By Joan Tavares Avant (Granny Squannit) & Ann Foxx

On Tuesday the Senate defeated a bill that would have given the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline that oil companyTransCanada has lobbied to build to channel tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast of the US. 

By Madeline McGill

In 2013, photographer Matika Wilbur embarked on a four-year journey called Project 562 to transform the way the public regards Native Peoples. A member of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes and tired of historical inaccuracies and stereotypical images, she sold everything in her Seattle apartment and set off to photograph each of the US’s 566 federally recognized tribes.

On November 6, 2014, she stood in front of students at Boston College after traveling to five cities in the last week.

Traditional Dineh (Navajo) elders are under attack by federal law enforcement! There have been multiple arrests and approx. 200 of their sheep and goats have been confiscated.

By Phoebe Farris

The World Conference on Indigneous Peoples is taking place September 22-23 at the UN in New York. Here is a list of the events happening around the conference.

19^th September:

11:00 am - 4:00 pm:

Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity and Engagement with the UN WCIP

Close to 400,000 people turned out in New York City on Sunday, September 21, 2014, for the People’s Climate March, the largest environmental protest in history. Far exceeding expectations, the streets of Manhattan were filled with Indigenous Peoples, environmentalists, politicians, musicians, students, farmers, celebrities, nurses and labor activists united in their demand for urgent action on climate change.

By Madeline McGill

The World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) ended September 23^rd, concluding a two-day United Nations summit dedicated to the discussion of issues concerning Indigenous People on a global scale.

The final day of the conference included a roundtable and panel discussion on Indigenous peoples lands, territories and resources; followed by a closing planetary meeting consisting of summaries by roundtable and panel Chairs.

By Madeline McGill

Many Indigenous languages, once prominently spoken across North America, have been threatened as their speakers continue to age and new generations are born into an English-dominant society. For numerous Tribal Nations, the number of native speakers has fallen dangerously low, often into the single digits.

It has been through the efforts of elders, educators, and interested youth that Nations have started to see a movement to re-vitalize endangered languages.

Cultural Survival Quarterly contributing arts editor Phoebe Farris recently spoke with Tony Castanha, author of  The Myth of Indigenous Caribbean Extinction: Continuity And Reclamation in Boriken (Puerto Rico) [Palgrave Macmillian, a division of St.Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 2011] about his recent work.