IS CANADA CREATING AN “ABORIGINAL ARMY” BECAUSE IT WANTS US TO COLONIZE OURSELVES??
MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Oct. 30, 2008. Nathan Wright of the Assembly of First Nations AFN is the liaison with the Ontario Provincial Police OPP. He was told about the unarmed peaceful opposition to this jail being built in Tyendinaga. The OPP were waiting nearby to be called in. “That’s news to me”, he said. He didn’t know the OPP had ”made themselves visible”. What did he mean by this? Who called in the invading “aboriginal” police from Moraviantown, Walpole Island, Akwesasne and elsewhere?
Tyendinaga Band Council Chief, R. Don Maracle, was at the demonstration until noon and then left for lunch, leaving the truckers behind. The multi-million dollar portable modular mega-prison was still on the trucks. Who needs a prison when many Mohawks have been waiting years for decent housing and clean water? They built a huge fire at the entrance to the site, cooked and served everybody some food, including the truckers. Then the truckers left.
Canada sent in what looked like a colonial invading army? If you blinked your eyes, you would have thought you were in the Middle East. The U.S. set up governments in Iraq similar to the “band” and “tribal” councils on Turtle Island whose goal is to “municipalize” and assimilate us. In Iraq they created local armies to protect these U.S. puppets. People were recruited and trained to terrorize their own communities. This is common totalitarian practice.
The RCMP and OPP have both indicated they do not have jurisdiction in at least two Mohawk communities, Akwesasne and Kahnawake. They operate behind a “smoke screen”. They use “aboriginal police” to do their dirty work. The aboriginal police have managed to sow seeds of suspicion and conflict in Ongwehonwe communities.
On October 23 2008 Prothonotary Mireille Tabib of the Federal Court of Canada ordered that Mohawk women, Kahentinetha and Katenies, who live in Kahnawake and Akwesasne, are not “Canadian residents”! Therefore, they must pay the crown’s expenses to defend itself from charges of assaulting and attempting to murder them at the Cornwall border check point on June 14, 2008.
We know that we Ongwehonwe are not Canadians or part of that foreign colony. They swear allegiance to THE QUEEN and came here to squat on our land. They have no jurisdiction over us, our possessions or our territories. They have no right to attack us, beat us up and try to kill us, not under our law which is the law of the land [Kaianereh’ko:wa], or under the international accords they have signed, or even under Canadian law.
If we are not careful Canada could try to turn Tabib’s Order calling us “non-residents” as a pretext to imprison us in our communities or expel us from our land to who knows where. They may want to illegally limit our country to our communities, rather than recognizing our title to the whole of Onowaregeh, Turtle Island, which we never and cannot gave up.
Canada and the establishment are always trying to create situations to attack us for resisting their colonial incursions. They have a whole bag of dirty tricks. One is to lay fake charges so they can impose conditions on us for years. When they have to prove their case, they drop the charges. Demonizing us in the media is part of it, calling us terrorists, smugglers and deviates. It’s meant to lull the public so they won’t object to the brutal, obscene and illegal attacks on us.
Where does the mid-community jail fit in? The risk is that Canada and the U.S. are setting up a Gitmo “no man’s land” jail system where Indigenous people will be taken to be jailed or tortured under no one’s scrutiny. The indigenous incarceration rate can be camouflaged by excluding the figures on those of us who are jailed on “reserves”. Is Canada going to pass martial law in Indian country? The scheme isn’t original. It’s already being done in Australia where some Aborigine communities are being run by the army.
Is there discussion going on right now about setting up “death squads”??? Don’t kid yourself. These armed groups kill civilians, mostly in secret, conduct extra judicial assassinations, killings and disappearances. They are associated with political repression, dictatorships and totalitarianism supported by colonial states. They could be “official” government units like the aboriginal police. Who are these non-natives in the aboriginal police forces? Squads may also be those organized vigilantes who are being sent into our communities.
On a “WATCH LIST” are youth, employment, social and community organizations which are infiltrated. Retired military officers, off duty police, strangers, “distant cousins” or imposters are sent in to exert influence.
The “SPOTTERS” are sent in as “subversives” who are fighting against drugs as a pretext, for example. They penetrate communities and assess the security needed to keep it under control. They collect names of those to be watched, imprisoned, tortured and executed such as traditionalists, political leaders, journalists or community workers. Traditionalists are called “extremists”.
Canada may be trying to set up these units within indigenous communities. Of course, the suckers who fall for this won’t be told what they’re doing. They’ll be manipulated into believing they are defending “law and order” and “protecting democracy”. Their extravagant pay is not guilt money .. they think they’re worth it! It’s a real trap for young, confused and weak-minded people.
As Secretary Rumsfeld said about U.S. trained Iraqi death squads, “The U.S. doesn’t have a responsibility to do anything about the crimes of the police forces it established and trained. Only to report it.”
Chief R. Don Maracle said that the prison is for “outsiders with criminal records”. This smacks of death squad mentality.
The state’s targets are predominantly young males, women and children. In Canada over 3000 young Ongwehonwe women have been “disappeared”.
We did not have police or jails. Social control is needed in all communities. When we were dependant on each other, elders and group opinions kept our communities in balance.
The settlers stole our hunting grounds, crowding us into small patches. Now they want this.
Settler societies need police to control the many deranged personalities without family and social ties that their society produces. The state has become the major instrument for assault, theft and murder of our people. Lest we forget, RCMP carried out the genocide, took our children to residential schools, protected the land grabbers and jailed our young men who tried to defend us. If they attack us, try to kill us and steal our children, they have a responsibility to investigate, charge, deter and protect us from them. They aren’t doing this. So what’s their purpose?
We are told the colonial ideal is that the police protect society. Some of the worst hoodlums we Ongwehonwe have to deal with are the cops themselves. It’s becoming harder to tell the difference between the cops and the thugs they are supposed to protect us from who are coming at us from every direction. Is this Berlin 1940?
It’s heavy. It’s no coincidence that the murder attempt on kahentinetha and katenies was by uniformed officers of the colonial state. It’s no coincidence that this story was not in the mainstream media. It’s no coincidence they want to build prisons in our communities.
Iako’ha:kowa & MNN Staff - Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com Eagle Watch, Sharbot Lake kittoh@storm.ca; katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Something’s going on. The actions of the bureaucrats/agents need to be measured in public against the standards of legality that Canada has signed onto at the UN. Some of the players who need to be investigated and unmasked seem to be:
- High up – Chantal “Who-Has-a-Dirty-Hand-in-Everything” Bernier chantal.bernier@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Margaret “Trying-to-Suck-Every-Last-Drop-of-Indian-Blood-Now-Wants-Her-Fangs-in-Tyendinaga-Mohawks” Bloodworth, “National Security Advisor” to Prime Minister, Margaret.bloodworth@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca, 613-957-5466;
Indian Affairs sewer rats
- Walter “Whose-Billy-Club-Has-Been-Taken-Away” Walling, wallingw@ainc-inac.gc.ca; Christian “Anti-Christ” Rouleau, rouleau.c@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Andre “Turn” Cote, cote.a@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Stuart “Swan-Song” Swanson, swanson.s@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Paul ”The-White-Man” Leblanc, leblanc.p@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Zuwena “Squeal” Robidas, Indian Affairs mouthpiece, zuwena.robidas@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca 613-993-2596;
- Helene “Parrot” Philippe, another Indian Affairs mouthpiece, philippe.h@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- David “Economic-Hit-Man” Hillman, DG Econ. Dev. david.hallman@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 819-953-0517;
More Emergency Preparedness creeps
- Jean “Lapse-of-Selected-Memory” Chartrand, jean.chartrand@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-8470;
- Denise “Who-was-in-there-like-a-dirty-shirt” Charron, denise.charron@spepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-991-1694;
Other excreta of the crown
- Yvan “Who-Maintains-Toilet-Supplies” Dery, for the Privy Council Office ydery@pco-bcp.gc.ca;
- Gilles “Pig-Shop-Keeper” Rochon, Aboriginal Policing, gilles.rochon@psepc.gc.ca 613-990-2666;
- Emanuel “Little-Lamb” Chabot, emmanuel.chabot@psept-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-4353;
- “Slippery” Jim Beaver jim.beaver@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Peter “Flat-Foot” Fisher, Police Services PSEPC fax 613-991-0961;
- Louise “Who-Doesn’t-Know-the-Half-of-It” Savage louise.savage@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Sylvia “Ambulance Chaser” McKenzie, Justice Canada sylvia.mackenzie@sppcc-psept.gc.ca 613-998-3952;
- Annik “The-Squeak” Pelletier, Justice Canada apelleti@justice.gc.ca;
- Louis-Alexandre “Who-Sits-on-a-Very-High-Chair” Guay, Justice, lguay@justice.gc.ca;
- Phil Fontaine AFN reception@afn.ca;
- Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister Aboriginal Affairs bduguid.mpp@liberal.ola.org;
- Angus Toulouse AFN Ontario Region 807-626-9339 Fax 807-626-9404 kathleen@coo.org
Give a piece of your mind to: GG Michaelle jean info@gg.ca; Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Fax 613-941-6900 pm@pm.gc.ca; Chuckie “Baby” Strahl, Indian Affairs Minister, 819-997-0002, Fax 819-953-4941 strahl.c@parl.gc.ca; Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, Federal Court of Canada 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; Chief R. Don “Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle Mohawks of Bay of Quinte 613-396-3424 extension 106, Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627, 613-396-3089, Cell 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG info@mbq-tmt.org ; Superintendent & Commander, Smiths Falls, OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597, L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey;
To help, please contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
Friends, allies and supporters: Call 613-813-1017, email wasoonde3232@aol.com
Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.
Friday, October 31, 2008
US Border Wall and Guantanamo cited as international human rights concerns
Inter-American Commission cites US border wall and Guantanamo as human rights concerns
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Censored News
Photo by Jay Johnson Castro/San Diego border wall
WASHINGTON -- The construction of the United States border wall is now listed with the treatment of Guantanamo detainees as an international human rights concern by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.
In a statement released today, the Commission said it "received troubling information about the impact that the construction of a wall in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has on the human rights of area residents, in particular its discriminatory effects."
"The information received indicates that its construction would disproportionally affect people who are poor, with a low level of education, and generally of Mexican descent, as well as indigenous communities on both sides of the border. On another U.S.-related issue, the IACHR continued to receive troubling information during these sessions about the situation of detainees in Guantánamo. As it did on July 28, 2006, through its Resolution 02/06, and on subsequent occasions, the Commission again urges the government to shut down the detention center," the Commission said.
During the hearings, Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, testified that Homeland Security was seizing her family's land on the south Texas border without proper consultation on consent. Tamez said the border wall would become a barrier to a place of prayer. Others from Texas offered proof of how the border wall targets the poor, while leaving a golf course unscathed on the border as the playground for the rich.
Tamez' testimony reflected the earlier comments of Indigenous Peoples living on the border in their ancestral territories from California to Texas. Indian people on both sides of the border are suffering because of the violations of all federal laws during construction of the border wall.
Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham and founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall, revealed in statements that O'odham ancestors were dug up by the border wall contractor Boeing in secret, during construction on Tohono O'odham land. Rivas said O'odham cultural areas are being destroyed and looted as the border divides ancestral communities and creates a barrier on the O'odham ancestral ceremonial route.
During the Indigenous Peoples Border Summits of the Americas in 2006 and 2007, Native people from the southern and northern borders, including Tohono O'odham, Yaqui and Mohawks, testified about the harassments and violations being carried out by the US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The borders became increasingly militarized with poorly trained and over-zealous border agents, now abusing and even murdering people in the border region. On the northern border, Mohawk Nation News publisher Kahentinetha Horn was beaten by border agents in Canada in June and suffered a heart attack in a stresshold that was used by the US military carrying out torture in Abu Ghraib. Mohawk Nation News editor Katenies was also beaten and jailed at the border crossing. The two Mohawk grandmothers have now filed suit against Canada.
US border policies have contributed to the large number of deaths in the desert at the southern border and the profiteering by private corporations now building private prisons, Indigenous Peoples testified at the border summits.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff voided all federal laws -- including those designed to protect Native American remains and cultural items and laws protecting the environment -- to build the border wall. Among the endangered species in Arizona whose wild territories have been violated are the jaguar and Sonoran pronghorn.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held its 133rd regular period of sessions from October 15 to 31, 2008, approving reports on cases and individual petitions, and held 57 hearings and 34 working meetings.
During this period of sessions, the Commission held hearings on human rights violations around the world, addressing the rights of women, persons deprived of liberty, children, Afro-descendents and indigenous peoples. The Commission received the government of Bolivia in a hearing in which the government provided information about the acts of violence that took place during the social conflicts of recent months.
The Commission expressed concern for the situation of children and adolescents in conflict with the law in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The Commission also received with concern information indicating that the State of Colombia's Administrative Department of Security (DAS) conducted intelligence activities against opposition political leaders, national senators, and nongovernmental organizations.
During these sessions, several hearings were held on human rights defenders. The Commission reiterates its call to the States to respect their work and guarantee their rights. The IACHR is preparing a report following up on its Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas.
Hearings were also held on citizen insecurity in Venezuela and Mexico. The IACHR is following with particular attention the state of citizen insecurity in the region, as well as the respect for human rights as an essential component of all public policies to address the problem. The IACHR is in the process of preparing a report on citizen insecurity in the region, as part of an agreement signed with UNICEF.
For the statement, audio and video of testimony:
http://www.iachr.org/Comunicados/English/2008/46.08eng.htm
Useful links
Video of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Transcript of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Audio recording of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Audio and video recordings and photos of the public hearings
WASHINGTON -- The construction of the United States border wall is now listed with the treatment of Guantanamo detainees as an international human rights concern by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.
In a statement released today, the Commission said it "received troubling information about the impact that the construction of a wall in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has on the human rights of area residents, in particular its discriminatory effects."
"The information received indicates that its construction would disproportionally affect people who are poor, with a low level of education, and generally of Mexican descent, as well as indigenous communities on both sides of the border. On another U.S.-related issue, the IACHR continued to receive troubling information during these sessions about the situation of detainees in Guantánamo. As it did on July 28, 2006, through its Resolution 02/06, and on subsequent occasions, the Commission again urges the government to shut down the detention center," the Commission said.
During the hearings, Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, testified that Homeland Security was seizing her family's land on the south Texas border without proper consultation on consent. Tamez said the border wall would become a barrier to a place of prayer. Others from Texas offered proof of how the border wall targets the poor, while leaving a golf course unscathed on the border as the playground for the rich.
Tamez' testimony reflected the earlier comments of Indigenous Peoples living on the border in their ancestral territories from California to Texas. Indian people on both sides of the border are suffering because of the violations of all federal laws during construction of the border wall.
Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham and founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall, revealed in statements that O'odham ancestors were dug up by the border wall contractor Boeing in secret, during construction on Tohono O'odham land. Rivas said O'odham cultural areas are being destroyed and looted as the border divides ancestral communities and creates a barrier on the O'odham ancestral ceremonial route.
During the Indigenous Peoples Border Summits of the Americas in 2006 and 2007, Native people from the southern and northern borders, including Tohono O'odham, Yaqui and Mohawks, testified about the harassments and violations being carried out by the US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The borders became increasingly militarized with poorly trained and over-zealous border agents, now abusing and even murdering people in the border region. On the northern border, Mohawk Nation News publisher Kahentinetha Horn was beaten by border agents in Canada in June and suffered a heart attack in a stresshold that was used by the US military carrying out torture in Abu Ghraib. Mohawk Nation News editor Katenies was also beaten and jailed at the border crossing. The two Mohawk grandmothers have now filed suit against Canada.
US border policies have contributed to the large number of deaths in the desert at the southern border and the profiteering by private corporations now building private prisons, Indigenous Peoples testified at the border summits.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff voided all federal laws -- including those designed to protect Native American remains and cultural items and laws protecting the environment -- to build the border wall. Among the endangered species in Arizona whose wild territories have been violated are the jaguar and Sonoran pronghorn.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held its 133rd regular period of sessions from October 15 to 31, 2008, approving reports on cases and individual petitions, and held 57 hearings and 34 working meetings.
During this period of sessions, the Commission held hearings on human rights violations around the world, addressing the rights of women, persons deprived of liberty, children, Afro-descendents and indigenous peoples. The Commission received the government of Bolivia in a hearing in which the government provided information about the acts of violence that took place during the social conflicts of recent months.
The Commission expressed concern for the situation of children and adolescents in conflict with the law in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The Commission also received with concern information indicating that the State of Colombia's Administrative Department of Security (DAS) conducted intelligence activities against opposition political leaders, national senators, and nongovernmental organizations.
During these sessions, several hearings were held on human rights defenders. The Commission reiterates its call to the States to respect their work and guarantee their rights. The IACHR is preparing a report following up on its Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas.
Hearings were also held on citizen insecurity in Venezuela and Mexico. The IACHR is following with particular attention the state of citizen insecurity in the region, as well as the respect for human rights as an essential component of all public policies to address the problem. The IACHR is in the process of preparing a report on citizen insecurity in the region, as part of an agreement signed with UNICEF.
For the statement, audio and video of testimony:
http://www.iachr.org/Comunicados/English/2008/46.08eng.htm
Useful links
Video of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Transcript of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Audio recording of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Audio and video recordings and photos of the public hearings
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Isabel Garcia: Border Patrol acting with impunity in murders
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo copyright Brenda Norrell
TUCSON -- Isabel Garcia, cochair of Derechos Humanos, describes how the US Border Patrol has acted with impunity, murdering people of Mexico. Listen to the interview now, recorded outside the federal courthouse. US Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett is on trial for the murder of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, from Morelia, Mexico.
"We are talking about a poisoned atmosphere against immigrants," Garcia said, comparing today's racism toward migrants with the pre-Civil Rights era in the south.
Garcia said border agents are murdering and getting away with murder.
"We are living in really, really, dangerous times," Isabel said. "This case is about accountability, this case is about impunity. That is the bottom line."
Attorneys are presenting their final arguments today, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. His first trial ended in a mistrial after another jury deadlocked.
Border Patrol agent on trial for murder of migrant
By Brenda Norrell
Photo credit Brenda Norrell
TUCSON (Thursday morning) -- A Border Patrol agent is on trial today in Tucson for the murder of Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, of Morelia, Mexico. Eyewitnesses testified that Javier was shot and killed by the agent at close range. On Wednesday, Roy Warden, previously known as a Minuteman who engaged in burning Mexican flags, harassed and yelled at family members and supporters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Tucson. US Border Agent Nicholas Corbett, 39, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. Photo: Shrine for Javier outside the courthouse this morning, Thursday morning. Photo Brenda Norrell
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sheep Dog Nation: The Oppressor's Politics
By Sheep Dog Nation Rocks
BIG MOUNTAIN, Navajo Nation -- It is that season again for societies to commences to its every fourth-year ritual of being caught up in the politics of the ruling class and eventually, after being caught up into this false mindset, they will go out to cast their votes for the best, assumed candidate....
If you wish, read more about the thoughts/land-based aboriginal perspective from a non-U.S. Citizen thinking and indigenous activist at http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/
And by the way, A Happy DINEH New Year to all.
(October Moon Phase was the time when the old ancient Dineh observed the New Year.)
-Kat
(Excerpt) "Do my traditional elders know about the U.S. politics? They certainly do, and when one is being oppressed by a foreign government, they will know more about the oppressor’s politics because that targeted society or community would have experienced the brunt of harsh policies. Currently, the Big Mountain matriarchs made up of traditional Dineh (Navajo) elders are still defying relocation and land-partitioning policies that were passed by the U.S. Congress in 1974. This executive order, Public Law 93-531 and which has been amended several times since, has reduced the indigenous population from 20,000 to about 400 within an area of 900,000 acres. The only reason behind this 1974 Act and that which has been proven also was for the purpose of coal and profit. There were no evidences found to support the U.S. government and Peabody Coal Company’s claim that there was a “range war” taking place between the Dineh and the Hopi tribes." Read article ...
http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/
The goons at Tyendinaga
TYENDINAGA - CANADA AND OPP ADMIT THEY HAVE NO JURISDICTION HERE .. BEWARE BEWARE OF COLONIAL PANIC
MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Who brought in the Aboriginal goons to do Canada’s dirty work in Tyendinaga? Does the fact that they’re “aboriginal” from Walpole Island and Moraviantown make them legitimate? No. Some of the goons on the “aboriginal” police force are non-native! Who are they? JTF2 and RCMP in disguise?
The pre-fab, state-of-the-art, high tech prison has arrived. Canada wants to plant it in the middle of our community. The Mohawks are at the site to stop the multi-million dollar prison from going up. The people were asked if they wanted it. The majority said “no”. But here it is anyway. Going against the wishes of the people violates both democratic and Indigenous principles. It is not legal.
Band council chief R. Don Maracle said the community wanted this and that the building is needed specially for “outsiders” with “criminal records” and “the jail will be built today”! This goes beyond arrogance.
Normally the RCMP is not invited into a settler community unless the elected representatives invite them. This can only happen in an Indigeous community with the full and informed consent of the people who live there.
As in Kahnawake, Six Nations, Akwesasne and Kanehsatake, the band council is a creature of the Indian act which was imposed under foreign colonial laws. Until 1951 the Indian act defined a person as an ‘individual other than an Indian’. Nothing set up under those terms is legal unless “might makes right” is the law, which is not.
We saw the same situation at Kanehsatake in 2004. The police commission was charged with running the security. Canada gave James Gabriel almost $1 million to do an end run around this arrangement and to set up and impose a different police force under his personal command. He brought in outside aboriginal goons to impose his will. This was illegal. Just because the guys he brought in were aboriginal did not make it legal. It violated the laws of Kanehsatake that had appointed their own Commission.
The Ontario Provincial Police OPP are waiting for the “aboriginal” goons to say they can’t handle the situation and then they will swoop down on Tyendinaga.
What questions does this situation raise?
First of all, does this mean that Canada is following through on Madame Mireille Tabib’s Order from the Federal Court of Canada, dated October 23, 2008 in “Kahentinetha & Katenies v. THE QUEEN”? Has Canada decided to stop living a lie and recognize that it has no jurisdiction over any indigenous people, our communities or our territories? Is this why the OPP didn’t accompany the prison? Or has colonial society recruited a lot of “hang around the fort Indians” to do their dirty work for them?
Colonization is not legal even when it is in aboriginal dress. The only position we can take is to stick to the truth, remain calm and peaceful and don’t get provoked. But we must stand our ground.
We smell some rats here. Do they work in Ottawa? Do some of them have names like “Chuck Strahl” and “Stockwell Day”?
It looks like this whole macabre fantasy has been engineered by the “Halloween Cabal” in Ottawa. They are a law onto themselves. They treat democracy as a joke and give a sweet s**t about treaties, indigenous rights or the Canadian obligations to respect us. They all work together to plan these attacks on us. Here they are, unmasked.
- High up Chantal “Who-Has-a-Dirty-Hand-in-Everything” Bernier chantal.bernier@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Margaret “Trying-to-Suck-Every-Last-Drop-of-Indian-Blood-Now-Wants-Her-Fangs-in-Tyendinaga-Mohawks” Bloodworth, “National Security Advisor” to Prime Minister, Margaret.bloodworth@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca, 613-957-5466;
Indian Affairs sewer rats
- Walter “Whose-Billy-Club-Has-Been-Taken-Away” Walling, wallingw@ainc-inac.gc.ca; Christian “Anti-Christ” Rouleau, rouleau.c@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Andre “Turn” Cote, cote.a@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Stuart “Swan-Song” Swanson, swanson.s@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Paul ”The-White-Man” Leblanc, leblanc.p@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Zuwena “Squeal” Robidas, Indian Affairs mouthpiece, zuwena.robidas@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca 613-993-2596;
- Helene “Parrot” Philippe, another Indian Affairs mouthpiece, philippe.h@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- David “Economic-Hit-Man” Hillman, DG Econ. Dev. david.hallman@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 819-953-0517;
More Emergency Preparedness creeps
- Jean “Lapse-of-Selected-Memory” Chartrand, jean.chartrand@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-8470;
- Denise “Who-was-in-there-like-a-dirty-shirt” Charron, denise.charron@spepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-991-1694;
Other excreta agents of the crown
- Yvan “Who-Maintains-Toilet-Supplies” Dery, for the Privy Council Office ydery@pco-bcp.gc.ca;
- Gilles “Pig-Shop-Keeper” Rochon, Aboriginal Policing, gilles.rochon@psepc.gc.ca 613-990-2666;
- Emanuel “Little-Lamb” Chabot, emmanuel.chabot@psept-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-4353;
- “Slippery” Jim Beaver jim.beaver@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Peter “Flat-Foot” Fisher, Police Services PSEPC fax 613-991-0961;
- Louise “Who-Doesn’t-Know-the-Half-of-It” Savage louise.savage@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Sylvia “Ambulance Chaser” McKenzie, Justice Canada sylvia.mackenzie@sppcc-psept.gc.ca 613-998-3952;
- Annik “The-Squeak” Pelletier, Justice Canada apelleti@justice.gc.ca;
- Louis-Alexandre “Who-Sits-on-a-Very-High-Chair” Guay, Justice, lguay@justice.gc.ca;
- Phil Fontaine AFN reception@afn.ca;
- Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister Aboriginal Affairs bduguid.mpp@liberal.ola.org;
- Angus Toulouse AFN Ontario Region 807-626-9339 Fax 807-626-9404 kathleen@coo.org
Help! Give a piece of your mind to: GG Michaelle jean info@gg.ca; Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Fax 613-941-6900 pm@pm.gc.ca; Chuckie “Baby” Strahl, Indian Affairs Minister, 819-997-0002, Fax 819-953-4941 strahl.c@parl.gc.ca; Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, Federal Court of Canada 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; band council Mohawks of Bay of Quinte Band TELEPHONE: 613-396-3424 Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627; OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597 L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey, Chief Superintendent & Commander, Smiths Falls; MBQ R. Chief Don “The-Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle, 613-396-3089, CELL 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG 613-396-3424 ext. 106 info@mbq-tmt.org
We need to tell Canada and their agents to: (1) immediately stop their attacks, police brutality and trying to impose a prison on the Mohawks; (2) to honor Indigenous rights and jurisdictions; (3) to support the Mohawks struggle for self-determination; and (4) to get Canada and Indian Affairs out of Haudenosaunee Territory.
To help, please contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
Friends, allies and supporters: come immediately to be witnesses; bring cameras, camcorders, food, cells, phone cards and warm clothes, especially gloves. Directions: take the Trans Canada Highway 401 to the “Marysville” exit, head south on #49 all the way to #2 then turn right into the community. Call 613-813-1017, email wasoonde3232@aol.com
Posted by: MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.
MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Who brought in the Aboriginal goons to do Canada’s dirty work in Tyendinaga? Does the fact that they’re “aboriginal” from Walpole Island and Moraviantown make them legitimate? No. Some of the goons on the “aboriginal” police force are non-native! Who are they? JTF2 and RCMP in disguise?
The pre-fab, state-of-the-art, high tech prison has arrived. Canada wants to plant it in the middle of our community. The Mohawks are at the site to stop the multi-million dollar prison from going up. The people were asked if they wanted it. The majority said “no”. But here it is anyway. Going against the wishes of the people violates both democratic and Indigenous principles. It is not legal.
