CENSORED NEWS

Tucson Schools: And then they came for the books!

2012-01-28T12:48:00.002-07:00

First they suspended MAS. Then they suspended the students. Now they've come after the books.

By Roberto Rodriguez
Censored News
If you missed Thursday's teach-in at the U of A by suspended Wakefield students, and one Pueblo H.S. student, watch the highlights here: http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2012/01/27/twisted-pedicone-logic-punishing-middle-school-students-that-walked-out-by-kicking-them-out-of-school/comment-page-2/#comments
Here's a link to story in the Arizona Daily Star: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/students-in-walkout-suspended/article_e63dcb6f-9954-5cd9-936a-0577e8ba7044.html
The students were suspended for walking out in protest of TUSD's decision to suspend the district's Mexican American Studies department. Because they were not permitted to return to their schools, they were at the UA, attending MAS classes there, plus conducting the teach in. After the last class they attended, they were notified that their suspensions were lifted. The classes they attended were: The History of the Chicano Movement and Indigenous Thinkers/Indigenous Philosophers. There is no word if their suspensions were rescinded or if there may be other suspensions of the other participating high school students from Tucson and Cholla High Schools.
Inspired by the teach-in, UA student officials are planning a much larger teach-in at the end of February where everyone will be invited, including TUSD and state officials.
Aside from dismantling the MAS program and thrashing the discipline, and despite denials from the district, as a result of HB 2281, books have also been banned/confiscated from the classrooms. Seven books were boxed, though teachers were instructed to remove all books, art, posters, etc from their classrooms. This includes some 50 book titles. The list can be accessed at: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2012/01/mexican-american-studies-department.html
*** If you have not signed the petition re the TUSD book banning, you are welcomed to do so. Go to: https://www.change.org/petitions/tucson-school-board-dont-lock-up-knowledge-return-books-to-students-now
Not to be forgotten is that this is a direct attack on Indigenous knowledge and the attempts by state and local officials to deny Tucson students, primarily Mexican Americans, of that knowledge.
Thanks
Sincerely
Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
PO BOX 3812
Tucson, AZ 85722
For more in-depth stories on this topic, go to:
http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

For up-to-the minute stories, go to: http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans
Thanks
Sincerely

Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
PO BOX 3812
Tucson, AZ 85722

COLUMN: http://drcintli.blogspot.com
ARCHIVED COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS

http://web.me.com/columnoftheamericas

US spies focus on Wounded Knee 1973 photo and American Indian organizations

2012-01-27T19:13:00.011-07:00

Anonymous hacked e-mails reveal global security spies' paranoia over Indian movements, and De Occupy movement

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

The files of a global security company, Stratfor, were hacked by Anonymous, exposing US spies at Stratfor were focused on a website with a photo of the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973. The website includes links to Indian organizations and movements, including the American Indian Movement, Indigenous Environmental Movement, the Zapatistas, Transform Columbus Day, Defenders of the Land, Waziyatawin, Unsettling America and Lakota Oyate.

The website is the Deep Green Resistance Austin.
http://deepgreenresistanceaustin.org/2011/10/09/occupy-austin%E2%80%99s-
The website includes the Indigenous Struggle Solidarity Statement.

The hacked e-mails reveal that the Texas DPS (Department of Public Safety) worked together with the private security firm Stratfor to spy on activists, including Occupy Austin and the Deep Green Resistance movement.

As usual with US spy files, the hacked e-mails of the security firm reveal a distortion of facts, misinformation, unreliable informants, confusion, and self-serving exaggeration that keeps security firms and intelligence operations lush with US funding.
The e-mail, released in what Anonymous called a "teaser" of more to come, is signed by the Watch Officer for Stratfor and states:

Early on in the Occupy movement, they got the group to support some
document called, "Indigenous Struggle Solidarity Statement" calling
Austin an occupied territory. It includes a picture of armed native
Americans.

In another e-mail hacked by Anonymous, the Stratfor director of operations had this to say about anarchists and Code Pink:

Is it worth talking about how the occupy wallstreet people are really just
retreads from the anarchist movement in the late 1990's early 2000's? It
also showed a little bit in the code pink anti war movement in the mid
200s.
So it is not a completely new phenomenon, it is just an older phenomenon
that is once again regaining strength.

Occupy Austin’s Indigenous Struggle Solidarity Statement

Approved by the Occupy Austin General Assembly (7pm) on 10/8/11

Occupy Austin recognizes that the land now referred to as Austin, Texas is already occupied. It was stolen from the indigenous peoples, including the Tonkawa and Apache, in a genocide against indigenous peoples that continues to this day.
Before colonization, this land was the home to several truly sustainable cultures; cultures that were integrated into the land-base, cultures that did not have to worry about corporate influence on the political process. These cultures were destroyed and are being destroyed by the corporate state, starting with Columbus’ state-sponsored invasion of North America more than five hundred years ago. This invasion is not something to celebrate.
Occupy Austin recognizes that the injustice of colonization by the culture of the corporate state is a wrong that must ultimately be righted, and as such we stand in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples in North America and all over the world.

For more information on such matters, please check out: unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com, aimovement.org, defendersoftheland.org, ienearth.org, waziyatawin.net, lakotaoyate.net, enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx, transformcolumbusday.org
Please note that the presence of this statement on the Deep Green Resistance Austin website does not imply that Occupy Austin supports the DGR strategy, analysis, statement of principles, or code of conduct.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deep Green Resistance responds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2012
Contact Deep Green Resistance:
Lierre Keith lierrekeith@yahoo.com Aric McBay aric@aricmcbay.org

View documents here.
View Deep Green Resistance response and picture of Stratfor employee here.

Computer hackers known as Anonymous leaked information obtained by hacking into private intelligence firm Stratfor’s computer network. The documents – what Anonymous is calling a teaser – suggest that from at least October to November 2011 Stratfor worked with Texas law enforcement to infiltrate the Occupy movement and spy on the Deep Green Resistance movement. The document contains emails in which Stratfor employees discuss Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance. Stratfor “Watch Officer” Marc Lanthemann writes about receiving information on Occupy Austin and DGR from a “Texas DPS agent.” The Texas Department of Public Safety is a statewide law enforcement agency that includes an Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.
Deep Green Resistance condemns the surveillance and infiltration of activist groups by law enforcement and private corporations and calls on activists and their allies to expose and protest this violation of all of our constitutional rights.
“Law enforcement sharing information about local activism with private intelligence firms should be a huge scandal,” writes Rachel Meeropol, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Privately funded surveillance and infiltration of activist groups is especially chilling, as time and again we see such corporations operate as if they are above the law and accountable to no one.”
In the emails, Stratfor staff discuss how a Stratfor agent went undercover and tried to gather information from an Occupy Austin General assembly. They discuss DGR Austin holding a public meeting on what radicalism means for Austin (wrongly describing the purpose as “indoctrination”), they write about the book Deep Green Resistance, and they speculate about the relationship between DGR Austin and other groups. Comments in the email suggest that this surveillance was ongoing and continued past the incidents described.
Stratfor and law enforcement not only violated activists’ constitutional rights, they also were grossly incompetent. Their report is full of hasty generalizations and inaccuracies. They confuse members of the DGR action group in Austin (which does exist) with another group they call the “Phoenix commune” (which may or may not exist). And they allege a conflict between members of the DGR Austin group and Occupy Austin that doesn’t seem to have happened. It’s not clear if this is part of the strategy counterintelligence groups have used in the past to try to provoke conflict between different social movements—the FBI used this very effectively against groups like the Black Panther Party—or whether Stratfor is simply relying on unreliable or incompetent sources.
In addition, their claim that DGR is inspired by Nazism and philosopher Martin Heidegger is outrageous and obviously wrong. As is their claim that DGR “is focused on creating a situation where violent confrontation will be the ultimate outcome.” It doesn’t require an agent to get simple facts correct. Both of these assertions are just plain false.
In December 2011, Anonymous attacked the Stratfor website, allegedly stealing 200 gigabytes of data and shutting the site down for weeks. Anonymous has gone after such corporations before, such as internet security firm HBGary. They released private documents that included secret plans by HBGary and others to attack and discredit Wikileaks on behalf of big banks. There is a long history of clandestine groups releasing secret information about the surveillance of social movements. In 1971, and underground group called the Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI field office and released thousands of pages of secret information, revealing that the FBI had attacked 1960s social movements with methods ranging from surveillance and infiltration to targeted assassinations. Though we have no contact with Anonymous, their leak of information about government and corporate tactics of repression is part of an important tradition. More leaked information from Stratfor is presumably forthcoming.
2

Anonymous' Stratfor hack: 'COINTELPRO' spying on Occupy and Deep Green Resistance

2012-01-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Press Release:

Anonymous Hacked Documents Reveal Law Enforcement Spied on Occupy and Shared Information with Private Intelligence Company, STRATFOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2012
Contact Deep Green Resistance:
Lierre Keith lierrekeith@yahoo.com Aric McBay aric@aricmcbay.org

View documents here.
View Deep Green Resistance response and picture of Stratfor employee here.

Computer hackers known as Anonymous leaked information obtained by hacking into private intelligence firm Stratfor’s computer network. The documents – what Anonymous is calling a teaser – suggest that from at least October to November 2011 Stratfor worked with Texas law enforcement to infiltrate the Occupy movement and spy on the Deep Green Resistance movement. The document contains emails in which Stratfor employees discuss Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance. Stratfor “Watch Officer” Marc Lanthemann writes about receiving information on Occupy Austin and DGR from a “Texas DPS agent.” The Texas Department of Public Safety is a statewide law enforcement agency that includes an Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division.
Deep Green Resistance condemns the surveillance and infiltration of activist groups by law enforcement and private corporations and calls on activists and their allies to expose and protest this violation of all of our constitutional rights.
“Law enforcement sharing information about local activism with private intelligence firms should be a huge scandal,” writes Rachel Meeropol, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Privately funded surveillance and infiltration of activist groups is especially chilling, as time and again we see such corporations operate as if they are above the law and accountable to no one.”
In the emails, Stratfor staff discuss how a Stratfor agent went undercover and tried to gather information from an Occupy Austin General assembly. They discuss DGR Austin holding a public meeting on what radicalism means for Austin (wrongly describing the purpose as “indoctrination”), they write about the book Deep Green Resistance, and they speculate about the relationship between DGR Austin and other groups. Comments in the email suggest that this surveillance was ongoing and continued past the incidents described.
Stratfor and law enforcement not only violated activists’ constitutional rights, they also were grossly incompetent. Their report is full of hasty generalizations and inaccuracies. They confuse members of the DGR action group in Austin (which does exist) with another group they call the “Phoenix commune” (which may or may not exist). And they allege a conflict between members of the DGR Austin group and Occupy Austin that doesn’t seem to have happened. It’s not clear if this is part of the strategy counterintelligence groups have used in the past to try to provoke conflict between different social movements—the FBI used this very effectively against groups like the Black Panther Party—or whether Stratfor is simply relying on unreliable or incompetent sources.
In addition, their claim that DGR is inspired by Nazism and philosopher Martin Heidegger is outrageous and obviously wrong. As is their claim that DGR “is focused on creating a situation where violent confrontation will be the ultimate outcome.” It doesn’t require an agent to get simple facts correct. Both of these assertions are just plain false.
In December 2011, Anonymous attacked the Stratfor website, allegedly stealing 200 gigabytes of data and shutting the site down for weeks. Anonymous has gone after such corporations before, such as internet security firm HBGary. They released private documents that included secret plans by HBGary and others to attack and discredit Wikileaks on behalf of big banks. There is a long history of clandestine groups releasing secret information about the surveillance of social movements. In 1971, and underground group called the Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI field office and released thousands of pages of secret information, revealing that the FBI had attacked 1960s social movements with methods ranging from surveillance and infiltration to targeted assassinations. Though we have no contact with Anonymous, their leak of information about government and corporate tactics of repression is part of an important tradition. More leaked information from Stratfor is presumably forthcoming.
2

Offshore Oil & Gas Activities Threaten Alaska’s Indigenous Peoples Cultural Survival

2012-01-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

Carlwassilie.acyn@gmail.com                                                                                                nikospastos@hotmail.com
http://akbigvillagenetwork.blogspot.com/                                                                                      www.centerforwateradvocacy.org

Beluga whales

Offshore Oil & Gas Activities Threaten Alaska’s Indigenous Peoples Cultural Survival

By Alaska Big Village Network
January 26, 2012
Anchorage, Alaska

As the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission meets with expert Scientific Advisors today to hear about the impacts of oil and gas development in the Arctic; Tribes, indigenous peoples and water advocates voice their opposition to offshore oil and gas activities. The scientists and traditional indigenous elders, and Tribal governments have clearly stated the need for more research to identify baseline information and cumulative impacts on the coastal and marine ecosystems. A precautionary approach is necessary when federal agencies such as National Marine Fisheries Service evaluate requests for incidental takes of endangered and threatened marine mammals such as the endangered Bowhead and Cook Inlet beluga whales

The groups are concerned about the adverse, disproportionate, cumulative impacts of oil land gas activities on indigenous peoples, tribal citizens and Alaska Native villages.   Federal Agencies are permitting offshore oil and gas exploration and development in science-deprived,marine ecosystems without addressing the cumulative impacts of oil spills,effluent discharge, drilling mud disposal, methane and other gas releases,physical habitat disruption, ship strikes, chronic acoustical impacts and other industrial associated activities that follow exploration, development and production of oil and gas.

The aggregated and chronic industrial acoustics are the least understood impacts onmarine sea life and subsistence species, such as the endangered bowhead whale,and critically endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale.   Hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities offshore are too risky, because environmental impacts which are poorly understood or as yet unknown.

“Thewell-being and health of the plants and animals in the aquatic and marine ecosystem are related to the well-being and health of the indigenous peoples whose culture and identity are intrinsically connected with the traditional tribal economies derived from the ecosystem.” Carl Wassilie, Yup’iaq Biologist. “A large oil spill like the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill will severely disrupt and destroy cultural resources and cultural survival in such a sensitive environment like the Arctic and sub-Arctic.”

The actions by federal agencies to allow offshore drilling in the Arctic will cause irreversible harm to hundreds of indigenous communities with the inevitable harm upon subsistence resources by all phases of resource extraction.   The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 22 years ago is a case example of an oil company telling folks that a very large oil spill will never happen; yet when it did, the people that survived the on-going catastrophe continue to suffer from lies, deceit and outright violations of human dignity and rights to subsistence.

Delice Calcote says, "Alaska Inter-Tribal Council has standing resolution 2005-08 opposing outer continental shelf oil and gas activities in the Outer Continental Shelf. Oil and gas mineral exploration & development activities pose an imminent threat to hundreds of coastal Tribal communities’ customary traditional cultural life ways of hunting, fishing, gathering, harvesting, barter, trade and navigation. The North Pacific Right Whale has been observed in lower Cook Inlet and no Oil and Gas Activities, including Lease sales should be permitted in Cook Inlet until the status of this whale is fully documented by Traditional Knowledge experts and independent assessments by experts."

Banned Books: Tucson Middle School Students Become Heroes

2012-01-26T19:33:00.001-07:00

Suspensions lifted for Tucson's "Niños Heroes" Wakefield M.S. students (And banned books petition)

Acoma Pueblo's Simon Ortiz speaks to students today

By Roberto Rodriguez
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Students who were suspended from Wakefield Middle School in Tucson for walking out earlier this week spent the day attending Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes at the University of Arizona. So did a suspended Pueblo High School student.

In the second class, they were treated to the words of world-renowned writer and poet Simon Ortiz. No sooner had they finished attending the last class of the day did the Wakefield students receive word that their suspensions had been lifted.

They walked out to protest the dismantling of the Mexican American Studies program.
Thanks to all who showed support for these courageous students. Separate from attending classes, they also presented at the Centro on campus, explaining why they walked out.
Another and bigger event is being planned on the UA campus to further educate the campus community re the dismantling of the Mexican American Studies --Tucson Unified District Schools program.

It's a small victory, though a victory nonetheless. Oddly, the board member (Michael Hicks) who introduced the resolution to dismantle the MAS prorgam, kept playing hide and go seek, not introducing himself to the students or anyone else. He would have been welcomed to speak to the students as they are powerful and would have been able to answer any of his questions.

There is also an ongoing petition re the TUSD book banning. It can be found at: https://www.change.org/petitions/tucson-school-board-dont-lock-up-knowledge-return-books-to-students-now
The thing to remember is that they have actually dismantled a program, thrashed a discipline and banned not just the 7 boxed books. The actual number of books in the curriculum number more than 50. For a list, go to: http://drcintli.blogspot.com/2012/01/undocumented-mas-books.html
Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Assistant professor
University of Arizona
PO BOX 210023
Tucson Arizona 85721

San Francisco: Indigenous Unity March to the UN

2012-01-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

By Quanah Parker Brightman
United Native Americans,Inc
Unitednativeamericansinc@gmail.com
(510)672-7187

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Native American Community, with support from the Occupy Movement is taking action to demand President Obama to make law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), to STOP the Home Foreclosures and to enforce a 30% Fair-Share Tax on millionaires. United Native Americans Inc. invites members of the press and community to join in
the Indigenous Unity March to the United Nations Plaza where we will present an Indigenous Rights March and Forum, Friday, January 27, 2012.

The Unity March and Rally begins at the Human Rights Commission, 25 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, to the United Nations Plaza. The Indigenous Forum at the UN Plaza echoes the world's support to recognize and protect all Indigenous communities and also demands reparations for the theft of Tribal Lands, ancestral remains, gold and other natural resources. Speakers to address unity to bring an end to civil rights violations, hate crimes, broken treaties, racial profiling laws like SB1070, the
desecration of our sacred sites and burial sites, as well as protecting ethnic studies and our traditional cultural teaching.

March rout in solidarity of the millions of families victim of home foreclosures targeting Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase Bank to STOP The Home Foreclosures and Echo the 30% millionaires fair-share tax addressed by Obama in the State of the Union to save homes and fund education and to keep promise of executive order, titled, “Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Education Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities.”

We are DEMANDING that President Obama recognize and sign into Federal Law, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People protecting Sacred Sites and Repatriation for stolen ancestral remains and resources.

We are DEMANDING that Governor Jerry Brown sign into California Law, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, making California the first state in the Union to adopt the UNDRIP.

We DEMANDING tha Obama pass the 30% FAIR-SHARE TAX ON MILLIONAIRS to fix broken economy and keep his promise of Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Education Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities.

We are DEMANDING that ALL treaties made with the Indigenous Peoples of the World be Recognized and Honored.

And We are In Solidarity with the 99% Movement, DEMANDING BAIL OUT FAMILIES! -- STOP THE HOME FORECLOSURES !

Oglala Vice President: Continued Resistance to Keystone XL Pipeline

2012-01-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Oglala VP: Continued Resistance to Keystone XL Pipeline

Navajo Louise Benally: Arizona racism and coal fired power plants

2012-01-26T08:09:00.004-07:00

Louise Benally during Salt River Project protest,
speaking out against the coal fired Navajo
Generating Station. Photo: Resist ALEC

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

On First Voices Indigenous Radio today, WBAI New York, Louise Benally, resisting relocation at Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, described the detriment of coal fired power plants and racism in Arizona.

Louise said regardless of the struggles, Navajos living on the land still live in harmony with the land. Louise described the natural herbs and healing ceremonies that come from the wild, now being contaminated by pollution. "It is doing a lot of destruction." She spoke on the chemical trails settling in the water and environment.

"Those are real problems we are faced with now, because a lot of the vegetation is being wiped out." She said Peabody coal mine releases pollution to the regional watershed on Black Mesa. "It is just devastating," she said, to live in this situation.

Louise Benally confronts Salt River Project staff.
Photo Resist ALEC.

She also described the three coal fired power plants on the Navajo Nation. There are the two in the Four Corners area near Farmington NM which leave a grey haze over the skies. Then there is the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz., producing more contamination. These coal fired power plants carry electricity to cities like Phoenix and Tucson while Navajos suffer with disease and pollution.

"We can't just continue to produce, produce and produce pollution," said Louise, adding that these coal fired power plants are making the ice melt in the Arctic.

Louise described the changes to the climate and how development is creating this. If the land is not healthy, then life is not healthy either, Louise said, describing the Navajos respiratory problems and cancer.

Describing how Arizona just banned ethnic studies, she said, "It is just really sad."

Radio show host Tiokasin Ghosthorse described how the scheme was to make it look like the so called land dispute was between Hopi and Navajo. This scheme kept people from getting involved because they were led to believe it was an internal dispute between the two nations, rather than what it was: A carefully designed scheme to remove thousands of Navajos from Black Mesa to make way for Peabody coal mining, which continues today.

Louise said, "They were pitting tribe against tribe to get at the resources," explaining how they did this to get at the coal and resources.

Louise said the Navajo tribe is not realizing the depletion of the resources, and what Peabody is doing. However, she said the Hopi tribe is beginning to realize the detriment to the natural resources.

She said Native people need to revitalize the old ways and sustainable food. "We can still use the earth as our healing substance."

Tiokasin closed by pointing out that in the city, people don't take responsibility for taking care of the land and say it is the US government's responsibility to deal with it.

Listen to archive later today, Thursday at:
http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives
.

Mohawk Nation News: Tok'ni:Kon That's It!

2012-01-26T07:10:00.001-07:00

TOK’NI:KON THAT’S IT!

Mohawk Nation News

http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

MNN. Jan. 25, 2012. That dance between Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his top Indian CEO, Shawn Atleo, at the phony First Nations Summit in Ottawa sends the same old “we’re-gonna-get-dem-Injuns” message.

This was the first public face-to-face meeting of Harper and his 400 corporate Injuns in Canada. Their job is to continue the illusion that Canada is a legal country while helping the corporation make money from the extraction of Indigenous resources.

Harper got his Indians to threaten an Arab Style uprising so the military can come in and keep us in line. Is Atleo, of the Assembly of First Nations, going to stand in the bush and start tweeting to get the revolution going? Canada wants someone to sell off our mother, Great Turtle Island, to the international bankers, pocketing the money, of course.

The Mohawk Crisis of 1990, a true resistance, is always trotted out as a threat. They want a controlled uprising “like the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s”. Are they kidding? It was anything but. AIM stopped the army bloodbath at Wounded Knee. Many went to jail, were killed, and Leonard Peltier has been in jail for 38 years.

Here’s the script. Harper, the foreigner, sets up the First Nations Land Management Act to privatize Great Turtle Island with the help of his fake Indians. Meantime Harper pushes third world living conditions on the rest of us. Out of desperation, we will be forced to sell our land to stay alive. Then they cry about the integrity of the Crown! What? The crown is a corporation that took over the monarchy in a hostile takeover bid. The first "reservations" were created in 1924 with the Ontario Indian Land Act; a backroom deal between the Minister of Mines in Ontario and the architect of the residential school holocaust, Minister of Indian Affairs D.C. Scott http://caid.ca/IndLanAct1924.pdf

As Etowokam said in 1710 when he returned from Queen Anne’s Court, England: “They rely on the written word. That is how they will be judged”. We rely on the wampum and the rule of law.

Harper left Tuesday night January 24th for the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. The world’s elite were anxiously waiting to hear that we had been put back to sleep so they can continue their theft. Instead we are louder than ever. Canada and the world should answer to us, as everything they want is ours.

Yes, let’s discuss our birthright and that Mother Earth cannot be sold. Sure, put an end to the illegal Indian Act. Then respect the real relationship between us and the foreigners. Instead the foreign usurpers are sitting in the high chairs like babies bawling at the land and resource owners. Their fake Indian idols complain we can’t use our land as collateral for loans from the foreign corporations that are squatting on our land. Yet the Canadian government and corporations use our unsurrendered land as collateral to raise money on the global stock markets. That’s theft, fraud and genocide. Everyone in the world is on to their bad act.

Those fake Indians who want to be part of this foreign entity cannot usurp our sovereignty. They have already signed on with the immigrants and became property of the shareholders of Canada, just like other Canadians.

There will be no “Aboriginal” Spring. Seasons change but not our minds or the dreaded truth.

As the song Waltzing Matilda portrays: all the women [fake Indians] are standing around waiting to dance with the jolly swagman [Harper}. “You’ll come a’waltzing, Malilda, with me!”

MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, to donate to maintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to www.mohawknationnews.com More stories at MNN Categories “COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”. Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

Navajo Human Rights: Hate crime sentencing

2012-01-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

NNHRC witnesses Beebe’s and Sanford’s federal sentencing today
First defendants to be charged under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

By NNHRC
Censored News
ST. MICHAELS, Ariz.—Earlier today, Navajo human rights official witnessed the sentencing of Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico in Santa Fe for a hate crime the defendants committed against Vincent Kee, Navajo.

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice today, “Beebe was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison followed by three years supervised release. Sanford was sentenced to five years in prison followed by three years supervised release.”

On August 18, 2011, Beebe entered a guilty plea to one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention law and Sanford pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a federal hate crime.

“During the plea hearing [on August 18, 2011], Beebe and Sanford admitted that Beebe took the victim to Beebe’s apartment, which was adorned in racist paraphernalia, including a Nazi flag and a woven dream catcher with a swastika in it. After the victim had fallen asleep, the defendants began defacing the victim’s body by drawing on him with blue, red, and black markers. Once the victim awoke, Beebe branded the victim, who sat with a towel in his mouth, by heating a wire hanger on a stove and burning the victim’s flesh, causing a permanent deep impression of a swastika in his skin. The defendants used a cell phone to create a recording of the victim in which they coerced him to agree to the brand,” according to a press release issued in August by the U.S. Department of Justice District of New Mexico Public Affairs Officer Elizabeth Martinez.

Moments before Beebe’s and Sanford’s sentencing, Kee’s mother Bernice Silversmith addressed the judge with a Navajo greeting of well wishes, “Ya’at’eeh abini,” explained she was as the mother of Vincent and said, “I would like to express my extreme disgust for the actions that Mr. Sanford and Mr. Beebe took against my son.”

Silversmith continued and said, “They took something from him that he can never fully recover. They took away his trust in people. Before these men manipulated and attacked Vincent he was like a butterfly. He fluttered along making friends with people, greeting and shaking hands never realizing that evil exists in certain people…

My son still cries when he has nightmare of this torture and as his mother I try my best to comfort him,” said Bernice Silversmith who lovingly adopted Kee when he was an infant. She continued and said, “However, I cannot give the type of comfort and security that you can Judge Black because I cannot make sure these men stay in a place where they cannot torture another person.”

Kee’s mother had asked for maximum time allowed by the law.

The staff and commissioners of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission would like to acknowledge the courage and integrity of Vincent Kee and his family in seeking justice in the federal court.

Another defendant William Hatch has not been sentenced yet, according to the U.S. Department of Justice press release issued today.

Next, the state court will be sentencing Beebe and Sanford at a time to be determined.

NNHRC staff would like ask for your continued support and prayers as Mr. Vincent Kee and his family continue on their path for justice.

Black Hills Treaty Council wins judgment against RainDancer Resource Management

2012-01-25T12:47:00.001-07:00

Treaty Council Wins Judgment Against RainDancer Resource Management

By: Natalie Hand
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Law and Order Code, Chapter 2, Section 122 False Pretenses states…(a)”It shall be unlawful to obtain, take, or receive any property of another by means of a trick or deception, or false or fraudulent representation, statement, or pretense with the intent to deprive the owner thereof..”

On Wednesday, January 18th, 2012, a judgment was issued in OST Court against RainDancer Resource Management/American Horse Ventures LLC, et al, essentially barring them from doing any and all business on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The suit, brought by Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council Oglala Delegate Floyd Hand and Itancan Oliver Red Cloud, alleges that RainDancer’s ultimate goal is to commandeer, not only Tribal assets, but also private Tribal members’ allotted land assets.

According to their proposed partnership with the OST, they are seeking exclusive rights to allotted lands! This is what caught the attention of the Treaty Council. The Tribal Council has NO authority over individual tribal member’s allotted lands.

RainDancer Resource Management began soliciting the Oglala Sioux Tribe months before they were even a registered business. In fact, they were meeting with Tribal officials before they had possession of a valid Due-Diligent Pass, which is required under Tribal law. They were eventually granted a 30-day Due-Diligent Pass on September 15, 2011. However, they did not become a registered business in the State of Oregon until October 3, 2011. That is false representation.

The central figures of this organization are Raycen American Horse Raines, R. Dennis Ickes, Valerie Red Horse, Michael “Rawhide” Sierra, Todd Gandy, Stephen Gomes, and Stuart Cohen. Raines calls these individuals his mentors. However, when OST Attorney David Frankel conducted the due diligence on their company, his discovery raised eyebrows and more questions.

Mr. Raines states that he is an enrolled member of the OST. He uses the name American Horse. However, the American Horse Tiospaye has never heard of him. Ms. Red Horse, a financial broker and investment advisor, currently has a pending investigation against her and two other final judgment liens against her. Mr. Gomes and Mr. Sierra have had past dealings with the Tribe, having charged substantial amounts to the Tribe and then failed to produce results.

Let’s assume the Tribal Council turns a blind eye to all this and allows RainDancer the exclusive rights to economic development. In their proposed contract with the OST, Raines asserts that he has a partnership with Robert McKee of Native American Investment Group (NAIG). Not to be confused with NAEG. According to OST Council Resolution #11-164, McKee has expressed an interest in providing $20,000,000 to fund a tribally owned “central” bank, using the Tribe’s treaty rights and sovereign immunity. The Tribal Council and Executive Committee are not sovereign. They raise their hand to uphold the U.S Flag and Constitution. The Oyate have the sovereignty.

The Tribe’s own due-diligence attorney questioned the legality of the proposed “off shore” or “central” bank, calling it questionable and needing extensive research. The most alarming assertion that RainDancer/NAIG is making is that the Tribe assumes no risk and that the Tribe will not be subject to federal taxes, or the Patriot Act. Really? Really?! Tribal members cannot even grow industrial hemp on their so-called sovereign land without the DEA storming in, but McKee and Raines are confident that they can by-pass the Feds.

In a simple internet search, we discovered that Mr. McKee is party to a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Utah (Case # 2:06CV00109 PGC). McKee is listed as President of Native American Oil Refinery Company (NARCO) which is being sued for failure to produce the promised capital of $50,000,000 to purchase a chain of convenience stores. When NARCO did not come up with the money, they strung the plaintiff along by increasing the payment to $65,000,000, plus offering standby letters of credit from a supposed Indonesian bank partner (another defendant, Bank Negara Indonesia-BNI) in the amount of $25,000,000.

McKee’s NARCO/BNI never paid any of the amounts owed to the plaintiffs, thus forcing the plaintiffs to foreclose on their properties. To that end, the plaintiffs are seeking damages of $115,000,000 from NARCO/BNI for breach of contract. This case has not been settled to date. So how can Mr. McKee offer $20,000,000 in seed money to start a bank on the Pine Ridge Reservation? Through “letters of credit” from a rogue Indonesian bank? That is deception and false representation.

According to McKee’s bio, his background is in oil and gas mining. In fact, he is a proud member of the American Petroleum Institute and the American Gas Association. So while his front may be to help the Oglala Lakota have their own bank, in my personal opinion, NAIG is teaming up with RainDancer to have exclusive rights to the Tribe’s natural resources! It is actually stated in the preamble of the proposed agreement with the Tribe. The bank, wind/solar operation, etc. is just a front, in my own personal opinion. Just as infamous NAEG did a couple of years ago, promising to come in and “clean” our water. Where is NAEG today? Are they promoting their clean water technology on another rez? No, they are mining oil/gas in North Dakota and developing coal-bed methane in the endangered Cook Inlet Basin of Alaska.
RainDancer has also attempted to enter into a contract with the Wakpamni District Executive Board to create a pay day loan operation. This type of enterprise is known as a “predatory” lending operation and is notorious for setting up in low-income communities across the U.S., preying on the disadvantaged.

Although pay day loan businesses are legal, RainDancer’s proposed contract with Wakpamni District Executive Board is illegal, according to Treaty Council legal advocate Bill Bielecki. According to the most recent copy of the Wakpamni District’s Constitution & By-Laws, provided by the OST Secretary, the role of the District’s Executive Board is to simply carry out the wishes of its communities. There is a distinction to be pointed out here. The District Executive Board is not the District Council. The District Council is comprised of members from the 6 communities and must have at least 4 communities with a quorum of 5 members per community, present at a meeting for it to be a legal District Council meeting. When the quorum standards are met, they collectively can vote on issues and business proposals for the progress and welfare of its District’s membership.

Additionally, according to Article VI, Section 2 of the Wakpamni District’s Constitution states, “…Any resolution before the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council will be presented to the Wakpamni District by our Wakpamni District Representatives for discussion before they are voted upon.” Article VI, Section 3 states, “…Any resolutions that the Wakpamni District Representatives present to the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council must originate in the Wakpamni District Council.”

While RainDancer/American Horse/NAIG are courting our District elected officials, it is my understanding that there was never a legal Wakpamni District Council meeting, because they did not have a legal quorum of membership when discussing a joint venture with this group.

Importantly, why would the Wakpamni District want to partner with a group that has such a questionable performance history? Why was the OST due diligence attorney shut down when he began delving into RainDancer/American Horse group’s background? Why would the Wakpamni District Representatives offer a letter of support/endorsement for RainDancer even after the Treaty Council won a temporary restraining order against RainDancer? I would think that this action by our treaty elders would give them pause and encourage them to investigate RainDancer further.

Perhaps they were all blinded by the bright light of a few shiny coins. We all want progress, employment opportunities and economic growth on Pine Ridge. Today’s Treaty Council delegates are descendants of the original Treaty Council, the men that signed the 1851/1868 Ft. Laramie Treaties. It is their duty to uphold the rights that their ancestors fought and died for…to protect their homeland and its resources from being raped and pillaged by the fat takers. Exploiting what little land and resources that the Oglala Oyate have left is not progress or steps towards self-sufficiency. It will be the end of the Lakota way of life.

All of the information furnished herein, with the exception of my opinions, was sourced from public records. If you wish to have a copy of any of the federal court documents, Tribal documents, or state records that I have obtained, please feel free to contact me at 867-5762 or pteole@gwtc.net

VIDEO: Banned Books Tucson Students Speak Out!

2012-01-24T15:10:00.003-07:00

On Martin Luther King Day in Tucson 2012, Tucson students spoke out on the seizure of books from their classrooms and the decision to forbid Mexican American Studies. The public school district, Tucson Unified School District, voted in Jan 2012 to forbid the studies after Arizona threatened to extract millions of dollars. Rethinking Columbus was one of seven books moved to a depository by the schools. There are 50 books on the reading list. Read more at Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Closing music by Sharon Burch, Navajo
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Published on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Common Dreams

Students Step Up Tucson Walkouts

Protest School District Folly and Mexican American Studies Banishment

by Jeff Biggers

As the nation watches the Tucson Unified School District’s spiral into disarray, hundreds of students walked out of their Tucson schools Monday in a coordinated protest against the banishment of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program.(Photo: D.A. Morales)

Pouring into the downtown Tucson area from Pueblo, Cholla and Tucson high schools, among other institutions, the students brought their march to the offices of floundering Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) administrators. In recent days, administrators and board members have issued a series of conflicting and inaccurate statements and carried out the extreme actions of confiscating books in front of children. Last week, a recently hired assistant superintendent from Texas made a troubing call for the deeply rooted Tucson students–many of whom trace their ancestors to the town founders– to “go to Mexico” to study their history.
In a district with over 60 percent of the students coming from Mexican American backgrounds, the TUSD board “dismantled its Mexican-American studies program, packed away its offending books, shuttled its students into other classes,” according to an editorial in the New York Times on Sunday, because “it was blackmailed into doing so.”
The New York Times referred to the extremist measures of Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal on January 10th, who threatened to withhold millions of dollars if TUSD didn’t terminate the nationally acclaimed program immediately.
As her Tucson school district prepares to celebrate the 140th anniversary of its founding by Mexican American immigrant Estevan Ochoa, Cholla High School student Ahtziri Iñiguez noted that she was following the march in the footsteps of her brother, a graduate of the Mexican American Studies Program.
“I think it’s very unfair that people here don’t let us learn about our own culture,” she said. “My brother took (Mexican American Studies) classes his junior year and he would go home and discuss with my Mom and interested me in education, so I knew I wanted to take these classes.”
Less than two months away from the anniversary celebration of Arizona native and United Farm Worker leader Cesar Chavez, Iñiguez added: “We did this walk out to prove if you want something you should fight for what you believe in, because if you don’t do anything, nothing will change.”
Known as the “Sheriff Arpaio of Ethnic Studies,” Arizona education chief John Huppenthal defended his campaign slogan to “stop la raza” in an extraordinary Democracy Now debate on TV last week. The Tea Party activist Huppenthal has referred to Mexican American students as “Hitler Jugend,” and raised concerns across the nation about possible criminal behavior last summer when he openly misrepresented the results of an independent audit that praised the Mexican American Studies program and found it in compliance with Arizona’s bizarre Ethnic Studies law.
State Rep. Sally Gonzales introduced a bill to repeal the Ethnic Studies crackdown last week. A similar bill to repeal Arizona’s notorious SB 1070 immigration law was also being introduced.
Instead of surrendering to Huppenthal’s crackdown, many community leaders in Tucson called on the Tucson Unified School District board to join a federal court suit against the state and summon the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to follow up their investigation of Arpaio and investigate Huppenthal for racial profiling, hate crimes, fraud and even extortion.
Last month, when the DOJ charged Arpaio with “chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations” and a “widespread pattern or practice of…activities that discriminate against Latinos,” Tucson supporters of Ethnic Studies wonder if similar charges could be made for Attorney General Tom Horne and Superintendent Huppenthal, who have invoked violent imagery and pathologically singled out only Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program.

Jeff Biggers is the author of The United States of Appalachia, and more recently, Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland (The Nation/Basic Books).

First Voices Indigenous Radio: Debra White Plume and Roberto Rodriguez

2012-01-24T14:45:00.001-07:00

Listen: Women of Vision gathering on Lakota land, and banned books in Tucson schools

First Voices Indigenous Radio
Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Cheyenne River Lakota
WBAI New York

Listen at: http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives

DEBRA WHITE PLUME: Manderson, South Dakota is the Director of Owe Aku or Bring Back the Way - a grassroots nongovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation of the Lakota Way of Life and Treaty Rights.

On Sunday January 15th, a group of powerful Native women held a day long conference called Winyan Ituwan or Women of Vision along with Kandi Mosset, Marie Randall, Tantoo Cardinal and many others to not only talk about women’s role in Native culture, but effects of oil and uranium effects of mining on water. We will be talking about the impacts of colonialism to Native Nations and how we will survive it. (http://www.oweakuinternational.org/)

DR, ROBERTO RODRIQUEZ - Tuscon, Arizona - http://drcintli.blogspot.com/ While TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT claims that there are no banned books, the fact remains that administrators have come into Mexican American Studies classrooms (which no longer exist) and removed the MAS classroom materials, which includes books that were formerly utilized in the now suspended MAS program.

While TUSD claims that only 7 book titles were ordered boxed and carried off, the fact is that the confiscation, in some cases in front of the students, involved more than the 7 books that were listed by TUSD. 50 books (listed at the end of the Cambium report) are not banned, they are confiscated, or in the process of being confiscated... THUS THE BOOKS ARE NOW UNDOCUMENTED! They are as welcome in TUSD schools as undocumented migrants are welcome in this country.

Northern Cree @ Black Eagle Pow Wow - Santa Ana Star Center

Mighty Truck of Midnight - Bruce Cockburn

Winter Rain - Ferrodyne

Migrant death rate doubles on Arizona border as US expands criminal policies

2012-01-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Photo Brenda Norrell Censored News
Remembering the migrants at San Xavier, on Tohono O'odham
Nation in southern Arizona

Migrant Death Rate on Arizona Border More than Double in Two Years while DHS Plans Expansion of Deadly Criminalization Policies

By Kat Rodriguez
Derechos Humanos
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Arizona- Despite continued claims by the Department of Homeland Security that the number of migrant deaths has reached an all-time low, data show that the actual rate of migrant death on the Arizona border has actually almost doubled in the last two years. This information comes as DHS announces plans to eliminate voluntary removals and criminally prosecute, incarcerate, and formally deport all apprehended immigrants, a move that is clearly spurred by the need to boost detention numbers to justify a grossly bloated DHS budget.

While apprehension numbers do not provide an exact number of immigrants attempting to cross the border, academic research has illustrated that apprehension are highly correlated and fluctuate with true unauthorized migration flows (1). Using the numbers of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions as a proxy for migration flow, along with the number of human remains recovered on the border, we are able to generate an approximate "migrant death rate."

As a point of comparison, in 2009, the number of recovered human remains of those believed to be border crossers was 183. The number of apprehensions reported by the Border Patrol in the Tucson sector was 241,673. Thus, it can be said that for every 100,000 apprehensions, there were 75.72 human remains recovered on the Arizona border.

In 2011, the number of recovered human remains of border crossers was also 183. However, reported apprehensions for the Tucson sector dropped dramatically that year, to 123,285. Ultimately, for every 100,000 apprehensions, the remains of 148.43 migrants were recovered; nearly double the rate of 2009.

Since 2000, the remains of more than 2,300 migrants have been recovered on the Arizona, and at least 6,000 border-wide. The continued policies of criminalization of working men and women, coupled with the strategy of funneling migration further into the harsh Arizona desert, has resulted in a human rights crisis that has been denounced by local, national, and international communities.

Claiming credit for the decrease in migration, which is in fact the result of the poor economy, DHS's plan to dramatically increase the criminalization of migrant workers is irresponsible. Such a policy will ultimately result in forcing more people through non-regularized forms of migration while boosting the budgets of private detention centers such as CCA and contracted companies such as Geo Group, whose budgets depend specifically on the criminalization, detention and deportation of migrants, and who have long been included in the biggest lobbyists for longer and harsher sentencing for immigrants.

The failure of the Obama Administration to acknowledge the impact of deadly border policies and the appalling position of increasing the enforcement regime is reprehensible. In this heated election year, it is particularly insulting to Latino families that political leaders jockey to outdo each other on anti-immigrant and blatantly anti-Mexican rhetoric, while at the same time strategize on how to secure the Latino vote. Democrats and Republicans alike should be advised that this hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed by Latino communities, and they can expect no less than to harvest what the seeds of their xenophobia and racism will yield them.

Currently, the number of remains recovered in Arizona from October through December of 2011 is 45, already exceeding of the number recovered last year during the same timeframe. 82% are currently unidentified. 55% are of unknown gender, meaning that not enough of their bodies were recovered to establish gender. 73% are skeletal remains, a result of the federal border strategy of forcing them into the most isolated and remote areas of the border. While Arizona continues to be viewed as a "battleground state" by political and economic forces, the real battle is being waged around the issue of dignity and justice, with human beings as the casualties of greed and division.
Espenshade, Thomas J. (1995b). "Unauthorized Immigration to the United States." Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 21, Pp. 195-216.

The complete list of recovered remains is available on the Coalición de Derechos Humanos website: http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net. This information is available to anyone who requests it from us and is used by our organization to further raise awareness of the human rights crisis we are facing on our borders.

Resistance: Darker Shade of Green on REDD

2012-01-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

Photo Council of Canadians

New Video Reveals Global Resistance to Forest-Carbon Projects
A Darker Shade of Green Documents Critical Perspectives on REDD

Orin Langelle, Co-director/Strategist
Global Justice Ecology Project
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Global Forest Coalition and Global Justice Ecology Project have produced a new video entitled A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests. The twenty-eight minute video, launched today, documents opposition among Indigenous Peoples, forest-dependent communities and environmental justice groups around the globe, to controversial programs that claim to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) by putting forests into the carbon market.

As REDD policies and programs are promoted around the world by corporations and governments, Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities are raising the alarm that these programs will have serious negative impacts - and will not mitigate climate change.

Clayton Thomas-Muller of Indigenous Environmental Network, featured in the video, declares, "We can take care of our own lands, we don't need agencies to do this for us. As Indigenous Peoples we want rights, and we don't want REDD."

