Adam Dunstan, Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo

As usual, I have divided this column into three sections, “Tribal Environmental Developments”, “National Environmental Developments” and “International Environmental Developments”.

In tribal issues, we have various stories dealing with the interactions of tribal sovereignty and environmental pollution (see, for example, “Pollution Threatens Treaty Rights, warns Billy Frank, Jr.”, and “Oil Spills near Tribal Lands in Montana”).   We have stories of tribes who have won legal victories (“Victory for Native American Activists in Vallejo Case”) and we have stories of tribes who have lost legal battles (“Lax Kw’alaams lose Commercial Fishery Rights Case”).  It is a mixed climate across the country for environmental issues among the tribes. 

In national issues, we have a number of stories about the easing or delay of new EPA regulations which have come under fire in the legislature and from various states (“ style='color:black;background:white'>Coal Ash Regulations Challenged”, “Coal Rule Deadline Postponed One Month“, “New E.P.A. Smog Rule Eased”, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards Delayed”).  Many of the challengers to these rules express concerns over pollution regulations in a time of economic challenge. Conversely, we have a story about California adopting new pollution legislation (“Cap-and-Trade Greenhouse Gas System Adopted in California”).

On the international level, there are many concerns about climate change and how this and other environmental issues might affect the global poor (“Environmental Stress will Cause Migration and Poverty”, “Climate change Expected to Increase Malaria in Himalayas”).  Some environmental issues are already impacting peoples’ lives negatively (“Flooding in Thailand”, “Somalia Famine Kills 29,000 Children”).  Meanwhile, new research has been released on the directions of climate change, some of which I have summarized here. 

Taking a holistic point of view, we see that none of these are isolated issues.  Although we can divide a column into tribal, national, and international environmental developments, in reality– common threads run through them all, and decisions in one sphere leave ripples on the other.  Climate change in particular is a concern and a reality that does not confine itself to one sphere.  It affects tribes (“Climate Change imperils Sacred Foods of Northwest Tribes”), the United States (“Climate Change likely to Cause Water Problems”), and the rest of the planet (“Climate change Expected to Increase Malaria in Himalayas”). 

Because these issues are not isolated, we cannot allow our perspectives to be isolated.  With that in mind I present this installation of “environmental developments”.

Adam Dunstan 

Tribal Environmental Developments

Oil Spills near Tribal Lands in Montana

The EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division is now reviewing a failure by an oil company, FX Drilling, Inc., to report a pipeline spill of oil into the Cut Bank River in Blackfeet Nation land in north-central Montana.  EPA requirements are that companies must report waterway oil spills within 24 hours.   FX Drilling purportedly did not report the spill into the Cut Bank.  Tribal authorities found about the spill from an anonymous caller, and then alerted the federal authorities. 

The Blackfeet Tribe admonished the company to be more careful, saying that any oil and gas company working within the exterior boundaries of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation needed to communicate with the Business Council and Environmental office of the tribes and other departments when such spills occur to allow for timely “containment, mitigation, and clean-up measures.”

The spill occurred about a week before an ExxonMobil spill on July 1^st affecting the Yellowstone River near the Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation territory. An estimated 42,000 gallons of oil were released during this spill, which occurred at Laurel Montana, 20 miles north of Billings. Oil has spread to thousands of acres of wetlands outside the river banks.  The polluted portion of the river is home to an endangered Sturgeon.

On July 20^th, Montana’s Governor, Brian Schweitzer, established an Oil Pipeline Safety Review Commission.  The party being held responsible for the spill is ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. and cleanup is occurring. There are 25 identified spill sites on the Yellowstone, and four sites have been cleaned up so far.  A seven-member delegation of the Apsaalooke Nation toured the cleanup of the spill on July 21^st.  Tribal administrators, according to the EPA, are “entitled to involvement in all aspects of the 440-person EPA-led Unified Command clean-up process, including recommendations and sign-off.”  The EPA has agreed to provide training to tribal members to help with the clean up.  The EPA noted that “effective cleanup methods are hard to find”.  (Talli Nauman, “Criminal probe into oil spill on Blackfeet Nation”, Native Sun News, http://64.38.12.138/News/2011/002462.asp). 

Victory for Native American Activists in Vallejo Case

Hundreds recently gathered at Glen Cove, California, to celebrate a victory by Native American activists and others who opposed development of a city park on one of the last San undeveloped ancient burial sites in the San Francisco Bay area.   On April 14^th, protesters began a three and a half month occupation of an area that was slated to be bulldozed for parking lots, plumbing, and paved paths for a city park.  The activists built a sacred fire and erected two 20 feet tall teepees. 

The occupation was a last-ditch effort to protect an ancient burial ground from development.  Bay Area tribes buried their ancestors in this area for nearly 4,000 years.   It was the culmination of a battle between the City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreational District (GRVD) and indigenous persons lasting over twelve years.  The GRVD and City of Vallejo approached the Vallejo Intertribal Council in 1999.  The GRVD owns the title to the land in question, but it is a verified ancient Native American burial ground containing a number of ancient remains and cultural artifacts from numerous tribes, as confirmed by surveyors and UC-Berkeley anthropologists.  The activists most opposed to development lacked the official designation as “Most Likely Descendants”, although they are descended from Ohlone and Miwok originally present in the area.   They do not form an organized official group with a central authority that could sign a binding agreement, which is why the GRVD instead went to an Intertribal group.  In 2003, two federally recognized tribes, the Yocha Dehe and Cortina, were designated as the “Most Likely Descendants” but they were not immediately involved with the activists opposing the park development. 

Ultimately, the park development plan stalled.  According to Corinna Gould, a Karkin and Chochenyo Ohlon, last April inaction ended when the GRVD abruptly decided to stop discussing the matter and move forward with the plan despite indigenous persons telling them for 12 years that the did not want desecration of the area through parking lots and hill grading,  This lead to the occupation. One elder, Wounded Knee Do Ocompo, said “It was time for indigenous people across this country to take a stand and say ‘no more’ to desecrating the sacred sites of our ancestors.   No more digging up our ancestors and putting them in garbage cans and in garbage bags, no more digging up our ancestors and putting them in museums and leaving them in cardboard boxes and gym lockers and taking their artifacts and their sacred objects.” 

Activists’ occupation and protests pressured city to agree to a cultural easement compromise on July 20^th, which established a committee to jointly govern the areas, consisting of the GRVD, City of Vallejo, and the recognized descendants (Yocha Dehe and Cortina tribes).  As well, both tribes paid $100,000 to the City of Vallejo to be involved in the Cultural Easement, which most likely motivated the city coming to this decision.   As part of the easement, decisions for this part of Glen Cove must be unanimously approved by the newly-established committee.  

The committee decided to eliminate the plan for permanent bathrooms, downsize proposed parking lots, change the proposed paved trails to water-permeable pathways, and to not tear up land so that they would not disturb burial remains.  Corinna Gould said that in the past, California allowed American Indians to make recommendations but that developers could ignore these, but that this set a new precedent. (Jacob Simas, “Native American Activists Save Sacred Burial Ground from Bulldozers”, 08/04/11, http://newamericamedia.org/2011/08/glen-cove-a-spiritual-victory-for-the-ohlone-people.php).

Climate Change imperils Sacred Foods of Northwest Tribes

 Tribal leaders in the Pacific Northwest report that climate change is affecting and hurting food sources essential to their culture.  Yakama Tribal Council member Gerald Lewis says that salmon runs are coming in later and with smaller fish.  Salmon are not only economically important to the tribe, but culturally important as part of the First Food ceremony, which occurs at certain times of the years and which is affected by delays in salmon runs.   Scientists confirm that the Chinook salmon are experiencing later migrations, which may be partly attributable to an ocean affected by climate change and partially attributable to hatcheries and fishing practices. 

Meanwhile, harvested roots are much smaller than usual and are dwindling in numbers, according to Mr. Lewis. Lewis attributes this to climate change. Scientists and tribes are now working together to study the effects of climate change on plants.    Paul Lumley of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said “All we can do is try to help these plants and animals adapt.  If we don’t, the future of the tribes’ First Foods could be at stake.”  (Rob Manning, “Northwest Tribes See Changes in Sacred ‘First Foods’”, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 07/28/2011, http://news.opb.org/article/northwest-tribes-see-changes-sacred-first-foods/)

Pollution Threatens Treaty Rights, warns Billy Frank, Jr.

“Our treaty right to gather shellfish depends on the shellfish being safe to eat,” writes Billy Frank Jr. in a recent issue of Indian County Today.  Frank, Jr. is chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.  He notes that Samish Bay in Washington State, a traditional shellfish gathering site of the Swinomish and Upper Skagit tribes, has some of the highest levels of fecal coliform pollution in the state.  These bacteria can originate from farm animal manure if animals are kept too close to water sources; they can also originate from septic tank drainage.  This year, Samish Bay was closed to shellfish harvesting for 38 days.  The tribes have asked the federal government multiple times to try to protect this waterway from contamination which damages the shellfish fishery, according to Frank Jr.  He notes “Our treaty shellfish harvest rights are threatened because the state and federal governments are failing to hold landowners responsible to keep fecal coliform and other pollutants out of our bays.”  Meanwhile, Frank Jr. notes, non-indigenous commercial shellfish growers petitioned for protection of the bay, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responded with $1 million to fix these problems, leading to the Puget Sound Partnership.

 Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, remaking on the downgrade of 4,000 acres of shellfish beds last spring despite these government efforts, told state natural resource managers they had until Septembers to make a difference. However, both Frank Jr. and Governor Gregoire call the initiative’s work thus fair “a failure”.  The Puget Sound Partnership has come up with a new plan to reopen shellfish beds in Samish Bay by September 2012, using more inspections, education, and assistance to landowners, but Frank Jr. notes “it sounds like an awful lot like more of the same to me.”  He notes that the treaty rights to fish shellfish are null without the ability to harvest there.  “For decades we were kept off the beaches because the state refused to recognize the rights we reserved with the federal government in treaty. Now, the state’s failure to clean up Samish Bay is doing the same thing.”  (Billy Frank, Jr., “Pollution denies our treaty rights”, Indian Country Today Media Network, 08/07/2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/being-frank-pollution-denies-our-treaty-rights/).

Wildlife Management by First Nation

Scientific American recently ran an article on conservation science practices utilized by the Heiltsuk First Nation in cooperation the Canadian federal government. William Housty, director of a nonprofit science and environmental group serving the First Nation said “Our people have been stewarding these lands for 10,000 years and our people already know what it takes to manage our resources…but nowadays you need to have that science side of things.”  The article describes the work of members of this First Nation to monitor oyster populations and fishery populations neglected by the Canadian federal government’s monitoring efforts, but which the First Nation had noticed a decline in.  Eric Peterson, founder of the Hakai Beach Institute, says in the article “The thing that makes this place unique is the combination of science and culture…We have no choice but to look at the science we do here I the context of our setting which is a first nations setting.”  It’s really a fascinating read on how traditional ecological knowledge and science can go hand in hand.  One member, Jess Housty, said “ style='background:white'>"What I'm starting to see is indigenous people on the coast realizing that they do have a really powerful voice and starting to think really hard about how they can leverage sound science to protect traditional values, which are often not that different from conservation values."  Please read the article at the link below. (Anne Casselman, “First Nations Tribe Combines Science with Legacy of Conservation”, Scientific American, 08/09/2011, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-nations-tribe)

Updates on San Francisco Peaks Snowmaking Case

In the most recent news on the San Francisco Peaks controversy, Arizona Snowbowl owners have moved forward with their plans to start using artificial snowmaking at a ski resort located on a mountain sacred to 13 indigenous groups.  The plan to use artificial snowmaking has been challenged by various lawsuits over the past several years, none of which have ultimately stopped the snowmaking plan.  The Hopi Tribe is now suing the city of Flagstaff.  Flagstaff is selling reclaimed water to be used for artificial snowmaking to the Snowbowl ski resort.  The Hopi Tribe attorneys have argued that snowmaking goes against public policy, infringes on the water rights of the tribe, and is a threat to public health and the environment.   The Save the Peaks Coalition and nine individuals are also challenging the U.S. Forest Service in court, claiming that they did not adequately consider human health risks when they approved the snowmaking from reclaimed water. Despite these lawsuits, snowmaking construction is going forward in preparation for snowmaking next winter, and Snowbowl owner Eric Borowsky is reported to have said “Nobody’s worried about it.  We’re moving forward.”  (Cyndy Cole, “Snowbowl presses on amid suits”, Arizona Daily Sun, 11/22/11, http://azdailysun.com/news/local/snowbowl-presses-on-amid-suits/article_c3338b4e-b6b9-5a92-835a-55449836f8e0.html).

Lax Kw’alaams lose Commercial Fishery Rights Case

A case on fishing rights before the Supreme Court of Canada highlights some of the important cultural continuity issue at stake in this special issue of Indigenous Policy Issue (“When is a tribe not a tribe?”).  Lax Kw’alaams, a First Nation in British Columbia, lost a case before the Supreme Court of Canada regarding commercial fishing rights.  The band sought a declaration of entitlement to the right to harvest and sell all species of fish in its traditional territory.  The Supreme Court decided that the Lax Kw’alaams were not primarily a trading people before European contact and therefore they do not have a constitutionally-protected right to a modern commercial fishery for any species in these waters. 

The band had argued that given the fact that trade in a certain type of fish fat was part of their ancestral way of life, that they should be allowed to do general commercial trade in this fishery.   The Court declared that such commercial fishing was not one of their “ancient customs and practices.”  Justice Ian Brinne wrote “It is not enough to show that some element of trade was part of the pre-contract way of life if it was not distinctive or integral to that way of life.”  He also said that “Such sporadic trade as took place in other fish products was peripheral to the pre-contact society and did not define what made Coast Tsimshian [Lax Kw’alaams predecessor] society what it was.”    This decision stands in contrast to a decision by the British Supreme Court in November to give a Vancouver Island native group the right to commercially fish all species within its territories.  (Meagan Fitzpatrick, “Ruling denies commercial fishing rights to B.C. First Nation”, CBC news, 11/09/11, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/11/09/bc-aboriginal-fishing-rights.html).

Fish Consumption Estimates too Low for Tribal Groups in Washington?

Experts have voiced concerns that Washington State has set its water pollution standards too low because it is using an assumption of how much fish a Washington resident eats – 8 ounces- which is inaccurate for many Native Americans.   The estimate may be inaccurate because seafood is a central part of the diet of many Native Americans in Washington.  Washington State is now re-evaluating their figure. 

Mercury, cadmium, PCB’s, and other pollutants can accumulate in fish located near the top of a food chain (a process known as bioaccumulation).   These pollutants can cause cancer, suppressed child mental development, and other human health issues.  Such bioaccumulation is a concern for tribal groups.  Jamie Donatuto, an environmental specialist for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Council, said "Traditional families are still very active in the smokehouse. They are still fishing for their primary source of living.  Fish are not just a source of nutrients; they have cultural and spiritual meaning for these people." 

Standards are set by the government at a level at which 90-95% of people are protected.  Mariam Rotkin-Ellman with the Natural Resources Defense Council said “Historically, we haven't done a very good job of ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected.  It's essential that we recognize that there's variability in the population and that we set our guidelines, standards and warnings to protect those high-end consumers."  Washington has started to reevaluate its standards.  This reevaluation is important to industry as raising the estimates of how much fish people consume would probably mean the state government would set lower permissible discharge levels for pollutants.  (Lynne Peeples, “Water Pollution Regulations Underestimate Fish Consumption, Endangering Public Health”, Huffington Post, 11/17/11, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/water-pollution-regulations-fish-seafood_n_1090928.html)

Offshore Oil Drilling in Chukchi Sea divides Alaska Native village 

The New York Times reports that the village of Point Hope in Alaska, home of the Tikigaq Corporation is divided over off-shore drilling in the Chukchi Sea.   The Tikigaq Corporation, which is one of 200 million Alaska Native corporations, supports drilling, yet the Village Council of Point Hope has officially come out against drilling. Some residents think new drilling could threaten an already taxed culture, yet others think that their survival as a group depends on trying to profit from off-shore oil drilling, especially as on-shore drilling declines.     Sayers Tuzroyluk said “We’re kind of torn apart between development and sustaining our lifestyle.” 

The Obama administration has lifted the moratorium on offshore oil drilling, and Shell Oil received preliminary permits to drill  exploratory wells off the Coast of Alaska, perhaps as soon as next summer.  The federal government says this offshore drilling could produce as many as 27 billion barrels of oil and that 50,000 jobs in the region could be created.  On the other hand, these oil rigs would be operating in waters where people have hunted bowhead whales for thousands of year.  Regarding this hunting practice, the New York Times notes “[the group is] deliberately doing things traditionally even as they have embraced change in other ways.  The whale was why people were able to survive here, and it is still the emotional anchor of the culture.”  There is a concern that drilling could hurt the population of the bowhead whales, and that a spill would decimate them.  Susi Frankson of the village said “That’s our garden out there. Don’t mess with our garden”.  On the other hand Sayers Tuzroyluk, one resident, said “We do love our whale, but it’s such a small percentage of what we live on now.”  (William Yardley and Erik Olsen, “Arctic Village is Torn by Plan for Oil Drilling”, New York Times, 10/25/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/arctic-village-split-by-oil-drilling-plan.html?pagewanted=1)

National Environmental Developments

Midwest Suffers Extreme Drought

Droughts ravaged the Midwest through the summer.  By August 2^nd almost 38% of the Midwest was “abnormally dry”, and record highs were being hit throughout the country, with many regions hitting above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time in over 20 years.  Texas was perhaps hit the hardest, with 73.5% of the state suffering from “exceptional drought” in early August.  Texas agriculture commissioner Todd Staples said “The damage to our economy is already measured in billions of dollars and continues to mount.”  The droughts were particularly bad on soybean and corn crops in the Midwest.  (Michael Hirtzer, “Drought worsens in Midwest”, Reuters, 08/04/2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-usa-drought-idUSTRE7735XJ20110804) .

Arctic Drilling gets Preliminary Approval

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has granted preliminary approval to Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil off the arctic coast of Alaska, just outside the northwestern edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (a much contested possible oil drilling site).  The drilling will be done in the Beaufort Sea, a habitat for seals, walruses, polar bears, migrating birds, bowhead whales and beluga whales.  Some environmental groups are very upset: Holly Harris, attorney for Earthjustice, said “This is a disaster waiting to happen,”

The approval followed Shell’s completion of an oil spill repose plan, which it said was the “best oil-spill response plan anywhere in the world.” Drilling in this area has been fought both by environmentalists and indigenous groups who feel the extreme arctic conditions of this area make drilling much more dangerous than usual since it would be almost impossible to clean up correctly.

In a twist of irony, it is climate change, partly fueled by rampant fossil fuel consumption, which is causing summer ice to disappear and opening up arctic areas for greenhouse gas exploitation.  (Jeremy Hance, “Arctic open for exploitation: Obama administration grants Shell approval to drill”, mongabay.com, 08/08/2011, http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0808-hance_shell_arctic.html).

NOAA Estimates about Warming

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, NOAA, recently reported significant data regarding temperature and precipitation in July.  It was the fourth warmest July ever recorded for the US. Average precipitation was slightly less than usual while average temperature was slightly up.  Some regions however showed considerably more intense extremes.  For example, Texas and Oklahoma had their hottest months ever on record.   In Dallas, the temperature was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 of the 31 days in July.  Overall, for the 48 continental states, 41 had above-normal, much-above-normal, and record hot Julys.  The seven states to avoid this trend were all west of the Rocky Mountains.  High temperatures produced drought conditions when combined with very low precipitation in some parts of the country.  Oklahoma and Texas had one of their driest moths on record – there was “exceptional drought” in about 100% of Oklahoma and in 75% of Texas.  (David A Gabel, “NOAA Releases July Climate Assessment”, Environmental News Network (ENN), 08/09/2011, http://www.enn.com/climate/article/43056).

Mustang Roundup Blocked by Activists

A government roundup and sell-off of wild horse from Wyoming was delayed from its date of August 16^th after a lawsuit was filed by wild horse advocates against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Around 38,500 wild horses and burros roam on BLM land.   Herds have the ability to double in size every four years, and the BLM says there is an acute danger of land and water damage if herds overpopulate.  Horse advocates challenge that horse roundups violate the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act which required that the BLM protect and manage the animals, which are labeled as “symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the west.”    (Molly O’Toole, “Wild mustangs spared roundup in Wyoming for now”, Reuters, 08/03/2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/02/world/main20087152.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody).

Bottled Water Vendor Ban at Grand Canyon Tabled

National Park officials were going to ban the sale of disposable water bottles in the Grand Canyon on January 1^st due to litter concerns.  Discarded plastic bottles make up approximately 30% of Grand Canyon Park’s total waste and are, according to Stephen P. Martin, one of the Grand Canyon National Park’s top officials, “the single biggest trash” in the park.    The ban, however, did not go through.  Mr. Martin revealed that he was told by his superiors to table the litter-reduction plan two weeks before it was going to go into effect.  His superiors allegedly cited concerns by Coca-Cola, produced of Dasani water, which has reportedly donated $13 million to the parks.  Susan Stribling, a spokeswoman for Coca Cola said “Banning anything is never the rights answer” and that they would rather increase recycling receptacles.  

   Mr. Martin said regarding the tabling of the plan, “That was upsetting news because of what I felt were ethical issues surrounding the idea of being unduly influenced by business.”  However, Neil J. Mulholland, President of the pro-parks Foundation that Coca-Cola contributes to, said “There was not an overt statement made to me that they [Coca-Cola] objected to the ban.  There was never anything inferred by Coke that if this ban happens, we’re losing their support.”  A Park official, Jon Jarvis, said the ban was tabled because of overall concessions concerns as well as safety concerns about not selling water given the desert nature of the park, although there were plans for more water filling stations.  (Felicity Barringer, “Parks Chief Blocked Plan for Grand Canyon Bottle Plan”, New York Times, 11/09/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/science/earth/parks-chief-blocked-plan-for-grand-canyon-bottle-ban.html?pagewanted=1).

Salmon Anemia Found for First Time in Pacific Northwest Salmon 

Fishermen and fishery scientists were very concerned as salmon anemia, a “lethal and highly contagious marine virus,” was found for the first time in wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest.  In a study by scientists at Simon Frazer University, two sockeye salmon were found to contain the virus, although not in its active form.  There were serious concerns that the virus might spread, as it has in Chile, where it devastated fish farms, and in Scotland and other locations.  Lead researcher Richard Routledge said that “No country has ever gotten rid of it [the virus] once it arrive.”  He also said the virus could have a “devastating impact” on both wild and farmed salmon in the region, as well as on animals that depend on the salmon for food, such as grizzly bears, wolves, and killer whales.  Many species of wild pacific salmon are on the U.S. Endangered Species List due to habitat decline, dams, and other factors.    Routledge felt that the virus may have been spread to the wild salmon from fish at a nearby fish farm, but Canadian officials say fish at this farm have not tested positive for the disease.  (William Yardley, “Knot of Worry Tightens for Fishermen”, New York Times  10/20/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/science/20salmon.html?_r=1&ref=us;  Cornelia Dean and Rachel Nuwer, “Salmon-Killing Virus Seen for First Time in the Wild on the Pacific Coast”, New York Times, 10/17/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/science/18salmon.html).

Hydrofracking Debate Heats Up in New York 

The New York state administration of Governor Cuomo is entering into the final phase of an approval process to decide how and where to allow a natural gas extraction procedure commonly known as “hydrofracking”.  Hydrofracking involved injecting a mix of water, sand, and chemicals into the ground to break up rock formations and release natural gas.    During the government approval process there has been extensive lobbying by both pro- and anti- hydrofracking groups.  Companies that drill for natural gas have spent in 2010 and 2011, according to public records, $3.2 million in lobbying the state government.  The broader natural gas industry has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaign accounts of lawmakers.   Meanwhile, national energy companies are running a series of advertisements to present hydrofracking as “safe and economically beneficial”.  Jim Smith, spokesman for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, which has been holding community meetings to answer questions about hydrofracking, said “[The meetings] are meant to say, ‘Listen, it’s not as bad as you’re hearing.’  There are risks involved, but any fuel source has a risk attached to it.  We think the rewards outweigh the risk.” 

Meanwhile, environmental groups have been working to stop hydrofracking, claiming that it could pollute the water supply and cause environmental disaster.    They have petitioned the governor’s office for more time to comment on the plan.   Robert Moore, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, said “You have people who don’t normally identify themselves as environmentalists who suddenly have real concerns about this.”  The environmental groups have lobbied and have done mailing campaigns to politicians and newspapers about the issue. “It’s part of a national debate,” said New York state environmental conservation commissioner Joseph Martens. 

In Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio natural gas companies have contributed significantly in lobbying as well in recent years.  (Thomas Kaplan, “As Hydrofracking Decision Nears, Industry Spending Skyrockets”, New York Times, 11/25/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/nyregion/hydrofracking-debate-spurs-huge-spending-by-industry.html?pagewanted=1&hp).

Protests over Tar Sand Oil Pipeline

Protests ensued over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast in Texas.    The proposed pipeline is also known as the “tar sands pipeline”.  The State Department issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement on the project in August. The pipeline would double oil imports from Canada.  Advocates of the pipeline have claimed that it would provide a more reliable source of oil.

Multiple environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and National Wildlife Federation, warned of environmental risks in an independent report issues in February.  In August, demonstrators gathered for sit-ins at the White House to object to the $7 billion proposal.  Environmentalist have multiple concerns, including erosion in the pipeline because of the more corrosive nature of this type of oil, as well as concerns about strip mining in Alberta and the creation of waste ponds.  (PBS News Desk, “Proposed Tar Sands Oil Pipeline Elicits Protest”, PBS – The Rundown: A Blog of News and Insight, 08/29/11, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/08/tar-sands-pipeline.html)  .

Cap-and-Trade Greenhouse Gas System Adopted in California

On October 20^th, California adopted a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gases, similar to that proposed but rejected in congress last year.  The California system, which will begin in 2013, will set limits on greenhouse gas emissions and create market incentives for industries such as oil refineries and electricity generators to produce less greenhouse gas emissions.  Cap-and-trade systems set a limit on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted and then issue permits to companies allowing them to emit a certain amount.  Since some companies can more easily cut emissions, these companies benefit by selling their excess pollution permits to companies for which reduction is more difficult.  The idea is that this is the lowest cost way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

The California plan is a result of 2006 legislation signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger which required California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.  The cap-and-trade system is considered a critical part of this plan.  “We are charting new ground here.  The country and the world are watching,” said Lydia H. Kennar, member of the Air Resources Board which approved the system.   Mary D. Nichols, chairwoman of the Air Resources Board, said that if California acted first, the rest of the U.S. would come around in time.    (Felicity Barringer, “California Adopts Limit on Greenhouse Gases”, New York Times, 10/20/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/business/energy-environment/california-adopts-cap-and-trade-system-to-limit-emissions.html).

Solyndra Bankruptcy Causes Concern over Renewable Energy Subsidies

A political controversy over renewable energy arose when a California-based solar panel company, Solyndra, declared bankruptcy in August after receiving $528 million in federal loan guarantees.  These loan guarantees were part of the 2009 stimulus package.  The Solyndra failure cost taxpayers a half-billion dollars.  This has caused controversy both over President Obama’s stimulus package and clean energy subsidies.  Two congressional subcommittees, the Department of Energy’s inspector general, and the Department of Justice are investigating what went wrong in this subsidy case.  (New York Times, “Solyndra”, New York Times, 11/17/11, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/solyndra/index.html).

Climate Change likely to Cause Water Problems

Scientists at the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference held in Erie, PA in October revealed that climate change and population growth in the U.S. are likely to cause fresh water shortages in coming years.  Climate experts predict that shorter, warmer winters will translate into less ice and greater air exposure and thus more water evaporation of a finite water source.  Robert Glennon of Arizona State University said that “In 1985-1986 there were historical (water level) highs and now in less than 25 years we are at historic lows.”  Glennon said that water diversion by pipeline, desalinization, and drilling for water are not long-term answers, and that conservation, water reuse, better agriculture practices, and higher water costs will be more effective.  The issues are not just with dry areas like Las Vegas, he noted, but even areas with high rainfall and freshwater which may be exceeding their capacity.  Glennon asks “The population of the U.S. is supposed to be 420 million by 2050.  Where are we going to get the water to support another 120 million Americans?”    (Kim Palmer, “Climate change making country’s water problems worse: expert”, Reuters, 10/26/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/us-climate-water-idUSTRE79Q07N20111027) .

Challenges for the EPA in Pollution Legislation

The next several stories detail new EPA pollution regulations which have been delayed, overturned, or otherwise challenged.    EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has been a proponent of pollution reduction, but there has been a mixed record so far, with the new rule on ozone delayed to 2013 and a September easing of smog restrictions.  Those opposing the rules fear they will destroy jobs and add costs to companies struggling in the current economic condition. Jackson has said that pollution rules will save billions more through lower public healthcare bills than the amount that they cost heavy industry, and that pollution regulations will create clean technology jobs. (Roberta Rampton, “EPA delays pollution rule for coal plants to December”, Reuters, 10/21/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-usa-epa-idUSTRE79K6J320111021; Timothy Gardner, “House votes to delay pollution rules on boilers”, Reuters, 10/13/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-usa-pollution-congress-idUSTRE79D0FR20111014) 

Coal Rule Deadline Postponed One Month

The EPA announced on October 21^st that it will postpone its final rule on coal plant air pollution.  It plans to decide on a final rule by December 16^th.  The EPA said that it needed extra time to review 960,000 comments received on the draft rule.  The EPA had previously been sued by environmental groups who are pushing for them to finalize the rule and who claim that regulation is needed to stop illnesses and death from air pollution.  The EPA said in a statement that it was opposed “to efforts to delay this historic, court ordered standard by a full year.”  25 states have started litigation over the new rule, seeking at least a year delay in the rule because of a measure which would require many plants to install anti-pollution technology and which the states claim will be expensive and shut down old coal-fired power plants. 

The month delay in coal plant rules is seen by the Environmental Defense Fund as a good move, allowing the agency to “finalize the most protective and durable limits on the toxic air pollution from coal plants.” (Roberta Rampton, “EPA delays pollution rule for coal plants to December”, Reuters, 10/21/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-usa-epa-idUSTRE79K6J320111021; Timothy Gardner, “House votes to delay pollution rules on boilers”, Reuters, 10/13/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-usa-pollution-congress-idUSTRE79D0FR20111014) 

Coal Ash Regulations Challenged

A bipartisan group of Senators on October 20^th introduced a bill to overturn EPA regulations on coal ash, a byproduct from coal plants used in cement bricks and other building materials, which the EPA says can pollute water supplies if not contained properly.  Kent Conrad (D-ND) and John Hoeven (R-ND) want states to be able to set up their own permit system to deal with the safe storage of coal ash, to ensure “that Congress and the states hold the reins of environmental policy.” The EPA proposed rules for coal ash containment and disposal rules in 2010 after a massive coal ash spill in 2008 in Tennessee which the White House estimated could cost $1.2 billion to treat.     (Roberta Rampton, “EPA delays pollution rule for coal plants to December”, Reuters, 10/21/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-usa-epa-idUSTRE79K6J320111021; Timothy Gardner, “House votes to delay pollution rules on boilers”, Reuters, 10/13/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-usa-pollution-congress-idUSTRE79D0FR20111014)  .

New E.P.A. Smog Rule Eased

On October 6^th, the E.P.A. proposed easing its new regulations for smog-causing pollution.  The smog restrictions had angered several states.  The proposal to ease the rules would allow 10 states, including Texas, Florida, and New York, to emit more smog-causing pollution than would have been permitted under the original regulations.  The purpose of the regulations is to decrease smokestack emissions in 27 states which cause downwind unhealthy air.  (Associated Press, “E.P.A. Proposes Easing Smog Rules”, New York Times, 10/06/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/us/epa-proposes-easing-smog-rules.html).

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards Delayed

The U.S. EPA announced on September 15^th that it would not meet the September 30^th deadline for issuing standards on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other major sources.  The agency was under court order to present such rules by the end of September, but was given an extension. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the agency must regulate greenhouse gas emissions if it found that they were a threat to the environmental and human health, which the EPA found to be the case in 2009.  An E.P.A. official said that the decision to delay the standards was due to agency considerations, not political pressure, and that there would soon be a new timetable for issuing regulations.  (John M. Broder, “Greenhouse Gas Rule Delayed”, New York Times - Green:  A Blog about Energy and the Environment, 09/15/11, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/greenhouse-gas-rule-delayed/).

Groups Sue over President Obama’s Ozone Decision 

President Obama recently struck down a proposal for a stricter ozone pollution standard, a move which prompted five health and environmental groups to sue the EPA.  The groups had sued the Bush administration, which had gone against the EPA’s scientific advisory panel by setting the permissible ozone exposure at 75 ppb (parts per billion).  However, the groups had dropped the lawsuit when the Obama administration had promised to reconsider the issue.  Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator under President Obama, had wanted to set a new ozone standard of 70 ppb, but on September 2^nd President Obama rejected this due to concerns that it would be too costly and create regulatory uncertainty.  The EPA estimated that the costs of the new standard would be $19 billion to $25 billion, while the resulting health benefits would have saved $13 billion to $37 billion.  The groups suing the EPA are Earth Justice, the American Lung Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Environmental Defense Club    (John M. Broder, “Groups Sue After E.P.A. Fails to Shift Ozone Rules”, New York Times, 10/11/2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/science/earth/12epa.html?_r=1&ref=science).

House Passes Bill to Delay EPA Rules on Industrial Boilers

The House of Representatives passed a bill on October 13^th which will delay EPA limits on pollutants from industrial boilers.  The bill was passed 275 to 142.  All present Republicans voted for it, and 41 Democrats voted in the affirmative as well.  Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KT) said “We’re not saying ‘Let’s walk away and not protect the American people’.  We’re simply saying ‘Let’s hold back for just a moment, let’s go back and revisit this rule’”.     The boiler standards were released this year by the EPA under court order, and the agency was scheduled to release revised rules by the end of October to take effect in April.  The House bill would push back the rules for 15 months as well as give polluting industries five more years to comply.  However, the Senate still remained to pass the bill and President Obama said he would veto the rule.  (Timothy Gardner, “House votes to delay pollution rules on boilers”, Reuters, 10/13/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-usa-pollution-congress-idUSTRE79D0FR20111014) .

EPA Announces Intention to Finalize Mercury Rule by November 16^th

“EPA is committed to completing the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards – the first-ever national standards for mercury, arsenic and other toxic air pollution from power plants,” the EPA said in a press release on October 11^th.  The EPA pledged to finalize a rule on mercury emissions by November 16^th.  The final rule is aimed at older coal and oil based power plants.  The EPA has been court ordered to finalize the rule.  On October 12^th, 25 states started litigation to get the agency to delay the rule until November 16^th, 2012 or later, citing concerns about job loss and industry costs at a terrible economic time.   The House passed a bill that would delay air rules, including the mercury standard.  The EPA has said that the mercury rule would save $5 to $13 in health benefits for every dollar spent on pollution reduction, and that over half of all coal-fired power plants have already implemented the pollution control technology to meet these standards.    (Timothy Gardner, “EPA says to finalize air rule on mercury in November”, Reuters 10/11/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/us-usa-epa-mercury-idUSTRE79A6BW20111011) .

Wolf Hunts Continue in Idaho and Montana

In April, Congress approved a measure that removed gray wolves from the Threatened/Endangered Species list in Idaho and Montana.  Idaho is now seeking to reduce its wolf population by 80% and Montana by 40%, mainly through hunting.  The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other conservationists asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency injunction on wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana but were rejected.  The groups are seeking to restore Endangered Species Act protection to wolves in these two states.  According to the conservationists, the states had sold nearly 37,000 permits for wolf hunts.  The Circuit Court said it would take up the issue of whether or not to suspend wolf hunts next month during the case about the Endangered Species listing.  (Laura Zuckerman, “Court rejects stay on wolf hunts in Idaho, Montana”, Reuters, 10/18/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/19/us-wolves-hunts-idUSTRE79I01W20111019).

U.S. Public has Conflicted Feelings on Climate Change

According to a Pew Research Group poll, in 2010 56% of Americans believed the earth was warming – down from 79% in 2006.  The doubt about climate change may be partly along party lines.  A Pew Poll this spring showed that 75% of Staunch Conservatives, 63% of libertarians, and 55% of “Main Street Republicans” feel that there is no solid evidence of global warming.  In contrast, 75% of Democrats believe there is strong evidence of climate change.  Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, was quoted in The New York Times as saying “This has become a partisan political issue here in a way it has not elsewhere.”

The diversity of opinions on the reality of climate change among the U.S. public may be in contrast with other parts of the world.   Britain’s special representative for climate change, Mr. John Ashton, said that in the U.K., Europe and “in most places I travel to, the starting point for conversation is that this is real, there are clear and present dangers, so let’s get a move on and respond.”    The European Union has a goal, which it is on target to reach, of reducing carbon emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.  In its most recent five year plan, China included a limited pilot cap-and-trade system and intensive investment in low-carbon industry.   And a 2010 Pew Survey found that over 70% of respondents in China, India, and South Korea were willing to pay more for their energy to address climate change, while only 38% of U.S. respondents were willing to do so.    (Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Where Did Global Warming Go?” The New York Times, 10/15/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/sunday-review/whatever-happened-to-global-warming.html?pagewanted=all)

International Environmental Developments

Somalia Famine Kills 29,000 Children

The Horn of Africa region has suffered its worst drought conditions in 60 years, which has precipitated widespread famine not only in Somalia but Ethiopia and Keya as well, putting 11 million human beings at risk of severe malnutrition as of early August.  Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Government’s aid programs reported at that point that 29,000 children below the age of 5 had died due to famine in Somalia between May 4^th and August 4^th, and that the death toll has continued to mount.  Somalia, a nation of 7.5 million inhabitants, had 3.2 million citizens in need of immediate lifesaving assistance, according to the UN.  In addition to famine, children in Somalia are also threatened by use as child soldiers.  Getting aid into the country has been difficult for a variety of reasons.   A variety of aid organizations are trying to help, and could use contributions.  Please visit for a list of organizations trying to help: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/02/world/main20087152.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody ( cbsnews.com, “U.S.: 29,000 Somali kids have died I last 90 days”, 08/04/2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/04/501364/main20088015.shtml; cbsnews.com, “Horn of Africa famine: How to help”, 08/02/11, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/02/world/main20087152.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody).

World Population Passes 7 Billion

According to U.N. demographer estimates, the world population reached 7 billion on October 31^st this year.  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 367,000 people are born a day, while 153,000 die, leading to a global population increase of 78.5 million a year – about the same amount of people as the nation of France. Dr. Daniel Goodkind, a demographer for the Census Bureau’s Population Division, notes that both birth and death rates have declined sharply since the 1960’s, but death rates have fallen faster.  There is therefore an excess of births, leading to the world population adding another billion about every 12 to 13 years.  The U.N. estimates that the world population will reach 8 billion in 2025.   (Sam Roberts, “U.N. Says 7 Billion Now Share the World”, 10/31/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/world/united-nations-reports-7-billion-humans-but-others-dont-count-on-it.html).

