#indigenouslands — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #indigenouslands, aggregated by home.social.
-
#Epstein Survivor Describes #SexTrafficking by #Tucson #BorderPatrol -- While Agents Seize #TohonoOodham Land for #BorderWall Construction
An Epstein survivor describes the child sex trafficking of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in Tucson, where she was a victim. At the same time, Tucson Border Patrol agents, heavily armed, are preventing Tohono O'odham tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall contractors. Meanwhile, the media has ignored a cartel witness from Sinaloa, Mexico, who described the trafficking of young girls in the Epstein files.
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 4, 2026
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/epstein-survivor-describes-trafficking.html#USPol #EpsteinFiles #BorderPatrol #IllegalDestruction #MMIWG #GhislaneMaxwell #JeffreyEpstein #USGovt #ProtectTheSacred #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #NoWall #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #Arizona #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
#Epstein Survivor Describes #SexTrafficking by #Tucson #BorderPatrol -- While Agents Seize #TohonoOodham Land for #BorderWall Construction
An Epstein survivor describes the child sex trafficking of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in Tucson, where she was a victim. At the same time, Tucson Border Patrol agents, heavily armed, are preventing Tohono O'odham tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall contractors. Meanwhile, the media has ignored a cartel witness from Sinaloa, Mexico, who described the trafficking of young girls in the Epstein files.
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 4, 2026
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/epstein-survivor-describes-trafficking.html#USPol #EpsteinFiles #BorderPatrol #IllegalDestruction #MMIWG #GhislaneMaxwell #JeffreyEpstein #USGovt #ProtectTheSacred #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #NoWall #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #Arizona #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
#Epstein Survivor Describes #SexTrafficking by #Tucson #BorderPatrol -- While Agents Seize #TohonoOodham Land for #BorderWall Construction
An Epstein survivor describes the child sex trafficking of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in Tucson, where she was a victim. At the same time, Tucson Border Patrol agents, heavily armed, are preventing Tohono O'odham tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall contractors. Meanwhile, the media has ignored a cartel witness from Sinaloa, Mexico, who described the trafficking of young girls in the Epstein files.
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 4, 2026
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/epstein-survivor-describes-trafficking.html#USPol #EpsteinFiles #BorderPatrol #IllegalDestruction #MMIWG #GhislaneMaxwell #JeffreyEpstein #USGovt #ProtectTheSacred #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #NoWall #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #Arizona #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
#Epstein Survivor Describes #SexTrafficking by #Tucson #BorderPatrol -- While Agents Seize #TohonoOodham Land for #BorderWall Construction
An Epstein survivor describes the child sex trafficking of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in Tucson, where she was a victim. At the same time, Tucson Border Patrol agents, heavily armed, are preventing Tohono O'odham tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall contractors. Meanwhile, the media has ignored a cartel witness from Sinaloa, Mexico, who described the trafficking of young girls in the Epstein files.
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 4, 2026
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/epstein-survivor-describes-trafficking.html#USPol #EpsteinFiles #BorderPatrol #IllegalDestruction #MMIWG #GhislaneMaxwell #JeffreyEpstein #USGovt #ProtectTheSacred #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #NoWall #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #Arizona #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
#Epstein Survivor Describes #SexTrafficking by #Tucson #BorderPatrol -- While Agents Seize #TohonoOodham Land for #BorderWall Construction
An Epstein survivor describes the child sex trafficking of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in Tucson, where she was a victim. At the same time, Tucson Border Patrol agents, heavily armed, are preventing Tohono O'odham tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall contractors. Meanwhile, the media has ignored a cartel witness from Sinaloa, Mexico, who described the trafficking of young girls in the Epstein files.
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 4, 2026
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/epstein-survivor-describes-trafficking.html#USPol #EpsteinFiles #BorderPatrol #IllegalDestruction #MMIWG #GhislaneMaxwell #JeffreyEpstein #USGovt #ProtectTheSacred #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #NoWall #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #Arizona #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
And this is what the ILLEGAL construction crews are doing!
Bulldozers Crushing Nature's Life near #TohonoOodham 's #SacredSprings
By @bsnorrell.blogspot.com , #CensoredNews, September 2, 2026
"Bulldozers are now crushing the life of the natural world on #OrganPipeCactus National Park, 0.7 miles from the sacred ceremonial place of O'odham, #QuitobaquitoSprings. It is home to three #EndangeredSpecies, a pupfish, a snail, and a mud turtle."
Read more [includes photos from
@CenterForBioDiv of the destruction]:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/bulldozers-crushing-natures-life-near.html#USPol #USGovt #ProtectTheSacred #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #BorderPatrol #NoWall
#IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty -
BREAKING!🚨 #USGovernment is Preventing #TohonoOodhamNation Police From Entering Their #SovereignLand [and preventing DESTRUCTION ]
#BrendaNorrell , #CensoredNews
September 2, 2026SELLS, Tohono O'odham Nation -- "The U.S. #BorderPatrol is preventing Tohono O'odham Nation's tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall construction crews.
"The crews are violating the 'No Trespass' order to build the #BorderWall . Drilling is underway,
"The media is incorrectly reporting that a federal judge ruled that the border wall is being built on federal land. Federal Judge Richard Leon actually said that this is 'likely' federal land.
"The US government claims it is part of the ' #RooseveltReservation,' a 60-foot-wide stretch along the border created by presidential proclamation in 1907.
"This matter remains before the federal court.
"The Tohono O'odham Nation said it has been #Oodham land since time immemorial and is now officially the #TohonoOodham Nation's land."
Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/us-government-is-preventing-tohono.html#USPol #USGovt #StolenLand #LandBack #ReaderSupportedNews #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #BorderPatrol #NoWall #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
Use of masked agents on #TohonoOodham land sparks Native outrage at Cherokee #DHS chief #MarkwayneMullin
by Eileen Mamaghani and Ellis Preston August 28, 2026
WASHINGTON – "The recent incursion by masked federal agents on Tohono O’odham land didn’t just anger that tribe, which has been trying to block #BorderWall construction along the remote stretch it controls in #Arizona.
"It also infuriated #NativeAmericans who had higher hopes for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the former Oklahoma senator who is only the second Indigenous cabinet member ever.
" 'This is especially disappointing when the DHS is headed by … a member of the #CherokeeNation,' said Angelique EagleWoman, director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota.
"Agents from Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Indian Affairs entered the Tohono O’odham Nation at 4 a.m. on Tuesday to prevent tribal authorities from blocking contractors, according to a statement issued that day by the Nation.
"Jason Nichols, like Mullin a member of the Cherokee Nation, called the incursion by masked agents a 'step backward' in federal-tribal relations – and surprising, given Mullin’s 'knowledge on the importance of #TribalSovereignty.' "
Read more:
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2026/08/28/native-anger-mullin-masked-agents/#USPol #BorderPatrol #MurderPatrol #IndigenousNews #AZPBS #TohonoOodhamNation #NoWall
#USPol #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty #CronkiteNews -
No new news about #TohonoOodhamNation closing their borders to #BorderWall contractors. However, I did see a notice posted on the Nation's website which mentions contractors that are allowed, and who aren't working on #TrumpsBorderWall ...
https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/authorized-contractors/
#NoWall #USPol #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
Eyes on the Sky after #TohonoOodham Nation' Posts 'No Trespass' Signs for Border Wall Construction Crews
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 12, 2026
"We are watching the skies after the Tohono O'odham Nation posted 'No Trespass' signs, and alerted tribal police to remove any border wall construction contractors who attempt to enter their sovereign land. The Nation asked a federal court in Washington for an injunction to prevent seizure of their land, stating only Congress can diminish their lands.
"These combat jets usually do their war training maneuvers in the mornings over the Tohono O'odham Nation, but this one was flying along the border last night over the Nation, at 11 pm local time."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/08/eyes-on-sky-after-tohono-oodham-nation.html#TohonoOodhamNation #NoWall
#USPol #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty -
Photos: #NoBorderWall: 'First Stake Driven' on #TohonoOodham Nation, Ignoring 'No Trespass' Signs
#CensoredNews, August 10, 2026
" 'First Stake Driven' These photos were taken yesterday afternoon at the San Miguel Gate known as 'Koli Ki:jig' located in the Chukut Kuk District, on August 9, 2026. Tohono O'odham photographer."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/08/no-border-wall-first-stake-driven-on.html
#TohonoOodhamNation #NoWall
#USPol #IndigenousLands #BorderWall #NoTrespassing #Illegal #RespectTheNations #RespectTheTreaties #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty -
BREAKING NEWS! #TohonoOodham Closes Nation to Non-Members
"The Tohono O'odham Nation said today, 'Important community update! Tohono O’odham Nation leadership has been informed that #FederalContractors may attempt to enter the Nation’s lands this
weekend to begin conducting work related to #BorderWall construction."Please be aware that 'no trespassing' signs have been posted in several locations on the Nation.
"Tohono O’odham law enforcement is on alert to turn back trespassers. All O’odham are free to travel as usual. The restrictions are only for non-tribal members who are attempting to destroy our land and separate our people with the construction of the wall.
"Please help us spread the word by sharing this information.
T-wem' o ba'ic e s-ge:wpk
Together we are stronger."https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/08/no-border-wall-tohono-oodham-closes.html
#NoWall #USPol #IndigenousLands #IndigenousResistance #NoBorderWall #DefundDHS #IndigenousSovereignty
-
Contesting #Surveillance Infrastructure on #IndigenousLands
by #OpheliaRivas, #CaitlinBlanchfield, and #NinaKolowratnik
"The broad slope and rounded crest of O’ks Tak’am Do’ak outline the profile of a woman sitting and facing the west. Her name is O’ks Ta’kam. She is part the O’odham origin story, passed down through oral history. She sits there vigilant, a warrior protecting, and will warn the people when a catastrophic event will occur. When this event comes, she will stand and gather the smallest creatures in her skirt to protect them.
"The mountain forms part of the Tak’Va’Vak range which cuts through #TohonoOodham land, joining peaks like Han’a-mek and Ma’mke-mad. These mountains are known as a place to gather sweet fruits from the chu-chues (organ pipe cactus). They are home to caves, springs, and seasonal water holes. Each year ceremonies and hunts take place all across the Tak’Va’Vak, and trails lead through the mountain passes, connecting the springs at A’al Va’pai (Quitobaqito) to O’odham villages in Sonora, and leading all the way to the salty Ge-Ka-ch’k (Sea of Cortez). The mountains hold deer, mountain rams, javalina. They hold burial places. Medicines grow there. In the evening they are especially beautiful, bathed in crimson.
"The Tak’Va’Vak range also forms one border of the Tohono O’odham Nation. The boundary runs along the ridge line and separates the reservation from the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a United States national park to the west.
"The border with the #NationalMonument is one of three that divide Tohono O’odham Nation from the #UnitedStates; the reservation’s southern border is with #Mexico. It is this border that dominates the others—both in its real effects and in media representations—and with good reason, especially in the last decades, and acutely in the present moment. It separates the Tohono O’odham in Sonora from those in Arizona, dividing the people; and its securitization has brought violence and destruction to O’odham lands on both sides in different ways. Yet these two borders—one between nation states and one between reservation and national park—work together: they are part of the same process of colonialism and dispossession that have been constricting O’odham life for hundreds of years. The construction of the US-Mexico border is intertwined with the expropriation of #IndigenousLand and the subsequent creation of #NativeAmerican reservations as much as it is with United States expansionism and policies of exclusion. More than that, the US-Mexico border, and the many weapons, technologies of surveillance, and #BorderPatrol officers that comprise it, is an extension of the United States’ ongoing, violent, and racialized campaign to contain and assimilate Indigenous peoples—it is a settler colonial border. But as Salt River Pima-Maricopa scholar #FantasiaPainter reminds us, the #borderlands are not yet settled, and they are unsettled: this is because of the refusal of Tohono O’odham and other #IndigenousPeoples to see and accept their lands as not their own."
Read more:
https://urbannext.net/significant-impact-contesting-surveillance/#SettlerColonialism #SurveillanceState #USPol #CulturalGenocide
#NoBorderWall #TrumpsBorderWall
#ProtectTheSacred #EnvironmentalProtectionAct
#RespectTheTreaties #AbolishICE #DefundDHS #MurderPatrol #BorderPatrol #IndigenousSacredSites
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
#ForcedRelocation is nothing new... The #USA is quite good at it... Unfortunately!
Mapping how the U.S. forcibly took #IndigenousLands
Not long after the #GreatAmericanExperiment began, the newly established nation set its sights west. Here's how a series of conflicts, forged treaties, and #ForcedMigration led to the loss of a majority of Indigenous lands.
By Erin Blakemore
Published July 8, 2026"For the citizens of the newly established United States, the vast territory of North America (and the land of plenty it represented) seemed theirs for the taking. But these lands, some of the richest on Earth, had already been settled and stewarded for thousands of years by #IndigenousPeoples. Though their numbers had already dwindled due to new diseases and conflict with settlers, in 1776 approximately 250,000 #IndigenousPeople still lived within the territory delimited by the current borders of the U.S. The young nation, however, was intent on expansion—and set its sights on Indigenous land. Over the years, tribal interests and sovereignty would be trampled time and time again. Although land loss is the most visible consequence of dispossession, Indigenous customs, culture, and language (all firmly rooted in the land) were also under attack."
Read more:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/native-american-history-indigenous-landsArchived version:
https://archive.ph/B2yzj#NativeAmericans #NativeAmericanHistory #AmericanHistory #ForcedRelocation #TrailOfTears #Genocide #1830IndianRemovalAct #IndianRemovalAct #CulturalGenocide #StolenChildren #StolenLand #ForcedDisplacement #CorporateGreed #Capitalism
-
I found this via @supersquirrel !
#IndigenousLands are crucial for #ClimateMitigation and #resilience.
Research shows their health is a direct result of #IndigenousStewardship.
"As the impacts of #ClimateChange continue to escalate, a growing number of climate scientists and policymakers cite Indigenous lands as a model for their rich #biodiversity and effective carbon storage. But that recognition has not always translated into space for Indigenous leaders in climate negotiations, access to #ClimateResilience funding, or enforcement of #HumanRights standards.
"That has been the case for decades. But the problems do not stop there. New research shows that approach overlooks the key role that Indigenous knowledge and culture can play in mitigating climate change. It also reveals a dangerous misconception that has taken hold in global climate discussions: the idea that Indigenous lands are so rich because they are remote or sparsely populated.
"Nothing could be further from the truth. The health of Indigenous lands and their ability to store vast quantities of carbon stem from the stewardship of the people who inhabit them.
"That’s the finding of research from Conservation International, which shows that traditional knowledge, community protocol, and Indigenous culture play a direct role in protecting forests, wildlife, and the environment. Sushma Shrestha, who is #Indigenous #Newar from #Nepal and the study’s lead author, said the research comes at a critical time.
" 'All of humanity relies on everything that #IndigenousPeoples have to contribute and offer in terms of their lands, in terms of carbon storage, in terms of biodiversity conservation,' she said.
"The study, released as a narrative report and a peer-reviewed study, explores how #IndigenousKnowledge and practices benefit the planet. It also found that all 43 of the surveyed communities are experiencing drought, extreme weather, and other adverse impacts from climate change. More than half are affected by #ExtractiveIndustries like #mining and #logging.
"Researchers interviewed 49 Indigenous leaders from six continents about how they steward their land, which ranged from the Amazon rainforest to East African savannas and Pacific Islands. They found that traditional management practices like avoiding #overfishing, maintaining sacred spaces, watching for fires and other threats, and direct resistance against extraction contribute to the remarkable health of Indigenous territory. Ninety-six percent of respondents said they had land set aside for special uses, like spiritual practices, that also benefit the environment by protecting those spaces and ecosystems. Shrestha stressed that although each Indigenous community is distinct, there are shared lessons the entire world can learn from.
" 'It’s a time where all hands need to be on deck,' Shrestha said. 'And collectively, actions need to be taken, and indigenous peoples have been doing this on their own for a very long time.'
"The study builds on years of research that shows, among other things, that the world’s healthiest forests are on Indigenous lands and conservation efforts are more effective when they incorporate Indigenous autonomy and decision-making at every step."
