This Native American Heritage Month, we want to bring awareness to the hundreds of Indigenous sacred sites across the country. These are sites that offer Indigenous foods, medicines, ceremony, burial sites, and creation stories – but they are being threatened and desecrated by the climate crisis and harmful development projects like pipelines, mining, and resource extraction.
There are two landmark pieces of legislation that could correct these injustices and ensure that Native people have a seat at the decision-making table:
The Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land Act and the Tribal Cultural Areas Protection Act
Sponsored by the Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, the current petition is for Congress to pass advance and pass these bills. The petition can be found here.
References
Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, Petition to Secure Native Land, https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-to-demand-congress-protect-native-sacred-places-now-2
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear
(Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation)Founder & Editor in Chief
Spoken Languages: English
Topic Expertise: Federal trust relationship with American Indians; Indigenous issues ranging from spirituality and environment to education and land rights
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