Band council chief R. Don Maracle said the community wanted this and that the building is needed specially for “outsiders” with “criminal records” and “the jail will be built today”! This goes beyond arrogance.
Normally the RCMP is not invited into a settler community unless the elected representatives invite them. This can only happen in an Indigeous community with the full and informed consent of the people who live there.
As in Kahnawake, Six Nations, Akwesasne and Kanehsatake, the band council is a creature of the Indian act which was imposed under foreign colonial laws. Until 1951 the Indian act defined a person as an ‘individual other than an Indian’. Nothing set up under those terms is legal unless “might makes right” is the law, which is not.
We saw the same situation at Kanehsatake in 2004. The police commission was charged with running the security. Canada gave James Gabriel almost $1 million to do an end run around this arrangement and to set up and impose a different police force under his personal command. He brought in outside aboriginal goons to impose his will. This was illegal. Just because the guys he brought in were aboriginal did not make it legal. It violated the laws of Kanehsatake that had appointed their own Commission.
The Ontario Provincial Police OPP are waiting for the “aboriginal” goons to say they can’t handle the situation and then they will swoop down on Tyendinaga.
What questions does this situation raise?
First of all, does this mean that Canada is following through on Madame Mireille Tabib’s Order from the Federal Court of Canada, dated October 23, 2008 in “Kahentinetha & Katenies v. THE QUEEN”? Has Canada decided to stop living a lie and recognize that it has no jurisdiction over any indigenous people, our communities or our territories? Is this why the OPP didn’t accompany the prison? Or has colonial society recruited a lot of “hang around the fort Indians” to do their dirty work for them?
Colonization is not legal even when it is in aboriginal dress. The only position we can take is to stick to the truth, remain calm and peaceful and don’t get provoked. But we must stand our ground.
We smell some rats here. Do they work in Ottawa? Do some of them have names like “Chuck Strahl” and “Stockwell Day”?
It looks like this whole macabre fantasy has been engineered by the “Halloween Cabal” in Ottawa. They are a law onto themselves. They treat democracy as a joke and give a sweet s**t about treaties, indigenous rights or the Canadian obligations to respect us. They all work together to plan these attacks on us. Here they are, unmasked.
- High up Chantal “Who-Has-a-Dirty-Hand-in-Everything” Bernier chantal.bernier@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Margaret “Trying-to-Suck-Every-Last-Drop-of-Indian-Blood-Now-Wants-Her-Fangs-in-Tyendinaga-Mohawks” Bloodworth, “National Security Advisor” to Prime Minister, Margaret.bloodworth@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca, 613-957-5466;
Indian Affairs sewer rats
- Walter “Whose-Billy-Club-Has-Been-Taken-Away” Walling, wallingw@ainc-inac.gc.ca; Christian “Anti-Christ” Rouleau, rouleau.c@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Andre “Turn” Cote, cote.a@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Stuart “Swan-Song” Swanson, swanson.s@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Paul ”The-White-Man” Leblanc, leblanc.p@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Zuwena “Squeal” Robidas, Indian Affairs mouthpiece, zuwena.robidas@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca 613-993-2596;
- Helene “Parrot” Philippe, another Indian Affairs mouthpiece, philippe.h@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- David “Economic-Hit-Man” Hillman, DG Econ. Dev. david.hallman@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 819-953-0517;
More Emergency Preparedness creeps
- Jean “Lapse-of-Selected-Memory” Chartrand, jean.chartrand@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-8470;
- Denise “Who-was-in-there-like-a-dirty-shirt” Charron, denise.charron@spepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-991-1694;
Other excreta agents of the crown
- Yvan “Who-Maintains-Toilet-Supplies” Dery, for the Privy Council Office ydery@pco-bcp.gc.ca;
- Gilles “Pig-Shop-Keeper” Rochon, Aboriginal Policing, gilles.rochon@psepc.gc.ca 613-990-2666;
- Emanuel “Little-Lamb” Chabot, emmanuel.chabot@psept-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-4353;
- “Slippery” Jim Beaver jim.beaver@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Peter “Flat-Foot” Fisher, Police Services PSEPC fax 613-991-0961;
- Louise “Who-Doesn’t-Know-the-Half-of-It” Savage louise.savage@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Sylvia “Ambulance Chaser” McKenzie, Justice Canada sylvia.mackenzie@sppcc-psept.gc.ca 613-998-3952;
- Annik “The-Squeak” Pelletier, Justice Canada apelleti@justice.gc.ca;
- Louis-Alexandre “Who-Sits-on-a-Very-High-Chair” Guay, Justice, lguay@justice.gc.ca;
- Phil Fontaine AFN reception@afn.ca;
- Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister Aboriginal Affairs bduguid.mpp@liberal.ola.org;
- Angus Toulouse AFN Ontario Region 807-626-9339 Fax 807-626-9404 kathleen@coo.org
Help! Give a piece of your mind to: GG Michaelle jean info@gg.ca; Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Fax 613-941-6900 pm@pm.gc.ca; Chuckie “Baby” Strahl, Indian Affairs Minister, 819-997-0002, Fax 819-953-4941 strahl.c@parl.gc.ca; Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, Federal Court of Canada 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; band council Mohawks of Bay of Quinte Band TELEPHONE: 613-396-3424 Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627; OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597 L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey, Chief Superintendent & Commander, Smiths Falls; MBQ R. Chief Don “The-Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle, 613-396-3089, CELL 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG 613-396-3424 ext. 106 info@mbq-tmt.org
We need to tell Canada and their agents to: (1) immediately stop their attacks, police brutality and trying to impose a prison on the Mohawks; (2) to honor Indigenous rights and jurisdictions; (3) to support the Mohawks struggle for self-determination; and (4) to get Canada and Indian Affairs out of Haudenosaunee Territory.
To help, please contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
Friends, allies and supporters: come immediately to be witnesses; bring cameras, camcorders, food, cells, phone cards and warm clothes, especially gloves. Directions: take the Trans Canada Highway 401 to the “Marysville” exit, head south on #49 all the way to #2 then turn right into the community. Call 613-813-1017, email wasoonde3232@aol.com
Posted by: MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.
'Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School'
Photo: Carlisle Indian Boarding School “Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School" a Native American perspective on Indian Boarding Schools, wins top honors at film festival.
Watch Andrew Windy Boy interview.
Film: 'Our Spirits Don't Speak English'
Indian boarding school film named ‘Best Feature Documentary’ at ICFF (NATIVE TIMES, TEXAS) -- On and off camera, Oklahoma Indians played key roles in Rich-Heape Films “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School” that won the “Best Feature Documentary Award” at the International Cherokee Film Festival Oct. 11 in Catoosa, Okla. Chip Richie was honored as the best feature documentary director for the film. News from Pechanga Net
Indian boarding school film named ‘Best Feature Documentary’ at ICFF (NATIVE TIMES, TEXAS) -- On and off camera, Oklahoma Indians played key roles in Rich-Heape Films “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School” that won the “Best Feature Documentary Award” at the International Cherokee Film Festival Oct. 11 in Catoosa, Okla. Chip Richie was honored as the best feature documentary director for the film. News from Pechanga Net
This DVD produced by Rich-Heape Films, Inc. uncovers the dark history of U.S. Government policy which took Indian children from their homes, forced them into boarding schools and enacted a policy of educating them in the ways of Western Society. This DVD gives a voice to the countless Indian children forced through a system designed to strip them of their Native American culture, heritage and traditions.
Listen to American Indian Airwaves online
Wednesday, 10/29/08, on American Indian Airwaves
Special Programming on the Presidential Elections & Undermining Indigenous Sovereignty"
Part 1: John Tahsuda (Kiowa Nation), Co-Chair of the American Indians for McCain and Louis Gray (Osage Nation), Native American Policy Council for the Obama Campaign and the "Get Out and Vote" Coordinator for the Osage Nation and Central Oklahoma for NCAI, join us for this panel discussion on the two leading presidential candidates platform on Indigenous issues, and Lauri Weahkee, member of the Sacred Alliance for Grassroots Equality (Sage Council) and organizer for the Native Americans Voters Alliance will also join us to provide a third-party/independent perspective.
Part 2. Professors David E. Wilkins (Lumbee Nation) http://www.law.umn.edu/facultyprofiles/wilkinsd.html and Robert Odawi Porter (Heron Clan of the Seneca Nation) http://www.law.syr.edu/faculty/facultymember.aspx?fac=107, join us for the second part of the show and panel to discuss the presidential elections & its ramifications, Indigenous sovereignty & its diminution, self-determination, treaties, and what this means for future Indigenous peoples and their respective First Nations.
American Indian Airwaves regularly broadcast every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm (PCT) on KPFK FM 90.7 in Los Angeles, FM 98.7 in Santa Barbara, and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp, & Itunes at http://www.kpfk.org/ , and American Indian Airwaves now broadcast every Saturday from 3pm to 4pm (ECT) on WCRS 98.3/102.1 in Columbus, OH. Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/aiairwaves
SPECIAL NOTICE: weekly shows can now be heard on the KPFK web site (http://www.kpfk.org/) under "audio archives" located on the left. Scroll down and click on American Indian Airwaves.
Native Vote image
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Help! Tyendinaga Mohawks brace for police carnage
HELP! TYENDINAGA MOHAWKS BRACE FOR VIOLENT ARRIVAL OF MEGA OPP “COP SHOP” TO BE BROUGHT IN – THEY THINK!
Mohawk Nation News
Oct. 28, 2008. Friends, allies and supporters are asked to come immediately to be witnesses of the attempted carnage of the Mohawks by the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police and the Ontario Provincial Police OPP. It is snowing. Bring cameras, camcorders, food, cells, phone cards and warm clothes, especially gloves. To get to the demonstration site, take the Trans Canada Highway 401 to the Marysville exit, head south on #49 all the way to #2 then turn right into the community. To help, call 613-813-1017, Email wasoonde3232@aol.com
The Mohawks of Tyendinaga are under siege right now. OPP Swat Team have been spotted in the area. Canada, Ontario and the band council want to set up a mega jail in the middle of the community. The Mohawks are adamantly against this. “There’s no need for it. We need fresh water, education and health facilities. And we want a peaceful resolution”, say the concerned Mohawks. Tyendinaga is a small community of several thousand. Some fear this may be more than just a “jail”. That jail can go anywhere in any community. It doesn’t have to go in the middle of ours. It is obviously being used as a tool of provocation.
Tensions are running high today as residents wait for the arrival of this “rogue” police station. Police Chief Ron Maracle has warned the people that he is prepared to use force to set up the multi million dollar high tech security jailhouse. He already threatened that if local residents keep complaining, they’ll be the first inmates.
The police building issue was hotly debated for sometime. The band council went around the community pretending to consult the people. Just about everybody said “no”. So the chief R. Don Maracle and the council of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte made a unilateral decision to bring it in anyway.
At the meeting update today the people vowed that the cop shop and construction equipment are not coming in. They are demanding that whatever equipment is already there be removed immediately.
The Tyendinaga Mohawk Police are threatening that if the pre fab jail is not allowed in and set up they will attack. Police Chief Ron Maracle has stated he will charge and arrest anybody who gets in his way. If he stirs it up enough, they can bring in the heavily equipped para-military forces of the OPP to really “give it to us”. Hundreds of OPP are dressing, gearing up and psyching themselves up at the parking lot in of the Napanee OPP Detachment looking for some ‘injuns’ they can beat up on. They did this on April 23, 2008 when the condo construction was stopped. Who knows where else other cops will be coming in from. The Trenton Army Base is nearby too.
The local corporate flyer known as the “Belleville Intelligencer” knew about the pending attack a day or so beforehand. They have been hanging around waiting for action.
The Mohawks have said over and over again they have no weapons and want a peaceful resolution.
To stop this madness and attempted bloodbath, call the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Band Council Office to call off the hounds, TELEPHONE: 613-396-3424 Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627
Contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597
L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey, Chief Superintendent & Commander, Eastern Region, Smiths Falls. It looks like now that the charges have been dropped from most of the Mohawks, the cops are looking for more bodies. So they are setting up this trap to grab more of our people for the “incarceration industry”. The cops are at the building site videotaping everybody and then telling them everyone filmed will be charged to “interfering with police business”. The OPP are meeting opposition from band office employees who are telling them to leave.
MBQ R. Chief Don “The-Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle, 613-396-3089, CELL 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG 613-396-3424 ext. 106 info@mbq-tmt.org
And his master Stockwell “Little-Guy-Who-Thinks-He’s-Big-Time” Day, Minister of Emergency Preparedness. A lot of money is going being washed through this project. Answers are needed.
MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.
Mohawk Nation News
Oct. 28, 2008. Friends, allies and supporters are asked to come immediately to be witnesses of the attempted carnage of the Mohawks by the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police and the Ontario Provincial Police OPP. It is snowing. Bring cameras, camcorders, food, cells, phone cards and warm clothes, especially gloves. To get to the demonstration site, take the Trans Canada Highway 401 to the Marysville exit, head south on #49 all the way to #2 then turn right into the community. To help, call 613-813-1017, Email wasoonde3232@aol.com
The Mohawks of Tyendinaga are under siege right now. OPP Swat Team have been spotted in the area. Canada, Ontario and the band council want to set up a mega jail in the middle of the community. The Mohawks are adamantly against this. “There’s no need for it. We need fresh water, education and health facilities. And we want a peaceful resolution”, say the concerned Mohawks. Tyendinaga is a small community of several thousand. Some fear this may be more than just a “jail”. That jail can go anywhere in any community. It doesn’t have to go in the middle of ours. It is obviously being used as a tool of provocation.
Tensions are running high today as residents wait for the arrival of this “rogue” police station. Police Chief Ron Maracle has warned the people that he is prepared to use force to set up the multi million dollar high tech security jailhouse. He already threatened that if local residents keep complaining, they’ll be the first inmates.
The police building issue was hotly debated for sometime. The band council went around the community pretending to consult the people. Just about everybody said “no”. So the chief R. Don Maracle and the council of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte made a unilateral decision to bring it in anyway.
At the meeting update today the people vowed that the cop shop and construction equipment are not coming in. They are demanding that whatever equipment is already there be removed immediately.
The Tyendinaga Mohawk Police are threatening that if the pre fab jail is not allowed in and set up they will attack. Police Chief Ron Maracle has stated he will charge and arrest anybody who gets in his way. If he stirs it up enough, they can bring in the heavily equipped para-military forces of the OPP to really “give it to us”. Hundreds of OPP are dressing, gearing up and psyching themselves up at the parking lot in of the Napanee OPP Detachment looking for some ‘injuns’ they can beat up on. They did this on April 23, 2008 when the condo construction was stopped. Who knows where else other cops will be coming in from. The Trenton Army Base is nearby too.
The local corporate flyer known as the “Belleville Intelligencer” knew about the pending attack a day or so beforehand. They have been hanging around waiting for action.
The Mohawks have said over and over again they have no weapons and want a peaceful resolution.
To stop this madness and attempted bloodbath, call the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Band Council Office to call off the hounds, TELEPHONE: 613-396-3424 Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627
Contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597
L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey, Chief Superintendent & Commander, Eastern Region, Smiths Falls. It looks like now that the charges have been dropped from most of the Mohawks, the cops are looking for more bodies. So they are setting up this trap to grab more of our people for the “incarceration industry”. The cops are at the building site videotaping everybody and then telling them everyone filmed will be charged to “interfering with police business”. The OPP are meeting opposition from band office employees who are telling them to leave.
MBQ R. Chief Don “The-Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle, 613-396-3089, CELL 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG 613-396-3424 ext. 106 info@mbq-tmt.org
And his master Stockwell “Little-Guy-Who-Thinks-He’s-Big-Time” Day, Minister of Emergency Preparedness. A lot of money is going being washed through this project. Answers are needed.
MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.
Spiritual Gathering at Dooda Desert Rock in November 2008
Navajos, defending the land and people from another coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners area, invite you to join them:To: All Spiritual Healers and DDR Supporters
From: Elouise Brown, Dooda Desert Rock
As President of Dooda (NO) Desert Rock [“DDR”], I am pleased and honored to have this opportunity to invite you to join us November 8, 9, 10, and 11, 2008 for the 2nd annual Shundiin’s Mission Spiritual gathering at the Dooda Desert Rock Camp in Chaco Rio, New Mexico. As we come together to bless Mother Earth and reaffirm our commitment to resistance and action to prevent the construction of the desert rock energy plant, we welcome all faiths.
All tribes, races and faiths are encouraged to come together to pray in an honest spirit of unity with the DDR’s determined effort to resist further attacks on our lands and peoples. We have already had positive responses from tribes as far away as Canada who will be joining us to support our efforts to protect our Navajo Homeland from environmental destruction. There are plenty of spaces for all campers without reservations. Please contact us as soon as possible, if you need to reserve a teepee set-up slot, or other space you will need for ceremonial services.
Transnational corporations serviced by government officials are denying environmental justice, and the health of our children and heart of our homeland are at stake. Our Navajo leaders are forsaking Traditional Ways to take corporate money to poison our land, foul our air, and steal our waters. This abuse must STOP!
We vow Dooda’ (NO) Desert Rock, and we look forward to welcoming friends and fellow travelers to our Camp in a celebration of renewal and a spirit of steadfast resistance to the global energy industry’s soulless culture of death.
Please bring your own camping gear, chairs, and eating utensils. Because we will be serving food to all visitors, we appreciate any donations of food, financial contributions, or firewood for this four day event. Out of respect for our private and sacred ceremonies, we kindly ask that there be no recording of any kind. This includes photographs, videos, and audio recordings
We thank you for your support and prayers, and we invite each and every one of you to visit our beautiful homeland to see first hand the assault we are under and the threats we face. We look forward to meeting you at the Camp in November. Traveling Together in the time of Shundiin’s Mission, we will honor our ancestral home the health of our children’s children.
May you travel in the paths of the corn pollen!
Elouise Brown,
505-947-6159
thebrownmachine@gmail.com
PO Box 7838
NewComb, NM 87455
Barriere Lake Solidarity: Panel with Arthur Manuel
Canada, a Pariah State? Indigenous rights in Domestic and International Law a lecture by Arthur ManuelJoin the support in Montreal:
MONDAY, November 3, 6:30pm, 2008
McGill Faculty of Law, Moot Court
1st floor of New Chancellor Day Hall
3644 Peel Street
For childcare or translation call 514-398-7432, 48 hours in advance.
How well does Canada live up to its reputation as a human rights champion? When it comes to the situation of Indigenous peoples, it falls dreadfully short. Few people know that the Canadian government is regularly condemned by the United Nations. Canada doesn't only ignore minimum provisions of international law -- it also thinks little of domestic legal standards set by the Supreme Court. In its determination to retain control over the lands and resources of Indigenous peoples, Canada runs rough-shod over the emerging framework of international and domestic law supporting the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination and ownership of their traditional territories.
Few people can speak better to this reality than Arthur Manuel, spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade. Former Chief of the Neskonlith Band and chairperson of the Interior Alliance of BC First Nations, Manuel has been a leading voice of opposition to the Canadian government's agenda to "extinguish" Aboriginal and Treaty rights and assimilate Indigenous peoples into the Canadian body politic. Active locally in defense of Shuswap land (during the expansion of the Sun Peaks resort), and at the national level, he has also taken the struggle international, following in the path of his father, the late George Manuel, President of the National Indian Brotherhood and founder of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. In the lecture, Manuel will lay out an alternative agenda for First Nations to achieve economic empowerment, third order government, and social and environmental justice.
Sponsored by: McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, QPIRG McGill, Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective
Defenders of the Land: The Barriere Lake Struggle Continues
A panel with Arthur Manual, Russell Diabo, and community representatives TUESDAY, November 4, 6:00pm, 2008
Native Friendship Centre of Montreal
2001 boulevard St Laurent & Ontario (metro St-Laurent)
Free dinner served by Midnight Kitchen
For childcare or translation call 514-398-7432, 48 hours in advance.
Since the Department of Indian Affairs ousted their Customary Chief and Council in March 2008 and used the Surete du Quebec to forcibly impose the authority of a minority community faction, the Barriere Lake Algonquins have been organizing to roll-back the quiet coup d'etat. They are campaigning to make the government honour a number of agreements, including the Trilateral, a internationally praised land co-management and resource-revenue sharing deal the Algonquins signed with Canada and Quebec in 1991. It would significantly protect their forests from clear-cut logging, but it remains unimplemented.
They first signed the agreement after a campaign of logging road blockades, which culminated in a one-day blockade of highway 117, a crucial economic vein in Northern Quebec, in 1990. In October, 2008, Barriere Lake returned to the blockades, to force the government to respect their agreements and their leadership customs. The SQ brutally put down the peaceful action.
Community representatives will be joined by Arthur Manuel and Russell Diabo, a noted aboriginal policy analyst, editor of the First Nations Strategic Bulletin and advisor to Barriere Lake's Tribal Council, the Algonquin Nation Secretariat.
Sponsored by: QPIRG McGill, Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective
Donations are encouraged to support the community's political campaign. Dried goods are also welcome. For a full list of community needs: http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/03/donations.html
This event is part of Culture Shock, two weeks of programming aimed at exploring Canada's cultural and political myths. It is a collaborative effort by the McGill Anti-Racist Coalition (MARC), Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG McGill), and Student Society of McGill University (SSMU).
For a full schedule of events, visit http://www.qpirgmcgill.org/
Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière
http://www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com/
barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com
514.398.7432
Listen online: Margo Tamez on Indigenous Politics radio
Indigenous Politics: From Native New England, and Beyond
Tuesdays 4-5pm EDT/1-2pm PST/10-11amHST
88.1 fm, Middletown, CT
Listen online LIVE: www.wesufm.org
~~~
On Tuesday, October 28, 2008, join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui for an interview with warrior woman Margo Taméz (Lipan Apache and Jumano-Apache) co-founder of the Lipan Apache Women Defense/Strength - an Indigenous People's Organization of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that was formed to protect sacred sites, burial grounds, archaeological resources, ecological bio-diversity, and way of life of the indigenous people of the Lower Rio Grande, North America. Margo Taméz and her mother, Eloisa G. Taméz, founded the group in response to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's attempt to force their surrender of hereditary lands in El Calaboz, Texas for the US/Mexico border wall. The US department of Homeland Security had voided over 35 federal laws, including environmental laws and laws protecting American Indian cultural and burial places. However, South Texas Apache women took the lead, in December 2007 in organizing the most persistent, and to date most successful, constitutional law case against the United States Army, US Customs Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. On October 22, 2008, Tamez delivered testimony in Washington, DC before the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Commission examines and monitors compliance by member States of the OAS, including the U.S., with human rights obligations established in international law. Taméz will explain to us how this crisis came about and how she is working to protect
the lands of her people from being divided in a way that result in relocation-a forced Indian removal that would constitute a 21st century genocide.
~Seasons One & Two & Three now archived online:
www.indigenouspolitics.com
~"Indigenous Politics" is syndicated weekly on Pacifica-affiliate stations:
WNJR, 91.7 FM, "Washington & Jefferson College Radio" in Washington, PA,
and WETX-LP, 105.3 FM, "The independent voice of Appalachia," which
includes a region encompassing 13 states and 20 million people: east Tennessee,
southwest Virginia, west Kentucky, all of West Virginia, most of Pennsylvania,
south New York, west Maryland, west North Carolina, west South Carolina,
north Georgia, north Alabama, and northeast Mississippi.
~J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Ph.D. is an associate professor of American Studies and
Anthropology at Wesleyan University. For more information, see:
http://jkauanui.faculty.wesleyan.edu/
Tuesdays 4-5pm EDT/1-2pm PST/10-11amHST
88.1 fm, Middletown, CT
Listen online LIVE: www.wesufm.org
~~~
On Tuesday, October 28, 2008, join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui for an interview with warrior woman Margo Taméz (Lipan Apache and Jumano-Apache) co-founder of the Lipan Apache Women Defense/Strength - an Indigenous People's Organization of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that was formed to protect sacred sites, burial grounds, archaeological resources, ecological bio-diversity, and way of life of the indigenous people of the Lower Rio Grande, North America. Margo Taméz and her mother, Eloisa G. Taméz, founded the group in response to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's attempt to force their surrender of hereditary lands in El Calaboz, Texas for the US/Mexico border wall. The US department of Homeland Security had voided over 35 federal laws, including environmental laws and laws protecting American Indian cultural and burial places. However, South Texas Apache women took the lead, in December 2007 in organizing the most persistent, and to date most successful, constitutional law case against the United States Army, US Customs Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. On October 22, 2008, Tamez delivered testimony in Washington, DC before the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Commission examines and monitors compliance by member States of the OAS, including the U.S., with human rights obligations established in international law. Taméz will explain to us how this crisis came about and how she is working to protect
the lands of her people from being divided in a way that result in relocation-a forced Indian removal that would constitute a 21st century genocide.
~Seasons One & Two & Three now archived online:
www.indigenouspolitics.com
~"Indigenous Politics" is syndicated weekly on Pacifica-affiliate stations:
WNJR, 91.7 FM, "Washington & Jefferson College Radio" in Washington, PA,
and WETX-LP, 105.3 FM, "The independent voice of Appalachia," which
includes a region encompassing 13 states and 20 million people: east Tennessee,
southwest Virginia, west Kentucky, all of West Virginia, most of Pennsylvania,
south New York, west Maryland, west North Carolina, west South Carolina,
north Georgia, north Alabama, and northeast Mississippi.
~J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Ph.D. is an associate professor of American Studies and
Anthropology at Wesleyan University. For more information, see:
http://jkauanui.faculty.wesleyan.edu/
Monday, October 27, 2008
Army document reveals plan to seize 7 million acres in SE Colorado
Not 1 More Acre! PO Box 773, Trinidad, Colorado 81082, news@not1moreacre.net
Army Document Reveals Plan to Take 7 Million Acres in SE Colorado
From: Not 1 More Acre!
Army Document Reveals Plan to Take 7 Million Acres in SE Colorado
From: Not 1 More Acre!
Canada to examine disappeared children at residential schools
Schools commission to examine 'disappearances of children'
BILL CURRY AND JOE FRIESEN
Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081027.wgraves28/EmailBNStory/National/home October 27, 2008 at 8:01 PM EDT
OTTAWA and TORONTO — The commission examining Indian residential schools is launching a massive new research project to find out who is buried on school grounds and what happened to the young aboriginal boys and girls who left for boarding schools and never returned home.
Kimberly Phillips, a spokesperson for Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the expanded research has been approved by Claudette Dumont-Smith, one of the commissioners. The “Missing Children Research Project,” as it has been named, will include “an examination of the number and cause of deaths, illnesses and disappearances of children at the residential schools as well as the location of burial sites,” Ms. Phillips said. Ms. Phillips said researchers will go through all relevant church and federal government records to find information that will help families looking for lost children. They will also prepare a questionnaire, and encourage former students and people who worked at the schools to come forward with their stories. According to a commission document obtained by The Globe and Mail, one option involves “visiting residential school sites where graves of Missing Children are located or the cemeteries near the schools where Missing Children have been buried.” Tuberculosis was the most common reason cited for deaths at schools across the country, however, survivors have said that rumours have circulated over the years that some of the forgotten children died of neglect, abuse or even murder. Read more ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081027.wgraves28/EmailBNStory/National/home
BILL CURRY AND JOE FRIESEN
Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081027.wgraves28/EmailBNStory/National/home October 27, 2008 at 8:01 PM EDT
OTTAWA and TORONTO — The commission examining Indian residential schools is launching a massive new research project to find out who is buried on school grounds and what happened to the young aboriginal boys and girls who left for boarding schools and never returned home.
