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the ones we credited for these incredible insights into the ‘more-than-human’, sentience and agency, and the ways through which to imagine our ‘common cosmopolitical concerns’ were not the people who built and maintain the knowledge systems that European and North American anthropologists and philosophers have been studying for well over a hundred years, and predicating many of their current ‘aha’ ontological moments (or re-imaginings of the discipline) upon. No, here we were celebrating and worshipping a European thinker for ‘discovering’, or newly articulating by drawing on a European intellectual heritage, what many an Indigenous thinker around the world could have told you for millennia: the climate is a common organizing force!

Todd, Z (2016) An Indigenous Feminist's Take On The Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ Is Just Another Word For Colonialism. Journal of Historical Sociology 29: 4-22

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“So when you talk about Standing Rock, please begin by acknowledging that this pipeline was redirected from an area where it was most likely to impact white people. And please remind people that our people are struggling to survive the violence of colonization on many fronts, and that people shouldn’t simply engage with or retweet such stories when they see a concrete connection to their own issues — or a jumping off point to discuss their own issues. Our friends, allies and accomplices should be fighting alongside us because they value our humanity and right to live, in addition to whatever else they believe in.”

– How To Talk About #NoDAPL: A Native Perspective | Transformative Spaces

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Where on earth are you most likely to die early from air pollution? NASA provides the answer with this mortally serious view of the planet, and it is: lots of places.

Like tar stains on a healthy lung, the sickly yellow and brown areas in this visualization represent regions with significant numbers of pollutant-influenced deaths. Heavily urbanized places in eastern China, India, Indonesia, and Europe are stippled by the darkest colors of snuff, meaning they experience rates of ruination as high as 1,000 deaths per 1,000 square kilometers* each year.

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Mauna Kea Protectors Arrested After Successfully Shutting Down TMT Construction

Construction of the $1.4 Billion telescope has been shut down until further notice. More than 700 protesters marched on to the summit to stop the TMT.

Watch a 3-part video series on the Native Hawaiian defense of the their sacred mountain: Mauna Kea TMT Showdown June 24th. 

Part 1: Line Up at Dawn

Part 2: Kapu Aloha

Part 3: Final Push

UPDATES:

Arrested protectors post bail, return to Mauna Kea

More arrests as protectors block Thirty Meter Telescope construction on Mauna Kea

Al Jazeera: Activists were arrested at 9,000 feet trying to stop a telescope being built on sacred land

NY Times: The Fight Over Mauna Kea

Road to Mauna Kea Closed While Protectors Remain 

RESPECT & SOLIDARITY. DECOLONIZE HAWAII. ALOHA ‘ĀINA.

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Documenting citizens and allies of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation) who Oppose the DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) - Great Sioux Nation: photo series by Josue Rivas, a native american photographer and activist based in Los Angeles. 

He is currently seeking funding for this project, while Native Americans and protesters await a ruling on an injunction to stop work on the $3.7bn pipeline that threatens their water and protected land. 

Artist Statement: Two weeks ago, I was deeply moved by an urgent plea for support from friends and relatives who are standing in solidarity with the people of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.  This tribe has been fighting for months to protect their clean water from an oil pipeline that is being constructed on their land. Hundreds of tribal members and allies from around the country have gathered in peaceful prayer at their multiple camps near Canonball, North Dakota to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This pipeline will cross through four states and carry crude oil across critical habitats, waterways, and sacred sites.

Despite numerous actions, petitions and an upcoming court hearing, the mainstream media is not currently covering this story in a way that represents the native perspective. As a native photojournalist, I feel it is important to let our people tell their own stories. That’s why I’m driving 1,545 miles to connect with the protectors of this land and report on what is happening on the ground.

The goal of my journey is to create photo essays and videos that will reflect the reality of this struggle. These will be pitched to national and international publications to help create awareness of this unfolding story.

read more details on DAPL here.

*note according to the Associated Press, there were 300 oil pipeline breaks in North Dakota alone during 2012–2013, and none of them were reported to the public. North Dakota is the second-largest oil-producing state after Texas and the new proposed pipeline will cover 1,134 miles, dramatically increasing the chances of future spills that will threaten the environment and cultural heritage of the Sioux. 

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i’m sorry, but this tweet is the best

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Riders from the Standing Rock, Rosebud, and Lower Brule Lakota reservations came together on horseback to push back a police line that had formed between a group of protesters and the entrance to the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site.

Last week, the federal government gave final approval to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will run for 1,172 miles to transport crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oilfields to Patoka, Illinois.

Hundreds of protesters, primarily Lakota and Dakota from Native American reservations within a several-hundred-mile radius, convened over the weekend at the edge of the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota to voice their anger.

The pipeline would travel through lands sacred to the Lakota people, and cross under the Missouri, Mississippi, and Big Sioux rivers.

A possible spill, which can occur with pipelines, would mean contaminating farmland and drinking water for millions.

After a series of tense interactions with North Dakota state police on Monday, the protesters succeeded in temporarily halting the beginning stages of construction.

Protesters stand at the front barricades of the protest zone, holding signs that read “Water is sacred” and “Mni Wiconi” (“Water is life” in Lakota).

Horses and riders from the Rosebud reservation arrive to support the Standing Rock community. The horses are in traditional Lakota regalia.

Protesters congregate next to a construction site for the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday morning, as a crew arrives with machinery and materials to begin cutting a work road into the hillside. The flag in the foreground belongs to the American Indian Movement.

North Dakota state police form a line between the protesters and the entrance to the construction site as a tank truck turns into the property.

A protester is arrested for standing on the outer layer of barricades that separate the protest site from the police line and construction zone on Monday morning.

A protester is arrested for standing on the outer layer of barricades that separate the protest site from the police line and construction zone on Monday morning.

Two young Lakota boys watch as construction machinery drives onto the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site, just over a mile from the banks of the Missouri River

After the protesters disrupted the construction site and shut down work for the day, a group marched up to the main gates.

Children play in the Missouri River, a mile from the proposed construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Large police presence at #NoDakotaAccess blockade. An elder was thrown to the ground at the beginning of the protest. Last I saw the National Guard will be there. Please send Standing Rock community strength, prayers, donations, support. 

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The above are abandoned Olympic venues across the world from Athens, Italy to France. You can find more information here.

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I think one of the most inhumane acts is the monopolization of water. I can’t believe (rich) people are having debates on whether or not water is a basic human right. There’s so many people (poor black and brown) that don’t have access or funds to attaining clean water and I think it’s appalling.

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If you think Flint, Mich., is the only place in the United States threatened by lead-contaminated water, think again.

The beleaguered city continues to grapple with the fallout of a drinking-water crisis that exposed its residents –  including 9,000 children 6 and younger – to a toxic substance that can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems and other serious health issues. But while Flint might be an extreme example, a report released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council details how many other communities around the country are failing to adequately ensure that their water supplies remain free of lead.

The report, which analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency, found that more than 18 million Americans are served by 5,363 water systems that in 2015 violated the federal rules governing lead testing. The violations included failures to properly monitor for lead, treat water to reduce corrosion in pipes or report testing results to the public or to regulators.

And the report found that despite more than 8,000 documented violations of the EPA’s “Lead and Copper Rule,” the agency took a formal enforcement action in only 908 cases. “This lack of accountability sends a clear message to water suppliers. … There is no cop on the beat,” the NRDC authors write.

“In almost 90 percent of cases, neither the states nor the EPA takes any formal enforcement action,” said co-author Erik Olson, who directs the advocacy group’s health programs. “The cop is sitting there watching everybody run stoplights and stop signs and never bothers to write anybody a ticket.”

To be clear, the NRDC’s analysis does not suggest that all 18 million people served by water systems with 2015 violations actually have excessive lead in their water. For starters, only a small number of taps in any community are tested for lead, and results can vary widely from home to home depending on the presence of lead pipes and lead-bearing fixtures. But Olson and others said that the sheer number of violations and lack of enforcement mean that “millions and millions of people are being put at risk.”

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@ Someone make me a shirt that says:

Hiking Ass Bitch on it so I can wear it when hiking.

[race-nature-power]

Winner of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize battles a huge mining corporation

Many congratulations to Máxima Acuña, the indigenous winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize!! When the Peruvian government tried to give her land to the American-owned Newmont Mining Corporation in 2011, Acuña fought back against the government and the mining industry. 

Acuña refused to give up her land. Instead, she became a fierce environmental activist, fighting to defend her beloved land from the takeover and destruction that she knew would be inevitable, should Newmont gain full control. Despite never having learned to read or write, Acuña launched herself fully into the battle against Newmont and the conspiring Peruvian government.

Newmont took Acuña to court, winning a lawsuit in 2012 that accused her of squatting on land that was not rightfully hers. At that point, Acuña enlisted the help of GRUFIDES, a local non-governmental organization that provides assistance to rural communities fighting mining companies. The group advised Acuña to take the case to a higher-level court in order to appeal the verdict; she did so by walking a ten-hour and often treacherous hike to make court appearances. She won in 2014 when the court overturned the original verdict, preventing Newmont from proceeding with the mine development.

The company has been harassing Acuña and her family ever since. State police, hired as private security contractors on behalf of the Newmont, have threatened to evict her, built a fence around her land to restrict movement, razed her home twice and stolen belongings, and destroyed her potato crops. Once she and her daughter were even beaten to the point of unconsciousness when they tried to intervene.

When so many stories of indigenous resistance end in sadness, like the tragic murder of Berta Cáceres, this is a victory to be celebrated. There is still much progress to be made, but the recognition of the struggle for indigenous land rights in such a public manner is certainly a step in the right direction. Felicidades Maxima!! 

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no one ever says that Rome needed help from aliens to build their empire

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Hey, some assholes called Dakota Access are planning to build an unnecessary pipeline that could potentially put everyone living on Standing Rock Reservation in danger and it’d be rad if you could take a second to sign this petition to stop this please indigenous people deserve clean fucking water

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4am drawing by Scott Hill.

welcome to feelsville

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Here’s What Happened When These Unarmed Native American Sisters Defended Their Land from the Feds

Like the Bundys, the Dann sisters tried a standoff with the BLM. But it ended very differently. 

The double standard in the media’s treatment of Ammon Bundy and his gang at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is shameful, but the case of the Dann sisters underlines even further the disparity in how non-white activists are treated.

Carrie and Mary Dann, two elderly Shoshone women who have defied seizure of their land, have been repeatedly roughed up and harassed by federal officials and mobs of white ranchers for refusing to cede their claim to land that was illegally stolen from them 30 years ago.

In 1863, the U.S. government signed the Ruby Valley Treaty with the Western Shoshone nation, who laid claim to 26 million acres of land in Nevada, Idaho, and Utah. The Shoshone tribe and the U.S. government agreed that settlers and cowboys had access to the land, but not title. But in the 1970s, the federal Indian Claims Commission ruled that the land no longer belonged to the Shoshone nation due to “gradual encroachment” of white settlers and ranchers. The government seized the land and put $26 million into an account meant for the Shoshone nation in 1979, but the tribe turned down the money, saying they never agreed to sell their land.

[IMAGE: Carrie Dann (left) with her sister Mary (right)]

The Supreme Court gave its blessing to the Indian Claims Commission ruling, claiming that the Shoshone had no claim to the land since the tribe had been paid $26 million. Dann sisters stopped paying grazing fees out of protest in 1973, saying they only honored the Ruby Valley Treaty, and the BLM responded by slapping the sisters with a series of fines totalling $3 million in 1998. Federal officials called for the roundup of the Danns’ horses and cattle, saying they were trespassing on federal land.

”Trespass? Who the hell gave them the land anyway?” Mary Dann said in an interview with the New York Times. ”When I trespass, it’s when I wander into Paiute territory.”

In September of 2001, the government sent in the cavalry to show it was serious about its claim to the Shoshone tract:

“The government considers it public land, and to drive the point home, 40 agents from the Bureau of Land Management descended on the Danns’ ranch in September, heavily armed and fortified with helicopters, and confiscated 232 cattle, which were later sold.

The sisters and their supporters argue that their tribe never legally ceded these range lands. Though the federal government controls 85 percent of Nevada, they contend that it has no legitimate title to the land — or the gold, water, oil and geothermal energy beneath it.”

Because the Dann sisters refused to leave their land, the government once again began seizing large numbers of their livestock in 2003, claiming the horses and cattle were grazing at the public’s expense. BLM officials even deputized local cowboys to assist with the livestock seizure. At which point, the sisters were forced to remove over 400 remaining horses from the disputed range, many of them pregnant mares, but they lost track of many in the forced move.

Furthermore, they were caught in a catch-22 regarding these stray horses that ran away in the chaos, wherein even strays marked with the Danns’ brand would be seized and auctioned if not claimed, but the sisters would incur trespassing fines if they did claim these horses.

While Mary Dann died on the ranch in 2005, her sister Carrie continues to protest for Indigenous rights in her old age. Oxfam made a short documentary about the two sisters’ struggle to keep their land. Watch it below:

https://safe.txmblr.com/svc/embed/inline/https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FJJ2N9-n-ka0#embed-56b2c43423b28487104167