Revolutionary Native Women Writers -- Twelve Years of Original Energies at Censored News

Ofelia Rivas, Kahentinetha Horn, Sandra Rambler, Debra White Plume, Michelle Cook, Buffy Sainte Marie, Louise Benally.

Revolutionary Native Women Writers -- Twelve Years of Original Energies at Censored News

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Censored News begins its 13th year of publishing in late September. Today we honor the Native women who were the first to share their voices and work with us. In the beginning, Censored News was a humble effort to reveal what had been censored when I was a staff writer at Indian Country Today. Through the years, it emerged, growing organically, as a platform for Indigenous Peoples and global human rights.
Kahentinetha Horn, long known for her defense of Oka, was among the first to generously share her work with Censored News. When Mohawks came to the southern border in 2006 and 2007, a powerful solidarity began between the north and the south, including the Zapatistas when Marcos and the Comandantes came to Sonora in 2007. Living in her homeland at Kahnawake, Kahentinetha publishes Mohawk Nation News, sharing guidance and words from the traditional teachings and the Mohawk Warrior Society. Kahentinetha writes the history that she lives.
Debra White Plume, revolutionary thinker and writer, living on her Lakota homeland on Pine Ridge, has shared her writings since the beginning. As the founder of Owe Aku International Justice Project, Debra has fought for the land, water and people, fighting against uranium mining and corruption, and fighting for truth and in defense of the land and water. When the Lewis and Clark re-enactors arrived in South Dakota, Debra gave them a symbolic "blanket of small pox." Censored News honored Debra twice previously as our 'Woman of Year' for her resistance.
Ofelia Rivas, O'odham lives on the Tohono O'odham Nation, at the so-called border that divides her family's homelands in what is now Sonora, Mexico, and Arizona. Ofelia exposed the construction crew on the border barrier digging up the remains of O'odham ancestors. The ancestors were later returned to their resting place with ceremony. She also exposed the Israeli spy towers now threatening O'odham communities. She has led the resistance to abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol in her homelands, and now delivers food and supplies to O'odham south of the border who are cut off from grocery stores by new border crossing  restrictions and closures of traditional routes. When the current US government halted migrants at the border, Ofelia welcomed them.
Michelle Cook, Dine' lawyer, has been a voice at Censored News since the beginning, sharing her experiences as a university student, first at the border, then in Iran, and later as she traveled from New Zealand, where she was a Fulbright scholar sharing with Maori, to the Mother Earth Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia. At Standing Rock, she founded the Water Protector Legal Collective, and co-produced with Govinda Dalton, Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio, live from Oceti Sakowin. Michelle organized the bank divestment teams of Native women to Europe, hosted by WECAN International, in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The long censored words of Louise Benally of Big Mountain, and Cree singer Buffy Sainte Marie, finally became known when I was terminated at Indian Country Today in 2006.
Earlier, Louise Benally spoke out against the bombing of Iraq on the day it was bombed by the United States, comparing it to the atrocities of the Dine' walking, suffering and dying on the Longest Walk to imprisonment. Louise remembered her ancestors at Fort Sumner, Bosque Redondo.
Indian Country Today censored Louise's voice and refused to publish a retraction. Louise continues to resist relocation at Big Mountain, orchestrated by Peabody Coal, energy barons and politicians.
Buffy Sainte Marie was at Dine' College on the Navajo Nation in 1999, joining John Trudell and other great Native musicians in concert. It was here that Buffy described how she was censored out of the music business by two U.S. Presidents -- Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. The US Presidents disappeared her shipments of records and told radio stations not to play her songs. Buffy's stance against the Vietnam War, and her song "Universal Soldier," made her a target for the war machine. 
Buffy's words at Dine' College were censored for seven years by Indian Country Today, Even when some of those words were published in 2006, the portion about uranium mining on Pine Ridge was censored by Indian Country Today. Buffy has generously shared her work with Censored News since the beginning.
Sandra Rambler, San Carlos Apache writer and photographer, was among those censored by Indian Country Today, in the struggle of Apaches to protect their land and water from politicians and corporations. Sandra shared the voices of San Carlos Apache elders -- the force behind protecting the land and water, sacred Mount Graham and Oak Flat -- before the elders made their journey to the Spirit World.
These revolutionary Native women writers and thinkers share the same love, tenacity and freedom of spirit shown by Che in South America. It is their willingness to sacrifice and arise that inspires new generations and generates hope.
There are no words adequate to express gratitude to these revolutionary writers, thinkers and organizers who were the first to share their words, photos, travels and clear thoughts  with Censored News.
Today, their voices are joined with Indigenous women from around the Earth, and their words of resistance, dignity, autonomy and self-reliance, without compromise, are translated into languages worldwide.
We say 'thank you' for your original energies. Your love, passion and clarity has steadily exploded into inspiration and movements in the homelands and around the world.

In memory of the children, Dine' and Apache imprisoned at Bosque Redondo,
during the Longest Walk.

Dedicated to my friends, Cate Gilles, journalist on Navajo and Hopi lands, and Leroy Jackson, cofounder
of Dine' Citizens against Ruining the Environment, who were both found dead.
Without their running ahead, and showing the way, this ongoing work would not be possible.
Thank you.

Links:
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

Owe Aku International Justice Project
http://oweakuinternational.org

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

Louise Benally, uncensored on bombing of Iraq and the Longest Walk to imprisonment
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id78.html

The Blacklisting of Buffy Sainte Marie, by Censored News
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-blacklisting-of-buffy-sainte-marie.html

Michelle Cook, divestment team in Europe. Read more at WECAN, International
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/04/indigenous-womens-delegation-in.html

Sandra Ramber, Apache, The Gift of Water and the Apache Burden Basket
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/03/sandra-rambler-at-oak-flat-gift-of.html

Notes:
At Censored News, everyone is a volunteer. Censored News has published for 12 years with no salaries, grants, or revenues. Please donate to these powerful writers. Contact Censored News for contact information for writers, Brenda Norrell, publisher: brendanorrell@gmail.com 

Indian Country Today was created in the mid 1990s by Tim Giago, Lakota, who never censored my articles. After ICT was sold to the Oneida Nation in New York in the late 1990s, the censorship began. ICT was recently acquired by the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C.

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Buffy Sainte Marie: Uranium, an interview and a photograph

Buffy Sainte Marie: Uranium, an interview and a photograph

By Brenda Norrell, copyright
Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

It is amazing what can happen when one finds and publishes a photograph from years ago. The photograph is of Buffy Sainte Marie singing at Dine' College. It was taken the day I interviewed Buffy in 1999. She told me about being censored out of the music business by Lyndon Johnson because of her song "Universal Soldier" during the Vietnam War. She spoke of the personal hardship it brought, but also of what happened to others, including Anna Mae Aquash.

Buffy spoke of the occupation of Wounded Knee and the shoot-out with FBI agents at the Jumping Bull residence at Pine Ridge June 26, 1975.

"That is where Leonard Peltier's troubles began," Buffy said. Buffy said that few people recount the true history of what happened on that day in history.

"Who recalls that on that day one-eighth of the reservation was transferred in secret -- on that day. It was the part containing uranium. That is what never seems to be remembered," Buffy said.

The interview remained censored for seven years by Indian Country Today, where I served as a staff reporter for the majority of those years. When Buffy's interview was finally published by ICT, one portion still remained censored.

It was the portion about Anna Mae Aquash's death in relation to the fact that Pine Ridge was targeted for uranium mining at that time.

Tonight, I received an e-mail message pointing out that on June 26, 1975 Oglala Sioux Chairman and GOON squad leader Dickie Wilson was in Washington signing away one-eighth of Lakota land for uranium mining.

It was the same day that two young FBI agents were sent into the Jumping Bull camp. It is the reason that Leonard Peltier has spent his life in prison.

So, tonight I searched for more about the uranium mining that Pine Ridge was targeted for.

The e-mail came from Jack Cohen-Joppa at Nuclear Resister.