Kimberly Phillips, a spokesperson for Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the expanded research has been approved by Claudette Dumont-Smith, one of the commissioners. The “Missing Children Research Project,” as it has been named, will include “an examination of the number and cause of deaths, illnesses and disappearances of children at the residential schools as well as the location of burial sites,” Ms. Phillips said. Ms. Phillips said researchers will go through all relevant church and federal government records to find information that will help families looking for lost children. They will also prepare a questionnaire, and encourage former students and people who worked at the schools to come forward with their stories. According to a commission document obtained by The Globe and Mail, one option involves “visiting residential school sites where graves of Missing Children are located or the cemeteries near the schools where Missing Children have been buried.” Tuberculosis was the most common reason cited for deaths at schools across the country, however, survivors have said that rumours have circulated over the years that some of the forgotten children died of neglect, abuse or even murder. Read more ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081027.wgraves28/EmailBNStory/National/home
American Indian Film Festival nominees 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Media Inquiries Contact:
THE 33rd ANNUAL AMERICAN INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS NOMINEES
By Cindy Benitez
(Photo: Before Tomorrow)
SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Indian Film Institute (AIFI) and Title Sponsor the Seminole Tribe of Florida are proud to announce the nominees for the 33rd annual American Indian Film Festival. The awards will be presented at the annual American Indian Motion Picture Awards Show on Saturday Nov. 15 at 6:00p.m at the historic Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
The American Indian Motion Picture Awards Show, (established in 1978), has recognized excellence in American Indian cinematic achievement, making the annual awards show one of the most prominent Indian Country and Native Cinema showcases.
Over 100 films have been screened and judged by a jury panel designated by the American Indian Film Institute (AIFI). Fourteen prestigious awards will be recognized to those with outstanding cinematic accomplishments, including: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Short, Best Public Service, Best Music Video, Best Industrial, and Eagle Spirit Awards.
BEST FILM
Older Than America, Georgina Lightning, Director
In A World Created By A Drunken God, John Hazlett, Director
Before Tomorrow, Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Directors
BEST DIRECTOR
Georgina Lightning, Older Than America
John Hazlett, In A World Created By A Drunken God
Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Before Tomorrow
BEST ACTOR
Adam Beach, Older Than America
Trevor Duplessis, In a World Created By a Drunken God
Ron Dean Harris, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
BEST ACTRESS
Candace Fox, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
Georgina Lightning, Older Than America
Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Before Tomorrow
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
George Leach, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
Wes Studi, Older Than America
Paul-Dylan Ivalu , Before Tomorrow
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Misty Upham, Frozen River
Kaniehtiio Horn, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
Tantoo Cardinal, Older than America
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Weaving Worlds, Bennie Klain, Director
Summer Sun Winter Moon, Hugo Perez, Director
River of Renewal, Carlos Bolado, Director
Power Paths, Bo Boudart, Director
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Reservation Soldiers, Lisa Jackson, Director
Byron Chief-Moon: Grey Horse Rider, Philip Szporer and Marlene Miller, Directors
Magic On The Water, Tracey Bonneau, Director
It Had To Be Done, Tessa Desnomie, Director
BEST LIVE SHORT SUBJECT
Shadow Of The Salmon, Michael Pearce, Director
Sikumi, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, Director
Out In The Cold, Colleen Murphy, Director
Niigaanibatowaad: Front Runners, Lori Lewis, Director
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
By The Rapids, Joseph Lazare, Director
Darkness Calls In Gitxsan, Anthony Wong, Director
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Seminole Wind, Micki Free, Director
One Drum, Helen Haig-Brown, Director
Ua Uitumupan, Louis- Philippe Eno, Director
You Can Let Go, Courtesy of 2008 BMG Music
BEST PUBLIC SERVICE
Hope On The Rez, Rick Williams, Director
Modern Day Warriors, Jenni Monet, Director
THE 33rd ANNUAL AMERICAN INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS NOMINEES
By Cindy Benitez
(Photo: Before Tomorrow)
SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Indian Film Institute (AIFI) and Title Sponsor the Seminole Tribe of Florida are proud to announce the nominees for the 33rd annual American Indian Film Festival. The awards will be presented at the annual American Indian Motion Picture Awards Show on Saturday Nov. 15 at 6:00p.m at the historic Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
The American Indian Motion Picture Awards Show, (established in 1978), has recognized excellence in American Indian cinematic achievement, making the annual awards show one of the most prominent Indian Country and Native Cinema showcases.
Over 100 films have been screened and judged by a jury panel designated by the American Indian Film Institute (AIFI). Fourteen prestigious awards will be recognized to those with outstanding cinematic accomplishments, including: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Short, Best Public Service, Best Music Video, Best Industrial, and Eagle Spirit Awards.
BEST FILM
Older Than America, Georgina Lightning, Director
In A World Created By A Drunken God, John Hazlett, Director
Before Tomorrow, Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Directors
BEST DIRECTOR
Georgina Lightning, Older Than America
John Hazlett, In A World Created By A Drunken God
Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Before Tomorrow
BEST ACTOR
Adam Beach, Older Than America
Trevor Duplessis, In a World Created By a Drunken God
Ron Dean Harris, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
BEST ACTRESS
Candace Fox, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
Georgina Lightning, Older Than America
Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Before Tomorrow
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
George Leach, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
Wes Studi, Older Than America
Paul-Dylan Ivalu , Before Tomorrow
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Misty Upham, Frozen River
Kaniehtiio Horn, Moccasin Flats: Redemption
Tantoo Cardinal, Older than America
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Weaving Worlds, Bennie Klain, Director
Summer Sun Winter Moon, Hugo Perez, Director
River of Renewal, Carlos Bolado, Director
Power Paths, Bo Boudart, Director
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Reservation Soldiers, Lisa Jackson, Director
Byron Chief-Moon: Grey Horse Rider, Philip Szporer and Marlene Miller, Directors
Magic On The Water, Tracey Bonneau, Director
It Had To Be Done, Tessa Desnomie, Director
BEST LIVE SHORT SUBJECT
Shadow Of The Salmon, Michael Pearce, Director
Sikumi, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, Director
Out In The Cold, Colleen Murphy, Director
Niigaanibatowaad: Front Runners, Lori Lewis, Director
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
By The Rapids, Joseph Lazare, Director
Darkness Calls In Gitxsan, Anthony Wong, Director
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Seminole Wind, Micki Free, Director
One Drum, Helen Haig-Brown, Director
Ua Uitumupan, Louis- Philippe Eno, Director
You Can Let Go, Courtesy of 2008 BMG Music
BEST PUBLIC SERVICE
Hope On The Rez, Rick Williams, Director
Modern Day Warriors, Jenni Monet, Director
Mohawks: Canadian court recognizes Kahnawake and Akwesasne are not part of Canada
ROUTINE CBSA “CHILD ABUSE” CONTINUES - FINALLY! CANADIAN COURT RECOGNIZES THAT KAHNAWAKE & AKWESASNE ARE NOT PART OF CANADA …
Mohawk Nation News
Mohawk Nation News
Photo: Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, objecting to the border wall and arrests of Indigenous Peoples, on the southern border on Tohono O'odham land in 2007. Photo/Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas.
October 26, 2008. A top dog at the Federal Court of Canada, Prothonotary Madame Mireille Tabib agrees with us. She recognizes that Akwesasne and Kahnawake are not part of Canada.
Finally!! This is what we’ve been saying all along!! Since 1783 when Britain illegally agreed with the U.S. rebels to divide up our land without our knowledge or consent.
Katenies is a resident of Akwesasne. Kahentinetha is a resident of Kahnawake. Madam Tabib’s October 23, 2008 Order in Kahentinetha and Katenies versus the Queen, Docket T- 1309-08, found that neither of these two women are “residents in Canada”.
But she’s not our friend. She did this because she wants to erect a barrier to justice. She ordered them to put up $6,500 to pay the legal expenses of the Crown before the Federal Court will even look at evidence of the assaults and attempted murder carried out by the Canadian Border Services Agency CBSA goons at the Cornwall Ontario Border on June 14, 2008.
Have you ever heard of such a thing? Since when did victims have to pay the state to prosecute criminals? How is this protection? After all, Canada does claim that the Queen sent them over here to protect us. This makes it clear who we need protection from - them!!!
Madam Tabib’s Order proves that the issue of the 500 missing Indigenous women [3,000 plus really!] is no accident. The Canadian state is out to ‘git’ Indigenous women!
This explains another mystery. Even though Madam Tabib has now recognized that Akwesasne and Kahnawake are not part of Canada, CBSA agents are still threatening Akwesasne residents, particularly young women.
This is serious.
We want them to get their steroid laden jackasses off our land real quick. We’re sick and tired of their child abuse and their death-squad mentality.
Halloween would be a suitable time for them to clear out. They’ll fit in perfectly with the vampires, monsters and ghouls that night!
Canadians do not all support this institutionalized evil.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission CHRC is on our side. Two years ago a young Akwesasne mother filed a complaint after she was racially and sexually harassed and forced to submit to several shots of the VACIS x-ray machine intended for use on commercial transport vehicles. As a result she had to abort her unborn child and her family has suffered untold stress and grief.
Canada acts slowly, but when the CHRC report [file number 20061366] finally came in on October 1st 2008, it found that an inquiry is needed. In its words, there was “a complete lack of core values like cooperation, respect, integrity and professionalism towards the complainant because of her race”.
The CHRC report hasn’t had any effect on the conduct of the CBSA brutes who are accustomed to running rough shod over international accords that Canada has signed, like the “International Convention on Civil and Political Rights”, the “International Convention on the Rights of the Child” and even the “International Convention Against Torture” and other degrading and inhuman treatment. They haven’t heard of Madam Tabib’s finding that Akwesasne isn’t part of Canada either. Those cruel goons are still there, using their razor-in-the-apple-type Halloween dirty tricks.
The aggrieved young mother is still being harassed while she prepares her response to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. On Saturday, October 25th, on her way home from visiting relatives, she was pulled out of the “Indian lane” at the Cornwall border checkpoint which is a few yards from her home.
The CBSA told her to get out of her vehicle and leave her sleeping infant unattended so they could do what they called a “routine check”. When she refused, they said “What? Don’t you trust us to look after your baby?”
Why should she? As both she and the CBSA know, abuse is common. Canadian police and the CBSA refuse to investigate complaints filed with them by the Mohawks. Hundreds have been registered with the Mohawk Band Council of Akwesasne. Those guards know full well that this young woman wants the border removed and criminal charges filed against them.
Would you trust these cannibals to baby-sit your child?
When the young mother challenged these sadists to show her what law allows them to force her to leave her infant unattended in the car, they ordered her to wake up her baby.
She refused. After a big rigamorole, they finally let her go home. She was so shaken that her 8 year old daughter said, “They bothered you at the border again, didn’t they, Mom?” So the family still lives in a climate of fear, despite the support of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Madam Tabib’s reasoning is pretty illogical too. Even though she recognized that Akwesasne and Kahnawake are not part of Canada, she still thinks the “imaginary line” drawn through our community is a valid excuse for human rights abuses, gangsterism and theft by CBSA agents.
Madam Tabib seems to think that the Crown can say we are not part of Canada for the part of the Federal Court Act that lets them make Orders for Costs against “non-residents” of Canada but claim us as part of Canada for other parts of the Act. She’s playing the “heads I win, tails you lose” game. The Halloween blood suckers came out early this year!!
MNN Staff – Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Note: These challenges of CBSA abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.
Some of the ‘borderline’ culprits involved: Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, 284 Wellington TSA-6032, Ottawa ON Canada K1A 0H8 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; Phil Fontaine of the AFN is a partner in CBSA’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-9; Chris Kealey, Canada Customs Excise, Immigration Taxation Board, CBSA Media Relations 613-991-5197; President CBSA 613-952-3200, 613-957-0612, CBSA-ASFC@Canada.gc.ca; National Aboriginal Initiative CHRC 204-983-2189 1-866-772-4880 info.com@chrc-ccdp.ca; Canada Customs Port of Entry at Cornwall Island Ontario; Gaetan Cousineau, Quebec Human Rights presidence@cdpdj.gc.ca; Akwesasne Mohawk Police 613-575-2250 ex 2400; Mohawk Security at the border 613-932-5183, 613-575-2340; Lance Markel, District Director CBSA 613-930-3234, 613-991-1214; Brent Lafave, Investigator CBSA; Susan St. Clair, Canadian Human Rights Commission, 344 Slater, Ottawa 613-995-1151, 1-888-214-1090, 613-943-5188; CBSA National Spokesperson 613-957-6500; Quebec Media Relations CBSA 514-350-6130; Chief Mohawk Council Akwesasne 613-575-2250 nbenedict@akwesasne.ca; Minister Stockwell Day, Ottawa 613-995-4432; Melissa Leclair Communications Pub. Safety 613-991-2863.
Go to MNN “Border” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
On the border, Big Brother's bullets and drugs
By Brenda NorrellOn the Border -- With more US government dollars flowing into Mexico, supposedly to fight the war on drugs, more Indigenous Peoples and human rights activists are being arrested and targeted with US-issued bullets. Read more about police opening fire on Indigenous Peoples with US issued bullets, and the arrests of human rights activists, at Narco News.
The narco trafficking, cartel battles and bloodbaths prevalent in Tijuana and along the South Texas border are now in Nogales, Sonora, across the border from Nogales, Arizona, and south of Tucson. Michel Marizco reports on the violence at Border Reporter.
The narco trafficking, cartel battles and bloodbaths prevalent in Tijuana and along the South Texas border are now in Nogales, Sonora, across the border from Nogales, Arizona, and south of Tucson. Michel Marizco reports on the violence at Border Reporter.
While the violence increases, people who live along the border question the United States role in the violence and crimes, including the massive seizures of land by corporations after the passage of NAFTA that has displaced Indigenous Peoples. This has forced Indians to flee on foot to the north for survival. Many have died on the border in the desert.
One of those regions with the highest death rate is the Tohono O'odham Nation, wh
ere some O'odham are struggling to halt the tragedies. However, O'odham human rights activists are not supported by the elected Tohono O'odham officials.
ere some O'odham are struggling to halt the tragedies. However, O'odham human rights activists are not supported by the elected Tohono O'odham officials. The O'odham struggling to carry out the Himdaag, O'odham sacred way of life, want to stop the deaths and halt the border wall, which is a barrier to passage on the annual ceremonial route.
The construction of the border wall has violated all federal laws created to protect Native American remains, cultural items and the environment. During construction of the border wall on Tohono O'odham land, O'odham ancestors were dug up by the contractor Boeing and cultural remains looted and destroyed.
The Tohono O'odham struggling to protect human rights and human decency include Mike Wilson, who puts out water for migrants; Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham Voice against the Wall and Mike Flores, organizer of the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas in 2006 and 2007. Angelita Reino Ramon and Irvin Ramon are struggling for justice after their 18-year-old son, Bennett Patricio, Jr., was ran over and killed by the US Border Patrol. Many other O'odham living along the US/Mexico border work quietly to render aid and serve the people.
Tohono O'odham
are increasingly held at gunpoint by border agents and tribal police on bogus allegations and harassed as they travel in their homeland.
are increasingly held at gunpoint by border agents and tribal police on bogus allegations and harassed as they travel in their homeland.Meanwhile, so many military recruiters, cops, prison guards and Airforce pilots were eager to smuggle cocaine from the border at Nogales, north to Tucson and Phoenix, that the FBI had to shut down "Operation Lively Green."
Soldiers in the Army, Marines, National Guard and AirForce smuggled cocaine. They wore their uniforms during the drug operations. More than 50 have been sentenced, including a military recruiter at a Tucson high school. Soldiers stationed in Oklahoma were caught in a similar major drug smuggling operation from the border north.
There would have likely been more arrests of various border agents, but the other border agencies were involved in carrying out the sting operation.
.
Photos: Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, at the border wall south of Sells, Arizona, on Tohono O'odham land. Photo Brenda Norrell. Arizona border wall with deer halted by Daniel Patterson, published with permission. Map: Please double click to enlarge. The O'odham's homeland in Mexico is shown south of the border.
Alaska's Youth Protest Palin and Uranium Mining
Elim Students Against Uranium (ESAU)
Organizers: Emily Murray & Flora Simon
Box 39907, Elim, AK 99739
(907) 890-2351
Alaska's Youth Protest to Gov. Palin and the State of Alaska Against Uranium Mining
By Pearl Johnson
Through covert dealings, Gov. Sarah Palin, State Dept. of Natural Resources, Bureau of Land Management, the Alaska and U.S. senators and representatives and an ANCSA corporation entrusted with the security and health of their constituents have accepted the lease proposal to explore for uranium at the Fireweed/Boulder Creek area located in southwestern Seward Peninsula, without the knowledge, consent nor approval of the citizens of Western Alaska.
When students of Elim, Alaska first realized this, they began researching the effects of uranium mining and created educational posters to share what they learned. A community meeting was organized in Elim to share their findings and garner support to protest this action. The community responded favorably and in March 2007, demonstrated when the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race went through their town.
On September 17, 2007, a letter was sent to Gov. Palin inquiring what she planned to do about uranium mining at Boulder Creek which is located north of their community. She has yet to respond to this letter... Click here to read the letter.
In her State of the State speech on January 17, 2007, I quote: "With our rich energy supplies, we can contribute globally in many arenas, if we do things right. We must lead with trust - founded upon a most ethical government. To sustain our future......we must look to responsible development throughout the state... from mining etc. We can be good stewards of God's green earth."
Core drilling has been completed at Boulder Creek. Pollution in this watershed will negatively impact and irreversibly destroy the area and sustain heavy environmental and cultural damage impacting the communities of Council, White Mountain, Golovin, Koyuk, Elim and Shaktoolik. To allow the total destruction of this beautiful land, lush meadows, rich green forests, flower fields, pristine lakes and rivers is unthinkable. This fragile ecosystem nourishes and supplies Inupiaq, Yupik and non-native people, and healthy populations of every plant and mammal species indigenous to Arctic Alaska. It is not a frozen wasteland but a biologically diverse home to millions of salmon, beluga whale, seals, crab and annual migrations of birds from the Americas. The great Western Arctic Caribou Herd has wintered here, along with local reindeer, grizzly and black bear, and moose. Wolves, fox, lynx, beaver, otter, muskrat, mink, weasel, squirrel and porcupine traverse through quiet grasslands and marshes. Eagles, hawks and owls, robins and ravens fly through wind blown rocky enclaves in search of insects and small rodents. Berries, herbs and teas color the landscape along with wild cotton, cat tails and willows.
Why would you destroy this? If mining is allowed, air, wind and waterborne pollutants will turn this area into an arid, desolate wasteland unfit for habitation foreve
r. Did the politicians decide how the residents of this area were going to live, stricken with cancers and deformed fetuses? Where would they go? The birthright of the residents of this area has been sold. And, they have been abandoned by the politicians and left to fend for themselves!
The village of Elim and other Seward Peninsula communities were never given the opportunity to discuss planned exploration and drilling of uranium nor voice their concerns regarding mining. The regional native corporation, Bureau of Land Management, State Dept. of Natural Resources and the elected officials charged to care for their constituency did not study the impact uranium mining would incur in the region. Had they done that, they would have realized that mining for uranium is unregulated and no method of extracting uranium is safe and would have informed the impacted area of the pros and cons of development. And Gov. Palin has broken her oath of office and despite her State of the State speech, has gone against her promises of "doing things right, mutual trust, trustworthy government and responsible mining development " by allowing a proposal to mine uranium on the Seward Peninsula which now threatens the livelihood and lives of the people of Western Alaska.
The organization, Elim Students Against Uranium (ESAU), has been spearheaded by Emily Murray and Flora Simon. Emily Murray, "We may be the minority but as an indigenous nation, our voices will be heard and we will stand tall and fight for what we believe in."
ESAU is continuing to educate organizations and communities in the region and plans to take this protest to the United Nations Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues should Gov. Palin, the State of Alaska and mining conglomerates continue pursuing heavy mining development at Boulder Creek. Flora Simon, "This process of exploring, mining and being possessed by the mighty dollar has even corrupted the minds of our leaders that we voted for. The ones that are to be praised the most are the students of Elim that care enough to speak up and want to protect their subsistence lifestyle, for these are the ones that will benefit or be destroyed."
For More Information:
Western Mining Action Network
Elim Uranium Mine Student Blog
Big New’s: Uranium in Norton Sound Reigon
Indigenous Environmental Network
Images Courtesy: Big New’s: Uranium in Norton Sound Region
For more information contact:
Flora Simon - flora_simon@yahoo.com
Tom Goldtooth ien@igc.org
The Indigenous Environmental Network • PO Box 485 • Bemidji • MN • 56619
Organizers: Emily Murray & Flora Simon
Box 39907, Elim, AK 99739
(907) 890-2351
Alaska's Youth Protest to Gov. Palin and the State of Alaska Against Uranium Mining
By Pearl Johnson
Through covert dealings, Gov. Sarah Palin, State Dept. of Natural Resources, Bureau of Land Management, the Alaska and U.S. senators and representatives and an ANCSA corporation entrusted with the security and health of their constituents have accepted the lease proposal to explore for uranium at the Fireweed/Boulder Creek area located in southwestern Seward Peninsula, without the knowledge, consent nor approval of the citizens of Western Alaska.
When students of Elim, Alaska first realized this, they began researching the effects of uranium mining and created educational posters to share what they learned. A community meeting was organized in Elim to share their findings and garner support to protest this action. The community responded favorably and in March 2007, demonstrated when the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race went through their town.
On September 17, 2007, a letter was sent to Gov. Palin inquiring what she planned to do about uranium mining at Boulder Creek which is located north of their community. She has yet to respond to this letter... Click here to read the letter.
In her State of the State speech on January 17, 2007, I quote: "With our rich energy supplies, we can contribute globally in many arenas, if we do things right. We must lead with trust - founded upon a most ethical government. To sustain our future......we must look to responsible development throughout the state... from mining etc. We can be good stewards of God's green earth."
Core drilling has been completed at Boulder Creek. Pollution in this watershed will negatively impact and irreversibly destroy the area and sustain heavy environmental and cultural damage impacting the communities of Council, White Mountain, Golovin, Koyuk, Elim and Shaktoolik. To allow the total destruction of this beautiful land, lush meadows, rich green forests, flower fields, pristine lakes and rivers is unthinkable. This fragile ecosystem nourishes and supplies Inupiaq, Yupik and non-native people, and healthy populations of every plant and mammal species indigenous to Arctic Alaska. It is not a frozen wasteland but a biologically diverse home to millions of salmon, beluga whale, seals, crab and annual migrations of birds from the Americas. The great Western Arctic Caribou Herd has wintered here, along with local reindeer, grizzly and black bear, and moose. Wolves, fox, lynx, beaver, otter, muskrat, mink, weasel, squirrel and porcupine traverse through quiet grasslands and marshes. Eagles, hawks and owls, robins and ravens fly through wind blown rocky enclaves in search of insects and small rodents. Berries, herbs and teas color the landscape along with wild cotton, cat tails and willows.
Why would you destroy this? If mining is allowed, air, wind and waterborne pollutants will turn this area into an arid, desolate wasteland unfit for habitation foreve
r. Did the politicians decide how the residents of this area were going to live, stricken with cancers and deformed fetuses? Where would they go? The birthright of the residents of this area has been sold. And, they have been abandoned by the politicians and left to fend for themselves!The village of Elim and other Seward Peninsula communities were never given the opportunity to discuss planned exploration and drilling of uranium nor voice their concerns regarding mining. The regional native corporation, Bureau of Land Management, State Dept. of Natural Resources and the elected officials charged to care for their constituency did not study the impact uranium mining would incur in the region. Had they done that, they would have realized that mining for uranium is unregulated and no method of extracting uranium is safe and would have informed the impacted area of the pros and cons of development. And Gov. Palin has broken her oath of office and despite her State of the State speech, has gone against her promises of "doing things right, mutual trust, trustworthy government and responsible mining development " by allowing a proposal to mine uranium on the Seward Peninsula which now threatens the livelihood and lives of the people of Western Alaska.
The organization, Elim Students Against Uranium (ESAU), has been spearheaded by Emily Murray and Flora Simon. Emily Murray, "We may be the minority but as an indigenous nation, our voices will be heard and we will stand tall and fight for what we believe in."
ESAU is continuing to educate organizations and communities in the region and plans to take this protest to the United Nations Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues should Gov. Palin, the State of Alaska and mining conglomerates continue pursuing heavy mining development at Boulder Creek. Flora Simon, "This process of exploring, mining and being possessed by the mighty dollar has even corrupted the minds of our leaders that we voted for. The ones that are to be praised the most are the students of Elim that care enough to speak up and want to protect their subsistence lifestyle, for these are the ones that will benefit or be destroyed."
For More Information:
Western Mining Action Network
Elim Uranium Mine Student Blog
Big New’s: Uranium in Norton Sound Reigon
Indigenous Environmental Network
Images Courtesy: Big New’s: Uranium in Norton Sound Region
For more information contact:
Flora Simon - flora_simon@yahoo.com
Tom Goldtooth ien@igc.org
The Indigenous Environmental Network • PO Box 485 • Bemidji • MN • 56619
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Longest walk photos by Janice Trytten
The five month walk across America for Mother Earth, from Alcatraz to D.C. Longest Walk, on the last stretch into DC. Top photo: Northern Route; Second photo: Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Paiute Shoshone, Janice Gardipe, Paiute Shoshone and Darlene Graham, Western Shoshone; Photo three: Northern and southern route walkers sing; Photo 4: Longest Walk. Photos Janice Trytten. Please double click on photos to enlarge..
Listen to the AIM song, Longest Walk Northern Route singers:
Audio file no. 293 (in Longest Walk 2 series at top)
Sounds of the Longest Walk, some of the best interviews and songs on the road
Mohawk 'Splitting the Sky' on 9/11 and the criminal cabal
Splitting the Sky, Mohawk, was on Dr. Deagle's show "The Nutrimedical Report" again on Oct. 23rd for a one hour segment, Here is the mp3 archive and an mp3 of the Oct. 20th interview with Kevin Barrett show (Hr 2) is hereNote: In case you missed it, you may want to hear the archives from the Sept. 25th show with Dr. Bill Deagle first. Download the show archives: Hour 2 and Hour 3A full, written transcript of the Sept. 25th show with Dr. Deagle is available hereUpcoming Show: He will be a guest on the Rob Revere Show on the Revere Radio Network on Friday, Oct. 31st at 9 pm PST or 12 Midnight
Friday, October 24, 2008
Indigenous in Colombia on the march for survival
YouTube Video:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+13%3A06%3A1408-10-23+13%3A06%3A14
Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/indigenous_colombians_begin_10_000_strong
00_strong
Colombians are marching against President Alvaro Uribe's policies. The protest comes one week after vio10,000 indigenous lence erupted during demonstrations to press for land reform and dialogue with the government.
Colombia's indigenous protest against Uribe
ZAA NKWETA, TRNN: Ten thousand of Colombia's indigenous peoples are taking part in a massive demonstration, which comes after days of violent clashes between indigenous groups and Colombian police. The 62-mile march began Tuesday in Piendamó, in the Cauca province, and will end Friday in the city of Cali. The aim is to pressure the government into returning land to indigenous farmers and to protest against the alleged genocide of indigenous peoples. Recent clashes stem from the killing of indigenous leaders. Indigenous groups claim 1,200 people have been killed by different armed groups since 2002. Colombia President Álvaro Uribe has denied that police and army forces have been using lethal force against demonstrators, but medics said they have treated scores of Indians injured by bullets and shrapnel. Uribe says out of Colombia's 150 million hectares of land, 30 million already belong to indigenous communities. According to Colombia's national indigenous organization, 27 percent of Colombia's indigenous population have no land. Demonstrators want the government to set aside more land for Colombia's 1.3 million Indians and to provide money for better education and health care. They also want the government to prevent corporations and multinational companies from encroaching on their land.
*************
From Democracy NOW Interview above:
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Mario, obviously, the protests, you said, started on October 12th, which is the anniversary of el Dia de la Raza, or of Columbus Day, as it's called here in the United States. What is the—in terms of the condition of the indigenous under the Uribe government, what is it like right now?
MARIO MURILLO: That's a great point, and this is interesting that finally, after over almost two weeks of mobilizing and weeks before the mobilization began, the indigenous communities were putting out communiqués consistently on their websites and holding press conferences to draw attention to five key points that the communities are trying to address and to get the government to address, but it hasn't gotten any coverage whatsoever. Only the last couple of days, because the government has been forced to respond to the specific points, are the media now here in Colombia actually addressing them.
One of them, you pointed out in the introduction. They're really concerned about the free trade agreement that was signed by the Colombian government, and they're waiting for approval in the US Congress. It hasn't been approved by the Congress. And so, the Colombian indigenous movement and the popular movement in general are saying that this free trade agreement has to be reconsidered, because the communities were not consulted.
The Threat of REDD
UN Admits Its Climate Change Program Could Threaten Indigenous Peoples
Sept. 27, 2008 - On the third day of the General Assembly's 63rd Session, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Prime Minister of Norway launched the United Nations REDD program, a collaboration of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank.
The inclusion of forests in the carbon market, or REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) has caused anxiety, protest and outrage throughout the world since it was created at the failed climate change negotiations in Bali and funded by the World Bank.
An estimated 60 million indigenous peoples are completely dependent on forests and are considered the most threatened by REDD. Therefore, indigenous leaders are among its most prominent critics. The International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change declared that: '...REDD will steal our land... States and carbontraders will take control over our forests.'
It is alarming that indigenous peoples' fears and objectionshave now been confirmed by the UN-REDD Framework Document itself.
On page 4 and 5 it blatantly states that the program could "deprive communities of their legitimate land-development aspirations, that hard-fought gains in forest management practices might be wasted, that it could cause the lock-up of forests by decoupling conservation from development, or erode culturally rooted not-for-profit conservation values."
It is further highlighted that "REDD benefits in some circumstances may have to be traded off against other social, economic orenvironmental benefits."
In carefully phrased UN language, the document further acknowledges that REDD could cause severe human rights violations and be disastrous for the poor because it could "marginalize the landless.and those with. communal use-rights".
This is tantamount to the UN recognizing that REDD could undermine indigenous peoples and local communities rights to the usage andownership of their lands.
Could it be that the UN is paving the way for a massive land grab?
To read UN-REDD Framework Document: http://www.undp.org/mdtf/UN-REDD/docs/Annex-A-Framework-Document.pdf
To see photos from the protest against REDD and the World Bank in Bali: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/gallery.php
To watch the video from the protest against REDD at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtORVi7GybY
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+13%3A06%3A1408-10-23+13%3A06%3A14
Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/indigenous_colombians_begin_10_000_strong
00_strongColombians are marching against President Alvaro Uribe's policies. The protest comes one week after vio10,000 indigenous lence erupted during demonstrations to press for land reform and dialogue with the government.
Colombia's indigenous protest against Uribe
ZAA NKWETA, TRNN: Ten thousand of Colombia's indigenous peoples are taking part in a massive demonstration, which comes after days of violent clashes between indigenous groups and Colombian police. The 62-mile march began Tuesday in Piendamó, in the Cauca province, and will end Friday in the city of Cali. The aim is to pressure the government into returning land to indigenous farmers and to protest against the alleged genocide of indigenous peoples. Recent clashes stem from the killing of indigenous leaders. Indigenous groups claim 1,200 people have been killed by different armed groups since 2002. Colombia President Álvaro Uribe has denied that police and army forces have been using lethal force against demonstrators, but medics said they have treated scores of Indians injured by bullets and shrapnel. Uribe says out of Colombia's 150 million hectares of land, 30 million already belong to indigenous communities. According to Colombia's national indigenous organization, 27 percent of Colombia's indigenous population have no land. Demonstrators want the government to set aside more land for Colombia's 1.3 million Indians and to provide money for better education and health care. They also want the government to prevent corporations and multinational companies from encroaching on their land.
*************
From Democracy NOW Interview above:
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Mario, obviously, the protests, you said, started on October 12th, which is the anniversary of el Dia de la Raza, or of Columbus Day, as it's called here in the United States. What is the—in terms of the condition of the indigenous under the Uribe government, what is it like right now?
MARIO MURILLO: That's a great point, and this is interesting that finally, after over almost two weeks of mobilizing and weeks before the mobilization began, the indigenous communities were putting out communiqués consistently on their websites and holding press conferences to draw attention to five key points that the communities are trying to address and to get the government to address, but it hasn't gotten any coverage whatsoever. Only the last couple of days, because the government has been forced to respond to the specific points, are the media now here in Colombia actually addressing them.
One of them, you pointed out in the introduction. They're really concerned about the free trade agreement that was signed by the Colombian government, and they're waiting for approval in the US Congress. It hasn't been approved by the Congress. And so, the Colombian indigenous movement and the popular movement in general are saying that this free trade agreement has to be reconsidered, because the communities were not consulted.
The Threat of REDD
UN Admits Its Climate Change Program Could Threaten Indigenous Peoples
Sept. 27, 2008 - On the third day of the General Assembly's 63rd Session, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Prime Minister of Norway launched the United Nations REDD program, a collaboration of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank.
The inclusion of forests in the carbon market, or REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) has caused anxiety, protest and outrage throughout the world since it was created at the failed climate change negotiations in Bali and funded by the World Bank.
An estimated 60 million indigenous peoples are completely dependent on forests and are considered the most threatened by REDD. Therefore, indigenous leaders are among its most prominent critics. The International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change declared that: '...REDD will steal our land... States and carbontraders will take control over our forests.'
It is alarming that indigenous peoples' fears and objectionshave now been confirmed by the UN-REDD Framework Document itself.
On page 4 and 5 it blatantly states that the program could "deprive communities of their legitimate land-development aspirations, that hard-fought gains in forest management practices might be wasted, that it could cause the lock-up of forests by decoupling conservation from development, or erode culturally rooted not-for-profit conservation values."
It is further highlighted that "REDD benefits in some circumstances may have to be traded off against other social, economic orenvironmental benefits."
In carefully phrased UN language, the document further acknowledges that REDD could cause severe human rights violations and be disastrous for the poor because it could "marginalize the landless.and those with. communal use-rights".
This is tantamount to the UN recognizing that REDD could undermine indigenous peoples and local communities rights to the usage andownership of their lands.
Could it be that the UN is paving the way for a massive land grab?
To read UN-REDD Framework Document: http://www.undp.org/mdtf/UN-REDD/docs/Annex-A-Framework-Document.pdf
To see photos from the protest against REDD and the World Bank in Bali: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/gallery.php
To watch the video from the protest against REDD at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtORVi7GybY
GEO/Wackenhut Corp charged with prison murder in Texas
Private Prison Company GEO Group Indicted for Murder in Texas Prisoner's Death
By Private Corrections Institute
Oct. 24, 2008
Raymondville, Texas – Yesterday, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra filed
a three-count murder indictment against Florida-based GEO Group (formerly known as
Wackenhut Corrections), the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company. The grand jury’s two indictments for murder allege the GEO Group, “through its agents ... did intentionally or knowingly cause the death of Gregorio De La Rosa, Jr., ... by allowing one or more inmates to physically assault the victim ...” while using deadly weapons. A third indictment for manslaughter states the GEO Group caused the death of De La Rosa through its employees within the scope of their employment, which was “authorized, requested, commanded, performed, or recklessly tolerated” by the corporation. ... Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/geowackenhut-charged-in-prison-murder.html
By Private Corrections Institute
Oct. 24, 2008
Raymondville, Texas – Yesterday, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra filed
a three-count murder indictment against Florida-based GEO Group (formerly known as
Wackenhut Corrections), the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company. The grand jury’s two indictments for murder allege the GEO Group, “through its agents ... did intentionally or knowingly cause the death of Gregorio De La Rosa, Jr., ... by allowing one or more inmates to physically assault the victim ...” while using deadly weapons. A third indictment for manslaughter states the GEO Group caused the death of De La Rosa through its employees within the scope of their employment, which was “authorized, requested, commanded, performed, or recklessly tolerated” by the corporation. ... Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/geowackenhut-charged-in-prison-murder.html
Censored News breaking news articles
From Google Breaking News
US State Department interrupts Lipan Apache testimony to cover up ...
The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 22, 2008
By Brenda Norrell
WASHINGTON -- As Lipan Apache Margo Tamez delivered powerful testimony on the US government's human rights violations at the Texas/Mexico ...
How advertisers control and silence voices
The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 11, 2008
By Brenda Norrell
In case you noticed the alarming, large advertisements by the CIA Clandestine Services on the front web page of a national American Indian ...
US created monsters: Zetas and Kaibiles death squads
The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 9, 2008
By Brenda Norrell
TUCSON --The death squads of the Zetas, trained at the US School of the Americas, are now carrying out murders for Mexican drug cartels ...
Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation warned Lehman Brothers of ...
Atlantic Free Press, Netherlands - Oct 6, 2008
by Brenda Norrell
A delegation of Navajo, Hopi and Lakota warned Lehman Brothers stockholders of the dire consequences of their actions in 2001. ...OTC:LEHMQ
Tohono O'odham mother plans murder charge against US Border Patrol
The NarcoSphere, NY - Oct 5, 2008
By Brenda Norrell
SELLS, Arizona - The Tohono O'odham mother of a teenager who was ran over and killed by the US Border Patrol made a plea for help so she ...
Sounds of Resistance: Native American Music Awards 2008
The NarcoSphere, NY -
Oct 5, 2008
By Brenda Norrell
TUCSON -- Congratulations to the thirty winners of Native American Music Awards at the 10th annual celebration on the Seneca Nation in New ...
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Mohawk Nation News: The Snake at the Door
CANADA’S JUSTICE SYSTEM IS 'LIKE DEBATING WITH A SNAKE' SAYS KATENIES – THEY JUST WANT TO GET THEIR FANGS INTO SOMETHING & WILL POUNCE AT ANYTHING
MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Oct. 22, 2008. Early Tuesday morning the Akwesasne Mohawk Colonial Cops went to Katenies’ mother’s house in Akwesasne. This community is located at the junction of the colonial entities known as New York State, Ontario and Quebec. Her soft-spoken mother is always cautious. They apparently wanted to drive Katenies to court in Alexandria Ontario for a trial - or did they really want to abduct her again? For all we know, it wouldn’t have been just jail this time. She might have been “disappeared” for good. It seems like these operatives are getting their advice from the same “death squads” that make disappearances happen in “Latin” America. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/mohawk-nation-news-snake-at-door.html
MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Oct. 22, 2008. Early Tuesday morning the Akwesasne Mohawk Colonial Cops went to Katenies’ mother’s house in Akwesasne. This community is located at the junction of the colonial entities known as New York State, Ontario and Quebec. Her soft-spoken mother is always cautious. They apparently wanted to drive Katenies to court in Alexandria Ontario for a trial - or did they really want to abduct her again? For all we know, it wouldn’t have been just jail this time. She might have been “disappeared” for good. It seems like these operatives are getting their advice from the same “death squads” that make disappearances happen in “Latin” America. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/mohawk-nation-news-snake-at-door.html
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Lipan Apache reveal border wall abuses to OAS Inter-American Commission
US State Department and BIA attempt to cover up their crimes, interrupt Lipan Apache testimony on border abuse, during hearing of Organization of American States
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
WASHINGTON -- As Lipan Apache Margo Tamez delivered powerful testimony on the US government's human rights violations at the Texas/Mexico border before the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, members of the US State Department and BIA interrupted to cover up their crimes.
After introducing herself in the Apache language, Tamez described how her family's land is being seized without consent or consultation for the US/Mexico border wall. Tamez said the lands of her people would be divided and result in relocation, especially for the elderly. Tamez said their place of prayer is on the other side of the border. She described what is happening to Indian people all along the border, in this new wave of genocide of Indian cultures and ceremonies along the border.
During the hearing today, Oct. 22, members of the Texas border delegation, a working group based at the University of Texas, pointed out how the poor are affected the most by the border wall, while the playgrounds of the rich, such as a golf course, are avoided. They also pointed out that Homeland Security had voided all federal laws, including environmental laws and laws protecting American Indian cultural and burial places. Traditional communities of the Tigua in Texas and Kumeyaay in California also have members living on both sides of the border and the border wall cuts through their traditional territories.
Interrupting Tamez, US State Department and BIA officials attempted to cover up the violations of human rights, with a lengthy, empty verbal tap dance.
The representative from the BIA, Nina Siquieros, Tohono O'odham, attempted to paint a rosy picture of the Arizona border wall, but she did not reveal the testimony of Tohono O'odham Ned Norris to a Congressional committee in April. At that time, Norris testified that Homeland Security and Boeing had violated all federal laws. Norris said the border wall construction had human bones in heavy machinery tracks.
The Commission was not told of the O'odham ancestors' remains that were dug up and removed in secret on Tohono O'odham land, by the contractor Boeing while building the border wall.
During the US government's attempt to coverup the crimes, there was no opportunity for the Tohono O'odham opposing the wall, such as Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham Voice Against the Wall, to speak. There was no voice of those doing humanitarian work, including Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, to speak for the dead.
Tamez, in conclusion, pointed out that Chairman Norris had opposed the border wall and came to Texas to support the Lipan Apache. Tamez also said the Indigenous Alliance without Borders has brought together Indigenous Peoples from all along the border, from California to Texas, who oppose the border wall and the violations of human rights resulting.
Although the US State Department claimed the border wall was necessary to keep terrorists out of the country, one member of the human rights commission questioned what would keep a terrorist from coming through the hole in the wall at the Texas golf course.
"They don't attack when you have a golf course?" he asked the State Department, who didn't respond at the time.
The Commission also heard testimony from Indigenous Peoples in other regions of the Americas, including the Cucupa (Cocopah) in Mexico, who live near the Arizona/California border, and people struggling for human rights in Guerrero, Mexico and Honduras. The Cucupa are struggling to protect their natural resources and fishing rights.
Watch videos of the testimony:
http://www.oas.org/OASpage/videosondemand/home_eng/videos_query.asp?sCodigo=08-0341
Photo: Eloisa Tamez and daughter Margo Tamez on family's land on Texas border. Photo Arnoldo Garcia.
Uncensored: Buffy Sainte-Marie honored with Lifetime Achievement Award
By Brenda NorrellCensored News
The Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards is honoring Buffy Sainte-Marie with a lifetime achievement honor this fall. Organizers of the 10th annual awards gala made the announcement Monday. Born on a Saskatchewan reserve, Sainte-Marie, 67, began her career in the 1960s.
Buffy said in an interview, censored for seven years, that she was blackballed and censored out of the music industry in the US. The censorship included letters from US President Lyndon Johnson to radio stations, and shipments of her records disappearing. This followed the release of "Universal Soldier," during the Vietnam War and the US government's realization of the power of song. She was financially forced out of the industry and moved from the US.
The following article was censored by Indian Country Today for seven years, after I interveiwed Buffy in 1999 at Dine' College on the Navajo Nation. A portion of the article was published by ICT seven years later, in 2006, but the references to uranium mining and other portions were deleted. I self published the article in 2006, after being censored and terminated as a longtime staff reporter by Indian Country Today. Buffy's interview was one of numerous articles censored by ICT. Read others here.
Beyond images of women and Indians: Straight-talk from a Cree icon
By Brenda Norrell (1999)
TSAILE, Ariz. -- Seated behind the concert stage at Dine' College, Buffy Sainte-Marie is visionary and philosopher, folk star and educator, mother and confidant to truth-seekers. A voice of history and reason, the Cree poet and songwriter describes life on the rim, beyond the defined images of women and Indians.
Relaxing after her performance onstage, Buffy says she always refused to be categorized as an aerobic-Indian-princess-Pocahontas. The result: She was blacklisted, and along with her Indian contemporaries, put out of business.
"I found out ten years later, in the 1980s, that Lyndon Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationary praising radio stations for suppressing my music."
Buffy, however, is focused on art, not bitterness, and explains that in Indian communities, there is no name for artists.
"In my own language, there is no word for art."
Instead, they say, "It shines through him."
That, she says is the mystery -- the artist is a vehicle for the Creator. Backstage, Buffy takes chalk in hand, detailing how the 1960s and 1970s -- the student movement and American Indian Movement -- were the roots of change.
In the 1960s in Minneapolis, "The guys were in the streets. The guys who would become AIM." In Boston, and elsewhere in the East there was no awareness of Indian people.
"I grew up in Maine and Massachusetts, and I was told that I couldn't be Indian because all the Indians were gone," Buffy said.
"So, in other words, the consciousness was Zero." But there were inklings in the white world, like in the National Indian Youth Council and the Upward Bound program recruiting Indian students for college, that there was a need for change."In the Indian community, in Saskatchewan where I am from, the Indian people were real grass-rootsy and they had no clue of how they were being ripped off. In the grassroots in general, people were being worked over by the oil companies.
"The student movement and coffeehouses of Greenwich Village became her platform in the 1960s. In the multi-racial movement, students were talking and students were listening.
"The student movement was extremely important. It's not happening right now, but it was then and it was a small window through which people like myself came into show business.
"Coffee was the drug of choice." And the lyrics and the movement were serious."It meant that people like myself could get on a bus, in sneakers and a trench coat with a guitar, and fill concert halls.
"In the late 1960s, coffeehouses were suddenly viewed as moneymakers.
"In show business, whatever is making money is like honey -- and it attracted a lot of bugs-- a lot of sharks.
"The lyrics were watered down and coffeehouses that remained open had liquor licenses.
"In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement putout of business, but the Native American movement was attacked."
Meanwhile, Buffy cut a singular path.
"I usually didn't do what other people did. You didn't find me at peace marches. I was out in Indian country.
"Then, came the occupation of Wounded Knee and the shoot-out with FBI agents at the Jumping Bull residence at Pine Ridge June 26, 1975.
"That is where Leonard Peltier's troubles began" Buffy says.
Buffy says that few people recount the true history of what happened on that day in history.
"Who recalls that on that day one-eighth of the reservation was transferred in secret -- on that day. It was the part containing uranium. That is what never seems to be remembered."
At the time, Buffy was selling more records than ever in Canada and Asia. But, in the United States, her records were disappearing. Thousands of people at concerts wanted records. Although the distributor said the records had been shipped, no one seemed to know where they were. One thing was for sure, they were not on record shelves.
"I was put out of business in the United States."
Later she discovered the censorship and pressure applied to radio stations by President Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam era, particularly toward her"Universal Soldier" during the anti-war movement.
Buffy says Indian people were put out of business, not just because they were succeeding in Indian country, but because they were succeeding in the broader community. She and others were a threat to the moneymakers of concert halls, uranium and oil.
Then, fellow activist and poet John Trudell's wife and children were burned to death in a house fire shortly after he burned an American flag in Washington D.C., February 11, 1979.
"I was just one person put out of business.
John Trudell is just another person whose life was put out of business. Anna Mae Aquash and Leonard Peltier were put out of the living business -- we were made in effective."
But she continued. Moving into electronic music, which she says Americans didn't want to hear, then into music scoring. In the 1980s, she began producing digital art on her Macintosh at home. Those brightly-colored large-scale paintings are now featured in museums.
"Sixteen million colors are hard to resist," she says of the computer's palette.
In the 1990s, she created the Cradleboard Teaching Project to link American Indian students with other students online around the world. Traveling now to Indian communities and colleges, the project debunks stereotypes and shares history and culture by way ofCD-ROM.
Sharing the concert stage at Dine' College with Trudell, Buffy says she and Trudell were "just puppies," during the takeover of Alcatraz in the1960s.
Yet, they kept struggling; kept surviving.
"We just kept chugging on. We kept coming to Indian country. We didn't worry about the fortune and fame because we went with our sincerity, our hearts, and with our friends.
"There was the pain of seeing people hurt, but the movers of the '60s and '70s survived, developed,taught, and shared with old friends the joys of watching children and Indian country grow.
"It was hard -- seeing people hurt."
And there was the pain of seeing women and the elderly treated with lack of respect. But, people began to sobber up and change. Her "Starwalker" is a tribute.
"Starwalker is for all generations past and yet to come. So many people have seen the reality of that in their lives," she said, adding that the song is one of her favorites.
"Starwalker he's a friend of mine
You've seen him looking fine he's as traight talker
he's a Starwalker don't drink no wineay
way hey o heya
Wolf Rider she's a friend of yours
You've seen her opening doors
She's a history turner
she's a sweetgrass burner and a dog soldier
ay hey way hey way heya"
Although Buffy makes her home in Hawaii, much of her time is spent in Canada and on the road. Fame, however, has it drawbacks, making it impossible to simply attend a pow wow.
"Sesame Street put an end to it."
Buffy said Native people in Canada are doing well in all walks of life, the government, television and law.
"It's not like it is in the United States.
"What has happened in Canada? Canada attracted a different type of European.
"People didn't want to put up with the U.S. gobbily-greed."
Then, she adds, "Native people were hipper. Things are still very pure, but very strong in Canada."
Questioned about the media, Buffy says if you want to find out the motive behind a newspaper's coverage, look to see who owns the paper. She was asked by a Native photographer why only negative articles are published in a leading Arizona paper.
"Find out who owns it," she says, explaining that thisf act will reveal the motive.
Then, she adds, "Don't let the bastards get you down."
Buffy was born on the Piapot Cree Reserve in Saskatchewan in 1941. Later, while evolving as a revolutionary folk-singer, she received degrees in Oriental Philosophy and teaching, and a Ph.D. in Fine Art from the University of Massachusetts. A young Bob Dylan heard her sing in Greenwich Village and recommended she perform at the Gaslight, another hangout of the avant-garde. Janis Joplin and Elvis Presley were among those who recorded her lyrics.
On the road, she traveled the world and received a medal from Queen Elizabeth II.
Shifting gears as a mother, Buffy and her son Dakota Wolfchild Starblanket became stars of Sesame Street in 1976 and dissolved myths about who Indians are. "Up Where We Belong," recorded for the film "An Officer and A Gentleman," won an Academy Award in 1982.
After the release of her album "Coincidence and Likely Stories," in 1993, she helped establish a new Juno Awards category for Aboriginal Music in Canada. That same year, France named Buffy "Best International Artist of 1993."
Defying definition, she has also written country music, including "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo."She served as an adjunct professor in Canada and New York, and as an artist in residence at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
Onstage at the Native American Music Festival at Dine' College, a benefit concert for the Dine' Council of Arts and Humanities, Buffy sang selections from her1996 release, "Up Where We Belong."Festival organizer Ferlin Clark recalled driving Buffy through Apache country to share her Cradleboard Teaching Project, then convincing her to drive until dawn to reach the Navajo's Canyon de Chelly.
Once at Spider Rock, Buffy reached for a pen and paper towrite. Inspired, she knew she would return.
In concert, Buffy dedicated "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," to Leonard Peltier.
The lyrics tell the story of Native people of the1880s and later in the 1960s and 1970s, that fell to the hands of the "robber barons" driven by greed for oil, gold and precious metals. While manipulating the media and politicians, they added uranium to their agenda in the Twentieth Century.
In the song, Buffy sings of a senator in Indian country, a "darling of the energy companies," and covert spies, liars, federal marshals and FBI.Buffy sings her safety rule: "Don't stand between the reservation and the corporate bank. They send in federal tanks…"
The song is a also tribute to assassinated activist Anna Mae Aquash, whose murderers remain at large. The lyrics describe the act of the FBI in cutting off her decomposed hands under the guise of identification.
"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…
"Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies bury my heart at Wounded Knee."
COMMENTS
From David Sugar:
The government has more tools to silence dissenting voices these days, such as national security letters sent to your employers and associates, being placed on lists to effectively restrict your movement, or secret grand juries called by state counter-terrorism task forces. But really, what Buffy experienced ha snot fundamentally changed, other than becoming simpler for bureaucrats to do on a larger scale, much like with domestic intercept...on the latter, you might find this of interest, which is about what I chose to do in response:
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/102328/
ACLU demands information on military deployment in US
ACLU Demands Information on Military Deployment Within US Borders
Deployment Erodes Longstanding Separation Between Civilian and Military Government
By ACLU
NEW YORK - October 21 - The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded information from the government about reports that an active military unit has been deployed inside the U.S. to help with "civil unrest" and "crowd control" - matters traditionally handled by civilian authorities. This deployment jeopardizes the longstanding separation between civilian and military government, and the public has a right to know where and why the unit has been deployed, according to an ACLU Freedom of Information request filed today. "The military's deployment within U.S. borders raises critical questions that must be answered," said Jonathan Hafetz, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "What is the unit's mission? What functions will it perform? And why was it necessary to deploy the unit rather than rely on civilian agencies and personnel and the National Guard? Given the magnitude of the issues at stake, it is imperative that the American people know the truth about this new and unprecedented intrusion of the military in domestic affairs." Read more ...
www.aclu.org/safefree/general/37272lgl20081021.html
Deployment Erodes Longstanding Separation Between Civilian and Military Government
By ACLU
NEW YORK - October 21 - The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded information from the government about reports that an active military unit has been deployed inside the U.S. to help with "civil unrest" and "crowd control" - matters traditionally handled by civilian authorities. This deployment jeopardizes the longstanding separation between civilian and military government, and the public has a right to know where and why the unit has been deployed, according to an ACLU Freedom of Information request filed today. "The military's deployment within U.S. borders raises critical questions that must be answered," said Jonathan Hafetz, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "What is the unit's mission? What functions will it perform? And why was it necessary to deploy the unit rather than rely on civilian agencies and personnel and the National Guard? Given the magnitude of the issues at stake, it is imperative that the American people know the truth about this new and unprecedented intrusion of the military in domestic affairs." Read more ...
www.aclu.org/safefree/general/37272lgl20081021.html
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Navajo white corn stew
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
These days, you can just type the words, “Navajo white corn stew,” into the Google search engine and bingo, you have it, the full nutritional content of the delicious stew that is served up in the fall, sometimes with fresh squash added from the garden.
But years ago, that was not the case. In the early 1980s, the Navajo Food and Nutrition Division worked with a university student and was able to have all the traditional foods analyzed for nutrition content. Fresh out of graduate school, I was hired as a nutrition educator for one of its programs, the Navajo-Hopi WIC Program, to produce “culturally relevant education materials.” Although I didn’t last long as a nutrition educator, I did produce one pamphlet and some rather sad looking flip charts. Later, in the 1990s, working as a news reporter, I was at a conference of Native American medical doctors, when a speaker pulled out a familiar looking (and somewhat pitiful pamphlet) copied on white paper.
“This is one of the few pamphlets ever made that shows the nutritional content of traditional foods,” the speaker said. If you’ve seen this pamphlet, you will remember that the goat looks a little funny. OK, so I couldn’t draw goats. But what the program did was this: It sent a message to Navajos that not only did traditional foods taste good, but they were extremely nutritious.
Those were the foods that carried the People, the Dineh, through the harsh and cruel days of the Long Walk, those were the foods that they survived on when they returned to their lands between the Four Sacred Mountains. These were the teas that they picked, the squashes and corn that they dried in the fall, the cornmeal that they ground to the sounds of the corn grinding songs.
After moving on to a job as a reporter for Navajo Times when the newspaper was a daily, the Navajo Times TODAY, I served as food editor and served up some of those traditional foods.
Traditional Navajos told me their stories, how they made Chil’chin pudding from the sumac plant berries, used a certain wild plant to curdle goat’s milk for cheese and used a special white clay to take the astringent taste out of wild potatoes and wolfberries. I can still remember those stories and the look in their eyes after all these years. I still remember the way they spoke of those wild foods with such tenderness.
My good friend Howard McKinley in Fort Defiance, Tse Ho Tso (the meadow between the rocks) told me about the ice houses of his childhood. For more than 15 years, he told me of the yucca bananas he picked as a boy, the wild potatoes that he dug and how the ice in Blue Canyon would be chipped and stored into the cut-stone houses in the canyon at Fort Defiance. During the first warm days of late spring, there would be ice. Howard lost his eyesight in one eye as a boy, so he walked, he walked everywhere. He slept in the trees when he walked to Albuquerque, about 175 miles away, to avoid the coyotes. Howard liked to remember traveling with Annie Wauneka, who won the Medal of Freedom for eradicating tuberculosis on the Navajo Nation. He remembered how they would tell Navajos not to share the dipper in the water pail, so the tuberculosis wouldn’t spread.
Howard obtained a master’s degree and served on the Navajo Council and as a Fort Defiance councilman. I knew we would be good friends when I first read a quote by him in the Navajo Times, while he was still a Fort Defiance chapter officer: “I like Fort Defiance Chapter, they don’t steal as much as the other ones.” Howard took his flight to the Spirit World when he was about 100 years old, the world will miss him.
Which brings me back to white corn stew. I’m happy to report that I couldn’t find a good recipe for traditional Navajo white corn stew, with fresh Navajo squash from the garden, on the Internet.
Censored News
These days, you can just type the words, “Navajo white corn stew,” into the Google search engine and bingo, you have it, the full nutritional content of the delicious stew that is served up in the fall, sometimes with fresh squash added from the garden.
But years ago, that was not the case. In the early 1980s, the Navajo Food and Nutrition Division worked with a university student and was able to have all the traditional foods analyzed for nutrition content. Fresh out of graduate school, I was hired as a nutrition educator for one of its programs, the Navajo-Hopi WIC Program, to produce “culturally relevant education materials.” Although I didn’t last long as a nutrition educator, I did produce one pamphlet and some rather sad looking flip charts. Later, in the 1990s, working as a news reporter, I was at a conference of Native American medical doctors, when a speaker pulled out a familiar looking (and somewhat pitiful pamphlet) copied on white paper.
“This is one of the few pamphlets ever made that shows the nutritional content of traditional foods,” the speaker said. If you’ve seen this pamphlet, you will remember that the goat looks a little funny. OK, so I couldn’t draw goats. But what the program did was this: It sent a message to Navajos that not only did traditional foods taste good, but they were extremely nutritious.
Those were the foods that carried the People, the Dineh, through the harsh and cruel days of the Long Walk, those were the foods that they survived on when they returned to their lands between the Four Sacred Mountains. These were the teas that they picked, the squashes and corn that they dried in the fall, the cornmeal that they ground to the sounds of the corn grinding songs.
After moving on to a job as a reporter for Navajo Times when the newspaper was a daily, the Navajo Times TODAY, I served as food editor and served up some of those traditional foods.
Traditional Navajos told me their stories, how they made Chil’chin pudding from the sumac plant berries, used a certain wild plant to curdle goat’s milk for cheese and used a special white clay to take the astringent taste out of wild potatoes and wolfberries. I can still remember those stories and the look in their eyes after all these years. I still remember the way they spoke of those wild foods with such tenderness.
My good friend Howard McKinley in Fort Defiance, Tse Ho Tso (the meadow between the rocks) told me about the ice houses of his childhood. For more than 15 years, he told me of the yucca bananas he picked as a boy, the wild potatoes that he dug and how the ice in Blue Canyon would be chipped and stored into the cut-stone houses in the canyon at Fort Defiance. During the first warm days of late spring, there would be ice. Howard lost his eyesight in one eye as a boy, so he walked, he walked everywhere. He slept in the trees when he walked to Albuquerque, about 175 miles away, to avoid the coyotes. Howard liked to remember traveling with Annie Wauneka, who won the Medal of Freedom for eradicating tuberculosis on the Navajo Nation. He remembered how they would tell Navajos not to share the dipper in the water pail, so the tuberculosis wouldn’t spread.
Howard obtained a master’s degree and served on the Navajo Council and as a Fort Defiance councilman. I knew we would be good friends when I first read a quote by him in the Navajo Times, while he was still a Fort Defiance chapter officer: “I like Fort Defiance Chapter, they don’t steal as much as the other ones.” Howard took his flight to the Spirit World when he was about 100 years old, the world will miss him.
Which brings me back to white corn stew. I’m happy to report that I couldn’t find a good recipe for traditional Navajo white corn stew, with fresh Navajo squash from the garden, on the Internet.
Western Shoshone tour in Ireland
Congratulations to newlyweds Larson Bill and Julie Cavanaugh-Bill of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, currently in Ireland
Photo: Larson Bill, Western Shoshone, videotapes gold mining operation near sacred Mount Tenabo on Western Shoshone land. Below: Julie Cavanaugh talks with Tom Goldtooth during the Indigenous Environmental Network Conference on Western Shoshone land in July. Photos Brenda Norrell
From: Derry, Northern Ireland
From: Derry, Northern Ireland
10th October, 2008.
Shoshone Indigenous Rights in the U.S., fostering links with Ireland, a Film & Discussion Tour
Watch "Our Land, Our Life," online, 25 minute version of the 74 minute film on You Tube
Shoshone Indigenous Rights in the U.S., fostering links with Ireland, a Film & Discussion Tour
Watch "Our Land, Our Life," online, 25 minute version of the 74 minute film on You Tube
Representatives from the U.S.-based Western Shoshone Defense Project will begin a week long speaking tour in Ireland this month. Larson Bill, Western Shoshone leader and community planner and Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Iris
h descendant and Western Shoshone Defense Project advisor, will travel to the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritage, University of Ulster, Derry (22nd October), the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway (23rd October) and Erris in the Gaeltacht of Co. Mayo, (24th–26th October) where they will participate in Afri’s ‘Pipelines and Profits: People Under Pressure’ Hedge School, and meet community members opposing Shell’s attempt to build a controversial gas pipeline. During the tour Larson and Julie will talk about the struggle of the Western Shoshone, recent international successes and the need for indigenous-rights based protection of the environment, cultures and spiritual areas worldwide. The new award-winning film documenting the Western Shoshone struggle, American Outrage, will precede discussions.The Western Shoshone struggle is well known and based on a decades long challenge to the US government’s assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90% of Western Shoshone lands. The land base covers approximately 60 million acres, stretching across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. Western Shoshone rights to the land - which they continue to use, care for, and occupy today - were recognized by the United States in 1863 by the Treaty of Ruby Valley. The U.S. now claims these same lands as “public” or federal lands through an agency process and has denied Western Shoshone fair access to U.S. courts through that same process. The land base has been and continues to be used by the United States for military testing, open pit cyanide heap leach gold mining and nuclear waste disposal planning. The U.S. has engaged in military style seizures of Shoshone livestock, trespass fines in the millions of dollars and armed surveillance of Western Shoshone who continue to assert their original and treaty rights. Both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination have ruled against the U.S. on several occasions, but the Shoshone continue to suffer from ongoing harassment by federal officials and massive expansion by transnational corporations.
Larson Bill, Community Planner for the WSDP and 25 year elected leader said before leaving the U.S.: “We are pleased to be able to meet with people across Ireland to discuss these issues that affect all of us around the world. It is through traditional knowledge and teachings that we will protect our spiritual areas and learn more about our original relationships to the earth and to each other as we take on some of the largest industries in the world.”
“We believe the connection between the struggles of the Irish peoples and the Indigenous peoples of the United States is very important. Similarities in colonization, struggles against spiritual, cultural and environmental destruction, as well as an undying spirit and connection to the land make us natural allies. We hope that this preliminary trip will open avenues to building stronger alliances and future delegations both to Ireland and to native territories in the U.S.” Added Julie Cavanaugh Bill who has worked in both legal and staff capacities for the Western Shoshone for over ten years.
Cathal Doyle an indigenous peoples rights advocate acting on behalf of the Irish Centre for Human Rights and a doctoral student in law at the University of Middlesex points out that “The struggle of the Western Shoshone reflects a global pattern of expropriation of indigenous peoples lands and resources. In the past this was as a result of colonization. Today it continues unabated through the activities of transnational corporations, particularly those in the extractive sector. At its core is a lack of respect for indigenous peoples’ rights. In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, laying out the minimum standards for their cultural survival. The Shoshone, together with many of the world’s 350 million indigenous people, now demand that governments and corporations make these rights a reality”.
For further information contact:
Julie Cavanaugh Bill (U.S.) +1 775-744-2565 (wsdp@igc.org) or
Cathal Doyle (Ireland) +353 86 85 45 414 (doncathal@gmail.com)
See Western Shoshone Defense Project website http://www.wsdp.org/
The Mayo Gaeltacht / official Irish speaking region, consists of approximately 11,000 people representing in the region of 11% of the total Irish speaking population remaining in Ireland. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaeltacht
Afri (Action From Ireland, an Irish NGO) will hold a Hedge School (Scoil Chois Claí) on the theme of ‘Pipelines and Profits: People Under Pressure’ with participation from the Western Shoshone Defense Project as well as people from Ecuador, Nigeria and France from the 24th to the 26th October. For more information see http://www.afri.ie/pdf/hedge-school-2008.pdf. For an overview of the campaign opposing Shell’s proposed project in north Co. Mayo see http://www.corribsos.com/
ACLU: Ojibwe dead because he was an Indian
David Croud, 29, father of four, died on Oct. 18, 2005, because he was an American Indian
"The lawsuit alleges that witnesses saw two police officers ram Croud against a stone wall before one officer threw him to the ground. 'Multiple witnesses classified Croud’s behavior before he was thrown to the ground as not in any way aggressive … A witness said that while Croud was on the ground, police kneed him in the kidneys and pushed his face on the sidewalk, clearly trying to hurt him,’, the lawsuit states."
ACLU sues St. Mary’s, city over Croud’s death (MINNESOTA) -- The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit contending that the city of Duluth and St. Mary’s Medical Center are responsible for the death of an intoxicated man who was taken into police custody and transported to the hospital, where he died six days later.
in Native News > Crime & Justice
in Native News > Crime & Justice
News from Pechanga Net Native News
Monday, October 20, 2008
Roberto Rodriguez: A Big Brother Migration Solution
Department of Homeland Security's ICE agents are still running amok terrorizing Mexican & Central American communities
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS
A BIG BROTHER MIGRATION SOLUTION
OCTOBER 17, 2008
BY ROBERTO DR. CINTLI RODRIGUEZ
For perhaps at least the past generation, the so-called immigration debate has been code for scapegoating and getting rid of the "wetbacks" – which of course in this country is but another code word for Mexicans. Anybody brown, really. It could be called the hidden narrative, yet how hidden is it really? And yet, holding back the "brown hordes" is no longer the primary issue in regards to this debate. Make no mistake; hundreds of brown peoples are still dying in the inhospitable deserts, mountains and rivers along the U.S.-Mexico border. And the Department of Homeland Security's ICE agents are still running amok terrorizing Mexican & Central American communities. But the sad reality is that the mere existence of a "Homeland Security" apparatus tells us that even something bigger is amiss. Read column
Rodriguez, PhD, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com
Photo: Remembering the dead along the border, No More Deaths, in a memorial in Tucson, remembered Desconocido, hanged near Cowlic on the Tohono O'odham Nation, near the Arizona and Mexico border. Photo Brenda Norrell
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS
A BIG BROTHER MIGRATION SOLUTION
OCTOBER 17, 2008
BY ROBERTO DR. CINTLI RODRIGUEZ
For perhaps at least the past generation, the so-called immigration debate has been code for scapegoating and getting rid of the "wetbacks" – which of course in this country is but another code word for Mexicans. Anybody brown, really. It could be called the hidden narrative, yet how hidden is it really? And yet, holding back the "brown hordes" is no longer the primary issue in regards to this debate. Make no mistake; hundreds of brown peoples are still dying in the inhospitable deserts, mountains and rivers along the U.S.-Mexico border. And the Department of Homeland Security's ICE agents are still running amok terrorizing Mexican & Central American communities. But the sad reality is that the mere existence of a "Homeland Security" apparatus tells us that even something bigger is amiss. Read column
Rodriguez, PhD, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com
Photo: Remembering the dead along the border, No More Deaths, in a memorial in Tucson, remembered Desconocido, hanged near Cowlic on the Tohono O'odham Nation, near the Arizona and Mexico border. Photo Brenda Norrell
Algonguins defending land
Support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, traditional people who know how to survive off the land. They are defending their land. Photo: Algonquins running from police tear gas attack. Photo courtesy Barriere Lake community. Despite the presence of several Hydro Quebec dams, the community is still powered by a diesel generator. Although $100 million in revenue is extracted from the Barriere Lake Algonquins' traditional territory every year, the community receives nothing, and employment opportunities are scarce. Many of those at the blockade had been sent to residential schools aschildren. There, they were abused physically and sexually, andpunished for speaking their mother tongue.
Inside the Barriere Lake Algonquins' blockade of highway 117
Inside the Barriere Lake Algonquins' blockade of highway 117
by Dru Oja Jay
Posted originally in The Dominion
I'm perched on an embankment overlooking Highway 117, an obscure but economically important link between Montreal and northern Quebec. To look at most maps, there's nothing here, five hours north of Montreal, well out of the cottage towns and ski resorts of the Laurentians and still two hours short of the cluster of resource extraction economies around Val d'Or. I'm in the middle of a four hour stretch where most travellers could be forgiven for thinking was nothing but a few hunting lodges, logging roads and Hydro Quebec turnouts.A girl, young enough that I have to bend down to hear what she's saying, climbs up the embankment and points at the highway."Look where we're colouring," she says. I look. In the middle of the highway... read more
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Flood relief for Jumano Apache on Texas/Mexico border
What happens in a international border zone between the US and Mexico when the floods come? PHOTO April Cotte: September 28 This picture is taken from Presidio, Texas looking into Ojinaga, Mexico. The bridge in the middle is the Port of Entry and you can see that the Mexico Customs building is under water. Quite a mess. Please see news summary below from newspapers and locals on what has happened and how we can help. I am heading down to Redford, Texas, 10/25 from Calif., to work for OB and be of service and invite others to join me volunteering in disaster relief esp. 11/8-12.
By April Cotte
There has been major flooding in Jumano Apache territory in the Junta de los Rios area in Presidio, Ojinaga and Redford following Hurricane Gustav early September. For some 22 days, one third of the city of Ojinaga was underwater, the port of entry was closed between the US and Mexico and many of the farms in Redford, Presidio, Ojinaga and all along the Rio Grande and Rio Conchas were flooded. Elders say this was bigger then the floods of 58 or 78. Until this week, hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Ojinaga, now they are cleaning up from flood damage. Read article
There has been major flooding in Jumano Apache territory in the Junta de los Rios area in Presidio, Ojinaga and Redford following Hurricane Gustav early September. For some 22 days, one third of the city of Ojinaga was underwater, the port of entry was closed between the US and Mexico and many of the farms in Redford, Presidio, Ojinaga and all along the Rio Grande and Rio Conchas were flooded. Elders say this was bigger then the floods of 58 or 78. Until this week, hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Ojinaga, now they are cleaning up from flood damage. Read article
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Mohawk Nation News: Trick or Jay Treaty?
TRICK OR JAY TREATY? CANADA BORDER ASSAULTS REMIND INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF OLD INDIAN STORY
Mohawk Nation News
Oct. 17, 2008. The hundreds of Mohawk women who have been harassed, assaulted, threatened, abused, raped, almost killed and “disappeared” at the Cornwall Ontario border crossing are getting to the point where they must challenge the Canadian Border Services Agency CBSA goons. This check point has been illegally put right in the middle of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne disrupting the normal flow of life, forcing people to submit to questioning and examinations by officials of a foreign state whose rule we never consented to. There is no way the CBSA can be confused with honorable defenders of peace loving people against “terrorism." Like common criminals the goons have become terrorists themselves. They behave worse than street gangs. They are part of a scheme designed to make us defenseless. Their training is created to take advantage of their primitive instincts and emotions. It’s the “Abu Graib” syndrome where soldiers tortured, maimed and killed thousands of innocent Iraqis. Read article
Mohawk Nation News
Oct. 17, 2008. The hundreds of Mohawk women who have been harassed, assaulted, threatened, abused, raped, almost killed and “disappeared” at the Cornwall Ontario border crossing are getting to the point where they must challenge the Canadian Border Services Agency CBSA goons. This check point has been illegally put right in the middle of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne disrupting the normal flow of life, forcing people to submit to questioning and examinations by officials of a foreign state whose rule we never consented to. There is no way the CBSA can be confused with honorable defenders of peace loving people against “terrorism." Like common criminals the goons have become terrorists themselves. They behave worse than street gangs. They are part of a scheme designed to make us defenseless. Their training is created to take advantage of their primitive instincts and emotions. It’s the “Abu Graib” syndrome where soldiers tortured, maimed and killed thousands of innocent Iraqis. Read article
Dooda Desert Rock Spiritual Gathering
Dooda (NO) Desert Rock! Spiritual Gathering, November 8, 9, 10 and 11, in the Four Corners area, southwest of Farmington, N.M. on the Navajo Nation. Please double click to enlarge.Friday, October 17, 2008
NSA spies laugh while listening to Americans
Author says Israeli spy subcontractors have all info on Americans and 9/11 hijackers lived in town with NSA headquarters before attack
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
In case you missed the radio show on NPR, you can still hear how the National Security Administration listens in on overseas phone calls of Americans -- including aid workers, journalists and military -- and laughs about it, while recording every word. This includes the sex talk between husbands and wives.
NSA whistleblowers have come forward and you can listen to the radio shows, and read more about it in James Bamford's "The Shadow Factory."
Bamford said all the telephone service providers, except Qwest, went along with secret spy rooms in their operations, including AT&T and Verizon.
Further, he said Israeli firms subcontract work from the telephone spies and these shadowy corporations have access to all the info on Americans.
Bamford told NPR that the massive NSA spy operations are extremely ineffective with the data. For instance, some of the 9/11 hijackers lived within two miles of NSA headquarters in Laurel, Maryland before 9/11. Although NSA spies were listening, they didn't realize the hijackers were close by, probably even shopping at the same stores.
“The terrorists and the eavesdroppers would coexist in the N.S.A.’s close-knit community like unseeing ghosts,” Bamford writes.
Further, Bamford said there's no one at the NSA that can even translate Pashto, one of the major languages of Afghanistan, in the enormous amount of recorded spy tapes. Listen for more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95689436&ps=cprs
An Israeli newspaper article tells more about those Israeli high-tech spy companies, including Check Point, Verint, Comverse, NICE Systems and PerSay Voice Biometrics, some of which work in data mining and engage in software development for tapping telephones, fax machines and e-mail: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029006.html
Meanwhile, at the US/Mexico border, there has also been concern over Israeli subcontractors of border security technology, including Israel's Elbit Systems, subcontracted by Boeing in the construction of the Arizona spy towers. Elbit was among the companies constructing the Apartheid Wall in Palestine. Those spy towers, multi-million dollar sinkholes, so far have flopped.
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
In case you missed the radio show on NPR, you can still hear how the National Security Administration listens in on overseas phone calls of Americans -- including aid workers, journalists and military -- and laughs about it, while recording every word. This includes the sex talk between husbands and wives.
NSA whistleblowers have come forward and you can listen to the radio shows, and read more about it in James Bamford's "The Shadow Factory."
Bamford said all the telephone service providers, except Qwest, went along with secret spy rooms in their operations, including AT&T and Verizon.
Further, he said Israeli firms subcontract work from the telephone spies and these shadowy corporations have access to all the info on Americans.
Bamford told NPR that the massive NSA spy operations are extremely ineffective with the data. For instance, some of the 9/11 hijackers lived within two miles of NSA headquarters in Laurel, Maryland before 9/11. Although NSA spies were listening, they didn't realize the hijackers were close by, probably even shopping at the same stores.
“The terrorists and the eavesdroppers would coexist in the N.S.A.’s close-knit community like unseeing ghosts,” Bamford writes.
Further, Bamford said there's no one at the NSA that can even translate Pashto, one of the major languages of Afghanistan, in the enormous amount of recorded spy tapes. Listen for more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95689436&ps=cprs
An Israeli newspaper article tells more about those Israeli high-tech spy companies, including Check Point, Verint, Comverse, NICE Systems and PerSay Voice Biometrics, some of which work in data mining and engage in software development for tapping telephones, fax machines and e-mail: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029006.html
Meanwhile, at the US/Mexico border, there has also been concern over Israeli subcontractors of border security technology, including Israel's Elbit Systems, subcontracted by Boeing in the construction of the Arizona spy towers. Elbit was among the companies constructing the Apartheid Wall in Palestine. Those spy towers, multi-million dollar sinkholes, so far have flopped.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Veterans arrested, trampled at debate, war protest
Police charge Iraq veterans with horses, trample and arrest themPhotos by Vietnam Veteran Bill Perry
HEMPSTEAD, NY — Ten members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), a group of military veterans who are calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, were arrested along with at least five civilians outside the final presidential debate at Hofstra University on Wednesday, October 15. The group had been trying to get answers for their questions from the candidates. "Neither of the candidates has shown real support for service members and veterans," said Jason Lemieux, a former Sergeant in the US Marine Corps who served three tours in Iraq, and member of IVAW.The veterans and their supporters were met by riot police as well as police on horseback. After a tense standoff for five minutes, police used their horses to attack the crowd, knocking over and trampling several — including Army Sergeant Nick Morgan (pictured), who suffered a broken cheekbone. Read Reports by Ben Dean-Kawamura by Alex Kane Photo by Bill PerryThe questions IVAW wanted to ask were:* (To Obama): "As President of the United States of America, are you prepared to back up your own words [about the illegality of the Iraq War] and the U.S. Constitution by supporting service members refusing to participate in what you describe as an illegal occupation?"* (To McCain): "What promises are you willing to make, as a veteran, as a senator, as a presidential candidate, to the veterans of the United States, to prove that you will ensure the V.A. is fully funded, staffed and capable of preventing troops from suffering as they are now?" Demands in full: IVAW Send Letter to Schieffer, Plan Protest at Hofstra Univ. Debate
Statement by Iraq Veterans Against the War
Photos by Vietnam Veteran Bill Perry
One hour before the final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, fourteen members of IVAW marched in formation to Hofstra University to present questions for the candidates. IVAW had requested permission from debate moderator Bob Schieffer to ask their questions during the debate but got no response.
The contingent of veterans in dress uniforms and combat uniforms attempted to enter the building where the debate was to be held in order to ask their questions but were turned back by police. The IVAW members at the front of the formation were immediately arrested, and others were pushed back into the crowd by police on horseback. Several members were injured, including former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan who suffered a broken cheekbone when he was trampled by police horses before being arrested.
Watch Democracy Now's coverage of the action.
Indy media NYC article: http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/10/100761.html
RNC Police Tactics v. Iraq Veterans with a Message for the Candidates
Article by Debra Sweet
The World Can't Wait
A group of us from World Can't Wait went to Hostra University yesterday before the debate. Several different groups had messages outside the gates. Immigrant rights activists (Hempstead has a large Salvadoran community) came on a march with student anti-war groups, World Can't Wait, Code Pink and many local activists. The Long Island Alliance of peace/environmental groups, and about 50 Planned Parenthood supporters, along with a mix of Obama supporters had a rally inside a fenced-in "free speech zone." We were all in a kind of fluid mix across a wide turnpike from where the debate was held, while elsewhere, a free concert was held for Obama. All the national media were inside the campus.
Iraq Veterans Against the War had announced last week that they had questions for Obama and McCain about the war and treatment of veterans, and wanted their representatives allowed into ask them. IVAW had a meeting earlier with the local police, assuring them would be non-violent. At 7pm, the deadline they gave the debate organizers for an answer, 15 members of IVAW led a march across the street. At least 100 of us followed them, backing them at the entrance of the campus, and shouting "Let them in!" We were met by a solid line of police on horses, with nearly 100 riot police.
Matthis Chiroux and Kris Goldsmith read the questions they wanted to ask the candidates, and when they stepped forward a few feet to attempt to go on campus, they were arrested. In the next few minutes, a total of 10 IVAW members were arrested, some after standing tog
ether, pushed across the turnpike by cops on horses. They never raised their arms. The horses were used repeatedly to charge into the crowd, and especially at the IVAW members, in uniform, who were able to stay upright for nearly 10 minutes. As we were pushed to the opposite sidewalk, the batons came out, and horses pushed several veterans to the ground, including Geoff Millard. Nick Morgan was stepped on by a horse, and treated at a hospital (only after the other vets demanded it) for a broken cheekbone and possible concussion, then sent on to jail. Two women in the crowd were also hurt by horses.The several veterans who were not arrested spoke to the independent media afterward, full of outrage. Jabar Magruder, who was stationed in Iraq as part of the national guard, said he had not seen people attacked like that since he was in Iraq, and "I don't need to see that here".
Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct and refusal to obey an official order, and released for a November 10 court date. There was almost no mention of this protest in the news today. New York Newsday and The Army Times were the only daily newspapers to cover the story. Local TV affiliates sent cameras after the arrests. See independent media reports:
Democracy Now
The Indypendent
Be the Media
Challenging the Torture State:
MORE Secret Memos: Bush Regime Advocated, Endorsed Torture: An article in Wednesday's Washington Post reveals that, in 2003 and 2004, Bush Regime officials issued a pair of memos to the CIA that explicitly and categorically advocated the use of torture on "suspected terrorists".
Two developments ensued the memos. One - countless bodies and minds were destroyed by the systematic use of water boarding, crushing testicles, sleep deprivation, bodies smeared with dog shit and set upon by German shepherds, savage beatings, and other unimaginably barbaric torments carried out by U.S. intelligence and military officials - in the name of the American people. Two - an endless stream of evasions, distortions, cheap "justifications", equivocations, and of course outright lies by every significant representative of the Bush Regime, starting with Bush himself, from day one right down to today.
