BLACK MESA Impoundments Threatened: Human Rights Observers, Sheepherders Requested June 2017

JUNE 2017 Urgent call for volunteer sheepherders at Black Mesa New impoundment threats issued Over this past week, law enforcement and Hopi land management officers entered Sovereign Dineh Nation territories at Big Mountain/Black Mesa, Arizona with orders to count Dineh livestock. They issues 5-day notices to Dineh families, threatening to impound so-called "trespassing" sheep, goats, and cattle. "In times like these it's hard for me to eat or sleep," stated elder matriarch Glenna Begay. "I lay up at night worried for my animals. The sheep are my children. The horses too are relatives. They have been with us since the beginning." Families and elders resisting forced relocation policies on their ancestral homelands are urgently requesting volunteers to assist with maintaining the daily struggle. This primarily involves herding sheep throughout the day and doing basic chores. In this time of escalated police activity, supporters are also asked to be observant and record police or government actions. Livestock-related harassment by law enforcement is an annual occurrence that families resisting federal relocation policies endure, however, harassment and livestock impoundments have intensified in recent years. Armed officers conducted raids against families in 2014 and 2016.  These actions serve as painful reminders of the long history of US genocidal campaigns against the Dineh people. Public Law 93-531, the Navajo-Hopi Resettlement Act of 1974 remains in effect, despite four decades of indigenous resistance and international petition for repeal. It has always been clear to the Dineh people of Big Mountain/Black Mesa that the relocation policy is not about a so-called Navajo-Hopi Land dispute, but rather, is about natural resource development. Peabody Coal has been "carving out Mother Earth's organs" since 1966 on northern Black Mesa. "When we first walked on Black Mesa, there was abundance of life," explains elder matriarch Rena Babbitt Lane. "This land was never meant to be mined for coal. The Holy People walked here. But the coal company took the water and gave us sickness. That is what Washington gave us back, sickness." Today, relocation is administered through Ordinance 43, which among other atrocities, authorizes US Bureau of Indian Affairs deputized officers from the Hopi Office of Range and Land Management to enforce harsh and alien grazing controls on Dineh families refusing to relocate.  Animals considered to be trespassing are impounded, large fees are charged, and animals may never be allowed to return. Dineh families depend on their livestock for subsistence and the continuation of their traditional lifeway. Earlier this year, the majority owner of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station announced it would be closing the plant by 2019. A closure of the generating station would also mean closure of Peabody's Kayenta Mine at Black Mesa. As revenue-hungry government officials seek ways to keep the generation station and mine operating, Dineh residents of Black Mesa continue to voice their support for a final and complete shutdown of coal operations. By taking care of livestock and chores at homesites, volunteer sheepherders can support elders and families' participation in meetings and demonstrations. At this time we, the international communities beyond the natural boundaries of Dineh territory, are being asked to do something bigger than ourselves. Many families are urgently requesting your support. Please consider a journey to Big Mountain/ Black Mesa to be a sheepherder and human rights observer, whether for a week or a month. To offer to volunteer your time, or with questions, please contact: blackmesais@gmail.com / 928-773-8086 or Jake: 937-479-4214 If you haven't come out to the land before, please read and fill out the cultural sensitivity guide and preparedness form: https://supportblackmesa.org/2008/10/cultural-sensitivity-preparedness-guidebook-registration-form/ Other related announcements: * Dineh Grandmothers to Speak in Los Angeles A delegation of Diné grandmothers from Big Mountain/Black Mesa will be visiting the LA area from July 20-August 2, bringing their traditionally-made handwoven rugs and jewelry. There will be 2-3 events where the LA community will be able to purchase these items, connect with the grandmothers and learn how to stand in solidarity with their resistance to coal mining and cultural genocide. To find out more about this tour please visit http://www.sonela.org or e-mail Tanya at wemoonwitch@gmail.com. * Funds needed to finish house for Big Mountain relocation resister Creighton Dailey, who grew up nearby on the Navajo Nation in Pinon, is renovating an old stone cabin with his grassroots group Carpenters for a Cause, which will be the primary residence for a lifelong relocation resister at Big Mountain. Additional funds are needed to complete this project, please donate if you are able: https://www.gofundme.com/CFAC3 * Funds requested to repair Black Mesa elder's solar system A group of supporters is helping Black Mesa elder Rena Babbit-Lane and her family to raise the $3000 needed to purchase a new bank of batteries for their photovoltaic solar power system. For more information, and to donate, visit: https://www.blackmesautility.com/ For more background on the Big Mountain/Black Mesa struggle: http://supportblackmesa.org/ http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-fight-to-protect-altar-black-mesa.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiZ7pPNISyc For more information on the closure of the Navajo Generating Station: https://www.navajoenergyfuture.org/ Copyright © 2017 Black Mesa Indigenous Support, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest in the work of BMIS. Our mailing address is: Black Mesa Indigenous Support P.O. Box 23501 Flagstaff, AZ 86002

