Guatemala: Two Indigenous Prisoners Released after Years in Prison on False Charges

Guatemala: Two Indigenous Prisoners Released after Years in Prison on False Charges

By Cultural Survival

Two Q’anjobal Maya community leaders who were imprisoned in Guatemala for the past two years, have finally been declared innocent and released. A regional Guatemalan criminal court found the two men to be absolved of all charges on October 28, 2015.

Rogelio Velasquez and Saul Mendez had been unfairly imprisoned as a result of their activism organizing against a Spanish hydroelectric dam project in their town of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango.  The two men have had a long trajectory as community leaders, participating in the organization and promotion of a community consultation in 2007 and again in 2011, in which members of the Indigenous Q’anjobal Maya community voted overwhelmingly to reject any outside companies from conducting resource exploration or extraction.  The Spanish company has ignored these demonstrations; rather than respecting the autonomy of the community, have pushed violently and aggressively forward with their plans for a dam on the sacred Qam Balam river. Velasquez’ and Mendez’ villages were the first to rise up against the dam, as they were the most likely to be affected by the project.

This is the second stint that the men have done in prison. In May 2012, they were arbitrarily detained in Barillas after protesting outside of military headquarters after the assassination of their neighbor and fellow community leader Andres Francisco Miguel. Along with along with seven other men, they were illegally held in prison for 8 months, until finally being released in January 2013 after no charges were brought against them.   In November 2012, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention emitted a statement 46/2012 confirming that these arrests were arbitrary.

Then, eight months later, two men dressed as police officers- but lacking any police identification- detained Velasquez and Mendez and put them back in prison. Later charges were filed accusing the men of having “participated’’ in a public lynching that occurred three years earlier in 2010.   Mendez and Velasquez have maintained their innocence.

In an interview the day before their trial on the 28th, Prensa Comunitaria reported that after two years, 2 months and one day in prison, the men remained as lively as ever. “We kept a promise to the town of Barillas and its people. We are in prison for defending what belongs to the community and that’s why we know that the people will support us,’’ they said.  The men have lived in constant worry about their wives and children, the harvesting of their corn fields, and whether their families have had food to put on the table. They were forced to learn how to find hope even at the darkest of moments; Rogelio Velasquez has dedicated his time to learning to read and write. Saul Mendez has been weaving, creating sachels and bracelets decorated with the word “Libertad’’.

Arbitrary detention and the criminalization of human rights defenders has become a rampant epidemic in Guatemala, especially against Indigenous leaders.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner summary of stakeholder submissions to the Human Rights Council Working Group, during the Universal Periodic Review of Guatemala in 2012 noted,

“HRDs [Human Rights Defenders] continue to face death threats, physical attacks, killings and other forms of violence, mostly carried out by clandestine security organizations and illegal groups… The illegitimate use of criminal proceedings against HRDs  prevented them from carrying out their legitimate activities…   The worsening situation of human rights defenders was directly related to the failure to address land conflicts and the repressive policy pursued against indigenous communities who object to the use of their natural resources without prior consultation.”

The threats to the safety of Indigenous human rights defenders are growing, and it is left to be seen how Guatemala’s new president-elect Jimmy Morales’ administration will affect change.  But for now, at least two more men have been able to return home to their families.

International Indigenous anti-dam activists join two year anniversary celebration of blockades in Malaysia

By , , , and  / Intercontinental Cry

Indigenous resistance against the proposed Baram Dam receives international support for the celebration of the second year anniversary of the Baram Dam blockades: indigenous anti-dam activists from many parts of the world adopt declaration at the banks of the Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia.

(BARAM / SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) On October 23rd 2015, indigenous communities from around the world gathered on the banks of the Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia in the context of the second year anniversary of the indigenous-led blockades against the proposed Baram Dam. Two years ago indigenous communities set up two blockades and chased workers and researchers from the site. The works on the dam have come to a standstill and last month the government of Sarawak announced a moratorium.

Indigenous anti-dam activists from Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the US, Honduras, and from around Malaysia united at the blockades to stand in solidarity with the resistance against the Baram Dam and to strengthen ties between their communities. The week-long event is called the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers, WISER Baram 2015, and was hosted by the grassroots network SAVE Rivers.

Participants sharing their experiences through workshops at the village of Tanjung Tepalit

During celebrations at the two blockades, the proposed dam site, as well as at a conference in the town of Miri, the participants were united by the similarities between their struggles. “I have gained a lot of experience from all of the delegates. And with such information, I am confident enough such experiences will be fundamental to us – the Baram People – and our strategies to continue to fight and stop the proposed Baram Dam,” said James Nyurang, who hosted the delegates at his village.

