Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

June 20, 2017

Zapatistas 'The Time Has Come' Indigenous Council of Government

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Video Published on Jun 2, 2017

On May 28, 2017 at CIDECI-Unitierra, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Maribel, of the Popoluca town of Veracruz, read the final declaration of the constituent assembly of the Indigenous Council of Government.
For more information on this process visit https://subversiones.org/archivos/129256
El 28 de mayo de 2017 en CIDECI-Unitierra, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, la compañera Maribel, del pueblo popoluca de Veracruz, leyó la declaratoria final de la asamblea constitutiva del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno.
Para más información sobre este proceso visita https://subversiones.org/archivos/129256

The Time Has Come

The Time Has Come
To To the People of Mexico,
To the Peoples of the World,
To the Media,
To the National and International Sixth,
We send our urgent word to the world from the Constitutive Assembly for the Indigenous Governing Council, where we met as peoples, communities,
nations, and tribes of the National Indigenous
Congress: Apache, Amuzgo, Chatino, Chichimeca, Chinanteco, Chol, Chontal of Oaxaca, Chontal of Tabasco, Coca, Cuicateco, Mestizo, Hñähñü, Ñathö, Ñuhhü, Ikoots, Kumiai, Lakota, Mam, Matlazinca, Maya, Mayo, Mazahua, Mazateco, Me`phaa, Mixe, Mixe-Popoluca, Mixteco, Mochó, Nahua or Mexicano, Nayeri, Popoluca, Purépecha, Q´anjob´al, Rarámuri, Tének, Tepehua, Tlahuica, Tohono Odham, Tojolabal, Totonaco, Triqui, Tseltal, Tsotsil, Wixárika, Xi´iuy, Yaqui, Binniza, Zoque, Akimel O´otham, and Comkaac.

Arizona Happy to Sacrifice Navajos to Keep Dirty Coal Fired Power Plant Open -- Letter


Roberta Blackgoat, with her son Danny Blackgoat, and Mike
Flores, Tohono O'odham, protesting Peabody Coal and depletion
of the aquifer in Flagstaff. Photo by Brenda Norrell


Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The following letter from the Arizona Corporation Commission to the Secretary of Interior reveals the fact that Arizona was always happy to sacrifice Navajos in order to receive its dirty, coal-fired electricity for Southern Arizona.
Arizona politicians, along with corrupt attorneys and irresponsible media, were responsible for the relocation of more than 14,000 Navajos in order to clear the land for Peabody Coal to mine Black Mesa.
This coal has long powered the Navajo Generating Station on the Navajo Nation, poisoning the air, water and rupturing the land. It depleted the aquifer and caused widespread critical health problems.
This dirty energy resulted in 40 years of misery for Navajos on Big Mountain and Black Mesa.
The Navajo Nation Council and President Russell Begaye -- who rallied at Standing Rock last year to fight Dakota Access Pipeline -- are now working to keep this dirty coal power plant open.
It is one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the world.

http://docket.images.azcc.gov/0000180520.pdf.

ARIZONA CORPORATION Commission’s letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on a 5-year "settlement" proposal.
It's Time to Stop and Take a Breath on Arizona's Power Future

The negotiations over saving Navajo Generating Station (NGS) have ended and the Navajo Tribal Council is left with a seemingly unamendable extension agreement to keep the coal-fired power plant in partial service for another two years. With no room to alter the proposal in the Navajo Tribal Council and only a few weeks to consider it before the Salt River Project (SRP) proceeds with decommissioning, it is almost humorous to consider these coincidences as anything but pre-planned. This scripted process, predicated on SRP's imposed urgency forgets the 2013 verbal agreement and handshake to keep the plant open until 2044 as part of a multi- owner settlement to close 1/3 of the plant to meet EPA regulations.

So here we have it: A sad, short stop to a longstanding institution that is responsible for what Arizona is today. Arguably, without NGS there would hardly be a Valley of the Sun. Some of Arizona's greatest statesman-Rep. John Rhodes, Gov. Paul Fannin, Sens Barry Goldwater and Carl Hayden and Interior Secretary Udall -stepped up to the plate to make sure the power for our Colorado River water allocation would be "home grown" in Arizona.1 NGS allowed Arizona to be self-reliant by using our own coal and our own plant in unison with our Native American communities to provide for our state's young economy. The Sierra Club and business community alike, rejoiced over this cooperation.
Continue reading below:

June 19, 2017

Dineh John Redhouse -- In Honor of Warrior Lehman Brightman


In Honor

We have lost another great warrior with the passing of Dr Lehman Brightman, Sr. Lehman or Lee, La Nada Means, and other militant activist-warriors in the San Francisco area boldly founded the United Native Americans (UNA) in the summer of 1968. As a college freshman, I will always remember his strong militant leadership and voice when we protested the anti-Indian presence of Secretary of Interior Walter Hickel (a pro-termination enemy of the People) and corrupt Vice President Spiro Agnew during the annual convention of the National Congress of American Indians in Albuquerque in October, 1969. In our direct action protest, we even took it to the streets when we blocked their motorcade procession from the airport to downtown before being surrounded and brutalized by armed security guards. Later, however, we managed to boo (or heckle) Hickel off stage at the convention. And I will never forget the powerful and eloquent speech he delivered in that packed conference room at the Motor Inn in Window Rock in August, 1970 on the need for militance, always, in the course of our activist work and the necessity of taking the strongest possible action in defense of native peoples and lands throughout the Americas. In January, 1978, I met him again at the Albuquerque Indian School auditorium when he spoke of his continuing work—as an activist and a scholar—documenting and exposing the horrific environmental and health impacts of uranium development on Navajo and Pueblo lands and the criminal motives behind the illegal mass sterilization of native women. I continued to follow and support his life’s work until 2011 when he suffered a crippling stroke and could no longer serve native people. A true warrior, he sacrificed and gave to his people. He gave and gave until he couldn’t give anymore. Like Herb Blatchford, Clyde Warrior, Mel Thom, and other great visionary leaders of the Red Power era, Dr. Lehman Brightman will always be remembered for his remarkable work and enduring legacy.

All Our Relations,
John Redhouse



Thank you John Redhouse, Dine', for sharing your memories of Dr. Lehman Brightman, who passed to the Spirit World on Sunday afternoon.