At a meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the U.S. counselor for economic and social affairs, Edward Heartney, touted President Donald Trump as a protector of Indigenous women. It didn’t go well. @Toastie reports for @HighCountryNew about this, and some of the other speeches at the annual meeting. Heartney slipped out in the silence immediately after he spoke. Had he waited, he would have heard what sounded like a direct rebuff to his statement, though it was written in advance. “The U.S. has opened the coastal plain to oil and gas leasing, threatening our very survival,” said model and land protector Quannah ChasingHorse on behalf of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “The Gwich’in have never given consent for development, and our right to self-determination is being violated by interests that view our lands as a commodity,” ChasingHorse continued. “I am outraged that decisions about my people’s future are being made without us at the table.”
https://www.hcn.org/articles/pro-trump-statement-at-unpfii-met-with-silence/
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