UN Representative comments on Jim Main Jr. trial

U. N. representative comments on Main trial
(Created: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 12:28 PM MST)

Jim Main Jr., was convicted of deliberate homicide in a rush trial. Longtime Gros Ventre activist Jim Main Sr. died just days before the trial.

Article by Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com

http://www.havredailynews.com/articles/2009/02/11/local_headlines/local.txt

(Photo: Vernie White Cow Main holds a photo of her son, Jim Main, Jr./Photo by Brenda Norrell)

The murder trial of James Main Jr. In Havre attracted the attention of representatives of the United Nations, with one saying it is a sad commentary on the state of justice for Native Americans. Paul Haible, a deputy delegate to the United Nations for Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum’s foundation, said the testimony at the trial made it apparent that the death of Lloyd “Lucky” Kvelstad in Havre on Nov. 25, 2006, was a “sorry, ugly incident. “But that doesn’t mean you rush to judgment and not give the opportunity for a fair trial,” he said. Haible — who said he knew the father of James Main Jr., James Main Sr., for some 20 years — said the family of the defendant had called to tell the United Nations the case might be of interest in seeing how indigenous people are treated in court.

“This is a call from the family to see if there was a rush to justice,” he said. Main was charged after the body of Kvelstad, beaten and with a drawstring from a hooded sweatshirt tied tightly around his neck, was found in the residence of Melissa “Missy” Snow. Snow pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence at the scene, and a jury in November convicted Kim A. Norquay Jr. Of charges of deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence stemming from the incident.

Following a six-day trial which Haible watched, and a fellow delegate for Menchu Tum, Ali El-Issa, watched through last Friday, a jury Monday evening disagreed with Haible’s assessment. It convicted Main of deliberate homicide for committing or aiding or abetting the commission of an aggravated assault that resulted in Kvelstad’s death. Norquay was convicted of the same charge. Haible said during an interview while the jury deliberated that he was concerned the investigation had been slanted to convict Main, as the defense contended.

“I felt it was pretty well-structured in support of early judgment,” Haible said. Haible cited some specifics, such as a piece of evidence — apparently a piece of bloody tissue found outside of Snow’s residence the night of the incident — that was never tested at the state Crime Lab. “Why wasn’t the tissue tested?” Haible asked. “That was an incredible oversight. … “Nobody is owning up to why that happened,” he added.

Haible said that he did believe the defense, presented by Great Falls attorney Kenneth Olson, did a good job in arguing Main’s innocence and in pointing out problems in the investigation and prosecution of the case. The defense contended that the investigators and prosecutors had looked for evidence proving Main’s guilt from the start. It claimed that items were not tested at the state Crime Lab which should have been tested, and that investigation of statements from witnesses that could have absolved Main were not followed up. The prosecution replied that testing of evidence at the Crime Lab was prioritized to test evidence with the most value in the case. The defense also had the opportunity to have evidence tested, it said. The prosecution also said that witnesses were interviewed, and although it did not use the testimony, it provided the defense with information it used for its investigation while claiming the prosecution had not investigated the witnesses.

Haible said that problems inherent in the system — and not just in Montana but throughout the country — lead to problems for Native Americans. “Everybody knows an Indian could have difficulties in the court system in Montana,” he said. One he pointed out was that the system used in Montana to seat the jury led to only one Native American on the jury, rather than selecting more Native Americans who were present in the jury pool.

“It set up a situation where it was not a jury of his peers,” Haible said. Haible said he got the perception that there, indeed, was a rush to judgment on the case of the prosecution. That comes at a time when the issue of rights of indigenous people around the world, like Native Americans in the United States, is at a forefront. On Sept. 13, 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted The Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, drafting of which began in 1985.

