Shiprock Navajos appeal to Obama to halt pipeline attacks on protectors

Dogs attack protectors of burial place on Saturday.

As Navajo youths from Shiprock, N.M., were in Standing Rock Camp on Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline security attacked the people with vicious dogs 

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

CANNONBALL, North Dakota -- The Shiprock Chapter appealed to President Obama to intervene, after attack dogs were sicced on Navajos and others defending a burial place from bulldozers near the Standing Rock Camp on Saturday.

The Shiprock Chapter passed a resolution and stated that Navajos were greatly disturbed that there was violence, and security personnel of Dakota Access Pipeline released attack dogs on unarmed resistors of the pipeline.

The resolution points out that rights to free speech in America are protected by the Constitution and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires "free, prior and informed consent," before development occurs in Indigenous territories.

Shiprock said that as an adopted member of the Crow Nation, it is incumbent on Obama to intervene and prevent injury to the people and carry through on his responsibility to the people.

Shiprock President Duane 'Chili' Yazzie said, "As Indigenous Peoples we have been under genocidal assault since 1492, our Earth Mother has been exploited to the point of endangering her life with climate change."

"At some point we must stand as one against the assault and that time could be now at Standing Rock."

"We stand with Standing Rock because their struggle is the frontline in the fight to defend the Earth and our water. The life of the Earth is our life."

"At all costs we must protect the Earth and the water, as our action is to secure a comfortable survival for our grandchildren into the future," Yazzie told Censored News.

Yazzie is a longtime human rights defender, who was a member of XIT band, the sound of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, although Obama visited Standing Rock in 2014, Obama has not spoken out concerning the desecration of the sacred burial place by bulldozers on Saturday, and the attack by vicious dogs, which bit six of the Native Americans and supporters who were protecting the area. One child and a pregnant woman were among the six bitten and dozens were pepper sprayed. At least one person was assaulted by the pipeline's private security.

After the protectors were attacked, the Morton County Sheriff's office release a statement of false accusations accusing the protectors of violence. However, the photos and videos expose the Sheriff's office's lies.

In the Standing Rock Camp, Navajo youths from Shiprock, located in the Four Corners, brought supplies to the camp. Many Navajo youths have been working in the kitchen and in other areas of the camp.

In Shiprock, radioactive tailings remain strewn from the Cold War uranium mining and respiratory problems are common, because of the coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners region. The Gold King Mine spill poisoned their irrigation waters, and devastated farmers.

See below the resolution:

Supai, Ojibwe, Lakota, Dineh Sept. 5 Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio

The morning broadcast from Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio

Monday, Sept. 5, 2016

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe demands answers from North Dakota state leadership after attack on peaceful protesters

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The blood on the teeth of this attack dog

is the blood of water protectors as they defended

a burial place on Saturday.

September 4, 2016

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe demands answers from North Dakota state leadership after attack on peaceful protesters

In response to Saturday’s peaceful protest that turned violent when security workers for DAPL unleashed pepper spray and vicious attack dogs on a crowd of water defenders. I demand answers from North Dakota’s governor and law enforcement. The State of North Dakota is quick to erect military barricades and try to portray us as savages when our water defenders merely park their cars along the side of road, but where were all the police when dozens of innocent and peaceful Tribal members, including many from my tribe, were intentionally shot with pepper spray and ravaged by vicious dogs at the hands of DAPL’s mercenaries?   

On Saturday afternoon DAPL’s private security guards initiated force against a crowd of mostly tribal members who were protesting in a non-confrontational manner to stop the ongoing stripping of land, including areas of land where documented sacred sites have been discovered. DAPL used dogs and pepper spray to attack innocent, unarmed women and children, while helicopters were threatening overhead.  They will stop at nothing.  They do not know the meaning of humanity.

According to many witnesses at the scene, neither state nor county law enforcement officials were at the construction site during the incident. It is extremely suspicious to me that law enforcement became scarce at the exact time when DAPL’s hired guns were planning to attack the water defenders.  A press release recently issued by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department insinuates that the peaceful protesters were the provokers of the incident because several individuals allegedly cut a fence and entered the work site.  State and local law enforcement officials keep telling the media, without proof, that the protesters are committing unlawful acts.  In my opinion unleashing vicious attack dogs on women and children, and spraying dozens of unarmed people simply because they are exercising their constitutional right to assemble, is unlawful.    

I am calling on all members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe to avoid traveling to or doing business in the Mandan-Bismarck area until this crisis is resolved. I fear for my people’s safety.  Today’s act of terrorism shows us how desperate DAPL and the State of North Dakota government are to keep things at a status quo.  I am concerned about the escalating violence against Natives in that area.   

When will Governor Dalrymple step up and meet with Tribal leadership in an open, good faith effort to resolve this conflict?  The key to settling this situation is in the hands of North Dakota leadership.  I requested a meeting with Governor Dalrymple last week, but as of today has received no response.

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Please do not hesitate to contact me at 605-964-4155 or haroldcfrazier@yahoo.com if you should have any questions or concerns.

Released under the authority of

Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe

Harold C. Frazier

PO Box 590

Eagle Butte, SD 57625

605-964-4155

Sonora, Mexico: Protection of O'ob (Pima) lands from mining

Indigenous peoples and protection of bio-cultural heritage of Sonora

Censored News

Press ConferenceTopic: Mining Companies and the future of the territories and Indigenous Peoples of Sonora: The case of Pima / O'ob village in the municipality of Yecora, Sonora.
Location: Hotel Gandara, Hermosillo, Sonora, México
Date: Thursday, September 8 at 10:00 am

With Father David Beaumont Joseph Pfeifer, OFM, Cap. Anthropologist Alejandro Aguilar Zeleny, and Representatives of the Indigenous People O'ob (Pima) the municipality of Yécora
Content:
Currently in the state of Sonora, according to official data, there are over 200 mining concessions, some of them in territories of indigenous peoples of the state. The mining currently poses risks to the ecology and the communities that surround these major projects, such as pollution in the river of Sonora. It represents a risk to the survival of Indigenous Peoples, deeply linked to its territory and natural resources on which they depend, not only them but also the rest of society. The risk of ecological damages and the long-term impact threaten not only the present generation but also those of the future.
The O'ob (Pima) culture is an ancient culture, founder also of the Sonoran identity and still present, as modern society to this day, due to their logical resource utilization. Establishing mining companies in the region is the risk of affecting forests, damage to biodiversity, pollute rivers and streams and of course threatens the present and future of this society with a rich bio-cultural, archaeological, historical, anthropological heritage and spiritual.

We will present a citizens' petition to the governor, to take into consideration the rights and terms of this Indigenous People; the establishment of a Bio-Cultural Reserve oueblo O'ob / Pima state of Sonora, for the life and future of our people and talk about the really devastating consequences if mining companies are allowed to continue to work on our Pima land. There will be room to listen and enter into dialogue with our Pima representatives.

Rueda de prensa

Los pueblos indígenas y la protección del patrimonio bio-cultural de Sonora:
Con: Padre David Joseph Beaumont Pfeifer, OFM, Cap.                                  Antropólogo Alejandro Aguilar Zeleny                                                                        Representantes del pueblo indígena pima del Municipio de Yécora
Tema: Las Empresas Mineras y el futuro de los territorios y pueblos indígenas de Sonora: El caso del pueblo pima/o’ob del municipio de Yécora, Sonora.
Lugar: Hotel Gándara
Fecha: jueves, 8 de septiembre a las 10:00 de la mañana
Contenido:
Actualmente en el estado de Sonora, según datos oficiales, existen más de 200 concesiones mineras, algunas de ellas en territorios de los pueblos indígenas del estado. El modelo de explotación minera que se sigue actualmente representa riesgos para la ecología y las comunidades aledañas a estos grandes proyectos, como es el caso de la contaminación en el río de Sonora; representa también un riesgo para la permanencia de los pueblos indígenas, profundamente vinculados con su territorio y recursos naturales, de los cuales dependen no sólo ellos, sino también el resto de la sociedad. Un desarrollo efímero, si representa el riesgo de afectaciones ecológicas de impacto cercano y larga duración que ponen en riesgo no sólo las generaciones presentes, sino las del futuro también.
La cultura pima es una cultura ancestral, fundadora también de la identidad sonorense y que sigue presente, como sociedad contemporánea hasta nuestros días, debido a sus lógicas de aprovechamiento de recursos. El establecer empresas mineras en la región representa el riesgo de afectar los bosques, dañar la diversidad biológica, contaminar ríos y arroyos y por supuesto pone en riesgo el presente y futuro de esta sociedad con un rico patrimonio bio-cultural, arqueológico, histórico, antropológico y espiritual.
Daremos a conocer una petición presentada a la ciudadana gobernadora, donde se tome en consideración los derechos y punto de vista de éste pueblo indígena; se solicita además el establecimiento de  una Reserva Bio-Cultural del oueblo o’ob / pima del estado de Sonora, a favor de la vida y futuro de nuestro pueblo y hablaremos sobre las consecuencias realmente devastadoras si las empresas mineras sean liberadas para trabajar en nuestra tierra pima. Habrá espacio para escuchar y entrar en diálogo con nuestros representantes pimas.
Contemplando el territorio pima desde La Dura, Yécora, Sonora









    

Contemplating the pima territory from La Dura, Yécora, Sonora