Apache Stronghold Rally Tucson June 30, 2015

Apache Stronghold Rally in Tucson June 30 

Caravan to Washington, D.C. Begins July 5 with Mount Graham Sacred Run

By Indigenous Alliance Without Borders

Censored News

Tucson, AZ – Tuesday, June 30, 2015, at 7 pm, Apache Stronghold will hold a rally to support the efforts to protect Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site located on the Tonto National Forest which is threatened by a proposed copper mine. Apache Stronghold will begin a caravan to Washington D.C. the following week and will rally in the Nation’s capitol to ask the U.S. government and the public to support the Save Oak Flat Act, a bill introduced by Congressman Raul Grijalva in mid-June.

 The rally is sponsored by Indigenous Alliance Without Borders and Tucson Supports Oak Flat to promote Apache Stronghold in their effort to restore this land to the people. Donations for the caravan will be accepted and information about how to get involved in this historic movement will be available.

 Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Bildagoteel, has been protected from mining since 1955, when President Eisenhower recognized the importance of this site and used an Executive Order to permanently protect the cultural and natural resources for future generations. Senator John McCain, Senator Jeff Flake, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, and Congressman Paul Gosar used late-night political maneuvering to trade away this sacred land to a foreign mining company by attaching the land swap to a must-pass defense spending bill in December of last year.

“Once again the U.S. government has turned its back on promises made to Indian people. We are left with no choice but to take our fight to this nation’s capital” said Jose Matus, Director of Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, adding “We need to show our elected officials that the people of Arizona want sacred tribal sites protected and to let Congress know they cannot get away with giving away public lands to corporations. If Oak Flat can be traded away to a mining giant, no sacred site is safe.”

 Support for Apache Stronghold and Oak Flat has been growing steadily since February 2015, when members of the San Carlos Apache tribe began an encampment at Oak Flat to protect the site. Mainstream media has taken note with articles appearing in the New York Times, and on MSNBC. Thousands of people have signed petitions to repeal the land exchange or have the site nominated as a National Monument. Recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Oak Flat as one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.

 The rally will include music and members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe will be available for interviews.

What: Repeal the Oak Flat Land Exchange Rally and Fundraiser

When: Tuesday, June 30, 7:00pm-9:00pm

Where: Global Justice Center, 225 E. 26^th Street

Why: Rally support for Apache Stronghold caravan to Washington, D.C. and generate support for the Save Oak Flat Act.

We Rode with the Zapatistas

The impenetrable stronghold of the Zapatistas

By Brenda Norrell

Marcos with Tohono O'odham near Arizona border
Photo Brenda Norrell

Censored News

When people speak of Che, they often speak of his deep love, love for humanity, love for Indigenous People, and love of justice.

Those of us who traveled with, rode with, and supported the Zapatistas over the past 20 years, were drawn together because of this same manner of love, this love of humanity, and wanting to build a better world and expose the injustices.

Those of us who live in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and along the US Mexico border, felt a special measure of this love. We rode with the Zapatistas on the caravan through Mexico, made the long journey to the Chiapas jungle strongholds, and were honored and gifted with two visits from Marcos and the Commandantes in Sonora, just south of the Arizona border.

Photo Brenda Norrell

We laughed together, cooked together, struggled together, and were bound by a force that can not be put into words, a stronghold and force that surely Che felt, and a force that began long before 1994.

We were, and are, Tohono O’odham, Yaqui, Mayo, Dakota, Hopi, Navajo, and yes gringos and so much more. We were joined by Mohawks from the north, Seri and Cocopah from the west, and the fierce Indigenous from Guerrero in Mexico, who spoke Nahautl.

Among those from Guerrero was one that will be forever imprinted in my mind as a symbol of this struggle. He was a lean young man in his early 20s. He had only one leg, and hopped from place to place on one leg, with a stick to balance. When he was asked in Michoacan why he was here on the Zapatista caravan, he said, “We have no food at home.” When the call for security came, he was the first to volunteer. 

I think of him now, and the young Mayan mother who lived up the footpath in the mountains of Chiapas, grinding the corn from her cornfields for her young children, never knowing how long they could survive, how long before the lands would be seized by the military and corporations. 

At night in the jungle highlands we hung a flashlight from the roof of the hut for light. There was a warm glow, and someone had walked to town to bring us visitors a cold sweet drink, a gesture of that deep, boundless and borderless love. The year was 1995.

Rising from the shadows, Zapatistas in northern Mexico

By Brenda Norrell

UN Observer and International Report 2006

MAGDALENA, SONORA, Mexico – Subcomandante Marcos urged Indigenous in the United States and Mexico to rise up as warriors from the shadows and defend their lands and people from the corporate and political greed that is advancing as a death march.

“We were already dead and we were called upon to become warriors, according to our legend,” Marcos told O’odham and others gathered here during the Other Campaign’s tour of Indian country in northern Mexico on Oct. 21.

Speaking in poetic verse in the border region, Marcos told how the Zapatistas emerged in Chiapas, dying to live again.

“We were dead, we became what we are: shadows. And in a strict sense we are that: ‘shadow’s warriors or warriors of the shadows.’

American Indians: Protect Treaty Territory from White Supremacists in Leith, North Dakota

Lakotas and Dakotas face off with white supremacists in Leith, North Dakota 

Lakota Grandmothers Caputre Fascist Flag in Leith!

Screen capture by Censored News

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"The mothers will take you on!" Screen capture by Censored News

Native American elders rallying against white supremacists.

Censored News screen capture
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Riot team with no badges to identify them Censored News screencapture

Lakotas and Dakotas face off with white supremacists in Leith, North Dakota

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News Breaking News
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/09/american-indians-protect-treaty.html
Updated all day Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013 

Dutch translation NAIS

Photo by Unedited Media

LEITH, North Dakota -- Lakotas and Dakotas arrived today in Leith, near the Standing Rock Indian Nation, to defend the town from an invasion and takeover by white supremacists.

Chase Iron Eyes, Lakota from Standing Rock, said on arriving in Leith, "We don't try to persuade anyone. Warriors do not need to be coerced; we go because we love our children." 

Iron Eyes said Standing Rock Lakotas arrived to the sound of war cries.

Lakotas and Dakotas led by Standing Rock and Last Real Indians delivered powerful words during the rally. They were joined by non-Indians of many races from the region who arrived by caravan from Bismarck. Several hundred people rallied against the white supremacists known for violence and hate crimes.

Dakota grandmother Phyllis Young promised that the Lakota and Dakota grandmothers were ready to take on the white supremacists.

"You are in Dakota territory."

"Lakota means allies, Dakota means peace, and that is what we continue to struggle for in this land."

"My uncle stormed the shores of Normandy to eliminate your forerunners, the Nazis, that killed millions all over the world, so we know what your intent is, to criminalize Dakota territory.

"You will not do it. The grandmothers will stand up to you. The women will take you on."

The rally began before the Town Hall meeting, with the crowd shouting, "Go home!"

Chase Iron Eyes told the crowd, while facing the white supremacists, "We came here today to our country. We have been living here for tens of thousands of years. We know we have a harsh history between the races."

"But as I look where the Nazi flag flies, where the swastika flies, I know we have called their bluff. Because they who spread hate rely on other white people to fear non-white people."

"We have evolved. We do not hate white people."

"You have come here thinking that you can exploit the ignorance of white people."

Facing the white supremacists as they were arriving, Iron Eyes said the Lakotas will not react until they are attacked and named the Indian Nations present.

"We are evolved human beings. I think you know you represent a dying cause."

"You have nothing. That swastika is even our symbol."


"You have appropriated our intellectual properties because you have none."

Photo by Unedited Media

"You're 30 miles from our border. If you think we're going to let you come into our territory and affect our children, you've got another thing coming. What you see here are the mouthpieces. The warriors aren't even here. You have come here thinking we are going to react out of fear, but we won't do that. We are Dakota and Lakota people."

"You are a dying cause."

Listen to this address of Chase Iron Eyes:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s00ova5dzK70

State troopers and a riot squad were assembled, with badge numbers removed, as the town hall began. Inside the town hall, the National Socialist Movement attempted to convince the town they are not racists. After music played with bagpipes, the National Socialist Movement, known for its acts of violence and hate crimes, attempted to play the role of victims. 

However, they made it clear they were here to take over this town. 

Lakotas were not leaving at the end of the day, so riot police formed a walking line with the intent of pushing people out of the tiny town of 24 people. After the Town Hall, the National Socialistic Movement, and Craig Cobb who bought up the land and was basking in media glory, went inside one of the little deteriorating houses with the police lined up outside to protect them. 

Protesters appeared to leave with no police problems, and shouted war cries.

The daylong events inside and outside the town hall were live streamed by Unedited Media.

At the end of the day, one Lakota yelled, "You are on Treaty territory, you are not welcome here!" at Cobb, who bought up properties here for white supremacists.

Earlier, Native Americans called for peacekeepers to protect the Treaty Territory and support the local community of Leith on Sunday and Monday. 

The Last Real Indians sent out this message, which was shared 315 times in 40 minutes on Saturday night on Facebook. On Sunday morning, it had been shared 725 times in eight hours.

On Saturday night, Last Real Indians, comprised of Native American journalists, said, "Tomorrow is the Caravan to Leith, North Dakota, where the white supremacists movement will host a meeting to protect their hateful pursuit to take over that town."

