Indigenous History and Rights & Tribal Sovereignty

The technology TigerSwan used at Standing Rock may be state of the art, but the use of policing to suppress indigenous protest is as old as the United States itself

Thousands of Water Protectors from more than three hundred Native nations, as well as allied supporters from a range of social movements, gathere...

Morton County, ND – A new investigation by DeSmog and Muckrock reveals the behind-the-scenes role played by the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) in crafting narratives for law enforcement tasked with protecting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) from resistance by indigenous peoples and their allies. Emails obtained through public records requests show the Sheriffs’ Association contracted […]

Indigenous people are rejecting oil, coal and gas extraction in favor of renewable energy to save their land, increase employment and fight global warming

Authorities said the risky low-flying maneuver was used to warn demonstrators to disperse, but the reasoning doesn’t hold up.

Sheriffs in Minnesota worried about who would oversee an escrow account, funded by pipeline giant Enbridge, to reimburse the costs of policing protests.

Indigenous Sami activists in Norway and Americans of Sami descent forced the first bank to divest from the Dakota Access pipeline. This is how they did it.

The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is part of a centuries-long indigenous struggle against dispossession and capitalist expansionism.

The fate of the Dakota Access pipeline could be decided at a U.S. court hearing Friday, where federal regulators could set in motion a months-long shutdown of the line while the Biden Administration completes an environmental review.

A water shortage could feed tensions between farmers, conservationists and tribes along the California-Oregon border.

By Jeff Lewis TORONTO (Reuters) - A First Nation group in Canada's British Columbia province has put top gold miner Newmont Corp on notice that it is ...

The Canadian government formally invoked a 1977 treaty that officials say prevents the U.S. or Michigan from disrupting Enbridge's Line 5 oil pipeline.

The Native American-led protest against the Dakota Access pipeline has gained global attention. In an e360 interview, indigenous expert Kyle Powys Whyte talks about the history of fossil fuel production on tribal lands and the role native groups are playing in fighting climate change.

Groups are opposed to Enbridge Energy’s project to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline in the US.

Public and consumer pressure on banks to quit financing the Dakota Access pipeline companies is producing results.

EPA has begun the process of developing a set of tribal and indigenous peoples environmental justice guiding principles and policy.

We believe the U.S. needs a WaSH (water, sanitation & hygiene) Sector, where diverse organizations join forces with impacted communities to close the Water Gap forever. So we built this database of implementers, funders, academics, community champions, government agencies and more—all committed to improving water and sanitation access across the country. By open sourcing this data and keeping it up-to-date, we hope to foster knowledge-sharing, research, strategic coordination, and most importantly, collaboration to bring impacted Americans the clean, running water we all deserve.

he Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), is an alliance of grassroots indigenous peoples whose mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening maintaining and respecting the traditional teachings and the natural laws. Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN’s activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.IEN accomplishes this by maintaining an informational clearinghouse, organizing campaigns, direct actions and public awareness, building the capacity of community and tribes to address EJ issues, development of initiatives to impact policy, and building alliances among Indigenous communities, tribes, inter-tribal and Indigenous organizations, people-of-color/ethnic organizations, faith-based and women groups, youth, labor, environmental organizations and others. IEN convenes local, regional and national meetings on environmental and economic justice issues, and provides support, resources and referral to Indigenous communities and youth throughout primarily North America – and in recent years – globally.

The central goal of Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegations is to provide a platform for Indigenous women leaders to meet face-to-face with representatives of European and U.S. financial institutions...

University of Colorado Boulder

Many Native American people have long-standing ties to the Bears Ears cultural landscape.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been resisting the construction of the $3.7 billion-dollar Dakota Access Pipeline. Indigenous women from across North America

Archive of NoDAPL Standing Rock Water Protector actions, videos, articles, photos, music, etc. to Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016

In 2007, 144 UN member states voted to adopt a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US were the only members to vote against it. Each eventually changed its position. This book explains why and examines what the Declaration could mean for sovereignty, citizenship and democracy in liberal societies such as these. It takes Canadian Chief Justice Lamer's remark that 'we are all here to stay' to mean that indigenous peoples are 'here to stay' as indigenous. The book examines indigenous and state critiques of the Declaration but argues that, ultimately, it is an instrument of significant transformative potential showing how state sovereignty need not be a power that is exercised over and above indigenous peoples. Nor is it reasonably a power that displaces indigenous nations' authority over their own affairs. The Declaration shows how and why, and this book argues that in doing so, it supports more inclusive ways of thinking about how citizenship and democracy may work better. The book draws on the Declaration to imagine what non-colonial political relationships could look like in liberal societies.

