Indigenous Without Borders Conference April 28--29

THE BORDER CROSSED US -- INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras Gathering
Saturday, April 28, 2007 & Sunday, April 29, 2007
Santa Rosa Learning Center, 1075 South 10th Avenue (10th & 22nd) Tucson, Arizona, 520-879-8019, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

"We are slowly losing the informal, special status that we have enjoyed at the U.S. - Mexico border prior to 9/11 tragedy. The U.S. Government officials are preparing to implement a new immigration and border enforcement policies that does not include or resolve Indigenous immigration and border rights issues and concerns.

The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, calls together all Indigenous people of conscience, relatives, friends, elders, youth and people interested in promoting Indigenous Rights, preservation of Indigenous ways/traditions and language and environmental protection of Mother Earth.

In the Spirit of Our Grandfather, Our Elders, Keepers of Our Traditional Ways, Warriors for Social Justice and Change and all Indigenous Pueblos must come together to protect, promote Indigenous rights and continue the fight for what we've got!

Our Elders started the fight many, many moons ago that is why we have what we've got. 'THINK INDIGENOUS - We are HUMAN BEINGs with RIGHTS!'"

JOIN US ....

Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras
P.O. Box 826
Tucson, Arizona 85701

contact: Christina Leza, Organizer at 520-5912637
Jose Matus, director at 520-979-2125

Directions: Headed south on Interstate 10 through Tucson: take the Star Pass/22nd Street exit; off the exit ramp, take a left on 22nd; go up a few blocks to 10th Avenue and take a left. The center is on the right.

Blackfire: Silence is a Weapon

The Navajo family band, Blackfire, tireless fighters for Indigenous rights, will release their new CD, "Silence is a Weapon," on May 1st, 2007. Blackfire is also preparing for a summer tour that will take them to Europe, Mongolia, Russia, Mexico & the throughout the U.S. Disk one features 12 new songs of Blackfire's unique brand of label defying high energy-social political music which has been called, "Fireball Punk-Rock" by the late godfather of punk Joey Ramone. Disk two comprises a special selection of 12 traditional Dine' (Navajo) songs. About Blackfire: Blackfire is a Dine’ (Navajo) trio of sublings Jeneda, Klee & Clayson Benally. The have been awarded the Native American Music Awards “Group of the Year” for their 2003 “Woody Guthrie Singles” recording, and “Best Pop/Rock Album for their 2001 full length release, “One Nation Under.” Since 1989 the group has been composing songs filled with passion and awareness of environmental & social justice issues. Blackfire has toured the world sharing their music and traditional culture. This year’s [Silence] is a Weapon 2007 tour will take Blackfire to France, Germany, Italy, The Czech Republic, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, Mongolia, Siberia, Norway, Mexico, and throughout the U.S.
Current U.S. dates are:
April 22 in Flagstaff, AZ at Heritage Square
April 23 at NAU
April 27 at the Kayenta Community Center
May 5 in Flagstaff at Wheeler Park
July 22 and 23 Grassroots festival Ithaca NY
August 4-5 at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff
August 17th and 18th at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
August 19th at the Kennedy Center Millennium stage in Washington D.C.
More info available at: www.blackfire.net
Photo credit: Julaire Scott

Okiijida Society: Alert to Warrior Societies

Okiijida Society

Box 75, Ginew, Manitoba, Canada ROA 2RO
From (Mush-ko-dah-be-shik-eese) Terrance Nelson, Okiijida Society Spokesman and Representative from Canada; National (US) Board of Directors: American Indian Movement

Be on Guard
April 14, 2007

I am first degree Midewiwin, most of our people are very spiritually connected people. Normally, I am very cautious in sending out warnings to warrior societies. The last time I send out a yellow alert was in March 2006 and it was on behalf of the Mohawks at Six Nations on the escalating tensions in Caledonia. Today I am sending out a caution to all of our people to be on guard. Three separate spiritually connected people have told me that the police and army will carry out a massive raid similar to the FLQ War Measures act response that happened in October 1970.

As I said, normally I would dismiss this as simple jitters and people who worry too much but I have experience in dealing with the Conservative Members of Parliament who today run the government of Canada. On January 19th 1993, Roseau River suffered an R.C.M.P. raid, snipers in our fields, Canadian army on standby in Winnipeg and the whole bit. Yes, there was anger and demonstrations but little or no consequences for the white man. Today the Canadian spy agency is run by former Premier Gary Filmon who ordered the raid on Roseau River in 1993 and he is not the only one in the Conservative government who think they can get away with using the Army against Indians.

The First Nations in Canada are organizing a June 29th National Day of Protest that includes some railway blockades and other actions. The Canadian Army in on maneuvers in northern Alberta and the Yukon, a fact that angers a lot of Dene people in those areas. The newly drafted Canadian Army Manual was recently big news because it would have placed Indians in Canada alongside terrorist organizations and the Manual had policies about killing Indians. Even today, every year, over 50% of the people in Canada who are killed by police are First Nation people. That has been our history for a long time.

Since the Oka Crisis of 1990, warrior societies met regularly to plan out action if ever the Canadian army was used to kill Indian people. Our response would be to shut down the Canadian economy. Clearly, that means shutting down every rail line in the country until the government comes to their senses. Although I hope that our spiritual people are wrong on their warning, I do want to remind everyone that Ipperwash, Gustavusen Lake, Burnt Church and many other incidents in Canada since Oka have involved special forces being used against our people. Just be on guard, don’t be naïve, it can happen.

Chief Terrance Nelson

Blackwater author Scahill in Tucson April 25

Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" will be at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church for a speaking engagement on Wednesday, April 25 at 7:00 p.m, at 3809 E. 3rd Street in Tucson.
Local author Quynn Elizabeth ("Accepting the Ashes: A Daughter's Look at PTSD") will open the show.
About Jeremy Scahill: Scahill has reported extensively from Iraq, the former Yugoslavia and Nigeria. "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" is his first book.About "Blackwater": They are highly trained private soldiers sent to Iraq by a secretive mercenary company based in the wilderness of North Carolina.Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U.S. government has quietly hired. Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the “global war on terror,” with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 private contractors at the ready. Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and yet most people have never heard of Blackwater. This book is the unauthorized story of the epic rise of one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex. It traces Blackwater’s beginnings in 1996, with visionary executives opening a private military training camp “to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing”; to its secret deployment in Afghanistan following 9/11; to the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah and a fierce gun battle in Muqtada al-Sadr’s stronghold of Najaf. The story races from Blackwater’s expedition to the oil-rich Caspian Sea to set up a military base miles from Iran; to New Orleans, where its forces patrolled the hurricane-ravaged streets; to the chambers of power in Washington, D.C., where Blackwater executives are welcomed as new heroes in the war on terror. The administration hails Blackwater as a revolution in military affairs; others see its rise as nothing less than a dire threat to American democracy.