AIM West Conference Nov. 21-- 22, 2015 Schedule Update

Photo Brenda Norrell AIM West 2014

Govinda's Earthcycles will livestream the 2015 AIM West Conference in San Francisco.

Live on Censored News Saturday and Sunday.

Welcome to the annual AIM-WEST Coast Conference! This year’s conference held in San Francisco November 21-22, 2015 is dedicated to the I Will Clemency Campaign for Leonard Peltier!

The Conference Agenda provides a guide to topics that will be discussed. There are many issues to be covered so please be thoughtful and respectful of others in your presentations and remarks. Your cooperation is appreciated. The public is invited.

AIM-WEST will be live webcast streaming the conference to afford others an opportunity to be part of the discussions and listen to the speakers. When you speak be sure introduce yourself and enjoy the camaraderie as we build alliances across Indian Land in the promotion of Indigenous peoples right to self-determination.

AGENDA

Saturday, November 21: (Answer Coalition at 2969 Mission Street)

8 am A special ceremony will be held to honor and celebrate the life of Darrell Standing Elk who passed to spirit world, September 19, 2015. AIM Elder and spiritual advisor Lee Polanco*tbc will lead the solemn occasion. We encourage friends and relations to share their experiences and moments they had with Ta Kola Ota. Drum, Sage, Mejica Traditional dancers Teo Kalli;

9 am Welcoming words and introduction to the conference by Antonio Gonzales, Director AIM-WEST

9:30 Solidarity statements from supporters and allies.

Panel Discussions

10:00 Human Rights Defenders: Leonard Peltier and “I Will” Executive Clemency campaign, art censorship and 1st Amendment by National Lawyers Guild, Sampson Wolfe Bay Area Support Group, and with Rigo 23 with art project proposal to build statue of Leonard Peltier;

10:45 Youth, Restorative Justice: Juvenile Hall, services, job placement, and native lives matter, police misconduct. Presenters: Robert Castro, Felipe Hernandez, Ms. Destiny Villa, Adam Anda;

11:30 Sacred Sites and Sacred Runs: Grave Lives matter, Peace and Dignity Run, and role of State Office of Historic Preservation. Jose Malvido, Doug Duncan* tbc, Morning Star, Tribal Preservation Officer*tbc, Jim Brown*tbc and Bloody Island;

12:15 Lunch (Film screening to be announced)

1:30 Border Relations: Military Operations and Reservation life, sovereignty and water as humanitarian aid. Presenters Michael Flores, and an Apache video introduction.

2:15 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA): *Lalo Franco and Cristina Gonzales* tbc;

3:00 Re-writing our history: Organizing for “Indigenous Peoples Day” declared in states, cities, schools, jr. colleges and universities. Presenters Erika Hernandez Ramirez, Hernan Rai Zaragoza Lemus, look at Santa Rosa Jr. College and Albuquerque, New Mexico;

3:45 Access to media: U streaming and live streaming events wave of the future; marches, protests. rallies, conferences. Presenters Frank Sterling and Steve Zeltzer (KPFA radio);

4:30 Environmental and Extractive industries, Keystone XL Pipeline, COP-21 Paris Climate Change demonstrations (UNFCCC), Water, Sovereignty, and Treaties. Presenter Penny Opal Plant;

5:15 Closing comments: (Dinner at Inter-Tribal Friendship House Oakland, 6-7 pm) Sunday, November 22: (California Institute of Integral Studies 1453 Mission Street)

8 am Traditional dancers and singers welcome participants;

9 am Introduction, and welcome blessings by Pomo Elder Thomas Leon Brown-Cultural Director Elem;

9:15 Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Roxanne D. Ortiz, author, internationalist;

10:00 Legacy and Canonization of Junipero Serra: Tell the Truth Campaign, Papal Bulls and Doctrine of Discovery, strategy beyond sainthood. Presenters Chairman Valentin Lopez, Elias Castillo*tbc;

11:00 Facilitated discussion on revising California’s 4th Grade curriculum to tell the true story of the missions;

11:00 Treaties and Unratified treaties in California. *

12 Lunch Film: “Doctrine of Discovery, Unmasking the Domination Code”

1:15 Mascots in sports: Organizing for Social Justice; bay area public schools, national sports teams. Dr. Blu Wakpah, Tria Wakpah, Angel Hart, Philip Mehas, with Molly Batchelder;

2 pm Closing comments and blessings.