Read more [includes some really good links to articles]:
https://sopuli.xyz/post/47753605#SolarPunkSunday #SolarPunk #LandBack #CommunityMonitoring #Stewardship #TEK #IndigenousSolarPunk #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge
-
Study finds #landback returns of #IndigenousLands happening across country, can lead public planning
By Lindsey Gloede
Jun 17, 2026“People, individuals, families, churches, city, county and state governments, nonprofits are all engaged in returning land to Native tribes with centuries and millennia of being connected to that land. It’s centering 500 years of Native efforts to reclaim the land. It’s a story of healing and #restoration."
#SolarPunkSunday #LandIsLife #LandRestoration #LandConservation #LandPreservation #TraditionalUses #Stewardship #IndigenousStewardship #CulturalPreservation #TraditionalStewards
-
Good ol' #RioTinto. Building a dangerous #LithiumHydroxide plant near some of my ancestral lands (#Wolinak #Abenaki). They seem to have a pattern of polluting and destroying #IndigenousLands -- whether in #Canada, the #UnitedStates , #Australia, etc., etc.!
#RioTinto takes majority control of #Canada’s #Nemaska #Lithium
By Thomson Reuters Feb 18, 2026 | 8:35 AM
Feb 18 (Reuters) – "Rio Tinto said on Wednesday it has gained majority control of Canada’s Nemaska Lithium, advancing its push to build an integrated lithium business in #Quebec.
"The Anglo-Australian miner now holds a 53.9% stake in the lithium producer and will assume direct management, while the Government of Quebec holds 46.1%.
"Rio Tinto is seeking to establish a fully integrated lithium supply chain in Quebec, from mining raw ore to chemical processing, to supply the North American electric vehicle market.
"Rio Tinto and the eastern Canadian province, through its economic development agency Investissement Quebec, have been investing in Nemaska Lithium since March 2025.
"The partners will continue to fund the project, including the #LithiumHydroxide plant in #Becancour, with first production expected in 2028, it added.
"Quebec will invest up to an additional $200 million in Nemaska Lithium through share subscriptions, the company said, on top of an investment of more than $300 million by Rio Tinto in 2026 to further develop its lithium sector in the province.
"Through its acquisition of #Arcadium in March 2025, Rio Tinto acquired a 50% interest in Nemaska Lithium, which includes the lithium hydroxide plant in Becancour, Quebec, and the #Whabouchi spodumene mine in the #EeyouIstchee #JamesBay region of Quebec."
https://kelo.com/2026/02/18/rio-tinto-takes-majority-control-of-canadas-nemaska-lithium/
#CanadaPol #LithiumMining #LithiumProcessing #EnvironmentalRacism #Pollution
-
Good ol' #RioTinto. Building a dangerous #LithiumHydroxide plant near some of my ancestral lands (#Wolinak #Abenaki). They seem to have a pattern of polluting and destroying #IndigenousLands -- whether in #Canada, the #UnitedStates , #Australia, etc., etc.!
#RioTinto takes majority control of #Canada’s #Nemaska #Lithium
By Thomson Reuters Feb 18, 2026 | 8:35 AM
Feb 18 (Reuters) – "Rio Tinto said on Wednesday it has gained majority control of Canada’s Nemaska Lithium, advancing its push to build an integrated lithium business in #Quebec.
"The Anglo-Australian miner now holds a 53.9% stake in the lithium producer and will assume direct management, while the Government of Quebec holds 46.1%.
"Rio Tinto is seeking to establish a fully integrated lithium supply chain in Quebec, from mining raw ore to chemical processing, to supply the North American electric vehicle market.
"Rio Tinto and the eastern Canadian province, through its economic development agency Investissement Quebec, have been investing in Nemaska Lithium since March 2025.
"The partners will continue to fund the project, including the #LithiumHydroxide plant in #Becancour, with first production expected in 2028, it added.
"Quebec will invest up to an additional $200 million in Nemaska Lithium through share subscriptions, the company said, on top of an investment of more than $300 million by Rio Tinto in 2026 to further develop its lithium sector in the province.
"Through its acquisition of #Arcadium in March 2025, Rio Tinto acquired a 50% interest in Nemaska Lithium, which includes the lithium hydroxide plant in Becancour, Quebec, and the #Whabouchi spodumene mine in the #EeyouIstchee #JamesBay region of Quebec."
https://kelo.com/2026/02/18/rio-tinto-takes-majority-control-of-canadas-nemaska-lithium/
#CanadaPol #LithiumMining #LithiumProcessing #EnvironmentalRacism #Pollution
-
Good ol' #RioTinto. Building a dangerous #LithiumHydroxide plant near some of my ancestral lands (#Wolinak #Abenaki). They seem to have a pattern of polluting and destroying #IndigenousLands -- whether in #Canada, the #UnitedStates , #Australia, etc., etc.!
#RioTinto takes majority control of #Canada’s #Nemaska #Lithium
By Thomson Reuters Feb 18, 2026 | 8:35 AM
Feb 18 (Reuters) – "Rio Tinto said on Wednesday it has gained majority control of Canada’s Nemaska Lithium, advancing its push to build an integrated lithium business in #Quebec.
"The Anglo-Australian miner now holds a 53.9% stake in the lithium producer and will assume direct management, while the Government of Quebec holds 46.1%.
"Rio Tinto is seeking to establish a fully integrated lithium supply chain in Quebec, from mining raw ore to chemical processing, to supply the North American electric vehicle market.
"Rio Tinto and the eastern Canadian province, through its economic development agency Investissement Quebec, have been investing in Nemaska Lithium since March 2025.
"The partners will continue to fund the project, including the #LithiumHydroxide plant in #Becancour, with first production expected in 2028, it added.
"Quebec will invest up to an additional $200 million in Nemaska Lithium through share subscriptions, the company said, on top of an investment of more than $300 million by Rio Tinto in 2026 to further develop its lithium sector in the province.
