Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

October 31, 2009

Flagstaff 'Outta Your Backpack' grand opening concert

Taala Hooghan Infoshop/Outta Your Backpack Media
Grand Opening of New Location! Sunday, Nov. 1st
Photo: Fence on Black Mesa
The event is also a benefit for Black Mesa Indigenous Support (http://www.blackmesais.org/)
Free open house and veggie BBQ at 3PM
Show starts at 6PM, $3-6 sliding scale donation, all ages
At 11 S. Mikes Pike in Downtown Flagstaff (In the white warehouse near the south side bus transfer station)
With performances by:
Broadcast Live (Hip Hop indie rock from New York)
Radmilla Cody (Traditional Dine' vocalist)
Evan Greer (Folk/punk from Massachusetts)
Discotays (Awesomeness from New Mexico)
Shining Soul (Hip Hop from Phoenix)
Capoeira workshop/demo
Outta Your Backpack Media short films
Speakers and various issues and more!
We also have a new website! Check it out and visit often as its a work in progress!
http://www.taalahooghan.org/
We still need volunteers & donations! Volunteer meetings every Friday at 6:30PM at Mikes Pike location. Heres some goods were looking for right now: Kitchen towels; folding chairs; folding tables; large garbage & recycling cans/ cleaning supplies (rags,etc;) electric stove and exhaust fan; large storage shelves
From Flaglive: Grassroots Groundswell
The Táala Hooghan Infoshop has created a vibrant arts and music-oriented community in the two years of its existence. With regular free markets to live concerts and encouraging independent media and film projects among youth, the Infoshop has its hands full. So they’ve moved into a bigger space downtown south of the tracks and are having a party to celebrate, which will double as a benefit for Black Mesa Indigenous Support. There will be live music by Broadcast Live, Evan Greer, Radmilla Cody, Discotays and Shining Soul. Also show up for a capoeira demo and workshop as well as speakers and food. 11 S. Mikes Pike. Open house at 3 p.m. Show at 6 p.m.www.myspace.com/taalahooghan. infoshop@gmail.com
Taala Hooghan - Infoshop & Youth Media Arts Center
www.myspace.com/taalahooghan

Leonard Peltier's artwork at Berkeley

La Peña Cultural Center and Polu Manu Productions proudly presents:
The artwork of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier


The highly-praised artwork of Native American activist, political prisoner and six time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Leonard Peltier - curated by Bird Levy Strain of Polu Manu Productions, SF - will be exhibited in Berkeley's La Peña theater from October 19 until November 30, 2009.

The exhibit can be viewed either during show times (with admission ticket only) or by appointment; call 510-849-2568 510-849-2568. Opening Reception Date: Friday, Nov. 13. 6:30 - 8pm

Navajo activist Chelsea Chee wins young activist award

For details, contact:
Lynne Hollander Savio707-823-7293
Mobile:
707-703-9829savio@sonic.net
http://www.savio.org (Photo Chelsea Chee)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVISTS WIN MARIO SAVIO YOUNG ACTIVIST AWARDS

Two young leaders who have been tackling the problems of climate change and environmental justice in different but complementary ways have been awarded this year's Mario Savio Young Activist Award. Each will receive $6,000, half for their projects and half to use as they wish.
Chelsea Chee, a 25-year old Navajo woman, Youth Organizer for the Black Mesa Water Coalition in Arizona, has been working to engage Indigenous youth of the Southwest in implementing climate change solutions. Through Chelsea’s leadership young Indigenous peoples are actively reorienting their tribal governments, schools, and communities towards a "greener' future. This means opposing fossil fuel extraction, encouraging sustainable living, and promoting a green job opportunities. Her efforts have resulted in the creation of numerous Indigenous youth groups throughout the rural Southwest and the passage of the Navajo Nation Green Economy legislation.
Timothy DenHerder-Thomas, 22, a senior at Macalester College in Minnesota, has devised practical new programs that focus on organizing for ecological innovation and sustainable community development. After establishing a revolving fund that helps students implement campus sustainability practices and recaptures the savings created (now over $100,000), Timothy has gone on to organize Summer of Solutions, a program that trains youth leaders to partner with local groups in developing community projects around energy efficiency, sustainable food production and urban design, and green industry.
"Chelsea and Timothy strike us as representing two key aspects of the climate debate--the need for those communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, though least responsible for it, to have a strong voice in the debate and the need to build bridges across class divides and challenge the system from within," stated Lynne Hollander Savio, Chairperson of the awards program. "Chelsea has had to struggle against great odds -- a vast territory, little money, and tribal history and cultural values, while Timothy has been exceptionally creative and ingenious in developing new, self-sustaining projects."
The awards for leadership ability, creativity, and integrity, were presented last night at the 13th annual Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, delivered this year by journalist Naomi Klein at the University of California Berkeley campus. Both the Lecture and the Young Activist Award, which is given to a young person with a deep commitment to human rights and social justice and a proven ability to transform this commitment into effective action, honor the late Mario Savio, who came to public notice in 1964 when students at Berkeley rebelled against restrictions on political activity at the University. Their protest drew nationwide attention and stirred activism by college students across the country. Savio's words to his fellow students sparked a non-violent sit-in and the arrest of over 800 protestors, the largest mass arrest in U.S. history up till that time. They have also been quoted frequently in movies and recordings.
` "There comes a time," he said, "when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all."
Although condemned by University administrators and public opinion at the time,
the Free Speech Movement has been recognized for some years as having made a positive contribution to university life. On Savio's death, a plaque was installed naming the steps of Sproul Hall where he made his speeches as the Mario Savio Steps. The Free Speech Movement café, commemorating the protest, was opened in the undergraduate library in 1998 and has become a popular campus gathering place. The yearly lecture series which bears his name is co-sponsored by several departments at the university, and has presented such well-known speakers as journalist Molly Ivins, teacher and author Cornel West, and historian Howard Zinn.
For more information, contact Lynne Hollander Savio, savio@sonic.net, 707-823-7293 or 707-703-9829.

October 30, 2009

MNN: Polish death probed -- attempt on Mohawk ignored

POLISH DEATH PROBED – ATTEMPT ON MOHAWK IGNORED
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

MNN. Oct. 29, 2009. On October 14th 2007, Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, was killed by the RCMP at the customs venue in Vancouver Airport. He was tasered, knocked down and hit again. He screamed in pain on the floor. They fired again, again and again until he died.

Dziekanski had come from Poland to visit his mother, who had been waiting for him at the arrivals level for 7 hours.

A bystander video taped his death with his cell phone. The RCMP were all buffed up with body armor, hand guns, pepper spray and collapsible batons. They said they feared for their safety when he picked up the stapler and waved it at them.

The state is spending millions on an highly publicized investigation into his death.

What’s the difference between this and the attack on Kahentinetha Horn at the Akwesasne border on June 14, 2009? The CBSA Canadian Border Services Agency video taped this vicious assault which they hide for reasons of National Security. Many witnesses have signed affidavits.

Horn was pulled over by the border guards to wait for hours. CBSA and a squad of heavily equipped commandos appeared. They surrounded her car, grabbed her and used stress tactics that brought on a heart attack. The border guards tried to push her to bend forward so the blood would rush into her heart and kill her. She survived.

This attack has been kept out of mainstream news. Every request to the RCMP, OPP and Attorney General of Canada to investigate this crime has been stopped.
Canada does not want a review of their agents torturing and trying to kill a 69 year old woman who was peacefully crossing the border at Akwesasne.

Horn went to the Federal Court of Canada to file an action to investigate this crime. FCC issued an order that she must pay for all of the Crown’s costs starting with a $20,000 deposit. They declared she lives in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake and therefore is not a resident of Canada. This is an admission that we are sovereign.

Many have been brutalized at this border. The colonial Akwesasne Mohawk Council is hiring a high profile lawyer, paid by Canada, to mount a class action suit against Canada, mainly to avoid the sovereignty, international border and land issues. Indigenous victims will be urged to take a settlement. The deal will probably try to absolve Canada of guilt and responsibility in the eyes of their law.

Canada knows this is an international nation-to-nation issue. The lawyer will say the ruling is a great victory for the Indigenous, blah, blah, blah. Canada will keep pretending they are in control of their Indians.

The foreigners need guns to assert their illegitimate authority.

In Akwesasne we are in our homes, doing nothing wrong. When some antagonistic armed border goon confronts us, our guard goes up. An issue is created and we could be killed. Armed camps are being created around us to force us to defend ourselves against their brutality and weapons. Since they have guns, shouldn’t we have guns to defend ourselves from them?

Any law abiding peaceful and compliant individual, black, white, yellow or brown, who shows up at the border is confronted with tasers and guns. They can become a victim, attacked and killed. Because it’s at the border the goons think they can walk away scot free with no fear of retaliation.

Is Canada at war with us? Why are they pointing us at us? The corporations, Wall Street, bankers, military and lawyers now control governments. Anyone asserting self-determination and sovereignty or questioning their lack of jurisdiction in a resource rich territory is considered an enemy. We have been declared terrorists or enemy combatants and denied civil, sovereign and human rights.

Dziekanski was a visitor with more rights to an investigation than us. He was killed to desensitize the public to what state agents will do to enforce their will. The RCMP took 7 hours to plan his killing and to work up the nerve to do it. In the Horn case, they spent over an hour and botched it.

Kahentinetha MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Or go to PayPal on MNN website. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN BORDER category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now!

NOTE: Charges could not be brought against the CBSA border guards unless the victims paid the crown’s court costs. Federal Court of Canada Prothonotary Mireille Tabib made an order on October 23, 2008 that Mohawks residing in Akwesasne and Kahnawake are not residents of Canada. Two supporting FCC orders were made by Judge Francois Lemieux on January 29, 2009; and Claude Morissette on March 16, 2009. FCA T-1309-08 and T-288-09.