(Photo: Italian fraud Iron Eyes Cody, with Roy Rogers, in North of the Great Divide, 1950.) Iron Eyes Cody and Princess Pale Moon, both frauds, were part of the non-profit American Indian Heritage Foundation television commercials. The non-profit was shut down, but it had already solicited both cash and land donations with its "Give the land back to the Indians" campaign.
Millions Sinking into the Rabbit Hole of Indian Country Non-Profits
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Update March 7, 2024
Non-profits in Indian country have stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in bank accounts, real estate and investments -- money not being distributing to those it was intended for.
Censored News ongoing investigation reveals:
-- The non-Indian daughters of the sculptor at Crazy Horse Memorial had a combined salary of a half million dollars -- The First Nations Development Institute in Longmont, Colorado, has $44 million stashed in investments -- NDN Collective ended the last tax year with $100 million in its bank accounts and assets
It is the best kept secret in Indian country.
Censored News year long investigation found a quarter of a billion dollars donated to a handful of non-profits in Indian country. A large portion has not been distributed. It is stashed in the non-profit's salaries, bank accounts, real estate and stock investments. The real estate is often placed in a spin-off business where it can be sold.
The salaries are $100,000 to $300,000 for executives, with money flowing to family members, and lavish travel expense accounts. Some are operated by frauds. Peoples names and causes are used without their knowledge for grants.
College professors and non-profits often plagiarize and profiteer with testimony at the United Nations. Some are selling ceremonies in other countries. Some are promoting "spiritual traditional" leaders who have been exposed as frauds.
Klee Benally, Dine', exposed the exploitation and failed colonial logic of the non-profit industry in his book, published shortly before he passed in December.
Klee writes, "soon enough there won't be any more battles left to lose."
The City of Santa Fe has used Pueblo history and culture to sell itself. It has turned the Sacred into its commodity. Now, as Native people protest to halt the glamorizing of Conquistadors, and instead promote accurate history, the City of Santa Fe responds with excessive force and a power play of criminal charges -- all by the same profiteering and oppressive forces that have turned Native culture into Santa Fe's cash economy.
The targeting of The Red Nation by police does not come as a surprise. The broadcast of Red Nation's excellent interviews on Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio were interfered with by outside forces, making it impossible for us to share these interviews with the radio stations across the country who were rebroadcasting the programs from Oceti Sakowin last fall.
Read The Red Nation's statement on Friday's action and arrests.
Brenda Norrell, Censored News
UPDATE: Jennifer Marley has been released
By The Red Nation
Censored News
On Friday, September 8, approximately two hundred people rallied in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico to demand that the City of Santa Fe abolish the racist reenactment of reconquest known as the Entrada (“the entry”) and to bring attention to illegal fracking in Chaco Canyon, a site that is sacred to Diné and Pueblo people. The rally was led by The Red Nation (TRN), UNM KIVA Club, In the Spirit of Po’Pay, and New Mexico Showing Up for Racial Justice (NM-SURJ), as well as various other Native and non-Native groups.
The City ignored a statementissued by the #AbolishTheEntrada coalition prior to the protest encouraging officials to stand with us in denouncing racism and the celebration of genocide and conquest. They instead chose to double down on their defense of racism and violent colonial revisionist history by brutalizing Indigenous people and violating their First Amendment rights. On Friday, in Santa Fe, history didn’t repeat itself — it stayed the same.
Indigenous people undergo ongoing brutalization by armed men of the state who uphold white supremacy and settler colonialism on stolen Pueblo land. Today, conquistadors and cavalrymen simply wear different uniforms. But the tactics remain the same.
Police targeted, pulled from a crowd, and arrested TRN leader Jennifer Marley.
Protesters faced obstacles before the protest, which was scheduled to start at 1 PM MST. Around 11 AM social media posts began to circulate alerting protesters to the decision by Los Caballeros de Vargas to start the reenactment two hours earlier than the scheduled time of 2 PM. Although Manuel Garcia, the President of Los Caballeros, claims the time change was made several days prior, the announcement was not issued until late Friday morning. Although clearly a tactic to silence public dissent, the eleventh hour decision neither deterred nor demoralized protesters.
From mid-morning onward, social media posts and photos showed extensive police presence, what the Santa Fe New Mexican called a “small army of police officers”. With state, city, and county forces on the ground, it is clear that the City intended to wield the power of the state to further censor #AbolishTheEntrada protests.
Sniper nests were posted atop buildings.
But protesters would not be silenced. At noon, five Indigenous women were the first to arrive. Slowly, hundreds joined them filling the streets. Entire families came out with their children. Native students from nearby colleges such as the Institute of American Indian Arts and University of New Mexico (UNM) joined. Standing on the right side of history, every walk of life came together in unison to demand the abolition of the racist Entrada. The City of Santa Fe stood as it has for centuries: on the side of conquest; on the wrong side of history, with blood on its hands.
