Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

May 31, 2019

Tiokasin Features Testimony from Human Rights Hearing in Jamaica on First Voices Radio Today

Photo Leoyla Cowboy, Dine', wife of Little Feather, testifies on Standing Rock water protector political prisoners. Leoyla read a statement from Red Fawn.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Lakota, Features Testimony from Human Rights Hearing in Jamaica on First Voices Radio Today

Article by Brenda Norrell

Censored News
First Voices Radio,
Listen at:
https://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives

Listen today online and on radio stations across North America in upcoming days, as Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Cheyenne River Lakota, airs testimony from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica.

May 30, 2019

Urgent Donation Request: O'odham Voice Against the Wall to Protect O'odham Rights

Donate at Ofelia Rivas' website
O'odham Solidarity Project
http://solidarity-project.org/

Sacred Land, Sacred River -- Carrizo Comecrudo Protecting their Cemetery from Border Wall, Smokescreen for Land Seizures



Sacred Land, Sacred River -- Carrizo Comecrudo Protecting their Cemetery from the Border Wall, a Smokescreen for Land Seizures

On Memorial Day, Carrizo Comecrudo Protect their Cemetery, Their Land, Their Lives

Video by Govinda Dalton
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

SAN JUAN, Texas -- On this ground, their ancestral homeland, Carrizo Comecrudo tribal members are protecting the resting places of their ancestors from construction of the border wall. The construction now threatens their people, their cemetery and their homeland along the Rio Grande River.

Mohawk Nation News 'Class Action Bounty Hunters'




CLASS ACTION BOUNTY HUNTERS


Mohawk Nation News
Please post and distribute.
MNN. 30 May 2019. Scalping natives is lucrative. Lawyers are getting filthy rich hunting down native victims from Canada’s numerous genocide programs. Different compensation is offered for deliberately maiming different parts of our minds, bodies and energy. A paltry $10,000 and “sorry” for beating up, strapping little kids, more for knocking us out, lifelong impairment, hospitalization, emotional and mental abuse, raping, impregnation, sterilization, loss of language, culture and self-esteem, scientific experimentation and death.
Read article at Mohawk Nation News

May 29, 2019

Zapatistas Global Resistance Begins May 31, 2019: Stop Militarization in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca




Zapatistas Global Resistance Begins May 31, 2019: Stop Militarization in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca 

"Unite to protect the Strongholds," said Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, in response to today's announcement. Rivas testified in May on the militarization of her homelands in both the US and Mexico, and the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples, at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica.

by Ñaní Pinto
CNI_CIG
Censored News
May 29, 2019

On May 9, several collectives, organizations, adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona and networks of support of the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG) met to agree on actions against the increase of the military presence and paramilitary in Zapatista territories.
These groups also spoke out against the recent increase in aggressions that include the assassination of members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), particularly in the state of Guerrero and Oaxaca.
For these reasons, the organizations agreed to hold a Global Action on May 31 against militarization in Zapatista territory and in defense of the land, territory and autonomy of the indigenous peoples and communities of the CIG-CNI.

'Border wall is preposterous cover to seize land for oil and gas companies' Live from The National Butterfly Center on south Texas border






'Border wall is preposterous cover to seize land for oil and gas companies'

Govinda is live at The National Butterfly Center on the south Texas border

Video by Govinda Dalton

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

MISSION, Texas -- "The Border Wall is nothing more than a preposterous cover for the oil and gas companies to put in pipelines between the Rio Grande River and our canal system, and poison our only fresh water source," said Marianna Wright, director of the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.

May 28, 2019

Native Runners Honor Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Boulder, Colorado




Running to Remember and Honor Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Photos and article by Casandra Artichoker
Censored News
May 27, 2019

BOULDER, Colorado -- Native runners ran to honor and remember Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women on Tuesday.
"Today a group of us from South Dakota and Arizona came together in Boulder, to run a 10k to raise awareness for #MMIW. Everyone did amazing! Thank you to our sponsors Wica Agli Aldo Seoane & Greg Grey Cloud for the shirts and registering us!"

May 27, 2019

Mohawk Nation News '7th Generation Against Termination'

 7th Generation Against Termination
Please post & distribute.
MNN. 27, 2019. The native youth are resisting all legislation that terminates our existence as the titleholders of turtle island, in particular the Recognition and Implementation of Indigenous Rights Framework. This scheme is to terminate our inherent rights and to privatize our communities for theft to and sale by the immigrants. A rally was held on Parliament Hill Ottawa at noon May 27 to resist this theft by the the immigrants  and their First Nations and AFN cohorts. Only the true original people and life placed on turtle island by creation have all the say. 
Read article at Mohawk Nation News:

May 26, 2019

US Infiltrators: The Facts the U.S. Forgot at Human Rights Hearing in Jamaica



Photos: Attacks on water protectors at Standing Rock. 1 Those responsible for attack with dogs. 2 Heath Harmon 3 US militarized law enforcement. 4. Water Protector attacked by dogs. 5. Deep cover infiltrators at Standing Rock and Iowa.

The paid FBI informant, Fusion Center, special ops military infiltrator, and US excessive force that the United States failed to mention during international human rights hearing

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- The United States failed to take responsibility for the excessive force resulting in serious injury at Standing Rock, and for placing an FBI informant in the camp of water protectors during the US testimony at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.

May 25, 2019

Zapatistas Dismembered in Guerrero: Nahua Targeted by Capitalists, Drug Traffickers and Paramiltary




May 25, 2019

CNI-CIG and the EZLN

STOP THE WAR NARCOPARAMILITAR AGAINST THE CIPOG-EZ

Urgent communication from the CNI-CIG and the EZLN

Today, with indignation and pain, we denounce a new and devious crime against our colleagues from the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero - Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ).

Around 1:30 p.m. on May 23, in the vicinity of Chilapa, Guerrero, our comrades Bartolo Hilario Morales and Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote, both members of the Community Police in the Nahua communities of Tula and Xicotlán, were deprived of liberty.


May 24, 2019

Mohawk Nation News 'One Dish One Spoon Gathering @ Kahnawake'



ONE DISH ONE SPOON GATHERING @ KAHNAWAKE



Please post & distribute.
MNN. 23 MAY, 2019. WE ARE ONE PEOPLE PLACED BY CREATION on all of TURTLE ISLAND.We are one with our land, water, air and all life.  Come join us to rekindle the fire of our family for 3 days on July 26, 27 and 28.
We will discuss the renewal of our alliance. We are not a conquered people. The invaders are interfering with our peace, friendship and alliances by believing if he could divide us, he could conquer us. This is not so. We will unite our families. We will stand together to defend the birthright of our children and the future generations. As a united people we will overcome the aggression against the current attempt to totally annihilate us. 
Read article at Mohawk Nation News

May 23, 2019

Criminalizing Indigenous Peoples, Oil Companies Engineer New Laws after Standing Rock, Dine' Michelle Cook Testifies in Jamaica