According to Berta Cáceres, 2015 Goldman Prize winner from Honduras, “this summit on indigenous peoples and rivers has a special value in that its actions give strength to the historic resistance of our peoples and makes visible the grave aggressions and conflict generated by the privatization of rivers and the construction of dams within Indigenous communities and regions.”

Peter Kallang, Chairman of SAVE Rivers, rallies the crowd at the blockade at Kilometer 15

The declaration also calls on governments and institutions to stop presenting dams as climate neutral, and recognize that dams emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, including methane.

Participants in the summit collectively produced a declaration that acknowledges the widespread suffering and destruction caused by dams, and stresses the importance of obtaining Free, Prior, and Informed Consent from communities impacted by dam building. It urges all stakeholders to act in full accountability, transparency, and compliance of all human rights principals and values.

The indigenous defense of the Baram river stands united with other communities’ struggles for land, livelihood, spirituality, identity, and community cohesion.

 

Victory for U’wa Nation

Victory for U’wa Nation

CASE ON INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS AND EXTRACTIVE PROJECTS MOVES FORWARD AT INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Washington, DC – The U’wa Nation has received an admissibility report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights allowing its case against Colombia to move forward, recognizing that the indigenous group can seek the Commission’s help in defending its traditional territory. Although the U’wa have successfully defeated multiple oil and gas projects in the nearly two decades since they first filed their complaint with the Commission, the report recognizes that winning these battles does not end the overall complaint with the Colombian government, which does not fully recognize the U’wa people’s rights to their territory.

In a statement released [on Oct. 16], The U’wa organization Asou’wa  said: “Our U’wa Nation has been heard by the natural law, our ancestors and gods that guide and govern our thinking to safeguard, protect and care for our mother earth; While there are U’wa people, we will continue resisting in defense of our ancient rights.” EarthRights International (ERI) has been supporting Aura Tegria Cristancho, an U’wa lawyer who has been working on the case since 2013 from its offices in Lima, Peru, and Washington, DC.

Asou’wa, supported by the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia and the Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment, first filed their complaint with the Commission in 1997. At the time, US-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) was threatening to drill for oil in their lands. The U’wa, supported by a global campaign against Oxy led by groups such as Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network, secured Oxy’s withdrawal in 2001. More recently, Colombia’s Ecopetrol tried to move forward with a gas project on U’wa land, but pulled out earlier this year.  However, U’wa’s title over their ancestral lands have not been yet recognized.

The Commission’s decision comes after the U’wa and their supporters made it clear that, despite these victories, the root of the problem is the government’s lack of recognition and protection of the indigenous group’s ancestral territory.

“With this decision, the Commission recognized that even though Oxy and Ecopetrol pulled out, the U’wa remain threatened by the failure to fully protect their homeland,” said Camila Mariño, a Colombian lawyer and legal fellow with EarthRights International. “We are proud to stand with the U’wa.”

In the decision, dated July 22 but only released [now], the Commission formally accepts the U’wa petition as “admissible.” According to the Commission’s website, only twelve cases have been accepted as admissible so far this year. Following this decision, the case will move to the “merits” stage, in which the Commission will rule on the rights violations at issue.

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Contact:
Valentina Stackl
+1 (202) 466 5188 x 100
valentina@earthrights.org

Luutkudziiwus to Launch Court Challenge to Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline

Luutkudziiwus to Launch Court Challenge to Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline

VANCOUVER – Luutkudziiwus, a Gitxsan Nation House Group, will file a legal challenge in regard to the BC regulatory permits awarded to the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline that would supply gas to the Petronas LNG plant on Lelu Island which threatens to decimate Skeena River wild salmon. Luutkudziiwus Hereditary Chiefs travelled down to Vancouver to make the announcement today, while government and industry are gathered at the 2015 LNG Conference in BC.

“We are taking the government to court over the lack of consultation, inadequate baseline information presented, a weak and subjective impact assessment, and the current cumulative effects from past development. People from all over northern BC are now outraged about the $40 billion Petronas LNG project. It is unbelievable that they claim they consulted with us,” says Luutkudziiwus spokesperson Richard Wright.

TransCanada’s proposed 900 km PRGT pipeline, contracted under Petronas, is slated to cross 34 km of Luutkudziiwus traditional Madii Lii territory on its way from massive fracking operations in Treaty 8 territory to the proposed Petronas-led (Pacific Northwest) LNG plant on Lelu Island in the Skeena estuary. Lelu Island is the tribal territory of the Gitwilgyoots of Lax Kw’alaams.

“Our Madii Lii territory is not to be played with by the province of BC in their LNG game. Clark’s LNG dream is a nightmare for us. While she tries to maintain a shiny picture of LNG in their conference this week, the reality is that First Nations are being bulldozed, and we have had enough,” says Hereditary Chief Luutkudziiwus (Charlie Wright).

