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Dear Relatives,
In the month of March, IEN Leadership and our facilitators have been focused on finalizing our upcoming all-staff and board meeting agendas, gathering educational materials, and obtaining input from staff and board for our 3-year strategic plan. At this year’s annual in-person meeting, our board met with our staff, lending their expertise and valued wisdom, sharing stories of success and strife, and offering encouragement to our growing team and how to navigate this next chapter for IEN.
Our staff discussed our future plans, reinforcing collaboration and communication across our work to deepen impact and transformative change. Our relationships with one another amongst our team deepened, along with our commitment to protecting Mother Earth from extraction, exploitation, and contamination.
As we emerge from another winter, glimpsing the familiar signs of springtime in March, we are thankful and energized, looking forward to April and beyond.
Meanwhile, on March 5-7, 2024, IEN’s Indigenous Just Transition Team led by IJT Coordinator Loren White and IJT Organizer Mary (Missy) Crowe met in Phoenix, AZ, with IJT advisers Heather Milton-Lightening, IEN Sovereignty Advocate Michael Lane, IEN Board member Manny Pino, IEN Water Ethics Organizer Mona Pollaca and IEN audio and solar tech Govinda Dalton. IEN Exec. Dir. Tom Goldtooth also participated in discussions led by facilitator Amber Benally that included finalizing the IJT curriculum developed by Washington DC-based Movement Matters and an upcoming test run of that curriculum in June. (Read more updates below in “Program Spotlight”)
As the northern hemisphere turns closer to the warmth of Father Sun, we on Turtle Island look forward to April’s blooms and blossoms as many Indigenous communities and traditional societies celebrate a new year with ceremonials, feasts, outdoor dances, games, and the gathering of traditional foods and medicines.
The primary IEN office will be closed on April 1 as staff and leadership return home from our annual staff and board meeting. Thank you for your understanding.
As the weeks and months fly by, we’ll continue to plan for our upcoming IEN Protecting Mother Earth Conference to be held August 1-4 on the Qualla Boundary, Cherokee, North Carolina. Our hosts for this 19th PME are the Eastern Cherokee Organization led by our own IEN IJT Organizer Mary (Missy) Crowe and Lisa Montelongo. Both Eastern Band Cherokee matriarchs are longtime supporters and relatives of our IEN family and we are excited to gather again in the Cherokee Mother Land for this inspirational and informational campout conference - the first in five years - due to the pandemic.
More information will be forthcoming. Get your camping gear ready! There are no registration fees and meals will be provided. Experts and frontline activists will lead plenary discussions, workshops, and breakout sessions. Mark your calendars and make plans to join us!
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March 8, 2024, International Women’s Day kicked off Women’s Herstory Month at IEN, honoring powerful Women, Femmes, and Two Spirits across Mother Earth, including those of IEN leading the fight to protect and defend Mother Earth.
IEN Feminisms Organizer Claire Charlo (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) and her teen, Remi Still Smoking, presented on “Water Protection and the Cultural Responsibility of Women, Femmes, and Two Spirits,” during the Meeting of Sacred Waters: A Global Gathering of Indigenous Voices,” held March 12-13 at Isleta Pueblo, NM. Theirs was the only session that addressed Two Spirit issues related to Indigenous cultures and water. It was overwhelmingly popular, inspiring much interaction between presenters and attendees and so many questions that it lasted an extra half-hour.
IEN’s Water Ethics Organizer Mona Pollaca (Havasupai, Hopi, Tewa) also presented at the Meeting of Sacred Waters. Mona focused her presentation on Indigenous Water Ethics, exploring concerns expressed by Indigenous activists regarding the need for Indigenous Water Ethics and the principles recognizing and supporting tribal sovereignty and cultural autonomy. How are Indigenous Water Ethics principles influencing change in attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs about water? The meeting is described as holding space for Indigenous Peoples to come together to learn, reflect, and support the vision of a sustainable future for all. After all, all of life relies on water for sustenance and so, we are all responsible for its care.
