Nuclear Issues

January 4, 2007 Listen to the Show

Indigenous Rights in the Pacific Basin: Struggling to Stay Afloat Despite Stranglehold of Economic Globalization; An Indigenous Perspective on Climate Justice

Indigenous Rights in the Pacific Basin: Struggling to Stay Afloat Despite Stranglehold of Economic Globalization
Some say the modern era in the Pacific indigenous rights movement began after World War II mainly in response to two things. The first was the recognition of the right to self-determination for colonized peoples in the newly drafted UN Charter. The second major event in 1946 was the onset of a 50-year era of Pacific nuclear testing led by the U.S. in the Marshall Islands, followed by the United Kingdom in 1952 and France in 1966. The Pacific indigenous rights movement can be viewed as a response to the West's colonial domination in violation of the UN Charter's call for decolonization and the West's Cold War pretext for use of the Pacific islands for devastating nuclear testing. That struggle is now extended to fight neocolonialism in the form of economic globalization. Indigenous islander Mililani Trask talked about this issue at a forum in New York City in November called Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Economic Globalization: A Celebration of Victories, Rights and Cultures.
Mililani Trask, a Native Hawaiian attorney with an extensive background on Native Hawaiian land trusts, resources and legal entitlements. Her work has been cited by the Hawaii Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and published by Cultural Survival and IWGIA magazines on issues relating to native people and human and civil rights. Mililani is a founding member and current chair of the Indigenous Women's Network, a coalition of Native American Women whose work includes community based economic development, social justice, human rights, housing and health. In 2001, she was nominated and appointed as the Pacific representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and is currently considered an indigenous expert to the United Nations in international and human rights law. She is an instructor with the International Training Center for Indigenous Peoples in Nuuk, Greenland and a lecturer with the University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies.

An Indigenous Perspective on Climate Justice
We spend the second half of the hour speaking with Oannes Pritzker, a Native ecologist , journalist and activist of the Wabanaki people. He discusses global warming and how lack of spiritual attention leads to environmental disaster. He is director of Yat Kitischee Native Center; an Inter-Tribal Cultural/Environmental/ Social Justice/Educational/News-Media grassroots organization. Oannes has participated in many international, inter-tribal, and national conferences, gatherings, campaigns, and protest actions. He has traveled throughout much of the world as an activist and journalist, reporting on many issues of earth-justice and human rights. He is host and producer of a weekly one-hour worldwide radio program; "Honoring Mother Earth/Indigenous Voices" broadcast on Radio for Peace International, on Radio4all.net, and a number of community radio stations across North America. As an Ecologist, Oannes has been actively involved in the establishment and leadership of the national environmental justice movement, which he remains active with. More Info is available at the Yat Kitischee Native Center Web Site.

April 6, 2006

Western Shoshone Condemn U.S. Nuclear Simulation Plans on Tribal Lands; Biker Bar Threatens to Desecrate Bear Butte

Charon Asetoyer: Candidate for the South Dakota State Senate!

Charon Asetoyer (Comanche) is the Executive Director of the Native Women's Health Education Resource Center, a grassroots women's health institute on the Yankton Nakota Reservation in South Dakota. She recently announced her candidacy for the SD state senate! She is determined to fight for women's access to reproductive health care in direct opposition to the state's recent almost-total ban on abortion.

If you would like to support her campaign, you can mail a donation to: Campaign for Change/Asetoyer P.O. Box 472 Lake Andes, SD 57356

Western Shoshone Say Military Testing Violates Sovereignty

The U.S. Defense Department plans to detonate 700 tons of explosives on Western Shoshone land at the Nevada Test site this June. The detonation has been named the "Divine Strake." A groups of scientists has criticized the plan, saying the test is intended to simulate a nuclear blast as part of Pentagon research into the development of low-yield nuclear weapons. Native Americans in the Nevada region are protesting the plans for a number of reasons, including on spiritual, philosophical and legal grounds. Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said: "We're opposed to any further military testing on Shoshone lands. This is a direct violation of the CERD finding and an affront to our religious belief - Mother Earth is sacred and should not be harmed. All people who are opposed to these actions by the U.S. should step forward and make their opposition known." The CERD finding refers to a decision recently by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). It urged the U.S. to stop actions being taken against the Western Shoshone peoples of the Western Shoshone nation.

Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone National Council

Julie Fishel, Western Shoshone Defense Project

Tribal Coalition Gains Momentum, Calls For Support to Block Biker Bar from Desecrating Sacred Land

A beer license was recently approved for a biker complex that business owners hope to profit from during an annual rally in nearby Sturgis. The bar would be about 2 1/2 miles from the base of Bear Butte, a place where Native Americans go to pray, fast, and meditate. Native Americans have been strongly opposed, and we speak with one activist there.

Carter Camp, with the grass-roots organization Defend Bear Butte!