OMNI
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY ANTHOLOGY
OCTOBER 12, 2026
Compiled by Dick Bennett
What’s at Stake: Columbus Day Should Be Replaced by Indigenous
People’s Day
Nick Heller ~ Guerilla Sewing
COLUMBUS DAY TAPESTRY [in 1492 Columbus invaded the Taino people with
devastating consequences. Remember and continue to resist.
D]
2026
Sign to ban AI data centers on public lands:
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Dick,
Today is Indigenous People’s Day, a reminder to honor the
original stewards of this land — who are still here and fighting for
environmental justice and sovereignty.
I’ve worked alongside Indigenous leaders to protect our lands and
water; take on corporate polluters; and push back against the Trump
administration’s threats to our public lands, which are Native peoples’
ancestral lands.
I recently joined a letter to Trump’s Secretary of the Interior
demanding more information about his plans to expand data centers on our public
lands, which would violate the federal government’s constitutional obligations
to respect Tribes’ sovereignty.
Tribes must be involved in — and consent to — decisions affecting
their lands, waters, and communities’ well-being.
On Friday, I toured a horrifying hyperscale data center in
majority-Black Memphis, with environmental justice organizer and
congressional candidate Justin Pearson:
Data centers
pollute the land, water, air, and the bodies of living beings. They raise our
utility bills and further the climate crisis. Their pollution — including
intense noise pollution — harms animals that are sacred to many Tribes. They
also threaten sacred places and plants, including traditional Indigenous
medicines.
SIGN TO PROTECT PUBLIC LANDS AND SOVEREIGNTY
I grew up in a community treated as a dumping ground by corporate
polluters.
Because of similar environmental racism, many Native people
already live near fossil fuel infrastructure and toxic mines. Many are at the
front lines of the climate crisis. Increasing nearby data centers will make
their health disparities even worse.
Data centers are deeply unpopular: Multiple Tribes have passed
moratoriums on data center construction on their lands. They have sovereign
rights to make decisions about their homelands and territories.
Additionally, over 100 communities have banned or paused data
center development — at least half of which are in my state of Michigan. Twelve
states have proposals for statewide moratoriums. Across the country, people are
saying NO.
I’ve introduced this legislation because I’m listening to and
representing the people. That’s also why I’m supporting legislation to enact a
broader moratorium on these predatory, polluting AI data centers until strong
safeguards regulating the industry are in place.
I’ll keep fighting back against Trump and Republicans’ attacks on
our environment — including trying to block Republicans’ attempts at changing
permitting requirements and rolling back important policies that mandate
consultation with Tribes and protect our environment and our health. We can’t
let them further undermine Tribal sovereignty.
Thank you. I promise to continue pushing to uphold the federal
government’s responsibilities to Tribes and Native people.
For example, the U.S. government owes Native people healthcare,
food, and other resources — as laid out in treaties that the government coerced
Tribes into signing when violently stealing Native lands.
I’ve pushed to uphold this responsibility in budget bills,
including reversing Medicaid cuts and securing people’s treaty rights and human
rights to healthcare, food, housing, and more. Two million Indigenous people in
the U.S. use Medicaid, which is an important supplement to the
always-underfunded Indian Health Service.
I’ve also secured $1.5 million in federal funding for a local
Native healthcare provider in my congressional district, and helped fundraise
for them as well.
With you in the fight for justice and dignity for all,
Rashida DONATE https://rashidaforcongress.com/
Johnnie Jae. “Indigenous People Are Resisting Erasure From Schools, Media, and Our Land.”
Joining the fight against our erasure helps Native communities
defend our right to be seen, heard, and counted. Johnnie Jae
, Truthout
(October 12, 2026).
“Indigenous Community Quickly Mobilized as Fire Raged on Oregon
Reservation.” Kevin
Foster. Truthout.
Mutual aid is becoming increasingly vital as
tribes face climate disasters with insufficient state support.
Thank you!
Hello Everyone,
Happy Indigenous People’s Day. I just wanted to express to all of you
how deeply grateful I am for your support of Peace & Planet News. . . . By
ordering, reading and sharing this paper every one of you is part of this
effort. I just wanted to express my appreciation and respect to every one
of you. Thank you for who you are, what you stand for and all that you
do. In Solidarity,Tarak Kauff, Veterans For Peace, Editor,
Peace & Planet News
“Earthjustice is at the Supreme Court defending our right to environmental
review and public comment.” Earthjustice (October 2026).
