Longest Walk website up and running after being hacked

By Brenda Norrell

The Mohawk Nation News website was sabotaged this week and the Longest Walk website was hacked.
Rudy Preston writes at the Longest Walk site, "Sorry we were down all day. A hacker got into our server and added a piece of malicious javascript. It was deleting important files from our server. It is probably because of our public forum. We were trying to respect your private information by not collecting any. Unfortunately that allowed just anyone to post things in our forum and comment section. They were able to completely destroy a few things. Luckily I had a backup of the website.
"We are back up and running but we will have to start having people register to the site to post forum items and comments. It will also mean we will be moderating the forum. No longer will anything be instantly posted. A moderator will have to check them to be sure there is no malicious javascript in them. Sorry for the red tape, but I unfortunately have no other way to go at this point."
Preston is preparing a login form now to prevent future problems. Meanwhile, the Mohawk Naton News website is also back up and running after ownership of the website was seized away from Mohawk publisher Kahentinetha Horn. Likely the governments of Canada and Quebec are not too happy about MNN. On Tuesday, MNN exposed Canada's $40 million militia covert Op to destroy the Kanehsatake Mohawks. It took three years to obtain the government documents.
Meanwhile, the Longest Walk is preparing events and concerts for Feb. 8 -- 11. The Alcatraz ceremony is February 11, which follows with the kickoff of the two routes across America, the northern and southern routes.

Chuck Billy, Pomo and lead singer of legendary thrash metal band Testament, will perform at the Longest Walk Kickoff Concert on Saturday, February 9. The concert begins at 5:00PM at the Eastside Cultural Center in Oakland. Chuck Billy will perform alongside his brother Andy and 2006 Native American GRAMMY & NAMA recipient Star Nayea.

The Longest Walk Kickoff Concert also features performances by 7th Generation Rise, Blackhorse Blues Band, Jeremy Goodfeather, and others TBA. Tickets range in price from $25-$40.The concert is a benefit for the Longest Walk 2, which kicks off on Monday, February 11. The Longest Walk 2 is being organized and led by American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis J. Banks. Participants will embark on a 5-month journey across America, walking over 4,400 miles to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11, 2008. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth.

Longest Walk 2
http://www.longestwalk.com/

Mohawk Nation News:

http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

Apache resisters in Texas: Homeland Security's Nazi genocidal tactics

City of Berkeley condemns construction of border wall, supports Apaches at the border

By Brenda Norrell

EL CALABOZ, Texas -- Lipan Apache resisting the seizure of their land for construction of the United States’ border wall in Texas said Homeland Security is repeating the actions of the Nazis, as it seeks to seize land in the systematic genocide of indigenous and impoverished peoples.
Homeland Security filed suit against Eloisa Garcia Tamez on Jan. 29, who has been leading the resistance to the seizures of private lands in Texas. However, Homeland Security did not notify Tamez or other family members, who found out through the media.
Tamez’ daughter Margo Tamez said, “When they listed our relatives in public newspapers, without serving papers to them in person, or through the mail, they repeat the actions of other hate-filled regimes of the past who purged out the 'unwanteds' and 'undesirables' from their societies -- such as the Nazi expulsion of the Jews in Germany, France and Italy.
“These daily 'hit lists' of DHS in our community are sending clear messages to our people that again, we are the targets of genocidal thoughts and actions.”
Eloisa Garcia Tamez has been ordered to federal court in Brownsville on Feb. 7.
Margo Tamez’ comments came in a message of gratitude to supporter Wendy Kenin, after the Berkeley City Council unanimously voted to support the Lipan Apaches’ resolution on Jan. 29. The City’s resolution condemned the construction of the US/Mexico border wall.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/apache-resisters-in-texas-homeland.html

Mohawk Nation News website sabotaged after Canada's covert op exposure

WHO “CRASHED” MNN WEBSITE?
WAS IT HURT FEEEELINGS OVER “NICKNAMES”

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News

Jan. 30, 2008. The gross corruption revealed in “Access to Information” documents from Public Security and Emergency Preparedness Canada and Indian Affairs has not made the front pages of the corporate media. [Dossier No. 1336-A-2006-0034]. Instead they’ve temporarily sabotaged MNN. It appears to now be owned by 1599754 Ontario Limited!! How could this happen? How could we lose ownership of our website without our knowledge or consent. Ernie Hilts, the website host, at 705-429-4792 email ernie@9thdegree.biz won’t answer our calls or emails, that I never gave up ownership of my website. We can’t think of anyone who would have a motivation for doing this. [“Canada’s “Indian Affairs” financed war machine to attack Mohawks on Jan. 12, 2004” – Jan. 27, 2008]. We know that the Canadian government is riddled with corruption. They aren’t as careful to cover their tracks because they don’t see us as people. They think we are powerless, have no voice and are blind. They have secret meeting about us. We have no rights. They can plan to deprive us or even kill us. The people written about are objecting to the nicknames we gave them, such as “ambulance chaser” and “turn coat”. They are not denying the factual substance of the information found in the documents we reviewed.

Read article"

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/mohawk-nation-news-website-sabotaged.html

Canada and Quebec financed $40 million militia to destroy Kanehsatake Mohawks:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/canadas-indian-affairs-financed-war.html

Lakotah Republic answers questions

Russell Means and the Lakotah Republic respond to questions and criticisms and describe the vision of the Lakotah Republic. The responses are from its new online forum: www.republicoflakotah.com/

By Russell Means/Lakotah Republic

"We are only the provisional government; we are serving as midwives for the rebirth of the Lakotah as a free people. The Lakotah people will decide on their own form of government. Remember, we are not starting from scratch. Before the white man came, Indians governed themselves freely for thousands of years. The white man used the Indian model to create the United States Constitution.

"The US government has done a tremendous job of training Lakotah people to be dependent. We are now in a transition period, during which those programs continue while we reestablish our independence. This was done in the Compacts of Free Association that the US government did when the former Trust Territories of the Pacific, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, reestablished their sovereignty and freedom."
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/russell-means-answers-some-direct-email.html

Return to Censored homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Homeland Security sues Lipan Apache Eloisa Tamez for land for border wall

By Brenda Norrell

CAMERON COUNTY, Texas -- Homeland Security filed suit against Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache, on Tuesday, Jan. 29, to seize her land for the border wall in Texas. Tamez has been leading the resistance to the border wall in Apache communities. Tamez said she only has three acres, but it is all she has.
All across South Texas, mayors and legislators have united to fight the border wall. Since towns on both sides of the border rely on their neighbors' shopping, eating in restaurants and other commerce, business owners in South Texas say the already financially-strapped communities will suffer economically.

Photo: Eloisa Tamez by Jay Johnson-Castro

DHS continues to file lawsuits for proposed borderfence

http://www.themonitor.com/news/land_8546___article.html/county_government.html/

Laura B. Martinez and Kevin Sieff (The Brownsville Herald)

January 30
BROWNSVILLE — The federal government is continuing its effort to gain access to land in Cameron County for the proposed border fence, filingfive more lawsuits Tuesday.
Among those sued is Eloisa Tamez, an associate professor at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, who has repeatedly denied the government access to her property. "We're building the wall because we're worried about terrorists, buton the border we're being terrorized by our own government," Tamez said Tuesday evening. "I'm still going to go forward. The land is still not for sale. They'll have to make an example out of me." ...

Return to Censored homepage:

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Canada's 'Indian Affairs' financed War Machine to Attack Kanehsatake Mohawks

Canada's 'Indian Affairs' financed War Machine to attack Kanehsatake Mohawks on January 12, 2004

By Kahentinetha Horn

Government documents received through an “Access to Information” request prove that the attack on peaceful Kanehsatake Mohawks by a heavily armed 67-man paramilitary force was planned, financed and implemented by Indian Affairs, Solicitor General’s Office and the Prime Minister’s Office of Ottawa. The documents reveal that the initial lay out of over $900,000 was illegally provided by Indian Affairs to Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness for this coup. [PSEPC Code 0880; Ref. Code5000020336]. The documents show that a total of $40 million was spent on this attack. [$20 million from Canada and $20 million from Quebec.] Secret bi-lateral agreements between Canada and Quebec laid out funding arrangements. Canada was to provide 52% and Quebec 48% of the policing funds. Indian Affairs has no authority in policing. It was strictly illegal –a blatant violation of Canadian law and a misappropriation of Indigenous resources and Canadian taxpayers’ dollars at a time,when many Indigenous communities are suffering from third world conditions, without even clean water to drink. Despite the huge number of blanks where crucial information was “whited-out” from the documents, it was still possible to piece together the ghoulish history that’s going to haunt the corporate government players to their graves.

Read article ...http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/canadas-indian-affairs-financed-war.html
(Photo via Atlantic Free Press: Mohawk warriors outside the police station at Kanesatake, Que. (CP photo)

After the orchestrated Canadian covert operation, 16 Mohawk warriors were sent to prison.

A great day to read the news online

By Brenda Norrell

It is a great day to be alive and read the news. We all have to wonder if anyone will spend a dime to buy a newspaper again with so much incredible free journalism online. As I was out covering the Free Palestine rally in Tucson today, I checked my e-mail. There was Kahentinetha's latest column from the Mohawk Nation News, detailing the $40 million that Canada spent for a covert operation in 2004 to splice the Mohawks, beginning with an attack on their police station. The documents were gained after years of efforts to obtain them by way of freedom of access to information.
In the e-box, there were also requests from readers around the globe, all wanting to know more about the Republic of Lakotah. So here's one of the recent online articles, "Connect the Dots" by Hickory Hendrickson:
"I had a phone conversation with the web-master for the Republic of Lakotah in which we discussed an individual who was logging in to the Republic of Lakotah forum under one name and posting a new topic. The same IP address would then log right back on under another username and argue with himself. He did this constantly for hours."
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1365.html
There you have it, a great day to read the news. Brenda

University of Arizona students rally for Palestine

Photo: Protesters gathered outside the federal building in downtown Tucson today calling for an end to the occupation of Palestine and food for the hungry there. Photo Brenda Norrell

As the human rights abuses, violence and deaths continue in Palestine, the United States gives Israel over $10 million a day -- money that could be used instead for people who are hungry, sick, wounded, tortured and cold

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogpsot.com/

TUCSON -- University of Arizona students are rallying for Palestinian human rights today and marched to the federal building at noon, Monday, January 28, 2008.
The Voices of Opposition began with an information booth at the center of campus this morning. Justin Mascouf was among the students who said that Americans are misinformed about Israel and Palestine.
"The most important thing for Americans to know is that most of the foreign aid is going to Israel," Mascouf said.
Further, although supplies were able to reach Palestine last night, Mascouf said that the preceding days showed the truth about where Egypt's alliances are. "People had to break through the wall for supplies, food and medicine."
Skylar Hijazi said there is a misconception in the United States that opposing Israel's actions in regards to Palestine represents antisemitism.
"This about people," added Steven Thorpe. "People are dying unnecessarily."
Hijazi pointed out that the ongoing collective form of punishment of all Palestinians is torture. "We are condoning torture," he said, referring to the United States' role in the widespread suffering in Palestine.
Referring to the United border wall under construction south of Tucson on the Arizona/Mexico border, known locally as the US Apartheid Wall, Hijazi said, "Walls in general are bad news."
In the pamphlets offered today at the University of Arizona campus, the group points out that Palestinians continue to suffer because of censorship.
AP is the major source of news in the United States. "Virtually all of AP's news reports about the Israel-Palestinian conflict go through its bureau in Israel," the group's pamphlet states.
Further, the media has censored the fact that there are 8,000 Palestinians in prisons who are routinely tortured and many have not been accused of a crime. The Geneva-based Defense of Children and Save the Children reported that 373 children under the age of 18 were being held in Israeli prisons in 2004.
The most heinous of crimes committed by Israeli soldiers is censored by AP. On October 17, 2004, an Israeli soldier shot a 14-year-old Palestinian in the stomach for no reason. An AP cameraman sent video footage of the unprovoked shooting to the bureau in Israel. The AP Israeli Bureau erased the footage.
The U.S. gives Israel over $10 million per day.

(Watch brief video of rally at the Tucson federal building/Video by Brenda Norrell)

Tucson: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Go Home!

Protest in Tucson in opposition to the racism and vigilante patrols of Maricopa Co. Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Photo Brenda Norrell/For photo reprint permission: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Racist Arizona sheriff protested for vigilante patrols

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Minutemen dragnet for people of color

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Protesters sent a loud message to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio today to "Go Home!" and take his practices of racism, xenophobia and vigilante patrols with him.
Protesting outside the Sheraton, where Arpaio was the speaker at the Pima County Republican Women's Club luncheon, border rights activists and other local residents called for an end to the reign of Arpaio's repression and lawlessness.
Arpaio's practice of racial targeting of people of color and the addition of Minutemen to patrols were two of the reasons that Pima County residents sent a loud message to Arpaio today. Tucson is located in Pima County, southeast of Phoenix and Maricopa County where Arpaio carries out his vigilante raids.
Derechos Humanos/Coalición de Derechos Humanos delivered a letter to Pima County Republican Women's Club.
"As members of the Pima County community, we are here today to question your decision to invite Sheriff Joe Arpaio to speak at your event. As you should be aware, Sheriff Arpaio bears much responsibility for the extremely volatile racial atmosphere in Phoenix and its outlying areas.
"We cannot permit this environment in Pima County, and are shocked that you would proudly applaud the efforts of the self proclaimed 'America’s Toughest Sheriff' on your website.
"During his tenure, Sheriff Arpaio has engaged the Arizona taxpayer, and the rest of the state of Arizona, in enforcement and political measures that have not only created great racial divisions, but have cost Maricopa County more than $41 million dollars in court fees, lawsuits, attorneys’ fees, settlements, judgments, photographs of himself, videos of himself, and maintaining his personal public relations staff.
"Did you know that Sheriff Arpaio has arrested hundreds of workers, and together with Andrew Thomas, has charged mothers and fathers, survivors of U.S. and global economic policies with being co-conspirators to their own smuggling, resulting in hundreds of felony convictions and prison time at taxpayer expense?
"Did you know that Sheriff Arpaio has created private posses, where he has permitted Minutemen to join his sheriff deputies in wholesale racial profiling and repression, resulting in an explosive situation in Phoenix neighborhoods?
"Did you know that Sheriff Arpaio has been involved in the violation of the constitutional rights of the readers of the Phoenix New Times by demanding the identity of everyone who had visited the paper’s website and arresting the newspaper’s leaders when they publicized what had happened?
"Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not welcome in the city of Tucson, where many of us continue to work for a community that is diverse, respectful, and appreciative of each other’s differences. We will not permit hatred and xenophobia in our community of Tucson. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Phoenix who must stand up for human rights on a daily basis."
Meanwhile, immigrant rights attorney Antonio Bustamante is building a racial profiling case against Arpaio. Bustamante is collecting first-hand accounts from witnesses who state that they have been unfairly stopped and arrested by Arpaio's deputies.
Michael Lacey, creator of Phoenix New Times, spent a night in jail in October after exposing Arpaio's "fishing expedition" which involved a grand jury seeking a list of New Times' online readers and even their shopping habits.
Photos of today's protest of Arpaio in Tucson:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Reporter's Notebook

Today, the Sheraton Tucson Hotel and Suites on E. Grant security forces get an "F" for refusing to let this reporter sit on a bench. After I identified myself as a news reporter, the security forces said I wasn't allowed on their property.
But next door, Buck and Lil's BBQ, was very welcoming. Thanks Buck and Lil for a place to sit! Brenda Norrell

Russell Means: Hitler, the Indian Reorganization Act and Palestine

Rev. Louis Farrakan's Final Call, interview with Russell Means

Final Call: In your writings and speeches, you have drawn many parallels between the experiences of the indigenous people, the apartheid government in South Africa, and the occupied Palestinian territories. It appears that you are saying that wherever unjust land appropriation policies are found, they all have the same origins.

Russell Means: Exactly! Hitler wrote that the American policy of creating reservations for the unclean and the unwanted was the perfect solution for race, and (using) that example he created the concentration camps for the gypsies, Jewish people and homosexuals. The Bantu Development Act of 1964 which institutionalized apartheid in South Africa is a copy of the Indian Reorganization Act of America which was passed thirty years before. What happened to us was the genesis and example for all land appropriations the world over—that includes Palestine. Our people are being exterminated, much like the African slaves were exterminated from their homeland and separated from their way of life. The apartheid system is the most lethal colonial policy ever created, and you have to hand it to the United States of America. They are very good at eradicating human beings in all ways physically, spiritually and economically.

