Mohawk Nation News 'Gangs of Toronto'

GANGS OF TORONTO

By Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com


MNN.   MAR. 31, 2012. “Give me your tired, poor, huddled masses and immigrant entrepreneurs yearning to get rich exploiting the Indigenous people”. The original burglars that came to Great Turtle Island are inviting more burglars into our house. Where have we seen this before? 

At our expense colonial Canada is enticing more aliens to come and kill and trample the original owners of this land. They arrive with nothing but the dirt under their fingers nails. They will be given jobs, housing, family sponsorship, health care, school tuition, pensions, maybe a car or transit pass. 

We can’t even dream of this for ourselves! Our education, living standards and opportunities are getting worse by the minute. Many of us will keep living in barely furnished, windowless, door-less and barely heated houses in the frozen north. The teachers, DeBeers and other multinational workers will live nearby in mansions provided by government and corporationsthat are gouging our minerals and piping away our water and oil. They want us out of our communities into urban ghettoes.  They can’tstand the sight of us landowners, except as Calgary Stampede type tourist attractions.

Prime Minister Harper invited the Irish and others to come and squat with him.  These rootless hordes have demolished their own nest and think they can start all over again on someone else’s natural habitat.  Many are being welcomed in Toronto with open arms, where they don’t have to speak French.     

We’ve helped these incompetents before.  Where did it get us?  The Irish potato came from the Indigenous people of the Andean Mountains in South America.  The Irish were dying out.  The Spanish took it to Europe in the1500s.  From 1845 to 1851 the Irish were being starved in a fight over ideology. The poor Choctaw Indigenous people gathered $710 and sent it to help them out. 

One and a half million fled to Great Turtle Island. Half died on the floating diseased-infested rotten boats.  They escaped a man made calamity of corrupt politics, ignorance, suppression and poverty.  What else is new in Ireland?  They landed and helped themselves to our possessions.  They’reswarming over here again. Why do we have to support these have-nots from Europe or anywhere?  At least the Chinese land here already rich, for the most part. 

We are getting hit again with these drop-outs who have no allegiance to their own country, just money.  Their greed let the EU set them up for a fall.  These avaricious people should stay home and fix up their mess.  We land ownersdon’t want another load of discarded people dropped on us. 

Who is opening our door to these people? Canada and US can’t even take care of those who are already here. Taxpayers,who live off our resources, are being burdened with cutbacks, medicare, social assistance, failing infrastructure, unemployment and collapse of the economy. The rulers think there are too many people of color here. So they are bringing them in to keep power in the hands of the white people or their token nominees. They are bringing in people to fight the Indian land owners. 

We get nothing from this occupation.  The carpetbaggers have willfully stopped us from having an economy. By design, we will get even less.  We want our possessions. 
 
We remind the Irish: “It’s a long way from Tipperary. It’s a long way to go....”    And, “Indian eyes are not smiling”.  So jig your way out of here, back to your Emerald Island!  

MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com  For more news, books, to donate to maintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to www.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Categories“COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”. Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake[Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

Store: Indigenous authors – Kahnawake books – Mohawk Warriors Three – WarriorsHand Book – Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy.

Category:  World – Colonialism - Great Turtle Island – History – NewWorld Order – courts/police Economics/trade/commerce – Land/environment –art/culture. 

Tags: North American Indians – Turtle Island – Indian holocaust/genocide – NAUNorth American Union – History Canada/US – United Nations – Cointelpro -colonialism.

Exclusive photos: O'odham arrest and abuse at the border

On December 27, 2004, Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, was handcuffed, abused and told to "cooperate" when taken into custody on Tohono O'odham land, by the Tohono O'odham police working in conjunction with the US Border Patrol. The first photo of the armed border patrol clearly on Rivas' property. In the second photo, after she was arrested and in the patrol car, the border patrol is shown blocking the entrance. The third is proof of the injuries Rivas sustained as documented by UMC emergency.

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

This week Amnesty International released a new report on human rights abuses of migrants and Indigenous Peoples at the US Mexico border. After this release, Indian Country Today attempted to profiteer from an article on this report and the abuse.
However, censorship by ICT is itself responsible for the ongoing abuses by the US Border Patrol, Tohono O'odham Police and Homeland Security.
ICT is a partner in these crimes.
In December of 2004, Ofelia Rivas, O'odham was handcuffed, abused and threatened by Tohono O'odham police working in conjunction with the US Border Patrol and Homeland Security forces.
Indian Country Today censored and refused to report the abuse at the time. It was one of many articles that were censored by Indian Country Today from the border while I was a staff reporter there. The newspaper catered to the elected Tohono O'odham government which has been coopted by the US Border Patrol and Homeland Security.
When ICT refused to print an account of the abuse, the article was published by the UN OBSERVER and International Report in Jan. of 2005. Rivas is founder of O'odham VOICE against the Wall and both the Tohono O'odham elected government and ICT attempted to silence her. She spoke out against the border wall that violates the O'odham ceremonial path and exposed Boeing when it dug up the graves of O'odham ancestors on O'odham land at the border. She repeatedly documented the acts of violence against O'odham by tribal police and US Border Patrol agents.
After censoring the abuse, now Indian Country Today attempts to appear as a champion of human rights. It is violation of the ethics of journalism and a violation of human decency.

CENSORED:
Press statement

The O’odham VOICE Against the WALL
Human Rights Abuse on the Tohono O’odham Nation
December 2004

This statement is to provide a personal experience documenting the brutality and harassment by the U.S. Government on O’odham (people), and other indigenous groups along the US/Mexican Border under the auspices of Homeland Security.

