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The following is an episode from sourcecode. It’s a half-hour look at 4 ongoing indigenous struggles in North America.

The first clip focuses on the dumping of Nuclear Waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah, and the struggles of the Gwich’in in Alaska; The second clip’s on The Grassy Narrows struggle against Weyerhaeuser, Abitibi, and the Canadian government; and the third and final clip is an intro to the ongoing class action lawsuit against the United States — Cobell vs Kempthorne (previously Cobell vs. Norton)

Gwich’in of Alaska; Skull Valley Goshute
“Most Americans know the story of the Trail …

Cobell v. Norton is a class-action lawsuit filed on June 10, 1996, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to force the federal government to account for billions of dollars belonging to approximately 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, and held in trust since the late 19th century.

Through document discovery and courtroom testimony, the case has revealed mismanagement, ineptness, dishonesty and delay by federal officials, leading U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to declare their conduct “fiscal and governmental irresponsibility in its purest form.”

Then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kevin Gover and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin …

WASHINGTON - Plaintiffs in the long-running lawsuit over the Individual Indian Money trust have rejected proposals from the presidential administration to consolidate the fractionated IIM lands, turn management functions and land title over to individuals and tribes while curtailing federal liabilities, and settle outstanding claims in return for monetary payments.

”We are back at square one,” contends Elouise Cobell, of the case that bears her name, adding that the administration’s proposals, coming late in the legislative session, have made a hash of settlement efforts by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. ”We have said from the beginning that we want …

Opposition to a controversial Bush administration proposal that would dramatically alter the federal trust relationship is mounting.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has been holding meetings across the country to solicit input on a bill that would settle the Cobell trust fund lawsuit. Most tribes support that goal but they are criticizing a sweeping set of changes, unveiled just last week, that would go much further.

With time running out to pass the bill, tribal leaders said they were broadsided by the proposal. “Where is the dialogue? Where is the respect to Indian Country?” asked Ernie Stensgar, the president of …

Stuart Rintoul, October 14, 2006

ABORIGINAL people in Queensland and NSW are preparing legal action against their state governments over wages they should have been paid as labourers or servants, but which they never received.

This is despite a $55.5million offer to settle the stolen wages cases by the Beattie Government, which drew widespread condemnation when it was capped at individual payments of $4000; a NSW scheme that over the past year has accepted $400,000 in claims of up to $25,000; and a Senate inquiry into the matter.

Aborigines also learned this week that NSW archivists had discovered 139 boxes of …