More essential underreported struggles from Ahni at Intercontinental Cry.
Underreported struggles 70
The
Triqui people of San Juan Copala reclaimed their long-held position in front of the Government Palace
in Oaxaca City after being forcibly evicted by state and municipal
police in December. The plantón (protest camp) was cleared, for the
second time since 2011, to make way for the many tourists that would
descend on Oaxaca during the Christmas period.
The
Khoisan, Indigenous Peoples in South Africa, are
opposing the government’s plan
to build the country’s first nuclear power station on land that is
culturally sensitive to the Khoisan. Eskom, an electricity public
utility in South Africa that would build the power station, says that,
as long as they build away from the coastline it won’t damage anything.
India’s Supreme Court finally
banned all tourists from traveling along the
Andaman Nicobar Trunk Road,
a controversial highway that was used for over a decade to conduct
“human safaris” on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of
India. The welcomed decision arrived one year after a reporter working
for the Observer released a shocking video in which a group of Jarawa
women and children were being forced to dance for tourists.
The
Aotearoa Ainumosir Exchange successfully carried out a major online fundraiser,
ensuring that a group of 7 Ainu youth, accompanied by 3 Ainu committee
members and 3 interpreters, can study the various ambitious endeavors
of the Maori people who have successfully revitalized their rights as
indigenous people while living with strength in the society of New
Zealand.
The Bribri
recovered some 40 hectares of land in the community of Santa Elena de las Brisas in
Costa Rica. According to National Indigenous Mesa Costa Rica (MNICR), the land was held illegally by non-Indians, who used it as pasture.
Underreported struggles 71
The Pit River Tribe
unanimously affirmed a resolution opposing geothermal and other industrial developments in the sacred
Medicine Lake Highlands
of northeastern California . The resolution affirms that geothermal
development would threaten the underlying aquifer and would result in
the injection of toxins into the atmosphere and waters. The Tribal
resolution calls upon the Bureau of Land Management and the United
States Forest Service to reject all proposed geothermal development in
the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.
Hickory Ground Tribal Town member, Wayland Gray, Muscogee-Creek, was
arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat for entering the construction site of the expansion of the
Wind Creek Wetumpka Casino.
Wayland, who was arrested with three others, entered the site to pray
over the desecration of the grounds because it is where 57 ancestral
remains were unceremoniously moved to make room for the casino
expansion. Wayland has since been released form jail, however, the
charge of uttering a terrorist threat remains.
Australia’s Federal Court affirmed that
Fortescue Metals Group has an obligation to negotiate with the
Yindjibarndi
Peoples on matters concerning Yindjibarndi Country. The Mining company
has continuously dismissed and attempted to undermine the credibility of
the Yindjibarndi, even going so far as to manufacture consent for their
Firetail mine by creating and funding a fake Yindjibarndi
representative organization. The company have also surreptitiously
destroyed Yindjibarndi sacred sites.
In an “unprecedented” ruling, all mining and exploration activities in 49,421 acres of territory belonging to indigenous
Embera Katio communities were
suspended for up to six months
due to a failure to consult and protect the communities in the area.
According to the presiding Judge, the six month period will give
the Embera some desperately needed security after being repeatedly
attacked by outsiders, employees of the mining companies in the area.
The six month term will also give the courts enough time to determine
the legality of the Embera’s land titles.
A Malaysian state minister announced that
the government will no longer pursue a set of twelve new hydro dams in
Sarawak
The Minister stated unequivocally that the government was backing off
in response to widespread criticism, which has included several protests
over the years by the Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak as well as
environmentalists.
Approximately 450
Ch’ol women and men initiated
a highway blockade to demonstrate
that nearly two months into the administration of the new state
government, “the communities and peoples continue to experience
abandonment, misery, and looting.” They also denounced the
government’s “National Crusade against hunger” as “a farce that seeks
merely to share crumbs to our communities that experience poverty, while
our natural resources are handed over to foreign firms for
exploitation.”
Traditional Maya leaders in
Belize reported that Texas-based US Capital Energy
made numerous attempts to buy support for their oil drilling project
on Maya lands including those inside the Sarstoon-Temash National Park
in Southern Belize by infiltrating the Maya leaders’ traditional forms
of governance. They declared that the company is blatantly undermining
and disrespecting Indigenous governance, in violation of the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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