Leonard Peltier Statement to US Social Forum Detroit

LEONARD PELTIER: STATEMENT FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY U.S. SOCIAL FORUM-DETROIT

By Leonard Peltier. This appeared Censored News Page 2, the sister site to Censored News.

Welcome to the traditional lands of my people, the Anishinabe. Greetings, my brothers and sisters. Greetings also to my relations from the many different Indigenous Nations who now call this place “Home”. Thank you for your warm welcome.

Hello to all the people of conscience in attendance at the US Social Forum. Thank you for taking the time and expense to attend an event that people will talk about for years to come. I know if you focus and believe, this event can be a major step in the development of a new society­one that turns away from fossil fuels, war and the rampant destruction of our universal home and, instead, focuses on the betterment of all… as opposed to the enrichment of a select few.

I ask that you work this week, in particular, toward full recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as an essential component of a just and honorable U.S. human rights policy. As many of you may know, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was developed over many years with the participation of thousands of Indigenous Peoples. It is consistent with human rights principles as contained in international law, as well as the U.S. Constitution. And, yet, two nations with the largest Indigenous populations­Canada and the United States­have failed to endorse the Declaration. We call upon the United States government to finally endorse the Declaration in its entirety­without qualifications or exceptions­and to work in full partnership with Indigenous Peoples, Tribal governments and Nations to ensure its implementation.

FSIN Chief Wants an Oka-Style Revolution

By Andrew Matte, Windspeaker Contributor, REGINA. This appeared on the site of The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society.

First Nations leaders from across Saskatchewan took turns slamming non-Native governments during the two-day spring assembly of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

Among top complaints from chiefs, federation senators and other leaders were Saskatchewan’s plan to reduce the number of cigarettes that can be purchased tax-free on First Nations, as well as what leaders complained was a lack of consultation from governments with First Nations in the province.

Other issues, including the treatment of First Nations children placed in foster care, gang violence, funding for First Nation initiatives and rural Saskatchewan roads were included in dozens of speeches made during the assembly held in Regina on June 9 and 10.

The strongest words came from Gordon First Nation Chief Glen Pratt, who slammed the province over its duty to consult, an obligation that springs from Supreme Court of Canada decisions that have ruled that government must consult First Nations whenever decisions are made that affect treaty and territorial rights.

Pratt urged chiefs and other leaders to participate in civil disobedience and other non-traditional means of settling disputes, rather than go to the courts to argue their cases.

“Let’s create another Oka to deal with this problem once and for all. The existing process isn’t working. This will get us the results we want … Unless we join together and create uncertainty, then we’re not going to be dealt with in a timely manner,” Pratt said to applause from the crowd. “It’s time to slap back.

“Legal action comes second. Taking political action comes first. We need to teach our young people how to take a stand.” (Pratt was critical of the province for too often leaving out Aboriginal peoples whenever it makes economic plans.

“It is the goal of the province of Saskatchewan to keep us out of the economic development of this province,” Pratt said.

“This is like economic oppression,” he said.

Pratt also urged First Nations leaders to renegotiate deals with the province and developers because the real estate boom in recent years has made all land more valuable. He said land where developers are seeking natural resources is particularly valuable.

“The land is worth 10 to 20 times what it used to be worth,” he said. “The value of land has increased … They’re auctioning off our mineral resources, and they are taking bids from big industrial players from other countries.”

Outside Makeshift Prison:”For Us Native People this is What We Know, this is Canada”

By Megan Kinch. This appeared on the site of the Toronto Media Co-Op, a project of the Dominion News Cooperative.

Jail solidarity has been going on all day despite vicious repression. After the first wave was violently dispersed, a second wave arrived at about 11 AM. 20 to 30 people stood outside the prison, chanting “sol sol sol, solidarity” as riot cops assembled across the street. In the crowd was a Native woman named Ray  she asked me if I knew anyone inside.  I told her that several friends were there, and included Journalist Ben Powless from 6 Nations, who had been arrested in the mass arrests at the Novotel. She  pointed at the assembled riot police and told me:

“This reminds me of a Reservation.”  Ray said “this cement and wire cage there it represents the invisible cage that are Reserves. These cops give protection to the government not to the people. If thier is any indigenous person thats on a reserve, if any speaks up they kill them just like Dudely George.  Any reserve is a prison. Indian affairs have made us prisoners in our own country.”

 ”This is real life, this is the real Canada. This happens happesn everyday but now you can see it. this is g20 freedom of speech. For us, Native people this is what we know. This is Canada.

Whatever they do to native people they will eventually do to everybody else in this country.  Canada, the US,  any citizen in the world you are under siege from the new world order in action right here.”

“We were put down, killed, genocide from day one when they made Canada. Before that, in 1820, and when they first came here with blankets and diseases. Residential schools killed our children, thousands dead, I’m a product of residental schools myself. They will kill you for no reason- that what they’ve done to our people espeically our women. The government killed of thousands and thousands of our people and buried them with no graves.

