Three Stories: Native Americans Planting as Resistance

Photo Poncas planting resistance corn. Photo by Bold Nebraska.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Censored News is happy to share with you these three stories of planting as resistance. First, the resistance to the Utah tarsands mine, where 20 people have been arrested while sowing seeds for the next generation. Then, there are the Poncas, planting resistance to the Keystone XL Pipeline. Finally, Western Shoshone searched for places to plant willow saplings on their walk to Yucca Mountain, now targeted with high level nuclear storage that would be hazardous for a million year. The sacred mountain is at the Nevada Test Site, where the scars and radiation remain of the US reckless atomic bomb testing on Western Shoshone land.

Canyon Country Rising Tide reports 20 people have been arrested sowing seeds for a new generation, resisting the tarsands mine in Utah on the Colorado Plateau.
"Kim, Nihigaal Bei Iina said, “We must remember that if we do not fight we cannot win, we don’t even have a chance of winning. By planting seeds we have a chance of winning another round for mother earth, we still have more battles to fight within us. These seeds planted will harvest another generation of fighters and warriors.”
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/06/utah-seed-sowers-arrested-on-united.html

Poncas are planting the Seeds of Resistance corn in the path of the Keystone XL Pipeline, reports Bold Nebraska.
“Once again we made the journey to the Tanderup farm from Oklahoma to Nebraska on the Ponca Trail of Tears to plant the sacred Ponca seeds of resistance,” said Mekasi Camp Horinek, son of Native American activist Casey Camp. “Not only in the soil of our ancestors’ homeland, but also in the hearts and minds of all the people that honor, respect and protect Mother Earth as the roots of these resistance seeds spread across the continents. So does the awareness of fight to stop keystone XL pipeline and protect mother earth for our future generations.”
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/06/sacred-ponca-resistance-corn-planted-in.html

Peace and Friendship Walk May 2016
Photo by Long Walker Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Western Shoshone

Western Shoshone and Northern Paiute plant saplings as a blessing and to heal the land
During the walk to the Nuclear Test Site and Yucca Mountain in May, Buck Sampson, Northern Paiute, described how walkers searched for places to pray and plant willow saplings as a blessing and healing for the land. 

Buck Sampson said they are sending a strong message to the employees at Yucca Mountain.

"Our Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863 didn't say squat on our land and put radioactive waste here to store. They contaminated the underground water and desecrated Native burials and artifacts that were there a long time before the white immigrants came to Nevada 160 years ago."

"We Natives are still here with our culture and Native values on the land. We are still Trustees of the land," Sampson told Censored News.

Photos by Buck Sampson's son, long walker Carl 'Bad Bear' Sampson, Western Shoshone.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/05/western-shoshone-run-blessings-for-land.html