July 23, 2008 by Jay Taber.

The coastal temperate rain forest of North America, extending from Cook Inlet (Alaska) to Big Sur (California), is a magnificent incubator of Pacific salmon and steelhead trout. Historically, the Sacramento River was second only to the Columbia River in salmon production for this region. In modern times, both these and many other rivers in this rain forest have suffered from the thoughtless construction of impassable dams like Elwha, Grand Coulee and Shasta. While Elwha Dam is planned for removal, Grand Coulee remains a formidable obstacle in re-establishing the salmon economies of the Flathead, Kootenai, Shuswap, Kalispell and Spokan Indians. The proposed raising of Shasta Dam is presently opposed by the Winnemem Wintu.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 22, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Indigenous Chamoru activist Julian Aguon discusses the plight of his homeland as a US colony. The people of Guam, who are non-voting US citizens, are preparing for the impact of a major military buildup on their island already contaminated from 67 nuclear detonations by the United States in the Marshall Islands. Guam is one of 16 non-self-governing territories remaining in the world despite international human rights law.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 21, 2008 by Jay Taber.

In The Extreme Right and Its Media in Italy, Cinzia Padovani looks at the communication strategies of Italy’s fascist movement in promoting violent xenophobia among Italian youth. As hatred and political crimes have intensified in recent years, attacks perpetrated by fascist youth groups against immigrants, Roma and homosexuals point to a need to understand and monitor, “an ideology that vindicates the homeland assaulted by people of all races”.

Fascists now occupy positions of power inside the newsrooms and on the boards of directors of the Italian cultural industry. Using the Internet to mobilize street actions by violent youth at public events, the fascist ideology has become a powerful source for identity-building and social connection.

In the words of Padovani, “Its presence in the social fabric has become normalized.”

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 20, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Militarized US energy policy begun under FDR is now acknowledged as a failure. With invasions now conducted by the Pentagon, proxy militaries and mercenaries in Africa, Asia and South America, the flow of oil is now decreasing as a result of this policy. Terrorism aside, energy security is higher and the cost lower where the militarized approach is not used.

The use of force to take oil supplies rather than simply purchase them from willing sellers is now an industry in itself, which explains why we will perhaps someday spend more on destroying oil-rich countries around the world than we spend on the product itself. The only way to abort this perverted mission is to dissuade our youth from becoming petroleum mercenaries and to persuade our neighbors to stop driving around like maniacs.

Every gallon kills.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 19, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Four Indian nations are currently involved with the U.S. Department of Energy in the largest environmental cleanup program in the world. The Indian Nations Program on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Southeast Washington state is attempting to forestall untold devastation to the Columbia River and the Washington/Oregon coasts.

But this most toxic site on earth (pre-Chernobyl) is only one of many lethal landscapes of radioactive waste throughout Indian country. As documented at the National Library for the Environment under Native Americans and the Environment, indigenous peoples are waging battles to survive toxic pollution across North America. While this environmental injustice remains largely hidden from mainstream view, the rapidly escalating demand for aboriginal energy and water resources is bringing this nightmare out into the open.

When choosing between habitual patterns of consumption and simpler, alternative ways of life, the carcinogenic consequences are becoming increasingly clear. What we do about that as individuals, citizens and communities matters. Everything is connected.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 18, 2008 by Jay Taber.

David R. Lewis discusses how the intentional impoverishment of Native Americans by the US government has contributed to the toxic nightmare now destroying their traditional resources. As what he calls islands in the stream of American settlement, Indian reservations and aboriginal peoples now define modern environmental debates. Unfortunately, in the name of progress, that debate has left many tribes with hard and few choices. Like all human beings, they find that creating community under duress is not an achievement they always attain.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 17, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Friends of Peoples close to Nature chronicles the ongoing invasions of Fourth World nations by modern states and transnational corporations. The forum for ‘friends of Peoples close to Nature’ is a movement of groups and individuals, concerned with the survival of tribal peoples and their culture, in particular hunter-gatherers. As the first and last societies on earth to have a non-exploitive relationship with the natural world, their task is to help them preserve their unique cultures from enforced assimilation, alien religions, the ideologies of ‘progress’ and ‘growth’ and absorption into the global economy.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 16, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Eloisa Tamez, Lipan Apache grandmother, has been sued by the Department of Homeland Security for refusing permission to build a border wall across her property. A relative of Jumano Apache Esequiel Hernandez (who was murdered in 1997 by U.S. Marines while herding goats), Professor Tamez says she is continuing to do what she has always done — fighting structural violence against indigenous peoples. In 1950, Eloisa Garcia Tamez led a local fight against segregation in public schools.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 12, 2008 by Jay Taber.

With the recent Canadian government apology to First Nations in the news, the fact the US government has yet to even consider such a conciliatory gesture is striking. Three summers ago, our Ioway colleague at Idyll Opus Press took a look at Ayn Rand Institute, one of the think tanks promoting Anti-Indian bigotry in the United States. Later that year, racism as philosophy was the subject of seminars held for American Indian youth. Preparing intellectuals for this war of ideas is a responsibility indigenous protector societies view as a fundamental responsibility.

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »

July 11, 2008 by Jay Taber.

Illegal candidate screening in US Department of Justice linked to Anti-Indian firings. 2006 purge of US Attorneys reveals Christian racism in Justice.

Christian-conservative political ideology led DOJ employees to eliminate those who ”adhere to the principles of environmental justice, which are positively ridiculous (e.g., recognizing ‘our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth’ and ‘oppose military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms’).”

The employees attended Messiah College, Regent University and Pensacola Christian College.

Note:

Earlier in 2006, I excoriated two nationally–prominent progressive pundits for mocking the principles mocked by the DOJ employees as being unscientific, impractical and unrealistic. In explaining to these self-avowed liberals that they were constructing a foundation for scapegoating Native Americans and environmentalists, they replied that they were trying to build bridges to the Christian Right. I also suspect they were seeking acceptance by the progressive mainstream that has distanced itself from these values they don’t understand.

(Jay Taber — recipient of the Defender of Democracy award — is an author, columnist, and research analyst at Public Good Project.)

Posted in Daily | Print | No Comments »