Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 29, 2019

Native leader says Trump's empty promises won't halt crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women

Chair Dee Dee Ybarra. Photo by Brenda Norrell.
Native leader says Trump's empty promises won't halt crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women 

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Video interview

SAN FRANCISCO -- President Trump's promise to halt the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women is no more than an empty promise aimed at getting votes, says Rumšen Am:a Tur:ataj Ohlone Tribal Chair Dee Dee Ybarra.

"President Trump is trying to entice us by signing a deal saying he is going to form a task force, which I believe is not true. He is using us to try to get our vote, to try to get our people to back him," Ybarra told Censored News during the American Indian Movement's UnThanksgiving Feast here.

Occupation of Alcatraz: LaNada War Jack 'From Self-Determination Back to Termination''



Dr. LaNada War Jack with her new book, 'Native Resistance,' at AIM West's UnThanksgiving
Feast in San Francisco on Wednesday. Photo by Brenda Norrell.



The Occupation of Alcatraz

LaNada War Jack 'From Self-Determination Back to Termination''

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Nov. 27, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO -- The victories that came with the Occupation of Alcatraz 50 years ago are now threatened by the Trump administration, said Dr. LaNada War Jack, Shoshone Bannock, at the American Indian Movement's UnThanksgiving dinner here.
"I'm really happy that we finally made it to our 50th year. There's been a lot of progress, we've gone forward, and unfortunately, we've gone many steps back as well because of the present administration. And of course after Standing Rock, he signed that executive order to allow the Dakota Access pipeline to continue, and now we have polluted waters in Montana," War Jack said in an interview with Censored News.
"We have gone forward into self-determination and now back into the termination era under the present administration."

Apache Wendsler Nosie going home to Oak Flat


Photo by Steve Pavey



Photo by Steve Pavey

Photo by Steve Pavey

By Vanessa Nosie

Censored News

Today Wendsler Nosie Sr. of the Apache Stronghold and former chair of the San Carlos Apache begins his journey home to Oak Flat.

“The history of our people, of all indigenous people, was to murder us and then place us as prisoners of war, to conquer our land for the purpose of greed. The U.S. government promises that one day we would be free and return home. Those words were lies and betrayal. Today my father, Wendsler Nosie Sr. started on his spiritual journey to return home to take his permanent residency at Oak Flat. He started this morning where they first imprisoned us at Old San Carlos.

"He is no longer allowing the U.S. government to continue to lie to him and his people. In his return home he is going to continue to fight this evil that has shown to us throughout this country and protect our holy sites, and our future generations to come. Please continue to pray for him and the journey he is on for his life will forever be changed.”


Read more: Religious leaders join Wendsler Nosie to guard Oak Flat

Daira, Tukano from Brazil: Europe must stop investing in the Genocide Industry




DAIARA, TUKANO FROM BRAZIL: EUROPE MUST STOP INVESTING IN THE GENOCIDE INDUSTRY

Daiara Tukano, from the Tukano People of Brazilian Amazonia, was invited by the CSIA-Nitassinan, in October 2019. Her speech is a masterpiece in denouncing colonialism and capitalism. She delivered it in French, and I hope that my English translation is good enough to reflect her ideas. Daiara is an artist, painter and musician. And a Warrior. -- Christine Prat

Daiara Tukano
October 12th, 2019
Translation and photos Christine Prat
French

Anne Pastor, journalist: Let’s say that he [Bolsonaro] has taken a very clear position. I think that during his campaign, he even said that the laws protecting the forest were a hindrance for the economical development of the country, and he promised to break them. We feel that he is true to his words.

Daiara: That person seems, at least, to be very determined to do what he says, it was not necessarily the case with the previous government. But Amazonia has always been a target for all kinds of attacks, and the struggle of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil has been going on continuously for at least 519 years. The issue is not so much a government being more violent than another, violence is permanent. However, it has to be said that, at the moment, violence becomes institutionalized, through the discourse of the Head of State, which confers a kind of impunity to all the crimes committed on our territories and against our populations.