"Thanks for posting your interview with Buffy Sainte Marie. I was taken by this comment of hers, particularly: 'Who recalls that on that day one-eighth of the reservation was transferred in secret -- on that day. It was the part containing uranium. That is what never seems to be remembered.'

It is my recollection of this fact (learned from reading Akwesasne Notes and Rex Weyler's writing about Peltier, I think) that led us to include Leonard Peltier on the Nuclear Resister's 'Inside & Out' list for nearly the entire time we've been publishing (since issue #3, March 1981.)

We wrote '... On that same day, June 26, 1975, Pine Ridge Tribal Chairman Dickie Wilson was in Washington DC, illegally signing away one-eighth of the reservation's lands to the Department of Interior. There is uranium on this land...'" http://nuclearresister.org/

On the web, the John Graham website states: " .. the US had an eye on developing uranium mining on a portion of the sacred Black Hills, an area known as Sheep Mountain. This area has proven to be one of the richest in uranium deposits in the US. The FBI implemented their counterintellegence operation in Pine Ridge, in order to weaken and destroy the urban Indian movement, and to subjugate the traditional Lakotas for once and for all."
http://www.grahamdefense.org/200411investigatethefeds.htm

Posted on Russell Means' Lakotah Republic website: "In 1975, with his control of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota secured by force, Tribal President Wilson set about ceding uranium-rich areas of the sacred Black Hills to the federal government.

AIM assisted in protecting Pine Ridge’s traditional families from the constant onslaught of violence, which culminated in the AIM occupation and government siege of Wounded Knee in the Spring of 1973. From 1973 to 1976, the people of Pine Ridge lived under the 'Reign of Terror'—more than 76 Natives, mainly traditional Lakotah and AIM members, were murdered, primarily by Wilson’s goons, a term coined by the elderly women who protested against them.

Later, in a perverse play on words, the goons called themselves, 'Guardians of the Oglala Nation' (GOONs)."

Then, I remembered being at Sheep Mountain. We climbed and watched for helicopters in the night, as Lakotas protected the remains of the Ghost Dancers at the Stronghold in 2002. In the dark night, the sky filled with lightning and thunder. All Creation was there at that moment.

Buffy's lyrics:
"My girlfriend Annie Mae talked about uranium
Her head was filled with bullets and her body dumped
The FBI cut off her hands and told us she'd died of Exposure…
"Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Deep in the Earth
Cover me with pretty lies
bury my heart at Wounded Knee."

Finally, I do not know who killed Anna Mae Aquash. But I do know that two separate groups of witnesses, all local Lakotas on Pine Ridge, said they were there when it happened at Oglala. Many never came forward out of fear. But they do identify the same person as the killer. That person is not any of the men, including Arlo Looking Cloud now in prison for this crime, who have been charged.

Lakota lands and Indian country are once again targeted for uranium mining.

Buffy has just released a new CD, "Running for the Drum."

The uncensored interview with Buffy Sainte Marie: http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id99.html

WWII tests exposed Lakotas in Badlands during genocidal studies using uranium

In situ leach uranium mining is the new form of genocide in Indian country:

http://www.rense.com/general84/occd.htm

Updated reference: Uranium on Pine Ridge

"... Meanwhile, on Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a storm was gathering. In 1973, the federally installed regime of tribal president Richard 'Dickie' Wilson was attempting to transfer the barren but uranium-laden northwestern eighth of the reservation -- an area known as the Gunnery Range -- to the Interior Department. As his reward, Wilson anticipated U.S. support in establishing what amounted to his own feudal dynasty.

When traditional Oglalas resisted his attempt to seize their land, Wilson created a goon squad, paid with Bureau of Indian Affairs funds and largely composed of off-duty Bureau cops. The U.S. government dispatched a sixty-member SWAT unit of federal marshals from Washington to reinforce him. When the marshals came in, traditional Oglalas requested direct assistance from the American Indian Movement. This brought about the movement's occupation of Wounded Knee."

--"Like a Hurricane -- The American Indian Movement: From Alcatraz to Wounded Knee -- a book review," by Ward Churchill, published in The Progressive

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_n6_v61/ai_19482846/