'My Life is My Sun Dance' Theater

My Life is My Sun Dance, theater production of Leonard Peltier's sufferings and dreams

From Harvey Arden

Leonard Peltier's stage play MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE is a soul-transforming theatrical experience that is a living expression of his own words, his own pain, his own dreams --as well as the suffering and dreams of his People.
We seek patrons, donors, sponsors, theater folk & plain old long-suffering Peltier supporters (Bless'm)--to assist Keith Rabin and me in bringing this amazing production on tour to cities and rez communities around the nation and abroad this spring '09 & onwards. Any suggestions or comments about the play should go to keith@mylifeismysundance.com
Leonard is now 64 . He's been in prison since he was 31. I ask EACH of you personally to step forward NOW-- and assist us with ideas, theater info, purchases of CDs, books or Peltier support items all available here https://mylifeismysundance.com/catalog/
And--yes, please--reach into your heart and make a modest donation to In Peace Productions right on the website. Keith Rabin has already gone deeply into debt to create it so we have a legit professional touring the U.S., Canada and overseas in 2009-2010. Leonard DOES enthusiastically support Keith Rabin and In Peace Productions.
This play can help free Leonard as the film Hurricane helped free Hurricane Carter
As co-playwright with Leonard, I have given outright my entire co-playwright's share, plus quite a few personal thousands, to ‘In Peace Productions’, created by Keith Rabin specifically to make a reality of Leonard's play MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE. Please reach into your heart and your soul and your pocketbook to help us stage this play and bring Leonard's continuing CRUCIFIXION--33 years on the Cross of American Injustice--to center-stage of AMERICA'S CONSCIENCE. It's time we took Leonard down from his Cross.
Puh-leeze FWD this notice to friends and post on lists.
Become part of the history of your Own Times!
Help us LIBERATE LEONARD PELTIER!
His captivity must end!
Special note from Keith: Please watch for our upcoming January ’09 speaking tour of Utah, Nevada, California and Santa Fe, N.M.. We have dates open if you're interested in meeting Harvey or seeing his powerful spoken-word performances. For more information please contact Keith Rabin at Keith@mylifeismysundance.com
Funds to make this play a reality are needed. To assist in funding Leonard's wondrous play, the following hard-to-find books authored/edited by Harvey Arden have been donated for sale here with limited signed copies available https://mylifeismysundance.com/catalog/
~ WISDOMKEEPERS: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders
~ DREAMKEEPERS: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia
~ TRAVELS IN A STONE CANOE: Return to the Wisdomkeepers
~ NOBLE RED MAN: Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King
2008 “Free Peltier Flag are also for sale at the above website Your browser may not support display of this image.
For more information contact keith@mylifeismysundace.com
Maybe you alone can’t save the world … but it certainly won’t be saved without you.
--Harvey Arden LEONARD PELTIER IS INNOCENT !
http://mylifeismysundance.com
Paris: International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples
On October 11th 300 people gathered in Paris, France for the International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas after several presentations from other Indigenous peoples from Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, French Guyana, US, and Canada. This event was also celebrating the 30th year anniversary for the Committee in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of Americas which also represents the Leonard Peltier Support Group in France.
This statement was read by Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee.
From Leonard Peltier
Greetings my relatives from all over the world!
I am extremely sorry I can't be there with you today. I am deeply honored that I can speak to you today even though it is through someone else. First, I want to commend you all for your dedication in furthering rights for Indigenous People throughout the world. Prison has a way of causing deep reflection as I suppose any form of isolation would. In my reflection, I have always come to the conclusion that my relationship with the Creator, my family, the earth, my fellow Indigenous relatives are the most important things to me. I try to keep up with what is going on in the world by any form of media that is available to us. I know many of you in your homelands are greatly persecuted and displaced from your homes. I know many of you are exploited, with resources taken away, and I know that oftentimes your people are killed because multinational companies want the resources from your land. I want you to know that I recognize that we have a common enemy. That common enemy has many faces. It speaks many different languages and wears many different uniforms. I know that its motivation is always the same. They are motivated by their obsession for wealth and their greed, always taking more than they need from the earth. I can't say that I know the answer for our survival. I'm sure there isn't any one answer but I truly believe that whatever the answer is, it has to begin with us. We must find every way that we can to make ourselves strong; to make our children strong; to make our faith strong and our connection to Creator strong. We must learn to use the tools of today to protect ourselves from the challenges of their greed tomorrow. We must be relentless in teaching our children how to fight back. We must be relentless in warning our children to not become like the enemy. We must be relentless in teaching our children to respect Mother Earth, the Creator, their fellow man, and to respect their brother's vision while maintaining their vigilance and guard over our lands and resources.
Someone once said that the greatest battle a warrior must fight is the one inside himself. We must develop ourselves first, and then seek to develop self discipline and self respect within our own groups. I have seen it happen time and time again. Some of our people have self destructed within their own organizations before they had begun to contend with the enemy. I hope I haven't offended anyone by what I have said. I am just being honest about the most significant challenge we face. We cannot demand our rights. We cannot demand respect. We cannot demand our freedom or any of these other things until we are in a position of strength. One of the ways we can magnify the strength we do have is by continually networking with one another, forming alliances, the way we are doing here today.
Also we should seek to teach the world about our Indigenous traditions that have allowed our survival. We should seek to teach the world of the greatest manifestation of the Creator that we have to relate to and that is Mother Earth. We should teach the world that the highest technology in all the universe is the technology of the Creator. The most productive thing that we can do is to seek to live in harmony with that technology, with the environment the Creator has provided for us. And perhaps in that teaching we will find a way to destroy our enemies by making them our friends. In the meantime, we must stay strong and strengthen ourselves and our children. We must further our alliances and networks as you are doing here today. My heart and love goes out to you. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
I would like to say a special thank you to the organizers of this event and a special thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I thank you with all my heart.
Your relative,
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Leonard Peltier

No Justice in Mexico: Murdered Indigenous women journalists

Special federal prosecutor rules out that community journalists were killed for their work

Photo: Murdered Indigenous radio reporters in Oaxaca, Felicitas Martinas Sanchez, 20, far left, Teresa Bautista Merino, 24, third from left. Photo Indymedia.

By Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders today voiced astonishment at a public statement yesterday by the special federal prosecutor for dealing with attacks on the media, Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco, ruling out that two young women community journalists in Oaxaca State were killed because of their work.
His statement that the radio journalists of the Triqui indigenous community were shot in an attack aimed at the driver of their vehicle showed yet again the special prosecutor’s determination to play down the real dangers facing Mexican journalists while doing their job, the worldwide press freedom organisation said
“The few known facts of the investigation into the killings of Teresa Bautista Flores and Felicítas Martínez do not indeed lead to a conclusion that they were linked to their work. We should however remember that this file has since the start been in the hands of the Oaxaca judicial authorities, who have never shed light on a single one of the recent murders of journalists and have concentrated on exonerating the government of all responsibility in the case of Brad Will (see releases).
“Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco has endorsed the claims of an unreliable local justice official, which augurs badly for a possible elucidation of the death of the two women at a federal level”.
“It is also worrying that the special prosecutor insists on denying, on principle, that the freedom of the press is in danger in his country, when his mandate is to defend it”, the organisation concluded.
Questioned about his annual report, Orellana Wiarco replied that the two young staff on La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The voice that breaks the silence), shot dead in Putla de Guerrero on 7 April 2008, were “collateral victims of an attack aimed at the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling”. He automatically ruled out any motive linked to their work, prompting outrage among community radio representatives.
Jurist, David Peña, of the Network of Indigenous Community Radio stations of the Southeast, told Reporters Without Borders that there was not a single fact to support this version of events and he condemned the attitude of the prosecutor “who is only trying to limit his responsibility and to offload his duty onto the Oaxaca prosecutor general’s office”. The community association appealed to the special prosecutor to publicly retract or to produce new information to back up his conclusions.
The special prosecutor’s statements came immediately after his recent broadsides against press freedom organisations, including Reporters Without Borders, whom he accuses of putting Mexico in the ranks of the most dangerous countries for journalists on the continent, against the evidence. The organisation wrote to the special prosecutor on 11 December 2008 but has so far received no reply.

Happy holidays from Censored News

Double click to enlarge.

