Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
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Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Indigenous and Shawn Mullins perform the fourth Honor the Earth Concert Tour September 30 to October 19, 2000.

St. Paul, MN - Grammy award winning Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers embark on their fourth Honor the Earth concert tour beginning September 30, 2000, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. An all star line up of national talent, including Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Indigenous and Shawn Mullins will join the tour at different points as it winds its way through seven states, culminating on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin on October 19. Each of the 16 stops on this three-week concert tour will benefit Native environmental groups.

This year's Honor the Earth Tour will focus on the need to right past environmental injustices against Native people, zeroing in on two watershed issues in Indian Country: buffalo protection and nuclear waste policy. The tour is a rally cry to "Stop the Yellowstone Buffalo Slaughter" and for "No Nuclear Waste on Native Lands." These issues share a timely opportunity to leverage policy change. Tour organizers hope that increased citizen support for Native struggles will shift policy away from repeating past tragedies toward viable solutions.

"Both of these issues are winable if we create a strong voice for change. In this new century, it is time to right the injustices of the past, and develop just and honorable relationships with Native peoples," said Honor the Earth spokesperson Winona LaDuke.

Stop the Yellowstone Buffalo Slaughter: The state of Montana and federal agencies have brutally killed more than 1,200 buffalo in one of the last 'wild' places in America, Yellowstone National Park. They are killing buffalo to allegedly safeguard cattle that graze outside the park. No scientific evidence exists to prove buffalo pose a disease threat to cows. Native people have taken a firm stand against the slaughter.

The Honor the Earth Tour will make seven stops in Montana to support non-partisan organizing by reservation-based groups to Get Out The Indian Vote and Save the Yellowstone Buffalo. Rallies will be held on the Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet and Flathead Reservations and concerts will take place in Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls and Missoula to register voters and build momentum for voter turnout.

Indian people are the largest minority population in Montana, and the buffalo issue strikes to the heart of Native concerns. Honor the Earth's goal is to catalyze Get Out The Indian Vote organizing as a means to create a stronger voice for Native people in the state. The national voter registration group, Rock the Vote, will join Native Vote organizers at each stop.

"It's time to have buffalo policy based on science and stewardship, rather than the smoking barrel of a gun," states Pat Smith, Attorney for the Intertribal Bison Cooperative.

Outside Montana, the tour will focus on stopping nuclear waste storage on Native lands.

No Nuclear Waste on Native Lands: Every proposal to store high level nuclear waste in North America targets Native territories. A consortium of 8 utilities is moving forward to construct an 'interim,' private dump on the remote lands of the Skull Valley Goshute in Utah. At the same time, federal legislation has re-appeared each year for the past five years in Congress to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and expedite the mass transportation of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, a sacred site to Western Shoshone people on Shoshone land in Nevada. This year's legislation was vetoed by President Clinton and defeated by a small margin in an attempted override. The legislation is expected to return again next year.

Efforts to put Yucca Mountain on the fast track and establish a Skull Valley private dump site reflect a desperate attempt by a dying industry. The nuclear industry needs a dump to continue operations. Reactors are running out of storage space and there is no safe place to put the waste.

"They are using Native land and Native people as a loophole to keep their reactors running," says LaDuke. "The nuclear industry needs to be called to the table for seeking a political solution to the deadly environmental problem of nuclear waste they created by targeting isolated Native communities. It's bad policy and it's wrong."

An Honor the Earth stop in Park City, Utah will support grassroots Native resistance to the Skull Valley waste dump. Another stop in Minneapolis will target Northern States Power Company (NSP) as the lead utility in the industry's effort to move nuclear waste to Skull Valley and Yucca Mountain. NSP currently operates twin reactors and an on-site nuclear waste dump at Prairie Island, immediately adjacent to the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Community. Western Shoshone and Skull Valley representatives will unite at each of these stops to oppose nuclear waste on Native lands.

Solutions: The Honor the Earth 2000 Tour will advocate for innovative solutions to the buffalo slaughter and nuclear waste storage, highlighting forward thinking Native initiatives aimed at buffalo restoration and safe energy along the tour route.

Sept. 30 11:30AM Lame Deer High School, Northern Cheyenne Reservation, MT 7:00 PM Shrine Theatre, Billings, MT Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Indigenous, Joan Baez (special guest)

October 1 6:00PM Browning High School, Blackfeet Reservation, MT Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Ed Juneau, Indigenous, Joan Baez (special guest)

October 2 7:30PM Civic Theatre, Great Falls, MT Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Ed Juneau, Joan Baez (special guest)

October 3 7:30PM Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, Bozeman, MT Bonnie Raitt, Indigenous, Dar Williams, Emily Saliers, Joan Baez (special guests)

October 4 12:00PM Arlee Pow-Wow Grounds, Flathead Reservation, MT 7:30PM Adams Field Master, Missoula, MT Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Indigenous, Dar Williams

October 6 7:30PM Huntsman Center, Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Indigenous

October 9 7:00PM Windowrock Civic Center, Navajo Reservation, AZ Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Indigenous

October 11 7:30PM Kiva Auditorium, Albuquerque, NM Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Indigenous

October 12 7:00PM Filmore Theater, Denver, CO Indigo Girls, Bill Miller, Edwin McCain, Vonda Shepard

October 14 8:00PM Lied Center, Lawrence, Kansas Indigo Girls, Shawn Mullins, Indigenous

October 16 8:00PM Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN Indigo Girls, David Crosby, Annie Humphrey, Shannon Curfman

October 17 7:30PM Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Annie Humphrey

October 18 7:30PM Quandt Fieldhouse, Univ. of WI., Stevens Point, WI Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Annie Humphrey

October 19 Time TBD Menominee High School, Menominee Reservation, WI Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Annie Humphrey

For more information contact, Nicole Vandenberg or Jen Bergman, phone: 206-324-1501.