“Energy, Climate, Water and the Importance of Health and Culture.”
Hosted by the people of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nations
July 28 - 31, 2011
Read More - Information - Reports - Docs15th PROTECTING MOTHER EARTH CONFERENCE
Sponsored by IEN and Hosted byWESTERN SHOSHONE DEFENSE PROJECT
July 17-20, 2008
“Answering Mother Earth’s Call for Healing –Reaffirming Our Roots”
Presentations - Audio Recordings:
July 17, 2008
Prayer
Grand Entry of Indigenous Participants
Welcome by IEN/WSDP leadership
Western Shoshone Traditional Leadership, Local Tribal Officials
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Big Circle: Western Shoshone History of the Struggle
Raymond Yowell, Former Chief, Western Shoshone National Council (WSNC)
Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Grandmother and WSNC
Mary McCloud, Western Shoshone Grandmother and WSDP Board Member
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Big Circle: History of the Indigenous Struggle of Turtle Island and Presentations on Original Instructions, Traditional Systems, Traditional Economies and Trade Routes
Oren Lyons, (Onondaga Nation), Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Six Nations, New York
Louise Benally (Dine'), Traditional Dineh Sovereignty Nation Big Mountain, Struggle to Define Mother Earth, Arizona
Speaker from the South
Arthur Manuel (Secwepemc Nation) Indigenous Network on Economics and Trade, British Colombia, Canada
Click Here to Listen to more discussion on Earth Cycles
Big Circle: History of Colonial Laws against Indigenous Peoples, Doctrine of Discovery
Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape), Indigenous Law Institute, California, Columnist Indian Country Today, recently released a book entitled, “Pagans in the Promised Lands”.
Tupac Enrique Acosta (Xicano Peoples), Tonatierra Instutute and Tlahtokan Aztlan, Phoenix, speaking on the Confederacy of the Eagle and the Condor, liberation from colonial boundaries.
Andrea Carmen (Yaqui), International Indian Treaty Council, California/Alaska, speaking on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Click Here to Listen to more discussion on Earth Cycles
July 18, 2008
Speakers: Carrie Dann (Western Shoshone), WSDP; Samuel McKay, (Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwu) (Big Trout Lake) First Nations, Ontario, Canada; Gonzalo Guzmán Demetrio , Natural Resources Secretary, Ecuadorian Federation (ECUARUNARI) & CAOI (Association of Andean Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations), Ecuador, South America; and others.
Click Here to Listen to Presentations
Click Here to Listen to more at Earth Cycles
On-Going Demonstration/Training Projects
1. Composting Toilet Construction - Pennelys Goodshield (Anishinaabe), Sustainable Nations Development Project
2. Solar and Wind Power, Jeff Tobe Solar Energy International and John Shimek (Anishinaabe Youth), Honor The Earth organization and White Earth Land Recovery Project
Small Circles (Workshops)
1. Water Healing and Protection with Virginia Sanchez (Duckwater Shoshone), Nevada; Rick Spilsbury, (Ely Shoshone), Nevada; and Felicia Bertin
2. Mineral Extraction – Strategies and Solutions (Part 1) for communities impacted by mining and mineral extraction
3. Beginning Steps in Organizing 101 (Part 1) – Native Trainers: Indigenous Peoples Project (IP3) - Ruckus Society
4. Climate Change 101 and Solutions: Trainers, Jihan Gearon (Dine’), IEN Native Energy and Climate Program, Arizona; and Kandi Mossett (Mandan, Arikira, Hidatsa), IEN Tribal Campus Climate Challenge, North Dakota, IEN
5. Using CERD as a Human Rights Tool to Address our Issues with Alberto Saldamando, Legal Counsel, (Chicano/Zapoteca), International Indian Treaty Council, California and Julie Fishel, Legal Counsel, Western Shoshone Defense Project. Newe Sogobia (Nevada)
6. Youth Activity: Elder and youth discussion on history and spirituality
7. Traditional Food and Plant Discussion led by Shoshone elder
Small Circles (Workshops)
