In Carpinteria, where a 15-year-old Chumash received death threats after taking action for removal of a racist mascot, the school board votes to reinstate the mascot on Tuesday
Contact: Mark Anquoe, American Indian Movement - West, gazelbe@yahoo.com
http://www.aimwest.info
Corine Fairbanks, American Indian Movement – Santa Barbara, corine68@yahoo.com http://www.myspace.com/aimsantabarbara
By Mark Anquoe and Corine Fairbanks
CARPINTERIA, California (March 16, 2009) – On Tuesday, March 17, the school board of Carpinteria, California will meet to vote whether or not to rescind their own 2008 decision to remove all imagery that stereotypes Native American peoples from Carpinteria High School. Tuesday’s vote is the climax of a conflict that began almost a year ago when 15-year-old Chumash youth Eli Cordero petitioned the Carpinteria district school board to change the school mascot which he and the local Native community find offensive and racist.
Since the April 2008 decision, many citizens of Carpinteria have waged a campaign of intimidation against those who supported the school board’s decision, as well as the school board itself. Over the past year, the Native American community in Carpinteria has endured multiple death threats, violent harassment and the public targeting of children. The conflict in Carpinteria has attracted the attention of national media as well as the Federal Department of Justice.
A May 2008 school board meeting in Carpinteria was moved from the 40-seat city hall to the high school gymnasium, ostensibly to allow for “greater public participation”. However, the move created what the Native American community viewed to be a contrived situation designed for maximum intimidation. Board meeting participants from Carpinteria’s small Native American minority were shouted down during their attempts to speak by the overwhelming non-Native crowd. Native people also endured racial slurs and taunting and were spit upon as they entered and exited the building. This Tuesday’s school board meeting has been again moved to the high school gymnasium and local Native people fear a repeat of the threatening tactics and humiliation they endured at the May 2008 meeting.
Coalition Against Racism in Education (C.A.R.E.) will hold a prayer ceremony and rally at Carpinteria High School at 4pm on Tuesday, March 17th, shortly before the school board meeting. C.A.R.E. demands that the previous decision be upheld in accordance with official positions on Native American mascots published by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the National Education Association, the American Psychological Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, among others.
March 16, 2009
March 13, 2009
Alaska Natives protest uranium exploration on Iditarod Trail
"Last Great Race"- Uranium Exploration on Iditarod Trail
Elim Students and community protests Uranium exploration on Seward Peninsula along the world premier Iditarod sled dog race at the Elim checkpoint 120 miles from Nome.
WHERE: Elim Checkpoint on Iditrod Trail;
Contacts: Funny Murray Elim Students Against Uranium 907-890-2351
Robert Keith Elim IRA Council 907-890-3737
Carl Wassilie Alaska's Big Village Network 907-382-3403 carlwassilie.acyn@gmail.com
Pam Miller Alaska Community Action on Toxics 907-222-7714 www.akaction.org
Nikos Pastos Center for Water Advocacy 907-764-2561 waterlaw@uci.net
Earl Kingik Village of Pt.Hope & R.E.D.O.I.L 907 750-0188 redoil1@acsalaska.net
Press statement:
A Coalition of Alaskan Indigenous Peoples, Alaskan citizens, students and community organizations are demonstrating support for students protesting Uranium activity in the traditional cultural use areas near the Arctic Inupiat community of Elim. Alaskans from various organizations and communities gathered at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod on March 7th, downtown Anchorage, to demonstrate support for the students and community of Elim. Students in Elim will be protesting uranium as dog mushers race through the Elim checkpoint 123 miles from Nome.
Funny Murray, an Inupiaq Para-professional in Elim, says that the students are leading the effort to raise awareness on the uranium’s destructive impacts to the environment, ecosystem and people. “The Elim Students Against Uranium (ESAU) researched how uranium development can cause damage to the health of the environment, plants, animals and people. They (ESAU) are speaking up for environmental justice here in Elim, the Bering Sea and the Arctic.”
