PROTECT MOTHER EARTH JUSTICE SUMMIT:
Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental & Cultural Impacts of “Green” Energy &
Other Dominating Developments
Summit Location: Sacred Falls in the Heart of Iss Awi Territory
Burney Falls State Park
24898 Highway 89, Burney, CA 96013
(The park is 6 miles north of Highway 299 on Highway 89 & 11 miles from Burney)
April 26 – 28, 2013
This three-day Indigenous Peoples’ convening will develop, with the help of all participants, a position
statement that defines positive and negative green energy projects, identifies the impacts of these
projects to indigenous communities and mother earth, and documents how these projects need to be
dealt with. A statement on the government and corporate funding of these projects and other key topics
of importance to indigenous peoples will also be developed. These statements will be submitted to the
United Nations (UN), UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, North American Indigenous Peoples
Caucus and United States (US) government.
In our strand of the world, the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites will bring together
Indigenous leaders, elders, educators and youth to exchange knowledge and understanding of our world
and each other, as well as “green” energy and other dominating developments. This insight will assist
participants in a process to harness the group’s thoughts and energies into developing and issuing a
document calling for the protection of mother earth and all other living beings when “green” energy and
other projects are proposed or are currently operating in indigenous territories. The discussions and
work will include:

Information on current “green” energy projects, such as geothermal, hydrofracking, wind
turbines and solar and how these projects affect the health of water, land, food, plants, animals,
people, and contribute to climate change

Listening to our invited speakers who will share knowledge and experiences on the subject
matter

Defining negative and positive impacts of green energy and identifying who benefits and loses
from green energy projects and how the projects need to be dealt with

Identifying and/or developing strategies that can be used to counter “green” energy and other
developments that negatively impact indigenous people and territories

Learning about mechanism’s available to indigenous peoples at the UN to assist in remedying
negative “green” energy and other development projects

Developing statements to submit to and advocate for in the UN, UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus and US government forums
Invited Speakers will include: Feather Wolfin, Doctor Dan Wildcat, Attorney Alberto Saldamando, Larson
Bill, Attorney Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Attorney Angela D’Arcy Mooney, Suzan Shown Harjo, Andrea Carmen,
Monty Bengochia and Dane Wigington.
There is no registration fee and all meals are provided. Camping is available at no cost and there are
coin operated showers. This is a drug and alcohol free event. For more information, please email
apossreg@gmail.com or call (530) 917 – 6064.
PROTECT MOTHER EARTH JUSTICE SUMMIT Agenda
Friday, April 26, 2013
8:00 a.m. – 11:00
11:10 a.m. – 12:50
1:00 p.m. – 2:20
2:30 p.m. – 3:20
3:30 p.m. – 5:50
6:00 p.m. – 7:20
7:30 p.m. – 10:30
Bedtime/Quiet time
a.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
Set Up Summit (chairs, tables, kitchen, reg booth, stack wood, etc.)
Registration
Lunch
Opening of Summit/Overview/Introductions
Panel of Invited Speakers
Dinner
Indigenous Films
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Sunrise
8:00 a.m. – 9:20
9:30 a.m. – 10:20
10:30 a.m. – 12:50
1:00 p.m. – 2:20
2:30 p.m. – 5:30
6:00 p.m. – 7:20
7:30 p.m. – 8:30
8:40 p.m. – 11:00
Bedtime/Quiet time
a.m.
a.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
Ceremony on Cliff Overlooking Sacred Falls
– Meet at Conference Area at 6 a.m.
Breakfast
Registration
Opening and Panel of Invited Speakers
Lunch
Working Session to Develop and Update Statements
Dinner/Honoring
Special Activity
Indigenous Films
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Sunrise
8:00
9:30
10:00
1:00
2:10
a.m. –
a.m. –
a.m. –
p.m. –
p.m. –
9:20
9:50
12:50
2:00
4:00
a.m.
a.m.
p.m.
p.m.
p.m.
Ceremony on Cliff Overlooking Sacred Falls
– Meet at Conference Area at 6 a.m.
