USA - As the US commemorates Thanksgiving in midst of a second wave of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the transition into a Biden-Harris administration, 350 US honors Native American History Month and Indigenous sovereignty as we rise for the demand for Indigenous #LandBack. This comes as fossil fuel companies continue to ram through toxic and unnecessary fossil fuel projects like Keystone XL and Line 3 in Minnesota.
Thanu Yakupitiyage, 350.org US Communications Director, offered the following:
"As we embark on a Just Recovery from the compound crises of climate disasters, racist police brutality, economic injustice, and COVID-19, we are in a pivotal moment of reckoning that requires us to ground in the history of the United States as a country built on stolen Indigenous land by stolen Black and African labor.
"As we act to stop state-sanctioned violence against Black and Brown communities, we also acknowledge the decades and centuries of white supremacy, colonialism, and capitalism that continue to have devastating and genocidal impacts on the lives, livelihoods, and traditions of Native and Indigenous communities across the United States, North America, and around the world.
"Fossil fuel executives and racist climate criminals continue to assault Treaty Rights and Indigenous sovereignty, attempting to ram toxic and unnecessary pipelines like Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 through sacred Indigenous land and waters, while perpetuating threats and violence against Indigenous womxn, girls, and two-spirit people.
"We urgently call on President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and the entire incoming Biden-Harris administration to honor Indigenous sovereignty and immediately halt the Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Line 3 pipelines.
"Transformative climate solutions to truly tackle the root of climate change requires systemic action to decolonize from the very systems that have created the crisis in the first place. Our leap toward a Just Recovery must start with honoring treaties with sovereign Indigenous Nations, and returning land back to Native peoples. The time is now for meaningful care and repair."
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