Carl Wassilie, a Yup’ik biologist for Alaska’s Big Village Network, says that any industrial activity like uranium exploration can have profound impacts on the Earth's ecosystem, especially for people who continue to hunt and gather from the land and the water. One of the by-products of pulling uranium out of the Earth is radon gas, which can travel thousands of miles with a slight breeze and ‘falls out’ on the surface of the Earth into water systems, plants and animals. “Basically, people, birds, fish, caribou, moose and all animals living hundreds of miles away can get chronic and long-term exposure to radioactive fall-out that cause an array of health problems and cancer; especially vulnerable are elders, pregnant women and young children.”
“The board and staff of Alaska Community Action on Toxics stand in solidarity with the people of Elim in opposing uranium mining in the region. We believe that uranium mining poses a dire threat to the health and well-being of the community of Elim and other villages in the area. We will continue to work with them to protect the waters, lands, traditional foods, and public health.”
Since 2007, students and elders gathered for days out along the trail in Elim holding signs and giving mushers information about Triex Minerals and Full-Metal Minerals drilling operations. ESAU are leading the effort again, as the Iditarod racers, tourists and volunteers race through the friendly community that has always supported the Iditarod.
Elim IRA Council in partnership with the Center for Water Advocacy (CWA) will conduct research in relation to land, water and sovereignty rights of the Council. The CWA and the Council will work with the federal agencies on a government to-government basis to development regulatory standards and take other actions in protecting human health of the Seward Peninsula ecosystem from the impacts of uranium mining activity.
In the spring of 2008, the Native Village of Elim threatened to sue the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) due to the agencies failure to provide notice or comment to the community. The BLM did not provide any information at all about the Triex and Full Metal Mineral Mining Companies’ (Companies) proposed uranium exploration activities that affected the Elim Village’s reserved lands.
The immediate purpose of this demonstration will be to call attention to the efforts of many Alaskans to prevent further impacts to the human health, subsistence and cultural life ways of the Elim Village from uranium exploration and other mining activity. The broader relevance of this is to insure that the native villages and people, who have lived in the Seward Peninsula since time immemorial, are retained, preserved and protected. The people are signifying that Alaska retains its famous cultural and environmental diversity.
Elim Students and community protests Uranium exploration on Seward Peninsula along the world premier Iditarod sled dog race at the Elim checkpoint 120 miles from Nome.
WHERE: Elim Checkpoint on Iditrod Trail;
Contacts: Funny Murray Elim Students Against Uranium 907-890-2351
Robert Keith Elim IRA Council 907-890-3737
Carl Wassilie Alaska's Big Village Network 907-382-3403 carlwassilie.acyn@gmail.com
Pam Miller Alaska Community Action on Toxics 907-222-7714 www.akaction.org
Nikos Pastos Center for Water Advocacy 907-764-2561 waterlaw@uci.net
Earl Kingik Village of Pt.Hope & R.E.D.O.I.L 907 750-0188 redoil1@acsalaska.net
Press statement:
A Coalition of Alaskan Indigenous Peoples, Alaskan citizens, students and community organizations are demonstrating support for students protesting Uranium activity in the traditional cultural use areas near the Arctic Inupiat community of Elim. Alaskans from various organizations and communities gathered at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod on March 7th, downtown Anchorage, to demonstrate support for the students and community of Elim. Students in Elim will be protesting uranium as dog mushers race through the Elim checkpoint 123 miles from Nome.
Funny Murray, an Inupiaq Para-professional in Elim, says that the students are leading the effort to raise awareness on the uranium’s destructive impacts to the environment, ecosystem and people. “The Elim Students Against Uranium (ESAU) researched how uranium development can cause damage to the health of the environment, plants, animals and people. They (ESAU) are speaking up for environmental justice here in Elim, the Bering Sea and the Arctic.”
Carl Wassilie, a Yup’ik biologist for Alaska’s Big Village Network, says that any industrial activity like uranium exploration can have profound impacts on the Earth's ecosystem, especially for people who continue to hunt and gather from the land and the water. One of the by-products of pulling uranium out of the Earth is radon gas, which can travel thousands of miles with a slight breeze and ‘falls out’ on the surface of the Earth into water systems, plants and animals. “Basically, people, birds, fish, caribou, moose and all animals living hundreds of miles away can get chronic and long-term exposure to radioactive fall-out that cause an array of health problems and cancer; especially vulnerable are elders, pregnant women and young children.”
“The board and staff of Alaska Community Action on Toxics stand in solidarity with the people of Elim in opposing uranium mining in the region. We believe that uranium mining poses a dire threat to the health and well-being of the community of Elim and other villages in the area. We will continue to work with them to protect the waters, lands, traditional foods, and public health.”
Since 2007, students and elders gathered for days out along the trail in Elim holding signs and giving mushers information about Triex Minerals and Full-Metal Minerals drilling operations. ESAU are leading the effort again, as the Iditarod racers, tourists and volunteers race through the friendly community that has always supported the Iditarod.
Elim IRA Council in partnership with the Center for Water Advocacy (CWA) will conduct research in relation to land, water and sovereignty rights of the Council. The CWA and the Council will work with the federal agencies on a government to-government basis to development regulatory standards and take other actions in protecting human health of the Seward Peninsula ecosystem from the impacts of uranium mining activity.
In the spring of 2008, the Native Village of Elim threatened to sue the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) due to the agencies failure to provide notice or comment to the community. The BLM did not provide any information at all about the Triex and Full Metal Mineral Mining Companies’ (Companies) proposed uranium exploration activities that affected the Elim Village’s reserved lands.
The immediate purpose of this demonstration will be to call attention to the efforts of many Alaskans to prevent further impacts to the human health, subsistence and cultural life ways of the Elim Village from uranium exploration and other mining activity. The broader relevance of this is to insure that the native villages and people, who have lived in the Seward Peninsula since time immemorial, are retained, preserved and protected. The people are signifying that Alaska retains its famous cultural and environmental diversity.
March 12, 2009
Indigenous activists honored for protecting sacred places
Indigenous activists honored for protecting sacred places
By Alyssa Macy/International Indian Treaty Council
SAN FRANCISCO -- On March 7th, 2009, two longtime indigenous activists, Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone and Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo, were honored by the International Indian Treaty Council for their lifelong work to protect sacred places. Both received the “Human Rights Defenders” award during the “Indigenous Peoples Struggles to Defend Sacred Places” training and symposium at San Francisco State University.
Carrie Dann and her sister Mary have been on the forefront to protect the traditional lands of the Western Shoshone for over forty years. Ms. Dann has worked diligently through litigation and civil disobedience to defend Western Shoshone lands, treaty rights and sacred places such as Mt. Tenabo from international gold mining corporations, the nuclear industry and the U.S. government. Both the United Nations and the Organization of American States have supported the Western Shoshone struggle and most recently the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemned the actions of the U.S.
Manny Pino has worked many years to protect traditional indigenous lands and peoples from the destruction caused by uranium mining and defending sacred places such as Mount Taylor and the San Francisco Peaks. Uranium mining has long impacted the Indigenous Peoples from the southwestern part of the U.S. where mines were opened to aid in the production of the world’s first nuclear weapons. Most of its victims, including Diné and Pueblo miners and their families, were unaware of the dangers of exposure. Pino has played a key role in raising awareness of this issue including the impacts of uranium and other types of mining on Indigenous Peoples’ sacred sites.
Radley Davis, IITC Board Member, Pit River Nation, California, and activist, presented the awards on behalf of the IITC. The All Nations Drum from Oakland provided an honor song for the recipients, their families and friends.
The awards ceremony closed the daylong training on human rights and protection of sacred sites from mining and other forms of imposed development. The IITC’s “Human Rights and Capacity Building Program” trains Indigenous activists to use international standards and mechanisms to defend their human rights and increase their direct, effective participation in international fora.
Hersh: 'Bush and Cheney's Assassination Ring'
Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh reveals Joint Special Operations Command, murderers who reported directly to Cheney:
By Eric Black/Minnesota Post
" ... Yuh. After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen.
"Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...
"Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.
"Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us.
Read article:
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring
By Eric Black/Minnesota Post
" ... Yuh. After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen.
"Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ...
"Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.
"Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us.
Read article:
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring
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