Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

January 31, 2008

Longest Walk website up and running after being hacked


By Brenda Norrell

The Mohawk Nation News website was sabotaged this week and the Longest Walk website was hacked.
Rudy Preston writes at the Longest Walk site, "Sorry we were down all day. A hacker got into our server and added a piece of malicious javascript. It was deleting important files from our server. It is probably because of our public forum. We were trying to respect your private information by not collecting any. Unfortunately that allowed just anyone to post things in our forum and comment section. They were able to completely destroy a few things. Luckily I had a backup of the website.
"We are back up and running but we will have to start having people register to the site to post forum items and comments. It will also mean we will be moderating the forum. No longer will anything be instantly posted. A moderator will have to check them to be sure there is no malicious javascript in them. Sorry for the red tape, but I unfortunately have no other way to go at this point."
Preston is preparing a login form now to prevent future problems. Meanwhile, the Mohawk Naton News website is also back up and running after ownership of the website was seized away from Mohawk publisher Kahentinetha Horn. Likely the governments of Canada and Quebec are not too happy about MNN. On Tuesday, MNN exposed Canada's $40 million militia covert Op to destroy the Kanehsatake Mohawks. It took three years to obtain the government documents.
Meanwhile, the Longest Walk is preparing events and concerts for Feb. 8 -- 11. The Alcatraz ceremony is February 11, which follows with the kickoff of the two routes across America, the northern and southern routes.
Chuck Billy, Pomo and lead singer of legendary thrash metal band Testament, will perform at the Longest Walk Kickoff Concert on Saturday, February 9. The concert begins at 5:00PM at the Eastside Cultural Center in Oakland. Chuck Billy will perform alongside his brother Andy and 2006 Native American GRAMMY & NAMA recipient Star Nayea.
The Longest Walk Kickoff Concert also features performances by 7th Generation Rise, Blackhorse Blues Band, Jeremy Goodfeather, and others TBA. Tickets range in price from $25-$40.The concert is a benefit for the Longest Walk 2, which kicks off on Monday, February 11. The Longest Walk 2 is being organized and led by American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis J. Banks. Participants will embark on a 5-month journey across America, walking over 4,400 miles to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11, 2008. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth.
Mohawk Nation News:

January 30, 2008

Mohawk Nation News website sabotaged after Canada's covert op exposure


WHO “CRASHED” MNN WEBSITE?
WAS IT HURT FEEEELINGS OVER “NICKNAMES”

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News

Jan. 30, 2008. The gross corruption revealed in “Access to Information” documents from Public Security and Emergency Preparedness Canada and Indian Affairs has not made the front pages of the corporate media. [Dossier No. 1336-A-2006-0034]. Instead they’ve temporarily sabotaged MNN. It appears to now be owned by 1599754 Ontario Limited!! How could this happen? How could we lose ownership of our website without our knowledge or consent. Ernie Hilts, the website host, at 705-429-4792 email ernie@9thdegree.biz won’t answer our calls or emails, that I never gave up ownership of my website. We can’t think of anyone who would have a motivation for doing this. [“Canada’s “Indian Affairs” financed war machine to attack Mohawks on Jan. 12, 2004” – Jan. 27, 2008]. We know that the Canadian government is riddled with corruption. They aren’t as careful to cover their tracks because they don’t see us as people. They think we are powerless, have no voice and are blind. They have secret meeting about us. We have no rights. They can plan to deprive us or even kill us. The people written about are objecting to the nicknames we gave them, such as “ambulance chaser” and “turn coat”. They are not denying the factual substance of the information found in the documents we reviewed.
Read article"
Canada and Quebec financed $40 million militia to destroy Kanehsatake Mohawks:

January 29, 2008

Lakotah Republic answers questions

Russell Means and the Lakotah Republic respond to questions and criticisms and describe the vision of the Lakotah Republic. The responses are from its new online forum: www.republicoflakotah.com/

By Russell Means/Lakotah Republic

"We are only the provisional government; we are serving as midwives for the rebirth of the Lakotah as a free people. The Lakotah people will decide on their own form of government. Remember, we are not starting from scratch. Before the white man came, Indians governed themselves freely for thousands of years. The white man used the Indian model to create the United States Constitution.

"The US government has done a tremendous job of training Lakotah people to be dependent. We are now in a transition period, during which those programs continue while we reestablish our independence. This was done in the Compacts of Free Association that the US government did when the former Trust Territories of the Pacific, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, reestablished their sovereignty and freedom."
Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/russell-means-answers-some-direct-email.html

Return to Censored homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Homeland Security sues Lipan Apache Eloisa Tamez for land for border wall


By Brenda Norrell

CAMERON COUNTY, Texas -- Homeland Security filed suit against Eloisa Garcia Tamez, Lipan Apache, on Tuesday, Jan. 29, to seize her land for the border wall in Texas. Tamez has been leading the resistance to the border wall in Apache communities. Tamez said she only has three acres, but it is all she has.
All across South Texas, mayors and legislators have united to fight the border wall. Since towns on both sides of the border rely on their neighbors' shopping, eating in restaurants and other commerce, business owners in South Texas say the already financially-strapped communities will suffer economically.
Photo: Eloisa Tamez by Jay Johnson-Castro
DHS continues to file lawsuits for proposed borderfence
Laura B. Martinez and Kevin Sieff (The Brownsville Herald)
January 30
BROWNSVILLE — The federal government is continuing its effort to gain access to land in Cameron County for the proposed border fence, filingfive more lawsuits Tuesday.
Among those sued is Eloisa Tamez, an associate professor at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, who has repeatedly denied the government access to her property. "We're building the wall because we're worried about terrorists, buton the border we're being terrorized by our own government," Tamez said Tuesday evening. "I'm still going to go forward. The land is still not for sale. They'll have to make an example out of me." ...
Return to Censored homepage:

Canada's 'Indian Affairs' financed War Machine to Attack Kanehsatake Mohawks



Canada's 'Indian Affairs' financed War Machine to attack Kanehsatake Mohawks on January 12, 2004

By Kahentinetha Horn

Government documents received through an “Access to Information” request prove that the attack on peaceful Kanehsatake Mohawks by a heavily armed 67-man paramilitary force was planned, financed and implemented by Indian Affairs, Solicitor General’s Office and the Prime Minister’s Office of Ottawa. The documents reveal that the initial lay out of over $900,000 was illegally provided by Indian Affairs to Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness for this coup. [PSEPC Code 0880; Ref. Code5000020336]. The documents show that a total of $40 million was spent on this attack. [$20 million from Canada and $20 million from Quebec.] Secret bi-lateral agreements between Canada and Quebec laid out funding arrangements. Canada was to provide 52% and Quebec 48% of the policing funds. Indian Affairs has no authority in policing. It was strictly illegal –a blatant violation of Canadian law and a misappropriation of Indigenous resources and Canadian taxpayers’ dollars at a time,when many Indigenous communities are suffering from third world conditions, without even clean water to drink. Despite the huge number of blanks where crucial information was “whited-out” from the documents, it was still possible to piece together the ghoulish history that’s going to haunt the corporate government players to their graves.
Read article ...http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/canadas-indian-affairs-financed-war.html
(Photo via Atlantic Free Press: Mohawk warriors outside the police station at Kanesatake, Que. (CP photo)
After the orchestrated Canadian covert operation, 16 Mohawk warriors were sent to prison.

