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Federal Court Hears Medicine Lake Appeal, Indigenous Nations Rally for Sacred Site Protection

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March 12, 2015

You can watch the court proceeding here:

Morning Star Gali, protectmedicinelake@gmail.com, www.protectmedicinelake.org                              

medicinelake-court1

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA — March 12, 2015) Today the Pit River Tribe, Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, Save Medicine Lake Coalition, Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment, with their attorney Deborah A. Sivas of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and supporters, optimistically exited the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today following oral arguments in Pit River Tribe vs. US Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, & Calpine Corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

 

medicine-lake-shadow-of-the-city

Known to the Pit River people, lead defendants in the case, as “Saht Tit Lah,”, the Medicine Lake Highlands are used for healing, religious ceremonies, and tribal gatherings. Pit River, Wintun, Karuk, Shasta and Modoc Nations hold the Medicine Lake Highlands sacred, and have used the Highlands for spiritual purposes for untold generations.

 

“Medicine Lake is a sacred place and it needs to be protected at all costs,” said Pit River Tribal Chairman Mickey Gemmill. “We’re trying to preserve our culture and Medicine Lake is part of the beginning of our people. If we allow these corporations to come in and frack, we could lose that chance to bring back that part of our culture. So we’re asking the Calpine Corporation to step back and leave the Medicine Lake Highlands alone.”

Credit: Becky White

Representatives of Native Nations and environmentalist supporters came before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on March 12th in San Francisco, to bring their case that energy leases were renewed illegally by federal agencies in 1998 for industrial development on national forest lands in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a near-pristine area about 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta that has been designated a Native American Traditional Cultural District. The Native American and environmental plaintiffs assert that industrial energy development would desecrate and pollute the area and pose unacceptable risks to California’s largest fresh water aquifer. Contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws, the federal agencies never evaluated the threshold question of whether industrial geothermal development is even appropriate for this landscape.

“What was never considered is whether development is even appropriate for the Medicine

Credit: Becky White

Lake Highlands in the first place, given the area’s high benefit in holding California’s largest pure underground aquifer,” said Michelle Berditschevsky, senior conservation consultant for the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center (her legal commentary can be found here).

 

“Geothermal development in the surrounding national forest would increase traffic, noise, water and air pollution and would fragment wildlife habitat, turning the remote landscape into an industrial wasteland and threatening a reliable source of pure water,” said Janie Painter, executive director of the Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment, consisting of Medicine Lake cabin owners and recreationalists.

 

 

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“The struggle to protect the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands has been a long one, but over the years, we have only learned more and more about the importance of the landscape to Native Americans and California more generally,” said Deborah Sivas, Director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, which represents the Pit River Tribe and environmental organizations in the lawsuit. “I was happy to see that the court understood our arguments that the Tribe has a deep, abiding connection to the area.”

“It was great to see such a big turnout by tribe members at the hearing. We were gratified to represent the tribe and fight for the future of the Medicine Lake Highlands in the 9th Circuit,” said Jason George, a certified Law student in the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic.

 

Debra Sivas, Director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, is available to discuss the legal case at (650) 723-0325 or dsivas@stanford.edu: The court arguments may be archived at:  http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/ https://www.youtube.com/user/9thcirc/videos

 

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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Christine Prat

    March 14, 2015 at 2:41 PM

  2. joy

    March 31, 2015 at 1:18 PM

    mitaku oyasin

    Millions to DIE – “Primary Water” Restricted – Deborah Tavares https://youtu.be/ymDrxdK-oWs

    Psywar Full Documentary
    https://youtu.be/tXX0vujix-o

    http://www.stopthecrime.net/hot01.html

    http://primarywater.org/

    http://www.activistpost.com/

    http://newsinsideout.com/

Add your comments (racist, sexist, & trans/homophobic comments will not be published)

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ALERT: Imminent Uranium Mining Threat at Grand Canyon – Haul No!