Luutkudziiwus will ask BC Supreme Court to quash the Environmental Assessment Certificate and the BC Oil and Gas Commission permit to construct and operate the PRGT pipeline. These permits were not based on any substantive consultation, infringe upon Luutkudziiwus’ rights and title by allowing a pipeline which will cause adverse effects to fish and their habitats, wildlife and their habitats, terrestrial and aquatic resources, including cumulative effects, as well as to social, cultural, and economic values. In bringing their lawsuit, Luutkudziiwus is looking for consultation from BC government and will also ask the court to direct the Province of BC to consult with them before any permits are issued.

“The province has been stealing from our territory and culture for 150 years, and this needs to end. The proposed pipeline and LNG project is in deep conflict with core Luutkudziiwus interests and values,” said Hereditary Chief Xsim Wits’iin (Lester Moore).

“We want the BC government to respect our constitutionally protected Aboriginal rights with a true reconciliation process that honors healthy families and increases community health and education. Development within our traditional territories must have our Free, Prior and Informed Consent and stop tearing apart our communities” says Luutkudziiwus spokesperson Pansy Wright.

A delegation from Luutkudziiwus will be in Vancouver on Oct 14th, and will be available for interviews downtown or near the Vancouver Convention Centre on request.

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For more information, photos, or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Richard Wright
Luutkudziiwus spokesperson
250.842.8974
richardwright_8@hotmail.com

Greg Horne
Media coordination
250 634 1021

Mary Macaulay
Legal Counsel
604 899 5227
mlmacauly@emlawyers.ca

Coal’s Dark Alliance Defames Lummi Nation

Coal’s Dark Alliance Defames Lummi Nation

NATIVE AMERICAN TREATY RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK
By Sandy Robson, Coal Stop

On her September 12, 2015 program, Whatcom Tea Party board member and host for the weekly “Saturday Morning Live” (SML) talk radio show on KGMI, Kris Halterman, interviewed Northwest Jobs Alliance (NWJA) President Brad Owens. Halterman’s program afforded Owens a platform to promote the same idea that NWJA previously purported in its August 20, 2015 letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). That idea advanced by NWJA in the letter, is that there is “an apparent motive behind the Lummi Nation’s opposition to the Gateway Pacific Terminal project (and completion of the EIS process) not connected with treaty rights.” [italicized emphasis theirs]

NWJA attached documents in its letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“the Corps”), that its group maintains show an “apparent motive” in what NWJA’s letter claims is a “ploy to snatch non-tribal land.” The letter stated:

“By any standards of basic fairness, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should not allow itself to be manipulated into aiding what would amount to a devaluation and confiscation of privately-owned, non-tribal lands. Please publically [sic] disassociate yourself from this scheme, ensure that the normal EIS process is completed, and encourage the Lummi to engage in good faith discussions with the proponents of GPT to explore win-win possibilities.”

Signatures of John Huntley and Brad Owens on the Northwest Jobs Alliance, August 20, 2015 letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Signatures of John Huntley and Brad Owens on the Northwest Jobs Alliance, August 20, 2015 letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

DISCREDITING TACTICS

NWJA’s August 20 letter to the Corps demonstrated an attempt to taint the Lummi Nation’s rightful assertion of its treaty rights relating to the proposed GPT project, and an attempt to influence the Corp’s decision on that subject. NWJA, in its advocacy efforts for SSA Marine/PIT and its GPT project, continues to interfere with the government-to-government relationship between the Lummi Nation and the U.S. federal government—a relationship in which it does not belong. There is a trust relationship and obligation of federal agencies, such as the Corps, to ensure the protection of the Lummi Nation’s treaty rights.

Northwest Jobs Alliance Director and GPT spokesperson Craig Cole speaking at the October 9, 2013 Whatcom Tea Party, GPT Forum

Northwest Jobs Alliance Director and GPT spokesperson Craig Cole speaking at the October 9, 2013 Whatcom Tea Party, GPT Forum

The signers of the letter are NWJA’s President Brad Owens and Chair John Huntley. The listed Director of the NWJA is Craig Cole, SSA Marine’s paid consultant for the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) project. Cole was not a signer on the letter to the Corps. NWJA was created in May 2011 to advocate for the GPT project, and it was filed as a non-profit in October 2014.

According to its original mission statement, which had been displayed on its Facebook page, “The Alliance focuses their efforts on supporting the Gateway Pacific Terminal. . .” Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) is a 48 million metric ton per year coal export terminal proposed at Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point) in Whatcom County, Washington, along the Salish Sea shoreline. The terminal applicant is Pacific International Terminals (PIT), a subsidiary created for the GPT project by SSA Marine, the world’s largest independent, privately-held marine terminal operator.

