Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 2, 2020

Best of Censored News 2019: Heroes in Resistance


Debra White Plume, honored for leading and resisting, delivers a symbolic blanket of smallpox to Lewis and Clark re-enactors, as AIM demands they leave the banks of the Missouri River. Photo Brenda Norrell.

Best of Censored News 2019
Heroes in Resistance

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Censored News honors our heroes, writers, photographers and translators, as we celebrate their wisdom, courage and fearlessness in the struggle for human rights and justice in the protection of the air, land, water and all living beings.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019 goes to Debra White Plume, Lakota, of the Owe Aku International Justice Project, for a lifetime of leading and resisting.

Speaking at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Debra spoke of protecting the water and the land and described the white man, the fat takers.

She told of the coming of a white man in heavy winter when there was deep snow. In those early times, fat was tied in the trees in a bladder or stomach bag of the buffalo. Fat was a very valuable substance because there is no fat on buffalo, elk or deer, except for a little around the kidneys.

The starving white man came for the bundles of fat. “He took them all, stuffed them all down his mouth. We called him the fat taker. He thought only of himself. He didn’t think of the women who worked for five months to gather the fat so we would have it through the five months of winter.”

Those words reflect the untold history of exploitation and greed when white men arrived on this continent. When Lewis and Clark re-enactors arrived in South Dakota, Debra gave them a symbolic blanket of smallpox.

Listen to Debra here, speaking from Red Warrior Camp at Standing Rock, as Water Protectors defend the Missouri River from Dakota Access Pipeline. Debra speaks on direct action and protection of the water. Recorded by Govinda Dalton and the team of Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio:

Debra speaks on 'fat takers' at the University of Arizona in Tucson
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/debra-white-plume-wasichu-fat-takers.html


Censored News Heroes of the Year



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Censored News celebrates our Heroes of the Year, the Kupuna arrested defending Mauna Kea from telescope construction in Hawaii. Their photos of being arrested in wheelchairs and after being locked down, tell the story:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/police-now-arresting-protectors-on.html
Censored News Best Series in 2019

Live from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica in May. 

Casey Camp Horinek, Ofelia Rivas, Leoyla Cowboy, and Michelle Cook. Photos by Brenda Norrell in Jamaica.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, testified on the militarization and abuse of O'odham on their homeland at the border by the United States. As a result, Ofelia was delayed two days in transit returning home by US Homeland Security, with repeated searches and delays, after an 'SSSS' was slapped on her boarding passes. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/us-homeland-security-aims-to-annihilate.html
Also see: Ofelia's video interview with Govinda Dalton, and article, describing how she was targeted after her testimony.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/militarization-at-standing-rock-and.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Series from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca, testified and described the abuse by the militarized police at Standing Rock. She described how she was arrested while in prayer and ceremony, then a number was written on her arm as was done to the Jews during the Holocaust, and she was caged in a dog kennel. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/brutalized-at-standing-rock-and.html

Also see: Casey Camp Horinek honors the Rights of Nature, and speaks out for murdered and missing women at Bioneers 
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/ponca-casey-camp-horinek-honors-rights.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Series from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Speaking with power and certainty, Leoyla Cowboy, Dine', honored the political prisoners arrested at Standing Rock, including her husband, and read a message from Red Fawn. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/water-is-life-political-prisoners.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Michelle Cook, Dine', testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Michelle, lawyer and member of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, testified on the new state laws targeting and criminalizing protesters exercising their rights in the U.S. Michelle organized the delegation to Jamaica to testify, along with the Water Protectors Legal Collective and staff from the University of Arizona. Michelle is among the organizers of the Native women's divestment delegations to Europe and founder of Divest Invest Protect. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/criminalizing-indigenous-peoples-oil.html

Also see: Michelle Cook speaks in Paris: 'Spiritual Currency in the Age of Capitalism.'
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/dineh-michelle-cook-in-paris-spiritual.html


Censored News Best: Writers, Photographers and Truthtellers
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Celebrating the Best of 2019, Censored News honors Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, who was among those standing at Oka. We share interviews with her daughter, including one of Kahentinetha's trip to Cuba at 19, and another of her evening with Marlon Brando. It is an honor to share her ongoing columns published at Mohawk Nation News. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/kahentinetha-horn-and-daughter-on.html

Mohawk Nation News
http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/


Photo by Western Shoshone photojournalist Carl Bad Bear Sampson
Censored News Photographer of the Year is Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Western Shoshone. Thank you for walking across this land on the Longest Walks and sharing your photos with Censored News! https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/03/walking-for-future-generations-longest.html

Photo copyright Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Dineh.
Censored News Best in 2019: The words of Buffy Sainte Marie, Cree, on the genocide and slavery of Native People. Buffy was interviewed by Tony Gonzales, director of AIM West, during the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz. Listen to her words on this audio, recorded by Govinda Dalton. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/01/buffy-sainte-marie-in-san-francisco.html

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Photo by Brenda Norrell, San Francisco 2019