UN International World Water Day is held annually on March 22. The theme of World Water Day 2024 is “Water for Peace,” as water can create peace or create conflict, especially when water is polluted, and when access is unequal or denied. While more than 3 billion people around the world depend on water that flows across international boundaries, only 24 countries have cooperation agreements for sharing water. Climate chaos and population growth are having - and will have - dire impacts on all aspects of life creating an urgent need to unite to protect and conserve all of life’s most precious and essential source. All of humanity must unite, using water for peace and laying the foundations for a stable future. Events are occurring globally. Click here for more information.
Towards the end of March, IEN’s Carbon Pricing Educator Thomas Joseph (Hupa), Communications Director Daisee Francour (Oneida), and audio and solar technician Govinda Dalton traveled to the southwest to provide technical support and community training at the 3rd Annual New Mexico No False Solutions Gathering, held at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM. For two and a half days, Indigenous, youth, frontline, and local organizers, elders, community leaders, water advocacy organizations and allies and environmental groups, and students came together to learn about false solutions such as carbon markets and offsets, hydrogen, nature-based solutions, cap & trade, greenwashing tactics, local water issues, and so much more!
IEN’s Ring of Fire Cohort, a group of young Indigenous false solutions trainers from across Turtle Island, led several training sessions at the gathering. This year, nearly 80 people attended the invite-only gathering, nearly doubling the number of participants from last year. Organizers included the Pueblo Action Alliance, the New Mexico No False Solutions Coalition, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), and the Climate Justice Alliance.
Looking ahead…
During the week of April 9-12, 2024, IEN Indigenous Sovereignty Advocate Michael Lane (Menominee) will be in Oklahoma on the Muscogee Creek Reservation and in Choctaw Nation for two invitation-only work sessions related to Inherent Relationships Jurisprudence. The sessions are intended to provide background to the concept of IRJ as a legal philosophy arising from Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and how it might be utilized by Indigenous Nations, organizations, societies, etc., in the advocacy for Mother Earth. It is a concept in its early stages. How it evolves and how it is utilized will be at the discretion of those who choose to adapt it. As the concept evolves and the project develops, more information will be provided here by our IRJ experts.
Mid-April, an IEN delegation will travel to Lenapehoking, the ancestral homelands of the Lenape People for the 23rd Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, scheduled for April 15-26, 2024, in New York, NY. The UNPFII was created in 2000 as an outcome of the UN’s International Year for the World’s Indigenous Peoples in 1993, within the first International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004). It is an advisory body that makes recommendations and prepares reports to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
This year’s theme will focus on “Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-determination in the Context of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Emphasizing the Voices of Indigenous Youth.” The session will discuss the six mandated areas of the Permanent Forum - economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health, and human rights - with reference to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. IEN utilizes the forum for networking with Indigenous groups and organizations from across Mother Earth.
Delegates will present oral interventions as did IEN Carbon Pricing Educator Thomas Joseph (Hoopa Valley Tribe) during the UNPFII 22 in 2023, introducing the key concepts of Indigenous Just Transition. Delegates also will likely make recommendations as IEN Feminisms Organizer Claire Charlo made in 2023 on behalf of IEN, “Calling on the territorial integrity of Mother Earth.” IEN and its delegates will participate in side events of its own or those of other Indigenous organizations. 2023 side events addressed topics of “Indigenous Women Facing Climate Catastrophe” and “Indigenous Peoples’ Health and the Violence of False Solutions.” Most events will be live-streamed at ienearth.org
In response to alarming rates of violence among QTBIPOC and 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills surfacing in 2023, a new organization INDIGiQUEER Creative Alliance recently launched online. With events across the country over the 2024 spring and summer months iQ will be gearing up to support QTBiPOC-led projects and initiatives. Check them out at the link above!
ICYMI at IENEARTH.ORG
Dirty “Energy Week” Gives Big Oil the House Floor
Indigenous Peoples Celebrate the Ending of the SCoPX GeoEngineering Experiment
Open Call For Submissions for the Indigenous Message on Water 2.0
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On March 7, 2024, IEN co-sponsored an online fundraiser for the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance to support Palestinian women and children who are on the brink of starvation while suffering an ongoing genocide by Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza. IEN continues to call for an end to the retaliatory overkill that has claimed more than 30,000 Palestinian lives since Oct. 7, 2024. Click here to read more.
Indigenous Just Transition Summit hosted by the Alaska Just Transition Collective
The IEN Indigenous Just Transition coordinator Loren White (Three Affiliated/MHA) had just enough time after leaving the team meeting in Phoenix to get home, spend time with family, pack again and fly to A’akw Kwáan Territory in Alaska to join IEN Climate Geoengineering Organizer Panganga Pungowiyi (St. Lawrence Island Yupik) and IEN Mining Organizer Talia Boyd (Dine’) for the Just Transition Summit hosted by the Alaska Just Transition Collective (AJTC) that was held March 18 - 20.
AJTC is a cohort of Alaska regional organizations that recognize Indigenous knowledge as essential to their work. Using the phrase, “Remembering Forward,” the collective seeks solutions for a just and equitable transition away from an extractive economy into a resilient one based in care and Indigenous Knowledge.
The summit is the collective’s biennial gathering to share knowledge, skills, and inspiration. Loren, Panganga and Talia hosted a “Meet and Greet” reception to inform summit participants about IEN programs and resources available to frontline communities protecting Mother Earth. They presented about Free, Prior, and Informed Consent and the need for a just transition away from fossil fuels and mining. Reception attendees learned about IEN’s IJT Principles, the development of IJT curricula, and how to identify false solutions that actually prolong the fossil fuels era, thereby causing more harm to Mother Earth and BIPOC communities. The three also participated in the combined Ceasefire for Palestine and Stand Against AK Anti-Protest Bill rallies in Juneau, AK.
IEN Mining Organizer Talia Boyd (Dine’) is from what’s now called the Colorado Plateau, a well-known mining and extractive industry national sacrifice zone. Talia attended this year’s IUFF, where she interacted with her Navajo relatives, anti-nuclear activists, and her own Navajo Nation officials, discussing the need for stronger protections for the Navajo Nation regarding uranium and the nuclear fuel chain.
“We talked about the Superfund waste and the need for it to be removed from the Navajo Nation and the lack of a permanent safe water repository. We talked about the proposed transportation route for the Pinyon Plain Mine uranium ore being transported through Navajo and part of Hopi lands, to Ute Mountain Ute homelands, to the White Mesa Mill, the last operating conventional uranium mill in the country,” Talia explained. “We talked about water and how the Navajo aquifer has already been exploited by uranium and coal industries depleting our precious groundwater.”
Organizers of the event have held more than 70 Uranium Film Festivals in nine countries and screened more than 300 films on nuclear power and radioactive risks in more than 50 cities. In addition to Rio de Janeiro, the IUFF 2024 will tour several cities in the US and Canada.
The International Uranium Film Festival, also known as the Atomic Age Cinema Fest, was founded in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An educational event that merges art, ecology, and environmental justice with the purpose of informing the public about uranium mining and milling, nuclear power issues, nuclear weapons, the nuclear fuel cycle, and the effects of radioactivity on all living things utilizing film and video. The films shown feature content that critiques and analyzes all aspects of the nuclear industry and its effects on land, water, and human health. Having toured Germany, Portugal, India, and the US, the film festival was held again this year, March 7-8, in the capital of the Navajo Nation at Window Rock, AZ, where the nuclear fuel cycle has left overwhelming, negative effects that literally will last forever on the ancestral lands, water sources and peoples of the Navajo Nation, the Apache and Ute Tribes, as well as Hopi and Pueblo communities.
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Native news from around the web...
Ignoring Indigenous rights is making the green transition more expensive “If you’re going to develop energy in the U.S. you’ve got to do it with the support of tribal communities." Click here to read more.
How the Colville Tribes are restoring traditional lands and wildlife The tribes are re-establishing native species wiped out by systematic colonization. Click here to read more.
