Previous NativeWeb People and Events

Message of Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Special Rapporteur, on the occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

Ceremonies offer spiritual healing for inmates: Lenny Foster, second from left, a Navajo spiritual adviser, greeted each inmate as they emerged from the sweat lodge after a ceremony at the Torrance County Correctional Facility, in Estancia, N.M., May 3. The goal of the Sweatlodge ceremony is the same as the other religious services provided to inmates of various faiths. Prison wardens have even come to recognize the benefits it can have for the inmates and for keeping order on the inside. [AP Photo/Toby Jorrin] [Indian Country Today article by Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press (1 June 2007)]

Tonya Gonnella Frichner (Snipe Clan, Onondaga Nation), Vice Chair of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, and Founder and President of the American Indian Law Alliance, has been selected as the North American Representative of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

YAEDA VALLEY, Tanzania -- One of the last remaining tribes of hunter-gatherers on the planet is on the verge of vanishing into the modern world. .... [M]embers of the dwindling Hadzabe tribe, who now number fewer than 1,500, say it is being unduly hastened by a United Arab Emirates royal family, which plans to use the tribal hunting land as a personal safari playground. [Washington Post article and photo by Stephanie Mccrummen (10 June 2007)]

Mashpee Wampanoags officially recognized: Mashpee Wampanoag youths celebrated their tribe's official recognition by the federal government, which went into effect at midnight May 25, by playing traditional drums and singing at tribal headquarters in Mashpee, Mass. The tribe, which shared the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims in 1621, was granted tribal status by the BIA in February after pursing it for 32 years. [AP Photo/Julia Cumes] [Indian Country Today article by Gale Courey Toensing (1 June 2007)]

Thousands gathered the last week of March 2007 at Iximche', a sacred Maya site located in the Guatemalan highlands, for the Third Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Abya Yala (the Americas). Delegates drafted a Declaration of Iximche that ratified an ancestral right to territory and common resources of the mother earth, rejected free trade pacts, condemned the construction of a wall between Mexico and the United States, and called for the legalization of coca leaves. The declaration's goals will be implemented by a newly formed Continental Coordinating body for Nationalities and Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. The body will allow exchange of ideas about quality of life and the movement against neoliberal trade policy. NativeWeb's Marc Becker reports on the summit.

Members of the scientific staff of the American Museum of Natural History have issued a statement of concern about publication of "On the Trail of the Anasazi" by Craig Childs, the cover article in the March 2007 issue of Natural History magazine: "We question the judgment of the editorial staff of Natural History magazine in publishing an article that denigrates American Indian peoples, seriously misrepresents the work, ideas, and practices of professional anthropologists actively working in the American Southwest and encourages unethical, disrespectful, and possibly illegal behavior." View full text of the statement.

"The U.S. government ... declared the Mashpee Wampanoag survivors worthy of recognition as a sovereign Indian nation after four centuries of confronting colonization, criticism and assimilation, and then being slowly squeezed off a rapidly developing corner of Cape Cod." "The tribe's sovereign-nation status will become permanent 90 days after the decision is published in the Federal Register. Once that happens the Mashpee Wampanoag will be the 564th federally recognized tribe in the country, the second tribe to be granted sovereign-nation status in the state, and the first to be recognized under the Bush administration. BIA officials said last year the Mashpee petition was one of the strongest the agency had ever seen...."
Full story from Cape Cod Times 16 February 2007.

In MOHAWK GIRLS, filmmaker Tracey Deer intimately captures the lives of three exuberant and insightful Mohawk teenagers as they face their future. Like Amy, Lauren and Felicia, Deer grew up on the Kahnawake Native Reserve, but she left to attend school. Now, she returns to document two critical years in the lives of these teens who are contending with the unwritten rules of their close-knit community. Interspersed with home videos from Deer's own adolescence, MOHAWK GIRLS is a deeply emotional yet unsentimental look into what it means to grow up Native at the beginning of the 21st century.

Indian country lost a major luminary with the recent passing of Sotsisowah, the Seneca author and traditionalist known in the broader society as John Mohawk, Ph.D. A longtime professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, the highly talented and engaging scholar was a motivating force in the Indian traditionalist movement and the national and international indigenous initiative of self-sufficiency and self-assertion of the contemporary era. Mohawk's essays and speeches from the early 1970s, through his genial direction of the national Indian newspaper, Akwesasne Notes, from 1976 to 1984, were pivotal contributions to the development of intellectual capacity in the Indian movement. From his academic perch, Mohawk developed enlightening university courses while sustaining a wide-ranging program of writing and community educational and oratorical forays. In recent years, he had been an opinion columnist for Indian Country Today.

BBC NEWS: Bushmen from the Kalahari desert have won a court case in which they accused Botswana's government of illegally moving them from their land. The court said the bushmen - or San people - were wrongly evicted from their ancestral homeland in 2002. The bushmen are the oldest people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Crowds of them had trekked overland to the court in the town of Lobatse to wait for the verdict, which was translated for them. There were scenes of jubilation as the result became clear.

