TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE

MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY: WHY I AM A NATIVE CANDIDATE FOR THE RICHMOND CA. COUNCIL CITY FOR NOVEMBER 2012: IGNITING THE NATIVE REVOLUTION

2011-12-29T02:38:00.000-08:00

THE NATIVE VOTE FOR 2012: IGNITING THE NATIVE REVOLUTION IN THE RISE TO POWER!
By Mike Raccoon Eyes-Native Advocate Candidate

THE NATIVE VOTE FOR 2012: IGNITING THE NATIVE REVOLUTION IN THE RISE TO POWER!

By Mike Raccoon Eyes-Native Advocate and Candidate for Richmond CA. City Council 2012

I am a Native Advocate for Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country and many people have asked me why I am running as a Native Candidate for the Richmond City Council in Richmond California in November 2012.

I tell mainstream people this:"We Native People have waited for change. A change from being left out. A change for standing in the background. We have waited too long to say something. YES, WE HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH. Something must and will be done soon! "

The mindset of mainstream America is vastly different from the mindset of Native Peoples,Americans seem to have forgotten Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Washita and other numerous sites of racial extermination against entire Native populations. Indian Country's historical trauma is at the heart of it, when we as Native People have unresolved grief about this type of violence and death that involved the use of ethnic cleansing.

According Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, Ph.D. " Five hundred years of conquest death cultural deprivation, and mistreatment have left North American native populations with unresolved grief about their history, which must be openly discussed if it is going to be resolved." Medical anthropologist Spero Manson, Ph.D.,: " What Native people living today experience counts more than what happened to their ancestors. Trauma is also associated with risk for and high rates of onset and poor control of diabetes, asthma,and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."

I have stated in the media and town hall meetings through out Indian Country: " We have to learn how to reprogram ourselves as Indian individuals from a spiritual place. When you understand how Historical Trauma has handicapped and destroyed us mentally, psychologically and emotionally, then we can be better prepared to embrace the empowerment of our both Native Political and Spirituality empowerment and in turn the power of Spiritual transformation.

Indian Country has been and is still entrenched in an appalling culture of cycles of poverty, hopelessness and violence. In rural and urban Indian Country conditions have not improved for the past 100 years. People face daily starvation, with a back drop of high unemployment or no jobs. Drug and alcohol addictions and domestic violence is out of control. Illiteracy and high school drop outs exceeds the national average. Hunger and malnutrition is common place.

This is how it always has been in rural and urban Indian Country for the past 180 years to the present! A violent time bomb ready to explode! The factors of historic poverty and the issues of Native sovereignty has always been a keg of dynamite that was then and still is ready to blow Indian Country. WE NOW KNOW INDIAN COUNTRY IT IS TIME TO RISE TO POWER!

The political and spiritual objectives for Indian individuals and families is to try to do everything a little better tomorrow than it was today. Continuous improvement is the path to a higher standard of spiritual leadership for today's issues in Indian Country. We need to acknowledge that attachments such as power, privilege and material possessions can make it difficult to maintain high moral and spiritual standards for Native people.

By the same token, personal observations and a spiritual commitment to the truth, will lead us to see things as they really are and to understand the true needs of Indian Country people. We must be able to spiritually feel our Indian communities, not just intellectualize the needs of our People.

When we as a Political and Spiritual Native peoples stand up for what you believe is right, you must have the spiritual courage to acknowledge your actions and face the consequences. With spiritual courage, Native people can win political battles for their communities, but it takes a spiritual will to win the war. It is the both the political and spiritual moral and values of the Native community that gives us the confidence to overcome the barriers for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country. We must politically and spiritually strive to serve Indian Country. It will increase our bonds with our People and move us forth as individuals, and challenge us to reach higher standards that will help place us in step with the times.

"WE MUST ASK OURSELVES FROM BOTH A POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL PLACE, WHAT IS INDIAN COUNTRY WILLING TO DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL?"

Each of us in Indian Country must have a spiritual commitment to live by, a standard code of spiritual conduct. For if we do, our Native and non-Native leaders will have to follow. Each one of us in Indian Country is setting a spiritual example for someone else, and each one of us has a spiritual responsibility to shape the future of our families and communities.I hear people in Indian Country say that poverty and unemployment, lack of education, alcohol, drugs and violence are killing off our Native People. These issues are all valid, but I believe the underlying issue is the loss of our Spirituality, our Traditional way of life and our self-esteem. Our Spirituality, self-esteem and commitment to ourselves, to our Tribes and Indian Country can empower us to overcome the obstacles that so many of us face.

At one time, our Nations were strong with our ceremonies, dances, prayers, songs and medicines. We must now recapture and use the forms of spiritual power that the Creator has given us since Sacred Time, Creation Time, First Man and First Woman Time, if we are to survive as Native People.We will regain our spiritual strength and power, our pride and dignity and use it to start healing families, our communities, along with Earth Mother and ourselves.

We must learn to be proud of our rich Native heritage and culture, our Spirituality and knowledge. We should no longer be ashamed of it. As Native People, our one common bond is our direct connection to the Great Creator of All Things.

Our Native medicines, our Sacred and Holy power centers and sites, our spiritual forms of knowledge are now ready to be used. We should use these things with sincerity and respect.

We must try harder as Native People to make a real Spiritual commitment to re-connect with Creator, our Ancestors, the earth Mother and each other as Native People.

And from this point, we become the political and spiritual change we wish to see in Creator's World!

We believe that Creator made all generations, past, present and those of the future, holy people. This is what our Elders teach us from the time we are born. Our families and Elders teach our young people that they must tear away the images and stereotypes that mainstream society has placed upon them as Native peoples. Violence and killing is not traditional in Native culture, it is a learned behavior from mainstream society.

We teach our youths not to attack, punish or beat themselves up for crimes that they have never committed in regards to racism. Our Elders and families teach our young people to have good self-esteem, self-worth and self-value, for as the original holy people this was Creators plan.

" THE NATIVE VOTE EQUATES NATIVE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO GIVE US REPRESENTATION IN A RACIST, COLONIAL MAINSTREAM SOCIETY "

Among the most difficult civil rights issues are those facing Indian Country's 10 million Native Americans. Federally recognized tribes are considered domestic dependent nations, with their rights to tribal sovereignty preserved. Tribal sovereignty refers to tribes' right to govern themselves, define their own membership, manage tribal property, and regulate tribal business and domestic relations; it further recognizes the existence of a government-to-government relationship between such tribes and the federal government. The federal government has special trust obligations to protect tribal lands and resources, protect tribal rights to self-government, and provide services necessary for tribal survival and advancement. The fight to preserve tribal sovereignty and treaty rights has long been at the forefront of the Native American civil rights movement.Moreover, Native Americans suffer from many of the same social and economic problems as other victims of long-term bias and discrimination - including, for example, disproportionately high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates. The struggle for equal employment and educational opportunity is key to addressing these problems that historically plague Indian Country.

WE NOW KNOW INDIAN COUNTRY IT IS TIME TO RISE TO POWER! We know as Native People can no longer afford to go along to get along!

The Native vote equates Native elected officials rebuild Native community by community and person by person, and Indian Country as a whole.I can't tell you how many everyday people that I've talked with who've visited Indian Country, and they've looked around and they saw all the social indicators of decline: high infant mortality, high unemployment, many other very serious problems among our People, and they always ask, " What happened to these people? Why do Native People have all these problems?"

To be blunt, many Native Peoples view the current United States government as a racist, colonial, illegal foreign government that is occupying our many Native Nations and could a dam less about us!

Five hundred years of conquest, death, cultural deprivation, and mistreatment have left North American Native populations with unresolved grief about our history.The racist, colonial policies of the United States government views as a so-called 'conquered people', oppression and repression of our God given Human and Civil Rights as First Nation Peoples and mass extermination,ethnic cleansing and racial genocide.

Native people know that with the emergence of many Native elected officials in 2012 that is the beginning of the prophecies of when Indigenous Native People are in CONTROL of the three America again within the next 25 years or less!

As I state on mainstream media and town hall meetings through out Indian Country, I make the following statement:

" AS A SPIRIT MAN I SAY THIS: CREATOR'S WORLD RENEWAL CYCLE SHALL START SOON! THE RED MAN SHALL RISE TO POWER SOON! WE AS NATIVE PEOPLE SHALL BE IN CONTROL OF THE AMERICAS AGAIN! BE READY! LEARN YOUR PRAYERS! LEARN YOUR SONGS! LEARN YOUR DANCES! BE READY! THE RED MAN SHALL RISE TO POWER AND BE IN CONTROL OF THE AMERICAS!"

Mike Raccoon Eyes is of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, out of Quallah, North Carolina. He has been a Native Advocate for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country for the past 25 years. He is the San Francisco Bay Area delegate for the Inter-Tribal Council of California. He is a writer and author on traditional and contemporary issues of Indian Country, as well gives inspirational motivational talks about the spiritual empowerment of Native Peoples. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a Native Candidate for the Richmond City Council in Richmond CA in 2012

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY'S NEW BLUES CD RELEASE PARTY! "THE RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES "

2011-08-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER-CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD: ' RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES '
INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD
CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 'THE FIRST LADY OF ABORIGINAL BLUES', proudly announces the release of new CD album:

'Claudette Phoenix Swampy: THE RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES 'The CD release music industry showcase with Claudette performing LIVE will be held at:
THE GAS PUMP
10166-114thst St.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

September 9th, 2011-VIP doors open at 8pm

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 2012 JUNO NOMINEE FOR ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

For more information contact:
Mike Raccoon Eyes @ ghostdancer1890@hotmail.com

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER-CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD: ' RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES '

2011-08-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES SINGER CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY RELEASES NEW CD
CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 'THE FIRST LADY OF ABORIGINAL BLUES', proudly announces the realease of new CD album:

'Claudette Phoenix Swampy: THE RETURN TO THE NEW BLUES 'The CD release music industry showcase with Claudette performing LIVE will be held at:
THE GAS PUMP
10166-114thst St.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

September 9th, 2011-VIP doors open at 8pm

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY- 2012 JUNO NOMINEE FOR ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

For more information contact:
Mike Raccoon Eyes @ ghostdancer1890@hotmail.com

NATIVE BLUES VOCALIST CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY SING THE BLUES CLASSIC OF ELMORE JAMES;' COMIN' HOME'

2011-07-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

' A PERSPECTIVE OF CHEROKEE RESISTANCE, OCCUPATION, SELF-DEFENSE AND SOVEREIGNITY '

2011-07-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

' A PERSPECTIVE OF CHEROKEE RESISTANCE, OCCUPATION, SELF-DEFENSE AND SOVEREIGNTY '

By Mike Raccoon Eyes Kinney

As a Cherokee Native Advocate and a writer about Indian Country for many years, I have many grave concerns about Human and Civil Rights abuses of both the Canadian and United States governments, that are direct violation nations and international accords that both countries have signed in regards to First Nations Indigenous Peoples.

I have written and lectured extensively about the 'New Indian Wars', this essay is a close examination of Cherokee Resistance and Self-Defense.

Rolling Thunder, a Cherokee Doctor and activist, once stated: " I am NOT good material to be dictated to by any white man as to what I can do and where I can go on MY LAND!"

In the the 1830's then United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Jon Marshall, ruled the Cherokee were a sovereign nation. The had offered a brilliant legal defense in the issue of sovereignty. As Clyde Warrior once noted; The Cherokees...are a very legal-minded people. They want to try everything that is right and proper. Because they believe that if they do everything that is legal and proper that justice will prevail."(1) As was the the case of Cherokee sovereignty in the 1830's as an example.

Warrior made this comment in 1966, resulting in a trial of full-blood Cherokee man named John Chewie. Who was to stand trial ay a county courthouse in Jay,Oklahoma for charges of 'illegally hunting deer on traditional Cherokee land held in trust by the federal government by Oklahoma state authorities.

While the trial was starting 400 full-blood Cherokee men armed with hunting rifles, shotguns and hand pistols surrounded the county courthouse and were duly prepared to defend the life of Chewie and Cherokee sovereignty.

Warrior observed: "What the Cherokee fail to see is that the American system, nothing is done legally, honestly or truthfully. Now when they find out, they are going to be pretty damn mad. If that(the legal way) fails, then VIOLENCE will take place. The country should take HEED."(2)

In the late 1830's the Indian Killer, President Andrew Jackson defied the US Supreme Court ruling and started a new policy of relocation, along with racial and ethnic cleansing. The Cherokee would be the very first victims of this 100 year policy that would forever change the world of Native America.

Almost 100 years later, Adolph Hitler would use the same exact blueprint of relocation, concentration camps and ethnic cleansing in what he termed the Final Solution. Hitler had studied and read carefully, how the Indian Killer had instituted the 'Final Solution'for the Cherokee.

For the full and mixed blood Cherokees in the high hills of eastern Oklahoma on the fringe of the Ozarks and through the traditional homelands of Appalachia have been and still entrenched in an appalling culture of cycle of poverty, hopelessness and violence. In rural Cherokee Country conditions have not improved for the past 100 years. People face daily starvation, with a back drop of high unemployment or no jobs. Drug and alcohol addictions and domestic violence is out of control. Illiteracy and high school drop outs exceeds the national average. Hunger and malnutrition is common place.

This is how it always has been in rural Cherokee Country for the past 180 years to the present! A violent time bomb ready to explode! The factors of historic poverty and the issue of Cherokee sovereignty has always been a keg of dynamite that was then and still is ready to blow among rural Cherokee Country.

By the late 1960's ,in rural Cherokee Country in east Oklahoma starvation was out of control. According to historical sources entire villages and hamlets were suffering on massive level. Traditional full blood Cherokee men decided to respond to the challenge and violating both federal and state laws, began to hunt deer on traditional Cherokee land.

The full-bloods met in secret to address the issues of starvation and Cherokee sovereignty- the right to hunt on their own CHEROKEE LAND. Hundreds of men formed the 'Five County Cherokee Movement. They drafted there own Cherokee Declaration of Independence in the winter of 1966. 'We meet in atime of darkness to seek the path to the light. We come together, just as our father's have done, to do these things...we the Five County Cherokees are one People. We stand united in the sight of our Creator. We are joined by love and concern for each other and for all men..."

We offer ourselves as a voice of the Cherokee People. For many years our People have not spoken and have not been heard. Now we gather as brothers and sisters... We insist on equality under the laws of the United States. We act now peaceably but firmly to carry out THE WISHES OF OUR PEOPLE...We do this for the benefit of all Cherokees. We do this as a good example to all men. Already we have gathered to protect our rights to harvest fish and game to feed ourselves and children..."(3)

So in the winter of 1966, the Movement became a high mark for the advancement of Cherokee sovereignty. Hundreds of men were hunting in the old traditional Cherokee land in the high hills of east Oklahoma. Movement men including John Chewie hunted in small bands to bring deer to the dinner table. The State of Oklahoma-department of Wildlife arrested and charged John for possession of deer meat out season and having no license to hunt , when he was 'caught' by game wardens.

When Movement men had received word of his arrest and pending trial, his brothers quietly encircled the small town of Jay and the courthouse where Chewies trial would take place. Movement men brought their rifles, shotguns and pistols; about 400 in number to defend John's life and Cherokee sovereignty if need be.(4) Chewie had become the the shining icon to Indian Country for the issue of Native sovereignty to hunt on native lands that were claimed by federal and state jurisdictions.

Fearing both violence and bloodshed, the State of Oklahoma legal system decided to pass John's case on to the federal court level in order to AVOID AN ARMED CONFRONTATION WITH THE MOVEMENT MEN.

Not only had the Five County Cherokee Movement been heard and spoken, it had won the first round in it's advocacy for Cherokee sovereignty and the long hard road for the advancement for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country! A-ho!

source quotes:(1)(2)(3)(4)from 'The New Indians-Stan Steiner 1968 Delta

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES VOCALIST/ RECORDING ARTIST: CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY-'THE NEXT BIG THING '

2011-07-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

INTERNATIONAL NATIVE BLUES VOCALIST/ RECORDING ARTIST:

CLAUDETTE PHOENIX SWAMPY-“THE NEXT BIG THING IN BLUES”

EDMONTON,ALBERTA-Over the past 3 decades I have written many entertainment feature articles on the jazz and blues super-star divas like Phyllis Hyman, Anita Baker, Bonnie Raitt and Toni Braxton. They all as super-star performers had impacts in the music industry and world-wide audiences buying their records , huge stadiums filled on their world tours. By the mid-90s it all seemed to come crashing down, there simply no one to fill the void these super star divas had instilled in us: a certain quality of talent with voice while singing, a presence, I mean a real presence of stage work, commanding power and authority of holding the fans spellbound in the audience while performing.

It seemed like a golden era passed by for a number of years, all the fans really wanted was a female blues super-star diva to make her appearance, who could incorporate the great blues performers of the past. Hold down the contemporary blues tunes of the present; and yet some how create a whole new set of dynamics of original musical leadership of 21st century blues. A blues super star with a strong performing leadership and identity on stage. A woman that was not only performing the blues, but was incorporating their own unique stylings and techniques, pioneering new and exciting dimensions of blues, carrying it to the next level that the fans never knew existed before.

The global community of the international blues fans has been waiting a great period of time for the next big thing. Recently I just had my first encounter with next big thing, here and now. I was surfing youtube and saw a video with a female blues vocalist doing here rendition of Elmore James classic blues tune of ‘Comin’ Home’. I see this awesome woman blowing, I mean really blowing this tune and she was breaking all the rules in the process. She was interpreting the song the way she wanted it to be. She injected powerful, almost unheard of vocal stylings and techniques that had this packed room of her fans on the brink of blues nirvana. I stopped the vid to see the name of the vocalist. Enter Claudette Phoenix Swampy. I sat there in awe realizing that this blues canary dared to be to be different, was bold and resilient. She had the musical ability to command and give authority to both her stage presence and stage work. She was in the act of a creating a blues musical revolution, Claudette was defining and redefining the interpretation of the blues to the next level. Her fans in the audience wanted more of what Claudette would give them.

In the world of blues clubs and venues, must upcoming blues vocalists and performers think it is best to go along to get along. So they generally stick to singing or performing a blues standard as it were performed back in the day. Claudette Phoenix Swampy is the total exact opposite. When performing blues standards, she breaks all the rules while performing, she dares to be different, she’s bold and sassy and this has become both of her trademark and signature statement while she is performing. She is redefining the words of what the blues experience is really is while on stage. She is now creating a new blueprint, designing a new mold of taking the blues scene to the next level. Her stage presence is powerful and overwhelming, yet she commands, really commands the venue she works in and legions of fans are still hungry for more of Claudette.

Having been in the blues arena as a performer-recording artist for under two years, Claudette is being acknowledged by her fans an blues industry as a quickly rising super star, she has showed all the signs of being one of the most experienced and seasoned blues professionals in such a short amount of time. What she may be actually doing is pioneering a whole new concept and interpretation of how blues are performed and as well creating a whole new definition of what contemporary blues is about. What so amazing about Claudette, is she so busy creating the next big blues thing, she may not even know she being viewed as the actual next big thing in blues by her fans and the blues industry.

She is never tiring, almost relentless in honing her craft of the blues, she has almost completed her first highly awaited ,soon to be released album. Claudette noted about it, “ One of my goals on my new album ,is to bring real blue music back, You can have a million dollar recording in the studio and the tracks will sound perfect because of the technology, but on stage it will sound totally different. That’s where I have the ultimate advantage, I sound the same on both stage when performing and at the studio when I’m recording. Trust me not everybody can do that!”

The Cree vocalist from Canada holds a high place in the international blues recording artists community, as being one of the few Native blues vocalist-performers world -wide. Claudette holds the title of : ‘The First Lady of Aboriginal Blues’, she takes her career in the blues arena with a focus that is goal oriented, about the business of the blues, off or on the stage. She motivated and driven to be a successful high achiever, her energy, talent and professionalism are endless. She will settle for nothing less than being acknowledged and having the status of a blues super star. Make no doubt about it, this Songbird of blues is a super star in the making, it’s all but a matter of time before it happens to Claudette.

One of the key elements of her new album is her signature vocal stylings and techniques. Claudette observed, “ I have been told many times that I have a very haunting and mesmerizing voice, whether on stage or studio.” When she sings here voice has uncanny resemblance to the great jazz vocalist ,Phyllis Hyman. Her current album has 12 tracks, “ My rendition of blues music returns it back to the roots and traditions, the very foundation of what the spirit of blues all about in the first place. I’m focusing on my music in studio the way Elmore James did it, raw, original and most definitely innovative!”

While she is returning to the fundamentals of blues on her new album, she definitely redefining the blues experience and that is the secret that makes Claudette destined for super stardom. “Just listen to any blues music played at venues, or airplay on the radio or net, it has gone completely commercial. The commercialization of blues is totally out of control and unacceptable. What labels are putting out is not even real blues, they are corporate fantasies of what they think blues should sound like.”

Claudette stated, “ I have this excellent remake of Elmore James ‘Comin’ Home’, like I said it’s raw and original the way it was intended to be sung, but I blow the blues experience into that piece as I see it! It’s really powerful and that is a good thing from my perspective. I have another original piece I have done on my album called ‘Burning Blues Fire’, it’s about young man facing the obstacles of life when he is in love, and about the woman he fell in love with, and how she both used and abused him him while in the relationship. This is my blues homage to men I have know that this has happened to. These are the types of blues songs I have done. They are at the very heart and soul, the very essence of what I know the blues experience to be, any of my fans will tell you that.”

Claudette has penetrating, piercing eyes when she looks out to her audience when performing, it’s just like everybody knows in the venue, she is the next big thing, a short journey to her becoming a blues super star. It makes me think of that 70s rock tune with the line-‘ She looked at me with those big brown eyes and said Baby you ain’t seen nothing yet!’

With Claudette Phoenix Swampy, she is looked upon as so busy creating the next big blues thing, that in reality she is now the next big thing blues. The next big thing equates to the next big super star and that is how it works in the music industry. Claudette Phoenix Swamp is well on her way to final destination…. International blues super star.

MIXED BLOOD NATIVES-THE SILENCE OF INDIAN COUNTRY

2011-05-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

MIXED BLOOD NATIVES-THE SILENCE OF INDIAN COUNTRY

BY MIKE RACCOON EYES KINNEY

As was discussed in 'Mixed Blood Natives-The Silence of Indian Country' (Part-1),
Quanah Parker as a mixed blood Native made the decision to leave one culture and enter into another culture.

The story of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminloe has a similar theme as well. The Cherokee culture was steeped deeply into the great Meso-American pyramid temple cities as early as 800 A.D. When the Olmecs, Toltecs, Mayans and Aztecs were moving from North to into the South deep into Mexico and Central America, they quickly absorbed and embraced building their own great pyramid temple spiritual cities they had observed and seen in the great Cherokee cities of the Southeast.

Cherokee intermarriage to both the Mexican and Central Americans would become the norm for the next 300 years. The mixed blood Cherokees would hold a high place of honor within the Meso-American world of Mexico and Central America. For the mixed blood Cherokee of the time were the priests, prophets, engineers and administrators, who were the elite of running the new spiritual pyramid temple cities of both Mexico and Central America. Without the mixed blood Cherokees, the great pyramid temple cities in Mexico and Central America would cease to run, much less function.

The Cherokee started having intergenerational marriage and 'sexual relationships with the Europeans in the early 1700's. Many Cherokee bands and families were quick to see the economic benefits of having trade, land and business dealings with Europeans. In a sense this could be viewed as a classic Cherokee version of the 'hang around the fort Indians'. However this story was not true for the majority of mixed blood Cherokee people of that time!

For the the upper class elite of mixed blood Cherokee of the late 1700s and early 1800s, it was not uncommon for them to have extensive plantations, a lavish life-style that would have not been uncommon in London or Paris and a sizable work force of African slaves. Many well to do mixed blood Cherokee were highly educated in New York, Washington D.C. or even London.

The preference of mixed blood Cherokee men of the time were to marry European or other mixed blood Cherokee women. Their children and grandchildren would follow suit. The new generation of light-skinned mixed blood bourgeoisie Cherokee would wash their hands of and renounce the traditional ways of Cherokee culture and Spirituality.

However, there was another side to the mixed blood Cherokee people, that has been neglected and treated with silence. The story is that of the traditional mixed blood Cherokee that retained their cultural and Spiritual identities.

The traditional mixed blood Cherokee lived along the side of their full blood cousins in the pre-1830's in large rural wilderness areas that were isolated communities of families and bands in vast tracks of land through out the greater Southeast of the U.S.

Even during the days of post Contact, while the Europeans were eco-raping the land, extensive outreach by the missionaries to convert out People by force and the Federals in league with newly established State of Georgia authorities were to use brutal and ruthless tactics to remove remove the Real People from our lands with the discovery of gold, both mixed and full blood Cherokee people still retained an amazing amount of sovereignty and autonomy because they knew both spiritually and culturally they were the Creator's original Holy People.

The Indian Killer Jackson enforced the new Indian Removal Act at the heart land of our Great Cherokee Nation in the mid and late 1830s. Bluecoat soldiers started first with the Cherokee in the new policy or ethnic cleansing, relocation and the reservation system. So began 'Our Trail of Our Tears. where 20,000 Cherokee were relocated to Indian Territory. No one was spared! Not full or mixed bloods or even the bourgeoisie Cherokee were spared from Jackson's vision of hell to kill our People!

However, large pockets of both mixed and full blood Cherokee families and bands did manage to escape and offer a sizable resistance coming from Cherokee country. My own family, the Raccoon Eyes were one such family. My Great, great, great, Grandmother- Polly Raccoon Eyes was born in 1714 in Rowan County, North Carolina, she was a full blood woman of the Eastern Band. When Polly was 12 years of age she was a domestic to the Newsome family. In the year 1726, Polly and the Newsome family walked some 400 miles from North Carolina to our family village in Southeast Kentucky.

They would eventually settle in the high hills and river country at a location called Sooky's Creek. Sooky's Creek was our old historical family village and it had old burial mounds of our Cherokee ancestors dating back so 4,000 years. It was the homeland of the Raccoon Eyes band. Elder Newsome a white Englishman would leave his wife and family to join Polly as his common law wife. From the time she was 18 years of age and older, Polly would bear some 12 sons and daughter in their union.

It was here that the mixed blood lineage of the Raccoon Eyes family would begin at our family village at Sooky's Creek. It was here where the Raccoon Eyes family would fight a successful guerilla war against Jackson's Bluecoat Indian killers.
The mixed blood Cherokee were killing high numbers of Bluecoat soldiers in Southeast Kentucky. However bullets were running low for the long rifles, hunger and starvation were abundant and the hard brutal winters were taking it's toll on the children, women and Elders in the campaign against the Bluecoats and their allies.

The mixed and full blood elders and ancestors had to make the decision to surrender and turn themselves in so they could survive as a People! They were forced to take missionary surname, embrace a alien Deity and the most hideous of act all... to have forced sexual relations with the white conquerors. The ultimate goal and reason our Cherokee men and women did this for was to keep lightening and lightening our skin color until we could 'pass for white'. It was the only way as the Real Cherokee People could survive and not become victims of more ethnic cleansing.

Until a generation of fair-skinned, Blue-eyed Cherokee was created! It was the most painful and heart-breaking decisions that our Elders made at the time! BUT WHAT ELSE COULD THEY HAVE DONE?? But we have fulfilled their dream to be alive and celebrate our survival as a People.

I honor and give thanks to my Elder's decisions to let the Raccoon Eyes family to continue to live and exist! And their are hundreds of thousands of we mixed blood Cherokee people alive today to tell our stories and celebrate that we the REAL PEOPLE are still here! We are just as a part of the history of Indian Country as any other Native people! I always celebrate Native folks who look like us.

Like Quanah Parker who chose to leave his Father's world and live among his Mother's world, I chose some 35 years ago to leave my Mother's mainstream world and enter into my Father's world of being who and what I truly am.....a Native Man!
Cousins, I tell it was the best decision I ever made. To reclaim my Culture, my Spirituality and most importantly my....life!

We can no longer afford as mixed blood People of Turtle Island to sit in silence and ignorance of the reality of who we are as true Native People! We can no longer sit back and attack ourselves, beat ourselves up and pound ourselves for crimes we have NEVER committed. It now time to view we mixed blood Native People, with good self-esteem, good self-worth and good self value. For this was the Creator's plan!
Remember all WE Native People are the Creator's Holy People!

Wado and A-ho my Brothers and Sisters,

' I AM A NATIVE MAN! I AM THE AMERICAN DREAM! '

2011-04-28T00:57:00.000-07:00

I AM A NATIVE MAN, I AM THE AMERICAN DREAM

2011-04-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

THE OUTSTANDING VIDEO: NATIVE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

THE WOMEN OF THE GLEN COVE MOVEMENT

2011-04-19T01:58:00.000-07:00

WOMEN OF THE OCCUPATION AND RESISTANCE OF THE GLEN COVE SHELLMOUND MOVEMENT IN VALLEJO,CA.

SHANE GRAY HELPING TO FREE LEONARD

2011-04-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Shane Gray the grassroots Advocate signman to free Leonard Peltier made a stop at the Richmond City Council meeting to get support from the community to bring awareness to Leonard April 7, 2011 inn Richmond, CA.

foto and text: Mike Raccoon Eyes

PROTECT GLEN COVE SACRED SITE: APRIL 14 AT SUNSET! WE NEED EVERYONE TO REPORT FOR DUTY TO PREVENT THE ECO-RAPE OF THE SHELLMOUND BY BULLDOZERS!

2011-04-08T15:07:00.001-07:00

ALL WARRIORS FOR THE ANCESTORS:

The Protect Glen Cove Committee and the Board of Directors of Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT) have received information that leads us to believe that the desecration of Glen Cove will begin on April 15, 2011.

We are calling for an ASSEMBLY of all Warriors to gather on April 14, 2011 in front of SSP&RIT headquarters at 400 Keats Drive, Vallejo, California.

SSP&RIT will host a prayer ceremony on site. Be prepared to actively protest this assault at Glen Cove. Cameras and video cameras are a must, if you have them. Walkie-talkies are needed for communications. Bring you cell phone chargers.

Bring your sacred medicine and join our prayer circle at Glen Cove. If you can't make the trip, please make a phone call and keep the phone lines of GVRD and the City of Vallejo busy. (see numbers below)

ALL WARRIORS WHO WILL ANSWER THIS CALL: This is a NON-VIOLENT and PEACEFUL protest. NO WEAPONS, NO DRUGS, NO ALCOHOL!

April 7th UPDATE:
GVRD and contractors were meeting at Sogorea Te today (April 7). They refused to listen to our concerns, refused to identify themselves or their employers and tried to harass and intimidate SSP&RIT members and their supporters. The police were called by Steve Pesley of GVRD, but no arrests or interference resulted. Representatives of the Times Herald were on hand and interviewed Wounded Knee.

The contractors intend to fence the ancestors in to protect their equipment. The also intend to employ roving security at the site. We expect that this fence will go up on the 13th or 14th of April.

The contractor is Carone & Company, Inc. Make a call and voice your objections to them:
(925) 602-8800
5009 Forni Drive, Concord, CA 94520

DONATIONS REQUESTED
We are now requesting donations for an Emergency Defense Fund. Funds are needed to purchase supplies, food, photocopies, sanitation, signs, etc. Please contribute if you can!
Donations can be made online with a credit/debit card or a bank account, and will be processed securely. To donate, visit:
https://www.wepay.com/donate/137138

Reminder: ALL FRONTLINE SUPPORTERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED WITH THE SECRETARY ARE URGED TO SEND THEIR E-MAIL AND CELL PHONE # TO:
secretary.ssp_rit@yahoo.com

Numbers to call:
Greater Vallejo Recreation Department: 707-648-4600
City of Vallejo Mayor: 707-648-4377
Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper: 707-644-1141
Times-Herald fax number: 707-643-0128
Carone & Company, Inc. (contracters): (925) 602-8800

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TRY TO SAVE RICHMOND CHURCH

2011-03-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TRY TO SAVE RICHMOND CHURCHText and fotos: Mike Raccoon Eyes

RICHMOND,CA- Today community activists, clergy and government officials attending a rally in front of the Bible Way Apostolic Church. The church under the direction of Pastor Sidney Keys had the support of Congressman George Miller and Contra Costa Board of Supervisor John Gioia in lieu of having been served evication papers last week.

THE MECHANICS OF NATIVE DREAM TIME

2011-03-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

'THE MECHANICS OF NATIVE DREAM TIME '

By Mike Raccoon Eyes

As a Spirit Man I tell you when you look at a vision, it is like looking at mists and shadows. As Native spiritual person, it will take you years to interpret what you are really seeing. In the Old days our People didn't call them visions. We called it seeiing or the ability to see.

For many of us, seeing usually comes in dreams. This is not like a dream, when you sleep and have dreams come in fragments. Visions are quite clear and you remember the dream again, quite cleary!

Where as with a 'nightmare', you may questionis it a dream or not. But it lingers and wafts within your mind, it slowly drifts away when you try to examine it more closely. In the dream-vision state, you can recall every detail and look closely; and examine everything that happened. Every detail is recorded for you spiritual review.

As you become more skillrd into understanding and interpreting your visions, you can know something you that you NEVER saw anything about! But when the thought comes into your mind, more than likely out of your mouth! You did'nt mean to say it-but you say it never the less.

What you are saying is so, but you NEVER saw anything else other than your vision to inform you of it! It should be know that "Speaking Out" is also one of the traits that is a part of seeing.

When you master this in Sared Time, you will see- It is a different kind of power, a different kind of energy and a different kind of strength. So it will reflect from a spiritual place, a differnt kind of thinking. A-ho!

Rev.Kirk Franklin: The AWESOME gospel dance video-STOMP

2011-03-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

THE LEGENDARY REV. KIRK FRANKLIN IN THE AWESOME PRAISE DANCE VIDEO....'THE STOMP!'

My friend the legendary Rev. Kirk Franklin has this AWESOME praise dance vid: "STOMP" This one of the most amazing Spiritual gospel, hip-hop praise dance videos you will ever see! Indian Country you ain't seen nothing yet!

Big, I mean REALLY BIG dance choerography, watch out Bollywood!

TIME TO HONOR WOMEN-SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY 36TH ANNUAL POW WOW

2011-02-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

WHO IN THE HELL MURDERED NATIVE ADVOCATE ANNIE MAE AQUASH? INDIAN COUNTRY WANTS JUSTICE NOW?

2011-02-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

WHO IN THE HELL MURDERED NATIVE ACTIVIST ANNIE MAE AQUASH ? INDIAN COUNTRY WANTS JUSTICE NOW!!

ANNIE MAE AQUASH-NATIVE ADVOCATE AND ACTIVISTIn Bar Harbor, Maine, Annie Mae Aquash became involved in the Teaching and Research in Bicultural Education School Project (TRIBES), a program designed to teach young Indians about their history. She soon moved to Boston where she met members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who were protesting against the Mayflower II celebration at Boston Harbor, boarding and seizing the ship on Thanksgiving Day of 1970. Anna Mae was active in creating the Boston Indian Council (now the North American Indian Center of Boston).

It was also at that time that she met her second husband, Nogeeshik Aquash, from Walpole Island, Canada. They traveled to Pine Ridge together in 1973 to join AIM in the 71-day armed re-occupation of Wounded Knee, which is where they were married by Wallace Black Elk. A photo of their wedding can be found in the book Voices From Wounded Knee (1974).

She was also involved in the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington, D.C. that led to the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters, and armed occupations by AIM and other indigenous warriors at Anicinabe Park in Kenora, Ontario in 1974 and the Alexian Brothers Novitiate at Gresham, Wisconsin, in 1975. [1]

By the spring of 1975, Anna Mae "was recognized and respected as an organizer in her own right and was taking an increasing role in the decision-making of AIM policies and programs," according to her biographer, Johanna Brand. [1]

She was personally close to AIM leaders Leonard Peltier and Dennis Banks. She worked until her death for the Elders and Lakota People of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. [1]

THE MURDER OF ANNIE MAE AQUASHOn February 24, 1976, Aquash was found dead by the side of State Road 73 on the far northeast corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation, about 10 miles from Wanblee, South Dakota, close to Kadoka. Her body was found during an unusually warm spell in late February, 1976 by a rancher, Roger Amiotte.[2] The first autopsy (reports are now public information) states: "it appears she had been dead for about 10 days." The Bureau of Indian Affairs' medical practitioner, W. O. Brown, missing the bullet wound on her skull, stated that "she had died of exposure." [1]

Subsequently, her hands were cut off and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, D.C. for fingerprinting. Although federal agents were present who knew Anna Mae, she was not identified, and her body was buried as a Jane Doe.

On March 10, 1976, eight days after Anna Mae's burial, her body was exhumed as the result of separate requests made by her family and AIM supporters, and the FBI. A second autopsy was conducted the following day by an independent pathologist from Minneapolis, Dr. Garry Peterson. This autopsy revealed that she had been shot by a .32 caliber bullet in the back of the head, execution style.[3]

INVESTIGATIONOn March 20, 2003 two men were indicted for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud (a homeless Lakota man) and John Graham (aka John Boy Patton), a Southern Tutchone Athabascan man from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Although Theda Clark, Graham's adopted aunt, is also alleged to have been involved, she has not been indicted.

In August 2008, a federal grand jury indicted a third man, Vine Richard "Dick" Marshall, with aiding and abetting the murder. It is alleged that Graham, Looking Cloud and Clark had taken Anna Mae to Marshall's house where she was held just prior to her being driven to her death. This is based on testimony given by Marshall's wife, Cleo Gates, at Looking Cloud's trial. Marshall is alleged to have provided the murder weapon to Graham and Looking Cloud. Marshall had previously been incarcerated for 24 years for the shooting death of man in 1975. He was paroled from prison in 2000. Marshall was a bodyguard for Russell Means at the time of Aquash's murder.[2]

On February 8, 2004 Arlo Looking Cloud was tried before a U.S. federal jury and five days later was found guilty. On April 23, 2004 he was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Although no physical evidence linking Looking Cloud to the crime was presented, a videotape was shown in which Looking Cloud admits to being at the scene of the murder but claims that he was unaware that Aquash was going to be killed. In that video, in which Looking Cloud is interviewed by Detective Abe Alonzo of the Denver Police Department and Robert Ecoffey, the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Law Enforcement Services, taped on March 27, 2003, he states that Graham was the triggerman.[4] Looking Cloud appealed his conviction.[5] On August 19, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the judgment of conviction. 419 F.3d 781. Other witnesses testifed that Looking Cloud had confessed his involvement to them, including his childhood friend Richard Two Elk, Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, John Trudell, and Aquash's two daughters.[3]

On June 22, 2006 John Graham's extradition to the United States to face charges on his alleged involvement in the murder was ordered by Canada's Minister of Justice, Vic Toews. Graham appealed this order and was held under house arrest, with conditions. In July 2007, a Canadian court denied his appeal, and upheld his extradiction order to the U.S. On December 6, 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada denied Graham's appeal of his extradition. He is presently being held in jail in Rapid City, South Dakota awaiting trial on first degree murder charges. He will be tried together with Marshall.[4]

Graham adamantly denies any involvement in the death of Anna Mae. He claims that the U.S. government threatened to name him as the murderer of Anna Mae if he "didn't co-operate". Claiming that he last saw Annie Mae on a drive that took them from Denver to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where he left her at a "safe house" (in his own words, in an interview with Antoinette Nora Claypoole), Graham explains why he believes he is being charged as her murderer:

" IN THE MID 80'S OR SOMETIME UP IN THERE...."The FBI showed up at my home in the Yukon, and asked me all kinds of questions about Anna Mae and the death. They were trying to say I was there, or I knew about it, or I was aware of it. And I had to tell them I wasn't aware, I wasn't around there and I wasn't involved in her killing at all.

And they wanted me to name leadership that would have given the order to that effect, to kill Anna Mae. And they were trying to tell me they would put me in the witness protection program, they would change my identity, they would relocate me if I would go to testify in front of the federal Grand Jury in South Dakota against the AIM leadership.

So I told them I couldn't do that because it never happened.

I never, ever received orders of any kind like that from any of the AIM leadership. And so I wouldn’t do it; I wouldn't cooperate with them.
And they left. Then they came back a year or so later and said.... if I didn't cooperate with them to put this information on the AIM leadership, then I would be facing all these charges myself."
The question of Graham's innocence or guilt has divided AIM and AIM leadership, with some (including John Trudell and Russell Means) arguing that he was, in fact, the triggerman and others arguing that he is merely a scapegoat.

Leonard Peltier, America's best known American Indian prisoner, has made five public statements on the U.S. government's case against Looking Cloud and Graham. In his first public writing on the case, in 1999, he stated:

“ I have not said anything up until now because I do not want to be involved in an investigation carried out in part, by Robert Ecoffey and the RCMP.

Ecoffey was responsible for much of the terror and corruption that existed on Pine Ridge in the early 70's. The RCMP, working with the FBI, submitted a fabricated statement against me over a year after I was arrested by them in Canada.

This statement has been used to justify my continued incarceration. Who would trust such sources to carry out an investigation into one of the many, many, people who were murdered in conjunction with the FBI on Pine Ridge during that era?

I did not want to be involved in this, but now it looks like I must submit a public statement documenting my stance because I very much fear that innocent people will be railroaded as I have, into prison, and the governments of Canada and the U.S. will be happy to have given AIM the image of a vicious and corrupt terrorist organization which we absolutely were not. ”

[6]

Subsequent to these statements, on February 2, 2005, a communiqué was issued through the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) by Robert Robideau, Co-Director of the LPDC. The communiqué stated:

“ There is compelling evidence that has recently come to our attention regarding John Graham that compels Leonard Peltier to dissasociate [sic] himself and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee from John Graham and the John Graham Defense Committee… Leonard wants to make it very clear he wants justice to run its course and that he wants to also make it clear that he had no involvement in this matter and hence cannot associate himself with those alleged to have committed this crime against Indian people. ”

[7]

In a February 17, 2005, press statement Robert Robideau admitted that the February 2 statement was not issued by Leonard Peltier. He describes a phone conversation he had with Dennis Banks, saying, "Dennis wanted to know, 'Did Leonard issue this Statement?' I told Dennis no that I was issuing the statement because I know that not only the FBI was setting him up but also you [Dennis Banks]." [8]

In a letter from Leonard Peltier to Jennifer Wade of Amnesty International in Vancouver, postmarked May 4, 2007, Peltier explains his position on the matter:

“ Do I support Bob [Robideau] in his efforts to get John [Graham] railroaded into prison? Hell No! I¹d be a goddamn hypocrite if I did. Because I know just about as much as Bob knows about Anna Mae's murder and that is not a goddamn thing. I know Bob is full of shit and that if the truth be known he did not even know her. He my have spoken a casual Hello or something like that, otherwise he did not know her. ”

[9]

Robert Robideau had previously resigned from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee in 2004 because of the committee and Peltier's support for John Graham. "I won’t be a party to the LPDC or to Leonard if he is not going to condemn these people," said Robideau in an interview with the magazine In These Times. [10]

Graham has refused to take a polygraph test,[11] something neither requested by the courts, his attorneys or the Canadian government. An independent group of women known as the Indigenous Women for Justice, convinced of Graham's guilt, demanded that he "take a test".

One of Anna Mae’s daughters, Denise Maloney Pictou is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Women for Justice[12], who are convinced of Graham's guilt. She has stated that she believes her mother was killed by AIM members who "thought she knew too much. She knew what was happening in California, she knew where the money was coming from to pay for the guns, she knew the plans, but more than any of that, she knew about the killings."[13] Aquash’s other daughter, Debbie Pictou Maloney, is a Constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and has been active in the Annie Mae Justice Fund.[14]

Denise Maloney Pictou claims that Paul DeMain, managing editor of News from Indian Country, arranged (through Richard Two Elk) for Arlo Looking Cloud to call her at home. She claims that Looking Cloud confessed to her the story that has become known as "The FBI story." Neither Debbie nor Denise personally knew Looking Cloud at the time and cannot verify that the caller was indeed him, although he mentioned speaking to the daughters in his videotaped testimony of March 27, 2003.[15]

The case is rife with rumor. Paul DeMain stated that Anna Mae was killed in part because, she knew that Leonard Peltier actually killed the agents. Peltier sued in an attempt to force DeMain and News From Indian Country to reveal the confidential sources upon which this statement was based upon. Shortly after the trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, during which KaMook Nichols testified that Peltier had bragged to her, her sister and Annie Mae about shooting the agents, Bob Robideau on behalf of Leonard Peltier entered into negotiations with DeMain in order to have the lawsuit dismissed. (see testimony of KaMook Nichols: www.jfamr.org)

The current investigation into Anna Mae's murder and original research from which Pictou bases some of her conjecture came from the efforts of Anna Mae's second cousin, Robert Pictou-Branscombe. Branscombe originally began his efforts in the early 1990s, receiving at least some of his "ground-breaking information" from a Denver Police Department detective named Abe Alonzo.

There are many theories about who may have been behind the murder of Anna Mae. John Trudell fingers Dennis Banks, stating in both the 1976 Butler and Robideau trial and the Looking Cloud trial that Banks told him about the killing before the body had been identified.[16] In Dennis Banks' autobiography, Ojibwa Warrior, he states that he was informed by John Trudell that the body that had been found was Annie Mae. Banks states that he did not know until that time that Aquash had been killed.

Although Arlo Looking Cloud did testify in a video that he was present at the murder and that John Graham pulled the trigger, Looking Cloud did admit on the tape that he was making his statement while under the influence of "a little bit of alcohol."[17] However, trial testimony showed that Looking Cloud also confessed to a number of other individuals in various times and places.[3]

In Looking Cloud's appeal, filed by attorney Terry Gilbert who has replaced his trial attorney Tim Rensch, Looking Cloud has retracted his videotaped confession stating that it was false. He is appealing on the grounds that his trial counsel was ineffective in that he failed to object to the introduction of his videotaped statement, failed to object to hearsay statements of Anna Mae Aquash, failed to object to hearsay instruction for the jury, and failed to object to leading questions by the prosecution to Robert Ecoffey.[18] The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Looking Cloud's appeal.[5]

Though some are alleged to have believed Anna Mae to be a federal agent, no documentary evidence has emerged proving that she worked for the federal government (COINTELPRO).[citation needed]

Notes
1.Anna Mae Aquash, Letter from jail (1975) [19]
2.Michael Donnelly, Getting Away with Murder. (2006) [20]
3.Antoinette Nora Claypoole, Interview with John Graham, Southern Tutchone; conducted at the studios of KPFK/Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles) . (2004) [21]
4.Robert Robideau, There is compelling evidence.... (2005) [22]
5.Indigenous Women for Justice, Man Indicted for Anna Mae's Murder Refuses to take Lie-Detector Test. (2004) [23]
6.Paul DeMain, An interview with Denise Pictou-Maloney on the death of her mother, Annie Mae Aquash. (2004) [24]
BIA interview w/Arlo Looking Cloud http://www.jfamr.org/doc/arlo.html

References
1 The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash by Johanna Brand (1993) Toronto: J. Lorimer
2. "U.S. indicts Richard Marshall in Aquash murder case", News from Indian Country, http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4398&Itemid=108
3.jfamr.org document index
4.Trial for 1975 murder of Canadian woman set for February in South Dakota
5.Looking Cloud Appeal
Claypoole, Antoinette Nora (1999). Who Would Unbraid Her Hair: The Legend of Annie Mae. Anam Cara Press. ISBN 0-9673853-0-X.[25] http://www.antoinettewritings.blogspot.com
Voices from Wounded Knee, 1973, In the Words of the Participants (1974). Rooseveltown, New York: Akwesasne Notes. ISBN 0-914838-01-6.
Hendricks, Steve (2006). The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56025-735-0. http://www.stevehendricks.org
Smith, Charlie (2007). John Graham says Native chiefs under FBI spell. The Georgia
Straight. July 12, 2007

source:wikipedia
Posted by Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney at 11:48 AM
Labels: A.I.M, Annie Mae aquash, COINTELPRO, Murder of Annie Mae Aquash

Come And Get Your Love ( 1 )

2011-02-15T01:02:00.000-08:00

We thought you might like to see one of the greatest songs to every come out Indian Country....the legendary Native Band Redbone

Performing- " Come and Get Your Love "

SHANE'S CAMPAIGN TO FREE LEONARD PELTER

2011-02-09T03:05:00.000-08:00

February 02, 2011 News » News

EDITOR'S NOTE: It has been my pleasure to know and call Shane Gray a friend for some 11 years in his quest to see Brother leonard Peltier a free man from the System for crimes he did not commit. TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE is proud to share this fine piece written by John Geluadi.

Shane's Campaign to Free Leonard Peltier

For years, Shane Gray has been on a singular quest to raise awareness of the jailed Indian activist. But now his ubiquitous signs are drawing the ire of local law enforcement.

Shane Gray has made thousands of posters since learning about Peltier in 1999.
Just past 5 p.m. on a windy January day, Shane Gray rides onto the Central Avenue catwalk that stretches across Interstate 80. He leans his battered bicycle against the fencing, puts a red-tailed hawk feather in his mouth, and begins waving a bright-red placard that reads "Free Leonard" at evening commuters.

Some drivers honk their horns in support even though many don't know that "Leonard" refers to imprisoned Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who was controversially sentenced to life in federal prison in 1977 for the shooting deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

"It's good when they honk," Gray says cheerfully as a chilly wind tosses his thinning blonde hair, "because then the people who don't know who Leonard is will take notice.... They'll ask, 'Who's this Leonard guy, anyway?'"

About twelve years ago, Gray's "Free Leonard" signs with their distinctive red lettering began appearing on freeway fences, abandoned billboards, neighborhood lampposts, and high in treetops. The signs, sometimes augmented with images of a medicine wheel and arrow, have become such a regular feature on the landscape that they have achieved a quasi-iconic status for the hundreds of thousands of people who have seen them as they drive the area bounded by Oakland, Richmond, and the Carquinez Strait.

While Gray's placards are instantly recognizable, Gray himself has remained little more than a hazy figure blurred by the gossamer of freeway safety fences. But in the past year, the Richmond resident has begun to gain recognition — and not all of it good. To some, Gray is a folk hero who risks arrest and personal injury to rail against the unsympathetic goliath of federal government. Supporters have even purchased his signs as folksy artwork. To others, Gray is a public nuisance who should be stopped from littering the landscape with his lost cause. He avoids posting the placards on private property, preferring fences, poles, and trees that are publicly owned and within view of freeways. Nonetheless, after years of friendly warnings, law enforcement has begun to take a hard line.

On a recent rainy afternoon, Gray sits at a table at the Catahoula Coffee Company in Richmond. At 42, he has an athletic build, and his face is tanned from working outdoors as a landscaper, laborer, and house painter. He wraps his calloused hands around a warm mug of coffee and his light-blue eyes brighten as he talks about his commitment to Peltier's case. "I'm not doing this for myself," Gray said. "I do it because Peltier's incarceration is wrong. It's unjust."

Gray committed to Peltier's cause in 1999 after he attended a powwow in Berkeley held in honor of the imprisoned activist. Gray was moved by the stories of poverty and violent oppression on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970s. He was also deeply moved by the persistent questions surrounding the evidence used to convict Peltier as the sole person responsible for killing two FBI agents during a shootout that at least forty Native Americans participated in, according to FBI documents.

The day after the powwow, Gray made his first placard from a discarded cardboard box and paint leftover at a job site. Now, twelve years later, he has painted and posted thousands of signs and says he continues to make each new sign with the same enthusiasm and determination as he did his first. The campaign has become the central theme of his life and he says he's not quite sure what he'd do without it. "I don't know why I got involved in the Leonard Peltier case," Gray said. "I have never been involved in any other activism before or since."

Occasionally, Gray borrows tree-climbing gear from a friend to post the signs high in treetops. They can be hard to see, but have a bigger impact once noticed. "People are surprised to see the signs sixty feet up a eucalyptus tree and that really gets their attention," Gray said.

His biggest coup, he says, was an abandoned billboard just off of Interstate 580 in Richmond. He painted the billboard white, and in his unique cursive painted "Free Leonard" in four-foot-high letters. Taggers would regularly spray paint over his message with their own. For months, Gray returned several times a week to re-paint until Caltrans finally tore the billboard down.

Gray also brings his placards to the scene of major media events in the hopes of getting his message serendipitously picked up by television cameras. He avoids events where there has been tragedy such as the loss of life or injury, but when a massive sinkhole opened up in Richmond last April, swallowing two cars and attracting a fleet of television news vans, Gray was in the background quietly holding one of his placards. During the 2010 World Series, Gray was a regular feature outside AT&T Park, even paddling a kayak covered with "Free Leonard" signs into the home-run waters of McCovey Cove just over the right-field wall.

Hollywood and recording artists made Peltier's case widely known through the 1980s and 1990s. His cause reached the apex of its popularity in 1992 with the release of the Robert Redford-produced documentary Incident at Oglala and the Michael Apted movie Thunderheart, which is based on the Pine Ridge shootout and stars Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard. Musicians such as U2, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, and Rage Against the Machine have recorded songs calling for Peltier's release. His case became an international controversy in the early-1990s when the Italian, Belgian, and European parliaments approved resolutions in support of a Peltier pardon.

But Peltier's cause began to lose momentum in 2000. Attorneys had exhausted all of his appeals, and despite expectations, President Bill Clinton refused to give Peltier a presidential pardon as he left office. Hollywood stopped making films and Peltier's name slowly began to disappear from the headlines. Peltier is now 66 and in declining health. In 2009, a parole commission turned him down in his first hearing in fifteen years, and hope that he might win his freedom diminishes with each passing year.

Gray is not politically savvy nor does he understand the intricacies of the United States Court of Appeals. But the disappointing nuances of Peltier's quest for parole have not lessened Gray's commitment. His signs have served as much needed motivation for Bay Area activists. Aaron "A-Ron" Mirmalek, who produced the 2010 Free Leonard Peltier album, a compilation of hip-hop tracks calling attention to Peltier's case, says Gray is an inspiration. "Shane was at the album release party and I gave him special recognition because he has worked so hard and his commitment over the years has had a huge positive effect," said Mirmalek, who is related to Peltier. "Seeing him on the freeways waving his signs always inspires me."

Supporters regularly offer Gray contributions for paint and other materials. Besides accepting one $20 donation from an acquaintance, he says he has always refused to accept money. But in the past year, there has been some interest in his signs as artwork. Richmond resident Scott Guitteau bought a "Free Leonard" placard for its artistic value. "It's like street-art-meets-folk-art," Guitteau said. "It's more simple as opposed to the urban street work of well-known artists like Banksy or Shepard Fairey. Gray's signs are rural, innocent."

But not everyone thinks so. In years past, Gray was on friendly terms with sheriff's deputies, local police, and CHP officers, many who know him by name. For years they had given him gentle warnings about posting signs in certain areas or waving placards when traffic is particularly heavy. Gray says he has always complied and there was never a serious problem. Typically, he uses any contact with the authorities to promote his cause. "Anytime the police stop me, I ask, 'Are you familiar with the most prominent political prisoner in the United States fraudulently convicted by the FBI?'" Gray said rotely. "And when they say, 'no,' I say, 'Well, that's the reason he's still in prison.'"

But lately, the authorities have not been so friendly. Last summer, the California Highway Patrol arrested Gray near an Interstate 80 onramp, and the evening before Thanksgiving, two Contra Costa County sheriff's deputies showed up at his Richmond apartment and booked him into the county jail in Martinez. He was released with no charges at 1 a.m. though he was twenty miles from his home with no transportation and buses had long stopped running. Contra Costa County Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee says Gray was arrested because of a citizen complaint, and if he doesn't stop putting up placards, he will eventually face charges.

The arrests have given Gray some pause. Since Thanksgiving he has thought more about retiring, though discussing the idea visibly unsettles him. He gets quiet and looks out the cafe window for a long time. "Or I could expand my territory .... I bet the signs would get a good response in Marin. People there know about Leonard," he said, his eyes brightening. "What I really want to do is find the perfect location for a really big sign. It will be really high ... higher than I've ever put anything before."

John Geluradi-East Bay Express Feb.2,2011

Mike Racoon Eyes at Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland, CA

2011-01-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

A new video shot during Native American Heritage Month 2010 at the Intertribal Frienship House with nationally known Native Advocate Mike Raccoon Eye

UN DECLARATION SETS NEW AGENDA FOR US- NATIVE RELATIONS

2011-01-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

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UN Declaration Sets New Agenda for US-Indian Relations

Today, the United States government at last officially endorsed the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and joined the international community in recognizing that American Indians and other indigenous peoples have a permanent right to exist as peoples, nations, cultures and societies.

The United States is the last of the four countries that voted against the U.N. Declaration in the U.N. to reverse its position. This endorsement reflects the worldwide acceptance of indigenous peoples and our governments as a permanent part of the world community and the countries where we live. The Declaration is the most significant development in international human rights law in decades. International human rights law now recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples as peoples, including rights of self-determination, property and culture.

For me, the United States’ endorsement of the Declaration marks the culmination of over three decades of hard work by indigenous peoples and other members of the international human rights community. In 1976, when the Six Nations and I began the work of drafting and proposing a declaration to be adopted by the United Nations, we did not know that our idea would one day be universally accepted and supported first by indigenous peoples and eventually by the countries of the world. We knew of the terrible inadequacy of legal regimes and the gross violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights in most countries. We turned to international law primarily because of the need to overcome and improve national laws and practices and because of the desire to regain a place for indigenous peoples in the international community.

Our work to ensure justice for Indian nations in this country begins in earnest with the United States’ endorsement of the U.N. Declaration. To see the promise of the Declaration become a reality, we must continue to fight for laws, policies and relationships that take into account the permanent presence of Indian nations in this country, and throughout the world.

The Declaration sets an agenda for the United States and Indian nations to design a reasonable approach to a progressive realization of the duties and responsibilities in it. It serves as a guide for consultations among Indian and Alaska Native nations and U.S. governmental departments and agencies to improve the government-to-government relationship among Indian and Alaska Native nations and the United States.

In our work for Indian rights, we can and should use the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a powerful affirmation of our rights. Only through continued use will its provisions become our reality. We can use the Declaration to evaluate laws that are now on the books and for laws that may be proposed. Does the law measure up to the standards of the Declaration? Does the law or bill satisfy the requirements of the Declaration? It should. And if it does not, then it should be changed or discarded.

The Declaration can also be used as a guide for procedures and processes in dealing with indigenous peoples. Some of the most important rights in the Declaration are the right to participate in the decision-making process and the right to be consulted on important matters relating to indigenous peoples. The rights proclaimed in the Declaration can also be used to defend against proposals and actions that violate Indian rights. The Declaration can be used in this way by all people: Indian leaders, public officials, educators and others.

The Declaration can also be used to support and advocate for positive legislation and positive government action relating to Indian peoples. In particular, the Declaration can be used as a basis for making demands that the federal government fulfill its responsibilities to tribes and carry out its obligations to promote and respect the human rights of Indian nations and tribes. Congress needs to hold hearings to examine the United States’ human rights obligations to Indians and to assess whether existing laws and policies adequately respect the rights established in international law.

Continuing to work in this way to ensure justice for Indian peoples is the best way to celebrate and honor the United States’ endorsement of the U.N. Declaration. This is a very important first step in the process. We thank all of the advocates, leaders and government officials who have made this vision of freedom and equality a reality.

