PRYOR LAKE, Minn. — More than 200 people are gathered here at the Mystic Lake Casino today to participate in the drafting process of the Mystic Lake Declaration. Organizers of the Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop II plan to draft the declaration by Friday night. Everyone here is submittng ideas on how to incorporate the indigenous perspective into the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Meanwhile, there are many other discussions and panel presentations taking place from now to Saturday. Alan Parker, Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute, just finished speaking about climate change and the Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Project. “The ocean, as vast as it is, is shrinking,” said Parker. “It’s changing it’s chemical makeup. It’s becoming acidic. We need to understand why that’s happening and start making shifts.”
Terry Williams, commissioner of the Fish & Wildlife for the Tulalip Tribes, is speaking now about how warming weather patterns have caused beaver to show up in Alaska where they have never been seen before. Some people there don’t know what to call the beaver because they’ve never seen them before. Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network will be providing the next update about how tribal colleges can address climate change issues. Next, Dan Wildcat, director of the Haskell Nations Environmental Research Studies Center, will provide today’s keynote speech. (Tomorrow it will be Winona LaDuke). At lunch today, Henrietta Mann, president of the Cheyenne & Arapaho College, will offer a blessing and her thoughts on climate change.
More later.
Jodi Rave