Michelle Cook in Jamaica
Photo by Brenda Norrell
Criminalizing Indigenous Peoples, Oil Companies Engineer New 'Riot Boosting' Laws after Standing Rock, Dine' Michelle Cook Testifies before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- The United States engaged in the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples at Standing Rock, and continues this abrogation of human rights with new legislation engineered by the oil companies, Michelle Cook, Dine', told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica.
The United States will tell you that the U.S. protects Indigenous Peoples, and supports the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Michelle testified.
"They will talk to you about a consultation policy, in compliance with human rights."
"What they won't tell you is how those rights are abrogated, extinguished and divested for private profit for oil companies like ETP (Energy Transfer Partners) and TransCanada."
"I'm here to tell the Indian side of what we learned during and after the phenomenon of Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline."
"In the case of the Dakota Access Pipeline, during the seven months, from September 2016 to February 2017, at least 76 law enforcement agencies and 35 federal agencies and private security firms, hired by the oil company were present at some time."
"Over the seven months, law enforcement's prosecutors aggressively charged 841 water protectors exercising their Constitutional right in peaceful assembly."
Many of these arrested were detained and subjected to abusive conditions. They were subjected to unnecessary strip searches and jailed hours away from camp in humiliating conditions, Michelle told the Commission.
Local authorities aggressively prosecuted 841 water protectors, despite the lack of probable cause and the fact that there was no evidence in the vast majority of the cases.
"The Water Protector Legal Collective is pursuing a class action lawsuit for the injuries that occurred on November 20."
Now, following Standing Rock, Michelle testified that "oil and gas interests are pushing to criminalize protests against their fossil fuel projects, by engineering bills purportedly to protect against critical infrastructure sabotage."
Currently there are 95 anti-protest bills being proposed in 35 states including North Dakota. Of these, 14 have passed, 24 are pending, and 55 have been expired and defeated. There are 28 currently pending in state legislatures.
In Texas, House Bill 3557 would make some forms of protest a second degree felony on par with second degree murder.
In South Dakota, the riot boosting act has created a fund specifically dedicated to going after groups who are not in the state, in a direct response to Standing Rock
"We encourage the Commission to look at these bills and follow the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur."
Michelle testified with Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham testifying on militarization of border; Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca Tribal Councilwoman testifying on abusive arrest at Standing Rock; and Leoyla Cowboy, Dine' wife of imprisoned Standing Rock Water Protector Michael Little Feather Giron, Chumash.
Michelle Cook, Dine' (Navajo), is a Dine' lawyer, and organizer of the women's delegation to the Commission in Jamaica.
She is founder of Divest, Invest, Protect. Michelle is a commissioner of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, and co-founder of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock. As a Fulbright Scholar, she lived in New Zealand and learned of the Maori culture. She has traveled to Iran on cultural exchange, and was present at the Conference on Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2010. She is currently pursuing an advanced law degree in the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Read more in our series from Jamaica:
Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas' testimony: US seeks to annihilate Indigenous Peoples.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/us-homeland-security-aims-to-annihilate.html
Live from Jamaica -- Native Women Testify:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/live-from-jamaica-inter-american.html

Water Protector Leoyla Cowboy, Dine', honors NO DAPL Political Prisoners
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/water-is-life-political-prisoners.html

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas delayed two days by airline, with repeated searches, after U.S. slaps SSSS status on her boarding passes following testimony in Jamaica. Ofelia testified about the militarization of the border, and abuse by the U.S. Border Patrol
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/militarization-at-standing-rock-and.html

Brutalized at Standing Rock, Poisoned by Extractive Industries, Ponca Casey Camp Horinek Testifies
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/brutalized-at-standing-rock-and.html 

United States places blame on TigerSwan, private security, not police, for excessive force at Standing Rock

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/united-states-blames-excessive-force-at.html

Donate to Censored News for travel expenses for live coverage from Jamaica
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/censored-news-fundraiser-coverage-of.html
Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

May 22, 2019

US Homeland Security aims to annihilate Indigenous Peoples,Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas testifies in Jamaica


Ofelia Rivas in Jamaica.
Photo by Brenda Norrell

US Homeland Security aims to annihilate Indigenous Peoples, Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas testifies in Jamaica

US Homeland Security brutalizing Tohono O'odham in their homeland, Ofelia Rivas testifies in Jamaica

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas testified that her people are being brutalized by the US Department of Homeland Security, and her homelands militarized, just as was the case in Standing Rock.
Speaking before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica, Ofelia told of the 500 years of genocidal policies that today result in her people constantly under attack by the United States.
"U.S. Homeland Security has criminalized the Tohono O'odham," Ofelia testified.
As a result of her testimony, as she was returning home, the US placed an SSSS status on her airline ticket in Jamaica. Ofelia was delayed for two days with repeated searches in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami and Dallas.
In her testimony in Jamaica, she began by acknowledging the Arawak people, the ancestors of the island's people.
Ofelia said she was testifying as a direct witness and descent of over 500 years of brutal genocidal policies against Indigenous Peoples by the United States government.
In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and in 1953, the Gadsden Purchase, divided her original homelands into land in two countries, the United States and Mexico, displacing O'odham and placing them into exile, she testified.
"Today we exist on one-tenth of our original homelands in the United States."
Ofelia described the loss of O'odham homelands in Mexico.
"Our homelands have been sold and stolen by the state government and taken over by the drug cartels," she testified.
On the Tohono O'odham Nation, the most recent impact after 911, was the United States militarization of our homelands.
"The racist and inhumane laws such as the Patriot Act and inhumane immigration laws" have resulted in constant abuse of Tohono O'Odham.
"Today people are attacked by dogs."
"They have home invasions and are detained in their homes with their children.
"People are attacked by the armed military, and forced off the road and detained without cause."
"The US Department of Homeland Security has criminalized the Tohono O'odham."
Ofelia said she has witnessed O'odham elders who are 80 years old, kneeling beside the road, with their arms above their heads, because they do not understand the demands for proof of citizenship.
"They speak their own language. and do not understand the demands to speak English or Spanish," she testified.
She said that the United States intent is a widespread wipe-out of so-called inferior people with its genocidal policies.
Ofelia said the United States is intent on carrying out its policy of manifest destiny, as the world witnessed during the attack on Water Protectors in Standing Rock
"I pray that all animals, plants and living beings will be recognized and protected," she said in conclusion.
Ofelia is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall. She exposed the current plan for spy towers in her community on the Tohono O'odham Nation. U.S. Homeland Security has contracted Israel's Elbit Systems to construct the towers on sovereign land. Elbit is responsible for Apartheid security in Palestine.
Ofelia testified on the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples, with Michelle Cook, Dine' lawyer and organizer; Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca Tribal Councilwoman, and Leoyla Cowboy, Dine' wife of imprisoned Standing Rock water protector Michael Little Feather Giron.
The Indigenous women's delegation testified on May 9, in Kingston at the University of the West Indies.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard testimony from throughout the Americas.

Support Ofelia's work on her website: O'odham Solidarity Project
http://tiamatpublications.com

Read more:

Live from Jamaica -- Native Women Testify:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/live-from-jamaica-inter-american.html
Dine' Michell Cook: Oil companies engineer new laws after Standing Rock:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/criminalizing-indigenous-peoples-oil.html
Water Protector Leoyla Cowboy, Dine', honors NO DAPL Political Prisoners
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/water-is-life-political-prisoners.html
Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas delayed two days by airline, with repeated searches, after U.S. slaps SSSS status on her boarding passes following testimony in Jamaica. Ofelia testified about the militarization of the border, and abuse by the U.S. Border Patrol
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/militarization-at-standing-rock-and.html
Brutalized at Standing Rock, Poisoned by Extractive Industries, Ponca Casey Camp Horinek Testifies
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/brutalized-at-standing-rock-and.html
United States blames excessive force at Standing Rock on private mercenaries, not police, during hearing
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/united-states-blames-excessive-force-at.html

Below: Ofelia Rivas' exposures of the spy towers planned to be built on the Tohono O'odham Nation:




Breaking News Exclusive! This article is from 2015. But the spy towers are still planned.
US Israeli spy tower pact targets Tohono O'odham sacred mountain and spying on traditional O'odham

By Brenda Norrell
copyright Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

GU-VO, Tohono O'odham Nation -- The US has targeted two traditional Tohono O'odham districts, Gu-Vo District and Chukut Kuk District, with 15 new US spy towers built by the Israeli Apartheid corporation Elbit Systems, responsible for Apartheid security surrounding Palestine.
On Tohono O'odham land, the US conceals the fact the US Homeland Security gave the spy towers contract to the Israeli corporation Elbit Systems, responsible for the Apartheid security surrounding Palestine and a manufacturer of drones.
The Gu-Vo District opposes this proposal. Gu-Vo is in the western most district of the Tohono O'odham Nation.
The Gu-Vo District said in a statement, "The Gu-Vo District opposes these proposed tower sites to protect cultural sites on the holy mountain now called the Ajo Mountain Range. The mountain holds human remains of our people and also places of our cultural practices (medicine bundles) home and home of the ceremonial deer and bighorn sheep and mountain tortoises that are protected under the Endangered Species Act."
"The United States government military forces, the border patrol, have not been forthcoming with impact information, such as health effects and have deliberately misinformed the people regarding the immediate environmental impacts such as the roads they will build on the mountain and installation of electrical power lines to the sites as well as that these proposed tower sites will have a 25-year or longer impact on the mountain, the animal and plant life and the O'odham lives."



