Day 3 Boarding School Tribunal!

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Day 3 Live at the Boarding School Tribunal in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Click arrow above to watch live or go to:
http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles

Bill Means: "We are rebuilding our nations, because we have treaties"

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
More testimony from Day 3: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/10/conclusions-boarding-school-tribunal.html

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin -- The Boarding School Tribunal began its third and final day with speakers on Language Revitalization and the testimony of Bill Means, Lakota. Madonna Thunder Hawk shared the story of a Lakota elder from Cheyenne River in South Dakota. At four years old, he was thrown against the wall repeatedly until his bones were broken for wetting the bed in boarding school. His back is still scared from the beatings there.

Bill Miller center photo Brenda Norrell

Bill Means, the brother of Russell Means, said the boarding school concept began in prison. It was Fort Marion in Florida where they kept Indian leaders who fought against the US.
Richard Henry Pratt began to teach the prisoners and transform them. He later created Carlisle, and the concept, "Kill the Indian and save the man."
In the Dakotas was the boarding schools where Means parents met.
One of the common punishments was for speaking your language.
"The most severe punishment was if they heard you singing songs in public."
Means said his mother didn't talk about it until she was older.

We Are Still Here: 40 Years of AIM in Photographs

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Photo Dick Bancroft

Listen to the words of Clyde Bellecourt on how women gave the people hope when AIM was formed in Minneapolis. Bill Means describes how the movement has come full circle, and the Mayor of Minneapolis makes a proclamation honoring 45 years of AIM in Minneapolis

Video published on Jun 3, 2013
Journalist and writer Laura Waterman Wittstock and photographer Dick Bancroft have recorded, written and taken pictures of the American Indian Movement (AIM) for over 40 years. Their book, We Are Still Here published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, is a testament to that effort. It includes Wittstock's reflections on covering the native American civil rights movement as a young reporter in Washington, D.C., as well as some of Bancroft's striking and iconic images as the movement struggled for Native independence.
An exhibit of Bancroft's photos opened May 10 at All My Relations Gallery on Franklin Avenue, celebrated by drummers performing the AIM honor song, traditional foods and a gathering of AIM activists, including Clyde Bellecourt and Bill Means. Bellecourt, a member of the White Earth band of Ojibwe, reminded the crowd what it took for them to get to this place. "Our people were so beaten down," he shouted to the crowd, "We didn't think we could pull ourselves up," he said as he went on to tell people how AIM began as a group of people meeting on the Northside of Minneapolis. After years of enduring poverty and abuse from police, the Indian activists decided to take matters into their own hands. It wasn't just about better living conditions for Native Americans on and off the reservation, but about reviving their culture and demanding the federal government honor its treaties and show native nations the respect they deserved.
In 1972, Bellecourt and others traveled to Washington in a protest called The Trail of Broken Treaties to demand the federal government remove officials running the Bureau of Indian Affairs who AIM accused of being corrupt and greedy. That's where the photos of Bancroft's and the words of Waterman Wittstock come into play. Photos of the BIA building takeover showed American Indian men and women not as the cowboys and Indians of the John Wayne movie-myth making era, but as anxious and restless souls overturning desks, banging on drums and demanding the ear of federal officials to say that Indians were still here.
After three days, the protesters left the BIA building, taking with them the jobs of three officials in charge of the decision making. It had been a victory, but AIM members would take another militant stand at the impoverished village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in just a few months. Bancroft would also be at that 1973 armed confrontation between activists and their supporters on one side, and reservation officials and federal authorities on the other. Bancroft had gotten a camera as a birthday gift from his wife and was seen as an unofficial reporter within the movement. He remembers being the only one with a camera and the ability to afford the film.

Censored Blog Radio: AIM on Alcatraz

AIM to Obama: Abolish BIA; establish treaty commission and pass UN Declaration

By Brenda Norrell

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

ALCATRAZ ISLAND -- Speaking at the Alcatraz Sunrise Ceremony, the American Indian Movement called on the Obama administration to make real changes for Indian country. The challenge is voiced on today's Censored Blog Radio show, "AIM on Alcatraz," by Bill Means, with Pat Bellanger and Mike Flores.

Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, said the new administration in the U.S. offers hope. Means said the American Indian Movement is calling on the Obama administration to establish a new Presidential Treaty Commission; abolish the BIA and for passage of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On Alcatraz, Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham, described the assault by Homeland Security and the US Border Patrol on Tohono O'odham lands. Flores called for worldwide support to halt construction of the US/Mexico border wall and stop the militarization of the Tohono O'odham Nation and all Indigenous borderlands. Flores said the US is destroying endangered species, their habitat and migration routes.

On the broadcast, KPFA/Alcatraz Free Radio cohost Tony Gonzales points out that the people of Palestine are also suffering from the isolation, militarization and horrors of a border wall. Gonzales said while walls are coming down in Europe, the US is building a wall.

Bellanger, Anishinabe from Minnesota, shares a memory of Phillip Deer and the imaginary border. Bellanger said she has been with AIM since the beginning and it has been an incredible journey. She said the gathering at Alcatraz was a time to celebrate what has been accomplished and a time for giving thanks.

"We beat daddy Bush and we beat baby Bush," Bellanger says of the fight against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

Means also points out the rise in power of the Maori in New Zealand, a rising world voice empowering Indigenous Peoples.

Means said what happened on Alcatraz and at Wounded Knee, along with the fishing rights struggle, the struggle of Pitt River and the struggles elsewhere, led to sovereignty and self-determination.

Listen to today's show and three others in this week's series:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

--The first show, "American Indian Resistance," includes interviews with Morning Star Gali about the Shellmound Walkers. Long Walker Harry talks about service with the Black Mesa Caravan. Mohawk Mark Maracle speaks about Tyendinaga, at the AIM-West 40-Year Reunion in San Francisco. The show includes a segment from Alcatraz Island, with Clyde Bellecourt and Lenny Foster, Dine' speaking on Native religious freedom rights (30 minutes.)

--The second show, "Emergence of the American Indian Movement," includes Bill Means remembering Raymond Yellow Thunder, a Lakota whose murder in Gordon, Nebraska, changed the course of history for the American Indian Movement. Award-winning Anishinabe singer Keith Secola sings Fry Bread and NDN Cars. Clyde Bellecourt speaks on the importance and early years of AIM, during the AIM West 40-Year Reunion in San Francisco (90 minutes.)

--The third show, "Indigenous Voices of Resistance," includes Western Shoshone call in guests describing how Barrick Gold is currently bulldozing the Shoshone's sacred Mount Tenabo. During the first days of December, Barrick cut off Western Shoshone access to their ceremonial grounds. The show includes news and music. The All Nation Singers in California and the Longest Walk Northern Route at Cahokia Mounds, recorded by Earthcycles, sing the AIM song. (90 minutes.)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

Earthcycles live from San Francisco

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SAN FRANCISCO -- Earthcycles will broadcast live from the AIM-West 40 year reunion this week, beginning 10:30 am on Monday, Nov. 24, 2008. Producer Govinda Dalton and cohost Brenda Norrell will broadcast at http://www.earthcycles.net/ and on local 104.1 FM in San Francisco.
American Indian Movement members gather all day on Monday at the San Francisco main library, with Bill Means and Madonna Thunder Hawk. AIM-West continues on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Baha'i Center, with an Unthanksgiving Feast on Wednesday. Everyone is welcome.
The Alcatraz Island Sunrise Ceremony, hosted by the International Indian Treaty Council, will be at first light on Alcatraz Island Thursday morning. On Friday evening, AIM-West hosts a fundraiser concert.
Meanwhile, the Shellmound walkers and Peace Walkers are on a two week walk in the Bay area. The Shellmound walkers will be at the Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland on Thursday at 10 am.
Earthcycles will feature interviews from throughout Indian country, including Western Shoshone fighting Barrick Gold's plan to carve out their sacred Mount Tenabo. Local guests include supporters of the Berkeley City Council and its passage of the "No Border Wall" resolution. The issues of the Longest Walk will also be in focus, including protecting Mother Earth from power plants and mining, climate change, militarization of the US borders and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
From across Indian country, Paiutes are fighting to maintain their gathering and hunting rights; Kickapoo are struggling for their water rights; Navajos are fighting the Desert Rock power plant and the decades long devastation from relocation and coal mining. All along the border, Indigenous Peoples are struggling to survive as federal laws are voided to build the border wall. Meanwhile, private prison profiteering results in more migrants and American Indians in prisons. Sacred places are targeted for destruction as mining increases and corporations and political pirates seize federal and Indian lands in secrecy.
All across Indian country, more people are homeless and hungry, while tens of thousands of wild horses are targeted to be killed who once roamed on lands seized for gold mining and oil drilling.
Dalton and Norrell were cohosts of the Longest Walk Talk Radio across America, from Alcatraz to DC, for five months during 2008. The archives of interviews and songs are at http://www.earthcycles.net/
This week's schedule:
Monday all day, Nov. 24, 10: 30 am to 5:30 pm: Location – San Francisco Public Main Library, 100 Larkin Street. All welcome, press invited. Bill Means and Madonna Thunder Hawk. Issues from the south, national concerns, Treaty Rights, green economy, Mother Earth and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Tuesday all day, Nov. 25, 10 am to 5 pm: Location – San Francisco Baha’i Center, 170 Valencia Street (between 14th Street and Dubois Street). Land struggles today; Sacred sites; Manifesto for Change; fishing rights, subsistence gathering; political prisoners.
Wednesday, Nov. 26, noon to 6 pm: SF Baha’i Center, Unthanksgiving Dinner, Special human rights awards. Keith Secola, Phoenix! Fancy Dancers, Medicine Warriors and All Nations Singers. Lehman Brightman, Patricia Bellanger, Little Wolf Bellecourt, Yvonne Swan, Charlie Hill and Max Gail.
Thursday Sunrise, Nov. 27: International Indian Treaty Council, Alcatraz Island Sun Rise Gathering. Boats leave from Pier #31. Hornblower Tours (415-981-7625) Booths open 4:30 am or purchase online (recommended) http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/ Last boat over 6 am; return at 9 am. Shellmound Walkers at the Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland at 10 am.
Friday Night Nov. 28: Fundraiser concert AIM-WEST. SF Baha’i Center, 6 pm to 10 pm: Dr. Loco and Rockin’ Jalapenos, The Bob Young Project, $10-20 slide scale.
Information: http://www.aimwest.info/
AIM-WEST INFO: Tony Gonzales – 415-577-1492; Volunteer to help: Peggy Lemke 408-625-0986; John Powers – 415-559-9724 and Mark Anquoe 415-566-5788
Photo: Earthcycles radio bus at the culmination of the Longest Walk in DC, July 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell