Dine' elderly were locked out in the cold today, while the Navajo Nation Council voted on new helium mining on the sacred mountain at Sanostee.
Navajo Elders Locked Out of Navajo Council During Vote on Helium Mining on Sacred Mountain
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dine' CARE said Dine' elderly were locked out of the Navajo Nation Council chambers today, and prevented from viewing the vote on new helium mining on the sacred mountain at Sanostee. If passed, Navajo Oil and Gas will bore wells one mile deep into the sacred mountain.
The resolution for the new mining was tabled after a peaceful march and protest to the Navajo Council chambers.
Dine' CARE (Dine' Citizens Against Ruining our Environment) warned that it was not right to sacrifice the sacred for beeso (money.)
"It is not right to sacrifice the people of the mountain, the descendants of revered leader Narbona. Our holy male mountain Ch'ooshgai, and all the plants, animals, and offering sites would be desecrated for béeso that will only go so far. The impacts of helium drilling will cause long-term harm to our land and water. Helium is extracted the same way oil and gas is extracted. More often these days, it is hydraulic fracturing (fracking)."
Comments of Principal Man Ian Zabarte of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, January 27, 2022
These comments characterize the ongoing abuse suffered by the Western Shoshone people as a result of US military and commercial nuclear development. There has been no explicit act of Congress to diminish or extinguish Indian title to 30 million acres of land owned by the Western Shoshone Nation defined by Article 5 of the Treaty of Ruby Valley. We seek creation of a reservation by the President under Article 6 of the treaty as a remedy for the safety, protection and benefit of the Western Shoshone people.
Consultation is not consent but when done, should be according to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People with free, prior informed consent of Indigenous people affected--a right of self-determination, and in the planning and implementation of projects on our lands. The law needs to be enforced and resources directed to indigenous communities for clean-up efforts and proper enforcement.
Our nation has, and is, being destroyed by nuclear weapons testing and nuclear material disposal. The pattern and practice of the Department of Energy and cooperating agencies inflict conditions intended to bring about the destruction of Shoshone Nation, violating peremptory norms in International Law that the United States has acceded to under the Proxmire Act in 1988 (18 USC 1091--GENOCIDE).
In 1990, the Department of Energy created “cultural triage” used in the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project defined as, “the forced choice decision-making by and ethnic group to a development project” claiming Indians were involved in Yucca Mountain development. Cultural triage features are it is forced upon ethnic Native Americans for development.”
Federally-recognized Indian tribes are deemed by the US Supreme Court as incompetents under the superintendence of the Secretary of the Interior and therefore cannot consent. It is the US that is wholly responsible for the outcomes. The systematic use of cultural triage is genocide.
Origin is important. Shoshone individuals must be followed for health consequences. We need collaborative research funding, monitoring, surveillance and registries for Shoshone down-winders affected by radiation from nuclear weapons.
We need radiation exposure compensation re-authorization (RECA). We need the President to create a Shoshone homeland under Article 6 of the Treaty of Ruby Valley. All federal actions must be required to prove ownership of federally funded project sites.
MNN. 27, January 2022. This is an update by thahoketoteh of MNN on the McGill ongoing saga. The kahnistensera, Mohawk Mothers, are concerned with the self-preservation of indigenous lives and culture facing genocide at the hands of colonists trespassing on turtle island, using the foreign Admiralty Law of the Seas to violate our land, our people, resources , and culture.
IT SAID: “TAKE BACK TEKANONTAK” [AKA MONT-ROYAL] THIS IS KANIEN’KEHA:KA MOHAWK LAND.
In the middle of this case, super-paid Principle and Chancellor of McGill, Suzanne Fortier, resigns! Also one of the lawyers in the FCC Federal Court of Canada v. the Mohawk Mothers suddenly resigns from the case. At McGill a messy failure has been left behind. As the Chinese say about those who abscond, “They will suffer death by a thousand cuts”:
In the ‘procedural swamp’ the FCC [T-1696-21] asked for time consuming information that has already been provided. tThe court’s concern is about traditional representation, signers and speakers.
This is delaying presenting the substance of the case ofthe suspicions of unmarked graves of our people on the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University.
According to Sections 35 and 52 of the Constitution Act of Canada 1982, all the laws of Canada have no force or effect because they are inconsistent with the kaianerekowa, great peace. The kahnistenera, Mohawk Mothers, can only represent themselves according to ancestral law. They are the caretakers of the children and the land they are brought onto.
This sounds like the philosophy commonly used by mega corporations and the military which are connected to all universities, such as the movement to ‘Demilitarizie McGill” at McGill University.
The main issues in the court case are the unmarked graves, the trespassing on Mohawk land, and the borrowing of Iroquois Trust Funds to build McGilll that was never repaid to the Mohawks.
The traditional process of the kanienkehaka [Mohawk] is to listen to the proceedings and report the words to the clans. The appointed word carriers will be given the words that will go back to the court.
The kahnistensera cannot be represented by a lawyer, council or non-kaianerekowa person as it would be inconsistent with the great peace. The court is allowing the four opposing lawyers to speak and question the witnesses, while the indigenous women will be allowed one speaker!
The SQI reached out to the band councils for information and assistance. The band councils are created by the Canadian Army to take care of the prisoners in this ongoing war for indigenous land title.
The economic sanctions strategy was invented with the onkwehonweh [indigenous people of the land] in mind. No people have ever endured more oppressive sanctions than the original people in the history of modern economics. The creation and theft of the Indian Trust Funds was to create a stranglehold on the economic freedom of the original peopleMN.
Though they are ‘old’, they are capable and expect to be treated fairly. The court was informed that they will continue this case as joint applicants according to Rule 102[b] of the Federal Court of Canada: “the relief claimed, whether joint, several or alternative, arises from substantially the same facts or matter”. In this case, once an agreement is made they must stand behind the words.
Leonard Cohen was an inmate in Dr. Ewen Camerons ‘mind control’ experiments at Allan Memorial Hospital of McGill and also wrote a song about a “Suzanne”. We wonder if Leonard ever listened to Ted Nugent’s song,” Stranglehold” which describes what has been done to us on the economic front. “Here I come again now, baby, like a dog in heat. You can tell it’s me by the clamor now, baby. I come to tear up the streets. I’ve been smoking for so long and now I am here to say, I got you in a stranglehold, baby. I’m gonna crush your face”.
Dine' volunteer Bitahnii Wilson and friends at K'eh Native Action raise their own funds and deliver water and food to Navajos and Hopis in need as COVID surges. Bitahnii said, "Ya’at’eeh Shi K’eh Greetings Relatives today we delivered an emergency K’eh food box, cleaning supplies, a hand water pump, and a 55 gallon barrel filled with water to a Wide Ruins community member who lost a family elder we use to bring water to. My prayers and condolences to the family."
By Brenda Norrell Censored News
Many tribal governments have failed to distribute millions, and billions, of federal virus relief funds as COVID-19 surges in Indian country this week.
There is a 53 percent increase this week in coronavirus cases in the Tucson Indian Health service area, which includes Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui Nations. This is closely followed by rapid surges in Oklahoma IHS service area (which includes north Texas and Kansas) and a rapid surge in the Phoenix area.
Native Americans tell Censored News it is difficult to get tested for COVID-19, masks are difficult to obtain, there is little assistance with burials, and even water, food and firewood are difficult to get.
The Navajo government received $2.1 billion eight months ago, in May of 2021, and Dine' are still waiting for American Rescue Plan Act hardship relief checks.
On Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022, the Navajo Nation reported 113 new cases and one death. Now, 1,609 Dine' have died from COVID-19.
American Rescue Plan Act funds, top 12 tribal recipients.