Indigenous Peoples at US Social Forum: Halting the Legacy of Genocide

By Brenda Norrell

DETROIT — Speaking out on environmental genocide, Indigenous Peoples describe the legacy of death and destruction from mining, power plants, toxic dumping and the nuclear industry, at the US Social Forum in Detroit. Indigenous Peoples are consulting and strategizing on energy and climate change, immigration, poverty, treaty rights, sacred sites, cultural preservation, and de-militarization.

Broadcast live on Earthcycles, Navajo Leona Morgan describes how new uranium mining targets Navajos living in Church Rock, N.M., where the nation’s deadliest radioactive spill occurred in 1979. In June of 2010, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Hydro Resources Inc. of Texas, which if it proceeds, will poison the water supply of Navajos with new in-situ uranium mining, by drilling on land alongside Navajo land.

The Tewa Women United, on Earthcycles live, describe how the nuclear industry and Los Alamos National Laboratories have exposed Pueblos to generations of death and disease in northern New Mexico. Open air burning, burial of nuclear waste and detonations have poisoned the land, air and water for today’s Pueblos and future generations.

Beata Tsosie Pena of Santa Clara Pueblo said, “We live in the desert and our water supply is very precious to us. Water is our life. I’m scared for my children. I’m scared for my grandchildren. I’m sacred for my elders.”

Welcome to KKKanada

Day 4 of the G20 and rebellions. The Indigenous Sovereignty March was the biggest one yet, with over a thousand people braving the Toronto heat to show solidarity with Native folks. It was inspiring to see so many settlers coming out to support this action.

Indigenous Activists Protest G8/G20 Meetings in Toronto

On Thursday, indigenous groups in Toronto held a demonstration to protest the G8 and G20 meetings. Franklin López and Dawn Paley of the Vancouver Media Co-op file a report from the streets.

From Wet’suwet’en Country to Toronto

Indigenous people sacrifice to struggle for life and land, demand accountability from environmental groups. This first appeared on the website the Vancouver Media Co-op, a project of the The Dominion News Cooperative.

Instead of taking his one year old son fishing and berry picking this weekend, Mel Bazil has come to Toronto to join the rising chorus of dissent against the G20.

“I’m spending time away from my laws, opposing this,” said Bazil, a member of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. “I shouldn’t have to be here.”

Bazil and his people are fighting to uphold their laws and keep their lands free from a series of proposed oil pipelines, which would carry tar sands crude to the B.C. coast. Wet’suwet’en lands, which were never ceded to the British or to the Canadian government, span 22,000 square kilometers in central British Columbia.

Today, Bazil joined with hundreds of people as they took a “Toxic Tour” through the streets of Toronto. Led by grassroots organizers, marchers joined to demand an end to false solutions to the climate and environmental crises.

Notably absent from the rally was Greenpeace, which has come under fire for the recently announced Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. Negotiated in secret, the agreement between nine environmental organizations and 21 forestry companies, the CBFA has added another burden on Indigenous people who are organizing to defend their land.

From Ski Hills to the Summit: Indigenous Activists Challenge Canada’s Claims to Traditional Lands

A demonstration in solidarity with Grassy Narrows in Toronto. Defenders of the Land, a network of communities that includes Grassy Narrows, is calling for a nationwide day of action to “Tell the world the truth about Canada’s record on Indigenous rights” on June 24.

By Dawn Paley. This appeared on The Dominion News Cooperative.  

VANCOUVER—“Recovery and New Beginnings” is the slogan Canada will be pushing at the G20 summit in Toronto, but for many Indigenous people, what’s going on inside the meeting represents more of the same.  

Activists like Arthur Manuel of the Secwepemc Nation think the impacts of a Canada-hosted summit are clear.  

“The G8/G20 impacts Indigenous people because Canada, who’s hosting the session, is actually claiming they have 100 per cent exclusive power, jurisdiction, authority over Aboriginal and treaty territories, and that’s totally wrong,” he said.  

Manuel and others will be working to ensure that the illegitimacy of the G20, and the Canadian government’s ongoing denial of Indigenous sovereignty, take centre stage during the meetings.

IEN: Demand Environmental & Climate Justice Now!

The Music of Quese IMC

Quese IMC – the East LA based MC by way of Oklahoma and of Pawnee/Seminole descent, has been working in the trenches of the LA Hip Hop Underground scene for some years now and after a few releases that have taken him several times across the nation and back, through barrios, reservations, casinos, political demonstrations and marches, Quese IMC in collaboration with DJ Shock B, just dropped their newest release titled “Bluelight”. Quese IMC along with brother Brian Frejo (DJ Shock B) form Culture Shock Camp, an all-Native Hip Hop group and was named “one of the most celebrated hip-hop groups in the Native American world” by The Source Magazine

Mouse

Them Country Roads

Salt Lake City Protest Slams Attempts to Bring Racist SB1070 to Utah

By Chris Manor, writing for Fight Back! News, the news service of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (Marxist-Leninist).