A NATION STANDS TALL TO PROTECT ITS TREATY RIGHTS

Steadfastly opposed and standing squarely in the path of SSA Marine/PIT’s plan for the coal export terminal, is the Lummi Nation, a self-governing nation which is the third largest tribe in Washington state. The Lummi, a Coast Salish people, are the original inhabitants of the state’s northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. GPT, if permitted and built, would be sited at Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point), along the shoreline, which is part of the Lummi Nation’s traditional fishing area. Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point) was an important village site for Lummi ancestors, and is considered culturally and historically significant to the Lummi people.

The Lummi Nation’s treaty rights are secured to them by the U.S. federal government in the Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855. Article 5 of the Treaty provides that, “The right of taking fish from usual and accustomed grounds and stations is further secured to said Indians in common with all citizens of the Territory. . .”

Lummi Nation has devoted significant time and resources to analyzing, evaluating, and carefully deliberating the impacts associated with GPT. The Nation concluded that the adverse impacts to the exercise of its tribal treaty rights, along with the impacts to the natural resources and the continued impacts to significant Lummi cultural properties are unacceptable, and simply cannot be avoided, minimized, or mitigated.

That conclusion led to Lummi Indian Business Council (LIBC) Chairman Tim Ballew II sending a January 5, 2015 letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Seattle District Commander, Colonel John G. Buck, asking the Corps to take action and immediately deny SSA Marine/PIT’s permit application for the proposed GPT project due to the project’s adverse impact to the Nation’s treaty rights. The Corps is still in the process of making a determination on that request.

MISINFORMING LISTENERS

KGMI’s SML radio show host, Kris Halterman testifying at July 7, 2015 Whatcom County Council meeting

KGMI’s SML radio show host, Kris Halterman testifying at July 7, 2015 Whatcom County Council meeting

SML host Kris Halterman told listeners during her September 12 show: “The, the Lummis have asked the Army Corps of Engineers to just say no, just say no, we don’t care what your study says, we want you just to say no.”

NWJA’s Brad Owens told SML listeners of that same show, “…you know, we absolutely and unequivocally respect the Lummi treaty rights and the Lummi people, and you know, the things that they, that they stand for. However, at this point in time without a study being done and completed relative to their concern of the impact on their fishing, we just don’t know. And you know, as I mentioned earlier, there’s 1.9 or an estimated 1.9 million acres of usual and accustomed fishing grounds, and that’s a lot! Certainly they don’t fish it all, but we need a scientific report that specifically pertains to the area in which the terminal is going to be constructed and how that might impact, if, if at all, their fishing.”

Halterman and Owens neglected to inform the SML audience that actually, a scientific report that pertains to the area in which the terminal is going to be constructed, and how that might impact Lummi fishing had already been conducted, and was released in November 2014. The Vessel Traffic and Risk Assessment Study (VTRAS) of the additional vessel traffic (487 vessel calls annually) that would be brought on by the newly proposed GPT was conducted for SSA Marine/PIT, by Glosten and Associates, with oversight by the state Department of Ecology. Gateway Pacific Terminal [SSA Marine/PIT] and the Lummi Nation also participated in the VTRAS. In the VTRAS, it states that the study is expected to be used by CH2M Hill, the third-party consultant, in preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed GPT project.

The VTRAS states: “The siting of the wharf and trestle at the proposed GPT and the potential anchorage use by bunkers will interfere with Lummi access to fishing sites. . .The analysis predicts that GPT would increase the Lummi fishing disruption by 76% in the Cherry Point area.” LIBC Chairman Ballew pointed to that significant scientific evidence of the adverse impacts to Lummi Nation’s fishing in the LIBC’s January 5, 2015 letter to the Corps:

Review of the impacts associated with this project, including, but not limited to, those analyzed in the Gateway Pacific Vessell [sic] Traffic and Risk Assessment Study lead to the inescapable conclusion that the proposed project will directly result in a substantial impairment of the treaty rights of the Lummi Nation throughout the Nation’s ‘usual and accustomed’ fishing areas. The Lummi have harvested at this location since time immemorial and plan to continue into the future.

BROADCASTING RUMORS

Getting back to Halterman’s September 12 SML show that focused largely on the documents NWJA had received—these documents were attached to an NWJAAugust 12, 2015 letter to the Whatcom County Planning Commission. NWJA’s “Document Summary,” had the following insinuating header at the top: “Lummi Nation Regulatory and Treaty Rights Strategies for the Taking of Non-Tribal Private Property for the Purpose of Accomplishing a Reservation Annexation.”

