Category: Indigenous

Wet’suwet’en emergency

Last night I attended the online Wet’suwet’en organizing call, along with eight hundred others. We heard from Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), Chief Woos and Chief Na’ Moks, all of whom I’ve seen in videos and read their writings over the past several years. Below are ways you can support the Wet’suwet’en.

There is great urgency now to #KKillTheDrill, referring to Coastal GasLink’s preparations to start drilling under the Wedzin Kwa, the sacred headwaters of the Wet’suwet’en.

This is a link to my posts related to the Wet’suwet’en

Why do we need your help to #KillTheDrill?

After a decade of fierce resistance, Coastal GasLink is currently preparing the site to  start drilling under the Wedzin Kwa, the sacred headwaters of the Wet’suwet’en since time immemorial. Now is the time to come together and demand drilling stop.

The Coastal Gaslink pipeline and associated LNG terminal is the largest private fracked gas investment in Canadian history. The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have been resisting the construction of the fracked gas pipeline on their territories for more than a decade, and the hereditary chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have refused to give their consent to the project.

In late April, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Descrimination (CERD) issued Canada a third letter urging Canada to end their colonial violence on the territory. CERD urged Canada to cease construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, as well as the TMX pipeline, until free, and prior informed consent was received from the Wet’suwet’en and Secwepemc people (respectively); engage in negotiations with these impacted communities; and end forced evictions from traditional territories. 

And yet, key decision makers continue to ignore these recommendations, continue construction on Coastal GasLink, and condone violence against the Wet’suwet’en on their traditional lands. In late November 2021, the world watched as RCMP conducted militarized raids against Wet’suwet’en Land Protectors at Gidimt’en Checkpoint. Shocking images of assault rifles being pointed at unarmed protectors and doors being hacked down circulated widely, as did reports of humiliating treatment and abuse by RCMP. Now, tensions are rising as drilling beneath the sacred headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa river edges closer. 

The Big Picture: How do we stop the drilling? 

The UN is once again calling out Canada for their colonial violence, and it’s time to strike while there is international attention. So who are those key players? The contractors on the ground, the government officials who condone RCMP harassment and break their own promises of title negotiations and reconciliation,  and the funders behind the scenes.

Taking action during key moments when an issue is in the news cycle or on people’s news feeds can be very impactful in building momentum on a campaign. It helps bring people along who care about the issue but aren’t sure where or how to start. Digital actions are also a great way to mobilize people to take more action in the future! 

Contractors:

NameKey peopleSocials
OJ Pipelines
(Annual General Meeting May 27th 2022, 8am)		Russell Keller, President, Linkedin
Blaine Collet, Senior Director of Indigenous Relations and Community Relations, Linkedin, 		Phone: 1 780 955 3900
Fax: 1 780 955 3518
Parent Company: Quanta Services Steve Sousa, Managing Director and Chief commercial officer, LinkedinTwitter: @Quanta_Services, Instagram: @Quantaservices, Facebook: Quanta Services

Below are a list of financial institutions in the USA involved in the financing of the CGL pipeline. 

Name of investor/bankTwitter handleEmail address
USA
JP Morgan Chase@jpmorganCEO jamie.dimon@jpmchase.com 
Bank of America@BankofAmericaCEO brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com 
Citi@CitiCEO jane.fraser@citi.com
CEO North America sunil.garg@citi.com
Chief of staff margo.pilic@citi.com
Chief risk officer  zdenek.turek@citicorp.com General counsel rohan.weerasinghe@citigroup.com 
Truist@TruistNews
Fluor Corp@FluorCorp

Sample tweet

I stand with  Wet’suwet’en and demand your immediate divestment + withdrawal of financing for Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada @jpmorgan @BankofAmerica @Citi @TruistNews @FluorCorp @KKR_Co. Stop financing climate chaos and Indigenous rights violation. #WetsuwetenStrong

Government targets: 

NamesKey Locations Socials 
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister80 Wellington StreetOttawa, ON K1A 0A2Fax: 613-941-6900@JustinTrudeau
John Horgan, Premier of BCBC Legislative Building: 501 Belleville St, Victoria, BC V8V 2L8
Community office, 122 – 2806 Jacklin RoadVictoria, BC V9B 5A4
john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca.Telephone: 250-391-2801 Fax: 250-391-2804		@jjhorgan
David Eby, BC Attorney GeneralMLA David Eby’s Community Office
2909 West Broadway (at Bayswater, two blocks west of MacDonald)
Vancouver, BC V6K 2G6Phone: 604-660-1297Email: david.eby.mla@leg.bc.ca 		@Dave_Eby
Mike Farnworth
BC Minister of Public Safety 		MLA Consultancy office:

107A – 2748 Lougheed HwyPort Coquitlam, BC   V3B 6P2		@mikefarnworthbc
Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous RelationsMain office – Montréal3175 Saint-Jacques Street, Montréal, Quebec, H4C 1G7Telephone: 514-496-4885Fax: 514-496-8097 Marc.Miller@parl.gc.ca@MarcMillerVM

January, 2020, Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) meeting sent the following letter to British Columbia Premier, John Horgan.

John Horgan.
PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1.
Email premier@gov.bc.ca

John Horgan,

We’re concerned that you are not honoring the tribal rights and unceded Wet’suwet’en territories and are threatening a raid instead.
We ask you to de-escalate the militarized police presence, meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and hear their demands:
That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
That the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and tribal rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
That the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.
That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by Coastal GasLink (CGL) respect Wet’suwet’en laws and governance system, and refrain from using any force to access tribal lands or remove people.

Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)
19186 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa, 50072

Gidimt’en social media accounts

Tiktok: Mention @RCMPoffyintah in your caption!

#KillTheDrill #WetsuwetenStrong #AllOutForWedzinKwa

Indian Boarding Schools and White Supremacy

Washington, DC. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) welcomed the release of the first volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative’s long-awaited investigative report. Assembled by the Department of the Interior, this report serves as historic documentation of the trauma inflicted by Indian boarding schools. It also underscores the need for further reckoning on this vital issue, both in Congress and in the Quaker and faith communities.

“This new report shines a much-needed light on the atrocities committed at Indian boarding schools, some of which were run by Quakers,” said FCNL General Secretary Bridget Moix. “We commend the Department of the Interior for doing this difficult work and we remain committed to doing our part to advance the reckoning and healing process for this dark chapter in American history.”

“Further, we call on the faith community at large to share records and accounts of their administration of these schools. Only through complete honesty and transparency can we begin moving towards a more just future,” she continued.

Quaker Lobby Welcomes Long-Awaited Report on Indian Boarding Schools by Alex Frandsen, May 12, 2022

Portia Kay^nthos Skenandore-Wheelock, is the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) Congressional Advocate, Native American Advocacy Program. She makes an important point when she writes about connecting boarding schools to broader practices of White supremacy. This is important for White Quakers to understand as we search for ways to support Indigenous peoples today.

The consequences of separating young children from their families and tribal homes, a curriculum of child labor, and punishments akin to those inflicted on prisoners of war are deeply felt within Indigenous communities to this day.

Further, beneath the cruel assimilation policy lies the true purpose of this government strategy: an effort to seize Native land. Federal records confirm that the creation of the federal Indian boarding school system coincided with land dispossession. An assimilation policy targeted at Native children was thought to be easier and less costly than war in separating tribes from their land. The schools would discourage tribal land and food practices and encourage western agricultural practices that require less land.

Another tactic was to encourage tribes to purchase goods on credit to support the western agricultural lifestyle. Thus, tribes would fall into debt and have no option but to cede lands to the U.S. for payment—those funds were then mostly used to fund the boarding school system.

Survivors left these institutions abused, in poor health, and without the language and cultural knowledge to connect with the homes they returned to.

A First Look at the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Report by Portia Kay^nthos Skenandore-Wheelock May 16, 2022

Separating Native children from their families continues today as social service agencies create excuses to remove them from their homes.

And there was the practice of separating children from their families at the southern border.

It is the ultimate manifestation of White Supremacy to violently and cruelly force anyone who is not white to abandon their culture, practices and beliefs, to assimilate into White culture.

Global White supremacy was codified in the Doctrine of Discovery

Doctrine of Discovery Factsheet

What is the Doctrine of Discovery? Why Should It Be Repudiated?

For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples lived free in their territories in the Western Hemisphere. When European monarchies invasively arrived in the Western Hemisphere in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and later centuries, during the so-called Age of Discovery, they claimed the lands, territories, and resources of the Indigenous Peoples, asserting that the monarchies had a right to appropriate on behalf of Christendom. The monarchies’ claims of a Christian dominion (dominance) over Indigenous Peoples and their lands served them pragmatically to fend off competing monarchies and to de-legitimate the long-established autonomous indigenous peoples’ governments.

The Doctrine of Discovery is a key premise for non-Indigenous government claims to legitimacy on and sovereignty over Indigenous lands and territories. It is used in particular by former British colonies, specifically, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

(The fact sheet continues at the following link)

New York Yearly Meeting

Buffalo Rebellion

juxtaposition 2

It’s difficult to write this morning. Writing is a spiritual practice for me. But my heart and Spirit are heavy from the news of yet another horrendous school shooting.

There are so many questions, and so few answers.

Just because something like the second amendment is interpreted to enshrine guns doesn’t mean that is the right thing to do. Why do those in power choose guns over the lives of children?

We should beat guns into plowshares.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isaiah 2:4

Today’s juxtaposition is related to an online event about the trauma, and deaths that occurred in the Indian Boarding Schools in this country and Canada. The genocide. Trauma that has been passed from generation to generation. Trauma those living today experience.

