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Dear Relatives,
As Mother Earth turns ever closer to the warmth of Father Sun, Turtle Island’s Indigenous Peoples embrace a lunar calendar based on the cycles of Grandmother Moon for appropriate timing of traditional ceremonials and games, foraging for edible and medicinal plants, and gardening. At the same time, to protect and continue those healthy, traditional lifeways, we also follow the modern, standardized, but artificial calendar to advocate within colonial systems of local, federal, and tribal governments. More recently, our staff and those in our network have made our presence known at international forums. It is said, that we must walk in two worlds.
This April, IEN staff and leadership were hard at work in a multitude of spaces. From our local communities, hands in the soil planting spring and summer vegetables and gathering for traditional foods and medicines, to international forums, Indigenous voices raised in advocacy of Indigenous lifeways at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held recently in New York, NY, IEN was present and actively pursuing just and equitable futures for all life on Mother Earth, for the next seven generations.
Our Work on the Ground
To kick off April, Carbon Pricing Educator, Thomas Joseph, traveled to Ottawa in so-called Canada to participate in a panel discussion on ‘International Action on Climate Change’ at the Métis Nation’s Youth Summit on Climate Change. Joseph was joined by members of our sister organization, Indigenous Climate Action, in educating young Indigenous youth about international mechanisms like the UNFCCC and why it is important that Indigenous Peoples are represented in global climate policy discussions.
Gitigaan - IEN Teaching Garden
 Back in Minnesota at our headquarters, IEN’s Teaching Garden Coordinator Kaylee Carnahan has been busy preparing Gitigaan, our IEN Teaching Garden for the next season of planting. When not speaking publicly about Gitigaan, the IEN Teaching Garden and related topics like Indigenous agricultural practices, wild tending, permaculture, or urban farming, Kaylee is actively working to heal the land abused by industry, where our primary IEN home office and garden sit in the homelands of the Anishinaabe, now called Bemidji, MN. In early April, the garden hosted workshops on seed starting and fruit tree grafting and saw bare-root trees and shrubs planted.
To celebrate Earth Day, as did organizations and communities all across Mother Earth, youth groups from local schools toured the garden. In late April, a group of students from the local charter school Voyagers helped expand the garden, installed a shelf for free food for the local community, built a second composting system, and placed new beds in the garden. As was hoped for, Kaylee and Gitigaan are building solid relationships with the broader local community.
Next month, IEN’s Teaching Garden will be hosting ‘Roots, Shoots, and Seeds Celebration’ event on May 26 12p-4p at our Bemidji office. There will be seed and plant sharing, live entertainment, workshops, garden tours and tabling from local community groups! Click here for more information.
 Back on the East Coast, acclaimed artist, environmental activist and IEN board member Sayokla Kindness (Oneida Nation) spoke about the Haudenosaunee “Unity Belt “at the Rekindling The Fire Of Our Sisterhood gathering, held April 5-8, 2024, at Ganondagan State Park near Victor, New York. The purpose of the gathering was to bring together Turtle Island’s Indigenous women in a more natural way to discuss their essential concerns, drawing upon cultural values to build stronger networks and affect public policy while fostering personal growth, connections and healing.
On Earth Day, Apr 22, 2024, IEN with a diverse coalition of Environmental Justice and Indigenous Peoples Organizations hosted a public hearing at a New York church to hold Citigroup accountable for its role in perpetuating environmental racism and fueling the Climate Crisis. IEN Divestment Organizer, Marcello Federico, along with others testified and spoke about the health harms and violations of human rights by Citibank-financed fossil-fuel projects in Indigenous territories of Peru, Canada, and the US. The hearing also kicked off “The Summer of Heat” Campaign to end fossil fuels financing. The campaign brings together a multiracial, multi-generational, cross-class movement for a campaign of sustained non-violent direct action that demands Wall Street stop investing in and insuring fossil fuels.
IEN Indigenous Feminisms Organizer Claire Charlo (Confederated Salish, Kootenai) attended the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus (GIWC) held on April 12, 2024, in the Church Center of the United Nations, New York, NY. Organized during the first UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the GIWC welcomes all Indigenous women. The main focus of the 2024 GIWC was training on how to write a statement or intervention, to be orally delivered before the body of the UNPFII and other civil society organizations, in this case, Indigenous Peoples Organizations. Statements/interventions cannot exceed three minutes, which is strictly enforced.
After opening the caucus, the women joined regional groups to determine co-chairs and rapporteurs for each region. Claire participated in the North American Region and to get things going, volunteered for either position. A woman from Canada was chosen as rapporteur. Claire and a youth delegate Sierra William were chosen to co-chair the North American region. The remainder of the day was spent listening and offering suggestions for intervention/statement proposals. The statements profoundly exemplified the dire situations of Indigenous women on the frontlines of violence, sex trafficking, environmental degradation, war, extractive industry and military occupation, poverty, housing, health care, access to clean water, and land for pastoral and agricultural use.
Intervention training as this year’s caucus agenda prepared the women in attendance, and the Indigenous Peoples Organizations they represent, to give voice to the concerns and dire situations they face in their homelands and were presented in the following days during the 2024 UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Click here for more from the UNPFII.