The U.S. government “operation safeguard”,’ is a deliberate redirection of illegal border crossers unto O’odham territory increasing human right abuses and deaths. The over 300 illegal immigrate deaths of on O’odham territory profoundly impacts all O’odham dignity and way of life.

Throughout my lifetime, I have been working closely with my traditional elders. I grew up listening to the traditional Elders; therefore, have a responsibility to protect our traditional way of life. To advocate the traditional Elder leadership voice, we have established an organization, “The O’odham VOICE Against the WALL”.

The organization, have been able to provide the elders and youth with information on the developments along the US/Mexican Border. Furthermore, making the people aware of their rights. These rights are guaranteed in by-laws adopted by the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Provisions and Laws in United States Government and International Human Rights.

Recently, the Tohono O’odham Nation collaborated with the United States Department of Homeland Security in support of the re-enforcement of the 74-mile border. This further impacts the lives of O’odham and our traditional lands. This action was made without full disclosure to the traditional O’odham on both sides of the border. The US Environmental Impact Statement pertaining to the permanent sealing of the US/MX border is, a 350+ page document submitted to the Tohono O’odham Nation. This document was not available to traditional O’odham. Many do not understand the irreparable impacts this will create. The proposed border wall for national security will sever families and the continuation of traditional ceremonies on both sides of this boundary. The protection of our desert environment and sacred sites along this boundary remains insignificant in this decision.

This agreement made it necessary to seek public awareness and support to maintain our traditional way of life. We have received support from various indigenous organizations and International Human Rights groups, as well as the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations.

The Tohono O’odham Nation and the US Government is aware of my activities and have increased vigilance in monitoring. The following is a documentation of Human Rights abuses on the Tohono O’odham Nation by the Tohono O’odham Nations Police and Border Agencies. These incidents against the O’odham have been escalating.

Historically, the O’odham territory came under occupation and the establishment of the border in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Treaty of Le Mesilla (Gadsden Purchase) in 1853. O’odham have continued to maintain the traditional routes and communities on both sides of this border despite impacts of hostile enforcement of border policies and inhumane immigration laws.

We don’t want our elders, our mothers, our fathers and all our relatives to experience this inhumane treatment;

Monday, December 27, 2004 at 3:00 P.M.

I am a O’odham mother and grandmother.

A Tohono O'odham Nation non-O'odham police officer attacked me at my mother’s village, Ali Jegk, Gu-Vo District, Tohono O’odham Nation.

This officer brutally threw me against the car and handcuffed me and arrested me. He injured my wrist, arm and shoulder. I have severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and unable to lift my arms over my head as well as severe disfigurement on my hands.

I asked what he was arresting me for, he said that I failed to stop and show I.D.

He officially arrested me, read my rights, charging me with five charges;

q 1-Interfered with the work of the border patrol because I was taking pictures,

q 2-failure to stop,

q 3-failure to show I.D., and

q 4 and 5- 2 counts of aggressive behavior threatening an officer.

He threatened to charge me with an additional charge of, threatening a police officer, if I didn’t voluntarily climb into the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Jeep.

He held me under arrest in his vehicle for 45 minutes. While a second police officer called that he was arriving I was un-handcuffed and repeatedly asked to get out of the jeep. When the second TON police officer arrived he was told that it was “just a little misunderstanding” and there is no problem. He dismissed his question of, “what happen to your wrist”. I was then completely ignored, as if I was not there and that nothing happened, while the two policemen carried on a conversation about not having enough gasoline for the return to headquarters.

This police called me by name as he attacked and arrested me. He clearly knew who I was before he tailgated me on the community road then stopped me in my mother’s yard. He was on the telephone talking, while two border patrol vehicles blocked the yard entrance but did not approach or face to witness this action. The intimidation tactics directed at me while under arrest was clear that he used whatever force necessary to hold me without cause to intimidate and threaten, to scare me. I was released without a single document, a traffic citation or a report to prove that this happened.

My friend and her two children (ages 6 and 8) witnessed the whole brutality.

This action is deliberate and makes a clear statement to the entire community, already afraid to report abuses. The Tohono O’odham Nation’s police force is an armed arm of the Homeland Security agents. This can happen to anyone that in anyway questions or document the inhumane actions of the border patrols and the tribal police and any of it's other agents. I have documented this abuse at the Derechos Humanos Office in Tucson.

Ofelia Rivas, The O’odham VOICE Against the WALL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter for 30 years, covering Indian country. She was a reporter for Navajo Times, and stringer for AP and USA Today, during the 18 years she lived on the Navajo Nation. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored, then terminated in 2006 after ICT editors demanded that she halt writing about "grassroots Indian people and the genocide of American Indians." She created Censored News as a result.

