March 3, 2009
Videos: Human Rights March in Phoenix
Video coverage of the February 28, 2009 Human Rights March in Phoenix
March against racist Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Over 5,000 Peoples participating
Barriozona, grassroots journalism: http://www.barriozona.com/
Video #1 shows the march and starts by showing day laborers at the street corner on the morning of Saturday February 28 supporters clash around him at immigration's ‘ground zero’
http://barriozona.com/immigrants_counterculture_groups_rally_against_sheriff_arpaio_VIDEO.html Video #2 has interviews with participants in the march
http://barriozona.com/immigrants_counterculture_groups_rally_against_sheriff_arpaio_opinions_VIDEO.html Photo gallery with 123 photos
http://www.photoshopshowcase.com/ViewFlashMedia.aspx?AID=209012&AT=3
Human League 002 (Dennis Gilman), includes Akimel O'Otham member Shannon Rivers "welcoming all migrants"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PmhbUdGSvI
Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/protesters-take-on-americ_n_171091.html
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13th, 2007
Article 36
1. Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, economic and social purposes, with their own members as well as other peoples across borders.
2. States, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, shall take effective measures to facilitate the exercise and ensure the implementation of this right.
Related Links:
http://www.puenteaz.org/
http://www.indigenasinfronteras.org/
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html
http://www.tonatierra.org/
http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/
Tupac Enrique Acosta
chantlaca@tonatierra.org
Another view of Wounded Knee 1973
Another view of Wounded Knee 1973
By Bill Means, Lakota
Each year I have to respond to the annual negative interpretation of Tim Giago against Wounded Knee 1973. I do respect his journalism work but I also have to respectfully disagree.
We both come from the same reservation and we both were on different sides of the liberation in 1973. I too knew the Gildersleeve family and got to know them in a more personal way during the Wounded Knee occupation. Remember the Gildersleeves told Senators McGovern and Abourezk, when they visited Wounded Knee, that they agree with the issues the Oglala Civil Rights Organization and AIM were presenting. People should also remember the overwhelming number of people inside Wounded Knee were Oglala People who supported the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization led by Vern Long and Pedro Bissonette.
The Gildersleeve family also told the Federal authorities that they were not hostages. They actually stayed in Wounded Knee for several days and eventually left when the government refused to take down the roadblocks. Tim and I do agree that the Gildersleeves were good people however, some things came out later in the trial such as selling guns and ammunition without a federal license or taking peoples' lease checks and cashing them but taking out their monies owed and giving them the change which came to be defined as servitude.
I also have a story. My uncle Henry Young Bear from Porcupine was a well known Lakota singer and drum maker and one time he took us to the Wounded Knee store to sell a drum he made tanning the hides himself and spending many hours making this drum. He sold the drum at the store for twenty dollars but the next day the drum was on sale for $100.00 in the museum at the store. I feel proud that I was able to serve the Lakota People at Wounded Knee in 1973 and I served as a pall bearer for my friend Buddy Lamont who was shot in the back by the FBI in Wounded Knee after they shot tear gas into the bunker where he was. The Chiefs and Headsman of the Lakota were there at the burial of Buddy Lamont and he was spoken of as a Warrior of the Lakota and the special warrior songs were sung on his behalf.
Earlier during that time in Wounded Knee Frank Clearwater was killed and half of his head was destroyed by a bullet from the FBI and US Marshals. Many of the young warriors in Wounded Knee were wounded in firefights with the Federal Forces and over seventy unsolved murders were documented between 1973 and 1977 in the aftermath of Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee represents a renaissance and a historical turning point for the struggle of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world.
To see a coalition of many Indian Nations led by the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization and the American Indian Movement stand up against the policies of the United States Government and the ongoing violation of Treaties was an inspiration to Indigenous Peoples all over the World. We have been told this by Indigenous Peoples, Presidents and government officials at the United Nations many times.
I say these things to show that there was sacrifice by many families on all sides of the issue and to say the overwhelming majority of Oglala Lakota supported Wounded Knee 1973. It is now celebrated as a National Holiday on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Even the US Federal Courts under Judge Fred Nichol dismissed the case in the leadership trials of AIM leaders Means and Banks stating in part...."the FBI has polluted the waters of justice."
