Mohawk Nation News 'Pie in the Sky'

PIE IN THE SKY
By Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com
   

MNN  Dec. 16, 2011.  Can civilization based on the violent hierarchical system and the natural world exist side by side?  No!

How do Indigenous minds, bodies and society continue to live in reality?   What keeps some humans in slavery?

Hierarchical civilization is unhealthy unnatural crowded living, brought here by the invaders.  They gobble up resources.  People have to decide to either start sharing or stay on the take.   

Capitalist civilization depends on constant violence against people, land, water and wildlife.   Today people have to pay to exist on the earth, or armed men will take them and everything they have away.   

Long ago Mohawk artist and writer, Karonhiaktajeh, painted the “Sleeping Lion” with an Ongwehonwe face.  He said we were forced to become invisible to avoid the jaws of the hungry masses.  One day these visitors will be fighting each other.  We would then begin to stir.  Resistance does not have to be violent.  Just make it inconvenient. 

Fascism has taken over the US.  Genocide continues through depriving people of water, shelter, food, medical care and poisoning ofthe environment. 

Hierarchical ownership is when some individuals have more than they need.  Their control system is like a pyramid with a few bosses sitting at the top. Without gluttonous ownership hierarchy wouldn’t exist.   

The middle class impose pacifism.  The rulers give them power to make decisions on our behalf. Manufacturing, administration and labor have been moved to other countries.  Their money is in offshore accounts.  Now they are leaving.  Those left behind are losing their master sand destroy their civilization from the inside.

The war against man and nature is becoming savage.   Humans are being controlled by technology and artificial global markets.  

Can we free ourselves from this Frankenstein culture? 

We Indigenous have web-like relationships of inter-connected independent communities, made up of individuals, like an array of invisible knots. 

Units are equal. Social, political, economic, education and so on are structured circularly. 

Indigenous energy is based on the individual surrounded by family, clans, community and nation.  Strength comes from home and family, the strongest force in the natural world.     

Communication with outsiders is voluntary.  Soon each community must provide its own food, energy and heating. 

Information is power. 

In hierarchy the bosses want all the information.  It flows up and down, controlled by bureaucratic paths.  Bosses are told what they want to hear.  Organization spies report to them.  Collecting information is expensive. 

Small Indigenous networks keep daily information in the hands of the many, with less distortion.   

Like the human brain, connections are nurtured with sister communities to process information and pathways. 

Though Indigenous social, political and economic life are invisible, tribal and bandcouncils’ job is to report us to their colonial overseers.  Yet they know little about us.

The almost bankrupt US enterprise must mobilize all its resources at great cost to control its people. 

The fast flowing river has its natural destination.  We have to let go of the shore, push off to the middle, keep our eyes open and heads above water. Some will be afraid and try to hold onto the shore. 

Don’t look outside for leaders.  Be the person you think you are. 

The colonists have created great distress. Their people are seeking help. Their suicide phone lines are outsourced to India, where Mohammad listens to their problems.

They think they can fight nature and live happily ever after. 

An elder advised us, “All we can do at this time is try to hit the all seeing eye on the pyramid with a cream pie!” 

MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com  For more news, books, to donate tomaintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to www.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Categories “COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

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Censored News' Person of the Year: The Indigenous Woman

Censored News Person of the Year 2011: The Indigenous Woman

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, December 15, 2011

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Who made a difference this year?

The Indigenous Person of the Year, selected by readers of Censored News, is the Indigenous Woman.

Debra White Plume, Morning Star Gali, Waziyata Win, Tantoo Cardinal, Kahentinetha Horn and her daughter Dr. Ojistoh Horn, Corrina Gould, Kandi Mossett, Louise Benally, Buffy St Marie, Rigoberta Menchu, Hacha C Norris, Cheyenne Bellecourt Eagleman and many more were selected by readers as the Person of the Year. Censored News focuses on Indigenous Peoples and human rights.

Debra White Plume, Lakota grandmother and longtime activist from Pine Ridge, S.D., received the most nominations. Shown in the top left photo, White Plume, grandmother and voice against uranium mining on Lakota lands, was among those arrested this year at the White House during the action to halt the Tarsands and Keystone XL dirty oil pipeline during September.

