Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is a network of Indigenous, grassroots environmental activists, primarily based in the United States. Members have also represented Native American concerns at International events such as the Climate talks in Copenhagen, 2009, and Paris in 2016. IEN also organizes an annual conference; each year the conference is held in a different Indigenous Nation.^[1]

IEN has 6 main goals:^[2]

• Educate and empower indigenous grassroots people to address and develop strategies for the protection of the environment;
• Reaffirm traditional and natural laws as Indigenous peoples;
• Recognize, support, and promote environmentally sound lifestyles and economic livelihoods;
• Commit to influence all politics that affect Indigenous people on a local, regional, national and international level;
• Include youth and elders in all levels of activities;
• Protect Indigenous rights to practice traditional spiritual beliefs.^[2]

In 1991, at Bear Butte, South Dakota (a sacred site to many of the Plains Indians Peoples, the IEN established an Environmental Code of Ethics.^[1] Key points include that indigenous people culturally, and Native Americans politically, are tied to their land; Native Americans in the United States and Canada are restricted to reservations if they want to maintain any kind of political nation idea; and that Indigenous people often have religious or ancestral ties to specific tracts of land.^[1] This unique relationship makes them less likely to leave, makes the land more valuable, and makes them even more staunchly opposed to polluting it in any way.^[1]

Past conference locations and projects include:

• The 1992 conference in Celilo Falls, Oregon; formerly a major salmon fishing site until dams were constructed on the Columbia River, downstream from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
• The 1993 conference at Sac and Fox Reservation, Oklahoma; IEN helped defeat a proposed nuclear waste site.
• The 1994 conference on Mole Lake Indian Reservation, Wisconsin, where Exxon plans to open a huge zinc - copper mine upstream from the Mole Lake Chippewa's wild rice beds.
• The 12th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, August 2001, was the first IEN conference held in Canada.
• The June 2004 conference was again held near sacred Bear Butte, South Dakota.^[3]

In 2009, IEN began the "Red Road to Copenhagen" initiative. Delegates attended the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen. The Initiative statement read: “this initiative will bring accumulated traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples from North America coming from climate-energy impact zones and persons experienced in linking an indigenous rights-based framework to climate policy.”^[4]

IEN prioritizes multigenerational and inter-tribal organizing, and has specific youth and elders groups. IEN is governed party by an Elders Council. Their Youth Council solicits involvement by young Indigenous people and tries to make connections between the urban culture of the youth and the environmental issues the communities face.^[5]

In 2016, members of IEN have been involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, notably in the media coverage and in establishing the media tent at the Oceti Sakowin camp.^[6]

References