Showing posts with label Navajos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Navajos. Show all posts
September 10, 2025
The Birth of the Environmental Justice Movement, Dine' CARE, Dilkon, Navajo Nation, 1990
October 24, 2020
Unanswered Questions: Johns Hopkins fails to respond to vital questions -- 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos and Apaches
Unanswered Questions: Johns Hopkins fails to respond to vital questions -- 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos and Apaches
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News Exclusive
Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health failed to respond to the most important questions concerning 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos and Apaches. Johns Hopkins is currently carrying out the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine experiments using Navajos.
Johns Hopkins failed to answer the following questions regarding its vaccine experiments. The vaccine experiments were carried out largely in secret and without public scrutiny over the past 40 years in IHS hospitals on the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache Nation.
(1) Have any Navajos or Apaches become sick or died as a result of Johns Hopkins' experimental medicines or treatments?
(2) Are blood and DNA of Navajo or Apache stored, how are they used and who has access to these?
Johns Hopkins' responses to Censored News questions are below, but there is no mention of the number, if any, who became sick or died. The pevious article: "Seven questions for Johns Hopkins" by Censored News is at: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/10/seven-questions-johns-hopkins.html
Dangerous medical experiments on Native Americans
There is a long history of vaccine and medical experiments on Native Americans by other researchers in Arizona and New Mexico that were dangerous, including the injection of radioactive fluid into O'odham at Phoenix Indian Hospital in the 1970s; pulmonary experiments on White Mountain Apache children without parental consent; and a vaccine experiment halted at Gallup Indian Center after patients became sick.
Trachoma treatments were conducted at boarding schools at Stewart, Intermountain and at Tuba City on the Navajo Nation, without parental consent. The Indian Health Service claimed it was the guardian of Native students in boarding schools. Censored News has documented these.
Indian Health Service hospitals carried out the sterilization of thousands of Native women without informed consent, as documented in 1976. Even after a court order was issued to halt the sterilizations, IHS continued to sterilize Native women as young as 19.
The sterilization of Native American women was not a medical experiment. It was genocide.
Currently, it is unknown how blood and DNA samples of Navajos are being used and stored and who has access to these. Previously, the Havasupai Nation in Arizona had to go to court to halt the abuse of their blood samples by researchers at Arizona State University.
Johns Hopkins is currently using IHS hospitals on the Navajo Nation to carry out the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine trial and a convalescent plasma trial, which transfuses the blood plasma of a person who has coronavirus into a virus patient.
For the past 40 years, Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health has worked in partnership with the Navajo Nation, White Mountain Apache Tribe, Indian Health Service and Tribal Health Organizations on studies aimed at reducing disease and improving the health and well-being of Native people. Past studies include three successful Phase 3 clinical trials of vaccines that are now used as part of routine immunizations that Native American children, as well as children across the US and the world receive as part of routine care: the Hib vaccine (against a leading cause of meningitis), the Prevnar vaccine (against a leading cause of pneumonia) and the rotavirus vaccine (against a leading cause of infectious diarrhea that can have severe effects in infants). All studies have been done by Native American and allied research personnel who are trained in the conduct of clinical trials, with the guidance of the communities and oversight of the Tribal IRBs.
Currently, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health is evaluating whether an investigational vaccine, created by Pfizer/BioNTech, is effective in preventing COVID-19 disease. There are no licensed vaccines against the virus that causes COVID-19 and finding safe and effective vaccines is critical to protecting families and ending the pandemic. The vaccine cannot give a person COVID-19 disease and there is no quarantine period required for those who enroll. Following consultation with health care providers, elders, and other community leaders, this study was submitted to the Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board (NNHRRB). The NNHRRB reviewed and approved this study, as did the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board. All individuals who seek to participate in the study receive extensive information on the trial through the informed consent process, and their participation is completely voluntary.
Additional details about study procedures and other details related to your questions are available on our website: https://caih.jhu.edu/news/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-trial
Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health for Censored News
10-22-2020
Johns Hopkins on the Navajo Nation
The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health website shows it is involved in COVID-19 surveillance and contact tracing.
Johns Hopkins is also carrying out:
- Convalescent plasma study: This is a medical remedy that has been used for centuries and that could provide a critical stop-gap option for COVID-19 while we’re waiting for effective vaccines.
- Seroprevalence study: Serological data can provided critical evidence to guide policy and preparedness
Johns Hopkins said this study is being carried out using Navajos with funding from the Department of Defense:
Johns Hopkins researchers have received $35 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND), on behalf of the Defense Health Agency, for two nationwide clinical trials to test the effectiveness of a convalescent blood plasma outpatient treatment. The treatment is a transfusion of a blood product from COVID-19 survivors that contains antibodies that may help the patient’s immune system fight the virus.
Photo: The US Calvary at Fort Defiance after the tragedy of the Longest Walk in 1968. It was the site of the first Navajo Indian Agency and Hospital.
The Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board
The Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board, for medical experiments on Navajos, was created in 1996 after a drug company attempted to profiteer from the deadly hantavirus on the Navajo Nation. Navajo Councilwoman Genevieve Jackson halted the attempt for the Navajo Nation Council to purchase and stockpile the drug Tamiflu.
The U.S. Public Health Service carried out radiation experiments on Navajos in 1951 without telling Navajo uranium miners, or their families.
The U S. knew the radiation would kill them, but sent Navajo miners to their deaths without protective gear.
Laguna and Acoma Pueblo miners were sent to their deaths in the same way at the Jackpile mine in New Mexico.
Deaths from cancer and respiratory disease are the legacy of U.S. uranium mining in Navajo and Pueblo communities. The radioactive dust fell on the plants, and was ingested by families eating sheep, deer, vegetables and plants.
Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. No portion may be used without permission.
About the author
Brenda Norrell has been a reporter in Indian country for 38 years, beginning as a reporter for Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. After serving as a longtime reporter for Indian Country Today newspaper covering the Southwest, she was censored and terminated. She created Censored News in 2006. She has a master's degree in international health, focused on water, nutrition and infectious diseases.
October 15, 2020
Seven Questions: Johns Hopkins questioned about 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos. Censored News awaits response.
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Oct. 15, 2020
Update Oct. 22, 2020 by Censored News
Johns Hopkins University researchers on the Navajo Nation responded in general to our questions but has not responded to the most important questions regarding the past 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos and White Mountain Apache. We have asked a second time: "Have any Navajos or Apaches become sick or died as a result of Johns Hopkins experimental medicines or treatments? (2) Are blood and DNA of Navajo or Apache stored, how are they used, and who has access to these?"
WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- Johns Hopkins University researchers have been carrying out medical research on Navajos on the Navajo Nation for 40 years. During those years, very little has been made public about the vaccine and medical research which was carried out in Indian Health Service Hospitals on the Navajo Nation.
Now, Johns Hopkins medical researchers are leading the controversial coronavirus vaccine experiments on Navajos and the Navajo government is pushing the vaccine experiments.
September 17, 2018
'Hweeldi, 1864 -- 1868, The Navajo's Long Walk' by Christine Prat
HWÉELDI, 1864-68, THE NAVAJO's LONG WALK AND DEPORTATION
By Christine Prat
Original in French at:
Censored News
In the second half of the 19th century, the conquest of 'The West' intensified. In 1846, the United States attacked the recently independent Mexico and acquired a huge portion of territory through the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty of 1848. For a long time, settlers mainly wanted to acquire agricultural lands and were not interested in the rocky desert lands of the Southwest. However, in the second half of the 19th century, people started looking for gold and other resources.
In the 1860's, the American Army had military posts in the Southwest, on the ground that Navajos and Apaches often raided the area. In the region corresponding to present day Arizona and New-Mexico, settlers captured Native women and children as slaves, rather than buy African slaves from traders. Native warriors tried to free the captives and raided the area. However, in the 1860's a rumor spread among white people that there would be gold in the Navajo Territory. One who is said to have believed in the rumor was Colonel Kit Carson. He managed to convince General Carleton that it was necessary to get rid of the Navajos.
