Death Walks on Tohono O'odham Nation

By Brenda Norrell

In southern Arizona, humanitarians putting out water for migrants are being charged with a crime, in the latest attempt by the US government to halt humanitarian aid to migrants dying in the Sonoran Desert. Thirteen humanitarians from No More Deaths, Samaritans and Humane Borders were arraigned in federal court in Tucson in September on charges of littering. Their crime was placing water on migrant trails where people are dying.
Today, broadcast on Censored News Blog Radio, Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, describes his water stations on the Tohono O'odham Nation and how the Tohono O'odham Nation has fought his efforts. While his water containers have been slashed and confiscated, Wilson continues to put out water for migrants. Wilson also describes searching for the bodies of migrants, including that of a young pregnant woman, where temperatures range from 105 to 117 in summer months. He also describes how young migrant children are imprisoned in a holding cell, known as the "dog cage," on Tohono O'odham Nation land.
Wilson continues to be under attack by the Tohono O'odham Nation. "Tribal authorities have authorized the removal of my water stations from Baboquivari and Schuck Toac Districts."
Wilson said the Tohono O'odham Nation is seeking to maximize a profit on the backs of destitute migrants, many who are Indigenous Peoples from Southern Mexico and Guatemala.
"The Nation is anxious to take blood money from the Department of Homeland Security. Shamefully, we who were once oppressed are now the willing oppressors."
As volunteers are being charged, Wilson said he is now vulnerable to arrest, along with another Tohono O'odham, David Garcia, who assists him.
"The reality is that as tribal members of the Tohono O'odham Nation, David Garcia and I are now vulnerable to arrest and conviction for doing the same thing on Tohono O'odham tribal lands. The legal precedent has now been irreversibly set for federal prosecution of humanitarian volunteers, like us, for knowing placing gallons of water for migrants in distress on any federal properties, inclusive of Native American reservations.
"The truth is, despite our mythical notions of 'sovereignty,' reservations are first, foremost and manifestly, Federal Properties managed by the Department of Interior and its agent, the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Wilson said.
Listen to Wilson on "Death Walks on the Tohono O'odham Nation." This talk was at the Indigenous Border Summit of Americas 2007. Currently conditions are intense for humanitarians putting out water, as migrants continue to die.

Censored Blog Talk Radio
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

Currently, the theater production in Los Angeles, "Visitor's Guide to Arivaca," includes a portrayal of the real life efforts of Wilson. The theater production was produced by Borderlands in Tucson. (Currently at Company of Angels at the Alexandria Hotel, 501 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 4.)
Photos at: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.

Photos at summit: Water containers placed on Tohono O'odham Nation slashed. Photo 2: Mike Wilson points out where migrants are dying on the Tohono O'odham Nation. (Click photo to enlarge.) Photos by Brenda Norrell

Recorded at the Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas by http://www.earthcycles.net/ Guitar music by Ruben Romaro. Border Patrol yell recorded in Lordsburg, N.M.

Carlos Marentes: Chronicle of beginning of fall of military coup

By Carlos Marentes

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

September 21, 2009 – Tonight, the heroic Honduran resistance, represented by thousands of workers, peasants, women, teachers, indigenous and afro-decendent people, students, human rights activists, and people in general, is outside the Embassy of Brazil. Inside the embassy, president Manuel Zelaya, who returned surreptitiously to Honduras in the morning, after a 15-hours trek, has declared earlier: “From now on, nobody will take us out of from here, for this reason our position is homeland, reinstatement or death...”
Zelaya, surrounded by his wife, Ziomara Castro, members of his government, leaders of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup, like Rafael Alegría, leader of La Vía Campesina in Honduras, and other, said to a large group of reporters: “I am committed to the Honduran people and I will not rest for a day or a minute until we bring down the dictatorship... The first time, on June 28, they took me off guard, sleeping, but not anymore...”
Outside the embassy, people began to arrive from all the corners of the country to join the massive presence of residents of Tegucigalpa and members of the National Front of Resistance, who have gathered to welcome Zelaya and to demand his reinstatement as the legitimate president. The jubilant crowd was yelling ¡Si se pudo! ¡Si se pudo! ¡Ahora la constituyente! (We made it! We made it! Now, on to the constitutional assembly!)
Immediately, the coup regime sent thousands of military troops and national police officers to intimidate the resistance and attempt to stop the masses marching to the Embassy. During the whole day, many persons were attacked violently, but the military and police forces were unable to stop the massive wave of people. The forces sent to repress the resistance included the terrible military team “Las Cobras” which is famous for its aggressive and violent methods. Several military helicopters started to fly over the protestors and the embassy. Unable to stop the massive gathering, the military and police forces then decided to sorround the multitude in a ostensible gesture of provocation.
However, many Honduras where unable to arrive because their buses were stopped by the army and the national police. According to human rights activists, at least 2,000 persons from the municipalities of Danlí, El Paraíso, Jamastrán and other border towns, were stopped by the military. The military set blockades with military trucks to stop the circulation of caravans moving into Tegucigalpa. Four buses and many vehicles were detained in a place called Colonia Villa Nueva, outside the city capital. Also, the military officers retained members of the press from China, Reuter and Associated Press.
The usurper Roberto Micheletti, appeared in television to give several messages during the day. One of the messages was to declare a state of siege from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. and warned that the curfew may be extended. He stated that his regime will not tolerate agitation either from inside or outside. He informed that they had deliver a letter to the Brazilian Ambassador demanding to hand over Zelaya “so he can be tried before a court to respond criminal charges.” He also reminded the international community not to intervene in the interior affairs of Honduras. When asked about the declaration made by Secretary Hillary Clinton that since Zelaya had returned to Honduras it was the moment to reinstate him in the presidency, Micheletti responded: “We respect the opinion of the gringos, but we don't care what they said...”
During the day, several sources had continuously announced that the General Secretary of OAS and other diplomatic ministers will be arriving next day to help find a solution, so coup mongers decided to close the four international airports for two days. Then, they also shut down communications in several sectors of Tegucigalpa and turned off the electricity in the area where the embassy is located. Some members of the resistance expressed concerns that the intentional block-out may be used to attempt a break in into the embassy or to repress the large concentration of people which decided to remain and spent the night there despite the curfew.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C, the Organization of American States (OAS) hold an emergency reunion to discuss the situation of Honduras. During the meeting, a resolution was proposed to the ambassadors by initiative of United States and with the support of Canada. The resolution basically was a directive to have the “parties involved in this problem” to immediately sign the proposed San José Accord prepared by president Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and move into elections. Several ambassadors, including the ones from Venezuela and Nicaragua, rejected the resolution because president Zelaya had not been consulted. But the majority decided to approve it anyway saying that “it was not a perfect resolution, but that it was better to have a bad accord than to have a good fight.” Once the chairman of the meeting declared that the resolution had been approved and that the ambassadors were standing up to leave, the Nicaraguan Ambassador, colonel Denis Moncada, suddenly raised his hand and asked for permission to approach the mic. He said that he had just received a call from president Daniel Ortega to ask him to inform the OAS ambassadors, that Zelaya had called Ortega to say that “he did not support the San José Accord” and to ask OAS to demand that the “dictatorship and the coup mongers to lift the state of siege because it was dangerous to the lives of the Honduran people.”
Everything that occurred today in Honduras is a clear signal that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the military coup. It may take more days and more sacrifices and more suffering, but there is no way to stop now the struggle of the Honduran people under the inspirational leadership of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup. The usurpers may attempt to bring a blood-bath to hold into power. But that will not happen if we are alert and fulfill our moral responsibility of offer our concrete solidarity to the sons and daughters of Morazán.

Carlos Marentes is the founder of the Border Agricultural Workers Project, an effort to organize the agricultural workers of Southern New Mexico and West Texas to change the current agricultural system that only creates exploitation and misery. It is based in El Paso, Texas.

Peltier to be represented at UN 64th General Assembly

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee [DOC]

Media contact: Ms. Pretends Eagle
Email: lp_doc_media@ymail.com
Phone: 216: 650-7444
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

LEONARD PELTIER, NATIVE AMERICAN, POLITICAL PRISONER
TO BE REPRESENTED AT UNITED NATION’S 64TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY!

Kari Ann Cowan, Asst. Coordinator of The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee has accepted an invitation by a Delegate of the U. N. to attend the 64th General Assembly of The United Nations, being held in New York City on September 21-23 2009.

Ms. Cowan plans to network with the Members of the United Nations on behalf
Leonard Peltier, a Native American, Political Prisoner of the United States, who was recently denied parole after serving 33 years in prison.

Ms. Cowan graciously accepted the invite, which also included the traditional drum group, Red Day from Black Hills of South Dakota.

President Obama had indicated he would find a seat for Native American at the United Nations, however, that had not yet, happened.

US ignores health dangers of sewer water snowmaking

media@savethepeaks.org
Rudy Preston -- (928) 466-4274
Howard Shanker -- (928) 699-3637
U.S. Government Ignores Public Health Dangers of Sewer Water Snowmaking

Concerned Citizens File New Lawsuit to Force Government to Study and Disclose Effects of Ingesting Snow Made from Treated Sewage Effluent

