Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

July 31, 2017

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse Benefit Concert for Leonard Peltier

concert banner

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
A Benefit Concert for Leonard Peltier
Monday November 6, 2017
BOK Center
Tulsa, OK

As some of you may have heard, some good friends of mine are putting on a benefit concert to help me address some of the legal challenges my defense team feels could end in my release. At my age, there simply aren't going to be many more opportunities – so I hope you will consider reading more and helping us by participating in this outstanding event.

Oglala Annual School Supply Drive Honoring Leonard Peltier

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LEtterhead buffalo

Support Native American Students



Annual School Supply Drive

This annual school supply drive is one of our community projects created to honor Leonard Peltier's vision of empowering the Oglala People to have an active role in defining the future of their tribe. Both Leonard and the committee believe that all have the potential to rise above their given circumstances and to effectively contribute to the preservation of traditional language and spirituality through education in spite of the historical circumstances which sought to deprive the Oglala of their destiny.

July 30, 2017

Horse Nation 'Riding for the Water' Lakota Youth Riders Ride!


Horse Nation 'Riding for the Water' Lakota Youth Riders

Video by Govinda at Spirit Resistance Radio
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Chad describes the Horse Nation as they journey by horseback to Indian Nations.
Watch this video with Govinda at Spirit Resistance Radio, as Chad shares how Lakota, Dakota and Nakota youths are traveling on horseback throughout the region.
"Help us stand up for our fight, for our life," Chad said in an interview in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.
"Stand up against the government."
When asked if Horse Nation has a website, Chad said, "We don't have a website, because we don't trust the government." (Watch video interview below.)
Keystone XL 'We Are Ready!'
TigerSwan 'Gotcha!'
In a second interview with Spirit Resistance Radio a Water Protector at Wakpa Waste Powwow grounds at Eagle Butte, South Dakota, shares the struggle as it continues. The focus now is to fight the Keystone XL Pipeline. He describes how divestment is successful in halting pipelines.
"We do our best to stay in prayer."
Speaking of the respect necessary to be present in camp, and on the land, he says, "This is Lakota country."
This camp is a threat to Keystone XL.
"We are ready."
"They know we are ready."
Referring to the recent exposure by The Intercept, revealing that infiltrators from the TigerSwan mercenaries have been in the Water Protector Camps, he said, "We've already caught one TigerSwan and sent them packing."

July 27, 2017

The Poison Papers



The Intercept -- Incredible story of a barn full of court documents which will now be available in the Poison Papers, including docs on Agent Orange and Monsanto, and the woman who lost her four children when her home burned to the ground in a suspicious fire as she fought the poisoners. Read the story of Carol Van Strum at: The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/chemical-industry-herbicide-poison-papers/

The Poison Papers Expose Decades of Collusion between Industry and Regulators over Hazardous Pesticides and Other Chemicals

Center for Media and Democracy
July 26, 2017
Dr. Jonathan Latham, jrlatham@bioscienceresource.org, (607) 319-0279
Cara Newlon, cara.newlon@berlinrosen.com, (703) 899 3206
Carol Van Strum, cvstrum@gmail.com
The Poison Papers Expose Decades of Collusion between Industry and Regulators over Hazardous Pesticides and Other Chemicals

Watchdog Groups Digitize and Release 20,000 Documents
for Public Review


The Bioscience Resource Project and the Center for Media and Democracy today are releasing a trove of rediscovered and newly digitized chemical industry and regulatory agency documents stretching back to the 1920s.  The documents are available at PoisonPapers.org.

July 22, 2017

Lakota Tonia Stands on Makazita White River: Crow Butte Uranium Poisoning Water


Lakota Tonia Stands on Makazita White River -- Crow Butte Uranium Poisoning Water

Article and photos by Tonia Stands, Lakota
Copyright Tonia Stands
Censored News
Published with permission

Yesterday I got to go to a place of happiness and fun made me cry. I could still hear everyone laughing and swimming. It was a hot day, it gets well over 100 this time year. I got to go along side the River that raised me, WHITE RIVER called MAKAZITA in Lakota. The water that my Grandparents fished in and lived off our relatives, the Fish. It provided plenty for ages upon Ages. We aren't the only Relatives that lived along side MAKAZITA. There are huge NESTS for miles all the way thru. This is a very important source of Water to our People here on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Land of the WILD OGLALA.

July 21, 2017

From The Vortex -- A Song for the Water -- Mni Wiconi



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A Song for the Water, in Beauty and Peace, as the Resistance to Keystone XL Grows

Video by Govinda, Spirit Resistance Radio
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota -- Willis, Lakota traditional singer, says the songs can bring people up to the power of beauty.
"Don't let anyone ruin your day, think of a song, think of something that makes you happy."
Willis said this camp of water protectors here is referred to as "The Vortex."
Speaking with Spirit Resistance Radio, at the Wakpa Waste powwow grounds, Willis said, "We like to keep our camp traditional. We try to apply some of the traditional justice laws that we had a long time ago, to today's laws."
When people try to agitate, people are given three chances, he said. "If they don't want to stop, that's when they have to leave."
Willis loves singing traditional songs and he loves this land, and the water.
Willis, from Cherry Creek, South Dakota said the Keystone XL Pipeline will go about 20 miles from his home, where the pipeline route targets this land.
Willis remembers defending the water at Standing Rock, and how his grandmother and young daughter had dreams of what would happen to the water protectors.
"My grandma knew how bad it was going to be."
She knew they would be shooting rubber bullets at the Water Protectors at Standing Rock.
His young daughter dreamed of him getting shot.
Willis was there when they sicced the dogs on them.
"It wasn't suppose to be a race thing."
"It was supposed to be about water for everybody."
If they contaminate the water, it will effect 18 million people. "Without water, we wouldn't have life, we wouldn't be here," he said.
His grandma came after him at Standing Rock camp -- more than once. She said, "It is going to be bad, I don't want my grandkids to be here."
"She said if I got shot, she doesn't know what she would do."
Now at Wakpa Waste Camp, where water protectors came when the water protector camps were leveled at Standing Rock, Willis speaks out for peace, beauty and the water.
"We're still going to keep it peaceful."
"I'm still in the fight. I feel like this is where I have to be."
Remembering the aerial surveillance of water protectors at Standing Rock, he said even now at Wakpa Waste Camp at Eagle Butte on Cheyenne River Lakota land, the same drones that were at Standing Rock continue.
Water protectors are preparing to battle the Keystone XL Pipeline, which targets the Ogallala Aquifer. 
"They say they are arming themselves with real bullets this time."
"Stay in Peace," says Willis.
Listen to Willis sing Mni Wiconi.
"That's the song that first came to us. We took that up there, to the people," Willis said.
A Time for Healing
Spirit Resistance Radio hears from a water protector now at Eagle Butte in a second interview.
During this time of transition, people are healing at Wakpa Waste Camp, Josephine said. They are also working in the community to help the Cheyenne River Lakota community.
The mercenaries are in the pipeline Man Camps and the helicopter of Dakota Access Pipeline is above -- the yellow DAPL helicopter that was overhead at Standing Rock -- has been overhead.
"The Man Camps bring alcohol, drugs, all kinds of things."
Josephine urges the people to be humble, be united, and work together to protect Mother Earth and Future Generations.
"Get the fear out of your hearts."
"Remember prayer, unity and love."
It is the U.S. government that is protecting the corporations.
But the water protectors showed them they were not afraid.
Josephine remembers when they were hit with water cannons and pelted with projectiles in the subzero night as they defended their water source, the Missouri River, from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
"We showed them that we would still stand up."
"Show no fear."
"Remember Creator is watching over us."


Onkwehonwe and Chahta confront Columbus replica ships, vile history























Onkwehonwe and Chahta confront Columbus replica ships, vile history

Nina and Pinta replica ships of Columbus Foundation confronted with Columbus' vile atrocities

Article by Leadhorse Choctaw
Photos courtesy Neddie Katsitsiaionhne, Akwesasne
Censored News

Onkwehonwe (mohawks) Northern. Chahta (choctaw) Southern confront columbus captain and ships. ORDERS: DOCK SHIP FOR INSPECTION.
Akwesasne Longhouse People canoe to ships to say 'no entrance.' Speak on the people who were taken and eaten as food supply for columbus and shipmates. Documented on columbus that original people were eaten also we were called the long pig explaining we tasted almost as the short pig. (Note: Paynes doctrine) where term Indian steak comes from. It's why fish is now eaten on good Friday as to stop invaders from eating man.


Photos at Albany Yaht Club, Rensselaer New York

July 20, 2017

Apartheid Makers -- Silencing Dissent, Spy Towers and Obsession with a Palestinian Flag at Standing Rock



Apartheid Makers -- Silencing Dissent, Spy Towers and Obsession with a Palestinian Flag at Standing Rock

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat:
Forty-three U.S. Senators want to make it a felony to boycott Israel, and support Palestine. Meanwhile, MuckRock reveals that unlicensed TigerSwan mercenaries stalked Palestinians at Standing Rock camps. Public relations firms hired by Dakota Access Pipeline -- and their web of select media -- were particularly obsessed over a Palestinian flag at Standing Rock.
This comes as Israeli Apartheid contractor Elbit Systems is ready to build spy towers on Tohono O'odham Nation land, where there are O'odham burial places.

Israeli contractor ready to build spy towers on O'odham burial places

July 19, 2017

Spirit Resistance Radio South Dakota 2017

Love Letter: Warriors and The Word: Censored News hits 17 Million


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

In a couple of days, Censored News will cross the 17 million mark for pageviews. We did it with no funding. For 11 years, since the time I was censored and blacklisted out of the mainstream, the Word has prevailed.
The Word is actually the words of many. These are the words of the Good Hearts. They are the words, images and sounds of the writers, photographers, video producers and radio producers who have given freely of the work that springs from their hearts, the work that the Spirit tells them to carry forward.
They are the magic makers of Censored News. They are our translators in France and Belgium; they are the ones who give us a place to sleep; they are the ones who make us laugh and they are the ones who  inspire us to fight another day.
They are the Warriors, the Lovers of Mankind and the Earth, and it has been an honor to continue this Word.
For all the TigerSwans that come and go, there remains The Uncensored Word.
Thanks to our enemies who have made us stronger, and thanks to the Spirit of Truth that is alive and gives us The Uncensored Word.

-- Brenda Norrell, publisher, Censored News

Lakota Water Protector Joye Braun Talks With Spirit Resistance Radio!

Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Lakota, among the first at Sacred Stone Camp, talks with Spirit Resistance Radio



Lakota Water Protector Joye Braun Talks With Spirit Resistance Radio!

Video interview by Govinda, Spirit Resistance Radio
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
July 18, 2017

EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota -- Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Lakota, was one of the first to camp at Sacred Stone Camp and call for water protectors to come to defend the Missouri River from Dakota Access Pipeline. She was there when the first teepees went up. Joye stayed as the camps grew to thousands of water protectors, and as the attacks intensified. 

"I see this movement as giving the youths a lot of hope," Joye says.

Listen as Joye describes how the Cheyenne River created a camp for the water protectors, as the camps were leveled at Standing Rock in February 2017.

Speaking with Spirit Resistance Radio at Wakpa Waste Camp in Eagle Butte, Joye describes the arsenic in the water in South Dakota and the recent successful halt to the drilling of a bore hole for a potential uranium waste dump.

There is now a Man Camp going up within a mile of Cheyenne River Lakota land, near a children's school. Joye describes the threat to the women and children, as these men are brought in for construction on the Keystone XL.

Already at the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Fort Berthold, North Dakota, there are missing women, homicides and sex crimes because of the oil field Man Camps.

