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The first natural gas ever produced on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation flowed to market earlier this year, and more oil and gas development is on the horizon for this north-central Montana Indian community. While natural resource development could provide a much-needed boost to the local economy, if left unchecked it threatens to undo the decades of work the Assiniboine...

The Kuskokwim Watershed Council held its first annual summit in Aniak, Alaska on August 6 and 7, 2009. The Kuskokwim Watershed Council is a non-profit organization formed to protect the Kuskokwim River and its drainage area which is approximately 11% of the land base in Alaska - roughly the size of Washington state. With 29 villages located along the banks...

LISTEN to the 45-minute hearing that took place on Monday, November 2nd. Video and audio recordings are available at the OAS website. Center attorney Leonardo Crippa, joined by Indian leaders from Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, testified this week before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about a series of development initiatives in South America that is putting indigenous peoples at...

Houses in la Barrio de la Revolucion were dismantled and burnt to the ground during the eviction. Photo by James Rodriguez mimundo.org Because of rising prices for nickel, gold, and other natural resources, there have been increasing efforts to reopen, expand and establish new mining operations all around the globe. Unfortunately many of these operations occur on traditional Native land...

We have drafted a letter template for tribes across the country to send to the United States to demand that the United States fulfill its obligation to respect and protect the human rights of Indian peoples in this country. The letter calls on the United States to fulfill its legal obligation to Indian peoples throughout this country under international human...

November - Maya Q'eqchi' - El Estor, Guatemala We conducted a three-day workshop in El Estor, Guatemala for more than seventy-five Maya Q'eqchi' leaders. Due to the fact that most of these Maya Q'eqchi' leaders and their communities are monolingual, the training was carried out in Spanish and simultaneously translated to Q'eqchi'. Indigenous communities in the El Estor region are...

August - CAPI - Asunción, Paraguay Center staff traveled to Paraguay for a workshop with CAPI (Coordinadora por la Auto-determinación de los Pueblos Indígenas) and to visit communities affected by the Yacyreta Hydroelectric Project, financed by both the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. July - ONIC - Bogotá, Colombia Center staff made a trip to Colombia for a human...

December - COAJ - Jujuy, Argentina In December 2006, Armstrong Wiggins, Director of the Washington D.C. office, and staff attorney, Leonardo Crippa, conducted a two-day training session in Jujuy, Argentina. The session was attended by more than one hundred and sixty local indigenous leaders and was focused on leadership development and the rights of indigenous peoples under international human rights...

For almost 15 years, the Center has provided legal representation to the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes of the Ft. Belknap Indian Reservation in their fight for environmental justice and clean-up of the contamination caused by the Zortman-Landusky gold mines. We filed successful legal challenges to the inadequate clean-up of the mine sites under the Clean Water Act, and eventually...

The Timbisha Shoshone Tribal Council is considering a federal lawsuit to challenge Congress' power to take Indian property and funds without compensation. They have asked for our help in securing a court decision that declares such takings unconstitutional. The Council wants to invalidate an act of Congress that confiscates a fund of money belonging to the Tribe and to other...