From Sungmanitu:
If you don’t know, I’m making an audio documentary about AIM and conducting on the ground research and interviews with organizers new and old about their conditions in order to find out what unity can be built. I will be traveling from Michigan to Colorado and will talk to many
Elders of the movement as well as many youth and people in between. If this seems like something worth supporting to you $ZitkatosTinCan on CA or @Zitkato On ven is where you can send that help. This will help pay for a car rental, gas, emergency shelter if we need it, and most
Importantly for mutual aid and food. You can also help out by offering me a meal or a couch to sleep on. I look forward to sharing what I learn as well as the archive of information and videos I have from the 5 years I’ve been studying AIM and the US conditions
We are at 720/2500
Comrade Sungmanitu has shared the history of the Indigenous movements in Northamerica before here in this community via the ChunkaLutaNetwork here is one of my favorites: Fish Wars, Climate Change, and Forgotten History
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/54764
Amelia Schafer
ICTOn the 10th anniversary of the #noDAPL movement, a three-day summit in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where the occupation took place, aims to address gaps in renewable energy funding for tribal nations and pave a pathway for future sustainability projects.
Amidst rising energy costs and the halting of numerous multi-million dollar tribal renewable energy projects following federal budget cuts, The People of the Sun summit, to take place Sept. 16-18 and hosted by the capacity-building, nonprofit organization Indigenized Energy, will provide space for strategy building and planning amidst celebration.
“It’s really time to try to understand how important energy sovereignty is,” said Cody Two Bears, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and CEO and founder of Indigenized Energy. “Whether it’s in your home, whether it’s in your community, your state or your country, it’s really time to look at that and see the importance of truly becoming energy sovereign where you come from.”
Dozens of tribes currently risk losing $1.5 billion in climate project funding previously promised to them through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 as a result of cuts made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to the Brookings Institute.
Through the event, organizers hope to raise funds to support tribes whose grants were pulled. Two Bears said Indigenized Energy was supposed to be awarded one of the $136 million federal solar grants intended to power five different states, but following the mass cut of renewable energy projects, it lost that funding opportunity.
“There’s a lot of tribes that are sitting here with the whole plan ready to deploy, and this is just another way to create movement on making some of those projects feasible and make sure that they’re not for nothing,” Two Bears said. “So that’s just another way to bring attention and awareness around that, but also another way to make sure that a lot of our energy sovereignty plans through our tribal nations don’t lose that momentum. So that’s the importance of this event.”
The #noDAPL protests brought global attention to Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice and energy development as a whole, making a 10th anniversary celebration the perfect setting for dialogue on continued development projects, Two Bears said.
At the time of the protests, Two Bears was serving as a tribal council representative for the Cannon Ball district, the very area where protesters were gathered. The movement inspired him to start Indigenized Energy in 2017, he said.
“I got a chance to learn about many different cultures, many different stories, and many different things that have happened as far as extraction and fossil fuels that happen within their reservation homelands,” he said.
While the summit’s main focus centers on tribal energy, the event will also feature a concert with the band Mumford and Sons, and Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas. Taboo is Shoshone and Hopi. The event will also feature appearances from several A-list celebrities, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Shailene Woodley. Woodley attended the 2016 #noDAPL protests and was arrested on Oct. 10, 2016, and charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot while protesting and was later sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.
“Even though the pipeline has been laid, even though the pipeline has gone through, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we hang our heads and we feel bad because of that,” Two Bears said. “There’s a lot of good that has happened because of it, a lot of seeds have been planted all over the world and we want to be able to recognize all those success stories at this event and to be able to build upon them and then be able to continue to network and collaborate for the future.”
The event will also feature an awards ceremony to celebrate leaders in Indigenous energy.
“We want to make sure we’re showcasing those Native tribes, those champions and leaders out there,” Two Bears said.
Event tickets are not yet available, but proceeds will go toward supporting Indigenized Energy’s goal of providing no-cost, renewable energy projects to tribal nations.
“The reason why there’s a ticket price is because we want to continue to make sure that our work in ongoing supporting tribes is free of charge,” Two Bears said. “A lot of the projects are slowing down and tribes are really wanting to pursue renewable energy more than ever.”
While the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is not directly responsible for organizing the event, all of the events take place on the tribe’s lands and several will be held at its tribal casino, Prairie Knights in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe did not respond to requests for comment.
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Ella Carter-Klauschie
CalMattersWhen Amelia Giron, 41, started taking courses at California Indian Nations College in 2023, she was three months into Alcoholics Anonymous, battling homelessness and drug addiction and not on speaking terms with her four children.
Now, Giron has been sober for more than two years, has a relationship with her children, and has been joined by her two eldest in taking courses at the college. Giron expects to graduate with an associate degree in sociology this month and attributes her reconnection with her family to the tribal college.
College leaders say Native students have long been left behind in education, and tribal colleges give them a chance to attain culturally supportive higher education. While California is home to the largest number of Native residents of any state in the U.S., it has just one confirmed tribal college and little state funding support.
Now, two Assembly bills introduced earlier this year look to further strengthen tribal education in California.
Assembly Bill 1641 would add tribal colleges to the California education code’s definition of public higher education and Assembly Bill 1769 would allow tribal college students to transfer their units to other colleges and universities. College leaders hope the assembly bills, as well as recent accreditation, could open the door to consistent state or federal funding. The president of California Indian Nations College, Celeste Townsend, said Native students have been “bypassed, ignored and suppressed” in education over the decades. For students like Giron, tribal colleges offer a chance to experience a culturally relevant curriculum and revitalize their languages.
“When I started participating in the different workshops, and I started to really learn the culture it really helped me,” Giron said. “Understanding and also just participating in ceremony, sweat lodge and stuff like that… it helped really ground me and keep me on the road to recovery.”
Nationwide, Native Americans graduate from college at lower rates in comparison to other groups.
In California, the community college system reports that 58 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native students stay enrolled after their first year, in comparison with 68 percent of students overall. Within the California State University system, the four-year graduation rate for American Indian or Alaska Native students is 29.1 percent, while the overall rate is 37.3 percent. At the University of California system, American Indian students’ four-year graduation rate is 62.7 percent, compared to the overall rate of 74 percent.
California Indian Nations College opened in 2018 and is located in Palm Desert near Coachella, where it offers associate degrees through a partnership with the College of the Desert. All courses have been fully transferable to four-year colleges and universities because degrees were conferred by College of the Desert.
Now, the tribal college has received an eight-year accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of Colleges and Junior Colleges, allowing it to offer associate degrees independently.
Taking a community-centered approach to education
California has the largest indigenous population of any state in the country, at over 700,000. Besides California Indian Nations, the state lists only two other tribal colleges: California Tribal College in Sacramento and Kumeyaay Community College near El Cajon east of San Diego. Officials with California Tribal College and Kumeyaay Community College did not respond to multiple requests to confirm they are still in operation.
Shawn Ragan, executive vice president of California Indian Nations College, said Native Americans have a traumatic history with Western education systems. Federally recognized Tribal Colleges and Universities are an effort to put formal learning into the hands of tribes.
“Education has been used as a tool of colonialization,” Ragan said. “It’s been used to strip language, identity, culture, from Native Americans.”
Though the college has been offering instruction entirely online since the COVID-19 pandemic, students routinely have opportunities to connect in person for basket weaving, hikes, sweat lodge ceremonies and gatherings.
Giron now serves as student body vice president overseeing academics and clubs, a brand new position this year. The student government at the college is currently working on its bylaws and setting up a bank account.
Growing up, Giron was not in contact with her mother’s side of the family, which has connections to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Her younger brother started attending the college, recommended it to her, and she started taking courses as well.
One day, she invited her four teenage children, who were estranged at the time, to join her on a hike hosted by the college, and they agreed. While walking through Palm Desert’s canyons, a cultural guide from the college spoke with them about the medicinal and ancestral uses of the plants in the area. When they reached a body of water, the guide sang bird songs and burned sage to cleanse negative energy, Giron said.
“That was that first connection, again, with my kids,” Giron said. “We’re building a relationship. CINC is a huge part of that. It was that bridge between me and my family, and reuniting us.”
Giron said the tribal college’s teaching style emphasizes community building more than her K-12 schools and the College of the Desert. From the time she started at the college, Giron said she felt investment from administrators and professors. Without the college, Giron said she may have started drinking again.
At California Indian Nations College, some exams incorporate collaboration with other students in a “talking circle” format, where students are able to work in groups and engage in discussion.
Giron said she chose to study sociology because it provides a broad range of employment opportunities where she could give back to her community. She’s considering becoming a counselor, social worker or therapist.
“That same system that was designed to oppress us, we’re now utilizing as a tool, to be resilient, come out on top, and just prosper,” Giron said. “I just feel so empowered by the idea of being a part of that.”
Accreditation is a historic milestone for California tribal college
California Indian Nations College became the only tribal college in the state to be accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Colleges and Junior Colleges on Feb. 3. The commission’s accreditation enables a college to qualify for federal grants and contracts, distribute federal financial aid and transfer student credits more easily.
The college currently has no consistent funding stream, relying on $9 million in seed money from the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians at its founding. The federally recognized tribe also provides funding for the college to cover tuition costs for all students.
Three years ago, the state granted the college $5 million in one-time funding, and in 2025, the state gave an additional $10 million. This year, the college is requesting $13.5 million from the state.
Townsend said the college’s accreditation will enable students to take pride in their degree, knowing it is fully recognized and accepted at the university of their choice, as well as being culturally specific.
“We’re showing [students] that through education, the value of a degree can carry a lot of weight,” Townsend said. “We’re giving them that empowerment, and we’re proud to do it and open the door and encourage them to go further.” The college has served 517 students since it opened in 2018. Three-quarters are first-generation college students. In 2024, 59 percent of graduates transferred to another college or university to continue their education, up nearly 30 percent from the previous academic year.
In the 2024-25 academic year, 25 students graduated from the tribal college with associate degrees. This spring, Townsend is expecting 33 graduates.
“This strengthens academic pathways as well as honoring our commitment to our people, to educate… and empower them, bringing that community reciprocity,” Townsend said of the accreditation.
Student body president Erica Muñoz, 22, said she traveled to Sacramento last year to speak to lawmakers to advocate for Cal Grant support for students at California Indian Nations College. She said she was proud to show up for herself and for her school, and share her story.
In high school, Muñoz said she didn’t get much support from teachers and counselors. She felt like she was a statistic, joining the ranks of Native students who struggle to keep up with schoolwork. Muñoz said it seemed easy to “slip through the cracks” before she enrolled in California Indian Nations College. She is now the first member of her family to attend college. Muñoz lives in Banning, about 35 miles from the college, and grew up in San Bernardino.
“This school is not just an institution, it’s a community, it’s a family,” Muñoz said. “There’s going to be more opportunities for students, more career pathways to open up. This is giving us the structure and stability that we’ve always wanted.”
Solidifying tribal colleges’ place in California higher education
The current state education code defines public higher education as campuses within the California Community Colleges, California State University and the University of California systems. AB 1641 would add tribal colleges and universities to the list.
Ragan said the bill is a chance to codify what tribal colleges mean to the state.
“The Native community has been invisible throughout the nation and also in California,” Ragan said. “We’re not part of the framework for how California thinks about higher education.”
Bill co-sponsor Assemblymember James Ramos became the first Native American assemblymember when he was elected in 2018. The Democrat represents District 45, which encompasses parts of San Bernardino, about 60 miles from Palm Desert.
Ramos said AB 1641 is about making sure the state recognizes tribal colleges.
“The tribal community continues to suffer at a rate higher than other groups that are out there with high school attainment, college attainment and education attainment,” Ramos said. “Tribal colleges are a way for tribes to start to fill in that gap of making sure that people do pursue higher education.”
Ramos also authored AB 1769, which he introduced on Feb. 23. This bill would ensure that courses taken at California tribal colleges are transferable to Cal State campuses and community colleges. The bill would require the Cal State Board of Trustees and the community college system’s Board of Governors to develop and implement a transfer agreement for accredited tribal colleges. It would request the UC Regents do the same.
“It opened doors for us to be part of the conversations,” Ragan said. “As California is doing its master planning, or any kind of higher education planning, that tribal colleges are included in that conversation… This is a first step towards eventually becoming a regular line item in the state budget, but there’s still a lot between here and there.”
Ella Carter-Klauschie is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/52415
Shirley Sneve*ICT*
MINNEAPOLIS – How do high school dropouts get advanced degrees and become leaders in their community?
Turns out one of the keys might be language. Indigenous language.
Kate Beane and Carly Bad Heart Bull are identical twins and citizens of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and Muscogee Creek.
They dropped out of school in El Cerito, California, at age 15 but each went on to get advanced degrees and move back to – and take leadership roles in – their ancestral community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on unceded Dakota land.
“For both of us, reconnecting to our Dakota language and really understanding, not just the root words or vocabulary, but the meaning and how the language is so closely tied to the land. All of that was incredibly important for us to feel centered and to understand also our place in Minnesota,” Beane said. “Because as people who come from a community that was removed from the state, for us to come back home and to understand this place at that deeper level helped us to understand ourselves.”
Twins Kate Beane, left, and Carly Bad Hear Bull made the cover of City Pages magazine in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for their successful efforts to change the name of a major lake in the city to remove the name of a Civil War era politician who championed slavery. (Courtesy photo)
In 2018, the sisters led an effort to change Lake Calhoun to its traditional Dakota name, Bde Maka Ska. Named for John C. Calhoun, who was no friend to Dakota people and a pro-slavery politician. Bde Maka Ska is the largest lake in Minneapolis. It is surrounded by city parkland and a favorite for year-round recreational activities.
In their day jobs, Beane is the executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She holds a Ph.D. in America Studies from the University of Minnesota. She was also the Charles A. Eastman Predoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College.
Bad Heart Bull is the executive director of Native Ways Federation. She holds a Juris Doctorate degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School, a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota, and an Associate of Arts degree from Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
I got the chance to ask them about their journey from dropouts to leadership in March during the Indian Land Tenure Foundation conference at Mystic Lake Casino in Pryor Lake, Minnesota – a property of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
Beane is the oldest – by three minutes. Her Indian name is Ahdipiwiŋ, which translates to English as “Brings Them Home Woman.” Bad Heart Bull’s Dakota name is Wakan’yan Mani Win, “Woman who Walks Toward the Future.”
The family lived in El Cerrito, California, when the twins were growing up.
“We went to a large high school where the history of our people was not being taught. We didn’t see the use of going, and, you know, when I look back now, I wish that wasn’t the case,” Bad Heart Bull said. “I used to blame myself for it. It wasn’t my fault. It’s the system.”
Beane said the school let them skip the eighth grade.
“They gave us a social promotion, because they said we were more mature than other students. We stopped going to school and they wanted us to go back,” Bad Heart Bull said. “What they found was it wasn’t an issue with the work. We could do the work. We just didn’t want to.”
The twins dropped out when they were 15 years old. Because a student needed to be 16 to take the GED (general education development) test, they took the California High School Proficiency Exam.
“When we took that test, it was a legal way to opt out of school so that our parents wouldn’t get in trouble,” Beane said. “No teachers encouraged us to stay. And that’s something that I’ve thought about a lot as a parent now. As a mother of three little girls, two of whom do not like school, and who struggle in school, I constantly tell them what really is important for them to understand is not the grades that they bring home, it’s that they’re good people.”
Charles Eastman, the storied medical doctor and writer is a great uncle, or grandfather in the Indian Way. For generations, education for the Flandreau Santee Dakota family has been important.
But the twins credit their parents with their ability to learn beyond the classroom and the sisters agree that, while education is important, it’s the connections to people and organizations that have really shaped their careers. Understanding “the system” has been instrumental in being change makers.
Parents Syd Bean and Beck Barnette Beane made careers out of activism and working to create better economic and cultural opportunities for Native peoples.
Twins Kate Beane and Carly Bad Hear Bull toddle along with their mother Beck Barnette Beane in this undated family photo. The twins later dropped out of school but didn’t end their education. “We were raised to read. We were avid readers growing up. For us, our frustrations were with the educational system. We came from a family of teachers and organizers who told us, if we don’t like the system, change it,” Beane said. (Courtesy photo)
“We grew up going to nonprofit board meetings, sitting under the table with those yellow notebooks and pens and playing office,” Bad Heart Bull said. “We played nonprofit, because that’s what our parents were doing.”
Beane added: “We were raised to read. We were avid readers growing up. For us, our frustrations were with the educational system. We came from a family of teachers and organizers who told us, if we don’t like the system, change it. And when we were younger, that was something we had no interest in. We were like, why are we going to fix that problem? It was really frustrating. But then as we grew older and I think for me, it was years of waitressing, it was years of working in a factory. It was like doing all these jobs, across the country, struggling and working for other people. We were frustrated with the educational system coming from a family where our grandparents were in boarding schools. They didn’t trust that system. And I think at a certain point, I realized I needed to figure out a way to create a better opportunity for my kids. And so for me, it was thinking about the next generation.”
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Carolyn Jones
CalMattersWhen Celestina Castillo filled out the ethnicity forms at her children’s school, she’d always check Latino and Native American. After all, the family is proud of both its heritages.
But because of a loophole in the state’s data collection system, checking Latino or Hispanic meant that her children’s Native American identity was not counted at all, and they would not receive the extra services they’re entitled to. When Castillo learned of this, she stopped checking the Latino box altogether
According to the arcane way California counts its 5.8 million students, students who say they are Hispanic and Native American get counted as solely Hispanic. Native American students who also identify as another race, such as Black, white or Asian, are counted as “two or more races,” not Native American.
The problem affects all multiracial students, but it’s especially pronounced among Native Americans because the majority are multiracial. It’s resulted in an undercount of Native American students by as much as 90 percent, advocates said.
“If someone is Black, or Asian, or white, they’re counted that way,” said Castillo, a director of a college learning center who lives in Los Angeles. “Why does it not count if someone is Native American? That’s not OK. It feels like erasure.”
More services, fewer stereotypes
Last year California schools said they had 24,822 Native American students, but the actual number may be as high as 156,000, according to an Assembly report on a new measure, Assembly Bill 1581, that seeks to fix the problem. If those students were identified, they’d be entitled to cultural services and other programs that could help them succeed in school.
A more accurate count could also change the public perception of Native Americans generally, according to Assemblymember James Ramos, the San Bernardino Democrat who authored the bill. Instead of being thought of as rare or even extinct, the public could see that Native Americans are everywhere, Ramos said.
“We’ll start to see the true picture of Native Americans in California,” said Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe. “Native American students should be able to stand up in the classroom and say who they are and be proud of it.”
Changes in the U.S. Census
There’s a long history of the government marginalizing Native Americans in California, particularly in schools. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, not long after 90 percent of California’s Native American population was murdered or killed by disease, the federal government forced thousands of Native American children in California into boarding schools, where they were forced to speak English and abandon their cultures.
Things started to change in 1970 when the U.S. Census Bureau started improving the way it counted Native Americans. Now, Native Americans can write in their tribal affiliation or list themselves as multiracial, and still be counted as Native American. Although Native Americans are still undercounted more than any other ethnic group, the census changes resulted in a tenfold increase in the official number of Native Americans in the U.S. In 1960, Native Americans only made up .3 percent of the population. In 2020 they were almost 3 percent.
The improved census data also revealed that California has more Native Americans than any other state. More than 760,000 people in California identify as Native American, with most living in urban areas like Los Angeles.
Ramos’ bill would allow Native American students to write in the name of their tribe on school forms and identify as Native American plus another race, if applicable. The hope is to give a more comprehensive, more nuanced view of California’s Native American student population, allowing them to get extra services regardless of their biracial identity. So far, the bill has no opposition.
‘We’re in the modern world, too’
Shannon Rivers, who works on education issues for the Los Angeles-based California Native Vote Project, said an accurate count of Native Americans is essential to dispel stereotypes and bring public awareness to issues affecting Native American communities.
“In the eyes of many Americans, there’s still this image of Native American people from the past, from the 1800s,” said Rivers, who is a member of the Akimel Oʼodham tribe in Arizona. “That history is important, but we’re in the modern world, too. We’re doctors, lawyers, scientists, artists, educators.”
He’s hopeful that Ramos’ bill will improve conditions generally for Native American students in California schools. With more accurate student counts, schools could get more federal and state funding to provide extra services, such as tutoring, to Native American children. More schools could host events and curriculum centered on Native American history and culture.
When Ramos was growing up in San Bernardino, he remembers staring at the ethnicity form at school and not knowing what bubble to fill. His mother was Native American but she was labeled “white” on her birth certificate. His father, also Native American, was labeled “Hispanic.”
“Were we white or Latino? I didn’t know. We had to accept whatever the school told us we were,” Ramos said. “I’d go home and ask, ‘Are we Caucasian?’ That started a whole other conversation. It was confusing.”
Castillo, a descendent of the Tohono O’odham tribe in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, said that as a child, she thought everyone was Native American. But when she started school she realized that very few people identified as she did, and worse, it was stigmatized.
Years later, she saw her own children singled out as oddities. One day her son, who had long hair, was dressed for a Native American dance and another child pointed and said, “Look, mom, it’s an Indian!”
“My son felt like a dinosaur or a unicorn, like we didn’t exist,” Castillo said.
By leaving the ethnicity question blank on school forms, Castillo knew it meant her children would not receive extra services they’re entitled to, either at the charter school they attend or through Los Angeles Unified.
“That angered me,” Castillo said. “I’m hoping that this bill will help make Native students visible to local and state education policy makers.”
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Hundreds of Greenlanders demonstrated outside the new US Consulate in Nuuk on Thursday as President Donald Trump's envoy signaled that he's still seeking to control the self-governing Danish territory that straddles the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
Various Greenlandic politicians also declined invitations to attend the opening of the consulate, with Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen telling the local outlet Sermitsiaq that "we haven't made a decision in principle, but I won't participate."
Protesters were armed with Greenland's red and white flag and signs that read "USA ASU," which translates to "Stop USA," as well as messages in English, including "Make America go away!" and "We are not for sale!" Their chants included "Greenland belongs to Greenlanders," "Go home," and "No means no."
"It's very important, now more than ever, to show the American people what we already said, that no means no, and that the future and self-determination of Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people," said Aqqalukkuluk Fontain, a 37-year-old IT account manager and protest organizer, according to The Guardian.
"The protest itself is not to provoke Donald Trump or Jeff Landry but to show the world that Greenland has its own democracy," Fontain added. Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana and the president's envoy to the island, arrived in Nuuk on Sunday.
The newspaper noted Trump's envoy traveled there "uninvited with a delegation including a doctor, who caused fury by saying he was there to 'assess the medical needs of Greenland.' Landry briefly attended a business conference with the US ambassador to Denmark, Kenneth Lowery, and left Nuuk on Wednesday night."
During Landry's "ham-handed trip," The New York Times reported, "he offered chocolate chip cookies and red MAGA hats to people he met on the street. He didn't get many takers, and Greenlandic officials criticized the visit."
It was Landry's first visit to the island of 57,000 since Trump appointed him as envoy in December. On Monday, he met with Greenlandic Foreign Minister Múte Egede and Nielsen, who called the talks "constructive," even though there was "no sign... that anything has changed" regarding Trump's position.
While polling has shown Americans and Greenlanders alike oppose Trump's takeover threats, Landry told Agence France-Presse near the end of his trip that "I think it's time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland."
"I think that you're seeing the president talk about increasing national security operations and repopulating certain bases in Greenland," he continued. "Greenland needs the US."
The envoy made similar remarks on Friday during a Fox News appearance, highlighting Greenland's oil resources amid soaring global prices—which stem from Trump's illegal war on Iran that led the Iranian government to restrict ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route for fertilizer and fossil fuels.
In addition to waging war on Iran and continuing to threaten both Greenland and Cuba, Trump invaded Venezuela early this year, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and seizing control of the South American country's nationalized oil industry.
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This story was originally published by Grist.
Te Aniwaniwa Paterson
GristThis story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, record-breaking storms and flooding are impacting Māori land, health, and culture. And, according to a new national climate report, colonization has intensified those risks.
The 2026 National Climate Change Risk Assessment is composed of four reports, including a companion document focused on Māori communities. That report argues that climate change is likely to deepen existing inequities shaped by colonization, exclusion from decision-making, and chronic underinvestment.
To mitigate the impacts of climate change, the assessment points to Māori-led adaptation as uniquely effective. It calls for policy grounded in Māori customs and knowledge, Indigenous data sovereignty, and stronger Māori authority in climate decision-making.
“For more than 150 years Māori have been pushed to the margins, literally, by an aggressive colonization process,” said Paora Tapsell, who is Ngāti Whakaue and Ngāti Raukawa, and the director of the Kāika Institute of Climate Resilience at Lincoln University.
The assessment, released earlier this month, adds to a growing body of national reports that highlight the harmful impacts of colonial policies on Indigenous peoples and the environment. In 2023, the United States’ Fifth National Climate Assessment found that land theft and colonization had exacerbated climate change’s impact. The year before, Australia’s State of the Environment report was prepared with an Indigenous lead author for the first time; it found that Indigenous peoples were more likely to be impacted by extreme weather events like fires. It too called for incorporating Indigenous knowledge into climate policies. Despite these findings, Indigenous leaders around the world say national governments are still not listening to them.
Aotearoa New Zealand recently experienced one of its most active severe weather seasons on record, with multiple declared states of emergency across the nation’s two islands. It also found that the country’s Indigenous peoples are essential in responding to such disasters. “The report accurately acknowledges that many kāinga [Māori settlements], despite their relative impoverishment, are still willing first responders on the front line of increasingly severe climate events,” Shaun Awatere, who is Ngāti Porou and lead author of the companion report, said.
The assessment’s seven interconnected risk areas span environmental, cultural, and economic domains. It says the loss of protected endemic species is not only a biodiversity issue but also affects food gathering places, the Māori lunar calendar, traditional customs, and intergenerational knowledge systems. According to the report, some species could face near-irreversible decline in parts of the country under high-emissions scenarios by 2090.
Across Māori lands, climate-driven extreme weather events have had a destructive impact on infrastructure. But the report outlines how flooding, erosion, storms, and wildfires also present cultural risks by threatening tribal meeting places, burial sites, and communal homes. It warns that repeated damage and displacement could lead to long-term cultural fragmentation and disconnection from ancestral land.
Climate impacts may also be felt economically. Māori-owned forestry, farming, aquaculture, and horticulture enterprises face rising pressure from climate hazards, costs, and underinvestment in adaptation. Without structural reform and targeted support, the assessment says that economic vulnerability will increase.
Awatere said the findings confirm what tribes have been saying for years. “Climate events do not arrive one at a time,” he said. “A storm floods a road, damages a marae [tribal meeting place], erodes whenua [land], disrupts access to mahinga kai[food gathering places], and overwhelms health and welfare systems that were already stretched, all at once. Each of those harms compounds the next.”
The assessment also said climate-driven displacement and ecological degradation could disrupt the transmission of language, customary practices, lineage relationships, and Indigenous knowledge systems between generations.
Awatere highlighted ongoing structural exclusion of Māori from climate planning and adaptation systems, despite the government’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi, which is the country’s founding document. The report describes legal exclusion and governance failure as a major risk multiplier, compounding climate impacts across all domains.
Awatere said the central question is whether adaptation plans will reflect that evidence, or whether Māori communities will continue to carry a disproportionate risk of harm.
The post Māori climate risk worsened by colonization, report finds appeared first on ICT.
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Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News + ICTPORTLAND, Ore. – Around 300 high school students dressed in gowns, costumes and elaborate makeup danced until their feet hurt to music from DJ Aspen blaring through the speakers, their smiles and laughter filling the air at this year’s annual Queer Prom.
The Native American Youth and Family Center’s Two-Spirit program has hosted the event for four years since taking a hiatus during the pandemic.
