March 2023

Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

March 30, 2023

Vatican's Renouncing of Discovery Doctrine Lacks Accountability


Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1884

Native Healing Coalition believes Vatican's statement renouncing Discovery Doctrine lacks accountability 

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March 30, 2023

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- After decades of advocacy from Native leaders and advocates, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, which was created by the Catholic Church and later incorporated into US law. This doctrine led to the colonization and appropriation of Native lands and informed numerous harmful assimilation policies. 

 

The following statement from Deborah Parker (Tulalip), CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, can be quoted in part or in full. 

 

“While the Vatican’s decision to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery is the right one, it downplays the Church’s role and accountability for the harm it has caused to Native peoples. It does not change the fact that the Church’s views gave permission to colonizers to take Native lands and assimilate Native peoples. 

 

This doctrine imposed itself into U.S. policies and played a crucial role in justifying the genocide of Native peoples. This led to a series of atrocities, including the forced enrollment of Native children into Indian boarding schools, and gave colonizers the license to steal lands and commit acts of violence against Native children and families for centuries. 

 

We demand more from the Catholic Church. We demand more transparency, including access to Indian boarding school documents, which they have refused to provide. We demand that the Church returns lands to the Tribal Nations in which it operated Indian boarding schools. 

 

We demand that the Church supports the Truth and Healing Bill, which would establish a federal commission and conduct a full inquiry into the assimilative policies of U.S. Indian boarding schools. 

 

And we demand that the Church respects Tribal sovereignty and Indigenous ways of being. We believe these are ways in which the Church can begin to take accountability for their actions.” 

 

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Contact: 

Brad Angerman, Communications Director

National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

bangerman@nabshc.org


 

About National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition is the first and only national organization whose purpose is to advocate on behalf of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people impacted by U.S. Indian boarding schools. Since 2012, NABS has raised public awareness about the U.S. Indian boarding school era and the intergenerational trauma Native peoples continue to experience. Today, NABS is a leader in education, research, and policy advocacy, and works directly with boarding school survivors and descendants to foster healing for all affected. Learn more about boardingschoolhealing.org


Biden's Green Energy: Lithium Americas Digging into Paiute Massacre Site


Biden's Green Energy: Lithium Americas Digging into Paiute Massacre Site

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

President Biden thinks this is green energy. This drone video reveals the Canadian corporation LIthium Americas is digging into Thacker Pass, where Paiute women, children and elderly were massacred by the US Calvary and left there.

The lithium mine will devastate the region's water and wildlife. Biden and the federal courts are championing this horrific desecration of a sacred site, and violation of the natural world.

Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rKYqY8R-L8



March 28, 2023

College Withdraws Honorary Degree Due to Vatican Desecration of Mount Graham

Running to protect sacred Mount Graham. Photo courtesy Apache Stronghold.

College Withdraws Honorary Degree Due to Vatican Desecration of Mount Graham

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
March 28, 2023

Suny Geneseo College bulletin said today that a planned honorary degree has been withdrawn for a Vatican scientist because the Vatican is responsible for the telescope long opposed by Apaches on sacred Mount Graham.

Suny Geneseo College, in upstate New York, said in its morning bulletin that it will not confer an honorary degree on Vatican astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno. Previously, the college said it would present him with an honorary Doctor of Science degree. 

March 27, 2023

San Carlos Apache Nation: High Risk Jet Combat Training over Native Lands

 


High-risk jet combat training by a private company, above Native lands, spans from San Carlos Apache, Whiteriver Apache and Tohono O'odham lands in Arizona, to Paiute Shoshone lands in Nevada

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News


SAN CARLOS APACHE NATION -- High-risk jets few combat training flights over Native lands last week. The same training jet that flew combat training missions over the Tohono O'odham Nation last week, flew over the San Carlos Apache Nation, and southern edge of the Whiteriver Apache Nation, on Friday morning.

The fighter jet departed from Goodyear airport and returned to Luke Airforce Base in Phoenix, Arizona area. It is one of the second-hand jets purchased from the French military by the private training company ATAC.

ATAC has contracts with the U.S. Navy, Marines and Air Force. ATAC has a history of crashes and accidents, including those of pilots based on Paiute Shoshone land at Fallon Bombing Range in Nevada.

Throughout last week, ATAC jets flew training missions over the western and eastern regions of the Tohono O'odham Nation.

The increased military flights, alarming to Tohono O'odham who live on the land, and the spy towers combine for increased militarization. The Israeli defense contract Elbit Systems built a spy tower -- integrated fixed tower -- in the heart of the Tohono O'odham Nation, not on the border. Tohono O'odham said they were unaware of this mountaintop spy tower, which allows U.S. Border Patrol agents to spy on, and stalk, O'odham.

Read our in-depth report on these flights at Censored News.

March 25, 2023

Jet Fighters Endanger Tohono O'odham This Week


Jet fighter training endangered Tohono O'odham in Gu-Vo District this week. In this screenshot by Censored News, a Falcon jet is engaging with another aircraft whose identity is so secretive that it is blocked here on Flight Radar 24 online. Censored News screenshot.

Tohono O'odham were not informed of jet combat training overhead this week, or that the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems had built an 11th spy tower in the heart of the Tohono O'odham Nation

By Brenda Norrell

Copyright Censored News

Update: On Thursday morning, March 29, this dangerous jet fighter combat training is currently underway above the homes of Tohono O'odham.

GU-VO District, Tohono O'odham Nation -- Jet combat fights above the western Tohono O'odham Nation this week endangered the lives of O'odham, who were not informed. The jets were identified as being owned by the private training company, ATAC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company, which uses second-hand jets. It is not the U.S. military.

The company, ATAC, based in Virginia, flew out of Phoenix and engaged in simulated air combat over the Tohono O'odham District of Gu-Vo between 7 and 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday. ATAC has air combat training contracts with the U.S. Navy, Marines and Air Force.

"Living out here on the land, we are not fully informed, and we have not given permission for them to fly over us," said Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, who lives in Gu-Vo District.