"Through its acquisition of #Arcadium in March 2025, Rio Tinto acquired a 50% interest in Nemaska Lithium, which includes the lithium hydroxide plant in Becancour, Quebec, and the #Whabouchi spodumene mine in the #EeyouIstchee #JamesBay region of Quebec."
https://kelo.com/2026/02/18/rio-tinto-takes-majority-control-of-canadas-nemaska-lithium/
#CanadaPol #LithiumMining #LithiumProcessing #EnvironmentalRacism #Pollution
-
Securing indigenous land rights is still the most cost-effective conservation investment alive. Indigenous-managed lands hold more than 1/3 of Earth’s intact forests and intersect with 37% of all remaining natural lands — while covering just 25% of the surface.
#IndigenousLands -
Indigenous-managed lands cover 22% of Earth’s surface and protect 80% of remaining biodiversity. The most cost-effective conservation investment alive isn’t a technology. It’s a land rights agreement.
#IndigenousLands -
Answer: "No."
Most #CriticalMinerals are on #IndigenousLands. Will miners respect #TribalSovereignty?
by Taylar Dawn Stagner, March 26, 2025
"#Mining — whether for #FossilFuels or, increasingly, the critical minerals in high demand today — has a long history of perpetuating violence against #IndigenousPeople. Forcibly removing tribal communities to get to natural resources tied to their homelands has been the rule, not the exception, for centuries.
"Today, more than half of the mineral deposits needed for a global energy transition — including #lithium, #cobalt, #copper, and #nickel to make things like #batteries and #SolarPanels — are found near or beneath Indigenous lands.
"In 2007, the United Nations adopted a resolution called the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [#UNDRIP] that included the right to free, prior, and informed consent to the use of their lands, a concept known as #FPIC. This principle protects #IndigenousPeoples from being forcibly relocated, provides suitable avenues for redress of past injustices, and gives tribes and communities the right to consent to — and the right to refuse — #extractive industry projects like #mining.
"There’s a lot at stake: When followed, FPIC promises a process that gives Indigenous peoples a voice in how their homelands are used, as well as the right to say no to development altogether. And when it’s not, which is the vast majority of the time, #TribalCommunities are further #disenfranchised, facing #violence and #ForcedRelocation as their #sovereignty and rights are ignored.
"There are an estimated 5,000 tribal communities around the world, encompassing roughly 476 million people across 90 countries, according to the U.N. Different tribes have different opinions on mining, but rarely is their legal right to refuse extraction projects recognized, even under the 2007 declaration.
"Grist talked with five experts to better understand what free, prior, and informed consent should look like in this new era of mineral extraction. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity."
#CanPol #CanadaPol #BigOilAndGas #LandBack #IndigenousSovereignty #TribalSovereignty #LithiumMining #RecycleLithium #LithiumAlternatives #RecycleCopper
-
#NativeAmerican tribes say #ICE harassing members amid raids
by Erin Alberty, Russell Contreras, January 29, 2025
"Some Native American tribes say tribal members are being harassed by federal immigration agents, while others fear they could be wrongly caught up in immigration raids.
"The alarm comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says its agents are arresting more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants a day, part of President Trump's push to deport 'millions' of people not authorized to stay in the U.S.
"#ImmigrationRaids in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles — and Trump's new directives to allow searches in schools and churches in addition to workplaces and homes — have heightened concerns in communities across the country.
" 'My office has received multiple reports from Navajo citizens that they have had negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants,' Navajo President #BuuNygren said in a statement.
"#NavajoNation officials told CNN on Monday that at least 15 Indigenous people in the southwestern U.S. have reported being questioned or detained by immigration officers in the past week.
"The 17.5 million-acre Navajo Nation is in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. It's larger than 10 states.
"ICE offices in Utah and Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment.
"The #MescaleroApache Tribe in New Mexico announced that a member was confronted by ICE agents last week and was asked for ID — first in Spanish, although the member spoke English.
"The #SissetonWahpetonOyate of the #LakeTraverse Reservation in South Dakota said it was temporarily waiving all fees for issuing or replacing tribal IDs amid members' concerns about ICE encounters.
"#Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee — the tribe's governing body — promised in a statement Saturday to "aggressively defend our rights and interests." The tribe offered legal counsel to members who are "improperly detained or questioned," as did the #Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
"The #SanJuanSouthernPaiute Tribe, whose land crosses the Utah-Arizona border, advised its citizens to record encounters with ICE, ask for agents' badges and keep their doors closed and ask for a warrant if approached at home.
What they're saying: Trump's immigration executive orders have 'raised concern among our tribal members, particularly regarding the potential targeting of our community by immigration agents,' #ChippewaCree Tribe chairman Harat BaRete said in a statement. The north-central Montana tribe then released a set of guidelines urging members to remain silent, keep ID handy and report encounters to tribal officials." 'The #RosebudSioux Tribe is in the process of assessing the legal effects of the unlawful and unconstitutional Trump administration Executive Orders and will fiercely defend against any threat to the sovereignty,' the South Dakota tribe said in a statement.
"Since the Obama administration, U.S. agents have aggressively targeted human smuggling rings that use isolated #IndigenousLands to try to move undetected.
"Congress didn't grant citizenship to #NativeAmericans until 1924 — a development President Trump's lawyers cited in their attempt to justify his temporarily blocked executive order to #OverturnBirthrightCitizenship.
"The administration's attorneys last week invoked an 1884 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to members of tribes to argue that 'birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship.'
"Some tribal leaders saw the argument as a threat against their members' U.S. citizenship."