Climate change Expected to Increase Malaria in Himalayas

According to a paper recently published in Current Science reporting on projections by the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), malaria could spread to parts of India it currently is absent from, such as areas in the eastern Himalayas like Uttarakhad, Aruchal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir over the next 20 years.    The periods in which the infection is present in certain districts will also likely lengthen. The researchers noted that higher temperatures increase the rate of malaria-carrying mosquitoes digesting and laying eggs, which could increase malaria in some areas.  The paper attributes this to climate change.  Conversely, the east coast of India is predicted to have reduced transmission. (T. V. Padma, “Climate change ‘to increase malaria’ in Indian Himalayas”, 08/11/2011, http://www.scidev.net/en/news/climate-change-to-increase-malaria-in-indian-himalayas.html).

MIT Releases Accelerated Estimates of Ice Loss in the Arctic

The Environmental News Networks reports that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are preparing to publish results regarding arctic ice loss which push up the melting timeline several decades from that produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007.  The IPCC, one of the most cited sources for climate change data, has been criticized by environmentalist groups for being too conservative. The MIT researchers feel that the IPCC is incredibly important in policy making, but has failed on the accuracy test according to their own research.  Rampal, the lead MIT researcher for this study, feels that the IPCC has not paid enough attention to mechanical forces, such as how wind and ocean currents can break up and move ice to warmer water where, as broken ice pieces, it melts quicker, leading to a feedback loop of more breaking and then more melting.   The MIT researchers predict that the arctic will be “ice free” during the summer several decades before predicted by the IPCC. (David A. Gabel, “MIT Researchers Claim UN Arctic Predictions Inaccurate”, Environmental News Network, 08/11/2011, http://www.enn.com/climate/article/43068).

Coral Reef Concerns

Mark Hay, reef biologist, wrote a recent piece in the New York Times outlining some of the current challenges with coral reefs.  He writes, “In the 30 years I’ve been working on reefs…we have learned more about reef function and the processes that keep them healthy, but these processes are degrading rapidly and reefs worldwide seem to be in a biotic death spiral.”  Throughout the globe coral reefs are changing into “seaweed-covered meadows” much less able to support the biodiversity a reef does, according to Hay.    He notes that during his time as a researcher, healthy Caribbean reefs have disappeared, and that while average Caribbean coral reefs were once covered by 50-60% live coral, that percentage is now 5-10%.  Meanwhile, over the last 30 years the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has lost around 50% of its coral cover.  The reasons for this decline, he writes, are synergistic – overfishing, ocean acidification, pollution, coral disease, and other factors.  There are real human effects from this loss.  For example, villagers in Fiji that he works with lose food security due to the loss of fish, lose protection from storm surges, lose income that would come from tourists coming to see the reefs, and lose other ecosystem services as well.  This is a pressing issue that merits our attention.  (Mark Hay, “A Disappearing Underwater World”, The New York Times, 10/12/2011, http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/a-disappearing-underwater-world/?ref=science).

Water Stress to Increase in Future

Water use has been increasing over twice as fast as the population growth rate from last century, according to Kirsty Jenkinson of the World Resources Institute, a Washington think tank.  It is predicted that water use will rise 50% between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations, and 18% in developed nations.  Much of the increase will be due to urbanization in poorer nations.  The increase in water use, along with the impacts that climate change is predicted to bring (such as flooding, droughts, and shifts in precipitation) will cause, according to Jenkinson, a “significant challenge”. 

We are already experiencing water distribution issues.  Currently, over a billion people do not have access to clean, drinking water, while over 2 billion do not have proper sanitations, leading to the death of 5 million people annually from preventable disease.

 Water scarcity and pollution also affects industry.  About 77% of freshwater is used for irrigation and 22% for industry, according to Jenkinson.  Water scarcity and water stress has already affected water-intensive industries in Russia, China and the southern U.S.  For example, The Gap cut its profit forecast by 22% due to Texas droughts.

 Some spots of high concern for water risk  include the Colorado River basin, the Orange-Senqu basin in Africa, the Yangtze and Yellow river basins in China, and Australia’s Murray-Darling, basin.   (Deborah Zabarenko, “Water use rising faster than world population”, Reuters, 10/25/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/25/us-population-water-idUSTRE79O3WO20111025).

Flooding in Thailand

Floods in Thailand starting in July killed 373 people by October 26^th, caused billions in damage, and led to factories being shut down.  Thailand hopes these will be operating again in three months.    Tens of thousands of Bangkok residents fled from the flood-imperiled capital city after the governor of the city ordered evacuations in two districts, although ultimately central Bangkok was not inundated.  These have been the worst floods in Thailand in 50 years.  (Robert Birsel, “Thais hope flooded factories back up in 3 months”, Reuters, 10/31/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/31/us-thailand-floods-idUSTRE79K2XG20111031; msnbc.com news services, “Tens of thousands flee Bangkok as flood threat worsens”, msnbc.com,  http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/article_wld.aspx?aid=45044305&afid=1).

Environmental Stress will Cause Migration and Poverty

A study released on October 20^th by the Foresight group, a think tank which advises the British government, predicts that millions of people will become trapped in places extremely vulnerable to environmental change during this century.  The group argues that this issue, which is a product of both migration and changing environmental conditions, must become a top national and international priority.  The report warns that reduced options for migration and the damage of environmental change on incomes will likely lead to people migrating in unsafe, unplanned, illegal, and irregular ways as “environmental migrants”.  The study says that attempting to block migration will increase poverty and lead to potentially unmanageable migration, and that a better option would be planning for and giving financial assistance to some migration, both within and beyond borders.  

The report notes that environmental change can cause people to migrate to even worse (environmentally speaking) areas and can also trap people.  For example, by 2060, as many as 552 million people in the Caribbean, Asia, Latin America and Africa may be affected by climate change related flooding.  Immigrant populations tend to live in the areas most vulnerable to such flooding. 

The World Bank is planning on discussing migration at its London summit meetings in December.    (Hillary Rosner, “Millions Will Be Trapped amid Climate Change, Study Warns”, The New York Times – Green: A Blog about Energy and the Environment, 10/20/11, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/millions-will-be-trapped-amid-climate-change-study-warns/).

Climate Change May Not Be Slowed Much by Switching to Natural Gas

A study released in October by the National Center for Atmospheric Research reveals that natural gas may not be the climate change cure some believe it is.  Natural gas-fired power plants emit about 50% of the CO₂ that typical coal plants do, but shifting from coal to natural gas will not do much to slow climate change.  With a 50% replacement of coal by natural gas, warming would actually increase slightly for 40 years.  After that, global warming would only be marginally reduced. (Warming is projected to increase global temperatures by 3 degrees Celsius, 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, by 2100.)

There are two reasons natural gas does not decrease global warming as much as one might expect given its lower CO₂ production.  Firstly, natural gas is largely composed of methane, which is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and which will likely leak from gas wells.  This is a particular risk with hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which releases 30 times that of conventional natural gas extraction according to Cornell research.  The other problem with switching to natural gas as a “bridge” fuel between coal and renewable energy is that coal produces sulfur particles this partially offset coals warming by reflecting sunlight through pollution.  Methane does not provide this.  Reducing sulfate particles, however, lessens air pollution and acid rain.  So, there are trade-offs to be taken into account. (Jim Witkin, “Replacing Coal with Gas is No Panacea, Study Says”, The New York Times-Green: A Blog about Energy and the Environment, 10/14/11, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/replacing-coal-with-gas-is-no-panacea-study-says/) .

Subsidies to Fossil Fuels Continue to Increase

Two years ago in Pittsburg, the G-20 (the group of 20 industrialized and developing nations) acknowledged that subsidies for fossil fuels were wasteful, impeded investment in clean energy, and undermined climate change efforts.  They also pledged to increase efforts to get rid of them.    Yet these subsidies are hard to get rid of, due to various political factors.     These are a diverse set of practices, from tax credits to offset drilling and exploration costs for oil and natural gas companies in Alaska to reduced taxes for heat and power in Britain.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported recently that such supports were worth up to $75 billion each year in 24 of the 34 (mainly high income) nations it advises.

  The International Energy Agency, which is part of the OECD, reported in October that countries including Egypt, Libya, and Venezuela keep their fuel costs at half of the world market prices, while Saudi Arabia subsidizes $1,587 per person by setting energy prices lower than their international market prices.  Such subsidizes rose from $109 billion to $409 last year due to government efforts to shield citizens from fuels becoming more expensive.  Rolling back such subsidies, according to the OECD’s President,

style='background:white'>Ángel Gurría, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6% by 2050. 

Most types of renewable energy are more subsidized per unit than fossil fuels.  However, subsidies for fossil fuels are much greater, in total, than those for wind, solar, and biofuel energies, which received $57 billion in 2009 in subsidies.

Companies and citizens who use fossil fuel also rarely pay the full cost of the resultant environmental problems, according to a New York Times article.  These externalities include oil spills, coal sludge, greenhouse gases, and human health problems.    A study published in August in The American Economic Review by economists from Yale University and Middlebury College actually found that air pollution from coal-fired power plants cost the United States more in terms of health damage than the amount the plants contribute to the economy.    (James Kanter, “Cost of Subsidizing Fossil Fuels is High, but Cutting them is Tough”, New York Times, 10/23/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/business/global/cost-of-subsidizing-fossil-fuels-is-high-but-cutting-them-is-tough.html_).

Belo Monte Dam Goes Forward Despite Indigenous Protests

Hundreds of indigenous persons in the Brazilian Amazon protested the construction of the gigantic Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.    The indigenous groups said that they wanted to start a new round of negotiations over the dam and demanded the attendance of a senior Brazilian official.  Atossa Soltani of the group Amazon Watch said that the indigenous groups were committed to nonviolent action.   

300 people arrived at 6 a.m. on October 27^th.   They entered a place where a workers site will be constructed, but left later that day.    According to officials and police, security officials did not try to prevent the demonstrators from coming onto the property.  An indigenous leader, Juma Xipaia, said “Belo Monte will only succeed if we do nothing about it.  We will not be silent.  We will shout out loud, and we will do it now.”  North Energy said that they would not halt their construction work on the dam.  Judge Cristina Collyer style='background:white'>Damásio in Altamira, ordered the demonstrators to leave the site, threatening fines of $290 a day, and they left later in the day on October 27^th. 

Legal challenges from Amazonian groups with backing from international environmental groups have not halted the government from working on the Belo Monte dam.  .  Environmental activists say the dam, which will take $11 billion to build, will dry up 60 miles of the Xingu Rive, affecting indigenous ways of life, and will flood 200 square miles.  The dam will be the third largest in the world if it is built.  Officials from Brazil say it is sorely needed for meeting future energy needs. 

On November 9^th, district federal court Judge Maria de Carmo Cardoso ruled that construction should go ahead, claiming there was no need for prior consultations with indigenous communities on the dam construction and denying environmentalist claims.  The federal prosecutors said they were “surprised”, releasing a statement saying “All the studies made arrive at the same conclusion: the dam will produce drastic changes in the food chain and livelihood of the indigenous communities.” (TheFreshOutlook, “Brazilian Judge Approves the Belo Monte Dam, 11/10/11 http://www.thefreshoutlook.com/?p=6653; Alexei Barrionuevo, Brazilian Amazon Groups Invade Site of Dam Project, The New York Times, 10/27/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/world/americas/brazilian-amazon-groups-try-to-stop-dam-project.html) .

50% of Canadian Ice Shelves Lost in Last 6 Years

According to a September 27^th press release by Carleton University, almost 50% of Canadian Arctic ice shelves have disappeared in the last six years.  Derek Mueller of the school of geography and environmental studies said that “The ice shelves were formed and sustained in a different climate than what we have now.  As they disappear, it implies we are returning to conditions unseen in the Arctic for thousands of years.”  He also notes that “ style='background:white'>These unique and massive geographical features that we consider to be part of the map of Canada are disappearing and they won’t come back.”   He says that this is an area of the world where temperatures are rising extremely rapidly and we are seeing a response in the ice shelves.  Mueller warns that oil companies need to be aware that more icebergs will be floating south and could threaten rigs in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.  “Since the end of July, pieces equaling one and a half times the size of Manhattan Island have broken off,” Mueller said. (Ian Austen, “Arctic Shelves Have Lost Half Their Size in Six Years”, New York Times Green: A Blog about Energy and the Environment, 09/28/11, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/arctic-shelves-have-lost-half-their-size-in-six-years/; Carleton University, “Canadian Ice Shelves Breaking up at High Speed”, 09/27/11, http://www1.carleton.ca/newsroom/news-releases/canadian-ice-shelves-breaking-up-at-high-speed/).

Climate Change Causes Animal and Plant Species to Move North

A recent study by University of York scientists, published in the journal Science, tracked the movement of 2,000 animal and plant species over the past decade, and found that the species’ ranges had moved an average of 13.3 yards higher in altitude and 11 miles higher up in latitude.  These shifts occurred most rapidly in areas with the most climate warming.  The altitude increase is twice the predicted rate, and the altitude increase is three times the expected rate.   (New York Times, Climate Change and the Exodus of Species, New York Times, 09/26/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/opinion/climate-change-and-the-exodus-of-species.html)

Additional Environmental Developments

Steve Sachs

John M. Broder, “Climate Talks in Durban Yield Limited Agreement,” The New York Times, December 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/science/earth/countries-at-un-conference-agree-to-draft-new-emissions-treaty.html?_r=1&ref=world), reports, “After 72 hours of continuous wrangling, the 17th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change wrapped up early Sunday with modest accomplishments: the promise to work toward a new global treaty in coming years and the establishment of a new climate fund. The deal on a future treaty renews the Kyoto Protocol, the fraying 1997 emissions agreement that sets different terms for advanced and developing countries, for several more years . But it also begins a process for replacing the Kyoto agreement with something that treats all countries — including the economic powerhouses China, India and Brazil — equally. The deal on a future treaty was the most highly contested element of a package of agreements that emerged from the extended talks among 200 nations here.” Most environmentalists  believe that rapid action on global warming and the climate change it is inducing needed to begin several years ago, and are extremely concerned that little concrete action took place at Durbin, putting off the promise of further action until at least 2020, when the Kyoto Protocol expires. The delegates did agree on the creation of a fund to help poor countries adapt to climate change, though the precise sources of the money have yet to be determined. —The reserve, called the Green Climate Fund, would help mobilize a promised $100 billion a year in public and private financing by 2020 to assist developing countries in adapting to climate change and converting to clean energy sources. Some agreement was achieved on measures involving the preservation of tropical forests and the development of clean-energy technology. Observers and delegates said that the actions taken at the meeting, while sufficient to keep the negotiating process alive, would not have a significant impact on climate change. Alden Meyer, director of policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted, “While governments avoided disaster in Durban, they by no means responded adequately to the mounting threat of climate change.” “The decisions adopted here fall well short of what is needed.” The European Union had pushed hard for what it called a “road map” to a legally binding treaty, against fierce resistance from China and India, whose delegates argued passionately against it. They said that mandatory cuts would slow their growth and condemn millions to poverty.

“Indigenous Peoples Say No to REDD+ and Durban Climate Agreement,” Cultural Survival, December 13, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/none/indigenous-peoples-say-no-redd-and-durban-climate-agreement, comments, “Indigenous leaders returning from Durban, South Africa condemn the fiasco of the United Nations climate change talks and demand a moratorium on a forest carbon offset scheme, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, called REDD+ which they say threatens the future of humanity and Indigenous Peoples’ very survival. During the UN climate negotiations, a Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities against REDD+ and for Life was formed to bring attention to the lack of full recognition of Indigenous rights being problematic in the texts of the UN climate negotiations . Alberto Saldamando, legal counsel participating in the Indigenous Environmental Network delegation stated, “It was very disappointing that our efforts to strengthen the vague Indigenous rights REDD safeguards from the Cancun Agreements evaporated as the Durban UN negotiations went on. It is clear that the focus was not on strong, binding commitments on Indigenous rights and safeguards, nor limiting emissions, but on creating a framework for financing and carbon markets, which they did. Now Indigenous Peoples’ forests may really be up for grabs.” Berenice Sanchez of the Mesoamerica Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network said, Instead of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80% like we need, the UN is promoting false solutions to climate change like carbon trading and offsets, through the Clean Development Mechanism and the proposed REDD+ which provide polluters with permits to pollute. The UN climate negotiation is not about saving the climate, it is about privatization of forests, agriculture and the air.” Tom Goldtooth, Director of Indigenous Environmental Network based in Minnesota, commented, “By refusing to take immediate binding action to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions, industrialized countries like the United States and Canada are essentially incinerating Africa and drowning the small island states of the Pacific. The sea ice of the Inupiat, Yupik and Inuit of the Arctic is melting right before their eyes, creating a forced choice to adapt or perish. This constitutes climate racism, ecocide and genocide of an unprecedented scale.” “At Durban, CDM and REDD carbon and emission offset regimes were prioritized, not emission reductions. All I saw was the UN, World Bank, industrialized countries and private investors marketing solutions to market pollution. This is unacceptable. The solutions for climate change must not be placed in the hands of financiers and corporate polluters. I fear that local communities could increasingly become the victims of carbon cowboys, without adequate and binding mechanisms to ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples and local forested and agricultural communities are respected,” Indigenous peoples are very concerned that the forest offset scheme known as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), hyped as a way of saving the climate and paying communities to take care of forests as sponges for Northern pollution, is rife with fundamental flaws that make it little more than a green mask for more pollution and the expansion of monoculture tree plantations. The Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities against REDD+ and for Life, formed at the Durban UN climate negotiations, call for an immediate moratorium on REDD+-type projects because they fear that REDD+ could result in “the biggest land grab of all time,” thus threatening the very survival of indigenous peoples and local communities. Joseph K. Towett, stated  “We call for an immediate moratorium on REDD+-type policies and projects because REDD is a monster that is already violating our rights and destroying our forests,” said “We support the moratorium because anything that hurts our cousins, hurts us all.” Monica González of the Kukapa People and Head of Indigenous Issues of the Mexican human rights organization Comision Ciudadana de Derechos Humanos del Noreste, stated, The President of the Ogiek Council of Elders of the Mau Forest of Kenya, said, “We will not allow our sacred Amazon rainforest to be turned into a carbon dump. REDD is a hypocrisy that does not stop global warming,” said Marlon Santi, leader of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, Ecuador and long time participant of UN and climate change meetings.” NO REDD Resources are at: http://noredd.makenoise.org/.

Canada announced, December 13, 2011, that it will not renew its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 when the existing agreement expires, becoming the first country ever to formally withdraw from the accords , Canada’s own greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, the Alberta oil sands its fastest-growing source of emissions (“ Merry, Tarry Christmas: Canada Exits Kyoto,” Indian Country Today, D ecember 13, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/13/merry-tarry-christmas-canada-exits-kyoto-67316).

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning increased at a record amount of 500 million tons during 2010, an increase of 5.9% over 2009, and the largest percentage increase since 2003. This followed a temporary, recession related drop of 1.4% in 2009. It is clear that attempts to reduce carbon emissions worldwide are very far from sufficient (Justin Giles, “Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions in 2010 Show the Biggest Jump Ever Recorded,” The New York Times, December 5, 2011).

Recent scientific studies show that as temperatures continue to rise in and near arctic regions permafrost, which underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, is warming, melting, and at times burning, releasing huge amounts of highly global warming methane and carbon dioxide. It is estimated that permafrost in the north contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere, so that as the as the permafrost melts and sometimes burns global warming is being greatly accelerated, bringing increasing climate change and faster rising oceans (Justin Gillis, “As Permafrost Warms, Scientists See a Threat,” The New York Times, December 17, 2011).

World wide, as a result of climate change, forests are in serious decline that absorb 25% of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity, slowing global warming. For example, Justin Gillis, “With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors,” October 1, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/science/earth/01forest.html?ref=todayspaper, reports, “The trees spanning many of the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red, like a broadleaf forest at the beginning of autumn. But these trees are not supposed to turn red. They are evergreens, falling victim to beetles that used to be controlled in part by bitterly cold winters. As the climate warms, scientists say, that control is no longer happening. Across millions of acres, the pines of the northern and central Rockies are dying, just one among many types of forests that are showing signs of distress these days. From the mountainous Southwest deep into Texas, wildfires raced across parched landscapes this summer, burning millions more acres. In Colorado, at least 15 percent of that state’s spectacular aspen forests have gone into decline because of a lack of water. The devastation extends worldwide. The great euphorbia trees of southern Africa are succumbing to heat and water stress. So are the Atlas cedars of northern Algeria. Fires fed by hot, dry weather are killing enormous stretches of Siberian forest. Eucalyptus trees are succumbing on a large scale to a heat blast in Australia, and the Amazon recently suffered two “once a century” droughts just five years apart, killing many large trees” (This extensive New York Times article is one of a series examining the evidence for and the effects of climate change).

“The world's original scientists' observations of climate change,” Survival International, November 28, 2011, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7908, reports, “The Innu of northeast Canada say climate change has affected wildlife.  As the UN’s climate change conference begins in Durban, Survival International calls for the ecological knowledge and insights of tribal peoples to be heeded in global decisions concerning climate change. From the Amazon to the Arctic, tribal peoples typically have the smallest ecological footprints, having practiced sustainable ways of life for thousands of years, but they are also more vulnerable to climate change than anyone on earth, and bear the brunt of mitigation measures such as biofuels, hydroelectric dams and conservation projects. Most tribal peoples have developed an intimate knowledge of their surroundings, and observe minute changes in their ecosystems. Inuit hunters of northwest Canada report thinning sea ice, shorter winters and hotter summers, change to the permafrost and rising sea levels. Innu people of northeast Canada report observing birds in Northern Labrador such as blue jays that are typically only found in southern Canada or the U.S., less snow during the coldest months of the year and fewer mosquitoes during the summer. Nenet reindeer herders of Siberia report that frozen rivers are melting earlier in the season, which hinders their reindeer’s spring migration, forcing them to swim instead of walk across the ice. They also report fewer mosquitoes. Tsaatan reindeer herders of Mongolia report that the growth of lichen and moss that nourish their reindeer is being adversely impacted. Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon report a change in the pattern of rainfall in the rainforest. They urge the world to recognize the vital role of the Amazon in the regulation of the world’s climate, and the contribution of deforestation to global warming.” Davi Kopenawa, spokesman for the Yanomami people points out, “Climate change has started in our country.  The rich countries have burned and destroyed many kilometers of Amazon forest. If you cut down big trees and set fire to the forest, the Earth dries up. The world needs to listen to the cry of the Earth, which is asking for help.” Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit activist, said, ”Hunters have fallen through the sea ice and lost their lives in areas long considered safe. The Arctic is considered the health barometer for the planet. If you wish to see how healthy the planet is, come and take its pulse in the Arctic.” Saami reindeer herder commented, “Traditional weather reading skills can’t be trusted any more. In the olden times one could see beforehand what kind of weather it will be. These signs and skills hold true no more.”

The Navajo Council Resource and Development Committee heard reports of the negative impacts of climate change on the reservation, bringing “the longest longest drought,” causing continuing land deterioration since the 1970s, as the land dries. Streams that used to run year round now are intermittent, as the average temperature on he reservation has increased by 4 degrees Farenheight, while average rain and snowfall has diminished. Particularly worrisome are sand dunes that began to appear on the reservation in the 1950s and now cover about one third of the reservation, and are spreading, in one area on the western part of the reservation by 160 feet a year. Long range forecast indicate that the U.S. Southwest could become 40% drier, along with becoming hotter. All public water and all of the Navajo livestock are now under siege (Cindy Yurth, “The longest drought,” Navajo Times, September 1, 2011).

“It’s official – the key to conservation lies with indigenous peoples,” Survival International,  November 10, 2011, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7870, reports that “India's Soliga tribe recently secured unprecedented rights to a tiger reserve. Indigenous peoples are key to preserving the world’s forests, and conservation reserves that exclude them suffer as a result, according to a new study from the World Bank. Its analysis shows how deforestation  plummets to its lowest levels when indigenous peoples continue living in protected areas, and are not forced out. Across the world millions of tribal people are conservation refugees, but the World Bank says its evidence shows ‘forest conservation need not be at the expense of local livelihoods.’ Using satellite data from forest fires to help indicate deforestation levels, the study showed rates were lower by about 16% in indigenous areas between 2000-2008. 80% of the world’s protected areas are the territories of tribal communities, who have lived there for millennia. This is no coincidence: increasingly, experts are recognizing the link between the presence of tribal peoples and their ability to benefit forests by inhibiting deforestation. Scientist Daniel Nepstad describes indigenous lands as, ‘currently the most important barrier to Amazon deforestation.’ But despite the World Bank acknowledging the benefits indigenous peoples give to the land, it has backed several controversial projects directly threatening their existence. Brazil's Awá tribe were devastated by the World Bank's Carajás program. Most famously, in the 1970s the World Bank helped fund the Great Carajás Program after huge iron ore deposits were discovered in Brazil. The development project had fatal consequences for Brazil’s Awa tribe.” Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, commented, November 10, 2011, “Experts are finally waking up to the fact that upholding indigenous peoples’ right to remain on their land is the best way to guarantee forest conservation. It's a shame that not all conservation organizations have caught on. Aside from the human rights violation that their evictions represent, such action is also counterproductive.”

Global warming has, and is continuing, to cause the arctic ice to melt so that new sea lanes have and will continue to open up across the arctic, while others that were closed by ice part of the year are either now open, or open for longer periods and if current trends continue will soon be open all year (Andrew E. Kramer, “Amid the Peril, a Dream Fulfilled,” The New York Times, October 18, 2011).

California adopted limits on greenhouse gas emissions in the state , in October, using a system of  cap and trade market incentives to move polluters to reduce carbon emissions (Felicity Barringer, California Adopts Limits on Greenhouse Gasses,” The New York Times, October 23, 2011).

Simon Romero, “ New Fields May Propel Americas to Top of Oil Companies’ Lists,” The New York Times, September 19, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/world/americas/recent-discoveries-put-americas-back-in-oil-companies-sights.html?ref=world, reports, “Brazil has begun building its first nuclear submarine to protect its vast, new offshore oil discoveries. Colombia’s oil production is climbing so fast that it is closing in on Algeria’s and could hit Libya’s prewar levels in a few years. ExxonMobil is striking new deals in Argentina, which recently heralded its biggest oil discovery since the 1980s. Up and down the Americas, it is a similar story: a Chinese-built rig is preparing to drill in Cuban waters; a Canadian official has suggested that unemployed Americans could move north to help fill tens of thousands of new jobs in Canada’s expanding oil sands; and one of the hemisphere’s hottest new oil pursuits is actually in the United States, at a shale formation in North Dakota’s prairie that is producing 400,000 barrels of oil a day and is part of a broader shift that could ease American dependence on Middle Eastern oil.” But it also is creating serious environmental and human problems, especially in the Amazon where Indigenous people have been, and are being, seriously injured and threatened by oil and other extraction. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced, October 20, that it would devise stricter rules for the treatment and disposal of toxic wastewater used in natural gas drilling, with standards to be set by 2014 for the management of wastewater used in the drilling tactic known as hydrofracking, which involves injecting huge amounts of water to break up shale or coal bed formations and release the gas (Robbie Brown, “E.P.A. to Tighten Rules on Wastewater Disposal,” The New York Times, October 20, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/us/epa-to-tighten-rules-on-wastewater-disposal.html?ref=todayspaper). The problem is not serious in the older style of drilling straight down, but the newer tactic of drilling horizontally often causes massive water and air pollution.

A British seismologist, Brian Baptie, seismic project team leader with the British Geological Survey, said, in late October, that two minor earthquakes in northwestern England “appeared to correlate closely” with the use of hydraulic fracturing in extracting natural gas from wells. Data from the two quakes near Blackpool — one of magnitude 2.3 on April 1, the other of magnitude 1.5 on May 27 — suggested the tremors arose from the same source. Cuadrilla Resources, a British energy company, was conducting hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations at a well nearby when the quakes occurred (Henry Fountain, “Expert Says Quakes in England May Be Tied to Gas Extraction,” The New York Times, October 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/science/earth/22fracking.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper).

The Tribal Council of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota, sitting on a major oil rich shale formation, preemptively banned the oil extraction process known as fracking on reservation lands, in November. The move followed a presentation to the Tribal Council by a group called No Fracking Way Turtle Mountain Tribe (“Turtle Mountain Tribal Council Bans Fracking,” Indian Country Today, November 27, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/27/turtle-mountain-tribal-council-bans-fracking-64866 ).

Following numerous complaints about serious health effects from the Alberta tar sands oil mining, and numerous protests against various aspects of it (see Ongoing Activities, above), the Fort McKay First Nation, the Fort McKay Métis Community, Alberta Health and Wellness and Alberta Aboriginal Relations, agreed, in September, to study health in communities downstream from the oil sands, with the First Nations, for the first time in Canada, taking the lead, and Alberta Health playing a supporting role. This will be the first time the province has studied the health of an entire community. The groups will interview residents of 600-population Fort McKay to gauge health priorities and create new programs if necessary (“Alberta Government to Study Health Downstream from Oil Sands,” Indian Country Today, September 30, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/alberta-government-to-study-health-downstream-from-oil-sands/).

The Japanese nuclear crises has been continuing . In mid June, the Fukushima Daiichi power plant began operating a huge filtration system to ease the amount of contaminated water produced at its damaged reactors, but the filtration system had to be shut down after just five hours when a filter expected to last several weeks filled up with radioactive cesium, suggesting the presence of far greater radioactive material than anticipated. As the plant was running out of storage space for the highly radioactive water, unless it could get and keep the filtration system running it would have to dump large amounts of radioactive water into the ocean (Ken Belson, “Utility Starts Filtering Water at Stricken Japanese Nuclear Plant,” The New York Times, June 17, 2011 , http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/world/asia/18tepco.html?_r=1&hp; and Ken Belson, “Tepco Halts Filtering of Tainted Water at Japanese Plant,” June 18, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/world/asia/19tepco.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper). At the end of September, Japan ended the required (but by many no longer followed) evacuation of five towns outside the 12 mile evacuation zone surrounding the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating plant, despite fears that dangerous radiation may still exist in those towns , at least in some possible unidentified hot spots (Hiroko Tabuchi, “ Japan Lifts Evacuation Advisories Near Nuclear Plant,” September 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world/asia/japan-lifts-evacuation-advisories-near-damaged-nuclear-plant.html?ref=todayspaper).

As of December: The Daichi nuclear catastrophe is far from over. In early November, nearly nine months after the earthquake and tsunami began the Japanese atomic crisis, it was found that recently at least 45 tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from a purification facility at the plant, some of which may have reached the Pacific Ocean (Hiroko Tabuchi and Martin Fackler, “More Radioactive Water Leaks at Japanese Plant,” The New York Times, November 5, 2011). Moreover (as discussed on Thom Hartmann’s Progressive Radio program, December 19), while the Japanese government has declared the reactors at the Fukashima nuclear plant stable, the disaster is hardly over, as even if nothing serious happens, it will take decades to end the problem. The melted cores of three of the reactors, which are still exceedingly hot, melted out of their reactor vessels and at least three quarters of the way through the concrete floor. It is unclear if they are still melting further through the floor, and if they break through into the earth, clouds of radioactive steam could be sent up. The building of reactor 4, whose shut down core is stored on its roof, has been leaning. Engineers are moving to shore it up, which they likely will succeed in doing. But the building, and the ad hoc cooling that have been established are vulnerable – and may continue to be for a great many years until improvements are made, if there is another major earthquake, tsunami, or even a severe storm.

The Niaqually River, that the Nisqually Indians have been relying on for 10,000 years, especially for its salmon, is expected to become shallower and warmer in the next hundred years as annual snowpack and the glacier that feeds the river decline, and rock held by the glacier falls into the river, worsening winter flooding. Therefore, the Nisqually tribal government formed a coalition with private partners and federal and local agencies to help the watershed and its inhabitants adapt, reserving land farther in from wetlands so that when the sea rises, the marsh will have room to move as well, promoting hundreds of rain gardens to absorb artificially warmed runoff from paved spaces and keep it away from the river, and it is installing logjams intended to cause the river to hollow out its own bottom and create cooler pools for fish (Leslie Kaufman, “Looking Ahead to Lead A River Through Hard Time to Come,” The New York Times, July 2, 2011).

There is controversy over whether the virus that has been killing farmed salmon has escaped into the wild and is spreading. There were reports of the infectious salmon anemia in salmon (which has been killing up to 70% of farmed salmon in Chile) caught off British Columbia, but Canadian fisheries and food safety officials say their tests have not found evidence of the deadly virus in caught fish (in the New York Times: Cornellia Dean and Rachael Nuwer, “Salmon Killing Virus Seen for First Time in the Wild on the Pacific Coast,” October 18, 2011; William Yardley, “Knot of Worry Tightens for Fisherman,” October 20, 2011; and William Yardley, “Further Tests Fail to Detect Salmon virus,” November 11, 2011). There has been a major drop in the number of shrimp off the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico since last summer, as shrimp fisherman are reporting catches down by as much as 80%, which many say is the worst season in memory. The reasons for the shrimp decline are unclear with factors being considered including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, other pollution and climate change (“Gulf Shrimp Are Scarce This Season; Answers, Too,” The New York Times, October 11, 2011). The Atlantic States Marine fisheries Commission, representing 15 states and the U.S. government, decided, in November, to put a limit on the fish catch of menhaden, not regularly eaten by people, but as it is eaten by many fish, is a critical support for Atlantic ocean fish stocks (Abby Goodenough, “Panel Votes to Reduce a Forage Fish Catch,” The New York Times, November 10, 2011).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced, September 29, 2011, it will clean up approximately 1.4 million tons of radium and uranium contaminated soil at the Northeast Church Rock Mine, the largest uranium mine on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico (“EPA to Clean Up Largest Abandoned Uranium Mine on The Navajo Nation,” Cultural Survival, October 4, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/united-states/epa-clean-largest-abandoned-uranium-mine-navajo-nation).

The EPA ruled, August 5, 2011, that the San Juan Generating Station’s coal powered electric plant in western New Mexico must install new pollution controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions within five years. The plant manager, Public Service Company of New Mexico said it would coast $750 million to install the catalytic scrubbers, and said it would appeal the decision (Diane J. Schmidt, “EPA imposes maximum cleanup for San Juan power plant,” Navajo Times, September 1, 2011).

Under an agreement with the with the Southern Ute Tribe’s Environmental Protection Agency, Williams Four Corners will reduce harmful air polluting emissions at its Ignacio, CO natural gas plant by replacing ten old compressors with new, improved ones (Ace Stryker, “Tribe, Williams pen deal that will improve local air quality,” Southern Ute Drum, October 7, 2011).

While it is impossible say whether any one storm or weather occurrence is related to global warming and the climate change it induces, and there are debates among scientists as to whether enough time has elapsed to say recent trends towards more and stronger storms are indeed a direct indication of the impact of global warming, there is no question in the mainstream of climate science that the current trend is consistent with global warming induced climate change. One example was end of August Hurricane, later tropical storm, Irene extending on the U.S. East Coast from North Carolina to Connecticut and inland through the rest of New England to Canada, though not intense, at category 1, was extremely large – covering about as much area as the state of California. The threat of flooding from its very large expected storm serge, for the first time brought the city of New York to evacuate low lying areas, and also for the first time, to close its subways. While New York City suffered limited flooding, and none in its subways, there was extensive flooding and power outages, including in inland areas of upstate New York and New England overwhelmed by huge amounts of rain, and other cities, including Philadelphia experienced flooding. Particularly in Vermont – where Senator Sanders stated that this was the worst natural disaster in the history of the state, and upstate New York, damage was very wide spread to houses, businesses, infrastructure and crops, and total damage in dollars estimated from Irene to be among the top 10 of all storms battering the United States in its history. Then when the remnants of tropical storm Lee worked its way from the Gulf coast to the Northeast less than two weeks later, many areas received a second round of horrendous flooding – some at record levels - the evacuation of at least 120,000 people while surging waters threatened major population centers, including along the Susquehanna River, which stretches more than 400 miles from upstate New York to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Then, in November, Western Alaska experienced its one of its worst storms in 40 years, causing flooding in some costal villages (Kim Severson, Dan Barry and Campbell Robertson, “ Damage and Flooding Scar Atlantic Seaboard,” The New York Times, August 27, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/us/28hurricane-irene.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; Justin Gilils, “Seeing Irene as Harbinger of a Change in Climate,” The New York Times, August 27, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/us/28climate.html?ref=todayspaper; Peter Applebome, “ From Coastline to Mountains, Water Fast and Lethal,” The New York Times,” August 28, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/nyregion/hurricane-irene-with-shocking-speed-floods-turn-deadly.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; Michael cooper, “Hurricane Cost Seen as Ranking Among Top Ten,” The New York Times , August 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/us/31floods.html Matt Flegenheimer, “ Northeast Is Soaked Again, Forcing Evacuations, T he New York Times, September 8, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/nyregion/remnants-of-tropical-storm-soak-an-already-battered-northeast.html?ref=todayspaper; and “Battened Down Western Alaska,” The New York Times, November 10, 2011).

Over all, the weather in the United States had already caused record economic loss in 2011, by August, with nine as opposed to the normal three or four $1 billion weather disasters (and there have been more since) (Katharine Q. Seelye, “Year Packed With Weather Disasters Has Brought Economic Toll to Match,” The New York Times, August 20, 2011).

The extreme dryness in the U.S. Southwest had already sparked a record fire season, by mid-June. As of June 16, more than 700 square miles of Arizona and more than 4,300 square miles of Texas have been swept by huge wildfires, while the largest wildfire in Arizona history is burning into New Mexico, whose numerous wildfires this spring include the largest in the state’s history. Containment of the spreading fires has been extremely difficult in hot windy weather in drought suffering areas (Chip Ward, “ How the West Was Lost: The American West in Flames,” TomDispatch.com , June 16, 2011, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/16-3). By September, late annual ‘monsoons’ have begun to ease the drought and wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico, the extremely harsh drought and accompanying wildfires have continued in West Texas. In early September, a huge series of wildfires in Bastrop and Travis Counties and other parts of Central and East Texas , had burned 34,000 acres, the largest fire in Texas history, destroying nearly 500 homes, with at least 5,000 people being evacuated, an at least two deaths , September 4 and 5, 2011, and as the fire continued, as of September 11, 1500 homes had been destroyed by this one set of fires. In Bastrop County, school district officials canceled classes for September 6 and transformed the local middle school into a shelter for evacuees. In the worst fire season in Texas history, since November, 2010, continuing fires had burned more than 2500 homes, as of September 6, with fires still spreading. Texas had the hottest June through August on record for any state in the United States, with an 86.8 average temperature that exceeded Oklahoma’s 85.2 degrees in 1934  (Manny Fernandez, “Wildfires in Parched Texas Kill 2 and Destroy Homes,” The New York Times, September 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/06wildfire.html?ref=todayspaper; and Manny Fernandez, “With Calmer Winds, Texas Firefighters Make Progress Against Vast Blaze,” The New York Times,September 6, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/us/07wildfire.html?ref=us; “ Texas: Heat Is a Record,” The New York Times, September 8, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us/09brfs-recordheat.html?ref=todayspaper; and “ Texas Wildfire Destroys More Than 1,500 Homes,” The New York Times, September 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/us/12wildfire.html?ref=todayspaper).

Central and northernmost California, after having experienced heavier than normal rains earlier in the year, have more recently been drier. On September 12, lightning-caused wildfires became serious in three groupings of fires in Kern County, covering a total of 87 square miles on September 13 . Two fire complexes were southeast of Bakersfield, near Arvin and Tehachapi, and a third complex in the northern part of the county had reached Sequoia National Forest. Several hundred homes faced mandatory evacuations in parts of Stallion Springs, and the Caliente School District was closed because the fire conditions. To the north, fires in Tehama and Shasta Counties were contained (“ California: Fires Threaten Kern County,” The New York Times, September 13, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/us/13brfs-fires.html?ref=todayspaper).

As of the beginning of October, some Manitoba First Nations remained displaced from unusually heavy spring flooding, bringing the Peguis and Ebb and Flow First Nations to file lawsuits against the federal Canadian government, in mid-September, claiming that dislocation and other effects from last spring’s record flooding had not been addressed. Both First Nations allege that floodwaters were diverted into Lake Manitoba to keep cities like Port La Prairie dry, but at the expense of their agricultural land, residential areas and sacred sites. The two First Nations are suing Manitoba Hydro, the federal government, the province and the Crown utility.  In one of the suits the nation is requesting barracks housing through the winter. Hundreds of people, many of them First Nations citizens, were forced from their homes by the April flooding. Although vacation-home owners and farmers can apply for compensation from the province, First Nations do not qualify because they are the responsibility of the federal government (“Fallout Persists from Spring Floods in Manitoba,” Indian Country Today, October 1, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/fallout-persists-from-spring-floods-in-manitoba/).

Unusually heavy rains across Central America , in mid-October, brought deadly, damaging, flooding and mud slides killing at least 66, destroying property and infrastructure across Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua (“Heavy Rains Wreak Havoc Through Central America,” the New York Times, October 16, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/world/americas/heavy-rains-wreak-havoc-through-central-america.html?ref=todayspaper; and “Central America Death Toll at 45 From Heavy Rains,” The New York Times , October 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/10/15/world/americas/international-us-storms-centralamerica.html?_r=1&ref=world).

Possibly showing a new pattern as part of climate change (though it is too early to know), for the Second year in a row Pakistan has received disastrously heavy monsoon rains, again causing wide spread flooding. As of September 20, 2011 at least 220 people had died in the monsoons, some 665,000 homes were destroyed and more than 1.8 million people displaced (“In Pakistan, Monsoon Rains Bring Disaster for a Second Year,” The New York Times, September 20, 2011). This coincides with two consecutive years of more sever weather, and a shifting weather pattern, in North America, especially in the winter, reported in these pages. While it will take a longer period of time to know if such changes are climate change, and not just a temporary phenomenon, they are consistent with global warming induced climate change. Meanwhile, in Late July, a month of unusually heavy rains set off mudslides in Korea killing at least 32 people (Choe Sang-Hun, “Heavy Rain in South Korea Sets Of Deadly Mudslides,” The New York Times, July 28, 2011). In Southern Brazil, in mid-March, heavy rains bringing floods and landslides forced 31,000 people from their homes and caused some deaths (“Brazil: Floods Ravage Southeast,” The New York Times, March 15, 2011).

A Heat wave in Iraq, with temperatures over 120 degrees F., caused the government to take the unprecedented step of taking a heat holiday, August 2 (Michael S. Schmidt, “Heat Wave and Fasting Ass to Woes of Iraqis,” The New York Times, August 3, 2011).

Typhoon Talas dropped record quantities of rain in western and central Japan, September 4, 2011, bringing extensive destructive flooding and mudslides, leaving at least 25 dead, at least 50 missing and displacing 460,000 people (“ Typhoon Rains Kill at Least 25 and Maroon Thousands in Japan,” The New York Times, September 4, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/world/asia/05japan.html?ref=todayspaper). Later in September, Japan was again hit by a major storm, Typhoon Rorke, which went up Japan’s main island, through Tokyo and drenching the Fukashima nuclear plant and the area around it, possibly washing large quantities of radioactivity into the ocean. At least six people were killed, perhaps a million people dislocated, and thousands of commuters were stranded as transportation was disrupted (Martin Fackler, “ Typhoon Headed for Stricken Japanese Nuclear Plant,” The New York Times, September 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/asia/typhoon-roke-hits-japan-headed-for-stricken-nuclear-plant.html?ref=world).

The Philippines was hard hit, in late September, by Typhoon Nesat, which caused the worst flooding in Manila in a great many years, and brought about the deaths of at least 16 people. Another major storm was expected to strike the island nation in a few days (“The Philippines: 16 Die in Typhoon,” The New York Times, September 28, 2011; and “ The Philippines: 20 Die in Typhoon,” The New York Times, September 27, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/asia/in-the-philippines-18-die-in-typhoon.html?src=recg). The Southern Philippines was struck by tropical storm Washi, the 19^th major storm to hit the countries, in mid December, in a pat of the country that such storms have not hit in historical times, causing severe flooding, hundreds of deaths and displacing several hundred people (Floyd ,Whaley, “ Flooding Kills Hundreds in Southern Philippines,” The New York Times, December 17, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/asia/flooding-kills-scores-in-southern-philippines.html?ref=world).

Cambodia and southern Vietnam suffered the worst flooding in over a decade on the Mekong Riverfrom heavy rains, in late September, that killed at least 150 people (“Cambodia: Mekong Floods Kill 150,” The New York Times, September 30, 2011, ttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world/asia/cambodia-mekong-floods-kill-150.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper).

Thailand, in October was suffering from a 100 year flood after three months of heavy, and continuing, rain, who’s terrible effects have been made worse by deforestation and inappropriate management of waterways. With Bangkok facing flooding, on October 21, the reported death toll across the nation was well over 300, with some nine million people affected and tens of thousands driven from their homes. The catastrophic rainfall, augmented by runoffs from overflowing dams in the north, have created floods that have inundated cities, obliterated rice fields and forced the closing of at least 1,000 factories, bringing a huge economic cost not only to Thailand, but also to international manufacturers, especially automakers and technology companies, which rely on the country to supply parts for products. Meeting the flood emergency is also a challenge to Thailand’s new government, and inexperienced prime minister  (Seth Mydens, “ For Thailand’s New Leader, Floodwaters Present a Political Test,” The New York Times, October 20, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/asia/floods-test-new-thai-leader-on-many-fronts.html?ref=todayspaper).

One impact of climate change in tropical forests, such as in Panama, is that there has been increase in the growth of woody climbing vines, that are choking trees and reducing their transformation of carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon (Henry Fountain, “A Tree hugger with a Twist,” The New York Times, May 24, 2011). Meanwhile, in an area of Russia’s northern east coast, in which shark attacks were previously unknown, several such attacks took place, in May, bringing authorities to ban swimming on some beaches in the region, costal Primorsky Krai, along the Sea of Japan (Michael Schwirtz, “Russia Stunned by Shark Attacks in East,” The New York Times, August 19, 2011).

The Federal Department of Energy Natural Gas Subcommittee, noting serious water and air pollution problems from fracking to extract natural gas and oil, recommended much stricter rules for natural gas drilling, including eliminating diesel fuel from the fracking fluids injected into the well, making public all chemicals used in fracking, better tracking and more careful disposal of waste that comes up in fracking, and tighter air pollution and greenhouse gas emission standards in gas drilling (Robbie Brown and Ian Urbina, “Panel Seeks Stiffer Rules For Drilling of Gas wells,” The New York Times, August 11, 2011). In December, EPA released scientific studies showing that hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in central Wyoming  probably is the cause of contaminated local water supplies (Kirk Johnson, “E.P.A. Links Tainted Water in Wyoming to Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas,” The New York Times,” December 9, 2011). In Pennsylvania (as elsewhere) where a natural gas boom is underway short term financial gains are being off set by other problems, including contaminated water, infrastructure detraining from over use (while little tax revenue goes to local governments), and long term difficulties for property owners who lease to drillers, as often the drilling makes it impossible to get mortgages in the future because of the likely contamination on the property for which the owner (who could become the mortgage lender) is responsible (Katharine Q. Seelye, “Gas Boom Aids Pennsylvania, But Some Worry Over Risks,” The New York Times, October 15, 2011).

A number of earthquakes in numerous localities have been found to be either directly related to fracking, or to be a highly likely result of fracking. It was noted in late November that a continuing series of mild earth quakes in Oklahoma is quite likely related to fracking in oil and gas drilling in the area (Elizabeth A. Harris, “Oklahoma Continues String of Recent Mild Earthquakes,” The New York Times, November 28m 2011).

One third of the natural gas extracted in North Dakota is burned off, as companies pumping out oil say they have no economic incentive to capture and distribute the gas that also comes up at oil wells. Thus they produce huge waste and a great contribution to global warming (Clifford Krauss, “ In North Dakota, Flames of Wasted Natural Gas Light the Prairie,” The New York Times, September 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/business/energy-environment/in-north-dakota-wasted-natural-gas-flickers-against-the-sky.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper).

A number of recent oil pipeline ruptures have occurred with resulting serious pollution in the United States, with evidence of inadequate safety practices, while the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is chronically short of inspectors and lacks the resources needed to hire more, leaving too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators. This has raised major questions about oil pipeline safety and regulation on the 167,000-mile system of hazardous liquid pipelines crisscrossing the United States. In July, an Exxon Mobil pipeline carrying oil across Montana failed, sending an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude down the Yellowstone River, just weeks after a company inspection and federal review had found nothing seriously wrong. In Michigan, near Marshall, a 35 miles of the Kalamazoo, popular with swimmers and boaters, remained closed, in early September, nearly 14 months after an Enbridge Energy pipeline broke, spilling 843,000 gallons of oil that will cost more than $500 million to clean up. Secretary of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the pipeline agency, acknowledges weaknesses in the program and has requested Congress to pass legislation that would increase penalties for negligent operators and authorize the hiring of additional inspectors, which is not likely with the Republican dominated house opposed to both new spending and stricter regulation. Federal records show that although the pipeline industry reported 25% fewer significant spills from 2001 through 2010 than in the prior decade, the amount of hazardous liquids being spilled, though down, remains substantial. There are still more than 100 significant spills each year — a trend that dates back more than 20 years. And the percentage of dangerous liquids recovered by pipeline operators after a spill has dropped considerably in recent years (Dan Frosh and Janet Roberts, “ Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny,” The New York Times, September 9, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/energy-environment/agency-struggles-to-safeguard-pipeline-system.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper).

The State Department gave approval, August 26, 2011, to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast (John M. Broder and Clifford Krauss, “ U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline,” August 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/business/energy-environment/us-state-department-to-allow-canadian-pipeline.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper). President Obama has since put off a final decision on the pipeline until 2014, to give time for further review, but the Republicans in Congress, in December, forced through a measure requiring the President to decide in 60 days whether or not to approve the pipeline.

Judge Carl J. Barbier of United States District Court in New Orleans ruled in relation to thousands of cases relating to the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, that plaintiffs can seek punitive damages in some claims related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The judge dismissed claims filed under state law because they were “pre-empted by maritime law,” which can be refilled under federal maritime law. Barber also dismissed some maritime claims that “don’t allege physical damage to a proprietary interest” (“Punitive Damages Ruled Possible in Gulf Oil Spill,” The New York Times, August 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/business/punitive-damages-ruled-possible-in-gulf-oil-spill.html?ref=todayspaper).      

The environmental affairs division of Brazil’s Federal Police accused Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, CA, in mid-November, of covering up the scope of an offshore oil leak. Chevron had said it was between 400 and 650 barrels, that it had contained the spill, which was down to 65 barrels. The National Petroleum agency said that  the spill was about 1000 barrels, and it was unclear whether the leak had been sealed. At the time, SkyTruth, an environmental nonprofit said that the spill extended over 918 square miles and was spreading, fed by a continuing leak of at least 3738 barrels a day (Stan Lehman, “chevron accused of hiding the scope of offshore spill,” San Francisco Chronicle,”  November 18, 2011).

China admitted, July 5, that oil that leaked from a drilling rig offshore of Northeastern China, in the Bohai Sea, for two weeks in June had spread over 320 square miles (Andrew Jacobs, “China Admits Extent of Spill From Oil Rig,” The New York Times, July 6, 2011). In the North Sea, 112 miles east of Aberdeen Scotland, Royal Dutch Shell estimated, in mid August, that 54,600 gallons of crude oil had spilled (“Scotland: Oil Spill in the North Sea,” The New York Times, August 16, 2011). Previously reported demonstrations over environmental issues have continued in China, including increasing outrage and protest over serious air pollution (Edward Wong, “Outrage Grows Over Air Pollution and China’s Response,” The New York Times,  December 7, 2011).

The massive Myitsone Dam under construction in  Myanmar, or Burma, generated a great deal of concerns and debate, among government officials as well as people . This would have been the first dam across the Irrawaddy River, the iconic, even mythic waterway that has given life to centuries of Burmese civilization. Supporters say the project will generate needed electricity and money. Opponents complained that flooding an area four times the size of Manhattan would displace thousands of villagers, disrupting their lives and culture, while causing irreparable damage to the Irrawaddy, the lifeline of millions of Burmese downstream. Moreover, in an authoritarian country that has begun to experiment with looser controls on the news media, the controversy has raised the rare prospect that public outrage might actually force the government to reconsider its plans (“ Controversy Over Dam Fuels Rare Public Outcry in Myanmar,” The New York Times,” September 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/asia/controversy-over-dam-fuels-rare-public-outcry-in-myanmar.html?_r=1&ref=world). At the end of September, the government yielded to protest, and canceled the Myitsone Dam project (Thomas Fuller, “ Myanmar Backs Down, Suspending Dam Project,” September 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world/asia/myanmar-suspends-construction-of-controversial- dam.html?ref=todayspaper).

President Obama , on September 2, 2011, rejected a proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency that would have significantly reduced emissions of smog-causing chemicals, saying that it would impose too severe a burden on industry and local governments at a time of economic distress, and should be put off until a scheduled reconsideration of acceptable pollution limits in 2013. The E.P.A., following the recommendation of its scientific advisers, had proposed lowering the so-called ozone standard of 75 parts per billion, set at the end of the Bush administration, to a stricter standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion. The change would have left hundreds of counties in the U.S. out of compliance with the Clean Air Act and required a major enforcement effort by state and local officials, as well as new emissions controls at industries across the country. While business groups and republicans in Congress had pressured heavily against the proposal, enironmentalists were sharply critical of the administration for not following good science, and some dismay was expressed within the E.P.A. (John M. Broder, “ Obama Administration Abandons Stricter Air-Quality Rules,” September 2, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/science/earth/03air.html?ref=todayspaper).

The Canadian government, in late August, accepted Taseko’s Mines Ltd.’s project description for the New Prosperity mine that the nearby Tsilhqot’in First Nation calls the worst mine ever proposed. Canada rejected the original proposal, which called for the destruction of Fish Lake by turning it into a tailings pond. Taseko’s new plan isn’t much better, the Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG) said in a counter statement. The federal environmental review of the proposal was to begin by November 7 and could take up to a year (“ Prosperity Mine Rearing Its Ugly Head, Again,” Indian Country Today, September 4, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/04/prosperity-mine-rearing-its-ugly-head-again-47717).

Fisherman in the U.S. Northeast have agreed with researchers, regulators and engineers to change fishing equipment to reduce bycatch in which species other than the one being fished are caught, killed or injured in the fishing process (Cornella Dean, “Fishing Gear Altered to Ease Collatral Costs to Marine Life,” The New York Times, August 23, 2011).

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that it has been learning valuable information from interviews conducted with Alaska Natives in the Yukon River Basin . USGS social scientist Nicole Herman-Mercer noted, “Many climate change studies are conducted on a large scale, and there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding how climate change will impact specific regions. This study helps address that uncertainty and really understand climate change as a socioeconomic issue by talking directly to those with traditional and personal environmental knowledge” (Nico le Herman-Mercer, Paul F. Schuster, Karonhiakt'tie Bryan Maracle, “ Indigenous Observations of Climate Change in the Lower Yukon River Basin, Alaska ,” Human Organization, Vol. 70, No. 1, Fall 2011, http://sfaa.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,4,10;journal,2,279;linkingpublicationresults,1:113218,1).

A study from the National Wildlife Federation, “Facing the Storm: Indian Tribes, Climate-Induced Weather Extremes and the Future for Indian Country,” released in early August, 2011, American Indians suffer more from climate change than other groups. The report finds that “The high dependence of tribes upon their lands and natural resources to sustain their economic, cultural and spiritual practices, the relatively poor state of their infrastructure and the great need for financial and technical resources to recover from such events all contribute to the disproportionate impact on tribes.” Moreover, Amanda Staudt—a scientist at the National Wildlife Federation and a contributor to the report noted, “Extreme weather events can be very destructive for tribes, many of whom are already suffering from lack of resources to begin with” (“ American Indians Feel the Effects of Climate Change at Higher Rate Than Other Groups,” Indian Country Today, August 9, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/09/american-indians-feel-the-effects-of-climate-change-at-higer-rate-than-other-groups-46365).

Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Montana became the first Indian nation in the U.S. to have a building to be awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum status, with the completion of its new math and science building (Carol Berry, “Tribal College Goes Ultra-Green with New Building,” Indian Country Today, August 10, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/10/tribal-college-goes-ultra-green-with-new-building-46066)

The Canadian government listed polar bears as a “species of special concern” under the Species at Risk Act , in November. Inuit people are wary of any more restrictions being placed on the hunting of this spiritually revered animal and are worried about public safety given an increasing number of bears wandering through communities, while environmentalists think the ruling does not go far enough in protecting the bears (“ Canada Declares Polar Bears a ‘Species of Special Concern,” Indian Country Today , November 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/14/canada-declares-polar-bears-a-species-of-special-concern-62784).

Many of the reports in this issue of U.S. government legislation, agency action, and court decisions are informed by electronic flyers from Hobbs, Straus, Dean and Walker, LLP, 2120 L Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037, http://www.hobbsstraus.com, provided by Americans for Indian Opportunity.

U.S. Government Developments

Presidential Actions

President Obama signed Executive Order 13592, “Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Education Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities,” December 2, 2011, which establishes a White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (Initiative). The Executive Order calls for the coordination and collaboration of efforts among federal agencies as well as with Indian tribes and tribal education agencies to improve education outcomes and expand the education opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students from the early learning years through the post-secondary level. The Initiative will be co-chaired by the Secretaries of Education and Interior. The Executive Director of the Initiative will be a high level Department of Education (DoED) official and will provide staff support to the Native American Council on Indian Education (NACIE), which is to serve as the Initiative's advisory committee. The Initiative's mission includes:? Expand educational opportunities and improve educational outcomes for all AI/AN students, "including opportunities to learn their Native languages, cultures and histories and receive complete and competitive educations that prepare them for college…," through a variety of means such as coordinating educational programs administered by the DoED as well as other agencies, by building capacity of tribal education agencies and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs)?; Focus efforts on objectives that include increase access to science and technology education; reduce the student dropout rate; encourage those who have dropped out of education and training program to re-enter such programs; increase college access and completion; and meet the unique cultural, educational and language needs of AI/AN students. The Initiative requires that:? The Executive Director work with the Director of the Bureau of Indian Education to facilitate a DoED/DOI memorandum of understanding on the collaboration between the two agencies to carry out the stated policy of the Executive Order ; An Interagency Working Group on AI/AN education and TCUs to be established, with each member agency charged to develop and implement a two-part, four-year action plan to fulfill the Executive Order purposes. On December 9, Secretary Duncan announced that William Mendoza (Oglala-Sicangu Lakota) has been appointed to the position of Executive Director of the Initiative. Mr. Mendoza most recently served as Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities at the DoED. Executive Order 13592 also revokes certain prior Executive Orders, including the 2002 EO on TCUs and the 2011 Order that continued several advisory committees including the President's Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities. Additional information is in GM_11-148_ExecOrder_Ed.pdf,available at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-148.

The Third House Tribal Nations Conference featured a report, “Achieving a Brighter Future for Tribal Nations ,” which contained 41 pages of Obama administration progress on Indian country issues to date, from passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to the Tribal Law and Order Act to the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement, and at the beginning of December, the Interior Department’s announcement of a new consultation program, a new land lease rule, and a new commission on Indian trust reform. Amid discussion with the President and staff, and breakout session with executive agency officials, the main event was President Obama announcing Executive Order 13592, “Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Education Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities,” reported just above ( Rob Capriccioso, “ Third White House Tribal Nations Conference Launches to Less Fanfare,” Indian Country Today, December 2, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/02/third-white-house-tribal-nations-conference-launches-to-less-fanfare-65598).

Legislative Action

The President signed HR 2883, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (Act), as Public Law 112-34, September 30, 2011. The Act reauthorizes child welfare programs which benefit tribes through fiscal year 2016 . For the first time tribes will be eligible to apply for Court Improvement Program funds. In addition, a tribe who administers the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program will be authorized to apply for a waiver to operate the program as a demonstration project. The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program (CWS) (authorized in Title IV-B, Subpart 1 of the Social Security Act) provides funds to tribes, territories and states for a wide array of services designed to promote the welfare of children, to prevent child abuse and neglect, to keep families together, and to promote permanency for children. While the authorization for CWS is $325 million, Congress generally appropriates $281 million. In fiscal year 2011, 170 tribes/tribal organizations received $6.2 million from the CWS program. The Act continues the prior method of funding tribes – a tribe's funds are based on its share of the state's population under age 21 with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) including an additional factor weighted to the tribe's favor. The Act adds several new requirements that must be included in the plan that each grantee must submit to HHS: 1) how the IV-B agency will respond to emotional trauma associated with a child's maltreatment and removal from a home; 2) the adoption of protocols for the appropriate use and monitoring of psychotropic medications; 3) the description of the activities taken to reduce the length of time children under age five are in a temporary home; and 4) actions undertaken to address the developmental needs of children who receive the services of this program or the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program. Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF) (authorized in Title IV-B, Subpart 2 of the Social Security Act) provides funding for the following four services: family support, family preservation, time-limited family reunification, and adoption promotion and support. Under PSSF are several other programs: Court Improvement, Caseworker Visits, and Regional Partnerships to help children who are affected by a home where there is substance abuse. The Regional Partnerships grants program to assist children affected by parental substance abuse is reauthorized through fiscal year 2016 at $20 million annually in mandatory funds. Previously, this program gave some preference to applications that focused on methamphetamine abuse although other forms of substance abuse were also addressed. The Act drops the term "methamphetamine" from the name of the program. Tribes are currently the lead grantee in six of the 53 Regional Partnership programs. The Court Improvement Program is reauthorized through 2016 at $30 million annually in mandatory funds. This program provides funds to assist courts in the handling of child abuse and neglect cases; to train judges and other personnel in the handling of child welfare cases; to improve the data surrounding child welfare cases; and to engage the entire family in court processes relating to child welfare. Prior to ?PL 112-34 all funds were awarded on a formula basis to the highest court in each state. The Act will, for the first time, allow tribal access to this source of funds. There is? $1 million allocated annually for competitive grants to tribes or tribal consortia who: I) are operating a Title IV-E program; or 2) are seeking to operate a Title IV-E program and have an implementation grant for this purpose; or 3) have a court responsible for proceedings related to foster care or adoption. Thus, the tribal eligibility is very broad. The definitions of Indian Tribe and Tribal Organization for the PSSF program are changed to be consistent with that used in the Child Welfare Services program, which are the Indian Self-Determination Act definitions. The Act also requires the HHS Secretary to work with the Office of Management and Budget to develop standard data elements for any required reports on the Title IV-B programs. In addition, the Act makes a number of changes to the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance program, including requiring that the case plan for a child placed in foster care address the issue of educational stability each time a child is moved to another home, not only at the initial placement. In response to reports of a trend of identity theft of foster youth, the Act requires the state to obtain a copy of a credit report for foster youth age 16 and older and to assist them if action needs to be taken. Further, the Act amends the Title IV-E program by reinstating the Secretary's waiver authority to allow states and tribes to test alternative ways to achieve the goals of the program, albeit with a number of new requirements. The Act would allow ten waivers per year for each of three years (FY 2012 through FY 2014). An Information Memorandum regarding PL 112-34 prepared by the Administration on Children and Families is available as a pdf at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-115 (http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-117).

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, in September 2011, concerning tribally-administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: HHS Needs to Improve Guidance and Monitoring of Tribal Programs" (GAO-11-758), available at: http://www.gao.gov/Products/GAO-11-758. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PL 104-193) authorized tribes to administer the newly authorized Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program which replaced the state-administered Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Under PL 104-193 tribes are allowed somewhat more flexibility in administering the program than are states. Thus far, 65 tribes and tribal consortia are administering the TANF program and another ten tribes have pending applications. Under the law, if a tribe does not administer TANF, the state is responsible for serving eligible tribal members in Indian Country. In preparation for the reauthorization of the TANF program, the GAO, in response to a request from the House Committee on Natural Resources, looked into the following questions regarding tribal TANF programs:? how tribal TANF programs have changed since 2002 (the last time the GAO did a report on these programs), especially in light of changing economic conditions? What challenges do tribes face in administering their own TANF programs and what tribes have done to address them? What is the extent to which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has provided guidance and oversight to promote the integrity and effectiveness of tribal TANF programs? The GAO found that since 2002, tribal TANF programs have increasingly used the flexibility the law provides to tailor their programs to meet the specific needs of families, focusing on culturally appropriate employment and education-related services and the setting of work participation requirements. Over half of tribes who have administered TANF since 2002 have raised their work participation rate goals, and of those tribal TANF adults required to participate in work activities, a higher percentage were meeting such requirements in 2009 than in 2002. Tribal TANF staff reported to GAO on the challenges to administering TANF including initial design of the program; staff development and retention; implementation of adequate data systems; and problems faced by their participants due to lack of transportation and employment opportunities. Many tribal TANF programs report seeking assistance from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regional staff and/or other tribal TANF programs in administering their programs and also utilize private consultants in helping design their programs. The HHS uses the tribal TANF single audit reports as its primary oversight mechanism for tribal TANF programs. The GAO was critical of HHS's oversight, finding that "HHS's tracking of single audit reports was fragmented, with multiple systems tracking different sets of reports with tribal TANF findings." (p. 35) And, "Due to the delays in reviewing the [audit] summaries and the fragmented systems for reporting and tracking single audit findings, HHS tribal TANF officials may not consistently be aware of all the single audit findings related to tribal TANF programs or be in a position to promptly identify and address recurring problems and mitigate risk." (p. 36). GAO Recommendations were (p. 48):? Review and revise, as appropriate, HHS's process for monitoring, tracking and promptly resolving tribal TANF single audit findings so that it can more systematically target training and technical assistance to better address recurring problems and mitigate risk.  Improve processes for maintaining and monitoring tribal TANF data – such as work participation rate, caseload, and financial data – that can be shared with tribes in a timely manner. Create procedures to provide timelier, accessible, and consistent guidance on tribal TANF policies that is clearly communicated to tribal TANF programs, and ensure that all tribal TANF policy developments and procedures are readily and easily accessible on HHS's Web site. For example, HHS could consider more effective ways to provide training to tribes on how new guidance or policy decisions will affect the administration of their programs, and consistently update its Web site to provide information on related tribal TANF technical assistance and training. Authorization for the TANF program was set to expire September 30, 2011, but Congress extended the program through December 31, 2011.  The GAO Report on Tribal TANF Programs is available as a pdf at: http://hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-123.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report, October 26, 2011, “Indian Health Service: Continued Efforts Needed to Help Strengthen Response to Sexual Assaults and Domestic Violence,” regarding the ability of Indian Health Service (IHS) and tribally operated hospitals to respond to sexual assaults and domestic violence. The report (GAO 12-29) was mandated by the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (PL 111-211). The GAO surveyed the 28 IHS and 17 tribally operated hospitals, conducted site visits at a number of the hospitals, and interviewed IHS and tribal law enforcement officials and prosecutors concerning: The ability of the IHS and tribally operated hospitals to collect and preserve medical forensic evidence involving instances of sexual assault and domestic violence, as needed for criminal prosecution’ What challenges, if any, these hospitals face in collecting and preserving such evidence; and, What factors besides medical forensic evidence contribute to a decision to prosecute such cases. Of the 45 hospitals, 26 reported that they are able to perform medial forensic exams of sexual assault victims and 19 reported that they refer victims to other facilities. The GAO states that the IHS and tribal hospitals which perform these services have largely developed these capabilities on their own, without IHS direction and that their activities in this area varies with staff availability and capability. The report gives considerable attention to the issue of the coordination – or often lack thereof – between hospitals and law enforcement agencies in preserving evidence necessary to pursue prosecutions. Also detailed in the report is the need for additional training and certification of medical personnel in obtaining and preserving forensic evidence. The GAO report notes the importance of the IHS sexual assault policy, issued in March 2011, regarding how hospitals should respond to adult and adolescent victims of sexual assault. The GAO notes that the policy, which applies to IHS-operated, but not tribally-operated hospitals, faces the following problems with regard to implementation: Overcoming long travel distances; Establishing plans to help ensure that hospitals consistently implement and follow the March 2011 policy; Developing similar policies for domestic violence and child sexual abuse; and, Developing sustainable staffing models that overcome problems with staff burnout, higher turnover, and compensation. Tribally operated hospitals may utilize the IHS sexual assault policy, but IHS does not make it part of its compact and contract negotiations with tribes/tribal organizations. The report points out the gap in policies with regard to child (as opposed to adolescent) sexual abuse incidents. The Tribal Law and Order Act mandated that IHS develop standardized sexual assault policies and protocols based on a similar Justice Department protocol – but the Justice Department has no such protocol regarding children, thus neither does the IHS sexual assault policy. One of the recommendations of the GAO is that such a policy and protocol regarding child sexual assault be developed. GAO Recommendations for the 28 IHS-operated hospitals: Development of an implementation plan for the March 2011 IHS sexual assault policy to support the hospitals and staff in: 1) obtaining training and certification in providing forensic medical exams; 2) obtaining equipment such as cameras needed to collect evidence; 3) providing medical forensic exams on site or at a referral facility within two hours of a patient's arrival; and 4) collaborating with law enforcement agencies and others to create sexual assault response teams and obtaining regular feedback from such stakeholders on evidence collection and preservation. Development of a policy on how IHS should respond to discrete incidents of domestic violence without a sexual component. Development of a policy, in conjunction with the Justice Department, for responding to incidents of child sexual abuse. Clarify whether the IHS sexual assault policy calls for training and certification, or only training, of IHS physicians and physician assistants performing sexual assault medical forensic exams. Modify the IHS sexual assault policy so that it comprehensively and clearly outlines (1) the process for approving subpoenas and requests for IHS employees to provide testimony in federal, state and tribal courts; and (2) reflects the provisions of Section 263 of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, including that subpoenas and requests not approved or disapproved within 30 days are considered approved. Explore ways to structure medical forensic activities within IHS facilities so that these activities come under individuals' normal duties or unit's official area of responsibility, in part to ensure that providers are compensated for performing medical forensic services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services generally agreed with the GAO's recommendations as did the state of Alaska. The state of Alaska, responding through its Department of Public Safety, pointed out that the IHS policy on sexual assault does not apply to the IHS-funded hospitals and clinics in Alaska and that the State may need to call upon IHS for technical assistance on these matters. The State noted that it does not have a requirement for certification of sexual assault forensic examiners and that the requirement for such could be potentially limiting. Finally, the state of Alaska strongly agreed that an additional policy specific to child sexual abuse is needed. The GAO report may be found at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1229.pdf.?Further information is also in  GM_11-127_GAO_ Report_onIHS_Response_toSexualAbuse.pdf, at http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-127.

The Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act Amendments of 2011, S 1684, was introduced, October 12, 2011, Senator Barrasso (R-WY), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. If signed into law, this would be the first major piece of national Indian energy legislation since 2005 when Congress enacted the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act (Title V) as part of the Energy Policy Act. The bill also builds upon the work of former Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who drafted and introduced the Indian Energy Parity Act of 2010 after conducting a number of listening sessions across Indian Country. The new bill reflects the suggestions from Indian Country, such as those heard at a May 19, 2011 listening session. S 1684 is composed of two titles. Title I is "Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act Amendments" and Title II is "Miscellaneous Amendments." The bill can be downloaded from the Committee's website: http://indian.senate.gov/issues/legislations.cfm. Title I would amend certain provisions of Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act ("the 2005 Act"), most of which is codified at 25 U.S.C. §§ 3501-3506. Title V repealed and replaced what had been Title 26 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. The 2005 Act authorizes an option for streamlining the negotiation of leases, rights-of-way, and business agreements on tribal trust or restricted land, a mechanism called a "tribal energy resources agreement" (TERA). A tribe that enters into a TERA with the Secretary of the Interior can eliminate the requirement to have the Secretary approve leases, rights-of-way, and business agreements. To date, however, no tribe has successfully executed a TERA. S 1684 would make a few changes relating to TERAs intended to improve this mechanism. One change would be that, if the Secretary does not disapprove a TERA in 270 days, it would be deemed approved. Another change would affect the determination by the Secretary as to whether a tribe has demonstrated that it has the capacity to regulate energy resources pursuant to a TERA – if a tribe has carried out a Self-Determination contract or Self-Governance compact that includes programs relating to the management of tribal land for three consecutive years without material audit exceptions, such a record will be sufficient to demonstrate capacity. The bill would make several other changes relating to TERAs, including: clarifying the effects of a TERA on the federal trust responsibility; limiting challenges to environmental review under a TERA to "interested parties," as determined by the Secretary; directing the Department of the Interior to make available to TERA tribes their "shares" of federal funding; allowing the pooling, unitization, or communitization of energy mineral resources; and explicitly preserving tribal sovereign immunity. In addition to the changes relating to TERAs, S 1684 includes a new option for eliminating the requirement to have the Secretary approve leases, rights-of-way, and business agreements on tribal trust or restricted land. Such transactions between a tribe and a certified "Tribal Energy Development Organization" (TEDO) would no longer require Secretarial approval. The concept of a TEDO would replace "Tribal Energy Resource Development Organization" as defined in the 2005 Act. A TEDO would be: (A) any enterprise, partnership, consortium, corporation, or other type of business organization that is engaged in the development of energy resources and is wholly owned by an Indian tribe …; or?(B) any organization of 2 or more entities, at least 1 of which is an Indian tribe, that has the written consent of all Indian tribes participating in the organization … Among the requirements for certification of a TEDO by the Secretary is that a majority interest must be owned and controlled by a tribe (or by more than one tribe). In addition to being authorized to enter into leases, rights-of-way, and business agreements with a tribe without Secretarial approval, a TEDO could also apply for grants, loans, loan guarantees, and other assistance. The bill would make several other amendments to the 2005 Act. One amendment would add "planning" to the assistance program administered by the Department of the Interior (DOI). Under the bill, DOI would have a mandate to provide technical assistance to tribes to develop energy plans, which could include: (i) plans for electrification;?(ii) plans for oil and gas permitting, renewable energy permitting, energy efficiency, electricity generation, transmission planning, water planning, and other planning related to energy issues;?(iii) plans for the development of energy resources and to ensure the protection of natural, historic, and cultural resources; and?(iv) any other plans that would assist an Indian tribe in the development or use of energy resources. In the competitive grant program administered by the Department of Energy (DOE), the bill would add tribal capacity building for managing energy development and energy efficiency as an authorized activity. The bill would add intertribal organizations as eligible applicants. The bill would also mandate the Secretary of Energy to promulgate regulations to implement the DOE guaranteed loan program for tribes and TEDOs. Title II of S 1684, captioned "Miscellaneous Amendments" consists of three sections. Section 201 would amend the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. § 800(a)) to include Indian tribes in the preference that states and municipalities are given for hydroelectric project licenses issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This amendment would not affect licenses issued or pending at the date the bill is enacted into law. Section 202 of the bill would amend the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 (PL 108-278, codified at 25 U.S.C. § 3115a) to establish a Tribal Biomass Demonstration Project. The bill would authorize the Secretary to enter into agreements with tribes to carry out demonstration projects to promote energy production from woody biomass, including biofuels, heat and electricity generation. In each of the five fiscal years from 2013 through 2017, the Secretary could select up to four new demonstration projects, applying selection criteria set out in the bill. Section 203 of the bill would amend section 413(d) of the Energy Conservation and Production Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. § 6863(d)) to change the process through which tribes can seek direct funding from the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). Under current law, WAP funding is allocated to the states, and the weatherization services are typically provided by nonprofit organizations that receive funding from state energy offices. The only way for tribes to receive direct funding on behalf of their low income members is if DOE makes a determination that "the low-income members of an Indian tribe are not receiving benefits under this part that are equivalent to the assistance provided to other low-income persons in such State" (Emphasis added) and only a few tribes actually receive direct funding. Section 203 would allow a tribal organization serving the low-income members of the tribe to apply to DOE for a direct grant, and DOE would instead have to determine that the services to be provided through the tribe would be equal to or better than services through the state. Over the past several years, the National Congress of American Indians has been coordinating efforts of tribal advocates to keep track of legislative developments relating to energy. A number of issues have been identified that are not addressed in the bill. The Committee has indicated that it is interested in receiving input from tribes on issues that could be added to the bill. Some issues may present greater challenges, in political terms, than others. One set of issues that is not addressed in the bill has to do with tax incentives for renewable energy development (mainly, the Production Tax Credit and the Energy Investment Tax Credit). Since tribes are not taxable entities, tax credits have no value for projects that are owned by tribes. This is a real obstacle to utility-scale renewable electricity projects in Indian Country. Since projects owned by taxable business entities can benefit from tax incentives, tribal projects are not competitive in the market unless they join with partners that are taxable, but that means tribes cannot be equity owners of such projects, except by using complicated partnership-flip agreements. In the last several sessions of Congress, bills have been introduced to solve this problem, by authorizing tribes that are owners of renewable energy projects to transfer their share of the tax credits to taxable business partners. A related issue concerns energy efficiency tax credits. Under current law, states and local governments can allocate these credits to taxable developers of energy efficiency projects, but tribal governments cannot. Another set of issues concerns federal assistance programs for states and local governments that do not include tribes. One example is the federal program to help states and local governments enhance the energy efficiency requirements in their building codes. Another example is the federal program to carry out energy efficiency improvements in institutional buildings, including schools and hospitals. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs conducted a listening session during the annual convention of the National Congress of American Indians in Portland, Oregon, on October 31, 2011, with S 1684 is one of the bills on the agenda for that session. In addition, Chairman Akaka has indicated that the Committee intends to hold hearings on this bill. More information is in  GM_11-121_TribalEnergyDev.pdf at: http://hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-121.

Representative Don Young (R-AK), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, introduced HR 3532, the American Indian Empowerment Act of 2011, November 30, 2011. Representative Dan Boren (D-OK) was an original co-sponsor of the bill which was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. As introduced, HR 3532 would change existing federal Indian law in some key areas. First, the bill would allow for federally recognized Indian tribes to request that lands held in trust for the tribe be conveyed to the tribe under restricted-fee status. Once the governing body of a tribe makes a request in writing, the Secretary of the Interior would have 180 days to complete the mandatory transfer. The tribal trust land would then be a restricted-fee parcel, subject only to restrictions against alienation and taxation. Second, the bill provides that the change in status of the land from trust to restricted-fee land would not affect its status as "Indian country" as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1151. In addition, under the bill, an Indian tribe may lease, or grant easements and rights-of-way, on the restricted fee lands without any approval or review from the Secretary of the Interior. Finally, tribal law would preempt any federal law regarding the use of the restricted fee land, after the required publication of the tribal laws in the Federal Register by the Secretary of the Interior within 120 days after receiving a copy from the tribe. Additional information is available in GM 11-145, Rep. Young Introduces Bill on Restricted Fee Lands.pdf, available at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-145.

Congressman Trent Franks’ proposed H.R. 2938  that would block the Tohono O’odham Nation from building its proposed resort/casino in Glendale, AZ  (“Mayor Testifies Against Bill Hindering the Tohono O’odham West Valley project,” Indian Country Today, October 9, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/mayor-testifies-against-bill-hindering-the-tohono-oodham-west-valley-project/).

U.S. Executive Branch Agencies

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published the final policy letter providing Executive Departments and agencies guidance on managing the performance of inherently governmental and critical functions, September 12, 2011. The letter on the performance of inherently governmental and critical functions clarifies what functions are inherently governmental and must always be performed by federal employees. The final policy letter defines "inherently governmental function" as "a function that is so intimately related to the public interest as to require performance by Federal Government employees" which tracks the statutory definition in the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act, 10 U.S.C. § 2883. The final policy letter also explains what agencies must do when work is "closely associated" with inherently governmental functions and requires agencies to identify their "critical functions" to ensure they have sufficient internal capability to maintain control over functions that are core to the agency's mission and operations. Based on multiple provisions in the ISDEAA, such as section 4(j) which states that no tribal contract under the Act "shall be construed to be a procurement contract" as well as other provisions in Title I, IV, and V of the Act, contracts under the Act are not subject to OMB guidelines applicable to commercial contracts. The proposed policy letter caused tribes to be concerned that without an explicit exception for ISDEAA in the policy letter, OMB staff may not be aware of the unusual right of tribes to administer certain federally-funded programs (especially, but not limited to, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service programs) and attempt to decline tribal contract proposals. OMB explained that the final policy letter's focus is on the relationship between the federal government and its contractors (entities who are providing a product or service for the direct benefits of an agency under a federal procurement contract). The response states "[t]he policy letter is not intended to modify or otherwise affect any rights or limitations set forth under the Act, including either the right of Tribal governments to assume and carry out functions under the ISDEAA or limitations imposed by the ISDEAA on a Tribal government's ability to assume responsibility for an inherently Federal function as that term is used under the Act." Although tribes did not receive the express exemption in the policy letter itself, OMB's statements in the Notice of Final Policy Letter to clarify the final policy letter is not meant to affect tribes' ISDEAA contracts can be used to show the intent of OMB not to interfere with the rights of tribes under the ISDEAA. A more detailed pdf is available: GM_11-117_InherentlyGovernmentalFunctionDefined.pdf , at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-117.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released reports , September 30, 2011, “Access to Mental Health Services at Indian Health Service and Tribal Facilities” and “Access to Kidney Dialysis Services at Indian Health Service and Tribal Facilities,” prepared in response to an inquiry made in 2008 by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) regarding the availability of these services at IHS and tribal health facilities. “Access to Mental Health Services at Indian Health Service and Tribal Facilities” notes the disproportionate need for mental health services among American Indians and Alaska Natives – a need fueled by high rates of suicide, substance abuse, depression, unemployment and poverty. While most IHS and tribal health facilities report that they offer some mental health services, the range of what is offered varies widely. Only 15% of facilities offer inpatient mental health treatment. Most facilities that do not provide mental health services refer clients to other providers. Lack of funding severely limits the ability to meet mental health needs – nine percent of the IHS clinical services budget is devoted to mental health and substance abuse services combined. Mental health services alone are 2.5% of the clinical services budget. Other difficulties in providing adequate mental health care include shortages of skilled providers, transportation and child care needs, and the inability to make required co-payments. The OIG survey shows that 17% of IHS and tribal facilities use telemedicine for mental health services although IHS and tribal health care providers reported that pharmacotherapy (treatment of diseases with drugs) is "one of the services most in demand for telemedicine and one of the services best suited for it." A licensed provider must prescribe drugs used in pharmacotherapy although other staff may provide management services for those drugs. 36% of the substance abuse treatment centers and 22% of the Alaska Native villages reported using pharmacotherapy, whereas 77% of the hospitals provide this service. The OIG recommendations for IHS are almost the same as in the kidney dialysis report, and the IHS has concurred with these recommendations: Provide guidance and technical assistance to help tribes explore potential partnerships with non-AI/AN providers of community mental and behavioral health services. Continue to expand its telemedicine capabilities and provide guidance and technical assistance to tribal health care providers to expand and implement telemedicine. Develop a plan to create a single database of all IHS and tribal heath care facilities. “Access to Kidney Dialysis Services at Indian Health Service and Tribal Facilities” stated that of the 506 IHS and tribal facilities that responded to the OIG survey, only 20 facilities reported providing dialysis services; however, many of the respondents at facilities which do not provide these services indicated that dialysis services were instead provided by means of referral to outside (non-IHS and non-tribal) facilities. The 20 IHS and tribally operated facilities which do provide services indicated that a combination of the number of dialysis visits needed each week, the poor condition of many roads (particularly during severe weather) and the long distances traveled to receive care created considerable hardships for their patients who, in some cases, were forced to rent hotel rooms near the dialysis facilities to reduce the risk of missing an appointment during inclement weather. Many facilities which do not provide dialysis services are small in size, located in rural areas and serve a small patient base. Respondents at these facilities indicated the main reasons they do not offer dialysis services are a lack of funds, a lack of specialized staff qualified to perform dialysis and a lack of physical space for the dialysis machines. While patients of any age may receive coverage for dialysis under Medicare, some restrictions apply so not all patients needing dialysis are eligible. To address these cost and logistics challenges, IHS and tribal facilities have created several innovative solutions, primarily: providing transportation assistance to patients and providing access to qualified specialists through telemedicine. In some instances facilities, in recognition of both the immense human and monetary costs created by end stage renal disease, are focusing their resources on the prevention of diabetes (which often precedes kidney failure) rather than on providing dialysis services. The OIG made several recommendations to the IHS with which it has concurred:? Develop a plan to provide technical expertise and consultation to assist tribes in evaluating the economic feasibility of establishing dialysis facilities. Develop guidance and technical assistance resources to help IHS and tribal facilities expand alternative treatments for dialysis services. Develop a plan to create a single database of all IHS and tribal healthcare facilities. The full reports are available at: ?http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-09-08-00580.pdf (Access to Mental Health Services), and? http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-09-08-00581.pdf (Access to Kidney Dialysis Services) (http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-116).

The Census Bureau published in the October 13, 2011, Federal Register a notice updating the list of counties or other political subdivisions which must comply with the requirements of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1975, concerning minority languages. Assistance is required in the voting process for Native language-speaking persons in portions of Alaska; New Mexico; Arizona; Mississippi; Texas; and Utah. Section 203 of the Act requires translated election materials, oral interpretation and aid, and other language-sensitive assistance in certain areas based on minority group size and high rates of illiteracy. In 1992, Congress amended Section 203 of the Act to include political subdivisions that contain all or any part of an Indian reservation in which over five percent of the residents are members of a single language group, are limited-English-proficient, and possess an illiteracy rate exceeding the national average (http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-118).

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has invited tribal leaders to comment by December 2, 2011 on two issues concerning individual Indian rights and tribal authority: (1) DOJ's policy concerning possession of eagle feathers by tribal members; and (2) opportunities for federal/tribal training on the enforcement of wildlife and other environmental laws, as Federal law recognizes that eagles have a unique and important place in the cultural and religious lives of many American Indians, permitting American Indians to possess eagle feathers and other eagle parts, even though possession of such materials by most other people is illegal under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The DOJ has long looked to the "Morton Policy," a statement developed by the Department of Interior in the 1970s, for guidance on how to handle cases involving American Indians in possession of eagle feathers. However, DOJ has never developed a formal policy on the matter. By soliciting comments, DOJ hopes to determine whether tribes would welcome a formal policy and, if so, if there are aspects of the Morton Policy that should be clarified or defined. In addition, DOJ would like to hear from tribes regarding opportunities for law enforcement training programs. As part of the National Indian Country Training Initiative, DOJ would like to ensure that training programs meet the needs of tribal prosecutors, tribal law enforcement, and other tribal personnel. The DOJ also is interested in conducting combined federal/tribal training programs that would promote communication and cooperation between federal and tribal officials in matters of wildlife and environmental law enforcement. More details are in GM_11-124_EagleFeatherPolicy.pdf available at: http://hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-124.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) is seeking laws that would allow tribal governments to respond to domestic violence in their jurisdiction committed by non-Native Americans (Ace Stryker, “Fed. AF Seeks more tribal authority in violence cases,” Southern Ute Drum, September 23, 2011).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM), November 8, 2011, seeking comments by February 6, 2012, on new regulations that would clarify what constitutes "essential governmental functions" and "commercial activities" in determining whether a tribal government's retirement plan qualifies for treatment as a government plan under Section 414(d) of the Internal Revenue Code. 76 Fed. Reg. 69188 (2011). The ANPRM sets forth the proposed regulations that would define conditions under which tribal plans would qualify as government plans. Under Section 414(d), government plans receive more advantageous tax treatment than the retirement plans of private, non-governmental retirement plans. When Congress enacted the PPA to explicitly enable tribes to enjoy the benefits provided to state and local government pension plans under Section 414(d), however, it created two categories of tribal government employee retirement plans: a government plan for those tribal employees who are performing "essential government functions"; and a commercial plan for those who are performing "commercial activities" (which includes tribal employees that work in hotels, casinos, gas stations, convenience stores or marinas). The tribal government's "commercial plan" would not be afforded the tax benefits of a government plan. The distinction between tribal governmental and commercial activities was significantly more limiting than those applicable to state and local governments, whose employees enjoy the status of government plan benefits when they are engaged in commercial activities related to the development of stadiums, arenas, municipal golf courses and other real estate developments, as well as those related to lottery ticket sales and city-owned liquor stores – so long as the activities are carried out by the government and revenues generated from those activities benefit the public. Tribes sought legislation to repeal the commercial activities clause in the PPA and in consultation with IRS demanded delays in the implementation of the two-tiered approach. Although legislative efforts never gained the requisite support, the IRS issued two notices in 2007 providing "transitional relief" to tribes that suspended compliance requirements pending further guidance for implementing the two-tiered plans. The proposed IRS rule contains provisions that explicitly identify certain types of activities that would be deemed "governmental" or "commercial" activity and establishes a "facts and circumstances test" for determining whether other types of activities fall within the governmental or commercial category. The proposed rule also provides a "location, payroll and duties test" as guidance as to whether a tribal employee substantially performs services to a governmental or commercial activity. The rule also offers examples illustrating how these various tests might be applied to particular facts. Among the specific activities the proposed rule would deem to be "governmental" are the building and maintaining of public roads and sidewalks; activities related to water, sewer and public works projects; activities related to public utilities and public services, such as police and fire departments and public hospitals and health clinics; and activities related to treaty or trust resources. Meanwhile, activities the rule would deem to be "commercial" are hotels, casinos, gas stations, convenience stores and marinas. The "facts and circumstances test" for "commercial" activities includes three factors: Whether the activity is operated to earn profits: Whether the activity is one typically carried out by private businesses?• Whether the customers are substantially from outside the Indian community and whether the activity is on or outside the tribe's Indian lands. The "facts and circumstances test" for "governmental" activities is simply whether the activities provides a public benefit to members of the tribe and whether there is an absence of the factors set forth in the test for "commercial" activities. The proposed rule does not seek to distinguish "essential governmental functions" from commercial activities consistent with the way they are differentiated for the purpose of state and local government plans. When state and local governments conduct commercial activities that generate revenues for the public benefit, they are deemed governmental, not commercial. The proposed rule's guidance as to whether a tribal employee substantially performs governmental or commercial activities depends on a location, payroll and duties test. Location: Does the employee work in a government or commercial building? Payroll: Does the government or a commercial entity pay the employee? Duties: How do an employee's duties and responsibilities compare to the government and commercial activities tests? Thus, the proposed rule illustrates that an employee who works as an attorney at the Attorney General's office at the Indian tribal government and is paid by the tribal government to review operations of boat operators at a tribal marina to ensure they comply with tribal law is a "governmental" employee. Meanwhile, a cashier at a tribal convenience store is a "commercial" employee. Additional information is available in GM_11-132_IRS_TribalPensionPlans.pdf, available at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-132.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has determined, via Announcement 2011-71, that tribes who were allocated bond authority to issue Tribal Economic Development Bonds (TEDBs) in both the first and second tranche of allocations may request to receive a three-month extension to issue such bonds. The IRS also sought comments in writing by November 30m 2011 (and in phone consultation on November 17 and December 7, 2011) from tribes on how to reallocate the nearly 95% percent of unused bond authority. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (PL 111-5, ARRA), tribal governments were given the chance to waive the "essential government function" restriction when issuing TEDBs – putting them on equal footing with local and state governments who are not bound by such restrictions. TEDBs were, in a sense, designed as a way for Congress and the Treasury Department to determine if this restriction on tribal governments should be permanently eliminated or, at a minimum, modified to be less onerous. In the first of its congressionally mandated reports published on June 9, 2010, the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT) stated that "there is a demonstrable need for TEDBs" and noted that "the initial applications for TEDB allocations exceeded the available volume." The IRS in Announcement 2011-71, however, reports that nearly 95% of the $2 billion TEDB volume cap has not been issued. The ACT report published on June 15, 2011, describes the main reasons for the lack of allocation as the "misunderstanding about the TEDB program, misinformation about the allocation process, and simply bad timing for a wary capital market." The 2011 ACT report maintains that the tremendous need for tax exempt bond financing for tribes remains and recommends that the Treasury Department and the IRS consult with tribes regarding the reallocation of this unused bond authority. The IRS is considering methods of reallocating this bond authority and will potentially use an application process and criteria similar to those used for the original allocation under IRS Notice 2009-51. However, the IRS sought additional input on the processes and criteria used for this reallocation. IRS Notice 2009-51 may be found at: http://www.irs.gov/irb/2009-28_IRB/ar09.html and the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities reports may be found here: http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=98353,00.html. Additional information is in GM_11-130_Second_IRS_TEDB_Extension.pdf, at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-130.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a notice in the Federal Register, October 24, 2011, requesting applications or nominations by December 1, 2011 for membership to serve on the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT) from persons wishing to represent tribal governments." The ACT is an organized public forum for discussion of relevant employee plans, exempt organizations, tax-exempt bonds, and federal, state, local, and tribal government issues between officials of the IRS and representatives of these different communities. Membership on the ACT provides Indian Country with a chance to weigh in with IRS policy makers on important tax related matters. In recent years, the ACT has addressed (at the request of Congress in some instances) issues such as Tribal Economic Development Bonds and tribal pensions plans as well as other tax issues which are not tribal specific but still impact tribes. Additional information is in GM_11-126_IRS_ACT.pdf, available at: http://hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-126.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued anew revenue procedure, November 14 allowing American Indian tribes to establish trusts for minors or legally incompetent tribal members for the distribution of gambling revenues under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). The new measure, Revenue Procedure 2011-56, supersedes Rev. Proc. 2003-14, and does not require beneficiaries of an IGRA trust to include amounts in gross income under the economic benefit doctrine when transferred to, or earned by, the IGRA trust. Still, they “must include trust distributions in income when actually or constructively received.” If all provisions are met, an Indian tribe is considered the grantor and owner of the trust. Thus, the trust beneficiary is not taxed on distributions to the trust or income earned by the trust until they are actually or constructively received. For more information, see “IRS Modifies Rules for Indian Gaming Revenues,” at: http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.htm (“New IRS Procedure Changes the Rules for Indian Gaming Revenues,” Indian Country Today, November 15, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/15/new-irs-procedure-changes-the-rules-for-indian-gaming-revenues-63110).

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Indian Energy introduced its Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) initiative, December 2, 2011, designed to advance clean energy generation in Indian Country by providing technical assistance in assessing the technical and financial feasibility of proposed clean energy projects. The START initiative involves two programs: 1) the Tribal START program and 2) the Alaska START program, with Applications for both START programs due by January 15, 2012. The Tribal START program is providing early-stage project development technical assistance for up to five clean energy projects in the 48 contiguous states. The Office of Indian Energy and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) is working directly with community-based teams and tribal legal and finance specialists to develop market feasibility and due diligence research and analysis. The goal of this effort is to create a pre-development package to support a request for proposal process for financing or construction. The Alaska START Program is a comprehensive effort examining all energy-related issues in up to five Alaska Native villages, including diesel powerhouses, power distribution infrastructure, utility management, bulk fuel storage, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as water, sewer and housing needs. Led by the Office of Indian Energy and the NREL and in partnership with the Denali Commission, the Alaska START program will support activities focused on community-based energy planning, energy awareness and training programs, as well as identification and implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency opportunities. More information is on GM 11-144 DOE IE START Initiative for Tribal Clean Energy Assistance.pdf, available at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-144.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), November 29, 2011, published a proposed rule to make amendments to 25 CFR Part 162, governing the review and approval process for leases of Indian lands, 76 Fed. Reg. 73784. The proposed rule reflects numerous comments from tribes. The deadline for filing comments is January 30, 2012. The proposed rule would make extensive changes in Part 162. In the existing regulations, all leases for non-agricultural purposes are subject to the same regulations. The proposed would add new separate subparts to address residential leases, business leases, wind resource evaluation leases, and wind and solar resource development leases. The existing subpart for non-agricultural leases would be removed. The proposed rule would make a number of important changes, including establishing deadlines for BIA action and limiting the grounds on which BIA could disapprove lease documents. Certain kinds of subleases would no longer require BIA approval; other kinds of subleases would be deemed approved if not expressly disapproved within the specified deadline. Permits for temporary uses of Indian land would no longer require BIA approval as would certain kinds of land assignments. In the matter of determining the amount of rent for leased land, the existing rule requires an appraisal unless BIA grants a waiver; the proposed rule would defer to a tribal decision for tribal land and would provide some flexibility for individually-owned Indian land. The proposed rule would also allow BIA to waive the requirement for a performance bond and would eliminate the performance bond requirement for leases for housing for public purposes. With respect to enforcement of compliance with leases, the proposed rule would require BIA to consult with landowners prior to taking certain kinds of enforcement actions. The proposed rule states that improvements on trust or restricted land are not taxable by states or localities, without regard to ownership. Proposed §§ 162.315(c), 162.415(c), 162.515(c). This point is discussed in the preamble to the proposed rule (76. Fed. Reg. 73785) as follows: These regulations are intended to preempt the field of leasing Indian lands. The Federal statutory and regulatory scheme for leasing, including the regulation of improvements, is so pervasive as to preclude the additional burden of State taxation. The assessment of State taxes would obstruct Federal policies supporting tribal economic development and self-determination, and tribal interests in effective tribal government and economic self-sufficiency. Subpart C – Residential Leases. This new subpart would govern leases for single family homes and housing for public purposes. There are two key features of the proposed rule that are of particular importance to tribal housing programs. First, the proposed rule would establish timelines for BIA to act on leases, lease assignments, amendments, and subleases. For residential leases and assignments, BIA would be required to act within 30 days (with one 30 day extension), and BIA's failure to act on a lease or assignment within that time period, could be appealed by the tribe or tribally designated housing entity (TDHE) pursuant to 25 C.F.R. part 2. For residential lease amendments and subleases, the proposed rule would adopt a "deemed approved" framework: if BIA does not take action within a specific timeframe (30 days plus one 30 day extension), the amendment or sublease will be "deemed approved." In the earlier draft, leasehold mortgages were also subject to the "deemed approved" approach; in the new draft, leasehold mortgages can no longer be "deemed approved," because BIA received comments indicating that lenders who seek leasehold mortgages rely on BIA approvals. The Administration has touted this provision in its press statements on the proposed rule, and this addresses one of the key concerns raised in the comments on the draft: that BIA takes too long to approve leases and that such delays substantially impair development of housing (as well as business activities under other regulatory provisions). The proposed rule also states, however, that any provisions of the lease that are not consistent with federal law will not be considered to have been "deemed approved," leaving some uncertainty as to just what has been approved in the "deemed approved" process. A second important feature of the proposed rule is that it would exempt subleases for public housing purposes from the requirement for BIA approval. This means that any lease between a TDHE and a low-income tenant or homebuyer (which is technically a sublease from the master lease between tribe and TDHE) would not require approval. In order to be exempt from BIA approval requirements, however, the sublease must meet three conditions: (1) the master lease must expressly state that BIA approval of subleases is not required; (2) BIA must have "approved a general plan for development" for the parcel, and (3) BIA must have also approved a sublease form and general rent schedule. These conditions, the terms of which are not described in any detail, would appear to involve BIA playing a not insignificant role in affordable housing activities by tribes and TDHEs. The new Subpart D – Business Leases would govern leases for commercial or industrial leases for retail, office, manufacturing, storage, biomass energy, waste-to-energy, and other business purposes. In addition, this subpart would govern leases for: (1) residential purposes not covered by Subpart C; (2) business purposes not covered by Subpart E (wind energy evaluation, wind and solar resource development; and (3) religious, educational, recreational, cultural, and other public purposes. For leases covered by Subpart D, BIA would have 60 days to make a decision on a complete lease application, although BIA could notify the applicant that it needs more time. Failure by BIA to meet the deadline could be appealed. Subpart E – Wind and Solar Resource Leases would establish procedures for obtaining BIA approval of wind energy evaluation leases (WEELs) and wind and solar resource (WSR) development leases. A WEEL would be a new kind of short term lease to allow for possession of Indian land for the installation of equipment such as meteorological towers to evaluate the wind resource. The environmental review for a WEEL could be limited to the impacts of doing the evaluation, i.e., it need not consider the impacts of developing the wind resource. For solar resource development, the proposed rule would not establish such a two-step process because evaluating the solar resource does not require taking possession of the land. The approval timeframe for a WEEL is 30 days; for a complete WSR development lease application it would be 60 days. To develop the proposed rule, the BIA conducted a series of consultation sessions with tribes using a pre-publication draft of the proposed rule. Responses to those comments are not included in the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register but, rather, are set out in a separate document captioned "Response to Comments Received During Tribal Consultation," which is available on the website listed below. In some cases, BIA made changes in response to comments; in others, the "Response" document explains why changes were not made. In response to tribal concerns that certain provisions could be interpreted to render state law applicable, proposed section 162.013 was revised to say that state law applies only "in the specific areas and circumstances in Indian country where Congress or a Federal court has made it expressly applicable." In addition, proposed section 162.014 was revised to say that, unless "contrary to Federal law," BIA will comply with tribal laws, including those relating to land use, environmental protection, and historic or cultural preservation. A number of changes have been made in the proposed rule in response to tribal comments on valuation and fair market rental. One change was to separate the requirements for tribal land from the requirements for individually-owned Indian land. The basic reasoning is that if a tribe agrees to accept less than fair market value, BIA should defer to the tribe's judgment. The "Response" document also clarifies that it is permissible for a tribe to negotiate developer fees under tribal law. With respect to adjustments of rent, the proposed rule has been changed to allow tribes to include automatic adjustment clauses and thereby avoid periodic review of the adequacy of rent. A number of changes were made in the provisions relating to residential leases in response to comments from tribes and coordination with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The revisions are summarized in a table in the "Response" document. Among other changes, the proposed rule was revised to allow for assignments and subleases without BIA approval in certain circumstances. The new subpart relating to Wind and Solar Resource leases was substantially changed in response to tribal comments. One such change is that a short-term agreement for evaluation of a wind resource is now recognized to be a kind of lease; such agreements had been called "permits" in the pre-publication draft. In response to tribal comments regarding compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the "Response" document notes that the environmental review for an evaluation lease can be less detailed than for a development lease. A point not raised is that BIA could consider a revision to its NEPA implementing procedures (516 DM 10) to establish a categorical exclusion for wind energy evaluation leases. Such a change is outside the scope of the proposed rule but would be a complementary action to expedite BIA approval of such leases. The "Response" document discusses a number of other topics, including mandatory lease provisions; bonding and insurance; surveys; enforcement; due diligence; payment; improvements on leased land; the applicability of the regulations (and the range of tribal activities that are not covered); compatible uses; appeals; the "general" provisions; and cross-cutting issues. As announced in the Dear Tribal Leader letter, three consultation sessions are planned: Seattle, WA, January 10; Palm Springs, CA, January 12; and Rapid City, SD, January 18. The proposed rule and several related documents are available on the BIA website at: www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/AS-IA/Consultation/index.htm. The other documents on the website are: a Dear Tribal Leader letter; Tribal Consultation Supplement (which summarizes the proposed rules); BIA Responses to Comments Received during Tribal Consultation Comparison Chart between Existing Rule and Proposed Rule; Frequently Asked Questions; and Redline Version of Part 162 Showing Proposed Changes. For your convenience, we have attached a copy of the Dear Tribal Leader letter and the Tribal Consultation Supplement. Further information is in GM_11-147_BIA_ProposedLeasingRegs.pdf, available at http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-147.

The head of the BIA, Larry Echo Hawk, September 2, 2011, approved land into trust for gaming applications from the Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians in Yuba County, California, and the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians in Madera County, California, while not approving applications from the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians in California, and the Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico (Gale Courey Toensing, “ Approves Two Gaming Sites, Rejects Two Others,” Indian Country Today, September 2, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/02/bia-approves-two-gaming-sites-rejects-two-others-51416). The BIA took land into trust in 3 locations where the Osage Nation of Oklahoma runs gaming facilities, in July. The Casinos are in Tulsa, Skiatook and Ponca City (Gale Courey Toensing, “BIA Takes Land into Trust for Osage Casinos,” Indian Country Today, August 25, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/25/bia-takes-land-into-trust-for-osage-casinos-49084).  The BIA reversed a previous decision, June 1, 2011, to transfer 26 acres of land located just east of Boise, ID to the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Owyhee, NV that was to be used for economic developmentby the tribe whose 1100 residents have a 40% unemployment rate. The bureau held that the transfer would be in violation of Federal law (“Federal Government Reverses Land Deal with Shoshone-Paiute Tribes,” Indian Country Today,August 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/14/federal-government-reverses-land-deal-with-shoshone-paiute-tribes-47257).

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC ), in late August, rejected a casino ordinance for the Tohono O’odham Nation, because the proposed site for a gaming facility has not yet been taken into trust, which is required before NIGC approval. The nation wants to annex the 134 acres of unincorporated land it owns near Glendale, Arizona for its planned $300 million hotel-casino, the West Valley Resort Project (“NIGC Rejects Tohono O’odham Nation’s Casino Ordinance For Now,” Indian Country Today, September 1, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/01/nigc-rejects-tohono-oodham-nations-casino-ordinance-for-now-50031).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), October 14, 2011 published a proposed rule and request for comments in the Federal Register regarding the implementation of the Substantially Underserved Trust Areas provisions (Section 6105) of the Farm Bill (PL 110-246), with comments due by December 13, 2011. These provisions grant the Secretary of Agriculture "certain discretionary authorities" to provide more favorable loan, guaranteed loan and grant terms when administering certain RUS programs on areas of trust land. PL 110-246 defines a Substantially Underserved Trust Area (SUTA) as "a community in 'trust land' with respect to which the Secretary determines has a high rate of need for the benefits of an eligible program. " This definition provides the Secretary of Agriculture with considerable leeway to determine the definition of a "high rate of need" and provides the Secretary with the authority to: provide extended repayment terms and interest rates as low as two percent for loan and guaranteed loan programs; waive non-duplication restrictions, matching fund, or credit support requirements for loan and grant programs; and give the highest funding priority to such designated projects. Programs eligible for such consideration include: Rural Electrification Loans and Guaranteed Loans and High Cost Energy Grants; Water and Waste Disposal Loans, Guaranteed Loans and Grants; Telecommunications Infrastructure Loans and Guaranteed Loans; Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loans and Grants; and Broadband Loans and Guaranteed Loans. Because the statute provides the Secretary with such flexibility and discretion to determine what constitutes a "high rate of need" and to consider applications on a case-by-case basis to provide more favorable grant and loan terms, RUS (acting on behalf of the Secretary) proposes that applications for consideration under this provision must provide a certain level of documentation in order to assist RUS in making these determinations. In addition to the issue of documentation, the proposed rule would require that the project be financially viable, and describes what resources will be used to determine that land is in trust status. Respondents were invited to provide comments addressing the following standard questions: (a) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of burden including the validity of the methodology and the assumption used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques on other forms of information technology. Prior to publication of the proposed rule and request for comments, RUS conducted a number of consultations with tribes and federal agencies which are detailed in the attached notice. Please let us know if we may provide additional information or assistance in drafting comments regarding the Rural Utilities Service's implementation of the Substantially Underserved Trust Areas initiative. More information is in GM_11-122_USDA_RUSproposedSUTArule.pdf, available at: http://hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-122.

Proposed new congressional districts, in the process of redistricting Arizona, consolidate Indian voters, likely increasing their political impact. Proposed district 7 includes parts of previous districts 1, 2, 3, and 5, placing the state’s northern tribes in one district, while proposed district 1 would now include the Apache, Havasupai, Hopi and Hualapai in the same district, which would likely be beneficial to Democratic Congressional candidate Wenona Benally Baldenegro (Navajo) (Cindy Yurth, “The Battle for fair representation: Redistricting of Legislative, congressional districts would consolidate Native vote,” Navajo Times, December 15, 2011).

Esther Kia’aina, a Native Hawaiian and long-time indigenous rights advocate who previously served as a congressional aide to Democratic Senators Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye and former Representative Ed Case, and who currently serves as chief advocate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, declared her intent, in August, to run for the open 2nd Congressional District, which includes all of Hawaii outside metro Honolulu ( Rob Capriccioso, “Na tive Hawaiian Enters Congressional Race, Indian Country Today, August 26, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/26/native-hawaiian-enters-congressional-race-49371).

Federal Indian Budgets

Congress funded most of the U.S.  government in FY  2012 by continuing resolution, but three Indian related budgets did pass and were signed by the President, which are reported below. On October 4, 2011, the House, by a vote of 352 to 66, approved a FY 2012 Continuing Resolution (HR 2608) that will fund federal agencies through November 18, 2011 ( http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-112). A budget bill for the rest of the government for FY 2012 was in the process of passing congress, on December 20, and its Indian related provisions will be reported in the next issue of IPJ.

The President signed as Public Law 112-55 the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012, (HR 2112; H.Rpt. 112-284), November 18, 2011, which provides full-year funding for programs under three appropriations bills–Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-Science; and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. The overall FY 2012 DOJ discretionary funding is $27.4 billion, which is $18.5 million above the FY 2011 level but is $1.3 billion below the President's request. Reported here are only figures that apply specifically to Native nations or programs. The Flexible Tribal Criminal Justice Assistance Proposal Rejected, as Congress did not concur with the Administration's proposed FY 2012 funding plan of a seven percent set-aside for a new flexible tribal criminal justice assistance program, which would have resulted in well over $100 million if Congress had appropriated Office of Justice Programs, COPS and other discretionary funding at the requested levels. Instead, PL 112-55 continues to provide tribal assistance funding under a program-by-program method, albeit at significantly lower levels than either those proposed by the President or FY 2011 enacted. On Tribal Consultation, as recommended in the Senate Report, the Conference Report includes similar language that directs the Department to report on how the tribal consultation process will be utilized to coordinate DOJ/Department of the Interior programs and funding opportunities. The Conference Report states: The conferees are aware that the Department continues to develop its formal strategy on how to enhance public safety in Indian country. Not later than 120 days after the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall provide the Committees on Appropriations a report on how DOJ will use the tribal consultation process to further streamline and coordinate programs and funding opportunities for Native Americans, both within DOJ and with relevant programs of the Department of the Interior. (H.Rpt. 112-284, p. 231). The House Committee Report, which was not changed by the conferees, directed tribal consultations to include Indian treaty rights of fisheries and marine mammal protection as it relates to tribal economic and business development. The Committee Report states: Native American Affairs.—The Committee directs that within the funds provided for Departmental Management, funds shall be made available to the extent possible to support outreach efforts of the Senior Advisor for Native American Affairs in conducting regional meetings and tribal consultations that include Indian treaty rights of fisheries and marine mammal protection that are aimed at enhancing economic and business development and trade and tourism for Native American tribes. (H.Rpt. 112-169, p. 43). Under Violence Against Women Prevention and Prosecution Programs (2011 Enacted $417.6 million?, FY 2012 Admin. Request $454.8 million, ?FY 2012 Enacted $412.5 million): Clearinghouse on the Sexual Assault of American Indian and Alaska Native Women – $500,000, as requested. The Administration requested new funds to establish a national clearinghouse on the sexual assault of American Indian and Alaska Native women. It is hoped that the clearinghouse will evolve to enable tracking emerging trends in the field and aid with the development of a global perspective on sexual assault in Indian Country. Violence Against Native Women – $1 million. The Administration had proposed increased funding for Research on Violence Against Indian Women to $3 million. In Office of Justice programs: Tribal Law Enforcement Assistance ?FY 2011 Enacted $50 million ?FY 2012 Admin. Request est. $139.5 million. The conferees did not concur with the Administration's proposed FY 2011 funding plan of a seven percent set-aside for a new flexible tribal criminal justice assistance program in lieu of dedicated tribal and tribal-eligible funding under the various State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance accounts. The flexible tribal account would have resulted in $139.5 million if Congress had appropriated Office of Justice Programs funding at the requested level. The Conference Report states: Tribal assistance.–The conference agreement includes $38,000,000 for tribal grant programs. The conferees expect OJP to consult closely with tribal stakeholders in determining how tribal assistance funds will be allocated among grant programs that help improve public safety in tribal communities, such as grants for detention facilities under section 20109 of subtitle A of title II of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-322), civil and criminal legal assistance as authorized by title I of Public Law 106-559, tribal courts, and alcohol and substance abuse reduction assistance programs. The conferees direct OJP to submit, as part of the Department's spending plan for fiscal year 2012, a plan for the use of these funds that has been informed by such consultation. The conferees note that the conference agreement includes additional grant funding for tribal law enforcement programs through COPS and OVW. (H.Rpt. 112-284, p. 247). The COPS Hiring Program: FY 2011 Enacted $298 million? FY 2012 Admin. Request $600 million ?FY 2012 Enacted $166 million, and for COPS Tribal Hiring, the Administration proposed a seven percent set-aside for tribal programs, which would have resulted in $42 million for the hiring tribal law enforcement officers if COPS Hiring was funded at the requested level. Congress did not agree to this proposal. Instead, the bill provides $15 million from within the above COPS Hiring Grants total to be transferred to the Tribal Resources Grant Program (TRGP)? FY 2011 Enacted $40 million? FY 2012 Admin. Request $20 million ?FY 2012 Enacted $20 million. The bill provides $20 million in direct appropriations and $15 million transferred from COPS Hiring for the Tribal Resources Grant Program. The combined resources can be used as follows: The conference agreement provides a total of $35,000,000 in funding targeted entirely to tribal communities through the TRGP. Within the TRGP, $20,000,000 is provided through direct appropriations and $15,000,000 is provided by transfer from the COPS Hiring program. The conferees note that all funds available to the TRGP may be used for equipment and hiring or training of tribal law enforcement. (H.Rpt. 112-284, p. 249). More information is available in  GM_11-142_DOJ_fy12final.pdf at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-142.

Legislation was enacted providing full year FY 2012 appropriations for the Department of Agriculture (Department) and Related Agencies when the President signed the bill, HR 2112, on November 18, 2011, as Public Law 112-55. The bill  reduces Agriculture and Related Agencies discretionary funding by 13% below FY 2011 and 18 % below the President's request. It also contains a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the remaining nine appropriations bills through December 16, 2011 (see Hobbes, Straus… General Memorandum 11-133 of November 18, 2011, for more information). Reporting only directly American Indian funding (not including general funding of which Native programs may receive an unspecified or unknown amount), Concerning the Office of Tribal Relations, FY 2011 Enacted $498,000, FY 2012 Request $1,015,000?, FY 2012 Enacted $ 448,000, Bill language states that the purpose of this new office, which is to be located in the Office of the Secretary, is "to support communications and consultation activities with Federally Recognized Tribes, as well as other requirements established by law." The Senate Report states with regard to the Office of Tribal Relations: The Office of Tribal Relations will interact with USDA program agencies to understand pending actions that may affect Indian tribes. This interaction and programmatic knowledge will improve USDA's ability to conduct consultation activities, thereby better addressing the needs of USDA tribal constituents and improving relationships. (S.Rpt. 112-73, p. 8) The Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program: FY 2011 Enacted $3,039,000?, FY 2012 Request $8,000,000, ?FY 2012 Enacted $3,039,000. Under the Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program, state land grant universities provide education and resources for tribes in areas including range management, wildlife and fisheries enhancement and education for adults and youth. The Tribal Colleges Extension Services: FY 2011 Enacted $4,312,000?, FY 2012 Request $5,321,000?, FY 2012 Enacted $4,312,000. Native American Institutions Endowment Fund (tribal colleges): FY 2011 Enacted $11,880,000, FY 2012 Request $11,880,000?, FY 2012 Enacted $11,880,000. The Senate Report explains: The Native American Institutions Endowment Fund authorized by Public Law 103-382 provides an endowment for the 1994 land-grant institutions (34 tribally controlled colleges). This program will enhance educational opportunity for Native Americans by building educational capacity at these institutions in the areas of student recruitment and retention, curricula development, faculty preparation, instruction delivery systems, and scientific instrumentation for teaching. Income funds are also available for facility renovation, repair, construction, and maintenance. On the termination of each fiscal year, the Secretary shall withdraw the income from the endowment fund for the fiscal year, and after making adjustments for the cost of administering the endowment fund, distribute the adjusted income as follows: 60% of the adjusted income from these funds shall be distributed among the 1994 land-grant institutions on a pro rata basis, the proportionate share being based on the Indian student count; and 40% of the adjusted income shall be distributed in equal shares to the 1994 land-grant institutions. (S.Rpt. 112-73, pp. 25-26). 1994 Institutions Equity Grants (tribal colleges): FY 2011 Enacted $3,335,000, ?FY 2012 Request $3,676,000, ?FY 2012 Enacted $3,335,000. 1994 Institution Research Initiative (tribal colleges): FY 2011 Enacted $1,801,000?, FY 2012 Request $1,805,000?, FY 2012 Enacted $1,801,000. Every two years the tribal colleges compete for these funds. Community Facility Grants for Tribal Colleges and Universities: FY 2011 Enacted $3,964,000?, FY 2012 Request –0–?FY 2012 Enacted $3,369,000. Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian-Serving Higher Education Institutions: FY 2011 Enacted $3,194,000, ?FY 2012 Request $3,200,000, ?FY 2012 Enacted 3,194,000. Bill language provides that the funds are to be divided equally between Hawaii and Alaska. The Rural Business Program Subsidy and Grants provides that of the total, $4 million is for business grants for federally recognized tribes. Within the $4 million is $250,000 "for a grant to a qualified national organization to provide technical assistance for rural transportation in order to promote economic development." Among the programs funded under this account are the Rural Business Enterprise grants ($24 million, a $10 million decrease from FY 2011) and the Rural Business Opportunity grants ($2.25 million, slightly more than in FY 2011). In FY 2011 there were 13 awards to tribes totaling $1.05 million under the Rural Business Opportunity program and 32 awards to tribes totaling $3.2 million under the Rural Business enterprise program. In the Rural Water and Waste Disposal Program Subsidy and Grants are $66.5 million (a $2.1 million decrease) for water and waste disposal systems grants for Native Americans, including Native Alaskans, the Colonias, and residents of Hawaiian Homelands. Also included is $800,000 for technical assistance for rural water systems for tribal communities, and $15 million for a circuit rider program to provide technical assistance for rural water systems. Indian Tribal Land Acquisition Loans: FY 2011 Enacted $3,940,000?, FY 2012 Request $2,000,000?, FY 2012 Enacted $2,000,000. Indian Highly Fractionated Land Loan Subsidy: FY 2011 Enacted –0–?FY 2012 Request $193,000?, FY 2010 Enacted $193,000. A subsidy of $193,000 will support $10 million in loans to individual Indians to purchase highly fractionated parcels of land. The Rural Development Direct Loan Fund Subsidy reserves $875,000 for federally recognized tribes. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides $102,746,000 for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. In addition, bill language provides that $1 million may be used "to provide nutrition education services to state agencies and Federally recognized tribes participating in the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.” The Farm Bill (PL 110-246) allows the Secretary of Agriculture to authorize tribes to administer the commodities program if he determines that a tribal organization "is capable of effectively and efficiently administering a distribution … ." The Secretary is also authorized to pay the administrative expenses associated with a tribe or state administering the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations Program. Further information is on  GM_11-140_AgricultureFY 2012App.Enacted.pdf, available at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-140.

FY 2012 Appropriations for HUD Programs in Public Law 112-55, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012, (HR 2112; H.Rpt. 112-284), directly for  Native programs (The overall FY 2012 HUD discretionary funding is nine percent below the FY 2011 level and is 11 percent below the President's request): Native American Housing Block Grants ?FY 2011 Enacted $650 million ?FY 2012 Request $700 million? FY 2012 Enacted $650 million, within which: Indian Housing Block Grants (IHBG) – $631 million; Training and Technical Assistance – $2 million. The bill language has been revised to state the funds will go "national or regional organizations…" Thus, one or more regional Indian housing organizations could seek the funds in competition with the Native American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC), which is the entity that has traditionally been awarded these funds. An additional $2 million is set aside for HUD inspections and technical assistance. Title VI Loan Guaranty Subsidy – $2 million with $20 million loan guarantee, as requested. Regarding the IHBG funds, the Conference bill imposes a restriction on the availability of funds to address concerns regarding unexpended IHBG funds, but is not as restrictive as had been proposed in the House bill. The Senate had no restrictive language. In the House version, there were two provisions regarding the approximately $1 billion in unspent IHBG funds that 1) the funds would be available for only three years and any unspent funds remaining at the end of that period would be returned to the Treasury; and 2) no funds would be awarded to a tribe who had over $20 million in unexpended balances at the beginning of a fiscal year, excluding unexpended balances from FY 2011. The Conference Report states that funds will be available for five years (until 2016), and funds must be obligated, although not necessarily expended, within that time. The Conference Report notes that with a five-year obligation timeline, the funds should be expended within ten years. The Conferees also express dismay that with such a great need for affordable housing in Indian Country, there is such a large accumulated balance of unspent funds. The report states: Timely Expenditure of Funds.—The conferees find it unconscionable that while there is significant need for affordable housing in Indian country, some tribes and TDHEs have not spent large amounts of block grant funding for several years, resulting in large accumulated balances and reduced housing activities on tribal lands. For this reason, the conferees provide a time limit for this funding and strongly urge tribes to address housing needs in a timely manner. The conferees note this account had nearly $1,000,000,000 in unexpended balances at the beginning of fiscal year 2011, with almost half of that amount belonging to a single tribe. This tribe currently has over $375,000,000 in unexpended funds, with funds dating back twelve fiscal years, and a HUD official testified this tribe was unresponsive to HUD’s encouragement to address the backlog. Such large accumulated balances and decade-old unexpended funds call into question the present need for funding in this account. In times of scarce federal funding, all accounts come under closer scrutiny. It is in the interest of all 555 tribes that receive these grants to reduce the unexpended balances and to demonstrate current need through use of these funds. (pp. 315-316). The House-proposed requirement that the HUD Office of Policy Development and Research submit a report on "alternative data sources" for the IHBG formula has been dropped. The Conference report does, however, direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study of the "unique barriers and challenges in tribal housing activities." Additionally, HUD is required to notify grantees of their funding award within 60 days of enactment of the Conference bill. HUD Multi-race census data policy: Congress, as requested, continued bill language from previous appropriations acts that is a "hold harmless" solution to HUD's decision to use the multi-race census data from the 2000 Census in calculating the formula allocation. The language requires the Secretary to apply both the multi-race and the single race data, and award each tribe the higher of the two amounts it would receive under each application. The bill language, which is the same as in FY 2011, states: Provided, That, notwithstanding the [NAHASDA], to determine the amount of the allocation under title I of such Act for each Indian tribe, the Secretary shall apply the formula under section 302 of such Act with the need component based on single-race census data and with the need component based on multi-race census data, and the amount of the allocation for each Indian tribe shall be the greater of the two resulting allocation amounts. Under Community Development )Fund FY 2011 Enacted $3.5 billion? FY 2012 Request $3.8 billion? FY 2012 Enacted $3.3 billion), funding for the Indian Community Development Block Grants program is $60 million, which is $5 million below the FY 2011 level. Additional information is in  GM_11-141_HUD_fy12final.pdf, available at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-141.

U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, announced grants , on December 1, 2011, of $15 million to assist American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments invest in, and improve, public transit and access to employment centers, all a means to promote economic development. The funds distributed through the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Tribal Transit Program will provide grants to tribes in 25 states for 67 separate projects, focusing on: Maintaining existing transit operations during the economic downturn; Enhancing services for seniors and people with disabilities; And to plan or launch new bus, van and commuter services in rural communities. Example of the funded projects are: The Quechen Indian Tribe along the California-Arizona border will receive $232,000 for new transit service on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation to improve access to employment, education, health services and recreational opportunities between Fort Yuma and Winterhaven. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Central Oklahoma will receive $450,000 to increase the on-demand transit services it provides to seniors, tribal elders, persons with disabilities and others with little or no transportation options to meet basic needs such as medical appointments, grocery and clothes shopping, jobs and adult continuing education. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will receive $140,000 to continue providing night service, consisting of five routes six nights a week, serving the Qualla Boundary portion of the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Western North Carolina. The service provides safe transportation for those who work at night, as well as for evening shopping and activities (“ Tribal Governments Receive $15 Million in Grants for Transportation,” Indian Country Today, December 4, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/04/tribal-governments-receive-15-million-in-grants-for-transportation-65726).

In the Courts

Lower Federal Courts

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, in September, lifted an injunction that had frozen payments of $18.2 from Chevron to Ecuadoreans, many of them Indigenous, collecting damages awarded by an Ecuadorian court for serious pollution. Over a 20-year period, from 1972 to 1992, Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic material into unlined pits and rivers in Ecuador, according to indigenous groups (“U.S. Court Lifts Injunction in Chevron Case,” Indian Country Today, September 21, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/u-s-court-orders-chevron-to-pay-fines-to-ecuadoreans/).

The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, September 19, that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Indian Health Service (IHS) must contract with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to operate its own clinic, upholding a district court decision on that issue, but setting the later starting date for support to October 1, 2009. The issue of tribal control over the clinic had been in litigation both before and after the tribe assumed management of the Southern Ute Health Center in Ignacio, Colorado on October 1, 2009, when the tribe and IHS agreed the tribe would begin management of the Health Center while issues were resolved that led to the court dispute. A decade earlier the tribe had proposed a transfer of clinic operation from IHS to the tribe under the Indian Self-Determination Act, but the IHS declined the proposal, leading to years of litigation over the start date of a transfer of management and the amount of contract support costs (CSC) for administration (Carol Berry, “Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Weekly Roundup – September 19 – 25,” Indian Country Today, September 26, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/tenth-circuit-court-of-appeals-weekly-roundup-–-september-19-–-25/).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, October 20, 2011, issued its opinion in Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. Madison County, the most recent chapter of a dispute since the 1990s between the Oneida Indian Nation (OIN) and several counties in New York. The instant case addressed the OIN's challenge to the counties' alleged right to foreclose upon fee lands owned by OIN for non-payment of property taxes – lands that are part of the Oneida reservation. The lower federal district court ruled in favor of the OIN on four independent grounds: Tribal sovereign immunity; the Nonintercourse Act; inadequate notice to the OIN in violation of federal due process rights; and the Indian reservation "exemption" from property taxes under New York state law. The federal district court issued injunctions that prevented the counties from enforcing the tax scheme on the OIN-owned lands. On the counties' appeal, the Second Circuit initially upheld the lower court's injunctions, but based the decision solely on the grounds of tribal sovereign immunity from suit. Subsequently, the counties appealed to the United States Supreme Court. After the Court agreed to review the case, the OIN notified the Court that it had voluntarily waived its immunity from suit, leaving no tribal immunity dispute for the Supreme Court to decide. Therefore, the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals' judgment, instructing the Court of Appeals to decide whether the tribal waiver of immunity was valid, and if so, to decide the other issues in the case. On remand the Court of Appeals reversed its previous ruling, holding that the OIN had "affirmatively disclaimed any reliance on the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity from suit," and had thereby abandoned its claims against the counties to the extent that they depended on such immunity. The appeals court also held that the OIN had abandoned its Nonintercourse Act claim against the counties. The OIN had written in its letter-brief to the court that it "no longer invokes the Nonintercourse Act's statutory restrictions on the alienation of Indian land as a defense to tax foreclosures." This language gave the court enough reason to dismiss with prejudice the two claims, thus preventing the OIN from raising them again in future litigation. After disposing of the sovereign immunity and Nonintercourse Act claims, the court held against the OIN on the remaining two claims. First, the OIN had claimed that the counties' foreclosure notice procedures violated the OIN's constitutional due process rights. The court held that the notice procedures did comport with the requirements of constitutional due process. The appeals court held that OIN's state law claims arising under New York property law should be decided by New York State Courts. OIN claims immunity from foreclosure by the counties, citing Section 454 of the New York Property Law provides that "[t]he real property in any Indian reservation owned by the Indian nation, tribe, or band occupying them shall be exempt from taxation." Additionally, Section 6 of New York Indian Law provides that "[n]o taxes shall be assessed, for any purpose whatever, upon any Indian reservation in this state, so long as the land of such reservation shall remain the property of the nation, tribe, or band occupying the same." The appeals court thought these issues should be presented to the state court to decide, not the federal court. The court refused to consider the counties' argument that the Oneida's ancient reservation was disestablished by the 1838 Treaty of Buffalo Creek, leaving in place its earlier holding that the Oneida's reservation was not disabled. Further information is in GM_11-125_Oneida.pdf, available at: http://hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-125.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided Blue Lake Rancheria v. United States, August 11, 2011, on the application of the Federal Unemployment Tax Status Act (FUTA) to Indian tribes. In this case, the Blue Lake Rancheria sought a refund of taxes paid under FUTA on the employment of certain employees of a tribally owned for profit business, Mainstay Business Solutions (MBDS). Under the Internal Revenue Code, the definition of employment excludes "services performed in the employ of an Indian tribe, or any instrumentality" of a tribe. 26 U.S.C. § 3306(c)(7). The lower court held that the exemption applies only when the tribe is the "common law employer," and not where it is only a "statutory employer" which is only responsible for paying the wages of the employees. According to the lower court, the Tribe failed to establish that it was the common law employer of the workers. The Court of Appeals agreed that statutory employers are not exempt from FUTA but also held that the Blue Lake Rancheria was exempt because it was the "common law employer" of the relevant employees, ruling that in determining whether an entity is a common law employer the court should apply the rules laid down by the Supreme Court in Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989) (whether the employer controls the manner and means by which the product is accomplished; the skill required; the source of the instrumentalities and tools; the duration of the relationship; whether additional projects can be assigned; and a number of other factors) (http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-098).

The Eighth Circuit Court of appeals decided Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa v. Frans, in which the Fond du Lac Band sought to prevent state taxation of out-of-state pension income of members of the Band. After discussing the leading cases of McClanahan v. Ariz. State Tax Comm’n, 411 U.S. 164 (1973), which held that tribes could not be taxed on income earned on their reservations by a state (unless specifically authorized by Congress), and Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U.S. 145 (1973), which held that tribes could be taxed by states on activities "occurring within the State but outside Indian country," the Court of Appeals observed that the Fond du Lac facts fell between the two decisions. It concluded that the phrase "within the State" did not mean to limit the exemption to income earned within the taxing state. As a result, it held that the exemption did not apply to the income earned by members of the tribe in another state and outside Indian Country. A strong dissent argued that a reservation tribe is exempt even though the income is earned in another state, relying on Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, p. 695 (2005), n. 207, and other authority (http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-098).

The Eleventh Circuit court, while holding parts of the Obama administration “health care” (actually health insurance) reform act unconstitutional, August 12, 2011, upheld the potion of the bill that constituted the permanent reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act . As of December, issues were  under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court ( Rob Capriccioso, “ Court Preserves Indian Health Care Law, Indian Country Today, August 16, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/16/court-preserves-indian-health-care-law-47507).

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California held, October 28, 2011, that the Office of Justice Services (OJS) of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), violated the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) when it denied a request by the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla & Cupeno Indians (Tribe) for a law enforcement contract based solely on the Tribe's location in California, a Public Law 280 (PL 280) state , in Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla & Cupeno Indians v. Salazar, No. 10cv1448 (S.D. Cal. Oct. 28, 2011). The Court also determined that the OJS's unwritten policy denying law enforcement funding to Indian tribes in PL 280 states violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Tribe's right to equal protection of the law. The Court then enjoined the OJS from using California's PL 280 status as the sole reason for declining the Tribe's contract. More information is in GM_11-128_LosCoyotesBand_v_ Salazar.pdf, at: http://www.hobbsstraus.com/general-memorandum-11-128.

The Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit in Federal district Court seeking an injunction barring the state and the city of Oklahoma City from transporting water from the tribe’s historic territories in southeastern Oklahoma. That suit concerned water storage rights to Sardis Lake; the amended suit expands the legal claims. The suit asserts that the city and state may not use Tribal land for any purpose, “including as a site for existing or additional pipelines or any other structures used to export water from the treaty territory to Oklahoma City.” The city of Oklahoma City has indicated that it was considering piping water from Sardis Lake, a man-made reservoir in southeastern Oklahoma, that the two tribes use as a water source and a recreational area. The Tribes have stated they do not seek to cut back or stop the flow of water to outside entities or people that is already in progress (“ Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes Sue to Prevent Tapping of Reservoir,” Indian Country Today,” November 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/14/choctaw-and-chickasaw-tribes-sue-to-prevent-tapping-of-reservoir-62882).

Eight Native Americans filed suit, in late November, against the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, charging the agency, many years ago when they were words of the state, placed them in a mission boarding school, where they were abused by a Jesuit priest (“Sex abuse case,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 23, 2011).

The Navajo Nation is engaged in a law suite with the National Park Service for the repatriation of Navajo remains and artifacts being held in Tucson that are from Canyon de Chelly, which while a national monument is on the Navajo Nation. Canyon de Chelly Superintendent Tom Clark has said that the Park Service is preparing to return the Dine remains, but has been delayed by its work in ascertaining whether any remains belong to other Indian nations (Felicia Fonseca, “Navajo Nation Wants Remains,” Albuquerque Journal, December 24, 2011).

The Navajo Nation reached a settlement, in August, with its $1.8 billion suit against Peabody Energy, Salt River Energy and California Energy for conspiring with the U.S. Department of the Interior to underpay the Navajo Nation. Under the settlement, the Navajo Nation is receiving $600 million (Marlet Shebala, “Peabody, tribe mum on lawsuit settlement,” Navajo Times, August 18, 2011).

State and Local Courts

Administrative Law Judge Joe Allen in the State of Oregon’s Klamath Basin Adjudication ruled in favor of the Klamath Tribes and its claims to water bodies that flow through its homeland area, in December, affirming the tribes’ claims for six large water bodies located in the former Klamath reservation area, the Williamson, Sycan, Sprague and Wood Rivers, along with their tributaries, the Klamath Marsh and more than 200 springs throughout the former reservation. Allen’s rulings interpreted the Klamath Treaty of 1864, awarding the tribe sufficient instream flows and water levels necessary for a productive habitat for animals, plants, and fish so the tribe can fulfill its treaty rights of hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering. A decision is expected in April on the Klamath Tribes claims to water from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River a decision is expected in April (“ Judge Rules in Favor of Klamath Tribes in Water Rights Case,” Indian Country Today, December 13, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/13/judge-rules-in-favor-of-klamath-tribes-in-water-rights-case-67387).

Tribal Courts

In a continuing expansion of its recognized jurisdiction, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians Tribal Court had its jurisdiction affirmed by the Superior Court of Washington state in a child custody case in Valley Center, California, in which the mother filed with the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians Tribal Court followed filings from the non-Native father with the Superior Court of Washington (“Intertribal Court Wins Recognition and Jurisdiction from Washington State Court,” Indian Country Today, October 6, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/intertribal-court-wins-recognition-and-jurisdiction-from-washington-state-court/).

Following a July 16, 2010 order of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court to immediately reinitiate the Navajo Government Development Commission, in 2011 the reorganized council established a Government Development Subcommittee. During the fall, there were proposals to eliminate representation of some important constituencies (Marley Shebala, “Reform Panel Skirt High Court Ruling,” Navajo Times, September 29, 2010), but these did no pass the Council in its fall 2011 session (http://www.navajonationcouncil.org/pressReleases/2011/oct2011/2011_Fall_Session_Legislation_Results.pdf) .

Tribal Governments and State and Local Governments

Hawk Rosales, “A Sea of Change for Tribal-State Relations,” Indian Country Today, November 28, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/a-sea-of-change-for-tribal-state-relations, comments, noting California Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird at June 30, 2011 Fish and Game Commission hearing in Stockton, California saying, “, I hope that if one thing comes out of this process, it’s the beginning of long term trust between sovereign [tribal] governments and the state of California.” “California history is marred not only by past injustice and violence toward tribal peoples, but also by overexploitation of the natural resources the tribes have depended upon and responsibly stewarded since time immemorial. However, recent events offer hope that, at last, a new era is beginning. California Indian Tribes welcomed Governor Jerry Brown’s September 2011 executive order creating a new gubernatorial tribal advisor position and making it official state policy to consult with California tribes as sovereign governments on the full range of issues affecting them. The Brown administration also has made remarkable progress in a few short months working with North Coast tribes on management and protection of resources.” What went right was the state officials collaborative participation of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of 10 federally recognized tribes with ancient and enduring ancestral and cultural ties to coastal and inland areas of Mendocino, Lake and southern Humboldt Counties. Our member tribes depend on the ocean for food, for the continuation of their culture, and for their very survival. In 2009, we were alarmed to learn that California, through the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), was starting to design marine protected areas in ancestral territories that might disallow the traditional take of seaweed, shellfish and other marine resources by North Coast tribes. “State officials, including Resources Secretary John Laird, Assembly member Wesley Chesbro, Senator Noreen Evans, and representatives of the MLPA Initiative, Department of Fish and Game, and Fish and Game Commission, carefully considered tribal concerns and ultimately committed to meeting the challenges of managing ocean resources while respecting the traditions and knowledge of local tribes. After many months of work, tribes and other stakeholders agreed to support a plan that avoids key tribal gathering places and allows for continued tribal fishing, gathering, harvesting and stewardship in most of the new protected areas. The plan also creates several fully protected marine life refuges in high-priority conservation areas. The process has been far from perfect or easy, yet the tribes’ persistence—and the state’s willingness to listen and work toward a solution—has paid off. For the first time in the state’s history, it appears California will formally recognize and protect the tribes’ traditional cultural use of marine resources.”

California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 833, in mid-October, that would have prevented a landfill in northern San Diego County’s Gregory Canyon on land considered sacred by the Pala Band of Mission Indians. The landfill, which would cover 208 acres and operate for 30 years, was proposed about 20 years ago, and despite opposition by the Pala Band and environmentalists it has been approved by voters twice. Brown stated in a message accompanying the veto that he acted on the principle that the state legislature should not intervene in a local matter, but said, “I am deeply concerned about the objections raised with respect to the sacred site [T]his dispute pains me given the unspeakable injustices the native peoples have endured and the profound importance of their spirituality and connection to the land. There’s no question that more thought needs to be given to how we resolve this inherently difficult decision and to find ways for native people and their fellow Californians to coexist in an inexorably modernizing world.”  The landfill’s developer, Gregory Canyon, Ltd., still faces a lawsuit brought against the county Department of Environmental Health by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, RiverWatch and the Pala Band (“Bill to Stop Landfill on Pala Band Sacred Site Vetoed by California Governor,” Indian Country Today,” October 18, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/bill-to-stop-landfill-on-).

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill, November 22, to allow up to three resort style casinos and one slots parlor to be licensed in the state, with one of the licenses to be for a federally acknowledged tribe, which is almost certainly the Cape Cod-based Mashpee Wampanoag since its sister tribe, the Aquinnah Wampanoag on Martha’s Vineyard may have a gaming prohibition in its land settlement agreement. The state’s casino license bids start at $85 million and the slot parlor bids start at $25 million. The bill allots 25% casino revenue and 40% of slot revenue to the state and city (Gale Courey Toensing, “Mass. Gov Signs Gaming Bill; Mashpee Wampanoags Cheer,” Indian Country Today, November 22, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/22/mass-gov-signs-gaming-bill-mashpee-wampanoags-cheer-64355).

In September, the North Dakota Legislature was considering a bill to appoint a state director of Indian education , a goal supported by the North Dakota Indian Education Association since at least 2008. The organization’s third goal listed on its website is “To advocate, support, and maintain a state supported Director of Indian Education representing the needs of American Indian children in North Dakota”  (” North Dakota Considers Legislation to Improve Native American Education,” Indian Country Today, September 15, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/15/north-dakota-considers-legislation-to-improve-native-american-education-54109).

The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain tribes signed an agreement with the state of Colorado, September 12, 2011, to have state agencies inform the nations on pending actions on health issues and their likely impacts relating to the tribe every two months (Ace Stryker, “Tribes, state sign health agreement, Southern Ute Drum, September 23, 2011).

The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and environmentalists won an initial victory against a proposed quarry in an area with sacred sites when the Riverside County Planning Commission rejected Granite Construction’s proposed Liberty Quarry , August 31, on the grounds of potential health risks from the 414-acre proposed quarry that would be built just north of San Diego County near the City of Temecula. The final decision lies with the county’s board of supervisors to which Granite Construction plans to appeal (“Quarry Opposed by Native American Tribe Rejected By County,” Indian Country Today, September 15, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/15/quarry-opposed-by-native-american-tribe-rejected-by-county-54002).

The University of North Dakota faced sanctions, August 15, including being barred from playing in post season games, for missing the NCAA’s deadline to drop the Fighting Sioux nickname. The University is required by a recent state law to keep the nickname and mascot, and it is reported that North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple suggested calling a special legislative session to reconsider the law (“University of North Dakota Faces Sanctions,” Indian Country Today, August 15, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/15/university-of-north-dakota-faces-sanctions-47562 ). On August 10, six Native American students filed a suit in federal court seeking an order to force the University to cease using the name and the mascot (“ Native American Students File Suit to Prevent Use of Fighting Sioux,” Indian Country Today, August 11, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/11/native-american-students-file-suit-to-prevent-use-of-fighting-sioux-46857 ).

Tribal Developments

The disenrollment of thousands of tribal members (now about 2500) by their tribal councils, without effective appeal because of either lack of a tribal court, or of an independent court that cannot be overruled by the council, continued, in December, with the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians of California, which operates a lucrative casino, disenrolling about 50 members. The ancient tradition of banishment was limited to perpetrators of serious crimes, but recently tribal members have been kicked out because of political or family disputes, but most especially, particularly in California, over gaining a greater share of money from tribal casinos. Some commentators argue that tribal membership is a fundamental right that cannot be removed without due process, and urge that tribes without them need to establish independent tribal courts, but in their absence, federal courts, which currently do not hear such cases, should review them (James Dao, “In California, Indian Tribes with Money Cast Off Members,” The New York Times, December 13, 2011). See David Treuer, “How Do You Prove You’re an Indian, The New York Times, December 21, 2001, on this issue and the blood quantum set of issues.

In the face of teen pregnancy rates among American Indians in South Dakota more than four times higher than for the population of the rest of the state, Sanford Research and the University of South Dakota (USD) have been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities to address investigate the reasons for the high pregnancy rate and initiate action to lower the rate of pregnant American Indian teens, including developing a pregnancy prevention program for reservation and urban Indians throughout the Northern Plains. Partners in the project include the University of Minnesota, South Dakota Urban Indian Health in Sioux Falls, and the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board. Focus groups and interviews will examine social norms and unique cultural factors that may be attributed to the high pregnancy rate among Indian youth residing on the reservation and in urban areas (“Grant to Examine and Reduce High Incidence of American Indian Teen Pregnancy,” Indian Country Today,” October 18, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/grant-to-examine-and-reduce-high-incidence-of-american-indian-teen-pregnancy/).

The University of Kansas Medical Center is engaged in testing the value for Indians of a culturally sensitive smoking cessation program tailored to Natives in comparison one that utilizes current best practices. If the Native program proves successful, it may expand into Norfolk, Niobrara, Winnebago and Sioux City, Iowa (“Smoking Cessation Program to Help Natives Curb Nicotine Cravings,” Indian Country Today, December 6, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/06/smoking-cessation-program-to-help-natives-curb-nicotine-cravings-66106).         

The First Lady’s initiative “Let’s Move in Indian Country ,” in August, granted ten American Indian tribes and programs grants of $193,437 to fight childhood obesity through a variety of programs, with the recipients including: Native Village of Afognak, AK; Chickaloon Native Village, AK; ? Pueblo of Tesuque, NM; ? Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc., CA; ? Yerington Paiute Tribe, NV; Cornerstone Ministries, Inc., New Mexico;? Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma; White Earth Band of Chippewa, MN;? The American Indian Child Resource Center, California; and ?Leech Lake, MN (‘Let’s Move in Indian Country’ Awards Grants to Combat Childhood Obesity,” Indian Country Today,August 12, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/12/lets-move-in-indian-country-awards-grants-to-combat-childhood-obesity-46926).

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has won a $567,236 competitive grant for its judiciary department from the federal Department of Justice, that will be used to support the development, implementation, enhancement and continuing operation of the Aquinnah Wampanoag’s court system . The Martha’s Vineyard-based Nation established its judicial system in the early 2000s, passing a number of ordinances dealing with various aspects of tribal law, and has received a number of federal grants during the development process. The Aquinnah Wampanoag court is designed to express and act upon the Nation’s values, enhance self-governance, strengthen the economic and cultural health of the tribe, and build tribal court capacity at the local and state levels. Tribal Chairman Andrews-Maltais said the grant will facilitate the Nation in implementing a more traditionally-based judicial system for tribal members and activities that take place on tribal lands, providing time-honored ways of resolving disputes non-punitively. He noted, “For instance, if there is an issue or dispute, we can utilize the wisdom of our traditional and cultural Leadership to offer a more traditional and/or community value based type of restitution. We can also draw from other established tribal judiciaries, with similar traditional aspects for their expertise as another option” ( Gale Courey Toensing, “Aquinnah Wampanaog Tribe Wins $567,236 DoJ Grant,” Indian Country Today, September 29, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/aquinnah-wampanaog-tribe-wins-567236-doj-grant/).

The Navajo Nation Council, in its fall session, passed No. 0311-11: Amending 2 NNC §105 to Enable Navajo Nation Council Delegates to Provide More Accessible Constituent Services through the Establishment and Operation of Local Satellite Delegate Offices (http://www.navajonationcouncil.org/pressReleases/2011/oct2011/2011_Fall_Session_Legislation_Results.pdf).

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe dedicated a new $100 million hospital on the Eagle Butte, South Dakota-based reservation on August 26. Funded with more than $80 million of stimulus money, the building is triple the size of the previous undersized and understaffed facility. A 2004 study funded by the Indian Health Service (IHS) found that its Eagle Butte-based facility had 19% of the size and 34% of the staff needed to provide adequate service to the Cheyenne River community (“Cheyenne River Sioux Dedicate New Hospital, Triple the Size of its Former Facility,” Indian Country Today, August 29, 2011. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/29/cheyenne-river-sioux-dedicate-new-hospital-triple-the-size-of-its-former-facility-49648).

Suffering the effects of the Great Recession, the Chinook Indian Nation was shutting down its food bank, December 31, 2011, in Chinook, the small southwest Washington town, after 25 years of operation because it is unable to pay the building’s rental fee of $100 a month. (“Chinook Indian Nation to Close Food Bank,” Indian Country Today, December 1, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/01/chinook-indian-nation-to-close-food-bank-65029).

A study of Indigenous farm workers in California has been undertaken that is available at: http://www.indigenousfarmworkers.org/.

Economic Developments

The collapse of the Solyndra solar cell manufacturer, once a heralded renewable-energy development for the Obama administration, may signal less federal support for tribal and other renewable energy development. As of October, the Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives was moving to cut funding for such projects (Rob Capriccioso, “Prospects for Tribal Renewable Projects Are Dimming,” Indian Country Today, October 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/prospects-for-tribal-renewable-projects-are-dimming/).

NativeOne Institutional Trading , the first American Indian-owned firm to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange, has partnered with Incapital Financial Group to provide financial services to its Native, First Nations and institutional clients. Their offerings will include corporate and municipal bonds, as well as U.S. agency and mortgage-backed securities . NativeOne, founded in 2009, has been, supporting tribes across North America by providing a portion of its revenues to support scholarships, internships, job training and other charitable causes (“NativeOne and Incapital Form a Strategic Partnership,” Indian Country Today, October 4, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/nativeone-and-incapital-form-a-strategic-partnership/).

While New York began enforcing the collection of state excise taxes on premium cigarette brands sold on reservations to non-Indians in June, after the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division lifted a temporary restraining order that had prevented New York from collecting a $4.35-per-pack tax (highest in the U.S.) on cigarettes sold to non-Natives on sovereign territory, a number of tribes have started manufacturing their own cigarettes to avoid the tax, as such sales on reservation are not taxable by the state. Numerous tribal retailers have stopped selling mainstream brands, focusing on marketing Indian tobacco products such as Seneca, Buffalo and Signal. For example, Justin Tarbell manufactures his own cigarettes on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in upstate New York and sells them at a lower price than anywhere off reservation in the U.S. (“Tribes Manufacture Cigarettes to Side-Step State Tax,” Indian Country Today, August 19, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/19/tribes-manufacture-cigarettes-to-side-step-state-tax-48186).

The Northwest Area Foundation launched a Native American Social Entrepreneurship Initiative , in October 2011, to build Indian economies by stimulating reservation-based Native businesses. The foundation will award grants of $1.59 million over two years to strengthen Native financial institutions that can spawn new businesses and new jobs. The ultimate goal is for businesses and wealth to strengthen Indian communities, and as a byproduct formulate solutions to social issues. Kevin Walker, president and chief executive officer of Northwest Area Foundation, stated, “Historically, less than one-half of one percent of philanthropic dollars is invested in Native American programs, and studies indicate that number is decreasing. This initiative seeks to invest in Native communities’ ability to reduce poverty and build prosperity. We hope other funders will see this as an opportunity for investment and impact.” The Foundation’s Native American Roundtables have found that funds also support efforts in healthcare, education, economic development, community revitalization and more. Walker noted, “Native social entrepreneurship offers great hope for social change that reduces poverty. Currently, most Native American reservations have little to no locally-based businesses. When nearly all money is spent outside Native communities, there are few opportunities to create jobs, earn a living, and build prosperous families.” Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurial Network (ONABEN) of Tigard, OR is leading the two-year initiative, under a $491,627 grant from he foundation to support an educational cohort in which the participating Native organizations will meet regularly to learn and share best practices. The goal is to increase their ability to improve entrepreneurship in their communities. Training and assistance will focus on strengthening their operations and prospects for long-term sustainability and on applying entrepreneurial principles to social issues in the broader community. Participants will test innovative asset-based strategies and expand services that create assets and wealth. Native nonprofits participating in the cohort have received six additional grants from the foundation. Many of these organizations are community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that support new businesses with loans, business plan development, marketing assistance, and financial projections. In addition, they will receive funds to implement pilot programs that build assets and wealth. Four Bands Community Fund Inc. of Eagle Butte, South Dakota, will receive up to $100,000 over two years to create a green business development curriculum, including green business training and entrepreneurship outreach services. Four Bands will work in partnership with Cheyenne River Tribal Ventures. Hunkpati Investments Inc. of Fort Thompson, South Dakota, will receive up to $200,000 for its fledgling CDFI, which seeks to stimulate economic growth on the Crow Creek Sioux Indian reservation, including piloting a youth financial initiative offering financial education, job training, matched savings accounts, and hands-on business experience. Lakota Funds of Kyle, South Dakota, will receive up to $200,000 to support a pilot project for a children’s matched savings program known as Children’s Development Accounts (CDA)., that will offer financial education that embraces partnerships with area schools, churches, and other community organizations. If successful, the CDAs will be introduced on other American Indian reservations. Northwest Native Development Fund (NNDF) of Nespelem, Washington, will receive up to $200,000 to launch its Growing into Our Footprint project which will expand business training, outreach, tax preparation assistance, and access to loans, while promoting matched savings programs and use of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Taala Fund of Taholah, Washington, will receive up to $200,000 for the Quinault Asset Building initiative, which introduces youth to financial management and business principles in order to pave pathways to future prosperity.  The grant provides resources for the Taala Fund, a CDFI, to provide asset-building services such as training, assistance, and microloans. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Business Service Center of Pendleton, Oregon, will receive up to $200,000 to provide business and financial education as early as elementary school. The curriculum will include a hands-on summer internship for middle school and high school students to prepare them for the emerging economy on the Umatilla reservation. The Northwest Area Foundation serves urban, rural and American Indian reservation communities in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, and was founded in 1934 by the Great Northern Railway, then headed by Louis W. Hill, son of James J. Hill who founded the railway that operated in these states ( “ Native American Social Entrepreneurship Initiative To Increase Reservation Businesses,” Indian County Today, October 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/native-american-social-entrepreneurship-initiative-to-increase-reservation-businesses/).

The Navajo Nation was preparing, in November, to issue its first bonds, totaling $120 million to stimulate the reservation economy. The nation intends to put the money toward thousands of jobs on the reservation, where more than 37% of the 170,000 residents lived below the federal poverty level in 2009. The Dine are taking the action both for current need, and in preparation for eventual reductions in, and ending of, revenue from extraction of resources on Navajo lands (“Navajo Nation to Issue Bonds to Stimulate Economy,” Indian Country Today, November 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/14/navajo-nation-to-issue-bonds-to-stimulate-economy-62726).

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) announced, July 18, 2011, that Indian gaming generated gross revenues of $26.5 billion in 2010, the same as in 2009. In 2010 236 tribes operated 422 gaming facilities. Over the last several years, total gross revenue has been: 2006: $24.9 B, 2007: $26.1 B, 2008: $26.7 B, 2009: $26.5, 2010: $26.5. The Indian gaming industry primarily consists of tribes generating much needed revenue each year through small and moderate gaming operations. In 2010, 55% of Indian gaming operations reported gaming revenue less than $25 million. Of these operations, approximately 62% generated gaming revenue less than $10 million. For 2010, 49% of the operations generated an increase in gaming revenues. Of these operations, approximately 10% showed more than a 50% increase over 2009. Factors influencing this increase include: (1) moderate expansions of existing casinos; and (2) casinos that opened during 2009 and recognized the first full-year revenue impact in 2010. Approximately 51% of operations reported a gaming revenue decrease from their 2009 gaming revenues; however, three quarters of these operations experienced decreases of less than 10%. On average, the gains and losses in the industry evened out. For both 2009 and 2010, the most growth in GGR occurred in the Oklahoma City Region, which includes 51 gaming operations in western Oklahoma and Texas, and the Portland Region, which includes 50 gaming operations throughout Washington State, Idaho and Oregon. ?Revenue trends for 2009 and 2010 indicate that other regions are also gaining momentum.

Gaming Revenue in Billions of Dollars By Region:

Region     (     States        )      | 2009 %change | 2010 %change | Casinos ’09 | Casinos ‘10_

Portland ( WA, OR, IA, AK)         $2.5     6%         $2.7      5%    49         50

Sacramento ( CA, N.NV )            $7.0     -5%         $6.8     -3%    62         62

Phoenix ( AZ, S.NV, CO, NM)      $2.6     -2%         $2.5     -6%    47         48

OK City ( TX, W.OK )                 $1.5     12%        $1.6      5%    49         51

Tulsa ( E.OK, KA )                       $1.7     1%         $1.8      3%    64         65

St.Paul ( MT,WY,ND,SD,NB,MN,WI,MI )   $4.4    -.4%         $4.4      2%   120       119

DC ( LA, MS, AL, FL, NC, NY, CT)$6.8     .1%         $6.7    -1%    28         27

Additional charts and graphs are available at the NIGC website, www.nigc.gov ( “Indian Gaming Revenues Remain Stable,” National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), July 18, 2011, http://www.nigc.gov/Media/Press_Releases/2011_Press_Releases/PR-175_07-2011.aspx). 

The National Indian Gaming Association (http://www.indiangaming.org/info/2011_Annual_Report.PDF) reports Indian gaming and related economic activity in 2010 generated over $9 billion in Federal taxes and revenue savings through reduced welfare and unemployment benefit payments . In addition, Indian gaming generated over $2 billion in state government revenue and an additional $100 million in local government revenue. In 2010, Tribes donated over $100 million in charity, including donations to surrounding communities and charities in addition to other Indian tribes, tribal charitable foundations, and reservation charitable causes.  

T he Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians opened its second gaming facility, The Four Winds Hartford in Southwest Michigan, August 30, 2012, 45 miles from its Four Winds in New Buffalo.  The new 52,000-square-foot satellite casino in Hartford—about one-sixth of the size of the main Four Winds Casino—operates 500 slot machines, nine table games and a second location of the popular Timbers Restaurant (“ Pokagon Band to Open New Casino Tuesday,” Indian Country Today, August 29, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/29/pokagon-band-to-open-new-casino-tuesday-49654).

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority is poised to be first U.S. Indian tribe to hold majority ownership of a green-energy generation project if a joint venture with Edison Mission Energy goes through for construction of a wind farm project on the Aubrey Cliffs in Coconino County, AZ that would have an 85-megawatt capacity, which is expected to produce enough energy to power 19,000 residential homes in the Phoenix area. In August, federal, state and local agencies were negotiating the purchase agreement, permit and construction (“Navajo-Owned Wind Farm in Works in Arizona,” August 17, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/17/navajo-owned-wind-farm-in-works-in-arizona-47633).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in August, granted the Seneca Indian Nation a preliminary permit for the Seneca Hydroelectric Project at the Kinzua Dam near Warren, Pennsylvania. Receiving a preliminary permit authorizes the Nation to begin studying the feasibility of the additional hydropower and priority when it comes to full permits. The anticipated relicensing of the Seneca Pumped Storage Project by November 2015 will increase the capacity of hydroelectric generation capability at the dam (“ Seneca Nation Receives Initial Kinzua Hydro Permit,” Indian Country Today , August 12, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/12/seneca-nation-receives-initial-kinzua-hydro-permit-46883).

Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB) has partnered with Wal-Mart to increase employment opportunities for its tribal citizens and the residents of Mayes County, OK , with CNB employees inspecting televisions that have been returned to Wal-Mart stores from around the region to determine if they are in working condition and if they are missing any parts. Returned items that can be re-sold are then repackaged and sold to online auction or liquidation companies. Once a consumer wins a bid, CNB ships the merchandise directly to the buyer. In total, the Cherokee Nation and its businesses employ more than 8,500 people. Information regarding employment at Cherokee Nation Businesses is available at www.cherokeenationbusinesses.com (“Cherokee Nation Businesses Partners with Wal-Mart,” Indian Country Today, August 22, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/22/cherokee-nation-businesses-partners-with-walmart-48513).

Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB) received its largest contract yet from the Department of Defense , in August, more than $40 million over the next two years to provide logistics, services and support for military hardware. Most work would fit into the company’s logistics division. Still, the contract will benefit all CNB entities For example, CNI (Cherokee Nation Industries), which handles electrical components and wire harnessing. In July, Cherokee Nation Industries (CNI) earned a Gold Status rating—the highest rating given to a vendor—from The Boeing Company (“Boeing”) for the work force’s superior performance and on-time delivery. CNI has operated as a government contractor manufacturing and distributing aerospace and defense products since 1969. Its aerospace and defense division runs out of 120,000-plus square feet of expandable manufacturing space in Stilwell, OK and employs 150 people—including 70 employees who worked on projects for Boeing. Another CNB subsidy: the Kellyville-headquartered Cherokee Nation Red Wing, purchased by Cherokee Nation Businesses in 2009, serves the aerospace industry, military industrial complexes, governments, NASA, and the private sector, and has manufactured and assembled electronic airplane parts for more than 30 years. The company’s most recent acquisition, Disan Engineering in Nowata, also contracts with the Department of Defense (“Cherokee Nation Businesses Gets its Largest Federal Contract Ever,” Indian Country Today, August 14, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/14/cherokee-nation-businesses-gets-its-largest-federal-contract-ever-47246).

The Indigenous Leadership Development Institute , a 12-year-old Canadian nonprofit leadership organization, held its fifth annual World Indigenous Business Forum, October 4 and 5 in New York City, connecting indigenous peoples and businesses worldwide. A kickoff reception and networking session for the conference was put on at Talking Stick Resort in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona, August 22 (Debra Utacia Krol, “World Indigenous Business Forum to Feature Val Kilmer, Opportunities to Build Networks,” Indian Country Today, August 28, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/28/world-indigenous-business-forum-to-feature-val-kilmer-opportunities-to-build-networks-49379).

Education and Culture

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus has added a certificate program in Native American and Indigenous Studies in the school's Women's and Ethnic Studies program (“Native American and Indigenous Studies Added to WEST Roster,” Indian Country Today, September 30, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/native-american-and-indigenous-studies-added-to-west-roster/).

The University of Redlands, in Redlands, CA, and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians have partnered to create a Native American studies program with an endowed chair (“University of Redlands Appoints Native American Studies Endowed Chair,” Indian Country Today,” August 24, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/24/university-of-redlands-appoints-native-american-studies-endowed-chair-48880).

The Native Tribal Scholars program at Regis College, in Weston, MA, aimed at improving American Indian school graduation rates, completed its first a six weeks summer session in August. Funded by a four-year $1.2 million federal grant, if it’s successful it could become permanent. Students learned about things not taught in typical high school classes, such as tribal sovereignty and Native American history. Lead instructor Josh Reid, who is also a history professor at UMass Boston, said of the program, “This is native-centric. So right off the bat you are feeling good because you are with other native children. You are comfortable. You fit in. And that knocks down a lot of the barrier challenges,” Cedric Cromwell, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council chairman, said. “This program was formed by Native Americans for Native Americans.” He pointed to the tribe’s high school graduation rate of only 48% as evidence that the Native Tribal Scholars program is needed. According to Capecodonline.com, 95% of the participants this year were from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (“ Tribal Scholars Program Hopes to Increase Graduation Rate,” Indian Country Today, August 17, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/17/native-tribal-scholars-program-hopes-to-increase-graduation-rate-47710).

The Navajo Peacemaker Youth Education and Apprentice Program is sending 19 Peacemakers and 11 Liaisons to 13 schools across Navajo Nation, in 2012, to help students learn traditional counseling, western counseling and therapy techniques, and faith based counseling, while engaging in classroom facilitation and Dine language learning (“Peacemaker program to work with 13 schools,” Navajo Times, December 15, 2011).

Cultural Survival has launched a new Indigenous Language web site at: http://www.ourmothertongues.org/Home.aspx.

The ABC television network broadcast, “Hidden America: Children of the Plains,” an episode of 20/20 hosted by Diane Sawyer, highlighting the lives of American Indian youth living on the Pine Ridge Reservation, on October 14^th, 2011 (Vincent Schilling, “ ABC Airs Documentary About Pine Ridge, Indian Country Tunes In,” October 15, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/abc-airs-documentary-about-pine-ridge-indian-country-tunes-in/).

Billy Luther’s new one hour film, Grab Day, portrays Grab Day, the Saint or Feast Day, at Laguna Pueblo villages (Adrian Gomez, “Movie Tells Story of Laguna Pueblo’s Grab Day,” Albuquerque Journal, October 29, 2011).

International Developments

UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, James Anaya, issued a report , September 20, 2011, finding that one of the most significant sources of abuse of the Rights of Indigenous peoples world wide is extraction of natural resources and other major development projects in or near their territories. He stated to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, “In its prevailing form, the model for advancing with natural resource extraction within the territories of indigenous peoples appears to run counter to the self-determination of indigenous peoples in the political, social and economic spheres .” Anaya’s report was based on answers to a questionnaire he distributed to governments, indigenous peoples and organizations, business corporations and other actors, he cited conflicting viewpoints on the potential adverse impact and benefits of such activities as mining, forestry, oil and natural gas extraction and hydroelectric projects in indigenous territories. He said he had made it a priority to reconcile the differing views and courses of action to ensure the full protection of indigenous rights and promote best practices through a broad dialogue with governments, indigenous peoples’ organizations, corporate actors and international institutions, in which consensus-building would be a key element. He found that, “The lack of a minimum common ground for understanding the key issues by all actors concerned entails a major barrier for the effective protection and realization of indigenous peoples’ rights.” He identified some positive developments including a new Peruvian law compelling private companies to consult indigenous communities before going ahead with major projects such as mining. Among key concerns, Mr. Anaya included the gradual loss of control by indigenous peoples over lands, territories and natural resources; water source depletion and contamination for drinking, farming and grazing; the adverse effects of water and airborne pollution on overall community health; and an increase in infectious diseases spread by interaction with workers or settlers. A further concern was the adverse impact on indigenous social structures and cultures, including alarming rates of alcoholism and prostitution previously unheard of among such peoples, imported by illegal loggers or miners, non-indigenous workers and industry personnel in specific projects, and increased traffic due to the construction of roads and other infrastructure. Anaya noted “Submissions by indigenous peoples and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also reported an escalation of violence by government and private security forces as a consequence of extractive operations in indigenous territories, especially against indigenous leaders. A general repression of human rights was reported in situations where entire communities had voiced their opposition to extractive operations.” The report is available in several languages at: http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/hrc/18/35 (“Indigenous peoples suffer abuses in race for natural resources – UN rights expert,” UN News Center, September 20, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39637&Cr=indigenous&Cr1). In September, Anaya published his a report concerning his correspondence with the Mexican government regarding mining concessions it has issued , where mining permits have not yet been issued and mining has yet to begin, within Mexico’s Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve, an area that is sacred to the Wixárika (Huichol) people, noting that the government of Mexico authorized 22 mining concessions including 6.327 hectares without consultation with the Huichol Indigenous people (although the Mexican government claimed it had received consent), 69% of which lay within the protected Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve, that was established in 1994 by the Mexican government.  These concessions cover sacred sites of the highest importance to the religion and traditions of the Huichol people (“Campaign Update – Mexico: UN Special Rapporteur Dialogues with Mexican Officials on Mining in Wirikuta Reserve,” Cultural Survival, September 12m 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/mexico/campaign-update-mexico-un-special-rapporteur-dialogues-mexican-officials-mining-wirikuta).

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya,  released his annual report on his communications with governments concerning 25 cases of specific violations of human rights of Indigenous Peoples in 15 countries. For some cases the Special Rapporteur has provided detailed observations with specific recommendations or descriptions of other follow up measures he has taken. ??The 25 cases include: ? Chile: Situación de los presos mapuche en una huelga de hambre y la aplicación de la ley antiterrorista en su contra?; Chile: Situation of the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island?; Costa Rica: Situation of the Térraba people and the hydroelectric project El Diquís?; Ethiopia: Situation of the Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectric project on the Omo River?; Guatemala: Situation of social and environmental problems generated by the Marlin mine; Israel: Situation of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev desert?; Malaysia: Situation of the Long Teran Kanan village and native customary rights in Sarawak?; México: Situación del supuesto otorgamiento de concesiones mineras en la región de Wirikuta, Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, donde se encuentran sitios sagrados del Pueblo wixárika (huichol)?; Thailand: Exhumation of Hmong graves at Wat Tham Krabok?; United States of America: Situation of the Native Americans in relation to artificial snowmaking from recycled wastewater in the San Francisco Peaks. One can see the report on the individual cases at the web site, or read the full report at: http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/cases-examined/communications-cases-examined-2010-2011-full-report  (“Report on Communications Sent, Replies Received and Follow Up,” UNSR, August 29, 2011, http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/notes/report-on-communications-sent-replies-received-and-follow-up).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his message for the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, in New York, August 9, 2011, noted that Indigenous Peoples' Issues are more prominent than ever on the global agenda, but some statistics are alarming. He stated, "The world's indigenous peoples have preserved a vast amount of humanity's cultural history. Indigenous peoples speak a majority of the world's languages, and have inherited and passed on a wealth of knowledge, artistic forms and religious and cultural traditions.  On this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we reaffirm our commitment to their well-being. The landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly in 2007, lays out a framework for Governments to use in strengthening relationships with indigenous peoples and protecting their human rights.  Since then, we have seen more Governments working to redress social and economic injustices, through legislation and other means, and indigenous peoples' issues have become more prominent on the international agenda than ever before. But we must do even more.  Indigenous peoples still experience racism, poor health and disproportionate poverty. In many societies, their languages, religions and cultural traditions are stigmatized and shunned. The first-ever United Nations report on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples in January 2010 set out some alarming statistics.  In some countries, indigenous peoples are 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis than the general population. In others, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years before his or her non-indigenous compatriots. The theme of this year's Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is indigenous filmmakers, who give us windows into their communities, cultures and history. Their work connects us to belief systems and philosophies; it captures both the daily life and the spirit of indigenous communities. As we celebrate these contributions, I call on Governments and civil society to fulfill their commitment to advancing the status of indigenous peoples everywhere." For more information go to: www.cs.org.

The First Nation chiefs of New Brunswick filed suit against the federal government for reducing welfare benefits, October 19, 2011, when unemployment is over 50% per cent, in many First Nation communities, and the government is doing little to get people back to work or provide job training. Kelly Lamrock, a former New Brunswick attorney general and part of the chiefs’ legal team, stated. “The federal government is behaving unconstitutionally. By singling out certain provinces for deeper cuts, they are discriminating against New Brunswickers and discriminating against First Nations people.” The reductions in benefits are a result of a new federal rule that detaches social assistance rates from rent and heat expenses. Instead, recipients are paid the same rate province-wide, in an equation that will no longer include individual factors such as employment opportunities or the cost of food and shelter in the calculations determining need (“ New Brunswick First Nations Sue Federal Government over Welfare-Benefits Slash,” Indian Country Today, October 21, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/new-brunswick-first-nations-sue-federal-government-over-welfare-benefits-slash/).

In a disagreement among first Nations, at least 230 First Nations in Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario, in August, pulled out of regional meetings being held by the national panel that was formed to map out a new education system for aboriginal peoples. Assembly of First Nations (AFN) national chief, Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, worked with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AAND) to create the panel, but a number of First Nation leaders object that the panel’s end goal of crafting “one-size-fits-all education legislation” will not take into account the diversity of First Nations languages and cultures or respect First Nations’ right to control their children’s education. They were also concerned panel’s terms of reference do not refer to the signing of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), an omission that they see as undermining First Nations’ right to education under the Treaty. Vice Chief Lyle Whitefish of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) said in a statement announcing the split, “We want our Treaty Right to Education upheld. The Chiefs Legislative Assembly Resolution #1771 rejects the national panel whose stated purpose and process will diminish the federal government’s Treaty obligations with respect to education.” This represents something of a break with the “Unfortunately, the AFN, our own national First Nations organization, is not listening to us, and appear to have been co-opted by the federal government in supporting a process that will only serve to create legislation that weakens our Treaty right to education,” Whitefish said. The much-heralded panel was announced in December 2010 by Atleo and what was then known as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), now Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (the name change is an issue under contention). Panel members were announced in March, but the selection process was criticized for a lack of transparency, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) reported at the time. Whitefish said that the FSIN, which represents 74 nations across Saskatchewan, is consulting directly with elders and communities to get their vision on what a true treaty-based education system would look like. First Nations in Saskatchewan, Quebec and northern Ontario will compile a parallel report for the AFN and AAND (“ 230 First Nations Pull Out of National Education Panel,” Indian Country Today, August 11, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/11/230-first-nations-pull-out-of-national-education-panel-46780).

Ten Chiefs of the Mi’gmag and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) First Nations of New Brunswick, and the federal and provincial governments, including Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development John Duncan and New Brunswick Premier David Alward, who is also the minister responsible for the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat of New Brunswick, laid the groundwork for negotiating treaty rights, self-government and consultation in signing the Mi’gmag Wolastoqiyik/New Brunswick/Canada Umbrella Agreement, on September 9, 2011. The Umbrella Agreement was developed over years, setting an atmosphere of good faith and commitment. It sets out a plan to identify key priorities and negotiate a tri-party agreement for consultations with New Brunswick First Nations. Much of the work will be done via a coordinating committee that will oversee the negotiation process. Issues to be addressed include lands and resources, governance and jurisdiction, economic development and sustainability, health, education and social and cultural development (“New Brunswick Chiefs Sign Negotiation Agreement with Feds, Province,” Indian Country Today, September 12, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/12/new-brunswick-chiefs-sign-negotiation-agreement-with-feds-province-53355).

The Ontario courts began an investigation, in August, 2011, headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Iacobucci, of complaints from Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and others that First Nations are underrepresented on juries in the province (“Ontario to Review First Nation Underrepresentation on Juries,” Indian Country Today, August 12, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/12/ontario-to-review-first-nation-underrepresentation-on-juries-47089).

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously in upholding two lower courts as it ruled that that the Lax Kw’Alaam Band , does not have a constitutional right to sell fish products commercially, though it may take fish for tribal member use. The seven-judge panel ruled that in precontact times the band had not traded fish and thus had no preexisting right to such trade ( Wawmeesh Hamilton, “ Supreme Court Says Lax Kw’Alaams Cannot Commercially Sell Their Fish,” Indian Country Today, November 21, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/21/supreme-court-says-lax-kw’alaams-cannot-commercially-sell-their-fish-63871).

Following the signing of an agreement by Quebec Premier Jean Charest , August 8, 2011, Okalik Eegeesiak, President of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA), an organization representing the Inuit from the Baffin Region, High Arctic and Belcher Islands, said that this constitutes “an important step towards building a more meaningful relationship based on trust between Inuit communities and government in Nunavik.” She said, on August 9, that the next step is for Ottawa to follow the Quebec government’s example and acknowledge the damage done by the slaughter of sled dogs in the 1950s and 1960s (“ Qikiqtani Inuit Association Wants Ottawa to Apologize for Dog Slaughter,” Indian Country Today, August 11, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/11/qikiqtani-inuit-association-wants-ottawa-to-apologize -for-dog-slaughter-46739).

Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson ruled, in August, in favor of the Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) of northwestern Ontario, that for 11 years has been battling against clear cut logging on it territory, as justice Sanderson held that the province of Ontario, which had authorized logging on the nation’s lands, had no authority to do so, as logging and mining rights are established by treaty and, therefore, are a federal and not provincial issue (“Grassy Narrows First Nation Wins Anti-Logging Court Case,” Indian Country Today, August 17, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/17/grassy-narrows-first-nation-wins-anti-logging-court-case-47870)

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) is suing Shell Canada for C$1.5 million, charging that the conglomerate has held back on promised funds meant to mitigate the effects of oil sands development on its territory (“ Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Suing Shell Canada,” Indian Country Today, December 1, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/01/athabasca-chipewyan-first-nation-suing-shell-canada-65520).

Habitat for Humanity Canada began a partnership, December 6, 2011, with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) aimed at helping alleviate the housing crisis that afflicts a hundred or more reserves, by organizing the building of new homes, while, celebrity homebuilder Mike Holmes, host of the HGTV show Holmes on Homes, has also joined AFN advising how on how to build smarter (“Habitat for Humanity To Partner With First Nations on Housing, HGTV’s Mike Holmes Weighs In,” Indian Country Today, December 9, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/09/habitat-for-humanity-to-partner-with-first-nations-on-housing-hgtv’s-mike-holmes-weighs-in-66604).

The Organization of American States (OAS) has published a guide "Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the Inter-American System: Mechanisms and New Tools Proposed," summarizing the participation mechanisms that exist for Indigenous Peoples in different areas of the Organization , including the possibility of registering as civil society bodies, attending the meetings on the Proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, participating in the human rights protection and promotion system, and participating in the Summits of the Americas process.  The report can be downloaded at:  http://svc.summit-americas.org/sites/default/files/Brochure%20Indegenas_4_EN_WEB%20%282%29.pdf (“ OAS Releases a Guide on Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the Inter-American System,” cultural Survival, October 4, 2011, h ttp://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/none/oas-releases-guide-participation-indigenous-peoples-inter-american-system).

There is evidence that members of the Mexican military, as well as of the police, are involved in the drug trade in Mexico (Randal C. Archibold, “Rights Groups Contend Mexican Military Has Heavy Hand in Drug Cases,” The New York Times, August 3, 2011). In addition, there are numerous reports of troops and police undertaking alleged “drug raids” during which they engage in large scale theft.

The U.S. has expanded its role in Mexico’s drug war, sending new CIA opertives and retired military personnel to Mexican military bases to collaborate with authorities, and the Obama administation is considering employing private security personnel as well (“U.S. Widens Its Role in Battle Against Mexico’s Drug Cartels,” The New York Times, August 7, 2011).

Laura Carlsen, “NAFTA Is Starving Mexico,” Anericas Program, October 20, 2011, http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/5617, discusses, “Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) became the law of the land, millions of Mexicans have joined the ranks of the hungry. Malnutrition is highest among the country’s farm families, who used to produce enough food to feed the nation. As the blood-spattered violence of the drug war takes over the headlines, many Mexican men, women, and children confront the slow and silent violence of starvation. The latest reports show that the number of people living in “food poverty” (the inability to purchase the basic food basket) rose from 18 million in 2008 to 20 million by late 2010. About one-fifth of Mexican children currently suffer from malnutrition. An innovative measurement applied by the National Institute for Nutrition registers a daily count of 728,909 malnourished children under five for October 18, 2011. Government statistics report that 25 percent of the population does not have access to basic food. Since the 2008 food crisis, there has been a three percent rise in the population without adequate access to food. The number of children with malnutrition is 400,000 kids above the goal for this year. Newborns show the highest indices of malnutrition, indicating that the tragedy begins with maternal health .” The other side of NAFTA is that in the last 15 years Mexico has become second only to the United States in morbid obesity. Child obesity, overweight, and diabetes now constitute major health problems are taking a toll on the poor, who have switched to high sugar and fat diets, as well as the well to do, alongside the more traditional problem of hunger. The International Journal of Obesity finds that worldwide the spread of what they call “the Western diet” (“high in saturated fats, sugar, and refined foods but low in fiber) has meant that “the burden of obesity is shifting towards the poor.” The NAFTA generation reflects the paradigm so eloquently described by food researcher and activist Raj Patel of “stuffed and starved”. “With another food crisis looming due to rising international prices, Mexico could face food riots as well as the spread of starvation and its consequences over the coming year. Unless the riots turn violent or spark more widespread social upheaval as they did in Arab countries, it’s not likely that the news media will pay any attention.” NAFTA has created a model of food insecurity. “The nation that was slated for prosperity when it signed NAFTA has become an international example of severe structural problems in the food chain, from how it produces its food to what and how much (or how little) it consumes. Mexican malnutrition has its roots in the way NAFTA and other neoliberal programs forced the nation to move away from producing its own basic foods to a “food security” model. “Food security” posits that a country is secure as long as it has sufficient income to import its food. It separates farm employment from food security and ignores unequal access to food within a country. The idea of food security based on market access comes directly from the main argument behind NAFTA of “comparative advantage.” Simply stated, economic efficiency dictates that each country should devote its productive capacity to what it does best and trade liberalization will guarantee access across borders. Under the theory of comparative advantage, most of Mexico was deemed unfit to produce its staple food crop, corn, since its yields were way below the average for its northern neighbor and trade partner. Therefore, Mexico should turn to corn imports and devote its land to crops where it supposedly had a comparative advantage, such as counter-seasonal and tropical fruits and vegetables.” “The cultural and human consequences of declaring entire peasant and indigenous communities obsolete were not a concern in this equation. Seventeen years after NAFTA, some two million farmers have been forced off their land by low prices and the dismantling of government supports. They did not find jobs in industry. Instead most of them became part of a mass exodus as the number of Mexican migrants to the United States rose to half a million a year. In the first few years of NAFTA, corn imports tripled and the producer price fell by half. Conversion to other crops turned out to take years in most cases. Prices were volatile and harvests unreliable. It was not feasible at all on many small, often rocky plots where corn guarantees a subsistence diet for farm families. Niche markets failed to grow to much more than 2% of total agricultural production. The areas that adapted successfully to industrial agriculture and agroexport crops are characterized by flagrant violation of the labor rights of migrant farm workers, widespread pollution and water waste, and extreme concentration of land and resources. For the hungry, this means that prices set on the international market determine who eats and who starves. Mexican consumers now pay more for tortillas and food in general. Price hikes on the international market push basic food out of reach for the millions of poor in the country.” NAFTA has created food dependency, with uncertainty amidst rising and fluctuating prices. 42% of the food consumed in Mexico is imported. Prior to NAFTA, the country spent $1.8 billion dollars on food imports. It now spends a whopping $24 billion. Rural researcher Ernesto Ladrón de Guevara notes that in some basic foods, the dependency on imports is dramatic: 80% in rice, 95% in soybeans, 33% percent in beans, and 56% in wheat. The country is the world’s number-one importer of powdered milk. NAFTA decimated Mexico’s once-thriving dairy sector, and the market takeover by transnational powdered milk is linked to the crisis in infant malnutrition. Mexico imports one third of its food consumption, a figure that belies the reliance on imports because the sheer volume of consumption is so large. Ladrón de Guevara states that it has gone from importing around 250,000 tons before NAFTA to 13 million tons. Transnational traders often favor imports over national production because of the attractive credit arrangements offered by the United States, making it “a double business—importing corn and money.” The U.S. department of agriculture estimates that if current trends continue Mexico will acquire 80 percent of its food from other countries (mostly the United States). “The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization calls a country food dependent when the cost of its imports exceeds 25 percent of total exports. Peasant farmer organizations have criticized the definition as ludicrous in an oil-producing country that nonetheless has seen serious erosion in its capacity to feed its people and guarantee access to basic foods for all.” “The corporate takeover of Mexico’s food system has led to the food and health catastrophe. Transnational food corporations not only import freely into Mexican food markets, they are now the producers, exporters, and importers all in one, operating inside the country. Since NAFTA, corporations have gobbled up human and natural resources on an almost unbelievable scale. Livestock production has moved from small farms for local markets to Tyson, Smithfield, and Pilgrims Pride. The massive use and contamination of water and land has led to health and environmental disasters across the country. Millions of jobs have been lost to concentration and industrialized farming methods. Take the case of Corn Products International (CPI). The transnational filed  a NAFTA claim against the Mexican government in 2003, claiming a loss to its business due to a tax levied on high fructose corn syrup in beverages. Mexico’s reason for imposing the tax was to save a sugarcane industry that provided jobs for thousands of citizens and played a crucial economic role in many regions. The government was also frustrated by its failure under NAFTA to access the highly protected U.S. sugar market. A 2008 NAFTA tribunal ruled that Mexico had to pay $58.4 million to CPI. The government paid up on January 25, 2011. CPI posted $3.7 billion dollars in net sales the year of the decision. The fine paid by the Mexican government could have provided a year’s worth of the basic food basket to more than 50,000 poor families. CPI’s wholly owned subsidiary Arancia Corn Products is among the most powerful food transnationals operating in the country, along with Maseca/Archers Daniel Midland and Cargill. Large agribusiness companies allegedly played a key role in the 2007 tortilla crisis by hoarding harvest as the international price went up, artificially drying up the national market and selling at nearly double the price they paid for the harvest. That crisis brought tens of thousands of poor Mexicans out into the streets to protest a 50% rise in the price of tortillas. NAFTA and other FTAs give corporations the power to define what we eat, what we buy at the store, who will have a job and who won’t, and whether a village sustained by local food production will survive or witness the end of generations of livelihoods.” “Mexican organizations have begun to come together after years of divisions to respond to the food crisis and fix the badly broken system. They recently succeeded in reforming the Mexican constitution to include the right to food. Now the battle is on to adapt the rural budget to make that right a reality. Small farmer organizations have joined with family farm organizations in the United States and Canada to call for the renegotiation of NAFTA to remove basic foods and agricultural production from the agreement. They recognize, though, that the Obama administration’s about-face in its stated commitments to fair trade reforms have left little political space for change. Instead, peasant organizations in all three countries are looking to grassroots efforts and movements to fix the food system before the crisis worsens. As Mexican organizations struggle for programs to address threats to food and agriculture, U.S. organizations are seeing an opportunity to join their demands to the Occupy Wall Street movement across the country. One of the grievances listed in the OWS Declaration of the New York City General Assembly reads: “They (large corporations) have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.” Food activists are now bringing issues of corporate concentration in food, commodity speculation and price hikes, and free trade to the general protests.” “As the crisis deepens, citizen movements are again heating up and seeking each other out across borders to protect their health, their livelihoods and their rights. In the future, what we eat, how we eat, and if we eat will depend on their efforts.”

Cultural Survival received a letter from Mexico’s Office of Mining, in early December, saying it has assigned a special commission to consider the protests of the Wixárika (Huichol) people against mining and other environmentally destructive projects within the Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve. The Wixárika case is being considered by a commission coordinated by the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), with representatives of the Ministries of Governance (SEGOB), Economy (SE), Agrarian Reform (SRA), Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), Agriculture (PA), and the state governments of San Luis Potosi, Durango,  and Nayarit. The commission’s objective is to “dialogue with the Wixárika people to hear their concerns directly and find a solution to the problem, respecting the rights of everyone involved.” The letter asserts that the mining concessions issued to First Majestic Silver company (which overlap the Wirikuta Reserve) were issued legally. But, the director observed, this is only the beginning of a long legal process which will be scrutinized by his office.  No mining activities have been approved to date. The letter is available in Spanish at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/files/letter%20in%20Spanish%20from%20Mining%20General%20.pdf (Campaign Update – Mexico: Mining Office Replies to Cultural Survival,” Cultural Survival, December 7, 3011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/mexico/campaign-update-mexico-mining-office-replies-cultural-survival).

Guatemala continues to be plagued by corruption and increasing drug trafficking. With elections approaching, ICY, “Guatemala’s Elections: Clean Polls, Dirty Politics.” Latin America Briefing N°24, June 16, 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/guatemala/B024-guatemalas-elections-clean-polls-dirty-politics.aspx, comments, “Guatemalans go to the polls in September 2011 to elect a president, the Congress and local officials. The vote itself is likely to be reasonably free, but violence and unregulated campaign finance imperil the country’s political institutions. Deteriorated security, drug traffickers’ brutality and polarized politics leave candidates especially vulnerable to attacks. An exorbitant campaign, meanwhile, threatens to indebt office-holders to powerful financial interests, including organized crime, deepening corruption and widening the gulf between citizens and their politicians. State security agencies should redouble efforts to prevent bloodshed, especially in the most dangerous municipalities; politicians and parties must fully reveal who funds them, and the Public Prosecutor’s office, electoral authorities and donors should press them to do so. The presidential contest will probably pit Otto Pérez Molina, former head of military intelligence, against Sandra Torres, recently divorced wife of incumbent Álvaro Colom, though legal hurdles could still halt Torres’s bid and leave the ruling party scrambling for a replacement. Pre-election violence has already claimed candidates, their families, party activists and electoral staff, mostly at the hands of unidentified gunmen. As drugs cartels battle over transit routes, competition in those areas for the local government posts whose collusion facilitates trafficking may be particularly fierce. Mudslinging and harsh rhetoric from both major parties have set the tone for an ugly campaign. Polarization between the camps, in both the capital and some municipalities, raises the specter of disputed results. A flawed registration exercise, while unlikely to seriously impact the quality of the elections, could give losers a pretext for challenges. Unregulated political finance poses a threat more subtle than violence but as dangerous to political life. Reforms have required parties to limit campaign spending and reveal their financial backers, but politicians disregard the new rules with impunity. Recent election campaigns have been among the costliest, per capita, on the continent, and spending in 2011 looks set to outstrip even previous records, skewing the playing field and – worse still – leaving politicians beholden to shadowy business and criminal interests, many of which are vested in continued lawlessness and a weak state. Political parties provide no protection. Fragmented, disorderly, unrepresentative and largely ideology-free, they offer little to link state and society beyond populism and patronage. Unrestrained money in politics contributes to a rotten and exclusive system that reasonably free voting every few years does little to hide, let alone reform.” “Priorities ahead of the September polls are: politicians and the media must tone down inflammatory campaign rhetoric, with candidates instead articulating their policies and how they plan to reverse endemic violence, impunity and inequality; the electoral authority, the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE), and security agencies should identify municipalities exposed to violence and bolster security measures in those areas. Local TSE branches should broker pacts in which mayoral candidates pledge to avoid violence, respect rules and use only legal, peaceful means to challenge results. Local electoral and other officials in municipalities most likely to have contested results should offer additional opportunities for dispute resolution; the TSE should clarify how citizens issued faulty new ID cards can vote and provide breakdowns of the number of voters in each municipality alongside data from 2007 to allay fears that inflated data may facilitate rigging; the TSE must publicize, ideally each week, its estimates of parties’ campaign spending. Other government departments should cooperate with it to help reveal party finances. The Public Prosecutor’s office should exploit new provisions in the penal code to force the main parties to reveal who has paid for their campaigns and prosecute those who fail to comply; international actors, in particular major donor nations, should press political leaders to reveal their spending and financial backers, as well as for more moderate campaign language, public articulation of their policies, acceptance of results and post-election reforms; and the Organization of American States (OAS) should beef up its planned observation mission, especially as the European Union (EU) will not send observers. The U.S. and EU should complement the OAS mission by funding other international observers and supporting the extensive efforts of national monitors. After the elections, the new legislature should reform the Law on Elections and Political Parties, in particular adding safeguards to better check the use of money in politics. The legislative agenda is already packed; indeed fiscal reform and laws governing the Public Prosecutor’s appointment, public officials’ immunity and injunction power (amparo) are priorities. But bolstering political finance rules is crucial. Much of the rot in Guatemalan politics enters through unregulated election campaigns, and the year after polls, before re-election concerns start to consume politicians’ agendas, offers the best shot at closing those gaps.

Meanwhile, there is a source of hope against what has been a long term deteriorating situation in Guatemala, ICG, “ Learning to Walk without a Crutch: ?The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala,” Latin America Report N°36, May 31, 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/guatemala/036-learning-to-walk-without-a-crutch-the-international-commission-against-impunity-in-guatemala.aspx, finds, “Since it began operations in September 2007, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala, CICIG) has brought a degree of hope to a country deeply scarred by post-conflict violence and entrenched impunity. As homicide rates sky-rocketed and criminals fought for territorial control and dominated or corrupted multiple levels of state agencies, the novel independent investigating entity created by agreement between the government and the UN Secretary-General responded to fear that illegal armed groups had become a threat to the state itself. Much remains to be done, however. During the next years the commission should establish the strategic basis for dismantling the illegal security forces and clandestine security organizations (Cuerpos Ile­ga­les y Aparatos Clandestinos de Seguridad, CIACS) over the long term and building Guatemalan justice capacity, including by supporting national ownership of the commission’s functions and embedding them within the judicial system. CICIG’s formal mandate is to support and assist domestic justice institutions in the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by CIACS, to identify their structures, operations and financing and ultimately to dismantle them. At the same time, CICIG has sought to strengthen the weak judicial system in order to put an end to impunity, a task made infinitely more difficult by the complex relationship between elements of state institutions, political parties, the private sector and the CIACS. On 13 January 2011, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon confirmed a second two-year extension of CICIG’s original mandate, to 4 September 2013. The commission has achieved notable and unprecedented short-term successes, evidenced by positive outcomes in a series of high-impact legal cases, dismissal and prosecution of several senior officials, removal of a compromised attorney general and the selection of a respected successor. It has encouraged the adoption of norms for election of Supreme Court judges and helped generate public awareness about impunity, CIACS and organized crime. It contributed directly to the creation of a Special Prosecutor’s Office that assists its work (Unidad Especial de la Fiscalía de Apoyo a la CICIG, UEFAC) and has supported greater professionalism in the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público, MP), the institution charged with the investigation and prosecution of crimes in Guatemala. It has also pushed through a limited number of important legal reforms. However, the core elements of the mandate – dismantling the CIACS and consolidating sustainable institutional transformation – remain unmet, and it is uncertain whether sufficient progress has been achieved or at least the foundations have been laid to guarantee those goals will be accomplished. Severe structural constraints and the resistance of diverse spoilers, as well as limitations imposed by the commission’s own mandate and strategies, have been restraining factors. Such institutional transformation as there has been will remain isolated exceptions, unless further legislative reforms are adopted to extend them throughout state institutions. Moreover, there is a serious question about the degree to which the Guatemalan state and broader society are prepared to exercise ownership of CICIG and sustain its achievements. Clear measures need to be taken to reduce the possibility that continuation of the mandate will only make the justice system more dependent on external mechanisms. National ownership of the commission’s functions and objectives is crucial to guaranteeing its long-term impact. Assuring a sustainable legacy through the transfer of technical capacities from CICIG to national institutions should be a priority during the next two years. CICIG has provided a crutch. The justice system must now learn to walk on its own and increasingly assume the responsibilities with which CICIG has been charged.” ICG proposes: “For creation of effective, professional and well-resourced national rule of law institutions: To the Government of Guatemala: 1. Support CICIG’s mandate through the strengthening of a well-funded and trained rule of law sector, including by: a) enforcing and supporting, as appropriate, the removal of tainted officials from key rule of law institutions, such as the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the judiciary and the National Civil Police, applying administrative and disciplinary measures where appropriate and prosecuting, where possible, any officials linked to CIACS; b) strengthening financially and technically the units of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the National Civil Police mandated with identifying and prosecuting those linked to or participating in the CIACS, including through the establishment of an independent criminal investigation unit within the MP, as well as other institutions, such as the criminal defense system and the judiciary; c) establishing an adequate career system for the public service in general and the police and MP in particular, and ensuring dignified salaries and benefits; and d) obtaining passage of key legislation proposed by CICIG, such as the reform of the Statutory Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and an enhanced fiscal regulation. 2. Reviving and implementing the National Agreement for the Advancement of Security and Justice signed in April 2009 as an element of the roadmap for judicial reform processes. To the Congress of Guatemala: 3. Priorities passage of key legislation proposed by CICIG, including reforms to the Statutory Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, ensuring an independent, transparent selection mechanism for the office of Attorney General; the Law on Injunction (Amparo), Habeas Corpus and Unconstitutionality; the Law on Immunity of Public Officials; the Immigration Law, with specific reference to human trafficking, including illicit trafficking of migrants; and laws related to disciplinary measures in the justice system and pleas in criminal proceedings. To the Attorney General: 4. Improve the MP’s capacity to detect prosecutors and other staff linked with CIACS by establishing an effective, independent internal affairs unit, in close coordination with the UEFAC, and improve its human resources policies by creating an adequate system of benefits and protection. To the International Community: 5. Present common conditions to the government for future cooperation, including adoption of a national agenda for the justice system and fiscal reform and retention by the president elected in September 2011 of Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz, at least through the critical two-year period of CICIG’s mandate. For strengthening the work of CICIG: To the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG): 6. Consolidate CICIG’s achievements in specific cases, expand its intervention in institutional reform to combat impunity and build capacity, including by: a) focusing its prosecutorial activity on dismantling the CIACS as its first strategic priority publicly and clarifying its criteria for case selection and its general plan of investigations over the next two years; b) mapping out CIACS structures, locations and activities and sharing the information with the attorney general; and c) expanding its intervention in the interior so as to confront CIACS at local and regional levels. 7. Evaluate CICIG’s activities, impact and strategy together with Guatemalan stakeholders, including civil society organizations and public institutions, and independent international experts. To the International Community: 8. Maintain and strengthen coordinated donor support to CICIG by: a) ensuring it has all required financial and technical resources, including a fully funded two-year budget; and b) backing the evaluation of CICIG, its achievements and limitations, with pertinent indicators and in constant dialogue with all stakeholders, including Guatemalan public institutions and civil society organizations. For coherently transferring capacities from CICIG to national institutions: To the Government of Guatemala: 9. Establish a high-level commission, under the president’s authority and with the participation of public institutions, CICIG and civil society representatives, to establish a transfer strategy, including a budget, institutional mechanisms, benchmarks and timelines. To the Congress of Guatemala: 10.  Pass fiscal reform and complementary legislation to guarantee an adequate budget for the public sector. To the Attorney General: 11. Use the UEFAC as a seedbed to build and transfer capacities within the MP, including by enhancing its role and authority and requiring all MP units, such as the Special Unit for Crimes against Life, to collaborate with it when requested and immediately disciplining those that do not. 12. Establish and follow a roadmap for transferring CICIG information, resources and techniques, including by: a) building an efficient, transparent information system that protects sensitive data on CICIG investigations; and b) expanding the prosecutorial activities of all appropriate MP units, in collaboration with CICIG and UEFAC. To the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG): 13. Establish and pursue a proactive strategic plan to transfer knowledge and capacities to Guatemalan public institutions, including working together on establishing a model for selecting and investigating high-impact cases and appointing UEFAC personnel. To The International Community: 14. Reinforce donor coordination on the long-term funding priorities of national justice institutions and in particular monitor the strategic plan to transfer CICIG capacities to them.

The drug violence situation has become so desperate in Guatemala, as gangs and Mexican drug cartels run amuck, capturing territory and corrupting institutions to keep Guatemala a safe haven for cocaine, guns, money laundering and new recruits, that many Guatemalans are asking for a strong military back in their villages, despite very bad memories of the army’s genocidal role in the 36 year civil war . Josefina Molina, 52, said, “It’s even scarier now than during the war. The danger used to be in the mountains — now it’s everywhere.” In the country’s Presidential election, the three top contenders all called for a stronger, crime-fighting military, borrowing heavily from the Mexican model of attacking the drug cartels head-on, even though that strategy has claimed more than 40,000 lives without yielding peace. But the question worrying many is whether the new government will get tough without violating human rights. Meanwhile many areas and neighborhoods employ civilian patrols, which so far have been insufficient to curb the violent crime wave (Damien Cave, “Desperate Guatemalans Embrace an ‘Iron Fist’,” The New York Times,September 9, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/world/americas/10guatemala.html?ref=todayspaper).

On October 12, 2011, Dia de La Raza, or Colombus Day in Guatemala, thousands Mayas, Garifunas, and Xincas, despite heavy rains, undertook their annual march through the capital of Guatemala City in remembrance of their ancestors and to demand of the government that the rights of Indigenous Peoples be respected. This year, the community radio movement joined forces with CONIC, the National Coordinator for Indigenous Peoples and Campesinos, as well as many other grassroots Indigenous groups to demand the approval of a series of bills that have been entered into Congress by Indigenous representatives, that have been marginalized over the past five years. The long list includes the Radio Project’s Law of Community Media 4087 that would legalize community radio, as well as the Law of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Law to Protect Sacred Sites, and the Law of Consultation, and the Law Against Mining, all which have been ‘prioritized’ by congressional leaders but have yet to be scheduled on congressional agenda to be brought to a vote. Community Radio stations that serve Indigenous communities in their own languages covered the event live via cell-phone broadcast (“ Community Radio Movement Protests Columbus Day in Guatemala,” Cultural Survival, 10/12/2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemala/community-radio-movement-protests-columbus-day-guatemala).

The Maya Q'eqchi community of Agua Caliente, El Estor, Izabal, filed a petition, August 19, 2011, with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Guatemala for violating their rights to property, self-government, due process of law, and judicial protection . The community of 385 people has been fighting to protect their nickel-rich lands and resources from exploitation for more than 40 years. A former subsidiary of HudBay Minerals from Canada, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, was awarded a license to extract nickel from lands belonging to 16 Maya Q’eqchi’ communities, including Agua Caliente, without consulting the communities. In February 2011, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of Agua Caliente, recognizing their rights to collective property, and ordered corrective actions. Guatemala, however, has not fully complied with court orders. Having exhausted all of the state processes, the community is seeking justice through the regional human rights system (“Maya Q’eqchi’ File Petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Guatemala,” Cultural Survival, August 25, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemala/maya-q-eqchi-file-petition-inter-american-commission-human-rights-against-guatemala).

The community radio movement in Guatemala won a partial victory in the fight for democratic access to radio frequencies in Guatemala, with the congress's failure to vote approval on the bill 4404, which would have extended the current radio frequencies allocated to the mass media, with no mention of community radio, for another 25 years. The bill can come up again in 2012 when the newly-elected Congress takes office. Meanwhile, the effort continues to pass legislation legalizing community radio, which broadcasts to Indigenous communities in their own languages (“Community Radio Gains Time in Fight against Further Monopolization in Guatemala,” Cultural Survival, December 10, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemala/community-radio-gains-time-fight-against-further-monopolization-guatemala).

The violence surrounding the 2008 coup in Honduras has increased the divide and struggle in the country. Particularly since late last summer, struggles over land have been a major issue, with workers seizing land and setting up homes and farms on plantations of the ultra wealthy, particularly in the fertile valley of Bajo Aguán , near Honduras’s northern coast. At least 15 people have been killed in land battles in several weeks in late summer weeks, alone, including two of the workers’ leaders, and people in the valley are fearful that the unrest could spread. In an exceedingly divided country, the government appeared to move a step forward to negotiating a solution in early September, when Congress approved a mechanism to guarantee bank loans that would allow the farm workers to buy seized land. An estimated 4,000 families will be eligible for 15-year loans to buy more than 11,000 acres. However, the 1,400 families camped on the Marañones plantation since last year have been left out of the latest pact. Without a land title, they fear they could be evicted at any time.  The presence of hundreds of troops sent to the valley after the latest round of violence could also set off more conflict. The day before the congressional vote, soldiers and police officers surrounded Marañones and two other plantations, in an rehearsal for a massive raid. The conflict in the valley goes back to the early 1990s, when wealthy landowners bought up plantations from farmer co-operatives. Farm worker groups argue that these purchases were illegal because members of the co-operatives were tricked by their leaders or signed deals they did not understand (Elizabeth Malkin, “In Honduras, Land Struggles Highlight Post-Coup Polarization,” The New York Times, September 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/world/americas/honduras-land-conflicts-highlight-polarization.html?_r=1&ref=world). In late October, the Honduran Supreme Court, in a 12-3 vote, cleared six army generals accused of overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya and flying him to Costa Rica in 2009, rejecting abuse of authority charges against the now-retired generals, Romeo Vásquez, Luis Prince, Venancio Cervantes, Miguel García, Juan Pablo Rodríguez and Carlos Cuéllar (“ Honduras: Court Clears Six Generals in Overthrow of President in 2009,” The New York Times, October 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/honduras-court-clears-generals-in-overthrow-of-zelaya.html?ref=todayspaper).

The Contentious Administrative Court of Costa Rican ruled, September 12, 2011, that the ancestral lands of the Bribri people of the Keköldi Reserve must be returned to them . The Bribri  live in the Talamanca Canton in Limón Province of Costa Rica and number between 11,000-35,000 people. Keköldi Reserve was created in 1977 on the Caribbean coast, after non-Indigenous groups began settling on the land. International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, which Costa Rica ratified in 1993, was referenced in the decision (“Costa Rican Court Rules in Favor of the Bribri,” Cultural Survival, September 21, 2001, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/costa-rica/costa-rican-court-rules-favor-bribri).

The International Crisis Group, “Cutting the Links Between Crime and Local Politics: Colombia’s 2011 Elections,” Latin America Report N°37, July 25. 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/andes/colombia/37-cutting-the-links-between-crime-and-local-politics-colombias-2011-elections.aspx, warns, “Deeply entrenched connections between criminal and political actors are a major obstacle to conflict resolution in Colombia. Illegal armed groups seek to consolidate and expand their holds over local governments in the October 2011 governorship, mayoral, departmental assembly and municipal council elections. The national government appears more willing and better prepared than in the past to curb the influence of illegal actors on the elections, but the challenges remain huge. The high number of killed prospective candidates bodes ill for the campaign, suggesting that the decade-old trend of decreasing electoral violence could be reversed. There are substantial risks that a variety of additional means, including intimidation and illegal money, will be used to influence outcomes. The government must rigorously implement additional measures to protect candidates and shield the electoral process against criminal infiltration, corruption and fraud. Failure to mitigate these risks would mean in many places four more years of poor local governance, high levels of corruption and enduring violence. Decentralization in the 1980s and 1990s greatly increased the tasks and the resources of local government, but in many municipalities, capabilities failed to keep pace. This mismatch made local governments increasingly attractive targets for both guerrillas and paramilitaries. Violence against candidates, local office holders and political and social activists soared. With a largely hostile attitude to local governments, guerrillas have mainly concentrated on sabotaging and disturbing the electoral process. By contrast, paramilitary groups, particularly after the formation of a national structure under the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), used their links with economic and political elites to infiltrate local governments and capture public resources. That peaked in the 2003 local elections. Since then, and particularly after the official demobilization of these groups in 2006, the influence politicians linked to paramilitaries enjoyed has weakened but not disappeared. The October elections are the first test of how democratic institutions under the government of President Juan Manuel Santos cope with the growing power of new illegal armed groups and paramilitary successors (NIAGs), now acknowledged as the country’s biggest security threat. These organizations, which the government calls BACRIM (criminal gangs), are unlikely to have a unified stance towards the elections. Some will be content with minimal relations to local politics to guarantee their impunity, access to information and freedom of action. But NIAGs are rapidly evolving into larger, more robust criminal networks, so some could develop a more ambitious political agenda. Several advocates of land restitution for the victims of Colombia’s long-running armed conflict already have been assassinated, suggesting that this major Santos initiative is likely to be met by alliances between criminals and some segments of local economic elites, in defense of the status quo. Meanwhile, frequent attacks against prospective candidates and civilians suggest that the weakened FARC wants to prove it is not a spent force. Colombia is better prepared than in the past to take on these challenges. Impunity is decreasing, as judicial investigations into links between politicians and paramilitaries have resulted in the conviction of some two dozen members of Congress. Investigations and indictments are now moving down to the local government level, albeit slowly and unevenly. In July 2011, the government signed into law a far-ranging political reform, paving the way for the imposition of penalties on parties that endorse candidates with links to illegal armed groups or face investigation for drug trafficking and crimes against humanity. Election financing rules and anti-corruption norms have also been stiffened, although shortcomings in the legal framework remain. Over the long term, these changes should favor more competitive and cleaner local elections, but in the short term, their impact will, for a number of reasons, be limited. The approval of the political reform law less than four months ahead of the elections has heightened uncertainty, and time is running short to apply some of the innovations. More broadly, political parties remain weak, and there are doubts whether they can even effectively determine their own nominees in all cases. Meaningful competition is unlikely to emerge in regions where the political and economic environment is heavily biased towards elites formerly linked to paramilitaries. Clientelism continues to be a drag on local politics, while links between criminals and politicians are frequently difficult to expose because of deep-seated popular mistrust of unresponsive local authorities. Guaranteeing the conditions for free, fair and competitive elections remains the dominant immediate challenge for the government. But more needs to be done to protect local government from the influence of illegal armed groups over the long term. The National Electoral Council (CNE) must be strengthened and become more independent. Congress needs to update and simplify Colombia’s diverse electoral rules. Political parties must establish stronger internal structures and develop a culture of accountability. These changes will ultimately be insufficient, however, if local government continues to lack the institutional capacities to guarantee democratic, clean and efficient management of its affairs.” ICG recommends: “To provide the conditions for safe and secure local elections: To the Government of Colombia: 1. Review methods and criteria currently applied to identify security threats, link its risk assessments to those provided by civil society organizations and rigorously implement measures to provide security to candidates and political organizations, without discrimination. 2. React in a timely manner to all threats to candidates or social activists, as well as to early warning reports from the ombudsman office, and ensure that officials who fail to act comprehensively on threats or early warning reports face legal consequences. To reduce the influence of politicians linked to illegal armed actors: To Political Parties: 3. Screen prospective candidates rigorously before endorsing them and reject all with a questionable past, including those who are close relatives of politicians linked to paramilitaries or who are put forward by politicians linked to illegal armed actors. To prevent illicit campaign financing and electoral crimes and improve transparency: To the National Electoral Council (CNE): 4. Direct Sectional Electoral Guarantee Tribunals to make more active use of their competence to audit campaign accounts during the electoral process. To Political Parties and Candidates: 5. Voluntarily and publicly report campaign contributions and campaign spending well ahead of the elections. To the Government of Colombia: 6. Launch a campaign immediately to increase awareness among political organizations, candidates, contributors, media and civil society of campaign finance rules and the changes introduced in the 2011 political reform. 7. Provide additional resources to the National Civil Registry to ensure that the biometric voter identification system can be used in the 2011 elections, at least in the departments at highest risk of electoral fraud. 8. Improve, through the interior and justice ministry, public access to the records of the Immediate Reaction Unit for Electoral Transparency (URIEL), making it easier for the electorate to hold institutions accountable for follow-up on complaints. To the Government and Congress of Colombia: 9. Provide additional resources to the attorney general’s office to ensure that a dedicated unit for electoral crimes becomes operational and produces concrete results as quickly as possible. To maintain a level playing field for all candidates: To the Offices of the Attorney General, the Public Prosecutor and the Comptroller and to Courts: 10. Prosecute and if applicable impose sanctions expeditiously against unlawful interventions of incumbents in the electoral campaign. 11. Monitor closely the execution of public reconstruction works following the heavy rainstorms and follow-up rigorously on accusations of misuse of those resources by local incumbents for political purposes. To guarantee that political rights of vulnerable populations are protected and promoted: To the Government of Colombia: 12. Communicate clearly ahead of the elections that access to state subsidies and support programs such as Families in Action is a right, not a political favor. To the Government and Congress of Colombia: 13. Introduce instruments and mechanisms that more effectively protect political rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), including considering the possibility to grant them the opportunity to cast absentee ballots away from their original residence, as well as introduction of seats reserved for them in local governments. To strengthen scrutiny and reporting of the electoral process and confidence in the results: To the Government of Colombia, the Office of the Attorney General and Electoral Institutions: 14. React in a timely way to threats to journalists, not only by providing protection, but also by swiftly investigating the origin of threats and prosecuting those responsible for them. 15. Ensure that journalists and civil society organizations have equal and unhindered access to all official electoral information. 16. The government should invite the Organization of American States (OAS) to send an electoral observer mission, equipped with an extensive mandate, so as to ensure international scrutiny, including during the pre-electoral and the post-electoral stages, focusing on: a) departments and municipalities exposed to high risks of violence and/or electoral fraud; and b) ballot counting, in particular if the procedural changes in the political reform law are implemented for the October elections. To Candidates and Campaign Officials: 17. Pledge publicly to respect the work of journalists during the campaign and contribute to an informed electoral debate.

Survival International reported, in September, that armed members FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) hijacked the first attempt to provide medical aid by boat, owned by the National Indigenous Organization ONIC, to Colombia’s near-extinct and nomadic Nukak Indians . The Nukak Indians have little or no access to health care. In August the United Nations listed the tribe as one of 35 groups in immediate danger of extinction (http://www. survivalinternational.org/news/7657).

Conflicts have arisen between the government of Evo Morales, South America’s first Indigenous president, and some Indigenous people on the Bolivia. In September, local Indigenous people protest the building of a road through a national park and their territory, Isiboro-Secure (TIPNIS), (without consultation) that would connect the states of Cochabamba and Beni. Police attacked marchers walking to the nation’s capitol to protest the building of the road. President Evo Morales responded to complaints by freezing construction of the road, condemning the police operation, and fired Vice Minister of the Interior Marcos Farfan who was named as the official responsible for the violence. President Morales also said that the future of the road would be decided by people of the two Bolivian states that encompass the TIPNIS, and which the road will connect. This does not satisfy the people of TIPNIS reducing their say as they are a small part of a large population that includes some of Morales’ staunchest allies who also support the road . Bolivia’s 2009 constitution states indigenous communities have the right to be consulted on legislative and administrative projects that may affect them before the projects are underway, and leaders from the TIPNIS indicated they would continue their 350-mile trek to Bolivia’s administrative seat in La Paz as soon as marchers could regroup, while Bolivia’s largest union organization, the Bolivian Workers’ Center, planed a nationwide strike in solidarity with the TIPNIS marchers. The two month march to the capital by more than 1,000 indigenous people from Bolivia’s lowlands resulted in the Bolivian government passing a law banning the highway . However, the conflict has continued, with disagreements over how to respect the environment and indigenous rights while moving one of Latin America’s poorest countries out of poverty. Leaders from the TIPNIS say the government ignored their constitutional right to be consulted on the road planned across their land, and presented itself as a defender of the environment against preparations to cut through a well-preserved Amazon national park. Raul Prada, was once a prominent government supporter who helped frame the country’s 2009 constitution, who has become an outspoken critic, commented, “The whole government discourse on the environment has collapsed. It was a discourse they created for summits,” Prada said. “But when it came to making that reality in Bolivia they couldn’t.” For Prada, the TIPNIS conflict is a potent symbol of the break between government speech on the environment and indigenous rights, and its plans to develop the country through investment in roads, mining and gas extraction. On the other side, the government argues the road is crucial to building the national economy by better linking eastern and western Bolivia. It also contends rerouting the road is not viable because costs would rise beyond what current funding from Brazil permits. Bolivia’s indigenous population is far from monolithic. There are indigenous and multicultural groups that support the road, including the country’s largest rural union organization and coca growers, part of the president’s key support base. Days after TIPNIS marchers returned to their Amazon homes these groups threatened to march on La Paz, while others said they would begin to clear a route with machetes. Members of Morales’ party have called for strict limits on the economic activity TIPNIS residents can engage in, and suggested an audit to determine if original communal territories (TCOs by the Spanish acronym) like the TIPNIS should have their lands reduced, according to local media. The government also revoked the operating licenses for several businesses within the park. TCO leaders accuse the government of seeking to punish them for resisting the road plan. The government has denied that claim on several occasions. The next phase of the conflict centered on a conference Morales called for December 12-14 between unions, other social groups and the government to debate key points on the political agenda for 2012–but the country’s two most powerful indigenous organizations, CIDOB and CONAMAQ, boycotted the conference, holding a separate meeting. TIPNIS people say the conflict is resolvable, if only the government will listen.  For more information on pressures over land use in Bolivia go to the earlier report: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/04/bolivia-looks-to-land-redistribution/ ( Sara Shahriari,“ Bolivian Police Tear Gas Indigenous Marchers (Update),” Indian Country Today, September 27, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/bolivian-police-tear-gas-indigenous-marchers/; and, Sara Shahriari, “Tensions Between Bolivian Government and Indigenous Groups Deepen,” Indian Country Today, December 13, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/13/tensions-between-bolivian-government-and-indigenous-groups-deepen-67414).

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa is offering not to allow drilling for the estimated 850 million barrels of oil in Yasuní National Park is one of the richest places on earth, with a wealth of flora and fauna—some found nowhere else on earth—in its forests, and home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane, tribes that continued to shun contact with the outside world, preventing an estimated 400 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, if the world’s wealthiest countries, which consume the most fossil fuels, compensate it for the loss of revenue, paying half of the projected loss of revenue, $3.6 billion in donations by 2024. A ban on drilling in the Yasuní-ITT oil field would only partly satisfy environmentalists and defenders of indigenous rights, as another oil lease near that field also overlaps territory used by the semi-nomadic Tagaeri and Taromenane, and the government plans to auction off a dozen more leases in the central and southern Amazon, affecting as many as seven other communities of Indigenous Peoples U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the project in late September, when Correa traveled to New York with a delegation to develop support for the proposal. Germany initially was favorable to the plan, but later backed away from it, likely because of Europe’s financial difficulties ( Barbara Fraser, “Oil Discovery in Ecuador Prompts Plan to Protect Indigenous Territories,” Indian Country Today, December 7, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/07/oil-discovery-in-ecuador-prompts-plan-to-protect-indigenous-territories-66219).

Dr. Skye Stephenson , “ The House of Wisdom: Ecuador’s Intercultural University and Its Challenges,” Cultural Survival, December 12, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/ecuador/house-wisdom-ecuador-s-intercultural-university-and-its-challenges, reports, “The Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador, who comprise fourteen nationalities and eighteen pueblos, have been at the forefront of many key human rights struggles in recent decades that have had an impact far beyond their own nation. A key goal of their united Indigenous movement has been the establishment of an intercultural university.  After many years of development, the Universidad Intercultural Amawtay Wasi “the House of Wisdom” (UIAW) was launched five years ago receiving accreditation for its unique education offerings based upon Andean ancestral knowledge.  Now, the Ecuadorian government is threatening to withdraw that accreditation and potentially close down the university.” In addition, the National Council of Higher Education (Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior – CONESUP) also denied UIAW’s request to open more academic programs in Indigenous communities who had petitioned for them. UIAW turned to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador for support and received a favorable decision in December 2009.  The Court resolution stated that CONESUP must function in agreement with Convention 169 of the ILO (articles. 2, 3, 4, 5 y 27) and the Ecuadorian Constitution such that “UIAW can and should develop its own model of higher education based upon its own learning principles grounded in Indigenous knowledge, which can serve as an innovative influence in the national system of education.” At the same time, UIAW looked regionally across Latin America for support and helped established the “Network of Indigenous and Intercultural Universities of Abya Yala.” Other founding members include the universities URACCAN (Nicaragua), UNAIIN (Colombia) and several in Bolivia. This organization serves as a forum to share experiences and provide mutual support around intercultural Indigenous universities. In October 2011, UIAW also submitted a petition to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, calling upon the UN to support the UIAW’s efforts to offer university degree programs for Indigenous people of Ecuador. In early 2012, the accreditation team will return to the Universidad Intercultural Amwatay Wasi for a final review and decision, based upon recommendations made in their October visit.  The evaluation team has a new name – The Council for the Evaluation, Accreditation and Assurance of Quality University Education (CEAACES) – but to date there is nothing else new about them.  The team members have still not indicated how they plan to incorporate the intercultural viewpoint in their analysis, despite the pronouncement by the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court.  In the meantime, UIAW has continued to offer its academic programs to an increasing number of Indigenous people and communities, and will be graduating its first cohort of students with degrees in ancestral architecture, sustainable agriculture, and intercultural education in 2012. UIAW President Rector Sarango believes that international pressure and letters of support could help them at this critical time. ??For more information about the university, see www.amawtaywasi.edu.ec. For information contact Dr. Skye Stephenson, Head of the U.S. Donor Board for UIAW at sstephenson@keene.edu.

On September 6, 2011, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala, who in July became Peru’s first elected left wing President signed, a historic law guaranteeing Indigenous Peoples the right to prior consultation about any mining, logging, or petroleum projects affecting them and their territories. President Humala said he wanted Indigenous People to be treated like citizens who must be consulted where their interests are involved. The bill was unanimously approved by Congress on August 23, 2011. It is intended to ensure that Peru’s local laws are in compliance with the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 (“Peru's President Signs Prior Consultation Law,” Cultural Survival, September 11, 2011, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iOsDnWQAA-DKWFlbJVdwgEwASb2w?docId=CNG.3436150c1957d7472594d4ffcf236421.01). In October, President Humala accelerated an anti-corruption campaign firing 30 police generals – two-thirds of the national police leadership (Simon Romeo, “30 Police Generals Ousted in Peru Anti-Corruption Drive,” The New York Times, October 11, 2011).

The government of President Ollanta Humala of Peru announced in August, that it was temporarily suspending coca eradication in valleys around Tingo Maria, a major coca producing area, opening the possibility of a shift in coca policy by the government. Peru has been experiencing an increase in coca production to the point it is approaching the level of production of Columbia (Peru: Some Anti-coca Work Halted,” The New York Times, August 18, 2011).

The government of Peru, however, has continued to allow extraction opposed by Indigenous people and environmentalists. Survival International reported, August 18, 2011, that the government was permitting French oil company Perenco plans to build a $350m pipeline in northern Peru to transport $35 billion worth of oil from its block 67 project to the Pacific coast, while a detailed article published in US news outlet Truth Out alleges that government officials, environmental consultants and oil companies have been implicated in covering up the existence of uncontacted tribes living along the pipeline’s route. Perenco has rejected any suggestion that its work could endanger the lives of the isolated Indians, repeatedly citing a report by environmental consultancy Daimi to back up its claim that there is ‘no sign of any anthropological character (in block 67).’ However, freelance journalist David Hill tracked down researchers who had worked with Daimi in the region. Hill claims to have uncovered a trail of contradictions indicating that the report, which was funded by Perenco, was inaccurate and censored. A large body of evidence, including sworn testimonies of sightings, pathways, footprints and crossed spears, was ‘left out of the final report’. One forestry engineer involved in the investigation said, ‘Besides playing down the damage to vegetation and wildlife, they (Daimi) said there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of dwellings ... Perenco got everything it wanted’  ( style='text-decoration: none'>http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7594). In October, Survival reports, Peru fired Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo, its top indigenous affairs official of INDEPA, after she blocked a gas project she found to be illegal, that would allow Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol to enter land inhabited by uncontacted tribes. She was replaced as head of Peru’s government indigenous affairs unit INDEPA by a former lawyer who specializes in ‘business ethics,’ Arturo Zambrano Gustavo Chavez. Previous management at INDEPA had approved expansion plans for Pluspetrol’s project, known as Camisea, and sent them directly to Peru’s Ministry of Energy. Ms Yrigoyen Fajardo posted details on Facebook about her ‘abrupt departure’ from INDEPA. She said there was ‘no empirical basis’ why proper consultation had not been sought, stressing, ‘the worst thing is that this approval did not take into account the UN standards for the protection of indigenous peoples in isolation.’ Shortly after Yrigoyen was sacked, documents she submitted to INDEPA about the project’s cancellation were removed from the organization’s website (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7834).

Survival reported, September 14, 2011, that isolated Indians in southeast Peru were being ‘bribed’ with painkillers and pens, as workers from Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol sought to open up their land on the Kugapakori-Nahua Reserve to explore for gas, as even members of INDEPA – the government agency set up to protect Peru’s tribes – had put pressure on communities so research can be carried out in the reserve where they live. The reserve was created in 1990 to protect the territorial rights of vulnerable tribes. Enrique Dixpopidiba Shocoroa, a Nahua leader, said his tribe have been given medical equipment, stationery, and promises of temporary work. But some 15 tribes have chosen to resist contact in the Peruvian Amazon, and several are inside the reserve. All face extinction if their lands are opened up. This development came as Peru’s President Ollanta Humala approved an historic law designed to guarantee indigenous peoples the right to prior consultation about any projects affecting them and their land. Half of the Nahua died after their land was first opened up by Shell for oil exploration in the 1980s. Today, uncontacted tribes still living in the region are at extreme risk of succumbing to diseases brought in by outsiders ( http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=da7d911911&e=CqQTrZoCrQ>http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7697).

Peru’s cabinet chief, Salomón Lerner, resigned, in December, after failing to negotiate a resolution to simmering protests against the $4.8 billion Conga gold and copper mine proposed by Newmont, an American firm, and a Peruvian company, Buenaventura, in Cajamarca. Farmers in the northern region say the mine would contaminate water supplies. Peru’s economy has recently benefited from exports from other large mines, and royalties from mining projects finance social welfare programs . Peru’s president, Ollanta Humala, replaced Mr. Lerner with his interior minister, Óscar Valdés Dancuart, a former military officer. The change in cabinet leaders may indicate a shift in policy, as the President who has taken a conciliatory negotiating approach to problems may be about to take a harder line (Simon Romero, “Peru Official Steps Down Amid Fight Over a Mine,” The New York Times, December 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/world/americas/top-peruvian-official-quits-amid-protest-over-mining-project.html?ref=world).

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, noted on a visit to Paraguay last fall, that the government has made progress to protect and respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the country, though much more remains to be accomplished . Kang noted in particular, in a report by the UN Human Rights Office, the implementation of special offices within institutions of the government, such as the Ministries of Health and Education, as an important step. She stated that even with the improvements there is a long ways to go in helping an indigenous population where 91.5 percent of it lives in rural areas, mostly in the region of Chaco, which is difficult to access, also it lacks infrastructure, and sees its Indigenous Peoples working in slave-like conditions while living in poverty and facing discrimination when they try and move to urban areas. Women and children are usually the victims as they are forced into labor and sexual exploitation. Kang consulted with indigenous groups about the obstacles that hinder their progress. Besides, the difficult living conditions and labor issues, Indigenous Peoples face problems involving their everyday rights and possession and ownership of ancestral lands. The indigenous communities have been chased from their lands as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, an issue the government has been slow to make progress with. She stated, “I encourage the government to increase efforts to ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are respected, their participation in decision-making processes is guaranteed and their right to prior consultation is exercised.” Kang noted that there were a lack of an institutional autonomy, corruption, insufficient resources, and lack of authority over other state entities, all of which hinder making a real impact on public policies for the indigenous population (“Paraguay’s Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Slowly Improving,” Indian Country Today, November 10, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/10/paraguay’s-indigenous-peoples’-rights-slowly-improving-62339).

Survival reported, November 3, 2011, that leaders of Paraguay’s Ayoreo tribe were calling on the government to stop cattle farmers from destroying their forests after signs of their uncontacted relatives were found on a ranch. The Ayoreo say they overheard uncontacted Indians on the ranch and on further inspection they found ‘fresh footprints and marks on the trees where (their) relatives had been searching for honey’. Most of Paraguay’s Ayoreo have been forced out of their forests but others, including family members of the contacted Ayoreo, avoid the outside world. This recent discovery is the second this year to be found on land belonging to Brazilian company River Plate S.A., in Paraguay’s northern Chaco region. The controversial company made international headlines after satellite pictures revealed it was illegally clearing forest claimed by the Ayoreo as their own. Earlier in 2012, Brazilian-owned firms BBC S.A and River Plate S.A. were caught red-handed illegally clearing land inhabited by uncontacted Ayoreo (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7851). In August, Brazilian beef barons, BBC S.A. and River Plate S.A, who have cleared vast tracts of Ayreo forest land, were holding Paraguay’s government to ransom over land inhabited by uncontacted tribes. Ayoreo Indians were granted legal title to the land in 2010, but ranchers have refused to hand it over unless the state allows them to deforest a large area of adjacent land that the ranchers also own. The companies have been caught illegally clearing land for cattle farming twice in early 2011 alone (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7611).

On August 3, 2011 the government of Paraguay officially returned almost 9,000 hectares of ancestral lands to the Indigenous community Kelyenmagategma of the Enxet people in response to a petition the filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2004.?? The community filed their petition because they were displaced by force from their ancestral land, had been subject to living in deplorable conditions, and their personal safety was in imminent danger. In October 2004, the commission granted precautionary measures (calls for the government to take action) in favor of the Kelyenmagategma community to protect lives and physical integrity, to provide humanitarian support to displaced persons, and guarantee their return to their lands. The action this month was in belated response to those precautionary measures. Read the July 24, 2007 Admissibility Report here. The recovered property is located in the district of Villa Hayes and community leaders say the reclaimed territory is only a small part of what has been lost. The July 24, 2007 commission Admissibility Report is available at: http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2007eng/Paraguay987.04eng.htm (“Paraguay Returns Ancestral Lands to Indigenous Community,” Cultural Survival, August 8, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/paraguay/paraguay-returns-ancestral-lands-indigenous-community).

While the murder rate in Brazil dropped by 47% between 1999 and 2009, in the country’s northeast, a poor region that benefited most from the wealth-transfer programs of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during his eight years in office, the murder rate nearly doubled in the same period, making this area the nation’s most violent, as increased affluence of the region has been accompanied by rising drug violence (Alexi Barroionuevo, “ As Prosperity Rises in Brazil’s Northeast, So Does Drug Violence,” The New York Times, August 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/americas/30brazil.html?src=me&ref=world).

For the second time, at the end of September, a Brazilian court ruling has blocked the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River, one of the largest Amazon River tributaries, that some environmentalists have estimated will displace 40,000 mostly Indigenous people. The first court ruling was overturned on appeal. The late September court decision is on the grounds that the project would harm fishing by indigenous communities. The decision will likely be appealed (“ Brazil: Again, Court Ruling Halts Giant Amazon Dam,” The New York Times, September 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/world/americas/brazil-again-court-ruling-halts-giant-amazon-dam.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper).

As drug traffickers have become an increasing menace along the Brazilian boarder with Peru, Survival reported, August 15, 2011, that Brazil was dispatching National Security Force agents to help protect a tribe of uncontacted Indians missing after suspected drug traffickers attacked a FUNAI guard post. Survival International reported that heavily armed drug traffickers from Peru had surrounded and ransacked the base in the western Brazilian Amazon.  Fears for the Indians’ welfare grew after workers from FUNAI (the government’s Indian Affairs department) found a broken arrow inside one of the trafficker’s rucksacks. FUNAI made an over flight of the area to look for signs of the uncontacted Indians.  It showed their village and plantations were in a good condition.  But fears remain high, as there are still no confirmed sightings of the Indians themselves.  Brazil’s National Security Secretary Regina Miki reportedly called this a 'crisis situation' requiring a 'permanent occupation by the Ministry of Defense'. Survival has written to Peru’s President urging him to prevent further invasions of the Indians’ land and to implement measures to protect the tribes.  (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7585).

The Guarani Indians in Brazil continue to suffer land seizures, displacements, and numerous attacks, some deadly, and acts of terror. Many of the Guarani have been thrown off their lands, to which they are legally entitled in Brazil, and forced to exist in horrible conditions on the side of roads. Some have attempted to retake some of their land, as a number of Guarani activists attempt to gain public and international support for their people’s rights. Survival International reported, September 13, 2011, that ‘Trucks of men’ brutally attack tribal members, since the beginning of August, violently driving Guarani from their land, leaving them in fear of their lives. Among other things, the attacks have forced Guarani to make a perilous river crossing using a narrow cable to obtain food supplies. Guarani anthropologist Tonico Benites told Survival, ‘People’s lives are in imminent danger. A child could die at any moment.’ Those caught up in the violence have described how they were forced to run to safety after their huts were set alight, clothes burnt and families threatened. Gunmen are reported to have blocked roads, destroyed a bridge that provided access to the Indians’ camp, and surrounded the Guarani, preventing food and medical supplies from reaching them. The attacks follow attempts by the Indians to reclaim their ancestral land, which was seized by ranchers in the 1970s and has been occupied ever since. The Guarani also faced persecution in 2003 and 2009 when they made similar moves to reoccupy their land. Brazil’s government has condemned the violence, but done little to stop it. Survival has written to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) calling for urgent measures to be taken to protect the Guarani, and to Brazil’s Ministry of Justice, urging that Guarani land is mapped out and protected, as set out in Brazil’s own constitution. Survival reported further attacks, September 30, 2011, in which a Guarani man in his 20s has died of his wounds following a violent attack, allegedly by gunmen employed by Brazilian cattle ranchers,  in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. He had been stabbed seven times and his body was covered with bruises.  The attack occurred close to the São Luiz ranch, which ranch occupies the Guarani’s ancestral land, from where two Guarani witnesses say they saw men running into the forest after the incident. The deceased’s community, Y’poi, has been besieged since it reoccupied part of its land in 2010. The Guarani are trapped by the ranchers, who are restricting the Indians’ access to medical care. In 2009 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay displayed her shock at the Guarani struggle, by describing the tribe as ‘astonishingly invisible.’ Survival reported, November 18, 2011, that Nísio Gomes, a Guarani shaman was shot dead by masked gunmen in front of his community, who were  ordered to lie on the ground during the execution . Gomes is believed to have been the main target of this attack, although there are unconfirmed reports of children being kidnapped and a woman being killed. He was the leader of a group of Guarani Indians, 60 of whom returned to part of their ancestral land at the start of November, after being evicted by cattle ranchers. Members of the community say this is not the first time they have been attacked since their return, and that gunmen had been circling their roadside camp for several days. One Guarani Indian said, ‘We’ll stay on the camp. We’ll all die here. We will not leave our ancestral land.’ The killing of Nisio Gomes has startling parallels to that of Marcos Veron, a Guarani leader murdered by employees of a Brazilian rancher in 2003. On December 1, 2011, Survival reported, “Gunmen in Brazil are brazenly intimidating indigenous communities with a hit list of prominent leaders, following the high profile murder of Nísio Gomes last month. Reportedly employed by powerful landowners in Mato Grosso do Sul state, the gunmen are creating a climate of fear to prevent Guarani Indians from returning to their ancestral land. The tactics employed in recent incidents have been almost identical. Gunmen encircle vehicles transporting Guarani, force them to stop, and then verbally abuse and interrogate passengers about the names on the hit list. One Guarani leader told Survival International, 'They've pinpointed us and they're set to kill us. We're at great risk. Here in Brazil, we have no justice. We have nowhere left to run.'“ One Sunday, around 100 Guarani returning from a meeting in the district of Iguatemi were targeted. Guarani witnesses told Survival one of the four men involved was a local mayor. The Guarani said the men shouted insults such as, ‘We’re going to burn these buses full of Indians!’ Members of a government team were also present at the scene. Continued threats have also forced the son of an assassinated leader to flee his community. Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said, December 1, ‘This is yet another tragedy in a determined campaign to exterminate all Guaraní opposition to the theft of their land. The ranchers will stop at nothing to protect their interests, and it’s utterly shameful that the Brazilian government can’t stop these gunmen from acting outside the law.’ Gomes’ killers have yet to be arrested, but at the end of November, Brazil’s Public Ministry said six men had been charged with the murder of two Guarani teachers in 2009. The accused include a notorious Brazilian rancher who held the teachers’ community hostage, along with local politicians (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7692; http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7752;  and http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7923).

Meanwhile, Survival reported, September 6, 2011, Indians of the Guarani tribe in Brazil have demanded that energy giant Shell stop using their ancestral land for ethanol production. Shell is united with Brazilian ethanol company Cosan, in a joint venture company called Raizen. Some of Raizen’s ethanol, sold as a biofuel, is produced from sugarcane grown on the Guarani’s ancestral land. In a letter to the companies, the Indians warn that, ‘Since the factory began to operate, all our health has deteriorated – children, adults and animals’. The chemicals used on the sugarcane plantations are thought to be causing acute diarrhea amongst Guarani children, and killing fish and plants. The Guarani state, ‘We can no longer find many of the medicines which used to grow in the forest… the plants have died because of the poison’. They continue, ‘The growers never asked our permission or consulted us before planting on our land’. The Guarani’s letter can be downloaded at:

http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=ee484a960f&e=CqQTrZoCrQ. The Brazilian government’s failure to uphold its own laws and map out and protect the Guarani’s land for their exclusive use has left it vulnerable to exploitation by sugarcane plantations. The current boom in sugarcane production is taking over the Guarani's ancestral land. Meanwhile, many Guarani live in appalling conditions, in overcrowded reserves or camped on roadsides.  Dozens of Guarani have been assassinated after trying to reoccupy their ancestral land, and many more subjected to violence. The Guarani of Pueblito Kuê are the latest to suffer attacks, since they reoccupied their land at the beginning of September. Survival International’s Director, Stephen Corry, said September 6., ‘It’s a sad irony that people buy Shell’s ethanol as an ‘ethical’ alternative to fossil fuels: there’s certainly nothing ethical about its horrendous treatment of the Guarani. The Brazilian government needs to enforce its laws, and stop the wholesale destruction of the Indians' land’. Survival’s report to the UN, about the Guarani’s desperate situation can be downloaded at: http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=01e6400713&e=CqQTrZoCrQ  ( http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7674).

Diego González, “The Qom, the Indigenous People Who Came to Buenos Aires,” Americas Program, June 15, 2011, http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4890, reports, “For more than five months, indigenous Argentineans from the community of Primavera set up camp in the small plazas on The Ninth of July and Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires.  They came from the distant town of Formosa to condemn the burning of their homes and the assassination of a Qom elder by the provincial police.  They came trying to gain some clout by setting up camp at the center of things to make their situation more visible. But the presidency responded with silence and indifference. So they decided that they would begin a hunger strike and march along the 9th of July Avenue to block it. And then this past April 30, they received an official answer.  The day was selected with surgical precision.  It was during the afternoon with rain threatening in the distance.  The guardians of the news were not on the alert since there would be no daily papers on Sunday, the first of May. In this sleepy ambience, the Buenos Aires legal system issued an order to clear the street.  Generally the federal police, an arm of the ministry of the interior, ignore such orders.  But in this case, the reaction was swift.  A hundred troops surrounded the demonstration and forced the blockade to be lifted.  That day, the Qom began the sixth day of their hunger strike.” At this point the conflict over the 1300 hectares that the community claims, which are currently controlled by the large landowners the Celía family and the state government, became too public for the President. Thus, on May 9, 2011, minister of the Interior Florencio Randazzo met with the Qom commission, which then asserted its demands for the return of expropriated lands that were theirs by law and tradition, and for justice for the 62-year-old elder Roberto López who had been murdered concerning the land claim. The ministry committed to a biweekly dialog to solve the conflict over the 1300 hectares that the community claims, but with regard to the murder, the minister said very little and even challenged the authority of the cacique that had led the five-month protest in Buenos Aires and suggested that his role as leader be put to a community vote. “The dispute over the lands in Formosa puts on the agenda the most important debate, that of the advancement of the extractive model (used in petroleum, soy production and mining) which does not restore indigenous rights. On April 27, three days before the Qom were forced off Avenue 9 of July, the president announced that he was sending to Congress a legal project to regulate the sale of land to foreigners. However, according to Aranda, “to regulate the foreign ownership of lands does not fight the heart of rural injustice: the concentration of the land.”  According to the National Institute of Agricultural Technology , two percent of agroindustrial operations control half of the land of the country, while 57 percent of the small farmers, largely campesinosand small producers, have only 3 percent of the land . Another obstacle facing campesinos and Indigenous is the agroindustrial model which promotes the advance of monocultivation, especially of soy.  More numbers:  In 2001, 10 million hectares of soy were planted in the country.  In 2003, the year in which Kirchnerismo took over, it had risen to 12 million hectares.  Then after seven years of [the Kirchner] administration, the monocultivation of soy reached a record of 19 million hectares, or fifty-six percent of cultivated land.  In spite of the fact that in 2008 rural landowners began a lockout against the government, the cultivation of soy had never before grown to such magnitude. What is certain is that the present model is one of neo-development that is trying to empower the industrial section of agroindustry over the ”agro” section.  However, as always in the history of Argentina, renewing the industrial machine requires currency. And this currency goes straight into the public coffers by way of the sale of commodities, in this case, mainly soy. It deals with a model that runs along the limits of agriculture, and of the indigenous populations.  According to the National Indigenous Campesino Movement (MNCI-Via Campesino) about 200,000 rural families have been expelled to make room for soy production. The government finds itself at a crossroads.  Although the most likely outcome is that the sitting president will be reelected in October [which did happen], events like these demonstrate that “the model” is in a sense hostage to an economic project that generates consequences neither wished for nor sought in rural areas.  But it also is hostage to the broad territorial alliances that guarantee governability but provoke ideological contradictions that are not always easy to disentangle.”

In Libya, in late August, the collection of rebel forces, including Berber militia, with NATO assistance, after a number of slowly achieved victories, captured Qaddafi’s stronghold in the center of Tripoli – already effectively liberated by uprisings in many of its neighborhoods as Qaddafi’s forces collapsed – sending Qadaffi into hiding as some of his family fled the country. As of August 31, some scattered fighting continued with pro-Qaddaffi groups around the North of the country, as the work of attempting to blend the divided insurgent factions into a collaborative functioning government and nation become the major concern of the day. This will not be an easy accomplishment. Libya has always been divided into tribal and other factions that Qaddafi manipulated to hold power, but which accelerated his downfall once his position was weakened. The division is obvious, at the end of August, in just insurgent occupied Tripoli, where the disparate brigades of different factions occupy separate parts of the city, each marked by that faction’s graffiti attesting to its key role in the victory. At least in two cases, interfactional violence has occurred. In the first instance, reported in May, there were a series of unsolved killings of people who formerly worked for the Qaddafi regime in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, that appeared to be rooted in revenge and which raised the specter of a death squad, indicating that there still be a roll for NATO to play in protecting civilians.  In the second, more recent instance, a leading general in the insurgent command was assassinated by a member of a rival faction, threatening wider interfactional violence, which the collective leadership was able to facilitate preventing. On September 11, 2011, two rival groups of anti Qadaffi militias, from different towns fought  deadly pitch battle with each other. The task of building fractured groups into a peaceful, well working nation is a difficult one, but as it can only be successfully achieved by dispersing power among the factions, giving all major rolls in the new government and society, and going forward on the basis of mutual dialog (none of which has yet been attained in Iraq), success would most likely bring a well working society, though it would still take considerable time to build a participatory culture. In early September, the interim government was making a beginning of national integration by attempting to disarm and disband all militias, integrating many of their members into the national army and police. Meanwhile, largely unfounded roomers that Black African Mercenaries supported Qaddafi in the civil war have lead to an indiscriminate imprisoning of sub-Saharan immigrants in the country, without evidence as to whether they were mercenaries   (David Kirkpatrick and Rod Nordland, “Tripoli Divided as Rebels Jostle to Fill Power Vacuum,” August 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31tripoli.html?_r=1&hp; Kareem Fahim, “ Killings and Rumors Unsettle a Libyan City,” The New York Times, May 10, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/africa/11benghazi.html; Rod Nordland, “Libya’s Interim Leaders Aim to Harness Rebel Fighters,” he New York Times, September 3, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/world/middleeast/04libya.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper;David D. Kirkpatrick, “Libyans Turn Wrath on Dark-Skinned Migrants,” The New York Times, September 4, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/world/africa/05migrants.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; and “'12 die' in fight between rival anti-Gadhafi groups,” Ma’an New agency, September 11, 2011, http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=419314).

In a significant victory against the government that once evicted them from their ancestral lands, Botswana’s Bushmen are drinking water from a borehole well in the Kalahari Desert for the first time in nine years, Survival International said Monday. The government capped the well at Mothomelo in 2002 in an attempt to force the tribe out of an area rich in diamonds. In 2006, a court ruled the eviction illegal. But few Bushmen returned because the only water available was in handmade sand depressions. Survival International, which works for tribal people’s rights, said the Mothomelo well was redrilled and a solar pump installed by the Vox United charity working with Gem Diamonds, which mines in the Bushmen’s lands (“Botswana: Bushmen Reclaim Well in Ancestral Lands,” The New York Times , September 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/world/africa/06briefs-botswana.html?ref=todayspaper).

Survival International reported, in early October, that as part of a broader repression, around one hundred Ethiopian tribespeople from the Mursi and Bodi tribes were arrested and jailed for opposing the Gibe III dam, which would dislocate and destroy the way of life of tens of thousands of Indigenous people. Plans for the dam and irrigated land plantations nearby are gathering pace, along with rising repression and intimidation to any opposition. A policeman reportedly told one indigenous community that the government was, ‘like a bulldozer, and anyone opposing its development projects will be crushed like a person standing in front of a bulldozer.’ In a huge land grab, Ethiopia is leasing out large tracts of tribal lands in the South Omo region to foreign and state run companies for the growth of sugar cane, crops and biofuel plantations that will be fed by water from the dam. A climate of fear is growing in the region as opposition to these leases is being brutally suppressed by the country’s secret police and military. Survival has learned that security forces are encircling and intimidating indigenous communities whose grass huts are built on the land proposed for development. Those with criminal records over the last ten years are being arrested, and anyone caught voicing opposition, beaten or threatened with imprisonment. There are also reports of women being raped, and herds of cattle stolen. Survival International’s Director, Stephen Corry, said, October 6, 2011, ‘The Ethiopian government and its foreign backers are bent on stealing tribal land and destroying livelihoods. They want to reduce self-sufficient tribes to a state of dependency, throw all who disagree into prison, and pretend this is something to do with 'progress' and 'development'. It's shameless, criminal, and should be vigorously opposed by any who care about fundamental human rights.’ The Lower Omo Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It contains two national parks, and is home to approximately 200,000 agro-pastoralists. One Suri pastoralist said the Gibe III dam, and tribespeople being driven from their land, signaled, ‘the end of pastoralism in southern Ethiopia.’ The UN has expressed growing concern over Ethiopia’s construction of the Gibe III dam, and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has given Ethiopia until the end of January 2012 to provide reliable evidence that independent assessments have been carried out, and that tribal people in the region have been properly consulted and given permission for the dam to be built and their lands to be developed. The UN body has written to Ethiopia with its concerns under its ‘early warning and urgent action procedure’. It has appealed for ‘constructive dialogue’ but noted how previous requests from the UN’s Special Rapporteur on indigenous rights had been ignored. The UN’s World Heritage Committee has also written to Ethiopia calling for it to ‘immediately halt all construction’ and for ‘all financial institutions supporting the Gibe III dam to put on hold their financial support.’

The Samburu community in Kenya has experienced a number of attacks by police, beginning in November, moving the community to go to court and winning a preliminary injunction against the government establishing a national park on their land, without consultation or their permission. The Samburu initiated legal proceedings against the former president Daniel Arap Moi (who sold the Elan Downs property to the African Wildlife Foundation for $2 million) and the African Wildlife Foundation, claiming their right to the land. The judge in the case declared that the status quo should be maintained, with the Samburu continuing their occupancy in the property, until the court reached a decision. Despite this ruling, in early November, the Kenya Wildlife Service announced that the property had been donated to the government by the Africa Wildlife Foundation and The Nature Conservancy and would become a new Laikipia National Park .  Members of Parliament questioned the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife, Dr. Noah Wekesa, about the establishment of the National Park during a Parliament session on November 22, and Dr. Wekesa agreed that the establishment of the Park would be put on hold until the court announces its decision.  The Kenya Wildlife Service was also enjoined in the case, along with former president Moi and the African Wildlife Foundation. The Samburu’s difficulties opened when the Kenyan police began a series of brutal evictions of the tribe, burning their villages, killing and stealing their animals and assaulting men, women and children. Survival International received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood’, and of 2,000 Samburu families living in makeshift squats on the edge of the land and 1,000 others have been forced to relocate entirely. Conditions wee found to be appalling, and resources scarce. A Channel 4 documentary caught on camera the extreme nature of these evictions in the Eland Downs. Following waves of violence from the police, the Samburu began legal proceedings against AWF and ex-President Moi, to plead for their rights to the land. A subsequent court demand for no further harassment of the Samburu has been ignored. Survival has recently received reports that women and children have been sleeping in the bush, despite heavy rains, terrified of police violence. The land supports a wide variety of species, including rare zebras and black rhinos, and the head of AWF has described Laikipia’s protection as the perfect way to ‘stimulate tourism’. One community leader said AWF’s actions go ‘against the very interests of Kenya’s children, who ironically, remain the best wildlife conservationists.’ Survival wrote to the UN appealing for urgent action to be taken to put an end to the violence and provide assistance to the Samburu. In December, police released two Samburu elders who were beaten and arrested during a week of police violence against the community, as well as the Samburu people’s cows, goats, and sheep that survived the police round-up and impoundment. Samburu people report, however, that many of their animals were lost in the bush during the chaotic police round-up or possibly attacked by wild animals. Police were also seen roasting and eating some of the livestock. A report by the Transparency International, released in mid-December. ranks Kenya 154 out of 182 countries that were surveyed on the Corruption Perception Index.  Their overall score improved only a fraction of a percent from last year, despite a zero-tolerance campaign by the current government administration in Kenya. The Kenyan police scored an 81 percent corruption rate, gaining the infamous title of the most corrupt institution in Kenya, as well as reaching in the top ten bribery-prone institutions within all of East Africa.  After the police, the Ministry of Lands, and the Judiciary branch fell among the most corrupt institutions within Kenya. "At the moment, in Kenya as in many countries in Africa, the political leadership remains the greatest obstacle to effective anti-corruption initiatives," said Transparency International Kenya’s executive director, Samuel Kimeu, regarding the findings ( “Campaign Update - Kenya: Court Blocks National Park; Police Attack Samburu Community,” Cultural Survival, November 29. 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/kenya/campaign-update-kenya-court-blocks-national-park-police-attack-samburu-community; http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7946; “Campaign Update – Kenya: Elders and Livestock Released,” Cultural Survival, December 1, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/kenya/campaign-update-kenya-elders-and-livestock-released;  and “Campaign Update- Kenya: Police, Courts Rank as Most Corrupt Institutions in Kenya,” Cultural Survival, December 9, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/kenya/campaign-update-kenya-police-courts-rank-most-corrupt-institutions-kenya).

“Campaign Update – Ghana: Newmont Plans Second Phase of Gold Mine,” cultural Survival, September 9, 3011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/ghana/campaign-update-ghana-newmont-plans-second-phase-gold-mine, notes, “Since Cultural Survival's Global Response campaign in 2003 to prevent gold mining in forests reserves in Ghana, one company has been successful in pushing their plans for the construction of a gold mine into reality.  Newmont Mining Company, world renowned for human rights and environmental abuses, began construction on the Ahafo gold mine inside the Ghana Forest Reserves in 2008 .  Since then, residents close to the mine have complained that the company has not held to their promises of adequate compensation. They also note such problems as "unemployment, poor road network, high cost of food stuffs, water pollution as well as the outbreak of malaria, typhoid and other water-borne diseases",(Ghana Business News). In September, Newmont was planning another, underground, phase of construction on the mine. The Subika Underground Mining Project is currently awaiting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency.  ?Residents urge the company to first comply with its compensation policy before beginning another round of construction which they believe will only lead to further problems that they are currently facing.  If construction continues without attending to their complaints, residents are prepared to publicly demonstrate against Newmont.

The Hadza community of Domongo in Tanzania, one of the very few hunter-gatherer tribes in east Africa, was formally handed over land titles at a special ceremony, in November, in the first instance of the Tanzanian government has formally recognized a minority tribe’s land rights . Doroth Wanzala, the Assistant Commissioner for Land in the Northern Zone told those attending the ceremony, ‘We have resolved that the Hadza should be given official title deeds to ensure that the country’s last hunter-gatherers are not troubled by land-hungry-invaders, particularly in the wake of scramble for land.’ Naftali Kitandu, a Hadza representative said, ‘Invasion by other tribes who bring along herds of cattle and introduce farming in the valley has been threatening the survival of Hadza people who only depend on fruits, roots, honey and small animals for survival.’ Following the ceremony, one Hadza told Survival, ‘We are very happy. Now we need to make sure we get land titles for other Hadza communities.’ The Hadza are a small tribe of about 1,500 hunter gatherers living in north-west Tanzania. Until the 1950s they survived entirely by hunting and gathering. Living in small mobile camps, they had no ‘chiefs’ or formal political organization. Since then life has become increasingly hard as larger pastoralist tribes have encroached on much of their land, destroying much of the wildlife and plants on which the Hadza rely for their livelihoods. A number of NGOs, including the Ujamaa Community Resource Team, supported the Hadza’s long quest for land rights (“Tanzania: Hadza tribe celebrates first land titles,” Survival International,  November 4, 2011, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7859?utm_source=Survival+International&utm_campaign=1f1099c6e4-E_news_December_2011_12_9_2011&utm_medium=email).

There are signs of a major war developing over disputed oil rich territory as — Northern Sudanese troops seized the contested town of Abyei, May 21, as the south prepares to become the world’s newest country (“North Sudan Is Said to Have Taken Contested Town on South Border,” The New York Times, May 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/world/africa/22sudan.html?ref=todayspaper). A few days later, Sudan was threatening to take two additional areas in the south: Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan States, two disputed areas with long histories of conflict that remain well armed. The North’s actions are in violation of the peace process and threaten to renew major fighting (Jeffrey Gettleman and Josh Kron, “Sudan Threatens to Occupy 2 More Disputed Regions,” The New York Times, May 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/world/africa/30sudan.html?ref=world). At the beginning of September, northern Sudan began a major offensive in Blue Nile, which lies along the disputed border of Southern Sudan, with whom Sudan has yet to reach agreement on how to share oil profits (Jeffery Gettleman, “Sudan Attacks Disputed Border State,” The New York Times, September 2, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/world/africa/03sudan.html?ref=todayspaper). In May, Northern and southern Sudanese officials agreed to a preliminary arrangement on demilitarizing the border between them, though some officials from both sides immediately expressed skepticism of the deal, particularly its ability to resolve the dispute over the contested Abyei area, and in light of late events it is unclear if the agreement has much meaning ( Jeffery Gettleman and Josh Kron, “ North and South Sudan Tentatively Agree to Demilitarize Disputed Border,” The New York Times, May 31, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/world/africa/01sudan.html?ref=todayspaper). In June, the UN authorized the deployment of 4200 Ethiopian troops to Abyei as peacekeepers (“Sudan: UN Authorizes Deployment,” The New York Times , June 28, 2011).

Jeffery Gettleman, “Brinkmanship in Sudan as a Deadline Nears,” The New York Times, June 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/world/africa/06sudan.html?ref=world, reported, “In the past few weeks, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been accused of orchestrating a genocide in Darfur, seems to be steering his country back toward war. His troops and tanks violently annexed Abyei, a flashpoint town on the contested border dividing northern and southern Sudan. Then he sent thousands of soldiers into two other volatile areas, Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan, while continuing a crippling blockade of the south, strangling it of food and fuel. At the same time, renegade southern militias, widely believed to be armed by Mr. Bashir’s intelligence services, have stepped up their attacks, hitting army bases, snatching weapons and stretching southern troops thin as they scramble to meet all these threats, often hijacking United Nations vehicles to get to the battlefield. But diplomats and analysts believe that, rather than trying to start a major conflict, Mr. Bashir may instead be playing out a carefully devised strategy meant to ensure just one thing: that when southern Sudan declares independence next month, his northern government controls as much oil as possible, or at least is richly compensated .”

Sudan and South Sudan agreed, September 8, 2011, to pull back forces before the end of September from the disputed Abyei region, claimed by both sides, with representatives of the two countries meting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to try to reduce tensions along their border       (Sudan and South Sudan to Withdraw From Disputed Border Region,” The New York Times, September 8, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/world/africa/09briefs-Sudan.html?ref=todayspaper).

With the session of Southern Sudan approaching in July, the Sudanese Army and its allied militias have undertaken a major offensive to crush rebel fighters in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan, bombing thatch-roofed villages, executing elders, burning churches and pitching another region of the country into crisis, as tens of thousands of rebel fighters have refused to disarm, digging in the hills. The Sudanese Army has sealed off the area, threatened to shoot down United Nations helicopters, detained several United Nations peacekeepers, subjected them to “a mock firing squad.” Sudan is making it nearly impossible for aid agencies and monitors to work in the region. There are reports of the Sudanese army undertaking indiscriminate bombing and shelling, and executing civilians, indicating a possible ethnic cleansing. The Nubian rebels are demanding political reform and autonomy, a familiar demand around Sudan’s marginalized edges that has set off insurgencies in Darfur in the west, as well as eastern and southern Sudan. There are numerous divisions in northern Sudan. Non-Arab people in the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, Blue Nile State, Kasala and along the length of the Nile to Egypt  have long been resisting an increasingly isolated government dominated by a small group of Arabs and led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (Jeffrey Gettleman, As Secession Nears, Sudan Steps Up Drive to Stop Rebels,” The New York Times, June 20, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/world/africa/21sudan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; and Josh Kron, “Ethnic Killings by Army Reported in Sdanese Mountains,” The New York Times, July 20, 2011).

Earlier, before the independence of South Sudan, ICG, “ Divisions in Sudan’s Ruling Party and the Threat to the Country’s Stability,” Africa Report N°174, May 4, 2011, commented, “When the South officially secedes, on 9 July 2011, the North’s problems will change little. The National Congress Party (NCP) has not addressed the root causes of Sudan’s chronic conflicts and has exacerbated ethnic and regional divisions. Facing multiple security, political, social and economic challenges, it is deeply divided over the way forward. Its security hardliners see these as minor issues, not imminent threats to their survival, and remain committed to a military solution to chronic instability. Others call for internal party reform – a “second republic” – to address the NCP’s problems but are giving little thought to resolving those of the country. The party has mobilized its security apparatus to suppress any revolts, has decided to end the debate about Sudan’s diversity and identity, remains committed to an Arab-Islamic identity for all Sudanese and keeping Sharia and is ready to sub-divide key states to accommodate political barons. These are ad-hoc decisions that set the stage for continued violence that may not be containable and could lead to further fragmentation of the country. Power is now increasingly centralized in a small clique around President Bashir. However, this centralization is not reflected in the armed forces. Concerned about a possible coup, he and close associates have fragmented the security services and have come to rely increasingly on personal loyalty and tribal allegiances to remain in power. Meanwhile, their party has been allowed to flounder, having long ago lost its strategic vision and policy coherence. Deeply divided and more concerned with staying in power, the leadership more often reacts to events rather than implements a well-thought-out national program. This is best illustrated by the protracted, very public dispute between Nafie Ali Nafie (NCP deputy chairman for organizational affairs and presidential adviser) and Ali Osman Taha (second vice president of Sudan) and the wildly diverging statements made by party leaders in the run-up to the South’s self-determination referendum. The recent dismissal from his posts of the formerly powerful Salah Gosh reflects divisions within the NCP that have the potential to lead to the party’s collapse or a coup. Bashir, Nafie and the security hardliners have concluded that the opposition parties are very weak and reject their call for a more inclusive constitutional conference to draft a permanent constitution after the South secedes in July. They think they have the situation in Darfur under control and discount the possibility of conflict in the transitional areas of Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile, believing that those regions are divided, and their military forces are not an imminent threat to Khartoum now that the South is focused on other issues. They continue to pursue divide and rule tactics to prevent the emergence of a unified counterweight to NCP dominance of the centre. Taha and more pragmatic allies are willing to negotiate with other political forces but are undermined by the security hardliners. They also seemingly remain committed to the party’s goal of imposing an Arab-Islamic identify on all of what remains of Sudan – an extremely divisive issue in a country that still includes hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups. In the absence of accountability, the leadership enjoys absolute freedom and has institutionalized corruption to its benefit, in the process rewarding political barons who can deliver their constituencies by giving them lucrative government positions to maintain their loyalty. The governors of each state run their own patronage network within their respective regions. Despite the seemingly successful conclusion of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the accord has failed to resolve the issues that drive chronic conflict in Sudan. It was intended to lead to the “democratic transformation” of the country. However, during its six year interim period (to end formally in July), the NCP resisted meaningful implementation of many provisions, because they would seriously threaten its grip on power. The opportunity to maintain Sudan’s unity and to establish a stable, democratic state was lost. Not surprisingly, Southerners chose separation when they voted in January 2011. The remainder of the country thus remains saddled with the “Sudan Problem”, where power, resources and development continue to be overly concentrated in the centre, at the expense of and to the exasperation of the peripheries. A “new south” is emerging in the hitherto transitional areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile that – along with Darfur, the East and other marginal areas – continues to chafe under the domination of the NCP. Unless their grievances are addressed by a more inclusive government, Sudan risks more violence and disintegration. The call by the opposition parties for a wider constitutional review conference suggests a way forward. Such a conference should be seen as a more extensive national consultative process, to accommodate the popular consultations in the transitional areas and the Darfur people-to-people dialogue. Those latter two processes, if run separately, will not lead to political stability and lasting peace in the whole country. The cardinal issue of governance must be addressed nationally. To encourage this, a united international community, particularly the African Union (AU), Arab League and the UN, should put pressure on the NCP to accept a free and unhindered national dialogue to create a national stabilization program that includes defined principles for establishing an inclusive constitutional arrangement accepted by all.

Southern Sudan, one of the world’s poorest and least developed nations, which became independent in July, has suffered from fighting between numerous armed factions — both before and after formal independence — and its security forces are widely known to be undisciplined and violent. Aid groups have recently complained about government security personnel hijacking humanitarian convoys. This situation was illuminated, August 20, when South Sudanese police officers beat up the head of the United Nations human rights division in South Sudan , Benedict Sannoh, when he refused to allow police to search his luggage in a hotel in the capital, leaving him in the hospital and drawing a sharp rebuke from the United Nations. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated, “The High Commissioner considers this incident to be totally unacceptable. Unless those responsible are held to account, this will send a chilling message to all those working in the defense of human rights in South Sudan.” This is not the first time police officers have been accused of serious abuses. United Nations officials and witnesses said that police commanders and soldiers beat and raped police recruits at a training center outside Juba last year. The recruits were also subjected to harsh training exercises, leading to the deaths of as many as 100 people (Jeffrey Gettleman and Josh Kron, “South Sudan Police Assault U.N. Human Rights Official,” the New York Times, August 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27sudan.html?ref=todayspaper).

In China, while repression of Tibetans is ongoing, violence again has broken out in Xinjang Provence between Indigenous Uighurs and Han Chinese, most of whom have been encouraged by the Chinese government to move into the region. At the end of July, 14 people were reported to have died in the second major outbreak of fighting in several weeks in the city of Kashgar. Ethnic tensions continue to remain high in the province, where Han Chinese continue to move in, dominate economic life and government positions, and have placed curbs on traditional Uighur Muslim religious practice (Michael Wines, “14 Killed in Western Chinese City on Edge Over Ethnic Tensions,” The New York Times, August 1, 2011). In Mongolia, there were a series of demonstrations around the province by ethnic Mongolians, after two Mongolians, one in a group of 20 protesting a coal mine, were killed by a pair of Han Chinese drivers. Thee has also been anger over Chinese destruction of Mongolian Grasslands (Andrew Jacobs, “Anger Over Protester’s Deaths Leads to Intensified Demonstrations by Mongolians, The New York Times , May 31, 2011).

In a continuing series of self-burnings, two Tibetan monks set themselves on fire, in late September, in an ongoing protest against Chinese policy, and called for a free Tibet, at Kirti Monastery in a remote area of Sichuan Province, China (Edward Wong, “Two Tibetan Monks Set Themselves on Fire in Protest,” The New York Times, September 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/world/asia/two-tibetan-monks-set-themselves-on-fire-in-protest.html).

A 10-minute video from Cultural Survival shows Kuy villagers in Cambodia attempting to protect Prey Lang (“Our Forest”) as bulldozers tear it down for agro-industry expansion and mining projects. Kuy elder Ru Lark stated, “Our people are worried. How long can Prey Lang survive? Kuy people know we can look after it. It is part of our belief. We have lived here for many years, and the forest has not been lost. If the government can work with our communities, we know that we can save this forest.” The Kuy people have asked Cultural Survival to help them convince Cambodia’s government to halt the destruction and work with the Kuy to protect Prey Lang. The video can be viewed at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/cambodia (“ Campaign Video – Cambodia: Kuy People Defend Prey Lang Forest,” Cultural Survival, November 8, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/cambodia/campaign-video-cambodia-kuy-people-defend-prey-lang-forest).

For the first time, the government of Myanmar (Burma) allowed democracy activists to hold a public prayer vigil in Yangon, with riot police observing, but at the same time marchers were harassed or stopped by police elsewhere in the city protesting against the building of a major dam, and for release of political prisoners (“Myanmar: Activists Rally Without Arrests,” The New York Times, September 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/world/asia/myanmar-activists-rally-without-arrests.html?ref=todayspaper). This small, but perhaps important change, fits with the observations of ICG, “ Myanmar: Major Reform Underway,” Asia Briefing N°127, September 22, 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-east-asia/burma-myanmar/B127-myanmar-major-reform-underway.aspx. “Six months after the transition to a new, semi-civilian government, major changes are taking place in Myanmar. In the last two months, President Thein Sein has moved rapidly to begin implementing an ambitious reform agenda first set out in his March 2011 inaugural address. He is reaching out to long-time critics of the former regime, proposing that differences be put aside in order to work together for the good of the country. Aung San Suu Kyi has seized the opportunity, meeting the new leader in Nay­pyi­taw and emerging with the conviction that he wants to achieve positive change. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) seems convinced that Myanmar is heading in the right direction and may soon confer upon it the leadership of the organization for 2014. This would energize reformers inside the country with real deadlines to work toward as they push for economic and political restructuring. Western policymakers should react to the improved situation and be ready to respond to major steps forward, such as a significant release of political prisoners. In a speech on 19 August, the president made clear that his goal is to build a modern and developed democratic nation. His initial views on what steps are needed were set out in his wide-ranging and refreshingly honest inaugural speech less than six months ago. Some observers have dismissed such talk as “just words”, but in a context of long-term political and economic stagnation they are much more than that. After 50 years of autocratic rule, they show strong signs of heralding a new kind of political leadership in Myanmar – setting a completely different tone for governance in the country and allowing discussions and initiatives that were unthinkable only a few months ago.” “ In recent weeks a series of concrete steps have been taken to begin implementing the president’s reform agenda, aimed at reinvigorating the economy, reforming national politics and improving human rights. The political will appears to exist to bring fundamental change, but success will require much more than a determined leader. Resistance can be expected from hardliners in the power structure and spoilers with a vested interest in the status quo. Weak technical and institutional capacities also impose serious constraints on a country emerging from decades of isolation and authoritarianism. It is urgent that those best placed to provide the necessary advice and assistance – the West and multilateral institutions – are allowed to step forward to provide it. Some observers are still urging caution, putting the focus not on how much is changing but on how much has yet to change. To be sure, a successful reform process is far from guaranteed. There are many fundamental steps that still must be taken, including healing deep ethnic divisions and overcoming the legacy of decades of armed conflict – something the government has yet to fully grapple with – together with addressing adequately ongoing allegations of brutality by the armed forces; the release of political prisoners; restoration of basic civil liberties; and the further lifting of media censorship. Western countries have indicated that they stand ready to respond to positive developments. At a very minimum, this should include a less cautious political stance and the encouragement of multilateral agencies – including the International Financial Institutions and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – to do as much as possible under their existing mandate restrictions. Similarly, member states should support the broadest interpretation of the EU Council decision on Myanmar rather than the most cautious. As Naypyitaw sets its new course, these small political steps would help to facilitate the provision of ideas that could add momentum to the reforms now underway. There are already indications that key benchmarks many in the West have insisted on may soon be reached. Military legislators have, for example, supported an opposition motion in the lower house calling on the president to grant a general amnesty for political prisoners. If such a dramatic policy shift occurs, it would need to be reciprocated by those who earlier authorized sanctions. Failure to do so, or to shift the goalposts by replacing old demands with new ones, would undermine the credibility of these policies and diminish what little leverage the West holds. Internal progress on human rights and economic reforms that benefit the country’s citizens should be acknowledged and supported by the international community. Crisis Group has long held the view that sanctions on Myanmar – targeted and non-targeted – are counterproductive, encouraging a siege mentality among its leadership and harming its mostly poor population. The greater the pace of change, the weaker the rationale becomes for continuing them – or adding more. Many problems remain. There is ample evidence that the army continues to employ brutal counter-insurgency strategies, and in the absence of domestic accountability, calls for an international commission will remain. But it is far from clear that such a body, even if one could be established, would be the most effective way to address abuses at this time or whether its impact would rather be to cause retrenchment in Naypyitaw.”

While fighting continues between troops of the Myanmar government and several Indigenous groups, the government began negotiating peace, in December, with the Shan, Mon, Karen, Kayah and Kachin groups, with the government’s only condition being that the groups not demand to secede . Government spokesman said President Thein Sein had ordered an end to fighting with Kachin rebels in the north on Dec. 10, but skirmishes have continued because communicating with troops in remote areas was difficult (“ Myanmar: Talks With Rebels Open,” The New York Times, December 16, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-opens-talks-with-rebels.html?ref=todayspaper).

Indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, some of the poorest and most marginalized ethnic groups in the country, have long struggled for recognition and protection of their rights against a government that has often oppressed them and inflicted great harms upon them. On June 30, g overnment officials were considering removing the word “indigenous” from official documents, just as a constitutional amendment was passed recognizing “small ethnic groups,” without referring to them as indigenous. If the change is made, all textbooks and curriculums would be changed as well. The move was accepted by representatives from the Prime Minister’s office, Foreign Ministry, Ministry for CHT Affairs and others at a meeting on July 21. The next step was approval from the Cabinet. There are 45 indigenous groups in the country, most of them live in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The CHT is an area with some of the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the country, and a place where the government has supported non-Indigenous squatters taking Indigenous people’s land (“Bangladesh Government Looking to Drop ‘Indigenous Peoples’ for ‘Ethnic Minorities’,” Indian Country Today, September 13, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/13/bangladesh-government-looking-to-drop-‘indigenous-peoples’-for-‘ethnic-minorities’-53459).

A municipal judge in the Philippines dismissed charges against nine Ifugao Indigenous people who are members of the Didipio Earth Savers Mulitpurpose Association (DESAMA), that has been opposing construction of an OceanaGold mine in their community, that has displaced Indigenous landowners and threatens the water supply in this agricultural region. DESAMA has long claimed that the charges were trumped up in an attempt to intimidate and harass Indigenous people who oppose the mining. The judge’s decision reinforces DESAMA’s opinion that the charges constituted a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” (SLAPP) suit, a tactic aimed at eliminating public opposition to corporate projects (“Campaign Update – Philippines: SLAPP Suit Against Ifugaos In Didipio Dismissed: Philippines: Defend Indigenous Lands,” Cultural Survival, September 13, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/philippines/campaign-update-philippines-slapp-suit-against-ifugaos-didipio-dismissed). Meanwhile an Indigenous member of the Philippine legislature, Congressman Teddy Brawner Baguilat, Ifugao, citing the documented negative effects of mining operations on indigenous communities,introduced a bill that respects and protects the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their lands (“Campaign Update – Philippines: Indigenous Legislator Introduces Bill to Strengthen Free, Prior, and Informed Consent,” Cultural survival, September 12, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/philippines/campaign-update-philippines-indigenous-legislator-introduces-bill-strengthen-free-p).

The Soliga tribe in India won a landmark victory, in late October, becoming the first tribe in India to have their right to use their ancestral land recognized – even though it is inside a tiger reserve, according to Cultural Survival, November 2, 2011. In 1974 members of the Soliga tribe were evicted from their homes in the Biligirirangan Hills, Karnataka state, by a local government intent on protecting the state’s wildlife. But now the Soliga’s right to collect, use and sell forest produce from within the Rangaswami Temple Sanctuary reserve has been formally confirmed. The unprecedented move follows more than 30 years of debate in Karnataka state over how to reconcile tribal peoples’ rights with conservation. It brings an end to fears of eviction and bans on their right to hunt and cultivate. As recently as January, 1,500 Soliga thought they would lose their homes when the Sanctuary was re-classified as a tiger reserve in order to ‘protect’ 30 of the big cats. The Soliga insisted that removing them was not the solution, and told India’s Environment Minister to ‘give (them) poison’, rather than force them out. Under the Forest Rights Act, the Soliga will now have legal rights to use and protect as much as 60% of the reserve, including parts of the core area. The Soligas are now working on a proposal to manage the tiger reserve jointly with the Karnataka state authorities, using their traditional knowledge. About 20,000 Soligas live in Karnataka state, and have been inextricably linked to the Biligirirangan Hills for generations. Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said November 2, ‘The Indian government is beginning to realize that tribal peoples are the best conservationists, by far. If only the rest of the world could catch on. >Evicting tribespeople from their ancestral land in the name of ‘conservation’ is not only illegal and destroys them, it also spells disaster for the local environment and wildlife’ (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7843).

Papua New Guinea’s government announced, in October, that it will restore the right of landowners to challenge in court any project they feel could be detrimental to the environment. The National Executive Council agreed to repeal the Environmental Amendment Act, passed by the legislature in May 2010, which denied landowners this right. Cultural Survival’s Global Response campaign joined Indigenous landowners in Papua New Guinea in calling on the government to revoke the amendments. The 2010 amendments were rushed through Parliament in a single afternoon with no prior disclosure by the government of former prime minister Michael Somare. They were aimed at landowners along the Rai coast who had just secured a temporary injunction preventing a Chinese company from dumping its mine and refinery waste into the Bismarck Sea. The amendments deprived the Rai coast landowners from seeking redress for any eventual economic losses or health problems that could be blamed on actions of the Chinese mining company. They also restricted public protests against development projects approved by the government. The repeal comes while the Rai coast landowners await a final court decision on their appeal for a permanent injunction against the dumping of mine and refinery waste into the sea. In announcing the government’s plan to repeal the amendments, Environment and Conservation Minister Thompson Harokaqveh said, “It is essential that the rights of the landowners to request review by the courts is maintained. I am committed to protecting the rights of landowners to ensure their livelihoods and way of life are protected while promoting environmentally sound economic development which will benefit all Papua New Guineans.” Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court, in late August, had rejected an appeal by Indigenous landowners who asked for a temporary injunction to prevent a Chinese company from dumping its mine and refinery waste into the Bismarck Sea ( See Global Response’s original Action Alert here. CMRQUHFtR2PAFCw1zppjnyRvbU_Zuob7iYUvC2IlHrSf53zf6Xdfu1e5PFi2Lv-rP_IKJg) (“Campaign Victory – Papua New Guinea: Government Reverses Amendment to Environmental Act,” Cultural Survival, October 18, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/papua-new-guinea/campaign-victory-papua-new-guinea-government-reverses-amendment-environmental-; and “ Campaign Update - Papua New Guinea: Judge Refuses Landowners’ Appeal; Company Can Dump Waste into the Sea,” Cultural Survival, August 23, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/papua-new-guinea/campaign-update-papua-new-guinea-judge-refuses-landowners-appeal-company-can-d).

A new video by the Sacred Lands Film Project shows how Indigenous communities along the Ramu River in Papua New Guinea are reviving a traditional ceremony to protect the river, which flows from above the cite of a mine on the Rai coast to the sea . Although the film does not portray the threats to the life of the river from mining projects, it does show the Indigenous communities’ dependence on the health of the river and their commitment to be its guardians. (“Campaign Update – Papua New Guinea: New Video on Defending the Ramu River,” Cultural Survival, October 10, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/papua-new-guinea/campaign-update-papua-new-guinea-new-video-defending-ramu-river).

Repression in West Papua by the Indonesian military has been continuing . Survival International reported, October 21, 2011, “Violence comes exactly a year after a shocking video of Papuan men being brutally tortured by Indonesian soldiers. At least seven people are feared dead after Indonesian police opened fire on hundreds of West Papuans at an independence rally close to the province’s capital. Representatives from tribes all over West Papua were meeting to choose a new leadership and to discuss the political future of the region. West Papua has been ruled by Indonesia since 1963. Police have confirmed the bodies of five Papuans have been found, two dumped behind an army barracks and three in the mountains. Survival International has spoken to reliable sources from Papua who say at least another two have been killed; their bodies have not yet been found.” Tension mounted as Papuans held their Third National Congress in the town of Abepura. Armed soldiers and police surrounded the venue and, following a declaration of independence from Indonesia, the security forces stormed the stage, firing shots and using tear gas to disperse the crowd. Survival has been told by sources inside Papua that approximately 300 participants, including women and children, were arrested – many were savagely beaten as they were taken away. Most have since been released, but the leaders, newly elected at the meeting, remain in custody. Five have so far been charged with treason – a charge that has seen many Papuans sentenced for up to 20 years.  Reverend Benny Giay has been a target of the US-backed Indonesian elite special forces, and has received numerous death threats for his role in exposing human rights violations in the region. He told Survival, ‘We want the Indonesian government to stop using terror, we need our rights. The Papuans demand a dialogue, mediated by a third party, to settle the conflict. The Indonesians are killing us, it’s time for dialogue.’ Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry said October 20, ‘This violence comes exactly a year after a shocking video of Papuan men being brutally tortured by Indonesian soldiers was released on the internet. It’s clear that the international outrage generated by that event has taught the Indonesian government nothing about respecting the rights of the Papuan people. Given the history of barbaric treatment at the hands of the army and police in West Papua, we are extremely concerned for the safety of those still in custody.’ Survival reported, November 30, 2011, that pro-independence Papuans were planning widespread rallies on December 1 to mark 50 years since they first raised their symbolic ‘Morning Star’ flag in a declaration of independence from Indonesia. A climate of fear surrounds the anniversary as Indonesia continues to brutally suppress any opposition, and hands derisory sentences to security forces implicated in the violence. For example, the main officers involved in brutally breaking up the October rally and killing 10 people have reportedly only received reprimands. It is now a treasonable offense to carry the flag, which has become an emblem of West Papua’s struggle for independence. The December 1, 2011 peaceful protests aimed to show there is still a strong movement to end almost half a century of occupation and flagrant human rights abuses. West Papua has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, during which time an estimated 100,000 civilians have been killed under Indonesian occupation. One of the main rallies was to be held in the city of Jayapura, by the grave of former Papuan leader, Theys Eluay. He was killed in 2001 by the Indonesian military. The seven men convicted of his murder were only given minimal jail terms. Survival’s Director Stephen Corry commented, ‘Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua is almost unparalleled in its brutality. It’s outrageous that the international community is turning a blind eye on almost half a century of ruthless oppression and unbridled violence against the Papuan people.’ There are growing calls for Australian monitors to enter West Papua ahead of Thursday’s rallies, and for Indonesia to allow foreign journalists back in (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7815; and

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7916).