That is in juxtaposition to the elementary school massacre in Texas yesterday.

Seeking Truth, Healing, and Right Relationship: Quakers and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, MAY 25, 2022, 6:30 – 7:30 PM EDT 

FCNL and Friends advocate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. Yet, historically, Quakers played a role in colonization and the cultural genocide of Native people through the operation of more than 30 Indian boarding schools. With legislation now before Congress to investigate the legacy of Indian boarding schools, how are Friends communities engaging to address Quaker complicity in these atrocities?

Join us on Weds. May 25 at 6:30 p.m. EDT to learn how FCNL and F/friends are reckoning with this history and advocating in solidarity with Native communities.

In conversation with Paula Palmer and Jerilyn DeCoteau, FCNL’s Congressional Advocate for Native American Advocacy Portia Kay^nthos Skenandore-Wheelock will discuss FCNL’s work to build support for the bipartisan Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444). Paula and Jerilyn will share from their expertise and experience co-directing Towards Right Relationship with Native Peoples with Friends Peace Teams. Director of Quaker Leadership Alicia McBride will moderate the conversation.

Register

There is a Facebook group, Every Child Matters related to the atrocities of the Indian Boarding Schools. The number on the graphic tracks the number of remains of children found so far.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/125050373031500

A community to provide educational resources, generate awareness, share events and actions, and build community. Recognizing the legacy of colonization in all of Turtle Island, and working together as a community to create a world our 7 generations yet to come can feel proud to be a part of.

“Every person will do their work in their own way as we move forward.

Some will take direct action and take action. That is important. Some will write policy. That is important. Some will do ceremony. That is important. Some will share stories. That is important. Some will build relationships and understanding. That is important. Some will teach. That is important. If we all do what we know how to do, with what we know, it will be good.

Every one and every thing has purpose. Keep your ears and minds and hearts open. Try to listen to each other without forming an opinion. Listen to things as information. You don’t have to agree with it. But you can validate it as someone’s experiences, feelings and ways of healing.”

Following is a link to the poem every child, found on the Intrepid Muse Poetry blog.

https://intrepidmusepoetry.blogspot.com/2022/05/every-child-matters.html

juxtaposition is the title of an earlier blog post.

It is a juxtaposition to see the rapidly accelerating, multiple effects of environmental devastation and chaos versus the struggles of Indigenous peoples trying to protect their pristine lands and waters.
https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2022/05/23/juxtaposition/

juxtaposition

It is a juxtaposition to see the rapidly accelerating, multiple effects of environmental devastation and chaos versus the struggles of Indigenous peoples trying to protect their pristine lands and waters. Such as the work of the Wet’suwet’en peoples in British Columbia.

I use the word pristine (in its original condition; unspoiled) when I think and write about the Wet’suwet’en because I am so moved by the beauty I see there. It makes me ill to think of the desecration of those lands and waters that would occur, is occurring there by pipeline construction.

I’ve often written about this photo I took and developed (in a darkroom) of Long’s Peak, in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. When this farm boy from Iowa moved to Indianapolis in 1970, I was horrified by the filthy air (this being before catalytic converters hid the damage). I was devastated by the thought of my beautiful mountains obscured by smog. This led me to live without a car.

Long’s Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park

To save a wilderness, or to be a writer or a cab driver or a homemaker — to live one’s life — one must reach deep into one’s heart and find what is there, then speak it plainly and without shame.

Because It Is So Beautiful: Unraveling the Mystique of the American West by Robert Reid

This video, INVASION, shows many things. Most significantly for me are the images of the beautiful lands and waters. As soon as I saw it, I was drawn to the Wet’suwet’en struggles as if by a powerful magnet. And have done what I could in support since.

Also shown are the violent, militarized invasions (multiple) by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police). And testimony at the United Nations permanent forum on Indigenous issues.

Everybody needs to stand up, not just Indigenous people. Everybody needs to stand up the political powers that be that they need to change. And quit making legislation and policies to make us look like criminals when we’re just trying to protect what is ours. It’s not just this little court house, the whole world is watching what Canada is doing. What the province of BC is doing. They haven’t done their job. They’re skirting the responsibility over to industry. I know I’m doing the right thing.

It’s inspiring to see the support world wide that we have and it’s not just our Indigenous people that are standing up. It’s people all around the world are concerned about the environment. And concerned because they know it impacts them no matter where they live.

(The United Nations) The fifth meeting of the 18th session of the permanent forum on Indigenous issues is called to order.

I am Freda Huson of the Unis’ot’en Wet’suwet’en people of Canada. I am here today to express concerns for human rights violations happening to my people. This year a pipeline company forced a court injunction on us. And if we stop them from entering our territory because they don’t have consent we face arrests.

They are trying to erase us from our own land. All these acts that continue are the acts of genocide. I am here today to make UN aware of our continuous genocide happening in Canada. And to demand that our Indigenous rights and laws are respected.

