Navajo Council Speaker defends Navajo water rights in Salazar meeting

Navajo Council Speaker upholds Navajo water rights, says 'No!' to deal for Navajo Generating Station and Peabody Coal, in US proposed water rights deal during Salazar meeting

Navajo Council Speaker Johnny Naize
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Also see: Ben Nuvamsa, Hopi, defends Hopi water rights
http://beyondthemesas.com/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Naa’bik’iyati’ Water Rights Task Force of the Navajo Nation Council, led by Speaker Johnny Naize (Low Mountain, Many Farms, Nazlini, Tachee/Blue Gap, Tselani/ Cottonwood), met with U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Nov. 14 to present a position statement on the Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Rights Settlement.

The Naa’bik’iyati’ Committee approved the “Position Statement of the Navajo Nation on Comprehensive Water Rights Settlements” (resolution NABIN-87-12) on Nov. 9.

The position statement stipulates critical positions for all parties of the settlement and Congress to consider—many of the positions resulted from the Nation’s citizens’ input when council considered the water rights settlement legislation last summer.

The need for the position statement arose during Secretary Salazar’s visit to the Navajo Nation on Sept. 18 when he invited Navajo leadership to Washington to discuss the water rights settlement in more depth.

In discussions occurring after his visit to the Navajo Nation, Secretary Salazar expressed to the Nation and the Hopi Tribe his interest in finding a mutually agreeable Navajo-Hopi water rights settlement that could potentially be acted on by Congress during the lame duck session.

Speaker Naize presented the position statement outlining the Nation’s interests and expectations of the Little Colorado River water rights settlement bill to Secretary Salazar.

“While we recognize the cards are stacked against us, in terms of time and certain political hurdles, we are pleased to be here today to give our position,” Speaker Naize said. “We, the Navajo people, hold close to our hearts our responsibilities to the land and water from which we sustain our way of life.”

We have a position statement that outlines the critical priorities of the Navajo Nation with respect to water rights, Speaker Naize stated.

As part of the Nation’s position, Speaker Naize asserted that any and all of the Nation’s water rights settlements should place no restrictions on taking tribally owned fee lands into trust; and the need to preserve and not waive claims for injury to water quality.

Speaker Naize also stated that the delivery of 6,411 AFY of Central Arizona Project water to eastern Arizona Navajo communities be without conditions; and to delete requirements for the extension of the Navajo Generating Station plant site lease and other related agreements and that the Navajo Nation lease additional coal to Peabody Western Coal Company.

The Navajo Generating Station is currently negotiating with the Navajo Nation for a possible site lease extension and renewal of rights-of-ways for the plant, railroad, and transmission and water lines. The existing agreements begin to expire in 2019.

“Clearly the provisions found in S.2109 speaking to any lease extension to the Navajo Generating Station and matters relating to Peabody are unrelated and unnecessary to the LCR Water Settlement,” Speaker Naize said.

The Naa’bik’iyati’ Water Rights Task Force communicated to Secretary Salazar that the current form and content of S.2109 is unequivocally unacceptable.

Without substantial changes to the bill, pursuant to the Nation’s position statement or the introduction of a new bill honoring the Nation’s priorities, the Nation will not yield from its opposition to S.2109 as stated in Navajo Nation Council Legislation No. 0149-12.

“I want to assure the Navajo people that any settlement passed by Congress resulting from this meeting and others going forward, must ultimately be approved by the Navajo Nation Council,” Speaker Naize stated.

We shall see what the Department of Interior presents to our neighbors, the Hopi Tribe, and our Navajo people as a result of this discussion. Until then, the Navajo Nation stands ready to accept or respectfully walk away.”

Speaker Naize also implored Secretary Salazar to exercise all his authority to uphold the trust responsibility of the United States government and the historical promises to advocate in the best interest of Diné people.

“Now more than ever, I hold the Department of Interior accountable for advocating in our best interest—particularly as it relates to our priority to remove all the provisions seeking to prevent the Navajo Nation from taking its fee lands into trust,” Speaker Naize said.

The Naa’bik’iyati’ Water Rights Task Force is comprised of Speaker Johnny Naize and Council Delegates Katherine Benally, Elmer Begay, Joshua Lavar Butler, LoRenzo Bates, Jonathan Nez, Walter Phelps, Alton Joe Shepherd, and Dwight Witherspoon.

The advisory group to the Naa’bik’iyati’ Water Rights Task Force, as stated in the enacting resolution of the task force, consists of Rita Gilmore, Nicole Horseherder, Ann Marie Chischilly, Byron Huskon, Jack Utter, and Thomas Walker.

Also present at the meeting with Secretary Salazar was Hopi Tribe Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa. The position statement presented by Speaker Naize is available on the homepage of Navajo Nation Council website.

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For news on the latest legislative branch activities, please visit www.navajonationcouncil.org

 

Jerome Clark | 928.637.5603
Carmenlita Chief | 928.255.3428
nnlb.communications@gmail.com

November 16, 2012
 

Livestream School of Americas Protest Nov 17-18, 2012

LIVE from Fort Benning, Georgia...Tune into the live video stream from the November Vigil

The Mobile Broadcast News just started today's livestreaming of the rally at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. Go to SOAW.org to watch live footage of the protest, hear speakers from across the Americas, witness their testimony, check out the beautiful puppetista pageant, and listen to the musicians perform on stage. Click here to see what is happening at the gates of Fort Benning right now.

The live streaming will continue tomorrow, when thousands will transform the fence at the main gates into a memorial for those killed by graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC.

Please share the live feed link within your networks. Post the link on your Facebook wall, on Twitter, or forward this email to your friends and family.


202-425-5128
hvoss@soaw.org
November 18, 2012

THOUSANDS GATHERED AT THE GATES OF U.S. MILITARY BASE IN GEORGIA TO CLOSE THE SOA/WHINSEC

3-DAY MOBILIZATION CULMINATES WITH MASS DIE-IN AND FUNERAL PROCESSION TO COMMEMORATE THE VICTIMS OF SOA/ WHINSEC VIOLENCE AND U.S. MILITARIZATION

NASHUA CHANTAL, 60 OF AMERICUS, GEORGIA CROSSES OVER THE FENCE TO CARRY THE PROTEST ONTO THE MILITARY BASE, FACES SIX MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON

Columbus, Georgia - The largest annual anti-militarization gathering in North America took place in Columbus, Georgia, from November 16-18, 2012.

Nashua Chantal of Americus, Georgia, who stood in silence with the message 'Study war no more' painted across his face during the symbolic funeral march, crossed the line onto the military base. The base is home to the US Army School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) in 2001, a training facility that has turned out some of Latin America's most notorious killers and continues to be implicated in human rights abuses today. Nashua Chantal was arrested after he crossed over the barb-wired, and is currently in the custody of the military police. He will be arraigned in federal court and is facing up to six months in federal prison for his courageous act of civil disobedience.

The weekend included a massive rally on Saturday, where thousands came together at the gates of the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC), now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, and culminated on Sunday, November 18 with a mass die-in and funeral procession to commemorate the victims of SOA/ WHINSEC violence and U.S. militarization.

The weekend featured musicians like emma's revolution and Rebel Diaz, and international speakers like Francia Marquez from Colombia, Martin Almada from Paraguay, and Ismael Moreno from Honduras.

Francia Marquez, a leader from the Afro-Colombian gold-mining community of La Toma in southwestern Colombia, talked about how her community has struggled against political, economic and armed forces looking to control their hands and resources.

Martin Almada, a Paraguayan educator, talked about his experience as a political prisoner under the regime of Alfredo Stroessner. His wife died of a heart attack after being forced to hear through a telephone her husband's cries as he was tortured.

Ismael Moreno (known in Honduras as Father Melo), a Jesuit priest, radio host and contributor to Envio magazine, had his radio station occupied by the military following the SOA led military coup and he began receiving death threats.

Moreno's story shows how, even though the school changed its name in 2001 to WHINSEC, the graduates of this U.S. taxpayer-funded military school are still key players in human rights abuses throughout Latin America.

Last week, on November 14, an SOA Watch delegation met with Denis McDonough, the National Deputy Security Advisor to President Obama in the White House, to ask that the SOA/WHINSEC be shut down by Executive Order. In January, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) will introduced legislation to suspend operations at the school and investigate human rights abuses in Latin America.

The SOA/WHINSEC is a U.S. taxpayer-funded military training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. The school made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Despite this, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place.

SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works to close the School of the Americas and change U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America. For more information, visit www.SOAW.org.
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By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

 

At the School of Americas, the US trained Latin military leaders in torture, which resulted in the widespread torture, rape, disappearance and assassination of Indigenous Peoples in Central and South America. The special forces trained there continue to torture and murder throughout the Americas. The torture manual was made public in 1996, published at the US Army Intelligence Center in Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona.

Tucson has a special history of providing sanctuary, in the Sanctuary Movement, to thousands of Indigenous Peoples fleeing that torture.

It is good to live in a place, Tucson, where people risked their own safety and personal freedom to provide sanctuary for those fleeing this torture during the Sanctuary Movement. Many of those same people today sacrifice greatly to rescue migrants dying of dehydration on the border.

And today others, including Tohono O'odham, and walk in heat up to 115 degrees searching for migrants who are lost, and too often they find their bodies. While they sacrifice, the US Border Patrol targets them.

Occupied Borders: Israeli activist for Palestine visits Tohono O'odham land

Dr. Dalit Baum with
Mike Wilson in Tucson.
Photo Brenda Norrell

Occupied Borders: Palestine and Tohono O’odham land, human rights activists making change

“The Tohono O‘odham Nation is now occupied by a foreign army called the US Border Patrol." Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News copyright
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

French translation, thank you Christine Prat
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=1143

TUCSON -- An Israeli speaking out for the rights of Palestinians visited the Tohono O’odham border and then shared her insights on the similarities between the treatment of Palestine by Israel, and the treatment of American Indians by the colonizers of the US.

Dr. Dalit Baum, an Israeli and economic activist for Palestine, spoke to students at the University of Arizona, and Tucson community activists, on Friday, leading a discussion on economic activism as a tool for change.

“It is horrifying that the same wave of violence is ebbing and flowing, and coming back,” Baum said.

Baum spoke on the same day that protesters were in the streets of Tucson demanding an end to Israel's deadly violence and bombing of Gaza, which continued throughout the day and into the night.

Baum said the reason to protest for a stop to the killing is to bring people together and remind them that they are not alone. It is a way to translate grief and frustration into action, and renew hope.

Baum visited Tohono O’odham land, and the US/Mexico border in Arizona, this week with human rights activist Mike Wilson, Tohono O’odham, who puts out water for migrants as humanitarian aid.

Reflecting on the history of American Indian people on this continent, Baum said, “I was thinking of the similarities and differences of what happened here, and what happened in Palestine.”

Although Native Americans in the US have been targeted for centuries with ethnic cleansing and genocide, what is happening in Israel and Palestine is relatively recent in history, and escalated primarily over the past ten years.

Unfortunately, the treatment of American Indians has served as an excuse for Israel in regards to occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

Baum said that many Israelis say that the US has done the same thing to their own Indigenous Peoples and therefore, Israel should be able to have the same right.

She said that European colonial history has resulted in a sense of guilt, both because of the history of Jews and also because of the history of Zionism.

Currently, Israel controls the entire area of Israel and Palestine and controls Palestine in different ways. For instance this control results in violence in Gaza. In the West Bank, there is the takeover of land and resources, a violation of international law.

The history of the Occupation of Palestine is relatively recent compared to Indigenous history, she said.

Today, we live in an era of the war on terrorism, which is an engine of growth. It produces economic incentives for the products like the spy towers and border wall here in Arizona on Tohono O’odham land.

Because of the occupation and ethnic cleansing, the dispersal of Palestinians around the world means a dissipation of Palestinian culture

Baum said it is an apartheid situation. Israelis control the region, while Palestinians do not have full rights in regards to land and citizenship. Even for those who can vote, the Palestinian Authority controls a very small area of Palestine.

Meanwhile, there are Israeli army raids and they can arrest anyone.

The situation in Palestine is apartheid under the United Nations definition.

In 1948, there was ethnic cleansing and most Palestinians were pushed out and forced to live in refugee camps. At that time, 95 percent of the land was owned by the people, and now, they are no longer owners of their land.

The land of Israel and Palestine is a small territory compared to the US and there is a small economy. Israel is dependent on the United States.

“All of the time you have the feeling of claustrophobia,” she said.

In Europe, Israel is viewed as the outpost of the west. Israel is dependent psychologically and economically on the west.

Baum pointed out that the feeling of impunity present in Israel and the position of people of simply maintaining, is the biggest threat to the incentive for change.

“Action is the best way to respond to grief and anger.”

Grassroots solidarity: An end to the occupation, return refugees home

The grassroots movement for solidarity in action, means that people say what they are going to do when they go back home. “We want to know what can we do.”

Grassroots solidarity is a call to people of conscious. It includes boycotts, sanctions and economic divestments, such as divesting of pension funds.

The grassroots movement is calling for an end to the occupation, implementing the right of return of refugees and full equality for Palestinians, including those who live in Israel.

The grassroots movement has no political outline, and is based on international law and human rights.

“This is something that everyone can agree on,” Baum said.

So far, 170 organizations signed the accord.

During the discussion and call for boycotts, it was pointed out that individuals are not boycottable. Institutions or corporations that are complacent, including the state of Israel, are boycottable.

When asked about the boycott of an Israeli dance company, it was explained that it was boycotted because it was paid for by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to whitewash the occupation. The dance troupe served as cultural ambassadors of Israel. When a dance troupe participates in that exchange, it becomes an arm of the state and normalizes the occupation. Attending or promoting such a cultural activity is complicity.

Baum said human rights activists do not boycott all Israeli funded projects for artists. “It is only when the money comes with strings attached.”

The events can also serve to educate the people outside the dance troupe performance.

One example of taking action at the university, is to ask it to divest in specific corporations or investments.

Currently, there is an economic boycott of Veolia, which privatizes public transportation around the world, and provides waste dumping. In Palestine, Veolia brings waste and dumps it on Palestine land, which is in violation of international law. It is done in a place where there was ethnic cleansing.

Veolia also operates segregated buses.

Meanwhile, in Tucson, Veolia has a contract with the public transportation system, SunTran buses.

Referring to actions regarding Veolia, Baum said, “That is the power of this movement. It is truly global.” Because of its action of dumping waste in Palestine, and operating segregated buses, Veolia lost contracts in the UK and Europe in 2006.

Boston, Chicago and Sonoma County, Calif. take the lead

Today in the US, three areas have taken the lead in boycotts of companies who violate human rights. In support of Palestinians, Boston, Chicago, and Sonoma County in Calif., have taken the lead.

In Sonoma County, Calif., the Human Rights Commission initially said that they could take no action because they have no jurisdiction in Palestine. However, three hours later, following community members objections and input, the conclusion changed.

Sonoma County residents said segregated buses in Palestine by Veolia violate human rights. One man said he lives here, but his family lives in Palestine. When he was there, he saw Palestinians removed from a segregated bus.

“There is a real problem and we are complicit in it,” said the people of Sonoma County.

In southern Arizona, Veolia, G4S, Elbit and Caterpillar

Since Veolia has business here in Tucson, there were suggestions as to what could be done. “Buses are a wonderful place for action,“ Baum said.

With buses, actions can include street theater, a mock segregated bus and educating riders on the bus.

Mike Wilson, Tohono O’odham pointed out that G4S has a huge contract with Homeland Security at the US/Mexico border to transport detained migrants.

Wilson said Homeland Security has created an occupation on Tohono O‘odham land. “The Tohono O‘odham Nation is now occupied by a foreign army called the US Border Patrol.

Wilson said the US Border Patrol now has superior power on O’odham land to that of the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Tohono O’odham Police Department.

Wilson is policy director for the Border Action Network. For years, Wilson has placed water in gallon jugs and tanks, on the border for migrants, over the objections of the Tohono O'odham government. This area is where a large number of migrants die each year from heat and dehydration in the Sonoran Desert.

While on the O'odham border, Baum said she saw Caterpillar equipment. (Caterpillar has been targeted with protests since Rachel Corrie was ran down and killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer in Palestine.)

Tucson activists pointed out that the G4S buses, once labeled Wackenhut, afflict cruel treatment on migrants, since migrants are forced to sit in the sun, or in overheated buses, for hours at a time. Many are already dehydrated and near death when they are taken to the buses at the border.

Another company contracted for work at the US/Mexico border in Arizona is Elbit Systems, the Israeli defense contractor who also provides security at the Palestine border. Elbit was subcontracted by Boeing for work on the US border wall and spy towers.

Baum said of companies violating Palestinian rights, “We are asking the companies to stop, because we think this will make the company a better company.”

During the discussion, it was pointed out that individuals are not targeted in boycotts, and neither are companies whose involvement is over. In the latter case, this would not be conducive to an incentive to change.

“We are dealing with corporate policies, trying to make them better,” Baum said.

Baum pointed out that Polaroid was the first company to divest in South Africa apartheid and the movement was led by company employees.

“It is not against the company, it is for them.”

Baum also suggested fun and creative campaigns to support human rights in Palestine, such as painting bulldozers pink.

Dalit Baum, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Who Profits from the Occupation, an activist research initiative of the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel. During the last five years, Who Profits has become a vital resource for dozens of campaigns around the world, providing information about corporate complicity in the occupation of Palestine.
Dalit is a feminist scholar and teacher in Israel, who has been teaching about militarism and about the global economy from a feminist perspective in Israeli universities. As a feminist/ queer activist, she has been active with various groups in the Israeli anti-occupation and democratization movement, including Black Laundry, Boycott from Within, Zochrot, Anarchists against the Wall and Women in Black.
This year she works out of San Francisco with the Economic Activism for Palestine Program of Global Exchange, which supports corporate accountability campaigns in the U.S.

Hopi Tribe cites threatened species in new lawsuit to halt desecration of Peaks

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
French translation by Christine Prat
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=1179

Scroll down for document

The Hopi Tribe filed a new lawsuit to halt the use of reclaimed sewage water for snowmaking on sacred San Francisco Peaks, citing the presence of a threatened plant that only appears on the Peaks.

The Hopi Tribe filed for a mandatory injunction on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. A Flagstaff radio station reported that the Arizona Snowbowl began using the snow making equipment on Tuesday.

The threatened grounsel, or Packera franciscana, consists of only about 500 plants in the alpine forest of the San Francisco Peaks. There are 700 acres of critical habitat on the Peaks, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in the District of Columbia.

The threatened Mexican Spotted Owl also has habitat on the Peaks, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit is filed against the US Dept. of Agriculture and Secreary Thomas Vilsack, US Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell, and Coconino Forest Service Supervisor Earl Stewart.

Lawsuit Hopi v Usfs 20121114 Complaint



 

Leaked documents: Mainstream media ignoring Salazar scheme to steal Navajo water rights

Media ignoring leaked documents of Salazar/Kyl theft of Navajo water rights

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

The mainstream media is ignoring these leaked documents below, exposing the Navajo water rights theft scheme of Interior Sec. Ken Salazar, with Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl.
After the meeting was exposed, Salazar put a public relations spin on it this week and made it public to further the cover-up.
Arizona is desperate for Navajo water from the Little Colorado River, both to water lawns and golf courses and continue the lavish lifestyles, and for the Navajo Generating Station. The coal fired power plant is one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the US.
This water rights theft scheme furthers the scheme of the 1970s when Peabody Coal, the US, non-Indian attorneys and Arizona senators orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute. The purpose was to relocate more than 14,000 Navajos from Black Mesa in order for Peabody to seize the coal from Black Mesa for this generating station.
The US is manipulating Indian Nations to give up their expansive water rights under the Winter's Doctrine, which Native Americans futures depend on. The theft scheme is in the so-called "water rights settlements."
See the documents regarding Salazar's secret meeting that was exposed with these leaded documents below:

Salazar's Leaked E-mail Steal Navajo Water Rights With Kyl

Harper's First Nations Termination Plan 2012

Harper's First Nation Termination Plan 2012