Flagstaff Council Vote on Indigenous Peoples’ Day Expected March 8, Support Rally

NEWS ADVISORY

Monday, March 7, 2016

Klee Benally
indigenousaction@gmail.com

Flagstaff Council Vote on Indigenous Peoples' Day Expected March 8
Support Rally to be Held

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Flagstaff City Council is scheduled to discuss and vote on an Indigenous Peoples' Day proposal Tuesday, March 8 at 6:00pm. A rally to address injustices facing Indigenous Peoples in Flagstaff in support of the proposal will be held prior to the Council session at 5:00pm outside City Hall on the corner of Rt. 66 and Humphreys.

What: Rally before Flagstaff City Council discussion and vote on Indigenous Peoples' Day proposal.

When: Tuesday, March 8 at 5:00pm.

Where: Outside Flagstaff City Hall on the corner of Rt. 66 and Humphreys.

Who: Native American community members, including Northern Arizona University students and faculty, will speak to why a meaningful process towards declaring Indigenous Peoples' Day is necessary in Flagstaff.

Why: Indigenous Peoples' Day has been declared throughout the country as a respectful replacement to offensive Columbus Day celebrations.
Native American residents and visitors to Flagstaff face disproportionate arrests, racial profiling, sacred sites desecration, homelessness, and other issues that rarely are addressed by the City of Flagstaff.

Background: Council member Eva Putzova initially proposed declaring Indigenous Peoples' Day in October of 2015 but withdrew her proposal after Indigenous community members called for meaningful action to address injustices faced by Native peoples. The proposal now includes a three step process with public hearings, reports, and a plan based on input from the hearings.

Last year nearly a dozen cities across the US including the entire state of Alaska renamed Columbus Day "Indigenous Peoples' Day."
A partial list of cities that currently celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day on the second Monday of October:

California: Berkely, Sebastapool, Santa Cruz and San Fernando
Minnesota: Minneapolis, St. Paul & Grand Rapids
New York: Newstead & Akron
Traverse City, MI
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
Albuquerque, NM
Durango, CO
Carrborro, NC
Belfast, ME

###

'Waters Connect Us' Lakota Debra White Plume at Gila River

Come Together to Learn More About Protecting SACREDWATER View this email in your browser The Waters Connect Us YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS Allies from the West, Southwest and North of the Artificial Border will be here A GATHERING ON THE GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY (adjacent to Phoenix) March 11-13, 2016 As we all become more educated on how our waterways and aquifers are threatened, exploited and contaminated, the movement grows to defend and protect the future of our pure and sacred waters.   DETAILS Friday, March 11th: 7-10 Tribute to John Trudell 1937 West Adams in Phoenix Saturday and Sunday Events are hosted on the Gila River Indian Community, D7 Center, at 8035 S. 83rd Avenue in Laveen. Saturday, March 12th: 10-6pm presentations and keynote, with an open mic in the evening. Lunch and dinner will be served. Traditional Pii Paash Bird Singers and dinner Saturday evening @ 8447 S. 91st Ave, Laveen, AZ Sunday, March 13th: 10-2PM Discussion and strategizing for next steps. Lunch will be served.  Bring a tent and sleeping bag for camping at the Sunn Residence, who are hosting us @ 8447 S. 91st Ave, Laveen, AZ. Days should be in the 70's, nights in 50's. If you plan to camp, let us know when you plan to arrive. Hotels and motels are in the area (McDowell and 91st Avenue). All are invited March 11-13th as we gather to discuss important water protection work across the lands of the Southwest and Nation. We invite everyone to come with open hearts and minds, as we hear from those working on the frontlines of protecting life's most precious resource, our waters. FRIDAY EVENING will pay Tribute to JOHN TRUDELL, featuring resistance poets and musicians in honor of an inspirational voice that guides many. This will happen in Phoenix. https://www.facebook.com/events/995361170553812/ Saturday and Sunday features presentations and discussion on: -Tradition and Water on the Gila River (Pii Paash and O'otham) -Manny Pino, Leona Morgan and Mercury Bisuie on the Legacy of Uranium mining in the Four Corners (Sanders, AZ and NM area) -Idle No More organizing and mobilizing with founder Nina Was'te (Nakota/Cree) -Gold King Mine Waste Spill on the Animas River with Janene Yazzie -Wendsler Nosie and Naelyn Pike from the Apache Stronghold at Oak Flat -Protecting the Colorado River from nuclear waste at Ward Valley -Standing against Peabody Coal power plant at Black Mesa with Louise Benally -Protecting Diné water and defeating a proposed coal fired plant with Elouise Brown from Chaco Rio, New Mexico -Keynote with Debra White Plume Oglala Lakota/ Northern Cheyenne from the Pine Ridge Homelands, will present stories from the frontlines of Lakota territory, including threats to sacred water from new and expanding uranium mines near the Pine Ridge Reservation and the Black Hills, and the transportation of Tar Sands oils through the Keystone XL pipeline. All of our precious, finite water sources are connected, from flowing surface streams across Mother Earth to the underground Aquifers below us, to the raindrops falling from the clouds above, all of water is connected. Water protectors and land defenders can gather during this time to honor water and ancestral lands, and strategize to strengthen and build solidarity to increase the effectiveness of the many movements to protect lands and waters. The event is being hosted by Pii Paash Uumish, Owe Aku and Peoples Media Project, with the support of many other individuals and organizations from the communities represented. Reuben Cruz, Pii Paash intoxicatedmc@hotmail.com Kent Lebsock with Owe Aku 720/469-1178 Renee Jackson, O'otham (contact on Facebook) Facebook Event "The Waters Connect Us" Special thanks to all who are helping organize, fundraise and those traveling near and far to share their stories. click here for the google map Copyright © 2016 Owe Aku International Justice Project, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are an ally in our struggle to preserve sacredwater Our mailing address is: Owe Aku International Justice Project 7685 South Olive Circle Centennial, CO 80112 Add us to your address book www.oweakuinternational.org

John Kane 'Ethnic Cleansing: But by who and for who?'