Ali El-Issa said Friday that only four nations have not signed that declaration — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Haible said he believes he saw issues raised around the world concerning the rights of indigenous people at the trial. “Issues that have been raised the last several years dovetail into issues we see here,” he said. ———
On the Net: U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues:
www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii

Obama Administration maintains Bush secrecy policy on US torture

Why Should the U.S. Government's Right to Secrecy Trump the Right of People Not to be Tortured?

US torturers made incisions in his body and poured in hot stinging liquids, broke his bones

By The World Can't Wait


Binyam Mohamed is no longer a non-person, even though he's still in Guantanamo. After being flown around the world by the CIA, and tortured in both Pakistan and Morocco, he's fighting the torture. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union have direct testimony of torture from the five who were transported in CIA sponsored flights by Jeppesen Datalan, a subsidiary of Boeing, and testimony to show that employees of Jeppesen knew they were planning flights in what has become known infamously as the "Torture Taxi."

Yesterday, the ACLU represented Mohamed and 4 other men who were tortured and "rendered" by the CIA in the US Court of Appeals, 9th District in San Francisco. The Bush administration had gotten a judge to throw out the men's lawsuit against "extraordinary rendition." The ACLU and others hoped that the Obama administration would not stand on "national security" and let the suit go forward.

But no. The New York Times reports today, "the Obama administration seemed to surprise a panel of federal appeals judges on Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration." The ACLU provided testimony from Mohamed that, "he was routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution and death."

The World Can't Wait continues to demand an end to torture carried on directly by the United States or its allies; the overturning of the Military Commissions Act and "enhanced" interrogation whether carried out by U.S. military, CIA, private contractors, or allied governments' the closure of Guantanamo, Bagram and other indefinite detention facilities controlled by the United States. It believes that the rights of the people to be free of government spying supersede the secrecy rights of the government. Read more
http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5370:world-cant-wait-asks-why-should-the-us-governments-right-to-secrecy-trump-the-right-of-people-not-to-be-tortured&catid=117:homepage&Itemid=289

Rodriguez: 'The Face of the New American Bigot'

Newspapers can pick up column by contacting New America Media. Individuals can suggest to their newspapers to carry the column, also by contacting New America Media.

NEW AMERICA MEDIA
The Face of the New American Bigot
By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Feb 11, 2009

On the issue of immigration, there is little difference between conservatives and extremists. Both camps have come to greatly admire Sheriff Joe Arpaio – America's toughest sheriff. To this Arizona lawman, there is nothing wrong with racially profiling red-brown peoples and communities. And of course, his supporters applaud his every antic, including the recent public spectacle of humiliating some 220 migrants in Phoenix by parading them in public.

This is arguably why the GOP is dying. Arpaio has become the Bull Conner of our times. For conservative Republicans to embrace him – akin to how extremists embrace him – gives the nation a clear message: the GOP is more interested in preserving its outdated ideology and
(racial) heritage, than in expanding its base.

As the economy continues its uncontrolled convulsions, the nation also continues to convulse with an increasing number of ugly cases of racial bigotry and acts of violence against immigrants.

Indeed, this era is now marked
by the rise of the New American Bigot. The old one has undergone an extreme makeover; save for lawman Arpaio, the New American bigot is no longer the Aryan extremist or unrepentant segregationist. George Wallace is out and CNN's jolly Lou Dobbs is in.

Link to rest of column at:

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=852f40a74bb623a207837d5d6e278c70

Mohawk Nation News: Revenge of the Cradleboard

REVENGE OF THE CRADLEBOARD – the “500 year war” of Indigenous genocide

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

Feb. 9, 2009. When the Europeans invaded Turtle Island, they thought indigenous people were in their way. They pushed us west and did everything they could to get rid of us. Where did we go? 115 million were “disappeared” and the world doesn’t care.

The scum dogs of Europe set in motion a plan to dispossess us of our territories and resources. Almost all of us were annihilated in the biggest holocaust in the history of mankind. They developed “scientific theories” that claimed we were an inferior race to justify killing us off. Their motto was “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”. So there are only we mean ones left. Our ancestors sacrificed their lives at great cost so a few could be on Turtle Island today: in the beginning of the 20th century, from 60 million to 260,000 in the U.S. and less than 100,000 in Canada.

The law in Canada was that “a person was anyone other than an Indian”. We were treated like sub humans. The U.S. and Canada starved, subjugated, exterminated and then interned us on worthless land where it was almost impossible to survive. Today like guinea pigs we are numbered and catalogued more than anyone else in centralized computer information banks on all aspects of our lives.

As part of “racial hygiene” we were sterilized against our will. Our children were taken from us and put into concentration camps called residential/boarding schools. “Kill the Indian and save the man” was their motto. In Canada almost half never returned home. They were sexually abused, experimented on or murdered. Hitler’s World War II holocaust was modeled on the American Indian one.

Eugenics was part of how 10,000 French Canadians become a population of millions while we were being wiped out.

In the early days of New France, as Quebec was called, the birthrate was low because few European women were in Canada before 1663. After the English defeated them in 1760, the Roman Catholic Church’s retaliation was called the “revenge of the cradle”. They wanted to drown the English in a “bath” of French Catholic babies. The priests told the women that the ideal French Canadian mother was the one who took the first son from the cradle to replace him with his younger brother, while telling him that next year a little sister would take his place and so on. Fourteen children was the ideal. If they did not produce a child every year, they had to confess their sin. The protestants used the same fertility strategy to secure their theft of our lands. The physical strain of this policy killed the settler women and many of their babies.

The women got medals from the Pope for having at least 10 children. In 1973 a reporter from France, Andre Luchaire, wrote a story about this for La Presse. He visited a woman in the Laurentians, north of Montreal, who had over 25 children. He asked her to name her children who were running all around playing. She signaled one over and asked him, “What’s your name, son?”

In the 1970s after the “quiet revolution” when modern life hit Quebec, the French birthrate plummeted. They stampeded out of the church over this issue.

Recently technology made it possible for a 33-year old single woman in California to give birth to eight babies at one time through in vitro fertilization. She already had six. In previous multiple births the government stepped in and made assistance and funds available to help out the families. In this recent event, criticism and almost condemnation has been leveled at the mother about the cost to taxpayers, the social problems and government funds expended. Why? She is well educated and loves her 14 children. This woman is a person of color and she did not intend to have eight children. She wanted only one. All the implanted eggs survived in her womb and produced eight babies. She could not bring herself to abort any of them. She is obviously strong and so are her offspring to survive such an ordeal.

Since the invaders to Turtle Island have almost destroyed the environment that threatens to wipe out humanity, it is time to bring back the ways of Indigenous people to save mother earth.

We are not advocating that Indigenous women start having eight babies at a time. Indigenous women should be given the assistance needed to cut down our high infant death rate and to stop the theft of our children by government agencies such as social services. The survival and health of our babies means raising them in a decent standard of living to which we are entitled. Presently we are forced to live in one of the lowest life standards in the world. To take care of our children we need the same level of human rights as anybody else. Why is this being denied to us?

Yes, our birthrate is higher than the rest. This is a natural biological response to the genocide perpetrated on us. Canada wants to cut down our births. To hit us Ottawa recently made two major budget cuts to help stay-at-home mothers and provide day care for those who have to work. More will have to go on welfare which is not enough to cover decent food and shelter. Canada is deliberately creating hopelessness to lower our population by knowingly worsening conditions that will make us sick and that will make it harder for us to look after our children.

The colonists would rather hang empty cradle boards on museum walls than put live Indigenous babies in them to be raised by healthy Indigenous communities.

