IS MOHAWK COUNCIL OF KAHNAWAKE TRYING TO HIJACK THE LONGHOUSE [Some comments from Native Pride]
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com
MNN. Oct. 14, 2009. Many of we indigenous don’t trust the Canadian government, otherwise known as the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. Obviously our people want to follow the Kaianerehkowa and the Two Row Wampum, our true form of decision making and legal relationship with the colonial squatters.
Few attend these shows in Kahnawake which are meant to trick us into sanctioning the tacky colonial justice system they want to shove down our throats. When are these local smucks going to stop trying to treat us like a bunch of dummies? Why don’t they all move to Ottawa to be near their masters? There they can commit colonial atrocities on each other like genocide, aggression, conformity, emotional repression, hypocrisy and the worship of comfort and consumer goods. Native Pride made some choice comments on these desperados [letstalknativepride.blogspot.com]:
Last year 60 Minutes exposed a cheating scandal that involved Mohawk Internet Technologies that is licensed and regulated by the puppet band council of Kahnawake (the MCK). Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes asked band councilor, Mike Delisle, if internet gambling was illegal in Canada. Delisle said Internet gambling is illegal in Canada. "We're not Canadians. We're a member of the Haudenosaunee Five Nations Confederacy. We're Mohawk, Kanienkehaka people." [As a puppet band councilor, Delisle is a Canadians and a willing agent of oppression].
Delisle didn’t mention that the band council, their employees and their police administer colonial Canadian law. The MCK is not the Kanienkehaka nor the Haudenosaunee. They are set up, funded and regulated by Canada. They can’t suddenly be Haudenosaune People of the Longhouse.
Like Jim Ransom of the Saint Regis tribal council of Akwesasne, these sell-outs realize that these tribal and band councils ain't shit. When Saint Regis tried to fight OSHA violations by the US Department of Labor against their casino in Akwesasne, they were slapped. The US Federal court ruled the Saint Regis Tribe could not use Mohawk treaties because they were not party to them and could not claim to be the Mohawk Nation.
This kick in the groin to puppet tribal and band councils did not get much attention. The MCK noticed. Inch by inch the band council tries to call itself the Kanonhsesne, the Longhouse. They try to hide behind Kanienkehaka sovereignty while pushing foreign laws.
Even this judicial reform nonsense in Kahnawake is a diversion. The puppets want to incorporate concepts from the Kaianerehkowa into the puppet tribal court system, which they will say is uniquely "Mohawk", while the court's authority will come from Canada. The Kaianerehkowa cannot be bastardized to create individuals or a panel to sit in judgment of others. For what? So illegal judgments can be made and to enforce seizures of our property!!
Puppet band councilors claim that the Great Law is theirs too. These puppet band and tribal councils have abandoned the Kaianerehkowa as well as their birthright as Kanienkehaka. They get their instructions from Ottawa and Washington, not from our history, ancestors and guidance handed down over time immemorial. [These puppet councils also violate the Two Row Wampum which defines our independent political position according to international law]. They all know true sovereignty lies with us.
How do you regain a birthright you have surrendered? These puppets think they can repackage themselves as Kanienkehaka or earn brownie points from their masters by undermining the Kanonhsesne.
The Kaianerehkowa does not create authority or institutions. It provides a process for the people to assert inherent power. Band councils are for people who don’t want responsibility. They want someone else to do the work that they are too lazy to do themselves. Authority is abused when authority is delegated. We need to become more active in resisting incursions from these imposers and impostors. Native Pride edited by MNN.
Kahentinetha MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Or go to PayPal on MNN website. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN AKWESASNE category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now!
October 15, 2009
Indigenous Alliance Without Borders: Border Rights Campaign
Indigenous Alliance without Borders: Border Rights Campaign
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
TUCSON -- In the new Southern Border Rights Campaign, the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, is working toward national guidelines to ensure border rights for Indigenous Peoples in their homelands, from California to Texas.
Indigenous Alliance Without Borders director Jose Matus, Yaqui, said recent meetings were held with members of the Gila River Indian Nation, Cocopah Nation and Kumeyaay Nation, along with meetings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The purpose was to network and solicit support for a Southern Border Rights Campaign. The Alliance is working toward national guidelines and a manual for Southern Indigenous Border Rights at the U.S./Mexico Border region.
Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader, has traveled to Yaqui communities in Sonora, Mexico for thirty years to bring Yaqui ceremonial leaders to the United States for temporary stays for ceremonial purposes. At the US border, there were repeatedly harassments and detainments of ceremonial leaders and their families.
Indigenous Peoples living along the border in their traditional homelands, from California to Texas, continue to be harassed and intimidated by US federal agents, including the US Border Patrol, and local enforcement agencies working with Homeland Security. The situation has not improved under the Obama Administration.
