Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages Program annually collaborates on the local fundraising and advocacy priorities set by our grassroots language program advisors: The Euchee Language Project in Sapulpa, OK; the Northern Arapaho Language Lodges in Arapaho and Ethete, WY; the Sauk Language Department of the Sac and Fox Nation in Stroud, OK; the Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project in Mashpee, MA; and the Alutiiq Museum Language Program in Kodiak, Alaska.
October 28, 2011- Native Americans got President Obama’s attention during a speech he was giving in Denver this week. As Native protesters held banners saying, “President Obama, Yes You Can Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline” and “Honor Indian Treaties,” Tom Poor Bear, Vice-President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, called out to the president from the back of the packed auditorium. Obama interrupted his prepared speech and acknowledged Poor Bear, saying, “I hear you. No decision has been made. I know your deep concern about it. We will address it. “
The Oglala Sioux Nation has declared opposition to plans for the Keystone XL gas pipeline project unless the US government can agree to certain conditions set by the Nation.
Each year the recognition of Columbus Day places Indigenous Peoples in a painfully uncomfortable position. In the year 2011, as Native people in this country, we still must explain our feelings about a historically inaccurate, national holiday.
On September 29, 2011 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will clean up approximately 1.4 million tons of radium and uranium contaminated soil at the Northeast Church Rock Mine, the largest uranium mine on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.
The Indigenous Environmental Network and other partners in the Tar Sands Action coalition issued a new action plan for protests against the Keystone XL pipeline. They reported that at a meeting on the Rosebud Sioux reservation last week, “Native tribal leaders from both sides of the border and private land owners from South Dakota and Nebraska signed a ‘Mother Earth Accord’ opposing Keystone XL and the tar sands.
Internal State Department emails obtained through the Access to Information Act reveal that the Obama administration has been promoting the Keystone XL pipeline project even while the project is officially under review by the department.
In an effort to teach the Lakota language to its children, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Lakota Language Consortium, have produced a 20-episode Berenstain Bears Lakota-language series, Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe, or “The Compassionate Bear Family.”
Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) has been nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal after taking the U.S. government to court for mismanaging more than a century of American Indian land trust royalties. The lawsuit resulted in a $3.4 billion settlement for an estimated 500,000 Native Americans.
American Indian and Canadian Native leaders were among the 1,009 people arrested on September 2, 2011 in front of the White House while protesting the construction of a controversial 1,700 mile Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. The protesters were warning about the environmental and health risks and were asking President Obama not to issue a permit for the construction of the pipeline.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
