I'tom Hiaki Usims - Hiaki Vatgua Betana wa'a "Dia de Reyes" Vetichivo
The Alianza Indigena and Yoeme Comission on Human Rights are raising funds to support the cross cultural international event of "El Dia de Los Reyes Magos" the "3 King Magician Day" that falls on Sunday, January 6 2007. This will be our second year of the event-Last year we provided gifts, clothing and fruit baskets to over 300 Yaqui Children from Las Guasimas, an ocean front Yaqui village and Guasimitas, a rural Yaqui village in Rio Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico. This year we are short on monetary donations, children's clothing, jackets, shoes and blankets. The goodwill trip is scheduled for the weekend of January 4 through January 6, 2008.
The Yoeme Commission on Human Rights & Alianza Indigena will be participating in the Casino Del Sol Tamal & Heritage Festival on Saturday, December 1, 2007, COME AND JOIN US FOR THIS GREAT EVENT AND BUY TAMALES ON BEHALF OF "I'TOM USIMS" or send your donation to: Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras; P.O. Box 826; Tucson, Arizona 85701 Should you have any questions you can contact: David Jaimez - 520-5782399 Thomasina Jaimez - 520- 861-9297 Jose R. Matus - 520-979-2125
Friday, November 30, 2007
Challenge to uranium mining, poisoning water, on Lakota lands
CONTACT: Debra White Plume, Executive Director, Owe Aku lakota1@gwtc.net
Kent Lebsock, Owe Aku International Human Rights Project: iamkent@verizon.net
Seven Petitioners File for Hearing on Uranium Mine Expansion
First Request for Nuclear Regulatory Commission Hearing in 17 Years
“The entire issue is water, which is life itself, and our struggle is to protect it.” Thomas Cook
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On November 12, 2007, seven Petitioners from parts of the poorest region in the United States asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to participate in decisions relative to uranium mining and its harmful effects in northwestern Nebraska and the Lakota (Sioux) Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Southwest South Dakota . According to NRC sources, this is the first request to intervene in an NRC proceeding relating to the expansion of an existing uranium mining operation in approximately 17 years. The petitioners are Thomas Cook, Chadron Native American Center, Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Corp., High Plains Community Development Corp., Western Nebraska Resources Council, Debra White Plume, and an Oglala Lakota nonprofit organization called Owe Aku.
Canadian-owned Crow Buttes Resources, Inc. (CBR) is asking the NRC for a permit to expand uranium mining in and around Petitioners’ towns, farms, and Indian territories. Petitioners assert that CBR’s process currently consumes and contaminates 4.7 billion gallons of water per year from the High Plains Aquifer which is also the water source to communities in eight western states. The petition (see http://www.bringbacktheway.com/ for text) challenges CBR’s request for an additional 2.4 billion gallons a year to expand its operations. CBR's application is made while drought is depleting the aquifers at 160% of recharge.
In addition to the use of additional valuable water resources, CBR has admitted to:
§ a spill of approximately 300,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste at its mine in Crawford , Nebraska ;
§ failure to clean up one-third of the spills equaling approximately 100,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste;
§ admission that a broken coupling led to a one gallon per minute leak for several years into the Brule aquifer. It is believed that the leak resulted in toxic contamination of at least 525,000 gallons of water per year; and
§ admission of a leak that contaminated 25,000 sq. ft. of the Brule aquifer.
From existing operations, CBR has had no less than 23 reported leaks of radioactive material. Petitioners assert that this contradicts CBR’s statements that they have operated without any environmental impact and indicates that CBR should not be allowed to expand its existing operations. As one member of the Western Nebraska Resources Counsel stated, “In our book, you clean up your first mess before you are allowed the opportunity to create a new mess.”
Petitioners are asking the NRC for a chance to submit evidence that a slow-moving, underground radioactive plume of contaminated water is moving through several inter-connected aquifers. It is believed that CBRs admitted contamination of the aquifer “plumes” through the Arikaree, Brule and High Plains aquifers. CBR’s expansion application to the NRC states that the toxins that have leaked into the aquifers probably enter the human body through water as well as food sources exposed to the contamination. These toxins include Radon-222, Thorium, Uranium and inorganic Arsenic. As part of the application process, Petitioners seek an evaluation of CBR’s proposed expansion relative to the health and environment of people and wildlife relying on the aquifers. The Arikaree aquifer lies directly under the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Petitioners believe there is a link between 98 wells that were closed on the Western side of the Reservation because of radioactive contamination and unusual incidences of cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, miscarriages and infant brain seizures.
Indigenous Petitioners from Native American communities also assert that the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applies. Article 32 acknowledges that Indigenous peoples have a right to “free, prior and informed consent” with respect to development, utilization or exploitation of mineral resources. It further provides that “[s]tates shall provide effective mechanisms for just and fair redress for any such activities, and appropriate measures shall be taken to mitigate adverse environmental … impact.” To date, no opportunity has been provided for members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or Native communities to analyze CBR’s License Amendment or its affect on Indigenous lands and resources. Petitioners stress that it would be entirely consistent with international human rights standards if the NRC affirms the Indigenous peoples’ right to intervene in the permit process for CBR’s application.
It is currently unknown when to expect a decision from the NRC.
Kent Lebsock
Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way)
International Justice & Human Rights Project
http://www.bringbacktheway.org/
Kent Lebsock, Owe Aku International Human Rights Project: iamkent@verizon.net
Seven Petitioners File for Hearing on Uranium Mine Expansion
First Request for Nuclear Regulatory Commission Hearing in 17 Years
“The entire issue is water, which is life itself, and our struggle is to protect it.” Thomas Cook
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On November 12, 2007, seven Petitioners from parts of the poorest region in the United States asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to participate in decisions relative to uranium mining and its harmful effects in northwestern Nebraska and the Lakota (Sioux) Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Southwest South Dakota . According to NRC sources, this is the first request to intervene in an NRC proceeding relating to the expansion of an existing uranium mining operation in approximately 17 years. The petitioners are Thomas Cook, Chadron Native American Center, Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Corp., High Plains Community Development Corp., Western Nebraska Resources Council, Debra White Plume, and an Oglala Lakota nonprofit organization called Owe Aku.
Canadian-owned Crow Buttes Resources, Inc. (CBR) is asking the NRC for a permit to expand uranium mining in and around Petitioners’ towns, farms, and Indian territories. Petitioners assert that CBR’s process currently consumes and contaminates 4.7 billion gallons of water per year from the High Plains Aquifer which is also the water source to communities in eight western states. The petition (see http://www.bringbacktheway.com/ for text) challenges CBR’s request for an additional 2.4 billion gallons a year to expand its operations. CBR's application is made while drought is depleting the aquifers at 160% of recharge.
In addition to the use of additional valuable water resources, CBR has admitted to:
§ a spill of approximately 300,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste at its mine in Crawford , Nebraska ;
§ failure to clean up one-third of the spills equaling approximately 100,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste;
§ admission that a broken coupling led to a one gallon per minute leak for several years into the Brule aquifer. It is believed that the leak resulted in toxic contamination of at least 525,000 gallons of water per year; and
§ admission of a leak that contaminated 25,000 sq. ft. of the Brule aquifer.
From existing operations, CBR has had no less than 23 reported leaks of radioactive material. Petitioners assert that this contradicts CBR’s statements that they have operated without any environmental impact and indicates that CBR should not be allowed to expand its existing operations. As one member of the Western Nebraska Resources Counsel stated, “In our book, you clean up your first mess before you are allowed the opportunity to create a new mess.”
Petitioners are asking the NRC for a chance to submit evidence that a slow-moving, underground radioactive plume of contaminated water is moving through several inter-connected aquifers. It is believed that CBRs admitted contamination of the aquifer “plumes” through the Arikaree, Brule and High Plains aquifers. CBR’s expansion application to the NRC states that the toxins that have leaked into the aquifers probably enter the human body through water as well as food sources exposed to the contamination. These toxins include Radon-222, Thorium, Uranium and inorganic Arsenic. As part of the application process, Petitioners seek an evaluation of CBR’s proposed expansion relative to the health and environment of people and wildlife relying on the aquifers. The Arikaree aquifer lies directly under the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Petitioners believe there is a link between 98 wells that were closed on the Western side of the Reservation because of radioactive contamination and unusual incidences of cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, miscarriages and infant brain seizures.
Indigenous Petitioners from Native American communities also assert that the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applies. Article 32 acknowledges that Indigenous peoples have a right to “free, prior and informed consent” with respect to development, utilization or exploitation of mineral resources. It further provides that “[s]tates shall provide effective mechanisms for just and fair redress for any such activities, and appropriate measures shall be taken to mitigate adverse environmental … impact.” To date, no opportunity has been provided for members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe or Native communities to analyze CBR’s License Amendment or its affect on Indigenous lands and resources. Petitioners stress that it would be entirely consistent with international human rights standards if the NRC affirms the Indigenous peoples’ right to intervene in the permit process for CBR’s application.
It is currently unknown when to expect a decision from the NRC.
Kent Lebsock
Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way)
International Justice & Human Rights Project
http://www.bringbacktheway.org/
Weekend in Solidarity with Political Prisoners
Saturday, December 1 & Sunday, December 2
Saturday, 12/1Jericho Boston Presents
The ShootoutPerformance artist, Jihad Abdul-Mumit will present The Shootout, a two-person theater performance and workshop. The Shootout is a two-man dramatization depicting the spiritual and psychological divisions that have historically ripped apart just about every semblance of unity amongst African Americans. The Shootout starts right from the beginning when Africans were snatched so violently and decisively from Mother Africa. The play speaks to the many problems people are confronted with. Among the root causes of violence in oppressed communities are economic exploitation, social underdevelopment and the colonial relationship between the community and those in power. CORI and other draconian laws have been passed to keep people marginalized and disenfranchised, while prison expansion cuts in education continue.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/weekend-in-solidarity-with-political.html
Saturday, 12/1Jericho Boston Presents
The ShootoutPerformance artist, Jihad Abdul-Mumit will present The Shootout, a two-person theater performance and workshop. The Shootout is a two-man dramatization depicting the spiritual and psychological divisions that have historically ripped apart just about every semblance of unity amongst African Americans. The Shootout starts right from the beginning when Africans were snatched so violently and decisively from Mother Africa. The play speaks to the many problems people are confronted with. Among the root causes of violence in oppressed communities are economic exploitation, social underdevelopment and the colonial relationship between the community and those in power. CORI and other draconian laws have been passed to keep people marginalized and disenfranchised, while prison expansion cuts in education continue.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/weekend-in-solidarity-with-political.html
Border wall plans ignore environmental justice rules
BORDER WALL PLANS IGNORE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RULES
By No Border Wall
RIO GRANDE, Texas -- In the recently released Rio Grande Valley Tactical Infrastructure Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the Department of Homeland Security attempts to brush aside issues of environmental justice in its plans for the border wall. Although the Rio Grande Valley’s population is over 85% minority, and its border communities are some of the poorest in the nation, the EIS states that the impacts of the proposed border wall “would not fall disproportionately on minority or low-income populations.”
Read more ..
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/border-wall-plans-ignore-environmental.html
By No Border Wall
RIO GRANDE, Texas -- In the recently released Rio Grande Valley Tactical Infrastructure Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the Department of Homeland Security attempts to brush aside issues of environmental justice in its plans for the border wall. Although the Rio Grande Valley’s population is over 85% minority, and its border communities are some of the poorest in the nation, the EIS states that the impacts of the proposed border wall “would not fall disproportionately on minority or low-income populations.”
Read more ..
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/border-wall-plans-ignore-environmental.html
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Indigenous Peoples vow to bring down Apartheid Border Wall
"Indigenous Peoples vow to bring down Apartheid Border Wall" Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)
americas.irc-online.org
By Brenda Norrell
The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007 began with a human rights delegation visit to the border and after four days of activities concluded with a vow to "bring down the wall."
Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land took a tour of conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border here and returned in outrage.
Read more...
http://www.ircamericas.org/
(Photo: Border wall under construction during November 2007 on Tohono O'odham land/Photo 1/Indigenous Delegation Photo 2/Jay Johnson-Castro)
Breaking news articles by Brenda Norrell ...
Brenda Norrell: Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering 2007 Report UN Observer - Nov 26, 2007With the prayers, blessings and dances of the Shingle Springs Rancheria Miwok, Pomo, Pitt River and Calpullies, the Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering began, ...
Brenda Norrell: Mohawks inflamed at arrrest of Indigenous Peoples UN Observer - Nov 12, 20072007-11-12 Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal agents, hovering customs helicopter, ...
Brenda Norrell: In Montana, Indians are guilty until proven innocentUN Observer - Nov 6, 2007 PHOTO by Brenda Norrell of James Main, Sr., with his daughter Rose, at home on Big Warm Creek, Gros-Ventre land, Montana. James Main, Sr., Gros-Ventre and ...
Arizona's 'Cokeheads' the National Guard The NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 27, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, TUCSON, Ariz. -- There were so many Arizona National Guardsmen eager to run cocaine from the border of Arizona and Mexico to Tucson and ...
Conspiracy of Silence: O'odham say border wall is genocide The NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 25, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, The grassroots organization O'odham Voice Against the Wall has denounced the ongoing genocide of the O'odham people in the United States ...
Between Bombs and Border Walls CounterPunch, CA - Nov 8, 2007 By BRENDA NORRELL The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge visitor center looks like a typical national park office from the outside. ...
A challenge to censorship at the borderThe NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 21, 2007By Brenda Norrell, SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- So far, all of the mainstream newspapers have censored the powerful testimony at the ...
Border wall tyranny: Lipan Apache in Texas issue cry for helpThe NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 19, 2007By Brenda Norrell, Margo Tamez sends out this urgent call for help, as Homeland Security, National Guard and Border Patrol attempt to seize the lands of the ...
Sunset Water Ceremony Ballona Wetlands
Sunset Sacred Water Ceremony in Ballona Wetlands closes American Indian Heritage Month Closing Ceremony Friday, November 30, 2007
By Joanelle Romero
LOS ANGELES -- As the sun sets over the ocean on the last day of November, American Indian Heritage Month comes to a close. We will gather in sacred circle in the historic Ballona Wetlands Freshwater Marsh, the ancient burial grounds of our Gabrieleno, Tongva and Shoshone ancestors to hold a Respecting the Water of Life ceremony. In our ceremony, we will first honor our ancestors with drum and song. We will then cup water in our hands and receive its blessing. We whisper our intention over the water, including healing for contaminated waters around the globe. We also offer thanks for all the blessings, new connections and understandings we have received during our Heritage Month. We will release the water into the West, transmitting our vision of all peoples seeing the sacredness shining through all forms of life and finding connectedness across their diversity. We then will send this vision into the waters and across the sea. Our American Indian Heritage Month events, held throughout the City, honored American Indians as our nation's first environmentalists. The whole month of November was a call for American Indians to come out in pride and share the light of our traditions. All of our events served to inspire respect for Mother Earth and the balance of life. During this historic month in Los Angeles, in this important juncture in time, we shared our sacred ceremonies that attune us with Mother Earth. We also invited non-Natives to participate and experience the magic of these traditions with us.We are closing with the sacred water ceremony in prayer and respect for all the Ancestors who have come before us and have continued to inspire us to create a national healing of the Sacred Hoop of Life, which includes all colors, all relations, all peoples, plants, animals, water, the sun, the moon, star nations, thunder beings and our grandchildren’s grandchildren. The purpose of this sacred water ceremony and of American Indian Heritage Month in the City of Los Angeles is to encourage us to ask our selves profound questions: “What do we want to tell our grandchildren that we did to make a difference now? What commitment have you made? What pledge have you taken to heal our original Mother—the Earth?" The sun sets at 4:44 p.m. on November 30. Bring drums or rattles and tobacco or rose petals as an offering. Our Respecting the Water of Life Ceremony is open to the public.
Come join us. Everyone is welcome. Respecting the Water of Life Ceremony: Ballona Wetlands Fresh Water Marsh, Playa Vista area, Los Angeles 90293; Friday, November 30; 3:30 p.m arrival; ceremony begins at 4:00 p.m.; free public event; [Directions: from Lincoln & Jefferson Blvd, go West on Jefferson (toward the ocean) to Culver Blvd. Make a U-turn at the light (at that point you will be heading East ). You will see cars and “Red Nation” banner on the right.]
Read more: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-indian-holocaust-tribute-in.html
By Joanelle Romero
LOS ANGELES -- As the sun sets over the ocean on the last day of November, American Indian Heritage Month comes to a close. We will gather in sacred circle in the historic Ballona Wetlands Freshwater Marsh, the ancient burial grounds of our Gabrieleno, Tongva and Shoshone ancestors to hold a Respecting the Water of Life ceremony. In our ceremony, we will first honor our ancestors with drum and song. We will then cup water in our hands and receive its blessing. We whisper our intention over the water, including healing for contaminated waters around the globe. We also offer thanks for all the blessings, new connections and understandings we have received during our Heritage Month. We will release the water into the West, transmitting our vision of all peoples seeing the sacredness shining through all forms of life and finding connectedness across their diversity. We then will send this vision into the waters and across the sea. Our American Indian Heritage Month events, held throughout the City, honored American Indians as our nation's first environmentalists. The whole month of November was a call for American Indians to come out in pride and share the light of our traditions. All of our events served to inspire respect for Mother Earth and the balance of life. During this historic month in Los Angeles, in this important juncture in time, we shared our sacred ceremonies that attune us with Mother Earth. We also invited non-Natives to participate and experience the magic of these traditions with us.We are closing with the sacred water ceremony in prayer and respect for all the Ancestors who have come before us and have continued to inspire us to create a national healing of the Sacred Hoop of Life, which includes all colors, all relations, all peoples, plants, animals, water, the sun, the moon, star nations, thunder beings and our grandchildren’s grandchildren. The purpose of this sacred water ceremony and of American Indian Heritage Month in the City of Los Angeles is to encourage us to ask our selves profound questions: “What do we want to tell our grandchildren that we did to make a difference now? What commitment have you made? What pledge have you taken to heal our original Mother—the Earth?" The sun sets at 4:44 p.m. on November 30. Bring drums or rattles and tobacco or rose petals as an offering. Our Respecting the Water of Life Ceremony is open to the public.
Come join us. Everyone is welcome. Respecting the Water of Life Ceremony: Ballona Wetlands Fresh Water Marsh, Playa Vista area, Los Angeles 90293; Friday, November 30; 3:30 p.m arrival; ceremony begins at 4:00 p.m.; free public event; [Directions: from Lincoln & Jefferson Blvd, go West on Jefferson (toward the ocean) to Culver Blvd. Make a U-turn at the light (at that point you will be heading East ). You will see cars and “Red Nation” banner on the right.]
Read more: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/american-indian-holocaust-tribute-in.html
US 'Nazi' law to suppress activists
Truthout:
HR 1955, "The Violent Radicalization Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007", apparently intended to assess "homegrown" terrorism threats and causes is on a fast-track through Congress. Proponents claim the bill would centralize information about the formation of domestic terrorists and would not impinge on constitutional rights.
On October 23, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a 404-6 margin with 23 members not voting. If passed in the Senate and signed into law by George W. Bush, the act would establish a ten-member National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, to study and propose legislation to address the threat of possible "radicalization" of people legally residing in the US.
Read more ...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112907J.shtml
HR 1955, "The Violent Radicalization Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007", apparently intended to assess "homegrown" terrorism threats and causes is on a fast-track through Congress. Proponents claim the bill would centralize information about the formation of domestic terrorists and would not impinge on constitutional rights.
On October 23, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a 404-6 margin with 23 members not voting. If passed in the Senate and signed into law by George W. Bush, the act would establish a ten-member National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, to study and propose legislation to address the threat of possible "radicalization" of people legally residing in the US.
Read more ...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112907J.shtml
Action alert: Western Shoshone's Sacred Mount Tenabo in danger
Western Shoshone Action Alert - Mt. Tenabo in Jeopardy
December 21st deadline for comments
Mt. Tenabo and the surrounding environs are again under attack from gold mining. It is critical now for the Bureau of Land Management to hear the strength of opposition for this mine; see talking points and how to send your comments and concerns below.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a draft Environmental Impact Statement, dEIS, which reviews the proposal by Cortez Gold Mines, a subsidiary of Barrrick Gold Mining Co., to conduct new gold mining operations at the south end of Crescent Valley in central Nevada. The Project, although termed as an “expansion” of the existing Pipeline and Cortez mines, is really a new gold mine complex. It would be located on the slopes of Mt. Tenabo, a mountain sacred to the Western Shoshone Indians, who have lived in the area since time immemorial. This mine would:Disturb (devastate) 6,792 acres of land, including a heap leach and waste rock facilities covering much of the Horse Canyon pass just south of Tenabo, and extending east into Grass ... Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/action-alert-western-shoshones-sacred.html
December 21st deadline for comments
Mt. Tenabo and the surrounding environs are again under attack from gold mining. It is critical now for the Bureau of Land Management to hear the strength of opposition for this mine; see talking points and how to send your comments and concerns below.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a draft Environmental Impact Statement, dEIS, which reviews the proposal by Cortez Gold Mines, a subsidiary of Barrrick Gold Mining Co., to conduct new gold mining operations at the south end of Crescent Valley in central Nevada. The Project, although termed as an “expansion” of the existing Pipeline and Cortez mines, is really a new gold mine complex. It would be located on the slopes of Mt. Tenabo, a mountain sacred to the Western Shoshone Indians, who have lived in the area since time immemorial. This mine would:Disturb (devastate) 6,792 acres of land, including a heap leach and waste rock facilities covering much of the Horse Canyon pass just south of Tenabo, and extending east into Grass ... Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/action-alert-western-shoshones-sacred.html
Healing trauma, boarding schools and wounded generations
A Painful Remembrance
by Mary Annette Pember
Nov 28, 2007, 12:53
Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo founded the Boarding School Healing Project to shed light on th
e long-lasting effects that some religious and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools have had on American Indian communities and families.Many in Indian country have expressed that the trauma from the boarding school experience continues to terrorize the hearts of American Indians. Although much has been written about this history that looms so large in the North American indigenous experience, it remains an obscure topic in mainstream America.
Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo, a member of the Diné tribe and project director of a grant from the National Institute for Disability Research and Rehabilitation, is working to bring attention to the “intergenerational trauma” of the boarding school era through the recently founded Boarding School Healing Project. Toledo and her colleagues maintain that many of the social ills plaguing current generations of American Indians, including sexual abuse, child abuse, violence towards women and substance abuse can be traced to the generations of abuse experienced at Indian boarding schools. Toledo describes intergenerational trauma as post-traumatic stress disorder that has been passed down through generations.
Read more ...Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo founded the Boarding School Healing Project to shed light on th
e long-lasting effects that some religious and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools have had on American Indian communities and families.Many in Indian country have expressed that the trauma from the boarding school experience continues to terrorize the hearts of American Indians. Although much has been written about this history that looms so large in the North American indigenous experience, it remains an obscure topic in mainstream America.Dr. Eulynda J. Toledo, a member of the Diné tribe and project director of a grant from the National Institute for Disability Research and Rehabilitation, is working to bring attention to the “intergenerational trauma” of the boarding school era through the recently founded Boarding School Healing Project. Toledo and her colleagues maintain that many of the social ills plaguing current generations of American Indians, including sexual abuse, child abuse, violence towards women and substance abuse can be traced to the generations of abuse experienced at Indian boarding schools. Toledo describes intergenerational trauma as post-traumatic stress disorder that has been passed down through generations.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Colonial Stress Disorder: Imaging a Way Out
Toronto: Co-presented by Native Women in the Arts and the Women’s Art Resource Centre
(post) Colonial Stress Disorder: Imaging a Way Out
Emerging Aboriginal Artists Video Screenings
Curated by Wanda Nanibush
This program will feature the screening of six short films by six emerging Indigenous voices within media arts today. The screenings will be introduced by curator Wanda Nanibush with an essay on Post Colonial Stress Disorder and will be followed by an audience/curator Q&A.
Wanda Nanibush (Anishinabe-kwe from Beausoleil First Nation) is an independent curator, writer and emerging artist living in Ottawa.
Date: Saturday December 1, 2007Location: Women’s Arts Resource Centre (WARC) Gallery401 Richmond Street West, Suite 122, Toronto
Time: 3-4pm
Admission: Free *Refreshments will be served. Please join us, everyone welcome.
Films:
Divided by Zero. Danis Goulet, Canada, 2006, 16:17, video.Portrait in Motion. Nadia Myre, Canada, 2002, 2:21, video.Love & Numbers. Thirza Cuthand, Canada, 2004, 9:00, video.
Swallow. Ariel Lightningchild, Canada, 2002, 11:00, video.
The Weave. Cherie Valentina Stocken, Canada, 2005, 5:36, video.
Prayer for a Good Day. Zoe Leigh Hopkins, Canada, 2003, 12:12, video.
The Knot Between. Cherie Valentina Stocken, Canada, 2006, 5:14, video. Filmmakers:
Danis Goulet’s short films have screened at numerous festivals in Canada and around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Native American Film + Video Festival in New York, and the Message Sticks Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. She sits on the Board of the Images Festival, the Visual/Media Arts Committee of the Toronto Arts Council, and the programming committee of the Worldwide Short Film Festival. Danis is Métis, originally from northern Saskatchewan. Divided by Zero is Danis’s second short drama. Nadia Myre is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been the recipient of the prestigious Eiteljorg fellowship and her work is in the Council Art Bank, Canadian Museum of Civilation, and the Indian Art Centre and many other collections. Myre has made four short videos. Thirza Cuthand was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1978, and grew up a Cree Scots Irish bipolar butch lesbian two spirited boy/girl thingamabob in Saskatoon. She has produced award winning experimental videos and films on low to no budget exploring issues of identity, race, sexuality, relationships, ageism, and mental health. Her work has been shown at the Walter Art Centre, the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Oberhausen International Short Film festival, the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, The Women's Television Network, MIX NY, the Walter Phillips Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery, the MIX Brasil festival of Sexual Diversity, and many other places. She majored in film and video at Emily Carr Insititute of Art & Design. Ariel Lighteningchild is from the Cree/Ojibway First Nations. She is also Roma and Jewish. She was born a few years ago on Coast Salish land commonly known as Vancouver. Ariel has written, directed and produced four video shorts and one super 8 short film. Her videos have screened at festivals and events around North America and overseas. Cherie Valentina Stocken’s work deals with issues of cultural convergence and the role history plays in defining cultural relationships. Stocken has received her BFA from the University of British Columbia and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. It is Cherie’s goal to continue to inspire social change throughout her art career. Cherie is of Indigenous and European ancestry.Zoe Leigh Hopkins graduated in 1997 from Ryerson with a B.A.A. in Film. Zoe was a Fellow at the Sundance Institute's January 2004 Screenwriter's Lab with her feature script, Cherry Blossoms. Her short film Prayer for a Good Day had its world premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Zoe is Heiltsuk from Bella Bella and Mohawk from Six Nations. Distributors:Groupe Intervention Video5505, boul. St-Laurent bureau 3015 Montréal (Québec) H2T 1S6 tél (514) 271-5506 fax (514) 271-6980 http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=giv@videotron.cahttp://www.bettermail.ca/ct/109/43070/1764133/875935195fc41a650eaaffb702701411Title: Swallow Vtape Distribution401 Richmond Street West, Suite 452Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8416.351.1317416.351.1509Wanda Vanderstoop http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=wandav@vtape.org Titles: Divided by Zero, Prayer for a Good Day, The Knot Between, The Weave, Love & Numbers Nadia Myrehttp://www.bettermail.ca/ct/109/43070/1764134/875935195fc41a650eaaffb702701411514 284 2444 Title: Portrait in Motion
http://www.bettermail.ca/ct/109/43070/1764135/875935195fc41a650eaaffb702701411
(post) Colonial Stress Disorder: Imaging a Way Out
Emerging Aboriginal Artists Video Screenings
Curated by Wanda Nanibush
This program will feature the screening of six short films by six emerging Indigenous voices within media arts today. The screenings will be introduced by curator Wanda Nanibush with an essay on Post Colonial Stress Disorder and will be followed by an audience/curator Q&A.
Wanda Nanibush (Anishinabe-kwe from Beausoleil First Nation) is an independent curator, writer and emerging artist living in Ottawa.
Date: Saturday December 1, 2007Location: Women’s Arts Resource Centre (WARC) Gallery401 Richmond Street West, Suite 122, Toronto
Time: 3-4pm
Admission: Free *Refreshments will be served. Please join us, everyone welcome.
Films:
Divided by Zero. Danis Goulet, Canada, 2006, 16:17, video.Portrait in Motion. Nadia Myre, Canada, 2002, 2:21, video.Love & Numbers. Thirza Cuthand, Canada, 2004, 9:00, video.
Swallow. Ariel Lightningchild, Canada, 2002, 11:00, video.
The Weave. Cherie Valentina Stocken, Canada, 2005, 5:36, video.
Prayer for a Good Day. Zoe Leigh Hopkins, Canada, 2003, 12:12, video.
The Knot Between. Cherie Valentina Stocken, Canada, 2006, 5:14, video. Filmmakers:
Danis Goulet’s short films have screened at numerous festivals in Canada and around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Native American Film + Video Festival in New York, and the Message Sticks Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. She sits on the Board of the Images Festival, the Visual/Media Arts Committee of the Toronto Arts Council, and the programming committee of the Worldwide Short Film Festival. Danis is Métis, originally from northern Saskatchewan. Divided by Zero is Danis’s second short drama. Nadia Myre is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been the recipient of the prestigious Eiteljorg fellowship and her work is in the Council Art Bank, Canadian Museum of Civilation, and the Indian Art Centre and many other collections. Myre has made four short videos. Thirza Cuthand was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1978, and grew up a Cree Scots Irish bipolar butch lesbian two spirited boy/girl thingamabob in Saskatoon. She has produced award winning experimental videos and films on low to no budget exploring issues of identity, race, sexuality, relationships, ageism, and mental health. Her work has been shown at the Walter Art Centre, the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Oberhausen International Short Film festival, the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, The Women's Television Network, MIX NY, the Walter Phillips Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery, the MIX Brasil festival of Sexual Diversity, and many other places. She majored in film and video at Emily Carr Insititute of Art & Design. Ariel Lighteningchild is from the Cree/Ojibway First Nations. She is also Roma and Jewish. She was born a few years ago on Coast Salish land commonly known as Vancouver. Ariel has written, directed and produced four video shorts and one super 8 short film. Her videos have screened at festivals and events around North America and overseas. Cherie Valentina Stocken’s work deals with issues of cultural convergence and the role history plays in defining cultural relationships. Stocken has received her BFA from the University of British Columbia and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. It is Cherie’s goal to continue to inspire social change throughout her art career. Cherie is of Indigenous and European ancestry.Zoe Leigh Hopkins graduated in 1997 from Ryerson with a B.A.A. in Film. Zoe was a Fellow at the Sundance Institute's January 2004 Screenwriter's Lab with her feature script, Cherry Blossoms. Her short film Prayer for a Good Day had its world premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Zoe is Heiltsuk from Bella Bella and Mohawk from Six Nations. Distributors:Groupe Intervention Video5505, boul. St-Laurent bureau 3015 Montréal (Québec) H2T 1S6 tél (514) 271-5506 fax (514) 271-6980 http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=giv@videotron.cahttp://www.bettermail.ca/ct/109/43070/1764133/875935195fc41a650eaaffb702701411Title: Swallow Vtape Distribution401 Richmond Street West, Suite 452Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8416.351.1317416.351.1509Wanda Vanderstoop http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=wandav@vtape.org Titles: Divided by Zero, Prayer for a Good Day, The Knot Between, The Weave, Love & Numbers Nadia Myrehttp://www.bettermail.ca/ct/109/43070/1764134/875935195fc41a650eaaffb702701411514 284 2444 Title: Portrait in Motion
http://www.bettermail.ca/ct/109/43070/1764135/875935195fc41a650eaaffb702701411
Save the Peaks, events Arizona and California
SAVE THE PEAKS CALL FOR SUPPORT!
Legal Battle to Protect Sacred Site Comes to Pasadena, CA
The San Francisco Peaks are a unique mountain ecosystem which are managed as public lands in Northern Arizona. The Peaks are held Holy by more than 13 Indigenous Nations. A small ski area is threatening expansion and attempting to make fake snow from treated sewage effluent filled with harmful contaminants. A coalition of tribes and environmental groups have unified to prevent the environmental destruction, community health hazards and extreme desecration that would be caused by the proposed development. Although the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the ski area plan, the case will be reheard in Pasadena on December 11th, 2007.
Along with the events planned below, the Save the Peaks Coalition is calling for prayers to be made on Dec. 11th to support the protection of all threatened sacred places. If you, your group or organization would like to sign on as a supporter of our efforts, please send us an email indicating your support to coalition@savethepeaks.org. We will publish your organization/group/individual name on our website and possibly on our outreach material as well, with your permission of course. The Save the Peaks Coalition is also planning a caravan from Northern Arizona to Pasadena, CA to support the efforts to protect the Holy Peaks. If you would like to go on the caravan please contact us by December 5th. Please call or e-mail J Benally at (928) 527-1431 or http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=coalition@savethepeaks.org to reserve your space or for more information.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
SAVE THE PEAKS!
Flagstaff, AZ Events
Wednesday, December 5th
Save the Peaks Banner Making Party!
Where: Taala Hooghan Infoshop & Youth Media Arts Center
1926 N. 4th St. #7B, Flagstaff, AZ
When: 5:30pm
Tuesday, December 11th
Save the Peaks Vigil for Justice!
Where: Heritage Square, Downtown Flagstaff, AZ
When: 4:00pm - 5:30pm
LA/Pasadena, CA Events
Sunday, December 2nd
Screenings of the "The Snowbowl Effect", a documentary about the struggle to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks. Discussion with Save the Peaks Coalition representative and Q&A with the director of the film.
"Save the Peaks Solidarity" at the South Central Farmers' Tianguis
Where: South Central Farmers' Community Center
1702 E. 41st St., Los Angeles 90058
(between Long Beach Ave and Alameda Ave.)
Tel. 1-888-scfarm-1
southcentralfarmers.com
When: Sunday, December 2nd
w/ screenings and discussion at:
11:30am -- 1pm -- 2:30pm -- 4pm
"Environmental Justice and Protecting Sacred Lands"
Documentary screening and discussion on building a stronger Indigenous Movement and Environmental Justice Alliance.
Where: First Street Studios
2026 E. 1st Street Los Angeles, CA. 90033 (Boyle Heights)
Tel. 323-268-0005
http://www.firststreetstudios.com/
When: Sunday, December 2nd at 6:00pm
Saturday, December 8th
Panel Discussion & Awareness Concert!
"Defending the Land: Indigenous Cultural Survival, Environmental Justice & Protecting Sacred Places"
Panel Discussion from 6:00pm - 8:00pm with representatives from Environmental groups, Grassroots organizations, and Indigenous communities struggling to protect sacred places.
Protect Sacred Sites! Awareness Concert starting at 8:00pm (Bands TBA)
Where: Self Help Graphics & Art
3802 Cesar E. Chavez Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90063
Tel. 323-881-6444
Monday, December 10th
Welcoming ceremony for Save the Peaks caravan from Northern Arizona, dinner and speakers.
When: 6:30pm
Where: The All Saints Church
132 North Euclid Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101
Tuesday, December 11th - Save the Peaks Court Date
The case will be heard at the Pasadena Court of Appeals at 3:00pm. The court is located at 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, CA. Parking is limited in the area so please carpool and use public transportation.
Noon - 1:30pm
March for Sacred Sites & Human Rights!
Meet at All Saints Church for lunch and march to the Appeals Court.
1:40pm - 3:00pm
Prayer Vigil, Ceremony & Rally outside the Courthouse.
Vigil to continue outside for folks who do not wish to enter the courthouse.
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Actual court proceedings. Folks will be able to go inside the courthouse to view the court proceedings and show support.
5:00pm - 5:30pm
Press Conference outside of courthouse.
Please visit http://www.savethepeaks.org/ for more information.
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
Protect our Cultural & Natural Heritage.
Legal Battle to Protect Sacred Site Comes to Pasadena, CA
The San Francisco Peaks are a unique mountain ecosystem which are managed as public lands in Northern Arizona. The Peaks are held Holy by more than 13 Indigenous Nations. A small ski area is threatening expansion and attempting to make fake snow from treated sewage effluent filled with harmful contaminants. A coalition of tribes and environmental groups have unified to prevent the environmental destruction, community health hazards and extreme desecration that would be caused by the proposed development. Although the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the ski area plan, the case will be reheard in Pasadena on December 11th, 2007.
Along with the events planned below, the Save the Peaks Coalition is calling for prayers to be made on Dec. 11th to support the protection of all threatened sacred places. If you, your group or organization would like to sign on as a supporter of our efforts, please send us an email indicating your support to coalition@savethepeaks.org. We will publish your organization/group/individual name on our website and possibly on our outreach material as well, with your permission of course. The Save the Peaks Coalition is also planning a caravan from Northern Arizona to Pasadena, CA to support the efforts to protect the Holy Peaks. If you would like to go on the caravan please contact us by December 5th. Please call or e-mail J Benally at (928) 527-1431 or http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=coalition@savethepeaks.org to reserve your space or for more information.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
SAVE THE PEAKS!
Flagstaff, AZ Events
Wednesday, December 5th
Save the Peaks Banner Making Party!
Where: Taala Hooghan Infoshop & Youth Media Arts Center
1926 N. 4th St. #7B, Flagstaff, AZ
When: 5:30pm
Tuesday, December 11th
Save the Peaks Vigil for Justice!
Where: Heritage Square, Downtown Flagstaff, AZ
When: 4:00pm - 5:30pm
LA/Pasadena, CA Events
Sunday, December 2nd
Screenings of the "The Snowbowl Effect", a documentary about the struggle to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks. Discussion with Save the Peaks Coalition representative and Q&A with the director of the film.
"Save the Peaks Solidarity" at the South Central Farmers' Tianguis
Where: South Central Farmers' Community Center
1702 E. 41st St., Los Angeles 90058
(between Long Beach Ave and Alameda Ave.)
Tel. 1-888-scfarm-1
southcentralfarmers.com
When: Sunday, December 2nd
w/ screenings and discussion at:
11:30am -- 1pm -- 2:30pm -- 4pm
"Environmental Justice and Protecting Sacred Lands"
Documentary screening and discussion on building a stronger Indigenous Movement and Environmental Justice Alliance.
Where: First Street Studios
2026 E. 1st Street Los Angeles, CA. 90033 (Boyle Heights)
Tel. 323-268-0005
http://www.firststreetstudios.com/
When: Sunday, December 2nd at 6:00pm
Saturday, December 8th
Panel Discussion & Awareness Concert!
"Defending the Land: Indigenous Cultural Survival, Environmental Justice & Protecting Sacred Places"
Panel Discussion from 6:00pm - 8:00pm with representatives from Environmental groups, Grassroots organizations, and Indigenous communities struggling to protect sacred places.
Protect Sacred Sites! Awareness Concert starting at 8:00pm (Bands TBA)
Where: Self Help Graphics & Art
3802 Cesar E. Chavez Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90063
Tel. 323-881-6444
Monday, December 10th
Welcoming ceremony for Save the Peaks caravan from Northern Arizona, dinner and speakers.
When: 6:30pm
Where: The All Saints Church
132 North Euclid Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101
Tuesday, December 11th - Save the Peaks Court Date
The case will be heard at the Pasadena Court of Appeals at 3:00pm. The court is located at 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, CA. Parking is limited in the area so please carpool and use public transportation.
Noon - 1:30pm
March for Sacred Sites & Human Rights!
Meet at All Saints Church for lunch and march to the Appeals Court.
1:40pm - 3:00pm
Prayer Vigil, Ceremony & Rally outside the Courthouse.
Vigil to continue outside for folks who do not wish to enter the courthouse.
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Actual court proceedings. Folks will be able to go inside the courthouse to view the court proceedings and show support.
5:00pm - 5:30pm
Press Conference outside of courthouse.
Please visit http://www.savethepeaks.org/ for more information.
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
Protect our Cultural & Natural Heritage.
In memory, Zapatistas massacred at Acteal, Chiapas
Tenth Anniversary Of The Acteal Chiapas Massacre
Play describing the massacre against the Tzotzil community from the pacific organization "Abejas" in the municipality of Acteal in the town of Chenalo Chiapas México
By Centro de Accion Popular
LOS ANGELES -- On December 22, 1997, forty five in Tzotziles were murdered by death squad group “Mascara Roja" trained and sponsored by the state government of Cesar Ruiz Ferro and the president of México at the time Ernesto Zedillo Ponce De León, along with the guidance and coordination of international military training supported by yanquis.
Our demand is to never forget the massacres that our pueblo has been subjected to. Right after the massacre thousands, even millions, marched on the streets to demand accountability for the perpetrators. Unfortunately, ten years later, only a few remember this disgraceful event. That tragic day, the pacific group “Abejas”, was peacefully preparing and setting the prayers for Christmas Eve, while at the same time the government was preparing a plot to assassinate them. Hours of bloodshed went by, the death squads killed children and women equally. The atrocities went so far as to extirpate embryos from pregnant women. They fired shotguns that were paid with dirty American dollars. We will not forget this massacre and we will continue demanding accountability to the assassins of defenseless, unarmed people.
We invite you to join us and remember this atrocious act by seeing our play put together by people that believe that dignity can be gain through resistance. We will also screen the documentary "Masacre De Acteal" and have live music at the end of the night.
Centro de Accion Popular
1042 North Richmond Street
Los Angeles, CA 90033323) 276-8548
www.myspace.com/comitedemocraciaevents@cpdmla.orglacomite@aol.comelcomite@cpdmla.org
Play describing the massacre against the Tzotzil community from the pacific organization "Abejas" in the municipality of Acteal in the town of Chenalo Chiapas México
By Centro de Accion Popular
LOS ANGELES -- On December 22, 1997, forty five in Tzotziles were murdered by death squad group “Mascara Roja" trained and sponsored by the state government of Cesar Ruiz Ferro and the president of México at the time Ernesto Zedillo Ponce De León, along with the guidance and coordination of international military training supported by yanquis.
Our demand is to never forget the massacres that our pueblo has been subjected to. Right after the massacre thousands, even millions, marched on the streets to demand accountability for the perpetrators. Unfortunately, ten years later, only a few remember this disgraceful event. That tragic day, the pacific group “Abejas”, was peacefully preparing and setting the prayers for Christmas Eve, while at the same time the government was preparing a plot to assassinate them. Hours of bloodshed went by, the death squads killed children and women equally. The atrocities went so far as to extirpate embryos from pregnant women. They fired shotguns that were paid with dirty American dollars. We will not forget this massacre and we will continue demanding accountability to the assassins of defenseless, unarmed people.
We invite you to join us and remember this atrocious act by seeing our play put together by people that believe that dignity can be gain through resistance. We will also screen the documentary "Masacre De Acteal" and have live music at the end of the night.
Centro de Accion Popular
1042 North Richmond Street
Los Angeles, CA 90033323) 276-8548
www.myspace.com/comitedemocraciaevents@cpdmla.orglacomite@aol.comelcomite@cpdmla.org
(Photo: Acoma Pueblo poet Simon Ortiz remembering those murdered in Acteal, during a vigil walk in Tucson/Photo Brenda Norrell)
NCAI joins NAGPRA Coalition in opposition to Berkeley Museum desecration
DENVER, Colorado, Nov. 28, 2007 – The Native American NAGPRA Coalition (NANC) today strongly endorsed the National Congress of American Indians’ (NCAI) resolution protesting UC Berkeley’s decision to eliminate its tribally approved NAGPRA unit, diminish tribal participation and influence in repatriation processes and declare a huge portion of the Phoebe Hearst Museum’s collection of ancestral remains and funerary objects “to be culturally unaffiliated and thus not subject to tribal repatriation and NAGPRA requirements.”
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/ncai-joins-nagpra-coalition-in.html
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/ncai-joins-nagpra-coalition-in.html
Putting a face on the US crime against humanity in Texas
This young girl was imprisoned more than six months in the T. Don Hutto prison near Austin, Texas, where migrant and refugee infants and children are imprisoned. The for-profit prison, like the Raymondville tent internment camp for migrants in Texas, is profiteering from the migrant racism and xenophobia in the United States. Children at Hutto were given spoiled milk, forbidden toys, and mothers were sexually assaulted and chained to their beds during medical examinations. Photo taken during Hutto Raymondville vigil/Photo Jay Johnson-Castro.Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Free the imprisoned migrant children of Hutto Texas
Migrant and refugee infants and children in prison cells, their mothers sexually assaulted and chained to their beds during medical examinationsChildren were given spoiled milk and toys were forbidden. Hutto is the same prison where the U.N. Rapporteur on migrants was denied entry in May. Read the truth of the T. Don Hutto prison near Austin, Texas, and the private prison corporation making a killing from imprisoning migrants:
By Jay Johnson-Castro
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/free-imprisoned-migrant-children-of.html
Australian Aboriginals celebrate end to racist, fascist regime
By Les Malezer
les.malezer@gmail.com
Australia's racist government is ousted!
I am pleased to inform you of good news in Australia. There has been a change of government with the incoming government pledging to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We are devising a proposal for the most effective way for government to announce the change in position at the national and international level. We hope to have action on 10 December, the International Day for Human Rights. I will update you on developments as soon as concrete plans are made. In the meantime please consider these two matters:
(1) Writing to the Prime Minister of Australia, urging that the government play a leadership role in promoting the rights of Indigenous Peoples at the international level. The address would be:
The Rt Hon Kevin Rudd Prime Minister of Australia; Parliament House; Canberra ACT 2600 Australia [If you send copies of your correspondence to me, via email, we will be able to keep account of the representations, and take follow-up action.] (2) Seeking support from the Australian Ambassadors to UN, by sponsoring and otherwise supporting resolutions on Indigenous Rights. I will keep you informed of developments in the policies of the Australian Government. We have our own plans at the domestic level to raise the levels of understanding and commitment to Indigenous rights. In the meantime we are celebrating the end of 11 years of extreme racist and fascist government. The historical element of this election is that the former Prime Minister, John Howard, is likely to lose his seat in the parliament, thus making him only the second Prime Minister in Australia to lose his seat whilst in office. The first was Stanley Bruce in 1929. Regards, Les Malezer, Chairman FAIRAPO, Box 8402, Woolloongabba Qld 4102 AUSTRALIA
http://www.faira.org.au/http://homepage.mac.com/les.malezer/
News wires:
Stolen Generation Alliance: Australia's apology must be more than just words:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Apology-must-be-more-than-just-words/2007/11/28/1196036945235.html
les.malezer@gmail.com
Australia's racist government is ousted!
I am pleased to inform you of good news in Australia. There has been a change of government with the incoming government pledging to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We are devising a proposal for the most effective way for government to announce the change in position at the national and international level. We hope to have action on 10 December, the International Day for Human Rights. I will update you on developments as soon as concrete plans are made. In the meantime please consider these two matters:
(1) Writing to the Prime Minister of Australia, urging that the government play a leadership role in promoting the rights of Indigenous Peoples at the international level. The address would be:
The Rt Hon Kevin Rudd Prime Minister of Australia; Parliament House; Canberra ACT 2600 Australia [If you send copies of your correspondence to me, via email, we will be able to keep account of the representations, and take follow-up action.] (2) Seeking support from the Australian Ambassadors to UN, by sponsoring and otherwise supporting resolutions on Indigenous Rights. I will keep you informed of developments in the policies of the Australian Government. We have our own plans at the domestic level to raise the levels of understanding and commitment to Indigenous rights. In the meantime we are celebrating the end of 11 years of extreme racist and fascist government. The historical element of this election is that the former Prime Minister, John Howard, is likely to lose his seat in the parliament, thus making him only the second Prime Minister in Australia to lose his seat whilst in office. The first was Stanley Bruce in 1929. Regards, Les Malezer, Chairman FAIRAPO, Box 8402, Woolloongabba Qld 4102 AUSTRALIA
http://www.faira.org.au/http://homepage.mac.com/les.malezer/
News wires:
Stolen Generation Alliance: Australia's apology must be more than just words:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Apology-must-be-more-than-just-words/2007/11/28/1196036945235.html
Amazon Indians versus Big Oil, Greg Palast investigates
War Paint and Lawyers: Rainforest Indians versus Big Oil
Greg Palast investigates for BBC Newsnight - TONIGHT
Chevron: "Nobody has proved that crude causes cancer."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
BBC Television Newsnight has been able to get close-in film of a new Cofan Indian ritual deep in the heart of the Amazonian rainforest. Known as "The Filing of the Law Suit," natives of Ecuador's jungle, decked in feathers and war paint and heavily armed with lawyers, are filmed presenting a new complaint in their litigation seeking $12 billion from Chevron Inc., the international oil goliath.
It would all be a poignant joke - except that the indigenous tribe is suddenly the odds-on favorite to defeat the oil company known for naming its largest tanker, "Condoleezza," after former Chevron director, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
For Newsnight, reporter Greg Palast, steps (somewhat inelegantly) into a dug-out log canoe to seek out the Cofan in their rainforest village to investigate their allegations. Palast discovers stinking pits of old oil drilling residue leaking into drinking water - and meets farmers whose limbs are covered in pustules.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/amazon-indians-versus-big-oil-greg.html
Greg Palast investigates for BBC Newsnight - TONIGHT
Chevron: "Nobody has proved that crude causes cancer."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
BBC Television Newsnight has been able to get close-in film of a new Cofan Indian ritual deep in the heart of the Amazonian rainforest. Known as "The Filing of the Law Suit," natives of Ecuador's jungle, decked in feathers and war paint and heavily armed with lawyers, are filmed presenting a new complaint in their litigation seeking $12 billion from Chevron Inc., the international oil goliath.
It would all be a poignant joke - except that the indigenous tribe is suddenly the odds-on favorite to defeat the oil company known for naming its largest tanker, "Condoleezza," after former Chevron director, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
For Newsnight, reporter Greg Palast, steps (somewhat inelegantly) into a dug-out log canoe to seek out the Cofan in their rainforest village to investigate their allegations. Palast discovers stinking pits of old oil drilling residue leaking into drinking water - and meets farmers whose limbs are covered in pustules.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/amazon-indians-versus-big-oil-greg.html
Support for Save the Peaks Coalition
Organizational Support for Save the Peaks Coalition's Efforts to Protect Holy Mountain
Greetings,
The Save the Peaks Coalition is appealing for support for our efforts to protect the Holy San Francisco Peaks in Northern Arizona.
As you may already know, Arizona Snowbowl ski area and the US Forest Service have been granted a review of the 9th Circuit Court's previous decision blocking the ski area's proposed expansion and treated sewage effluent snowmaking.
The case will be heard in Pasadena, CA on December 11th at 3:00pm (PST).
The Save the Peaks Coalition will be taking a caravan of supporters to the court proceedings and is organizing a series of events in Pasadena to support the efforts of Tribes and Environmental groups to protect the holy mountain.
We are also organizing events in Flagstaff, AZ and we will be calling for National/International support for prayers to be made for the protection of threatened sacred places.
If you, your group or organization would like to sign on as a supporter of our efforts, please send us an email indicating your support to coalition@savethepeaks.org.
We will publish your organization/group/individual name on our website and possibly on our outreach material as well. With your permission of course.
Thank you for your continued support for the protection of our environment, community health and cultural survival.
Please visit www.savethepeaks.org for updates.
Klee Benally
Save the Peaks Coalition Volunteer
(928) 380-2629
coalition@savethepeaks.org
www.savethepeaks.org
Greetings,
The Save the Peaks Coalition is appealing for support for our efforts to protect the Holy San Francisco Peaks in Northern Arizona.
As you may already know, Arizona Snowbowl ski area and the US Forest Service have been granted a review of the 9th Circuit Court's previous decision blocking the ski area's proposed expansion and treated sewage effluent snowmaking.
The case will be heard in Pasadena, CA on December 11th at 3:00pm (PST).
The Save the Peaks Coalition will be taking a caravan of supporters to the court proceedings and is organizing a series of events in Pasadena to support the efforts of Tribes and Environmental groups to protect the holy mountain.
We are also organizing events in Flagstaff, AZ and we will be calling for National/International support for prayers to be made for the protection of threatened sacred places.
If you, your group or organization would like to sign on as a supporter of our efforts, please send us an email indicating your support to coalition@savethepeaks.org.
We will publish your organization/group/individual name on our website and possibly on our outreach material as well. With your permission of course.
Thank you for your continued support for the protection of our environment, community health and cultural survival.
Please visit www.savethepeaks.org for updates.
Klee Benally
Save the Peaks Coalition Volunteer
(928) 380-2629
coalition@savethepeaks.org
www.savethepeaks.org
Unconquering the Last Frontier
Through the eyes of Lower Elwha Klallam eldersRobert Lundahl's film on ecosystem restoration on Washington State's Elwha River
At BC SPACE Gallery,235 Forest Avenue, Laguna Beach, CA 92651949-497-1880
http://www.bcspace.com/
Sunday, December 2, 2007 at 2:00 p.m.
Round table discussion follows until 5:00 p.m.
BC SPACE is pleased and proud to present the screening of the feature-length documentary Unconquering the Last Frontier, the first film to address the topic of dam removal and ecosystem restoration on Washington State's Elwha River. Filmmaker Robert Lundahl made the film over a period of eight years and will be present.
The screening will be held in support of Southern California creeks, rivers and riparian ecosystems, including San Mateo Creek (Trestles), and Aliso Creek, along with habitat preservation efforts located on the land previously occupied by the former El Toro Marine Base in Orange County. Regional environmental leaders and local Native Acjachemen representatives will be on hand for the discussion which follows the film.Unconquering the Last Frontier describes how the Lower Elwha Dam was constructed illegally in 1908; how dam management practices contributed to the river's decline, and how events on the river were paralleled by the systematic political, economic, and cultural suppression of the native people. The story is told through the eyes of Lower Elwha Klallam tribe elders, Beatrice Charles and Adeline Smith, along with tribal members, Rachel Kowalski-Hagaman, Joe Luce, and former Tribal Chairman, Russ Hepfer. Acclaimed Native American actor Gary Farmer narrated the film. Bay Area composer Tony Saunders created its score."Unconquering the Last Frontier tells of the aggressive industrial development of Washington's Olympic Peninsula at the expense of the native people, who had lived along the river since time immemorial," says Lundahl. The triumvirate of hydro power, mills and logging stripped the Olympic Peninsula of its magnificent forests and its legendary salmon. The activities of the corporations left the native people, as well the descendants of the area's European-American settlers, often without jobs and without hope.
In 1976, the tribe, along with 14 environmental groups, intervened in the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) process to stop the relicensing of one of the river's two dams. The tribe wanted the dams removed and the Elwha River watershed ecosystem restored. Such restoration was mandated by Congress in 1992 and is slowly moving forward. In February 2000, the federal government purchased the dams, the first step toward their physical removal, now anticipated to begin in 2012."The film tells of the Klallam Nation's struggle to recover their culture and traditional livelihoods in the shadow of hydro power development. At the same time, the story can be seen as a cautionary tale, as the companies that once developed and dominated the Pacific Northwest have since moved on to Pennsylvania, to the American South, to Canada, Alaska, Malaysia, Thailand, South America and Russia, and now China and other locations, where they have continued the same practices at the expense of the global environment and indigenous peoples of those regions. The film also calls into question an Americanized notion of "Progress," which assumes that ecosystem resources are expendable in the process of capital and technological expansion and resource extraction. Now in the era of global climate change, we find out they are not."
Admission is free, but seating is limited so reservations are encouraged. For additional information and rsvp, please contact BC Space Gallery, 235 Forest Avenue, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, (949) 497-1880 or c/o bcspace@mol.net.
Robert Lundahl's still photography work On The Road To Little America will also be on display in the gallery for the screening.
More information about Unconquering the Last Frontier is available at: http://www.unconquering.org/.
Berkeley police brutality victims' arraignment
From Morning Star Gali
JUSTICE VS POLICE BRUTALITY: Court arraignment was slated for Nov. 28 for three persons arrested, including a member of the Zapatista Ramona Collective Clara Luna. Luna was one of the tree sitters. Another protester we rearrested on Wednesday 15th at a vigil/protest at the Sacred Oak Grove site. Please take a few minutes to call the USB police chief and UCB Director of Community Relations and demand that all charges get dropped due to excessive police brutality against the arrestees and protesters. UC Chief of Police, Vicky Harrison: 510.642.6760
UCB Director of Community Relations, Irene Hegarty: 510.643.5296
Violent Arrests Made At Prayerful Gathering to Support Berkeley Tree-Sit by Oak Grove
Berkeley, CA -- Three people were violently arrested by University of California (UC) police officers at a midnight prayer vigil at the long-standing Oak Grove tree-sit on UC Berkeley's campus. More than 40people, lead by a group of Indigenous peoples, walked in procession to the Tree-sit to show support for Human Rights and Sacred sites and hold a prayerful candlelight vigil at the area, which is a sacred Ohlone burial ground."We heard that UC Berkeley wasn't allowing any food or water to be given to the tree sitters so we went to bear witness and offer our prayers," said Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council. "We were offering prayers and tobacco for the defense of this sacred Ohlone site and held a peaceful vigil for about an hour, then we witnessed one of the tree-sitters being violently attacked by a police officer. More officers arrived wielding batons and were very aggressive, they pushed me and abusively arrested two other people," Simmons stated.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/violent-arrests-at-berkeley-prayer.html
JUSTICE VS POLICE BRUTALITY: Court arraignment was slated for Nov. 28 for three persons arrested, including a member of the Zapatista Ramona Collective Clara Luna. Luna was one of the tree sitters. Another protester we rearrested on Wednesday 15th at a vigil/protest at the Sacred Oak Grove site. Please take a few minutes to call the USB police chief and UCB Director of Community Relations and demand that all charges get dropped due to excessive police brutality against the arrestees and protesters. UC Chief of Police, Vicky Harrison: 510.642.6760
UCB Director of Community Relations, Irene Hegarty: 510.643.5296
Violent Arrests Made At Prayerful Gathering to Support Berkeley Tree-Sit by Oak Grove
Berkeley, CA -- Three people were violently arrested by University of California (UC) police officers at a midnight prayer vigil at the long-standing Oak Grove tree-sit on UC Berkeley's campus. More than 40people, lead by a group of Indigenous peoples, walked in procession to the Tree-sit to show support for Human Rights and Sacred sites and hold a prayerful candlelight vigil at the area, which is a sacred Ohlone burial ground."We heard that UC Berkeley wasn't allowing any food or water to be given to the tree sitters so we went to bear witness and offer our prayers," said Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council. "We were offering prayers and tobacco for the defense of this sacred Ohlone site and held a peaceful vigil for about an hour, then we witnessed one of the tree-sitters being violently attacked by a police officer. More officers arrived wielding batons and were very aggressive, they pushed me and abusively arrested two other people," Simmons stated.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/violent-arrests-at-berkeley-prayer.html
American Indian Holocaust Tribute in Los Angeles
American Indian Holocaust Tribute Draws National Attention
By Red Nation Celebration
LOS ANGELES -- Elizabeth Kucinich, spouse of presidential contender Dennis Kucinich, participated in the first American Indian Holocaust Memorial/Tree of Life Tribute, which was held on the eve of Thanksgiving in Los Angeles State Historic Park. Kucinich, a member of the International Indigenous Sacred Women’s Council, the group who organized the tribute in partnership with Red Nation Celebration; took time from her West Coast campaign to be on hand for the planting of a memorial sycamore tree to acknowledge the millions of American Indians who died during the colonization of the United States. Red Nation Founder Joanelle Romero painted participants’ feet red, “to symbolize the good Red Road, the path we aspire to walk with our children, their children and all peoples.”An excerpt of the ceremony is currently airing on Congressman Kucinich’s national campaign weekly update. (To view, click here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rzzZpK07Q8 then scroll in halfway to the 3 minute: 30 second mark.)
Sean Woods, Director of State Parks in the Los Angeles area, stated, “It is befitting and appropriate that the symbolic tree was planted in Los Angeles State Historic Park. The purpose of this Park is to preserve the public heritage of the landscape and more importantly to bring some of the tragic elements of our history to light, rather than shy away from them. We benefit by examining the complete history of Los Angeles, because we cannot begin healing until we recognize the mistakes of the past. The Park serves as a point of reflection for the public. The space was most recently slated for one million square feet of industrial development. From the old historic communities surrounding the park (which are predominately poor), the people rose up and secured the Park for open space. It is therefore a peoples’ park, and history continues to unfold here: Ten thousand years of Native history flows into the recent struggle of the community to make themselves a Park and into this American Indian Tribute to Life.”(Click here to view more photos of the American Indian Holocaust Memorial Tribute to Life ceremony.http://www.jblfilms.com/red_nation_photos.html
Photos courtesy of JB Letchinger of http://www.jblfilms.com/)
RED NATION CELEBRATION proudly presents the Second Annual American Indian Heritage Month, November, 2007, in the City of Los Angeles, “Honoring American Indians as our Nation’s First Environmentalists.” Red Nation Celebration, Inc. is a non-profit organization established in 1995 to provide the American Indian community with human service programs and to encourage awareness of the cultural treasure indigenous nations offer by premiering American Indian performing arts to communities and mainstream media. Red Nation was recognized in 2006 by the State of California “for their tireless efforts to establish the First Annual American Indian Heritage Month in the City of Los Angeles.” Celebrating 12 years of dedication in community service, Red Nation’s work highlights local native communities in Los Angeles (the largest concentration of urban American Indians in the nation), Orange, and Riverside Counties, and extends throughout the State of California as well as across the nation.# # #RED NATION CELEBRATION 9420 Reseda Blvd. PMB 352 Northridge, CA 91324-2974phone/fax: 818.904.9256
email: mailto:info@rednation.comwww.rednation.comhttp://www.rednation.com/
By Red Nation Celebration
LOS ANGELES -- Elizabeth Kucinich, spouse of presidential contender Dennis Kucinich, participated in the first American Indian Holocaust Memorial/Tree of Life Tribute, which was held on the eve of Thanksgiving in Los Angeles State Historic Park. Kucinich, a member of the International Indigenous Sacred Women’s Council, the group who organized the tribute in partnership with Red Nation Celebration; took time from her West Coast campaign to be on hand for the planting of a memorial sycamore tree to acknowledge the millions of American Indians who died during the colonization of the United States. Red Nation Founder Joanelle Romero painted participants’ feet red, “to symbolize the good Red Road, the path we aspire to walk with our children, their children and all peoples.”An excerpt of the ceremony is currently airing on Congressman Kucinich’s national campaign weekly update. (To view, click here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rzzZpK07Q8 then scroll in halfway to the 3 minute: 30 second mark.)
Sean Woods, Director of State Parks in the Los Angeles area, stated, “It is befitting and appropriate that the symbolic tree was planted in Los Angeles State Historic Park. The purpose of this Park is to preserve the public heritage of the landscape and more importantly to bring some of the tragic elements of our history to light, rather than shy away from them. We benefit by examining the complete history of Los Angeles, because we cannot begin healing until we recognize the mistakes of the past. The Park serves as a point of reflection for the public. The space was most recently slated for one million square feet of industrial development. From the old historic communities surrounding the park (which are predominately poor), the people rose up and secured the Park for open space. It is therefore a peoples’ park, and history continues to unfold here: Ten thousand years of Native history flows into the recent struggle of the community to make themselves a Park and into this American Indian Tribute to Life.”(Click here to view more photos of the American Indian Holocaust Memorial Tribute to Life ceremony.http://www.jblfilms.com/red_nation_photos.html
Photos courtesy of JB Letchinger of http://www.jblfilms.com/)
RED NATION CELEBRATION proudly presents the Second Annual American Indian Heritage Month, November, 2007, in the City of Los Angeles, “Honoring American Indians as our Nation’s First Environmentalists.” Red Nation Celebration, Inc. is a non-profit organization established in 1995 to provide the American Indian community with human service programs and to encourage awareness of the cultural treasure indigenous nations offer by premiering American Indian performing arts to communities and mainstream media. Red Nation was recognized in 2006 by the State of California “for their tireless efforts to establish the First Annual American Indian Heritage Month in the City of Los Angeles.” Celebrating 12 years of dedication in community service, Red Nation’s work highlights local native communities in Los Angeles (the largest concentration of urban American Indians in the nation), Orange, and Riverside Counties, and extends throughout the State of California as well as across the nation.# # #RED NATION CELEBRATION 9420 Reseda Blvd. PMB 352 Northridge, CA 91324-2974phone/fax: 818.904.9256
email: mailto:info@rednation.comwww.rednation.comhttp://www.rednation.com/
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN FRANCISCO -- There's no better city in the world to celebrate beauty, unwind, and sit in a coffee shop near the bay and read all the nasty, vile, name-calling incoming e-mails. Wow, I think I've finally made it. My incoming gmail box is full of contempt with comments from Border Patrol agents and other gatekeepers. There's lots of big words, too, no doubt from professors or people who write e-mails using random dictionary words.
But there's a lot of good comments coming in too. Thanks to all of you who read the articles and send messages of support.
Please scroll down and celebrate the Shellmound walkers, walking and praying for peace at the shell mounds created by their ancestors in what is now called California.
A special thanks once again to those who traveled long distances, including Mohawks, Oneida, Lakota and fighters for justice from Texas and the West Coast, during the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas. Your efforts will be recorded in history.
Finally, thanks to the media who publish these articles, including the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague, Narco News covering the Americas, the ever-popular CounterPunch, uncensored Indymedia and the faithful supporter of uncensored news in Indian country, Pechanga Net.
And thanks to all the others who post and forward the links. You know who you are.
http://www.unobserver.com/
http://www.narconews.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://www.indymedia.org/
http://www.pechanga.net/
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN FRANCISCO -- There's no better city in the world to celebrate beauty, unwind, and sit in a coffee shop near the bay and read all the nasty, vile, name-calling incoming e-mails. Wow, I think I've finally made it. My incoming gmail box is full of contempt with comments from Border Patrol agents and other gatekeepers. There's lots of big words, too, no doubt from professors or people who write e-mails using random dictionary words.
But there's a lot of good comments coming in too. Thanks to all of you who read the articles and send messages of support.
Please scroll down and celebrate the Shellmound walkers, walking and praying for peace at the shell mounds created by their ancestors in what is now called California.
A special thanks once again to those who traveled long distances, including Mohawks, Oneida, Lakota and fighters for justice from Texas and the West Coast, during the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas. Your efforts will be recorded in history.
Finally, thanks to the media who publish these articles, including the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague, Narco News covering the Americas, the ever-popular CounterPunch, uncensored Indymedia and the faithful supporter of uncensored news in Indian country, Pechanga Net.
And thanks to all the others who post and forward the links. You know who you are.
http://www.unobserver.com/
http://www.narconews.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://www.indymedia.org/
http://www.pechanga.net/
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sioux Treaty Council: Impeach Steele for uranium connection
By Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, Oglala Delegation
PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- On November 21, 2007, the Oglala Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council filed an Impeachment Complaint on Oglala Sioux Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele with the Oglala Sioux Tribe‘s (OST) Secretary, Elizabeth Waters.
The impeachable offenses Steele is being charged with include acts of Dishonesty, Gross Incompetence, and Unethical Conduct. These charges stem from Steele’s actions and inactions in connection with the Native American Energy Group (N.A.E.G.), a New York-based gas/oil/mining company.
BLACK HILLS SIOUX NATION TREATY COUNCIL
OGLALA DELEGATION
Pine Ridge Agency, SD
Chief Oliver Red Cloud
Floyd Hand, Jr.
Vincent Black Feather
The Treaty Council recently won a court case to have N.A.E.G. excluded from the Pine Ridge Reservation for working with Steele for several months to develop a plan to explore for and mine uranium on the reservation. Pine Ridge Reservation has been declared a nuclear-free zone by the B.H.S.N. Treaty Council and the OST Council.
“Steele must be held accountable for his actions. Our evidence will show that Steele was aware of N.A.E.G.’s ultimate goal to mine uranium here and that he allowed them to come here to formulate a plan, with no regards to the irreparable harm that it would bring to our sacred water, land, air and people," stated Floyd Hand, Treaty Delegate.
According to the Tribe’s Constitution, the Impeachment Complaint must be presented to the Tribal Council at the next scheduled Council meeting and supersedes all other issues on the written agenda. Ms. Waters confirmed that the next meeting is set for November 29, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in the Tribal Council Chambers.
PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- On November 21, 2007, the Oglala Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council filed an Impeachment Complaint on Oglala Sioux Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele with the Oglala Sioux Tribe‘s (OST) Secretary, Elizabeth Waters.
The impeachable offenses Steele is being charged with include acts of Dishonesty, Gross Incompetence, and Unethical Conduct. These charges stem from Steele’s actions and inactions in connection with the Native American Energy Group (N.A.E.G.), a New York-based gas/oil/mining company.
BLACK HILLS SIOUX NATION TREATY COUNCIL
OGLALA DELEGATION
Pine Ridge Agency, SD
Chief Oliver Red Cloud
Floyd Hand, Jr.
Vincent Black Feather
The Treaty Council recently won a court case to have N.A.E.G. excluded from the Pine Ridge Reservation for working with Steele for several months to develop a plan to explore for and mine uranium on the reservation. Pine Ridge Reservation has been declared a nuclear-free zone by the B.H.S.N. Treaty Council and the OST Council.
“Steele must be held accountable for his actions. Our evidence will show that Steele was aware of N.A.E.G.’s ultimate goal to mine uranium here and that he allowed them to come here to formulate a plan, with no regards to the irreparable harm that it would bring to our sacred water, land, air and people," stated Floyd Hand, Treaty Delegate.
According to the Tribe’s Constitution, the Impeachment Complaint must be presented to the Tribal Council at the next scheduled Council meeting and supersedes all other issues on the written agenda. Ms. Waters confirmed that the next meeting is set for November 29, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in the Tribal Council Chambers.
Arizona's 'Cokeheads' the National Guard
Photo: Arizona National Guard with construction crew on Tohono O'odham land building border wall at San Miguel, Arizona/Photo Indigenous Peoples Delegation.By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
TUCSON, Ariz. -- There were so many Arizona National Guardsmen eager to run cocaine from the border of Arizona and Mexico to Tucson, that the FBI had to shut down its sting, Operation Lively Green.
While those soldiers were being sentenced in recent months, the Arizona National Guard announced its soldiers would be commanding an armed drone in Iraq by remote control from Tucson.
From Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, a unit controls the MQ-1B Predator, used for armed reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting in Iraq.
While Arizona media reported both stories on the Arizona National Guard -- cocaine running and operating an armed, remote control drone in Iraq -- reporters didn't seem to notice the irony.
Arizona National Guardsmen ran cocaine in uniform in official vehicles to avoid being noticed from the border. The cocaine runners included a recruiting officer working in Tucson public schools.
The Guardsmen were not the only officials running cocaine. During sentencing, nearly 100 others emerged, ranging from a Nogales police officer and a prison guard to US Air Force squadsmen in Tucson patrolling the border by air.
Which brings us to the present, and the fact that Arizona National Guardsmen are helping build the border wall on the Tohono O'odham Nation. While an Indigenous Peoples' delegation was at the border on Tohono O'odham land, near San Miguel, on Nov. 8, 2007, the National Guardsmen were part of the crew building the wall.
This border wall construction has already been responsible for the contractor digging up the graves of the O'odham ancestors. Further, the border wall will be a barrier to the annual traditional ceremony, when O'odham normally walk across their traditional ancestral territory.
Although the politicians call it a "vehicle barrier," it is still a barrier that disects the ancestral territory of the O'odham.
Now, Border Patrol agents, the alien invaders of the O'odham, are telling them they will have to have US passports to walk across their traditional homelands beginning in January. Many O'odham were born at home and do not have passports, or the means to purchase passports.
But you're not likely to read about this in the media, it remains one of the most censored issues.
GREECE: San Francisco Peaks focus for world sacred sites
Holy San Francisco Peaks a Focal Point for International Sacred Site Guidelineshttp://www.unobserver.com/
OURANOUPOLIS, Greece --During a 4-day conference in Ouranoupolis, Greece, an international assembly convened to present case studies of Sacred Sites from around the world. Studies of sacred sites under threat included Romania, Korea, Morocco, Russia, Australia, Greece and Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks. The conference was organized by the Delos Initiative on Sacred Protected Natural Sites in Technologically Developed Countries.
“It is impressive that on an international level, the Holy San Francisco Peaks issue will be helping other organizations and individuals learn how to protect their own Natural Sacred Sites”, said Jeneda Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition who presented the Holy San Francisco Peaks at the conference by contributing a power point presentation and co-authoring a case study with acclaimed Professor Larry Hamilton.
The objective of the meeting was to understand key points concerning the integration of spiritual concerns in the management of natural sites. The case studies will be used for policy makers in newly developing countries.
The San Francisco Peaks are holy to 13 tribes and culturally significant to 22 tribes. The San Francisco Peaks have been the focus of a controversy due to a Forest Service and ski resort plan to expand its development and use reclaimed waste water for snowmaking on the Holy site. Tribes and environmental groups have been victorious in the Ninth Circuit Court to stop the expansion but the Forest Service and ski resort have recently been granted a legal review of the decision. An appeal will be heard on December 11, 2007 in Pasadena, CA.Orthodox Christian Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, praised Benally and the other participants of an IUCN workshop on the protection of sacred lands.
“It is with great interest that we learned of the workshop you are organizing in the framework of IUCN - The World Conservation Union”, he said.
“Its purpose is very close to our interests. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has been teaching a responsible role of human beings towards Creation as its stewards and protectors.”The Delos Initiative was launched in 2004, in the context of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) of the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) and its Task Force on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas. This is the second meeting and its theme was “Providing Guidance for Sacred Protected Natural Sites in Developed Countries."
The workshop took place near Mount Athos, a World Heritage Site and one of the most renowned cultural and natural places on Earth, where spiritual and natural values have worked together for many centuries to model a unique landscape with high biodiversity and cultural value.
For more information: THE DELOS INITIATIVE http://www.med-ina.org/delos and
Save the Peaks Coalition http://www.savethepeaks.org/
Courtesy photo: Jeneda Benally, Navajo, with her daughter, in center.
CENSORED: Depleted uranium disaster
Current Concerns, Doug Westerman Nov 19, 2007
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA Today related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news-breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA Today.
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and AfghanistanCurrent Concerns, Doug Westerman Nov 19, 2007
Weblink is: http://www.currentconcerns.ch/config_03/print.php?source=../archive/2006/03/source/20060312.html&issue=No%203/4,%202006&on=Article%20published%20on%2010-07-2006
"Make injustice visible" - Mahatma Gandhi"You only live once. Outlive your life."
'The truth will make you free. But first, it will make you uncomfortable" - Mark Twain
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Thanks to Anna Rondon, Navajo, for sending this.
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA Today related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news-breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA Today.
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and AfghanistanCurrent Concerns, Doug Westerman Nov 19, 2007
Weblink is: http://www.currentconcerns.ch/config_03/print.php?source=../archive/2006/03/source/20060312.html&issue=No%203/4,%202006&on=Article%20published%20on%2010-07-2006
"Make injustice visible" - Mahatma Gandhi"You only live once. Outlive your life."
'The truth will make you free. But first, it will make you uncomfortable" - Mark Twain
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Thanks to Anna Rondon, Navajo, for sending this.
Prayers for Indian inmates
Main family requests prayersIt was on November 25, 2007, one year ago on Sunday, since Bat-wa-haht, James Main, Jr. was arrested and incarcerated in the Hill County Detention Center in Havre, Montana. The Main family, which has been a herald for Indigenous Peoples' rights, requests special prayers for Jim Jr. and all Indian prisoners.
On January 7, 2008, Jim Jr.'s trial will begin so please continue praying. Thank you! Rose Main
Photo: Jim Jr. Main's mother, Vernie White Cow Main, White Clay (Gros-Ventre), holds a photo of her son, now incarcerated for a murder he said he did not commit. An extensive cover-up of the evidence is now unravelling
White Clay People, Life Interrupted, Three part series
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/white-clay-people-life-interrupted.html
Mohawk Nation News: Ecclesiastical tyranny, colonialism and terrorism
What is “ecclesiastical tyranny”? It is raw colonialism and terrorism, plain and simple!
Mohawk Nation News
On Friday, November 23, 2007, ahearing was held in Montreal . A Mohawk had beenfired the year before by the Sulpician Order becausehe was a Mohawk. Little did they know, he was a veryquiet, reliable and hard working guy. It took theSulpicians more than a year to cook up a case againsthim. While they were busy plotting, he quietly soldrosaries and crucifixes to the multi-national clientelethat come into the shop at Notre Dame Basilica in OldMontreal . This is where they sent him to get him outof the way. Too bad for them, the bad old days are gone. Quebec employees have some laws to protect them. Once the church cobbled together some charges, theyhad to deal with a union.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/mohawk-nation-news-ecclesiastical.html
Mohawk Nation News
On Friday, November 23, 2007, ahearing was held in Montreal . A Mohawk had beenfired the year before by the Sulpician Order becausehe was a Mohawk. Little did they know, he was a veryquiet, reliable and hard working guy. It took theSulpicians more than a year to cook up a case againsthim. While they were busy plotting, he quietly soldrosaries and crucifixes to the multi-national clientelethat come into the shop at Notre Dame Basilica in OldMontreal . This is where they sent him to get him outof the way. Too bad for them, the bad old days are gone. Quebec employees have some laws to protect them. Once the church cobbled together some charges, theyhad to deal with a union.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/mohawk-nation-news-ecclesiastical.html
Sacred Shellmound Walkers
Sacred Shellmound Walkers journeyed 120 miles this year in 6 days from Glen Cove to Emeryville, California:
http://orangechaz.smugmug.com/gallery/3880261/1#224904424
By Morning Star Gali
Hi Everybody!
Thank you for walking with us and honoring the ancestors of the Ohlone and Me-wuk Peoples, as well as the other ancestors who remain under Mother Earth or, sadly, under UC Berkeley and other institutions or otherwise removed from their sacred resting places. Here are a few pictures I took - (click on the URL above) There are several of our granddaughter (I couldn't help myself), and I know I didn't get everyone - Apologies to Kevin, Tomas, and Manny, among others, - Lee, I didn't see a photo of you either - but your help was greatly appreciated. I spent most of my time drumming, driving, or walking with our granddaughter - so I didn't take as many pictures as I now wish I had. A huge thank you to everyone who walked with us, fed us, housed us, met us along the way, vigiled with us, asked questions, gave answers, smiled at us, honked at us, or prayed for us to have a good journey. Your prayers were felt. Hopefully others, with more pictures, will share them also. I hope you find a picture or two that you enjoy.
Thank you one and all for your support. --The Sacred Shellmound Peace Walkers:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/24/18463197.php?printable=true
http://orangechaz.smugmug.com/gallery/3880261/1#224904424
By Morning Star Gali
Hi Everybody!Thank you for walking with us and honoring the ancestors of the Ohlone and Me-wuk Peoples, as well as the other ancestors who remain under Mother Earth or, sadly, under UC Berkeley and other institutions or otherwise removed from their sacred resting places. Here are a few pictures I took - (click on the URL above) There are several of our granddaughter (I couldn't help myself), and I know I didn't get everyone - Apologies to Kevin, Tomas, and Manny, among others, - Lee, I didn't see a photo of you either - but your help was greatly appreciated. I spent most of my time drumming, driving, or walking with our granddaughter - so I didn't take as many pictures as I now wish I had. A huge thank you to everyone who walked with us, fed us, housed us, met us along the way, vigiled with us, asked questions, gave answers, smiled at us, honked at us, or prayed for us to have a good journey. Your prayers were felt. Hopefully others, with more pictures, will share them also. I hope you find a picture or two that you enjoy.
Thank you one and all for your support. --The Sacred Shellmound Peace Walkers:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/24/18463197.php?printable=true
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Conspiracy of Silence: O'odham say border wall is genocide
Conspiracy of Silence: O'odham say border wall is genocide
By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere
Posted on Sun Nov 25th, 2007 at 01:34:17 PM EST
The grassroots organization O'odham Voice Against the Wall has denounced the ongoing genocide of the O'odham people in the United States and Mexico, where the border wall and development has resulted in the digging up of graves and the final resting places of their ancestors.
A delegation of Mohawks, Oneida, Lakota and Acoma Pueblo recently voiced their sadness and outrage over the border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham lands in Arizona and the "cage" where migrants are imprisoned.
Further, the Mohawk delegation was horrified to watch the US Border Patrol arrest Mayans in front on them, as they tried to intervene, and also to learn of the hundreds of Indigenous Peoples dying on Tohono O'odham land and the nearby desert each year for want of a drink of water.
The delegation also learned that the graves of the O'odham ancestors were recently dug up for the border wall under construction by contractor Boeing. The Tohono O'odham Nation government has declined to release a public statement regarding the ancestors' remains being dug up and removed in 2007 for the border wall.
After the Mohawks' comments were released, a few Tohono O'odham Nation government officials objected and defended the border wall and their policies, which criminalizes aid to migrants.
However, the O'odham Voice Against the Wall said the true way of life of the O'odham, the Him'dag which honors humanity, is at stake, while the government officials work in collusion with Homeland S
ecurity.
O'odham Voice Against the Wall statement:
"America is built on the blood of the original peoples of these lands and stolen lands of the original people, now our own people only speak in a foreign mindset. This is your American dream of depriving your own people of PEACE and justice when they are abusing the elders right in your face and degrading your women and children of dignity. Let's set these things right, politicians are not equal or have more authority then the traditional peoples of the land that uphold the true Him'dag. I have yet to see any politicians sit at our table and bring genuine concern and solutions to this outright land takeover buy the federal government. Soon we will be running around with a cut head when we totally lose all rights to our traditional lands, they will bulldoze over your graves to build their headquarters just as they did in Sonoyta, Mexico. Did the O'odham leaders protect those grave sites, no they didn't. Maria cried until last year when she died, she cried about having no grave to visit, her mother's grave that went under the blades. The WALL is not the solution, yes some families are hurting from their drug smuggling businesses but what about our way of life. The government has created this and planned on this don't you get it. It is called Genocide...and it is here in your face."
(Photos: Homeland Security and Border Patrol's migrant "cage" on Tohono O'odham land near San Miguel, Arizona/Photo Ofelia Rivas; Photo 2: Border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham land near San Miguel, Arizona/Photo Indigenous Delegation.
By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere
Posted on Sun Nov 25th, 2007 at 01:34:17 PM EST
The grassroots organization O'odham Voice Against the Wall has denounced the ongoing genocide of the O'odham people in the United States and Mexico, where the border wall and development has resulted in the digging up of graves and the final resting places of their ancestors.
A delegation of Mohawks, Oneida, Lakota and Acoma Pueblo recently voiced their sadness and outrage over the border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham lands in Arizona and the "cage" where migrants are imprisoned.
Further, the Mohawk delegation was horrified to watch the US Border Patrol arrest Mayans in front on them, as they tried to intervene, and also to learn of the hundreds of Indigenous Peoples dying on Tohono O'odham land and the nearby desert each year for want of a drink of water.
The delegation also learned that the graves of the O'odham ancestors were recently dug up for the border wall under construction by contractor Boeing. The Tohono O'odham Nation government has declined to release a public statement regarding the ancestors' remains being dug up and removed in 2007 for the border wall.
After the Mohawks' comments were released, a few Tohono O'odham Nation government officials objected and defended the border wall and their policies, which criminalizes aid to migrants.
However, the O'odham Voice Against the Wall said the true way of life of the O'odham, the Him'dag which honors humanity, is at stake, while the government officials work in collusion with Homeland S
ecurity.O'odham Voice Against the Wall statement:
"America is built on the blood of the original peoples of these lands and stolen lands of the original people, now our own people only speak in a foreign mindset. This is your American dream of depriving your own people of PEACE and justice when they are abusing the elders right in your face and degrading your women and children of dignity. Let's set these things right, politicians are not equal or have more authority then the traditional peoples of the land that uphold the true Him'dag. I have yet to see any politicians sit at our table and bring genuine concern and solutions to this outright land takeover buy the federal government. Soon we will be running around with a cut head when we totally lose all rights to our traditional lands, they will bulldoze over your graves to build their headquarters just as they did in Sonoyta, Mexico. Did the O'odham leaders protect those grave sites, no they didn't. Maria cried until last year when she died, she cried about having no grave to visit, her mother's grave that went under the blades. The WALL is not the solution, yes some families are hurting from their drug smuggling businesses but what about our way of life. The government has created this and planned on this don't you get it. It is called Genocide...and it is here in your face."
(Photos: Homeland Security and Border Patrol's migrant "cage" on Tohono O'odham land near San Miguel, Arizona/Photo Ofelia Rivas; Photo 2: Border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham land near San Miguel, Arizona/Photo Indigenous Delegation.
Berkeley Musuem: Police respond with riot gear to NAGPRA pressure
BERKELEY -- "We came out to pray and offer medicine," said Morning Star Gali ofthe Pit River Tribe and part of the Native American NAGPRA Coalition."The cops responded with riot gear and violence. This exhibits the ongoing Human Rights abuses committed by the University (University California Berkeley).
They refuse to comply with NAGPRA by holding 13,000 of our ancestors remains and now they assault us while we pray at our burial grounds."
Could the Native Community Lobby Congress to pass an amendment to NAGPRA that would state that any institution receiving federal funds has to be compliant with NAGPRA or federal funding will be cut until NAGPRA compliance is achieved? Compliance would be determined by a coalition of Tribal Leaders from across Indian Country. The gaming Tribes could also refuse to fund state and local governments until NAGPRA compliance is achieved. We have a responsibility to our relatives to bring them home.
Ezra McCampbell
They refuse to comply with NAGPRA by holding 13,000 of our ancestors remains and now they assault us while we pray at our burial grounds."
Could the Native Community Lobby Congress to pass an amendment to NAGPRA that would state that any institution receiving federal funds has to be compliant with NAGPRA or federal funding will be cut until NAGPRA compliance is achieved? Compliance would be determined by a coalition of Tribal Leaders from across Indian Country. The gaming Tribes could also refuse to fund state and local governments until NAGPRA compliance is achieved. We have a responsibility to our relatives to bring them home.
Ezra McCampbell
Friday, November 23, 2007
Border Wall Genocide: O'odham graves go under the blades
O'odham Voice Against the Wall responds to reader comments posted on article, Mohawks Inflamed Over Tohono O'odham Tribal Council Complicity In 'Border' Oppression Of Indigenous People - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor, at Atlantic Free Press:
O'odham VOICE Against the WALL
O'odham VOICE Against the WALL
America is built on the blood of the original peoples of these lands and stolen lands of the original people, now our own people only speak in a foreign mindset. This is your Am
erican dream of depriving your own people of PEACE and justice when they are abusing the elders right in your face and degrading your women and children of dignity. Let's set these things right, politicians are not equal or have more authority then the traditional peoples of the land that uphold the true Him'dag. I have yet to see any politicians sit at our table and bring genuine concern and solutions to this outright land takeover buy the federal government. Soon we will be running around with a cut head when the we totally loose all rights to our traditional lands, they will bulldoze over your graves to build their headquarters just as they did in Sonoyta, Mexico. Did the O'odham leaders protect those grave sites, no they didn't. Maria cried until last year when she died, she cried about having no grave to visit, her mother's grave that when under the blades. The WALL is not the solution, yes some families are hurting from their drug smuggling businesses but what about our way of life. The government has created this and planned on this don't you get it. It's called Genocide...and it's here in your face.
erican dream of depriving your own people of PEACE and justice when they are abusing the elders right in your face and degrading your women and children of dignity. Let's set these things right, politicians are not equal or have more authority then the traditional peoples of the land that uphold the true Him'dag. I have yet to see any politicians sit at our table and bring genuine concern and solutions to this outright land takeover buy the federal government. Soon we will be running around with a cut head when the we totally loose all rights to our traditional lands, they will bulldoze over your graves to build their headquarters just as they did in Sonoyta, Mexico. Did the O'odham leaders protect those grave sites, no they didn't. Maria cried until last year when she died, she cried about having no grave to visit, her mother's grave that when under the blades. The WALL is not the solution, yes some families are hurting from their drug smuggling businesses but what about our way of life. The government has created this and planned on this don't you get it. It's called Genocide...and it's here in your face.(Photo: Border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham land in November 2007)
Original article with comments:
Alcatraz Sunrise, honoring the warriors
By Brenda NorrellHuman Rights Editor
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
SAN FRANCISCO -- With the prayers, blessings and dances of the Shingle Springs Rancheria Miwok, Pomo, Pitt River and Calpullies, the Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering began, after 3,500 people crossed on boats to Alcatraz Island before first light.
With the scent of sage filling the dawn air, the Ohlone People were honored for their long struggle to recover their traditional homelands here and the Pitt River people for their ongoing efforts to protect the sacred water and land in what is now called northern California.
With a roaring fire in the center, the prayers began at first light. Anna Marie Sayers of the Ohlone people was among the Native women honored.
Radley Davis, Pitt River Nation, asked those gathered to greet the rising sun. "Wherever you are at, turn around and greet the sun. It is still coming, when you see it, say 'hello.'
"Remember each of you is spirit," Davis said. "Our Creator is a caring Creator, we are all special."
Davis urged everyone gathered to discover who they are and the reason that they have been brought into life, remembering that life is sacred and all is spirit.
"When you see the sun, wash your body, your spirit, wash your life." Davis said, "Ask the Great Maker to help you find out about your life."
The Shellmound walkers, who have been offering prayers at the Shellmounds, asked that others join them in prayer for the ancestors and all Indigenous Peoples. While pointing out the recent oil spill here, they asked to remember the winged-ones, four legged and fishes hurt by the spill. They asked for the cleansing of the San Francisco Bay, while celebrating the survival of Native people.
Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, said the gathering on Thursday, Nov. 22, is a continuum in the legacy of the people.
"We consider it relighting the fire of Indian survival, Indian resistance here in this hemisphere. To remind people that first of all, John Wayne didn't kill us all. That we're still alive, distinct cultures that are thriving here in America."
Means said the people came today to remember the Hopi imprisoned here at Alcatraz who refused to cut their hair, send their children to US government boarding school or become colonized as US citizens. Nineteen Hopi men from Oraibi returned home to their village in September, 1895, after spending nearly a year imprisoned on Alcatraz Island.
"They brought them here to break their resistance," Means said.
"The only good Indian was a dead Indian."
Means pointed out that the first so-called Thanksgiving was a celebration of the murder of the Mashantucket Pequots who greeted the Europeans who came to this land. Now, however, the people can look for inspiration to Indian people like Richard Oakes, among the leaders of the occupation of Alcatraz.
Oakes, Mohawk, brought this message: "Enough is enough!" Means said there is also inspiration in the new leaders of governments in South America, including Bolivia's Evo Morales and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
Means, master of ceremonies at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas in San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation in November, also remembered the Indigenous Peoples walking and dying at the border of the United States and Mexico.
"All they want is a drink of water," he said of those walking and dying of dehydration.
Means also remembered Floyd Red Crow Westerman, hospitalized with serious health problems. Means asked that Westerman be remembered in prayers. He said if it is time for Westerman to make the journey, pray for that. But if the Creator wants to leave him here a little longer, Means said that would be good for the people and the struggles that Westerman has spent his life fighting for.
Darrell Standing Elk joined others to lead the AIM Song for Westerman.
Janice Gardipe, Paiute-Shoshone, said there is a great struggle underway to protect Indian homelands from the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Western Shoshone territory.
"Where are our warriors," Gardipe asked, urging American Indians to come and support the struggle to protect the sacred lands.
Munyiga Lumumba, organizer for the All American Peoples' Revolutionary Party, urged those gathered to reject whatever the capitalist US government and media is telling them. Lumumba urged the crowd to take down the imperialism, including Israel's action to destroy Palestine. On the issue of Iran and nuclear weapons, he said America has no right, and certainly no moral ground to stand on, to tell the governments of the world what to do.
"The enemy doesn't lie some of the time, the enemy lies all of the time."
Joining organizer Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council, Tony Gonzales said it was reassuring to know that future generations of Indian people will be assured because of the actions here in the occupation of Alcatraz Island, which began in 1969.
Bringing to a conclusion the ceremony, on the day when others in America celebrate the Thanksgiving of colonizers, Arigon Starr, Kickapoo from Oklahoma, sang the lyrics, "This is Indian land forever," followed by, "We will take the Rock."
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Photo: Native women Cecilia Silvas and Morning Star Gali, lead the procession after the ceremony. Photo Brenda Norrell
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering today
Before first light, 3,500 people gathered on Alcatraz Island today to remember the warriors who occupied Alcatraz Island, including Richard Oakes, and the Hopis once imprisoned here for refusing to be colonized. During the sunrise blessings, songs and dances, Native women were honored, who called for a new generation of American Indian warriors. The International Indian Treaty Council hosted the gathering.
Photos: Gathering on Alcatraz 2007; American Indian Movement staffs and Pit River Nation on Alcatraz/Photos Brenda Norrell
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Please see new article at the Censored Blog:
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Alcatraz Sunrise, Honoring the Warriors
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SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Listen online to interview with Bill Means:
"We consider it relighting the fire of Indian survival, Indian resistance here in this hemisphere. To remind people that first of all, John Wayne didn't kill us all. That we're still alive, distinct cultures that are thriving here in America,” explained Bill Means, a Lakota and one of the founders of the International Indian Treaty Council. Means said it was only fitting that the protests took place in San Francisco in the 60s and 70s. "The civil rights movement as you know was going strong, the anti-war movement, so it was a time when the status quo was unacceptable for most Americans,” he said. “This being a hotbed of organization, a hotbed of liberation here in the Bay Area, Berkeley, etcetera, it was only right that Indian people also get together to take our rightful place in the struggle for civil and human rights." Means credits the Alcatraz protest with sparking a worldwide movement that is still very much alive today. "It started out here as a small spark, a small fire of resistance and survival. It's now become a worldwide movement of indigenous people culminated by the recent declaration that was recently passed at the United Nations."
Listen to KCBS interview with Bill Means:
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
'Save the Peaks' caravan and vigil in Pasadena
Contact: Klee Benally, Save the Peaks Coalition, 928-380-2629
coalition@savethepeaks.orgwww.savethepeaks.org
Tribes and Environmental Groups Join in Legal Defense of Sacred Mountains
Save the Peaks Coalition Caravan and Vigil in Pasadena, California
Flagstaff, AZ - December 11th, 2007 the legal battle to determine the fate of a Northern Arizona mountain held holy by more than thirteen Native American Nations, will come to a Pasadena, California courtroom. On October 17th, 2007 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the U.S. Forest Service and an Arizona ski resort the opportunity to challenge a previous decision by the court, which had blocked the ski area from making fake snow from treated sewage effluent on the sacred San Francisco Peaks, and expanding some areas.
The Save the Peaks Coalition (STPC), a volunteer group, formed in 2004 to protect the Sacred Mountain, will join with youth and elders from Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Havasupai and other nations to caravan from Arizona to attend the court proceedings in Pasadena, CA.
“We call upon all those who value respect, community health, cultural diversity and human rights to stand with us.” Said Francis Tso a volunteer with STPC. “Our way of life is in danger. The mountain eco-systems are in danger. The economic interests of one private business operating on public lands are pitted against environmental integrity, public health and cultural survival for Indigenous Peoples.”
The Save the Peaks Coalition and tribal representatives will be holding a prayer vigil and rally at the Pasadena courthouse during the proceedings. All are invited to attend.
Other events are also being organized internationally and nationally to support the tribes and environmental groups efforts to protect the sacred Peaks.
The Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort, located on the sacred Peaks, is attempting to expand its development, clear-cut acres of old growth trees, and make fake snow from wastewater, which has been proven to have contaminants. A coalition of tribes and environmental groups have filed lawsuits against the U.S. Forest Service, which leases the public land to the Snowbowl, to stop this proposed development.
Lawyers in the case will present oral arguments on December 11, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. at the US Court of Appeals located at 125 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena, California.
"The decision of the Ninth Circuit to rehear this case is regrettable. It means that the Court will reconsider the case - not that it has reversed any decision at this point. It is, however, even more regrettable that our federal government seems to place the profitability of a privately owned, non-destination ski area, that operates on federal land, over the deeply held religious and cultural convictions of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in the southwestern United States." said Howard Shanker, of the Shanker Law Firm, PLC, representing the Navajo Nation, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, Rex Tilousi, Dianna Uqualla, The Sierra Club, The Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. Shanker, who is running for Congress in Arizona’s Congressional District 1, further provided that, "this situation is indicative of the fact that we need better laws and lawmakers who
are willing to stand up and be counted in the face of this type of injustice. The continued pursuit of the use of reclaimed waste water to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks should be an affront to all people of conscience everywhere."
On March 12, 2007 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision and ruled in favor of the tribes and environmental groups. The court determined that the proposed ski area development would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In the 9th Circuit ruling, Judge William A. Fletcher stated, “We are unwilling to hold that authorizing the use of artificial snow at an already functioning commercial ski area in order to expand and improve its facilities, as well as to extend its ski season in dry years, is a governmental interest of the highest order.” The court also stated, "If Appellants do not have a valid RFRA claim in this case, we are unable to see how any Native American plaintiff can ever have a successful RFRA claim based on beliefs and practices tied to land that they hold sacred."
The 9th Circuit decision had been hailed as a victory for Religious Freedom, Environmental Justice & Cultural Survival.
21 Arizona tribes had passed a resolution calling on the Bush Administration not to appeal the 9th Circuit ruling and to repair damage done to tribal relations due to controversy created by the proposed ski area development.
"Why in 2007, do we as America's first people have no guarantee for protection of our religious freedom?" said Jeneda Benally a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The case to protect the Holy San Francisco Peaks demonstrates the need for further protection of Native American religious freedom and rights in this country. We will continue our dedication to save the Peaks until we have our human rights fully upheld."
“If you desecrate this sacred mountain it is like destroying the Mormon chapel or other churches through out the world, even Mecca a holy place, what will be next what if it's your place of worship?” Said Avery Denny, a member of the Dine’ (Navajo) Hataali Association which is involved in the lawsuit to protect the holy Mountain.
The Save the Peaks Coalition is also calling for a national day of prayer for the Peaks.
“We recognize that there are many people who cannot join us in our efforts so we urge them to pray where they are.” Said Jeneda Benally. “We all must take action in order to protect sacred sites and defend human rights for our future generations.” Said Benally.
The Save the Peaks Coalition will also be holding a Flagstaff vigil to support the protection of the Sacred Mountain on Tuesday, December 11th at 4:00 p.m. at Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
The caravan will depart for Pasadena, CA from Flagstaff, AZ on Monday, December 10th at 8:30 a.m. If you are interested in joining the caravan or organizing an event please email us at coalition@savethepeaks.org or call (928) 527-1431.
For information, updates on events or to donate for travel expenses please visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
coalition@savethepeaks.orgwww.savethepeaks.org
Tribes and Environmental Groups Join in Legal Defense of Sacred Mountains
Save the Peaks Coalition Caravan and Vigil in Pasadena, California
Flagstaff, AZ - December 11th, 2007 the legal battle to determine the fate of a Northern Arizona mountain held holy by more than thirteen Native American Nations, will come to a Pasadena, California courtroom. On October 17th, 2007 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the U.S. Forest Service and an Arizona ski resort the opportunity to challenge a previous decision by the court, which had blocked the ski area from making fake snow from treated sewage effluent on the sacred San Francisco Peaks, and expanding some areas.
The Save the Peaks Coalition (STPC), a volunteer group, formed in 2004 to protect the Sacred Mountain, will join with youth and elders from Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Havasupai and other nations to caravan from Arizona to attend the court proceedings in Pasadena, CA.
“We call upon all those who value respect, community health, cultural diversity and human rights to stand with us.” Said Francis Tso a volunteer with STPC. “Our way of life is in danger. The mountain eco-systems are in danger. The economic interests of one private business operating on public lands are pitted against environmental integrity, public health and cultural survival for Indigenous Peoples.”
The Save the Peaks Coalition and tribal representatives will be holding a prayer vigil and rally at the Pasadena courthouse during the proceedings. All are invited to attend.
Other events are also being organized internationally and nationally to support the tribes and environmental groups efforts to protect the sacred Peaks.
The Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort, located on the sacred Peaks, is attempting to expand its development, clear-cut acres of old growth trees, and make fake snow from wastewater, which has been proven to have contaminants. A coalition of tribes and environmental groups have filed lawsuits against the U.S. Forest Service, which leases the public land to the Snowbowl, to stop this proposed development.
Lawyers in the case will present oral arguments on December 11, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. at the US Court of Appeals located at 125 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena, California.
"The decision of the Ninth Circuit to rehear this case is regrettable. It means that the Court will reconsider the case - not that it has reversed any decision at this point. It is, however, even more regrettable that our federal government seems to place the profitability of a privately owned, non-destination ski area, that operates on federal land, over the deeply held religious and cultural convictions of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in the southwestern United States." said Howard Shanker, of the Shanker Law Firm, PLC, representing the Navajo Nation, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, Rex Tilousi, Dianna Uqualla, The Sierra Club, The Center for Biological Diversity, and the Flagstaff Activist Network. Shanker, who is running for Congress in Arizona’s Congressional District 1, further provided that, "this situation is indicative of the fact that we need better laws and lawmakers who
are willing to stand up and be counted in the face of this type of injustice. The continued pursuit of the use of reclaimed waste water to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks should be an affront to all people of conscience everywhere."
On March 12, 2007 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision and ruled in favor of the tribes and environmental groups. The court determined that the proposed ski area development would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In the 9th Circuit ruling, Judge William A. Fletcher stated, “We are unwilling to hold that authorizing the use of artificial snow at an already functioning commercial ski area in order to expand and improve its facilities, as well as to extend its ski season in dry years, is a governmental interest of the highest order.” The court also stated, "If Appellants do not have a valid RFRA claim in this case, we are unable to see how any Native American plaintiff can ever have a successful RFRA claim based on beliefs and practices tied to land that they hold sacred."
The 9th Circuit decision had been hailed as a victory for Religious Freedom, Environmental Justice & Cultural Survival.
21 Arizona tribes had passed a resolution calling on the Bush Administration not to appeal the 9th Circuit ruling and to repair damage done to tribal relations due to controversy created by the proposed ski area development.
"Why in 2007, do we as America's first people have no guarantee for protection of our religious freedom?" said Jeneda Benally a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. "The case to protect the Holy San Francisco Peaks demonstrates the need for further protection of Native American religious freedom and rights in this country. We will continue our dedication to save the Peaks until we have our human rights fully upheld."
“If you desecrate this sacred mountain it is like destroying the Mormon chapel or other churches through out the world, even Mecca a holy place, what will be next what if it's your place of worship?” Said Avery Denny, a member of the Dine’ (Navajo) Hataali Association which is involved in the lawsuit to protect the holy Mountain.
The Save the Peaks Coalition is also calling for a national day of prayer for the Peaks.
“We recognize that there are many people who cannot join us in our efforts so we urge them to pray where they are.” Said Jeneda Benally. “We all must take action in order to protect sacred sites and defend human rights for our future generations.” Said Benally.
The Save the Peaks Coalition will also be holding a Flagstaff vigil to support the protection of the Sacred Mountain on Tuesday, December 11th at 4:00 p.m. at Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
The caravan will depart for Pasadena, CA from Flagstaff, AZ on Monday, December 10th at 8:30 a.m. If you are interested in joining the caravan or organizing an event please email us at coalition@savethepeaks.org or call (928) 527-1431.
For information, updates on events or to donate for travel expenses please visit: www.savethepeaks.org.
Saami action for human rights
Saarivuoma Saami Village: http://www.saarivuoma.se/
Norway is violating International Law in their conduct against the Saami People in Sweden – Nobody is taking any action!
Demonstration/protest in Stockholm November 23, 2007 against the judicial assaults on the Saami People. Norwegian arrogance and superiority, and swedish passiveness work together when Norway runs over the swedish Saamis on their traditional summer reindeer- grazing areas. The norwegian state has during the last years, been allowed to terrorize the swedish Sami People in a multitude of different ways, when they have been on their reindeers summer-grazing areas in Norway.The swedish authorities has not lifted a finger, when the norwegian state has torn down reindeer-nouns, unlawfully driven away large herds of reindeers and continually expressed repeated threats of heavy fines for Saami villages situated on the swedish side of the nationstate border. Now the Saami villages react against the passiveness of the swedish government in this matter, knowing how quick both Norway and Sweden usually reacts, when other countries violates human rights and international laws.This is the reason why Saarivuoma Saami village, along with other Saami villages and Saami organisations, now has been forced to take this drastic measure, to make the world listen. - This is totally unreal. We cannot live with a state that terrorizes and hunt us, inspite of that we are on our own lands that we have lived on and cultivated in thousands of years – long before there was a norwegian state, says the Chairman of Saarivuoma Saami village mr Per-Anders Nutti. - We have to draw attention to this matter. We cannot fight against a hostile state, on our own. This is why we are going to Stockholm now, to show our intentions and hand over protestletters to both the swedish Foreign Ministry and the Norwegian Embassy. The today, still valid Border treaty between Norway and Sweden, the so called Lappkodicills of 1751, confirms the strong rights that swedish reindeerhusbandry hold in Norway.The Lappcodicills, were earlier regulated with the Reindeergrazing convention, between the countries.The latest convention went out of effect in 2005 and there has not yet been any agreement made, on a new convention. Norway has since then, singlehandedly decided to regulate the Saami Peoples customary rights lands, with their own so called convention law. This law is created in violation of human rights and international law, beacuse it does not follow the Lappkodicills which presupposes and agreement between the two states. The Swedish Government has admittedly declared that the new norwegian law is in violation of the Lappkodicills, and therefore violates international law. But Sweden still has not taken any action in this matter, which is very strange, since both Sweden and Norway are staunch defenders of human rights and international law, when other contries violates them, and often react very fast on such violations. - Sweden usually reacts very fast to defend human rights and international law, on the international arena. It is now time, to defend your own Indigenous Peoples at home, aswell, says Mr Nutti. For more information contact: Per Anders Nutti, Chairman of Saarivuoma Saamivillage. Cellphone: 0046 – (0)70-213 58 41 Henrik Johannes Blind, Saarivuoma saamivillage and acting traditional Saami security officer according to the Lappkodicill regulations. Cellphone: 0046- (0)73-089 86 83 Olov J Sikku, responsible for presscontactsolov.sikku@same.net0046-(0)70-171 80 34 FACTS: THE LAPPKODOCILLS OF 1751 The Lappkodicills of 1751 is the still today valid Border Treaty between Norway and Sweden. This treaty confirms the strong rights that the swedish reindeer husbandry has in Norway.The Lappkodicills has the status of law, both in Sweden and Norway, and is in its current form not possible to dismiss.The Lappkodicills has in more detailed form been regulated by the Reindeer grazing convention, that was negotiated between the two states.Since 2005 there are no Reindeer grazing convention in effect, which means that the Lappkodicills regulations alone are in effect. 1972 YEARS REINDEERGRAZING CONVENTION 1972 years Reindeergrazing Convention resulted in that the swedish Saamis were pushed away and restrained from use of 70% of their customary rights lands in Norway, during a timeperiod of 33 years. Saarivuoma Saami village were shut out from the Altevann area. This has resulted in the loss of millions of swedish crowns, that the Saami people has had to pay in fines and additional surveillance costs, beacuse of these unnatural borders that have been imposed on them. The Reindeergrazing Convention of 1972 was established against the will of the Saami National Association and a number of Saami Villages clearly expressed rejection.No compensation has been payed out to the swedish Reindeerhusbandry for their loss of these lands. NORWEGIAN CONVENTION LAW – is in violation of international law and human rights Norway decided on their own, their new so called “Convention law” of 2005 to regulate the lands included in the Lappkodicills. The former Minister of foreign affairs, Mrs Laila Freiwalds, in May 2005, that the attitude of the swedish government towards Norways newly founded convention law, was that it violates the Lappkodicills and therefore violates international law and human rights. Also the current Swedish Government agrees to this same attitude, but has up to this date remained passive. None of the highest Saami political entities has acted, either. THE ALTEVANN CASE of 1968 Saarivuoma and Talma Saami villages were awarded an on private rights founded ,reindeerhusbandry right in the Altevann area in the region ( fylke) of Troms in Norway, in a fixed ruling of Norways Highest Court, in 1968 – the so called Altevann case ( April 20 1968 L. Nr 42 nr 8/1966 )The case concerned the regulation of water in the Lake of Altevann. http://www.saarivuoma.se/
Norway is violating International Law in their conduct against the Saami People in Sweden – Nobody is taking any action!
Demonstration/protest in Stockholm November 23, 2007 against the judicial assaults on the Saami People. Norwegian arrogance and superiority, and swedish passiveness work together when Norway runs over the swedish Saamis on their traditional summer reindeer- grazing areas. The norwegian state has during the last years, been allowed to terrorize the swedish Sami People in a multitude of different ways, when they have been on their reindeers summer-grazing areas in Norway.The swedish authorities has not lifted a finger, when the norwegian state has torn down reindeer-nouns, unlawfully driven away large herds of reindeers and continually expressed repeated threats of heavy fines for Saami villages situated on the swedish side of the nationstate border. Now the Saami villages react against the passiveness of the swedish government in this matter, knowing how quick both Norway and Sweden usually reacts, when other countries violates human rights and international laws.This is the reason why Saarivuoma Saami village, along with other Saami villages and Saami organisations, now has been forced to take this drastic measure, to make the world listen. - This is totally unreal. We cannot live with a state that terrorizes and hunt us, inspite of that we are on our own lands that we have lived on and cultivated in thousands of years – long before there was a norwegian state, says the Chairman of Saarivuoma Saami village mr Per-Anders Nutti. - We have to draw attention to this matter. We cannot fight against a hostile state, on our own. This is why we are going to Stockholm now, to show our intentions and hand over protestletters to both the swedish Foreign Ministry and the Norwegian Embassy. The today, still valid Border treaty between Norway and Sweden, the so called Lappkodicills of 1751, confirms the strong rights that swedish reindeerhusbandry hold in Norway.The Lappcodicills, were earlier regulated with the Reindeergrazing convention, between the countries.The latest convention went out of effect in 2005 and there has not yet been any agreement made, on a new convention. Norway has since then, singlehandedly decided to regulate the Saami Peoples customary rights lands, with their own so called convention law. This law is created in violation of human rights and international law, beacuse it does not follow the Lappkodicills which presupposes and agreement between the two states. The Swedish Government has admittedly declared that the new norwegian law is in violation of the Lappkodicills, and therefore violates international law. But Sweden still has not taken any action in this matter, which is very strange, since both Sweden and Norway are staunch defenders of human rights and international law, when other contries violates them, and often react very fast on such violations. - Sweden usually reacts very fast to defend human rights and international law, on the international arena. It is now time, to defend your own Indigenous Peoples at home, aswell, says Mr Nutti. For more information contact: Per Anders Nutti, Chairman of Saarivuoma Saamivillage. Cellphone: 0046 – (0)70-213 58 41 Henrik Johannes Blind, Saarivuoma saamivillage and acting traditional Saami security officer according to the Lappkodicill regulations. Cellphone: 0046- (0)73-089 86 83 Olov J Sikku, responsible for presscontactsolov.sikku@same.net0046-(0)70-171 80 34 FACTS: THE LAPPKODOCILLS OF 1751 The Lappkodicills of 1751 is the still today valid Border Treaty between Norway and Sweden. This treaty confirms the strong rights that the swedish reindeer husbandry has in Norway.The Lappkodicills has the status of law, both in Sweden and Norway, and is in its current form not possible to dismiss.The Lappkodicills has in more detailed form been regulated by the Reindeer grazing convention, that was negotiated between the two states.Since 2005 there are no Reindeer grazing convention in effect, which means that the Lappkodicills regulations alone are in effect. 1972 YEARS REINDEERGRAZING CONVENTION 1972 years Reindeergrazing Convention resulted in that the swedish Saamis were pushed away and restrained from use of 70% of their customary rights lands in Norway, during a timeperiod of 33 years. Saarivuoma Saami village were shut out from the Altevann area. This has resulted in the loss of millions of swedish crowns, that the Saami people has had to pay in fines and additional surveillance costs, beacuse of these unnatural borders that have been imposed on them. The Reindeergrazing Convention of 1972 was established against the will of the Saami National Association and a number of Saami Villages clearly expressed rejection.No compensation has been payed out to the swedish Reindeerhusbandry for their loss of these lands. NORWEGIAN CONVENTION LAW – is in violation of international law and human rights Norway decided on their own, their new so called “Convention law” of 2005 to regulate the lands included in the Lappkodicills. The former Minister of foreign affairs, Mrs Laila Freiwalds, in May 2005, that the attitude of the swedish government towards Norways newly founded convention law, was that it violates the Lappkodicills and therefore violates international law and human rights. Also the current Swedish Government agrees to this same attitude, but has up to this date remained passive. None of the highest Saami political entities has acted, either. THE ALTEVANN CASE of 1968 Saarivuoma and Talma Saami villages were awarded an on private rights founded ,reindeerhusbandry right in the Altevann area in the region ( fylke) of Troms in Norway, in a fixed ruling of Norways Highest Court, in 1968 – the so called Altevann case ( April 20 1968 L. Nr 42 nr 8/1966 )The case concerned the regulation of water in the Lake of Altevann. http://www.saarivuoma.se/
Censored Indigenous Peoples' border testimony, a challenge to newspapers
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- So far, all of the mainstream newspapers have censored the powerful testimony at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas. There's no excuse for this, since all of the testimony is available online on audio at: www.earthcycles.net/
It couldn't be easier to write about, even for armchair journalists. They can even copy the powerful written testimony of the Mohawk Women Title Holders from the statement, and copy the final report, both online at the Censored Blog.
Perhaps the recorded audio testimony of Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, Kahentinetha Horn, Mohawk, and Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, to mention just three, is too powerful and controversial for newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
The Censored Blog will even provide photos of the speakers at no charge to any media with a serious interest in reporting the truth.
It is far easier for the mainstream media to be caught up in the xenophobia and racism, duped by fear and false spins, and take a formula approach to reporting on the borders.
It is far easier for editors and writers to avoid the fact that traditional Indian people and spiritual leaders in the United States and Canada say their elected tribal councils and band councils are "puppet governments," fashioned after the governments of the invaders. Those puppet councils were designed in the early Twentieth Century to sign energy leases and are now co-opted by Homeland Security and the Border Patrol to oppress Indigenous Peoples at the border, according to Native people.
At the same time, private prison corporations and the gate builders and gate keepers are making fortunes.
Those corporations are not just US corporations either at the border. Israel's defense contractor Elbit Systems (among the builders of the Apartheid Wall in Palestine) was subcontracted by Boeing to construct security at the US/Mexico border. The Wackenhut buses waiting to be filled with migrants at the border are owned by G4S Global Security, in England and Denmark. All the while, Blackwater is waiting at the border, hired guns waiting for a contract.
Meanwhile, some of the mainstream media has finally realized that all federal laws, including those protecting American Indian burial places and those protecting endangered species, have been voided at the US/Mexico border to build the border wall. Homeland Security, using the Real ID Act, has overruled federal law and US courts, deeming itself more powerful than the US laws or US courts.
Now, that the Lipan Apache elderly and women in Texas are under attack by Homeland Security, the Border Patrol and other federal agents, maybe the censorship by the media and complicity of the border wall builders will be shaken.
There are, however, heroes to celebrate, many were at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas.
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- So far, all of the mainstream newspapers have censored the powerful testimony at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas. There's no excuse for this, since all of the testimony is available online on audio at: www.earthcycles.net/
It couldn't be easier to write about, even for armchair journalists. They can even copy the powerful written testimony of the Mohawk Women Title Holders from the statement, and copy the final report, both online at the Censored Blog.
Perhaps the recorded audio testimony of Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, Kahentinetha Horn, Mohawk, and Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, to mention just three, is too powerful and controversial for newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
The Censored Blog will even provide photos of the speakers at no charge to any media with a serious interest in reporting the truth.
It is far easier for the mainstream media to be caught up in the xenophobia and racism, duped by fear and false spins, and take a formula approach to reporting on the borders.
It is far easier for editors and writers to avoid the fact that traditional Indian people and spiritual leaders in the United States and Canada say their elected tribal councils and band councils are "puppet governments," fashioned after the governments of the invaders. Those puppet councils were designed in the early Twentieth Century to sign energy leases and are now co-opted by Homeland Security and the Border Patrol to oppress Indigenous Peoples at the border, according to Native people.
At the same time, private prison corporations and the gate builders and gate keepers are making fortunes.
Those corporations are not just US corporations either at the border. Israel's defense contractor Elbit Systems (among the builders of the Apartheid Wall in Palestine) was subcontracted by Boeing to construct security at the US/Mexico border. The Wackenhut buses waiting to be filled with migrants at the border are owned by G4S Global Security, in England and Denmark. All the while, Blackwater is waiting at the border, hired guns waiting for a contract.
Meanwhile, some of the mainstream media has finally realized that all federal laws, including those protecting American Indian burial places and those protecting endangered species, have been voided at the US/Mexico border to build the border wall. Homeland Security, using the Real ID Act, has overruled federal law and US courts, deeming itself more powerful than the US laws or US courts.
Now, that the Lipan Apache elderly and women in Texas are under attack by Homeland Security, the Border Patrol and other federal agents, maybe the censorship by the media and complicity of the border wall builders will be shaken.
There are, however, heroes to celebrate, many were at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas.
.
Photo: Contractors building border wall on Tohono O'odham land in Arizona.
Alcatraz Island Sunrise Gathering Thursday
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Please double click to enlarge to read about special guests.Indigenous People's Sunrise Gathering and Community Feast at Intertribal Friendship House
The Indigenous People's Thanksgiving Sunrise Ceremony commemorates the 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island by the "Indians of All Tribes."
This event is one day, Thursday, November 22, 2007.
Ticket sales and boarding begins at 4:00 am. The first departure from Alcatraz Landing is at 4:15 am with 5 additional departures leaving Alcatraz Landing approximately every 15 minutes. The last departure from Alcatraz Landing will be at 5:30 am.
Boats begin returning from Alcatraz Island at the conclusion of the Sunrise Gathering Ceremony. Participants are welcome to stay on Alcatraz to take the award-winning cellhouse tour beginning at 9:00 am. The cell-house tour is not offered before 9:00 am.
Tickets can be purchased:http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/sunrise-gathering.aspx
or by calling 415 981-7625 or at the Pier 33 Ticket Booth.
The ticket booth opens at 4:00 am on Thursday, November 22, 2007. Tickets are $12.00 per person. Children 5 and under are free.
Free community dinner to be held afterwards at Intertribal Friendship House
Dinner is from 1:00- 4:00 PM. Bring a side dish to share!523 International Blvd. Oakland, CA 94606
Volunteers to set up/clean up cook and serve are still needed.1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
If you would like to volunteer come before 12:00 noon to help serve and we need help to clean up!
If you would like to contribute please contact Morning Star Gali at: mstargali@gmail.com
Sheriff Arpaio says its an honor to be compared to KKK
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says it's an HONOR to be compared to KKK
Check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFTUQ71Aq0o
Contact the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to demand accountability.
Fulton Brock (R) District 1 fbrock@mail.maricopa.gov
Don Stapley (R) District 2 dstapley@mail.maricopa.gov
Andrew W. Kunasek (R) District 3 akunasek@mail.maricopa.gov
Max W. Wilson (R) District 4 mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov
MaryRose Wilcox (D) District 5 http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=mrwilcox@mail.maricopa.gov
!Take Action!
Black Friday Boycott Racism Protest
Friday November 23rd1:00 PM to 4:00 PM35th Street and Thomas
In front of Pruitts Furniture Background:
http://www.barriozona.com/pruitts_store_confrontantion.htmlhttp://www.barriozona.com/
Check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFTUQ71Aq0o
Contact the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to demand accountability.
Fulton Brock (R) District 1 fbrock@mail.maricopa.gov
Don Stapley (R) District 2 dstapley@mail.maricopa.gov
Andrew W. Kunasek (R) District 3 akunasek@mail.maricopa.gov
Max W. Wilson (R) District 4 mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov
MaryRose Wilcox (D) District 5 http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=mrwilcox@mail.maricopa.gov
!Take Action!
Black Friday Boycott Racism Protest
Friday November 23rd1:00 PM to 4:00 PM35th Street and Thomas
In front of Pruitts Furniture Background:
http://www.barriozona.com/pruitts_store_confrontantion.htmlhttp://www.barriozona.com/
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
O'odham responds on border and passports
Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living in O'odham territory (on the so-called US/Mexico border) responds to a reader comment at the Atlantic Free Press:
"Once again this statement proves the government mindset, they can not see beyond government policies. I have more right to say anything as a traditional person. Our ceremony the only existing one is threatened by this type of mindset. I and all the traditional elders and participants of the ceremony are ask to have a passport to re-enter the United States in 2008. We have no birth records to start the process of obtaining US passports. Our so-called government has not protected the best interest of the people in their United States mandated constitution, to safeguard our way of life. Why are we living in our own territories and required to carry another Nations passport."
Ofelia Rivas
Original article with comments:
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2841/81/
Latest reader response:
Article title: Mohawks Inflamed Over Tohono O'odham Tribal Council Complicity In "Border" Oppression Of Indigenous People - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor
Title: Indigenous
Comment: Enforce a whole region to Only buy your fish & you'll make millions!
That is a right call to, "get the country's they come from to get rid of the corruption ". Too bad the countries governments are all in on it too. Including your boss. NAFTA and other similar trade agreements create the poverty & corruption that these Refugees are Escaping.Every border has Criminal Smugglers. The elderly are concealing contraband medication to save a buck on prescriptions. US citizens smuggle between states to avoid higher taxes on cigarettes & gas. In some cases, US citizens jeopardizing indigenous sovereignty by encouraging the state to collect use fees from the Indians, rather than collect the fees from the us citizens.
Are the women, children, and men seeking a better life smuggling too? Each one that you round-up and put in a pen for a $100 a head, has some kind of contraband on their person?
Ellis Island saw Boatloads of these people; impoverished, oppressed, robbed of their rights as a human being, escaping corrupting. The only difference is no boats.. & origin.
[i]"She needs to run for office and, if she gets in, then she can speak in our behalf"[/i]So your a Top-down nation. A peoples who defer to their social betters i see. Well, some of us operate through the will of the people. Nobody has to become a big chief, or head man, to have the right to speak in public. This is the 21st century after all. That campaigning you see on the TV, that's called politics. Even the US allows free speech, lobbying, and speaking your mind. Why should your leaders suppress it?
"Once again this statement proves the government mindset, they can not see beyond government policies. I have more right to say anything as a traditional person. Our ceremony the only existing one is threatened by this type of mindset. I and all the traditional elders and participants of the ceremony are ask to have a passport to re-enter the United States in 2008. We have no birth records to start the process of obtaining US passports. Our so-called government has not protected the best interest of the people in their United States mandated constitution, to safeguard our way of life. Why are we living in our own territories and required to carry another Nations passport."
Ofelia Rivas
Original article with comments:
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2841/81/
Latest reader response:
Article title: Mohawks Inflamed Over Tohono O'odham Tribal Council Complicity In "Border" Oppression Of Indigenous People - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor
Title: Indigenous
Comment: Enforce a whole region to Only buy your fish & you'll make millions!
That is a right call to, "get the country's they come from to get rid of the corruption ". Too bad the countries governments are all in on it too. Including your boss. NAFTA and other similar trade agreements create the poverty & corruption that these Refugees are Escaping.Every border has Criminal Smugglers. The elderly are concealing contraband medication to save a buck on prescriptions. US citizens smuggle between states to avoid higher taxes on cigarettes & gas. In some cases, US citizens jeopardizing indigenous sovereignty by encouraging the state to collect use fees from the Indians, rather than collect the fees from the us citizens.
Are the women, children, and men seeking a better life smuggling too? Each one that you round-up and put in a pen for a $100 a head, has some kind of contraband on their person?
Ellis Island saw Boatloads of these people; impoverished, oppressed, robbed of their rights as a human being, escaping corrupting. The only difference is no boats.. & origin.
[i]"She needs to run for office and, if she gets in, then she can speak in our behalf"[/i]So your a Top-down nation. A peoples who defer to their social betters i see. Well, some of us operate through the will of the people. Nobody has to become a big chief, or head man, to have the right to speak in public. This is the 21st century after all. That campaigning you see on the TV, that's called politics. Even the US allows free speech, lobbying, and speaking your mind. Why should your leaders suppress it?
Incoming responses: Arrests, colonization and militarization at the border
CounterPunch November 16, 2007
"Today We Experienced America" Arresting Indigenous People on the Border
By BRENDA NORRELL
http://www.counterpunch.org/norrell11162007.html
Dear Miss Norrell:
Mahalo for the article that you've written. It is such an abomination that the US conducts itself with hypocrisy, prejudice, inhumanity, and arrogance. Being insensitive and disrespectful is unconscionable as well as bigoted. This ethnocentric behaviour is just another form of genocide promulgated by their doctrines of manifest destiny, imperialism, and hegemony of the WASP racist culture and society enforced on others who have their own culture, society, and country.
We Hawaii nationals have been fighting against that for well over a hundred years. We are still working toward the deoccupation of the US belligerent occupation within our Hawaiian Kingdom. We know the USA likes to make its own rules and revise their history to "white-wash" themselves (pardon the pun). It is clear that the US makes a mockery of freedom, justice, and the concept of democracy.
I find it strange that these Christians do not live and practice their religious belief and teachings; instead they embrace their base feelings. Isn't it odd that they can forgo their spirituality to feed their materialistic covetousness? Probably, it's their lack of faith and fear that they "gate" themselves to protect themselves from their own demons and treachery.
Aloha,
Tane
Response to CounterPunch article:
I don't know if many of you have seen this or not, but if you haven't, read the attached story and I hope that you are a outraged as I am.
My reactionary instincts makes me wish that I could have been there with about 4,000 brothers and sisters. I know who I would have filled their"Cage" with. However, the Creator gave me the gift of intelligence and some kind of strategy has to be in place. What it is, I don't have a clue at this time. This is a matter where we not only have to deal with federal forces,but US Government created Indian puppet tribal councils. The mass media would love to misdirect a story about human rights to one about Indians fighting Indians.
We are living the crazy and dangerous times that our prophecy keepers and Elders have been warning everyone about. We really need to be aware of events such as these and not become numb or complacent about them. Apathy is an addictive and dangerous drug so don't become a victim of it.
Circulate this with your friends and ask them to continue to spread the news. I know some people still regard anyone living south of the imaginary line called a border as "Mexicans", but I see them as spanish speaking Indians. They are Indian people and we need to re-educate people as to who they are.
If anyone hears of future gatherings or conferences let me know about them.Time and money may prohibit me from attending, but if I can, I'd like to attend.
Thanks, Ben
Border wall tyranny: Lipan Apache in Texas issue cry for help
By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere
http://www.narconews.com/
Margo Tamez sends out this urgent call for help, as Homeland Security, National Guard and Border Patrol attempt to seize the lands of the Lipan Apache in Texas for the border wall.
The harassment and intimidation of women, children and elderly comes as the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas concluded on Tohono O'odham land in Arizona.
On O'odham land, the border wall has already resulted in the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham being dug up. Further, the border wall on O'odham land will be a physical barrier to the ceremonies.
All federal laws have been rendered powerless by Homeland Security using the Read ID Act, including federal laws protecting Indian remains and repatriation. Further the laws protecting endangered species, including the Sonoran Pronghorn, jaguar and others along the Arizona border have been voided.
As all federal laws are dismantled, private prison corporations are seizing the profits from imprisoning migrants, including the imprisonment of infants and children at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center near Austin.
A delegation of Mohawks urged Indigenous Peoples to rise up and tear down the border wall and halt the arrests and deaths of their fellow Indigenous brothers and sisters being displaced by so-called free trade agreements, paramilitaries and brutal land seizures in the south.
As the Lipan Apaches' call goes out across the Americas, many are rising up, ready to resist the tyranny.
From Margo Tamez: Urgent call for help: Homeland Security attempting seizure of Lipan Apache lands, Texas
Subject: el Calaboz, Land Grant Indigenous communities, South Texas--Tamaulipas (Nuevo Santander rancheria), Mexico-US International Boundary, Militarized Zone.
Lipan Apache Descent Land Title Holders Threatened by Homeland National Security Agency, National Guard and Border Patrol
Read more:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/urgent-call-for-help-homeland-security.html
Narcosphere
http://www.narconews.com/
Margo Tamez sends out this urgent call for help, as Homeland Security, National Guard and Border Patrol attempt to seize the lands of the Lipan Apache in Texas for the border wall.
The harassment and intimidation of women, children and elderly comes as the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas concluded on Tohono O'odham land in Arizona.
On O'odham land, the border wall has already resulted in the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham being dug up. Further, the border wall on O'odham land will be a physical barrier to the ceremonies.
All federal laws have been rendered powerless by Homeland Security using the Read ID Act, including federal laws protecting Indian remains and repatriation. Further the laws protecting endangered species, including the Sonoran Pronghorn, jaguar and others along the Arizona border have been voided.
As all federal laws are dismantled, private prison corporations are seizing the profits from imprisoning migrants, including the imprisonment of infants and children at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center near Austin.
A delegation of Mohawks urged Indigenous Peoples to rise up and tear down the border wall and halt the arrests and deaths of their fellow Indigenous brothers and sisters being displaced by so-called free trade agreements, paramilitaries and brutal land seizures in the south.
As the Lipan Apaches' call goes out across the Americas, many are rising up, ready to resist the tyranny.
From Margo Tamez: Urgent call for help: Homeland Security attempting seizure of Lipan Apache lands, Texas
Subject: el Calaboz, Land Grant Indigenous communities, South Texas--Tamaulipas (Nuevo Santander rancheria), Mexico-US International Boundary, Militarized Zone.
Lipan Apache Descent Land Title Holders Threatened by Homeland National Security Agency, National Guard and Border Patrol
Read more:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/urgent-call-for-help-homeland-security.html
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Three arrested protesting US torture at Fort Huachuca
As 25,000 people protested at the School of Assassins in Fort Benning, Georgia, 300 protested torture training at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona
November 18, 2007
By Jack or Felice Cohen-Joppa
Three Arrested as 300 Protest Torture at Ft. Huachuca
More than three hundred people rallied against torture today outside the gates of Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and school for interrogation.
Three people were arrested during the rally as they tried to enter the base and meet with enlisted personnel and officers to continue a dialogue begun three days earlier about the interrogation techniques taught there.
Betsy Lamb, Mary Burton Riseley, and Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada were taken into custody at the main gate about 1 p.m., and charged with criminal trespass on a military installation (18 USC1382), conspiracy (18 USC 371), and failure to comply with a police officer (Arizona Revised Statutes 28-622, as assimilated by the Federal Assimilative Crimes Act 18 USC 13 & 7). They were released a few hours later with a summons to appear in federal court in Tucson on December 4 for their arraignment.
Last Thursday, Riseley and Zawada met with officers at the base and began the dialogue they sought to continue today. Before the three entered the Fort, Betsy Lamb explained the concern for the soldiers that she shares with Riseley and Zawada: "Torture is inhuman. It is too 'up close and personal' for either victim or perpetrator to escape unharmed. For me, it represents an ultimate hardening of its perpetrators, leaving little left they couldn't be talked into doing. It is a morally bereft act capable of creating morally bereft people."
Biographical information about the three people arrested follows this press release along with the text of the flyer they brought onto the Fort to distribute.
Today's demonstration at Ft. Huachuca took place in conjunction with the annual vigil at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where 25,000 people vigiled today and 11 were arrested as they called for closing the infamous School of the Americas (now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Dozens of Latin American military leaders who trained at the "School of Assassins" have since been convicted of torture, murder, and other heinous crimes in their own countries.
Fr. Louie Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly, two priests who were arrested at last year's demonstration at Ft. Huachuca, are currently serving a five month prison sentence. For more information see http://tortureontrial.org/.- 30 -
BIOGRAPHIES
Mary Burton Riseley, 65 years old Mary is a fourth generation New Mexican, a Quaker and a war tax resister. She has been active in peace and anti-nuclear issue since 1970. She was the co-founder of the Los Alamos Study Group in1990, and spent five weeks in Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness in the winter of 2003. She's a member of an agricultural land trust community on the Gila River in Cliff, New Mexico. She has one wonderful daughter who does community garden support work in New York City.
Betsy Lamb, 69 years old Extensive travel in Latin America made Betsy aware of the violence - including torture - being perpetrated on the people therein support of U.S. interests. In 1989, Betsy first risked arrest in nonviolent direct action when six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were ruthlessly massacred in El Salvador by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas. With a M.A. in Theology, Betsy then worked for many years developing small parish-based Catholic communities for putting faith into action. In 2004, she completed a six-month prison sentence for her nonviolent action to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC atFt. Benning, Georgia. "Retired," she is currently involved in the peace community in Bend, Oregon, serves on the Witness for Peace Northwest board of directors, and is a war tax resister.
Jerry Zawada, 70 years old A Franciscan priest currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada. His first years in the priesthood were spent in the Philippine Islands. From the 1980's through to the present, he has joined others in acting to end torture, the nuclear threat and the wars in the Middle East and other forms of violence both locally and abroad. Among his involvements were the sanctuary movement, joining Voices in the Wilderness for several months in Iraq, and working to close the U.S. Army's School of the Americas. His activities have earned him 4 and 1/2 years in federal and county prisons and jails.
Text of flyer brought to Ft. Huachuca:
November 18, 2007
Today we join many who call for an end to our country' s use of torture in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq, Afghanistan and in secret prisons elsewhere. We stand near the main gate of Ft.Huachuca, a U.S. Army post in southern Arizona, home base for Army intelligence and where all Army interrogators are trained. We are here because we can no longer tolerate violations of fundamental human rights such as detention without trial and acts of torture committed in our names behind the vast secrecy which the present administration has instituted. Although Colonel Jeff Jennings and other training staff at the fort seemed sincere in telling some of us that waterboarding, sleep deprivation and stress positions are prohibited at Ft. Huachuca, we continue to believe that these brutal and dehumanizing methods are still happening at the hands of U.S. interrogators deployed abroad.
These acts and the secrecy surrounding them contradict our understanding of the U.S. Constitution and our treaty obligations as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. They are deeply unacceptable to our personal moral consciences.
There has been widespread opposition to our current government's imperial policies of pre-emptive war, unwarranted telephone and Internet-based surveillance, the sending of invasive national security letters, rendition of many times mistakenly suspected foreigners to countries known to practice torture and the selective abolition of civil rights like habeas corpus. We have filled the streets; we have filled the Internet and telephone lines, the op-ed and letters to the editor columns as well as Congressional mail bags.
Some of us have refused war taxes. And yet unspeakable, illegal and immoral acts are committed daily in our names as American citizens. Gates and sentry posts always relate to greed, the desire to hold on to what we have and to keep people less fortunate than we are from claiming their share. It is not true that military people are more greedy than the rest of us, but they have accepted the charge of protecting our abundance with weapons of unprecedented killing power.
They are enforcing the projection into the world of our unwillingness to share. We cannot reconcile gates, guns or sentry posts with the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi spoke of nonviolent direct action as an experiment in truth or satyagraha. We ask ourselves: how can we best honor our need to withdraw our complicity with our government's actions?
Our simple ritual of approaching the gate of Ft. Huachuca expresses our willingness to undergo suffering rather than to inflict it, and our longing to bring our country to openness and accountability. We seek to meet with enlisted personnel and officer son Ft. Huachuca to continue a dialogue about the interrogation techniques they are learning, how easy it has been for others trained before them to fall into cruelty, and to explore with them what they each might do to prevent themselves from repeating the horrible errors of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. We may be arrested. We ask for your prayers, and we ask also that you escalate - in any nonviolent way you are led - your own efforts to end torture and the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Love, peace, joy. Betsy Lamb mary burton riseley Jerry Zawada, OFM
November 18, 2007
By Jack or Felice Cohen-Joppa
Three Arrested as 300 Protest Torture at Ft. Huachuca
More than three hundred people rallied against torture today outside the gates of Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and school for interrogation.
Three people were arrested during the rally as they tried to enter the base and meet with enlisted personnel and officers to continue a dialogue begun three days earlier about the interrogation techniques taught there.
Betsy Lamb, Mary Burton Riseley, and Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada were taken into custody at the main gate about 1 p.m., and charged with criminal trespass on a military installation (18 USC1382), conspiracy (18 USC 371), and failure to comply with a police officer (Arizona Revised Statutes 28-622, as assimilated by the Federal Assimilative Crimes Act 18 USC 13 & 7). They were released a few hours later with a summons to appear in federal court in Tucson on December 4 for their arraignment.
Last Thursday, Riseley and Zawada met with officers at the base and began the dialogue they sought to continue today. Before the three entered the Fort, Betsy Lamb explained the concern for the soldiers that she shares with Riseley and Zawada: "Torture is inhuman. It is too 'up close and personal' for either victim or perpetrator to escape unharmed. For me, it represents an ultimate hardening of its perpetrators, leaving little left they couldn't be talked into doing. It is a morally bereft act capable of creating morally bereft people."
Biographical information about the three people arrested follows this press release along with the text of the flyer they brought onto the Fort to distribute.
Today's demonstration at Ft. Huachuca took place in conjunction with the annual vigil at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where 25,000 people vigiled today and 11 were arrested as they called for closing the infamous School of the Americas (now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Dozens of Latin American military leaders who trained at the "School of Assassins" have since been convicted of torture, murder, and other heinous crimes in their own countries.
Fr. Louie Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly, two priests who were arrested at last year's demonstration at Ft. Huachuca, are currently serving a five month prison sentence. For more information see http://tortureontrial.org/.- 30 -
BIOGRAPHIES
Mary Burton Riseley, 65 years old Mary is a fourth generation New Mexican, a Quaker and a war tax resister. She has been active in peace and anti-nuclear issue since 1970. She was the co-founder of the Los Alamos Study Group in1990, and spent five weeks in Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness in the winter of 2003. She's a member of an agricultural land trust community on the Gila River in Cliff, New Mexico. She has one wonderful daughter who does community garden support work in New York City.
Betsy Lamb, 69 years old Extensive travel in Latin America made Betsy aware of the violence - including torture - being perpetrated on the people therein support of U.S. interests. In 1989, Betsy first risked arrest in nonviolent direct action when six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were ruthlessly massacred in El Salvador by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas. With a M.A. in Theology, Betsy then worked for many years developing small parish-based Catholic communities for putting faith into action. In 2004, she completed a six-month prison sentence for her nonviolent action to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC atFt. Benning, Georgia. "Retired," she is currently involved in the peace community in Bend, Oregon, serves on the Witness for Peace Northwest board of directors, and is a war tax resister.
Jerry Zawada, 70 years old A Franciscan priest currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada. His first years in the priesthood were spent in the Philippine Islands. From the 1980's through to the present, he has joined others in acting to end torture, the nuclear threat and the wars in the Middle East and other forms of violence both locally and abroad. Among his involvements were the sanctuary movement, joining Voices in the Wilderness for several months in Iraq, and working to close the U.S. Army's School of the Americas. His activities have earned him 4 and 1/2 years in federal and county prisons and jails.
Text of flyer brought to Ft. Huachuca:
November 18, 2007
Today we join many who call for an end to our country' s use of torture in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq, Afghanistan and in secret prisons elsewhere. We stand near the main gate of Ft.Huachuca, a U.S. Army post in southern Arizona, home base for Army intelligence and where all Army interrogators are trained. We are here because we can no longer tolerate violations of fundamental human rights such as detention without trial and acts of torture committed in our names behind the vast secrecy which the present administration has instituted. Although Colonel Jeff Jennings and other training staff at the fort seemed sincere in telling some of us that waterboarding, sleep deprivation and stress positions are prohibited at Ft. Huachuca, we continue to believe that these brutal and dehumanizing methods are still happening at the hands of U.S. interrogators deployed abroad.
These acts and the secrecy surrounding them contradict our understanding of the U.S. Constitution and our treaty obligations as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. They are deeply unacceptable to our personal moral consciences.
There has been widespread opposition to our current government's imperial policies of pre-emptive war, unwarranted telephone and Internet-based surveillance, the sending of invasive national security letters, rendition of many times mistakenly suspected foreigners to countries known to practice torture and the selective abolition of civil rights like habeas corpus. We have filled the streets; we have filled the Internet and telephone lines, the op-ed and letters to the editor columns as well as Congressional mail bags.
Some of us have refused war taxes. And yet unspeakable, illegal and immoral acts are committed daily in our names as American citizens. Gates and sentry posts always relate to greed, the desire to hold on to what we have and to keep people less fortunate than we are from claiming their share. It is not true that military people are more greedy than the rest of us, but they have accepted the charge of protecting our abundance with weapons of unprecedented killing power.
They are enforcing the projection into the world of our unwillingness to share. We cannot reconcile gates, guns or sentry posts with the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi spoke of nonviolent direct action as an experiment in truth or satyagraha. We ask ourselves: how can we best honor our need to withdraw our complicity with our government's actions?
Our simple ritual of approaching the gate of Ft. Huachuca expresses our willingness to undergo suffering rather than to inflict it, and our longing to bring our country to openness and accountability. We seek to meet with enlisted personnel and officer son Ft. Huachuca to continue a dialogue about the interrogation techniques they are learning, how easy it has been for others trained before them to fall into cruelty, and to explore with them what they each might do to prevent themselves from repeating the horrible errors of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. We may be arrested. We ask for your prayers, and we ask also that you escalate - in any nonviolent way you are led - your own efforts to end torture and the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Love, peace, joy. Betsy Lamb mary burton riseley Jerry Zawada, OFM
Indigenous Peoples' Sunrise Gathering Alcatraz
Indigenous Peoples' Sunrise GatheringThursday, November 22, 2007
Indigenous People's Sunrise Gathering and Community Feast at Intertribal Friendship HouseThe Indigenous People's Thanksgiving Sunrise Ceremony commemorates the 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island by the "Indians of All Tribes."This event is one day, Thursday, November 22, 2007.
Ticket sales and boarding begins at 4:00 am. The first departure from Alcatraz Landing is at 4:15 am with 5 additional departures leaving Alcatraz Landing approximately every 15 minutes. The last departure from Alcatraz Landing will be at 5:30 am.Boats begin returning from Alcatraz Island at the conclusion of the Sunrise Gathering Ceremony. Participants are welcome to stay on Alcatraz to take the award-winning cellhouse tour beginning at 9:00 am. The cell-house tour is not offered before 9:00 am.
Tickets can be purchased:
http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/sunrise-gathering.aspxor by calling 415 981-7625 or at the Pier 33 Ticket Booth.The ticket booth opens at 4:00 am on Thursday, November 22, 2007. Tickets are $12.00 per person. Children 5 and under are free.
Free community dinner to be held afterwards at Intertribal Friendship House
Dinner is from 1:00- 4:00 PM. Bring a side dish to share!523 International Blvd. Oakland, CA 94606Volunteers to set up/clean up cook and serve are still needed.1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
If you would like to volunteer come before 12:00 noon to help serve and we need help to clean up!If you would like to contribute please contact Morning Star Gali at: mstargali@gmail.com
Sadness and outrage over border wall on Indian lands
By Brenda Norrellhttp://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- With heavy hearts, a delegation to the US/Mexico border return after viewing their fellow Indigenous brothers and sisters, Mayans, under arrest, and then packed quickly into the back of a truck. The delegation, including Mohawks, Oneida and Lakota in photo, expressed sadness and outrage at the border wall (in photo overhead) under construction on Tohono O'odham Nation land. The construction has already led to Boeing digging up O'odham ancestors on O'odham land. The border wall will be a barrier dissecting the traditional O'odham ceremonial route.
Special thanks to Bill Means, Lakota, and the summit gathering on Nov. 9, 2007, for their public support of the articles on this Indigenous delegation to the border, which appeared on the Censored Blog and were republished in the international media.
Listen to this report online at the Indigenous Border Summit, day two (hour six)
http://www.earthcycles.net/
Urgent call for help: Homeland Security attempting seizure of Lipan Apache lands, Texas
URGENT! From: Margo TamezSubject: URGENT! el Calaboz, Lipan Apache Land Title Holders Threatened by National Guard and Border Patrol in last 72 Hours
Subject: el Calaboz, Land Grant Indigenous communities, South Texas--Tamaulipas (Nuevo Santander rancheria), Mexico-US International Boundary, Militarized Zone.
Lipan Apache Descent Land Title Holders Threatened by Homeland National Security Agency, National Guard and Border Patrol
Hello friends,
I am informing you of recent events in my maternal community of el Calaboz, Texas, a binational land grant indigenous rancheria of Lipan Apache, Chiricahua and Basque descent.
I am foregrounding this because I have been asked to submit documentation through the NGO, the International Indigenous Treaty Council, for the CERD investigation of human rights and indigenous rights abuses by the U.S. government against my mother community.
The Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) report to be directed toward the United Nation in March 2008, which will for the first time in over a decade focus on abuses by the United States to oppressed groups.
This year, as a result of the recently approved UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples rights, indigenous people have a specific opportunity to submit documents on behalf of their communities.
I'll be working hard the next week to complete a draft document, with evidentiary materials, for review by an international human rights and indigenous rights attorney who recently accompanied me on an investigatory field trip to my paternal community, Redford, TX, of the Jumano Apache.
I wanted to keep you informed of this progress, and through this following letter, establish a way to communicate what I'm doing and how it impacts all my work. See the earlier letter below.
Ahi'i'eMargo Tamez~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: Emergency in el Calaboz, Lipan Apache & Basque-Indigena North American Land Title Holders!!!
Dear relatives,
I wish I was writing under better circumstances, but I must be fast and direct.
My mother and elders of El Calaboz, since July have been the targets of numerous threats and harassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a fence on their levee.
Since July, they have been the targets of numerous telephone calls, unexpected and uninvited visits on their lands, informing them that they will have to relinquish parts of their land grant holdings to the border fence buildup. The NSA demands that elders give up their lands to build the levee, and further, that they travel a distance of 3 miles, to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, and to farm and herd goats and cattle, ON THEIR OWN LANDS.
This threat against indigenous people, life ways and lands has been very very serious and stress inducing to local leaders, such as Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, who has been in isolation from the larger indigenous rights community due to the invisibility of indigenous people of South Texas and Northern Tamaulipas to the larger social justice conversation regarding the border issues.
However recent events, of the last 5 days cause us to feel that we are in urgent need of immediate human rights observers in the area, deployed by all who can help as soon as possible--immediate relief.
My mother informed me, as I got back into cell range out of Redford, TX, on Monday, November 13, that Army Corps of Engineers, Border Patrol and National Security Agency teams have been going house to house, and calling on her personal office phone, her cell phone and in other venues, tracking down and enclosing upon the people and telling them that they have no other choice in this matter. They are telling elders and other vulnerable people that "the wall is going on these lands whether you like it or not, and you have to sell your land to the U.S."
My mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache (descendant of Mexican Chiricahua descent elder, Aniceto Garcia, who gave her traditional indigenous birth welcoming ceremony and lightning ceremony), is resisting the forced occupation with firm resistance. She has already had two major confrontations with NSA since July--one in her office at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she is the Director of a Nursing Program and where she conducts research on diabetes among indigenous people of the MX-US binational region of South Texas and Tamaulipas.
She reports that some land owners in the rancheria area of El Calaboz, La Paloma and El Ranchito, under pressure to sell to the U.S. without prior and informed consent, have already signed over their lands, due to their ongoing state of impoverishment and exploitation in the area under colonization, corporatism, NAFTA and militarization.
This is an outrage, but more, this is a significant violation of United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, recently ratified and accepted by all UN nations, except the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Furthermore, it is a violation of the United Nations CERD, Committee on Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination.
My mother is under great stress and crisis, unknowing if the Army soldiers and the NSA agents will be forcibly demanding that she sign documents. She reports that they are calling her at all hours, seven days a week. She has firmly told them not to call her anymore, nor to call her at all hours of the night and day, nor to call on the weekends any further.She asked them to meet with her in a public space and to tell their supervisors to come.They refuse to do so. Instead, they continue to harass and intimidate.
At this time, due to the great stress the elders are currently under, communicated to me, because they are being demanded under covert tactics, to relinquish indigenous lands, I feel that I MUST call upon my relatives, friends, colleagues, especially associates in Texas within driving distance to the Rio Grande valley region, and involved in indigenous rights issues, to come forth and aid us.
Please! Please help indigenous women land title holders resisting forced occupation in their own lands! Please do not hesitate to forward this to people in your own networks in media, journalism, social and environmental justice, human rights, indigenous rights advocacy and public health watch groups!
Margo Tamez mtamez@wsu.edu
Jumano Apache West Texas-Chihuahua Lipan Apache South Texas-Tamaulipas, Apacheria Nuevo Santander Land Grant--Basque Colony)
http://www.nativewiki.org/Margo_Tamez
Listen to Margo Tamez' report at the Indigenous Border Summit, on women and children at the border:
Day three:
http://www.earthcycles.net/
More articles on the Indigenous Border Summit and border wall:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Brenda+Norrell%22&scoring=d
Saturday, November 17, 2007
White Clay People, Life Interrupted
White Clay People, Life InterruptedPart III
By Brenda Norrell
Special to Navajo Times
HAVRE, Montana – Memories of the Seven Generations Singers Drum Group on the Kumeyaay Nation in California, travels in Greece and completing his autobiography in Mashantucket Pequot territory, are the solace of Jim Main, Jr., whose childhood was spent in the idyllic mountains of his Gros-Ventre homeland in northern Montana.
"Those were chapters in my life's book," Main says from the other side of the glass, with his long grey ponytail trailing to the waist of the orange jumpsuit, at the Hill County Detention Center in Havre.
Main has been charged with murder in the November 25, 2006, death of a man in a Havre home and scheduled for trial in January, 2008. Main maintains his innocence.
In this bordertown, positioned between Fort Belknap's Gros-Ventre and Assiniboine lands and Rocky Boy Chippewa Cree lands in north-central Montana, American Indians are watching to see if a fair trial is possible.
Rose Main, Jim's sister, has just driven two hours from their Gros-Ventre homeland to visit her brother in jail. Rose's time and energy is stretched between caring for her father, Jim, Sr., in the
last stages of congestive heart failure, and her mother, recovering from multiple surgeries.
Rose’s brothers, Harold Jiggs and William “Snuffy” Main, have also been making the long journey to Havre to visit their brother.
Jim Jr. served as the primary caregiver for his mother, Vernie White Cow Main, before his arrest. Jim Jr. had traveled with his mother by train for her parathyroid surgery in St. Paul, Minn. Later during recovery, her intestines ruptured and her respiratory illness became
severe. Jim Jr. taught himself nursing skills to care for her.
However, even in the worst of times, the Main family remembers the best of times. In the Havre Detention Center, Jim Jr. remembers those good years. When Jim Jr. was hired as a youth counselor for the Kumeyaay, little did he
know that the hollowed-out cottonwood trunk, which he fashioned into a drum, would give birth not only to a new wave of young Indiansingers, but also to a renaissance for Bird Singers.
During his decade in southern California, his Indian family expanded.
"I was like family to most of those kids," Jim Jr. remembers with a smile.
While working at the La Posta Substance Abuse Center with Kumeyaay youths, he organized the Seven Generations Drum Group, with the youngest singer only four years old. After performing locally with support from Kumeyaay Bands in southern California, the young group of singers was in demand. They appeared across the southwest, from the California Indian Leaders Conference in Reno, to national Indian youth conferences.
Jim Jr. learned about life in the borderzone and the Kumiai living across the international border in Baja, Mexico.
"The people are so poor on the other side of the border," he said. While in southern California, another door opened for Jim. This time it was the opportunity to travel to Athens, Greece, and perform with some of Indian country's finest dancers.
However, while the Greeks opened their hearts to the Indian performers, trip sponsors panicked over financial arrangements as the money poured in. The sponsors fled the country, leaving the dancers to fend for themselves.
Now, Jim Jr. remembers one of the newspaper headlines, "Cowboy leaves Indians stranded in Athens."
However, the emergency brought out their best. "It pulled us together and the leadership came out. It opened the doors."
The Greeks responded with an outpouring of admiration and aid for the stranded group of Gros-Ventre, Assiniboine, Navajo, Apache and others who gained notoriety for their dances and cultures in Greece.
Remembering the performers, adored by the Greeks, Jim said, "It was almost like a rock band." Jim remembered the screenplay he coauthored with French playwright. He smiles remembering the allure of Hollywood, where he appeared a few days as an extra on film sets. However, looking back, he says Hollywood was not his destiny. His travels took him to the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Jim Jr.'s brush with Hollywood and his travels, along with the history and culture of the Gros-Ventre, White Clay People, are detailed in Jim Jr.'s recently finished autobiography, which awaits publication. The next chapter in his life is filled with emotion.
"I came home to stay with my folks. They were both terminally ill," Jim Jr. said of his return to his family's home, surrounded by a warm flowing creek where the family trapped beaver and rode the wild horses coming down from the mountains.
Before his incarceration, Jim Jr. spent six months caring for his mother. He changed the fluid bag of his mother and kept the wood fire going in the cold. Already, his father had a close call with life and death, when he survived open-heart surgery.
Suddenly, at the Hill County Detention Center, Jim Jr.'s 20 minutes for the visit is up. The telephone of the visiting cubicle goes dead.
Walking out of the waiting room, Jim Jr.'s sister Rose looks back at more than a dozen Indian women, surrounded by children, all with faces lined with grief.
"You should have taken a picture," she says. "All those Indian women lined up there. It tells you who is here in jail."
The Gros-Ventre, White Clay People, survived the smallpox epidemics brought by the whites, which nearly decimated the tribe. The White Clay People survived the starvation that resulted from the eradication of the buffalo herds, which covered the Plains like dark rolling waves.
For the Main family today, their spiritual belief gives them hope and strength.
In the old stories and ceremonies of the White Clay People are the lessons: Be kind to the horses, for they represent kindness; the bitter cold that comes in winter also brings healing to the land and suffering brings appreciation and one closer to the Great Spirit.
The stories tell how the buffalos' hooves kept the plains plowed and the hooves carried the grass seeds, sowing new grass. These stories tell how the smallpox came and swiftly killed thousands. The Plains were covered with the bones of the buffalo and the remains of the White
Clay People.
Driving across the peoples' ancestral lands, Rose remembers the story of the white man who told the White Clay People that he was bringing them a gift. He left a box full of rags and vanished. When the people gathered for their gift, opened the box and sorted through the
stained cloths, they pondered what this gift was, unaware of the smallpox – the harbinger of death – within.
Driving across Fort Belknap and close to her family home, Rose tops a hill, looks out and remembers that it was here, where the highway cuts across the sloping hills, that the burial sites of the White Clay Peoples were bulldozed when the highway was built. The remains of her
people were scattered.
However, riding across this land with her father, there are good memories too. There are stories of traveling for the promotion of Indigenous rights and memories of breaking horses, hunting deer, basketball and hand games.
The joy is short-lived. Between visits to her brother in jail, Rose finds her mother seriously ill. Once again, in the night, Rose gives her mother a breathing treatment, places her socks and scarf on her head, and the heavy navy blue coat on her shoulders. Then, her mother
is hospitalized.
Once again, Rose gives her father his shot and medications at the nursing care facility. Once again, Rose returns home late in the night, after 1 a.m., worried how she will raise the $25,000 for her brother's bail, so Jim could be released until the January trial.
In the morning, Rose grinds coffee beans and makes wheel bread, turning the circular dough, with the hole in the center, in the iron skillet. She turns on the radio and powwow sounds fill the morning air.
One the table are Jim Jr.'s pencil drawings, which are now being made into a calendar, and Jim's autobiography awaiting a publisher.
Once again, Rose begins again.
UPDATE: There is new evidence in this murder case concerning one man arrested, Kim Norquay, Jr., who feld the scene and the woman, Melissa Snow, who lied to police officers:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071115/NEWS01/71115023/
Photos: In Jim Main Jr.'s room at home on Big Warm Creek on Gros-Ventre land in Montana, Rose Main looks at a poster of the Kumeyaay's Seventh Generation Singers that her brother helped organize. (Photo 2) Rose looks through her brother's autobiography. It holds the history of their people, the White Clay People, along with the Main family history. Photos Brenda Norrell
Part I: In Montana, Indians are guilty until proven innocent
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-montana-indians-are-guilty-until.html
Part II: On Big Warm Creek, living as a free people
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/on-big-warm-creek-living-as-free-people.html
Uncensored News and courageous acts
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Special thanks to Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net for rising above the censorship of other media this week. As always, Pechanga Net has published a story that others have censored and attacked: The outrage of the Mohawk delegation over the treatment of Indigenous Peoples walking to a better life and dying on Tohono O'odham Nation land.
http://www.pechanga.net/
If you look on the Google Breaking News, you will see that the Atlantic Free Press in the Netherlands has picked up four stories from the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007, including "US Apartheid Wall on the Tohono O'odham Native Land," and "End of Game ..."
You will also see that the UN OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague and Narco News provided coverage of the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007.
Mohawk Nation News' publisher Kahentinetha Horn was not just a Border Summit participant, but a driving force at the US/Mexico border action on Tohono O'odham land, asking the tough questions and ready to intervene on behalf of Mayan brothers and sisters.
Although the local media in Tucson was invited to the Indigenous Border Summit, KXCI Radio was one of the few to attend. Special thanks to KXCI news director Amanda Shauger.
Now, thanks to Govinda at Earthcycles.net those who were not able to attend can listen to the powerful testimony and reports. Audio downloads at:
http://www.earthcycles.net/
Another "thank you" goes out to Jay Johnson-Castro of Del Rio, Texas, who traveled to the Indigenous Border Summit at his own expense to share the information on the imprisonment of migrant infants and children at T. Don Hutto Detention Center near Austin.
As for heroes, words can never express the thanks to the delegation of Mohawks who attended the Indigenous Border Summit, also at their own expense, to provide the strength and fortitude to change perceptions of Indigenous brothers and sisters walking and dying at the border.
Thanks to each of you for your personal sacrifices to attend, including the Yaqui from Sonora, Mexico, Chris George from the Oneida Nation (in what others call Canada) and the Indigenous women whose homeland is what is known as the Texas border, Margo Tamez and Diana Joe.
A special recognition from the Censored Blog also goes out to those courageous heroes who will participate in the vigil against U.S. torture in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, this weekend and the lovers of privacy and freedom in Arivaca, Arizona, who will picnic around the US spy tower on Sunday.
The Censored Blog honors the peaceful protesters attacked and savagely beaten by the US Border Patrol in Calexico, Calif., and the peaceful protesters beaten by police in Berkeley, Calif. Thanks to all of you who are struggling to fight oppression, manipulation of truth and the McCarthyism of the mainstream media.
It doesn't take a lot of people to make a difference heard around the world. Thanks to all of you.
--Brenda
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Special thanks to Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net for rising above the censorship of other media this week. As always, Pechanga Net has published a story that others have censored and attacked: The outrage of the Mohawk delegation over the treatment of Indigenous Peoples walking to a better life and dying on Tohono O'odham Nation land.
http://www.pechanga.net/
If you look on the Google Breaking News, you will see that the Atlantic Free Press in the Netherlands has picked up four stories from the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007, including "US Apartheid Wall on the Tohono O'odham Native Land," and "End of Game ..."
You will also see that the UN OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague and Narco News provided coverage of the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007.
Mohawk Nation News' publisher Kahentinetha Horn was not just a Border Summit participant, but a driving force at the US/Mexico border action on Tohono O'odham land, asking the tough questions and ready to intervene on behalf of Mayan brothers and sisters.
Although the local media in Tucson was invited to the Indigenous Border Summit, KXCI Radio was one of the few to attend. Special thanks to KXCI news director Amanda Shauger.
Now, thanks to Govinda at Earthcycles.net those who were not able to attend can listen to the powerful testimony and reports. Audio downloads at:
http://www.earthcycles.net/
Another "thank you" goes out to Jay Johnson-Castro of Del Rio, Texas, who traveled to the Indigenous Border Summit at his own expense to share the information on the imprisonment of migrant infants and children at T. Don Hutto Detention Center near Austin.
As for heroes, words can never express the thanks to the delegation of Mohawks who attended the Indigenous Border Summit, also at their own expense, to provide the strength and fortitude to change perceptions of Indigenous brothers and sisters walking and dying at the border.
Thanks to each of you for your personal sacrifices to attend, including the Yaqui from Sonora, Mexico, Chris George from the Oneida Nation (in what others call Canada) and the Indigenous women whose homeland is what is known as the Texas border, Margo Tamez and Diana Joe.
A special recognition from the Censored Blog also goes out to those courageous heroes who will participate in the vigil against U.S. torture in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, this weekend and the lovers of privacy and freedom in Arivaca, Arizona, who will picnic around the US spy tower on Sunday.
The Censored Blog honors the peaceful protesters attacked and savagely beaten by the US Border Patrol in Calexico, Calif., and the peaceful protesters beaten by police in Berkeley, Calif. Thanks to all of you who are struggling to fight oppression, manipulation of truth and the McCarthyism of the mainstream media.
It doesn't take a lot of people to make a difference heard around the world. Thanks to all of you.
--Brenda
Fort Huachuca: Vigil in opposition to U.S. torture
The Ft. Huachuca Witness
'No' to Extreme Interrogation and 'No' to Torture Training at Ft. Huachuca
November 17, Teach-in Against Torture, Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ
November 18, Vigil & Action at the Main Gate of Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista, AZ
The Southwest Witness, along with Veterans for Peace and other concerned citizens, are joining together to stop coercive interrogation and torture training by the U.S. Army.
To call for the end of torture and torture training, Southwest Witness will hold a "Weekend of Witness" in Tucson and Sierra Vista, AZ on November 17 and 18.
Planned events include a "Teach-In Against Torture" from 9 to 4 on Saturday the 17th at Pima Community College Downtown Campus, the showing of "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" followed by a procession and all-night vigil, and a peaceful, legally permitted demonstration at the Main Gate of Ft. Huachuca in Sierra Vista from 11 to 3 on Sunday, November 18.
Complete information regarding these events is posted on our website at http://www.southwestwitness.org/
Southwest Witness is calling for a Congressional investigation into torture training and practice in the US government. We call for the establishment of a national independent oversight commission to oversee and report on interrogation training and practice at the US Army National Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, and all other places related to the US government, where interrogation practices are taught.We insist the US government respect its legal, moral, and treaty obligations as defined by the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture, and the historic human rights values of our nation.Torture and torture training is wrong. Torture is ineffective. Torture is a crime. Citizens have both a moral and legal obligation to be certain that torture is never employed by our government.
For complete information: http://www.southwestwitness.org/
'No' to Extreme Interrogation and 'No' to Torture Training at Ft. Huachuca
November 17, Teach-in Against Torture, Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ
November 18, Vigil & Action at the Main Gate of Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista, AZ
The Southwest Witness, along with Veterans for Peace and other concerned citizens, are joining together to stop coercive interrogation and torture training by the U.S. Army.
To call for the end of torture and torture training, Southwest Witness will hold a "Weekend of Witness" in Tucson and Sierra Vista, AZ on November 17 and 18.
Planned events include a "Teach-In Against Torture" from 9 to 4 on Saturday the 17th at Pima Community College Downtown Campus, the showing of "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" followed by a procession and all-night vigil, and a peaceful, legally permitted demonstration at the Main Gate of Ft. Huachuca in Sierra Vista from 11 to 3 on Sunday, November 18.
