Rights of Nature & LandBack: Indigenous-led movements for the Protection of Mother Earth

Join Sogorea Te' Land Trust and Movement Rights for a webinar where we will share the power of the Rights of Nature and LandBack movements from those leading the way, and explore the potential for collaboration or connection between them.

In the last few years, two Indigenous-led movements have been boldly leading a way forward for tribal communities and climate justice by reclaiming sovereignty rooted in ancestral knowledge. Both of these movements radically shift the colonial system embedded in the
DNA of the United States (and Canada), and how we relate to the land, water and spirit
of Turtle Island.

Mar 18, 2021 12:00 PM in Pacific Time

Zoom registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mZu1wvKTSWSZO8RrkB60RA

We have opened registration to 500 people live on Zoom with Q&A and special opportunities to get involved.


Quotes and Bios from panelists:

Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca tribe of Oklahoma

“For the Indigenous people of Turtle Island and around the world, the Rights of Nature has been a way to reclaim our sovereignty and exercise our traditional responsibilities to our Mother, the Earth. In passing Rights of Nature into tribal law, the Ponca also reclaimed our original treaty boundaries, which the US government has whittled away with every broken promise and Treaty they’ve ever signed with tribal nations.” -Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, Ponca Environmental Ambassador and Movement Rights founding Board chair.

BIO: https://www.movementrights.org/board/

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Krystal Two Bulls, Northern Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota

“When we say ‘Land Back’ we aren’t asking for just the ground, or for a piece of paper that allows us to tear up and pollute the earth. We want the system that is land to be alive so that it can perpetuate itself, and perpetuate us as an extension of itself. That’s what we want back: our place in keeping land alive and spiritually connected.” -Krystal Two Bulls, Northern Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota, NDN Collective LandBack Director.

BIO: https://ndncollective.org/people/krystal-two-bulls/

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Joye Braun Wanbli Wiyan Ka’win or Eagle Feather Woman, Cheyenne River Sioux

“They decided, we’ll just go over to Standing Rock, those Indians ain’t going to do nothing. Well, we did. We have never ceded this land. If Dakota Access Pipeline can go through and claim eminent domain on landowners and Native peoples on their own land, then we as sovereign nations can then declare eminent domain on our own aboriginal homeland,” - Joye Braun Wanbli Wiyan Ka’win or Eagle Feather Woman, Cheyenne River Sioux, Community Organizer, Indigenous Environmental Network.

BIO: https://www.facebook.com/Indigenousrisingmedia/posts/tomorrow-join-iens-joye-braun-for-the-be-the-revolution-summit-online-webinar-fo/3226055450744592/

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Corrina Gould, Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone

“The Ohlone people never lost their connection to this land. The land gives us everything that we need in order to survive. That’s how people lived for thousands of years on our land and other Indigenous people’s land. You work with the land so that it can continue to provide, but that you honor that relationship by not taking too much. Through a voluntary land tax and donations from land owners, this organization is working to create an alternative land base and cultural site for Indigenous people in California’s East Bay.” -Corrina Gould, chair and spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone.

BIO: Corrina was born and raised in Oakland, CA, the village of Huichin. A mother of three and grandmother of four, Corrina is the Co-Founder and Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change, a small Native run organization that works on Indigenous people issues and sponsored annual Shellmound Peace Walks from 2005 to 2009. These walks brought about education and awareness of the desecration of sacred sites in the greater Bay Area. As a tribal leader, she has continued to fight for the protection of the Shellmounds, uphold her nation's inherent right to sovereignty, and stand in solidarity with her Indigenous relatives to protect our sacred waters, mountains, and lands all over the world.

Corrina's life’s work has led to the creation of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led organization within the urban setting of her ancestral territory of the Bay Area. Sogorea Te' Land Trust works to return Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Based on an understanding that Oakland is home to many peoples that have been oppressed and marginalized, Sogorea Te works to create a thriving community that lives in relation to the land. Through the practices of rematriation, cultural revitalization, and land restoration, the Land Trust calls on native and non-native peoples to heal and transform legacies of colonization, genocide, and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do.

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Tom Little Bear Nason, Esselen tribe, California

“We’re the original stewards of the land. Now we’re returned.” -Tom Little Bear Nason, chairman of the Esselen tribe of Monterey county, California.

Bio: Tom Little Bear is the Tribal Chairman of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County and the Tribe has recently received 1200 acres off acred lands located in their aboriginal homelands of Big Sur in Monterey County. The land is crucial to the tribe because the Tribe has been landless for over 250 years since the colonization of Spanish Missionaries who ripped all of the Esselen Tribal members from their ancient homelands and villages in 1770s. Leaving thee tribe without a place to call their own. This land holds a sacred mountain called “Pico Blanco” or “Pixchi” in Esselen. This is the center of the Esselen’s universe and holds the creation story for the tribe. Coyote, Humming Bird and the Eagle created the Esselen World as they have known it for countless generations.

Little Bear is an elder and has been a land and water protector since he was chosen at the age of 8 to become the leader and to carry on the tribes long tradition of protecting sacred lands of the Native Americans. Little Bear has defended dozens of government projects to dam up rivers and to level off mountain tops for telescopes and towers. Most recently the tribe under his leadership worked to remove the largest Dam in California state history on the Carmel River in Monterey County. This was a monumental task that has spawned numerous other dam removal projects on tribal lands in California, Oregon and Washington States. He is currently working on further protections of sacred lands, forests wildlife and rivers within their tribal territory and defending Mother Earth.