Showing posts with label 2015. Show all posts

December 14, 2015

Photos Indigenous Red Line Protest Paris COP21

Indigenous honoring the victims of coal-fired power plants, oil and gas drilling, fracking, tar sands and uranium mining, and more genocidal exploitation leading to climate change, disease and death. World leaders fail humanity at COP21. Protest of COP21 negotiations today, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, in Paris

as UN climate summit nears end. Photos courtesy of Dallas Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Peoples Take Lead at D12 Day of Action in Paris – Official response to COP21 agreement

December 12th, 2015

By Indigenous Environmental Network

“The Paris accord is a trade agreement, nothing more. It promises to privatize, commodify and sell forested lands as carbon offsets in fraudulent schemes such as REDD+ projects. These offset schemes provide a financial laundering mechanism for developed countries to launder their carbon pollution on the backs of the global south. Case-in-point, the United States’ climate change plan includes 250 million megatons to be absorbed by oceans and forest offset markets. Essentially, those responsible for the climate crisis not only get to buy their way out of compliance but they also get to profit from it as well.” – Alberto Saldamando, Human Rights Expert & Attorney. [1]

Paris, France – At 8am, Indigenous Peoples block took to the streets of Paris for an Indigenous Rights action to start the closing day of COP 21, hours before the final agreement was to be presented and a huge mobilization of civil society for a D12 march was to begin.

Representatives from Indigenous nations of Circumpolar, Amazon, South Pacific and North America joined for an early morning sunrise ceremony prayer at the foot of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral, to close the climate negotiations. The ceremony was disrupted by Paris Police who came to the square and begun to remove banners.

“We, Indigenous Peoples, are the redline. We have drawn that line with our bodies against the privatisation of nature, to dirty fossil fuels and to climate change. We are the defenders of the world’s most biologically and culturally diverse regions. We will protect our sacred lands. Our knowledge has much of the solutions to climate change that humanity seeks. It’s only when they listen to our message that ecosystems of the world will be renewed” – Tom Goldtooth Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network

The morning prayer circle was moved down the street to the infamous Pont des Arts, also known across the world as the ‘Love Lock Bridge’ where Indigenous Peoples staged a direct action. Their collective message was clear – “People discuss ‘red lines’, we are the red line. We are the keepers of the land, protectors of animals, the seas, the air. We are the solution.”

“Our planet is hotter. The seas are rising. Our communities are facing reality that we may have to move, we have winter wildfires happening in the Arctic. We are out of time. Any solutions that do not talk about cutting emissions at the source, or keeping fossil fuels in the ground, are false solutions. We don’t have time to talk about carbon markets, carbon trading, REDD+ projects. We must act now [3]. ” – Dallas Goldtooth, Dakota/Dine, Campaigner with Indigenous Environmental Network.

“The seas are rising, our communities have nowhere else to go” – Sina Brown-Davis, Maori activist

At noon, Indigenous peoples joined in solidarity with the global D12 REDLINE action at Arc de Triomphe. At the front of action, Indigenous Peoples held a conference condemning the failed leadership of nation states for their exclusion of Indigenous rights and human rights in the operational text of the Paris agreement .

“Here at the COP21 they are proposing false solutions to the climate crisis, they are proposing a commodification of the sacred, they want to put a price on the air we breathe. They want to go into other countries, displace our Indigenous brothers and sisters, so that they in the US can continue killing our people. We are the frontlines, we are the red lines” – Kandi Mossett (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, North Dakota) speaking at the march.

During the march, a traditional Ponca cradleboard was presented to the people of Paris. The cradleboard represents future generations and was carried by Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation, Oklahoma, USA) who spoke at the march – “We come here with a present for Paris, we know what happened on November 13. We Indigenous people know how that feels to have someone kill the innocent ones. We offer this symbol in memory of lives lost, and we thank-you for hosting us on this sacred day.”

Press Contacts

Dallas Goldtooth, dallas@ienearth.org, 1-708-515-6158

[1] US, European and other states push for exclusion of binding Indigenous rights from agreement http://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2015/dec/07/indigenous-activists-take-to-seine-river-to-protest-axing-of-rights-from-paris-climate-pact

[2] Lack of acknowledgement of Indigenous Peoples Rights in draft treaty of Paris Climate Accord could negatively impact both them and the climatehttp://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/12/10/indigenous-rights-knowledge-left-out-in-cop21.html?utm_content=bylines&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

[3] UN Paris Accord could end up being a Crime against Humanity and Mother Earth http://no-redd.com/indigenous-peoples-un-paris-accord-could-end-up-being-a-crime-against-humanity-and-mother-earth/

www.indigenousrising.org

Rolling out the Red Line which can not be crossed.

