Heartfelt Thanks and Greetings to All Our Relations! |
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Dear Friends and Relatives, Thanks to you, we are celebrating another incredible year of advancing our many campaigns to “Fight the Bad and Build the Good” working hand-in-hand with our broad-based network of grassroots Indigenous Land, Sky, Fire, and Water Protectors! We know that many of you have already supported our work this year in many ways, freely giving your time, energy, and attention to this movement, and we thank you with all our hearts for being part of the solution! If you feel moved and are able, would you be willing to make a special year-end gift at this time to increase our momentum going into 2020? We humbly ask for your continued support as IEN Turns 30! You can also text the word GIVE2IEN to 44-321 to receive a secure link to make a tax-deductible donation. Your donations will continue to help us bring life to our exciting plans for an 18th Protecting Mother Earth Conference. And the following are just a few of the ambitious plans we already have in motion:
This past year, with your support, IEN convened hundreds of its Indigenous affiliates and allies to exchange knowledge, organize resistance, and build regenerative power towards a vision of hope for restoring the Sacred Hoops of our Native Nations and harmony with the Circle of Life here on Turtle Island. IEN also spent much time consulting and advising members of our network to strengthen their ability to lead effective community organizing, coalition building, legal and policy strategy, media and narrative creation, and non-violent direct action. Every day, your support makes progress a reality, including accomplishments like these: We have been busy challenging #C02Colonialism from government and corporate greed, and all other attacks on our lands and lives stemming from the racist and patriarchal oppression of the settler legacy and growing under the rise of neoliberalism and the Far-Right. IEN has worked with grassroots leaders and youth on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation resisting the Keystone XL pipeline since 2012. Our on-the-ground organizers have made a stand through resistance actions at the State House and on tribal lands, in addition to showing up to provide testimony and a strong Indigenous presence at court hearings throughout the year. IEN continues to halt the Keystone XL pipeline as a lead plaintiff in the legal battle with TC Energy (Formally TransCanada). In May, the company cited “ongoing legal challenges” as the reason for losing the 2019 construction season, and in June suffered another defeat when its appeal was thrown out of the 9th Court of Appeals. On November 18th we delivered over 1,000 #NoKXL public comment letters to the State Department. We also provided support alongside ACLU Montana to our relatives at the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribal Nation with the first ever Oceti Sakowin Environmental Symposium.  Fort Peck Environmental Symposium
In 2019, IEN also hosted the first of its kind Tar Sands gathering at the Cold Lake First Nation in Northern Alberta in partnership with sister organization Indigenous Climate Action, and NDN Collective. This gathering began with a tour of the Tar Sands which many participating frontline organizers had not experienced before. About 100 leaders including an Indigenous youth contingent, campaigners, community and grassroots leaders working on the frontlines at the source of extraction, along pipeline routes and refineries gathered to connect pipeline fights to those in the tar sands regions, and to hone in on strategies to stop it at the source and #KeepItInTheGround. In October, IEN supported the resurgence of activism protecting the Shawnee National Forest in collaboration with the Global Justice Ecology Project and Shawnee Forest Defense to expose the root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction, and the economic domination of capitalism with The Resurgence: North America Forest & Climate Movement Convergence. IEN’s Save Our Roots Campaign, a partner with the International Stop Genetically Engineered Trees Campaign, took part in a telepress webinar that clearly presented all aspects of opposition to releasing a genetically modified American chestnut into the natural forests of their historical territory. Born of Hope, Courage, and Common Vision, IEN does more than just fight injustice. We are equally busy building sustainable economic alternatives, restoring Indigenous lifeways, and practicing our responsibility to ensure that the next Seven Generations can live within the natural laws that are sacred to all life on Earth. For example, this Spring we raised funds to support the recovery of the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center from the total loss of its building and solar arrays due to climate change induced flooding in the Midwest. This Summer we supported a solar electric PV training at the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nations at Fort Berthold, North Dakota taught by Debbie Tewa of Hopi Solar. As tribal members raised in this frontline community, surrounded by over 2000 active fracking wells, IEN’s Native Energy & Climate Campaign Coordinator Kandi White and Community Development Coordinator Loren White, Jr. are working with the Ft Berthold Protectors of Water & Earth Rights (P.O.W.E.R.) to implement Phase 1 of a Just Transition Demonstration Project. Earlier in the year, an Indigenous Women Climate Defenders Delegation from Colombia, Guatemala, Israel, Kenya, Nepal and Nicaragua, organized by MADRE and IEN, visited Fort Berthold to meet with local leaders confronting nearby oil and gas mega-projects. These extractive operations have devastating impacts on their communities, particularly on Indigenous women and girls. Click the image below to watch the recap video on our Indigenous Rising Media Youtube Channel.