NWJA also sent out an August 27, 2015 advertisement to its email subscribers announcing its August 12 letter to the Planning Commission. The inflammatory and unsubstantiated headline on the ad was: “Alliance Weighs in to Protect Cherry Point Jobs: Opposes Lummi Takeover of Heavy Industry Zone.” The advertisement linked to a set of the documents. There was no evidence provided by NWJA to support its headline claim of a supposed “takeover of heavy industry” by Lummi Nation.

The documents were also introduced, with little fanfare, earlier this year, in a June 13 blog post by Kris Halterman on her “Saturday Morning Live—Liberty Road” web site. The post stated that “Saturday Morning Live—Liberty Road” received the documents, although the person or entity which originally obtained the documents was not disclosed.

Comprising the bulk of the documents is a February 7, 2012 letter from the Center for Salish Communities Strategies (CSCS), a non-profit public interest group whose mission was “to promote innovative policy actions that bring the community together in a shared vision of a strong regional economy reflective of the beauty of our surrounding natural world. . .”  According to the Washington Secretary of State,CSCS was dissolved (“not active”) as of December 1, 2014, and its original filing date had been August 11, 2011. The website for CSCS, comes up as “server cannot be found.” However, neither of these facts are mentioned during Halterman’s September 12 SML show, and since she referred to the organization in the present tense, listeners were likely to see CSCS as still active, which was, and still is, not the case.

The CSCS letter presented the Lummi Nation with a possible vision of an alternative use of Cherry Point lands and tidelands specific to the proposed GPT site, and outlined some ideas on how to go about that. The potential strategies suggested by CSCS were, at the core, about protecting and preserving the Lummi Nation’s archaeological properties, its cultural heritage and natural resources with the guiding principle of protecting and enhancing the inherent rights and interests of the Nation pertaining to Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point).

Excerpt from September 10, 2015 NWJA press release

Excerpt from September 10, 2015 NWJA press release

That context was omitted from a September 10, 2015 NWJA press release which featured another insinuating headline, “US Army Corps Asked to Avoid Involvement in Lummi Land Scheme,” sent to The Bellingham Herald. The press release was linked-to in the online Herald’s September 11 article.

Halterman referenced the September 11 Herald article during her September 12 SML program and said, “the Herald had an article, I don’t know if it was front page or not, because I just looked at the online version, stating that these were false and fabricated documents.” Her statement is inaccurate. What was actually reported in the story, was that in response to NWJA’s allegations that Lummi Nation plans to “take over” and “de-industrialize” the Cherry Point industrial area, LIBC Chairman Tim Ballew said, “They’re [NWJA] fabricating a false conspiracy.”

Additionally, the Herald story referenced a single-page document that is best described as a chart outlining a strategy, which NWJA sent to the newspaper with its press release. The article reported that Ballew reviewed the document and said it did not come from the tribe. Ballew told the Herald: “What they [NWJA] presented definitely has not been produced by the Nation.”

In comparing the single-page document presented by the NWJA and the samesingle-page document posted on Kris Halterman’s June 13 “SML—Liberty Road” web site, there is a noticeable difference. On the document posted on Halterman’s “SML—Liberty Road” web site, there are no identifying marks to denote the producer of the document, and the top of the page was blank. However, on the document presented by NWJA to the Corps and to the Whatcom County Planning Commission, there were words placed inside brackets written at the top of the page; a label of sorts, which read: [Lummi Nation Planning Document – August 2012].”

PAC AND RADIO SHOW USED TO TARGET LUMMI AND ITS TREATY RIGHTS

Those words at the top of the single-page document appear to have been added since the time that document was originally posted in June, on the SML website. Because that label is in brackets one would assume it was not on the original document. A phone call to NWJA Chair John Huntley to inquire about that was not returned.

Kris Halterman is listed as Committee Chair and Campaign Manager on the SAVEWhatcom Political Action Committee (PAC) registration form. She and Dick Donahue, who also hosts a KGMI talk radio show, “Wealth Wake Up,” started the SAVEWhatcom and the affiliated Whatcom First GPT interest-funded PACs in August and September 2013.

February 5, 2015 post from the SAVEWhatcom Facebook page

February 5, 2015 post from the SAVEWhatcom Facebook page

In February of this year, SAVEWhatcom, after the news of the Lummi Nation’s January 5 letter to the Corps requesting a GPT permit denial, placed a February 5 post on its Facebook page that appeared to be an attempt to drive public opinion against the Lummi Nation’s strong oppositional stance to GPT. That post was referenced in a February 20, 2015 article published on the “Coal Stop” blog; however that post is no longer displayed on SAVEWhatcom’s Facebook page. It should be noted that the SAVEWhatcom Facebook page name was changed to “Liberty Road” on June 17, 2015.