Lakota Hunger Strike joins Bella Bella March 31, 2012

Media responsible for human rights abuses at the border

Indian Country Today's censorship is a reason for human rights abuses at the US Mexico border

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

Don't be fooled by Indian Country Today's article about Amnesty International's report on human rights violations at the southern border.
ICT is a reason that the human rights abuses continue. ICT published a photo of Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, with an article. But when Ofelia was handcuffed and abused by the Tohono O'odham police, ICT refused to print it. The Tohono O'odham Police Department is working in conjunction with the US Border Patrol and Homeland Security forces.
Don't fall for ICT's scam of rewriting written text documents. There have been no ICT reporters at the border in many years.
When O'odham have been abused, ICT repeatedly caved into the elected Tohono O'odham tribal government in Sells, Arizona, who demanded that the truth be censored. This happened while I was a staff reporter at ICT, and was one of the many issues that was censored. This censorship, and allowing the tribal government to dictate what is printed, is as much a part of the ongoing human rights violations at the border as any other mechanism.
Ofelia was handcuffed, roughed up and threatened by a Tohono O'odham police officer on tribal land. The officer, a non-Indian, told her when she was handcuffed in a remote area for no reason, that she had better learn to "cooperate" with them.
After ICT refused to print the article, the UN Observer and International Report at the Hague published it in Jan. 2005.
ICT's continual refusal to publish the truth from the border region, and at the same time covering up the crimes of the tribal government and the US Border Patrol, are major reasons the abuses continue.
Of course ICT comes out with an article when it is safe, when the information is in an Amnesty International report. This involves no risk. And rewriting a text document involves almost no effort. Publishing Ofelia's photo, after censoring the abuse of her, is an insult and ethics violation.
The other online media that post ICT links and articles, and mimic ICT's collapsed journalism that profiteers from the abuse of victims when it is safe, are equally to blame for the human rights abuses.
Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today because of this censorship and the manipulation of facts resulting in continuing human rights abuses at the border and throughout Indian country.
Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter for 30 years, covering Indian country. She was a reporter for Navajo Times, and stringer for AP and USA Today, during the 18 years she lived on the Navajo Nation. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored, then terminated in 2006 after ICT editors demanded that she halt writing about "grassroots Indian people and the genocide of American Indians." She created Censored News as a result.

Read Amnesty's new border report: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/amnesty-international-human-rights.html

CENSORED:
Press statement

The O’odham VOICE Against the WALL

Human Rights Abuse on the Tohono O’odham Nation
December 2004

This statement is to provide a personal experience documenting the brutality and harassment by the U.S. Government on O’odham (people), and other indigenous groups along the US/Mexican Border under the auspices of Homeland Security.

The U.S. government “operation safeguard”,’ is a deliberate redirection of illegal border crossers unto O’odham territory increasing human right abuses and deaths. The over 300 illegal immigrate deaths of on O’odham territory profoundly impacts all O’odham dignity and way of life.

Throughout my lifetime, I have been working closely with my traditional elders. I grew up listening to the traditional Elders; therefore, have a responsibility to protect our traditional way of life.  To advocate the traditional Elder leadership voice, we have established an organization, “The O’odham VOICE Against the WALL”.

The organization, have been able to provide the elders and youth with information on the developments along the US/Mexican Border. Furthermore, making the people aware of their rights. These rights are guaranteed in by-laws adopted by the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Provisions and Laws in United States Government and International Human Rights.

Recently, the Tohono O’odham Nation collaborated with the United States Department of Homeland Security in support of the re-enforcement of the 74-mile border. This further impacts the lives of O’odham and our traditional lands. This action was made without full disclosure to the traditional O’odham on both sides of the border.  The US Environmental Impact Statement pertaining to the permanent sealing of the US/MX border is, a 350+ page document submitted to the Tohono O’odham Nation. This document was not available to traditional O’odham. Many do not understand the irreparable impacts this will create. The proposed border wall for national security will sever families and the continuation of traditional ceremonies on both sides of this boundary. The protection of our desert environment and sacred sites along this boundary remains insignificant in this decision.

This agreement made it necessary to seek public awareness and support to maintain our traditional way of life.  We have received support from various indigenous organizations and International Human Rights groups, as well as the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations. 

The Tohono O’odham Nation and the US Government is aware of my activities and have increased vigilance in monitoring. The following is a documentation of Human Rights abuses on the Tohono O’odham Nation by the Tohono O’odham Nations Police and Border Agencies. These incidents against the O’odham have been escalating.

Historically, the O’odham territory came under occupation and the establishment of the border in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Treaty of Le Mesilla (Gadsden Purchase) in 1853. O’odham have continued to maintain the traditional routes and communities on both sides of this border despite impacts of hostile enforcement of border policies and inhumane immigration laws.

We don’t want our elders, our mothers, our fathers and all our relatives to experience this inhumane treatment;

Monday, December 27, 2004 at 3:00 P.M.

I am a O’odham mother and grandmother.

A Tohono O'odham Nation non-O'odham police officer attacked me at my mother’s village, Ali Jegk, Gu-Vo District, Tohono O’odham Nation.

This officer brutally threw me against the car and handcuffed me and arrested me. He injured my wrist, arm and shoulder. I have severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and unable to lift my arms over my head as well as severe disfigurement on my hands.

I asked what he was arresting me for, he said that I failed to stop and show I.D.

He officially arrested me, read my rights, charging me with five charges;

q       1-Interfered with the work of the border patrol because I was taking pictures,

q       2-failure to stop,

q       3-failure to show I.D., and 

q       4 and 5- 2 counts of aggressive behavior threatening an officer.

He threatened to charge me with an additional charge of, threatening a police officer, if I didn’t voluntarily climb into the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Jeep.

He held me under arrest in his vehicle for 45 minutes. While a second police officer called that he was arriving I was un-handcuffed and repeatedly asked to get out of the jeep. When the second TON police officer arrived he was told that it was “just a little misunderstanding” and there is no problem. He dismissed his question of, “what happen to your wrist”.  I was then completely ignored, as if I was not there and that nothing happened, while the two policemen carried on a conversation about not having enough gasoline for the return to headquarters.

