Tag Archive for 'Sacred Grounds'Page 4 of 6

09
Mar

Uranium mine expansion threatens the Lakota

The Canadian-based uranium giant Cameco Resources is attempting to expand their mining operation near Crawford, Nebraska. Last year they submitted a proposal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), asking permission to use another 2.4 billion gallons of water over the 4.7 billion they currently exploit (per year) from the High Plains aquifer, the largest aquifer in America.

If the expansion is approved as Cameco hopes it could seriously infringe on those who depend on water from the High Plains - and several interconnected aquifers; among them, the People of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and others in eight states from Nebraska to Texas. At the moment, the aquifer is being depleted at a rate of 160 percent above its ability to replenish.

A group of indigenous stakeholders and environmental organizations say this expansion must not happen. Led by Debra White Plume and …

Published on
March 9, 2008
  2 Comments 1,204 views

24
Dec

Yucca Mountain Needs Your Help

Black Mesa Indigenous Support has sent out an urgent call for people to help protect Yucca Mountain.

Located 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Mountain range is located on Shoshone territory as defined in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The US government however refuses to acknowledge the treaty and is currently planning to make the Mountain range into a major nuclear waste repository.

The Shoshone and numerous other Indigenous Nations, all of whom hold Yucca Mountain sacred, have been actively opposed to the plan from the beginning. There are a wide array of cultural, social, physical, and religious dangers (pdf) implicit in this project which have not been adequately addressed.

There are also a great number of serious environmental concerns, such as the fact that there are several local fault lines …

Published on
December 24, 2007
  1 Comment 1,256 views

15
Dec

Klabona Keepers get temporary injunction against Shell

Last Monday, the Klabona Keepers won a temporary injunction against Shell Canada, forcing them to halt road construction for the coalbed methane project their pushing on Klabona Territory (Tahltan).

The injunction will only be in effect for about a week, when a Canadian court will can hear the application for a second injunction against Shell; but Rhoda Quock, a Tahltan elder and spokeswoman for the Klabona Keepers says “we are treating this injunction as a significant victory and the best way we can celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Landmark Delgamuukw/Gisday’wa Decision that was handed down on December 10, 1997.”

Since 2005, the road has been the site of roadblocks by the Klabona Keepers Elders Society. Aside from it being on Tahltan lands, the area that Shell threatens to destroy has been used for generations by …

Published on
December 15, 2007
  0 Comments 1,050 views

10
Dec

San Francisco Peaks hearing starts tomorrow

Tomorrow, December 11th, a Federal Appeals Court in Pasadena will be hearing oral arguments for and against the violation of religious freedom, environmental destruction, and public health dangers associated with the use of treated sewage effluent for snowmaking in a proposed ski area development on Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks–a Mountain range held Sacred by more than 13 Indigenous Nations.

This is the sequel to the unanimous court decision made in March, explains IPS News, that ruled “the U.S. Forest Service had violated its own laws by not fully studying the impact of human contact with fake snow made from the treated sewage;” and also “determined that the development on the peak would substantially burden the American Indians’ religious practice.”

It should have been case-closed, but U.S. forest officials and the developers just couldn’t take no for an answer …

Published on
December 10, 2007
  3 Comments 1,144 views

01
Dec

Defenders of the Black Hills

This 12-minute video, produced by the Seventh Generation Fund, discusses the Defenders of the Black Hills, “a group of volunteers, without racial or tribal boundaries, whose mission is to ensure that all of the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 are upheld by the federal government of the United States.”

In doing so, these volunteers are also upholding the Constitution of the United States which, in Article Six, states that “treaties are the Supreme Law of the land.” Until the

Treaties are upheld, the actions of the Defenders are to restore and protect the environment of the Black Hills and the surrounding Treaty Area to the best of their ability.

The Black Hills themselves stretch across western South Dakota, northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana. More than 60 indigenous nations had been traveling to the Black Hills for millennia to conduct spiritual ceremonies.

“At one time, …

Published on
December 1, 2007
  0 Comments 1,052 views

30
Nov

Action needed to protect Mt. Tenabo

The Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) posted an action alert yesterday, warning that Cortez Gold Mines (a subsidiary of Barrrick Gold) may soon be permitted to build a new gold mine on the slopes of Mt. Tenabo.

The mountain and surrounding area is of extreme significance to the Spiritual and Cultural life of the Western Shoshone. “Mt. Tenabo has been, and continues to be used by Western Shoshone people as a central part of their religious practices and world view. Western Shoshone visit the mountain and the valley below (the location of the mine pit) for prayer ceremonies, gathering of sacred plants, fasting, and vision quests, among other uses. The Mountain also contains Western Shoshone gravesites. All of these values and uses will be destroyed by the Project.

Unless the mine is stopped, it will also:

Disturb (devastate) 6,792 acres of land, including a heap leach and …

Published on
November 30, 2007
  0 Comments 899 views

24
Nov

In the Name of Mining

The following video clip is from “Sa Ngalan ng Mina?” (In the Name of Mining) a film that shows how politicians in the Philippines have been selling the country’s natural resources to foreign mining companies, and how those companies are impacting the environment and the cultures and livelihoods of Indigenous People. This particular clip focuses on the exploits of Canadian mining firm Toronto Ventures, Inc (TVI) in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.

TVI’s operations are said to be “one of the most shameful of the existing mining operations encroaching on IP lands;” and “one of the more well documented cases of a firm literally out-muscling local opposition to its practices. The area is likewise heavily militarized.”

In 1994, TVI occupied Mount Canatuan, a sacred site for the Subanen People. The occupation was approved by the government, however TVI did not have the consent (FPIC) of the Subanen. A few …

Published on
November 24, 2007
  0 Comments 1,038 views

Eight Mayan Women

Eight Mayan Women is a story of continued resistance to the Canadian mining company Goldcorp.

For the past three years the company has been extracting gold and silver in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. The people of San Miguel have been opposed the operation, primarily out of a concern that it is destroying the environment and draining the region of its water. Many also say they were deceived and forced into selling their lands, and that …


Underreported Struggles #20, November 2008

In the month’s Underreported Struggles: Talisman decides to ignore warning from the Achuar to “get out now”; A spontaneous tribal uprising forms in West Bengal; Vedanta Resources gets chased away by more than …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


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