“My ultimate goal with this is creating a space for queer youth, especially Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQ+ youth, to be unabashedly themselves, to truly not have to worry about the way that they’re being perceived, but just be able to celebrate themselves, celebrate each other, and to showcase the fact that we’ve always been here — Indigenous, trans, queer, we’ve always been here. We’re not going anywhere,” said Kiara Wehrenberg, Tlingit and the Two-Spirit program coordinator at the center. Wehrenberg coordinates Queer Prom.
As prom season is well underway, Queer Prom is a space built for students from all backgrounds to have a space centering joy, in Portland.
“Queer Prom is so unique and so special,” said this year’s emcee, Dr. Poison Waters, an iconic Portland drag queen. “There are people in this country that wish they could come to a Queer Prom.”
Planning Queer Prom
Wehrenberg worked with youth from the center’s Two-Spirit program to find a theme and organize a prom built for them. The group made pamphlets for a swag table during the May 15 event, that offered a resource guide, information about the term Two Spirit and a list of Two-Spirit powwows across the country
This year’s prom theme was “Superheroes vs. Villains Edition” and students showed out in all kinds of costumes. From Captain America and the Joker to fantasy inspired looks include elf ears and elaborate makeup. The theme extended beyond dress as projected graphics all around the room feature comic book inspired illustrations.
Food, catered by Brittinie Love and her company Cooking with B. Love, took the superheroes versus villains theme to the next level. The menu featured items such as “Gotham Fire Beef Skewers” and “The Green Goblin Spring Rolls” with mocktails like “Radiant Recharge” and “Arctic Blast.”
Planning for Queer Prom began as soon as last year’s ended, according to Wehrenberg. This began with reaching out to vendors and event venues, such as AVENUE Portland, where this year’s prom took place.
“I think Queer Prom is just a beautiful place for connection,” said Marvin Colbow, whose drag name is Marvin Killboy, a senior at Benson Polytechnic High School. “I just went to my own prom, and I did not feel the same amount of connectivity that I feel here with my fellow transgender and queer people.”
Wehrenberg reached out to Queer-Straight Alliances and Indigenous Student Unions across Portland and beyond to open up the event to youth across the city, beyond youth at the center’s Many Nations Academy.
“Queer specific spaces are necessary across the board,” said Ellen Whatmore, a teacher at Franklin High School and the school’s co-advisor for the Gay-Straight Alliance. “Having an opportunity to shine and be in the spotlight and be celebrated is unparalleled.”
Whatmore attended Queer Prom dressed in a Medusa-inspired look, as an event volunteer and also helped advertise the event to Franklin students after receiving an email invitation from Wehrenberg.
Guest Appearances
A few hours into the dance, students were interrupted from tearing up the dance floor when Dr. Poison Waters invited two other drag performers from Darcelle’s XV out onto the dance floor.
Dressed in a big, blonde wig with hot pink heeled boots and a matching hot pink ruffled robe, T’Kara Campbell Star made her way onto the dance floor. As “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus filled the speakers, she shed her robe to reveal a bright green body suit and matching sun hat decked out in fake flowers. Her performance was met with cheers as students formed a half circle around her. At the end of three songs, T’Kara Campbell Star invited a student dressed as Maleficent to the center of the floor to dance with her.
Following her performance, Ilani E. Nova made her way onto the dance floor, decked out with a black feather boa, thigh high leather boots and a black and tan body suit. She danced with the students, lip syncing to a compilation of Abba classics.
And of course, Dr. Poison Waters herself also performed, moving from stage to the middle of the dance floor.
As the night wore on, the dance floor remained full as laughter and song sing-alongs drifted through the air, mixed with the beats spun by DJ Aspen.
“I just see so much queer joy in our youth and I’m so happy and honored to be a part of this,” said Mitch Saffle, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a chaperone at Queer Prom and a data and evaluation support specialist at the center. “I’m so grateful to see that a space like this exists for our youth. Not only our queer youth, but our Indigenous queer youth.”
Later on in the evening, Yin Glossier, Dior Glossier and Deity 007 from PDX Ballroom brought vogue to the dance floor as students sat in a circle around the three performers, completely engaged.
Following their own performance, Yin Glossier explained a bit about the ball scene which started in Harlem in the 1920s, expanding in the 1970s and 1980s, when Black and Brown drag queens were not allowed to be at White drag queen pageants.
“So, as Black and Brown people do, we make our own shit,” Yin Glossier said. “In that, we have the birth of ballroom.”
They then explained some of the main categories that “Houses” of the ball scene compete in: fashion, body, sex appeal, face, vogue.
Students were then invited to compete in ballroom style, lining up to compete for “best dressed.” A hard decision on the part of the judges, composed of performers from Darcelle’s XV and PDX Ballroom. Ultimately a student dressed in a Master Shake, from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, costume took home the prize: a pair of rainbow beaded earrings donated by the center’s Two-Spirit program.
For Wehrenberg, Saffle, volunteers and students an event like Queer Prom is so crucial for the community.
“Being able to have a space like this is really important because it provides an opportunity for us to come together in community and celebrate queer joy,” Wehrenberg said.
Wehrenberg expressed that so often when Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ stories are told in the media, it is through a lens of oppression and tragedy.
“It is also really important to highlight and tell stories of resilience and love and joy, because we all deserve to be seen as we are here, queer, trans, Indigenous, proud, strong and fully human, because only telling the stories of oppression and tragedy, in a way, strips us of humanity because it doesn’t highlight or show any understanding of the fact that we have whole lives and joy and love surrounding us too,” Wehrenberg said.
This story is co-published by Underscore Native News and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.
The post Queer Prom: A space for queer youth to be ‘unabashedly themselves’ appeared first on ICT.
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Evan R. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Oregon–
Oceti Sakowin activists celebrate their victory in Rapid City, SD. (NDN Collective)
Deep in the Black Hills of South Dakota, known as He Sapa to the Oceti Sakowin (the Great Sioux Nation), organized Indigenous power has secured a vital victory in the ongoing struggle for national sovereignty. This triumph, while perhaps temporary, marks a significant milestone in the long-standing effort to reclaim ancestral lands and exercise self-determination.
The United States Federal District Court for the District of South Dakota in Rapid City ruled in favor of Oceti Sakowin tribes and activists by issuing a temporary restraining order against exploratory graphite drilling near the sacred Pe’ Sla, a site which holds high religious and cultural significance to the Oceti Sakowin people.
Pe’ Sla is a site in He Sapa that aligns with celestial patterns in traditional Lakota spirituality. It is a “bald spot” of prairie in the middle of the otherwise heavily forested mountain range. Used for prayer and sacred ceremonies, much of the land is now tribally owned, ensuring the Lakota can continue their cultural and spiritual practices there.
Spanning several thousand acres, the area is divided between land owned by the sovereign nations of the Oceti Sakowin and territory managed by the U.S. Forest Service. In a 2014 Memorandum of Understanding, the Forest Service formally recognized the site’s profound cultural and religious significance to the Oceti Sakowin, establishing a two-mile buffer zone and committing to the protection of that surrounding area.
The drilling sites at Pe’ Sla. (NDN Collective)
This victory did not emerge from a vacuum, nor did it spring from the grace or goodwill of the state administration; it was seized through the disciplined, organized action of the Oceti Sakowin and their allies. When the Forest Service granted the local firm Pete Lein and Sons exploratory drilling rights within the two-mile buffer zone surrounding Pe’ Sla, Indigenous defenders and their supporters immediately mobilized, utilizing every available tactic to halt the encroachment.
Nine tribal nations, representing the entire Oceti Sakowin people, filed suit. They were joined by allied organizations such as the Rapid City based NDN Collective, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance and Earthworks in Washington D.C. The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service misapplied a “categorical exclusion” to circumvent required evaluations of the project’s environmental and cultural impacts.
Beyond just legal action, activists from the NDN Collective launched an active campaign of civil disobedience, physically stopping the drilling by occupying the site. Starting on Apr. 30, activists set up camps and began religious ceremonies in Pe’ Sla, and several members of the Oglala Lakota Youth Council locked themselves to the drilling machinery to prevent its operation.
Oceti Sakowin activists occupying a drilling site near Pe’ Sla. (ictnews.com)
Many of those involved in the struggle at Pe’ Sla are also involved in a mobilization against uranium mining in southern He Sapa, where the Canadian-based company Clean Nuclear Energy Corporation plans to begin exploratory drilling seven miles north of Edgemont, SD.
According to its application, the company intends to drill holes up to 700 feet deep at 50 different locations on state land, with each project lasting roughly two weeks. Similar drilling proposals for federal land are currently being evaluated by the U.S. Forest Service. Court hearings for this are scheduled for the May 20 and 21.
This project is proceeding under a “fast-track” permit issued by the Trump regime, part of a broader mandate to open publicly-managed lands for private exploitation.
As the administration accelerates the opening of federal lands and systematically guts the Forest Service budget, it has become clear that there is an intentional effort to dismantle long-standing protections for over 193 million acres of American wilderness. The ultimate objective is the complete privatization of these lands, handing them over to extractive industries. Due to the fact that Indigenous peoples represent a fundamental barrier to this project, the state has resorted to forced displacement.
The provocations by state and federal authorities here are merely the latest in a relentless history of attacks against the Oceti Sakowin and Indigenous nations at large.
After the long, drawn out wars of conquest during the late 1800s, the United States government signed the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868, which recognized He Sapa and all lands west of the Missouri river in present-day South Dakota as part of lands “set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of the Oceti Sakowin as a “permanent home.”
Known as Wamaka Og’naka I’cante (“the heart of everything that is”) in Lakota, the entire mountain range is considered sacred to the Oceti Sakowin, not just Pe’ Sla.
He Sapa. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Following the 1874 Custer expedition’s discovery of gold, which triggered a massive influx of illegal settlers, the U.S. government attempted to purchase He Sapa in 1876. The Oceti Sakowin refused. In response, the U.S. launched an unprovoked war of aggression that same year. Despite heroic resistance, the Oceti Sakowin were eventually defeated, and their land was unilaterally seized in 1877.
The illegality of this seizure was so absolute that in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Oceti Sakowin, ordering the U.S. government to pay $106 million in compensation. The tribes refused the settlement. Their position remains steadfast: the land was never ceded by tribal authorities, and their continued resistance declares with firmness that it is still not for sale
In a testimony to Congress in 2023, Oglala tribal president Frank Star Comes Out said:
“The United States broke its treaty promises when it invaded our territory to make war. After the defeat of the United States and the Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June 1876, Congress attached a ‘Sell or Starve’ rider to the Indian Appropriations Act of 1876, 19 Stat. 176, which cut off rations to our people in an attempt to coerce us to sell the Black Hills to the United States. Yet, we stood firm, and the United States was unable to secure our consent to the sale of the Black Hills. We said then — and we have repeated for generations — that the Black Hills are not for sale.”
The victory at Pe’ Sla is a testament to the fact that the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty is inseparable from the global fight against extractive capital. We Marxist-Leninists recognize here that, the state is not a neutral arbiter of law but an instrument of the ruling class. The “fast-track” permits and the gutting of the Forest Service are not mere policy shifts; they are the machinery of primitive accumulation, where the remaining commons are seized to offset the falling rate of profit in the metropole.
The Oceti Sakowin’s refusal of the 1980 settlement is a profound rejection of the commodification of the earth. It asserts that land is not capital to be bought and sold, but the material basis for national existence. By physically occupying Pe’ Sla and locking themselves to the machinery of production, the Oglala Lakota youth have engaged in the highest form of class struggle: direct confrontation with the forces of private property.
However, as long as the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie remains intact, these victories will remain temporary. The state’s drive toward privatization and environmental degradation is an existential necessity for the capitalist mode of production. True liberation for the Oceti Sakowin,and the protection of Wamaka Og’naka I’cante, requires a unified revolutionary front that recognizes the Indigenous struggle as a vital part of the struggle against imperialism. The land is not for sale because the future of the working class and the survival of the planet depend on its liberation from the hands of the exploiters.
This struggle demands more than passive observation; it requires the active mobilization of the international working class. We must move beyond “solidarity” in name only and do our utmost to organize the Indigenous Nations and integrate their struggle for self-determination as an integral part of our eventual socialist revolution.
We can support the front-line defenders at Pe’ Sla and those resisting uranium mining in the southern Hills by contributing to the NDN Collective and the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. We must organize within our own communities to disrupt the flow of capital to the extractive industries that seek to desecrate Indigenous land. The fight for He Sapa is a fight for the future, not just for the Oceti Sakowin, but for all who wish to preserve a home on this Earth.
As the Lakota say, Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ: we are all related. The Indigenous struggle is inseparable from the movement for a truly free, democratic, and progressive society; one that finally represents the collective will of the people rather than the insatiable greed of the bourgeoisie.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/50076
Mike Leon, at centre, leads the Katzie First Nation’s team of eight guardians. They’ll be monitoring the benefits of the wetland restoration to measure its impact on native species, including sandhill cranes and salmon. Photo by Santana Dreaver
This story was originally published in the Narwhal and appears here with permission and minor style edits.
On a late April morning, a group of Katzie First Nation land guardians, conservation workers, government representatives and others trek down to Xwíʔləm̓nəc (Addington Point Marsh).
They gather in the First Nation’s Lower Mainland territory to celebrate the long-awaited completion of a wetland restoration project connecting to the Stó:lō (Fraser River).
Mike Leon leads Katzie’s team of eight guardians, and has been involved with the marsh restoration project from the beginning.
After everyone bypasses a locked gate — there to reduce the risk of bear-human encounters — they stop by the water, and he addresses the group.
“I would really like to raise my hands to all of you, to the hard work and willingness to work with us,” he said, “to be with us, to be with this land.”
READ MORE: New wetland salmon habitat to help restore syilx floodplain
The restoration effort was funded by the provincial government and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Katzie First Nation implemented the project with Resilient Waters, Ducks Unlimited Canada, and the Nature Trust of British Columbia, with many helping hands involved.
For three years, the partners worked together to reestablish waterflow in the marsh.
The wetlands connection to the “Pitt River” and south “Fraser River” system was disconnected when early settlers installed a dike, which has since been removed.
“I love doing the work,” added Mackenzie Adams, another Katzie guardian.
“I love being on our territory and helping the environment.”
Adams monitored the site throughout the project, and collected water and bird surveys to compare data before and after restoration.
The marsh restoration project was a collaboration among many partners, with all partners clear that Katzie First Nation was in the lead.
‘You can already see the differences’
Xwíʔləm̓nəc is now letting nature take its course, and with the area being home to one of the country’s largest salmon runs and smallest sandhill crane populations, monitoring the wetland is critical work for Katzie guardians.
“Comparing the first day to the last day was pretty eye opening because you can already see the differences from the river water coming in,” Adams said.
“It will be an awesome habitat for all birds and salmon fry.”
While the exact impact is still unknown, wetland restoration benefits are well-documented.
According to the B.C. Wildlife Federation, wetland monitoring is just as important as the initial restoration during a project.
“Monitoring, maintenance, and data collection help us evaluate the effectiveness of restoration techniques and improve the performance and function of future projects,” it reads on their website.
READ MORE: Indigenous conservationists are imitating beavers — hoping for their return
Leon’s team will be on top of that data, working with partners to restore and conserve native plants and animals in the area.
Beyond its environmental impacts, the project has brought people together from all walks of life who want to see salmon and wildlife in and around the Fraser River thrive.
Relationships between Katzie guardians and partners in the project have flourished.
A local property owner who attended the celebration shared their initial concerns after seeing excavation equipment clearing a path to the dike — and their relief after learning more about the endeavour.
Katzie had final say in restoration with many partners
Dan Straker, the manager for the Resilient Waters project, was a lead organizer under the direction of Katzie guardians and the First Nation’s leaders.
He said Katzie First Nation informed the project along the way and held final decision-making power.
“All the partners fell in line with that idea and thinking,” Straker told the Narwhal.
“What we ended up with was this really nice blended way of doing things.”
Leon added that, throughout the endeavour, Katzie brought in its customs, culture and laws.
READ MORE: How this Katzie First Nation birth worker carries on the teachings of her great-grandmother
“It’s really important and special to us to know our place names in our territory,” Leon said.
“When we have our guardians come out, we’re honoured to be on those place names such as Xwíʔləm̓nəc.”
It’s a sentiment shared by Katzie’s guardian co-ordinator April Pierre. In a quiet moment of emotion in the circle, she addressed a reality shared by many First Nations people: growing up away from her homelands.
The Xwíʔləm̓nəc restoration project gave Pierre an opportunity to spend time on land she had never been to — the land of her ancestors.
It’s one emotional moment of many that were shared during the celebration, as others reflected on the marine and wildlife already making appearances in the marsh.
After three years of restoration work, Katzie First Nation guardians and partners from conservation, government and community celebrated the reconnection of the Xwíʔləm̓nəc (Pitt-Addington Marsh) to the Stó:lō (Fraser River) watershed and surrounding floodplains — restoring critical salmon habitat in their territory.
Farmland saw marsh habitat ‘alienated’ from river
Dikes were built to create flat land for agriculture in the area since the late 1800s.
Restoring the marsh’s connection to the river has immense ecological benefits and cultural benefits for local First Nations.
“Conservation organizations in previous decades had a different approach to conservation land management that I think sometimes excluded other organizations and nations,” said Eric Balke, a senior restoration biologist with Ducks Unlimited.
“I think we are learning new and better ways of moving forward — more collaborative ways — and this project is a great example of that.”
Balke has been involved with restoring Xwíʔləm̓nəc since brainstorming and planning stages, eventually passing the reins to his colleague Alison Martin, a conservation specialist with degrees in ecological restoration.
The project is “all about restoring relationships,” Balke said, something he’s particularly excited about.
“You’re restoring the relationship between the river and these wetlands that were formerly alienated by dikes,” he explained.
“You’re restoring the relationship between Xwíʔləm̓nəc and juvenile salmon that previously were prevented from accessing the site … It’s also restoring the relationship between Katzie and their kin.”
Wetland restoration benefits salmon
In the Pacific Northwest, both people and the ecosystem know how important salmon is.
Xwíʔləm̓nəc is connected to Stó:lō waterway, the country’s largest salmon-bearing watershed.
“Floodplains provide critical, food-rich habitat for juvenile salmon,” explains the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
“These low-lying areas adjacent to stream channels allow young salmon to grow healthy and strong before their journey to the ocean.”
READ MORE: Troubled waters: A new fish weir on Stó:lō territories is met with colonial challenges
But dikes disrupt the river’s connection to the marsh, blocking valuable nutrients and harming the salmon and other species.
