Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

June 6, 2020

SANTA ROSA: Native leader hospitalized after being shot in face by police with sting ball grenade






Marqus, father of four Pomo children, was
shot in the face by Santa Rosa police.

Update: Class Action suit results in settlement

The Press Democrat reports:

The city of Santa Rosa will pay $1.9 million to five people injured in protests that followed the death of George Floyd, including a man whose face was shattered by a sting ball grenade.

The settlement is the largest in the city’s history involving a civil rights lawsuit and the Santa Rosa Police Department, City Attorney Sue Gallagher confirmed through a city spokeswoman Friday.

Marqus Martinez and Michaela Staggs filed the lawsuit last year, saying they were peacefully protesting and filming police when they were injured by so-called “less lethal” projectiles fired by officers. Three other plaintiffs later joined the suit.

Read article:

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-to-pay-1-9-million-to-people-injured-during-george-floyd-protes/

 Indigenous Tribal Leader Hospitalized due to Santa Rosa Police Department Violence

By North Bay Organizing Project
Censored News

SANTA ROSA, California -- On the evening of Sunday, May 31st, Marqus Miles "Red Bear" Martinez was hospitalized due to being shot at point-blank range with a sting-ball grenade by police in Santa Rosa, California.

Martinez was on the corner of College and Mendocino at the time of the incident. He was helping protect a group of youth that were being harassed with tear gas. Moments after the tear gas was shot, Martinez was shot in the face with a sting-ball grenade.

Mashpee Wampanoag victorious in court and halt Trump's attempt to seize land

Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow
Censored News shares the complete federal ruling with our readers

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Chairman Cedric Cromwell
WASHINGTON — The Mashpee Wampanoag Nation was victorious in federal court and halted Trump from removing its federal status. A federal judge has halted the federal government from rescinding its reservation designation for the Mashpee Wampanoag's land in Massachusetts, ordering the Interior Department to review the matter and issue new findings.

Message from Chairman Cromwell: Court Rules in Favor of Tribe

Chairman Cedric Cromwell said:

Wunee Keesuq Tribal Family,

'We all share a profound belief in the importance of tribal sovereignty as a vehicle to preserve and protect our culture and traditions. This is what has driven our people to fight day in and day out to ensure our land remains in trust.

'Today, the DC District Court righted what would have been a terrible and historic injustice by finding that the Department of the Interior broke the law in attempting to take our land out of trust. Judge Paul Friedman said in his opinion.

"... the Court will grant the Mashpee Tribe's motion for summary judgment and deny the federal defendants' and defendant-intervenors' motions for summary judgment. Furthermore, because the Secretary of the Interior's September 7, 2018 Record of Decision is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law, the Court remands the matter to the Secretary of the Interior for a thorough reconsideration and re-evaluation of the evidence before him consistent with this Opinion, the 2014 M-Opinion, M-37209 – its standard and the evidence permitted therein – and the Department's prior decisions applying the M-Opinion's two-part test...."

'While we are pleased with the court's findings, our work is not done. The Department of Interior must now draft a positive decision for our land as instructed by Judge Friedman. We will continue to work with the Department of the Interior — and fight them if necessary — to ensure our land remains in trust.

'We thank you for continuing to stand with Mashpee.

'Kutâputunumuw'


U.S District Judge Paul Friedman ruled the Interior Department incorrectly applied its own guidelines in finding the tribe did not qualify for land-in-trust status.

Judge Friedman found that the Interior Department’s 2018 decision that the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934 was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and contrary to law.” Friedman sent the case back to the department for “thorough reconsideration and reevaluation of the evidence," reports Cape Cod Times.

Judge Friedman said the department could take no further action on disestablishing the tribe’s reservation until it correctly applied its guidelines on reconsideration.

“I’m feeling very happy,” Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell told Cape Cod Times Friday night. “We’ve been on a battlefield for a very long time in trying to protect my tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s rights to continue having our homelands, our reservation lands for housing, education, health care, all the important services that a sovereign nation of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe should have of our own homelands.”

Read the article at Cape Cod Times.
https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20200605/judge-rules-for-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-in-land-suit
Full federal court ruling below.

