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- By Native News Online Staff
Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of the climate crisis on Turtle Island on Tuesday morning, Sept. 19, 2023, took over Times Square in New York to paint a giant mural with the message, “No Green Colonialism; Land Back NOW!”
This mural comes the day before the UN Climate Ambition Summit, where world leaders are expected to come together to make decisions around combatting the climate crisis.
Indigenous communities are organizing to push back on the Biden Administration’s push toward solutions to the climate crisis that threaten the lives of Indigenous people across Turtle Island —which they call “Green Colonialism.”
“For too long, Native lands and communities have borne the brunt of harm from mining and other extractive industries. As the federal government moves to support clean energy development, this cannot come at the expense of clean water or Indigenous rights. This familiar assault on Native lands and communities is another wave of colonialism, and we will not stand by and allow our lands to be sacrificed,” Krystal Two Bulls, executive director of the national Indigenous organization Honor the Earth said in a press release.
Indigenous communities in various parts of Indian Country are resisting mining projects that they say violate treaty rights and threaten clean water and land in places such as Thacker Pass, Oak Flat , and the Talon-Tamarak mine near the Mississippi headwaters.
The mural that appeared in Times Square today reflects Indigenous leaders' demand that “Land Back Now!” must be at the center of tackling the climate crisis.
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