Source:
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/29/native-american-immigration-raids-navajo-nationArchived version:
https://archive.ph/S4abP#RacialProfiling #ICESucks #ICERaids #LandBack #TrumpSucks #WhiteSupremacy #Colonialism #NativeAmericansWereHereFirst
-
Second, #corporations & #consumers must help stop the flow of #money driving #destruction. Survival’s report calls for companies to trace their #SupplyChains to ensure that commodities such as #gold, #timber & #soy are not sourced from #IndigenousLands.
“#Public opinion & pressure are essential,” Watson said. “It’s largely through citizens & the #media that so much has already been achieved to recognize uncontacted peoples & their rights.”
-
Groups living in voluntary isolation have “minimal to no contact with those outside of their own group,” said Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee, director general of the Forest Stewardship Council & an #IndigenousRights expert based in Germany. “A simple cold that you & I recover from in a week…they could die of that cold.”
Beyond disease, contact can destroy livelihoods & belief systems. #InternationalLaw requires free, prior & informed consent — known as #FPIC — before any activity on #IndigenousLands.
-
**I've told you all, several times, that you shouldn't trust #BCNDP & that they're #sellout #neoliberals. They pander to #CorporateLobbyists invested in #Ecocide & exploitation of unceded #IndigenousLands. #RCMPCIRG = #CorporateMercenaries funded by #PublicMonies - our #Taxpayers funds. I told you that #DavidEby was groomed by #JohnHorgan too. I wasn't lying. They both lied to public though.**
Controversial B.C. RCMP unit to police opposition to fast-tracked resource projects.
A widely-criticized police unit is participating in provincial committees coordinating surveillance and policing of protest against major resource projects—including those fast-tracked under new legislation.
https://breachmedia.ca/rcmp-unit-controversial-police-opposition-fast-tracked-resource-projects
#BCpoli #CDNpoli #BanCorporateLobbyists #StopCorporateWelfare #DoYourJob #Neoliberalism #Corruption #MilitarizedForce #PublicInterest #PublicTransparency #PublicAccountability #PublicScrutiny #BCNewDeathParty #FossilFuels #BoughtByIndustry
-
The Rise and Fall of #NuScale: a nuclear cautionary tale
Kelly Campbell
October 29, 2024"A decade ago, NuScale, the Oregon-based small modular nuclear company born at Oregon State University, was on a roll. Promising a new era of nuclear reactors that were cheaper, easier to build and safer, their Star Wars-inspired artist renditions of a yet to be built reactor gleamed like a magic bullet.
"As of last year, NuScale was the furthest along of any reactor design in obtaining Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and was planning to build the first small modular nuclear reactor in the United States. Its plan was to build it in Idaho to serve energy to a consortium of small public utility districts in Utah and elsewhere, known as #UAMPS.
"This home-grown Oregon company was lauded in local and national media. According to project backers, a high-tech solution to climate change was on the horizon, and an Oregon company was leading the way. It seemed almost too good to be true.
"And it was.
"Turns out, NuScale was a #HouseOfCards. The UAMPS project’s price tag more than doubled and the timeline was pushed back repeatedly until it was seven years behind schedule. Finally, UAMPS saw the writing on the wall and wisely backed out in November, 2023.
"After losing their customer, NuScale’s stock plunged, it laid off nearly a third of its workforce, and it was sued by its investors and investigated for investor fraud. Then its CEO sold off most of his stock shares.
"NuScale’s project is the latest in a long line of failed nuclear fantasies.
"Why should you care? A different nuclear company, #XEnergy, now in partnership with #AmazonCorp, wants to build and operate small modular #nuclear reactors [#SMRs] near the #ColumbiaRiver, 250 miles upriver from #PortlandOR. #BillGates’s darling, the #Natrium reactor in #Wyoming is also plowing ahead. Both proposals are raking in the Inflation Reduction Act and other taxpayer funded subsidies. The danger: Money and time wasted on these #FalseSolutions to the #ClimateCrisis divert public resources from #renewables, #EnergyEfficiency and other faster, more cost-efficient and safer ways to address the climate crisis.
"A recent study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded that small modular nuclear reactors are still too expensive, too slow to build and too risky to respond to the climate crisis.
"While the nuclear industry tries to pass itself off as 'clean,' it is an extremely dirty technology, beginning with #UraniumMining and #UraniumMilling which decimates #IndigenousLands. Small modular nuclear reactors produce two to thirty times the radioactive waste of older nuclear designs, waste for which we have no safe, long-term disposal site. Any community that hosts a nuclear reactor will likely be saddled with its radioactive waste – forever. This harm falls disproportionately on #Indigenous and #LowIncome communities.
:For those of us downriver, X-Energy’s plans to build at the Hanford Nuclear Site on the Columbia flies in the face of reason, as it would add more nuclear waste to the country’s largest nuclear cleanup site.
"In #Oregon, we have a state moratorium on building nuclear reactors until there is a vote of the people and a national waste repository. Every few years, the nuclear industry attempts to overturn this law at the Oregon Legislature, but so far it has been unsuccessful. This August, Umatilla County Commissioners announced they’ll attempt another legislative effort to overturn the moratorium. Keeping this moratorium is wise, given the dangerous distraction posed by the false solution of small modular nuclear reactors. Let’s learn from the NuScale debacle and keep our focus on a just transition to a clean energy future–one in which nuclear power clearly has no place."
#EnvironmentalRacism #HoltecLies
#NuclearLies #TEPCOLied
#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #Hanford #NuclearPowerCorruptionAndLies -
#Canada votes on Monday, 28 April, 2025
#REMINDER This is what you are voting on:
VOTE FOR THE #BANKER, NOT THE WANKER.