Censored News Best in 2019: Video interview with Dr. LaNada War Jack, Shoshone Bannock, at AIM West in San Francisco, during the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz, and book review of War Jack's new book 'Native Resistance.' https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/10/backfire-lanada-war-jacks-new-book-on.html


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Photo by Brenda Norrell, San Francisco, 2019.
Censored News Best in 2019: Video interview with Rumšen Am:a Tur:ataj Ohlone Tribal Chair Dee Dee Manzanares Ybarra, co-chair of Southern California AIM, during the AIM West Unthanksgiving dinner, at events of the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz. Ybarra said 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. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/native-leader-says-trumps-empty.html

Best of 2019: Censored News honors Zapatista women for fearlessness and courage, speaking out for murdered and disappeared women at the Second Gathering of Women who Fight in Chiapas. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/zapatista-women-fight-for-your-lives.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Celebrating our fabulous French translator Christine Prat who works tirelessly to translate Censored News articles into French, and transcribe the powerful talks of Indigenous Peoples in Paris. Here is one of them, the talk of Wampanoag Hartman Deetz in Paris. And like everyone at Censored News, Christine works without pay. Thank you. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/wampanoag-hartman-deetz-no-thanks-no.html




Best of 2019: Standing Rock: The movement that rocked the world, and accelerated the defense of the water and the land into a global movement. Celebrating the work of editors Nick Estes and Jaskiron Dhillon, and all the writers within this book, 'Standing with Standing Rock.' https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/blood-memory-rising-book-review-of.html

Photo by Ryan Vizzions
Best of 2019: 'No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to the Standing Rock Movement,' photographs of Standing Rock by Ryan Vizzions, with forwards by Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Lakota, and Pte San Wastewin (White Buffalo Woman) Jennifer Weston, Hunkpapa Lakota from Standing Rock. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/no-spiritual-surrender-dedication-to.html




Photo by Sandra Rambler, San Carlos Apache.
Our award for Best Reporting for Censored News in 2019 goes to San Carlos Apache Sandra Rambler for coverage of the defense of Oak Flat from copper mining.



Photo by Ethan Sing

Censored News honors Louise Benally and all those living at Big Mountain and on Black Mesa, for their decades of resisting and struggle. For 40 years, they never gave up. 
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/08/big-mountain-standing-with-mauna-kea.html



Censored News Best in 2019: Censored News honors our new columnist Lisa DeVille, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, as a voice from the land, and proof that one person can make a difference. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/why-i-oppose-keystone-xl-pipeline-by.html

Returning to Alcatraz

Censored News honors Robert Free for sharing his journey as he returned to Alcatraz and put the tipi that stood during the Occupation of Alcatraz, 1969 -- 1971, in the hands of the youths to seek a national historic designation for it.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/when-warriors-were-warriors-robert-free.html

Radio and Global Reporting

Censored News Radio Host of the Year is Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Lakota from Cheyenne River, for his decades of radio programs on subjects often censored by others. Tiokasin's radio show First Voices Radio, in its 28th year, is aired on 92 radio stations throughout North America. The producer is Liz Hill, Red Lake Ojibwe, and the guest host is Anne Keala Kelly, Kanaka 'Ōiwi .
https://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/

Censored News Broadcaster of the Year is Govinda Dalton, honored for his decades of volunteer service in creating grassroots Indigenous radio, and this year for his reporting from the Texas border, where Native land defenders Carrizo Comecrudo battle the border wall. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/sacred-land-sacred-river-carrizo.html

Best reporting in North America in 2019: Censored News honors investigative journalists Jaskiran Dhillon in Wet'suwet'en territory with Will Parrish, for exposing the Canadian police snipers ready to kill Indigenous Peoples in Canada, published in The Guardian. 


Notes from a strategy session for a militarized raid on ancestral lands of the Wet’suwet’en nation show that commanders of Canada’s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), argued that “lethal overwatch is req’d” – a term for deploying an officer who is prepared to use lethal force.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents

Special thanks to Orin Langelle for live coverage from the protests and struggle for Indigenous rights in Chile:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/mapuche-lonko-alberto-curamil-acquitted.html

Congratulations to all the winners of the Native American Music Awards.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/native-american-music-award-winners.html


Censored News Bogus Award

Censored News Most Bogus Award for 2019 -- for flandering -- goes to the U.S. government's delegation responding to the testimony of Native women at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica in May.

The U.S. delegation's testimony meandered and was hard to follow. Ultimately the US blamed excessive force at Standing Rock on private security, and not on the hundreds of militarized police that beat Water Protectors, gassed them and shot them with rubber bullets and projectiles. If the US delegation made an intelligent response to the abuse by US Border Patrol on the Tohono O'odham Nation, it was not discernible during their mumbling. (Flandering: to attempt a conversation while unintentionally thoroughly confusing your listener, approving and negating a topic in the same sentence, to open up a conversation on one topic and randomly change to another.)

1 comment:

Floranet said...

I loved the topic you wrote on. It was an amazing ride of some great work.