INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES
AWARENESS
Education Matters
ADVOCACY
Ensuring that All Voices are Heard
MAP ORIGINAL TERRITORIES
Understand who originally occupied our land
Use this online platform to learn more about the original groups who occupied land across the globe. Combat preconceived notions of political borders established throughout the colonialist period.
"For Native Land Digital, what we are mapping is more than just a flat picture. The land itself is sacred, and it is not easy to draw lines that divide it up into chunks that delineate who “owns” different parts of land. In reality, we know that the land is not something to be exploited and “owned”, but something to be honored and treasured. However, because of the complexities of history, the kind of mapping we undertake is an important exercise, insofar as it brings an awareness of the real lived history of Indigenous peoples and nations in a long era of colonialism."
Read: The United Nations "Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples"
Accepted by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007, The UN Declaration is a landmark piece of policy and the most comprehensive agreement detailing Indigenous rights internationally. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity, wellbeing and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. It promotes participation in society, freedom of expression, right to independence, pursuit of any socio economic activity, right to infrastructure and welfare, and protection from harm under law.
This effort has been in effect since 1982 and the start of the Economic and Social Working Group on Indigenous Populations.
Discover the Risks of Being an Indigenous Environmental Defender
Read this article published in June 2020 that details the risk of being an Indigenous environmental defender across the globe. This article offers an international framework and details that they are a group most at risk in relation to environmental destruction, and when they defend their land, they are most likely to be killed or be in an escalated situation with police.
A Case Study Evaluation of Injustices Faced on Native Lands
Discover the Navajo Water Project, a non-profit started in 2014 that works to provide clean, accessible running water to the Navajo reservation where water injustice is a daily health, safety, and survival threat.
1 in 3 Navajo do not have a sink or toilet, so they work to bring hot and cold running water to families by installing off-grid home water systems and then maintaining/refilling when needed
They have also invested in septic systems and created jobs for Indigenous peoples in the region
Those that live on the Navajo reservation pay 67x more for their water that they haul vs. piped water
They are also 67x more likely than any other American to live without running water or a toilet
Read: The Connection Between Ecofeminism, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Statelesness
Read this article by the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy detailing feminism in the environmental justice movement and the disproportionate impacts climate change has on Indigenous women, the "keepers of Mother Earth."
Native American Reparation Discussion
Read this article by ABC News discussing reparations for native peoples across the country. Understand that many tribes have a type of treaty with the U.S. government, but every single treaty has been broken. Many tribes are still not federally recognized or have gotten back their land because of a lack of coordination by the U.S. government in actually ratifying treaties.
