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Climate Alteration: Words Are Important

January 23, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Global Warming: a very passive title to address a very lethal problem.
Example: It is getting a little warm outside, nothing to worry about.

Climate Change: a perfect setup to generate perfect rebukes.
Example: The climate is always changing. climate is just doing what climate has always done and human activity has nothing to do with it.

Climate Crisis: a very selective term. It is only a crisis for the people immediately affected. Also falls into the maligned category of ¨alarmist¨

The term I adopted:
Climate Alteration: A very pointed terminology to address the impact human activity is having on the global climate. Our activities are altering climate systems on a global scale causing extreme weather events. Yes, temperatures on average across the globe are rising and this disturbance is causing extreme temperatures (hot and cold) extreme drought, extreme flooding, and extreme storms. The rise in global temperature has upset the balance. This alteration has been building up slowly as the oceans absorbed most of the extra heat. But now, plain to see for everyone paying attention to weather-related news or looking out their own windows, extreme weather is pushing organisms and plants to extinction. Our crops are being destroyed. The range of many insects, birds, and animals has shifted.
Here on this thread are the thousands of articles, references, and comments that illustrate Climate Alteration. We have documented how some are being innovative in developing mitigation strategies. Some are also being manipulative and stupid and we are intelligent enough to research and decide for our communities what we need to do if our governments do not act.

As animals and plants are forced to shift their range because of extremes in weather, so do people.

By now, you’re likely well aware of the climate crisis and its significant dangers to Indigenous communities the world over. The problem is especially magnified on islands and in coastal regions, where sea level rise can wipe away traditional homelands and make climate refugees of those who have been displaced. That’s true even right here on Turtle Island, where hundreds of Native communities — in South Dakota, Alaska, Florida, Hawai’i, Washington, and Louisiana — face existential threats.

And now, the first community to supposedly be moved from harm’s way — the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation — is facing a new set of problems. Just before the new year, the tribe filed a landmark civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) against the state of Louisiana. In 2016, HUD granted Louisiana $48 million in aid to resettle the tribe. But, its complaint asserts, Louisiana failed to properly implement the grant and has ethnically and racially discriminated, violated tribal sovereignty, excluded cultural components central to a proper relocation program, and provided poor replacement housing.

The Jean Charles Chactaw Nation has always lived here, on the Isle de Jean Charles. The climate crisis and resultant rising sea levels have endangered the tribe’s homeland and forced many members to move to inadequate replacement housing in a new location. Photo credit: Chantel Comerdelle.

The Jean Charles Choctaw Nation has resided on the Isle de Jean Charles for five generations, since the ancestors of its citizens escaped the Trail of Tears in the early 1830s amid President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. Its homelands and burial grounds are located in a region facing perpetual devastation and erosion by storms and sea level rise. Since 1955, the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation has lost over 98 percent of its lands to the encroaching ocean.

It’s also worth noting that the tribe is located in Terrebonne Parish, a region notorious for oil extraction, high pollution rates, and environmental justice violations. The Parish and over 90 percent of its property are largely controlled by non-local fossil fuel and chemical companies. The infamous “Cancer Alley” is just upstream.

Watch this short documentary detailing the tribe’s relocation.

By filing its complaint with HUD, the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation is looking to the federal agency to investigate the grant-funded resettlement program, currently run by Louisiana’s Office of Community Development (OCD). The tribe hopes HUD will order OCD to respect tribal needs and authority as the program’s implementation proceeds.

The lawsuit is also significant in that, while the tribe has state recognition from Louisiana, it does not have federal recognition, which would extend access to more grants, disaster assistance, and various legal powers — including constitutional protections and self-governance recognized by the United States. Lakota Law will keep an eye on this case and report back to you. As always, we’re grateful to you for standing in solidarity with every community of color on the frontlines of environmental justice.

Wopila tanka — thank you for your unwavering dedication!
Chase Iron Eyes
Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project

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Today: Special Screening

January 19, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

Oyate watch party at Noon Pacific Time on January 20th

I’m looking forward to a new year working together for Native sovereignty and justice with you. It’s appropriate that our first 2024 event is gathering to watch a crucial film contextualizing the movement to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. You may have heard that we’ve joined with local Santa Cruz groups and the filmmakers of “Oyate” to host our in-person screening at UC Santa Cruz on Jan. 20 at noon PST, which will also be streamed online in real time!