We’re wondering why our own people weren’t standing up besides us and the more and more we realize that a lot of my family that are standing up, all the females in my family. We’ve done a lot of healings in our lives, we’ve gone through the same trauma as everybody us in our reservations. That’s the reason why we’re able to stand up and stand up against what we know is wrong. So that’s what we identified, that other people aren’t able to stand up, because they’re still stuck in their trauma and oppression. And everything that comes with being oppressed and living in a system that discriminates against you.

Partial transcript from the video INVASION.

The struggles continue. This Thursday there will be an emergency Wet’suwet’en solidarity call out event.

SOUND THE ALARM
Emergency Wet’suwet’en solidarity call out event, featuring Sleydo’
Thursday, May 26, 4pm PT / 7pm ET
Drilling underneath the sacred waters of the Wedzin Kwa could begin any day on Wet’suwet’en territory. On Thursday May 26, join us for “Sound the Alarm for Wet’suwet’en ” a live zoom meeting at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. 
With Sleydo’ Molly Wickham of Gidimt’en Checkpoint, together we’ll understand the situation on the ground and strategize together about how to #KillTheDrill.

https://bit.ly/3LnPld7 
https://bit.ly/3LnPld7

#KillTheDrill

Emergency Wet’suwet’en solidarity call out event

I have been working to support the Wet’suwet’en peoples in British Columbia in their struggles to stop the construction of the Costal GasLink pipeline through their pristine lands and waters since January 2020. See: https://landbackfriends.com/?s=wetsuweten+wet%27suwet%27en

SOUND THE ALARM
Emergency Wet’suwet’en solidarity call out event, featuring Sleydo’
Thursday, May 26, 4pm PT / 7pm ET
Drilling underneath the sacred waters of the Wedzin Kwa could begin any day on Wet’suwet’en territory. On Thursday May 26, join us for “Sound the Alarm for Wet’suwet’en ” a live zoom meeting at 4pm PT / 7pm ET. 
With Sleydo’ Molly Wickham of Gidimt’en Checkpoint, together we’ll understand the situation on the ground and strategize together about how to #KillTheDrill.
 REGISTER NOW  
Dear friends, allies and comrades,

While we try to live out our daily lives and conduct cultural practices with our elders and children, police barge into our homes without permission — everyday, with at least six officers — intimidating us, surveilling us, illegally arresting, and detaining people on our own lands. 

It’s a story as old as the colonial violence against Indigenous Peoples to steal land, resources, and wealth. The sad truth is, it’s what’s happening right now: They want to intimidate us off our land so Coastal GasLink can start drilling in less than one month under our sacred headwaters, Wedzin Kwa. 

In March 2020, thousands of you took to the streets, railways, ports and highways to stand with Wet’suwet’en and demand Coastal GasLink cease construction. We made global headlines — forcing Justin Trudeau and John Horgan to commit to entering into discussions with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary chiefs. [1]

But they haven’t made any progress with us on those title discussions, haven’t stopped construction and haven’t pulled RCMP or CIRG off of our territories.  In fact, things have gotten worse. The UN has issued yet another letter to the so-called governments of Canada and BC, calling for an end to police violence and to halt construction. [2] 

We need your help to stop the drilling and make them listen, and we want to give you an update with all the information you need to act. Will you join me and Sound the Alarm for Wet’suwet’en on Thursday May 26 at 4 pm PT / 7pm ET on Zoom? In this call, you’ll hear from me and other Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and learn about what you can do to support us in our fight against CGL. 
[YES] 
Here are the details: 
What: Sound The Alarm For Wet’suwet’en 
When: Thursday May 26, 4 pm PT/7 pm ET 
Where: https://bit.ly/3LnPld7 
 
The Supreme Court of Canada, under the Delgamuukw v. British Columbia legal case, recognized that the Wet’suwet’en people never ceded our title to our land. [3] Yet over and over, both the so-called governments of British Columbia and Canada have paid lip service to reconciliation, claiming they respect Indigenous peoples’ rights. 
 
And now, we face losing our land, our water, our way of life. It’s why I’m reaching out now, because we need to raise the alarm so people everywhere know what is at stake, and rise up in massive opposition to help stop the drilling. 

Will you join the call to Sound the Alarm for Wet’suwet’en on Thursday May 26 at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET to learn how you can help stop the drilling and stand with Wet’suwet’en?
[YES] 

[Can’t make it? Help promote the event!]
The amount of pressure and stress I feel everyday knowing that my people and our land is under threat is made worse by the constant police presence — showing up at my house unannounced and questioning us for living our lives. My children are 2, 6 and 10 years old. They shouldn’t have to bear this burden — and they’ve done nothing to deserve this treatment. 

