The Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues concludes today after eleven days. Among the documents produced, according to Indian Country Today was a “groundbreaking report examining the roots of Christian domination over indigenous peoples and their lands”: North American Representative to the Permanent Forum Tonya Gonnella Frichner, an attorney and […]
Earth Day Climate Change Conference
Officially titled the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the conference, running from April 19 though tomorrow is being hosted by President Evo Morales of Bolivia, which has the only majority indigenous population in the Western Hemisphere, at approximately 55%. The following press release from the Indigenous Environmental Network […]
Indian Rights, Human Rights
I was going to post on Israel today. Recent developments are much in the news (Jeffrey Goldberg is even pausing to consider – “This is big stuff,” he says), and more than is generally the case, there is a sense of urgency, though nothing in particular is about to happen. But this is the point. […]
Cobell (Individual Indian Money Trust Fund) Settlement News
Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff and driving force behind the now fourteen-year-old Individual Indian Money Trust Fund suit has been issuing periodic reports since news of a settlement of the case back in December. I wrote about it in The Nature of Things. Although the “Ask Elouise” letters, sent to those on the litigation listserv […]
People of Earth 1
An interview with Pamunkey Indian Chief Kevin Brown. (The first in a new series.) Spanish soldiers made often brutal explorations into the southeastern area of North America, including Virginia, all throughout the sixteenth century. The English themselves attempted a colony at Roanoke long before succeeding at Jamestown, where the colonists came in contact with the […]