Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

December 24, 2022

Danny Blackgoat Soars to Spirit World

Danny Blackgoat, son of Roberta Blackgoat, longtime resister to relocation and government oppression, soars to Spirit World


Danny's wife Liz Blackgoat said, "It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my beloved husband, Danny Blackgoat. He left this world sometime Sunday night, Dec 18. His transition to spirit occurred on the land, at the place that he loved the most."


Danny K. Blackgoat passed away peacefully on Monday, Dec. 19, 2022, at the age of 70. He was born in Dinnebeto and grew up in the Big Mountain area. He attended Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, completing his bachelor’s degree.

December 22, 2022

Lakota Joye Braun and Ukrainian Climate Scientist Honored with Bold Activism Award




Joye Braun and Svitlana Romanko, Honored with Rose Braz Award for Bold Activism

2022 Award Goes to Ukrainian Climate Scientist, Late Indigenous Pipeline Fighter

By the Center for Biological Diversity
Dec. 22, 2022

Censored News

OAKLAND, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity today awarded the 2022 “Rose Braz Award for Bold Activism” to Svitlana Romanko and posthumously to the late Joye Braun.

Romanko is Ukraine’s leading climate scientist and a grassroots climate campaigner. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, she founded Razom We Stand and launched the Stand With Ukraine campaign with more than 820 groups. It calls on world leaders to end their fossil fuel dependence on Russia and phase out fossil fuels globally.

December 19, 2022

In the Quechan battle against lithium mining at the Salton Sea, songs carry sacred origins



Preston Arrow-weed led the battle against gold ming here on Quechan sacred land, and now battles a new monster, lithium mining, driven by corporate greenwashing for electric vehicles

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

It is a sacred place for Quechan, where obsidian burst from the earth, their sacred stories come from here. When the U.S. government and county targeted the sacred place for lithium mining, they did not tell the Quechan Nation.

Preston Arrow-weed, who has just fought gold mining at Indian Pass, began the battle to protect the sacred here near the Salton Sea, in Imperial Valley, and where the borders of California, Arizona, and Mexico meet.

Arrow-weed said, "We must learn from the past. What good is it to replace dirty oil with dirty mining? The toxic cycle will continue. Indigenous communities will continue to be sacrificed for the 'greater good.'"

Quechan songs carry the story of their journey, and the sacred place now targeted for lithium mining near the Salton Sea, where the obsidian burst from the earth, and here are the remains of a powerful snake.

"We have a belief that something sacred happened there," Arrow-weed said at the recent Western Mining Action Network Conference in Reno, Nevada.

December 16, 2022

Paiute and Shoshone Elders Evicted from their Homes in Winnemucca Indian Colony, Nevada


Photo courtesy Neweneen Sokopa Camp

Police blocking entrance to Paiute
and Shoshone to return home at Winnemucca
Indian Colony.

Paiute and Shoshone were evicted from their homes in winter by a disputed tribal council and banished, many with no place to go. Kyle Missouri was tasered, arrested, and now jailed while attempting to return home.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Updated Dec. 17, 2022
Translated to French by Christine Prat

WINNEMUCCA INDIAN COLONY, Nevada -- In a cruel action during winter, the Winnemucca Tribal Court evicted Paiute and Shoshone elders without a trial, and banished people from their homes with no place to go in northern Nevada. Elders' homes and possessions have been burned and demolished, and utility lines cut, attorneys said.

"They are living in motels right before Christmas, and it is heartbreaking," said Kyle Missourii, who was arrested and tasered as he returned to his home, where he grew up, which is owned by his 88-year-old grandmother. Kyle is now in jail.

The Winnemucca Tribal Court ruled for the disputed Tribal Council without giving elders and residents the benefit of a trial. The tribal court ordered most elders and residents out of the homes they have lived in for decades by Friday, December 9, attorneys said.

Paiute Elder Resident JJ Ayer said, “I am of seven generations of Native people that have lived on the Winnemucca Indian Colony. This is wrong in every way, most of us are disabled and old with no other home but here and now we are banished from our land.”

Paiute and Shoshone elders said the tribal council, led by a chairwoman who does not live here, and provides inconsistent claims of being Native American, have brought in a demolition business from Kingman, Arizona, to destory their homes.