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B.2.a. In West

Resistance to national and corporate projects threatening water rights and their natural environment has been part of the indigenous movements in the countries listed under B.1 above. Opposition to hydro-electric projects in Norway and Canada, resistance to uranium mining in Australia and the USA, and protests against mineral extraction in Sweden are important in relation to land and water rights and genuine political autonomy. Threats to first peoples’ environments still constitute a major issue and source of political conflict.

Indigenous Anti-nuclear Summit Declaration, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Indigenous Environmental, 1996

The Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit declaration that brought together a network of Indigenous Peoples from different areas that have been negatively impacted by the nuclear chain. This includes Uranium mining in the Grants Mineral Belt; northern Saskatchewan; the areas near the Sequoyah Fuels Uranium Processing Plant, and the Prairie Island Power Plant.

Banerjee, Subhankar, Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point, New York, Seven Stories Press, 2012, pp. 560

Narratives and assessments by 30 activists and researchers of struggle by indigenous peoples and environmentalists to prevent proposed exploitation of oil, gas and coal in Arctic Alaska.

Dekar, Paul, The Australian No Uranium Mining Campaign, Peace Magazine, Vol. 16, issue 3 (Jul-Sep), 2000, pp. 27-26

See also: Milburn, Caroline , Australia: Women at forefront of Jabiluka resistance The Age, 1999

Gedicks, Al, International Native Resistance to the New Resource Wars, In Taylor, Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism (C.1.a. General and International Studies), Albany NY, State University of New York Press, pp. 89-108

Covers resistance by Cree and Inuit, supported by Kayapo Indians in Brazil and transnational green groups, to major hydro-electric project in Quebec.

Grenfell, Damian, Environmentalism, State Power and “National Interests, In Goodman, Protest and Globalisation: Prospects for Transnational Solidarity (A.6.a. General Titles), Annandale NSW, Pluto Press, pp. 111-115

Covers ‘Stop Jabiluka’ campaign by Aborigines and environmentalists in Kakadu National Park.

La Duke, Winona, Uranium Mines on Native Land, The Harvard Crimson, 02/05/1979,

On struggle in late 1970s by Navajos against proposed uranium and coal mining, stressing dangers of uranium mining.
See also her article La Duke, Winona , Uranium Mining, Native Resistance and the Greener Path: The impact of uranium mining on indigenous communities Orion Magazine, 2009 , on Navajo resistance in past and new threat from revived stress on nuclear power. (Includes references to Kakadu.)

Risong, Malin ; MacDougall, David, Sweden’s Indigenous Sami in Fight against Miners, Associated Press, 29/08/2013,

Saami in Sweden have right to use land for herding but no ownership rights. The dispute over iron ore mining has prompted calls for Swedish government to give legal recognition to Saami ownership rights.

Schwartz, Daniel ; Gollom, Mark, N.B. Fracking Protests and the Fight for Aboriginal Rights: Duty to Consult at Core of Conflict over Shale Gas development, CBC News, 19/10/2013,

On New Brunswick protest blockade by Elsipogtog First Nation and supporters.