'Mining and Resistance in Dinetah' Laura Flanders Show

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Devastation and resistance: Peabody Coal and Dineh relocation on Black Mesa. 

Click on arrow below to watch.

The Laura Flanders Show

The Real News Network

Published on Jul 7, 2016

A special episode-length documentary filmed on location in Dinétah; the name of the land of the Navajo people, spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. 21 Billion tons of coal, the largest deposit in the US with an estimated value of 100 billion dollars, lay untouched in Dinétah until 1966. In that year, Peabody Coal Company leased the land in an agreement with a Hopi tribal council they helped form. In 1974, Congress passed the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act, commonly known as “the relocation law." It divided about 2 million acres of land previously shared between Diné and Hopi tribes. Nearly overnight, the homes of tens of thousands of Diné and several hundred Hopi were now illegal.

Since then, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Diné people have been forcibly relocated. Today, only a small group of mostly elder Diné continue to live here, and those that remain are being pressured to leave. More than 40% of homes here lack running water. Peabody Energy’s two mines here have extracted over 400 million tons of coal and depleted 70 percent of an ancient desert aquifer. Peabody’s Kayenta coal mine fuels the Navajo Generating Station, which is owned by the US Department of the Interior and provides water and electricity to Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. What is the cost, paid in the lives of the Navajo people, of the water and power delivered to these cities? On the anniversary of the founding of the United States, we visit with Diné (Navajo) youth and elders coming together to fight for the survival of their culture, fighting against displacement caused by US government policy, as well as exploitation caused by mining and other polluting industries.

• Category

  • Education

• License

  • Standard YouTube License

• Music

  • "American Indian Movement Song" by Blackfire

'Humans not Hedge Funds' confronts Peabody Coal June 24, 2016

Dine' grandmothers when Peabody Coal orchestrated forced relocation

to clear Dine' off their lands for Peabody's coal mining on Black Mesa

40 years ago. Photo by Dan Budnik

Dine' Roberta Blackgoat said they were cutting out the liver of the Female Mountain when 

they cut out the coal. The coal continues today to fire up Navajo Generating Station on the 

Navajo Nation, one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the world, providing 

electricity to southern Arizona. Now, Peabody Coal is filing for bankruptcy, and

plans to do as the uranium companies did, and leave behind its genocide, destruction and poison, 

with the aquifer depleted and streams poisoned on Black Mesa. -- Censored News

“Humans not Hedge Funds” to confront St Louis ‘big coal’ power players 6/24

Posted by Our Power Campaign | June 21st, 2016

Put an immediate stop to the forcible relocation and harassment of Diné (Navajo) people in northern Arizona and provide full reparations for cultural genocide caused by Peabody

Call to Action!

ST. LOUIS, MO, June 21, 2016 — Coal-harmed workers, families and allies from 50 groups across the country will “knock at the doors of power” in Peabody Energy’s headquarters city on Friday, June 24th. This will be the second national action in St. Louis led by residents demanding a “Just Transition Fund” instead of “business as usual” from the coal giant’s chapter 11 bankruptcy. Activists plan to confront the St Louis area people and institutions shielding Peabody as it uses its bankruptcy to escape accountability to workers and their polluted and economically devastated communities.

Missourians Organizing for Reform & Empowerment (MORE) invites people concerned for workers, families, and coal-devastated communities to gather at 12 pm in historic Shaw Park in Clayton, Missouri. MORE will lead a national Climate Justice Alliance / Our Power Campaign delegation—comprising 150+ people from 50+ organizations—through St. Louis County on Friday, June 24th. They will march through Clayton to point out the complicit institutions associated with the bankruptcy’s recent rulings, among other stops.

“This Peabody bankruptcy has national impact, but the political and legal infrastructure making it happen is right here in the St Louis area,” pointed out city resident and MORE member, Napoleon Robertson. “It’s people like Judge Barry Schermer and Attorneys Ehlers and Cousins of Armstrong Teasdale who are acting to ensure payouts go to hedge funds and Peabody executives instead of communities. They’re part of the machinery stranding workers and families harmed by Peabody’s dig-burn-dump business practices.” Community leaders have mapped out the St. Louis  “infrastructure of injustice” in this interactive web site.

Jihan Gearon of Black Mesa Water Coalition and the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) / Our Power Campaign added, “There’s a better solution. Let this be the first corporate bankruptcy to fund both obligations to workers and communities, and a visionary “Just Transition” away from this harmful extraction economy.”

 A Peabody Energy bankruptcy settlement directed towards a “Just Transition Fund” instead of big investor and executive payouts will:

• Fully fund promised Peabody and Patriot coal worker pensions and health care plans.
• Put an immediate stop to the forcible relocation and harassment of Diné (Navajo) people in northern Arizona and provide full reparations for cultural genocide caused by Peabody.
• Guarantee full funding for clean-up and full reclamation of all mined lands and polluted and depleted aquifers used by Peabody.
• Prioritize payouts to stakeholders for communities negatively impacted by Peabody’s practices in areas left stranded in the bankruptcy – rather than big investors and executives.
• Support communities as they transition from coal-based economies toward jobs and infrastructure based on community-owned renewable energy and local self-sufficiency.
• Support health care funds for pollution-fouled communities in and adjacent to mining and coal-processing areas.

 “We’re through with that dirty, old game,” asserts St. Louis resident Basmin Nadra from MORE, “where a big coal company uses powerful local institutions and people to prop itself up. We won’t sit quiet while the legal system protects the interests of a wealthy few over the well-being of our families. We call on everyone who thinks that’s wrong to join us in demanding a better outcome. It’s time for us to recognize we are all connected in these concerns. This is an opportunity to set new precedents.”

 Michael Leon Guerrero, National Coordinator of Climate Justice Alliance agreed: “Come on by Shaw Park this June 24th and you’ll hear more than opposition to a bad bankruptcy deal. Just imagine what we could do by directing resources from a dig-burn-dump industry directly toward a new, clean energy economy.”

 Climate Justice Alliance: Michael Leon Guerrero, (505) 263 4982 MST, michael@ourpowercampaign.org

Missourians Organizing for Reform & Empowerment: Kennard Williams, 314-825-1334, kennard@organizemo.org OR Jeff Ordower, 314-267-4664, jeff@organizemo.org

When:  12:00 pm gather, 12:30 start march (approx 1 hr), Friday, June 24, 2016

Where:  Gather atShaw Park (corner of Bonhomme and Brentwood) in Clayton, Missouri 

Spokespeople available for comment, interview

This press release also available at ourpowercampaign.org/press-release-peabody-knocking-2016-06-24

Resources

PETITION: bit.ly/payuppeabody

PRESS: bit.ly/BTUmedia

DEMANDS: bit.ly/submit_demands

SPOKESPERSON STATEMENTS: bit.ly/BTUstatements

ABOUT POWER BEHIND THE POLICE: powerbehindthepolice.com

ACTION FACEBOOK EVENT: http://bit.ly/humansnotHF

Organizations Represented at Action

Alliance for Appalachia

Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE)

Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Black Mesa Water Coalition

Catskill Mountainkeeper

Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED)

Center for Story-based Strategy

Chicago Jobs with Justice

Climate Justice Alliance

Communities for a Better Environment

Cooperation Jackson

Divestment Student Network

East Michigan Environmental Action Council

Energy Justice Network

Environmental Justice League of RI

The FANG Collective

GAIA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives

Grassroots Global Justice

Grassroots International

Green For All

Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy

Indigenous Environmental Network

Institute for Policy Studies

Ironbound Community Corporation

Haitian Platform for an Alternative Development (PADDA)

Just Transition Alliance

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

Labor Network for Sustainability

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment

Native Women's Care Circle

Movement Generation

Movement Strategy Center

NAACP

National Family Farm Coalition (member, US Food Sovereignty Alliance)

Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson/Right to the City Alliance

NYC Environmental Justice Alliance

PeoplesAction

PODER

Right to the City

Solidarity Economy St. Louis

Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE)

Southwest Workers Union

SWOP

The Ruckus Society

UPROSE

US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA)

Big Mountain Residents Under House Arrest as Livestock Confiscated

Walee Crittenden stands with her family's livestock after the initial
 theft by armed rangers.

Breaking: Big Mountain Residents Under House Arrest as Livestock Confiscated

Tuesday June 7, 2016
1:30 pm MDT

By Klee Benally and Brenda Norrell
Censored News
English/French/Dutch
French translation by Christine Prat at
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=3483
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans at:
http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/bewoners-van-big-mountain-onder-huisarrest-terwijl-veestapel-in-beslag-genomen-wordt

BIG MOUNTAIN, Arizona -- Members of Louise Benally's family at Big Mountain are currently being detained inside their home while armed police forcibly take their livestock.

Navajo Nation officials failed to notify Hopi Tribe about previous arrangements to move the livestock to another location. The move was set to occur sometime this week.

Louise Benally told Censored News that her brother John Benally, her daughter Walee Crittenden, Walee's children, Louise Benally's nephew and others are being held under guard, under house arrest, by five Hopi Rangers and five BIA Police. Police have held them inside the home of John Benally since 7 am, Louise said.

Louise said there is no need for this show of force. There are elderly and children in the home.

"They did not have to come and harass us like this," Louise said.

Louise said the family was in the process of transferring their livestock to near Flagstaff.

The Benally family has been resisting forced relocation for 40 years. The so-called Hopi Navajo land dispute was secretly schemed by the attorney for Peabody Coal and US Congressmen to clear Navajos off the land for Peabody coal mining. This coal became the fuel to light up southern Arizona with the dirty coal fired power plant on the Navajo Nation, Navajo Generating Station. What can help? As Navajos at Big Mountain say, after many trips to the United Nations: "We've been waiting 40 years for the United Nations to do something." -- Censored News

Most Censored in Indian Country April 2016

O'odham battle the US Border Patrol, militarization and encroachment

Censored News through the years

The news in Indian country remains censored and distorted, as reporters stay home and plagiarize, and fail to show up to cover news stories. Censored are issues that conflict with the agenda of media owners and the US government.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Censored News has original content that those gagged by their dependence on advertising dollars, politicians and media owners, do not want you to know.

Here's some of our original articles that have been censored, or the facts distorted, in mainstream news in Indian country. 

We begin with this breaking news from Eagle Pass, Texas:
.

Eagle Pass, Texas: Native Groups Lead Action against Coal Mine

"Native American Groups gathered for a historic rally and march to protest the open-pit coal strip mine in Eagle Pass, Tex. The protesters called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  to rescind the mine’s permit, halt expansion and protect the land from further destruction.The project, owned by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, mines lignite coal, which is transported by train from Maverick County across the border to be burned in a Mexican coal-fired power plant. The mine began operating several months ago, despite widespread local public opposition, and is harming the ancestral homelands of many Native groups and damaging sacred lands and more than 100 archaeological sites." http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/04/eagle-pass-native-groups-lead-action.html

In breaking news, the new Goldman Environmental Prizes reveal Newmont mining in Colorado beating unconscious an Indigenous grandmother protecting her land in Peru from gold and copper mining.
This is the same Newmont mining protested by Western Shoshone for mining and desecrating their sacred land.
Earlier, Wikileaks exposed the formation of a five country coalition to push mining in Peru, at the same time Indigenous were being beaten and killed defending their land from mining.
The US Ambassador reported directly to US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, according to leaked cables.
Hillary's Ambassador and the Canadian Ambassador met with Newmont and other mining companies to orchestrate mining as Indigenous were dying.
More at Censored News:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/02/wikileaks-peru-us-feared-return-of.html

The Israeli Apartheid corporation Elbit Systems obtained the US border contract and is now constructing US/Israeli spy towers on the sovereign Tohono O'odham land. The Gu-Vo District said, 'No!' as it protects burial places of O'odham which are now targeted by these border spy towers. Elbit Systems also maintains the Apartheid security surrounding Palestine. A Censored News exclusive:
US Israeli Pacts Targets Traditional O'odham
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/09/us-israeli-pact-targets-traditional.html

O'odham in Mexico cut border fence on traditional route. Thank you to Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, for these authentic photos which reveal the cutting of this fence at The Gate, south of Sells, Arizona, which is a traditional crossing of O'odham. Don't be fooled by others who try and take credit for this action, or articles written by other reporters who were not present and have distorted the facts. 
Here is the authentic news at Censored News:
O'odham Cut Border Fence Restricing Traditional Route:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/03/oodham-cut-border-fence-restricting.html

Widely censored when it happened, Censored News republishes this courageous act of the Navajo, Hopi and Lakota delegation that took on Peabody Coal and challenged its stockholders in New York in 2001. Most of the delegation are now in the Spirit World. 
Peabody Coal has now declared bankruptcy in April 2016, but who will do the cleanup and pay for the damages?
A Censored News exclusive:
Tribute to Navajo, Hopi and Lakota who Took on Peabody Coal
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/04/tribute-navajo-hopi-and-lakota-took-on.html

While Peabody Coal was declaring bankruptcy in April, a fresh assault was made on Dine' (Navajos) at Big Mountain who have resisted relocation for 40 years. These Dine' resisters have endured harsh lives and were just subjected to another attack by the US, the BIA and its forces, the seizure of their cattle.
Louise Benally: Big Mountain Terrorized as Peabody Coal goes Bankrupt
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/04/louise-benally-big-mountain-terrorized.html
Peabody Coal's 40-Year Holocaust of Navajos
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/04/peabody-coals-40-year-holocaust-for.html

In the latest news, Lakota establish a new camp, Sacred Stone Camp, on Standing Rock in North Dakota, to fight the Dakota Access pipeline.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/04/spirit-camp-defenders-ride-into.html

Please see the latest on justice for Dine' (Navajo) Loreal Tsinigne, murdered by Winslow, Arizona, police.
Indigenous Action Media:
http://www.indigenousaction.org/

The latest from Mohawk Nation News:
http://www.mohawknationnews.com

Owe Aku International Justice Project fighting uranium mining, and battling for clean water, in Lakota country:
http://www.oweakuinternational.org/

Please scroll through Censored News' 10 years of archives, revealing what the other media doesn't want you to know. From the protection of Oak Flat by San Carlos Apaches, to the resistance and building of communities in Chiapas, to the exposure of the crimes of the US government, Censored News continues.

www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com


Censored News is now in its 10th year, published with no advertising, adwords, grants or revenues.