The U.S. Air Force did not conduct an environmental review of its
practice of openly detonating hazardous-waste bombs and other munitions on a
sacred beach in Guam. The beach also sits above the island’s main source of
drinking water. Earthjustice represented Prutehi Guåhan, a community
group in Guam that is fighting for their right to weigh in on decisions that
affect their health and home, before the Supreme Court. READ MORE >>
Native
Organizers Alliance 2026
Native
Organizers Alliance https://nativeorganizing.org › ...
Thank you to all those who submitted an application for
our November 16-21, 2026
National Native Community Organizing Training.Read more
Native
Organizers Alliance https://nativeorganizing.org › news-insights
80 Native
leaders and organizers
working to get out the vote! October 6, 2026
; American 250: A Republic Built on Native
Land. July 9, 2026
; 250 years of U.S. ...Read more
Everything sacred is on the ballot this November! ...
Instagram · nativeorganizersalliance
September 29, 2026: Native Organizers
Alliance has partnered with several beloved artists across Indian Country in
our mission to amplify the ...
Robert Muggah. “Indigenous Stewardship Is the
Ignored Climate Solution.” Intercontinental
Cry. Popular Resistance.org (8-28-25). As the world stumbles toward climate
tipping points, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that among the
most powerful defenders of nature are not satellites or carbon markets, but
people – Indigenous peoples. From the rainforests of the Amazon to the boreal
forests of Canada, Indigenous stewardship may be one of the most high-impact
and cost-effective strategies to mitigate climate change, preserve
biodiversity, and disrupt environmental crimes. Indigenous peoples occupy, use,
or manage over a quarter of the Earth’s surface, including many of its most
ecologically intact regions. -more-
“Echoes of Empire.” PBS
9-27-24, 8p.m
History of Spanish
invasion, brutal conquest, and continental-wide occupation and decimation of
Native Americans beginning with Columbus.
The atrocious truth told brilliantly in one hour.
Voces American Historia; “The Untold History of Latino
‘Echoes of Empires’” (9-27-24).
El
Equipo | Forensic Anthropology Documentary
PBS https://www.pbs.org
› independentlens › documentaries
El Equipo. Premiered October 09,
2023. Directed by Bernardo Ruiz. A collaboration changes the course
of forensic science and international human rights. Watch ...Read more
AI Overiew
El Equipo (The Team) is a 2023
documentary film directed by Bernardo Ruiz that premiered on PBS's Independent
Lens.
Core Details
Subject: Chronicles the
four-decade work of legendary U.S. anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow
as he trains a group of Latin American university students—including Mercedes
“Mimi” Doretti, Luis Fondebrider, and Patricia
Bernardi—in forensic anthropology.
Investigations: The team investigates
human rights atrocities and state-sponsored disappearances from Argentina's
"dirty war" (1976–1983), El Salvador (El Mozote), Mexico (the 43
missing students of Ayotzinapa), Bolivia, and Guatemala.
Organization: Their efforts led to
the creation of the Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (EAAF),
which uses scientific evidence to fight official cover-ups and help families
find answers.
Carlson and Berglund. Indigenous
Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism . Rutgers UP, 2021. Indigenous peoples are building coalitions around the world with
help of social media.
Claudio Saunt. Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans
and the Road to Indian Territory. 2020.
Publisher’s
Description
Winner of the 2021 Bancroft Prize and the 2021 Ridenhour Book Prize. Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award
for Nonfiction.
Named a Top Ten Best Book of 2020 by the Washington Post and Publishers
Weekly and a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2020.
A masterful and unsettling history of
“Indian Removal,” the forced migration of Native Americans across the
Mississippi River in the 1830s and the state-sponsored theft of their lands.
In May 1830, the
United States launched an unprecedented campaign to expel 80,000 Native
Americans from their eastern homelands to territories west of the Mississippi
River. In a firestorm of fraud and violence, thousands of Native Americans lost
their lives, and thousands more lost their farms and possessions. The operation
soon devolved into an unofficial policy of extermination, enabled by US
officials, southern planters, and northern speculators. Hailed for its searing
insight, Unworthy Republic transforms our understanding of
this pivotal period in American history.
Claudio Saunt is the
Richard B. Russell Professor in American History at the University of Georgia.
He is the author of award-winning books.
