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Read article at Mohawk Nation News .http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2018/01/29/monkey-business-to-end/ |
January 29, 2018
Mohawk Nation News 'Monkey Business to End!'
Warrior and Protector -- Justice for Sonny Lewis, on Fifth Anniversary of His Murder in Reno
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Sonny was everyone's warrior and protector -- Sonny's mother Sheri Potts.
Photos and video by Western Shoshone Carl Bad Bear Sampson
Censored News
Five years ago, on Jan. 27, 2013, Sonny Lewis was shot and killed outside of the E. 2nd Street Walmart in Reno. This year, during the annual candlelight service, Sonny's mother Sheri Potts called for justice. She said her son's killer is still out there.
"My son deserves love and respect from all that walked with him. He was everyone's warrior and protector," Potts said.
Sonny was only 25 years old when he was killed. The shooting took place on tribal territory during a fight outside the Walmart, and the case was given to the FBI to investigate. No one has ever been prosecuted,
Reno Sparks Indian Community governs the land where Sonny was murdered, but the prosecution was turned over to the federal government. Read more: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_CSS_USA_18543_E.pdf
Reno Sparks Indian Community governs the land where Sonny was murdered, but the prosecution was turned over to the federal government. Read more: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_CSS_USA_18543_E.pdf
January 27, 2018
Watch Al Jazeera 'Akicita: The Legacy of Standing Rock at Sundance Film Festival'
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| Screenshots by Censored News At Sundance Film Festival, Al Jazeera talks with Akicita Producer Cody Lucich, and water protectors Curtis Ray Yaz and Mark Tilsen, with Jenni Monet via Skype in Tucson. Film clips from the new film, 'Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock.' |
Watch Al Jazeera broadcast below:
'Akicita': What is the legacy of the #NoDAPL movement at Standing Rock? | The Stream
January 26, 2018
Leaked doc: New Mexico Oil and Gas Association fears homegrown environmental movements in New Mexico
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| New Mexico Oil and Gas Association clearly fears the homegrown resistance in New Mexico. Photo credit: https://www.frackoffchaco.org/graphics .  |
The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association clearly fears the homegrown environmental justice movements in New Mexico
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
A leaked transcript from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association reveals that it fears the enormous impact of successful environmental activists in New Mexico -- ranging from those in the otherwise conservative county of Sandoval, to the activists in Santa Fe with their "Don't Frack Chaco" bumper stickers.
"Well you can't go anywhere in New Mexico without tripping over an activist group," said Ryan Flynn, executive director of the New Mexico OIl and Gas Association, at the annual meeting in Santa Fe in 2017.
"Look at Chaco Canyon. I'm sure if you drive around Santa Fe, or walk around, you will see a don't frack Chaco bumper sticker."
"In fact we have more activist organizations per capita in New Mexico, than any other state in the country," Flynn said.
"Our opposition is deeply embedded in local communities."
Flynn said the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is especially concerned that children as young as middle school want to protect their environment, and protect their land and water.
The leaked transcript reveals how successful the movements against methane and fracking have been in New Mexico by local residents. Movements including 'Leave it in the Ground," and the environmental movements springing from the bedrock of local communities clearly have rattled the Association.
Flynn's address came as Native Americans rose up to protest the widespread pollution from coal mining and coal-burning power plants on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area. For decades, environmental justice campaigns have exposed the widespread cancers from uranium mining and scattered radioactive tailings that remain on both Navajo and Pueblo lands.
Local communities are also fighting new fracking in the Chaco Canyon region -- one of the world's foremost cultural areas -- and fracking in the pristine Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation.
Pueblos continue to protest the longtime atomic testing at Los Alamos. In southern New Mexico, the land and water is polluted from missile ranges. New oil and gas drilling is being battled throughout New Mexico.
The environmental justice campaigns are having a tremendous impact.
Flynn said at the meeting, "Their ability to mobilize is something we have to take seriously and combat," He also points out the power of local activists when they contact politicians with e-mail campaigns.
Flynn revealed the cozy relationship of the oil and gas industry with the Governor.
Flynn said he previously served as Secretary of the Environment under the current governor, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Republican.
Flynn said Gov. Martinez can be relied on to pass oil and gas legislation in favor of the oil and gas industry.
At the annual meeting, Flynn said, “Susana Martinez, my former boss, she’s embraced an all-of-the-above approach to energy policy. Probably the most consistent benefit to our industry over the last 7 years is that we don’t have to worry when we walk into each legislative session about a harmful piece of legislation getting signed into law."
Yes, Flynn is the former Secretary of Environment under Martinez.