To quickly update you, my daughter Tokata and I will present at the event, joined by the film’s producer/director and the two other producers. Please note that the event’s venue has been moved to the Merrill Center on the UC Santa Cruz campus, and we’ll stream all the festivities from there.

RSVP to join our worldwide watch party of “Oyate,” streaming online on Jan. 20.

We’ll send you reminders with the link for your party to join our livestream. Look out for those the day before and on the morning of this very special event, Jan. 20!

“Oyate” elevates the voices of Indigenous activists, organizers, and politicians, offering our perspectives on our complicated history and present-day circumstances and illuminating the interconnectivity among the issues facing Indigenous People today. It features excellent music, tells some of our personal stories, and delves deeply into our movement for Native and environmental justice.

In the ongoing spirit of wopila — a meaningful acknowledgment of our gratitude and a desire to share the best of ourselves with you — we offer this opportunity to come together, watch, learn, and move forward with purpose. We thank UCSC, the American Indian Resource Center, and the Resource Center for Nonviolence for making this event possible, and we hope you’ll join us on Jan. 20!

Wopila tanka — thank you for your support and attention!
Chase Iron Eyes
Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project

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The Water is Life Banner: A Look Back

January 5, 2024January 5, 2024 / aztec8888 / Leave a comment

I did not even imagine that my trip to Standing Rock, North Dakota from Sacramento, California with a banner signed by members of the elementary school would end up on the front of the guard shack at the main entrance to the camp.

It is a story.

After watching the news of attacks on peaceful protestors and reading about the oil pipeline being rapidly approved, I felt that I must act. I designed a banner, had it printed, and scheduled a signing party at the elementary school where I taught. Everyone at William Land Elementary placed their signatures on the banner during the event on November 17, 2016.

When I arrived in Bismark, I had one mission. I needed to deliver the banner to the tribe.

I was in contact with a woman on Facebook who said she had a friend who was on her way to Standing Rock. This friend, her name was Katie, was going to meet me at the hotel but was delayed. I met her instead at the main gate in Standing Rock. I witnessed the live feed of a major action against the water protectors the night before.

Katie (not her name) had a friend (Billy) come with us to pick up supplies from the Walmart in Bismarck. I found the guy to be very untrustworthy – he shoplifted a hat in Walmart. He did not seem to have the spirit of a person participating in prayer vigils or protest of an oil pipeline. I found Katie to also be very suspect. I thought they might be agents of some sort. I found out on our drive into town that they had already been in Standing Rock and had been involved in the action the night before. They were still coughing from the tear gas.

We delivered the supplies to the various tents at camp: medical, food, and school.

On the third day at Standing Rock, I was able to formally present the banner to the tribal chief. I had purchased tobacco in Bismarck to give as a gift first. Then I handed the chief the banner and asked him to accept it from all the signatories in Sacramento. He accepted it and told me that I had permission to hang it at the front gate. There were hundreds of banners from around the world and around the country in the camp. Each had to get permission from the tribal council to be hung. I was very lucky to get to hang ours on the front gate near the main entrance. In the video it is fleetingly visible, the third banner to the left of the large EnbridgeLies banner.

Unknown water protector, Katie, and Billy with the banner.

I felt I was supposed to be there. None of the staff of my school had even heard about what was happening at Standing Rock. The mainstream media was not covering what was happening. Here I was, able to deliver a signed banner all the way from California to Bismarck, North Dakota!

I found out from Katie that Billy was kicked out of camp for not complying with camp rules.

On the day I left Standing Rock, I heard that people were told to evacuate the camp. I worried about the banner and I called and asked Katie to take it down and send it to the tribal offices on the reservation. She told me that she found two guys who would deliver it because she was on her way out of the camp also.

Katie sent me this photo. But instead of delivering the banner to the reservation, they hung it in front of the guard shack! I can only speculate that they put it there temporarily and that it would be taken to the reservation later. I did not know of the ritual burning of everything in the camp as it was evacuated. I left on the 28th.