Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

October 25, 2024

O'odham Woman Becomes Hero When Genocide Joe Comes to Town

Images courtesy O'odham Solidarity


O'odham Woman Becomes Hero When Genocide Joe Comes to Town

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 25, 2024


LAVEEN VILLAGE, Gila River Indian Community, Arizona -- In the Gila River Indian Community today, Biden claimed to be issuing an apology to Native children who were victims of U.S. boarding schools. His glory campaign was short-lived.

As Biden spoke, an O'odham woman held up this sign: "There Are Still Babies in Mass Graves. Your Apology Means Nothing!! Land Back."

Calling out to Biden, she said, "What about the people in Gaza! What about the people in Palestine!"

"How can you apologize for a genocide while actively committing a genocide in Palestine! Free Palestine!"

Security removed her.

O'odham Solidarity said, "Multiple O’odham U’uvi were harassed, heckled, followed for simply using their voice on their OWN land to bring awareness to the tens of thousands of Palestinian people brutally murdered by our government, our taxes, utilizing our ancestral lands to construct surveillance, weapons etc while manipulating our people. While Israel’s IFT’s (integraed fixed towers, spy towers) survey members on the Tohono O’odham nation and militarization harasses and even murdered Oodham people closer to the border."

"They need everyone to step it up, get out there and support," O'odham Solidarity said. 

Gila River Indian Community, located south of Phoenix, is home to Akimel O’odham and Pee-Posh.

Biden Offers No Apology for Genocide of Palestinian Children

Speaking at Gila River Indian Community today, Biden made no apologies for the tens of thousands of Palestinian children murdered with U.S. bombs that he has sent to Israel. Biden made no apologies for his war crime of sending U.S. white phosphorus to Israel for genocide.

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland made no apologies to Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache for bulldozing their ancient villages and burial places for transmission lines. Haaland made no apologies for allowing a Canadian company to dig into the Paiute Massacre Site for lithium. Haaland made no apologies for issuing a permit to an Australian company to drill into Hualapai's ceremonial place for lithium in Arizona.

Instead, they used the crimes against Native American children in boarding schools for the advancement of their political campaign.

Photo courtesy O'odham Solidarity, Gila River Indian Community today.


O'odham Solidarity: 'NO! to Genocide Joe'

O'odham Solidarity, urging protests today said, "An apology for genocide while actively causing a genocide is mind-blowing!"

"And we all know Joe has the blood of tens of thousand Palestinians on his hands."

"Deb Haaland and Joe Biden will be occupying Komatke Village issuing an apology for the genocide of our people. Most likely will flash dollar signs in exchange for approval of land exploitation and votes. The disrespect."

"Show Joe and Deb that everywhere they go -- they’ll be reminded of what they did to innocents across the globe," said O'odham Solidarity, a local grassroots group led by O'odham women.

Gila River community members received written invitations and were taken to Laveen Village by shuttle from the casino. 

Three Arizona Tribes File Federal Lawsuits Against Interior Sec. Haaland

Three Arizona Tribes have filed federal lawsuits against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo.

Haaland is being sued for the bulldozers now destroying ancient villages and burial places of Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache for SunZia's transmission lines for wind energy, on O'odham ancestral land not far from the site of today's political rally at Laveen Village.

Sobaipuri O'odham, ancestors of San Xavier O'odham, made their home in the San Pedro Valley of southern Arizona, like their ancestors Hohokum before them. Interior Sec. Deb Haaland is being sued by the Tohono O'odham Nation in federal court for the bulldozers now destroying ancient village sites and burial places. 

Hualapai have filed suit against Haaland for issuing a permit to an Australian company, Hawkstone aka Arizona Lithium, to drill for lithium at their sacred ceremonial place and endanger their sacred water in central Arizona, not far from where Biden and Haaland rallied today. The Hualapai Tribe states in its lawsuit that the tribe was never consulted before the Interior gave Hawkstone the permit to drill for lithium.

Haaland is allowing Lithium Americas of Canada to dig into the Paiute Massacre Site of Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass, in northern Nevada, for lithium, in violation of all federal laws protecting Native religious and historic sites, the environment and endangered species. Paiute and Shoshone elderly and women are now facing trial for defending the site.

Haaland is allowing uranium mining to continue in the Grand Canyon, endangering Havasupai's aquifer and poisoning Supai medicine plants with radioactive dust. The deadly radioactive haul route is to White Mesa Ute's community in Utah. Radioactive trucks endanger Havasupai, Paiute, Dine' (Navajo), Hopi and Ute.

The United States now plans to increase plutonium production and storage in the Pueblos homeland in northern New Mexico at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A federal judge has halted the plan due to environmental concerns.

Haaland said in Farmington, New Mexico, that Los Alamos Labs would lead the green "energy transition" in the Four Corners region -- a region scarred with scattered radioactive waste from uranium mining during the Cold War that the U.S. never cleaned up -- a region where Navajos and others who live in the region suffer from widespread cancer and respiratory diseases from oil and gas wells, and decades of coal mines and power plants.

No comments: