4/6/2011 First Person Radio

Clyde Bellecourt is a founder of the American Indian Movement in 1968. The Movement was founded in Minneapolis and although it became a worldwide activity, Clyde stayed and lived in Minneapolis, to make permanent change right here in his own local community. He has worked in education from the start of Heart of the Earth Survival School in 1972 to the present. He deeply believes that education is the key to the success of the Indian community. That has been his consistent message. The Clyde H. Bellecourt Scholarship Fund has awarded $222,687 in 22 college scholarships to both graduate and undergraduate since 2005 to American Indian students who are studying in the fields of Education, American Indian Studies, or Indigenous Languages.

Chief Terry Nelson of Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation of Manitoba, Canada. He has led the fight for a settlement over Indian lands surrendered in 1903. He is also warning both Canadian and American Indian Country of the damages sure to come from a pipeline connecting the expensive - and feared - tar sands oil extraction projects in Northern Alberta.

Together, Nelson and Bellecourt discuss the real history of their countries, especially the usurpation of lands and resources as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - signed by Canada (finally) last November, more recently by President Barack Obama, making the the US the last resister to finally sign on to that resolution.