beatrice_otter: Dreamwidth logo with text "I wanted to have a protest icon too (what are we protesting this week again?)" (Protest)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
The US and Canada have a horrifying history of enacting cultural genocide (and sometimes physical genocide) by removing Native American/First Nations/Alaska Native children from their families, first to residential schools and then to put them in white families. In the US, this was mostly stopped by the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, which said that if Native American children were removed from their families they needed to be placed with other Native American families. ICWA is being challenged in the Supreme Court as we speak, and the Trump-packed Supreme Court is highly likely to overturn it.

This would be a disaster. However, it could be mitigated by legislation at the state level. The Lakota Law Project has a widget for you to email your state Governor and state legislators asking them to put in place state laws to protect Native American children should ICWA fall.
beatrice_otter: Dreamwidth logo with text "I wanted to have a protest icon too (what are we protesting this week again?)" (Protest)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
There is currently an act before the senate, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act, which would establish a commission to investigate past injustices of the federal government's cultural genocide and assimilation practices through its Indian Boarding School policy.

If you would like to contact your senators about it, the ELCA (a Christian denomination) has a widget that will email them for you. It is quick and easy to use, and easy to edit out the religious bits if you wish.

chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)
[personal profile] chestnut_pod
This is an environmental and Indigenous-rights set of actions.

Thacker Pass/Pee'hee Mu'huh is sacred and historically significant land to the northern Paiute and the Shoshone. It is unceded, but currently managed as public land by the Bureau of Land Management. It is vital habitat for many endangered flora and fauna, some endemic to only this region. Due to Trump-era environmental deregulation, it is also the proposed site of a giant lithium mine run by Canadian company Lithium Americas.

Lithium Americas says this is a "green" mine, meant to provide batteries for electric cars, but the impact would be environmentally devastating. Lithium mining means open-pit mining and the chewing up of mountaintops in the refining process, such that producing one ton of lithium will require strip mining and processing between ~110 and 500 tons of Earth. Alongside the lithium, the process produces hundreds of tons of sulfur waste, including sulfuric acid. It will also burn enormous quantities of diesel and suck up hundreds of thousands of gallons of water -- in Nevada. All this quite aside from the fact that it will require eating up more than 5,000 acres of sacred and irreplaceable land, threatening the wider watershed, cutting off its relationship to its originary stewards, and truncating a critical wildlife corridor.

How I heard about this was because Lithium Americas is 49% owner of Minera Exar, a South American company accused of misleading and violating principles of free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous communities in the vicinity of their mine in Argentina. This is only part of the horrific abuses against Indigenous peoples living around lithium mines in the Andes, and you'd better believe the same will happen in the U.S.

All this to say, it must be stopped, and people are working to stop it.

--

Protect Thacker Pass/Pee'hee Mu'huh - Protestors, including Paiute and Shoshone tribal members, are constructing an encampment at Thacker Pass. Learn more about the project and donate to help with construction, travel, and living fees.

Sign a petition to the Department of Interior, crafted by the Fort McDermitt Paiute & Shoshone.

Indigenous Women Hike - Originally founded to help Indigenous women (Paiute, Navajo, and other nations) heal their ancestral connection to Nüümü and Newe territory through hiking and activism, IWH is currently involved in the Thacker Pass action. Check the link in their bio to learn how to donate directly to them or support them through merch.

Text PCLPBP to 50409 to get ResistBot to send Biden a letter telling him to tell the DOI to revoke Lithium Americas' permits.

And then email the DOI (feedback@ios.doi.gov) and the Nevada chapter of the BLM (BLM_NV_NVSO_web_mail@blm.gov) directly, using more or less that same script.

--
ResistBot and DOI/BLM text (also usable as a phone script) )
sea_changed: Angelica Schuyler from Hamilton (hamilton; angelica)
[personal profile] sea_changed
Indigenous and environmental activists in Minnesota have been fighting the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline for years now, but recently there has been a huge surge in national pushback against the pipeline as well. Here are some ways to help the effort:

1. Contact the White House directly to ask Biden to stop Line 3. The email I sent read:
 
Dear President Biden,

I am writing to you to ask you to stop construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota. I am extraordinarily glad and grateful that one of your first acts in office was to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, and so I am asking you to once again product our climate and our future by halting the Line 3 pipeline as well.
 
