Aboriginals to UN: Halt Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Western Australia

Aboriginals to UN: Halt Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Western Australia

By Kimberley Land Council in Western Australia

http://www.klc.org.au/news-media/newsroom/news-detail/2015/04/22/klc-condemns-community-closures-at-united-nations

Censored News

April 23, 2015

Kimberley Land Council condemns community closures at United Nations Apr 22, 2015

The Kimberley Land Council has received widespread international support for condemning the forced closure of Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

The Kimberley Land Council has received widespread international support at the United Nations for condemning Aboriginal community closures in Western Australia.

Global human rights organisations, Indigenous organisations and NGOs from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United States pledged support to the KLC as it highlighted the discriminatory and race-based erosion of Indigenous rights currently occurring in Australia.

KLC Chairman Anthony Watson and CEO Nolan Hunter addressed the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York today and met with key influencers including Victoria Tauli Corpus, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Australia’s Professor Megan Davis who was elected to chair the forum.

Mr Watson said it was great to be able to raise international awareness about the forced closure of Indigenous communities and legislative changes to the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act, on such a high-profile, global platform like the United Nations.

“Indigenous people in Australia are witnessing a discriminatory and race-based erosion of their rights while the attempted assimilation of Indigenous people into white Australia is presenting a significant risk to our economic, social and cultural wellbeing,” he said

Kimberley Land Council submission extracts

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Fourteenth Session – New York

20 April – 01 May 2015

Human Rights: Implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (with specific focus on economic, social and cultural rights)

In Australia, failure to fully implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People by Government has proven to be a significant impediment to the pursuit of self-determination and strengthening of the economic, social and cultural rights of Indigenous people.

Australia is a federated nation with responsibility for implementation of the Declaration resting both with the National Government and in part with states within the federation.  At present, Indigenous people in the state of Western Australia are witnessing a discriminatory and race-based erosion of their rights and the attempted assimilation of Indigenous people into white Australia, presenting a significant risk to our economic, social and cultural wellbeing through:

• the forced closure of Indigenous communities, attempting once again to separate people from their land and culture;
• laws that erode avenues for Indigenous people to protect their cultural heritage; and
• discriminatory land tenure administration, including the systematic interference with attempts by Indigenous people to pursue culturally appropriate and sustainable economic development opportunities.

The Australian Government has taken no steps to protect Indigenous people in response to these measures.  

Forced closure of Indigenous communities

In November 2014, the Premier of the State of Western Australia declared an intention to close up to 150 of the 274 remote Indigenous communities in the state. This announcement was made without consultation with Indigenous people. It was made without regard to our wishes or our wellbeing.

Not more than 100 years ago, our people were being forced off our land and put in missions and reserves. Not less than 40 years ago our children were being forcibly removed from their families and forced into institutional care.  Less than 20 years ago the Australian Government enacted laws dealing with our native title rights which were, and still are today, racially discriminatory and a breach Australia’s international human rights obligations.  As recently as 2007, the Australian government again suspended the Racial Discrimination Act in order to implement the Northern Territory Emergency Response.  

History shows us that these policies have resulted in the gradual disintegration of cultural standards and governance; it has resulted in fringe communities in urban areas, in alcoholism and youth suicides, and in disempowerment. And now the Australian Government is allowing it to happen again.

This program of forced closure and removal from country will be done by the removal by Government of essential services and is being applied:

• with complete discrimination – the Government is only proposing to remove services to Indigenous communities, without regard to remote non-Indigenous communities;
• without a long-term vision or alternative - no one has discussed what options or opportunities may be available to improve the economic sustainability of these communities; and
• with complete disregard to the economic, social and cultural wellbeing of the Indigenous people residing within them.

The protests of the Indigenous community against this situation have been met by the Australian Government with a dismissal that our living in these communities is a lifestyle choice.

But we do not believe that this is correct. Article 8 of the Declaration tells us that we have a right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of our culture. Articles 10, 26, 27 and 32 further affirm our rights in relation to our land. And Article 19 provides that we must first consent to these actions.  

We would hope that no State, that purports to endorse the Declaration, can maintain that the rights embodied within that Declaration are a lifestyle choice.

Erosion of legal mechanisms to protect cultural heritage

The Aboriginal Heritage Act of Western Australia establishes legal and administrative mechanisms to control Indigenous cultural heritage in the interests of the community at large, but not in the interests of Indigenous people. And is primarily directed at processes to allow lawful damage to or destruction of our heritage places and objects.  

This law is in the process of being amended to further narrow opportunities for Indigenous people to participate in the management, control or protection of their cultural heritage, and to provide even greater legal control over our heritage to government.  

The Aboriginal Heritage Act, in both its current state and proposed amended form, is contrary to international human rights norms and is an example of systemic racism legitimatised and institutionalised by legislative means.  

These laws entrench principles of colonial superiority and provide legal protection for systemic racism.  

These laws therefore amount to a forced taking of our heritage so that it can be destroyed, damaged or compromised by the state in accordance with its own laws for the benefit of mining companies and other developers.  

Discriminatory land tenure administration

Indigenous people are committed and active in looking for every opportunity to improve the wellbeing of our people.

The forced closure of Indigenous communities and the laws relating to Aboriginal heritage are but two pieces of a broader approach by the West Australian Government to interfere in Indigenous self-determination in the state.  A third measure being applied is the discriminatory administration of land tenure and land management by the State Government to undermine actions taken by Indigenous people to improve their wellbeing and become economically self-sufficient.

Indigenous communities in the Kimberley have been active in pursuing opportunities to establish projects that use their native title rights to develop priorities for development and use of their lands. These projects align with our strong interest in protecting and taking care of the country we live on and include land management activities and carbon projects.

All Member States have an obligation to facilitate the economic, social and cultural wellbeing of Indigenous people. And this obligation extends to all levels of Government.

The Kimberley Land Council looks to the Permanent Forum, to fellow delegates and observers to support us in our call for Australia to comply with its obligations under the Declaration, and support the economic, social and cultural wellbeing of Australian Indigenous people.  

Zapatistas SupGaleano: Registration Report 'Critical Thought Versus Capitalist Hydra'

Photo: SupGaleano in Sonora
by Brenda Norell

Report on Registration for the Seminar “Critical Thought Versus the Capitalist Hydra”

Zapatista Army for National Liberation

Mexico.

April 21, 2015

Translations: Italiano, Espanol

To the compas of the Sixth:

To the presumed attendees of the Seminar “Critical Thought Versus the Capitalist Hydra”:

We want to let you know that:

As of April 21, 2015, the number of people who have registered for the seminar “Critical Thought Versus the Capitalist Hydra” is approximately 1,074 men, women, others,i children, and elderly from Mexico and the world. Of this number:

558 people are adherents of the Sixth.

430 people are not adherents of the Sixth

82 people say they are from the free, autonomous, independent, alternative, or whatever-you-call-it media.

4 people are from the paid media (only one person from the paid media has been rejected, it was one of the three who were sponsored by the Chiapas state government to sully the name of the Zapatista compa professor Galeano and present his murderers as victims.)

Now then, we don’t know if among those 1,074 who have registered so far there might be a portion who have gotten confused and think that they have registered for Señorita Anahí’s wedding (apparently she’s marrying somebody from Chiapas, I’m not sure, but pay me no mind because here the world of politics and entertainment are easily confused… ah! There too? Didn’t I tell you?)

Anyway, I’m sharing the number of attendees because it’s many more than we had expected would attend the seminar/seedbed. Of course now that’s CIDECI’s problem, so… good luck!

What? Can people can still register? I think so, I’m not sure. When questioned by Los Tercios Compas, doctor Raymundo responded “no problem at all, in any case the number of people who will actually pay attention are far fewer.” Okay, okay, okay, he didn’t say that, but given the context he could have. What’s more, not even the doc knows how many people are going to come to CIDECI.

In any case, if you are engrossed by the high quality of the electoral campaigns and are reflecting profoundly on the crystal clear proposals of the various candidates, you should not waste your time on this critical thinking stuff.

Okay then, don’t forget your toothbrush, soap, and something to comb your hair.

From the concierge of the seminar/seedbed,

In search of the cat-dog,

SupGaleano.

Mexico, April 2015.

The Cat-Dog in the chat “Zapatista attention to the anti-zapatista client”:

(You are currently on hold, one of our advisors will be with you in a moment. If it takes awhile, it’s because we’re on pozol break.iii We thank you for your patience.)

Yaqui Water Rights Defenders Denied Release from Prison

Vicam Yaqui Water Rights Spokesman Imprisoned since Fall of 2014 Were Not Released

Rights Violated! Judge Orders Release of Jailed Indigenous Activist in Mexico Yaqui Tribe spokesman, Fernando Jimenez, in April. Mario Luna was ordered released in January.

Update May 12, 2015
Mexican officials used legal tactics to keep both Yaqui water rights defenders in jail for more months. It is unknown when they will be released.


Article by TeleSur TV

Photo on right: Water Rights Forum in Vicam, Sonora, by Brenda Norrell

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Judge-Orders-Release-of-Jailed-Indigenous-Activist-in-Mexico-20150408-0028.html

Detained Yaqui Tribe leader and activist, Fernando Jimenez, recieved a favorable decision due to lack of evidence. A third circuit judge has issued an injunction in favor of Yaqui indigenous tribe spokesman, Fernando Jimenez, ordering the release of the jailed indigenous rights activist for lack of evidence against him. Jimenez, who has been imprisoned since September 23, 2014, was detained in the northern state of Sonora amid the context of the Yaqui Tribe’s protests in defense of the Yaqui River. According to the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda), which made the information public, the judge’s ruling, on Tuesday, represents the states participation in violating Jimenez’s human rights for ordering his imprisonment without due process. Jimenez was arrested only days after Mario Luna, another prominent spokesman and activist of the Yaqui Tribe, was detained under the same circumstances. The two are accused of illegal deprivation of liberty and carjacking, after members of the Yaqui Tribe stopped a man who attempted to drive into their protest roadblock. In January, Luna also received a favorable court order for his release stipulating that at the time of Luna’s consignment to prison the state neglected to admit the defense’s evidence. Both Luna and Jimenez have led the Yaqui Tribe’s protests since 2010 against a state-sponsored mega aqueduct project that pumps water from the Yaqui River to urban centers such the Sonora state capital, Hermosillo. The 172 km long project transports more than 60 million cubic meters of water per year from the Novillo dam, which is fed by the Yaqui River, to supply Hermosillo and the large agroindustry in the region. The project openly violates a 1940 presidential decree by then president Lazaro Cardenas, which guarantees that at least 50 percent of the water from the Yaqui River pertains to the Yaqui Tribe.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Judge-Orders-Release-of-Jailed-Indigenous-Activist-in-Mexico-20150408-0028.html. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

Mohawk Nation News: BRITISH PROTECTORATE: Kanekotah

BRITISH PROTECTORATE: Kanekotah

Posted on April 24, 2015

NN. APRIL 24, 2015. This letter was sent by Registered Mail on April 11, 2015, to General Sir Peter Wall and received at Whitehall. 

kahentinetha, P.O. Box 991, kahnwake [Quebec Canada] J0L 1B0.

April 11, 2015.

Gen. Sir Peter Wall, KCB CBE ADC Gen, Chief of the General Staff, UK Army, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2HB

Dear Sir:

As you have been previously alerted by our ahserakowa of kanekotah, thahoketoteh, we write today to remind you of the order you are under. You have a copy of Captain General Sir Frederick Haldimand’s order he left for you. We provide you another.

Halidmand Proclamation 1784 making Kanekotah the only UK military protectorate for the Mohawks in the world.

This issue has now come before the Iroquois Confederate Council. We put you on notice of your legal requirement to follow military law and do as your General ordered in 1784. “Due to the early attachment of the Mohawks and the loss of their settlements in the American states”, “we have purchased a tract of land, six miles from each side of the Grand River, starting at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of said river, which them and their posterity shall enjoy forever”.

You are legally required to follow this order. Due to the colonial settlerism issues, we require your physical presence in kanekotah when we move to our tract. We would like to do this in June 2015.

Your house in kanekota is waiting for you.

The Canadian courts have neglected this Royal Proclamation. It is a Royal Proclamation because of the title “Captain General”. We now come to you with one mind and demand your protection for our people.

In 1947 the British Army built a mansion you can occupy in the Hamlet of Hornings Mills, kanekotah. I forward you a copy of the Royal Proclamation from the Captain General, Sir Frederick Halidmand, and the survey we had done at the Queen’s Printer of Ontario. I would like to talk with you on the telephone. Please call me when you get this letter at . . . . , email:kahentinetha2@mohawknationnews.com. Thank you in advance for your help in this matter.

kahentinetha, bear clanmother, kanekotah.

The British have already set the precedent on this legality when they invaded Palestine to create Israel in 1947. They claimed their legality through the Balfour Declaration, which is not really a royal proclamation since it was not signed by a Captain General or a King. These are the only entities that can make a royal proclamation. Now the British Army must carry out their legal requirements and protect 6 miles from the source of the Grand River, as per the attached survey we have done by the Queens Printer of Ontario. [map]. 

We require physical signs everywhere to indicate that people are entering a British military protectorate under the laws of the Kaia’nere:kowa.

As Gene Autry laments, “The Red Man was pressed from this part of the West, it’s not likely he’ll ever return. To the banks of the Red River, where seldom, if ever, his flickering campfires still burn, home on the range.” [Home on the range].

MNN Mohawk Nation Newskahentinetha2@mohawknationnews.com For more news, books, workshops, to donate and sign up for MNN newsletters, go towww.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Archives.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L thahoketoteh@hotmail.com for original Mohawk music visit thahoketoteh.ws

Let’s get ready for peace, peace, peace!

Justice for Equador.

Jails in US.

Implementing Two Row throughout ono’ware:geh.

Indigo Skyfold: UN chemtrail operation.

Dineh Walkers Arrive at Sacred Doko'oosliid

Thank you to the Nihigaal bee line, Journey for Existence, for walking to the Four Sacred Mountains and speaking out against the ongoing genocide of oil and gas drilling, fracking and coal mining. Thank you for sharing your journey with Censored News and our readers around the world. 

-- Brenda, Censored News

Wioweya Najin Win 'Starlight and Red Raspberries'

Starlight and Red Raspberries 

by Wioweya Najin Win,

writing from the banks of Wounded Knee Creek

In these days of winter fading away while springtime emerges slowly, all I can think about is the smell of the wild raspberries in their full ripeness, their red skin glowing from the sunbeams falling along the banks of Tongue River in the Shining Mountains.  I close my eyes and hear the roar and splash of the river, rolling against the rocks and banks, water drops splashing like little bright lights against my skin as I hang my legs over the rocks to cool my feet in the raging river, full and bank to bank with snow melt from a good winter, and rains from a loving sky. I can hear the sounds of our grandchildren laughing while their moms grill elk meat over the cracking fire, their uncles teaching the boys how to make drum sticks. I have my little spot in the shade over there all picked out, where I sit and bead.

I think of the Medicine Mountain, high up above, where our ancestors walked and prayed and lived and made war to protect our lands and waters and babies yet to be born. West and North boundary of Ft Laramie Treaty, Crazy Horse went there in the closing days of summer, I think of him when I touch ancient rocks, so many millions of years old my mind can’t handle comprehending that span of time.  In the oldness of the Universe, we really are the shine of a firefly in our lifetime.

The park rangers close the mountain for us, we ask them to, so we can send our voice to the universe without four track enthusiasts buzzing around our ancient medicine wheel, tourists peeking over our shoulder, taking photos and videos on their cell phones, smirking at us, or worse yet, wanting to join us! We walk up the mountain, carrying our bundles. Each with our own thoughts, yet together in a collective consciousness gifted to us by the spirits and our ancestors. Sorrow over the destruction of Mother Earth, Grandmother Earth, all over.  Prayers for guidance as Red Nations, Her children and grandchildren, to protect Her.  The medicine wheel is like us, wrapped up inside a fence. That big telescope hovers, up on the next mountain. Human beings of so called America watching the stars, or watching for an atomic bomb their enemies might be sending against them? Another desecration of sacred place.  Today, the people in Hawaii are standing against a telescope planned for their sacred mountain, my heart is with them.

Our delegation has four hours to be on the mountain alone, as a family, as a hocoka, as relatives to Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth). Then we must get back on the road, a long haul to the next stop in the Tour of Resistance, to get to the Moccasins on the Ground Training Camp in Montana. Water protectors and land defenders are gathering there, from the four directions. Unci Maka needs Her children and grandchildren.

We present at Moccasins, our passion for grassroots people to stand up for Unci Maka, we bring together trained and seasoned water protectors and land defenders from all over to share their truths, their experience. Tipis are everywhere, along the base of the mountain. Rains come, bless us.  Drumbeat greets morning star.  Ancient warrior societies keep us safe, there’s those drones again!  Government infiltrators try to get in to our training camp. We are common people, but government and industry see us as challengers to the tarsands, to KXL Pipeline, the Enbridge Pipeline, planned coal mining near the Tongue River, uranium mining in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, fracking in North Dakota, as we all gather at Moccasins.  Medicine people are there, offering prayers and wisdom. A powerful place and time for parents, grandparents, common people who have nothing to lose.  Lakota are always the four poorest counties in so called America. Why?

Our lands and territories have produced the wealth of “America”, the homestake gold mine in our sacred He Sapa (Black Hills), has enriched “America” beyond belief, as it poisoned the Cheyenne River. Uranium open-pit mined in the sacred He Sapa by “America” and its collaborator, Tennessee Valley Authority gave “America” its nuclear bombs while it poisoned all the rivers and lands for hundreds of miles around, forever. Fukushima is part of the “American” dream, just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki was. Now the oceans and Her babies are poisoned forever. Forever is a long time.

Crawford, Nebraska is a relatively “new” place for industry to extract uranium, 30 minutes as the crow flies from our Pine Ridge Homeland southern border, with their In Situ Leach uranium mining, piercing the Ogllala Aquifer with 8,000 wells to get at and get out the uranium, creating a toxic soup we must live with and die with, forever. Cameco and “America” do not care enough that the Ogllala Aquifer provides sacredwater to 2 million people and the breadbasket of the world. They want the money and to feed their nuclear power plants that perch along river banks all over this big land. Nuclear energy is not GREEN, President Obama! Do not believe the brainwashing. Silly man, we do not need all that energy, forget bragging that one walnut of nuclear holds the same energy producing capacity of 100 coal train cars. What we NEED, is to change our idea that we as human beings are priviledged and deserving of destroying our Unci Maka to have hair dryers and fast cars and electric oh my gawd facial hair removers. What we NEED is to collectively accept that the war making machine is what needs all that fracked oil and uranium. Why fear the alternative, which is peace and social justice for ALL?

Hear from relatives in the Williston Basin, babies born with birth defects now, people can hardly breathe in North Dakota, infiltrated by the monster taking over their home. Wasting all OUR water to frack, frack, frack. Hate those fracking frackers, Frack them! They are pushing their idea of importing drinking water now, not to drink, but to use for fracking because the river water is down so low now. The worst of the worst social problems are a plaque now in their lands, putting a damper on their enjoyment of royalty payments.

Driving south now, the Tour of Resistance continues.  The desert air is different from on the plains. Traveling to Gila River in Arizona, we drove through many mountains. Blizzards in the south pushed us to drive through north country. Chinle is flooding. What is wrong with that picture? Arrival in the desert came as a blessing, dry air, warm temperatures good for my bones. But that pollen! Sneezing for days until someone gave me some meds. Maybe the GMO created something in all the Standing Silent Nation (plants) that now makes us allergic? Watching a cactus flower is so beautiful. Rising while the starlight shines, waiting for daybreak, sitting under the trees while it is still blue outside, drinking hot, hot coffee, watching the fog come out of the mountains when that first sunbeam hits. Bunny rabbits scurry back to the homes, those big black birds fly away. Insects stop singing, the birds flutter in. Gila River folks are fighting that major highway nearby, proposed to enhance the economy.  Then it is time to pack the car and drive to Sedona, the vortex of people wanting something out of their capitalist life, something spiritual.

Crying Earth Rise Up documentary about our struggle to protect sacred water will show at Sedona. We drive up a mountain, offer tobacco and water for our time in this territory.  Apache greets us, welcomes us. Ahh, it is so good that natural protocol can be enacted, because he felt drawn to the theater. Lots of friendly people there. We travel on to Oak Flat, meet the Apache medicine man who prays with us. Big monster machines of Rio Tinto plunked down on the next hill over, a reminder that copper is under our feet. Apache nations’ sacred places to be destroyed so Rio Tinto can get richer? Government and industry must be in bed together, how else can it be explained that a people’s destiny is not as important as the quarterly bottom line? Wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but home responsibilities called out, uranium mining is proposed there, can you believe it?  I take a good look at the Apache sacred lands, and think of the lands in British Columbia ruined forever by the copper mine there whose toxic dam broke and flooded, ripping trees out of the ground, leaving poisonous sludge everywhere. Nope, millions of dollars later, and still it cannot be cleaned up.  

We get back on the road, drive through the beautiful lands of the Dine, ravaged by uranium mining and coal mining and greedy tribal leaders. Looking for water, we see instead, the rock beds of the dwindling rivers and creeks and streams, they are all running so low. The Colorado River is being decimated by the fat taker cities of LA, Vegas.  Too many dams are still standing, trapping the sacred water and giving Americans their electricity while Unci Maka is suffering drought, and so do we all, suffer drought.  Our friends in California are hit with rationing of water while the mining fat cats and refineries have free rein. When will they learn?

Our friends send an email, they are preparing prayers for the south, the oceans, the surface and ground waters, the death has not left from BP’s mistakes. We drive for hours, hoping to rest, but no hotel rooms. “Haliburton is in town, all the rooms are rented out. Go to the next town.” The frackers are everywhere it seems. So we drive on deep into the night, bright starlight glistening so calm, I think about the star nation shifting now, spring equinox coming and our people sending delegations to Hinhan Kaga Paha in our sacred He Sapa, to welcome the thunders, the lightening that gives life through rain and destroys through fire.

I get home, pressing thoughts about the film Crying Earth Rise Up being released a few months prior to our seven year case against the worlds largest uranium miner, a case brought from us, the poorest people in America. Shake my dam head, who thought we’d be in a court room with these evil people? They want to gang rape Crow Butte with three MORE uranium mines, where Crazy Horse prayed with his sacred pipe before the 7th Calvary killed him.  A few steps away is the US Army barracks where our loving and red Cheyenne ancestors were held prisoners of war until they broke out in the dark of night and fought to the death for their freedom.  Out on the prairie, their spirits still wander, you can hear the sounds of unarmed Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and their women fight the 7th Calvary so their children and old people can run for their lives. I heard them, this past winter, on a night when the air was so cold your noseholes stick together, when our Cheyenne and Lakota remembered, and made prayers out in the middle of that farmers field. The sound of saddle leather creaking on the soldiers horses, the sound of hoof beats slamming against the frozen ground as they came to massacre our Cheyenne ancestors.

The thunders are coming back soon, on the plains the many plants are peeking out now, filling the air with their sweet perfume. Earth Day is all over the news, like its news. Human beings destroy Unci Maka and then create Earth Day, a tool to create awareness about human beings destroying the earth.  Everyone is supposed to plant a tree. I wonder about that. I wonder about how all these experiences are connected. The cell phone in my pocket beeps with an invitation to come to Manitoba, grassroots people there want out from under the thumb of tribal governments flirting with industry over diamonds, coal, oil, uranium.

I wonder about the thousands of missing and murdered women in Canada. I wonder about the stolen Lakota children ripped from families by the government of South Dakota. Lots of rallies and marches in South Dakota recently, against racism and theft of children, uranium mining and the KXL tarsands pipeline.

Walking along Wounded Knee creek, I see a beaver peering out from his dam.  The cottonwood trees wear big fat buds, ready to pop soon, teasing me, making me think of those hot summer days when the sunlight flashes off the cottonwood leaves.  The chokecherry trees are in full blossom now, their sweetness fills my head and heart.  The scent of the blossoms reminds me of raspberries.  My feet trample the baby blades of grass as I walk the miles back to my house, the earth is soft from recent rains, I sink in a little bit, and recall little girl days of springtime home visits after a long winter at boarding school.

I want to go back to the Shining Mountains when the raspberries are ripe and glowing in the summer sunshine, and cool my hot feet in the Tongue River, to give wopila and gather medicine like my great great great great grandmothers did, and their generations before them.   Like them, I remember the sacredness of water, starlight and raspberries.