Indigenous People's Day Webinar

Indigenous Solidarity! On October 11, 2021 and November 24, 2021, you are invited to participate in a two-part webinar at which Indigenous American leaders from across the United States will present. The webinars will focus on issues of human rights and ecological stewardship.

The October 11 event will take place between 2:00 PM and 3:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time). It will be broadcast from San Francisco at an Indigenous People's Day celebration following the Alcatraz Sunrise Ceremony. In 1969, Indigenous Peoples of the United States re-occupied Alcatraz Island. This pivotal event helped publicize and spur a wave of Indigenous activism across the United States, which ultimately helped create the US version of Indigenous People's Day.

Webinar presentations will be made by representatives from two of the organizations which took part in the Alcatraz re-occupation (the International Indian Treaty Council and the American Indian Movement). Webinar presentations will also be made by the Lakota People's Law Project (which helped organize the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline and Line 3) and an Elder of the Taino People (the first Indigenous group that Columbus encountered in the Americas). In addition, a portion of the webinar will focus on the effort to Protect Juristac, a site which the media have dubbed 'Silicon Valley's Version of Standing Rock'.

The economic system of the United States is rooted in genocide and colonialism. The entire United States is Indigenous Ancestral land. Across these lands exist hundreds of thousands of Indigenous burial sites, cultural sites, and sacred sites. Because of forced land appropriation and privatization, Indigenous Peoples are denied the right to directly protect and steward the vast majority of these sites.

Indigenous American religious/spiritual worldviews often hold it a duty to ensure the ecological balance of Ancestral lands. Through Tribal reorganization, Indigenous Americans are taking the lead in the effort to protect their Ancestral lands. Indigenous Land Stewardship programs, and public actions such as opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline and Line 3, have directly grown out of the efforts to promote fundamental human rights regarding Ancestral sites.

At these webinars, you will learn firsthand from Indigenous leaders. You will learn about the obstacles and lack of basic human rights which Indigenous Americans face on a daily basis. And you will learn how you can act in solidarity with Indigenous groups.

This webinar is being hosted by South Bay Indigenous Solidarity, South Bay Indigenous Solidarity is a multi-ethnic group that supports Indigenous-led, grassroots efforts to promote human rights, restore Indigenous land stewardship and preserve threatened cultural, burial, and sacred sites. Our current focus is supporting the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band’s effort to protect Juristac, an area of immense cultural, historical, environmental, and spiritual importance.

The webinar is being co-hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America Religion and Socialism Working Group and DSA San Francisco.