Ethnic Cleansing; But By Who and For Who? The Farce of Blood Quantum Requirements!

A picture of hypocrisy: Ray Halbritter, slayer of Redskins and protector of Bluebloods.

By John Kane, Mohawk

Censored News

Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS at:

http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/john-kane-etnische-zuivering-door-wie-en-voor-wie

.

John Kane

There is probably no greater threat of extinction to Native peoples than the measure of those people by the irrelevant, scientifically false and prejudicial use of blood quantum or pedigree to determine a identity and inclusion/exclusion. There can only be one conclusion to this practice and that is what was always intended, our elimination. Blood quantum or "Indianness"is not a Native concept. It is not "traditional." No Native custom or culture ever measured their people by full, three quarters, half or one thirty-second. This was all a white man concept. And right from the beginning the idea of "watering down" the blood was a definite part of the genocide of our people. I am not just talking about the culture of rape that is well documented with Columbus' men and continues today. It's more intentional than that. A study of the sterilization of young Native women, a US government policy that began in residential schools and continued till fairly recently, reveals that the emphasis was on the "full-bloods" because the half-breeds were already on their way. Enrollment, blood quantum and residency all became tools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to simply eliminate us with a pen. Of course this is coupled with massacres, death marches, starvation, disease and the forced exodus and dispersement of our peoples from our lands.

Ironically, today blood quantum is not an imposed policy of the US government (although Canada still dictates enrollment criteria on many levels). It is an all too common policy of those Native peoples who have been reduced to "tribes, bands or nations of Indians subordinate to the United States" to punish, control, manipulate and eliminate their people by disenrollment or denied enrollment over pedigree. This has been driven by greed, entitlements and general abuse of power but leads to only one end; ours.

Many Native peoples have a range of methods to determining their identities, lineage and population. The Haudenosaunee and many others have a matrilineal system of identifying the distinction of peoples and family. The proverbial "you follow your mother" was the method to determine which clan and, specifically for the Haudenosaunee, which of the 49 families a person would identify as. This loose system is tens of thousands of years old and I say loose because the Haudenosaunee was always a culture of inclusion where adoption and absorption of peoples not physically born into these families was commonplace and a normal fact of life and would never be questioned.

But the "humanities" as determined by Greeks, Romans and Christians was built on hierarchies, class, and where individuals stood on the scales of civilization and human development. With Europeans came European ideas and influences. For the most part, the Haudenosaunee maintain the matrilineal system. Alienation has crept in other ways with the self righteous developing other means of exclusion but on blood quantum the Oneidas under the rule of their BIA recognized supreme leader Ray Halbritter stand alone.

Halbritter used some of the influential Onondaga icons to seize power as the sole leader of the "Oneida Indian Nation (OIN) of New York" back in the late 1980s. He then rewrote Oneida customs by crafting his official enrollment list of Oneidas (that list includes "Oneidas in good standing" and those who aren't). Along with his new list was his new list of enrollment requirements which include…, you guessed it, blood quantum.

Halbritter's ascendency to the OIN throne came with enough Onondaga Faithkeeper Lyons bidding that a complete departure form "tradition"would have looked bad so he kept a matrilineal component but put a blood quantum requirement of "Indian" blood at a minimum of 25%. Now some would say that is reasonable and, of course, IT IS NOT for a variety of reasons that will ultimately haunt all those who do such a thing but there are several problems with Ray's quarters. According to the unwritten OIN rulebook "Indian blood" can only come from a "federally recognized tribe." So in spite of the fact that more Haudenosaunee live north of the imaginary line between the US and Canada NO Native ancestry counts for Halbritter's OIN. Of course, all of the non Fed Wrecked Native peoples are also not OIN recognized either.

Now add on to this arbitrary system of exclusion; politics, prejudice and "bad blood" and Oneida enrollment is just a game; a rigged game with bad consequences. Halbritter bursts on to the national stage as the "Redskin" slayer in a feeble attempt overshadow his failed handling of land claims, land title, gaming revenue and taxation while playing ethnic cleanser with his own version of "Bluebloods." There you go, Daniel Snyder, a name Halbritter would have to endorse.

Being Native is not about skin color or blood quantum. It is about being a people. It is about relationships, shared culture, language and distinction. While many Native people are concerned about loss of identity, rating each other by blood quantum is a fool's game. Dictating who the good Oneidas are and who the bad ones are or what is a "good Indian" forgets what Sheridan said: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

PARIS Tribute to John Trudell March 7, 2016

Committee in Solidarity with American Indians