 In the Fall, we led our first historic Indigenous Just Transition Assembly at Haskell Indian Nations University. These three days left us feeling inspired as together we looked deeply at our current and future work as Indigenous Peoples of North America as we manifest in our homelands a fair shift to an economy that is ecologically sustainable, equitable, and just. Sisters and brothers from our collective It Takes Roots Alliance joined us at Haskell for the first Regional Encuentro in our shared Road to the National Convening set for May 2020. “It is important for Indigenous communities to come together and have a dialogue about how do we define Just Transition,” said Marie Gladue, Just Transition Campaigner with Black Mesa Water Coalition. “Creating spaces for these dialogues with Indigenous peoples and allies will bring forth how we see our work going forward, what projects are people doing, and learning about issues that impact our environment. I look forward to having a conversation about the importance of Natural Law, healing, and action!” Videos from the Indigenous Just Transition Assembly can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTbkyN_MNGuhFvCSiE0JDgw/videos
Watch this video of our action demanding justice at the US embassy in Madrid that brought to light the connection between fossil fuel extraction and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s crisis. We are proud to announce IEN’s new Board Member: Dr. Debra Harry We wish we could tell you about all of the events and convenings we organized and participated in this year, but we hope that through our Indigenous Rising Media platform and Spirit Resistance Radio broadcasts you are already actively sharing in our hopes and struggles! If you are not already connected, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter @IndigenousRisingMedia and @ienearth. Thank you for your continued support and friendship, IEN Leadership Team, IEN Recent News!Students gather, exploring relationship between climate change, Indigenous peoples: The panel invited Standing Rock activist Joye Braun to speak on the unique connection between the Earth and tribal communities. Just Transition: On October 22nd 23rd, and 24th 2019, Haskell Indian Nations University hosted the Indigenous Just Transition Assembly organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). South Dakota Gears Up to Crack Down on Keystone XL Protesters in 2020: “We will celebrate this win, but remain vigilant against further government attempts to outlaw our right to peacefully assemble,” Dallas Goldtooth, one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs and an organizer with the activist group Indigenous Environmental Network. Oneida Member Says Native Communities, Federal Agencies Must Work Together for Sustainable Futures: IEN’s Chaz Wheelok says current economic development damages native communities. A Key Climate Justice Question at COP25: What Role Should Carbon Markets Play in Meeting Paris Goals?: Environmental justice advocates and indigenous groups argue that emissions trading leaves the poor bearing the brunt of pollution. COP25: Indigenous Delegation Links Missing and Murdered Women to Fossil Fuel Industry: Sonali Kolhtkar speaks with Ozawa Bineshi Albert. She is the Movement Building Coordinator with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). How to Indigenize the Green New Deal and Environmental Justice: Native nations and activists must have a seat at the table. The Centuries-Long History of Extractive Greed: Climate change is a symptom of a malevolent virus borne out of capitalism and colonialism. Indigenous liberation shows the path towards healing the planet. Keystone Pipeline Leaks 383,000 Gallons of Oil in North Dakota as Environmental Groups Express Concern: “This is exactly the kind of spill we are worried about when it comes to the Keystone XL being built. It has never been if a pipeline breaks but rather when,” said Joye Braun, frontline community organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Established in 1990, The Indigenous Environmental Network is an international environmental justice nonprofit that works with tribal grassroots organizations to build the capacity of Indigenous communities. IEN’s activities include empowering Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, the health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
Learn more here: ienearth.org
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