O'odham Ofelia Rivas seeks sponsor to Commemoration of Ward Valley Occupation

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living on the Tohono O'odham Nation at the so-called US border, is seeking a sponsor for expenses to the Ward Valley Occupation Commemoration gathering this weekend.
Contact her at 4oodhamrights@gmail.com (Due to time, donations need to be sent to -- Ophelia Rivas, via Walmart Moneygram or Western Union, with an email to her. She needs $150  Thank you.)
The 21st victory celebration on Sat, Feb. 16, 2019, focuses  on the  halting of a radioactive dump in the Mojave Desert.
Ofelia Rivas is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, and exposed Israel's Elbit Systems now targeting her homeland with spy towers. She documents and battles the ongoing abuse of O'odham by US Border Patrol in her homeland.
Read more on her website:
.http://www.solidarity-project.org
.

Note: To send donations by WalMart Moneygram or Western Union, you just need the name, Ophelia Rivas. Then e-mail her the reference number. Ophelia's e-mail is
4oodhamrights@gmail.com

Ofelia Rivas is an author and photographer at Censored News. Like everyone at Censored News, she is an unpaid volunteer. Neither Ofelia nor Censored News are part of any non-profit organizations.

Mohawk Nation News 'Jody says 'NO!'

Mohawk Nation News
Read article at:
http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2019/02/12/jody-says-no/

'Ama' Premieres in U.S. -- Dine' Jean Whitehorse Exposes U.S. Sterilization of Native Americans

Photos by Karen Wright, Censored News

Jean Whitehorse, Dine'

 Jean Whitehorse, Yvonne Swan and Charon Asetoyer in front of the Metro Theater where Ama premiered in the United States at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (top photo )

The world premier was in London in December

Photos by Karen Doris Wright Thursday Feb 7 4:38 pm

---

Also see Jean tell her story at AIM West in San Francisco in 2013.

Video by Brenda Norrell, Censored News.

.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=26-QlIGhXc

---

Read more:

Ama Review December 8, 2018
5_star_ratings

.https://closeupculture.com/2018/12/08/ama-review/

Lorna Tucker's shocking documentary Ama.
Excerpts from an article at 'Close Up Culture.'

It is framed by Jean Whitehorse, a delightful 67 year old Native American from New Mexico, whom Tucker slowly befriended and gently coaxed into appearing on film to tell how she was sterilised in the 1970s without her consent. A fate that befell tens of thousands of Native Americans as a result of the neo-european policies pursued by US governments in the 1960s and 1970s – policies designed to kill off some of the Native American tribes. All rather harrowing, all repulsive and all utterly unforgiveable. A form of genocide for which the US government has never apologised.

For Jean, she went into hospital after an acute appendicitis attack. While undergoing surgery, she was given a tubal ligation (sterilised), leaving her to face a future without any more children (she already had a daughter). A devastating prospect given that she had grown up understanding that wealth was measured by the number of children you had, not by material possessions.

As Jean said in a moving post-film discussion after its world premiere at Curzon Soho (December 6): They [the US government] took from us our land, our children, our lifeline. Adding: been trying to get rid of us.

While tubal ligation without consent is a crime in its own right, what makes matters worse is that Jean's whole life has been blighted by discrimination. A Navajo Native American, she was sent off to boarding school at age five to fend for herself. A childhood lost where she was known only by a number not her name (which was actually the name of the nurse that delivered her).

At age 18, she was sent away again as part of the government's policy to dissipate the tribes in the hope they would fragment for good. In adulthood, post enforced sterilisation, it is no surprise that she took to alcohol to find some form of salvation.

The documentary broadens out to cover the widespread discrimination against Native Americans, arguments put forward forcefully by activist Charon Asetoyer (also present at the premiere screening).

Sacred lands trampled over by big corporates in their quest for profits from natural resources. Native American women systematically raped (post-film, Tucker said one in three Native American women are raped during their lifetime). A shocking and shameful statistic.

There is archive footage from the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 (Jean returns to the island for the documentary ). There is also film of the harrowing journey the long walk that the Navajo endured in 1864 as they were forcibly relocated to Fort Sumner (an internment camp) in New Mexico, build the barracks (slave labour) and then left to live in mud huts before being resettled again.

Ama (Navajo word for mother) is a brilliant piece of investigative journalism by Tucker. The fact that the filming is a little suspect in places (a fact Tucker, making her first film after a career in photography, readily admitted to in the post-film discussion) is neither here nor there.

It is the revelatory heart of the beating heart belonging to the dynamo who is Jean Whitehorse that makes Ama essential viewing.

A petition requesting the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in the United States to introduce a bill calling for a public apology on the issue of enforced sterilisation can be signed at: https://amamovie.com/
....
The film screened at the Wellcome Foundation in London (December 8, 2018), Lewes, East Sussex (December 13) and again at Curzon Soho (January 31).

. . .

Photos copyrght Karen Wright, Censored News

Longest Walk 2019 -- Route Schedule

.

Longest Walk Northern Route 2008 Ute Country photo by Brenda Norrell

.

The Longest Walk: We Shall Continue Route Schedule (Draft)
2019

Feb 11: Ceremony on Alcatraz-Walk Pier 33 to San Rafael                19 miles

Feb. 12: Larkspur to Vallejo                                                               25 miles

Feb. 13: Vallejo to Vacaville Junction                                     22 miles

Feb. 14: Vacaville Junction to Davis                                                   27 miles

Feb. 15: Rest Day                                                                                           83 miles

Feb. 16: Davis to Sacramento Capitol Bldg.                                       15 miles

Feb 16: Sacramento Capitol Bldg. to Rosemont                                  07 miles

Feb. 17: Rosemont to Folsom                                                             15 miles

Feb. 18: Folsom to Shingle Springs                                                    16 miles

Feb. 19: Shingle Springs to Pollock Pines                                          24 miles

Feb. 20: Rest Day                                                                                                       77 miles

Feb. 21: Pollock Pines to Kyburz                                                       18 miles

Feb. 22: Kyburz to Nebelhorn                                                18 miles

Feb. 23: Nebelhorn to Glenbrook                                                       24 miles

Feb. 24: Glenbrook to Carson City                                                     16 miles

Feb. 25: Rest Day                                                                                                       76 miles

Feb. 26: Carson City to 50 Junction                                                    51 miles

Feb. 27: 50 Junction to Junction 839                                                  44 miles

Feb. 28 – Mar. 2: Junction 839 to Eureka                                           148 miles                                

Mar: 3: Rest Day                                                                                                         243 miles                                                                                                                                                                    

Mar. 4-6: Eureka to Majors Place                                                       103 miles

Mar. 7 - 21: Majors Place to Grand Junction                                      427 miles

Mar. 22: Rest Day

Mar. 23 – Mar. 30: Grand Junction to Pueblo                        286 miles

Mar. 31: Rest Day

April 1 - 5: Pueblo to Syracuse                                                           173 miles

April 6: rest Day

April 7: Syracuse to Lakin                                                                  27 miles

April 8: Lakin to Garden City                                                             24 miles

April 9: Garden City to Cimarron                                                       33 miles

April 10: Cimarron to Dodge City (Fort Dodge)                                24 miles

April 11: Rest Day

April 12: Fort Dodge to Bucklin                                                         22 miles

April 13: Bucklin to Greensburg                                                         20 miles

April 14–17: Greensburg to Wichita Indian Center                             109 miles

April 18-19: Rest Days

April 20-26: Wichita Indian Center to Lawrence                                 181 miles

April 27: Rest Day

April 28: Haskell to Bonner Springs                                                   25 miles

April 29: Bonner Springs to Kansas City                                           15 miles          

April 30-May 9: Kansas City to Gateway Arch                                  275 miles

May 10: Gateway Arch to Cahokia Mounds                                      9 miles

May 10-13: Cahokia Mounds Spiritual Gathering

May 14-16: Cahokia Mounds to Vandalia                                          60 miles

May 17-18: Vandalia to Effingham                                                     32 miles

May 19: Rest Day

May 20-22: Effingham to Terre Haute                                                66 miles

May 23: Rest Day

May 24-27: Terre Haute to Indianapolis                                             71 miles

May 28: Rest Day

May 29-June 1: Indianapolis to Richmond                                         68 miles

June 2-3: Richmond to Englewood                                                     31 miles

June 4: Rest Day

June 5-6: Englewood to Springfield                                                    30 miles

June 7-9: Springfield to Reynoldsburg                                               54 miles

June 10-11: Reynoldsburg to Zanesville                                             43 miles

June 12: Rest Day

June 13: Zanesville to Cambridge                                                       25 miles

June 14-16: Cambridge to Wheeling                                                   54 miles

June 17-19: Wheeling to Fort Pitt                                                       57 miles

June 20: Rest Day and Ceremony/History day

June 21-25: Fort Pitt to Bedford                                                         96 miles

June 26: Rest Day/Ceremony

June 27-29: Bedford to Chambersburg                                               56 miles

June 30-July 1: Chambersburg to Carlisle Indian School                   34 miles

July 2: Ceremony at Carlisle Indian Boarding School

July 3: Carlisle Indian School to Harrisburg (Capitol)                        18 miles

July 4-5: Rest Days/Haudenosaunee

July 6: Harrisburg to York                                                                  26 miles

July 7-9: York to Baltimore                                                                50 miles

July 10: Rest Day-Ceremony

July 11-12: Baltimore to Greenbelt Park                                             28 miles

July 13-14: Rest Days/ Longest Walk Manifesto Discussions

July 15: Greenbelt Park to Washington Monument                            12 miles                                                                                                                       

Alert -- Native Burial Places and Butterflies in Imminent Danger as Trump's Border Wall Crews Move In

.

Native Burial Places in Danger

Read article:

https://www.themonitor.com/2019/02/04/members-carrizocomecrudo-tribe-march-protest-border-wall/?fbclid=IwAR1aLUmzeUsmNfLtk34yhEeyvvniytolAgFivriUc8Bfurm7FkCwBhp5NGE

 Photo today at Texas border

More
https://m.facebook.com/natbutterflies/?ref=bookmarks

Longest Walk 2019 -- 11 point plan

Women's Walk to Sand Creek, Longest Walk Northern Route 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell

11 Point Plan

Longest Walk 2019
Also see news release at
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/02/longest-walk-2019-join-us-at-alcatraz.html?m=1

1)    Support Indian Children: The Indian Child Welfare Act is supposed to protect Indian children from being taken away from their Nations.  It was recently found to be unconstitutional in Brakeen v Zinke. The ruling was based on state rights, ignoring tribal sovereignty, and viewing Indian status as racial only, and not based on the legal/political relationship between Indian Nations and the United States government. If this is upheld at the Supreme Court, Indian children will be fair game for states in collusion with private adoption agencies to legally kidnap Indian children.  The grounds of the ruling would also open the doors to usher in a new era of Termination, annihilating Tribal Sovereignty.  Further, over 14,000 children are being held in prison camps on the southern border of the United States, most of whom are Indigenous.  These children are virtually forgotten, and pressure needs to happen so this crime against humanity is stopped.

2)    Honor Indigenous Women: Respect and protection for Mother Earth is a common principle for Indigenous Peoples and Nations.  Indigenous Women have been at the forefront and heart of every single struggle to protect and preserve our lands, waters, families and nations in this regard. Yet Indigenous women are still marginalized and are subject to abuse, rape and murder.  As Indigenous nations we are committed to actively change this state of affairs.  There can be no protection of Mother Earth if there is no protection of Indigenous Women.  Collectively, we must create and develop ways of honoring Indigenous Women by way of men taking responsibility to stop the abuse and rape in our communities, and to bring to justice those engaged in committing these crimes.

3)    Strengthen Inherent and Indigenous Sovereignty: Nation-states, including the United States, are undermining inherent sovereignty and self-government by relegating self-government to nothing more than self-management.  Corporate and municipal structures are the structures of choice.  This is nothing more than Termination under various guises.   The nation-states of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States have formed an alliance called CANZUS that coordinate together in advancing a common public policy objective to achieve this goal.  We re-affirm our unwavering commitment to the assertion of our inherent sovereignty and self-government as Indigenous Nations, in a way that is inclusive of our own laws, values, customs and traditions. Indigenous Sovereignty is not defined by non-Indigenous laws, rules and regulations; nor by economic development, good governance, and corporate structures. These elements may be pragmatic, but they do not define us. We also specifically support tribal sovereignty and the relationship between Indian Nations and the United States as being nation to nation and not merely government to government as it is often wrongfully characterized.  Underlying all of this is a long history of a bilateral, bi-cultural relationship based not on equality but rather on principles of equitability.  This means that the relationship recognizes each other as being of the same status, but maintain their distinct identities.  Indigenous ideals relating to sovereignty are not just about power and control but are also about responsibility and respect.  This places obligations on Indigenous Nation citizens to practice traditional and customary responsibilities, rooted in Indigenous Knowledge, including the protection of our relationships with our respective lands, waters, animals and plants.  This concept of Indigenous Sovereignty has been severely challenged by a long history of manifest destiny, genocide, and land loss. It is essential that we as Indigenous Nations actively reassert the practice of Indigenous Sovereignty on the one hand while mounting challenges legally and politically on the other.

4)    Create an Environmental Covenant: As Indigenous Peoples, we have a responsibility to be caretakers for the environment.  That responsibility falls upon our respective Indigenous nations regardless of contrary nation-state policies and laws.  We therefore commit to the creation of an Environmental Protection Covenant to be agreed to by Indigenous Nations that set minimal standards in regards to any developments on or in watersheds and traditional territories surrounding our respective Nations.

