How Persistent Organic Pollutants Threaten the Natural Environment
and the Future
of Indigenous Peoples

GREENPEACE and the Indigenous Environmental Network 

ONE
WITH MOTHER EARTH
Whether as Native Americans or First Nations, we are "indigenous" to these lands called Canada and United States. We are "peoples" that have collective rights within the hundreds of tribes that still exist today. We are "Indigenous Peoples" who have inherent rights to our traditional lands and we still maintain our culture and spiritual beliefs. Over 1,000 distinct Indigenous communities, reserves, villages and reservations or territories exist in both Canada and United States. These territories sustain us and when they are contaminated with chemical pollutants, our communities often suffer the most - because when the environment is polluted, Indigenous Peoples are polluted.

Indigenous knowledge teaches us how to walk upon our Earth Mother and to respect the sacredness of her creation. We use every part of our Earth Mother to sustain us in ceremony and in everyday life. We use the water for ceremony to purify and nourish our spirit and bodies. We depend on traditional foods and plants for ceremony and to nourish our communities. When our water, soil and air are poisoned with toxic chemicals, our rights to practice our traditional lifestyles and heritage and to live in a clean and safe environment are violated.

- Tom Goldtooth, National Coordinator, Indigenous Environmental Network

January 17, 2002 - The international treaty on the elimination of toxic chemicals (12 chemicals, including dioxin and furans) resulted in all participating countries signing on to the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) treaty. This signing took place during May of 2001 in Stockholm. From this signing, the treaty is called the "Stockholm Convention." The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) have just announced a new homepage for the Stockholm Convention (http://www.chem.unep.ch/sc/). At the moment the info on the new page is not much different from the UNEP Chemical POPs page, although there is now a map of all the signatories and parties (as pdf file), and the listing of signatories. Each country that signed the Convention now must seek ratification of the "treaty" within their countries legislative body. In the United States, the Senate is the congressional body that ratifies the Stockholm Convention. The U.S. has not ratified the Convention.

The award winning IEN/Greenpeace documentary film on Indigenous Peoples and POPs has traveled around the world. The film was released and premiered last September 1999 at the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) global meeting on the elimination of POPs in Geneva, at the World Health Organization (WHO) Indigenous Peoples meeting in Geneva, and shown at the National Congress of American Indians and National Indian Health Board annual conventions, in Alaska and tribal groups in the lower 48 and worldwide. It has been translated into Russian and plans are being made to translate it into Spanish, German and other languages. The video has been successful in educating both the Native community, tribal leaders and the non-Native people on what POPs is and how it affects the health, culture, treaty rights and spiritual rights of Native Peoples.