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Honor the Earth Annual Report 2013-14

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Honor the Earth Annual Report 2013-14 HONOR THE EARTH ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 Art generously donated to Honor the Earth by Michael Horse “How long are you going to let other people decide the future for our children? Are you not warriors? It’s time to stop talking and start doing. A long time ago when our ancestors rode into battle they didn’t know what the outcome was going to be but they did it because knew was in the best interest of the children, and people ’ didn t operate from a place of fear. Operate from a place of hope. Anything is possible but you need to take action. The movement is here, the time is now. -­‐ Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation Honor the rth Ea changed terrain this For year. twenty years we have worked in our communities, partnering with Indigenous peoples on the ground, and the grassroots, to protect sacred sites, languages, water, land and future generations from both the fossil fuel and nuclear industry, and to tainable create a sus and beautiful future. We continue. This year, however, as a major energy corporation (the Enbridge Company) came to the homeland of the Anishinaabeg people, we were summoned to a larger and more courageous call – one of regional ional and nat organizing on fossil fuel issues, while deepening our work enewable on r energy. We are proud of our moment in history and for changing the terrain in northern Minnesota. Michael Dahl and Lew Murray, of White Earth. The original In August of last year, the Enbridge 'protectors, not protesters'. Corporation announced a new pipeline proposal, which would push through the heartland of wild rice country in Anishinaabeg territory, moving up to 700, 000 barrels per day of Bakken fracked oil to a port in , Superior Wisconsin. We held a set of meetings, wrote articles, and launched what is now the Sandpiper Alliance, joining non-­‐Indian lakeshore owners conce and rned Minnesota citizens with the Anishinaabeg people of northern Minnesota. We have strengthened our grassroots partnerships while also allying ourselves with national environmental organizations such as 350.org and the Sierra Club, with new alliances forming with the Center for Biological Diversity, Fractivist, One Billion Rising, and others to challenge the oil expansions. Our work has changed terrain, and our work has changed us. Nationally, we were called to a higher level of engagement. We presented, wrote and moved into community partnerships in Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Lummi, Cree, and other people of the Athabasca River system, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people and stronger elationships r in Dine Bii This Kaya. work was paralleled with stronger relationships with funding allies -­‐ the Santa Fe Tobacco Company, Frances Fund and Kalleopeia, as well as the Women’s Donor Network, all of whom we are incredibly Lorna Haynes at Reject and Protect. 2 grateful to, because their support has enabled us to grow our regranting program. n I the upcoming years we hope that we will continue to expand this work. We know that resources are needed to make the change in our communities, changes which will protect our children and all future generations. The Path which is not scorched. We find that we must oppose the destruction of Mother Earth, and we know that we are doing the right thing We also know that the answers as to where we are going are very clear and, as an organization, we intend to work in this arena: restoration of traditional foods, renewable energy, protection of sacred sites, hemp, and restorative So economics. it is that we have been called into economics. This is to say, that we are strong in the field, particularly in the arena of Full cost Accounting, and the building of a field of Indigenous Economics. We began this work in the past year, both providing critical testimony and analysis on fossil fuels and extreme mining projects, as well as developing the basis for an Indigenous Economics Workbook, intended for Indigenous Studies Departments nationally and internationally. We also began two new renewable energy projects on the White Earth reservation in partnership with Trees Water and People, and Lakota Solar Enterprises. We also have expanded this work on the Crow reservation olar in s and wind energy. We will continue and deepen this work. In the upcoming year we will deepen our resistance to to fossil fuels expansion, work defeat a pipeline proposal (the Sandpiper), resistance support to fracking Mandan, in Hidatsa and Arikara territories (Bakken fields), and at Standing -­‐ Rock where the Hunkpapa are also faced with fracking expansions. We will write tribal policies on , fracking water protection and integrated agricultural economics. We will support the grassroots organizations and community leaders