Taylorsville Park protest against right-wing Patrick Henry Caucus

Salt Lake City, UT – Taylorsville Park became the site of heated exchange between the right-wing Patrick Henry Caucus picnic and a wide coalition of progressive organizations protesting them, June 4. Gregory Lucero from the Revolutionary Students Union coordinated the protest along with the Autonomous Brown Berets of Salt Lake City. They targeted the Patrick Henry Caucus because it supports bringing the Arizona apartheid immigration bill SB1070 to Utah.

The Patrick Henry Caucus is a far-right branch of the Republican Party, which supports cutting all social welfare programs, militarizing the border and supporting bills which allow for the checking of immigration status for ‘reasonable suspicion.’

Representative Carl Wimmer who supports the Patrick Henry Caucus said, “Illegal is a status, not a race. The Patrick Henry Caucus, in no way, shape or form, supports racial profiling.” Gregory Lucero disagreed stating, “There’s no objective criteria by which you could determine or have reasonable suspicion of someone being illegal. In this case, the only criteria that could be used would be coincidental criteria like skin color or voice or accent, which have no legal bearing whatsoever.”

Thanks to the Zapatistas

By Hermann Bellinghausen, originally published in Spanish in La Jornada, May 2010. This translated version appeared on The Narcosphere.

On the Border: News Reporters are Now Enemies of Truth

By Brenda Norrell. This appeared on The Narcosphere.

People who live along the border have a new online patrol. We are all now scouts on the lookout for the news reporters, television crews and filmmakers who come to the US/Mexico border to promote themselves and tell the same old worn out story about drug running along the border.

The underlying theme of their stories is always the same: White people are good and brown people are bad.

If the news reporter is really pumped up by border hysteria, they like to include Native Americans, including Tohono O’odham and Mohawks, into their US flag-waving articles, like this one:http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/17/2023723/indian-reservations-on-both-us.html

These news reporters always leave out this vital fact: The narcotics pipeline exists because of the demand for illegal drugs in the US.

News reporters certainly don’t want to investigate the fact that the most notorious killers, now running the drug war in Mexico, the Zetas, were trained by US Special Forces.

These same news reporters don’t like to report that US soldiers have been heavily involved in running drugs. The FBI had to shut down the sting operation, Operation Lively Green, because so many US soldiers wanted to run cocaine from Nogales to Phoenix. After arresting Army recruiters in high schools, Airforce soldiers, a prison guard and a Nogales police officer, the FBI halted the sting operation. No doubt the soldiers are still running drugs, without being arrested.

There have been no probes made public as to whether the unmanned US drones, in the US and Afghanistan, are now being used to transport US drugs, in the same manner that body bags were used by the US during the Vietnam war.

Manifest Destiny to Manifest Insanity

From Mohawk Nation News.

MNN. June 14, 2010. Arizona’s image is taking a well-deserved beating over its racial profiling and Indigenous history censoring laws. A dozen other states and Washington want to copy it. Obama sees migration as a law enforcement and military matter. MNN digests Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez great article, “Manifest Destiny to Manifest Insanity” [xColumn@gmail.com]:

Politicians and hate-radio are fueling fear of ‘Mexicans” and “immigrants”, who are Indigenous. The American myth of a pristine, God-given home, reserved for English-speaking White Anglo Saxon Protestants, amid the re-“browning” of Great Turtle Island must be pursued.

The goals are white racial political and cultural dominance over [brown] peoples, on top of lies about the conquest. The recent deaths of some 5,000 ‘Mexicans’ and ‘Central American” Indigenous peoples in the desert, and the killings of 2 “Mexicans” are overlooked.

Racial browning reverses Western colonial Civilization. [The white race invaded us to “squat” and “suck” – to occupy our land and to suck our resources].

Rodolfo Acuña’s ‘Occupied America’ and Paulo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ have been banned under Law HB 2281 signed in April by Gov. Jan Brewer. She also signed SB 1070 the racial profiling law in May 2010.

Protesting Algonquins Joined in Ottawa by Supporters

By the Barrie Lake Solidarity Collective.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Barriere Lake Algonquins protest Conservative government’s attempt to assimilate their traditional political governance system: Political parties, major unions, Indigenous groups call for respect for community’s Inherent rights

Ottawa, traditional Algonquin territory, June 15, 2010/ – A broad network of political parties, unions, human rights and Indigenous organizations are rallying today with the Barriere Lake Algonquins in Ottawa at 11:30 am, in front of Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl’s office at Bank and Wellington, demanding that the Government of Canada stop attempting to assimilate the community’s traditional political governance system.

Barriere Lake is one of the few First Nations in the country that have never been under the Indian Act’s electoral system, continuing to operate under a traditional political governance system that is connected to their use of the land. Despite there being a broad community consensus opposing Indian Act elections, Indian Affairs has announced they will try to impose them on August 19, 2010.

“Community members refuse to accept this unilateral and draconian attempt to wipe out the way we govern ourselves. The government is attacking our governance system because it is intimately tied to our continuing use and protection of the land. We will defend our rights and customs for the sake of our generation and the generations to come,” says Tony Wawatie, a Barriere Lake community spokesperson.