Photos Long Walk 3 northern route Helena Montana Capitol

Photos by Chris Francisco, coordinator, Long Walk 3 Northern Route, rally at Montana Capitol in Helena, March 11, 2011. The walkers are now in Bozeman and headed toward Billings, Montana.

Owns the Sabre Long Walk 3: These seven are doing the impossible

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

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

Paul Owns the Sabre, Cheyenne River Lakota, said, "It is a high honor to be with these young people. They are doing the impossible."

Owns the Sabre said the seven Native Americans walking and running across America do not even know themselves how important each one is.

Owns the Sabre said the four walkers and three runners have few funds, and very little national support, and are relying on community support in the towns they pass through.

Owns the Sabre was also on the Long Walk 1978 and 30 years later on the Long Walk 2 in 2008. Owns the Sabre said it is an honor to again be with three of the Native youths who were on the Long Walk 2 northern route, and are now crossing America for the second time.

Craig Luther, Navajo, from Sanders, Arizona, is now on Long Walk 3 with his father, Chris. Carl "Bad Bear" Sampson is Western Shoshone from Nevada. Lisa Peake, Ojibwe/Pomo, is one of the few young Native American women to walk across America on these Long Walks for the second time.

Owns the Sabre, speaking from Bozeman, Montana, recalled the journey of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce who led his people across Lobo Pass, a pass that the Long Walk 3 northern route crossed, after Long Walk 3 walked and ran through heavy snow in the mountains of Oregon.

Owns the Sabre said the walkers of the Long Walk 3 are making this journey for those who cannot. He added that both he and the coordinator, Navajo Chris Francisco, from Shiprock, N.M., have diabetes.

"These walkers and runners have no idea the importance of what they are doing," Owns the Sabre said.

Lisa Peake, Ojibwe/Pomo, is in the top photo, on the far left. Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Western Shoshone, is in photo 2 on the far left. Long walker Manny is in photo 3. Navajos Craig and his father Chris are in photo 4. Owns the Sabre, Cheyenne River Lakota, is photographed in the last photo, on the lower left, along with long walker Ellyn Carlson, on the steps of the Montana Capitol. Not photographed is long walker and runner Chris Francisco, Navajo coordinator, who took these photos. Thanks to all of you!

Please support these seven who made it through the snows of Oregon and mountains of Montana with so little. Please especially send your support to the Native youths. It is really a walk for survival, sending a message to other Native youths of the indomitable human spirit. -- Brenda Norrell, Censored News

VIDEO: Indigenous Border Solidarity to End Militarization

Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Watch video of Indigenous protesting the militarization of Indigenous lands at the border. Begins with an interview with Klee Benally, Navajo, as Border Patrol lockdown protesters went to court in Tucson. Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, speaks on the abuses at the border on O'odham land.
Watch video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYpvddIAYag

Sophie Morel Photos Long Walk3 Arizona

Photos copyright Sophie Morel, published with permission by Censored News. Thank you Sophie! Photos from Pascua Yaqui Nation, San Xavier District of Tohono O'odham Nation, in Tucson area, and on the road in the Sonoran Desert.

Lakotas Owe Aku submits water documentation to United Nations 2011

By Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way)

(March 9, 2011) The UN Independent Expert on water and sanitation, Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, recently completed a fact-finding mission in the US, which lasted from February 22 to March 4, 2011. Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way) welcomed her visit and introduced itself as a: “key player in efforts to stop uranium mining and exploration in our territory which multinational
corporations are attempting to expand and continue. Already, the drinking water in our territory has been deemed unfit for human consumption while the mining goes on and expands. This is not a unique situation in the central part of this continent and we sincerely hope that your next visit will bring you to our homeland where you can meet with our people affected by the racism that sacrifices our territory, its people, land and water, in order to fuel the unbridled consumption of resources outside our territory.”
Owe Aku also submitted two related documents on water resources for the consideration of the Independent Expert:
1. Executive Summary of Crying Earth Rise Up-Environmental Justice and the Survival of
a People: Uranium Mining and the Oglala Lakota People. This document summarizes the more extensive contents of the second document.
2. Crying Earth Rise Up-Environmental Justice and the Survival of a People: Uranium Mining and the Oglala Lakota People.
In a press conference on the last day of the mission, she raised a number of issues on discrimination, availability, accessibility and quality related to water and sanitation in the US. One of her focus points was the fact that 13 per cent of American Indian households have no access to safe water and/or
wastewater disposal, in sharp contrast with 0.6 per cent in non-Native households.
In commenting on how the US must become more active in eliminating discrimination in the practice of water availability and safety, Ms. de Albuquerque said, “[t]he US must ensure that water and sanitation are available at a price people can afford. Ensuring the right to water and sanitation for all requires a paradigm shift – new designs and approaches that promote human rights, that are affordable and that create more value in terms of public health, community development, and global ecosystem protection.”
Along with undertaking country missions, the Independent Expert is mandated by the Human Rights
Council to 1) develop a dialogue with Governments, UN bodies, the private sector and civil society on best practices related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation; 2) offer further clarification on the content of human rights obligations in relation to water and sanitation; and 3) make recommendations that could help the realization of the MDGs, especially environmental sustainability.
In light of the important recommendations made by the Independent Expert, Owe Aku is now seeking to facilitate information exchange on the harmful effects of uranium mining on the health and environment of tribal members living in Pine Ridge, especially as it relates to sacred water. These efforts, though community-based, are global in scope as they incorporate human rights and promote the vision of clean water and sanitation for the benefit of peoples’ health, culture and environment, not just within the human community, but inclusive of the environment that sustains us on our territory.

Executive summary document:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50399721/Owe-Aku-to-UN-Right-to-Safe-Water-2011
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT DEBRA WHITE PLUME AT 605-455-2155
OWE AKU
Intʼl Justice Project
720 W. 173rd St., #59
New York City 10032
oweakuinternational@me.com
646-233-4406
OWE AKU
Bring Back the Way
PO Box 325
Manderson, SD 57756
lakota1@gwtc.net
605-455-2155