Joye describes how Water Protector Camps are being created throughout the land, from the Coast of Louisiana and Flint to Montana and beyond. The actions and resistance continues in the Northwest.

As the resistance mounts to drilling, fracking and pipelines, Joye describes how this oil that is damaging the land, and threatening the water sources, is for private corporations and for export. The ongoing destruction targets private land, and family farms, whose lands are being seized for private pipelines.

Joye says there are many ways of being of service, from doing research to babysitting and more. She says not everyone can be in camp.

Listen to her interview with Govinda at Spirit Resistance Radio.



WAKPA WASTE CAMP -- Water Warriors Ready to Take On Keystone XL

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Water Protector Chris at Wakpa Waste Camp, Live from Spirit Resistance Radio



Wakpa Waste Camp Live from Spirit Resistance Radio

Video by Govinda, Spirit Resistance Radio
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota -- Chris, Dineh from Flagstaff, Arizona, says Water Protectors are ready to rush forward and resist the Keystone XL Pipeline.
"It's another head of the snake we're going up against," Chris told Spirit Resistance Radio.
Keystone XL Pipeline would carry crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast, and endanger the drinking water of millions in the heart of this land. It would pass through the Ogallala Aquifer.
Chris said the pipelines bring with them the Man Camps, with private security moving in for the pipeline.
Urging the people to pray and go through the bruises, and being broken down, he said it will make you into a warrior.
"Pray, find the courage, and do what your heart tells you."
No matter how scary it is, keep going.
"Go for it head on."
"Once you go through it, you might be bloody, bruised, broken, but you'll heal."
"You've got to break yourself down to make yourself into a Warrior."
Speaking from the Cheyenne River Sioux homeland, and Wakpa Waste Camp, which was created when Water Protector Camps were leveled at Standing Rock, Chris said,"You'll always have a home here."

In Defense of Water, Chairman Frazier 'Battling Uranium Mining and Pipelines'

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In Defense of Water, Chairman Frazier 'Battling Uranium Mining and Pipelines'

Interview by Govinda Dalton
Spirit Resistance Radio
Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota -- Cheyenne River Chairman Harold Frazier describes his peoples fight against Dakota Access Pipeline, uranium mining and radioactive waste dumping, and Keystone XL pipeline.
Chairman Frazier thanked all the Water Protectors for their sacrifices and standing up for the water.
"We know how important it is to have fresh, clean water," Chairman Frazier told Govinda Dalton in an interview with Spirit Resistance Radio.
"Anytime it is going to impact our water, we are going to stand up and fight for it," Chairman Frazier said of the effort at Standing Rock, from the beginning at Sacred Stone Camp.
Missouri River is the source of clean, fresh water for Cheyenne River.
Currently, Cheyenne River and other tribes are in court litigation with Energy Transfer Partners over the flow of oil in Dakota Access Pipeline.
Chairman Frazier said he hopes this current litigation will be more than just another "dog and pony show," in regards to Energy Transfer Partners and consultation with Indian Nations
Chairman Frazier said there is a uranium mine targeting the area at the headwaters of the Cheyenne River. They are prepared to stand up and stop it.
Cheyenne River also fought a bore hole being drilled for a possible radioactive waste dump, which has been stopped for now.
Keystone XL is once again threatening their water source. The Keystone XL route targets their land, and Chief Big Foot's last camp on the land.
Chairman Frazier said they are prepared to continue the fight against Keystone XL in the higher courts.
Chairman Frazier points out that the corporations are pumping money into the media to brainwash people.
Chairman Frazier urged others to join them in Nebraska in August and support the efforts to halt approval of the route of Keystone XL Pipeline.
"We need to gather down there, and show these commissioners that there are a lot of concerned people."

Four of the Lakota bands (Minnicoujou, Itazipco, Siha Sapa, and Oohenumpa) are located on the land known as the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. The other three (the Oglala of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Hunkpapa at Standing Rock Reservation, and Sicangu at the Rosebud Indian Reservation and also at Lower Brule Indian Reservation), are all located in western South Dakota.  http://sioux.org



July 18, 2017

Gwich’in people to Congress: No drilling in our sacred place


Contact: Bernadette Demientieff, Executive Director, Gwich'in Steering Committee

Gwich'in people to Congress: No drilling in our sacred place
FAIRBANKS – Today the House Budget Committee announced its 2018 fiscal budget, which includes a $5B dollar reconciliation instruction to the House Natural Resources Committee, which serves as a veiled attempt to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Earlier this year the White House released its budget with a $1.8B in speculative revenues from drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Statement by Bernadette Demientieff, Executive Director, Gwich'in Steering Committee:
"Our homelands are under attack. The very existence and identity of the Gwich'in is under threat. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a sacred place. We want to continue to live our cultural and traditional life with the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
For decades, the Gwich'in Nation has defeated harmful proposals in Congress that would threaten the Coastal Plain; the birthplace to the Porcupine caribou herd and 190 other species, including migratory birds. This area is known to us as 'Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit' – the sacred place where life begins. For us, protecting this place is a matter of physical, spiritual and cultural survival. It is our basic human right to continue to feed our families and practice our traditional way of life.
Development in the Arctic Refuge's coastal plain, like what is proposed in the 2018 budget, is a human rights violation. Congress must listen and stop this irresponsible and immoral drive to drill in our sacred place. Our identity is not negotiable."
--
Bernadette Demientieff
GSC Executive Director
bernahorace@gmail.com

ZAPATISTAS -- ART, RESISTANCE AND REBELLION ON THE NET




ART, RESISTANCE AND REBELLION ON THE NET


Call to join the cybernetic edition of CompArte  “Against Capital and its Walls, All the Arts”

July, 2017


http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2017/07/15/art-resistance-and-rebellion-on-the-net/
Compañeroas, compañeras and compañeros of the Sixth:

Artist and non-artist sisters and brothers [hermanoas, hermanas and hermanos] of Mexico and the world:

Avatars, screennames, webmasters, bloggers, moderators, gamers, hackers, pirates, buccaneers and streaming castaways, anti-social network users, reality show antipodes, or whatever-you-call each person on the network, the web, the internet, cyberspace, virtual reality, or whatever-it’s-called:

 We are convoking you because there are some questions that are nagging at us:

 Is another internet, that is to say another network, possible? Can one struggle there? Or is that space without precise geography already occupied, captured, coopted, tied, annulled, etceterized? Could there be resistance and rebellion there? Can one make Art on the net? What is that Art like? Can it rebel? Can Art on the net resist the tyranny of codes, passwords, spam as the default search engine, the MMORPGs [massively multiplayer online role-playing games] of the news on social networks where ignorance and stupidity win by millions of likes? Does Art on, by, and for the net trivialize and banalize the struggle, or does it potentiate it and scale it up, or it is “totally unrelated, my friend, it’s art, not a militant cell”? Can Art on the net claw at the walls of Capital and damage it with a crack, or deepen and persist in those that already exist? Can Art on, by, and for the net resist not only the logic of Capital, but also the logic of “distinguished” Art, “real art”? Is the virtual also virtual in its creations? Is the bit the raw material of its creation? Is it created by an individual? Where is the arrogant tribunal that, on the Net, dictates what is and what is not Art? Does Capital consider Art on, by, and for the net to be cyberterrorism, cyberdelincuency? Is the Net a space of domination, domestication, hegemony and homogeneity? Or is it a space in dispute, in struggle? Can we speak of a digital materialism?

 The reality, both real and virtual, is that we know next to nothing about that universe. But we believe that in the ungraspable geography of the net there is also creation, art. And, of course, resistance and rebellion.

 You who create art there, do you see the storm? Do you suffer from it? Do you resist? Do you rebel?

 To try to find some answers, we invite you all to participate… (we were going to put “from any and all geographies”, but we think that the net is the place where geography matters least).

 Well, we invite you all to construct your answers, to construct or deconstruct them, with art created on, by, and for the net. Some categories in which you can participate (surely there are more, and surely you are already pointing out that the list is short, but, as you know, “what’s missing is yet to come”) are:

 Animation; Apps; Files and databases; Bio-art and art-science; Cyberfeminism; Interactive film; Collective knowledge, Culture jamming; Cyber-art; Documentary web; Experimental economies and finances; DIY electronics, machines, robots and drones; Collective writing; Geolocation; Graphics and design, creative hacking, digital graffiti, hacktivism and borderhacking; 3D printing; Interactivity; Electronic literature and hypertext; Live cinema, VJ [video-jaying], expanded cinema; Machinima; Memes; Narrative media; Net.art; Net Audio; Mediated performance, dance, and theater; Psycho-geographies; Alternate reality; Augmented reality; Virtual reality; Collaborative networks and translocalities (community design, translocal practices); Remix culture; Software art; Streaming; Tactical media; Telematics and telepresence; Urbanism and online/offline communities; Videogames; Visualization; Blogs, Flogs [Photoblogs] and Vlogs [Videoblogs]; Webcomics; Web series, internet soap operas, and that which you’ve already noted is missing from the list.

 So our invitation is extended to all those persons, collectives, groups, and organizations, real or virtual, that work from autonomous zones online, who use cooperative platforms, open source, free software, alternative licenses for intellectual property, and the cybernetic etceteras.

 We welcome the participation of all [todoas, todas and todos] culture-makers, independently of the material conditions in which they work.

 We invite you also so that different spaces and collectives around the world might show the works in their localities, according to their own customs, ways, interests, and possibilities.

 Do you already have something somewhere in cyberspace to tell us, show us, share with us, invite us to build collectively? Send us your link to add to the online exhibition hall of this digital CompArte.

 You don’t yet have a place to upload your material? We can offer it to you, and to the degree we’re able we can archive your material so that it is recorded for the future. In that case we would need you to give us a link to the cloud, cybernetic host, or similar thing of your preference. Or send it to us by email, or upload it to one of our clouds or to FTP.

 While we are offering to host all the material, because we would like it to be part of the archive of art on the solidaritous net, we are also going to link to other pages or servers or geo-locations because we understand that in the age of global capital, it’s strategic to decentralize.

 So, as you prefer:

If you want to post the information on your websites, with your ways and customs, we can link to it.

And if you need space, we are also here to host you.

 You can write us an email with the information about your participation. For example, the name of the creator(s), title, and the category in which you’d like it to be included, as well as a short description and an image. Also tell us if you have space on the internet and you just need us to post a link, or if you prefer that we upload it to the server.

 The material that we receive from the moment that the convocation is open will be classified in the different categories according to its (in)discipline. The participations will be made public during the days of the festival so that any individual or collective can navigate, use (or abuse) and share it in their meeting spaces, streets, schools, or wherever they prefer.

 The participations will be published as posts and links.

 We will also publish a schedule for direct streaming. The activities will be archived for anyone who doesn’t get a chance to see them live.

 The email to which you should write to send us your links and to communicate with us is:

compas@comparte.digital

 The page on which the links to the participations will be uploaded, and which will be fully functioning starting August 1 of this year, 2017, is:

http://comparte.digital

 On that page, from August 1 until August 12, we will also broadcast streamings and showings of different artistic participations from local cyberspace in different parts of the world.

Welcome, then, to the virtual edition of CompArte for Humanity:

“Against Capital and its Walls, All the Arts… Including the Cybernetic Ones”

Ok, cheers, and no likes but rather middle fingers up and fuck the walls, delete Capital.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Sixth Commission, Newbie but On-Line, of the EZLN.

(With lots of bandwidth, my friend, at least as far as the waist is concerned -oh yeah, nerd and fat is hot-)

July 2017.