Read more ...

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_4313.shtml

Choctaw Ben Carnes: The border, treaties, prisoner rights and the Ghost Dance

Thoughts of Racism, Politics and Spiritual Sovereignty

Choctaw Ben Carnes discusses border arrests, sovereignty, treaties, prisoner rights and the Ghost Dance

By Ben Carnes
I find it very sad that my relatives from the South are being hunted down and sent back home. Oklahoma had recently passed a law prohibiting aiding any “illegal immigrants” with food, shelter, or work, or even a ride to work. The Indian way is to provide our relatives who visit with food, water and the comfort of shelter. In an indirect way, our way of life is being criminalized in our homelands, like in the 1800’s when they imposed the Code of Religious Offenses ...
In heeding the words of Thomas Banyacya and the Mayan Calendar, it may not be such a bad idea for the Ghost Dance to make its return in the form as it was presented to Wovoka. Not the versions in which people believed that if the dance was done, the whites would disappear and our ancestors would return, along with the buffalo. It has always been difficult for me to believe the Creator would show us a ceremony to eradicate our relatives. From what I have understood about Wovoka’s vision is that the dance was to bring peace and understanding to all people.
My idea of sovereignty based upon a spiritual way of life. Through this way of life, I have found a stronger connection to the Creator and Mother Earth...
Read entire commentary, first published in the zine, Caban Unzeen
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/choctaw-ben-carnes-border-treaties.html

Youth of the Peaks awarded for activism in 2007

Top 10 Youth Activism Victories in 2007
http://www.wiretapmag.org/activism/43351/

Preserving Community Land and Culture

Wiretap Magazine
In another major local victory for the environment, Save the Peaks, a coalition formed to protect the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, won a court order that defended the sacred site. For years, the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort has operated on this traditionally holy ground, and in 2004 the U.S. Forest Service approved the company's plans to expand -- which included cutting down 74 acres of trees and using treated sewage water to make artificial snow. The plans posed a threat to the ecosystem, the health of surrounding communities, and the religious freedom of the 13 Native American Nations that hold the mountains hallowed. The Youth of the Peaks worked together with the coalition, protesting at the foot of the resort to let tourists know the issues surrounding the grounds they're playing on. In March, the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the expansion plans be stopped.
On October 17th, the court granted Arizona Snowbowl and the U.S. Forest Service an appeal, which was heard on December 11th. Far from giving up, tribes and young activists in the coalition attended the case, and are encouraging others to take action as well while the community waits for a decision.

NAGPRA, one makes a difference in California Rancheria

In Greenville Rancheria in California, Douglas Mullen proves one man can make a difference as he protests the University of California at Berkeley's treatment of ancestral remains of Indian people.

By Douglas Mullen

Haw-saw-sicka,
Today I'm starting a campaign to inform the public as to the on-going situation at UCB. I was out in front of the Tribal Office, which is also across from the Post Office. I was met with favorable response from the Public. Some honked their horns, others gave the thumbs-up, others stopped and asked about what I was doing, and yet others took my picture. I got suggestions such as drafting a petition for the people to sign; some suggested that I hand out fliers. One man suggested that I attend the local Veterans meeting. All-in-all my one-man demonstration went well. I am planning to stand in front of the local drug store, Sheriff Station, grocery store, high school and Roundhouse Indian Education Center from 12 pm-1pm everyday during my lunch break. Also the local newspaper stopped and took my picture as well. I encourage you to do the same. I will be sending this to other news stations as well. Pass this on as you see fit. May your day be as blessed as mine has been.
Douglas Mullen, NAGPRA/Cultural Coordinator
Greenville Rancheria

Mohawk Nation News: Beware unscrupulous & arms dealers

Mohawk Nation News: Beware of certain unscrupulous 'Algonquins' & Arms dealers seeking profits

BEWARE OF CERTAIN UNSCRUPULOUS “ALGONQUINS” & ARMS DEALERS SEEKING PROFITS

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nations News
(Photo: The Trench)

Jan. 22, 2008. Just what is legitimate representation anyway? Certain unscrupulous “Algonquins” continue to try to make deals with Ontario over Haudenosaunee land. The land south of the Ottawa River is Haudenosaunee. They are just “visitors” in this area. This hasn’t stopped developers and those involved in the colonial land claims game from attempting to choreograph a strange dance. On January 21st Brian Crane lawyer for Ontario and Bob Potts negotiator for the Algonquins of Ontario met with Harold Perry and Robert Lovelace, the chief and the negotiator for the Ardoch Algonquins, at the Holiday Inn in Kingston. They appear to be trying to figure out how to find “more Ardoch Algonquins” to bring into their dance, to make it look a lot more convincing. They even signed up those who think they might have “Algonquin” ancestry somewhere back in time. They are desperate to make their numbers look good. Lawyer, Mike Swinwood, recently went to Pembroke in the hope that he could pressure the Algonquins there to sign on to something. It appears that Ontario has set a deadline to make a cash offer of about $20 million to the Algonquins for Haudenosaunee land. The more Algonquins the higher the price? This is “the sale ends at midnight” pitch! Frontenac Ventures Inc., the mining exploration company that wants to dig uranium or to find other uses for Haudenosaunee land at Sharbot Lake, has pulled out of these negotiations. Frontenac Ventures wants to either get paid off by Ontario or they are going to start drilling for uranium next week. Whoa there! Hold your horses! What’s the scam? Why should Frontenac Ventures be allowed to explore when Ontario’s authority over Indigenous resources has yet to be established? Who knows how this will turn out when all the evidence is put on the table? Another possibility floating around is that Ontario and those Algonquins in favor of development will mine the uranium themselves.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/mohawk-nation-news-beware-of-certain.html

Longest Walk 2, Let's walk

By Brenda Norrell
Photo credit Longest Walk 1978
www.longestwalk.org
Photo 2: Bello K. Sausbier


ALCATRAZ -- The Longest Walk 2, led by Dennis Banks, is gearing up to take off, on foot across the continent. The northern route is a grassroots effort, traveling on foot to Western Shoshone, Colorado, Kansas, Pennsylvania and on to DC on the five month journey. These walkers will brave the snow and ice in February and March to begin the walk, with 40 to 75 walkers expected.

The Southern Route, which already has 100 walkers signed up for the entire route, will set out on foot down through southern California. This route goes through Flagstaff, Navajoland, Four Corners, Oklahoma, down Louisiana to New Orleans, and on to DC. Navajos at Dooda (NO) Desert Rock power plant are excited and welcoming the walk in New Mexico. There's a delegation of Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhists on this walk. Felipe's Chuck Wagon will meet the need of vegetarians.
The northern route especially needs a great deal of sharing. Walkers need warm winter clothes, hiking boots, tents and other camping gear. Food staples, kitchen items, first aid supplies and lead vehicles are needed. Contact: Northern route coordinator Jimbo Simmons longestwalk1978@gmail.com
Another two teams will walk/run down from Minnesota and Michigan at the northern border to meet the other walkers.
Please see the Longest Walk 2 website for the itineraries, video and historic photos and the meeting plans for the Alcatraz and the Bay Area prayer gathering, pow wow and concert, Feb. 8 -- 11.
http://www.longestwalk.org/
Northern route's entire itinerary:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/longest-walk-2-route-feb-9-march-28.htmlroute-feb-9-march-28.html

Contacts:
National Organizer Longest Walk HQ
Tashina Banks Moore New Mexico Organizer
Jimbo Simmons North Route Coordinator
Aislyn Housing Coordinator
Morning Star Gali California Organizer
Julie Hernandez California Route Coordinator
John Malloy California Route Organizer
Lettie Connell Arizona Organizer
Anna Rondon Arizona Organizer
Mark Davis Alabama Organizer
Viola Hatch Oklahoma Organizer
Curt and Shelia Hansen Virginia Coordinator
Chipa Wolfe Georgia Organizer
Deanna Wagner-Brice St. Louis Regional coordinator
Morning Dove Hopkins Louisiana organizer
Guinda Reeves Tennessee Organizer
Ron Alex Mississippi Organizer
Rev. Toshihisa Yamada Japanese Coordinator

Sacred Sites Run, Hopiland to Teotihuacan, Mexico

SACRED SITES RUN 2008

By Olivia Chumacero

May this day find you in good health and with much respect we send this letter to you and your community.
As indigenous people we have endured many atrocities and extermination tactics throughout these past five hundred years. These unconscionable actions were and continue to be executed not only towards our communities but; to the land , the waters, the air and every form of creation on this place we call home. Because of this devastation and disrespect of life in all its forms, we are now living precariously on our Mother Earth through the age of global warming.
What remains true however, is that as traditional indigenous people we respect everything that sustains life. We know that the human being is here as caretaker. We have maintained our responsibility diligently as the keepers of wisdom in spite of the continuous onslaught against us and our traditional ways. We remember our relationship, our connection with the four directions and the manner in which to live on our Mother Earth .
This responsibility that we carry demands that we honor it through positive and creative actions, and therein the reason for the Sacred Sites Run. Our goal as spirit runners is to weave indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge together, so that we may assist in the necessary healing during this age of global warming. In the end we are all one tribe, the human tribe and we all have only this one home, our Mother Earth.
In conjunction with, the running to and honoring sacred sites in remote indigenous communities; we will share information on alternative and green based energy and water conservation, to all our hosting communities.
We are confident that the bridges created in the midst of this Sacred Sites Run, will endure for generations to come. Through past and present experience, we know that it is not the usual behavior of the rest of the world, to honor and respect land or people in indigenous communities; therefore we undertake this Sacred Sites Run conscious of both the responsibility and the urgency of the times.
We extend an invitation to you, your family, your friends, and your community, to join us in this multi-tribal Sacred Sites Run this year during the month of April. We will begin the run honoring the sacred site of the Hopi nation , in the Second Mesa, Arizona and continue through the state, cross the border to finish in the sun pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico.
We take it upon ourselves as spirit runners to follow through with our responsibility as caretakers to our Mother Earth. We hope that you will be able to join us as a runner, support staff, host, sponsor or perhaps in thought and or spirit . Please contact us if this is something that touches your heart and spirit. And we look forward to working together for the benefit of the future generations .
With all respect,
Olivia Chumacero –International Director
213.618.0420 cell & land line 631.714.5083 (until February 12, 2008 only)
Sacred Sites Run 2008
P.O. Box 31276
Los Angeles CA. 90031
Sacred Sites Run Coordinators
International Director Arizona Coordinator Mexico Coordinator Olivia Chumacero Ruben Saufkie Sr. Helen Samuels chumacero@spiritruns.net rmsaufkie_h2opi@yahoo.com hcontact@tekio.net
Olivia Chumacero is from the Raramuri tribe in the Copper Canyon of Chihuahua, Mexico and as a traditional spirit runner has coordinated transcontinental runs for many decades. She honors her ancestral responsibility to live everyday as a caretaker of life in all its manifestations - one home, one Mother Earth, one tribe –the human tribe.
Helen Samuels is an Ashoka Fellow recipient, she has created an international network that supports urban, rural and indigenous youth as stakeholders in the emerging DO-IT-YOURSELF culture of social and environmental restoration. Ms. Samuels has supported transcontinental runs for the last 20 years, reestablishing north–south routes that connect 1st nation peoples of the Americas for the purpose of ceremonial exchange and honoring environmental practices.
Ruben Saufkie Sr. is from the Hopi Water Clan of Second Mesa, AZ. He coordinated the runners on the historic H2OPI run that carried the message “Water is Sacred” from Hopi to the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico, City in 2006. He is deeply committed to being a messenger for Water and has traveled worldwide in doing so.
http://www.spiritruns.net/213-618-040

Salt Singers mourn ancestors at Berkeley today

Award-winning Indian Singing Troup to Mourn Ancestors at Major Rally Against UCB’s Attack on Repatriation Rights

January 22, 2008

Salt Singers from 14 Indian Bands Have Traveled Great Distances to Perform Ancient Songs at Demo in Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza

By Jessica LePak

The famous Native American Salt Singers from Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Southern California will sing ancient mourning songs at a demonstration to express their profound sadness over thousands of Native American remains stored in drawers and plastic bags a few hundred feet away beneath a swimming pool in the Hearst gym basement.
When: Noon Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Where: Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Who: The Salt Song Project (http://www.nativeland.org/saltsong2.html)
Why: The Salt Singers feel it is imperative to conduct this rite of passage now to raise public awareness about the shocking lack of cooperation from UC administrators with tribal entities. Despite numerous resolutions from tribes and the National Congress of American Indians and thousands of letters and emails requesting repatriation, senior UC administrators have refused to meet with tribal leaders and have continued to deny tribes their lawful claim for the religious and ceremonial reburial of their ancestors. Thus far, UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and UC system president Rory Hume have simply ignored requests to discuss the University’s administration of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and have referred all inquiries to Museum subordinates who lack the power and desire to change UC NAGPRA policies.
Supporters are invited to bring drums and other instruments.

Photo from website:

http://www.nativeland.org/saltsong2.html

Walking, to make sure the world is right

By Brenda Norrell

As the Longest Walk route across America was announced, an exciting thought comes from the Zapatistas about "exiting the heart to walk the world." The Longest Walk and the words of the Zapatistas are a reminder that our own bodies can provide transportation, our own hands can provide the food we eat, and that the art of walking is a way to put the world in balance.

Rebecca Solnit's article, "Revolution of the Snails: Encounters with the Zapatistas," published in TomDispatch.com , describes the Zapatistas caracoles and the magical art of walking.

"Take, for example, the word caracol, which literally means snail or spiral shell. In August 2003, the Zapatistas renamed their five autonomous communities caracoles ... When they reorganized as caracoles, the Zapatistas reached back to Mayan myth to explain what the symbol meant to them. Or Subcomandante Marcos did, attributing the story as he does with many stories to 'Old Antonio,' who may be a fiction, a composite, or a real source of the indigenous lore of the region:

'The wise ones of olden times say that the hearts of men and women are in the shape of a caracol, and that those who have good in their hearts and thoughts walk from one place to the other, awakening gods and men for them to check that the world remains right. They say that they say that they said that the caracol represents entering into the heart, that this is what the very first ones called knowledge. They say that they say that they said that the caracol also represents exiting from the heart to walk the world…. The caracoles will be like doors to enter into the communities and for the communities to come out; like windows to see us inside and also for us to see outside; like loudspeakers in order to send far and wide our word and also to hear the words from the one who is far away.'"

Longest Walk for spiritual survival, Alcatraz to DC

Longest Walk 2

A SPIRITUAL WALK FOR Survival FROM ALCATRAZ to D.C.

By Longest Walk 2

SAN FRANCISCO -- On February 11, 2008, Longest Walk 2 participants will embark on a five- month journey across America to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11, 2008. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the historic Longest Walk of 1978 that resulted in historic changes for Native America, hundreds of communities are participating in the Longest Walk of 2008 to raise awareness about issues impacting our world environment, to protect Sacred Sites and to clean up Mother Earth. The original Longest Walk of 1978 was conducted in response to proposed legislation in Congress that would have abrogated Native Treaties that protected our Native American sovereignty. It defeated those 11 bills and in the following month, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 was passed. As a result of The 1978 Longest Walk, Indigenous people were granted the federal legislative right to freedom of religion, a fundamental right guaranteed to all Americans under the U.S. Constitution."In 1978, our communities faced many hardships such as non-existing religious rights and criminalization of our people who fought for cultural survival, this is why the Longest Walk was necessary. As Indigenous Peoples in the United States, our environment and our cultural survival are directly correlated and are still imperiled today, this is why we must walk once again” states Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council. The Longest Walk 2 is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth. The Longest Walk 2 intends to create educational awareness about the health and wellbeing of Our Mother Earth, The health and wellbeing of our people and communities and the protection and preservation of Sacred Sites. The message from the Longest Walk of 1978 will be carried and continued: “The Longest Walk is an Indian spiritual walk, a historical walk; and it is a walk for educational awareness to the American and the World communities about the concerns of American Indian people.” American Indian Movement Co-founder Dennis J. Banks states “From Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C., through the elements of the seasons, we shall walk; nothing shall deter us from completing our mission: All Life is Sacred, Protect Mother Earth.” Longest Walk 2 is part of many communities ongoing commitment to protect sacred sites, cultural preservation, and to create awareness about the environment. We are walking to promote positive change in our world. The Longest Walk 2 invites veteran walkers that participated in the 1978 Longest Walk and reach out the new generations of the future to join us. The Longest Walk 2 will take two routes. The Northern route will travel the original route of 1978 across 11 states and 3,600 miles. The Southern route will follow the 2006 Sacred Run route across 13 states and 4,400 miles. Both routes will visit Sacred Sites across the Nation and promote educational awareness for Sacred Sites protection and preservation. The Southern route will be launching The Clean Up Mother Earth Campaign where Longest Walk participants will work together to clean up our country’s highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route.
For more information please visit: http://www.longestwalk.org/

Entire northern route schedule and call for help:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/longest-walk-2-route-feb-9-march-28.html
For Southern route: http://www.longestwalk.org

A river runs through it, solidarity and honor in South Texas

By Brenda Norrell

As the Rio Grande winds around, creating the natural border between Texas and Mexico, Homeland Security attempts to seize with power this land to build a wall. This is a region where cross-border friendship has become a binational honor. After spending two weeks riding the rails and buses through South Texas, and along its border, I came away with the understanding that South Texas is a state all its own. While the people fight in unison the land seizures by Homeland Security, a new nation of solidarity emerges. --Photo Brenda Norrell

American Indian Airwaves: Wednesday, January 23, 2008

"Cleaving Human Rights: Militarization of Indigenous Nations and the United States Apartheid System"

Margo Tamez (Lipan and Jumano Apache Nations) and Teresa Leal (Opata Mayo Nation) join us for the hour to provide an update on the continued militarization of the U.S.-Texas/Mexico border whereby on December 7th, 2007, the U. S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) served indigenous peoples and their respective First Nations residing along the U.S.-Texas/Mexico border a 30-day notice to voluntarily allow US surveyors onto their homelands to assess the possibility of "purchasing" lands by forced relocation. The Department of Homeland Security wants to build 370 miles of security, border fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers by the end of this year, and Michael Chertoff, head of DHS has publicly stated that the DHS will take whatever lands it deems necessary through the power of eminent domain.
American Indian Airwaves ( http://www.myspace.com/aiairwaves.com) regularly broadcast every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm (PCT) on KPFK http://www.kpfk.org FM 90.7 in Los Angles, FM 98.7 in Santa Barbara, and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp, & Itunes at www.kpfk.org American Indian Airwaves now broadcast every Saturday from 3pm to 4pm (ECT) on WCRS 98.3/102.1 in Columbus, OH and soon on KIDE FM 91.3 Hoopa Valley Nation.SPECIAL NOTICE: weekly shows can now be heard on the KPFK web site under "audio archives" located on the left. Scroll down and click on American Indian Airwaves.

Lakota Oyate: Personal attacks reflect COINTELPRO

By Lakota Oyate Freedom Delegation

NOTE TO VISITORS AND INTERESTED PARTIES:

This is a time of transition for the Lakota oyate (people) as the realization of freedom is considered. It is unfortunate, but not unexpected that those involved with the Lakota Freedom movement have received slander, false personal attacks and threats from individuals both within and outside of Lakota. Regardless why these false attacks have occurred, we recognize these are the same tactics employed by the U.S. Government's COINTELPRO program to silence resistance to the genocide of First Nation's peoples. These attacks mean nothing to us, and we continue with the work under the guidance of the Elders and children to make wowasakeikcupi truly possible.

We believe in the traditional systems that persist within Lakota and believe the will of the Elders and the young people will be heard. We seek to empower all of the Lakota oyate to share their ideas, hopes, feelings and concerns in a good way, and believe this website can become one part of that. We ask individuals to cease with false personal attacks, slander and attempts to erode the advances of the Lakota Freedom movement. If concerns exist, we ask why individuals cannot have the integrity to address others directly with their questions instead of using COINTELPRO tactics to try and discredit people or a movement. Personal attacks create the appearance of COINTELPRO 'divide and conquer' activity whether it exists or not.

LAKOTA OYATE CONTACT INFORMATION

For General , e-mail us at: lakotafree@gmail.com

We suggest that all donations are held at this time until suitable systems can be put into place to receive them. For media interviews and scheduling, e-mail us at: lakotafree@gmail.com

Phone (828) 230-1404

Media may sign-on to our media listserve at the following address: http://mail.lakotaoyate.net/mailman/listinfo/medialist_lakotaoyate.net

Website: www.lakotaoyate.net

NAFTA, US spy dollars, cut Mexico off at the knees

NAFTA, US spy dollars, designed to cut Mexico off at the knees

By Brenda Norrell

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Photo: Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson/photo Brenda Norrell

GREEN VALLEY, Arizona – A panel of US/Mexico border speakers said that the North American Free Trade Agreement has benefited the United States, while forcing people in Mexico off their lands. The result has been a wave of displaced people crossing the US/Mexico border, with racist rhetoric and migrant deaths increasing in the United States.
“We have created a community of slaves,” said Delle McCormick, executive director of BorderLinks. McCormick pointed out that many Americans want migrants to come to the US, but for the wrong reason.
McCormick said many Americans want “slaves,” and do not want creative, intelligent, thinking people from Mexico to relocate here. Once here, they want migrants to be “invisible.”
McCormick joined a panel of speakers at the Santa Cruz Valley Border Issues Fair on Saturday, January 19. More than 400 residents from Green Valley and Tucson, primarily retirees and winter visitors, attended and praised the humanitarian efforts underway to save lives at the border and battle with education the growing migrant xenophobia in the United States.
McCormick pointed out that NAFTA was launched on January 1, 1994, with the promise of bringing Mexico into the modern world. But while the people of Mexico waited for their lives to resemble those on “I Love Lucy,” their worlds began to crumble.
While the United States talked about “equalized trade,” out of one side of its mouth, out of the other side, the US was calling for the closure of its borders.

The US sent big business to seize the lands of the poor in Mexico. Further, the big box stores like Wal-Mart were soon putting smaller, locally-owned stores out of business. At the sacred places, Indigenous Peoples were pushed away and vendors began selling “Made in China,” trinkets, slowing the demand for handcrafts.
McCormick said while Mexico cut funding for social services, it increased funding for trade-based corporations.
Meanwhile, in Chiapas, dams were built to provide electricity for the US corporations, pushing Mayans off their lands. Like never before, this began the exodus of Indigenous corn farmers, now displaced and bound on foot for the US, desperate to survive. Today, a higher percentage of people walking across the US/Mexico border come from Chiapas, since NAFTA has wielded its damage, she said.
McCormick pointed out that the people of Mexico, including the Zapatistas, have creative ways of emerging and developing a new economy.

What the United States needs to do, she said, is “Get out of their way.”
Mike Wilson, Tohono O’odham human rights advocate, urged those attending to apply political pressure on the Tohono O’odham Nation government and hold it accountable for the large number of people dying each year on O’odham lands, primarily from dehydration.

Wilson puts out water for migrants and searches for bodies at the request of family members.

“The Tohono O’odham Nation lacks the big picture, the world view," he said.
Wilson said the Tohono O’odham Nation is very responsive to the United States government and will not go against Homeland Security, especially if there is a threat of the loss of US funding.
Border speakers discussed the ways the United States government controls Mexico. In 2007, the United States provided funding to Mexico to spy on individuals. The $2.9 million DEA contract was to Verint Technologies in New York for spy technology for Mexico. The US contract provided for storing all phone calls for at least 25,000 hours, installation of 30 monitoring stations and cell phone location and tracking devices.
Mike Marizco, freelance journalist who publishes the Border Reporter online, pointed out that the US funding provided the FBI of Mexico with the ability to eavesdrop on all cell phone calls, e-mails, faxes and other communications.
One person attending the border fair suggested that what the US needs to do is what it does in other countries, and send money to refashion the economy of Mexico. But speakers said the real solutions remain in the creative endeavors of the people of Mexico themselves.
Speakers also pointed out that none of the front running US presidential candidates are proposing visas or alternative guest worker programs for migrants. Instead, the candidates, protecting their political images, are calling for more border security and border walls.

Further, speakers said with more funding for the so-called “war on drugs,” the US continues its role as imperialist nation with covert agendas.
Dr. Anna Ochoa O’Leary, lecturer, Mexican American Studies Research Center, spoke of the impact on women of separations and migrations. She said the United States is most often the source of problems in Mexico.
“Anytime you see the United States as a ‘savior,’ chances are we broke it first.”
Organizations working for positive change and delivering humanitarian aid at the border participated in the fair, including Border Action Network, BorderLinks, JustCoffee, No More Deaths, Derechos Humanos, Humane Borders, Samaritans, artists Valerie James & Debbi McCullough and border photographer Michael Hyatt.

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Photo: Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson at the border fair/photo by Brenda Norrell

Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council responds to treaty withdrawal

By Charmaine White Face
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council, spokesperson

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The defense of the Black Hills, and other land under the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868 was put in the hands of Lakota traditional bodies and the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council created in 1893.
In response to the Press Release released in December by Russell Means in Washington D.C., the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council issued the following declaration:

"There is a provision within the Treaty of 1868 that our ancestors had included. Article 12 says the Treaty of 1868 could not be changed except by three-fourths of the (Lakota) male vote. This was done expressly to protect the people, the land, and our way of life.
Russell Means is only one man and has not received the 3/4 adult male approval. His efforts, however, remind the world that we still have an international treaty with the USA.
Sincerely, Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson,
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council."

Response to:
Republic of Lakotah focuses on Black Hills

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PHOTO: Fallen leaves cover the ground in the Black Hills National Forest. Photo by Bonnie Jones/US Dept Agriculture.

Sacred lands and the right of spiritual practice

This segment of the Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report compiled by the International Indian Treaty Council, is in the report to be presented to the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination in February in Geneva.

Navajo, Native Hawaiian, Winnemem Wintu, Taino in Puerto Rico and Native American inmates' rights are highlighted in this section.

Compiled by the International Indian Treaty Council

Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice
"This Parallel Report cites the many instances whereby the United States has attempted to extinguish aboriginal title. We also cited the concern of competent international human rights mechanisms over this practice. But Indigenous Peoples throughout the jurisdiction of the United States, recognized, terminated, unrecognized and ignored, continue their ancestral spiritual relationship to their ancestral Sacred Lands. This aboriginal use has never been extinguished in fact. Throughout the jurisdiction of the United States, Indigenous Peoples continue their Spiritual Practice on Ancestral Sacred Land in constant conflict with the United States government as they have since time immemorial."
Read more of the report on US Apartheid:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/sacred-lands-and-right-of-spiritual.html

PHOTO: Enei Begaye, Navajo, with Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu from Northern California at the Cocopah Climate Conference 2007. Photo Brenda Norrell

Indigenous Alliance supports Lipan Apache at Texas border

Indigenous Alliance in solidarity with Apaches at Texas border

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- As Homeland Security began seizing private lands for the border wall in Texas, the Indigenous Alliance without Borders/Alianza Indigena sin Fronteras sent a proclamation of support to Apaches on the Texas border.
Jose Matus, Yaqui and director of Alianza, released a statement of support and called on other Indigenous groups and Nations to do the same. Matus is a Yaqui ceremonial leader with the responsibility of bringing Yaqui ceremonial leaders from Sonora, Mexico, to Arizona for temporary stays to conduct ceremonies. Matus deals with the problems imposed by the border in Indigenous territories and the harassments of Homeland Security constantly.
"Southern Indigenous Peoples continuously face abuse of authority and violation of human and civil rights by current and proposed U.S. anti-immigrant legislation and border enforcement policies and practice," Matus said.
Urging solidarity, Matus quoted Tecumsch, Shawnee Chief in 1768: "The way and the only way, to stop the evil is for all Red People to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it was never divided, but belongs to all for the use of each."
Matus said, "The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras in solidarity with other human rights, immigrant rights and community organizations of the southwest region strongly oppose the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the seizure of Lipan Apache peoples land along the U.S. - Mexico Border.
"Since 1990, Indigenous peoples on both sides of the U.S. Mexico Border have been profoundly affected by the U.S. on-going domestic 'wars:' The War on the Poor, The War on undocumented immigration, The War on Drugs and now the 'War on Terrorism.' For the past 17 years, nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant hysteria have been on the rise. These attitudes promote and support built-in institutional racism, abuse of authority, and violation of rights.
"Our Indigenous ways, quality of life, culture, sacred cultural lands and borderlands have been disrupted.
"Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., seeks more information on the border fence environmental waiver. In a letter to Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Senator asked for details on why DHS wants to waive 19 federal statues to build the fence through two miles of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservatory Area (SPRNCA) along the Arizona-Mexico border.
"He also asked for information on all actions being developed to monitor and lessen the environment impact of building the fence, the letter concluded by asking DHS for copies of any Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements before the waiver decision. DHS did respond positively to this request!"These threats are assaults on our Indigenous our limited sovereignty, self-determination, borderlands and cultural sites.
"We call upon all Indigenous people to unite and join the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras in supporting our Lipan Apache relatives in ther struggle to protect their land and promote respect for Indigenous border justice!
The Alianza Indigens Sin Fronteras in partnership with O'Odham Against the Wall is organizing an Indigenous peoples conference, with more information to follow.
In response, Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache/Jumano Apache, whose mother Eloisa Garcia Tamez, is facing seizure of her three acres on the South Texas border, said the message of solidarity was vital.
"On behalf of my mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, and the elders of El Calaboz, El Ranchito and La Paloma, of the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant of the Place Where the Lipan Pray, I want to thank you for your stand in support of the indigenous families of the Lower Rio Grande valley whose lands, cultures and way of life is threatened by the Department of Homeland Security and the settler nation of the United States government," Margo Tamez said.

"Your support at this moment is critical, as we have been working with indigenas all throughout the hemisphere, through listening and learning to the immense stories we carry in our bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits of being directly impacted communities throughout the occupied 'International Boundary' region," she said.
"Your solidarity statement helps immensely in the education process, by raising awareness of the Nde' peoples all along the Texas-Mexico conflict region, and means a great deal to the aboriginal peoples of these lands, and by situating our struggles together, side by side.
"Through intense adversities our people have persevered and continue to make the necessary relationships which are necessary in order for critical changes and new solutions to come forth from the people themselves, in unity, and this is a good day.
"I acknowledge the strength, vision, and leadership of the people of the Yoeme, Yoreme, O'odham, Opata, Mayo and Nde people of the Sonora-Arizona corridors who have stepped forward in the last two weeks --daily--to share their hearts, spirits, and ceremonial support for our people and the intense impacts this violent aggression by the colonialist U.S. nation-state, is causing on our people.
"Your statement which you offered to our people in a public forum is a very important step in opening relationships, indigenous to indigenous, that are necessary in the movement towards restoring indigenous democracy in our lands and lives.
"I am truly grateful for your public cry of solidarity--ahi'i'e da go tee gozhoo-- thanks and all around joy. We look forward to this new relationship, and we also encourage indigenous leaders--from the people--to affirm this step you've taken at this moment."

Contact info for Jose R. Matus:

Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras

P.O.Box 826 Tucson, Arizona

85701

520-979-2125

http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org/

PHOTO 1: Indigenous Alliance without Borders/Photo Brenda Norrell Photo 2: Border wall protest in Brownsville, Texas/photo Jay Johnson-Castro

US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples documented in UN report

Environmental racism, treaty rights and border rights of Indigenous Peoples stated in new report to the United Nations on Apartheid in the US

By Brenda Norrell
Human rights editor
UN OBSERVER & International Report

Photo by Brenda Norrell

SAN FRANCISCO -- The systematic racism, forced assimilation and apartheid of Indigenous Peoples in the United States has been documented in the “Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report,” to be presented by the International Indian Treaty Council to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Dedicated to Floyd Red Crow Westerman, who passed to the Spirit World on December 13, 2007, the report is compiled from the testimony of individuals and groups of Indigenous Peoples and includes data from a wide range of sources.
The data reveals “a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation,” where Indigenous Peoples are “warehoused in poverty and neglect” in the United States. The racism permeates Indian life, including life at its foundation, at American Indian sacred places.
Indian treaty rights, the abrogation of treaties and discrimination toward non-federally recognized Indian Nations are detailed. Statistics are included for unemployment, violence against women and sexual abuse in residential schools. The destruction of sacred places, environmental racism and border injustices are revealed. Further, the high rate of incarceration and disproportionate long prison sentences for American Indians are exposed in the 87-page report.

