Category Archives: Indigenous peoples

Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report finds

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Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead

At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.

From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

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Two loggers shot dead with arrows in clash with Indigenous group in Peruvian Amazon

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Two more people missing and one injured after attack by ‘uncontacted’ Mashco Piro in rainforest

At least two loggers have been shot dead with arrows, one has been injured and two more are missing after a confrontation with members of the “uncontacted” Mashco Piro people in the Peruvian Amazon, according to Indigenous activists who have criticised the government for failing to formally recognise and protect all of the isolated people’s territory.

The deadly attack, which occurred last Thursday but was made known only this week, took place a day before the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) suspended for eight months the sustainability certification of a logging company that campaigners have accused of encroaching on the fiercely territorial Indigenous group’s ancestral land.

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Shock as police chief taken off Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips murder case

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Activists and lawyers in Brazil say unexpected change is ‘a big step backwards’ in the investigation

Indigenous activists and lawyers in Brazil have voiced shock and dismay after the federal police chief leading the investigation into the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips was unexpectedly removed from the case.

Francisco Badenes, an experienced investigator, had been running the inquiry into the 2022 deaths of the Brazilian Indigenous expert and the British journalist since the second half of that year.

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Could a £2-a-day basic income be the key to protecting rainforests?

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Pilot scheme in Amazon communities of central Peru aims to help people choose a more sustainable way of living

“At the beginning, there was a lot of fear and disbelief,” said Ketty Marcelo. “There was a perception from the communities that this was another scam, that it was only looking to steal information or our integrity.”

Indigenous communities in the Amazon have grown weary of people coming in from outside with plans that could mean them losing their land or way of life. When a team from Cool Earth, a climate action NGO, came to the Amazon communities of central Peru in October 2022, local people were hesitant. “These fears caused some families not to participate,” Marcelo said. “And we, as an organisation, were afraid this would be another project that would seek to impose activities without respecting the autonomy of the communities.”

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Inquiry into Mexico’s ‘dirty war’ obstructed by military and other agencies, board says

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Report details years of abuse in 90s during authoritarian one-party system, but says its inquiries were often stymied

An independent commission charged by Mexico’s president with documenting human rights atrocities committed by the state has accused the country’s military and other government agencies of obstructing their investigation and threatening the country’s transition towards justice and democracy.

A blistering report released on Friday details years of abuses committed by Mexico’s government and its armed forces between 1965 and 1990, a period known as the country’s “dirty war” when it was ruled by an authoritarian one-party system which violently repressed any form of dissent.

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Peggy Flanagan in line to be first US female Indigenous governor if Harris and Walz win

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Walz can continue serving as Minnesota’s governor until the election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, could become the first US female Indigenous governor if Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, resigns from office. Walz can continue serving as the state’s governor until the November election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over his gubernatorial duties.

In fact, a series of firsts would be triggered should the Harris-Walz ticket win: Harris would become the nation’s first woman, first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to ascend to the country’s top office. Flanagan, already the highest-ranking Native woman in a state-level executive office, would become Minnesota’s first female governor and the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor of a US state. And Minnesota’s senate president, Bobby Joe Champion, would become Minnesota’s first Black lieutenant governor.

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‘Dangerous’ and ‘retrograde’: Māori leaders sound alarm over policy shifts in New Zealand

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Experts say policy changes that include scrapping Māori-led programs will harm communities and put New Zealand’s ‘great reputation’ at risk

Leading Māori figures from across New Zealand have sounded the alarm over the government’s changes to policies that affect Māori, after analysis by the Guardian highlighted the far-reaching scope of the proposals.

The policy shifts proposed by the rightwing coalition have been described by experts as “chilling” and “dangerous” and have created a “deeply fractured” relationship between Māori and the crown, or ruling authorities.

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Canada owes First Nations billions after making ‘mockery’ of treaty deal, top court rules

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Court urges federal and Ontario governments to make payouts after ‘dishonourably’ neglecting 174-year-old deal

An “egregious” refusal by successive Canadian governments to honor a key treaty signed with Indigenous nations made a “mockery” of the deal and deprived generations of fair compensation for their resources, Canada’s top court has ruled.

But while the closely watched decision will likely yield billions in payouts, First Nation chiefs say the ruling adds yet another hurdle in the multi-decade battle for justice.

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Crisis at Tres Fronteras: how criminal syndicates threaten Amazon’s future

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At the lawless triple border between Brazil, Colombia and Peru, drug trafficking, illegal logging and gangs jeopardise the ecological and social fabric of the rainforest

The area of the Amazon where Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet – referred to as Tres Fronteras (triple frontier) – brims with wildlife and natural resources. It is also a hotbed of illicit activity. Criminal groups are clearing the forest to plant coca and erect laboratories to turn the crop into cocaine. In the process of making coca paste, these labs discharge chemical waste – including acetone, gasoline and sulphuric acid – into rivers and soil.

Increasingly, these outfits are branching into illegal logging, gold dredging and fishing, in part because these activities allow them to launder money made from drug trafficking. These activities compound the environmental harm the groups are inflicting.

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Uncontacted tribe seen in Peruvian Amazon where loggers are active

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Mashco Piro sighted coming out of rainforest more frequently, apparently moving away from loggers

Rare images of the Mashco Piro, an uncontacted Indigenous tribe in the remote Peruvian Amazon, have been released by Survival International, showing dozens of the people on the banks of a river close to where logging companies have concessions.

The reclusive tribe has been sighted coming out of the rainforest more frequently in recent weeks in search of food, apparently moving away from the growing presence of loggers, said the local Indigenous rights group Fenamad.

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‘We are going to be left with nothing’: Indigenous communities battle deforestation in Honduras

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Miskito and other groups face a dire challenge as illegal deforestation threatens their ancestral lands and culture

Avilés Morphy pulled out his mobile phone and swiped through the photos until he reached a shot showing fallen trees in what looked like the aftermath of a hurricane. “That was a big forest and look how it is now: everything’s been destroyed,” he says. “And these are the coordinates.”

Then he played a video. The camera focused on a startled man wearing a red track-and-field shirt, resting his back against a post as he responded to questioning.

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Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, convicted over 1975 FBI killings, denied parole

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Peltier, 79, in poor health and sentenced to life over two deaths in South Dakota, not eligible for another hearing until 2026

Leonard Peltier, the 79-year-old Indigenous activist who has spent nearly 50 years in prison for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents, has just been denied parole. Many fear that the ruling all but ensures that the longest-imprisoned Indigenous American will die behind bars.

Peltier has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in connection with the deaths that occurred at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. For decades, advocates such as Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis and James H Reynolds, the US attorney who handled the prosecution and appeal of Peltier’s case, have fought for his release.

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Rare white buffalo sacred to Lakota not seen in Yellowstone since birth

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Park staff say they have not been able to locate calf, who fulfilled Lakota prophecy and is named Wakan Gli

A rare white buffalo calf in Yellowstone national park has not been seen since its birth on 4 June, according to park officials.

In a statement released on Friday, the National Park Service (NPS) confirmed that a white buffalo calf was born in Lamar Valley earlier this month, adding that the park’s buffalo management team had received numerous reports of the calf on 4 June from park visitors, professional wildlife watchers, commercial guides and researchers.

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Canadian woman gets three years’ jail in first ever sentencing for a ‘Pretendian’

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Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed over C$150,000 in benefits for Inuit residents, pleaded guilty in February

A Canadian woman who fraudulently claimed her daughters were Inuit has been sentenced to three years in jail, in what is believed to be the first ever custodial sentence for a “Pretendian”.

Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed more than C$150,000 in benefits intended for Inuit, was sentenced on Thursday, after pleading guilty to fraud in February.

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‘We cannot deny history again’: Brazil floods show how German migration silenced Black and Indigenous stories

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The promotion of European immigration was linked to the idea of ‘whitening the Brazilian population’, say historians

Dominga Menezes was only 12 years old when she danced for a dictator.

It was 25 July 1974, and São Leopoldo, a medium-sized city in Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, was celebrating both the anniversary of its founding and 150 years of German immigration to Brazil.

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Rare birds at risk as narco-gangs move into forests to evade capture – report

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Cocaine traffickers have put two-thirds of Central America’s key habitats for threatened birds under threat, study finds

Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned.

Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.

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In historic first, Canada lawmaker addresses legislature in Indigenous language

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Sol Mamakwa gave first-ever Indigenous-language speech to Ontario provincial legislature, following rule change

A First Nations lawmaker in Ontario has addressed the province’s legislature in Anishininiimowin, in a “historic” milestone that repudiates a centuries-long colonial “war” on Indigenous languages.

Sol Mamakwa, a New Democratic party member from the community of Kingfisher Lake First Nation, rose on Tuesday to give the province’s first-ever Indigenous language speech in Queen’s Park, telling colleagues the moment left him feeling “thankful and proud”.

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New Caledonia: Macron calls further security meeting as deadly unrest grinds on

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French forces launch operation on Sunday to regain access to parts of Nouméa and allow airport to reopen

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called a meeting of his defence and security council to discuss the deadly unrest in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

It is the third such meeting in less than week, the previous two having resulted in the decision to declare a state of emergency in the French territory and then to send reinforcements to help government forces on the ground restore order.

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‘One hell of a storm is coming’: Canadian graphic novel about Indigenous identity sparks outrage

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Book prompts conflict over claims of Métis identity in eastern part of country where group doesn’t have a homeland or deep historic ties

A graphic novel investigating Indigenous identity in Canada has prompted outrage from Métis groups, who say the book undermines their history and represents an attack on their sovereignty.

The work is the result of a third-year history seminar at Dalhousie University, where students collaborated on a book examining thorny questions over ancestry and identity.

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Manahahtáanung or Manhattan? Tribal representatives call for apology for Dutch settlement of New York City

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As new exhibition opens in Amsterdam exploring the settlement of North America, original Manhattanites demand apology

Representatives for some of the Lenape people have called for an apology and reparations for the 17th-century Dutch “settling” of New Amsterdam, the place that is now New York.

Precisely four centuries after the Dutch established a colony at the mouth of the Hudson River, some descendants of Indigenous Americans believe it is time for a fuller story of the wars on their people, slavery, exploitation and dispersal.

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