Sign Louisiana Banking Permission Slip Later

Industry sign banking louisiana permission slip later

I wish to start by saying thank you to the Yakima nation whose land we sit on Central Washington University is grateful to the Yakima for allowing us a sacred space to congregate and to learn I am pleased to introduce our guest speaker Kelsi Leonard is a scholar environmentalist and an activist she blends knowledge and action to make a difference for indigenous communities affected by climate change and water crisis is a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation Kelsi serves on the Mid Atlantic Regional Planning body of the u.s. national ocean Council as tribal co-lead the organization consists of tribal federal and state entities charged with guiding the protection maintenance and restoration of America's oceans and coastlines as an environmental leader and Shinnecock citizen she has been instrumental in protecting the interests of tribes with the development of the Mid Atlantic Ocean action plan this unprecedented partnership with tribal nations for regional ocean planning is a testament to tribal sovereignty but also is an important step towards ensuring federal trust responsibilities as a scholar she earned her MS and water science policy policy and management from the University of Oxford at Saint Cross College making Kelsi the first Native American to earn a degree from Oxford she holds a BA in sociology and anthropology from Harvard University and a JD from Duquesne she's currently pursuing her PhD in comparative public public policy from McMaster University with a focus on indigenous water supreme I don't know how she has time for anything else yeah we are very lucky to get her so and I'm very pleased to have her here and so help me welcome Kelsi Leonard to Central Washington University's social justice and human rights dialogue [Applause] thank you very much here myself--but aku Anika suck Kelsi Leonard newest along Shinnecock another J table name is yakima so in my language I said hello I hope that everyone has had a great day my name is Kelsey Leonard and I'm from the Shinnecock nation our territory is located on the southern shores of Long Island what we call paumanok in new york or what is currently known as new york we are a coastal First Nation indigenous nation and our territory sits where freshwater meets salt water and I very much think that that's the embodiment of where I see myself as a water scholar protector activist and environmentalist if they am given that moniker we are well known for being traditionally whalers we were some of the most renowned whalers in the world and circumvented the world on whaling ships to bring in that harvest we are also known for our dugout canoes and for wampum the first currency of the colonies and the United States of America and you can see it it's made from a Quahog shell from our waters and I wear jewelry today adorned with it and all of that cements our cultural political and social existence I should akak people in today's world so I I ground myself in that knowledge and I open with my language to give thanks as well to the Yakima nation for allowing me to be here today for allowing us to be here to learn and grow together and open our minds and have our minds come to one one thinking hopefully it's for their stewardship that we're able to be here today and I I greatly appreciate them welcoming me here and allowing me to speak my language in their territory so I have something I would like to share with you she woke up to excruciating pain every part of her eight and throbbed she looked down and could feel the injection lines pumping her into submission unable to escape she had been stripped until barren her green skirt ripped from her body there were fresh bruises and cuts atop old scars she lay naked and exposed in darkness as water flowed down but in this darkness what scared her most was that she was alone she had always had her ancestors around her she called out for them searching around her she realized they too had been taken from her excised from her existence ripped from the ground beneath her how could this happen to her would anyone believe her they'd say she was too welcoming she was too kind she shouldn't have blunt flaunted her beauty so much that's what they say her generosity is weakness her beauty not her own she is property but from the depths of her despair and the pillaging of her beauty we will rise we will stand for her her indigenous children that call her mother we are still here we do not consent as we have conversations in our modern world with movements such as me - about what it truly means to have consent we should be extending those conversations to our mother the earth this is a cartoon that comes from Big Bend Gazette highlighting the current administration's deregulation of our environmental protections as of now 67 environmental regulations are to be reversed by Trump and Republicans in Congress hashtag me - says mother earth if we look to the law right the law should tell us what our morals and ethics are as a nation consent is a concurrence of wills voluntarily yielding the will to the proposition of another acquiescence or compliance there with agreement approval permission the act or result of coming into harmony or accord consent is an act of reason we should be reasonable and rational accompanied with deliberation the mind weighing as in balance the good or evil on each side submission under the influence of fear or terror cannot amount to real consent and these are the questions we need to ask ourselves have we