Message from Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 12 October 2006: "Mitakuye (my relative), I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Nation, ask you to understand an Indigenous perspective on what has happened in America, what we call 'Turtle Island.' My words seek to unite the global community through a message from our sacred ceremonies to unite spiritually, each in our own ways of beliefs in the Creator. We have been warned from Ancient Prophecies of these times we live in today, but have also been given a very important message about a solution to turn these terrible times around."
FULL TEXT of Arvol's message at Manataka American Indian Council

"Mad Mel and the Maya" - a review of Apocalypto by Earl Shorris, in The Nation magazine, sharply criticizes the film for its racism: "To grasp what a racist act Gibson has committed in the making of his new film, it is necessary to understand the world of the Maya as it exists today. ... Gibson ... may have shattered much of what has been built by indigenous people, historians and linguists in recent years. ... Mel Gibson cast no Maya to work on his project, except in the most minor roles. In casting and producing the film Gibson reinforced a colonialist concept of indigenous people that has long existed in Mexico." READ THE FULL REVIEW in The Nation magazine

"The Sober Racism of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto", by Liza Grandia, published in CommonDreams.org, is also very critical: "As a cultural anthropologist who has worked for thirteen years among different Maya peoples of Mesoamerica and who speaks the Q'eqchi' Maya language fluently, I found Apocalypto to be deeply racist. ... Gibson's slanderous film reinforces the same stereotypes that have facilitated the genocide of Maya peoples and the plunder of their lands starting with the Spanish invasion of 1492 and continuing through the Guatemalan civil war to the present." READ THE FULL REVIEW at CommonDreams.org

The Indigenous Peoples' Caucus at the UN held an emergency meeting 13 November 2006 due to a report that a few States will take procedural actions to derail the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Indigenous Peoples' Caucus hereby affirms their global and unanimous support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on June 29, 2006. The Indigenous Peoples' Caucus hereby repeats its request that the UN General Assembly immediately adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which constitutes the minimum standards for the survival, well-being and dignity of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. Such action should take place before the end of 2006.

In a historic effort to unite the Andean peoples, representatives from indigenous organizations in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Guatemala met in Cusco July 15 - 17 in the first Congress of the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations. The meeting brought together 500 delegates from the Quechua, Kichwa, Aymara, Mapuche and other nations. It was organized by five different indigenous organizations: CONACAMI of Peru, CONAMAQ of Bolivia, ECUARUNARI of Ecuador, ONIC of Colombia and CITEM of the Mapuche Nation of Chile. The event began with a steep climb through the streets of Cusco to the Incan site of Saqsayhuaman, where spiritual authorities from several nations conducted a despacho, or offering to the Earth. Cusco Declaration / Declaración del Cusco
Indian Country Today article and photo by Lisa Garrigues (07 August 2006)

FIFTH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES: "The Millennium Development Goals and Indigenous Peoples: Re-defining the Millennium Development Goals" -- United Nations Headquarters, New York -- 15 to 26 May 2006. This year's Session began with the launching of the Programme of Action for the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. There were over 50 side events scheduled for the two weeks while the Forum was in session.

The annual meeting of the World Social Forum (WSF) has grown into the world's largest gathering of civil society. Stretching for several kilometers along the open spaces of Porto Alegre's Guaiba riverfront, from January 26-31, 2005, 155,000 participants from 135 countries joined together under the southern hemisphere's summer sun, with the slogan "another world is possible." Marc Becker reports on the events and issues, including the "Puxirum of Indigenous Arts and Knowledge."

The historic opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., September 21, 2004, celebrated the Native cultures of North, South, and Central America, featuring more than 300 singers, dancers, and storytellers representing Native communities from throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Kito Declaration from the 2nd Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of the Americas (Quito, Ecuador, July 21 - 25, 2004). Read a report on the Summit and related Americas Social Forum.

Documents from the Third Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples (10 - 21 May 2004) have been released. These include Secretariat documents, NGO consultations, government statements and other materials.

Over 1,000 indigenous people from around the world came to the United Nations to attend the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 10 - 21 May 2004. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made an opening statement.

Secretary-General Hails Contributions Of Indigenous Peoples To Human Civilization In Remarks In Machu Picchu, Peru

Marc Becker Report: World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, January 2004

Black Mesa Weavers for Life and Land business partnership with the Navajo Churro wool-buying co-op held its second Navajo Churro wool buy for Black Mesa Diné outside the Hardrock Chapter House.

Marc Becker report: U.S. Navy ceases their exercises and practice bombing on Vieques.

Memorial Day, May 26, 2003: Native American Women in the U.S. Armed Forces Washington Memorial to Honor Military Service of Native American Woman, Private Lori Piestewa

Back to NativeWeb Home Page

Disclaimer: NativeWeb does not endorse any of the news stories or sources listed. This page is not an archive, and items may be removed at any time.