Sunset at Peace Camp, Nuclear Test Site, by Bad Bear

Photos by Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Western Shoshone

The Western Shoshone Prayer Walk and Run is camped across from the Nuclear Test Site and Yucca Mountain tonight. It is also called Mercury, Nevada  -- Buck Sampson, Paiute

The Last Train to Los Angeles

Yaqui Ceremonial Leader Jose Matus
Photo by Brenda Norrell, Zapatista Village, Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas

Acoma Pueblo Poet and Writer Simon Ortiz said of Jose Matus, "He was one heck of a fighter, for sure! He kept the Indigenous presence in Tucson region going, no matter what. He was one who believed, No matter what: we are Indigenous. Yes, I believe him. And, yes, we believe him. Why not. We are Indigenous. No matter what. Thank you, Jose."

The Last Train to Los Angeles

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

This is what they called out, on this cold night in Flagstaff, "Last Train to Los Angeles." It has a poetic ring to it. My mind is not on Los Angeles, or the train, but on a writer and a great friend, both who left us too soon.

When Charles Bowden wrote about the Sonoran Desert, no one did it better. When Chuck flopped down for a night's sleep on the desert, in that rattlesnake infested desert, with an eye out for Bighorn Sheep, Chuck made you love and fear the Sonoran Desert. And maybe it made you fear Chuck just a little too. Really, who would sleep on the desert sand surrounded by rattlers.

It was the gracious, and funny, Charles Bowden that I had the gift of visiting with over dinner in a Mexican cafe during the Earth First trial in Prescott in the early 1990s. The Earth Firsters were there, and Charles was just off the anti-whaling ship Sea Shepherd. Someone mentioned that the thrashing open waters in violent weather, and the harshness of fighting whalers, was far from the romantic image that most of us imagined.

Sitting in the El Minuto Cafe the other day in Tucson, I was remembering Charles Bowden, and was wondering why he had laid down and died. He was 69 and had just moved to Las Cruces after a lifetime in Tucson. There were too many writers and friends that had died along the border, and the cause of death never seemed clear enough.

Over the albondigas soup and quesadilla, the lunch special, another wave of sadness came over me as I realized there was no chance my friend Jose Matus was going to walk in the door of the cafe, as he had done so many times.
When he was a young man, Yaqui Spiritual Leaders asked Jose to travel south to the Yoeme villages in Mexico and bring the Medicine People, Deer Dancers, to Arizona to lead the Ceremonies. Jose spent his life doing this, driving six hours to the south near the Pacific Coast, and battling U.S. Border agents at Nogales to bring the Spiritual Leaders across the U.S. Border to lead Ceremonies.
On one of these trips, Jose had a massive heart attack at the border. Still, he survived and kept going a few more years.
Jose took his journey at age 66, while I was gone in December, but together, we had taken journeys spanning 23 years, beginning with a delegation of Tohono O'odham, Yaqui, Dakota and Hopi to the Zapatistas in the heart of the Lacandon Jungle in Chiapas in 1995. The delegation was asked to serve as human shields because the military was assassinating Zapatistas.
Years later, Jose happened off the same plane in La Paz, Bolivia, just before I had a heart attack and helped me make it on to Cochabamba for the Mother Earth Conference in 2010. And in between there was a grand trip to the Yaqui villages in Sonora, and many more journeys, avoiding the border patrol and unjustified arrest.

But this day, Jose would not be happening by while I was eating albondigas. We wouldn't be laughing this day.

Still, as I remember the great prose of Charles Bowden, enticing me one more time to go into that vast desert alone, and as I remember laughing with Jose Matus, there is this richness of memory, and of journeys.

So when the train guy calls out, "Last train to Los Angeles," the memories of their greatness fill my mind, and once again there is this journey.

Simon J. Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo poet, writer,  said, "I learned 3 or 4 years ago from Brenda Norrell's website that Jose Matus passed away. I miss him. I had not seen him in a couple of years I think. Since I did a daytime event in South Tucson 2 years ago. 1 year ago? I'm getting older too, just like him. And I forget too much and too many things too easily.

Jose weathered a heart attack or two in the past as you know, but I guess it was time for him to take a rest. He was one heck of a fighter, for sure! He kept the Indigenous presence in Tucson region going, no matter what. He was one who believed, No matter what: we are Indigenous. Yes, I believe him. And, yes, we believe him. Why not. We are Indigenous. No matter what. Thank you, Jose."
Notes:
The Literary Legacy of Charles Bowden:
https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tsusm/00085/tsu-00085.html

Brenda Norrell began as a news reporter at Navajo Times during the 18 years she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a stringer for AP and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated in 2006. She created Censored News as a result. It is now in its 12th year with 18 million pageviews, with no ads or revenues.

Copyright Brenda Norrell

Lisa DeVille -- 'Will Chairman Fox be a Protector on EPA Committee'

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Lisa DeVille's response to MHA Nation Chairman Mark Fox Named to National EPA Advisory Committee

By Lisa Deville, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara
Censored News

When Chairman Fox campaigned on his bid for chairman, he ran a platform on protecting tribal lands and transparency. It's been 4 years and we have not seen much change from the last administration. We have seen a lot more money funneled through our Tribal Business Council that has been squandered on leisure rather than developing a sound economy for our people or protecting our natural resources. Like past chairmen, it seems that our leaders would prefer to listen to millionaires and white consultants over our own people. I hope that in this new level of representation for MHA people, Chairman Fox will demand that the Federal Government protect the trust responsibility of all tribal members, not only the greed of our government leaders. We will hold our leaders accountable if our children do not have clean water, land, and air.

Contact Information: press@epa.gov Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Chairman Mark Fox named to national EPA advisory committee DENVER (May 11, 2018) – Today, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the appointment of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Chairman Mark Fox of Parshall, N.D., to the Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC). The 34-member LGAC helps EPA develop strong partnerships with local governments to provide more efficient and effective environmental protection at the community, state, and federal level. EPA is committed to collaborating with states and local governments in the spirit of cooperative federalism to build on their work to achieve cost reductions and better allocate resources. Improvements to public health and the environment are best achieved when EPA works together with states, tribes, and communities to address environmental issues through trust, collaboration, and partnership. "EPA's efforts to protect public health and the environment are most effective when the Agency works cooperatively with state and local governments," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. "I look forward to working with the committee members on important environmental issues while developing stronger and more robust partnerships across states, tribes, and local communities." "Chairman Fox has valuable knowledge and experience working on issues facing tribal nations," said EPA Regional Administrator Doug Benevento. "His familiarity with these issues, along with his work developing small businesses, will provide essential representation to the committee." As the elected chair of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Chairman Fox works on issues including energy, water development, and intergovernmental affairs. From 2004-2005, he assisted with the MEC Business Incubation program to assist development of federally-funded program whose purpose is to assist Native American small businesses, nation-wide. The panel was selected based on their demonstrated leadership experience, proven record of service to their communities, and involvement in effective environmental protection services and programs at the community, state, and federal level. Chartered in 1993 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Local Government Advisory Committee provides independent and objective policy advice to the EPA Administrator. The committee intends to meet in early summer to begin their work. For more information and to see the full list of newly appointed LGAC and SCAS members, please visit http://www.epa.gov/ocir/scas_lgac/lgac_index.htm . ######

Balance and Survival -- O'odham Ofelia Rivas on Tiokasin's First Voices Radio

Ofelia Rivas photo copyright Jason Jaacks

The Christian missionaries enslaved and tortured them. The US government imposed a BIA tribal government that is complicit with the U.S. Border Patrol. Still, traditional O'odham survive with their songs and ceremonies in their homeland.

First Voices Radio hosted by Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Lakota of Cheyenne River
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4530

Listen to show at First Voices Indigenous Radio, WBAI
https://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program/20180510
or on WPKN
http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/223033/first-voices-radio

First Voices host Tiokasin Ghosthorse talks with Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, about life today for O'odham on the border.
Describing living in balance with all life, Ofelia said, "We know the names of all the animals and the plants."
Ofelia speaks of the natural balance of life that O'odham have always lived with.
Ofelia describes the fourth level of O'odham life today.
"This border does not have a place in our O'odham way of life."
On their traditional homeland, O'odham are forced to carry documents.
When the vehicle barrier was coming across her village, the elders were still alive at the time.
Ofelia remembers one O'odham elder saying, "When the wind blows, will these people stop it and ask it for documents too?"
This is a reminder of the power of the connection to the natural world.
Ofelia reminds of the strength of the people, because they know who they are.
Ofelia said migration has always happened throughout time. She describes the journeys for trading salt.
"This border is not of our concept."
"To impose those laws on our people is very damaging."
She said immigrants came to this land looking for a safe place.
Now, Ofelia describes how documentation has caused problems for the people.
The U.S. Border Patrol is now restricting the flow of food to the southern part of O'odham land. O'odham are suffering with little food on the south side of the border.
On the Arizona side of the border, she said some tribal members are comfortable and are reluctant to risk losing the dependence on money from the U S. federal government.
Ofelia said her family, her people, do not recognize the U.S. mandated Tohono O'odham tribal government.
The Tohono O'odham tribal government has worked with the BIA and U.S. Border Patrol to lay the groundwork for spy towers, integrated fixed towers, by approving roadway easements, water diversions and archaeological surveys.
The construction of these spy towers would bore into O'odham burial places. These same remains were already disturbed and reburied during construction of the border vehicle barrier.
Ofelia said she welcomes the Honduran migrants now fleeing violence at the border.
Ofelia recently welcomed the migrants on the caravan from Central America.
She said the Tohono O'odham tribal government does not agree with her welcoming  these refugees, but this is the true way of O'odham.
She said in Chiapas she saw how the peoples land was seized by corporations, and in other countries, wars have resulted in the takeover of the lands and displacement of Indigenous Peoples.
"I put a message out there to the people, that the original people of the land are welcoming these people."
She said her people have always welcomed others, with food and water. In her area, migrants would have a difficult time finding the water in the desert mountains.
"I live a very simple life," Ofelia said.
During April, Ofelia raised funds for O'odham on the border, cut off from their food source by U.S. Border Patrol.
She said her brother helped with the food delivery. They blew a tire and broke a strut on his truck when they made the first emergency food delivery south of the border in April.
"I just try to do the best I can to help out," she said.
Tiokasin pointed out that the U.S. mandated Tohono O'odham tribal government is not the traditional government.
They are not maintaining, or protecting our way of life, she said.
Tiokasin reflects on John Trudell's words, "There is a way to live with the Earth, and a way not to live with the Earth."
Ofelia said as the years go by, the same conditions prevail. But O'odham survive.
"We are the people of the Earth."
"I do still collect wild foods," she said, adding that she still plants her traditional seeds, and carries out the ceremonies.
When Christian missionaries arrived on their lands, O'odham were enslaved and forced to become Christians, she said.
"If you did not do the sign of the cross properly, you lost a limb."
O'odham revolted to this physical and spiritual injury of converting people.
"All of these things that the people went through -- they still survived."
She said it is a testament of how strong the O'odham are, that they could do the sign of the cross to survive, then go and continue their ceremonies.
Now, O'odham songs give back the knowledge.

O'odham Solidarity Project is accepting donations for emergency food for O'odham on the south side of the border. Donate on Ofelia's website PayPal for food and gas to deliver the food.
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

During the broadcast, Tiokasin refers to Censored News recent article, "On the Border, the United States has forgotten its name."

Article and photos by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

SAN YSIDRO BORDER, Calif. -- It is calm and peaceful on the border today. All the hustlers are in Washington. It is usually calm on the border -- except when U.S. Border Patrol agents are harassing, beating and killing people of color. If the U.S. Border Patrol agents could find a reason to beat or shoot someone today, they would be doing this.On the footpath to Mexico, women with gallons of milk and groceries in their carts are headed home. Young people eat pizza and shop for cell phones. There are no hordes of migrants rushing the border, as President Trump would lead people to believe in his acceleration of racial hatred, his push for racial violence, in the United States. At the end of the Blue Line Trolley from San Diego, on the border here, there are no "We Hate Trump" banners. There are no posters here to remind all that "First Lady Melania Trump is an Immigrant."
Read article:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/05/on-border-united-states-has-forgotten.html

VIDEO -- Watch Censored News video of Ofelia welcoming Honduran refugees. Interview by Michelle Cook, Dine', in April 2018.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/04/oodham-ofelia-rivas-welcome-to-honduras.html

O'odham Emergency Food Delivery as US Border Patrol Cuts off O'odham from Food

Ofelia Rivas photo copyright Jeff Hendricks.

Photos of O'odham emergency food delivery in April

.https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/04/thank-you-for-your-support-for-food.html?m=0

Radio audio copyright Tiokasin Ghosthorse, words copyright Ofelia Rivas, article copyright Brenda Norrell. No portion may be used for advertising or revenue producing projects.