Read the full written transcript of the leaked audio from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association's annual meeting 2017:http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/NMOGA_President_Transcript_2017.pdf?docID=17651
Also at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BqerYOiHj6_EwMRA7a5ChuAAxVLZOEhs/view?usp=sharing
Excerpt:
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.   Halliburton destroying the sacred Chaco region, in Lybrook, New Mexico area, on Jan. 10, 2018 Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News Also see: Sandoval County residents protest oil and gas industry http://krqe.com/2017/10/19/sandoval-county-commissioners-to-take-vote-on-oil-and-gas-ordinance/ |
No More Deaths -- Attack on humanitarian aid: Arrests and prosecutions. Ataque a la ayuda humanitaria: arrestos y enjuiciamiento.
Para español ver abajo
Photo: Carrot Quinn. 
On January 17, just hours after the release of our report, a humanitarian-aid volunteer and two individuals receiving medical care were arrested by the Border Patrol in Ajo, Arizona. Scott Warren, 35, was preliminarily charged with a felony involving alien smuggling and appeared in court on January 18. The two other individuals remain in custody. Warren has been instrumental in organizing humanitarian aid in the remote west desert around Ajo. Almost half of the 128 recovered remains of border crossers found in 2017 in Arizona were found in this area.
From New Mexico to Palestine: Ending Israel/U.S. Police Exchange, Reclaiming Safety
From New Mexico to Palestine: Ending Israel/U.S. Police Exchange, Reclaiming Safety
- Friday, January 26 at 6 PM - 8 PM MST
One of the most dangerous places where the regimes of Trump and Netanyahu converge is in exchange programs that bring together police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI from the US with soldiers, police, border agents, etc. from Israel. In these programs, “worst practices” are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing in both countries. These include extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.
This event will feature Native and Palestinian-American speakers who can testify to the impact of deadly police violence on their communities. We will also discuss what actions activists can take back to their communities to bring an end to this violence.
Speakers:
MELISSA TSO, advisor to JVP End The Deadly Exchange Campaign and lead organizer in The Red Nation
JENNIFER MARLEY, lead organizer in The Red Nation
JEFF HAAS, Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine
Palestinian members of UNM Muslim Student Association
BEKAH WOLF, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and Steering Committee member for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Lori Rudolph, Jewish Voice for Peace - ABQ
Refreshments will be provided!
Please consider making a donation at the event, however this is not required to attend.
Co-Sponsors: Indigenous Rights Center, Albuquerque Peltier, UNM Muslim Student Association, Jewish Voice for Peace-Albuquerque, and Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace-National, and Friends of Sabeel.
This event will feature Native and Palestinian-American speakers who can testify to the impact of deadly police violence on their communities. We will also discuss what actions activists can take back to their communities to bring an end to this violence.
Speakers:
MELISSA TSO, advisor to JVP End The Deadly Exchange Campaign and lead organizer in The Red Nation
JENNIFER MARLEY, lead organizer in The Red Nation
JEFF HAAS, Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine
Palestinian members of UNM Muslim Student Association
BEKAH WOLF, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and Steering Committee member for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Lori Rudolph, Jewish Voice for Peace - ABQ
Refreshments will be provided!
Please consider making a donation at the event, however this is not required to attend.
Co-Sponsors: Indigenous Rights Center, Albuquerque Peltier, UNM Muslim Student Association, Jewish Voice for Peace-Albuquerque, and Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace-National, and Friends of Sabeel.
'Protecting Sacred Chuska Mountains from Oil and Gas Industry' by Robyn Jackson, Dineh
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| Jan. 11, 2018 |
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| Fall 2017 |
Health, safety of communities behind the Red Valley tour
BY ROBYN JACKSON, DINEH
Censored News
Last week's Navajo Times included an article about a tour of oil and helium well sites in Red Valley that I helped organize ("Tour finds toxic gas leaks in Red Valley," Jan. 18, 2018).
This tour included community members from the Chuska region and elsewhere, as well as professionals who brought surveying equipment. It is important for the public to be aware of what led up to this event.
A series of oil companies have operated wells in Red Valley, on the eastern side of Buffalo Pass, since the 1960s. The area is known as the Dine Bikeyah Oil Field. Local residents have long noticed bad smells and some have expressed concern over the health and safety of land, water, and livestock in the area, especially since an oil spill polluted part of the valley in 2005. But clear answers were hard to come by, and the companies work ing the wells kept changing.
Within the last five years, people in the Chuska area have mentioned fracking occurring in Red Valley. I admit I'm still trying to understand what this means exactly. Then this past summer, community members across the Chuskas who regularly use Buffalo Pass began to notice increased worker activity at the Dine Bikeyah Oil Field.