#CdnPoli #VOTE #ABC #Elxn45 #Election
#Citizenship #Passports #CriminalLaw #Currency #FederalTaxes #Fisheries #Oceans #ForeignAffairs #Trade #IndigenousLands #IndigenousRights #NationalDefence #OfficialLanguages #PostalServices #VeteransAffairs #Immigration #Agriculture #Transportation #Environment #Federal #ON #QC #NS #NB #MB #BC #PEI #SK #AB #NL #NT #YT #NU -
#DavidShaneLowry Calls for More Than a #LandAcknowledgement in Talk Hosted by Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archeology
by Christian Estrada and Tayla Stempson
Oct 18, 2024"On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archeology hosted a talk by David Shane Lowry, a member of the #Lumbee Tribe and an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern Maine. His discussion centered on settler #colonialism, the #LandBack movement, and the importance of returning #IndigenousLands to their original owners.
"In an interview with The Phillipian, Lowry urged students to grapple with #IndigenousHistory in the current era, not just the past. He expressed his hopes for Andover students not to shy away from uncomfortable situations.
"'You have to make Native and Indigenous peoples part of today. They can’t merely be part of events/politics/wars in the past. Every experience that you all at PA have with your local and national community ought to be to work to reverse the realities that allow you to live comfortably outside of relationships with Native and Indigenous peoples,' wrote Lowry in an email to The Phillipian."
Read more:
https://phillipian.net/2024/10/18/david-shane-lowry-calls-for-more-than-a-land-acknowledgement-in-talk-hosted-by-robert-s-peabody-institute-of-archeology/
#IndigenousEducators #LandBack #DavidLowry #IndigenousVoices -
Decolonizing the Map: Creating the Indigenous Mapping Collective
“For far too long Indigenous peoples have been excluded from the map. We’re changing that.”
- Steve DeRoy, Founder, Indigenous Mapping Workshop
April 01, 2021"Mapping is a powerful tool that holds stories. But who controls the narrative? Historically, maps were created by professional cartographers, many of whom played a large role in #colonization. These maps have shaped the way many of us see the world today. Of course, that begs the questions, who or what is left out of the map and how can that be changed?
Reclaiming #IndigenousLands Through Mapping
"For many Indigenous communities, mapping plays a large role in reclaiming their lands. Mapping is not new to Indigenous peoples, in fact, some of the world’s earliest maps can be seen in cave paintings or heard in the stories that have been passed down through generations. Today many Indigenous communities across #TurtleIsland and beyond use cartographic mapping to track #TraditionalKnowledge of their lands and waters. These maps can show sacred sites, the paths of moose or caribou, the best areas to find a particular species of fish, where to pick traditional medicine and much more. Maps are often used when major projects such as mines or oil rigs are proposed on Indigenous land; they illustrate potential impacts these projects could have on the environment and the communities’ way of life."
Original link (404):
https://www.pbs.org/education/blog/decolonizing-the-map-creating-the-indigenous-mapping-collectiveArchived version:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250121091945/https://www.pbs.org/education/blogs/trending/decolonizing-the-map-creating-the-indigenous-mapping-collective/ -
#Ute at #Utah State Capitol Today: Stop the #UraniumMill Poisoning our People
By #Brenda Norrell, #CensoredNews, Oct. 4, 2024
SALT LAKE, Utah -- "#WhiteMesaUte rallied at the Utah State Capitol on Friday, demanding that the deadly uranium mill in their community be shut down, as the legacy of #genocide, #ToxicDumping, and widespread #cancer continues.
"The #WhiteMesaMill in southeastern #Utah, owned by #EnergyFuels of Canada, is bringing in dangerous #RadioactiveWaste from the #PinyonPlain #UraniumMine in the #GrandCanyon, and the countries of #Japan and #Estonia. #Radioactive waste too deadly to remain at the #NuclearTestSite in #Nevada was dumped at the mill.
"'Today members of the White Mesa Ute community and supporters are rallying at the Utah State Capitol against #UraniumTransport and processing on #IndigenousLands,' #UnicornRiot reports on Friday.
Read more: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/ute-at-utah-state-capitol-today-stop.html
#WhiteMesa #Ute #HaulNo #NoUraniumMining #Navajo #NoNukes #NoWar #NuclearWeapons #ICANN #InformedConsent
#EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #NoMoreHiroshimas #BanTheBomb #ReaderSupportedNews -
I mean, if you want to volunteer to store nuclear waste at hour house, that's your business (and your neighbors). But too many times, it is stored on or near #IndigenousLands. I suppose deep underground storage could be a solution, but again, we're kicking the can down the road for future generations to deal with. Not to mention transporting nuclear waste to storage areas. Imaging how bad a rail accident involving that would be... @quixoticgeek @rmblaber1956
-
Today! No Haul! Uprising! #Hopi and #Navajo Host #Music and #Resistance in Tuba City
August 10, 2024
"On Saturday, August 10th, 5 p.m. Hopi / #Arizona Time (6 pm Navajo Nation/Tuba City time), Cloud Mountain Arts will host a five hour rockout/community educational event in opposition to #EnergyFuel’s hauling of radioactive material through the lands of #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, and #Ute Nations. The show will be held at the Legacy Room at the #Moencopi Legacy Inn in Tuba City and will feature performances by Indigenous musicians: Nava-Hopi metal sensation #IcyWhisper Official, Dine/Apache singer/songwriter #SageBond, Hopi rockers #Descendant and a special performance from #ROADKILL made up of members of #ThaYoties and #Innastate.
"A history of the #PuebloRevolt of 1680 will be shared, as well education about #UraniumMining and transport on #NativeLands of the #ColoradoPlateau with admonitions to stand together against the desecration of #IndigenousLands. Special Guests: Bucky Preston, Alicyn Gitlin and Coconino County Supervisor Lena Fowler.
"UPRISING is a FREE event! $5 Suggested donation to thank speakers and performers. Many Thanks to @centerforbiodiv , #GrandCanyonTrust, #WildArizona, #SierraClub, Coconino County and the Hopi Village of Moencopi for their help with the event."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/08/today-no-haul-uprising-hopi-and-navajo.html
#HaulNo #ResistanceThroughMusic #NoMiningWithoutConsent #NavajoNation #PinyonPlain #WhiteMesaMill #ReaderSupportedNews #PinyonPlainUraniumMine #HaulNo #WaterIsLife #BlackMesa #NoUraniumMining #Navajo #InformedConsent
#EnvironmentalRacism #ShutDownPinyonPlain #ProtectTheSacred #Diné #Dinébikeyah #dinetah -
#PrayerHorseRide's Third Annual March Ride Begins March 17, in Schurz, Nevada
Reconnecting and Revitalizing #Traditional Ways of Life Threatened by Destructive #Mining Resource Extractions Supporting "#GreenEnergy"By Prayer Horse Ride, via #CensoredNews
SCHURZ, Nevada -- "Prayer Horse Ride "#NanesootuhinaPookooGoobakatudu," is getting ready to begin our annual ride March 17th-26th, from Schurz, #Nevada through Yerington, Fallon, Wadsworth and Nixon, through Lovelock, then Orovada, and ending in #PeeheeMuhuh (#ThackerPass in the McDermitt Caldera), in the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the #Paiute, #Shoshone, and #Bannock.
The Riders, walkers, and runners carry the prayer with each community. They'll move forward to raise awareness regarding lithium mining in Peehee Mu'huh and the McDermitt Caldera; AND also raise awareness to #CopperMining in the #PineNutHills, a holy place known to the #Nuwu; in honor and remembrance of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women / People (#MMIW/P) in Nevada; and to revitalize and restore cultural identity, languages, creativity, and supportive lifeways in our indigenous communities."Northern Nevada is the home of the #NorthernPaiute, #WesternShoshone, #Washoe, and #Bannock people. We, as descendants of them, will continue to give voices to the voiceless on #MotherEarth. To all of our relations.
"'We do this prayer ride to reconnect and revitalize our way of life,' says Josh Dini, Sr, a member of Walker River Paiute Tribe, #WaterProtector and #PrayerHorseRider, and a member of #AmericanIndianMovement Northern Nevada (#AIMNNV)."Indigenous communities in the Great Basin and McDermitt Caldera are experiencing fast-tracked #mining and industrial development to support 'green energy,' and are threatened by #ecologically and #sociologically destructive resource extraction processes, most notably, #lithium and #copper mining, in areas in proximity to or within #communities, #reservations and #LandTrusts, and #SacredSites.
"#HeavyMetals extraction #poisons lands, air, and water. Sacred sites for ceremony, where ancestors are buried, where medicines grow, and where lifecycles are anchored, are destroyed.
"'Copper mining in our Pine Nut Hills takes away our knowledge and our identity of who we are,' says Dini, who explained the mining threatens an important Paiute medicine food, as well as numerous traditional campsites and sacred places that have been used for innumerable generations.
"'We ride in honor of the people on the land before extraction industries, past - present - and future. Here in Nevada we have places important to the indigenous culture that are considered America's sacrifice zones in search of 'green energy.'
"'We are Paiute and Shoshone allied with many of the federally recognized tribes in Nevada. We lead this prayer for Mother Earth,' says Gary McKinney, a Duck Valley Shoshone Paiute, water protector and Prayer Horse Rider, People of Red Mountain spokesperson, AIMNNV council member, and SIRGE Coalition Steering Committee member.
Prayer Horse Ride will visit #Indigenous northern Nevada communities affected by these issues including #WalkerRiver Paiute Tribe, #Yerington Paiute Tribe, #Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe, #Lovelock Paiute Tribe, and #PyramidLake Paiute Tribe. As Riders reach each community, they may share meals, engage in ceremony, share stories and songs, and teach and learn traditional arts, bringing the communities together to celebrate and remember the traditional ways.
"McKinney says, 'We ride to honor the land and the people - of the past, present, and the future. #LifeOverLithium."
"About Prayer Horse Ride: Established in 2022 to honor the late #MyronDewey, Water Protector, Paiute Shoshone journalist and drone pilot, and to continue prayers for cultural sites like Peehee Mu’huh (Thacker Pass), we are an indigenous led prayer group and community service organization that advocates for our indigenous communities, to protect what we have left and to raise your awareness to what our communities face, and most importantly, in gathering tribes back together to stand in unity, not by separation.
"'We'll continue this ride in the Vision of our Ancestors, for Healing, Strength and Awareness, in Prayer and Unity.'
"Prayer Horse Riders have a story to tell and you can reach out to PHR media liaison André Wesner for inquiries: [email protected]
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/02/prayer-horse-ride-2024-in-honor-of.html
#PrayerRide #WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #IndigenousLands #IndigenousActivism #EnvironmentalRacism #CulturalGenocide #NoUraniumMining #NoMining #LandBack #LandDefenders #CorporateColonialism
-
#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies
In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.
By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023
"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.
"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.
"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.
"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.
"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.
"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.
"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence
"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.
"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.
"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.
"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage."The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.
"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes
"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.
"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.
"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.
"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.
"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.
"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."
Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists
