Indigenous Peoples in Brazil will hold a mass 5-day rally next week, dubbed “the Xingu Encounter,” to protest against a series of hydro dams planned for the Xingu river and its tributaries.

The sacred lands website explains, there are a total of 70 large dams and dozens of smaller ones planned throughout the central and northern parts of the country. “One of these is the proposed Paranatinga II dam. Located on the Culuene River, a tributary of the Xingu, Paranatinga II would destroy an area sacred to 14 tribal groups. The same tribes also oppose the much larger proposed dam downstream, Belo Monte, which would displace indigenous communities.” If completed, Belo Monte would be the world’s third largest hydro dam.

The encounter, which will take place from May 19 to 23 in the town of Altamira, Pará, is expected to gather over a thousand People from the Kayapó, Ikpeng and other tribes, along with riverbank dwellers and small farmers… to oppose the project,” notes Survival International in a recent press release.

“Also taking part in the five-day meeting will be international organizations, …

The Band Council of the Anishinabek at Serpent River issued the following Press Release on April 30, warning of yet another uranium conflict brewing in Ontario–that is to say, a conflict brought on by Ontario’s refusal to accept their constitutional obligations towards Indigenous Communities.

For more information, you can contact Chief Isadore Day, Wiindawtegowinini, Serpent River First Nation, PO Box, 14, 48 Village Road, Cutler, Ontario - P0P 1B0, Iday.srfn@ontera.net.

SERPENT RIVER FIRST NATION PRESS RELEASE

April 30 - It has come to the point where Serpent River First Nation leaders insist they want decisive action from the Ontario government on a list of matters pertaining to development in their traditional territory including the exploration of minerals, especially uranium.

Elected Chief of Serpent River First Nation, Isadore Day, Wiindawtegowinini says he’s concerned that private sector proponents for development are moving faster than government responses to consultation requirements for First Nations. “It poses real challenges between industry and First Nations when government moves slower in First Nation negotiations than it does when pushing through proponent approvals for expropriation of Crown lands” Day says. He goes on to say “what’s …

The government of Peru recently announced it will not auction the reserve lands of uncontacted Tribal Peoples for oil exploration.

“The decision represents a U-turn for Perupetro, the state body responsible for negotiating exploration rights,” comments Survival International in a recent press release. “Perupetro spokespeople had previously suggested the uncontacted Indians did not exist, and that exploration in their reserves would be permitted.”

In fact, last year a Perupetro spokesperson compared the Peoples’ to the Loch Ness monster, saying “everyone seems to have seen or heard about uncontacted peoples, but there is no evidence.”

Four months later, in November, President Garcia took on a similar position, basically saying the reward of oil is more important than the ‘potential’ risk of extinction… That is what the people would be facing if Perupetro went ahead and auctioned the lands. From that point on, all it would take is a firm hand shake. Sickness and Death would soon follow.

In any event, a lot of people can now rest easy. The reserve lands are safe. Thank you Perupetro for putting the needs of the …

So-called armed guards working for one of the rice farmer’s currently (illegally) occupying Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous territory opened fire on a group of Macuxi indigenous People yesterday, injuring At least 10. One of them remains hospitalized in serious condition.

The owner of the farm, Paulo Cesar Quartiero, claims his men were firing in self-defense after the group refused to leave ‘his’ property. The Earth Times quote him as saying, “They invaded the estate. My men went there to ask them to leave, but they were met with arrows. There was a clash, and some people were injured,” Quartiero said.

The Macuxi say otherwise. Representative Joao Ribeiro for one, says the men didn’t speak to anyone. They just started shooting as they arrived.

Dionito de Souza, a Macuxi Chief and coordinator of the Roraima Indigenous Council, reaffirmed this in a phone interview, adding that the people were “building houses on land close to the farm” when it happened.

Considering the recent violence by the farmers — which among other things, included the use of a homemade bomb against one Macuxi leader, and …

The following is an opinion piece from the the World Rainforest Movement’s Bulletin for the month of April (links added by me).

If you would like to read or download the entire Bulletin, please visit www.wrm.org.uy.

A Tale of Two Conventions

Once upon a time … the governments of the world got together and agreed that the Earth was facing severe environmental problems and that something needed to be done about it. The historic event was named the Earth Summit and it took place in 1992 in the tropical scenario of Rio de Janeiro.

Everyone was feeling very enthusiastic because governments had committed themselves to a new type of development -which they defined as “sustainable”- which would prevent the negative environmental impacts of the until then prevailing development model.

People became even more hopeful about the future when they were told that from then on governments would ensure that all types of production would be socially equitable and environmentally friendly.