I began to do research and consulted with all types of experts — petroleum engineers, hard rock minerals experts, geologists, botanists, oil well technicians, individuals who work at the state and federal level.
Interestingly, when a friend and I asked individuals at the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Permits Office and the Minerals Department what was going on in Red Valley, we were immediately
told that "fracking" was not occurring.
We then asked, "How would you describe what is happening"? In both instances, we were told, "fracturing" was occurring.
The reality is that the terms frack-ing, fracturing, and hydraulic fracturing all mean the same thing. Fracking is the more popular term that describes the breaking of underground rock formations. Fracking is a process used by the oil and gas industry to get at more difficult to reach deposits of oil and natural gas. A figure from ProPublica states that, "Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in 9 out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States."
Although the Dine Bikeyah Oil Field in Red Valley was established in the 1960s as an oil field and still has some active oil wells, there are also wells to extract helium. Apparently, there have been periods (such as during World War II) when the Navajo Nation leased out different sites for the purpose of helium extraction.
Currently the DBK oil field has active helium wells. Helium is a unique gas that is rare and is often captured alongside natural gas. In a September 2015 press release, the industrial gases company Praxair signed a non-specified, but "long-term helium purchase agreement" with Nacogdoches Oil and Gas for it's operations in Apache County, Arizona, with an agreement to "supply up to 100 million standard cubic feet per year of helium, with the potential for further expansion."
"Potential for further expansion" should be kept in mind in the context of the Navajo Nation's Integrated Resource Management Plan for Navajo forestlands, currently under development.
Since 2015 the Navajo Nation's Natural Resources Division, with direction from BIA, has been creating a resource management plan for all resources within Navajo forestlands that includes the Chuska and Defiance Mountains, Navajo Mountain and Mt. Powell. While the plan has been touted as an all-in-one plan for responsible management of all resources, presentations by Navajo Nation resource managers reveal their interest in using it to ramp up resource extraction for profit within our forestlands and mountains, including oil, gas, and helium for ever-hungry fossil fuel companies.
During the fall, a few meetings were hosted by consultants hired by Navajo Nation Forestry to gather community input. They were not well attended, and it would be worthwhile to ask how much community input and direction will be included in the IRMP and the specific resource management plans that will follow.
During the 2015 announcement of the IRMP by then BIA regional forester and Navajo Nation resources departments, Navajo Nation Minerals Department presented a map identify ing "oil and gas potential" all along the eastern side of the Chuskas, followed by "aggregate potential" marked for all mountains, excluding Mt. Powell.
This crucial information was not shared during the fall 2017 community meetings and has not been printed on the brochures or other online material about the Navajo Forestlands IRMP.
Oil and gas, as well as aggregate (gravel) mining are all intensive operations that have drastic consequences to land, human health, aquifers, and most definitely to the mountain watershed that provides for numerous Dine communities downstream.
In the drilling and production phases of oil and gas, a long list of toxic chemicals are used, leaving be hind toxic waste that poses a number of human and environmental health hazards with pollution to air, soil, and water.
According to Earthworks, specific symptoms that communities near oil and gas fields have increasingly reported are: "asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, autoimmune diseases, liver failure, cancer and other ailments like headaches, nausea, and sleeplessness."
The potential for human and environmental harm from oil and gas operations should be taken seriously. The Chuskas are sacred mountains and play a crucial role in the water cycle, more vital now than ever as we notice the effects of climate instability.
Individuals from Red Valley and other communities in the Chuskas have tried bringing attention to the operations there in the past. Our tour and recording of that site was a long time coming. The whole issue of oil and gas on the Navajo Nation needs to be addressed.
Wasn't Navajo Oil and Gas bailed out for millions of dollars by our tribal Council? What about the oil spill from the DBK field that occurred in 2005 when a stream of oil was running down into the valley? Especially pressing — what about the intense fracking operations in the Eastern Agency?
Now that coal is on its way out the door, there is a clamor for natural gas to take its place. What does this mean for our communities? It means this is the bigger threat now. We can expect increased pressure to lease out our lands and communities to natural gas
companies.
Tribes often rely on federal agencies to enforce regulation, maintenance, and cleanup of extractive industries. But the current administration in Washington has rejected this responsibility. It is too busy rolling back environmental and health regulations and safeguards. This kind of deregulation will only lead to shortcuts being taken that will increase the likelihood of accidents, spills and contamination.
Too often company operators declare bankruptcy and escape the rules on cleanup and remediation, meaning these threats to our sacred lands do not get addressed. State and federal bond prices hardly cover the cost of cleanup. For companies, it is often cheaper to forfeit a bond than to follow reclamation rules.