Chi Megwetch.

For further information about the U.N. Declaration and how you can participate in its implementation, contact the Indian Law Resource Center at (202) 547-2800 or (406) 449-2006, or visit www.indianlaw.org.

Robert Tim Coulter, founder and executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Mont., and Washington, D.C., has practiced Indian and human rights law for more than 30 years

Indian Country Today- January 19, 2011

DESTROYING INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS

2011-01-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

Destroying Indigenous Populations

by: Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Perspective

Most of the Sioux's land has been taken, and what remains has been laid waste by radioactive pollution.

The Fort Laramie Treaty once guaranteed the Sioux Nation the right to a large area of their original land, which spanned several states and included their sacred Black Hills, where they were to have "the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the land.

However, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, President Ulysses S. Grant told the army to look the other way in order to allow gold miners to enter the territory. After repeated violations of the exclusive rights to the land by gold prospectors and by migrant workers crossing the reservation borders, the US government seized the Black Hills land in 1877.

Charmaine White Face, an Oglala Tetuwan who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation, is the spokesperson for the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council (TSNTC), established in 1893 to uphold the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. She is also coordinator of the voluntary group, Defenders of the Black Hills, that works to preserve and protect the environment where they live.

"We call gold the metal which makes men crazy," White Face told Truthout while in New York to attend the annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations in late May. "Knowing they could not conquer us like they wanted to ... because when you are fighting for your life, or the life of your family, you will do anything you can ... or fighting for someplace sacred like the Black Hills you will do whatever you can ... so they had to put us in prisoner of war camps. I come from POW camp 344, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We want our treaties upheld, we want our land back."

Most of the Sioux's land has been taken, and what remains has been laid waste by radioactive pollution.

"Nothing grows in these areas - nothing can grow. They are too radioactive," White Face said.

Although the Black Hills and adjoining areas are sacred to the indigenous peoples and nations of the region, their attempts at reclamation are not based on religious claims but on the provisions of the Constitution. The occupation of indigenous land by the US government is in direct violation of its own law, according to White Face.

She references Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

The spokesperson for the TSNTC declares, "We need our treaty upheld. We want it back. Without it we are disappearing. They might have made us into brown Americans who speak the English language and eat a different kind of food, and are not able to live with the buffalo like we are supposed to, but that is like a lion in a cage. You can feed it and it will reproduce, but it is only a real lion when it gets its freedom and can be who it's supposed to be. That's how we are. We are like that lion in a cage. We are not free right now. We need to be able to govern ourselves the way we did before."

Delegations from the TSNTC began their efforts in the United Nations in 1984 after exhausting all strategies for solution within the United States.

Homeland Contamination

There is uranium all around the Black Hills, South and North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Mining companies came in and dug large holes through these lands to extract uranium in the 1950's and 1960's prior to any prohibitive regulations. Abandoned uranium mines in southwestern South Dakota number 142. In the Cave Hills area, another sacred place in South Dakota used for vision quests and burial sites, there are 89 abandoned uranium mines.

In an essay called "Native North America: The Political Economy of Radioactive Colonialism," political activists Ward Churchill and Winona LaDuke state that former US President Richard Nixon declared the 1868 Treaty Territory a "National Sacrifice Area," implying that the territory, and its people, were being sacrificed to uranium and nuclear radiation.

The worst part, according to White Face, is that, "None of these abandoned mines have been marked. They never filled them up, they never capped them. There are no warning signs ... nothing. The Forest Service even advertises the Picnic Springs Campground as a tourist place. It's about a mile away from the Cave Hills uranium mines."

The region is honeycombed with exploratory wells that have been dug as far down as six to eight hundred feet. In the southwestern Black Hills area, there are more than 4,000 uranium exploratory wells. On the Wyoming side of the Black Hills, there are 3,000 wells. Further north into North Dakota, there are more than a thousand wells.

The Black Hills and its surroundings are the recharge area for several major aquifers in the South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming regions. The crisis can be gauged from the simple description that White Face gives: "When the winds come, they pick up the [uranium] dust and carry it; when it rains or snows, it washes it down into the aquifers and groundwater. Much of this radioactive contamination then finds its way into the Missouri River."

She informs us that twelve residents out of about 600 of the sparsely populated county of Cave Hills have developed brain tumors. A nuclear physicist has declared one mine in the area to be as radioactively "hot" as ground zero of Hiroshima.

Red Shirt, a village along the Cheyenne River on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, has had its water tested high for radiation and local animals have died after consuming fish from the river.

After three daughters of a family and their mother died of cancer, a family requested White Face to have the municipal water tested. The radiation levels were found to be equal to those inside an x-ray machine. Little wonder then that the surviving sons and their father are afflicted with the disease. People procuring their grain and cattle from the region are advised to be extra cautious.

One cannot but feel the desperation of her people when White Face bemoans, "It's pure genocide for us. We are all dying from cancer. We are trying not to become extinct, not to let the Great Sioux Nation become extinct."

The Ogala Sioux are engaged in ongoing legal battles with the pro-uranium state of South Dakota. They are aware of the unequal nature of their battle, but they cannot afford to give up. White Face explains how "... Our last court case was lost before learning that the judge was a former lawyer for one of the mining companies. Also, the governor's sister and brother-in-law work for mining companies [Powertech] and a professor, hired by the Forest Service to test water run-off for contamination, is on contract with a company that works for the mining company. When I found out the judge was a lawyer for the mining company I knew we would lose, but we went ahead with the case for the publicity, because we have to keep waking people up."

Other tribes, such as the Navajo and Hopi in New Mexico, have been exposed to radioactive material as well. Furthermore, the July 16, 1979, spill of 100 million gallons of radioactive water containing uranium tailings from a tailing pond into the north arm of the Rio Puerco, near the small town of Church Rock, New Mexico, also affected indigenous peoples in Arizona.

Her rage and grief are evident as White Face laments, "When we have our prayer gatherings we ask that no young people come to attend. If you want to have children don't come to Cave Hills because it's too radioactive."

The exploitative approach to the planet's resources and peoples that led to these environmental and health disasters collides with White Face's values: "I always say that you have to learn to live with the earth, and not in domination of the earth."

Nuking the Colonies

The US government practices another approach. In occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, the uranium that has caused genocide of sorts at home has proceeded to wreak new havoc.

Two Iraqi NGO's, the Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI) and the Conservation Center of Environment and Reserves in Fallujah (CCERF) have extensively documented the effects of restricted weapons, such as depleted uranium (DU) munitions, against the people of Fallujah during two massive US military assaults on the city in 2004.

In March 2008, the NGO's were to present a report titled "Prohibited Weapons Crisis: The effects of pollution on the public health in Fallujah" to the 7th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council

Muhammad al-Darraji, director, MHRI and president, CCERF, was to present the report with an appeal, "We are kindly asking the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look at the content of the report in accordance with the General Assembly's resolution 48/ 141 (paragraph 4) of 20 December 1993, to investigate the serious threat (to the) health right in Fallujah and Iraq, and to relay the results of this investigation to the Commission on Human Rights to take the suitable decisions."

Attached to the aforementioned is another report co-authored by Dr. Najim Askouri, a nuclear physicist trained in Britain and a leading Iraqi nuclear researcher and Dr. Assad al-Janabi, director of the Pathology Department at the 400-bed public hospital in Najaf. Their report includes a section on the "Depleted Uranium Crisis" from Najaf, 180 miles from where DU was used in the First Gulf War.

Dr. Najim begins the report by noting that Coalition Forces, mostly US, used 350 tons of DU weapons in about 45 days in 1991, primarily in the stretch of Iraq northwest of Kuwait where Iraqi troops were on their retreat. Then, in 2003, during the Shock and Awe bombing of Baghdad, the US used another 150 tons of DU. He says that cancer is spreading from the conflict area as a health epidemic and will only get worse. The cancer rate has more than tripled over the last 16 years in Najaf.

According to Dr. Najim, "When DU hits a target, it aerosolizes and oxidizes, forming a uranium oxide that is two parts UO3 and one part UO2. The first is water soluble and filters down into the water aquifers and also becomes part of the food chain as plants take up the UO3 dissolved in water. The UO2 is insoluble and settles as dust on the surface of the earth and is blown by the winds to other locations. As aerosolized dust, it can enter the lungs and begin to cause problems as it can cross cell walls and even impact the genetic system."

One of Dr. Najim's grandsons was born with congenital heart problems, Down Syndrome, an underdeveloped liver and leukemia. He believes that the problems are related to the child's parents having been exposed to DU.

Detailing a skyrocketing rate of cancer and other pollution-related illnesses among the population of Fallujah since the two sieges, the report states, "Starting in 2004 when the political situation and devastation of the health care infrastructure were at their worst, there were 251 reported cases of cancer. By 2006, when the numbers more accurately reflected the real situation, that figure had risen to 688. Already in 2007, 801 cancer cases have been reported. Those figures portray an incidence rate of 28.21 [per 100,000] by 2006, even after screening out cases that came into the Najaf Hospital from outside the governorate, a number which contrasts with the normal rate of 8-12 cases of cancer per 100,000 people.

"Two observations are striking. One, there has been a dramatic increase in the cancers that are related to radiation exposure, especially the very rare soft tissue sarcoma and leukemia. Two, the age at which cancer begins in an individual has been dropping rapidly, with incidents of breast cancer at 16 (years of age), colon cancer at 8 (years of age), and liposarcoma at 1.5 years (of age)." Dr. Assad noted that 6 percent of the cancers reported occurred in the 11-20 age range and another 18 percent in ages 21-30.

"The importance of this information confirms there is a big disaster in this city.... The main civilian victims of most illnesses were the children, and the rate of them represents 72 percent of total illness cases of 2006, most of them between the ages of 1 month and 12 years.... Many new types and terrible amounts of illnesses started to appear [from] 2006 until now, such as Congenital Spinal cord abnormalities, Congenital Renal abnormalities, Septicemia, Meningitis, Thalassemia, as well as a significant number of undiagnosed cases at different ages. The speed of the appearance these signals of pollution after one year of military operations refers to the use of a great amount of prohibited weapons used in 2004 battles. The continued pollution maybe will lead to a genetic drift, starting to appear with many abnormalities in children, because the problems were related to exposure of the child's parents to pollution sources and this may lead to more new abnormalities in the f uture. According to the security situation with many checkpoints and irregular cards to allow the civilians to enter or exit the city until now, all this helps to continue the terrible situation for this time. Therefore, we think that all these data is only 50 percent of the real numbers of illnesses."

The Sioux tell their youth to avoid their radioactive native lands if they wish to procreate and prosper. Those in Iraq have no option but to lead maimed lives in their native land.

On February 4, 2009, Muhammad al-Darraji sent President Barack Obama a letter, along with the aforementioned report. A few excerpts are presented here:

"We have the honor to submit with this letter our report on the effects on public health of prohibited weapons used by the United States during its military operations in Fallujah (March-November 2004). It was our intention to present the report to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on 4 March 2008, but both security and political reasons played a significant role in making this task impossible. The report, now in your hands, contains vast evidence and documentation on the catastrophic and continuous pollution in Iraq (to prevent) which nobody has taken any real action to help the victims or clean up polluted places. Some months ago, and in June 2008, I sent this report directly to some US congressmen. Two of them went to my town, Fallujah, and visited the general hospital to investigate the claims contained in our report. No substantial result came out of this visit. In February 2009 one of my colleagues, who worked in the hospital's statistical office and helped gather information about the pollution, was killed by unknown individuals. The blood of my friend is the driving force that led me to write to you directly in order for you to release the facts for which my friend paid with his life. Therefore, we are kindly asking you to look at the content of the attached report and to investigate the serious threats to the right to life of the inhabitants of Fallujah and other polluted places in Iraq, as well as to publicly release the results of this investigation under right of information about what really happened in Iraq."

The president has yet to respond.

---------

Jason Coppola and Bhaswati Sengupta contributed to this article.

Mantaka 'Smoke Signals'-Jan.2011

SHELLMOUND PEACE WALK HONORS NATIVES AMERICANS ANCESTORS

2010-12-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

Shellmound Peace Walk Honors Native American Ancestors

The Bay Area was once ringed by shellmounds, monuments and burial grounds for the Native Americans who lived here.

On Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m., a small circle of people, bundled in scarves, hats and rain gear, stood in the wide median of Encinal Avenue near High Street on Alameda's East End.

"There was a village here until 1847," said Zoe Holder of Alameda's Multicultural Center, one of 30-plus walkers participating in Day Four of the 10-Day Shellmound Peace Walk. The walk passed through Alameda Friday and Saturday.

The Ohlone village was "the last in Alameda and one of the last in the East Bay," said Holder.

Amidst the cars whizzing by, a break in the heavy rain and the playful shouts of children at the bus stop across High Street, the group stood silent, allowing their imaginations to venture back in time to a wholly different landscape, one in which the site was home to members of the Ohlone people.

In 1847, what is now the island of Alameda was a peninsula. Just north of the village site was a huge shellmound, a massive mound of shells, artifacts, as well as human remains — one of hundreds created by native people and marked on early European maps of the region. To the east, the salty waters of the San Francisco Bay would have been at the village's eastern edge. Landfill has since moved the shore many blocks away.

"Just to think they managed to stay here that late," said Holder, observing that most Native Americans were forced out of their Oakland homes by 1809.

The Peace Walk, which this year takes a route from San Jose to Benicia before looping back at the Huchiun Shellmound (now the site of the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville), was first held in 2005. This year the walk is sponsored by Indian People Organizing for Change, Shellmound Peace Walkers, SSP&RIT, a Native American advocacy group, and Foot Prints for Peace.

This fifth Peacewalk is being held in celebration of modifications to the federal Native American Graves Protection and Reparations Act, originally passed in 1990. The act is designed to make it easier for Native Americans like the Ohlone, whose tribes have neither federal recognition nor land, to gain possession of their ancestors' remains when they are unearthed or located in museums or collections.

Made up of shells, including clam, mussel and oyster shells, shellmounds were so huge they appear as landmarks on the original Coast Guard maps of the area. Some of them have been carbon-dated at more than 5,000 years old

"We stop at the different shellmounds that have been desecrated and built over and we pray," said Corrina Gould, a Chochenyo Ohlone and one of walk's organizers. "Our prayers for those four years [of the walk] were to have the ancestors returned. Now the prayer is to find places for them."

Some walkers slept Saturday night at Alameda's First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. Others joined the group for the day, meeting at the corner of Washington and Mound streets for a prayer circle. Then they continued down Washington Street a few blocks, pausing to honor the site where the remains of a 3-year-old Native American girl were unearthed by a construction crew a couple years ago.

Then on they walked down High Street, orange-vested guides marking the front and rear of the group. They reached the site where the Ohlone village once stood, then walked on to Lincoln Park, where they stopped at the plaque that memorializes the site of the huge shellmound, know as the Sather Mound.

It was disassembled in 1908 and the bulk of the material there, including human remains, were carted away and used for roads.

"Shell mounds are cemeteries," said Gould. "And every time there's a building there you know that someone's cemetery was taken out for a shopping center or a Starbucks."

Gould said that shellmounds were common in the Bay Area but not unique to it. "In other places in the world," said Gould, "people have found ways to build around them. But not here."

Then the group walked on, up Lincoln Avenue, some drumming, others chatting. They left Alameda by way of the Park Street Bridge to walk along the Embarcadero, an area once known as "Shellmound Tract."

Saturday's walk finished for the night at a shellmound in Berkeley at Fourth and University, after a day-long 12-mile urban trek.

"When you're walking you don't pay attention to the cold and rain," said Wounded Knee De O'Campo, a member of the Me-Wok tribe, who said he was walking as a call for people of the world to stop the "desecration of scared places."

Rain is necessary, he said, to cleanse the earth, for plants, for animals, for people. "It is always a good day for a walk," he said.

Eva Pearlman-Nov. 22, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Patch. All Rights Reserved.

Fred Short AIM Spiritual Advisor-The Struggle Continues

2010-12-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

' FRED SHORT AIM SPIRITUAL LEADER-THE STRUGGLE CONTIUES'

We want you to know the “struggle” Fred and Connie Short have taken on for a cause much bigger than their personal life and security. The cause is to guarantee the American Indian Freedom of Religious Act of 1978 is not continually violated by the California Department of Corrections.

Presently, Fred was “forced” from his career position of American Indian Spiritual Advisor to inmates in the California State prisons, at the end of August 2010. Fred’s case is in the California State Appeals court; 4 hours of testimony has been taken and the judge complimented Fred’s honor. Currently, the Department of Corrections offered to clear Fred’s work file and offered a financial buy out. This is a clear tactic to silence Fred on these critical matters.

Fred is very clear this case must proceed to federal court because the State Department of Corrections is denying Indian inmates the rights to practice their religion the harassment of the American Indian Spiritual Advisors has been ongoing. The discrimination against Native American inmates has prevented them access to Native religious practices.

This “stand” on Fred’s part has left him without a source of income since the end of August, 2010. We have counseled, and understand $3000.00 must be gathered by January 1st, 2011 to allow Fred and Connie to proceed.

The community letter is to give you a chance to protect this “warriors” family while this case moves to Federal Court. This is an opportunity for your money to directly benefit someone you know who is a leader, doing the right thing.

So we ask you to consider writing a check directly to:

Fred Short

then mail it to Fred and Connie’s home at:

1004 Wellington Drive

Modesto, CA 95350

Please remember all donations must arrive before January 1st, 2011. Fred and Connie’s phone numbers are: 209-526-7210 or 209-352-6374. Feel free to call Fred and talk directly about the contents of this letter.

We want to give you further background/history/and context so you understand why Fred is pushing this case further even at this own expense.

Back in 1969, American Indian inmates at San Quentin organized to reach agreements with officials on the use of Indian medicine within the “walls”.

Following this pioneer effort, in 1975, the California Native Community signed a treaty with the Department of Corrections around American Indian religious medicine practices. Our friend Fred Short was one of the signers of this treaty.

Then, the historical 9 month walk of 500 nations across the United States to win the American Indian Freedom of Religious Act took place in 1978. Concurrently, the California American Indian 500 Mile Spiritual Marathon Relay was initiated as Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement could not leave California as the Federal government had sentenced him to 250 years in prison for standing up at Wounded Knee.

Today, 33 years later Fred is the 500 mile running team’s Spiritual Advisor. You might know Fred has a back broken in 4 places and has lived with this condition uncomplaining. He never used this back injury to miss work. This broken back has slowed Fred but he has never stopped serving the community. Yet, as an example of the unfairness of his supervisor, they said you can’t work because we have seen you lie down at work. Although, Fred said that is one way to relieve my back pain instead of sitting. Fred now has 37 years of clean and sober time. He does not take pills or medication. In court, the judge commended Fred for his willingness to handle his work life in such a manner.

The state’s position has been, we won’t pay unemployment or disability. Fred wants his state “badge” back so he can again reenter the prisons to work. The Department of Corrections wants to shut him out and silence his voice that sounds out the ceremonial rights.+

One more example of the daily harassment and discrimination - Fred had introduced a program to teach Indian languages – the recording tapes were not allowed. This is a direct violation of longstanding agreements allowing for the practice of Freedom of Religion Act and side agreements at the state level with the Department of Corrections.

So, I hope this letter helps us all reach an understanding that we must join Fred and the other spiritual advisors to go ahead with this suit against the Department of Corrections. I’m sure you can see Fred is putting ‘principle before personality’ - Fred does not want to retire, but serve.

Would you please pass this letter on to friends who care about the American Freedom of Religion Act; that it has to be protected and preserved.

Fred Short’s case speaks for all of the other California Indian Spiritual Advisors within the prison system.

If you care to speak to me about how you can further help, or help in a different way, you may call me at 650-941-4341 or email me at johnthunder1022@yahoo.com.

Our sincere thanks,

John Malloy

Director of the California American Indian 500 Mile Spiritual Marathon Relay Team

NCAI ENDORSES UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

2010-11-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

NCAI endorses UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Coulter urges action at Organization of American States

WASHINGTON – The National Congress of American Indians has passed a resolution supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and urging its endorsement by state governments and Congress.

The resolution was adopted unanimously by NCAI’s Subcommittee of Human, Religious and Cultural Concerns, presented to the Litigation and Governance Committee, and finally adopted unanimously by the general assembly without discussion during NCAI’s 65th annual conference in Phoenix Oct. 19 – 24.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Sept. 13, 2007, in a historic vote by an overwhelming majority – 143 member states voted in favor, 11 abstained and four – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – voted against the declaration. Each of the four countries that opposed the declaration have large indigenous populations who own or have claims to huge land masses.

While it is not binding in law, the declaration represents the highest moral standard for the treatment of the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous peoples, written as it is in a human rights framework that will guide government policies for indigenous communities and promote the participation of indigenous peoples in the political processes and decisions that affect them.

The NCAI resolution recognizes that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “reinforces the respect and protection of full self-determination rights by and on behalf of U.S. Tribal Nations as well as the protection of tribal lands and treaties as a matter of international law and policy and is therefore in the vital interests of all U.S. Tribal Nations.”

The resolution acknowledges that the declaration expresses both the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights regarding culture, identity, language, employment, health, educational and other issues.

The UN Declaration lays out the minimum human rights necessary for the “survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world.” These include the right of self-determination, protections from discrimination and genocide, and recognition of rights to lands, territories and resources that are essential to the identity, health and livelihood of indigenous peoples. The declaration also explicitly requires that these rights and protections are balanced with other rights and interpreted in accordance with the principles of democracy, justice, non-discrimination, good governance and respect for the human rights of everyone.

The NCAI resolution reiterates the declaration’s provisions that “discrimination against indigenous people should be abolished and that promotion of their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them should be encouraged.”

The resolution asserts that indigenous peoples’ “right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development is vital according to this declaration.”

The NCAI document promises to send its resolution “to all state Governors and legislators for support through their legislature for memorial resolutions to the Congress of the United States; and. ... the NCAI calls upon the United States to sign the declaration.”

Robert Tim Coulter, one of the original authors of the declaration and executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Mont., and Washington, D.C., says the declaration is “the most significant development in international human rights in decades. Tribes must work harder than ever to pressure the U.S. to respect these rights.”

Coulter said the best way to gain support is to demand that the United States join in adopting a strong Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Organization of American States. The OAS is currently negotiating a powerful American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples much like the U.N. declaration.

The OAS is the principal forum for strengthening democracy and human rights in the Western Hemisphere and is made up of 35 member nations in North, Central and South America.

“We must publicly protest the continuing violation of our rights in the United States, and we must demand serious action in the OAS to finalize an effective declaration supported by all countries in the Americas,” he said.

Coulter urged tribes to get involved at upcoming OAS meetings in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 26 – 30 and March 23 – 27, and tribal leaders to make plans now to attend “to ensure our voices are heard.”

More information is available at the OAS Web site http://www.oas.org/.

“We have to continue fighting to change discriminatory and grossly unjust laws that are applied to Native peoples.” Coulter said.

While the U.S. government has made no move toward endorsing the declaration in the 14 months since its passage, both Canada and Australia have inched forward.

Canada’s House of Commons endorsed the declaration on April 8, and called on the Senate and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration to “fully implement the standards contained therein.”

Harper declined to do so, claiming that the declaration is not applicable in Canada.

Ironically, two months later Harper tacitly admitted just how applicable the Declaration’s human rights protections are in Canada. On June 11, Harper issued the first formal apology from a Canadian prime minister for the brutal Indian residential schools that were federally financed from the 1870s until the last residential school was closed in 1998.

“The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history,” Harper said. “Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country. The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language.”

Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who defeated former Prime Minister John Howard last December, has demonstrated his intention to improve relations with the country’s indigenous peoples. The government issued a “National Apology to the Stolen Generations” in February and a commitment to “Close the Gap” in indigenous health inequality in March.

According to Peter Seidel, a partner in Public Interest Law, in an article published in The Guardian (Australia) Oct. 15, the government is close to endorsing the Declaration.

“Australia’s long held opposition to the Declaration now looks set to change, with the Commonwealth expected shortly to formalize its support. When it’s taken, the step of formally, albeit belatedly, supporting the Declaration will be very powerful symbolism for Australia. And it will of course strengthen, not diminish, our reputation within the international community as a country at the vanguard of promoting and protecting the basic human rights of all, particularly the most disenfranchised,” Seidel wrote.

Indian Country Today- Nov. 17, 2010

CALLING ALL NATIVE SPIRIT WARRIORS, ADVOCATES AND ACTIVISTS! STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF GLEN COVE SACRED SITE IN VALLJEO CA. ON NOV. 11, 2010

2010-11-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

VALLEJO, CA.- THIS IS A ADVISORY ALERT TO ALL NATIVE SPIRIT WARRIORS, ADVOCATES AND ACTIVISTS TO REPORT TO DUTY ON NOVEMBER, 11TH, 2010 AT GLEN COVE SACRED SITE SHELL MOUND IN VALLEJO CA.!!!

There is a high potential that the City of Vallejo CA. government may have have trucks and other heavy equipment to destroy the 4000 year old Shell Mound, where thousands upon thousands of the Ancestors sleep.

The park and recreation division of the City of Vallejo, the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD) has plans to go ahead to destroy one of the last remaining prehistoric partial intact bay shore Shell mounds of California Native America!!

A call is being placed to all Spirit Warriors, Advocates and Activists to assemble at Glen Cove at 8 am on November 11th, 2010 to prevent trucks, bulldozers and other heavy equipment from eco-raping the sacred Shell Mound site!!

Brothers and Sisters, the time for talk is over! No compromise in the DEFENSE OF THE ANCESTORS!!

FOR INFO:

707/ 557-2140

GLEN COVE SACRED SITE UNDER ATTACK, VALLEJO COPS ARE CALLED TO HARASS NATIVE ADVOCATES

2010-11-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Vallejo, Ca.- On Tuesday, November 2, 2010 the Greater Vallejo Recreational Park District (G.V.R.D): the Park and Recreation division of the City of Vallejo CA. attempted to bring a fleet of large drilling trucks to attempt to take core samples from the 4,000 year old Shell Mound where thousands of Native ancestors are buried.

A handful of Native Advocates were able to stop the drilling for the time at the Sacred site, then the G.V.R.D called the Vallejo Police Department to have them arrested.

However the V.P.D. backed off and backed down! There were no arrests! The drilling did not happen!

There is a call to Native community to come out to Glen Cove, on November 11, 2010 to stop the eco-rape of the Shell Mound Sacred site.

For more information:

707/ 557-2140
505/ 603-2908
510/ 478-4569

ALERT!!! THE ANCESTORS ARE CALLING!! PLEASE RESPOND TO SPIRITUAL CEREMONY AT GLEN COVE SACRED SITE IN VALLEJO,CA

2010-09-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

'THE ANCESTORS ARE CRYING' SPIRITUAL CEREMONY AT GLEN COVE SHELLMOUND SACRED SITE IN VALLEJO, CA

VALLEJO,CA- There will be a large spiritual gathering of several thousand people at the Glen Cove Shellmound sacred site on Saturday, October 16,2010 at 12 noon.

The City of Vallejo CA, park and recreation division- the Greater Vallejo Recreation District and their developers- Alta Planning/Design are planning to start the physical eco-rape and destruction of ancient 5000 year shell mound in less than 10 days of this writing!!

We all asking all advocates, activists, elders,spiritual leaders, families and the greater Native community to join us in this Spiritual ceremony. We are are organizing for well over 2000
people to attend!

Please come join us on the REAL FRONT LINES FOR MORE HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS FOR INDIAN COUNTRY!!

'THE ANCESTORS ARE CRYING ', BRING YOUR PRAYERS, YOUR MEDICINE, YOUR SONGS to stop the eco-rape and destruction of the shell mound where the Ancient Ones Sleep!

GLEN COVE IN VALLEJO, CA AT 12 NOON, OCTOBER, 16, 2010

For more information:

707/ 557-2140
505/ 603-2908

JUDGE STRIKES DOWNS CHALLENGE TO VOTER PAMPHLET ARGUEMENT AGAINST GUIDIVILLE BAND OF POMO HOTEL CASINO RESORT

2010-09-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

Judge strikes down challenge to voter-pamphlet argument against Richmond casino

MARTINEZ -- A Contra Costa Superior Court judge on Monday upheld language in a ballot argument against a proposed Las Vegas-style hotel-casino resort on Richmond's waterfront, the day before the voters pamphlet reaches the printers.

The legal wrangling over wording underscored how carefully supporters and opponents are crafting their message to voters on Measure U, the advisory measure on whether a casino should be built.

Richmond resident Don Gosney argued that opponents incorrectly state in their ballot argument that there is no guarantee locals would be hired and that casino jobs would be low-wage. Gosney filed a petition in court last week seeking to delete the two statements.

Opponents have "no right in the public forum to make false statements," said Michael Sweet, Gosney's attorney.

But opponents maintain that the statements are true and that the public should hear them.

"They're trying to argue this is a done deal, and it is not," said Peter Sturges, who represents an opponent.

The promise of jobs has become a major issue in the debate over the casino-hotel resort that Upstream and the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians want to build at the old Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot.

The project's draft environmental report estimates 17,000 operational jobs. Under a current agreement, Guidiville would hire Richmond residents for 40 percent of nonmanagement casino and hotel jobs. Developer Jim Levine of Upstream has pegged that pool at 3,000 workers, meaning at least 1,200 spots would be set aside for Richmond residents. Levine has said the casino intends to go beyond that and include 1,500 on-site workers in retail, entertainment and other services.

Supporters have embraced these figures, but critics say the numbers are inflated and jobs for locals are not certain.

Named as parties of interest in Gosney's petition were the people who penned the opponents' ballot argument: Joan Garrett, Andres Soto, Kenneth Davis, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Vice Mayor Jeff Ritterman.

On Monday, Judge Barry Baskin twice sent the parties out of the courtroom to talk among themselves and come up with language everyone could agree on. The attorneys spent more than an hour attempting a compromise, each drafting wording and walking back and forth down the hallway to deliver sheets of paper carrying different proposals. They also met in a conference room but could not reach an agreement.

So they returned to the courtroom to argue their case. Sweet pointed to provisions in the land disposition and municipal services agreements between the city and developer that call for local hiring and a living wage, which would be $16.69 an hour without benefits and $15.19 an hour with benefits.

But Sturges, who represents Soto, said the agreements carry "loopholes galore." He read aloud provisions that give the developer some leeway with its work force. In addition, the contracts are not final, state and federal approvals are still needed, and legal challenges threaten to railroad the promise of jobs altogether.

Baskin ruled to deny Gosney's petition, meaning there will be no changes to the arguments for or against Measure U in the voters pamphlet.

"Both sides have overstated what the facts in the case are," Baskin said. While the opponents' argument oversimplifies, he said, "I don't think it rises to the level of being false or misleading."

Contra Costa Times- August 30,2010

CALIFORINIA SACRED SITE GETS RESPITE

2010-08-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Sacred Site Gets Respite

PALA, Calif. – A site in rural San Diego County deemed culturally and environmentally sensitive by Indians was given a respite Aug. 5 from being turned into a landfill.

The Pala Band of Mission Indians, whose community sits two miles away from the site, and an environmental group, objected to the application to operate the proposed 1,770-acre landfill filed from Gregory Canyon Landfill Ltd of San Diego, the tribe said in a press release.

A San Diego County public agency rescinded its previous green light on the application after the tribe and the Natural Resources Defense Council pointed out the lack of financial responsibility and other inaccuracies in the application, the tribe said in the press release.

“We want to make sure that this time the county is really looking at a comprehensive application package that accurately reflects the environmental, financial and cultural impacts that this landfill will have,” said Robert Smith, chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. “The county has a duty to make sure new landfills do not destroy important cultural or environmental resources or threaten public health, and it can’t do that unless it has accurate information.”

Gregory Landfill spokesperson Nancy Chase said the application was not rejected by San Diego County officials but voluntarily withdrawn from county consideration because it needed to be updated.

“It had nothing to do with financial responsibility.”

County records indicate that its positive determination on the application was rescinded and Gregory Landfill withdrew the application on the same day.

The landfill has been a subject of dispute since at least the 1990s and the subject of court actions, including an order by a superior court to make corrections on a mandated environmental impact report and conform to the law in 2006, according to county records.

Gregory Canyon has until Feb. 1, 2011 to resubmit the application, according to the county. The applicant expects to resubmit their application later this month Chase said.

The proposed landfill is located in an area that Pala people consider sacred and home of a restless spirit named Taakwic, who appears in a ball of fire to collect the souls of the dead. The landfill threatens surface and groundwater supplies, which includes a habitat for several sensitive and endangered species and would create traffic congestion and other problems in the serene area if constructed, according to the tribe.

Gregory Landfill maintains that the project’s technology includes redundant liners and monitoring points and pose no threat to water sources.

Indian Country Today-August 30, 2010

UN DELARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE EXPANDS INTO THE FINANCIAL WORLD

2010-08-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

BETHESDA, Md. – The movement to persuade the federal government to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without qualification has grown beyond American Indian and religious communities to the financial world.

Calvert Investments, a financial services company that holds $14.5 billion in assets, and a coalition of investors have submitted comments to the State Department and White House urging the unconditional endorsement of the Declaration.

“Calvert believes indigenous peoples in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe deserve the affirmation and recognition of the broad array of rights set forth in the Declaration, including those related to self-determination, culture, land and natural resources, means of subsistence, treaty rights, non-discrimination, health and social services, protection of sacred sites, education and language,” Calvert CEO and president Barbara J. Krumsiek wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton July 14.

“All these are rights which indigenous peoples themselves have identified as necessary to their survival, well-being and dignity – rights which the international community should fully embrace,” Krumsiek wrote.

The U.N. General Assembly voted to adopt UNDRIP in September 2007 with near unanimous approval. Four states – the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand – voted against the Declaration. Australia and New Zealand have since endorsed the human rights document and Canada has indicated its intention to do so.

The National Congress of American Indians and the United South and Eastern Tribes, the country’s two largest non-governmental organizations representing Indian nations, have passed resolutions urging the government to endorse the Declaration.

Last summer, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution supporting the endorsement of UNDRIP that was quickly followed by similar resolutions by the Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tarpon Springs.

Growing support for the U.S. to reverse its rejection of the Declaration led up to the announcement in April by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice that the U.S. would review its position on the Declaration. The review is now underway with scheduled consultation meetings and a State Department Web site where people may e-mail comments.

Calvert, a socially responsible investment firm, not only asked the federal government to publicly endorse the Declaration but also to disclose its plan for fully implementing the human rights statement.

In 1999, Calvert was the first SRI to develop explicit criteria to address the rights and cultural integrity of American Indians and indigenous peoples around the world.

“We believe that it’s important to share an investor perspective and add another dimension about why it’s important to endorse the Declaration,” said Reed Montague, the indigenous peoples’ rights and product marketing analyst at Calvert.

Montague and Calvert’s team of sustainability analysts review corporations that the firm invests in to see if they have policies and procedures in place that consider and support indigenous people’s rights and to encourage firms to develop appropriate policies and demonstrate best practices regarding how their products, services and operations affect the lives, culture and traditions of indigenous peoples.

This is particularly important for companies operating on indigenous lands, Montague said.

“One of the angles we thought was important to share, as an investing company, is that if the U.S. adopts the UNDRIP we think that is going to help our engagement with these companies in order for them to understand how and why it’s so important,” Montague said.

The U.S. rejection of the Declaration has had the opposite effect, according to Steven Heim, managing director of Boston Commons Assets Management, a socially responsible investment company, and chairman of the advocacy committee of the Indigenous Peoples Working Group of the Social Investment Forum, a national nonprofit membership association for professionals, firms, institutions and organizations engaged in socially responsible and sustainable investing.

“Boston Commons has heard some companies say that not having the U.S. endorse the Declaration has made it difficult for them on a policy basis to include the (principles of the) Declaration in their own corporate human rights policies,” Heim said.

Boston Commons is among the coalition of SRI investors and organizations – including Calvert – that has submitted comments to the State Department, the White House, the National Security Council, and other federal agencies to urge the endorsement of the Declaration “in a positive manner without qualifications, consistent with international human rights.”

The groups include: the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin’s Oneida Trust; the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s Mashantucket Pequot (Western) Endowment Trust; The Morning Star Institute; Mercy Investment Services Corp.; The Christopher Reynolds Foundation; Walden Asset Management; and First Affirmative Financial Network.

Heim said he wrote the coalition’s letter with input from Gary Brouse, the program director at the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, and Armstrong Wiggins, director of the Washington office of the Indian Law Resource Center.

The Declaration “represents a historic milestone in the evolution of the rights of indigenous peoples. We fully expect these rights to be increasingly articulated and adopted both in national and international law. Many of the rights in the Declaration are already being implemented in a number of U.S. federal laws, policies and executive orders,” the coalition wrote.

The Social Funds Web site recently cited a report from EIRIS, a United Kingdom-based investment research firm, which documents the material risks to companies that disregard the rights of indigenous peoples. It quotes John Ruggie, the special representative of the U.N. secretary general on business and human rights, saying that “community challenges on environmental and human rights grounds. … can cause delays in permits, reduced output, reputational hits and project cancellations.”

The investors’ coalition said U.S. endorsement of the Declaration is important to provide “federal policy certainty” for corporations operating on indigenous lands globally.

“As investors, we believe that environmental, social and governance issues have a significant impact on long-term financial returns. We expect that companies that respect indigenous peoples rights and build good relations with indigenous nations will prosper in the long run,” they said.

Indian Country Today-August 10, 2010

2010-07-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

IHS program lauded for anti-domestic abuse efforts

WASHINGTON – New research suggests that a program funded by two federal agencies, and implemented by leading domestic violence organizations, has shown dramatic success in improving the health system’s response to domestic violence in Indian country.

Over the course of the program, known as the Domestic Violence Project, a much larger number of women began receiving interventions focused on improving domestic violence.

Health officials said that when implementation began in 2002, just four percent of women at IHS facilities were screened by doctors and nurses for domestic violence. By 2009, when the program ended, 48 percent of women who sought services at these facilities were being screened.

The program was funded by the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and IHS. It involved more than 100 Indian, tribal and urban health care facilities as well as domestic violence advocacy programs across the nation.

It was conceptualized and managed by the Family Violence Prevention Fund in partnership with faculty from Sacred Circle and Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project. Indian health centers in 18 of the 35 states with federally recognized tribes participated, and the project included work with the Cherokee, Choctaw and Navajo tribes, among others.

A new report, called “Building Domestic Violence Health Care Responses” and authored by FVPF, highlights the program’s progress and offers a series of recommendations to continue the results.

It’s an area where positive results are desperately needed, as many studies have found that rates of domestic violence are overwhelmingly higher for Native American women than for women of any other race or ethnicity.

“In Indian country, health care providers are often the first responders to domestic violence, and the health care setting offers a critical opportunity for early identification and primary prevention of abuse,” said Anna Marjavi, FVPF program manager and co-author of the “Promising Practices” report.

“This report is designed to share all of our lessons learned from this innovative project. We call on all Indian health and community advocacy programs to use this tool to strengthen their communities’ responses to violence.”

One major finding of the report was that, over the course of the program, annual routine assessment for intimate partner and domestic violence of Native women increased 12-fold. Researchers said that’s because the program offered an effective response to violence, identified best practices to raise awareness, improved clinical responses, and strengthened community partnerships to help victims of domestic and sexual violence.

“The Indian Health Service is proud to have been a part of this groundbreaking project,” said Yvette Roubideaux, director of the Indian Health Service, in a statement.

“As a practicing physician in Arizona, I saw first-hand the effects of domestic violence on my patients, their families and communities. I have real hope that more health care providers and tribal communities will learn from the promising practices identified in this report.”

“The Administration for Children and Families funded this work in conjunction with IHS because it is so important that we find solutions to domestic violence in Native communities,” added Bryan Samuels, commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families.

“This project offers real hope for Native women facing violence, that their health providers will recognize the abuse and know how to help them and their children.”

In addition to increasing rates of assessment, the IHS/ACF Domestic Violence Project did the following, according to the report:

•Trained staff members from more than 100 Indian, tribal and urban health care facilities, and domestic violence advocacy programs on domestic violence health system change.
•Developed community-wide domestic violence response teams that include staff from health care, judicial, law enforcement, community programs and tribal councils.

•Developed patient education materials including two posters targeting men and boys with prevention messages specific to domestic violence.

•Tailored the Electronic Health Record to integrate domestic violence routine assessment and implementation of screening reminders.

•Raised public awareness and promoted social norm change through community walks, billboard campaigns, candlelight vigils, radio/TV shows, public service announcements, and staff participation in health fairs, rodeos and powwows.

•Helped victims of domestic violence and sexual assault get the help they need to support their healing from the abuse and promote their health and wellness.

“We need to build on the successes of the IHS/ACF Domestic Violence Project and fund more programs to continue this remarkable progress,” said FVPF President Esta Soler.

“Tribal communities will benefit if we replicate the promising practices and materials we’ve developed, continue to integrate domestic violence and sexual assault into trainings that improve the health care responses to violence, and strengthen the tribal response to sexual assault. We also must expand our work to engage men as role models, address the impact of violence on children, and do more to teach the next generation that violence is never the answer.

Indian Country Today- July 22, 2010

THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF RICHMOND, CA. DISPLAYS SEEDS OF RACISM TO GUIDIVILLE BAND OF POMO

2010-07-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

SUPPORT SELF DETERMINATION AND SOVEREIGNTY OF THE GUIDIVILLE BAND OF POMO

RICHMOND CALIFORNIA- Members of the Richmond City Council are displaying seeds of both racism and prejudice to the Guidiville Band of Pomo with regards to their self-determination to open a Hotel Casino resort on the Guideville Band of Pomo reservation at Pt. Molate in Richmond, CA.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and fellow Council members Jeff Ritterman and Thomas Butt wish to place a so-called advisory measure on whether a casino should be part of development plans for the Guidiville Band of Pomo Hotel Casino Resort at Pt. Molate. If approved it by the Richmond City Council, it would become a ballot measure for the voters of Richmond on November 2,2011.

The City Government is in clear volation of sticking it's nose into the internal affairs of the Guidiville Band of Pomo with regards to its policies of self- determination, self-autonomy and soverneignity under Federal treaty laws.

In November, 2010, the Mayors Office supported the United Nations Declaration on the Indigenous People.

Under articles 3 it states: " Indigenous people have the right to self-determination. By virtue
of the right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development."

Under artlicle 26 it states: " Indigenous people have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources they posses by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well of those which they HAVE ACQUIRED."

TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE deems this as racist action and conduct against the advancement of Native Peoples ,and a clear violation of their national and international Human and Civil Rights.

Richmond may give voters say on Point Molate casino

An advisory measure on whether a casino should be part of development plans on Richmond's waterfront could go before voters Nov. 2.

The City Council is scheduled to consider Tuesday night whether to place a measure on the ballot. It would be advisory only, meaning the city would not be legally bound by it.
Supporters and opponents have floated polls that seem to suggest public opinion is almost evenly divided, Councilman Tom Butt said.

"When something is that close, it's good for the City Council to know where the Richmond electorate is on this before they make a decision," said Butt, who is proposing Tuesday's agenda item.
Upstream Investments and the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians want to build a $1.2 billion casino-hotel resort with as many as 4,000 slot machines, 1,100 hotel rooms, a conference center, restaurants, shops, tribal headquarters, open space and a shoreline trail.

The city extended its land development agreement with Upstream to April 2011 to allow continued negotiations. Meanwhile Guidiville is seeking approval from the Secretary of the Interior to place the land in trust and needs a state gaming compact, both required to open the casino.
Jim Levine of Upstream and Guidiville spokesman Michael Derry could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A public vote appears to have support from a council majority. Butt's agenda item is co-sponsored by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Vice Mayor Jeff
Ritterman.

Councilwoman Maria Viramontes has also proposed a public vote. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but wrote in a letter earlier this month: "The consideration of expanding urban gaming into the Richmond community has created controversy and legitimate concern within and around the Richmond community. ... It would seem appropriate for an alternative as significant as 'urban gaming' that the Richmond City Council should place an advisory measure before the people of Richmond to obtain their serious reflection on the matter."

City leaders said they have the right to consider alternatives to a project with a casino. A 2006 settlement agreement among the city, developers and Citizens for the East Shore Parks over the Point Molate land development agreement gave the city discretion to choose an alternative project.

Last year, Butt sought clarity from the Attorney General's Office, which helped negotiate the settlement, and received a letter that reads in part: "any interpretations of the 2004 LDA that would restrict the city's ability to consider alternative uses of the site, or alternatives that would not involve lease or transfer to Upstream, ... must be rejected."

The Richmond City Council is scheduled to consider placing an advisory measure on the Nov. 2 ballot on whether a casino should be part of Point Molate's future. The council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Community Services Building, 440 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond.

Contra Costa Times-July 15, 2010

IST ANNUAL RICHMOND, CA. POW-WOW

2010-07-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

RICHMOND,CA.- Hundreds of people attended the 1st Annual Richmond Pow-Wow at the Richmond Marina this past June 26th, 2010. The theme of this years Richmond Pow-Wow was entitled "Honoring Our Native Community".

Mike Raccoon Eyes Kinney, Native Advocate and Dave Romero, Air Personality from KKUP, were carrying the some of the Flags for Opening Ceremony.

TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE WILL BE ON VACATION

2010-06-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE WILL BE ON VACATION

Indian Country Blog- 'TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE' will be on vacation from June 21 to July 18, 2010.

We have been working hard to cover all local and regional stories in Indian Country.

So now it's time to have a little fun!

Wado and A-ho!

Mike Raccoon Eyes Kinney- Editor

Site for Public Comment on UN Delaration on the Rights of Indigenous People

2010-06-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

Site for public comment on UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People

WASHINGTON – Following up on the administration’s promise to review its position on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the State Department has created a new Web site to receive public input on the issue.

State Department’s Office of the Spokesman issued a press release June 4 announcing the new Web site outreach. The press release referred to an announcement by U.S. Permanent Representative Susan E. Rice of the federal government’s intention to review its position on the Declaration during the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York in April.

UNDRIP was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 13, 2007, in a historic vote by an overwhelming majority of 143 states in favor to four against, with 11 abstentions. Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand – all countries whose sizeable indigenous populations can claim large areas of land – were the only four states that voted no.

Since then, the Canadian Parliament – not the federal government – passed a resolution in April 2008, endorsing the Declaration, the Australian government adopted the Declaration in April 2009, and New Zealand announced its support for the indigenous human rights document on April 19 – the opening day of the Ninth Session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Rice, accompanied by a 20-member U.S. delegation, attended the forum the day after New Zealand’s announcement and promised the review in a speech.

“I am pleased to announce that the United States has decided to review our position regarding the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” Rice said.

“We recognize that, for many around the world, this Declaration provides a framework for addressing indigenous issues. During President Obama’s first year in office, tribal leaders encouraged the United States to re-examine its position on the Declaration – an important recommendation that directly complements our commitment to work together with the international community on the many challenges that indigenous peoples face.”

The State Department press release says that as part of the U.S. government’s review, the department, along with other federal agencies, “will be hosting consultations with federally recognized tribes and dialogues with interested NGOs and other stakeholders” as part of the government’s re-examination of the Declaration.

It is not clear if the State Department has completed a formal tribal consultation plan, as required by President Obama’s memorandum to department and agency heads during the first White House Tribal Leaders Summit last November. According to the memorandum, departments and agencies were to complete the formal consultation plans within 90 days.

The State Department will post consultation and meeting schedules online at www.state.gov/s/tribalconsultation/declaration/index.htm.

Tribal leaders, non-governmental organizations and others who may not be able to attend consultation meetings are encouraged to participate in the review by e-mailing comments to Declaration@state.gov, or by submitting comments via mail to the Department of State at: S/SR Global Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street N.W., Suite 1317, Washington, D.C. 20520.

“Written comments are requested by July 15, 2010 to ensure that they can be given due consideration in the review,” the department said.

QUEBEC TO ADOPT UN DECLARATION ONTHE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

2010-05-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

Quebec to adopt Declaration

QUEBEC CITY – The Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador has endorsed an initiative by the Parti Quebecois urging the Quebec government to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The PQ is the opposition to the Quebec Liberal Party, which is currently in power in the province. The PQ recommended adoption of the Declaration by Quebec’s National Assembly, the province’s legislative body.

“We are satisfied with the progress of the PQ proposal to have the National Assembly recognize the Declaration,” said Ghislain Picard, AFNQL chief. “We strongly wish that, once supported, the government of Quebec will respect all the articles as well as the values attached to it in its areas of competence. We are calling out for respect of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in its entirety and at all levels.”

The AFNQL represents 43 indigenous communities of Abenaki, Algonquin, Atikamekw, Cree, Huron-Wendat, Maliseet, Micmac, Mohawk, Montagnais-Innu and Naskapi peoples in Quebec and Labrador. It is linked to the Assembly of First Nations, the national organization that represents all First Nations citizens in Canada.

The Quebec government responded quickly to the push from its opposition party, indicating on May 6 that it intends to endorse the international indigenous human rights document.

Quebec’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Pierre Corbeil said his government is going to work with opposition parties to bring a motion supporting the Declaration to the National Assembly before the current session ends in June, according to the Montreal Gazette.

If the motion is successful, Quebec will be the first province in Canada to adopt the Declaration. In the United States, the Maine State Legislature adopted the Declaration in 2008.

The province is continuing bilateral discussions with the federal government in Ottawa on the issue, Corbeil said.

“It will be up to Canada to take (a) position at the United Nations, but that doesn’t prevent us from getting a consensus on the issue at the national assembly.”

In September 2007, 143 countries voted at the U.N. General Assembly to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a document 20-plus years in the making that defines and protects the human rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples.

Canada and the U.S. are the only nation states remaining that have not adopted the document. Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand voted against it. Australia has since adopted the Declaration, and New Zealand announced its support of the Declaration April 19 during the opening day of the Ninth Session of the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

During the Forum, Picard presented a joint statement on behalf of the AGNQL, the AFN, and other human rights organizations that said, “We request the government (of Canada) to instantly adopt this vital human rights instrument without qualifications. The Declaration sets out minimum standards with respect to rights that the states must respect. The government must ensure that the laws of Canada, including the Indian Act, comply with the Declaration and not vice versa.”

Canada announced it would adopt the Declaration during this year’s March 3 Speech from the Throne by Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean, who referred to the Declaration as “an aspirational document.” In his response to the Throne Speech, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Canadian government “will take steps to endorse [the Declaration] in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws.”

The language has raised concerns among indigenous leaders that Canada does not intend to accept the Declaration as a whole and fully implement it, as was urged in a motion adopted by the House of Commons in April 2008. But anything less than full endorsement would perpetuate the status quo, they say.

The PQ fell into the same conditional stance in urging the National Assembly to adopt the Declaration.

PQ leader Pauline Marois said her party fully supports the declaration – as long as it doesn’t threaten the territorial integrity of a possible independent Quebec. Quebec sovereignty, or separatism, has been an aspirational goal of PQ for decades.

Marois said Article 46 of the declaration eased her concerns about the state’s potential loss of land or political power to indigenous peoples.

The article states that the declaration doesn’t authorize or encourage “any action which would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent states.”

The Gazette published a scathing editorial called “Double standards on both sides of the aisle” that criticized the provincial government for its intention to adopt what it called “this fatuous mess of a Declaration.”

The editorial accuses the province of playing politics with the Declaration.

“Of course, Quebec was careful to make sure, in advance, that this gesture, which seems intended to embarrass Ottawa, will not actually cost this province any money or power. … It’s particularly striking that Marois was so determined to make sure Native peoples could never secede from a sovereign Quebec. How’s that for a double standard?”

Eric Cardinal, a spokesman for the AFNQL, said debate over possible conditions is “really just political.” The Declaration exists as a whole and already creates obligations on states whether they voted for or against it, Cardinal said.

“The indigenous nations already use the Declaration to support their positions in cases. If the Canadian government officially recognizes the Declaration, maybe it would help us to put more pressure in court on judges. That’s what we hope for. We know it could not be perfect,” Cardinal said. “Canada could put some conditions on its endorsement. We won’t be happy with that, but an official recognition could still help us. They can say (they have conditions) but it’s not really for them to choose or decide. It’s the courts and the international system that will decide.”

Indian Country Today- May 20, 2010

CELEBRATING OUR ANCESTORS AT GLEN COVE!!!

2010-05-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Shellmound Friends,

It is with great excitement that we are passing on this wonderful news!!! As of Today May 14, 2010 , Museums and agencies that receive federal monies will be required to return "culturally unidentifiable remains".

This includes my ancestors. I want to thank all of you for your prayers, support and footsteps as we undertook together a great feat in paying respect to those who came before us.

We would like to celebrate this blessing by coming together on Saturday May 29th, 2010 , 3pm, at the Glen Cove site in Vallejo and have a potluck lunch. It would be a great reunion to see those of you that helped with making our prayers for our ancestors return closer to a reality.

Please come as you would for a walk. Bring your own plate, bowl, cup and silverware. Bring Tarps or blankets to sit on or a chair if you are unable to get on the ground. Bring your favorite dish or drink to share. Bring your stories and your smiles.

This circle is open to everyone that has assisted us through shelter, transport, food, walking, praying, protesting, educating, printing, donations or just offering words of encouragement. We would love to see all of you or as many as can come. Please share this invite with others that you know would love to come or you know has helped us in some way on our journey.. LETS CELEBRATE!!!!!!!

Peace and Blessings

Corrina

HELP ALEX WHITE PLUME'S FAMILY WITH YOUR DONATION

2010-05-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Brothers & Sisters:

I am very sorry to report an emergency situation, which struck one of our dearest members.

Our brother, Alex White Plume, has lost 2 of his young nephews in a fatal car accident. We send our most sincere condolences to his family.

His sister, Alta White Butterfly, lost her young son, Tawapaha Luta (Red War Bonnet), and his sister, Romona White Plume, lost her son, Jered (Mata Ska - White Bear).

The devastation on this family is truly unbearable. The boys belongings were burned last night.

As we all know, funerals are very expensive, and these boys were young, there was no life insurance to help with their burial ceremonies.

I ask that you give from your heart and help with whatever donation you can make to ease the financial burden on the White Plume family. Donations can be sent to:

Mr. Alex White Plume
P.O. Box 71
Manderson, SD 57756

He will be sure to get the donations to his sisters.

We pray for the White Plume family's condolences, that our Great Creator have mercy on them in their time of grief.

Many blessings to you all for always being there when you are all needed.

Noquisi Tsisqua, Star

Red Shoulder Council
Indiani D' America Liberi
Feather Alert
Artists Against Bullying
Native American Poetry & Wisdom Writers
Red Hand Society

INDIAN COUNTRY'S HISTORICAL TRAUMA AND THE MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES OF THE 21 ST CENTURY

2010-05-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

INDIAN COUNTRY'S HISTORICAL TRAUMA AND THE MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES OF THE 21ST CENTURY

By Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney

About 85% of Native People nationally have mental health issues such as anxiety-panic attacks, depression, and anger- violence issues. We as Native People must ask ourselves - "Why?"

It stems from two places; the first part is we suffer from Historical Trauma from the past. It is inter-generational. The second part of Historic Trauma is how Native People inter-generationally manifest the mental, emotional, and psychology along with the physical symptoms of diabetes, obesity and alcoholism. This combined equates both mental and physical health issues of Indian Country.

According Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, Ph.D. " Five hundred years of conquest death cultural deprivation, and mistreatment have left North American native populations with unresolved grief about their history, which must be openly discussed if it is going to be resolved."

Medical anthropologist Spero Manson, Ph.D.,: "What Native people living today experience counts more than what happened to their ancestors. Trauma is also associated with risk for and high rates of onset and poor control of diabetes, asthma,and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."

Whether it is government commodities on the reservation or the food you buy in the super market or fast food restaurants, all of it has high quantities of sugar. Sugar contributes directly to diabetes, obesity and alcoholism, which in turn contributes to the mental health issues; anxiety-panic attacks, depression and anger-violence issues. They in turn manifest into cardio-vascular problems, strokes and heart attacks. All of these are directly linked and inter-connected as being the biggest killers of Native People in Indian Country.

Considering the issues of mental and physical health that transpires from Historical Trauma, it is imperative we have Spiritual answers to resolve these problems. I cannot emphasis enough that we as Native People are Creator's Holy People.

We must make a real spiritual commitment as Native individuals to quit beating ourselves up, pounding ourselves and attacking ourselves for crimes we have never committed with regards to Historical Trauma. In this Spiritual commitment, we as Indian people must empower ourselves by working daily at having better self-esteem, self-worth and self-value.

We have to learn how to reprogram ourselves as Indian individuals from a spiritual place. When you understand how Historical Trauma has handicapped and destroyed us mentally, psychologically and emotionally, then we can be better prepared to embrace the empowerment of our Native Spirituality and in turn the power of Spiritual transformation.

The second part of the reprogramming is addressing the sugar based food and drink you consume, and the issues of food consumption that lead to sugar addictions that lead to obesity, diabetes and alcoholism.

I am former 22-year alcohol career drinker, like many people in Indian Country. I have been sober for 12 years now. When I was abusing alcohol, I saw no vision, no hope and no tomorrow. While I was active in the Movement for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country, I still had no real plan with my alcoholism.

I had attempted to gain my sobriety, but always failed. I had issues of hatred for mainstream society and self-hatred issues of myself as being a mixed-blood Native person. All of the men of my family were inter-generational alcoholics who died in their late 30's or early 40's due to alcohol related diseases or accidents. Being sober and reaching the age of 57, I have outlived all of the men on my father's side of the family.

By my mid-40's I was still drinking and abusing alcohol. One day I was in a local bookstore looking in their Native section and saw a book that changed my life spiritually. It was entitled 'Lame Deer- Seeker of Visions'. In his autobiography, Elder Lame Deer had reclaimed his life from alcoholism and became a famous Spiritual Lakota holy man and doctor.

The chapter 'Getting Drunk and Going to Jail' had a profound message for me. I devoured every word describing what he experienced while being a career drinker. He clearly explained the cycle of alcohol addiction of why we as Native People drink-the sugar in the alcohol. He explained that all Native People were on a treadmill cycle of great quantities of sugar-based food and drink consumption. The sugar in the alcohol was a part of that cycle.

Elder Lame Deer radicalized me when I saw sugar and its relationship to alcohol.

At that time in my life, sugar was the only thing I lived for. Each day began with ten cups of coffee with great amounts of sugar before I went to work. My mornings at work included countless donuts and pastries, more coffee, and of course, more sugar. At lunchtime, I was off to the local bar for several glasses of wine ... more sugar. I finished the workday with more donuts and pastries, coffee and more sugar. Drinking malt liquor and eating overly processed foods like macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches, fast food and more malt liquor kept me on the treadmill of destruction.

I had become a compulsive eater and craved foods that were high in sugar. I eventually beat the compulsive eating disorder during the first year of my sobriety from alcohol and lost 58 pounds. I am still working on my goal to reduce my intake of processed foods like white flour and sugar.

I went to the Creator and did prayer to ask for spiritual guidance and help to ensure my spiritual commitment to break the cycle of compulsive drinking and sugar addiction. By the third day of my sobriety, I knew that I had the strength to beat the addictions.

I have been sober for 12 years and can proudly tell you I have never once relapsed with alcohol and I lost 58 pounds in the first year of my sobriety.

'IN ORDER TO HAVE BASIC SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION, ONE MUST BE EMPOWERED BY TRADITIONAL NATIVE SPIRITUALITY '

The Creator shows us by example that we must sacrifice something lesser in order to have something greater. In order to return to Native spirituality and to make Spiritual transformation, one must learn our songs, our dances, learn the medicines and above all else; learn the Prayers.

Every thought and word is a prayer. There are different ways of Praying. The Spiritual power of prayer can permit Native people to do anything in a good way. If you do not do the medicine or prayer in the right way, then you can't expect to benefit from it. Every thought and word, 24 hours a day is a prayer.

That is what has to guide our lives.

The Creator is interested in what is good and spiritually right for us. We have to approach the Creator in a good and humble way. When a Native individual has become gifted with spiritual blessing from the Creator, it represents a different kind of power, a different kind energy and a different kind of strength for we Native people.

The Creator wants you stand up and be proud when you pray. Be proud to be alive and thank the Creator for the life he has given you on Earth Mother. Be thankful at the same time you are standing before the Creator, rather than bowing down like a slave.

I would like to see our Native youth and young adults learn to pray like the old time Natives with proper respect and regard for all the life forces that Creator has placed here including ones self.

Always pray over all of your medicine, even modern medicine to give it strength and direction as to what you want it to do, you should pray over all of your food and drink to make healing medicine out of it.

If you are returning back to Native Spirituality and becoming empowered, the time for your spiritual transformation will occur when the Creator has blessed it to be! You should start thinking about what you are going to do with your new life. You will not be repeating mistakes as before. A better life will occur once your mind and body is cleaned up from the mental and physical issues of Historic Trauma.

With Spiritual transformation, it will mean Native People can redefine and rethink how we perceive ourselves as Native people. You can redefine what your spiritual commitment to Native families and communities shall be as well.

A spiritual objective for Indian individuals and families is to try to do everything a little better tomorrow than it was today. Continuous improvement is the path to a higher standard of spiritual leadership for today's issues in Indian Country. We need to acknowledge that attachments such as power, privilege and material possessions can make it difficult to maintain high moral and spiritual standards for Native people.

By the same token, personal observations and a spiritual commitment to the truth, will lead us to see things as they really are and to understand the true needs of Indian Country people. We must be able to spiritually feel our Indian communities, not just intellectualize the needs of our People.

When you as a Spiritual Native person stand up for what you believe is right, you must have the spiritual courage to acknowledge your actions and face the consequences. With spiritual courage, Native people can win battles for their communities, but it takes a spiritual will to win the war. It is the spiritual moral and values of the Native community that gives us the confidence to overcome the barriers for more Human and Civil Rights for Indian Country.

We must spiritually strive to serve Indian Country. It will increase our bonds with our People and move us forth as individuals, and challenge us to reach higher standards that will help place us in step with the times.

"WE MUST ASK OURSELVES FROM A SPIRITUAL PLACE, WHAT IS INDIAN COUNTRY WILLING TO DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL?"

Each of us in Indian Country must have a spiritual commitment to live by, a standard code of spiritual conduct. For if we do, our Native and non-Native leaders will have to follow. Each one of us in Indian Country is setting a spiritual example for someone else, and each one of us has a spiritual responsibility to shape the future of our families and communities.

I hear people in Indian Country say that poverty/unemployment, lack of education, alcohol, drugs and violence are killing off our Native People. These issues are all valid, but I believe the underlying issue is the loss of our Spirituality, our Traditional way of life and our self-esteem. Our Spirituality, self-esteem and commitment to ourselves, to our Tribes and Indian Country can empower us to overcome the obstacles that so many of us face.

At one time, our Nations were strong with our ceremonies, dances, prayers, songs and medicines. We must now recapture and use the forms of spiritual power that the Creator has given us since Sacred Time, Creation Time, First Man and First Woman Time, if we are to survive as Native People.

We will regain our spiritual strength and power, our pride and dignity and use it to start healing families, our communities, along with Earth Mother and ourselves.

We must learn to be proud of our rich Native heritage and culture, our Spirituality and knowledge. We should no longer be ashamed of it. As Native People, our one common bond is our direct connection to the Great Creator of All Things.

Our Native medicines, our Sacred and Holy power centers and sites, our spiritual forms of knowledge are now ready to be used. We should use these things with sincerity and respect.

We must try harder as Native People to make a real Spiritual commitment to re-connect with Creator, our Ancestors, the earth Mother and each other as Native People.

And from this point, we become the spiritual change we wish to see in Creator's World!

DOODA DESERT ROCK IN BOLIVIA

2010-05-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

Dooda Desert Rock in Bolivia
Contact: Elouise Brown, Dooda (NO) Desert Rock Committee President, (505) 947-6159
On protecting the Rights of Mother Earth

DOODA DESERT ROCK IN BOLIVIA
By Elouise Brown
Photo: Elouise Brown, second from left, with Bolivian delegation at World Climate Conference. Photo courtesy Elouise Brown.

Elouise Brown, president of Dooda Desert Rock, today announced her return from Cochabamba, Bolivia, where the World People’s Conference on Climate Change met at a suburb to discuss global warming and more appropriate responses to deal with it.Brown said, “People have been asking me what a Navajo grassroots group is doing at a world climate conference in Bolivia?"

"The simple answer is that we need to carry our campaign to wherever we can focus attention on the facts. The major fact that no one is addressing is the findings of studies of air quality in the Shiprock area that show that Navajos who live downwind of the two existing power plants must seek medical attention at high rates. We raised the issue that the proposed Desert Rock power plant violates the provisions of Dine Natural Law in the Fundamental Laws of the Dine. The Navajo Nation Council recently sought to make the Natural Law unenforceable, and although my lawyer showed the Navajo Nation Supreme Court that was not true. I went to promote the rights of our Mother Earth, who is the key to Navajo Natural Law. Area energy companies spent a lot of money to negate Mother Earth’s rights, and I went to Bolivia to make them stronger.”

The issue related to Navajo Natural Law that attracted Brown’s attention was a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. It is a strong document and Dooda Desert Rock and indigenous groups from around the world framed a final document in Cochabamba that is powerful. It clearly states the fundamental rights of animals to freedom from torture and cruelty, their freedom from confinement and removal from their natural habitat, and the fundamental duties of humans to the rights of the earth.

One of the big gaps in United States environmental law are the old questions of “whether trees have standing to sue” and “who speaks for the trees.” The Declaration makes it clear, along with Navajo Natural Law, that Mother Earth is a sentient being and that She has standing on her own to protect her rights. She can and will appear in court, including the Navajo Nation court system.

President Shirley applauds the publicity stunt by Omar Bradley of the Bureau of Indian Affairs about the revival of the Bureau’s wildlife studies. We are going to enforce the rights of the animals and of Mother Earth in that process.

Brown said, “I came back from Cochabamba stronger and more committed to the rights of Mother Earth. I forged new alliances to make it possible for Dooda Desert Rock to have a presence in the development of international law and policy. I will be sitting next to the Navajo Nation delegates in Geneva to tell the United Nations how the Navajo Nation is violating the rights of Mother Earth. I will tell the world that President Joe Shirley, Jr. is the captive of New York energy interests and a captive of Dine Power Authority. In other words, I’m back.”

RICHMOND CA. FIRST POW-WOW

2010-05-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Richmond's First Pow Wow!!

"Honoring The Native American Community"

Contest Pow-Wow
Saturday, June 26

10am - 8pm
Lucreatia Edwards Shoreline Park
1500 Marina Way South, Richmond CA
(
End of Marina Way, South)
For more info e-mail: RichmondPww1@yahoo.com

ARIZONIA LAW DRAWS INDIGENOUS OPPOSITION

2010-05-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Arizona law draws widespread indigenous opposition

PHOENIX – A controversial new state anti-immigration law has many American Indians alarmed that tribal sovereignty has been violated, with the looming possibility that individual liberties will be threatened.

The law, S.B. 1070, makes it a crime to be in Arizona illegally, and it requires police to check suspects for residency paperwork. It also bans people from soliciting work or hiring day laborers off the street.

The state’s legislature passed the bill in late-April, with Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signing it into law shortly thereafter.

Republican supporters have argued that the measure is necessary to protect the nation’s borders by reducing illegal immigrants and the burden they place on taxpayers. Some believe that drug cartels and crime will also be combated.

Those ideas have been widely controversial, with many progressive groups, Hispanics, and the Obama administration protesting the law. The main questions center on what factors police will use to decide if a person should be required to show paperwork.

Racial profiling is a top concern, and lawsuits to challenge the law’s legality are certain.

As the debate has progressed, Native American perspectives have also quickly become part of the mix. Many observers have noted that it was the indigenous people of North America who welcomed European immigrants to the continent hundreds of years ago.

The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona has been one of those leading the charge, sending a letter that urged the legislature and governor not to pass the law.

“We have a range of concerns, including tribal sovereign nations not being recognized as able to define and protect their own borders as they see fit, and the possibility that tribal citizens will be profiled by police,” said John Lewis, director of the organization.

Lewis and other ITCA staffers traveled to Washington after the law passed to educate national policy makers about their concerns. Various Native American groups are calling on tribes and Indians to oppose the measure, hopefully to get it repealed.

“This impacts all indigenous people, and the lawmakers need to know it,” Lewis said. “America’s boundaries are not tribal boundaries.”

Lewis noted that some tribes, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, are on and near the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Our tribes have much interaction with Mexico, through culture and life, and I’m not sure people realize that there’s an economic impact involved as well.”

Lewis and others believe that American Indians are likely to be unfairly targeted, based on their appearance and travel patterns. The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed similar concerns, and has vowed to monitor that aspect of the law.

“Even if they are just stopped for five minutes, that is five minutes too many if the rights of people have been infringed,” Lewis said.

Ian Record, an education manager with the Native Nations Institute, said he is concerned that he could be targeted, since his truck has a “Latinos for Obama” sticker on it.

“It’s scary that something like that could be a factor in you getting pulled over. My wife is Latina. We shouldn’t be afraid of that.”‘

Record noted that citizens of the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe have been strongly rallying against the law.

“It complicates things for tribal citizens, especially of those nations. It has to be greatly concerning to everyone that law-abiding citizens of those nations are likely to be pulled over,” Record said.

“The tribe’s sovereignty and the tribal citizens’ rights are obviously being harmed.”

Robert Warrior, the Osage president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, echoed those issues in a letter to the governor April 24.

“Your action as chief executive of the state of Arizona will, when the law takes effect, give license to abuse by police and citizens, making ever more murky the possibility of working towards a just future for all people in the Americas,” wrote Warrior, director of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“S.B. 1070 will have tremendous negative impact on indigenous people on both sides of the border between the United States and Mexico, and it ought to go without saying that some of the people most impacted by this invidious law are descended from peoples who lived in the Sonoran Desert centuries before anyone even thought of the United States. Regardless of proximity or descent, though, the new law is morally wrong and panders to the worst currents in U.S. politics.”

Warrior said in an interview that the regulation seems to be “myopic by design,” since it seeks to take complex realities and make them seem simple.

“Given that many thousands of indigenous people are from communities that have straddled the U.S.-Mexico border since long before that border came to be, I see this law as a tragic reminder of how polluted political culture in the U.S. has become.”

Warrior said tribal citizens throughout North America should see the situation “as a call to think about where we are headed as indigenous peoples whose right to exist predates the borders that now so often keep us apart.”

“We need a growing consciousness of what our persistence and presence means in the hemisphere. For those of us who are U.S. citizens, a law like this provides an opportunity to oppose the worst currents of U.S. political life and to stand in solidarity with those whose human rights are violated in the name of security.”

Indian Country Today-May 3, 2010

WITH EFFORT, NATIVE BUSINESSES CAN SUCCEED

2010-04-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

With effort, Native businesses can succeed

DENVER – The promises and pitfalls of small business and the complex paths to success were described by two Colorado Natives concerned about commerce in a time of shrinking profits and budget shortfalls.

The Coloradoans are R. Carol Harvey, Navajo, executive secretary of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, a longtime energy sector attorney with federal contracting expertise, and Ernest House Jr., Ute Mountain Ute, former CCIA executive secretary and now director of government affairs for the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, where he works as a legislative liaison representing business concerns.

Both addressed the 6th Annual American Indian Business Expo conducted by the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce April 12 – 13.

Harvey, the sixth of seven children, said she learned valuable lessons from her father, who did maintenance work, and her mother, a skilled cook who also ran a small business until she was 82, both of whom said to “get an education,” and to “learn to deal with difficulties.”

As a result, she earned graduate and law degrees and began teaching small business formation and government procurement. She also described learning from more traditional methods, when family members would go without food or water for periods of time “to learn we would be fine, anyhow,” a practice that built “personal strength and personal character.”

Harvey recalled the courage displayed by Navajo leader Manuelito in battle with American forces from 1860 – 1868, enabling Navajo people to remain in their homeland instead of being sent to Oklahoma with other tribes, as had been planned. These and other histories, if told to young people, would foster strength of character, she said.

Tribal nations could make it mandatory for their 18-year-olds to have small business training before they receive their per capita checks so they would have something to build on, she said, noting that businesses contracting with the federal government usually are expected to have working capital before contracts are awarded.

It is important for Native business leaders to have a “wide panoply of information,” in part because Indian businesses that operate in Indian country have different licensing, taxation, and employment and labor laws, she said.

Potential Native businesses dealing with the federal government should “be contract-ready but also shovel-ready,” she said. “Government contracting is not an easy area at all – it takes a lot of diligence and a lot of work.”

Harvey said five percent of federal prime contracts are to be set aside for 8(a) small businesses, which include those owned by Native and tribal entities; three percent are for businesses in HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) areas, including Indian reservations; three percent are for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses, and five percent are to go to woman-owned small businesses, although certain parts of that program are not in place at present. The programs are not mutually exclusive.

From the legislative side, House denounced current bills that could be harmful to business interests in the state and pointed out that Colorado has been in a “dire situation” financially, with a $1.3 billion shortfall remaining in the next fiscal year.

One piece of pending legislation could eliminate all the enterprise zones created for distressed areas including job-scarce Montezuma County, where the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation is located.

House, whose great-grandfather was the last Ute Mountain Ute traditional chief, said the tribe is focusing on renewable energy and water projects and on expanding opportunities for its Weeminuche Construction Authority company.

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, also located in southwestern Colorado, is “known throughout Indian country as one of the top tribes” in business ventures, he said, noting that the tribe’s Red Cedar Gathering Co. is the third-highest natural gas-producing firm in its immediate area.

House also cited two other Southern Ute ventures in Colorado, including the multimillion-dollar, 500-unit Spire in downtown Denver, the largest residential high-rise condo development in the city’s history, according to developers, which is located across from the Colorado Convention Center.

The tribe also has a large investment in multimillion-dollar Belmar, a mixed-use community which provides an urban core for Lakewood, a Denver suburb and the state’s fourth-largest city.

Those investments, as well as others, are part of the tribe’s long-term investment strategy along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, according to an asset manager for the tribe’s Southern Ute Growth Fund’s GF Properties Group.

Among other speakers at the business expo were Margo Gray-Proctor, Osage, president of Horizon Engineering Services Co., Tulsa, Okla., and chairwoman of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.

Indian Country Today-April 23, 2010

TREATMENT OF WABANAKI NATIVES QUESTIONED, EPISCOPAL COMMITTEE FILES HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD CRITIQUE WITH UN

2010-04-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Treatment of Wabanaki questioned
Episcopal Committee files human rights record critique with UN

PORTLAND, Maine – The Episcopal Diocese of Maine Committee on Indian Relations has filed a hard-hitting critique with the United Nations Human Rights Council on Maine’s human rights record against the Wabanaki nations and the federal government’s failure to rein in state violations of domestic and international laws and standards meant to protect indigenous peoples.

The U.S. government’s human rights record is currently under assessment in a process called the Universal Periodic Review, which was created by the U.N. General Assembly in 2006 as a mechanism by which the human rights records of all 192 U.N. member states are reviewed every four years.

The committee’s report to the UPR is the latest action in its robust program of social justice activism.

After three years of groundwork initiated by committee member John Dieffenbacker-Krall, the national Episcopal Church last summer passed a landmark resolution repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and urging the U.S. government to endorse the Declaration. Other churches have since passed similar resolutions.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted the UNDRIP in 2007. Of the four nations that voted against the Declaration, only the U.S. and Canada still have not endorsed the human rights-based Declaration. Australia endorsed it last year and New Zealand announced its limited endorsement at the Ninth Session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues April 19.

This is the committee’s first interaction with the U.N., said Dieffenbacker-Krall, who is the executive director of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission.

“We have a strong feeling of the need to be in solidarity with the Wabanaki people.” The Wabanaki include the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the Houlton Band of Maliseets, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Indian Nation.

The opportunity to file the UPR report coincided with the committee’s completion of its new mission statement: “We are called by our Creator to deepen our relationship with the Wabanaki of Maine in order to stand with them in the pursuit of justice, the affirmation of their inherent sovereignty, and the preservation of Native languages and culture.”

Among the committee’s recommendations is the adoption of the Declaration “without any qualifying statements or conditions limiting its original intent.” Other recommends are that:

•The U.S. government “expunge” the Doctrine of Discovery from all regulations, policies, statutes and case law that rely on it, citing in particular the 1823 supreme court ruling in Johnson v. M’Intosh, which forms the foundation of U.S. Indian law.
•The U.S. Congress backed by the executive branch hold oversight hearings on the implementation and effectiveness of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act and companion state legislation, the Maine Implementing Act, to examine how the agreements have complied with congressional intent, the negotiators’ understanding of the agreements, federal Indian law, treatment of other federally recognized tribes, and international human rights instruments as they pertain to indigenous peoples.

•The U.S. should actively participate in the MITSC, an inter-governmental body charged to “continually review the effectiveness of the MIA and the social, economic and legal relationship between the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Penobscot Indian Nation, and the state to ensure that the legal and human rights of the Wabanaki are upheld.”

The committee’s report provides a concise history of Maine’s 160-plus years of racist paternalism toward the Wabanaki people, including violations of the Constitution’s Article I, section 8, clause 3, the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790 and other illegal land grabs.

“In addition to the constant encroachment on Wabanaki land, the State of Maine did not recognize nor respect inherent Wabanaki sovereignty. Maine treated the Wabanaki as if they were children requiring the state to manage their affairs,” the report says.

It quotes from an 1842 state Supreme Court decision involving the Wabanaki: “Imbecility on their part, and the dictates of humanity on ours, have necessarily prescribed to them their subjection to our paternal control; in disregard of some, at least, of abstract principles of the rights of man.”

But the committee’s harshest criticism is reserved for the state’s recent actions and neglect, resulting in vast discrepancies between the Wabanaki and the surrounding Maine population in income, life expectancy, health, education, and other “factors associated with societal well-being.”

The report details several “egregious violations” of the settlement acts by the state, such as exerting sole authority over Wabanaki waters and lands; collaborating with giant paper companies that polluted the nations’ aboriginal waterways and jeopardized their sustenance fishing rights; using state courts to strip the nations of sovereignty over “internal affairs;” efforts to coerce the Maliseets into waiving their settlement act rights, and more. In presenting their arguments, committee members cite numerous violations of particular articles of the Declaration.

“The committee did this in part in that we wanted to elevate before the eyes of our fellow Mainers, Americans, and the world that the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should be governing our relations with indigenous peoples,” Dieffenbacker-Krall said.

The federal government has not fulfilled its responsibility as a signatory to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, the report says.

“The U.S. has failed to exercise proper oversight over its political subdivision the State of Maine, allowing it to violate U.S. law and international human rights standards applicable to indigenous peoples,” the report says. It calls on the federal government to fully participate in the MITSC, including attending its meetings and sharing responsibility for its funding.

“The federal government has an obligation to participate. The settlement act is akin to a treaty and the commission is akin to a treaty body, so the federal government should not just be ignoring it,” Dieffenbacker-Krall said. “It should be participating and maybe it would at times curb some of these outrageous violations the State of Maine does on Wabanaki sovereignty.”

Indian Country Today- Aprril 26, 2010

US RE-EXAMINES OPPOSITION TO UN DECLARATION

2010-04-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

United States re-examines opposition to UN Declaration

By Valerie Taliman, Today correspondent

NEW YORK – Political tides are turning as international support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples continues to grow, putting greater pressure on Canada and the United States to fully endorse it.

One day after New Zealand reversed its position and supported the Declaration, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice announced that the United States is undertaking a review of its opposition.
“I am pleased to announce that the United States has decided to review our position regarding the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” she said, addressing the Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

“During President Obama’s first year in office, tribal leaders encouraged the United States to re-examine its position on the Declaration – an important recommendation that directly complements our commitment to work together with the international community on the many challenges that indigenous peoples face. We will be conducting a formal review of the Declaration and the U.S. position on it.

“There is no American history without Native American history. There can be no just and decent future for our nation that does not directly tackle the legacy of bitter discrimination and sorrow that the first Americans still live with. And America cannot be fully whole until its first inhabitants enjoy all the blessings of liberty, prosperity, and dignity. Let there be no doubt of our commitment. We stand ready to be judged by the results.”

Many Native leaders view this as a positive sign that the United States is moving toward endorsing the Declaration. Critics say there is no need to delay it with additional reviews since the United States was part of negotiations for more than 25 years.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner, an Onondaga attorney and member of the Permanent Forum representing North America, said during his campaign President Barack Obama clearly stated to tribal leaders that he was committed to the adoption of the Declaration.

“We still feel very positive about it and hope that he will commit to that promise,” she told the forum, attended by nearly 2,000 registered delegates.

Others were disappointed that the United States – a country that postures itself as a champion of democracy and human rights worldwide – did not support it outright.

“We’ve already been there. It seems extraordinary to review it again since it has already been debated and adopted by the international community,” said Debra Harry, Indigenous People’s Council on Biocolonialism executive director. “We’d like to see the United States adopt it now, and then let’s talk about how to implement it domestically.”

A less formal meeting was scheduled on the third day of the forum to discuss elements of the review, and to allow time for Native delegates to dialog with members of the U.S. delegation led by Kimberly Teehee, the White House senior policy advisor for Native American Affairs; and Ambassador Rick Barton, U.S. representative to the Economic and Social Council.

Teehee said anytime new laws or policies are introduced, it triggers a process for review across federal agencies to evaluate how it will impact United States laws, policies and regulations. This must be done to properly plan for implementation, she said.

“We are a new administration and we care about what you think. Our approach has been to continue the president’s engagement and commitment to Indian country.

“In the spirit of consultation and partnership, we will engage tribal leaders, stakeholders and NGOs (non-governmental organizations.) We need to be thoughtful about that process. I assure you that your voices will be heard.”

When asked about the timeframe for the review, Teehee said the process was just beginning and she could not yet define how long it would take.

Cayuga Chief Karl Hill of the Haudenosaunee reminded the U.S. delegation that the Iroquois Confederacy negotiated the first treaties with the United States dating back to 1704.

“We have worked on this since its beginning more than 30 years ago, and we urge you to be expeditious in your review,” said Hill, who delivered a statement from the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus containing eight major recommendations for implementing the Declaration.

The Declaration has strong provisions for supporting treaty rights and affirms indigenous peoples’ collective rights to self-determination and control over their lands and natural resources. These rights will likely conflict with development plans by extractive industries and multinational corporations, but will provide greater protections for indigenous peoples.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged nation states to move forward with adopting the Declaration, and cited alarming statistics from the first-ever United Nations report on the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples released in January.

“Indigenous peoples suffer high levels of poverty, health problems, crime and human rights abuses all over the world. You make up five percent of the world’s population – but one third of the world’s poorest,” he said. “Every day, indigenous communities face issues of violence, brutality and dispossession. In some countries, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years earlier than his non-Native
compatriots.

“Indigenous cultures, languages and ways of life are under constant threat from climate change, armed conflict, lack of educational opportunities and discrimination.

“Elsewhere, your cultures are being distorted, commodified and used to generate profits which do not benefit indigenous people, and can even lead to harm. This is not only a tragedy for indigenous people. It is a tragedy for the whole world.”

Ban said that according to current forecasts, 90 percent of all languages could disappear within 100 years. The loss of these languages erodes an essential component of a group’s identity.

“Diversity is strength – in cultures and in languages, just as it is in ecosystems.

“The loss of irreplaceable cultural practices makes us all poorer, wherever our roots may lie. That’s why the theme this year is ‘Development with Culture and Identity.’ It highlights the need to craft policy measures that promote development while respecting indigenous peoples’ values and traditions.

“We need development that is underpinned by the values of reciprocity, solidarity and collectivity. And we need development that allows indigenous peoples to exercise their right to self-determination through participation in decision-making on an
equal basis.

“The United Nations will continue to support you.”

Indian Country Today- April 23,2010

2010-04-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

"NO MEANS NO!!"

'THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN' :

URGES THE COMMUNITY TO TELL THE RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL TONIGHT AT OPEN FORUM: NO RIP-OFF SEWER RATE INCREASE!

NO SEWER TAX INCREASE!

NO $ 380,000,000 SCHOOL BOND!

We the People are FED UP!

To the Richmond City Council: 'LEAD US, DON'T BLEED US!'

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

CHEROKEE NATION TOURS CHINA

2010-04-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Cherokee meets China

While attending a cultural tour with the Cherokee Nation Feb. 20, faculty and staff from Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, visited the Cherokee Female Seminary at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla.

Pictured, from left, are He Hongyun, director of research of Center of Intelligent Control and Simulation; Chen Chunyang, president of Southwest Jiaotong University; Lauren Jones, interpretive guide at Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism; Yan Kaiyin, director of Undergraduate Office; Gao Shibin, dean of Electrical Engineering Scholl; and Zhao Yanling, director of President’s Office.

The Cherokee Female Seminary is a standing icon on the Northeastern State University campus today and was constructed in 1887 following a fire to the original Cherokee Female Seminary, which was the first institution of higher learning for women west of the Mississippi River.

Indian Country Today- April 16, 2010

THE PICTURE ESSAY OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF RICHMOND CALIFORNIA, OUT OF TOUCH AND OUT OF CONTROL! THEY OVERTAX OUR PEOPLE WHO CAN NO LONGER BE TAXED

2010-04-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

THEY TOOK $150,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS OF THE RICHMOND TAXPAYERS MONIES TO BUILD THEIR NEW TAJ MAHAL CITY HALL.

NOW THEY WANT TO RIP US OFF WITH MORE TAXES WE CANNOT AFFORD!

WE THE PEOPLE OF RICHMOND ARE FED UP!

NO MEANS NO!

NO RIP-OFF SEWER RATE INCREASE!

NO $380,000,000 SCHOOL BOND!

NO MORE ECONOMIC SLAVERY TO THE CITY OF RICHMOND AND WEST CONTRA COSTA UNIFIED SCOOL DISTRICT!

LEAD US, DON'T BLEED US!

THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES EXPOSES THE TRUTH ABOUT THE RIP-OFF SEWER RATE HIKE IN RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA

2010-04-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

THE SEWER TAX COMPARISION IN OTHER PARTS OF RICHMOND AND HOW THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF RICHMOND AND VEOLIA ARE RIPPING US OFF!!!

EAST BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT(EBMUD) -rate payers consist of CITY OF RICHMOND'S RICHMOND ANNEX district (Stege Sanitary) Alameda,Albany,Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland Kensington, Piedmont. The EBMUD single family home monthly charge is $16.23. The yearly charge is $194.76

WEST COUNTY WASTEWATER DISTRICT(WCWD)- ALL NORTHERN SUBDIVISIONS OF RICHMOND,covers all of San Pablo, portions of Pinole, the communities of El Sobrante, East Richmond Heights, Tara Hills, Rollingwood and Bayview and portions of unincorporated County.
For single family home yearly charge is $226.00

RICHMOND MUNICIPAL SEWER DISTRICT(VEOLIA)- this rip-off district serves central and south Richmond, North and East, Pt. Richmond, Marina Bay parts of East Richmond Heights and Richmond Annex.

It has raised it's rates 8% each year for the past 5 years and currently charges per house $506.10, the proposed rip-off increase will raise the yearly charge to $729.86 by 2015.

This month Veolia is asking for another 8% compounded rate increase for the next 3 years. It proposes to spend 35 million dollars half for the waster water treatment plant and half on the collection system.

Rate payers can demand that the treatment plant be closed and wastewater service be returned to EBMUD. Why pay for what we don't need. Richmond wastewater plant is small and not cost effective to maintain and repair.

EBMUD has a much larger treatment facility in Oakland with a huge capacity that can process Richmond's wastewater. When EBMUD takes over, we close the Richmond treatment plant and the costs of maintaining and repairing our collection system would be shared among a larger pool of other cities.

TELL THE CITY COUNCIL AT THE PUBLIC HEARING ON MAY 4TH, 2010:

* PUT THE NEW RATE PLAN ON HOLD IMMEDIATELY.
* HIRE A NEUTRAL PARTY TO REVIEW VEOLIA RATE INCREASE.
* DIRECT STAFF TO MEET WITH EBMUD, SO WE CAN PARTNER WITH THEM NOW.
* DIRECT STAFF TO NEGOTIATE OUT THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT WITH VEOLIA.
* REPAIR COLLECTION SYSTEM, SHUT DOWN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT.

THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN urges you to attend the City Council's Study session on April 27 and Public Hearing on May 4.

The rate hike will be defeated if 8,000 ratepayers express opposition, submit a written protest to:

City Clerk, PO Box 4046, Richmond, CA. 94804

NO MEANS NO!!

WE DON'T WANT YOUR STINKING SEWER RATE INCREASE

2010-04-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

TO THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF RICHMOND, TO THEIR FINANCE AND WASTER WATER DISTRICT AND RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL!

THE HOME OWNERS OF RICHMOND DO NOT WANT YOUR STINKING SEWER RATE INCREASE!!

NO MEANS NO!

LEAD US, DON'T BLEED US!!

VOTER BACKLASH AGAINST RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL AND SEWER RATE INCREASE

2010-04-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

"THERE WILL BE A VOTER BACKLASH FOR ANY INCUMBENTS WHO WILL VOTE FOR THIS SEWER RATE INCREASE!"

"I WOULD ADVISE THAT YOU NEED TO RETHINK HOW IMPORTANT THIS SEWER RATE INCREASE IS, AS OPPOSED TO COMING BACK TO YOUR COUNCIL SEAT!"

RICHMOND, CA- The Committee of Native Families for the Safety of Our Children has been organizing the Community for the past 3 months in a grassroots ANTI TAX REVOLT against the rip-off sewer rate tax increases.

The motto of the campaign has been 'NO MEANS NO!

What this sewer rate increase would mean to all home-owners in the City of Richmond is property taxes will go up. Richmond and West Contra Costa County has some of the highest property taxes in the 12 Western regional states.

If this measure were to pass, it would mean in the first year that thousands of homes would be put up for sale or go into foreclosure. And there would be a great exodus of what remaining little Middle Class that is currently in Richmond.

The City departments of Waste Water District and Finance are cold-blooded, uncaring, and just don't give damn about of how bad off we really are here in town. These individuals on City Staff that are promoting and demanding this unfair sewer rate increase should be fired by the City Manager for contributing to the economic hardship of the families of this community.

Simply translated:we cannot afford your god-damn tax. And we will fight you every step of the way.

The next stop will have to be a class action suit against the City Government of Richmond.

The Honorable City Council member Nat Bates had it right! Simply postpone this madness.

It was on the City of Richmond being sued and losing in a court of law to the Bay Keepers lawsuit.

It was on the City's Waste Water District for allowing raw sewage to spill into the Bay.

The City now needs to pimp the Richmond taxpaper's with this $40 million dollar sewer rate increase, to up grade the Waste Water District so Bay Keepers do not take the City back to court for failure to comply with the upgrade order.

Again this NOT THE ISSUE OF RICHMOND RESIDENTS!

The City got itself into this mess in the first place, let the City find other options to get out of this mess!

Just get the hell off our backs about your phony crisis and your BS sewer rate increase!

To the City Council: 'LEAD US, DON'T BLEED US !!' Be mindful this an election year for the Richmond City Council.

"THERE WILL BE A VOTER BACKLASH FOR ANY INCUMBENTS WHO WILL VOTE FOR THIS SEWER RATE INCREASE!"

"I WOULD ADVISE THAT YOU NEED TO RETHINK HOW IMPORTANT THIS SEWER RATE INCREASE IS, AS OPPOSED TO COMING BACK TO YOUR COUNCIL SEAT!"

CREATOR SAYS IF YOU RESPECT SOMETHING, IT WILL RESPECT YOU BACK

2010-04-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

"The very dust under your feet responds more lovingly to our footsteps than to yours, because it is the ashes of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch, for the soil is rich with the life of our kindred."

Chief Seattle, SUQUAMISH

If you respect something, it will respect you back. If your ancestors respected something, the future generations will be respected back.

The Indian ancestors always showed great respect for the Earth. That's why the Earth is so respectful to Indians today.

Every Indian naturally feels connectedness to the Earth. We know the Earth holds our ancestors.

If we continue to respect Mother Earth, our children will benefit and so will our grand- children.

Today, we should think about and pray for our Mother Earth.

33 CULTURAL OBJECTS ARE REPATRIATED TO TLINGITS IN SOUTH EAST ALASKA

2010-04-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

33 cultural objects repatriated

Sealaska Corporation has repatriated 33 cultural objects from a Massachusetts museum on behalf of Tlingit clans in southeast Alaska.

Most of the objects were repatriated on behalf of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe and title will be officially transferred to them at a future ceremony, said Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl, an anthropologist who assisted in the repatriation.
The collection underscores the creativity and talent of our ancestors, Worl said.

“I mean the pieces are extraordinary. It demonstrates the sophistication and the uniqueness of our art – but more than that – really the cultural values that gave rise to this artistic tradition.”

The objects were collected in the 19th century by Edward G. Fast and purchased by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1869. The collection comprises a wide range of objects, including a wooden warrior’s helmet, masks, rattles, tools and pipes. Most of the objects were used by shamans, Worl said.

“The pieces are mostly shamanic items, and of course shamanic items are very sensitive to our people. We have strict rules and protocols about the handling of shamanic objects,” said Worl, adding that Native people believe shamanic objects have powers that could harm people who do not respect the protocols.

Worl oversaw the repatriation at the museum with two Eagle and Raven members of the Council of Traditional Scholars, a panel founded by the institute to advise on programs. The objects, which arrived in Juneau in March, were repatriated through a grant from the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The Yakutat Tlingit will decide whether to take the objects home or to sign a memorandum of agreement to leave them at SHI, which has expanded its holding facility through grants and donations from Sealaska Corporation, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

SHI enlarged its facilities to accommodate a growing number of ethnographic collections and archival materials acquired in recent years. The institute employs a professional staff to care for cultural objects and archival materials. Staff hopes to eventually have additional space for public exhibitions of its collections.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a Native nonprofit established in 1980 to administer educational and cultural programs for Sealaska, a regional Native corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The institute’s mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures.

Indian Country Today- April 6, 2010

ANTI TAX REVOLT STILL CONTINUES IN RICHMOND, CA.- NO MEANS NO!

2010-04-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN CARRIES THE MESSAGE TO RICHMOND CITY OFFICIALS: NO MEANS NO!

RICHMOND, CA- The Committee of Native Families for the Safety of Our Children took a heavy political leadership role before a jam-packed Richmond City Council meeting to protest the Sewer Rate Increase.

Committee members passed out hundreds upon hundreds of flyers that read 'NO MEANS NO!!'

Speaker after speaker lashed out the certain Council members who are highly suspect that they will vote 'yes' on sewer rate increase show down night at on the April 20th Council meeting in Richmond.

The pro- sewer rate increase council members were totally caught off guard at how speakers lashed out them.

Some the Council members looked uncomfortable when they realised this had already election issue.

Some of the current Council members are up for re-election that currently support the sewer rate increase.

The Council audience gave a thunderous round of applause in support of the Committee's leadership role in confronting the Council about the sewer rate increase.

PRINCIPAL CHIEF-THE HONORABLE WILMA MANKILLER RETURNS TO THE ANCESTORS

2010-04-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Wilma Mankiller, women’s rights heroine, walks on

By Rob Capriccioso

WASHINGTON – Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, passed away at age 64 in the morning hours of April 6 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Mankiller was best known for her leadership of her tribe, at which she served 12 years in elective office, the first two as deputy principal chief followed by 10 years as principal chief.

During her time in office and beyond, she was viewed nationwide as a strong Native American advocate, and had many friends in the women’s rights movement.

Mankiller retired from public office in 1995, but was never far from the public eye, serving as a board member on various organizations, including the Women Empowering Women for Indian Nations nonprofit. She also shared her wisdom at several learning institutions, including the University of Arizona.

Among her many honors, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

“Our personal and national hearts are heavy with sorrow and sadness with the passing this morning of Wilma Mankiller,” said Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, in a release.

“We feel overwhelmed and lost when we realize she has left us but we should reflect on what legacy she leaves us. We are better people and a stronger tribal nation because her example of Cherokee leadership, statesmanship, humility, grace, determination and decisiveness. When we become disheartened, we will be inspired by remembering how Wilma proceeded undaunted through so many trials and tribulations.

“Years ago, she and her husband Charlie Soap showed the world what Cherokee people can do when given the chance, when they organized the self-help water line in the Bell community. She said Cherokees in that community learned that it was their choice, their lives, their community and their future. Her gift to us is the lesson that our lives and future are for us to decide. We can carry on that Cherokee legacy by teaching our children that lesson. Please keep Wilma’s family, especially her husband Charlie and her daughters, Gina and Felicia, in your prayers.”

Mankiller requested that any gifts in her honor be made as donations to One Fire Development Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing Native American communities.

Tax deductible donations can be made at www.wilmamankiller.com as well as www.onefiredevelopment.org. The mailing address for One Fire Development Corporation is 1220 Southmore Houston, TX 77004.

According to the Cherokee Nation, Mankiller’s memorial service will be held April 11 at the Cherokee Nation Cultural Grounds in Tahlequah, Okla.

Indian Country Today- April 6, 2010

THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN STATES : " NO MEANS NO!

2010-04-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

THE COMMITTEE OF FAMILIES FOR
SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN:

NO MEANS NO!!!

•No Sewer Rate Increase!
(TO BE VOTED ON APRIL 2OTH 2010- RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL)

•No $380,000,000 School Bond!
(TO BE VOTED ON JUNE 8TH 2010- SPECIAL ELECTION)

“ I don’t know what part the City Government isn’t getting; said resident Mike Ali, that we can’t afford it “(sewer rate tax increase)
Contra Costa Times- April 1, 2010

Committee Advocate Charlotte McIntire has stated the following observation: “Richmond has the highest unemployment rate of all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. How can this Community afford such a tax burden”

‘Teaching the Values of Peace’ – April 5, 2010
http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

MOHAWK NATION NEWS- 'STOP THE TRAINS'

2010-04-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 4, 2010
Mohawk Nation News: Stop the Trains

STOP THE TRAINS

Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

MNN. Mar. 29, 2010. We Indigenous know that we are being monstrously targeted. We are scattered throughout Great Turtle Island. The colonial government is trying to create a reason to remove and scatter us.

Our communities are deliberately being made unviable, unlivable and mismanaged to create weakness, hunger and thirst. Fierce restrictions, cutbacks, no jobs and no economy are being imposed to create hopelessness.

Resettlement is part of the strategy. Many of our people already have been removed to concentration-extermination camp conditions: Mohawk to Wahta, Innu to Labrador and Inuit to the high Arctic. Curfews and passes were imposed. Food and necessities were rationed. Many died. Our children were removed to residential schools. About half were killed.

In 2005 over 60 Australian Aborigine communities were placed under martial law run by the military.

For 500 years European invaders continue the genocide of Indigenous. They control the money, police, government, economy and military.
The corporate media does not expose these atrocities. Communication is controlled. The masses say little.

Many of our people join the aggressors or pacifist cults. Some support Canada and US extermination policies, especially the colonial band and tribal councils. They put down any resistance. They will be heroes for convincing us to go like lambs to the slaughter. Their Indian cops tell us it’s futile to resist and encourage us to be passive.

Our resources are being used to carry out the genocide. Hannah Arendt said that in WW II almost without exception Jewish leaders in Germany and worldwide cooperated with the Nazis to carry out the Jewish holocaust. They designed the camps, targeted resisters, compiled lists to send to the concentration camps, which properties to seize and distributed the yellow star ID badge that Jews had to wear. Their own money paid for their holocaust.

If the band and tribal councils do not help their masters, there will be unorganized chaos and less of us will be killed or affected. They will discourage resistance, sabotage rescue attempts and coerce us to re-settle. Our lands and properties are probably being promised to them. In the end, they will be put on the same trains with us. The Apache trackers who helped the US army capture Geronimo were all sent to the same prison in Florida.

Fascist thugs believe that natural law is based on violence and that brutal force can solve social problems; democracy is the enemy of the people because it inhibits brutality; life is a perpetual struggle for existence. Only the strong and brutal survive; and the world belongs to those who seize and control it. [Hitler: Main Kempf].

Anti-Indian racism, threats to our babies, young men and women are control tactics. Our interrelationship with the natural world must be renewed. Living in identifiable communities is necessary. Solidarity must be created between our families. Trusted supporters must be found.

In the end Hitler’s Jewish police were gunned down: “If you can do this to your own, what would you do to me?” Using our own against us is an old tactic. It‘s harder to resist when our own are trying to help eliminate us.

Kahentinetha, MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinehta2@yahoo.com. For books on Mohawk issues, to donate and to sign up for MNN newsletters, to go http://www.mohawknationnews.com/

NO MEANS NO MORE RIP-OFF SEWER TAXES! NO MEANS NO!

2010-04-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

NO MEANS NO!!

NO MORE SEWER RATE HIKES!

NO MORE SCHOOL BONDS!

NO MORE ECONOMIC SLAVERY TO RIP OFF TAXES!

NO MEANS NO!

CITY OF RICHMOND CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS SAY PROPOSED SEWER-RATE JUMP STINKS

2010-04-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Richmond residents say proposed sewer-rate jump stinks

By Katherine Tam

Contra Costa Times

Sewer rates in parts of Richmond could increase 8 percent a year from 2012 to 2014 under a city plan to repair its deteriorating sewer system.
Rates in subsequent years would be adjusted based on inflation, with increases capped at 6 percent.

The money would fund repairs and upgrades to the Richmond Municipal Sewer District, which is about 100 years old.

"If we don't invest in our collection system, the (sewer rate) money people are paying will go into fines and environmental litigation," said Chad Davisson, wastewater manager. "This work has to be done."

Some say the cost to taxpayers is too high.

"I don't know what part of city government isn't getting that we can't afford it," said resident Mike Ali Raccoon Eyes Kinney, who said he'd consider selling his house.

The Richmond Municipal Sewer District collects and treats wastewater for about 16,000single-family homes and thousands of multifamily buildings and businesses in the central and south parts of the city and Point Richmond. Single-family homeowners pay $506 a year now and would pay $688 by 2014 if the increase passes.

Single-family homes in Stege Sanitary, which pay $123 a year, and the West County Wastewater District, which pay $226, are not affected. Stege covers El Cerrito and parts of Richmond, among other areas; West County Wastewater also covers parts of Richmond.

The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing Tuesday and vote on the fee hike.

Richmond's network of clay pipes is cracking. Some pipes are in such poor shape that crews can't get a camera through it. Water from the Bay pours into the sewer system at high tide. That, combined with rain, overwhelms the pipes, resulting in overflows from manholes onto streets and into waterways.

The nonprofits Baykeeper and West County Toxics Coalition sued the city and other agencies in late 2005, arguing that old infrastructure, poor management, inadequate maintenance and deferred upgrades resulted in raw or partially treated wastewater being discharged into waterways on more than 1,000 occasions since 2000 without permits.

The city agreed to make at least $20 million in repairs and reduce sewage spills under a 2006 settlement. The city also paid $538,000 to cover the environmentalists' legal fees.

Sewer rates went up 8 percent a year beginning in 2006 and continuing through 2011. The city previously issued $40 million in municipal bonds to repair pipes, rehabilitate the 57-year-old treatment plant and other work, Davisson said.

If new rates are approved for 2012 to 2014, the city would issue $35 million in bonds for repairs over the next three years, he said. These include expanding the capacity of sewer lines, fixing pipes and upgrading old equipment.

Projects to meet the Baykeeper settlement and state standards total $160 million for the next 20 years. The $35 million bond the city would issue would allow it to complete nearly 30 percent of the infrastructure needs, Davisson said.

Opponents can stop the rate hike if they submit written petitions from a simple majority of property owners by Tuesday. Frustrated residents at an informational meeting Wednesday evening said they received notice of the plan this week or learned about it from neighbors, leaving them little time to submit a written petition or rally like-minded people. They questioned whether everyone was notified and urged officials to delay a decision.

Single-family homeowners that fall under the federal definition of very low-income can apply for a rebate. A family of four earning $44,650 annually is considered very low-income. The city estimates 1,500 families fit this category.

Under the lawsuit settlement, the city must file annual reports to Baykeeper. Deb Self, Baykeeper's executive director, said the city's 2008 report was encouraging. The 2009 report is due this week. She said the city experienced 12 million gallons of sewage spills this past winter that her agency is looking into.

"We're very concerned about that," Self said. "The 12 million-gallon spill this winter tells us that they're not done yet" with fixing its sewer system.

Katherine Tam covers Richmond. Follow her at Twitter.com/katherinetam.

PROPOSED RICHMOND
SEWER RATE INCREASEs
Richmond sewer rates will increase 8 percent next year. Officials want to continue the annual 8 percent increase for the subsequent three years. Here's what a single-family homeowner would pay if the increase is approved:
Current rate: $506.10
Approved for 2011: $546.59
Proposed for 2012: $590.32
Proposed for 2013: $637.54
Proposed for 2014: $688.54
The City Council will hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at 440 Civic Center Plaza.

Contra Costa Times-April 1, 2010

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PREPARES TO RETURN REMAINS OF THE ANCESTORS

2010-04-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

University of Michigan prepares to return remains

By Rob Capriccioso

WASHINGTON – A new rule involving the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act has one of the nation’s largest research institutions preparing to return a collection of more than 1,300 Native American human remains.

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor announced March 26 that officials there have begun outlining a process for the transfer of Native American human remains to tribes.

The activity comes as a result of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s March 15 publication of a final rule clarifying how museums and institutions should handle Native American human remains that are under their control, but for which no culturally affiliated Indian tribe has been identified.

The rule says that after appropriate tribal consultation, transfer of culturally unidentifiable remains is to be made to a tribe from whose tribal or aboriginal lands the remains were excavated or removed. Civil penalties are proposed for museums that do not follow the law.

Until the rule was published, some university officials felt the 1990 law did not clearly lay out rules for the disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains.

“It’s going to be a big job,” said Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at the institution, who is overseeing the process.

Top among his concerns is reaching out to tribes in the region, then the process of getting remains to their appropriate tribal caretakers can begin. Along the way, he plans to hire at least two individuals to work directly with tribes on the matter.

Forrest noted that the university’s holding of the remains has been unresolved for decades, and has dramatically harmed relations with tribes in the region.

“Our relationship with the Native American community has not always been as good as it could be, and I certainly hope this process will start us down a strong path.”

Native American faculty members and students were generally positive about the change in the university’s behavior.

“As one of the Ojibwe language instructors, it is a wonderful development to know the institution will be willing to talk to leaders in the communities where we are teaching,” said Margaret Noori, director of the university’s Comprehensive Studies Program.

“I look forward to the time when each of the individuals now held by the museum is properly returned to the Earth and allowed to complete their journey. We know that U of M supports our language through support of www.ojibwe.net. It’s good to also know the administration has growing respect for all aspects of our culture.”

Veronica Pasfield, a Bay Mills tribal citizen and graduate student leader, said the Native community on campus feels “very positive” about the dramatic shift in university policy.

“We have been advocating for this for years. For this to finally have happened is a big step forward.”

Alys Alley, co-chair of the Native American Student Association, said the situation has long caused “a lot of pain for the Native American community.

“As a Native American student, it has been hard and painful to walk campus knowing that my ancestors are being kept in the U of M Museum of Anthropology.

“I hope to see all of the 1,390 remains returned to their homes so that we can finally begin the healing process.”

For years, Native Americans have battled with some faculty members over the contentious issue. Even now, there are some professors at the institution who believe it is important to keep the remains for continued study.

Forrest addressed the issue, saying that scientific concerns are always taken into account, but, he added, “First and foremost we follow the law. … everybody has to follow the law.”

The conflict at Michigan has been complicated by the fact that some institutions housing Native Americans long ago gave back culturally unidentifiable remains, or at least began substantial tribal consultation processes – without ever needing the rule clarification.

Plus, some institutions, like Harvard, have been more proactive than Michigan in applying for NAGPRA grants meant to aid in tribal consultation.

Forrest noted that the university’s new path will not be easy, especially given the historical conflict between tribes and some faculty members.

“If we don’t do this right, it could set us back as well, so we are really going to try to do this right.”

One area that many Native Americans plan to watch to help measure progress is whether the university will return many of the sacred Native funerary objects it still holds.

The new rule does not clarify how to repatriate culturally unidentified funerary objects, yet some institutions have chosen to return these items in addition to human remains, given their sacred significance.

D. Bambi Kraus, director of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, said the funerary objects issue is a “weakness in the new rule,” and one that many Native advocates would like to see addressed in the future.

Indian Country Today-April 2, 2010

NO MEANS NO!!

2010-04-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

'NO means NO!!!'

NO more SEWER TAXES!

NO more SCHOOL BONDS!

NO more SLAVERY TO TAXES!

'NO MEANS NO'
http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NATIVE COMMITTEE TAKES ON WATER MAFIA VEOLIA AND THE CITY OF RICHMOND EMPIRE AS THEY STRIKE BACK

2010-04-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

WATER MAFIA VEOLIA AND THE CITY OF RICHMOND EMPIRE STRIKE BACK!!
They Still Want to Rip-off the City Taxpayers with Sewer rate hike taxes.
The Community ready to Mobilise! NO means NO!

By: Mike(Ali)Raccoon Eyes Kinney

Community Meetings on Proposed Wastewater Rate Increase

(Translated this garbage means we caught them with their pants down, You know folks, these clowns just don't get the idea this Community does not give a damn about paying their crappy little sewer taxes or the corporate gangsters of Veolia.)

(Just read this sorry piece of an excuse why their little pony and cart show, smoke-screen informational hearing didn't work)

The public hearing concerning the proposed changes to the sewer rates that was noticed for the City Council meeting of April 6th is being continued until Tuesday, April 20th.

The reason for this continuance is to allow more time to disseminate information regarding the rate increase intocommunity , and to have an additional community information meeting. The additional meeting will be on Wednesday, April 14th at 7:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. An additional mailed notice regarding this meeting, together with questions and answers regarding the proposed sewer rate increase, should be received by all households in the service area by the middle part of next week.

This past week, staff from Engineering/Wastewater, Finance, the City Attorney’s Office and Veolia conducted an informational meeting related to the proposed sewer rate increase, which was attended by about 30 – 40 members of the community. Staff was concerned, however, that adequate notice regarding this meeting was not provided uniformly throughout the community, necessitating that an additional meeting be scheduled.

(Yeah right! Read the real story below.)

The Committee of Native Families for the Safety of Our Children hit these clowns hard. And that is only but a sample of the test taste their gonna get from this Community with regards for more of their proposed rip-off B.S. sewer taxes. NO means NO!!!

Next stop: class action suit in Court anyone???

TOWN HALL MEETING BY CITY OF RICHMOND STAFF FROM WASTEWATER DISTRICT AND FINANCE VIEWED AS BOTH A FAILURE AND BIGGEST JOKE IN TOWN

By Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney

RICHMOND,CA- On March 31st, 2010 the City of Richmond's departments of Wastewater District and Finance held a informational hearing to explain to Richmond residents why their wastewater/ sewer rates would be hiked up to what is viewed within the community as both unfair and a taxpayer rip-off.

The town hall meeting was a disaster from the very outset. Some 75 people who did attend said that the Finance Department failed to mail the notice in a timely fashion. Some attendees said they got nothing in the mail and only heard of word of mouth and others stated they had only received in the mail that very day.

While the meeting was to be held in the Bermuda Room of the Richmond Auditorium, scores of people who wanted to attend were locked out because there was no staff to admit people in to the building.

Numerous people were blown off by City Staff who had questions that were important to them with regards to the Sewer rate hike. City Staff was at a rush to deliver their power point presentation, they totally attempted a passive censorship to the audience's questions.

At this point the people in the audience be highly upset and angry with City Staff from both Wastewater and Finance for their attempts of ignoring and blowing off their questions.

All hell then broke loose, the angry crowd started demanding answers to questions. Staff was now catching the brunt of the chaos and confusion of a very badly planned and ill-prepared town hall meeting.

Some individuals walked out protesting and cursing Staff's failure to answer questions. People pointed out numerous times the Sewer fee hike would produce economic hardship and there was a strong sense people would sell their homes because they could not afford more tax burdens upon them.

Staff was both uncaring and indifferent to what citizens had to say at that point about homes up for sale.

People in the crowd rallied their collective contempt for the failure of the power presentation to again answer their questions.

At this point the crowd simply started to leave, both angry and disappointed that they had nothing to show for this badly-planned and ill-prepared town hall meeting.

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

JUST KEEP READING THE FOLLOWING UPDATES AT THE ABOVE LINK,

CANADA'S PROMISES QUALIFIED RECOGNITION OF UN DELCLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

2010-04-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Canada promises ‘qualified recognition’ of UN Declaration

By Gale Courey Toensing

Canada has promised to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but a Mohawk journalist and consultant cautions that there’s no reason to rejoice just yet.

Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia – countries with large indigenous populations who have significant land claims – were the only four countries to vote against the Declaration’s adoption at the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 13, 2007. Canada’s change of heart and decision to adopt the Declaration was announced during this year’s Speech from the Throne by Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean March 3.

“We are a country with an aboriginal heritage. A growing number of states have given qualified recognition to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Our government will take steps to endorse this aspirational document in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws.”

Echoing Jean’s words in his response to the Speech from the Throne, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Canadian government “will take steps to endorse [the Declaration] in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws.”

Kenneth Deer, a lifelong Mohawk resident of Kahnawake, said language like “qualified recognition,” “aspirational,” and “in a manner fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws” raises red flags.

“We don’t know what it’s going to be yet. This paragraph that was in the Throne Speech only lets us know they intend to endorse the Declaration. They haven’t endorsed it yet, so we’re waiting to see how they want to qualify it.”

Deer served as the publisher and editor of The Eastern Door from 1992 – 2008, a newspaper and Web site serving the Mohawk community at Kahnewake. He sold the newspaper in 2008 and now owns and operates Deer Communications, a consulting firm for media and international relations, He is also on the board of trustees of the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations.

“But I still think of myself as a journalist.”

In a recent opinion piece published in The Eastern Door, Deer points to “ominous signs” in the Throne Speech that may not bode well for Canada’s indigenous peoples.

“The term ‘qualified recognition’ means that the Canadian government is not intending to accept the Declaration as a whole and fully implement it, as was urged in a motion adopted by the House of Commons in April 2008.

“Instead, the government intends to put limits on how it will interpret this human rights instrument. The government seeks to endorse the Declaration, only to the extent that is fully consistent with Canada’s Constitution and laws. This would serve to perpetuate the status quo.”

Deer noted that the Canadian government unsuccessfully submitted a list of 30 amendments to the 46-article Declaration a month before the document was adopted that aimed to limit indigenous peoples’ collective rights, including the rights to land and territories, and free, prior and informed consent, among others. That action indicates the type of limitations the Canadian government is contemplating in its ‘qualified recognition.’

He also noted that the governor general’s comment that a “growing number of states” is giving “qualified recognition” to the Declaration is an exaggeration.

Only two countries have changed their position on the Declaration – Australia, which voted against it, and Colombia, which abstained.

“So to say a ‘growing number of states’ is misleading,” Deer said.

Australia supported the Declaration with only a slight qualification similar to Canada’s intent to endorse “to the extent consistent with Canadian law.”

“But that’s actually a redundant statement, because it’s the courts that will decide. The Declaration is still the international standard whether Canada votes for it or not, and as soon as courts start using the Declaration in their judgments, then it erodes Canada’s position because the courts have all the leeway to take into consideration international standards,” Deer said.

But can a country actually qualify its recognition of an international declaration that is already in place? Wouldn’t that be like saying, “We’re adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but we’re going to scratch Article 5 – the prohibition against torture?

“They can’t make amendments because (the Declaration) is already passed, but there were so many ridiculous changes that they wanted to make and Canada lost a lot of respect internationally because of their stand against the Declaration. It made it harder for Canada to be listened to on human rights issues by other countries. That’s the reason they’re going to endorse it. It isn’t because they love us so much, but because they’re trying to repair their international reputation.”

Deer also said the term “aspirational document” implies that the Declaration is a lofty goal that one tries to meet and is the highest limit of the rights in the Declaration.

“This is not true. It is true that, as a declaration, it is not binding like a convention. But what is also true is that the Declaration has legal effect. The rights that are elaborated in the Declaration are inherent or pre-existing rights. They are not new rights,” he said.

While the Assembly of First Nations and other large indigenous organizations will likely lobby Ottawa to endorse the Declaration with “honor” – meaning without limiting qualifications – Deer said his mission is different.

“The object of the article was really to educate indigenous people about the announcement and its implications, and although it’s a step in the right direction, we should be cautious. I’m not celebrating Canada’s decision to endorse the Declaration right now. I’m waiting to see the wording. I encourage Canada to be magnanimous about it and not qualify its endorsement.”

If the constitution and laws of a state conflict with international human right standards, then those laws must change, Deer said.

“Canada now has an opportunity to go from the back of the bus of human rights to the front by showing how the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be applied in a positive and effective way.”

Indian Country Today- March 24, 2010

TOWN HALL MEETING BY CITY OF RICHMOND, CA. STAFF FROM WASTEWATER DISTRICT AND FINANCE VIEWED AS BOTH A FAILURE AND BIGGEST JOKE IN TOWN.

2010-04-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

TOWN HALL MEETING BY CITY OF RICHMOND STAFF FROM WASTEWATER DISTRICT AND FINANCE VIEWED AS BOTH A FAILURE AND BIGGEST JOKE IN TOWN

By Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney

RICHMOND,CA- On March 31st, 2010 the City of Richmond's departments of Wastewater District and Finance held a informational hearing to explain to Richmond residents why their wastewater/ sewer rates would be hiked up to what is viewed within the community as both unfair and a taxpayer rip-off.

The town hall meeting was a disaster from the very outset. Some 75 people including The Committee of Native Families for the Safety of Our Children,who did attend said that the Finance Department failed to mail the notice in a timely fashion. Some attendees said they got nothing in the mail and only heard of word of mouth and others stated they had only received in the mail that very day.

While the meeting was to be held in the Bermuda Room of the Richmond Auditorium, scores of people who wanted to attend were locked out because there was no staff to admit people in to the building.

Numerous people were blown off by City Staff who had questions that were important to them with regards to the Sewer rate hike. City Staff was at a rush to deliver their power point presentation, they totally attempted a passive censorship to the audience's questions.

At this point the people in the audience be highly upset and angry with City Staff from both Wastewater and Finance for their attempts of ignoring and blowing off their questions.

