TRIBAL NATIONS CONFERENCE, QUAKER INDIAN COMMITTEE DISAVOWS DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY, AND CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN INDIAN COUNTRY

1. TRIBAL NATIONS CONFERENCE (excerpt from Of Peace and Politics)
(From FCNL)

On November 5 the White House hosted a nation-to-nation conference with representatives from nearly all of the 564 federally recognized tribes in the United States. This all-day event included participation by the members of Congress, the current administration, and the president. It was a great opportunity for dialogue among nations and a symbol of the president's commitment to a new direction in the U.S. government's relationship with its native peoples.

The event was opened and closed by President Obama, beginning with an interactive session. However, as the president said, "the most important opportunity that you will have today is to interact directly with the department heads, the secretaries who are in charge of implementation on a whole range of these issues." He urged tribal leaders to "present to them your concerns, your specific recommendations. They are here to listen and to learn and to advise." Discussions over the course of the day covered a range of topics, including key legislative opportunities: tribal law and order and health care. At the White House website, you can watch videos from several different panels:
Public safety and housing
Education, health care and labor
Economic development, natural resources, energy, environment, and agriculture

If you are unable to watch streamed videos on your computer, you can read the text from Obama's opening statement and interactive session.



2. Quaker Indian Committee disavows Doctrine of Discovery, affirms Declaration


Inspired by the actions of the Episcopal Church, a Quaker group has disavowed the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and voiced its support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends issued a Minute – analogous to a resolution – at its September meeting.

The committee "renounces the Doctrine of Discovery, the doctrine at the foundation of the colonization of Indigenous lands, including the lands of Pennsylvania. We find this doctrine to be fundamentally inconsistent with the teaching of Jesus, with our understanding of the inherent rights that individuals and peoples have received from God, and inconsistent with Quaker testimonies of Peace, Equality, and Integrity," the Minute reads.

The Doctrine of Discovery was a principle of international law developed in a series of 15th century papal bulls and 16th century charters by European monarchs. It was a racist philosophy that gave white Christian Europeans the green light to go forth and claim the lands and resources of non-Christian peoples and kill or enslave them – if other Christian Europeans had not already done so.

The doctrine institutionalized the competition between European countries in their ever-expanding quest for colonies, resources and markets, and sanctioned the genocide of indigenous people in the "New World" and elsewhere.

As a spiritual corollary of the renunciation, the Indian Committee also expressed its support for the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the General Assembly Sept. 13, 2007. The Declaration presents indigenous rights within a framework of human rights.

Only the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia – countries with large populations of indigenous peoples with huge aboriginal land claims – voted against the Declaration's adoption. Australia has since adopted it.

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/79059862.html



CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN INDIAN COUNTRY

Over three thousand (3000) open dumps exist across Indian Country, including 69 hazardous sites requiring immediate cleanup – 55 of which are located in Alaskan tribal territories4.
Tribal populations currently have the highest rate of asthma of any single ethnic group

13.1% of tribal homes lack access to safe water and basic sanitation, compared to less than 1% of homes nationwide
.
There is also a great potential for renewable energy on tribal lands.. The wind energy capacity on tribal lands is approximately 14 percent of the annual U.S. electric generation. The solar energy potential is 4.5 times the annual U.S. electric generation. The two dozen reservations in the northern Great Plains have a combined wind power potential that exceeds 300 gigawatts--half of the current electrical generation in the United States3.

OVERALL THEME: MEANINGFUL NATION-TO-NATION RELATIONSHIP

9 Respect for Tribal Sovereignty in a manner that recognizes the rights and responsibilities of tribes,
A consistent working relationship between federal agencies and tribes.
Develop Tribal Environmental Indicators. There is only one environment, and all of it is inter-connected, yet tribes trying to protect their lands and people must try to work with at least a dozen different agencies (EPA, BLM, BIA, USFWS, USFS, ACOE, DOE, DOI, USDA, BOR, NOAA, IHS, NRCS, etc)
Accountability of federal agencies to implement their own regulations.
Sustainable and adequate long-term funding with the flexibility to meet tribal priorities in implementing environmental programs.

CONSULTATION

1. Respect for Tribal Sovereignty.

2. Early engagement of tribes in the decision-making process.

3. Acknowledging that only Tribes have the capacity to make determinations on the proper method of consultation. There needs to be an acknowledgment that the vast geographic, demographic, economic, political, and cultural diversity of tribes makes it impossible for any federal agent to make a decision regarding whether or in what manner it is appropriate to consult with Tribes.


A focus on process rather than policy – a “Consultation Clearinghouse”.

PROTECTION OF TREATY RIGHTS, INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS AND TRIBAL COMMUNITIES

Report on whether current federal policies protect indigenous life ways.


Revise water quality standards sediment clean up levels to reflect higher fish and shellfish consumption rates amongst indigenous communities


First Foods Protection. It is recommended that all federal agencies adopt the management concept of “First Foods Protection.” This concept holds that protection of “first foods” – fish, game, roots, berries – are built into all environmental, natural resources, and climate change standards.


WHITE HOUSE ACTION ITEMS:

A Nation-to-Nation relationship is not between 1 Tribal Nation and 30 different Federal Agencies. Direct the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to take the lead on coordinating a coherent, consistent federal policy towards tribes that would cut across existing jurisdictional, budget, and policy divisions.

Develop a “One Environment” approach, vs separate agencies for water, air, land, etc. There is only one “environment” and it is entirely interconnected and interdependent; there is no separation between water, land, air, people, animals, plants, or the planet. The current federal approach – separate Agencies independently implementing their own small piece of the puzzle without coordination with each other (or often, within themselves either), implementing inconsistent and often contradictory environmental laws – is a dysfunctional one.

Follow-up: Tribal Nation’s Conference on the Environment.
It is requested that a subsequent Conference be held specifically on the Environment with Tribal Leaders and those federal agencies charged with protecting and improving the environment: USEPA, BIA, BLM, FWS, USFS, USDA, IHS, HUD, etc.

National Ocean Policy. Continue to consult with tribes on the development of a National Policy on Oceans, Coasts and Great Lakes through the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force

Conduct Tribal Research. Direct the National Science Foundation to fund research into tribal environmental, natural resources, and epidemiology issues.



International Issues. Direct the State Department to work closely with tribes on the following international issues
o Adoption of the UN Declaration United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

o Ratification and Implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

o Pacific Salmon Treaty

o Major Columbia River Water Treaty


---
"There are kinds of violence that have nothing directly to do with unofficial or official warfare . . . such things as toxic pollution, land destruction, soil erosion, the destruction of biological diversity and of the ecological supports of agriculture"

- Wendell Berry