Dennis Banks joined Havasupai to halt uranium mining Saturday. Click for brief video of Havasupai and guests honoring the Earth at Red Butte during a four day gathering. Video by Brenda Norrell
Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights
July 25, 2009
Red Butte: Lungs of Grandmother Canyon
by Matthew Putesoy
Vice Chairman Havasupai Tribe
July 25, 2009
The Grand Canyon is a national treasure, inviting 5 million people every year to explore and be inspired by its beauty. To the Havasuw 'Baaja, who have lived in the region for many hundreds of years, it is sacred. As the "guardians of the Grand Canyon," we strenuously object to mining for uranium here. It is a threat to the health of our environment and tribe, our tourism-based economy, and our religion.
Thank you, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, for announcing a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in the 1 million acres of lands around Grand Canyon National Park. But existing claims, such as those pursued by Canadian-based Denison Mines Corp., still threaten the animals, air, drinking water and people of this region.
Denison, which has staked 110 claims around the Grand Canyon, is seeking groundwater-aquifer permits that would allow it to reopen the Canyon Mine, near Red Butte on the South Rim, as well as two other mining sites.Uranium mining has been associated with contamination of ground or surface water. Here, mining could poison the aquifer, which extends for 5,000 square miles under the Coconino Plateau, and serves as drinking water for our tribe and neighboring communities.
As I told Congress recently, if our water were polluted, we could not relocate to Phoenix or someplace else and still survive as the Havasupai Tribe. We are the Grand Canyon. Thanks to Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva for introducing the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act.
We urge U.S. Sen. John McCain to introduce it in the Senate.Additionally, air and water pollution and the development associated with mining operations could deter tourists, the lifeblood of our economy. Visitors come here to hike, camp, relax at our lodge and enjoy the Havasu, Mooney, Beaver, and Navajo falls, which are among the best-loved and most-photographed waterfalls on Mother Earth.
Most importantly, Red Butte, where Denison Mines intends to reopen a mine, is a traditional site sacred to the Havasuw 'Baaja. Located in the Kaibab National Forest, Red Butte is known as Wii'i Gdwiisa, meaning "clenched-fist mountain." As longtime Havasupai leader Rex Tilousi says, "Red Butte is the lungs of our Grandmother Canyon." My people have used these traditional Havasupai religious areas for centuries. Instead of allowing the destruction of our national treasure, we are asking the federal government to work with Havasupai Tribe to protect Red Butte and all of the lands on and around the Grand Canyon from further mining activities. This natural wonder is irreplaceable and demands our shared action and protection for those living now, and those yet to be born.
Members of the public are invited to join the Havasupai today for a free public concert at 6 p.m. and for a public forum on uranium mining and protecting our sacred lands on Sunday at the base of Red Butte.
For more information go online to: arizona.sierra club.org/
Matthew Putesoy is vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe.
Vice Chairman Havasupai Tribe
July 25, 2009
The Grand Canyon is a national treasure, inviting 5 million people every year to explore and be inspired by its beauty. To the Havasuw 'Baaja, who have lived in the region for many hundreds of years, it is sacred. As the "guardians of the Grand Canyon," we strenuously object to mining for uranium here. It is a threat to the health of our environment and tribe, our tourism-based economy, and our religion.
Thank you, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, for announcing a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in the 1 million acres of lands around Grand Canyon National Park. But existing claims, such as those pursued by Canadian-based Denison Mines Corp., still threaten the animals, air, drinking water and people of this region.
Denison, which has staked 110 claims around the Grand Canyon, is seeking groundwater-aquifer permits that would allow it to reopen the Canyon Mine, near Red Butte on the South Rim, as well as two other mining sites.Uranium mining has been associated with contamination of ground or surface water. Here, mining could poison the aquifer, which extends for 5,000 square miles under the Coconino Plateau, and serves as drinking water for our tribe and neighboring communities.
As I told Congress recently, if our water were polluted, we could not relocate to Phoenix or someplace else and still survive as the Havasupai Tribe. We are the Grand Canyon. Thanks to Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva for introducing the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act.
We urge U.S. Sen. John McCain to introduce it in the Senate.Additionally, air and water pollution and the development associated with mining operations could deter tourists, the lifeblood of our economy. Visitors come here to hike, camp, relax at our lodge and enjoy the Havasu, Mooney, Beaver, and Navajo falls, which are among the best-loved and most-photographed waterfalls on Mother Earth.