At the same time, I feel immense hope. I believe in the thousands of people who have shared their outpouring of love and support for Wet’suwet’en. I’m energized by the beauty I see in the Wedzin Kwa river, everyday, and grateful for how the land provides for me, my family, and my community.  Will you stand with me and join the call to Sound the Alarm for Wet’suwet’en on Thursday May 26? 
[YES] 
With gratitude, 
Sleydo’, 
Spokesperson for Gidimt’en Checkpoint, Cas Yikh House, Wet’suwet’en 
 
Sources
[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-urges-patience-pipeline-dispute-1.5484087

[2]https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/un-committee-elimination-racial-discrimination-indigenous-coastal-gaslink-trans-mountain-1.6407798
[3] https://www.bctreaty.ca/sites/default/files/delgamuukw.pdf
We want to keep you up-to-date
Gidimt’en Checkpoint is a reoccupation site of Cas Yikh (Grizzly Bear House) territory where Wet’suwet’en people are asserting their jurisdiction over their unceded land. 
The Coastal Gaslink pipeline and associated LNG terminal is the largest private fracked gas investment in Canadian history. The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have been resisting the construction of the fracked gas pipeline on their territories for more than a decade, and the hereditary chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have refused to give their consent to the project.
After a decade of fierce resistance, Coastal GasLink is getting closer to drilling under the Wedzin Kwa, the sacred headwaters of the Wet’suwet’en since time immemorial. Now is the time to come together and demand drilling stop.
 COME TO CAMP  
 REGISTER FOR WEBINAR  

Our Latest Iowa Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Event

On December 22, 2021, we went to Chase bank in Des Moines to protest the bank’s funding of fossil fuel projects. In support of the Wet’suwet’en’s calls for solidarity.

#KillTheDrill

Wet’suwet’en and residential schools

I’ve been following and writing about the Wet’suwet’en peoples in British Columbia as they struggle to prevent a natural gas pipeline (Costal GasLink) from being built through their pristine lands and waters for years. Because of almost no mainstream media coverage of what has been happening there, they asked us to share their stories and struggles on our social media. (see links to many stories at the end).

This video shows the continued harassment of the Wet’suwet’en by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 5/15/2022. It is especially disturbing because it shows trauma carried from one generation to the next. Especially disturbing because it makes the connection to the Indian residential schools’ atrocities.

Cody and Winih Confront RCMP
Gidimt’en Access Point

For over 2 months the RCMP CIRG unit has carried out a daily harassment & intimidation campaign on Gidimt’en territory. On Sunday, May 15 as we started the build of a new balhats (feast hall) at our Tsel Kiy Kwa village site with elders and children, over a dozen officers were dispatched to surveil & criminalize us.

This day should have been a celebration. A representation of our governance system on the yintah despite being outlawed and all the government’s attempts to disrupt the transmission of culture and our laws to our children.

When confronted with the RCMP’s history of stealing Indigenous children to send them to residential schools & questioned about why none of their deaths are being investigated, despite excessive policing of our territory, officers fell silent.

#RCMPofftheyintah

May 15, 2022
Tsel Kiy Kwa Village Site

“10,000 kids murdered at residential schools. They’re here to harass you. You as a Wet’suwet’en. As a future leader of these lands. They still rip kids away from their parents every day, one at a time. So, you look at them, you remember their faces, because they decided that you’re not allowed to live here. Every time you see Every Child Matters, we’re talking to you guys, because you guys are the ones not looking into their deaths. 10,000 ** kids. That’s a lot of kids that went to school and died. Not one of you guys are doing anything about it.”

RCMP have patrolled Gidimt’en home sites more than 200 times since March 2022.

Following is a letter my Quaker Meeting sent to British Columbia Premier, John Horgan in 2020.

January 26, 2020

Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) meetinghouse is in the Iowa countryside. Many members have been involved in agriculture and care about protecting Mother Earth. A number of Friends have various relationships with Indigenous peoples. Some Friends have worked to protect water and to stop the construction of fossil fuel pipelines in the United States, such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

We are concerned about the tensions involving the Wet’suwet’en Peoples, who are working to protect their water and lands in British Columbia. Most recently they are working to prevent the construction of several pipelines through their territory. Such construction would do severe damage to the land, water, and living beings.

Bear Creek Friends Meeting, of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) approved sending the following letter to British Columbia Premier, John Horgan.

John Horgan.
PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1.
Email premier@gov.bc.ca

John Horgan,

We’re concerned that you are not honoring the tribal rights and unceded Wet’suwet’en territories and are threatening a raid instead.

We ask you to de-escalate the militarized police presence, meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and hear their demands:

That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.

That the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and tribal rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.

That the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.

That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by Coastal GasLink (CGL) respect Wet’suwet’en laws and governance system, and refrain from using any force to access tribal lands or remove people.

Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)
19186 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa, 50072

Several of us gathered in Des Moines, Iowa, for a vigil in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en peoples, February 7, 2020.

