Lakota Hunger Strike for Water Protection Solidarity Bella Bella

The Lakota Hunger Strike for Sacred Water Protection In Solidarity with Bella Bella

Posted at Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com


On the Cheyenne River Homelands in 1868 Ft Laramie Treaty Territory, many Lakota families will join the children of Bella Bella, Canada in a two-day hunger strike as a statement of sacred water protection. Please join the families of Hohoju Lakota elder Candace Ducheneaux and Oglala Lakotas families of Autumn Two Bulls, Olowan Martinez, Andrew Iron Shell as well as other families and youth who also be engaging in a hunger strike April 1-3, that coincides with Enbridge hearings on the Bella Bella reserve.

The Lakota Hunger Strike recognizes the sacred water in the Boreal Forest of Alberta, Canada (which provides 80% of the world’s fresh drinking water) as the gift of life. “Mni wicozani” (through water there is life) is Lakota spiritual way of life. Under the Boreal Forest is where the tarsands oil lies. Mining corporations use, waste, and contaminate an enormous, irreplaceable amount of pure drinking water creating the worlds’ greatest ecological man-made disaster in the extraction of tarsands oils.

According to their statement: “The students and staff of Bella Bella Community School stand in opposition to the proposed Enbridge Pipeline that would bring supertankers filled with oil along the coast of the Great Bear Rainforest, jeopardizing the environment upon which we rely for sustenance, both physical and spiritual. We will be engaged in a 48-hour hunger strike from April 1st at 4 pm to April 3rd at 4 pm. This coincides with the Enbridge hearings in our community.” (Bella Bella is north of Vancouver, Canada).

Statement of the Lakota Hunger Strike, “To protect Mother Earth and drinking water sources for the coming generations and all of life, we must take action. We have seriously contemplated this action and have made prayers. It is our guidance to engage with Bella Bella in a 48-hour Hunger Strike to send our message to the world. All we have to give as the two-legged is our suffering for Mother Earth and sacred water protection; that is what we do. To go without food for 48 hours is very serious, many youths are involved and relatives will join to support their children. The Enbridge and Keystone XL Oil Pipelines, the supertankers, the heavy hauls carrying equipment, and the tarsands oil mine are all connected. The mines are as big as the state of Florida.

Mankind cannot re-create the biodiversity that took centuries to form. This multibillion-dollar business enterprise is creating ecological damage that can never be repaired. The Lakota Hunger Strike opposes the tarsands oil mine and the Keystone XL oil pipeline planned to cross our Treaty Territory. The Bella Bella community opposes Enbridge Oil Pipeline and supertankers coming through their territory. Together we send our voice to the world that this man-made disaster must be stopped. Sacred water must not be destroyed. There are substitutes for gas and oil, but there is no substitute for drinking water.

”The “Protect Our Sacred Water Rally” in Eagle Butte, SD on Sunday April 1, 2012 will begin at 11am. After the Rally there will be a caravan to the campsite, where a sacred fire will be lit and burn until the Hunger Strike is over. We will begin with prayers and the individuals will be taken to tipis where they will stay until they break their fast at 6pm (CST) on Tuesday April 3, in conjunction with the children of Bella Bella (4pm PST).

Oglala Lakota Tokala Warrior Society will guard the Lakota Hunger Strike camp. Supporters please bring tents, bedrolls, and groceries to add to the support camp’s kitchen. Also please bring your own dishes as the campers are discouraging the use of disposable dishes.If you would like to join or help please contact Karen Ducheneaux (605) 733-2148, Autumn Two Bulls (605) 441-7369 or (605) 867-1572, Terrell Iron Shell (605) 455-1192, Jackie Dunn (605) 200-2027 and Debra White Plume (605)

Navajo Nation receives United Nations response on Arizona Snowbowl

Jeneda Benally, Dine', outside Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals. Photo Save the Peaks.

*BREAKING NEWS*

Navajo Nation receives the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s request to the United States questioning the United States role

By Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. -- (March 15, 2012) The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission finally received the United Nations response from the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination around 5 p.m., today. NNHRC articulated reasons why Navajo human rights were violated by Arizona Snowbowl to the United Nations committee in September 2011.

The United Nations CERD chairperson highlighting their previous request of the United States to respond to another indigenous human rights violation, he requested “… about the process by [which the United States of America used] to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples with regard to the [Arizona Snowbowl].”

Said Leonard Gorman for the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, “This is a reassuring message from CERD that the Navajo Nation and her citizens are being heard and cuddled by an international treaty body.”

This is the second international body’s response to the Navajo Nation’s effort about concerns relating to Navajo human rights violations regarding the project to provide artificial snow using reclaimed water on Dook’o’o’sliid (the San Francisco Peaks).

A longer version to this breaking news will be released tomorrow.

New video 'Toxic Trespass of Lakota Nation March 5, 2012'

 

 

Photo by Andrew Iron Shell, arrested at blockade.
Published with permission at Censored News.

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Lakota blockade of tarsands megaloads

Lakota community stop an illegal mega-load caravan in the Eagle Nest District of the sovereign Pine Ridge Indian Reservation/Oglala Lakota Nation. Two semi-trucks, 229,155 pound, extra wide oil treater vessel cargo worth $1,259,593 each, were stopped for several hours in the town of Wanblee, South Dakota. The peaceful blockade ended when the Oglala Sioux Tribal police worried about shift change, violated direct orders from the tribal vice-president on hand and turned out in their riot gear to arrest five individuals with disorderly conduct in tribal court, one young warrior, two elders and two of whom were serving as press and media. The tribal Attorney General never gave the all clear for the trespassing TransCanada bound mega-load to be escorted safe passage to the State Troopers waiting at the Reservation boarder. The truck drivers said two more loads were delayed behind this initial load and this route was authorized to them by the State of South Dakota, TransCanada and their trucking companies hauling supplies for the Keystone XL Pipeline and Tar Sands operations in Canada. The truckers thanked us for hot mashed potatoes, hot chicken and home made bread. Said we can come to their house for thanksgiving, their not too sure if they want to come back to ours? Their words, not mine. - This is a Native Impact production. 2012 Native.Impact@gmail.com God Bless the Lakota Nation & Grandma Marie Randall.

Left Forum: Natives 'Decolonize Occupy Movements' Defend Mother Earth

THE LEFT FORUM: Decolonize the 'Occupy' Movements: Defending Mother Earth and Confronting American Capitalism

Update: Article on Left Forum Gathering on March 17, 2012:

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/lakotadineh-activists-at-left-forum-new.html

Listen to organizers of Left Forum,

including Debra White Plume:

First Voices Indigenous Radio today, Thurs., March 15, 2012, archive:

http://archive.wbai.org/

Date and Time:

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Conference participants come together to engage a wide range of critical perspectives on the world, to discuss differences, commonalities, and alternatives to current predicaments, and to share ideas for understanding and transforming the world.
www.leftforum.org
@ PACE University - New York, NY - Leftforum.org/Directions - Next to City Hall in New York City
3:00 pm -4:50 pm on Saturday the 17th
Room W615
Featuring: Debra White Plume (Lakota), Janene Yazzie-Collymore (Dine/Navajo), Kent Lebsock (Lakota), Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota) and Sally Bermanzohn (Moderator)
PANEL: Examines the struggles of Indigenous peoples defending their lands, sources, seizure of land, expropriation, environmental degradation, exploitation, re-colonization and re-occupation. Participants discuss indigenous activism and the potential/ problems for unity with Occupy Wall Street. In what ways does the “Occupy” movements reinforce the structures of greed that Indigenous peoples stand against? What form would the movement have to take if it is reconciled with the realities behind the foundation of American exceptionalism and mobilizes against the continued rape of Mother Earth?
Janene Yazzie-Collymore Dine/ Navajo: An independent scholar and CEO of Sixth World Consultants, Janene works with her husband Kern Collymore on the Navajo Nation to help community chapters implement the Local Governance Act and pursue economic development in sustainable industries. While finishing her degree requirements in International Law with a concentration in Human Rights at Barnard College, Janene has also helped found a non-profit Indigenous Think Tank, Tecumseh Institute, in New York City. She is currently working with Owe Aku International Justice Project to help the organization get 501 (c) (3) status and daily continues down the path of her elders in Indigenous activism.
Debra White Plume Oglala Lakota author, artist, and activist from the Pine Ridge Homeland, has devoted her adult life to preserving her Lakota Way of Life, Treaty Rights and Human Rights. She works in all arenas, from the grassroots to the United Nations at Geneva and in NYC. Debra is the lead plaintiff against the uranium mining giant Cameco, Inc in its attempt to mine uranium 30 minutes from the southern border of the Pine Ridge. White Plume has engaged in sacred water protection for the past decade, and was recently arrested for trespassing at the White House in civil disobedience in order to raise the consciousness of America and President Obama to the threats posed by the Keystone XL oil pipeline against the drinking water of the Oglala Lakota Nation.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse is Mnicoujou, Itazipco and Oglala bands of the Lakota Nation. He spoke as a teenager at the UN in Lake Geneva and a life long-life Original Peoples activist. He has been involved and organized "occupations" in Lyle Point, Washington, Big Mountain, Arizona and Western Shoshone Defense Project, Crescent Valley, Nevada. He is a 20 yr. host of First Voices Indigenous Radio now heard on 41 stations internationally. He sits on a panel at Harvard University's Cultures On the Air. He has introduced dignitaries Pres. Evo Morales, Robert Kennedy Jr., and is presently working with Winona LaDuke to provide a truly "independent radio for an independent nation." He is a board member of several children's organizations that work with suicide, poverty, and Mother Earth cultural education through his musicianship. Ghosthorse is an author, university lecturer and scholar often presenting a dichotomous thinking process of Indigenous and non-Indigenous. He is a member of the Indigenous Think Tank, Tecumseh Institute, NYC.
Kent Lebsock or Tetuwan Okshila. He attended Boston University where he majored in International Relations. He has live in New York City since 1987 as an active member of the Native American community. Working at the American Indian Law Alliance since 1992, he became Executive Director of the Alliance in 2004. He has contributed to all aspects of its work on a local, national and international level. For example, beginning in 1992, Lebsock assisted the American Indian Community House in NYC with their HIV/AIDS Project, and helped to develop a prevention program culturally specific to Native American people. This work has contributed to international programs for health and environment consistent with an indigenous world view.