truly granted consent for the extraction that we have done to the earth and how does that lead us in a modern error to the violence that we see within indigenous communities and Nations for our women scholars like Audra Simpson and Sarah deer have articulated that the violence against the land that we have reaped against the land is the same violence that we see against our indigenous women one in three Native American women will be raped in their lifetime that statistic is startling but it's not as startling or shocking to indigenous women when we see the treatment of the other female presence in our world view of Mother Earth if our society is if our nation states can treat the earth in this way then of course they can treat indigenous peoples in that way the logic is only rational so when we think about water protection when we think about how do we move on from this question how do we really put forward solutions develop policies that can create sustainable change stop this violence allow for true and meaningful consultation and the opportunity for reasonable Minds to consent it's embedded in our supreme law of the land our treaties how many of you have treaty rights in this room and so we've been interactive raise your hands if you have a treaty right in this room few hands about ten or so I see you going up in reality every single person in this room should have their hand up you all have a right of responsibility to upholding treaties that the United States government has signed with indigenous nations throughout this territory and most notably if you call yourself someone who is an American citizen and a citizen of Washington State and a citizen of Central Washington University then you have an obligation to the 1855 treaty with the Yakima nation you have a responsibility to ensure that that treaty is upheld to ensure that it exists in perpetuity and that all of its term are fulfilled if we don't acknowledge our right of responsibility to treaties whether were whether we're indigenous or non-indigenous then we can't even begin to have a conversation about consent about meaningful consultation about how do we make free prior and informed consent for water protection and the future of water resources not only within the United States of America but around the world if treaties are our supreme law of the land globally then we must acknowledge our rights of responsibility first and foremost so everyone I hope when you're asked that question in the future you will all raise your hands this is again at Black's Law Dictionary if we go to the law that states that a treaty is an agreement league or contract between two or more nations or sovereigns formally signed by Commissioners properly authorized and solemnly ratified by the several sovereigns or the supreme power of each state if you are to call yourself an American citizen a patriot then it is your duty and obligation to uphold these treaties to ensure their perpetuity when we think about water there are lots of different mechanisms that come into play legal mechanisms that come into play to govern shared waters trans boundary waters around the world there are over 60% of trans boundary basins however that do not have any agreements there are no treaties that govern how those waters should be managed restored protected and even for those treaties that do exist 80% of them are bilateral they don't necessarily involve all of the nation states within the basin or for the watercourse and more often than not they don't include indigenous nations rather in fact through processes of hydro colonialism they have purposely excluded indigenous nations from the participate in the negotiation of these treaties right here in Washington State the Columbia River Basin treaty is being renegotiated for a deadline of 2024 and when it was first signed in 1960 the indigenous nations in this Basin were purposefully excluded from participating in the development and ratification of that agreement times have somewhat changed they've been given a seat at the table in the new negotiations but time is still to tell as to whether or not their decision-making for that agreement will allow for equitable parity in how the agreement is finally settled but there is one thing that we should turn to in those negotiations and there is one thing that we should turn to for all water resource management within the United States and Canada our treaties with indigenous nations the first trans boundary water agreements were treaties with indigenous nations if we look at the languages of our treaties they are often bounded by water they are defined by water they exist so long as the rivers flow but what if they cease to flow what then that is the question that faces us now how do we ensure not only the perpetuity of these first trans boundary water agreements these first agreements with indigenous nations on this continent on Turtle Island but how do we ensure that the same water that was talked about them that was talked about in them hundreds of years ago continues to exist seven generations from today well hopefully we can look to indigenous people we can look to our frontline activists and protectors and land defenders because they're out there right now doing the work we need to be done to ensure that perpetuity if you lived in a country where one out of every six people you met had drinking water too polluted for human consumption what country would you be in some people are pointing to right here in the United States a little bit more specific you'd be an Indian country this is the reality that faces many indigenous people throughout Indian country throughout the territories of Indian reservations in this United States and in Canada one out of every six of us has water too polluted for consumption if we think about that as the United States as a world leader as with fulfilling principles of democracy we don't stand for this in other countries why do we stand for it here in our own so why do we see indigenous women on the frontlines of water protection well we know from our indigenous teachings if we even look more specifically to the Anishinabe you can see from this this image and you may have heard this phrasing water is life it's a common phrase among indigenous people but for the Anishinabe they say water is life our Anishinabe laws and values tell us everything we need to know about pipeline companies like Energy East that is why we say no we do not consent women are disproportionately affected by water insecurity that's why we now have global initiatives like the sustainable development goals and when we think about sustainable development goal six looking at proper access to water and sanitation one out of every six indigenous people in the United States does not have access to clean drinking water that is a violation of international law and sustainable development goal number six we also need to look to the protection of our environment sustainable development goal number thirteen and women's rights sustainable development goal number five all of these are internationally enshrined principles of development and yet indigenous women are disproportionately and desperately affected compared to non-indigenous women and so that is why we are on the frontlines our teachings tell us to be on the front lines but our disproportionality mandates that we also are on the front lines we are directly impacted we also know that as far back as the doublin principles with an international law that women play a central part in the provision management and safeguarding of water as an indigenous teaching as indigenous women it is our responsibility to care for the water it is our role it is the fulfillment of our role as women to be water carriers and stewards and so in almost every society around the world whether you look to indigenous societies or non indigenous societies you will see that water is gendered there are different impacts for water security based on your gender and if we're to develop sound policy sound and innovative practices that allow for future sustainability and shared sustainability we need to confront these issues head-on and their gendered disparate impacts from an indigenous contacts context there's also a path that we share and it's in recognition that for every one act of violence it takes four generations to heal so we look to our residential schools and our boarding schools where our women were taken from the land they were stripped from the land and forced into schools where they were taught that to be civilized they must be domesticated they must be kept in the kitchen to learn I earn and then to be wet off as chattel in a marriage contract in that stripping from the land that traumatic stripping these were the original acts of violence we're still not four generations away from the end of the boarding school era that healing has not fully taken place and taken root so when we think about water protection and why women are also on the front lines is because in many ways it's cathartic it is a part of our healing process to deal with the historical trauma inflicted upon our communities on our bodies on the land and it also means that we cannot fully advocate for water protection and manage water resources until as non-indigenous and indigenous peoples we come together for reconciliation because indigenous water rights as we might now turn them through Western legal frameworks are not just about quantity and quality and access we're dealing with a spiritual realm of sacredness water is sacred water is life so we're also in the process of healing through building our collective resilience a term I've adapted from Gerald visitor he called it surviving the act of being survivors but being in a constant state of resistance but I want to change that a bit and recognize our centers of excellence and indigenous innovation and say that we are actually in a process of surviving we are survivors that are resilient and building resiliency in our communities for water protection we are reclaiming our traditions as women and that set us on a transformative path towards reconciliation and healing so we come to some of our teachings this artwork is by the matey artist Christie bellacourt and this is a phrase that you may hear a teaching you may hear from many indigenous Nations not all but definitely one that was communicated to me through my nation that water is our first medicine water is life and it is our first medicine because it nurtures us in the womb it is the first medicine that bursts us into this world and there is great power and respect that is taught in that teaching it brings us also to Standing Rock and to the movement for global understanding of indigenous water protectors and women standing Iraq was a mov ment led by women young women to young girls from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation who said we will not stand for this Dakota access pipeline that will destroy our water and not even just our water as standing rocks citizens of an indigenous nation with a treaty in a government-to-government relationship with the United States of America but all of our water our collective water has citizens of this planet so the camps are some of them not all of them began with women and there are two quotes that were given by women water protectors great leaders and digitus leaders who were at the camp's they said the way we treat the earth is inseparable from how our society treats women that's Tracy rector and face spotted eagle she said that water is the first medicine it sustains us in our mother's womb it is used in ceremonies to heal people and this is where we start to see an articulation of indigenous epistemologies caring for water being said in a political context of resistance and resilience and that has set us on a transformative path of healing and reconciliation as well standing Iraq is not over it's just beginning it's being replicated in places not only on Turtle Island in the United States and Canada but around the world everyone in this room is complicit in an act of water injustice even I am from our cell phones to the bottled water you may have had today to your form of transportation and your carbon footprint but we can no longer assume that these are activities happening in someone else's backyard what happened and is happening at standing rock is directly impacting every single person in this room and around the world and it's how we decide to take up what an initiative a has said and called our bundles as women our spiritual power as women it depends on how we decide to pick up those bundles as to whether or not seven generations from today there will even be water for our great grandchildren's children so you may ask yourself what next what can I do the first step is to honor the treaties to honor your responsibility to pick up your own bundle as a citizen and that right of responsibility know the land you're on know the people whose land you share it with the original people know their ancestors welcome them respect them partner with them learn from them and not only honor the treaties but honor them in that relationship so you may be wondering how do I come to this work how does water protection and the factors of consent and Native feminism relate to a Shinnecock woman from the shores of Long Island how does Standing Rock connect to me well I currently serve as a tribal co-lead for the Mid Atlantic Regional Planning body of the u.s. national ocean Council and through an executive order that was signed by President Obama in 2010 we are charged with coordinating and implementing regional ocean planning with state federal tribal and fishery management council representatives so that we can have an America whose stewardship ensures that the ocean our coasts and the Great Lakes are all healthy and resilient safe and productive and understood and treasured so as to promote the well-being prosperity and security of present and future generations I never thought as a Shinnecock woman that the Alberta tar sands this image that I'm showing you right now would have any direct impact on my life I rallied and stood and rose behind other indigenous women who are from this community from the communities directly impacted by the Alberta tar sands I believe in their resistance but I never thought it would directly impact me this is a before and after image of the Alberta tar sands beautiful forest destroyed boreal forests to extract oil this is a wind farm an image of a wind farm proposed by a company called Statoil Statoil is a norwegian company that had previously had massive amount investments in the Alberta tar sands in December of 2016 stat oil sold off all of their Alberta tar sands investments claiming to want to go to a green energy portfolio now mind you stat oil is one of the largest oil and natural gas producers in the world stat oil is also the parent company for Empire wind empire wind is a new wind farm company that has taken on the name Empire to claim affinity towards the empire state of New York stat oil has proposed one of the largest wind farms off of the Atlantic Ocean off of our traditional territory in Long Island without our consent this is where the proposed area is to be right now they're currently surveying to see the level of productivity these wind farms may have many think that our transition to renewables is very altruistic what you don't realize is the amount of cap-and-trade system that's happening with these renewable energies specifically wind farms in our economy billions of dollars of fake money being traded on Wall Street so that these projects can happen and so that polluters can continue to pollute while they have these green energy portfolios so somehow I found myself directly connected to the water protectors and women and land defenders thousands of miles away from me in the Alberta tar sands because it was blood money the money that they made but stat oil has made extracting Alberta tar sands oil and raping the land of indigenous nations first nations in that area is what they're using to build a wind farm off our water the New York Times and I think maybe every major news outlet in the past month or so has covered this story there's been no sign of newborn North Atlantic whales this breeding season they are facing extinction this wind farm is directly in the migratory as well as happened habitat and feeding areas of the North Atlantic right whale one of our sacred relatives so there isn't this large disconnect between my nation on a coastal area of Long Island and the First Nations in Canada near the Alberta tar sands we are directly connected so I'm working right now in my own water protection and land defense and resistance movements to fight Empire wind to fight their wind farm until there is free prior and informed consent from my nation and every indigenous nation along the North Atlantic that these wind farms could potentially impact we're not anti renewable energy but we need to make informed decisions go back to that legal definition of consent reasonable Minds not profiteering minds but reasonable Minds must come together but I recognize that my work is a string in a web of indigenous women around the world who are fighting similar paths who are building resilience and leading with innovation in remarkable ways many of them came together for Standing Rock to defend what is most sacred water is sacred women like Winona LaDuke she says someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist agree with you it also makes me question the terminology we use activists protector land defender we're operating within a colonial language that does not fully understand our indigenous worldview it does not fully capture the relationality and reciprocity of our ancestors that carry their spirits and every word and breath that we utter so activist or terrorist what I've learned is that these women will continue to fight and resist and be resilient no matter what you call them there is power in truth the image I'm showing you above is of Tara Houska she is an extraordinary water advocate she was on the frontlines at Standing Rock she was strip-searched in prison and imprisoned in a dog kennel she is leading indigenous environmental movements around the world most recently with the Bayou Bridge pipeline project that's being proposed in New Orleans and directly impacting indigenous nations in that part of Louisiana she has also I love this this sign that she has it it says power and truth because there's a native Hawaiian scholar that says women oh I've lost my plot I'll find it because it's a very good quote too many pages [Applause] but I don't want to do dis justice to her quote but she does say that as women or like volcanoes our truth is explosive you actually think I did pretty good justice to that quote and I feel like that fully represents Tara and other indigenous women like her that we are unbridled by our truth and we can be empowered by it and explosive with it so be careful this is a milena and Rubicon Massimo she is from the Alberta tar sands area she's an indigenous climate change fellow for the David Suzuki foundation another preeminent indigenous woman scholar she says the path toward a cleaner safer and more just world means reconciliation with all women girls and nature alike indigenous communities are on the front lines of resource extraction and climate change but we are also on the front lines of solutions this is canals manual she's been very instrumental in the tiny-house Warrior movement basically they found a legal loophole that if they put tiny houses in the pathway of the Kinder Morgan pipeline that was going through Burnaby BC then they would the Canadian state and the government of BC would have to go through legal procedure to issue for the taking of that land because there was a house on it so they built all of these tiny houses along the pipeline path and most recently that pipeline was announced that it would not be built that was a day or two ago now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has come out and says that Canada is a nation state that is governed by the rule of law and the project will move forward so we'll see if she has anything to do but that's it it won't it won't happen this is Sylvia McAdams she's a Cree woman and founder of I don't know more if you heard about that resistance movement and it's an ongoing movement she is one of the founders and she's been a Seminole activist she's here pictured in her home community where it's been devastated by deforestation from logging companies as well as for extractive industries these women one on the Left Michelle Cooke is a Navajo woman LaDonna Allard is right after her on the right and Tara again they were one of the first delegations that went to Switzerland in Norway in the spring of 2017 after standing Arak to promote for all of the Swiss and Norwegian banks to divest from pipeline companies and they were successful and billions of dollar divestments from those companies this is one in corn Miller she's from Ghana a I include her because these movements of indigenous women as protectors and defenders are not new she was thirteen years old during the oka crisis when she was speared with the top of a bayonet a rifle with a with a knife on the end of it and then imprisoned for 24 hours without medical care she survived this is her now she also went on to be an Olympic silver medalist but it's not about indigenous women protectors of water and Native feminism on the front lines of water protection it's not about the big names you know Winona LaDuke sand and Sylvia McAdams they are amazing women that are totally deserving of their their credit and their their background and all of the honorees that we give to them but we also need to honor our everyday women that's where violence stops when we honor the everyday women in our lives that fight to protect that fight to ensure that seven generations from today their children's children are able to live their life in a good way with the cultural teachings that they were taught so it's our young ones it's our youth it's our it's our land defenders it's our grandmothers it's our babies that stand with protest signs and are taught to be prayerful protectors and resisters to a nation the state that would see them extinct there's a grandmother named Josephine Mondamin who said at the Madeo and lodge there was an elder there that told her in 2001 that in 50 years an ounce of gold will cost as much the amounts of water will cost as much as an ounce of gold we're very well on that path Nestle just received licensing for a permit for extraction of millions of gallons of water out of Lake Michigan for a permit of $200 a year when it takes an average monthly water bill for a resident of Flint for lead toxic water 150 dollars this is the not only environmental but moral crisis of our country right now an indigenous people have much knowledge and science that if we listened could set us on a sustainable path for our future this is Josephine mendin a lot of people ask her now she's from lucuma Kong first nation on Manitoulin Island in Canada a lot of people ask her she's known as the water walker she started walking around the Great Lakes in 2003 she just finished last year her first walk her last walk because she now has Parkinson's and can't walk anymore people still ask her though oh where are you gonna walk next or what are you going to do next she walked all the Great Lakes she's got over 32,000 kilometers on her sneakers but they still asked so so what's next for you Josephine and she has this response for them what are you going to do about it what are you going to do what sneakers are you going to pick up what water are you going to walk for and fight for and protect and that's the greatest teaching I think from indigenous women that they are more than happy to be on the frontlines but they're also happy to pass the torch to give those teachings to those who will listen and to those who will pick up their bundles and fight alongside them so this is autumn Peltier she's a Josephine's niece she's 13 years old and she just spoke before the United Nations two weeks ago she gave a brilliant speech that you can see on YouTube but she is now taking up her own bundle she's taking up Josephine's work and the teachings that her aunty gave her and she says to everyone that now is our time if we want to protect the water to warrior up so we're in an academic setting today Central Washington University very pleased to be here and April 14th marks the March for science this Saturday in a lot of ways when it was conceived of the March for science it excluded indigenous people and Nations they actually had to issue a letter claiming our spot and it's good we're resisting again we're you know we're not going to be purposefully excluded like in the past but it also comes down to individual responsibilities we all need to do our part and sometimes it's as basic as asking ourselves how are we championing indigenous science and blending our knowledge --is rather than trying to exert scientific domination my science is better than yours indigenous teachings and teachings that I grew up with say that when our minds come together as one we are unstoppable there's also a whole new Shoni teaching that was the foundation for the formation of the United States Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson went and sat at a council fire with Holden Shawnee Chiefs and they were perplexed they said why why did you decide you six nations to band together and then she sat down and he grabbed an arrow from one of their arrow their bags or arrow bags and he took it like this took the arrow in both of his hands and he snapped it and he said alone we're breakable just like this arrow and then he took six arrows out of the bag and he gave them to Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and he said try and break these arrows and they were unbreakable and that gave them the idea to birth a nation that pulled together the thirteen colonies and if you look on the back of a dollar bill any dollar bill in the United States you'll see 13 arrows that are held in the claw of the Eagle on the back of that dollar bill and it's to represent that initial conversation that birthed the idea for the formation of this country and so indigenous science and knowledge is embedded throughout US history if we choose to look for it if we choose to empower it and if we choose to learn from it so as indigenous people we're asking to speak for ourselves to respect our rights to our water to our territories to be self-determining peoples and nations without interference we need free prior and informed consent if you are an advocate for me too then you should also be an advocate for Mother Earth and for indigenous rights and for the anti violence against indigenous women we have a beauty in our epistemologies of caring for water that should be learned and alued and all of this is based and rooted in our honoring of our treaties on our honouring of that nation-to-nation relationship I hope that seven generations from today you'll look back as ancestors and you'll be able to say that every action you took was done in consideration of how it might impact those young ones to come after you those faces unborn that you recognize that indigenous nations our nations we're not stakeholders or special interest groups or people to sit at the back of a room for a community meeting we deserve equity and parity in all of our future decisions as a nation and as trans boundary people of water in this country and to remember that women have a unique privileged role and responsibility for caring for water within our indigenous communities and for every violent act that you commit against our communities our nation's it's a violent act inherited by our women and it takes four generations to heal it's a Bhutanese thank you [Applause]