Source: the-native-soul
“Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.” -Black Elk; via Aboriginal and Tribal Nation News
“Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new, sweet earth, and the great silence alone.”
-Lakota Wisdom, via Aboriginal and Tribal Nation News
In the lead in confronting the crisis, throughout the world, are indigenous communities. The strongest stand has been taken by the one country they govern, Bolivia, the poorest country in South America and for centuries a victim of Western destruction of its rich resources.
After the ignominious collapse of the Copenhagen global climate change summit in 2009, Bolivia organized a People’s Summit with 35,000 participants from 140 countries. The summit called for very sharp reduction in emissions, and a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. That is a key demand of indigenous communities all over the world.
The demand is ridiculed by sophisticated Westerners, but unless we can acquire some of the sensibility of the indigenous communities, they are likely to have the last laugh – a laugh of grim despair.
Indigenous leaders from six Amazon tribes have asked the Brazilian government to immediately suspend the installation license for the controversial Belo Monte dam.
[my caption for this photo: “so, you want to mess with MY water, huh, suited punks?!”]
In a letter addressed to President Dilma Rousseff and other government authorities, sixty leaders from the Xikrin, Juruna, Arara, Parakanã, Kuruaya and Kayapó tribes demand a halt to work on the dam until the government puts into place “effective programs and measures to address the impacts of the dam on local people.”
The letter says there are strong grounds for canceling Belo Monte’s installation license, including failures to fully assess the social and environmental impacts of the dam.
The letter states that preliminary dam work has already damaged downstream water quality, affecting communities dependent on the Xingu as a source of water and livelihoods.
The Belo Monte dams is among the most controversial of dozens of dams planned in the Amazon region. Belo Monte will divert the flow of the Xingu river, one of the Amazon’s mightiest tributaries, displacing some 20,000 people and flooding up to 40,000 hectares of land. Scientists warn the project could disrupt important fish migration routes and trigger substantial emissions methane, a greenhouse gas with more than 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Belo Monte is thought to be the first of at least three major dams planned for the Xingu basin.
Don't Rob Native American Women of their Choices
- Target: Indian Health Service
- Sponsored by: Lynn Hamilton
Good moms tell their daughters about the birds and bees. On the Indian reservation, mothers have to talk to their daughters about what happens after a sexual assault. That’s because one in three Native American women becomes a rape victim.
That’s heartbreaking enough. But now it also appears that Native Americans are having a hard time getting the Plan B contraceptive that prevents a pregnancy in the aftermath of assault.
Anecdotal reports documented by Colorlines.com show that nearby clinics don’t carry Plan B and victims get told they have to fill a prescription many miles away from they live. This poses a terrible difficulty for women who have exactly 72 hours after an assault to take the medication and prevent pregnancy.
Tell the Indian Health Service to stock Plan B in all reservation clinics and make sure women have immediate access to it.
On this day, honor the land. Honor the people who serve and protect the land. Honor the ancestors by learning to be a good ancestor. Honor yourself by listening to the stories that the land and ancestors tell you.
