Censored in 2010: Defense of Mother Earth, the racist right, US torture and collapse of the media

Censored in 2010: Defense of Mother Earth, the racist right, US torture and collapse of the media
By Brenda Norrell/Censored News/http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com (Photo: Dine Water Rights/march 2010)
What was censored in 2010 on the issues of Indigenous Peoples and human rights? Due to the collapse of the media and the proliferation of the racist right, there's too much to print, but here are ten of the most censored issues.


1. The United States -- the last country in the world to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples -- fooled many people when President Obama announced the US would support the Declaration. However, the US did not "endorse," "adopt," or "sign on" to the Declaration. The US only announced "support," and attached a lengthy list of limitations from the US State Dept.


2. None of the elected Native American leaders from the United States joined Bolivian President Evo Morales in his push for new global standards to protect Mother Earth at the climate summits in Cochabamba or Cancun. Carbon trading scams continued, allowing the worst global polluters to continue to pollute. Even though coal-fired power plants are a leading cause of global warming and destruction in the Arctic habitat of wildlife, the Navajo Nation continued to push for another coal fired power plant, Desert Rock. Other Indian Nations continued the push for oil and gas drilling and other polluting industries. The Navajo Nation gave away Dineh water rights in Arizona and uranium mining companies continued to target Navajo, Lakota and other Indian lands.


3. The proliferation of the racist right fueled anti-migrant hysteria in Arizona and elsewhere. Along the US Mexico border, profiteering from migrant prisons and border security contracts continued. The shooting deaths of American Indians by city and county police in Washington State, South Dakota, and elsewhere, along with the arrest in Virginia of a Mohawk film crew, exposed the malignant racism in US law enforcement. The white superiority mindset of the Ku Klux Klan continues in the US, both within white cloaks and police uniforms. It also continues in state legislatures, including Arizona, and in Indian bordertowns.


4. President Obama spent only about 30 minutes with the 12 Native American leaders invited to the White House, and only about 30 minutes with the 565 Native leaders invited to the Interior Building, during the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Dec. It was originally proclaimed as a welcome to the White House for all Indian leaders, last year. Again this year, the 565 Native leaders did not get that handshake and welcome to the White House.


5. The US State Dept. wasted a great deal of time and money of grassroots Native people by holding "Listening Conferences," on human rights issues in numerous locations in 2010. In the final US Periodic Review to the United Nations, almost all were ignored. Even the online State Dept. summaries were pathetic, lacking key names and issues.


6. The United States, George Bush and Dick Cheney, were not held responsible for US torture, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, in 201o. US drones continued to be used for rogue assassinations and the killing of civilians. The US continued the School of Americas, Guantanamo, secret black sites of torture and the training of military soldiers from other countries in torture.


7. The pathetic collapse of the news industry left the industry on life support. Many journalists became, or continued to be, armchair journalists. Some continued cheerleading for the US war in Afghanistan, urging young people toward death, for a bogus war, without examining the truth behind this war. Still others focused on divisive politics, or simply collapsed into the Internet, plagiarizing, rewriting press releases, and making a few phone calls.


8. While the US media pointed its clean white fingers at Mexico's drug war, few reporters pointed out that there would be no drug war in Mexico if it were not for the demand by US citizens for illegal drugs. Few reporters pointed out that the Zetas, the most notorious murderers in the cartels in Mexico, were originally trained as human killing machines of the US special forces.


9. US Border Patrol agents, immigration agents and the US military continue to smuggle drugs and weapons, and murder and rape, with impunity, along the US/Mexico border. The US Army Special Ops continues to post online its operating manual, showing that it provides weapons and support to guerrillas to destabilize governments, and continue war. Ultimately this means the US is responsible for killing its own citizens, along with other innocent women, children and elderly.
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10: While global enforcement agencies focused on Wikileaks, rather than the perpetrators of the crimes, these agencies ignored the murdered and missing women and children in Canada, and the widespread global trafficking of women and children. Meanwhile, Wikileaks shed light on the white privilege mindset within the cables, as the US and its partner multi-national corporations continued to assassinate and make homeless Indigenous Peoples living on lands targeted for mining, dams and deforestation around the world.
Here are the most popular links on Indigenous Peoples and human rights from Censored News 2010:

This week: Wikileaks on Indigenous Peoples: US white privilege
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/12/wikileaks-on-indigenous-peoples-us.html
Past six months:
Wikileaks: Canada's unauthorized wiretaps of Mohawks (5,448 views)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/wikileaks-canadas-unauthorized-wiretaps.html
Video: Virginia police attack Akwesasne film crew in 'Mississippi Burning' style attack
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/11/video-virginia-police-attack-akwesasne.html
Tewa Women United at US Social Forum (Fighting the nuclear industry on sacred lands in northern New Mexico)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/06/video-tewa-women-united-at-us-social.html
Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson responds to threat of poisoned water at migrant water stations
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/mike-wilson-tohono-oodham-responds-to.html
The Border: O'odham Ofelia Rivas to National Guard: 'We do not want you on our land'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/oodham-to-national-guard-we-do-not-want.html
Secret negotiations released on Navajo water rights settlement
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/09/secret-negotiations-released-on-navajo.html
AIM video highlights: San Francisco conference 2010, recordings by Earthcycles http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/11/aim-conference-video-highlights-2010.html
Peltier family accuses US of medical neglect
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/11/leonard-peltier-family-accuses-us-of.html
Top video by Earthcycles/Censored News 2010
Southern Border Indigenous Roundtable, hosted by the Indigenous Alliance without Borders
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10935828

Modoc Nation: State Dept. contradicts Obama's statement of UN Declaration

December 30: Issaquah, Washington
Analysis and Commentary by Two Eagles (Perry Chesnut)
Secretary of State, Modoc Nation

State Department White Paper Contradicts Obama’s Statements at Tribal Nations Conference – Shows U.S. Endorsement of UNDRIP Really Means Politics and Business as Usual
By Modoc Nation, Sec. of State Two Eagles (Perry Chestnut)

On December 16, 2010, President Obama met with more than 300 tribal leaders at Blair House for the second White House Tribal Nations Conference. In his opening remarks (transcript issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary), the President surprised almost everyone by announcing that the United States is changing the position it has held since September of 2007 concerning the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – from a position of outright rejection to a position of “lending its support to this declaration.” The President’s announcement was met with tremendous applause. Camera flashes filled the room, and hundreds of participants captured the moment by video on their cell phones.

It is worthwhile to read the actual words the President spoke just following this announcement, worthwhile because they raised the hopes and aspirations of not only the conference participants but also all Native Americans who have heard or seen the media reports that the U.S. has changed its position and will now support UNDRIP. But sadly, as I shall point out below, the President’s promises and platitudes may turn out to be nothing more than just empty talk. First, the President’s words from the point at which he announced support for UNDRIP:

“And as you know, in April, we announced that we were reviewing our position on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And today I can announce that the United States is lending its support to this declaration. (Applause.)

The aspirations it affirms -- including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples -- are one we must always seek to fulfill. And we’re releasing a more detailed statement about U.S. support for the declaration and our ongoing work in Indian Country. But I want to be clear: What matters far more than words -- what matters far more than any resolution or declaration -– are actions to match those words. And that’s what this conference is about. (Applause.) That’s what this conference is about. That’s the standard I expect my administration to be held to.

So we’re making progress. We’re moving forward. And what I hope is that we are seeing a turning point in the relationship between our nations. The truth is, for a long time, Native Americans were implicitly told that they had a choice to make. By virtue of the longstanding failure to tackle wrenching problems in Indian Country, it seemed as though you had to either abandon your heritage or accept a lesser lot in life; that there was no way to be a successful part of America and a proud Native American.

But we know this is a false choice. To accept it is to believe that we can’t and won’t do better. And I don’t accept that. I know there is not a single person in this room who accepts that either. We know that, ultimately, this is not just a matter of legislation, not just a matter of policy. It’s a matter of whether we’re going to live up to our basic values. It’s a matter of upholding an ideal that has always defined who we are as Americans. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

That’s why we’re here. That’s what we’re called to do. And I’m confident that if we keep up our efforts, that if we continue to work together, that we will live up to the simple motto and we will achieve a brighter future for the First Americans and for all Americans.”

President Obama wants to be clear: “What matters far more than words . . . are actions to match those words,” and action is the standard to which he expects his administration to be held. He derides the “false choice” that previous administrations have given Native Americans - that “you either had to abandon your heritage or accept a lesser lot in life,” and he rejects outright the basis of that false choice – the belief “that we can’t and won’t do better.” In perhaps the finest words of all he said: “We know that, ultimately, this is not just a matter of legislation, not just a matter of policy. It’s a matter of whether we’re going to live up to our basic values. It’s a matter of upholding an ideal that has always defined who we are as Americans. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.”

The problem with the motto “Out of many, one” is that it reminds indigenous peoples of the dark and unrelenting history of eradication that has been the policy (at times stated but mostly unstated) of the United States concerning the indigenous peoples who inhabited this land for millennia before there even was a United States. The motto reminds us of genocide, at first by slaughter and, continuing even today, by assimilation. Of course, the President did not have this in mind when he said it; he meant it in the most positive sense.

However, within hours of the President’s remarks, the U.S. State Department issued its 15-page white paper titled “Announcement of U.S. Support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Initiatives to Promote the Government-to-Government Relationship & Improve the Lives of Indigenous Peoples.” (see attached .pdf file if the following link does not work U.S. State Department’s statement about U.S. support for UNDRIP) This document, not the President’s fine words, reflect the real position of the United States on the extent to which it has changed its position on and is willing to support UNDRIP. And folks, it isn’t good. It is so cleverly written that one commentator (Rudolph Ryser, writing for the Fourth World Eye, a publication of the Center for World Indigenous Studies) referred to it as “verbal sleight of hand.”

Let’s take a look at how the U.S. State Department, indeed, the entire Executive Branch of government, intends to “support” UNDRIP by lip service alone.
Click for more:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/12/modoc-nation-us-state-dept-contradicts.html

Easter Island Police attack Rapanui women and children Dec. 29

BREAKING NEWS - PRESS RELEASE FROM RAPA NUI
December 29, 2010
Today, December 29th just before 7 PM, an contingency of 200 armed police began violently dislodging the Rapanui Parliament from their headquarters in the enter of the town of Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui. The police have beaten dozens of Rapa Nui with clubs, including children and women. They have arrested at least two dozen people.
This action was a unilateral decision made by the Regional Indendent, Raul Celis. The operation was directed by the Police Commander, Oscar Salazar who confirmed, "Celis gave the order."
Lola Tuki, who was there said that it was "unbelievable to see the degree of violence and inhuman treatment and prejudice. The police were
cursing at the women calling them, "Goddamn indian bitches", and grabbing them violently.
Many of the people taken from the Tuki and HIto clan were defending the President of the Rapa Nui Parliament, Leviante Araki.
This is a developing story.
CONTACT:
Lola Tuki 011 569 62144264
Santi Hitorangi 845 596 5402

Hot links at Censored News 2010

Mohawks and Wikileaks capture most readers at Censored News
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo by Ben Powless, Mohawk, published with permission.

This week's most popular article at Censored News is 'Wikileaks on Indigenous Peoples: US white privilege.'
News from the Mohawks captured the most readers during the final six months of 2010, with the number one article: 'Wikileaks: Canada's unauthorized wiretaps of Mohawks.' It was followed by the video of a Mississippi Burning style arrest of an Akwesasne film crew in Virginia, from Leadhorse Choctaw and Mohawk film crew.
The video interview of Tewa Women United, recorded by Earthcycles at the US Social Forum in Detroit, was the third most popular post in the last six months. The Pueblo women are fighting the nuclear industry and destruction of sacred lands in northern New Mexico.
A statement from Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants, on the threat of poisoned water, follows. Wilson continues to put out water on Tohono O'odham land on the US Mexico border, although his water jugs have been slashed and his water stations vandalized.
Ofelia Rivas' statement to the National Guard is also one of the most read articles in the past six months: 'O'odham to National Guard: We do not want you on our land.'
The secret negotiations behind the Navajo water rights giveaway was also a top issue for readers. The next most viewed post was the video highlights from the AIM Conference in San Francisco 2010, with videos recorded by Earthcycles.
The top story at Censored News Special Edition was 'Peltier's family accuses US of medical neglect.'
The top video recorded by Earthcycles/Censored News this year is: Southern Border Indigenous Roundtable, hosted by the Indigenous Alliance without Borders.
Interviews with Manny Pino, Acoma Pueblo, Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, and Michelle Cook, Navajo, were the most viewed videos, from the Cochabamba, Bolivia, climate summit, recorded by Earthcycles.
Thanks for reading and contributing to Censored News.
Top story this week
Wikileaks on Indigenous Peoples: US white privilege
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/12/wikileaks-on-indigenous-peoples-us.html
Top posts, July -- Dec., 2010:
Wikileaks: Canada's unauthorized wiretaps of Mohawks (5,448 views)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/wikileaks-canadas-unauthorized-wiretaps.html
Video: Virginia police attack Akwesasne film crew in 'Mississippi Burning' style attack
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/11/video-virginia-police-attack-akwesasne.html
Tewa Women United at US Social Forum
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/06/video-tewa-women-united-at-us-social.html
Mike Wilson responds to threat of poisoned water
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/mike-wilson-tohono-oodham-responds-to.html
O'odham to National Guard: We do not want you on our land
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/oodham-to-national-guard-we-do-not-want.html
Secret negotiations released on Navajo water rights settlement
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/09/secret-negotiations-released-on-navajo.html
AIM video highlights
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/11/aim-conference-video-highlights-2010.html
Top article at Censored News Special Edition:
Peltier family accuses US of medical neglect
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/11/leonard-peltier-family-accuses-us-of.html
Top video by Earthcycles/Censored News 2010
Southern Border Indigenous Roundtable, hosted by the Indigenous Alliance without Borders
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10935828
Top videos from Cochabamba, Bolivia, climate summit:
Manny Pino, Acomo Pueblo, interview, by Earthcycles
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6344995
Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, and Michelle Cook, Navajo, interview by Earthcycles
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6343599