The Army attacked the Navajo Territory, while Fort Sumner – named after General Edwin Vose Sumner - was being built, on a site called Bosque Redondo by the Spanish. In the winter 1863-1864, Carson's Army killed, destroyed crops, and rounded up all the Navajos they could. In the Canyon de Chelly, where people hid in caves, the Army destroyed everything that grew, like the peach trees Navajos were so proud of. Some warriors managed to hide in the many caves and canyons of the region. But the thousands of Navajos taken prisoners were forcibly marched for some 400 miles, in the winter, to Bosque Redondo. Many died underway. Especially children and old people died of hunger and exhaustion or drowned while crossing rivers.
At the site where they were to be detained – called 'reservation' but in fact the first concentration camp, with extermination intentions – they were supposed to care for their own needs. They were supposed to plant crops. However, the place was particularly unhospitable, wood was scarce, and the water of the River Pecos was alkaline, thus not suitable to drink, making them sick, and not suitable for irrigation either. A few hundred Mescalero Apaches were also detained in the camp.
Although the soldiers in the Fort were supposed to guard the camp, and certainly to prevent the prisoners to run away, they hardly interfered when Comanches, then enemies of the Navajos and the Apaches, attacked them.
After a few years of bad crops, in which the Army had to provide minimal food rations to the prisoners, which still cost money to the Army, it was decided that it would be cheaper to let the survivors go back home, to a reservation drawn as a rectangle on a map, in the Treaty of June 1st 1868. The survivors were probably 'lucky' that their ordeal mainly took place during the Civil War. It made the Army's budget even tighter, and many militaries of the region had gone over to the Confederates.
The survivors just went back home, where they came from, as they had not learned to recognize an arbitrarily drawn rectangle in the landscape. Since then, the Navajo Reservation has been enlarged several times, but they are not yet back to their whole territory between the Four Mountains.
The story of Hwééldi has been told through the generations. In 2009, Camille Manybeads Tso has been telling the story of her great-grandmother, who managed to hide with her baby and escape the Long Walk, in a movie, "In The Footsteps of Yellow Woman", which has been shown in France, during the Festival AlterNatif in Nantes. In Klee Benally's movie "Power Lines", first shown in the US in 2015 and in Paris in 2016, allusions to Hwééldi run all along the movie.
The pictures below have all been taken on the site of the camp. It has been declared a New Mexico State Monument in 1968. A memorial housing a museum, designed by Navajo architect David N. Sloan was opened on the site in June 2005. The place being now managed by the New Mexico Historic Sites division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the story is probably softened and you can be sure that in reality, it was worse. The site is situated close to Billy the Kid's grave, on Billy The Kid road, and in tourist guides and signs on the roads you will find only "Billy the Kid's Grave". Racists will always prefer a white thief than murdered Natives.
Dans la seconde moitié du XIXème siècle, la “conquête de l’Ouest” s’est intensifiée. En 1846, les Etats-Unis avaient attaqué le Mexique, indépendant depuis peu, et acquis une énorme portion de territoire, par le Traité de Guadalupe-Hidalgo de 1848. Avant, les colons voulaient surtout s’emparer de terres agricoles et avaient peu d’intérêt pour les terres rocheuses et désertiques du Sud-ouest. Cependant, dans la seconde moitié du XIXème siècle, les gens commencèrent à chercher de l’or et autres ressources minérales.
Dans les années 1860, l’Armée Américaine avait des postes militaires dans le Sud-ouest, sous prétexte que les Navajos et les Apaches faisaient des razzias dans la zone. Dans la région correspondant aux états actuels d’Arizona et du Nouveau-Mexique, les colons capturaient des femmes et des enfants Autochtones comme esclaves, ce qui revenait moins cher que d’acheter des esclaves Africains. Les guerriers Autochtones essayaient de libérer les captifs et faisaient des razzias dans ce but. Cependant, dans les années 1860, la rumeur s’est répandue parmi les Blancs qu’il devait y avoir de l’or dans le Territoire Navajo. Un de ceux qui crurent en cette rumeur était le Colonel Kit Carson. Il réussit à persuader son supérieur, le Général Carleton, qu’il était nécessaire de se débarrasser des Navajos.
L’Armée dirigée par Kit Carson attaqua le Territoire Navajo, tandis que Fort Sumner – nommé en mémoire du Général Edwin Vose Sumner – était construit, sur un site appelé Bosque Redondo par les Espagnols. Au cours de l’hiver 1863-64, l’armée de Carson tua des Navajos, détruisit les récoltes, et captura tous les Navajos qui n’avaient pu leur échapper. Dans le Canyon de Chelly, où les gens se cachaient dans des grottes, l’Armée détruisit tout ce qui pouvait pousser, entre autres les pêchers dont les Navajos étaient si fiers. Certains guerriers réussirent à se cacher dans les nombreuses grottes et canyons de la région. Mais des milliers de Navajos furent faits prisonniers et forcés de marcher sur environs 650 km, en hiver, jusqu’à Bosque Redondo. Beaucoup moururent en route. En particulier les enfants et les personnes âgées, moururent de faim et d’épuisement, ou se noyèrent en devant traverser des rivières.
Sur le lieu où ils devaient être détenus – appelé ‘réserve’, mais en réalité le premier camp de concentration de l’histoire moderne, avec intention d’extermination – ils devaient produire pour assurer leur survie. Ils devaient planter des céréales et autres produits alimentaires. 
Cependant, l’endroit était particulièrement inhospitalier, ils manquaient de bois, et l’eau de la rivière Pecos était alcaline, non-potable, la boire les rendait malades, et ne convenait même pas à l’irrigation. Quelques centaines d’Apaches Mescalero furent également détenus dans le camp.
Bien que les soldats du fort soient supposés surveiller le camp, et bien entendu, empêcher les prisonniers de s’évader, ils fermaient les yeux quand des Comanches – alors ennemis des Navajos et des Apaches, et au besoin collaborateurs – les attaquaient.
Après plusieurs années de mauvaises récoltes, durant lesquelles l’Armée devait fournir aux prisonniers des rations minimales, ce qui coûtait tout de même de l’argent, il fut décidé que ça coûterait moins cher de laisser les survivants rentrer ‘chez eux’, dans une réserve dessinée par un rectangle sur une carte, dans le cadre du Traité du 1er juin 1868. Les survivants ont probablement dû leur salut au fait que leur enfer ait eu lieu pendant la Guerre de Sécession. Ça réduisait énormément le budget de l’armée pour d’autres actions, et beaucoup de militaires de la région avaient choisi le camp des Confédérés, “les Sudistes”.
Les survivants rentrèrent chez eux, c’est-à-dire d’où ils venaient, n’ayant pas appris à reconnaître un rectangle abstrait dans le paysage. Depuis, la Réserve Navajo a été agrandie à plusieurs reprises, mais ils n’ont toujours pas récupéré leur Territoire ancestral, entre les Quatre Montagnes.
L’histoire de Hwééldi a été racontée de génération en génération. En 2009, Camille Manybeads Tso a raconté dans un film, “In the Footsteps of Yellow Woman”, l’histoire de son arrière arrière-grand-mère, qui avait réussi à se cacher avec son bébé et à échapper à la Longue Marche. Le film est passé en France, dans le cadre du festival Alter’Natif, à Nantes. Le film de Klee Benally, “Power Lines” – sorti aux Etats-Unis en 2015 et à Paris en 2016 – est d’un bout à l’autre parsemé d’allusions à Hwééldi, évènement crucial dans l’histoire de tous les Navajos.
Les photos ont toutes été prises sur le site du camp. Il a été déclaré Monument de l’état du Nouveau-Mexique en 1968. Un mémorial, qui héberge un musée, a été conçu par l’architecte Navajo David N. Sloan. Il a été ouvert le 4 juin 2005. Le site est actuellement géré par le Service des Sites Historiques du Nouveau-Mexique, qui dépend du Service des Affaires Culturelles du Nouveau-Mexique. Donc, les histoires ont probablement été quelque peu ‘adoucies’, croyez bien qu’en réalité, ça a été pire. Le site est proche de la tombe de Billy The Kid, et se trouve sur la Route Billy The Kid. Dans les guides touristiques et sur les panneaux indicateurs, vous ne trouverez que “Tombe de Billy The Kid” comme indication. Les racistes préfèreront toujours un voleur blanc à des Autochtones assassinés.
Christine Prat
March 13, 2018
Navajos in Palestine 'NO to Apartheid!'
 |
| Lyla June Johnston and Orlando Begay Navajos say 'NO!' to Strangulation by Apartheid in Palestine Massacres and Displacement of Palestinians by Israel Repeats Genocide of Native Americans in the United States By Lyla June Johnston in Palestine Censored News French translation by Christine Prat 
Watch video below -- Lyla in Palestine stands before a home demolished by Israel. She describes Israel's goal of "maximum territory" and "minimum population" of Palestinians, who are removed by force, beaten and often hospitalized as Israel destroys Palestinian homes and forces them into refugee camps.
|
 |
| "A Palestinian city strangled by apartheid wall construction. Over 2500 people were forced to move their livelihoods to refugee/concentration camps. Because of the wall construction, kids had to get up at 4 am just to get around the wall to their school. If someone has a heart attack they would have to take over an hour to get to the hospital. They were isolated out of existence and now it is a huge ghost city in ancestral Palestine." -- Lyla June Johnston |
 |
"These are the windows of a school for Palestinian girls that were broken with rubber bullets and tear gas bombs by the Israeli army. This is in the refugee camp called Shu'fat camp.
It is across the street from Jewish settlements where people not only don’t have to pay taxes but receive benefits to live there. Here in Shu’fat people are taxed and resources are extracted. No services are provided and so there is no way to push out the trash which gathers on the side of streets or is burned." -- Lyla June Johnston 
"Today I am visiting the ancient city of Lifta. It was 'depopulated' in 1947 by Zionist Militias. And by this I mean the people were driven out by force. Around this time 120 men women and children were massacred.
The whole area has remnants of indigenous land stewardship: almond trees, fig trees, rich soil, greenery all around, a sacred spring. We are now on our way to the refugee camp 20 minutes away where the displaced people live to this day. Sound familiar? For native Americans, it sure does... It is time for us as Americans to raise our voices and pressure the American government to cease the veto-ing process at the UN. The veto power used by the US prevents international law and treaties from protecting Palestinians.
No matter what your religion is or what your sacred texts say, myself and many progressive Jews understand that nothing justifies us to kill others or behave in a dominator mindset or violently displace a person who has lived there for hundreds if not thousands of years. — in Lifta, Yerushalayim, Israel." -- Lyla June Johnston
Watch Lyla's video below
The Massacre of LIfta. 
"Whenever you see these cactus trees, you know it was a “depopulated” Palestinian village. Although not indigenous to Palestine, they were a favorite plant species of Palestinian communities as they served many purposes. Thus the cactus has become a symbol of #AlNakba, or “The Catastrophe,” of 1947 when Zionist militias drove out 700,000 Palestinian people by force, massacring hundreds and hundreds along the way. A second removal occurred in 1967 during the Six Day War and they were forced to leave everything they knew once again. Today, people are routinely imprisoned, killed and every movement they make is controlled and monitored by cameras and checkpoints hidden as much as possible from the affluent Israeli community right next door. Grandmothers have watched three generations of children be war torn and wonder when it will stop. The answer to the question depends on each of us."-- Lyla June Johnston #BoycottSanctionDivest
"What if every time you simply wanted to get back home from work you had to go through a checkpoint full of armed guards that may or may not harass you? This is what Palestinians go through. What if at the age of 18 you were forced to join the Israeli Army and check people you don’t even know who just want to get home at night? This is what Jewish Israeli youth go through. In the context of oppression, nobody wins and all are held in the bondage of untruth." -- Lyla June Johnston
Photos and article copyright Lyla June JohnstonMay not be used without permission |
August 13, 2015
US poisons Navajo river water in scorched earth campaign
By Brenda Norrell
The United States has poisoned the Four Corners river water, and immediately began a dirty tricks campaign, attempting to have Navajos sign 'waivers of liability.'
When the power plants first poisoned the air, water and land of the Four Corners region, the United States declared the Four Corners region -- including this area of the Navajo Nation -- is a "sacrifice zone."
This is because the electricity produced here is for distant US cities. Power plants, and the dirty coal mining it depends on, use lots of water.
Now, with the poisoning of the Animas River by the US EPA, with water from the Gold King mine -- whether it was intentional or accidental by the US -- the US has once again carried out a scorched earth campaign.
The US EPA has poisoned the water of those with the least financial resources to recover and survive: Navajos and farmers in the Four Corners region who depend on this river for water, livestock and crops. The US EPA admits it is responsible for this spill.
At the same time, the US and Arizona Congressmen have been using every trick possible to get Navajo area river water for power plant use, including trying to secretly steal it, as was revealed in attempts to steal the nearby Colorado River water by the US Interior and Arizona Congressmen for the Navajo Generating Station at nearby Page, Arizona.
Now the US has poisoned the river water in the Four Corners region.
Not only has the US poisoned the Animas River water in this area of New Mexico and Colorado, but the US EPA immediately began a dirty tricks campaign, attempting to get Navajos to sign waivers of liability to release the US from financial liability, to prevent Navajos and others from recovering.
Already, the US has presented these forms to Navajos in Shiprock, N.M., and Aneth and Oljato in Utah, along the San Juan River, which is being poisoned from the heavy metals in the Animas River spill. These are remote areas where many Navajo elders still speak Dine' (Navajo.)
Navajo President Russell Begaye has warned the people not to sign these waivers of liability in this latest attempt by the US to continue genocide against Native Americans and America's poor.
Navajo President Russell Begaye said, "The U.S. EPA has been seeking signatures from the Navajo People on Standard Form No. 95 which, if signed, will waive future claims against the U.S. EPA.
"The Federal Government is asking our People to waive their future rights because they know without the waiver they will be paying millions to our People. This is simple; the Feds are protecting themselves at the expense of the Navajo people and it is outrageous," President Begaye said.
See President Begaye's statement and warning, with French and Dutch translations provided at Censored News
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/08/us-epa-tells-navajo-people-to-waive.html
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/08/us-epa-tells-navajo-people-to-waive.html
Wikipedia: A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. It is a military strategy where all of the assets that are used or can be used by the enemy are targeted, such as food sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the people in the area. The practice can be carried out by the military in enemy territory, or in its own home territory. It may overlap with, but is not the same as, punitive destruction of the enemy's resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons.
For permission to republish this article: brendanorrell@gmail.com
May 8, 2015
Death by police and COINTELPRO: UN Reviews US Human Rights Violations on Monday
United Nations hears US human rights violation on Monday: Death by police, theft of Indigenous children, coal and uranium mining cancer alleys, border migrant abuse, unjust imprisonment, spying, torture and assassinations
By Brenda Norrell
The United States human rights violations will be reviewed on May 11, 2015, before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The murder of unarmed blacks by police officers, COINTELPRO, and freedom for Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal, are on the agenda.
Racial discrimination and unjust imprisonment top the list of human rights violations by the United States. The seizure of Indigenous children from their homes, and death by environmental pollution, particularly for Native Americans in the Southwest, are included in the United States human rights atrocities.
The fact that the US continues to fund Israel, while Israel carries out Apartheid in Palestine, is in the human rights violations. As expected, the US has already attempted to defend its record on spying, torture and targeted assassinations.
Taking the lead, the US Human Rights Network, in its statement for the upcoming Universal Periodic Review on Monday, calls for the release of political prisoners Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal.
"More than 20 racial and social justice activists and human rights defenders languish in prisons throughout the U.S. These political prisoners are COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Eraxxvi activists who were persecuted because of their political beliefs and activities. They are now indigent, aging, infirmed, and entitled to immediate relief. UPR Recommendations 92.94, 92.153 and 92.154 call on the U.S. government to “end the discrimination against persons of African descent;' and to 'release all of its political prisoners…including Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal.”
The US Human Rights Network points out the environmental racism, which has resulted in widespread death for the poor in the US. The example is New Mexico, where coal-fired power plants, uranium mining and atomic testing poison the region, and target both Native American and Chicano communities. Coal-fired power plants and uranium mining poison the Navajo Nation, while the Pueblos have been scarred with the legacy of death from both uranium mining and atomic testing.
The Human Rights Network states, "Throughout the U.S., communities of color and Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollution. In New Mexico for example, they suffer disproportionate health impacts - primarily cancer - from pollution caused by industrial and extractive activities (including uranium mining and processing), yet many are denied effective legal recourse."
On the issue of global human rights, the US Human Rights Network points out that the US continues to fund Israel, in the face of Israel's ongoing human rights atrocities in Palestine.
"Since 2010, Israel is, by far, the largest recipient of U.S. foreign military assistance. Providing military assistance to Israel in the face of longstanding impunity for human rights crimes represents an ongoing failure of the U.S. to fully implement International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and accountability measures required under the U.S. Leahy Laws." Read the full report of the US Human Rights Network: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/upr_exec_summary_of_stakeholder_reports.pdf
US State Department glosses over violations
Meanwhile, in what Russell Means, Lakota, often called "another dog and pony show," the US State Department has already submitted a statement glossing over its human rights violations.
Meanwhile, in what Russell Means, Lakota, often called "another dog and pony show," the US State Department has already submitted a statement glossing over its human rights violations.
In the US State Dept. response, there is no mention of the United States drone assassinations. The US has little to say in its own defense about spying on its citizens (which the US Appeals Court has just ruled illegal) or spying on the world's leaders and citizens.
As for the US response concerning its own spying, if it were not tragic, it would be laughable.
The US State Dept. response is brief: "See general comments. We collect information about our citizens only in accordance with U.S. law and international obligations."
The US State Dept. actually denies its own assassination programs, which has been well-documented by former CIA agents and whistleblowers. The US responds in its statement:
Recommendation 142: Halt selective assassinations committed by contractors, and the privatization of conflicts with the use of private military companies.
U.S. position: See general comments. Our contractors are not authorized to engage in direct hostilities or offensive operations or to commit assassinations. Like U.S. government personnel, contractors may only use force consistent with our international and domestic legal obligations. We have expressed support for the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers.
As expected, the US State Dept. denies it has violated the Geneva Conventions by carrying out widespread torture, disappearances and targeted assassinations. Further, the US denies its role in the ongoing abuse of migrants at the borders and prison-for-profit schemes involving migrants. The US assumes no responsibility in the militarization of the US border, or confesses that US Homeland Security selected Israel's defense contractor Elbit Systems to build spy towers on the Arizona border this year, including on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
Read the US State Department's full statement for the Review: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/upr/2015/237250.htm
UN High Commissioner lists some violations of Indigenous rights
Meanwhile, in its summary for the upcoming Review, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights has listed US human rights violations -- as stated by what the UN refers to as "stakeholders."
Meanwhile, in its summary for the upcoming Review, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights has listed US human rights violations -- as stated by what the UN refers to as "stakeholders."
 |
| The children who never came home Carlisle Indian School, Penn. Photo by Brenda Norrell |
Currently the seizure of Native American children from their homes and families by social services and other US agents, in violation of law, is being fought by Lakotas in the Dakotas and other Native Americans throughout the US.
In its report, the High Commissioner states: "JS10 stated that indigenous children are removed from their families and communities at disproportionate rates as compared to other children and once removed they often suffer psychological, economic and cultural harms."
One of the crimes largely ignored by the media in the US is medical research targeting people of color without their knowledge. What type of research was Johns Hopkins carrying out at Fort Defiance PHS hospital in Arizona, and elsewhere, all those years? Many of the Navajos who went there did not speak English and trusted the doctors and translators to make decisions for them. Johns Hopkins is being sued for infecting Guatemalans with STDs.
Also, has Indian Health Service been collecting DNA without American Indian patients knowledge? (A Native youth was recognized for her achievement in creating a DNA kit for IHS.)
The facts are known that Indian Health Service systematically sterilized American Indian women in the US, many in the 1970s, as documented by Censored News in this video interview with Jean Whitehorse, Dine', at the AIM West gathering. Extensive investigations are now revealing how Native children in Canada in boarding schools were secretly used in medical and psychological experiments. Less is known about those experiments in US boarding schools and hospitals. Video interview with Jean Whitehorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-QlIGhXcE
In the High Commissioner's report on the United States, some of the human rights violations of "Minorities and indigenous peoples" are listed.
JS46 stated that Alaska and Hawaii were each a state of peoples recognized under the law of nations and international law as nations, claiming self-determination and self governance. According to JS46, the US submitted misleading reports to cloak the violations of the Charter of the United Nations and international law.250 87. While acknowledging the efforts made by the Government in recent years to advance the rights of indigenous peoples, JS5 noted with deep concern that indigenous peoples, including American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian peoples, still face significant challenges that are related to historical discrimination, acts of oppression, and inadequate government policies.251 JS5 recommended the Government to adopt measures to effectively protect sacred areas of indigenous peoples against environmental exploitation and degradation. 252 JS19 made similar recommendations.253 88. JS48 requested that the UPR Working Group recommend that the US fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without seeking to diminish the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples to, inter alia, self-determination, free, prior and informed consent, rights to traditionally owned, occupied and used lands, territories and resources, cultural rights and sacred areas.254 JS44 made similar remarks and recommended protecting cultural landscapes and sacred areas of indigenous peoples and A/HRC/WG.6/22/USA/3 11 ensure that consultations are held with the communities affected by development projects and exploitation of natural resources.255 JS42 made a similar recommendation.256 89. JS26 stated that the principle of free, prior and informed consent relating to indigenous peoples must be central to domestic and foreign policy. Sacred sites must be protected across the country.257 90. JS40 stressed that the reclamation of traditional lands and natural resources is a primary goal for the Nipmuc Nation and the Chappaquiddick Wampanoag Tribe. 258 Tribal members are continually challenged in their right to hunt and fish without license. Some cases have resulted in arrests of tribal members.259 WSNC recommended that the Government respond to WSNC requests for negotiation on treaty and land rights.260 91. JS48 indicated that the US continues to make unilateral decisions to extract resources (gold, uranium, coal, timber, water, etc.), and to carry out development projects with devastating impacts on the sacred areas, including waters and other resources. 261 92. JS48 requested that the UPR WG recommend that the US reconsider its rejection, in its first UPR review, of recommendation 92.154262 regarding the end of the incarceration of the Indian activist Leonard Peltier. 263 93. JS42 asked the UPR WG to recommend that the US engage in peace processes with Indigenous Peoples by providing safe access to land, water and education, and safety from violence. 264
Besides the United States, the Human Rights Council will also review human rights in Belarus, Liberia, Malawi, Mongolia, Panama, Maldives, Andorra, Bulgaria, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Croatia, Jamaica and Libya during the session, which is the 22nd session, May 4 -- 15, 2015.
Read the UN High Commissioners full statement: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/summary_of_stakeholders_information_usa_upr_2015.pdf
Also see: Hungry Aboriginal children used in bureaucrats experiments in Canada:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/hungry-aboriginal-people-used-in-bureaucrats-experiments-1.1317051
NOTE: Please forward additional statements submitted to the UN, for publication in Censored News to: brendanorrell@gmail.com
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS
Also see: Hungry Aboriginal children used in bureaucrats experiments in Canada:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/hungry-aboriginal-people-used-in-bureaucrats-experiments-1.1317051
NOTE: Please forward additional statements submitted to the UN, for publication in Censored News to: brendanorrell@gmail.com
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)