O'odham Ofelia Rivas seeks sponsor to Commemoration of Ward Valley Occupation

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living on the Tohono O'odham Nation at the so-called US border, is seeking a sponsor for expenses to the Ward Valley Occupation Commemoration gathering this weekend.
Contact her at 4oodhamrights@gmail.com (Due to time, donations need to be sent to -- Ophelia Rivas, via Walmart Moneygram or Western Union, with an email to her. She needs $150  Thank you.)
The 21st victory celebration on Sat, Feb. 16, 2019, focuses  on the  halting of a radioactive dump in the Mojave Desert.
Ofelia Rivas is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, and exposed Israel's Elbit Systems now targeting her homeland with spy towers. She documents and battles the ongoing abuse of O'odham by US Border Patrol in her homeland.
Read more on her website:
.http://www.solidarity-project.org
.

Note: To send donations by WalMart Moneygram or Western Union, you just need the name, Ophelia Rivas. Then e-mail her the reference number. Ophelia's e-mail is
4oodhamrights@gmail.com

Ofelia Rivas is an author and photographer at Censored News. Like everyone at Censored News, she is an unpaid volunteer. Neither Ofelia nor Censored News are part of any non-profit organizations.

Mohawk Nation News 'Jody says 'NO!'

Mohawk Nation News
Read article at:
http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2019/02/12/jody-says-no/

'Ama' Premieres in U.S. -- Dine' Jean Whitehorse Exposes U.S. Sterilization of Native Americans

Photos by Karen Wright, Censored News

Jean Whitehorse, Dine'

 Jean Whitehorse, Yvonne Swan and Charon Asetoyer in front of the Metro Theater where Ama premiered in the United States at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (top photo )

The world premier was in London in December

Photos by Karen Doris Wright Thursday Feb 7 4:38 pm

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Also see Jean tell her story at AIM West in San Francisco in 2013.

Video by Brenda Norrell, Censored News.

.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=26-QlIGhXc

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Read more:

Ama Review December 8, 2018
5_star_ratings

.https://closeupculture.com/2018/12/08/ama-review/

Lorna Tucker's shocking documentary Ama.
Excerpts from an article at 'Close Up Culture.'

It is framed by Jean Whitehorse, a delightful 67 year old Native American from New Mexico, whom Tucker slowly befriended and gently coaxed into appearing on film to tell how she was sterilised in the 1970s without her consent. A fate that befell tens of thousands of Native Americans as a result of the neo-european policies pursued by US governments in the 1960s and 1970s – policies designed to kill off some of the Native American tribes. All rather harrowing, all repulsive and all utterly unforgiveable. A form of genocide for which the US government has never apologised.

For Jean, she went into hospital after an acute appendicitis attack. While undergoing surgery, she was given a tubal ligation (sterilised), leaving her to face a future without any more children (she already had a daughter). A devastating prospect given that she had grown up understanding that wealth was measured by the number of children you had, not by material possessions.

As Jean said in a moving post-film discussion after its world premiere at Curzon Soho (December 6): They [the US government] took from us our land, our children, our lifeline. Adding: been trying to get rid of us.

While tubal ligation without consent is a crime in its own right, what makes matters worse is that Jean's whole life has been blighted by discrimination. A Navajo Native American, she was sent off to boarding school at age five to fend for herself. A childhood lost where she was known only by a number not her name (which was actually the name of the nurse that delivered her).

At age 18, she was sent away again as part of the government's policy to dissipate the tribes in the hope they would fragment for good. In adulthood, post enforced sterilisation, it is no surprise that she took to alcohol to find some form of salvation.

The documentary broadens out to cover the widespread discrimination against Native Americans, arguments put forward forcefully by activist Charon Asetoyer (also present at the premiere screening).

Sacred lands trampled over by big corporates in their quest for profits from natural resources. Native American women systematically raped (post-film, Tucker said one in three Native American women are raped during their lifetime). A shocking and shameful statistic.

There is archive footage from the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 (Jean returns to the island for the documentary ). There is also film of the harrowing journey the long walk that the Navajo endured in 1864 as they were forcibly relocated to Fort Sumner (an internment camp) in New Mexico, build the barracks (slave labour) and then left to live in mud huts before being resettled again.

Ama (Navajo word for mother) is a brilliant piece of investigative journalism by Tucker. The fact that the filming is a little suspect in places (a fact Tucker, making her first film after a career in photography, readily admitted to in the post-film discussion) is neither here nor there.

It is the revelatory heart of the beating heart belonging to the dynamo who is Jean Whitehorse that makes Ama essential viewing.

A petition requesting the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in the United States to introduce a bill calling for a public apology on the issue of enforced sterilisation can be signed at: https://amamovie.com/
....
The film screened at the Wellcome Foundation in London (December 8, 2018), Lewes, East Sussex (December 13) and again at Curzon Soho (January 31).

. . .

Photos copyrght Karen Wright, Censored News

Longest Walk 2019 -- Route Schedule

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Longest Walk Northern Route 2008 Ute Country photo by Brenda Norrell

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The Longest Walk: We Shall Continue Route Schedule (Draft)
2019

Feb 11: Ceremony on Alcatraz-Walk Pier 33 to San Rafael                19 miles

Feb. 12: Larkspur to Vallejo                                                               25 miles

Feb. 13: Vallejo to Vacaville Junction                                     22 miles

Feb. 14: Vacaville Junction to Davis                                                   27 miles

Feb. 15: Rest Day                                                                                           83 miles

Feb. 16: Davis to Sacramento Capitol Bldg.                                       15 miles

Feb 16: Sacramento Capitol Bldg. to Rosemont                                  07 miles

Feb. 17: Rosemont to Folsom                                                             15 miles

Feb. 18: Folsom to Shingle Springs                                                    16 miles

Feb. 19: Shingle Springs to Pollock Pines                                          24 miles

Feb. 20: Rest Day                                                                                                       77 miles

Feb. 21: Pollock Pines to Kyburz                                                       18 miles

Feb. 22: Kyburz to Nebelhorn                                                18 miles

Feb. 23: Nebelhorn to Glenbrook                                                       24 miles

Feb. 24: Glenbrook to Carson City                                                     16 miles

Feb. 25: Rest Day                                                                                                       76 miles

Feb. 26: Carson City to 50 Junction                                                    51 miles

Feb. 27: 50 Junction to Junction 839                                                  44 miles

Feb. 28 – Mar. 2: Junction 839 to Eureka                                           148 miles                                

Mar: 3: Rest Day                                                                                                         243 miles                                                                                                                                                                    

Mar. 4-6: Eureka to Majors Place                                                       103 miles

Mar. 7 - 21: Majors Place to Grand Junction                                      427 miles

Mar. 22: Rest Day

Mar. 23 – Mar. 30: Grand Junction to Pueblo                        286 miles

Mar. 31: Rest Day

April 1 - 5: Pueblo to Syracuse                                                           173 miles

April 6: rest Day

April 7: Syracuse to Lakin                                                                  27 miles

April 8: Lakin to Garden City                                                             24 miles

April 9: Garden City to Cimarron                                                       33 miles

April 10: Cimarron to Dodge City (Fort Dodge)                                24 miles

April 11: Rest Day

April 12: Fort Dodge to Bucklin                                                         22 miles

April 13: Bucklin to Greensburg                                                         20 miles

April 14–17: Greensburg to Wichita Indian Center                             109 miles

April 18-19: Rest Days

April 20-26: Wichita Indian Center to Lawrence                                 181 miles

April 27: Rest Day

April 28: Haskell to Bonner Springs                                                   25 miles

April 29: Bonner Springs to Kansas City                                           15 miles          

April 30-May 9: Kansas City to Gateway Arch                                  275 miles

May 10: Gateway Arch to Cahokia Mounds                                      9 miles

May 10-13: Cahokia Mounds Spiritual Gathering

May 14-16: Cahokia Mounds to Vandalia                                          60 miles

May 17-18: Vandalia to Effingham                                                     32 miles

May 19: Rest Day

May 20-22: Effingham to Terre Haute                                                66 miles

May 23: Rest Day

May 24-27: Terre Haute to Indianapolis                                             71 miles

May 28: Rest Day

May 29-June 1: Indianapolis to Richmond                                         68 miles

June 2-3: Richmond to Englewood                                                     31 miles

June 4: Rest Day

June 5-6: Englewood to Springfield                                                    30 miles

June 7-9: Springfield to Reynoldsburg                                               54 miles

June 10-11: Reynoldsburg to Zanesville                                             43 miles

June 12: Rest Day

June 13: Zanesville to Cambridge                                                       25 miles

June 14-16: Cambridge to Wheeling                                                   54 miles

June 17-19: Wheeling to Fort Pitt                                                       57 miles

June 20: Rest Day and Ceremony/History day

June 21-25: Fort Pitt to Bedford                                                         96 miles

June 26: Rest Day/Ceremony

June 27-29: Bedford to Chambersburg                                               56 miles

June 30-July 1: Chambersburg to Carlisle Indian School                   34 miles

July 2: Ceremony at Carlisle Indian Boarding School

July 3: Carlisle Indian School to Harrisburg (Capitol)                        18 miles

July 4-5: Rest Days/Haudenosaunee

July 6: Harrisburg to York                                                                  26 miles

July 7-9: York to Baltimore                                                                50 miles

July 10: Rest Day-Ceremony

July 11-12: Baltimore to Greenbelt Park                                             28 miles

July 13-14: Rest Days/ Longest Walk Manifesto Discussions

July 15: Greenbelt Park to Washington Monument                            12 miles