During the 1960s, American Indian youth were swept up in a movement called Red Power--a civil rights struggle fueled by intertribal activism. While some define the movement as militant and others see it as peaceful, there is one common assumption about its history: Red Power began with the Indian takeover of Alcatraz in 1969. Or did it? In this groundbreaking book, Bradley G. Shreve sets the record straight by tracing the origins of Red Power further back in time: to the student activism of the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), founded in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1961. Unlike other 1960s and '70s activist groups that challenged the fundamental beliefs of their predecessors, the students who established the NIYC were determined to uphold the cultures and ideals of their elders, building on a tradition of pan-Indian organization dating back to the early twentieth century. Their cornerstone principles of tribal sovereignty, self determination, treaty rights, and cultural preservation helped ensure their survival, for in contrast to other activist groups that came and went, the NIYC is still in operation today. But Shreve also shows that the NIYC was very much a product of 1960s idealistic ferment and its leaders learned tactics from other contemporary leftist movements. By uncovering the origins of Red Power, Shreve writes an important new chapter in the history of American Indian activism. And by revealing the ideology and accomplishments of the NIYC, he ties the Red Power Movement to the larger struggle for human rights that continues to this day both in the United States and across the globe.

This ground-breaking text explores the intersection between dominant modes of critical educational theory and the socio-political landscape of American Indian education. Grande asserts that, with few exceptions, the matters of Indigenous people and Indian education have been either largely ignored or indiscriminately absorbed within critical theories of education. Furthermore, American Indian scholars and educators have largely resisted engagement with critical educational theory, tending to concentrate instead on the production of historical monographs, ethnographic studies, tribally-centered curricula, and site-based research. Such a focus stems from the fact that most American Indian scholars feel compelled to address the socio-economic urgencies of their own communities, against which engagement in abstract theory appears to be a luxury of the academic elite. While the author acknowledges the dire need for practical-community based research, she maintains that the global encroachment on Indigenous lands, resources, cultures and communities points to the equally urgent need to develop transcendent theories of decolonization and to build broad-based coalitions.

This collection of 16 essays is at once philosophic, practical, and visionary, examining the issues facing Native American students as they progress through schools, colleges, and on into professions. A concise reference for administrators, educators, students, and community leaders involved with Indian education. Annotation. Formal Indian education in America stretches all the way from reservation preschools to prestigious urban universities. "Power and Place" examines the issues facing Native American students as they progress through schools, colleges, and on into professions. This collection of 16 essays is at once philosophic, practical, and visionary.

"The book blends discussions of settler colonialism, policing and surveillance, with a detailed expose' of current security practices that targets Indigenous movements. Using the Access to Information Act, the book offers a unique view into the extensive networks of policing and security agencies. While some light has been shed on the surveillance of social movements in Canada, the book shows how policing agencies have been cataloguing Indigenous land defenders and other opponents of extractive capitalism, while also demonstrating how the norms of settler colonialism structure the ways in which police regard Indigenous movements as national security threats. The book examines four prominent case studies: the long-standing conflict involving the Algonquins of Barriere Lake; the struggle against the Northern Gateway Pipeline; the Idle No More movement; and the anti-fracking protests surrounding the Elsipogtog First Nation. Through these case studies, we offer a vivid demonstration of how policing agencies and the criminal justice system are central actors in maintaining settler colonialism. The book raises critical questions regarding the expansion of the security apparatus, the normalization of police surveillance targeting social movements, the relationship between police and energy corporations, and threats to civil liberties and collective action in an era of extractive capitalism and hyper surveillance."--

It's the mid-1960s, and everyone is fighting back. Black Americans are fighting for civil rights, the counterculture is trying to subvert the Vietnam War, and women are fighting for their liberation. Indians were fighting, too, though it's a fight too few have documented, and even fewer remember. At the time, newspapers and television broadcasts were filled with images of Indian activists staging dramatic events such as the seizure of Alcatraz in 1969, the storming of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building on the eve of Nixon's re-election in 1972, and the American Indian Movement (AIM)-supported seizure of Wounded Knee by the Oglala Sioux in 1973. Like a Hurricane puts these events into historical context and provides one of the first narrative accounts of that momentous period. Unlike most other books written about American Indians, this book does not seek to persuade readers that government policies were cruel and misguided. Nor is it told from the perspective of outsiders looking in. Written by two American Indians, Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane is a gripping account of how for a brief, but brilliant season Indians strategized to change the course and tone of American Indian-U.S. government interaction. Unwaveringly honest, it analyzes not only the period's successes but also its failures. Smith and Warrior have gathered together the stories of both the leaders and foot soldiers of AIM, conservative tribal leaders, top White House aides, and the ordinary citizens caught up in the maelstrom of activity that would shape a new generation of political thought. Here are insider accounts of how local groups coalesced to form a national movement for change. Here, too, is a clear-eyed assessment of the period's key leaders: the fancy dance revolutionary Clyde Warrior, the enigmatic Hank Adams, and AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means. The result is a human story of drama, sacrifice, triumph, and tragedy that gives a ground-level view of events that forever changed the lives of Americans, particularly American Indians.