Spy Balloon with U.S. Military Contract Passed above Indian Country, now over Canada

Photo courtesy Aerostar of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Today, on Monday evening, HBAL653 passed over New Foundland, Canada, after traveling across Indian country and the northern border in the U.S. Screenshot by Censored News.

A South Dakota company with a U.S. military contract has a surveillance balloon that passed over Indian country and has just passed above New Foundland, Canada.

By Brenda Norrell
Copyright Censored News
August 28, 2023

A balloon with a U.S. military contract passed over Indian country, including Oklahoma, Pueblos, Navajo, Hopi, Paiute Shoshone, and Fort Peck, before passing above the U.S. Canadian border. The surveillance balloon floated above Montreal, Canada, and Maine, and then offshore of New Foundland, Canada.

The balloon, owned by Aerostar of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, received a U.S. military contract on July 28 -- bundled in a $900 million Airforce contract for new technology. Aerostar said it carries out surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance. Documents filed with the FAA state surveillance balloons are searching for "threats to Homeland Security." The ACLU earlier expressed concern over this persistent surveillance.

This surveillance and data collection means spying on innocent people without a warrant.

Helium Balloons Launched over California Today, as U.S. Military Tests new Warfare Techniques

Flight Radar24 shows these high altitude balloons launched, August 28 between 9:30 and 12:30 UTC: HBAL654 (N874TH AC06E3) HBAL655 (N875TH AC0A9A) HBAL656 (N876TH ACOE51) and HBAL657 (N877TH AC1208.)

Helium Balloons Launched over California Today, as U.S. Military Tests new Warfare Techniques

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 28, 2023

A series of high-altitude balloons were launched today from Inyokern airport in the Indian Wells District of California, southwest of Death Valley, and are now above central California. 

This comes as a separate balloon has crossed Indian country and the northern border. It is owned by Aerostar of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which carries out surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance and received a new U.S. military contract on July 28.

Aviation Week reports on the U.S. Army's plans for high-altitude balloons:

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama—The U.S. Army has validated requirements for two types of uncrewed, high-altitude aircraft—balloons and solar-powered fixed wing—with the goal of using them not only for surveillance but also targeting, navigation and kinetic strikes.

The Army wants multiple types of platforms of both types that can be deployed and connected in a “daisy chain” to see beyond where its long-range systems can fire, such as the upcoming Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) and Mid-Range Capability. While the first push has been for long-range targeting, there are also annexes to the original capability document that are in various stages that call for active electronic warfare payloads, cyber operations, network extension, advanced precision navigation and targeting, and “launched effects,” Mulack said during the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here Aug. 8. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/what-us-army-plans-high-altitude-balloons-solar-aircraft

Nevada Media Bias Reflects White Supremacy Exposed in Decades of Civil Rights Testimony

Protests in Farmington, New Mexico, in 1974 came after three Native Americans were tortured and murdered. In the 1990s, 20 years later, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in Shiprock, New Mexico, heard testimony that the racism, white supremacy and violence by whites in Farmington, New Mexico continued. Photo credit.

Herman D. Benally, Navajo, was tortured and murderd
in Farmington, New Mexico, in 1974.

Nevada Media Bias Reflects White Supremacy Exposed in Decades of Civil Rights Testimony

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 28, 2023
French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8173

The bias of Google News, Nevada media, and the mainstream media is obvious in its coverage of Lithium Americas at Thacker Pass. The news articles accelerate the corporate profits for the Canadian company Lithium Americas and do not honor or uphold the voices of Paiute and Shoshone protecting the massacre site at Peehee Mu'huh.


https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/after-45-years-have-race-relations-improved-in-farmington/ Protests after Native Americans were tortured and murdered in the border town of Farmington, New Mexico.

The bias is a reminder of the longtime bias, censorship, and racism that have dominated news coverage in border towns. The civil rights testimony carried out in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, revealed that the media, police and courts were all complicit, or involved in, the racism and white supremacy in the border towns of Rapid City, South Dakota, Farmington, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, and elsewhere, which resulted in the torture and murder of Native people.
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Peehee Mu'huh Massacres Gathering at Nipple Rock, Nevada 2023

3rd Annual Commemoration of Peehee Mu'huh Massacres - Gathering at Nipple Rock. Saturday, September 9th, 2023 11am - 1pm

Peehee Mu'huh has two known massacres. One massacre that gave Peehee Mu'huh its name and a documented massacre on September 12th, 1865. There are over 1,000 cultural sites at Peehee Mu'huh and 56 of them are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. People of Red Mountain and others will gather to commemorate these massacres and the history of our sacred landscapes.