Tohono O'odham 1916

"The Gu-Vo District communities landscape have already been greatly impacted by numerous unauthorized roads and destruction of our mountains and hills of great significance to the O'odham way of life. Our future generations will face more restriction to live on our original lands as our rights as original Indigenous peoples continue to deteriorate."
"These U.S. proposed towers also are not on the border but in our communities and on the border of the Tohono O'odham Nation reiterating discrimination and deliberate attack on the O'odham," said Gu-Vo District.
While the US attempts to conceal who this contract has been granted to, the US border contract was celebrated in Israel.
Last year US Homeland Security gave the $145 million Integrated Fixed Tower to Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, instead of to a US corporation. Prior to this contract, Boeing spent $1 billion attempting to build spy towers before announcing that its spy towers on the Arizona border did not work.




Photo: US Border Patrol with spy cameras pointed into the home
of a traditional O'odham woman

The Israeli spy towers are the latest attack on the traditional O’odham, and a means of surveillance and oppression, for O'odham who live in their sovereign homeland.
The increase of US and Israeli militarization on sovereign Tohono O'odham land has resulted in widespread human rights abuses, including rapes and murders carried out by US Border Patrol agents.
US Border Patrol agents have been arrested and convicted in every region of the US border for running drugs. A Congressional hearing revealed that hundreds of US Border Patrol and ICE agents have been arrested and convicted of drug smuggling and serving as "spotters." Spotters are look-outs for the Mexican cartels and provide safe passage for the cartels to transport large loads of drugs into the US.
The US government has armed the Mexican cartels since 2005 by way of the US ATF's Project Gunrunner, Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious. The US media has failed to expose how US agents are involved in drug smuggling at the southern border. The US uses the excuse of this so-called war on drugs in an attempt to justify these US Israeli spy towers, which violate all laws of privacy and human rights in the US.
Meanwhile, universities have partnered with Israel to target Indigenous Peoples in the creation of drones and surveillance.
The University of Arizona in Tucson is boycotted by O'odham human rights activists for designing drones and border surveillance which target and kill Indigenous Peoples globally. San Carlos Apache also boycott the University of Arizona for taking the lead, with the Pope, in placing massive telescopes on sacred Mount Graham in Arizona.



Above: US spy tower near Sells, Arizona, on the sovereign Tohono O'odham Nation, viewed with outrage by a delegation of Mohawks, Lakota, Dine' and Pueblo during the Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas in 2007. The spy tower was located next to the "cage," constructed of a metal fence and concrete floor where migrants were detained, including Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and Central America, walking and hoping for a better life. Large numbers of Indigenous Peoples have died on the Tohono O'odham Nation of thirst and dehydration. The Tohono O'odham Nation created a law which made it a crime to give a drink of water, or aid, to migrants. This law was opposed by Tohono O'odham human rights activists who say they have been instructed by their ancestors to carry out a spiritual way of life for all of creation, the Himdaag way of life.


Below Aug. 2015:

















In the news:
Reuters: US Homeland Security awards contract to Elbit:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/02/us-elbitsystems-arizona-contract-idUSBREA2104K20140302
Epoch Times: During the Congressional hearing on border agent crime, the US admitted that since 2004, over 130 agents of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have been arrested, charged, or otherwise prosecuted on corruption charges. The convictions include alien and drug smuggling, money laundering, and conspiracy.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/congressional-hearing-examines-ethics-violations-at-dhs-242766.html
Israeli newspaper Haaretz: State of Arizona used Elbit drones on Arizona border in 2004:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israeli-drones-used-by-arizona-border-police-1.136572

Background: The IFT systems will consist of surveillance equipment (e.g., ground surveillance radars and surveillance cameras) mounted on fixed (i.e., stationary) tower(s); all necessary power generation and communications equipment to support these tower sites; and command and control (C2) center equipment (including one or more operator workstations) that are capable of displaying information received from surveillance towers on a common operating picture (COP), based on current BP AoRs.

