Native People urge peace and friendship with Iran, demand U.S. get out of Iraq

Michelle Cook, Dine', who visited Iran on a friendship visit, urged peace and
diplomacy. Photos courtesy Michelle Cook.

Native People urge peace and friendship with Iran, demand U.S. get out of Iraq

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

French translation by Christine Prat

http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=5452

Native Americans rallied for peace today, sending a message of friendship to the people of Iran and demanding that the U.S. get out of Iraq, as they called out Trump for both assassinations and provocations for war. Dineh, Lakota, Pueblo and Tohono O'odham led the urgent call for peace and diplomacy to halt the tragedies of war.

Devastation of mining and war silenced at Indigenous World Conference

Devastation of mining and war censored, Pacific Islanders withdraw support for Indigenous World Conference

Protest in Toronto of Hudbay mine in Guatemala

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

French translation by Christine Prat

http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=2500

Mining is among the leading causes of murder, rape, assassinations and disappearances of Indigenous Peoples globally.

However the non-profits, especially those at the United Nations, are strangely silent about the fact.

The seizure of land, water and resources for mining, and the violence against Indigenous Peoples defending these, should be a priority at the UN, with coal, uranium and metals mining topping the list.

Another leading threat to Indigenous Peoples is nuclear dumping and the effect of war, especially on women and children. As revealed in this statement by Pacific Islanders, demilitarization was censored at the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/09/demilitarization-censored-pacific.html

Kalamaoka’aina Niheu, of the Pacific Caucus, said, “It is with great sadness and outrage to find at the 11th hour that Paragraph 21 regarding Demilitarization has been removed from the Outcome Document.”

“For this reason, Ohana Koa –Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific can no longer consent to our participation in the High Level Plenary Meeting (HLPM) also known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP).”

There is no mention of mining or militarization in the outcome document for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, held in New York in September:

http://www.rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/WCIP-Outcome-Document-FINAL.pdf

The censorship of the voices for peace, and against mining and war, is not new in Indian country.

Louise Benally, Dine' (Navajo) resisting Peabody Coal's coal mining, forced relocation and US militarization, was censored by Indian Country Today when she opposed the Iraq war, comparing it to the genocidal forced Long Walk of Navajos.

Remembering her great-grandfather forced on the Long Walk to the prison camp at Fort Sumner, N.M., Benally said, “The U.S. military first murders your people and destroys your way of life while stealing your culture, then forces you to learn their evil ways of lying and cheating." http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id78.html

In October, Pacific Islanders will block the world's largest coal port in canoes.

Thirty Pacific Climate Warriors from 12 different islands will arrive on Australian shores to stand up to the coal and gas industry. "We are now excited to announce that on October 17th, the Pacific Climate Warriors will use the canoes they have built to paddle out into the harbour of the world’s largest coal port – Newcastle – to stop coal exports for a day."

http://350.org/pacific-climate-warriors-will-block-the-worlds-largest-coal-port/

For permission to repost this article brendanorrell@gmail.com

Tohono O’odham Border Ground Zero for War against Indigenous Peoples

Tohono O’odham Border is Ground Zero for Colonial War against Indigenous Peoples
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com


TOHONO O’ODHAM LAND – On the border, Klee Benally, Dine’, says the terrorism against Indigenous peoples by the US government includes the militarization of Tohono O’odham land in southern Arizona, and the desecration of sacred San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona.


Alex Soto and Klee Benally on O'odham land.

On the Tohono O’odham border, where the US Border Patrol speeds down dirt roads, cutting into the dry and fragile desert earth, and border agents abuse O’odham on their own land, Benally said, “For me this is a deep issue of colonialism, settler colonialism, and state violence, really state terrorism.”
"This is one of the many ground zeroes of the colonial wars against Indigenous Peoples," said Benally of this area, one of the deadliest for Indigenous Peoples and other migrants who walk north through the Sonoran Desert in hopes of a better life. It is also a region where the US border, US militarization and border laws, violate religious freedom rights and the ceremonial passage of O'odham on their lands in the US and Mexico.
 “Recently there was a marked anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the US. But there have been many Sept 11ths for our communities,” said Benally, Navajo, as he joined Amy Juan and Alex Soto, both Tohono O’odham, on the border on Saturday, on the Tohono O'odham/Mexico border.
“Right now we as Indigenous Peoples don’t have guaranteed protection for our religious freedom because our sacred sites are under attack.”
“Indigenous communities here don’t have that same freedom of movement that is essential for their cultural continuity. These are the types of attacks that also need to be addressed,” said Benally, referring to the militarization, border restrictions, and the abuse and harassment by US Border Patrol agents.
“This is the type of state terrorism that needs to be confronted and it is hard to do it in the context of these social and environmental justice movements that continue to further ‘invisibilize’ who we are as Indigenous Peoples.”
Benally said that part of the work underway, being carried out indirectly and directly, along with networking, is to intervene and address these issues in both the progressive liberal media and the corporate media, and at the same time, in the social and environmental justice movements.
“We’re here to say, hey, we are still here as Indigenous Peoples. We can’t further be invisibilized -- especially in the context of these attacks of state terrorism against our people and our lands.”
“Right now as we’re here, San Francisco Peaks are being desecrated with the state sanctions by the US Forest Service and the US Department of Agriculture.”
Benally spoke of the destruction of the old growth forests underway and the long protested plan to use sewage water for snowmaking for tourists at Arizona Snowbowl on sacred San Francisco Peaks. The Peaks, sacred to 13 area Indian Nations, is a place where medicine men conduct ceremonies and gather healing plants. Earlier, Benally was among the Navajos and other Native Americans who locked down to equipment in protest in the Protect the Peaks movement.
As the abuse of the land and the people continues, the US offers superficial "listening sessions." On the border Benally said, “Even though the Department of Interior is holding sacred sites listening sessions to reconsider their sacred sites policies, on the one hand, they are still supporting and sanctioning the desecration of our sacred lands, which is cultural genocide.”
“What is really at stake here is our cultural survival as Indigenous Peoples.”
“Part of the challenge for us as young people is to step up and to take that responsibility to address these issues and to get justice for our people”
Watch this video interview of Klee Benally on the border:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/09/on-tohono-oodham-border-video.html
Article copyright Brenda Norrell, For permission to repost in full; brendanorrell@gmail.com

Making missiles on the Navajo Nation's farm

Making missiles on the Navajo Nation farm

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

(September 4, 2009) This week in the news, Indian Country Today celebrated the war manufacturer Raytheon Missiles producing missile parts on the Navajo Nation's commercial farm.
Shortly before I was terminated in 2006, an ICT editor forbid me to expose the fact that Raytheon Missiles was operating on the same land where the Navajo Nation was growing corn and other crops for commercial sale at Navajo Agricultural Products Industry near Farmington, N.M.

It was during the same time that NAPI was negotiating a deal with Cuba for the sale of NAPI farm products to Cuba.I wanted to find out what toxins and byproducts might be produced by Raytheon Missiles there, which would endanger the health of people eating the crops, including corn, pinto beans and potatoes, which become commercial food products. I had been to NAPI before, while I was working for Navajo Times, during the 18 years that I lived on the Navajo Nation.

The Indian Country Today editor forbid me from even researching the matter. (Yes, he put it in writing.)

It comes as no surprise today that ICT is celebrating the missile maker being there on Navajoland.

One of ICT's primary advertisers on the ICT website, with a large ad revolving, has been the CIA Clandestine Services, recruiting for CIA spies, since the fall of 2008.
Advertisers always exert influence over newspapers. Further, the income from advertisers pays at least a portion of the salaries of the reporters and editors.

Native Americans activists, including Louise Benally, Navajo on Big Mountain resisting relocation, point out that the US colonizers indoctrinated Navajos to such an extent in boarding schools and public schools, that they are now manufacturing weapons which ultimately kill other Indigenous Peoples.

Navajo Agricultural Products Industry is located in the same area where Navajos who live on the land are fighting a third power plant, Desert Rock. It is power plant development driven by Navajo politicians.

It is the same area where the US government sent Navajos to their deaths with cancer and respiratory diseases from radiation exposure, during Cold War uranium mining.It is the same area where Utah Navajos with respiratory diseases have long fought the oil and gas wells around their homes.

It is the same area of the Navajo Place of Origin, Dinetah. Bahe Katenay, Navajo from Big Mountain, spoke out in defense of Dinetah, in northwest New Mexico. Katenay's comments came during the Bush energy exploitation of the land. Katenay opposed extensive oil and gas wells around Dinetah. Katenay was censored by Indian Country Today.

It is the same area where the land, water and air has been mined, desecrated and polluted by both the US government and Navajo politicians.
It is the Four Corners region.

Bahe, the uncensored article about Dinetah:
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id104.html

Making missiles on the NAPI farm:
The work done at NAPI is for weapons currently in use by U.S. and allied armed forces: the Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missile; Javelin Close Combat/Anti-armor Weapon System; Stinger; Phalanx Close-In Weapon System and Excalibur Precision Guided Extended Range Artillery Projectile, according to Raytheon.


copyright Brenda Norrell