All hell then broke loose, the angry crowd started demanding answers to questions. Staff was now catching the brunt of the chaos and confusion of a very badly planned and ill-prepared town hall meeting.

Some individuals walked out protesting and cursing Staff's failure to answer questions.

People pointed out numerous times the Sewer fee hike would produce economic hardship and there was a strong sense people would sell their homes because they could not afford more tax burdens upon them.

Staff was both uncaring and indifferent to what citizens had to say at that point about homes up for sale.

People in the crowd rallied their collective contempt for the failure of the power presentation to again answer their questions.

At this point the crowd simply started to leave, both angry and diappointed that they had nothing to show for this badly-planned and ill-prepared town hall meeting.

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BELOVED WOMAN OF THE CHEROKEE- NANCY WARD

2010-04-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

Beloved Woman of the Cherokee - Nancy Ward c. 1738-1824

The role of Ghighua, or Beloved Woman, among the Cherokee was an influential one indeed. The most noted of the Cherokee Beloved Women was Nancy Ward, or Nan'yehi. Closely related to such leaders as Old Hop, the emperor of the Cherokee nation in the 1750s, Attakullakulla, the Wise Councillor of the Cherokee, and Osconostato, the Great Warrior of the Cherokee nation, Ward won the honored title of Ghighua and her own leadership position after displaying great bravery in battle. But Ward was not merely a warrior. She spoke on behalf of her people with U.S. representatives and wisely counseled the tribe against land cession. She did not live to see her warnings become reality as the Cherokee were dispossessed of their eastern lands.

Earns title Beloved Woman
Born about 1738 at Chota, a "Peace Town" or "Mother Town" in the Overhill region of the Cherokee Nation, Ward came into the world at the beginning of a crucial era in Cherokee history. Raised by her mother, Tame Deer, and her father, Fivekiller (who was also part Delaware or Lenni Lenap‚), Nan'yehi realized at a young age that her people were in turmoil. Missionaries, Moravians (Christians who seek to persuade others to accept their religion and follow the Bible as their rule of faith and morals) in particular, were trying to gain access to the Cherokee people in order to convert them. Still very conservative (resistant to change), preserving their traditional customs and religion, the Cherokees had a mixed reaction to the missionaries. Many regarded them as a threat, others saw them as a blessing.

One of those who straddled this fence was Nan'yehi's very influential maternal uncle, Attakullakulla ("Little Carpenter"). He eventually struck a deal allowing Moravians into Cherokee territory, but only if they would build schools to instruct Cherokee youth in English and the ways of the white man. Later critics would see this as evidence of Attakullakulla's desire for the Cherokee to accept European ways; others saw this as a tactic to teach the tribe more about their enemy. Like her uncle, Nan'yehi too would try to find the middle ground between tradition and innovation.

Ward married a Cherokee man named Kingfisher while in her early teens. Kingfisher was a great warrior, and Nan'yehi was at his side in battle, helping prepare his firearms and rallying Cherokee warriors when their spirits flagged. In 1755, the Cherokees fought the Creeks at the Battle of Taliwa. During the fighting, Kingfisher was killed. Nan'yehi, about 18 years old at this time, took up her slain husband's gun and, singing a war song, led the Cherokees in a rout of the enemy. Out of her loss was born a decisive victory for her people and a title of honor for her: "Beloved Woman."

The Cherokee were a matrilineal (tracing family relations through the mother) society, and thus their fields had always been controlled by women. Women of great influence became known as Beloved Women, often working behind the scenes in shaping decisions. The role of Ghigau or Beloved Woman was the highest one to which a Cherokee woman could aspire. It was unusual for one as young as Nan'yehi to be so named, but since the name also translates as "War Woman" and was usually awarded to women warriors (or warriors' mothers or widows), Nan'yehi had duly earned it. Much responsibility went with the many privileges of the rank, and, although young, Nan'yehi showed herself capable.

Among the privileges accorded Nan'yehi as a Beloved Woman were voice and vote in General Council, leadership of the Women's Council, the honor of preparing the Black Drink — a tea used in ceremonies to purify — and giving it to warriors before battle, and the right to save a prisoner already condemned to execution. Nan'yehi would exercise all these rights and would serve as her people's sage (wise person) and guide.

Another of the Beloved Woman's duties was as ambassador, or peace negotiator. It is through this role that Ward became a figure in non-Cherokee history. Ward, who had been "apprenticed" as a diplomat at her uncle's side, was a shrewd negotiator who took a realistic view of how to help the Cherokee people survive. She had grown up during a time when continued white settlement on Cherokee lands, in violation of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, in which the British Empire had recognized the rights of Native people, created constant tension in Indian-white relations.

When militant Cherokees prepared to attack illegal white communities on the Watauga River, Ward disapproved of intentionally taking civilian lives. She was able to warn several of the Watauga settlements in time for them to defend themselves or flee. One of the settlers unfortunate enough to be taken alive by the Cherokee warriors was a woman named Mrs. Bean. The captive was sentenced to execution and was actually being tied to a stake when Ward exercised her right to spare condemned captives. Taking the injured Mrs. Bean into her own home to nurse her back to health, Ward learned two skills from her which would have far-reaching consequences for her people.

A Time of Change
Mrs. Bean, like most "settler women," wove her own cloth. At this time, the Cherokee were wearing a combination of traditional hide (animal skin) clothing and loomed cloth purchased from traders. Cherokee people had rough-woven hemp clothing, but it was not as comfortable as clothing made from linen, cotton, or wool. Mrs. Bean taught Ward how to set up a loom, spin thread or yarn, and weave cloth. This skill would make the Cherokee people less dependent on traders, but it also Europeanized the Cherokee in terms of gender roles. Women came to be expected to do the weaving and house chores; as men became farmers in the changing society, women became "housewives."

Another aspect of Cherokee life that changed when Ward saved the life of Mrs. Bean was that of raising animals. The white woman owned dairy cattle, which she took to Ward's house. Ward learned to prepare and use dairy foods, which provided some nourishment even when hunting was bad. However, because of Ward's introduction of dairy farming to the Cherokee, they would begin to amass large herds and farms, which required even more manual labor. This would soon lead the Cherokee into using slave labor. In fact, Ward herself had been "awarded" the black slave of a felled Creek warrior after her victory at the Battle of Taliwa and thus became the first Cherokee slave owner.

From these accommodations to European-based ways of life, one might get the idea that Ward was selling out the Cherokee people. But her political efforts proved the contrary. She did not seek war, but neither did she counsel peace when she felt compromise would hurt her tribe. In 1781 Ward entered into peace talks with Tennessee politician and soldier John Sevier at the Little Pigeon River in present-day Tennessee, she had called for peace but warned Sevier to take the treaty back to "his women" for them to ratify. It did not occur to the Cherokee that women did not decide matters of war and peace in the white man's world, as they did in many southeastern tribes. Ward was also a negotiator for the Cherokee at the 1785 signing of the Treaty of Hopewell, the first treaty the Cherokee made with the "new" United States.

By the turn of the nineteenth century, it was already becoming apparent to the Cherokee that the Americans intended to get as much Cherokee land as possible and that the day might come when the Natives would be forced off their homelands. Ward, by now called "Nancy" by the many non-Indians she had befriended, feared that each time the Cherokee voluntarily handed over land, they were encouraging the settlers' appetite for it. She feared that someday their hunger for land would destroy her people. In 1808, the Women's Council, with Ward at its head, made a statement to the Cherokee people urging them to sell no more land. Again, in 1817, when Ward took her seat in council, her desperation was ill concealed. She told the younger people to refuse any more requests for land or to take up arms against the "Americans" if necessary.

The Road Back to Chota
When she became too aged to make the effort to attend further General Council meetings, Ward sent her walking stick in her place thereafter. Some contemporary sources say she "resigned" her position as Beloved Woman with this action, but the mere absence from council did not indicate the end of her term. Ward was well aware that Cherokee "removal" west of the Mississippi River was almost a foregone conclusion. Rather than face the sorrow of leaving her homeland, she decided to find a way to blend in to the white world.

Nan'yehi had become Nancy Ward when she married the Irish (or Scots-Irish) trader Bryant Ward. By now, her three children were grown, so she was accorded the indulgence of "modern conveniences" because of her advanced age and the great integrity with which she had long discharged her duty to her people. Therefore, when she and Ward took to the innkeeping trade, there was no disrespect voiced toward the Beloved Woman. Their inn was situated near the Mother Town of Chota, on Womankiller Ford of the Ocowee River, in eastern Tennessee.

Ward returned to Chota, her birthplace, in 1824. She was cared for by her son, Fivekiller, who reported seeing a white light leave her body as she died. The light was said to have entered the most sacred mound in the Mother Town. Ward was spared the sight of her people's exile to Indian Territory in 1838, but because her spirit was present at Chota, they knew she had preserved that connection to their eastern home. The last woman to be given the title of Beloved Woman until the late 1980s, Ward remains a powerful symbol for Cherokee women. She is often referred to by feminist scholars as an inspiration and is revered by the Cherokee people of Oklahoma as well as the Eastern Band Cherokees of North Carolina.

Further Reading
Allen, Paula Gunn, The Sacred Hoop, Beacon Press, 1992.
American Indian Women: A Research Guide, edited by Gretchen Bataille and Kathleen Sands, Garland Publishing, 1991.
Green, Rayna, Women in American Indian Society, Chelsea House, 1992.
Native American Women, edited by Gretchen M. Bataille, Garland Publishing, 1993.

Pat Alderman, Nancy Ward, Cherokee Chieftainess (1978)

Ben H. McClary, "Nancy Ward: The Last Beloved Woman of the Cherokees," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 21 (1962): 352-64.

Source
U·X·L® Biographies, U·X·L, 1996.

http://www.manataka.org

THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN STRIKES BACK PROTEST! JUST SAY 'NO' TO THE RIP-OFF SEWER TAX

2010-03-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

'THE COMMITTEE OF NATIVE FAMILIES FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN' STRIKES BACK PROTEST!!! JUST SAY NO TO THE RIP-OFF SEWER FEE TAX RATE HIKE!

NO MEANS NO!!!

RICHMOND, CA- Tonight 6pm, Wednesday- March 31, 2010 the City of Richmond will have a smoke-screen, pony and cart show public hearing to validate to all property and home owners in Richmond why the Richmond Municipal Sewer District needs to up our property taxes with more sewer/ waste-water fees and taxes.

The City of Richmond expects us to go along to get along. To take this tax hike and that the community will sit back and do nothing.

MORE TAXES!!! TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!

Bring your banners, protest signs, friends and families AND PROTEST THIS VIOLATION OF YOUR HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS AS A HOME OWNER!!!

Plan to PROTEST and make YOUR VOICES HEARD!

Also the West Contra County Unified School District has a measure for another worthless bond for $ 380,000,000 dollars on June 8, 2010 to rip us off here in Richmond for MORE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS!!

The worthless pony and cart show public hearing will start at 6 pm tonight at the Bermuda Room in Richmond Auditorium.

Let's tell the Department of Finance and the Richmond City Council to back off and back down.

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

RECORDS IN ARIZONA SWEAT LODGE CASE OFFER DETAILS

2010-03-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

Records in Arizona sweat lodge case offer details
By Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press Writer

Story Published: Mar 28, 2010

PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Documents released March 18 in the case of a motivational speaker charged with manslaughter expand on the already wide range of experiences participants reported having during an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony.

James Arthur Ray, who led the ceremony as part of his “Spiritual Warrior” retreat, faces manslaughter charges in the deaths of three people who entered the sweat lodge near Sedona last year, and suffered heat stroke and hyperthermia. Ray has pleaded not guilty.
The more than 50 people inside the pitch-black sweat lodge all could be called to testify during Ray’s trial slated to begin Aug. 31. Prosecutors also have identified as potential witnesses more than two dozen other people who attended past events led by Ray and about 10 people who worked for him.

Twelve jurors could end up hearing more than 55 days of testimony from witnesses.

Some participants of the October retreat have told authorities that Ray took heed to the concerns expressed inside the sweat lodge and tended to the ill afterward. Others have said Ray did nothing as participants vomited and lay unconscious on the ground.

Still others appeared torn, a detective noted in the documents released Thursday.

Stephen Ray, who was among the 18 people hospitalized following the ceremony, said he hasn’t recouped his sense of taste or smell and still has ringing in his ears, severe headaches and trouble sleeping.

He said James Ray “showed a callous disregard for the participants because of his own ego and greed.”

Christine Mattern said she emerged from the ceremony feeling that “everything that I was experiencing was probably normal” but suggested Ray could have broken up those at the retreat into small groups for the ceremony in order to better care for participants.

Ray sat near the opening of the 415-square-foot sweat lodge and poured water over a pile of hot rocks that was placed in the center. Sweat lodges commonly are used by American Indian tribes to cleanse the body.

Tammy Eshelman, Ray’s former executive assistant, told authorities that Ray’s skills as a trainer and teacher were amazing and didn’t believe he intended to hurt anyone.

“Yet it happened, and he has to have some responsibility for it,” she said. “You can’t just go, ‘oh, darn.’”

Megan Fredrickson, who most recently served as the director of operations for Ray’s Carlsbad, Calif.-based company, James Ray International, said her experience with sweat lodges came solely from those led by Ray. But she recounted few details of the six she has attended.

Fredrickson said no one was monitoring the temperature in the sweat lodge. Most participants acknowledged they understood the heat would be intense and said Ray told them vomiting and passing out were normal.

“Everyone’s monitoring themselves, so it would be a matter of, if they felt that it was dangerous or their perception was that it was dangerous, then their monitoring would be choosing to exit,” she said.

Prosecutors contend Ray recklessly crammed everyone inside. His attorneys have called the deaths of Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee; and Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., tragic accidents.

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

US HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS RECORD TO INDIAN COUNTRY IS CHALLENGED

2010-03-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

US human rights record challenged

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Where do Indian nations go when United States’ courts have failed them, and justice is unattainable?

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy – the oldest continuous democratic government in North America – has long argued that Indian nations should not expect to win justice from colonizing governments, and instead must act as sovereign nations taking their quest for justice to the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms.

Though it claims to be a defender of human rights around the world, the United States is among the worst offenders of Native peoples’ rights, judging by statistics that indicate Indian women are the most raped and abused in the nation, while rampant poverty, disease, crime and unemployment are a way of life on reservations.

There’s also the inexplicably high number of Supreme Court cases decided against tribes that have led to the massive loss of Native lands and natural resources, most often without compensation.

That negative image was bolstered during the Bush regime when the U.S. was voted off the U.N. Human Rights Council, and later was one of only four countries to oppose the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Declaration was adopted in September 2007 with 144 states in favor, 11 abstentions, and only four votes against – by the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – countries with the largest indigenous populations who own vast amounts of land and natural resources.

Since its adoption, Australia has reversed its position and endorsed the Declaration, while Canada, Colombia and Samoa have recently indicated support.

That leaves the United States and New Zealand standing alone, refusing to support the basic human rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples.

Many hope this will change under President Barack Obama, an adopted son of the Crow Nation of Montana, who has appointed more Native Americans to his administration than any president in history.

Since his election, the United States has regained a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, and the president has made positive statements to Indian nations about settling longstanding claims.

Review of human rights record

Against that backdrop, the Human Rights Council is conducting a year-long Universal Period Review of the United States’ human rights record, holding “listening sessions” around the country, with two devoted to concerns of Native peoples.

A national report will be compiled and presented to the 47-member Human Rights Council that will make recommendations on how America can improve its compliance with international human rights obligations.

More than 100 people came to the University of New Mexico Law School to hear and present testimony from tribes and individuals about discriminatory and illegal tactics historically used by the federal government to confiscate land, natural resources, even children, and to suppress their rights to self-determination.

Among them were at least nine top-level officials from the Obama administration who were sent from the departments of Justice, Housing, Health, Education and Agriculture to listen and help formulate solutions for Indian country.

Doctrine of Discovery denounced

Oren Lyons, a faithkeeper from the Onondaga Nation and the Six Nations’ Council of Chiefs, spoke on a panel of leaders about the right to self-determination and the need to honor treaties made by Indian nations with the United States.

“We remind the USA that the Haudenosaunee hold some of the earliest treaties made by your government with European settlers. The Department of Justice last month re-affirmed the continued validity of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua in an amicus brief it filed in support of the Cayuga Nation. We have faithfully complied with our treaties; unfortunately the same cannot be said of the USA.”

He traced the roots of 220 years of discriminatory policies designed to remove Native peoples from their homelands, decimate their populations, forcibly take children to boarding schools to be cleansed of their language and culture, and generally perpetrate cultural genocide.

Lyons also denounced discriminatory legal doctrines that underlie United States law. “Among the most damaging of these is the Doctrine of Christian Discovery which claims that Europeans acquired rights over lands used and occupied by indigenous peoples, simply because they were Christians. They deemed Native peoples as heathens, savages and pagans with no right to own land.”

Lyons cited a new study by Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Special Rapporteur for North America to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which examines the impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery as a foundation for the violation of human rights.

He called on the United States to endorse the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to ensure that all pending federal legislation (including climate change) contains protections for indigenous human rights, and to honor the border crossing and passport rights of the Six Nations Confederacy which straddles the international border imposed by the U.S. and Canada.

The Black Hills

Chairwoman Theresa Two Bulls of the Oglala Sioux, accompanied by Lakota attorney Mario Gonzalez, recounted the many treaty violations that led up to the “legalized theft” of more than 48 million acres of their homeland under the Indian Claims Commission.

She cited one example of how the federal government would not allow the tribes to fire their attorneys and – without the knowledge or consent of Sioux tribes – the claims attorneys signed a stipulated settlement to accept $40 million for more than 48 million acres of land rich in timber and minerals.

The Lakota leadership of treaty chiefs and elected officials have long refused to accept money for the Black Hills, a sacred place, and were appalled when a class action suit, Different Horse v. Salazar, was filed last year to force the Interior Department to distribute money for Docket 74-A and 74-B Sioux land claims as per capita payments to tribal members.

With interest, that amount exceeds more than $1 billion. But if the money is distributed, Sioux tribes fear the U.S. will argue that they have relinquished their claims to the land.

“We’ve come to the realization that the courts of the United States are not designed to protect the Oglala Sioux’s interests in our claims to ancestral lands and resources. Rather, they are designed to protect the interests of non-Indians who have settled on tribal lands,” Two Bulls said. “The only viable remedy we have to settle our land claims is through negotiating with Congress.”

She was encouraged by President Barack Obama’s statement regarding the Sioux land claims indicating he did not believe the courts or federal government should force Sioux tribes to take settlement money for the Black Hills.

“He said he was open to bringing together all parties through government-to-government negotiations to explore innovative solutions to this long-standing issue,” she said, giving her people hope that the tribe will be able to obtain the return of federally held lands within their aboriginal territories.

Gonzalez said the Rosebud Sioux Tribe has taken the lead intervening in the lawsuit and requesting a dismissal.

He is encouraging the treaty councils and tribal councils to unite and seek a realistic settlement plan with the Obama administration that would include restoration of federally held lands and compensation for the denial of the “exclusive use and occupation of the Black Hills as guaranteed by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Others testified about environmental racism, infringement on Native spiritual practices, the militarization of the borders, and violence against Native peoples.

The listening session was co-hosted by the American Indian Law Center and the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, and coordinated by a committee from the All Indian Pueblo Council, Native American Rights Fund, International Indian Treaty Council, and National Congress of American Indians.

Written submissions up to five pages will be accepted until April 19, 2010 by e-mailing to: UPRsub missions@ohchr.org.

Indian Country Today- Valerie Taliman March 24, 2010

NATIVE AMERICAN ADVOCATE MIKE RACCOON EYES KINNEY: TEACHING VALUES OF PEACE

2010-03-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Native American advocate teaches ‘values of peace’

By: Robert Rogers | March 27, 2010 – 8:05 pm |

Filed Under: Front, Richmond Faces, Uncategorized | Tagged: mike raccoon eyes kinney , native american health center , Native Americans
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The beret and the feather are his trademarks around town, along with his persona as a passionate public activist.

Mike “Raccoon Eyes” Kinney is never at a loss for words – or cause.

“I’ve been a Native advocate and activist for about 20 years,” Kinney said while brewing coffee for guests at the Native American Health Center.

“We have an expression that we are the Holy people, and therefore we must have good self-esteem, good self-worth, and we should not pound or punish ourselves for crimes we have never committed.”

Kinney would echo those themes during a roughly one-hour talk to about 20 listeners at the health center March 24. At times alternately fiery, plaintive and inspiring, Kinney’s speech was titled

“We Must be the Spiritual Change We Wish to See in the Creator’s World.”

Kinney, who has been a local figure for more than 5 years, said he was experimenting with new themes and tones during his lecture Wednesday night.

The thrust was more nurturing encouragement than pièce de résistance.

He said he sought to emphasize the power of “story,” a human art as common to indigenous peoples of the Americas as it was to Ancient Greece or Rome.

“Story is the way Native people have communicated values, education and other life lessons, since the beginning of their beautiful civilizations and on into the future,” Kinney said. “Life emerges as being cyclical, in a circle, with victory and defeat and birth and death.”

Kinney’s audience ranged from young to old. Most professed their Native blood.

“I like to hear (Kinney) speak about history and about information, and do it with that important spiritual connection, that’s very important to give it all a deeper meaning,” said Beverly Dove, one of those in attendance.

Kinney paced restlessly during much of his talk, shuffling and crumpling his yellow cue papers. His voice pitched high and fell to whispers. At times, he would momentarily slump in a sofa.

Another reverberating theme was health and nutrition. Kinney spoke of his own past dependence on alcohol and junk food.

Sugars and and processed flours have been major contributing factors to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other maladies that have taken a heavy toll on Native Americans drawn into Western culture.

“The pastries, the sugars, the alcohol, it is all killer of our bodies,” Kinney said.

Kinney summed up his talk by stressing a return to the values and cultures of Native people, which he said act as a rejuvenating force amid a world with so many hostile influences.

“We must be able to spiritually feel our Indian communities, not intellectualize the needs of the people,” Kinney said.

By Robert Rogers- richmondconfidential.org

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

UNITED STATES LISTENING SESSION ON US HUMAN RIGHTS OBIGATIONS TO UNITED NATIONS IN SAN FRANCISCO

2010-03-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

State Department held listening sessions on US Compliance with
International Human Rights Obligations in San Francisco
March 26th, 2010

San Francisco – As part of a process conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council to examine the United States’ compliance with its legally-binding human rights obligations, the U.S. Department of State will conducted a “listening sessions” or consultations with human rights and community groups from the San Francisco Bay Area.

The San Francisco and Berkeley consultations will focus on United
States’ signed and ratified human rights treaties as well as the UN
Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A wide cross section of Bay Area rights organizations will testify on the fulfillment of human rights protections that address racial
discrimination; criminal justice; economic justice and equity,
including state accountability, health and education; LGBT rights;
disability rights and environmental justice and sustainability.

This November will be the United States’ first review under this Human Rights Council process. The “Universal Periodic Review” or “UPR” assesses the human rights compliance of every UN member state every four years and is intended to improve all UN Member States’ human rights compliance.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of State and other federal
agencies will be in attendance to inform their report to the Universal human rights obligations.”

The meetings will be recorded, and a written report will be posted on the U.S. Department of State’s website. This summary may be used as part of the U.S. government’s submission to the Human Rights Council. Organizations are also welcome to submit a 5-page report directly to the UN before April 19th.

The government selected several cities in the US, including San
Francisco and Berkeley, in which to conduct listening sessions.

Listening sessions have been held in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., New York City, El Paso and Albuquerque, and others are planned for Detroit, Chicago and Birmingham.

The San Francisco consultation was held at the University of San Francisco on Friday, March 26, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in the Mclaren Conference Center.

US STATE DEPARTMENT TO HOLD LISTENING SESSIONS ON US COMPLIANCE ON INTERNATIONAL NATIVE HUMAN RIGHTS FOR UNITED NATIONS

2010-03-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

March 25, 2010

State Department to hold listening sessions on US Compliance with
International Human Rights Obligations in Berkeley and San Francisco
March 25th and 26th.

San Francisco – As part of a process conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council to examine the United States’ compliance with its legally-binding human rights obligations, the U.S. Department of State will conduct two “listening sessions” or consultations with human rights and community groups from the San Francisco Bay Area.

The San Francisco and Berkeley consultations will focus on United
States’ signed and ratified human rights treaties as well as the UN
Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A wide cross section of Bay Area rights organizations will testify on the fulfillment of human rights protections that address racial
discrimination; criminal justice; economic justice and equity,
including state accountability, health and education; LGBT rights;
disability rights and environmental justice and sustainability.

This November will be the United States’ first review under this Human Rights Council process. The “Universal Periodic Review” or “UPR” assesses the human rights compliance of every UN member state every four years and is intended to improve all UN Member States’ human rights compliance.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of State and other federal
agencies will be in attendance to inform their report to the Universal human rights obligations.”

The meetings will be recorded, and a written report will be posted on the U.S. Department of State’s website. This summary may be used as part of the U.S. government’s submission to the Human Rights Council. Organizations are also welcome to submit a 5-page report directly to the UN before April 19th.

The government selected several cities in the US, including San
Francisco and Berkeley, in which to conduct listening sessions or
consultations. Consultations have been held in New Orleans,
Washington, D.C., New York City, El Paso and Albuquerque, and others are planned for Detroit, Chicago and Birmingham.

The Berkeley consultation is on Thursday, March 25 at the Bancroft
Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA and will begin at 8:30 am and end at 12:30 pm.

The San Francisco consultation will be held at the University of San Francisco on Friday, March 26, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in the Mclaren Conference Center, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco .

FOR MORE INFO: 415/ 641-4482 OR 510/ 418-0608

RETURN OUR LAND AND CULTURE, NATIVE PEOPLE WAKE UP!! LET US MOBILIZE FOR MORE HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS FOR INDIAN COUNTRY

2010-03-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

4TH ANNUAL AMERICAN INDIAN HEALTH CENTER FUNDRAISER COMEDY JAM

2010-03-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

The 4th Annual Indian Health Center Fundraiser Comedy Jam

4th Annual Indian Health Center Fundraiser Comedy Jam
DATE: Friday the 26th of March 2010
TIME: 08:00pm to 10:00pm
LOCATION: Santa Clara Marriott - Grand Ballroom
2700 Mission College Boulevard
Santa Clara, CA 95054

This year will mark the 4th Annual Indian Health Center Fundraiser Comedy Jam. There are four very funny American Indian comics scheduled to attend that include; Marc Yaffe, Jim Ruel, Vaughn Eaglebear, and JR Redwater. These four comic were also seen on a SHOWTIME comedyspecial this past January.

All funds raised from this Comedy Jam go directly to providing services to our communities most vulnerable population.

All general admissio seating will cost $25. There is also a special discounted rate if you are attending the 33rd Annual California Indian Education Conference.

RezHeadz Entertainment
2003 Shadow street
Norman, Oklahoma 73071
405-501-7359

INTERNATIONAL DINE ACTIVIST ELOUISE BROWN OF DOODA (NO) DESERT ROCK MAKES CALIFORNIA WHIRLWIND SPEAKING TOUR

2010-03-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another's life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity." ---Sitting Bull

INTERNATIONAL DINE ACTIVIST ELOUISE BROWN OF DOODA (NO) DESERT ROCK MAKES WHIRLWIND CALIFORNIA SPEAKING TOUR

SAN FRANCISCO,CA- Internationally known environmental Native Advocate and Activist Elouise Brown made a brillant, whirlwind speaking engagement in San Francisco, Richmond and Berkeley this past weekend of March 20th and 21st

On December 12th, 2006 community members in Chaco Rio, New Mexico established a blockade to prevent preliminary work for proposed development of a massive coal-fired power plant.

Sithe Global & Diné Power Authority (DPA) are attempting to build the “Desert Rock” power plant , a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired plant in the Four Corners area on the Navajo Reservation. This is an area already polluted by 2 other major coal power plants ( Four Corners and San Juan power plants ).

Doodá (NO!) Desert Rock (DDR) embodies a spirit of resistance and action to prevent construction of the Desert Rock Energy Project.

DDR depends on grassroots member support to shield the people of the Four Corners from the increased deadly health impacts that would be unleashed by poisons from a third massive coal fired power plant.

Transnational corporations serviced by government officials have denied environmental justice in an effort to destroy our Diné (Navajo) homeland. This abuse must STOP!

Elouise Brown of Dooda Desert Rock will be visiting communities throughout California on an 11-day speaking and fundraising tour. The current tour schedule is posted below. It will be kept updated, as more events are confirmed.

Tuesday, March 23rd - Aptos (Santa Cruz)
12:00pm at Cabrillo College:
Student Activities Center (SAC) East, Room #225 - campus map
hosted by the Watsonville Brown Berets

Tuesday, March 23rd - Watsonville
7:00pm at the Brown Berets office:
555 Main St., downtown Watsonville (behind the old Chavez Furniture Store)
hosted by the Watsonville Brown Berets

Wednesday, March 24th - Santa Barbara
7pm at American Indian Health & Services - 4141 State Street, Suite A1 - map
hosted by American Indian Movement, Santa Barbara (myspace)

Thursday, March 25th - Los Angeles
2:00pm at University of Southern California - 3501 Trousdale Parkway - map
room: Taper Hall of Humanities (THH) 101
hosted by Critical Resistance-LA and PASEO

Thursday, March 25th - Los Angeles
7:00pm at Chuco’s Justice Center - 1137 E. Redondo Blvd. (Inglewood) - map
$5 suggested donation

Saturday, March 27th - San Diego
6:30 pm at the City Heights Free Skool - 4246 Wightman St. - map
Arrive Hungry! Dinner will be available by the plate, as a fundraiser for Dooda Desert Rock.
hosted by City Heights Free Skool

Sunday, March 28th - San Diego
7:00pm at the World Beat Center (in Balboa Park) - 2100 Park Blvd - map
hosted by the World Beat Cultural Center

Source: official website of http://doodadesertrock.com

Posted by Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT WITH MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY..WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD

2010-03-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

foto by Ellen Gailing

A SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT WITH MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY- 'WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD '

PRESS RELEASE

"WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE, WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD"

The Richmond Native Wellness Center will present a evening speaking engagement with nationally-known Native Human and Civil Rights Advocate , Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney.

Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney will be giving a spiritual talk from his lecture series- "Teaching the Values of Peace to Indian Country." He is founder and co-editor of TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE Indian Country news blog.

Mike's talk will be "We Must Be The Spiritual Change, We Wish To See In Creator's World "

The talk will focus on Native Spirituality, Spiritual Transformation and Human Development for Native families and Native Communities to might the challenges Indian Country for the 21st Century.

Location: Richmond Native Wellness Center
260-23rd St. (Near the intersection of MacDonald Av. and 23rd St.)
Richmond, CA. 94804

Date: March 24th, 2010- Wednesday

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

For more Information: 510/ 232-7018

POTLUCK WILL BE SERVED
Posted by Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney at 12:29 PM
Monday, March 15, 2010

INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA MOVES FORTH FOR INDIAN COUNTRY

2010-03-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE MEETS THE CHALLENGES OF INDIAN COUNTRY

foto by Mike Raccoon Eyes Kinney

top foto:delegates John Syfert and his cousin Eric
lower foto: ITCC delegates in a working session

SACRAMENTO, CA- This past Friday and Saturday, March 19th and 20th, the Inter-Tribal Council of California held the annual conference at the Red Lion Hotel in Sacramento.

Native Delegates came from all over Indian Country in California to help to provide more services and infra-structure to the needs of California Indian Country.

RUSSELL MEANS: UN LISTENING SESSION ON US NATIVE'S HUMAN RIGHTS IS SMOKESCREEN

2010-03-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Russell Means: UN Listening Session is US Smokescreen
Statement by Russell Means, Republic of Lakotah

Once again, the occupation government of the United States of America has trotted out its dogs and ponies to provide a smokescreen and diversion from its continuing crimes against the indigenous peoples and nations of the Western Hemisphere. The reason for today’s media spectacle is supposedly for the US State Department to “listen” to input from indigenous peoples and nations for inclusion in the U.S.’s report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, universal periodic review process.

As we can see, many indigenous people have been duped to participate, yet again, in a lying and duplicitous process of the United States. The United States has absolutely no interest or intention of admitting to the world its human rights record that is neither justifiable nor defensible. In particular, the record of the United States with regard to historical, and ongoing, violations of over 370 treaties that were negotiated and signed with indigenous nations must be, but will not be, addressed by the United States. Instead, as is its ongoing practice, the United States will use this session, and the one tomorrow on the territory of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, as its justification that indigenous peoples were “consulted,” and “listened to,” while the U.S. simultaneously lies to the world about its disgraceful human rights record.

The Republic of Lakotah will not legitimize this embarrassing process. Instead, we will submit our report directly to the UN Human Rights Council, not to be filtered or sanitized by the State Department. Let us be clear, our report will be scathing. The United States continues, on a daily basis to violate the terms of the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties with the Lakotah. Our report will indicate that the United States never intended to abide by the terms of the treaties, and has violated them consistently from the time of their signing to the present.

Our report will also cite the United States’ own language in acknowledging that “the treaties retain their full force and effect even today because they are the legal equivalent of treaties with foreign governments and have the force of federal law.” Periodic Report of the United States of America to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, April 23, 2007, paragraph 335. In light of the United States’ own admissions, in addition to reporting to the Human Rights Council on the egregious human rights record of the US towards indigenous peoples, the Republic of Lakotah will report to the Council and to the world, the exercise of its own rights under principles of international law. The United States has continually breached the treaties with the Lakotah, and international law allows the Lakotah to return to our status quo ante position prior to the signing of the treaties.

On March 30, 2010, the Republic of Lakotah will repeat its position to the United States, and will transmit its communication to the President of the United States and to the Secretary of State, demanding that the United States cease and desist it activities in Lakotah territory, and insisting that the United States withdraw its presence from our homeland.

Brendan Norrell- March 18, 2010

INDIGENOUS LEADER DEMANDS CHEVRON BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ECO-RAPE IN ECUADOR

2010-03-16T23:53:00.000-07:00

C

Indigenous leader confronts Chevron

By Rick Kearns, Today correspondent

Emergildo Criollo traveled to California recently from his indigenous village in Ecuador to the home of Chevron’s new CEO John Watson and then to a meeting with state lawmakers, demanding that the oil giant Chevron “… take responsibility for their actions and clean up our rivers and forests – our homes.”Criollo, a leader of the Cofan people from the Oriente region of Ecuador, grew up in one of the areas where Chevron (then Texaco) was drilling and has been the subject of a massive lawsuit. He came to Chevron’s base of operations to say that the contamination killed two of his sons, along with many other Ecuadorians, and caused his wife to contract uterine cancer.

“I want to say to our indigenous brothers in the U.S. that we, the indigenous people of Ecuador need support to get Chevron to clean up the Amazon,” Criollo said. “We need your support to push this new CEO to take action.

“The contamination still exists. The rainforest is sacred, and part of it is our pharmacy which has been destroyed.”

The March visit coincides with another round of legal actions taken on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorians, many of them indigenous, who are suing Chevron, accusing the company of dumping billions of gallons of wastewater from oil operations into the rainforest and abandoning nearly 1,000 open, unlined pits containing crude oil and toxic waste. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit assert that the contamination has caused tens of thousands of cases of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects and other illnesses.

Recent press reports are predicting that a decision in the case, now in an Ecuadorian court, could come as early as this summer and that Chevron could be ordered to pay as much as $27 billion to the plaintiffs.

Emergildo Criollo, (center) a leader of the Cofan people from the Oriente region of Ecuador, walked up Happy Valley Road in Lafayette, Calif. on his way to deliver a petition signed by 325,000 people to Chevron CEO John Watson.
“It is time for Chevron to listen to Emergildo, the 30,000 Ecuadorians who are suffering and dying because of Chevron’s policies, and the 325,000 plus people from around the globe who believe that energy shouldn’t cost lives,” said Maria Ramos, Change Chevron Campaign director at Rainforest Action Network, who accompanied Criollo on the visit to the Watson home in Lafayette, Calif.

As part of his effort to publicize the issue, Criollo and a group of U.S.-based activists went first to the home of Watson March 2, and then to company headquarters later in the afternoon and on to Sacramento the following day. Criollo’s hosts included Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network and Avaaz.org.

Watson did not answer when the group pressed the buzzer to his gated home, according to Han Shan, coordinator of Amazon Watch’s Cleanup Ecuador campaign. Shan noted that Criollo did read his message into Watson’s speaker at the gate, and then left a copy of a petition signed by 325,000 people from around the world, asking Chevron to clean up the affected area.

The event March 3 however, entitled “From Ecuador to California: California’s largest corporation, one of the world’s worst oil related disasters, and what California’s legislators can do” was more successful according to Brianna Cayo Cotter of RAN.

The reception with senators, Assembly members, and their staff included Democratic California Sens. Fran Pavley and Loni Hancocki, as well as Assemblyman Manny Perez, Assemblyman Paul Fong, Assemblyman Ira Ruskin and Assemblyman Jared Huffman.

“These key leaders from both the environmental and Latino caucuses not only listened to Emergildo’s story, but spoke of their desire to support the people of Ecuador who are suffering and dying because of Chevron’s operations,” Cayo Cotter said in a press release.

Huffman spoke of the need “to remedy a very serious environmental and human tragedy.”

Cayo Cotter wrote that Criollo “… told the lawmakers about how he was only 6 years old when Chevron (then Texaco) began oil drilling in his community. He spoke of how his family was forced to relocate because of the contamination. About how he had to part centimeters of oil off of the river to drink the water. About how he has lost two sons and nursed a wife through uterine cancer because of the contamination. His family drank, bathed, and fished in water that was poisoned by oil dumping.”

At the end of his presentation Criollo asked all of the Assembly members and senators for their help and invited them to visit his home and “see for themselves the devastation Chevron’s behavior has caused.”

Hancock, from the Contra Costa district where Chevron is headquartered, said she “would like to come and visit. This is an international issue and an issue here as well.”

Other lawmakers expressed interest in supporting the cleanup effort, according to Cayo Cotter.

Soon after the Sacramento reception Criollo returned to Ecuador, where, he noted that his people were also receiving help from small local indigenous organizations.

Indian Country Today-March 17, 2010

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT WITH MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY.....WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD

2010-03-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

foto by Ellen Gailing

A SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT WITH MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY- 'WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE , WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD ' PRESS RELEASE

"WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE, WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD"The Richmond Native Wellness Center will present a evening speaking engagement with nationally-known Native Human and Civil Rights Advocate , Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney.

Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney will be giving a spiritual talk from his lecture series- "Teaching the Values of Peace to Indian Country." He is founder and co-editor of TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE Indian Country news blog.

Mike's talk will be "We Must Be The Spiritual Change, We Wish To See In Creator's World "

The talk will focus on Native Spirituality, Spiritual Transformation and Human Development for Native families and Native Communities to might the challenges Indian Country for the 21st Century.

Location: Richmond Native Wellness Center
260-23rd St. (Near the intersection of MacDonald Av. and 23rd St.)
Richmond, CA. 94804

Date: March 24th, 2010- Wednesday

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

For more Information: 510/ 232-7018

POTLUCK WILL BE SERVED

OHLONE BURIAL GROUND DISTURBED UNDERNEATH S.F. BAY BRIDGE

2010-03-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

Burial ground disturbed underneath Bay Bridge

March 12, 2010
http://www.sfexamin er.com/local/ Burial-ground- disturbed- underneath- Bay-Bridge- 87528257. html

The Bay Bridge's deadly S-curve was built hundreds of feet above a Muwekma Ohlone tribal burial ground, and spirits whose bodies were unearthed and placed in storage are said to be restless.

The Ohlone were the first people to inhabit the Bay Area, where their burial grounds and other sacred sites are frequently unearthed.

At least 26 Ohlone skeletons were discovered between 2002 and 2004 in a burial ground at Yerba Buena Island, which was subsequently excavated to clear a path for a new Bay Bridge east span.

The east span replacement project has suffered billions of dollars in cost overruns and a decade of construction delays that could force motorists to navigate the temporary S-curve — a dogleg where the speed limit drops from 50 mph to 40 mph — until 2014. A truck driver was allegedly traveling at 50 mph when his pear-laden truck flipped Nov. 9 off the recently installed S-curve and plummeted to the former burial ground, where he died.

The California Highway Patrol responded by aggressively policing the speed limit and Caltrans placed addition striping, signs and other features on the S-curve, helping to slash the curve's high accident rate.

Bodies unearthed at the Ohlone burial ground were treated differently depending on which government owned the land where they were discovered.
Bodies found on state-owned land were appropriately ceremonially reburied elsewhere on the island, according to tribal spokeswoman Ann Marie Sayers, who led the ceremony.
But skeletons found on adjacent Coast Guard land were placed in storage because the tribe, which is recognized by California, has not been recognized by the United States since the 1930s.

Remains found on Coast Guard land at Yerba Buena Island could only be legally repatriated to the Ohlone people and reburied if the U.S. Department of Interior formally recognizes the tribe, according to Coast Guard spokesman Dan Dewell. The remains are stored securely, he said.

The remains of tens of thousands of Ohlone people excavated from various places, generally on federal land and placed in storage, could be ceremonially reburied if the tribe wins federal recognition through a lawsuit filed in 2003, according to Sayers.
"It creates confusion in the energy and frequency when they're not at peace or in the spirit world," Sayers said. "There are burials that want to be reinterred — they want to go back to the spirit world. When there are accidents on the Bay Bridge, it doesn't surprise me at all."

Ohlone homeland
Counties that were part of the Muwekma Ohlone until the 18th-century arrival of the Spanish Empire:

San Francisco
San Mateo
Santa Clara
Alameda
Contra Costa
Napa*
Santa Cruz*
Solano*
San Joaquin*
* Portion of the modern county was Muwekma Ohlone homeland

Source: Muwekma Ohlone Tribe

GUIDIVILLE BAND OF POMO MAY SUE FOR LIBEL

2010-03-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

The Eye on the Bay

GUIDIVILLE BAND OF POMO MAY SUE FOR LIBEL IN THE PT.MOLATE CASINO-RESORT

RICHMOND, CA-Casino claims: The Eye blinks fast from the heat rising over an Indian tribe's bid to build a billion-dollar casino-resort at Point Molate in Richmond.

The latest salvo: The Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians has threatened to sue gambling watchdog Cheryl Schmit, head of Stand Up for California, for libel. She has been a vocal critic of the casino plan, telling Richmond council members and federal officials alike that it amounts to blatant "reservation shopping" by a tribe hailing from more than 100 miles north.

Guidiville says Schmit knows better. The tribe has filed thousands of pages of documents with federal officials to show it has strong historical and current ties to the Richmond area. In a letter last month, tribal lawyer Little Fawn Boland demanded that Schmit stop and threatened to sue her for libel.

"People spreading lies about the tribe is not something we're willing to tolerate," said Michael Derry, CEO of the tribe's economic development arm. "It's exposing our tribal members to hatred."

Schmit's lawyer fired back last week in a letter, calling the threats a classic bid to muzzle free debate. Schmit said she has no plans to stop and that her claims are well documented. "It was a nice shot over the bow to try to silence me," she said. "They don't want anyone else to try to influence the same decisionmakers they're trying to influence."

The Eye will be watching out for legal blows.

Bay Area News Group- March 12, 2010

CHEROKEE SOCIETY OF THE GREATER BAY AREA (San Francisco) TO MEET MARCH 27TH

2010-03-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

CHEROKEE SOCIETY OF THE GREATER BAY AREA'S GENERAL MEETING AND POTLUCK

The March Cherokee Society of the Greater Bay Area’s General Meeting and Potluck will be on Saturday March 27th, 1pm-4 at The Mark Twain Retirement Center 3525 Lyon Ave. Oakland, CA 94601

The theme of this meeting will be Spring Foods and also planning for the Northern California Cherokee Picnic and getting out newsletter together (more on this below). We will also be making medicine bags, storytelling and Cherokee Language lesson!

We will be performing a fun Cherokee Sing A long at the Picnic this year and we would like all of you, especially the children of our group to participate in this fun! Most of you who have attended the meetings have sung “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and also “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Cherokee and we will be doing a group sing in at the picnic teaching these songs. So please come and we’ll do a little practicing! No pressure, it will be fun! Words will be available!

Park on street or nearest BART station is Fruitvale.

Please call 510.464.4649 or email in advance for BART pick-up.

Please RSVP with what dish you plan to bring - 510.464.4649 or email Cherokee Society @ yahoo.com.

The Northern California Cherokee Picnic will be on Sunday, April 25th at Rush Ranch in Suisun City. Please put this date on your calendar! More information will be coming out soon.

This is a big undertaking and we are always looking for help in the planning, set up, serving, clean-up and other duties that come with a large picnic.

The Cherokee Nation Hog Fryers will be teaching those of you who are interested in learning the art of the Hog Fry and wish to join a local group, who can perform this tasty task at local celebrations. Please let us know if you are interested and we will send you more information. Making of Fry Bread will also be done as well.

Please call us at 510.464.4649 or email Cherokee Society @ yahoo.com to volunteer.

We look forward to seeing you all at our future gatherings!

Wado!

Jacquie Archambeau

Leadership Council Chair

Cherokee Society of the Greater Bay Area

Community Voice Mail: (510) 464-4649

Community Email: CherokeeSociety@yahoo.com

Website: www.bayareacherokee.org

INDIAN COUNTRY LEGEND LAKOTA HARDEN KEYNOTE SPEAKER IN RICHMOND, CA . LAS BOMBERAS DE LA BAHIA PUT ON SIZZLING SHOW

2010-03-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

Text and Fotos by:
Mike(Ali)Raccoon Eyes Kinney

LAKOTA HARDIN AND LAS BOMBERAS DE LA BAHIA GRACE 3RD ANNUAL WOMEN'SCELEBRATION

RICHMOND, CA.- This past Saturday, March 13, 2010 at the Lovonya DeJean Middle School was the '3rd Annual Women In Solidarity'.This years theme was entitled: Healing Our Beloved Community.

The keynote speaker was internationally known Native Advocate Lakota Hardin.

Lakota was introduced by Courtney Cummings of the Richmond Native Wellness Center.

The Afro-Puerto Rican all Women's Drumming, Singing and Dance troupe sizzled and electrified the huge crowd. They dazzled the audience with the call and response between the dancer and drummers. Scores of attendees got up on the stage to join the Las Bomberas in the celebration.

Las Bomberas performance was truly a celebration of life and Resistance.

A SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT WITH MIKE (ALI) RACCOON EYES KINNEY- 'WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE , WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD '

2010-03-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

PRESS RELEASE

"WE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE, WE WISH TO SEE IN CREATOR'S WORLD"

The Richmond Native Wellness Center will present a evening speaking engagement with nationally-known Native Human and Civil Rights Advocate , Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney.

Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney will be giving a spiritual talk from his lecture series- "Teaching the Values of Peace to Indian Country." He is founder and co-editor of TEACHING THE VALUES OF PEACE Indian Country news blog.

Mike's talk will be "We Must Be The Spiritual Change, We Wish To See In Creator's World "

The talk will focus on Native Spirituality, Spiritual Transformation and Human Development for Native families and Native Communities to might the challenges Indian Country for the 21st Century.

Location: Richmond Native Wellness Center
260-23rd St. (Near the intersection of MacDonald Av. and 23rd St.)
Richmond, CA. 94804

Date: March 24th, 2010- Wednesday

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

For more Information: 510/ 232-7018

POTLUCK WILL BE SERVED

http://www.teachingthevaluesofpeace.blogspot.com

THE SACRED SMOKE OF CREATOR

2010-03-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

"I know Grandpa told me that to smoke is wakan (holy). The smoke you inhale represents the spirits of everything you put into the pipe. When you breathe in the smoke, you are asking to become one with everything or to become whole."

Dr. A.C. Ross (Enhanamani), LAKOTA

The smoke allows us to go from the Seen World to the Spirit World.

It is in the Spirit World where we are all connected.

In this way, we can become one with all things. Our pipe is sacred.

We need to be respectful of our medicine. When we smoke the pipe, we need to have good thoughts because these thoughts are shared with the Spirit World.

The pipe, the smoke, the spirits, our thoughts - these things are Wakan.

CARD CLUBS SECRET DEALINGS TO DESTROY GUIDEVILLE BAND OF POMO CASINO HOTEL RESORT AT POINT MOLATE

2010-03-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

Card clubs' secret dealings

The secret card club gang bankrolling the disturbing anti-Indian casino ad blitz in Richmond has failed to acknowledge basic city psychology: It's OK for us to criticize us but it's not OK for outsiders to do it.

The eight-page mailer and 30-second TV spot from a group calling itself Stop The Mega Casino features some of Richmond's most unseemly neighborhoods.

The text paints a nightmare scenario, in which the opening of a Las Vegas-style Indian casino at Point Molate will render permanent the presence of drug dealers, loan sharks, poverty and crime.

Richmond residents are outraged. And with good reason. They know they have problems.
And many folks are rightfully concerned about how the city will balance the negative social impacts of a full-blown gambling institution against the economic benefits.
But the last thing Richmond residents want is an overblown depiction of the city as a cesspool from an outside group that won't disclose its members and stands nowhere close to moral ground.

Like casinos, card rooms are gambling establishments, only smaller and with less flashy ways to lose your money. They don't care about Richmond. They don't want the competition. It's pure hypocrisy, plain and simple.
We're told that Stop the Mega Casino is a coalition of a dozen "mom-and-pop" to medium-sized undisclosed card clubs.

The campaign representatives have refused to name the card clubs while simultaneously declaring themselves open.

Their one attempt at transparency is laughable.
On Feb. 11, David Fried, the lawyer for The Oaks card room in Emeryville, registered in Richmond as the representative of a grass-roots lobbyist organization called Stop the Mega Casino.

The form lists as its only activity a $33,900 payment to a San Francisco consulting firm, Whitehurst Mosher, for "advice, signs and media."
So, card room lawyers are grass-roots organizers now?
Richmond City Clerk Diane Holmes rejected the application; The city has no grass-roots lobbyist category.

Stop the Mega Casino may want to look at what happened in Walnut Creek.
Last year, a mall developer secretly sabotaged a competing firm's plans to build a Neiman Marcus department store downtown, claiming it would unleash intolerable parking havoc.

Granted, the availability of $500 Manolo pumps does not inspire the same societal fear as a $20-minimum blackjack table.
But the point is this: The move backfired. The city's voters overwhelmingly approved the high-end department store last year.

When outsiders with blatant commercial self-interests drop into town, voters pull up the welcome mat and lock the front door.

Contra Costa Times- March 6, 2010

PEACEFUL PATHWAYS, REDUCING EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE

2010-03-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Colleague:
We are reaching out to funders with a strong interest in the Native American community to invite you to nominate local projects for a new matching grants program—Peaceful Pathways: Reducing Exposure to Violence.
Across the U.S., violent behavior can be a significant obstacle to good health. Through Peaceful Pathways,Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships offers matching grants of $50,000 to $200,000 for new projects that serve communities of color and other traditionally under-resourced groups.

Please consider forwarding this Call for Proposals to nonprofit leaders whose programs build on community strengths and wisdom to increase peace and safety. Eligible projects may address any behavior that causes physical, emotional or psychological harm.

We rely on local grantmakers who recognize innovative, community-based projects that create meaningful change to solve complex issues. Together, we could leverage our combined resources to foster a program’s long-term success.
Please feel free to call on any one of us at 609-275-4128 to discuss our grantmaking programs or the proposal you may nominate. We look forward to talking with you.
Sincerely,

Common Places. Common Causes. Uncommon Connections.
A national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation®
administered by the Health Research & Educational Trust of New Jersey.
760 Alexander Road, Princeton, NJ 08543-0001
(609) 275-4128 — info@localfundingpartnerships.org

The American Indian Graduate Program at The University of California, Berkeley
(mailing address) 316 Sproul Hall # 5900, Berkeley, CA 94720-5900
(office location) 598 Barrows Hall, The University of California, Berkeley
(email) aigp@berkeley.edu / (phone) 510.642.3228 / (fax) 510.643.8909
http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/aigp

NATIVE AMERICANS AND SIKH COMMUNITY WALKS FOR PEACE IN THE STREETS IN THE CITY OF RICHMOND,CA

2010-03-06T22:17:00.000-08:00

top foto: thousands of Richmond residents march for the end of violence on the stree

middle foto: Sikhs from the San Francisco Bay Area Gurawada listening to the plea to stop the violence in Richmond, CA.

bottom foto: Courtney Cummings of the Richmond Native Wellness Center

RICHMOND, CA- On Saturday, March 6, 2010 Community Advocates and Activists, along with religious clergy and thousands of Richmond residents took to the streets to protest the need to end the youth and young adult violence that has plagued the City.

There was a sizable rally at the Richmond City Hall Plaza, where the community gathered to start the spiritual walk for peace.

WILMA MANKILLER DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER, LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE MARCH 5, 2010

2010-03-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Mankiller diagnosed with cancer
Slated to make last public appearance March 5

By S.E. Ruckman, Today correspondent

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Wilma Mankiller, the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, has been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. The 14-county Cherokee jurisdiction reeled from the news after her husband, Charlie Soap, made the announcement March 2.

She is slated to make her last public appearance in Tulsa at the Renaissance Hotel at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 5 for a cancer summit hosted by Cherokee Nation, according to reports.Mankiller, 64, said she decided to issue a statement because she wants her family and friends to know that she has “mentally and spiritually prepared” herself for her latest health crisis.“I learned a long time ago that I can’t control the challenges the Creator sends my way, but I can control the way I think about them and deal with them. On balance, I have been blessed with an extraordinarily rich and wonderful life, filled with incredible experiences.”

She added that she has been touched by countless people in her life and regrets not being able to deliver the news of her illness personally. She requested that well wishers contact her at wilmapmankiller@yahoo.com.Mankiller’s pancreatic cancer is not the first health challenge she has faced. After surviving a head-on collision in 1979 that killed the other driver in rural Cherokee County, she was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease, myasthenia gravis, in 1980 in which her thymus was removed as the cure.

In 1995, she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She underwent two kidney transplants in 1990 and 1998, after inherting kidney disease from her father, who died of it. In 1999, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate, particularly stage IV, with a prognosis of three to six months, according to medical resources. Chemotherapy is the standard course for this type of terminal cancer.Meanwhile, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith, told hundreds of tribal employees March 2 that he regretted making the announcement but did so in order for her immediate family to be respected.“Please allow them the privacy they deserve, either when they are at work or when they are in the community during this trying time,” Smith said in an employee memo. Members of her family work for Cherokee Nation in various capacities.

Mankiller served as the Cherokee Nation’s principal chief in 1985 after serving two years as the tribe’s deputy chief starting in 1983. She inherited the top position after then principal chief, Ross Swimmer, was appointed to the head of the BIA. She was elected in 1987 then 1991 by Cherokee voters. She opted to step down from political life in 1995.Her terms as principal chief were marked by focusing on education, health care, new school construction, job-training centers and health clinics. A health clinic bearing her name is located in Stilwell, Okla.Her life has been one that has been about taking the twists and turns of life’s roads.

In her 1993 book, “Mankiller: A Chief and Her People,” she recounts a path that included a family migration from Cherokee County in Oklahoma to San Francisco, Calif. in the 1950s as part of the BIA’s Relocation Program.Soon after graduating high school in 1963, she married Hugo Olaya and had two daughters, Gina and Felicia. About two years after her divorce in 1974, she made the decision to return to Oklahoma, where she soon became a community coordinator for the Cherokee Nation.

She later married fellow Cherokee tribal member, Charlie Soap, in 1986. They have made their home in Stilwell, living on her family allotment for the last several years. Mankiller is the grandmother of a grandson and granddaughter.Since leaving political life, Mankiller has served on numerous boards and named for several distinctions, including induction into the Women’s Hall of Fame in New York City in 1994. In 1995, she received a Chubb Fellowship from Yale University.

She was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-president Bill Clinton in 1998.She is the co-author of a 2004 book, “Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women,” with Gloria Steinem and Vine DeLoria Jr.

Indian Country Today-March 4, 2010

DEBATE OVER POINT MOLATE HOTEL AND CASINO PROPOSAL INTENSIFIES

2010-03-03T17:29:00.001-08:00

Debate over Point Molate hotel-casino proposal intensifies

The battle over a proposed $1.2 billion hotel-casino resort on a stretch of Richmond's waterfront is heating up as the project inches closer to a vote.

City leaders on Tuesday extended the closing date on its $50 million deal to sell the old Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot to a developer, giving the parties more time to negotiate changes to the contract. The deal was set to expire on March 15; it now ends on April 20.
Progress has been made in recent negotiations, City Councilman Tom Butt said.

"There are a lot of issues out there. None of them to me seem to be insolvable," said Butt, who is seeking a commitment from the developer to keep historic buildings in tact among other issues.
Additional extensions that would push the deadline to later this year — and squarely into the City Council election season — are likely if officials want this project to move forward.
Meanwhile, the card club-backed Stop the Mega Casino group is spending $33,900 to oppose the resort.

Their eight-page mailer, which began arriving in mailboxes Saturday, depicts a gritty Richmond and suggests drug dealing, loan sharking, poverty and crime will become permanent fixtures if a casino opens here. It urges locals to call the City Council to tell them to say no to a casino.
A 30-second television ad in the same style as the mailer also aired this past weekend.

Stop the Mega Casino is working with Whitehurst/Mosher Campaign Strategy and Media in San Francisco, according to an expenditure report filed with the city clerk's office. The group represents a dozen medium and small card clubs that worry about competition from a large casino.

The proposed Point Molate hotel-casino resort would host 124,000 square feet of gaming, a conference center, nearly 1,100 hotel rooms, restaurants, shops, tribal headquarters, a shoreline park, trails and ferry service. Developer Upstream Point Molate and the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation as an investor, are seeking federal, state and local approvals to build it.

The city would receive at least $16.6 million annually under a 20-year agreement with Upstream.
This is the second extension of the closing date. The deal was initially set to expire in January, but officials postponed it to March 15 and now to next month.
More extensions are likely if officials want this project. The city has not distributed responses to public comments on the draft environmental impact report yet; nor has it voted to certify the document. Both are required as a condition of closing.

At Tuesday's council meeting, union workers wearing green "Support the Resort at Point Molate" T-shirts outnumbered project opponents. They urged officials to approve projects that create construction and long-term operational jobs.
"Richmond needs jobs ... something to give hope to people in Richmond that will generate jobs," said resident Ricky Jackson, who supports the project. "Positive change promotes positive things."
Opponents fear the project is a pipe dream that won't produce as many jobs for locals as promised. Officials should let the land sale agreement expire and study other options, they said.

"It is time to let this go," said Joan Garrett, a member of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate.
Jim Levine of Upstream acknowledged the mailer and TV ads mark the start of an election-year battle over the project. But Levine said their message ignores 17,000 direct and indirect jobs that the casino resort promises, with agreements for mostly local jobs and training programs to help fill them. Levine dismissed the ads' claim that the project would only burnish the city's struggles with drugs, crime and poverty.

Katherine Tam - Contra Costa Times, March 3, 2010

WHEN A NATIVE PERSON STANDS UP.....

2010-03-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

When you as a Native person stand up for what you believe is right,
you must have the courage to acknowledge your actions and face the consequences.