The exportation of banned pesticides by corporations in the United States to Sonora, Mexico, where Yaqui are suffering from death and toxic illnesses, and other Indigenous Peoples' territories, is also documented.
Alberto Saldamando, IITC general counsel, and board member Lenny Foster, Navajo, who reported on the freedom of religion for Indigenous prisoners in the US, will present the report to the UN Committee in Geneva in February. Western Shoshone and other organizations and Nations will join Saldamando and Foster.

"It is to inform the CERD Committee on United States compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination," Saldamando said.

The report exposing US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples will be presented to the UN Committee on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 3 p.m. and again on Friday the 22nd at 10:00 a.m.
The data includes the overwhelming disparities in income, life expectancy, poverty and unemployment. The disproportionate number of Indians in prisons is revealed with statistics from Montana.

Read article ...

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/us-apartheid-of-indigenous-peoples.html

Longest Walk 2008, northern and southern routes

Longest Walk 2 – A SPIRITUAL WALK FOR Survival

FROM ALCATRAZ to D.C.

Longest Walk 2008 will journey on two routes, northern and southern routes

By Tashina Banks Moore

SAN FRANCISCO-- On February 11, 2008, Longest Walk 2 participants will embark on a five- month journey across America to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11, 2008. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the historic Longest Walk of 1978 that resulted in historic changes for Native America and for our environment, hundreds of communities are participating in the Longest Walk of 2008 to raise awareness about issues impacting our world environment, to protect Sacred Sites and to clean up Mother Earth. The original Longest Walk of 1978 was conducted in response to proposed legislation in Congress that would have abrogated Native Treaties that protected our Native American sovereignty. It defeated those 11 bills and in the following month, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 was passed. As a result of The 1978 Longest Walk, Indigenous people were granted the federal legislative right to freedom of religion, a fundamental right guaranteed to all Americans under the U.S. Constitution.

"In 1978, our communities faced many hardships such as non-existing religious rights and criminalization of our people who fought for cultural survival, this is why the Longest Walk was necessary. As Indigenous Peoples in the United States, our environment and our cultural survival are directly correlated and are still imperiled today, this is why we must walk once again” states Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council.

The Longest Walk 2 is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth. The Longest Walk 2 intends to create educational awareness about the health and wellbeing of Our Mother Earth, The health and wellbeing of our people and communities and the protection and preservation of Sacred Sites. The message from the Longest Walk of 1978 will be carried and continued: “The Longest Walk is an Indian spiritual walk, a historical walk; and it is a walk for educational awareness to the American and the World communities about the concerns of American Indian people.”

American Indian Movement Co-founder Dennis J. Banks states “From Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C., through the elements of the seasons, we shall walk; nothing shall deter us from completing our mission: All Life is Sacred, Protect Mother Earth.” Longest Walk 2 is part of many communities ongoing commitment to protect sacred sites, cultural preservation, and to create awareness about the environment. We are walking to promote positive change in our world. The Longest Walk 2 invites veteran walkers that participated in the 1978 Longest Walk and reach out the new generations of the future to join us.

The Longest Walk 2 will take two routes. The Northern route will travel the original route of 1978 across 11 states and 3,600 miles. The Southern route will follow the 2006 Sacred Run route across 13 states and 4,400 miles. Both routes will visit Sacred Sites across the Nation and promote educational awareness for Sacred Sites protection and preservation. The Southern route will be launching The Clean Up Mother Earth Campaign where Longest Walk participants will work together to clean up our country’s highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route.
For more information please visit: http://www.longestwalk.org/

Photo: Longest Walk 1978: Jimbo Simmons, Joe Bill and Tissychy

Homeland Security to Eagle Pass, Texas: Your property is condemned

Breaking news just in:
Federal court gives Homeland Security right to enter land:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1536720920080116


By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogpot.com/

EAGLE PASS, Texas -- Homeland Security has asked a federal court to declare 233 acres of Maverick County and the City of Eagle Pass condemned.

In a civil suit filed in federal court, U.S. Attorney Harold Brown, Jr., has asked the court to condemn 233 acres for the purpose of seizure by eminent domain by Homeland Security to build the US/Mexico border wall. It is the first lawsuit aimed at seizure of lands of 102 landowners in Texas, Arizona and California.

The government is demanding immediate control of the land and has deposited $100 in an account for the 233 acres to begin surveying work, according to the court document. The lawsuit was filed in federal court, the Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division.

This evening I was in Eagle Pass, Texas. There is nothing here to condemn. It is a busy city of hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Unlike the Arizona border, Eagle Pass has not yet turned into a repressive network of harassment and bullying by US Border Patrol agents and National Guardsmen. It is a busy city of workers.

This may soon change, we'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, mayors and residents all along the Texas border are organizing resistance.

If you are a member of the media, or anyone else, and would like a copy of the complaint filed by Homeland Security, to condemn and seize Eagle Pass land, e-mail me and I'll e-mail the court document back to you: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Republic of Lakotah focuses on Black Hills

January 15, 2007

By Republic of Lakotah

A month after the Republic of Lakotah reasserted its sovereignty, the United States and its state and municipal governments are still present and operating in the Republic. These foreign governments are being invited to meet with the provisional government of the Republic of Lakotah.

In order to recognize Lakotah sovereignty, the United States might have to admit it breached its treaties with the Lakotah people. While the breaches are numerous and obvious, governments do not like to admit that they ever do anything wrong.

History has shown that colonizers withdraw from their colonized territories and return sovereignty to the indigenous people. Even the United States has done this. The Republic of the Philippines, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau were all colonized by United States but are now all sovereign nations.

The Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau obtained their sovereignty through a Compact of Free Association, The Republic of Lakotah see this Compact as a legitimate model for dialog with the United States.

The Republic of Lakotah is now putting special focus on the Black Hills, The Black Hills are Holy lands of the Lakotah people. In 1980, the United States Supreme Court awarded money damages to the Sioux Nation for the unlawful taking of the Black Hills which now total over $1.2 billion. The Lakotah people refuse to take the money.

Russell Means, Chief Facilitator for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Lakotah said, “Would Catholic people take money and give up the Vatican? Would Muslim people take money and give up Mecca? Lakotah people want our sovereignty of the Black Hills restored and recognized by the world.”

Means made it clear that the focus on the Black Hills does not mean that the Republic is waiving its claims to other traditional Lakotah lands.

For more information about the Republic of Lakotah, visit http://republicoflakotah.com.

Women Title Holders Assert the Great Law over Algonquins

WOMEN TITLE HOLDERS ASSERT THE GREAT LAW OVER ALGONQUINS

Mohawk Nation News Jan. 15, 2008.
The Kahtihon’tia:kwenio have been forced to assert their responsibilities as caretakers of Haudenosaunee land. The land in question is south of the Ottawa River which was Huron [Wyandot] territory 308 years ago. After many years of warfare between the Iroquois and the French and their allies, the Hurons, there was a meeting in Montreal in 1700. At this time, this land passed to the Haudenosaunee in exchange for prisoners. The land in question is currently occupied by the Ardoc and Shabot Lake Algonquins as well as by cottagers belonging to the colonizing society. The people from these diverse backgrounds have been in the news recently for protesting uranium mining. Before this issue arose, the Ardoc and Shabot Lake Algonquins were negotiating a land claims deal with the Ontario government. The focus of negotiations has now shifted to manipulate public opinion and circumvent the objections to uranium mining by the residents of the area. It is time to set the record straight. The land concerned is Haudenosaunee land. It comes under Haudenosaunee law. Both the land claims negotiations and the negotiations to facilitate uranium mining are being conducted on a stunning array of false assumptions. The parties involved have no authority to decide anything concerning the use of our land. Any agreements they might make will have no legal validity according to the international standards that Canada has agreed to uphold. The course being followed is the “might-makes-right” standards that prevailed at the height of the European colonial era. These European colonists continue to operate under the delusion that they were superior to everyone else and they have a right to steal other people’s resources without their consent. To bring this misguided negotiations to public attention, we have served the following “Notice of Objection” on the private individuals and official representatives of the corporations and polities that are embroiled in this matter. The situation is of concern to all those who care about the health of the environment and the well being of our future generations wherever they may be in the world. It is also of concern to those who want to establish and maintain a fair legal and political regime that respects the right of all human beings as set out in the treaties and covenants of the United Nations. It is lack of information and silence of ordinary citizens that states like Canada can impose colonial conduct. If we all work together, we can end corporate and colonial abuse. If you share our concerns, please ask for the support of your political representatives, wherever you may live in Onkwehonwe territory, in Canada or anywhere in the world. Kahentinetha HornMNN Mohawk Nation News
.NOTICE OF OBJECTION TO NEGOTIATIONS CONCERNING HAUDENOSAUNEE LAND CURRENTLY BEING CONDUCTED BETWEEN CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE ALONGONQUIN NATIONS AND COLONIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF CANADA, ONTARIO AND FRONTENAC VENTURES INCORPORATED
To the attention of: QUEEN ELIZABETH II; Hon. Steven Harper, Prime Minister of CANADA; M. Michaelle Jean, Governor General of CANADA; Hon. Dalton McGuinty, Premier of ONTARIO; Robert Lovelace, Ardoc Algonquin Nation and Allies, Ontario; Doreen Davis, Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First Nation, ONTARIO; Cam Clark, Ronald Ferguson and Andrew McDonald, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, ONTARIO; Richard Moore, Mediator; Chris Reid, legal counsel; Steve Reynolds, legal counsel; and George White, Frontenac Ventures Incorporated. TAKE notice that:The negotiation currently being conducted by the above parties or their representatives are illegal because they exclude the Haudenosaunee who are the legal owners and protectors of the land concerned. We accordingly inform the above parties that:
WE, THE KAHTIHON’TIA:KWENIO MAKE THIS NOTICE OF OBJECTION PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN US ACCORDING TO HAUDENOSAUNEE LAW AND TRADITION AS SET OUT IN WAMPUM 44 OF THE KAIANEREH’KO:WA, THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE, WHICH IS THE CONSTITUTION OF THE HAUDENOSAUNEE. WHEREAS: 1.The Haudenosaunee [also known as Five Nations or Six Nations] are a sovereign state that never ceded any of our territory to any alien interests, be it Ongwehonwe or non-Ongwehonwe, colonial or corporate. 2.Haudenosaunee law, accords no authority to anyone to pollute, alienate or destroy any of the land that falls under our care or protection.3.CANADA'S historical record contains no legitimate treaties, instruments or agreements that purport to transfer any land or sovereign authority from the Haudenosaunee to either BRITAIN or CANADA. 4. In September 1700 Governor Callieres and his Indian allies, including the Hurons (Wendat or Wyendot) and the Algonquins, negotiated for peace with the Haudenosaunee ceding land in exchange for prisoners.5.The land in question included the Ardoc and Sharbot Lake territory currently the subject of negotiations.6.Under Haudenosaunee law, the Kahtihon’tia:kwenio are the caretakers of the land, water and air of Onowaregeh, Turtle Island; 7.The Kahtihon’tia:kwenio are the trustees of the land and have the duty to uphold the law and to protect our land for the future generations; 8.The Haudenosaunee have affirmed the trusteeship of the Kahtihon’tia:kwenio over all the lands of the Huron [Wyandot] Nation including the area south of the Ottawa River, presently occupied by the “Algonquins”.
Whereas, Haudenosaunee relations with the Algonquin are governed by the following considerations:9.The Algonquins are allies of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, but they have never been adopted into or agreed to become part of the Haudenosaunee. 10.The Haudenosaunee have never authorized the Algonquins to negotiate or act as agents on their behalf.
Whereas, Haudenosaunee relations with BRITAIN are governed by the following considerations:11.The British are allies of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, but they have never been adopted into or agreed to become a part of the Haudenosaunee. 12.The Haudenosuanee have never authorized the British to negotiate or act as agents on behalf of the Haudenosaunee.13.The relationship between the Haudenosaunee and BRITAIN is nation to nation. The English monarch does not and never had any right to any of our land or to anything either above and below the surface of our land.
Whereas, Haudenosaunee relations with CANADA are governed by the following considerations:14.As an instrument of the British monarchy, CANADA remains subject to the terms and conditions of any agreements with the Haudenosaunee entered into by the British Crown. 15.As a successor state of BRITAIN, CANADA and its province of ONTARIO remain subject to all of Britain’s obligations and their rights and authority do not exceed those held by BRITAIN.16.CANADA has never negotiated an independent alliance with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and it has never been adopted into or agreed to become a part of the Haudenosaunee.17.The Haudenosaunee have never authorized ONTARIO, CANADA, BRITAIN or any other colonial entity to negotiate or act as an agent or agents on behalf of the Haudenosaunee.18. Canada’s laws are subservient to BRITAIN. The law of Onowaregeh continues to be the Kaianereh’ko:wa.
Whereas, International Law is governed by the following considerations:19.All members of the human family have equal and inalienable rights.20.No international differences shall be settled by the use of force.21..No state shall absorb another without the fully informed consent of the people concerned as determined in free and fair elections or decision making processes.22.As a founding member of the UNITED NATIONS, CANADA has agreed to uphold these principles.23.The Haudenosaunee have never consented to become part of the Canadian state and it is notoriously known that CANADA’s forced assumption of authority over our land is not based on any treaty, instrument or agreement. Whereas, the negotiations concerning the use of the lands south of the Ottawa River around Ardoc and Sharbot Lake are violating the principles that should govern a free and democratic society because:24.They fail to acknowledge the authority of the law of the Haudenosaunee confederacy25.They are being conducted without the informed consent of anyone concerned including the Haudenosaunee people, the Algonquin and colonial settler residents of the area, and the citizens represented by the settler governments who are incurring liabilities on their behalf. Whereas, the uranium mining, arms testing and other business projects that are being condoned by the colonial governments are illegal and are risking the health and survival of ALL future generations: IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE LEGAL RIGHTS AND PHYSICAL INTEGRITY OF OUR COMING GENERATIONS, WE, THE KOHTIHON’TIA:KWENIO, AS MEMBERS OF THE ROTINO’SHONNI:ONWE ACCORDINGLY DEMAND THE FOLLOWING: i)An immediate stop to all discussions and negotiations concerning the use and disposition of the lands under our protection as conducted by CANADA, ONTARIO, people who claim to represent the Algonquin people, FRONTENAC VENTURES and all unauthorized parties. ii)The immediate cessation of all operations concerned with arms testing, the development of uranium or other mining and any other ventures that had not been authorized by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. iii)Reparation of all land that has been used, abused, mined, cultivated and otherwise ravaged so it may be turned to a healthy and natural state capable of sustaining life for the generations to come. iv)An announcement by CANADA and ONTARIO confirming their commitment to uphold international law, confirming their recognition of Haudenosaunee sovereignty and acknowledging the illegality of all treaties, licenses, agreements or contracts that have been made without our consent concerning land under our protection. v)QUEEN ELIZABETH II must cease her exploitation of our land and resources through her corporations and franchises known as “Canada”, “U.S.”, provinces and states, particularly the effort to extract the uranium which lies beneath Haudenosaunee land at Ardoc and Sharbot Lake. KOHTIHON’TIA:KWENIO of the Kanion’ke:haka of the Rotino’shonni:onwe, hereby sign on this 15th day of January 2008: Katenies /s/ ____________________Kahentinetha /s/ _____________________ Contact: P.O. Box 991 , Kahnawake of Mohawk Territory [ Quebec , Canada ] J0L 1B0 Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com katenies20@yahoo.com Attached: “ Mohawk Manifesto ” Sent to: QUEEN ELIZABETH II, Buckingham Palace, LONDON UK; M. MICHAELLE JEAN, Governor General of CANADA, 1 Rideau Hall, OTTAWA, ONTARIO info@gg.ca; Hon. STEPHEN HARPER, PRIME MINISTER, CANADA, House of Commons, OTTAWA, ONTARIO harper.s@parl.gc.ca; Hon. DALTON McGUINTY, PREMIER, ONTARIO, Queen’s park, TORONTO, ONTARIO; Robert Lovelace, 1294 James Wilson Road, R.R. #1, Hardington, ONTARIO K0H 1W0 613-532-2166; Chief Doreen Davis, 3102-RR #2, Sharbot Lake, ONTARIO K0H 2P0 chiefdoreen@aol.com: ONTARIO MINISTRY of NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT & MINES, Whitney Block, Room 5630, 99 Wellesley West, TORONTO M7A 1W3; RICHARD MOORE, MDR Associates, 201-280 Albert St., OTTAWA, ONTARIO K1P 5b8 613-230-8671; CHRISTOPHER M. REID, 154 Monarch Park Ave., TORONTO ONTARIO M4J 4R6 lawreid@aol.com; STEVE REYNOLDS, 18 Byward Market Square, OTTAWA, ONTARIO K1N 7A1, 613-244-4488 stevereynolds@rogers.com. See Category: “ Sharbot Lake ”

In Texas, Bush legacy sours

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SOUTH TEXAS -- South Texans woke up to dismal skies this morning, as the rain was falling and the news came that the US filed suit Monday to seize the first of 102 private lands of people and city governments to build the US Apartheid Border Wall between Texas and Mexico.