In that February 5 Facebook post, SAVEWhatcom made a defamatory statement saying that the Lummi Nation’s Silver Reef Casino’s “purpose” is to take people’s wages and social security checks. Statements like this create resentment, and/or can fuel the already present resentment from individuals and groups about Lummi Nation and its efforts to protect its treaty rights.

Besides using her SML talk show on KGMI radio as a promotional platform for the GPT project, SAVEWhatcom PAC Campaign Manager Halterman used her radio show to host anti-tribal treaty and tribal sovereignty guests such as Elaine Willman, a board member and former chair of the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA), and former Whatcom County Council member Marlene Dawson, who has worked tirelessly to undermine the Treaty of Point Elliott between local Indian tribes and the United States

Halterman and fellow KGMI radio host Dick Donahue promoted the April 6, 2013 “Citizens Equal Rights Alliance Educational Conference” on Federal Indian Policy, held by CERA and its sister organization, Citizens Equal Rights Foundation (CERF) on their radio programs. The conference was held at the Lakeway Inn, in Bellingham, Washington. Terri Hansen, an award-winning Native American journalist and correspondent for Indian Country Today Media Network, reported, “CERA and its sister, Citizens Equal Rights Foundation (CERF), are the foremost anti-sovereignty, anti-treaty organizations in the U.S. anti-Indian movement.” CERA has been called the “The Ku Klux Klan of Indian Country.”.

CERA board member Elaine Willman speaking at the September 26, 2015 CERA “Regional Education Conference” held at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell, MT

CERA board member Elaine Willman speaking at the September 26, 2015 CERA “Regional Education Conference” held at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell, MT

Charles Tanner, a longtime civil and human rights activist who has conducted research and public education on white supremacist and anti-Indian movements, authored an April 26, 2013 report on the CERA/CERF conference in Bellingham. Tanner reported that, “KGMI talk show hosts Kris Halterman and Dick Donahue both attended the conference. . .A broadcast of Halterman interviewing CERA leaders played as attendees trickled into the conference room.”

RALLYING RESENTMENT

The recent efforts by GPT advocate NWJA, are illustrative of an escalated pattern of rallying resentment of tribal treaty rights, specifically those of the Lummi Nation, and undermining the government-to-government relationship between their Nation and the U.S. government. A copy of NWJA’s August 20, 2015 letter to the Corps was attached to NWJA’s equally inflammatory September 10, 2015 press release in a set of documents linked-to in the previously mentioned September 11 Bellingham Herald article. The underlined (by NWJA) language in both the letter to the Corps and the press release call for a second look. Those excerpts, italicized in this blog’s format, are below.

From the September 10, 2015 NWJA Press Release:US Army Corps Asked to Avoid Involvement in Lummi Land Scheme” (headline)“The Northwest Jobs Alliance has asked the US Army Corps of Engineers and other government officials to disassociate themselves from a plan by the Lummi Nation to annex Cherry Point to its reservation.

From the August 20, 2015 NWJA letter to the Army Corps:While the Lummi people themselves and their treaty rights deserve great respect, this ploy to snatch non-tribal land is just plain wrong.

Lummi Nation has every right to avail itself of any legal avenue its people have to protect their treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, culture, and archaeological and natural resources. In spite of this, NWJA made allegations in the above excerpts that are unsubstantiated, using words that seek to paint Lummi motives for invoking their treaty rights as unscrupulous.

Section of “Our Painted Responsibilities,” a collaborative participatory mural created during the 6,000 mile, 2014 Totem Pole Journey by people from many different tribal nations

Section of “Our Painted Responsibilities,” a collaborative participatory mural created during the 6,000 mile, 2014 Totem Pole Journey by people from many different tribal nations

Kris Halterman acknowledged on her September 12, 2015 KGMI radio show that the documents and the allegations that accompanied them, presented by NWJA to these government agencies, were based only on a suspicion: “. . .in order for, for us to ever have a, a pathway to progress for any of the, the public needs here, we have to have open honest and truthful discussions. And when you find documents that, that, that lead you to suspect, not know one hundred percent, but suspect, that part of the reason they’re, they’re [the Lummi] trying to stop this project, would be for some other alternative, you know, purpose.”

It is hard to view such actions as anything but an anti-Indian campaign. Along with taking its maligning and unfounded accusations made against a Native American Nation to the public, Owens’ Huntley’s and Cole’s Northwest Jobs Alliance has brazenly asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take action that would serve to diminish or abrogate Lummi treaty rights.

