Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

July 31, 2023

Paddle to Muckleshoot: Honoring the Beauty


 Paddle to Muckleshoot: Honoring the Beauty

By Northwest Treaty Tribes, Censored News, July 31, 2023

"We've been expecting you," said Jason Elkins, Chair of the Muckleshoot Tribal Council.

Elkins was greeting one of the many canoes that approached Alki Beach on Sunday, the celebratory landing day of the Muckleshoot Canoe Journey. Under sunny skies, tribes from the Pacific Northwest and beyond celebrated participating in the culturally important journey once again after several years off because of COVID.

Prior to arriving at Alki, the canoes had departed from Suquamish that morning, where they had a day of rest before the final push.

United Nations: Black Hills Under Threat from Mining: Water is Defining Issue




United Nations: Black Hills Under Threat from Mining: Water is Defining Issue

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 31, 2023

GENEVA -- The sacred Black Hills are under threat from mining companies, threatening the water sources, Wakinyan LaPointe, Lakota, told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"Our sacred Black Hills are under threat of destruction by multinational mining corporations and lack of state preventative measures," LaPointe told the United Nations EMRIP, which reports to the UN Human Rights Council.

"The sacred Black Hills located within Lakota homelands are protected under the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties, ratified by the United States and the Lakota Nation and proclaimed the Supreme Law of the Land."

DOWNWIND Wins Prize at Cordillera Film Fest -- Western Shoshone Never Consented to Atomic Bomb Detonations


Western Shoshone Ian Zabarte at Cordillera Film Festival. Courtesy Photo

Downwind tells Western Shoshone story left untold by Oppenheimer's film

Native Community Action Council, July 29, 2023, Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

On Saturday, July 29, 2023, the documentary DOWNWIND won the jury prize at the Cordillera International Film Festival after the Nevada premiere in Reno. DOWNWIND features the victims exposed to radiation in the fallout from the testing of nuclear weapons of mass destruction and their patriotic response to bring attention to the 928 secret tests conducted between 1951-1992.


The US Atomic Energy Commission, now the Department of Energy, called the people living DOWNWIND, “a low-use segment of the population” and therefore, Americans not worthy of protection from the adverse consequences of radiation in the fallout from nuclear weapons testing.

“We are Americans, and deserve equal protection under the law,” said Principal Man Ian Zabarte of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation. Further, he said, “Native American land binds this great nation together. The Shoshone people were never informed and never consented to the occupation and use of our sacred Mother Earth for nuclear weapons testing.”

July 28, 2023

Indigenous Peoples Under Attack by Militarized Forces: From Peru to the Tohono O'odham Nation, murder with impunity


United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Human Rights Council

Indigenous Peoples Under Attack by Militarized Forces: From Peru to the Tohono O'odham Nation, Murder with Impunity

Native Hawaiians and Indigenous in Guam want the US military out; Russian youths want an end to war



By Brenda Norrell, 
Censored News
July 17, updated July 29, 2023

GENEVA -- Native Hawaiians want the US military off their lands, and training exercises in the Pacific shut down. An aquifer has been poisoned in Honolulu, and unexploded ordinances left behind make lands inaccessible.

Christopher Edward said the U.S. military installation in Hawaii is the largest in the world, 200,000 acres, and has resulted in the displacement of Native Hawaiians from their traditional lands. Edward testified before the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Edward joined Indigenous from around the world in reporting human rights abuses, during the session, "The Impact of Militarization on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."