Gwen Caldwell said that Debra White Plume was her top choice. "I selected Debra, because she sets an excellent example of what we as women should be doing and how we should be living. She is humble courageous, speaks her truth with honor and integrity!"

CJ Christian said, "Debra White Plume has made herself visible before the UN, fighting to save the Black Hills and to stop the Keystone pipeline. She works tirelessly for the First Nations People with sincere devotion, dedication, spirituality and integrity."

Roxann Karonhiarokwas selected Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, and her daughter, Dr. Ojistoh Horn, the first female Mohawk medical doctor from Kahnawake. Roxann described the mother and daughter as, “An amazing duet and strong women."

Roxann said, “I nominated Ojistoh because she delivers our babies. Being a matrilineal society she is responsible and takes a hands on role in the delivery of the mothers of our nation." She added, "That woman does not sleep. She does house calls and even looks after people during family events on her time off! I love that beautiful woman. She’s an inspiration and deserves it!”

"Kahentinetha is a woman who always worked for our people! I am honored to say I know these lovely ladies personally.”

Ben Manuel selected four dynamic, tireless human rights warriors: "Waziyata Win, Jessica Yee, Morning Star Gali and Debra White Plume." Richard Flittie added another voice of recognition for Morning Star Gali and Corrina Gould, both longtime activists struggling to save sacred places and reclaim Indigenous lands in California.

Manuel was among many who selected Dakota activist Waziyata Win for her work to bring Indigenous perspectives to the Decolonize/Occupy movement. (Shown in top right photo. Click for Oakland video.)

Among the dynamic Native American youths honored was Kandi Mossett, who hosted the Indigenous Environmental Network annual gathering in her homeland this summer, was arrested at the White House protesting the Tarsands Keystone XL pipeline in September, and was featured as a voice to protect Mother Earth at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, in December.

Hahana Bear selected Kandi, shown in lower left photo at top of page. Kandi was compelled to speak out after the deaths of friends and family from the oil and gas trucks, and devastating pollution, on her homeland, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations in North Dakota, also known as Three Affiliated Tribes and Fort Berthold.

Indigenous Women Honored

Ruth Nolan honored Cahuilla Indian Elder and Tribal Leader Dr. Katherine Siva Sauvel, Morongo/Cahuilla, who passed away this past November.

Nolan said, “I selected Dr. Katherine Siva Sauvel, Cahuilla elder. elder, teacher and Cahuilla culture bearer (1920-2011) because she has been instrumental in saving the endangered Cahuilla language and way of life, and dedicated her life to passing along the oral histories and language and culture of the Cahuilla into the modern world. She was the first American Indian inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, and is a co-founder of the Malki Museum, the first American Indian museum in the United States.

“I had the incredible honor and good fortune to have met and learned much from Dr. Sauvel through my California desert Indian scholarship and position at College of the Desert, and was and remain incredibly touched, professionally and personally, by her extreme generosity and gentle yet strong touch in all matters related to sharing with so many others her native culture, to which she dedicated her passion and life's work. She is deeply appreciated by people across the country and globe, and truly missed.”

Toni Reynolds selected Cheyenne Bellecourt Eagleman. “She tells it like it is. She doesn't care if people get upset with her or not. She fights for Native rights, works with young people, raises her own children as a single parent, and works with numerous other issues. She is very respected and well known.”

Richard Flittie honored Pte San Win. "She is a young Lakota woman who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation and works hard to take care of all the people there who need help. She is raising money for propane and for firewood and continues in her fathers footsteps on the political front for the Lakota people.Things like the Keystone XL pipeline. And she is always supporting and encouraging the carrying on of tradition and ceremony for her people."

Jeanne Combo selected Wangari Muta Maathai, who passed away in September of this year. She started the Green Belt Movement in Africa in 1977. She was honored for working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. "She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice."

Becka Nan Amos selected Hacha C. Norris. “Hacha is a strong and fearless woman who has taken her own education seriously -- and by this I mean learning truths and concepts the overculture has tried to hide and/or eradicate. She understands deeply the wrongness of the overculture and speaks out about it regularly with her actions as well as her words. I have learned so much from her, especially concerning my own white privilege -- and that's what I respect the most about her -- she's not afraid to call out people on the ways of thinking that we so badly need to change but often cannot even see. She's got guts, and not the greedy kind.”

Hacha C Norris, said, “Debra White Plume, Bertha Gutierrez, Buffy St. Marie, Tom BK Goldtooth, Alex White Plume, Kris Barney, Evo Morales, Subcomandante Marcos, Rigoberta Menchú, and yes all the 'Protestors' (whose names are many) who fight for Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, truth, justice and an end to capitalist exploitation and plunder of Mother Earth, and those who fight for food, heat, housing, education, jobs, health care and a voice.”

Bertha Gutierrez thanked Hacha C. Norris for selecting her. "I am humbled. All the people you have mentioned are people who inspire me and in no way shape or form do I feel I could fit in their shoes. Thank you for also inspiring me. Mi respeto para ti."

The women of the Blood Reserve are honored who faced off with oil and gas trucks this year in Alberta, Canada. On the southern border, O'odham Ofelia Rivas, and O'odham struggling against border agents and repression are honored. Northern Paiute traditional gatherer Wesley Dick, Kwassuh, is honored for refusing to accept the charges of Nevada Fish and Wildlife, and demanding justice. The longstanding efforts of Western Shoshone Carrie and Mary Dann are also recognized for their decades of struggle for the land and people. Lakotas Kent Lebsock, Debra White Plume and Alex White Plume, are honored for the Owe Aku International Justice Project.

The Navajo and Hopi of Black Mesa are honored who work together in their struggle to protect the land, air and water. Navajo Louise Benally and Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, are honored for speaking out at protests in December against the corporate profiteers, now coopting Arizona legislators, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Phoenix. All of the Akwesasne Mohawks and Lakotas at Rosebud and Pine Ridge are honored for working together to bring warm clothes and blankets to the people.

Native Environmental Activists and the Year of Struggle

Bolivian President Evo Morales and the tireless activists at the Indigenous Environmental Network and Native activists at Protect San Francisco Peaks actions also topped the list of nominations. President Morales welcomed Indigenous Peoples from around the world to Cochabamba, Bolivia, last year for the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.

Allison Hedge Coke selected President Morales this year “for valuing the right of the earth to live an to be protected, for continuing to create laws that affirm natural life, the planet. For being the son and uncle of his people, when need be. No question.”

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of IEN, and Klee Benally, Navajo activist at Protect the Peaks, were honored.

This year, IEN was part of the civil disobedience and arrest to halt the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House and were among the voices for Mother Earth at the UN Climate Summit COP 17 in South Africa. IEN held its annual gathering on the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, which is being devastated by oil and gas drilling. Photographer Ben Powless and IEN's Clayton Thomas Muller and Marty Cobenais are also honored for their tireless efforts for Mother Earth.

Klee Benally, longtime Navajo activist, was among the men and women who locked down to heavy machinery to halt the Snowbowl and desecration on sacred San Francisco Peaks in Arizona. Benally is also a musician in Navajo family band Blackfire and media activist at Indigenous Action Media in Flagstaff, Arizona. The action to lock down to heavy machinery to halt the destruction of the old growth pines on San Francisco Peaks, for the Snowbowl ski resort and the planned snowmaking from sewage water, was the top story, most accessed, at Censored News in 2011. San Francisco Peaks is sacred to 13 area Indian Nations and a place where medicine men gather healing plants and carry out healing ceremonies.

Sue Green selected Klee Benally. “A true grassroots hero that tirelessly works to protect the Sacred Peaks. His spirit has changed so many lives and continues to inspire indigenous youth through his example.”

Hahana Bear selected Debra White Plume, Clayton Thomas Muller and Tom BK Goldtooth. Then, especially for their humor, she also selected filmmaker Ryan Red Corn and activist Dallas Goldtooth. Recognizing the efforts of Tantoo Cardinal, Cree actress, she honored "all the beautiful, brave activists who were arrested to stop Tar Sands, Debra White Plume, Tantoo Cardinal and those taking direct action at the Save the Peaks actions."

Richard Flittie selected Norman 'Wounded Knee' De Ocampo of Vallejo, Calif. and recognized his longstanding efforts as defender of sacred places.

Leaders, teachers, reporters and activists

Amber Cheschilly selected a Dine' teacher. "Mr. Alfred Yazzie, my Navajo Culture and Heritage instructor at Mesa Community College! He definitely made me extra proud to be an American Indian."

Vicki Black sent a message of thanks to "all the Tribal College Students who took the time to talk with me about their college experiences -- my gratitude is deep."

Christine Karatnytsky said, "The Amazigh people of Libya have been inspirational."

Wayne Allcorn Bannatyne said, "Attawapiskat, all of them."

Kathryn Price NicDha na nominated Ryan Red Corn, Dallas Goldtooth, Miqizi Pensoneau and the strong, beautiful women who worked with them and the other 1491s to make their public service announcements about domestic violence.

Nancy Pontius, in Tucson, thanked Jose Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader and director of Indigenous Alliance without Borders. "Jose Matus, helped me with a prayer, a lot of people, always inspired by Leonard Peltier. Always Joy Harjo, John Trudell, Leslie Marmon Silko, great thinkers and writers, many friends who have really been there for me in hard times, too many to list, I am grateful." She also selected the Leonard Peltier Offense Defense Committee.

Ben Manuel "Santi Hitorangi of Rapa Nui. All of the people of Occupied Palestine. Whose every breath is an exercise of Human Rights."

Allison Harris-Caribbean Rose said those topping the list were the activists fighting the Tarsands and the Keystone XL pipeline. “Debra White Plume, Clayton Thomas Muller, Tantoo Cardinal, Bill McKibben, fighting to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline."

Allison also selected Don Coyhis for the White Bison Wellbriety program.

Tucson reporter ‎David Abie Morales, the voice of Three Sonorans at Tucson Citizen, was recognized for his struggle against Arizona racism and for ethnic studies. Morales was nominated by Cassandra De La Serna.

Copyright Censored News

Censored News Best of the Best Print Edition 2011

THANK YOU!

Without funds, Censored News can not continue

After five years of publishing, Censored News can not continue unless there are donations to cover the costs. The greatest need is for a laptop, but even small donations for phone calls are encouraging, and the show of support is really appreciated.

Censored News is now fundraising for its Best of 2011 print edition. Be the first to receive it! Please donate through PayPal below in the column on the left, or mail to Brenda Norrell, PMB 132, 405 E. Wetmore Rd., Ste 117, Tucson, Ariz. 85705 Thank you! brendanorrell@gmail.com

TOP STORIES CENSORED NEWS 2011
The top story at Censored News for 2011 is from the activists at San Francisco Peaks:
NUMBER ONE: 'Locked Down: Protest Halts Snowbowl'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/locked-down-protest-halts-snowbowl.html
Number Two: 'Lakotas to Diane Sawyer: Let Lakotas tell their story'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/10/lakotas-to-diane-sawyer-let-lakotas.html
Update: Video from Lakota youths to Diane Sawyer: 'We're more than that!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhribaNXr7A

De-Occupy O'odham Lands: In defense of the land and peoples



Dr. Julian Kunnie: Anarchy and Democracy in America

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Listen to this gathering at Censored News Blogtalk Radio: Audio Part I, II and III
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell
TUCSON --  Author John Zerzan and Professor Dr. Julian Kunnie joined O’odham at the gathering, De-Occupy O’odham Lands. Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O’odham VOICE against the Wall, welcomed all to O’odham land, as they gathered at the Dry River Radical Resource Center. Rivas said it was International Human Rights Day and pointed out that those rights apply only to a few in America.

Julian Rivas, O'odham, said O’odham are protecting their traditions and sacred way of life, the Himdag. “We’ve been here 500 years and we’re going to be here 500 more years.”

Julian Rivas said the border fence has come across O’odham land dividing animals, human, ideals and governments. He said, however, that the border does not exist for O’odham.

“That does not exit for us. We are still one and always will be.”