In a further attempt to silence constitutionally protected free speech, the Santa Fe police captain Adam Gallegos took to the mic on the Plaza stage to announce that the event permit holders wanted to limit protest to a designated “Free Speech Zone.” The “Free Speech Zone” was a heavily-guarded police barricade that was meant to corral protesters and force them off public space. Of questionable constitutional or legal validity, this “Free Speech Zone” had a clear political message: shut up and go away or you will be silenced and arrested. The Santa Fe Police Department and Los Caballeros De Vargas made the unconscionable decision to not only keep protesters out-of-sight and out-of-earshot by limiting their First Amendment right to free speech, but they also dehumanized Native people by corralling them — just like conquistadors and cavalrymen of the past who forced Native men, women, children and elders into heavily-policed and surveilled open air concentration camps like Fort Sumner. Again, the racist message was loud and clear: go back to the reservation or get arrested; Indians are not welcome here.
After several other protesters were arrested, our very own TRN-Albuquerque leader and UNM KIVA Club Vice-President, Jennifer Marley (San Ildefonso Pueblo), was seized. Jennifer is a leader in efforts to #AbolishTheEntrada. The Santa Fe Police knew this. It is clear to us that she was targeted for arrest and harassment by police specifically because she is a high-profile leader of the resistance. Multiple videos of her arrest show several male officers violently grabbing Jennifer without provocation, slamming her to the ground and aggressively pinning her arms behind her. Officers then paraded her through the streets where she was verbally assaulted by bystanders jeering “Go back to where you came from!”
The parading of Jennifer through the streets of downtown Santa Fe parallels a long history of parading captured Indigenous prisoners of war as trophies on their way to concentration camps called reservations. An eyewitness to the arrest, TRN organizer Demetrius Johnson (Diné) recounts,
“During the Long Walk, in the very beginning the cavalry would purposefully take us [Diné] through Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and all the way back down to Fort Sumner. They did that to humiliate us, but also to lift morale for the soldiers and these [white] towns. That’s what these police officers did to [Jennifer Marley] yesterday. They cleared that whole street and walked down this vendor line with her in the front. Parading her like, ‘look, we caught her.’ But what they didn’t know is that it didn’t lower our morale, like they hoped, but instead made it stronger.”
While Santa Fe sent its weakest men armed to the hilt to defend the City’s genocidal pageantry, we sent our strongest women armed only with their love for Indigenous peoples and lands.
Weeks earlier, the City of Santa Fe welcomed Indigenous artists at the annual SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. On Friday, Native people faced an entirely different scene. Police created a militarized zone with sniper nests, barricades, and processing tables for mass arrests to protect a racist celebration of genocide. In this “Free Speech Zone,” protesters were surveilled under the oppressive gaze of the police state. The City loves to exploit Indigenous art and culture because of the cash flow it brings to City coffers. But at the first sign of Native political demands for human rights and justice, what does the City do? It pursues an aggressive campaign to silence and criminalize Indigenous people by unleashing the full force of the police state on Indigenous women, children, and elders, pointing guns at them and arresting them for “criminal trespass” on their own ancestral lands.
The City of Santa Fe is guilty of criminal trespass on the lands and bodies of Pueblo people, not Pueblo people themselves.
The police were so empowered after Jennifer’s arrest that they arrested an Indigenous man, Julian Rodriguez, who had nothing to do with the protest. Eyewitnesses report that Mr. Rodriguez was walking down the street with his partner when police officers stopped him and asked him to remove his bandana. He removed it and then put it back on as he walked away. He was then arrested and charged with “criminal trespassing.” In a clear case of racial profiling consistent with the City’s racist message to silence Native people for resisting dehumanization, Mr. Rodriguez was made a criminal simply for being Native in Santa Fe. He was “off the reservation” and therefore open to arrest.
As Jennifer Marley stated prior to the protest,
“We don’t expect the cops to protect us now or ever. In fact we expect intensified police brutality, and intensified violence from Entrada attendees. The lengths [to which] the city is going to police this event with firearms and even police from departments all across the state is disgusting. But what it does tell us is that Pueblo resistance is a true threat to them. Their cowardice is a show of our strength and potential to make cracks in the settler colonial project!”
Despite dozens of live streaming feeds (see below) that documented this cowardice as it was unfolding, Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales did nothing to stop the police free-for-all against peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders. Instead, Mayor Gonzales took to social media Friday afternoon to thank the Santa Fe police officers who “helped maintain public safety.” To detract from the actual repression he promoted, he euphemistically called the arrest and censorship of Native people and allies “a very difficult conversation” that “move[d] forward” as a result of the day’s events.
How can we move forward when Santa Fe uses spectacular violence to silence Native free speech? When it so brazenly and unmercifully profiles, harasses, brutalizes, intimidates, and humiliates Native men, women, and children? When it continues to celebrate genocide and settler revisionist history?
A month prior to the Entrada protest, hundreds of white supremacists and Nazis descended on Charlottesville, Virginia to protect the “history and heritage” of racist Confederate monuments similar to the Entrada reenactment. Police stood down to protect Nazis’ right to free speech in Charlottesville, but came out in full force to prevent Natives’ free speech in Santa Fe. One Nazi, James A. Fields, drove his car into a crowd of protesters, injuring dozens and killing anti-racist protester, Heather Heyer. Last February, Santa Fe Police Union chief Troy Baker posted a meme that read “ALL LIVES SPLATTER” to his Facebook page encouraging murderers like Fields to run over protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. Baker is still employed with the Santa Fe Police Department.
Clearly, Santa Fe police officers are inclined towards violence against those demonstrating their First Amendment rights. As history has shown, Nazis, racists, and white supremacists are never brutalized by police; it is always people of color, women, non-gender conforming people, the poor, and Natives who are. In other words, it is always those who challenge power and oppression who are met with the full force of the police state. Yesterday was no different. Claiming it was because they did not want “anyone getting hurt,” Santa Fe police protected Los Caballeros and their followers at the behest of City officials. The lone white racist pro-Entrada protester, Richard Polese, arrived at the #AbolishTheEntrada protest with a full police escort. Meanwhile, Entrada protesters did get hurt, all at the hands of the police.
They can arrest us, but they cannot kill or imprison this movement. Native people will never relinquish our human rights to move and speak freely on our own lands.
Prior to the protest, the #AbolishTheEntrada coalition undertook a public education campaign to explain why celebrating a crime against humanity — genocide — is wrong. These organizations also asked the City to stop violating the “separation of church and state” clause of the First Amendment because the Entrada is a Catholic Church-run event that is partially funded by public tax money: the lodgers tax. It is worth noting that Indian Market is the largest annual event in Santa Fe that draws over 80,000 visitors each year. These visitors pay a lodgers tax every time they book a room for Indian Market. Not only does the City make a killing off of lodgers tax revenues from Indian Market, but it uses these revenues to fund a celebration of genocide. It exploits Native labor, then uses profits from that exploitation to dehumanize Native people.
This is called anti-Indianism, and Santa Fe is anti-Indian to its core.
While we continue to work towards total Indigenous liberation, it is not too much to ask that the colonizer uphold his own laws set forth in the First Amendment. The City of Santa Fe has deliberately rejected Pueblo and Native concerns despite several peaceful attempts since 1977 to ask the City to stop celebrating conquest and genocide. It has instead offered empty gestures of “dialogue” and “conversation” while also aggressively pursuing censorship and violent repression.
In other words, the City has a long track record of denying Indigenous people free speech and fundamental human rights. This must end NOW.
In closing, The Red Nation issues the following demands to the City of Santa Fe:
DEMAND #1: RELEASE JENNIFER MARLEY IMMEDIATELY. As of approximately 1:30 PM MST on Saturday, September 9th, all of those arrested have been released except for Jennifer Marley, who now faces five counts — both felonies and misdemeanors — of battery of a peace officer, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct. This is a clear case of a strong freedom fighter and leader being persecuted for political dissent. Jennifer is a political prisoner. Her political act is defined as criminal by the state to discredit the Indigenous liberation movement because it is gaining momentum and legitimacy in New Mexico. The political act of protesting genocide is reduced to a criminal act to affirm the absolute invulnerability of the existing order. In other words, Santa Fe criminalizes Native people to justify its own criminal behavior.
DEMAND #2:DROP ALL CHARGES against those arrested. As of now, there were eight confirmed arrests. Those who were arrested include Chad Brown Eagle, Julian Rodriguez, Nicole Ullerich, Trenton Ward, Carmen Stone, Jennifer Haley, Sierra Logan, and Jennifer Marley. The Santa Fe police department has also charged several of those arrested with felonies, after the fact, in an attempt to justify the outrageous charges of “criminal trespass” in a public plaza. Anyone with a basic knowledge of trespass law knows “criminal trespass” is reserved for trespassing on private property, not public property.
DEMAND #3: ABOLISH THE ENTRADA
We ask that people flood the Mayor’s office with calls, emails, tweets, and Facebook posts to demand Jennifer Marley’s release; all charges against all protesters are dropped; and that the Entrada is abolished:
Photos by the White House On Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump hosted a tribal, State, and local energy roundtable at the White House. He was joined by Governors Paul LePage, Kim Reynolds, Pete Ricketts, and Bill Walker, along with State and tribal leaders from around our great country, the White House said.
Trump meets with tribal leaders: Snakes crawl out to sell out the people, sell out the land Trump pushes for toxic legacy By Brenda Norrell Censored News Dutch translation by Alice Holemans at NAIS French translation by Christine Prat, video with French subtitles at: http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4137 WASHINGTON -- President Trump -- using tribal sovereignty as a trump card -- says he will unlock vast treasuries of resources in Indian country -- naming "coal" specifically. "We love Indian country, right?" Trump said during a roundtable with ten tribal leaders on Wednesday. Trump said he is now targeting "untapped resources of wealth." This comes as he targets Indian country with more mining, the lifting of environmental protections, and more radioactive dumping, as in the case of Yucca Mountain. Trump said his intent is to "usher in a golden age of American energy dominance," while ignoring staggering rates of cancer and respiratory diseases in Indian country from coal-fired power plants and Cold War uranium mining.
Trump's push for exploitation of Indian country resources, comes as the United States and State governments push to steal Indian water rights. Trump, ignoring the long legacy of death, disease and brutal relocation resulting from coal mining and coal-fired power plants on Indian lands, told Indian leaders about coal mining, "It’s been really restricted, the development itself has been restricted, and vast amounts of deposits of coal and other resources have, in a way, been taken out of your hands. And we’re going to have that changed." At the conclusion of the roundtable, Trump was asked whether he believes climate change is a hoax. Trump ended the meeting without answering the question. The following elected leaders in Indian country were at the roundtable: Chairman Alvin "AJ" Not Afraid, Crow Tribe Chairman Luke Duncan, Ute Tribe Councilman Kevin Frost, Southern Ute Tribe Gov. Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw Nation Speaker LoRenzo Bates, Navajo Nation Council Chairman Herman Honanie, Hopi Tribe Chairman Mark Fox , the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (Fort Berthold, North Dakota) Chief Gary Batton, Choctaw Nation Chairman Jo Anne Battise, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe Chairman Aaron Payment, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians
Video below: Trump ignores question on climate change, and whether Trump believes climate change is a hoax.
The White House June 28, 2017 Remarks by President Trump and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry at Tribal, State, and Local Energy Roundtable Roosevelt Room 11:41 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for being here. Very much appreciated. We welcome you to the White House. Have you all been to the White House before? Have you been here before? Q Yes. THE PRESIDENT: That’s good. Well you guys have been -- most people say no. I’m very impressed with that count. I’m thrilled to be joined by Governor Paul LePage, Kim Reynolds, Pete Ricketts and Bill Walker, along with state and tribal leaders from around our great country. I’d also like to thank Secretary Perry and EPA Administrator Pruitt -- both here also -- for their work to help the United States achieve true energy dominance. And that’s what’s happening. We’ve made so much progress with respect to energy just in the last four months. It’s been an incredible journey, I will tell you. We’ve learned a lot and we’ve made a lot -- we’re here to talk about how we can create new prosperity for our citizens by unlocking vast treasures of energy reserves, which we have a great deal -- far more than anyone understood. I’m proud to have such a large gathering of tribal leaders here at the White House. I look forward to more government-to-government consultations with tribal leaders about the issues important to Indian Country. We love Indian Country, right? Many of your lands have rich, natural resources that stand to benefit your people immensely. These untapped resources of wealth can help you build new schools, fix roads, improve your communities, and create jobs -- jobs like you’ve never seen before. All you want is the freedom to use them, and that’s been the problem. It’s been very difficult, hasn’t it? It will be a lot easier now under the Trump administration. For too long the federal government has put up restrictions and regulations that put this energy wealth out of reach. It’s just totally out of reach. It’s been really restricted, the development itself has been restricted, and vast amounts of deposits of coal and other resources have, in a way, been taken out of your hands. And we’re going to have that changed. We’re going to put it back in your hands. These infringements on tribal sovereignty are deeply unfair to Native Americans and Native American communities who are being denied access to the energy and wealth that they have on their own lands. Many of our states have also been denied access to the abundant energy resources on their lands that could bring greater wealth to the people and benefit to our whole nation. We’re becoming more and more energy dominant. I don’t want to be energy free, we want to be energy dominant in terms of the world. From my first day in office, we’ve taken swift action to lift the crushing restrictions on American energy. Scott Pruitt has done an amazing job, an incredible job, in a very short period of time, and most people love him. There are a couple that don’t but that’s okay, right? (Laughter.) We’re also putting our people back to work by doing this. Today’s conversation is a chance for these state, local, and tribal leaders to discuss how we can cooperate and support them even more in unleashing these domestic energy reserves. They’re tremendous reserves that we never appreciated, we never understood, but now we understand them very well. I’m confident that working together we can usher in a golden age of American energy dominance, and the extraordinary financial and security benefits that it brings to us. So this means not only the Native Americans but all over the country. And we're seeing it more and more and it's happening more and more. I just also want to tell you that, yesterday, we had a tremendous meeting with the Republican senators -- met on healthcare. And the meeting went really well. We're talking about a great, great form of healthcare. Obamacare is dying. It's essentially dead. If you don't give it the subsidy, it would die within 24 hours. It's been a headache for everybody. It's been a nightmare for many. And we are looking at a healthcare that would be a fantastic tribute to our country; a healthcare that will take care of people, finally, for the right reasons, and also at the right cost. It would be a tremendous reduction in costs from what Obamacare is. Yesterday, in Alaska, a great state, they had a -- it was announced a 216 percent increase. So we have a plan that, if we get it approved -- it's very tough. Every state is different, every senator is different. But I have to tell you, the Republican senators had a really impressive meeting yesterday at the White House. We had close to 50 of them. We have 52; we need almost all of them. That's never easy. But we had, essentially, 50 show up for the meeting, and the other two are on our side. I think we're going to get at least very close, and I think we're going to get it over the line. There was a great, great feeling in that room yesterday. And what also came out is the fact that this healthcare would be so good, would be far better than Obamacare, and would be much less expensive for the people, and actually much less expensive, also, for the country. So those are a lot of good factors. So we'll see what happens. We're working very hard. We've given ourselves a little bit more time to make it perfect. That's what we want to do. I think this has a chance to be a great healthcare at a reasonable cost. People can save a lot of money. We get rid of the mandates, we get rid of so much -- got rid of a lot of the taxes. All of the bad parts of Obamacare are gone. Essentially, it's a repeal-and-replace. And I look forward to working with the Republican senators over a short period of time. I know Rick is very excited about the healthcare that we're talking about. SECRETARY PERRY: Actually, having these governors sitting around the table is a great example of it. And one of the things that -- I know Kim and Paul, they'd like to be able to put healthcare into place that they helped write and their citizens help write because I know these -- I don't know Bill that well, but my bet is he's the same. You give him the authority to take care of their citizens, they can have more people covered and do it at less cost. I am quite confident -- THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're sending a lot of it back to the states where it belongs. And this will be something really special if we can get it done. Always tough. It's probably the toughest subject from the standpoint of approval because every state is different. Every state has different needs. We have a tremendous opioid problem, and some states are more affected by that than others. But overall, I have to tell you, this will be a tremendous plan. It will really -- you're going to have a lot of very, very happy people in this country if we can get it done. So we're working very hard on healthcare, and I think we're going to have a great answer. And hopefully, we're going to have it soon. And we will keep you informed. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Q Mr. President, can you talk about the Medicaid cuts in the healthcare bill? THE PRESIDENT: It's going to great. This will be great for everybody. END 11:49 A.M. EDT
Photo: Nihigaal bee Iina walkers to sacred mountains lend a hand to Navajo farmers in Shiprock, N.M. following the devastating toxic Gold King mine spill.
While McCain showboats with the Gold King Mine spill, and the University of Arizona profiteers from misery, Arizona and national media go brain dead, awarded Hypocrite Media Award
By Brenda Norrell Censored News Dutch translation by Alice Holemans at NAIS http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/uitbuiters-van-het-lek-van-gold-king-mijn-mccain-en-de-universiteit-van-arizona Arizona Senator John McCain is exploiting the Gold King Mine spill and the media is lapping it up like mindless robots. It comes as no surprise that researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson will be making big money, $600,000 to study the spill. This is what the University of Arizona, and McCain, do best: They profiteer from misery. While McCain is gearing up to turn Apaches sacred Oak Flat into a massive copper mine in Arizona, McCain weeps to the press about the gold mine spill, pretending to morn the loss of water and crops for Navajo farmers. The media collects McCain's tears, publishing his false words with solace. After all, McCain would not still be on the US Senate Committee for Indian Affairs if the media was not bolstering him, with corporate criminals paving the way. During a Congressional field hearing with the US EPA in Phoenix, McCain said he wants the Justice Department to investigate the Gold King Mine spill. But who will investigate McCain? Arizona's media has become wimps. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Arizona will be making big money to study the spill. Imagine what Navajo grassroots farmers could do with $600,000. Many Navajo farmers in the Shiprock, N.M., area lost their corn, bean and squash because they had no water to irrigate with after the EPA's reckless toxic spill. Exploitation of Indigenous for dollars is what the University of Arizona does best. Calling for a boycott of the university, Ofelia Rivas, O'odham has boycotted the University of Arizona for years, due to the role the university plays in the militarization of the border, creation of drones, and the targeting of Indigenous Peoples with the development of security and spyware. Wendsler Nosie, Apache, also boycotts the university, following his arrest by university police while Nosie was praying on sacred Mount Graham. The University of the Arizona and the Pope took the lead in desecrating sacred Mount Graham with massive telescopes. The University of Arizona, the Pope,and the universities they partnered with, ignored and attempted to silence Apaches during the long years of court, and personal struggles, spent battling the construction of the massive telescopes on sacred Mount Graham. Which brings us back to the desecration of Apaches sacred land. While McCain and Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick showboat for their adoring media, they continue plans for a massive copper mine on Apaches' sacred Oak Flat. McCain sneaked the land exchange into the the US Defense spending bill. The fact that McCain is still on the US Senate Committee for Indian Affairs is a clear indication of the collapsed US government system. It indicates that the media is in the bowels of this system. The Arizona and national media -- including the stay-at-home reporters of Indian Country Today, -- are awarded the Hypocrite Media Award for flopped coverage. As for the US EPA, the fact that the US EPA rubber stamps the environmental impact statements throughout Indian country, the border, and wherever poor people live -- devastating water, land and air -- is proof enough that the US EPA should not be trusted or believed. And neither should McCain. In August 2015, an estimated 3 million gallons of acid water and heavy metals spilled from the Gold King Mine into Colorado's Animas River, eventually flowing into the San Juan River, the primary source of irrigation for Navajo Nation farmers. The spill was caused by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA claims it was done while trying to prevent leakage of toxic materials.
I am sorry to say that I view the story as told by Wab Kinew as lacking focus and context. I understand that in order to be an objective reporter Wab is restrained from telling the truth in a manner that we who as hard core activists can. Al Jazeera America must be seen as objective in order to continue to have access to North American markets. It is pretty clear that Al Jazeera has to be careful when it is held hostage to Canadian Broadcast system rules and regulation.
In a few sentences, the issue is about oil, the need of Americans to get foreign oil. Shale gas and fracking is about Americans taking what they need from other countries.
Hopi and Dine' tell Peabody Coal that the era of misery and exploitation ends now
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo by Indigenous Action Media
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- When Peabody Coal seized the land at Black Mesa for the dirty coal industry -- with the aid of corrupt attorneys, Arizona Congressmen, tribal politicians and the media -- Peabody Coal robbed the burial places and looted the cultural items of Dine' and Hopi.
The coal mining and the power plant that brought destruction and disease for Navajos and Hopi, delivered electricity to non-Indians in the Southwest. Today, Hopi and Dine' told Peabody, the state of Arizona, and the US government, that this cycle of misery and exploitation ends now.
Vernon Masayesva, Hopi of Black Mesa Trust, told a Cultural Review session today, “The grassroots people now are awake. They know the regulations. They know the laws.”
“We are no longer going to be silent,” said Masayesva, promising that the questions of grassroots people would guarantee that the process of completing an environmental impact statement for Peabody Coal on Black Mesa would be delayed.
The first Cultural Review meeting for the Kayenta Mine Navajo Generating Station Permit by the Arizona Bureau of Reclamation was held today, Oct. 30, 2013. It is the first in a series of meetings for regulation and protection of sacred sites in the mining areas leased by Peabody Energy.
Bahe Katenay, Dine’ of Big Mountain, said scientists attempted to have a secret meeting today without notifying grassroots and traditional Dine’ or Hopi.
“The threat is the elimination and erasing of our history, all of that is being withheld from us.” “We are going to have a broken link if that happens.”
Bahe said archaeologists are hiding historical information from the Dine’ people. “They still consider us savages and barbaric people. These attitudes are institutionalized.”
Norman Benally asked the Critical Review session what would happen if the people of the US had their cemeteries bulldozed. Among those present at the review were the Bureau of Reclamation and Peabody Coal representatives.
Bahe pointed out that Peabody Energy withheld and restricted documentation that pointed to the relocation of more than one million Indigenous items taken from Black Mesa. The Black Mesa Archaeology Project, which includes 1.3 million so-called "artifacts," currently is being held in cardboard boxes at two American universities.
Photos by Ofelia Rivas, copyright Article by Brenda Norrell Censored News Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, is just returning from the Yaqui highway blockade in Vicam Pueblo, Sonora, Mexico. The Yaqui Traditional Authority of Vicam has maintained this highway blockade since June, in protest of Mexico stealing their water from the Rio Yaqui, by way of the Independence Aqueduct, for the city of Hermosillo. Yaqui have lived here since time immemorial and depend on the water for survival. Their highway blockade of a major trucking route from the Pacific coast to the US has had a major impact and slowed the flow of produce into the US. The Traditional Authority of Vicam hosted the Zapatistas, Marcos and Comandantes, here in 2007 and continue in the struggle for dignity, autonomy and justice. Photos: Highway blockade Vicam with couple on bike; youths wearing their new Defender of Water T-shirts created and provided by Dwight at the Gloo Factory in Tucson; woman working embroidery with entire family; evening road blockade. Support the work of Ofelia Rivas and O'odham Voice against the Wall: O'odham Solidarity Project: http://tiamatpublications.com/
Photo: Vicam Water Rights Gathering Sept 17, 2013
Yaqui maintain major highway blockade since June
By Brenda Norrell Censored News Exclusive Video by Ali Brooks Sept. 16, 2013 copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News VICAM PUEBLO, Sonora, Mexico -- Yoeme (Yaqui) in Vicam Pueblo maintained their highway barricade in defense of their water in the Rio Yaqui, as representatives of the National Indigenous Congress met over the weekend with directives from the Zapatistas Little School.
Ofelia Rivas/Vicam Photo Brenda Norrell
Ofelia Rivas, O'odham representative of the National Indigenous Congress, attended the gathering in Vicam on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013.
"Vicam Yoeme are calling for international support for a meeting on October 18 in the defense of water in Vicam," Rivas said. The Northwest regional meeting of the National Indigenous Congress included the states of Sonora, Sinoloa, Chihuahua and Baja.
"Yaqui are sending a special invitation to the Mohawks to attend this important meeting on water rights on October 18," Rivas said. Earlier, Mohawks joined Subcomandante Marcos and Zapatistas commandantes in Vicam Pueblo for a gathering in 2007. It is located about seven hours southwest of Tucson on the coast of Mexico.
Vicam Water Forum/Photo Brenda Norrell
"Water is essential to our survival," said Mario Luna, spokesman for the Yoeme Traditional Authority of Vicam.
"Generations paid with their blood to maintain our homeland for future generations," Luna told the gathering this weekend.
Luna said the illegal construction is already underway on the Independence Aqueduct. It is a diversion project of Yaqui water from the Rio Yaqui to the city of Hermosillo. Luna said neither the diversion project, nor Mexico's government officials have consulted with Vicam Yaquis as required for the impact statement.
Yaquis said their around the clock, 24-hour a day, highway barricade of federal highway 15, manned by Yoeme warriors, has lasted more than 100 days and has had a major impact on produce flowing into the US. The barricade blocks traffic on the major highway between the Pacific Coast and the city of Hermosillo, a major route from the coast to the US. Yoeme lift the blockade for short periods, allowing trucks to pass after halting the trucks for hours, causing extensive delays, around the clock.
Yaqui highway blockade
Rivas said, "They have cars blocking the highway now. It is causing delays in produce like tomatoes getting to the US on time."
Traditional Authorities of Yaqui Vicam Pueblo issued a summons for this weekend's gathering, in accordance with the Zapatistas Little School. http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/
The Traditional Authorities said the water theft of the Yaqui River Basin will destroy the natural resources of this Indian territory.
"Considering that we have inhabited this territory for 2,500 years, a place where we were born and we have developed our existence, where mother earth provides us with everything for our life and like all the world's indigenous peoples live as brothers, with plants, trees, animals, birds, insects, the air, the heat, the cold, the sun, moon, stars, earth and water, of which is our home, food and healing, and the source of our power."
"Whereas in the territory of the Yaqui tribe, our people are made of earth and water and all that comes from them. While building our culture and creating and consolidating our own institutions, in the vicinity of the river today known as Rio Yaqui, the current government perpetrated one of the most colossal robberies of living memory, stealing the waters of the basin and trying to spoil our people more."
"Whereas for more than 520 years we have suffered, in our lives and in our hearts, the war of extermination, one of the longest and bloodiest wars of living memory, brought on by the political and economic power that is in power today," Yaqui said of the current authoritarian misrule.
Yaqui said today the resistance and civil disobedience is for Yoeme Autonomy and Self-determination.
"Whereas the existence of Mother Earth and humanity is threatened by the hegemonic capitalist system for their insatiable greed and excessive economic and natural resource exploitation and death of ecosystems, carried out by large multinational corporations seeking to divest from our territories and to be strongholds of natural resources, in collusion with corrupt government institutions and the collusion of free market policies, such as NAFTA Puebla-Panama Plan, and its project northwest of the Sea of Cortez known as the Coastal Highway, along with that project, the current state government is stealing water from the Yaqui River basin through the illegal construction of the Independence Aqueduct, with the aim of more plunder, and giving an existential hit to our people."
"Today through unfair and illegal, bidding, construction and operation of the Independence Aqueduct, they steal Yaqui river water and divert it to the city of Hermosillo, with the evil purpose of feeding large transnational businesses, real estate developments, and to encourage the speculation of businesses, with the rampant corrupt government complicity of Guillermo Padres Elias and consent of the current Federal Government."
"The Yaqui Tribe, like most indigenous peoples and the more than 50 million poor who inhabit the country are on the border of extermination, as a result of economic policies that favor the success of the market," Yaqui said.
The Traditional Authority said Mexico wants to "turn water into a commodity, by privatizing and commodifying," water while neglecting the development, autonomy and the right to self-determination of Indigenous peoples.
The Zapatistas, in conjunction with the Mexican Indigenous National Congress, issued a statement of solidarity and support for Yaqui.
“We believe that the earth is our mother and that the water that runs through her veins is not for sale. The life it gives us is a right, not something that the bad government or the business owners have granted us."
“We demand the immediate cancellation of the arrest warrants and false accusations against members of the Yaqui Tribe, and we condemn the criminalization of their struggle. To the political party-based bad governments we say that the Yaqui River is the historical carrier of the ancestral continuity of Yaqui culture and territory, and that a slight against any of us is a slight against all of us. We will respond accordingly to any attempt to repress this dignified struggle or any other. We make a call to the international community and to our brothers and sisters of the International Sixth to be alert to the events in Yaqui territory and to join in solidarity with the Yaqui Tribe and its demands.”
Photo: Vicam Water Rights Gathering Sept 17, 2013
The Yaqui Traditional Authorities released the following statement at the beginning of the blockade in June:
Yaqui Vicam Pueblo Water Forum/Photo Brenda Norrell
MARIO LUNA/ SECRETARY OF THE YAQUI TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES
YAQUI Territory, México. June 2013
In defense of water from our rivers, the Yaqui People have now blocked federal highway 15 for 21 days. Mario Luna, secretary for the Traditional Authorities of Vicam, describes how disinformation of the legal strategy in defense of Yaqui territory reminds us that only dignity and strength have made it possible for the Yaqui People to defeat the long series of invasions and attempts to rob the land and its natural resources. This time the call is to alert all of the threat from public law enforcement authorities to dismantle Yaqui blockade of federal highway 15. From federal highway 15, by Vicam Pueblo -- first headquarters of the 8 Pueblos of the Yaqui tribe -- with 45 centigrade degrees in the shade -- Traditional Authorities are gathered and through me, express the following: The defense of our territory, land and water goes back hundreds of years since the arrival of a culture of ambition and theft. With wars that have manifested heroic and glorious defense and others have been inhuman actions and total disregard to life, ethnocide and inhumanity. The Yaqui faces of men, women, elders, youth and children demonstrate determination and endurance yet does not express how they have survived for past generations to sustain many armed incursions in addition to mass deportations - driven to the southernmost part of Mexico to be sold as slaves -in the best of cases- if they were not killed by those who tried to take over their land based on Terra Nullius. Such attitude of dignity and endurance has allowed the Yaqui People to drive back colonizers during the history of Mexico through warfare. Successful in their battles against historical invasions from foreign nations or bad governments during the independence wars as well as Mexican Revolution- including the takeover of the National Palace in Mexico City along with the Revolutionaries-and the bloody Yaqui War. As Indian People, the Yaqui demand and exercise an autonomy recognized and formalized in several peace treaties and accords for economic, social, and cultural development. During the last few years of total disregard for the San Andrés Larrainzar (document/treaty elevating indigenous rights to constitutional level) the robbery and extermination campaign against indigenous Peoples that have recovered and conserved their autonomous lands in Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacán and many more in the country have continued. In our case the governmental apparatus has turned against us in order to carry out the last great robbery, called “Acueducto Independencia”, by pretending to reroute the waters from the Río Yaqui to the Rio Sonora basin to satisfy the urgent water needs of the Hermosillo industrial zone -high use water zone for the Ford assembly plant, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Big Cola and beer plants for Tecate and Heineken. In this same action, industry CEO's expect huge profits to cover large and extensive land grabs which now have no commercial value, yet when they acquire adequate water supply, their property value will increase 2 thousand percent. The Yaqui tribe was not formally consulted but discovered about this megaproject through various sources and is thus tired of living in a state of low intensity warfare since the last peace treaty in 1927. Therefore, the Traditional Authorities from Vícam Pueblo, decided to legally confront this situation with the new battlefront strategy of using a judicial and institutional process. It began with a water restitution lawsuit in the Agrarian Tribunal Tribunal Unitario Agrario número 35, based in Ciudad Obregón, August 2010. Through this measure, we were able to obtain a cautionary recourse that should have blocked this Megraproject. It commits or limits actions or rights on volume water extrations related to “El Novillo” dam. In 2011 we requested a legal waver from the federal justice system in opposition to an environmental impact statement provided by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) to “Sonora Operations Fund” “Fondo de Operaciones Sonora SÍ” for the construction of Acueducto Independencia. After this waver was denied in several courts, it was finally approved on behalf of the Yaqui tribe in Culiacán, Sinaloa District Court and later formalized and published in the Tenth District Court Hermosillo, Sonora. SEMARNAT then requested to review the waiver and motivated by a series of irregularities denounced by National Human Rights Commission and the Plural Commission (federal Chambers of Senate and Deputies from various political parties) in a historic decision, the National Supreme Court applied their right to summon and resolve to ratify the waiver to the Tribe by recognizing their legal character as Indian Peoples and constitutional and international rights as Yaqui People, to freely seek and be informed with respect to internal protocols, representation as well as by their customs and traditions. This May 8, 2013 the Supreme Court ruling nullifies the environmental impact statement for the Acueducto Independencia. This also ratifies the status of construction and operation of the aqueduct as illegal to this day. With the experience lived during hundreds of years of Yaqui Peoples' struggle and today in confronting impunity from Guillermo Padres Elias, Governor of Sonora to take significant volumes of water from “El Novillo” dam, the Traditional Authorities have decided to strengthen civil resistance actions along with the Citizens Movement for Water Movimiento Ciudadano por el Agua – made up of agricultural producers, micro-farmers and civil society from the seven municipalities in southern Sonora who will be impacted by the loss of water being rerouted by the Aqueduct reservoirs. On May 28, after an enormous march in Ciudad Obregón (over 30 thousand participants, according to organizers), it was decided to take the highways that same afternoon by blocking the entries of both south and north part of the city. Other protesters later joined the blockade from Bacum and Esperanza. As the government continues to show no intention to stop the pumps that illegally take the water stored in the dam, the Traditional Authorities along with the Yaqui troops from Potam and Belem, the protesters took over the highway at Vicam. On June 11, after several days of continual blockade at several points on the highway (Cajeme, Bacum and Vícam), the delegate of the Department of Communications and Transportation Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) in Sonora announced that they had filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office of Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) against several leaders of Movimiento Ciudadano por el Agua and Yaqui Tribe. The Sonora Attorney General, Carlos Navarro Sugich, announced this as a successful measure by the State Government and has undertaken a media campaign against those responsible within the Commission for defense of tribal water rights. By seeking approval of the Traditional Authorities of other members in the Yaqui Nation, the State Government was unanimously rejected of its intention to orchestrate the use of public force against the road blockade. The main conflict is that protesters demand that Sonoran rule of law be applied- presently in violation by the Governor of the State - and an end to illegal water extraction of El Novillo dam - covered under the resolution granted by the National Supreme Court Justice to the Yaqui People. In a climate of tension and rebellion that we live these days, we share these concerns with all Mexican and international people. We have the support and solidarity from the Indian community’s network of Congreso Nacional Indígena National Indigenous Congress, as well as solidarity from teachers of the national coordinator of education workers (CNTE) and public representatives of most local legislators in southern Sonora districts. There is also a political agreement for a joint call to Governor Guillermo Padrés by these local legislators and seven municipal Presidents of southern Sonora (who were present in the traditional guard event at Vicam on June 15) to stop the theft of our water and the rule of law in Sonora. In the face of constant threats and rumors as to the use of public force against the demonstrations, our call is to be on the alert and avoid the selective use of prompt and expeditious justice against those of us who defend our right to life to use and benefits of our waters. Let us all avoid the impunity and intolerance of a State Government that with their actions promotes divisiveness between southern Sonora with the northern part of our State.
From: Yaqui Territory, June, 2013 Mario Luna Romero General Traditional Secretary for Vicam Pueblo Main Headquarters for the eight Yaqui Pueblos Published: June 2013
