Indian Country Today Global

We celebrate on Sept. 13 the first anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Peru’s Amazonian indigenous alliance AIDESEP hailed the government’s formation of an investigative commission on the June 5 massacre at Bagua as “an important step” towards reconciliation in the wake of June’s deadly unrest in the lowland rainforest.

REGINA, Saskatchewan – Dr. Shunwa Honda of the Open University of Japan is on a mission to help win government legal recognition of indigenous status for the Ainu people.

Creating an environment where tribes and First Nations can be proactive in energy investments on their land is what the private equity development fund, known as Native American Resource Partners, does best.

WALLACEBURG, Ontario – Last year at the 2008 Potawatomi Gathering of Nations, Walpole Island leadership was approached about developing a cost-effective pharmacy business to supply U.S. Potawatomi tribes’ pharmaceutical needs.

TORONTO – A new report released on the eve of the second anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples shows that it is increasingly honored, celebrated and implemented around the world, while Canada continues to balk at embracing its human rights principles.

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – The Seneca Nation has entered into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to develop an Enhanced Tribal Card for use as a travel document in compliance with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative – a post 9/11 federal government effort to secure U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.

Following a recent mission to Bolivia and Paraguay, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues released two reports expressing grave concern over forced labor suffered by indigenous peoples in the Chaco regions of the two countries.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba Canada – Fathers worldwide enjoy special privileges on Father’s Day and look forward to receiving cards and calls from their children. Arthur Shorting’s morning began with a phone call from his daughter as he lay in bed sleeping next to his wife, Betty.

First Nations in Canada are exercising aboriginal and treaty rights more and more. A number of communities have launched territorial lawsuits to claim jurisdiction over traditional lands and the government’s duty to consult communities about any developmental activities on traditional lands in their respective territories. There are examples of communities exercising rights throughout Canada, while keeping future generations in mind.

According to the National Congress of American Indians, about 40 tribes are affected by the international borders of the United States. But, the Tohono O’odham Nation is the largest and perhaps most recognized when it comes to border impact.

TOFINO, British Columbia – “It’s a ground-breaking ground breaking,” beamed Tla-o-qui-aht council member Elmer Frank as he dug a ceremonial shovel into the dirt of his First Nations’ new reservation.

Christmas is four months away and as I wonder how American families will celebrate one of the most sacred of Christian holidays in the midst of a still struggling economy, I can’t help but think about 3-year-old Bianca Ruby and her family, who don’t have the means to buy a Christmas tree or the toys to put under it. Bianca and her family, along with two dozen other families, live in a municipal dump just across the Arizona border in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Imagine living in a landfill where a quarter of a million people dump their trash.

SUDBURY, Ontario – This year, the first graduating class of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine completed the program with some unique experiences in aboriginal communities across the northern part of the province.

Patches of white ash on parched earth are the latest markers of the Tanzanian government’s efforts to evict indigenous Maasai cattle herders from their settlements in the name of conservation. In July, more than 1,000 Maasai looked at smoldering homes as Tanzanian police forcibly removed them, making way for a safari camp controlled by an United Arab Emirates billionaire who jets in and out when the urge to go big-game hunting strikes.

When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security enacted the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative June 1 tribal IDs were not on the list of acceptable forms of identification.

Editor’s note: José Barreiro is assistant director of research at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He filed this report from Cuzco, Peru. CUZCO, Peru – The son – only three years old – follows the father awhile before running ahead, hopping and sliding without care as we wind our way up the climbing, rocky trail. We are in Chawaytiri, a community of Qhechua speaking people, weavers and herders, high in the Andean mountains. Our mission is to trace the ancient route of the Qhapac ñan, the sacred road of the Inka – the grand civilization that greeted the Spanish conquest.

Peru Native groups keeping ancestral ways of life may restart protests unless President Alan Garcia makes good on promises to heal dozens of Natives with bullet wounds following the June 5 clash with police armed with assault rifles, and stops harassment and persecution.

Decades of activism by Ecuador’s indigenous peoples have earned them considerable political power, and last year the government approved a constitution that incorporates many of the rights and concepts they long demanded. Yet, some indigenous leaders complain that little has changed in practice and that their people face the same threats they did under previous governments.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduras’ interim president told McClatchy Newspapers Aug. 17 that he won’t agree to any proposal to resolve his country’s political crisis that would allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to power.