.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT Screening in Denver Crying Earth Rise Up

STOP URANIUM MINING! PROTECT SACRED WATER! ALLY UP!  View this email in your browser November 18, 2015 5:30 p.m. Denver Auraria Higher Education Center,  1201 Larimer St, (CU Denver Student Commons Building) Room 2500A (map and directions) (parking map) TOMORROW NIGHT WEDNESDAY 11/17 DENVER PLEASE COME Documentary Film Screening in Downtown Denver Denver Auraria Campus Screening of Crying Earth Rise Up "Some day the Earth will weep.  She will beg for her life.  She will cry with tears of blood.  You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die.  And when she dies, you too will die." John Hollow Horn website for the film: www.cryingearthriseup.com get connected on FB: www.facebook.com/cryingearthriseup link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJJLn-P0RVw Join the University of Colorado Denver Native American Student Organization (NASO) and the Auraria Climate Justice Coalition on November 18th for a evening of interactive dialogue, food, music provided by Oyuhpe Singers from the Lakota territory and a film screening of the documentary Crying Earth Rise Up! This event will be a rare opportunity to hear from people on the front lines of the struggle against the ongoing legacies of colonialism. There will be opportunities to engage in a dialogue with filmmakers and land defenders working to protect their ways of life.    This Screening is Sponsored by: Native American Student Organization and Auraria Climate Justice Coalition contact AurariaClimateJustice@gmail.com or call Owe Aku IJP at 646-233-4406 In Association with: Prairie Dust Films and Owe Aku International Justice Project When Debra White Plume's drinking water tests high for radiation, she sets out to determine the cause. What she finds alarms her. A nearby uranium mining operation is extracting ore from deep in the ground by tapping the High Plains/Ogllala Aquifer, a huge underground cache of water covering 174,000 square miles from Texas to South Dakota which supplies drinking water to 82 percent of the people who live within the aquifer boundary. The mine's planned expansion further threatens the aquifer. Elisha Yellow Thunder intimately understands the dangers of contaminated water. A young mother and a geology student, she unknowingly drank water with high levels of radiation while pregnant with her first daughter, whose severe medical anomalies are life-threatening. Yellow Thunder scours rock outcroppings near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, gathering and testing ore samples. Her grief over her daughter's illness and her fears that the health of her people are likewise in jeopardy, drives her to search for answers. Residents living in Crawford, NE, the town nearest to the mine, have historically supported it for its positive financial impact, but recent questions about the mine's safety are raising doubt about the wisdom of tolerating its continued operation. The Auraria Campus is a dynamic academic environment shared by three separate and distinct institutions of higher learning:   - Community College of Denver   - Metropolitan State University of Denver   - University of Colorado Denver The collective student population is nearly 44,000 with an additional four to five thousand faculty and staff.   Copyright © 2015 Owe Aku International Justice Project, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are an ally in our struggle to preserve sacredwater Our mailing address is: Owe Aku International Justice Project 7685 South Olive Circle Centennial, CO 80112

Stand with Treaty 8 First Nations against Site C Dam

FBI interferes with Peltier art display Washington state

By Peter Clark, Co-Director, International Leonard Peltiercontact@whoisleonardpeltier.info; Web:  www.whoisleonardpeltier.info


FBI interferes with exhibit of work by the renowned Native American artist Leonard Peltier
An art exhibit commemorating National Native American Month at the state Department of Labor and Industries building, Tumbwater, Washington, is being dismantled in response to complaints received from law enforcers.
"This is overt government censorship and it's unconstitutional," said Peter Clark, co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. 
"Former agents of the FBI, joined by State police officers, have imposed their personal views on the citizens of the State of Washington.  It's ironic that in celebration of Native American Month, the government is suppressing freedom of expression by a Native American.  But everyone should be alarmed by this occurrence.  Once you allow the censorship of an artist by government, you give it the power to censor everyone."
Those opposing the installation of the artwork were not offended by the content, which reflects Native American culture, but the artist.  Leonard Peltier, who maintains his innocence, was convicted in connection with the 1976 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.
"We are certain that had Peltier gone to trial with his co-defendants, who were acquitted on grounds of self defense; had he been allowed to present all of the evidence in his defense; had a racist juror exposed during trial not been allowed to remain on the panel; and had critical ballistics evidence reflecting his innocence not been withheld, Leonard Peltier would be a free man today."
Appellate courts have repeatedly acknowledged evidence of government misconduct in the Peltier case—including knowingly presenting false statements to a Canadian court to extradite Mr. Peltier to the United States, and forcing witnesses to lie at trial.  The federal prosecutor has twice admitted that the government "can't prove who shot those agents".
According to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals "the FBI used improper tactics in securing Peltier's extradition from Canada and in otherwise investigating and trying the Peltier case."  The court concluded that the government withheld evidence from the defense favorable to Peltier "which cast a strong doubt on the government's case," and that had this other evidence been brought forth "there is a possibility that a jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier". 
As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "…Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Leonard Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." 
Imprisoned for nearly 40 years, Peltier—71 years old and in declining health—has been designated a political prisoner by Amnesty International. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and others—including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of his appeals—have all called for Peltier's immediate release.