Torturing Democracy: This film was shown on PBS WNET in New York tonight, but PBS has delayed showing it nationally until after January 21. You can see it anytime online, and it's well worth the time. Watch the documentary, narrated by Peter Coyote, read the key documents, and see a timeline of US sponsored torture at http://www.torturingdemocracy.org/
W! The film by Oliver Stone opens nationwide today. I know a lot of you Bush opponents will see it. Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney. Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice and Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell. Send me your opinions and reviews!
Debra Sweet, Director,
The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime
Tohono O'odham leaders: Moral question of water and responsibility
PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 16, 2008:Guest Commentary, Tucson Weekly
Tohono O'odham leaders need to tackle the moral question of water and responsibility
By MARK A. RIVERA and KENT WALKER
Photos Mike Wilson at Baboquivari water station by Brenda Norrell/Censored News
Of all the morally troubling aspects of the ongoing border crisis, the most disturbing has to be the growing migrant death toll, including on the Tohono O'odham reservation. Equally troubling is the tribal government's refusal to support humanitarian water stations on its land. The nation has long resisted taking a collective stand against water stations, but recent actions prove it also wants to squash individual action among the O'odham. Over the last seven years, triba
l leadership -- with some justification -- has chosen to blame the federal government for its border-related woes and has sought to receive financial compensation, thereby distracting everyone from the fact that it still refuses to put out water stations or support those who would do it themselves. And as social-justice advocates make clear, the Tohono O'odham do have a choice. They are simply making the wrong one. In early September, Veronica Harvey, the tribe's Baboquivari District chair, ordered tribal law enforcement to remove three water stations maintained by Mike Wilson, an O'odham social-justice activist. The confiscation of Wilson's water stations should have provoked harsh condemnation from Chairman Ned Norris Jr. Norris could have made the case that migrant deaths affect all O'odham. Instead, Norris supported Harvey's authority to take such actions on the grounds that the "tribal Constitution authorizes each district to govern themselves on issues of local concern." The burning question is: Why?Read article: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Opinion/Content?oid=oid:117082
Photo: Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, holds cattle water left behind my migrants in Baboquivari District at one of his water stations. More than 80 migrants died on Tohono O'odham land in the first six months of 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell
Femicide torture case in Chihuahua heads to OAS
October 15, 2008
Women’s/Human Rights News
Femicide Torture Case Heads to OAS
By Lourdes Gonzalez Leal
Frontera NorteSur
A long-running case of state torture and legal chicanery related to the Chihuahua City women’s killings could end up in the Organization of American States (OAS) soon. This week, the Mexico City-based Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (CMDPDH) announced it will take the case of David Meza Argueta to the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. during the December-January time period. The human rights commission regularly makes recommendations to the Mexican government and other member states of the OAS system.
In 2003, Chihuahua City state police agents arrested Meza and accused himof the murder of his 19-year-old cousin, Neyra Azucena Cervantes. Thesuspected body of the young computer school student and retail shop employee was discovered on the Cuernos de Luna hill outside Chihuahua Cityin July 2003. Together with Neyra, the remains of another missing young woman, Minerva Torres, were recovered at the crime scene but concealed from family members for two years by Chihuahua state authorities.
Subsequent probes by the official Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission and other investigators applying the international Istanbul Protocol supported Meza’s contention that he had been tortured and forced into making a false confession by Chihuahua State Judicial Police officers then under the command of the late Vicente Gonzalez and former State Attorney General Jose “Chito” Solis.
Chihuahua Judge Aram Delgado declared Meza innocent in 2006, but only after the young man had spent nearly three years in prison for a crime he said he did not commit. Meza’s case attracted international attention, prompting protests outside Mexican consulates by Mexico solidarity groups abroad.
Although Meza is free, the CMDPDH, supported by the Chihuahua-based Justice for Our Daughters organization, contends that justice is far from being served in the case.
The human rights advocacy organization said it will seek recommendations from the Inter-American Commission to compensate Mesa for his torture and prison time, to publicly recognize the injustice, to investigate and prosecute the torturers, to enact legal mechanisms to prevent similar episodes from occurring in the future, and to carry out an investigation of Neyra’s murder.
“It is also grave and worrisome that the investigation to get the real perpetrators of Neyra Azucena Cervantes’ murder remains without any advance, permitting impunity,” the CMDPDH said in a statement.
“It is inadmissible that after the liberation of Mr. Meza Argueta, the state attorney general’s office is still analyzing the case file without clearly defining the lines of investigation they will follow…”
The CMDPDH contended the Cuerno de la Luna case was linked to a third killing, the Rosalba Pizarro Ortega murder, as well as to the disappearances two young women still missing, Yesenia Concepcion Vega and Julieta Marlen Gonzalez.
Similar to some femicide victims in Ciudad Juarez, many of the Chihuahua City victims had connections to computer schools or were last seen in the downtown section of their city. According to the CMDPDH, Chihuahua state attorney general’s office investigator Sandra Delgado initially uncovered leads pointing to the involvement of organized crime in the Chihuahua City disappearances and murders but the evidence was quietly tucked away and not pursued.
It’s important to note that Neyra Azucena Cervante’s murder occurred more than two years after the first wave of disappearances and the state attorney general’s office.
In its statement, the CMDPDH urged Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza and State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez to compensate Meza and his family for their suffering and to finally clear up the Neyra Azucena Cervantes murder and other femicides. There was no immediate public reaction from Chihuahua state officials to the CMDPDH’s statement.
Sources: Mexican Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights,October 13, 2008. Press statement. Cimacnoticias.com, October 14, 2008.
Article by Lourdes Gonzalez Leal.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
For a free electronic subscription email fnsnews@nmsu.edu
Women’s/Human Rights News
Femicide Torture Case Heads to OAS
By Lourdes Gonzalez Leal
Frontera NorteSur
A long-running case of state torture and legal chicanery related to the Chihuahua City women’s killings could end up in the Organization of American States (OAS) soon. This week, the Mexico City-based Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (CMDPDH) announced it will take the case of David Meza Argueta to the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. during the December-January time period. The human rights commission regularly makes recommendations to the Mexican government and other member states of the OAS system.
In 2003, Chihuahua City state police agents arrested Meza and accused himof the murder of his 19-year-old cousin, Neyra Azucena Cervantes. Thesuspected body of the young computer school student and retail shop employee was discovered on the Cuernos de Luna hill outside Chihuahua Cityin July 2003. Together with Neyra, the remains of another missing young woman, Minerva Torres, were recovered at the crime scene but concealed from family members for two years by Chihuahua state authorities.
Subsequent probes by the official Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission and other investigators applying the international Istanbul Protocol supported Meza’s contention that he had been tortured and forced into making a false confession by Chihuahua State Judicial Police officers then under the command of the late Vicente Gonzalez and former State Attorney General Jose “Chito” Solis.
Chihuahua Judge Aram Delgado declared Meza innocent in 2006, but only after the young man had spent nearly three years in prison for a crime he said he did not commit. Meza’s case attracted international attention, prompting protests outside Mexican consulates by Mexico solidarity groups abroad.
Although Meza is free, the CMDPDH, supported by the Chihuahua-based Justice for Our Daughters organization, contends that justice is far from being served in the case.
The human rights advocacy organization said it will seek recommendations from the Inter-American Commission to compensate Mesa for his torture and prison time, to publicly recognize the injustice, to investigate and prosecute the torturers, to enact legal mechanisms to prevent similar episodes from occurring in the future, and to carry out an investigation of Neyra’s murder.
“It is also grave and worrisome that the investigation to get the real perpetrators of Neyra Azucena Cervantes’ murder remains without any advance, permitting impunity,” the CMDPDH said in a statement.
“It is inadmissible that after the liberation of Mr. Meza Argueta, the state attorney general’s office is still analyzing the case file without clearly defining the lines of investigation they will follow…”
The CMDPDH contended the Cuerno de la Luna case was linked to a third killing, the Rosalba Pizarro Ortega murder, as well as to the disappearances two young women still missing, Yesenia Concepcion Vega and Julieta Marlen Gonzalez.
Similar to some femicide victims in Ciudad Juarez, many of the Chihuahua City victims had connections to computer schools or were last seen in the downtown section of their city. According to the CMDPDH, Chihuahua state attorney general’s office investigator Sandra Delgado initially uncovered leads pointing to the involvement of organized crime in the Chihuahua City disappearances and murders but the evidence was quietly tucked away and not pursued.
It’s important to note that Neyra Azucena Cervante’s murder occurred more than two years after the first wave of disappearances and the state attorney general’s office.
In its statement, the CMDPDH urged Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza and State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez to compensate Meza and his family for their suffering and to finally clear up the Neyra Azucena Cervantes murder and other femicides. There was no immediate public reaction from Chihuahua state officials to the CMDPDH’s statement.
Sources: Mexican Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights,October 13, 2008. Press statement. Cimacnoticias.com, October 14, 2008.
Article by Lourdes Gonzalez Leal.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
For a free electronic subscription email fnsnews@nmsu.edu
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Colombia's 9,000 protesters in danger
Indigenous protesters in Colombia under siegeWednesday, 15 October 2008
We have received news of a stand-off between the Colombian police and a 9,000 strong assembly of workers and peasants in Colombia in the region of Cauca. The workers and peasants are in grave danger as the state is moving in to dislodge them from the Pan-American highway that they have blockaded in the South-West of the country. There has been a wave of mobilisations of the indigenous peasants in Colombia in the last week to coincide with the 512 anniversary of the arrival of the Spanish colonisers. It also coincides with a strike wave, including some 18,000 sugar cane workers, who have declared their solidarity with the indigenous communities. The striking workers of the juridical system, however, seem to have reached an agreement with the government in the last few days. Uribe, the president of Colombia has declared a state of emergency and sent in the para-militarises and the police. Already 35 indigenous activists have been injured in the area, of whom two seriously. Security forces have attacked the unarmed indigenous protesters with everything from machetes to long-range rifles. The indigenous groups are calling for international solidarity. Send protest letters to your local Colombian embassy. See a list here.
Reposted from: http://www.marxist.com/indigenous-protesters-colombia-under-siege.htm
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
In the Spirit of Big Mountain at Alcatraz Island: 'We Discovered ColumBUSH!'
In the Spirit of Big Mountain at Alcatraz Island: “We Discovered ColumBUSH!”
By Bahe Katenay
By Bahe Katenay
Photo: 1978 Longest Walk by Beverly Powless
October 14, 2008 When the opportunity came along for me to take time off work and go to the San Francisco Bay Area, I decided that I have to attend the Sunrise ceremony to honor the Longest Walk participants from 1978 and 2008, and join my indigenous relatives and other non-Native allies. I particularly wanted to remember and honor my mother, Zhonnie Chii Diil’ Katenay, who passed on into the spirit world eleven months ago. My mom has been on Alcatraz Island before for two “Thanksgiving holiday” events. My dad, Jon Keediniihii, told me before I went to the Bay Area and Alcatraz that, he went once but my mom had been to Alcatraz twice: “It has been years ago that we took a boat filled with mostly Indian people and we went out to ‘a small piece of earth’ that was situated in the middle of a large bay. The people made a fire and everyone gathered in a circle around that fire, and your mom was asked to do a prayer for that special gathering of nations. Mom made a beautiful and strong prayer as she always did. After the ceremonies on ‘that little land,’ the late Arlene Hamilton told us that a family from the Berkeley hills had invited us to a feast, and so we all went up into the hills that were across from the city of San Francisco. That was how my travel went back then with Arlene and your mom. Now, it is good to hear that the Indians are still returning to ‘that little piece of land’ to do the ceremonies.”
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-spirit-of-big-mountain-at-alcatraz.html
BAHE UNCENSORED
Read also Bahe Katenay's article, censored by Indian Country Today in 2004, on oil and gas drilling in Navajos' sacred place of origin Dinetah.
Bahe said, “Gas reserves are drilled in places where White Shell Woman was found by Talking God and places where she did her Kinalda (puberty ceremony). Places where the Twin Warrior Gods made their divine deeds are alsodesecrated with drilling, piping, wells and recreation activities. The Dine’ have lost these lands and their ‘puppet’ tribal government have refused to fight for a claim to this area,” Katenay said. Read the censored article:
Indigenous Women Remove Columbus Barrier in Denver Photos
Special thanks to the blog, "Fire Witch Rising," for allowing the Censored News to repost these photos. Thirteen Indigenous women delivered the Treaty of Transformation to the organizers of the Columbus Day Parade in Denver on Saturday. Also read the article by Mano Cockrum, Hopi/Navajo, and find out what the pro-Columbus group did with the Treaty. Describing the courageous action of the Indigenous women as shown in the photos above, Fire Witch wrote, "Protesters head for the barricades to confront the Ugly Americans commemorating a slave-trading, Indian-killer. A delegation of 13 Indigenous women tear down the barricades and take a Treaty of Transformation to the hate speech organizers. The confrontation is accomplished without arrests, and the Transform Columbus Day Alliance leaves the tedious losers to finish their creep show in front of no one. Abolish Columbus Day, fools. Cuz now ya'll are just REALLY embarrassing yourselves," Fire Witch wrote. Double click on images to enlarge. Photos copyright Fire Witch Rising. See more photos and reporting from the scene at the website, Fire With Rising:Alcatraz Sunrise, photos by Bad Bear Sampson
More photosSpecial thanks to Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Paiute/Shoshone from Nevada, for the photos of the Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering on Monday, Oct. 13, 2008. Bad Bear also documented the Longest Walk Northern Route, and Peace and Dignity Journeys in Arizona 2008, with his cellphone. Bad Bear, second from left in photo two in red sweatshirt, is photographed with other members of the Longest Walk Northern Route 2. See more photos of walkers from Nevada and California, along with walkers Aislyn, Harry and Edmund, at the Alcatraz Ceremony:
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Call for help! Algonquins at Barriere Lake in Quebec
CALL FOR HELP! SUPPORT BARRIERE LAKE ALGONQUINS AGAINST QUEBEC POLICE ATTACKS, ARRESTS, BEATINGS, HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSESArticle by Mohawk Nation News
Photos: Barriere Lake community
Oct. 12, 2008. On Monday, October 6, 2008, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake had enough and blocked Highway 117 in Northern Quebec. They want Canada and Quebec to live up to the "trilateral agreement" signed in 1991 between the 3 parties. The Algonquins have a right to sustainably develop and co-manage their traditional territories and to have a share in resource revenues. Canada and Quebec obviously believe in stealing but not sharing. Isn't that the "slippery slope" that multinational corporations are sliding into right now? They refuse to comply with the agreement which would save the environment.
Rotten to the core, Canada and Quebec responded to the blocked road by sending in almost 100 Quebec police, some fully-equipped riot police, to attack the Algonquins to get out of
negotiations. Tear gas was shot into a group of youth and elders. One canister hit a handicapped person in the chest. Nine people, including; an elderly women, a pregnant woman, and two minors, were arrested. Severe "pain compliance" techniques were used on peaceful men, women and children who had secured themselves to concrete-filled barrels. The cops twisted their arms, dislocated their jaws, left them with bruised faces and sore necks and throats from the tear gas.
To view the video of brutal police attack, go to http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/. The Algonquins of Barriere Lake intend to demonstrate until Canada's Conservative government and Quebec honor signed agreements and Barriere Lake's leadership customs.
Rotten to the core, Canada and Quebec responded to the blocked road by sending in almost 100 Quebec police, some fully-equipped riot police, to attack the Algonquins to get out of
negotiations. Tear gas was shot into a group of youth and elders. One canister hit a handicapped person in the chest. Nine people, including; an elderly women, a pregnant woman, and two minors, were arrested. Severe "pain compliance" techniques were used on peaceful men, women and children who had secured themselves to concrete-filled barrels. The cops twisted their arms, dislocated their jaws, left them with bruised faces and sore necks and throats from the tear gas.To view the video of brutal police attack, go to http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/. The Algonquins of Barriere Lake intend to demonstrate until Canada's Conservative government and Quebec honor signed agreements and Barriere Lake's leadership customs.
Read article:
Treaty of Transformation: 13 Indigenous Women in Denver Deliver Message of Hope
Thirteen Indigenous women delivered the Treaty of Transformation to Columbus Day Parade organizers in Denver. Read what the Columbus celebrators did with the Treaty.
Article and photo by Mano Cockrum
DENVER -- The events to resist the legacy of Columbus are not even over, but I believe a new direction for this movement has arrived and was received with a welcome sigh of relief, some tears, a little resistance, but all in all a symbolic gesture of a new beginning for Denver communities needing to heal their grieving hearts from the decimation of our relatives and continued genocide as a constant reminder.
Today, 13 indigenous women walked into the parade and read a Treaty of Transformation to the parade organizers. Upon our approach, George Vendegnia was yelling "Columbus discovered America!" and "It's a free country!" as we read the following declaration presented today to the organizers of this parade.
Not only is George an advocate of celebrating the "discoverer" Columbus every year with a parade containing everything from hateful anti-abortion and homophobic billboard trucks, to anti-indian messages, he is also a member of the minute men of Colorado. To George, I.C.E. is like Nice, just without that pesky "N."
When presented with the Treaty in a last final gesture, he and other men marching in the parade jumped back.
George recoiled in disgust and exclaimed to the other men, "Don't even touch it!"
Article and photo by Mano Cockrum
DENVER -- The events to resist the legacy of Columbus are not even over, but I believe a new direction for this movement has arrived and was received with a welcome sigh of relief, some tears, a little resistance, but all in all a symbolic gesture of a new beginning for Denver communities needing to heal their grieving hearts from the decimation of our relatives and continued genocide as a constant reminder.
Today, 13 indigenous women walked into the parade and read a Treaty of Transformation to the parade organizers. Upon our approach, George Vendegnia was yelling "Columbus discovered America!" and "It's a free country!" as we read the following declaration presented today to the organizers of this parade.
Not only is George an advocate of celebrating the "discoverer" Columbus every year with a parade containing everything from hateful anti-abortion and homophobic billboard trucks, to anti-indian messages, he is also a member of the minute men of Colorado. To George, I.C.E. is like Nice, just without that pesky "N."
When presented with the Treaty in a last final gesture, he and other men marching in the parade jumped back.
George recoiled in disgust and exclaimed to the other men, "Don't even touch it!"
I won't forget exiting the street before the final warning was issued and we would then be arrested if still in it. I was holding the hand of a little elderly woman and when we got back to the sidewalk she starting crying, and we held onto each other and cried some. All the intention of what we did, and facing up to the depravity and ancestral anguish which the parade symbolizes had reached a point in which a healing gesture had begun with us. The past 19 years of rebuffed attempts of similar offerings for dialogue over transforming the Columbus Day holiday weighed heavy on our hearts.
We had another choice after leaving the streets -- should we take back the treaty from where it lay on the street, or leave it? We left it and the parade continued, driving and walking over the large posterboard with the declaration on it.
The complete disregard for us, the refusal to communicate, and outright rejection of our offering, were trying minutes for all of the 13 women. I thank all of them for their bravery and hope and know we can recognize they are and have been the backbones in our movements, communities and very survival.
After the letter is also a copy of the message given to the people attending the March and Rally today before the women headed into the streets.
October 11, 2008: Treaty of Transformation
We thirteen women represent a large community of healing indigenous elders, two spirit people, women, men, and children. Our delegation is comprised of many different indigenous ancestries, not just from this territory-but from all reaches of the continent. We stand before you today in the interests of mutual respect and peace for your community, as well as that of our own. We deeply respect the heritage and history of the Italian community, and are in fact supported by several individuals of Italian descent in our resistance.
The historical legacy of Columbus, for us, represents one of greed, which has led to the exploitation of Mother Earth and the genocide and enslavement of indigenous peoples worldwide. Our efforts to create an educational dialogue between both the community of indigenous peoples, and those who celebrate the legacy of Columbus have not yet been realized
-- and today, we hope to remedy that fact.
As women, we are keepers of the seeds -- or rather, protectors of the children and the plants. This includes your children. We hope to reach a diplomatic relationship with the next generation of your community, and to abandon all hatred and meet in good faith to reach peace for the sake of the future, as well as all of our ancestors.
Today, we intend to transform the relationship between the communities present, and work towards healing alongside all elders, two spirit people, women, men, and children. We welcome you to a community dialogue later today, and pray for more than just harmonious co-existence, but the appreciation for the history and future of ALL peoples, including those who grade-school history books may have conveniently written out of the picture.
Please hear our effort to create peace, and examine the genocidal legacy of the person you have ordained a hero, because all of our children deserve to know the truth of the past in its entirety, so that they can have the educational tools to forge a balanced future.
The Delegation of Thirteen Women
A Treaty of Transformation
The Latest Initiative to Find Common Ground
In a few moments, a group of thirteen indigenous women will walk down to the route of the Columbus Parade, will enter the parade route, and will serve as ambassadors from the indigenous community to the parade organizers. On behalf of indigenous children, elders, women and men, the delegation will offer a Treaty of Transformation to the parade participants. It will ask them, once again, in the interests of mutual respect and peace for our community, to meet in good faith, to abandon the hatred and the ill will of the past, and to help to forge a new future for our succeeding generations.
The delegation is comprised of thirteen women, in memory and in honor of the thousands of groups of thirteen indigenous people throughout the Caribbean who were hanged and burned to death by Columbus and his subordinates. Countless Native people were murdered, in lots of thirteen, in honor of Jesus and his twelve disciples. Today, the delegation of thirteen indigenous women is evidence that Columbus and his men failed in their attempted conquest. The thirteen could not be killed; they still survive, still dream, still struggle for justice and for freedom, for ourselves and for our future generations, undefeated in our homeland, forever.
So, we ask, as these thirteen walk to the parade route, that we all support them, but that when they reach the parade route only the thirteen enter the street. We ask that others support, and serve witness to their principled and determined initiative for the betterment of all of our children, from behind the barricades. Once the treaty has been delivered, and the parade organizers respond, the delegation will return to the group, and will leave to conduct our afternoon Council at the Iliff School of Theology. If there is anyone who cannot respect this request, we ask that you not accompany the delegation to the parade route. Of course, once the delegation has exited from the street, every person is free to express her/his sentiments about the parade as their conscience dictates.
We thank you in advance for respecting our requests in this action,
American Indian Movement of Colorado
Indigenous Youth Sovereignty Project
Mano
www.iysp.org
We had another choice after leaving the streets -- should we take back the treaty from where it lay on the street, or leave it? We left it and the parade continued, driving and walking over the large posterboard with the declaration on it.
The complete disregard for us, the refusal to communicate, and outright rejection of our offering, were trying minutes for all of the 13 women. I thank all of them for their bravery and hope and know we can recognize they are and have been the backbones in our movements, communities and very survival.
After the letter is also a copy of the message given to the people attending the March and Rally today before the women headed into the streets.
October 11, 2008: Treaty of Transformation
We thirteen women represent a large community of healing indigenous elders, two spirit people, women, men, and children. Our delegation is comprised of many different indigenous ancestries, not just from this territory-but from all reaches of the continent. We stand before you today in the interests of mutual respect and peace for your community, as well as that of our own. We deeply respect the heritage and history of the Italian community, and are in fact supported by several individuals of Italian descent in our resistance.
The historical legacy of Columbus, for us, represents one of greed, which has led to the exploitation of Mother Earth and the genocide and enslavement of indigenous peoples worldwide. Our efforts to create an educational dialogue between both the community of indigenous peoples, and those who celebrate the legacy of Columbus have not yet been realized
-- and today, we hope to remedy that fact.
As women, we are keepers of the seeds -- or rather, protectors of the children and the plants. This includes your children. We hope to reach a diplomatic relationship with the next generation of your community, and to abandon all hatred and meet in good faith to reach peace for the sake of the future, as well as all of our ancestors.
Today, we intend to transform the relationship between the communities present, and work towards healing alongside all elders, two spirit people, women, men, and children. We welcome you to a community dialogue later today, and pray for more than just harmonious co-existence, but the appreciation for the history and future of ALL peoples, including those who grade-school history books may have conveniently written out of the picture.
Please hear our effort to create peace, and examine the genocidal legacy of the person you have ordained a hero, because all of our children deserve to know the truth of the past in its entirety, so that they can have the educational tools to forge a balanced future.
The Delegation of Thirteen Women
A Treaty of Transformation
The Latest Initiative to Find Common Ground
In a few moments, a group of thirteen indigenous women will walk down to the route of the Columbus Parade, will enter the parade route, and will serve as ambassadors from the indigenous community to the parade organizers. On behalf of indigenous children, elders, women and men, the delegation will offer a Treaty of Transformation to the parade participants. It will ask them, once again, in the interests of mutual respect and peace for our community, to meet in good faith, to abandon the hatred and the ill will of the past, and to help to forge a new future for our succeeding generations.
The delegation is comprised of thirteen women, in memory and in honor of the thousands of groups of thirteen indigenous people throughout the Caribbean who were hanged and burned to death by Columbus and his subordinates. Countless Native people were murdered, in lots of thirteen, in honor of Jesus and his twelve disciples. Today, the delegation of thirteen indigenous women is evidence that Columbus and his men failed in their attempted conquest. The thirteen could not be killed; they still survive, still dream, still struggle for justice and for freedom, for ourselves and for our future generations, undefeated in our homeland, forever.
So, we ask, as these thirteen walk to the parade route, that we all support them, but that when they reach the parade route only the thirteen enter the street. We ask that others support, and serve witness to their principled and determined initiative for the betterment of all of our children, from behind the barricades. Once the treaty has been delivered, and the parade organizers respond, the delegation will return to the group, and will leave to conduct our afternoon Council at the Iliff School of Theology. If there is anyone who cannot respect this request, we ask that you not accompany the delegation to the parade route. Of course, once the delegation has exited from the street, every person is free to express her/his sentiments about the parade as their conscience dictates.
We thank you in advance for respecting our requests in this action,
American Indian Movement of Colorado
Indigenous Youth Sovereignty Project
Mano
www.iysp.org
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Mohawk Nation News: The Capitalist party is over!
THE CAPITALIST PARTY IS OVER! DARK DAYS BEFORE CLEARING SKIES
Mohawk Nation News
Oct. 11, 2008. The stock market crash could be the best thing that ever happened to save the planet. The pollution from the skies will clear so that we can see the horizon once more. The Wall Street bankers are surprised that people are not reacting yet or cracking up. Angry words, yes! But watch out! We’re getting all our affairs in order. Governments and wars can't be run without money. So what will happen to all our differences? We might have to talk to each other like human beings. The secret government/oligarch “mobsters” anticipated the current unfolding of events, the collapse of the US economy, the panic, the outrage and the “domino effect” around the world. The corporate media hid it from us. We can thank alternate internet media for cluing us in! The mobsters anticipated the angry backlash of the people and prepared for it. However, they overlooked our Indigenous creativity, resourcefulness and perseverance. As we watch the demise of the exploitation of our lands and resources, we are seeing a show that is over and no one is clapping for an encore. The liars have been caught. It’ll never be the same again. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/mohawk-nation-news-capitalist-party-is.html
Mohawk Nation News
Oct. 11, 2008. The stock market crash could be the best thing that ever happened to save the planet. The pollution from the skies will clear so that we can see the horizon once more. The Wall Street bankers are surprised that people are not reacting yet or cracking up. Angry words, yes! But watch out! We’re getting all our affairs in order. Governments and wars can't be run without money. So what will happen to all our differences? We might have to talk to each other like human beings. The secret government/oligarch “mobsters” anticipated the current unfolding of events, the collapse of the US economy, the panic, the outrage and the “domino effect” around the world. The corporate media hid it from us. We can thank alternate internet media for cluing us in! The mobsters anticipated the angry backlash of the people and prepared for it. However, they overlooked our Indigenous creativity, resourcefulness and perseverance. As we watch the demise of the exploitation of our lands and resources, we are seeing a show that is over and no one is clapping for an encore. The liars have been caught. It’ll never be the same again. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/mohawk-nation-news-capitalist-party-is.html
How advertisers use dollars to control and silence people
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
In case you noticed the alarming, large advertisements by the CIA Clandestine Services on the front web page of a national American Indian newspaper this week, or the ad by the FBI as one of the main sponsors of the upcoming National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Phoenix, it is good to remember how advertisers and funders control the media and organizations.
