Indian Comedy Slam with Charlie Hill

 

In Memorial: Comedian Charlie Hill at the American Indian Movement's 40 Year Reunion in San Francisco


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

SAN FRANCISCO -- Oneida Comedian Charlie Hill appeared on stage with Keith Secola during the American Indian Movement’s 40 Year Reunion in November of 2008.
Charlie Hill’s memories span the great events and great heroes of the American Indian Movement. Hill said AIM brought the pride and fire that is here today.
“They raised hell and stood up when no one else did.”
Hill said AIM brought to the forefront the realities of treaty rights and sovereignty, and galvanized the hearts, adding that American Indians hold the answers.
“We have the owner’s manual."
“We’re the ones who can fix this country”
HIll said there needs to be more women in the forefront of the movement at the gatherings.
“The strength of the community is women.”
HIll also remembered Russell Means.
“I loved him because everyone was afraid of him.”
Hill said the truth was Russell had a great sense of humor.
Russell told him, “Anytime you insult me, I feel honored.”
Among those he remembered were Floyd Westerman, Bill Wahpepah and the Vernon Bellecourt.
HIll said he loves coming to San Francisco because of the consciousness raised here.
Hill urged everyone in the movement to unite. While earlier times called for armed struggle, he said now is the time for spirituality.
“It is stronger than anything that the US can throw at us.”
Hill said American Indians survived all the attempts to christianize and sanitize the people.
The music of the movement was that of Floyd Westerman and Buffy Sainte Marie.
Hill said they should be honored.
“They opened the door.” The recording concludes with Keith Secola singing "Fry Bread" at the gathering hosted by AIM West.

VIDEO Charlie Hill 1983 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6eCALFohY




Comedy Store honors Charlie HIll image by rmcomedy


Hill, Charles Allan, “Charlie”

Charlie Hill, 62, passed away early on Monday morning, December 30, 2013, in Oneida, Wisconsin. His death followed a valiant, yearlong, battle against lymphoma cancer. He fought the disease with all the courage, irreverence, and humor that shaped his life and his comedic career. He was born on July 6, 1951, to Norbert S. and Eileen (Johnston) Hill in Detroit, MI and moved to his family’s homestead on the Oneida Reservation in 1962. Charlie Hill was a member of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin and belonged to the Turtle Clan.
Charlie was a graduate of West De Pere High School, class of 1969. He attended the University of WI-Madison where he majored in speech and drama and was a member of the experimental Broom Street Theater Group.
Later, he toured Europe as a member of the La MaMa Experimental Theater Group which was based in New York City. He left college and moved to Hollywood, to pursue his dream as a stand-up comedian. He lived in Los Angeles for the next 40 years, where he forged a successful career as an actor, writer and stand-up comedian. He was the first American Indian comedian in history and joined humor with political activism and social commentary, breaking down many stereotypes about Native Americans. His humor was universal and transcended the narrow restrictions of race, culture, or class. He succeeded in making people laugh with him, not at him. His groundbreaking talent and determination opened the door for generations of Native performers.
Early in his career, he performed at The Comedy Story in LA where he met comedians Richard Pryor, Jay Leno, Roseanne Barr, and David Letterman. He stepped into the national spotlight by appearing on “The Richard Pryor Show” in 1977. He became the first American Indian comedian to appear on both “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and on “The Merv Griffin Show.” He later became a writer for the hit “Roseanne” TV series. He made six appearances on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and made appearances on “David Letterman’s Late Show” and the Arsenio Hall TV show. He wrote and performed on the Club Red Radio Show. He co-produced and was featured in the Showtime Special, “The Indian Comedy Slam, No Reservations Needed” in Nov. 2009. Charlie starred in the documentary, “On and Off the Res’ with Charlie Hill,” which was nominated for an Emmy in 2012, and was broadcast on PBS. He made countless appearances on college campuses across the nation. His acting credits include several TV series: “The Bionic Woman,” “Moesha,” and “Roseanne.” Charlie received the 2009 Ivy Bethune Tri-Union Diversity Award from the Screen Actors Guild, and “The Jennifer Easton’s Spirit Award” in 2012. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Sinte Gleska University, a 4-year tribal college in Mission, South Dakota.
Charlie is survived by his wife of 33 years, Lenora Hatathlie, Coalmine Mesa, Arizona, and their four children, Dine’ Nizhoni, Coalmine Mesa, Arizona, Nasbah, and her fiancé, Jamison King, Oneida, Wisconsin, Nanabah, Los Angeles, Calif., Nabahe, Oneida, Wisconsin, and one granddaughter, Tasbah, 3, Los Angeles, Calif. He is also survived by two brothers, Norbert (Mary Anne) and Richard (Donsia), Oneida, WI, and two sisters, Rosa Coenen (Rick), De Pere, WI, and Barbara Author, Longmont, CO, father-in-law, Jack Hatathlie, as well as many nephews, nieces, cousins and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Norbert and Eileen, his brother, Jimmy, and his mother-in-law, Bessie Hatathlie.
A funeral ceremony will be held on Friday, January 3, 2014, at 10:00 am CST at Ryan Funeral Home, 305 North Tenth St., De Pere, Wisconsin. There will be no public showing prior to the ceremony.
In lieu of floral arrangements, a Memorial Fund has been established. Donations can be made to the Charlie Hill Fund, 532 Airport Road, Oneida, WI 54155. Please go to www.ryanfh.com to send online condolences to the family.
The family is deeply grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers, and support from countless individuals, family and friends, the staff of the Oneida Health Center, Heartland Hospice, St. Mary’s Hospital, the Anna John Nursing Home, and Dr. Jerry M. Winkler of Green Bay Oncology. -----------------------------------------------------------


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Shannon Rivers, Akimel O'otham, standing up for Indigenous Rights

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Nation became the first in the United States to ratify the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Shannon Rivers, Akimel O'otham from Gila River in Arizona, speaks on the importance of this action on Censored News Blog Talk Radio.

"We hope it becomes customary law, throughout the United States and the world ," Rivers said of the Declaration, speaking on Earthcycles' Longest Walk Talk Radio at the end of the Longest Walk.

Pointing out that the Declaration includes rights at borders and self-determination, he said Gila River undertook this hallmark move in commitment and solidarity with Indigenous Peoples worldwide, on May 21, 2008.

Rivers also describes the visit by Bolivian President Evo Morales to the United Nations in New York and the disrespect this world leader has been shown in the U.S. Rivers also describes how Homeland Security used fear after 9/11 to increase fear of migrants. Ultimately, the US profiteered with jails and prisons.

Further, Rivers discusses how the lifestyle and foods of the colonized U.S. has damaged the health of Indigenous Peoples in the Sonoran Desert. Rivers said there is a revitalization on Gila River of people growing traditional foods in their fields.

"Indigenous Peoples are some of the richest peoples," he said, during the interview a Greenbelt Park, Maryland. "We have many languages and we can learn many songs, many teachings."

Rivers urged Indigenous Peoples to stand up with courage and fight for what they believe in, with sacred walks and sacred runs, protection of sacred places and listening to the stories of the elderly.

Rivers is joined by Phillip Morris, Navajo from Page, Arizona. Morris describes the abuses of the US government and Peabody Coal in the destruction of Navajo lands and aquifer water.

"They call it 'Relocation.' I don't care what you call it, it is another way of the government saying, 'We want your land,'" Morris said.

Morris said the strip mining of Peabody Coal has resulted in the springs drying up. While Peabody Coal drained the aquifer, most Navajo people were hauling their water there. With words and millions of dollars, the U.S. and Peabody has continued with their ways, he said, "Of keeping us poor."

Morris said, "Healing is within us, but when we do it together as a group, in unity, it is more powerful."

"It all starts with prayers. We have to start coming together," Morris said, urging people to go to sweatlodges and learn from others.

Also, on the blog radio show, Long Walkers speak in tornado-hit Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was more than 90 percent destroyed by a tornado in 2007. Adriano Buckskin, Luv the Mezenger, Calvin Magpie, Jr., Paul Owns the Sabre and Rebecca Duncan speak as Long Walkers over a feast to the community. The show includes a song by the Miwok youth singers who were Long Walkers.

Recorded live by Earthcycles, producer Govinda Dalton, and cohost Brenda Norrell, on the Longest Walk northern route across America, Feb. through July, 2008.

Listen: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

Radio stations may rebroadcast in whole or part. Please credit Earthcycles.