5)    Repeal Public Law 280 and Overturn the Plenary Power Doctrine: Public Law 280 is a relic from the Termination ere of the 1950's.  It gives criminal and civil jurisdiction over certain Indian Nations to certain states.  We support the repeal of this law and expect appropriate resources to be provided to transition back to Indian Nation jurisdiction. The Plenary Power doctrine is a legacy of judicial racism that was established in a legal decision called US v. Kagama (1886). Under this doctrine, Congress has unilateral authority over Indian Nations.  The Dawes Allotment Act, the Termination policies, and all the other acts of Congress against Indian Nations since this time have been done under the Plenary Power doctrine, where Indian Nations cannot legally contest the constitutionality of these acts.  Recognized Indian sovereignty literally exists at the whim of Congress.  In these times, this is especially worrying.  We are committed to asserting our sovereignty despite any actions by Congress that would otherwise be unconstitutional, and to developing strategies to overturn this racist doctrine.

6)    Land and Waters Clean Up and Protection: Indian lands have long been considered a dumping ground by various corporations and government agencies.  For example, one of the worst nuclear accidents in the United States was the Churchrock uranium mill tailings breach on the Navajo Nation in 1979.  Thirty eight (38) years later the area still has not been adequately cleaned up, and people and livestock are still exposed to contaminated water.  We acknowledge that 500 million has been allocated to cleanup some of the damage from uranium mining on the Navajo Nation, there is a real concern that this and other environmental cleanup funds will be cut under the current administration.  Further, the environmental racism inherent in the inadequate funding and acknowledgement of harm to the environment that impacts upon Indigenous Peoples needs to be stopped.  We call for the creation of a Superfund dedicated to address this historical neglect in all nation-states, clean up our lands and waters, and create policies to prevent them from being contaminated again.

7)    Treaties, Lands, and Customary Responsibilities: In the United States, Indian Nation authority does not just extend to the boundaries of the reservation, it extends over the respective traditional territories.  This includes treaty lands and un-ceded lands taken without consent.  This authority extends not only to hunting, fishing, food and medicine gathering, but also to our sacred sites and protection of our watersheds.  Any process of consultation is always going to be inadequate because it means that the ultimate authority will always rest with non-Indians.  We are more than capable of understanding and making decisions on development issues in our traditional areas.  We also note the recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Tsilhqot'in Nation v British Columbia 2014 SCC 22 (2014).  In this case the Tsilhqot'in Nation was found to have proved that they had retained aboriginal title over a large part of their traditional territory and were therefore found to have consent authority over timber harvesting in this area.  We assert that the same principle should be adopted here in the United States, recognizing the consent authority of Indian Nations for developments impacting upon hunting and fishing rights and responsibilities, food and medicine gathering rights and responsibilities and engaging with sacred sites and Ceremonial grounds.

8)    Strengthen and Assert Spiritual Freedom: The legal assaults on Indian spiritual beliefs and practices have increased over the last few decades.  Despite the American Indian Religious Freedom Act 1978 requiring federal agencies to respect Indian spiritual practices, these same agencies ignore and actively oppress Indian spiritual practices.  For example, the US Army Corps of Engineers, in supporting the DAPL pipeline, actively supported the Morton County Sheriff Department in preventing Indian people from praying on land under their alleged jurisdiction.  Much of the militarized action undertaken against Water Defenders was in fact in areas under alleged federal jurisdiction, and primarily involved suppressing freedom of religion.  There are also a number of court decisions, such as Lyng v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protection Association (1988) which creates a weaker standard for First Amendment protection of Indian spiritual beliefs and practices.  We are committed to actively asserting out spiritual ways in our lands, whether on or off reservation, and see this as an essential responsibility.  We will assert these responsibilities on our sacred sites and Ceremonial grounds as part of a living practice, and not as some relic of the past.

9)    Indigenous Knowledge: Indigenous Knowledge which includes our spiritual ways, language, customs, traditional values, social structures, law, political structures and though are the very heart of who we are, is under significant threat.  Basically, corporations and nation-states who have for generations attacked, undermined and minimized Indigenous Knowledge are now creating definitions which recognize it on their terms and in their context as a property right.  What should never be defined under non-Indigenous ways of thought, is now being defined in various United Nations forums and such, in ways to foster development.  This is really obvious on issues relating to carbon trading and carbon credits.  To protect Indigenous Knowledge we advocate for a definition that is from a completely Indigenous Peoples perspective that is outside of property law.  Without such a stand, those seeking to impose development projects upon Indigenous Peoples will be in a position to acknowledge that Indigenous Knowledge is harmed by the development, and can be taken with property compensation provisions.

10) Just Transition: The current economic system is not doing enough to address major environmental issues such as climate change.  Often, Indigenous nations and communities are at the front end of development projects that cause harm.  Just Transition is a way of finding ways to create sustainable economies of scale that focuses on renewable energy, and community health and well being.

11) Alcohol and Other Drugs: Alcohol and Other Drugs have played a major role in the subjugation of our Peoples and Nations.  Alcohol, heroin and meth amphetamines, to name but a few, continue to wreak havoc and devastation.  There is a need to strengthen our collective commitment to stop this cycle of addiction and abuse, that leads to shattered families and communities.