First, for newspapers, there is the outpouring of dollars for large ad spaces in prime sites. For Indian organizations, there is financial backing for events or programs.
When the newspaper, or Indian organization, does something the funder doesn't like, they often threaten to halt the advertising dollars. "We can't go along with that," they say, or "We can't support you if you do this ..."
If it means losing a large sum of money, the publisher or Indian organization is likely to concede to the demands. This may mean refusing to publish an article, firing a staff member, dropping a columnist or speaker, or halting the spread of certain ideas and issues. This is one reason that the media in the United States is heavily censored now, as advertising dollars dry up and sales decline.
Sometimes, the funder doesn't have to say anything, by accepting the dollars, compliance is bought and sold.
Along the US/Mexico border, the threat of the loss of US dollars in appropriations often means that elected Native American officials will not voice the truth about Homeland Security and the construction of the US border wall. The issues of Indian sovereignty, desecration of burial places and the violation of federal environmental laws are silenced.
During NCAI's convention in Phoenix in October, will those border issues be presented? Will the truth be told about the worldwide carbon scam, which offers fictional carbon credits to enrich the World Bank?
Will the assassinations of Indigenous Peoples by mining corporations in the Americas be exposed, or the diseases resulting from mining, power plants, drilling and pollution in Indian country in the US and Canada be addressed?
Will the casino rich tribes in southern Arizona, with the crowds pouring into their casinos, explain why so many of their own members are still living in poverty?
Years ago, one of the Hopi elders, Dan Evehema, sitting on a couch at his home on the Hopi mesa, warned: "Don't take grant funding, they will control you."
Urging Hopi to resist the formation of the US puppet tribal council, Evehema was among the Hopi Sinom that warned if coal mining was carried out on Black Mesa, and Navajos were relocated to make way for the mining, calamities would occur in the world, including natural disasters.
Meanwhile, watch the advertisements for sponsors and financial backers. These will tell you a great deal about who is really in control and why you are reading, hearing and seeing, what is in front of you.
As always, follow the money and resist.
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
In case you noticed the alarming, large advertisements by the CIA Clandestine Services on the front web page of a national American Indian newspaper this week, or the ad by the FBI as one of the main sponsors of the upcoming National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Phoenix, it is good to remember how advertisers and funders control the media and organizations.
First, for newspapers, there is the outpouring of dollars for large ad spaces in prime sites. For Indian organizations, there is financial backing for events or programs.
When the newspaper, or Indian organization, does something the funder doesn't like, they often threaten to halt the advertising dollars. "We can't go along with that," they say, or "We can't support you if you do this ..."
If it means losing a large sum of money, the publisher or Indian organization is likely to concede to the demands. This may mean refusing to publish an article, firing a staff member, dropping a columnist or speaker, or halting the spread of certain ideas and issues. This is one reason that the media in the United States is heavily censored now, as advertising dollars dry up and sales decline.
Sometimes, the funder doesn't have to say anything, by accepting the dollars, compliance is bought and sold.
Along the US/Mexico border, the threat of the loss of US dollars in appropriations often means that elected Native American officials will not voice the truth about Homeland Security and the construction of the US border wall. The issues of Indian sovereignty, desecration of burial places and the violation of federal environmental laws are silenced.
During NCAI's convention in Phoenix in October, will those border issues be presented? Will the truth be told about the worldwide carbon scam, which offers fictional carbon credits to enrich the World Bank?
Will the assassinations of Indigenous Peoples by mining corporations in the Americas be exposed, or the diseases resulting from mining, power plants, drilling and pollution in Indian country in the US and Canada be addressed?
Will the casino rich tribes in southern Arizona, with the crowds pouring into their casinos, explain why so many of their own members are still living in poverty?
Years ago, one of the Hopi elders, Dan Evehema, sitting on a couch at his home on the Hopi mesa, warned: "Don't take grant funding, they will control you."
Urging Hopi to resist the formation of the US puppet tribal council, Evehema was among the Hopi Sinom that warned if coal mining was carried out on Black Mesa, and Navajos were relocated to make way for the mining, calamities would occur in the world, including natural disasters.
Meanwhile, watch the advertisements for sponsors and financial backers. These will tell you a great deal about who is really in control and why you are reading, hearing and seeing, what is in front of you.
As always, follow the money and resist.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Native American Music Awards 10th annual ceremony
Iroquois Dancers; CornBread's John Buck; Janelle Turtle, Best Native American Church Recording; Cherokee National Youth Choir, Best Inspirational Recording; NightShield, Best Single, with Wayquay ; Houston Geronimo, Rickey Medlocke, Lance White Magpie/NAMMY Photos.
TENTH ANNUAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED BLACKFIRE & NATIVE ROOTS TOP THE AWARDS WITH TWO
LYNYRD SKYNYRD’S RICKEY MEDLOCKE, REDBONE AMONG THOSE HONORED
BY NAMMYs
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – On Saturday October 4, 2008 the Tenth Annual Native American Music Awards (N.A.M.A.) was held at the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in Niagara Falls, New York and awarded over 35 artists in a four hour event with 12 onstage presentations and special Hall of Fame inductions and performances that had the packed crowd dancing on their feet. The growing success of the Awards show is now setting industry standards for professional Native American musicians who want to achieve greater acceptance and exposure from mainstream audiences. Taking two honors each was; the New Mexico-based Reggae group, Native Roots and the Arizona-based punk rock/Alter Native band, Blackfire. Native Roots’ recording, Celebrate won for Best World Music Recording and earned them Group of the Year. Native Roots gave a high-energy live performance with their messages of pride, unity, and respect among all nations. Blackfire, is comprised of two brothers and a sister with a style that encompasses traditional Native American music with rock that bears socio-political and human rights messages. Blackfire’s (Silence) Is A Weapon won Record of the Year and their producer Ed Stasium (Ramones) took the Native Heart award. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/blackfire-and-native-roots-top-nammy.html
WINNERS LIST
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Jim Boyd, Blues To Bluegrass
BEST BLUES RECORDING: Deep Downtown, Jimmy Wolf
BEST COMPILATION RECORDING: Old Style Round Dance Songs Various
BEST COUNTRY RECORDING: No Lies Tracy Bone
DEBUT ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Cheryl Bear, The Good Road
DEBUT GROUP OF THE YEAR: Injunuity, Unconquered
BEST FEMALE ARTIST: Nicole, Deep Dreams
BEST FOLK RECORDING: Where The Green Grass Grows, The Crow Girls
FLUTIST OF THE YEAR: Jan Michael Looking Wolf, Unity
BEST GOSPEL/INSPIRATIONAL RECORDING: Precious Memories, Cherokee National Youth Choir
GROUP OF THE YEAR: Native Roots, Celebrate
BEST HISTORICAL RECORDING: Chief Seattle Speaks 1854, Red Hawk
BEST INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING: Mirror Lake by Golana
BEST MALE ARTIST: Edmund Bull, Follow Your Dreams
BEST NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH RECORDING: New Beginning by Janelle Turtle
BEST NEW AGE RECORDING: Homeland Security by Carroll Medicine Crow
BEST POP RECORDING: Phoenix by Fara Palmer
BEST POW WOW RECORDING: Hear The Beat by Blackfoot Confederacy
BEST PRODUCER: Adrian Brown, Tim Sampson, Jonathon Joss, Charles Button for Still No Good
BEST RAP HIP HOP RECORDING: Native American Hustle, Dago Braves
RECORD OF THE YEAR: (Silence) Is A Weapon, Blackfire
BEST ROCK RECORDING: The Sun & The Earth, Stevie Salas
SONG/SINGLE OF THE YEAR: Broken Dreams by Nightshield
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR: Star Nayea, Silenced My Tongue
BEST SPOKEN WORD RECORDING: The Story Tellers by Ken Quiet Hawk
BEST TRADITIONAL RECORDING: Traditional Navajo Shoe Songs, Gilbert Begay Sr
BEST SHORT FORM MUSIC VIDEO: The Enlightened Time by Jana
BEST LONG FORM MUSIC VIDEO: Live At Mt Rushmore by Brule’ & AIRO
BEST WORLD MUSIC RECORDING: Celebrate by Native Roots
NATIVE HEART: Ed Stasium, (Silence) Is A Weapon
http://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/
All photos copyright 2008 Kimberlie Acosta & 2008 Native American Music Awards Inc.
Cauca in Colombia protest free trade and Bush-backed policies
Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca
ACIN Santander de Quilichao, Colombia Contact: Manuel Rozental (011) 57-311-339-7341
Email: acincauca@yahoo.es
ACIN Santander de Quilichao, Colombia Contact: Manuel Rozental (011) 57-311-339-7341
Email: acincauca@yahoo.es
AP photo
Indigenous Communities in Colombia Mobilize to Protest U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Plan Colombia and the Policies of the Bush-Backed Uribe Government
October 12-13th, Mass Protests are Planned Throughout the Country
The Commotion of the People
Today, four years after the First Itinerant Congress of the Peoples, we, the indigenous communities of northern Cauca, reiterate its message and validity and continue through the path we walked back then, a march that was weaved through centuries of memory and resistance.
Indigenous Communities in Colombia Mobilize to Protest U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Plan Colombia and the Policies of the Bush-Backed Uribe Government
October 12-13th, Mass Protests are Planned Throughout the Country
The Commotion of the People
Today, four years after the First Itinerant Congress of the Peoples, we, the indigenous communities of northern Cauca, reiterate its message and validity and continue through the path we walked back then, a march that was weaved through centuries of memory and resistance.
On the anniversary of the Indigenous and Popular Mandate we call for the people to mobilize for liberty and against the tyranny of the regime. Read article:
Thursday, October 9, 2008
US-trained Zetas are killers worldwide
US created monsters:
US trained Zetas and Kaibiles, killers and death squads worldwide
Guatemalan Kaibiles, notorious death squads trained by US Special Forces -- known for disemboweling pregnant Mayan women in Guatemala and Chiapas at Acteal -- also have been working for the cartels. Both Zetas and Kaibiles have been hired as mercenaries in Iraq. Kaibiles were even hired as UN Peacekeepers in the Congo. So-called Peacekeepers have been killing and raping in Haiti, the Congo and Bosnia. (Photo Kaibil in Congo /Militaryphotos.net)
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
TUCSON --The death squads of the Zetas, trained at the US School of the Americas, are now carrying out murders for Mexican drug cartels and hired as killers in Iraq. The Kaibiles, Guatemalan death squads trained by US Special Forces, are now responsible for murders and rapes in the Congo and around the world. In Mexico, US trained death squads attack and murder Indigenous Peoples, including the Zapatistas, struggling for dignity, autonomy and survival. The United States training of death squads and torturers is one of the most censored issues in the media.
Urging news reporters to report the facts, reader Swaneagle writes, "The following is critical under-reported urgent news. Zetas are mutinous Mexican army troops who graduated from School of the Americas. Hired by the cartels, they are directly responsible for an astounding rise in brutal, grisly killings, including many of the murders of women in Juarez, which are up to 75 this year. " Zetas have also been hired as mercenaries in Iraq. The spread of the SOA template must be halted."
In Fort Benning, Georgia, the US School of the Americas Watch continues to protest the torture training of Latin American leaders who carry out the heinous crimes. In conjunction, protesters at Fort Huachuca's US Army Intelligence Center and School demand a halt to torture training. The "No to Torture" movement has exposed the role of Fort Huachuca, located in southeastern Arizona, in publication of the SOA's first torture training manual, made public in 1996. During the Iraq war, Fort Huachuca also trained army personnel responsible for the torture of detainees at Abu-Ghraib.
In Tucson, a weekend to end torture will be held Nov. 14 - 16, 2008, beginning with a talk by Col. Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience. Col. Wright is a retired US Army Reserves colonel, with 29 years of military service and a career US diplomat. She resigned from the diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. She was in the news recently when Canada denied her entry.
Featured during Tucson's weekend to halt torture is the Theater of the Oppressed, a live performance of Nightwind by Hector Aristizabal. Torture survivor Aristizabal is a native of Medellin, Colombia and currently living in Pasadena, CA.
Following the theater, there will be a "No to Torture Candlelight Procession," to the federal building downtown, followed by a vigil. The "No to Torture Rally," on Sunday, Nov. 16, will be followed by a procession and presence at the Ft. Huachuca main gate Veterans Memorial Park at 3105 E. Fry Blvd in Sierra Vista. There will also be a presence at one of the private contractor's offices nearby. The events are sponsored by Southwest Witness, Tucson SOA Watch, and Torture on Trialin solidarity with SOA Watch and their annual Vigil & Action at Ft. Benning.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/us-created-monsters-zetas-and-kaibiles.html
More information: http://southwestwitness.org/ and http://tortureontrial.org/
US trained Zetas and Kaibiles, killers and death squads worldwide
Guatemalan Kaibiles, notorious death squads trained by US Special Forces -- known for disemboweling pregnant Mayan women in Guatemala and Chiapas at Acteal -- also have been working for the cartels. Both Zetas and Kaibiles have been hired as mercenaries in Iraq. Kaibiles were even hired as UN Peacekeepers in the Congo. So-called Peacekeepers have been killing and raping in Haiti, the Congo and Bosnia. (Photo Kaibil in Congo /Militaryphotos.net)
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
TUCSON --The death squads of the Zetas, trained at the US School of the Americas, are now carrying out murders for Mexican drug cartels and hired as killers in Iraq. The Kaibiles, Guatemalan death squads trained by US Special Forces, are now responsible for murders and rapes in the Congo and around the world. In Mexico, US trained death squads attack and murder Indigenous Peoples, including the Zapatistas, struggling for dignity, autonomy and survival. The United States training of death squads and torturers is one of the most censored issues in the media.
Urging news reporters to report the facts, reader Swaneagle writes, "The following is critical under-reported urgent news. Zetas are mutinous Mexican army troops who graduated from School of the Americas. Hired by the cartels, they are directly responsible for an astounding rise in brutal, grisly killings, including many of the murders of women in Juarez, which are up to 75 this year. " Zetas have also been hired as mercenaries in Iraq. The spread of the SOA template must be halted."
In Fort Benning, Georgia, the US School of the Americas Watch continues to protest the torture training of Latin American leaders who carry out the heinous crimes. In conjunction, protesters at Fort Huachuca's US Army Intelligence Center and School demand a halt to torture training. The "No to Torture" movement has exposed the role of Fort Huachuca, located in southeastern Arizona, in publication of the SOA's first torture training manual, made public in 1996. During the Iraq war, Fort Huachuca also trained army personnel responsible for the torture of detainees at Abu-Ghraib.
In Tucson, a weekend to end torture will be held Nov. 14 - 16, 2008, beginning with a talk by Col. Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience. Col. Wright is a retired US Army Reserves colonel, with 29 years of military service and a career US diplomat. She resigned from the diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. She was in the news recently when Canada denied her entry.
Featured during Tucson's weekend to halt torture is the Theater of the Oppressed, a live performance of Nightwind by Hector Aristizabal. Torture survivor Aristizabal is a native of Medellin, Colombia and currently living in Pasadena, CA.
Following the theater, there will be a "No to Torture Candlelight Procession," to the federal building downtown, followed by a vigil. The "No to Torture Rally," on Sunday, Nov. 16, will be followed by a procession and presence at the Ft. Huachuca main gate Veterans Memorial Park at 3105 E. Fry Blvd in Sierra Vista. There will also be a presence at one of the private contractor's offices nearby. The events are sponsored by Southwest Witness, Tucson SOA Watch, and Torture on Trialin solidarity with SOA Watch and their annual Vigil & Action at Ft. Benning.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/us-created-monsters-zetas-and-kaibiles.html
More information: http://southwestwitness.org/ and http://tortureontrial.org/
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Police attack Algonquin children, peaceful protesters
An Algonquin man is hospitalized after Quebec police shot him in the c
hest with a tear-gas canister. A disabled teenage girl was also treated with oxygen in the local Health Clinic. Twenty two children under eight and two babies were caught in the tear gas shot by the police.Contact information:
Marylynn Poucachiche,
Barriere Lake spokesperson : 819 - 435 - 2171
Canada and Quebec use riot police, tear gas, and 'pain compliance' on peaceful Algonquin families to avoid negotiations. 'Pain compliance' is perfect description of Conservative's aboriginal policy, say community spokespeople
By Barriere Lake Community
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
KITIGANIK, RAPID LAKE, Algonquin Territory -- The Conservative government and Quebec used riot police, tear gas, and "pain compliance" techniques to end a peaceful blockade erected by Algonquin families from Barriere Lake, rather than negotiate, as requested by the community.
The blockade on Highway 117 in Northern Quebec began at 6:00am Monday, with nearly a hundred communit
y members of all ages and their supporters promising to remain until Canada's Conservative government and Quebec honoured signed agreements and Barriere Lake's leadership customs. Around 4 pm, nearly sixty Quebec officers and riot police encircled families after a meal. Without warning, police launched tear gas canisters, one of which hit a child in the chest."Our demands are reasonable," said Norman Matchewan, a spokesperson who was racially slurred by Minister Lawrence Cannon's assistant earlier in the election. "We're only asking for the government to uphold the agreements they've signed and to stop illegally interfering in our customary governance. The message we've received today is that Stephen Harper and Jean Charest are unwilling to even play by their rules."
"We will not tolerate these brutal violations of our rights," added Matchewan. "Forestry operations will not be allowed on our Trilateral agreement territory, and we will be doing mor
e non-violent direct action."Nine people, including an elderly women, a pregnant woman, and two minors, were roughly arrested. While a line of police obscured the view of human rights observers from Christian Peacemaker Teams, officers used severe "pain compliance" techniques on protestors who had secured themselves to concrete-filled barrels, twisting arms, dislocating jaws, leaving them with bruised faces and trouble swallowing.
"In this election alone, the Conservatives have labelled us alcoholics and vilified our community's majority as 'dissidents,'" said Michel Thusky, another community spokesperson, referring to an op-ed published by Minister Lawrence Cannon in regional newspapers. "Now they and Quebec have chosen violence over meeting their most basic obligations to our community. 'Pain compliance' is the perfect description of the Conservative government's aboriginal policies."
Barriere Lake community members had promised to maintain the blockade until the Government of Canada honoured the 1991
Trilateral agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.To end federal interference in their leadership customs, they wanted the Government of Canada to appoint observers to witness a leadership reselection according to their codified customary selection code, respect its outcome, and then cease interfering in their internal governance.
Please take 15 minutes to phone or fax a letter to some of the following:
* Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada ( fax: 613-941-6900 )
* Lawrence Cannon, Transportation Minister and MP for Pontiac (613 992-2940 Fax: 613 944-9376 )
* Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs ( 819 997-0002 Fax: 819-953-4941 )
Use some of the following points (along with your own):
* The government should immediately cease its intimidation tactics and threats of violence
* The Federal government should honor the trilateral agreement it signed with Barriere Lake
* Express support for the Barriere Lake community’s struggle for the right to choose its own leadership
* The federal government should immediately stop interfering in Barriere Lake ’s internal affairs
Media Contacts:
Michel Thusky, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 - 435 - 2171; Norman Matchewan, Barriere Lake spokesperson : 514 - 831 - 6902; Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière: www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com
barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com 514.398.7432
Join the IEN Newsletter! https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/subscription.php?username=ienearth Clayton Thomas-Muller; Indigenous Environmental Network ; Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign
2-94 Charlotte ST. Ottawa, Ontario; Canada K1N 8K2; Home Office: 613 789 5653 ; Cell: 218 760 6632
NEW WEB PAGE! http://www.ienearth.org/cits.html
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Ben Carnes: What have you done for Leonard Peltier today?
By Ben Carnes 
Oct. 7, 2008
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
What have you done for Peltier Today ... is basically a reminder and challenge to everyone that while we sometimes complain about the price of gas to drive to a ceremony, my brother Leonard cannot have the luxury of dealing with everyday problems. The reality of fuel being $2 more than it was five years ago is cause for concern, but how many of us truly express our concern for Peltier? Have we scraped the "Free Leonard Peltier" bumper sticker off our vehicles and do our copies of "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" and "Incident at Oglala" sit in a box somewhere? If this is what some people have done, then Leonard does not exist in their state of mind. And I would like to see this change. Maybe I see the 30 plus-year campaign to free Leonard differently based upon my experiences.
Read column:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/ben-carnes-what-have-you-done-for.html
Photo: Ben Carnes, Choctaw, reads a statement from Leonard Peltier outside the federal courthouse in Denver during the Democratic National Convention 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell
Oct. 7, 2008
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
What have you done for Peltier Today ... is basically a reminder and challenge to everyone that while we sometimes complain about the price of gas to drive to a ceremony, my brother Leonard cannot have the luxury of dealing with everyday problems. The reality of fuel being $2 more than it was five years ago is cause for concern, but how many of us truly express our concern for Peltier? Have we scraped the "Free Leonard Peltier" bumper sticker off our vehicles and do our copies of "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" and "Incident at Oglala" sit in a box somewhere? If this is what some people have done, then Leonard does not exist in their state of mind. And I would like to see this change. Maybe I see the 30 plus-year campaign to free Leonard differently based upon my experiences.
Read column:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/ben-carnes-what-have-you-done-for.html
Photo: Ben Carnes, Choctaw, reads a statement from Leonard Peltier outside the federal courthouse in Denver during the Democratic National Convention 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell
While Bush regime pillages, people march against wall in El Paso
While the US economy sinks thanks to the thieves of Wall Street, the people of El Paso continue to fight against the Border Wall
By Carlos MarentesCensored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
EL PASO, Texas -- While the Bush regime was rewarding 700 billion dollars to the thieves responsible for the financial pillage, we completed another week of daily protests against the border wall. While Bush was giving away taxpayers' money to Wall Street, with the enthusiastic support of both Democrats and Republicans, and of course Obama and McCain, we intensified our acts of opposition against the infamous 7.5 million dollars per mile wall being built by the Kiewit Corporation of Omaha, Nebraska. Kiewit is not only one of the largest recipients of juicy government contracts, but the CEO of Kiewit was also one of the most generous contributors to the Bush/Cheney electoral campaigns. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/while-bush-regime-pillages-people-march.html
Carlos Marentes is with the Border Agricultural Workers Center in El Paso
Four Directions Resisting Columbus 2008
Please double click to enlargeResisting Columbus Day in Denver
1. Speaking engagement
2. Columbus Day Protest March and Rally
3. People's Council
4. Student Walk-out on Racism
1. RACE, RESISTANCE AND THE COLUMBIAN LEGACY
Join nationally-known activist Glenn Spagnuolo, co-founder of Re-create 68, for a night of education and dialogue about race in America and resistance to the Columbian Legacy!
When: 5 pm Thursday, October 9, 2008
Where: CU Boulder Campus, Hale Hall Room 240
2. Columbus Day Resistance March and Rally
The annual protest of the Columbus Day Holiday and the racism that it embodies will begin with a march from Four Winds that ends at the Capitol Building followed by a rally for a better future. When: March starts at 8 am, Rally at 9 am, Saturday, October 11
Where: Start of March is at Four Winds at 5th and Bannock in Denver, CO
3. People's Council
Following the Columbus Day resistance, people will be gathering to organize a new alliance locally that can act as a national vehicle for radicals. Bring your thoughts and cooperative energy. Please come and represent R68.
When: 1pm, Saturday, October 11
Where: The Great Hall at the Iliff School of Theology just past Evans on University Blvd, Denver.
4. Student Walk-out on Racism
Whether you are a student or not, join the students of Iliff, CU Denver, CU Boulder and DU as the educate the public about Denver's hidden racial past on the 101st Anniversary of the Columbus Holiday. There will be a student walk-out, a short rally, followed by a march to locations with a racial history that will end at Civic Center Park.
When: 12 Noon, Monday, October 13
Where: CU Denver's Auraria Campus, The Plaza Building Lawn
Café Cultura with Blackfire & Adrian Molina
Open Mic Night- "Red and Brown Unity"
Friday, October 10, 2008
Time:7:30pm - 10:30pm
Location: Denver Inner City Parish/La Academia Street:9th & Galapago (2 blks east of Santa Fe on 9th)
Denver, CO
cafe_cultura@yahoo.com
On the 4th anniversary of Café Cultura, we welcome two celebrations this week, on October 10th and 11th! Details for both events are at www.myspace.com/cafecultura.
Café Cultura is an all ages Open Mic Night featuring emcees, poets, and artists.
Noche de expresion para todas las edades
This Friday the community has teamed up to host Native fireball punk/ AlterNative Diné band Blackfire, recent winner of Album of the Year at the Nammy's, to play at this show! They will play an acoustic set to match the chill atmosphere at Café Cultura.
BLACKFIRE was nominated for 5 Nammy's this year and won 2: Album of the Year and Best Producer!! More background on them from their website www.blackfire.net:
BLACKFIRE is comprised of two brothers and their sister Jeneda, Clayson and Klee Benally. Born into the heart of a political land dispute area on Black Mesa in the Navajo Nation, this family's powerful music reflects the Hopes, Freedoms, and Barriers of today's world.
BLACKFIRE's style encompasses traditional Native American, Punk-Rock and "Alter-Native" music and bears strong socio-political messages regarding government oppression, relocation of indigenous people, eco-cide, genocide, domestic violence and human rights.
BLACKFIRE sometimes combines performances with their Native American dance troupe, The Jones Benally Family. The late godfather of punk Joey Ramone declared them "Fireball Punk-Rock." BLACKFIRE is internationally acclaimed and has a strong grassroots following around the world owing to their frequent touring of Europe, the U.S. Canada and Mexico since 1989. They were the first Native American band to take part in on the Van's Warped Tour and were also featured performers in the "Festival in the Desert," in the Sahara Desert in Mali, Africa.
BLACKFIRE has been awarded the Native American Music Awards "Group of the Year" for their "Woody Guthrie Singles" recording, and "Best Pop/Rock Album for their full length release, "One Nation Under." BLACKFIRE only plays all ages venues, whether concerts, festivals or clubs. BLACKFIRE's independent release "One Nation Under" on Tacoho Records is available nation-wide through Canyon Records. BLACKFIRE strongly promotes the respect of all cultures. They do many workshops, lectures and school residencies.
Tohono O'odham mother plans murder charge against US Border Patrol
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo Angelita Reino Ramon at the site of her son's death near the Arizona and Mexico border. Photo Brenda Norrell
SELLS, Arizona - The Tohono O'odham mother of a teenager who was ran over and killed by the US Border Patrol made a plea for help so she can continue to pursue court action and charge the Border Patrol agent with murder.