Pelamaye!
.
Read Giago's column and Steve Hendricks response to the column:
http://www.indianz.com/News/2009/013410.asp
.
By Bill Means, Lakota
Each year I have to respond to the annual negative interpretation of Tim Giago against Wounded Knee 1973. I do respect his journalism work but I also have to respectfully disagree.
We both come from the same reservation and we both were on different sides of the liberation in 1973. I too knew the Gildersleeve family and got to know them in a more personal way during the Wounded Knee occupation. Remember the Gildersleeves told Senators McGovern and Abourezk, when they visited Wounded Knee, that they agree with the issues the Oglala Civil Rights Organization and AIM were presenting. People should also remember the overwhelming number of people inside Wounded Knee were Oglala People who supported the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization led by Vern Long and Pedro Bissonette.
The Gildersleeve family also told the Federal authorities that they were not hostages. They actually stayed in Wounded Knee for several days and eventually left when the government refused to take down the roadblocks. Tim and I do agree that the Gildersleeves were good people however, some things came out later in the trial such as selling guns and ammunition without a federal license or taking peoples' lease checks and cashing them but taking out their monies owed and giving them the change which came to be defined as servitude.
I also have a story. My uncle Henry Young Bear from Porcupine was a well known Lakota singer and drum maker and one time he took us to the Wounded Knee store to sell a drum he made tanning the hides himself and spending many hours making this drum. He sold the drum at the store for twenty dollars but the next day the drum was on sale for $100.00 in the museum at the store. I feel proud that I was able to serve the Lakota People at Wounded Knee in 1973 and I served as a pall bearer for my friend Buddy Lamont who was shot in the back by the FBI in Wounded Knee after they shot tear gas into the bunker where he was. The Chiefs and Headsman of the Lakota were there at the burial of Buddy Lamont and he was spoken of as a Warrior of the Lakota and the special warrior songs were sung on his behalf.
Earlier during that time in Wounded Knee Frank Clearwater was killed and half of his head was destroyed by a bullet from the FBI and US Marshals. Many of the young warriors in Wounded Knee were wounded in firefights with the Federal Forces and over seventy unsolved murders were documented between 1973 and 1977 in the aftermath of Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee represents a renaissance and a historical turning point for the struggle of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world.
To see a coalition of many Indian Nations led by the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization and the American Indian Movement stand up against the policies of the United States Government and the ongoing violation of Treaties was an inspiration to Indigenous Peoples all over the World. We have been told this by Indigenous Peoples, Presidents and government officials at the United Nations many times.
I say these things to show that there was sacrifice by many families on all sides of the issue and to say the overwhelming majority of Oglala Lakota supported Wounded Knee 1973. It is now celebrated as a National Holiday on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Even the US Federal Courts under Judge Fred Nichol dismissed the case in the leadership trials of AIM leaders Means and Banks stating in part...."the FBI has polluted the waters of justice."
Pelamaye!
.
Read Giago's column and Steve Hendricks response to the column:
http://www.indianz.com/News/2009/013410.asp
.
March 2, 2009
Hopi and Japanese water knowledge: Braiding through Water
Braiding through Water: Weaving Traditional and Western Knowledge
Conference Website Announced
By Vernon Masayesva
Eighteen internationally acclaimed scientists, teachers, and artists including water science pioneer Masaru Emoto featured in the film What the ##*!!# Do We Know; Quiet Axis creator painter and environmental/space artist Lowry Burgess of Carnegie Mellon University; and artist/muralist Michael Kabotie of the Hopi Tribe will gather this April with Hopi traditional leaders and teachers, including Tobacco/Rabbit Clan at Hotevilla Keeper of the Pipe Jerry Honawa and former Hopi Chairman Vernon Masayesva, to explore what new paradigms of understanding arise from the braiding of Western and traditional Hopi sciences. The dialogue and discussions will be led by Leroy Little Bear, former Director of Native Studies at Harvard University and 2003 Canadian Aboriginal Person of the Year.
Detailed background information, news releases, registration forms, and an agenda for the April 6-7, 2009 Black Mesa Trust Braiding Through Water, Weaving Traditional and Western Sciences and Knowledge conference are now available on the conference website http://www.waterbraidingconference.com/ The conference is open to the public at the Radisson Woodlands Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Through dialogue and explorations focused on the two systems of knowing and their unique approaches to the nature, actions, and teachings of water, Core Dialogue Participants and Conference Attendees will share knowledge and experience to generate new understandings of the world in which we live. Unlike efforts to blend traditions, work at the conference will be more akin to the way in which dark and light threads are bound together before being woven into Hopi fabric. Like the single black-and-white strand that gives to Hopi weaving its unique character and endurance, the system of inquiry developed through conference dialogue will draw strength and quality from its respect for the integrity of both traditional and Western approaches. As with all Hopi weaving, the work will draw energy from the optimistic hope of the weaver that the braiding of two into one will yield a singularity stronger, more beautiful, and more responsive to contemporary need and challenge than could be created from either on its own.
Conference registration will be limited to 200 persons. It will include both adult learners and some 40 indigenous youth whose attendance is intended to deepen their appreciation of traditional science and knowing, enhance their sense of identity, and promote more purposeful learning, especially in science and mathematics, as prerequisites for their effective leadership of their peoples in the years ahead.
Registration forms and information are available at the conference website, www.waterbraidingconference.com as well as by e-mail at BraidingConference@gmail.com or by US mail at BMT Braiding Conference, P.O. Box 30396, Flagstaff, AZ 86003. Registration for the Conference--including all meals, banquet attendance, and materials--is $175, which may be paid by check or by credit card through Pay Pal.
Other members of the Core group of Dialogue Participants include: Sat Bhattacharya, cancer research scientist; and President, International Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, and Harlem Children Society; Shonto Begay, painter, muralist, Navajo Nation; Angelita Borbon, Yoeme, Practitioner of Sacred Science and Mesoamerican oral traditions; Phillip Duran, Physicist and Former Dean of Science and Mathematics, Northwest Indian College; Sandy Fox, Founder H2Om Water, Blue Water Planet Radio, and Love Planet Foundation; Jennifer Greene, Director, Water Research Institute of Blue Hill and Vice President, The Constructed Wetlands Group, Inc.; Alan Hamilton, clinical psychologist and President, Rio Grande Return; Jack Loeffler, environmental/Native American aural historian and writer; Nina Perlmutter, Rabbi, and Emeritus Faculty and former Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Yavapai College; Al Qöyawayma, Hopi scientist, engineer, and artist and Founding Director and Former Board Chair, American Indian Science and Engineering Society; Roy Rustum, Professor of Materials Science, Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University and Visiting Professor, Medicine, University of Arizona; Thomas Sisk, Professor of Ecology and Director, Graduate Programs, Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University; and Victor Vernon Woolf, Founder, Holodynamics and the Science of Unfolding Potential.
The Conference is sponsored by Black Mesa Trust, The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, the Museum of Northern Arizona and others. Funding for the conference is provided by Christensen Fund, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Marguerite Casey Foundation, SB Foundation, Seventh Generation Fund, Honor the Earth, and others, including individual philanthropists. Persons interested in providing additional support may contact Vernon Masayesva at kuuyi@aol.com
By Vernon Masayesva
Eighteen internationally acclaimed scientists, teachers, and artists including water science pioneer Masaru Emoto featured in the film What the ##*!!# Do We Know; Quiet Axis creator painter and environmental/space artist Lowry Burgess of Carnegie Mellon University; and artist/muralist Michael Kabotie of the Hopi Tribe will gather this April with Hopi traditional leaders and teachers, including Tobacco/Rabbit Clan at Hotevilla Keeper of the Pipe Jerry Honawa and former Hopi Chairman Vernon Masayesva, to explore what new paradigms of understanding arise from the braiding of Western and traditional Hopi sciences. The dialogue and discussions will be led by Leroy Little Bear, former Director of Native Studies at Harvard University and 2003 Canadian Aboriginal Person of the Year.
