Indigenous at the United Nations Expose A.I. Data Centers and Racially-Biased Misinformation

Indigenous at the United Nations Expose A.I. Data Centers and Racially-Biased Misinformation

Jaimie Williams speaking at the U.N. today on the harm by A.I. data centers. Screenshot Censored News

"I was once convinced artificial intelligence could help my tribe build our language and culture -- but A.I. is not a sustainable solution." -- Jaimie Williams

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 14, 2026, Updated

GENEVA -- The mediocre, middle-of-the-road approach to A.I. at the United Nations was countered by testimony today from Indigenous Peoples pointing out that artificial intelligence is not a solution, and is doing great harm to Indigenous with derogatory misinformation and massive data centers that are poisoning the land, water and air.

Jaimie Williams, Miami Nation in Indiana, speaking on behalf of the Society of Native Nations, at the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, responded to the A.I. summary presented this morning.

Five Land Defenders Arrested at Utah TarSands Protest

Five Land Defenders Arrested at Utah Tar Sands Protest

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Utah Tar Sands Resistance

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014

BREAKING: Five Land defenders were arrested yesterday morning at the construction site of US Oil Sands’ tar sands strip-mine in Utah. The Canadian company’s 32,000 acre lease-holding are on state-managed land in the Book Cliffs, on the East Tavaputs Plateau, though the land is traditional Ute land, and lays within Indian country, with sections of the tar sands project straddling the boundary of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation.

Currently, the land defenders (including the media team) are being held on Class A Trespassing charges, with a total bail estimated at $10,500.

One of those arrested is a trans woman, and at this time we are unsure if she is being held in solitary, or if she is being housed with the male population. Neither situation is acceptable, we are extremely concerned about the dangers she may be facing.

We will provide updates and media here as they become available.

MORE http://www.tarsandsresist.org/utah5/

Lakota Allies Gather to Stand Their Sacred Ground

Lakota Allies Gather to Stand Their Sacred Ground

by Natalie Hand and Kent Lebsock, Owe Aku International Justice Project (www.oweakuinternational.org)

Censored News

“We sought spiritual guidance and were told that the spirit of Unci Maka will awaken people to protect her. For us it has always been about protecting sacred water, whether it's uranium mining or KXL.”  Debra White Plume, Owe Aku, Moccasins on the Ground.

The grassroots people of the Kul Wicasa Oyate (Lower Brule) immediately put out a call to action when they learned that their Tribal Council (1934 Indian Reorganization Act government) agreed to allow the construction of a power station and power lines on treaty land necessary to move tarsands oil through the KXL pipeline.  Despite efforts of the grassroots leaders to obtain documentation from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, their attempts were unanswered.  The Lower Brule Sioux tribal council is comprised of six people including President Michael Jandreau, who has served in tribal government since 1973, with the most recent decades in the office of the President.  Inquiries to the Council by several tribal members resulted first in denial, then in confirmation (without documentation) and finally an admission that the ‘carrot’ to the Tribal Council is the construction of wind turbines and free electricity for tribal members.    
Lakota people from Rosebud Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux reservations and surrounding towns and urban areas, as well as members of Owe Aku's Moccasins on the Ground, headquartered on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, answered the call to action. The grassroots people served the evening meal to the gathering of about 200 people and spiritual protocol was followed with the offering of prayer and honor songs by Kul Wicasa singers.  George Estes, a member of the Kul Wicasa Oyate and world renowned Lakota flutist, shared a song for Mother Earth to strengthen the growing spirit of collective action.
"We answered the call to action to stand in solidarity with our relatives who want to protect sacred water and lands from Transcanada's HUGE power station needed to pump tarsands through our treaty territory. According to everything we have learned, their tribal council is taking action behind the peoples backs.  We will stand with our relatives and, as one young man said, ‘lets take it right to them,” stated White Plume.
“We’re up against a well-established council.  They had to have signed an agreement,” said Kevin Wright, co-organizer of the meeting.  Power line leases are entered into with local utilities and power corporations (under South Dakota Public Utilities Commission regulations), in this case Basin Electric who intends to provide electrical power to Keystone XL.
The grassroots people of Kul Wicasa oppose the development of the power line infrastructure planned by Basin Electric.  The Lower Brule substation is to be located two miles from the Big Bend Damn.  The thick, corrosive nature of tarsands oil (which in its natural state is the consistency of peanut butter) requires a constant temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit and necessary dilutants to liquify it enough to be slurried through the pipeline. This will require an enormous amount of power.  Basin Electric stated at a public utilities commission meeting in Winner, SD “the pipeline apparently moves oil under 1440 pounds of pressure per square inch. If the line is to move 700,000 barrels of crude per day, each pumping station requires three 6500 hp electric motors running on 17 megawatts of power night and

day.  If the flow rate is increased to 900,000 barrels per day, five 6500hp electric motors are required.  That would use 25 megawatts of power.”

This increasing demand for electricity forces the need for the additional power station at Lower Brule. Transmission studies indicate the current system has reached its load limit.   Given the location of the Lower Brule substation, 2 miles south of the Big Bend Damn, it is apparent Missouri River water will be used to produce electricity.
The 230-kV transmission line would impact the landscape along the Missouri River.  This area provides a recreational and tourism based economy to the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.  According to TransCanada’s own Supplemental Environmental Impact Study, “the 75-mile transmission line would have a 125-foot-wide right of way; therefore, approximately 1,150 acres of land would be affected by construction… An average of 6.6 support structures per mile would be required. The average height of the structures would be 110 feet, and each would span an average of 800 feet.”
Both TransCanada and Basin Electric admit the impacts of the power lines would be permanent, including destruction of soil and vegetation along the right of access and though TransCanada has agreed to mitigate this damage, there are no guarantees.  This could negatively impact the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe’s environmentally sound economic development project called Lakota Foods, started seven years ago with popcorn, kidney and pinto beans, including processing and packaging facilities.  These products are grown on the reservation and the enterprise provides jobs to the people most immediately affected by the proposed KXL pipeline’s need for electrical expansion.  (http://www.americanindianfoods.com/products/lakota-foods/)
In June 2011, Canada’s National Energy Board inspectors revealed pump stations in four locations lacked a required “alternate source of power capable of operating each station’s emergency shut-down system,” finding TransCanada is non-compliant with board regulations.  Evan Vokes, a “whistleblower” who has challenged TransCanada’s methods stated, “an audit based on paper and interviews only cannot catch non-compliance in the field. In my experience, TransCanada’s management failings are systemic and won’t be fixed simply by reviewing what TransCanada says its policies are on paper. These kind of reviews have not fixed the problem in the past and they aren’t sufficient now. Time and again, TransCanada’s internal and third-party audit systems have failed to catch the repeated substandard practice of engineering in the construction and maintenance of its pipelines.”  (http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/03/07/whistleblower-s-evidence-against-transcanada-whitewashed-regulators.)
Kevin Wright of the Kul Wicasa Oyate stated, “even one inch is too much” when it comes to collaboration that leads to the construction of KXL tarsands pipeline on Lakota treaty territory. “The electric power necessary to move tarsands bitumen does not come close to the power of the Lakota Oyate to protect our sacred water,” stated Natalie Hand.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is in the same situation.  Although Transcanada has carefully avoided routing the pipeline across reservation land, they too are impacted by KXL’s necessary infrastructure.  Russell Eagle Bear of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council, which has officially opposed the Pipeline, stated that power lines are planned to cross the Rosebud reservation.  He said construction of a man camp is planned literally across a narrow dirt road from the reservation.   “We told the Bureau of Indian Affairs, do not let the transmission line through our territory.”
White Plume warned of the devastation that will be caused by TransCanada infrastructure, whether it’s the pipeline, the electrical infrastructure or the bad man camps that will each house up to two thousand imported workers.  “In this work we’ve learned a lot about the tarsands mines up north, we have friends and allies who live in a spiritual way who come from there. They've been displaced from their land because some of their band members signed agreements with corporations and the First Nations peoples had to move off the land; the land isn't even there now; it's an oil mine; there was a lake there that was 200 miles long and 100 miles wide.  Now, the elders are saying, for the first time, the shoreline is receding and the rocks at the bottom of the lake are exposed.  Water is being taken from the rivers and lakes to support the destruction by the tarsands mine.   I'm shocked this tribal council has signed agreements with KXL since we are supposed to be standing together as Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires).  Fat Taker never stops and will run over anybody to feed themselves.”  As Kevin Wright of the Kul Wicasa Oyate stated, “if we do not stand up to the Black Snake, when our sacred water is gone, all we will have left to drink is our tears.”
The Kul Wicasa Oyate have partnered with Owe Aku to host an educational and action meeting on March 30th, 2014 at Lower Brule.  For more information contact Kevin Wright at 605-220-0394 or Louis Grass Rope at 605-208-6151.  The Kul Wicasa have scheduled a Treaty Meeting for March 29, 2014.
The message of the grassroots meeting: we are one Lakota Oyate and we will not permit the destruction of our lands and waters, we will protect it for future generations.

