 |
| Chief Frank Brown |
By Terrance Nelson
First Nation Roseau River Ojibway
To Brenda Norrell, Censored News
With the death of Russel Means, an AIM leader who was courageous in his defence of his people, we have other Dakota leaders who are stepping up for the Dakota people. Since coming back from Tehran, Dennis Pashe and I have been meeting with First Nations.
Tomorrow, Monday November 5th 2012 at 10 a.m. in Winnipeg, Chief Frank Brown and a number of other Dakota faces a charge of contempt of court and jail time.
The Dakota have never signed a treaty with Canada, their lands and people are therefore sovereign in every respect. They asked in court for the province to produce documents that show that the Dakota agreed to be under provincial law. They want to see those documents but so far the Crown prosecution have produced no such documents.
The Dakota are not without means to respond to the jailing of their leaders. The Dakota have lands in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North and South Dakota and in Montana and are surrounded by oil and oil pipelines in their traditional lands. The Bakken formation that holds billions of barrels of oil is in Dakota Territory. The pipelines that deliver 2.5 million barrels of oil to the United States every day from Canada crosses Dakota lands. The Dakota have never been terrorists or savages, they have always been a peaceful people who suffered a lot but it appears their anger and frustration with government is at a breaking point.
Chief Frank Brown is the elected leader of Canupawakpa Dakota Nation in southwestern Manitoba. He would not be the first indigenous Chief to be jailed for contempt of court. Chief Donny Morris, an Ojibway Chief from Big Trout lake was jailed six months when he and his council were found guilty of contempt of a court injunction. They defied the order and were jailed. The difference is that Big Trout Lake First Nation is located in remote lands in northern Ontario, Chief Frank Brown's people have railway lines and oil pipelines in their territory that can be blocked in a matter of days after Frank Brown is jailed.
Whether this happens or not is up to the Dakota people but the amount of anger amongst First Nations peoples in Canada is real and there is tremendous support across First Nations in Canada for any action to respond to Canada's mistreatment of indigenous people. The jailing of Chief Frank Brown maybe the long awaited "flashpoint" that causes railway blockades across all of Canada.
What is Chief Frank Brown's crime, you may ask. Canupawakpa Dakota Nation has 90% unemployment. They started to openly sell Mohawk tobacco and cigarettes and were charged with evasion of Province of Manitoba tobacco taxes. They defied the injunction of the immigrant court. They asked for documentation from the Crown showing that the Dakota were not sovereign and where the Dakota agreed to immigrants having the right to rule over the Dakota. No such documents were ever produced in court and the Dakota refused to step into the immigrant court, not as contempt of the court but simply to state clearly that the immigrant court had no authority or jurisdiction to make a decision on the taxation of the Dakota people. This should have been a civil matter between governments but the Province of Manitoba is making it a criminal matter.
Tomorrow, the Dakota will ride on horseback from the Forks in Winnipeg at 9 a.m., they will go the laws courts building. Once again, they ask the question, where is the documents that prove the immigrants were granted permission by the Dakota to rule over the Dakota.
Chief Frank Brown has some documents of his own to produce at tomorrow's protest. The Chiefs in western Canada are writing to the OPEC nations for help. In Vienna on December 12 the OPEC nations meet. The Chiefs from the Tarsands area of Alberta and Saskatchewan are sending letters asking to make a presentation to the OPEC Summit, they do so, not begging for a chance to be heard. Any OPEC nation that wants influence over the Tarsands of Alberta needs to hear from the real owners of the oil, the indigenous people. Chiefs from First Nations across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are also sending letters. They have pipelines crossing their traditional treaty territories and the immigrants pay nothing for that privilege.
Mitt Romney says he will on the first day of his presidency sign the approval for the TransCanada pipeline. The question is what will he fill the pipelines with if the indigenous people in Canada are no longer willing to allow the immigrants to steal their oil.
By the way Brenda, the invitation to the Star Tribune to come to Canada and see first hand how the Dakota are treated was never responded to. As long as the exiled Dakota in Canada remain silent, the American media could care less about their situation.
Terrance Nelson
----------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Fwd: Dakota recognition and Invitation
Dear Mr. Gillespie
Please find attached an email invitation from Chief Orville Smoke of Dakota Plains First Nations. Dakota Plains is located about 25 miles from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba approximately 60 or so miles west of Winnipeg Manitoba. The Wahpeton Dakota of which Chief Smoke is a member originally were located about 4 miles from Shakopee Minnesota. Chief Smoke was (and still is) Chief of the Dakota Plains First Nation when I was Chief of Roseau River, We were part of the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council which was nine First Nations in south western Manitoba. Dakota Plains is one of the smallest First Nations in Canada. They suffered a lot with really poor housing. Comparing how the Mdewakanton Sioux housing is to the Dakota Plains housing would shock your readers. The exiled Dakota people faced the 1862 killings in Minnesota and the loss of all their lands in Minnesota.
According to former Chief Dennis Pashe, a local Dakota historian, Medicine Bottle and Shakopee III came up to Canada,went to the Treaty One Gathering near Winnipeg 1871,were tricked, captured by turned over to the Seventh Calvary in Pembina and were eventually executed. The Dakota in Canada were part of the 1875 Battle of the Little Big Horn and as a people exiled from Dakota lands in Minnesota suffered massacres like the one at Wounded Knee in 1890.
The Treaties have all been broken, Dakota lands in the United States were stolen from the exiled Dakota. In March 2012, four leaders met with the charge d’affaire for the Iranian embassy in Ottawa. Chief Frank Brown, Canupawakpa Dakota Nation, former Chief Ken Whitecloud, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, Chief Orville Smoke from Dakota Plains,and myself former Chief Terrance Nelson, Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation met with Kambiz Shiehk Hassani. We will receive an invitation to speak to the Iranian Parliament.
There can be no real justice for the Dakota without restoring the honor of the treaties that recognized their right to land in Minnesota. The Dakota have lands in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North and South Dakota and in Montana and are surrounded by oil in their traditional lands. The Bakken formation that holds billions of barrels of oil is in Dakota Territory. The pipelines that deliver 2.5 million barrels of oil to the United States every day from Canada crosses Dakota lands. They have never been terrorists or savages, they have always been a peaceful people who suffered a lot.
Dakota Plains is working with the Canupawakpa Dakota Nation in operating the Chundee Smoke Shop and together face 66 charges under the laws of Canada for selling what the province of Manitoba says is illegal Mohawk cigarettes. What Dakota do in the United States, owning and operating Casinos and selling cigarettes is illegal for Dakota in Canada.
Your front page of the Star Tribune on Friday August 17th 2012, the article by Curt Brown is welcome news. Brown's article, “Crossing the border to reconciliation, Dakota cross border to a 150-year-old welcome home" seems a step in the right direction but there can be no justice for the Dakota without honoring the treaties that recognized their lands in Minnesota. Your Editorial on August 19th is welcome courage to do what is right. Completing the story you started means you must visit the exiled Dakota in Manitoba to see what they have suffered and are suffering today. The Dakota Plains community is especially hard hit yet they should have had a Casino similar to the Mystic Lake Casino, their lands were that close to Shakopee.
Frustration with Canada and the United States governments is not a condemnation of the people, I have seen the people of Minnesota stand up for human rights. Prior to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, Governor Pawlenty and the Minnesota Legislators took action to help the Cree in Manitoba. Pawlenty signed legislation that took Manitoba to task for the environmental damage in northern Manitoba that has devastated the homelands of the Cree. The hydro dams that produce 40% of the electricity that Excel buys to power up Minnesotans devastates the environment in Manitoba. I hope that the people of Minnesota would examine what the exiled Dakota are suffering today.
I applaud the Star Tribune for your courage in focusing on reconciliation with the Dakota people. The image of the Seventh Calvary soldiers at the mass grave in Wounded Knee South Dakota in 1890 is not one that America can be proud of. While I hope for the best I remember reading about Little Crow who was killed in his own lands picking raspberries, trying to feed himself and his son. The 38 Dakota who were executed in Fort Snelling is still a part of the history of Minnesota.I applaud the people of Minnesota for the casinos and your willingness to confront the past. Thank you. Now if you can help the exiled Dakota, you will truly acknowledge the past.
Terrance Nelson
