Showing posts with label First Nations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label First Nations. Show all posts
September 21, 2025
Cree Dene Mskwaasin Agnew to Join Freedom Flotilla 'Letter on the Siege on Gaza'
September 18, 2025
Indigenous Women Join Freedom Flotilla to Deliver Aid to Gaza
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"We are the Indigenous delegation of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. We gathered in front of the boats of our comrades the Thousand Madleens to send good blessings on their way. From the Great Lakes, to the Ice Caps, to the Sea, Palestine will be free!!!" -- Danmark boat now sailing to Gaza.
Indigenous women joined the flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the horror of starvation and genocide is ongoing. The flotilla boats were hit twice by explosives during drone attacks in Tunisia.
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail today from Italy, Tunisia and Greece to unite in International waters, the flotilla said Sunday morning, at noon New York time. Boats from Spain had already set sail, among 44 countries sending delegations and boats from around the world.
Brave Hearts to the Front
Indigenous Women Join Freedom Flotilla to Deliver Aid to Gaza
The International Indigenous Youth Council announced today solidarity with two Indigenous women from Turtle Island joining the Freedom Flotilla bringing aid to Gaza.
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Updated Sept. 19, 2025
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| Dr. Suzanne Shoush, St'atl'imx/Sudanese, and Mskwaasin Agnew, Cree/Dene Salt River First Nation |
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail today from Italy, Tunisia and Greece to unite in International waters, the flotilla said Sunday morning, at noon New York time. Boats from Spain had already set sail, among 44 countries sending delegations and boats from around the world.
Dr. Suzanne Shoush, St'atl'imx/Sudanese, and Mskwaasin Agnew, Cree/Dene Salt River First Nation, are joining the Freedom Flotilla Coalition Women's boat to Break the Siege on Gaza.
February 6, 2024
Native Children Starved, Victims of Medical Experiments, in Boarding and Residential Schools
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| Fort Albany Sisters of Charity of Ottawa National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation |
Native Children Starved, Victims of Medical Experiments, in Boarding and Residential Schools
By Brenda Norrell
Research by Dr. Michelle Cook, Dine'
Censored News, Feb. 6, 2024
Native children were starved during food experiments in residential schools in Canada, and left sick and untreated during medical experiments in boarding schools in the United States. Native women were sterilized without their consent by Indian Health Service. In IHS hospitals, the medical experiments range from controversial radioactive infusions to experimental vaccines.
August 9, 2016
Amnesty International: Site C Dam proposal endangers Indigenous Peoples
Site C Dam - Human Rights at Risk
Read our latest report on Site C: Place of No Return
“Our people have a deep connection with this land because our ancestors told the stories and legends that are connected to that valley.” -- Chief Liz Logan, Treaty 8 Tribal Association, testifying before the environmental impact assessment of the proposed Site C hydroelectric dam.
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The Peace River Valley in northeastern British Columbia is a unique ecosystem and one of the very few areas in the region that so far has been largely preserved from large-scale resource development. First Nations and Métis families and communities rely on the valley for hunting and fishing, gathering berries and sacred medicine, and holding ceremonies. Their ancestors are buried in this land.
The proposed $8 billion plus Site C hydroelectric dam would flood more than 80 km of the river valley, stretching west from Fort St. John. The severe impact on Indigenous peoples is beyond dispute. A joint federal-province environmental impact assessment concluded that the dam would “severely undermine” use of the land, would make fishing unsafe for at least a generation, and would submerge burial grounds and other crucial cultural and historical sites.
March 7, 2014
Rage in the Desert: Tantoo Cardinal on Finding Voice
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| Tantoo Cardinal courtesy photo |
Live from the Agua Caliente Native American Film Fest
First Nations Voices in the Cahuilla Desert Tonight
For the 50,000 children who never came home
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News Exclusive
March 6, 2014
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| Tantoo Cardinal in Palm Springs Photo Brenda Norrell |
Rage is what Tantoo Cardinal felt as a young person in high school. Everywhere she looked, she saw Native people being abused and exploited. That rage fueled her drive, fueled her to find an outlet for that rage. In that quest, she found her voice in acting.
Rage is the message that flows through Moose River Crossing, the feature film tonight at the Agua Caliente Native American Film Festival. It is the rage of young girls and boys in Indian residential schools being raped by principals and priests. It is the rage against the tiny crosses that mark the graves of the 50,000 Indian children in Canada who never came home from residential boarding schools. It is the rage against the flashbacks of the abuse that take hold of peoples lives and come back like rivers, like floods. It is the rage of scars from leather straps on the back, the rage of looking and seeing those now drowning in addictions, alcohol addiction and sex addiction.
When the drama of First Nations voices and films came to the Cahuilla Desert tonight, there were no fairy tale endings in the cinema tonight.
In Moose River Crossing, by Cree filmmaker Shirley Cheechoo, there is a clarifying voice at the conclusion: The victims of residential school abuse must come together, tell their stories, and share their stories.
There is also this pointed conclusion: Speak the truth, speak one's own truth from Spirit, and this is where the power comes.
Tonight, the voices of the far north came to one of the hottest places in North America, the southern California desert.
Tonight's short films at the Agua Caliente Native American Film Festival featured some of the first films for First Nations that turned the industry around, Tantoo Cardinal told a large crowd tonight that appreciated both the humor and sorrow woven into those early films.
Three short films featured festival honoree Tantoo Cardinal, Indigenous actress from northern Alberta, Canada, who spoke of her early days, of both searching and acting. All three films are compelling, weaving complicated issues, and revealing the wide range of Tantoo Cardinal's acting and her own strength.
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| Blood River |
In Blood River, Tantoo portrays a white adoptive mother, sporting a blonde wig.
"I think it is hilarious that I'm playing a white woman. It was a laugh," said Tantoo, pointing out that this was a turning of the tables on the whites who were always playing Indians in films.
Blood River, with its humor, also conveys the struggle of an adopted Native child searching for her mother, and the trauma for Indian children growing up in foster homes.
Memory directed by Cedar Sherbet, Kumeyaay, shown tonight, reveals an elderly alcoholic aunt, portrayed by Tantoo, returning for the memorial of a child who has drowned.
The issues of survival -- and the complex issues of family, forgiveness and rebuilding lives -- in the films are set against one underlying reality that Tantoo Cardinal described tonight.
Tantoo said that through their ancestry, Native people knew the truth. "We have known it was about the land."
Whether it is in the United States or Canada, the situation is the same. "It is the same animal," Cardinal said.
"Every government has tried to get rid of treaties, remove us, thin us out."
Now, people are coming together in the fight to protect the water, she said.
"Water is fundamental. If we don't have water, we don't have life," said Tantoo describing the threat of fracking to the water.
As for the rage that fueled her, she said being raised by elderly led her to avoid violence of any kind in the protest movements of the '70s.
As for the exploitation and abuse of Native people all around her, she said she barely made it out of high school, she felt so much rage and was so passionate.
"I heard a voice that each of us has been given a gift." It was then that she began her search, persevering in her quest to discover her own gift. In 1977, she turned down the first role offered because of the dialogue. When they agreed to change it, it was no better. Eventually, they removed all the dialogue.
"I was so happy," she said.
In the films that followed through the years, she portrayed a wide range of characters, including the owner of the Inukshuk Cafe in the off-beat and unpredictable Honey Moccasin, directed by Shelley Niro, and shown tonight.
"The reason I got into acting was to develop a voice."
The voice is not just her own, but an ever-evolving voice for Native people. It is this voice that sounded through the Cahuilla Desert tonight.
The Festival
The Agua Caliente Native American Film Festival is presenting important new Native feature films this week, including Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, Dine' language with English subtitles, and Maina starring Tantoo Cardinal joined by an incredible cast of Native artists. A lecture by Chiricahua Apache Nancy Marie Mithlo, PhD, opened the festival on Tuesday night. Mithlo's talk was "Can You Hear Me? Silence as an Indigenous Representational Strategy in Film."
Richard M. Milanovich, the late chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, was a lover of film and each year attended the Native Film Fest. The Richard M. Milanovich Award for Distinguished Contributions to Indigenous Film establishes in his honor those who have distinguished themselves in Indigenous film.
The 2014 Award will be presented to Tantoo Cardinal on Saturday evening, March 8, during the 8 pm screening.
Indigenous films continue on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Camelot Theaters, beginning at 5 pm each day.
Film schedule: http://www.accmuseum.org/2014-Native-FilmFest
Article copyright Brenda Norrell. Please share the link.
To publish in full contact: brendanorrell@gmail.com
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/03/rage-in-desert-tantoo-cardinal-on.html
December 7, 2013
Terrance Nelson urges Aljazeera to voice truth about US gas exploitation
First Nations Terrance Nelson urges Al Jazeera to reveal the sharp edge of real news
By Terrance Nelson
Anishinaabe Roseau River
Jorge;
I have reviewed the story put together by Wab Kinew on Elsipogtog.The link you sent me is as follows
Canada online:
Canada online:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
US online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWoRw_fYEGo
US online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWoRw_fYEGo
I am sorry to say that I view the story as told by Wab Kinew as lacking focus and context. I understand that in order to be an objective reporter Wab is restrained from telling the truth in a manner that we who as hard core activists can. Al Jazeera America must be seen as objective in order to continue to have access to North American markets. It is pretty clear that Al Jazeera has to be careful when it is held hostage to Canadian Broadcast system rules and regulation.
In a few sentences, the issue is about oil, the need of Americans to get foreign oil. Shale gas and fracking is about Americans taking what they need from other countries.
September 20, 2013
August 2, 2013
Terrance Nelson: Dakota Unity Riders contacted by US Calvary
First Nation Terrance Nelson:
Dakota Unity Riders contacted by Seventh Calvary
Dakota Unity Riders contacted by Seventh Calvary
By Terrance Nelson
First Nation Roseau River Anishinabe
August 2nd, 2013 Update
Dakota Unity Riders contacted by Seventh Calvary?
I spoke to Gus Higheagle this morning and the Dakota Unity Riders are in Woodstock where their ten horses are being well taken care of. Gus tells me that there are 23 Dakota in their group. Their trucks have broken down but have just been repaired. Gus said that he was contacted by someone from the Seventh Calvary. I asked him who but he had to go back and check his notes for the name. The man said the Seventh Calvary still exists and that they have the Seventh Calvary flag. Gus told him, "you should surrender that flag." The man got angry and left.
I attach some pictures from the Dakota Unity Riders on TransCanada Highway when the Vancouver Olympics organizations were travelling by. The murdered and missing women was the issue. Vancouver was where 49 women were killed by serial killer Robert Picton. The Canadian Olympic Organizers refused to stop and ignored the demonstration. The Dakota continue to reach out to the world with not only what happened to their people but with a spiritual message. The world faces extreme danger. The Dakota have lifted the pipe. Their message needs to be listened to. Global warming is not something in the future, it is here now.
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| Meeting with Iranian Government |
As a political people, Dennis Pashe who is a former Dakota Chief and I traveled to Iran last fall. We met with the Iranians and were especially well treated. What was important to us was talking to Iranian youth in the universities. Seventy percent of the students in universities are women, not at all how the western media presents Iran. Whether American media ignores the Dakota or not, the Dakota message will be taken worldwide. It will be heard. The terrorism and genocide visited upon the Dakota is something that must be told. See attached file Museum Concept.
Canada refuses to allow the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg to use the word Genocide to describe what happened to indigenous people in Canada. The United States does not have a Museum that shows the real terrorism and Genocide that occurred against the Dakota.The United States and Canada have now signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples but continues to ignore the rights of the Dakota. Dakota lands in the United States are continued to be denied to Dakota in Canada despite the Treaties.
I ask the Iranian people to promote the rights of the Dakota. Iran as the lead of the 120 Non Aligned Countries can help the Dakota to achieve justice by bringing the Human Rights of the Dakota to the world. The Dakota are asking for OPEC help to deal with oil in the Bakken Formation which is also in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Dakota receive no royalty or payment from the oil in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Is it possible for the Dakota Chiefs to make a presentation to OPEC in Vienna in December 2013?
First Nations people in Canada can help by depositing donations at CIBC. Gus Higheagle chequing account at CIBC Transit # 00047 Bank #010 Account # 7177933. Others can contact Gus Higheagle directly on his cell phone.
I will posting pictures and information on the progress of the Dakota Unity Riders as they send me the information. I will contacting Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Casinos to see if they can help financially and the Mohawks are currently helping the Dakota. The Dakota have sold Mohawk cigarettes in Manitoba and Chief Frank Brown will likely be sent to jail in September after the court hearing on the cigarette case.
July 6, 2013
Tarsands Healing Walk Photos July 6, 2013
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| The Healing Walk Begins July 6, 2013. Photo by Ben Powless |
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| Tar sands healing walk approaches first tailings pond after a prayer to the south. Photo Ben Powless |
Thank you Ben Powless, Mohawk, for sharing with Censored News!
MORE PHOTOS OF WALK:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/healingwalk/9228857876/
MORE PHOTOS OF WALK:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/healingwalk/9228857876/
June 14, 2013
VIDEO: Arrests at Sacred Fire in New Brunswick
Published on Jun 14, 2013
12 People arrested at Anti Shale Protest on Route 126 in Kent County
Halifax Media Co-op audio:
"This is an infringement upon human rights."
Listuguj chief visits sacred fire encampment, pledges a bus load of support.
APTN: Arrests made at sacred fire in New Brunswick
Twelve people were arrested Friday morning by the RCMP at the site of a sacred fire as part of an on-going protest in New Brunswick over seismic testing in the area.
APTN article, with more video:
February 23, 2011
Agent Orange exposed in toxic genocide targeting Indian communities
Agent Orange was used in the US, BC and Ontario, prior to and after the Vietnam WarUpdate in the news: Agent Orange sprayed along Ontario roadways until the 1980s:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/02/24/agent-orange-ont-highways485.html?ref=rss
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
PINAL MOUNTAINS, Ariz. -- Arizona was one of 21 states where Agent Orange was stored, or tested, prior to and during the Vietnam War, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The site in Arizona was in the Tonto National Forest in the Pinal Mountains near Globe, in the Apaches homeland.
The Department of Defense published studies showing that exposure to Agent Orange has led to adult onset diabetes. Medical studies have linked exposure to brain tumors, and diseases in grandchildren of those in contact with Agent Orange. The severe deformities and birth defects resulting from Agent Orange exposure of pregnant women in Vietnam can be seen online in the photos of their children.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs reveals that Agent Orange was tested and used in Florida and Texas as early as 1944. But even after it was banned in the US, it was sprayed in Canada.
In Canada, Agent Orange was sprayed in British Columbia during the 1980s. At Kapuskasing, Ontario, Agent Orange was sprayed about 20 kilometers from a First Nations community.
Agent Orange spraying in Gagetown and surrounding communities in Canada had far reaching effects, since soldiers from around the world trained there.