Line 3 would cross more than 200 bodies of water in northern Minnesota, crossing reservation boarders and land that the Ojibwe and Dakota people hold treaty rights to and use for food production, including most especially wild rice. The likelihood of a leak or spill, and the devastation that that would cause to people and the climate, is enormous. Even if the pipeline works as it should, its climate effects will be horrific and directly counter to this administration's stated goal of tackling the climate emergency--Line 3 would create more pollution than the equivalent of 50 coal plants.
 
As a Minnesota resident I am devastated that my state leaders have abdicated their responsibilities to the environment, to the Ojibwe and Dakota people whose lands we occupy, and to our children's futures by not stopping the constriction of Line 3 before now. President Biden, please step in where they have failed, and call an immediate halt to the construction of Line 3, as well as a stop to the use of the pipeline it was slated to replace. We need you and are counting on you. 
 
Sincerely,
[my name]

Feel free to use that as a guide, though as always remember to personalize based on who you are and what’s most important to you. (And if you'd like help constructing your own letter, please reach out! I'd be happy to help.) See here and here for information on the pipeline to help script your call or write your email/letter.

2. Tell banks to stop funding Line 3. There's an important loan renewal deadline for Enbridge on March 31st, 2021--please use this form to email executives at the banks that are funding Line 3 to tell them to not renew their loans to Enbridge. The text of the letter can be edited, so please take advantage of that to rephrase and personalize the text (while still keeping the main info). Here is my edited version of the text:

Dear bank executives,
 
I am writing to you today to demand that your company does not continue its participation in $2.16 billion credit facility renewal with Enbridge on March 31st, 2021. 
 
Enbridge is the company responsible for the building of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which is going on right now in defiance of treaty rights and grave environmental concerns over its construction. If built, Line 3 would cross more than 200 bodies of water in northern Minnesota, crossing reservation boarders and land that the Ojibwe and Dakota people hold treaty rights to and use for food production, including most especially wild rice. The likelihood of a leak or spill, and the devastation that that would cause to people and the climate, is enormous. Even if the pipeline works as it should, its climate effects will be horrific and directly counter to this administration's stated goal of tackling the climate emergency--Line 3 would create more pollution than the equivalent of 50 coal plants.
 
Renewing your loan to Enbridge is a significant social risk to your company's reputation. A wide variety of groups, including the Red Lake Nation, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, MN’s Department of Commerce, and multiple environmental organizations, are currently challenging the legality of Line 3 in court. Meanwhile, over 200,000 people have signed a petition demanding that President Biden take Executive Action to stop Line 3, and Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar has written to President Biden demanding the same. Recently, more than 600 people took to the streets of St. Paul demanding a stop to the pipeline. The best-selling novelist and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Louise Erdrich wrote in the New York Times: “[Line 3] is is a tar sands climate bomb (...) The state’s environmental impact assessment of the project found the pipeline’s carbon output could be 193 million tons per year. That’s the equivalent of 50 coal-fired power plants or 38 million vehicles on our roads.”
 
The climate movement has grown dramatically in recent years, gaining more people and more power. Now that the Keystone XL pipeline has been canceled, stopping Line 3 is the number one priority for huge numbers of climate activists across the United States. Your company's funding of Line 3 will not go unnoticed. 
 
Therefore, I strongly urge your company to do the right thing for the environment, for Native rights, and for your own company's reputation, and walk away from Line 3 and the $2.16 billion credit facility renewal with Enbridge on March 31st.

I kept the general flow of the original letter, but used text from my above letter to Biden and significantly rephrased and edited much of the letter to make it my own.

3. If you have money in a bank that funds Line 3 and other pipelines, strongly consider closing your account and moving your money to a credit union or smaller bank that doesn’t fund climate change. (Click here for a zoom-in-able version of the graphic if you’re having trouble reading it.)

