Nativepeoples's topics - tribe.net

crystals and native religions?

2009-10-21T12:30:08Z

I recently came across the book "Ancient Echoes: The Anasazi Book of Chants" by Mary Summer Rain and I became suspicious immediatly, just from the cover illustration, that it was Newage/ plastic shaman. I then looked through the "chants" and discovered a few things: first that there was no language (not even ONE WORD) that wasnt english; next that she claimed the Anasazi went on "star journeys" (a classic NewAge theme). But perhaps the most revealing to my knowledge was the supposed large role "crystals" played in Anasazi religion.
I have only heard of one native american tribe who attach any significance to quartz crystals - that they are extremely dangerous! (Sorry, dont remember the tribe, but I do remember it is in northern california)
Ignoring the topic of New Age in general, (unless you feel compelled) my question is this - what spiritual/religious significance, if any, do traditional natives give to quartz, etc.? Firsthand knowledge is greatly appreciated! (If specific knowledge among your people is closed to outsiders, a simple yes or no is fine.)

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

potlatch!!

2009-10-14T00:41:32Z

yah! my family is having a potlatch... first one in my lifetime, and most of us... my first button blanket and cedar rings that i create! i realllly need this, for that, i am thanking creator for bringing this sacred way back to us, yes!

"Sustaining the customs and culture of their ancestors, indigenous people now openly hold potlatch to commit to the restoring of their ancestors' ways. Potlatch now occur frequently and increasingly more over the years as families reclaim their birthright. The ban was only repealed in 1951"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch

posted in Nativepeoples - 6 replies

Gatorade powwow dancer commercial

2009-08-08T03:54:09Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQgrY0TOdLQ

posted in Nativepeoples - 4 replies

Modern dancer Pina Bausch with powwow soundtrack

2009-06-30T20:58:53Z

Something random and unexpected:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24xvgntxoQ

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Burners Torched Over Native Party

2009-06-27T23:47:45Z

There was supposed to be a "private" Burner party last Saturday night at the Bordello in Oakland, complete with three hundred guests, twenty DJs spinning thumping techno and bass, dancers, a fashion show, micro-massages, raw food, an absinthe bar, and coconuts. Instead, the event ended in tears.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/music/burners_torched_over_native_party/Content?oid=954007

Thanks to John Hoopes for bringing this to my attention. :)

posted in Nativepeoples - 6 replies

invite to sundance ceremony in Albion Ca.

2009-06-16T23:28:40Z

Pejutah Sun Dance Ceremony
Albion, California

Purification days- June 30th, July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
Tree Day- July 4th
Sun Dance- July 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th

Hau Mitakuyepi

The Pejutah Sun Dance Ceremony held at Albion, California is open to anyone who wants to come and pray with us during this time of purification, renewal and celebration.

Anyone may dance for one, two, three or four days, but everyone must start on the first day and continue until their dance is complete. If you think you have a health condition that may be of concern and you want to dance please talk with me. Only the dancers that have made it to the fourth day are allowed to pierce, if they choose to make a prayer in that way on the last day.

It is not necessary to carry a pipe or Chanupa, but it is ok to bring one and use it during the dance at certain times. Male dancers need to wear a ceremonial skirt and bring an eagle-bone whistle if possible. Female dancers need to wear cotton dresses that cover their shoulders and also bring a shawl. Each dancer should bring bedding for sleeping and sweat lodge clothes.

Supporters are welcome to participate in the morning and evening community sweat lodges during the dance. They are encouraged to dance and pray with the dancers during the ceremony, outside the dancer's sacred circle.

For more information, email Durwin45@yahoo.com or leave a message at 701-425-3962 or 415-879-1761

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Culture SHOCK!

2009-05-30T23:14:50Z

We hear alot today about cultural appropriation and the stealing of native ways. Most of the time, I keep my peace around that issue, as I figure the ramifications of doing something like that will come back on the person doing it; but today I was incredibly shocked at something that happened to us and it showed me a clear example of how the dominant culture I this country thinks it has an absolute right to "appropriate" , take, or steal whatever they feel like.
I took Paul to Bay State Hospital this morning, as he has to have a surgery on his pacemaker. As we were getting him settled in, the lab tech came to draw blood. His medicine bag was lying next to him on the bed, as she was prepping his arm. She looked down and grabbed the medicine bag, without even asking, snatched it up and proceeded to hold it up and bellow very loudly..."Well...aren't you an earthy kinda guy! What is this?" It happened so fast, we barely had time to react. My husband said..."It's a medicine bag". The technician said "Oh...I love good leather work." She continued to hold onto the bag and turned to show it to the nurse standing beside her. (as if she had any right to do so!)
I calmly looked at her and said ... Perhaps you are unaware...a medicine bag is a sacred item and should not be touched by anyone other than who it belongs to...that can weaken the medicine. Probably in the future you might want to ask before just snatching something up like that" . She gave no apology...just put it down and said "Oh"....acting as though it were no big deal and went on with her work without missing a beat.
Now, I understand that this was her ignorance, indeed and I took the opportunity to quietly and peacefully let her know the right way, in the event she founds herself in this situation again; but it has been setting with me most of the day as a clear example of how cultural appropriation works, even in small ways and how entitled the dominant culture in this country thinks they are.
Eye opener!

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

Ellen Moves Camp

2009-05-22T16:39:33Z

*tears* They are all going home~what will become of us?

Ellen Moves Camp - Hero of Wounded Knee
By Stephanie Hedgecoke
Published Jun 8, 2008 9:34 PM
Photo: Anne Pearse Hocker

Ellen Moves Camp, known along with Gladys Bissonnette as the “Grandmas of the American Indian Movement (AIM),” passed April 5 at the age of 77 on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Moves Camp and Bissonnette played key roles before, during and after the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, which moved the Indigenous struggle into the view of the whole world.

The struggles of Indigenous people globally are illustrated in the story of Ellen Moves Camp and Wounded Knee.

The Lakota Nation’s title to most of South Dakota and parts of Montana and Nebraska, including the Black Hills (Paha Sapa), was recognized in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. George Armstrong Custer took miners to the Black Hills to find gold and the U.S. broke the treaty and stole 34 million acres of land, leaving the Lakota divided among separate reservations. Over time that land base was further eroded as the Oglala Lakota were forced to lease their land to ranchers for pennies.

In the 1970s, the federal government moved Oglala families into cluster housing to reduce spending on utilities, freeing more land to be leased by cattle ranchers. Meanwhile over 100 Indians had been murdered in racist white towns surrounding Pine Ridge.

Unemployment was at 90 percent. Traditional families and activists were attacked by the Bureau of Indian Affairs-installed reservation government of Dick Wilson and his paramilitary GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation), armed by the FBI. Wilson signed over some 200,000 acres of land to the U.S. for a bombing range.

Underlying these events, the U.S. had secret plans to turn the Paha Sapa into a “National Sacrifice Zone.” The continent’s richest deposits of weapons-grade uranium lie under the bombing range. Uranium and coal were to be mined, over 188,000 acres destroyed, and incredibly toxic smog and debris would have poisoned the region and destroyed countless square miles of waterways and ponds.

Energy companies signed up to create dozens of coal-fired plants to surround the Black Hills and build a “nuclear energy park” of 25 reactors. Test drilling began on a huge scale. Leaking uranium poisoned the aquifer, the only source of drinking water.
Resistance at Wounded Knee

On the basis of estimates of half a billion dollars in uranium revenue, the U.S. was determined to eliminate AIM and traditional opposition. But the strength of resistance at Wounded Knee forced the Interior Department to retreat from some of its plans.

In 1973 traditional elders with the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) called AIM to Pine Ridge to protect the people from the GOONs. Denied access to the BIA building at Pine Ridge by federal marshals, AIM held a meeting at Calico with 600 supporters where 1,500 grievances against the BIA and Wilson were taken in a two-day meeting. Then traditional elders Ellen Moves Camp and Gladys Bissonnette stood and challenged the men to take action.

AIM warrior Dennis Banks said of that meeting: “The decision to take Wounded Knee came when Ellen Moves Camp pointed at us and said, ‘What are you men going to do about it?’ If the women hadn’t done that we’d still be meeting at Calico.”

Clyde Bellecourt recalled Bissonnette asking AIM, “Haven’t you heard enough? Go back to Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Los Angeles or Portland. We are going to stand here and be warriors.” He said that he “was stunned by that confrontation with an elderly woman, wrinkles all over her face.”

Wounded Knee was chosen for the takeover protest as it was still held by the Lakota community. The village is the site of the 1890 historic massacre of Big Foot’s band of 300 Lakota Sioux women, men and children as they were peacefully moving to the Pine Ridge Reservation to avoid starvation. Instead, they were viciously murdered by the U.S. Army Seventh Cavalry in the snow. The world had heard of Wounded Knee through Dee Brown’s book, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

Some 200 Native people went to Wounded Knee on Feb. 27, 1973, to hold an early morning press conference. The government attacked. The press conference was never held. And the big business media did not report the total government deployment of 17 armored personnel carriers, 130,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition, 41,000 rounds of M-40 high explosives for grenade launchers, helicopters and other aircraft. An army assault unit in Colorado was put on 24-hour alert.

The standoff held the attention of the world. Support committees formed to help educate non-Native people about the conditions of the Indigenous on the reservations, and the significance of Native American Indian culture, language and the land in the fight against genocide.

During the 71-day struggle against the U.S. military assault of the National Guard and armed FBI agents, Moves Camp served as negotiator for the protesters with the Justice Department. As Banks recalls: “Once the strength was reawakened with the Oglalas, they became the principal negotiators—especially the women. Because it was their future. From there, AIM took a backseat. The further we stepped back, the further the Oglalas stepped forward.”

Moves Camp was from Wanblee and had lost family members in the 1898 massacre. During the military assault in 1973, her nephew Buddy Lamont was one of two Indians killed. On the occasion of the 1998 commemoration of the struggle, Ellen Moves Camp said it’s “just a matter of time before another Wounded Knee and ... a violent confrontation with the U.S. government.”

On the loss of Ellen Moves Camp, Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier said: “Those of us who really knew her will dearly miss her as she was a big inspiration to all of us. She loved and fought for her People and the Nation without ever once that I know of complaining or asking for something for her personal use.”

Ellen Moves Camp stands as an inspiration to Indigenous people in struggle everywhere.

Sources include articles by Ian Record, Lakota Student Alliance; Jon Lurie’s article on the 25th anniversary of Wounded Knee for the Pulse of the Twin Cities; and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
www.workers. org/2008/ us/ellen_ moves_camp_ 0612/

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

A SPIRITUAL C * NSP * R* CY

2009-04-16T22:48:41Z

A SPIRITUAL C * NSP * R* CY

We think this is so harmonically tuned to the spirit of Tribe and all of the mankind who are working towards a more peaceful, abundant, natural and consciously emerging planet. We trust you will feel the sentiment of it and pass it on...

with love and blessings

in the spirit of cooperation, family and global community

Sunny and Pierre Soleil

A SPIRITUAL C * NSP * R* CY

On the surface of the world right now there is
war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly, at the same time,

something else is happening deep down.

An inner emergence is taking place.

And certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent awakening.
From the inside out. From the ground up.

This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual C * nsp * r * cy.
There are 'sleepers' awakening in every nation on the planet.

You won’t see us on the T.V .
You won’t read about us in the newspaper
You won’t hear about us on the radio

We don’t seek any glory
We don’t wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles

Some of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes

in every country and culture of the world;
in cities big and small, mountains and valleys;

in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands.

You could pass by one of us on the street
and not even notice

We go undercover
We insinuate into the system

from behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done

During the day some of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront and at any hour
is where the real work takes a place

Some might call us the Conscious Warriors
Rainbow Warriors of Light, Spiritual Activists,
Lightworkers, Shamans, Helians [healing beings]

However we know ourselves as,
we are slowly creating a new world

with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy

Our orders come from from the Central Spiritual Intelligence or The Celestial Concourse Administration...
Whether it's the CSI or the CCA or our own deepest access to global consciousness
We are all dropping soft, secret love b *m b s when no one is looking

Poems * Hugs * Music * Photography * Movies * Gifting * Kind words * Smiles * Inspiration * Meditation & prayer * Compassion * Workshops * Community Gatherings * Dance * Social alternatives * Websites * Blogs * Random acts of kindness and outgoing concern for the whole before self

We each express ourselves in our own unique ways
with our own unique gifts and talents

Be the change you want to see in the world
That is the motto that fills our hearts.

We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the
power of all the oceans combined.

Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved ....

Love is the new religion of the 21st century
You don’t have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it

It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings..

Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you

We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have.

All are welcome
The door is open

author unknown

Welcome H.E.R.E. We love you

SunWaterClear & WindWaterClear

Harmonic Emergence - Return to Earth H.E.R.E.

http://people.tribe.net/windwaterclear H.E.R.E BLOG
http://harmonicemergence.org/ - OUR FOUNDATION SITE
http://www.panoramio.com/user/2861230 A photographic tribute to the hallowed forests we roam
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justcamping/ SMALL INFORMAL FOREST GATHERINGS. More than just camping
http://www.everytrail.com/
http://tribes.tribe.net/harmonicemergence JOIN OUR TRIBE

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

The Medicine Way

2009-04-16T17:16:23Z

I would just like to share this little piece of documentary...we are so proud...this is my cousin's son Seb, who has decided to learn the medicine ways of his people. It features Seb with Cree Elder and healer, Marc Thompson. The documentary was produced by Sebastien's girlfriend Carolyn Monnet and the film just won an award at the Aboriginal Film Festival for 2009. Carolyn has now offers for 3 more Native films. Not much English in the film, but French and Cree...but hopefully you will get the gist of it and enjoy!

http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/c_est_ca_la_vie/2008-2009/Reportage.asp?idDoc=78108

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

A Blessing or prayer

2009-04-04T21:04:23Z

In the house made of dawn.
In the story made of dawn.
On the trail of dawn.
O, Talking God.
His feet, my feet, restore.
His limbs, my limbs, restore.
His body, my body, restore.
His voice, my voice, restore.
His plumes, my plumes, restore.
With beauty before him, with beauty before me.
With beauty behind him, with beauty behind me.
With beauty above him, with beauty above me.
With beauty below him, with beauty below me.
With beauty around him, with beauty around me.
With pollen beautiful in his voice,
with pollen beautiful in my voice.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
In the house of evening light.
From the story made of evening light.
On the trail of evening light.

Navajo

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Indigenous Empowerment Summit II

2009-03-12T04:07:17Z

April 16, 17 & 18
Haskell Indian Nations University
Lawrence, Kansas

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=351165636

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

acting classes for Natives

2009-02-25T00:51:26Z

There is a special deal on acting classes for Natives. check it out www.evolvingstudio.org spread the word!

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Only Smoke Signals Without Red Bull

2009-02-19T07:03:16Z

quote from the site:

>> "Ad Story
A simple line drawing animated cartoon shows a teepee either side of a great canyon. As red-indian drums accompany the background music, Brown Bear and White Pigeon communicate their unrequited love across the great divide by means of animated and suggestive smoke signals. The narrator comments "ahh, no Red Bull, no happy ending". " <<

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Only-Smoke-Signals-Without-Red-Bull-Red-Bull-Stimulation/63996

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

More Plaintiffs Join Abuse Lawsuit In Seattle Against Jesuits

2009-02-09T18:50:05Z

SEATTLE -- Twenty more Alaska Natives have joined a lawsuit alleging they were abused by Jesuit priests or people under their supervision in remote Alaska villages.

"It was nothing less than sexual and cultural war on Alaska Natives and native people," John C. Manly of Newport Beach, Calif., a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told a news conference Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, Jesuits known to be pedophiles were sent from around the world to the Fairbanks Diocese in Alaska and, along with some of their employees and volunteers, committed child abuse ranging from fondling to rape in the hamlets of Nulato, Hooper Bay, Stebbins, Chevak, Mountain Village, Nunam Iqua and St. Michael.

The lawsuit now has 63 plaintiffs and dozens more may be added, Manly said. He also said the world head of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus had been served in the United States with court papers naming him as a defendant.

In addition, The Rev. Francis E. Case, who retired last year as secretary or second-ranking official of the order and now lives at Seattle University, was added as a defendant in the 112-page amended lawsuit filed this week in Bethel, Alaska. He's accused of covering up abuse by priests.

In a deposition taken in May for a different child abuse lawsuit against the Jesuits, Case told Manly that as provincial he tried to keep such matters from becoming public to protect the "reputation" and "the good name of the society."

Case was provincial or head of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, which covers Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana, from about 1986 to 1990, and knew or should have known about pedophile priests, including the Rev. Francis Nawn, who is accused of abusing three plaintiffs, according to the lawsuit.

Case is described in the lawsuit as head of campus ministry and is listed on the Seattle University Web site as being involved in campus ministry, but university spokesman Casey Corr said the Web site was in error and that Case is neither employed at the school nor has any formal role or duties with campus ministry.

Struggling to retain his composure, Delbert C. Acoman, a police officer in Stebbins, Alaska, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told the news conference that he and a cousin were among those abused by Nawn, who is now deceased.

One day after church in the summer of 1987, he said, the priest invited him to stay and "joking turned into physical touching. He told me to pull down my pants."

Acoman said Nawn grabbed his penis and one of the priest's fingernails caught on some skin.

"Father Nawn left a scar on me. It's going to be with me for the rest of my life ... it's on my private area, down there. He tore a piece of skin off," he said.

The priest never abused him again but "told me that if I told anyone it would be a sin and I would go to hell if I told anyone," Acoman said.

Manly said he and other lawyers handling the case expect another 50 to 100 Alaska Natives to join the lawsuit.

The Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, superior general and top official of the Jesuits in Rome, was named as a defendant when the case was filed Jan. 13 in Alaska Superior Court. He was served with the lawsuit late last week in Los Angeles, Manly said.

Nicolas was handed the documents while visiting Homeboy Industries, a job program run by a Jesuit priest for young gang members, and did not give any response to the process server, Manly said.

Plaintiffs are asking that Nicolas extend his U.S. trip to investigate abuse by Jesuits.

There was no response to a call to Jesuit headquarters in Rome for comment Thursday.

James Rogers, a spokesman for the Jesuit Conference of the United States in Washington, D.C., said by telephone he could not comment because the conference was not involved in the assignment or monitoring of priests.

In an e-mail, Case referred a request for comment to the Oregon Province. The Very Rev. Patrick J. Lee, the current provincial, declined comment Thursday because the Jesuits' lawyers have not seen the amended lawsuit, spokesman Patrick Walsh wrote in an e-mail.

In the past, Lee and his predecessor, the Rev. Stephen V. Sundborg, president of Seattle University since July 1997, have denied they knew of sexual wrongdoing or were involved in covering up wrongdoing by priests, although the order has paid millions of dollars in recent years to settle sexual abuse claims in Alaska.

In a statement issued last month through a spokesman, Lee wrote that Jesuits were assigned to the Fairbanks Diocese at their own request because of their "deep desire to spread the gospel."

http://www.kirotv.com/news/18652736/detail.html#-

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Native Series on PBS

2009-02-09T03:35:22Z

This is premiering in our area in April, anyone with access to PBs may be able to get it too???

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/making_of

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Lakota peace stick

2009-02-06T22:37:03Z

Years ago I got a pencil in the mail with this great story about peace form the Lakotas. Well somewhere in the constant moving of a military career I lost it. Now that I have retired from the military and have the audience of young children I would like to share this story with them. Does anybody know the story that the Lakotas connect with there peace sticks they use to send out in the mail. I have already checked http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/loreindx.html and it is not the story listed there.

Please help! I want to give these children pencils on valentines day and share the story with them. Thank You!

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Channel G

2009-02-03T04:12:13Z

Red Feather- building straw bale houses for elderly, homeless Native Americans.
watch video here:
www.channelg.tv/video.php
Come check the Ginormous Love of Channel G!
Join our Tribe, and help spread the Good word!!
http://tribes.tribe.net/channelg

!!!

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Native folks need emergency assistance!

2009-01-28T00:18:51Z

Dear Ones,

Please read:

''Emergency Winter Heating/Utility Assistance Program for the Elders, Disabled, and Seriously Ill.''

Winter in South Dakota started early Autumn 2008 and has been
exceptionally brutal with days and nights already breaking many records
for below 0*F temperatures and reported wind chill factors defying
comprehension at -72*F.

On the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Reservation, this has set even the
most solid of reservation organizations scrambling for heating fuel.
Add to the problem a 33% increase in propane costs this year and it has
become a very tenuous situation.

Sadly, like everywhere, it's always the elders and sick who are the most at risk.

Still there are many qualified elders and disabled from the Reservation
on a waiting list for assistance.

Bitter cold temperatures and snow still persist and are expected to
continue well into March 2009.

