“What do we mean by “community” when we say community rights? Native Americans like Wioweya Najin Wina have had their communities decimated by genocide, appropriation of their land, and forced relocation, but many retain their culture, their communities and traditions despite that history.
Non-native Americans of every ethnicity reside in communities established by law rather than by custom, and so when we advocate for the rights of those communities, we are often talking about communities defined by the political boundaries of municipalities and counties. It is, admittedly, arbitrary and a concession to coercive historic realities. But central to the idea of “Community Rights” is the notion of community as being a local society connected to the place on Earth that the people occupy and where they do their living and dying.”
Read more of this article by Ben Price on the CELDF site (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund).
Also on CELDF site is a short video on the topic:
Slide Show on History of Local Self-Government
A very good clear history of local self-government in America. Here is a slide show created by CELDF in 2015 – holds true today. No need to re-invent this wheel. Sixty slides. Slide 18: June, 1776 – The federal declaration (of independence) listed the infringement of local self-government as the primary basis for independence from England.
Resurrecting a constitutional right
For an extensive read (66 pages), check out this article:
“A Phoenix from the ashes: Resurrecting a constitutional right of local community self-government in the name of environmental sustainability,” 2017, Arizona Journal of Law and Environmental Law & Policy. A good read!
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