Indigenous Environmental Network conference brings regeneration for warriors

© Indian Country Today July 24, 2006. All Rights Reserved

CASS LAKE, Minn. - American Indian warriors battling assaults from the nuclear and oil industries, bikers on sacred lands and border vigilantes alike found regeneration and renewal at the Indigenous Environmental Network's 14th annual Protecting Mother Earth Conference.

Casey Horenik Camp, Ponca and member of the Ponca Sovereignty Campaign, is among those environmental warriors who found renewal on Leech Lake Ojibwe tribal lands during the July conference.

Like the First Nations peoples in the north, the Ponca in Oklahoma live on land saturated with toxins and residues of oil production.

''We have kids and families with high levels of asthma. This is a human rights issue. Ponca people are the ones living along the fence line of a fossil fuel industry that doesn't care about our people. Something has to change,'' Camp said.

Ponca live in the vicinity of the largest crude oil refinery in Oklahoma and one of the largest in the country. For decades, the ConocoPhillips facility has released toxins into the air breathed by Ponca. In the late 1980s the oil tank farms caused major groundwater contamination, which was followed by a legal settlement reached in 1992 for clean up and relocation of 200 homes in Ponca City.

In the Conoco oil refinery, the petroleum sludge left at the bottom of the oil tank farms is captured and processed in a nearby incineration processing facility that partially burns the hydrocarbons creating a powdered substance, called carbon black. The International Carbon Corp. at Ponca uses this carbon black for rubber in the tire industry.

Ponca tribal members from Oklahoma living in a tribal housing area next to a toxic carbon black facility have a high rate of respiratory problems and high levels of asthma, and there has been a child born with cancer. Groundwater contamination on lands is also a major issue.

In every region of the Americas, indigenous are fighting governments and corporations in defense of the Earth.

In Maine, grass-roots tribal members of the Passamaquoddy Nation are opposing a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal. The newly formed tribal grass-roots organization is called Ntulankeyutmonen Nkihtaqmikon, which means ''we take care of the homeland.'' They are defending their traditional homelands from a proposed $350 million LNG terminal. The proposed area for the LNG plant is in a pristine bay area located on the Passamaquoddy tribal reservation in Maine, otherwise known as Sipayik.

Meanwhile, in California, Mark Lebeau of the Pitt River Tribe's Da'hu La'h Coalition is among those defending Medicine Lake from the threat of the proposed Calpine Corp. geothermal power plant using steam from deep within the Earth. The ''hot springs'' geothermal sacred site has long sustained many of the indigenous tribes of northern California for both healing ceremonies and harvesting of medicines.

In Utah, fighting a nuclear waste dump, Margene Bullcreek, founder of Ohngo Gavdadeh Devia in Tooele, Utah, struggles in a lonely battle on the Skull Valley Goshute land.

''We don't have many tribal voting members in our small tribe. It has divided our people and now we argue and fight over America's nuclear waste. This isn't just an isolated issue that only impacts our tribe, but it affects every U.S. citizen, every tribe. Our tribal leaders are hiding behind sovereignty, saying they are just exercising their self-determination,'' Bullcreek said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently approved a permit for the nuclear dump to be built. However, Bullcreek said the BIA has the final authority to approve the radioactive waste facility to be built. She is urging people to write to the BIA telling them not to sign the final approval.

Faced with a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, military explosions on aboriginal lands and gold mining on sacred lands, Western Shoshone in Nevada have taken their demand for treaty land rights and justice to the United Nations. On the southern border, Tohono O'odham, including Ofelia Rivas, are battling a hazardous waste dump, planned and permitted in secret by the government of Mexico, near the O'odham sacred site of Quitovac in Sonora, Mexico. In the northern part of Arizona, members of 13 area Native tribes are struggling to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks from the desecration of recycled wastewater used for snow production at a ski resort there.

Carter Camp, Ponca and representing the Inter-Tribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, urged support for the efforts to protect sacred Bear Butte in South Dakota. Camp said Bear Butte is sacred to 30 Indian tribes. However, the noise and parties from the annual summertime Sturgis motorcycle rally makes it impossible for members of local tribes to pray on their mountain. Now, the land is being desecrated by the development of a 600-acre biker bar and concert venue.

Along with the realities of energy genocide, the conference offered hope and regeneration for environmental activists. Jose Matus, Yaqui and director of the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders in Arizona, spoke on indigenous border justice at the conference. Upon returning to Arizona, Matus said the conference gave him a feeling of renewal.

Powered by the sun, the conference featured training in the technology and broadcasting of community-based and Web-based radio. Among the Native youths participating were members of the Oklahoma Native Youth Media Project of the Eagle and Condor Indigenous Peoples' Alliance.

While on the road and editing the IEN conference recordings in Idaho, Govinda Dalton told Indian Country Today that community-based radio can be a vital tool for indigenous communities.

''Community begins with communications,'' said Dalton of Earth Cycles Radio Project by the same name, ''Community Begins with Communication,'' in Calpella, Calif.

Dalton said the satellite uplink made the IEN conference available on a global level, with solar panels enabling the recording.

''We are global now,'' he said, pointing out that the radio and satellite were functioning on the power of the sun.

During the outdoor events at lush Cass Lake, biologist and woodsman Matt Mattson joined Sunny Johnson, a wild plants knowledge keeper who harvests plants with her son Saelyn, both from Bemidji, to share their knowledge of wild edible plants.

Describing the role of wild plants in protecting the Earth and healing the body, the wild plants team led an edible plant walk in the woods. The sessions of traditional food gathering and preparation, Nandawenjigewin in Ojibwe, focused on safe harvesting principles, identification of wild edibles and the harvesting plants for the Saturday evening honor dinner.

Wild food gatherers were on the lookout for traditional Ojibwe foods, including apukwe (cattail), gine-bigwuck (plantain), bibigwewunuck (cow parsnip), ickode (shepard's purse), shaaboosigan (milkweed florets), ginoje-wukwun (yellow dock leaves), wisugibug (burdock stems), dado-cabodji-bik (dandelion leaves), wi-nisiga-gawunj (wild leek bulbs), wi-nibidja-bibaja-no (chickweed), lamb's quarters, wood sorrel and purslane.

Energy-efficient straw bale construction was the focus of the workshop by PennElys Goodshield of the Sustainable Nations Development Project in Trinidad, Calif. Goodshield led a hands-on straw bale building and earthen plaster workshop. There was also the chance to view a home constructed of straw bales.

Bob Walker, educator from Fort Belknap Gros Ventre Community in Montana, led a workshop for youths ages 12- 17 to demonstrate awareness in rebuilding the concept of relations, the sense of family and community, while addressing challenges in modern times. Graffiti artists and muralists also were able to create an inspiring mural to leave with the Leech Lake Anishinaabe community.

A sacred sites caucus and border justice caucus was formed during the conference. After four days, IEN said the Sacred Fire was put to rest to be rekindled at either Western Shoshone Nation or the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia, Ontario, Canada in 2008.

To hear the IEN conference presentations, visit http://ienearth.blogspot.com.

Please visit the Indian Country Today website for more articles related to this topic.