The list includes all the major US banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank, along with many international institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, and many more. Tips for moving your money out of these banks can be found here. (The list/graphic look to be a few years old, but I believe it to still be largely accurate. If you'd like help researching your bank, let me know.)

4. Sign a petition. There are lots of these going around, and they take less than a minute each to sign. Here are some I know of, from StopLine3.org, 350.org, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Sierra Club (this last one will require you to put in your address). 
 
5. Donate. You can donate to Honor the Earth, an Indigenous activist group that founded StopLine3.org, here. You can donate to the frontlines trying to keep the pipeline from being built through StopLine3.org here or through the RAN's microgrants program here

6. Stay informed on current developments! StopLine3.org has a frequently-updated news page
beatrice_otter: Me in red--face not shown (Default)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
If you have any desire to see either Native Americans' voices amplified, or oil companies' voices minimized, or both, and you are a US citizen, now is a great time to send a message to your US Senators asking them to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. The Department of the Interior is the department in charge of things like energy and environmental policy, and it's ALSO the department of which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is part. Having an Indigenous woman in charge of that department would be huge. Here's what the Lakota Law Project has to say about it:

[Today] is a huge day for Indian Country. At 9:30 a.m. EST, the United States Senate will begin deliberations on whether to confirm Indiegnous congresswoman Deb Haaland, President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior. Predictably and unfortunately, as a strong advocate for the environment and the first Native person nominated for a Cabinet-level position, she faces strong opposition from conservative senators who fear she’ll prioritize the protection of public lands over the oil companies who line their pockets at our expense.

That’s why it’s critical — right now — that we continue putting all the pressure we can on every U.S. senator to confirm her nomination. Please use this link and let your senators know it’s high time to put a highly qualified Native woman at the helm of the Interior Department. It’s time to protect sacred lands and water and make sure the federal government’s relationships with tribal governments are overseen by one who deeply understands all the issues we face.

The link leads you to a page with a widget to email your senators. It only takes a few minutes--please take this opportunity to push for things to keep moving in the right direction!
watersword: Keira Knightley, in Pride and Prejudice (2007), turning her head away from the viewer, the word "elizabeth" written near (Default)
[personal profile] watersword
I am thoroughly enjoying emailing my Senators and Representative with requests to work with the Biden administration. Today's was a reminder about the Dakota Access Pipeline and how it needs to be shut down. Since President Biden has committed to shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline, that was where I started my request -- full text beneath the cut, based largely on the text from Earth Justice, available at Google Drive, along with a number of suggested phrasings for social media.

what I sent to Congress )
tassosss: Shen Wei Zhao Yunlan Era (Default)
[personal profile] tassosss
It's been a hell of a week. News on the Impeachment trial is grim, and makes it all the more imperative to make sure Trump is a one-term president in 2020. Meanwhile, to all our friends in the UK, we're with you as Brexit takes effect.

Take care of each other out there.

New Action Items
Oppose Change to Social Security Disability Rules
Massachusetts: Indigenous Peoples' Agenda

Info You Can Use
Election Resources Roundup - a list of organizations working on election issues for 2020
Fandom Trumps Hate 2020 - creator signups are now open and run until 31 Jan


How's everyone doing?

Poll #23374 This week
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9


I.

View Answers

called my one senator
3 (50.0%)

called my other senator
3 (50.0%)

called my representative
2 (33.3%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter/fax
3 (50.0%)

attended a town hall
0 (0.0%)

donated money to a cause
3 (50.0%)

attended an in-person activist group
0 (0.0%)

participated in phone/online training
0 (0.0%)

.

View Answers

went to a protest
0 (0.0%)

signed up for alerts
2 (28.6%)

worked for a campaign
0 (0.0%)

did textbanking/phonebanking
0 (0.0%)

took care of myself
6 (85.7%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
1 (14.3%)

did something else
4 (57.1%)

committed to action in the coming week
1 (14.3%)



Profile

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

June 2025

S M T W T F S
12 34567
8 91011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 11th, 2025 07:44 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios