young film student, he was captivated by the natural beauty and the cultural diversity of the country. He returned at every opportunity, and […]
San Antonino Castillo Velasco, Oaxaca, Mexico — Twelve years ago in the verdant Ocotlán Valley of Mexico, a group of men and women of Zapotec origin watched as their crops of vegetables and flowers began to wither away. A long drought seemed destined to turn their fertile valley into a desert area. But through a […]
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