XR Boston's Statement on Indigenous Rights

The lives and human rights of Indigenous people and communities continue to be ignored, exploited, and undervalued in the United States and abroad. Indigenous populations experience higher rates of police brutality, higher coronavirus death rates, and fossil fuel projects that invade their land without proper consent. Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls continues as an unseen form of genocide.

Extinction Rebellion owes any and all successes to the struggles of indigenous communities who have been fighting against ecological destruction for centuries. These true eco-warriors have faced extreme violence and have been murdered for defending their land and their communities.

Land under Indigenous control protects over 80% of earth's biodiversty. Indigenous populations have a lot to teach us about how to care for and live in harmony with the land as we face climate and ecological collapse. We hope to continue to learn from them in gratitude and respect for their knowledge.

XR Boston stands with Indigenous communities as they fight for equality under the law and to end the racial violence and discrimination they continue to face in their daily lives.

Police Brutality Against Native Americans

A Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice report found that Native Americans were the most likely racial group to be killed by law enforcement, followed by African Americans, Latinos, Whites, and Asians. The numbers are likely much higher because data about violence against Native Americans is often underreported or settles dust within the judicial system, where no justice is served.

Nora Mabie, reporter from the Great Falls Tribune says, "Furthermore, many national databases tracking fatal encounters with law enforcement exclude Native Americans in racial and ethnic categories; consequently, Indigenous people can be misidentified, undercounted or labeled "unknown" or "other."

Coronavirus Death Rate

An APM report exposed that while the death rate of Black Americans is 2.4 higher than Whites, the death rate for Native Americans in New Mexico, which contains portions of the Navajo Nation, could be an astounding 8 times higher than it is for Whites.

Native Americans remain an under-served community, even as they face severe generational trauma as a result of their collective history of massacres, genocide, and exploitation within the states.

Fossil Fuel Projects on Indigenous Land

Indigenous populations are forced to protect their communities and land from fossil fuel corporations that build on their land without consent. These corporations, and the police presence in the area where they build, often resort to violence to subdue Indigenous populations that attempt to defend themselves and protect the land.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Indigenous women and girls are facing sexual assault and murder at astonishing rates. According to the Center for Disease Control, Indigenous women are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than other ethnicities, and it's their third leading cause of death. The majority of these murders are committed by non-Native people on Native-owned land.

Sexual assault and murder of Indigenous women and girls is often perpetrated by transient workers, including oil workers, who live in temporary housing called "man-camps" on or near indigenous land. Lack of communication and transparency between state, local, and tribal law enforcement, makes it difficult to hold an investigation process.

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