Most importantly, Red Butte, where Denison Mines intends to reopen a mine, is a traditional site sacred to the Havasuw 'Baaja. Located in the Kaibab National Forest, Red Butte is known as Wii'i Gdwiisa, meaning "clenched-fist mountain." As longtime Havasupai leader Rex Tilousi says, "Red Butte is the lungs of our Grandmother Canyon." My people have used these traditional Havasupai religious areas for centuries. Instead of allowing the destruction of our national treasure, we are asking the federal government to work with Havasupai Tribe to protect Red Butte and all of the lands on and around the Grand Canyon from further mining activities. This natural wonder is irreplaceable and demands our shared action and protection for those living now, and those yet to be born.
Members of the public are invited to join the Havasupai today for a free public concert at 6 p.m. and for a public forum on uranium mining and protecting our sacred lands on Sunday at the base of Red Butte.
For more information go online to: arizona.sierra club.org/
Matthew Putesoy is vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe.
April 2, 2009
MNN: 'Operative Journalists trying to set up Indigenous People for Attack?'
For the latest from Mohawk Nation News, go to:
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
“OPERATIVE” JOURNALISTS TRYING TO SET UP INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FOR ATTACK?
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
MNN. April 1, 2009. The colonies of U.S. and Canada know we, the Rotinoshonnionwe, have a birthright to conduct trade and commerce on our homeland, Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island. State and Federal authorities cannot legally stop us except by coercion, breaking laws, criminalizing and threatening us. We are peaceful, law abiding and take care of our families and communities. The misnomer Center for Public Integrity out of Washington DC has been putting out propaganda to produce racial hatred against us.
“Serial warfare” uses the media to set up the target for the attack. “Investigative journalists” seek the truth. “Operative journalists” use deceit, misinformation, destruction, psychological attacks and exaggeration on their “mark”. They create suspicion and biases against us by falsely connecting us to “guns”, “contraband”, “drugs”, “organized crime”, “smuggling” and “global terrorism”, to set the stage for an attack by U.S. and Canadian occupational forces, both military and corporate.
We are being criminalized by the foreigners for something that is not a crime. We have a right to trade and commerce. Tobacco is our product which we create on our homeland.
No violence is associated with any of our legitimate businesses. The only violence is that perpetrated on us by foreign cops and outside interests. No one supports those few business people who may be involved in drugs, similar to the U.S. government that was trading drugs for guns in the Iran-Contra affair, or the CIA releasing drugs in East LA [GaryWebb: Dark Alliance]. The colonists constantly criminalize almost anything we do that would make us independent. We have tried to play by the rules. The government raised the taxes and demands so high to try to control us that we could not sustain our businesses.
If most U.S. and Canadian businesses were criminalized or taxed too high to be viable, they may be forced to break their own laws to survive. The state has been trying to determine that the Mohawk People are “insurgents” to remove any human rights protections we have according to international law.
We would never carry out criminal economic enterprises like Bernie Madoff, AIG, Wall Street bankers and all the other corrupt scrum bags who have created the worldwide melt down. These are the kinds of interests that are coming after us.
The “operative media” plays a major role. Mainstream papers are losing circulation, influence and advertising. Many like the Montreal Gazette have become cheap sensation seeking rags. They divert the public from their own dire situations by ganging up on the “Indians”, a target they think can’t defend themselves.
The Center for Public Integrity is a propagandist of racial hatred which is a precursor to genocide. They criminalize and slander us for whoever hired them to set us up for the kill. This group of media whores may be lobbying for Big Tobacco and the foundations that fund them. They are "generously" funded by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. NYC Mayor and billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, constantly condemns "Indians" and tobacco and hires journalistic “hit men” to assassinate both. Other donators are the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, JEHT Foundation, John D. and Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation, Park Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and PIERS Port Import Export Reporting Services.
Their propaganda does not mention that the police forces are involved in stealing our products and money such as the Ontario Provincial Police, Surete du Quebec, RCMP, NYS Troopers, U.S. and Canada Customs Border Patrol, Cornwall, Montreal and other city cops. They hijack our products and then sell them to their own customers. This is known as the silent “blue market”. Many of our people don’t get a summons to go to court to reclaim our possessions. We sometimes find our vehicles in the parking lots of various donut shops.
Big Tobacco companies such as Rothman’s, Imperial and RJ Reynolds are headquartered in Britain. They don’t want any competition or for Indigenous to profit from trade in our own products. They want to be the only game in town, make the rules for everybody and call in the military on some made up pretext.
Tobacco is legal. The fear is that the profits are being invested in our youth, families and communities which will make us stronger. Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island, is the richest territory in the world. The invaders want to keep us as the poorest. If we had a real share of our own resources, we would not have to resort to what they call the “underground economy”. We are not afraid to work in the light of day because we aren’t criminals.
This is not about lost revenue or health care expenses in the U.S. and Canada. It’s about loss of control over this aspect of our lives. The “extortion” they are crying over is chump change compared to the trillions of dollars they are stealing from us.
Yes, we have organized crime in our communities called “Indian Affairs” and other colonial agencies. Non-native business people and the colonial state, with the help of their “Indian” mules, use the protection of the colonial Indian Act and Federal Indian law “band” and “tribal” recognition to make money. They help build casinos and other developments on our lands from which we do not benefit or control. The “kingpins” are all on the outside. We’re left with trying to clean up their mess! [MNN “Canada & Big Tobacco..” 2/6/09].
Big Tobacco and their global cohorts want everybody in the world to be under their thumb or otherwise eliminated. They are trying to corner us and cut us off from any means to survive. The streets of Kahnawake, Akwesasne, Kanehsatake, Cattaraugus and Tuscarora are safer than any street in Montreal, New York, Buffalo or Washington, D.C. This fear mongering hyperbole by the journalistic “guns for hire” of the multinationals and their colonial agents means we better get ready to defend ourselves. A big attack by the combined forces of the U.S. and Canada may be coming our way soon!
MNN Staff, Mohawk Nation News & Native Pride http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ http://www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com/ katenies20@yahoo.com
kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Note: At this time your financial help is urgently needed and appreciated for the lawsuit against the Canadian government for assault of Indigenous women at the Cornwall border. 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 “General” category for more stories on this; 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.ph
; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
GLUTTONOUS SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH WHOSE GREED KNOWS NO BOUNDS: Prime Min. Stephen Harper pm@pm.ca; RJ. Reynolds America http://www.rjrt.com/, Salem NC; Rothman UK Holding Ltd. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/ 15 Hill St., London W1X 7FB 071-491-4366; Imperial Tobacco Group PLC http://www.imperial-tobacco.com/ P.O. Box 244, Upton Rd., Bristol BS99 7UJ +44-0-177-963-6636; See Rothmans UK Holdings Limited London (071) 491-4366 Fax (071) 493-8404; JOSEPH GOEBBELS SCHOOL OF DIARRHEA JOURNALISM: Center for Public Integrity www.publicintegrity.org; William “Who-needs-a-carton-of-Immodium-diarrhea-cure” Marsden wmarsden@thegazette.canwest.com; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health www.jhsph.edu; Carnegie Foundation http://www.carnegie.org/; Ford Foundation http://www.fordfound.org/; JHET Foundation http://www.jehtfoundation.org/; John D. & Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation www.found.org; Park Foundation info@parkfoundation.org; Rockefeller Foundation rockfound.org; PIERS info@piers.com.
Note: Upper Cut School of Journalism looking for suitable candidates with integrity.
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
“OPERATIVE” JOURNALISTS TRYING TO SET UP INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FOR ATTACK?
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
MNN. April 1, 2009. The colonies of U.S. and Canada know we, the Rotinoshonnionwe, have a birthright to conduct trade and commerce on our homeland, Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island. State and Federal authorities cannot legally stop us except by coercion, breaking laws, criminalizing and threatening us. We are peaceful, law abiding and take care of our families and communities. The misnomer Center for Public Integrity out of Washington DC has been putting out propaganda to produce racial hatred against us.
“Serial warfare” uses the media to set up the target for the attack. “Investigative journalists” seek the truth. “Operative journalists” use deceit, misinformation, destruction, psychological attacks and exaggeration on their “mark”. They create suspicion and biases against us by falsely connecting us to “guns”, “contraband”, “drugs”, “organized crime”, “smuggling” and “global terrorism”, to set the stage for an attack by U.S. and Canadian occupational forces, both military and corporate.
We are being criminalized by the foreigners for something that is not a crime. We have a right to trade and commerce. Tobacco is our product which we create on our homeland.
No violence is associated with any of our legitimate businesses. The only violence is that perpetrated on us by foreign cops and outside interests. No one supports those few business people who may be involved in drugs, similar to the U.S. government that was trading drugs for guns in the Iran-Contra affair, or the CIA releasing drugs in East LA [GaryWebb: Dark Alliance]. The colonists constantly criminalize almost anything we do that would make us independent. We have tried to play by the rules. The government raised the taxes and demands so high to try to control us that we could not sustain our businesses.
If most U.S. and Canadian businesses were criminalized or taxed too high to be viable, they may be forced to break their own laws to survive. The state has been trying to determine that the Mohawk People are “insurgents” to remove any human rights protections we have according to international law.
We would never carry out criminal economic enterprises like Bernie Madoff, AIG, Wall Street bankers and all the other corrupt scrum bags who have created the worldwide melt down. These are the kinds of interests that are coming after us.
The “operative media” plays a major role. Mainstream papers are losing circulation, influence and advertising. Many like the Montreal Gazette have become cheap sensation seeking rags. They divert the public from their own dire situations by ganging up on the “Indians”, a target they think can’t defend themselves.
The Center for Public Integrity is a propagandist of racial hatred which is a precursor to genocide. They criminalize and slander us for whoever hired them to set us up for the kill. This group of media whores may be lobbying for Big Tobacco and the foundations that fund them. They are "generously" funded by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. NYC Mayor and billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, constantly condemns "Indians" and tobacco and hires journalistic “hit men” to assassinate both. Other donators are the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, JEHT Foundation, John D. and Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation, Park Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and PIERS Port Import Export Reporting Services.
Their propaganda does not mention that the police forces are involved in stealing our products and money such as the Ontario Provincial Police, Surete du Quebec, RCMP, NYS Troopers, U.S. and Canada Customs Border Patrol, Cornwall, Montreal and other city cops. They hijack our products and then sell them to their own customers. This is known as the silent “blue market”. Many of our people don’t get a summons to go to court to reclaim our possessions. We sometimes find our vehicles in the parking lots of various donut shops.
Big Tobacco companies such as Rothman’s, Imperial and RJ Reynolds are headquartered in Britain. They don’t want any competition or for Indigenous to profit from trade in our own products. They want to be the only game in town, make the rules for everybody and call in the military on some made up pretext.
Tobacco is legal. The fear is that the profits are being invested in our youth, families and communities which will make us stronger. Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island, is the richest territory in the world. The invaders want to keep us as the poorest. If we had a real share of our own resources, we would not have to resort to what they call the “underground economy”. We are not afraid to work in the light of day because we aren’t criminals.
This is not about lost revenue or health care expenses in the U.S. and Canada. It’s about loss of control over this aspect of our lives. The “extortion” they are crying over is chump change compared to the trillions of dollars they are stealing from us.
Yes, we have organized crime in our communities called “Indian Affairs” and other colonial agencies. Non-native business people and the colonial state, with the help of their “Indian” mules, use the protection of the colonial Indian Act and Federal Indian law “band” and “tribal” recognition to make money. They help build casinos and other developments on our lands from which we do not benefit or control. The “kingpins” are all on the outside. We’re left with trying to clean up their mess! [MNN “Canada & Big Tobacco..” 2/6/09].
Big Tobacco and their global cohorts want everybody in the world to be under their thumb or otherwise eliminated. They are trying to corner us and cut us off from any means to survive. The streets of Kahnawake, Akwesasne, Kanehsatake, Cattaraugus and Tuscarora are safer than any street in Montreal, New York, Buffalo or Washington, D.C. This fear mongering hyperbole by the journalistic “guns for hire” of the multinationals and their colonial agents means we better get ready to defend ourselves. A big attack by the combined forces of the U.S. and Canada may be coming our way soon!
MNN Staff, Mohawk Nation News & Native Pride http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ http://www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com/ katenies20@yahoo.com
kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Note: At this time your financial help is urgently needed and appreciated for the lawsuit against the Canadian government for assault of Indigenous women at the Cornwall border. 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 “General” category for more stories on this; 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.ph
; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
GLUTTONOUS SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH WHOSE GREED KNOWS NO BOUNDS: Prime Min. Stephen Harper pm@pm.ca; RJ. Reynolds America http://www.rjrt.com/, Salem NC; Rothman UK Holding Ltd. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/ 15 Hill St., London W1X 7FB 071-491-4366; Imperial Tobacco Group PLC http://www.imperial-tobacco.com/ P.O. Box 244, Upton Rd., Bristol BS99 7UJ +44-0-177-963-6636; See Rothmans UK Holdings Limited London (071) 491-4366 Fax (071) 493-8404; JOSEPH GOEBBELS SCHOOL OF DIARRHEA JOURNALISM: Center for Public Integrity www.publicintegrity.org; William “Who-needs-a-carton-of-Immodium-diarrhea-cure” Marsden wmarsden@thegazette.canwest.com; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health www.jhsph.edu; Carnegie Foundation http://www.carnegie.org/; Ford Foundation http://www.fordfound.org/; JHET Foundation http://www.jehtfoundation.org/; John D. & Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation www.found.org; Park Foundation info@parkfoundation.org; Rockefeller Foundation rockfound.org; PIERS info@piers.com.
Note: Upper Cut School of Journalism looking for suitable candidates with integrity.
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