Each summer, the Winnemem Wintu hold a coming-of-age ceremony on the McCloud River for the tribe’s young women. But this sacred ritual has been threatened by the presence of outsiders drinking alcohol and shouting threats and racial slurs from motorboats as they travel on the river.

Nearly two years after the Dongria Kondh tribe in the Indian state of Orissa won a historic victory to halt an open-pit bauxite mining project on its sacred lands, both tribe and land are facing renewed threats.

In a report released this week exploring the feasibility of various options to expand northern California’s Shasta Dam and Reservoir, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation identified raising the dam 18.5 feet — the highest possible option — as its “preliminary proposed plan.”

To the disappointment and frustration of the Tsilhqot’in Nation, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced it would accept a repackaged proposal for the previously rejected Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine, which threatens the sacred lake Teztan Biny in British Columbia.

The Grand Canyon is close to receiving federal protection from an increase in uranium mining after the Bureau of Land Management on Oct. 26 issued a final environmental impact statement that supports a 20-year moratorium on new mining claims in a million-acre buffer zone around the canyon.

A delegation of Wixárika people and their allies converged in Mexico City last week to urge the government to protect their sacred landscape, the Wirikuta Reserve in the northern state of San Luis Potosí, from imminent threats by mining and agroindustrial projects.

Now in its fourth week, the Glen Cove spiritual encampment in Vallejo, Calif., is still going strong as Native American activists and supporters continue their round-the-clock occupation of the sacred Ohlone burial site in an effort to protect it from development.

It is the eighth day for Native Americans and their dedicated supporters who have gathered at Glen Clove, a sacred Ohlone burial site, to protect the land from bulldozers that threaten to raze it in order to install a park and accoutrements — parking lot, picnic tables and a bathroom — atop the burial site.

The City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreation District are planning to destroy the Glen Cove ancient Native American burial site and shell mound in order to expand a trail and build a parking lot and toilets. Find out how you can help save this site.

When the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples three years ago, only four member states voted against it: Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Now, in response to recommendations from tribal leaders and NGOs, the Obama administration is reconsidering the U.S. stance.

“An international outcry is needed. Toxic mine tailings dumped into the Bismarck Sea could undermine the marine food chain at its source, potentially rendering all fish unsafe to eat and destroying the livelihoods of the Indigenous people who depend on the sea. Could thousands of letters from world citizens get the attention of the PNG government?”

As tourists flock to South Africa this month for the World Cup tournament, a tribe in the north of the country is urgently struggling to save a sacred site from being destroyed by tourism development.

Chinese police in Markham County in eastern Tibet have reportedly cracked down on protesters attempting to block the resumption of mining operations on their sacred mountains.

In a demonstration to show solidarity with the Brazilian indigenous peoples who will be gravely affected by the recently approved Belo Monte dam project, actress Sigourney Weaver will join members of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to peacefully protest in front of the Brazilian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York [...]

International outcry is mounting against the Brazilian government’s plan to move forward on the massive Belo Monte dam on the Amazon’s Xingu River. Take action and attend a Bay Area event March 19.

A controversial and long-delayed hydroelectric dam project on Brazil’s Xingu River received the green light on Feb. 1 when the Brazilian Environment Ministry issued an environmental license for the dam’s construction.

The New York Times called the 137-year-old federal Mining Law a “disaster” in a July 20 editorial. The 1872 law was created to encourage development in the West by offering cheap land and allowing hardrock mining without royalties or environmental protections — policies clearly outdated in the 21st century

The National Science Foundation released a supplemental draft environmental impact statement in May for the proposed Advanced Technology Solar Telescope atop Haleakala Volcano in Hawaii. Comments on the SDEIS must be received or postmarked by June 22, 2009. Located on the southeastern reach of Maui, Haleakala is managed as a national park, and the summit, [...]

On June 8, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition by numerous Native American tribes and environmental groups to hear a case to protect the San Francisco Peaks. The Snowbowl ski area’s plan to expand on the Peaks and make snow from treated sewage effluent will now proceed. “The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in [...]

In the worst political violence in Peru in more than a decade, dozens of indigenous people in the remote Amazon region of Bagua were killed on June 5 when police attempted to shut down a peaceful road blockade. Since April 9, tens of thousands of indigenous people throughout the Peruvian Amazon have blockaded roads, railways, [...]

In a last-minute Administration decision, the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation (OSM) approved a life-of-mine permit for Peabody Western Coal on Hopi and Navajo land. This allows Peabody to continue to operate at the Black Mesa mine and the Kayenta mine for as long as the mine produces coal. This is a devastating decision [...]

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) will soon release a “Record of Decision” on the “Black Mesa Project” Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This decision will determine if the now closed Black Mesa Mine will re-open more lands for coal strip mining, potentially relocate more families from Black Mesa and give Peabody Coal Company [...]

In its last months, the Bush administration is attempting to complete a longstanding agenda for oil and gas drilling in southern and eastern Utah. Resource Management Plans (RMPs) for six regions were finalized in October, including the Price RMP, which includes Nine Mile Canyon. Nine Mile Canyon, the location of treasured rock art and places [...]

The operators of Arizona Snowbowl ski resort on the sacred San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona, cannot use treated sewage water to make snow, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today. In a unanimous decision, the judges said there is no evidence that denying the operators of the Snowbowl the ability to use [...]

The environmental and cultural tragedy continues on the Hopi and Navajo reservations in northern Arizona. For over 30 years, Peabody Coal Company has pumped 1.3 billion gallons of pure drinking water from the Navajo Aquifer beneath Black Mesa, to slurry coal to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada, 273 miles away. In spite of mounting [...]

The Snoqualmie are being broadsided by a triple threat to their Falls. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a 40-year renewal to Puget Sound Energy’s lease to drain water from the Falls; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is blasting at the rock around the Falls as part of a flood control project; and [...]

Coteau Properties Company in Mercer County, North Dakota, plans on expanding an existing coal strip mine, which will destroy approximately 1349 sacred sites, burials and stone effigies, all of which are within the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty territory. The Coteau Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), the environmental analysis for leasing federal coal in Mercer County, [...]

Despite heavy protests by Western Shoshone tribal councils and traditional people, the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill (S 618/HR 884) will go before the House Representatives on June 1st. The largest tribe of the Western Shoshone came out yesterday with a powerful message to Congress and a hand-delivered a unanimous tribal council resolution objecting to the [...]

Ancient burial mounds and earthworks in Ohio are being destroyed and damaged and human remains have been dug up and stored in a warehouse. The Octagon Mounds near Newark, Ohio were leveled to build a private country club and golf course. The public and Indian groups are only allowed on the property on four golf-free [...]

NASA is preparing an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to determine the potential impacts of building up to 6 new telescopes on the sacred summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Mauna Kea is perhaps the most sacred site to Native Hawaiians. The volcanic peak serves as the zenith of the Hawaiian people’s [...]

For fifteen years, native activists in Albuquerque have been fighting a proposed commuter highway which would cut through the middle of Petroglyph National Monument, a Native American sacred area still used for religious practice. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez is seeking funding for the road via Albuquerque’s Street Bond election measure on October 28. The real [...]

Seventh Generation Fund and the Yankton Sioux Nation are calling for a boycott of the state of South Dakota due to the ongoing desecration of Indian burials at the North Point Recreation Area. South Dakota is preparing for the Lewis and Clark Bi-Centennial Celebration by sprucing up parks along the Missouri River but native people [...]