Indigenous Water Protector Jailed in North Dakota for Refusing to Cooperate with Secret Grand Jury

Indigenous Water Protector Jailed in North Dakota for Refusing to Cooperate With Secret Grand Jury

Steve Martinez Takes Stand Against Use of Grand Jury to Repress Indigenous Environmental Movement
February 8, 2021

Contact: Leoyla Cowboy, Executive Director, Water Protector Legal Collective

Natali Segovia, Attorney, Water Protector Legal Collective defense@waterprotectorlegal.org Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Attorney at Law

By Water Protector Legal Collective

Censored News

BISMSRCK, North Dakota – Water Protector Steve Martinez is confined in Burleigh County Detention Center after refusing, on principle, to give testimony before a federal grand jury. This Grand Jury, like the one at which Martinez refused to testify three years ago, ostensibly involves a criminal investigation into events leading to the grievous injury of Water Protector Sophia Wilansky. It has been the position of Morton County, North Dakota that Ms. Wilansky was not injured as a result of excessive force by law enforcement, but by the actions of Water Protectors. In a federal civil rights lawsuit against Morton County, however, Wilansky says she was shot in the arm with a concussion grenade by a sheriff’s deputy on November 20, 2016, when law enforcement attacked hundreds of unarmed people objecting to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (“DAPL”) with high pressure fire hoses, impact munitions, explosive grenades and chemical weapons.

Akantu -- Origin Series -- Music and Spoken Word CD from Tiokasin Ghosthorse

"AKANTU: ORIGIN SERIES"

New music and spoken word CD from Tiokasin Ghosthorse

By Liz Hill, Ojibwe

Censored News

STONE RIDGE, N.Y., Feb. 8, 2021 via REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — "Akantu: Origin Series" is a new CD from Tiokasin Ghosthorse. The CD, which includes four tracks of spoken word and music, is Ghosthorse's fifth release. Like all of Ghosthorse's past projects, "Akantu: Origin Series" was inspired by and is dedicated to Mother Earth.

"Akantu: Origin Series" was recorded live on October 12, 2017 at The National Sawdust in Brooklyn,  New York. "This was a gathering of Original Nations and notions of beings with the elemental evolution of letting the mystery go where it will with music, spoken word and presence," says Ghosthorse.

U.S. argues in court for corporate seizure of Sacred Oak Flat

DOJ ATTORNEY CLAIMS DESTRUCTION OF SACRED OAK FLAT PREVENTING RELIGIOUS PRACTICE "NOT A SUBSTANTIAL BURDEN" FOR APACHE.  JUDGE PROMISES RULING BY FEBRUARY 12.

By Apache Stronghold 

Censored News

French translation by Christine Prat

Feb. 4, 2021

PHOENIX – In a riveting and emotional hearing in front of U.S. District Court Judge Steven Logan at the Federal Court in Phoenix, the Department of Justice attorney claimed that the destruction of Oak Flat, or Chi'chil Bildagoteel, was "not a substantial burden" even though it would prevent the Apache from practicing their religion.

After running the 70 miles from Oak Flat to the Courthouse, Dr. Wendsler Nosie and Naelyn Pike testified regarding the importance of Chi'chil Bildagoteel to the Apache.

ACLU files amicus brief supporting Standing Rock Thunderhawk vs Morton County

American Civil Liberties Union Files Amicus Brief in Standing Rock ​Thunderhawk ​Litigation

ACLU brief highlights how roads of every kind have historically served as sites of protest

Thunderhawk v. County of Morton, North Dakota

Media Contact​: Fonda Shen ​cccct@law.columbia.edu​

Feb. 2, 2021

NEW YORK — ​Yesterday, ​​the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), together with its North Dakota affiliate (ACLU of ND), filed an ​amicus curiae brief​in support of the ​Thunderhawk ​plaintiffs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. ​Amicus Curiae​or “friend of the court” briefs are filed by third parties with an interest in the litigation, and can carry significant weight with the court when submitted by organizations with expertise in an issue salient to the case—such as with the ACLU and free speech.