The Berlin Wall has come down, and the Apartheid Wall between Palestine and Israel is a place of constant violence, conflict and death.

The United States, however, will seize private lands to build the border wall, going against its longstanding claims to be the world's champion in the fight against racism and apartheid.

The people of South Texans are ready to fight, in court and in the world's media. As people here say, migrants can always go under, over or around a border wall.

Lipan Apache like Eloise Garcia Tamez are refusing to allow surveyors on their land. On Monday, the US filed the first lawsuit against land owners, against the City of Eagle Pass, to seize lands for the border wall. There are 102 landowners in Texas, Arizona and California refusing to turn over their private lands.

Jumano Apache Enrique Madrid points out in Redford, Texas, where a young goat herder was murdered by a US Marine, this is not just a wall that the U.S. is building. It is a militarized zone.

Soldiers and border agents shoot to kill. While US soldiers and border agents rape and kill people walking across these lands, the news media is silent.

While National Guardsmen, Airforce pilots, a police officer and prison guard are sentenced to prison in Arizona for smuggling cocaine from the border, as exposed by the FBI's Operation Lively Green, the news media is silent. So many National Guardsmen wanted to smuggle drugs that the sting operation was halted.

In the end, the fragments of border wall under construction across the Southwest -- which can't even be built in the rugged mountains and canyons -- will prove only to be a source of profit to those benefiting from television news' migrant xenophobia and the Bush-friendly corporations seizing contracts.

In the end, whether formally convicted or not, President Bush will be remembered as a war criminal, whose administration promoted torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Bush will be remembered for torture in secret prisons and the US will be remembered by the world for the terrorism it has induced.

In Texas, where Bush likes to claim he is a real Texan, he will be remembered as the president who filed lawsuits to seize private lands to build the US Apartheid Border Wall and opened the floodgates to a militarized zone of violence.

Photo: San Antonio's River Walk/Brenda Norrell

Responses to 'Bones of Contention' in LA Times

NAGPRA: Responses to 'Bones of Contention' in LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bones13jan13,1,1281929.story

From Jon D. Daehnke to LA Times:
"First, thank you for your article and for bringing this issue to the attention of people in Southern California. I think that the article is overall an excellent report of the primary issues. There is, however, an error in the article relating to the status of non-recognized tribes. The article seems to insinuate that ancestral remains cannot be repatriated to non-recognized tribes. This is incorrect. There is absolutely nothing in NAGPRA that precludes the repatriation of human remains or cultural objects to non-recognized tribes and in fact repatriation to non-recognized tribes has occurred across the nation (and has been applauded by the National NAGPRA Review Committee)
Read letter:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/nagpra-and-bones-of-contention.html

PHOTO: A protest was held last fall at the University of California, Berkeley, over the school's storage of tribal remains. (Robert Durell/Los Angeles Times/file)

A Texas Divided

A Texas Divided Will Be Broken In Two
South Texas Residents Are Struggling, Together, Like Never Before, to Stop the Border Wall and Militarization Being Imposed from Up North
By Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Inside the Checkpoints: Commentary from the Rió Grande
January 13, 2008o

Narco News

http://www.narconews.com/

Excerpt:

"Not only is South Texas the poorest and most neglected and most Hispanic region of the entire State, it is the poorest and most neglected and most Hispanic region of the entire United States of America. And because of this, prosperous central and northern Texas shuns South Texas and deprives it of the prosperity and affluence enjoyed by the rest of the state. Many parts of “anti-immigrant” central and northern Texas, like Farmers Branch, Irving and Georgetown, are cities that are legendarily racist-supremacist strongholds that today profile any person that doesn’t look “Texan.” Meanwhile, South Texas has to contend with military checkpoints, the doubling of the militarized forces and now the threat of the construction of a Berlin-like border wall.
Even more sinister is an apparent assault on South Texas by northern and central Texas. Here is a recent list of just some of the corporations and institutions, many of which are Texas based companies, that are receiving federal tax dollars to vilify and victimize the part of the state they consider least desirable and that have entered into contracts related to the building of the border wall and the militarization of the Texas-Mexico border.
Lockheed MartinTexas Division of Raytheon (Network Centric Systems)L-3 Communications (Integrated Systems)Northrup Grumman (Los Angeles, CA)BAE Systems (Austin, TX)SAIC of San DiegoComputer Sciences Corp of El Segundo, CAAmerica’s Border Security Group (Ericcson Inc., Plano, TX) (NASDAQ:ERICY)Fluor Corporation (NYSEL:FLR)SYColeman Corporation (A Division of LC Communications)MTC TechnologiesCAMBER CorporationAEP Networks, Inc.Texas A&M UniversityUniversity of Texas (Austin)Boeing (Seattle, WA; Secure Border Initiative/SBInet-“Project 28”)Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton)Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) major partnersUnited Kingdom Home Office
A border wall must be built in order for all of these corporations and entities to receive the billions of dollars of funding. The Texas companies of central and northern Texas are positioned to exploit their fellow Texans along the border, ravage their environment and friendship. Already, they have craftily begun to destroy the border economy with all the confusion over identification and delays at the ports of entry. Mock Environmental Impact Studies are being done by the Texas firm, AEP Networks. Even universities in central Texas are complicit in the betrayal of the Texas border community.
There is one thing that the ruling elite did not count on, however. They did not factor in that the freedoms of speech, assembly, press and worship are still alive and healthy along the Texas-Mexico border. Using all the tenets of democracy, border residents are unifying their voices and saying, “Hell no! No Border Wall!” Rallies, protests and marches have been ongoing since the passage of the Secure Fence Act in October of 2006. This opposition is a historical display of solidarity. Environmentalists, economists, pro-immigration, farm workers, university students and faculty alike, historians, elected officials, human rights activists, indigenous rights activists, faith based groups, tourism experts, law enforcement agents, property owners, and grass roots of all sorts have all united their voices and resources to oppose the border wall.

Read article at:

http://www.narconews.com/

Photo: Border wall in California by Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Roadways, waterways and railways: Yucca Mountain dump is nuclear disaster in the making

Four Score Organizations Express Opposition to Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump Criticisms of Energy Department's Latest Plans Submitted

By Kevin Kamps

Takoma Park, MD -- A dozen national organizations, joined by 68 state and local grassroots groups from across the country, filed comments to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday expressing strong opposition to the risks inherent in the proposed high-level radioactive waste dumpsite targeted at Yucca Mountain, Nevada and its associated waste transport plans through 45 states. This marks the latest effort by dump opponents some of whom have been active against the Yucca dump for nearly three decades “as the DOE has pledged to file its long-delayed construction and operating license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by June 30, 2008.

"The Bush administration's rash rush to begin the Yucca licensing proceeding is a blatant attempt to make the dump a done deal before the next, potentially anti-dump, President enters the White House," said Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, a national watchdog on nuclear power and radioactive waste issues.The dozen national groups which filed the comments include Beyond Nuclear, Clean Water Action, Environment America, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Greenpeace, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen, SUN DAY Campaign, and Women's Action for New Directions. The 68 regional and local groups represent 27 states.

"Shipping tens of thousands of high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and barges through 45 states and the District of Columbia risks severe accidents and terrorist attacks," said Kamps of Beyond Nuclear. "This could release catastrophic amounts of deadly radioactivity in major population centers, representing potential Mobile Chernobyls and dirty bombs on wheels rolling past the homes of millions of Americans," Kamps added.

The coalition also urged that DOE must thoroughly analyze the negative impact on property values along all road, rail, and waterway routes across the continental United States that would be used to ship wastes to Yucca. Its submission stated "Courts, juries, and socio-economic studies have found that property values decrease significantly near declared radioactive waste transport routes. DOE must identify in detail all routes it plans to use for shipping wastes to Yucca…and should hold hearings in every state thus impacted."

Besides transport risks, the coalition exposed geological and environmental justice "show stoppers "at the Yucca Mountain Project."DOE's Yucca plans are so half-baked that they proposed locating a high-level radioactive waste storage facility directly above an earthquake fault line," Kamps pointed out. "DOE has known for over a decade that rainwater percolates relatively quickly through the proposed burial site, risking fast corrosion of the waste burial containers and release of catastrophic amounts of deadly radioactivity into the drinking and agricultural irrigation water supply below," Kamps added.

The coalition also warned DOE that all of the land at the Yucca Mountain dump project is within the treaty lands of the Western Shoshone Indian Nation, as affirmed by the "Peace and Friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed by the U.S. government in 1863. Thus, the proposed dumpsite violates environmental justice principles, an allegation supported by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Watchdog
Beyond Nuclear6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
Office phone: (301) 270-2209
Cell phone: (240) 462-3216Fax: (301) 270-4000
mailto:270-4000kevin@beyondnuclear.org
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

Lakotas fight uranium mining: Nuclear Regulatory Commisssion to hear arguments

Lakotas fighting new uranium mining will offer oral arguments in Nebraska:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL

Before Administrative Judges:
Ann Marshall Young, Chair Dr. Richard F. Cole Dr. Fred W. Oliver
In the Matter of
Docket No. 40-8943-MLA
ASLBP No. 07-859-03-MLA-BD01 CROW BUTTE RESOURCES, INC. (License Amendment for the North Trend Expansion Project)
January 10, 2008
NOTICE and ORDER (Regarding Oral Argument)
Oral argument will be heard on the standing and contentions of Petitioners1 in this proceeding, which involves the application of Crow Butte Resources, Inc. (CBR) to amend its Source Materials License for development of additional uranium in-situ leach (ISL) mining resources for its North Trend Expansion Area, on January 16, 2008, continuing into January 17 as necessary, in the Chicoine Atrium, Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center, Chadron State College, 1000 Main Street, Chadron, Nebraska.
This session will commence at 9:00 a.m. on January 16, beginning with oral argument on Petitioners’ standing to participate in this proceeding; followed by argument on the contentions, in the order addressed in Petitioners’ Reference Petition of December 28, 2007 (as
1 In response to a September 13, 2007, notice of opportunity for hearing that was published on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) website, Petitioners Debra L White Plume, Owe Aku/Bring Back the Way, Western Nebraska Resources Council, Thomas Kanatakeniate Cook, and Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Corporation on November 12, 2007, timely filed requests for hearing and petitions to Intervene in accordance with 10 C.F.R. § 2.309.
-2 corrected on January 10, 2008); and, finally, argument on Petitioners’ request for a 10 C.F.R. Part 2, Subpart G hearing, and any other appropriate matters.
As discussed in the telephone conference of December 18, 2007, oral argument by the two attorneys serving as Petitioners’ counsel, and Applicant’s and NRC Staff’s counsel, respectively, will be consolidated as much as possible, with the understanding that if on certain issues counsel wish to make separate argument this can be accommodated. Also, oral argument should not be a mere repetition of written filings. With these understandings, counsel are directed to prepare for the oral argument as follows:
On standing, Petitioners’ counsel should plan to speak for no longer than a total of 10 minutes per Petitioner (including discussion of all affidavits at issue), with this time apportioned as they see fit; Applicant and Staff Counsel should plan to speak for a total of no more than 10 minutes per Petitioner. On Petitioners’ contentions, Petitioners counsel should plan to speak for a combined time of no more than 20 minutes per contention, and Applicant and Staff Counsel should plan to speak for a combined time of no more than 20 minutes per contention. Counsel and parties should expect that their argument will be interrupted as deemed necessary and appropriate by Board members, but that the time taken for such questions and responses will not be counted against their allotted time periods.
In argument on admissibility of the contentions, counsel should be prepared to focus their arguments on whether and how the contentions meet the requirements of the criteria set forth at 10 C.F.R. § 2.309(f)(1), subsections (i) through (vi). See also, e.g., the case law cited in our December 12, 2007, Order (Regarding Schedule and Guidance for Proceedings), and
-3 our December 20, 2007, Order (Confirming Matters Addressed on December 18, 2007
Telephone Conference).
It is so ORDERED. FOR THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD
_________/RA/_________________ Ann Marshall Young, Chair ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE
Rockville, Maryland January 10, 20082
2Copies of this Order were sent this date by Internet e-mail to all counsel and representatives for participants for whom e-mail addresses were available.

Longest Walk 2008 begins February 11, 2008

http://www.longestwalk.org/

January 12, 2008
Feast In Honor of Floyd Red Crow Westerman
February
Welcoming Dinner February 08, 2008
Longest Walk Kickoff Concert February 09, 2008
Longest Walk Benefit Show February 10, 2008
Alcatraz Island Sunrise Gathering & Day's Schedule February 11, 2008

Walkers leave on February 12, then arrive at Western Shoshone's Mount Tenabo on February 27 and walk through to Pueblo, Colorado during March:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/12/longest-walk-2008-route.html

Photo: 1978 Longest Walk: Jimbo Simmons, Joe Bill and Tissychy

Navajos: Vanity Fair the tipster, Sithe Global the coyote

Vanity Fair becomes Dooda (NO) Desert Rock's tipster

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

LITTLEWATER, NM -- Sithe Global/Desert Rock says it doesn't have to tell Navajo people about the lease for the dirty coal power plant it plans to build on the Navajo Nation, according to Vanity Fair magazine.
Frank Maisano, speaking for Sithe Global, said only the Navajo government was supposed to know. Masiano told Vanity Fair, “They don’t have to disclose the terms of the lease. This is an agreement between Sithe Global and the Navajo Nation, and the lease is part of an ongoing process.”
OOOPS, Gotcha, says Dooda Desert Rock. Yes Sithe Global does have to disclose the terms to the people. This includes all those Navajos living around the current two power plants without running water and electricity, while almost all the power goes to non-Indians. Navajos have a public information law, which includes leases to the trickster coyotes.
Elouise Brown, president of Dooda Desert Rock, told Vanity Fair, "Your article prompted me to drive to Window Rock on January 10th and our lawyer was right! It took a little persuading, but I got a copy of the lease and its attachment. Now we can see what is in it that shouldn’t be, what’s missing, and follow up on suspicions that people made false promises to Navajo voters to get their vote on resolutions in favor of the plant.
"Thank you Vanity Fair! And no, this organization will not support Rudy Giuliani as President of the United States."
Read letter to Vanity Fair:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/navajos-tipster-vanity-fair-coyote.html

Mohawks welcome Lakota Freedom Delegation to Akwesasne Longhouse

MOHAWKS WELCOME “LAKOTA FREEDOM DELEGATION”
SAT., JANUARY 12, 2008, 10 am, AKWESASNE LONGHOUSE

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News
Jan. 10, 2008. This is a very important international gathering. On December 17th the Lakota declared their continuing independence and withdrew from all treaties with the U.S.
People worldwide have come to realize that colonial societies are responsible for wars, deaths, degradation of the environment and many social injustices. They still haven’t admitted that their colonial practices fully fit the definition of genocide. They haven’t even admitted that colonialism is a form of addiction to hierarchy and domination. Now that some Europeans are coming to their senses and starting to heal themselves, we’d like to move our relationship forward onto a more respectful footing. Ordinary heirs to the colonial order are supporting Ongwehonwe efforts. Some of them even want to serve as ambassadors from their states to the Lakota to facilitate an orderly transition from the colonial modes of operation that have wreaked havoc in the world during the last few centuries. We all want an egalitarian society that will protect everyone and the environment that our future generations must depend upon. The old colonial “command and obey” paradigm simply does not work. At the first sign that the sickness of colonialism is about to go into remission, they do everything they can to prevent open, public and egalitarian discussions aimed at creating good social health. In times like these the colonists reassert their model using violence, threats, coercion and skullduggery. There are lots of “ambulance chasers”, bureaucrats, politicians and corporations who are eager to do this; a) because they don’t know any better; and b) because they’re greedy and they know at some subliminal level that their neurotic control freak functions will be considered criminal in a decolonized world order. If we ever manage to eradicate this disease there will be no more use for “ambulance chasing Chihuauas” who claim to be working for Ongwehonwe “pro bono”. They invariably fail to mention that the impoverished Ongwehonwe are expected to pick up the tab for their fancy dinners and executive hotel suites while they engage endlessly in dead end negotiations that would not be legal if they ever saw the light of day. [Why can't they meet at Tim Horton's or Dunkin Donuts?] Colonialism has been repudiated under international law. We need to re-examine our independence and the terms of co-existence with the colonizers. Despite growing support for the positive initiatives the Lakota are taking, we can expect intrusive and obstructive tactics. No doubt, they have already cranked their surveillance up to the hilt. In keeping with their habit of ignoring our humanity and treating us disrespectfully, they especially dislike those who have a clear sense of our rights and identity. We would never succumbed to the dubious pleasures of joining them in their “crack house” addiction. Among other Ongwehonwe, these junkies dislike the Mohawks and the Lakota. We have called each other, in jest, “the Mohawks of the West” and “the Lakota of the East”. We even joke about who is hated the most by the colonists!

ANNOUNCEMENT Communities of the Kanionkehaka Nation will be welcoming the Lakota Freedom Delegation of the Lakota Nation The meeting will take place on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Kanionkehaka Kanonsesneh in the community of Akwesasne.
After Supper a Social Dance will follow in honor of our Lakota brothers. The social starts at 7:00 pm. Everyone is Welcome! To learn more about Lakota Oyate Visit the website: http://www.lakotaoyate.net/

Akwesasne welcomes Lakota Freedom Delegation January 12, 2008

Subject: Announcement Kanionkehaka/Lakota meeting Jan 12

ANNOUNCEMENT
Communities of the Kanionkehaka Nation will be welcoming the Lakota Freedom Delegation of the Lakota Nation
The meeting will take place on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 from 10:00am to 4:00 pm at the Kanionkehaka Kanonsesneh (next to Wild Bill's store) in the community of Akwesasne.
After Supper a Social Dance will follow in honor of our Lakota brothers. The social starts at 7:00 pm.
Everyone is Welcome!
To learn more about Lakota Oyate
Visit the website: http://www.lakotaoyate.net/
Note: Deserts & Covered dishes welcomed. Main entrees: Breakfast muffins, fruit. Lunch corn soup, meat platters. Supper corn bread and steak. Drinks coffee, teas, strawberry drink.

Photo: Kahentinetha Horn speaks on sovereignty and Indigenous passports, as a Mohawk Warrior holds a sacred Wampum Two Rows Belt, at the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas 2007 on Tohono O'odham land. Photo Brenda Norrell.

Chertoff prepares court battle to seize private lands across southern border

By SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer(c) 2008
The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5440647.html
WASHINGTON — The federal government is preparing to go to court toforce dozens of property owners in the southwestern U.S. to give itaccess to their land for possible construction on it of a U.S.-Mexicoborder fence.
The government is readying 102 cases to gain entry to lands along theborder owned by private individuals, local governments and others. Adeadline for many of the owners to grant entry passed Monday or shouldexpire in a matter of days.
Of the total cases, 71 are against Texas landowners, 20 againstCalifornians and 11 against Arizona landowners. No cases are expectedagainst New Mexico landowners.

Out of the Algonquin Frying Pan and into the Mohawk Fire

Out of the Algonquin Frying Pan and into the Mohawk Fire

[The following is a letter to the editor received on Jan 8, 2008]
From the beginning, the Crown, Ontario and agents wanted the farcical mediation meetings to be held behind closed doors. They wanted to isolate the Ardoch and Shabot Algonquin "leadership" to make secret $deals$ over a supposed uranium mine. According to Indigenous law, such meetings that concern the people should be open to the people as the Algonquins have repeatedly insisted.
Suddenly, Ontario says the meetings are open to the public but now they are to be held in Kingston, outside of Algonquin territory, two hours away from the affected community. Moving the mediation out of Algonquin territory is also a breach of Algonquin law.
However, this is a clear case of the proverbial, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Kingston is in Mohawk territory!
Why, we must ask, would the meetings be moved to Kingston? For whose convenience? We hear rumours of Crown agents who need city night life and their accustomed type of "watering hole", not available in the remote areas of Sharbot Lake. The new location was certainly handy for the Mohawks, perhaps too handy. When they changed the venue, the mediation team knew Kahentinetha Horn of MNN was planning to attend - Randy Cota and Bob Lovelace had invited her!
(In July 2007, the Algonquins sent a wampum to the Mohawks seeking their help in the blockade against uranium mining at Robertsville. Nuclear development on Algonquin land would affect Mohawk communities downstream. This official nation to nation agreement is ongoing.)
The mediation team were all surprised anyway to see a large delegation of Ongwehoneh women and men from the four Mohawk communities of Kahnawake, Kahensatake, Akwesasne and Tyendinaga. I am very sorry I could not arrange transportation to join them.
The mediation team were even more shocked to hear Elder Kahentinetha speak in Mohawk to open the meeting according to Ongwehoneh customs and protocols. Ardoch Algonquin Negotiator, Bob Lovelace sought to ignore her and defer to one of the Mohawk men. Bob "the Great Pretender" is so accustomed to colonial and sexist ways that he could not accept a woman with such obvious authority. The Mohawks were not about to let the farce continue without exposing it for what it is.
From what I gather, the Monday meeting was a game of tag with it being moved to a secret location when Ontario's Cam Clark, Bob Lovelace and attorneys became so flustered at the Mohawks' asking uncomfortable questions that they fled. When they sought to hide in a restaurant down the street, the Mohawks found them, no problemo. Afterall, they were in Mohawk territory where even the birds speak Mohawk.
The details of the derailed meeting are best described by those who were there. MNN has published an informative report that can be accessed at www.mohawknationnews.com. The outcome will become more apparent in the days ahead.
One thing's for sure from where I sit. Mohawk people have tried to help us Algonquins over and over again since the uranium crisis began last June at the Robertsville mine site. From the Mohawk warriors who came to put their lives and liberty on the line at the mine site to Mohawk elders like Kahentinetha who publishes the MNN articles in support of the Algonquin struggle, they have given their time and resources to us. Yet people in this community have been warned not to talk to Kahentinetha and not to talk to me. This is colonialism, intimidation and outright gangsterism. This is not the Nishnaabe way.
Indigenous people all over Turtle Island are renewing their alliances. The Mohawks are our nearest neighbours down-river and long-time allies. They have much wisdom and expertise to share with us. They cannot take over our land or ways according to our laws. They simply want to stop any desecration of the Earth such as a uranium mine would be. Together we must protect the Earth for the future generations.
Gratitude is an essential Nishnaabe principle. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Mohawk women and men who took the time and had the courage to stand up for our rights. Nia:wen and Chi miigwetch.
I urge everyone, Nishnaabe and settler alike to send a note of thanks to them.
Jennifer Tsun Nishnaabe Kwe,
McDonalds Corners,
Algonquin Territory

Corporate builders of the US Apartheid Wall & Militarized Zone

WHO IS BUILDING THE WALL THROUGH YOUR LAND?
CORPORATE AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTRACTORS

Taken from letter to the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Response to the United State Periodic Report of April 2007 on the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Margo Tamez (November 14, 2007).
The United State has entered into private contracts with the following corporate and institutional contractors for the implementation of the Secure Border Initiative Project Network, under authority of the U.S. Office of Homeland Security:
Lockheed Martin1
Texas Divisions of Raytheon (Network Centric Systems)2
L-3 Communications (Integrated Systems)3
Northrup Grumman (Los Angeles, CA)4
BAE Systems (Austin, TX)5
SAIC of San Diego6
Computer Sciences Corp of El Segundo, CA7
America’s Border Security Group (Ericcson Inc., Plano, TX) (NASDAQ:ERICY)8
Fluor Corporation (NYSEL:FLR)9
SYColeman Corporation (A Division of LC Communications)10
MTC Technologies11
CAMBER Corporation12
AEP Networks, Inc.13
Texas A & Am University14
University of Texas (Austin)15
Boeing (Seattle, WA; Secure Border Initiative/SBInet—“Project 28”)16
Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton)17
Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) major partners18
United Kingdom Home Office19
1 PennWell. “Defense firms turn to border security.” Washington, 28, Dec. 2005. “The government’s high-profile offensive to control the borders is spawning a growth market for the nations’s defense industry.” http://mae.pannet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=244491&p=32
Accessed 11/20/07.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 AEP Networks, America’s Border Security Group. “Ericcson’s AMerioca Border Security Group (ABSG) Offers Proven Effective Solution for U.S. Border Security.” http://www.aepnetworks.com/news/press_archive/release_06012006.htm
Accessed 11/20/07.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 CORP Watch. Richey, Joseph. “Fencingthe Border: Boeing’s High-Tech Plan Falters.” July 9, 2007. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14552. Accessed 11/20/07.; “Software Glitches Delay Virtual Border Fence.” Newsmax.com. Tuesday, Ocotober 30, 2007.
http://www.newsmax.com/us/virtual_border_fence/2007/10/30/45069.html
Accessed 11/20/07.; Riley, Michael. “Fortress America--Building a Border: Part 2.” Denver Post. 03/06/07. http://www.denverpost.com/fortressamerica/ci_5356695. Accessed 11/20/07.; McLemore, David. “Border Residents fuming over fence plans.” June 26, 2007. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/062707dntex...
Accessed 11/20/07.
17 Downing, Margaret. “Killing Fences: Totally Misconstrued.” Houston Press, May 31 2007. http://www.houstonpress.com/2007-05-31/news/killing-fences-totally-misconstrued/ Accessed 11/20/07
18 Boeing, Ericsson, Lockheed, Northop Grumman and Raytheon. Richey, Joseph. “Border for Sale: Privitizing Immigration Control. July 5, 2006. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13845&printsafe=1
Accessed 11/20/07.
19 PRNewswire. Garland, TX. “Raytheon Awarded Contract with U.K. Home Office for e-Borders Project.” November 14, 2007. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NEW03314112007-1.htm
Accessed 11/20/07.

Apaches rise to defend homelands from Homeland Security

By Brenda Norrell
Human Rights Editor
UN OBSERVER & International Report

RIO GRANDE, Texas – Apache land owners on the Rio Grande told Homeland Security to halt the seizure of their lands for the US/Mexico border wall, during a national media conference call Monday. It was the same day that a 30-day notice from Homeland Security expired with the threat of land seizures by eminent domain to build the US/Mexico border wall.
"There are two kinds of people in this world, those who build walls and those who build bridges," said Enrique Madrid, Jumano Apache community member, land owner in Redford and archaeological steward for the Texas Historical Commission.
"The wall in South Texas is militarization," Madrid said of the planned escalation of militarization with Border Patrol and soldiers.
"They will be armed and shoot to kill."
It was in Redford that a U.S. Marine shot and killed 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez, herding his sheep near his home in 1997.
"We had hoped he would be the last United States citizen and the last Native American to be killed by troops," Madrid said.
Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache professor living in the Lower Rio Grande, described how US officials attempted to pressure her into allowing them onto her private land to survey for the US/Mexico borderwall. When Tamez refused, she was told that she would be taken to court and her lands seized by eminent domain.
"I have told them that it is not for sale and they cannot come onto my land."
Tamez is among the land owners where the Department of Homeland Security plans to erect 70 miles of intermittent, double-layered fencing in the Rio Grande Valley.
Tamez said the United States government wants access to all of her land, which is on both sides of a levee. "Then they will decide where to build the wall. It could be over my house." Tamez said that she may only have three acres, but it is all she has.
Tamez' daughter Margo Tamez, poet and scholar, said, "We are not a people of walls. It is against our culture to have walls. The Earth and the River go together. We must be with the river. We must be with this land. We were born for this land."
Margo Tamez said the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples now guarantees the right of Indigenous Peoples to their traditional territories.
Rosie Molano Blount, Chiricahua Apache from Del Río said the Chiricahua Apache have proudly served in the United States military."We are proud to be Americans," Blount said, adding that the Chiricahua have always supported the United States government.
Now, with the increasing harassment of people in the borderzone, Blount said the people have had enough.
"Ya Basta! Enough is enough!" Blount said, repeating the phrase that became the battle cry of the Zapatistas in Mexico struggling for Indigenous Peoples' rights.
Blount said there needs to be dialogue concerning the issues at the border, but not forced militarization or a border wall. She also directed a comment at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
"Don't come here and divide our families Chertoff. You believe this is the only way to do things."
Michael Paul Hill, San Carlos Apache from Arizona, described how US border agents violated and molested his sacred items, including a sacred stone, Eagle feather and drum used in ceremonies while near the border at Redford in August.
"They called me a foreigner." Hill described how Border Agents told him that he might "get away" with crossing the border in Nogales, Arizona, with ceremonial items that were not manhandled, but not in Texas.
"It was incredibly frightening," said Margo Tamez who was also there.
She pointed out how the escalating militarization at the border is terrorizing people as they go about their lives, working, with their families and in their ceremonies.
Isabel Garcia, cochair of Derechos Humanos in Tucson, Arizona, said,"Arizona has been a laboratory for the criminalizing of the border."
Pointing out that the Arizona border is the ancestral homeland of the Tohono O'odham, she said, "These borders are where people have lived since time immemorial." Garcia described the climate of militarization and abuse by Border Patrol agents.
Garcia pointed out that "cowboy" Border Agents ran over and killed18-year-old Tohono O'odham Bennett Patricio, Jr., while he was walking home in 2002. His mother, Angie Ramon, is still seeking justice for the death of her son.
Garcia also described the deaths from dehydration and heat in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, where failed border policies have pushed migrants walking to a better life into treacherous desert lands.
"Two hundred and thirty-seven bodies were recovered in one year and most were on the tribal lands of the Tohono O'odham."
Further, Homeland Security recently waived 22 federal laws to build the border wall in the San Pedro wilderness area in Arizona, she said.
Attorney Peter Schey, director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, said America does not need a"Berlin Wall."
Schey, renowned immigrant rights attorney, said Section 564 of the Homeland Security section of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill supersedes earlier legislation. Homeland Security is now required to have consultation with the communities. Schey said this means real consultation and real consideration of the community's input and data.
Schey took his first action on behalf of Texas property owner Dr. Tamez on Monday, the same day that a 30-day notice to Texas land owners expired with the threat of eminent domain land seizures looming. Schey informed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to halt the impending seizures of private lands.
Schey said Section 564 strikes provisions of the earlier Secure Fence Act and requires Homeland Security to consult with property owners like Dr. Tamez in order "to minimize the impact on the environment, culture, commerce, and quality of life" in areas considered for construction of the border fence.
"Furthermore, we believe that the new statutory provisions invalidate the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for fence construction published on the Department's behalf on November 16, 2007, pending completion of the required local consultations and other requirements as outlined in the Omnibus Bill," Schey told Chertoff in the letter.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security declared that it will use the principle of eminent domain to take possession of land currently held by private ownership. DHS has also presented waivers requesting that the landowners grant DHS personnel access to their property for a twelve-month period in order to conduct surveys for the intended construction project. The property owners were informed that if theydo not voluntarily allow the federal agents on their property, theU.S. government will file a law suit so that DHS authorities can have unimpeded access to private land, despite the owners' opposition. DHS has stated that it will seize property even without the consent of landowners if necessary to complete the construction of the border fence. Many landowners, as well as civic leaders and human rights activists,oppose the U.S. government's plans to allow federal law enforcement agents access to private property. The government's demands and aggressive tactics are in conflict with settled rights of private property ownership and are particularly disconcerting to the Indigenous peoples' communities impacted by this undertaking.
The Texas communities along the international boundary zone are largely made up of Native Americans and of land grant heirs who have resided on inherited properties for hundreds of years. DHS plans to complete the Texas portions of the fence before the end of the 2008 calendar year.
DHS has already built walls along much of the California and Arizona international boundary zone with Mexico despite opposition from the government of Mexico.