Nnimmo Bassey, of Nigeria, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, also featured in the video, says, "The whole idea of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation is not about stopping deforestation. It's industry driven. It's driven by speculators who want to grab land in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, and who don't really want to change the mode of economy we're living right now."

REDD has been hotly contested since it was first introduced into the climate mitigation package at the United Nations climate talks in 2007. Every year since, REDD has been pushed by those who wish to use the world's forests as carbon offsets and protested by Indigenous Peoples and forest dependent communities that face potential forced relocation if their forest homelands are "protected," under the REDD scheme. A Darker Shade of Green details the ideas behind REDD and the concerns being raised against it.

Following the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa last month, global REDD projects are coming under even greater scrutiny. Simone Lovera, Director of Global Forest Coalition, said, "The outcomes of the Durban Conference in the field of REDD are generally seen as a major step backwards. The already unacceptably weak and non-binding social and environmental safeguards that were adopted previously were further undermined, and the vague guidance for reporting emission reductions allows cheating and exaggerations."

Subnational REDD programs such as the agreement between California, USA, Chiapas, Mexico, and Acre, Brazil - featured in the new video - are still set to more forward, though with carbon markets collapsing, grassroots resistance growing, and global climate agreements in deep-freeze, legislators may be hard-pressed to provide concrete footings for the complicated agreement.

A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests, produced in English and Spanish, features interviews and testimonies from Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Uganda, India, and California. It is available for viewing in English and Spanish on the Climate Connections blog.

The DVD version of the video contains two additional bonus films on REDD: Amador Hernandez: Starved for Medical Services by Global Justice Ecology Project and REDD: A Greed for Trees by the Chiapas-based NGO Otros Mundos. This DVD will be made available next week. Information on requesting the DVD can be found here.

A three-minute trailer is also available for viewing in English and Spanish by clicking here.

Orin Langelle
Co-director/Strategist
Global Justice Ecology Project

http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

http://climate-connections.org

Skype: olangelle
P.O. Box 412
Hinesburg, VT 05461 U.S.
+1.802.482.2689 ph/fax
+1.802.578.6980 mobile
GMT-5

Global Justice Ecology Project Mission Statement: Building local, national and international alliances with action to address the root causes of social injustice, economic domination and environmental destruction.

ntal destruction.

Mohawk Nation News: From Freedom to Sarcasm

2012-01-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

FROM FREEDOM TO SARCASM

MNN Jan. 22,2012.
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

Freedom requires responsibility [Kaianerehkowa].

The unsurrendered land, water, air and resources above, beneath and on Great Turtle Island is the birthright of the Indigenous people. The bankers and their agents want to steal it all. Our resistance to genocide is causing panic. Here’s their plan. Lie about economic prosperity and ending mass unemployment. Increase military spending. Build more prisons. Set up secret police outside of civil authority.

Rescind habeas corpus and civil liberties. [US Defense Authorization Act; Canada Omnibus Crime Bill.] Bribe, destroy, kill, imprison opponents. Remove citizenship rights [US Enemy Expatriation Act]. Wear non-person ID in public. Send resisters back to country of origin! [Bye!] Special courts for death sentences. Execute soldiers for cowardice! [Or give them more meds.] Centralize power under one leader. Assassinations to restore order. Swear oath to leader like Canada to the Queen.

Control courts and civic organizations. Disband state and local governments. Appoint governors, premiers, mayors. Divide and rule. Rich fight the poor. Racial conflicts intensified. Religious-based parties control education and youth groups. Promote Pan Americanism based on white culture, to defend western civilization from ‘brown sub-humans’. Criminalize the truth. Ban questioners. Indigenous continue to be hated and feared [for existing]. Book burnings [Stop Arizona brown market in Indian books]. Teach race superiority dogma. [Guess which is at the top of the totem pole?]. Fire teachers who oppose.

Control mainstream media [A done deal]. Kill the internet [SOPA]. Produce entertainment, films, mass rallies and rhetoric to push corporatist ideology down our throats. Create economic depression. Then make up fantasies to restore fake national pride. Unreasonable foreign policy. Demand surrender or threaten war. No compromise. No reparation to peoples or countries attacked. Create enemies. Get another country to invade. Send ultimatums demanding all their power or face invasion. Step in. Bomb. Call for elections. Put in puppets. Set up quislings. Form alliances with dictators or replace them. Set up spies and informers. Install tribal/band council-like entities to control masses and report on them. Infiltrate and suppress labor unions and strikes. [If we’re lucky] The US might threaten to pull out of or destroy the UN if they can’t own it.

Form secret and illegal alliances like the North American Union NAU. Annex Canada and Mexico. Suppress revolts. Businesses owned by western interests. Native land and resource owners do menial work. Sign pacts to divide up world dominated by a small group of rulers. Create fear of travel, such as airport TSA groping of passengers and mysterious shipwreck in Italy. Heavy fines or long prison terms for crimes like parking tickets, spitting on the sidewalk or free speech. US and Canada are conservative authoritarian corporations. Their citizens are property of the corporations, squatting on a land they don’t own. The youth want their corporations to give them a piece of the Indigenous pie.

Over 100 million Indigenous were murdered in the attempt. They need to decolonize and respect the legal ownership of Great Turtle Island. The white house or congress or parliament could be graffitied to signal a civil unrest over something that doesn’t belong to them. Look for more false flags such as the World Trade Center and laws without parliamentary or congressional debate. Open attack on uncooperative Indigenous communities. Human rights violated. Deprivation of necessities of life. Canada’s Prime Minister Harper wants to revive the old ghetto policy to keep us in deplorable conditions to carry out the final solution. [Mother Earth segregated all of Great Turtle Island for us].

Death by warfare, genocide, reprisals, forced labor and starvation to carry out the Pan Americanisation of the western hemisphere. Dictators studied these US strategies [Wasichu] of atrocities, mass murders, concentration camps, ethnic cleansing and theft on a grand scale. The great natural power preserved us and continues to do so. We don’t have a standing army. We have the dreaded truth. As Oscar Wilde said: When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood, [and a forked tongue] it’s hard to shake hands with her.

MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, to donate to maintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to www.mohawknationnews.com More stories at MNN Categories “COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”. Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0 Store: Indigenous authors – Kahnawake books – Mohawk Warriors Three – Warriors Hand Book – Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy. Category: World – Colonialism - Great Turtle Island – History – New World Order – courts/police Economics/trade/commerce – Land/environment – art/culture. Tags: North American Indians – Turtle Island – Indian holocaust/genocide – NAU North American Union – History Canada/US – United Nations – Cointelpro - colonialism.

Another First Nation Murder Witness Dies Suddenly

2012-01-23T10:13:00.002-07:00

Is it Nothing to You? Another Hero Falls

Ricky Lavallie: 1960-2012
By Kevin D.
Censored News

Ricky Lavallie is dead.

He was a 51 year old native man, and was the sole witness to the murder by three Vancouver policemen of another key aboriginal activist in our network, Johnny Bingo Dawson.

The sudden death of Ricky Lavallie on January 3 has wiped out the last of my original core supporters among urban native people in Vancouver and Winnipeg. Our original nucleus of the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) has been extinguished.

In barely two years, all of our strongest activists, and those who forced the missing residential schools children into national and world consciousness, have died: Chief Louis Daniels, Elder Phillipa Ryan, Johnny Bingo Dawson, William Combes, Harry Wilson, and now Ricky Lavallie.

These deaths follow on the earlier, equally sudden demise of key eyewitnesses to murders in Indian residential schools: Archie Frank, Willie Sport, Joe Sylvester, Virginia Baptiste, Nora Bernard, and Harriet Nahanee.

These witnesses, and the dead native leaders of our FRD, were instrumental in publicly naming the churches and government of Canada as being guilty of crimes against humanity. And they have all paid the ultimate price for doing so.

I charge these religious and state organizations with their murders.

I charge the E Division of the RCMP with complicity in these deaths, along with the head officers of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In the case of Ricky Lavallie, I charge the Vancouver Police Department with complicity in his death. For I have two separate videotaped testimonies of Ricky from last August, in which he states that a Vancouver police sergeant threatened him with imprisonment and death if he continued to speak about his witnessing of the deadly beating of Bingo Dawson by the same sergeant and two other Vancouver cops on December 6, 2009.

I have written the following obituary and tribute to my friend Ricky, for his steadfast courage and devotion to the missing children. I hope and pray, as always, that some of the spirit of such a brave soul will pass into us, and help us all awaken from complicity.

Let us see and name the murders still happening, and bring down those responsible.

Otherwise, how are we any better than they are?

……………………………………………………………………..

Ricky Lavallie: May 20, 1960- January 3, 2012

His tears flowed so easily whenever he remembered how his five year old brother was killed by a catholic priest bearing an electric cattle prod at the Portage la Prairie residential school in 1968. He carried the terror of that day with him at every moment, for he refused to numbly forget. But nevertheless, Ricky Lavallie was always at my side at every rally and vigil outside churches across Vancouver, and he never wavered.

I lost more than a friend in Ricky, but a brother warrior: one who could have created the usual excuses of most people to stay away from all of our righteous confrontations with cops and priests down the years, as we battled impossibly for disclosure and justice. Rick more than anyone had enough cause to hide, but he never did.

I once marched with Ricky and only eight other people down one of Vancouver’s busiest streets during rush hour traffic, bearing the banner that he clung to like his memories: “All the Children Need a Proper Burial”.

As passersby gawked at our little army, and cars lurched to a stop to let us pass, I turned to Ricky and said,

“How are we doing, Rick?”

He smiled, which was rare, and shouted cheerfully,

“We’re doing great!”

Ricky was the one who walked with me to the front of a church sanctuary during a busy mass, as we occupied the main catholic cathedral in Vancouver on Palm Sunday in 2007. I recall how he gazed solidly at the priest who was berating and threatening us, and said quietly to the red faced idiot, “When are you gonna give me back my brother’s body?”

Before we were banned from the airwaves of the former “Vancouver Co-op Radio” now a muzzled subsidiary of the corporate Pattison Media Group – Ricky regularly regaled our listeners with life on the streets, his time in the death camp called residential school, and with his latest song, strummed out on a three strong guitar we kept lying around the studio. But his best moments were with his fellow survivors of church torture, when they faltered on the air and broke down in the flood of dark remembrances that he carried and endured so nobly.

“That’s okay, we’ll get those bastards” he’d say softly to a man or woman amidst their sobs, placing a large and tender arm around them. And then he'd shout into the microphone,

"Screw those churches!"

We did get those bastards, again and again, and Ricky showed me in the flesh how and why his kind are inheriting the earth. He was the kind of man who no bribe and no threat could stop: and so, even now, he hasn’t been stopped.

Ricky’s great joy, of course, was that he was a central character in our documentary film Unrepentant. Just to know that his story and that of his brother were now known to millions of people around the world seemed to make up for all that he had lost. Whenever he saw me on the grimy streets of East Hastings he’d lumber over to me and ask for another few copies of our film.

“They can’t ignore us anymore, right?” he’d exclaim.

The last time I ever saw Ricky was in October, during the Occupy Vancouver encampment. My friend spent his days there leafleting mostly indifferent occupiers about the residential schools genocide, and he never stopped talking about his murdered brother to anyone who would listen.

From there, one day, he led a dozen people on a Sunday morning to the same cathedral he had helped occupy that bright Sunday in 2007, and he stood almost alone in the face of dozens of burly Knights of Columbus and the usual brutal phalanx of cops who try so pathetically to guard the church from Judgement.

Ricky Lavallie left the world in such a spirit, as he had lived: resolute and unbroken and truthful, despite his scars, and his deep fears.

It’s never enough to write about another fallen hero, or to remember him, or even to continue on in the sacred work he died for. The long sadness, the lengthening shadow of aloneness among we fewer and fewer veterans of this campaign, is never lessened by the bright light of their example. But somehow we carry on anyway, like Ricky, remembering, as he always did, all of the little ones who suffered and died, and the ones who will tomorrow if we let go of our banner, or our memories.

Ricky Lavallie. He is present.

Read the truth of genocide in Canada and globally at:

http://www.itccs.org/

www.hiddennolonger.com (includes documentary film Unrepentant)

http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/

http://www.kevinannett.com/

See this introductory video on The Canadian Holocaust:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqPIh-267fg&feature=related
This email is hosted by Jeremiah Jourdain on behalf of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) and Kevin Annett - Eagle Strong Voice (adopted May 2004 into the Anishinabe nation by Louis Daniels - Whispers Wind).
Kevin can be reached at hiddenfromhistory1@gmail.com or kevin_annett@hotmail.com - and phone messages can be left for him at 250-591-4573 (Canada).

Rodriguez: The 'Undocumented' Mexican American Studies Books

2012-01-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

THE "UNDOCUMENTED" MAS BOOKS

by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

TUCSON -- The following list is what Tucson Unified School District claims are the Mexican American Studies books that "have not been banned." The list is taken from the 2010 Cambium report that gave MAS-TUSD two thumbs up and recommended expanding the program.

Regarding the list below, the context is that the list is not the biggest story; the story is that this discipline has been viciously attacked by state officials and MAS-TUSD has now been dismantled. It's is not an overnight story. The attack on the culture, history, identity, language and education -- of the people of Tucson, primarily the Mexican American community, has been ongoing since 2006. This act violates every international human rights treaty and convention.

When I asked my colleague Norma Gonzales, one of the MAS teachers at TUSD, what had been banned, she replied: "It's not just the books. It's everything we've ever created." This includes slide shows, art, posters, etc.

In fat, to clarify, she noted today that she was told that she cannot teach the Aztec Calendar to her students. "Nothing related to Mexican history or culture."

.The list can be found at: http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Rodriguez can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com

Cintli don't tweet, text, facebook and is not linked... neither do I own a TV... but you can still email or call me.

Censored News Passes 1 Million Hits Mark!

2012-01-22T08:56:00.004-07:00

Censored News Print Edition to include interviews with Mohawk Warrior Society at the southern border!

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

Censored News, focused on Indigenous Peoples and human rights, passed the 1 Million Mark this week! Censored News page views passed the 1,050,000 mark, making more than one million views since it began five years ago. Thanks to all our contributors of articles and photos, and readers!

The Censored News upcoming print edition will include interviews -- never published before -- with members of the Mohawk Warrior Society, as they supported Indigenous at the southern border and the Zapatistas.

Those who make any donation to Censored News, to keep it going, will receive the first print edition. Donate by way of PayPal on Censored News, or mail to Brenda Norrell, PMB 132, 405 E. Wetmore Rd., Ste 117, Tucson, Ariz. 85705 Thank you! brendanorrell@gmail.com

Although Censored News is very popular, it receives very few donations. Please donate to keep it going!

Censored News is in desperate need of a laptop to continue! Thank you!

Thank you! Brenda Norrell, publisher
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Censored News began five years ago when Brenda Norrell, a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, was repeatedly censored, then terminated. After being warned not to write articles on grassroots Native Americans, or the genocide of Indigenous Peoples, Censored News was created to tell those stories and more.

Anonymous: Keep telling your story

2012-01-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Anonymous

An open letter to the citizens of the World
Posted online Jan. 21, 2012

We stand at a unique time in our history, the rise of the internet and computer technology have contributed to an unparallelled rate of prosperity for the First World. We have created for ourselves and empire unlike any other, a global network of constant trade and communication, a new age of technological advancement. We have come a long way from our humble roots in the Industrial Revolution and the days of Manifest Destiny. We are now pioneers on new digital frontiers expanding our domain from the quantum world to the far reaches of space.

And yet, the empire faces a crisis, a global recession, growing poverty, rampant violence, corruption in politics, and threats to personal freedom. As it was before in other times of crisis, the old stories have begun to repeat themselves. The half truths, this time repeated nightly on cable news and echoed through a series of tubes onto the internet: the empire is strong, change is unwise, business as usual is the answer. In times of uncertainty there are those who seek to add to the confusion, to prey on our insecurities and fears. Those who would seek to keep us divided for their own gain. The pervasive strategy takes many very convincing forms: Liberals and Conservatives, Christians and Muslims, Black and White, Saved and sinner.

But something unexpected is happening. We have begun telling each other our own stories. Sharing our lives, our hopes, our dreams, our demons. Every second, day in day out, into all hours of the night the gritty details of life on this earth are streaming around the world. As we see the lives of others played out in our living rooms we are beginning to understand the consequences of our actions and the error of the old ways. We are questioning the old assumptions that we are made to consume not to create, that the world was made for our taking, that wars are inevitable, that poverty is unavoidable. As we learn more about our global community a fundamental truth has been rediscovered: We are not so different as we may seem. Every human has strengths, weaknesses, and deep emotions. We crave love, love laughter, fear being alone and dream for a better life.

You must create a better life.

You cannot sit on the couch watching television or playing video games, waiting for a revolution. You are the revolution. Every time you decide not to exercise your rights, every time you refuse to hear another view point, every time you ignore the world around you, every time you spend a dollar at a business that doesn't pay a fair wage you are contributing to the oppression of the human body and the repression of the human mind. You have a choice, a choice to take the easy path, the familiar path, to walk willingly into your own submission. Or a choice get up, to go outside and talk to your neighbor, to come together in new forums to create lasting, meaningful change for the human race.

This is our challenge:

A peaceful revolution, a revolution of ideas, a revolution of creation. The twenty-first century enlightenment. A global movement to create a new age of tolerance and understanding, empathy and respect. An age of unfettered technological development. An age of sharing ideas and cooperation. An age of artistic and personal expression. We can choose to use new technology for radical positive change or let it be used against us. We can choose to keep the internet free, keep channels of communication open and dig new tunnels into those places where information is still guarded. Or we can let it all close in around us. As we move in to new digital worlds, we must acknowledge the need for honest information and free expression. We must fight to keep the internet open as a marketplace of ideas where all are seated as equals. We must defend our freedoms from those who would seek to control us. We must fight for those who do not yet have a voice. Keep telling your story. All must be heard.

-V

Vi Waln: Winyan Ituwan Women of Vision

2012-01-19T21:34:00.003-07:00

Winyan Ituwan holds first of four gatherings

Photos and article by Vi Waln
Lakota Country Times Editor

Photos by Vi Waln: Top - Phyllis Young and Madonna Thunder Hawk; 2nd - Olowan Sara Martinez and Pte San Win; 3rd - Kandi Mossett, Marie Randall, Tantoo Cardinal and Tiana Spotted Thunder; 4th Members of the Cante Ohitika (Brave Heart Society) also attended the gathering in Porcupine, SD. Faith Spotted Eagle spoke about building young women through traditional ceremony. Pictured behind her are society members (L-R) Frances Bullshoe, Brittany Poor Bear, Alex Romero Frederick, Jennifer Takes War Bonnet, Jennifer Drapeaux and Theresa Hart. 5th: More than 200 men, women and children attended. 6th: Regina Brave. Arlette Loud Hawk spoke about being a female Tokala whip bearer. Thank you Vi for the photos!

PAHIN SINTE OWAYAWA – “This is a collective effort to bring women together to share experience, wisdom and vision; our Earth Mother needs us to stand up for her to be a voice for these young girls to walk in our path,” stated Pte San Win, one of the organizers of the initial Winyan Ituwan gathering. “We hope to inspire and encourage you to go home with lots of information for your family.”

Topics discussed at the gathering revolved around the desecration of Mother Earth and water, as well as mining issues facing the people living on the Great Plains of the United States. In addition, the traditional roles and responsibilities of Native women were presented. Over 200 people attended.

Lorraine White Face prayed with her macaw feather fan and blessed everyone with sage smoke. Opening prayer was offered by Esther White Face. Singing a beautiful opening song were duet Tianna Spotted Thunder and Autumn Two Bulls.

“Each and every one of us is special. Faith, hope and love will make a better generation for all of us,” stated Marie Randall. “As women we all carry the water of life and we must care for ourselves because of the children. We must have the courage to change because the gifts that were given to us by Tunkasila are suffering. I encourage all of you to teach the children to love and respect one another. I am not afraid to be Lakota.”

“Water is the first medicine,” stated Cordelia White Elk.

“Tunkasila gave us the guidance to do this,” Debra White Plume stated. “We want to share the love we have for Unci Maka, we are trying to live in a good way.

The power comes from love, the work we do comes from our love of Lakota ways. Pine Ridge has been fighting uranium mining being done south of us. We have challenged their right to mine uranium because we have scientific evidence that the mine site near Crawford, NE is linked to our drinking water. We have been fighting North Trend for 7 years now. We use water in every single ceremony. This is the same water that was here when the dinosaurs were here; it is our duty and privilege to fight for drinking water. These are issues that are genocidal to our people. If water is contaminated where are we going to get water for 50,000 Oglala? What about water for our horses and other animals?”

“We never started out to fight the biggest uranium mine under Cameco; we started out trying to find out why things were happening to our people. It doesn’t matter who tests the water, the results are always the same. We have to fight for the water to keep it clean and keep it good. We have to speak up, we have to take action. They may have a lot of money but we have a lot of love. There can be no more desecrating of Unci Maka; we are going to defend our sacred water. It’s hard to be Lakota because you have to stand up. Our courage is greater than the corporations and government who want to take our water.

“The Keystone XL pipeline expansion will cross the Lyman Jones Rural Water System in many places. It will cross the Mni Wiconi Water System in two places. We are trying to teach our non-Indian allies to call Earth our Mother instead of a planet,” stated White Plume.

The Keystone XL pipeline expansion consists of a 1,912-mile pipeline that would transport crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas. The proposed project could transport up to 830,000 barrels of dirty tar sands crude per day right through the Ogallala Aquifer which supplies drinking water to over 2 million people and countless animals, trees and plants. National lawmakers have used their power of politics to force President Obama to decide by February 21 if he will sign the permit needed for TransCanada to build the pipeline.

“Even in the 1800’s geologists in the area already knew what was in that land,” stated Tantoo Cardinal, a Cree actress who grew up near the Athabasca oil sands. “Everything that had to do with our culture was outlawed. I saw people who lived a life of strength off the bush. The outlawing of language and ways was an attempt to sever our connection to the Creator. This made us mean to each other too. When I was young we would go on berry picking trips and we could get our water out of the lake. Our children aren’t going to know that. Now, 10% of the fish coming out of the water are abnormal.”