1. Mineral Extraction – Strategies and Solutions (Part 2) for communities impacted by mining and mineral extraction.
2. Organizing 101 (Part 2): IP3 Ruckus Society Native Trainers
3. Wisdom and knowledge of traditional teachings, understanding spirituality and mythology, with Walter Porter (Tlingit) mythologist
4. Toxics Policy: The Need for Aggressive Action, with Shawna Larson (Ahtna Athabascan/Sugpiaq), Alaska Community Action on Toxics and IEN/REDOIL, Alaska and Andrea Carmen (Yaqui), International Indian Treaty Council, California/Alaska
5. Youth Activity: Archery
6. Traditional Food and Plants Discussion (led by Shoshone elder)
July 19, 2008
Big Circle: Energy Road of Destruction and Climate Change
Moderated by Clayton Thomas-Muller (Mathias Colomb Cree), Canada, Speakers: Nuclear: Ian Zabarte (Western Shoshone), on Yucca Mountain, a proposed site for radioactive nuclear waste; Geothermal and Sacred Area: Radley Davis (Pitt River) on Medicine Lake, California; Fossil Fuels from Top of the World: Faith Gemmill (Gwichin Alaska), REDOIL, oil drilling, Alaska; Tar Sands: Eriel Deranger (Fort Chipewyan Dene) on tar sands in Alberta Canada; Fossil Fuels Gas and Oil Pipeline: Melina Laboucan-Massimo (Lubicon Cree), British Colombia; Fossil Fuels Oil Refinery: Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca) on oil refinery, Oklahoma; Loren White Jr. (Hidatsa) on oil drilling and proposed refinery in North Dakota; Coal Fired Power Plant and Coal Mining: Elouise Brown (Dine’), Dooda Desert Rock, New Mexico; Fossil Fuel, Coal Mining, Energy Policy: Enei Begaye (Dine’/ Tohono O'Odham) Black Mesa Water Coalition on fossil fuel energy development on the Navajo Nation, Arizona.
Click Here to Listen to Presentations
PMEC 2008
Talking about the future of Mother Earth
By Chela Vázquez , TC Daily Planet
August 23, 2008
Minnesota-based Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) held its 15th Protecting Mother Earth conference July 17-20. IEN, a national network of indigenous peoples, officially began its meeting at dawn by igniting the sacred fire with coals from its previous conference held in Leech Lake, Anishinaabe territory in Minnesota. The fire was maintained during the four days of the convening and was extinguished the last day at a ceremony where coals were rescued for the next conference in two years. The meeting was held outdoors under canopy tents and conferees slept in tents, which surrounded the conference grounds. Spiritual cleansing sweat lodges took place early mornings and evenings in which water was poured over burning rocks heated with firewood.
This year’s IEN conference was held in territory of the Western Shoshone Nation in Newe Sogobe, Nevada and hosted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project. Desert temperatures fluctuated more than 40oF between day and night. The sacred fire was a common gathering place during cool nights, where participants continued their conversations on global problems, challenges and solutions. More than 600 attendants, mostly from indigenous nations of the United States and Canada, but also from as far as Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and Europe, discussed energy and climate change as it affects indigenous peoples. Stories were told of health damage and ecological destruction brought about by oil refineries, coal power plants, gold mining, and nuclear military activity.
Participants talked of how pipelines take oil from and through indigenous lands and in the process create environmental devastation and sickness. A project to extract oil from the tar sands in Northern Alberta, Canada has cleared old growth boreal forests. This development has devastated the Dene, Cree and Metis people who live largely off subsistence from the land. The companies mining the tar sands have proposed to build tar sand refineries in North and South Dakota, and other states. These refineries would be the first built from the ground up since the 1970s.
A proposed 1,600-mile new pipeline expansion to transport Alberta’s tar sand oil would run diagonally across northern Minnesota along an existing pipeline all the way to Superior, Wisconsin. The “Alberta Clipper” pipeline’s expansion would transport crude oil from the Canadian tar sands to refineries in the Upper Midwest. Opponents say the pipeline would contribute significantly to global warming for the way oil is extracted from the tar sands, which is extremely energy intensive. Tar sand oil extraction requires stripping all the trees and vegetation, scooping up and steaming the sands. Potential oil spills on Minnesota’s wetlands is also a concern. IEN states that very few of these projects are assessed for their social and cultural costs or their cumulative environmental and health impacts, which would cause fragmentation of the boreal forest, disruption to indigenous cultural life-ways and production of greenhouse gases. Read the rest of the article.