O'odham Voice against the Wall Distinguished Speaker Series Feb/March 2016

O'odham Voice against the Wall features activist John Zerzan, professor and author Dr. Julian Kunnie, O'odham poet Ruben Cu:k Ba'ak, Navajo poet Laura Tohe, Acoma Pueblo poet, professor and author Simon Ortiz and O'odham human rights activist Ofelia Rivas

Feb. 27 -- March 26, 2016

Cat Mountain Lodge, Tucson, Arizona

Indigenous Protest Radioactive Pollution in Washington DC

“We are the Miner’s Canary”

Indigenous Delegation Sounds Alarm on Homegrown Radioactive Pollution Crisis 
Events and Protest Planned in Washington, DC

Photo: A Geiger counter reading shows dangerously high levels of radioactive pollution at an elementary school playground near an abandoned uranium mine in Ludlow, South Dakota. 
Credit: Clean Up The Mines.

By Klee Benally

Clean Up The Mines, organizer

cleanupthemines@gmail.com

www.cleanupthemines.org
French translation by Christine Prat
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=3178

LWASHINGTON, DC — From January 25 -- 28, 2016 Indigenous representatives from the Northern Great Plains and Southwest will be in the District of Columbia (DC) to raise awareness about radioactive pollution, an invisible national crisis. Millions of people in the United States are being exposed as Nuclear Radiation Victims on a daily basis. Exposure to radioactive pollution has been linked to cancer, genetic defects, Navajo Neuropathy, and increases in mortality. The delegation will speak about the impacts they are experiencing in their communities, which are also affecting other communities throughout the US.

"Native American nations of North America are the miners’ canaries for the United States trying to awaken the people of the world to the dangers of radioactive pollution”, states Charmaine White Face from the South Dakota based organization Defenders of the Black Hills.

South Dakota has 272 Abandoned Uranium Mines (AUMs) which are contaminating waterways such as the Cheyenne River, and desecrating sacred and ceremonial sites. An estimated 169 AUMs are located within 50 miles of Mt. Rushmore where millions of tourists risk exposure to radioactive pollution each year.

The delegation is warning of the toxic legacy caused by more than 15,000 AUMs nationwide, extreme water contamination, surface strip coal mining and power plants burning coal-laced with radioactive particles, radioactive waste from oil well drilling in the Bakken Oil Range, mill tailings, waste storage, and renewed mining threats to sacred places such as Mt. Taylor in New Mexico and Red Butte in Arizona.

Indigenous communities have been disproportionately impacted as approximately 75% of AUMs are located on federal and Tribal lands.

"In 2015 the Gold King Mine spill was a wake-up call to address dangers of abandoned mines, but there are currently more than 15,000 toxic uranium mines that remain abandoned throughout the US”, said Ms. White Face. "For more than 50 years, many of these hazardous sites have been contaminating the land, air, water, and national monuments such as Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Canyon. Each one of these thousands of abandoned uranium mines is a potential Gold King mine disaster with the greater added threat of radioactive pollution. For the sake of our health, air, land, & water, we can't let that happen.”

The Clean Up The Mines! campaign is focused on passing the Uranium Exploration and Mining Accountability Act that would ensure clean up of all AUMs. The act was submitted as a draft to Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D–AZ) two years ago but has yet to be introduced to Congress.
Currently, no comprehensive law, regardless of mining era, requires clean-up of all these dangerous abandoned uranium mines allowing corporations and the federal government to walk away without taking responsibility for the continuing harms they have caused.

"With adherence to out-dated, racist policies promoting colonialism, such as the 1872 mining law, Indigenous peoples across the country will continue to be oppressed, and we will continue to demand that our land be returned and restored to its original condition, to that of before the colonization by the United States,” stated Leona Morgan of Diné No Nukes. “The United Nuclear Corporation mill tailings spill of 1979, north of Churchrock, New Mexico left an immense amount of radioactive contamination that down-streamers, today, are currently receiving in their drinking water. A mostly-Navajo community in Sanders, Arizona has been exposed to twice the legal limit allowable for uranium through their tap--this is criminal!" said Morgan.