How the Puyallup Tribe Increased Police Accountability in Washington Along with the families of other police shooting victims and the financial support of every federally recognized tribe in Washington state, the Puyallup Tribe helped pass the nation’s first police accountability bill. Click here to read more.
The Puyallup Tribe of Washington has always been a champion of Native rights, especially during the Red Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. When one of their own was brutally and senselessly gunned down by Tacoma police in 2016 they consulted with the elders who organized and led many of the tribe’s early direct actions to protect sovereignty. The result was the passage of the nation’s first police accountability bill, Washington state’s Initiative 940, removing the immunity police once had that historically allowed them to murder citizens with impunity.
FBI informants to Standing Rock… In 2016, thousands of supporters answered the call from anti-pipeline protesters to come to Standing Rock in North Dakota to help stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. A new report confirms what most Water Protectors in the resistance camps have long suspected: that the FBI had likely embedded several informants. Click here to read more.
Native American, conservationists take SunZia to court The injunction could halt work on the powerline where it crosses the San Pedro River Valley. Click here to read more.
New NAGPRA rules: ‘We have an obligation to change’
Part 3: Native curators offer a model for future Indigenous exhibits. Click here to read more.
Yurok and three other tribes in California receive federal funds to boost access to electricity. As part of a plan to address energy inequities across the country, the federal government recently announced $72 million would be spent on connecting tribal communities with reliable, renewable energy. A little over $7 million of that funding is allocated to four tribes in California, including the Yurok Tribe. Click here to read more.
IEN’s Communications Director, Daisee Francour is named in Wisconsin’s 32 Most Influential Native American Leaders for 2024, Part 2 Madison 365, a nonprofit media organization in Madison, Wisconsin, fosters dialogue between members of diverse communities. It was recently named IEN’s own Communications Director Daisee Francour, one of Wisconsin’s Most Influential Native Americans. From the Oneida Nation, Daisee is also a member of IEN’s Leadership Team and an adjunct faculty member in human rights advocacy for the MPPA graduate program at Adler University. A very much deserved recognition, Daisee! Congratulations! Click here to read more.
Energy Department to support Thacker Pass lithium project with $2.26B loan The site contains the largest proven lithium reserves in North America. The Energy Department's Loan Programs Office intends to provide more than $2 billion to Lithium Americas to help finance a critical material processing facility. Lithium Americas estimates that initial production could support the lithium needs for up to 800,000 EVs annually. Material sourced from Thacker Pass will support eligibility for consumer tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act. [This is] the latest announcement to establish domestic supply chains from the once-dormant office. The conditional commitment for a $2.26 billion loan to Lithium Americas’ subsidiary, Lithium Nevada Corp., will finance the construction of processing facilities next to the massive Thacker Pass mine that the company is constructing in Nevada. The mine site contains the largest proven lithium reserves in North America. Click here to read more.
Elsewhere in the news...
Environmental Impact Statement on DAPL ‘on the shelf,’ could be released around Election Day BISMARCK, N.D. (KUMV) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Dakota Access Pipeline is still being finalized months after a public comment period. Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms says it has been “put on the shelf.” On Thursday, Helms says cooperating agencies will speak to Corps officials to discuss the status of the EIS, which could potentially lead to a shutdown of DAPL. Helms says he estimates we could wait months before the report is concluded. Click here to read more.
EQT to buy Equitrans Midstream in bid to boost natural gas margins Merger activity in U.S. shale oil and gas has soared in pursuit of greater scale and cost efficiencies amid volatile prices, with $250 billion in deals in the oil and gas industry in 2023. Click here to read more.
Hydrogen industry preps legal challenge to Biden tax rules The Treasury Department’s pending tax rules for low-carbon hydrogen production could soon spark court battles. Click here to read more.
Loss of nature costs more than previously estimated
Researchers propose that governments apply a new method for calculating the benefits that arise from conserving biodiversity and nature for future generations. Click here to read more.
Pentagon tries to dodge PFAS lawsuits over a product it helped invent The U.S. government is seeking immunity from 27 lawsuits related to a toxic firefighting foam used on military bases. Click here to read more.
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IEN Staff & Management
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