News of Note 1/9/26: Inuit Response to US Greenland Threats, Avocado Impacts, Bison Return to Illinois
Top Stories
‘Disrespectful and offensive’: Inuit, Canadian politicians react to U.S. Greenland threats (Nunatsiaq News)
“When Aaju Peter first heard U.S. President Donald Trump talk about buying or taking Greenland during his first term, she didn’t take it seriously. ‘But now that he is becoming more serious, I’m taking his words more seriously,’ Peter, an Iqaluit-based lawyer and activist originally from Greenland, said in an interview. ‘It’s disrespectful and offensive that a leader of a country would want to buy our land, my motherland.’”
Violence, death and stolen land: people need to know the true cost of an avocado (The Guardian)
“Most avocados and berries from Michoacán are exported to the US, though some also reach European markets, including the UK. In San Andrés Tziróndaro, agribusiness companies rent land that is legally communal. This land is meant to guarantee food for our people [the Purépecha community], not profits for export. Pipes have been installed to extract water from Lake Pátzcuaro and divert it to plantations. During last year’s severe drought, the lake nearly dried up. Fish disappeared. A fishing community was suddenly unable to eat its own traditional food. In the forests, avocado orchards consume enormous amounts of water and eliminate other forms of life. Forest fires, often deliberately set, clear land that is then quickly converted into plantations. We have done everything we can to protect our land, but sadly this has led to threats, killings and disappearances.”
Bison return to Illinois prairies after nearly 200 years (CBS News)
“A herd of bison has returned to Burlington Prairie, part of a long-awaited return led by the American Indian Center—honoring Native stewardship of the land and reconnecting culture, history, and community. ‘Sometimes we have stories that begin with back in the times when all things spoke,’ said Robert Wapahi, a tribal elder with the Santee Sioux. ‘If nothing else, it's the history lessons about what should be done to protect them.’”
Spotlight
"Pakayaku is an Indigenous community that is emerging by its own efforts, without support from any political authority…We want to show ourselves to the world as people who always fight for their rights. Our big dream is for Pakayaku to have economic independence, to be autonomous in this sense." –Zenaida Yasacama, Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE), Free Against All Odds: The “Hidden People” of Pakayaku Fight to Keep Extractives Out of Ecuador's Amazon, Cultural Survival
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