Detailed background information, news releases, registration forms, and an agenda for the April 6-7, 2009 Black Mesa Trust Braiding Through Water, Weaving Traditional and Western Sciences and Knowledge conference are now available on the conference website http://www.waterbraidingconference.com/ The conference is open to the public at the Radisson Woodlands Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Through dialogue and explorations focused on the two systems of knowing and their unique approaches to the nature, actions, and teachings of water, Core Dialogue Participants and Conference Attendees will share knowledge and experience to generate new understandings of the world in which we live. Unlike efforts to blend traditions, work at the conference will be more akin to the way in which dark and light threads are bound together before being woven into Hopi fabric. Like the single black-and-white strand that gives to Hopi weaving its unique character and endurance, the system of inquiry developed through conference dialogue will draw strength and quality from its respect for the integrity of both traditional and Western approaches. As with all Hopi weaving, the work will draw energy from the optimistic hope of the weaver that the braiding of two into one will yield a singularity stronger, more beautiful, and more responsive to contemporary need and challenge than could be created from either on its own.
Conference registration will be limited to 200 persons. It will include both adult learners and some 40 indigenous youth whose attendance is intended to deepen their appreciation of traditional science and knowing, enhance their sense of identity, and promote more purposeful learning, especially in science and mathematics, as prerequisites for their effective leadership of their peoples in the years ahead.
Registration forms and information are available at the conference website, www.waterbraidingconference.com as well as by e-mail at BraidingConference@gmail.com or by US mail at BMT Braiding Conference, P.O. Box 30396, Flagstaff, AZ 86003. Registration for the Conference--including all meals, banquet attendance, and materials--is $175, which may be paid by check or by credit card through Pay Pal.
Other members of the Core group of Dialogue Participants include: Sat Bhattacharya, cancer research scientist; and President, International Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, and Harlem Children Society; Shonto Begay, painter, muralist, Navajo Nation; Angelita Borbon, Yoeme, Practitioner of Sacred Science and Mesoamerican oral traditions; Phillip Duran, Physicist and Former Dean of Science and Mathematics, Northwest Indian College; Sandy Fox, Founder H2Om Water, Blue Water Planet Radio, and Love Planet Foundation; Jennifer Greene, Director, Water Research Institute of Blue Hill and Vice President, The Constructed Wetlands Group, Inc.; Alan Hamilton, clinical psychologist and President, Rio Grande Return; Jack Loeffler, environmental/Native American aural historian and writer; Nina Perlmutter, Rabbi, and Emeritus Faculty and former Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Yavapai College; Al Qöyawayma, Hopi scientist, engineer, and artist and Founding Director and Former Board Chair, American Indian Science and Engineering Society; Roy Rustum, Professor of Materials Science, Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University and Visiting Professor, Medicine, University of Arizona; Thomas Sisk, Professor of Ecology and Director, Graduate Programs, Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University; and Victor Vernon Woolf, Founder, Holodynamics and the Science of Unfolding Potential.
The Conference is sponsored by Black Mesa Trust, The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, the Museum of Northern Arizona and others. Funding for the conference is provided by Christensen Fund, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Marguerite Casey Foundation, SB Foundation, Seventh Generation Fund, Honor the Earth, and others, including individual philanthropists. Persons interested in providing additional support may contact Vernon Masayesva at kuuyi@aol.com
The Discovery
Dr. Emoto discovered that water is directly affected by human words, thoughts, and actions, and that water will show those effects when it is frozen into ice. Water exposed to Classical music, words of gratitude, or prayers, will form beautiful, complete crystals. Water exposed to negative words, raucous music, or anger, either will not crystallize at all or will form incomplete or distorted crystals.
PHOTOS: Crystal formed from water of a Hotevilla spring and Hotevilla well. “…When a complete geometric crystal is formed, water is in alignment with nature and the phenomenon we call life. The crystals do not form in water that has been polluted by the results of our failure to remember the laws of nature.” From 'The Hidden Messages in Water' by Dr. Masuru Emoto. Photo 2: Dr. Masuru Emoto, Becky Masayesva, and Vernon Masayesva at the April 28, 2004 event featuring Dr. Emoto’s talk. Photos copyright Masuru Emoto.
Water is alive
by Brenda Norrell
On Hopiland in 2004, Vernon Masayesva, executive director of Black Mesa Trust, and researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto, chief of the Hado Institute in Tokyo, spoke at the Hopi Veterans Center and revealed the secrets and science of the intelligence of water.