***

This article was first published at Coal Stop.  Please see the Coal Stop Posts Page for a list of title links for all Coal Stop blog posts.  No one’s views expressed here represent that of any collective on Coal Stop.  We are all just saying what we, as individuals, think and believe after our research and consideration.  We offer references when appropriate and encourage our audience to check facts, research more, and contribute their own views.  

Indigenous Peoples of Yaigojé Apaporis Victorious as Court Ousts Canadian Mining Company

Indigenous Peoples of Yaigojé Apaporis Victorious as Court Ousts Canadian Mining Company

By  / Intercontinental Cry

After five years of legal contests and uncertainty, the Colombian Constitutional Court has confirmed that Yaigojé Apaporis, an indigenous resguardo (a legally recognized, collectively owned territory), also has legitimate status as a national park.

The decision is cause for celebration for Indigenous Peoples who call the region home. But it is less welcome news for Canadian multinational mining corporation Cosigo Resources, the company contesting the area’s national park status. The court’s ruling immediately and indefinitely suspends all mining activities in the park, including Cosigo’s license to mine gold from one of Yaigojé’s most sacred areas.

In the broader context of Colombia’s push to expand mining activities in the name of development, the court’s decision is seen as a significant precedent.

Since the 1980s, Colombia has protected more than 24 million hectares of the Amazon, placing an area the size of Britain back in the hands of its traditional owners. By choosing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and a new national park over multinational mining interests, the court’s decision safeguards Colombia’s achievements rather than undermining them.

THE BATTLE FOR YUISI’S GOLDEN LENS

Straddling Amazonas and Vaupés states, comprising a million hectares of the Northwestern Colombian Amazon, the pristine forest region of Yaigojé Apaporis is rich in both biological and cultural diversity.

The area hosts endangered mammals such as the giant anteater, jaguar, manatee and pink river dolphin. It is also home to the Makuna, Tanimuka, Letuama, Barasano, Cabiyari, Yahuna and Yujup-Maku Indigenous Peoples, who share a common cosmological system and rich shamanistic traditions. Together these populations act as Yaigojé’s guardians, a role that was strengthened in 1988 when, with the assistance of Colombian NGO Gaia Amazonas, they successfully established the Yaigojé Apaporis resguardo over their traditional territory. But this status has recently been tested.

Under Colombian law, a resguardo recognition grants its inhabitants collective ownership of and rights to the soil, but the subsoil remains in the control of the state and vulnerable to prospecting. With companies seeking to exploit this loophole, the Colombian Amazon has seen a tidal wave of mining interest since the mid-2000s, with the government declaring mining an “engine for development.”

Riding at the crest of this wave, in the late 2000s Canadian mining multinational Cosigo Resources made clear to local communities in Yaigojé its intention to mine for gold at a site within the resguardo known as La Libertad or Yuisi.

Local indigenous leaders say Cosigo became known to them when company representatives visited their malocas (traditional riverside houses). The indigenous leaders allege that officials offered them money in return for assurance of support the company to mine in Yuisi. These offers were rejected.

At Yuisi, a wide stretch of the Apaporis river cascades over rocks, forming roaring rapids. To the people of Yaigojé it is a vital sacred site, inextricably tied to their story of origin, identity and ability to care for the territory and the planet as a whole. Elders say “Yuisi is the crib of our way of thinking, of life and power. Everything is born here in thought: nature, the crops, trees, fruits, everything that exists, exists before in thought.”

Local shaman describe the gold and other minerals that form the bedrock of their territory as ‘lenses’ that allow them to see into the Earth, divine or diagnose any problems and correct them through rituals, prayer and thought. If gold were to be removed from Yuisi, they would lose their ability to cure and manage their territory as they have done for millennia. This is because an integral part of the territory itself would be lost. The notion that territory stops at the soil “as deep as the manioc’s root” is alien.

With negotiation with Cosigo out of the question, the traditional authorities in Yaigojé called an urgent congress of the Asociación de Capitanes Indígenas del Yaigojé Apaporis (ACIYA), an indigenous organization formed of groups living along the Apaporis River, in the area of Yaigojé that lies in Amazonas State. Having discussed the dangers posed by Cosigo’s presence and plans, ACIYA agreed that they must seek help from outside sources to further protect their territory.

“The best way to shield the territory was to call upon the state. In other words: Western disease is cured by Western medicine. If all mining licenses are given by the state, it is necessary to call on the state to defend the territory,” says Gerardo Macuna, a representative of ACIYA.

Advised that achieving national park status would extend protection to the subsoil, ACIYA and its supporters formally requested that the Colombian Government create a national park over their resguardo and traditional territory.