Flagstaff, Ariz. -- A group of concerned citizens will not let the potential health risks of using treated sewage effluent to make snow at the Snowbowl ski area on the San Francisco Peaks outside of Flagstaff get swept under the rug on a technicality.
Although Snowbowl is a private, for-profit entity, the ski area operates on federal land under a special use permit. As a result, the federal government must approve Snowbowl’s plan to use 100% reclaimed sewer water to make snow — something that is not done anywhere else in the world.
The City of Flagstaff agreed to sell Snowbowl the treated sewage effluent and off they went, or so they thought.
The San Francisco Peaks are well documented as sacred and holy to, at least, thirteen of the tribes in the Southwestern United States, all of whom viewed the decision as a direct threat to their religious and cultural survival.
Litigation on cultural and religious issues surrounding the project was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently declined to consider the case. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case left a decision of an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in place which, as is often the case, went against the tribes.
The use of reclaimed sewer water to make snow, however, was not only repulsive to people who hold the San Francisco Peaks sacred, it raised concerns from skiers and the community over the safety of being immersed in, and even eating, snow made from non-potable treated sewage effluent.
Today, the Save the Peaks Coalition and nine citizens filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona against the U.S. Forest Service. The suit alleges, among other things, that the Final Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the U.S. Forest Service ignores the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service is obligated to consider these types of potential impacts on the quality of the human environment. In fact, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit previously found that the Forest Service failed to adequately consider the possibility of human ingestion of snow made from treated sewage effluent.
The holding of the three judge panel was, however, overturned on a technicality by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, that reconsidered the prior panel's ruling.
According to Howard Shanker, attorney for the Save the Peaks Coalition and the other plaintiffs, “The Forest Service failed to adequately consider the impacts of potential human ingestion of snow made from reclaimed sewer water as required by applicable law.
Our government should not be approving such projects without some sort of understanding of the anticipated impacts. By approving treated sewage effluent for snow making without adequate analysis, the government essentially turns the ski area into a test facility with our children as the laboratory rats. That is unconscionable.”
Mr. Shanker, a former congressional candidate in Arizona Congressional District 1, represented a number of tribes and environmental organizations in prior litigation over Snowbowl’s use of treated sewage effluent.According to Arizona Department of Environmental Quality regulations, treated sewer water can be graded A+ even when it contains fecal matter in three out of every ten samples. This same effluent has been found to contain pharmaceuticals, hormones, endocrine disruptors, industrial pollutants, and narcotics. It may also contain bio-accumulating antibiotics, such as triclosan and triclocarban, and pathogens, such as e. coli, hepatitis, and norovirus.
The human and environmental health risks, which have been largely ignored by the media, have their roots as far back as 2001 in the scoping comments made to the Forest Service about Arizona Snowbowl's proposed expansion and upgrade. Plaintiffs involved in this lawsuit have consistently insisted that the Forest Service take a hard look at what might happen to the people, land, plants, and wildlife when they come in contact with or eat snow made from treated sewage effluent.
For a full background, legal documents, photos, and further information on the Save the Peaks Coalition please visit http://www.savethepeaks.org/
Contacthttp://mail.google.com/mail/h/1tvb6cud7xuw2/?v=b&cs=wh&to=media@savethepeaks.org
Rudy Preston -- (928) 466-4274
Howard Shanker -- (928) 699-3637
Available for interviews by appointment from 9 a.m. -- 12 p.m. today
The Shanker Law Firm -- Flagstaff Office -- 201 East Birch Street

Phoenix Folks Show Support for Fight to Protect Peaks & Community Health!

Today a new lawsuit was filed against the US Forest Service to protect public health from threats of a ski businesses' plan to make snow from contaminated treated sewage water on the San Francisco Peaks.
As news of the continued struggle to protect the Peaks spread, a group in Phoenix, AZ dropped a banner at the Federal Court building and demonstrated in front of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (AZDEQ). AZDEQ is also responsible for permitting treated sewage to be used for snowmaking purposes in the state of Arizona.
Learn more and take action at: www.savethepeaks.org

Drug and war profiteering

By Brenda Norrell
As body bags arrived in northern Manitoba in Canada, First Nations aboriginals in the remote west coast village of Ahousaht were falling ill after being inoculated with the anti-viral medication Tamiflu.
Kevin Annett, exposing the genocide of aboriginals in Canada, points out that germ warfare has long been the weapon of choice for governments to exterminate Indigenous Peoples.
This is not the first time that Tamiflu makers have been accused during the spread of a disease. In 2006, when I reported that then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was a stockholder and profiteering from the sale of Tamiflu, I was censored at Indian Country Today. States, including California, were stockpiling Tamiflu. The article was rewritten by editors and published with my name on it. After I objected, I was terminated.
Drug manufacturers and corporations profiteering from the war are obvious. A large portion of the commercials on television now hype new drugs, with warnings that they will destroy your liver, cause a stroke, or even kill you.
The new approach on war commercials is to appeal to economically desperate youths, poor whites and people of color. The commercials make it appear that parents will love their children more if they join the military. What those commercials don't show are the body bags, coffins of soldiers coming home and the destroyed lives of those who never recover or spend their lives trying to get treatment as veterans. Those commercials don't reveal the women soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that live in fear, of not just being killed, but of being raped in remote locations by their fellow US soldiers.
After the spread of the hantavirus on the Navajo Nation, makers of Ribavirin attempted to profiteer, but the Navajo Nation Council prevented the use of Navajos as guinea pigs.
As the news continues to be censored, here is Annett's statement on the real pandemic:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/09/canada-tamiflu-body-bags-and-genocide.html