Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), a combination of a large network of environmental movements and organizations of indigenous people in the United States, as well as an annual conference that brings together members of the IEN. The IEN have 6 main goals:

• Educate and empower indigenous grassroots people to address and develop strategies for the protection of our environment;
• Reaffirm our traditional and natural laws as Indigenous peoples;
• Recognize, support, promote, environmentally sound lifestyles and economic livelihoods;
• Commit to influence all politics that affect our people on a local, regional, national and international level;
• Include youth and elders in all levels of activities;
• Protect our rights to practice our spiritual beliefs.^[1]

The IEN also has an Environmental Code of Ethics which was written in Bear Butte, South Dakota in 1991. This code further helps to clarify their stance as an indigenous and environmental alliance. One of the key problems that IEN addresses in its Environmental Code of Ethics is that indigenous people culturally and Native Americans politically, are tied to their land. Native Americans in the United States and Canada are restricted to reservations if they want to maintain any kind of political nation idea. Similarly, indigenous people often have religious or ancestral ties to specific tracts of land. This unique relationship makes them less likely to leave, makes the land more valuable, and makes them even more staunchly opposed to polluting it in any way. Each year the conference is held in a different indigenous Nation.^[2] Some example of locations and how the network has already made large gains in the fight for indigenous environmental equality;

• The 1992 conference was held in Celilo Falls, Oregon, formerly a major salmon fishing site until dams were constructed on the Columbia River, downstream from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
• The 1993 conference was held at Sac and Fox Reservation, Oklahoma, where it helped to defeat a proposed nuclear waste site.
• The 1994 conference was held on Mole Lake Reservation, Wisconsin, where Exxon plans to open a huge zinc - copper mine upstream from the Mole Lake Chippewa's wild rice beds.
• The 12th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, August 2001, was the first held in Canada.
• The June 2004 conference was held near the sacred Bear Butte, South Dakota, again.^[3]

The IEN has also branched out to international influences. In 2009, they began their Red Road to Copenhagen initiative. Delegates from all of their member organizations attended the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen in 2009. Their statement proclaims that “this initiative will bring accumulated traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples from North America coming from climate-energy impact zones and persons experienced in linking an indigenous rights-based framework to climate policy.”^[4]

IEN attributes its success to the bridging of tribal and age barriers. Not only does it emphasize the interaction of its varying member tribes, but also through specific youth and elders groups. IEN is governed party by an Elders Council. Their Youth Council solicits involvement by young indigenous peoples and tries to make connections between urban culture of the youth and the environmental issues the communities face.^[5]

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