PLYMOUTH: 50th National Day of Mourning

Photo by Rachel Jones



Mahtowin Munro
United American Indians of New England 
Censored News
The 50th National Day of Mourning was huge and uplifting. We had 1200-1500 people rallying and marching in Plymouth, with wonderful speakers repping Indigenous issues within Bolivia, Hawaii, Labrador, Manitoba, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Massachusetts, Maine and more.
“We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!”  said Mahtowin Munro, co-chair of United American Indians of New England, UAINE.
"Respect sovereignty. No person is illegal on stolen land. Remember the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirits."
Mad respect to the kitchen crews and ASL interpreters.
Thank you to all who came and made it such an amazing day!
Photo by Rachel Jones

November 27, 2019

AIM West Un-Thanksgiving San Francisco Photos


Behind the scenes, Bruce Gali says, 'Lenny Foster holding Council. Prayers up! Ahooo!'
Photo courtesy Bruce Gali
Live on Facebook at Brenda Norrell
Watch videos:


Dr. LaNada War Jack, Shoshone Bannock, with her new book, 'Native Resistance: An  Intergenerational Fight for Survival and Life.' War Jack spoke this evening on the events leading up to the Occupation of Alcatraz. Watch for our interview. Photo by Brenda Norrell

OHLONE RUMSEN AMA:A TUR:ATAJ
Tribal Chair Dee Dee Manzanares Ybarra
in an interview on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women with Censored News.
Photo by Brenda Norrell

Long Walkers and Warriors Bruce Gali and Wounded Knee.
Photo by Brenda Norrell
.
Lenny Foster, Dine', has spent his life advocating for the right to spiritual ceremonies for inmates
in prisons, with Bill Means, Lakota, and musician Dr. Loco.

Photo by Brenda Norrell
.


Western Shoshone Johnny Bobb with Professor Dr. Julian Kunnie. Photo by Brenda Norrell.
                                                        Follow our continual coverage.             


                                         Photos copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News


Apache Wendsler Nosie and Religious Leaders Will Guard Oak Flat, Join Them


Photos by Leslie Jean



By Apache Stronghold
Censored News
French translation

Friends,

You may have heard the news beginning to spread; Wendsler Nosie, Sr will be returning home to Chi'chil Bildagoteel, leaving tomorrow and walking from San Carlos. His intention is to stay, guarding the sacred site from those who seek to harm his religious right to be there. Indigenous peoples have been leading the fight to stop the transfer of land to a foreign company and the proposed Resolution Copper mine. His letter to the US Forest Service is attached below.

Spiritual leaders from around the country are coming to join Wendsler on this path, in solidarity. Rev. Dr. William Barber II and a delegation of the Poor People's Campaign will be there tomorrow. He hopes to arrive at Oak Flat on Saturday and all are welcome to join in spiritual support as he makes this return. Please respond to this email if you are interested to get updates over the next few days for how to show up.

Please send prayers to Wendsler and his whole family.

If you are with a journalist or with a media outlet, please contact Vanessa Nosie (vnosie11@gmail.com) to schedule an interview.

Thank you!
Protect Oak Flat!


As Christian ministers who are committed to the freedom of religion for all people, we call on all people of faith to stand with Wendsler Nosie Sr. and the Apache Stronghold before it is too late. To preach the resurrection of Jesus is to proclaim that no one and no one's tradition must be crucified for the greater good. We can protect the waters, protect Oak Flat, and still have enough resources for every family in this land to flourish. The history of terrible violence this nation has committed against indigenous people from the Trail of Tears to Standing Rock is a reminder that the apocalypse Nosie goes home to face is a real possibility. But it is not a necessity. We pray Americans will act to show genuine gratitude for the original stewards of this land and their religious freedom. We join our brother, Wendsler Nosie, in the call to save Oak Flat and in his journey as he goes home to Oak Flat. 
-Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
  

Leonard Peltier's Thanksgiving Message 2019



Leonard Peltier's Thanksgiving Message 2019

By Leonard Peltier
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

The year of 2019 is coming to a close and with it, comes the day most Americans set aside as a day for Thanksgiving. As I let my mind wander beyond the steel bars and concrete walls, I try to imagine what the people who live outside the prison gates are doing, and what they are thinking. Do they ever think of the Indigenous people who were forced from their homelands? Do they understand that with every step they take, no matter the direction, that they are walking on stolen land?

Mohawk Nation News 'Canajon Death Cult'


CANAJON DEATH CULT
Posted on November 24, 2019





MNN. Nov. 24, 2019. The pre-planned canajon death cult was implemented by the squatters instructed by the bankers from the moment they invaded onowarekeh, turtle island. [canajon is “Canadians” and means “squatters” in Mohawk.] [wahatinatsoten, they imbedded themselves in our land.]


“WHICH MEANS I CAN’T TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GENOCIDE OR WE ARE FINISHED.”

'They're killing us like dogs' a massacre and plea for help in Bolivia by Medea Benjamin

.


By Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
Censored News

Writing this dispatch from Bolivia, the conflict here is spiraling out of control and I fear it will only get worse.
I am writing from Bolivia just days after witnessing the November 19 military massacre at the Senkata gas plant in the indigenous city of El Alto, and the tear-gassing of a peaceful funeral procession on November 21 to commemorate the dead. These are examples, unfortunately, of the modus operandi of the de facto government that seized control in a coup that forced Evo Morales out of power.

National Day of Mourning Plymouth, Mass. Nov. 28, 2019


50th NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING TO BE OBSERVED
IN PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS
AT 12 NOON ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2019

 United American Indians of New England (UAINE) has called for the 50th National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thursday, November 28, 2019 at 12 o'clock noon.  Participants will gather by the statue of Massasoit on Cole's Hill above the Plymouth waterfront.

'The True, Indigenous History of Thanksgiving' with Passamaquoddy Chris Newell





Article by Bioneers
Censored News
The pop culture story of the First Thanksgiving, often told to children in grade school, is a myth. For the true story of what happened at the First Thanksgiving, and how Indigenous lives have been affected ever since, Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program’s Alexis Bunten (Aleut/Yup’ik) hosted a conversation with Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy), the Akomawt Educational Initiative’s Director of Education.

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas 'Destruction, obstruction and distraction on border' podcast by Moccasin Tracks


.
Ofelia Rivas at the Inter American Commission on Human Rights.
in jamaica: Photo Brenda Norrell 
Ofelia Rivas on Moccasin Tracks
by D. Reger's Podcast


Ofelia Rivas speaks about the Tohono O'odham homelands and the ancestors, as the destruction, obstruction and distractions disturb the sacred way of life.


EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Listen:
Music Credits:John Trudell, Crazier Than Hell CD, These Memories, Asitis Productions; John Trudell, AKA Grafitti Man, Rich Man's War, Asitis Productions; LakouMizik, HaitaNola CD, Cumbancha, songs: Renwen and La Fanmi Picture of Ofelia by https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com http://www.solidarity-project.org/ In this podcast from the radio show Moccasin Tracks, Nov 25, we talk with Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham Nation,who shares a perspective of a Nation that has been protecting land and sacred sites. Some decisions made by the Nation's leaders is bringing a military presence to their traditional territory that has been interrupted by the so-called wall being built by US Govt. Ofelia talks about what it is like to be a traditional Tohono O'odham woman and the challenges every day her people live with that are not natural.  Moccasin Tracks is heard weekly at WGDR Community Radio broadcasting from Goddard College, Mondays 9AM-10:30AM (eastern) archived at wgdr.org wgdr.moccasintracks@gmail.com radiowithdeb.wordpress.com www.facebook.com/MoccasinTracks We are syndicated on Pacifica Radio Network weekly, contact us for more information and thank-you for your interest and for listening! www.youtube.com/Moccasin Tracks ORCAmedia.net https://www.orcamedia.net/series/moccasin-tracks host, producer and audio editor is Deb Reger

Book Review: 'America's Most Alarming Writer: Essays on the Life and Work of Charles Bowden'


Charles Bowden at the 2010 Texas Book Festival Photo: Parker Haeg
Book Review: 'America's Most Alarming Writer: Essays on the Life and Work of Charles Bowden'

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Seated at the Mexican cafe with the defendants from the day's Earth First! trial, I didn't know who Charles Bowden was. I was thrilled that I was meeting someone who just came off the Sea Shepherd. As soon as Chuck began to speak in his rhythmic raspy voice about the unromantic soggy ride on the rough seas, I knew who he was.

He was the best writer that I would ever meet.