As proof of the seriousness of governments’ commitments, a Convention for the protection of biodiversity (CBD) was agreed upon and so was another one for the …

Around Seventy members and supporters from the “the Hawaiian Kingdom Government” occupied the grounds of Iolani Palace on Wednesday, saying the grounds are the property of the “Hawaiian Kingdom.” They locked all the gates and barred government workers and the public from entering the area.

The action ended without incident on the same day, but then they returned the following day—only to leave and then once again return on Friday. The New York Times quoted the group’s leader as saying this is what they plan on doing every weekday from now on.

“We are here; we’re not going to go,” said the group’s leader, Mahealani Kahau, who had a security detail of a half-dozen men surrounding her Friday on a corner of the lawn behind the palace where they had erected a tent. Ms. Kahau said members of her group planned to return to the 11-acre palace complex, a public park abutting the Hawaii Capitol, every day except Saturdays and Sundays.”

Hawaiiankingdom.info has put together a detailed list of updates surrounding the initial action.

Free Hawaii also posted an update …

The short-lived trend of corporate social responsibility came to a grinding halt in April, reminding us yet again that they have no intention of changing voluntarily, atleast, not as long as their wants take precedence over rights and the needs of others.

And of course it was business as usual for Nation States - especially Canada, America and Bangladesh, who jumped at the chance to attack Indigenous people and illegally invade and usurp their lands.

Now for the depressing truth: In the coming months, there will be more invasions and offensives, more arrests and abuses, more displacement and land theft, more cultural and environmental destruction. And we’ll see it get worse. More aggressive, more invasive, more damaging.

Should we expect anything less? This is how it’s always been, and there’s no reason to think it’s going to change any time soon, providing, of course, that we continue trying to address them as we always have.

I realize the hypocrisy in that satement, but the way I see it, throughout all of history, it has never been the ones in power to take responsbility for themselves, to make …

Courtesy of Rights Action, here’s a story discussing a reparations plan for Genocide survivors and Mayan-Achi people who were massacred and forcibly evicted from their communities in the 1970s and 1980s - to make way for the Inter-American Development Bank- and World Bank-funded Chixoy hydro-electric dam.

CHIXOY DAM AGREEMENT

By Hugo Alvarado, www.prensalibre.com
Translated by Rosalind M. Gill, for Rights Action

The Government and communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy Dam have signed an agreement to set up a reparations plan. Diego Paz, representative of the OEA, Rafael Espada, Vice-president, and Juan de Dios García, sign the agreement. The Signatories agree that:

• within nine months a report will be submitted, detailing reparations for the communities affected by the construction of the largest hydroelectric dam in the country;
• besides financial compensation, productive programmes in the areas affected will form part of the compensation;
• repairs will be carried out in some areas affected by the construction of the dam.

A reparations plan will detail compensation to be provided to communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam. A recently-signed agreement stipulates …

On March 29, Traditional O’odham leaders and International Supporters gathered in the small village of Quitovac in Sonora, Mexico, to organize against a toxic waste dump that threatens one of the O’odham’s most sacred Ceremonial sites.

“The gathering in Quitovac represented yet another chapter in the fight to stop the building of the toxic dump proposed to be built by the Mexican company CEGIR,” wrote the O’odham Solidarity Project shortly after the gathering came to a close.

“Since early in 2006 the traditional O’odham residing in the occupied territories of Northern Mexico and the South Western United States (and their international supporters) have persistently and patiently organized, protested and petitioned to try to convince the Mexican government federal Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (SEMARNAT) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop CEGIR from building this toxic dump. So far, protest and international attention has held back the initial phases of the dump construction, but there have been no official statements from SEMARNAT, CEGIR or any other entity that the plans to build the dump have actually been officially canceled.”

The …

Presently, State troopers from South Dakota are illegally occupying Yankton Sioux Lands. They began doing so on April 15, after Yankton Sioux Tribal Members began protesting a Hog Farm being constructed on their territory without their consent.

According to the Atlantic Free Press, the Sioux Protesters were “met immediately with illegal law enforcement presence and arrest[s]. To date twenty-two people have been arrested on trumped up charges and there has been a total over reaction of law enforcement numbering up to 52 SD Highway Patrol Cars with 22 more Highway Patrol cars waiting in reserve. Some patrol cars from as far away as the state of Iowa. The Highway Patrol has set up snipers with rifles on top of two command posts they have established near the scene.”

Kansas Mutual Aid adds that atleast one person has been injured, after “he was hit by a front loader attempting to start construction on the project. A tribal court has ruled that construction should be halted, and no land belonging to the tribe (including the road where protesters were arrested [on April 22]) can …