U.S. is Dynamiting Kumeyaay Sacred Mountain for Border Wall Expansion

U.S. is Dynamiting Kumeyaay Sacred Mountain  for Border Wall Expansion

Under the pretext of national security, Trump's wall expansion is destroying Cuchumá, a sacred mountain of the Kumiai people. ByIsabel Ortega in Avispa Midia. https://avispa.org/bajo-pretexto-de-seguridad-nacional-ampliacion-del-muro-de-trump-esta-destruyendo-cuchuma-montana-sagrada-del-pueblo-kumiai/ 

Kumeyaay leader Norma Alicia Mesa said, "That mountain has a life of its own, a breath of its own, a spirituality of its own, and its own energy." 

Video at Al Jazeera https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WURO9ysWza0

Video https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/5833741-u-s-border-wall-expansion-destroys-sacred-indigenous-site

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 15, 2026

The United States government is dynamiting the sacred place of Kumeyaay, who live on both sides of the border, and blasted two sacred monoliths that were 60 to 120 million years old southeast of San Diego, California. The U.S. began blasting Cerro Cuchumá in early April, a historic and sacred site where Kumeyaay medicine people carry out ceremonies. The blasting was done without consultation as required by U.S. federal law.

Bvlbancha Liberation Radio: 20 Years after Hurricane Katrina

 

Monique Verdin, Houma Nation, said she's broadcasting from her grandmother's kitchen on Friday. "Tune in! We are live all day, down the road in the Terre Gaillarde!"

Bvlbancha Liberation Radio: 20 Years after Hurricane Katrina

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 29, 2025

Bvlbancha Liberation Radio was live with 'Swamp City Girl,' Monique Verdin, Houma Nation, on Friday, as Govinda and the team sets up grassroots disaster relief radio. Monique began the live broadcast focused on the Mound Culture, as the Gulf Coast region remembers Hurricane Katrina 20 years later.

Northwest Canoe Journey Photos

Photo courtesy Northwest Treaty Tribes

"Canoes participating in Paddle to Elwha 2025 arrived on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's beach last week, despite a few days of wild weather and a tsunami warning, and were welcomed to come ashore, eat, get warm and gather with friends and family. Protocol continues until August 5."

Photo courtesy Northwest Treaty Tribes
Paddle to Elwha 2025 arrives on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's beach

Apache Stronghold Run to Federal Court Hearing, Day 1

Apache Stronghold Run to Court Hearing

by Apache Stronghold, Censored News, May 5, 2025

Apache Stronghold Run from Oak Flat to Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse for District Court hearing on May 7th. Photos of Day 1: Oak Flat to Blessing in Superior to Apache Junction. Today, Monday, the second Day of Run to the court hearing, the run will end at the Tempe Center for the Arts at 6 p.m.

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Peltier Speaks on Turtle Mountain, Deeply Moved by Support

Peltier speaks to family and supporters at home on Turtle Mountain on Wednesday. Watch at https://www.kfyrtv.com/2025/02/19/live-leonard-peltiers-return-north-dakota/ 

Peltier describes how they tried to kill him in prison, while serving 49 years for something he did not do

Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Feb. 19, 2025

BELCOURT, North Dakota -- Leonard Peltier was honored with an Eagle Staff, Star Quilt and Drum Song, as he was welcomed home to Turtle Mountain. Deeply moved by the support, Peltier described how they tried to kill him in prison, and how he survived during his long struggle for justice.

"I spent 49 years straight in prison for something that I didn't do, and was not really legally convicted of," Peltier said, speaking at the Sky Dancer Casino in Belcourt, a day after his release from federal prison.

Leonard Peltier Left Prison on Tuesday Morning

Leonard is Home

The eagle has landed in Turtle Mountains

Leonard Peltier after leaving Coleman Prison this morning in Florida.

“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” said Leonard Peltier. “Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom. I am finally going home. I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It’s a good day today.” -- Leonard Peltier

Paul Chiyokten Wagner: Protectors of the Waters, From the Salish Sea to Standing Rock

Paul Chiyokten Wagner

Paul Chiyokten Wagner: Protectors of the Waters, From the Salish Sea to Standing Rock

Protectors of the Waters: Paul Chiyokten Wagner speaks on carrying forward the sacred way of life, from the Salish Sea to Standing Rock

"Our people hold the road map to paradise. Our people have that memory within us."

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Nov. 11, 2024

SEATTLE -- The Protectors of the Salish Sea baked camas on their ancestral island for the first time in one-hundred years, occupied the Washington State Capitol, and  journeyed to Standing Rock to build warm structures for the elders to brace against the blizzards, said Paul Chiyokten Wagner, WSANEĆ (Saanich) sharing the history from the Salish Sea to Standing Rock and beyond.

Defending the Ancestors, Voices from Phillip Deere Round House

Movement Rights said, "We opened with the history of the Phillip Deere Round House from Bonnie Deere (Mvskoke). We are grateful to share this space for the Convening of the Four Winds and learn of what this space was created for and continues to be a place for the Mvskoke community. We gather here to be in ceremony, build strategy to protect indigenous lands, and defend the Rights of Nature."

Photo courtesy Movement Rights

Defending the Ancestors, Voices from Phillip Deere Round House

Update: March for Justice to 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, at dawn, as oral arguments begin on Sept. 25, 2024

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 7, 2024

OKEMAH, Oklahoma -- The ancestors who were left behind, fleeing for safety, were  buried in Alabama, when the Mvskoke were forced on the cruel Trail of Tears. Today, speaking at the Phillip Deere Round House in Oklahoma, Muscogee Creek described how it is all about the money these days for those who dug up the ancestors and handled them in a disrespectful way to build a casino.

Mvskoke Samuel 'Bonnie' Deere, son of Phillip Deere, spoke on the creation of the Phillip Deere Round House, and the devastation of 57 Mvskoke ancestors who were  dug up in Alabama for a casino.

Oglala Lakota Youths: 'Peaceful Youth-led Rally for Palestine Attacked by Zionists in Rapid City'

(Above)South Dakota for Palestine in Rapid City, South Dakota, July 20, 2024

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Oglala Lakota Youths: Peaceful Youth-led Rally for Palestine Attacked by Zionists

By International Indigenous Youth Council-Oglala Lakota Chapter

Censored News

RAPID CITY, South Dakota -- On July 20th, a Saturday afternoon, dozens peacefully gathered around the City Hall to call for a ceasefire for Palestine. We were assaulted with spray paint and threatened with a firearm. These violent acts prove exactly what Palestinians have to experience from day to day.

Leonard Peltier's Message Read at Conclusion of United Nations Session in Geneva

Leonard Peltier's message was read before closing prayers at the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples this morning in Geneva. Screenshot by Censored News.

"Our brother Leonard Peltier is one of the many victims of a covert war waged by governments against the American Indian Movement, the AIM, and its supporters," Mario Agreda Uzeda said before reading Peltier's message, adding that Peltier is in prison for a crime that he did not commit. "For as long as Leonard Peltier is in prison, we all are." Agreda said a campaign for freedom for Leonard Peltier is beginning in Spain. 

Leonard Peltier's Words Conclude United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva

'No one can break the Spirit of a Sundancer'

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 12, 2024

French translation by Christine Prat

GENEVA -- The words of Leonard Peltier concluded the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples week-long session in Geneva this morning.

"I could not foresee that fifty years later that I would be entombed in a lock-down nightmare. I was chosen to be the sacrifice to cover up the crimes committed against our people," Peltier said in a message to the United Nations session.

Remembering Klee, For the People, by Shannonlynn Chester

Klee Benally, Dine' Photo Shannonlynn Chester

Remembering Klee, For The People

By Shannonlynn Chester, Censored News, June 13, 2024

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8406

In February, a local publication ran a piece on Klee that said "RAGE. In Beauty". But sometimes the world didn't see him (or any of us associated with him) that way. His way of "raging in beauty" didn't fit into what society saw as normal or peaceful at all, but I'm reminded today that Klee saw beauty in everything. If it didn't exist in something, he did something about it, he spoke the truth on it. He was someone who lived and breathed beauty, love, kinship, respect ... he embodied hózhó -- we should all be like that.

White Mesa Ute March Against International Radioactive Waste Dumping on Homeland

White Mesa Ute March Against International Radioactive Waste Dumping on Homeland

Ute Mountain Ute Yolanda Badback welcomed all to the rally and spiritual walk to protect the White Mesa Ute community’s health, water, air, land, culture, and sacred sites from the nearby White Mesa uranium mill, and show community opposition to the mill operating as an international dumping ground for radioactive waste from around the world. The protest and walk are sponsored by the White Mesa Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Photo courtesy Greenaction.

Statement of Family of Jacob Johns on Shooting

Jacob Johns photo courtesy family

Statement from Family of Indigenous Activist, Jacob Johns, Shot Last Week at Peaceful Prayer Circle

Contact:
Sabrina Chapa Sabrina@tiestolatierra.org

Anthony Diaz Anthony@newarkwatercoalition.org

https://therednation.org/statement-from-family-of-indigenous-activist-jacob-johns-on-shooting/

For generations, Indigenous Peoples have faced harm, death, and systemic oppression. Last week’s premeditated shooting is just another historical event in a series of systemic injustices in Indigenous history. This intentional premeditated act of violence was perpetrated against a peaceful prayer camp located at the proposed site for the reinstallation of the Oñate statue. This draws attention to the lengthy history of injustices against Indigenous Peoples by dehumanizing systems and divisive ideologies the community was protesting.

Standing Rock -- Appeals Court to Hear Excessive Force Lawsuit at Backwater Bridge Tuesday

Standing Rock -- Appeals Court to Hear Excessive Force Lawsuit at Backwater Bridge Tuesday

Update: Federal appeals court hears excessive force, class action lawsuit, for injured at Backwater Bridge at Standing Rock

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/09/federal-appeals-court-heard-arguments.html

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 19, 2023

Three hundred water protectors were injured on the night of November 20, 2016, at Backwater Bridge at Standing Rock. Twenty-six were seriously injured and taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals. Guy Dull Knife III was one of them. On Tuesday, an excessive force lawsuit filed against Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and others will be argued before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

"On the night of November 20-21, 2016, law enforcement shot unarmed, nonviolent water protectors with impact munitions, flash-bang explosives, and freezing blasts of water over the course of ten hours, seriously injuring Appellants and many others," states the federal class-action, civil rights lawsuit Dundon v Kirchmeier.

Wašté Win Young, Water Protector and former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Standing Rock, reflected on the significance of the case.

“I was born and raised on Standing Rock. It’s my home. The law enforcement that attacked us were our neighbors. It was surreal. Even now, when I cross that bridge I remember the people who got maimed, fell through ice, sprayed with water and chemicals, injured by those who are supposed to protect us. There are several images imprinted in my mind from November 20, 2016."

"I remember law enforcement indiscriminately aiming water canons at a group of Native American individuals who were praying on their knees, while other law enforcement personnel shot tear gas and projectiles into the crowd where I was standing."

"I nearly choked on the tear gas. It is my hope that the rule of law will prevail against the law enforcement who blatantly disregarded the constitutional and civil rights of hundreds of peaceful protestors," Waste Win Young said.

Photo by Rob Wilson

Lakota Nick Estes: Oceti Sakowin is Our Seat of Power -- Free Leonard Peltier

Rally for Clemency for Leonard Peltier. Photo by Nick Estes

https://twitter.com/i/status/1701665475984261523

Lakota Nick Estes: Oceti Sakowin is Our Seat of Power -- Free Leonard Peltier

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 13, 2023

While hundreds rallied outside the White House on Tuesday, urging clemency and freedom for Leonard Peltier on his 79th birthday, Nick Estes, Lakota, spoke of the seat of power of the people, and the reason to free Leonard Peltier.

"We are here again, in the belly of the beast saying what we have said since 1978, that the FBI has waged a reign of terror against the American Indian Movement and social movements who are fighting for freedom, for justice, and more importantly treaty rights."

"This is not the seat of power in Indian country. Look around you, all of our relatives that came from the communities from across the country. We have the wild Oglalas who are here, that is the heart of Oceti Sakowin territory, that is the seat of power, for our nation Oceti Sakowin, not the White House, not Congress."

Just Released: "Mining the Sacred: Indigenous Nations Fight Lithium Gold Rush at Thacker Pass"

Dean Barlese is charged by Lithium Americas of Canada for protecting the sacred massacre site of Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass in northern Nevada.

Watch now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLO7ClVtlBA

Cree Journalist Brandi Morin said, "We are taking back the narrative and this story about North America’s largest lithium mine being constructed while violating sacred Indigenous territories is told from the Native perspective. The 'green' energy revolution isn’t what you think it is!"

IndigiNews Media and The Real News

Go watch!

@IndigiNewsMedia

@TheRealNews

@ricochet_en

Follow Native journalist Brandi Morin, who came from Canada, and covered this powerful story.

"In Nevada’s remote Thacker Pass, a fight for our future is playing out between local Indigenous tribes and powerful state and corporate entities hellbent on mining the lithium beneath their land. Vancouver-based Lithium Americas is developing a massive lithium mine at Thacker Pass, but for more than two years several local tribes and environmental organizations have tried to block or delay the mine in the courts and through direct action.

"The Thacker Pass Project is backed by the Biden administration, and companies like General Motors have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the project, looking to capitalize on the transition to a 'green energy economy,' for which lithium is essential. While it is a vital component in the manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries, though, there’s nothing “green” about mining lithium. Ending our addiction to fossil fuels is urgently necessary, but the struggle of the local tribes around Thacker Pass reveals the dark side of a “green revolution” that prioritizes profits and consumption over everything (and everyone) else." -- Mining the Sacred

The United Nations and U.S. Government: What their new reports are not telling you

Saguaro cactus recklessly destroyed to build the border wall at Ajo, Arizona. Photo by Laiken Jordahl

The United Nations and U.S. Government: What their new reports are not telling you

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 11, 2023

French translation by Christine Prat

There are two new reports: One is the U.S. report on the destruction and violation of laws during the building of the border wall during the Trump era. The new report is by the US government's office that claims to be independent: The Government Accountability Office.

The other new report, making its way to the United Nations Human Rights Council, is the report from the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the militarization affecting Indigenous Peoples. The final report has some of the powerful testimony and struggles -- but it leaves out some of the greatest tragedies and heartfelt testimony.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, on her homeland. Photo by Jason Jaacks. Ofelia's website is O'odham Solidarity at https://www.oodhamrights.org/

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, and founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, has spent her life on the border in the struggle for human rights and battling the militarization of the border.

Ofelia responded to the two new reports and the murder of her childhood friend, Raymond Mattia, and fellow community member, murdered by the U.S. Border Patrol and law enforcement on May 18. Raymond was shot nine times in a rain of bullets on his front door steps, in Ali-Jegk on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Bvlbancha Liberation Radio: Live from Houma Lands Today

Michelle Cook, Dine', live at Bvlbancha Radio on Houma Land today
Bvlbancha Liberation Radio live https://www.bvlbancharadio.net/

Photos by Michelle Cook, Dine', with grassroots radio engineer Govinda Dalton on the Houma ancestral lands on the Gulf Coast of Lousiana today.

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

Grand Canyon Condors by Jim Dublinski

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

Article by Brenda Norrell

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

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

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

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

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

Defending Sacred Places and Sacred Rights at the United Nations

Deskaheh Steve Jacobs https://twitter.com/i/status/1680910453554159616

Defending Sacred Places and Sacred Rights at the United Nations

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 22, 2023

Breaking news, article in progress

GENEVA -- Deskaheh Steve Jacobs provided the opening prayer but said he will not address the United  Nations until the Haudenosaunee is recognized as a government. Jacob's prayer began the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples this week in Geneva, with weeklong global testimony focused on militarization, protecting the sacred, and violations of human rights.

Earlier this week, the City of Geneva installed 30 large double-sided photo panels along Lake Geneva telling the story of Deskaheh's journey and the development of relations between the City of Geneva and Indigenous Peoples worldwide.

Deskaheh – Levi General, is considered the first Indigenous Person to have raised the issue of loss of autonomy and dispossession of First Nations – Indigenous peoples by colonizing states at the international level. https://www.indiantime.net/story/2023/07/20/news/haudenosaunee-delegation-in-geneva-for-100th-anniversary-of-deskahehs-arrival/42727.html

"In 1923 Deskaheh, Chief of the Iroquois League, representing the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, leaves Canada to go on a mission to Geneva, Switzerland. He hopes to attend the League of Nations (now the United Nations) in order to have it recognize the sovereignty of the Iroquois.