In July, Long Walkers were honored in Washington D.C. Here, walkers on the Longest Walk Northern Route were honored at the Buffalo Nation Powwow in Penn. The three women in this photo were honored in Washington for making it all the way from Alcatraz to Washinton D.C. on the Longest Walk Northern Route: Lisa Peaks, Anishinabe/Pomo; Sage, Ponca from Oklahoma and Willow Dixon of Portland, Oregon. Photo copyright Brenda Norrell.July 29, 2008
Honoring those who walked
In July, Long Walkers were honored in Washington D.C. Here, walkers on the Longest Walk Northern Route were honored at the Buffalo Nation Powwow in Penn. The three women in this photo were honored in Washington for making it all the way from Alcatraz to Washinton D.C. on the Longest Walk Northern Route: Lisa Peaks, Anishinabe/Pomo; Sage, Ponca from Oklahoma and Willow Dixon of Portland, Oregon. Photo copyright Brenda Norrell.Dooda's Front Lines Music Fest August 2 and 3, 2008
Photo: Elouise Brown and Dennis Banks on the Longest Walk in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photo Brenda Norrell
Greetings Dooda Desert Rock Supporters,
Greetings Dooda Desert Rock Supporters,
Please join us for a special fund raiser happening August 2nd & 3rd, at the Dooda Desert Rock campsite at Chaco Rio, NM. On August 1st, we welcome you to join us at the DDR camp to help us prepare for the Front Lines Tour Music & Art Festival. We will be cooking and doing final set-up activities. This is a time to spend in prayer and celebration as we kick off the festivities.
On August 2nd, DDR will host the “FRONT LINES TOUR MUSIC & ART Festival 2008” to celebrate our theme: NO TO COAL BURNING POWER PLANTS, YES TO ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, and to entertain our guests, ReadNex Poetry Squad, as they visit our camp. DDR welcomes ReadNex Poetry Squad to New Mexico. We are honored to be a part of this tradition, as we support our brothers and sisters who have committed themselves to a cross-country tour for environmental protection and Native American rights. We will have an opportunity to share the story and mission of DDR while the ReadNex Poetry Squad share their poetry and music at our camp. We are especially excited to welcome all musicians and artists to this event.
This is going to be a powerful festival, one with plenty of performers and hours of dance and festivities, that will raise money to fuel the fight. Admission is $10 per person per day or $20 per person if you plan on camping with us. Food and drinks will be available for sale. Please bring your chair and whatever else you need to be comfortable.
On August 3rd, we will hike to tour the proposed desert rock energy project site. Certainly, there is much to be gained from reading and hearing about the story of Dooda Desert Rock, and how outside corporations, such as the Sithe Global, LLC and Desert Rock Energy Company, LLC have enlisted are local Dine Power Authority to promote this ridiculous idea of desecrating our Mother Earth, the environment, and the health of the people on and around the Navajo Nation. A true comprehension of the devastating nightmare threatening the beautiful Chaco Rio and Ram Springs, NM landscape, can only be experienced by visiting this vast, pristine land, breathing the sacred air, and grounding yourself in the spirituality of the Dine people. We hope you will all join us, not only to understand the logistics of this ill-conceived project, but to also experience the connection we feel with our homeland.
The ReadNex Poetry Squad will resume their journey on August 4th and DDR will resume their mission to stop the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project. We hope you will join us in this historic celebration.
Elouise Brown
On August 2nd, DDR will host the “FRONT LINES TOUR MUSIC & ART Festival 2008” to celebrate our theme: NO TO COAL BURNING POWER PLANTS, YES TO ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, and to entertain our guests, ReadNex Poetry Squad, as they visit our camp. DDR welcomes ReadNex Poetry Squad to New Mexico. We are honored to be a part of this tradition, as we support our brothers and sisters who have committed themselves to a cross-country tour for environmental protection and Native American rights. We will have an opportunity to share the story and mission of DDR while the ReadNex Poetry Squad share their poetry and music at our camp. We are especially excited to welcome all musicians and artists to this event.
This is going to be a powerful festival, one with plenty of performers and hours of dance and festivities, that will raise money to fuel the fight. Admission is $10 per person per day or $20 per person if you plan on camping with us. Food and drinks will be available for sale. Please bring your chair and whatever else you need to be comfortable.
On August 3rd, we will hike to tour the proposed desert rock energy project site. Certainly, there is much to be gained from reading and hearing about the story of Dooda Desert Rock, and how outside corporations, such as the Sithe Global, LLC and Desert Rock Energy Company, LLC have enlisted are local Dine Power Authority to promote this ridiculous idea of desecrating our Mother Earth, the environment, and the health of the people on and around the Navajo Nation. A true comprehension of the devastating nightmare threatening the beautiful Chaco Rio and Ram Springs, NM landscape, can only be experienced by visiting this vast, pristine land, breathing the sacred air, and grounding yourself in the spirituality of the Dine people. We hope you will all join us, not only to understand the logistics of this ill-conceived project, but to also experience the connection we feel with our homeland.
