By Inuit Circumpolar Council Alaska

September 14, 2020 Anchorage, Alaska – The Inuit Circumpolar Council Alaska, in collaboration with partners, is pleased to release the report: Food Sovereignty and Self-Governance - Inuit Role in Arctic Marine Resource Management. This Inuit-led report illuminates the unique and rich Inuit values and management practices that have successfully safeguarded the Arctic for thousands of years.

Sinangoe is a small community formed by up to 200 A’l Cofan people, who live in the north of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 2017, Asentamiento Ancentral Cofan de Sinangoe (The Ancestral Township of Cofan in Sinangoe) decided to form the Community Guards, a group dedicated to monitoring 50,000 hectares of their ancestral territory and identifying outsiders mining gold, deforesting, killing animals, and poisoning rivers.

On June 28, members of the Maya group Tujaal, a word in Maya K’iche’ meaning “tender maize,” released a statement opposing a proposed U.S.-based project seeking to privatize archeological sites in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala. Inside the protected bioreserve sits El Mirador, a 2,450 square mile basin and Maya cultural site, and a site of contention between Maya Indigenous communities and U.S.-based archaeologists. 
On Monday July 6, Federal Court Judge James Boasberg issued a ruling ordering the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) shut down and be completely emptied of oil within 30 days. Given that DAPL has consistently threatened the ability of Indigenous Peoples in the area to maintain their relationship with their sacred, unceded lands, this ruling allows for some cautious celebration. The July 6th ruling ordered that the pipeline must undergo a substantial 13-month environmental review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before proceeding with further operations. While the ruling to empty the pipeline does not necessarily signal a clear and decisive end to the fight, it does set a precedent for siding with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the thousands of protesters around the globe who have pledged and shown their support. It signals a closer move towards Indigenous sovereignty. 
Many A'uwẽ-Xavante ceremonies – such as wate’a (above), part of the male initiation complex -- revolve around water and ritual activities in water.  Plans for three hydroelectric dams on tributaries to the Rio das Mortes threaten the river basin. Photo by Rosa Gauditano/Studio R.
 

By Laura R. Graham, with collaboration from Edson Krenak Naknanuk
 

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