Case 1:18-cv-02242-PLF Document 75 Filed 06/05/20 Page 1 of 56

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

____________________________________

) MASHPEE WAMPANOAG TRIBE, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 18-2242 (PLF)

) DAVID BERNHARDT, in his official ) capacity as Secretary of the Interior, et al., ) ) Defendants, ) ) and ) ) DAVID LITTLEFIELD, et al., ) ) Defendant-Intervenors. ) ____________________________________) OPINION 

Volunteers Deliver: Grassroots Navajo Hopi COVID-19 Relief delivers to homes and hospitals where relief is most needed


Pinon Clinic pose with their new scrub caps and masks donation coordinated via a vendor.




Theresa Hatathlie-Delmar
Censored News

Yá'át'ééh abini! (Good morning in Diné)
Navajo and Hopi Families Covid-19 Relief has provided wholesome, healthy and sanitized food and essentials to more than 10,000 families, all via a no contact delivery system.
Our all volunteer-based grassroots movement has responded to those in vulnerable population areas, such as, elders, grandparents raising grandchildren, immune-compromised individuals, low income and single-parent families who reside in areas of the Navajo & Hopi reservations that do not always have paved roads or electricity or running water.
You contributions provide life-sustaining assistance during these challenging times and we are grateful to answer the call of our relatives, friends and family. Here you will find many photos that are a testimony of our efforts.
Your contributions are working to making a difference.
Donate at: https://www.navajohopisolidarity.org/
.

June 5, 2020

McKinley Mutual Aid volunteers an inspiration as coronavirus claims lives of elderly in county

Inspiring youth volunteers at McKinley County Mutual Aid.

Sixty loaves of fresh banana bread!



The inspiring work of volunteers at McKinley Mutual Aid continues this week, as the county is experiencing the highest rate of elderly deaths from the coronavirus in New Mexico.

Article by Brenda Norrell
Photos by McKinley Mutual Aid
Censored News

GALLUP, New Mexico -- The volunteers at McKinley Mutual Aid are an inspiration, delivering care packages this week with fresh homemade banana bread. The weekly care packages are reaching those most devastated by the coronavirus here, the elderly.

Christopher Hudson said, "We got a call last week from McKinley Mutual Aid that they had some bananas that might be of use to some awesome baker out there. They must of know my mom makes the best banana bread and had been ready to help her community. After a couple of hot nights, she was able to turn some of those bananas into her amazing bread. This week those tasty breads will be an added treat going out in some care packages to our community in need. She says, "They are ABC delicious and yummy for your tummy, enjoy."

June 4, 2020

Navajo Nation reports 128 new coronavirus cases. Dine' continue helping Dine'



Photo courtesy Mercury Bitsuie. Grassroots Dine' volunteer delivering aid.

Navajo Nation reports 128 new coronavirus cases. Dine' continue helping Dine'

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
June 3, 2020

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – The Navajo Nation reported 128 new cases of coronavirus and seven more deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of deaths has reached 259 as of Wednesday. The total number of cases reached 5,661.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez signed an executive order on Wednesday to extend the closure of tribal offices until July 5. Although the weekend curfews were paused, the daily curfews remain from 8 pm until 5 pm.

Grassroots Navajo organizations and individuals continue to try and reach the Dine' elderly and disabled who are in quarantine with the virus. Still, many Dine' are being sent home from the hospitals with the coronavirus and have no way to get food or water. Many have pneumonia and are too weak to go out for supplies. None of the Dine' elderly who are sick and in quarantine contacted by Censored News have received food or water supplies at their homes from the Navajo Nation government officials or tribal workers.

June 3, 2020

Police shot, blinded and beat news reporters and peaceful protesters at rallies demanding justice for George Floyd



Police shot, blinded and beat news reporters and peaceful protesters at rallies demanding justice for George Floyd

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
June 3, 2020

News reporters and peaceful protesters were shot, blinded, beaten and gassed by militarized police across the United States, during the rallies for justice of Black Lives Matter, following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The media was targeted, shot with rubber bullets and punched, including an Australian news team outside the White House. This happened as peaceful protesters were fired on with projectiles and gassed so that Trump could walk across to a church and hold a Bible for a photo op.