During the Hisot Navoti (knowledge of ancestors) Masayesva showed amazing film footage, revealing startling transformations in water crystals when exposed to music and written words. Emoto's photographs reveal water crystals, under high magnification, have drastically different forms from different water sources. Further, Emoto shows that water changes its expression as a result of human actions.
When water is exposed to the music of Mozart and Beethoven, crystals expand and become more beautiful. These crystals resemble diamonds, with flower buds blossoming on their points, as the music plays. Emoto explains that water carries and responds to the vibrations of music. He reveals even more amazing research, showing water responds to the written word.
When clear tubes of water are placed over positive and negative words, the structure of water crystals change. Water crystals increase in beauty when placed over the word "peace," but are transformed to dark and ugly crystals when placed over the word "war."
When water is placed over the word "let's," the crystals expand and increase in beauty. However, when water is placed over the word "must," the crystals become ugly with a dark green center. Emoto says water is letting us realize the hidden power of words.
During the gathering for the defense of pure water, Jerry Honawa, Hopi elder, said, "Water has intelligence."
Masayesva said, "If you are happy, you will have happy crystals; if you are angry, you will have angry crystals." Masayesva also shared the history of the Hopi people, revealing their destiny intertwined with the earth and its mysteries.
"According to Hopi, long ago there was nothing but water from the beginning of time. This is what we call the First World of Hopi. "Life was created from water, from the land, from the sun." When life was first created, it was beautiful, a perfect circle. On Hopiland today there are areas of perfect seashells, proof that this land was once underwater as Hopi are told. There are perfect fossils here, he said.
"Where does coal come from? It comes from plants. Everywhere you go, you see dinosaur tracks. This must have been a beautiful place at one time."
In the First World, there was balance, harmony and peace. This balance and harmony, however, was destroyed in the Third World because of man and his greed. The ancestors began searching for a safe place to begin a new life. Bird was sent out and returned with news of this place.
"Through the bamboo, they entered the new land,” Masayesva said. "It is a metaphor, we don't really know, but we came from somewhere where there was bamboo." When the people arrived in this new land, they thought they had left evil behind them. But after a child died, they realized that evil had come with them. Those with the two hearts had come. "Evil is necessary to understand what good truly is," Masayesva said.
The people knew they had to learn from the destruction of the Third World and not return to those ways. They wanted to create a new way of life. The Hopi people were not led by politicians, they were led by priests, often the poorest man in the village who denied himself everything for the benefit of his children.
In this new place they found a man who grew beautiful corn. It was Ma'sau, guardian of the land. Ma'sau said it is a harsh land, but if the people were willing to live Ma'sau's way of life, they could stay here.
Ma'sau told the people, "If you follow this way of life, you can stay here forever." Ma'sau showed the people corn, a gourd of water and planting stick. "He said if you decide to stay here you must help me take care of this land, then you can stay."
Ma'sau told them that others are coming. "They will claim everything when they come, even the oceans, the air and the stars." Ma'sau told the Hopi people to migrate to the four corners of the world, then return here to Black Mesa. The gourd to carry water was also a revelation, showing that water here is not infinite, it is limited.
Masayesva said the colors of the corn represent the colors of all mankind, yellow, purple, red and white. The sweet corn also represents the ancestors and the purple the heavens. Corn, too, gave Hopi a new way of life, and meant that the people no longer had to search for food every day, leaving them free for other things.
The planting stick represents tools or technology, which can be used for good or for destruction. There was a time when smallpox nearly eliminated the Hopi people, with only 300 Hopi surviving, Masayesva said technology can prevent and cure illness today, but it threatens to end humankind with the production of nuclear bombs. Nuclear power and travel to distant planets have resulted in dangerous "god-like powers."
The waters--aquifers, springs, lakes, rivers, oceans and glaciers-- work in harmony to sustain life. Hopi believe the aquifers breathe, breathe in rain and snow and breathe it out. The springs are the breathing holes. Humankind is a participant in water-life; mankind's thoughts influence whether the rain and snow comes.
Of the world's water today, Masayesva said 97 percent is seawater and 2 percent is bound in glaciers. Only1 percent is available for drinking.
However, America is a nation of waste. "We are a throwaway society. We think we are never going to run out of anything."
Masayesva said the people must honor their trust as guardians of the water and land.
"If we don't, we will break the circle."
During the Hisot Navoti (knowledge of ancestors) Masayesva showed amazing film footage, revealing startling transformations in water crystals when exposed to music and written words. Emoto's photographs reveal water crystals, under high magnification, have drastically different forms from different water sources. Further, Emoto shows that water changes its expression as a result of human actions.
When water is exposed to the music of Mozart and Beethoven, crystals expand and become more beautiful. These crystals resemble diamonds, with flower buds blossoming on their points, as the music plays. Emoto explains that water carries and responds to the vibrations of music. He reveals even more amazing research, showing water responds to the written word.
When clear tubes of water are placed over positive and negative words, the structure of water crystals change. Water crystals increase in beauty when placed over the word "peace," but are transformed to dark and ugly crystals when placed over the word "war."
When water is placed over the word "let's," the crystals expand and increase in beauty. However, when water is placed over the word "must," the crystals become ugly with a dark green center. Emoto says water is letting us realize the hidden power of words.
During the gathering for the defense of pure water, Jerry Honawa, Hopi elder, said, "Water has intelligence."
Masayesva said, "If you are happy, you will have happy crystals; if you are angry, you will have angry crystals." Masayesva also shared the history of the Hopi people, revealing their destiny intertwined with the earth and its mysteries.
"According to Hopi, long ago there was nothing but water from the beginning of time. This is what we call the First World of Hopi. "Life was created from water, from the land, from the sun." When life was first created, it was beautiful, a perfect circle. On Hopiland today there are areas of perfect seashells, proof that this land was once underwater as Hopi are told. There are perfect fossils here, he said.
"Where does coal come from? It comes from plants. Everywhere you go, you see dinosaur tracks. This must have been a beautiful place at one time."
In the First World, there was balance, harmony and peace. This balance and harmony, however, was destroyed in the Third World because of man and his greed. The ancestors began searching for a safe place to begin a new life. Bird was sent out and returned with news of this place.
"Through the bamboo, they entered the new land,” Masayesva said. "It is a metaphor, we don't really know, but we came from somewhere where there was bamboo." When the people arrived in this new land, they thought they had left evil behind them. But after a child died, they realized that evil had come with them. Those with the two hearts had come. "Evil is necessary to understand what good truly is," Masayesva said.
The people knew they had to learn from the destruction of the Third World and not return to those ways. They wanted to create a new way of life. The Hopi people were not led by politicians, they were led by priests, often the poorest man in the village who denied himself everything for the benefit of his children.
In this new place they found a man who grew beautiful corn. It was Ma'sau, guardian of the land. Ma'sau said it is a harsh land, but if the people were willing to live Ma'sau's way of life, they could stay here.
Ma'sau told the people, "If you follow this way of life, you can stay here forever." Ma'sau showed the people corn, a gourd of water and planting stick. "He said if you decide to stay here you must help me take care of this land, then you can stay."
Ma'sau told them that others are coming. "They will claim everything when they come, even the oceans, the air and the stars." Ma'sau told the Hopi people to migrate to the four corners of the world, then return here to Black Mesa. The gourd to carry water was also a revelation, showing that water here is not infinite, it is limited.
Masayesva said the colors of the corn represent the colors of all mankind, yellow, purple, red and white. The sweet corn also represents the ancestors and the purple the heavens. Corn, too, gave Hopi a new way of life, and meant that the people no longer had to search for food every day, leaving them free for other things.
The planting stick represents tools or technology, which can be used for good or for destruction. There was a time when smallpox nearly eliminated the Hopi people, with only 300 Hopi surviving, Masayesva said technology can prevent and cure illness today, but it threatens to end humankind with the production of nuclear bombs. Nuclear power and travel to distant planets have resulted in dangerous "god-like powers."
The waters--aquifers, springs, lakes, rivers, oceans and glaciers-- work in harmony to sustain life. Hopi believe the aquifers breathe, breathe in rain and snow and breathe it out. The springs are the breathing holes. Humankind is a participant in water-life; mankind's thoughts influence whether the rain and snow comes.
Of the world's water today, Masayesva said 97 percent is seawater and 2 percent is bound in glaciers. Only1 percent is available for drinking.