November 26, 2019

Water Protectors block gate at Enbridge tar sands terminal in Minnesota




Water Protectors Block Gate at Enbridge U.S. Tar Sands Terminal: We Will Stop Line 3

November 25th, 2019
Contact: giniw@protonmail.com
aysa@ran.org

CLEARBROOK, Minn. -- Early Monday morning, water protectors blockaded the primary gate of Enbridge’s U.S. terminal, the entry point of several pipelines carrying Alberta tar sands into the region.

One water protector was suspended from a tripod, in solidarity with indigenous-led opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 pipeline. Line 3 poses to be a 10% increase of tar sands extraction. The project seeks to pass through the Mississippi River headwater, hundreds of watersheds, and terminate at Lake Superior.

The climber, Sara-Beth Anderson, 21, a resident of Minneapolis, said, “I am a diver and love the ocean with all of my heart. The destruction of the sacred is happening because of these terrible decisions to keep extracting, to keep harming the earth despite what climate science has told the world’s leaders. I take this risk for the unborn, for the indigenous peoples fighting to protect their territories all over the planet, for the oceans. Anyone can take a stand against the greatest threat facing our shared world — get involved, get involved now.”

November 25, 2019

AIM West Conference, Feast and Concert Nov. 25 -- 30, 2019


AIM West Conference Nov. 25 -- 26
Feast Nov. 27
San Francisco 
 
Looking forward to providing news coverage on Wednesday at the AIM West Un-Thanksgiving in San Francisco, during the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz! -- Brenda. Censored News.


Mon-Tue,  Nov. 25-26,2019, 9 am -- 5:30 pm
       AIM-West Coast Conference
2969 Mission Street, San Francisco
(between 25th SSt.and 26 St, nearest Bart 24th St at Mission St)

 Special AIM guests include:

Madonna Thunderhawk
Bill Means
Len Foster
Puksu Igualikinya (Kuna-Panama)
Tom Poor Bear
Carol Standing Elk
Fred Short
LaNada War Jack

Keynote speaker on Monday, November 25 at 11:30 is Dr. LaNada War Jack, author of Native Resistance, An an Intergenerational Fight for Survival and Life.'

Mon 12:15-1:15 "Alcatraz is not an Island" will be screened during lunch. Director James Fortier with questions and answers afterwards.

Tuesday, November 26 Madonna Thunderhawk is the keynote speaker. "From Alcatraz, The Rock, to Standing Rock!"

Note the artwork on the flyer is a drawing of John Trudell which Tony Gonzales obtained permission to use for this flyer about the AIM West Coast Conference.

Wed, Nov. 27th 4 pm -- 8 pm
    Annual Unthanksgiving
            Feast of The "Eagle
           and the Condor"
362 Capp St., San Francisco, California

November 30 is the annual "Red and Blues" Benefit Concert for AIM-WEST, with the Bobby Young Project, Funkanuts, and the Firebirds Blues Band!
362 Capp Street, SF Doors open at 6:30 pm
Cover charge at the door
No one turned away.

Please check back for speaker and schedule updates.

Thanks to Tony Gonzales, AIM West director, and our friend Karen Wright for sharing details.

November 24, 2019

ACLU: Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government’s Spying Powers



Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government’s Spying Powers

The NSA has repeatedly used these powers to spy on Americans. It’s past time Congress reformed them.
By ACLU
Censored News
Congress today temporarily extended the NSA’s spying powers that time and again have been used to violate our rights. Disturbingly, this three-month extension was snuck into a broader funding bill, forcing members of Congress to choose between extending this program and causing a government shutdown. The extension is an unnecessary lifeline to spying programs that are plagued with compliance violations, have no proven intelligence value, and violate our rights.

November 23, 2019

Dine' Traditional Foods: Every food has a memory

My wood stove in the log cabin in the Chuska Mountains where I lived while I was food editor at Navajo Times Today, when it was a daily newspaper, with photos taken by me and other Navajo Times photographers for the food page. -- Brenda Norrell


Dine' Traditional Foods: Every food has a memory

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News


This is a story of stories. It is how I went to the Navajo Nation in 1979 as a nutrition educator and heard the old stories of wild foods. Katherine Arviso, Dine', who headed up the Navajo Nation's Food Programs during those years, and her mother, Louva Dahozy, spearheaded Dine' traditional food programs. Arviso initiated scientific research and analysis of traditional Dine' foods.

The most amazing results showed how juniper ash, cooked in blue cornmeal, was among the calcium-rich foods of Dine' survival. From the wild seeds and berries to the dleesh (edible clay), the foods were rich in nutrition. Together we made a pamphlet of the traditional Dine' foods in the basic four food groups.

After a long search today, I found the fading blue pages of scientific analysis called The Traditional Navajo Foods Basic Four, and the little blue pamphlet. (The pamphlet has a sad little goat on the cover, and sadly I drew this.)

In the stacks of forty years of news articles, there were the stories of Dine' women who shared the stories of their grandmothers, who were born during the Longest Walk. In the boxes of old photos, there was one of the old wood-burning stove in the log cabin where I lived, on the road to Lake Asaayi in the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation.

Beyond the newspaper stacks and photos, there was a memory. It was the memory of Saturdays, and likely it is a memory shared with many others. It was the memory of the Gallup flea market, and the long tables of just about everything from horse harnesses to record albums. On those sunny mornings, there was always just what I was searching for, chil'chin (sumac) berries in pickle jars, pinons in little piles, and old grinding stones. Every Saturday there was the fresh sourdough oven bread from Zuni Pueblo, and usually a little Zuni salt.


There are also the memories of peaches, gathered, sliced and drying in the sun in Canyon de Chelly; memories of picking pinons or going down to check on the corn with my neighbors, while watching for the wild turkey tracks and looking for wild tea.

Sometimes, there would be a long dried spiral of pumpkin or squash, sliced in the circular path of the old way, or a load of big round squash ready for an earth cellar, or ready for the fresh dried white corn, squash, and mutton stew. Always, there is the memory of the smell of sweet juniper, cedar and sage, and wet red earth.

After 18 years on the Navajo Nation, I moved south. But before leaving, I wrote for many newspapers, including those owned by Lakota Tim Giago, and for the Associated Press.

Here are some excerpts and recipes discovered on this food and life journey. The interviews and recipes span the years from when I worked for the Navajo Nation's food programs, the Navajo-Hopi WIC program and Navajo Food and Nutrition Department, to the years when I was food editor for the Navajo Times Today and later when I served as a staff reporter for Indian Country Today.

At Navajo Times, I tried everything as a food editor, even trying to make USDA commodity foods into edible foods, like USDA commodity salmon croquettes.

Today, there are many great Native chefs taking the old recipes and transforming these into award-winning cuisine. Perhaps, they will transform some of these ideas and recipes into incredible dishes to share.

Dine' interviews


Marie Allen, Dine', remembered the stories of her grandmother born in 1868. She lived to be 96.

"Much time was spent in those days preserving foods. At that time people were truly self-sufficient and planned for winter," Allen said. She was the nursing director at Indian Health Service in Fort Defiance at the time of the interview in the 1980s.

During the fall the wild foods were gathered, wild onions, wild parsley, lilies, wild spinach, wild carrots and tea. In summer, there were wolfberries, currants, chokecherries, and sumac. In the high country here, there were prickly pear fruits, yucca and pinons.

Allen said they were happy to go to the trading post and buy canned food and ready-made bread because it was time-consuming to cook foods. But then they found out that sickness came with those store-bought foods, including allergies.

Navajo elder Howard McKinley, who lived to be nearly 100 years old, recalled how corn pollen was used in ceremonies and corn silk was used for healing teas. Navajo women sang corn grinding songs as they ground corn on grinding stones. Parched corn was ground together with pinons for nut butter similar to peanut butter.

McKinley remembered picking wild yucca bananas and wild potatoes. He remembered how blocks of frozen water from Blue Canyon were carried in wagons and stored as chunks of ice for summer months in the cut-stone houses near his home in Tse Ho Tso (Meadow between the rocks) known as Fort Defiance, Arizona.

“People wouldn’t be getting cancer today if they were still eating the wild foods,” McKinley said. He served as a tribal councilman most of his life and traveled with Annie Wauneka, who became a legend, encouraging Navajos to adopt safer health practices in the fight against tuberculosis.

When McKinley saw Navajo elderly being served corn dogs on a napkin, he helped revolutionize Navajo food programs in the mid-20th century.

It was called “the corn dog harvest” in Washington.

McKinley, a storyteller, received a master’s degree and always walked long distances. While sharing stories on the front porch of his home from the early 1980s to the late 1990s with me, he credited his long life to walking and laughter.

McKinley remembered Mr. Shinn, a Norweigian who left bouquets of flowers on his doorsteps at 3:00 in the mornings at the Meadow Between the Rocks, Tse Ho Tso. Mr. Shinn would make candy by tossing orange peels and peanuts into bubbling syrup and keep those hard candies in his pockets for kids.

Living the good life, McKinley said, is like the tiny seed that takes root in the rock. Eventually, it grows, and the tiny plant slowly begins to crack the rock. No one has to do any blasting.

Katherine Arviso, director of Navajo Food and Nutrition, led the scientific study of traditional foods, which revealed the secrets of ancient Navajo foods. Among those, the ash made from burning juniper needles, cooked in blue cornmeal mush, is an amazing source of calcium and minerals.

Blue cornmeal mush with juniper ash (Taa niil) has 802 mg of calcium in one cup, compared to 2.4 mg of the same amount without ash (Toshchiin.) Minerals were also found in Navajo edible white clay, grey clay, tumbleweed ash and Zuni Lake salt.

The study showed that ash was superior to baking soda in boiled hominy corn. The ash added calcium and Vitamin A, while the baking soda added sodium which can increase hypertension.

Dried foods, stored for winter, were analyzed including dried yellow squash and zucchini squash and watermelon, good sources of vitamins and minerals. The study revealed high sources of protein and iron in mutton blood sausage, liver and heart.

Traditional Navajo “creamer” made from ground corn offered protein, fiber, calcium, magnesium and iron. Wild greens were very high in Vitamin A. One-half cup of Navajo spinach “waa” (Cleome serulatum) contained four times the recommended daily allowance for Vitamin A.

Chiilchin, sumac berries, were found high in Vitamin C. Roasted pinons offer protein, potassium, magnesium, iron and zinc.

The yucca bananas from the Yucca Bacata, wide-bladed yucca, are nutritious, sweet and delicious. The ripe fruit was eaten fresh or prepared for winter. The pulp from the wild banana fruits was either scraped and baked on a hot rock or the fruits were baked in a bowl in hot coals. The baked fruit was sometimes made into a roll, with a hole pushed through the center to allow air to circulate. A piece of the dried roll could be cut and added to cornmeal mush.

Yucca was used in many ways.


The center Yucca blades were used to make gazoo cheese by mixing the blades with goat’s milk. The blades were used for making brushes or as a combination needle and thread. The roots were prized as natural soap and shampoo.

Food clay or dleesh was mixed with wild potato or tomatillo berry to counteract the tart and astringent taste. Mixed with the boxthorn, it became a remedy for upset stomachs.

Before the days of mutton, brought by the Spaniards, and fry bread, the ingredients brought by the Cavalry and traders, Navajo traditional foods were wild plants and game. During times of hunger, wild grass seeds were gathered and ponies were eaten.

Arviso points out Navajos grew strong and healthy on the wild foods and game. Long before the days of fast foods, canned foods, and frozen foods, Navajos gathered and hunted their foods.

After the turn of the Twentieth Century, trading posts sold the first canned and processed foods and soft drinks.

Arviso said, “Navajo traditional foods are not the white flour and greasy foods that traders brought to the reservation.”

The Recipes


Navajo Cake
Bring six cups of water to boil. Add four cups of pre-cooked blue cornmeal. Next, add three cups of pre-cooked yellow cornmeal. Add one-half cup of raisins. Then, add one-half cup of brown sugar. Blend well, dissolving all lumps. Pour into a baking pan and cover with foil. Bake at 250 F for four hours. Allow the caked to cool slowly.

Navajo Blue Corn Marbles
Mix one cup juniper ash, prepared from juniper branches, and one cup boiling water. Put three and one-half cups water in a pot and boil. Strain into the pot the ashes and stir. Add six cups of blue cornmeal. Knead the dough until soft and firm. Shape into thumb-sized pieces. Put three cups of water in a big pot. Boil. Add dough pieces to boiling water. Serve hot.

Kneeldown Bread
Gather fresh corn in the field. One dozen feeds four people. Then build a fire in a pit, many inches deep. While the fire is burning in the pit, cut the kernels from the corn cobs. Place your grinding stone on a clean sheep or goatskin. Grind the corn until it is very smooth. Make the ground corn into cakes, about two inches by five inches long. Add salt if you like. Place the corn cakes between two husks in a way that they won’t fall apart.
Make as tamales. Take the hot ashes from the pit and lay them aside. Lay some husks over at the bottom and up the sides of the fire pit. Place the bread in and cover with more husks. Put the ashes from the fire on top. Build a little fire of twigs on top of it all. The fire shouldn’t be too big, or it will burn the bread. After an hour, remove all the ashes and husks off the bread. Eat.

Dleesh with Haasch’eedaa’ berries (Matrimony vine or boxthorn)
Wash the ripe berries until they become a juicy pulp. Dleesh is added so that it dissolves in the juice. The pulp is left in the mixture. The dlessh thickens the juice and flattens the naturally sour berries.

Dleesh is also eaten when too many fatty foods have been eaten, by dissolving in water.



Recipes from our food page in Navajo Times Today in 1986.

Read more at Censored News:
Traditional Navajo farming and planting songs

We would like to hear from you, if there's a recipe you would like to see added here, let us know. We'll try our best to find it.  If you would like to share a recipe, please send it.
Thanks for reading, Brenda
brendanorrell@gmail.com

Klee Benally Announces New Acoustic Album “The Unsustainable Sessions”




Klee Benally Announces New Acoustic Album “The Unsustainable Sessions”

Contact: Klee Benally

KINLANI, Diné Tah (Flagstaff, Arizona) — Klee Benally will release a new album, entitled The Unsustainable Sessions, on November 26, 2019. The album is now available for pre-order via digital download or compact disk at www.kleebenally.bandcamp.com. The Unsustainable Sessions is Klee’s second acoustic album and features twelve songs that dig deep into contemporary Indigenous conflicts. “So long as we’re fighting for justice, art should help move people into action.” states Klee, “If these songs can be twelve more rocks thrown against despair, that’s what matters. This is an Indigenous acoustic agitation for liberation.”

The Unsustainable Sessions was written and recorded over the summer with support through Patreon, a crowd-funding subscription platform to support and grow independent artists. “From providing necessary funds to make this happen, to feedback on art and collaborations, this album wouldn’t have been possible without the Patreon community.” says Klee, “I’ve been an independent artist for more than 30 years, so this platform helps enormously. I’m working on growing my support base so I can make more music, films, art, and write.”

The Unsustainable Sessions are a follow-up to Klee’s previous solo acoustic album “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance” (2013). “I took a break from making music in 2012 when my guitar wasn’t enough to stop bulldozers from desecrating sacred sites. I was focused on organizing and coordinating actions, then one day I woke up and said, ‘oh yeah, I’m an artist too.’” said Klee.

Klee’s next projects he’s building support for are two books and a board game. You can sign up to support him on Patreon at www.patreon.com/kleebenally.

Klee is also planning a short music, speaking, and film screening tour for part of the winter and Spring of 2020. You can contact him to book a presentation at indigenousaction@gmail.com.
 
You can watch the music video for “Over the Edge/In Reverence” here: https://youtu.be/CoxxSr5jfMY

Klee Benally is a Diné (Navajo) musician, traditional dancer, artist, filmmaker, & Indigenous anarchist. He currently lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. Klee is originally from Black Mesa and has worked nearly all of his life at the front lines in struggles to protect Indigenous sacred lands. Klee is an has produced documentaries, an award winning feature film, and continues to organize Indigenous justice campaigns. In a previous life he was the guitarist and singer in the Native American Music Award winning rock group Blackfire & dancer in the internationally acclaimed traditional dance group, The Jones Benally Family.

The track list:
1. Over the Edge/In Reverence
2. After the Fire
3. Hands on the Barbed Wire
4. When Banners Become Shields
5. Blood in my Eyes (listen via Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kleebenally/blood-in-my-eyes)
6. The Unsustainable
7. If it Ends Tomorrow
8.  She Was A Mountain
9.  ACAB Round Dance song
10. Holding Up The Sky
11. An Elegy for Broken Windows
12. To the Ground