The ReadNex Poetry Squad will resume their journey on August 4th and DDR will resume their mission to stop the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project. We hope you will join us in this historic celebration.
Elouise Brown
July 28, 2008
Censorsed in the USA: Hush words
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
ON THE ROAD -- I didn't see it coming. After 25 years of writing American Indian news, I didn't really expect to be blackballed and censored out of the business. But, then again, any journalist writing serious news in the United States should expect to be censored. There are some hot topics that get U.S. journalists fired, including investigating the war in Iraq. U.S. Presidents realize the power of words and song to move the masses. It was Buffe Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier," during the Vietnam War that led to her being blackballed and censored out of the music business in the U.S.
In Indian country news, there are also hush words, words to be used sparingly, if at all. For editors, those words include two names "Russell Means" and "Leonard Peltier." Also, in Indi
an country, reporters know it is unlikely that editors will publish any serious criticism of the war in Iraq or the Bush administration. Reporters also know it is unlikely that their articles will be published if they point out how the elected American Indian tribal councils sell out their people and their land, air and water for energy royalties and energy leases. At the same time, those councilmen and tribal chairmen give voice to the need to protect sacred Mother Earth.
While on staff at Indian Country Today in 2004, the managing editor, a non-Indian, demanded that I halt writing about "grassroots people and the genocide of American Indians." When I continued, I was reprimanded again. Eventually I was fired without a reason given.
It taught me about history and the soul of America. In the United States, there is this hole in history, and this hole in the hearts of the people, which disallows for these facts
: the genocide of American Indians, including the butchering of women and shooting of little children, and the kidnapping, enslavement, torture, rape and murder of blacks.
ON THE ROAD -- I didn't see it coming. After 25 years of writing American Indian news, I didn't really expect to be blackballed and censored out of the business. But, then again, any journalist writing serious news in the United States should expect to be censored. There are some hot topics that get U.S. journalists fired, including investigating the war in Iraq. U.S. Presidents realize the power of words and song to move the masses. It was Buffe Sainte Marie's "Universal Soldier," during the Vietnam War that led to her being blackballed and censored out of the music business in the U.S.
In Indian country news, there are also hush words, words to be used sparingly, if at all. For editors, those words include two names "Russell Means" and "Leonard Peltier." Also, in Indi
an country, reporters know it is unlikely that editors will publish any serious criticism of the war in Iraq or the Bush administration. Reporters also know it is unlikely that their articles will be published if they point out how the elected American Indian tribal councils sell out their people and their land, air and water for energy royalties and energy leases. At the same time, those councilmen and tribal chairmen give voice to the need to protect sacred Mother Earth.
While on staff at Indian Country Today in 2004, the managing editor, a non-Indian, demanded that I halt writing about "grassroots people and the genocide of American Indians." When I continued, I was reprimanded again. Eventually I was fired without a reason given.
It taught me about history and the soul of America. In the United States, there is this hole in history, and this hole in the hearts of the people, which disallows for these facts
: the genocide of American Indians, including the butchering of women and shooting of little children, and the kidnapping, enslavement, torture, rape and murder of blacks. 
As always, those who forget history, repeat it. The United States now trains military around the globe how to torture. This torture, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, targets Indigenous Peoples in Central and South America and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. This torture targets anyone whose lands and resources are desired by a multi-national corporation. The proof was in the U.S. School of the Americas torture manual made public in 1996. The latest ploy is to simply dupe people into the corporate resource scheme, by convincing people to pay for fictional "carbon credits," the non-factual fee to pollute.
On the US/Mexico border, where Homeland Security and the Border Patrol ignore the sovereign status of Indian Nations and all federal laws, there are death threats for journalists and Indians living on their lands.
At ICT, I was terminated in September of 2006 after one of my articles was rewritten, turning the exposure of Donald Rumsfeld profiteering from stocks from the sale of the bird flu's Tamiflu into a near advertisement for the product. Also before I was terminated, I was instructed to never write about, or even investigate, the fact that the Navajo commercial farm, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, has a Raytheon Missile factory on the same land where it grows potatoes, corn and other commercial crops. The Navajo Nation owned NAPI also boasts that it uses genetically-modified seeds; seeds leading to widespread misery for the world's Indigenous Peoples.
I was also told I could not publish a news probe into whether Ben "Nighthorse" Campbell was actually Portuguese or Northern Cheyenne.
Well, most of the usual suspects received good jobs at the big museum in Washington D.C.
The important point is not to be fooled by the newspapers, do your own investigating. The editors, publishers and owners have their own agendas. These days, very little of it has to do with truth. If you want to learn about the destruction of sacred places and all the corporations rushing to poison the land, air and water where you live, you'll need to search out the information, don't expect to read about it in your newspaper.
The non-Indian newspapers have no qualms about censorship these days. In the spring, I wrote an article about the Longest Walk for a news publication. A watered-down version of it was published. Here is one of the paragraphs that was censored:
"It was in Greensburg, Kansas, that another dimension of the west opened up, the force of a tornado to rip out a town. The debris was still piled high nearly one year after the tornado of May 4, 2007. I could only think of the billions of dollars going to rebuild Iraq, after the US bombed it; the billions going to the corporate friends of the Bush family. Still, there was hope and abundant love in this town as the people were rebuilding green, focused on solar and wind power and sustainable gardening."
Hope, that's what keeps us going, and readers like you.
Thanks for reading. Brenda
At ICT, I was terminated in September of 2006 after one of my articles was rewritten, turning the exposure of Donald Rumsfeld profiteering from stocks from the sale of the bird flu's Tamiflu into a near advertisement for the product. Also before I was terminated, I was instructed to never write about, or even investigate, the fact that the Navajo commercial farm, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, has a Raytheon Missile factory on the same land where it grows potatoes, corn and other commercial crops. The Navajo Nation owned NAPI also boasts that it uses genetically-modified seeds; seeds leading to widespread misery for the world's Indigenous Peoples.
I was also told I could not publish a news probe into whether Ben "Nighthorse" Campbell was actually Portuguese or Northern Cheyenne.
Well, most of the usual suspects received good jobs at the big museum in Washington D.C.
The important point is not to be fooled by the newspapers, do your own investigating. The editors, publishers and owners have their own agendas. These days, very little of it has to do with truth. If you want to learn about the destruction of sacred places and all the corporations rushing to poison the land, air and water where you live, you'll need to search out the information, don't expect to read about it in your newspaper.
The non-Indian newspapers have no qualms about censorship these days. In the spring, I wrote an article about the Longest Walk for a news publication. A watered-down version of it was published. Here is one of the paragraphs that was censored:
"It was in Greensburg, Kansas, that another dimension of the west opened up, the force of a tornado to rip out a town. The debris was still piled high nearly one year after the tornado of May 4, 2007. I could only think of the billions of dollars going to rebuild Iraq, after the US bombed it; the billions going to the corporate friends of the Bush family. Still, there was hope and abundant love in this town as the people were rebuilding green, focused on solar and wind power and sustainable gardening."
Hope, that's what keeps us going, and readers like you.
Thanks for reading. Brenda
More on Rumsfeld profiteering from stocks from the sale of the bird flu medication Tamiflu:
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id73.html(Photo 1: Sand Creek Massacre Site in southwestern Colorado, where Cheyenne Arapaho women were butchered and toddlers shot in cold blood by the US Calvary. Photo Brenda Norrell. Photo 2: Veterans for Peace, Arlington West, Santa Monica beach 2007. Tribute to dead Americans whose families never were allowed to mourn in public and Iraqis. Photo Brenda Norrell. Photo 3: Imprisoned Navajo and Apache children in Fort Sumner, Bosque Redondo, NM. Photo courtesy New Mexico Museum.)
Longest Walk honors
By Brenda NorrellAlcatraz to D.C. -- The Longest Walk Northern Route walkers were honored in D.C. who began the walk in Alcatraz and finished in D.C. Dennis Banks presented badges to Lisa Peake, Anishinabe/Pomo, who walked and served as security all the way across the United States; Sage from Oklahoma, who walked and launched a singing career; Luv the Mezenger, who walked, ran and served as security. Luv, a hip hop artist from Los Angeles, and Willie Lonewolf, Navajo Ute, crossed the Sierra Nevadas on snowshoes when the snow drifts of seven feet became too deep for walking. Unprovoked, Luv was also attacked by Columbus, Ohio, police. The police pointed a taser at walker coordinator Michael Lane, Menominee, before throwing Luv to the concrete. Also honored in D.C., but not shown in photo, were Harry Pruyne from Penn., Aislyn Cognan from Calif., Yukio from Japan and Willow Dixon from Oregon. Thanks to all of you who cooked, served as security, brought food, donated cash, said prayers, organized powwows, brought winter clothes and tents, organized meetings and did all those other million things for the Longest Walk Northern Route. Photo Brenda Norrell (Double click on photo to enlarge)
Photo of Harry Pruyne speaking during honoring ceremony:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/07/northern-route-walkers-honored-in-dc.html
Photo of Harry Pruyne speaking during honoring ceremony:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/07/northern-route-walkers-honored-in-dc.html
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