Native American Music Awards 10th annual ceremony

Iroquois Dancers; CornBread's John Buck; Janelle Turtle, Best Native American Church Recording; Cherokee National Youth Choir, Best Inspirational Recording; NightShield, Best Single, with Wayquay ; Houston Geronimo, Rickey Medlocke, Lance White Magpie/NAMMY Photos.

TENTH ANNUAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED BLACKFIRE & NATIVE ROOTS TOP THE AWARDS WITH TWO

LYNYRD SKYNYRD’S RICKEY MEDLOCKE, REDBONE AMONG THOSE HONORED

BY NAMMYs
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – On Saturday October 4, 2008 the Tenth Annual Native American Music Awards (N.A.M.A.) was held at the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in Niagara Falls, New York and awarded over 35 artists in a four hour event with 12 onstage presentations and special Hall of Fame inductions and performances that had the packed crowd dancing on their feet. The growing success of the Awards show is now setting industry standards for professional Native American musicians who want to achieve greater acceptance and exposure from mainstream audiences. Taking two honors each was; the New Mexico-based Reggae group, Native Roots and the Arizona-based punk rock/Alter Native band, Blackfire. Native Roots’ recording, Celebrate won for Best World Music Recording and earned them Group of the Year. Native Roots gave a high-energy live performance with their messages of pride, unity, and respect among all nations. Blackfire, is comprised of two brothers and a sister with a style that encompasses traditional Native American music with rock that bears socio-political and human rights messages. Blackfire’s (Silence) Is A Weapon won Record of the Year and their producer Ed Stasium (Ramones) took the Native Heart award. Read article:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/blackfire-and-native-roots-top-nammy.html

WINNERS LIST

ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Jim Boyd, Blues To Bluegrass
BEST BLUES RECORDING: Deep Downtown, Jimmy Wolf
BEST COMPILATION RECORDING: Old Style Round Dance Songs Various
BEST COUNTRY RECORDING: No Lies Tracy Bone
DEBUT ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Cheryl Bear, The Good Road
DEBUT GROUP OF THE YEAR: Injunuity, Unconquered

BEST FEMALE ARTIST: Nicole, Deep Dreams
BEST FOLK RECORDING: Where The Green Grass Grows, The Crow Girls
FLUTIST OF THE YEAR: Jan Michael Looking Wolf, Unity
BEST GOSPEL/INSPIRATIONAL RECORDING: Precious Memories, Cherokee National Youth Choir
GROUP OF THE YEAR: Native Roots, Celebrate
BEST HISTORICAL RECORDING: Chief Seattle Speaks 1854, Red Hawk
BEST INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING: Mirror Lake by Golana
BEST MALE ARTIST: Edmund Bull, Follow Your Dreams
BEST NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH RECORDING: New Beginning by Janelle Turtle
BEST NEW AGE RECORDING: Homeland Security by Carroll Medicine Crow
BEST POP RECORDING: Phoenix by Fara Palmer
BEST POW WOW RECORDING: Hear The Beat by Blackfoot Confederacy

BEST PRODUCER: Adrian Brown, Tim Sampson, Jonathon Joss, Charles Button for Still No Good

BEST RAP HIP HOP RECORDING: Native American Hustle, Dago Braves
RECORD OF THE YEAR: (Silence) Is A Weapon, Blackfire
BEST ROCK RECORDING: The Sun & The Earth, Stevie Salas
SONG/SINGLE OF THE YEAR: Broken Dreams by Nightshield
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR: Star Nayea, Silenced My Tongue
BEST SPOKEN WORD RECORDING: The Story Tellers by Ken Quiet Hawk
BEST TRADITIONAL RECORDING: Traditional Navajo Shoe Songs, Gilbert Begay Sr
BEST SHORT FORM MUSIC VIDEO: The Enlightened Time by Jana
BEST LONG FORM MUSIC VIDEO: Live At Mt Rushmore by Brule’ & AIRO
BEST WORLD MUSIC RECORDING: Celebrate by Native Roots
NATIVE HEART: Ed Stasium, (Silence) Is A Weapon

http://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/

All photos copyright 2008 Kimberlie Acosta & 2008 Native American Music Awards Inc.

Cauca in Colombia protest free trade and Bush-backed policies

Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca
ACIN Santander de Quilichao, Colombia Contact: Manuel Rozental (011) 57-311-339-7341
Email: acincauca@yahoo.es

AP photo

Indigenous Communities in Colombia Mobilize to Protest U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Plan Colombia and the Policies of the Bush-Backed Uribe Government
October 12-13th, Mass Protests are Planned Throughout the Country

The Commotion of the People
Today, four years after the First Itinerant Congress of the Peoples, we, the indigenous communities of northern Cauca, reiterate its message and validity and continue through the path we walked back then, a march that was weaved through centuries of memory and resistance.

On the anniversary of the Indigenous and Popular Mandate we call for the people to mobilize for liberty and against the tyranny of the regime. Read article:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/cauca-in-colombia-protest-free-trade.html

US-trained Zetas are killers worldwide

US created monsters:
US trained Zetas and Kaibiles, killers and death squads worldwide

Guatemalan Kaibiles, notorious death squads trained by US Special Forces -- known for disemboweling pregnant Mayan women in Guatemala and Chiapas at Acteal -- also have been working for the cartels. Both Zetas and Kaibiles have been hired as mercenaries in Iraq. Kaibiles were even hired as UN Peacekeepers in the Congo. So-called Peacekeepers have been killing and raping in Haiti, the Congo and Bosnia. (Photo Kaibil in Congo /Militaryphotos.net)

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
TUCSON --The death squads of the Zetas, trained at the US School of the Americas, are now carrying out murders for Mexican drug cartels and hired as killers in Iraq. The Kaibiles, Guatemalan death squads trained by US Special Forces, are now responsible for murders and rapes in the Congo and around the world. In Mexico, US trained death squads attack and murder Indigenous Peoples, including the Zapatistas, struggling for dignity, autonomy and survival. The United States training of death squads and torturers is one of the most censored issues in the media.
Urging news reporters to report the facts, reader Swaneagle writes, "The following is critical under-reported urgent news. Zetas are mutinous Mexican army troops who graduated from School of the Americas. Hired by the cartels, they are directly responsible for an astounding rise in brutal, grisly killings, including many of the murders of women in Juarez, which are up to 75 this year. " Zetas have also been hired as mercenaries in Iraq. The spread of the SOA template must be halted."
In Fort Benning, Georgia, the US School of the Americas Watch continues to protest the torture training of Latin American leaders who carry out the heinous crimes. In conjunction, protesters at Fort Huachuca's US Army Intelligence Center and School demand a halt to torture training. The "No to Torture" movement has exposed the role of Fort Huachuca, located in southeastern Arizona, in publication of the SOA's first torture training manual, made public in 1996. During the Iraq war, Fort Huachuca also trained army personnel responsible for the torture of detainees at Abu-Ghraib.
In Tucson, a weekend to end torture will be held Nov. 14 - 16, 2008, beginning with a talk by Col. Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience. Col. Wright is a retired US Army Reserves colonel, with 29 years of military service and a career US diplomat. She resigned from the diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. She was in the news recently when Canada denied her entry.
Featured during Tucson's weekend to halt torture is the Theater of the Oppressed, a live performance of Nightwind by Hector Aristizabal. Torture survivor Aristizabal is a native of Medellin, Colombia and currently living in Pasadena, CA.
Following the theater, there will be a "No to Torture Candlelight Procession," to the federal building downtown, followed by a vigil. The "No to Torture Rally," on Sunday, Nov. 16, will be followed by a procession and presence at the Ft. Huachuca main gate Veterans Memorial Park at 3105 E. Fry Blvd in Sierra Vista. There will also be a presence at one of the private contractor's offices nearby. The events are sponsored by Southwest Witness, Tucson SOA Watch, and Torture on Trialin solidarity with SOA Watch and their annual Vigil & Action at Ft. Benning.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/us-created-monsters-zetas-and-kaibiles.html
More information: http://southwestwitness.org/ and http://tortureontrial.org/

Police attack Algonquin children, peaceful protesters

An Algonquin man is hospitalized after Quebec police shot him in the chest with a tear-gas canister. A disabled teenage girl was also treated with oxygen in the local Health Clinic. Twenty two children under eight and two babies were caught in the tear gas shot by the police.

Contact information:
Marylynn Poucachiche,
Barriere Lake spokesperson : 819 - 435 - 2171

Canada and Quebec use riot police, tear gas, and 'pain compliance' on peaceful Algonquin families to avoid negotiations. 'Pain compliance' is perfect description of Conservative's aboriginal policy, say community spokespeople

By Barriere Lake Community
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

KITIGANIK, RAPID LAKE, Algonquin Territory -- The Conservative government and Quebec used riot police, tear gas, and "pain compliance" techniques to end a peaceful blockade erected by Algonquin families from Barriere Lake, rather than negotiate, as requested by the community.
The blockade on Highway 117 in Northern Quebec began at 6:00am Monday, with nearly a hundred community members of all ages and their supporters promising to remain until Canada's Conservative government and Quebec honoured signed agreements and Barriere Lake's leadership customs. Around 4 pm, nearly sixty Quebec officers and riot police encircled families after a meal. Without warning, police launched tear gas canisters, one of which hit a child in the chest.

"Our demands are reasonable," said Norman Matchewan, a spokesperson who was racially slurred by Minister Lawrence Cannon's assistant earlier in the election. "We're only asking for the government to uphold the agreements they've signed and to stop illegally interfering in our customary governance. The message we've received today is that Stephen Harper and Jean Charest are unwilling to even play by their rules."

"We will not tolerate these brutal violations of our rights," added Matchewan. "Forestry operations will not be allowed on our Trilateral agreement territory, and we will be doing more non-violent direct action."

Nine people, including an elderly women, a pregnant woman, and two minors, were roughly arrested. While a line of police obscured the view of human rights observers from Christian Peacemaker Teams, officers used severe "pain compliance" techniques on protestors who had secured themselves to concrete-filled barrels, twisting arms, dislocating jaws, leaving them with bruised faces and trouble swallowing.

"In this election alone, the Conservatives have labelled us alcoholics and vilified our community's majority as 'dissidents,'" said Michel Thusky, another community spokesperson, referring to an op-ed published by Minister Lawrence Cannon in regional newspapers. "Now they and Quebec have chosen violence over meeting their most basic obligations to our community. 'Pain compliance' is the perfect description of the Conservative government's aboriginal policies."

Barriere Lake community members had promised to maintain the blockade until the Government of Canada honoured the 1991 Trilateral agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

To end federal interference in their leadership customs, they wanted the Government of Canada to appoint observers to witness a leadership reselection according to their codified customary selection code, respect its outcome, and then cease interfering in their internal governance.
Please take 15 minutes to phone or fax a letter to some of the following:
* Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada ( fax: 613-941-6900 )
* Lawrence Cannon, Transportation Minister and MP for Pontiac (613 992-2940 Fax: 613 944-9376 )
* Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs ( 819 997-0002 Fax: 819-953-4941 )
Use some of the following points (along with your own):
* The government should immediately cease its intimidation tactics and threats of violence
* The Federal government should honor the trilateral agreement it signed with Barriere Lake
* Express support for the Barriere Lake community’s struggle for the right to choose its own leadership
* The federal government should immediately stop interfering in Barriere Lake ’s internal affairs
Media Contacts:
Michel Thusky, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 - 435 - 2171; Norman Matchewan, Barriere Lake spokesperson : 514 - 831 - 6902; Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière: www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com
barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com 514.398.7432
Join the IEN Newsletter! https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/subscription.php?username=ienearth Clayton Thomas-Muller; Indigenous Environmental Network ; Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign
2-94 Charlotte ST. Ottawa, Ontario; Canada K1N 8K2; Home Office: 613 789 5653 ; Cell: 218 760 6632
NEW WEB PAGE! http://www.ienearth.org/cits.html