ACTION TOOLKIT: Indigenous Peoples Day 2021

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Alliance for Global Justice acknowledges that we stand on land that is stolen, land that is exploited. We occupy the land that is the rightful home of Indigenous people. We condemn the theft, the exploitation and the oppression that arose from settler colonialism by Europeans. We recognize the ancient and sacred rights of the people whose stewardship of this land was interrupted by the genocidal actions of colonists.

We recognize that this oppression does not stop at the U.S. border and we condemn human rights violations in other nations. We stand in solidarity with all the Indigenous people of Turtle Island, from the Arctic to Fiera del Fuego — the land some call the Americas — in their struggles for justice, for the right to self-determination and safety, and in their stewardship of the Earth and all that dwell upon it. We pledge to strive with them until justice is achieved.

We condemn the oppression that Indigenous people face, including:

  • Denial of and threats to tribal sovereignty: the right to establish their own form of government, determine membership requirements, enact legislation and establish law enforcement and court systems
  • Diminishing and denial of treaty rights and international status
  • The systematic and deliberate quashing and extermination of Native culture
  • Brutality and murder committed by law enforcement personnel
  • Murder, rape and exploitation of indigenous women and two-spirit people, that frequently goes without punishment or negative repercussions of any kind
  • Past and present theft of Indigenous children from their families through Indian boarding schools and the foster care system; and the ongoing threat to the Indian Child Welfare Act that protects Indigenous children and helps them maintain their cultural ways
  • Theft of Indigenous food sovereignty by large corporations that steal, patent and modify Indigenous seeds
  • Assaults upon Indigenous people in lands adjacent to reservations, which often goes unpunished
  • Economic and other exploitation, especially by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
  • Resource extraction and environmental contamination on reservations and other Indigenous lands
  • Lack of religious freedom to practice their traditional spiritual beliefs.
  • Cultural appropriation, including the use of derogatory and harmful stereotypes of native people including sports mascots in media and popular culture
  • The whitewashing of educational curriculum that misleads or excludes the genocide enacted against Indigenous people in the U.S. This includes Thanksgiving myths and pageants, Land Run re-enactments, “cowboy & Indian” entertainment, and myths about the “discovery” of this land; and the public honors bestowed upon Columbus for his vicious, inhumane treatment of the people he encountered when he stumbled upon these shores.

This is an incomplete listing of the human rights abuses committed against the Indigenous peoples and nations of the Americas.

TAKE ACTION!

End violence against Indigenous women. There are over 6000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. alone. Four out of five Indigenous women are affected by violence today. Indigenous women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average. Much of this violence is rooted in settler colonialism and its associated racist, exploitative actions.

Find out what you can do to end the violence against & exploitation of Indigenous women.

 

Free Leonard Peltier! Indigenous  activist Leonard Peltier has spent over 40 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Prosecutors and federal agents manufactured evidence against him (including the so-called “murder weapon”); hid proof of his innocence; presented false testimony obtained through torturous interrogation techniques; ignored court orders; and lied to the jury.

Go to International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee to take action.

 

Support the struggle of the Apache people to preserve, protect and defend the land of Oak Flat from an attempted land grab by BHP and Rio Tinto, two of the world’s largest resource extraction companies. They seek to obliterate native lands and communities of ancestral Apache land in Oak Flat, AZ. Find out more here and here.

Support the sacred land and tribal solidarity of the Apache people.

 

 

Stop the Line 3 Pipeline through northern Minnesota’s Indigenous lands. The fight over the Keystone XL pipeline may be over for now but the next battle over a major oil pipeline is well underway in rural northern Minnesota. The Canadian company Enbridge wants to replace its aging Line 3 pipeline with a new route, but many Indigenous and environmental groups want to completely shut it down, arguing that it threatens their food and water resources and will irreversibly damage the climate. exacerbating the climate crisis and disrespecting tribal sovereignty.

Stop Line 3! Stand in solidarity with the people defending their land against pipelines that will pollute the air, water and soil of Indigenous nations and everyone who lives downstream from the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

 

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