• Water

Interior Gives Portion of Missouri River Back to MHA Nation

• Department of Interior
• indigenous communities
• MHA Nation

Our river and our waters are our home. The Missouri River will continue to be home for our future generations.#OurRiverOurHome pic.twitter.com/gbMlQVPEdC — MHA Nation (@MHANation1825) January 14, 2021 by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer The Interior Department has returned jurisdiction over a portion of the Missouri River to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, […]

• Land

Trump Rushes to Hand Over Sacred Indigenous Land to Mining Companies

• copper mining
• indigenous communities
• mining
• Oak Flat
• Rio Tinto

by Amy Lupica, ODP Contributing Writer The Trump administration is continuing its hail-Mary attempt to develop public lands, even as the GSA announces it will begin the transition of power to the Biden administration. Trump has embarked on a rushed effort to transfer ownership of south-eastern Arizona’s Oak Flat, considered holy by the Apache people, […]

• Energy

Trump’s Losing Record On Coal

• clean power plan
• coal
• fossil fuels
• indigenous communities
• Navajo Generating Station
• renewable energy
• War on Coal

Trump promised to end the so-called “war on coal,” but now, three years and millions of dollars later, it is clearly a failure, Eric Lipton reports for The New York Times. The Trump administration sank an exorbitant amount of effort and funds to save coal mines and power plants, even intervening directly with some, but coal’s decline has continued to accelerate.

Why This Matters: As the 2020 election nears, Trump faces speculation that all the money and effort he put into coal, wasn’t invested in good faith.

• Green Finance

EJ Bills Introduced In Congress Now Set the Stage For Next Year

• communities of color
• Cory Booker
• Environmental Justice
• indigenous communities
• Kamala Harris
• low income communities
• pollution
• Tammy Duckworth

Environmental Justice legislation is getting lots of attention this year as numerous bills are pending in Congress on a topic that, until now, barely received attention. Yesterday, Senator Cory Booker and Representative Deb Haaland rolled out a bill that would put $100 billion dollars toward eliminating pollution that has disproportionately harmed communities of color.

Why This Matters:  Lisa Friedman of  The New York Times wrote last month that by putting Senator Harris on the ticket with him, Vice President Biden signaled that environmental justice will be high on their agenda.

• People

The Growing Movement to Grant Legal Rights for Nature

• 30 by 30
• biodiversity
• indigenous communities
• nature

The rapid degradation of nature driven by human activity is forcing indigenous leaders and activists to push for nature having rights that are enshrined in law.

It’s not a new idea, but one that could be important for global conservation.

• Politics

Hero of the Week: The Late Ghanimat Azhdari — Indigenous Peoples’ Advocate

• boreal forest
• cultural heritage
• indigenous communities
• Ukraine

The tragedy of the loss of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 152 last week was compounded by the fact that among those who perished was a remarkable advocate for conserving the cultural heritage of indigenous communities. PhD student Ghanimat Azhdari, who was born into a nomadic tribe in Iran, was studying at Canada’s University of Guelph, […]