Yaqui traditional healers verbally abused in southern Arizona

From Jose Matus, Yaqui, director, Indigenous Alliance without Borders
RED ALERT! - Yaqui Traditional Healers from Rio Yaqui Sonora, Mexico and Pascua Yaqui Staff were verbally abused and mistreated in a rrestaurant in Tumacacori, Arizona.

I am sharing this unfortunate incident with all of you to make you aware of the mistreatment of our Yaqui Women in Tumacacori. I will be meeting with the staff person that reported this incident to the Alianza Indigena to further document and take action action against this establishment.
Be aware you people of Color don't eat in Tumacacori!
Jose R. Matus, Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras

Racial Profiling and Verbal Abuse of our Tribal People in Tumacacori
By Amalia Reyes
Good Afternoon Everyone,
I want to share with you an event that took place yesterday in Tumacacori around 6:00 p.m or so, where our tribal people, three who were from Rio Yaqui were yelled at and called “dumb Mexicans” and “mal educados”, by people who own a Greek restaurant in that small town, across from the Tumacacori National Park.
I had volunteered to drive to pick up our traditional healers from Rio Yaqui who were coming to the reservation for the Traditional Healing program in the Alternative Medicine Department. They were safely picked up at the bus station and we crossed into the U.S. My co-worker and I were tired and wanted a cup of coffee before we began the trip back to the Pascua Pueblo Reservation.
I drove into Tumacacori, hoping to get some coffee and found this restaurant. It said Gyros and it was open, so we stopped. The gentleman who approached me as I got out said that they did have coffee, but “not to go”, hence we went into the restaurant to sit down drink some coffee.
As we entered, we noticed that they seem to stare a little bit extra at us, as we were dressed in our traditional clothing. Two of us went into the restrooms while three of us were getting ready to be seated. The two traditional healers were standing, when the 60 year old woman, who was the waitress told them that they needed to buy something if they wanted to use the restaurant and gave us a harsh look. Our healers do not speak English.
We sat and then ordered coffee and a soda from the older waitress and meanwhile, the man who was tending the cooking area, the same one who told us about the coffee, kept staring at us in a very exasperated and angry way and the older waitress and he were talking in low tones and kept staring at us as if they did not want us in the restaurant. I don’t know if it was because we were not going to order food, but just coffee or because of who we were. It was hard to distinguish.
The waiter then took the menus and angrily shoved them back into the storing area near the cash register. They then sent out a young woman who was working in the back kitchen and she asked us what we wanted and we said coffee/cream and one refresco, a Coke. By then, Marcelina who works for the Alternative Medicine Program and I began to feel very comfortable. They kept staring and talking about us. By then we knew that they did not want us there at all!
Then the older waitress came out and brought me a coffee and the other Sr. his Coke. We waited and still no coffee for my co-worker, Marcelina Lucero. Marcelina and I decided enough was enough and decided to leave. We did not drink the coffee or the Coke and left the restaurant.
As we walked out, three older gentlemen began to call the traditional healers “mal educados” in a harsh way. And I know they understood that very well. We got into our GSA vehicle and the older waitress and one of the older men stormed out of the restaurant and began to say some very rude things to us that we could not quite make out, as we were in a hurry to get into the vehicle. Then the older waitress began to yell at us and called us “dirty Mexicans” and to not come back, the older man began yelling that we needed to pay for our untouched coffee and unopened Coke and the older waitress was still saying some things to us.
As we drove away, the older man was writing down our GSA plate number and we took off in total shock, afraid and hurt. I surely had not expected this kind of behavior in a town that has our ceremonial Matachinim come dance every year at Tumacacori; a town that our Yaqui people help settle in the 1800’s.
I drove in silence and my passengers were also silent; mortified and fearful over what had just happened. It seemed so unreal. We did not know what to say to each other. I was expecting the police to stop us at second to charge us with a crime and my heart was beating very hard and I think the same for all the others.
More so, Jose, I felt for the Yaqui healers who came to the U.S. with all legal documents, wanting to help our tribal people and for them to get treated in the manner, not more than 15 minutes after crossing the border. This was beyond my control and Marcelina’s control. We could not do anything to stop it.
I don’t know the name of the restaurant, but I do know that it served Greek food. We were so upset that none of us recalled those names after the incident. But it is across from the national park in a renovated house.
I am sharing this with you, because I just don’t know what to do and to let you know not to go to that restaurant and let others know. It was horrifying and awful that they told us those things and I did pray that they, the restaurant people get some good heart and that God forgive them.
Maybe the police will track the GSA down and they will charge us with a crime, because they seemed to be that type of people, but we did not drink the coffee or open the Coke. But we did use the restroom if that is a crime.
I have not told our tribal council, as I was volunteering as a driver and I hope that Marcelina does report it to her supervisor, Mr. Howard. I really feel for the healers. It took me some hours before I was calm again and I am sure they felt very badly about it for some time.
Thank you.
Amalia Reyes, Manager
Dr. Fernando Escalante Community
Library & Resource Center
Physical Address-7441 S. Camino Cocoim
Mailing Address-7474 S. Camino de Oeste
Tucson, Arizona 85757
520-879-5474/5742 -Fax 520-879-5475
"Wepul Hiapsi tavenasia te nau tekipanoane, Let us work together as if we had One Heart".
Dr. Fernando Escalante

