Dear Relatives,
We want to take this time to convey our gratitude for everyone who has contributed to our work over the past years. Everything we have accomplished is in no small part due to you. When you share our social media, send a friend or family member a copy of one of our newsletters and they subscribe, our circle grows.
At the end of each year we send out a snapshot of the issues, where we’ve traveled, who we’ve engaged with, and recap the highlights of the last 12 months. And once a year, we ask, for those who are able, to make a donation that will help us keep the lights on. All donations, no matter what time of the year, help provide us with the resources for outreach in Indigenous communities, supporting grassroots leadership with communication tools and training. Because of your generosity we’re able to assist Indigenous communities, in various ways.
Our outreach is determined by community-defined requests that are tailored to their unique environment, natural and cultural needs. This is absolutely vital for building relationships, sharing knowledge and capacity with and for our relatives across Turtle Island and beyond. Donations allow us to maintain and expand our outreach to end the violence of extractivism and to drastically change the paradigms that ignore the writing on the wall.
As the 2023 calendar year closes, we at IEN reflect on our vast network of Indigenous Peoples, allies, and frontline communities who have stood with us, offering their Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, love, inspiration, expertise and prayers for the many challenges we have faced throughout the year in efforts to achieve a sustainable future for all of life on Mother Earth. C
Historically, for Indigenous Peoples, wintertime is for slowing down, for rest, and reflecting on the past year, honoring natural cycles, acknowledging the interconnections between humanity and the natural world. This quiet time is also for sharing stories that teach and inspire us to continue to defend Mother Earth for the coming generations. As we recount in this last 2023 newsletter some of the powerful work by IEN board, staff and contractors, we offer it as a prayer, a seed to be planted in the hearts and minds of all who receive it, that it might sprout and grow to realize real change in the years ahead.
IEN was on the move in 2023, adding several new staff and rolling out new program initiatives like the Indigenous Just Transition Program’s new curriculum and plan for assisting communities to develop a plan specific to their geographic region, their specific culture and needs for transitioning into a future free of fossil fuels, capitalist exploitation and war. The IJT team in September held a two-day Southwest regional gathering in Flagstaff, Arizona, and are planning for more in 2024.
 Because women and children are impacted most by the devastating effects of climate chaos, in May 2023 IEN’s Indigenous Feminism's Program held a Reclaiming Matriarchy Gathering of more than two dozen invited Indigenous women from throughout Turtle Island. Attendees deepened their understanding between extractive industries and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis, as well as the connection between the Indian Child Welfare Act and how reproductive justice is intertwined with extractive industries.
 Our Climate Justice Program worked on a number of things throughout the year, including climate justice-related policy, research, and education, produced new materials, attended the UNPFII, observed and analyzed UNFCCC negotiations, pushed back against geoengineering at the Arctic Assembly, tracked US climate and energy policy, organized educational trainings on false solutions and much, much more.
Moreover, IEN’s Keep It In The Ground Program focused on growing the team and strengthening community connections, welcoming a new divestment organizer to target the insurance sector. KIITG emphasizes the need for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to be recognized by the US, advocated year-long for an end to fossil fuels, and worked alongside mining communities and promoting their right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), including their right to say no to extractivism in their territories.
The IEN Teaching Garden had an especially productive 2023 focusing on planting food, medicine and pollinator plants, teaching, urban conservation, restoration and food sovereignty, creating a space for community to connect with the land at IEN’s primary office in Bemidji, MN. There’s even a Slovenian Bee House (image above) to provide honeybees with winter shelter. Learn more by joining our garden community on Facebook.
 The Indigenous Sovereignty Program Initiative has been ongoing for years as Indigenous Sovereignty is a cornerstone of IEN. Key areas of work are Inherent Relationships Jurisprudence (IRJ), Indigenous Just Transition, and issues pertaining to the Facilitated Working Group of the UNFCCC. IRJ is a joint Project with the Earth Law Center- it is focused on uplifting Indigenous legal systems based upon Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and how those systems include the inherent relationships that respective Indigenous Nations have with the air, waters, and lands on which we live.
IEN’s Water Ethics Program Initiative spent this year exploring and restoring the multifaceted and holistic nature of our relationship to water and the benefits of centering Indigenous wisdom to understand the complex value of water. The Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace delegation affirmed that humanity needs a paradigm shift in its relationship with water and Mother Earth, from a relationship of destruction and abuse to a relationship where we care, nurture, maintain, sustain and protect Mother Earth.
The IEN Communications team has grown and built infrastructure in 2023, adding to its portfolio of successful projects and coverage of events, enhancing skills, talents and methods to coordinate content and messaging on many media platforms. IEN Communications responds to requests for speakers, interviews and outreaches to journalists and academia. IEN’s leadership has responded to our requests for investment in advanced training and equipment to perfect our skills, and cross train as much as possible our many interconnected teams, making us more agile and responsive to the rolling tides of the environmental justice movement.
It was at times an overwhelming year, with battles on federal policy like the Willow Project that were in direct opposition to President Biden’s campaign promises. Biden also backtracked on promises to stop the MVP by signing Sen. Manchin-written legislation that included line items from an American Petroleum Institute's wish list to the June 2023 passage of federal legislation raising the debt ceiling. With the stroke of a pen, Biden took the final step that nullified several valid legal challenges to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to ensure the eventual completion of the pipeline. Politicians from oil and gas rich states also supported this end-run around the courts and as claimed by legal scholars, a violation of the fundamental separation of government powers. This was another step taken that may eventually eliminate credibly-conducted environmental impact studies and science-based reasons for rejecting or modifying permits. Our goal in the coming year will be to ensure a higher level of accountability than we can expect now.
But, with IEN staff on a quiet and introspective break from Dec. 22 – Jan. 3, 2024, then returning inspired by the incredible amount of accomplishments in 2023, we are undaunted. More outreach, more goals, objectives, and exciting events for 2024 are in planning stages.
Looking to 2024...
Another Indigenous Just Transition regional workshop is planned for the spring with others throughout the year. The Climate Justice team is planning events as are all IEN program teams with participation in continued meetings and negotiations related to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that hopefully will lead to a more promising COP29 after a disappointing COP28, held in oil-dependent Dubai, UAE, presided over by an oil executive and overrun by oil and gas lobbyists and CEOs.
Perhaps most exciting is the return of IEN’s Protecting Mother Earth (PME) conference, after five years of dormancy due to the pandemic. The 18th 2024 PME is scheduled for August 1-4, 2024, in Cherokee, North Carolina, to be hosted by the Eastern Cherokee Organization, led by Eastern Band Cherokee matriarchs Mary Crowe and Lisa Montelongo and welcomed by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
We expect as many as 1,500 participants to come from many diverse Indigenous nations, societies, groups and organizations from across the world, with most coming from Turtle Island and the Western Hemisphere. The PME has shown the ability to educate, train, and develop much needed dialogue and strategy around environmental justice issues affecting Indigenous Peoples and our lands, territories, air, and waters. Held in regional locations on Indigenous territories throughout Turtle Island, the PME has become a vast coalition-building success connecting Indigenous communities throughout the Americas and indeed, the world.
As we close our 2023 calendars, we look forward to the promise of our Indigenous new year that for many of us begins with springtime, the time of rebirth and renewal. We are grateful for your continued support and ongoing attention to the enormous concerns and issues of Indigenous Peoples, for those issues and concerns ultimately affect each and every one of us. The transformation we seek is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation, which includes those who hoard wealth and power and see all living beings as dispensable.
A just transition will require the massive transfer of wealth to a system that respects the sacredness and the relationship of all life to water, to land, to our bodies, and transitions away from an extractive economy that devours Mother Earth and poisons life – to a living and regenerative economy. Your financial donations help us meet our objectives and goals in more ways than we can count.
This coming year we will continue to fine-tune our ways of storytelling, outreach methods and sources that continue to deeply immerse us and renew our commitment to continue to build and maintain two-way communication pathways of reciprocity and respect.
We are humbled and honored by the consistent support from donors, no matter how small or large the donation may be - you are all in our prayers and we gratefully acknowledge each and every one of you, for all you do, everyday to hold accountable those responsible for the injustices, disinformation, and exploitation of Mother Earth, her children, our relatives, both human and non-human.
Join us in this movement to build power from the ground up. You can make a one-time or recurring donation by clicking here. And for all U.S. taxpayers, your donation(s) are tax deductible! You can find The EIN number needed to report a donation on our team page on our website.
From our family to yours, we pray for the peace, wellness, and love we all strive for, every day. May your New Year be filled with positive steps forward to these ends.
With gratitude,
IEN Leadership and Staff
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