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| Klee Benally, Dine' writer, musician and revolutionary, Debra White Plume, Lakota, wife, mom, writer and revolutionary; Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, writer, photographer and human rights advocate; Marcos, Zapatista revolutionary, Michelle Cook, Dine' human rights lawyer; Floyd Westerman, Lakota musician and icon; Bolivian President Evo Morales, leader and revolutionary. |
Honoring the Movements and People who Inspire us. Leaders, Writers and Dreamers -- A Thread Runs Through Them. Censored News 20th Anniversary.
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 30, 2026
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| Kahentinetha is publisher of Mohawk Nation News and a Mohawk Mother holding Canada responsible for kidnapped, missing, tortured and murdered Native children. Kahentinetha holds her Haudenosaunee passport during the border summit in San Xavier, Tohono O'odham Nation, in 2007. Photo by Brenda Norrell. |
We're coming up on our 20th anniversary at Censored News. When the Mohawks came for the border summit in 2006 and 2007, it was, as they say in the movie Casablanca, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Along with the Mohawks, leaders, writers and dreamers formed a collective and have kept Censored News going, as a service to Indigenous People and human rights.
We lost many of our best, Warrior Woman Deb White Plume, our longtime friend Klee Benally, our French translator Christine Prat, and many more. But thanks to those who keep sharing their work, we keep Censored News going. This summer our page views increased by millions, thanks to their labors of love.
We lost many of our best, Warrior Woman Deb White Plume, our longtime friend Klee Benally, our French translator Christine Prat, and many more. But thanks to those who keep sharing their work, we keep Censored News going. This summer our page views increased by millions, thanks to their labors of love.
Today, we celebrate the movements and people who inspire us, as we celebrate our 20 Year Anniversary at Censored News.
Klee Benally and I met when he was a teenager and musician. Among the amazing things Klee did in his life was locking down at the US Border Patrol headquarters in Tucson, and locking down to heavy equipment on Sacred San Francisco Peaks, in protest of the use of sewage water for snow for tourists. Klee spoke in defense of the desecration of Sacred San Francisco Peaks, a place of prayer, ceremony, and medicine plants.
Klee joined Christine Prat and her husband Theo in Paris to expose and protest the museums and auction houses who were selling Navajo and Hopi sacred items. Before he passed, Klee wrote 'No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred.' As in life, his book is a work of no compromise.
Before our friend and French translator Christine Prat passed, she translated Klee's book into French.
Klee was a friend, and a collaborator and writer for Censored News.
Soar high my friend.
Debra White Plume, Lakota, led a life of resistance, while being a wife and mother.
During the protest of the fake Lewis and Clark Expedition on the Missouri River in South Dakota, she gave the impersonators a blanket -- and told them it was smallpox
At Red Warrior Camp at Standing Rock, she led non-violent direct action. She was a friend, writer and collaborator for Censored News and fought for the water.
Rest in Power my friend.
Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, lives on her homeland at the border and has spent her life defending human rights.
Ofelia testified on the militarization of her homeland before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica, and spoke on the spy towers in Spain. Ofelia's new book just released is 'Significant Impact.' She has documented the spy towers, integrated fixed towers, on her homeland since the beginning at Censored News.
During construction of the spy towers by Elbit Systems, O'odham were removed from their burial places and ceremonial places violated.
Marcos, shown here south of the Arizona border in Sonora, is a poet and revolutionary. With appreciation to Tim Giago, Lakota and news publisher, I was able to ride with the Zapatistas many times, in the mountains of Chiapas and throughout Mexico. The Zapatistas magic is love, love for their families, love for humanity, and love for the water, land and stars. Their magic and mystery, from the cornfields, mountains, and rivers of Chiapas to the caravan through Mexico, and presence in Europe, inspire and empower a new world.
Michelle Cook, Dine', human rights lawyer, is a Fulbright scholar who traveled from the Maori homeland in New Zealand to Bolivia for the Mother Earth conference. She was at Standing Rock during the resistance and protection of the water, and co-produced Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio with Govinda.
Michelle organized delegations of Native women to the United Nations and Europe after Standing Rock, and a delegation of Native women to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Native women testified on the abuse by law enforcement at Standing Rock, and the militarization of the Tohono O'odham homeland. Michelle is a writer, photographer and dreamer at Censored News.
Floyd Westerman, Lakota was a singer, musician and icon with vision. Floyd shared his legacy with Censored News, and his plan for a series of films on genocide, beginning in California and moving east through the states. Sadly, Floyd was able to make only the first film on the genocide of Native people in California before he passed to the Spirit World.
Soar with the eagles, we will always remember your voice.
Bolivian President Evo Morales brought those of us who were international media in a van to his home in the mountains of Bolivia during the Mother Earth Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia. After he played soccer, he joined us for a feast of tiny home grown potatoes of many colors, fresh corn on the cob and fresh fish on clay plates.
We will be posting more of the heroes and dreamers in celebration of our 20 Year Anniversary at Censored News.
Photo credit: Klee Benally courtesy photo. Deb White Plume in Chamberlain, South Dakota, by Brenda Norrell. Ofelia Rivas on the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation by Jason Jaacks. Marcos in Sonora, Mexico, meeting with O'odham and human rights defenders from both sides of the border, by Brenda Norrell. Michelle Cook and Floyd Westerman at San Xavier, Tohono O'odham Nation, by Brenda Norrell. President Evo Morales in his homeland in the mountains of Bolivia, by Brenda Norrell.