January 28, 2008

A great day to read the news online

By Brenda Norrell

It is a great day to be alive and read the news. We all have to wonder if anyone will spend a dime to buy a newspaper again with so much incredible free journalism online. As I was out covering the Free Palestine rally in Tucson today, I checked my e-mail. There was Kahentinetha's latest column from the Mohawk Nation News, detailing the $40 million that Canada spent for a covert operation in 2004 to splice the Mohawks, beginning with an attack on their police station. The documents were gained after years of efforts to obtain them by way of freedom of access to information.
In the e-box, there were also requests from readers around the globe, all wanting to know more about the Republic of Lakotah. So here's one of the recent online articles, "Connect the Dots" by Hickory Hendrickson:
"I had a phone conversation with the web-master for the Republic of Lakotah in which we discussed an individual who was logging in to the Republic of Lakotah forum under one name and posting a new topic. The same IP address would then log right back on under another username and argue with himself. He did this constantly for hours."
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1365.html
There you have it, a great day to read the news. Brenda

University of Arizona students rally for Palestine

Photo: Protesters gathered outside the federal building in downtown Tucson today calling for an end to the occupation of Palestine and food for the hungry there. Photo Brenda Norrell

As the human rights abuses, violence and deaths continue in Palestine, the United States gives Israel over $10 million a day -- money that could be used instead for people who are hungry, sick, wounded, tortured and cold

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogpsot.com/

TUCSON -- University of Arizona students are rallying for Palestinian human rights today and marched to the federal building at noon, Monday, January 28, 2008.
The Voices of Opposition began with an information booth at the center of campus this morning. Justin Mascouf was among the students who said that Americans are misinformed about Israel and Palestine.
"The most important thing for Americans to know is that most of the foreign aid is going to Israel," Mascouf said.
Further, although supplies were able to reach Palestine last night, Mascouf said that the preceding days showed the truth about where Egypt's alliances are. "People had to break through the wall for supplies, food and medicine."
Skylar Hijazi said there is a misconception in the United States that opposing Israel's actions in regards to Palestine represents antisemitism.
"This about people," added Steven Thorpe. "People are dying unnecessarily."
Hijazi pointed out that the ongoing collective form of punishment of all Palestinians is torture. "We are condoning torture," he said, referring to the United States' role in the widespread suffering in Palestine.
Referring to the United border wall under construction south of Tucson on the Arizona/Mexico border, known locally as the US Apartheid Wall, Hijazi said, "Walls in general are bad news."
In the pamphlets offered today at the University of Arizona campus, the group points out that Palestinians continue to suffer because of censorship.
AP is the major source of news in the United States. "Virtually all of AP's news reports about the Israel-Palestinian conflict go through its bureau in Israel," the group's pamphlet states.
Further, the media has censored the fact that there are 8,000 Palestinians in prisons who are routinely tortured and many have not been accused of a crime. The Geneva-based Defense of Children and Save the Children reported that 373 children under the age of 18 were being held in Israeli prisons in 2004.
The most heinous of crimes committed by Israeli soldiers is censored by AP. On October 17, 2004, an Israeli soldier shot a 14-year-old Palestinian in the stomach for no reason. An AP cameraman sent video footage of the unprovoked shooting to the bureau in Israel. The AP Israeli Bureau erased the footage.
The U.S. gives Israel over $10 million per day.
(Watch brief video of rally at the Tucson federal building/Video by Brenda Norrell)



January 25, 2008

Tucson: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Go Home!


Protest in Tucson in opposition to the racism and vigilante patrols of Maricopa Co. Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Photo Brenda Norrell/For photo reprint permission: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Racist Arizona sheriff protested for vigilante patrols

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Minutemen dragnet for people of color

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Protesters sent a loud message to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio today to "Go Home!" and take his practices of racism, xenophobia and vigilante patrols with him.
Protesting outside the Sheraton, where Arpaio was the speaker at the Pima County Republican Women's Club luncheon, border rights activists and other local residents called for an end to the reign of Arpaio's repression and lawlessness.
Arpaio's practice of racial targeting of people of color and the addition of Minutemen to patrols were two of the reasons that Pima County residents sent a loud message to Arpaio today. Tucson is located in Pima County, southeast of Phoenix and Maricopa County where Arpaio carries out his vigilante raids.
Derechos Humanos/Coalición de Derechos Humanos delivered a letter to Pima County Republican Women's Club.
"As members of the Pima County community, we are here today to question your decision to invite Sheriff Joe Arpaio to speak at your event. As you should be aware, Sheriff Arpaio bears much responsibility for the extremely volatile racial atmosphere in Phoenix and its outlying areas.
"We cannot permit this environment in Pima County, and are shocked that you would proudly applaud the efforts of the self proclaimed 'America’s Toughest Sheriff' on your website.
"During his tenure, Sheriff Arpaio has engaged the Arizona taxpayer, and the rest of the state of Arizona, in enforcement and political measures that have not only created great racial divisions, but have cost Maricopa County more than $41 million dollars in court fees, lawsuits, attorneys’ fees, settlements, judgments, photographs of himself, videos of himself, and maintaining his personal public relations staff.
"Did you know that Sheriff Arpaio has arrested hundreds of workers, and together with Andrew Thomas, has charged mothers and fathers, survivors of U.S. and global economic policies with being co-conspirators to their own smuggling, resulting in hundreds of felony convictions and prison time at taxpayer expense?
"Did you know that Sheriff Arpaio has created private posses, where he has permitted Minutemen to join his sheriff deputies in wholesale racial profiling and repression, resulting in an explosive situation in Phoenix neighborhoods?
"Did you know that Sheriff Arpaio has been involved in the violation of the constitutional rights of the readers of the Phoenix New Times by demanding the identity of everyone who had visited the paper’s website and arresting the newspaper’s leaders when they publicized what had happened?
"Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not welcome in the city of Tucson, where many of us continue to work for a community that is diverse, respectful, and appreciative of each other’s differences. We will not permit hatred and xenophobia in our community of Tucson. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Phoenix who must stand up for human rights on a daily basis."
Meanwhile, immigrant rights attorney Antonio Bustamante is building a racial profiling case against Arpaio. Bustamante is collecting first-hand accounts from witnesses who state that they have been unfairly stopped and arrested by Arpaio's deputies.
Michael Lacey, creator of Phoenix New Times, spent a night in jail in October after exposing Arpaio's "fishing expedition" which involved a grand jury seeking a list of New Times' online readers and even their shopping habits.
Photos of today's protest of Arpaio in Tucson:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Reporter's Notebook

Today, the Sheraton Tucson Hotel and Suites on E. Grant security forces get an "F" for refusing to let this reporter sit on a bench. After I identified myself as a news reporter, the security forces said I wasn't allowed on their property.
But next door, Buck and Lil's BBQ, was very welcoming. Thanks Buck and Lil for a place to sit! Brenda Norrell

January 24, 2008

Russell Means: Hitler, the Indian Reorganization Act and Palestine

Rev. Louis Farrakan's Final Call, interview with Russell Means

Final Call: In your writings and speeches, you have drawn many parallels between the experiences of the indigenous people, the apartheid government in South Africa, and the occupied Palestinian territories. It appears that you are saying that wherever unjust land appropriation policies are found, they all have the same origins.

Russell Means: Exactly! Hitler wrote that the American policy of creating reservations for the unclean and the unwanted was the perfect solution for race, and (using) that example he created the concentration camps for the gypsies, Jewish people and homosexuals. The Bantu Development Act of 1964 which institutionalized apartheid in South Africa is a copy of the Indian Reorganization Act of America which was passed thirty years before. What happened to us was the genesis and example for all land appropriations the world over—that includes Palestine. Our people are being exterminated, much like the African slaves were exterminated from their homeland and separated from their way of life. The apartheid system is the most lethal colonial policy ever created, and you have to hand it to the United States of America. They are very good at eradicating human beings in all ways physically, spiritually and economically.
Read more ...

Choctaw Ben Carnes: The border, treaties, prisoner rights and the Ghost Dance

Thoughts of Racism, Politics and Spiritual Sovereignty

Choctaw Ben Carnes discusses border arrests, sovereignty, treaties, prisoner rights and the Ghost Dance

By Ben Carnes
I find it very sad that my relatives from the South are being hunted down and sent back home. Oklahoma had recently passed a law prohibiting aiding any “illegal immigrants” with food, shelter, or work, or even a ride to work. The Indian way is to provide our relatives who visit with food, water and the comfort of shelter. In an indirect way, our way of life is being criminalized in our homelands, like in the 1800’s when they imposed the Code of Religious Offenses ...
In heeding the words of Thomas Banyacya and the Mayan Calendar, it may not be such a bad idea for the Ghost Dance to make its return in the form as it was presented to Wovoka. Not the versions in which people believed that if the dance was done, the whites would disappear and our ancestors would return, along with the buffalo. It has always been difficult for me to believe the Creator would show us a ceremony to eradicate our relatives. From what I have understood about Wovoka’s vision is that the dance was to bring peace and understanding to all people.
My idea of sovereignty based upon a spiritual way of life. Through this way of life, I have found a stronger connection to the Creator and Mother Earth...
Read entire commentary, first published in the zine, Caban Unzeen
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/choctaw-ben-carnes-border-treaties.html

Youth of the Peaks awarded for activism in 2007

Top 10 Youth Activism Victories in 2007
http://www.wiretapmag.org/activism/43351/

Preserving Community Land and Culture

Wiretap Magazine
In another major local victory for the environment, Save the Peaks, a coalition formed to protect the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, won a court order that defended the sacred site. For years, the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort has operated on this traditionally holy ground, and in 2004 the U.S. Forest Service approved the company's plans to expand -- which included cutting down 74 acres of trees and using treated sewage water to make artificial snow. The plans posed a threat to the ecosystem, the health of surrounding communities, and the religious freedom of the 13 Native American Nations that hold the mountains hallowed. The Youth of the Peaks worked together with the coalition, protesting at the foot of the resort to let tourists know the issues surrounding the grounds they're playing on. In March, the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the expansion plans be stopped.
On October 17th, the court granted Arizona Snowbowl and the U.S. Forest Service an appeal, which was heard on December 11th. Far from giving up, tribes and young activists in the coalition attended the case, and are encouraging others to take action as well while the community waits for a decision.

January 23, 2008

NAGPRA, one makes a difference in California Rancheria


In Greenville Rancheria in California, Douglas Mullen proves one man can make a difference as he protests the University of California at Berkeley's treatment of ancestral remains of Indian people.

By Douglas Mullen

Haw-saw-sicka,
Today I'm starting a campaign to inform the public as to the on-going situation at UCB. I was out in front of the Tribal Office, which is also across from the Post Office. I was met with favorable response from the Public. Some honked their horns, others gave the thumbs-up, others stopped and asked about what I was doing, and yet others took my picture. I got suggestions such as drafting a petition for the people to sign; some suggested that I hand out fliers. One man suggested that I attend the local Veterans meeting. All-in-all my one-man demonstration went well. I am planning to stand in front of the local drug store, Sheriff Station, grocery store, high school and Roundhouse Indian Education Center from 12 pm-1pm everyday during my lunch break. Also the local newspaper stopped and took my picture as well. I encourage you to do the same. I will be sending this to other news stations as well. Pass this on as you see fit. May your day be as blessed as mine has been.
Douglas Mullen, NAGPRA/Cultural Coordinator
Greenville Rancheria

Mohawk Nation News: Beware unscrupulous & arms dealers

Mohawk Nation News: Beware of certain unscrupulous 'Algonquins' & Arms dealers seeking profits

BEWARE OF CERTAIN UNSCRUPULOUS “ALGONQUINS” & ARMS DEALERS SEEKING PROFITS

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nations News
(Photo: The Trench)

Jan. 22, 2008. Just what is legitimate representation anyway? Certain unscrupulous “Algonquins” continue to try to make deals with Ontario over Haudenosaunee land. The land south of the Ottawa River is Haudenosaunee. They are just “visitors” in this area. This hasn’t stopped developers and those involved in the colonial land claims game from attempting to choreograph a strange dance. On January 21st Brian Crane lawyer for Ontario and Bob Potts negotiator for the Algonquins of Ontario met with Harold Perry and Robert Lovelace, the chief and the negotiator for the Ardoch Algonquins, at the Holiday Inn in Kingston. They appear to be trying to figure out how to find “more Ardoch Algonquins” to bring into their dance, to make it look a lot more convincing. They even signed up those who think they might have “Algonquin” ancestry somewhere back in time. They are desperate to make their numbers look good. Lawyer, Mike Swinwood, recently went to Pembroke in the hope that he could pressure the Algonquins there to sign on to something. It appears that Ontario has set a deadline to make a cash offer of about $20 million to the Algonquins for Haudenosaunee land. The more Algonquins the higher the price? This is “the sale ends at midnight” pitch! Frontenac Ventures Inc., the mining exploration company that wants to dig uranium or to find other uses for Haudenosaunee land at Sharbot Lake, has pulled out of these negotiations. Frontenac Ventures wants to either get paid off by Ontario or they are going to start drilling for uranium next week. Whoa there! Hold your horses! What’s the scam? Why should Frontenac Ventures be allowed to explore when Ontario’s authority over Indigenous resources has yet to be established? Who knows how this will turn out when all the evidence is put on the table? Another possibility floating around is that Ontario and those Algonquins in favor of development will mine the uranium themselves.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/mohawk-nation-news-beware-of-certain.html

Longest Walk 2, Let's walk

By Brenda Norrell
Photo credit Longest Walk 1978

www.longestwalk.org
Photo 2: Bello K. Sausbier


ALCATRAZ -- The Longest Walk 2, led by Dennis Banks, is gearing up to take off, on foot across the continent. The northern route is a grassroots effort, traveling on foot to Western Shoshone, Colorado, Kansas, Pennsylvania and on to DC on the five month journey. These walkers will brave the snow and ice in February and March to begin the walk, with 40 to 75 walkers expected.

The Southern Route, which already has 100 walkers signed up for the entire route, will set out on foot down through southern California. This route goes through Flagstaff, Navajoland, Four Corners, Oklahoma, down Louisiana to New Orleans, and on to DC. Navajos at Dooda (NO) Desert Rock power plant are excited and welcoming the walk in New Mexico. There's a delegation of Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhists on this walk. Felipe's Chuck Wagon will meet the need of vegetarians.
The northern route especially needs a great deal of sharing. Walkers need warm winter clothes, hiking boots, tents and other camping gear. Food staples, kitchen items, first aid supplies and lead vehicles are needed. Contact: Northern route coordinator Jimbo Simmons longestwalk1978@gmail.com
Another two teams will walk/run down from Minnesota and Michigan at the northern border to meet the other walkers.
Please see the Longest Walk 2 website for the itineraries, video and historic photos and the meeting plans for the Alcatraz and the Bay Area prayer gathering, pow wow and concert, Feb. 8 -- 11.
http://www.longestwalk.org/
Northern route's entire itinerary:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/longest-walk-2-route-feb-9-march-28.htmlroute-feb-9-march-28.html

Contacts:
National Organizer Longest Walk HQ
Tashina Banks Moore New Mexico Organizer
Jimbo Simmons North Route Coordinator
Aislyn Housing Coordinator
Morning Star Gali California Organizer
Julie Hernandez California Route Coordinator
John Malloy California Route Organizer
Lettie Connell Arizona Organizer
Anna Rondon Arizona Organizer
Mark Davis Alabama Organizer
Viola Hatch Oklahoma Organizer
Curt and Shelia Hansen Virginia Coordinator
Chipa Wolfe Georgia Organizer
Deanna Wagner-Brice St. Louis Regional coordinator
Morning Dove Hopkins Louisiana organizer
Guinda Reeves Tennessee Organizer
Ron Alex Mississippi Organizer
Rev. Toshihisa Yamada Japanese Coordinator