“The people who come to Fort McMurray have no love for the land, they come for money. Even though we had no ceremonies we had medicine. There’s medicine on that land. A woman from Yellow Knife has medicine to doctor AIDS. There is medicine to doctor AIDS in that land they are killing. We were right from the beginning. Our treaties were established because we know our Mother. We have the blueprint. We have to discern who are allies are, defenders of the Earth come in all colors. In that knowing, in that teaching is where the women stand. Women’s place hasn’t been respected. The Earth is being treated the same way women are being treated.

“Sands are the grit that wears and tears on that pipe,” Cardinal continued. “All we have had are lies from this civilization, so why would they start telling us the truth now?”

“In 1947 the US Government built a dam,” stated Kandi Mossett, a Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikira tribal member who is currently employed with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “We were forced into a cash economy; it was like walking through door never to go back. When women eat mercury contaminated fish it affects our bodies. We are always told that we can’t eat the big fish we catch in Lake Sakakawea anymore. There are many flares or giant candles of natural gas now. Many tribal members were paid $34 an acre for their land versus the $5,000-$6,000 an acre paid to non-Indians.

“Now, every single place you go you see trucks hauling water in and hauling water out. Many people have died in head-on crashes with the trucks. It’s all for oil mining. It’s wrong. The tribally elected leaders at Fort Berthold are not my leaders. Women have to lead, let us show you how to lead. A Tribal Environmental Code was just passed last year. There are many open valves. There are 2,500 chemicals in that fracked water that leaks out of the valves on the trucks. Tribal police have no jurisdiction over the truck drivers. People are getting money now and they are happy because we’ve been poor for so long. Drugs are coming in worse than they were before. We need to stop it at all costs.

“Why should you care what is happening on Fort Berthold?” Mossett asked. People need to care because “it’s affecting you down here. Green water found in Lake Sakakawea was said to be a blue green algae bloom which is toxic.” Also, leakage that “cannot be seen with the naked eye but infrared cameras shows the constant smoke coming from pipes and those round storage tanks along with frack trucks around the reservation. People are not dumb. People just became complacent. I survived cancer when I was 20 years old. I refused chemotherapy, I refused radiation. There’s so much to fight for an as long as I have a breath in me I am going to go anywhere to lift people up. Forget the Keystone XL pipeline; we are going to kill it. As long as there are little kids running around we are going to fight.”

“Kandi Mossett is my hero,” stated Phyllis Young, a newly elected tribal council representative at Standing Rock. “She inspired me to pass legislation against fracturing. Demonstrations are significant; we need to have an Occupy Wall Street type of event in the Black Hills. We have the Standing Rock directors working to beef up the regulations we have. We are also trying to prohibit horizontal drilling. I have been on the tribal council for two months and we will do everything we can to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.”

“What is it going to take for activism in Indian Country?” Madonna Thunder Hawk asked. She is currently working on Indian Child Welfare Act violations in East River South Dakota. “Check the NPR.org website for documents about the Department of Social Services. Lean on your tribal councils because they have to make child welfare a priority. Not one tribe in the State of South Dakota has made child welfare a priority. Kids are kept in the system for the money. They are drugged up and then when they age out they dump them back into the Indian community. I’m hoping there will be younger women who will pick up this fight.”

."I love my people,” stated Regina Brave who is also a long-time activist for the Lakota. “This whole country still belongs to us; I want you to remember that. They want to build Keystone XL through here because they called this a sparsely populated area. We have farmers, ranchers and processing plants. 75% of the groceries people take for granted come from this sparsely populated area. We have a right to protest and shut down TransCanada, we have to stop it. We are a nation fighting for survival. 2012 is the beginning of a whole new era for Indian people, it’s time for women to stand up and start fighting. We waited for a long time for this to happen where we could stand together and fight.”

“I believe this is an historical gathering,” stated Faith Spotted Eagle. “We have a responsibility to recreate societies. In 1994 we revived the Brave Heart Society. We have to build these young women. There are 90 girls scattered across the country that have been through the Isnati ceremony.”

Brittany Poor Bear, a Brave Heart Society member, offered a prayer for the wamakaskan.

Russell Means’ recent bout with cancer “was a powerful and humbling experience,” stated his wife Pearl Means. “But the power of our ancestors and spirituality is hard to express. We are downwind from North Dakota which is where the largest strip mining in the country is taking place.”

Other speakers included Arlette Loud Hawk who spoke as the Whip Bearer for the Tokala Kit Fox Warrior Society. Troy Lynn Yellow Wood talked about the roles of women. Special guest speakers included Alex White Plume, Russell Means, and Lily Mae Red Eagle.

Winyan Ituwan is a collective effort to bring women together to share experiences, vision, and wisdom. There were many door prizes including propane and other gifts. Winyan Ituwan is the first of four women’s gatherings, with one set for spring, summer and fall. People can call 605-899-1419 or connect at Winyan Ituwan on Face Book for more information.

“Each of us has power in our thoughts and in prayer. When we think and pray in a good way that is what we add to the atmosphere,” stated Cardinal

Russell Means and Alex White Plume
Photo Vi Waln.

Debra White Plume: A Thread in the Beautiful Fabric of Resistance

2012-01-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

Photos by Vi Waln

A Thread in the Beautiful Fabric of Resistance
by Debra White Plume
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Water is finite, and sacred. “Mni wicozani”, through water there is life. We must drink clean, nourishing water to live. Just as Mother Earth is made up of a lot of water, our human bodies are 70% water. That is why at Full Moon, and the tides change, some human beings have strong, unpredictable behavior. To our Lakota people, mni (water) is our first medicine, our first home. There are entire spiritual and social teachings that we learn as we grow up, our Lakota World View about water. Mni is our relative, and Lakota Law compels us to protect our relatives. Mother Earth is our relative.

This belief led our organization Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way), which is involved with cultural preservation and revitalization, Treaty Rights and Human Rights, to begin looking at disproportionate cancer and diabetes rates on the Pine Ridge Homeland. This research took us places we never thought we would be! We examined air and water quality studies, which led us to the Cameco, Inc. in situ leach uranium mine 30 minutes from our southern border. We learned that ISL uranium mining contaminates an incredible amount of water, on a daily basis. Cameco was up for license renewal and had submitted another application to open a second mine. We researched that process, and found we could submit interventions, based on science and law. We did that, and are now plaintiffs in the case against Cameco’s ‘right’ to poison our water. That was 7 years ago. This work continues.

Water protection work requires constant research, in doing so I learned about the tarsands oil mine in First Nations Territory in the Athabascan River Basin where Ft McMurry is, in Canada. Learning about that mine and its’ impacts to Mother Earth was mind jolting, so I began to speak out more about this horrendous desecration of Mother Earth and our First Nations relatives. The tarsands oil mine is decades old, and has become the dirtiest mining operation in the world. The corporations snuck in decades ago, fooling elected leaders into signing contracts of extraction, contracts that are resulting in increased forms of rare cancer, people are dying, so are fish, moose and other animals that the people depend on for food. It has become a food issue. Will it become a famine issue? The pristine Boreal Forest is being clearcut, the Amazon of the North is being destroyed, millions of birds and other animals have died, species have become extinct. The mine uses 3 to 4 barrels of pristine drinking water to create 1 barrel of oil, each day. It creates so much green house gases, the output can hardly be measured.

Studying the tarsands oil mine led to the discovery of TransCanada corporation’s intent to build and operate the Keystone XL oil pipeline from the tarsands oil mine into Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas where it would be refined and shipped out to who-knows-where. We learned the KXL oil pipeline was three feet in diameter, thin, and would high pressure slurry the heavy crude oil that had to be heated to 150 degrees F to liquefy it enough to push through that pipeline. There is a union worker who turned whistle blower when he was fired for declaring the pipe defective, which corporate workers would re-tag as approved. He gave up a lifelong career. I met him in DC.

The pipeline would cross our Rural Water pipeline, which transports drinking water from the Missouri River, 200 miles away, to our communities on the Pine Ridge. The KXL pipeline would cross 200 lakes and streams and rivers. It would be buried in the Ogllala Aquifer, which irrigates 30% of the food grown in the USA, and which provides drinking water for 2 million people, and for cattle, horses, buffalo and other four legged. Trans-Canada would use a lot of drinking water to mix with that heavy crude. Sacred and social teachings about water propelled me into devoting more and more time into fighting the life and death situation that this oil pipeline had become. I knew the threats to our ground and surface from uranium mining, and learning about this oil pipeline taught me that it threatens our very lives, for where would we get enough drinking water for the 50,000 Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge when the pipeline spilled or leaked? Who would care enough to do something about it? The technology does not exist to clean up this kind of heavy crude. No pipe has been created that does not leak or spill.

Friends from the Indigenous Environmental Network contacted me, and we began a dialogue about water protection, contamination, a number of other topics. Tribes along the pipeline route took action to oppose the pipeline. Every Native Nation organization in the USA raised their voice to say No. I decided to go to Washington, DC to participate in a Senate Briefing Hearing, and meet with the State Department officials about Ft Laramie Treaty violations and violations of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the United Nations in 2007. I traveled with others to Pierre, SD to testify at a State Dept hearing, but was not able to, as I was number 152. I saw drunken union workers testify about how they needed a job welding. They mostly came from out of state.

Then my family and I decided I would go to Washington DC. I participated in a civil disobedience direct action, trespassed at the White House and got arrested, along with 1200 other people who wanted to help get this issue into the minds of mainstream America and the attention of President Obama. There were a dozen of us Native Nations people who were arrested. The Lakota people on Pine Ridge hosted Tom Weis, who rode a solar powered bike from Montana to Texas to raise awareness along the KXL oil pipeline route. We hosted a Rally for Mother Earth in Pine Ridge, and a march. We hosted a Ride for Solidarity with ranchers, farmers, Lakota people, and an American movie star, Darryl Hannah. We had radio shows, wrote articles, attended events. Next thing I knew, I was on the Tour of Resistance, I flew 10,000 miles in 5 weeks. Halfway through, I lost my hairbrush, my comb, and only had one sock. Good thing it was almost over by then! On January 15, a group of us Lakota people hosted Winyan Ituwan, a women’s gathering with the focus on Mother Earth and Sacred Water, with guest speakers including Kandi Mosset of IEN and Tantoo Cardinal, a Cree movie star from Canada. All to raise awareness and resistance to uranium mining and the KXL oil pipeline and the tarsands oil mine, and protection for our sacred water.

Nebraska started out to protect the Ogllala Aquifer, but became involved in negotiations to allow the pipeline in along an undetermined route. South Dakota GAVE KXL $30 million in tax breaks to come here, Montana made concessions as well. However, individuals and groups got involved, big time. Environmental groups, many other civic groups, thousands of people on both sides of the Canadian/USA border spoke with the same voice, STOP THE PIPELINE. Nobel Laureates, Native Nation and First Nation Chiefs and Presidents, scientists, retired military, Olympic Medalists, Senators, Congressmen, actors, writers, students, people from all walks of life raised their voices and risked their freedom to stop the pipeline. Rarely did USA’s mainstream media cover any of this, but in the little towns and small cities, local newspapers and radio shows did. Word got out, numbers of resisters grew. The last time I went to DC, I spoke at a rally of 15,000 people, we circled the White House 4 times. People came from all over, to speak with one voice. We made friends and allies.

Nebraska politicians had a special hearing to allow KXL to come in, but the White House heard the message to protect the Ogllala Aquifer. Then TransCanada pushed the USA to make a decision, and elected politicians lifted their voices to support the KXL, attached a new bill as a rider to a jobs bill, gave the White House 60 days to let KXL in or to reject the pipeline as against the national interest.

On January 18, 2012, the State Dept and President Obama rejected the pipeline, as 60 days was inadequate to conduct environmental impact studies. However, TransCanada can still apply for a new permit.

Each of us who worked on this life and death situation, we are a thread in this fabric of resistance. Folks wrote letters, gave speeches, cooked food, wrote emails, tweeted, did FaceBook postings, made banners, pitched in gas money, made tshirts, made phone calls, did research, made copies, stood in line to testify, got arrested, lobbied Senators and Congressmen, babysat, loaned out their cars, offered a couch or a spare room, musicians/artists doing pro bono benefits, shared frequent flyer miles, took pictures, raised money, it was truly a collective action to protect our water and Mother Earth.

There is no one person, nor one organization, that stopped the pipeline, this victory that may be temporary, this partial victory, as the tarsands oil mine is still operating. It was the love of the many, for Mother Earth and coming generations, the many prayers and sacrifices that gave this movement its power. I believe love is stronger than greed. I believe that people working together can be just as effective as the world’s richest corporations. I believe Mother Earth wants to live, and we cannot live without Her. I believe our Lakota prophecy, “Someday the Earth will weep, She will cry with tears of blood. You must make a choice. You help Her, or She will die. When She dies, you too will die.”

All over the world, events are unfolding, 200 tornadoes in two days last summer? Earthquakes and shakes where there have been none for hundreds of years? Floods? Droughts? All common weather events, but uncommon in the repeated occurrences or place of occurrence. Every summer has been hotter than the last since 1996. Mother Earth is telling us something, She is crying, and She is rising. Crying Earth Rise Up! Whatever befalls Mother Earth, befalls the people of Mother Earth. Such a struggle is made up of many, many threads, together we form a beautiful fabric of resistance, and protection for our Mother, Mother Earth.

The last time we left DC, my friend and I saw a huge red tailed hawk, he swooped over us, and over the White House, and he flew to the west. The day of Winyan Ituwan Winter Gathering, we saw a bald eagle circle over us, and he flew off to the West. Sacred messages ... if we listen, we can hear, if we hear, we can understand. When we understand, we give thanks. Lila wopila iciciyapi. Hecetuye.

Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline

2012-01-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline

By Noah Greenwald

Censored News

WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama today denied the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, finding that building the pipeline is not in the national interest. Little mention was made of alternative routes currently being pushed by TransCanada, the company building the pipeline, and it appears they would have to begin the permit review process anew.

“President Obama made the right decision in denying the Keystone XL pipeline today,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Keystone XL pipeline would have prolonged our dependence on dirty fossil fuels that are polluting our air, land and water, and kept us from stabilizing the climate by moving to a clean energy future.”

The decision has already come under attack by Republicans claiming it will cost “tens of thousands” of jobs. In fact, the State Department estimated that Keystone XL would result in just 20 permanent, operational jobs in theUnited States and 2,500 to 4,650 temporary jobs.

“It’s utterly ridiculous to claim that rejecting Keystone XL is killing off tens of thousands of jobs. The facts just don’t back that up,” Greenwald said.

The administration has come under heavy pressure from congressional Republicans and the oil industry to approve the pipeline. In December Republicans attached language onto must-pass legislation — extending payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits — that forced the administration to make a decision within 60 days, precipitating today’s decision. More recently, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, threatened that the president would face “huge political consequences” if he rejected the pipeline.

“In standing up to the deep-pocketed oil and gas industry today, President Obama heard the voice of the people and gave us new hope that we can set short-term business interests aside to do what’s right for the world and our children,” said Greenwald. “It’s vital that the president reject future proposals for tar-sands pipelines too, along with offshore oil drilling in the Arctic.”

Tens of thousands of Americans expressed opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, including an action in November in which at least 12,000 people surrounded the White House. In September the Center and partners filed a lawsuit challenging illegal construction on the pipeline prior to issuance of a permit, including movement of an endangered species, the American burying beetle. The Center is continuing with this litigation in order to compel TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, to mitigate the impacts of its illegal work on the beetle and Nebraska’s Sand Hills area.

“Sooner or later, destruction of the environment for resource extraction always leaves people poor in its wake,” said Greenwald. “Today’s a good day for the millions of Americans dependent on water from the Ogallala Aquifer and the many rivers crossed by the pipeline, who will no longer have to worry that a spill will pollute their water.”

Keystone XL would have transported dirty tar-sands oil 1,700 miles across six states and hundreds of water bodies, posing an unacceptable risk of spill. An existing pipeline called Keystone 1 has already leaked 14 times since it started operating in June 2010, including one spill that dumped 21,000 gallons of tar-sands crude. Another tar-sands pipeline spilled 800,000 gallons in the Kalamazoo River.

Strip mining of oil from Alberta’s tar sands is also destroying tens of thousands of acres of boreal forest and polluting hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Athabasca River, in the process creating toxic ponds so large they can be seen from space. Extraction and refinement of tar-sands oil produces two to three times more greenhouse gases per barrel than conventional oil and represents a massive new source of fossil fuels that leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen has called “game over” for our ability to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Noah Greenwald M.S.

Endangered Species Program Director

Center for Biological Diversity

PO Box 11374

Portland, OR 97211

503-484-7495

'Custer' Huppenthal's Last Big Lie: The Seized Books

2012-01-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

Tucson students said they
were traumatized when the
books were seized from their
classrooms. They said it was as
if they were in Nazi Germany.
Tucson students were especially
shocked at the seizure of this
book of photos Mexico.
The state school head considers
this book one of the seven most
troubling on the reading list of 50.

Arizona and Tucson school officials attempt to lie, and manipulate the facts, following the seizure of all books from the Mexican American Studies classes -- including 'Rethinking Columbus,' with writings of the top Native American and Indigenous authors and thinkers

Update Jan. 20, 2012: An article in Salon reveals Tucson schools' lies about the books banned from the classrooms. NPR reported the lies as facts, and did not report the truth. Democracy Now had a better report than NPR of course.http://www.salon.com/2012/01/18/tucson_says_banished_books_may_return_to_classrooms/

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

TUCSON -- Arizona school head John "Custer" Huppenthal and Tucson school officials began their big lie over the books seized from Mexican American Studies classrooms. While Tucson Unified School District officials attempt to twist and manipulate the facts, the truth is that all Mexican American Studies books, lesson plans and materials are now being confiscated by Tucson schools officials from the teachers and classrooms.
NPR was among the national news media that refused to ask the right questions on Wednesday and instead promoted the spin of Arizona and Tucson school officials. NPR and the national news media, by refusing to do real journalism, are fueling the racism in Arizona and the Arizona government's initiated hate crimes.
The questions the national news media should be asking are:
1: Were books seized from classrooms in front of students, traumatizing them? (Yes)
2. Has Mexican American culture been banned and found illegal in Tucson schools? (Yes)
3. What has happened to the seven "deadly sin" books seized, among 50 on the Mexican American Studies reading list that were seized from classrooms. The seven books that state school head John "Custer" Huppenthal found troubling includes Rethinking Columbus, with writings by leading Native American and Indigenous authors and thinkers.
NPR and other national news media are good examples of the collapsed media in the US. A quick phone call is not going to give you the truth. It is only going to result in promoting the lies and manipulations of government and political spin masters.
Unless you are present and talking to students, teachers, attorneys, and people on the streets here in Tucson you are not going to get the story right, or have the facts.
Meanwhile, students spoke out at the Martin Luther King Day rally in Tucson, describing how the books were seized from their classrooms, including a book of photos of Mexico. Students said it made them feel like they were in Nazi Germany.
(The lies and distortions of Arizona and Tucson school officials, denying that the books are banned, are at: http://tucsoncitizen.com/arizona-news/2012/01/17/tucson-district-denies-ban-of-mexican-american-books/ )
Roberto Rodriguez, professor and columnist living in Tucson, is among the authors whose books were in the classroom. Rodriguez said late Tuesday, "While TUSD claims that there are no banned books, the fact remains that administrators have come into MAS classrooms (which no longer exist) and removed the MAS classroom materials, which includes books that were formerly utilized in the now suspended MAS program.
"While TUSD claims that only 7 book titles were ordered boxed and carried off, the fact is that the confiscation, in some cases in front of the students, involved more than the 7 books that were listed by TUSD.

The seven books that are "not banned" are:
Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado
500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures edited by Elizabeth Martinez
Message to AZTLAN by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuna
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years by Bill Bigelow
"However, teachers have had to clean out all their materials, including artwork and posters. In a further irony, some teachers are being told to turn in the books that have not been banned. Go figure!
"As part of the MAS-TUSD curriculum, there are some 50 books. All have been or are being removed or confiscated from every classroom... which strikes the average person as odd... do they think that the presence of books that were formerly part of the MAS curriculum would be a distraction or bad influence. Apparently, those books don't belong in the classroom."
"So if officially, the 50 books (listed at the end of the Cambium report) are not banned, they are confiscated, or in the process of being confiscated... THUS THE BOOKS ARE NOW UNDOCUMENTED! They are as welcome in TUSD schools as undocumented migrants are welcome in this country," Rodriguez said.

The complete list of books on the reading list, which have been removed from the now forbidden Mexican American Studies classrooms, along with all posters, etc, are at the end of this article:http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2039650298276806223#editor/target=post;postID=64578831989263
Arizona's school head was especially troubled by these seven books, which Tucson school officials said have been moved to a repository:http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/custer-huppenthals-last-big-lie-seized.html

Listen to debate on Democracy Now! today:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/18/debating_tucson_school_districts_book_ban

Tucson Schools Seize Chicano and Native American books from classrooms

2012-01-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

Tucson Schools seize Chicano and Native books from classrooms

Mexican American Studies student at Martin Luther
King Day in Tucson. Photo Brenda Norrell
Censored News

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

TUCSON -- High school students from the now-forbidden Mexican American Studies classes in Tucson spoke out during Martin Luther King Day here, protesting the school board and state of Arizona's decision to ban their classes and their culture.

Describing the seizure of Chicano and Native American books from his classrooms, one student said it was an attempt to "take away our power."

"Knowledge is power," he said, describing how education and knowledge form beliefs and, "who we are." He said school officials entered his classroom and removed all the books.

Another student described how ethnic groups other than Latinos at Tucson schools can still discuss their cultures, while Mexican American culture discussions are now forbidden. Further, she says her teachers are now "under a microscope" and issues like feminism, oppression and Martin Luther King are forbidden topics.

Students, describing the trauma, said it was as if they were in Nazi Germany.

Tucson schools seized Chicano and Native American books from classrooms after the board voted Tuesday, Jan. 10, to forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the decision by the state school head. The Tucson Unified School District board was threatened with the loss of millions of education dollars unless the classes were banned.

Louise Benally, Navajo resisting relocation at Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, joined students protesting outside the board meeting on Jan. 10.

"It is time to slay the beast," said Benally, pointing out that the same corporate beast that oppresses and forbids ethnic studies in Tucson is the same corporate beast poisoning Black Mesa on Navajoland with coal mines and coal fired power plants.

Simon Ortiz, world acclaimed poet, author and professor, responded to the banning of books by Chicano and Native American authors.

Simon Ortiz said, "I am very stunned and very shocked and very pissed off the Tucson Unified School District would ban Mexican American Studies and books like Rethinking Columbus: The Next Five Hundred Years that includes works by Indigenous (Native) authors Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, Winona LaDuke, Buffy St. Marie, Joy Harjo, Wendy Rose, Joseph Bruchac, Jimmie Durham, Peter Blue Cloud, Luther Standing Bear, Gail Trembly, Jose Barreiro, Phillip Martin, Suzanne Shown Harjo. The banning explicitly and pointedly shows it is not only Mexican American Studies and people and so-called illegal immigrants that are targeted but Indigenous studies and people as a whole." Simon J. Ortiz is Regents Professor, at the ASU Department of English, American Indian Studies.

Roberto Rodriguez, professor at University of Arizona, is also among the nation's top Chicano and Latino authors on the Mexican American Studies reading list. Rodriguez' column about this week's school board decision, posted at Censored News, is titled: "Tucson school officials caught on tape 'urinating' on Mexican students." http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Rodriguez responded to Censored News on Sunday about the banning of his books at Tucson schools.

"The attacks in Arizona are mind-boggling. To ban the teaching of a discipline is draconian in and of itself. However, there is also now a banned books list that accompanies the ban. I believe 2 of my books are on the list, which includes: Justice: A Question of Race and The X in La Raza. Two others may also be on the list," Rodriguez said.
"That in itself is jarring, but we need to remember the proper context. This is not simply a book-banning; according to Tom Horne, the former state schools' superintendent who designed HB 2281, this is part of a civilizational war. He determined that Mexican American Studies is not based on Greco-Roman knowledge and thus, lies outside of Western Civilization.

"In a sense, he is correct. The philosophical foundation for MAS is a maiz-based philosophy that is both, thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. What has just happened is akin to an Auto de Fe -- akin to the 1562 book-burning of Maya books in 1562 at Mani, Yucatan. At TUSD, the list of banned books will total perhaps 50 books, including artwork and posters.

"For us here in Tucson, this is not over. If anything, the banning of books will let the world know precisely what kind of mindset is operating here; in that previous era, this would be referred to as a reduccion (cultural genocide) of all things Indigenous. In this era, it can too also be see as a reduccion."

The reading list includes world acclaimed Chicano and Latino authors, along with Native American authors. The list includes books by Corky Gonzales, along with Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street;” Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Black Mesa Poems,“ and L.A. Urreas’ “The Devil’s Highway.“ The authors include Henry David Thoreau and the popular book “Like Water for Chocolate.”

On the reading list are Native American author Sherman Alexie's books, “Ten Little Indians,“ and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.“ O’odham poet and professor Ofelia Zepeda’s “Ocean Power, Poems from the Desert” is also on the list.

DA Morales writes in Three Sonorans, at Tucson Citizen, about the role of state schools chief John Huppenthal. "Big Brother Huppenthal has taken his TEA Party vows to take back Arizona … take it back a few centuries with official book bans that include Shakespeare!"

See banned Mexican American Studies reading list at:

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/banning-of-books-signals-revolution-in.html

Watch the Censored News videos of students speak out during Martin Luther King Day in Tucson.

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/tucson-students-speak-out-on-forbidden.html

brendanorrell@gmail.com

Mohawk Nation News: Caught In His Own Web

2012-01-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

CAUGHT IN HIS OWN WEB …

By Mohawk Nation News

http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

MNN. Jan. 15, 2012. In December the owner of MNN hired a webmaster to update the MNN website: Erland Campbell of Native Web Markets, 6275 Place Northcrest, Montreal, Quebec, H3S 2N3, 514-400-3112.

He received $1,500 in advance to make minor changes. The original remained online. The site he produced is a mere shell of the original. Before launching it, Campbell demanded $500 in cash immediately. He refused to complete the job.

Campbell then sent threatening emails [copies have been kept] trying to extort money, which caused me anxiety and fear.

Then the original site online disappeared.

The host in Norway said that the ‘owner’ [not me] had changed the original MNN password and requested that the site be suspended. I convinced the server to reinstall a new password.

The RCMP Anti-Fraud Centre advised me to go to the local police, make a report and insist on a follow up with the web master. Since he was paid and kept the product, it could constitute theft.

The host in Norway worked very hard to restore the old website which reappeared on the morning of January 17, 2012.

As Chief Seattle said: “Man did not weave the web of life. He is but a mere strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, to donate to maintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to www.mohawknationnews.com More stories at MNN Categories “COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”. Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0 Store: Indigenous authors – Kahnawake books – Mohawk Warriors Three – Warriors Hand Book – Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy. Category: World – Colonialism - Great Turtle Island – History – New World Order – courts/police Economics/trade/commerce – Land/environment – art/culture. Tags: North American Indians – Turtle Island – Indian holocaust/genocide – NAU North American Union – History Canada/US – United Nations – Cointelpro - colonialism.

Native Americans struggle to save Wetlands in Kansas

2012-01-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Wetlands photo courtesy Kyle Gerstner

Contact:
Jessica Lackey: President of the Wetlands Preservation Organization, jessica.lackey@haskell.edu
Kelda Britton: Secretary of the Wetlands Preservation Organization, kelda.britton@haskell.edu

Who: Prairie Band Pottawatomie Nation, Wetlands Preservation Organization, Jayhawk Audubon Society, Kansas Sierra Club, Environs at KU, KU Ecojustice, and Save the Wakarusa Wetlands Inc.

What: Oral hearings begin for the Prairie Band Pottawatomie Nation, Wetlands Preservation Organization, Jayhawk Audubon Society, Kansas Sierra Club, Environs at KU, KU Ecojustice and Save The Wakarusa Wetlands Inc. vs. Federal Highway Administration and Kansas Department of Transportation

When: On the morning of January 19th, 2012

Where: Byron White Courthouse: 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado

Battle Over South Lawrence Trafficway Reaches Circuit Court in Denver

Since the Kansas Department of Transportation proposed the South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT) in the mid 1980’s, the status of this project has been contested in court. Most recently the Prairie Band Pottawatomie Nation and supporting plaintiffs (as listed above) filed an appeal with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis of ongoing serious reservations we have about the Environmental Impact Statement process, along with misgivings also echoed by the ruling judge in her statement.

On Thursday, January 19th at Byron White Courthouse in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado, oral hearings for our appeal will begin. David Prager and Bob Eye, attorneys for the plaintiffs, will present their 15 minute argument, followed by the 15 minute argument from the defendants. The three judges will then work on a decision which will hopefully be settled in the next few months.

In Lawrence, approximately ten members from representative plaintiff groups will travel to Denver to attend the hearings. On Friday January 13th, members of these groups met to assemble statements of support for the appeal. Gary Anderson, President of the Jayhawk Audubon Society stated, “The Jayhawk Audubon Society’s Board of Directors carefully considered the 2010 judge’s comments on the most recent ruling, which found that the EIS requirements had been met for the most part. The Board was extremely disappointed that only certain requirements were considered by the judge for review in the case. The Board continues to feel that all requirements of NEPA need to be followed. If this decision is permitted to stand, a dangerous precedent would be established; therefore, the Board voted overwhelmingly to join the appeal.”

According to Marisol Cortez, Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at KU and faculty advisor for KU Ecojustice, “This project continues to represent histories of injustice and disrespect to Native communities, to sacred spaces the world over, and to the living beings they contain. This is the kind of situation that many scholars and activists call environmental racism, and as in many of these kinds of cases, we see state and federal agencies cutting regulatory corners to railroad a project they assume is a done deal. We say: it is not, and we call on the entire KU community to stand with us against this injustice.”

Mike Caron of Save The Wakarusa Wetlands Inc. stated, “Federal NEPA standards were put in place explicitly to protect minorities from tyranny of the majority. They are the heart of our nation’s protections against environmental injustices.”

Jessica Lackey and Kelda Britton, President and Secretary of Haskell Indian Nation University’s Wetlands Preservation Organization commented, “As Native Americans we are taught that we are the caretakers of the earth. The students of the WPO have taken it upon themselves to protect the wetlands which the school itself has significant historical ties to. Haskell represents over 150 federally recognized tribes and for many of us our only connection to home while we are away is to be able to correlate to our spirit, animal, and plant relatives in the wetlands.”

For further information on the hearing, on the SLT issue, or on perspectives of plaintiff organizations, please contact Jessica Lackey or Kelda Britton at e-mails listed above.

TUCSON Students speak out on forbidden Mexican American Studies

2012-01-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Occupied America
was seized from the classrooms by Tucson school officials
when Mexican American Studies was forbidden.

Click arrows to listen to students

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

TUCSON -- High school students from the now-forbidden Mexican American Studies classes in Tucson spoke out during Martin Luther King Day here, protesting the school board and state of Arizona.
Describing the seizure of books from his classrooms, one student said it was an attempt to "take away our power."
"Knowledge is power," he said, describing how education and knowledge form beliefs and, "who we are."

Another student describes how ethnic groups other than Latinos at Tucson schools can still discuss their cultures, while Mexican American culture discussions are now forbidden. Further, she says teachers are now "under a microscope" and issues like feminism, oppression and Martin Luther King are forbidden topics.
Tucson schools seized Chicano and Native American books from classrooms after the board voted Tuesday to forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the decision by the state school head, who threatened to extract millions in education dollars unless the classes were banned.
Watch the Censored News videos of students speak out today during Martin Luther King Day in Tucson.

Ethnic Studies students march on Martin Luther King Day in Tucson

2012-01-16T14:14:00.002-07:00

Listen to more students at: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/tucson-students-speak-out-on-forbidden.html

Mexican American Studies students marched and rallied in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day in Tucson today, protesting the decision by Tucson Unified School District board to forbid their classes. Students said it was like being in Nazi Germany when school officials came into their classrooms and seized all their books, banning Chicano and Native American literature. Photo and video by Brenda Norrell Censored News.

Simon Ortiz: Shocked over Native books banned in Arizona

2012-01-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

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

Simon Ortiz, world acclaimed poet, author and professor, responded to the banning of books by Chicano and Native American authors. Tucson schools seized the books from students in their classrooms after the board voted to forbid Mexican American Studies on Tuesday. Tucson schools board voted to succumb to the state of Arizona's threat to extract millions of dollars if the classes continued.
Simon Ortiz:
"I am very stunned and very shocked and very pissed off the Tucson Unified School District would ban Mexican American Studies and books like Rethinking Columbus: The Next Five Hundred Years that includes works by Indigenous (Native) authors Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, Winona LaDuke, Buffy St. Marie, Joy Harjo, Wendy Rose, Joseph Bruchac, Jimmie Durham, Peter Blue Cloud, Luther Standing Bear, Gail Trembly, Jose Barreiro, Phillip Martin, Suzanne Shown Harjo. The banning explicitly and pointedly shows it is not only Mexican American Studies and people and so-called illegal immigrants that are targeted but Indigenous studies and people as a whole"
Simon J. Ortiz, Regents Professor, ASU Department of English; American Indian Studies

Sterilizing Words: Media responsible for collapse in Arizona

2012-01-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Tohono O'odahm veteran protests outside the school board

meeting in Tucson on Tuesday night, when Mexican American

Studies was banned. It resulted in Tucson schools banning books

by award winning Chicano and Native American authors.

Photo by Alex Maldonado/Censored News.

Media bound by fear and complacency, responsible for the collapse of rights and justice in Arizona

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

TUCSON -- The media is responsible for the collapse of human rights and banning of books in Arizona, along with the racist Arizona legislators, state school head and corrupt politicians. The media has become frozen in fear, too timid to bang on the doors and find out why the Tucson schools banned the award winning books of Chicano and Native American authors this week.

In the national news in Indian country, the news coverage has collapsed into plagiarism, rewrites, dull mediocre posts and profiteering from others work.

The reporters in Indian country have become complacent to sit in their easy chairs and steal the hard work of others, or simply publish the press releases of corrupt tribal politicians who sell out their people. Even worse, they champion the genocidal agenda of politicians like John McCain and Jon Kyl.

Further, the new trend in Indian country reporting is to silence the wisdom of traditional Native Americans and instead profiteer from the promotion of gambling or distract with internal political fighting. The corporations are protected by the editors who assign non-Indians to cover serious issues, who will dilute the impacts of the desecration of sacred places and the deadly emissions of coal fired power plants.

Now, there is a new addition to this agenda, it is the degradation of women as seen in the centerfold type spread by the new managing editor at Indian Country Today, formerly with Playboy.

There are no Navajo news reporters out on Black Mesa exposing what has happened to the Navajos of Black Mesa, as their land is gutted by coal mining, their aquifer depleted and air poisoned by coal fired power plants.

There are no reporters out on Tohono O'odham land exposing the constant abuse of O'odham by the US Border Patrol or how the elected Tohono O'odham Nation officials have been compromised and co-opted by the US government and gambling promoters.

Where are the news reports on how the O'odham people suffer, while the Desert Diamond casino brings in millions for non-Indian companies, outside charities and the state of Arizona.

While cheerleading for young people to die in the bogus wars of US politicians, the media fails to investigate the truth of those wars.

In Arizona, like the rest of the United States, news reporters have become complacent in their easy chairs and satisfied with their own mediocre status as props. They have become too afraid of politicians and readers to do their jobs; too fearful of displeasing their editors to undertake real reporting; and too drugged by their paychecks to arise with courage.

Instead of exposing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as a criminal, CNN and Fox News portrayed him as a folk hero. There are no reporters on the border exposing the white supremacists and militia armed with assault weapons. Where are the investigative news reports of the trail of assault weapons in Project Gunrunner back to 2005 in Texas?

The banning of books by award winning Chicano and Native American authors this week by Tucson schools should signal the alarm to hold the media responsible for failing in their ethical responsibility to expose injustice and uphold human rights.

As it was with the English only legislation, the banning of books in Arizona is just the beginning of what could become a nationwide trend. The media should be held responsible for allowing the collapse of justice and truth in Arizona.

We, as reporters, whether paid or unpaid, have an ethical responsibility to uphold the truth. We have been given a precious gift, the gift of utterance, and we should use it for the good of humanity.

We do not normally have to fear being murdered for what we write in this country. We do not have to succumb to fear and complacency as we shelter this priceless gift.
.

Banning of Books Signals Revolution in Tucson

2012-01-14T19:19:00.015-07:00

Banned book includes Leslie Marmon Silko, Buffy Sainte Marie and Winona LaDuke

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Translation in French:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=577

UPDATE Jan. 18, 2012:
'Custer Huppenthal's Last Big Lie about Seized Books, by Censored News:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/custer-huppenthals-last-big-lie-seized.html

TUCSON -- Outrage was the response on Saturday to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including "Rethinking Columbus," with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu.

All books and materials of the now forbidden Mexican American Studies classes were seized from the classrooms. This follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.

Students said the books were seized from the classrooms and out of their hands after the vote banning Mexican American Studies, including a book of photos of Mexico. Crying, students said it was like Nazi Germany and they have been unable to sleep since it happened.

The banned book, "Rethinking Columbus," includes work by many Native Americans, as Debbie Reese of Nambe Pueblo reports. The book includes:

Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate"
Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying"
Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians"
Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas"
N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee"
Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving"
Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony"
Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song"
Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility"

All books in the Mexican American Studies classrooms were seized. The reading list includes two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda.

Jeff Biggers writes in Salon:

The list of removed books includes the 20-year-old textbook “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” which features an essay by Tucson author Leslie Silko. Recipient of a Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award and a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, Silko has been an outspoken supporter of the ethnic studies program.

Biggers said Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest," was also banned during the meeting this week. Administrators told Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any class units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes."

Other banned books include “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by famed Brazilian educator Paolo Freire and “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña, two books often singled out by Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, who campaigned in 2010 on the promise to “stop la raza.” Huppenthal, who once lectured state educators that he based his own school principles for children on corporate management schemes of the Fortune 500, compared Mexican-American studies to Hitler Jugend indoctrination last fall.
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/whos_afraid_of_the_tempest/singleton/

Bill Bigelow, co-author of Rethinking Columbus, writes:

Imagine our surprise.
Rethinking Schools learned today that for the first time in its more-than-20-year history, our book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district: Tucson, Arizona ...

As I mentioned to Biggers when we spoke, the last time a book of mine was outlawed was during the state of emergency in apartheid South Africa in 1986, when the regime there banned the curriculum I’d written, Strangers in Their Own Country, likely because it included excerpts from a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Confronting massive opposition at home and abroad, the white minority government feared for its life in 1986. It’s worth asking what the school authorities in Arizona fear today.
http://rethinkingschoolsblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/rethinking-columbus-banned-in-tucson

Click to enlarge: Books in classrooms during audit.

Roberto Rodriguez, professor at University of Arizona, is also among the nation's top Chicano and Latino authors on the Mexican American Studies reading list. Rodriguez' column about this week's school board decision, posted at Censored News, is titled: "Tucson school officials caught on tape 'urinating' on Mexican students." http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

Rodriguez responded to Censored News on Sunday about the banning of his books at Tucson schools.

"The attacks in Arizona are mind-boggling. To ban the teaching of a discipline is draconian in and of itself. However, there is also now a banned books list that accompanies the ban. I believe 2 of my books are on the list, which includes: Justice: A Question of Race and The X in La Raza. Two others may also be on the list," Rodriguez said.

"That in itself is jarring, but we need to remember the proper context. This is not simply a book-banning; according to Tom Horne, the former state schools' superintendent who designed HB 2281, this is part of a civilizational war. He determined that Mexican American Studies is not based on Greco-Roman knowledge and thus, lies outside of Western Civilization.

"In a sense, he is correct. The philosophical foundation for MAS is a maiz-based philosophy that is both, thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. What has just happened is akin to an Auto de Fe -- akin to the 1562 book-burning of Maya books in 1562 at Mani, Yucatan. At TUSD, the list of banned books will total perhaps 50 books, including artwork and posters.

"For us here in Tucson, this is not over. If anything, the banning of books will let the world know precisely what kind of mindset is operating here; in that previous era, this would be referred to as a reduccion (cultural genocide) of all things Indigenous. In this era, it can too also be see as a reduccion."

The reading list includes world acclaimed Chicano and Latino authors, along with Native American authors. The list includes books by Corky Gonzales, along with Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street;” Jimmy Santiago Baca’s “Black Mesa Poems,“ and L.A. Urreas’ “The Devil’s Highway.“ The authors include Henry David Thoreau and the popular book “Like Water for Chocolate.”

On the reading list are Native American author Sherman Alexie's books, “Ten Little Indians,“ and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.“ O’odham poet and professor Ofelia Zepeda’s “Ocean Power, Poems from the Desert” is also on the list.

DA Morales writes in Three Sonorans, at Tucson Citizen, about the role of state schools chief John Huppenthal. "Big Brother Huppenthal has taken his TEA Party vows to take back Arizona… take it back a few centuries with official book bans that include Shakespeare!"

http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2012/01/13/did-you-know-even-shakespeare-got-banned-from-tusd-with-mas-ruling/

BANNED MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES READING LIST
Curriculum Audit of the Mexican American Studies Department, Tucson Unified School District, May 2, 2011.
High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson

The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire

United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy

Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn

Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna

The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya

The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson

Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga

Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez

500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez

Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez

The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez

Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales

A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn

Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8

Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie

The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin

Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo

Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros

Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena

Drown (1997), by J. Diaz

Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb

At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara

Color Lines: "Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?" (2003), by E. Martinez

Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.

Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte

Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz

The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki

The Devil's Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea

Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach

Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen

Voices of a People's History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn

Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6

Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie

Zorro (2005), by I. Allende

Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua

A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca

C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca

Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca

Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca

Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca

Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca

The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle

Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos

Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos

So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo

Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez

Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros

House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros

Drown (1997), by J. Diaz

Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist

Zapata's Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada

Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel

When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia

La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia

Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.

The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb

Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales

Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to "No Child Left Behind" (2004) by Goodman, et al.

Feminism if for Everybody (2000), by b hooks

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez

Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991), by J. Kozol

Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz

Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero

...y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera

Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez

Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez

The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez

Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie

Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan

Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla

Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum

New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum

Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau

By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea

Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea

Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez

Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda

.

LISTEN FIRST VOICES INDIGENOUS RADIO: Media, borders, Mohawk, Brazil and Arizona racism

2012-01-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Host Tiokasin Ghosthorse
Cheyenne River Lakota
WBAI New York

First Voices Indigenous Radio

Listen to the Programs
http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives

January 12, 2012

WINONA LADUKE Anishinabaweg (http://www.niijiiradio.com/ from the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota. Winona is the Executive Director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project the Parent Organization of Niijii Broadcasting and Niijii Radio. Niijii in Ojibwe means friend. Over the past decade, the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) has approached the idea of creating an independent media platform for the White Earth Reservation and surrounding region to allow for community-based programming that provides valuable information and education to its friends and listeners.

SOPHIE GRIGS (http://www.survivalinternational.org/) British newspaper The Observer has revealed evidence of police involvement in ‘human safaris’ in India’s Andaman Islands.The scandal, first exposed by Survival in 2010, involves tourists using an illegal road to enter the reserve of the Jarawa tribe. Tour companies and cab drivers ‘attract’ the Jarawa with biscuits and sweets. AND also in BRAZIL Loggers have invaded the Amazon home of uncontacted Awá Indians, one of whom has reportedly been ‘burned alive’

DR. ROBERTO CINTLI RODRIQUEZ (http://drcintli.blogspot.com/) US Human Rights Network condemns discriminatory ruling against Ethnic Studies in Arizona and calls on the government to protect human rights to culture, identity, and self-determination. The US Human Rights Network strongly condemns the December 27th, 2011 ruling of Arizona Administrative Judge Lewis Kowal restricting the teaching of Ethnic Studies in the Tuscan Unified School District and throughout the state. Judge Kowal’s decision is a reaffirmation of HB 2281, a discriminatory law passed by the Arizona legislature in 2010 that forbids the teaching ethnic studies and the recognition of the ethnic, racial, or national heritage of the students.

Wicked System - Fundamental Sound
Natural Mystic - Luka Bloom
Suavecito - Malo

January 5, 2012

KAHENTINETHA HORNE of The Kanion'ke:haka/Mohawk Nation (http://www.mohawknationnews.com/) is a member of the Rotino'shonni:onwe/Iroquois Confederacy.

What are we going to do? Is the proverbial question being asked when the financial collapse is deepened beyond repair? Although many people have an idea of gloom and doom - the reality for the awakened Indigenous peoples is to know the world is not coming to an end. The Sky Is Not Falling. It’s continuing. We’re been lead to think that we are heading into a trap to be devoured if we don’t submit. Are they ready to live under the rules of nature? Kahentinetha gives us a perspective of the movement and relationship to the politics, economics and governments (u.s. and can.) and their treatment of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.

OFELIA RIVAS of the Tohono O'odham Nation (www.solidarity-project.org) her struggles with the current technology, mining and desecretion of their lands along the 2,000 mile border wall of the U.S. and Mexico. Her general awareness of being under duress because of her views from her own people, the government and the great militarization of the lands.

http://www.solidarity-project.org/
Masters of War - Pearl Jam
Exodus - Bob Marley

O'otham: A March For Our Ancestors

2012-01-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

A March For Our Ancestors

January 31st through February 3th

District 7 to Sacaton’s Veteran’s Park

Shap Kaij Hahajun,

This is notice to all O’othham brothers and sisters that after many years of attempting to work in a respectful manner with the tribal government of Gila River, we who support our traditional teachings of properly caring for and respecting our Huhugam Ancestors, have exhausted all our attempts at asking the tribal government show proper respect to our Huhugam by immediately reburying their remains.

Right now there are at least 1,200 Huhugam remains locked in a storage room under control of the tribal government. The tribe has allowed this disrespect to continue, refusing to release the remains for reburial. Many attempts by grassroots and tribal groups and individual O’othham have not convinced the tribe to release the remains to be respectfully reburied.

For years the tribal government has been asked that our Huhugam Ancestors be properly respected and reburied in a timely manner. To this day, the tribe refuses to do this.

As O'othham, we have the right to have a tribe that shows respect to our Ancestors and to us. When this is not done, it causes negative things to happen in our lands, and this is what is taking place. We need to regain our balance and we need to have our Ancestors reburied immediately.

After years of hoping the tribal government would show respect to our Ancestors, the time has come for a different approach. It has been decided to let all our O’othham relatives know that your Ancestors, your family members, who are related to us all, are being held hostage by the tribal government. This is one of the most disrespectful acts that can be done to you and your Relatives.

What you can do: Take care of and protect your O’othham brothers and sisters and your homeland; respect the elders and children; respect yourself; get your O’othham brothers and sisters together and prepare for the march; let your tribal leaders know that you do not like how the tribe is disrespecting our Huhugam; tell others about how the tribe is disrespecting our Ancestors; tell the world you will not stand for this disrespect of us and our Ancestors.

This March for our Ancestors will travel from Piipash Ki'ihhim (District 7) to Ge'e Kih Ki'ihhim (Sacaton, District 3). The distance is approximately 45 miles and will take about four days.

This will be a major sacrifice on behalf of our Ancestors, but it is necessary in order for the tribe to see we demand our Ancestors' remains be immediately reburied.

This gathering will require much effort on your part and much preparation. It is a community led gathering which seeks only to bring respect to our Ancestors.

All relatives from the O'othham Hehemajkam (Nations) are welcome and needed to participate in this march in solidarity for our common Huhugam Ancestors. O'othham from Tohono, from Ak Chin, from Akimel, and from Onk Akimel will participate in this important gathering.

We must join together and stop this disrespect taking place!

Let us make the earth tremble with our songs of goodness and respect on behalf of our Ancestors! This is why you have been placed here at this time! Join us and we will become strong again! Bring your children so they may begin to learn the way we respect and care for one another! Bring your elders so they may teach us how to care for one another!

Tell your relatives and those who support us to get ready for this journey of strength and goodness!

Your time has arrived, take hold of your fears and embrace the goodness that our Huhugam offer to you!

Prepare your heart, your children, your elders and your spirit for this beautifully powerful gathering of O'othham strength!

Schedule for the March:Schedule for the March

Tuesday, January 31: Start from District 7 Service Center or Recreation area and camp at the Lone Butte Treatment Center

Distance: 15 miles

Wednesday, February 1: Start from Lone Butte Treatment Center and camp at "M" Mountain area

Distance: 7 miles

Thursday, February 2: Start from "M" Mountain area and camp at District 5 Veterans Building

Distance: 6 miles

Friday, February 3: Start from District 5 Veterans Building to Sacaton Veterans Park

Distance: 8 miles

For more information, donate supplies or volunteer, contact oothham@yahoo.com, or Jiivik Siiki on Facebook, or https://www.facebook.com/events/305840166113258

Dangerous Navajo power plant emissions documented in EPA interactive map

2012-01-13T13:42:00.001-07:00

Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz.,

on the Navajo Nation, is a major source of

greenhouse gases in the US. Navajos recently

protested the operator, the Salt River Project,

during protests of ALEC, the American

Legislative Exchange Council.

Navajo coal-fired power plants, oil and gas industry, poisoning Navajo atmosphere, major source of greenhouse gases

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

The US EPA has released an interactive map showing the greenhouse gas emissions from the Navajo Nation’s three power plants and other poisonous large facilities in Indian country.

The dangerous toxins released by Navajo power plants at the Navajo Generating Station at Page, Ariz, and the Four Corners Generating Station and San Juan Generating Station in northwest New Mexico, are documented on the map.

There are other dangerous toxic releases on Navajoland that people are unaware of. These include the El Paso Natural Gas station in St. Michaels near the Navajo capitol of Window Rock, Ariz., and gas emissions in the Bloomfield, N.M., area. The Bloomfield area is inundated with oil and gas drilling, and power plant emissions. This area is the sacred Place of Origin, Dinetah, of Navajos.

The EPA map reveals carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and methane emissions. The graphs reveal the Navajo power plants, and other power plants in the US, are responsible for the largest portion of greenhouse gases.

On the Navajo Nation, there have been no studies which analyze the combined health dangers to Navajos of coal mines, power plants, gas plumes, toxic dumping and the radioactive uranium mine tailings from the Cold War. These multiple health dangers are concentrated in the Four Corners area and the region of Page, Monument Valley and Black Mesa near the Arizona and Utah border. Another area of toxic contamination is the Gallup, N.M., region due to the current oil and gas releases, and the radiation that flowed down the Rio Puero after the Church Rock, N.M. uranium tailings spill.

(L) Riley, Choctaw, with Louise Benally, Navajo,
at ethnic studies rally in Tucson.

Louise Benally, Navajo resisting relocation at Big Mountain, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation urged Navajos and their supporters to bring a halt to the massive coal fired power plant industry responsible for disease, the depletion of the aquifers and destroying the quality of life for Navajos.

"It is to time to slay the beast," Benally told those gathering in Tucson on Tuesday, rallying to save ethnic studies. Benally said the same corporate beast responsible for the racism and imperialism that now forbids Mexican American studies in Arizona, is the same corporate beast which targets Navajos with genocidal coal mining, power plants and oil and gas drilling.

The interactive map reveals the dangerous emissions in and around Indian country throughout the United States.
EPA interactive map:
http://ghgdata.epa.gov/ghgp/main.do

LISTEN Navajo Louise Benally Ethnic Studies

2012-01-12T15:38:00.001-07:00

Riley, Choctaw, and Louise Benally, Navajo, at ethnic studies
rally in Tucson on Jan. 10, 2012. Photo Brenda Norrell Censored News

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

TUCSON -- Listen to Louise Benally, Navajo resisting relocation at Big Mountain, on the Navajo Nation. Benally joins Mexican American Studies students, and Riley, Choctaw, to speak out against the racism, oppression and imperialism that has led Arizona to forbid ethnic studies. Students speak out on how Mexican American Studies instilled pride in who they are.
The broadcast includes an interview with one of the youths who locked down and was arrested at Salt River Project recently during the ALEC protest in Phoenix. The youths are supporting Navajos protesting the coal-fired power plant Navajo Generating Station, on Navajoland at Page, Ariz. The American Legislative Exchange Council is comprised of corporate profiteers who exploit Indian lands, profiteer from private prisons and the abuse of migrants and coopt Arizona legislators with their cash.
Recorded live by Censored News in Tucson.

Listen to internet radio with Brenda Norrell on Blog Talk Radio

Facebook blocks: Shenandoahs perform in Palestine

2012-01-11T06:32:00.003-07:00

This photo of the Shenandoahs in Palestine was blocked by Facebook at 6:26 am this morning, Wed. Jan. 11, 2011. Although Facebook says there is a problem with the jpeg image file, as you can see there is no problem with the photo.
Photo Shenandoahs perform in Palestine: Courtesy Joanne Shenandoah: Joanne and Leah Shenandoah in Manger Square, Bethlehem, Palestine on Dec. 24.
From the Oneida Daily Dispatch
BETHLEHEM, Palestine — Oneida musician Joanne Shenandoah and her daughter Leah were part of an international ensemble which performed at Manger Square in the city of Bethlehem, Palestine on Christmas Eve.
The Shenandoahs sang John Lennon's "Imagine" for the Project Peace on Earth initiative in front of the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus Christ is purported to be born. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from around the world assembled before the edifice maintained by the Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches.
The Shenandoah performance was followed by a concert at the new Bethlehem Convention Center on Christmas Day. The Palestinian government recently opened the $30,000,000 facility located next to the "pools of Solomon" in Bethlehem.
Joanne Shenandoah presented a Haudenosaunee flag to Khouloud Daibes, minister of Tourism and Antiquities for the government of Palestine.

Read more: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=447941

Facebook blocks Tucson ethnic studies post

2012-01-11T05:54:00.003-07:00

The following post was blocked, as shown in the screen capture above, by Facebook on Wednesday morning, Jan. 11, 2012 at 5:50 am:

Photos of march and rally Tuesday night, as Tucson school board voted to end ethnic studies immediately, as the ruling Nazis in the Arizona state government threatened to withhold millions in education funds.

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/ethnic-studies-march-in-warrior-spirit.html

Ethnic Studies March: In the Warrior Spirit

2012-01-10T21:48:00.002-07:00

Riley, Choctaw, with Louise Benally, Navajo.

Ethnic Studies march and rally: In the spirit of survival and excellence!
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

TUCSON -- Marching and rallying to save the ethnic studies program in Tucson Unified Schools on Tuesday night, students spoke out on the empowerment of those classes and the belief in themselves that ethnic studies instilled in them.
Louise Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain, reflecting on a mural of Apache warriors in Tucson said, "It reminded me of the warriors that were resisting imperialism, this is part of that and it continues today." Benally remembered the migrants who are suffering.
Benally thought of the ancestors who roamed these lands, and the people who come here today, and how they suffer. She remembered the O'odham who are intimidated and assaulted as they cross the so-called border in their own lands.
"They are denying people their own cultures throughout the world. America should respect other cultures. Why are they outlawing all the different cultures of the world? Why is Arizona so fixated on oppressing cultures of people?"
Benally said education must include ethnic studies which includes the knowledge of land, life and cultures. "It all relates to the natural environment. The important things of life are the air, water, earth, the environment and life. They are all interconnected to make life happen."
She said things become out of balance when the importance of the clean air, clean water, the earth and life are not respected and acknowledged.

UPDATE: As the rally in support of ethnic studies was held tonight in Tucson, Tucson Unified Schools District board voted 4 to 1 to comply with the state of Arizona which has outlawed ethnic studies.

Anonymous releases Israeli data in Operation Free Palestine

2012-01-09T22:26:00.001-07:00

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

Anonymous hacktivists announced the release of a large amount of Israeli data on Monday in Operation Free Palestine, OpFreePalestine. The release begins with these words:

"It seems that the black-typed words on this page, and pages posted previously are not being taken into consideration.. People in Palestine are still being beaten, murdered, erased... Israel... You just do not get it, do you? You, as a nation, Israel, are a target... A target not only to the Military's of the world.... (Dangerous enough)

You now are a solid target(and have been) to Anonymous. The main difference is... Military have to follow Rules of Engagement... I/We do not... I/We will not stop...

I do not have a ton of time to write some fancy jingle for you all to read before feasting your eyes on my dumps.... Just read the data... Use the data... Take over the news outlets that I have provided logins for, and use them for YOUR NEWS.... THEY ARE NOW YOUR NEWS OUTLETS!!!

I find it alarming how many organizations, universities(including institutes of technologies, aeronautical engineering firms that have CRAP for security... Well... We now know what you know ;

Here is Part 2 of.... God only knows...."
Continues at: http://pastebin.com/gMSK6c6M
.

Native Americans optimistic after Peaks appeal in federal court

2012-01-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Photo Save the Peaks

Federal Case Heard at Ninth Circuit Today Could Set Precedent and Prevent Health Hazards
Plaintiffs optimistic after appeal heard in San Francisco Peaks 'sewage snow' case

By Save the Peaks
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

SAN FRANCISCO – Five plaintiffs and representatives of The Save The Peaks Coalition, with their attorney and supporters, optimistically exited the James R. Browning United States Courthouse today following oral arguments in the Ninth Circuit appeal of The Save the Peaks Coalition, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service.

The San Francisco Peaks is in imminent danger of becoming a toxic recreation area, exposing people to dangerous contaminants as the US Forest Service allows treated sewer water at the ski resort and proposed snow play area. The Save the Peaks Coalition v. US Forest Service is a crucial legal battle to protect the public and the environment from hazardous pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds that can negatively impact public health. The case asserted that under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act, the Forest Service failed to adequately consider the impacts associated with ingestion of snow made from reclaimed sewer water in its federally mandated environmental review process.

“We are concerned citizens with every right to hold our government agencies accountable for our children’s health. I’d simply like to know why the question of how this will effect our future generations has still not been answered. Why do decision-makers continue to dismiss existing scientific evidence that suggests this sewage snow can cause major endocrine disruption? Today this threatens our mountain and drinking water, but the same danger may be faced by your community tomorrow,” explains plaintiff Clayson Benally.

In 2005, the Snowbowl Ski Resort and Coconino Forest Service’s expansion plan was approved, permitting the use of reclaimed sewage water from Flagstaff's Rio de Flag Sewage Plant for snowmaking at the resort. Since May 2011, owners of the Arizona Snowbowl laid seven miles of waste water pipeline and clear-cut over 50 acres of rare alpine forest, while the issue is still being contested in court. The San Francisco Peaks are sacred to 13 Indigenous tribes in Arizona.

“The decision in today’s three judge panel will determine whether the US Forest Service failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and if the precedent laid out in the Laches case is valid in this instance.” said attorney Howard Shanker. The Laches case is a procedural argument concerning any alleged redundancy of the plantiffs or the case.

Outside on the courthouse steps, plaintiffs and attorneys met with the press and approximately 100 supporters, including an Intertribal youth caravan from New Mexico and Arizona which traveled here to catch a glimpse of the proceedings before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Through song and prayer, individuals unified in efforts to save the holy mountain in Arizona and protect children from the waste water contamination.

“We feel confident in our lawyer. We put our prayers out there so that we can be heard and understood. Our lawyer made a strong argument and with our prayers we are confident in the outcome for the Sacred San Francisco Peaks, “ stated Alberta Nells, part of the Intertribal youth caravan.

PHOTOS: Defending San Francisco Peaks federal court 2012

2012-01-09T17:06:00.002-07:00

Photos by Wendy Kenin, published with permission.
Thank you for allowing Censored News to post your photos from today!
Native Americans rally outside Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 9, 2012, as court hears Native Americans case for the protection of the Peaks. Native Americans argue that the US Forest Service has violated federal laws in allowing the Arizona Snowbowl to proceed with a plan to use sewage water on the sacred Peaks for snowmaking. Further, the Snowbowl is destroying old growth pines on the Peaks with development.
Read more:
Native Americans optimistic after Peaks case in federal court:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2012/01/native-americans-rally-federal-court-defend-san-francisco-peaks
Washington Post: Federal Appeals Court Hears Case:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/appeals-court-hears-case-challenging-planned-use-of-reclaimed-water-at-arizona-ski-resort/2012/01/09/gIQA4saklP_story.html

Ninth Circuit to decide fate of impacts on San Francisco Peaks

2012-01-09T10:17:00.003-07:00

Jeneda Benally, Navajo, at San Francisco rally
now in San Francisco.
Photo by Dixie/Censored News.

Ninth Circuit Court to Decide Fate of
Human Health and Environmental Impacts

Indigenous-led Caravan to

Stop Contamination of Sacred Mountain in Arizona, Demand Safeguards for Health and Environmental Justice!

More than 100 Native Americans rallied on
Monday to defend San Francisco Peaks
at the federal court in San Francisco.
Photo Tony Gonzales/AIM West

Article by Save the Peaks
savethepeaks@gmail.com
Censored News
SAN FRANCISCO -- On January 9th, 2012, the Save the Peaks Coalition et al vs. the US Forest Service will be heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, CA. Plaintiffs assert that under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the Forest Service failed to adequately consider the impacts associated with ingestion of snow made from reclaimed sewer water in its federally mandated environmental review process.

The Save the Peaks Coalition is continuing a legal battle to protect human health from endocrine disruptors and pathogens found in treated sewage effluent, which an Arizona ski resort aims to use in its expansion plan.

In response to concerns raised by patients, a group of concerned emergency room and primary care physicians in Flagstaff, Arizona commissioned a preliminary study in December 2011 on the treated wastewater. According to Dr. Robin Silver, “We found antibiotic resistant genes in the reclaimed effluent that are associated with known infectious contaminants. These need further study because they are potentially dangerous. We advise not using the effluent until these studies have been completed.”

“In a 2005 study done by biologist Dr. Cathrine Propper, eggs were found inside the testicular tissue of fish. If this happens to the fish, what does this mean for my grandchildren and future generations?" asks Berta Benally, a grandmother traveling to California to witness the hearing. “It is deplorable that the United States Forest Service would allow known endocrine disruptors to come into contact with our our children. At one point DDT, BPA and asbestos were all considered safe. Years later, after many people suffered, we now sadly know that they created a health hazard.”

The San Francisco Peaks are a unique ecological island of rare alpine that provides a habitat for threatened species, and is considered as central to the well-being and way of life of 13 Southwestern American Indian tribes.

With an outpouring of support from across the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest, California Indigenous communities, concerned parents, and environmentalists will join an Indigenous-led caravan from Arizona to rally for the protection of community health, future generations, and the ecological sanctity of the San Francisco Peaks.

“The Forest Service failed to adequately consider the impacts of potential human ingestion of snow made from reclaimed sewer water as required by applicable law”, says Howard Shanker, the Coalition’s lawyer. “By approving treated sewage effluent for snow making without adequate analysis, the government essentially turns the ski area into a test facility with our children as the laboratory rats. That is unconscionable,” concludes Shanker.

Mr. Shanker, a former congressional candidate in Arizona Congressional District 1, has represented a number of tribes and environmental organizations in prior litigation over Snowbowl’s proposed expansion and threatened use of treated sewage effluent.

“We are here because the lower court decision was wrong. We are hopeful that this will be a case where what the court determines to be legal is also right and morally defensible,” says Shanker.

In 2005, the Snowbowl Ski Resort and Coconino Forest Service’s expansion plan was approved for reclaimed sewage water from Flagstaff's Rio de Flag Sewage Plant for the use of snowmaking at the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort. Since May 2011, owners of Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort laid seven miles of wastewater pipeline and clear-cut over 50 acres of rare alpine forest, while the issue is still being contested in court. Many tribal leaders have declared that these are all acts of desecration.

The Coalition will hold a press conference directly after the hearing on the courthouse steps at approximately 10:15 a.m. A sunrise ceremony and march to the rally will take place prior.

Schedule of Events:
7:00 A.M. Sunrise Gathering and Ceremony at Yerba Buena Park, 4th & Howard, SF.
8:30 A.M. March from Yerba Buena Park to the James R. Browning US Courthouse - 9th Circuit; 95 Seventh Street; SF, CA.
9:00 A.M. Rally & Prayer Vigil until the press conference.
9:30 A.M. Court Hearing
10:15 A.M.* Press conference with the lawyer and litigants, directly after the hearing at the courthouse steps - 95 Seventh Street SF, CA * approximate time
Photo opportunities at all events. Photos available upon request.

California Indigenous support San Francisco Peaks

2012-01-09T10:10:00.002-07:00

Media Contact:

mstargali@gmail.com

California Indigenous Peoples Demonstrate Heartfelt Support for Plaintiffs Fighting Imminent Desecration of Sacred Arizona Mountain!

Long-Standing Legal Battle Returns to San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

SAN FRANCISCO -- California tribal members will rally today in support of plaintiffs in the latest court battle to prevent the further desecration of the San Francisco Peaks, a mountain in Northern Arizona that is held sacred by over 13 Indigenous Nations. Supporters from a number of Native nations, environmental groups, as well as concerned individuals, are expected to gather for a Sunrise Prayer Vigil Ceremony, followed by a march to the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse- 9th Circuit at 95 7th Street, San Francisco for the 9:30am hearing. A press conference will take place at approximately 10:15AM, immediately after the hearing on the steps of the courthouse.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will be hearing arguments that the US Forest Service, in its Environmental Impact Statement, failed to adequately consider the dangerous health and environmental impacts associated with the planned use of artificial snow made from reclaimed sewer water. Studies have proven that the treated water contains toxic substances such as pharmaceutical by-products. Native Americans consider the use of sewage on the sacred San Francisco Peaks to be an offensive desecration of their holy grounds.

The Sunrise Prayer Vigil will be held at Yerba Buena gardens, which sits atop the remains of a sacred shellmound, to welcome the plaintiffs onto Ohlone land.

“The Sacred San Francisco Peaks affects us all. We’re going to continue this fight no matter what the ruling is. We have to be the voices for our ancestors, to remember our teachings. We cannot afford to give one more inch to the developers. We as Indigenous people in the United States simply desire to have safeguards for our religious and cultural freedom, as well as the land and the health of our children," states Corrina Gould, a local Chochenyo/Karkin Ohlone activist.

Hundreds of people, the majority of them from the local Native community, expressed a similar show of solidarity in 2006, when the San Francisco Peaks case entered the Ninth Circuit San Francisco courthouse on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The latest hearing comes amidst a tumultuous year of local Indigenous struggles that frequently made breaking news.

Morning Star Gali of the Pit River Tribe explains: “The battle to protect the San Francisco peaks in Arizona is the same fight against cultural genocide that we are waging here in California to save our sacred places. From this summer’s spiritual encampment to protect Sogorea Te/Glen Cove in Vallejo, CA, to the Bureau of Land Management backed Calpine Corporation’s proposed desecration of Medicine Lake, and millionaire developer John Nady’s flagrant destruction of Rattlesnake Island in Clear Lake, CA, the message is clear. Native peoples must unite to preserve our religious and cultural freedoms- ones that the rest of society takes for granted.”

The implications of these cases extend to the lives of all peoples as most instances of sacred site desecration concurrently involve environmental destruction that ultimately threatens human health. The toxic legacy of California’s Gold Rush has left Native peoples’ lands, now inhabited by all Californians, riddled with deadly mercury. The endocrine disruptors that will flood the area of Flagstaff, AZ if proposed snowmaking plans move forward exemplify present day environmental racism.

“Mercury mining has left a legacy of environmental disasters that continue to negatively impact the traditional life ways and fishing economy, and contaminate the headwaters of oldest Lake in Northern California. This is destroying the Elem people's mental health and spiritual wellness, and creating inter-tribal turmoil,” laments Jim Brown of the Elem Pomo Nation.

As Caleen Sisk Franco Spiritual Leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu explains, “For the Winnemem, the destruction of sacred sites is more than just about the poisons and toxins. When you destroy a sacred place, you destroy the hearts of the people. We believe we need our sacred sites and relationships with them in order for us to grow to be good people. When you destroy a sacred site, it hurts our spiritual belief and our physical development of that site. That's a different kind of poisoning that occurs even before the toxins have any effect.”

Native Americans consider clear-cutting of rare alpine forest by the U.S. Forest Service for the expansion of a for-profit ski business on the sacred San Francisco Peaks and the use of sewage water for the planned snow production to be an offensive desecration of their holy grounds. For decades numerous strategies, including long-standing campaigns, boycotts, prayer gatherings, direct actions, and litigation, have been employed by many citizens, tribes, and organizations who have strived to protect the mountain. The Hopi tribe and Navajo Nation governments have also passed resolutions and pursued their own litigation to prevent the desecration of the sacred San Francisco Peaks.

For more background info please visit:

http:// elemmodun.org

http://www.winnememwintu.us/

http://protectglencove.org

Project Gunrunner began in 2005 in Texas

2012-01-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

The documents that Congress, and news reporters, choose to ignore

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

There are two documents that Congress, and news reporters covering Project Gunrunner, choose to ignore. The first is the US Attorney General's report stating that Project Gunrunner began in Laredo, Texas, in 2005. The document was published in Wikipedia.

The second is the ATF Southwest Border Strategy, Project Gunrunner Weapons of Choice. The brochure, dated Feb. 2008, shows photos of the assault weapons that the ATF allowed to flow to drug cartels in Mexico. It was published online by the hacktivists Lulzsec when they hacked the Arizona police files.

Prior to the ATF Project Gunrunner's Fast and Furious, the ATF allowed assault weapons to flow to Mexico's drug cartels beginning in 2006 in Operation Wide Receiver in Tucson.

Congress showed no interest in Project Gunrunner until Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered with those weapons near Nogales, Ariz, in Dec. 2010. Another agent, ICE agent Jaime Zapata, was also murdered with the weapons in northern Mexico. An unknown number of citizens of Mexico and the US have been murdered with those weapons.

The complete report from the US Attorney General is at: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/OIG_report.pdf

The ATF Southwest Border Strategy, Weapons of Choice is at: http://publicintelligence.info/ufouoles-lulzsec-release-atf-project-gunrunner-southwest-border-strategy-weapons-of-choice/

Winyan Ituwan, Women of Vision, Jan. 15, 2012

2012-01-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

Winyan Ituwan, Women of Vision, Jan. 15, 2012 at Porcupine S.D.

By Winyan Ituwan (Vision of the Women)
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Tantoo Cardinal

PORCUPINE, S.D. -- “Winyan Ituwan”, (Vision of the Women), will be held on January 15, 2012 beginning at 1pm and ending with an evening meal at the Pahin Sinte School in Porcupine, SD. Topics include Mother Earth and water, mining issues facing the people living on the great plains of the United States, and roles and responsibilities of Native women. Speakers will share their experiences in frontline activism work around these issues.

Tantoo Cardinal, a First Nations Cree actor and activist will speak on the tarsands oil mine an

Debra White Plume

d its impacts in her homelands of Ft McMurray, Canada. Ms Cardinal was recently inducted as a Member into the Order of Canada for her contributions. Famous for her roles in movies such as Smoke Signals, Legends of the Fall, Black Robe, and Dances with Wolves, Ms. Cardinal is also a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company, which works with and to inspire First Nations youth in the performing arts.

Debra White Plume, Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, will speak on the tarsands oil mine, the Keystone XL Oil pipeline planned to cross the plains from Montana to Texas. She will share updates as the lead plantiff in the case against Cameco, Inc. in its attempt to mine uranium near the reservation, and the PowerTech, Inc. plan to mine uranium in the Black Hills. White Plume is co-founder of Bring Back the Way, a grassroots nongovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation of the Lakota Way of Life and Treaty Rights.

Kandi Mosset, Mandan/Arikaree from New Town, ND, works on the tarsands oil mine and xl keystone pipeline campaign with the Indigenous Environmental Network. Ms. Mosset recently returned from the UN Climate Convention in Durban, South Africa. She will speak on these issues and on oil mining impacts on her Mandan/Hidotsa/Arikaree community in North Dakota.

White Plume, Cardinal, and Mosset were part of the 1200 people arrested at the White House in a mass civil disobedience to bring awareness to the American people and President Obama regarding opposition to the XL Keystone pipeline permit.

A panel of Oglala Lakota women will include Regina Brave, who will speak of her experiences at Wounded Knee Occupation for 71 days in 1973; Marilyn Charging Crow, Vivian Locust and Arlette Loud Hawk. Loud Hawk will speak as the Whip Bearer for the Tokala KitFox Warrior Society. Special guest speakers include Marie Randall and Lily Mae Red Eagle.

Kandi Mossett (right)

A slideshow of the tarsands oil mine in Canada will be shared, and a 10 minute video short of the documentary Crying Earth Rise Up! about uranium mining in Lakota Territory by Prairie Dust Films will be shown. There will be an open microphone for women to express themselves and offer words of wisdom to the young generations. Tiana Spotted Thunder of Independence Through Music, and the group Scatter Their Own will share their songs and music. Pte San Win will serve as the MC.

Winyan Ituwan is a collective effort to bring women together to share experiences, vision, and wisdom. There will be many door prizes including fire wood, propane, jewelry, much more. All women are encouraged to attend, the gathering is open to the men who want to hear the voice, vision and wisdom of the women. Winyan Ituwan is the first of four women’s gatherings, with one set for spring, summer and fall. People can call 605-899-1419 or connect at Winyan Ituwan on Face Book for more information.

Russell Means medical update Jan 4, 2012

2012-01-07T11:21:00.002-07:00

The Peaks: Indigenous Caravan to San Francisco

2012-01-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Photo Youths of the Peaks

Indigenous Caravan Travels to San Francisco from Arizona to Stop Snow Made with Reclaimed Sewage Effluent

Fate of Human Health Impacts To Be Decided in Legal Battle at 9th Circuit Court

Outpouring of Support from CA Indigenous Communities, Concerned Parents, & Environmentalists To Demand Environmental Justice!

Who: Save the Peaks Coalition and Plaintiffs.

What: Press conference to follow court hearing at 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Intertribal Sunrise Ceremony & march to courthouse.

When: Monday, January 9, 2012
10:15 A.M. Press conference with the lawyer and litigants will be held directly after the hearing at the courthouse steps –
95 Seventh Street San Francisco, CA photo opportunity*
9:30 A.M. Court Hearing
9:00 A.M. Prayer Vigil photo opportunity*
8:30 A.M. March to 9th Circuit Court
from Yerba Buena Park to the James R. Browning US Courthouse - 9th Circuit; 95 Seventh Street; San Francisco, CA. photo opportunity*
7:00 A.M. Sunrise Gathering and Ceremony
at Yerba Buena Park at 4th and Howard in SF. photo opportunity*

Why: The San Francisco Peaks, a holy mountain near Flagstaff AZ, faces imminent danger of being used as a toxic recreation area exposing citizens to hazardous contaminants. The Save the Peaks Coalition vs. US Forest Service are in a legal battle to protect children from hazardous endocrine disruptors and pathogens. The San Francisco Peaks are a site Holy to 13 Southwestern Native Nations and they provide a habitat for threatened plants and animals.
The case argues that under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the Forest Service failed to adequately consider the impacts associated with ingestion of snow made from reclaimed sewer water in its federally mandated environmental review process.
“It is deplorable that the United States Forest Service would allow known endocrine disruptors to come into contact with our our children,” said Berta Benally, a grandmother traveling to California to witness the hearing. "At one point DDT, BPA and asbestos were all considered safe. Years later, after many people suffered, we now sadly know that they created a health hazard.”
Background: In 2005 ,the Snowbowl Ski Resort and Coconino Forest Service’s expansion plan was approved for reclaimed sewage water from Flagstaff's Rio de Flag Sewage Plant for the use of snowmaking at the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort. Since May 2011, owners of Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort laid seven miles of wastewater pipeline and clear-cut over 50 acres of rare alpine forest, while the issue is still being contested in court.
For more information please call the Save the Peaks Coalition at 928-380-8014 or write to savethepeakscaravan@yahoo.com" savethepeakscaravan@yahoo.com

Roberto Rodriguez: Arizona's Apartheid War against Mexican American Studies

2012-01-05T16:09:00.003-07:00

And on the 7^th Day…

Riot Squad/Photo Column of the Americas

Arizona’s Apartheid War Against Mexican American Studies
Special length column
Column of the Americas
By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Posted at Censored News

Early on the morning of the 7^th day, God wrote HB 2281; then he rested.
That’s the way conservative Arizonans view this clearly unconstitutional and immoral anti-Ethnic Studies measure.
The opponents of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) department – who act as though this state measure was also inscribed on the original tablets God handed to Moses – use this circular logic. An administrative law judge, Lewis D. Koval, also weighed in on the embattled MAS department, with a 37-page finding last week with the same twisted logic. He opined that MAS-TUSD is out of compliance and that HB 2281 is legal because it has not been ruled unconstitutional. If affirmed, the finding can cost TUSD 10 percent of its monthly state budget, totaling up to $15 million per year. That HB 2281 has not been found to be unconstitutional is true... only because the measure has yet to be actually implemented and the 2010 Acosta federal lawsuit has not yet reached the trial stage. Not only that, the legal process, as established by the state measure, has not yet fully played out. Within a few days, state schools’ superintendent John Huppenthal, who campaigned with the vow to “stop La Raza,” is expected to affirm Koval’s non-binding ruling. TUSD can now petition the Superior Court to reject Koval’s finding, though TUSD superintendent, John Pedicone, has already indicated he wants the district to comply with the ruling.
On paper, MAS-TUSD detractors oppose the department because it violates HB 2281, seemingly not cognizant that the only reason this state measure exists is because the former state schools’ superintendent, Tom Horne, crafted it to ensure that the department would be deemed out of compliance, with the only remedy being elimination. Horne incidentally, has long-claimed that his effort to eliminate MAS-TUSD was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I have a Dream” speech. Bernard Lafayette Jr., a colleague of MLK Jr. and a freedom rider, along with virtually the entire civil rights community nationwide, begs to differ with Horne. Ironically, along with the racial profiling SB 1070, his animus toward MAS is what has unleashed an unprecedented amount of hate toward Mexicans and Mexican Americans in this state, a clue that Horne has no business invoking MLK’s name for any reason.
Only four things have stood in Horne’s way: the truth, the facts, the independent Cambium Report, which was commissioned by his successor, John Huppenthal, and the U.S. Constitution.
Of course, none of that has stopped Huppenthal either; despite the independent $110,000 Cambium report finding MAS-TUSD in compliance with HB 2281, and recommending that it be expanded, he still managed to rule that the department was out-of-compliance. Huppenthal’s ruling triggered an [weak] appeal by TUSD before judge Koval. Within days, Huppenthal of course is expected to affirm his own decision.
Even though Huppenthal will affirm his own decision, the courts have yet to actually weigh in on the matter. To call HB 2281 a law is premature. The reason Horne, who is now state attorney general, initiated this measure is that he has always claimed that the philosophical foundation for MAS-TUSD is outside of Western Civilization. In effect, Horne is correct; MAS is founded not upon Greco-Roman culture, but upon a maiz-based philosophy, which is many thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. Yet, Horne, along with other opponents, also claim that MAS is un-American. The state measure implies that MAS-TUSD: promotes the overthrow of the U.S. government; that it promotes racial resentment, that it is designed primarily for one group (Mexican Americans), and that it advocates ethnic solidarity, instead of treating people as individuals (This last provision is a seeming attempt to codify individualism, while attempting to destroy culture, which has always been collective).
The department was cleared of all these charges by Cambium. Not satisfied with the report, Huppenthal then overruled it, claiming, on the basis of his own “investigation,” that MAS-TUSD was in violation of three of the four provisions, excluding the charge that it promotes the overthrow of the U.S. government. In affirming Huppenthal’s June decision, Koval, an expert in liquor law, relied on the state’s principal star witness, Dr. Sandra Stotzky. This hired gun, who admittedly is not an expert in either Ethnic or Mexican American Studies, actually witnessed nothing; she never set foot in any classroom, never spoke to one MAS teacher or student. This is the opposite of Cambium. Yet in Koval’s ruling, the results of the Cambium audit are diminished, while favoring Stotzky’s assessment. This points to what has been further unleashed; a torrent of people who seem to confuse the idea that opposing MAS somehow confers expert status upon them.
The hearings, which I attended, very much resembled an Inquisition into what is acceptable and permissible teaching, learning and thinking. It was the epitome of attempts at thought control within a cultural context. The supposition is that because Mexican American Studies is critical, contestational and oppositional – in its quest to teach the truth (Panche Be) – that it is therefore un-American. Words such as Raza or Chicano, conflated with militancy by Horne, Huppenthal and Koval, are viewed as evidence of that assumption. Even the favorable Cambium report recommended that the term Raza be stricken from the curriculum. At best, the ruling assumes that challenging oppression and racial supremacy and asserting Indigeneity, makes MAS “racist,” anti-American and breeds resentment. Arguably, what MAS actually breeds is a desire for peace, dignity, equality and justice.
In its appeal, TUSD arguably put up a less-than-stellar defense, this as representatives of a district that is upwards of 60 percent Mexican American (approaching 80 per cent in the elementary grades). Their lawyers did not aggressively question the two TUSD school board members, Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks, who have never hidden their disdain for the department. They did not aggressively question anyone. Worse, they could have made the Cambium report the centerpiece of their appeal, but they did not. Of the many dozens of Arizona university scholars who teach Ethnic Studies, or who have been inside MAS-TUSD classes, none were called to testify. No one from the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Scholars or the National Association of Ethnic Scholars were called to testify, even though both organizations have affirmed their support for MAS-TUSD. This is the same district, led by Superintendent Pedicone, that has treated MAS supporters with contempt, actually militarizing its school board meetings, having elders and students arrested and even beaten (April 26 and May 3, 2011), this while proclaiming support for the MAS program.
In effect, Koval, Huppenthal, the state and even TUSD envision permitting the teaching of a neutered MAS, through antiseptic microscopic lenses, as a phenomenon of the past, and not ever bringing to light unjust laws and unequal treatment today. If the state emerges victorious, the teaching of HB 2281and the role of MAS students in defending their own program, will conceivably also be prohibited.
Judge Koval cherry picked passages from books, articles (including my own) and even lyrics and artwork and posters, to “prove” that MAS is out of compliance. The only thing the judge managed to prove is that Mexican Americans have not accepted land theft, lynchings, brutality, segregation, discriminatory laws, inequality, inferior education, mass deportations and dehumanization sitting down. He also managed to infer that maiz-based values such as In Lak Ech (You are my other self) and Panche Be (To seek the root of the truth) are un-American.
Truthfully, the department shouldn’t have to be in compliance with a clearly immoral and unconstitutional law, whose primary aim seems to be a return to the 1950s policies of forced assimilation. During the colonial era, it would have been referred to as a reduccion – an attempt to obliterate peoples’ Indigenous history, knowledge, culture and memory. Five hundred years later and HB 2281 appears to be an attempt at implementing the final reduccion.
Yet 500 years later, international law is actually now on the side of MAS: virtually every human rights treaty, charter and convention protects the culture, history, identity, language and education of all peoples. These human rights charters exist to prevent cultural genocide. This attack against MAS is actually an attack on all education, not just Ethnic Studies. The notion of censoring and banning the teaching of certain materials – making Swiss cheese out of what can be taught – is antithetical to the very precept of education.
Ironically, the movement against MAS is having an unintended opposite effect; it is “re-Indigenizing” the Mexican American and Latino/Latina communities nationwide. People who formerly sneered at things Indian, or who viewed them as part of the past, are now coming to understand that the reason MAS is fiercely opposed is precisely because of the Indigenous roots of the peoples and their cultures.
In Arizona, one could deem this effort to eliminate MAS, along with the anti-immigrant SB 1070, as a form of Indian Removal – an effort to exterminate or capture or possess the mind, body and spirit [of Mexicans]. Removal in 2012 translates into mass incarceration and mass deportations via racial profiling measures and discriminatory practices. And for those that can’t be deported or incarcerated, this translates into de-Indigenization, de-Mexicanization and forced assimilation. The American Dream.
While TUSD has the option to appeal the Koval/Huppenthal decision in state court, there is no assurance that it will do so (it is possible that other parties may do the appealing in state court). As Horne designed the measure, TUSD, with another turn to the right with the addition of another conservative school board member, may not be willing to risk $15 million to save a department that it barely supports. His design had but one goal: to eliminate MAS.
After the legal recourses have been exhausted at the state level, there is still the matter of the Acosta federal lawsuit; U.S. 9^th Circuit Judge, A. Wallace Tashima, is scheduled to first rule on a temporary injunction and other procedural matters, then examine the constitutionality of the measure.
What actually stands in the way of implementation of HB 2281 and MAS-TUSD is the student group UNIDOS, Social Justice and MEChA students, along with the thousands of supporters, youths and elders who have braved arrests, the unnecessary use of force and death threats, affirming that they will never accept HB 2281 as a law. Not lost on them is the knowledge that the effort to dismantle the department, by what appears to be apartheid forces, including the TUSD school board, is due, not because it is failing, but the exact opposite; it eliminates the dropout problem. It is highly successful, graduating virtually 100 percent of its students and sending more than 70 percent to college.
Apparently, that’s both a problem and a threat.

* The 37-page Koval ruling can be found at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/76617576/ALJ-ruling-against-Ethnic-Studies-in-TUSD#source:facebook

Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, and a member of the MAS-TUSD community advisory board, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com. The column is also posted at: http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

First Voices Indigenous Radio: Occupation Movement and Language

2012-01-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

First Voices Indigenous Radio
ON THE AIR: WBAI 99.5 FM Every Thursday at 9 AM Eastern
www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org

Listen to Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Lakota from Cheyenne River, S.D., online at WBAI in New York. In recent programs, Native American guests discuss the occupy movement and the language of occupation.

http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives

Listen to the Program December 29, 2011	EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA DEMELZA CHAMPAGNE, JOHN FREISEN, JAKE LITTLE, JEREME AMOUAK and FARREL - NEW YORK - All join in a discussion about the current "Occupation" movement and the use of language. "To most, the irony of a progressive social movement using the term “occupy” to reshape how Americans think about issues of democracy and equality has been clear. After all, it is generally nations, armies and police who occupy, usually by force. And in this, the United States has been a leader. The American government is just now after nine years ending its overt occupation of Iraq, is still entrenched in Afghanistan and is maintaining troops on the ground in dozens of countries worldwide. All this is not to obscure the fact that the United States as we know it came into being by way of an occupation — a gradual and devastatingly violent one that all but extinguished entire Native American populations across thousands of miles of land." "In this sense, Occupy Wall Street has occupied language, has made “occupy” its own. And, importantly, people from diverse ethnicities, cultures and languages have participated in this linguistic occupation — it is distinct from the history of forcible occupation in that it is built to accommodate all, not just the most powerful or violent." "Occupy Language might draw inspiration from both the way that the Occupy movement has reshaped definitions of “occupy,” which teaches us that we give words meaning and that discourses are not immutable, and from the way indigenous movements have contested its use, which teaches us to be ever-mindful about how language both empowers and oppresses, unifies and isolates." "By occupying language, we can expose how educational, political, and social institutions use language to further marginalize oppressed groups; resist colonizing language practices that elevate certain languages over others; resist attempts to define people with terms rooted in negative stereotypes; and begin to reshape the public discourse about our communities, and about the central role of language in racism and discrimination." excerpts from H. Samy Alin's article What If We Occupied The Language?
Listen to the Program December 22, 2011	EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE SCRANTON, PA (Please go to Audioport.org for your stations downloadable version) TOM WEISS rideforrenewables.com. December 21, 2011 (Port Arthur, TX) – Renewable energy advocate Tom Weis ended his 2,150-mile Keystone XL “Tour of Resistance” at the fence line community of West Port Arthur in the shadow of giant oil refineries spewing toxic air emissions. Weis launched the tour 10 weeks ago at the U.S./Canada border and has pedaled the entire U.S. length of the proposed tar sands pipeline in his “rocket trike” in support of landowners and communities in six states fighting Keystone XL. Pipeline opponents joined him in demanding that President Obama reject TransCanada’s presidential permit without delay. FRED HO and CZARINA AGGABAO THELEN www.scientificsoulsessions.com Participate in a general discussion regarding the use of language and the latest article from "What If We Occupied The Language" by H. Samy Alim here is an excerpt from the article "the irony of a progressive social movement using the term “occupy” to reshape how Americans think about issues of democracy and equality has been clear. After all, it is generally nations, armies and police who occupy, usually by force. And in this, the United States has been a leader. The American government is just now after nine years ending its overt occupation of Iraq, is still entrenched in Afghanistan and is maintaining troops on the ground in dozens of countries worldwide. All this is not to obscure the fact that the United States as we know it came into being by way of an occupation — a gradual and devastatingly violent one that all but extinguished entire Native American populations across thousands of miles of land."
Listen to the Program December 15, 2011	EDITIED VERSION FOR WFTE SCRANTON, PA. GRANDMOTHER MARGARET BEHAN-Montana- is a member of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (www.grandmotherscouncil.org). These women have been travelling to each other's homelands for several years and next year it is Grandmother Margaret's turn to host them for their 11th Council gathering. The dates of the Council have been set for July 20th through August 5th, 2012 and it will be held in Grandmother Margaret's homeland of the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Lame Deer, located in southeastern part of Montana. All are welcome to attend. Registration can be done on the Grandmother's website listed above. If you would like to help in any way with the gathering, or have questions, please call Lisa Caswell at (646)267-7244 JOHN KANE - New York - (www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com) on Kaneratiio or Roger Jock was arrested in upstate New York State -, was indicted by a grand jury for second-degree grand larceny for allegedly depriving deeded owner, Horst Wuersching, of a 240-acre parcel on Route 11 near the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino. The grand-larceny charge refers to the theft of land with a value above $50,000. According to the County Treasurer's Office, the parcel is assessed at $16,800. But there has not been a land revaluationfor more than 50 years, leaving the equalization rate there at 3.12 percent. The true market value of the land at 100 percent equalization is $538,462. Jock was released under the supervision of the Probation Department, and an order of protection was issued forbidding him from going back to the disputed land. The "irony" of the story is a Native man Indigenous to a parcel of land in the middle of Mohawk Territory being "stolen" from a white man! WAZIYATAWIN -Minnesota- (www.waziyatawin.net) of the Wahpetunwan Dakota discusses the terminology of "occupation" occupiers and their choice of language is indicative of lack of consciousness about Indigenous struggles, or a dismissal of the importance or relevance of those struggles. FRED HO - New York - (www.bigredmediainc.com) author, musician, philosopher and 3 time cancer survivor dialogues regarding "Capitialism is the cancer for the planet" and how a person would understand the toxicity one can avoid cointinuing the toxicities of manifest destiny. Posted at Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

The Untouchables: News in Indian Country

2012-01-03T09:35:00.004-07:00

Navajo and Apache children in prison at
Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner, N.M.

The Untouchables: News in Indian Country

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

The most censored issues five years ago remain the most censored issues today. The issues censored by Indian Country Today, 2004-2006, remain censored today by both the mainstream media and the national Native media.

Those issues include Native Americans exposing the truth of US wars; the destruction of sacred lands; environmental genocide targeting Indian country; the co-opting of American Indian governments by the US and corporations; and casinos on Indian lands which benefit non-Indians while Native people suffer.

When Louise Benally, from Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, compared the war in Iraq to the Longest Walk and deadly exile of Navajo people from their homelands, Indian Country Today refused to print it. Benally remembered her great-grandfather and other Navajos driven from their beloved homeland by the U.S. Army on foot for hundreds of miles while witnessing the murder, rape and starvation of their family and friends.

“I think these poor children had gone through so much, but, yet they had the will to go on and live their lives. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t be here today. It makes me feel very sad and I apply this to the situation in Iraq. I wonder how the Native Americans in the combat zone feel about killing innocent lives.”

When Bahe Katenay, Navajo from Big Mountain, pointed out that the Navajos birthplace of Dinetah, Place of Origin, is devastated by oil and gas wells in northwestern New Mexico, it was censored. Further when Katenay described the Navajo Nation Council as a “puppet” of the US federal government, it was censored.
“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 also desecrated with drilling, piping, wells and recreation activities. The Dine’ have lost these lands and their ‘puppet’ tribal government has refused to fight for a claim to this area,” Katenay said.

In one of the most blatant and longterm cases of censorship, the uranium mining in Lakota country was censored along with an interview with Buffy Sainte Marie. Indian Country Today censored the article for seven years. When a portion of it was finally published, the portion that referred to Lakota lands targeted by uranium mining companies was deleted.

The fact that Raytheon Missiles has a manufacturing plant on the same land as the commercial Navajo farm, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries on Navajoland near Farmington, N.M., was censored. The article was censored at Indian Country Today as NAPI began offering its foods to Cuba in a trade agreement. NAPI also boasts of using genetically-modified seeds from Monsanto for its crops. Foods grown with Monsanto seeds endanger the health of people and the seeds endanger local Native crops by way of cross-pollination.

When Lenny Foster, Navajo, visited Leonard Peltier in prison, Foster’s comments about Peltier and the religious freedom denied inmates in state and federal prisons was also censored. Today, there are few investigative reports on the fact that Native prison inmates are denied access to ceremonies, and many are forced to cut their hair. There are few investigative articles on the legal case of Peltier.

Apaches protesting the US senators involved in placing telescopes on sacred Mount Graham was censored. The most blatant censoring at Indian Country Today was an article on former Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld profiteering from the sale of Tamiflu during fear mongering about the bird flu. The article was not only censored, but was rewritten as an endorsement for Tamiflu. At the same time, then Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was among those who pushed for his state to stockpile millions of dollars of the medicine.

Today, Indian lands targeted by toxic dumps, uranium mining, coal-fired power plants and oil and gas companies are seldom the subject of journalists in Indian country. While an occasional press release may be published, or rewritten, there are few journalists that dig into the backdoor deals between energy companies, tribal governments, and the US government. There are few, if any, reporters out on the land really covering the news.

There are few journalists who question why there is no data on the longterm devastating health effects of uranium mining, coal fired power plants and oil and gas drilling in Indian country. Few journalists report on how the coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation and elsewhere are a major cause of pollution and global warming resulting in the melting of the ice in the Arctic, and the displacement of Indian people and the destruction of habitat in the Arctic.

There are no journalists out at Big Mountain or Black Mesa reporting on the hardships that the Navajo people endure in winter, hauling water and chopping wood, with grocery stores and doctors down distant impassable roads. When blizzards hit the Dakotas, or Lakota children die in trailer home fires because all the family has are small electric heaters, few reporters show any interest.

There are no investigative journalists digging into the role of Ariz. Senator John McCain, Peabody Coal and others in the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute. The real purpose for relocating Navajos on Black Mesa was to clear the land for coal mining which fuels the power plant operated by Salt River Project at Page, Ariz. It provides electricity for distant cities while many Navajos live without electricity. While coal fired power plants and coal mining drain the underground aquifers, many Navajos live without running water. Meanwhile, the US pushes to steal the water rights of Navajos and American Indians to rivers throughout the west.

Meanwhile, the urban newspapers, far from the pollution and desperation, are cheerleaders for the coal-fired power plants and the theft of Indian water rights.

Today Native Americans and other people of color continue to be targeted by recruiters and advertisements as expendables for the bogus wars of politicians and profiteering corporations.

The media continues to cheerlead the war in Afghanistan, without examining the facts. Further, Native Americans are censored when they protest the role of American Indian governments promoting the US military and wars. When Native Americans point out that the war corporations are using Native lands and Native people to kill other Indigenous Peoples, they are censored. This includes protests of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s partnership in constructing drones at Advanced Ceramics Research in Tucson; allowing the US Border Patrol to control Tohono O’odham lands; and of allowing US spy towers on Tohono O’odham land.

The media continues to create border xenophobia of people of color at the US/Mexico border, resulting in the militarization of Indigenous borderlands, the abuse of Indigenous peoples at the border and the promotion of profiteering corporations, including privately-owned prisons.

One of the most censored issues today is the fact that some casinos on Native American land provide millions of dollars to non-Indian management companies, donations to outside charities and for state revenues, while their own people live in desperation. This includes the Tohono O’odham who live in desperate need of housing, jobs, safe water to drink, firewood in winter, and even food. While this reporter was on staff at Indian Country Today, the subject of dollars from lucrative casino flowing to non-Indians, while Indian people suffered, was a forbidden news topic.

It is not a question of money to cover the expenses of reporters in Indian country, it is censorship. Money is spent elsewhere in Indian country, when it could be spent providing real investigative reporters with funds to do their jobs.

For armchair journalists in Indian country, these are the untouchables, forbidden topics hidden beneath the superficial news coverage, plagiarism and ten minute phone call of today’s journalism in Indian country.
---
See censored articles 2004-2006 written by Brenda Norrell at http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/ Brenda Norrell was a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today who was censored and terminated in 2006. Norrell is the publisher of Censored News www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com and contributor to Narco News.
To request permission to repost this article contact: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Transcription: Green anarchist Zerzan's talk at O'odham rights event

2012-01-02T16:56:00.001-07:00

Remarks by John Zerzan at 'De-Occupy O'odham Lands' benefit at Dry River Radical Collective in Tucson, for Tohono O’odham fighting mining on their traditional lands, in December 2011

Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo: John Zerzan and Ofelia Rivas at
Dry River/by Brenda Norrell
Click to Listen at Censored Blogtalk Radio

It’s an honor and a privilege to be back on Tohono O’odham land, and especially because I’m neither Native nor local. It’s an honor that way to be part of this effort to get some support for traditional O’odham culture and the elders. It’s also great to be back at Dry River. Dry River is so awesome, and tonight shows that.

I identify primarily with the anarcho-primitivist point of view. It goes by several names; there are some Native folks we know who call us neo-primitivists, and green anarchy is a common descriptive term, but it really doesn’t mean much of anything unless it connects with the concerns of Native people and has an awareness of the indigenous dimension. I think that we are seeing more of that, and it makes me really happy to see that.

Last week up in Scottsdale, that was on offer: the connection, the alliance if you will, between black bloc and indigenous people, anarchists standing with Native people, standing in defense of the elders. We saw this almost two years ago at the anti-Arpaio march—a similar situation. It was less disruptive, but it was at that time the emergence of what was called the DOA–– Dine O’odham Anarchist group––a concerted effort involving people who came together from those identifications.

And we’re also seeing at the same time, and it seems like so many things are moving so fast… after what happened up at Scottsdale last week, on this past Sunday in Oakland, the Occupy Oakland considered the proposal to change the name Occupy Oakland to De-Occupy Oakland, or De-Colonize Oakland. And this is a direct challenge, I believe, from what was accomplished in Scottsdale, this kind of emerging joint effort, the realization of its primary importance. What happened was that the proposal was narrowly defeated. They needed a two-thirds majority to change it; a sizeable minority, just over a third blocked that. I wasn’t there; but some of us have had some pipelines to that long discussion. There’s an awesome YouTube video of some of the highlights of this 3-hour debate.

I thought, we are seeing a real clarification. We’re seeing what’s really at stake, and I think we’re coming to a kind of crossroads. And one thing that stood out: it’s making certain choices a little more recognizable or a little harder to avoid, it seems to me. One of the people spoke in support of not changing the name, in support of sticking with Occupy, in support of not recognizing in a name the importance of De-Occupy, these lands are occupied, we’re standing on stolen lands, those of us who are not Native. His statement was, “We need to defend our legacy.” This in support of the word Occupy, that identification.

Well, what is that legacy that’s so important to defend? It’s nothing else but the legacy of the Left—that glorious eurocentric commitment to Progress. How much more Progress can we stand, can anybody stand, can the species of this planet stand? And yet they continue with this leftist program that consists of things like domestication, civilization, industrialism, mass society, mass production, industrial life, mass globalization, mass culture—some of these things are just so glaring, the difference between mass culture and all of its emptiness and pathology, compared to indigenous cultures. But these people cling to it.

Various people are getting it. This is a turning point. Which way do we go? Which way does the anarchist thing go? That’s for starters for some of us who are anarchists.

When I was here last I mentioned a visit to Oregon from Elena Poniatowska, a grand old lady on the radical side from Mexico City. She was in Eugene giving a public lecture. I believe she turned 80 on the day that she was there. And she gave a marvelous talk about her decades of being a pain in the butt to the different regimes in Mexico City, a lot of stories, just a really cool woman. She didn’t mention anarchy in Mexico, and you know we do have some pipelines even up in Oregon as to the upsurge of anarchist activities in Mexico. There are all kinds of acts, across the spectrum: animal liberation, earth liberation, burning down McDonalds, burning down shopping malls, really going to town.

Anyway she didn’t mention it, and I kind of thought to myself, well, she’s an old lady of the left, anarchy probably isn’t her thing. But during the Q and A I asked, can you comment on this, can you give us your take? And she kind of paused and she said, “I don’t really know about that.” Then she broke out in this big smile and she said, “I can’t tell you much about the specifics, but I can tell you this: there is nothing that is happening now that isn’t anarchist.”

And I think there is more awareness even just since last year, when you see these action groups in Mexico that are explicitly anti-civilization and anti-technology. I think we’re seeing again the realization of the indigenous touchstone. That’s the key connection, that’s the thing that has almost been lost, but now we have a chance to learn from that and stand with that and renounce this suicidal trip that frankly, the Left has been so much embracing. Of course, there are individuals on the Left, I was on the left, I was a union organizer, was a marxist years ago, so that’s me too, and people can change. But these people that defend Occupy in explicitly those terms—“We have to defend our legacy”—you know, some people maybe will remain clueless. That’s the choice we have.

You could start at any place, but for anarchists, what does that mean? Anarchy is the only game in town, partly by default. Who is a socialist or a communist anymore? It’s so discredited. It’s up to us, it’s our responsibility to figure it out and to connect in the right way. So much is moving so quickly. We see the Occupy thing, and there’s the choice for them: what kind of orientation do we want? We see the Arab Spring, and some of that is so incredible, like Syria, every day and night people are getting killed, but they’re there, all the time. There is a radical energy at loose in the world, and we need to see that and be bolstered by that.

The one thing that everybody wants, the one thing that we can talk about and potentially connect on, is community. We all know it’s gone, every developer and every politician likes to talk about it all the time. But there isn’t any community in mass society because community has to be face-to-face. That is the big draw for Occupy. It’s finally come to me, being mystified by the Occupy movement. Occupy isn’t real swift in terms of ideas, but it’s not about ideas, it’s about community. When people get to have some community, that is a turn-on. That in itself is a value, even in circumscribed locations which are now being attacked in a pretty coordinated way, but I don’t think it’s going away.

I heard a Ute elder say in Salt Lake City a few years ago that “Civilization is the grave of community.” That was a very profound thing to say and worth thinking about.

There’s nobody that doesn’t know that everything is going to hell so fast in terms of everything you can look at. Just in the past few days, the biggest spike in heat-trapping emissions in history; in terms of the U.S., 14 extreme weather situations that cost a billion dollars apiece or more; and the biggest increase in temperature in history. Maybe there are a few right-wing pinheads who can somehow make themselves believe it isn’t here, but it is here, the eco-catastrophe is here. Something that is even more of a grabber in a certain way is what’s happening on the personal/interpersonal level. 80 million people who have significant insomnia. The number of people on anti-depressants. Now we’re seeing these family massacres, we’re seeing these horrendous shootings every day.... How else can we measure the emptiness, the lack of community?

When you don’t have community, you don’t have solidarity, you don’t have these ties that hold people together, social ties, then anything can happen. And anything is happening. And then the Left wants to talk about its legacy, and they don’t want to talk about de-Occupy, de-Colonize. They have no interest in respecting the integrity of indigenous cultures or lifeways or traditions, the very thing we need to be aware of and that we need to stand together with. When the elders feel it appropriate to speak to us, we need to respect that. We need to listen and we need to go forward with that consciousness of what we can get from that. Where else can we get it? What else is the legacy? I know what legacy I’d like to learn from.

Mohawk Nation News 'Sky is not Falling'

2012-01-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

MNN: SKY IS NOT FALLING
By Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com

MNN. Jan. 1, 2012. No. The world is not coming to an end. It’s continuing. We’re been lead to think that we are heading into a trap to be devoured if we don’t submit. Terrorized people are afraid to take action.

The dishonorable gang of inbred elites try to run the world. The upper middle class, their hired guns, have been replaced by machines. They’re leaving Great Turtle Island.

The people of color are staying.

Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, boasted, “You don’t have to become a drug dealer, pimp or a prostitute when you can wash our bathroom toilets andfloors”. [Is he referring to his filthy mouth?]

Some colonists want to join the Indigenous. They know it’s all our land,water, air and resources. Are they ready to live under the rules of nature?

They could follow the white roots to the source. If their mind is clean and they agree to obey the laws of the Rotinoshonnionwe, they can take shelter beneath the tree of the long leaves.

The bankers are the pirates. They invented the Maritime Admiralty Legal system to settle business disputes around the world. They incorporated states like the US and Canada and illegally put them on Indigenous lands. People who signed on became their property. Their official flags cannily be placed on buildings, not on Great Turtle Island, which was never surrendered.

The Haldimand Proclamation 1784 is unique. A track within the vast Haudenosaunee Territory was set aside as a British Protectorate forever for the Mohawks. Their agents of the crown [federal, provincial, municipal,etc.] that breach their supreme law are guilty of high treason. The Military Court can punish them by firing squad or hanging.  Encroachers beware!

The bankers fear becoming obsolete should an infinite free fuel be found. They are blinding us by warfare. Their worst is coming as they approach their death throws.

When they say peace, they really mean war. Peace is uncompromising truth. Nature is real and true. They hope everybody is unnatural like them.

Their link to the world is through technology, while they try to disconnect us from the natural world.

Their corporations create supermen, that push the dooms day clock and threaten nuclear war.

The world will survive. The bankers can’t buy mother earth.

They tried to turn Great Turtle Island into a prison where life and the environment are not precious.  For 500 years we’ve been penned up by these maniacs. Now they are going, leaving behind our land and life.

Here’s an idea! The head rulers can sit in a big room inside a bunker. The walls are covered with hundreds of televisions. They hold remotes and watch everything that’s going on. They click, kill and neutralize those who might undo their position and power.

We let them think they are all powerful, while we go about our lives and ignore them. They can flick all they want. “Change the channel, honey!” We’re in charge of the cable and what they seeing!

Their greatest fear is, “They will be cast down from whence they came for all eternity”.

They need to turn money into more money and to continue their illusion.

As Bob Dylan sang in 1963 “Masters of War”: “Let me ask you one question, is your money that good? Could it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could? I think you will find when your death takes its toll, all the money made will never buy back your soul”.

Their treasure has no real value. Mother Earth and the great natural power are the dictators.

MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, to donate tomaintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to www.mohawknationnews.com More stories at MNN Categories “COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”. Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

Store: Indigenous authors – Kahnawake books – Mohawk Warriors Three – WarriorsHand Book – Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy.

Category: World – Colonialism - Great Turtle Island – History – NewWorld Order – courts/police Economics/trade/commerce – Land/environment – art/culture.

Tags: North American Indians – Turtle Island – Indian holocaust/genocide – NAUNorth American Union – History Canada/US – United Nations – Cointelpro -colonialism.

VIDEO O'odham 'A Voice in the Desert'

2012-01-01T12:30:00.002-07:00

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, describes how Border Patrol agents abuse O'odham in their homeland. Ofelia shares how O'odham carry on to protect O'odham homelands, the birthplace of their ancestors, while being interrogated and terrorized by Border Patrol agents.

A film by Jason Jaacks of Cordellera Productions -http://www.cordilleraproductions.com

This film details the story of the Tohono O'odham whose traditional lands are bisected by the US-Mexico border fence built in 2008. The fence and the subsequent militarization greatly impact the O'odham way of life.

Donate to O'odham Solidarity at:
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

Breaking News Jan. 2012: O'odham: Halt genocidal mining in ceremonial Quitovac, Sonora
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/traditional-oodham-halt-mining-genocide.html

Video featured currently at Intercontinental Cry:
http://intercontinentalcry.org/underreported-struggles-57-december-2011/

Anonymous kickstarts 2012 with avalanche of data

2012-01-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

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

The hacktivists of Anonymous and Antisec kickstarted 2012 with the release of an avalanche of data, beginning on New Years Eve by hacking the California Statewide Law Enforcement website with the political hip hop music of The Coup, and a message. The Anons followed by exposing data from California and New York police departments and the client list for Stratfor Global Intelligence, and then rallied in the New Year with Op Hiroshima.
The Op Hiroshima release begins with:
"Ladies and gentlemen of the great world wide web, it is our great pleasure to present to you for your educational and viewing pleasure …. Operation Hiroshima.

The beginning of the New Year now begins officially. It is now, at this very moment people all across the nation and in other countries perhaps a matter of hours difference, are celebrating the turning of a new year and with it the hope for a new start whatever that may be.
However, a new start is not the same as a clean slate, now is it?
But in every situation there is ALWAYS a leveraging factor. Let the information dump commence.
We still run this.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We Do Not Forgive.
We Do Not Forget.
We’re Sure You Expected This. (Continues at link)

http://pastebin.com/ecbVtQ7t

Censored News daily on Twitter

2012-01-01T09:02:00.003-07:00

Censored News Daily on Twitter: http://paper.li/brendanorrell/1311339281
On Twitter: brendanorrell
Top Searches for Censored News

The top searches this year at Google leading viewers to Censored News included: Wikileaks, drones, Subcomandante Marcos, Blood Nation women and Anonymous. In December, top searches included: Geronimo, Tantoo Cardinal arrested and UC Davis protest.
Today's search topics at Google, leading readers to Censored News, include Kahentinetha Horn, fracking and Obama signs indefinite detention bill into law.