Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 3, 2008

Uncensoring the dying fields


Navajos poisoned by energy corporations, Colombia targets Indians with aerial spraying and the legacy of censorship: Uncensoring Buffy Sainte Marie on war and uranium mining

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


Follow the money, Skull and Bones and Desert Rock

Who is financing the Desert Rock power plant, another dirty coal-fired power plant planned for the Navajo Nation?
Sithe Global LLC plans to invest millions in Desert Rock. The largest financier of Sithe Global LLC is the Blackstone Group. It comes as no surprise that Blackstone was cofounded by Stephen Schwarzman, a member of the small group of Skull and Bones that the Bush family belongs to. The Yale secret society includes former presidential hopeful John Kerry. Which means two Bonesmen ran for president, one won, and now Bonesmen corporations are at work.
Here's a list of Bonesmen:
http://www.nndb.com/org/723/000041600/
But that's not all. Another Bush-friendly corporation, Fluor Corporation, landed the contract for management and design of Desert Rock.
While Dooda (NO) Desert Rock, grassroots Navajos, lead the opposition, the Navajo Nation Council and Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr., are pressing for it.
At the same time Navajo leaders push for another coal-fired power plant, with their words they say they support protection of Mother Earth.
The proposed Desert Rock would be located in northwest New Mexico, the same region as the most sacred region, Dinetah, the place of origin of Navajos. Already the air, water and land are poisoned by power plants, unreclaimed uranium mines and a concentration of oil and gas wells.
Aerial fumigating: Plants or Indians?
Colombia will start aerial fumigation of Indian lands, with a toxin produced by Monsanto, the same company producing genetically-modified seeds.
But are they fumigating the plants, or the Indians?
The short-term health risks of glyphosate are congestion of the lungs and increased breathing rate. The long-term health hazards are kidney damage and reproductive effects, according to the EPA.
Although the use of some deadly pesticides have been banned in the US, those are still produced and exported to other countries where Indigenous Peoples grow crops and live near the land. Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico are dying and mothers are having "jelly babies," babies born without bones, because of the banned pesticides used in their fields.
In Colombia, the security contractor DynCorp is providing the firepower for the fumigating operation.
Read more at Narco News: Colombian Government Declares Indigenous Reservations Targets for Fumigations "We are worried that this will affect our traditional crops, the medicinal plants of our grandparents."

Buffy Sainte Maire, blacklisted for anti-war song, exposed the uranium secret
With the coming of a new year, it it time to celebrate Buffy Sainte Marie. Buffy was blacklisted by President Lyndon Johnson and forced out of the music industry in the US for her song, "Universal Soldier," because it became a battlecry of the anti-war movement.
It was one of the most censored stories of the age we live in.
Buffy Sainte Marie also spoke out on the death of Anna Mae Aquash. She sang about how Aquash became aware of plans for uranium mining on Lakota lands in Pine Ridge, S.D.
Now, new uranium mining targets Pine Ridge and many other Indian lands.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee lyrics ...
"My girlfriend Annie Mae talked about uranium
Her head was filled with bullets and her body dumped
The FBI cut off her hands and told us she'd died of Exposure…"
Listen online: You Tube: Buffy Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier,"
Watch on You Tube a young Buffy Sainte Marie perform with mouthbow with Pete Seeger

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