As we look forward to May, our Indigenous Feminisms team is co-organizing with MMIW 218, a community and MMIW advocacy group in Bemidji, for a conference on May 5, 2024 for National MMIW Awareness Day. IEN’s Lead on Indigenous Feminisms, Simone Senogles, will be presenting a talk on ‘What Happens to the Land, Happens to the Body.’
And finally, our entire team has been busy preparing for the 18th Protecting Mother Earth Conference, hosted by the Eastern Band of Cherokee, from August 1 to 4, 2024. Protecting Mother Earth (PME) Conferences are all-outdoor events, and this year, we will be gathering on the Qualla Boundary, located in the mountains of what is now known as Western North Carolina, the original homelands of the Cherokee Peoples. We will soon launch our pre-registration platform, stay tuned!
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Program Spotlight: Climate Justice Program
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in New York, NY
The Indigenous Environmental Network participated in this year’s 23rd Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). This year’s theme was “Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ right to Self-determination in the context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: emphasizing the voices of Indigenous youth.”
IEN’s 11-member delegation (above) included Indigenous youth from the Standing Rock Youth Council and the Huni Kui, an Indigenous community in Brazil’s Amazon, with other delegates from Alaska, Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, California, and Brazil. Our delegates were made up of various youth, organizers, activists, scholars, human rights experts, and long-time Indigenous advocates active in the United Nations arena.
The Standing Rock Youth Council kicked off the first week of UNPFII strong, delivering a powerful intervention on the floor, warning the global community about the rising threat of abusive lawsuits known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Energy Transfer, the corporation behind DAPL, is suing Greenpeace, an environmental NGO in a SLAPP lawsuit related to the peaceful protests at Standing Rock between May 2016 to May 2017.
The lawsuit is seeking $300 million in damages from Greenpeace and is set to go to trial in the summer of 2024 in North Dakota. Standing Rock and Cheyenne River youth emphasized that the lawsuit against Greenpeace is also an attack on the Indigenous movement in our fight for self-determination to protect Mother Earth, our waters, sacred and cultural sites and our youth and future generations.
The Standing Rock Youth Council maintained a strong presence at UNPFII, and hosted other events like a rally and workshop hosted outside the UN calling for an end to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Additionally, the youth council also hosted a panel inside the Indigenous Media Zone, ‘Still No DAPL: Indigenous Youth Fighting Fossil Fuels’, a press conference, and participated in a Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network’s Panel, ‘Indigenous Youth Leading Solutions for Climate Justice.’
Moreover, at this year’s session, IEN’s delegation participated in eight events, including hosting our official side event, ‘Recommendation to Declare a Moratorium on False Solutions’. Our panel of experts called for the urgent implementation of a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects and the rejection of all carbon markets and offset systems including emission trading systems in Article 6.2, 6.4, and 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.
IEN Executive Director, Tom BK Goldtooth, shared, “we are long overdue for a moratorium on false climate solutions like carbon markets. It’s a life and death situation with our people related to the mitigation solutions that are being negotiated, especially under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Article 6 is all about carbon markets, which is a smokescreen, which is a loophole [that keeps] fossil fuel polluters from agreeing to phase out carbon.”
The carbon market moratorium IEN has called for would end carbon dioxide removal projects like carbon capture and storage; forest, soil, and ocean offsets; nature-based solutions; debt-for-nature swaps; biodiversity offsets; and other geoengineering technologies.
Furthermore, IEN Indigenous Feminisms Organizer, Claire Charlo delivered a powerful intervention about the health impacts Indigenous women and youth face from environmental degradation. Climate false solutions and continued extraction make Indigenous women’s bodies vulnerable to harmful effects of toxic pollutants, contamination and heavy metals. Charlo shared that as bearers of life, Indigenous women are on the frontlines of health impacts from environmental degradation and risk passing on more serious environmental health problems for future generations.
Lastly, IEN Climate Geoengineering Organizer, Panganga Pungowiyi participated in our co-hosted event with Global Justice Ecology Project and No-REDD+, ‘Indigenous Peoples Defend Whales and their Territories against the Blue Economy and Carbon Colonialism.’ Panganga and others called out these desperate attempts of greenwashing as false solutions that create more harm on Indigenous lands.
At this year’s UNPFII, as in previous years, our delegation delivered impactful interventions and events, and advocated for an end to false solutions and fossil fuels! This was the 23rd year since this forum was established and we are hopeful that our recommendations get included in the final report developed by UNPFII members.
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Banks and asset managers are sinking our future, including by backing the beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline and its Southgate extension.
Communities on the frontline of these projects are organizing a march and environmental justice hearing in front of Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte on May 8 at 12 pm. Can you join us?
With fervent fossil fuel buildout in North Carolina, including MVP Southgate and the Transco SSEP, this is a critical moment to voice our opposition to Bank of America’s support of the fossil fuel industry, and the beleaguered 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline. 7DS is organizing a free, roundtrip bus making multiple stops between The Triangle and Charlotte on May 8. RSVP now and reserve your seat.
We need everyone there!
Click here to RSVP
Please check our social media and our website for more events, news, and perspective!
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IEN Staff & Management
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