Breakfast
Opening
Finalize Statements, Sign Statements and Plan Next Steps
Lunch (To Go)
Break Down Summit (chairs, tables, kitchen, reg booth, etc.)
Speaker Biographies
Feather Wolfin is a Citizen of the Illmawi Band of the Pit River Nation. He also has blood ties to the
Atsugewi and Hupa peoples. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree at Haskell Indian Nations
University in Lawrence, Kansas. He is Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites and
has participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. In 2006, he
ran from California to Washington, DC as part of the All Life is Sacred Run. He ran for his loved ones
and family, to represent his people and where he comes from, and to raise awareness about the
importance of protecting sacred places, such as the Medicine Lake Highlands.
Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Ph.D., is a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and
an accomplished scholar who writes on indigenous knowledge, technology, environment, and education.
A Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Dr. Wildcat’s most recent book is Red Alert!
Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge. Known for his commitment to environmental defense
and cultural diversity, Dr. Wildcat has been honored by the Kansas City organization The Future Is Now
with the Heart Peace Award.
Suzan Shown Harjo is a Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee advocate for American Indian rights. She
is a poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate, who has helped Native peoples recover over a
million acres of land. She serves as President of the Morning Star Institute, a national Native American
rights organization based in Washington, D.C.
Alberto Saldamando is an international attorney who specializes in indigenous and human rights
issues. Engages in all UN forums of concern to Indigenous Peoples, Mr. Saldamando was also a very
active participant in the Human Rights Commission Working Group on the Declaration on the rights of
indigenous peoples. He is Zapoteca and Chicano.
Julie Ann Cavanaugh-Bill is the Managing Member of the Cavanaugh-Bill Law Offices in Elko, Nevada.
Ms. Bill brings to the law practice in Northern Nevada over sixteen years of Native American and
indigenous rights experience. Prior to gaining her admission to practice in Nevada, Ms. Bill served as
Director of the Land Recognition Program for the Western Shoshone Defense Project for six years and
before that she practiced in Minnesota with the law firm of Winthrop & Weinstine, P.C. where she served
as in-house counsel to the Prairie Island Indian Community, Mdewakanton Sioux.
Larson Bill is Western Shoshone and lives in the Northeastern part of the Western Shoshone Treaty
territory, along the Ruby Mountains. Larson is a descendant of the Dosawee family, the traditional
warrior lineage of the Western Shoshone. He is a long time leader and has served consecutively for over
25 years in an elected capacity in Elko, TeMoak, and South Fork as council member, chairman and vicechairman. Larson has been active in the defense of Western Shoshone rights for many years and has
been a lead delegate on numerous National and International Summits in the U.S., Canada and Central
America, the United Nations in New York, and to the U.S. Congress.
Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Indian Nation, has been a staff member of the International Indian Treaty
Council since 1983 and IITC’s Executive Director since 1992. Andrea has many years of experience
working with Indigenous communities from North, Central, South America and the Pacific. She was a
founding member of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace with Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and has
participated as a human rights observer and mediator in crises situations in the US, Chiapas, Mexico and
Ecuador. Andrea has extensive experience working at United Nations bodies addressing human rights
and Indigenous Peoples.
Angela Mooney D’Arcy, Acjachemen Nation and Juaneno Band of Mission Indians, has been working
with Tribal Nations, Indigenous peoples, and grassroots organizations on Indigenous environmental
justice issues for over fourteen years. She teaches Indigenous Cultural Resource Protection Law in
Theory and Practice as part of the UCLA Extension and Tribal Learning and Community Educational
Exchange Program, Native Nations Law and Policy Center’s Working in Tribal Communities program. She
is an attorney and the Co-Director for the United Coalition to Protect Panhe, a grassroots alliance of
Acjachemen people dedicated to the protection of their sacred sites.
Monty Bengochia is the former Chairman and a current Councilmember of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, a
sovereign nation. The tribe is located at the foot of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains and has
approximately 2,000 enrolled members. Among his many duties, Bengochia believes in safeguarding the
natural environment and protecting sacred places, including hot springs and other waterways. He is a
leader of the cultural traditions of the Paiutes and works to keep them alive for future generations. He
has advocated for the rights of tribal nations on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Dane Wigington has an extensive background in solar energy. He is a former employee of Bechtel
Power Corp. and was a licensed contractor in California and Arizona. His personal residence was
featured in a cover article on the world’s largest renewable energy magazine, Home Power. He has a
1,600-acre “wildlife preserve” next to Lake Shasta in northern California. He focused his efforts and
energy on the geoengineering issue when he began to lose very significant amounts of solar uptake due
to increasing “solar obscuration” caused from the aircraft spraying. He also noted significant decline in
forest health and began testing and research into the geoengineering issue about a decade ago.
Summit Organizers and Co-Chairs of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites
Miki’ala Catalfano, Louise Davis, Radley Davis, Jonathan Freeman, Art Garcia, Michelle Garcia, Mickey
Gemmill, Jr., James Hayward, Sr., Mark LeBeau, Teresa LeBeau, Brandy McDaniels, Richard Wilson,
Barbara Wolfin and Feather Wolfin.
Sponsors of the Summit
Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development,
Indigenous Environmental Network/Western Mining Action Network, Native Coalition for Medicine Lake
Highlands Defense, Redding Rancheria, International Indian Treaty Council and Pit River Tribe.
Indigenous Sacred Places under Siege from Developers and in Need of Protection
Medicine Lake Highlands and Hatchet Mountain
Indian Country Today Staff; June 20, 2012
Geothermal and wind are forms of the renewable energy that, to many concerned people of Turtle
Island, will be integral to any sort of solution to the ongoing energy crisis the planet faces.
Geothermal and wind power are good, right?
You might hear a different reaction if you broach the subjects with members of the Pit River, Modoc,
Shasta, Karuk, Wintu and other Tribes who hold sacred the region northeast of Mount Shasta, in
California. That's because one project there, a geothermal power plant, threatens to alter the landscape
of the Medicine Lake Highlands. And another project, the Hatched Ridge Wind Company, has already
affected the Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains.
These sites are among those being prayed for during the Morning Star Institute's National Sacred Places
Prayer Days. Numerous tribes use the area as a training ground for medicine people. Additionally, Pit
River people believe that the Creator and his son bathed in Medicine Lake after they created the earth,
and the Creator imparted his spirit to the waters.
The Medicine Lake Highlands have been a contested area for over two decades. Calpine Corporation,
the planet's largest provider of geothermal energy, has held geothermal development leases on land in
the Highlands since 1988, although the leases and extensions thereof have been voided by the Ninth
Circuit Court twice. But the legal battles go on. The most recent judgment of the Ninth Circuit Court, in
2010, was that the leases from 1988 remain valid, but that the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land
Management must do a new Environmental Impact Study.
Meanwhile, on nearby Hatchet Mountain, Hatchet Ridge Wind Company has built 44 wind turbines on
land sacred to the Pit River people. Nearby Bunchgrass Mountain is used for vision quests. Though
construction has been completed, Citizens of the Pit River Nation feel the turbines and other structures
are in violation of federal law, and continue to protest.
National Sacred Places Prayer Days Starts June 16
Indian Country Today Staff; June 15, 2012
Observances and ceremonies will be held across the country from June 16-24 as part of National Sacred
Places Prayer Days.
“Native and non-Native people nationwide gather at this time for Solstice ceremonies and to honor
sacred places, but everyone can honor these precious lands and waters all the time by simply respecting
them and the life they support and not allowing them to be harmed,” said Suzan Shown Harjo,
Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, president of The Morning Star Institute, which organizes the
National Sacred Places Prayer Days. “Ceremonies are being conducted as far too many Native American
peoples are engaged in legal struggles with federal agencies that side with developers that endanger or
destroy Native sacred places.”
Over the coming days Indian Country Today Media Network will be featuring some of these sacred
places.