The spraying at Kapuskasing reveals the pattern of the US and Canada of targeting areas with Indian communities. Kapuskasing was not only the site of Agent Orange spraying, but was also the site of a WWI prisoner of war camp and later a power plant.
In a pattern of toxic genocide, areas near and on Indian communities have been used as prisoner of war camps, power plant sites and toxic waste dumps.
In Arizona, the WWII prisoner of war camps included sites on Gila River Indian Community and Colorado River Indian Nations. Coal-fired power plants are now on and around many Indian Nations, including the Navajo Nation. The Western Shoshone in Nevada and Goshute in Utah continue to be targeted with toxic and nuclear waste dumps.
Navajos in New Mexico, Havasupai in Arizona and Lakotas in Nebraska and the Dakotas are targeted with new uranium mining that could contaminate their drinking water. During the Cold War, Navajos, Acomas and Laguna Pueblos worked in uranium mines without protective clothing and many died of cancer and respiratory diseases. Today, radioactive tailings are strewn on the Navajo Nation.
Dene in Canada, like the Dine' in Arizona, were never told of the dangers of uranium mining during the Cold War, and worked in the uranium mines without protective clothing. In the Pueblos, the radioactive dust blew on their foods as they ate.
In the case of the Goshute in Utah, their neighbor continues to be a biological and chemical warfare testing site, the US military's Dugway Proving Ground.
John H.W. Hummel is pressing for an investigation of the use of Agent Orange in and around Indian communities in Canada and the United States.
"I think that herbicides (contaminated with dioxin) were sprayed on many of the forests and traditional territories of Indigenous people in North America. I think that this has harmed the health of many people," Hummel told Censored News.
"The infamous 'Agent Orange' was sprayed by the forest industry upon large tracts of Canadian forests in Ontario, New Brunswick, British Columbia and likely elsewhere in Canada and probably on American forests too.
"This should be investigated. It may well impact thousands of Indigenous people on this continent," Hummel said.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs now provides a list of sites where Agent Orange was tested and stored, beginning in 1944, in the US.
As more people who were exposed to Agent Orange develop cancer and other serious health problems, the liabilities multiply for the US. Veterans and other victims are now fighting for justice, both at Veterans hospitals for treatment and in court for restitution.
The US Veterans Affairs website states that Agent Orange was used to remove foliage providing cover for the enemy during the Vietnam War.
"Agent Orange was the most widely used of the herbicide combinations sprayed. Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam were tested or stored elsewhere, including some military bases in the United States," the Veterans Affairs website states.
"The U.S. military herbicide program in South Vietnam took place between 1961 and 1971. Herbicides were sprayed in all 4 military zones of Vietnam. More than 19 million gallons of various herbicide combinations were used. Agent Orange was the combination of herbicides the U.S. military used most often."
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/outside_vietnam_usa.asp#Arizona
"Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam were tested or stored elsewhere, including many military bases in the United States. Below is information from the Department of Defense (DoD) on projects to test, dispose of, or store herbicides in the U.S. For projects outside the U.S., go to Herbicide Tests and Storage Outside the U.S."
Meanwhile, Agent Orange was used in BC, Canada, after the Vietnam War, during the 1980s.
Jorma Jyrkkanen said, "When I was habitat protection technician for the BC Fish and Wildlife Branch between 1981 and 1987, I got a request by the BC Ministry of Forests to use Estron 3-3E in a sensitive area near the mouth of the Lakelse River. Upon examination of the ingredients, I determined that it was in fact one of the Agent Orange (AO) concoctions and rejected the application along with a note to MOF that I was not very pleased that they had entertained such an option. Read more ...
http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/tag/pesticides%20orange
Ontario teens were soaked by Agent Orange spraying done at Kapuskasing: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940243--star-exclusive-agent-orange-soaked-ontario-teens
The Toronto Star reported that, "records from the 1950s, 60s and 70s show forestry workers, often students and junior rangers, spent weeks at a time as human markers holding red, helium-filled balloons on fishing lines while low-flying planes sprayed toxic herbicides including an infamous chemical mixture known as Agent Orange on the brush and the boys below."
Agent Orange was used in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil (see Wikipedia link in references below.)
"The Brazilian government used Agent Orange to defoliate a large section of the Amazon rainforest so that Alcoa could build the Tucuruí dam to power mining operations. Large areas of rainforest were destroyed, along with the homes and livelihoods of thousands of rural peasants and indigenous tribes," according to Wikipedia.
In Feb., 2011, the Toronto Star exposed the fact that powerline corridors were sprayed with Agent Orange.
Hummel said, "If dioxin contaminated Agent Orange was sprayed along these transmission corridors, the implications are horrendous. Especially for the First Nations and Métis people who may hunt, fish and pick berries anywhere near these corridors. These transmission line corridors pass through many of the First Nation and Metis peoples Traditional territories.
"Dioxin has been linked to approximately 50 diseases and medical conditions: http://www.vva.org/agent_orange.html including Type II Diabetes. If Ontario Hydro, Forest companies, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Natural Resources were spraying Agent Orange all over Ontario, you can bet it happened all over Canada and in the United States as well. We need a truly National, coast to coast, enquiry about all of this."
US sites where Agent Orange was stored and tested, US Department of Veterans Affairs:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/outside_vietnam_usa.asp#Arizona
Arizona Arkansas California Florida Georgia Hawaii Indiana Kansas Kentucky Maryland Mississippi Montana New York North Dakota Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Texas Utah Washington Wisconsin
Read more at Wikipedia:
Miscarriages and birth defects linked to Agent Orange spraying in US and Vietnam; Dow Chemical and Monsanto produced Agent Orange; Agent Orange used in Australia and New Zealand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
Also see:
VA links Agent Orange to brain cancer in court decision:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/02/prweb5080394.htm
Department of Defense: Agent Orange exposure leads to adult onset diabetes:
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=8662
Recent News Coverage
CANADA:
Agent Orange "soaked" Ontario teens:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940243--star-exclusive-agent-orange-soaked-ontario-teens
Agent Orange outrage - Timmins Daily Press:
http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2983915
Ontario probes Agent Orange poisoning: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940878--ontario-probes-agent-orange-poisoning
Agent Orange probe widens: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/941635--agent-orange-probe-widens
Agent Orange spraying in Gagetown and surrounding communities:
http://www.agentorangecanada.com/
LINKS
Transportation Ministry also used Agent Orange, say NDP. Minister investigates. - Winnipeg Free Press:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/health/transportation-ministry-also-used-agent-orange-say-ndp-minister-investigates-116829673.html
'Sources of Dioxins and Furans in British Columbia':
http://groups.google.com/group/friends-of-agg/browse_thread/thread/1e068b72934933e5
Agent Orange Use in British Columbia: http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/tag/pesticides%20orange
Ontario probes Agent Orange poisoning: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940878--ontario-probes-agent-orange-poisoning
WHEN DID TRANSPORTATION MINISTER KNOW ABOUT AGENT ORANGE USAGE: Why Does It Take the Opposition to Tell the Truth:
http://www.gillesbisson.com/newsitem.php?id=836
Just added: Sources of dioxins and furans in British Columbia:
http://friends-of-agg.googlegroups.com/attach/ddf3302e6fc3b7b4/img-221143025-0001.pdf?view=1&part=4
February 24, 2010
Indigenous Peoples: Pollution and Diabetes
Bitter Sweet or Toxic?
Indigenous people, diabetes and the burden of pollution
Contamination of First Nations, Mohawk and O'odham lands linked to diabetes
By John Schertow
The Dominion
Excerpts:
WINNIPEG—Diabetes is now widely regarded as the 21st century epidemic. With some 284 million people currently diagnosed with the disease, it’s certainly no exaggeration—least of all for Indigenous people.
... There is growing evidence that diabetes is closely linked with our environment. More than a dozen studies have been published that show a connection between Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); carcinogenic hydrocarbons known as Dioxins; and the “violently deadly” synthetic pesticide, DDT and higher rates of the disease.
O'odham and Diabetes
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s experience bears a close resemblance to Grassy Narrows: the world’s highest rate of diabetes can be found in the southwest Arizona nation. According to Tribal health officials, nearly 70 per cent of the population of 28,000 has been diagnosed with the illness. The O’odham People make up the second largest Indigenous Nation in the United States.
Lori Riddle is a member of Aquimel O’odham Community and founder of the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE).
GRACE was instrumental in the 10 year struggle against a hazardous waste recycling plant that operated without full permits on O’odham land for decades. Owned by Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation, the plant continuously spewed effluents into the air until it was finally shut down in 2007.
The Romic plant was not the first contributor to the O’odham’s toxic burden, explained Riddle. Looking back to her childhood, she recalled: “For nearly a year, [when] a plane would go over our heads, you could see the mist. We never thought to cover our water. The chemicals just took over and they became a part of us.”
From the early 1950s until the late 60s, cotton farmers in the Gila River watershed routinely sprayed DDT onto their crops to protect them from bollworms. According to the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), each and every year, the farmers used roughly Twenty-three pounds of DDT per acre.
In 1969, the State of Arizona banned the use of DDT; by this time the river was gravely contaminated. According to the ATSDR, farmers then switched to Toxaphene, a substitute for DDT—until it was banned by the US government in 1990.
Because of these chemicals, Riddle explains, the O’odham were forced to abandon their traditional foods and adopt a western diet. Farms also went into a recession, forcing many families to leave their communities. Companies, such as Romic, began moving on to their territory, exasperating the situation. “It’s taken a toll on our quality of life,” she says. “I’ve cried myself to sleep.”
The O’odham are dealing with what Riddle terms “cluster symptoms” including miscarriages, arthritis in the spine, breathing problems, unexplainable skin rashes, and problems regenerating blood cells. This in addition to diabetes, which frequently leads to renal failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputations.
Read article ...
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-people-diabetes-and-the-burden-of-pollution/
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Indigenous people, diabetes and the burden of pollution
Contamination of First Nations, Mohawk and O'odham lands linked to diabetes
By John Schertow
The Dominion
Excerpts:
WINNIPEG—Diabetes is now widely regarded as the 21st century epidemic. With some 284 million people currently diagnosed with the disease, it’s certainly no exaggeration—least of all for Indigenous people.
... There is growing evidence that diabetes is closely linked with our environment. More than a dozen studies have been published that show a connection between Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); carcinogenic hydrocarbons known as Dioxins; and the “violently deadly” synthetic pesticide, DDT and higher rates of the disease.
O'odham and Diabetes
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s experience bears a close resemblance to Grassy Narrows: the world’s highest rate of diabetes can be found in the southwest Arizona nation. According to Tribal health officials, nearly 70 per cent of the population of 28,000 has been diagnosed with the illness. The O’odham People make up the second largest Indigenous Nation in the United States.
Lori Riddle is a member of Aquimel O’odham Community and founder of the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE).
GRACE was instrumental in the 10 year struggle against a hazardous waste recycling plant that operated without full permits on O’odham land for decades. Owned by Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation, the plant continuously spewed effluents into the air until it was finally shut down in 2007.
The Romic plant was not the first contributor to the O’odham’s toxic burden, explained Riddle. Looking back to her childhood, she recalled: “For nearly a year, [when] a plane would go over our heads, you could see the mist. We never thought to cover our water. The chemicals just took over and they became a part of us.”
From the early 1950s until the late 60s, cotton farmers in the Gila River watershed routinely sprayed DDT onto their crops to protect them from bollworms. According to the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), each and every year, the farmers used roughly Twenty-three pounds of DDT per acre.
In 1969, the State of Arizona banned the use of DDT; by this time the river was gravely contaminated. According to the ATSDR, farmers then switched to Toxaphene, a substitute for DDT—until it was banned by the US government in 1990.
Because of these chemicals, Riddle explains, the O’odham were forced to abandon their traditional foods and adopt a western diet. Farms also went into a recession, forcing many families to leave their communities. Companies, such as Romic, began moving on to their territory, exasperating the situation. “It’s taken a toll on our quality of life,” she says. “I’ve cried myself to sleep.”
The O’odham are dealing with what Riddle terms “cluster symptoms” including miscarriages, arthritis in the spine, breathing problems, unexplainable skin rashes, and problems regenerating blood cells. This in addition to diabetes, which frequently leads to renal failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputations.
Read article ...
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-people-diabetes-and-the-burden-of-pollution/
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September 19, 2009
Canada: Tamiflu, body bags and genocide
UPDATED
Listen to Annett on Blog Talk Radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hiddenfromhistory/2009/09/20/Preparing-for-the-Real-Pandemic-Read-By-Kevin-Annett
The Mask Slips, for Those with Eyes to See:
Preparing for the Real Pandemic
by Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.
(Updated: 09.22.09)
Last week, many of the aboriginal people in the remote west coast village of Ahousaht were treated with Tamilfu (or other anti-virals). Some may have received seasonal flu shots too. Today, over a hundred of them are sick, and the sickness is spreading.
In the same week, body bags were sent to similarly remote native reserves in northern Manitoba that have also received Tamiflu (or other antivirals).
On the face of things, it appears that seasonal flu vaccinations and/or antiviral medications are causing a sickness that is being deliberately aimed at aboriginal people across Canada, and this sickness will be fatal: a fact acknowledged by the Canadian government by their "routine" sending of body bags to these Indian villages.
Before you express your shock and denial at the idea that people are being racially targeted and killed, remember that murdering Indians with vaccinations is not a new or abnormal thing in Canada. Indeed, it's how we Europeans "won the land", and it's one of the ways we keep it.
In 1862, Anglican church missionaries Rev. John Sheepshanks and Robert Brown inoculated interior Salish Indians in B.C. with a live smallpox virus that wiped out entire native communities within a month, just prior to the settlement of this native land by gold prospectors associated with these missionaries and government officials.
In 1909, Dr. Peter Bryce of the Indian Affairs department in Ottawa claimed that Catholic and Protestant churches were deliberately exposing native children to smallpox and tuberculosis in residential schools across Canada, and letting them die untreated. Thousands of children died as a result. (Globe and Mail, April 24, 2007)
In 1932, B.C. provincial police attempted to lay charges against Catholic missionaries who had sent smallpox-laden Indian children back among their families along the Fraser river near Mission, BC. The RCMP intervened and protected the church, even though whole villages were wiped out as a result of the church's actions.
In 1969, native children who escaped from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital on Vancouver Island described being inoculated with shots that caused many of them to die "with bloated up bodies and scabs all over", to quote one survivor.
Knowing this history, it's not surprising when Indians on isolated Canadian reserves start sickening and dying en masse from sudden illnesses, after receiving flu shots. After all, it's still the law in Canada, under the apartheid Indian Act, that no on-reserve Indian can refuse medical treatments or experimentation. So it's small wonder that these reserves are the places being targeted first to be injected with untested, unsafe and potentially lethal flu vaccines.
As an entire race of involuntary test subjects, Indians in Canada are a weather vane for what will befall all of us, and very soon. For the very techniques and weapons of genocide perfected against aboriginal people are now being deployed against "mainstream" Canadians.
Under Bill C-6 (info below), which was recently in 2nd reading in the Senate and could soon become the law, no Canadian will be allowed to refuse innoculations for the swine flu, despite the fact that it is relatively benign and mild, and has killed only people who are already immune-compromised. Indeed, it is astounding that such coercion and dictatorial laws are being employed to deal with what the chief Canadian Health Officer has called a "mild seasonal flu".
Clearly, another agenda is at work; but the time to ascertain and challenge that agenda has all but run out. This coming month (or very soon), forced innoculations and imprisonment of those who refuse them may be a reality across Canada. And for what reason? Clearly, not for public health, considering the sickness and death caused by previous swine flu vaccines.
I believe that the real pandemic is about to be unleashed through the very vaccines being pushed by governments and pharmaceutical giants like Novartis and Glaxo Smith Kline. The shots will be the cause, not the cure, of the pandemic. Of course, those in power can disprove this by simply being the first people to take the swine flu shot: an event about as likely as these companies forgoing the multi-billion dollar profits they will reap from the mass vaccinations.
It's indeed ironic that, very soon, many "white" Canadians may be suffering the same fate that aboriginal people have for centuries. Perhaps it's fitting. For if we are indeed being targeted for extermination, or at the least martial law and dictatorship, we finally can have the chance to shed our complicity in the genocide of other people, and get on the right side of humanity - simply by having to fight the system that is causing mass murder.
Rev. Kevin D. Annett
260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, BC Canada V9R 2H8
250-753-3345 250-753-3345 250-753-3345 250-753-3345
www.hiddenfromhistory.org
Kevin Annett is a community minister, educator and award-winning film maker who lives and works with aboriginal and low income people in Vancouver and Nanaimo, BC.
Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org
Film Trailer to Kevin's award-winning documentary film UNREPENTANT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8HB5cbKHDU&feature=related
DISCLAIMER:
This article has been revised since originally being published here on Sept. 19th. According to the author, the situation is still very fluid with regard to the flu vaccines generally, and measures being taken or being offered to the First Nations villages. He informs us that he is receiving verbal reports from a variety of sources as to what is happening on the ground in various, remote locations which are in a state of crisis (many of which are perpetually in squalor), so something is always going to be either reported or interpreted incorrectly. Kevin Annett stands by the gist of the story and is making every effort to obtain more accurate details and will change them if neccessary, as the facts become more clear.It appears that Mainstream Media has also not reported accurately on this.
See: Canada: Officials deny Vancouver Natives hit by new outbreak
By Dene Moore, THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER, B.C. – A B.C. health official called the Canadian Medical Association Journal “irresponsible and inflammatory” on Thursday for an article about the H1N1 influenza virus circulating in a Vancouver Island aboriginal community. ...
Additional Info:Bill C-6 deals (allegedly) with "consumer safety", and while not specifying any products in particular, it contains a number of tyrannical, police state, provisions that could be used to either remove access to some products, or force others on the public, including vaccines, and according to some analysts, would give power to foreign entities or agencies to make rules and regulations for Canadians, such as the W.H.O. They declared a Pandemic Level 6 and are calling for mass vaccinations world wide, at the behest of Big Pharma, and the elites who own them, and it is no secret that aboriginal peoples are at the top of the list to receive them.
See http://www.falseflagflu.com/BillC6-Info.html and http://www.falseflagflu.com/docs/BILL C-6 and MANDATORY VACCINES by Dee Nicholson.pdf
Constitutional Lawyer Shawn Buckley explains some of the ramifications of Bill C 6
Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7_0HlCwb8A
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4bYJXIrAE
and this short documentary for somewhat deeper information:
“WE BECOME SILENT” by Kevin Miller …free at www.welltv.com
Here is a link to Senate's proceedings from Hansard, Sept. 16th, 2009 as Bill C-6 was discussed
http://www.parl.gc.ca/40/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/052db_2009-09-16-E.htm?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2#39
(This has the entire text of the day's debates on the 16th)Condensed pdf containing only the Bill C-6 Debate (right click and save as ...)
A few notable quotes with respect to Bill C-6 from the Senate:
"All these individuals appointed somehow by the minister will interfere with the day-to-day operation without any scrutiny or any oversight, requiring more documentation. Honourable senators, is that where we want to go with respect to public safety?We all agree that public safety is important. Is this bill the best way to achieve public safety with respect to consumer products?"
"I looked at clauses 56, 57, 58, 59 and 60, they struck me as being unconstitutional in the sense that mens rea is no longer a condition precedent to a criminal offence. These provisions seem to be an extravagant use of the criminal power and I hope that the committee seized of this matter will deal with that issue and ask law officers of the Crown to come and deal with that particular matter. On the face of it, prima facie, these provisions are unconstitutional. I want the honourable senator's comments."
"I heartily endorse honourable senators on all sides of this house and the committee. I hope enough time is put aside and enough witnesses are called forward to decide how many totalitarian powers you want to give to officials to achieve a very worthy goal, which is consumer product safety in this case."
--Kevin Annett
Listen to Annett speak on this issue on Blogtalk Radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hiddenfromhistory/2009/09/20/Preparing-for-the-Real-Pandemic-Read-By-Kevin-Annett
.
Censored by Indian Country Today in 2006: Rumsfeld profiteered from sale of Tamifluby Brenda Norrell
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id73.html
Baxter sent live bird virushttp://www.infowars.com/baxter-product-contained-live-bird-flu-virus/
Listen to Annett on Blog Talk Radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hiddenfromhistory/2009/09/20/Preparing-for-the-Real-Pandemic-Read-By-Kevin-Annett
The Mask Slips, for Those with Eyes to See:
Preparing for the Real Pandemic
by Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.
(Updated: 09.22.09)
Last week, many of the aboriginal people in the remote west coast village of Ahousaht were treated with Tamilfu (or other anti-virals). Some may have received seasonal flu shots too. Today, over a hundred of them are sick, and the sickness is spreading.
In the same week, body bags were sent to similarly remote native reserves in northern Manitoba that have also received Tamiflu (or other antivirals).
On the face of things, it appears that seasonal flu vaccinations and/or antiviral medications are causing a sickness that is being deliberately aimed at aboriginal people across Canada, and this sickness will be fatal: a fact acknowledged by the Canadian government by their "routine" sending of body bags to these Indian villages.
Before you express your shock and denial at the idea that people are being racially targeted and killed, remember that murdering Indians with vaccinations is not a new or abnormal thing in Canada. Indeed, it's how we Europeans "won the land", and it's one of the ways we keep it.
In 1862, Anglican church missionaries Rev. John Sheepshanks and Robert Brown inoculated interior Salish Indians in B.C. with a live smallpox virus that wiped out entire native communities within a month, just prior to the settlement of this native land by gold prospectors associated with these missionaries and government officials.
In 1909, Dr. Peter Bryce of the Indian Affairs department in Ottawa claimed that Catholic and Protestant churches were deliberately exposing native children to smallpox and tuberculosis in residential schools across Canada, and letting them die untreated. Thousands of children died as a result. (Globe and Mail, April 24, 2007)
In 1932, B.C. provincial police attempted to lay charges against Catholic missionaries who had sent smallpox-laden Indian children back among their families along the Fraser river near Mission, BC. The RCMP intervened and protected the church, even though whole villages were wiped out as a result of the church's actions.
In 1969, native children who escaped from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital on Vancouver Island described being inoculated with shots that caused many of them to die "with bloated up bodies and scabs all over", to quote one survivor.