Having grown up in the Chuskas, namely on the western side of the mountains in Wheatfields, I feel a responsibility to understand, question, and if need be, challenge any major proposal that would inflict harm to my mountain home. This is why I helped organize this tour.
Really, it's up to us to secure the health and safety of our land, and build ways to support our families that will not put them in danger. It's also up to our Navajo Nation government to stop looking the other way, and take up this long overdue responsibility.
ROBYN JACKSON, from Wheatfields, Arizona, is a member of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment. She grew up among the social and environmental justice leaders of Diné CARE and works with them today. Her parents led local community sustainable forestry efforts in the Chuskas in the 1990s, and this continues to serve as inspiration for her. Robyn is Tó'áhaní (Near the Water Clan) and has a bachelor's degree in sociology from Fort Lewis College.
This column appears in the Navajo Times and is published with permission by Robyn Jackson.
'Protecting Sacred Chuska Mountains from Oil and Gas Industry' by Robyn Jackson, Dineh
Copyright Robyn Jackson, Censored News
January 24, 2018
On the Arizona Border, We Know Who the Monsters Are
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat at:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4408
It is sad to hear that the volunteers who leave water for migrants are being arrested on the Arizona border.
A few years ago, my friend took me to these same places, showing me the trails. It was about 116 degrees, and her car had no air conditioning. We wrapped ourselves in wet towels to keep going.
We watched the Border Patrol agents sit in their air-conditioned vehicles and throw their Starbucks cups on the ground, and buy junk food at Three Points.
They lounged around and yakked on their cellphones, all in the same area where volunteers putting out life-saving water are now being arrested.
If the timing was different, I could have been one of those arrested.
The volunteers who do this year after year are the heroes.
Another day, with temperatures over 116, my friends asked me to help them search for the body of a migrant. The heat knocked me out immediately, in minutes. They hiked in that scorching sun and found someone's loved one.
Others for years have provided shelter, a drink of water, a sandwich, or a ride to the hospital and saved a life. Sometimes the life saved is an Indigenous person who walked across countries, from Guatemala or El Salvador, in hopes of finding a way to feed their families at home.
The tiny graves in the desert sometimes have a string of Mayan beads across them. These volunteers are heroes.
We know who the monsters are.
Brenda Norrell, journalist in Indian country for 36 years, is publisher of Censored News.
Images: A grave on the Arizona border.
Shoes left behind by migrants. Photo by Brenda Norrell.
Border Patrol agent destroying life saving water, captured on hidden video.
Notes: Nine volunteers with No More Deaths have been arrested and face federal charges charges for leaving water for migrants in the Sonoran Desert on the Arizona border.
This region has one of the highest death rates for migrants.
An ASU instructor and No More Deaths volunteer was arrested this week for rendering aid to migrants at Ajo, Arizona, after No More Deaths released a report exposing Border Patrol agents destroying life saving water in the desert.6
No More Deaths is one of several organizations rendering humanitarian aid. Many individuals, including Tohono O'odham, quietly ignore the tribal and federal laws prohibiting giving aid, and save the lives of migrants.
More at Censored News:
'No More Deaths' 2018 Report, and links to arrest articles:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/01/us-border-patrol-continues-destroying.html?m=1
Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News
'Akicita' Premiere -- Standing Ovation for Water Protectors at Sundance Film Festival
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| At the premiere of Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock, the filmmakers said, "We are overwhelmed by the love and support from today’s screening of AKICITA: THE BATTLE OF STANDING ROCK. Thank you to everyone who came out!" Watch video below: video link on Twitter and clip below from Facebook https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/955969562083704832 |
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Zapatistas 'Consciences for Humanity -- From the Diaries of the Cat-Dog' by SupGaleano
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The EZLN’s Sixth Commission at the close of “Consciences for Humanity”: “From the Diaries of the Cat-Dog.” SupGaleano
From the Diaries of the Cat-Dog: the story of how two great detectives met, a fragment of what Elías Contreras and SupGaleano talked about during the now not-so-mysterious case of the missing honeybuns, how Defensa Zapatista left the science of language in shreds, and some idle reflections from the Sup on the above subjects
December 30, 2017
Once again, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night,
First of all, we want to send an embrace to the Mapuche people who are still being attacked by the bad governments of the countries called Chile and Argentina. They have used legal ruses to again bring charges against Machi Francisca Linconao, along with other Mapuche men and women, proving once again that in this system, those who destroy nature are the good guys and those who resist, defending life, are persecuted, murdered, and imprisoned like criminals. Despite this, or precisely because of it, one word is sufficient to describe the struggle of the Mapuche people and all of the originary peoples of this continent: Marichiweu—we will win, ten, a thousand times over and always.