Mohawk Nation News: Real Algonquins at Barriere lake

Mohawk Nation News exposes the forest 'green' scam that will leave Indigenous landless

REAL ALGONQUINS DO EXIST AT BARRIERE LAKE:
MNN REGRETS MISINFORMATION POSTED ON OCTOBER 12, 2008

MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Dec. 16, 2008. Yes, Virginia, there are real Algonquins. Created the natural way. Without any help from Canada’s Indian Affairs or their bureaucratic “Svengali”, Mother Joan Holmes.
The Algonquins of Barriere Lake in northern Quebec have lived in the area now known as “LaVerendrye Park” since time immemorial, long before colonial Quebec or Canada existed. It’s a four hour drive north from Ottawa. They’ve taken care of the land so that the forest and water are pristine. Plenty of minerals lie beneath that they don’t want to disturb. Of course, the multinational corporations want to deforest the land, take out the fresh water and then dig for the minerals.
Two opportunists have been hanging around them for over 20 years, Russell “Potato Bug” Diabo from Kahnawake and David “Dutiful-Dog” Nahwegabow from White Fish Bay. They’ve hooked up with Jean Maurice “Poncho” Matchewan and his gang who are willing to play ball with corporations like Domtar, Tembec and AbitibiBowater who want to deforest and exploit the land. Why in a park?
Around 1993 Diabo and Nahwegabow, with the help of businesses and environmental groups, set up the “Forest Stewardship Council” FSC in Bonn Germany. FSC is an Orwellian twist to the real “double dealing” that some so-called environmental protection groups are fronting.
The original Indigenous owners of the world’s forests have not been informed or consulted about this.
FSC “is a non-profit organization that sets global standards for responsible forestry”. 80% of their revenue comes from governments, private foundations, corporations and non-governmental organizations, some associated with the United Nations.
Diabo and Nahwegabow have both sat on the boards of FSC at the international and Canadian levels. Diabo was recently in Toronto promoting FSC.
FSC tries to provide accreditation worldwide as to which Indigenous lands can be deforested by the corporations. According to the Indigenous of Clayoquot Sound British Columbia, “it’s a fraudulent scam to allow marketing of old growth forests around the world”. [See Link #1 at end of this article] [See Link #2 for a list of their latest certifications].
It is a scheme that has perverted the efforts of such well known environmental activists as the Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, David Suzuki Foundation, Green Peace, the Pembina Institute, Ivey Foundation, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Rainforest Alliance, Ducks Unlimited, Global Forest Watch Canada, National Environment Trust, Environmental Defence Canada and others. Instead of promoting environmental protection, it looks like they are now lending their support, knowingly or unknowingly, to those who would exploit and pollute the environment for private profit.
The idea is that any wood or wood products sold worldwide will need FSC approval, or else! the scheme allows Rona, Home Depot, Ikea and many others to present themselves as “green” companies. FSC promotes a concept of sustainability. On inspection, it turns out that after divesting us of our trusteeship and control of our lands and forests, the corporations then set up “tree farms”. Who owns them? The companies, of course! The Indigenous people are left with nothing.
At Barriere Lake Indian Affairs took over administration and placed the Algonquins under the third party management of Price WaterhouseCoopers. Just like Kanehsatake and Burnt Church! Divisions in the community were fomented. Then Indian Affairs, that holds the purse strings, incorporated the group and started to treat them like a business enterprise.
As a founding member of FSC Diabo is able to help the corporations find the best forests to get FSC accreditation anywhere in the world. The companies then go to the respective governments and get the permit to deforest the designated area. Diabo also works with members of the local band council or Indigenous group to “help” them sign illegal “Trilateral Agreements” with the province, federal government or colonial entity. The local Indigenous collaborators who sign on get very little from the deal. Their people end up having to leave their hunting, fishing and trap lines to get away from deforestation and subsequent flooding. As far as we can tell, Nahwegabow, the lawyer, and Diabo, the House Mohawk, seem to pull the strings and set up this scheme.
