[News] International Indian Treaty Council: Trump's Executive Orders Violate Treaties

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/international-indian-treaty-council-trumps-executive-orders-violate-treaties/ 



  International Indian Treaty Council: Trump's Executive Orders Violate
  Treaties

Andrea Carmen and Roberto Borrero, International Indian Treaty Council • 
February 8, 2017

/Statement by the International Indian Treaty Council/: Just two weeks 
after President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order and two 
memorandums paving the way to expedite the permitting of extractive 
projects such as the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines, the U.S. 
Department of the Army announced it would grant the final easement 
needed to finish the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, according to 
a court filing Tuesday, February 7, 2017.

These fast tracked actions led by the new U.S. President and supported 
by the Republican majority display a flagrant disregard for the federal 
legal process already engaged in by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
cutting short its publically stated intent to conduct a full 
environmental impact assessment and the public comment period associated 
with it.

Given Trump’s campaign statements and his personal financial ties to the 
fossil fuel industry, as well as his apparent disdain and/or lack of 
awareness for both federal and international human rights law, his 
pronouncements, while shocking and heart wrenching in their utter 
callousness, were not unexpected. These actions, along with the 
appointment of the former CEO of Exxon Oil, responsible for the oil 
spill that devastated Indigenous Peoples in the coastal areas of Alaska 
in 1989, as the Secretary of State, are an ominous foreshadowing of the 
shape of things to come.

Undaunted by these recent developments, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe 
(SRST) quickly responded 
<http://standwithstandingrock.net/standing-rock-denounces-army-easement-announcement-vows-court-challenge/> 
to the Army’s announcement Tuesday, denouncing the Administration’s 
continued defiance of the law. The SRST also vowed to vigorously pursue 
a legal challenge. Consistent with our previous statement by the 
International Indian Treaty Council 
<http://www.iitc.org/standing-rock-human-treaty-rights-violations-continue-presidential-executive-order/> in 
support of the SRST, it is our position that these actions taken by the 
President ignore both federal and international law to which the U.S. is 
obligated, including its legally-binding commitments under the Treaties 
concluded with the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota (“Great Sioux Nation”). The 
International Indian Treaty Council again asserts that President does 
not have the legal or moral authority to violate the U.S. Constitution, 
which states “treaties are the supreme law of the land.”

These Executive Orders and memorandums, as well as others issued 
recently and recklessly by Trump, must continue to be challenged as they 
will have far-reaching and detrimental affects on the environment, human 
rights defenders, and Indigenous Peoples overall, within and outside the 
United States.

The President’s January 28^th memorandum to restructure the National 
Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, for example, could 
increase scrutiny on and/or seek to criminalize future protests against 
extractive industries and other destructive projects impacting the 
lands, waters and cultural rights of Indigenous Peoples. Trump’s 
multi-pronged orders on border security and immigration enforcement 
include the authorization of a U.S. – Mexico border wall and increased 
border patrol activity, which will further impede travel for Tribes such 
as the Yaqui and Tohono O’odham to their own traditional homelands, 
ceremonies and families. Reinstating local and state immigration 
enforcement partnerships could also challenge Tribal sovereignty and 
previous border agreements. The Tohono O’odham Nation has already stated 
its intention to oppose construction of the wall on its land.

Trump’s executive order that directs federal agencies to ease the 
“regulatory burdens” and to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or 
delay the implementation of any provision or requirement” of the 
Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka “Obamacare”) that imposes a “fiscal burden 
on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on 
individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, 
recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or 
makers of medical devices, products, or medications” could eliminate a 
portion of that law that commits federal funding for Tribal health care 
around the country. While the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act is a 
separate piece of legislation, its reauthorization in 2010 was included 
within the ACA bill.

It is essential that Indigenous Peoples and our allies remain vigilant 
as Trump and the Republicans continue to push their radical change 
agenda with disregard for human rights, Treaties and the environment. 
The IITC stands in solidarity with the resistance that has taken to the 
streets in this country and around the world, and commend the legal 
efforts such as the recent and successful ACLU challenge to the 
president’s Muslim ban. The world is watching as the historic mass 
mobilization and profound solidarity that came together at Standing Rock 
emanates to other struggles. Broad support will be especially critical 
as Indigenous Peoples’ lands, waters and sacred landscapes are 
increasingly threatened by imposed development and extractive industries 
through the policies of this administration and its backers in the U.S. 
Congress. International human rights oversight will be needed more than 
ever.

For the sake of our future generations, broad-based solidarity within, 
among and beyond Indigenous Peoples and Nations must be a priority as we 
face ongoing threats to Treaties and human rights in the Trump-era.

/Roberto Borrero (Taíno) is a Board Member of the International Indian 
Treaty Council. Andrea Carmen (Yaqui) is IITC’s Executive Director. 
//T//he International Indian Treaty Council is an organization of 
Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America, the Arctic, 
Pacific and Caribbean in General Consultative Status with the United 
Nations Economic and Social Council/

//Sioux response to Army 
http://standwithstandingrock.net/standing-rock-denounces-army-easement-announcement-vows-court-challenge/

IITC Press Release: 
http://www.iitc.org/standing-rock-human-treaty-rights-violations-continue-presidential-executive-order/

Tohono O’odham Nation statement: 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/donald-trump-border-wall-tohono-oodham-arizona-tribe

Indian Health Care reference 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/indian-healthcare-improvement-act-affordable-care-act/96987680/

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