Recognizing that Indigenous Peoples were the first peoples of this land, John Zerzan, author living in Oregon, spoke at the gathering. Zerzan said Indigenous Peoples must be listened to, and included in the consultations at the current Occupy movement, in order for the movement to be viable. Zerzan described the recent vote at Occupy Oakland, where the request to change the name to Decolonize Oakland was narrowly defeated. Zerzan described how on Sunday, Dec 4, 2011, Ohlone, original peoples of the Oakland area, were among those who presented the proposal to the General Assembly to change the name from Occupy Oakland to Decolonize Oakland. The vote was less than the 90 percent necessary for passage.

“Free the people, free the land,” said Dr. Kunnie, as he urged for freedom for political prisoners. Dr. Kunnie began with recognizing the bounties of Mother Earth and describing the rape and destruction of Mother Earth. “She gives us life, oxygen. Without her turning we would not be here.”

Dr. Kunnie thanked the Tohono O’odham, and the neighboring Indian Nations, recognizing the first people of this region of Turtle Island. “Mother Earth does not recognize borders. That is why we say, ‘Down with the US Mexico border!’ ‘Down with the US Mexico border!’ ‘Down with the wall.’ We thought the wall fell in Berlin in 1989, only to be erected right here in Nogales; this electrified wall. Why do we have walls that separate us?”

Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and Bradley Manning were among the long list of political prisoners that Dr. Kunnie named.

Dr. Kunnie said the Declaration on Human Rights states that prisoners should not be placed in solitary confinement for more than 15 years. However, in the US some have been in solidarity confinement for more than 30 years. He described how people of color and the poor are targeted for incarceration, and then suffer the most, in US prisons.

“This marks the repression of the state,” Dr. Kunnie said, speaking out against control, colonization and Christopher Columbus.

After thanking the Dry River Radical Collective for hosting the event, Dr. Kunnie discussed the words “anarchy” and “democracy.”

“In fact, there’s a play on words, because anarchy implies total chaos, lawlessness and destruction. But all that, that we have seen, has come out through United States democracy.”

“The laws of the state have been laws of repression.”

 Indigenous Peoples, he said, are barred from carrying out their ceremonies in this repressive police state. In Arizona, Indigenous Peoples are prevented from carrying out their sacred ceremonies on San Francisco Peaks because of the Snowbowl.

“We don’t pay rent to Indigenous Peoples, but we do pay rent to large corporations like Bank of America.”

“The earth is respecter of no boundaries, no borders, ask her.”

Listen to more of Dr. Kunnie’s talk on Censored News Blogtalk Radio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell

About the speakers:

John Zerzan has been active in the anti-authoritarian movement from the ‘60s on and has articulated a critique of technology and civilization that has deepened and sharpened hostility to capitalism. In recent years he has been published in the theory journal TELOS, the Detroit publication Fifth Estate, Eugene’s Green Anarchy, and Species Traitor (an anarcho-primitivist journal). His books include Elements of Refusal (1988, 1998), Future Primitive (1994), Against Civilization (1999), Running on Emptiness (2002), Twilight of the Machines (2008), and Origins: A John Zerzan Reader (2010). Future Primitive Revisited will appear in Spring 2012. His weekly Anarchy Radio broadcast streams live on KWVA radio, Eugene. Oregon, USA; past shows are available at www.johnzerzan.net

Julian Kunnie is a Professor of Religious Studies/Classics at the University of Arizona He is the author of numerous articles in various internationally recognized journals and books. His books include Indigenous Wisdom and Power: Affirming our Knowledge Through Narratives (2006), Is Apartheid Really Dead? Pan Africanist Working Class Cultural Critical Perspectives (2000), and Models of Black Theology; Issues of Class, Culture, and Gender (1994). His forthcoming book is Globalization and Its Victims: Wars Against the Earth and the Impoverished of the World (Rowman and Littefield). He is currently working on a prison research project that interrogates issues of race, class, and gender and is geared toward preventing the incarceration of youth, particularly those of color, entitled Enchained Humanity: A Comparative Study of the Infliction of Incarceration on Persons in United States and South African Prisons.