Sheep Dog Nation Rocks: On being a true human being

Ancient Ways Abandoned to Fend for Themselves at Big Mountain

By Bahe Kateney, Navajo from Big Mountain

Sheep Dog Nation Rocks shares the words of Pauline Whitesinger, Navajo on Big Mountain, on the way to be a true human being:

"In the old days, a day would start when you leave your dwelling place and as you make your first step outside your doorway, your day begins. What lies ahead is not clearly predictable because you may ‘tripped.’ You need a family or community to be part of your day and within that, there is a culture. Others would be there to share with you or support you in case you ‘stumble and fall.’ It was taught to me when I was young that we should limit the use of the word, ‘no!’ We were to always be there for someone in need and have empathy because ‘you’ may need that help someday.
Today, you may ask for help like borrowing tools to mend your clothes or repair something. The method of borrowing is a test of the human ability to be considerate, and it is an expression of attitude. How you achieve in that test will ultimately determine your mental balance, if you have empathy and humbleness, and it basically determines where your ‘heart’ is at: love and kinship. Certainly, these things were expected of every new born back in the old days. For instance, the new born will give to the community or if he is a boy, he will cultivate the fields or become builder of dwellings. This is probably how my father was raised because he was always there to help build a lodge or help maintain the values of the community.
I don’t think I can define Life. It has to be how much the human mind can take. Utilizing faith is key so, that you can pray when it is difficult and never give up on that faith no matter how painful. The modern-day, human mind seem less durable and it resorts to degrading others, or alcoholism. Modern way of life has separated our children from us and they have become ‘uncivilized.’ The family units of the Indian are gone. The reliance on horses and sheep herding is the past and the automobile is now the future.
My childhood times required us to haul water by hand and I remember making the climb out of this canyon, Sweet Water. I helped with carry bundles of firewood and sometimes when we moved, I helped carry the grinding stones. A day’s job did not involve going to the grocery store to get soda pop, a dangerous form of drink which we didn’t realized, and other unknown American products. Read more ...

http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/

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Video interviews: Alcatraz Occupation 1969

Video: 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, John Whitefox, Richard Oakes and LaNada Means
Watch video:
https://diva.sfsu.edu/bundle/view/185990
Alcatraz photo by Brenda Norrell/Nov. 2008
A KQED news report from Alcatraz featuring the American Indian occupation of the island, on November 24th 1969. Includes interviews with John Whitefox, Richard Oakes and LaNada Means. Oakes confirms there there is no outbreak of hepatitis amongst the population and Whitefox states they're determind to remain there for 10 years if necessary, to defend their property rights. When LaNada Means is asked by a reporter if their protest has any connection with the Third World Liberation Front she replies: "Well, this is a Native American struggle." She describes the occupation as an attempt to make the federal government honor the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and claims the failure of Walter Hickel (Secretary of the Interior) to respond to their November 20th proclamation was expected. She also points out that whilst living conditions for the protestors are very basic, this is in fact: "Average for an Indian way of life anyway. Now, I mean today."
50.13 MB uploaded Dec 12, 2008 by Michael D Harper
Also watch the 1966 TV interview with Cesar Chavez and the 1971 TV report on 'Your Black Muslim Bakery'
http://www.library.sfsu.edu/about/collections/sfbatv/index.php?over=1
The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive is a unique moving image collection that chronicles 60 landmark years of social history and cultural revolution in the San Francisco Bay Area. The film & video material in our collection - which includes local newsfilm, documentaries and other footage - was donated to San Francisco State University by broadcasting organizations and private individuals for the use of its faculty, students and staff. Access to the collection and our search databases is by prior appointment only. Please contact the resident film archivist Alex Cherian with research and general enquiries. The TV Archive will be closed from Monday 15th December 2008 to Friday 2nd January 2009 (inclusive). Direct all inquiries during this vacation period to our e-mail address (below):SF Bay Area TV Archive, SF State Downtown Campus, Room 524, 835 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Tel: 415-817-4261 e-mail: acherian@sfsu.edu

Guatemala Radio Project Keeping Hope and Language Alive

Support grassroots radio around the world: More stations raided in Guatemala
From Cultural Survival

Another popular community radio station belonging to the Guatemala Radio Project network was raided last month. Stereo Lago, broadcasting from Panajachel, was shut down by armed guards from the Public Ministry who seized their equipment. The radio stations' right to broadcast is enshrined in the Guatemalan Peace Accords that ended 36 years of civil war, the Guatemalan constitution, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but not in Guatemala's telecommunications law. We are continuing to meet with members of congress in Guatemala City and are putting community radio legislation on their agenda to finalize the reform to the law. We still need your help to send more volunteers to the capital to lobby their representatives.Guatemala Radio Project
Cesar Gomez, GRP Coordinator
“Before we started the radio station in Palin eight years ago, our language, Pocomam, was only spoken in our homes. Now Pocomam is spoken everywhere-in offices, in the streets. Without community radio, we might have lost our native tongue.”—Cesar Gomez, GRP Coordinator
Listen to a broadcast
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/programs/grp/program
The Guatemalan army couldn't wipe out Mayan culture, but American Idol can.
The indigenous peoples of Guatemala have kept their culture through 500 years of colonization, brutal repression, and, most recently, 36 years of genocide that killed 200,000 Maya. But where brute force failed, globalization is succeeding. Mainstream Western entertainment is now flooding Guatemala‘s airwaves, hammering home the 24-hour-a-day message that Mayans should abandon their languages, their clothing, their spirituality, and their identities. And the only thing holding back this tidal wave of homogeneity is a network of tiny 500-watt radio stations.
Cultural Survival is partnering with Guatemalan nongovernmental organizations to strengthen this network of 140 community radio stations across the country, many of which broadcast in one or more of the country’s 23 indigenous languages. The stations provide news, educational programming, health information, and traditional music, all reinforcing pride in Mayan heritage. We provide the equipment and organizational expertise; they provide the people and the passion. And it’s working: languages on the brink of extinction have come back into common use; marimba music that was being replaced with top-40 songs is being played again; and people are wearing the distinctive traje that defines where they come from and who they are. But the job has only begun. A loophole in Guatemalan laws allows the police to shut down stations and confiscate equipment, and they are doing this with increasing frequency. We need your help to shore up this fragile network of protection for Mayan communities and cultures.
More:
If there's a model of hope for the world's indigenous peoples, it is the town of Todos Santos Cuchumatán in northwestern Guatemala. The Mayans who live here still wear their traditional clothing with pride and practice their traditional ceremonies and customs, and 95 percent of the population still speaks Mam. At the same time, the people of Todos Santos also participate vigorously in the larger society and have a thriving economy. The key to this indigenous success story is Radio Qman Txun, the town's community radio station.
Comment:
The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIRES) which plants trees, establishes tree nurseries, provides environmental education, digs wells, and builds fuel-efficient brick ovens, will fund environmental radio content which is dated to begin mid April. AIRES has agreed to underwrite four, 15 minute radio programs to be broadcast throughout Guatemala and translated into the four most commonly spoken languages. These programs (produced and distributed by the CGCC) will serve to educate the public about sustainable farming practices.

Tohono O'odham Women on the Border

By Brenda Norrell

SAN MIGUEL, Arizona -- Tohono O'odham women describe the militarization of the US/Mexico border on Censored Blog Radio today. The US/Mexico border wall is now a barrier on the annual O'odham ceremonial route. The contractor Boeing has dug up the graves of O'odham ancestors on Tohono O'odham Nation land. US Border Patrol agents harass and threaten O'odham, holding O'odham women and elderly at gunpoint on a regular basis and routinely searching O'odham without cause.

Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham Voice Against the Wall, and Angie Ramon, whose 18-year-old son Bennett Patricio, Jr., was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol, describe the sorrow caused by this US military invasion of O'odham land.
Angie Ramon and her family members believe that Bennett walked upon an illegal drug transfer between US Border Patrol agents and was intentionally killed as he walked home in the desert in the predawn hours. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did not rule in the family's favor. The family continues to seek justice for the death of Bennett, now seeking an attorney to file murder charges against the Border Patrol agent.
The US militarization and border wall, with out of control border agents, result in death and intrusion for O'odham, who have lived in this region where the desert meets the sea since time immemorial.
"I don't know how to live my life without visiting my family members," said Ofelia Rivas, of her family members in Mexico. "I'm going to be stuck in the United States now since I don't have a passport."
Rivas said the border wall is a barrier on the annual O'odham ceremonial route. Without the ceremonies, there will be catastrophes in the universe.
"Our ceremonies, our Him'dag, it is our way of life."
"We have not migrated anywhere," Rivas said, adding that O'odham Creation stories tell how the O'odham were created here and have not migrated.
In May of 2007 the border wall contractor Boeing dug up the O'odham ancestors, who were later reburied.
During the interview, as the border wall is being constructed, Rivas says, "It is our Mother Earth and they are raping her and they are sticking these metal objects into her. It really impacts our spiritual being as O'odham people.
"Our tribal government doesn't seem to understand that this is impacting our people.
"Who is going to stand up against this government to take this wall down? This is our land, our O'odham land.

Listen at Blog Radio. Original interview recorded by Amanda Shauger, with Brenda Norrell:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/