Jean Maurice “Poncho” Matchewan and his gang at Barriere Lake signed the Trilateral Agreement with Quebec and Canada. "Poncho", as he is known up there, is a cynical man. He accepted power and money in exchange for compromising his people. The traditional Algonquins did not go along with him. After all, it’s their forest, their soil, their homeland and their livlihood. They remain sovereign, independent and never became Canadians. Their territory remains unsurrendered and never part of any treaty. In exchange for singing away all their territory the Algonquins have been promised some firewood, chump change and no say.
When opposition started openly brewing, Indian Affairs cut off a lot of programs to the real Algonquins – phones, hydro, water, heating oil, education and social programs and health care. The whole works! All gone! When Matchewan was subsequently removed by the people, he pulled the plug on the only generator in the community. The people were denied basic human rights and amenities and coerced into tying in social services as part of the big "deal" with the corporations, Canada and Quebec.
Why should Algonquins be reduced to refugees on their own land? The Algonquins have had to go into the bush to trap and fish to feed their families in one of the coldest winters in recent history. They are living in improperly-heated over-crowded homes that are potential fire traps. Indian affairs parachuted in four new people to “represent” the Algonquins along with a new constitution and electoral code. This was supposedly put in place with the consent of respected elders. The elders say their signatures were forged. Isn’t this an old colonial trick? In keeping with international law, agreements like this must be signed in public before the whole community which must completely understand and consent to the terms.
Poncho’s gang is now accusing Quebec and Canada of violating the Trilateral Agreement by not giving them their share of the profits. It looks like the road blocks of Highway 117 on October 6, 2008 were staged and video taped for worldwide distribution. This is where MNN got hooked in. It was incredible to see such a raw display of force against women and children. People have been made desperate. Some were paid $20 to $50 to go out on the highway and hold placards for these protests. They were forced by threats of violence and seizure of personal assets to take part. The Quebec Police SQ was more than willing to engage in brutality. They pepper sprayed and tear gassed small children and hit the women with batons.
Russell Diabo and others from Poncho’s faction are now touring Haudenosaunee and other Ongwehonwe communities trying to lure our youth to Barriere Lake to stand on the “front lines”. This plays right into the hands of those who are trying to defame the Mohawks and find an excuse to implement martial law against us.
Barriere Lake is part of the “North American Water Plan” that started in 1933 (the same year that Trenton Air Force base was built) affecting 36 Indigenous Nations. It’s a short sighted three pronged action: 1. take out the trees; 2. take out the minerals; and 3. dam and divert the rivers through aqueducts to the U.S. Remove those who are in the way. There are no signs of a back up-plan to clean up the environmental damage.
The corporate elites plan to block the St. Lawrence River and James Bay. The entire Great Lakes watershed will be turned into one big lake. This will be powered by nuclear reactor pumping stations. This appears to be one of the reasons for merging of Canadian, U.S. and Mexican military and law enforcement under the North American Union NAU and the Security and Prosperity Plan SPP.
An Algonquin elder told MNN he openly opposed their schemes. He and others that were labeled as "dissidents" have been driven from Barriere Lake under a policy of “banishment”.
Around the same time in April 2008 Ontario and Quebec signed a deal for Quebec to sell power to Ontario from hydro plants to be built on Algonquin land. Domtar also signed with Quebec to log and flood Kokomville, an Algonquin community. Quebec doesn’t believe the people living there should benefit from the resources they extracted for the benefit of foreign industries. A Domtar executive sits on the FSC Canada board. Talk about conflict of interest!
The Montreal supporters “No One Is Illegal” have been posting stories, raising money and getting support for the Pancho Matchewan group. sarita@resist.ca
Huge tensions surround this situation. The current economic melt down should lead to creating a sustainable economy and sharing the world’s resources fairly. We Indigenous people have always questioned why we are forced to subsidize foreign companies who extract profits from our resources and leave us with a mess. The province of Newfoundland just stripped the rights and assets of U.S. company AbitibiBowater Inc. They say they’re tired of seeing “their” [Indigenous] resources exploited with no return for the people! The Forest Products Association of Canada is now pushing Canada to extend a “work sharing program” that will turn unemployment insurance recipients into low cost slave labor so the multinational corporations can keep getting the high profits demanded by their greed. Barrier Lake Algonquins, you better dig in and find out what’s going on. [Oh! It’s beginning to look a lot like Sharbot Lake, everywhere you go – same people, same tactics!]
Iakoha'ko:wa, Eagle Watch near Sharbot Lake MNN Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com kittoh@storm.ca Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN “Barriere Lake” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Sign up and Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
[See Link #1]: www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2007/09/30/British_Columbia_FSC_certification_is_a_fraudulent_scam]
Link #2 for a list of their latest certifications]. www.wrm.org.uv/countries/Asia/Lang.html] this site lists certificates issued by FSC where areas of forest are being badly managed or destroyed, or where other important wildlife habitats, such as wetlands are also being damaged. www.illegal-logging_info/item_single.php?item=news@item_id=1773@approach_id=1
http://www.fsc.org/
http://www.fsccanada.org/
http://www.borealcanada.ca/index-e.php
http://cpaws.org/
http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2008/11/04/NGOs_in_a_tangle_ove
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/holding-the-line-with-fsc
http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2008/11/greenpeace_reaffirms_support_f.asp
http://forests.org/archive/canada/algtroub.htm
http://www.turtleisland.org/news/news-algonquin3.htm
http://www.perc.ca/PEN/2001-02/s-johnson2.html
http://politicsnpoetry.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/algonquins-of-barriere-lake-urgent-request/
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bf80a53ef00e54ff052ff8833
http://aquadoc.typepad.com/waterwired/2008/01/kennedy-to-cana.html]-----------
Critic: Jacob Wawatie: jake_kokomville@hotmail.com
FSC pushers: Russell Diabo, 705-259-1474; David Nahwegabow care of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Canada, 70 The Esplanade, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1R2, 416-778-5568, 1-877-571-1133 Fax: 416-778-0044 info@fsccanada.org; Antony Marcil President & C.E.O. 416-778-5568 x 23 amarcil@fsccanada.org; Maia Becker Vice President 416-778-5568 x 25 mbecker@fsccanada.org
FSC Opposition: http://www.ecoearth.info/ Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet, Inc., PO Box 9704
Seattle, WA 98109 glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org see also: http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2008/11/04/NGOs_in_a_tangle_ove
“Capitalist un-environmentalist” Domtar http://www.domtar.com/en/ 395 de Maisonneuve Blvd West
Montreal (Québec) Canada H3A 1L6 PHONE : 514-848-5555 EMAIL :information@domtar.com
communications@domtar.com Michel “Environmentally-Unfriendly” A. Rathier, Vice-President, 514-848-5103
OTTAWA SLIME BAGS: Indian Affairs Minister Hon. Chuckie Baby Strahl (613) 992-2940 Fax: (613) 944-9376 StrahC@parl.gc.ca; Prime Minister Stephen “Stalin” Harper, (613) 992-4211 Fax: (613) 941-6900 Harper.S@parl.gc.ca Web Site: www.pm.gc.ca/; Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Robert “Dirty-Indian-Fighter” Nicholson, (613) 995-1547 Fax: (613) 992-7910 Nicholson.R@parl.gc.ca Web Site: www.robnicholson.ca/; Hon. Lawrence “When-Did-You-Get-Sober?” Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs(includes Barriere Lake)
(613) 992-5516 Fax: (613) 992-6802, Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca, Web Site: www.lawrencecannon.com/
Tel. (819) 281-2626 Fax: (819) 281-2755 Maniwaki, Québec near Barriere Lake, (819) 441-2510 Fax: (819) 441-2680
Algonquin of Barriere Lake contacts: Matchewan Group: http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/,
Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 - 435 – 2113, marylynnpoucachiche@hotmail.com, Michel Thusky 819 435-2171
Ratt Group: Casey Ratt caseyratt@hotmail.com
*Jean Charest, Premier minister, Quebec
Téléphone: 418 643-5321/Télécopieur: 418 643-3924
Email: www.premier.gouv.qc.ca/premier-ministre/nous-joindre/courriel-formulaire-en.asp
Benoit Pelletier, Ministre responsable des Affaires autochtones
Phone : 418 646-5950/Fax : 418 643-8730
Email: ministre.saic@mce.gouv.qc.ca
Claude Béchard, Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune
Téléphone : 418 643-7295/Télécopieur : 418 643-4318
Email: ministre@mrnf.gouv.qc.ca
Line Beauchamp, Ministre du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs
Téléphone : 418 521-3911/Télécopieur : 418 643-4143
Email: line.beauchamp@mddep.gouv.qc.ca