Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

December 16, 2007

Protesters enter Hutto prison with toys for children

Protesters enter Hutto Prison with toys for imprisoned migrant and refugee children

Texas Civil Rights Review
Photo of two girls imprisoned in Hutto, photographed during happy days at home. The girls spent two months in prison with their parents and older brother and were deported.

By Greg Moses
Sept. 16, 2007
TAYLOR, Texas -- About 100 people protesting the imprisonment of immigrant families at the T. Don Hutto Prison in Taylor, Texas on Sunday evening marched across a parking lot to the front door of the prison and then entered the prison lobby with toys and wrapping paper. Jaime Martinez, National Treasurer of the League of United Latin American Citizens called for the march shortly after 5:30. Carrying a bullhorn, Martinez informed the protesters that prison officials had made a promise to come out and get the toys at 5 p.m.
When Martinez called for the people to take the toys to the children, the crowd pressed forward across a yellow line painted on the driveway marking official prison property.
"Bring the toys!" called Martinez from the prison door as volunteers grabbed boxes and bags of toys along with rolls of wrapping paper and rushed to the prison door. http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1127

NCAI urges Senate probe of US banned pesticides impacting Indigenous Peoples

By Brenda Norrell

DENVER -- The National Congress of American Indians adopted a resolution of the International Indian Treaty Council's North-South Indigenous Network Against Pesticides.
The resolution urges the halt of the exportation of banned pesticides by US corporations. The action follows illnesses and deaths of Indigenous Peoples, including Yaquis in Sonora, Mexico and American Indians in Alaska, where banned pesticides are used in agricultural fields and toxic chemicals are carried by water and winds.
The resolution states that the health and subsistence foods of Indigenous Peoples in Northern regions such as Alaska are affected by these contaminants which are transported through the air and water. Further, the harmful toxins bio-accumulate in the food chain and in the bodies of humans. The use of dangerous pesticides in the United States increased 33 times from 1945 to 1995 and pesticides used today are now up to 10 times more toxic. Many pesticides are transferred to developing babies though the placenta, and after their birth through their mother's milk, resulting in birth defects, learning and developmental disabilities.
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Photo: Yaqui gathered in Potam Pueblo, Sonora, Mexico, to urge the halt of banned pesticides resulting in illnesses and deaths for Yaqui working in agricultural fields, and living near the fields. Photo Jeff Conant.