News from the Nations

ELSIPOGTOG PREPARES TO CONFRONT SWN’S MACHINERY

LAKETON, NB–Warriors from Elsipogtog First Nation were preparing Tuesday evening to confront the machinery owned by a Houston-based energy firm conducting shale gas exploration work just north of the Mi’kmaq community.

SWN Resources Canada is expected to roll out its thumper trucks Wednesday in an area along Hwy 11 and about 46 kilometres north of Elsipogtog First Nations. The company laid out a string of geophones Tuesday which will be used to capture the vibrations emitted by the thumper trucks to create imagery of shale gas deposits in the area.

Several warriors and supporters gathered around a fire Tuesday evening along Hwy 11 preparing for Wednesday’s appearance of the thumper trucks. Several planned to stay at the site overnight.

The RCMP warned people at the encampment earlier in the day that they would be charged with mischief if they impeded SWN’s machinery from doing its work.

SWN is planning to conduct 14 days of exploration before leaving the region, according to one of the lawyers hired by the firm.

People in Elsipogtog and surrounding communities fear the discovery of shale gas would lead to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The controversial extraction method is viewed by many as posing a dire threat to water sources.

2013 WHITE HOUSE TRIBAL NATIONS CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tribal leaders from across the country embarked on Washington, D.C. this week for the fifth annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell kicked off the 2013 Conference, welcoming leaders invited from all 566 federally recognized tribes. The fifth conference hosted during the Obama Administration, the event at the Department of the Interior will include remarks from President Obama and participation from thirteen Cabinet members and other senior government officials.

Jewell announced that the Administration has set a goal of placing more than 500,000 acres of land into trust by the end of the President’s term. She highlighted recent Interior decisions related to restoring tribal homelands, including a final rule issued yesterday by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn that will provide greater certainty to tribes in their ability to develop recently acquired trust lands for purposes such as housing, schools and economic development. The Administration also continues to focus on congressional enactment of a clean fix to the Carcieri decision of 2009 to confirm the Secretary of the Interior’s authority to take land into trust for all tribes.

Members of the President’s cabinet and other high-ranking Administration officials are participating in a number of separate listening sessions with tribal leaders throughout the week on a wide range of social and economic challenges facing Indian Country. The meeting topics include education, the Cobell Settlement Land Buy Back Program, development of transportation, water and energy resources, access to sacred sites, protection of natural resources, energy development, healthcare and implementing the Violence Against Women Act.