via @verdantsquare
Alaska Tribes Appeal to International Body to Pause “Reckless” Canadian #Mining
Canada ordered the tribes be denied “participating #Nation status,” diminishing their say in the permitting process.
By Joaqlin Estus , #ICT
August 8, 2024
#Earthjustice and Re:wild join the 15 tribes that make up the commission in asking Canada to recognize the sovereign rights of Alaska tribes and consult them on all development decisions impacting their traditional territories.
Anchorage, Alaska — "A group of Southeast Alaska tribes requested on Aug. 1 that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights order a temporary pause on Canadian mining activity. They say 'reckless' mining activity violates their #HumanRights.
"That came after Canada’s Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship ordered on June 27 that the tribes be denied 'participating Nation status,'' which has the effect of diminishing their say in the permitting process.
"Lee Wagner, who is #Haida, #Tlingit and #Tsimshian, and the assistant executive director of the #Southeast =Alaska #Indigenous Transboundary Commission, said the 15 tribes in the commission did everything they could to prove their ties to Canadian lands where #GoldMining is proposed. They won a lawsuit at the Canadian Supreme Court saying tribes with traditional ties to territory within Canada qualify for participating #IndigenousNation status. That status would require agencies to consult with and accommodate them in the permitting process.
[...]
"[Lee Wagner] said the mines are for gold, a luxury, 'They’re not a necessity, but they’re going to be endangering a whole #ecosystem and biodiverse, cultural, old, traditional, beautiful area.'
"The commission said the #UnukRiver watershed, which supports #salmon and #eulachon runs, is at stake. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the eulachon run nearly disappeared and was shut down in 2005. In 2021 the fishery was opened again but harvest was restricted to one five-gallon bucket per household."
#FirstNations #Canada #Alaska #ReWild #CulturalGenocide #GoldMine #MiningWithoutConsent
#ProtectTheSacred #Ecocide #NativeAmericanNews #IndigenousNews #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism #Colonialism