Tidal marshes and other wetlands collect nutrient-rich sediment, helping protect communities from flooding, he said.
“This land that settlers found is super valuable for farming and agriculture,” he said. “It was valuable because of the sediment that was delivered — because of the nutrients that were delivered — by the river.
“When we construct dikes we disconnect the river from its floodplain. The river can no longer deliver those critical ingredients.”
A huge benefit of restoring tidal marshes is that they are one of the most effective ways of capturing and storing carbon, contaminants, and pollutants that flow downstream.
Wetlands have many ecological benefits. But they also protect people and communities by mitigating the risk of floods, which have hit the valley hard around the Stó:lō (Fraser River) three times in the past five years.
Further, Xwíʔləm̓nəc is home to wapoto and tule, two traditional plants for Katzie First Nation that have been impacted from dikes.
Members of the nation say restoring their wetland is giving hope that these plants can be harvested for food and mat-making once again.
The marsh is also home to sandhill cranes, whose local population has hovered around just 30 to 35 birds for decades, wildlife biologist Myles Lamont told the Narwhal.
He joined the restoration project as a sandhill crane consultant. He said the few remaining birds often next on golf courses and small regional parks.
READ MORE: In ‘B.C.’s’ interior, a syilx program is returning burrowing owls to the grasslands
“Unfortunately they’ve been getting struck by golf balls,” he said.
“Quite commonly over the last 10 to 15 years, I’ve had to rescue a few birds that have had broken legs or injuries as a result of golf ball strikes.”
He hopes restoring Xwíʔləm̓nəc to a wetland will bring in enough water to create a nesting habitat for the birds, drawing them away from golf courses.
As participants spoke around the sharing circle, Lamont spotted a sandhill crane flying above the gathering, and called out, “Crane!”
To Adams, being part of the restoration initiative was “really cool … knowing that we’re making a difference,” recalled the Katzie guardians member.
“The salmon habitat has a place to go throughout the winter, and so do the sandhill cranes and [other] birds,” Adams said.
“It’s a good feeling … I feel accomplished.”
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This story was originally published by Grist.
Joseph Lee
GristAs the Trump administration continues its push to secure critical minerals like lithium, the U.S. government and private corporations have ignored Indigenous peoples’ rights in Nevada. That’s according to a report released May 12 by Amnesty International, which is calling for the suspension of federal permits for all lithium mines in the state.
The Silver State has emerged as a key source of lithium, the main component in electric vehicle and other batteries. About 85 percent of the country’s known reserves are in Nevada, and several Indigenous nations and organizations, alongside environmentalists, have been fighting for years against its extraction and the environmental risks that creates, including water contamination and biodiversity loss. “This is our land,” said Fermina Stevens, a member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone and the executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project. “We should have a say in what happens. But I know that they don’t want us there because Nevada is so rich in all of these minerals.”
The three projects Amnesty International highlights in its report are Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, Nevada North Lithium Project, and Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. Each is located primarily on public land that the Western Shoshone and Paiute people consider unceded territory. Thacker Pass is under construction and Rhyolite Ridge is slated to begin construction this year, while Nevada North is in the exploratory phase.
Amnesty International’s report says all three are violating Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent. That principle, known as FPIC, is an international standard that affirms Indigenous peoples’ right to approve or deny projects that impact their land and communities. Although the projects were approved by federal agencies, Amnesty International argues the review processes fell short of FPIC and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP.
“They’ve got to come down on the right side,” Mark Dummett, the organization’s head of business and human rights, said of the mining companies. “They’ve got to come down on the side of human rights, rather than getting the minerals at all costs.” He added that, regardless of domestic laws in the countries in which they operate, these firms must follow international human rights standards. The report also highlights the impact of the Trump administration’s push for deregulation, including fast-tracked permits and limited environmental review, which reduces the ability of Indigenous peoples to offer full consent.
In a statement, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Interior said, “The climate crazed activists behind this report are notorious for making baseless claims, repeatedly rejected by courts, as part of their pathetic rage against energy production that is not only bipartisan, but proven to benefit the American people.” They also said that a review of lithium projects in Nevada by the federal Bureau of Land Management included extensive environmental review and opportunity for tribal engagement.
Nevada is experiencing a lithium boom that has seen more than 20,000 claims filed. The report also comes amid global resistance by Indigenous peoples to “green transition” mining that they say comes at the expense of their land and rights. Given the increasing demand for minerals like lithium, cobalt, and copper, Dummett said that mining companies around the world are taking advantage of gaps in regulation and human rights enforcement. “The way that this mining has always taken place has been incredibly damaging to the environment and people,” Dummett said. “We don’t want to see the mistakes of the past repeated.”
Stevens said that although her people have experienced a long history of land theft and abuse by the U.S. government and corporations, consultation has grown even more perfunctory amid the worldwide drive for lithium, which has surged since the war in Iran. “War and the military complex is all that they can see,” she said. “And so they’re blinded to the things that are sacred, that are more important for human survival. And I just don’t think that they care about those things.”
Lithium Americas, the owner of the Thacker Pass mine, disputed many of the report’s claims in a response submitted to Amnesty International, including inadequate consultation, environmental risks, and violation of Indigenous rights. Its reply also noted that UNDRIP is not binding in the United States, but argued that the project complies with it anyway. “The Thacker Pass Project has the potential to significantly advance America’s electrification efforts, reduce carbon emissions, and strengthen domestic supply chains for critical minerals — strengthening America’s energy future. LAC has made stakeholder engagement, including with Tribes, an important part of the development of the Project,” its response reads.
A spokesperson for Ioneer, the owner of the Rhyolite Ridge project, said the company “respectfully but firmly disagrees with the findings released by Amnesty International,” and highlighted the company’s engagement with tribes. “We take great pride in our compliance with all U.S. legal requirements and remain committed to a transparent process that respects tribal sovereignty while delivering a reliable and secure domestic supply of critical minerals,” the spokesperson said.
Surge and Evolution, the owners of the Nevada North Lithium Project, did not respond to a request for comment, but in a response to Amnesty International, Evolution said, “We take all reasonable efforts to conduct proactive and ongoing engagement with Indigenous peoples.”
Indigenous leaders said they do not expect the mining companies to change, but will continue the fight to protect their land. “We can survive without technology, but we can’t survive without water,” Stevens said. “We can’t save the Earth through the energy transition while we’re simultaneously destroying biodiversity.”
The post Report: Nevada’s lithium boom comes at the expense of Indigenous rights appeared first on ICT.
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This story was originally published by North Dakota Monitor.
Mary Steurer
North Dakota MonitorThe North Dakota Supreme Court has instructed a district court judge to stop an overseas free speech lawsuit against the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The Amsterdam-based organization Greenpeace International filed suit against Energy Transfer in the Netherlands in response to the lawsuit the environmental group faces in North Dakota. Energy Transfer accuses Greenpeace of International and two other Greenpeace affiliate organizations of engaging in conspiracy, defamation and other crimes to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline pipeline from being built. A Morton County jury last spring sided with most of Energy Transfer’s claims.
Greenpeace International in early 2025 counter-sued Energy Transfer under a relatively new European Union law that protects those sued in retaliation for protest speech. The environmental group claims Energy Transfer has weaponized the legal system against it to punish Greenpeace for supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
Energy Transfer, meanwhile, alleges that Greenpeace International is only bringing the Dutch case to overturn the unfavorable verdict it received in North Dakota.
Energy Transfer asked Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion last year to order that Greenpeace International refrain from pursuing the overseas lawsuit.
Gion denied the request, finding that Greenpeace International was not attempting to relitigate the North Dakota case because different matters are at issue in the Dutch suit. Gion also noted that the North Dakota case will likely wrap up before the Netherlands suit gets far enough along to interfere with it.
Energy Transfer appealed the decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court in September.
The high court on May 7 ruled 4-1 to overturn Gion’s decision, with Chief Justice Lisa Fair McEvers being the lone dissenting justice. District court judges Stephanie Hayden and James Shockman sat in on the case in place of justices Mark Friese and Douglas Bahr, who recused.
The four justices in the majority opinion agreed with Energy Transfer’s claim that Greenpeace International’s case in the Netherlands threatened to undermine the Morton County jury’s verdict. They directed Gion to enter an order halting the Dutch suit.
Greenpeace International wants the Amsterdam court to find that Energy Transfer’s suit is “manifestly unfounded and abusive,” Justice Jerod Tufte wrote in the majority opinion. He said this would require the court to find that Greenpeace International “did not engage in unlawful conduct, did not cause Energy Transfer’s losses, and did not act with malice.”
This goes against the Morton County jury’s decision, Tufte wrote.
He called the Dutch lawsuit “an attack on a fundamental policy of this state.”
He pointed to the fact that Greenpeace filed the Dutch suit about two weeks before its trial in Gion’s court started, he noted. This could have been a deliberate attempt to circumvent the North Dakota case, Tufte said.
“The only apparent purpose of filing a duplicative foreign action on the eve of trial is to create a vehicle for collaterally attacking the anticipated verdict,” he wrote.
Greenpeace International Senior Legal Counsel Daniel Simons in a statement said the organization is still digesting the North Dakota Supreme Court’s decision. Simons noted the order doesn’t prevent Greenpeace International from pursuing other legal action in the Netherlands related to the North Dakota case.
“This ruling does not enable Energy Transfer to escape accountability under Dutch and EU law for their back-to-back abusive court proceedings in the U.S.,” he said in the statement.
