Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

August 30, 2022

Censored 'Trespassing' film reveals Natives targeted by nuclear industry

Ward Valley: Halting a Nuclear Dump on Sacred Land. Photos by Molly Johnson

Censored around the world, the film Trespassing tells the story of the successful protest and halt to a radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley, led by Mojave and Colorado River Indian Nations. It shows the impacts of the atomic bomb testing on Western Shoshone and shares the words of Laguna Pueblo uranium miner Dorothy Purely. She died from cancer as the film was being made. A Dineh uranium miner from Red Valley on the Navajo Nation says they were never told of the danger of the radioactive dust where they ate their lunch. We interviewed filmmaker Carlos Demenezes in Tucson, where the film won a prestigious award in 2006 while being rejected globally. At Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert, the protests spanned years, with AIM and the resistance facing off with the Bureau of Land Management  on the isolated dirt road into the camp, for the protection of the desert tortoise and sacred mountain. The radioactive dump could have poisoned the water of the Colorado River, a source of water for millions. This powerful film was rejected by Sundance Film Festival twice, and most of the leading film festivals in the world after its release. The horrors of uranium mining and the nuclear industry of the U.S. government and its corporate partners, continue in a trail of cancer and death.

Energy Transition in Four Corners led by atomic bomb industry: Flying high under green banner



Energy Transition in Four Corners led by atomic bomb industry: Flying high under the green banner

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News


The Spin: Atomic bomb industry is leading Biden's green transition in the Four Corners.

The U.S. government is cheerleading for itself. It announced that its energy transition in the Four Corners will be led by the atomic bomb industry.

August 28, 2022

Legacies in Film: Zapatistas and Dineh Bennie Klain Inspiring Generations

.
Marcos in Comandantes


Legacies in Film: Zapatistas and Dineh Bennie Klain Inspiring Generations

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Subcomandante Marcos tells the story of "why we walk, and "why we die to live." Dineh filmmaker Bennie Klain's films exposed racism and gave voice to the survivors of both uranium mining and John Wayne at Monument Valley.

“We have nothing and that is what causes the movement of our resistance,” says Subcomandante Marcos, in “Caminantes." The documentary tells the story of Indigenous people walking to their homes, villages, and fields.

Where the Desert Meets the Sea: Termination as a Reporter and a New Beginning


Photo: Comcaac (Seri) fishing boats on the Pacific coast, with the sacred island mountain in the distance. Photo by Brenda Norrell.

Where the Desert Meets the Sea: Termination as a Reporter and a New Beginning

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

We're winding up our 16th year at Censored News. It wasn't planned. It began with a simple website, showing what was censored by Indian Country Today before editors fired me in 2006. There were the censored words of Buffy Sainte Marie, Louise Benally of Big Mountain, and many more.

The telephone call, firing me as a longtime ICT staff reporter, came just hours before the border summit began. A large delegation of Mohawk Warriors had just arrived in Tucson from the north and I was on my way over to San Xavier to cover it. Mohawks joined Tohono O'odham and those who live on the border.

August 27, 2022

Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers file in Quebec Superior Court Case

Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers file in Quebec Superior Court Case

#500-17-120-468-221 kahentinetha et al v. Societe quebecoise

des infrastructures et al.


The Mohawk Mothers filed at Montreal Superior Court on August 25, 2022 all the evidence for their demand for an interlocutory injunction to stop excavation of unmarked graves of children and disturbance of archeological remains of kahnienkehaka/Mohawks on tekanontak [Mount Royal Montreal]. Indigenous children and other test subjects were experimented upon in the 1950s and 1960s. More than 140 exhibits (affidavits, archives, scholar articles, newspaper clippings, drawings, pictures, maps, aerial photos, testimonies of witnesses, survivor statements, government reports, doctor correspondence, Phd. dissertations, book chapters government files,) support their position. On August 31 the opponents [McGill University, Royal Victoria Hospital, Allan Memorial Institute, McGill University Health Centre, City of Montreal, Quebec government, and Minister of Justice Canada] are challenging the right of the Mohawk Mothers to represent themselves. At the same time McGill threatens to excavate the unmarked graves and archeological remains before the hearing on October 26 to avoid an investigation of the archeological remains which their own institutions acknowledge as highly probable.

August 25, 2022

Catholic Church: 'Take the money and run'


Historical photograph of a nun and students at St. Anne's Indian Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont. (Algoma University/Edmund Metatabwin collection) The Canadian government has spent millions fighting payments to survivors in Ottawa

Catholic Church: 'Take the money and run'

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

An access to information request exposes Canada's secret deal that allows the Catholic Church to renege on its promise of $25 million for residential school survivors.

The day after the article was published in Winnipeg Free Press, the Pope announced that the Catholic Church is quickly moving all of its financial assets to the Vatican Bank.

The Catholic Church confessed to the crime of genocide in July.

Navajo Nation confirms Monkeypox case in McKinley County, New Mexico


McKinley County, New Mexico

Navajo Nation confirms Monkeypox case in McKinley County, New Mexico


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News


WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – The Navajo Nation said the first case of Monkeypox was confirmed. A Navajo living in McKinley County, New Mexico, contracted Monkeypox.

COVID-19 has also continued to spread with deaths.

Shasta River Diversion Defies State Law, by Karuk and Yurok Nations



Photo courtesy Yurok Nation

Karuk and Yurok Tribes Demand Immediate Action After Water Diverted from Shasta River Before It Reaches Klamath


by Dan Bacher
Censored News

Ranchers who are members of the Shasta River Water Association have defied state law by diverting water flows from the Shasta River, a key Klamath River tributary for imperiled coho and Chinook salmon, a joint press statement from the Karuk and Yurok Tribes revealed.

August 23, 2022

Red Cloud Indian School will search beneath concrete for graves at school with history of abuse


The Holy Rosary Mission, now Red Cloud Indian School on Pine Ridge, opened in 1888. Before he passed to the Spirit World this year, Lakota publisher Tim Giago described the beatings and rapes at the school.

Red Cloud School will search beneath concrete for graves at the school with a history of abuse

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

PINE RIDGE, South Dakota -- Before he passed to the Spirit World, Lakota publisher Tim Giago wrote about the beatings and rapes at the Catholic school on Pine Ridge. Warning about the apparent guilt at the school, which now wants to hear their stories, Tim said, "I will never forgive them for what they did to us."

Now, there is a search for graves at Red Cloud Indian School.

Red Cloud Indian School said it will remove concrete and search for possible graves of children in October, according to a statement on its website. The school is a private school of the Catholic Church, which opened in 1888 with the name Holy Rosary Mission.

Oglala Lakota Nation: Gold Mine Exploration Approval in Sacred Black Hills Fails to Comply with Law


draft decision from the U.S. Forest Service would allow a Minnesota company to conduct exploratory drilling for gold within a half-mile of the Pactola Reservoir in South Dakota's Black Hills.

Censored News

The Oglala Lakota Nation has drafted a letter to ask the Black Hills Forest Service to withdraw a decision notice on a gold exploration project. Lakotas said the Forest Service has failed to comply with the law.

“The Black Hills are sacred to our people,” the Oglala Lakota Nation said. “We know them as ‘the heart of everything that is.’ The Forest Service has failed to comply with the law and has failed to consider the environmental and cultural impacts of the Project under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

The Jenny Gulch Gold Exploration Project is a year-long drilling project planned near Silver City, South Dakota, in search of gold.

Now! Lockdown Shutdown Elbit's Death Machine in England


Now in England: Lockdown shutdown in front of Elbit Systems weapons factory. Elbit is the same company that constructed spy towers on the Tohono O'odham burial places. Now the spy towers transmit live data to U.S. Border Patrol agents who can stalk vulnerable O'odham in traditional communities.

Numerous Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector have been arrested for serial rape and drug running. In Palestine, Elbit Systems is a death machine, responsible for Israeli surveillance, weapons and weaponized drones. Elbit's contract on the Tohono O'odham Nation was granted by the U.S. government and approved by the elected Tohono O'odham Nation government over the objections of traditional O'odham.

Elbit is an Israeli defense contractor carrying out Apartheid. -- Censored News.

August 21, 2022

Apache Stronghold -- Ninth Circuit may reconsider Oak Flat appeal

Photo by Steve Pavey

Ninth Circuit may reconsider Oak Flat appeal  

Apache Stronghold vows to pursue all avenues to protect Oak Flat, including at the  Supreme Court 

By Apache Stronghold

Censored News

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=7389


SAN CARLOS, Arizona –The Ninth Circuit announced this week that it will hold a vote on whether to reconsider Apache Stronghold’s appeal to save Oak Flat, their most sacred site. This means Apache Stronghold may get a second chance to win protection for Oak  Flat in the Ninth Circuit before the case goes to the Supreme Court.  

Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr. of Apache Stronghold welcomed the news: “Oak Flat is the place we have connected with our Creator for millennia, and the generations that follow us deserve to continue this holy tradition. We are glad the Ninth Circuit is going  to take a closer look at this decision, and we hope it will do the right thing and protect  our most sacred site at Oak Flat.” 


August 18, 2022

Catholic Church Reaps Millions from Genocide of Native Children


Historic photo of St. Joseph's Indian School.


Native Children: Victims of fundraising and abuse by the Catholic Church

Brenda Norrell
Cenosred News
August 18, 2022

St Joseph's Indian School used young Lakota children in a television fundraising commercial today. It was broadcast on the Food Network.

