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Wednesday, April 13, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters resident joins indigenous women to defend the Amazon
By jodi Schneider mcNamee
Correspondent
When Sisters resident
Susan Prince began hearing
about oil spills in the pristine
rainforests of the Ecuadorian
Amazon, she decided to
investigate for herself.
And on March 8, 2016,
International Women’s Day,
Prince took action by join-
ing 300 indigenous women
from across the Ecuadorian
Amazon in a historic march
in defense of the Amazon
against oil drilling.
“I had first gone on a
month-long trip to Ecuador
over four years ago with a
friend,” she recalled. “Global
exchange offered a trip called
the ‘toxic tour.’ It’s a program
where they take people all
around the world to places
with issues. We were taken
on a tour through the part of
Ecuador that was destroyed
by the oil companies. In the
past Texaco had drilled in
Ecuador. They created huge
leach fields, which are ponds
where all the oil goes that
leaches out of the pipes. And
the ponds aren’t lined. The oil
was poisoning the rivers and
the indigenous people were
suffering. After 30 years of
this they unified and brought
a lawsuit against the oil com-
pany and won. However the
suit is still unresolved.
“I learned a lot on my first
trip, especially from the non-
profits that have been sup-
porting the indigenous people
and getting the word out to
stop drilling.”
Prince went a second time
three years ago and explored
deeper into the jungle where
the forests are still intact and
where the indigenous peo-
ple continue to fight off oil
companies.
E c u a d o r ’s s o u t h e r n
Ecuadoran Amazon has a long
history of indigenous resis-
tance, drilling project failures,
and oil companies that have
abandoned drilling plans.
In January 2016, Ecuador’s
government sold oil explora-
tion rights in a remote corner
of the Amazon rainforest to an
assortment of Chinese state-
owned oil companies, despite
resistance from indigenous
groups in the South American
country.
“My last trip in March was
with Amazon Watch, and we
were going into two territo-
ries in the southern part of the
Amazon,” Prince said. “There
are large blocks of designated
land that the government has
opened for drilling. These
areas are untouched pristine
rain forests.”
Amazon Watch works
to protect the rainforest by
advancing the rights of indig-
enous peoples. They have
helped the people become
more unified and stronger.
“I landed in Quito, Ecuador
and was met at the airport by
Amazon Watch. I stayed at
a hotel there, and then 25 of
us all got on a bus to Puyo,
Ecuador where the march
took place,” Prince said.
It was the first time that
indigenous Amazonian
woman from over seven
nationalities joined forces and
marched together in defense
of their rights, rainforests and
future generations.
“We started in Puyo with
hundreds of indigenous
women and their supporters,”
Prince said. “We all joined
together to protest against
the government, who wants
to allow the oil drilling. We
marched around Puyo for
about two hours. It was very
hot, but we were grateful for
the good media coverage and
the women felt empowered.”
After the protest Prince
and four others took a canoe
down the fast-moving
Bobonaza River to Sarayaku,
a village that played a huge
part in the battle. They would
hear firsthand from leaders
and community members
about the Ecuadorian gov-
ernment’s aggressive push to
open up their lands to new
oil drilling. The people of
Sarayaku had won a lawsuit
against the Ecuadorian oil
company which had come in
and done exploratory drilling
in their territory without their
consent.
“We were there as their
guests. We ate with them
and we stayed all together
in a platform building with
a roof. It was me along with
two women and two men, and
we each had our own bed with
mosquito netting. The indige-
nous people are very friendly
and appreciative. We learned
of their ways and took a tour
of their medicinal garden,”
Prince said.
Then Prince boarded a
three-passenger Cessna that
landed on an airstrip filled
with weeds and rocks in the
photo provided
Susan Prince participated in demonstrations against oil drilling in South
America.
Amazon Basin, surrounded them to defend the forest. If
by mountains.
we do not, the balance of life
“We were in Zapara, which will be altered and we will not
is one of the most primitive survive.”
areas, no flushing toilets, no
“We then journeyed back
privacy and the beds were to Quito, which is a big city at
made out of straw,” Prince 10,000 ft., and stayed for two
said. “We stayed there for days before leaving,” Prince
three days and then flew to said.
Shell, Ecuador, got into a van
“I want people to know
and went from sea level up to what’s going on in the
11,000 feet in one day in the Ecuadorian Amazon and I
Andes. We stayed at a beauti- want them to know what is in
ful hotsprings up there, which danger of being lost forever
was in the cloud forest.”
and that we can make a differ-
What Prince and others ence,” Prince told The Nugget.
heard from the indigenous “We can support Amazon
people repeatedly during their Watch, and the other orga-
trip to Southern Ecuador was nizations that are helping to
their adamant opposition to keep these people strong. On
oil and other natural-resource a larger scale we all need to
extraction, and how they keep talking about the impact
would continue defending of fossil fuels in the environ-
their lives, land and cultures.
ment. There are people behind
Manari, a Sapara leader, the scenes creating electric
explained it to Prince and cars and bio fuels, there are
others like this: “Our forest alternatives. We need to save
is full of spirits. These spirits our environment.”
maintain the balance of life in
For more information go to
the forest. We must listen to www.amazonwatch.org
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