“Since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1988 that there is no constitutional or statutory cause of action to
defend Native sacred places, Native Americans are the only peoples in the United States who do not
have a door to the courthouse to protect sacred places or site-specific ceremonies,” Harjo said in a
release. “That simply must change as a matter of fairness and equity. Native Nations have been cobbling
together protections based on defenses intended for other purposes. Some agencies may permit a place
at the table when development is being contemplated, but most do not and Native peoples are not taken
seriously because the agencies and developers know that the Supreme Court does not appear inclined to
hear lawsuits which lack a tailor-made right of action.”
The first prayer service is being held on the Quad at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California by
the California-Pacific Committee on Native American Ministries (CONAM) of The United Methodist Church
on June 16 at 7:15 a.m. The public is welcome to attend.
A World Peace and Prayer Day will be held on June 16 at Gray Horn Butte (Devil's Tower) in the Black
Hills of Wyoming and on June 17 at Medicine Wheel. On June 18, the gathering will move to Grand
Teton National Park, which will begin a four-day event to bring attention to the need to protect the
remaining wild buffalo. "They are in constant danger of being massacred when caught off park
property," says Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation keeper of the sacred white buffalo calf pipe.
Then on June 21, the group will join in prayer with thousands in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
On June 19, the National Congress of American Indians will hold a Sunrise Ceremony during its Mid-Year
Session.
Throughout prayer days, prayers will be offered at the following sacred places, among others:
Antelope Hills, Apache Leap, Badger Two Medicine, Badlands, Bear Butte, Bear Lake, Bear Medicine
Lodge, Black Hills, Black Mesa, Blue Lake, Boboquivari Mountain, Bunchgrass Mountain, Cave Rock, Chief
Cliff, Coastal Chumash Sacred Lands in the Gaviota Coast, Cocopah Burial and Ceremonial Grounds,
Coldwater Springs, Colorado River, Columbia River, Deer Medicine Rocks, Dzil Nchaa Si An (Mount
Graham), Eagle Rock, Everglades, Fajada Butte, Ganondagan, Great Mound (Mound Bottom), Gulf of
Mexico, Haleakala Crater, Hatchet Mountain, Hickory Ground, Holy Mountain, Hualapai Nation landforms
in Truxton and Crozier Canyons, Indian Pass, Kaho’olawe, Kasha-Katuwe, Katuktu, Kituwah, Klamath
River, Kumeyaay Bands Burial and Ceremonial Grounds, Lake Superior, Luiseno Ancestral Origin
Landscape, Mauna Kea, Maze, Medicine Bluff, Medicine Hole, Medicine Lake Highlands, Medicine Wheels,
Migi zii wa sin (Eagle Rock), Mokuhinia, Moku’ula, Mount Shasta, Mount Taylor, Mount Tenabo, Nine Mile
Canyon, Ocmulgee Old Fields and National Monument, Onondaga Lake, Palo Duro Canyon, Petroglyphs
National Monument, Pipestone National Monument, Puget Sound, Puvungna, Pyramid Lake Stone
Mother, Quechan Burial and Ceremonial Grounds, Rainbow Bridge, Rattlesnake Island, Rio Grande River,
San Francisco Peaks, Serpent Mound, Snoqualmie Falls, Sweetgrass Hills, Sutter Buttes, Tse Whit Zen
Village, Tsi-litch Semiahmah Village, Valley of Chiefs, Valmont Butte, Wakarusa Wetlands, Walking
Woman Place, Woodruff Butte, Wolf River, Yucca Mountain, Zuni Salt Lake, Sacred places of all removed
Native Nations, all waters and wetlands.
The Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites (APOSS)
APOSS is a Native community based organization that was formed to provide rapid community support
to traditional and spiritual leaders and tribal government efforts to protect sacred places, lands and
cultural resources. APOSS is made up of volunteer Pitt River, Wintu, Shasta and other Native Peoples
who maintain close cultural ties to the Pitt River, Wintu and Shasta Nations in Northern California. Our
multi-tribal make-up allows us to work with our local Indigenous leaders and tribes to help assist,
support and sometimes motivate tribal leaders to fight the good fight in protecting Indigenous sacred
places. In addition, we inform and mobilize the members of our communities and help elevate the
voices of our people to protect our sacred places.