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 …

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 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 …

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 …

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. …

Nobodies from the Rainforest (Anonimato) is a short documentary about the Hupda indigenous People from Alto Rio Negro, northwest Amazon (Brazil).

Produced last year by Orlando Lemos, the film reveals a precarious health situation among the Hupda — one that’s been caused by outsider contact and a lack of access to clean water — as they struggle day to day with little resources, assistance, or even hope.

As for the health problem, the film primarily looks at Trachoma, which is a leading cause of infectious blindness in the world (8 million people, mostly in so-called developing countries, are visually impaired every …

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 …

Oxfam has an ongoing letter campaign in support of indigenous communities that border near the Prestea Mine in Southwest Ghana. The US-based company Golden Star Resources recently announced a plan to expand the mine. The plan jeopardizes the communities, and explicitly denies their right to free, prior, and informed consent.

There are also several injustices surrounding the mine which have yet to be adequately addressed, including two cyanide spills in 2004 and 2006, and a violent confrontation in 2005 between community members and security personnel guarding the mine. The guards shot seven people.

To …

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 …

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 …