October 30, 2015

TUCSON Dia de los Muertos Pilgrimage honors lives lost on Arizona-Sonora border

15th Annual Día de los Muertos Pilgrimage Honors the Thousands of Lives Lost on the Arizona-Sonora Border

Para Español Presione Aquí

Continuing to demand an end to this human rights crisis, that justice be sought for each of the thousands of lives that have been taken and an end to policies of 'deterrence' that have proven to continue to cost human lives.

By Derechos Humanos
Censored News
October 30th, 2015

TUCSON, Arizona -- For the 15th year in a row, Derechos Humanos, along with several other community groups, will walk from the St. John's Church to the San Xavier Mission to draw attention to the human rights crisis occurring here in the southwest. Again this year we will honor the estimated 10,000 lives that have been taken too soon as a result of inhumane policies implemented by the U.S. government since the 1990s.

On Saturday, October 31st, 2015, participants will gather at the St. John's Church (602 W. Ajo Way) at 8:00 in the morning. Following a short sending ceremony by the Calpolli Teoxicalli, we will begin our 8-mile walk, carrying the 137 crosses that represent each set of recovered remains found in the Arizona-Sonora border and documented by the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office from October 1st, 2014 to September 30th, 2015. We will arrive at the San Xavier Mission between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m. where we will be greeted by the W:ak Traditional Singers. Stephen Barnufsky, OFM will end the event with a blessing of all participants and crosses as we read the names of the dead and place their crosses with those of the last fourteen years.

100 of this year's crosses carry the word "Desconocid@" or "Unknown," representing each set of remains whose identity is unknown. For us, it also represents the number of families still looking for their loved ones and the effectiveness of a system that 'deters' people from crossing by disappearing them. The rest of the crosses carry a name and an age, if known. All of them are members of communities and families who have been killed unnecessarily by U.S. policies.

Since border policies were implemented in the 1990's, it is estimated that the remains of approximately 10,000 men, women and children have been recovered along the U.S.-Mexico border. This does not include the countless souls whose bodies have yet to be found, those who will never be found and those who have died while crossing through Mexico as a result of the U.S. funded Southern Border Program that began in the summer of 2014. Just like the Border Patrol Strategic plan of 1994, the Southern Border Program knowingly funnels people into dangerous terrain, intended to be used as a 'deterrent' to keep people from migrating to the U.S.

La Coalición de Derechos Humanos invites community members to join us in our Pilgrimage to honor each life lost and to protest the inhumane policies that our government continues to create, fund, and expand. We continue to demand an end to this human rights crisis, that justice be sought for each of the thousands of lives that have been taken and an end to policies of 'deterrence' that have proven to continue to cost human lives.

Join Coalición de Derechos Humanos

What: Day of the Dead Pilgrimage - A 7.8 mile walk from ST. John's Church, on 12th Ave & Ajo, to the San Xavier Mission commemorating the migrant lives lost in the desert each year!

When: October 31st, 2015 pilgrimage begins at 8:30 a.m. Please arrive at the church at 8 a.m.

Media Contact:

Amanda Garces

Phone: 520:333:8864

Email address: Coalicion@derechoshumanosaz.net

October 2, 2015

Mount Shasta City: Winnemem Wintu Chief Leads Sacred Water Rally

Photo: Chief Caleen Sisk speaks in front of the Crystal Geyser plant, not yet in operation, in Mount Shasta City.

800_caleen_sisk_speaks_.jpg
original image ( 5184x3456)

Winnemem Wintu Chief Leads 'Water

Every Drop Is Sacred' Rally and March

by Dan Bacher

Censored News

English and Dutch

Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS Gazette at:

http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/mount-shasta-city-winnemen-wintu-chief-leidt-sared-water-rally

Small cascades of cold, pristine water rush out of the hillside at Big Springs, the headwaters of the Sacramento River, as they converge in a clear and shallow pool located in the Mount Shasta City Park.

Adults and children fill their jugs and bottles with the pristine water that takes 50 years to make it from snow and rain on Mount Shasta down through the volcanic aquifer to where the torrents converge in the park.

