.jpg) |
| Terrance Nelson |
By Terrance Nelson
Roseau River Anishinabe
As Canadian Press reports Tuesday, it is a battle between the good guys and "illegal" supposedly criminals, operating outside the laws of Canada and the Province of Manitoba. The reality is that the immigrants who have come into our lands legislated their own laws to legalize their right to use economic terrorism against the sovereign indigenous nations in Canada and United States.
The Canadian media label First Nation sovereignty as "illegal," the courts which are financed, mandated and follow the laws legislated by the immigrant governments cannot recognize the rightful assertions of the first sovereigns of these lands. The question asked by the Dakota, "how did you get our lands" and "show me a treaty or any documents where we agreed to live under your laws" will not be answered by the judge. The charges of contempt of court however will be dealt with. We can expect the Dakota to be harshly dealt with by the white court. The question will then be, how do the Dakota react to the jailing of their leadership?
The Canadian media label First Nation sovereignty as "illegal," the courts which are financed, mandated and follow the laws legislated by the immigrant governments cannot recognize the rightful assertions of the first sovereigns of these lands. The question asked by the Dakota, "how did you get our lands" and "show me a treaty or any documents where we agreed to live under your laws" will not be answered by the judge. The charges of contempt of court however will be dealt with. We can expect the Dakota to be harshly dealt with by the white court. The question will then be, how do the Dakota react to the jailing of their leadership?
First Nations defend illegal Manitoba smoke shop in provincial court
By The Canadian Press September 17, 2013
BRANDON, Man. - Arriving on horseback — some wearing headdresses and carrying ceremonial staffs — members of a Manitoba First Nation appeared in court Tuesday to defend their right to operate an illegal smoke shop which sold half-price cigarettes.
The Dakota Chundee smoke shop south of Virden, Man., opened in 2011 and has been raided several times by police. It has since shut down, but the battle goes well beyond the sale of Mohawk tobacco from Quebec for $40 a carton. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/
The Dakota Chiefs in court in Brandon Manitoba are in danger of going to jail. Amongst the many charges they face is contempt of court. If Frank Brown and the Dakota leadership are thrown in jail, what will be the reaction of the Dakota people and other indigenous people in the Three Western Prairie Provinces.
Is it time meet economic terrorism with economic terrorism? The Dakota sit on the oil pipelines that send millions of barrels of oil every day to the United States. Six years ago, the National Day of Action set for June 29, 2007 wasn't taken seriously until the Chief of Birdtail Sioux First Nation joined in. The Canadian National Railway company stole land from the Birdtail Sioux in 1905 and built a rail line through the stolen land. It is still an unresolved issue today.
Will the Dakota shut down that railway line if the Dakota leaders are jailed. Most of the Dakota Nations involved in the cigarettes have between 80 and 90% unemployment in their communities. There is more than enough anger to do blockades if the leaders are jailed. CN has picked up body parts on that railway line on Birdtail Sioux First Nation as youth, women and men committed suicide over the years by allowing the train to run over them.
Economic terrorism reversed
How would white people react to being stopped from doing business. The Judge in the Dakota court case may make his decision by Friday September 20, 2013. The reaction to the decision will be swift if it goes badly for the Dakota. Maybe it is time that the immigrant white people to know how it feels to deal with artificially imposed 60 to 95% unemployment.
Sixty million buffalo were killed in the 1800s to ensure that the Dakota could not feed their people. The United States Seventh Calvary slaughtered 300 men, women and children at Wounded Knee South Dakota in December 1890. From 1860 to 1890, hundreds of thousands of indigenous people were slaughtered or died from deliberately induced biological warfare as the United States expanded into Dakota territory. The Dakota in Canada lost all their lands in the United States, the Treaty of Fort Laramie never fulfilled. The real terrorists have never faced justice, economic terrorism in North America continues unabated. Whether it will be reversed or even recognized as a deliberate Genocide remains to be seen.
Terrance Nelson, Vice Chair American Indian Movement
By Brenda Norrell
errance Nelson is former chief of Roseau River First Nation in Manitoba. In a letter to Prime Minister Harper, Nelson said, "We both know that the accusation that the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa was recruiting Iranians in Canada was a smokescreen, the real reason for the closure is APTN reporting our scheduled trip to Tehran on October 8 to 20. Dakota Chief Frank Brown, Dakota Chief Orvile Smoke, myself and possibly Lubicon Lake Chief Bernard Ominayak were scheduled to travel to Iran. The implications of this trip are that the Americans would go ballistic with your government when Chief Frank Brown does his power point presentation in front of the Iranian Parliament showing pictures of the mass graves from the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre."