This year First Peoples Worldwide undertook a range of endeavors, from incubating an Indigenous-focused private equity model and engendering scholarship around Indigenous rights and business, to advocating to protect sacred Native lands in the Arctic and supporting sovereign approaches to combat human trafficking in Indian Country.
With 2019 coming to a close, we want to thank our partners, program participants, and the network of organizations on the front lines of defending, protecting and developing Indigenous enterprise and ways of life. Whether advocating tirelessly on the ground, in boardrooms, in the courts, or as policy makers and legislative officials, our collective efforts support the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples in all of their endeavors.
As Indigenous advocacy continues to reconcile and remediate historical and contemporary injustices; as we redouble efforts to decolonize business and industry so that Indigenous Peoples’ human rights are built into the fabric of development and routine business practice; and as we collate and share Indigenous wisdom and sustainable practices that hold the key to environmental balance and averting climate catastrophe, it is clear that the time is now for Indigenous Peoples and others to come together for people and planet.
Please find highlights from our 2019 below. We look forward to continuing our work with you in 2020 and beyond.
TOWARDS A GLOBAL FINANCIAL INDUSTRY THAT RESPECTS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
First Peoples continues to build capacity for Indigenous Peoples’ participation in corporate shareholder advocacy through leadership training workshops, high-level convenings that assist Indigenous Peoples to connect and amplify their concerns broadly, and through wide dissemination of our DAPL Material Loss Case Study, which is educating the next generation of socially responsible business.
This summer, First Peoples led the Indigenous response to revisions to the Equator Principles (EP4), the international financial industry's risk management framework that purports to consider human rights and the environment during project finance. Following the ratification of a critically weak EP4 in November, First Peoples will continue to provide assistance and resources for those financial institutions and corporations who seek leadership in meaningful recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. One such resource, the FPIC Due Diligence Questionnaire, is an invaluable tool for operationalizing the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples during every step of project development.
INNOVATING A PRIVATE EQUITY MODEL BUILT ON INDIGENOUS VALUES
First Peoples announced incubation of the First Peoples Private Equity Fund, a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle that will bring together private equity, a focus on Indigenous Peoples, and renewable energy development to deploy large-scale, impact-driven capital exclusively to Indigenous communities.
Tribal leaders, leaders of business development in Indian Country, impact investors and renewable resource development stewards attended our first public forum in December, and stakeholder consensus was clear: opportunity abounds for Indigenous-led private equity.
Next steps: we’re conducting a series of in-person consultations and aim to release a master outcome document encompassing all research by summer 2020, with an early 2021 goal to begin capital raise. For more information on how to participate, please contact us directly at fpw@colorado.edu, or share your ideas and concerns by filling out our readiness survey here.
SUPPORTING THE GWICH’IN NATION TO PROTECT THE ARCTIC REFUGE
First Peoples partnered with Colorado Law’s American Indian Law Clinic (AILC) to assist the Gwich’in Steering Committee (GSC) in their fight to oppose oil and gas drilling in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. Amplifying a shareholder advocacy and corporate engagement campaign that The Sierra Club Foundation and the GSC had developed, First Peoples and the AILC provided expertise on Indigenous and human rights and helped to develop and deploy an international advocacy strategy.
Collective advocacy efforts by GSC and its partners led in September to the U.S. House of Representatives passing the Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act, and in December Goldman Sachs became the first major American bank to prohibit new Arctic oil financing or exploration in the Arctic, including the Arctic Refuge.
Additionally, First Peoples and the AILC supported Bernadette Demientieff, Executive Director of the GSC, by facilitating both her participation in the U.N. Indigenous Caucus’ meetings to prepare for Climate Week and GSC’s submission of the “Observations on the State of Indigenous Human Rights in the United States of America” report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
SOLUTIONS TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
As part of work funded through Casey Family Programs, First Peoples presented on the impacts of human trafficking on the Navajo Nation at the 2019 Gathering for Healthy Relations hosted by the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition with partners from Navajo. The conference session, titled “Influencing Policy Solutions: Navajo Nation Human Trafficking” provided an overview of the work done at the Navajo Nation and focused on the dynamics of human trafficking particular to Indigenous women and youth. A white paper, in development in partnership with Navajo Nation leadership due to be published in the coming weeks, highlights leadership by the Navajo Nation to create sovereign approaches to combat trafficking.
INAUGURAL REBECCA ADAMSON INDIGENOUS RIGHTS & BUSINESS SCHOLARSHIP
First Peoples Worldwide and the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado awarded the initial Rebecca Adamson Indigenous Rights & Business Scholarship. Seeded in honor of pioneering Indigenous economist Rebecca Adamson and her trailblazing work to build capacity for Indigenous Peoples’ participation in business and corporate shareholder advocacy, the scholarship facilitates Indigenous and women’s leadership in business for students at the University of Colorado. The 2019-2020 inaugural recipient was second-year MBA student Hannah Ishida, who is pursuing studies in the field of organizational change management. Hannah, who is also president of the University of Colorado's MBA Women in Business Club, said, “I want to use my degree to remove cross-cultural barriers and make a positive impact to those who need their voices heard.”
UNITED NATIONS COURSE ON ETHICS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the University of Colorado partnered with First Peoples to develop and teach an online certificate program for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). The course “Leading with Ethics in Achieving the SDGs” assists decision-makers in fostering the character traits and the durable skills necessary for effective and ethical leadership while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The course taught how leaders can make explicit their fundamental value commitments and develop an ethical framework to justify or defend those value commitments, with a special unit focused on gender equality and ending violence against Indigenous women.
CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS
First Peoples staff, including Director Carla Fredericks, Staff Attorneys Kate Finn and Zoe Osterman, and Sr. Fellow Dave Archambault II, took part in numerous conferences, panels and presentations in 2019:
- Hosted the "Youth Forum on the Social, Economic and Environmental Impacts of Development" at the Eighteenth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in partnership with the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus and the Tribal Link Foundation (April 22);
- Convened a Roundtable on Creating Alignment with Human Rights during Partnership with Indigenous Peoples in partnership with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (April 29);
- Took part in the "Beyond the Dakota Access Pipeline" panel at US SIF's annual Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, examining negative impacts from banks' past behaviors and pathways forward within a framework of Indigenous rights (June 11);
- Led Indigenous response at the European and North American civil stakeholder meetings addressing problematic revisions to the Equator Principles (July 16 and July 29);
- Moderated the Investors & Indigenous Peoples Working Group webinar "Scaling Investments in Indian Country for Climate Resilience" with Indigenous leaders and leaders in philanthropy to solve for climate chaos through Indigenous-led projects (September 12);
- Discussed the development of free, prior and informed consent as a standard for engagement with Indigenous peoples at the National Tribal Energy Summit panel "The Next Era on Self-Determination (50-years after Nixon)" (September 25);
- Appeared on the SOCAP panel "Social Investment Opportunities with Indigenous Communities Part II" with partners from the Native American Rights Fund, the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation, and First Nations Oweesta Corporation (October 23);
- Presented at the SRI Conference's Investors and Indigenous Peoples Breakfast (November 15);
- Provided expert testimony on the intersection between man camps and sex trafficking of Indigenous women and children in a case seeking to halt permits for construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline on tribal lands (December 20).
PUBLICATIONS & FIRST PEOPLES IN THE MEDIA
Our DAPL Material Loss Case Study was selected for publication by the highly regarded New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, Vol. 22.2, cementing in academic literature First Peoples’ innovative use of existing methodologies to quantify social risk in financial terms, as well as the cutting-edge approach to integrating a human rights due diligence lens into ordinary business practice.
First Peoples Director Carla Fredericks published a chapter titled, “Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals to Indian Nations” in the recently released book Creating Private Sector Economies in Native America: Sustainable Development through Entrepreneurship (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and First Peoples Sr. Fellow Dave Archambault II has contributed the chapter “The Indigenous Perspective on Water: A Source of Life, Not a Commodity” to a forthcoming book from the International Water Association.
In addition to the organization’s name returning to First Peoples Worldwide, we redesigned and relaunched our website with improved functionality to share our articles and publications and resources to better showcase the mission, work, and people that drive First Peoples every day.
First Peoples also gave expertise to a range of media outlets on various topics, including the history and critical importance of Native voices during elections in the U.S. (Colorado Public Radio); the dangerous, all too common misconception of "consultation" as "consent" with Indigenous Peoples during resource development (YES! Magazine); the concerning lack of a human rights-based implementation of free, prior and informed consent in the Equator Principles social risk assessment framework (Financial Times); the flawed and in parts grossly insufficient revisions to the Equator Principles as per the human rights perspectives (Responsible-Investor); the incredible significance of Washington incorporating free, prior and informed consent into state policy (Crosscut); and, in response to DAPL's production boost in 2019, the likelihood of oil becoming a stranded asset due to growing global policy trends that curb greenhouse gases from fossil fuels (Financial Times).
First Peoples Worldwide works from a foundation of Indigenous values to achieve a sustainable future for all. Our work empowers by building awareness and education for both Indigenous Peoples and industry groups, engages by convening consensus-driven dialogue between stakeholders, and transforms through activities that align business behavior with the rights of Indigenous Peoples. For more information visit https://www.colorado.edu/program/fpw.