Even in a record drought year like this one, the icy water rushes from the hillside to make its way to Lake Siskiyou, then Lake Shasta and then to the Delta and the ocean. People from throughout the world walk along the creek and hike along shaded trails and footpaths that cross through hedges of horsetail fern and willow and across small bridges.

As people hiked to and relaxed besides Big Springs, Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and hundreds of environmentalists and activists from all over California and Oregon held a rally, the "Water Every Drop Sacred" event, in this scenic park at the Sacramento River headwaters. After the rally ended, Sisk and tribal members led a march and protest of 160 people to the plant.

The Tribe is opposed to the planned opening of the plant, closed after it was operated by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company and other corporations for years, in accordance with its commitment to protect and preserve the Headwaters of the river, the Mount Shasta watershed and sacred tribal lands.

Otsuka Holding Co, a Japanese pharmaceutical conglomerate, owns Crystal Geyser. The event began with a performance of Iroha, a traditional Japanese Taiko drum group

Performances by Sawako Ama, Rieko Ivaska and Mao highlighted the fact that Japanese residents and tourists are not pleased about the plans to open another bottling plant just 2000 feet from the headwaters, according to Vicki Gold, of Water Flows Free in a news release.

"Crystal Geyser is already entrenched in Weed, CA, just 8 miles north of Mt. Shasta, reportedly extracting 1.5 million gallons of water daily, much of it headed for Japan in single use plastic bottles with a huge carbon footprint," said Gold. "Meanwhile, Japan has abundant water of its own."

Signs at the rally proclaimed, "Want water?, Tap Mt. Fuji!," "The Truth Is…No one owns water!," "No Dam Raise," "Water Is Life" and "Help Protect Mt Shasta Sacred Waters 4 Next 7 Generations."

Chief Caleen Sisk, the keynote speaker, spoke movingly about the sacredness of water and the threat to the environment and people posed by controversial plans to raise the Shasta Dam and build Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels.

"This spring, the headwaters of the Sacramento, is sacred to us," said Chief Sisk. "Archeologists once said they couldn't find any evidence of indigenous people around this spring. That's because our ancestors believe the site was so sacred that they would leave nothing behind when they prayed there. It is for the sacred beings – it is not for us to use."

"Mount Shasta (where the Sacramento and McCloud and other rivers come from) is sacred. The sacred being brings us a message that the plant can't be here. And if we're not successful here, the mountain may take care of it instead," emphasized Sisk.

She emphasized that the pending plan to open the Crystal Geyser plant in Mount Shasta is part of a large water grab by corporate interests, including the federal plan to raise Shasta Dam and the Brown administration scheme to shop water to agribusiness interests and Southern California water agencies.

"The twin tunnels will be built to transfer water from the headwaters to agribusiness farming in a desert. They are large enough to divert the entire Sacramento River in them," said Chief Sisk.

She said that if the tunnels were built it would destroy the largest estuary on the West Cost of the Americas, a nursery for Chinook salmon, steelhead, green and white sturgeon, Delta and longfin smelt and numerous other fish species.

"If they kill the estuary, what will it mean? When the estuary is cut off from the fresh water, the estuary will disappear and no longer be a nursery," said Chief Sisk.

Sisk also discussed the Tribe's long struggle to bring the original run of winter run Chinook salmon back to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam. Sisk and Tribal Members journeyed to New Zealand in 2009 to conduct ceremonies with the Maori on the Rakaira River, where the descendents of the original winter run chinook salmon from the McCloud, transplanted from the Livingston Stone Fish hatchery over 100 years ago, now thrive.

"The Maori are ready – they said they have 400,000 eyed eggs ready to be planted in the McCloud…But the scientists from the Bureau of Reclamation said they are not sure whether these are the same fish because they have no DNA from the McCloud River winter Chinooks to match the DNA of the New Zealand fish. Yet all of the records show that these fish came from this river!"

Chief Sisk has often said, referring to the essential role of water to life itself. "People can live without oil, they can live without gold, but nothing can live without water."

When the march arrived at the plant, Sisk appealed to Otsuka Pharmaceuticals in Japan to reconsider their plans and not open the facility. She also suggested that opponents of the plant make a trip to Japan to convince the company's owners to not open the plant in a manner similar to how members of the Hoopa Valley, Yurok and Karuk Tribes went to Scotland to convince Scottish Power, the owner of the Klamath River Dams, to decommission the dams in order to restore fish to the headwaters.