Several Native children were used in the commercial for the school, operated by the Catholic Church in Chamberlain, South Dakota, with a history of horrific abuse.

Nick Estes, Lower Brule, describes the sexual abuse and beatings of Lakota who attended the school. It led to suicides.

Estes said the pedophiles and rapists at the school terrorized the children and girls who were impregnated by the priests.

August 17, 2022

Rapid Spread of COVID: CDC recommends masks indoors for much of Indian country -- August 17, 2022

While COVID spread at a high rate in parts of the Navajo Nation, a flashflood in
Sheepsprings, south of Shiprock, N.M., snatched cars and trailers yesterday. Screenshot
from video.


Dineh volunteer Bitahnii Wilson delivers water to fellow Navajos in Wide Ruins on the Navajo Nation earlier this week. Dineh elderly, sick and disabled, and isolated families without running water remain in need. Photo courtesy Bitahnii Wilson. K'eh Native Action.

Rapid Spread of COVID: CDC recommends masks indoors for much of Indian country  -- August 17, 2022

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
August 17, 2022

The CDC reports high levels of COVID transmission in much of Indian country, and recommends wearing masks indoors. About one-half of the counties in Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Kansas are at the high-risk level of COVID spread this week.

The Indian Health Service reports the fastest rate of spread in the Bemidji, Minnesota, IHS region. Meanwhile, the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota reinstated its mask ordinance due to the county's high rate of community spread.

Do not be fooled by Lithium Nevada's publicity tactics

.

Ribbon cutting for Lithium Americas’ Lithium Technological Development Center in Reno in July. Attendees included Brian Sandoval, University of Nevada, Reno president; Jonathan Evans, Lithium Americas CEO; Gov. Steve Sisolak; Littlestar Abel, member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe; Maria Anderson, Lithium Nevada’s community relations manager; and members of the tribe and Lithium Americas’ staff. (Lithium Americas press photo)

Do not be fooled by Lithium Nevada’s publicity tactics

Commentary Nevada Current

Thacker Pass lithium mining project will be the biggest desecration and rape of a known Native American massacre site in our area. I believe the lack of opposition from the elected officials of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe is a serious injustice to our people.

August 16, 2022

Oglala Lakota Nation tells Catholic Church to Repudiate Racist Doctrine of Discovery



.

The following letter is being delivered today to Jesuit Superior General, Fr. Arturo Sosa, asking the Roman Catholic Church to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery on his visit to Red Cloud Indian school. Wopila
Kevin Killer
President

Oglala Sioux Tribe 


"The Doctrine of Discovery forms the Western world's intellectual and legal foundation for the colonization of our peoples, which has led to the genocide of our peoples, the taking of our children, the theft and desecration of our lands, and innumerable other harms."

CANADA: Police Pepper Spray Three Land Defenders in a Show of Excessive Force




RCMP Pepper Spray Three Land Defenders in a Show of Excessive Force

By Gidmit'en Checkpoint
Censored News

Unceded Wet’suwet’en Yintah (Smithers - BC) – On Friday, August 12 around 4pm, land defenders were followed and harassed by police while enroute to their private residence on Gidimt'en yintah.

The police proceeded to use excessive force by arresting 2 land defenders and pepper spraying each arrestee and one other. One of the victims of this violent assault had already been placed in handcuffs behind their back before being pepper sprayed.

August 15, 2022

Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs in Vancouver -- Protest of Coastal Gaslink Pipeline

"When you drink that water, it is in your body, it is in your DNA."
"We will protect what we have."




Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust

August 15, 2022

https://fb.watch/eWn3oFmWOi/

Gidimt'en Checkpoint on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/wetsuwetenstrong

Come stand in solidarity with Wet'suwt'en hereditary chiefs as their Nation to Nation tour passes through Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Speakers will provide updates from the Yintah and from the tour. Bring your drums. #WETSUWETENSTRONG


Today in Vancouver: Wet'suwet'en block street downtown to protest Coastal Gaslink pipeline in northern B.C.

Wet'suwet'en Block Traffic in Vancouver in Protest of Coastal Gaslink Pipeline

A large rally planned in Vancouver to protest the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C. blocked traffic Monday morning.


Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs were joined by supporters for a rally outside Vancouver City Hall. The group then planned to march downtown before noon. At about 11:45 a.m., Vancouver police confirmed a demonstration had all northbound lanes of the Cambie Street Bridge closed.

Read more and watch news coverage:
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/wet-suwet-en-pipeline-protest-blocks-vancouver-traffic-1.6027709


Wet'suwet'en protest of Coastal Gaslink pipeline today blocks traffic in downtown Vancouver. Watch video coverage at Gidimt'en Checkpoint on Facebook: https://fb.watch/eWuoF_0ZUc/




.