working toward a good future We for their people. will create curriculum Winona and her grandson Giiwedin Buckanaga at a on renewable energy and economics. And we will nurture the next generations. Please join us. post Love Water Not Oil tour in front of the Enbridge offices in Bemidji, MN. Miigwech, Winona LaDuke – Executive Director 3 Let us tell you some stories of the people, the land, the water and their courage: Lummi and Crow “The Tide is out and the table is set…” Justin Finkbonner gestures to the straights on the edge of the Lummi reservation. This is the place where the Lummi people have gathered their food for a It millennium. is a rich land of shellfish and food for a people. This is a fragile and very bountiful ecosystem, part of the Salish Sea, newly corrected in it’s naming by cartographers. When the tide goes out, the Lummi fishing people go to their boats -­‐ one of the largest fishing fleets in any Indigenous community, they feed their families, and they fish for their economy. This is also the place where corporations fill their tankers or ships to travel into the Pacific and beyond. It is one of only a few deep water ports in the region, and a coal terminal is proposed. That new terminal is being pushed by a few big corporations, and one Indian nation-­‐ the Crow Nation, which needs someplace to sell coal it would like to mine, in a new deal with Cloud Peak Energy. The deal is a big one: l.4 billion tons of coal. And that coal is to be sold overseas, because it turns out, there have been no new coal plants in the US for, well thirty years, and so Cloud Peak and the Crow hope to find their fortunes in China. The mine is called Big Metal, named after a Crow legendary hero. The place they want to put a port, which could accommodate huge oil tankers and coal barges is called Cherry Point, or Xwe’chi’eXen. And, this is sacred to the Lummi. There is a 3500 year old village site here. The Hereditary Chief of the Lummi Nation, tsilixw (Bill James), describes it as the “home of the Ancient Ones.” Coal interests, including Cloud Peak, Arch Coal, Peabody and Westmoreland hope to construct North America's largest coal export terminal on the "home of the Ancient Ones." Once there, coal would be loaded onto some of the largest bulk carriers in the world to China. In response to this, Jewel James, with the Lummi ‘House of Tears Carvers’ carved a 19ft totem pole to bring healing and protection to Lummi lands. The lummi have created this totem pole tradition to bring these healing symbols to areas in need of hope, healing and those places struck – by disaster this time they are carrying this to their home territories. The Lummi nation is saying “Kwel hoy’: “We draw the line.” The sacred must 4 be protected. Three times in 2013-­‐14, we were requested to go to the Lummi reservation, to support their protection of Xwe’chi’eXen, the home of the ancient ones. We came at their request, and we spoke with and for the people and shared their stories. And, then in February of 2014, we were asked to present the story of fossil fuel economics to the Northwest -­‐ Tribal Leadership Summit the tribal leaders of 50 First nations. The Crow nation had been implicated in this story, because the Crow nation has coal which they are proposing to get the market. We have challenged these economics, allied ourselves with grassroots organizations and most recently the Crow Landowners association to create a wind energy project on their lands. We will return, and work to create the full project in 2014-­‐l5. Navajo-­‐ Dine Bii Kaya We provided granting support for a number of grassroots organizations in the southwest, working on permaculture, restorative no eco mics, protection of their sacred sites and opposition to uranium n mi ing and fossil As fuels. of 2005, following sickness among the Navajo from uranium mining, the tribal council enacted the Dine Natural Resources , Protection Act which bans uranium mining and processing on tribal land. On July 22, 2014, the Department of Justice’s subcommittee, established to negotiate with Uranium Resources Inc. – who required permission from the council to conduct in situ recovery of uranium was dissolved, a great victory for the Navajo nation. We continue our partnership with grassroots organizers on the Navajo reservation, particularly in opposition to coal strip mining. Our partners include Black Mesa Water Coalition, Dine CARE, and I am Art. “….In the far back times of the Dine people, Monsters roamed the lands. And in those times, there were great beings who were called upon to slay the monsters. We need some modern era monster slayers….” Anna Rondon – Dine It is perhaps those in. times aga A battle is raging, between major forces -­‐ traditional Dine people who seek to maintain a way of life between Sisnajini, six sacred mountains Tsoodzil, Dook'o'oosliid, Dibe Nitsaa, Dzil Na'oodilii, Dzil Ch'ool'i'i and the economics of fossil fuels.
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