Also see: Austin Statesman: 'Attorney says Homeland Security must reconsider border wall in Valley'
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/08/0108fence.html

Longest Walk San Francsico to Washington begins in February

Cross-country walk to make Inland stop
Download story podcast
Monday, January 7, 2008
By JAMIE AYALA
The Press-Enteprise

A five-month journey across America aimed at raising awareness about protecting the earth, sacred sites and the next generation will come into the Inland area in early March.
The trek by foot, which is called the Longest Walk 2, commemorates a similar walk from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., in 1978 by activists wanting to draw attention to American Indian issues.
This year's walk will take a more southern route than the original walk. It will kick off in Davis on Feb. 11, and head south to Yucca Valley and east along Highway 62.
Along the way, participants are set to pick up trash, recycle and visit sacred sites that communities are trying to preserve. The walk will culminate with a symbolic exchange from elders to youth, said Tashina Banks Moore, national communications coordinator for the event.
"There seems to be momentum across the country and around the world to bring attention to how we as humans are living in our own communities," Moore said. "More and more, it's important for us as individuals to be responsible."
About 200 people are signed up to walk the entire 4,400 miles, Moore said, but hundreds more are expected to join for shorter distances.
She said the group is working to get community support, such as providing places to stay, food or cultural exchanges.
Riverside resident Karen Wright, 55, is trying to boost local awareness about the walk. She cannot participate because she is caring for her elderly mother.
Instead, she purchased T-shirts and patches to give away to those who might be able to walk. She is also spreading the word on the Internet.
"The walk isn't just for Indians. It's for anyone who cares about Mother Earth," said Wright, who is not American Indian. "I see people not planning for future people and the future of the earth and that's not good."
Dennis J. Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement, helped organize the 1978 Longest Walk.
It shed light on the movement and the people and helped defeat 11 legislative bills threatening American Indian sovereignty, according to event organizers. Moore said it was a huge catalyst for change, drawing the support of several thousand people, including boxing great Muhammad Ali and actor Marlon Brando at the end.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_walk07.34a4469.html

Photo: Longest Walk 1978

Attorney to Homeland Security for Apaches: Back off at the border

Updates on Apaches' resistance of land seizures at Censored blog:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Peter Schey
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
256 South Occidental Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Re: Texas Landowners’ Objection to Access for Border Fence

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

This office represents Dr. Eloisa García Tamez, a private land-owner in south Texas who has not and will not sign DHS’s “Right-of-Entry for Survey and Assessment.” Despite the Department’s express threat to sue Dr. García Tamez pursuant to its powers of eminent domain if she refuses, Dr. García Tamez will not allow her ancestral property to be surveyed for the erection of the highly controversial security border wall. Along with other property owners, as well as other Nde’ and Basque-Ibero American citizens adversely impacted by DHS’s ultimatum and intended actions, Dr. García Tamez will pursue all available legal avenues under domestic and international laws to protect her right to the full and uninterrupted enjoyment and use of her property. Dr. García Tamez’s resolve reflects a national network of entities, both political and civic, individuals and organizations, that supports the land rights of indigenous peoples and resolutely opposes the building of the militarized border wall.
Read full letter:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/apaches-attorney-to-homeland-security.html

Newly reborn Republic of Lakotah organizes

By Republic of Lakotah
To all people who have volunteered to help:
On behalf of all the volunteers of the provisional government of this newly reborn nation, thank you for your offer to help ... Not only will the Republic need more people working on its behalf, but in order to rebuild the nation we will need to attract entrepreneurs to establish businesses. A commercial center with more of an infrastructure than we have at Porcupine would seem to facilitate both the government and commercial needs for the near term future. Read more:
http://republicoflakotah.com/FAQ.html

Indigenous communities call on Homeland Security to stop border land grab

Contacts:* Peter Schey, (323) 251-3223, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, scheypeter@aol.com, pschey@centerforhumanrights.org* Margo Tamez, (509) 595-4445, Hleh Pai Dne (Lipan Apache) and Jumano Apache, hleh.pai.nde.defense@gmail.com* Arnoldo García (510) 928-0685; National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; agarcia@nnirr.org

Indigenous Communities Call on Homeland Security to Stop Border Land Grab,Respect Property and Human Rights

On Monday, January 7, 2008 at 10:00 am PST a coalition of individual property owners, their legal representatives along with Native American and border community leaders will hold a national telephonic media conference and briefing (see call-in number information below) to announce their intent to fight the Department of Homeland Security's threatened seizure of their property along the United States-Mexico border. DHS is attempting to use its powers of eminent domain in order to illegally seize private lands and build the controversial border security wall. The Indigenous peoples and border communities telephonic media conference is taking place on the same day that DHS 30-day notices expire, leaving Texas landowners along the international boundary terrorized by the possibility of losing ancestral land. Also, renowned immigrant rights and human rights attorney Peter Schey, of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, will take his first action on behalf of Texas property owners. In this unprecedented telephonic media conference, representatives of Indigenous peoples, whose lands have been bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border, will share historical and current stories of their experiences along the hyper-militarized international border region.
"Our lands are not for sale. The U.S. government must stop its illegal attempts to intimidate us. The Department of Homeland Security cannot take away our homes and neighborhoods for border militarization," declared Eloisa Tamez, a member of the Lipan Apache people and Basque-Ibero descendents living in the Lower Rio Grande region. Mrs. Tamez is part of a coalition of Indigenous peoples and border community groups that are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to stop confiscating their private property and lands along the U.S.-Mexico border. DHS plans to use this property to build a border wall on it.Mrs. Tamez and other owners whose properties abut the border are threatened by federal agents' unwelcomed entry at any time into their properties and homes and the increased militarization of their neighborhoods. They are calling on DHS to stop its intimidation tactics and respect their property and human rights.Last month, DHS Secretary Chertoff stated DHS's intent to seize privately-held property in south Texas if property owners fail to cooperate with government efforts to erect the border wall, approved by Congress last year as part of a strategy to eliminate unauthorized migration and drug trafficking.DHS presented waivers requesting that the landowners grant DHS personnel access to their property for a twelve-month period in order to conduct surveys for the intended construction project. The property owners were informed that if they do not voluntarily allow the federal agents on their property, the U.S. government will file a law suit so that DHS authorities can have unimpeded access to private land, despite the owners' opposition. DHS has stated that it will seize property even without the consent of landowners if necessary to complete the construction of the border fence. Many landowners, as well as civic leaders and human rights activists, oppose the U.S. government’s plans to allow federal law enforcement agents access to private property. The government's demands and aggressive tactics are in conflict with settled rights of private property ownership and are particularly disconcerting to the Indigenous peoples' communities impacted by this undertaking. The Texas communities along the international boundary zone are largely made up of Native Americans and of land grant heirs who have resided on inherited properties for hundreds of years. DHS plans to complete the Texas portions of the fence before the end of the 2008 calendar year. DHS has already built walls along much of the California and Arizona international boundary zone with Mexico despite opposition from the government of Mexico. In Arizona, the wall cuts through Native American ceremonial crossing areas as well as through a national wildlife park. Indigenous communities are calling on the U.S. government to stop this land grab and respect the rights of migrants, Americans and indigenous peoples at the U.S.-Mexico border.
National Telephonic Media ConferenceMonday, January 7, 2007, 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time(1:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 PM Central, 11:00 AM Mountain)

INDIGENOUS SPOKESPERSONS on the call:* Enrique Madrid, Jumano Apache community member, Texas Historical Commission, Redford, TX * Gabriel Carrasco, Chief of the Jumano Apache, Redford/El Paso, TX* José Matus, Yaqui, director of Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, Tucson, AZ* Rosie Molano Blount, Chiricahua Apache, Del Río, TX* Michael Paul Hill, San Carlos Apache, AZ * Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, AZ, founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall* Eloisa Tamez, Hleh Pai Nde, TX (Lipan Apache-Basque-Ibero)* Margo Tamez, Hleh Pai Nde, TX; (Lipan Apache-Jumano Apache) Moderator

Intertribal Friendship House honors Floyd Westerman

(Please double click to enlarge)

Join us as we honor the life and achievements of Floyd Red Crow Westerman Community Dinner --Open invitation to all

Pot Luck Feast -- Please bring a side dish to share 5:30 PM

Saturday, January 12th

Intertribal Friendship House

523 International Blvd.

Oakland, CA 94606

510.836.1955

Apaches, private land owners, prepare to fight back at Texas border

Homeland Security prepares to seize private lands in South Texas for the border wall.

Lipan Apache women and elders issue plea for help after harassment.

Homeland Security's 30-day notice expires
Monday, January 7, 2007.

Media representatives are invited to join a conference call on Monday, January 7, with Indigenous Peoples from the Texas and Arizona border.

Already, in Arizona, Tohono O'odham ancestors' graves have been dug up, O'odham ceremonial route dissected and the remote migrating path of the jaguars and other endangered species has been destroyed to build the US/Mexico border wall.

Media: To join conference call, contact in
advance:
Media contact:
Arnoldo GarciaNational Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
work (510) 465-1984 ext 305
cell (510) 928-0685
Email: agarcia@nnirr.org

As a holocaust survivor said, "Always speak out so this doesn't happen to you."

Late Breaking News:
Indigenous land owners tell Homeland Security to halt the land grab
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/01/indigenous-communnities-call-on.html

Spanish: Final report of the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas 2007

Reporte Final de la Cumbre Fronteriza de Pueblos Indígenas de Las Américas 2007 (Llevada a cabo del 7 al 10 de noviembre de 2007 en la comunidad de San Xavier, Nación Tohono O’odham, Arizona)

Final Report of the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas

Special thanks to El Tequio magazine for the translation. The Spanish language publication is published every three months, and is distributed in LA, San Diego, Fresno, Greenfield, California as well as the cities of Oaxaca and Mexico D.F. The magazine includes articles and features about the immigrant communities from Oaxaca living on both sides of the border. The next edition will be distributed on Jan the 20th and include excerpts from the Indigenous Border summit.

Consejo del Tratado Indígena Internacional:Nosotros, los representantes, delegados y autoridades tradicionales de Pueblos y organizaciones de 19 Naciones Indígenas, de toda la Sagrada Isla de la Tortuga, la tierra que actualmente es conocida como Las Américas, nos hemos reunido como la Segunda Cumbre Fronteriza de los Pueblos Indígenas de Las Américas, con los siguientes objetivos:Dar la oportunidad a los Pueblos Indígenas de las regiones fronterizas de intercambiar experiencias e información sobre las formas en que las fronteras internacionales afectan a sus respectivas comunidades.

Read more:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/reporte-final-de-la-cumbre-fronteriza.html

Photos: TRES AMIGOS: Tzunum from California, Pedro Sosa organizing against migrant raids in Oregon and Sebastian Quinac, Mayan Cakchiquel from Guatemala who searches for fellow Mayans at the Arizona border at the request of families, including Mayan women from Guatemala who died walking with their children in 2007 on Tohono O'odham land in Arizona. Photo 2: Delegaton of Mohawk, Oneida, Lakota, Acoma Pueblo and Navajo at the US/Mexico border on Tohono O'odham land/Photos Brenda Norrell

summit.

English version of report

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/11/final-report-from-indigenous-border.html

Photos and more on Indigenous Border Summit website

http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/

Audio downloads of summit (some Spanish language)

http://www.earthlinks.net/

Zapatistas' Marcos: 'The seed of something new'

"Its not just our duty and our hope in this country, but in the continent and the rest of the world. If in some way Zapatismo has achieved a synchrony of global sympathy, its not because we have made certain use of the word, or because of the unquestionable heroism of the indigenous communities, but because from this moment it was proposing an alternative, the seed of something else. And this is what the Other Campaign means to do: name the enemy, capital, and the ally of this enemy, the political class. We intend the defeat of this government and the destruction of capital. And then, like someone said once, we will have only just won the right to start over but we will have to start where one always has to start, from below."—Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Photo: Marcos in Sonora, Mexico/Photo Brenda Norrell

Inside the Checkpoints: The 51st State

Inside the Checkpoints: The 52st State
By Jay Johnson-Castro
jay@villadelrio.com

While the 1250 miles of the Rio Grande corridor constitutes the most recognized border of any state of the United States, we fronterizos from one end of the Texas-Mexico border to the other have long lived in a disconnect, from each other. That disconnect is not an accident. While we might have different geology between El Paso and Brownsville, we also have some of the greatest continuity of history and culture of the all the Americas. We are the confluence of all the Americas, from Alaska to Argentina. We are the blend, the mix, of the two great cultures of the “New World”. We come together like two lovers in the night, and we proclaim, “Viva la diferencia”!
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/inside-checkpoints-51st-state.html

Quebec City celebrates genocide of Indigenous People

QUEBEC CITY WANTS TO CELEBRATE 400 YEARS ANNIVERSARY OF CARNAGE, GENOCIDE & DEATH OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News
January 3, 2008. Some people have a twisted view of history. Josee Legault, who writes for the Montreal Gazette, complains that the 2008 New Years celebration in Quebec City was a disappointment. Colonialism is a mental illness. Some can see this. According to Legault, Quebec’s major artists were absent. If they were boycotting the event, they showed good sense. For the world to escape the “colonial disease”, the most honest and sensitive artists will lead the way. They will break out of the delusion and find the vision needed to affect a cure. Healing is certainly needed here.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/quebec-city-celebrates-genocide-of.html

Indigenous land owners in Texas plea for immediate intervention, US prepares to seize lands for border wall

Homeland Security has issued a 30-day notice to south Texas land owners, expiring Monday, January 7, 2007, to seize private lands in Texas for the border wall. Lipan Apache issue a call for help:

By Margo Tamez
Photo by Jay Johnson-Castro

This is a request for immediate intervention on behalf of indigenous land title holders of the rancheria of El Calaboz, La Paloma, and El Ranchito in South Texas. I am writing to you this evening as the indigenous peoples of El Calaboz, La Paloma and El Ranchito rancherias in South Texas express grave fear for their safety, their livelihoods, and being ripped violently apart from our sacred lands held in our communities prior to contact with Spanish settlers and empresarios, and thereafter, in continuity.
Elders, such as Eloisa Garcia Tamez, and others in our communities threatened with Eminent Domain, by the Department of Homeland Security and carried out by Secretary Chertoff, have authorized me to request immediate emergency intervention from the International Indian Treaty Council at this time.
The 30 day period which Chertoff forced upon the threatened communities will expire on January 7, 2008. Today, an emergency national conference call was held to address key concerns of the South Texas independent indigenous rancherias whose lands are not only physically on the International Boundary (IB), but also whose traditional and titled lands (by Spanish, Mexican Republic and Texas Republic title) are dissected by the IB and are also in Tamaulipas, Mexico. We are communities of both indigenous Hleh pai nde'--the Light Gray People, the independent Lipan Apache of the San Pedro de Carricitos Land Grant of 1786. As well we are communities of Basque-Nde' and Basque-Comanche peoples who are the First Peoples of the contact period after 1745 when Basque laborers toiled under harsh conditions and mixed in with the indigenous of the region to survive colonial mission, presidio, hacendado and empresario rulers.
Today the impacted communities of South Texas held a conference call with allies from Tohono O'odham, Yaqui, Jumano Apache, as well as a team of committed civil and human rights attorneys, land grant attorneys, human rights attorneys, activist organizations, and academic activist-scholars from the University of Texas system. We heard the voices of the first impacted communities of this horrendous 'border security project'--the voices of mothers, daughters, uncles, fathers, and grandparents whose lives and lands are currently under threat of eminent occupation on January 7, 2008.
Tonight, my mother, Eloisa Garcia Tamez, expressed to me that more and more elders are giving up--and considering surrendering to Secretary Chertoff, due to their advanced age, their sense of hopelessness, isolation and extreme fear of an impending sense of doom which the national media churns out daily on the television and papers--militarized violence.
This fear is not unfounded. Our community is all too familiar with militarization, as we are a hyper-militarized and occupied region.
My mother, tonight, fearfully recalled to me the reason why she believes some elders will surrender and sign the waiver which will forcibly relocate them. In the mid 1930's the army came to build the so-called 'secure levee'--which was forced upon the community. At that time the army constructed a dangerous levee system, against wishes of the the traditional indigenous farmers--my great grand parents and grand parents, grand uncles and grand aunts included. At that time, they forced a massive destruction of the traditional fields, and flooded our all of our families to the south of us. Women, children and elders were flooded out and vanished horrifically--a dramatic display of hyper-militarized power to dominate through terror, and bring my ancestors under the authority of the U.S. Army.
My mother retold me, tonight, that she remembers how during this time period the U.S. Army and Border Patrol ran their vehicles into the front doors of the small jacals (traditional shelters, or 'gowas'--wickiups) and how she ran and ran ... in fear of being run over and killed and seeing her family destroyed. She recounted how they burst open doors and forced their way in the homes and how she hid under the bed as the soldiers destroyed everything in their maniacal rampages against the indigenous. Thus, tonight, the elders, who were also vulnerable teens and young children at that time--again--specifically regarding the trauma associated with the U.S. Army Engineers' 'levee', are all too cognizant of the subversive ways of the U.S. government, forced occupation and militarized terror tactics. They fear that none will ever know that it will happen again--because the level of policing and Marshall law at the I.B. is so hyper militarized, so naturalized and so normalized that no one would even blink an eye if they are all overrun again.
Therefore, as the days draw close to the January 7 deadline, more elders who are sick, exhausted and overstressed by the national terror being focused upon the small and defenseless rancherias --are talking about surrendering.
We empathize with them and are encouraging them through our voices and prayers. However, my mother and many others, are gaining strength and productive structures to express and organize their outrage and sense of justice --from the national and international support pouring into us. We are firmly committed to the longer struggle for justice.
Our community has fought hand to hand with U.S. soldiers in prior waves of empire, and we will not, as my mother says, ever surrender. My mother gave me permission tonight to go forward and to request formally that the IITC step in on our behalf and respond with immediate intervention, for this is a struggle that is inclusive, and foregrounds an indigenous democracy--one that is horizontal and far-reaching. At this time, we invite you to join the Working Group.
The Working Group is holding a national press conference telephonic call on Monday, January 7, 2006.
We will keep you advised of further details regarding the legal and political defense of the land title holders of El Calaboz rancheria.
Respectfully, Margo Tamez
http://www.nativewiki.org/Margo_Tamez

To Margo Tamez
From Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council
As one of the founders and present Board Members of the International Indian Treaty Council I want to give my total support to saving your tradtional lands and comunities. You are right that unless there is massive support the US general public will never know or care about what is happening on the US-Mexico border. The continuous Human Rights violations by the US must be exposed. Is it only white people who are welcomed to the US? Where is the Statue of Liberty for the Southern Border of the US? Where is Ellis Island? Give Me your tired, your hungry, your huddled masses! Is this just for white people? The US policy on the US-Mexico border is totally racist! IITC is in support!
Toksha, Bill

Photo: Border wall protest in Brownsville, Texas/Photo credit Jay Johnson-Castro

Lipan Apache supported as US prepares to seize private land in Texas for border wall

To Margo Tamez

From Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council

As one of the founders and present Board Members of the International Indian Treaty Council I want to give my total support to saving your tradtional lands and comunities. You are right that unless there is massive support the US general public will never know or care about what is happening on the US-Mexico border. The continuous Human Rights violations by the US must be exposed. Is it only white people who are welcomed to the US? Where is the Statue of Liberty for the Southern Border of the US? Where is Ellis Island? Give Me your tired, your hungry, your huddled masses! Is this just for white people? The US policy on the US-Mexico border is totally racist! IITC is in support!

Toksha, Bill

Lakota Oyate: Recovering Lakota territory after trail of broken treaties

The American West No More, Lakota Nation Releases National Map

Lakota Natural Land-Base Divides 5 U.S. State Boundaries

"As long as the grass grows, and the rivers flow, this land will always be yours."

By Lakota Freedom Delegation

http://www.lakotaoyate.net/

Lakota - Lakota Oyate, a continuing effort of the Lakota Freedom Delegation, released a map of national boundaries which will force state and Federal government in five states to begin the process of planning their governmental initiatives without tens of thousands of acres of land. Meanwhile, the Lakota people begin the process of recovering their natural land-base without U.S. government interference. Protection of sacred sites and confrontation with exploitative government and private enterprises that have been removing or polluting Lakota lands comes to the forefront. The map, which can be found at www.lakotaoyate.com provides an initial glimpse into a free and independent Lakota.

"The free Lakota nation is regaining the original natural territory of its unceeded land," said Lakota Freedom Delegate Canupa Gluha Mani (Duane Martin Sr.). "The white man promised that as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow this land will always be yours[the Lakota]. This promise still lives within the heart of the Lakota Nation."

The northern and western boundaries of Lakota run along the Yellowstone and Big Horn rivers in North Dakota and Montana. The southern boundaries run along the North Platte and Platte rivers in Wyoming and Nebraska, while the eastern boundary of Lakota shares the bank of the Missouri River. Canupa Gluha Mani added, "The He Sapa will never be for sale, its just returning to its natural owners, the Lakota Independent Nation." Lakota Oyate emerges from the work of the Lakota Freedom Delegation and continues to ensure the voice of the oyate - the Elders, children and all people - are respected and heard in the rebirth of the Lakota Nation.

For more information, please visit our new website at www.lakotaoyate.net/

January 5, 2008: Sicangu Grassroots Oyate and Lakota Freedom Delegation in a Victory Celebration for Lakota Independence. The event will be held January 5th at the St. Francis Community Hall in St. Francis Lakota, formerly known as South Dakota. The celebration and information sharing will begin at 12:00 noon and last till 7:00 pm. Food, coffee, and beverages will be shared. For more information, contact Alfred Bone Shirt at (605) 747-4443.

PREVIOUS ADVISORIES
Media Release 12/27/07: Chief Big Foot Riders Return To Wounded Knee, Freedom
Media Release 12/23/07: Lakota Freedom: Treaty Withdrawal For Elders and Children
Media Release 12/19/07: Sovereignty Declared, 33 Year Treaty Council Agreement Satisfied, Liens Threatened
Media Advisory 12/18/07: Lakota Delegation Confront State Department with Withdrawal
Media Advisory 12/13/07: Lakota Declaration to Make History in Withdrawal from United States Treaties

Uncensoring the dying fields

Navajos poisoned by energy corporations, Colombia targets Indians with aerial spraying and the legacy of censorship: Uncensoring Buffy Sainte Marie on war and uranium mining

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Follow the money, Skull and Bones and Desert Rock

Who is financing the Desert Rock power plant, another dirty coal-fired power plant planned for the Navajo Nation?
Sithe Global LLC plans to invest millions in Desert Rock. The largest financier of Sithe Global LLC is the Blackstone Group. It comes as no surprise that Blackstone was cofounded by Stephen Schwarzman, a member of the small group of Skull and Bones that the Bush family belongs to. The Yale secret society includes former presidential hopeful John Kerry. Which means two Bonesmen ran for president, one won, and now Bonesmen corporations are at work.
Here's a list of Bonesmen:
http://www.nndb.com/org/723/000041600/
But that's not all. Another Bush-friendly corporation, Fluor Corporation, landed the contract for management and design of Desert Rock.
While Dooda (NO) Desert Rock, grassroots Navajos, lead the opposition, the Navajo Nation Council and Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr., are pressing for it.
At the same time Navajo leaders push for another coal-fired power plant, with their words they say they support protection of Mother Earth.
The proposed Desert Rock would be located in northwest New Mexico, the same region as the most sacred region, Dinetah, the place of origin of Navajos. Already the air, water and land are poisoned by power plants, unreclaimed uranium mines and a concentration of oil and gas wells.
Aerial fumigating: Plants or Indians?
Colombia will start aerial fumigation of Indian lands, with a toxin produced by Monsanto, the same company producing genetically-modified seeds.
But are they fumigating the plants, or the Indians?
The short-term health risks of glyphosate are congestion of the lungs and increased breathing rate. The long-term health hazards are kidney damage and reproductive effects, according to the EPA.
Although the use of some deadly pesticides have been banned in the US, those are still produced and exported to other countries where Indigenous Peoples grow crops and live near the land. Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico are dying and mothers are having "jelly babies," babies born without bones, because of the banned pesticides used in their fields.
In Colombia, the security contractor DynCorp is providing the firepower for the fumigating operation.
Read more at Narco News: Colombian Government Declares Indigenous Reservations Targets for Fumigations "We are worried that this will affect our traditional crops, the medicinal plants of our grandparents."

Buffy Sainte Maire, blacklisted for anti-war song, exposed the uranium secret
With the coming of a new year, it it time to celebrate Buffy Sainte Marie. Buffy was blacklisted by President Lyndon Johnson and forced out of the music industry in the US for her song, "Universal Soldier," because it became a battlecry of the anti-war movement.
It was one of the most censored stories of the age we live in.
Buffy Sainte Marie also spoke out on the death of Anna Mae Aquash. She sang about how Aquash became aware of plans for uranium mining on Lakota lands in Pine Ridge, S.D.
Now, new uranium mining targets Pine Ridge and many other Indian lands.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee lyrics ...
"My girlfriend Annie Mae talked about uranium
Her head was filled with bullets and her body dumped
The FBI cut off her hands and told us she'd died of Exposure…"
Listen online: You Tube: Buffy Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier,"
Watch on You Tube a young Buffy Sainte Marie perform with mouthbow with Pete Seeger

Los Angeles City Beat on Lakotah: US Out of Upper Midwest

U.S. Out of the Upper Midwest
The Lakota Sioux start their own country
By RON GARMON

Look at me, see if I am poor, or my people either. The whites may get me at last, as you say, but I will have good times till then. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee.
–Sitting Bull
"I called up LFD and spoke to Canupa Gluha Mani (Duane Martin, Sr.) longtime AIM activist, veteran of the 1973 Wounded Knee standoff and one of the four delegates sent to Washington. 'They can kill us if they want to,” he shouted, outrage venting through the receiver. They can assassinate us. However, it’s up to them to understand what they’ve been doing since the treaties were signed since 1803. Our people have been living up to it subsequently to this God-forsaken day. The First Nations people wouldn’t have to do this if the colonial government in Washington lived up to its obligations. They lie, so we have to endure Third World conditions with five or six families living in a two-bedroom house. They never live by the treaties or else they would’ve stopped the flow of illegal alcohol coming onto the Pine Ridge reservation in June. That’s how much they live up to treaty. It’s an insult. We were promised a treaty ‘as long as the grass grows’ and we get this? Don’t be going into Iraq and killing all the poor people only to turn it into a big Indian reservation like they have here.'"
Read article:
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=6732&IssueNum=239

Mohawk Nation News: Lakota Nation, Good Beginning for 2008

LAKOTA NATION - GOOD BEGINNING OF YEAR 2008

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News
January 1, 2008.

Colonialism is a disease. It is characterized by fantasies, delusions, greed and destruction of everything in its path. Something like the “Cookie Monster” that eats everything up and just leaves a few crumbs behind ...
Recently the Lakota decided to give the colonists another chance to come to their senses. They put out a “Declaration of Continuing Independence” on December 17, 2007. It’s nothing new. According to ancient principles of international law that were defined and confirmed by the UN, the Lakota and all Indigenous Peoples continue to be independent and sovereign. The colonists did not respect the law because they’re sick and deluded. But that is no excuse. There are signs that many people who were born in colonial society have developed a resistance to the disease. The Lakota Declaration is attempting to strengthen the process needed to overcome the illness. It is offering members of the colonial society a reality check and a chance to start treating everyone with equality and respect. They’ll have to leave their “false hierarchical high” and fill that void some other way! Can they rehabilitate themselves and begin the long slow process of recovering from their addiction and escape this ravaging disease?
It is a good way to begin the new year!
Read full article:
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3161/32/
Notice to All Foreign Governments and Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah
See:
http://www.republicoflakota.com/

Lakotah Republic: Notice to buyers of real estate in Lakotah Republic

By Russell Means

Republic of Lakotah

http://www.republicoflakota.com/

January 2, 2008
Notice to All Prospective Buyers and Lessors of Government Owned Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah
Lakota, through its government, have appointed representatives to withdraw from all the treaties with the United States of America.
Lakota, through such representatives, have formally withdrawn from all agreements and treaties with the United States of America. The reinstitution of our freedom and independence is found in law.
Lakotah has reclaimed sovereignty as a nation and over its traditional lands. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties substantiate this freedom.
While we have the right to impose liens on all of the real estate in our country, we are only declaring liens on real estate held by governments foreign to the Republic of Lakotah, but not on real estate held by private parties. However, if you buy, lease, or make any other real estate transaction with any government foreign to the Republic of Lakotah after this date, the real estate may be subject to a lien by the Republic of Lakotah or the Bank of the Republic of Lakotah. This would especially apply to the purchase of tax deeds or extraction rights.
If you are interested in obtaining any such property free and clear of any lien by the Republic of Lakotah or the Bank of the Republic of Lakotah, please let us know.

We look forward to making win-win solutions with all people in our country.
Russell Means
Chief Facilitator
Provisional Government

JAN 1, 2008

Notice to All Foreign Governments and Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah

TO:

The United States of America;The States of: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska;

The County and Municipal Governments Operating within the Republic of Lakotah; and All Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of LakotahLakotah, through its government, have appointed representatives to withdraw from all the treaties with the United States of America.

Lakotah, through such representatives, have formally withdrawn from all agreements and treaties with the United States of America. The reinstitution of our freedom and independence is found in law.Lakotah has reclaimed sovereignty as a nation and over its traditional lands.Despite many years of repeated bad faith on the part of the United States government towards the Lakotah People, the Lakotah hold no animosity toward the American people, most of whom have had no part in the actions of their government. We wish to deal with the American people in good faith and in a win-win manner.

While we have the right to impose liens on all of the real estate in our country, we prefer to come to resolutions with you all with out resorting to such measures. Accordingly, at this time, we are only declaring liens on real estate held by governments foreign to the Republic of Lakotah, but not on real estate held by private parties.

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties substantiate this freedom.Lakotah welcomes the opportunity to meet and discuss this matter. We are in the process of scheduling meetings and will issue public invitations. Should you desire input with regard to scheduling these meetings, please contact us at the above.

ussell Means, Chief Facilitator

Provisional Government

Republic of Lakotah

Republic of Lakotah declares liens on real estate of foreign governments

Notice to All Foreign Governments and Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah

Republic of Lakotah
P.O. Box 99
Porcupine, SD 57772
605-867-1111 www.republicoflakotah.com
Info@republicoflakotah.com
JAN 1, 2008
Notice to All Foreign Governments and Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah

TO:
The United States of America;
The States of: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska;
The County and Municipal Governments Operating within the Republic of Lakotah; and All Private Owners of Real Estate within the Republic of Lakotah

Lakotah, through its government, have appointed representatives to withdraw from all the treaties with the United States of America.
Lakotah, through such representatives, have formally withdrawn from all agreements and treaties with the United States of America. The reinstitution of our freedom and independence is found in law.
Lakotah has reclaimed sovereignty as a nation and over its traditional lands.
Despite many years of repeated bad faith on the part of the United States government towards the Lakotah People, the Lakotah hold no animosity toward the American people, most of whom have had no part in the actions of their government. We wish to deal with the American people in good faith and in a win-win manner.
While we have the right to impose liens on all of the real estate in our country, we prefer to come to resolutions with you all with out resorting to such measures. Accordingly, at this time, we are only declaring liens on real estate held by governments foreign to the Republic of Lakotah, but not on real estate held by private parties.
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties substantiate this freedom.

Lakotah welcomes the opportunity to meet and discuss this matter. We are in the process of scheduling meetings and will issue public invitations. Should you desire input with regard to scheduling these meetings, please contact us at the above.

Russell Means, Chief Facilitator
Provisional Government
Republic of Lakotah

UPDATE: January 2, 2008
"While we have the right to impose liens on all of the real estate in our country, we are only declaring liens on real estate held by governments foreign to the Republic of Lakotah, but not on real estate held by private parties.
"However, if you buy, lease, or make any other real estate transaction with any government foreign to the Republic of Lakotah after this date, the real estate may be subject to a lien by the Republic of Lakotah or the Bank of the Republic of Lakotah. This would especially apply to the purchase of tax deeds or extraction rights."
Read more:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/01/lakotah-republic-notice-to-buyers-of.html