Knowing this history, it's not surprising when Indians on isolated Canadian reserves start sickening and dying en masse from sudden illnesses, after receiving flu shots. After all, it's still the law in Canada, under the apartheid Indian Act, that no on-reserve Indian can refuse medical treatments or experimentation. So it's small wonder that these reserves are the places being targeted first to be injected with untested, unsafe and potentially lethal flu vaccines.
As an entire race of involuntary test subjects, Indians in Canada are a weather vane for what will befall all of us, and very soon. For the very techniques and weapons of genocide perfected against aboriginal people are now being deployed against "mainstream" Canadians.
Under Bill C-6 (info below), which was recently in 2nd reading in the Senate and could soon become the law, no Canadian will be allowed to refuse innoculations for the swine flu, despite the fact that it is relatively benign and mild, and has killed only people who are already immune-compromised. Indeed, it is astounding that such coercion and dictatorial laws are being employed to deal with what the chief Canadian Health Officer has called a "mild seasonal flu".
Clearly, another agenda is at work; but the time to ascertain and challenge that agenda has all but run out. This coming month (or very soon), forced innoculations and imprisonment of those who refuse them may be a reality across Canada. And for what reason? Clearly, not for public health, considering the sickness and death caused by previous swine flu vaccines.
I believe that the real pandemic is about to be unleashed through the very vaccines being pushed by governments and pharmaceutical giants like Novartis and Glaxo Smith Kline. The shots will be the cause, not the cure, of the pandemic. Of course, those in power can disprove this by simply being the first people to take the swine flu shot: an event about as likely as these companies forgoing the multi-billion dollar profits they will reap from the mass vaccinations.
It's indeed ironic that, very soon, many "white" Canadians may be suffering the same fate that aboriginal people have for centuries. Perhaps it's fitting. For if we are indeed being targeted for extermination, or at the least martial law and dictatorship, we finally can have the chance to shed our complicity in the genocide of other people, and get on the right side of humanity - simply by having to fight the system that is causing mass murder.
Rev. Kevin D. Annett
260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, BC Canada V9R 2H8
250-753-3345 250-753-3345 250-753-3345 250-753-3345
www.hiddenfromhistory.org
Kevin Annett is a community minister, educator and award-winning film maker who lives and works with aboriginal and low income people in Vancouver and Nanaimo, BC.
Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org
Film Trailer to Kevin's award-winning documentary film UNREPENTANT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8HB5cbKHDU&feature=related
DISCLAIMER:
This article has been revised since originally being published here on Sept. 19th. According to the author, the situation is still very fluid with regard to the flu vaccines generally, and measures being taken or being offered to the First Nations villages. He informs us that he is receiving verbal reports from a variety of sources as to what is happening on the ground in various, remote locations which are in a state of crisis (many of which are perpetually in squalor), so something is always going to be either reported or interpreted incorrectly. Kevin Annett stands by the gist of the story and is making every effort to obtain more accurate details and will change them if neccessary, as the facts become more clear.It appears that Mainstream Media has also not reported accurately on this.
See: Canada: Officials deny Vancouver Natives hit by new outbreak
By Dene Moore, THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER, B.C. – A B.C. health official called the Canadian Medical Association Journal “irresponsible and inflammatory” on Thursday for an article about the H1N1 influenza virus circulating in a Vancouver Island aboriginal community. ...
Additional Info:Bill C-6 deals (allegedly) with "consumer safety", and while not specifying any products in particular, it contains a number of tyrannical, police state, provisions that could be used to either remove access to some products, or force others on the public, including vaccines, and according to some analysts, would give power to foreign entities or agencies to make rules and regulations for Canadians, such as the W.H.O. They declared a Pandemic Level 6 and are calling for mass vaccinations world wide, at the behest of Big Pharma, and the elites who own them, and it is no secret that aboriginal peoples are at the top of the list to receive them.
See http://www.falseflagflu.com/BillC6-Info.html and http://www.falseflagflu.com/docs/BILL C-6 and MANDATORY VACCINES by Dee Nicholson.pdf
Constitutional Lawyer Shawn Buckley explains some of the ramifications of Bill C 6
Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7_0HlCwb8A
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4bYJXIrAE
and this short documentary for somewhat deeper information:
“WE BECOME SILENT” by Kevin Miller …free at www.welltv.com
Here is a link to Senate's proceedings from Hansard, Sept. 16th, 2009 as Bill C-6 was discussed
http://www.parl.gc.ca/40/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/deb-e/052db_2009-09-16-E.htm?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2#39
(This has the entire text of the day's debates on the 16th)Condensed pdf containing only the Bill C-6 Debate (right click and save as ...)
A few notable quotes with respect to Bill C-6 from the Senate:
"All these individuals appointed somehow by the minister will interfere with the day-to-day operation without any scrutiny or any oversight, requiring more documentation. Honourable senators, is that where we want to go with respect to public safety?We all agree that public safety is important. Is this bill the best way to achieve public safety with respect to consumer products?"
"I looked at clauses 56, 57, 58, 59 and 60, they struck me as being unconstitutional in the sense that mens rea is no longer a condition precedent to a criminal offence. These provisions seem to be an extravagant use of the criminal power and I hope that the committee seized of this matter will deal with that issue and ask law officers of the Crown to come and deal with that particular matter. On the face of it, prima facie, these provisions are unconstitutional. I want the honourable senator's comments."
"I heartily endorse honourable senators on all sides of this house and the committee. I hope enough time is put aside and enough witnesses are called forward to decide how many totalitarian powers you want to give to officials to achieve a very worthy goal, which is consumer product safety in this case."
--Kevin Annett
Listen to Annett speak on this issue on Blogtalk Radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hiddenfromhistory/2009/09/20/Preparing-for-the-Real-Pandemic-Read-By-Kevin-Annett
.
Censored by Indian Country Today in 2006: Rumsfeld profiteered from sale of Tamifluby Brenda Norrell
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id73.html
Baxter sent live bird virushttp://www.infowars.com/baxter-product-contained-live-bird-flu-virus/
January 3, 2009
Kevin Annett: International tribunal for residential school abuse
'Who will speak for the children who never came back?'
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Churches in Canada have not been held responsible for the rape, murder and disappearance of 50,000 to 100,000 Native American children in Canada’s residential schools, said Kevin Annett, speaking on RedTown Blog Talk Radio today.
Canada has not made an attempt to provide real healing for Native people, or to prosecute the perpetrators, including those who murdered and buried children.
Annett said many of the Indian survivors of residential school abuse have taken their own lives.
“They are crushed and broken by this.”
“Who will speak for the children who never came back?”
“What about all those children who died? Are we going to pretend it never happened?”
During the 90-minute program aired on RedTown, Annett said the churches pushed the Canadian government to keep these schools open, even after Canada wanted to close the schools. Now, the churches place themselves above the law, refusing to even identify where the children's graves are.
One of the survivors said after a young girl was raped by a priest, she gave birth to a child. The priest threw the baby in the furnace. On a video on the Hidden From History website, Irene Favel, survivor of Muscowequan Catholic residential school in Lestock, Saskatchewan, describes seeing a newborn baby thrown alive into a furnace at that school by a priest in 1944.
“They heard the little cry," Annett said on RedTown radio.
On Turtle Island, the genocide of Indian people was the worst genocide in the history of mankind, he said.
In Canada, the churches had a motivation for genocide. The churches stole land from the west coast tribes and sold it off to logging companies. In return, the churches received kickbacks.
Now, Canada’s system of compensation payments to survivors of residential school abuse is designed to produce more trauma, as survivors relive the abuse. Using a crude system, Canada gives a number of points for abuse. For example, victims of rape or beatings are given specific numbers of points.
The survivor has to remember the name of the perpetrator. But Annett asked how many five-year-olds remember the name of the person who abused them. The survivors also have to provide proof that they attended residential school, even though many of the documents have been destroyed. Now, of those seeking compensation, 8 out of 10 have been disqualified.
Canada designed a system to victimize the victims.
“They know that when someone relives that, they will go off and kill themselves. That is not an accident, it is deliberate,” Annett said.
Canada is not concerned about healing, he said. Canada is concerned about minimizing the liability. There are actions people can take to help, like recording the stories of survivors and writing letters to newspapers. Urging people to people exchanges, rather than relying on the Internet, is how change happens, he said.
In Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is holding forums which do not allow for exposure of the actual crimes or naming of the perpetrators.
“That is their plan, to whitewash the whole thing.” Annett wants real observers, from outside Canada, to go to the children’s graves. Then, for the children to be repatriated and charges and prosecution to follow.
Annett said it is vital to have an international tribunal resulting in charges and prosecutions.
There is also a Boycott of the 2010 Olympics underway, so the media and government will take notice of the crimes, including the Indian sterilization clinics in mass all over the west coast of Canada.
It was a crime of genocide.
Still, no one responsible for the rape, torture and murder of these children has been prosecuted. Some of the perpetrators are still alive.
Annett said his personal life was destroyed and he was defrocked by the church because he exposed the systematic genocide of Indian children by the churches in Canada. Annett described his own journey and what happened to him over the past 15 years of exposing the genocide.
Annett’s own transformation began as a minister in Vancouver when he met many Native people who were suffering. He became aware of the suicides and widespread intergenerational trauma. Then Native people began talking about the abuse.
“The churches have never been prosecuted for these crimes.”
Indian children were sterilized and other atrocities of Nazi Germany were carried out.
“The institutions got away with that.”
Annett discovered in historical archives that early medical records reveal that 40 to 60 percent of the children in Canada’s residential schools died. It was a systematic effort to kill off Indian people. Children were locked in dorms with others with tuberculosis and fast spreading diseases.
“It was germ warfare.”
“They were doing it to depopulate the west.”
“It is genocide. It has to be treated like any other crime,” Annett said.
Referring to financial compensation for survivors, he said acts this terrible cannot be compensated or apologized away. In many cases, when money is paid to the victims of residential school abuse, there is a gag order and an agreement that the government cannot be sued.
The money that has been paid out has not solved anything and in some cases has resulted in suicides and other forms of death.
“It is designed to protect the perpetrators.”
The churches widespread abuse of children was designed to wipe out Indian people. The schools began in the 1800s. The last school in Canada did not close until 1996. Besides speaking out for 15 years about the systematic genocide, Annett produced a film, “Unrepentant,” which can be viewed online.
While his own personal life was destroyed, it made him realize what the church was capable of.
“Native people are disposables in our culture,” he said. The abuse has not stopped. Today, police in Canada still take Native people outside of town and leave them to freeze to death.
When Annett began to expose what he found in archives, he realized there was a conspiracy of silence.
“Everything is run by the government here,” he said. In Canada if anyone challenges the government or churches, he is considered a threat. He said it is a very Totalitarian government.
Annett was fired from his pulpit. “They tried to scapegoat me like there was something wrong with me.”
The church offered to pay for his wife’s divorce. After the divorce, he lost custody of his children. But, then the Native people began to tell him more of their stories and invite him to their healing circles.
Today, he said there is a great deal of denial in Canada. However, there is more openness from the young people when there are protests and calls for action.
“Most of the people who come by on the street are supportive of us.”
The older clergy knows it is true and become angry at the protests and truth.
“I can see real change happening,”
“I’m still under a real blacklist, in terms of getting work in Canada.”
When asked if he ever considered giving up, he said he did not want them to win. He wanted to be able to look his children in the eyes one day and for them to know what he did.
Annett described how he went with survivors into a Vancouver church and respectfully held up a banner, “All the children need a proper burial.” Alongside him was a survivor who was almost tortured to death as a child in residential school. But after standing in that church with that banner, the man stopped drinking. He said he found a power within himself that he didn’t know he had, as they were standing there together.
The priests were very angry and called the police. But when they left this church, the congregation stood and honored them.
Annett said their message to the people of Canada has been, “If it happened to your child, wouldn’t you want to know where they are and what happened to them.”
There were 50,000 to 100,000 Indian children in Canada that never came back from church-operated residential schools. A lot of these crimes are continuing today, as Indian children are put into white foster homes.
Now, pedophile networks are exploiting children from the reserves.
“Unless you can confront this, it is carried on. People who are abused, become the abuser.” A report form UNESCO shows Vancouver is one of the top cities in the world for child prostitution.
During the RedTown Radio show, host Brenda Golden, Mvskoke (Creek) in Oklahoma, said both she and her mother are survivors of residential schools. Golden’s mother was forbidden to speak her language and isolated from her family. “My mother had a detachment, my mother didn’t know how to love us kids because she hadn’t had that.”
Annett relayed the story of a survivor and how an eight-year-old was stretched out on a rack in a residential school in a form of Medievil torture. “He saw someone die on that rack.” But the survivor said he had been taught his own traditions and that is how he survived.
“When you lose touch with the spirit, you start dying from the inside out,” the survivor said.
Annett said this is what happened to white people, to Europeans. They lost touch with the spirit.
“We survive by remembering who we are.”
This was a war and some children survived it, but they carry this with them, at a cellular level. He said we all have to find out how to heal ourselves, with the traditions passed on.
What Annett discovered, and lived through, is the dark side of the culture in Christianity.
While Canadian churches are fighting the exposure of this truth, Golden said in the United States people refuse to believe that the US government sterilized Indian women.
During the show, one caller, Kathy from Florida said, “If we are not a watchdog for the children, we will have no future. She said her brother is a survivor of residential school in Ireland. “It happens everywhere.”
In closing Annett spoke of his ancestor Peter Annett who was also persecuted for speaking out. “The power of one person speaking the truth is something we must honor.”
“People are judged by their actions, instead of their words.”
Praising the qualities of Native people, Annett said Indian people have withstood the genocide because of their great strength. Now, all of humanity must struggle together if mankind is to survive.
“It is how we are going to survive, together now, if we are even able to,” Annett said, pointing out the destruction of the old growth forests.
When asked about his current beliefs, Annett said he is a spiritual person, but not in a way that he expected.
“I feel a deep peace inside. I feel I have done the right thing.”
More at Hidden from History: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
Watch documentary: 'Unrepentant'
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133
Note from Kevin Annett
Please view, then post this video widely, and be inspired by it to mount similar actions against Catholic, Anglican and United churches in your community:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7751478875059518376&pr=goog-sl
Our next such action is 10 am this January 18, same church! Stay tuned!
Many thanks, Kevin Annett Eagle Strong Voice
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Churches in Canada have not been held responsible for the rape, murder and disappearance of 50,000 to 100,000 Native American children in Canada’s residential schools, said Kevin Annett, speaking on RedTown Blog Talk Radio today.
Canada has not made an attempt to provide real healing for Native people, or to prosecute the perpetrators, including those who murdered and buried children.
Annett said many of the Indian survivors of residential school abuse have taken their own lives.
“They are crushed and broken by this.”
“Who will speak for the children who never came back?”
“What about all those children who died? Are we going to pretend it never happened?”
During the 90-minute program aired on RedTown, Annett said the churches pushed the Canadian government to keep these schools open, even after Canada wanted to close the schools. Now, the churches place themselves above the law, refusing to even identify where the children's graves are.
One of the survivors said after a young girl was raped by a priest, she gave birth to a child. The priest threw the baby in the furnace. On a video on the Hidden From History website, Irene Favel, survivor of Muscowequan Catholic residential school in Lestock, Saskatchewan, describes seeing a newborn baby thrown alive into a furnace at that school by a priest in 1944.
“They heard the little cry," Annett said on RedTown radio.
On Turtle Island, the genocide of Indian people was the worst genocide in the history of mankind, he said.
In Canada, the churches had a motivation for genocide. The churches stole land from the west coast tribes and sold it off to logging companies. In return, the churches received kickbacks.
Now, Canada’s system of compensation payments to survivors of residential school abuse is designed to produce more trauma, as survivors relive the abuse. Using a crude system, Canada gives a number of points for abuse. For example, victims of rape or beatings are given specific numbers of points.
The survivor has to remember the name of the perpetrator. But Annett asked how many five-year-olds remember the name of the person who abused them. The survivors also have to provide proof that they attended residential school, even though many of the documents have been destroyed. Now, of those seeking compensation, 8 out of 10 have been disqualified.
Canada designed a system to victimize the victims.
“They know that when someone relives that, they will go off and kill themselves. That is not an accident, it is deliberate,” Annett said.
Canada is not concerned about healing, he said. Canada is concerned about minimizing the liability. There are actions people can take to help, like recording the stories of survivors and writing letters to newspapers. Urging people to people exchanges, rather than relying on the Internet, is how change happens, he said.
In Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is holding forums which do not allow for exposure of the actual crimes or naming of the perpetrators.
“That is their plan, to whitewash the whole thing.” Annett wants real observers, from outside Canada, to go to the children’s graves. Then, for the children to be repatriated and charges and prosecution to follow.
Annett said it is vital to have an international tribunal resulting in charges and prosecutions.
There is also a Boycott of the 2010 Olympics underway, so the media and government will take notice of the crimes, including the Indian sterilization clinics in mass all over the west coast of Canada.
It was a crime of genocide.
Still, no one responsible for the rape, torture and murder of these children has been prosecuted. Some of the perpetrators are still alive.
Annett said his personal life was destroyed and he was defrocked by the church because he exposed the systematic genocide of Indian children by the churches in Canada. Annett described his own journey and what happened to him over the past 15 years of exposing the genocide.
Annett’s own transformation began as a minister in Vancouver when he met many Native people who were suffering. He became aware of the suicides and widespread intergenerational trauma. Then Native people began talking about the abuse.
“The churches have never been prosecuted for these crimes.”
Indian children were sterilized and other atrocities of Nazi Germany were carried out.
“The institutions got away with that.”
Annett discovered in historical archives that early medical records reveal that 40 to 60 percent of the children in Canada’s residential schools died. It was a systematic effort to kill off Indian people. Children were locked in dorms with others with tuberculosis and fast spreading diseases.
“It was germ warfare.”
“They were doing it to depopulate the west.”
“It is genocide. It has to be treated like any other crime,” Annett said.
Referring to financial compensation for survivors, he said acts this terrible cannot be compensated or apologized away. In many cases, when money is paid to the victims of residential school abuse, there is a gag order and an agreement that the government cannot be sued.
The money that has been paid out has not solved anything and in some cases has resulted in suicides and other forms of death.
“It is designed to protect the perpetrators.”
The churches widespread abuse of children was designed to wipe out Indian people. The schools began in the 1800s. The last school in Canada did not close until 1996. Besides speaking out for 15 years about the systematic genocide, Annett produced a film, “Unrepentant,” which can be viewed online.
While his own personal life was destroyed, it made him realize what the church was capable of.
“Native people are disposables in our culture,” he said. The abuse has not stopped. Today, police in Canada still take Native people outside of town and leave them to freeze to death.
When Annett began to expose what he found in archives, he realized there was a conspiracy of silence.
“Everything is run by the government here,” he said. In Canada if anyone challenges the government or churches, he is considered a threat. He said it is a very Totalitarian government.
Annett was fired from his pulpit. “They tried to scapegoat me like there was something wrong with me.”
The church offered to pay for his wife’s divorce. After the divorce, he lost custody of his children. But, then the Native people began to tell him more of their stories and invite him to their healing circles.
Today, he said there is a great deal of denial in Canada. However, there is more openness from the young people when there are protests and calls for action.
“Most of the people who come by on the street are supportive of us.”
The older clergy knows it is true and become angry at the protests and truth.
“I can see real change happening,”
“I’m still under a real blacklist, in terms of getting work in Canada.”
When asked if he ever considered giving up, he said he did not want them to win. He wanted to be able to look his children in the eyes one day and for them to know what he did.
Annett described how he went with survivors into a Vancouver church and respectfully held up a banner, “All the children need a proper burial.” Alongside him was a survivor who was almost tortured to death as a child in residential school. But after standing in that church with that banner, the man stopped drinking. He said he found a power within himself that he didn’t know he had, as they were standing there together.
The priests were very angry and called the police. But when they left this church, the congregation stood and honored them.
Annett said their message to the people of Canada has been, “If it happened to your child, wouldn’t you want to know where they are and what happened to them.”
There were 50,000 to 100,000 Indian children in Canada that never came back from church-operated residential schools. A lot of these crimes are continuing today, as Indian children are put into white foster homes.
Now, pedophile networks are exploiting children from the reserves.
“Unless you can confront this, it is carried on. People who are abused, become the abuser.” A report form UNESCO shows Vancouver is one of the top cities in the world for child prostitution.
During the RedTown Radio show, host Brenda Golden, Mvskoke (Creek) in Oklahoma, said both she and her mother are survivors of residential schools. Golden’s mother was forbidden to speak her language and isolated from her family. “My mother had a detachment, my mother didn’t know how to love us kids because she hadn’t had that.”
Annett relayed the story of a survivor and how an eight-year-old was stretched out on a rack in a residential school in a form of Medievil torture. “He saw someone die on that rack.” But the survivor said he had been taught his own traditions and that is how he survived.
“When you lose touch with the spirit, you start dying from the inside out,” the survivor said.
Annett said this is what happened to white people, to Europeans. They lost touch with the spirit.
“We survive by remembering who we are.”
This was a war and some children survived it, but they carry this with them, at a cellular level. He said we all have to find out how to heal ourselves, with the traditions passed on.
What Annett discovered, and lived through, is the dark side of the culture in Christianity.
While Canadian churches are fighting the exposure of this truth, Golden said in the United States people refuse to believe that the US government sterilized Indian women.
During the show, one caller, Kathy from Florida said, “If we are not a watchdog for the children, we will have no future. She said her brother is a survivor of residential school in Ireland. “It happens everywhere.”
In closing Annett spoke of his ancestor Peter Annett who was also persecuted for speaking out. “The power of one person speaking the truth is something we must honor.”
“People are judged by their actions, instead of their words.”
Praising the qualities of Native people, Annett said Indian people have withstood the genocide because of their great strength. Now, all of humanity must struggle together if mankind is to survive.
“It is how we are going to survive, together now, if we are even able to,” Annett said, pointing out the destruction of the old growth forests.
When asked about his current beliefs, Annett said he is a spiritual person, but not in a way that he expected.
“I feel a deep peace inside. I feel I have done the right thing.”
More at Hidden from History: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
Watch documentary: 'Unrepentant'
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133
Note from Kevin Annett
Please view, then post this video widely, and be inspired by it to mount similar actions against Catholic, Anglican and United churches in your community:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7751478875059518376&pr=goog-sl
Our next such action is 10 am this January 18, same church! Stay tuned!
Many thanks, Kevin Annett Eagle Strong Voice
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
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