This police called me by name as he attacked and arrested me. He clearly knew who I was before he tailgated me on the community road then stopped me in my mother’s yard. He was on the telephone talking, while two border patrol vehicles blocked the yard entrance but did not approach or face to witness this action. The intimidation tactics directed at me while under arrest was clear that he used whatever force necessary to hold me without cause to intimidate and threaten, to scare me. I was released without a single document, a traffic citation or a report to prove that this happened.

My friend and her two children (ages 6 and 8) witnessed the whole brutality.

This action is deliberate and makes a clear statement to the entire community, already afraid to report abuses. The Tohono O’odham Nation’s police force is an armed arm of the Homeland Security agents. This can happen to anyone that in anyway questions or document the inhumane actions of the border patrols and the tribal police and any of it's other agents. I have documented this abuse at the Derechos Humanos Office in Tucson.

Ofelia Rivas, The O’odham VOICE Against the WALL

Grassroots Indigenous, the media and the university

Grassroots, the media and the university

By Brenda Norrell, publisher
Censored News

TUCSON -- Ofelia Rivas, founder of O'odham VOICE against the Wall, spoke at the Native Nations Water Rights Symposium, describing how she has boycotted the University of Arizona in Tucson for a decade, but came to the symposium to honor Debra White Plume, Lakota.

At Censored News, read what Rivas has to say about the grassroots reality of living on the border on O'odham land, and what this means. Censored News has authentic original coverage.

Rivas' testimony also appears in the Amnesty International border report released Wednesday.
Along with the university, the armchair news reporters, who receive a paycheck, yet never actually go out on a news story, are profiteers as well.
They use the stories of victims, but neither them nor their media outlets will spend a dime to actually go out and talk with the Indigenous people on the border.
Those reporters copy and paste, and plagiarize, and do their best to fool you, the reader, into believing that they were actually out there talking with the people. It is a scam. There's one reporter at Indian Country Today, who pretended to be covering the Southwest, who I haven't seen actually out on a news story in the past 30 years.
As Rivas describes, the University of Arizona in Tucson has been a leader in abuse of Indigenous Peoples.
This abuse includes being the leader in desecrating sacred Mount Graham with telescopes, designing classes that target people of color on the border, maintaining a worldwide cyber spy program on activists, and developing spyware and drones to violate the rights of O'odham and other Indigenous Peoples. The university is working in conjunction with Homeland Security and the US Border Patrol to target people of color and continue the longstanding genocide of Indigenous Peoples.
The news media, organizations and universities, promote inaction by distracting with non-news and rhetoric that leads nowhere; diluting the truth in an attempt to take away its power; censoring the grassroots voices; and with the promotion of frauds in positions of authority.
The drone creation at the University of Arizona was part of Advanced Ceramics, the company that was initially accepted, then rejected by the Pascua Yaqui. After being rejected by the Yaqui, the Tohono O'odham's San Xavier District's Development Authority became partners in Advanced Ceramics. A portion of the company was later sold to BAE.
Although initially Advanced Ceramics Research was wrapped in secrecy, it is now known that it was creating drones at the site, on Tohono O'odham land near the Tucson International Airport.
Traditional Tohono O'odham oppose the use of drones and targeted assassinations, stating it is a violation of the O'odham sacred way of life, the himdag.

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{New York, NY} – First Voices Indigenous Radio (FVIR) in partnership with First Peoples Worldwide (FPW), a globally renowned Indigenous grant making organization, will be broadcasting a weekly 7-minute news feature SKYWAVES: Indigenous News Worldwide – nationally and internationally. Beginning Thursday March 22, 2012 and for syndication wherever possible in radio broadcast media including the 150 Pacifica Affliates.
Based in the world's communication capital of NYC, SKYWAVES will offer an important, unique service: to bridge the experiences and concerns of Native peoples in the US and North America with Indigenous peoples worldwide for the purpose of creating a deeper grassroots community.
First Voices Indigenous Radio is produced and, operates from legendary progressive radio station WBAI NY- Pacifica, is the only radio channel in tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that provides media access among all Indigenous communities and Peoples - on Indigenous issues and concerns.
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Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz: July 15 -- Dec. 22, 2012

Top 3 photos B Norrell
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archive photo.

Longest Walk 4: Return to Alcatraz

July 15, 2012 -- December 22, 2012

Press statement

Posted at Censored News

The Longest Walk 4: Return to Alcatraz is being initiated by those on the original, The Longest Walk in 1978. It will begin on July 15th, 2012 in Washington D.C. and travel to Alcatraz on December 22, 2012. The purpose of this Walk will be to reaffirm the heart of Traditional Tribal Sovereignty rooted in Ceremony and land based spiritual relationships. We call on all Indigenous Peoples to come and support this Walk.

We have gone to Washington D.C. many times to seek justice, the protection of treaty rights, and the continuing existence of our Peoples and Ways of Life. They have had their opportunity. The time has come to reclaim for ourselves the prayers that have gone east and bring them back full circle to Alcatraz, the symbol of the modern assertion of what has been called the Red Power Movement. We Walk to educate our own Peoples on what Tribal Sovereignty means from an Indigenous Peoples way of life. We Walk to affirm to the world that we still continue as free and sovereign Peoples as we define it. We Walk to remind those of our Peoples engaged in dealing with the nation-states that tribal sovereignty is not defined by non-Indigenous laws, rules and regulations; nor by economic development, good governance, and corporate structures. These elements may be pragmatic, but they do not define us. We Walk with the spirits of our ancestors for the present and for the future generations so that we as Peoples do not forget what makes us Indigenous.

We also Walk to remind all peoples that Leonard Peltier and his continuing incarceration is symbolic of the continuing incarceration of all Indigenous Peoples in the policies and political structures of the colonial nation-states. The time has come for the release of Leonard Peltier based on principles of reconciliation. It seems strange and one sided that nation-states seek forgiveness for horrendous crimes against our Peoples such as massacres, land confiscations, the theft of our children to abusive boarding schools and such, yet can’t find a way to release a person who has served over 30 years in prison, for what happened during a time of conflict. Leonard Peltier should be freed on this principle of reconciliation regardless of what one may think in terms of justice, innocence or guilt.

As this Walk is about the spiritual foundations of our sovereignty as talked about in The Longest Walk Manifesto of 1978, we also ask for elders and spiritual leaders to come and lend support and advice where possible. To this end we are also going to have a Spiritual Gathering at Cahokia Mounds in September, 2012.

Visit The Longest Walk 4 on Facebook

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Grassy Narrows marks 50 years of mercury poison

March 28, 2012

Grassy Narrows marks 50 years of mercury poison

Grassy Narrows calls on ON to fund permanent community run environmental monitoring station; 2010 study shows mercury in fish still often above safe level
Press statement
Posted at Censored News
GRASSY NARROWS --  Fifty years ago this month, in March 1962 Dryden Chemicals began dumping an estimated 10 metric tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River, contaminating the fish which formed the subsistence and economy of three Indigenous communities Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows), Wabaseemoong (White Dog), and some members of Wabauskang who lived at Quibell.  Half a century later residents of Grassy Narrows are still grappling with the long term health, social, and economic impacts of this infamous act of environmental racism.  Mercury levels in Grassy Narrows fish have yet to return to safe levels. 

“The government has allowed the logging companies to destroy our forest and give us back only disease and sickness and death,” said Judy Da Silva, a mother and community organizer in Grassy Narrows.  “We are calling on McGuinty to help us establish a permanent Grassy Narrows run environmental monitoring station so we can inform and protect our people from the ongoing damage that pollution and logging are inflicting on our bodies and on our children.”

A 2010 study by Grassy Narrows for the First Nations Environmental Contaminants Program found that 100% of fish flesh samples from the English-Wabigoon river area had mercury levels above the level at which Health Canada recommends against consumption by people who consume a lot of fish (0.2mg/kg).  25% of samples were above the legal limit for commercially sold fish (0.5 mg/kg).   (Sellers, 2010)  An earlier study found levels as high as 140% over the legal limit in a Grassy Narrows fish (Sellers, 2005).  A wild foods study conducted by Hollow Water First Nation in nearby Manitoba found that concentrations of mercury in pickerel flesh there was far lower, and ranged from 0.12 – 0.30 mg/kg (Sellers and Scott, 2006).

“Grassy Narrows requires control over our land resources for our people to recover from the devastating impacts of mercury pollution on our health, culture, and economy,” said Grassy Narrows Chief Fobister.  “Our people have suffered far too long from harmful decisions imposed on our people against our will.”

An independent report by world renowned Japanese mercury expert Dr. Harada found that 79% of Grassy Narrows residents tested in 2002 and 2004 had Minamata Disease (MD), MD with complications, or possible MD (Harada et. Al, 2005).  Minamata Disease, a term for mercury poisoning, is named after the Japanese town of Minamata where Dr. Harada first exposed industrial mercury poisoning in the 1960’s.

This conflicts with Health Canada’s assertion from the 1990’s that 0% of Grassy Narrows patients examined were at risk due to the levels of mercury in their system, leading them to stop testing Grassy Narrows residents for mercury.  A report funded by Health Canada wrote that “there should be minimal concern for Hg in these two communities… the communities are encouraged to promote the use [of] local fish resources.”  (Chan, 2003)

And yet, in 2007 an independent Grassy Narrows fisherman was charged and pled guilty in a Kenora court to one count of unlawfully selling fish tainted by mercury contamination, contrary to the Ontario Fish Inspection Act.  MNR conservation officers from the Kenora District discovered the nets set in Grassy Narrows Lake, near the community, on Sept. 4, 2005.  Forensic tests on the fish, done at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Winnipeg, revealed mercury levels of 1.0 parts per million, twice the acceptable level of 0.5 parts per million (Kenora Daily Miner, 2007).  320 pounds of fish from Grassy Narrows Lake were seized in the incident and the retailer was ordered to dispose of the fish, which was later dumped at the Kenora waste transfer station.

“We know too well the tragic consequences of failing to listen when the people of Grassy Narrows say no to destructive industry on their lands,” said David Sone of the environmental group Earthroots.  “It is time for Ontario to stop repeating the mistakes of the past and to respect Grassy Narrows’ vision for the the land they always have used and cared for.  We cannot allow the Province to be complicit in the poisoning of even one more Grassy Narrow child.”

Starting in March 1962 Dryden Chemicals Limited, a subsidiary of Reed Paper limited, operated a cathode chlor-alkali plant that produced chlorine and sodium hydroxide for the bleaching of paper (Shkynik, 1985).  The mercury chlor-alkali plant was demolished in 1971 (EBR Registry Number:   011-3797, 2011).

Contact:
Judy Da Silva:  807 925 2201 or cell 807 407 2109
Chief Simon Fobister: 807 407 0170
David Sone:  416-599-0152 x.13

Link to Website Containing Two of the Studies Mentioned in this Press Release:

http://freegrassy.org/2012/03/28/grassy-narrows-marks-50-years-of-mercury-poison/

Email Contact Re: this Press Release:
riverrun2010@gmail.com

Human Rights Rally and March Flagstaff April 28, 2012

STEP OUT WITH US: Sponsor the Northern Arizona March for Human Rights!
If you value environmental and cultural justice, please join us on Saturday April 28, 2012 in a march for Human Rights and environmental protection in Flagstaff, Arizona.
As the struggle to protect sacred sites and migrant rights escalates throughout Arizona we are calling on friends, neighbors, families, students, young, & old, to march together for justice & healthy communities.
The Arizona state legislature continues to strip our communities of our right to learn and immerse ourselves in our cultures, have control over our own bodies, and provide healthcare and housing for everyone.
Indigenous Peoples' religious freedom and cultural survival is threatened by desecration of Holy places such as the San Francisco Peaks, Mount Graham, Red Butte, & South Mountain. Forced Relocation and Coal Mining continues to destroy families on Black Mesa and further Global Warming. Greedy politicians & corporations continue to pollute our neighborhoods and steal precious water.
We invite organizations, Tribal governments, community based groups, and institutions of faith who support this work to add their name to the growing list of sponsors and supporters of this march.
Sponsorship is simply saying that you endorse the March for Human Rights and would like to be listed as a sponsor online, on flyers and in the media.
You can add your name as a sponsor here: www.indigenousresistance.org/sponsor/
If you would like to get more involved with the event you can also:
1) Become active with local outreach - download flyers at: www.indigenousresistance.org/outreach
2) Spread the message about the march online via social networks.
3) Contribute financially - contact: humanrightsmarch2012@gmail.com to find out how.
4) Organize a caravan from your community to the march.
5) Write letters to your local news papers calling on people in your community to join the march and stand up for Human Rights.
6) Organize a solidarity event! If you can't make it to Flagstaff, organize a solidarity event in your community.


Thanks for helping to build the movement to protect mother earth and human rights!
For more information: www.indigenousresistance.org
Email: humanrightsmarch2012@gmail.com

Black Hills Treaty Council Meeting March 29, 2012

O'odham Ofelia Rivas: Rights violators Border Patrol and Univ. of Ariz.

Native Nations Water Rights Symposium

O'odham Ofelia Rivas: Human rights violators Border Patrol and University of Arizona

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

TUCSON – At the Native Nations Rights Symposium, Ofelia Rivas, O’odham shared a blessing and a welcome, then described how the US Border Patrol and the University of Arizona are violating the rights of the O’odham people to live in their way of life.
During her welcome, Rivas offered a water song for the forum which focused on health of water and protection of water.
Rivas, founder of the O'odham VOICE against the Wall, O'odham Rights Human Rights, described how O’odham have lived here since the beginning of the world.
“Take care how you walk because we consider our lands very sacred,” Rivas said during the rights symposium sponsored by Red Ink. She joined Debra White Plume, Lakota, Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo, Dr. Karletta Chief, Dine’ and other Native American speakers at the community event held at the University of Arizona.
Rivas said, “I have been boycotting this university for 10 years because it develops technology that is used against our people.”
She described how the University of Arizona is advancing spyware technology used against the O’odham people while illegally occupying O’odham lands in what is known to others as the US and Mexico.
“Our lands are absolutely in a state of crisis,” she said of the devastation caused by the US Border Patrol and US security forces.
Rivas said all the technology that Homeland Security is developing here at this university goes against the humanity of O’odham.
“This is what this university does.”
Rivas also responded to the upcoming session of the United Nations Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples to be held at the University of Tucson.
“I have no voice here as a grassroots person and non-academic.”
Speaking on the violence carried out the by the US Border Patrol agents, she described how the Border Patrol agents ran over and killed Bennett Patricio, Jr., an 18-year-old O’odham walking on O’odham land.
“These foreign people invaded my lands and they got away with Bennetts' death."
Rivas described how Patricio’s mother took the case against the Border Patrol all the way to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and justice was never delivered against the Border Patrol agents. When she could not find funding to fight the case any longer, she had to move away from Arizona to build a life for her children who are survivors.
When O’odham cross the so-called border in their O’odham homelands, they have to cross four checkpoints, she said.
“It dehumanizes you.
“There has been physical damage to a lot of people.”
The University of Arizona is part of the militarization and ongoing human rights violations on O’odham lands.
“I boycott this university. I don’t’ step foot on this university.” 
"My presence is to Honor Debra White Plume for her courageous work."
She said besides the damage done to the O’odham by spyware and other technology developed at the university, it is not a healthy place.
“It is all concrete. It is not healthy for anyone.”
Rivas read the following statement to the water symposium:

O’odham Declaration of Allegiance to Mother Earth

In protest we write these foreign words as this is not our natural language, our O’odham language is not a written language which has existed in its oral form since the beginning of the world;

We declare our allegiance to Mother Earth and the Natural World. We are natural people of this world and original people of these lands now known as southern Arizona, United States and northern Sonora, Mexico.

We denounce the physical manipulation and destruction and alteration of the natural lands and people.