Diné No Nukes, which is participating in the delegation, is a collective focused on educating the general Navajo population about the issues created by US Atomic Energy Commission, as well as ongoing and new threats from the nuclear industry.    

The delegation will hold a protest in front of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters in opposition to the proposed Clean Power Plan’s irresponsible support for deadly nuclear energy on Tuesday, January 26 at 10am.

The Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment (LACSE) and the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE), and Indigenous World Association (IWA), part of the delegation to Washington, DC, are asking Congress to take measures for cleaning up the estimated 489 abandoned uranium mines in New Mexico.

"These uranium mines cause radioactive contamination, and as a result all the residents in their vicinity are becoming nuclear radiation victims,” states Petuuche Gilbert, a member of the Acoma Nation, LACSE, MASE, and IWA. "New Mexico and the federal government have provided little funding for widespread clean up and only occasionally are old mines remediated.  The governments of New Mexico and the United States have a duty to clean up these radioactive mines and mills and, furthermore, to perform health studies to determine the effects of radioactive poisoning. The MASE and LACSE organizations oppose new uranium mining and demand legacy uranium mines to be cleaned up," said Mr. Gilbert.

Regarding the purpose of the trip and the presentations to audiences of all ages, Ms. White Face stated, "We believe that as more Americans become aware of this 'homegrown' radioactive pollution, then something can be done to protect all peoples and the environment."

Events:

All events are free, donations welcomed.

Monday – Jan. 25, 2016

Panel Discussion

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Georgetown University

White-Gravenor Hall Rm 211, 37th St NW & O St NW, Washington, DC 20057

Facebook Event Link

Tuesday – Jan. 26, 2016

Protest against Clean Power Plan

10:00 am

EPA Building

1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004

Facebook Event Link

Enviro & Social Justice Organization Meet & Greet

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

La Casa Building

3166 Mount Pleasant St. NW, Washington, DC 20010

Wednesday – Jan. 27, 2016

65th Anniversary of the first nuclear detonation at the Nevada Test Site, now the Nevada National Security Site

Dinner & Presentation for Physicians for Social Responsibility, DC Metro Chapter

6:00 pm –  8:00 pm

12717 Greenbriar Rd, Potomac, MD

(Please RSVP: mdpnhp@gmail.com)

Thursday – Jan. 28, 2016

Panel Discussion

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Nipponzan Myohoji Temple

4900 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20011

More info: cleanupthemines@gmail.com

Indigenous Delegation:

Northern Great Plains

Charmaine White Face (Oceti Sakowin), Defenders of the Black Hills

Harold One Feather (Oceti Sakowin), Defenders of the Black Hills

JD Buckley (Oceti Sakowin), Defenders of the Black Hills

Southwest

Tommy Rock (Diné), Diné No Nukes

Leona Morgan (Diné), Diné No Nukes

Petuuche Gilbert (Acoma), Laguna and Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment & Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, Indigenous World Alliance

Klee Benally (Diné), Clean Up The Mines!, Indigenous Action Media

For more information: www.cleanupthemines.org/dc

Contact: cleanupthemines@gmail.com

Operation Chaos targeted American Indian Movement

Russell Means with U.S. negotiator Ken Frizzell of the Department of Justice and Oglala Lakota chief Tom Bad Cobb look on. (AP)

Operation Chaos targeted American Indian Movement 

Russell Means said Indian Nations are "living in the belly of the monster, and the monster is the United States."

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
English and Dutch
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS at:
http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/operatie-chaos-richtte-zijn-pijlen-op-de-american-indian-movement

In 1967 President Johnson created Operation Chaos to spy on the American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, student movements and anti-war movements.

The CIA operation gathered documents on 7,200 US citizens, tracking their contacts with so-called 'dissidents' in other countries.

Although a great deal has been exposed about COINTELPRO, very little has been written about Operation Chaos.

There is only one mention of Operation Chaos spying on the American Indian Movement in Wikileaks, and the document is not available online. 

However, other documents on the Internet reveal the purpose of Operation Chaos, a highly classified, secret intelligence project of the CIA. 

Agents targeted US activists interaction with people in other countries, stating they were suspicious that the unrest at home was coming from abroad. However, in the end, agents discovered there was plenty of unrest originating within the US, including the movement against the Vietnam War.

The agents were segregated from other CIA agents and the first targets were the Peace Movements and African American movements. Then, the American Indian Movement and occupiers of Wounded Knee were targeted. 

The report below reveals how the CIA exceeded its authority with domestic spying of Operation Chaos in the 60s and 70s.

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf

.

Operation Chaos document with history: http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap11_CHAOS.pdf


AIM focus of US government spying prior to Wounded Knee

American Indians involved in the anti-war movement were targeted by spying during the 1960s and 1970s. The US carried out domestic operations, as revealed when the US targeted Buffy Sainte Marie. There were also foreign operations, which focused on AIM and travel to Europe.

During an interview at Dine' College, Buffy Sainte Marie said President Johnson put her out of the music business because of her stance against the Vietnam war and song, 'Universal Soldier.

The US cables reveal that the State Department was focused on spying on Russell Means.

The US State Department took notice and sent out a cable when Russell Means, Lakota, said a delegation to Eastern Europe planned to "ram the human rights issue down President Carter's throat." https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1977STATE226024_c.html

Means promised to expose the genocide of American Indians in Europe and seek support for the ongoing "foreign occupation" in the US. The US was also concerned that the delegation to Europe in 1977 would use "Iroquois passports," according to the US spy cable.

One document in Wikileaks shows that after Wounded Knee, the American Indian Movement was planning an Indian Treaty Convention near Mobridge, South Dakota, in 1974. The US was concerned that Bolivia and Mexico would attend.

"The USG (United States government) would regard official participation in this event by any foreign government as inappropriate." The US continued to try and find out who was coming. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1974STATE101850_b.html

The US State Department was monitoring Russell Means, as shown below.
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1977STATE237305_c.html

The American Indian Movement's relationship with Libya also created alarm and accusations in the US State Department, as revealed in the cables.

Earlier, in 1973, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederation engaged the UN and responded to the request from Wounded Knee to serve as peace mediators during the Wounded Knee occupation. 

These words ring true today as the mainstream media presents a biased version of the real story in Palestine.

In January of 1974, the US State Department became alarmed when Soviet journalists were planning to travel to Minneapolis. The US tracked them to see if they were there to cover the trial of those who occupied Wounded Knee. Once again, the US feared the American Indian Movement's ability to gain global support and contacts. The US also tracked unfavorable news coverage on Indian and human rights issues published in other countries. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1974STATE012511_b.html

                                                                               

One Wikileaks document is from Geneva in 1977, the statement on Discrimination and Indigenous Rights, which also refers to the sterilization of women without consent. The cables also show that the US tracked comments of Russell Means regarding the sterilization of Indian women in the US without their consent.

Read more about US spying on American Indians and First Nations at: http://indigenousresistancejuly2014.blogspot.com/2014/08/texas-spies-ponder-mohawks-stratfor.html

For permission to repost this article contact brendanorrell@gmail.com

Copyright Brenda Norrell

DiCaprio: What about donating to grassroots Native activists

Photo by Brenda Norrell

'Big Green' non-profit heads are making half a million annually, while many Native grassroots activists work without pay -- why not donate

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS
http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/dicaprio-wat-denk-je-van-doneren-aan-grassroots-native-activisten

Heh DiCaprio,

It is great to see the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation donating to so many good causes -- but the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council already makes $422,000 a year. Why not donate to some of the grassroots Native Americans who live on their homeland and fight the good fight everyday. They won't mind if you don't donate a million -- even $5,000 goes a long way with grassroots struggles. 

Just scroll back through Censored News over the past 10 years and you'll find plenty of Native Americans working without a salary. Below, I've listed a few regular contributors to Censored News. These are Native Americans who are unpaid or receive only small donations.

As for the 'Big Greens' on your donation list, these CEO salaries are hard to believe.

The CEO for Wildlife Conservation Society already receives $798,442 each year. The World Wildlife Fund CEO makes $637,686 each year. Meanwhile, over at Conservation International, the CEO is receiving $518,553 annually, according to Charity Navigator.

As for donating to National Geographic, Rupert Murdoch, upset over 'greenies' and the Paris climate summit, recently bought controlling interest in the National Geographic.

So, please consider donating to grassroots Native Americans:

Mohawk Nation News is among the most frequent contributors to Censored News.
www.mohawknationnews.com

Owe Aku International Justice Project: Lakotas fighting the good fight against tarsands and uranium mining
http://www.oweakuinternational.org/

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, human rights at the border, exposing abuse by the US Border Patrol and militarization of the border.
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

Dine' on Big Mountain include Louise Benally. Louise and family have been resisting relocation for 40 years. An article of Louise's comments, censored by Indian Country Today, was among those leading to the creation of Censored News. Louise compared the war in Iraq with the Longest Walk of Dine' to the prison camp of Fort Sumner, N.M.
Louise Benally, 143 Leupp Road, Flagstaff, Ariz. 86004

Bahe Katenaay of Big Mountain was also censored by Indian Country. Bahe revealed how oil and gas drilling is destroying Dinetah, the Dine' place of Origin. Bahe currently publishes Sheep Dog Nation Rocks.

http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com

San Carlos Apache fighting Arizona Sen John McCain's land giveaway of sacred Oak Flat for copper mining http://www.apache-stronghold.com/

Outta Your Backpack Media: Indigenous news and video production. Special thanks to Klee Benally and the Native youths, based in Flagstaff, Arizona.
http://oybm.org/donate/


American Indian Genocide Museum, President Steve Melendez, Pyramid Lake Paiute http://www.aigenom.org

Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Lakota halting megaloads in her wheelchair.

Colville tribal member Yvonne Swan said, "I agree. It's not that difficult to hire a grassroots team to do the research. I've been involved in several grassroots efforts and we couldn't get any funding in the US because we could not hire a lawyer to get non-profit status. At the time, the action was more important than paperwork. I didn't appreciate the advice that created more work, we had enough to do. I got a $10,000 grant from a group of caring people in England to go against the Canadian government who disturbed our ancestral burial ground. I worked on that repatriation and land issue for five years and that's the only grant I got. But we secured the burial ground despite Canada and other adversaries. We could still use money to pay legal help, but, who cares?" (Contact Yvonne at Yvonne L. Swan, PO Box 49, Inchelium, WA 99138.)


To end on a high note, DiCaprio is donating to Digital Democracy, which has been training Indigenous in the Amazon to use technology in monitoring areas of oil and gas drilling.

Dicaprio Foundation donations for 2016: 
Amazon Watch – Biomimicry Institute – Bioneers – California Wolf Center: Pacific Wolf Coalition – ClearWater – Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund – Conservation International – Dark Snow – Digital Democracy – Earth Echo International – Empowered by Light – International Fund for Animal Welfare – National Geographic: Pristine Seas – Natural Resources Defense Council – Oceans 5 – Save The Elephants – Saving Species – Tetiaroa Society – The Conservation Land Trust – The Solutions Project – Tony Fitzjohn/George Adamson African Wildlife Preservation Trust – Tree People – Virunga Fund – WaterKeeper – Wildlife Conservation Network – Wildlife Conservation Society – World Wildlife Fund



For contact info to donate to individuals or organizations, please send an e-mail to: brendanorrell@gmail.com