Lakota Brandon Ecoffey Leaves Position as Editor

Calling for a Free Press, Brandon Ecoffey Leaves Position as Editor at Lakota Country Times

Statement by Brandon Ecoffey, Lakota
Censored News

I have chosen to step down as editor of Lakota Country Times to focus on expanding my company Bad Face Consulting. This company was created to help tribal governments develop and implement professional public relations departments and policies in the hopes of fostering better transparency,” said Brandon Ecoffey, former editor of LCT.
Journalists will continue to be hampered in their efforts to expose corruption until tribal councils realize their value and pass laws to protect them. The people deserve to know what is happening within their institutions. Without a free press there will always be a veil of secrecy surrounding the work of tribal-governments.

Brandon is an award-winning journalist and former editor of Lakota Country Times and the former managing editor of Native Sun News. He is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who earned his education from Dartmouth College.  He founded Bad Face Consulting in 2016

20th Annual Ward Valley Spiritual Gathering, Feb. 24, 2018

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In 1998, a historic 113-day occupation of the proposed dumpsite by the Five River Tribes (Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and Colorado River Indian Tribes) along with environmental activist were assembled at the site to fight and stop the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump. The 113-day occupation prevented federal police from entering the site as well as prevented the test drilling for the dump that would have desecrated the sacred land of Ward Valley. The occupation ended in victory when the U.S. Department of the Interior rescinded the eviction notice and cancelled test drilling. On November 2, 1999, the Interior Department terminated all actions regarding the Ward Valley dump proposal, which officially ended the extensive conflict.

The proposed dump, which would have been in the center of eight wilderness areas, amidst of critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise, enclosed by the pristine golden canyons and cave paintings of the Old Woman Mountains, and east of the foothills of the Stepladder Mountains that remain covered in a forest of cholla cacti was utterly eliminated by the coordinated effort of dedicated Native and non-native people joined together for the love of Mother Earth.

--Molly, Censored News

More:
Proposed hazardous waste dump on sacred land at Ward Valley, California, was halted by the occupation and lawsuits.
http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/ward.html

International Treaty to Protect against KXL, March 5 -- 6, Sisseton

Location change to Sisseton Wahpeton College

The Last Oil -- Gwich'in Sarah James 'No Oil, No Compromise' in Sacred Place Where Life Begins

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As with the Rebirth of the Nation in 1988, Gwich'in today are again threatened, and proclaim, 'No Oil. No Compromise.'

Article by Brenda Norrell
The Last Oil 
https://thelastoil.unm.edu/watch-live/
Censored News

ALBUQUERQUE -- Sarah James, Gwich'in, today is carrying forward the message of the Chiefs, "No Oil. No Compromise," and remembering the humble way of life of the Gwich'in.
Arriving in Albuquerque for The Last Oil symposium, Sarah comes from the Sacred Place Where Life Begins.
It is the Gwich'in homeland, the land of caribou, home to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Speaking at today's symposium, Sarah shared how her family hunted the caribou, and took only what they needed, using all parts of the caribou.
"I grew up on needs, not on greed," said Sarah, winner of the Goldman Environmental Award, who was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame.