Celebrating Wins!

Supporting the United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB) at the White House to celebrate the protection of Bristol Bay.

"Native Movement was invited by our partners at United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB) to celebrate the protection of Bristol Bay with President Biden at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC. I was honored to represent our team and celebrate with many who have worked for over 20 years to protect Bristol Bay. One of the highlights was witnessing Alannah Hurley, Executive Director of UTBB and one of our Native Movement advisory board members, introduce President Biden. Alannah has been a community builder and humble leader for many years; she and UTBB leadership have been an inspiration and model of advocacy that consistently holds to their values. 

There continues to be many other threats to Alaskan lands, waters, and Native ways of life and I am holding on to this win as a reminder that proposed harmful development is not a “done-deal”; they are not the normal that we must just accept. Across the state, communities are organizing to build careful and needed pathways of beauty, safety, and liberation. I celebrate the many community builders and their relentless hope and commitment to defending their ways of life and the rights of Mother Earth.”

- Enei Begaye, Executive Director

P.S. Sign up for the United Tribes of Bristol Bay Newsletter here to stay up to date on protecting Bristol Bay

Nuiqsut City and Tribe oppose the Willow project

To read the full letter, click through to the PDF: Letter from the Native Village of Nuiqsut and City of Nuiqsut stating opposition to the Willow project and dissatisfaction with the outcome of the process.

Cover photo by Keri Oberly.

Trickster Times: Indigenous fashion shines at AFN

Here's the last episode of our Trickster Times AFN coverage this year! Take a look at just some of the amazing Indigenous fashion at AFN this year, and also a look into the subsistence resolutions that seek to help chum and king salmon return back to healthy populations in Western and Interior Alaska. Thanks for watching!

The system isn't broken. It's rotten.

Breonna Taylor was murdered by Police. Six long, lingering months later, after repeated attempts by the police state to manipulate and corrupt the evidence, the Kentucky Grand Jury failed to confirm what the rest of the world has already witnessed. Justice has been struck down once again.

Carl Takei, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project, said in a statement Wednesday that the grand jury's "decision further highlights what was already obvious: To change these systems that routinely perpetuate egregious acts of violence against Black lives, elected officials must listen to the cries of those communities and make sweeping changes—including divestment from these broken institutions and reinvesting in non-police alternatives—so that Black people no longer fear being murdered in their own home."

"Today's charging decision," said Takei, "is the manifestation of what the millions of people who have taken to the streets to protest police violence already know: Modern policing and our criminal legal system are rotten to the core."

On the same day as the Kentucky Supreme Court decision, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that bans critical trainings on power, privilege and oppression for Federal and Military contractors. The executive order, which Trump said was meant to “to combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating,” bars contractors from conducting training that “teaches, advocates, or promotes divisive concepts” such as unconscious bias and systemic racism. This action from the top office of the United States government is an affirmation of the rampant authoritarianism and white supremacy that is rotting at the foundation of our history and “Americanism”.

Our pain for Breonna Taylor, her family, and her community, is a visceral reminder that colonial justice systems were never meant to work for us. They were built this way. Native Movement raises our fists in outrage as we stand side by side with our Black relatives in the movement for Black lives, in the movement for liberation.   

Native Movement calls on our community and our allies: raise your voices to decry the continued injustices built on racist systems. Dig deep with us to highlight the rotting foundations of the justice system. We believe it is critical for each of us to analyze our participation in white supremacy culture, personally and professionally; this is one step in which we can begin to dismantle systemic oppression. Another step toward stripping rotten systems is by supporting Black, Indigenous, and people of color grassroots leadership. Grassroots leadership rooted in responsibility to community and utilizing strategies grounded in an Indigenized worldview, in decolonizing frameworks, and in anti-racist actions is a powerful path forward.

While our anger escalates and our frustration mounts, we know that we stand with millions of people across the country who are organizing in their communities -- Don’t stop. Do your work to understand the impacts of the power and privilege structures of colonialism, racism, patriarchy, and capitalism. And to our Black, Indigenous, and people of color relatives in particular: we must take moments of reprieve and rest.