Photo 1: Shannon Rivers as master of ceremonies at the Longest Walk Concert in D.C. Photo by Brita Brookes Photo 2: Phillip Morris and Shannon Rivers onboard the Earthcycles radio bus on the Longest Walk in Greenbelt Park, Maryland, in July 2008, during this interview. Photo Brenda Norrell

Contact Shannon Rivers at:
sunriverhawk@aol.com

Mohawk Nation News: Hoof Ladies Chasing Indigenous Youth

'HOOF LADIES' CHASING INDIGENOUS YOUTH: THE COLONIAL STATE’S OLD SEXUAL PERVERSION STRATEGY

Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com
Published with permission

Jan. 10, 2008. There is an old Haudenosaunee story about the “Hoof Lady." She appears to our youth in various guises to stop them from doing wrong. She also appears in order to test them. For example, when our young people are hiding in the bush drinking alcohol, an ugly apparition appears. When they notice her hoofs and her scary gestures, they are terrified and run away. She could also entice them to do bad things by appearing in other human forms, both male and female. They could be blond, redhead or brunette to lure our youth! This “shape shifter” is usually an outside unfamiliar person who could show up at times when our minds are weak and vulnerable and we don’t notice her hoofs. The “come-on” might be visual beauty or “other attractions." The decoy could lead them to do something unnatural because they think no one is watching. In the end the Hoof Lady can grab control of them. Eventually some of them have been induced to go against their people.
There is no mystery about where some of these Hoof Ladies come from. Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2009/01/mohawk-nation-news-hoof-ladies.html

Russell Means: Breaking the silence on Obama 'American Indians are the Palestinians in the U.S.'

Russell Means: American Indians are the Palestinians in the US

Russell Means: Breaking the silence on Obama

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Jan. 10, 2009

American Indian activist Russell Means said President-elect Obama was selected by the colonial powers as president to improve the US image globally in the aftermath of George Bush. Further, Means said Obama’s appointments show that he is a Zionist controlled by Israel. Speaking on Red Town Radio today, Means said what is happening now to Palestinians is what happened to American Indians.

“Every policy the Palestinians are now enduring was practiced on the American Indian,” Means said on the Blog Talk Radio show, hosted by Brenda Golden, Muskoke Creek. “What the American Indian Movement says is that the American Indians are the Palestinians of the United States, and the Palestinians are the American Indians of the Middle East,” Means said.

Further, he points out that the Zionists who control Israel now control the United States. “The power of the US in world politics diminishes every day.”

“Now they have found a house servant by the name of Obama.” Means said Obama was selected as a “man in charge to take the heat,” because of the “bad cop” image that Bush put forth in the world. “Now, all of a sudden, it is, ‘We’re so great. We elected a black man to be president.’”

Means added that Obama is a black man who was raised by his white grandmother and has appointed Zionists to key positions and that the US is headed for a new era of menial jobs. On Indian lands, Means reminds us, the only people who get ahead are those who sell out to the colonial system.

Now, there is massive and sophisticated propaganda by the Zionists and the U.S. Both countries, he said, are liars. In the US, American Indians have been shut out of history, philosophy and the arts, in a “total blackout.” The United States does not want to be reminded of the smallpox blankets, theft, colonialism and mistreatment of the American Indian, he said.

Means said most Americans do not realize that the financial collapse of this country is only beginning: “Americans cannot continue the lifestyles of consumers when there is no production. Low-income jobs and menial jobs are the only ones left.”

“Health care in the US reveals how the policies used in experimentations on American Indians became US policies. The US healthcare system is now stringent and calloused, with constant refusals of treatment. This has always been the case with the Indian Health Service. 

Now it is the policy of the HMOs. Family ranchers and family farmers are now in the way of progress, the same way the American Indian was once viewed. Now, family farmers and family ranchers are being gutted, because they function on massive credit. They are trying to pay back debts, which is not possible with manipulated agriculture prices. The family farmer and family rancher are now going to be extinct.”

Means points out that the federal government has also taken over and polluted the educational system; “Americans don’t even know their own history. Along with this federal control, came the passage of English-only laws in many states.

However, for Indigenous Peoples, it is positive to know many languages. If you speak two languages, you are speaking with two brains. That is the way it is to us. That’s how we look at life. In the mid-twentieth Century, US schools listened to the communities and local governing boards.”

“However, now the US educational policy has taken away local control and mandated federal guidelines. So now education has become a matter of money. Meanwhile, the real history is silenced. While the United States attempts to portray itself as a peace-loving nation, the fact is the United States is at war every year.

The United States breaks a host of international laws every year, which has been the pattern since 1946. American Indians were aware of what the US was doing because the US had already broken all treaties with American Indians; treaties guaranteed by the US Constitution,” he said.

About the American Revolution to throw off the British, Means pointed out how “his-story” has been manipulated; “There is a great deal of propaganda about why the US broke away from England. But the fact is that George Washington, the largest landowner, along with the slave owners, broke with England so that the original treaties of England with American Indians in the west would not have to be honored. The US broke with England, to invade the west and take the land. ”

The US was created to break international laws,” Means said, adding that it is obvious today that this is the pattern of the U.S.

Means said the United States was initiated as an outlaw and renegade nation and that “today, its imperial policies mean that Israel is a surrogate of the US, receiving aid from the U.S. With the combined US and international aid, Israeli receives $12 billion a year for its “military and the settlers in the West Bank.”

Means said 80 percent of the people in the West Bank are paid to stay there. “It is America who pays them to stay there. But even in Israel, where there is a free press and not everyone agrees with Israel waging war on Palestine. He said 20 to 30 percent of the people in Israel are against the war on Palestine. Like the United States, Israel has been at war every year of its existence.”

Means often refers to Israel as the 51st state, of warmongers and imperialists. “America and Israel are based on lies, resulting in the massive deaths in Iraq. Now, the US and Israel are focused on Iran because its oil reserves.” Means said Indian lands have become “open-air concentration camps.”

“If you chose to stay on the reservation, you are guaranteed to be poor, unless you are part of the colonial apparatus set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” he said.

“On Indian lands, everyone fights to be part of the tribal governments because that is where the money is. Everyone fights to be part of the colonial system. The only way you can be part of the colonial system is to obey. Those returning home to Indian lands cannot ‘rock the boat,’ demand their treaty rights or their rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.”

Means said the American Indian Movement made people aware that the US Constitution was based upon that of the Iroquois Six Nations.

“However, the US Constitution only includes one-third of the Great Law of Peace. If all of the Great Law of Peace had been adopted, this country would be much different and much wealthier.” 

However, it was turned into a country of consumers. He said what you get with a country of consumers is greed.

“What is going on in Palestine is going on in America. The United States is taking away the homes of the people.”

Now in the United States, there is “communism from the left” and “right-wing socialism.” He said the problem with socialism is that it is bereft of consensus and spirituality.

Means, now 70, said he experienced the US when it reached its zenith in the world in the 1950s, “At that time, America was a productive country. In the years that followed, the ruling elite sold out the unions, as the labor movement was razor-thin close to taking over politics in America. The most watershed event was Brown vs. Board of Education, the US Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools. The white male started losing his power. Then, in the social revolution that followed, white males lost control of their women and their women’s vote, and lost control of the workplace,"  Means said.

While civil rights were the chosen remedy of most social movements, American Indians remained dedicated to ‘sovereign rights,’ individual sovereign rights. We are the only ones that held on to the sovereign concept, he said. The other social movements were saying, “Please Mr. White Male let me be equal to you.”

Means said things will be different now, “Our grandmother Mother Earth is tired of the human race. She is going to eliminate it and I champion her, Mother Earth.” 

Means said matriarchy is what Indigenous people are all about. “We know that women are the givers of life and men are the takers of life. We have to follow the woman to gain balance.”

He said in a matriarchal society, there is a balanced society, as each celebrates their strengths together. “True individual freedom has to be done by consensus, otherwise it is mob rule.” In the US, now there are fake elections. “The people are convinced they are actually electing a president. However, it is the Electoral College that actually selects the US president.”

The charade is now coming to a close, as the ‘Patriot Act’ means that Posse Comitatus is dead and buried. Means said everyone has the responsibility to be free. “You are free to be responsible. That is the essence of freedom.” He said everyone should know their rights. Otherwise, they are guaranteed slavery.

“Einstein said, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome,’” “That’s America, that’s the Indian reservation. That’s pathetic and an injustice to human beings.” He said, “human brains are doped up with all this ignorance and greed.”

Red Town Radio show host Brenda Golden, enrolled Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, and grew up in Clearview, Oklahoma. Golden attended Sequoyah Indian School in Tahlequah before joining the Air Force. Later, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Oklahoma. She has worked in Indian Country as an educator, tribal liaison, grant writer, board member and volunteer since the early 1990's.

Golden said she is hosting Red Town Radio, on Blog Talk Radio, to offer a platform for Indigenous issues.

Listen to more of the show, including David Hill, who called in, and pointed out that while the US cut school funds and school lunches, the US increased aid to Israel.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RedTownRadio
Russell Means' column 'Welcome to the Rez'
More on Obama's appointees at Lakotah Republichttp://www.republicoflakotah.com/
U.S. seeks to ship hundreds of tons of arms to Israel
By Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE50875320090109
The United States is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show. The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January. "Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity. Israel is one of America's closest allies and both nations regularly sell arms to each other. In September, the U.S. Congress approved the sale of 1,000 bunker-buster missiles to Israel. The GPS-guided GBU-39 is said to be one of the most accurate bombs in the world. (Click link above for article)

U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Sitehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/washington/11iran.html?hp
New York Times
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: January 10, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.
(Clink link above for article)