Brazil Judge Blocks Amazon Dam

Staff / Truthdig Feb 27, 2011 Plans to build a giant hydroelectric dam in the Amazon have been suspended by a Brazilian judge after the project sparked local and worldwide concern over its impact on the environment and the indigenous population. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Aussies Elect First Indigenous MP

Staff / Truthdig Aug 29, 2010 In a historic moment for Australia, an Aboriginal man has won a seat in the country's House of Representatives, the first indigenous person to be elected as an MP in Australia's century-long history as a democracy. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Lone Frenchman Fights to Save Dying Alaskan Language

Staff / Truthdig Aug 10, 2010 It's not entirely clear what, besides a love of linguistics and an apparently compelling documentary, spurred young Guillaume Leduey to launch a one-man campaign to resuscitate an Alaskan language, Eyak (continued). Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Awes the Skeptics

Peter Z. Scheer / Truthdig Dec 16, 2009 The film industry has produced no shortage of spectacles over the last hundred years, from "Ben Hur" to "Star Wars." In terms of technological sorcery and visual wonder, James Cameron's "Avatar" now ranks chief among them. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Morales Closes In on 2nd Term

Staff / Truthdig Dec 6, 2009 Bolivia's President Evo Morales, opinion polls running heavily in his favor, appeared headed for a second five-year stint as president as voting wrapped up Sunday. The "peasant president" commands wide support among the country's poor indigenous people -- 65 percent of the population. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

Staff / Truthdig Oct 12, 2009 Read historian Howard Zinn's account of that genocidal, gold-crazed maniac Christopher Columbus, and it's impossible to think this man deserves a holiday Upon meeting the Indians, for example, his first thought was "They would make fine servants With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want". Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A Victory for Peru’s Amazon Natives

Staff / Truthdig Jun 17, 2009 After at least 54 people were killed in a bloody roadblock protest earlier this month, native groups in Peru have won a commitment from the government to revoke laws that opened the Amazon to foreign oil and gas companies to exploit indigenous land for resources. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Peru’s War on the Indigenous

Staff / Truthdig Jun 10, 2009 In clashes between native groups armed with spears and development interests packing guns, Peru has seen at least 50 people die and hundreds go missing after President Alan Garcia initiated a campaign to open the rain forest to foreign investors. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Two Men Who Stood Under the Plunderers’ Knives

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Jun 10, 2009 Ken Saro-Wiwa and Alberto Pizango never met, but they are united by a passion for the preservation of their people and their land, and by the fervor with which they were targeted by their respective governments. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Bolivia’s Indigenous Majority Catches a Break

Staff / Truthdig Jan 26, 2009 Bolivian President Evo Morales, himself an Aymara Indian, has won a referendum on a new constitution granting special privileges to Bolivia's indigenous people. The electorate split along racial lines, with the country's elite white and mixed-race minorities largely opposing the measure. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Lawsuit Says Church Used Alaska as a Dumping Ground for Pedophiles

Staff / Truthdig Jan 16, 2009 A new lawsuit alleges that the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church sent problem priests to remote Alaskan villages, where their crimes would have a reduced chance of discovery. A former monk and advocate for sex abuse victims told the Anchorage Daily News, "They were specifically targeting the Athabascan and the Yup'ik cultures, because they wouldn't talk." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Brazilian Indians Win Land Battle

Staff / Truthdig Dec 11, 2008 The native people of the state of Roraima have won an important legal victory before Brazil's Supreme Court. With 100 similar cases hanging in the balance, the court decided to keep an Indian reservation intact, to the chagrin of farmers, loggers and even some military leaders. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )