CENSORED NEWS

May 23, 2012

Help Winnemem Wintu protect ceremonies May 24-27, 2012

Help Winnemem Wintu War Dance (H'up Chonas)

US authorities consider holding the Coming of Age ceremony here as an act of civil disobedience

Update: Winnemem Wintu close McCloud River during War Dance. Photos and videos:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/05/28/18714272.php
May 24 -- 27, 2012
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/help-winnemem-wintu-protect-ceremonies.html

War Dance (H’up Chonas)
When: Thursday afternoon, May 24 – Sunday May 27, 2012
Where: McCloud Bridge Campground on the McCloud River, Shasta-Trinity National Forest north of Redding, Calif.
Help our tribe’s peaceful ceremony of resistance, our spiritual commitment to protect the Coming of Age ceremonies for our young women from public interference and harassment. Please note we are expecting more than 400 supporters to converge on the ceremony site to help our War Dance.
We will be holding the ceremony without a U.S. Forest Service permit, and it is possible there will be arrests. Though we are simply holding a ceremony that has existed since before the Forest Service, it will be considered by the authorities as an act of civil “disobedience.”
Please prepare as needed and remember this is a non-violent, ceremonial action.
Bring: Camping gear, TP, food donations, first aid kits, canteens, inflatable boats,inner tubes, canoes, kayaks, trash bags, walkie-talkies, life preservers and a peaceful, humble willingness to help. If you have a pre-existing health issues (such as allergies to bee stings, pollen, etc.), remember to bring your own medications. There is also a chance of rain. Bring rain gear. Highs are unexpected to be in the mid-70s to 80s. Remember: There is no cell phone service at the site. There is phone service at the Hirz Bay campground about eight miles. Also, try to car pool. Parking will be limited. Boat Information
We will be blockading a 400-yard stretch of the McCloud River on Friday and Saturday definitely. We may possibly do it on Sunday. Please bring canoes, kayaks, inner tubes, rafts and anything that floats. We will have an air-up station set up for inflatable crafts. Also, bring life preservers.
People who are bringing boats on trailers can come put their boats in the water at the McCloud Bridge campground and then they can find parking 8 miles south at the Hirz Bay campground. It costs $8. There will be limited free trailer parking at Dekkas campground. We will escort you to the parking spaces. Be aware that there is no gas or grocery stores for 30 miles from the campground. The closest stores are in Lakehead and City of Shasta Lake. Please bring T-shirts that are yellow, red, black and white – we will be wearing a different color for each day.
Directions to Kaibai (McCloud Bridge Campground) From Interstate 5, take exit 698 for Gilman Road. Turn right on Gilman road. You will follow this windy road for about 12. 5 miles before crossing the McCloud Bridge. Once past the bridge, campground is on your right. We will be ready for volunteers on Thursday afternoon. Resources Training Agenda (coming soon) Cultural Guide: Ceremony Eloquence- War Dance For more information about the ceremony visit: www.saveourceremony.com
Food Donation List
Meals are an important part of our ceremonies, and it is our responsibility to feed all who attend, but as a small tribe with limited resources, we need assistance, especially it will be hard to estimate how many will attend. Please consider bringing food donations. Here is the list.
Meats (cooked for meals or cooked in stews and already frozen) venison salmon beef roast stew browned hamburger chicken, precooked and frozen for dishes, vegetarian stews (packaged and frozen) chili beans (packaged and frozen) fresh vegetables like summer squash onions, tomatoes, corn, chilies, broccoli eggplant lettuce any kind of veggies, but preferably those which can be used to make a meal with other things. Fresh fruit and melons for breakfast, lots of tortillas, potatoes for potato salad or breakfast already cooled, bagged up macaroni, already cooked and bagged up eggs bread and sandwich fixing. If bringing cold cuts, they should be frozen and put into the cooler together. We need mayonnaise, spaghetti sauce, salad dressings, rice, flour, sugar, rice milk, almond milk. These are preferred over cow’s milk.
Contact General contact – winnememwintutribe@gmail.com
Bay Area volunteers contact Michael Preston at wintu6472@yahoo.com
Oregon contact – Misa at misa@misajoo.com

May 22, 2012

VIDEO: March for Justice for Lakota Vern Traversie

NEW at CENSORED NEWS May 2012

Native Americans create authentic websites to counter collapsed media

Save the Peaks Youths/Indigenous Action Media

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/native-americans-create-authentic.html

Native Americans and First Nations -- Mohawk, Navajo, Hopi, O’odham and Lakota -- have created their own news websites, with authentic Native voices and their own photos, videos and articles, to counter the plague of collapsed media.

While most news reporters in the US and Canada were sleeping today, Tuesday, May 22, a delegation of First Nations and Inupiat confronted Shell at their annual general meeting at The Hague, with simultaneous protests at the Shell general meeting in London.

Meanwhile, media coverage of Native American issues has degenerated into plagiarism and rewrites by armchair journalists. Further, the media routinely publishes press releases promoting corrupt politicians and profiteering corporations, which counter human rights efforts and the struggle to protect the earth.
While the plagiarizers and online aggregators collect paychecks, reporters on the streets, are too often the ones providing information and photos without pay.
Still the mainstream media in Indian country censors most of the vital news.
A

t Mohawk Nation News, published by Mohawk Kahentinetha Horn, the breaking news article today is: “Mohawk Air Space Violated.”
“At 6:00 pm May 21, twelve fighter jets flew in threatening formations, crisscrossing closely over the Mohawks of Kahnawake. Twelve flights for 20 minutes were videotaped. Canada violated the Notice on Navigation and Travel Restriction issued on August 17, 2007 by the Longhouse Peoples of the Mohawk Nation.” www.mohawknationnews.com

Navajo and Hopi youths have created their own media, Indigenous Action Media, to tell their own stories. They share breaking news as it happens, on issues usually censored in the ordinary Native and Arizona media. At Indigenous Action Media, their breaking news coverage includes protests over attempts to steal Navajo and Hopi water rights by corrupt Navajo officials and Arizona Congressmen.
With video, photos and articles, Outta Your Backpack reporters, have covered the ALEC and border militarization protests in Arizona. Their articles have exposed corrupt corporations, including Peabody Coal on Black Mesa, and the three coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico, destroying the air, water and land of Navajos, Hopis and residents of the Southwest.
Countering the heavily censored and anti-American Indian media in Flagstaff and the rest of Arizona, they covered the lockdown to heavy equipment by Native Americans protecting sacred San Francisco Peaks from the destruction and pollution of the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort (photo on right.) http://www.indigenousaction.org
“The fight for Diné and Hopi water rights continues as several indigenous struggles persist across Arizona to protect sacred sites, stop cultural genocide, and prevent further destruction of the earth and its people for corporate profit,” writes reporter Drew Sully at Indigenous Action Media.

On the Arizona border, few, if any, news reporters actually go out and speak to traditional O’odham who are constantly harassed and abused by US Border Patrol agents in their homeland. Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O’odham VOICE against the Wall, created a website with the authentic voices of O’odham struggling to uphold their sacred way of life. Rivas has exposed the abuse by agents and police, and the desecration of O’odham ancestors remains by Boeing at the border. Recently, she exposed the involvement of the University of Arizona in the creation of spyware targeting Native peoples on the border. http://solidarity-project.org

On Sicangu land at Rosebud, South Dakota, Lakota reporter Vi Waln created Sicangu Lakota Times. Waln recently published testimony to the UN Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples James Anaya at Rosebud, sharing her photos and articles with others. http://sicangulakota.net

Lakota testimony included some of the most censored issues in Indian country media: The correlation between Native Americans, Guantanamo and Palestinians, and the genocide of Indian boarding schools.
“The treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is based on how American Indians were treated,” Oglala Lakota Russell Means said.
“The perpetual war they have against us is the same as Israeli treatment of Palestinians.”
Cheyenne River elder Marcella Lebeau described the abuse in boarding school.
"We were psychologically traumatized at boarding school, I cried for days after they cut my braids. We worked four hours a day and went to school four hours a day. This got us a fourth grade education instead of an eighth grade education like we were supposed to get.”

Photo by Occupy Oil

While most news reporters in the US and Canada were sleeping today, a delegation of First Nations and Inupiat confronted Shell at their annual general meeting at The Hague, with simultaneous protests at the Shell general meeting in London (Grim Reaper protest photo on left.)
The delegation (top photo) includes Robert Thompson, chairman of REDOIL, an Inupiat from Kaktovik, a village on the edge of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska, where Shell plans to drill offshore in Arctic waters this summer.
Eriel Deranger is the spokesperson for Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, in Alberta, Canada, an Indigenous community residing downstream from tar sands operations and who are currently suing Shell for violating past agreements.
Ron Plain is from Aamjiwnaang First Nation, in Ontario, Canada. It has been called “the most polluted place in North America,” due to its proximity to “Chemical Valley” where Shell’s and other tar sands operators’ refineries are causing serious health and reproductive impacts.
The Indigenous Environmental Network has launched a campaign to halt Shell’s destruction.
Today, Deranger addressed Shell executives and shareholders at Shell’s Annual General Meeting in The Hague, highlighting the communities grievances with Shell’s current and proposed tar sands projects in their traditional territory in northern Alberta, Canada.
“Shell has failed to address our concerns in Canada’s tar sands by not meeting environmental standards, past agreements and refusing to address their impacts to our constitutionally protected treaty rights,” Deranger said.
“Shell’s current projects are contributing to the destruction of our traditional territory including vital watersheds and eco-systems. Now they propose to expand projects further degrading our lands and impairing our ability to practice our constitutionally protected rights to hunt, fish, trap and gather in the region.”
Shell’s chairman was provided with a copy of the report “Risking Ruin: Shell’s dangerous developments in the Tar Sands, Arctic and Nigeria” launched last week by ACFN in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network.
The report profiles Indigenous communities impacted by Shell’s operations in Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands, Alaska’s Arctic Ocean, Ontario’s Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Africa’s Niger Delta arguing that the impacts of Shell’s destructive activities outweigh the benefits and exposes the company to both reputational damage and political risk, including litigation.
ACFN traveled with an Indigenous delegation from Canada and Alaska, coordinated by the UK Tar Sands Network and IEN, to attend Shell’s AGM. Indigenous representative presented to Shell’s Chairman and Board about the human and ecological rights violations the company’s operations have brought to their respective communities.
Read more at the Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org

MORE NEWS:
Western Shoshone Carrie Dann: Civil Disobedience one way to protect Mother Earth from gold mining:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/western-shoshone-carrie-dann-civil.html
Winnemem Wintu statement: War Dance to be held this weekend to protect ceremony in Calif:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/winnemem-wintu-to-hold-war-dance-to.html
Pine Ridge, SD: Lakota Debra White Plume: Speak truth to power: The meat is spoiled and that is not OK with us:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/debra-white-plume-speak-truth-to-power.html

Mohawk Nation News: Mohawk Air Space Violated

MOHAWK AIR SPACE VIOLATED

Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com

MNN. 21 May 2012. Is Kahnawake a pretend “combat zone” for their war exercises? At 6:00 pm May 21st twelve fighter jets flew in threatening formations, crisscrossing closely over the Mohawks of Kahnawake. Twelve flights for 20 minutes were videotaped.

Canada violated the Notice on Navigation and Travel Restriction issued on August 17, 2007 by the Longhouse Peoples of the Mohawk Nation. Under authority of the Kaianerehkowa, Supreme Law of the Great Architect of Creation and Rotiskenrakehte “They who hold the Peace”, inside Kanienke, declare Navigation and Travel Restriction as follows:

At 23:00 hrs. August 18, 2007, until further notice, and shall apply to vessels of any nation or corporation engaging in commerce, commercial intercourse with corporate US or Canada, from navigation or travel inside or upon navigable water, known to be Kanientarahwaoneh [River Saint Laurence said Gulf Saint Laurence and tributaries]. [See geographical coordinates below].

Air space within one nautical mile of domicile or abode of Onkwehonwe shall also be restricted from use by government or private contracted security aircraft of said US and Canada.

For centuries Onkwehonwe [Original People of the Land] and other Indigenous Nations have suffered genocide, near total destruction of our Earth, way of life and continued war of aggression by colonial invaders under de facto papal authority, said Holy See. Crusading British corporations US, Canada, Australia, France, England and others continue this genocide in pursuit of commerce and presume Sovereign Dominion Over the Earth. [All UN nations are corporate entities registered through the city state of London under Admiralty/corporate Law, meant for bankers and corporations].

Rotiskenrakehte shall exercise Authority under law of the land to use all force necessary to maintain the Peace and stop the destruction of life on Earth, by this Navigation and Travel Restriction. Furthermore, Onkwehonwe may take prize of vessel and goods for breaking the Peace. We Indigenous are not registered in the city of London as a corporate state, so Admiralty Law of the sea does not apply to us.

Rotiskenrakehte ask that the People upon the Earth unite with us to stop the destruction of Life, to help open eyes of the people of your world, to the War of Genocide pursued against People upon the Earth. With Authority under Kaiaherehkowa, so be it our Minds.

Attacks and threats are carried out against Indigenous peoples when Parliament or governments go on holiday. Their corporate Indians don’t tell us much. During the Mohawk Oka Crisis 1990 fighter jets flew without notice closely, trying to scare us.

The flights over Kahnawake on May 21st 2012 could be dangerous for civilians due to risk of collateral damage. Is this warning us of another “Indian summer” when the army or cops come to town?

Like Jimmy Hendrix prophesied in his Vietnam War song, Machine Gun; “Machine gun, tearing my body all apart. Machine gun, tearing my body all apart. Evil man make me kill ya. Evil man make you kill me. Evil man make me kill you, even though we’re only families apart. The same way you shoot me down, baby, you’ll be going just the same. Three times the pain, and your own self to blame. Hey, machine gun.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK92W2RzbjE

.

MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, workshops, to donate and to sign up for MNN newsletters, go to www.mohawknationnews.com Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

NOTE: Beginning point upon the Earth at Forty-three degrees, fifty-six minutes north latitude and Seventy-six degrees, fifty-one minutes, thirty-five seconds west longitude; thence along rhumb line to point at Forty-three degrees, fifty minutes, eighteen seconds, north latitude and Seventy-six degrees, seventeen minutes fifty-five seconds west longitude; thence east and north along land and course of navigable water Kanientarawanoneh, said Saint Lawrence Seaway, to point at Forty-five degrees, Fifty-three minutes, thirty-nine seconds north latitude and Fifty-nine degrees, fifty-eight minutes, twenty-one seconds west longitude; thence along rhumb line to point at Forty-seven degrees, thirty-five minutes, ten seconds north latitude and Fifty-two degrees, forty-one minutes, thirty-one seconds west longitude; thence along rhumb line to point at Fifty-two degrees, sixteen minutes, twenty seconds north latitude and fifty-five degrees, thirty-five minutes west longitude.

Winnemem Wintu to hold War Dance to protect ceremony

Winnemem Wintu to Hold War Dance on McCloud River

Update: Photos and videos: Winnemem close McCloud River during War Dance:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/05/28/18714272.php

by Winnemem Wintu
Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

“We have been backed into a corner with no other choice. We should be preparing for Marisa’s ceremony, setting down prayers, making regalia, getting the dance grounds ready, making sure it happens in a good way,” said Caleen Sisk, spiritual leader and chief. “But instead we have to fight simply to protect our young women from drunken harassment.”
Photo of Caleen Sisk (speaking) and members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe at a protest at the U.S. Forest Service office in Vallejo on April 16 by Dan Bacher.

640_img_6484_1_1.jpg

Winnemem Wintu to Hold War Dance May 24-27 to Convince U.S. Forest Service to Protect Coming of Age Ceremony from Disruptions and Heckling
Winnemem Wintu need 4-day closure of 400-yard section of McCloud River to Perform Girls’ Traditional Coming of Age Ceremony REDDING, Calif. – The Winnemem Wintu Tribe will hold a four-day War Dance (H’up Chonas in Winnemem) May 24 -- 27 at the McCloud River site where they hold their Coming of Age ceremonies.

The War Dance signifies the tribe’s spiritual commitment to defend at all costs the ceremony from heckling, flashing and violating disruptions by recreational boaters that have occurred in previous years.

“We have been backed into a corner with no other choice. We should be preparing for Marisa’s ceremony, setting down prayers, making regalia, getting the dance grounds ready, making sure it happens in a good way,” said Caleen Sisk, spiritual leader and chief. “But instead we have to fight simply to protect our young women from drunken harassment.”

More than 400 volunteers from throughout the country, native and non-native, are expected to converge upon the sacred sites to help the tribe close the river and protect the War Dance from interference by boaters.

The ceremony will begin Thursday with the light of the sacred fire and an opening dance. On Friday and Saturday, the Tribe and volunteers will blockade a 400-yard stretch of the river. These will be the best days for media to attend.

“We hope the blockade will let the Forest Service know that boats don’t belong in ceremony and that we will do it ourselves if they won’t take the appropriate measures to protect our young women’s ceremonies,” said Sisk.

The tribe has contacted the U.S. Forest Service to arrange a discussion with officials to let them know what to expect and to ensure that everyone will be safe and have their rights respected. The tribe will have lawyers, legal observers, videographers, and the media present at all times during the War Dance and other activities.

The Tribe hopes the War Dance will convince the U.S. Forest Service to implement a mandatory river closure for 16-year-old Marisa Sisk’s Coming of Age ceremony, a traditional rite that is vital to the tribe’s social fabric.

The ceremony lasts four days, and takes place at the McCloud Bridge campground, which is within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The site was once a Winnemem village, Kaibai, and is home to numerous sacred sites vital to the ceremony.

At the tribe’s ceremonies in 2006 and 2010, the Forest Service enforced only a voluntary river closure, which led to drunken recreational boaters heckling the young Winnemem women and other tribal members with shouts of “It’s our river too, dude!” or “Fat Indians.”

One woman flashed her naked breasts at the Tribe, and another boater dumped cremated ashes into the river shortly before a ceremonial swim.

For six years, the tribe has unsuccessfully worked with Shasta-Trinity Forest officials to secure a mandatory closure of the 400 yards river necessary for the ceremony. It is not a thoroughfare. Access for the general public dead-ends at the north end of the site, which is private property.

On April 16, the Winnemem Wintu held a direct action event at the Vallejo office of Regional Forester Randy Moore, asking him to take action and close the river using his professional discretion. The tribe gave Moore a May 1 deadline to respond to their request, but he has never contacted the tribe.

U.S. Forest Service officials say that laws that would allow for a mandatory river closure for American Indian ceremonies – the 2008 Farm Bill and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act – do not apply to the Winnemem because they are not federally recognized.

The Winnemem were federally recognized up until the 1980s when they lost recognition due to Bureau of Indian Affairs clerical error.

Today, they are state recognized. The California Native American Heritage Commission has asserted that the Winnemem Wintu should be federally recognized. The California State Assembly also passed Assembly Join Resolution 39, which urges Congress to restore the Winnemem’s federal recognition.

The Winnemem Wintu are a traditional tribe of 125 who still practices their ceremonies and traditional healings within our ancestral territory from Mt. Shasta down the McCloud River watershed. When the Shasta Dam was constructed during World War II, it flooded their home and blocked the salmon runs. It also flooded all the other Puberty Rocks that could be used for Coming of Age ceremonies.

For directions to the War Dance, a cultural guide for the ceremony and more info, visit http://www.saveourceremony.com/wardance.

Learn more about the Winnemem Wintu at http://www.winnememwintu.us/

Learn more about the ceremony at http://www.saveourceremony.com.

Download Video of motorboats speeding past ceremony and flashing the participants at: http://vimeo.com/39867112

Footage of April 16, 2012 protest at Forest Service Region 5 Headquarters in Vallejo: http://youtu.be/oglCy--o7oY