We denounce the contamination of the lands, water and air,

We denounce the destruction of mountains, waterways and natural habitats of people, animals and plants,

We denounce the alteration of human life, animal and plant life as well as all mountains and waterways and natural habitats,

We denounce the illegal bisection of our lands and illegal occupation by two foreign countries, the United States and Mexico,

We denounce the militarization of our lands, every day of the year, every hour of the day there is presence of armed military in helicopters, jets and airplanes and unmanned airplanes, on jeeps, high profile trucks and pick-up trucks, on all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes, and on horseback,

We denounce the United States government aided and staged drug wars on our lands,

We denounce the United States enforcement of Immigration policies on the O’odham the original people of the lands,

We denounce the criminalization and de-humanizing of the O’odham, the original people of the lands;

·        by three military check points existing the present Tohono O’odham Nation Indian Reservation,

·        by monitoring and the surveillance of O’odham communities,

·        by demanding of proof of citizenship of O’odham in our communities,

·        by unwarranted illegal home invasions in O’odham communities,

·        by illegal searches and detainments and deportation of O’odham,

·        by physical and mental abuse and de-humanizing of the O’odham in our communities,

·        by restriction of access to original O’odham lands.

We denounce the ongoing alteration of our people through forced indoctrination through religions, forced assimilation and acculturation.

We are the original people of these lands and we hereby demand you to stop the destruction, contamination and alteration of our home, the Natural World.

We are the O’odham, the original people of these lands, demand the restoration of our Human Rights and Right to Exist and Live by own sovereign government on our Original Ancestral lands.                                                            October 10, 2011

O’odham VOICE Against the WALL

O’odham Rights Human Rights

Ofelia Rivas

P.O. Box 1835

Sells, Arizona 85634

Support O'odham human rights: http://solidarity-project.org/

Amnesty International: Human rights violations US Southwest

Amnesty International
USA: In Hostile Terrain: Human rights violations in immigration enforcement in the US Southwest
http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/usa-in-hostile-terrain-human-rights-violations-in-immigration-enforcement-in-the-us-southwest?page=show

Special report on Indigenous Peoples, with US violations of rights of Tohono O'odham and Yaqui

"The architecture of international human rights law is built on the premise that all persons, by virtue of their essential humanity, should enjoy all human rights."
-- David Weissbrodt, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Non-Citizens
Amnesty International’s report, In Hostile Terrain: Human rights violations in immigration enforcement in the US Southwest, examines the human rights violations associated with immigration enforcement at the border and in the interior of the United States. While the development and implementation of immigration policies are a matter for individual governments, such policies must be compatible with international human rights law and standards. All immigrants, irrespective of their legal status, have human rights. This report shows that the USA is failing in its obligations under international law to ensure these rights. Among its findings are:

• Recent immigration policy in certain border areas has pushed undocumented immigrants into using dangerous routes through the US desert; hundreds of people die each year as a result.
• Immigration enforcement in the USA is a federal responsibility. Federal immigration officials are increasingly working in collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies but improper oversight of state and local law enforcement has led to increased racial profiling.
• Increasingly, state laws and local policies are creating barriers to immigrants accessing their basic human rights, including rights to education and essential health care services. While these laws are targeting non-citizens, these policies are also impacting US citizen children.
• Recent legislation enacted or proposed in several states targets immigrant communities and places them, Indigenous communities and other minority communities at risk of discrimination.
• Immigrant communities also face a range of barriers to justice when they are victims of crime such as human trafficking, domestic violence or bias crimes.

The implementation of immigration enforcement measures along the border has also impacted the rights of Indigenous communities, whose traditional lands lie on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

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Debra White Plume: 'Wasichu' fat takers are the 1 percent

“They like the pageantry, the colorfulness and the beat of that drum – they really like our beautiful culture -- but they don’t like us." -- Debra White Plume

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
First in a series

TUCSON -- Speaking at the Native Nations Water Rights Symposium, Debra White Plume, Lakota, said the Wasichu, the white men fat takers, depend on a way of life of selfishness and greed to continue mining and the rape of Mother Earth.

White Plume joined Acoma Pueblo poet Simon Ortiz, O’odham Ofelia Rivas, and other Native Americans speaking on the preciousness of water, climate change and the destruction of Mother Earth at the forum hosted by Red Ink magazine.

White Plume shared the essence of why the protection of the relatives is required for the continuance of humankind.

“For our people water is sacred. Through water there is life,” White Plume said, describing how Lakota are born into this world in the womb of water, arriving from the Star Nation. Then water is placed in the mouth of the newborn.

White Plume described the fight against Canadian owned Cameco which has targeted Lakota sacred lands with uranium mining. White Plume described how Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way, was created for the work around the world.

White Plume said Lakota know the dimension of responsibility to their relatives. Those relatives include the four-legged, winged ones and standing silent ones, which are the plants. “Everything that crawls and swims is a relative. Water is our relative, Mother Earth is our relative, and the Star Nation is our relative.”

“In the Lakota way, you protect your relatives.”

She said for Lakota, there is no line, like in the western world, between human beings and the environment.

Lakota asked the US Environmental Protection Agency, because it has the word “protection” in its name, “What are you protecting us from?”

They could not answer the question.

Lakota, however, know what they are protecting, and what they are protecting relatives from.

“With this philosophy of everything being related, there comes a time when you have to make a decision.”

“Do you stand by while your mother is being raped, abused and misused?”

"No Native Nation person is going to stand there and let that happen.”

She said there are many ways to protect Mother Earth. These include becoming a scientist and  learning one’s ancient ways to protect those ways. Another way is to use the western system to stall a company, as Lakota have done in halting Cameco from beginning new uranium mining.

“In seven years, they haven’t turned a shovel,” she said of Cameco.

“We’re guided in our role of a protector,” she said, adding that it is both a duty and a privilege to answer that call.

She said all land is sacred, but some hold special significance, like Crow Butte, located near what is called Fort Robinson.

Crow Butte is where Crazy Horse went to seek a vision with his Pipe and to send his voice to the universe. It has long been a spiritual place for Lakota.

“Now we can’t go there anymore, because there is uranium mining there. It is against the law for us to go there.”

“The US has made laws to make it hard for us to live our way of life,” she said, adding that there are other places, including Bear Butte, where ceremonies continue.

She said the government believes that sources of energy are more important than the Lakota and their way of life.

“For them, getting that uranium is more important than our people having the right to live our way of life.” She said Lakota have used all means to fight the corporations, from the courts to the United Nation.

Then she told of the coming of a white man in heavy winter when there was deep snow. He was covered with hair.

In those early times, fat was tied in the trees in a bladder or stomach bag of the buffalo. Fat was a very valuable substance because there is no fat on buffalo, elk or deer, except for a little around the kidneys. The fat is used for medicine, a source of fire and a lubricant.

The starving white man came for the bundles of fat.

“He took them all, stuffed them all down his mouth.”

“We called him the fat taker. He thought only of himself. He didn’t think of the women who worked for five months to gather the fat so we would have it through the five months of winter.”

“He took it all for himself.”

She said in those days, “We didn’t kill people. We didn’t murder people.”

“So we call him the fat taker.”

“Wasichu is taker of the fat, fat taker, meaning selfishness, pettiness and greediness. Those are all contrary to Lakota thought and philosophy, the way of life.”

“I spoke at Occupy Wall Street and said, ‘We call them waichu. You call them the 1 percent. They understood.”

“These fat takers are mining uranium, not only on my homeland, but down here, wherever they find it,” she said, adding that Indigenous in Australia are also fighting Cameco uranium mining.

“These fat takers are everywhere, they are disrespectful. They showed disrespect to us, our sacred ways and our sacred water.”

"Their greed for money outweighs our way of life and our relevance in this world.”

She also described how upsetting it is at home, on Pine Ridge Indian land, when wasichu come and want the little children to dance for them.

“They like the pageantry, the colorfulness and the beat of that drum – they really like our beautiful culture -- but they don’t like us.”

“They want to have our cultural experience, but they don’t want us.”

“We are trying to make that change at home, whenever the people come and want to see the little children to dance.”

White Plume said colonization is a requirement for fat takers to keep mining.

“Our identity is being a relative with Ina Maka Mother Earth.”



Debra White Plume, Lakota mother and grandmother, was recently arrested blockading the megaload trucks on Pine Ridge in South Dakota. White Plume was arrested with other Indigenous Peoples in protest of the tarsands and proposed Keystone XL pipeline at the White House in September. Censored News readers selected White Plume as Censored News Person of the Year 2011.

Watch for the next article in this series from the Native Nation Water Rights Symposium at Censored News. http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Copyright Censored News.

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Sacred Water: Native Nations Water Rights Symposium photo

Native Nations Water Rights Symposium
PHOTO:At the Native Nations Water Rights Symposium in Tucson hosted by Red Ink magazine. Ofelia Rivas, O'odham Solidarity Movement, Dr. Karletta Chief, Dine' hydrologist, Debra White Plume, Lakota, Owe Aku, arrested at blockade of megatrucks on Pine Ridge, and Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo poet, author and professor at Arizona State University. (Photo Brenda Norrell/Censored News)

"Someday the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die." John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
(Saturday, March 24, 2012, University of Arizona, Chavez Building downstairs, all day)
The Native Nations Water Rights Symposium is now watching a preview of the film, "Crying Earth Rise Up," about uranium mining on the Lakota Nation. In the film Elisha Yellow Thunder, Lakota, speaks on the uranium mining, and the water she drank when she was pregnant. Her daughter is on dialysis and needs a kidney transplant. Debra and Alex White Plume are among the Lakotas interviewed in the film:
http://www.prairiedustfilms.com/cryingearthriseup/
Debra White Plume of Owe Aku, arrested blocking the megaloads on Pine Ridge, speaks at 12: 45 pm. Debra is among the Lakotas who has filed a federal lawsuit to halt uranium mining in Lakota territory. She was also arrested at the White House in protest of the tarsands and Keystone XL pipeline.
Speaking on Yaqui water rights in Sonora before noon: Thalia M Gomez Torres "The Beauty of Resistance" Yaqui Homeland and Contemporary Water Rights. Gomez described the theft of Yaqui water rights in Sonora, and the highway blockades by Yaqui in protest.
Carrie Nuva Joseph, Hopi, spoke on her dissertation research on uranium contaminants in Indian country.

At the reception last night, Simon Ortiz read his poetry. Ortiz' read powerful memory poetry of his father speaking five languages. He also remembered the uranium mining at Laguna and Acoma Pueblos responsible for grinding to death one of the Native workers.

Dr. Karletta Chief, hydrologist, Dine' from Black Mesa, spoke on climate change and impacts to Southwest Indian Nations, and the Colorado River water rights this morning.

Watch for extensive upcoming coverage on Censored News. http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com