Wet’suwet’en Updates 2.7.2020 Evening

Our most recent action was a vigil held at a Chase bank in Des Moines, December, 2021. Chase funds fossil fuel projects. You can see the solidarity, including Des Moines Black Lives Matter. https://landbackfriends.com/2021/12/23/iowa-solidarity-with-wetsuweten/

Writings about the Wet’suwet’en from my blog posts:
https://landbackfriends.com/?s=wetsuweten
https://jeffkisling.com/?s=wetsuweten+wet%27suwet%27en

Support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act

The House Natural Resource Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples is accepting written testimony in support of H.R. 5444, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.

There are two ways you can send your written testimony for the bill. One is by using The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition’s resources. Secondly, information from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is found at the end of this post. The FCNL site will help you write your letter and send it to the appropriate members of Congress.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

REQUESTING SUPPORTIVE WRITTEN TESTIMONY FOR H.R.5444

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is currently pursuing the passage of H.R. 5444 / S. 2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the US Act. The House Natural Resource Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples held a hearing on Thursday, May 12, 2022, on H.R. 5444. We are reaching out to invite you to submit written testimony in support of this legislation. The House allows for written testimony until May 26, 2022. Therefore, we are humbly asking you to share your story by emailing the House Natural Resource Committee at:

HNRCDocs@mail.house.gov and CC NABS at info@nabshc.org 

To familiarize yourself with the legislation, NABS’s one pager can be found here, H.R. 5444/S.2907 the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. 
To submit testimony, please see NABS suggested draft template on how to write your story for Congress. It can be a minimum of two paragraphs up to 15 pages.
If you have any questions, please reach out to NABS at info@nabshc.org  
t’igwicid – Thank you, 

https://mailchi.mp/nabshc.org/nabs-requesting-your-story-6024016?e=039867b489

https://mcusercontent.com/a2409f90592cd87d4d9c47cad/files/0dd54e21-d6e2-e607-8bd1-dd35e41c0834/Outline_for_Testimony.01.pdf

Natural Resources Committee to Hold First Congressional Hearing on the Indian Boarding School Era

Washington, D.C. – Tomorrow, May 12, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States will hold the first congressional hearing in history to examine the “Indian Boarding School Era,” the time period from 1819 to 1969 in which the U.S. government forcibly removed Indigenous children from their communities and placed them into government-run boarding schools to assimilate them into Euro-American society. At these schools, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students were forbidden to practice their culture, use their given names, or speak their traditional languages. If they disobeyed, they were harshly punished. Many students experienced physical, sexual, or psychological abuse, and some never returned home to their families. To this day, the United States government has never formally acknowledged or apologized for these actions.

The hearing will be livestreamed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFeCr0gDopU

The legislative hearing will consider H.R. 5444, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, introduced by Rep. Sharice L. Davids (D-Kan.), which will establish a formal commission to investigate and document the policies of the Indian Boarding School Era. The commission will develop recommendations on how the U.S. government can best acknowledge and heal the intergenerational trauma associated with the era.

Natural Resources Committee, U.S. House of Representatives

2022-truth-and-healing-commission-on-indian-boarding-school-policies-act-finalDownload

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

Support the Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools

It is long overdue for the United States to acknowledge the historic trauma of the Indian boarding school era. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Christian churches collaborated with the government to create hundreds of boarding schools for Native American children. The conditions at these schools, some of them Quaker-run, were unspeakable.

Remind your members of Congress of their responsibility to tribal nations and urge them to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

It’s time to elevate Indigenous voices

As I was praying about what to write this morning, I was thinking about the title from an email from Grist magazine: It’s time to elevate Indigenous voices

It’s time to elevate Indigenous voices

It’s clear that Indigenous leaders and communities play a critical role in climate action and have already faced significant climate threats. Elevating Indigenous voices is key to staving off the climate crisis, and the news industry must do better.

Our reporting brings light to the challenges Indigenous communities face and grounds these stories through the lens of solution and justice by elevating the Indigenous leaders and ideas that are critical to protecting the planet’s biodiversity and the health of our ecosystems

Donate now

Grist

Although there is colonialism in the idea that it is White people’s privilege to frame these narratives, it is important to make White people aware of the importance of elevating Indigenous voices.

White people cannot begin to have authentic relationships with Indigenous peoples until we have learned and acknowledged the truth about the history of White settler colonists stealing the land and committing genocide against native peoples. And the continued oppression today. To understand the trauma that has been passed from generation to generation. The grief of those living today.

I was blessed to participate in the Climate Justice Summit of the new coalition, the Buffalo Rebellion. A coalition that has leadership from Indigenous people and that is elevating Indigenous voices.

Buffalo Rebellion is a coalition of Iowa grassroots organizations that are growing a movement for climate action that centers racial and economic justice!

Formed in 2021, Buffalo Rebellion is comprised of seven Iowa organizations: Great Plains Action Society, DSM Black Liberation Movement, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Sierra Club Beyond Coal, Cedar Rapids Sunrise Movement, SEIU Local 199, and Iowa CCI

https://www.facebook.com/IowaBuffaloRebellion

Forced assimilation of native children

One of the most grievous wrongs was the forced assimilation of native children. [https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/forced-assimilation/]

  • This is a fraught issue in Quaker communities today. More than 30 Indian boarding schools were run by Quakers.
  • The first step toward healing for all those involved, White and Indigenous peoples, is truth telling.
  • Raw emotions are re-awakened as the process of locating the remains of native children on the grounds of Indian boarding schools occurs at more schools.
  • The first volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report has just been released.

Urge your members of Congress to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 2908/H.R. 5444).

It’s past time for the United States and the faith community to acknowledge the historical trauma of the Indian boarding school era.

I know that. You know that. And this week, we received two strong signs that lawmakers are starting to understand it too.

Act Now

On Wednesday, the Department of the Interior released an investigative report documenting the brutal conditions endured by Native children who were forced to attend federal boarding schools. The next day, a House subcommittee held the first-ever hearing on this critical issue.

The impacts of this tragic era persist today. These schools—more than 30 of them run by Quakers—are inextricably linked to the loss of tribal languages, cultural resources, and dispossession of land. Many of the problems facing tribal nations today, including poverty, violence, suicide, and alcohol and drug abuse, are rooted in the traumatic separation of children from their families and the abuses at these federally sponsored institutions.

Your advocacy is making a difference. We have to keep the pressure on. Urge your members of Congress to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 2908/H.R. 5444).

Portia Kay^nthos Skenandore-WheelockSincerely, Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock Congressional Advocate
Native American Advocacy Program

P.S. Read the Department of Interior report here.

It is long overdue for the United States to acknowledge the historic trauma of the Indian boarding school era. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Christian churches collaborated with the government to create hundreds of boarding schools for Native American children. The conditions at these schools, some of them Quaker-run, were unspeakable.

Now we must work with tribal nations to advance congressional efforts to establish a federal commission to formally investigate boarding school policy and develop recommendations for the government to take further action. Although the wrongs committed at these institutions can never be made right, we can start the truth, healing, and reconciliation process for the families and communities affected as we work to right relationship with tribal nations.

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
Support the Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools

What would it mean to reckon with our past complicity with harm?

As the world falls apart, I wonder where faith communities are? Where are White Christians, White Quakers?

As my friend Lucy Duncan writes, “we as White Quakers like to think of ourselves as ahead or better than dominant culture, but we have been complicit in a system and mindset that are ubiquitous.”

Recognizing the White dominant culture is fundamental for White people to understand. How we learn what we must change. White people must first change ourselves before we will be accepted in communities suffering injustice.

As Lucy writes below, “What would it mean to reckon with our past complicity with harm?” Lucy speaks about slavery and racism.

I tell the stories of early White Quaker relationships to slavery because slavery was never really abolished. If we can reckon with the full truth of our connection to slavery and its afterlives, perhaps we can begin the healing necessary to fulfill the promise of the Religious Society of Friends of Truth. 

We as White Quakers like to think of ourselves as ahead or better than dominant culture, but we have been complicit in a system and mindset that are ubiquitous. Claiming the full truth of our history and committing to repair the harms done are deeply spiritual acts of healing our own wounds of disconnection. I would argue it is the pathway upon which we can, perhaps for the first time, discover and invigorate our faith with its full promise.

What would it mean for us to take seriously and collectively as a Religious Society a call to finish the work of abolition, hand in hand and side by side with those affected  and their loved ones? What would it mean for us to stand fully with the calls to abolish the police and fully fund community needs instead? What would it mean to reckon with our past complicity with harm and fully dedicate ourselves to the creation of a liberating Quaker faith that commits to build the revolutionary and healing faith we long to see come to fruition? What would it look like to finally and fully abolish slavery?

A Quaker Call to Abolition and Creation by Lucy Duncan, Friends Journal, April 1, 2021

I ask these same questions regarding our past and present complicity with harms to Indigenous peoples. I speak from my own experiences with Indigenous friends. (One place I share some of these experiences are at the website I created about the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March https://firstnationfarmer.com/ )

Two interrelated developments are finally bringing attention to Indigenous peoples, forced assimilation, and those who ran those residential schools.

  • One is the search and finding of the remains of Indigenous children on the grounds of Indian Boarding Schools in Canada and the US.
  • The second is the release of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report about what happened in those schools

What would it mean to reckon with our past complicity with harm to Indigenous peoples?

White people need to imagine what it would take to dismantle the White dominant culture. We cannot begin to reckon with our complicity in harm until we have the humility and prayers to recognize the history of those harms, and how we continue to do harm now. We cannot make authentic connections with Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) until we unlearn our attitudes and actions of dominance.