While the United States piously demands that other countries assure basic human rights to their citizens, the United States remains one of the greatest offenders of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were the four countries that refused to vote in favor of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The stated rights include the right to prior and informed consent and the right to traditional territories.
The Alliance said, "The militarization of the southern US border with Mexico threatens the survival of Indigenous Peoples living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico borderline. Our survival as Peoples depends largely on our ability to practice our ancient Indigenous languages, spiritual beliefs, culture and ceremonies in privacy and community without interference. This is not merely a cultural and spiritual concern; it is a matter of human right that exists in the U.S. legal statues, U.S. Constitution and International Law."
Matus said the following statement by the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders was completed in cooperation with the International Indian Treaty Council:
"Southern Border Crossing for Indigenous Peoples And the Lack of U.S.-Mexico Border Rights & Justice
By Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders
The United States is quiet about the U.S. vote of ‘NO' to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples"
‘We did not Cross the Border, The Border Crossed Us'
The militarization of the southern US border with Mexico threatens the survival of indigenous peoples living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico borderline. Our survival as Peoples depends largely on our ability to practice our ancient Indigenous languages, spiritual beliefs, culture and ceremonies in privacy and community without interference. This is not merely a cultural and spiritual concern; it is a matter of human right that exists in the U.S. legal statues, U.S. Constitution and International Law.
It is well known that the US was one of four countries voting against the recently adopted United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is dishonest for a government that lauds itself throughout the world as a Nation of Laws and protector of Human Rights to vote against the basic rights of Indigenous Peoples in its own country as well as the rights of hundreds of millions of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world.
To restore American credibility and make progress on these issues the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras will advance a vision of responsible local, regional and international engagement that emphasizes human rights, solidarity and cooperation in an interdependent world, realizing that progress on compelling southern border problems will require the active support of friends, allies, and other major stakeholders in the local, regional and international community.
With that purpose, the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras is spearheading the first ever Southern border transnational collaboration of Indigenous Peoples to address the rights of mobility and passage, militarization of the southern border and seek national policy on Southern Indigenous Peoples' border rights, justice and recognition for the cultural and religious rights of Indigenous Peoples, and their traditional ceremonial leaders.
Our goal is to create a strategic collaboration along the US-Mexico border among Indigenous Nations/communities and their organizations, allies and partners. We also propose future collaboration, mutual support and solidarity with northern border tribes including the Dakota-Nakota 7 Council Fires of South Dakota, who engaged in similar issues along the US-Canada border. Our aim is to unite Indigenous communities across borders in bringing key Indigenous Rights issues to the U.S. Government and 00international arena, in particular to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of State and the United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples.
As Indigenous Peoples, we must come together as one organized voice - we must speak for ourselves. Therefore, the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras asks for the support of all Indigenous Peoples, friends, community allies and partners to stand in support of the fundamental sovereign principles of our traditional Indigenous cultural beliefs. Our social justice journey is to establish Indigenous human/civil rights, cultural survival and protection of our Indigenous languages, and the protection of mother earth and sacred sites at the southern border.
Networking and Coalition Building to promote Indigenous Southern Border Rights & Justice
Solutions may only be possible with consistent political pressure, an organized Indigenous community and the support of human rights organizations locally, nationally and internationally. Assistance and support will also be required from federally recognized border tribes who would also benefit from the restoration of mobility for their members on the south side of the border fence.
The best strategy for defending Indigenous rights, the rights of indigenous people's mobility and passage of the U.S.-Mexico southern border must involve a combination of factors and strategies, including mobilizations of Indigenous communities and tribal councils, creating political pressure, the use of domestic courts and international human rights mechanisms.
Approaches through U.S. Domestic Law and Policy
Southern Indigenous Peoples can seek remedies to secure border crossing rights for their Mexican Indigenous relatives through:
· Federal Indian law and legislation, both at the State and Federal level;
· Internationally-established human right to maintain their cultures and cultural connections across international boundary which may be secured by seeking the proper interpretation of the Native American Languages Act of 1996, and the American Indian Religious Act of 1978 as amended in 1996;
· Seeking legislative changes to ensure that all Mexican Indigenous Peoples are allowed access to the United States equal to that of Canadian Indigenous Peoples and the Jay Treaty;
· Extending the program used for one southern border tribe, the Kickapoo, by issuing American Indian cards (Form I-872) to all southern border tribes and creating new guidelines under which a tribal membership/tribal affiliation card from southern border tribe would be sufficient for entry for Mexican members of that tribe;
Strategies for gaining Southern Indigenous Border Rights
· Generate pressure on the US Government to accept the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
· Pursue remedies for violation of their internationally-recognized human rights through two major international human rights systems, the United Nation (UN) and of the Organization of American States (OSA);
· Seek solidarity and support from other allies, friends and partners;
· Reinforce our efforts by conducting trainings, conferences, and disseminating information about our rights.