Trey Cox, the lead attorney representing Energy Transfer in its lawsuit against Greenpeace, applauded the ruling. In a Thursday statement, he said the high court’s decision “protects the authority of the North Dakota judicial system and the jury’s unanimous verdict from an improper end-run abroad.”
Fair McEvers in her dissent stated that she would deny Energy Transfer’s request, writing that there wasn’t enough evidence Gion acted in error.
She agreed with Gion that the Dutch case does not appear to be rehashing the same issues heard in his court.
“While there are some similarities, the types of actions differ,” she wrote.
Fair McEvers was also skeptical that the overseas suit threatened the integrity of the North Dakota case.
She noted that Greenpeace International submitted testimony from a Dutch law expert who indicated that even if Greenpeace International receives a favorable ruling in Amsterdam, it wouldn’t necessarily undermine the jury’s verdict.
Fair McEvers pushed back against the majority’s assertion that the timing of Greenpeace International’s Dutch suit was dubious.
While she agreed that the North Dakota judiciary has an interest in protecting its courts, she did not think the circumstances surrounding the Dutch case justified overruling Gion’s decision.
Both the majority opinion and Fair McEvers’ dissent acknowledge that the issues presented by Energy Transfer’s appeal are new to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
They also noted that there aren’t straightforward rules for how judges ought to decide when it’s appropriate to issue orders stopping another lawsuit.
In addition to Greenpeace International, Energy Transfer’s North Dakota lawsuit is also against two other Greenpeace organizations: Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund. Those two aren’t part of the Dutch lawsuit.
Greenpeace International’s suit is still in its early stages. An Amsterdam court in mid-April held a hearing on claims brought by Energy Transfer asking for the case to be dismissed.
The more than three-week trial in Gion’s court last year featured dozens of witnesses, including current and former Greenpeace employees, Indigenous activists, Energy Transfer representatives and law enforcement.
The Morton County jury ultimately directed Greenpeace to pay Energy Transfer $667 million. Gion later reduced that amount, and in March finalized an order for a $345 million judgment against Greenpeace. The three Greenpeace defendants have since filed a motion requesting a new trial.
The post North Dakota Supreme Court orders judge to halt Dutch suit against Dakota Access Pipeline developer appeared first on ICT.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/47513
Last week, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues released urgent calls to action, including a pause on fast-tracked critical mineral projects and increased funding for Indigenous climate projects. But those recommendations come as the Forum itself is facing an existential crisis.
For 25 years, the Forum has been the leading United Nations body representing Indigenous peoples, but that status has not always translated to policy change by member states or the U.N. itself. Growing questions about the Forum’s effectiveness also come amid budget cuts at the U.N., Trump’s rejection of multilateralism, and ongoing efforts to streamline U.N. processes. These intersecting challenges are all threatening to push the Forum, and the causes Indigenous representatives bring to it, even further toward the margins.
“For us, climate change is not a distant threat. It is a present and lived human rights crisis,” Aluki Kotierk, who is Inuk from Canada and current chairperson of the Permanent Forum, said Friday at the conclusion of the Forum’s two-week annual meeting in New York City. The Forum’s recommendations reflect discussions and research conducted by hundreds of Indigenous delegates and experts over the past year. They join more than 1,000 recommendations issued by the Forum since it first began to meet, many of which Indigenous advocates deem critical to their survival. But state governments often blatantly ignore them.
A new “Systemic Assessment” report by a group of current and former members of the Permanent Forum underscores this problem. “While UNPFII has succeeded in establishing itself as a visible and legitimate global platform, questions remain regarding its ability to translate dialogue, recommendations, and knowledge production into tangible outcomes for Indigenous Peoples on the ground,” the report said. “The proliferation of recommendations has not been matched by corresponding mechanisms for implementation, follow-up, and accountability.”
The report underscores the limitations of Forum, which makes recommendations on behalf of Indigenous peoples to U.N. agencies and member states, but has been hamstrung by funding cuts and the willingness of other U.N. agencies and global leaders to listen. Annual funding for the U.N. Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues, which helps the Permanent Forum carry out its mission, is at a historic low, falling from more than $300,000 in 2021 to less than $50,000 in 2026. Currently, only three U.N. member states contribute to the fund, down from nine member states in 2006.
The drop in funding reflects a broader liquidity crisis at the U.N. driven in part by late payments from key members like the U.S. and China. Kotierk said the lack of funding has led to staff reductions at the Forum, shorter meeting times, and fewer interpretation services.
That didn’t stop the Forum from issuing bold calls to action on Friday, including urging U.N. member states to seriously consider international court rulings to mitigate climate change by 2027, and to legally protect Indigenous lands, especially land belonging to uncontacted tribes. The Forum published multiple reports Friday with recommendations ranging from asking member states to develop legal protections for nomadic Indigenous communities, to urging the Green Climate Fund and Global Environment Facility, multi-billion dollar government-funded global funds, to provide direct funding to Indigenous peoples to mitigate climate change.
Eirik Larsen, who attended this year’s Forum on behalf of the Saami Council, urged Forum members to consider capping the number of recommendations to maximize their effectiveness, and to ask member states and U.N. entities to report back on whether they’ve implemented recommendations from previous years.
Larsen said that despite the need for improvement, he keeps returning to the Forum because it’s an important arena for discussing critical issues at the international level. “It’s a unique venue for Indigenous peoples to interact directly with member states,” he said.
The systemic assessment of the Forum found that many Indigenous survey respondents agreed with Larsen’s appreciation of the Forum, seeing it as “a place of visibility, exchange, and recognition,” the report found. “Yet a large number also characterize it as overly performative, a ‘talk shop,’ or a space in which testimony is heard but not translated into meaningful change.”
To Ghazali Ohorella, international relations and Indigenous rights advisor of the Alifuru Council, the assessment could not have been issued at a worse time. Just a year ago, the U.N. embarked on a process of restructuring, which could lead to U.N. bodies like the Forum being consolidated or eliminated. Today’s Permanent Forum is the result of decades of advocacy by Indigenous peoples for a dedicated space within the U.N., which by design, privileges the voices of recognized state governments and doesn’t allow Indigenous peoples who remain under colonial rule to vote in the General Assembly. Ohorella is worried that the report — which is based on a survey of 200 respondents, rather than the thousands of attendees over the past 25 years — could give ammunition to the Forum’s detractors. “It allows them to say: See, even Indigenous Peoples themselves identified problems with the Forum. Retire it,” Ohorella said.
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One of the most valuable aspects of the Forum is its ability to elevate issues that otherwise might be ignored, like Indigenous health, which was the main topic of this year’s gathering. “There is no health without land. The well-being of Indigenous Peoples is inseparable from our lands, waters, and territories,” Kotierk said in her closing speech on Friday. “To restore health, we must advance decolonization.” This year, the Forum’s official recommendations urged U.N. member states to disaggregate health data on Indigenous peoples by 2027, and “to treat prolonged climate-induced displacement of Indigenous Peoples as a health emergency.”
Kotierk said that the Forum has been instrumental in influencing global policies. “This Forum has consistently elevated what the world too often ignored. It has brought visibility to the crisis of Indigenous Peoples’ languages, affirmed the rights and leadership of Indigenous women and girls, and ensured that Indigenous Peoples’ voices are not only present—but heard—in international decision-making,” Kotierk said.
Yet despite its importance, it’s not easy for Indigenous advocates to participate in the Permanent Forum. Structural barriers that limit participation include challenges obtaining visas — which have worsened under the Trump administration — lack of awareness about the Forum and how to register, and the high cost of travel. In the systemic assessment report, survey respondents suggested the Forum consider holding regional, national and local gatherings “that do not force all meaningful participation through a single annual gathering in New York.”
Mariah Hernandez-Fitch, a first-year law student at Emory University and a member of the United Houma Nation, attended the Forum for the first time as a youth fellow for the Ban Ki-Moon Foundation. Hernandez-Fitch has never been abroad and this was her first time participating in a global Indigenous space. “It was beautiful to see people not all in suits,” she said. “Seeing people in their cultural attire, their formal wear, that was very exciting to me.” She listened to someone from Vietnam speak about how climate change was affecting their community and was moved by how similar their experience was to her family’s experience with rising seas in southeastern Louisiana.
But she also felt overwhelmed by the process, confused by when the side events were happening, and ended up not delivering a planned statement, in part because she was intimidated by the process. “There’s rules, but if you don’t know about them, you do feel out of place even in a space that is for Indigenous peoples,” she said.
Still, now that she’s back in New Orleans, Hernandez-Fitch can see herself returning to the Forum. “I can see myself applying the law and my experience into those spaces,” she said. “I could see myself not being scared of making an intervention.” It helped to meet other Indigenous youth who care just as much as she does about making a difference. “There’s a communal kind of excitement and I feel excited for the future.”
Conversations about how to make the Forum more effective will continue at next year’s gathering, which will be held from May 10 to 21 and focus on global progress on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The uncertain future of the UN’s leading voice on Indigenous rights on May 6, 2026.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/47531
Kalle Benallie ICT
This story is part of ICT’s series on the 10th anniversary of the Standing Rock movement.
Water protectors came from far and wide. It was 2016 and the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline just begun. ICT shares the stories of those who were there.
TAYLAR DAWN STAGNER
Stagner was 23 years old and decided with two other people that she wanted to help fight against the pipeline. She helped cook and clean at a camp for a couple days in the fall of 2016.