Ia’koha:kowa & MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com kittoh@storm.ca katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN “Canada” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois

Listen: Indigenous Peoples and Bolivia's Constitutional Reform

THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM IN BOLIVIA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES THERE

"Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond" radio program on
WESU, Middletown, CT, 88.1fm.
~~~
LISTEN ONLINE to host Kehaulani Kauanui, while the program airs from 4-4:55pm (EST):
http://www.wesufm.org/
On Tuesday, February 10, 2009, join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui for an episode that will focus on recent developments in Bolivia, where a national referendum held on January 25, 2009 passed after a long and contentious road in order advance a new constitution under the leadership of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the first Indian president of a South American country. On the show, we will hear from Dr. Victoria Bomberry (Muscogee) and Dr. José Antonio Lucero about the politics of the new constitution and its implications for the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, and the ongoing democratization project. Dr. Victoria Bomberry is an assistant professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside where she teaches Native American Studies. She is the International Coordinator of Movimiento de Mujeres Originarios y Indigenas de Qollosuyu, Bolivia, and the Project Director of Abya Yala Women's Circle. Dr. José Antonio Lucero is an assistant professor at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle. He is the author of a new book, Struggles of Voice: The Politics of Indigenous Representation in the Andes (University of Pittsburgh Press). Past programs of "Indigenous Politics" are now archived online:
http://www.indigenouspolitics.com/
"Indigenous Politics" is syndicated weekly on Pacifica-affiliate stations: WNJR, 91.7 FM, "Washington & Jefferson College Radio" in Washington, PA, and WETX-LP, 105.3 FM, "The independent voice of Appalachia," which includes a region encompassing twelve states and 20 million people: east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, west Kentucky, all of West Virginia, most of Pennsylvania, south New York, west Maryland, west North Carolina, west South Carolina, north Georgia, north Alabama, and northeast Mississippi. In addition, starting this month, WBCR-lp in Massachusetts is also syndicating the show. The show's producer and host, Dr. J. Kehaulani Kauanui is an associate professor of American Studies and Anthropology at Wesleyan University. She is the author of a newly released book, Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity (Duke University Press 2008).
http://jkauanui.faculty.wesleyan.edu/

Native Americans Protest Reinstatement of Racist Mascot

Contact: Mark Anquoe, American Indian Movement - West
(415) 566-5788 gazelbe@yahoo.com
http://www.aimwest.info/
Corine Fairbanks American Indian Movement – Santa Barbara (805) 212-4947
corine68@yahoo.com
http://www.myspace.com/aimsantabarbara

Native Americans Protest Reinstatement of Racist Mascot
By Mark Anquoe and Corine Fairbanks

CARPINTERIA, California – The Carpinteria based Coalition Against Racism in Education (C.A.R.E.) will hold a rally and protest outside of Carpinteria City Hall on Tuesday, February 10th at 4:30 pm. That evening, the Carpinteria district school board will continue to hear arguments regarding a petition to rescind its own April 2008 decision to remove the Native American sports imagery at Carpinteria High School. C.A.R.E. demands that the previous decision be upheld in accordance with official positions on Native American mascots published by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the National Education Association, the American Psychological Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, among others.

The demonstration is also being held to draw attention to the threats and intimidation against the Native American community that have become commonplace since the 2008 ruling. Supporters of the racist mascot have made multiple death threats against Eli Cordero, the 15 year old Chumash youth who originally petitioned the school board to remove the imagery. A child of one of the supporting school board members was also targeted, prompting the child’s transfer to another school. No one has been charged with making the threats, as police have refused to recognize any “credible threat”. Those who publicly support the mascot’s removal have been refused service at local restaurants, harassed in their homes and even pursued into and accosted at their churches.

Protest organizers expect aggressive opposition at the Tuesday rally. At a protest on January 27th, the Federal Department of Justice sent an agent from their Los Angeles office to ensure proper police protection of demonstrators. Previous protests have been met with mascot supporters shouting racist epithets, spitting, and throwing rocks.

Although the Carpinteria school board will hear arguments on Tuesday, it is not expected to vote on the matter until February 24th. C..A.R.E is also organizing a rally and march on that date.