The people’s effort to add a third layer of protection for their territory was successful. In October 2009, Yaigojé Apaporis became Colombia’s 55th national protected area, but celebrations were short lived. Just two days after the area was awarded national park status, Cosigo Resources was granted a mining title for the Yuisi area, catalysing an epic struggle between Colombia’s will to protect the Amazon, with the help of indigenous inhabitants, or exploit it at their expense by prioritizing mining.

DEEP IN THE AMAZON, A SMOKING GUN

Map of Yaigojé-Apaporis Resguardo / National Park (Fundacion Gaia Amazonas, 2014)

Despite having been granted a license, Yaigojé’s new status as a national park remained an obstacle to Cosigo. The national park status, and its accompanying legal protections for the subsoil, would need to be revoked before mining could begin.

Facing stiff opposition from both ACIYA and the Colombian National Parks authorities just as Cosigo appeared to be fighting an uphill battle, the company got what seemed an almost impossible stroke of luck. A few months after Yaigojé was declared a national park, members of indigenous organization ACITAVA from the region of Yaigojé lying in Vaupés State launched a legal challenge to Yaigojé’s status at the Colombian Constitutional Court. Led by a local settler named Benigno Perilla, the challengers said that they had not been fully or adequately consulted in the process of creating the national park and it therefore violated their right to Free Prior and Informed Consent.

With an apparently complex conflict unfolding between Yaigojé’s Indigenous Peoples and the area’s national park status–its ecological and social integrity held in the balance–a legal deadlock ensued. This situation persisted for three years, until January 2014, when in an unprecedented move, three judges from Colombia’s Constitutional Court made the decision to travel to the heart of the Colombian Amazon to hold a hearing and consult with communities first hand.

Jorge Iván Palacio, president of the court, explained the court’s decision to make the journey by stating that “there is no justice unless we know what they think in the communities.” The ensuing hearing thoroughly vindicated his observation.

Before 160 indigenous inhabitants from along the Apaporis River and the judges, Benigno Perilla publicly admitted that his and ACITAVA’s legal strategy was encouraged, organized and paid for by Cosigo Resources. In what would prove the critical turning point in the case, the indigenous members of ACITAVA who had supported the challenge made a public apology, said they had been misled and declared their support for the creation of the national park.

A NEW DAWN FOR INDIGENOUS-LED CONSERVATION

Although it has been more than another year coming, the Colombian Constitutional Court has ousted Cosigo and legitimized the declaration of Yaigojé Apaporis as a national park. The decision recognizes the authority of the area’s Indigenous Peoples and protects their fundamental rights to culture, identity and consultation.

The decision is regarded as a significantly positive precedent for future conflicts between mining operations, protected areas and their indigenous inhabitants, at a time when Colombia has declared mining to be in the national interest.

The judges found sufficient evidence of wrongdoing by Cosigo to ask Colombia’s Justice Minister to open an investigation into the company’s consultation processes and interactions with communities in the Yaigojé area. Recently published revisions to Colombia’s projects of national interest have seen Cosigo’s project removed from the list. The company is said to be reviewing its legal options.

Confirming the compatibility of indigenous resguardos and national parks, the court has also opened up the possibility for others to follow Yaigojé’s example and enhance the protection of their territories from destructive or unwanted “development.”

Since Yaigojé was declared a national park, and in spite of the legal wrangle over its future, ACIYA and local indigenous youths have been pioneering a powerful new conservation paradigm that values indigenous knowledge and places it at the root of national park management.

ACIYA’s work to find a method of conservation that both works for them and allows for close collaboration with Colombia’s national park authorities is the subject of a recent film and won the group the prestigious UNDP Equator Prize in 2014. Their approach stands in stark contrast to technocratic, neo-colonialist conservation norms founded on a misplaced belief in pristine, unmanaged wilderness. These have been criticized by Indigenous Peoples and rights groups for excluding and forcibly displacing indigenous communities, fencing them out of their own lands and so obstructing their right to practice their cultures.

As part of their program, 27 young indigenous leaders from nine communities in Yaigojé have engaged in a deep process of cultural research. Advised by their elders, they have documented, mapped and recorded their peoples’ traditional practices for safeguarding and conserving the forest. In the words of one researcher, the aim has been to “transmit traditional knowledge to the younger generations and protect our ancestral territory.” So far, they have succeeded in doing both.

The research produced by ACIYA will now be used to define the management of the Yaigojé Apaporis National Park, further legitimizing local indigenous knowledge systems that have protected the life-support capacities of this rainforest region for generation after generation.

“Indigenous people are the natural allies of the rainforest and the whole environmental movement,” says former director of Gaia Amazonas Martin Von Hildebrand. “They have the traditional knowledge, they are organized. We just need to support them with what they need to run their own territories.”