#ProtectPeeheeMuhuh #ProtectThackerPass #ProtectMcDermittCaldera #LifeOverLithium #EcosystemsOverLithium #RunningOnSagebrushTime

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Now: 21 First Nations Under Evacuation Orders and Alerts in BC -- Yellowknife Evacuees Angry over Lack of Federal Aid

"We've been abandoned." Anger in Shuswap.

Justin McElroy · CBC News · Posted: Aug 22, 2023 7:47 PM EDT | Last Updated: August 23

British Columbia, Canada -- Across the Shuswap, as small communities enter their fifth day contending with a massive wildfire that has destroyed blocks of homes, one sentiment comes up repeatedly.

"We feel like we've been abandoned," said Tracy Wojciechowski, publisher of the community newsletter North Shuswap Kicker. 

"People are exhausted, people are emotional, people aren't getting sleep, and people are frustrated with what appears to have been a lack of communication." 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/shuswap-fire-response-bcws-analysis-1.6944412

Now: 21 First Nations Under Evacuation Orders and Alerts in BC 

APTN reports: "As of Tuesday, August 22, evacuation orders and alerts are in place for 21 First Nations due to growing wildfires that are sweeping across the province.

British Columbia remains in a provincial state of emergency, enacting emergency orders including travel restrictions in Okanagan cities to preserve accommodations for evacuees and roads for emergency vehicles.

Surveillance Balloons Over Winnemucca, Navajo and Hopi Lands

Aerostar helium balloon photo by Aerostar

Surveillance Balloons Over Winnemucca, Navajo and Hopi Lands

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Monday, August 21, 2023

WINNEMUCCA, Nevada -- A surveillance balloon was over Winnemucca today at 1:30 a.m., the same day that Paiute Shoshone announced that they asked the Nevada court to dismiss charges filed by Lithium Americas against those defending the Paiute Massacre Site at Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass.

The surveillance balloon over Winnemucca shows no registered owner.

The balloon was in international waters northwest of Santa Barbara, California, lingering there, as shown on flight radar, before traveling over Winnemucca today. 

NWT Wildfire Evacuees Locked Down, Shooting Injured Three at Edmonton Mall

By Cabin Radio

Multiple evacuees from wildfires in the Northwest Territories found themselves locked down at the massive West Edmonton Mall amid reports of gunfire.

Edmonton Police said on X they were dealing with “multiple reports of a shooting” at the mall as of 9pm on Monday evening.

Water Protectors Sued by Mining Company ask Court to Dismiss Case

The protectors, including descendants of survivors of the 1865 Thacker Pass massacre, were sued by Lithium Nevada Corporation for defending a sacred site

By Protect Thacker Pass

Censored News

August 21, 2023

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8165

WINNEMUCCA, Nevada — A group of seven water protectors sued by a mining company for peacefully protesting the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada have asked a State Court to dismiss their case.

Their brief, filed on Friday, argues that the protesters were exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceful assembly.

Tŝilhqot’in Nation Wildfire Evacuee Support, Camping in BC

The McDougall Creek wildfire burns on the mountainside above a lakefront home, in West Kelowna, B.C., on Friday, August 18, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

By Tŝilhqot’in Nation

The Tŝilhqot’in Nation has opened a group lodging centre to protect its community members, as well as Indigenous Peoples across the province, in the event of an evacuation due to wildfires.

The Tŝilhqot’in Nation has worked collaboratively with the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) on the temporary group lodging accommodation centre, which will provide a culturally safe environment for up to 100 Tŝilhqot’in Nation members and other Indigenous Peoples from across the province, if needed.

Accommodation offerings at the site, located adjacent to Tl’esqox (Toosey) in Riske Creek, include ranger tents, family-sized tents and spaces for RVs. Recognizing that August is peak tourism season when hotel room availability may be limited, this site is intended to be a supplementary resource, bolstering the region’s capacity to host evacuees.

Wildfire Devastation in British Columbia, Canada

Wildfire Devastation in British Columbia, Canada

Article by Cabin Radio https://cabinradio.ca/144488/news/environment/wildfires/hay-river-evacuation-will-be-weeks-town-manager-says/

City of Kamloops, BC -- August 19, 2023: Support for neighboring communities

The City of Kamloops activated its Emergency Operations Center at a level 1 on August 18 to support Emergency Social Services (ESS) for neighbouring communities and First Nations affected by wildfires. An ESS Reception Center and Group Lodging have been established at the McArthur Island Sport Center. The City of Kamloops has also established a camp for BC Wildfire Services crews on McArthur Island. The City’s Emergency Operations Center will remain active throughout the weekend.

Yellowknife: 19,000 Evacuated -- Structures Burning in B.C.

Saturday night update: Widespread destruction in BC:

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/08/wildfire-devastation-in-british.html

Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023 -- British Columbia, Canada wildfires -- Tragically, the agency confirms that the spread of the fire has impacted communities in the North Shuswap. The Bush Creek wildfire jumped across Highway 1 between Chase and Sorrento. The Trans Canada Highway through the Shuswap remains closed. Read more: https://www.kamloopsbcnow.com/watercooler/news/news/Wildfire/Unparalleled_crisis_Shuswap_fires_impact_communities_Hwy_1_remains_closed/#fs_128524 

Fled wildfire by boat in BC: The Lower East Adams Lake wildfire has prompted several evacuation orders in the Shuswap Lake area east of Kamloops, B.C., in what officials say is the "most devastating" day for fires in the region's history.

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) and First Nations in the area issued evacuation orders Friday night for the Scotch Creek, Lee Creek, Celista, Magna Bay and Little River areas on the north shore of Shuswap Lake.

The Scotch Creek and Talana Bay bridges, parts of the main access route to Highway 1, were closed, and Scotch Creek residents were told to evacuate by boat Friday night.

Those orders expanded Saturday morning to further parts of Magna Bay, while the alert in the Celista area expanded to the Scotch-Lambertson forest service road area.

On the south bank of Shuswap Lake, the fire forced 135 properties to evacuate in Turtle Valley while residents of Chase and Sorrento were placed on evacuation alert by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/shuswap-wildfire-evacuations-august-19-1.6941630?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

Maasai Evicted from Homeland for 'Heritage Site' in Tanzania

Ngorongoro is a mixed World Heritage Site, Man and Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO Global Geopark

 

The Ngorongoro Maasai in open protests to demand the restoration of their ancestral lands and residency rights; and the restoration of the social service programs illegally diverted as part of the starve-them-out-of-Ngorongoro strategy of the Samia regime. Video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1687520849299935232

Conservation Racism in Ngorongoro: A Tragic Loss of Common Sense and Leadership

By Denis Oleshangay 

August 14, 2023

The displacement of the Maasai in Ngorongoro is primarily attributed to the desire to protect wildlife and ecology from the very people who have been its natural environmental conservators for centuries. Despite being praised by world-renowned ecologists for their contribution to preserving wildlife, the Maasai community is being forced out of a land built on solemn pledges and promises that no one would be evicted in the future. The eviction began to escalate under the sixth regime, with President Samia Hassan leading the charge and the state apparatus executing the plan. The government, conservation departments, parliamentarians and media used xenophobic narratives as a means of justifying the eviction of the Maasai from Ngorongoro.
Read article https://mwanzotv.com/2023/08/14/conservation-racism-in-ngorongoro-a-tragic-loss-of-common-sense-and-leadership/

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Group Masaï Ngorongoro area Tanzanie. Biosphoto / Alain Pons

Yellowknife Evacuation Routes

The town of Enterprise, NWT, Canada, was 90 percent destroyed by a wildfire. Photo Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. Photo courtesy Paul Flamand. Flamand, a father-of-three from Enterprise fled north to the community of Wrigley. Flamand runs a plumbing business in the community of 100 people where nearly every building was consumed by flames earlier this week. “I lost my house, a couple of shops. Everything I’ve worked for and worked on, all my projects, Global News reports.

Yellowknife Under Evacuation

By Cabin Radio

Live coverage https://cabinradio.ca/142575/news/yellowknife/live-thousands-leave-yellowknife-as-wildfire-approaches/

Evacuation Routes by Air and Land (see list below)

 https://www.gov.nt.ca/en/transportation-and-evacuating-safely

Update: Thursday 5 pm local time, August 17, 2023

A wildfire threatening Kakisa has triggered an evacuation order, plunging the NWT further into a fire-driven crisis of extraordinary scale.

As Yellowknife’s 20,000 people evacuated over a separate fire, Kakisa’s 36 residents – far to the south but on the same highway system – were ordered to head west to Fort Simpson, away from most of the column of Yellowknifers heading south to Alberta.

Kakisa would ordinarily evacuate to Hay River, but Hay River is itself fully evacuated with an oncoming fire blocking highway access. Fort Smith, Enterprise and the Kátł’odeeche First Nation are also under evacuation orders.

YELLOWKNIFE, NWT, Canada -- The Northwest Territories’ capital is emptying out after government officials said they had until Friday to get out before wildfires could overrun the area.

While the forecast isn’t certain, the territory’s wildfire agency said that if rain does not materialize on Thursday, a wildfire 16 kilometres west of Yellowknife could reach its outskirts by the weekend – and another fire could reach homes along the Ingraham Trail, northeast of the city, by Friday.

Ingraham Trail residents, residents of Dettah to the east of Yellowknife, and people living on Yellowknife’s western edge were told to get out now – on Wednesday night if they could – in an announcement that came early on Wednesday evening.

It's not a UFO: Tucson tourism/spy balloon company plans Navajo Hopi tourism and views from stratosphere

Arizona-based company World View Enterprises aims to start lofting paying customers on stratospheric balloon rides in 2024, as depicted in this artist's illustration. (Image credit: World View Enterprises)


Photo courtesy World View

Tucson company plans $50,000 rides into stratosphere below elite hot air balloon, including tourism packages on Navajo Hopi lands. In partnership with an international defense contractor, it has already launched intelligence flights over Grand Canyon.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2023

The hot air balloon over the Grand Canyon today belongs to World View in Tucson, which plans to sell $50,000 rides into the stratosphere next year. The elite tourism packages include trips to Navajo and Hopi lands, World View said.

It's a mix of tourism rides over the Grand Canyon and other top tourist spots in the world, offered by the company, World View, which has partnered with an international defense contractor, Sierra Nevada Corp.

Sierra Nevada said it is already using the balloons for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. It has launched balloons out of Page fulfilling a contract for the U.K. Defense Ministry, the company said.

Forest Protectors Arrested at Fairy Creek

Forest defenders were arrested on Tuesday at Fairy Creek Watershed on Vancouver Island, Canada, northwest of Seattle. They are protecting the old-growth forest from logging by Teal Cedar Products. Still from Twitter video https://twitter.com/i/status/1691545661777539074

Forest Protectors Arrested at Fairy Creek

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2023

VANCOUVER ISLAND, Canada -- Three forest protectors were arrested on Tuesday protecting the old-growth forests west of Victoria, as Canada continues to target Native people with police operatives protecting the interest of destructive industries. The police ops are British Columbia's C-IRG, the Community Industry Response Group.

Mourning the invasion of the militarized police squad who arrested the forest defenders, who were his guests, Pacheedaht First Nation Elder Bill Jones said, "We are at the end times of our great forests."

Democracy Now: Native Hawaiian Noelani Ahia on Loss and Re-Seeding on Maui

More information at Mauna Medic Healers https://www.facebook.com/MaunaMedicHealersHui

Na'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center devastating loss of culture and history

Native Hawaiian Noelani Ahni describes the struggle to bring healing and restoration after the wildfire resulted in widespread loss

Watch Democracy Now! https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/11/noelani_ahia_maui_wildfires

In Lahaina, the area in west Maui that is of historical importance to Indigenous people, entire neighborhoods were wiped out by this week’s historic wildfires, including the Na 'Aikane o Maui Cultural Center, which had a massive archive that was lost to the flames. We are joined by Noelani Ahia, a Kanaka Maoli activist, who describes the community's reaction to the destruction of Indigenous cultural documents, art and artifacts. “In the blink of an eye, it was burned to the ground, and all of those things were lost,” says Ahia. She also describes mutual aid efforts now underway and notes, “T​he people on the ground know what the community needs.”

Dangerous Music: Sugar Man, Beatles and Buffy Sainte Marie

Sugar Man, Sixto Rodriquez

How music cracked open the world: Searching for Sugar Man, How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, and the music of Buffy Sainte Marie

In memory of Sugarman, who passed to the Spirit World this week, we share our article about how music shook the world: Sugarman's sounds opened the door for those locked in Apartheid in South Africa; the Beatles uplifted those who were desperate for freedom in Russia; and the censored words of Buffy Sainte-Marie, describing backstage at Dine' College how the US presidents forced her out of the music business in the US because of her stance against the Vietnam War.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Dec. 16, 2012

Republished Aug. 13, 2023
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Searching for Sugar Man, and How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, tell the same story, in very different ways. Both films tell how music, forbidden and censored music, transformed lives, instilled hope, moved generations, and brought social change to two countries, South Africa and the Soviet Union.

 

While music instilled the yearning for freedom and liberation in South Africa and the Soviet Union, the leader of the so-called free world, President Lyndon Johnson was putting Cree singer Buffy Sainte Marie, the sound of American Indian resistance, out of business.

Sweet Journey Robbie Robertson

Wishing Robbie Robertson a sweet journey in the Spirit World.

Rolling Stone writes

ROBBIE ROBERTSON, THE Band’s guitarist and primary songwriter who penned “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and many other beloved classics, died Wednesday at age 80.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/robbie-robertson-dead-the-band-1234803234/

The Guardian writes:

Robertson’s other gift was one that is rarely celebrated in the rock histories, because they celebrate those who reached too far, who suffered for their art: he was really very good at getting things done. He was a child guitarist – obsessed by both the rock’n’roll records he heard on the radio in Toronto from across the border, and by the country they came from – and joined the backing band of rock’n’roll singer Ronnie Hawkins at the age of 16 in 1959, first as bassist, before swapping to lead guitar of the Hawks. Robertson learned his trade not in the folk clubs of the East Village or the underground ballrooms of Detroit and San Francisco, but in the roadhouses and bars of a touring group playing to eat and live. Which meant that in due course it seemed as though there was no challenge to which Robertson could not rise.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/10/the-band-robbie-robertson-captured-a-dream-of-what-america-was-is-and-might-be

 

Robbie Robertson Ghost Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA0zpemMUow

Robbie Robertson bio
https://robbie-robertson.com/biography/

Honoring Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, Grand Canyon National Monument

Grand Canyon Condors by Jim Dublinski

Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Celebrates Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument Designation

Article by Brenda Norrell

Information contact: Carletta Tilousi, Coordinator
Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition, carlettatilousi@gmail.com
Statements courtesy Anna Peterson, Conservation Communications
Censored News, August 8, 2023

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kooBdXto04

RED BUTTE, Arizona -- The creation of the new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, Grand Canyon National Monument, will halt new uranium mining in the area. Regardless of the United States' assertion of land ownership, this land has been the homeland of Native people since time immemorial.

Native leaders spoke of their ancestors and said this is their going home place.

Havasupai Chairman Thomas Siyuja Sr., said, "The Havasupai Nation celebrates this historic moment in time, but we also pause for a moment to honor our tribal ancestors who started this journey long ago."

MNN 'Mohawk Mothers unveil ongoing genocide of indigenous people of Canada'

Mohawk Mothers unveil ongoing genocide of indigenous people of Canada

Posted on August 8, 2023

 

Mohawk Nation News

Please post & distribute.

MNN.  Aug. 8/23.

The Proximate Aspect; Mohawk Mothers unveil ongoing genocide against indigenous people.

Mohawk Mothers kahnistensera victory in Quebec Superior Court.:

C A N A D A  PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, DISTRICT OF MONTREAL.                        

No.500-17-120468-221

 KAHENTINETHA-and-KARENNATHA-and-KARAKWINE-and-KWETIO-and-OTSITSATAKEN-and-KARONHIATE                         Plaintiffs

V.

SQI SOCIETE QUEBECOISE DES INFRASTRUCTUES-and-ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL-and-MCGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER-and-MCGILL UNIVERSITY-and-CITY OF MONTREAL-and-ATTORNEY GENRAL OF CANADA      Defendants

-and-

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF QUEBEC                Mis-en-cause

-and-

OFFICE OF THE INDEPENDANT SPECIAL INTERLOCUTOR ON MISSING CHILDREN & UNMARKED GRAVES & BURIAL SITES ASSOCIATED WITH INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS     Third Party Intervenor 

As the story goes, the first land out of the water was turtle island. All four races were created here on turtle island. All living things have the same mother. She is the earth. We all have the same source energy as father who shall survive and co-exist as brothers and sisters living on our mother. In each of our minds is a piece of the source energy which makes each of us a sovereign creator being. The peace comes when all of us put our minds together based on the good message that we are all earthlings.