2012 NTEC Conference
SAVE THE DATE! The 2012 NTEC Annual Meeting will be held August 26-29, 2012 at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in Acme, MI. Check out our Annual Meeting page for details.
Alaska Tela-Operator Program
Using the Internet to provide Technical and Emergency Assistance to Native Alaskan Water System Operators
2010 White House Tribal Nations Conference
President Obama holds 2nd Annual Tribal Nations Conference on Dec. 16, 2010. Read the Progress Report and Tribal Environmental and Natural Resources briefing document NTEC has compiled.
NTEC Awarded NTTC Grant
In December 2010, NTEC became the Administrator for the National Tribal Toxics Council (formerly the TC3P2). The NTTC will address both toxics and Pollution Prevention. Visit the new website at www.tribaltoxics.org.NTEC Raises Concerns that H.R. 1505 Threatens Tribal Interests, Natural Resources
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Tribal Environmental Council today voiced concerns about H.R. 1505, which is coming up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“American Indian tribes across the country see this bill as a direct threat to tribal sovereignty, including protection of our clean water, sacred places and cultural artifacts,” said Kesner Flores of the National Tribal Environmental Council.
The bill, H.R. 1505, is sponsored by Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah. It is part of a package of bills affecting public and tribal lands that is scheduled for House action this week. The bill, which has even been deemed unnecessary by the Department of Homeland Security, would provide Border Patrol with unfettered access to public and tribal lands within 100 miles of Northern and Southern borders. The bill would also waive dozens of protective laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and others.
The National Congress of American Indians has approved a resolution in opposition to H.R. 1505. Individual tribes, including Oneida and Blackfeet, are also submitting letters of concern to Congress.
NCAI Alert - Sacred Site at Risk
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NCAI Action Alert
Sacred Site at Risk - Oppose H.R. 1904 in the Senate - Hearing Next Thursday
Next week on Thursday, February 9, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a full committee hearing to receive testimony on H.R. 1904, the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011. NCAI passed a resolution opposing H.R. 1904 this past November at its 2011 Annual Convention in Portland, Oregon.
H.R. 1904 represents a bill of national significance for Indian tribes across the country, as it would transfer a known sacred site into the private ownership of foreign mining companies and result in the destruction of the very elements of this place that make it a sacred site to Native peoples. The House of Representatives passed H.R. 1904 in October 2011, and it is critical that the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources know tribes oppose the legislation.
The hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 9, 2012, in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 366 and will be webcast at http://energy.senate.gov on the day of the hearing. We encourage tribal leaders to attend the hearing if they will be in Washington DC.
Potawatomi tribe proposes renewable energy plant
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Posted Dec 7, 2011 in the Journal Sentinel Online
The Forest County Potawatomi tribe is proposing to build an $18.5 million biogas energy project adjacent to its Menomonee Valley casino.
The renewable energy plan calls for construction of an anaerobic digester that would produce both electricity as well as heat that would provide hot water and heating for the casino.
The digester would produce gas from wastes produced by the food processing industry, the Potawatomi said in a proposal filed with the City of Milwaukee.
The tribe estimates the project would create 61 construction jobs and five full-time jobs. If all approvals are obtained, construction would begin in late spring and be completed by early spring in 2013.
Saving the Forests with Indigenous Knowledge
Friday, 09 December 2011 16:58 | By Isaiah Esipisu |
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"It is our shrine. Our Gods live there. We gather herbs from the place. We use it for bee- keeping. It therefore forms part of our livelihood," said Olonana Ole Pulei, who is in Durban, South Africa, to represent his community at the ongoing 17th Conference of Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. According to Nigel Crawhall, the Director of Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), different African communities have incredible indigenous knowledge that they use in the conservation of forests and biodiversity in general, and this should be recognised during the negotiations in Durban. FEMA Wants Tribes to be Equal to States
Friday, 09 December 2011 16:45 | By Rob Capriccioso |
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Posted Dec.7, 2011 in Indian Country Today WASHINGTON – Heeding calls from tribal leaders, the Obama administration announced December 7 that it supports a legislative amendment that would allow tribes to apply for federal disaster aid directly from the President of the United States, the same way states currently can. Under current law, only state governors can make official disaster declaration requests. Tribal leaders, citing past slow and bureaucratic disaster relief to their reservations, have pushed for this flexibility for at least a decade. They say that under current law tribes experience an unnecessary loss of valuable response time when they seek federal assistance after a catastrophic natural disaster or manmade incident. |
Battle Over the Trees: Indigenous Peoples Denounce REDD+ at COP 17 Talks
Friday, 09 December 2011 16:52 | By Dina Gilio-Whitaker |
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Posted Dec. 8, 2011 by Indian Country Today Indigenous peoples came to COP 17 with a simple message: Your Kyoto Protocol isn't working for us. Amid skepticism and growing doubt, the climate talks known as COP 17—shorthand for the 17th United Nations Conference of the Parties—began in Durban, South Africa, on November 28 and are set to end December 9. Many environmentalists arrived feeling that the world's nations aren't serious about taking action to prevent catastrophic global temperature increases, especially in regions most vulnerable to climate change and where indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected as temperatures rise. On November 26, following a two-day workshop attended by representatives from Ecuador, Panama, India, Nicaragua, Peru and Samoa, the Indigenous Peoples' Biocultural Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA) Initiative issued a strongly-worded declaration denouncing the schemes known as REDD and REDD+, which are acronyms for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. REDD and REDD+ were designed to halt deforestation in developing nations by placing monetary value on the carbon absorbing properties of trees which corporations from industrialized nations can then buy the rights to, giving them permission to emit greenhouse gases beyond their agreed upon limits. Indigenous peoples living within the boundaries of nation-states are subject to the nations' laws (usually without their consent), as are their lands and resources; and as the IPCCA declaration notes, most of the world's remaining forests are within indigenous territories. The forests not only provide the livelihoods of the people, but for thousands of years they have been their homes and the places from which their cultures are derived and maintained. The view of forests as commodities to allow powerful nations to continue polluting is anathema to indigenous beliefs in the sanctity of nature—yet another violation of Mother Earth. After 250-mile protest march, indigenous reach Bolivian capital to face president
Thursday, 20 October 2011 16:52 | By Sara Shahriari, Correspondent |
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The protesters' march from their home in the TIPNIS territory, where construction of a government-backed road has incited the community, has shaken President Evo Morales' political base.
A thousand indigenous Bolivian marchers protesting the construction of a government-backed highway through their land reached the government seat of La Paz this week, walking 250 miles and climbing over 12,000 feet from Bolivia's lowlands across the country. The march from The National Park and Indigenous Territory Isiboro Secure (TIPNIS) became a point of national and international focus on September 25, when police tear gassed marchers and attempted to force them onto buses to return them home. National outcry led one minister to resign, while another quit in solidarity with the protestors. The protest has become a major political challenge for Bolivian President Evo Morales. Tens of thousands of Bolivians filled capital streets and squares Wednesday to greet the indigenous protesters, who hope to meet with President Morales today. |
DURBAN, South Africa (IPS) - For the Laibon community, a sub-tribe of Kenya's Maasai ethnic group, the 33,000-hectare Loita Forest in the country's Rift Valley Province is more than just a forest. It is a shrine.
posted October 20, 2011 at 10:56 am EDT in the Christian Science Monitor