Apartheid in America

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photo: Splitting the Sky, Mohawk

TUCSON -- Racism in America did not disappear when Barack Obama became president. Native American homelands are still targeted by corporations and some tribal governments, targeting Native homelands for coal mining, power plants, oil drilling and toxic dumps.

The Four Corners region, homelands of the Navajo, Ute and Apache, and Lakota lands in South Dakota, were selected by the United States as National Sacrifice Zones, where the US poisoned the people, land, water and air, leaving behind strewn radioactive waste, poisoned rivers, cancer alleys and trails of deaths and broken hearts.

At the border, Indigenous Peoples in their homelands are still oppressed, harassed, detained and abused by the US Border Patrol and Native American tribal governments who have been coopted by Homeland Security. Here, too, on Tohono O'odham landis a cancer alley from copper mining that released radioactive uranium into the groundwater.

There is a rising anger, heard across America in coffeehouses and small town cafes, about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. People of color, including American Indians, Hispanics and Afro-Americans, are still considered "expendables" and targeted in TV commercials, and by recruiters, to enlist and die.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are based on the lies of politicians. These are wars where mercenaries killed without consequence. Torture and secret renditions were carried out in violation of the Geneva Conventions, crimes which Obama must aid in holding Bush and Cheney accountable for.

Splitting the Sky, Mohawk, attempted a citizens arrest of war criminal George Bush in Canada.

Still, in America as American Indians and persons of conscience prepare for a month of actions in November, there is a "shhhh" hush in the US over the continued CIA kidnappings, secret renditions and US-sponsored torture. People of color continue to be recruited and sent to die in a war that, in the end, will only profit US war profiteers and the politicians they bankroll.

Listen to Martin Luther King, when he spoke out against the Vietnam War. Listen to Buffy Sainte Marie tell how she was censored and driven out of the music industry in the US because of her songs during the Vietnam War.

What is happening now is not new, it is what happens when all good men and women become complacent.

The world is watching and it does not like what it sees.

November events, see details at Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Thurs. Nov. 12: Protest in Gallup, N.M., to halt new uranium mining in Navajo homelands

Nov. 13 (Friday) Tucson: O'odham Solidarity Event 'Apartheid in America' with Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living on the border, and Ward Churchill. Concert by Resistant Culture. (Live broadcast www.livestream.com/earthcycles )

Nov. 13 -- 15: Santa Barbara AIM: Symposium on Race and Racism, keynote speaker John Trudell

Nov. 14 --15: Tucson: Southwest Weekend to End Torture, with protest at Fort Huachuca to halt US torture training

Nov. 11 -- 23: UK/Ireland: Indigenous Environmental Network: United Kingdom Tar Sands Tour: Bloody oil: the struggle against the Tar Sands

Nov. 23 --27: San Francisco/Alcatraz: AIM West: West Coast Third Annual Conference, speakers and more (Live broadcast: http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles )

Race and Racism: John Trudell speaks in Santa Barbara

SYMPOSIUM ON RACE AND RACISM @ UCSB

INDIGENOUS SYMPOSIUM ON RACE AND RACISM at University California Santa Barbara
This WEEKEND!
November 13th-15th, 2009

Key Note Address by

John Trudell, Lakota Activist, Writer and Musician

Following recent events surrounding the Carpinteria High School mascot vote, the UCSB Nexus Newspaper, the lack of an Indigenous/Native American Indian Studies department at UCSB and low enrollment, students are organizing this Symposium to address race and racism affecting local Indigenous communities, especially in the areas of education.

Sessions will be on racism regarding mascots, sacred sites, and education, including religious and identity persecution effecting urban and rural communities. The Symposiums goal is to bridge conversation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous, academic and traditional knowledge, and tribal nations and organizations, in addressing historic and contemporary issues and solutions facing our nations today.

Event is Free, donations of $5.00 per meal is requested.

For more information and registration, please contact: Monique Sonoquie at sonoquie@hotmail.com or (805) 403-6744


Tentative Schedule-
November 13th and 14th, 2009

FRIDAY Student Resource Center Building
4:00-4:50 Sessions 1 American Indian Movement Santa Barbara Community Activism-Mascot/Holidaze CR1
5:00-5:50 Sessions 2 Manolo Callahan (Chicano/UCSB ) Decolonial Methodologies and Epistemologies CR1
6:00-6:50 Dinner
7:00-7:50 Sessions 4 Deana Dartt-Newton (Chumash, U of W) Museum and Mission Representation MPR
8:00-9:00 Session 5 Film Gold Greed and Genocide, Monique Sonoquie (Chumash) Environmental Racism MPR

SATURDAY Student Resource Center Building
9:00 -9:30 Registration Continental Breakfast SRC
9:30-10:25 Session 6 Keshan Lara (Yurok, ASU ), The Human Way MPR
10:30-11:25 Session 7 Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Seminole/Muskogee/Dine' Nations), Images and Mascots MPR
11:30-12:25 Keynote John Trudell (Lakota) Indigenous Race and Racism MPR
12:30-1:25 Lunch Salads, Beans and Sandwiches SRC
1:30-2:25 Session 8 Stan Rodriguez (Kumiai Community College) Borders Crossing Us, Cut in Half MPR
2:30-3:25 Session 9 Liz Garcia (Chumash/Native Youth Resource Center) AlterNative Education MPR
3:30-4:25 Session 10 Laura Wass (Mt. Maidu/Many Lightings/AIM) Indigenous Academia MPR
4:30-5:25 Session 11 FuiFuiLupe Niumeitoulu (UCB, Tongan) Building Indigenous Sisterhood SRC
5:30-6:25 Dinner
6:30-8:30 Session 12 Film In the Light of Reverence/ Caleen Sisk Franco (Winnemem Wintu) Spiritual Racism MPR

Schedule subject to change.
Monique Sonoquie at sonoquie@hotmail.com or (805) 403-6744

Bloody Oil: Indigenous Tar Sands Tour UK/Ireland

United Kingdom Tar Sands Tour: November 11-23
Bloody oil: the struggle against the Tar Sands

By Indigenous Environmental Network

Three indigenous women from Canada are visiting the United Kingdom and Ireland conducting a 10-day tour to raise awareness about the Alberta Tar Sands. Dubbed 'the most destructive project on earth', the Tar Sands are devastating indigenous communities and driving global climate change. British companies such as BP, Shell and the Royal Bank of Scotland are heavily involved. The inspirational young women are working in partnership with UK groups, including Tar sands in focus, to internationalize their campaign supporting Indigenous Peoples Rights and to halt one of the world’s fastest growing causes of climate crisis.
Featuring, from the Indigenous Environmental Network in Canada:
Heather Milton-Lightening, from the Pasqua First Nation in Saskatchewan, has been organizing with the Native Youth Movement since 1995. She is now the Alberta based Tar sands Campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a Dene woman belonging to the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta, is the Freedom from Oil Campaigner for the Rainforest Action Network.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta. She has been working as an advocate for Indigenous rights for the past 9 years, and currently works for Greenpeace Canada
Bloody Oil: http://www.ienearth.org/docs/tar_sands_and_BP_briefing.pdf
Tar Sands UK / Ireland Speaker Tour Itinerary
13th November – 7-9pm Bristol Arnolfini, C words Festival
3-5pm Bristol Arnolfini, Trapese Collective:Workshop on grassroots activist education and direct action
14-15th – Rossport Solidarity Camp (Ireland)
16th – 7-9pm Science Oxford, ‘Bloody oil’: Canada’s Tar Sands, indigenous rights and climate change’
17th –10am-12pm London: Parliamentary event
2.30pm – RBS action with People & Planet
7-9pm – Speaker meeting, George Pub, 373 Commercial Road, Stepney, London, E1 0LA
18th – 7pm, Climate Justice Now! speaker tour, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
19th – 7pm, Y Plas, Machynlleth, Wales, organised by Centre for Alternative Technology
21-22 Shared Planet conference, Manchester
22nd – 6pm, Speaker meeting and screening of H2Oil, Dancehouse Theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester, organised by Ethical Consumer
Watch the Oxford event live on Monday 7.30pm UK time www.scienceoxfordlive.com/watch-us

AIM-West West Coast Conference, Nov. 23 -- 27, 2009

AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT-WEST TO HOLD ITS THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN SAN FRANCISCO, THE PUBLIC IS INVITED. EVENT WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE!
(Photo AIM-West Conference 2008/Brenda Norrell)

AIM-WEST invites you to attend its Third Annual West Coast Conference, November 23-27, 2009 in San Francisco, California. This will be an opportunity for all Indian Nations particularly those on the west coast who share common concerns, issues and challenges to come together with a positive vision for the future, and share in council with decisions and solutions, and plan for our coming generations.

The American Indian Movement-WEST, an affiliate of AIM http://www.aimovement.org/ is an inter-tribal national and international organization which seeks to promote the Right to Self-Determination for all Indigenous Nations, and efforts to re-establish our destiny in the Western Hemisphere. AIM-WEST seeks to advance the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, and calls upon the US Government to sign and ratify the document at the earliest time possible.

At this gathering we will address the honoring of Treaties, Sacred Sites, Human Rights and the Environment, Cultural and Spiritual Freedoms, Youth and Prisoner Rights, Immigration and Mineral Resource exploitation. A special session will also be held on how to organize an AIM chapter in your community, building alliances and coalitions, and the role of its membership, and supporters.

AIM-WEST extends friendship to all Indians of the Americas and invites the general public to all the following events; “Somos Un Solo Rio”/”We are one River”

Monday, November 23, 10am-5:30pm

Press Conference 10:30 am to 11 am

Opening Ceremonies with MC Bill Means and Madonna Thunder Hawk. San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St. @ Grove, Koret Auditorium. A panel of special guest speakers, and a film “El Salvador: I Want My People to Live”

Tuesday, November 24, 10am to 5:00pm Location: Bahai’i Center, 170 Valencia Street, SF (near 16th BART Station)

Pre-“Unthanksgiving” Potluck Dinner and special program, starts at 12 noon. Master of Ceremony is Mary Jean Robertson. With guest speakers, drummers and singers, and dance performances by California, El Salvador, Peru, and Traditional Azteca Teo-Kalli. Clyde Bellecourt will offer blessings and a talk on the state of the States. Musical entertainment. Everyone invited to the feast, where the Eagles invite the Condors!

Wednesday, November 25, 10am-5pm Location: Bahai’i Center, 170 Valencia Street, SF

A full day of topics led by a panel of distinguished community organizers: Sacred Sites; Immigration and Border issues; Environment and COP-15 in Copenhagen; Treaties, and Mineral Resource and Mining Extraction; Prisoner Rights and strategy campaign for Leonard Peltier’ Executive Clemency; Federally Recognized, Unrecognized and Disenrollment; Building AIM chapters and defining role of supporters, coalitions, alliances, and capacity building; Youth and International Solidarity with Liberation Movements.

Thursday, November 26, 4am-9am Location: Alcatraz Island 40 Year Anniversary of The Occupation 1969-1971

Annual Sunrise Gathering, Pier #33 Hornblower Alcatraz Tours, purchase tickets online, $14 kids under 5 free! Guests are encouraged to visit local friends and relations. The sunrise program will be broadcast from THE ROCK live on radio KPFA 94.1 starting at 6am to 9am with Miguel Molina, and Co-Anchored by Tony Gonzales of AIM-WEST with Mary Jean Robertson, DJ of KPOO radio.

Friday, November 27, “Native American Day” concert 6pm-10pm

*Sacred Sites demonstration at Glen Cove, stay alert! Call Wounded Knee for more information: 707-557-2140 707-557-2140

AIM-WEST will hold a benefit fundraiser at the Bahai’I Center, 170 Valencia Street in San Francisco! Tickets $10-20 donation, no one turned away.Doors open at 6 pm until 10 pm. Music by Bob Young Project, Local Artists, special guests and much more!! Please bring cans of food for Inter-Tribal Friendship House in Oakland.

The entire event will be broadcast and recorded by Govinda. The audio will be live at http://www.earthcycles.net/ . There will be live streaming video at http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles !

For more information please contact Tony Gonzales ( 415-577-1492 415-577-1492) email: eltonyg@earthlink.net or visit http://www.aimwest.info/

AIM FOR FREEDOM! FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!!!