Censored News screen capture

"We need our vets, our brothers, our hunters, and anyone that cares to protect the safety of our children to come help in our peacekeeping force. Be there by 1 pm Central to be sure we join the good evolving citizens of North Dakota to protect Treaty Territory."

Listen to Chase Iron Eyes, of Last Real Indians, on Lakota Tiokasin Ghosthorse's First Voices Indigenous Radio this week. Iron Eyes is Lakota from Standing Rock Indian Nation, 30 miles from  Leith. 
http://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives

On the radio show, Iron Eyes said these white supremacists carry out terrorism and are a threat to local children and families. 

Iron Eyes said Lakotas would join Unity ND to rally today, Sunday. Iron Eyes said the white supremacists represent a dying world view, and even in South Dakota, races have reached a level of respect. He said white supremacists can not be allowed to "set up shop" this close to Indian country communities.

"I know they are violent, and probably armed," Iron Eyes said, pointing out that all races will join together on the caravan to oppose this. He said the Aryan population will soon vanish and they are acting out of desperation.

UnityND organized a caravan on Sunday from Fargo and Bismarck to oppose the white supremacist takeover of Leigh, located in the southwest corner of North Dakota. http://unitynd.com/

The threat to the region attracted the region of global newspapers.

The UK Guardian reported, "The tiny town of Leith in North Dakota is bracing itself for a potentially turbulent weekend. Its 24-strong population is set to be overrun by opposing busloads of neo-Nazis attempting to create a white supremacist community there and their anti-racist detractors."

"Jeff Schoep, commander of the American National Socialist Movement (NSM), is preparing to travel from Detroit to Leith to hold a town-hall meeting and press conference on Sunday afternoon. On the NSM website, he describes the trip as a 'gesture of goodwill,' but goes on to say ominously that the aim is to 'plant the seeds of National Socialism in North Dakota. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/21/north-dakota-neo-nazi-community-leith

The neo-Nazis are the second wave of decay for small towns in North Dakota -- including American Indian communities -- where the oil and gas industry has already shattered the communities, poisoned the air, water and soil, infested communities with crime and destroyed lives in an Armageddon to community life. The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Indian Nation in North Dakota is among those devastated by oil and gas drilling that has resulted in local
deaths.

Photo by Unedited Media

Last Real Indians, proving that journalists can take a bold stand and make a difference, also posted this statement from the town of Leith, ND:

"We are deeply disturbed that one of the residents of our small community has invited hate groups to our town and to the state of North Dakota. One of these hate groups, the National Socialist Movement, is planning to hold a meeting in our city hall on Sunday afternoon, and raise neo Nazi flags on property around our town.

"The values of our town include safety and acceptance for everyone. We stand firmly against the bigoted views of this group, and will not be participating in their events.

"We urge other North Dakotans to peaceably join us in telling hate groups they are not welcome in our state.
"We have been told by other communities where the National Socialist Movement, a neo Nazi group, has tried to organize that the words and actions at their events are designed to provoke confrontation.

"We would rather draw attention to the good people who live in our town, in our county and in our state. While the neo Nazis are meeting in our city hall, we will be gathering in and around Leith to show that we stand together against hate, and stand with all North Dakotans."

-- For permission to repost this article, contact: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch Report on white supremacists in Leith ND:

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2013/09/05/leith-revelations-spark-battle-between-white-supremacist-forums/#more-11998

Watch rally from livestream by Unedited Media:


Video streaming by Ustream

Photo below shared from Last Real Indians: In 1958, the Ku Klux Klan KKK planned a rally in Maxton, NC to harass Lumbee tribal members and other non-whites. On the night of their rally over 500 Lumbee men showed up to the KKK rally with guns and sticks. The Lumbees went on the attack. The KKK members were routed and ran out of town in what is now called the Battle of Hayes Pond.




Also see: Phoenix New Times: 
Arizona Militia caught on hidden cam 
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2013/09/arizona_state_militia_robert_c.php

Comment from Panama to Censored News:

I can't call them supremists, becos they are not that, they are just stupid.  My mothers nation, the Guna Yalla (Panama) use the real swastika on their flag.  It is a shame stupid people have to deface what others hold dear.  i stand with you. 

 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Flag_of_Kuna_Yala.svg/750px-Flag_of_Kuna_Yala.svg.png&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guna_Yala&h=500&w=750&sz=3&tbnid=N7d1opFGEbrD6M:&tbnh=84&tbnw=126&zoom=1&usg=__Cqs8bsbNBSjmx7oqVwCtQKu5yu0=&docid=ZR28jXZ2jHYikM&sa=X&ei=fXBEUsCANYeqiAK93ICADg&ved=0CE0Q9QEwBA

Namaste

DeAnna