Peabody Coal's 40 Year Holocaust for Navajos

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat at:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.fr/2016/04/tribute-navajo-hopi-and-lakota-took-on.html

As Peabody Coal declares bankruptcy, it is important to remember the lives lost to heartbreak, respiratory disease and cancer, the homes that were destroyed, and the aquifer and spring waters that were drained and poisoned.
One elderly Navajo man laid down and died from heartbreak when he was relocated. 
It was Peabody Coal and its attorney John Boyden that orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute. Peabody's purpose was to clear Navajos off Black Mesa for coal mining. 
It has been a 40 year Holocaust for the people of Black Mesa. More than 14,000 Navajos were relocated to make way for Peabody Coal mining. 
The resisters of relocation lived harsh lives and many died during the long years of struggle. 
Peabody Coal was aided by corrupt Congressmen who pushed through legislation, and the media that promoted the lies and censored the truth. 
Peabody Coal feeds the Navajo Generating Station, one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the world. It lights up southern Arizona while poisoning Navajos. 
The genocidal effects of Navajo relocation are far reaching. 
Sanders, Arizona, to the east of Black Mesa, is at the mid-mark of two Holocausts: The Church Rock, N.M., uranium spill of 1979, and relocation. The uranium spill is flowing down the Rio Puerco wash, and the radiation is now in the drinking water at Sanders.
In Sanders, there is the trail of heartbreak, like a long mourning song in the land, from those relocated here. 
This 40 Year Holocaust must be documented and remembered, so it will never happen again. The Congressmen, Peabody Coal, the attorneys and the media should be exposed and held accountable. 
Never again.
.

Chasing McCain Away: Brazen Acts of Native Americans in 2015

Chasing McCain off Navajo Nation

The brazen acts that the cardboard Flim Flam man of new media didn't want you to know in 2015


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
copyright
French translation by Christine Prat
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=3144

Apaches protesting Sen. McCain's
copper mine on sacred Oak Flat

Censored News pick for the most brazen act of 2015: Navajos Chasing Arizona Sen. John McCain off the Navajo Nation. Fabulously called "Sneaky Snake McCain," by San Carlos Apaches fighting McCain's new copper mine with McCain's best buddies at Resolution Copper, McCain's status as a bottom feeder is absolute. 

The fact that McCain is still on the US Senate Committee for Indian Affairs reveals that the Committee was set up to steal Indian land and water rights, and dupe everyone else into believing that the US system works.

Meanwhile, US Homeland Security gave the southern border security contract to Israel's defense contractor Elbit Systems, manufacturer of drones and Apartheid systems surrounding Palestine. 

Now, Elbit is on the southern border of Arizona and pushing its new spy towers on Tohono O'odham land in traditional O'odham communities. 

The District of Gu-Vo has said, "No!" to these spy towers which target traditional O'odham burial grounds.

However, Tohono O'odham human rights activists point out that the tribal government was long ago co-opted by the US government and is powerless to protect the Tohono O'odham people from the onslaught of the oppression of the US government and its new partner Israel.

The Bottom Line: Peabody Coal on Black Mesa

Louise Benally
Photo Christine Prat

Louise Benally of Big Mountain, testifying before the Bureau of Land Management about coal mining in Farmington, N.M, said it best this year.

Although the regional media has been bought and sold with Peabody Coal's dollars and the surrounding parasitic political influence, Louise Benally describes the 40-year-resistance to coal mining, relocation and McCain, in her testimony to the BLM:

In my community of Black Mesa in 1974 there was a Congressional legislation known as Public Law 93531 that was passed to remove 10,000 Navajos, 300 Hopis to make way for Peabody coal company. 

As of today BLM is the major owner of Navajo Generating Station, and if we're going to talk about climate change justice for all, let's shut Navajo Generating Station down! Because it is allowed to continue to pollute and to kill people. This is ongoing as of today. 

I want that you as the people of the Department of the Interior do your activities and call the Hopi government to stop impounding people's animals. The sheep, the goats, the horses, the cattle is what we live off of. That's our food. That's our economy. That's all we have. 

We don't have electricity. We don't have running water. 

Yet the power that is pumped out of Black Mesa goes down to where John McCain is laid out in the sun with his shades on, and he needs to stop stealing our water. 

The Colorado River, he's after again, after we told him so many times no.

The utility companies, they eat the earth up here, suck out her breath out, so they can get electricity and, you know, we are left with nothing. Period. Nothing. Except ourselves and what we have. But yet these coal companies are polluting our air, killing our environment, killing our people through actions of flawed policies. This needs to stop. We're sick and tired of your greed!

Throughout the continent, the Arctic drilling needs to stop. The pipeline for the oils in the Midwest need to stop that's coming out of Alberta. You're sending all that to other countries. India and China needs to be taught how to convert to renewable energies that don't pollute. That's the only hope we have.

Now, do your job. Make that change.

US Border Patrol: An Occupying Army

On the issues of the occupying Army of the US Border Patrol on Tohono O'odham land, and what this means for sovereignty, Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, and Mark Maracle, Mohawk Warrior, said it best.

Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, described documenting the abuse by the US Border Patrol and an increase in violence toward O'odham by border agents. Wilson described the US Border Patrol as an occupying army on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

"The Tohono O'odham tribal government has completely surrendered to the US Homeland Security,” Wilson said in the live broadcast of the AIM West Conference in November.

Wilson said people ask him why -- if the Tohono O’odham is sovereign -- is the US Border Patrol on the Tohono O’odham Nation. "In Indian country, we are not sovereign nations, we are not even sovereign people,” Wilson said.

In response, Mohawk Warrior Mark Maracle said that Mohawks do not wait for anyone to tell them that they are sovereign. "You don't have sovereignty unless you assert sovereignty,” Maracle told Censored News.

“The United States and Mexico are not sovereign nations.”

“We tell them we are sovereign. We don’t wait for them to tell us that we are sovereign. We tell them. If you want sovereignty, you have to make sacrifices.”

Maracle said Mohawks have stood up against the state police, federal agents and all forms of government.

"We keep reminding them that this land belongs to us,” Maracle said.

Maracle said it is the same as dealing with bullies and cowards. “They have to remember the power is in the people.”

“The worst enemies are our own people, the ones who are traitors. Traitors for the invaders.”

Media in 2015: Cardboard Con Artists Flop in the Shade

The most censored issue in 2015 includes the media itself. A cardboard stand-up Flim Flam man now flounders where journalism once stood.

Here's how the system works. The national American Indian media and websites deceive their readers into believing that they actually have reporters out covering the news. It is a massive system of fraud, which uses plagiarism, re-writes and stay-at-home reporters who make phone calls to disguise the plagiarism. 

With copy and paste, they plagiarize from the web without permission, and rewrite to avoid being present which would mean carrying out real journalism. They rewrite press releases and steal copyrighted photos and get paid to do it.

Funding to pay for real journalism is not the issue. Indian Country Today is owned by the wealthy Oneida Nation of New York. ICT terminated its real journalists, who actually went out and covered news stories, beginning in 2006, and replaced reporters with stay at home re-writers and plagiarizers. 

Indianz is owned by the wealthy Ho-Chunk Inc. of Nebraska. Ho-Chunk Inc. also received a contract from the US government for domestic and international spying, with an office at the Pentagon. 

What is the real agenda of the national media? You decide.

Why did Navajo Times continue to rely on non-Indian reporters in 2015 for much of its coverage, when the majority of Native American journalists can not find jobs?

The point is control. Are publishers and editors in Indian country afraid that they can not control authentic Native American journalists?

Perhaps publishers and editors are afraid that the real issues might be laid bare -- including the fact that Sen. McCain's goal has been to rob Native people -- while riding in their parades as a faux hero.

Perhaps it is hard to keep real reporters quiet about the three coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation and the fact that they are leading dirty coal polluters in the world.

Perhaps real reporters would point out the Raytheon Missile factory on the Navajo commercial farm, NAPI, and question if years of planting with Monsanto seeds on NAPI has resulted in the mutation of traditional local crops.

As for the national news in Indian country, it is clear now that the deep pockets of casino funding have not created a new age of authentic journalism.

Casino funded national news has resulted in a new era of plagiarism, fraud and short cuts.

The Rest of the Story that the Media Concealed

Meanwhile, the media never told you the rest of the story. Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald never took that multi-million dollar bribe from real estate broker Byron "Bud" Brown for the real estate flip sale of Big Boquillas ranch.

McDonald went to jail and prison for a decade. Brown later admitted in federal court that Brown put those millions in Brown's offshore bank account. Brown admitted in federal court that he had lied under oath, and received immunity from the US government to do it. 

Brown's long stream of lies under oath came as the US government wanted to silence MacDonald in regards to Navajo water rights.

MacDonald planned to press for the Winter's Doctrine water rights for Navajos in federal court, ensuring Navajos would have their rights to expansive water rights needed for future generations. 

However, with the intervention of non-Indian attorneys, employed by the tribe, MacDonald went to prison, and the Winter's Doctrine water rights were lost.

The schemes for defrauding American Indian Nations of their water rights has now spread across the west. The schemes of the so-called water rights settlements are carried out by Congressmen and non-Indian attorneys employed by the tribes.

Sen. Gosar called cops on Apache
grandmothers

Meanwhile, Apaches continue to fight the copper mine that Sen. McCain sneaked into the defense spending bill, which would desecrate Oak Flat ceremonial grounds by gouging out the earth for a massive copper mine for Resolution Copper.

When San Carlos Apache led a delegation to Washington to fight the bill, and defend sacred Oak Flat, Apache grandmothers went calling on Rep. Paul Gosar in his Congressional office in Washington. 

Gosar called the cops on them.

Meanwhile, Apaches continue their resistance camp at Oak Flat.

When it comes to defending Oak Flat, Apache youth Naelyn Pike, 16, granddaughter of Wendsler Nosie, rose to the forefront. Listen to her words on this video, at Oak Flat, by Christine Prat:

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/10/sacred-oak-flat-apache-youth-naelyn.html

The bottom line is the slow and toxic genocide in Indian country, carried out by the US government, corrupt tribal officials, Congressmen, non-Indian attorneys, and the big players in the red light district: The media who can be bought and sold.

Now you know the rest of the story.

Read more at Censored News

Navajos Chase McCain off Navajo Nation
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/08/dine-protesters-chase-john-mccain-off.html

Israel's Elbit targets Tohono O'odham with spy towers
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/09/us-israeli-pact-targets-traditional.html

Tohono O'odham and Mohawk on US Border Patrol and Sovereignty
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/11/mohawk-and-tohono-oodham-sovereignty.html

The Rest of the Story: Peter MacDonald: How lies under oath sent MacDonald to prison, and Navajo Winter's Doctrine water rights were lost, with letter from MacDonald to Censored News on water rights:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/11/us-theft-of-water-rights-and.html

Gosar calls cops on Apache grandmothers
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/07/ariz-rep-gosar-calls-cops-on-apache.html

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 33 years. She began as a reporter for Navajo Times, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a stringer for AP and USA Today during those years, covering the Navajo Nation and federal courts. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today in the Southwest, she was censored, then terminated in 2006. Because of this, she created Censored News, with no advertising, grants or revenues, to expose what Indian Country Today was censoring. Since 2006, she has traveled with the Zapatistas through Mexico, and provided live coverage of events throughout the west, and the Mother Earth Conference in Bolivia, without pay.


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