John Kane 'Back to our path is not a trip backward'

Back to Our Path is not a Trip Backward

Photo by Stephanie Kane

By John Karhiio Kane, Mohawk

Censored News

Many of us are familiar with our expression Ohnkwe Ohnwe. It is what we use to describe ourselves as the original people of Turtle Island. The approximate translation is “real human being, forever.”

There was never any question that we had a future. We were never tied to a spot on a timeline. We were never frozen in history. We were neither primitive nor at the end of our evolutionary scale. We continued to develop. The entire concept of Seven Generations was based on knowing that our growth and development would require a priority placed on the impacts on the unborn faces — those ones who would come long after us.

'The Plots to Kill Occupy Protesters' and other life lessons

Occupy Houston

'The Plots to Kill Occupy Protesters' and other life lessons


By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Today Censored News honors journalists and journalism making a difference.

However, along with the good there is the ugly: Arizona Daily Star celebrates a Fighter of Indians and the plagiarizers in Indian country.

First of all, in case you missed it, there is the fearless reporting of Dave Lindorff. He revealed last summer that the FBI knew of snipers who plotted to kill Occupy protesters in the article "FBI Document—[DELETED] Plots To Kill Occupy Leaders If Deemed Necessary Lindorff also describes deadly US sniper fire on migrants at the border and exposes a company of US trainers of extreme violence.

On 13 October 20111, writer sent via email an excerpt from the daily [DELETED] regarding FBI Houston’s [DELETED] to all IAs, SSRAs and SSA [DELETED] This [DELETED] identified the exploitation of the Occupy Movement by [LENGTHY DELETION] interested in developing a long-term plan to kill local Occupy leaders via sniper fire.

Read more:

http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/06/27/fbi-document-deleted-plots-to-kill-occupy-leaders-if-deemed-necessary/

Photographer's life lesson: How the US government destroys movements

Meanwhile, writing in Tucson Weekly this week, reporter Margaret Regan writes of photographer Charles Harbutt and his current show of life works, which began with street photos in Cuba. Regan's poignant article points out an often censored fact about how the US government destroys activists and movements.

Regan writes, "For years, he was a photojournalist with Magnum, publishing work with Look, Life, Time-Life and other outlets in the great era of photo magazines. Later, he became disillusioned with journalism after watching government agents dressed as hippies trying to incite violence at a Black Panther rally. Too many events—especially political ones—were staged, he decided. (See Tucson Weekly Dec. 24, 1997 online at http://weeklywire.com/ww/12-29-97/tw_review1.html.) He quit Magnum and turned to more personal, self-directed work. http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/political-and-the-personal/Content?oid=3941510

However, along with the good, there is the ugly.

Arizona Daily Star celebrates Indian Fighter

Editors at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson must have woken up and thought it was 1914 -- instead of 2014 -- with this headline: "Fighter of Indians, purveyor of posh hotel remembered with downtown street."

Fighter of Indians? Tucson is a city where Native Americans are a living force each day, from the arts and the university, to businesses. 

It seems the Arizona Daily Star editors are either too young to make sound judgments, have just arrived from the east, or they are part of the racist backbone that makes up the bulk of Arizona media, a power play of white privilege. 

This power play sends the message that it is a good thing that Navajos and their neighbors are poisoned by the coal-fired power plant Navajo Generating Station on the Navajo Nation at Page, Ariz. This means that southern Arizona can have electricity, while most Navajos on Black Mesa do not. Not only are Navajos poisoned by Peabody Coal, but most Navajos on Black Mesa haul their water, while Peabody and NGS waste the pristine water. It doesn't end there. Arizona and the corporate thieves still work diligently behind closed doors to steal Navajo water rights, so southern Arizona can water lawns and golf courses, and fill their swimming pools.

Perhaps Arizona Daily Star editors in Tucson don't realize who the original inhabitants of the land were, the land where their building now stands. Perhaps the editors have a total disregard for members of their community, or perhaps the editors circle of friends is so narrow that they don't even know who actually lives in Tucson.

Armchair plagiarizers in Indian country

Along with the bad, there is the worst. While news reporters around the world are killed, kidnapped and tortured for practicing journalism, in the US, and particularly in Indian country, plagiarism by armchair journalists dominates. These armchair profiteers sit home and profiteer by way of the theft of others work and then deceive their readers.

Journalism requires journalists to be present. This doesn't mean sitting home, rewriting and plagiarizing the web, stealing a photo, or topping off a press release with a phone call. Journalists should realize that the other reporters know that the plagiarizers never show up on for a news story. There is one reporter at Indian Country Today who has pretended to be covering the Southwest for decades. In the past 32 years, I have never seen her present, not even once, on a news story.

Why go down in history as a fraud?

The FBI Burglars and COINTELPRO

Meanwhile, COINTELPRO is once again in the headlines, with the FBI burglars who discovered the word COINTELPRO, going public. The New York Times and Democracy Now! have coverage. The media coverage includes the fact that the FBI used blackmail in attempt to persuade Martin Luther King, Jr., to kill himself. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/us/burglars-who-took-on-fbi-abandon-shadows.html?_r=0 and Democracy Now www.democracynow.org

FOIA info request goes after sewage snow damage on sacred San Francisco Peaks

Photo by Protect Peaks

FOIA filed for each document on sewage snow damage on sacred San Francisco Peaks

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat 
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=2166

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona -- The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out what damage is being done by the sewage water snow on sacred San Francisco Peaks. The FOIA for "each and every document" on corrosion and damage from sewage snow comes after the Arizona Snowbowl decided that sewage snow for tourists was more important than honoring the area Indian Nations and their healing ceremonies on San Francisco Peaks.

The result of Arizona Snowbowl's victories in court have actually resulted in a disastrous outcome. "The Snowbowl decision destroyed a relationship that was built up over 25 years between the Forest and the tribes working together as colleagues with a shared stewardship responsibility. It has undercut the credibility of the Forest Service with Indian people and has created a breach that will be very difficult to restore," states the Heritage Resources Specialists report.

John Kane to Address “Inherent Sovereignty” at Arizona State University

John Kane to Address “Inherent Sovereignty” at Arizona State University

Update
Watch John Kane as he delivers his remarks at yesterday's "Inherent Sovereignty" panel at ASU. The panel begins at 00:45:15 and John speaks at 01:27:08.
http://mediasite.law.asu.edu/media/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=824c4937ac504f03abf9fe96c2757d811d

By Liz Hill

Censored News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 13, 2014) – John Kane, Mohawk activist and national commentator on Native issues, will be a featured speaker at “Who Decides You’re Real? Fixing the Federal Recognition Process,” a two-day conference at Arizona State University in Tempe. Kane will be one of four experts speaking on a panel addressing “Inherent Sovereignty” from 9 to 10 a.m. MST (11 a.m. to noon EST) on Thursday, Jan. 16.

“I will explain sovereignty from a Haudenosaunee perspective and then challenge the notion that there was ever a transfer of our sovereignty or any consent to subjugation to the U.S.,” says Kane. “Sovereignty cannot be adjudicated away or legislated away. There must be consent.”

“The Indian Citizenship Act cannot declare that our sovereignty is dead; and that also holds true for the opinion in Johnson v. M'Intosh and a single man's determination that our sovereignty was necessarily diminished upon discovery by Christians,” says Kane. “Dependency cannot be the test either for the following questions must be asked — Are we wards of the state? Or does the U.S. owe an obligation? Are we recipients of charity or are we creditors?”

Kane’s panel and the rest of the first day of the conference will be webcast at http://mediasite.law.asu.edu/media/Viewer/?peid=824c4937ac504f03abf9fe96c2757d811d. The second day will be webcast at http://mediasite.law.asu.edu/media/Viewer/?peid=5259d9e8127e421fa3e24b245f1e3c1d.

The conference is hosted by the Indian Legal Clinic at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. For more information about the conference, visit http://conferences.asucollegeoflaw.com/triberecognition/

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About John Kane

John Karhiio Kane is a Mohawk from Kahnawake. He lives on the Cattaraugus Territory of the Seneca Nation and has a direct connection to the people and territories of the Six Nations. John has been involved for most of his adult life in Native issues and, specifically, defending Native sovereignty. Part of the First Nations Dialogue Team in the late 90s, he worked extensively with the League of First Nations in battles with New York State over taxation. John, an expert commentator on Native American issues, is host of a two-hour weekly radio show, "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane" – now in its fourth year – which airs on ESPN Sports Radio WWKB-AM 1520 in Buffalo, New York. He appears frequently on regional TV and radio programs, including “The Capitol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter,” “YNN - Your News Now,” and WGRZ Buffalo Channel 2's (NBC) “2 Sides with Kristy Mazurek.”  He has been featured on Al-Jazeera Arabic, with more than 50 million viewers in the Arab world. John is a regular guest/commentator and guest host on WBAI-FM (Pacifica) in New York City; WPFW-FM (Pacifica), Washington, D.C.; KFAI-FM, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; and KQRS-FM, KXXR-FM and WGVX-FM, Minneapolis. He is an op-ed columnist for “The Two Row Times,” a weekly news publication that reaches the Ontario-wide Native market and Haudenosaunee communities in the U.S. John publishes the Native Pride blog, which can be found at www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com. His blog has readers in 20 countries. John has a page on the ESPN website at http://www.espn1520.com/pages/17325417.php and a "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane" group page on Facebook. In late 2013, John was honored with a Community Leader Media Award from the National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York.

Liz Hill

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