Long Walk 5 in Badlands, Pine Ridge 'Free Red Fawn'

Red Fawn water protector at Standing Rock remains imprisoned on false charges.

Long Walk 5 Photos from Badlands today, and Porcupine, Allen  and Wounded Knee this week.

Oglala Sioux Nation, Pine Ridge, South Dakota

Photos by Western Shoshone Long Walker Carl Bad Bear Sampson

Thank you for sharing with Censored News.

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Update Today: Walkers arrive in Eagle Butte, Cheyenne River Lakota Nation

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2017/04/long-walk-5-arrives-in-eagle-butte.html

More of Bad Bear's photos from Porcupine, Allen and Wounded Knee at:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2017/04/long-walk-5-wounded-knee-allen-and.html

Native Village of Tyonek scores victory against dirty coal

PacRim Coal suspends permitting coal mine within the Ch'u'itnu; Powerful victory for the Native Village of Tyonek

By Native Village of Tyonek, Alaska

(April 4, 2017) Yesterday, the Native Village of Tyonek secured a powerful victory in its fight against a proposed 25,000 acre open pit coal mine that threatened its homeland, culture, and way of life.  On March 30, 2017, PacRim Coal, LP, submitted a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announcing its decision "to suspend pursuit of permitting efforts on the Chuitna Coal Project."  For nearly four decades, NVT has been fighting proposed coal development in the Ch'u'itnu (Chuitna or Chuit River) watershed.

Tyonek youth at Big Lake Culture Camp

"Our Salmon, our way of life, and our land are safe," says Arthur Standifer, Tribal President of the Native Village of Tyonek. "It is our fish and game, it is our land that we are looking after."

The Native American Rights Fund celebrates this powerful victory alongside our client, the Native Village of Tyonek. Nevertheless, we recognize that this is just one fight, and we must remain vigilant to other proposed development that threatens to destroy the ways of life in Native communities throughout Alaska and across the United States.

NARF Staff Attorney Heather Kendall-Miller says: "NARF salutes the tenacity of the Native Village of Tyonek in opposing the development of a coal mine that would destroy salmon habitat streams. Tribal leadership tipped the balance here in favor of maintaining healthy sustainable natural resources."

The Native Village of Tyonek sits just seven miles from the proposed project site, forty miles across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, Alaska, next to the mouth of the Ch'u'itnu. Since time immemorial, the Tubughna (the residents of the Native Village of Tyonek) have occupied the Ch'u'itnu watershed and the landscape across the southern foothills of the Alaska Range. For countless generations, this landscape has served as the catalyst for their subsistence lifeways and place-based cultural and spiritual identity. Even today, these lifeways, cultural practices, and identifiers remain largely unchanged. The 180 residents of the Native Village of Tyonek still harvest subsistence resources throughout the Ch'u'itnu watershed and continue the ceremonies and practices of their culture and spirituality across the landscape. Their way of life and identity, however, were threatened by the proposed mine. The proposed coal mine would have been excavated across the Ch'u'itnu and its tributaries, destroying healthy salmon spawning habitat and irreversibly harming the cultural, spiritual, and ecological character of the landscape. That stops today.

For more information, please contact:

Arthur Standifer, Tribal President, Native Village of Tyonek, (907) 229-9718

Janelle Baker, Secretary/Treasurer, Native Village of Tyonek, (907) 690-0255

Wesley James Furlong, Alaska Fellow/Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund, (907) 276-0680, wfurlong@narf.org

Read the Native Village of Tyonek's press release.

Long Walk 5: Wounded Knee, Allen and Porcupine Photos by Bad Bear

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Photos by Western Shoshone Carl Bad Bear Sampson

April 12, 2017
Oglala Sioux Nation, Pine Ridge, South Dakota

Bad Bear said, "A prayer and a ceremony at the Knee today to remember the massacre. Then we went to Allen, South Dakota. A walk through the community and candlelight vigil for Jeff Lynn Curry Jr. shot 117 times by tribal officers. Eleven of them are on leave."
"We are staying at the Community Center in Porcupine."

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Indigenous Women Urge Swiss Banks to Divest in Dakota Access Pipeline and Genocide

By WECAN International

Censored News

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Over the last week, a delegation of Indigenous women from Standing Rock and their allies who observed and/or experienced human rights and Indigenous rights violations in North Dakota due to the building of the Dakota Access pipeline have been taking action and speaking out in Switzerland, sharing on-the-ground experiences from Standing Rock and other traditional territories, as Indigenous women who are living in communities directly impacted by fossil fuel development and infrastructure.

After a successful previous week in Norway including meetings with the Oil Fund, DNB, the Norwegian Parliament, and Sami Indigenous peoples of the region, the ‘Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation: Experiences from Standing Rock’ received a request to travel to Switzerland to continue their work to highlight Indigenous and human rights violations and demand pipeline divestment. Like Norway, some the largest funders and supporters of the Dakota Access pipeline and other fossil fuel developments in the U.S. and across the world are based in Switzerland.

In Zurich, the Delegation met with Credit Suisse and UBS, and held a press conference, public event and interview sessions with leading media outlets.

The Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation was organized with the support of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International in response to the leadership and request of frontline Indigenous women seeking financial divestment from DAPL and other fossil fuel developments, which threaten the lives, rights and cultural survival of their nations and peoples.

Delegation members included Dr. Sarah Jumping Eagle (Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota living and working on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation); Wasté Win Young (Ihunktowanna/Hunkpapa of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer); Tara Houska (Anishinaabe, tribal attorney, National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, and former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders); Autumn Star Chacon (Diné/Navajo Water Protector); and Michelle Cook (Diné/Navajo, human rights lawyer and a founding member of the of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock). [Full spokes-women biographies available here]

Members of the ‘Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation: Experiences from Standing Rock’ responded to the meeting with Credit Suisse bank as follows:

“The meeting with Credit Suisse fulfilled all my expectations of a bank that tries to pretend it is removed from the atrocities happening on the ground, and that they are somehow just nice people. That said, I think it was very powerful for them to see our faces first hand and to hear the experiences of people at Standing Rock and to know that their money is invested in the company that is creating this pipeline project causing destruction to real people. We are in the era of renewable energy, we have alternatives to the fossil fuel industry. We are asking the Swiss people to stand with us and to recognize that the actions they take affect others around the world and that simply because it's out of sight and out of mind does not mean that this is not actually happening. Divestment is the next wave of direct action against these corporations.” explained Tara Houska (Anishinaabe, tribal attorney, National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth, and former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders)

“Credit Suisse was receptive to our description of the human rights abuses that occurred during the protests. Yet they are still in denial about their direct financing of the corrupt Energy Transfer Partner corporation and its role in the Dakota Access pipeline project. Credit Suisse is attempting to distance themselves from these violations of indigenous rights and human rights abuses. On a positive note, they said that they would review their internal policies and procedures to take into account indigenous and human rights.” explained Dr. Sarah Jumping Eagle (Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota living and working on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation)

"Here we have one of the most powerful banks in the world, doing business with unethical corporations in the U.S. who have undermined the law and human rights. And this bank wants to relinquish any direct tie to genocide of American Indians, however in this case we all see the bank as the enabler of the abuser." explained Autumn Star Chacon (Diné/Navajo Water Protector)

“Our financial institutions must fundamentally change and become accountable to people and planet. The Indigenous women leaders spoke truth to power at the Credit Suisse meeting and are calling for justice. The bank representatives who heard the women speak will not be the same again after hearing first hand experiences of rights violations and their demands for no more fossil fuel extraction on their lands, respect for Indigenous Rights, Indigenous sovereignty, human rights and the rights of nature. We will continue with our divestment advocacy and actions with the bank until we see results with justice and care for all of our children’s futures.” explained Osprey Orielle Lake (Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network and Delegation organizer)

About The Women's Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN) International

www.wecaninternational.org

@WECAN_INTL

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International) is a solutions-based organization established to engage women worldwide as powerful stakeholders in climate change, climate justice, and sustainability solutions. WECAN International was founded in 2013 as a project of the 501(c)3 Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus (WECC) organization.