Copyright, Brenda Norrell and Ofelia Rivas, Censored News
For permission to use any portion of this article: brendanorrell@gmail.com
Please share our link to this article: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/09/us-israeli-pact-targets-traditional.html

United States Blames Excessive Force at Standing Rock on Private Security, not Police, During International Human Rights Testimony


Standing Rock Water Protectors under attack by police
U.S. officials in three member delegation from State Department and Embassy are seated on far right during hearing.
The United States focused blame on TigerSwan and private security companies, instead of police and Sheriffs Departments, for the excessive force at Standing Rock

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- A delegation from the United States government focused blame on private security companies for the excessive force at Standing Rock, and not on the massive police forces that attacked Water Protectors, during the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing in Jamaica.
Showing disrespect to the Commission, the U.S. delegation, from the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy, said that the U.S. questions the competency of the Commission and does not have to abide by the Commission.
Referring to the private mercenaries TigerSwan, the U.S. pointed out legal action is ongoing against TigerSwan, which operated without a license in North Dakota. The case is on appeal this week in North Dakota.
Further, the U.S. said private security companies were responsible for the attack with dogs on Water Protectors.
The United States officials failed to explain or describe the massive buildup of Sheriff's Departments and police from throughout the United States responsible for the attacks on Water Protectors with tear gas, water cannons, sound cannons, and projectiles that resulted in serious injury to Water Protectors at Standing Rock.
The U.S. took no responsibility for the presence of the mass of police, or the injuries that resulted.
Instead, in the typical style of the U.S. bureaucracy, U.S. officials claimed the U.S. had investigated itself, formed a task force, and issued a report.
The United States delegation did not refer to the role of President Obama, who allowed the police abuse to continue, or the role of President Trump, who advocated for the pipeline and showed no respect for Native people.
Although the United States delegation said it is engaged in consultation with tribes, Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca, responded that "Consultation does not work." She described how elected tribal leaders are co-opted by energy companies.
Horinek described the injuries and abuse of peaceful Water Protectors by police, Morton County Sheriff deputies and jailers. Horinek showed the Commission the number written on her arm at Morton County jail, as was done to the Jews on their way to the gas chambers.
Horinek told how she was caged in a dog cage on a concrete floor with other Water Protectors, including diabetic children who were denied medicine and went into seizures.
Alexis Ludwig, Deputy Representative,  Mission to the Organization of American  States, claimed the U.S. values the work of the Commission and supports it. However, Ludwig questioned the competency of the Commission.
"We value the Commission even if we sometimes don't acknowledge the competency of the Commission to look into certain matters that involve pending judicial action in the United States," Ludwig told the Commission.
Ludwig thanked the Indigenous women who testified for their advocacy. "We may not always agree, but we do value your work."
Ludwig then said that the hearing is not a petition-based hearing on a specific case.
"These issues are very complicated," he said. Pointing out the sovereignty of tribes, he said the U.S. has flexibility in these matters.
Ludwig said a federal order mandates regular meaningful consultation with tribes.
Ludwig said that the US continues to push for meaningful implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Referring to the Indigenous women's delegation, he said, "our friends who have just spoken."
Ludwig said the Commission's work is not legally binding on the U.S., and the Commission does not have the right to apply the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Thomas Weatherall, an attorney-adviser for the U.S. State Department, said private security should act in a lawful manner.
"The United States takes seriously reports that excessive force may have been used," Weatherall told the Commission.
Weatherall said that the private security firm using dogs on Water Protectors was hired by the company constructing the pipeline, Dakota Access Pipeline.
Weatherall said Morton County organized a task force to investigate the attack with dogs.
Referring to the private mercenaries hired by the pipeline, TigerSwan, he said it was operating without a license.
The case against TigerSwan is on appeal in North Dakota, with oral arguments beginning this week, he said.
As a result of the task force, which included Sheriff's Departments and the BIA, he said the Department of Justice worked to promote dialogue and established a phone number for complaints.
U.S. officials described voluntary measures created to ensure extractive energy companies do not hire private security companies that result in excessive force and violence.
Bion Bliss, who works at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, was the third member of the U.S. delegation responding to the testimony of the Indigenous Women's Delegation, testifying on the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples.
Responding to questions after the testimony, Leoyla Cowboy, Dine; wife of Water Protector Michael Little Feather Giron, Chumash, said her husband has been through 14 lockdowns in federal prison. During those times, the family did not know if he was alive or dead.
The Indigenous Women's Delegation members are Michelle Cook, Dine' lawyer and organizer; Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca Tribal Councilwoman; Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham testifying on abuse by U.S. Border Patrol and militarization of the border; and Leoyla Cowboy, Dine' Water Protector; wife of imprisoned Water Protector Michael Little Feather Giron.
After the testimony, Commissioners asked how could this happen in the U.S. and why the U.S. has not abided by its own laws.
Read more:
Live from Jamaica -- Native Women Testify:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/live-from-jamaica-inter-american.html