Gold estimated that 500 people attended the event throughout the day, with 200 present at any one time.

The speakers addressed the threats posed to our food sources, potable water supply, and ecosystem posed by water bottling and other water commodification schemes.

In addition to rallying against Crystal Geyser's pending plant in Mt. Shasta, speakers at the event discussed their opposition to Calpine's proposed industrial geothermal plant in the Medicine Lake Highlands that the Pit River Tribe has been fighting for many years. Both of these industrial developments threaten water quantity and quality in the area and have been the target of grassroots campaigns.

Lucas RossMerz, of Sacramento River Preservation Trust, addressed the importance of keeping the water in the river to all those who use it for recreation, residential use and farming.

He cited the aphorism, "I have Pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will," as his philosophy in addressing the many problems of the Sacramento River watershed.

"No matter how bad the numbers of fish and habitat get, my heart won't let me quit," he said. "So I show up to work every day and do my best!"

Reverend Amanda Ford, M.A., of the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, who addressed human rights issues surrounding water, told the story about how she found Crystal Geyser bottled water in her mom's refigerator when she went home to Michigan recently. "Our message has to reach people like my mom, who view water as as a commodity," Ford said.

Mauro Oliveira, of SOL Communications, emphasized, "The Sierra Nevada and Mount Shasta snowpacks are the lowest in 500 years. Our mission is to protect our water, our watersheds, oceans, all beings and their habitat. The oceans, rivers and all life forms are suffering from plastic pollution and consequent endocrine disruption. We have to change our habits and question every action of polluting industry."

Gold pointed out the importance of people uniting to stop the opening of the Crystal Geyser plant.

"It's time to join forces in an alliance to protect our local water," she said. "We must continue to put pressure on Crystal Geyser, Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, the City Council of Mt. Shasta and other public agencies. We are making a stand here, now, on Mount Shasta."

"Our friends in Oregon at Cascade Locks are facing Nestle; British Columbia is facing new exploitation by Nestle," Gold explained. "The plastic pollution is choking our oceans, our landfills, our rivers. Single use plastic water bottles is an idea whose time has clearly passed. Boycott bottled water."

She also urged people to ask Calpers (the California Public Employee Retirement System, largest in the world), to divest its holdings in Otsuka, Nestle, CocaCola amd Pepsi.

"We must vote with our pocket books. This is time for the voice of the public, speaking for our fragile planetary ecosystem, to be heard," she concluded.

The speakers at the five hour event also included Sherry Ackerman, PhD., who revealed why multinational conglomerates head for California and New York in search of water, "blue gold," at the pristine mountain source; Konrad Fisher, Klamath Riverkeeper; Bob McFarland, California Guild (formerly California State Grange); Geneva Omann and Roslyn McCoy of W.A.T.E.R.; Elaine Hsiao, PhD. candidate; Matt Isler, Sacred Economics; Phoenix Lawhon Isler of the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center (MSBEC); Bob Saunders of the Crunch Nestle Alliance; and Dan Axelrod, PHD, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan on the EIR.

Entertainers featured Saratone, Diane Patterson, Al Torre, Jenn Rogar, Sawako Ama and Rieko Ivaska with Iroha, Jenn Rogar who performed songs about love and respect for water.

This event followed the lawsuit filed on August 23 by the environmental group "We Advocate Thorough Environmental Review" (W.A.T.E.R.) against Siskiyou County and Crystal Geyser Water Company, whose corporate offices are in Napa County. The group has demanded an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for 2 years. The lawsuit requests Crystal Geyser Water Company meet California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) standards and requirements.

On September 16, Crystal Geyser, through their PR Firm, Burson-Marsteller, stated it will comply with the EIR process.

"However, EIR's don't always present the entire picture of the effects of an industry's environmental impact," said Gold. "Our event shed light on the issues of water bottling overall, plastic waste resulting from bottling, the overall effects and impact on the environment, and the irrationality of bottling water during the time of the worst drought in California's history."

The event was organized by Vicki Gold of Water Flows Free and the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water and sponsored by the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center.

For more information, contact: Vicki Gold (530) 926.4206, Mauro Oliveira (530) 356-7343, Bob Saunders (916) 370.8251, or Angelina Cook or Phoenix Lawhon Isler, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, (530) 926-5655 (office).

§Caleen Sisk and Rieke Ivaska