January 22, 2008

Sacred Sites Run, Hopiland to Teotihuacan, Mexico

SACRED SITES RUN 2008

By Olivia Chumacero

May this day find you in good health and with much respect we send this letter to you and your community.
As indigenous people we have endured many atrocities and extermination tactics throughout these past five hundred years. These unconscionable actions were and continue to be executed not only towards our communities but; to the land , the waters, the air and every form of creation on this place we call home. Because of this devastation and disrespect of life in all its forms, we are now living precariously on our Mother Earth through the age of global warming.
What remains true however, is that as traditional indigenous people we respect everything that sustains life. We know that the human being is here as caretaker. We have maintained our responsibility diligently as the keepers of wisdom in spite of the continuous onslaught against us and our traditional ways. We remember our relationship, our connection with the four directions and the manner in which to live on our Mother Earth .
This responsibility that we carry demands that we honor it through positive and creative actions, and therein the reason for the Sacred Sites Run. Our goal as spirit runners is to weave indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge together, so that we may assist in the necessary healing during this age of global warming. In the end we are all one tribe, the human tribe and we all have only this one home, our Mother Earth.
In conjunction with, the running to and honoring sacred sites in remote indigenous communities; we will share information on alternative and green based energy and water conservation, to all our hosting communities.
We are confident that the bridges created in the midst of this Sacred Sites Run, will endure for generations to come. Through past and present experience, we know that it is not the usual behavior of the rest of the world, to honor and respect land or people in indigenous communities; therefore we undertake this Sacred Sites Run conscious of both the responsibility and the urgency of the times.
We extend an invitation to you, your family, your friends, and your community, to join us in this multi-tribal Sacred Sites Run this year during the month of April. We will begin the run honoring the sacred site of the Hopi nation , in the Second Mesa, Arizona and continue through the state, cross the border to finish in the sun pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico.
We take it upon ourselves as spirit runners to follow through with our responsibility as caretakers to our Mother Earth. We hope that you will be able to join us as a runner, support staff, host, sponsor or perhaps in thought and or spirit . Please contact us if this is something that touches your heart and spirit. And we look forward to working together for the benefit of the future generations .
With all respect,
Olivia Chumacero –International Director
213.618.0420 cell & land line 631.714.5083 (until February 12, 2008 only)
Sacred Sites Run 2008
P.O. Box 31276
Los Angeles CA. 90031
Sacred Sites Run Coordinators
International Director Arizona Coordinator Mexico Coordinator Olivia Chumacero Ruben Saufkie Sr. Helen Samuels
chumacero@spiritruns.net rmsaufkie_h2opi@yahoo.com hcontact@tekio.net
Olivia Chumacero is from the Raramuri tribe in the Copper Canyon of Chihuahua, Mexico and as a traditional spirit runner has coordinated transcontinental runs for many decades. She honors her ancestral responsibility to live everyday as a caretaker of life in all its manifestations - one home, one Mother Earth, one tribe –the human tribe.
Helen Samuels is an Ashoka Fellow recipient, she has created an international network that supports urban, rural and indigenous youth as stakeholders in the emerging DO-IT-YOURSELF culture of social and environmental restoration. Ms. Samuels has supported transcontinental runs for the last 20 years, reestablishing north–south routes that connect 1st nation peoples of the Americas for the purpose of ceremonial exchange and honoring environmental practices.
Ruben Saufkie Sr. is from the Hopi Water Clan of Second Mesa, AZ. He coordinated the runners on the historic H2OPI run that carried the message “Water is Sacred” from Hopi to the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico, City in 2006. He is deeply committed to being a messenger for Water and has traveled worldwide in doing so.

http://www.spiritruns.net/213-618-040

Salt Singers mourn ancestors at Berkeley today


Award-winning Indian Singing Troup to Mourn Ancestors at Major Rally Against UCB’s Attack on Repatriation Rights
January 22, 2008


Salt Singers from 14 Indian Bands Have Traveled Great Distances to Perform Ancient Songs at Demo in Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza
By Jessica LePak
The famous Native American Salt Singers from Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Southern California will sing ancient mourning songs at a demonstration to express their profound sadness over thousands of Native American remains stored in drawers and plastic bags a few hundred feet away beneath a swimming pool in the Hearst gym basement.
When: Noon Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Where: Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Who: The Salt Song Project (http://www.nativeland.org/saltsong2.html)
Why: The Salt Singers feel it is imperative to conduct this rite of passage now to raise public awareness about the shocking lack of cooperation from UC administrators with tribal entities. Despite numerous resolutions from tribes and the National Congress of American Indians and thousands of letters and emails requesting repatriation, senior UC administrators have refused to meet with tribal leaders and have continued to deny tribes their lawful claim for the religious and ceremonial reburial of their ancestors. Thus far, UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and UC system president Rory Hume have simply ignored requests to discuss the University’s administration of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and have referred all inquiries to Museum subordinates who lack the power and desire to change UC NAGPRA policies.
Supporters are invited to bring drums and other instruments.
Photo from website:

January 21, 2008

Walking, to make sure the world is right

By Brenda Norrell

As the Longest Walk route across America was announced, an exciting thought comes from the Zapatistas about "exiting the heart to walk the world." The Longest Walk and the words of the Zapatistas are a reminder that our own bodies can provide transportation, our own hands can provide the food we eat, and that the art of walking is a way to put the world in balance.

Rebecca Solnit's article, "Revolution of the Snails: Encounters with the Zapatistas," published in TomDispatch.com , describes the Zapatistas caracoles and the magical art of walking.

"Take, for example, the word caracol, which literally means snail or spiral shell. In August 2003, the Zapatistas renamed their five autonomous communities caracoles ... When they reorganized as caracoles, the Zapatistas reached back to Mayan myth to explain what the symbol meant to them. Or Subcomandante Marcos did, attributing the story as he does with many stories to 'Old Antonio,' who may be a fiction, a composite, or a real source of the indigenous lore of the region:

'The wise ones of olden times say that the hearts of men and women are in the shape of a caracol, and that those who have good in their hearts and thoughts walk from one place to the other, awakening gods and men for them to check that the world remains right. They say that they say that they said that the caracol represents entering into the heart, that this is what the very first ones called knowledge. They say that they say that they said that the caracol also represents exiting from the heart to walk the world…. The caracoles will be like doors to enter into the communities and for the communities to come out; like windows to see us inside and also for us to see outside; like loudspeakers in order to send far and wide our word and also to hear the words from the one who is far away.'"

Longest Walk for spiritual survival, Alcatraz to DC

Longest Walk 2

A SPIRITUAL WALK FOR Survival FROM ALCATRAZ to D.C.

By Longest Walk 2

SAN FRANCISCO -- On February 11, 2008, Longest Walk 2 participants will embark on a five- month journey across America to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11, 2008. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the historic Longest Walk of 1978 that resulted in historic changes for Native America, hundreds of communities are participating in the Longest Walk of 2008 to raise awareness about issues impacting our world environment, to protect Sacred Sites and to clean up Mother Earth. The original Longest Walk of 1978 was conducted in response to proposed legislation in Congress that would have abrogated Native Treaties that protected our Native American sovereignty. It defeated those 11 bills and in the following month, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 was passed. As a result of The 1978 Longest Walk, Indigenous people were granted the federal legislative right to freedom of religion, a fundamental right guaranteed to all Americans under the U.S. Constitution."In 1978, our communities faced many hardships such as non-existing religious rights and criminalization of our people who fought for cultural survival, this is why the Longest Walk was necessary. As Indigenous Peoples in the United States, our environment and our cultural survival are directly correlated and are still imperiled today, this is why we must walk once again” states Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council. The Longest Walk 2 is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth. The Longest Walk 2 intends to create educational awareness about the health and wellbeing of Our Mother Earth, The health and wellbeing of our people and communities and the protection and preservation of Sacred Sites. The message from the Longest Walk of 1978 will be carried and continued: “The Longest Walk is an Indian spiritual walk, a historical walk; and it is a walk for educational awareness to the American and the World communities about the concerns of American Indian people.” American Indian Movement Co-founder Dennis J. Banks states “From Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C., through the elements of the seasons, we shall walk; nothing shall deter us from completing our mission: All Life is Sacred, Protect Mother Earth.” Longest Walk 2 is part of many communities ongoing commitment to protect sacred sites, cultural preservation, and to create awareness about the environment. We are walking to promote positive change in our world. The Longest Walk 2 invites veteran walkers that participated in the 1978 Longest Walk and reach out the new generations of the future to join us. The Longest Walk 2 will take two routes. The Northern route will travel the original route of 1978 across 11 states and 3,600 miles. The Southern route will follow the 2006 Sacred Run route across 13 states and 4,400 miles. Both routes will visit Sacred Sites across the Nation and promote educational awareness for Sacred Sites protection and preservation. The Southern route will be launching The Clean Up Mother Earth Campaign where Longest Walk participants will work together to clean up our country’s highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route.
For more information please visit: http://www.longestwalk.org/

Entire northern route schedule and call for help:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/longest-walk-2-route-feb-9-march-28.html
For Southern route: http://www.longestwalk.org

January 20, 2008

Lakota Oyate: Personal attacks reflect COINTELPRO

By Lakota Oyate Freedom Delegation

NOTE TO VISITORS AND INTERESTED PARTIES:

This is a time of transition for the Lakota oyate (people) as the realization of freedom is considered. It is unfortunate, but not unexpected that those involved with the Lakota Freedom movement have received slander, false personal attacks and threats from individuals both within and outside of Lakota. Regardless why these false attacks have occurred, we recognize these are the same tactics employed by the U.S. Government's COINTELPRO program to silence resistance to the genocide of First Nation's peoples. These attacks mean nothing to us, and we continue with the work under the guidance of the Elders and children to make wowasakeikcupi truly possible.
We believe in the traditional systems that persist within Lakota and believe the will of the Elders and the young people will be heard. We seek to empower all of the Lakota oyate to share their ideas, hopes, feelings and concerns in a good way, and believe this website can become one part of that. We ask individuals to cease with false personal attacks, slander and attempts to erode the advances of the Lakota Freedom movement. If concerns exist, we ask why individuals cannot have the integrity to address others directly with their questions instead of using COINTELPRO tactics to try and discredit people or a movement. Personal attacks create the appearance of COINTELPRO 'divide and conquer' activity whether it exists or not.
LAKOTA OYATE CONTACT INFORMATION
For General , e-mail us at: lakotafree@gmail.com
We suggest that all donations are held at this time until suitable systems can be put into place to receive them. For media interviews and scheduling, e-mail us at: lakotafree@gmail.com
Phone (828) 230-1404
Media may sign-on to our media listserve at the following address: http://mail.lakotaoyate.net/mailman/listinfo/medialist_lakotaoyate.net
Website: www.lakotaoyate.net

January 19, 2008

NAFTA, US spy dollars, cut Mexico off at the knees

NAFTA, US spy dollars, designed to cut Mexico off at the knees

By Brenda Norrell
Photo: Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson/photo Brenda Norrell
GREEN VALLEY, Arizona – A panel of US/Mexico border speakers said that the North American Free Trade Agreement has benefited the United States, while forcing people in Mexico off their lands. The result has been a wave of displaced people crossing the US/Mexico border, with racist rhetoric and migrant deaths increasing in the United States.
“We have created a community of slaves,” said Delle McCormick, executive director of BorderLinks. McCormick pointed out that many Americans want migrants to come to the US, but for the wrong reason.
McCormick said many Americans want “slaves,” and do not want creative, intelligent, thinking people from Mexico to relocate here. Once here, they want migrants to be “invisible.”
McCormick joined a panel of speakers at the Santa Cruz Valley Border Issues Fair on Saturday, January 19. More than 400 residents from Green Valley and Tucson, primarily retirees and winter visitors, attended and praised the humanitarian efforts underway to save lives at the border and battle with education the growing migrant xenophobia in the United States.
McCormick pointed out that NAFTA was launched on January 1, 1994, with the promise of bringing Mexico into the modern world. But while the people of Mexico waited for their lives to resemble those on “I Love Lucy,” their worlds began to crumble.
While the United States talked about “equalized trade,” out of one side of its mouth, out of the other side, the US was calling for the closure of its borders.
The US sent big business to seize the lands of the poor in Mexico. Further, the big box stores like Wal-Mart were soon putting smaller, locally-owned stores out of business. At the sacred places, Indigenous Peoples were pushed away and vendors began selling “Made in China,” trinkets, slowing the demand for handcrafts.
McCormick said while Mexico cut funding for social services, it increased funding for trade-based corporations.
Meanwhile, in Chiapas, dams were built to provide electricity for the US corporations, pushing Mayans off their lands. Like never before, this began the exodus of Indigenous corn farmers, now displaced and bound on foot for the US, desperate to survive. Today, a higher percentage of people walking across the US/Mexico border come from Chiapas, since NAFTA has wielded its damage, she said.
McCormick pointed out that the people of Mexico, including the Zapatistas, have creative ways of emerging and developing a new economy.
What the United States needs to do, she said, is “Get out of their way.”
Mike Wilson, Tohono O’odham human rights advocate, urged those attending to apply political pressure on the Tohono O’odham Nation government and hold it accountable for the large number of people dying each year on O’odham lands, primarily from dehydration.
Wilson puts out water for migrants and searches for bodies at the request of family members.
“The Tohono O’odham Nation lacks the big picture, the world view," he said.
Wilson said the Tohono O’odham Nation is very responsive to the United States government and will not go against Homeland Security, especially if there is a threat of the loss of US funding.
Border speakers discussed the ways the United States government controls Mexico. In 2007, the United States provided funding to Mexico to spy on individuals. The $2.9 million DEA contract was to Verint Technologies in New York for spy technology for Mexico. The US contract provided for storing all phone calls for at least 25,000 hours, installation of 30 monitoring stations and cell phone location and tracking devices.
Mike Marizco, freelance journalist who publishes the Border Reporter online, pointed out that the US funding provided the FBI of Mexico with the ability to eavesdrop on all cell phone calls, e-mails, faxes and other communications.
One person attending the border fair suggested that what the US needs to do is what it does in other countries, and send money to refashion the economy of Mexico. But speakers said the real solutions remain in the creative endeavors of the people of Mexico themselves.
Speakers also pointed out that none of the front running US presidential candidates are proposing visas or alternative guest worker programs for migrants. Instead, the candidates, protecting their political images, are calling for more border security and border walls.
Further, speakers said with more funding for the so-called “war on drugs,” the US continues its role as imperialist nation with covert agendas.
Dr. Anna Ochoa O’Leary, lecturer, Mexican American Studies Research Center, spoke of the impact on women of separations and migrations. She said the United States is most often the source of problems in Mexico.
“Anytime you see the United States as a ‘savior,’ chances are we broke it first.”
Organizations working for positive change and delivering humanitarian aid at the border participated in the fair, including Border Action Network, BorderLinks, JustCoffee, No More Deaths, Derechos Humanos, Humane Borders, Samaritans, artists Valerie James & Debbi McCullough and border photographer Michael Hyatt.
.
Photo: Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson at the border fair/photo by Brenda Norrell

Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council responds to treaty withdrawal


By Charmaine White Face
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council, spokesperson
.
The defense of the Black Hills, and other land under the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868 was put in the hands of Lakota traditional bodies and the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council created in 1893.
In response to the Press Release released in December by Russell Means in Washington D.C., the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council issued the following declaration:

"There is a provision within the Treaty of 1868 that our ancestors had included. Article 12 says the Treaty of 1868 could not be changed except by three-fourths of the (Lakota) male vote. This was done expressly to protect the people, the land, and our way of life.
Russell Means is only one man and has not received the 3/4 adult male approval. His efforts, however, remind the world that we still have an international treaty with the USA.
Sincerely, Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson,
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council."
.
PHOTO: Fallen leaves cover the ground in the Black Hills National Forest. Photo by Bonnie Jones/US Dept Agriculture.

January 18, 2008

Sacred lands and the right of spiritual practice

This segment of the Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report compiled by the International Indian Treaty Council, is in the report to be presented to the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination in February in Geneva.

Navajo, Native Hawaiian, Winnemem Wintu, Taino in Puerto Rico and Native American inmates' rights are highlighted in this section.