Approaches through International Law
Communicate our concerns to UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, and the newly created mandate, the Independent Expert on the Right to Culture;
File Shadow Reports with appropriate Treaty Monitoring Bodies under UN Human Rights Treaties to which the US is a State Party, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD);
Consider using the CERD Committee's Urgent Action/Early Warning procedure in urgent cases;
Attend the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as several of its agenda items for 2010 are appropriate for the raising of these trans-border issues; Meet and network with other Indigenous Peoples from North America concerned with trans-border issues."
Contact Jose Matus:
Brenda Norrell
Ward Churchill Benefit for O'odham Border Resistance
TUCSON -- Activist Ward Churchill will speak at a benefit for the traditional O'odham resisting oppression and abuse by US Border Patrol agents and protesting the construction of the US/Mexico border wall in their traditional homeland.
Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham VOICE against the Wall, said funds raised at the benefit will support the struggles of the O'odham living on both sides of the border, on O'odham lands in southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.
Rivas points out that the US border wall construction has resulted in the unearthing of O'odham ancestors, in violation of spiritual laws and federal laws. The wall is now a barrier to annual sacred pilgrimages of the O'odham.
"The wall has destroyed the sacred resting places of our ancestors and has closed our ceremonial routes," Rivas said.
Since Homeland Security has coopted the Tohono O'odham Nation government in the United States, Tohono O'odham police are working with the US Border Patrol agents and abuse O'odham on a daily basis. The region has been militarized by federal agents and basic human rights are denied.
"The O'odham are considered illegal undocumented persons in our own lands. The policies of the wall have criminalized O'odham. We are considered suspects in our own lands, interrogated and harassed," Rivas said.
Rivas has been held at gunpoint, handcuffed and repeatedly followed and harassed by US Border Patrol agents and Tohono O'odham police. Rivas' family lives on both sides of the US/Mexico border in the traditional O'odham homeland.
"O'odham VOICE is our resistance to continue our way of life, continue to maintain our Him'dag and continue to cross this illegal International Border across our lands," Rivas said.
Traditional O'odham oppose the construction of the border wall in their homeland. They are struggling to halt the abuse of O'odham and migrants by police and the various federal immigration agents that swarm their land.
Many migrants dying in the Sonoran Desert are Indigenous Peoples, Mayans and other Indigenous Peoples, from southern Mexico and Central America. Traditional O'odham upholding the Him'dag, the sacred way of life, oppose the oppression and militarization leading to the deaths of Indigenous Peoples on their lands.
Rivas said the O'odham VOICE Against the Wall, organized in 2003, advocates for the traditional O'odham leaders and elders of the O'odham communities in the southern territory of the United States and northern territory of Mexico.
Churchill will speak at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 E. 22nd St., on November 13, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Churchill's talk is part of the "Apartheid in America: Surviving Occupation in O'odham Lands" gathering, which features a concert by Resistant Culture, a punk rock/metal band from Southern California.
"The event is dedicated to raising awareness of the connections between repressive border policies at home and abroad," Rivas said.
Announcing the event, Rivas said, "Ward Churchill is a prolific American Indian writer, a member of the Rainbow Coalition Council of Elders, and on the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. In addition to his numerous works on Indigenous history, he has written extensively on U.S. foreign policy and the repression of political dissent. Five of his more than 20 books have received human rights writing awards.
"Former Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department, until July 2007 Ward Churchill was a tenured full Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado/Boulder, where he received numerous awards for his teaching and service. In April 2009 a jury unanimously found that he had been fired by CU in retaliation for his observations on 9/11 and in violation of the First Amendment. Professor Churchill is currently litigating to have that verdict upheld."
Rivas said Resistant Culture's music is best described as tribal grind core -- weaving the indigenous flute, rattle, tribal drum, and chant into a backdrop of extreme punk and metal. The concert will take place at Dry River, 740 N. Main (University and Main), November 13, at 10:00 p.m.
Supporting the O'odham struggle and in opposition to censorship and rigid conformity, the events will be broadcast live at www.livestream.com/earthcycles
Rivas said sponsors of the event include the Dry River Radical Resource Center, Earth First! Journal, and Voices Against the Wall.
"The event is open to the public. Donations of $10 to $20 are requested, but no one will be turned away. A delicious vegetarian meal will be served at 6:30 p.m.," she said.