Complete information regarding these events is posted on our website at http://www.southwestwitness.org/
Southwest Witness is calling for a Congressional investigation into torture training and practice in the US government. We call for the establishment of a national independent oversight commission to oversee and report on interrogation training and practice at the US Army National Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, and all other places related to the US government, where interrogation practices are taught.We insist the US government respect its legal, moral, and treaty obligations as defined by the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture, and the historic human rights values of our nation.Torture and torture training is wrong. Torture is ineffective. Torture is a crime. Citizens have both a moral and legal obligation to be certain that torture is never employed by our government.
For complete information: http://www.southwestwitness.org/
Friday, November 16, 2007
Party down at the Arivaca spy tower Sunday!
No one protests a US spy tower like the good folks at Arivaca, Arizona!
ARIVACA NET: http://www.arivaca.net/
Join us on the hilltop next to the Project 28 SBInet Tower! Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your dancing shoes. Bring a dish to share, bring your ideas on how to bring the tower down, legally of course. On Sunday, November 18th there will be a gathering beginning at 1:00 pm. We will have a concert, a potluck, and a jam session/drumming, all interspersed with reports and announcements about Homeland Security's latest invasive boondoggles.
ABOUT THE TOWERS AND THE VIRTUAL FENCE
They're still not working, and it's not looking good for Boeing!
Read the latest here.
Read about the Homeland Security, Border Patrol, Boeing Corporation, SBInet Project 28 Towers and the "virtual fence"!
Click here for links to articles about the "virtual fence" and Arivaca
ARIVACA NET: http://www.arivaca.net/
Join us on the hilltop next to the Project 28 SBInet Tower! Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your dancing shoes. Bring a dish to share, bring your ideas on how to bring the tower down, legally of course. On Sunday, November 18th there will be a gathering beginning at 1:00 pm. We will have a concert, a potluck, and a jam session/drumming, all interspersed with reports and announcements about Homeland Security's latest invasive boondoggles.
ABOUT THE TOWERS AND THE VIRTUAL FENCE
They're still not working, and it's not looking good for Boeing!
Read the latest here.
Read about the Homeland Security, Border Patrol, Boeing Corporation, SBInet Project 28 Towers and the "virtual fence"!
Click here for links to articles about the "virtual fence" and Arivaca
.
The Arivaca spy tower is one of a network, including at least one on the Tohono O'odham Nation located next to the migrant "cage" jail cell. The spy towers are not yet working. The Arivaca spy tower has no view of the border, only of the Arivaca residents' homes.
Photo: Erect dysfunctional spy tower at Arivaca/Photo Brenda Norrell
Fighting Apartheid at the borders of Arizona and Palestine
By Brenda Norrellhttp://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- Michelle Cook, Navajo activist, and Aida Khan, bringing support from a coalition for Palestine, at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007. During the summit, a delegation of Mohawks joined Native people to the so-called US/Mexico border, where they witnessed the US Apartheid Wall under construction. The lead contractor Boeing subcontracted Elbit Systems, the Israeli Defense Contractor, which is constructing security at both borders, the US Apartheid Wall at the US/Mexico Border and the Palestine/Israeli Apartheid Wall.
Although the US border spy towers on O'odham land and elsewhere on the US border are still not functioning, the border wall is under construction on Tohono O'odham Nation lands. The border wall construction has already caused Boeing to dig up the ancestors of the O'odham. It will also be a barrier to the O'odham ceremonial procession. While the Tohono O'odham Nation government promotes the wall, individual O'odham are calling out to Indigenous Peoples everywhere to support their fight against Apartheid. (Photo Brenda Norrell)
(Scroll down for articles and search under key words in top left corner)
"Today We Experienced America" Arresting Indigenous People on the ...
CounterPunch, CA - By BRENDA NORRELL Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal agents, hovering customs helicopter, ...
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Mohawk Nation News: Tohono O'odham Council complicit in border oppression
Mohawk Nation News:
Article by Brenda Norrell, with inserted comments by Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, and Indigenous Border Summit participant
MOHAWKS INFLAMED OVER TOHONO O’ODHAM TRIBAL COUNCIL COMPLICITY IN “BORDER” OPPRESSION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor
THE GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) Nov., 8, 2007 --Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal agents, hovering customs helicopter, profiteering contractors, federal spy tower, federal "cage" detention center and watching the arrest of a group of Indigenous Peoples, mostly women and children, by the US Border Patrol on an Indian Nation.
"We saw it all firsthand in America," said Bill Means, Lakota and cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council on Nov. 8, when an Indigenous delegation went to the [so-called] "US/Mexico" border here, south of Sells, to document human rights abuses [including murders, rapes, torture, deaths] for a report to the United Nations.
"We are going to take this wall down," Means said, after viewing the construction of a "border vehicle barrier" by contractors and National Guard on Tohono O'odham land. [This wall is something to see. It is iron posts filled with cement, sunk 5 ft. into the ground and 6 1/2 ft. high. it is going to be electrified.] Speaking a few hours later to the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II in San Xavier, Means called for solidarity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world to halt the arrests of Indigenous Peoples who are walking north in search of a better life, and solidarity to bring down the US/Mexico border wall."One inch of intrusion into our land is not acceptable!"
Mohawk Mark Maracle told the Border Summit. "I became very angry when I saw those guys rounding up our people. It is a violation of our Great Law to witness what we saw today and do nothing about it." [We felt so powerless. What could be do. They had all the guns!]
The delegation included Mohawks, Oneida, Navajo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi and O'odham.
Near the border, at the scene of the arrests of a group of Indigenous Peoples, Mohawks stood before US Border Patrol agents and yelled at them about the illegality of their actions. They held their fists high in solidarity, as the Border Patrol packed nearly a dozen Indigenous
Peoples into one vehicle.
The delegation also viewed the federal spy tower next to Homeland Security's migrant detention center known as "the cage" on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The first stop, however, was the abomination of the new wall being constructed on O'odham land.
Kahentinetha Horn of the Mohawk Women Title Holders said she saw the callousness of the Tohono O'odham district official [Marla Henry mhenry_ckd@yahoo.com] standing before them and speaking in favor of the border barrier. [Marla asked, "What people are you talking about?"
"Your People", we all said. She smiled the whole time]. "This is completely illegal," Kahentinetha said, adding that it violates human rights and international law.
Kahentinetha was outraged at the arrests of the group of Indigenous Peoples, who appeared to be young Mayans from Oaxaca, Chiapas or Guatemala.
"We stood in front of the Border Patrol yelling at them," Kahentinetha told the Indigenous Border Summit. She described how the Mohawks stood with fists held high in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples who were arrested earlier in the day. "We tried to pass some of our strength on to them to fight."
The Indigenous delegation documenting the abuses planned to intervene in the arrests, but the Border Patrol crowded the group into a vehicle and left quickly.
Mohawk warrior Rarahkwisere, among those disheartened to see the arrest of fellow Indigenous Peoples on Indian land with the help of Indigenous people, was shaking with anger.
He pointed out, “These brothers and were not drug runners or criminals. These were men, women and children walking in search of a better life”. [They have the same rights as anyone
else? This fence is being erected by people who claim to support a "free market society". They really want low labor costs. Today some live well and others are pushed to starve. These people are not just economic migrants eager to get into the US to sponge off welfare. They are being forced to flee. The multinational corporations are spraying toxic chemicals on their homeland.]
Jay Johnson Castro of Del Rio Texas, leading protests against the imprisonment of migrant children at Hutto prison in Texas and the border wall in Texas, was in the delegation."I hear 'sovereign nation,' but I didn't see sovereign actions [by the Tohono O'odham]." Castro said the buildings near the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation are labeled "Homeland Security and Tohono O'odham Nation. They are partners [in crime! Partners in genocide!]
Maracle said the atrocities that the US government is falsely accusing migrants of doing, is what the invaders did when they arrived on Turtle Island: rape, robbery and murder.
[We do not believe that toddlers and 9 year olds are committing such crimes].
"If we don't stop and grab hold of our destiny, there is not going to be one for our children." Maracle said. "All the nations need to come together and stop what is happening here. I know from past experience with the Mohawk Warrior Society where our power lies. It is with the people. Don't ever forget that."
Chris George, Oneida from Canada, said, "When the Border Patrol came up, they treated us like as enemies." The Border Patrol imemdiately asked the summit delegation
“Who authorized this delegation to be at the border and who is your leader?” [Did they think we were a bunch of martians or something?] "No one authorizes us to do anything. Creation brought us there”. George warned, “Don't let the United States government tell us who we are. We are Haudenosaunee, People of the Longhouse."
Lenny Foster, Dine' (Navajo) and advocate for Native ceremonial rights for inmates, said that what he witnessed was "brutal,
vicious and evil." He said Dine' know that all human beings have five fingers. He said that he did not recognize the district official and federal agents as having five-fingers. "They were
robots." Foster said that the Tohono O'odham district official [Marla Henry] who led the tour was defending the [colonial] policies of genocide.
Describing how the Indigenous Peoples were arrested and quickly rushed into a small vehicle, Foster said, "It reminded me of Gallup, N.M. and how they round up our people, stacked them up like cords of wood." Foster was at the dirt path leading to Mexico, also known as The Gate, years ago when the American Indian Movement protested the violation of human rights there. He remarked on the heavy buildup of police and agents, from the BIA, Tohono O'odham Nation, US Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs agents and the National Guard. They were all working with the contractors constructing the wall, while a white customs' helicopter hovered menacingly overhead.
At the same time, on the Mexico side [of the “imaginary line”], two men sat under a tree. An attorney for the O'odham in Mexico was prevented from crossing into the United States
portion of Tohono O'odham land by the US Border Patrol. This man held a letter from Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris requesting to meet with him today. Norris stated
that the attorney could enter the Nation by way of “The Gate” that we were at.
The Border Patrol officer at the scene refused to allow the
attorney to enter, over-ruling Chairman Norris. He said the attorney must have a US visa and not just a letter from Norris. [This goes to show how some Indians are letting themselves be puppets of the low ranking "foot soldiers" of the U.S. government.] The attorney waited there in the company of a Tarahumara who held a US visa.
Foster pointed out that the Mexican federales or police, who arrived on the other side, could do anything with these two people who were left there. "They could even be torturing them now."
Means also pointed out that the delegation was "tailed" or followed from the tribal capitol of Sells. Means also said that the Berlin Wall had come down, but now there are other walls to divide the people [that are being built all over the world].
At the border wall, Means said one of the workers announced proudly, "The Israelis are helping us put up the wall." Border wall contractor Boeing has hired a subcontractor, Elbit Systems,
an Israeli defense contractor, who helped build the Apartheid Wall in Palestine.
Means said the U.S. "gated communities" have expanded into a "gated country" where the government welcomes the
rich [and kills the poor]. [We were down there during the "Remembrance Day" weekend. Is this the world the soldiers sacrified for?]
Mohawk Nation News Note:
An international summit must be called immediately. These kinds of borders are allegedly being planned worldwide. We've been informed that a wall is being
planned on the "imaginary line" known as the Canada-U.S. border. This is a violation of Indigenous law, human rights and international law. This plan to control all of mankind and
the natural world must be stopped immediately!
Direct your criticisms to: Marla Henry mhenry_ckd@yahoo.com; Verlon Jose, Chairman of Tohono O’odham Legislative Council, Box 837, Sells,
Arizona 85634, verlon.jose@tonation-nsn.gov; and to your local Congressmen, Senators, media, file international complaints; To help, contact: Mike Flores
MNN Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
kahentinetha2@yahoo.com & katenies20@yahoo.com
Mohawk Women Title Holders: Right of mobility at artifical borders
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/10/30/01933/741
End of Game: Indigenous Peoples bringing down Apartheid Wall
by Brenda Norrell
Corporate profiteering, imprisoning migrant children and border oppression:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/end-of-game-indigenous-peoples-bringing.html
Listen to audio downloads from Indigenous Border Summit
http://www.earthcycles.net
Article by Brenda Norrell, with inserted comments by Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, and Indigenous Border Summit participant
MOHAWKS INFLAMED OVER TOHONO O’ODHAM TRIBAL COUNCIL COMPLICITY IN “BORDER” OPPRESSION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor
THE GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) Nov., 8, 2007 --Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal agents, hovering customs helicopter, profiteering contractors, federal spy tower, federal "cage" detention center and watching the arrest of a group of Indigenous Peoples, mostly women and children, by the US Border Patrol on an Indian Nation.
"We saw it all firsthand in America," said Bill Means, Lakota and cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council on Nov. 8, when an Indigenous delegation went to the [so-called] "US/Mexico" border here, south of Sells, to document human rights abuses [including murders, rapes, torture, deaths] for a report to the United Nations.
"We are going to take this wall down," Means said, after viewing the construction of a "border vehicle barrier" by contractors and National Guard on Tohono O'odham land. [This wall is something to see. It is iron posts filled with cement, sunk 5 ft. into the ground and 6 1/2 ft. high. it is going to be electrified.] Speaking a few hours later to the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II in San Xavier, Means called for solidarity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world to halt the arrests of Indigenous Peoples who are walking north in search of a better life, and solidarity to bring down the US/Mexico border wall."One inch of intrusion into our land is not acceptable!"
Mohawk Mark Maracle told the Border Summit. "I became very angry when I saw those guys rounding up our people. It is a violation of our Great Law to witness what we saw today and do nothing about it." [We felt so powerless. What could be do. They had all the guns!]
The delegation included Mohawks, Oneida, Navajo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi and O'odham.
Near the border, at the scene of the arrests of a group of Indigenous Peoples, Mohawks stood before US Border Patrol agents and yelled at them about the illegality of their actions. They held their fists high in solidarity, as the Border Patrol packed nearly a dozen Indigenous
Peoples into one vehicle.
The delegation also viewed the federal spy tower next to Homeland Security's migrant detention center known as "the cage" on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The first stop, however, was the abomination of the new wall being constructed on O'odham land.
Kahentinetha Horn of the Mohawk Women Title Holders said she saw the callousness of the Tohono O'odham district official [Marla Henry mhenry_ckd@yahoo.com] standing before them and speaking in favor of the border barrier. [Marla asked, "What people are you talking about?"
"Your People", we all said. She smiled the whole time]. "This is completely illegal," Kahentinetha said, adding that it violates human rights and international law.
Kahentinetha was outraged at the arrests of the group of Indigenous Peoples, who appeared to be young Mayans from Oaxaca, Chiapas or Guatemala.
"We stood in front of the Border Patrol yelling at them," Kahentinetha told the Indigenous Border Summit. She described how the Mohawks stood with fists held high in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples who were arrested earlier in the day. "We tried to pass some of our strength on to them to fight."
The Indigenous delegation documenting the abuses planned to intervene in the arrests, but the Border Patrol crowded the group into a vehicle and left quickly.
Mohawk warrior Rarahkwisere, among those disheartened to see the arrest of fellow Indigenous Peoples on Indian land with the help of Indigenous people, was shaking with anger.
He pointed out, “These brothers and were not drug runners or criminals. These were men, women and children walking in search of a better life”. [They have the same rights as anyone
else? This fence is being erected by people who claim to support a "free market society". They really want low labor costs. Today some live well and others are pushed to starve. These people are not just economic migrants eager to get into the US to sponge off welfare. They are being forced to flee. The multinational corporations are spraying toxic chemicals on their homeland.]
Jay Johnson Castro of Del Rio Texas, leading protests against the imprisonment of migrant children at Hutto prison in Texas and the border wall in Texas, was in the delegation."I hear 'sovereign nation,' but I didn't see sovereign actions [by the Tohono O'odham]." Castro said the buildings near the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation are labeled "Homeland Security and Tohono O'odham Nation. They are partners [in crime! Partners in genocide!]
Maracle said the atrocities that the US government is falsely accusing migrants of doing, is what the invaders did when they arrived on Turtle Island: rape, robbery and murder.
[We do not believe that toddlers and 9 year olds are committing such crimes].
"If we don't stop and grab hold of our destiny, there is not going to be one for our children." Maracle said. "All the nations need to come together and stop what is happening here. I know from past experience with the Mohawk Warrior Society where our power lies. It is with the people. Don't ever forget that."
Chris George, Oneida from Canada, said, "When the Border Patrol came up, they treated us like as enemies." The Border Patrol imemdiately asked the summit delegation
“Who authorized this delegation to be at the border and who is your leader?” [Did they think we were a bunch of martians or something?] "No one authorizes us to do anything. Creation brought us there”. George warned, “Don't let the United States government tell us who we are. We are Haudenosaunee, People of the Longhouse."
Lenny Foster, Dine' (Navajo) and advocate for Native ceremonial rights for inmates, said that what he witnessed was "brutal,
vicious and evil." He said Dine' know that all human beings have five fingers. He said that he did not recognize the district official and federal agents as having five-fingers. "They were
robots." Foster said that the Tohono O'odham district official [Marla Henry] who led the tour was defending the [colonial] policies of genocide.
Describing how the Indigenous Peoples were arrested and quickly rushed into a small vehicle, Foster said, "It reminded me of Gallup, N.M. and how they round up our people, stacked them up like cords of wood." Foster was at the dirt path leading to Mexico, also known as The Gate, years ago when the American Indian Movement protested the violation of human rights there. He remarked on the heavy buildup of police and agents, from the BIA, Tohono O'odham Nation, US Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs agents and the National Guard. They were all working with the contractors constructing the wall, while a white customs' helicopter hovered menacingly overhead.
At the same time, on the Mexico side [of the “imaginary line”], two men sat under a tree. An attorney for the O'odham in Mexico was prevented from crossing into the United States
portion of Tohono O'odham land by the US Border Patrol. This man held a letter from Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris requesting to meet with him today. Norris stated
that the attorney could enter the Nation by way of “The Gate” that we were at.
The Border Patrol officer at the scene refused to allow the
attorney to enter, over-ruling Chairman Norris. He said the attorney must have a US visa and not just a letter from Norris. [This goes to show how some Indians are letting themselves be puppets of the low ranking "foot soldiers" of the U.S. government.] The attorney waited there in the company of a Tarahumara who held a US visa.
Foster pointed out that the Mexican federales or police, who arrived on the other side, could do anything with these two people who were left there. "They could even be torturing them now."
Means also pointed out that the delegation was "tailed" or followed from the tribal capitol of Sells. Means also said that the Berlin Wall had come down, but now there are other walls to divide the people [that are being built all over the world].
At the border wall, Means said one of the workers announced proudly, "The Israelis are helping us put up the wall." Border wall contractor Boeing has hired a subcontractor, Elbit Systems,
an Israeli defense contractor, who helped build the Apartheid Wall in Palestine.
Means said the U.S. "gated communities" have expanded into a "gated country" where the government welcomes the
rich [and kills the poor]. [We were down there during the "Remembrance Day" weekend. Is this the world the soldiers sacrified for?]
Mohawk Nation News Note:
An international summit must be called immediately. These kinds of borders are allegedly being planned worldwide. We've been informed that a wall is being
planned on the "imaginary line" known as the Canada-U.S. border. This is a violation of Indigenous law, human rights and international law. This plan to control all of mankind and
the natural world must be stopped immediately!
Direct your criticisms to: Marla Henry mhenry_ckd@yahoo.com; Verlon Jose, Chairman of Tohono O’odham Legislative Council, Box 837, Sells,
Arizona 85634, verlon.jose@tonation-nsn.gov; and to your local Congressmen, Senators, media, file international complaints; To help, contact: Mike Flores
MNN Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
kahentinetha2@yahoo.com & katenies20@yahoo.com
Mohawk Women Title Holders: Right of mobility at artifical borders
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/10/30/01933/741
End of Game: Indigenous Peoples bringing down Apartheid Wall
by Brenda Norrell
Corporate profiteering, imprisoning migrant children and border oppression:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/11/end-of-game-indigenous-peoples-bringing.html
Listen to audio downloads from Indigenous Border Summit
http://www.earthcycles.net
The red dot is for death on Tohono O'odham land
(Photo 1) Boeing is the contractor building the Apartheid Wall on Tohono O'odham land along the Arizona/Mexico border. In the photo are members of the National Guard and a US Border Patrol agent. (Photo 2) Humane Borders map: The red dots mark the spot of a migrant death, the majority dying of dehydration and heat and for want of a drink of water. The highest concentration of deaths is within a few miles of the Tohono O'odham Nation capitol of Sells, Arizona. The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas urged a halt to the Apartheid Wall which is pressing Indigenous Peoples into more remote areas of the desert to die. The summit urged a halt to the arrest of Mayans and other Indigenous Peoples, including women and children, walking to a better life. (Please double click on photos to enlarge.) Photo credit: Indigenous Border Summit photographers pool
Mohawks, Border Delegation, inflamed over arrest of Indigenous Peoples:
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
US Apartheid Wall under construction on Tohono O'odham lands
By Brenda Norrellhttp://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SAN MIGUEL GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- The United States' Apartheid Wall is under construction on Tohono O'odham Nation lands, shown here at the San Miguel Gate. Minutes after this photo was taken, a delegation of Mohawks and other Native people stood before the Border Patrol with fists held high in solidarity and would have intervened in the arrest of Mayans, if the Border Patrol had not packed the Mayans into a vehicle and sped away. Delegates from the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas were disgusted to see the border wall going up on Indian land; the "cage" where men women and children are held on Indian land; and the arrests of Mayans, mostly women and children, on Tohono O'odham land. The construction of the border wall on O'odham land has already resulted in the digging up the ancestors of the O'odham from their final resting place, on the western side of Tohono O'odham Nation lands by the contractor Boeing. The border wall will also be a barrier for the traditional ceremonial route of O'odham. Although it is endorsed by the Tohono O'odham Nation government, individual O'odham are protesting the wall with support from Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas. (Photo Jay Johnson-Castro)
On Big Warm Creek, Living as a Free People
By Brenda NorrellSpecial to Navajo Times
Part II of III
BIG WARM CREEK, Montana – Vernie White Cow Main of the White Clay People, remembers the log house where she grew up, the June berries she once picked and the wild horses in the mountains. She also remembers her son Jim Main, Jr., incarcerated in a bordertown for a crime he said he did not commit.
Seated at the table in her kitchen, eating fresh salmon brought to
her by friends, the Sohappy family of the Columbia River Indian Nation, Vernie remembers life along Big Warm Creek on Fort Belknap Nation lands.
Seated at her kitchen table, near the huge wood stove for heat and surrounded by family photos and deer antlers, she looks out back at the log cabin where she grew up.
"I was born in there. My whole family was born in there. We had 14 children," Vernie Main says of her childhood, remembering two sets of twins.
BIG WARM CREEK, Montana – Vernie White Cow Main of the White Clay People, remembers the log house where she grew up, the June berries she once picked and the wild horses in the mountains. She also remembers her son Jim Main, Jr., incarcerated in a bordertown for a crime he said he did not commit.
Seated at the table in her kitchen, eating fresh salmon brought to
her by friends, the Sohappy family of the Columbia River Indian Nation, Vernie remembers life along Big Warm Creek on Fort Belknap Nation lands.
Seated at her kitchen table, near the huge wood stove for heat and surrounded by family photos and deer antlers, she looks out back at the log cabin where she grew up.
"I was born in there. My whole family was born in there. We had 14 children," Vernie Main says of her childhood, remembering two sets of twins.
Read article:
Monday, November 12, 2007
Blackfire, sounding out strength and resistance!
Special thanks to Jeneda, Klee and Clayson Benally and their father Jones Benally for driving all those miles to perform in San Xavier for the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas! Thanks for your good words to protect San Francisco Peaks from wastewater and support for Navajos resisting the power plant at Desert Rock, the self-determination movement of the Maori who were arrested recently, the struggle of Apaches for Mount Graham, the Zapatistas movement for Indigenous autonomy and justice and all the of the struggles for dignity and humanity for the sake of the Seven Generations to come.
Ake'hee
Photos: Jones Benally, who sang traditional Dine' songs with the family band, with KXCI Radio News Director Amanda Shauger. (2)Rockin' out sounds. (3)Jeneda with her 15-month-0ld daughter. Photos Brenda Norrell
Yaqui delegation detained enroute to Indigenous Border Summit
A delegation of Yaquis from Sonora, Mexico, were detained at the US/Mexico border for 11 hours without food or water, enroute to the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007. The delegation persevered and arrived to share their critical information on how pesticides banned in the United States are killing Yaqui in Rio Sonora, six hours drive south of the border. "Jelly babies," babies born without bones, have been born in the Yaqui Pueblos. The other place the "jelly babies" are found is in the Pacific Islands, where mothers are the victims of extensive nuclear testing. (Photo: Members of the Yaqui delegation from Sonora interviewed on earthcycles.net for summit webcast. Photo Brenda Norrell) Article coming ...Saturday, November 10, 2007
End of the game: Indigenous Peoples' bringing down Apartheid wall
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Mohawks were among 19 Indian Nations at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007. The four-day summit concluded Saturday with a challenge from Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants. Lenny Foster, Dine', spoke on Native inmates' ceremonial rights and freedom for Leonard Peltier. Petuuche Gilbert, Acoma Pueblo, shared insights into law and the border, with the summit culminating in a Blackfire resistance concert.
Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, said it is important to dispel the myth of sovereignty. "We have no sovereignty. We only have the sovereignty that the US Congress allows us that day."
Wilson said if the Tohono O'odham Nation was truly sovereign, it would not have an occupying army and unchecked police power on its land, including the Border Patrol, National Guard and Immigration and Customs agents. Wilson said children as young as six-years-old have been imprisoned in the unit known as "the cage" on O'odham land at San Miguel.
Wilson described searching for the bodies of migrants who have died. Since 2006, 246 migrants have died in the Tucson Border Patrol sector, where the Border Patrol's inhumane border policies are enforced.
On the Tohono O'odham Nation, 65 people perished in the desert. Wilson is now searching the desert for the remains of another five human beings.
"Where is the moral outrage?" Wilson asked. In July, Wilson found the remains of a 17-year-old who was seven-months pregnant.
Wilson said the Tohono O'odham Nation spent $16 million to build a new cultural center. "Not one penny was spent to prevent migrant deaths."
It is time, he said, for Native people to stop the romantic myth of sovereignty and the cloaking and choking on victimization. It is time to emerge from silence about the women, men, children and unborn children who die on Indian lands for want of a drink of water.
"Do not think your silence honors me as a Tohono O'odham person. It dishonors me." Wilson said it is time for all people to become a voice for the mummified migrants found dead in the desert.
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Mohawks were among 19 Indian Nations at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007. The four-day summit concluded Saturday with a challenge from Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants. Lenny Foster, Dine', spoke on Native inmates' ceremonial rights and freedom for Leonard Peltier. Petuuche Gilbert, Acoma Pueblo, shared insights into law and the border, with the summit culminating in a Blackfire resistance concert.
Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, said it is important to dispel the myth of sovereignty. "We have no sovereignty. We only have the sovereignty that the US Congress allows us that day."
Wilson said if the Tohono O'odham Nation was truly sovereign, it would not have an occupying army and unchecked police power on its land, including the Border Patrol, National Guard and Immigration and Customs agents. Wilson said children as young as six-years-old have been imprisoned in the unit known as "the cage" on O'odham land at San Miguel.
Wilson described searching for the bodies of migrants who have died. Since 2006, 246 migrants have died in the Tucson Border Patrol sector, where the Border Patrol's inhumane border policies are enforced.
On the Tohono O'odham Nation, 65 people perished in the desert. Wilson is now searching the desert for the remains of another five human beings.
"Where is the moral outrage?" Wilson asked. In July, Wilson found the remains of a 17-year-old who was seven-months pregnant.
Wilson said the Tohono O'odham Nation spent $16 million to build a new cultural center. "Not one penny was spent to prevent migrant deaths."
It is time, he said, for Native people to stop the romantic myth of sovereignty and the cloaking and choking on victimization. It is time to emerge from silence about the women, men, children and unborn children who die on Indian lands for want of a drink of water.
"Do not think your silence honors me as a Tohono O'odham person. It dishonors me." Wilson said it is time for all people to become a voice for the mummified migrants found dead in the desert.
"They have no voice."
Wilson displayed a huge pile of his plastic water jugs from his water stations on O'odham land that had been slashed. He said people talk of outside Minutemen, but these are "O'odham Minutemen."
Singing with a strong voice a song for Leonard Peltier, Foster called for freedom for Peltier. Foster said he visits Peltier three times a year for the sweatlodge ceremony. "They gave him the Pipe, but they will not let him have tobacco."
"Leonard's health is not good. We miss him and pray for him," Foster said as he described the hope of Peltier's release. "Leonard sends his love and support and is in solidarity."
Petuuche Gilbert, Acoma Pueblo from New Mexico, described the colonized thinking that the border delegation experienced on Tohono O'odham land on Thursday, during a tour of where the border barrier is being built.
Gilbert recalled the words of an Acoma Pueblo referring to the Catholic Church.
"They made slaves out of us to make this church. I guess that's why we are Catholics now."
Gilbert said the border wall is going up on Indian lands because Indian Nations are not functioning as true sovereign nations.
"Because we do not have that sovereignty over our lands, territories and natural resources." Gilbert said that one day, Indian Nations would be sovereign nations again.
Jay Johnson Castro described abuses at the prisons for profit. Those include Don T. Hutto Detention Center near Austin, Texas, where migrant babies and children are imprisoned, and Raymondville migrant internment camp near Brownsville, Texas.
"Near the Texas capitol, there are hundreds of children in prison for profit," Castro said of Hutto. Describing conditions before the protests began, he said children were kept in cells separate from their parents, wore prison uniforms and given out-dated milk to drink at Hutto.
"If they were to take a cookie to their cells, they would be punished." In the cells, when they used the toilet, anyone walking by their cells could watch them.
One woman was sexually assaulted by a guard in front of her child and was never charged. "We don't know what happened to the mother and child," Castro said.
Homeland Security denied entry to the United Nations' Rapporteur on migrants, Jorge Bustamante, in May. At Raymondville internment camp, a prison guard exposed the fact that migrants were being fed food with maggots in it. The United States is one of only two countries in the world, the other one being Somalia, who does not ensure the rights of the child and has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Castro also described the "Endgame," a United States policy to remove all "aliens" that is now in its fourth year.
The Border Summit concluded with the chicken scratch sounds of Gertie and the TO Boys, followed by the resistance vocals and chords of Blackfire, sounding out the need to keep San Francisco Peaks sacred from waste water. Blackfire's Navajo family band of Klee, Jeneda and Clayson Benally called for justice for the political prisoners: migrants at the border and Leonard Peltier.
Klee Benally told the gathering that the arrest of Maoris in New Zealand, organized for self-determination, was both a test and an indicator for what is to come here.
Standing in solidarity with Maoris and Apaches protecting Mount Graham in Arizona, Blackfire joined the summit in declaring an end to borders, discrimination against migrants and a new era of human rights. Jones Benally joined his children onstage for traditional Dine' songs with the drum.
The Border Summit, emboldened by the delegation of Mohawks, renewed their determination on Saturday to halt the border wall and hold the Tohono O'odham Nation responsible for the deaths of men, women, children and unborn children who have died on O'odham lands "for want of a drink of water."
After traveling to the Tohono O'odham Nation border with Mexico, an Indigenous Peoples' delegation from the summit unleashed a new movement to honor the lives and deaths of migrants.
Diana Joe, Yaqui, among the Indigenous women present who worked the fields as a child, said, "May the farm worker people live long!"
Indigenous Peoples called for action to bring down the wall and stop the deaths of Indigenous Peoples' walking to a better life. This land, all of Turtle Island from the north to the south, is the home to Indigenous Peoples.
As Indigenous Peoples here stood in solidarity with those walking, Native people said it is the white people in the United States who are the invaders. They arrived here without papers, visas or passports.
Singing with a strong voice a song for Leonard Peltier, Foster called for freedom for Peltier. Foster said he visits Peltier three times a year for the sweatlodge ceremony. "They gave him the Pipe, but they will not let him have tobacco."
"Leonard's health is not good. We miss him and pray for him," Foster said as he described the hope of Peltier's release. "Leonard sends his love and support and is in solidarity."
Petuuche Gilbert, Acoma Pueblo from New Mexico, described the colonized thinking that the border delegation experienced on Tohono O'odham land on Thursday, during a tour of where the border barrier is being built.
Gilbert recalled the words of an Acoma Pueblo referring to the Catholic Church.
"They made slaves out of us to make this church. I guess that's why we are Catholics now."
Gilbert said the border wall is going up on Indian lands because Indian Nations are not functioning as true sovereign nations.
"Because we do not have that sovereignty over our lands, territories and natural resources." Gilbert said that one day, Indian Nations would be sovereign nations again.
Jay Johnson Castro described abuses at the prisons for profit. Those include Don T. Hutto Detention Center near Austin, Texas, where migrant babies and children are imprisoned, and Raymondville migrant internment camp near Brownsville, Texas.
"Near the Texas capitol, there are hundreds of children in prison for profit," Castro said of Hutto. Describing conditions before the protests began, he said children were kept in cells separate from their parents, wore prison uniforms and given out-dated milk to drink at Hutto.
"If they were to take a cookie to their cells, they would be punished." In the cells, when they used the toilet, anyone walking by their cells could watch them.
