Tuesday, June 18, 2013

TODAY! Navajo Action! Navajos pump CAP water, press end to dirty coal industry


Photos Black Mesa Water Coalition

 This morning Navajo community members use solar to pump water from the Central Arizona Canal in Scottsdale, showing SRP that solar works. The demonstration was taken down by security. Action members are now moving to Fashion Square to hold their press conference. A police vehicle is trailing them the entire way.
MEDIA ALERT FOR 9am on Tuesday, June 18
CONTACT: Enei Begaye, Black Mesa Water Coalition, 928.380.6296, eneibegaye@gmail.com
CONTACT: Raina T. Gearon, 915.342.2624, rt_gearon@yahoo.com


Unique Demo Today in Scottsdale
Navajo Community Members to Pump CAP Canal Water with Solar Power
Event to press Navajo Generating Station owners for transition from polluting coal industry on Navajo Reservation that has powered CAP pumps


WHEN: promptly at 9am Tuesday, June 18; Press Conference to follow at about 10am
WHERE: Scottsdale Soleri Bridge at the intersection Camelback Rd & Scottsdale Rd.
This Action will be followed by a Press Conference in the Scottsdale Fashion Square parking lot.
WHAT:
  • Navajo community members using a solar-powered generator to pump CAP canal water into trucks and barrels that Navajo Nation residents use to haul water on the reservation.
  • Colorful rally by dozens of Navajo tribal members and supporters with handmade signs and banners. Event slogan: Energy Without Injustice – Power Without Pollution
More than 50 Navajo Nation community members and supporters will park water trucks that families use on the reservation alongside the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal in Scottsdale today at 9am and use a solar-powered generator to pump water from the canal to the vehicles.
Tribal members are staging the demonstration to send a message to the owners of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) coal-fired power plant near Page, Arizona that Navajo families want a transition away from a polluting coal industry on Navajo land that has powered CAP pumps for decades at the expense of residents’ land, health, water, and culture.
Major NGS owners include Salt River Project (SRP)(plant operator) and the U.S. government’s Department of Interior. Today SRP provides Arizonans less than 1 percent solar power.
The “Energy Without Injustice – Power Without Pollution” action demonstrates solar power as a solution. There is enough old mine land on Black Mesa to generate thousands of megawatts of solar energy, providing thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars for the regional economy.
Aging Navajo Generating Station (NGS) is among the most polluting coal-fired power plants in America and after decades of coal industry on Navajo Nation, many Navajo families have not benefitted; thousands still lack electricity and running water to their homes and haul water in trucks every week for cooking, cleaning, and drinking.


Livestream video will be available at http://ustre.am/FAE0
Images and video will be available after the event at http://www.facebook.com/blackmesawc and twitter@blackmesawc

Photos Oglala President arrested at White Clay protest










Photos by Andrew Ironshell
Oglala Lakota President Bryan Brewer was arrested on Monday, June 17, 2013, as he stood in solidarity with protesters against the liquor profiteers at White Clay, Neb., bordering Pine Ridge, S.D. Brewer was released Monday afternoon.
Video of arrest and message from President Brewer:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/oglala-president-taken-to-jail-by.html
Thank you Andrew Ironshell for permission to share your photos.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Oglala President taken to jail by Nebraska lawmen, standing in solidarity at White Clay


Published on Jun 17, 2013 Oglala Lakota President Bryan Brewer Sr. is taken to jail by Nebraska lawmen for standing with his people against the liquid genocide of White KKKlay Nebraska. The Sheridan County Sheriff’s office arrested Oglala Sioux Tribe President Bryan Brewer Monday morning in Whiteclay during a protest outside a beer store. Brewer paid a fine and was released Monday afternoon.
President Brewer said today:
Hau, to all my friends and relations. If any of you are trying to contact me, my phone is dead and the charger is in the office. I see a lot of support for what we are doing and I want to say Wopila to all of you. As long as the alcohol does stop we will not stop. I want to say a special thank you to the many people who went into White Clay this morning. We had some that were hurt, but all will be fine. I hope people understand that we are doing this for our children. Our reservation needs a lot of healing, alcohol is destroying our people and our children are suffering. I also want to say a special thank you to the lone councilman who went into White Clay with me, Dan Rodriquez, Wopila.

NAIS GAZETTE
Dutch translation, thank you Alice! http://www.bloggen.be/natam/
Bron Censored News : http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Bryan Brewer Sr.,President van de Oglala Lakota werd afgevoerd naar de gevangenis toen hij solidair was met zijn volk tegen de ‘liquid genocide’ door White KKKlay, Nebraska.
Op maandagmorgen arresteerde de Sheridan County Sherrif’s office hem in White Clay tijdens een protest bij een drankwinkel. Brewer betaalde de boete en werd in de namiddag terug vrijgelaten.
President Brewer legde volgende verklaring af:
Hau, aan al mijn vrienden en verwanten,
Ik ondervind heel veel steun voor wat wij hier doen en ik wil Wopila (dank)zeggen aan iedereen. Zolang er alcohol vloeit zullen wij verder gaan.
Ik wil nog een bijzondere dank zeggen aan al diegenen die met mij White Clay zijn binnengestapt. Sommigen werden gewond, maar het komt goed.
Ik hoop dat de mensen zullen begrijpen dat wij het doen voor onze kinderen. Ons reservaat heeft nood aan herstel, alcohol verwoest ons volk en onze kinderen lijden.
Ik wil ook nog Dan Rodriquez, het enige raadslid die samen met mij White Clay binnenging bedanken. Wopila

Native Americans prepare to defend homelands, walk across America

Red Butte Havasupai sacred land Photo Dawn Dyer


Native Americans prepare to defend homelands, walk across America
Longest Walk 1978

By Brenda Norrell
 
Native Americans focused on defending their homelands and upholding the Rights of Nature during June, as they prepared for non-violent resistance to the threats of the tarsands pipeline, uranium mining and coal-fired power plants.
Native Americans also prepared to walk across America for the fourth time to affirm Indigenous rights. The Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz, will depart from DC on July 15, returning home to Alcatraz Island for a ceremony on Dec. 22, 2013.

Zapatistas and Mohawks Vicam 2007
In Chiapas, Zapatistas planned a gathering in August to continue the efforts which began in Yaqui territory in Sonora in 2007.

During June, Lakotas with Moccasins on the Ground in South Dakota trained to defend their lands and water from the threat of the dirty crude oil of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. Already farmers in Texas and Oklahoma have been jailed while defending their small farms from the pipeline’s destruction on the southern route.
At the Left Forum in New York, Debra White Plume joined Noam Chomsky, shown holding an announcement of her documentary film called Crying Earth Rise Up.
In Arizona, Native Americans prepared to protest the reopening of the Canyon Uranium Mine on Havasupai sacred land at Red Butte at the Grand Canyon.
White Plume and Chomsky/ Photo Owe Aku
Longest Walk 4 organizers said this weekend that the five month walk, Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz, will begin with a sunrise ceremony in DC on July 15 and follow closely the route of the original Longest Walk in 1978.
The walk will affirm Indigenous sovereignty. The guiding force is land based spiritual beliefs. The walk focuses on protection from the exploitation of the land, including the tar sands development and pipelines. Further, the walk focuses on protecting and maintaining traditional spiritual beliefs, protecting sacred sites and stopping the exploitation of Indigenous women and children.
“The time has come to make our voices heard again for our own Indigenous Peoples, as the original message affirming Indigenous Sovereignty has become clouded through the efforts of the nation-states. The threats to our continued existence and way of life are more severe than ever, yet it has become better disguised. We hope to help bring the original vision back to the forefront,” organizers for the Long Walk 4 said this weekend.
In Norway during June, the Indigenous Environmental Network made an intervention, as a group of Indigenous Peoples planned an Indigenous World Conference for 2014.
The intervention focused on the false green economy and the scam of the carbon credit market which allows the world’s worst polluters to continue polluting.
Photo Ben Powless
Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said, “This green economy regime places a monetary price on Nature and creates new derivative markets that will only increase inequality and expedite the destruction of Nature – of Mother Earth. We cannot put the future of Nature and humanity in the hands of financial speculative mechanisms like carbon trading, REDD, conservation and biodiversity offsets and payment for environmental and ecological services."
In the defense of the Rights of Nature, and preservation of languages and cultures, video and education continue to be tools for upholding autonomy and dignity.
Traditional grassroots Indigenous Peoples are continuing the work of protecting the Rights of Nature, as highlighted in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2010, and enacted in Ecuador and Bolivia. Efforts have increased to fight oil and gas drilling, mining, coal-fired power plants and deforestation, as Indigenous Peoples defend their homelands and rivers throughout the Americas.
In Chiapas, Zapatistas invited supporters to the Seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso to be celebrated in CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, beginning on August 17, 2013.
Zapatistas said the gathering is a continuation of the efforts that took shape during the First Encounter of Indigenous Peoples of America celebrated in October of 2007 in Vicam, Sonora, on Yaqui territory. The seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso will hold its sessions at different locations of indigenous America throughout the continent, in accordance with the geographies and calendars agreed upon by those who called for the seminar and those who join along the way.
Film capture by Censored News

In northern Arizona, a video made by Native American middle school students, in defense of San Francisco Peaks, was the most viewed video at the online Green Festival over the weekend. Doo'ko'oosliid : San Francisco Peaks, directed by Camille Manybeads Tso and Kira Butler, was the most viewed film at the Green Film Festival, Culture Unplugged.
The Arizona Snowbowl near Flagstaff, Ariz. -- in disregard for sacred San Francisco Peaks and the healing ceremonies of area Native Americans -- has fought American Indians in federal court in order to use recycled sewage water on the sacred mountain to make snow for skiers and tourists. Medicine men gather plants on the mountain for healing ceremonies. San Francisco Peaks is sacred to 13 area Native American Nations.
(Photo right: Camille Manybeads Tso, Navajo)
Author Brenda Norrell  brendanorrell@gmail.com
Also see:
Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz 2013
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/longest-walk-4-return-to-alcatraz-july.html
Defend Havasupai sacred land from uranium mining
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/defend-havasupai-sacred-land-from.html
Zapatista Events Summer 2013
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/zapatistas-events-summer-2013.html
Owe Aku International Moccasins on the Ground
 http://www.oweakuinternational.org/moccasins-on-the-ground.html
World Indigenous Conference 2014 Intervention by Indigenous Environmental Network
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/world-indigenous-conference-2014.html
Dine youths’ Dooko’oosliid on Green Film Festival
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/dine-youths-dookooosliid-on-link-tv.html

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Defend Havasupai Sacred Land from Uranium Mining at Grand Canyon June 2013

Photo Dawn Dyer/Censored News

Red Butte photo Dawn Dyer/Censored News

Protest reopening of Canyon Uranium Mine June 21, 2013 at Red Butte, Havasupai land, Grand Canyon



Protesters Take Action Against Grand Canyon Uranium Mine Friday June 21, 2013 at 7am
Press statement
Photo Dawn Dyer/Censored News

Photos by Dawn Dyer
Censored News
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Grassroots protesters will take action at 7 am near the junction of Forest Road 305 and AZ Highway 64, independently from but in conjunction with Idle No More’s International Indigenous Solidarity Day, the presence of Havasupai elders, and the Sierra Club’s national executive director at the Canyon Uranium Mine. Grassroots protesters will also be available for interviews.

Energy Fuels Inc., the Toronto-based company digging the mine, have already dug 120 feet down what they hope will be a 1600 foot shaft. If the mine starts extracting uranium, it will expose residents and visitors to "low-level" radiation along Hwy 64. So called “low-level” radiation poisons air, waters, and soils for billions of years, causing cancers, birth defects, and other health problems. Even worse, Arizona's environmental and haulage regulations fail to protect the public from these dangers.

In addition to these health impacts and contamination of the Grand Canyon ecosystem and aquifer, the mine will directly harm the integrity of nearby Red Butte, sacred to the Havasupai and other indigenous people.

For the past thirty years indigenous people of northern Arizona and their allies have been resisting uranium mining at the Grand Canyon. This struggle continues as protesters gather to express their opposition to the Canyon Uranium Mine 15 miles south of the south rim.

The mine, owned by Canada-based Energy Fuels Inc., is located in the Kaibab National Forest –15 miles south of the Grand Canyon. Before approving the mine, both the company and the US Forest Service failed to consult with local tribes as required by law. Instead, the USFS rushed approval by using an outdated Environmental Impact Statement, silencing community input and recent scientific research.


The Mama Bears Brigade have organized an encampment June 1-July ? in opposition to the Canyon Uranium Mine at the south rim. The camp is a space to speak out and inspire action towards a nuclear free world. We invite everyone who wants to protect the Grand Canyon to join us.

 The Mama Bears Brigade is a volunteer, grassroots, feminist collective committed to exposing the dangers of the entire nuclear cycle.

 CONTACT:

Mama Bears Brigade

mamabearsbrigade@gmail.com

(928) 899-2267 or (706) 978-9425

http://fb.com/mamabears.againstnukes


You are welcome to a three day gathering just south of Grand Canyon National Park, with main gathering happening at dawn June 21st right on Hwy. 64. We will protest the re-opening of Canyon Uranium Mine on Native sacred lands by praying, bannering, and peacefully demonstrating. This is a call out to all peaceful warriors to come, pray, and decide how to stop the mine. A base camp has already been set up on Hwy 64, approx. 45 miles north of Williams, AZ (First right after mile marker 219). More camping is available very nearby at the prayer/ceremony site near Red Butte, and also in the high Ponderosas of the National Forest near Canyon Mine itself. Gather now to protect the Grand Canyon, the Colorado Plateau, and the waters, animals, plants and people who live here. Also on the 21st, the head of the Sierra club is to meet at 10 am with some of the Havasupai elders, who will be coming up out of the Canyon, at the mine site itself. Red Butte and the Grand Canyon are sacred to several tribes in this region. Energy Fuels must stop digging NOW! Idle No More has called for Friday, June 21st, to be International Indigenous Solidarity Day. Come and help!

This will be our first, opening action and is a three day event. Come prepared for hot days (up to 90) and cool nights (down to 40). Please bring your own water, food and banner and sign-making materials beginning as early as June 19. We do have some food and some banner-making materials, but will need more. Base camp will be open through July 2013 for further organizing and actions. We welcome individuals and affinity groups. Mama Bears Brigade is a feminist collective and as such is non-violent. We are committed to indigenous/women's leadership. For more info please email us at MamaBearsBrigade@gmail.com PLEASE SHARE THIS CALL TO ACTION

Zapatistas Events Summer 2013

Photo street artist Banksy
Space full in communities for the Zapatista little school Zapatista Army for National Liberation Mexico
Seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso' open to all in CIDECI, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, beginning on August 17, 2013

June 2013 
Espanol: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2013/06/17/scuola-posti-esauriti/
Reposted from Enlace Zapatista at Censored News  http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2013/06/16/space-full-in-communities-for-the-zapatista-little-school/

To the adherents of the Sixth in Mexico and the world:
To Zapatista little school invitees:
From: Subcomandante Insurgent Moisés.
Compañeras and Compañeros of the Sixth and students of the little school:
The Zapatista men and women send you their greetings. We wanted to let you know how preparations for the little school are going.
Well, we have bad news and good news:
First, the bad news:
We have already run out of space to attend the classes that will be held in communities between August 12th and 16th, 2013. Also, the course at CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas is just about full.
There are many compañeros and compañeras who would like to attend the little school in our Zapatista communities. Many more than we expected. And many more than imagined by those people who say that the Zapatista fad is over, that Zapatista initiatives are no longer “attractive,” and other such nonsense repeated by those who have nothing to do.
And so, we wanted to let you know that all of the spaces for attending [the little school] in the communities in August are filled, all of the little classrooms are filled, and can’t hold any more people. There is no more space for students. Because we are not only going to receive them there, but we also need to make sure that they are well housed and fed, according, of course, to our humble means.
First, we had prepared to receive 500 students in Zapatista community. This filled up quickly. Then we expanded to 1000 students, and that filled up in no time. Then we made space for 1500 students and that also filled up. We cannot make any more space this time around because we want to take good care of the students and keep them happy.
But don’t be sad or discouraged, because we are weighing the options for another date, in another month, for those who cannot come to the little school in community this time. We’ll let you know the exact dates later. What is certain is that it will be sometime next December or January.
And now, the good news:
Our Zapatista compañeras and compañeros, who will be your teachers, are finishing up their teacher training.
Yes, they are finishing their preparation because all of the Zapatista people will participate in the school. You will have three teams of teachers: thecompañeras and compañeros from the communities who will receive, house, and feed you; the compañeras and compañeros who will accompany you at all times and who will take care of you, that is, the guardians, or your “VOTAN”; and also your teachers in the little school.
But SupMarcos, in a separate communiqué, will explain further the three teams of teachers and the way that things will work in the schoolhouse. His computer is almost fixed.
In addition there will be teachers for the videoconference, and for the DVD version they have almost finished recording the class lectures.
The textbooks are also ready. We only need to add the DVDs, filmed by our own compañeras and compañeros in the Zapatista media, which show what we have done in every Zapatista corner here in Chiapas.
Don’t forget that afterwards there will be videoconferences or you can request these materials.
And we are also thinking of sending, later, a team of teachers to other places where there are people who would like to understand our struggle for freedom. Of course, only if they are invited.
In another communiqué, SupMarcos will give you some more information about how everything is going with the students. For now, I will just let you know that the vast majority are young people.
I would also like to take this opportunity to extend a general invitation to everyone who would like to come for the party to celebrate 10 years of the Good Government Councils.
Also, remember that the “Seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso,” is open to all who would like to attend, and will be celebrated in CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, beginning on August 17th. This is also the day that all of the students are leaving the communities, so that those who are in community can also attend and listen to the word of other original peoples of Mexico who struggle for indigenous rights and culture. In July, we will have a meeting of the Organizing Commission, or those who are convoking the tribute to our dear compañero Don Juan Chávez Alonso.
That’s all for now. We’ll be here waiting for you.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.
Mexico, June 2013
…………………………………………………………
Watch and listen to the videos that accompany this text:
The song “The Anarchist” by Paradoxus Luporum. Dedicated to the anarchist compas, the new major enemy of the institutional “left.”
Mario Benedetti, in his own voice, “What can the young people do?” also for the anarchists.
So that you can start practicing your steps for the party on the 10 year anniversary of the caracoles and the Good Government Councils.
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Traducción de “El Kilombo Intergaláctico”.
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