From the Diaries of the Cat-Dog: the story of how two great detectives met, a fragment of what Elías Contreras and SupGaleano talked about during the now not-so-mysterious case of the missing honeybuns, how Defensa Zapatista left the science of language in shreds, and some idle reflections from the Sup on the above subjects
December 30, 2017
Once again, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night,
First of all, we want to send an embrace to the Mapuche people who are still being attacked by the bad governments of the countries called Chile and Argentina. They have used legal ruses to again bring charges against Machi Francisca Linconao, along with other Mapuche men and women, proving once again that in this system, those who destroy nature are the good guys and those who resist, defending life, are persecuted, murdered, and imprisoned like criminals. Despite this, or precisely because of it, one word is sufficient to describe the struggle of the Mapuche people and all of the originary peoples of this continent: Marichiweu—we will win, ten, a thousand times over and always.
San Francisco Honors Indigenous Peoples, Dumps Columbus Day
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| November 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, San Francisco |
Censored News
Audio of Board Meeting
San Francisco, the newest city today(!) along with Berkeley (the US first in 1992) Seattle, Los Angeles, St. Paul, MN, Eugene, Oregon, and 49 other cities across the US; plus four states such as Alaska, South Dakota, Vermont and Minnesota, (and eleventh cities in California!) to have joined by adopting “Indigenous Peoples Day” the second Wednesday in October! (Hear the vote at City Hall recorded today)
This is an historic occasion to briefly summarize the determined progression led by Indigenous peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere to challenge, reverse, and shatter the myths of the explorer and mercenary Cristobal Colon depicted as some sort of a glorified savior.
Since the beginning of 1492-1992, which marked 500 Years of Indigenous Peoples De-Colonization of the Americas, a Summit was held in Quito, Ecuador in 1990 to develop a strategy to begin to reverse Colonization. It resulted in a Declaration with resolutions to change the image the media and western society have portrayed and romanticized Cristobal Colon.
That time has finally arrived in San Francisco today! (The SF School District dropped Columbus Day from their calendars replaced instead with “Indigenous Peoples Day” last year).
The US recognized Columbus Day as a federal holiday since 1934. It is time to lend support within the US Congress starting among the Italian-American legislators to also consider replacing Columbus Day in the near future.
This is an educational moment, too, for organizing an effort in your communities to remove Columbus Day and celebrate it instead with “Indigenous Peoples Day.” Organize a Big Time!
The annual Bay Area Alcatraz Island Sun-Rise Gathering held each year on Monday, October (8), will indeed, be a glorious celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day!
Aho!
All My Relations!
Tony Gonzales
AIM-WEST director
www.aim-west.org
415-577-1492
www.aimovement.org
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
LISTEN TO SAN FRANCISCO BOARD MEETING:
Audio of Board Meeting
San Francisco, the newest city today(!) along with Berkeley (the US first in 1992) Seattle, Los Angeles, St. Paul, MN, Eugene, Oregon, and 49 other cities across the US; plus four states such as Alaska, South Dakota, Vermont and Minnesota, (and eleventh cities in California!) to have joined by adopting “Indigenous Peoples Day” the second Wednesday in October! (Hear the vote at City Hall recorded today)
This is an historic occasion to briefly summarize the determined progression led by Indigenous peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere to challenge, reverse, and shatter the myths of the explorer and mercenary Cristobal Colon depicted as some sort of a glorified savior.
Since the beginning of 1492-1992, which marked 500 Years of Indigenous Peoples De-Colonization of the Americas, a Summit was held in Quito, Ecuador in 1990 to develop a strategy to begin to reverse Colonization. It resulted in a Declaration with resolutions to change the image the media and western society have portrayed and romanticized Cristobal Colon.
That time has finally arrived in San Francisco today! (The SF School District dropped Columbus Day from their calendars replaced instead with “Indigenous Peoples Day” last year).
The US recognized Columbus Day as a federal holiday since 1934. It is time to lend support within the US Congress starting among the Italian-American legislators to also consider replacing Columbus Day in the near future.
This is an educational moment, too, for organizing an effort in your communities to remove Columbus Day and celebrate it instead with “Indigenous Peoples Day.” Organize a Big Time!
The annual Bay Area Alcatraz Island Sun-Rise Gathering held each year on Monday, October (8), will indeed, be a glorious celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day!
Aho!
All My Relations!
Tony Gonzales
AIM-WEST director
www.aim-west.org
415-577-1492
www.aimovement.org
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
LISTEN TO SAN FRANCISCO BOARD MEETING:
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