However, America is a nation of waste. "We are a throwaway society. We think we are never going to run out of anything."
Masayesva said the people must honor their trust as guardians of the water and land.
"If we don't, we will break the circle."
March 1, 2009
MNN: 'We're Baaack!! Judicial Chicanery of Federal Court of Canada Side-Swiped'
WE’RE BAAAACK!! “JUDICIAL CHICANERY” OF FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA SIDE-SWIPED – Call for investigation!
Mohawk Nation NewsPhoto Kahentinetha Horn at Indigenous Peoples Border Summit II on Tohono O'odham Nation.
Photo Brenda Norrell
March 1, 200 9. On June 14, 2008, Kahentinetha and Katenies, two Mohawk women, were viciously attacked at the Cornwall Ontario border by a special squad of about twelve barking Canadian Border Services Agents CBSA dressed for combat. One woman was put into a torture stress situation meant to kill her. She suffered a trauma induced heart attack and is still recovering. The other was severely beaten and held incommunicado without access to medical attention or outside help. She is still recovering from her injuries.
Kahentinetha and Katenies live in the Mohawk communities of Akwesasne and Kahnawake. They think that everyone should be able to pass the illegal colonial border without being assaulted or killed.
No employee or official has shown any concern for the near fatal assault committed by the CBSA. They filed formal complaints for a full investigation, appropriate charges to be made against the offenders and reasonable compensation for their arrest, assault and illegal jailing. They sent requests to the Hon. Robert Nicholson, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, the Mohawk Akwesasne Police and the CBSA. They all refused to investigate.
The two women have no money and no lawyer. They had no choice but to represent themselves. They filed a Federal Court of Canada lawsuit to force the police and government agents to investigate this attempted murder. For $2 they filed a Statement of Claim on the ”Assault, arrest and illegal detention” by Canada Border Services Agents [Kahentinetha & Katenies v. Queen, Section 48, Federal Court Act, T-1309-08]. At first the court registry employees seemed helpful. As time went on they issued misinformation and lost documents to sabotage the lawsuit.
The crown’s first response was to file an unprecedented countersuit for Kahentinetha and Katenies to pay for Canada‘s costs. To start they wanted over $20,000 on deposit before the case could be tried, plus all subsequent costs thereafter. They justified this by claiming that Kahentinetha and Katenies are “not residents of Canada”. They based this deceptive false argument on an unsubstantiated article from a newspaper published on the internet that speculated that Katenies lived in the U.S. Kahentinetha and Katenies submitted evidence that they live in Akwesasne and Kahnawake which are located in the portion of the colony of Canada known as “Quebec”. They are considered residents of Canada by the Canadian government. The court refused to accept the evidence.
Kahentinetha and Katenies were pleased with FCC’s order that respects Indigenous jurisdiction over Turtle Island. According to Canada’s own order and laws, the demand for money is a human rights violation and Canada must remove its border control.
Prothonotary Mireille Tabib of FCC issued the order that the two women must put $6,500 before the case would proceed. Kahentinetha and Katenies appealed. They argued that Canada cannot claim that Kahnawake and Akwesasne are not part of Canada so as to classify them as “non-residents” to make them pay court costs, while they treat these communities as parts of Canada, including having a border control in the center. This was a very strong argument. So they stooped to skullduggery. They “lost” the appeal documents.
When the crown did not reply, Kahentinetha phoned the FCC registry. She was told the documents were lost. Then they suddenly found them. Kahentinetha and Katenies were instructed to re-file the appeal and to ask “for an extension of time”.
FCC Judge Francois Lemieux then issued an order denying them the extension of time. He made no ruling on the unconstitutional posting of money by victims of a crime carried out by agents of the state. His deflection made it impossible for the women to appeal. Such a cynical and willful obstruction of justice was unexpected.
Kahentinetha and Katenies, having no money, no jobs and no attachable assets, had to abandon the case. Then on February 26, 2009, Kahentinetha filed a brand new suit on the “Reckless disregard for the safety and security of Indigenous Women at the Canadian Border, Akwesasne” [FCC File No. T-288-09, Kahentinetha v. Queen]. Not forgotten is that men are also abused at the border.