Compiled by the International Indian Treaty Council

Sacred Lands and the Right of Spiritual Practice
"This Parallel Report cites the many instances whereby the United States has attempted to extinguish aboriginal title. We also cited the concern of competent international human rights mechanisms over this practice. But Indigenous Peoples throughout the jurisdiction of the United States, recognized, terminated, unrecognized and ignored, continue their ancestral spiritual relationship to their ancestral Sacred Lands. This aboriginal use has never been extinguished in fact. Throughout the jurisdiction of the United States, Indigenous Peoples continue their Spiritual Practice on Ancestral Sacred Land in constant conflict with the United States government as they have since time immemorial."
Read more of the report on US Apartheid:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/sacred-lands-and-right-of-spiritual.html

PHOTO: Enei Begaye, Navajo, with Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Wintu from Northern California at the Cocopah Climate Conference 2007. Photo Brenda Norrell

January 16, 2008

US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples documented in UN report


Environmental racism, treaty rights and border rights of Indigenous Peoples stated in new report to the United Nations on Apartheid in the US


By Brenda Norrell
Human rights editor
UN OBSERVER & International Report
Photo by Brenda Norrell

SAN FRANCISCO -- The systematic racism, forced assimilation and apartheid of Indigenous Peoples in the United States has been documented in the “Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report,” to be presented by the International Indian Treaty Council to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Dedicated to Floyd Red Crow Westerman, who passed to the Spirit World on December 13, 2007, the report is compiled from the testimony of individuals and groups of Indigenous Peoples and includes data from a wide range of sources.
The data reveals “a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation,” where Indigenous Peoples are “warehoused in poverty and neglect” in the United States. The racism permeates Indian life, including life at its foundation, at American Indian sacred places.
Indian treaty rights, the abrogation of treaties and discrimination toward non-federally recognized Indian Nations are detailed. Statistics are included for unemployment, violence against women and sexual abuse in residential schools. The destruction of sacred places, environmental racism and border injustices are revealed. Further, the high rate of incarceration and disproportionate long prison sentences for American Indians are exposed in the 87-page report.
The exportation of banned pesticides by corporations in the United States to Sonora, Mexico, where Yaqui are suffering from death and toxic illnesses, and other Indigenous Peoples' territories, is also documented.
Alberto Saldamando, IITC general counsel, and board member Lenny Foster, Navajo, who reported on the freedom of religion for Indigenous prisoners in the US, will present the report to the UN Committee in Geneva in February. Western Shoshone and other organizations and Nations will join Saldamando and Foster.
"It is to inform the CERD Committee on United States compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination," Saldamando said.
The report exposing US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples will be presented to the UN Committee on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 3 p.m. and again on Friday the 22nd at 10:00 a.m.
The data includes the overwhelming disparities in income, life expectancy, poverty and unemployment. The disproportionate number of Indians in prisons is revealed with statistics from Montana.
Read article ...

Longest Walk 2008, northern and southern routes


Longest Walk 2 – A SPIRITUAL WALK FOR Survival

FROM ALCATRAZ to D.C.


Longest Walk 2008 will journey on two routes, northern and southern routes

By Tashina Banks Moore

SAN FRANCISCO-- On February 11, 2008, Longest Walk 2 participants will embark on a five- month journey across America to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11, 2008. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the historic Longest Walk of 1978 that resulted in historic changes for Native America and for our environment, hundreds of communities are participating in the Longest Walk of 2008 to raise awareness about issues impacting our world environment, to protect Sacred Sites and to clean up Mother Earth. The original Longest Walk of 1978 was conducted in response to proposed legislation in Congress that would have abrogated Native Treaties that protected our Native American sovereignty. It defeated those 11 bills and in the following month, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 was passed. As a result of The 1978 Longest Walk, Indigenous people were granted the federal legislative right to freedom of religion, a fundamental right guaranteed to all Americans under the U.S. Constitution.

"In 1978, our communities faced many hardships such as non-existing religious rights and criminalization of our people who fought for cultural survival, this is why the Longest Walk was necessary. As Indigenous Peoples in the United States, our environment and our cultural survival are directly correlated and are still imperiled today, this is why we must walk once again” states Jimbo Simmons of the International Indian Treaty Council.

The Longest Walk 2 is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth. The Longest Walk 2 intends to create educational awareness about the health and wellbeing of Our Mother Earth, The health and wellbeing of our people and communities and the protection and preservation of Sacred Sites. The message from the Longest Walk of 1978 will be carried and continued: “The Longest Walk is an Indian spiritual walk, a historical walk; and it is a walk for educational awareness to the American and the World communities about the concerns of American Indian people.”

American Indian Movement Co-founder Dennis J. Banks states “From Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C., through the elements of the seasons, we shall walk; nothing shall deter us from completing our mission: All Life is Sacred, Protect Mother Earth.” Longest Walk 2 is part of many communities ongoing commitment to protect sacred sites, cultural preservation, and to create awareness about the environment. We are walking to promote positive change in our world. The Longest Walk 2 invites veteran walkers that participated in the 1978 Longest Walk and reach out the new generations of the future to join us.

The Longest Walk 2 will take two routes. The Northern route will travel the original route of 1978 across 11 states and 3,600 miles. The Southern route will follow the 2006 Sacred Run route across 13 states and 4,400 miles. Both routes will visit Sacred Sites across the Nation and promote educational awareness for Sacred Sites protection and preservation. The Southern route will be launching The Clean Up Mother Earth Campaign where Longest Walk participants will work together to clean up our country’s highways and roads by collecting debris found along the Longest Walk route.
For more information please visit: http://www.longestwalk.org/
Photo: Longest Walk 1978: Jimbo Simmons, Joe Bill and Tissychy

January 15, 2008

Homeland Security to Eagle Pass, Texas: Your property is condemned

Breaking news just in:
Federal court gives Homeland Security right to enter land:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1536720920080116


By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogpot.com/

EAGLE PASS, Texas -- Homeland Security has asked a federal court to declare 233 acres of Maverick County and the City of Eagle Pass condemned.

In a civil suit filed in federal court, U.S. Attorney Harold Brown, Jr., has asked the court to condemn 233 acres for the purpose of seizure by eminent domain by Homeland Security to build the US/Mexico border wall. It is the first lawsuit aimed at seizure of lands of 102 landowners in Texas, Arizona and California.

The government is demanding immediate control of the land and has deposited $100 in an account for the 233 acres to begin surveying work, according to the court document. The lawsuit was filed in federal court, the Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division.

This evening I was in Eagle Pass, Texas. There is nothing here to condemn. It is a busy city of hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Unlike the Arizona border, Eagle Pass has not yet turned into a repressive network of harassment and bullying by US Border Patrol agents and National Guardsmen. It is a busy city of workers.

This may soon change, we'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, mayors and residents all along the Texas border are organizing resistance.

If you are a member of the media, or anyone else, and would like a copy of the complaint filed by Homeland Security, to condemn and seize Eagle Pass land, e-mail me and I'll e-mail the court document back to you: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Republic of Lakotah focuses on Black Hills

January 15, 2007

By Republic of Lakotah

A month after the Republic of Lakotah reasserted its sovereignty, the United States and its state and municipal governments are still present and operating in the Republic. These foreign governments are being invited to meet with the provisional government of the Republic of Lakotah.

In order to recognize Lakotah sovereignty, the United States might have to admit it breached its treaties with the Lakotah people. While the breaches are numerous and obvious, governments do not like to admit that they ever do anything wrong.

History has shown that colonizers withdraw from their colonized territories and return sovereignty to the indigenous people. Even the United States has done this. The Republic of the Philippines, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau were all colonized by United States but are now all sovereign nations.

The Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau obtained their sovereignty through a Compact of Free Association, The Republic of Lakotah see this Compact as a legitimate model for dialog with the United States.

The Republic of Lakotah is now putting special focus on the Black Hills, The Black Hills are Holy lands of the Lakotah people. In 1980, the United States Supreme Court awarded money damages to the Sioux Nation for the unlawful taking of the Black Hills which now total over $1.2 billion. The Lakotah people refuse to take the money.

Russell Means, Chief Facilitator for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Lakotah said, “Would Catholic people take money and give up the Vatican? Would Muslim people take money and give up Mecca? Lakotah people want our sovereignty of the Black Hills restored and recognized by the world.”

Means made it clear that the focus on the Black Hills does not mean that the Republic is waiving its claims to other traditional Lakotah lands.

For more information about the Republic of Lakotah, visit http://republicoflakotah.com.