Haudenosaunee Lacrosse Team Halted for Documents

AP Video
From: Aim Santa Barbara
July 12, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Subject: URGENT--FROM OREN LYONS RE: HAUDENOSAUNEE LACROSS TEAM S.O.S!
Forwarding this very important request for help!

Please contact the White House at 202.456.4771 to express your support for our clearance to leave and return to participate in the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England, as soon as possible. Let us know you did so by emailing tsadeyohdi@gmail.com.

Please also email White House Indian Affairs senior staff Kimberly TeeHee at KimberlyK._TeeHee@who.eop.gov and two State Department officials, Kathleen Milton at miltonkm@state.gov and Lynn Sicade at sicadelm@state.gov, tsadeyohdi@gmail.com
Thank you,
AIM Santa Barbara

From Oren Lyons

Dear Friends,

The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team's travel documents were declared unacceptable for travel by the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security at 4 pm, July 8, 2010. This is traumatic to the Iroquois Nationals' travel schedule and budget. The Board of Directors, Travel Committee, Coaches, Staff and Team of almost 50 people are struggling to convince the Department of State and Homeland Security to accept our travel documents so that our All-American team can compete as a nation against team Canada, team USA, team England, team Australia and team Japan in the premiere Blue Division of the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) at the FIL World Lacrosse Championships hosted by England at Manchester from July 15 to 24, 2010.

The game of De-hon-tshi-gwa' ehs (Lacrosse) has become an inspiration to a third of the world's youth – 109 countries in all. The long-stick game is a gift to the world from the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. It would be strange – beyond strange, indeed – if the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team, the national team of the Haudenosaunee were denied participation in the World Lacrosse Championships by agencies of the United States. We are perplexed by this position taken by the Obama Administration.

Since the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team's admittance to the Federation of International Lacrosse in 1983, the team has participated in every world competition as a member nation, flying our own colors, singing our own anthem and traveling on our own Haudenosaunee passports to England (1985, 1994), Australia and Japan. As citizens we have traveled internationally on our own passports since 1977. We do not take this issue of passports lightly. We have traversed our request with the utmost respect for the sovereignty of the nations involved. As Indigenous Peoples of North America, we have over 200 years of treaties and international relations with our brother, the United States.

We need your support to help convince the U.S. to accommodate our travel to Manchester, England. The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team and Team England are scheduled to open the World Lacrosse Championships at 7:00 pm Thursday July 15th.

This is a call for support. We want to ensure that Native Peoples should not be told they cannot leave or cannot return to their homelands.

Please contact the White House at 202.456.4771 to express your support for our clearance to leave and return to participate in the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England, as soon as possible. Let us know you did so by emailing tsadeyohdi@gmail.com.

Please also email White House Indian Affairs senior staff Kimberly TeeHee at Kimberly_K._TeeHee@who.eop.gov and two State Department officials, Kathleen Milton at miltonkm@state.gov and Lynn Sicade at sicadelm@state.gov.