Stagner said it developed her personally and professionally, as she later became a journalist and writer. It helped her reconnect with her roots, being Cheyenne Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone.
“I remember pulling in, throwing my stuff in a communal tent, and running to the main fire,” Stagner recalled. “I was so emotional the whole time, and talked to so many people from across the nation.”
She said being with so many Indigenous people was powerful.
“It just made me feel very like, there’s so many of us, and I don’t know how else to put it. It made me feel not alone, which sounds weird, but at the time I was reconnecting,” she said. “I mean, the energy was palpable. There was an electrified understanding of purpose of why we were there, and the importance of what we were doing.”
Stagner added how there was a lot of healing and medicine there.
“It’s made me be more connected to my own community, to fight for Buffalo rematriation on the Wind River and just better information systems everywhere in Indian Country because I truly believe that that’s really important too,” she said.
JULIE RICHARDS
Julie Richards, Oglala, said she was at the Red Warrior Camp at Standing Rock. She saw the progression of the Standing Rock community since she was there earlier in August.
“I remember in November coming over the hill from Cannonball and just seeing all the tipis and just looking at them and I was like, ‘Wow, this must have been kind of what [The Battle of] Little BigHorn looked like.'”
Richards said she did a lockdown, which is a tactic by demonstrators by physically attaching themselves to objects or each other, with her camp to stop construction of the pipeline. She said the mercenaries for the pipeline were trying to get through and the farmers who supported the pipeline were shooting off guns.
“We didn’t know if they were aiming at us or whatever, but I just put my head down and then I started praying. When I looked up, there were just hundreds of people there. I was like, where do these people come from?” Richards said.
She said she was at Standing rock to bring awareness to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. She was there originally with the Mothers Against Meth Alliance before joining the Red Warrior Camp.
“It felt like every Indigenous person was there. It was really powerful to see the solidarity of like, all of the tribes coming together and even the Crow tribe coming out to support,” Richards said.
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/48035
A ceasefire was declared between Israel and Hamas seven months ago, but just as the deal has not stopped the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, it has failed to alleviate the acute malnutrition crisis that was created when Israel began blocking almost all humanitarian aid in October 2023.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), on Wednesday accused Israel of imposing a "manufactured malnutrition crisis" that is proving particularly devastating for pregnant and breastfeeding women, newborns, and infants.
At four clinics operated by MSF in Gaza between late 2024 and early 2026, medical teams found higher levels of miscarriage among mothers who experienced malnutrition.
The group also analyzed data on 201 mothers of newborns who required treatment in neonatal intensive care units at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City between June 2025 and this past January. More than half of the mothers had been affected by malnutrition at some point in their pregnancy.
Ninety percent of the babies had been born prematurely and 84% had low birth weight.
"Neonatal mortality was twice as high among infants born to mothers affected by malnutrition compared to those born to mothers without malnutrition," said MSF.
Samar Abu Mustafa, a displaced mother from Abasan al-Kabira, said she was diagnosed with malnutrition while pregnant with her 3-month-old baby.
"I don't know how I will provide diapers and milk, nor how I will provide food for my other daughters. There is no income and no support," said Abu Mustafa. "There is nothing apart from food parcels from the World Food Program and community kitchens. Every six months, we might get a food parcel once. It's barely enough. It is all rice and lentils. We are forced to eat whatever is in front of us."
"For a long time, we haven't eaten anything nutritious and the baby does not get enough milk from me, so I am forced to provide formula, but I don’t have money for it," she said. "I have just one remaining can of milk."
Mercè Rocaspana, MSF's medical referent for emergencies, emphasized that malnutrition in the exclave was "almost nonexistent" before Israel began bombarding Gaza and blocking humanitarian aid—an action Israeli and US officials persistently claimed Israel was not taking before the ceasefire was reached, even as the number of deaths from starvation climbed to nearly 500.
“The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured,” said Rocaspana. "For two and a half years, the systematic blockade of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, on top of insecurity, have severely restricted access to food and clean water. Healthcare facilities have been forced out of service and living conditions have profoundly deteriorated. As a result, vulnerable groups of people are at heightened risk of malnutrition.”
Before the war, there were no dedicated therapeutic medical feeding units in Gaza's hospitals, but MSF teams admitted more than 500 infants under six months of age to outpatient feeding programs between October 2024-December 2025—programs that the bombardment has made impossible for many families to complete.
"Of those admitted, 91% were at risk of poor growth and development. By December, 200 infants were no longer in the program—only 48% of them were cured, while 7% died, another 7% were referred to a program for older children, and a staggering 32% defaulted due in part to insecurity and displacement."
The 20-point ceasefire agreement stipulated that at least 600 aid trucks must enter Gaza daily and that border crossings must be reopened, but as Common Dreams reported in April, five leading aid groups gave "humanitarian aid access" a failing grade in a scorecard rating conditions in Gaza six months after the deal was reached.
Israel was still restricting deliveries, and food items sold in Gaza were anywhere from 3% to 233% more expensive than they were before the war started.
Al Jazeera's Hind Khoury reported Thursday that only 150 aid trucks are being allowed in daily.
Last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that while there's been a 72% increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire was brokered, 11% of coordinated humanitarian missions are still being denied.
"Many lives have been saved in Gaza because of scaled up humanitarian effort since the ceasefire. But much more to do: We need to sustain access, protection of civilians, neutrality, and partnership," said Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.
Gaza: Six months into the ceasefire, hunger continues to shape daily life and malnutrition levels remain high.@WFP is on the ground supporting those most in need, but aid alone is not enough for full recovery. pic.twitter.com/gABZySEjFI
— United Nations (@UN) May 6, 2026Sahar Nafez Salem, who lives with her children in a tent in Khan Younis, told MSF that her family has been relying on a charity kitchen to eat.
"We eat lunch from it and save some for dinner," she said. "We try to manage getting lunch for our poor children every Friday, so we can bring them joy, but all week long, almost everything is from charity kitchens... The last time I received aid was during Ramadan... There is rice and lentils... Other things, like vegetables, are expensive. We can't get them all the time. So sometimes we go without vegetables for months."
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/46234
Editor’s note: ICT will refer to individuals defending the Black Hills as treaty defenders. The Black Hills is unceded territory in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and acknowledged by the 1980 Supreme Court ruling of the United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians.
Amelia Schafer*ICT*
RAPID CITY, South Dakota – Roughly a dozen Indigenous treaty defenders gathered near Pe’ Sla, a sacred site in the Black Hills, early Thursday morning to show their opposition to drilling near the site. Treaty defenders conducted ceremonial activities near two drill pads in response to recent exploratory graphite drilling within the two-mile buffer zone around Pe’ Sla.
Lakota youth “locked down” to drilling equipment, by taping their arms to machinery, and organizers constructed a prayer altar nearby. As of Thursday morning, organizers were informed law enforcement was en route but had not yet arrived.
Indigenous people in South Dakota concerned, alarmed at potential drilling project at sacred site
Treaty defenders said they fear that mining activity could threaten the nearby Rapid Creek Watershed, which supplies water to several tribal communities as well as local municipalities like the Ellsworth Air Force Base. Drilling also could disrupt ceremonies regularly held at Pe’ Sla, tribal leaders told ICT in May 2025.
For Oceti Sakowin (Lakota, Dakota and Nakoda) people, Pe’ Sla is sacred in part because it aligns with the constellations at various points in the year and is a focal point of oral history. Pe’ Sla is roughly 50 miles west of Rapid City. The area has been used by Oceti Sakowin nations for generations as a site for ceremony and gathering.
Exploratory drilling for graphite, in this case, involves drilling up to 18 holes that are 3 to 3.5 inches in diameter 1,000 feet into the earth.
Currently, all of the United States’s graphite comes from China, representatives from the South Dakota Mineral Industries Association told ICT in May 2025. With new tariffs from President Donald Trump, companies are looking for a domestic solution. That solution could come in the Black Hills, but not without threatening hard fought for tribal sovereignty over an area already promised to the Oceti Sakowin.
A man sits in prayer near a piece of drilling equipment used for exploratory graphite drilling near Pe’ Sla in the Black Hills. Credit: Courtesy Angel White Eyes, NDN Collective
The U.S. Forest Service granted local mining company Pete Lien & Sons a permit allowing for exploratory drilling near the site on Feb. 27. The permit was deemed to be exempt from the federal environmental review process required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
At least 10 drill pads are operating within the two-mile buffer zone surrounding Pe’ Sla, according to NDN Collective, a nonprofit Indigenous advocacy organization headquartered in Rapid City. The buffer zone was created following the purchase of portions of Pe’ Sla by several Oceti Sakowin tribes, after which it was placed in federal trust.
Treaty defenders placed signs and banners on mining equipment and sang and drummed at the site.
NDN Collective and two environmental advocacy groups, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance and Earthworks, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service on April 2 in response to its decision to permit drilling. The lawsuit cites violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and potential threats to lands recognized for religious and cultural importance.
In late April, the three plaintiffs filed for a temporary restraining order to stop drilling, NDN Collective organizers said.
“Pe’ Sla is our sacred land, and we are doing everything we can to protect it,” said Valeriah Big Eagle, Ihanktonwan Dakota and the director of He Sapa Initiatives at NDN Collective in an April 30 press release. “We will not cease our ceremony in the face of destruction, disrespect, and illegal drilling.”
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