Water Protector Leoyla Cowboy, Dine', honors NO DAPL Political Prisoners
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/water-is-life-political-prisoners.html

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas was delayed two days by the airline, with repeated searches, after U.S. slaps SSSS status on her boarding passes following testimony in Jamaica. Ofelia testified about the militarization of the border, and abuse by the U.S. Border Patrol
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/militarization-at-standing-rock-and.html

Brutalized at Standing Rock, Poisoned by Extractive Industries, Ponca Casey Camp Horinek Testifies
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/brutalized-at-standing-rock-and.html
Photos below by photographers at Standin Rock
.

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Please share our links.

May 21, 2019

The Beauty of the Road, Bad Bear's Longest Walk Photos in Kansas and Ponca City























Photos by Western Shoshone Carl Bad Bear Sampson in Kansas, top photos, and at the Frontline Oil and Gas Conference in Ponca City, Oklahoma, May 16 -- 18.
Today, walkers on the Longest Walk are in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, headed to Kansas City.
Bad Bear shares his photos of the beauty of the road in Kansas with us, and photos of the Frontline Oil and Gas Conference in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women were remembered, and No More Stolen Sisters proclaimed, in the resistance to the oil and gas industry and its man camps. 

Mohawk Nation News '3 Minute Objection'

3 MINUTE OBJECTION


Please post & distribute.
MNN. May 21, 2019. This is a response to a condolence letter from Martin Reiher, Assistant Deputy Minister, on Crown-Indigenous Relations & Northern Affairs Canada letterhead, without a date or address. A March 17 2019 letter was filed questioning the injustice of the proposed settlement of the McLean v. Attorney General of Canada on the Indian Day Schools travesty committed by Canada. The 3 minute objection filed in the federal court in Winnipeg is at the end.
Read article at Mohawk Nation News

May 20, 2019

US Supreme Court Affirms Crow Tribe Treaty Rights






US Supreme Court Affirms Crow Tribe Treaty Rights

By Native American Rights Fund
Censored News
May 20, 2019
Categories: Hunting and Fishing Rights
Despite an 1868 Treaty providing that the Crow Tribe retained the right to hunt off-reservation on certain lands ceded by the Crow Tribe pursuant to that Treaty, the State of Wyoming cited Crow Tribal citizen Clayvin Herrera for hunting elk in the Bighorn National Forest. The Wyoming courts sided with the State and convicted Herrera of violating state game laws in 2015, but in a 5-4 decision issued today, the US Supreme Court remanded the case back to the state court, and affirmed that the tribe's treaty-based hunting rights remain in effect. NARF represented the Crow Tribe as amicus curiae in the case before the United States Supreme Court.


Crow District Princess in Elk Tooth Dress, Crow Fair 2018

Crow Chairman Alvin Not Afraid, Jr., commented on the decision, "This day marks a victory for the Apsaalooke and for all treaty tribes, as our off-reservation hunting rights have been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. Our right to hunt in the Big Horn mountains—on the current day reservation or beyond—was important to our ancestors, is important to us today, and will be important to our children and their children. We look forward to seeing the State of Wyoming finally respect our 1868 Treaty Rights."
According to NARF Executive Director John Echohawk, "The Court's decision simply does what is right and recognizes that the Crow Tribe's treaty-guaranteed hunting rights continue to exist to this day. It ensures that state governments know that the promises that the United States government made to Native Americans, through the terms of our treaties, can't be erased by state laws."
Importantly, beyond the particular case of Mr. Herrera's hunting rights, the decision also affirms that treaty rights are not extinguished at statehood and that they stay in effect until extinguished by the treaty's terms or repealed by an act of Congress. In the majority opinion, Justice Sotomayor writes, "The treaty itself defines the circumstances in which the right will expire. Statehood is not one of them."
Learn more about the Herrera case.