Bennett Patricio, Jr., 18, was ran over and killed during the predawn hours in a remote area of the Tohono O'odham Nation in 2002.
Although the family's civil case reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the family was abandoned by their attorney.
Angelita Reino Ramon, Bennett's mother, made an appeal for help on Sunday. "We sold all our furniture, our truck and our car, so we could get to San Francisco and the Ninth Circuit Court," Angelita said."We are in a very desperate situation," she said.
Angelita said now the family has no car to take the children to school, go shopping for food or look for jobs.
"No one wants to help us. We are in a really difficult situation."
"We're looking for someone who can help us with Bennett Patricio, Jr.'s case. We want to take it back to court in Tucson and file a murder charge. We need a lawyer who isn't afraid of the government and will stick with it all the way through.
"Our attorney stole the money from us, our fear is now, ‘Who can we trust?'"After the lower court, the US District Court in Tucson, ruled in favor of the Border Patrol, the civil case reached the Ninth Circuit. The family prepared much of the case themselves, selling everything to travel to San Francisco, focused on justice for Bennett.
When they arrived in San Francisco, the people who had promised to help them failed to do so.
"We thought people would help us when we got to San Francisco, but they didn't help us, even though they invited us to come and offered to help us there."
When they became desperate in the Bay Area, the late Floyd Westerman did help them. The students at DQ University also helped them and eventually the family made it back home to the Tohono O'odham Nation.
"Thanks to them, and the Aztecs in San Jose also helped us with gas," she said.
For Angelita, sometimes, there is just too much pain and sorrow, the memories too painful.Bennett was walking home across the desert in the predawn hours of April 9, 2002, when he was ran over and killed by a border patrol officer in a remote area, south of Sells near the international border. US Border Patrol Agent Cody Rouse struck Bennett and dragged his body at least 50 feet before stopping.
When the agent called in to report the incident, Rouse simply claimed there was a body on the side of the road. Initially, Rouse did not admit that he ran over and killed Bennett. Later, in a series of conflicting stories, the US Border Patrol claimed that it was an accident.
Based on the evidence, Ramon and her husband, Irvin Ramon, believe that Bennett was walking home through the desert and happened upon an illegal transfer of drugs being carried out by US Border Patrol agents.
The couple believe that as Bennett walked away, into the darkness, that he was intentionally ran over and killed by border patrol agents.
After Angelita was told that her son was killed, she waited for an apology for her son's death from the Border Patrol. The apology never came. Neither did help or support. The Tohono O'odham Nation would not provide funds, nor an attorney, in the family's fight for justice.
"I'm here to let everyone know about the Border Patrol and how they killed my son," Angelita said, speaking to the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas in San Xavier, Arizona.Angelita said no mother should ever have to identify the body of their child crushed from his head to his feet.
Shouldering this sorrow, she has persevered with little or no support. Intensifying the pain, she endures hostility toward her, because she pursued justice for her son in federal court.
Ramon can be reached at: Angelita Reino Ramon, PO Box 1082, Sells, Arizona 85634
Related article:
"While the Bush regime pillages, the people march against the Border Wall in El Paso"
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Congratulations to Native American Music Award Winners 2008
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
TUCSON -- Congratulations to the thirty winners of Native American Music Awards at the 10th annual celebration on the Seneca Nation in New York Saturday night. The sounds and performances revealed the pursuit of excellence from traditional sounds to rock, reggae, folk and hip hop. The award ceremony was broadcast live on the web, with a rapid fire chat room.
Two of the top winners, each capturing double awards, Blackfire and Native Roots, also deserve an award in the "keeping it real" category for their enduring efforts for international human rights, Indigenous sovereignty and the preservation of Native culture.
Blackfire's Klee, Clayson and Jeneda Benally, with their father Jones Benally, have upheld the standard of no compromise in the fight for dignity and human rights for Indigenous Peoples around the world. From their home in Flagstaff, Arizona, with the
foundation of their father's homeland in Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, Blackfire has established a new standard for Native American youths and resistance to colonization.
Blackfire's "(Silence) is a Weapon" captured the Best Record Award for 2008 and the Native Heart Award, with recognition for producer Ed Stasium.
Native Roots, awarded Group of the Year and Best World Recording, is based in Albuquerque. Native Roots has carried this unique reggae, traditional and folk mix of sounds from the Pueblos to the Maori in New Zealand, always inspiring hope and celebrating the beauty of Indigenous cultures.
Both Native Roots and Blackfire have always put others needs above their own, sealing their place in history not only as Native musicians, but music makers who have fine-tooled sound and lyrics as a vehicle for social change and building a better world.
Jim Boyd's selection as Artist of the Year will be celebrated by all those who remember hi
s sound with the empowering XIT, among the best Native American bands of all time, which fueled the birth of the Red Power movement in the 70s. Boyd's 11th release, "Blues to Bluegrass," on Thunderwolf Records, includes rock, bluegrass, blues and folk, with reflections on Coyote the trickster.
It was also good to see Chucki Begay, Navajo, from here in Tucson, on stage with the all star line up of presenters.
Congratulations to 10th Annual NAMMY Award Winners!
Lifetime Achievement Award: Johnny Curtis
Best World Music: Native Roots
Best Blues Recording: "Deep Downtown" Jimmy Wolf
Best Compilation Recording Old Style Round Dance: Various Artists
Best Country Recording: "No Lies" Tracy Bone
Debut Artist of the Year: Cheryl Bear
Debut Group of the Year: Injunuity
Best Female Artist: Nicole
Best Folk Recording: "Where the Green Grass Grows," The Crow Girls
Flutist of the Year: Jan Michael Looking Wolf
Best Gospel Inspirational: "Precious Memories," Cherokee National Youth Choir
Group of the Year: Native Roots
Best Historical Recording: "Chief Seattle Speaks 1854," Red Hawk
Best Instrumental Recording: "Mirror Lake," Golana
Best Male Artist: Edmund Bull
Best Native American Church Recording: "New Beginning," Janelle Turtle
Best New Age Recording "Homeland Security," Medicine Crow
Best Pop Recording: "Phoenix," Fara Palmer
Best Pow Wow Recording: "Hear the Beat," Blackfoot Confederacy
Best Producer: Adrian Brown, Tim Sampson, Jonathan Joss, "Still No Good"
Best Rap Hip Hop Recording: "Native American Hustle," Dago Braves
Record of the Year: "(Silence) is a Weapon," Blackfire
Best Rock Recording: "The Sun & the Earth," Stevie Salas
Song Single of the Year: "Broken Dreams," Nightshield
Songwriter of the Year: Star Nayea
Best Spoken Recording: "The Story Tellers," Ken Quiet
Best Traditional Recording: "Traditional Navajo Shoe Songs," Gilbert Begay, Sr.
Best Short Form Music Video: "The Enlightened Time," JANA
Best Long Form Video: "Live at Mount Rushmore: Concert for Reconciliation of Cultures," Brule & Airo
Best World Music Recording: "Celebrate" Native Roots
Native Heart: Ed Stasium producer for "(Silence) is a Weapon"
The Native American Music Awards 10th anniversary celebration, at the Seneca Niagar
a Hotel & Casino. Along with the winners, those inducted into the NAMMY Hall of Fame were: Rickey Medlocke of Blackfoot, selling over 5 million records with his hits “Train Train” and “Highway Song;" Pat Vegas of Redbone which reached the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1974 with the song, "Come and Get Your Love;" Janice-Marie Johnson of A Taste of Honey, with multi-platinum smash hit "Boogie Oogie Oogie;" and Felipe Rose of the Village People.
NAMMY presenters included Joanne Shenandoah and Robert Tree Cody, Chucki Begay, Navajo, from Tucson, Blues recording artist CornBred, Canada’s Edmund Bull, New Mexico’s Native Roots, South Dakota’s Rap Hip/Hop artists Nightshield and Maniac The Siouxpernatural, female power vocalists Star Nayea & Pura Fe’, The Cherokee National Youth Choir, Iroquois Dancers, Trevor Jones & Young Gunz plus Indian Country’s preeminent comedian and ventriloquist, Buddy Big Mountain, and more.
The Great grandson of Geronimo, Houston Geronimo and Lance White Magpie, a direct descendant of Crazy Horse served as special guest presenters.
Listen to those award winning sounds at: http://www.votenative.com/
Listen to the Choctaw and Chickasaw band, Injunuity: http://www.injunuity.net/
Special thanks to Single Feather Media for the live web broadcast, making it possible for people around the world to watch the show live and talk it over in the chat room:
Single Feather Media
(http://www.singlefeathermedia.com/)
Links:
Cherokee Nation language links: http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Downloads/Default.aspx
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
TUCSON -- Congratulations to the thirty winners of Native American Music Awards at the 10th annual celebration on the Seneca Nation in New York Saturday night. The sounds and performances revealed the pursuit of excellence from traditional sounds to rock, reggae, folk and hip hop. The award ceremony was broadcast live on the web, with a rapid fire chat room.
Two of the top winners, each capturing double awards, Blackfire and Native Roots, also deserve an award in the "keeping it real" category for their enduring efforts for international human rights, Indigenous sovereignty and the preservation of Native culture.
Blackfire's Klee, Clayson and Jeneda Benally, with their father Jones Benally, have upheld the standard of no compromise in the fight for dignity and human rights for Indigenous Peoples around the world. From their home in Flagstaff, Arizona, with the
foundation of their father's homeland in Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, Blackfire has established a new standard for Native American youths and resistance to colonization.Blackfire's "(Silence) is a Weapon" captured the Best Record Award for 2008 and the Native Heart Award, with recognition for producer Ed Stasium.
Native Roots, awarded Group of the Year and Best World Recording, is based in Albuquerque. Native Roots has carried this unique reggae, traditional and folk mix of sounds from the Pueblos to the Maori in New Zealand, always inspiring hope and celebrating the beauty of Indigenous cultures.
Both Native Roots and Blackfire have always put others needs above their own, sealing their place in history not only as Native musicians, but music makers who have fine-tooled sound and lyrics as a vehicle for social change and building a better world.
Jim Boyd's selection as Artist of the Year will be celebrated by all those who remember hi
s sound with the empowering XIT, among the best Native American bands of all time, which fueled the birth of the Red Power movement in the 70s. Boyd's 11th release, "Blues to Bluegrass," on Thunderwolf Records, includes rock, bluegrass, blues and folk, with reflections on Coyote the trickster.It was also good to see Chucki Begay, Navajo, from here in Tucson, on stage with the all star line up of presenters.
Congratulations to 10th Annual NAMMY Award Winners!
Lifetime Achievement Award: Johnny Curtis
Best World Music: Native Roots
Best Blues Recording: "Deep Downtown" Jimmy Wolf
Best Compilation Recording Old Style Round Dance: Various Artists
Best Country Recording: "No Lies" Tracy Bone
Debut Artist of the Year: Cheryl Bear
Debut Group of the Year: Injunuity
Best Female Artist: Nicole
Best Folk Recording: "Where the Green Grass Grows," The Crow Girls
Flutist of the Year: Jan Michael Looking Wolf
Best Gospel Inspirational: "Precious Memories," Cherokee National Youth Choir
Group of the Year: Native Roots
Best Historical Recording: "Chief Seattle Speaks 1854," Red Hawk
Best Instrumental Recording: "Mirror Lake," Golana
Best Male Artist: Edmund Bull
Best Native American Church Recording: "New Beginning," Janelle Turtle
Best New Age Recording "Homeland Security," Medicine Crow
Best Pop Recording: "Phoenix," Fara Palmer
Best Pow Wow Recording: "Hear the Beat," Blackfoot Confederacy
Best Producer: Adrian Brown, Tim Sampson, Jonathan Joss, "Still No Good"
Best Rap Hip Hop Recording: "Native American Hustle," Dago Braves
Record of the Year: "(Silence) is a Weapon," Blackfire
Best Rock Recording: "The Sun & the Earth," Stevie Salas
Song Single of the Year: "Broken Dreams," Nightshield
Songwriter of the Year: Star Nayea
Best Spoken Recording: "The Story Tellers," Ken Quiet
Best Traditional Recording: "Traditional Navajo Shoe Songs," Gilbert Begay, Sr.
Best Short Form Music Video: "The Enlightened Time," JANA
Best Long Form Video: "Live at Mount Rushmore: Concert for Reconciliation of Cultures," Brule & Airo
Best World Music Recording: "Celebrate" Native Roots
Native Heart: Ed Stasium producer for "(Silence) is a Weapon"
The Native American Music Awards 10th anniversary celebration, at the Seneca Niagar
a Hotel & Casino. Along with the winners, those inducted into the NAMMY Hall of Fame were: Rickey Medlocke of Blackfoot, selling over 5 million records with his hits “Train Train” and “Highway Song;" Pat Vegas of Redbone which reached the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1974 with the song, "Come and Get Your Love;" Janice-Marie Johnson of A Taste of Honey, with multi-platinum smash hit "Boogie Oogie Oogie;" and Felipe Rose of the Village People.NAMMY presenters included Joanne Shenandoah and Robert Tree Cody, Chucki Begay, Navajo, from Tucson, Blues recording artist CornBred, Canada’s Edmund Bull, New Mexico’s Native Roots, South Dakota’s Rap Hip/Hop artists Nightshield and Maniac The Siouxpernatural, female power vocalists Star Nayea & Pura Fe’, The Cherokee National Youth Choir, Iroquois Dancers, Trevor Jones & Young Gunz plus Indian Country’s preeminent comedian and ventriloquist, Buddy Big Mountain, and more.
The Great grandson of Geronimo, Houston Geronimo and Lance White Magpie, a direct descendant of Crazy Horse served as special guest presenters.
Listen to those award winning sounds at: http://www.votenative.com/
Listen to the Choctaw and Chickasaw band, Injunuity: http://www.injunuity.net/
Special thanks to Single Feather Media for the live web broadcast, making it possible for people around the world to watch the show live and talk it over in the chat room:
Single Feather Media
(http://www.singlefeathermedia.com/)
Links:
Cherokee Nation language links: http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Downloads/Default.aspx
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Watch Native American Music Awards 2008 Live!
Congratulations to tonight's winners ...http://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/
http://www.singlefeathermedia.com/
By Native American Music Awards
On Saturday October 4, 2008 at the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in Niagara Falls, NY, the highly anticipated Native American Music Awards (N.A.M.A.) will proudly commemorate its tenth anniversary with a special celebration that includes over 30 Awards categories from every genre of music as well as Hall of Fame inductions and high energy performances by nationally renowned band members from Lynyrd Skynyrd, Taste of Honey, Redone & Village People.
UPDATE with winners:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/10/congratulations-to-native-american.htmlMusic
Tracks of all artist nominees are posted on http://www.votenative.com/
Navajo Wanda MacDonald: McCain is anti-Native
Open letter to Native America,
'Native Americans are in danger of becoming an endangered species'
By Wanda MacDonald
Former First Lady of the Navajo Nation
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
TUBA CITY, Ariz. -- Native America and all my relations, we need to inform and think for ourselves. I want to appeal to all Native voters that electing a US President should have nothing to do with party affiliation (the non-Native party system) as far as our needs are concerned in Native America. I am a Republican, but I always stand for what is best for our people first. We must look at who will be good for Natives. We need to show our nationalism in this election.
We are a big voting block, if we band together. Otherwise, Native Americans are in danger of becoming an endangered species under a McCain/Palin administration. Palin does not support her own Native Alaskan rights.
Read more of commentary:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/navajo-wanda-macdonald-mccain-is-anti.html
Friday, October 3, 2008
Under surveillance: El Paso border wall protest
Vigil Against the Wall in El Paso, October 1, 2008
By Carlos Marentes
EL PASO -- As you may have witnessed, the Border Patrol officers in charge of pro
tecting the wall, became visibly nervous when they saw so many people protesting at the site. They were watching us from the entrance at the top of the border since the beginning of our peaceful vigil.(Aren't they supposed to be looking south to "protect" this nation instead of watching towards the American side?)Many people participated in our vigil including small children and old people as well as whole families from the vicinity of the construction site. It was a peaceful gathering of people of faith opposed to the wall. All of us had candles and were following the matachines of our Lady of Guadalupe in a religious kind of procession.
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/under-surveillance-el-paso-protest-of.html
Thursday, October 2, 2008
O'odham on alert: Drug violence targets O'odham pilgrimage
Tohono O'odham on pilgrimage concerned over drug cartels
By Brenda Norrell
Update: Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008
SELLS, Arizona -- Tohono O'odham Nation family members remained worried about their loved ones on pilgrimage to Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico, Friday, after O'odham telephoned home with reports of gunfire from competing drug cartels on the pilgrimage route on Thursday.
There were also reports of cartel threats that a church would be bombed in Magdalena, the site of a religious festival, the annual San Francisco Xavier Festival over the weekend. O'odham on pilgrimage were walking 60 miles from the border to Magdalena.
However as the commemoration culminated on Saturday and Sunday, there were no reports of violence in the region of Magdalena or the O'odham villages in Mexico.
As concerns increased on Friday, an O'odham telephoned Censored News by way of a cell phone and said O'odham in both Magdalena, and villages south of San Miguel the Gate in the state of Sonora, Mexico, reported that there were no problems. O'odham reported that they had not witnessed any violence or trouble on the routes or in the communities.
Spanish language newspapers in the state of Sonora attempted to eliminate fears. The Spanish language El Imparcial online stated that no reports of violence were confirmed in the area. The newspaper also published the travel advisory statement issued by the Tohono O'odham Nation, advising O'odham against travel in Mexico at this time.
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Noticias/03102008/331470.aspx
On Thursday, the Tohono Oodham Nation sent vans to Sonora, Mexico, offering an option to O'odham on pilgrimage to return home. Tohono O'odham Chairman Ned Norris issued a statement and discouraged O'odham from traveling in Mexico.
"We strongly advise members of the nation to not travel in Mexico," Chairman Norris said.
On Thursday evening, fears circulated through the Tohono O'odham Nation, as family members walked to Magdalena. The same day, an emergency worker with the Tohono O'odham Nation said it was unknown whether Tohono O'odham were killed as they walked on pilgrimage from the US border to Magdalena for the San Francisco Xavier Festival. Some O'odham returned home from the 60-mile pilgrimage, while others remained on pilgrimage or unaccounted for on Thursday.
The Tohono O'odham Nation radio station, KOHN-FM in Sells, Arizona, reported Thursday night that some O'odham were arriving home and medical attention was available. Tohono O'odham family members can call 520-383-8867 for information on loved ones.
Earlier Thursday, Tohono O'odham in Magdalena called friends and relatives back home in Sells and reported deaths on the pilgrimage route, from drug cartels crossfire.
However, no confirmed reports were received concerning gunfire at Santa Ana, on the pilgrimage route between the border and Magdalena. Still, fears increased with reports of bomb threats for a Magdalena church.
O'odham, Yaqui and thousands of others attend the annual gathering San Francisco Xavier Festival each year.
Reporting from the border, Michel Marizco, publisher of Border Reporter, reported late Thursday that there was gunfire by narco traffickers at Santa Ana.
Marizco writes, "... local drug dealing gang, Los Jabalíes, got into a gunfight with another crew early this morning in Santa Ana ..."
While some O'odham returned home, others remained in Magdalena and the state of Sonora.
Although violence and bloodbaths linked to drug trafficking has increased to the west of Magdalena, in Tijuana and the state of Sinoloa, and to the east of Magdalena, along the Texas border, this region of Sonora has been relatively peaceful.
Arizona Daily Star
Published: 10.03.2008
Fearing cartels, O'odham move tribal pilgrims out of Sonora By Enric Volante
Tohono O'odham leaders began transporting tribe members making a religious pilgrimage out of Sonora on Thursday because of concerns for their safety and urged other members not to enter the violence-plagued area. The tribe sent 20 vans Thursday afternoon to pick up members who wanted to return to Arizona from Magdalena, Sonora, because of recent violence in the area and reported threats of more violence from drug cartels. The religious celebration is expected to draw thousands of people to a small church in Magdalena this weekend. http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/260576
Related: Mexico deadly for journalists
Special Report from the Committee to protect journalists
"Mexico is already one of the world's deadliest nations for journalists, with 21 killed since 2000, at least seven in direct reprisal for their work."
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Made in L.A., sweatshops in America
Sweatshops at home
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
LOS ANGELES -- Made in L.A. tells the story of three women, and of all women, who sacrifice for their children, and struggle against all odds. But it also tells the story of courage, the courage of all people who are called on to give more than they think they can. Ultimately, Made in L.A. is the story of America, of the United States, and the blindsightedness and denial that keeps Americans shopping for low prices without regard for the consequences to others.
Made in L.A. is the story of sweatshops, the story of sweatshops in the United States, where migrant women are exploited for cheap labor, women working 12 hours a day, with children at home. These are women working surrounded by rats and roaches, in inhumane conditions, then fired without pay.
The profiles of three women reveal the broken hearts and broken dreams of the women who come to this country seeking education and opportunity, only to find that the United States is neither as kind, or alive in spirit, as the countries they leave behind. The documentary film reveals the heartbreak of the women who must come to this country to labor, and leave their precious children behind in their home countries, because there is no way to provide food for them.
It also reveals the long hours and struggle of single mothers and the long path endured for justice.
After three years of protests and court battles against Forever 21 clothing factories in L.A., these women and their coworkers gained justice and dignity through community organizing and perseverance. The film is a testament to the strength of women and a reminder that the colonized United States, established by immigrants, has become a world leader in human rights abuses, racism and xenophobia toward migrants.
Congratulations to these women of courage and the filmmakers of Made in L.A. for their Emmy!
The film, which premiered on PBS, received an Emmy at the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards in the category of Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story-Long Form at the ceremony in New York.
Synopsis by Made in L.A.
Lupe Hernandez, a five-foot tall dynamo w
ho learned survival skills at an early age, has been working in Los Angeles garment factories for over 15 years since she left Mexico City at age 17. Maura Colorado left her three children in the care of relatives in El Salvador while she sought work in L.A. to support them. She found that the low-paid work came with a high price - wretched conditions in the factories and an "undocumented" status that deprived her of seeing her children for over eighteen years. María Pineda came to Southern California from Mexico in hopes of a better life at 18, with an equally young husband. Twenty three years later, substandard working conditions, a meager salary and domestic abuse have left her struggling for her children's future and for her own human dignity.
Read more at: http://www.madeinla.com/about
Host a screening
The filmmakers are currently engaged in a two-year long outreach campaign and have recently launched a new "Host A Screening" initiative (http://www.madeinla.com/get/host) that enables grassroots groups, nonprofits, student groups, unions, and faith-based organizations to hold their own screenings of Made in L.A. in order to engage their communities around local issues and spark an essential dialogue around low wage work, women’s empowerment, consumer awareness and the everyday struggles of immigrant workers.
CONTACT:
Almudena Carracedo, Director/Producer
Robert Bahar, Producer
contact@madeinla.com
(323) 924-5445
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
LOS ANGELES -- Made in L.A. tells the story of three women, and of all women, who sacrifice for their children, and struggle against all odds. But it also tells the story of courage, the courage of all people who are called on to give more than they think they can. Ultimately, Made in L.A. is the story of America, of the United States, and the blindsightedness and denial that keeps Americans shopping for low prices without regard for the consequences to others.
Made in L.A. is the story of sweatshops, the story of sweatshops in the United States, where migrant women are exploited for cheap labor, women working 12 hours a day, with children at home. These are women working surrounded by rats and roaches, in inhumane conditions, then fired without pay.
The profiles of three women reveal the broken hearts and broken dreams of the women who come to this country seeking education and opportunity, only to find that the United States is neither as kind, or alive in spirit, as the countries they leave behind. The documentary film reveals the heartbreak of the women who must come to this country to labor, and leave their precious children behind in their home countries, because there is no way to provide food for them.
It also reveals the long hours and struggle of single mothers and the long path endured for justice.
After three years of protests and court battles against Forever 21 clothing factories in L.A., these women and their coworkers gained justice and dignity through community organizing and perseverance. The film is a testament to the strength of women and a reminder that the colonized United States, established by immigrants, has become a world leader in human rights abuses, racism and xenophobia toward migrants.
Congratulations to these women of courage and the filmmakers of Made in L.A. for their Emmy!
The film, which premiered on PBS, received an Emmy at the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards in the category of Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story-Long Form at the ceremony in New York.
Synopsis by Made in L.A.
Lupe Hernandez, a five-foot tall dynamo w
ho learned survival skills at an early age, has been working in Los Angeles garment factories for over 15 years since she left Mexico City at age 17. Maura Colorado left her three children in the care of relatives in El Salvador while she sought work in L.A. to support them. She found that the low-paid work came with a high price - wretched conditions in the factories and an "undocumented" status that deprived her of seeing her children for over eighteen years. María Pineda came to Southern California from Mexico in hopes of a better life at 18, with an equally young husband. Twenty three years later, substandard working conditions, a meager salary and domestic abuse have left her struggling for her children's future and for her own human dignity.Read more at: http://www.madeinla.com/about
Host a screening
The filmmakers are currently engaged in a two-year long outreach campaign and have recently launched a new "Host A Screening" initiative (http://www.madeinla.com/get/host) that enables grassroots groups, nonprofits, student groups, unions, and faith-based organizations to hold their own screenings of Made in L.A. in order to engage their communities around local issues and spark an essential dialogue around low wage work, women’s empowerment, consumer awareness and the everyday struggles of immigrant workers.
CONTACT:
Almudena Carracedo, Director/Producer
Robert Bahar, Producer
contact@madeinla.com
(323) 924-5445
Cauca indigenous leader assasinated in Colombia
Cauca indigenous leader assassinated
Monday, 29 September 2008 15:48
The Cauca indigenous council denounced the assassination Sunday of a prominent local indigenous leader.
According to the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), Raúl Mendoza, indigenous governor of the cabildo Peñón and former member of the council, was shot dead inside his home by paramilitary hitmen.
The indigenous governor had made repeated announcements before local authorities and the government office dealing with indigenous issues about ongoing threats against his life and his community for weeks before his assassination, the CRIC said.
The council says the murder is the last of three assassinations that took place in Cauca the past week.
The indigenous leaders blame Colombian President Álvaro Uribe of provoking violence against indigenous and social leaders and asks the international community to "remain on high alert and to express solidarity with the social processes that continue to get attacked by violence promoted from the spheres of the central government."
* ARTICLE SOURCE LINK -
http://colombiareports. com/colombian-news/news/1473-cauca-indigenous-leader-assassinated. html
Monday, 29 September 2008 15:48
The Cauca indigenous council denounced the assassination Sunday of a prominent local indigenous leader.
According to the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), Raúl Mendoza, indigenous governor of the cabildo Peñón and former member of the council, was shot dead inside his home by paramilitary hitmen.
The indigenous governor had made repeated announcements before local authorities and the government office dealing with indigenous issues about ongoing threats against his life and his community for weeks before his assassination, the CRIC said.
The council says the murder is the last of three assassinations that took place in Cauca the past week.
The indigenous leaders blame Colombian President Álvaro Uribe of provoking violence against indigenous and social leaders and asks the international community to "remain on high alert and to express solidarity with the social processes that continue to get attacked by violence promoted from the spheres of the central government."
* ARTICLE SOURCE LINK -
http://colombiareports. com/colombian-news/news/1473-cauca-indigenous-leader-assassinated. html
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