The 1st annual Indigenous Climate Justice Symposium will be held at The Evergreen State College Longhouse on November 5-6, 2015. It will bring together speakers from Native communities that are working to keep fossil fuels in the ground, by stopping coal terminals, oil trains and fracking, and protecting treaty resources from the threat of climate change. Its major goal would be to get students and youth, particularly tribal youth, involved in community-based climate justice efforts. All events are free and open to Evergreen students and the public (please inform the organizers about any classes that may attend).

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5:

STUDENT RESEARCH DAY
(10:00 am – 5:00 pm)
Students can send a 150-word abstract proposal for a 15-20-minute presentation to
wynns@evergreen.edu by Sunday, October 25.  (Please pass on to your students).

KEYNOTE BY TOM GOLDTOOTH
(7:00 – 9:30 pm)
Indigenous Environmental Network Executive Director:
“The Paris Climate Accord: Will it be a Crime Against Humanity and Mother Earth?”
http://www.ienearth.org

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6:

PANEL ON FOSSIL FUEL CONNECTIONS
(10:00 am – 12:30 pm)
Native voices from tribal nations at both the back end and front ends of coal and oil
shipping routes, to explain how they threaten treaty resources through local pollution
and global climate change:

* Grays Harbor oil terminals: FAWN SHARP
(President of the Quinault Nation and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians);

* Oil fracking in North Dakota: KANDI MOSSETT
(Fort Berthold tribal member; Indigenous Environmental Network);

* Cherry Point coal terminal: JEREMIAH “JAY” JULIUS
(Lummi Nation Councilmember);

* Coal mining in Montana: ADRIANN KILLSNIGHT
(Northern Cheyenne tribal member; Ecoregional Ethnographic Assessment Project).

WORKSHOPS on what we can do
(1:30– 2:55 & 3:05-4:30)

REPORTS & NEXT STEPS
(4:30-5:00)

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The Symposium is an outgrowth of the Climate Change and Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Project at Evergreen, started by the Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute. The Project published a 2006 report for Indigenous leadership, a 2010 community organizing booklet, and the 2012 Oregon State University Press anthology “Asserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis.” For these publications, see http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/climate.html

The Symposium is sponsored by the Climate Change and Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Project, and hosted by the Resource Rebels program, with support from the Graduate Program on the Environment, Master of Public Administration – Tribal Governance, Native Programs and Sustainability & Justice planning units, President’s Diversity Fund, Clean Energy Committee, Academic Deans’ Office, and Evergreen programs Engaging with Endangered Northwest, Shipping Out & Writing Home, Caliban & the Witch, Even When Erased We Exist, and Introduction to Environmental Studies.

For more information, contact Shangrila Joshi Wynn:
wynns@evergreen.edu.

Invite friends on the Facebook event page at
https://www.facebook.com/events/1740884809472858/