September, 18 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jennifer K. Falcon,,jennifer@ienearth.org
Trump Visits Bemidji Minnesota
Indigenous Environmental Network Responds
BEMIDJI, Minnesota
Later today, Trump will visit northern Minnesota for a campaign rally at the regional Bemidji airport. Bemidji is the international headquarters for the Indigenous Environmental Network and within the territories of the Anishinaabe peoples. Trump sees Minnesota as a key swing state in the 2020 election, prioritizing campaigning in rural Minnesota.
The Indigenous Environmental Network, being based on Anishinaabe lands and staffed by Anishinaabe peoples, will stand with our relatives and uplift their voices. Bemidji is a border town that is surrounded by three Anishinaabe reservations; Leech Lake, Red Lake and White Earth. Anishinaabe organizers including youth leadership are planning a number of protest actions throughout the day to stand against Trump's visit and will hold space to ensure Indigenous voices are heard on occupied Indigenous land and the center of dirty tar sands pipeline Line 3 resistance.
The following is a statement by Indigenous Environmental Network:
"We vehemently denounce Trump's visit to Anishinaabe territory and see it as nothing less than fueling the sentiments of white supremacy in the homelands of Indigenous peoples. We will not allow white supremacy to run unchecked. Trump's administration has undermined Indigenous inherent sovereignty, bolstered climate chaos, expanded fossil fuel development and has encouraged racist nationalists to assault Black, Indigenous and people of color. These colonial acts of aggression perpetrated against Indigenous peoples by Trump will not be ignored. We fight for the rights of Indigenous peoples and in defense of the territorial integrity of Mother Earth. Nimbazigwiimin ji-ganawendamaang indizhitwaawininaan, aakii gaye, We rise up to protect our ways and the land."
Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN's activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
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According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
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The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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