Red Road Cancun: Explosing the lies and demanding climate justice

The Indigenous Environmental Network team exposes the scam of carbon trading, and the debt of polluting nations
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Watch live and streaming videos: http://redroadcancun.com/?p=454
IEN media hotline: +52 998 108 0748
IEN e-mail: ienCop16media@gmail.com
+Contacto de Medios IEN Medios: +52 998 108 0748; Correo Electrónico: IENcop16media@gmail.com

CANCUN, Mexico – The scam of carbon trading and false solutions to climate change are being exposed by the Indigenous Environmental Network, in a live broadcast from a crew of Native broadcasters at the Cancun Climate Summit.

The Indigenous Environmental Network’s live program, Red Road Cancun, http://www.redroadcancun.com/ was hosted today by Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca from Oklahoma and Dallas Goldtooth, Dakota Navajo. The team includes Clayton Thomas-Muller, Cree and Tar Sands Campaign organizer from Canada.

Tom Goldtooth, IEN executive director, Navajo and Dakota, said the negotiations in Cancun are now being coopted by the industrialized nations, including the US, Canada and European nations.

“Carbon trading benefits the polluters of the north,” Goldtooth said. He also urged a halt to new fossil fuel development.

IEN is exposing the debt from the north and its responsibility to restore forests, without carbon offsets and carbon debts.

As tens of thousands of people arrive in Cancun, Goldtooth said the webcast, Red Road Cancun, is exposing the false solutions. “Carbon trading is hiding the real issues,” he said.

Social movements are converging on Cancun from throughout the world and demanding climate justice.

Goldtooth said IEN is looking at climate justice in regards to human rights issues, public health issues and Indigenous rights. He described the passion of social movements and Indigenous Peoples in building a base of resistance: Non-violent, direct action.

“As Native people we have to go to the heart of who we are,“ said Goldtooth, pointing out that Anishinaabe back home in Minnesota realize how the weather is changing, as they fish and carry out traditional lives, as do coastal Natives.

Goldtooth said the expansion of oil drilling, coal mines and power plants are destroying the earth while increasing pollution and sickness, especially for Native Americans.

In Cancun, Natives with IEN are exposing the contradictions of the United Nations’ official negotiations.

Goldtooth said it is important for the world to reevaluate the meaning of the sacredness of Mother Earth. Indigenous Peoples with traditional knowledge have solutions and have the right to have a voice, he said.

On the issues of global justice, Goldtooth said there has been a blackout by the media. “We have been here, but we have been invisible.”

Calling on people around the world to support climate justice, Goldtooth said December 7 is a day of global protest and action. “One Thousand Cancuns,“ is mobilizing people around the world.

Indigenous Peoples, including IEN, are supporting Bolivia and President Evo Morales, which created the Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in April. This gathering resulted in the Peoples Agreement on the Rights of Mother Earth.

With their own Native communication team in Cancun, Goldtooth said IEN is watching the governments of the world and what message the media is spinning.

The multinational corporations back home, he said, do not want Native people to hear what Indigenous Peoples are saying in Cancun.

Pushing for a real reduction of greenhouse gases, Goldtooth said, “We are able to bring that truth to light through the media.”

Twa-le Abrahamson, Spokane Naiton, founding member and Youth Coordinator of the SHAWL (Sovereignty, Health, Air, Water, Land) Society, from Washington state, is on IEN’s communication team.

Abrahamson is sharing the news of the climate justice being organized for people of color in Cancun, including those of Youth for Climate Justice from the US, which is creating a leadership pipeline for youth of color. During today’s interview, it was pointed out that people that don’t have the $350 to stay at the Moon Palace each night in Cancun, are struggling with getting to the sessions, especially minorities, who are being excluded from the process.

Abrahamson attended the Indigenous Caucus Meeting at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change today. "Indigenous Peoples are the most adversely affected by the effects and some of the proposed solutions of climate change. Nuclear energy is being marketed around the world as a clean/green energy source. It is not," she said.

Kandi Mossett spoke of burying her friend, her own age, from cancer, back home in North Dakota. Describing the pollution from the power plants and other pollution surrounding Native people, Mossett said, “We are human beings, just because we don’t have money, doesn’t mean we don’t have feelings.” Mossett is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation from Fort Berthold.

Mossett described how carbon trading market scams result in Indigenous Peoples losing their forests, after signing contracts that appear on the surface to be "saving the forests." Then, non Native species are planted that harm the environment and Native people lose all control of their forests and their homelands.

Ben Powless, Mohawk, observing the UN negotiations, said Indigenous Peoples are the most impacted from the destruction of Mother Earth. “It is time for respecting Indigenous rights and respecting Indigenous sovereignty,“ said Powless, adding that Indigenous Peoples are in Cancun to bring real change, not superficial change.
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RED ROAD CANCUN: Watch the live show at noon Central time each day, with videos streaming all day each day, webcast by Earthcycles:
http://redroadcancun.com/?p=454
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Indigenous Peoples: Pollution and Diabetes

Bitter Sweet or Toxic?
Indigenous people, diabetes and the burden of pollution

Contamination of First Nations, Mohawk and O'odham lands linked to diabetes
By John Schertow
The Dominion
Excerpts:
WINNIPEG—Diabetes is now widely regarded as the 21st century epidemic. With some 284 million people currently diagnosed with the disease, it’s certainly no exaggeration—least of all for Indigenous people.
... There is growing evidence that diabetes is closely linked with our environment. More than a dozen studies have been published that show a connection between Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); carcinogenic hydrocarbons known as Dioxins; and the “violently deadly” synthetic pesticide, DDT and higher rates of the disease.
O'odham and Diabetes
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s experience bears a close resemblance to Grassy Narrows: the world’s highest rate of diabetes can be found in the southwest Arizona nation. According to Tribal health officials, nearly 70 per cent of the population of 28,000 has been diagnosed with the illness. The O’odham People make up the second largest Indigenous Nation in the United States.
Lori Riddle is a member of Aquimel O’odham Community and founder of the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE).
GRACE was instrumental in the 10 year struggle against a hazardous waste recycling plant that operated without full permits on O’odham land for decades. Owned by Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation, the plant continuously spewed effluents into the air until it was finally shut down in 2007.
The Romic plant was not the first contributor to the O’odham’s toxic burden, explained Riddle. Looking back to her childhood, she recalled: “For nearly a year, [when] a plane would go over our heads, you could see the mist. We never thought to cover our water. The chemicals just took over and they became a part of us.”
From the early 1950s until the late 60s, cotton farmers in the Gila River watershed routinely sprayed DDT onto their crops to protect them from bollworms. According to the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), each and every year, the farmers used roughly Twenty-three pounds of DDT per acre.
In 1969, the State of Arizona banned the use of DDT; by this time the river was gravely contaminated. According to the ATSDR, farmers then switched to Toxaphene, a substitute for DDT—until it was banned by the US government in 1990.
Because of these chemicals, Riddle explains, the O’odham were forced to abandon their traditional foods and adopt a western diet. Farms also went into a recession, forcing many families to leave their communities. Companies, such as Romic, began moving on to their territory, exasperating the situation. “It’s taken a toll on our quality of life,” she says. “I’ve cried myself to sleep.”
The O’odham are dealing with what Riddle terms “cluster symptoms” including miscarriages, arthritis in the spine, breathing problems, unexplainable skin rashes, and problems regenerating blood cells. This in addition to diabetes, which frequently leads to renal failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputations.
Read article ...
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-people-diabetes-and-the-burden-of-pollution/
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