Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 30, 2011

Censored: Abuse of Indian elders, abuse of the land


NCAI president 'Fat Taker,' for focus on rape of Mother Earth

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

Photo Brenda Norrell/southern border
There was more news censored in Indian country during the month of January 2011, than any other period in recent history. The lack of real reporting reflects both the sharp decline of reporters in American Indian communities and the increased corporate control of the media.

The abuse of Chief Red Cloud and elderly Lakota women at a secret meeting on the Oglala Tribal Council in South Dakota is the top news story at Censored News. Among the most censored topics in the news this week is the reaction to the address of National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel.

Keel’s State of the Indian Nations address earned him the title “Fat Taker,” from Lakotas, for his focus on the Rape of Mother Earth, exploiting the land and resources for profits, without regard to the health of the people or resources such as clean water for future generations.

Debra White Plume, Lakota on Pine Ridge Indian land in South Dakota, said, "Some 'Indians' are Fat Takers in disguise, think nothing about raping Mother Earth, Ina Maka, Unci Maka -- so long as they get the 'best price.'"

The Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council’s passed two resolutions that were censored by most Native American media. The Black Hills Treaty Council demanded the release of Leonard Peltier. A separate resolution rejected the limited and conditional support by the United States of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“In the first paragraph of the ‘support’ statement they make it is clear that the Declaration is in no way a legal document, nor are they bound by it,” the Black Hills Treaty Council said, exposing a fact ignored by most media.

The true war at the US Mexico border, fueled by US corporate profiteering and the xenophobia engineered by politicians and the media, was exposed in the censorship of the trial of the murder of a nine-year-old girl in Arizona.

Brisenia Flores was murdered by Shawna Forde, a female member of the racist anti-migrant hate group the Minutemen, and two other assailants, according to Brisenia's mother who survived gunshot wounds. The trial of Forde is now underway in Tucson. Brisenia's father was murdered during the home invasion south of Tucson in Arivaca near the border.

The US media refuses to expose the real war at the border and the underlying climate of hate toward people of color. The media refuses to report on the danger posed by racist hate groups, including the Minutemen and white separatist groups at the border.

In this mine field of hate, racism and white supremacy, the Minutemen have operated with impunity at the Arizona border. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, the Arizona State Legislature and Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio promote violence and racial hatred. With racist legislation and excessive police force, this trio also provides the private prison industry with profits from incarcerating people of color.

Arizona is a staging area for white supremacy rule in other states.

The assaults and murders at the southern and northern borders are not limited to white separatist militia, but the violence is also perpetrated by US and Canadian border guards and police, especially for American Indians living on the border, including the O‘odham in the south and the Mohawks in the north.

Kahentinetha Horn, 71, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, was recently served with charges after suffering a heart attack from a stress hold applied by Canadian Border Guards at the Akwesasne/Cornwall border in 2008. With no funds to defend herself in court, she pleaded guilty in January to obstruction and the assault charge was dropped. The obstruction charge was then discharged.

Navajos protested outside the uranium-funded inauguration of newly elected Navajo leaders in Window Rock, Ariz. The community of Church Rock, N.M., the site of the deadliest uranium tailing spill in history, is now targeted by Uranium Resources, Inc., for new uranium mining that could poison the water supply of Navajos. The inauguration committee of President Ben Shelly, Vice President Rex Jim and new council delegates, accepted $10,000 from URI. The corporate-friendly Associated Press did not cover the protest.

Navajo filmmaker Arlene Bowman, who now makes her home in Vancouver, BC, responded to the “Mississippi Burning,” style racist attack by Virginia State Police on Leadhorse Choctaw and an Indigenous youth film crew from Akwesasne. The voices of yelling racist Virginia police were recorded.

In her article, Bowman points out how film and video can document the unjust racist attacks of police in the US. Bowman lived with this racism targeting Indians during her years in Los Angeles, where she received a master’s degree in filmmaking. In January, Leadhorse Choctaw served 10 days in jail for obstruction, and then joined the Akwesasne crew and carried blankets and donations to Lakotas at Pine Ridge.

In January, a law firm apologized for one of its attorneys insulting a Yaqui prayer during the memorial for shooting victims in Tucson. “Ugly” was the word that columnist and attorney Paul Mirengoff used to describe the Yaqui prayer in Mirengoff's Power Line blog. Mirengoff is a partner in Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, with numerous American Indian clients across the US.

In this week’s top censored news story in Indian country, the Strong Heart Warrior Society said Lakota elders were assaulted and threatened with a gun by Tribal Councilwoman Deborah Rooks-Cook, from the Oglala District. The attack occurred outside a secret meeting of the Oglala Tribal Council, an entity manufactured by the US government.

“Respected Lakota Elders, including Chief Oliver Red Cloud, 89-year-old Marie Randall, Loraine White Face, 69, and 1973 Wounded Knee participant Cecilia Martin, were visiting the tribal offices to request a new building for the elderly in the Porcupine community of Pine Ridge,” the Strong Heart Warrior Society said.

The elders were cursed and hit by the tribal councilwoman, who pulled a gun on them. The police refused to arrest Rooks-Cook.

Carter Camp, Ponca and Wounded Knee warrior responded. “These Elders have been in the struggle for as long as I can remember. They deserve our love and respect. Chief Red Cloud is a powerful voice and the Council better listen to him and his people."

In global Indigenous news, Wikileaks continued to expose the US machinations in the global war on Indigenous Peoples for their resources, as the US media continued to fail.

The US Ambassador in Iceland said Iceland’s support of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was an “impediment” to US/Iceland relations at the UN.

In Chile, the US Embassy tracked Mapuche activists and questioned whether the Mapuche struggle encouraged Easter Islanders. The cables also exposed that the US trains police in Chile. Chilean police attacked Easter Islanders, Rapa Nui, on their ancestral lands in December, wounding innocent women and children. In another cable, Peru expresses concern over US arms sales to Chile.

The US Ambassador in Guatemala insulted Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu. The US diplomat claimed the president of Guatemala labeled Manchu a “fabrication,” and blamed her for a death, resulting from the struggle to defend the land. Menchu said the president is a liar during a radio broadcast.

Finally, the US Ambassador in Mexico attempted to state that the Zetas were not trained by the United States as Special Forces. However, the US Ambassador admits that the US can not deny the claim that the US trained Zetas, due to the lack of “paper,” (on black ops) and the fact that one of the Zetas trained by army special forces at Fort Bragg, N.C., was “forcibly” recruited into a life of crime with the Zetas.

The Zetas, the most notorious murderers and torturers in the drug war in Mexico, were originally trained as Special Forces and deserted. The Zetas training was also provided by notorious Guatemalan Kaibiles, who also received training from US Special Forces.

As Indigenous Peoples rise up to fight oppression and the theft of their lands for mining and destruction around the world, the National Congress of American Indians in the US failed the people as its president rallied with the "Fat Takers," and the secrecy and assault at the Oglala Tribal Council exposed the US manufactured tribal councils.
Read more articles at Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

This month's top news stories at Censored News:
Strong Heart Warrior Society: Lakota elders abused at secret council session
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/strong-heart-warrior-society-lakota.html
Mohawk Kahentinetha Horn: Resistance
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/mohawk-kahentinetha-horn-resistance.html
Akwesasne film crew in court after attack by racist Virginia State Police
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/akwesasne-film-crew-in-court-after.html
Navajos protest uranium-funded inauguration
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/censored-navajos-protest-uranium-funded.html
Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council rejects US limited support of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/black-hills-treaty-council-rejects-us.html
Law firm apologizes for insulting Yaqui prayer
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/law-firm-apologizes-for-insulting-yaqui.html
Navajo filmmaker Arlene Bowman: Virginia police and Indigenous men in a van
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/01/arlene-bowman-virginia-police-and.html

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