How do we do that? We look for any kind of vertical hierarchy, and reject it. Vertical hierarchies are how dominance is enforced. Are the structures used throughout our society and government.

We should instead act in ways of horizontal, or no hierarchy. Dismantling vertical hierarchies is the path to reducing or eliminating dominance.

Eliminating vertical hierarchies is the core concept of Mutual Aid. My participation in a Mutual Aid community these past two years has been a real education. A deeply spiritual experience. Mutual Aid is how I’ve been learning to reject vertical hierarchies. Some of my experiences with Mutual Aid can be found here: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/mutual-aid/

Recognizing White dominant culture makes it possible for us to look at the past and recognize our complicity with what happened then. And helps us envision how to stop the ongoing harms of White dominance now.

By asking the question where are faith communities (above) I’m implying where should faith communities be? I believe white faith communities should be working on their structures, actions, and attitudes of dominance. Learning about and embracing Mutual Aid is a way to do that.

Queries related to Mutual Aid
Do we recognize that vertical hierarchies are about power, supremacy and privilege? What are Quaker hierarchies?
Do we work to prevent vertical hierarchies in our peace and justice work?
What are we doing to meet the survival needs of our wider community?
How are we preparing for disaster relief, both for our community, and for the influx of climate refugees?
Are we examples of a Beloved community? How can we invite our friends and neighbors to join our community?

A Hierarchy Resister

I’ve been working on this diagram to show the structures of injustice, and concepts to address them. This is a work in progress. Relevant to today’s discussion is White supremacy and the way forward via Mutual Aid.

DRAFT: NPYM Minute of Support for Indigenous People

Two interrelated developments are finally bringing much needed attention to Indigenous peoples and forced assimilation as I wrote in Indian Boarding Schools: 1.

  • One is the search and finding of the remains of Indigenous children on the grounds of Indian Boarding Schools in Canada and the US.
  • The second is the release of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report about what happened in those schools

It is my sense that most Quakers don’t know a lot about these institutions of forced assimilation and the role white Quakers played in them. But because of this history, Quakers are in a unique position to educate ourselves and others and create/participate in actions today to help begin healing us all. A number of Quaker meetings and organizations have been working for truth telling and searching for ways for healing.

My friend Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge has shared a draft of a remarkable document from North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, a Minute of Support for Indigenous People. I first met Mackenzie as we work on the Quakers for Abolition Network.

This draft Minute includes links to useful sources of information about Quakers and forced assimilation. And most helpful, a number of suggestions for Quakers and their meetings to begin the process of truth telling and work toward healing.

“We commit to courageously and compassionately listen and face the learning required to comprehend settler colonialism and grow relationships with Indigenous people.”

When I talked to one of my Lakota friends about this minute, they nearly cried. They spoke about how meaningful it would be for Quakers, whose “good” relationships with Native peoples were instrumental in the creation of the boarding schools, to be the first majority-white faith community in the US to collectively attempt to heal those wounds. 

Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge

On Fri, Jan 21, 2022, Mackenzi wrote:

Friends,

I’m so excited about this minute that NPYM is considering! 

We’re finally going to directly engage the topic of #LandBack: that is, returning stolen land to Indigenous people. We’re also going to get into the Quaker history of modeling & running boarding schools for Indigenous children — which means grappling with what acknowledgement of and accountability for participating in genocide might look like. 

When I talked to one of my Lakota friends about this minute, they nearly cried. They spoke about how meaningful it would be for Quakers, whose “good” relationships with Native peoples were instrumental in the creation of the boarding schools, to be the first majority-white faith community in the US to collectively attempt to heal those wounds. 

My friend also told me about a few of the brutal horrors their parents had each survived at a boarding school, and we grieved/raged about how much has been erased from collective knowledge. Indigenous families should not be the only ones carrying these stories. It is past time for white colonizers, and those of us connected to the religions that directly perpetrated this form of genocide (which includes Quakers!), to help carry this burden, and to take up our responsibilities in the healing process.

Feel free to steal from this minute, or to share it anywhere you’re inspired!

In struggle and solidarity,
from Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge,
zie/hir or she/her
University Friends Meeting on Duwamish land (aka Seattle)
(1/21/2022)

The North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends repudiates the Doctrines of Discovery, the basis for European colonization around the world. We acknowledge and regret Friends’ role in the ensuing genocide, land theft, and forced assimilation of the peoples indigenous to Turtle Island (‘North America’), including Friends’ role in operating and legitimizing compulsory residential schools for Indigenous children. We affirm the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We commit to courageously and compassionately listen and face the learning required to comprehend settler colonialism and grow relationships with Indigenous people. We intend that these relationships will guide us to develop thoughtful, grounded actions to oppose the ongoing systemic dehumanization and material dispossession of the original peoples of the land on which we live and worship.

DRAFT North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, a Minute of Support for Indigenous People.