Pollution of earth and water is driving indigenous peoples from
their homelands By Miriam Raftery April 27, 2013 (San
Diego)--Around the world, including here in the U.S., native
people are losing lands they have occupied for countless
generations. The earth and water that sustained life in their
communities is being destroyed –once-mighty rivers and wetlands
reduced to barren, parched or even contaminated land. The story
is the same from tribes along the Colorado River to those deep
in the Amazon, from the deserts of Southern California to the
jungles of Mexico, from the coal fields of Appalachia to the
copper mining pits of Arizona to indigenous people’s lands in
Canada threatened by the Keystone Pipeline. The culprit? Growing
demand for energy and water. Now, native people are speaking
out. They hope to educate the public to conserve precious
resources, sharing knowledge of the heart-breaking price being
paid by people who have been given no choice—and whose very
cultural identity centers around the lands