One woman was sexually assaulted by a guard in front of her child and was never charged. "We don't know what happened to the mother and child," Castro said.
Homeland Security denied entry to the United Nations' Rapporteur on migrants, Jorge Bustamante, in May. At Raymondville internment camp, a prison guard exposed the fact that migrants were being fed food with maggots in it. The United States is one of only two countries in the world, the other one being Somalia, who does not ensure the rights of the child and has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Castro also described the "Endgame," a United States policy to remove all "aliens" that is now in its fourth year.
The Border Summit concluded with the chicken scratch sounds of Gertie and the TO Boys, followed by the resistance vocals and chords of Blackfire, sounding out the need to keep San Francisco Peaks sacred from waste water. Blackfire's Navajo family band of Klee, Jeneda and Clayson Benally called for justice for the political prisoners: migrants at the border and Leonard Peltier.
Klee Benally told the gathering that the arrest of Maoris in New Zealand, organized for self-determination, was both a test and an indicator for what is to come here.
Standing in solidarity with Maoris and Apaches protecting Mount Graham in Arizona, Blackfire joined the summit in declaring an end to borders, discrimination against migrants and a new era of human rights. Jones Benally joined his children onstage for traditional Dine' songs with the drum.
The Border Summit, emboldened by the delegation of Mohawks, renewed their determination on Saturday to halt the border wall and hold the Tohono O'odham Nation responsible for the deaths of men, women, children and unborn children who have died on O'odham lands "for want of a drink of water."
After traveling to the Tohono O'odham Nation border with Mexico, an Indigenous Peoples' delegation from the summit unleashed a new movement to honor the lives and deaths of migrants.
Diana Joe, Yaqui, among the Indigenous women present who worked the fields as a child, said, "May the farm worker people live long!"
Indigenous Peoples called for action to bring down the wall and stop the deaths of Indigenous Peoples' walking to a better life. This land, all of Turtle Island from the north to the south, is the home to Indigenous Peoples.
As Indigenous Peoples here stood in solidarity with those walking, Native people said it is the white people in the United States who are the invaders. They arrived here without papers, visas or passports.
Kahentinetha Horn said it is time to stop "crying about all our suffering," acting subjugated and time to take action."Why don't we just go out and pick those people up," she said of the Indigenous Peoples walking in the desert.
Speaking of the Tohono O'dham who allow people to die for a drink of water, Kahentinetha said, "They make Hitler look like a school boy."
She urged people to start taking down the border wall.
As Mohawk Mark Maracle put it, "It doesn't take a lot of people to bring down this border wall!"
Recent articles by Brenda Norrell
End of the game: Indigenous Peoples bringing down Apartheid The NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 11, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) --Mohawks were among 19 Indian Nations at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the ...
Mohawks, Border Delegation, inflamed over arrest of Indigenous Peoples The NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 9, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, THE GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) --Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal ...
Between Bombs and Border Walls CounterPunch, CA - Nov 8, 2007 By BRENDA NORRELL Endangered pronghorns between border wall and bombing range. The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge visitor center looks like a typical national park office from the outside. ...
Brenda Norrell: In Montana, Indians are guilty until proven innocent UN Observer - Nov 6, 2007PHOTO by Brenda Norrell of James Main, Sr., with his daughter Rose, at home on Big Warm Creek, Gros-Ventre land, Montana. James Main, Sr., Gros-Ventre and ...
Mohawk Women Title Holders: Indigenous right of mobility at The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 29, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, Mohawk Women Title Holders released a statement on Indigenous rights of mobility in ancestral territories, which will be presented at the ...
California fire evacuees disgusted by braggarts The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 24, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, YUMA, Ariz. -- San Diego residents fleeing the fires were disgusted with the television coverage of the fires, especially with Gov. ...
Brenda Norrell: Mohawks unite with Zapatistas at Intercontinental ... UN Observer - Oct 23, 2007 Mohawk Warriors joined in solidarity with Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas at the Gathering of Indigenous Peoples of América. ...
End of the game: Indigenous Peoples bringing down Apartheid The NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 11, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) --Mohawks were among 19 Indian Nations at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the ...
Mohawks, Border Delegation, inflamed over arrest of Indigenous Peoples The NarcoSphere, NY - Nov 9, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, THE GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) --Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal ...
Between Bombs and Border Walls CounterPunch, CA - Nov 8, 2007 By BRENDA NORRELL Endangered pronghorns between border wall and bombing range. The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge visitor center looks like a typical national park office from the outside. ...
Brenda Norrell: In Montana, Indians are guilty until proven innocent UN Observer - Nov 6, 2007PHOTO by Brenda Norrell of James Main, Sr., with his daughter Rose, at home on Big Warm Creek, Gros-Ventre land, Montana. James Main, Sr., Gros-Ventre and ...
Mohawk Women Title Holders: Indigenous right of mobility at The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 29, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, Mohawk Women Title Holders released a statement on Indigenous rights of mobility in ancestral territories, which will be presented at the ...
California fire evacuees disgusted by braggarts The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 24, 2007 By Brenda Norrell, YUMA, Ariz. -- San Diego residents fleeing the fires were disgusted with the television coverage of the fires, especially with Gov. ...
Brenda Norrell: Mohawks unite with Zapatistas at Intercontinental ... UN Observer - Oct 23, 2007 Mohawk Warriors joined in solidarity with Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas at the Gathering of Indigenous Peoples of América. ...
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Mohawks, Border Delegation, inflamed over arrests of Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous Border Summit, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007 at San Xavier
By Brenda Norrell
THE GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) --Indigenous delegates to the border on Tohono O'odham Nation land were outraged by the federal agents, hovering customs helicopter, profiteering contractors, federal spy tower, federal "cage" detention center and watching the arrest of a group of Indigenous Peoples, mostly women and children, by the US Border Patrol on an Indian Nation.
"We saw it all firsthand in America," said Bill Means, Lakota and cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council on Nov. 8, when an Indigenous delegation went to the US/Mexico border here, south of Sells, to document human rights abuses for a report to the United Nations.
"Now we are going to take this wall down," Means said, after viewing the construction of a border vehicle barrier by contractors and National Guard on Tohono O'odham land.
Speaking a few hours later to the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II in San Xavier, Means called for solidarity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world to halt the arrests of Indigenous Peoples who are walking north in search of a better life, and solidarity to bring down the US/Mexico border wall.
"One inch of intrusion into our land is not acceptable!" Mohawk Mark Maracle told the Border Summit. "I became very angry when I saw those guys rounding up our people.
"It is a violation of our Great Law to witness what we did today and do nothing about it."
The delegation included Mohawks, Oneida, Navajo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi and O'odham.
Near the border, at the scene of the arrests of a group of Indigenous Peoples, Mohawks stood before US Border Patrol agents and held their fists high in solidarity, as the Border Patrol packed nearly a dozen Indigenous Peoples into one vehicle.
The delegation also viewed the federal spy tower next to Homeland Security's migrant detention center known as "the cage" on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The first stop, however, was the abomination of the new vehicle barrier wall being constructed on O'odham land.
Kahentinetha Horn of the Mohawk Women Title Holders said she saw the callousness of the Tohono O'odham district official standing before them and speaking in favor of the border barrier.
"This is completely illegal," Kahentinetha said, adding that it violates human rights legislation. Kahentinetha was outraged at the arrests of the group of Indigenous Peoples, who appeared to be Mayans from Oaxaca, Chiapas or Guatemala.
"We stood in front of the Border Patrol, we started yelling at them," Kahentinetha told the Indigenous Border Summit. She described how the Mohawks stood with fists held high in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples being arrested earlier in the day.
"We saw it all firsthand in America," said Bill Means, Lakota and cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council on Nov. 8, when an Indigenous delegation went to the US/Mexico border here, south of Sells, to document human rights abuses for a report to the United Nations.
"Now we are going to take this wall down," Means said, after viewing the construction of a border vehicle barrier by contractors and National Guard on Tohono O'odham land.
Speaking a few hours later to the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II in San Xavier, Means called for solidarity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world to halt the arrests of Indigenous Peoples who are walking north in search of a better life, and solidarity to bring down the US/Mexico border wall.
"One inch of intrusion into our land is not acceptable!" Mohawk Mark Maracle told the Border Summit. "I became very angry when I saw those guys rounding up our people.
"It is a violation of our Great Law to witness what we did today and do nothing about it."
The delegation included Mohawks, Oneida, Navajo, Acoma Pueblo, Hopi and O'odham.
Near the border, at the scene of the arrests of a group of Indigenous Peoples, Mohawks stood before US Border Patrol agents and held their fists high in solidarity, as the Border Patrol packed nearly a dozen Indigenous Peoples into one vehicle.
The delegation also viewed the federal spy tower next to Homeland Security's migrant detention center known as "the cage" on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The first stop, however, was the abomination of the new vehicle barrier wall being constructed on O'odham land.
Kahentinetha Horn of the Mohawk Women Title Holders said she saw the callousness of the Tohono O'odham district official standing before them and speaking in favor of the border barrier.
"This is completely illegal," Kahentinetha said, adding that it violates human rights legislation. Kahentinetha was outraged at the arrests of the group of Indigenous Peoples, who appeared to be Mayans from Oaxaca, Chiapas or Guatemala.
"We stood in front of the Border Patrol, we started yelling at them," Kahentinetha told the Indigenous Border Summit. She described how the Mohawks stood with fists held high in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples being arrested earlier in the day.
"We were passing some of our strength on to them to fight."
The Indigenous delegation documenting the abuses planned to intervene in the arrests, but the Border Patrol crowded the group into a vehicle and left quickly.
"I came away feeling very frustrated and very discouraged," Kahentinetha said.
Mohawk warrior Rarahkwisere, among those heartbroken to see the arrest of fellow Indigenous Peoples on Indian land, said these brothers and sisters of the people were not drug runners or criminals, these were women and children walking in search of a better life.
Jay Johnson Castro of Del Rio Texas, leading protests against the imprisonment of migrant children at Hutto prison in Texas and the border wall in Texas, was in the delegation.
"I hear 'sovereign nation,' but I didn't see a sovereign nation."
Castro said the buildings near the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation are labeled with signs, "Homeland Security and Tohono O'odham Nation, like they are in partnership."
Maracle said the same atrocities that the United States government is now accusing migrants of doing, is what the invaders did when they arrived on Turtle Island: rape, robbery and murder.
"If you don't stop and grab hold of your destiny, there is not going to be one for your children." Maracle said all the nations need to come together and stop what is happening here. "I know from past experience with the Mohawk Warrior Society where our power lies, it is with the people. The power is in the people, don't ever forget that."
Chris George, Oneida from Canada, said, "When the Border Patrol came up, they thought we were the enemy," relaying how the Border Patrol asked the summit delegation who authorized this delegation to be at the border.
"No one authorizes us to do anything. It was the Creator who took us there.
"They were packing, we were packing, too, with a good mind and a good heart."
"All of the Indigenous Peoples need to come together. Don't let the United States government tell you who you are. We know who we are. We are Haudenosaunee, People of the Longhouse."
Lenny Foster, Dine' (Navajo) and advocate for Native ceremonial rights for inmates, said what he witnessed at the border was "brutal, vicious and evil."
Foster said Dine' know that all human beings all have five fingers, but what he witnessed within the district official and federal agents was no internal recognition of being five-fingered people.
The Indigenous delegation documenting the abuses planned to intervene in the arrests, but the Border Patrol crowded the group into a vehicle and left quickly.
"I came away feeling very frustrated and very discouraged," Kahentinetha said.
Mohawk warrior Rarahkwisere, among those heartbroken to see the arrest of fellow Indigenous Peoples on Indian land, said these brothers and sisters of the people were not drug runners or criminals, these were women and children walking in search of a better life.
Jay Johnson Castro of Del Rio Texas, leading protests against the imprisonment of migrant children at Hutto prison in Texas and the border wall in Texas, was in the delegation.
"I hear 'sovereign nation,' but I didn't see a sovereign nation."
Castro said the buildings near the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation are labeled with signs, "Homeland Security and Tohono O'odham Nation, like they are in partnership."
Maracle said the same atrocities that the United States government is now accusing migrants of doing, is what the invaders did when they arrived on Turtle Island: rape, robbery and murder.
"If you don't stop and grab hold of your destiny, there is not going to be one for your children." Maracle said all the nations need to come together and stop what is happening here. "I know from past experience with the Mohawk Warrior Society where our power lies, it is with the people. The power is in the people, don't ever forget that."
Chris George, Oneida from Canada, said, "When the Border Patrol came up, they thought we were the enemy," relaying how the Border Patrol asked the summit delegation who authorized this delegation to be at the border.
"No one authorizes us to do anything. It was the Creator who took us there.
"They were packing, we were packing, too, with a good mind and a good heart."
"All of the Indigenous Peoples need to come together. Don't let the United States government tell you who you are. We know who we are. We are Haudenosaunee, People of the Longhouse."
Lenny Foster, Dine' (Navajo) and advocate for Native ceremonial rights for inmates, said what he witnessed at the border was "brutal, vicious and evil."
Foster said Dine' know that all human beings all have five fingers, but what he witnessed within the district official and federal agents was no internal recognition of being five-fingered people.
"They were robots."
Referring to the Tohono O'odham district official who led the tour, Foster said she was defending the policies of genocide.
Foster asked who is setting these policies in the United States. "Who is running the government? It is the white man, it surely isn't the people of color."
Describing how the Indigenous Peoples were arrested and rushed into a small vehicle, Foster said, "It reminded me of Gallup, N.M., and how they round up our people, stack them up like stacks of wood."
Foster was at this same place, a dirt path leading to Mexico known as The Gate, years ago when the American Indian Movement protested the violation of human rights here. Foster pointed out that during this day, he viewed the heavy buildup of police and agents. There were police from the BIA, Tohono O'odham Nation, along with US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs agents. The National Guard were also there, working with the contractor constructing the border vehicle barrier, while a white customs' helicopter hovered overhead.
At the same time, on the Mexico side, two men sat under a tree.
An attorney for the O'odham in Mexico was prevented from crossing into the United States on Tohono O'odham land by the US Border Patrol, even though he held a letter from Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris requesting him to come and meet with him today. In the letter, Chairman Norris stated that the attorney could enter the Nation for the meeting by way of The Gate here.
However, the Border Patrol officer at the scene refused to allow the attorney to enter, even with a letter from the chairman. Over-ruling Chairman Norris on Tohono O'odham land, the US Border Patrol agent said the attorney must have a US visa to enter, and not just a letter from Chairman Norris. The attorney waited there, with a Tarahumara accompanying him who held a US visa.
Foster pointed out that the Mexican federales or police, who arrived on the other side, could do anything with the two people left there. "They could even be torturing them now."
Foster asked who is setting these policies in the United States. "Who is running the government? It is the white man, it surely isn't the people of color."
Describing how the Indigenous Peoples were arrested and rushed into a small vehicle, Foster said, "It reminded me of Gallup, N.M., and how they round up our people, stack them up like stacks of wood."
Foster was at this same place, a dirt path leading to Mexico known as The Gate, years ago when the American Indian Movement protested the violation of human rights here. Foster pointed out that during this day, he viewed the heavy buildup of police and agents. There were police from the BIA, Tohono O'odham Nation, along with US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs agents. The National Guard were also there, working with the contractor constructing the border vehicle barrier, while a white customs' helicopter hovered overhead.
At the same time, on the Mexico side, two men sat under a tree.
An attorney for the O'odham in Mexico was prevented from crossing into the United States on Tohono O'odham land by the US Border Patrol, even though he held a letter from Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris requesting him to come and meet with him today. In the letter, Chairman Norris stated that the attorney could enter the Nation for the meeting by way of The Gate here.
However, the Border Patrol officer at the scene refused to allow the attorney to enter, even with a letter from the chairman. Over-ruling Chairman Norris on Tohono O'odham land, the US Border Patrol agent said the attorney must have a US visa to enter, and not just a letter from Chairman Norris. The attorney waited there, with a Tarahumara accompanying him who held a US visa.
Foster pointed out that the Mexican federales or police, who arrived on the other side, could do anything with the two people left there. "They could even be torturing them now."
Means also pointed out that the delegation was "tailed" or followed from the tribal capitol of Sells. Means also said that the Berlin Wall had come down, but now there are other walls to divide the people, including the wall between Israel and Palestine.
At the border wall construction at The Gate, Means said one of the workers told them, "The Israelis are helping us put up the fence."
At the border wall construction at The Gate, Means said one of the workers told them, "The Israelis are helping us put up the fence."
At the US/Mexico border, border wall contractor Boeing has hired a subcontractor Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, who participated in constructing security at the Apartheid Wall in Palestine.
Speaking of what is happening in the United States now, Means said the "gated communities" of the United States have now expanded into a "gated country." It is a country where the government welcomes the rich. The Indigenous Border Summit witnessed what the United States does to Indigenous Peoples.
Means quoted Black Hawk of the Sac and Fox Nation: "Why is it you Americans always take with a gun what you could have with love.
"We experienced America today."
Speaking of what is happening in the United States now, Means said the "gated communities" of the United States have now expanded into a "gated country." It is a country where the government welcomes the rich. The Indigenous Border Summit witnessed what the United States does to Indigenous Peoples.
Means quoted Black Hawk of the Sac and Fox Nation: "Why is it you Americans always take with a gun what you could have with love.
"We experienced America today."
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Mohawks, Yaqui from Sonora, arrive at Indigenous Border Summit
During the opening day of the Indigenous Border Summit, Kahentinetha Horn of the Mohawk Women Title Holders shows the Haudenosaunee passport, while a Mohawk warrior holds the Two Row Wampum Belt. Bill Means, Lakota cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council and master of ceremonies for the summit, is seated. Photo Brenda NorrellListen online, Wednesday's (Nov. 7) program and interviews play online now through Thursday morning (Nov. 8.) Live online coverage each day. Summit continues through Saturday night at San Xavier, Tohono O'odham Nation.
http://www.earthcycles.net/
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
In Montana, Indians are guilty until proven innocent
By Brenda NorrellSpecial to the Navajo Times (print edition)
Part I of IIIHAYS, Montana – James Main, Sr., Gros-Ventre and longtime advocate of Indian rights, said some conditions have improved for American Indians in Montana, particularly the treatment of Indians by government officials. Ranchers in north-central Montana often get along well with
Indian cowboys.
However, the treatment of Indians by the Montana Justice System has not improved its treatment of Indian people.
"We've got a long way to go with the Justice system. I'd like to see a handful of radical attorneys come over here and shake this place up, attack the system," Main said.
Main, known internationally as a voice for Indigenous Peoples, now in poor health following open-heart surgery, has a personal view of the state system.
James' son James Main, Jr., 46, was charged with murder in the November 25, 2006, death of a Caucasian male at a home in the bordertown of Havre, located between two Indian Nations, the Fort Belknap Gros-Ventre and Assiniboine Nation and the Rocky Boy Chippewa Cree Nation.
Havre Police arrested Jim Jr., 46, after Lloyd Charles Kvelstad of Minot, North Dakota, was found dead at a Havre home on Nov. 25, where multiple people had gathered.
At the time of Jim Jr.’s arrest, the family questioned why a man who fled the scene with blood on his shoes was not arrested. The victim had been strangled with a cord allegedly from the clothing of the man who fled.
Then, in July, two people were arrested in Great Falls and charged with felonies related to Kvelstad’s death. Twenty-eight-year-old Kim Norquay and 38-year-old Mellissa Snow were arrested on warrants.
Court records say that Norquay helped beat and strangle Kvelstad. Authorities say that a string from Norquay's clothing was found tied around the victim's neck.
Norquay is charged with murder by accountability and evidence tampering, both felonies, and with misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer. Snow is charged with felony evidence tampering and misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer.
Court records allege Main beat Kvelstad at Snow's house in Havre. Court documents also allege that Norquay told investigators he left the house and returned to find Kvelstad dead. However, the state crime lab later found blood on his shoes. Snow is accused of tampering with evidence by wiping up blood at the crime scene.
Both Main’s defense attorney and the Hill County prosecutor’s office declined comment.
Bill Means, Lakota and cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, is concerned.
"Indians in Montana are considered guilty until proven innocent," Means said.
Jim Jr., incarcerated in the Hill County Detention Facility in Havre since his arrest on November 25, 2006, faces 10 to 100 years in prison. At the time of the crime, Jim Jr. was living at Fort Belknap and taking care of his elderly mother.
After the arrest of Jim Jr., h
is sister Rose, questioned why the state's star witness was not arrested at the time.
"The State has focused on Jim, and despite contradicting evidence, has charged no one else," Rose said before the July arrests. She said testimony supporting Jim has been ignored by prosecutors.
Jim Jr. and the family have received words of support from throughout the nation.
Researcher Orin Hatton of Springfield, Virginia, was helping Jim Jr.
prepare a manuscript for publication. It is an autobiography, rich with the history and culture of his people, including his great-grandfather, Chief Lame Bull, the last traditional chief of the Gros-Ventre people.
Hatton told the court that he has known Jim for 15 years.
"I have never known him to raise his voice in anger or utter a curse word. My experience of James is of someone who possesses a strong intellectual curiosity, a memory for facts and figures, and ability to synthesize large amounts of data. And like his grandfather, he is
dedicated to a higher purpose in life – which includes preserving the culture, history and traditions of the Gros-Ventre people of Fort Belknap, Montana."
Hatton described Jim Jr. as a cultural ambassador who has traveled to France as co-author of a screenplay on the Gros-Ventre People, participated in an Indian dance troupe in Greece and endeared himself to the Kumeyaay in southern California, where he worked as a youth
counselor and organized a youth drum group. Jim Jr. took a leave of absence to write his autobiography while staying with the Mashantucket Pequot in Connecticut.
"He would be in California today working with Native youth programs if he didn't feel strongly about caring for his mother after her surgery for a life-threatening condition. His father's health too is failing and James has remained in Montana to be near his parents,"
Hatton told the court.
James Sr., in his home community of Hays on Fort Belknap Indian Nation, said his son's best quality is his ability to make friends.
Describing his son's best attributes, James Sr. said, "It is the way he talks to people. Kids really like him; he had a drum group in California. He was a good mixer, many people really liked him; he was good have around."
James Sr. laughs remembering how Bill Means said Jim Jr. should be a comedian because of his impersonations of John Wayne and others. Jim Jr. was the caregiver of his mother, Vernie White Cow Main, who lives on the homesite where she was born on Big Warm Creek on the Fort Belknap Nation.
James Sr. said, "Jim took care of her. He almost had to be a nurse for six months. He trained himself to take care of her."
James Sr. spent his life traveling for Indigenous rights, helping those who needed him. "I decided to do some good," he said of his decision to live a life in service to humankind.
"I learned a lot about different people and different cultures. I never knew there were other Indians in California. I thought John Wayne got them all," James Sr. joked.
"It's good to travel, travel around."
Seated at home in the community of his childhood at Hays, James Sr. is surrounded by memories and the passing of time.
"I don't know how long I'm going to last. I have got a lot of people praying for me. These Mayan Indians went up on a pyramid in Guatemala.
It must have been a very powerful ceremony. I knew; it was in my mind."
On his living room wall, there is a huge poster of a Gros Ventre man. It reads, "Sits on High, EK-GIB-TSA-ATSKE, of the White Clay People A'AH'NI NIN."
James Sr. looks at the poster and says, "He did what they wanted him to do, settle down. Then, they took his land."
Speaking about those who took the land here, rich in gold, water and forests, he says, "They make a fortune and they die."
These days, James Sr. teaches his grandsons the philosophy that he has lived by. It is the philosophy of pride, self-esteem and honoring the culture.
"Go back to your old ways, traditions and culture. That is what I teach my grandsons. Try to get the language back," he adds. There are only a handful of speakers left.
James Sr. remembers the harsh years at St. Paul's Mission School.
During second grade, when the children went to pray during Christmas mass, the nuns told them Santa Claus would come if they had been good.
If not, there would be willow switches waiting. When they returned, they expected presents and instead found a stack of willow switches. There was also writing on the blackboard.
"I recognized the writing. It was a priest's, telling us how bad we were."
The little children were often beaten. James Sr. remembers, "They would slap us around for nothing."
Remembering his father Tom Main, James Sr. said, "He was a humanitarian, a real leader. He did things for nothing. He could have amassed a fortune, but he didn't."
James Sr. said Tom Main served as an interpreter at a time when few White Clay People spoke English. Tom served on the executive committee of the National Congress of American Indians.
"I learned a lot from him, he was honest to a fault," Jim Sr. said of his father.
"We had a pretty rough upbringing, we were poor and we had to haul water a long way. We burned wood, so we had to saw wood. My mother used to wash on Saturdays, all we did all day long was haul water."
James Sr. grew up with three brothers and four sisters. Today, all of his brothers are living and the oldest is 86. He served in the Air Force in Japan and was there when the Korean War began in 1950.
James Sr. also worked in the copper mines for 15 years. "That's where there was never racism, a melting pot."
The happiest days of his life were spent during his high school years. "We rode horseback, we rode bucking horses; there were lots of wild horses. We had powwows during the holidays, I really enjoyed those. We had bone games, hand games, we would sing songs and have a guessing game. We tried to guess whose hand the bone was in."
The men and women played each other. Kumeyaay have similar games, he said. During their travels, both Jim Sr. and Jim Jr. earned the respect of Indian people.
Lenny Foster, Navajo program supervisor for the Navajo Nation Corrections Project, is the spiritual adviser for 2,000 Native Americans incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Foster facilitates Sweat Lodge Ceremonies, Talking Circles, Pipe Ceremonies and spiritual gatherings for inmates.
Foster is among those who has written the court and visited Jim Jr. in the Havre jail.
Foster told the court, "I have been acquainted with the Main family for over 30 years and I have known Jim Jr. for just as long. I know him to be a very generous and kind person who practices his traditional beliefs. He is a stable and very caring person who has close ties to his family, especially his father and mother. His mother and father are both elderly and Jim has been a primary caretaker of his parents.
Indian cowboys.
However, the treatment of Indians by the Montana Justice System has not improved its treatment of Indian people.
"We've got a long way to go with the Justice system. I'd like to see a handful of radical attorneys come over here and shake this place up, attack the system," Main said.
Main, known internationally as a voice for Indigenous Peoples, now in poor health following open-heart surgery, has a personal view of the state system.
James' son James Main, Jr., 46, was charged with murder in the November 25, 2006, death of a Caucasian male at a home in the bordertown of Havre, located between two Indian Nations, the Fort Belknap Gros-Ventre and Assiniboine Nation and the Rocky Boy Chippewa Cree Nation.
Havre Police arrested Jim Jr., 46, after Lloyd Charles Kvelstad of Minot, North Dakota, was found dead at a Havre home on Nov. 25, where multiple people had gathered.
At the time of Jim Jr.’s arrest, the family questioned why a man who fled the scene with blood on his shoes was not arrested. The victim had been strangled with a cord allegedly from the clothing of the man who fled.
Then, in July, two people were arrested in Great Falls and charged with felonies related to Kvelstad’s death. Twenty-eight-year-old Kim Norquay and 38-year-old Mellissa Snow were arrested on warrants.
Court records say that Norquay helped beat and strangle Kvelstad. Authorities say that a string from Norquay's clothing was found tied around the victim's neck.
Norquay is charged with murder by accountability and evidence tampering, both felonies, and with misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer. Snow is charged with felony evidence tampering and misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer.
Court records allege Main beat Kvelstad at Snow's house in Havre. Court documents also allege that Norquay told investigators he left the house and returned to find Kvelstad dead. However, the state crime lab later found blood on his shoes. Snow is accused of tampering with evidence by wiping up blood at the crime scene.
Both Main’s defense attorney and the Hill County prosecutor’s office declined comment.
Bill Means, Lakota and cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, is concerned.
"Indians in Montana are considered guilty until proven innocent," Means said.
Jim Jr., incarcerated in the Hill County Detention Facility in Havre since his arrest on November 25, 2006, faces 10 to 100 years in prison. At the time of the crime, Jim Jr. was living at Fort Belknap and taking care of his elderly mother.
After the arrest of Jim Jr., h
is sister Rose, questioned why the state's star witness was not arrested at the time."The State has focused on Jim, and despite contradicting evidence, has charged no one else," Rose said before the July arrests. She said testimony supporting Jim has been ignored by prosecutors.
Jim Jr. and the family have received words of support from throughout the nation.
Researcher Orin Hatton of Springfield, Virginia, was helping Jim Jr.
prepare a manuscript for publication. It is an autobiography, rich with the history and culture of his people, including his great-grandfather, Chief Lame Bull, the last traditional chief of the Gros-Ventre people.
Hatton told the court that he has known Jim for 15 years.
"I have never known him to raise his voice in anger or utter a curse word. My experience of James is of someone who possesses a strong intellectual curiosity, a memory for facts and figures, and ability to synthesize large amounts of data. And like his grandfather, he is
dedicated to a higher purpose in life – which includes preserving the culture, history and traditions of the Gros-Ventre people of Fort Belknap, Montana."
Hatton described Jim Jr. as a cultural ambassador who has traveled to France as co-author of a screenplay on the Gros-Ventre People, participated in an Indian dance troupe in Greece and endeared himself to the Kumeyaay in southern California, where he worked as a youth
counselor and organized a youth drum group. Jim Jr. took a leave of absence to write his autobiography while staying with the Mashantucket Pequot in Connecticut.
"He would be in California today working with Native youth programs if he didn't feel strongly about caring for his mother after her surgery for a life-threatening condition. His father's health too is failing and James has remained in Montana to be near his parents,"
Hatton told the court.
James Sr., in his home community of Hays on Fort Belknap Indian Nation, said his son's best quality is his ability to make friends.
Describing his son's best attributes, James Sr. said, "It is the way he talks to people. Kids really like him; he had a drum group in California. He was a good mixer, many people really liked him; he was good have around."
James Sr. laughs remembering how Bill Means said Jim Jr. should be a comedian because of his impersonations of John Wayne and others. Jim Jr. was the caregiver of his mother, Vernie White Cow Main, who lives on the homesite where she was born on Big Warm Creek on the Fort Belknap Nation.
James Sr. said, "Jim took care of her. He almost had to be a nurse for six months. He trained himself to take care of her."
James Sr. spent his life traveling for Indigenous rights, helping those who needed him. "I decided to do some good," he said of his decision to live a life in service to humankind.
"I learned a lot about different people and different cultures. I never knew there were other Indians in California. I thought John Wayne got them all," James Sr. joked.
"It's good to travel, travel around."
Seated at home in the community of his childhood at Hays, James Sr. is surrounded by memories and the passing of time.
"I don't know how long I'm going to last. I have got a lot of people praying for me. These Mayan Indians went up on a pyramid in Guatemala.
It must have been a very powerful ceremony. I knew; it was in my mind."
On his living room wall, there is a huge poster of a Gros Ventre man. It reads, "Sits on High, EK-GIB-TSA-ATSKE, of the White Clay People A'AH'NI NIN."
James Sr. looks at the poster and says, "He did what they wanted him to do, settle down. Then, they took his land."
Speaking about those who took the land here, rich in gold, water and forests, he says, "They make a fortune and they die."
These days, James Sr. teaches his grandsons the philosophy that he has lived by. It is the philosophy of pride, self-esteem and honoring the culture.
"Go back to your old ways, traditions and culture. That is what I teach my grandsons. Try to get the language back," he adds. There are only a handful of speakers left.
James Sr. remembers the harsh years at St. Paul's Mission School.
During second grade, when the children went to pray during Christmas mass, the nuns told them Santa Claus would come if they had been good.
If not, there would be willow switches waiting. When they returned, they expected presents and instead found a stack of willow switches. There was also writing on the blackboard.
"I recognized the writing. It was a priest's, telling us how bad we were."
The little children were often beaten. James Sr. remembers, "They would slap us around for nothing."
Remembering his father Tom Main, James Sr. said, "He was a humanitarian, a real leader. He did things for nothing. He could have amassed a fortune, but he didn't."
James Sr. said Tom Main served as an interpreter at a time when few White Clay People spoke English. Tom served on the executive committee of the National Congress of American Indians.
"I learned a lot from him, he was honest to a fault," Jim Sr. said of his father.
"We had a pretty rough upbringing, we were poor and we had to haul water a long way. We burned wood, so we had to saw wood. My mother used to wash on Saturdays, all we did all day long was haul water."
James Sr. grew up with three brothers and four sisters. Today, all of his brothers are living and the oldest is 86. He served in the Air Force in Japan and was there when the Korean War began in 1950.
James Sr. also worked in the copper mines for 15 years. "That's where there was never racism, a melting pot."
The happiest days of his life were spent during his high school years. "We rode horseback, we rode bucking horses; there were lots of wild horses. We had powwows during the holidays, I really enjoyed those. We had bone games, hand games, we would sing songs and have a guessing game. We tried to guess whose hand the bone was in."
The men and women played each other. Kumeyaay have similar games, he said. During their travels, both Jim Sr. and Jim Jr. earned the respect of Indian people.
Lenny Foster, Navajo program supervisor for the Navajo Nation Corrections Project, is the spiritual adviser for 2,000 Native Americans incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Foster facilitates Sweat Lodge Ceremonies, Talking Circles, Pipe Ceremonies and spiritual gatherings for inmates.
Foster is among those who has written the court and visited Jim Jr. in the Havre jail.
Foster told the court, "I have been acquainted with the Main family for over 30 years and I have known Jim Jr. for just as long. I know him to be a very generous and kind person who practices his traditional beliefs. He is a stable and very caring person who has close ties to his family, especially his father and mother. His mother and father are both elderly and Jim has been a primary caretaker of his parents.
"Jim has traditional cultural beliefs about reverence and sanctity towards life. The charge he is facing is out of character for him," Foster told the 12 the Judicial District Court in Lewistown, Montana.
.
PHOTOS: James Main, Sr., with his daughter Rose, at home on Big Warm Creek, Gros-Ventre land, Montana. At home, Jim Main Jr.'s mother Vernie White Cow Main holds a photo of her son, Jim Jr. Photos Brenda NorrellNext: Continued in Part II
On Big Warm Creek, Living as a Free People
(Part two of three)
On Big Warm Creek, Living as a Free People
(Part two of three)
Monday, November 5, 2007
Indigenous Border Summit Wednesday through Saturday
By Brenda Norrell
Human Rights Editor
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Human Rights Editor
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
http://www.unobserver.com/
2007-11-05 The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II welcomes extraordinary speakers from the Americas, including Bill Means, Lakota, and board members of the International Indian Treaty Council.
Delegations of Mohawks include the Mohawk Women Title Holders from Quebec and Ron Lameman from Six Nations. Indigenous border rights of mobility, human rights and the United Nations are among the topics at the summit, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007 at San Xavier District on the Tohono O'odham Nation (near the Tucson International Airport and South Tucson.)
Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants, will speak on humanitarian aid. Lenny Foster, Navajo, will speak on Native prisoners' rights and focus on Leonard Peltier. Speakers include Karen Howe, Tohono O'odham Nation ecologist, speaking on the border and the environment; Margo Tamez speaks on women and children at the border; Jay Johnson Castro on the imprisonment of migrant children in Texas and protests of the border wall in Texas. Other speakers' presentations will focus on militarization of the border, human rights abuses and new border policies. Yaqui from Sonora, Mexico and Arizona will speak on crucial border issues and deaths from banned pesticides in Mexico.
The United Nations requested that the border summit be held for a second year, following the successful summit in 2006. Time is reserved each day for testimony from Indigenous Peoples living in border regions. The Indigenous Border Summit will be webcast, Nov. 7 - 10, at http://www.earthcycles.net/
Blackfire will perform at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Saturday night, November 10, 2007. The Border Summit welcomes Blackfire, the Navajo family band whose voices have proclaimed Indigenous Peoples' rights around the world. Camping is available on site. Breakfast and lunch are provided each day at the four-day summit, hosted by San Xavier District with support from the International Indian Treaty Council.
Agenda and more information in on the website: http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/
2007-11-05 The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II welcomes extraordinary speakers from the Americas, including Bill Means, Lakota, and board members of the International Indian Treaty Council.
Delegations of Mohawks include the Mohawk Women Title Holders from Quebec and Ron Lameman from Six Nations. Indigenous border rights of mobility, human rights and the United Nations are among the topics at the summit, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007 at San Xavier District on the Tohono O'odham Nation (near the Tucson International Airport and South Tucson.)
Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants, will speak on humanitarian aid. Lenny Foster, Navajo, will speak on Native prisoners' rights and focus on Leonard Peltier. Speakers include Karen Howe, Tohono O'odham Nation ecologist, speaking on the border and the environment; Margo Tamez speaks on women and children at the border; Jay Johnson Castro on the imprisonment of migrant children in Texas and protests of the border wall in Texas. Other speakers' presentations will focus on militarization of the border, human rights abuses and new border policies. Yaqui from Sonora, Mexico and Arizona will speak on crucial border issues and deaths from banned pesticides in Mexico.
The United Nations requested that the border summit be held for a second year, following the successful summit in 2006. Time is reserved each day for testimony from Indigenous Peoples living in border regions. The Indigenous Border Summit will be webcast, Nov. 7 - 10, at http://www.earthcycles.net/
Blackfire will perform at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Saturday night, November 10, 2007. The Border Summit welcomes Blackfire, the Navajo family band whose voices have proclaimed Indigenous Peoples' rights around the world. Camping is available on site. Breakfast and lunch are provided each day at the four-day summit, hosted by San Xavier District with support from the International Indian Treaty Council.
Agenda and more information in on the website: http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/
Photo: Bill Means, IITC cofounder, Lakota/Photo Brenda Norrell
Prayers and thoughts for Floyd Westerman
Brothers and sisters,
Floyd still is not out of the woods. We have lots of people at his bedside holding vigil. But he is still really in a bad way.
WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS!
Please do not try and call Floyd or Rosie. Floyd's phone is full of messages and we are not going to empty them right now. You can e-mail me and let me know that you are praying for him. I will make a record of the people who send me e-mails and tell him.
Right now we are told that he can hear us when we talk to him. But for the most part he is unconcious. We are up there singing to him and trying to get through to him. Keith Secola came fly in yesterday. He went in right away and sang to Floyd. Floyd seemed to respond to that.Please send your prayers and your energy to help Floyd.
Anaquad
Alianza: Sacred sites forum Tucson, Nov. 17, 2007
Local Indigenous Environmental and Sacred Sites Issues
PUBLIC FORUM Saturday, November 17
1-3:30 pm
University of Arizona College of LawRoom 140
The Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras (Indigenous Alliance Without Borders) invites the UA community and general public to a free public forum on local indigenous environmental and sacred sites issues to be held at the Universityof Arizona College of Law on November 17. Invited speakers include representatives of the Chiracahua Apache Alliance and Western Mining Action Network addressing mining issues in the San Carlos Apache community, the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE), the Baboquivari DefenseProject, and the Indigenous Environmental Network.Questions and open discussion will follow presentations by panelists.
Refreshments will be served.
Please contact the Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras(http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=alianza@indigenasinfronteras.org) or Christina Leza (http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=leza@email.arizona.edu)for additional information.For more information on participating organizations, please visit
Indigenous Environmental Network at http://www.ienearth.org/Baboquivari Defense Project at http://www.7genfund.org/aff-bab-def-pro.html GRACE at http://www.7genfund.org/aff-gil-riv-all.html Chiracahua Apache Alliance at http://www.chiricahuaapache.org/ Western Mining Action Network at http://www.wman-info.org/
The Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras is an affiliate of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development (SGF). Based in Tucson, the Alianza is a grassroots indigenous organization committed to promoting respect and protection of indigenous rights, including indigenous sovereignty and self-determination,indigenous workers' rights and environmental protection of Native lands and sacred sites.Christina LezaDepartment of AnthropologyUniversity of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721mailto:85721leza@email.arizona.edu
Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras
alianza@indigenasinfronteras.org
http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org/
"If you've come here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you've comebecause your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
PUBLIC FORUM Saturday, November 17
1-3:30 pm
University of Arizona College of LawRoom 140
The Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras (Indigenous Alliance Without Borders) invites the UA community and general public to a free public forum on local indigenous environmental and sacred sites issues to be held at the Universityof Arizona College of Law on November 17. Invited speakers include representatives of the Chiracahua Apache Alliance and Western Mining Action Network addressing mining issues in the San Carlos Apache community, the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE), the Baboquivari DefenseProject, and the Indigenous Environmental Network.Questions and open discussion will follow presentations by panelists.
Refreshments will be served.
Please contact the Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras(http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=alianza@indigenasinfronteras.org) or Christina Leza (http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=leza@email.arizona.edu)for additional information.For more information on participating organizations, please visit
Indigenous Environmental Network at http://www.ienearth.org/Baboquivari Defense Project at http://www.7genfund.org/aff-bab-def-pro.html GRACE at http://www.7genfund.org/aff-gil-riv-all.html Chiracahua Apache Alliance at http://www.chiricahuaapache.org/ Western Mining Action Network at http://www.wman-info.org/
The Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras is an affiliate of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development (SGF). Based in Tucson, the Alianza is a grassroots indigenous organization committed to promoting respect and protection of indigenous rights, including indigenous sovereignty and self-determination,indigenous workers' rights and environmental protection of Native lands and sacred sites.Christina LezaDepartment of AnthropologyUniversity of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721mailto:85721leza@email.arizona.edu
Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras
alianza@indigenasinfronteras.org
http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org/
"If you've come here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you've comebecause your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
MNN Blackballs Indian Affairs
MNN BLACKBALLS INDIAN AFFAIRS - REFUSES TO SELL THE AGONIZING DEATH OF “COLONIALISM”AND “FEDERAL INDIAN LAW” IN AKWESASNE
Mohawk Nation News
Nov. 4, 2007
The book by MNN is “The Agonizing Death of “Colonialism” and “Federal Indian Law” in Akwesasne. Indigenous Jurisdiction is in! Notice forthcoming of memorial service. To be followed by a celebration. See you there”.
We refuse to sell this book to the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs. We know they made 200 copies of “Where Eagles Dare to Soar” for internal use. This alone created a debt of $4,000.00 that remains unpaid. We request that they treat us with the same respect that is accorded other publishers. MNN is caught in the classic “Catch 22”.
They refuse to respect our jurisdiction. They never pay us indigenous people for our work or resources. Even if their courts were worth recognizing we can’t afford to access their one-sided colonial institution. We are returning the$20 with a bill for “Where Eagles Dare to Soar”. They can add on what they know they owe us for photocopying our other publications that they have pirated, including the recently issued “Who’s Sorry Now? The Good the Badand the Unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake” [Mohawk Issues for Dummies Series]. If Indian Affairs decides to clean up its act and return everything that’s ours, we may reconsider letting them buy our books.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/mnn-blackballs-indian-affairs.html
Mohawk Nation News
Nov. 4, 2007
The book by MNN is “The Agonizing Death of “Colonialism” and “Federal Indian Law” in Akwesasne. Indigenous Jurisdiction is in! Notice forthcoming of memorial service. To be followed by a celebration. See you there”.
We refuse to sell this book to the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs. We know they made 200 copies of “Where Eagles Dare to Soar” for internal use. This alone created a debt of $4,000.00 that remains unpaid. We request that they treat us with the same respect that is accorded other publishers. MNN is caught in the classic “Catch 22”.
They refuse to respect our jurisdiction. They never pay us indigenous people for our work or resources. Even if their courts were worth recognizing we can’t afford to access their one-sided colonial institution. We are returning the$20 with a bill for “Where Eagles Dare to Soar”. They can add on what they know they owe us for photocopying our other publications that they have pirated, including the recently issued “Who’s Sorry Now? The Good the Badand the Unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake” [Mohawk Issues for Dummies Series]. If Indian Affairs decides to clean up its act and return everything that’s ours, we may reconsider letting them buy our books.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/mnn-blackballs-indian-affairs.html
Outta Your Backpack Media workshops Flagstaff, Arizona
Outta Your Backpack Media has planned two workshops for November:
Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop!
"Basic Production Skills"
Thursday Nov. 8th, 2007- 4 PM - 7 PM
At the Youth Media Arts Center/Infoshop
Flagstaff, AZ
http://www.indigenousaction.org/nov8.html (Registration is still open)
Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop!
Nov. 24th & 25th, 2007 - 10 AM - 5PM
At the Youth Media Arts Center/Infoshop
Flagstaff, AZ
http://www.indigenousaction.org/nov24_25.html
For more information and to register visit: http://www.indigenousaction.org/
Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop!
"Basic Production Skills"
Thursday Nov. 8th, 2007- 4 PM - 7 PM
At the Youth Media Arts Center/Infoshop
Flagstaff, AZ
http://www.indigenousaction.org/nov8.html (Registration is still open)
Outta Your Backpack Media Workshop!
Nov. 24th & 25th, 2007 - 10 AM - 5PM
At the Youth Media Arts Center/Infoshop
Flagstaff, AZ
http://www.indigenousaction.org/nov24_25.html
For more information and to register visit: http://www.indigenousaction.org/
Snowbowl protest Wednesday Flagstaff, Arizona
PROTEST SNOWBOWL THIS WEDNESDAY!
Arizona Snowbowl will be holding their annual Job (un)Fair this Wednesday.
Join us and voice/demonstrate your concerns with Snowbowl's attempts to desecrate the Sacred San Francisco Peaks, cause ecological harm and risk community health.
This is an opportunity to educate people that are considering working at Snowbowl.
What: Protest Arizona Snowbowl's Job (un)Fair!
When: Wednesday, November 7th from 4 PM-7 PM
Where: Northern Arizona University's Walkup Sky Dome at the Main Entrance (http://www.nau.edu/web/campus_map/south_campus.html)
Why: Snowbowl Ski Area is attempting to expand their current ski area development and make fake snow from treated sewage effluent on the Sacred San Francisco Peaks despite pleas from tribes, environmental groups and the greater community.
Who: You and anyone who cares about community health, our environment and respecting Indigenous cultures!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Blackfire to perform at Indigenous Border Summit!
Blackfire will perform at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Saturday night, November 10, 2007. The Border Summit will be held Nov. 7 - 10, 2007, at San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation (near the Tucson International Airport.)The Border Summit welcomes the Navajo family band whose voices have proclaimed Indigenous Peoples' rights around the world.
Border Summit website:
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/
Friday, November 2, 2007
Censorship spreads with fear and greed
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
The bad news is that censorship is increasing. The good news is that people around the world are fighting back online and publishing their own news.
One of the most censored topics is Indigenous Peoples' rights, especially those stated in the recently adopted United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right of mobility in ancestral territories, regardless of national borders.
Those topics will be the focus of the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II next week, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007, at San Xavier on Tohono O'odham land, near South Tucson.
Although the border summit may be censored by mainstream newspapers, you can either attend or listen online: http://www.earthcycles.net/
The Censored Blog has a running poll of the most censored topics. American Indian readers feel the most censored topic on the list, by far, is the silencing of traditional and grassroots' voices by those in power. They write to say that their own "puppet tribal government" has increased the oppression of their traditional people. By silencing or ignoring their ceremonial leaders, tribal governments, fashioned after the US system, continue to enter into leases and corporate agreements that put the future of seven generations at risk.
Following this censored topic, readers voted the most censored issue is the nuclear, uranium and coal genocide of Indigenous Peoples, which is the result of international corporate profiteering, political vice, death squads and censorship.
Next in line, readers voted the most censored issues are Leonard Peltier, border deaths and racism in border news reporting, Zapatista gatherings along the US/Mexico border and the Indian delegations from the north in Venezuela.
Online, Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net (http://www.pechanga.net/) has continued to publish the censored issues, along with the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report (http://www.unobserver.com/) NarcoNews (http://www.narconews.com/) and CounterPunch (http://www.counterpunch.org/.)
Scroll down to read more about censored issues (http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/), including Homeland Security waiving all federal laws to build the border wall. Major newspapers, and even alternative presses, have censored this case: Two priests, Fr. Louie Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly, are serving 5-month prison sentences for protesting US torture inflicted at Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan. The priests knelt in prayer outside of Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
The arrests of Maoris in New Zealand follows the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Maoris are among the Indigenous Peoples' engaged in struggles for their ancestral lands around the world. New Zealand is now leading the world in oppression of Indigenous Peoples. The mainstream news coverage of the police storm tactics and imprisonment of some Maori without bail, has been biased and one-sided. In Australia, few news reporters have reported fairly on the struggle for Aboriginals' rights.
Thanks to all of you for reading.
brendanorrell@gmail.com
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
The bad news is that censorship is increasing. The good news is that people around the world are fighting back online and publishing their own news.
One of the most censored topics is Indigenous Peoples' rights, especially those stated in the recently adopted United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right of mobility in ancestral territories, regardless of national borders.
Those topics will be the focus of the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II next week, Nov. 7 - 10, 2007, at San Xavier on Tohono O'odham land, near South Tucson.
Although the border summit may be censored by mainstream newspapers, you can either attend or listen online: http://www.earthcycles.net/
The Censored Blog has a running poll of the most censored topics. American Indian readers feel the most censored topic on the list, by far, is the silencing of traditional and grassroots' voices by those in power. They write to say that their own "puppet tribal government" has increased the oppression of their traditional people. By silencing or ignoring their ceremonial leaders, tribal governments, fashioned after the US system, continue to enter into leases and corporate agreements that put the future of seven generations at risk.
Following this censored topic, readers voted the most censored issue is the nuclear, uranium and coal genocide of Indigenous Peoples, which is the result of international corporate profiteering, political vice, death squads and censorship.
Next in line, readers voted the most censored issues are Leonard Peltier, border deaths and racism in border news reporting, Zapatista gatherings along the US/Mexico border and the Indian delegations from the north in Venezuela.
Online, Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net (http://www.pechanga.net/) has continued to publish the censored issues, along with the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report (http://www.unobserver.com/) NarcoNews (http://www.narconews.com/) and CounterPunch (http://www.counterpunch.org/.)
Scroll down to read more about censored issues (http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/), including Homeland Security waiving all federal laws to build the border wall. Major newspapers, and even alternative presses, have censored this case: Two priests, Fr. Louie Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly, are serving 5-month prison sentences for protesting US torture inflicted at Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan. The priests knelt in prayer outside of Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
The arrests of Maoris in New Zealand follows the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Maoris are among the Indigenous Peoples' engaged in struggles for their ancestral lands around the world. New Zealand is now leading the world in oppression of Indigenous Peoples. The mainstream news coverage of the police storm tactics and imprisonment of some Maori without bail, has been biased and one-sided. In Australia, few news reporters have reported fairly on the struggle for Aboriginals' rights.
Thanks to all of you for reading.
brendanorrell@gmail.com
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Sonoran pronghorns, between bombs and border walls
The Sonoran Pronghorn can run 60 miles per hour, but can it outrun an out-of-control Bush Administration building border walls
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
AJO, Arizona – The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge visitor center looks like a typical national park office from the outside. Inside, however, the mysteries unfold of the Sonoran Desert, the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and the delicate complexion of the desert ecosystem.
In this sleepy town of used clothing stores and Mexican auto insurance offices, the wildlife refuge visitor center is an oasis of natural wonders.
Straddling the wildlife refuge is the refuge’s evil non-biological twin: the Barry M. Goldwater Airforce Range, known as the Bombing Range.
In this area, a small herd of the rare and endangered Sonoran pronghorn roam. Beyond the US/Mexico border, in the state of Sonora, Mexico, a larger herd roams. Fences are the biggest threat to the survival of pronghorns, according to US Fish and Wildlife.
Pronghorns, the fastest animal in North America, do not jump, they run into walls and fences when panicked.
With the Bush Administration declaring that it is “God of the Universe,” and that no federal laws apply to border wall construction, border walls and barriers in all sizes and shapes are suddenly appearing, without public input or environmental assessment.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived all federal laws protecting the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in October, located to the east of here on the Arizona border. Chertoff disavowed a federal court ruling temporarily halting construction at San Pedro, which is a World Heritage Natural Area, designated by the United Nations.
The San Pedro fiasco was the third time the Real ID Act of 2005 was used to eradicate all federal laws that get in the way of building the US/Mexico border wall. The Real ID Act was first used in San Diego in 2005, then at the Barry Goldwater Range. Among the laws waived: the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
In January, Chertoff used Real ID to direct the construction of a double-layered border wall on the Goldwater range, detrimental to the pronghorns and other wildlife. Instead of a vehicle barrier, which would have been less harmful to wildlife, Chertoff mandated a double-layered fence.
The US Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005 as Division B of the act, “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005.” This legislation was touted as an act to deter terrorism.
Critics, however, say it was manipulated fear-mongering, aimed at producing a tool to eliminate all federal laws for the purpose of corporate profiteering and far-reaching government control.
For endangered species, the Read ID is a real nightmare, the equivalent of open season on biological treasures.
Endangered species were not the only obstacles Homeland Security disregarded to build border walls and border barriers. The Bush Administration and Homeland Security dug up American Indian ancestors from their final resting places. Border wall contractor Boeing dug up the ancestors of the Tohono O’odham in Arizona, to build a border barrier in 2007.
Earlier, Kumeyaay in California protested construction of the border wall, saying it would “plow through the graves" of their ancestors. Although it violated the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act and American Indian Religious Freedom Act, construction continued.
At Cabeza, now there is the magic and wonder. Visitors are told that the Sonoran Desert has more species than any other arid region in the world. The cryptobiotic “skin” of the desert is composed of algae, bacteria and lichen. Like a human skin, it is delicate and wounds can take generations to heal. If you pour water on it and wait, it will turn green.
Unique on this planet is the pronghorn -- Antilocapra americana – which means “American antelope goat.” However, it is neither an antelope nor a goat. “The pronghorn is the only surviving member of an ancient family dating back 20 million years. The Sonoran Pronghorn (A. a. sonorensis) is one of five subspecies in western North America.
“It is perhaps America’s most endangered mammal,” according to Cabeza.
The Sonoran pronghorn is found only here in the United States, in the area around Ajo, south of Phoenix, near the border. It is also found in the state of Sonora, Mexico. In the United States, there are about 100 Sonoran pronghorns, while in Mexico, one herd numbers 15 to 20, while another numbers 300 to 400 pronghorns.
“They never learned to jump over even low barriers,” Cabeza says.
Here at Cabeza, an enclosure for breeding is an attempt to ensure the herds survival. The recovery plan includes a captive breeding program and transplant strategy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife says that in 2002, after a lack of rainfall and “land use activities,” the Ajo herd dwindled to 21 pronghorn.
However, after capturing seven pronghorns in Mexico for the Arizona herd in 2004, four died of reactions to the capture and another died of a medical problem. After the capture myopathy (resulting from overexertion in the capture), the program was shut down. Still, two survived to live in the 640-acre natural environment on the refuge, fenced to keep out predators. An Arizona Sonoran male pronghorn was captured and placed with the two females. New fawns have been seen outside the enclosure.
However, there’s the lingering question of the bombs. As the visitor center’s video rolls, the speaker tells how the Airforce and its bombers have the right to the airspace above the wildlife refuge. The refuge controls only the natural resources on the ground.
“Now, how does that work?” I ask the staff. “Are the pronghorns being bombed?”
The explanation went like this: The Airforce bombers only turn around in the airspace over the wildlife refuge. Further, the bombers do not engage with ground targets if pronghorns are in the area on the rest of the bombing range.
It is an interesting concept, but seems pretty bizarre, considering how pronghorns dart around at 60 miles per hour. This desert bombing range -- 1.3 million acres -- is also home to desert bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and a cornucopia of biological life.
Recently, I asked a wildlife official in Arizona about the migration of the pronghorns and how a border wall would effect their migrations, since they run with lightning speed and slam into walls when panicked.
The official said that the United States does not really want their US Sonoran pronghorns migrating south of the border to Mexico because of the busy traffic on the Mexican highway running along the border to the south. The United States also has some questions about the grazing and adaptation of the US pronghorns, should they elect to give up their US citizenship and join the larger crowd of pronghorns south of the border. (This all had the sound of “No way I’m telling you the truth, because if Homeland Security finds out, I’m finished.”)
This wildlife official said the US Sonoran pronghorns have adapted to the rainfall and grasses here and to their bombing neighbors.
With Cabeza’s 391 plant species and 300 kinds of wildlife, Cabeza is also home to the endangered Lesser long-nosed bats. The Lesser long nosed bats caused a stir around the new non-functional Boeing border spy tower in Arivaca.
With the spy tower's layers of radar and microwave transmissions, high tech equipment and generator, questions were raised about the effect on the bats' hunting abilities, since the bats use echolation (bouncing sound) to hunt. The spy tower is being protested as a violation of privacy. At one time there was hope that environmental laws might save the day.
However, the bats, along with the pronghorns and jaguars along the border of Arizona, are now facing the heavy-hand of power that is slam-dunking all environmental laws to construct the US/Mexico border wall.
There’s more disturbing information in the Cabeza literature. Besides Cabeza hosting “a limited desert bighorn sheep hunt,” there’s a note of caution about the live bombs. Cabeza’s information says the military has used this as a gunnery and bombing range since World War II and many types of ordnances remain buried and on the surface.
“You may encounter unexploded ordnance,” Cabeza warns. Visitors are directed not to touch those and report the live bombs to the refuge staff.
Of course, one has to wonder, what does a pronghorn do when it encounters an unexploded bomb.
Wildlife refuges and bombing range hardly seem like good neighbors. However, Arizona seems to like the fraternity.
Farther to the west in Arizona, between Yuma and nowhere, the Yuma Proving Ground is where the military tests missiles and long range weapons. It is right next to another wildlife refuge, the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
On the 80-mile stretch between Quartzite and Yuma, the only sign of life is Stone Cabin, (literally a stone cabin) where a food vendor sells buffalo burgers. Outside of Quartzite, there were a few scattered campers, stuck here and there in the creosote bushes. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live there, with no sign of water, electricity or anything else. It looked like the set for a B-rated “end of the world” movie. I was so anxious to get out of that area, that I couldn’t stand the thought of a ten-minute wait for a burger.
“You have to drive through the Proving Ground to get to the wildlife refuge,” I was told, after seeing a military tank with gunnery, painted in murky green camouflage, stopped at a stop sign.
Another time, thanks.
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
AJO, Arizona – The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge visitor center looks like a typical national park office from the outside. Inside, however, the mysteries unfold of the Sonoran Desert, the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and the delicate complexion of the desert ecosystem.
In this sleepy town of used clothing stores and Mexican auto insurance offices, the wildlife refuge visitor center is an oasis of natural wonders.
Straddling the wildlife refuge is the refuge’s evil non-biological twin: the Barry M. Goldwater Airforce Range, known as the Bombing Range.
In this area, a small herd of the rare and endangered Sonoran pronghorn roam. Beyond the US/Mexico border, in the state of Sonora, Mexico, a larger herd roams. Fences are the biggest threat to the survival of pronghorns, according to US Fish and Wildlife.
Pronghorns, the fastest animal in North America, do not jump, they run into walls and fences when panicked.
With the Bush Administration declaring that it is “God of the Universe,” and that no federal laws apply to border wall construction, border walls and barriers in all sizes and shapes are suddenly appearing, without public input or environmental assessment.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived all federal laws protecting the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in October, located to the east of here on the Arizona border. Chertoff disavowed a federal court ruling temporarily halting construction at San Pedro, which is a World Heritage Natural Area, designated by the United Nations.
The San Pedro fiasco was the third time the Real ID Act of 2005 was used to eradicate all federal laws that get in the way of building the US/Mexico border wall. The Real ID Act was first used in San Diego in 2005, then at the Barry Goldwater Range. Among the laws waived: the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
In January, Chertoff used Real ID to direct the construction of a double-layered border wall on the Goldwater range, detrimental to the pronghorns and other wildlife. Instead of a vehicle barrier, which would have been less harmful to wildlife, Chertoff mandated a double-layered fence.
The US Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005 as Division B of the act, “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005.” This legislation was touted as an act to deter terrorism.
Critics, however, say it was manipulated fear-mongering, aimed at producing a tool to eliminate all federal laws for the purpose of corporate profiteering and far-reaching government control.
For endangered species, the Read ID is a real nightmare, the equivalent of open season on biological treasures.
Endangered species were not the only obstacles Homeland Security disregarded to build border walls and border barriers. The Bush Administration and Homeland Security dug up American Indian ancestors from their final resting places. Border wall contractor Boeing dug up the ancestors of the Tohono O’odham in Arizona, to build a border barrier in 2007.
Earlier, Kumeyaay in California protested construction of the border wall, saying it would “plow through the graves" of their ancestors. Although it violated the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act and American Indian Religious Freedom Act, construction continued.
At Cabeza, now there is the magic and wonder. Visitors are told that the Sonoran Desert has more species than any other arid region in the world. The cryptobiotic “skin” of the desert is composed of algae, bacteria and lichen. Like a human skin, it is delicate and wounds can take generations to heal. If you pour water on it and wait, it will turn green.
Unique on this planet is the pronghorn -- Antilocapra americana – which means “American antelope goat.” However, it is neither an antelope nor a goat. “The pronghorn is the only surviving member of an ancient family dating back 20 million years. The Sonoran Pronghorn (A. a. sonorensis) is one of five subspecies in western North America.
“It is perhaps America’s most endangered mammal,” according to Cabeza.
The Sonoran pronghorn is found only here in the United States, in the area around Ajo, south of Phoenix, near the border. It is also found in the state of Sonora, Mexico. In the United States, there are about 100 Sonoran pronghorns, while in Mexico, one herd numbers 15 to 20, while another numbers 300 to 400 pronghorns.
“They never learned to jump over even low barriers,” Cabeza says.
Here at Cabeza, an enclosure for breeding is an attempt to ensure the herds survival. The recovery plan includes a captive breeding program and transplant strategy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife says that in 2002, after a lack of rainfall and “land use activities,” the Ajo herd dwindled to 21 pronghorn.
However, after capturing seven pronghorns in Mexico for the Arizona herd in 2004, four died of reactions to the capture and another died of a medical problem. After the capture myopathy (resulting from overexertion in the capture), the program was shut down. Still, two survived to live in the 640-acre natural environment on the refuge, fenced to keep out predators. An Arizona Sonoran male pronghorn was captured and placed with the two females. New fawns have been seen outside the enclosure.
However, there’s the lingering question of the bombs. As the visitor center’s video rolls, the speaker tells how the Airforce and its bombers have the right to the airspace above the wildlife refuge. The refuge controls only the natural resources on the ground.
“Now, how does that work?” I ask the staff. “Are the pronghorns being bombed?”
The explanation went like this: The Airforce bombers only turn around in the airspace over the wildlife refuge. Further, the bombers do not engage with ground targets if pronghorns are in the area on the rest of the bombing range.
It is an interesting concept, but seems pretty bizarre, considering how pronghorns dart around at 60 miles per hour. This desert bombing range -- 1.3 million acres -- is also home to desert bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and a cornucopia of biological life.
Recently, I asked a wildlife official in Arizona about the migration of the pronghorns and how a border wall would effect their migrations, since they run with lightning speed and slam into walls when panicked.
The official said that the United States does not really want their US Sonoran pronghorns migrating south of the border to Mexico because of the busy traffic on the Mexican highway running along the border to the south. The United States also has some questions about the grazing and adaptation of the US pronghorns, should they elect to give up their US citizenship and join the larger crowd of pronghorns south of the border. (This all had the sound of “No way I’m telling you the truth, because if Homeland Security finds out, I’m finished.”)
This wildlife official said the US Sonoran pronghorns have adapted to the rainfall and grasses here and to their bombing neighbors.
With Cabeza’s 391 plant species and 300 kinds of wildlife, Cabeza is also home to the endangered Lesser long-nosed bats. The Lesser long nosed bats caused a stir around the new non-functional Boeing border spy tower in Arivaca.
With the spy tower's layers of radar and microwave transmissions, high tech equipment and generator, questions were raised about the effect on the bats' hunting abilities, since the bats use echolation (bouncing sound) to hunt. The spy tower is being protested as a violation of privacy. At one time there was hope that environmental laws might save the day.
However, the bats, along with the pronghorns and jaguars along the border of Arizona, are now facing the heavy-hand of power that is slam-dunking all environmental laws to construct the US/Mexico border wall.
There’s more disturbing information in the Cabeza literature. Besides Cabeza hosting “a limited desert bighorn sheep hunt,” there’s a note of caution about the live bombs. Cabeza’s information says the military has used this as a gunnery and bombing range since World War II and many types of ordnances remain buried and on the surface.
“You may encounter unexploded ordnance,” Cabeza warns. Visitors are directed not to touch those and report the live bombs to the refuge staff.
Of course, one has to wonder, what does a pronghorn do when it encounters an unexploded bomb.
Wildlife refuges and bombing range hardly seem like good neighbors. However, Arizona seems to like the fraternity.
Farther to the west in Arizona, between Yuma and nowhere, the Yuma Proving Ground is where the military tests missiles and long range weapons. It is right next to another wildlife refuge, the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
On the 80-mile stretch between Quartzite and Yuma, the only sign of life is Stone Cabin, (literally a stone cabin) where a food vendor sells buffalo burgers. Outside of Quartzite, there were a few scattered campers, stuck here and there in the creosote bushes. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live there, with no sign of water, electricity or anything else. It looked like the set for a B-rated “end of the world” movie. I was so anxious to get out of that area, that I couldn’t stand the thought of a ten-minute wait for a burger.
“You have to drive through the Proving Ground to get to the wildlife refuge,” I was told, after seeing a military tank with gunnery, painted in murky green camouflage, stopped at a stop sign.
Another time, thanks.
.
Photos: Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Ajo, Arizona/Photos by Brenda Norrell
News links:
SAN PEDRO RIVER Environmentalists challenge Chertoff's authority
Construction of border fence, vehicle barriers resumes
More on cryptobiotic soil
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