Thank you for your support. When we win, you win.

Day na to,
Joagquisho, Oren R. Lyons
Honorary Chairman
Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team
Peace from our house to yours!

Save the Peaks Court Rescheduled for July 20, 2010

NEWS ADVISORY: 07/12/2010
CONTACT
Klee Benally
928-380-2629
media@TrueSnow.org

http://www.truesnow.org/

Save the Peaks District Court Arguments Rescheduled for July 20th

USDA admits that reclaimed wastewater is a racist and destructive water source

By Save the Peaks

PHOENIX -- An Arizona District Court has once again rescheduled oral arguments in the lawsuit challenging the proposed use of treated sewage effluent for snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks located in northern Arizona. The oral arguments have been moved from July 16th and rescheduled to be heard at 1:00 PM (MST-AZ), Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 in the United States District Court in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Save the Peaks Coalition and other groups are continuing their call for support and will be rallying at the courthouse on June 20th at 11:00 AM and urging everyone to join them in the courtroom at 1:00 PM.

The case known as The Save the Peaks Coalition, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service (USFS) will be heard before Honorable Judge Mary H. Murguia. The suit asserts, among other things, that the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) prepared by the USFS ignores the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent. Snowbowl would be the only ski area in the world to use 100% wastewater to make snow. They would use 1.5 million gallons per day, storing and spraying this wastewater on a mountain that is holy to more than 13 Indigenous Nations.

"This case was filed because we insist that our children not be used as guinea pigs for the profit of a single private business operating on our public lands." Stated Jeneda Benally, a complaintant in the lawsuit. "The Forest Service already has admitted that there was no consideration of the impacts if children consumed wastewater snow that they acknowledge contains untreated contaminants. We will continue to work to protect the Peaks until our children, our environment, and Indigenous ways of life are no longer threatened by greedy business owners and misguided government agencies and politicians."

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality regulations allow A+ class treated sewer water to contain fecal matter in three out of seven daily samples (R18-11-303 2a). Moreover, studies done by Dr. Catherine Propper, Professor of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University, on this same treated sewer water have concluded the waste water contains pharmaceuticals, hormones, endocrine disruptors, industrial pollutants like pesticides and herbicides, and narcotics. David Norris, PhD, an integrative physiology professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, found that pharmaceutical ethinylestradiol made it through the Boulder, Colo. Wastewater Treatment Plant and into Boulder Creek and reported that native male fish in Boulder Creek decreased in numbers with respect to females and numerous intersex fish were found downstream of the wastewater treatment plant. He states, "the fish are a wake-up call, our bodies and those of the much more sensitive human fetus are being exposed everyday to a variety of chemicals that are capable of altering not only our development and physiology but that of future generations as well."

Additionally, according to biologist Dr. Paul Torrence the treated sewage effluent may also contain antibiotics, such as triclosan and triclocarban which can break down into bio-accumulating cancerous dioxins when exposed to the high altitude sunlight of the peaks. There have also been documented cases of treated sewage released into the Colorado river that have caused numerous outbreaks of norovirus among Grand Canyon rafters. Plaintiffs involved in this ongoing lawsuit have consistently insisted that the USFS take a hard look at what might happen to the people when they come in contact with or ingest snow made from treated sewage effluent. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the USFS is obligated to consider these types of potential impacts on the quality of the human environment. In 2007 a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court found that the USFS failed to adequately consider the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent. In Judge William Fletcher's opinion, he concludes "the FEIS does not contain a reasonably thorough discussion of the risks posed by possible human ingestion of artificial snow made from treated sewage effluent, and does not articulate why such discussion is unnecessary." The holding of the three-judge panel was later overturned on a technicality by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit.
On July 2, 2010 the USDA granted Snowbowl ski resort permission for development including a choice to use either direct sourced treated sewer water for snowmaking or "recovered-reclaimed" water from a Flagstaff City water line. When the Flagstaff Water Commission pressed for a definition of what exactly "recovered-reclaimed" wastewater is at a recent meeting, a city employee admitted that this was actually Flagstaff's drinking water supply. If "recovered-reclaimed" water is approved by the Flagstaff City Council the federal government would offset additional costs with a tax payer loan of $11 million.

Howard Shanker, representing the Save the Peaks Coalition and additional plaintiffs, filed for a temporary restraining order to block the proposed development.

"Snowmaking with treated sewage effluent is a bad choice for the environment, public health and the sanctity of the Holy San Francisco Peaks." stated Moran Henn, an environmental scientist. "It's good that the USDA has finally recognized that fact but they cannot pretend that using "recovered-reclaimed" which is really Flagstaff's drinking water will be less offensive in a community where water is scarce, where water is life."

Volunteer supporters of the Save the Peaks Coalition are also proceeding with a prayer vigil and rally as planned for July 16th. They will use the opportunity to educate Phoenix residents about threats of untested and untreated pharmaceuticals, hormones and cancer causing agents in wastewater and possible impacts to the Holy San Francisco Peaks. The planned Flagstaff solidarity vigil will go on as scheduled on the 16th as well.

Additionally, we are urging Flagstaff residents to attend the July 29th Flagstaff City Water Commission's public hearing on whether or not Flagstaff's drinking water will be sold to Snowbowl instead of treated sewage. The hearing will be located at Flagstaff City Hall and volunteer supporters will set up a vigil in front of city hall at 4PM.

For a background, legal documents, photos, updates, and further information please visit: http://www.truesnow.org/

SCHEDULE:

THURSDAY, JULY 15TH

Taking Action for Healthy Communities
Free dinner and discussion - 6:30PM - 9:30PM

At Serena Juste (Padilla) Residence
Onk Akimel O'odham Nation (Salt River)
9312 E. Thomas Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85256

Camping available
Please RSVP at www.TrueSnow.org

FRIDAY, JULY 16TH

Sunrise Prayer Gathering for Protection of Sacred Places
At Serena Juste (Padilla) Residence
Onk Akimel O'odham Nation (Salt River)
9312 E. Thomas Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85256

NOON - Rally to Protect the Peaks
Wesley Bolin Memorial Park
1700 West Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007

FLAGSTAFF 2PM to 4PM
Solidarity Vigil
City Hall (RT. 66 & Humphries)

TUESDAY, JULY 20TH

11:00AM - 2:00PM - Rally & Vigil
(Rally to continue outside for those who do not wish to enter courthouse)
Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse
401 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85003-2118

1:00PM - Courtroom Oral Arguments
Public is welcome! Bring picture ID

2:25PM - News Briefing with Lawyer Howard Shanker

THURSDAY, JULY 29TH

4:00PM - Rally at Flagstaff City Hall Lawn
5:00PM - Flagstaff City Water Commission Public Hearing

More information: http://www.truesnow.org/
phxrally@TrueSnow.org

Nuclear Industry's Legacy of Death in New Mexico: July 16

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Navajos and other New Mexicans remember legacy of death from Trinity atomic bomb detonation and Church Rock uranium spill on July 16

By Brenda Norrell

Narcosphere

Photo Atomic bomb detonation Trinity, NM, 1945

CHURCH ROCK and TULAROSA, N.M. - As the Obama Administration plans more nuclear power plants, and corporations target Navajo communities with new uranium mining, Navajos and other New Mexicans will gather to remember the nuclear industry's legacy of death at Church Rock and Tularosa, N.M., on July 16.

It was on this day, July 16, 1945, when the first atomic bomb was detonated 35 miles southeast of Socorro, N.M., at the Trinity Site. In Tularosa on Friday, a candlelight vigil will remember those who died of cancer. Survivors will offer testimony on Saturday.

It was also on this day, July 16, 1979, when the Church Rock uranium mill tailings spill took place. When an earthen tailings dam broke at the United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Uranium Mill, large amounts of liquid radioactive waste spilled into the Puerco River in New Mexico, which eventually flowed downstream into Arizona. The majority of those living along the stream are Navajos.
Read article ...
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2010/07/day-death-july-16-remembering-church-rock-spill-and-atomic-bomb-deto