August 14, 2022

Iwi leader up against New Zealand's biggest climate polluters in Supreme Court

'
Iwi Mike Smith


Iwi Mike Smith faced off with 30 attorneys in today's hearing.
                                                     Photo courtesy Mike Smith.

Iwi leader up against NZ’s biggest climate polluters in Supreme Court

Press statement
Monday 15 August 2022
Watch live during court sessions

Iwi leader Mike Smith is facing off against some of New Zealand’s biggest climate polluters today in the Supreme Court.

Smith is suing fossil fuel and dairy companies, including Genesis Energy, Fonterra, and Z Energy for public nuisance and negligence for their contributions to climate change. Over the next three days, the Supreme Court will decide whether the polluter companies may be breaching important duties to New Zealanders and ought to face a full trial.

Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu), who is co-chair of the climate directorate for the Iwi Chairs Forum, says that it is now or never to hold climate polluters to account.

“We are running out of time to curb the climate crisis. The Government has failed us on climate change, and it won’t act in time because every effort is undermined by lobbying from climate polluting interests. My hope is that the Courts can play their vital role and help stop the biggest wrong of all times.

The Struggle for Survival -- Energy, Genocide and the Targeting of Leonard Peltier

Creator Nabahe Kadenehe, Alliance for Survival. Courtesy Bard College 'Observer'

The Struggle for Survival -- Energy, Genocide and the Targeting of Leonard Peltier

Brenda Norrell
Censored News


The Four Corners Energy Map of 1980 was published in the Bard College newsletter, "Observer." The article details genocide in Indian country, the energy war in Indian country, and the targeting of Leonard Peltier.

The genocide of Native people by the United States government was carried out by murder, removal of children to boarding schools and foster homes, exploitation of energy resources, sterilization of women, and forced relocation. The cultural genocide was also carried out by missionaries and churches.

August 13, 2022

Mohawk Nation News 'Is Montreal Ashamed of Mount Royal Cross?'

IS MONTREAL ASHAMED OF MOUNT ROYAL CROSS? Audio


                                              Mohawk Nation News

Listen to audio at MNN

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2022/08/13/is-montreal-ashamed-of-mount-royal-cross-audio/ 

Audio

Audio Player

MNN. Aug 13, 2022. Here are two articles on “Mohawk Mothers” who asked for the removal of the Mount Royal Cross, translated from French. First, from Quebec reactionary  Mathieu Bock-Coté, followed by a response published on Aug. 11, 2022, in The Metro Journal By Philippe Blouin, PhD. candidate McGill, and Guillaume G. Poirier,  doctorate candidate, U. of Ottawa. 


August 12, 2022

Tribute to Allen Cooper: Radio man battling for the people


Photo by Barbara and Peter Clark. Allen at Standing Rock, with Don Cuny of Oglala.
They were both at Wounded Knee.

A KUNM Volunteer and an Activist of a Thousand Battles

Allen Fairfax Cooper

August 10, 1938-August 7, 2022


By Kent Paterson

Censored News

Brash, outspoken, committed and passionate. Just a few of the words that describe Allen Cooper. The former KUNM volunteer passed away on Sunday, August 7, 2022, a few days shy of his 84th birthday. A sailor, political activist, VW mechanic, educator, laborer, private investigator, and radio-cablevision host, Cooper wore many hats in his long and storied life. Yet he was always fighting the powers-that-be and struggling alongside oppressed, marginalized and subjugated peoples and communities from New Mexico to Mississippi to Central America and other reaches of the globe-sometimes at the risk of his own life.

KUNM was an essential part of Cooper's life. As a young Navy veteran and UNM student back in the early 1960s, "Coop," as his friends frequently called him, first became familiar with KNMD, a small, student-run radio station that had just opened in the basement of the UNM Student Union Building and was heard only on campus. In 1966 the station got a transmitter, was granted an FCC license, and began broadcasting with the new call letters KUNM.

August 11, 2022

COVID: Masks Mandated on Pine Ridge, Rapid Spread on Navajo Nation


Dineh volunteer Bitahnii Wilson delivers water to Dineh and Hopi
elders and others in need. K'eh Native Action.

COVID: Masks Mandated on Pine Ridge, Rapid Spread on Navajo Nation 

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The Oglala Lakota Nation said masks are now required due to the rapid increase in cases of COVID-19.

"As of today, August 11, 2022, Oglala Lakota County has gone into the High COVID-19 Community Level. Per Oglala Sioux Tribe Ordinance 22-53, Masks are now Mandatory in Oglala Lakota County," the Oglala Lakota Nation said.

CDC August 12, 2022 Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota
High level COVID
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/

On the Navajo Nation, there were 226 new cases, and four deaths, reported on Wednesday. Today, there were 127 new cases of COVID. Now, 1,871 Dineh have died from the virus. Currently, 69 Navajo communities have an uncontrolled spread of the virus, the Navajo Nation said.