Our Joy is Resistance as well. All of us must engage daily in healing practices, this is essential to the longevity of our march toward Liberation. We were meant to be here, at this time, in this place, for a purpose; fists in the air and songs from our hearts, we are marching forward in solidarity for for Black lives, for Justice, for Liberation.

#JusticeForBreonnaTaylor #BlackLivesMatter #Solidarity

banner image is a mural in Oakland, CA by The People's Conservatory Collective

Why Is Bank of America Still Open to Funding the Destruction of Our Homelands in the Arctic?

We stand together, the Iñupiat and the Gwich’in, in calling on Bank of America to listen to Indigenous people, protect our homelands, and stay out of the Arctic Refuge. Continue reading at CommonDreams.Org >>

Original Press Release Below:

All Eyes Are on Bank of America to Rule out Support for Arctic Drilling 

By Bernadette Demientieff and Siqiñiq Maupin

Bank of America’s customers may have noticed that recently the bank has been standing out from the rest of its peers. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been in a good way. Right now, Bank of America is the only major American bank that has not yet ruled out funding for destructive drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Over the last year, every other major American bank -- Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, and Morgan Stanley -- have joined more than two dozen financial institutions worldwide in updating their lending policies to exclude funding for new drilling in the Arctic, including the Arctic Refuge. Indigenous human rights are being upheld in these new policies and pave the way towards a just transition into a sustainable economy. 

For thousands of years, the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge has sustained life for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and other relatives on and off the land, that sustain the food security and ways of life of the Iñupiat and Gwich'in people as well as other Alaska Native Tribes. Any disruption of this area would pose an existential threat to not just food security, but our identity as Iñupiat and Gwich'in People. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge would also pose an increased public health threat to communities on Alaska’s North Slope that already experience severe health disparities directly tied to the oil production surrounding their community. 

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge violates Indigenous rights, and is a threat to the bottom line of any bank that funds this destructive activity. As the world increasingly recognizes the urgent need to move away from polluting fossil fuels, investments in expensive new drilling projects are growing riskier. By ruling out support for Arctic drilling, banks have recognized that investing in a project that would threaten human rights and worsen the climate crisis is a risk that’s not worth taking. 

Pro-drilling politicians that have long sought to sell off the coastal plain for drilling have predictably pushed back on this growing trend, even going so far as to point to support from corporations like Arctic Slope Regional Corporation to claim that Alaska Native people support drilling, or that the Gwich’in are alone in their opposition to drilling while the Iñupiat people or members of other Tribes support it. This week, we had the opportunity to meet with Bank of America executives to correct the record and explain that these claims couldn’t be further from the truth. 

We let them know that both Gwich’in and Iñupiat Peoples have made official resolutions to protect the Arctic Refuge, and that Alaska Native corporations are just that: corporations. They are not accountable to Tribal members, and they do not speak for us. Neither does Alaska’s Congressional delegation, whose push for drilling and disingenuous claims that the destruction of the Arctic Refuge would help Native communities have made it clear that they care more about corporate profits than our health or human rights. 

We know that we can’t count on these politicians to do the right thing to defend our land and our communities, and the Trump administration is pushing ahead to try to sell off the coastal plain for drilling by the end of the year. That’s why it’s more important than ever that financial institutions like Bank of America recognize the role they play in helping destroy this sacred place or keeping it intact.

As a growing number of major banks are making the right decision, all eyes are on Bank of America to see whether they will follow their peers or continue to stand out in their disregard for the rights of Alaska’s Indigenous people. We stand together, the Iñupiat and the Gwich’in, in calling on Bank of America to listen to Indigenous people, protect our homelands, and stay out of the Arctic Refuge. 

Bernadette Demientieff is the Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. Siqiñiq Maupin is a co-founder/Director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic.