The Mother Tongue: Countering the Identity Thieves of Canada, Russia, Japan and U.S.

Photo: Indigenous Youth, Food Knowledge and Arctic Change

The Mother Tongue: Recovering Indigenous Languages from the Identity Thieves of Canada, Russia, Japan and United States

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 16, 2024

Updated July 28, 2024: More from Russia and Japan

GENEVA -- Indigenous languages are on the verge of extinction in Russia. An ancient language in Japan is denied recognition by the government, while Native Americans struggle to recover from the torture in boarding schools that was meant to silence them. In Canada, efforts are underway to revitalize Anishinaabe after Native languages and culture were targeted with erasure in residential schools, presenters  told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

With Indigenous languages near extinction in Russia, an Indigenous youth from a reindeer herding community near the Arctic tundra, said newspapers are still  important here and are helping preserve the language, Nenets, among the endangered languages, in the vanishing north.

"Despite the decline in circulation of paper newspapers in the era of digitalization, our national newspaper retains an important role in the life of the people, clearly addressing their current agenda and giving ethnic journalists and language activists the opportunity to write in their native language," Nechei Serotetto, Indigenous youth from the Russian Arctic, told the United Nations Expert Mechanism.

"Moreover, the newspaper allows informing about twenty thousand Nenets of the Autonomous Okrug who are nomadic thousands of kilometers away and do not always have access to satellite internet coverage."

In Japan, speaking an ancient language was punishable by death.

Today, Japan refuses to recognize the language, the Lew Chewan/Okinawan languages, and its people. After Japan's annexation of the Lew Chew kingdom in 1879, the languages faced prohibition, Risako Sakai, ACSILs, told the United Nations.

"During WWII, the Japanese military ordered that speaking in Lew Chewan languages could result in execution, leading to the marginalization and near extinction of our native languages. In fact, the Japanese military executed Okinawans for speaking Indigenous languages, calling us “spy."

Josh Gandier. Photo Southern Chief's Organization, Censored News

"My own hope for this decade is to see the restoration, formation and protection of intergenerational connections between youths, language keepers and communities," said Southern Chiefs Organization's youth delegate Josh Gandier, Peguis First Nation.

Native Children Starved, Victims of Medical Experiments, in Boarding and Residential Schools

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.

Double Exposure: Genocide in Residential Schools, as Biden Genocide Case Begins in U.S. Federal Court

Blue Quills Indian Residential School

Double Exposure: Genocide in Residential Schools, as Biden Genocide Case Heads to US Federal Court

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Updated Jan. 21, 2024

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada released new records from residential schools, which were essentially prisoner-of-war camps where Native children were victims of genocide. At the same time, the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States announced its case filed against President Biden for genocide in Palestine begins in federal court in northern California on Friday.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation said the Oblates are transferring all outstanding records to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The first group of residential school records is now on its public website.

Corrupt Media in U.S. and U.K. Fuel Endless Wars, Profiteering for War Manufacturers

Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, highlights the hypocrisy present in Western and Israeli media. “I refuse to answer the question because I refuse its premise," Husam Zomlot, Ambassador, told BBC. Zomlot is Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, former Head of the PLO Mission to the US, and Strategic Affairs Advisor to the President of Palestine. https://twitter.com/i/status/1711143225493234113

Corrupt Media in the U.S. and U.K. Fuel Endless Wars, Profiteering for War Manufacturers

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Today the BBC, and the New York Times, are called out for their bias in news reporting, supporting Apartheid and war crimes. The endless wars, which benefit war manufacturers, of the U.S. and U.K. have resulted in endless wars, killing millions of innocent people -- women, children and elderly -- around the globe.

Today in the news, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Harsam Zarlos told the BBC, "I refuse to answer the question because I refuse its premise."

Raytheon Missiles in Tucson is among the warmakers benefitting from U.S. government contracts, and manufacturing weapons for Israel. Raytheon formed a partnership with the Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

U.S. and Canada Among Top Violators of Indigenous Rights: Mining, Militarization and Boarding Schools

Paiute Shoshone elders and mothers defending the unmarked burial place of Paiutes massacred here, are now being sued by Lithium Americas of Canada.

U.S. and Canada Among Top Violators of Indigenous Rights: Mining, Militarization and Boarding Schools

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 1, 2023

French translation by Christine Prat

Published today on Indybay

GENEVA -- The United States and Canada are among the top countries violating the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, with mining companies based in the U.S. and Canada linked to assassinations of Native people around the world, Indigenous told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The United States is responsible for accelerating the crimes against humanity with its endless war, resulting in the deaths of millions of innocent people, which benefits its war manufacturers.

Canada's long history of abuse of Native people includes the mandate for churches to seize Native children from their families and institutionalize them in residential schools, resulting in abuse, torture and murder, and generations of trauma. The Pope confirmed the Catholic Church was responsible for the genocide of Native people in 2022. Currently, Mohawk Mothers in Montreal are monitoring the search for graves at McGill University, the site of a CIA torture site.

U.S. lost 1,500 migrant children, repeating horror of stolen Native American children

Vice.com "Trump's inhumane border policies are tearing families apart and traumatizing children."
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43539q/what-separating-migrant-families-at-the-border-actually-looks-like

U.S. lost 1,500 migrant children, repeating horror of stolen Native American children

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The New York Times reports that the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress on Thursday that the agency "had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States, raising concerns they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives."
Native Americans point out that this horrific abuse follows the pattern of the United States stealing Native children.
Linda Black Elk said, "Native people know what it is like to have their children stolen. Thousands of Native children were taken to boarding schools and never heard from again. Many of them now lay in unmarked graves outside the walls of Carlisle, Anadarko, Cantonment, Chilocco, and so many other institutions. Imagine the babies who were stolen off their streets and taken thousands of miles away, where they contracted severe illnesses or were abused to the point of death. "What were they thinking as they were dying? "Were they wondering where their parents were?
"Is that what happened to the 1,500 Indigenous immigrant children that were 'lost' by the United States government? What kinds of horrors did they experience at the hands of sex traffickers, rapists, pedophiles, and abusers? How many of them cried for their mothers? "How many of them are still alive?
"Why is this still happening?" asks Black Elk, who is well remembered at Standing Rock Water Protectors Healing and Medic Tent and continues to share knowledge about healing plants.
Standing Rock Water Protectors point out that even the metal cages imprisoning migrant children, shown above, are the same inhumane, degrading cages Native Americans were imprisoned in at Standing Rock, when they were arrested praying for the water, as Dakota Access Pipeline tore through their ancestral lands.
New York Times reports that Steven Wagner, the acting assistant secretary of the agency’s Administration for Children and Families, disclosed during testimony before a Senate homeland security subcommittee that the agency had learned of the missing children after placing calls to the people who took responsibility for them when they were released from government custody.

"The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows."

The Trump administration is now seizing migrants children at the border.

The Washington Post reports that this is torture.

"In two speeches last week in the border states of Arizona and California, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that as a matter of enforcement, if an unauthorized migrant brings a child across the United States-Mexico border without documentation, “we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law. If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.," writes Jaana Juvonen and Jennifer Silvers.

Read article: 'Separating children from their parents is not just cruel. It is torture.'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/15/separating-children-from-parents-at-the-border-isnt-just-cruel-its-torture/?utm_term=.1e4b1c80394b

The horrific testimony exposing the United States reckless handking of migrant children came one day after a Mayan woman hiding in the bushes was shot in the head and executed by the U.S. Border Patrol on the Texas border.

The Guardian reports, "A Guatemalan woman shot dead by a border patrol agent in Texas has been named as Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles by local media outlets which reported that she travelled to the US in the hope of finding work to pay for her education.

"Gómez, a 20-year-old Maya-Mam indigenous woman, died on Wednesday after she was shot in the head by an agent in the border town Rio Bravo,Texas.

Read Claudia's story, say her name:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/25/woman-shot-dead-border-patrol-rio-bravo-texas-identified?CMP=fb_us

                                                                     Migrant Children

New York Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/migrant-children-missing.html

Notes:

The snakes on the border have been profiting from migrant misery for a long time. The buses to transport detainees on the Arizona border were operated by Wackenhut, who also had a security contract for Peabody Coal on Big Mountain. Wackenhut split into two companies for maximum profiteering from misery and abuse. Wackenhut Transportation was acquired by G4S in London, and GEO became one of the notorious private prison contractors in the Southwest. The Israeli defense contractor carrying out Apartheid in Palestine, Elbit Systems, was given the U.S. contract for the spy towers, integrated fixed towers, now targeting traditional communities on the Tohono O'odham Nation. G4S in London still has the transporation contract. 
.

Photo Wackenhut bus, with US Border contact, waiting to load up migrants on the Arizona border, next to Tohono O'odham Nation at Three Points. Photo copyright Brenda Norrell 2007.

On this same day, when temperatures were over 112, and we had no air conditioning, we drove around the border, and documented the US Border Patrol agents sitting in their air conditioned vehicles, talking on their cell phones most of the time, throwing their Starbucks cups on the ground, spending a lot of time at the Three Points store buying snacks, and driving too fast in the fragile desert tearing up the earth. We also saw some frightening men in regular clothes with out-of-state licenses with hunting rifles patrolling the border on a migrant trail near Arivaca. We photographed the first set of spy towers, which did not work, Border Patrol says, and that was a billion dollar boondoggle, money in the pockets of Boeing. The bus, operated by the snakes, was lurking there at the Three Points store.

Collusion by Feds Uncovered on Navajo Coal Plant Deal

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015

CONTACTS:

·         Nicole Horseherder, To' Nizhoni Ani, nhorseherder@gmail.com

·         Jihan Gearon, Black Mesa Water Coalition, jihan.gearon@gmail.com

·         Mallory Kindsfather, DU Environmental Law Clinic, mkindsfather17@law.du.edu

Illegal government collusion and secrecy uncovered in EPA and Dept. of Interior deal on air pollution control at Navajo Generating Station

Navajo community groups file civil action to address harmful smokestack emissions without delay

BLACK MESA, Ariz. – One of the nation's oldest and dirtiest coal-burning power plants will be able to continue dumping pollution into the skies above the Navajo Nation for another three decades because of a plan that was hatched in secrecy by government agencies, a coalition of Navajo groups claim in a complaint filed on Oct. 26, 2015.

The Navajo community organizations, To' Nizhoni Ani, Black Mesa Water Coalition, and Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment ("Diné CARE") say that newly uncovered evidence shows the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of the Interior colluded on a plan that will delay cleaning up harmful air pollution from the Navajo Generating Station ("NGS"), located on Navajo land near Page, Ariz. and Lake Powell.

"This is discrimination and genocide for our people and way of life. Our people still make a living off the land, and we have a right to participate in meetings that affect our future. This plan was brokered in secret," said Nicole Horseherder, a Black Mesa resident and founding member of To' Nizhoni Ani. "We didn't know these agencies were concocting a plan until they had already reached a final agreement that completely ignores the health and livelihoods of those who live in the shadow of the plant's smokestacks."

The Navajo Generating Station was built 40 years ago, and as the fifth largest power plant in the nation is also one of America's biggest polluters. Nowhere is the impact of the plant's toxic emissions felt greater than on the Navajo Nation, which suffers some of the highest rates of asthma and other lung problems in any community in the country.

In February 2013, the EPA proposed requiring cuts of 85 percent in the plant's harmful smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions over the next five years in order to meet clean air safeguards. Documents obtained by the groups, however, show that from March to July of that year, a working group that included the EPA and DOI met in secret to develop a plan that skirted most of the EPA's initial recommendations.

Federal open government and accountability laws require agencies to conduct their work in public. But the working group met in secret without providing any notice of its meetings or opening them to the public. To the surprise of the Navajo groups, the EPA adopted a final plan in July 2013 that will allow NGS to continue polluting the air with high levels of smog-forming nitrogen oxides for at least another 30 years, long past the expected operational life for a coal-fired power plant. 

"EPA and DOI deceived the public by lying about their involvement in the working group," said Mallory Kindsfather, one of three student attorneys working on the case for the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver. "The federal government has been shutting tribal communities out of decision-making for a very long time. These violations underscore the lengths to which federal agencies are willing to go in order to silence indigenous voices."

The groups assert that what emerged from the improper and illegal behind-closed-door Federal Government agency collusion was a deal that excused the one power plant in the U.S. owned by the U.S. Government from the same kinds of timely air pollution cleanup within five years, measures being required for coal plants across the region and the country. 

The groups filed their complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Francisco, where EPA Region 9 issues its regulations – more than 800 miles from the Navajo Nation. They are asking the court to overturn the plan under the grounds that it violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act.  The facts and law at the center of this complaint are as follows:

·         Through a request for public information, tribal conservation organizations uncovered emails and other correspondences pointing to the Federal Government's collusion and secrecy in establishing an advisory committee for the sole purpose of offering regulatory recommendations.

·         This information supports an inference that EPA participated in the advisory committee meetings, advised along the way, and provided assurances that the advisory committee's end product would be approved.

·         The advisory committee did not provide public notice of its meetings or open them to the public.  

·         EPA and Interior violated FACA by establishing and utilizing an advisory committee without abiding by these transparency safeguards.

# # #

Most Censored: US tragic fictional theater before UN Human Rights Council

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
English and Dutch

The United States is like that pretty girl in high school that thrives on her own self-promotion. But eventually the stardom wanes, the wrinkles take over, and well, its all down hill from there.

The US has a partner in self promotion at the United Nations, an ally in its cheerleading to distract from its human rights violations. Its fellow chum is Saudi Arabia, oozing in oil dollars and with an abhorrent human rights record. Both the US and Saudi Arabia want you to believe that they are standard bearers for human rights. Saudi Arabia even wants to head the UN Human Rights Council.

Of course the rest of the world sees clearly through both the US and Saudi Arabia, and their strange relationship. The rest of the world sees through the theater of these two countries before the UN Human Rights Council. It is theater -- tragic fictional theater.

During the recent United States Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, there were so many lies and half-truths presented by the US that it would take too much space to replicate all of those lies regarding kidnapping and torture, massive spying, secret detentions, death by police, private prison profiteering, incarceration of migrant children, institutionalized racial profiling, rape in the US military, failure to provide services to veterans, targeted assassinations by drones, and violations of Native American rights.

The spin masters were there at the review, including Keith Harper, Cherokee, to try and make it all look good. But outside the United States, where there is not the constant bombardment of US government public relations presented as news, and corporate US media, the other countries can see the truth.

Lakota Russell Means often called these reviews, "another dog and pony show." In the US, there is a growing widespread lack of faith in these United Nations reviews. Increasingly, the UN is viewed as impotent to bring about change in the ongoing human rights violations of the US.

One of the outcomes that was censored by the media was the pressure for the US to prosecute CIA operatives responsible for torture.

The US death penalty, and execution of innocents, and abusive solitary confinement, were also issues avoided in the US media coverage of the UN review. The US media avoided discussions of the US role in child trafficking; homelessness and poverty; and the high rate of rape by fellow soldiers in the US military.

During the review, Bolivia pressed for implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, while Cuba pointed out the staggering poverty in the US which has resulted in widespread homelessness. Mexico pressed the US to halt illegal deadly force by US Border Patrol agents.

During the review, the US representatives attempted to distract from the truth in Indian country. They avoided mentioning the ongoing targeting of Indian lands for coal mines, uranium mines, oil and gas drilling and pipelines, copper mines, and nuclear dumping. There was no exposure of the widespread devastation and disease from mining, drilling and dumping in Indian country. The severe devastation spans from Navajo and Pueblo lands in the Southwest to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara in North Dakota, Lakota in South Dakota and numerous Indian Nations in the Northwest. The US representatives avoided discussing how US mining companies are responsible for the assassinations, rape and disappearances of Indigenous Peoples around the world who are struggling to protect their homes, families, land, air and water.

The US representatives avoided discussing the unjust and high rate of the incarceration of American Indians in the US private-prison-for-profit empire.

The US representatives did not discuss the decades of spying and provocateurs in operations like COINTELPRO targeting American Indians, blacks and Chicanos, or the sterilization of American Indian women in Indian Health Service hospitals without their knowledge. There was no discussion of the ongoing theft of American Indian water rights being carried out by the US and states with Congressmen. There was no discussion of the generations of kidnapping, abuse and murder of Native American children in US government boarding schools, or the desecration of sacred land and incarceration of political prisoners.

There was no discussion of the fact that the Israeli Apartheid contractor Elbit Systems was given the US border contract and is now responsible for US spy towers aimed at traditional O'odham homes on Tohono O'odham land. There was no mention of the copper mine on sacred Apache land, promoted by Sen. John McCain, that was recently slipped in the defense bill.

The US representatives went to lengths to distract from the imprisonment of migrant children, a violation of international law, and the widespread neglect of sick and injured veterans. Further, rape in the US military, torture and spying were the focus of cover-ups by the US representatives during the review.


First off, while looking at the following Periodic Review, you might ask yourself, 'Where the heck is Azerbaijan and why do they know so much more than me about the United States human rights violations?' See map on left.

Here are the questions of Azerbaijan to the US at the UN Human Rights Council. Those questions are followed by advance questions from other countries.

UN: World Concerned over Racial Discrimination in US

Keith Harper, member of the Cherokee Nation, opens address from US delegation to Human Rights Council today

Watch video below: 3 hours and 30 minutes:

http://webtv.un.org/watch/usa-review-22nd-session-of-universal-periodic-review/4229106421001

Countries of the world detail US human rights abuses -- while US officials paint a picture of OZ

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

The world is watching, as evidenced in the concerns expressed from countries around the world during the UN Human Rights Council Periodic Review of the United States human rights record in Geneva today.

Racial discrimination; the need to eliminate the death penalty; excessive use of force by police toward minorities; hate crimes; inequality of pay for women; US torture; the need to close Guantanamo; executions by drones; spying and the need to protect children and youths top the list of US human rights concerns by the governments of the world.

The Russian Federation, Pakistan and Mexico expressed the most passion in their concerns over human rights violations in the US, including police profiling; assassinations with drones and the murder of migrants by immigration officers.

Pakistan urges prosecution of CIA officers responsible for torture.

Keith Harper, member of the Cherokee Nation and US representative to the Human Rights Council, opened the address of the US delegation to the UN Human Rights Council today, during the Universal Periodic Review of the US human rights record.

The US provided the UN with a fantasy version of how it
treats migrant children. Photo: Detainees sleep in a holding cell
 at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, 
Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Brownsville,Texas.
 (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)

As the US attempted to defend its human rights record, Harper said that the US is not perfect, but it has made progress in Indigenous rights, particularly in the areas of Indian youths, domestic violence, and law enforcement.

At the start of this morning's review, one member of the US delegation claimed that the US has made changes to assure that torture will no longer be allowed. 

However, at the conclusion, another member of the US delegation from the Joint Chiefs of Staff assured the United Nations that everything done in Guantanamo was in accordance with domestic and international law. There was no admission of torture, kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. He assured he UN that everyone in Guantanamo was able to get a fair trial.

During the review, the US detailed its efforts to enforce laws that protect the public from excessive force by police.

Homeland Security's assurance that the US is protecting the rights of immigrants crossing the border, however, makes one want to click their heels together, for surely this is OZ. 

The US made extensive claims about benefits and services to migrant children, without mentioning the imprisoned migrant children in the US, in violation of international law, as shown in these photos.

i

Migrant children detained at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Nogales Placement  Center on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in
Nogales, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, Pool)

The claims by the US of fair housing for people of color, the homeless, and veterans, is another venture in fantasy. 

The US also claims it has undertaken reforms in regards to sexual assaults in the US military. The US detailed an array of services available to soldiers being raped by fellow soldiers.

Further, the US attempts to make its drone strikes appear lawful. There was no mention of the number of citizens -- women and children -- murdered by US drone assassinations.

The United States made broad claims about protecting and supporting Native American rights, including the return of sacred items.

Many members of the predominately docile Human Rights Council seemed to believe that the United States has made great strides in guaranteeing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The United States presented an array of cosmetic repairs, and typical public relations spin, without addressing the widespread atrocities being carried out across Indian country for grassroots people. 

There was no mention of Native American political prisoners. There was no mention of COINTELPRO targeting the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement and Chicanos. There was mention of the sterilization of Native American women in US government hospitals. There was no mention of the widespread abuse, kidnapping, rape and murder of Native American children in US boarding schools, or the fact that the theft of Native American children continues today illegally by social service agencies.

There was no mention of the fact that Homeland Security gave the contract to build US spy towers on the border to Israel's Apartheid contractor Elbit Systems in 2014, including the spy towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

The United States did not address how corporations are poisoning the air, land and water of Native Americans with coal-fired power plants and uranium mining. The US did not admit that corporations have built a prison-for-profit empire in the United States, and migrants, American Indians, blacks and Chicanos are imprisoned for profit, and denied their rights while incarcerated.

Chad's Awada Angui told the UN Human Rights Council that recent events have tarnished the image of the United States.

The US human rights atrocity that the representatives of the UN Human Rights Council were aware of was the fact that police in the United States are murdering unarmed black men.

During the review, the recommendations from countries included: The elimination of racial discrimination and excessive force in policing; halt to NSA spying; ensure the rights of women; the need to close Guantanamo; elimination of corporal punishment of children; the need to abolish the death penalty; the need to halt drone strikes; the need for access to abortions for victims of rape.

Mexico points out the deaths of migrants by immigration officials and the need for reparations. Honduras urges the US to protect the rights of immigrants, especially children.

Bolivia urges implementation of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a halt to forced labor of migrants.

Montenegro is among the countries urging an end to the death penalty. 

New Zealand urges a moratorium on executions and an end to the death penalty.

Niger urges protections against hate crimes and hate speech.

Paraguay urges protection of migrants.

Portugal points out the cruel death by injections carried out by the US and the need for training for law enforcement. Portugal was among those urging new protections for migrants and the rights of the child.

Moldova expressed concern over the incarceration of youths in adult facilities, and the need to consult Indigenous Peoples in regards to decisions related to their lands and issues impacting them.

The Federation of Russia, Pakistan, China, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Korea, Ecuador and Mexico representatives gave passionate recommendations to the United States.

Pakistan urged the prosecution of CIA agents responsible for torture. Cuba also pressed for prosecution of those responsible for torture. Cuba also pressed for programs to reduce poverty in the US affecting 48 million people. Ecuador called for the prosecution of those responsible for torture and the use of drones for killing. Democratic Republic of Korea pressed for an end to racial discrimination and torture. Egypt called for an end to discrimination of Middle Easterners at airports.

Mexico pointed out the murder of its citizens by border immigration agents and the need for reparations. 

The Russian Federation quickly stated a long list of concerns and recommendations, including police arbitrary procedures, need to close Guantanamo, need to halt extrajudicial killings including drones, cruel treatment of adoptive children, and the racial profiling of Indigenous.

Senegal points out the need to improve the rights of immigrants.

Serbia points out the gender gap in the rights of women.

Singapore points out the need to eliminate hate crimes, including those based on religion.

Slovakia is among those urging the US to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Slovenia expressed concern over the lack of prosecution for those committing sex crimes within the US military.

Ireland urges the US to do more to protect its citizens from police brutality of African Americans and abolish death penalty.

In response, the US delegation said President Obama has ended the harsh rendition and torture program. 

The US denies it uses intelligence gathering for the suppression of dissent, and for business advantage. 

In both cases, the facts prove otherwise. The US has used spying to infiltrate, entrap and prosecute activists. It has also been exposed that the US intelligence gathering has been used for the purpose of insider business and trade knowledge.

Even Native Americans have been lured into the US massive spy network, as evidenced by the multi-million dollar US contract for domestic and international spying to Ho Chunk, Inc., in Nebraska, owner of the American Indian news website www.indianz.com

The US attempts to defend the US record of the imprisonment of people of color.

South Africa urged more measures to combat racial discrimination. Iran also urged the US to prevent racial discrimination and investigate claims of torture.

Thailand points out the need to protect the rights of migrants and prevent human trafficking.

Bosnia said it is encouraged by the US consultation with Native Americans.

Botswana expressed concerns over discrimination against women in the US.

Canada expressed concerns of those of forced trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Israel said the US needs to do more to eliminate racial discrimination and hate crimes.

Maldives urged the US not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

In response, the US claims it is protecting the rights of migrant child workers. The US claims it is protecting migrant children from forced child labor.

The Illinois Attorney General makes passionate statements about protecting human rights in Illinois. Discrimination in home lending for people of color resulted in lawsuits and compensation. Twenty people on death row were exonerated. The death penalty was eliminated. Chicago police issued an apology to recent victims. Illinois provides low tuition for undocumented college students, she says.

The session was broadcast live on the web, making possible this coverage.


Brenda Norrell has been a reporter in Indian country for 33 years, beginning at the Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated by Indian Country Today. She created Censored News in 2006. Now in its 9th year with no advertising, grants or sponsors, Censored News is approaching 4 million pageviews.

brendanorrell@gmail.com

Indigenous to Obama: Halt Oil Sands demands and development

The Indigenous Environmental Network and Rainforest Action Network produced this statement in response to a lobby effort in Washington DC by Treaty One Chiefs of Manitoba regarding the Enbridge Alberta Clipper and the TransCanada Keystone Project. In this communication you will find our press statement that focuses on providing an Alberta First Nations perspective on the issue, as well as the advisory that was sent out by Treaty One Chiefs of Manitoba on December 31, 2008. Please distribute this to your lists far and wide.
Clayton Thomas-Muller

ENERGY JUSTICE IN TURTLE ISLAND – NORTH AMERICA

Indigenous Message to Obama to Issue a Presidential Order to Halt All Processes for Approval of the Expansion of Oil Sands Pipeline Infrastructure Entering the United States and to Support Alberta First Nation Chiefs Demand to Canada for a Moratorium on all Expansion of Canadian Tar Sands Development.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, IEN Tar Sands Campaigner cell 218 760 6632
Eriel Deranger, Rainforest Action Network Tar Sands Campaigner, Member of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) cell 587 785 1558
Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network cell 218 760 0442

By IEN and Rainforest Action Network

OTTAWA, Canada – First Nation Chiefs from northern Alberta Canada are not able to attend the January 8 event in Washington, D.C. The Chiefs, elders and youth representatives of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta Canada are experiencing firsthand the assault of unsustainable energy development that has destroyed their environment and subsistence lifestyle that has sustained them since time immemorial. This energy development is called the tar/oil sands development, that has been called the “Worlds’ Most Destructive Project on Earth." A large portion of Canadian oil coming to the United States is extracted from the oil sands at a tremendous cost to the environment, water, and climate change and infringing on the aboriginal rights of First Nations people downstream of the tar sands development zone. The First Nations living in the energy sacrifice zone of the tar sands wanted to stand in solidarity with other Chiefs from Canada’s First Nations traveling to the U.S. capitol to seek the support of President Elect Obama in their fight for human rights.
It is with prayer and with strong hearts that all First Nations and American Indian and Alaska Natives are asking President Elect Obama to take action that recognizes the sovereign Indigenous nations in Canada and the USA whose inherent rights are being violated. The Canadian government continues to fail to recognize its responsibility and duty to consult with the Indigenous frontline communities that lay directly within the path of destruction involved with the extraction, processing and transportation of fossil fuels in Canada, including its exportation of dirty high carbon oil to the U.S. In February of 2008 all 43 First Nation Alberta Chiefs signed a resolution requesting a moratorium on all new tar sands permits. However, the province and the federal government continue to grant approvals for new expansions in the area.
The Canadian government is further compounding land and water rights issues with the approval and construction of expansion projects infringing into traditional territories in Northern Saskatchewan as well as Alberta. The projects for the delivering of this crude oil include major pipeline construction in traditional Indigenous territories in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and much of the mid-western USA states. The bulk of these projects have been pushed forward without any adequate consultation with the Indigenous communities and without recognition of the principles of free, prior and informed consent.
There are high profile litigations by Alberta based First Nations underway on this issue, most notably Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ACFN is seeking a number of declarations from the Court, including asking the Court to rule that the Alberta Government has:
1. A duty to consult and accommodate ACFN prior to granting the challenged tenures;
2. Breached their duty to consult by failing to consult prior to granting the Challenged tenures; and
3. A duty to consult on the scope and extent of the ACFN’s Treaty Rights and other Aboriginal interests and concerns, prior to granting the challenged tenures.
Beaver Lake Cree Nation of Treaty 6 (BCFN) launched a massive civil lawsuit against the federal and Alberta governments, claiming unbridled oil and gas development in its traditional territory renders its treaty rights meaningless. BCFN claims the developments have forced band members out of traditional areas, degraded the environment and reduced wildlife populations, making it impossible for them to meaningfully exercise their Treaty 6 rights to hunt, trap and fish.
When considering energy production and resource extraction, the incoming administration must take into account the disproportionate impacts of climate change and energy development on the first inhabitants of this Turtle Island – North America. When considering energy and climate change policy, it is important that the White House and federal agencies consider the history of energy and mineral exploitation and Indigenous Nations, and the potential to create a dramatic change with innovative policies. Too often tribes are presented with a false choice: either develop polluting energy resources or remain in dire poverty. Economic development need not come at the cost of maintaining cultural identity and thriving ecosystems. The Indigenous Environmental Network, the First Nations of northern Alberta and all Indigenous Nations want to work with President Elect Barack Obama and his administration for catalyzing green reservation economies – not the continuation of an unsustainable fossil fuel economy.
A just nation-to-nation relationship means breaking the cycle of asking First Nations of Canada or American Indians and Alaska Natives to choose between economic development and preservation of its cultures and lands. Renewable energy and efficiency improvements provide opportunity to do both simultaneously. A green, carbon-reduced energy policy has major national and international human rights, environmental and financial consequences, and we believe that this administration can provide groundbreaking leadership on this policy. The reality is that the most efficient, green economy will need the vast wind and solar resources that lie on Indigenous lands in the U.S. and Canada. This provides the foundation of not only a green low carbon economy but also catalyzes development of tremendous human and economic potential in the poorest community in the United States and Canada – Turtle Island. -

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TREATY ONE FIRST NATIONS
Canadian Indigenous Community to Deliver Message of Oil and Human Rights to President-Elect Obama
Delegation follows in centuries-long tradition of delegations of American Indians traveling to Washington, DC to meet the “Great White Father.” Read article at: http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/12/canadian-chiefs-to-deliver-message-to.html