Greetings –

Hope to see you at our 12^th Annual Indigenous Environmental Network Protecting Mother Earth Conference scheduled for August 2-5, 2001 in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. Attached is the flyer for this conference. If you need more flyers, please contact us.

This is the first Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) www.ienearth.org conference to be held in Canada. The outdoor camping conference will be held on traditional lands of the Okanagan Nation of the Penticton Band of First Nations. It is a beautiful land, easily accessible right off Highway 97 South, approximately 3 miles (6 km) outside of the town of Penticton http://pentictonbc.agd.myareaguide.com/maps.html . From the conference site, you could see the Skaha Lake. Penticton is about a hours drive from the United States – Canadian border on Highway 97, north of Omak, Washington. From Spokane to Penticton it is 236 miles. From Calgary, Alberta it is 670 km or 419 miles. From Vancouver, BC, it is 390 km or 244 miles and from Seattle it is 315 miles. The weekend following the conference is the well known Omak Stampede, Suicide Run and Rodeo in Omak, Washington. Sometimes they have the Omak Pow-Wow at the same time.

The town of Penticton www.penticton.org is in the Okanagan Valley, surrounded by mountains. Penticton is known for its peach, apple, cherry, apricot, plum, grape and pear orchards. Visitor information for Penticton is 1-800-663-5052. We must let you know that in the summer time, the town of Penticton is a tourist trap with near 50 hotels, RV parks, and resorts, water slides, beaches, etc. Even though Penticton is surrounded by mountains and pine trees, expect temperatures to be in the 90+ degrees F. Evenings are much cooler. Bring shade and your tent. Penticton has a small airport. Kelowna, 49 miles away has a larger regional airport. Free shuttles will be scheduled daily for persons arriving at either of these airports. Contact us later in July for shuttle schedules.

The conference site will have plenty of camping space. In August, the grass will probably have turned brown and campfire restrictions will most likely be in effect. Camp stoves will be allowed, however, no open fires, except for the sacred fire and sweat lodge fires. Drinking water will be available and shower facilities. The higher elevation area surrounding the conference site has cougar and grizzly bears in the area, so hiking in the higher elevations will be restricted. The local Okanagan Warrior Society will patrol the area on horseback and provide camp security.

The En’owkin Centre’ http://ENOWKIN.homestead.com/1.html and the Penticton First Nations www.pib.ca are our host. En’owkin (pronounced en-OW-kin) describes an Okanagan process which pursues the challenge to build solutions collaboratively using diversity to create new insight. En’owkin Centre’ was established in 1979 by seven Bands of the Okanagan Nation to preserve, perpetuate and promote Okanagan knowledge through education. Both the En’owkin Centre’ and the community of the Penticton Band maintain strong Okanagan spiritual conviction of the sacred and interconnection of all life. The Centre has been involved in cultural and environmental research, Indigenous knowledge, community development, language training, publishing, arts, video production and many other areas. The Okanagan Confederacy are known for being defenders of their aboriginal rights in Canada.

The Penticton Band and the Okanagan Nation Confederacy that extends throughout the Okanagan Valley and into the Washington state areas that include the Colville tribe are proud people that still maintain their close connection to the land and the rivers. However, colonial development in their homelands from the agricultural industry, dams and water diversions, mining, timber industry and tourism have depleted their traditional sources of fishing grounds, created pesticide and mercury contamination, and changed their landscape from years of clearcutting practices. But the Penticton Band have challenged these obstacles and have been effective at developing sustainable forest management practices and through ceremony are helping to restore salmon spawning grounds.

A small amount of travel scholarships will be available. In the U.S., these will be restricted to tribal grassroots members representing their community or organization and that are working on an environmental or sacred site issues. In Canada, travel assistance will be available for both Band council members, employees and Band members that are experiencing environmental and sacred site issues. Some travel assistance is available for Indigenous Peoples from Mexico, Central and South America (information in Spanish is available upon request). For Indigenous Peoples from outside the Americas, please contact the IEN office for further information.

All travel assistance in the U.S. and Canada is considered a subsidy that would cover partial expenses and will not fund travel at 100% of the costs. IEN encourages groups or community representatives that want to attend to raise other sources of funding to supplement travel costs. Travel scholarships include only expenses for gas and partial expenses for van or bus rentals (groups). Support for van and bus rentals must be pre-approved.

Deadline for submitting a travel scholarship application is June 10, 2001 . Applications can be obtained from the following: For Canada, contact En’owkin Centre’, (250) 493-7181; for U.S. and International (outside of the Americas), contact Indigenous Environmental Network (+1 218 751 4967); for Mexico/Central America, contact Tonatierra (+1 602 254 5230) and for South America, contact Amazon Alliance at (+1 202 785 3334).

This year, once again, we will be conducting a Water Ceremony that will be lead by the Indigenous women. Please bring a bottled sample of water from either your water faucet, well, spring, river, lake or ocean. During the Water Ceremony, your water will be merged into a clay vessel and ceremony will take place to pray for the sacred waters of the four directions. The meeting of heart and mind of Indigenous Peoples and their non-Indigenous supporters from the four directions will further strengthen our voice to defend the sacredness of our Mother Earth.

Sincerely,