Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

March 17, 2016

Mohawk Nation News: UNSOLVED MURDERS IN AKWESASNE 1990

The Big Lie: US homeless and drone assassinations


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

When you are traveling poor, homeless people cross your path often. Once there, in your memory, they do not leave.
On the streets of San Diego, they sleep on the sidewalks, just outside the coffee shops selling over-priced lattes and stale scones.
In the Amtrak station in Los Angeles, they sleep in the large stuffed chairs, clutching their minimum fare tickets, which allows them a few hours sleep. Nearby, the Birds of Paradise are in bloom.
But it is back home in Tucson where I hear their voices, riding the city buses.
Waiting at the bus stop in the rain, a young boy runs up to his mother.
"They said we can sleep there tonight!" Mom, the boy and his teenage brother are excited. They can sleep on the cold concrete slab of the windowless self-storage unit tonight. They pile their wet blankets into black plastic bags.
This is the story of the myth that all is well in the United States.
On the city bus, another day, a weary middle aged man is thankful for the half sandwich he received at a shelter.
"It doesn't do much for my family though."
Outside, a teenage girl comes out from the shrubs where she sleeps, peering out into the world that has betrayed her.
This is all one way the US has failed its people with the great lie.
Another is with the killer drones, the targeted assassinations that murder women and children at weddings, in their homes, and even a US teenager in a cafe.
Obama has blood on his hands for this.
We all do.
If we do not speak out, share our voices and our outrage, then we too become the system sending wet children to sleep on concrete slabs; we too become the trigger man seated behind a computer in Tucson or Nevada, sipping coffee and chatting about the weather, while assassinating a group of women and children celebrating the wedding of a loved one, with flowers in their hands, in another desert town.

March 16, 2016

Attorneys seek clemency for Leonard Peltier

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15 March 2016
Contact: Peter Clark, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, 202 Harvard SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, (505) 217-3612; contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info

Attorneys seek clemency for Leonard Peltier

On February 17, 2016, attorneys for Leonard Peltier submitted a formal application for executive clemency to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice.

An innocent man, Native American activist Leonard Peltier was wrongfully convicted in connection with the shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1977.

Imprisoned for over 40 years-currently at the federal prison in Coleman, Florida-Peltier has been designated a political prisoner by Amnesty International. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and others-including Judge Gerald Heaney (8th Circuit Court of Appeals) who sat as a member of the court in two of Peltier's appeals-have all called for his immediate release. Widely recognized for his humanitarian works and a six-time Nobel Prize nominee, Peltier also is an accomplished author and painter.

Casey Camp joins Amazonian Women for Defense of Earth




    

by WECAN International
Dear Friends and Allies, 

Last week, a Women's Earth and Climate Action Network delegation joined Indigenous women of the Ecuadorian Amazon for a historic International Women's Day mobilization in the jungle town of Puyo and the country's capital, Quito.

Women leaders of seven Amazonian nationalities including the Andoa, Achuar, Kichwa, Shuar, Shiwiar, Sapara and Waorani people stood together for an all day forum and march denouncing newly signed oil contracts in the Amazon Rainforest. They called for respect for the rights of Indigenous peoples and local women land and community defenders, who have been putting their bodies on the line for years to halt oil drilling across their traditional territories. A tribute was also held in honor of Berta Caceres, an Indigenous environmental leader killed the previous week over her work defending rights and territories from privatization, plantations, and mega dam projects in Honduras.

An estimated 500 people took to the streets and held forums and strategy sessions with fierce conviction, making it clear that women are not just victims of the fossil fuel industries, but rather vital solution bearers and powerful agents of change and restoration of balance between communities and the Earth. Ponca Nation leader, Casey Camp-Horinek of the WECAN Delegation was honored by the Amazonian women and invited to lead ceremony and walk at the front of the march.

The women showed great unity and strength, and their voices and demands are now being shared widely. WECAN is working ongoingly with women of several nationalities, including the Sapara and Kichwa of Sarayaku, supporting them in next steps to continue gatherings and movement building amongst Amazonian women Earth defenders, bring elevated global attention to this crisis, and advocate for change within social, political and economic forums.

It is time to keep the oil in the ground in the Amazon and across the world. It is time to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples and women, and to honor the frontline women working to protect the Amazon and it's vital living cycles, upon which we all depend.

Learn more about the WECAN delegation and International Women's Day actions in Ecuador via our recent blog, EcoWatch article, and press release.

To contribute your voice to the movement to stop oil extraction in the Amazon and stand with women defenders, sign and share the critical petition here - then take a moment to donate in support of justice for the peoples and lands of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Women leaders of seven nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon present in advance of the International Women's Day - No Extraction in the Amazon march in Puyo, Ecuador
Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women, Ecuador speaks during the International Women's Day forum. More than 40% of her people's traditional territory is threatened by the latest oil contract between the Ecuadorian government and Chinese oil company Andes Petroleum
Members of the WECAN delegation marching with Rosa Ruiz, Sapara leader from Torimbo, Ecuador 
Waorani women leaders share advice, reflections and calls to action. Their land in the Northern Amazon has already been devastated, so they are standing with their neighbors in the South to stop the expansion of extraction
Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca nation leader and WECAN delegation member/Special Projects Advisor stands in solidarity and shares her experiences of environmental genocide at the hands of the fossil fuel industry in Oklahoma, USA
'Women of Ecuadorian Amazon and International Allies Stand For Protection of the Amazon Rainforest' March 9 report back event at FLASCO University, Quito - From left to right: Natalia Greene, Osprey Orielle Lake and Casey Camp Horinek 
Narcissa Mashenta, Shuar leader of Morona-Santiago, Ecuador speaks at the FLASCO University event, Quito
The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, Amazon Watch and women leaders of the Kichwa of Sarayaku and Waorani people prepare to march in Puyo
Thank you for your continued support of our work for climate justice and care for the Earth and all generations, 
 
 Osprey Orielle Lake and the WECAN International Team
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