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Underground blasting & above ground work has begun at Pinyon Plain/Canyon Mine, just miles from the Grand Canyon. 

Workers are readying to start mining uranium at the mine. According to the Forest Service, workers are blasting daily though no ore is being moved yet. Once Energy Fuels starts hauling out radioactive ore, they plan to haul 30 tons per day through Northern Arizona to the company’s processing mill 300 miles away. 

The Grand Canyon, sacred site Red Butte, precious water, and communities along the haul route are in danger! 

As all legal options have failed, we need you to join us to stand up and stop this nuclear catastrophe from permanently poisoning our communities!

Join our telegram channel to connect for actions and support: https://t.me/haulno

For more info & to donate for legal defense: www.haulno.com

Pinyon Plain/Canyon Mine Haul Route Facts:

* Total distance of 300 miles.

* 12 trucks with capacity to haul up to 30 tons of highly radioactive ore per day.

* Truck loads to be covered with thin tarps, the only shielding from uranium and only protection from environmental contamination.

* Proposed route will go through high population areas such as Valle, Williams, and Flagstaff; as well as through rural Navajo reservation communities including Cameron, Tuba City, and Kayenta; near the Hopi reservation, and finally arrive at Energy Fuel’s White Mesa Mill only three miles from the Ute Mountain Ute tribal community of White Mesa, Utah.

#haulno #stoppinyonplainmine

#nonukes

#dontnukethegrandcanyon

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The Intercept and Grist begin release of 50,000 TigerSwan spy documents

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Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News
Reprinted with permission.

April 14, 2023

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075796248532

The Intercept and Grist began releasing new TigerSwan spy documents in new coverage of the mercenaries hired by the Dakota Access Pipeline. They now have 50,000 TigerSwan spy documents, and another 9,000 are held up in the court battle for now. The documents reveal TigerSwan spying on Water Protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota, Bold Iowa, and at other locations.

Reporters Alleen Brown and Naveena Sadasivam expose the new spy documents in their article, After Spying on Standing Rock, TigerSwan Shopped Anti-Protest ‘Countinsurgency’ to Other Oil Companies.

The article follows an expensive court battle by The Intercept seeking the release of the documents. The North Dakota Supreme Court ordered the release after TigerSwan was found operating without a license in North Dakota.

“The released documents provide startling new details about how TigerSwan used social media monitoring, aerial surveillance, radio eavesdropping, undercover personnel, and subscription-based records databases to build watchlists and dossiers on Indigenous activists and environmental organizations,” The Intercept writes. Read the article at The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/

Paiute journalist, drone activist and filmmaker Myron Dewey was among those that TigerSwan spied on and stalked at Standing Rock 2016-2017, as revealed in the new documents that were ordered released by the court.

On Tuesday, the driver that killed Myron Dewey on an isolated road near his family’s home in Yomba, Nevada, entered a surprise plea bargain deal that was cut with a new prosecutor assigned to the case in Nye County, Nevada.  John Walsh pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.

This TigerSwan spy document, showing TigerSwan stalking Myron Dewey and Prolific the Rapper at Standing Rock on Dec. 17, 2016, is from the new documents at The Intercept. Document link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773105-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161217

Below: From the TigerSwan spy files just released: The power of the global movement, with its heart in Standing Rock.

Below: The first flood of documents show how rattled DAPL was over the involvement of celebrities, the Standing Rock Chairman at the United Nations, Bernie Sanders, the Palestinian flag flying, and big orgs. The doc is from a pitch that TigerSwan made for more work, hustling another pipeline to spy on resistance.

Above: TigerSwan surveillance used drones and helicopters.https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773104-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161014

Above: TigerSwan spy file at Bold Iowa. The mercenaries hired by the Dakota Access Pipeline called Bold Iowa Water Protectors “belligerents.” Document link:

TigerSwan spied on, and stalked the media, including Paiute journalist Myron Dewey, Amy Goodman at Democracy Now, and myself, publisher of Censored News, as revealed in the newly released documents by The Intercept and Grist. TigerSwan used its surveillance on the media in its pitches for more spy work to other oil and pipeline companies.

TigerSwan turned its surveillance at Standing Rock into a potential money maker, using it for powerpoints in its pitches to other oil and pipeline companies for spy work.

T

TigerSwan even stalked the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in its high-stakes spying for dollars.

TigerSwan’s Opposition Model, shown below, was used as a potential maker in PowerPoints to other oil and pipeline companies.

The Intercept described the battle for these documents.

“A discovery request filed as part of the case forced thousands of new internal TigerSwan documents into the public record. Energy Transfer’s lawyers fought for nearly two years to keep the documents secret, until North Dakota’s Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the material falls under the state’s open records statute,” The Intercept said.

“Because an arrangement between North Dakota and Energy Transfer allows the fossil fuel company to weigh in on which documents should be redacted, the state has yet to release over 9,000 disputed pages containing material that Energy Transfer is, for now at least, fighting to keep out of the public eye.”

TigerSwan spy documents on Water Protectors

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773105-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161217
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773100-tigerswan-document-presentation-for-dominion

Note: The documents show that TigerSwan spied on Censored News, as shown in today’s article at The Intercept.

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Indigenous Action Podcast Ep. 9: Against Colonial Logics: Rethinking Resistance to Resource Extraction

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Ep. 9: Against Colonial Logics: Rethinking Resistance to Resource Extraction

Many Indigenous frontline resistance struggles are wrought with strategies and tactics that reinforce colonial logics. From resource extraction resistances, “honoring” treaties, green capitalism, and Indigenous non-profit capitalists, how do we identify, challenge, and go beyond these issues so we can more effectively fight for liberation?In this show we hear from Bearcat reporting from the frontlines […]

Indigenous Action
Indigenous Action
Ep. 9: Against Colonial Logics: Rethinking Resistance to Resource Extraction
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Many Indigenous frontline resistance struggles are wrought with strategies and tactics that reinforce colonial logics. From resource extraction resistances, “honoring” treaties, green capitalism, and Indigenous non-profit capitalists, how do we identify, challenge, and go beyond these issues so we can more effectively fight for liberation? In this show we hear from Bearcat reporting from the frontlines of the Treaty People Gathering and powerful perspectives from Amrah and edxi about their frontline experiences and analysis. As always, claws out!

Guests: edxi betts is an Afro Blackfeet Indigenous trans feminine Pinay multi media insurrectionary artist & organizer. Her work entails political education while providing material support to oppressed & colonized communities. Creating art/media for the sake of propagating resistance culture, counter narrative and collective liberatory projects that spark discourse, sources of healing, critical thought, dialogue, and direct action. More info & support: www.linktr.ee/bettsurevolt

Amrah Salomón J. is a writer, artist, activist, and educator of Mexican, O’odham and Tohono O’odham, and European ancestry. @oodhamantiborder @defendoodhamjewed Cashapp: $DefendOodhamJewed Paypal.me/DefendOodhamJewed Venmo: @DefendOodhamJewed

Jenn Bearcat (she/her): Newe-Numa (Tosa Wihi) from Doka Badee, so-called Northern Nevada currently residing in Albuquerque, NM. She’s a 3rd generation land defender with a healthy respect for a diversity of tactics and a healthy distrust of the state. She contributes to a network of organizers and frontline defenders confronting issues surrounding colonization.

Host: Klee – Instagram: @kleebenally

About the podcast:  Welcome to Indigenous Action where we dig deep into critical issues impacting our communities throughout Occupied America/Turtle Island. This is an autonomous anti-colonial broadcast with unapologetic and claws-out analysis towards total liberation. So take your seat by this fire and may the bridges we burn together, light our way.

Subscribe, like, share on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play. Check us out on the channelzeronetwork.com.

Email us at IAInfo@protonmail.com.

www.indigenousaction.org/podcast

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