Women Title Holders Assert the Great Law over Algonquins

WOMEN TITLE HOLDERS ASSERT THE GREAT LAW OVER ALGONQUINS

Mohawk Nation News Jan. 15, 2008.
The Kahtihon’tia:kwenio have been forced to assert their responsibilities as caretakers of Haudenosaunee land. The land in question is south of the Ottawa River which was Huron [Wyandot] territory 308 years ago. After many years of warfare between the Iroquois and the French and their allies, the Hurons, there was a meeting in Montreal in 1700. At this time, this land passed to the Haudenosaunee in exchange for prisoners. The land in question is currently occupied by the Ardoc and Shabot Lake Algonquins as well as by cottagers belonging to the colonizing society. The people from these diverse backgrounds have been in the news recently for protesting uranium mining. Before this issue arose, the Ardoc and Shabot Lake Algonquins were negotiating a land claims deal with the Ontario government. The focus of negotiations has now shifted to manipulate public opinion and circumvent the objections to uranium mining by the residents of the area. It is time to set the record straight. The land concerned is Haudenosaunee land. It comes under Haudenosaunee law. Both the land claims negotiations and the negotiations to facilitate uranium mining are being conducted on a stunning array of false assumptions. The parties involved have no authority to decide anything concerning the use of our land. Any agreements they might make will have no legal validity according to the international standards that Canada has agreed to uphold. The course being followed is the “might-makes-right” standards that prevailed at the height of the European colonial era. These European colonists continue to operate under the delusion that they were superior to everyone else and they have a right to steal other people’s resources without their consent. To bring this misguided negotiations to public attention, we have served the following “Notice of Objection” on the private individuals and official representatives of the corporations and polities that are embroiled in this matter. The situation is of concern to all those who care about the health of the environment and the well being of our future generations wherever they may be in the world. It is also of concern to those who want to establish and maintain a fair legal and political regime that respects the right of all human beings as set out in the treaties and covenants of the United Nations. It is lack of information and silence of ordinary citizens that states like Canada can impose colonial conduct. If we all work together, we can end corporate and colonial abuse. If you share our concerns, please ask for the support of your political representatives, wherever you may live in Onkwehonwe territory, in Canada or anywhere in the world. Kahentinetha HornMNN Mohawk Nation News
.NOTICE OF OBJECTION TO NEGOTIATIONS CONCERNING HAUDENOSAUNEE LAND CURRENTLY BEING CONDUCTED BETWEEN CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE ALONGONQUIN NATIONS AND COLONIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF CANADA, ONTARIO AND FRONTENAC VENTURES INCORPORATED
To the attention of: QUEEN ELIZABETH II; Hon. Steven Harper, Prime Minister of CANADA; M. Michaelle Jean, Governor General of CANADA; Hon. Dalton McGuinty, Premier of ONTARIO; Robert Lovelace, Ardoc Algonquin Nation and Allies, Ontario; Doreen Davis, Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First Nation, ONTARIO; Cam Clark, Ronald Ferguson and Andrew McDonald, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, ONTARIO; Richard Moore, Mediator; Chris Reid, legal counsel; Steve Reynolds, legal counsel; and George White, Frontenac Ventures Incorporated. TAKE notice that:The negotiation currently being conducted by the above parties or their representatives are illegal because they exclude the Haudenosaunee who are the legal owners and protectors of the land concerned. We accordingly inform the above parties that:
WE, THE KAHTIHON’TIA:KWENIO MAKE THIS NOTICE OF OBJECTION PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN US ACCORDING TO HAUDENOSAUNEE LAW AND TRADITION AS SET OUT IN WAMPUM 44 OF THE KAIANEREH’KO:WA, THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE, WHICH IS THE CONSTITUTION OF THE HAUDENOSAUNEE. WHEREAS: 1.The Haudenosaunee [also known as Five Nations or Six Nations] are a sovereign state that never ceded any of our territory to any alien interests, be it Ongwehonwe or non-Ongwehonwe, colonial or corporate. 2.Haudenosaunee law, accords no authority to anyone to pollute, alienate or destroy any of the land that falls under our care or protection.3.CANADA'S historical record contains no legitimate treaties, instruments or agreements that purport to transfer any land or sovereign authority from the Haudenosaunee to either BRITAIN or CANADA. 4. In September 1700 Governor Callieres and his Indian allies, including the Hurons (Wendat or Wyendot) and the Algonquins, negotiated for peace with the Haudenosaunee ceding land in exchange for prisoners.5.The land in question included the Ardoc and Sharbot Lake territory currently the subject of negotiations.6.Under Haudenosaunee law, the Kahtihon’tia:kwenio are the caretakers of the land, water and air of Onowaregeh, Turtle Island; 7.The Kahtihon’tia:kwenio are the trustees of the land and have the duty to uphold the law and to protect our land for the future generations; 8.The Haudenosaunee have affirmed the trusteeship of the Kahtihon’tia:kwenio over all the lands of the Huron [Wyandot] Nation including the area south of the Ottawa River, presently occupied by the “Algonquins”.
Whereas, Haudenosaunee relations with the Algonquin are governed by the following considerations:9.The Algonquins are allies of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, but they have never been adopted into or agreed to become part of the Haudenosaunee. 10.The Haudenosaunee have never authorized the Algonquins to negotiate or act as agents on their behalf.
Whereas, Haudenosaunee relations with BRITAIN are governed by the following considerations:11.The British are allies of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, but they have never been adopted into or agreed to become a part of the Haudenosaunee. 12.The Haudenosuanee have never authorized the British to negotiate or act as agents on behalf of the Haudenosaunee.13.The relationship between the Haudenosaunee and BRITAIN is nation to nation. The English monarch does not and never had any right to any of our land or to anything either above and below the surface of our land.
Whereas, Haudenosaunee relations with CANADA are governed by the following considerations:14.As an instrument of the British monarchy, CANADA remains subject to the terms and conditions of any agreements with the Haudenosaunee entered into by the British Crown. 15.As a successor state of BRITAIN, CANADA and its province of ONTARIO remain subject to all of Britain’s obligations and their rights and authority do not exceed those held by BRITAIN.16.CANADA has never negotiated an independent alliance with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and it has never been adopted into or agreed to become a part of the Haudenosaunee.17.The Haudenosaunee have never authorized ONTARIO, CANADA, BRITAIN or any other colonial entity to negotiate or act as an agent or agents on behalf of the Haudenosaunee.18. Canada’s laws are subservient to BRITAIN. The law of Onowaregeh continues to be the Kaianereh’ko:wa.
Whereas, International Law is governed by the following considerations:19.All members of the human family have equal and inalienable rights.20.No international differences shall be settled by the use of force.21..No state shall absorb another without the fully informed consent of the people concerned as determined in free and fair elections or decision making processes.22.As a founding member of the UNITED NATIONS, CANADA has agreed to uphold these principles.23.The Haudenosaunee have never consented to become part of the Canadian state and it is notoriously known that CANADA’s forced assumption of authority over our land is not based on any treaty, instrument or agreement. Whereas, the negotiations concerning the use of the lands south of the Ottawa River around Ardoc and Sharbot Lake are violating the principles that should govern a free and democratic society because:24.They fail to acknowledge the authority of the law of the Haudenosaunee confederacy25.They are being conducted without the informed consent of anyone concerned including the Haudenosaunee people, the Algonquin and colonial settler residents of the area, and the citizens represented by the settler governments who are incurring liabilities on their behalf. Whereas, the uranium mining, arms testing and other business projects that are being condoned by the colonial governments are illegal and are risking the health and survival of ALL future generations: IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE LEGAL RIGHTS AND PHYSICAL INTEGRITY OF OUR COMING GENERATIONS, WE, THE KOHTIHON’TIA:KWENIO, AS MEMBERS OF THE ROTINO’SHONNI:ONWE ACCORDINGLY DEMAND THE FOLLOWING: i)An immediate stop to all discussions and negotiations concerning the use and disposition of the lands under our protection as conducted by CANADA, ONTARIO, people who claim to represent the Algonquin people, FRONTENAC VENTURES and all unauthorized parties. ii)The immediate cessation of all operations concerned with arms testing, the development of uranium or other mining and any other ventures that had not been authorized by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. iii)Reparation of all land that has been used, abused, mined, cultivated and otherwise ravaged so it may be turned to a healthy and natural state capable of sustaining life for the generations to come. iv)An announcement by CANADA and ONTARIO confirming their commitment to uphold international law, confirming their recognition of Haudenosaunee sovereignty and acknowledging the illegality of all treaties, licenses, agreements or contracts that have been made without our consent concerning land under our protection. v)QUEEN ELIZABETH II must cease her exploitation of our land and resources through her corporations and franchises known as “Canada”, “U.S.”, provinces and states, particularly the effort to extract the uranium which lies beneath Haudenosaunee land at Ardoc and Sharbot Lake. KOHTIHON’TIA:KWENIO of the Kanion’ke:haka of the Rotino’shonni:onwe, hereby sign on this 15th day of January 2008: Katenies /s/ ____________________Kahentinetha /s/ _____________________ Contact: P.O. Box 991 , Kahnawake of Mohawk Territory [ Quebec , Canada ] J0L 1B0 Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com katenies20@yahoo.com Attached: “ Mohawk Manifesto ” Sent to: QUEEN ELIZABETH II, Buckingham Palace, LONDON UK; M. MICHAELLE JEAN, Governor General of CANADA, 1 Rideau Hall, OTTAWA, ONTARIO info@gg.ca; Hon. STEPHEN HARPER, PRIME MINISTER, CANADA, House of Commons, OTTAWA, ONTARIO harper.s@parl.gc.ca; Hon. DALTON McGUINTY, PREMIER, ONTARIO, Queen’s park, TORONTO, ONTARIO; Robert Lovelace, 1294 James Wilson Road, R.R. #1, Hardington, ONTARIO K0H 1W0 613-532-2166; Chief Doreen Davis, 3102-RR #2, Sharbot Lake, ONTARIO K0H 2P0 chiefdoreen@aol.com: ONTARIO MINISTRY of NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT & MINES, Whitney Block, Room 5630, 99 Wellesley West, TORONTO M7A 1W3; RICHARD MOORE, MDR Associates, 201-280 Albert St., OTTAWA, ONTARIO K1P 5b8 613-230-8671; CHRISTOPHER M. REID, 154 Monarch Park Ave., TORONTO ONTARIO M4J 4R6 lawreid@aol.com; STEVE REYNOLDS, 18 Byward Market Square, OTTAWA, ONTARIO K1N 7A1, 613-244-4488 stevereynolds@rogers.com. See Category: “ Sharbot Lake ”

