ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY

Like all great movements, the Native environmental justice movement, and in essence IEN, was born of desire, need and struggle. IEN's desire in particular, springs from our love for Mother Earth and our connection to all of creation. The need for IEN grew from the wounds inflicted upon the earth from the collective greed of humanity.

IEN was born in 1990 from a national gathering of tribal grassroots youth and Indigenous leadership to discuss our common experiences regarding environmental assaults on our lands, waters, communities and villages. At that time, a significant number of our tribal communities and villages were targeted for large toxic municipal and hazardous waste dumps and nuclear waste storage facilities and with industrial and mineral development in Indian country literally leaking and oozing out of the ground with toxic poisons. Organizing around environmental issues was relatively new to many of the tribal grassroots members and their tribal governments in the early 90's.

Following the 1990 gathering, Indigenous activists, youth and concerned tribal community members continued to meet year after year in various locations in the U.S. to put our minds, heart and spirit together for a common course of action as a means to restore our homelands to environmental health and harmony. From these initial gatherings the idea of IEN was born -- an idea born of hope, courage and common vision.

In the years that followed, the idea for IEN continued to flourish, as these annual gatherings became an excellent organizing and education venue to reach out to Indigenous peoples throughout North America. These annual gatherings became known as Protecting Mother Earth Gatherings and in this spirit; the foundation of IEN's work was built. The IEN annual conference gatherings have demonstrated the ability to educate, train, and develop needed dialogue and strategy development around environmental justice issues affecting Indigenous peoples and our lands. Our annual gatherings have been held at different regional locations around the country, including Alaska and have become a vast coalition building effort connecting indigenous communities throughout the Americas and the world. The 12th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, August 2001, was the first held in Canada. That was the last gathering, with the next gathering planned for June 2004 near the sacred Bear Butte in South Dakota.

IEN begin to hire staff starting in 1995. From 1995 to present, IEN's staff, its governing body and community-based advisors devoted an incredible amount of effort to develop the capacity of IEN to meet its growing responsibility to serve both tribal grassroots communities and tribal governmental environmental staff on environmental justice issues.

IEN has supported many communities with technical information, assisted in environmental campaign strategy, and has fulfilled its mandate to be a vehicle to provide a voice and to be the "eyes and ears" of tribal grassroots, traditional leadership and small disenfranchised tribes and Alaska villages on environmental justice issues.

The experience of IEN grows each year. We continue to learn to develop and support a national and international network that maintains an Indigenous peoples and youth constituency with a grassroots focus. IEN has become a mechanism that opens constructive dialogue between tribal members, youth and their tribal governments as a means to strengthen tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction on environmental justice and sacred site issues.