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Protests near the sacred summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai’i are increasing in urgency as Native Hawaiians fight to prevent the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the Pacific and has traditionally been the site of religious ceremonies for Native Hawaiians, or Kanaka Maoli. The telescope has been scheduled for construction for over a decade, and has been the subject of legal contestation as Free, Prior and Informed Consent has not been given by Native Hawaiians.

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) is a consortium of 15 sovereign Tribal Nations located in Southeast Alaska. SEITC has authority derived from Tribal governments, and each member Tribe has a formally designated representative. Established in 2014, SEITC was founded in order to protect and represent the cultural connection to the sacred rivers and waterways that are essential to sustaining local communities.

By Katherine Hamilton

On May 20, 2019, 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez died in a Texas Border Patrol station, after being diagnosed with influenza and waiting a week in holding facilities. He was the fifth Indigenous child to die on the border since December.

In September 2018, the first migrant child to die in federal custody since 2010 passed away due to heart complications. Since then, five more minors have died at Border Patrol, all of them from Guatemala, a country whose population is majority Indigenous.

When most people envision Northern California, images of winding coastal roads, sheer cliffs, and mountainous, crashing waves appear in their minds-- redwood trees as tall as skyscrapers, and rocky beaches that span for hundreds of miles. What is typically not attached to the California postcard scenery, however, is knowledge of the American Indian Tribes that have been living in this region for countless generations, cultivating a deep spiritual and physical connection with both the ocean and the surrounding landmass.

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