In Texas, Bush legacy sours

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

SOUTH TEXAS -- South Texans woke up to dismal skies this morning, as the rain was falling and the news came that the US filed suit Monday to seize the first of 102 private lands of people and city governments to build the US Apartheid Border Wall between Texas and Mexico.

The Berlin Wall has come down, and the Apartheid Wall between Palestine and Israel is a place of constant violence, conflict and death.

The United States, however, will seize private lands to build the border wall, going against its longstanding claims to be the world's champion in the fight against racism and apartheid.

The people of South Texans are ready to fight, in court and in the world's media. As people here say, migrants can always go under, over or around a border wall.

Lipan Apache like Eloise Garcia Tamez are refusing to allow surveyors on their land. On Monday, the US filed the first lawsuit against land owners, against the City of Eagle Pass, to seize lands for the border wall. There are 102 landowners in Texas, Arizona and California refusing to turn over their private lands.

Jumano Apache Enrique Madrid points out in Redford, Texas, where a young goat herder was murdered by a US Marine, this is not just a wall that the U.S. is building. It is a militarized zone.

Soldiers and border agents shoot to kill. While US soldiers and border agents rape and kill people walking across these lands, the news media is silent.

While National Guardsmen, Airforce pilots, a police officer and prison guard are sentenced to prison in Arizona for smuggling cocaine from the border, as exposed by the FBI's Operation Lively Green, the news media is silent. So many National Guardsmen wanted to smuggle drugs that the sting operation was halted.

In the end, the fragments of border wall under construction across the Southwest -- which can't even be built in the rugged mountains and canyons -- will prove only to be a source of profit to those benefiting from television news' migrant xenophobia and the Bush-friendly corporations seizing contracts.

In the end, whether formally convicted or not, President Bush will be remembered as a war criminal, whose administration promoted torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Bush will be remembered for torture in secret prisons and the US will be remembered by the world for the terrorism it has induced.

In Texas, where Bush likes to claim he is a real Texan, he will be remembered as the president who filed lawsuits to seize private lands to build the US Apartheid Border Wall and opened the floodgates to a militarized zone of violence.

Photo: San Antonio's River Walk/Brenda Norrell

Responses to 'Bones of Contention' in LA Times


NAGPRA: Responses to 'Bones of Contention' in LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bones13jan13,1,1281929.story

From Jon D. Daehnke to LA Times:
"First, thank you for your article and for bringing this issue to the attention of people in Southern California. I think that the article is overall an excellent report of the primary issues. There is, however, an error in the article relating to the status of non-recognized tribes. The article seems to insinuate that ancestral remains cannot be repatriated to non-recognized tribes. This is incorrect. There is absolutely nothing in NAGPRA that precludes the repatriation of human remains or cultural objects to non-recognized tribes and in fact repatriation to non-recognized tribes has occurred across the nation (and has been applauded by the National NAGPRA Review Committee)
Read letter:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/01/nagpra-and-bones-of-contention.html
PHOTO: A protest was held last fall at the University of California, Berkeley, over the school's storage of tribal remains. (Robert Durell/Los Angeles Times/file)

January 13, 2008

A Texas Divided


A Texas Divided Will Be Broken In Two
South Texas Residents Are Struggling, Together, Like Never Before, to Stop the Border Wall and Militarization Being Imposed from Up North
By Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Inside the Checkpoints: Commentary from the Rió Grande
January 13, 2008o
Narco News
Excerpt:
"Not only is South Texas the poorest and most neglected and most Hispanic region of the entire State, it is the poorest and most neglected and most Hispanic region of the entire United States of America. And because of this, prosperous central and northern Texas shuns South Texas and deprives it of the prosperity and affluence enjoyed by the rest of the state. Many parts of “anti-immigrant” central and northern Texas, like Farmers Branch, Irving and Georgetown, are cities that are legendarily racist-supremacist strongholds that today profile any person that doesn’t look “Texan.” Meanwhile, South Texas has to contend with military checkpoints, the doubling of the militarized forces and now the threat of the construction of a Berlin-like border wall.
Even more sinister is an apparent assault on South Texas by northern and central Texas. Here is a recent list of just some of the corporations and institutions, many of which are Texas based companies, that are receiving federal tax dollars to vilify and victimize the part of the state they consider least desirable and that have entered into contracts related to the building of the border wall and the militarization of the Texas-Mexico border.
Lockheed MartinTexas Division of Raytheon (Network Centric Systems)L-3 Communications (Integrated Systems)Northrup Grumman (Los Angeles, CA)BAE Systems (Austin, TX)SAIC of San DiegoComputer Sciences Corp of El Segundo, CAAmerica’s Border Security Group (Ericcson Inc., Plano, TX) (NASDAQ:ERICY)Fluor Corporation (NYSEL:FLR)SYColeman Corporation (A Division of LC Communications)MTC TechnologiesCAMBER CorporationAEP Networks, Inc.Texas A&M UniversityUniversity of Texas (Austin)Boeing (Seattle, WA; Secure Border Initiative/SBInet-“Project 28”)Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton)Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) major partnersUnited Kingdom Home Office
A border wall must be built in order for all of these corporations and entities to receive the billions of dollars of funding. The Texas companies of central and northern Texas are positioned to exploit their fellow Texans along the border, ravage their environment and friendship. Already, they have craftily begun to destroy the border economy with all the confusion over identification and delays at the ports of entry. Mock Environmental Impact Studies are being done by the Texas firm, AEP Networks. Even universities in central Texas are complicit in the betrayal of the Texas border community.
There is one thing that the ruling elite did not count on, however. They did not factor in that the freedoms of speech, assembly, press and worship are still alive and healthy along the Texas-Mexico border. Using all the tenets of democracy, border residents are unifying their voices and saying, “Hell no! No Border Wall!” Rallies, protests and marches have been ongoing since the passage of the Secure Fence Act in October of 2006. This opposition is a historical display of solidarity. Environmentalists, economists, pro-immigration, farm workers, university students and faculty alike, historians, elected officials, human rights activists, indigenous rights activists, faith based groups, tourism experts, law enforcement agents, property owners, and grass roots of all sorts have all united their voices and resources to oppose the border wall.

Read article at:
Photo: Border wall in California by Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.