Some recent interesting news items from Indian Country Today:
Peruvian forest laws overturned
Posted: August 29, 2008 by: Rick Kearns / Indian Country Today
LIMA, Peru – Peruvian lawmakers handed President Alan Garcia a significant defeat Aug. 22 by voting 66 – 29 to repeal Garcia’s controversial ‘forest laws,’ which had been the subjects of fierce protest by indigenous communities (and with future actions still possible).
Native advocates and their allies had asserted that the laws made it easier for big companies to purchase their land, against the wishes of the communities, by lowering the percentage of ‘yes’ votes needed to grant a sale, and that in violation of Peruvian law,indigenous communities were not consulted before Garcia issued the decrees May 20.
Protestors also point out that there are oil, gas and other resources in the targeted indigenous areas that are estimated to be worth between $2 to 3 billion, and that the president had this in mind when he signed the most recent Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
Read more here…
Seeking a safe travel route in Alaska
Posted: August 25, 2008 by: Vincent Schilling
Isolated residents of King Cove want a connection to Cold Bay
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Residents of King Cove, Alaska, have long been isolated from their sister community of Cold Bay. All they are asking for is a safe road to connect the two cities.
Cold Bay holds Alaska’s third largest airport and provides a level of access to health care that is not available to residents to the small community of King Cove. Community members feel the ability to travel to and from Cold Bay is crucial.
Officials, tribal leaders and residents in the city of King Cove expressed appreciation to the Alaska Congressional Delegation, the state and Gov. Sarah Palin after the introduction of a promising bill to Congress. The bill would add a single-lane road leading from King Cove to Cold Bay in exchange for a considerable amount of wildlife habitat that would be allocated to the Izembeck and Alaska Peninsula national wildlife refuges.
Indigenous languages added to new Ecuadorian constitution
Posted: August 22, 2008 by: Rick Kearns / Indian Country Today
QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador could soon become the fourth country in the Western Hemisphere to have indigenous languages included in the list of the nation’s official languages.
In late July, the National Constituent Assembly – the political entity that is writing what could become the country’s new constitution – decided to include Quechua and Shuar, along with Spanish, as official languages. The proposed constitution will be put to a national vote Sept. 28.
Originally, assembly members had only listed Spanish in the first draft of that section of the constitution. This exclusion provoked a quick reaction from indigenous participants and their allies.
Guatemala appoints Mayan ambassador to indigenous people
Posted: August 15, 2008 by: Lisa Garrigues / Today correspondent
GUATEMALA CITY – In the midst of increasing conflict between Guatemala’s indigenous people and transnational corporations, Mayan elder Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj was appointed Aug. 9 as Indigenous Peoples Ambassador for Guatemala by President Alvaro Colom.
”We don’t want any more war, any more death,” he said.”’We will contribute for the good of the country, because we are all hungry, we are all sick and needy, there is a lot of inequality. The great wealth that we have in Guatemala is the indigenous people.”
Perez Oxlaj was appointed to his new post as part of the celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day in Guatemala, where 60 percent of the inhabitants are indigenous, primarily Mayan.
Tribal governments, national park sign resource management pact
Posted: August 12, 2008 by: Richard Walker / Indian Country Today
OCEAN SHORES, Wash. – Eight American Indian governments and Olympic National Park have signed an agreement strengthening their government-to-government relationship in preserving, protecting and restoring the region’s cultural and natural resources.
The 922,651-acre Olympic National Park – with glacier-capped mountains, temperate rainforests, rivers and streams, and Pacific coastline – is located in the traditional and accustomed territory of the Hoh, Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, Makah, Quileute, Quinault, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Skokomish.
The agreement calls for timely and respectful communication regarding cultural and natural resources; improved coordination of policies and programs affecting those resources; the sharing of expertise and information; and collaboration in the conservation,protection and use of natural resources ”for the benefit of the present and future generations.”
Oglala Sioux Tribe gets say in Badlands management
Posted: August 12, 2008 by: The Associated Press
BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. (AP) – The north end of this national park bustles with roughly a million tourists a year who pull over to view and photograph the majestic canyons, spires and tables, hike the trails and learn about fossils.
The park’s mostly undeveloped and far-less-travelled South Unit, which also boasts mile upon mile of moonscape-like vistas, lies within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In the 1940s, the federal government seized it from more than 800 American Indian families for a military bombing and gunnery range that was used until the 1960s.
In 1976, the land was returned to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which has since co-managed it with the National Park Service.
As that agency drafts its operating plan for the South Unit,it’s thinking about returning complete control to the OST, something it has never done with a tribe.
”Many people want more tribal involvement and management,and some want it turned over to the tribe,” said Paige Baker, Badlands National Park superintendent.