Canada continues judicial chicanery with blindness to the rule of law. As a signatory to international human rights instruments, Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, states everyone is equal before the law. People, no matter what part of the world they come from, cannot be beaten up by state agents with impunity.
Hardball bullying that Kahentinetha and Katenies got from the FCC shows that it is impossible for Indigenous to get our issues discussed rationally and resolved according to generally accept Canadian and international legal principles. Canadian and international opinion does not support this high handed and unethical behavior.
Kahentinetha is not a Canadian citizen and Kahnawake and Akwesasne are not part of Canada as recognized by Prothonotary Mireille Tabib’s order of 23 October, 2008 [FCC No. T-1309] and by Judge Francois Lemieux’s order of 29 January 2009 [ FCC No. T-1309-08].
The assault can be proven by both civilian and government of Canada witnesses, by medical and hospital records and by videotape evidence which is in the hands of the CBSA.
Kahentinetha and Katenies’ main purposes for their legal actions are to demand a full and fair investigation of: 1) the assault; 2) the failure to investigate; 3) the loss of documents and unethical treatment by the FCC; and 4) the action to be tried without delay in the FCC at 30 McGill Street, Montreal, Quebec.
Canada continues to use its courts as a political weapon to allow its agents to abuse us with impunity. This case cannot be swept under the carpet of judicial chicanery.
Ieriwaonni & MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations 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 “BORDER” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Cases FCC T-1309-08 and FCC T-288-09, Kahentinetha v. Queen.
POLITICAL, JUDICIAL & BUREAUCRATIC “DOUCE BAGS”: Hon. Robert “Contemptible-flunkey-who-protects state-criminals-and-other-agents-of-repression” Nicholson, Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada, Tel: 613-941-6900, Nicholson.r@parl.gc.ca, Hon. John “”Judicial-hit-man” Sims, Deputy Attorney-General of Canada, Dept. of Justice, 284 Wellington St. TSA-6032, Ottawa Ontario K1A0H8 Tel: 613-946-2774, 613-992-3452, 613-942-4238, L. Bisson, Manager, Ministerial Correspondence Unit mcu@justice.gc.ca; Charles Payette 613-952-3653, Anil Kamal 613-943-2302 Fax: 613-952-6006; Federal Court of Canada, 30 McGill St., Montreal Quebec H2Y 3Z7 Tel: 1-800-927-5499, 514-283-4820, Prothonotary Mireille “Twisted-judicial-storm-trooping-gate-keeper-with-a-history-of-unconscionable-chicanery-against-Ongwehone” Tabib, Judge Francois “Rubber-stamping-petti-fogging-cheater” Lemieux; Sgt. J.L. Pettit, RCMP Headquarters, 1200 Vanier Parkway, Ottawa K1A 0R2 Tel: 613-993-7267 Fax: 613-993-0260; Louise Steele, Ontario Provincial Police, 777 Memorial Avenue, Orillia Ontario L3V 7V3 Tel: 705-329- 6051;
COLONIAL DOUCHE BAG PUPPETS: Phil Fontaine of the AFN is a partner in CBSA’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-9; Chris Kealey, Canada Customs Excise, Immigration Taxation Board, CBSA Media Relations 613-991-5197; President CBSA 613-952-3200, 613-957-0612, CBSA-ASFC@Canada.gc.ca; National Aboriginal Initiative CHRC 204-983-2189 1-866-772-4880 info.com@chrc-ccdp.ca; Canada Customs Port of Entry at Cornwall Island Ontario; Quebec Human Rights presidence@cdpdj.gc.ca; Akwesasne Mohawk Police 613-575-2250 ex 2400; Mohawk Security at the border 613-932-5183, 613-575-2340; Lance Markel, District Director CBSA 613-930-3234, 613-991-1214; Brent Lefebvre, Investigator CBSA; Susan St. Clair, Canadian Human Rights Commission, 344 Slater, Ottawa 613-995-1151, 1-888-214-1090, 613-943-5188; CBSA National Spokesperson 613-957-6500; Quebec Media Relations CBSA 514-350-6130; Chief Mohawk Council Akwesasne 613-575-2250 nbenedict@akwesasne.ca; Minister Stockwell Day, Ottawa 613-995-4432; Melissa Leclair Communications Pub. Safety 613-991-2863.
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