But with the early onset of winter and the blizzards and extended frigid
temperatures creating extreme need, funding is low or depleted
at this point for most of them.

The ultimate goal will be the programs provided which will continue
to keep people alive and warm, one family at a time.

www.republicoflakotah.com/

Please visit www.nativeprogress.org
to help send money, food, blankets etc...

I spoke to a lady named Jeri Baker and a gentleman named John DuBray this morning.
JERRY: 570-460-6567
JOHN: 605-441-5477

www.nativeprogress.org/content/view/49/112/

Jeri provided me with the above website to peruse:
John gave the following address for mailing supplies:

ONE SPIRIT
28080 ALLEN RD
ALLEN, SOUTH DAKOTA
57714

NATIVEPROGRESS.ORG
www.nativeprogress.org/

The woman in charge of directly working with the elderly on the reservation is:

LINDA BULL BEAR
605-454-0007
LBULLBEAR@NATIVEPROGRESS.ORG

Please notify those you think might help of this crisis.

FEMA is not helping. I repeat, FEMA is NOT helping.

Thank you Sooper Bear and Crow's World for the tip and thank you friends for taking the time to read my blog.
people.tribe.net/da7fbb5a-...40cac/blog
Love,
Sooper Bear

Please- lets all do whatever we can and also pass along this message to others... Thanks
Blessed Be
Siz'l

"The survival of the world depends upon our sharing what we have and working together. If we don't, the whole world will die. First the planet, and next the people."

FOOLS CROW
Ceremonial Chief of the Teton Sioux

posted in Nativepeoples - 6 replies

Cheryl Little Deer {Wireless Warrior}

2009-01-22T14:58:25Z

I am letting you all know that we are in the final hours of Little Deer's life. You might not know her, but her foot prints will be here forever. Just a year ago, she was standing before our board of supervisors appealling a cell tower that was going to be put up down the highway. She was educated in this area, She had EMFSS, electro-magnetic field sensitivity sickness. Native people are more sensitine, to this man-made powers. She gave them 14 years of facts on this issue. Due to the facts that health effects can not be a part of their decision The tower went up ..On July,27,2008 she had a seizure on here property. She lived off the grid, living green. She was told that she had a glioma brain tumor, that she need to have surgery as soon as possible. She gave it her best. Brain cancer has taken the life, but her spirit will live forever. Her sons need all the help they can get. She was a warrior of the unseen. Don't think for a moment that this issue about cell phones and brain tumors isn't real. Children are at the highest risk.Mother Earth we are cooking her, one phone,tower at a time...This has been a horrible way to go to the spirit world. I will miss her deeply..I know this walk and have the knowledge of knowing that all these things are true. I have a brain tumor also..I am Lenape my name is Sharesa Price..Wanishi..thank you for this space.

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Red Feather builds homes for Native Americans!

2009-01-11T14:38:22Z

Please check out Channel G.
Join our tribe,
and please help spread the Good word.
Thanks!

http://www.tribe.com/channelg
http://www.channelg.tv
http://www.myspace.com/channelg

Red Feather video: http://www.channelg.tv/video.php?project_id=10

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

My annual winter story

2009-01-09T20:48:38Z

The Great Flood
http://web.mac.com/kimowan/iWeb/Magazine/Images%20%26%20Other%20Curios/768DEC73-5570-41DF-9EF5-58A7A6EC0640.html

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Questions for those challenging New Colonialism, re: use of ndn terminology and culture

2008-12-23T11:43:28Z

This was made as a response to a provocative post on the shamanism tribe, and thought it merits sharing with a general audience. Both AIM, Incorporated folks and Autonomous AIM folks are encouraged to reply.

i see what you're saying about the new colonialism thing. Where i dissent is your sweeping generalization of all people called 'white'.

While it's true that MOST 'white' folks are deeply programmed products of their socialization (with large amounts of internalized values to boot), not all of us european descendants of tribes are. And to perpetuate such an emotion in such a broad-brushing wreaks of a curious form of incitement, or bashing.

But i did say there's truth, so lemme focus there. In a portion of the heart of it, as i see it.

Again, the internalized value thing. Most people take for granted the frames of reference they use to look upon their world. They see no political intrigues to reproducing the society in which they feel powerless to truly change. So they play. It's healing. And then they can go back to their wage slavery on Monday. Not seeing beyond that paradigm.

Now, some of the ndn folx have been challenging this confined thought. And that certainly has its merits. Yet there is also merit in european descendants of tribes in intuitively finding value in the frames of references of other cultures. Now all we have to do is make the connection. But of course, many european descendants of tribes have been so deeply coerced early on in their lives that they cannot, for the life of them, do anything until they have permission from some authority.

Then they will follow.

So folx like you are whipping at them with this guilt thing. That's the way i'm feeling it. As tho it's BAD to intuitively take up a holding-on-line that one's "own" culture simply does not have in any meaningful way.

Well, i say what if you all explored ways to challenge while at the same time moving towards their actual desires?! I.e. their desires to utilize power in deeply meaningful ways. Remember, the constant narrative planted in our heads tells us that this pursuit is meaningless. Yet we persist. That means something.

And for groups who are barely surviving, y'all need all the allies ya can get.

Except of course, allies who are truly in touch with these currents. So how to bridge between? And when?

Note: i ain't saying you SHOULD ALWAYS try to listen to we who are survivors of psychological genocide. i'm saying that you should not jump to knee-jerk-style conclusions. Because you might easily find yourself even more trapped. In the margins.

But of course, the thought police are spending a lot of money to keep us all at odds with each other.....

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Updated my website

2008-12-23T02:54:40Z

http://web.mac.com/kimowan/iWeb/portfolio/Home.html

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

A couple of disturbing news stories from California..

2008-12-21T19:32:41Z

I thought these two stories needed a wider audience than just the local newspapers and ndn mailing lists...

YouTube video leads to graverobber's arrest:
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11277958

Robinson Rancheria moves forward with disenrollments:
http://lakeconews.com/content/view/6675/764/

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Indeginous micro people protect Mother Earth!

2008-12-08T14:47:28Z

I speak of the ones who live in soil,water,air all around us and before us called microorganism. When we feed the earth organic matter we feed our micro people and Mother Earth.As seen in the rainforest ,no plant food needed all organic matter falls to Earth and microbes do the rest feeding plants,trees and all creation. Microbe like people have 10% bad microbes (pathogens,putrid,harmful) and 10% good microbes(rejuvenate,heal,protect) the other 80% follow the trend of leaders(oppertunist). I have food(EM) to awaken the ancient indiginous microbes thats ready to thrive once again. EM is used worldwide and on some reservation. EM is used to make healing clay Super Cera -C Powder that has far infrared vibrations with many benefits. I teach workshops on this "gift" called EM from the East .( Japan). We can make the connection with the earth, people and Creator and make the new world today! Contact for more info

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Where is...

2008-12-07T15:52:06Z

Love?

posted in Nativepeoples - 6 replies

Prayer to the Mystery by Little Wolf (music)

2008-12-01T22:02:56Z

I just want to share this beautiful CD by Little Wolf. It's called Prayer to the Mystery and it meshes some of my favorites sounds that I don't often find together, such as flutes, drums and Indian chanting - with tribal, trance-like, electronic soundscapes. Very powerful and beautiful. This link gives samples:

http://www.newearthrecords.com/web/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=18&idproduct=1488

Does anyone have any other recommendations for music similar to this?

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Western Shoshone protest Barrick Gold on sacred Mount Tenabo

2008-11-30T18:20:38Z

Western Shoshone protest Barrick Gold on sacred Mount Tenabo

By Brenda Norrell

Photos by Lisa Wolf

CRESCENT VALLEY, Newe Sogobi (Nevada) -- While most Americans enjoyed Thanksgiving this week, Western Shoshone protested the devastation on their sacred Mount Tenabo, as Barrick Gold ripped out pine trees by the roots on this ceremonial mountain for gold mining.

As Barrick Gold continues its practice of genocide, targeting Indigenous Peoples territories around the world, Barrick is destroying Mount Tenabo for one of the United States largest open pit gold mines. The Cortez Hills Expansion Project is at the flank of the mountain where Shoshone carry out sweatlodges and other ceremonies. (See protest photos at http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com )

Shoshone called for help and an immediate encampment to protect sacred Mount Tenabo.

Earlier this week, several Western Shoshone tribes and non-profit indigenous and environmental organizations filed a restraining order in the federal District Court in Reno against the construction of the proposed mine site.

Unable to wait for the hearing that is scheduled for early next week and the mine’s continual slaughter of the pinion forest, the Western Shoshone grandmothers and supporters traveled to the site demanding Barrick to stop cutting the trees.

"As heavy machinery used to tear out the pinion trees came to halt upon the arrival of the Shoshones, Barrick Gold employees ignored the Shoshone’s demand that they cease the clear cutting. They witnessed piles of pinion and other trees strewn across the landscape and unfenced polluted ponds," Western Shoshone said in a joint statement.

“Today we went to a war zone, a war zone against the trees by the Barrick Gold Company. If people can eat or drink gold to sustain life, maybe we can call it a sacrifice of the life of trees, trees that gives us pine nuts and other medicinal uses,” stated Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother and executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.

The Western Shoshone had lived in the area of Mount Tenabo since the beginning of time.

Today it is the homelands to local Shoshones and continues to be the home to Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal foods and plants as well as a site for spiritual and ceremonial practices. Mount Tenabo is in the heart of Western Shoshone territory and is part of the ancestral lands that has been identified and recognized as Western Shoshone territory through the ratification of the Treaty of Ruby Valley between the Western Shoshone and the United States.

“The mining company and the Bureau of Land Management are trespassing on the Western Shoshone treaty land and are destroying our mountains, trees, food, medicine and leaving dirty polluted water ponds that are wide open making it unsafe to the birds and animals. Why doesn’t the mining company go dig up the Vatican or the Mormon Tabernacle instead of Western Shoshone lands, I’m sure they will find gold there, because this is what you are doing to our mountains and trees," said Mary McCloud, Western Shoshone grandmother.

Earlier this year, Barrick attorneys halted release of a book exposing the global genocide and atrocities of Barrick Gold. The book launch for Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, edited by Alain Denault and the Collectif Ressources d'Afrique out of Montréal, was halted when the authors and publishers (Édition Écosociété) received letters from a law firm representing Barrick Gold, according to the Dominion in Canada.

Barrick has also sued The Guardian and The Observer over published articles about the Bulyanhulu massacre in Tanzania.

The book exposes Barrick's advantageous mining contracts, partnerships with arms dealers and mercenaries in the Great Lakes region, miners buried alive in Tanzania, an "involuntary genocide" by poisoning in Mali, brutal expropriations in Ghana, using people from the Ivory Coast for pharmaceutical testing, devastating hydroelectric projects in Senegal and the savage privatization of the railway system in West Africa.

For more information, or to help, Western Shoshone:
Western Shoshone Defense Project
So-Ho-Bi (South Fork) office:
775-744-2565 (fax and phone)
Main office:
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
Newe Sogobi
775-468-0230
775-468-0237 (fax)

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Obama's message for First Americans

2008-11-29T03:49:09Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWocEgu3bPk

posted in Nativepeoples - 5 replies

Winona LaDuke needs help

2008-11-21T23:49:09Z

I received this from my good friend gk today...please read and help if you can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many of You on this list are very dear to me---my Heart!!! In what ever capacity You have made a great and tremendous difference in my Life, and for me, i deeply treasure each of You for many, many moments of Friendship and enlightenment. i make this call upon all of You for a very special regard. As You will read below, another person, every much like each of You, has made my Life a deeper experience of Friendship and true appreciation for our Culture. She has enriched many lives with her fine example of a human Being; of deep enlightened compassion for Earth and Being.

For those who may not know Winona La Duke, she is a vibrant, out-spoken Indigenous Woman, who has, with her remarkable intellect and love for the People, further the cause of honoring the Earth---a member of Green Peace, Amnesty International, Women’s Indigenous Network to name a few significant, organizational ways she works with Life. She ran on the green party’s national ticket with Ralph Nader, as his Vice Presidential candidate in past national elections.

For those of my Wampanoag Nation, Winona lived with us for a while---a national, leading figure in Indian Country, who lent her body and support to our People during our first land claim---she has always believed in us and support us---the real recognition that matters. i’m deeply indebted to her for all the love she has ever shown and given to our People.

i bring her to Your attention now, as You will read, she needs our help. She lost her home to a fire—took everything. Fortunately, she, her Children, and Grandchildren were not harmed. A ‘wish list’ created by her Friends, help us to focus on her Family’s immediate needs. i’ve contacted You because i know that You will respond in any way possible. You will do this in the many ways that all of You, each of You, have always responded to me, my Family, and the Life work at the center of my Heart.

You will have all the information needed. Many thanks, from the deepest regions of my Heart, to each of You. i miss and Love all of You….

gk

gkisedtanamoogk
PO Box 220
"Old Town, Me 04468"
5 Chapel Road, Orono
Punawabsket Wabanakik
207.866.3231
290.7093 {cell}

gkisedtananmoogk@umit.maine.edu

I'm writing to you because I know Winona won't ask for help, and I also know
she really needs our support.
Winona bought her house about 20 years ago and it was filled with art,
books, music, photos and other collectibles that
reflected her story and the story of her family.
What will be most missed
are these memories, and we can recreate some of them.

Photos: One positive thing about being a public figure is that lots of folks
have photos of you and your children.
We have a good collection at Honor the
Earth but I'm asking if you could go through your pictures and send photos
you have of the family, especially the kids.
Wasey and Ajuwak were born
before the digital age so a lot of the photos of them growing up are gone.

Photos would mean a lot.

Movement T-shirts and Art: The kids all had an amazing collection of
movement t-shirts that comprised the bulk of their wardrobe.
Winona
basically shopped for her kids at the events she attended around the world.

If you have any political message shirts or shirts from historic activist
events in sizes Small, Large or X-Large, I know the kids would cherish them.

Zapatista shirts are a favorite.
Also gone is Winona's amazing collection of
posters and art from decades past. I know she would appreciate any
no-nukes, safe energy, anti-colonial, no-gmo and Native activist art.

Books: Winona had a library that fed her mind and soul, and that she often
turned to for research material.
If you can send books, fiction and
non-fiction, she can begin her collection again.

Lastly, Winona has a newborn grandson, Little Crow, who along with her two
toddler grandchildren lost all of their clothes and blankets.
Winter is
coming and the family could really use any warm baby clothes along with
clothes and outerwear for a two year old girl and a large two year old boy
(Giwaadan is a size 4 toddler!).

These are the things -- photos, t-shirts and art, books and baby/toddler
clothing that I think would be most helpful right now, and would touch the
family most.

Winona and the kids are renting an apartment in Detroit Lakes and will be
staying there over the winter while envisioning building a new home.
Right
now, the best shipping address is White Earth Land Recovery/Honor the Earth
office up in Calloway:

Winona LaDuke
White Earth Land Recovery Project
607 Main Avenue
Callaway, MN 56521

I am so appreciative to have all of you to turn to for support.
I send warm
thoughts and love your way, and deep thanks that we all have such a
wonderful circle of family and friends.

Faye
AgnesFay@aol.com

posted in Nativepeoples - 4 replies

Public Television Report

2008-11-20T17:36:11Z

Last night I watched a story on an Indian Boarding school in New Mexico where they are supposably trying to connect different tribes with their past. Is this working? Boarding schools and taking Indian children away from their parents disturbs me a bit because I am very familiar with the history of the one in Carlisle Pennsyvania and the history of Fort Pickins in Pensacola FL. Maybe they really are trying to right a wrong but why can't they create cultural centers and education centers at the reservations. Taking children from a tribe can not be the right answer. Is this merely history repeating itself in what at first appears to be a good thing?

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Kimowan's super-short history of modern powwow songs

2008-11-08T17:19:40Z

From what I've witnessed, there are five major developments in modern-day powwow songs that continue to change the sound to this day.

1. Word songs--Up until the 1980s, almost all powwow songs were "straight songs," melodies without words. Word songs existed, but usually as ceremonial songs. Then, in the mid-1980s, a Cree drum group from Saskatchwan, Red Bull, made a hit recording of songs with Cree wording. It changed everything. Word songs became the popular norm in less than a decade. Here is an early video of Red Bull:

Red Bull: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YuwI8kF0sA

2. Pop culture appropriation--English words began to appear in powwow songs, especially round dance songs, like the words to "Five hundred Miles Away From Home." Black Lodge, a Blackfeet drum group recorded a gimmicky-but-hugely popular CD for children with such songs as "Mighty Mouse." A lot of these songs came from 49ers, a kind of after-the-official powwow riffing for fun.

Black Lodge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcu6Gc5sCU

3. PA systems--In the '80s, drum groups began to travel with their own amplifiers and speakers. And, while the high-treble singing is still the staple sound for northern style, the electronic voice assist opened up the bottom end of octave range making for more melodic play in such songs as "The Rollercoaster Song," written by Arlie Neskahi, sung by Black Lodge. As you can imagine from the title, the melody climbs and falls, but it also had oddly long pauses, melodic flourishes that sounded new then and now. The amplified sound also opened the range of drumming to include more soft drumming.

4. Recording studios--In the '70s and early '80s, almost all recordings were fan-made, on-site cassette tapes, freely passed around. Then, drum groups started selling studio-made tapes, then CDs. At first, most recorded at Arizona's Canyon Records, but a lot of Canadians also recorded at Saskatchewan's Sweetgrass Records. The upshot of all the recordings was the wide distribution of fresh sounds and techniques.

5. The Mega Powwow and bigger money. There are several 30,000+ people powwows today that offer large cash prizes for drum groups. Even a medium-sized powwow of three to five thousand people posts big prize money. My point here is that it gave incentive and cause for drum group individuals to travel together, perform often and practice, the resulting trend being tighter drumming and dead-on note delivery. For unison, precision, experience and innovation, no drum group has put it together more than Alberta's Northern Cree Singers. Listen, but keep an eye on the drumsticks!

Northern Cree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTAQMdxRHAY

Despite all these developments, the powwow song remains essentially the same as it was 50 years ago and beyond. Anyway, this is what I've seen happen, but I'd love to get other viewpoints or corrections.

A couple notable asides:

Firstly, a growing trend at powwows to include a women's backup singing contest:

Gabrielle Knife from South Dakota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgSw9lhv-U

And, one of the Wood brothers, Randy, from the Northern Cree singers, overdubbing himself in a solo home studio, singing a round dance song that uses the text of a treaty agreement to sing about love:

Randy Wood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DruQYKMJae0

Finally, a personal favorite, a rare recording, perhaps the only one on the entire web, of the Little Boy Singers, two guys and the rest women, from the Paul Band, a Nakota rez in the middle of Alberta, Canada:

Little Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m48PFwflyY

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Cree song for Obama...

2008-11-08T15:01:36Z

I'm dedicating this Northern Cree round dance song to Obama, his family and those who wish to celebrate his victory. Okay, get up and dance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBEVlSc34G8

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Any indins here voting for McCain?

2008-11-04T15:06:50Z

If so... may I ask why?

posted in Nativepeoples - 11 replies

Three First Nations newspapers endorse Obama

2008-11-04T07:04:29Z

Three prominent Native American newspapers have endorsed Barack for president...

Native American Times:

Perhaps carelessly, this election for President of the United States has been called the most important race for the highest office ever. There are some compelling reasons for the Nation and certainly for Native people. For reasons beyond experience, and finally looking past race, I support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Tanasi Journal:

Native Americans have been the margin of victory in races all across Indian Country and we can have a role in electing the next grateful President in Barack Obama. The Tanasi Journal without reservation endorses Obama to be the next President of the United States. Vote November 4th, 2008.

Indian Country Today:

Indian Country Today endorses Barack Obama for president. This election is a remarkable opportunity for change in policy direction and leadership style. As a person, Obama exhibits humility and grace, and his story inspires creativity and action. As a candidate, Obama redefined American politics. The first African-American candidate for president deftly inspired legions of disenfranchised and first-time voters to participate in the democratic process. His campaign avoided divisive politics, instead finding common-ground issues like education and the economy to bring minds together. American Indian voters, especially those who support Obama, seized their right to vote like never before and have embraced political participation as a new ethic. We are certain that Native voters will make a noticeable difference in the presidential race and in local ones as well.

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

White privilege

2008-10-28T14:32:35Z

Interesting blog re: White privilege ...something I'm sure we've all had experience with.

http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege-updated

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Evon Peter

2008-10-02T17:34:46Z

Hi friends,
I wanted to share these wise reflections from Evon Peter.
Evon Peter is the National Director of Native Movement Alaska and former Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich’in from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska

http://www.futureprimitive.org/interviews/94

warm greetings
Zorro

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Touching base

2008-09-21T01:56:58Z

Just a hey-hey to let you all know I'm still here, although less so since school began.

Huissein Crow... nifty pictures.

posted in Nativepeoples - 7 replies

Greetings

2008-09-20T22:33:43Z

Peace to everyone,
this is an incredible site, i hope to visit here often and learn much .
from Florida.
Crowdancer

posted in Nativepeoples - 14 replies

Sun Dance Ceremony

2008-08-02T02:28:04Z

Tree Day: August 10th
Dance Days: August 11th-14th

Contact Intercessor: Charles Fast Horse @ 530 356-6851
Gene Radino@ 209 606-6493
Email: Charles @ hbfh2008@hotmail.com

MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Taylorsville+&state=CA&address=2100+Genesee+Road&zipcode=95983

Please No: Alcohol, Drugs, Marijuana, Guns or Weapons, Cameras, cassette recorders, video cameras, devices, drawing sketches, recording devices, any form of media. This is not a spectator entertainment or stage.

Donations are Needed: Blankets for Sweats, Food, Travel Expenses, Etc.

Attention: The (I.C.S.S.) is a group of elders, relatives, and close friends. In the past many of our friends could not attend the meetings held in Modesto, CA. Many live far and in between. Our project for posters to advertise the event, for stationary, and telephone calls were on a shoe string budget. All who come will expect at lease that main course of a noon meal. This reflects the traditional Lakota give away custom, and it must be done. The remarkable thing is that although people do not advise the intercessor in advance as to whether they will be present, the expectation is that sufficient food be on hand and cooked. This latter operation requiring enormous effort in itself. Bread, coffee, kool-aid sugar, salt, pepper, payment for singers, etc., some who travel some distance or who lose work time a small share of the overall income as compensation.
Hopefully this will help us. Charles Fast Horse

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

calling all healers

2008-08-01T17:30:46Z

Cheryl Little Deer is at Stanford Hospital with a brain tumor. They want to do surgery tomorrow and she wants to leave the hospital to take care of a few things. She is asking that she "be held in love and light by people of spirit." and the Saquasohuh bundle in Berkeley will pray with it for the highest and best for her and all her relations. Her voicemail is (415) 721-1789 and as of 7/27 she is in room 304A with a direct line of (650) 498-3705. Please also forward this request to any prayer circles you may be part of.
thanks and blessings

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

The Invisible Algonquian Nation

2008-07-11T14:43:00Z

Trailer for a new documentary...looks interesting

http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/peuple-invisible/

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Gitchi Miigwetch to those who walked...

2008-07-11T13:26:47Z

As I write this they are having a Pipe Ceremony in Washington DC to commemorate the finish of the Longest Walk 2. I give thanks to all those who sacrificed and participated in the Longest Walk. And to those original walkers who participated back in 1978. I know a couple of people who walked the whole way - a big gitchi miigwetch to them! I pray that we were successful and that we were able to change a few minds and attitudes along the way. Gitchi miigwetch nmishoomis gitchi manidoo for all the walkers safe arrival. Ha ho!

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Grandmother Kahentinetha Horn hospitalized after attack by border special forces

2008-07-05T18:08:54Z

Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, hospitalized with a heart attack on June 14, 2008, after being attacked by special forces in Canada at the Cornwall/Akwesasne border. Photo by Sagowaiaks.

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

CORNWALL, Ontario -- Kahentinetha Horn, 68, was handcuffed in a police stress hold at the border crossing. Kahentinetha told them she was having chest pains and to loosen the handcuffs. The officers responded by tightening the handcuffs. Kahentinetha was told to bend over in the presence of a male and female officer. She was suffering a trauma induced heart attack. During the attack Katenies, Mohawk Nation News editor, was beaten and jailed by the gang of at least 10 special forces. Kahentinetha is out of the hospital and is recovering. Please consider contributing to the legal fees for a lawsuit against the Canadian police and special forces who attacked the two Mohawk grandmothers.
For more information on Kahentinetha's condition and letters of support: waneek@msn.ca
Please send checks and money orders to:
Mohawk Nation News
Box 991
Kahnawake, Quebec
CANADA J0L1B0
Posted by brendanorrell@gmail.com

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Boarding schools

2008-07-01T01:24:12Z

In Canada, my Mother's generation were forced to attend culturally repressive boarding schools. They were horrible places that shook not only my mother's generation, but mine as well. The church and government are trying to close the issue with cash settlements, but I can't help but imagine that it just opens old wounds and pressures forgiveness where it does not exist. If you have the time, here is an exccellent documentary about that awful history. It's called "Unrepentant"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133

posted in Nativepeoples - 13 replies

Barack Obama Addresses Native Issues

2008-06-05T21:30:59Z

Yay!

Watch here:

www.youtube.com/watch

www.youtube.com/watch

and more from reznetnews.org

Crows Thrilled to Be Obama's 'Brothers and Sisters'

By Mary Hudetz

CROW AGENCY, Mont.—Some Crow tribal members waited in line more than six hours to ensure they would have a good view when the first presidential candidate to visit their reservation stepped to the stage to speak.

Others spent those hours braiding their hair and fastening the ties of their traditional outfits so they would look their best when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama took the microphone and explained his stance on issues that affect hundreds of Native American tribes throughout the country but often go unmentioned by candidates running for national office.

"Somebody finally recognized us enough to come an extra few hours," said Beverly Big Man, a Crow Agency Elementary School teacher. "We're always the forgotten ones."

Big Man, 73, was among the first dozen people to arrive and stake out a place in line around 8 a.m. for the 2:45 p.m. event. Once a Hillary Clinton supporter, Big Man said she decided to vote for Obama after hearing him mention Native Americans on television. She called Obama's visit to the reservation "a once-in-a-lifetime event."

Obama, the front-runner in a race with Sen. Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, became the first presidential candidate to visit the Crow Reservation Monday. He spoke to a crowd of several thousand people gathered at the Apsaalooke Nation Veterans Park on Monday.

To welcome Obama, Crows showered his family with gifts that included a beaded medallion for him to give to his wife, Michelle, and beaded, doll-sized cradleboards for his two daughters, Sasha and Malia. Sen. Obama was adopted into the tribe's Whistling Water clan and given a Crow name, "One who helps people throughout the land."

Joe Medicine Crow, who at 94 is one of the tribe's eldest members and a tribal historian, wore a beaded buckskin vest and pair of pants, and commented on the historic day.

"This man is the first presidential candidate who has made a stop here with the Crow people," he said. "I consider that an honor not only for Crow Indians but for Indian Country."

As the crowd waited for Obama to arrive from Billings, where he held a morning town hall-style meeting, the Black Whistle Singers sang powwow songs and a score of tribal members wearing traditional clothing danced on the lawn of the park that lies just to the south of the Little Bighorn River, which winds through town.

Medicine Crow stood watching, bouncing his knees to the music's beat and smiling.

"It is my prayer that he will go all the way," he said of the candidate who often evokes the word "hope" on the campaign trail. "His door will be open to Indian people. He's going to change things around."

During an 11-minute speech here, Obama vowed to bring change to Indian Country if elected president. While the speech was shorter than the 40- to 50-minute talks the Illinois senator often gives during rallies held in larger venues, he said the Crow Agency stop marked one of the campaign's most important events.

He promised to improve the Indian health care system and noted that he co-sponsored the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a bill approved by the Senate last February. Clinton and John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, co-sponsored the bill, too.

Obama also said he would make sure children on the nation's Indian reservations received a "world-class education" and he would end "nearly a century of mismanagement of Indian trust."

"Too often Washington has paid lip service to working with tribes, while making a one-size-fits-all approach with tribal communities across the nation," he said. "That will change under my administration."

The pledge drew cheers from the mostly Native crowd as eagle-feathered fans and the Obama campaign's blue "Change We Can Believe In" signs waved in the air.

Susan Quilt, a 36-year-old Lodge Grass resident who came for the event, said she hoped that if Obama wins his party's nomination and beats McCain in November, he would keep the promises he made as a candidate.

"Hopefully some of the tribes' needs will be fulfilled," she said. "Past elected officials and past presidents haven't done anything about that."

Before he stepped down from the stage to shake hands with supporters, the Illinois senator pledged that an Obama administration would deliver on the promises he made to Native Americans.

"I will never forget you," he said. "Since now I'm a member of the family, you know that I won't break my commitment to my own brothers and my own sisters."

A group of teenagers chanted "Obama" as the senator made his way toward his bus, shaking hands and embracing supporters before moving on to his next stop in Bozeman.

When he reached for the last hand and waved goodbye, Darrin Old Coyote, the tribe's vice secretary, called out to Obama to tell him Crows say "Shinuk," a Crow expression for "I'll see you later." For the Crows, there is no word that translates to goodbye.

"Shinuk," Obama answered before turning away and climbing aboard his bus.

***

Obama Adopted Into Crow Tribe

CROW AGENCY, Mont. (AP)—Pledging to usher in a new era of honest federal dealings with tribes, Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama on Monday made an unprecedented stop in Indian Country for a rally at the Crow reservation.

Obama told several thousand American Indian supporters that he would honor long-ignored treaty obligations and revamp health care and education on reservations across the United States. Such services have long suffered because of inadequate funding and the much criticized oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"Few have been ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans, the first Americans," Obama said. "That will change when I am president of the United States."

Obama said treaty commitments with Indian nations were "paramount to law" and could not be ignored when Washington makes funding decisions affecting Indian Country. He characterized the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a bureaucracy out of touch with those it serves, and said the agency needs to be shaken up so it will perform better.

"You guys pay taxes too. You deserve to get decent services from Washington," he told the crowd in Crow Agency, Mont.

Earlier, in a private ceremony, the candidate was adopted into the Black Eagle family of the tribe under the name Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish, or "One Who Helps People Throughout the Land."

Crow Vice Chairman Cedric Black Eagle said a purification ceremony was performed in which the candidate faced east — the source of new life — and was prayed over by his adopted father, Hartford Black Eagle.

Tribal representatives from across Montana said it was the first time such a high-profile candidate had appeared on one of the state's reservations. The closest precedent, they said, was a visit to the Crow Reservation by first lady Lady Bird Johnson in the 1960s.

"Here's a gentleman who could be president of the United States who is putting his hand out to us," said Roger Running Crane, vice chairman of the Blackfeet Tribe of northwest Montana. "It's great to see someone take an interest and see what is really happening with Indians today."

By reaching out to Native Americans, Obama was playing to a traditional Democratic constituency, but one with limited influence at the ballot box, said political analyst Craig Wilson of Montana State University-Billings.

He said Native Americans represent about 6.5 percent of Montana's population, one of the highest percentages in the nation.

"It's good politics, certainly for a Democrat," Wilson said. "Will it matter in terms of the election? No."

Matthew Brown is an Associated Press staff writer.

posted in Nativepeoples - 22 replies

Graduation Inspiration

2008-05-12T01:17:51Z

Out of tragedy, success
Grad achieves top honors in wake of horrific losses
By Karrey Britt
May 10, 2008

It seemed fitting that 27-year-old Willow Abrahamson Jack was the first to walk across the stage and receive her bachelor’s degree Friday during Haskell Indian Nations University’s commencement ceremony.

That’s because fellow students, teachers and family say she is a leader and an inspiration.

“When I see what Willow has went through, it’s incredible to finally see this day,” said her mother, Rose Ann Abrahamson, of Sacramento, Calif. “She persevered despite the many challenges and obstacles that she had to face.”

About three years ago, Willow lost her husband, Daryl, and 4-year-old daughter, Maliah, in a rollover accident near Butte, Mont. She and her son, Nakeezaka, who was 6 at the time, survived, but Willow suffered severe injuries to her spine, pelvic region and head. Doctors told Willow, an award-winning jingle dancer, that she would need a wheelchair or walker.

“I was feeling like the whole world was caving in. It was like I was living a real-life nightmare, something I would never want to see anybody go through,” she said.

“It was a really, really, really hard time. All of my hopes and dreams were completely crushed. I felt like giving up.”

What kept her going was a visit a month after the deaths from the Dalai Lama, who after hearing her story wanted to meet her. He reminded Willow that she still had a son and happiness to share.

“It was a humbling experience,” she said.

In fall 2006, she returned to Haskell where she and Daryl had earned associate’s degrees just months before the fatal accident.

“I decided I can’t be sitting there acting like a crybaby. I am the mother and the father now. I have a child to raise. I’ve got to quit this road of self pity,” she said.

Just as Willow and Nakeezaka were settling down and “things were fine,” tragedy struck again. They were in another rollover accident last June on the South Lawrence Trafficway. They were taken by helicopter to Kansas City hospitals. Her son broke his arm and femur. She shattered her pelvic region and her right knee. Doctors, again, told her that she would need a wheelchair or walker.

“I thought about giving up a lot last summer,” she said. “But, me and my son — we helped each other.”

Willow said she often thought of the passage: “This too shall pass.”

On Friday, she walked across the stage with Nakeezaka, who will turn 9 on Mother’s Day. Both waved to the cheering crowd with big smiles on their faces. The announcer read that Willow dedicated her graduation to her son and daughter. She graduated magna cum laude.

“This is like completing that walk that I wish they could have been here for. This was our plan for our family,” she said.

Today, she will be the head lady dancer at Haskell’s powwow — a high honor. Last month, she helped organize Haskell’s first Indigenous Empowerment Summit.

Her sister, Leela Abrahamson, 17, said she admires Willow and her accomplishments.

“She’s amazing and always has a positive aura,” Leela said. “She’s one of those women who leads by example.”

Willow will pursue a master’s degree in social work at Kansas University in the fall. She would like to establish community-based programs on American Indian reservations and work on preserving Native American culture and traditions.

“Whether I make pennies or I don’t make anything, I don’t really care because it’s about living a happy life,” she said.

Originally published at: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/may/10/out_tragedy_success/

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Perfectly-Indian sage

2008-04-29T19:51:31Z

Anistara, my friend delivered your gift of sage (and the shell). Thank you so much. It's perfectly Indian sage. I ain't gonna lie, I do scoff at the non-Indian idea of sage. I'm speaking here of those big zuchinni-sized hunks os sage, wrapped in plastic, hanging in the nature shop aisle, waiting to be purchased along with the scented candle and organic toothpaste. They are like some kind of novelty cigar, once lit, they can't be extinguished. I've watched my friends, who didn't know any better, run in panic to unplug the smoke detector, dropping lit ambers across the carpet, trying madly to butt out the smoke-fire in their best China.

Anyway, Anistara, your sage is perfectly Indian. It is different from the sage we use back home, but it has all the traits of good Indian sage.

We offer tobacco to Mother Earth, then pluck a little sage from the ground and put it in a small bag. Later, we can take out a pinch and roll it into a small ball. When we light the ball, we can set it on a shell with the hot side down so it can burn its way upward. It's a small ball, the size of a green grape, so it only burns for a few minutes. It makes just enough smoke to lightly smug, say a prayer or two, then it goes out on its own. That's Indian sage. What you sent me is different, but the same.

For those of you reading along, Anistara sent me a lightly-packed bundle of dry sage leaves, nested in a shell the size of a child's palm. Like sage back home, it gracefully makes just enough smoke for what needs to be done.

People are always coming here to find out what is Indian. They think maybe it has to do with sage, so they want to catch as much as the Indian vibe they can so they buy those banana-sized bundles of sage. What they overlooked, was that we just use a little bit. We don't dig in the wallet because sage if given freely from Mother Earth, or, as in this case, freely from a friend. A little bit is more than enough. You see, this is the true Indian vibe. The lesson is always right in their faces. They want more, the big size, and they already have too much. This is why they make a four-storey mansions when a little bungalow would do. They can have warehouses full of sage, but it will get them no closer to the Indian soul than the thickness of a dolllar bill.

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

California Peoples

2008-04-28T22:24:19Z

Well, I missed this weekends gathering in favor of choosing which gathering I can attend realistically with the gas crunch and my decision to take the hoop teacher training, so much going on!! Our annual White Blanket Gathering is growing as more Kern Valley Intertribal becomes interested and dedicated in the event, like me. Its a 4 hour drive from where I sit. My hope is that my hooping ventures will allot more free time in the near future to be active with the socials and ceremonies. I'd love to take the language class soon. I may want to take hooping to the cultural center, for the fitness aspect. We'll see how things move along...

Tubatulabals host three days of healing events:

ONYX - The 11th annual White Blanket Spiritual Gathering will feature three days of healing events, including a Bear Dance ceremony.

The gathering is April 25 - 27 on the White Blanket Rancheria near Onyx, in the Kern River Valley (off Highway 178 east of Bakersfield). It is sponsored by the Owens Valley Career Development Center and White Blanket Rancheria.)

The gathering begins with a Health Run/Walk for diabetes awareness, starting at 10 a.m. at the Onyx Emporium, the oldest continuously operated store in California. The walk will continue to the White Blanket Gathering. T-shirts will be given to all runners and walkers who participate.

Gathering events include a community Sweatlodge ceremony; drumming with Walter Hansen, Shoshone-Paiute; Pakaaniil language with Betsy Johnson and Anthony Stone, Tubatulabal hand games with Monty Bengochia, Bishop Paiute; and Bear dancers, Tachi Yokuts.

The Bear Dance was revived by Tachi Yokuts spiritual elder Clarence Atwell Sr., who was given a vision to bring back the Bear Dance to the people for healing. Bear dancers wear bear skins and become the Bear. The Bear takes on the ills of the people assembled and the ills are transmuted into healing power. The dancers are bathed in sage smoke so the dancers themselves don't take on the illnesses.

The Bear Dance is sacred and photographs are not allowed. For more information, call Dee Dee Scott at (760) 378-1032 or Josephine Stone at (760) 417-2618.

...I opted for our Monache Gathering next month since its hosted by family and I couldn't do both this year. Its pretty much the same gathering, but at a higher elevation, so more people from the north head down for cooler weather as well. I look forward to the Bear Dance this year, as ever.

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Baby Eaglet

2008-04-28T21:43:52Z

We have a new baby eaglet over at Bartons Cove...take a look...this is footage from Eagle Cam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LhqVmzz7uo

posted in Nativepeoples - 4 replies

Ahead of you

2008-04-20T21:50:10Z

In case your people we thinking of going out to the world, don't bother. These guys are ahead of you.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vQMktpHdP8U&feature=related

posted in Nativepeoples - 7 replies

Mixed Up!

2008-04-18T23:29:53Z

I, at times, go through this thing. Its usually when I haven't attended a ceremony or gathering in awhile, or even just connected with relatives. Its been awhile due to change in location and getting back on my feet. I found this article and thought I would post it. Monache gathering and bear dance next month... good medicine!

http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/history_heritage/whitehead_mixedbloods_genocide.asp

posted in Nativepeoples - 7 replies

Native American Evil Spirits

2008-04-18T19:03:39Z

Here's an interesting one....

These spirits, though generally considered evil, were/are far more complex than the demons of Christian fundamental duality (B&W). Some spirits would trade off. Others, though greatly feared, were/are also neccessary in that they were co-creators of this universe and world.

Down below is a small sample of some of these spirits.

Aipalookvik---Malevolent spirit living on the sea bottom (Inuit, Canada).
Atlantow---Evil spirit who can lure hunters as a seal. (Inuit, Canada).
Chinday---Evil Gods(Navaho, Arizona, and New Mexico).
Eyak---Evil spirit (Koniaga, Pacific Northwest).
Iya---"Chief of all evil spirits" (Lakota and Dakota, South Dakota).
Nunasish---Usually misshapen evil spirits of the underworld (Chumash,Ca.).
Omaha---Evil spirit who tries to snatch the souls of the dying (Trinity River, Ca.).
Paija---One-legged female evil spirit- to see her is to die (Ihalmiut Inuit, Keewatin District, Canada).
Pishuni---Evil spirit of temptation and disease (Acoma, New Mexico).
Sye-elth---Evil goddess who tempts human beings to evil (Yurok, Ca.).
Makalay---one-horned evil spirit- to see him usually means death. (Trinity River Indians, Ca.).
Tahquitz---Evil God of San Jacinto Peak who stole souls and caused misfortune, disease, and death.(Cahuilla, Ca.).

"the Works of Howard HoweBancroft" (1886)

* the Trinity River seemed to have the largest list of angry Gods while some tribes had none at all. Evil might've been seen as undiserable states of being or the Trickster scaring someone for his own reasons disguised as an Evil God.

posted in Nativepeoples - 9 replies

The Mysteryof the Anasazi

2008-04-08T14:08:23Z

Here is a link to a really interesting article in today's New York Times about the vanishing culture of the Anasazi people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08anasazi.html?th&emc=th

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Just a reminder

2008-04-06T17:07:41Z

Abuse policy/guidelines:

If you've received a message that is harassing, abusive, or contains another violation of our Terms of Use agreement, please forward the message immediately to abuse@tribe.net. To ensure that Tribe is a safe, trusted environment where all members are respected, we investigate all reports of inappropriate behavior.

Who is TOU Guy?
Terms of Use Guy works with Tribe to enforce the guidelines to which all members must agree before they may join our service.

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

My favorite qoute...

2008-04-06T16:12:29Z

It kinda goes like... If I thought the Creator has sent you, I might bee induce to think you had the right to kill me. I had to tell someone this tonight... This person says I'm a fake. Hi, I'm fake David now...
No, wait a minute... HAHAHA I used this the other day as my Light Saber.. Hi, my Rainbow name is Pahana Fo Paw... Anybody seen Michael Jackson?
HA...

posted in Nativepeoples - 6 replies

Blue Corn Comics

2008-04-04T19:32:55Z

have you seen? i know its been around while, but in case you haven't... or whatever!

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/

they need writers also!

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/writers.htm

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

How amny Mi'kmaqs are on tribe???

2008-04-04T05:48:54Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/micmacs

so far just the three of us...where are the rest of you?

posted in Nativepeoples - 31 replies

U.S. History 101

2008-03-28T21:32:06Z

Tribe: A Governmental phrase; an Anglo-American concept with Germanic roots applied to the Indigenous peoples of North America during the Reorganization Act of 1934.

Creating a "Tribe": After the Dine peoples returned to their homelands, in the late 1800s, from Bosque Redondo, where they had been held as prisoners of war following the historic Long Walk, the discovery of minerals and natural recourses was made on their land. Because of the nature of federal trusteeship, it became necessary for the Federal Government to create a "tribal" government, with "chiefs" i.e. leaders or chairmen among the Navajo. This chiefdom system of government (totally foreign to the Navajo, who are traditionally democratic) had to be created so that corporate interests could acquire official land leases from the "tribe" in order to exploit their lands.

In other-words, because reservation land is held in trust to Native communities, only those communities have the authority to let outsiders dig for Uranium and other resources on their lands. Because the majority of Native peoples during the 1930s wanted no part of such desecration, the only way the slime balls could get such blasphemous land leases out of them was to force them into creating Anglo-American-style governments. You get the idea.

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

Love (Indian) Style!

2008-03-22T14:26:36Z

This is fun. My friends over at Native America Indigenous Cinema and Arts(NAICA) send me this email request for love stories for their online magazine (which I LOVE!). It was so cute I am just posting it word-for-word:

NAICA is gearing up for it's Spring edition and in keeping with the
season of blossoming love and flowers and shit like that we were
wondering what the hell is American Indian (South, North, Central...all
western hemispheric and whatnot) love all about anyway? What does it
look like-besides sweaty a la Chief Prairie Fire pants who beds down
with Rebecca, the strong willed Irish lassie he found roaming on the
burning plains on a hot summer afternoon after her family was murdered
by Pawnees because the Pawnees were always murdering immigrant families
looking to steal land.

Indeed! What is love amongst Indigenous folks of the western hemisphere
all about if it's not like what they write in romance novels? NAICA
wants to know so we can let middle aged middle American women
know-assuming they read our zine.

Tell us your grand love stories whether they be Indio encima Indio,
cross generational, multi-cultural or inter-tribal, we want to hear how
and why Native people fall in love these days-with or with out an open
bar-because we're tired of reading about it in romance novels!
Reply with your insights and we will reprint them in an upcoming
editorial on this very topic in our all new all love on all pages next
edition of NAICA online.

Caveats:
-Must be 18 years or older.
-No pornography please. We don't care about the physical mechanics of
"love" only the esoteric/romantic why of it all.
-Must give NAICA onine permission to reprint your ideas/stories OR we
will use your shit and give you a pseudonym like "Jennifer Tickles
Cocks" cause we're professional like that.
-Must be Indigenous in some provable way (ahahahahahaaaahahahaha).

Send your reply to:
naica.content@gmail.com
with your name, age and verifiable email address so we can send you a
release form.

Limit (250-300 words or so) please
BTW, this is a truly serious piece of scholarship we're aiming for
...hmmm.

P.S. If you are too shy but know of some other less shy Indian who wants
to spill their heart out, pass this on. xoxoxo
Maria Colon
Editor in Chief-NAICA online
www.thenaica.org
maria@thenaica.orgsonny
http://www.myspace.com/naicaonline

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Upcoming DVD, what do you think?

2008-03-22T04:20:44Z

There is a new DVD coming from Worldwidewave productions, a firm out of West Sussex, UK. It's announced in this newsletter: http://www.whatever.com.sg/enewsletter/2007/February/index.htm

Any thoughts?

posted in Nativepeoples - 5 replies

8000 Drums

2008-03-21T02:13:18Z

I received this in my email today from Elder Three Feathers in Canada on the Pabineau Reserve, new Brunswick:

Fwd: 8,000 DRUMS on March 21, 2008 at noon

Wow wouldn’t this sound amazing to hear
and to know we were all doing this together……….please forward on. I
think if all nations who played a drum could also participate that would be so
beautiful to see that too. There are people from other Nations that would drum
on this day in Solidarity…so I’m passing this onto
them……….take care, D.

PLEASE
DO YOUR PART AND FORWARD TO ALL OF OUR RED NATIONS…SUPPORT ALL OF OUR BROTHERS
AND SISTERS…LET US STAND TOGETHER AS ONE PROUD UNITED NATION!
Passing along the word to bring healing for our Mother Earth
This special event will take
place 12 noon EST. It is also a full moon that day and spring equinox is March
20, 2008 (eg. if you are on the west coast, your time will be 10am this will be
your time to be aligned with us here in EST etc. etc.)
8,000 DRUMS on March 21
at noon
HELLO, GREETINGS, ANIIN, TANSI, HAN,
HAKODA!!
Darlene Courchene was contacted by my friend Gilles Novaks who is a Montagnais Indian from Montreal. He is a Medicine Man and a Healer. He asked me to get as many Tribal people to participate in a worldwide ceremony called the “8,000 Drums”.
He was contacted by two Huron Clan Grandmothers from up there in Canada and they asked him to help spread the word to all Indians everywhere.
It will take place on March 21, 2008 at 12:00 noon.
All you need to do is play a drum either alone, or with a group or have the whole Tribe participate.
The purpose is to fulfill the OTOMI PROPHECY. The Otomi’s are Mayan Olmec and Toltec descendants. The drums will be played so that the Creator will hear us and grant our wishes as we pray for help in the Healing Process of our Mother Earth. …People are destroying Her and our Mother Earth needs our prayers. Thank you.

Ewo-wox-co-dah-wa

posted in Nativepeoples - 36 replies

This is very importent news

2008-03-15T17:58:28Z

Sentence for man who called Indians 'subhuman' Sat, March 15, 2008 - 10:52 AM
A Washington man who referred to Indians as "subhuman" was sentenced to 21 years in prison for murdering a man from the Yakama Nation.

Kevin Jory Braa, 47, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for the death of Simeon Whitney, 35. Braa shot Whitney after Whitney and an Indian friend complained about Braa's racial comments.

The incident occurred on November 11, 2006. Whitney was from Wapato, on the Yakama Reservation.

By Jim Haley, Herald Writer

EVERETT -- A Marysville man who picked a fight in a tavern and then shot his opponent to death was sentenced to nearly 21 years in prison Thursday.

Kevin Jory Braa, 47, told a jury in February that he acted in self-defense when he killed Simeon Whitney, 35, of Wapato. The jurors didn't believe him.

The jury found that Braa acted recklessly. The shooting was not justifiable and he was guilty of first-degree manslaughter, the jury found. He was being tried on a charge of second-degree murder.

Braa on Thursday told the judge he was sorry that Whitney had to die.

"I do take issue with your statement that it was too bad Simeon had to die," Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ellen Fair said. "He didn't have to die."

She gave him nearly a year more in prison than the 20 years deputy prosecutor John Stansell recommended. Marybeth Dingledy asked for her client to be sentenced at the low end of the sentencing range, about 17 years.

One reason the sentencing range was high for Braa is that he also pleaded guilty to five counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Felons are not supposed to have guns unless a judge has restored that civil right. Braa was convicted in 1994 of drug possession.

Fair pointed out that Whitney would still be alive if Braa had not taken a loaded 9 mm pistol to Kuhnle's Tavern in downtown Marysville on Nov. 11, 2006.

The fight started after Braa made racist remarks about American Indians. Whitney, an American Indian, took exception.

Braa was told to leave the bar and Whitney followed him outside to the parking lot, where the shooting happened. Mortally wounded, Whitney stumbled back into the bar, collapsed and died.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.

Being Indian is an attitude a state of mind a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet to allow feelings and sensitivities to determine where energy goes bringing aliveness up from the Earth and down from the Sky putting it in and giving it out from the heart

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Indians Gather to Save the Planet

2008-03-13T02:51:50Z

PALENQUE, Mexico (AP) — North American Indians assembled in the shadow of ancient Mayan pyramids Monday discussed how their tradition wisdom could help save the planet, and were told that even indigenous cultures have struggled with environmental abuse.

More than 200 leaders from 71 American Indian nations in Mexico, the United States and Canada came together in this Mexican jungle to find indigenous solutions to pollution and ecological problems threatening the planet.

"Our Mother Earth is being polluted at an alarming rate, and our elders say that she is dying," said Raymond Sensmeier, a Tlingit leader from Yakutat, Alaska. "The way the weather is around the world ... a cleansing is needed."

The conference began with a pre-dawn ceremony that included fire, copal incense, chants in Lacandon Maya and blasts from a conch shell.

Speakers reminded attendees that even Indian cultures have battled with environmental abuse and pointed to theories that deforestation contributed to the collapse of the Maya who built the temples at Palenque.

"As we stand here, very near Palenque, I am mindful that some scholars have suggested that environmental stressors contributed to the decline of the Mayan civilization," said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator Elin Miller. "The planet-wide stress on the environment today means that collaborative efforts ... are not just good things. They may well be essential for our survival."

But, as Bill Erasmus, a representative of the indigenous people of Canada's Northwest Territories noted, "part of our role is to wake up the world. It is very obvious to us all that the climate is changing."

Mexico's environment secretary, Juan Elvira Quesada, said the gathering is meant "to present the teachings of the original peoples of North America."

"In this way, the indigenous communities can become the natural guides to restoring balance and harmony in the world," he said.

The lessons they have to teach are simple — based on reviving Indian notions about ownership, use, compensation and respect.

"I sometimes talk to scientists," said Sensmeier, "and they compartmentalize things, put things in boxes and disconnect them, and doing so promotes disharmony and imbalance."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jc6oTnNUIBs5sEpldHPNe57rjljAD8VB1U500

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

2008-03-09T00:21:34Z

Attn: Republic of Lakota Supporters

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news2.13s.html

http://www.republicoflakotah.com/index.htm

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

First Peoples Bioregional Animism site

2008-03-03T03:21:02Z

Hey Everyone~

Check us out.... http://bioregionalanimism.org/firstpeoples/

Enjoy

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

Lake Superior Chippewa? Natural Villages?

2008-02-29T14:36:36Z

Greetings,

I am new to this tribe. A quick scan of the topics here leads me to believe that the subjects here are predominantly Lakota related.

Is there anyone here with the Lake Superior Chippewa, specifically the Bad River and Red Cliff bands? I will be doing a year of community service with these communities and am looking for online resources and contacts that I may become familiar with in order to keep myself up to date on traditions and current issues, and how some of my visions may be percieved/accepted by those I will be working with.

Also for the Lakotas here, is there anyone familiar with the Natural Villages project? http://www.natural-villages.org/ If so, what kind of feedback could you provide about it and how it is being integrated into the community? If not, what is your first impression of their vision/work?

Thank you, Mello

posted in Nativepeoples - 8 replies

Rez Robics

2008-02-28T20:41:14Z

http://www.dreamcatchers.org/rezrobics/

I saw this video recently and was impressed by the concept and the message. What a great way to inspire the youth to fight obesity and diabetes! Very easy to get a video for your own communities as well as completely legal to make and distribute copies.

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Another Cree winter story for you

2008-02-28T20:12:10Z

Still time for stories. Here's one called Wesakecak and the Magic Headgear. Sorry it ends so abruptly, but that's all there is anyway.

It's 5:30 long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag2cpbr2L48

posted in Nativepeoples - 10 replies

The Longest Walk 2

2008-02-28T15:58:38Z

http://www.longestwalk.org/

On Feb. 11th, Longest Walk participants will embark on a 5 month journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11th. The Longest Walk south route is being led by AIM co-founder Dennis J. Banks. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth, sacred site issues, and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original longest walk.

posted in Nativepeoples - 9 replies

Some Kawaiisu Stories

2008-02-15T20:55:06Z

First food and the population problem

Coyote said, "there will be a lot of people". A little bug (who lives in the ground) said, "There must not be too many people. They've got to die some time."

A long time ago there were millions of people. Above Bena (near Tehachapi Pass) they sampled the earth. They ate up a whole mountain. Coyote said "No, we must not eat dirt or there won't be any earth left, it won't work." The people stopped eating the earth. There is still a big hole there where they sampled the earth.

Coyote said, "There will be a lot of people." No one had died yet. Potato Bug said people should live forever. Coyote disagreed. He said, "No, the world will be too crowded." That is why people don't live forever. Potato Bug said, " I will will eat them when they die."

posted in Nativepeoples - 4 replies

A note on the awkwardly nature of Wesakecak stories

2008-02-14T18:02:42Z

To our contemporary ears, Wesakecak stories, Cree legends, can feel clumsy, unseemly, out of order. It is this awkwardly nature that points to their age and authenticity.

The malapropos character assures me that the story has safely existed in a place and time too distant from mainstream culture to be gentrified.

You can find Wesakesak stories on the shelves of Canadian bookstores. But the publishers bend the narratives into the pace and patterns familiar to their white readers. I think the publishers see the stories as quaint piddlings of Indian culture. Often, you will see Wesakecak stories as children's books, when really, these stories are meant for adults.

Real Wesakecak stories can be taboo, if not horrifying. There is a story about a mother's decapitated head, on fire, rolling over the landscape in pursuit of her sons. In another tale, people eat a pizza-sized scab that has fallen from a sore on someone's bum, a woman has sex with a bear, and so on. You can imagine Totonto publishers, "Oh my, we can't print *that.*"

Wesakecak stories are structured differently than english narratives. They are really short linear exerpts from a larger tangle of stories, so a tale may end abruptly only to suddenly continue elsewhere within that narrative network. They can even wander into the realm of religious parable--and backagain to the profane.

"Trickster" is a term overused and too vague to describe Wesakecak. Really, is is the story itself, and the teller, who are the tricksters. What tricks do they play, beyond fooling animals and such? The stories are subversive and taboo. They often challenge power.

"Wesakecak and the Wolves," for example, is a mock parody of the Catholic communion ritual. The bits of poisoned fat are communion wafers. The promise of living forever is the everlasting soul of the committed believer in Christianity. But the story shows how believers are gullible, how they, in fact, die from the white religion, rather than live forever. Why? Here the story switches to social commentary, "because the church wants to pay off its debts to the French (the French corporations in operation with the French monarchy).

I told a version of that story as told by man who was already old in 1930. He and his community would have witnessed firsthand the arrival and establishment of the church within their own communities. "Wesakecak and the Wolves" would surely have been one of many tales of entertainment, but not a story that the priests would have approved. It's a story that criticizes the power at your doorstep.

"Wesakecak and the Magic Headgear" is taboo for another reason. Here, the victim of the telling is Indian religion itself, in particular, a ritual that should never be openly discussed, the shaking-tent ceremony. The story allows for a somewhat safe and proper way to tell and listen to plot analogies to an otherwise taboo subject for Cree listeners and tellers.

Anyway, I don't know how this entry could spark discussion. I just thought I would spell out the more subversive aspects of the stories. I want to also push against gentrification.

It's the same basic argument I have against world music, like flutey-piano stuff. Some musical notes are not meant for the major scale.

posted in Nativepeoples - 9 replies

Native Americans at the Grammys tonight

2008-02-11T17:52:59Z

Did you watch the 2001 Grammy Awards back in 2001? It was a big deal because it was the first time for Best Native American Music Album (Vocal or Instrumental). And, since it was a "historic" event, the Grammy organizers televised it live, on the mainstage, right there in spitting distance of Bono and Eminem, with something like a billion viewers worldwide.

Robbie Robertson presented the award. Of course he had to make a little joke about Leonard Peltier that just immediately evaporated. First groan.

Then the first-ever winner came out. I wish I could remember who he was, but he was the lead singer of a powwow drum group, which I thought was very cool.

So the guy walks out to the podium, probably no Indian has ever had the attention of so many eyes and ears. What does he say? I can't recall exactly, but something like, "To the greatest warrior who ever lived, " he announced. "Jesus Christ, my personal lord and savior." I could hear a collective groan that swept around the planet in both directions. I could not believe it. Our category will never be televised again, not that it would have, but there went our shining moment. Does anyone remember who that guy was?

Anyway, here are the nominees for tonight's Grammy Awards, category number 70, just before best Hawaiian and best Zydeco:

Oklahoma Style
Walter Ahhaitty and Friends

Watch This Dancer!
Black Lodge

The Ballad Of Old Times
Davis Mitchell

Reconnections
R. Carlos Nakai, Cliff Sarde and William Eaton

Totemic Flute Chants
Johnny Whitehorse

I'm rootin' for Black Lodge.

posted in Nativepeoples - 11 replies

US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples documented in UN reported

2008-02-09T04:47:24Z

US Apartheid of Indigenous Peoples documented in UN reported

Friday, 18 January 2008
by Brenda Norrell

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3258/81/

The systematic racism, forced assimilation and apartheid of Indigenous
Peoples in the United States has been documented in the "Consolidated
Indigenous Shadow Report," to be presented by the International Indian
Treaty Council to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination.

Dedicated to Floyd Red Crow Westerman, who passed to the Spirit World
on December 13, 2007, the report is compiled from the testimony of
individuals and groups of Indigenous Peoples and includes data from a wide
range of sources.

The data reveals "a system of Apartheid and forced assimilation," where
Indigenous Peoples are "warehoused in poverty and neglect" in the
United States. The racism permeates Indian life, including life at its
foundation, at American Indian sacred places.

Indian treaty rights, the abrogation of treaties and discrimination
toward non-federally recognized Indian Nations are detailed. Statistics
are included for unemployment, violence against women and sexual abuse in
residential schools. The destruction of sacred places, environmental
racism and border injustices are revealed. Further, the high rate of
incarceration and disproportionate long prison sentences for American
Indians are exposed in the 87-page report.

The exportation of banned pesticides by corporations in the United
States to Sonora, Mexico, where Yaqui are suffering from death and toxic
illnesses, and other Indigenous Peoples' territories, is also documented.

Alberto Saldamando, IITC board president, and board member Lenny
Foster, Navajo, who reported on the freedom of religion for Indigenous
prisoners in the US, will present the report to the UN Committee in Geneva in
February. Western Shoshone and other organizations and Nations will
join Saldamando and Foster.

"As described in this Shadow Report, the colonialist policies of racial
subjugation have not ended for the Indigenous Peoples in the United
States (US). Under US constitutional doctrine first established in the
early 1800's, Indigenous Peoples can be unilaterally deprived of their
lands and resources without due process of law and without compensation;
Indigenous governments can be terminated or stripped of their rightful
authority at the whim of the federal government and their lands
'allocated' as 'surplus lands.' Treaties made between Indigenous Peoples and
the Colonialist governments and the Successor State may be arbitrarily
abrogated. Religious freedoms and religious practice, Sacred Lands and
the cultural integrity of Indigenous Peoples go virtually unprotected,"
the report states.

The data includes the overwhelming disparities in income, life
expectancy, poverty and unemployment. The disproportionate number of Indians in
prisons is revealed with statistics from Montana.

"Native Americans are not counted separately from whites in the
Department of Justice statistics but statistics from states with higher
percentages of Native populations show that they are also overrepresented in
the jail and prison population. For example, in Montana, according to
the 2000 U.S. Census, Native Americans, the state's largest non-white
group, comprise just 6.2 percent of Montana's population but 20 percent
of those in correctional institutions. Nineteen percent of the 3,704
Montana men and boys being held in correctional institutions are Native
American. Nearly one-third of the 429 women in correctional institutions
are Native American."

While sacred places are destroyed by energy development at an alarming
rate, the report reveals the special relationship of the Lakota Nation
and Bear Butte (Mato Paha), Black Hills, in South Dakota.

Miguel Alfonso Martinez, the special rapporteur on treaties, agreements
and other constructive arrangements between states and Indigenous
Peoples' populations, is quoted.

"Probably the most blatant case in point is the United States federal
Government's taking of the Black Hills (in the present day state of
South Dakota) from the Sioux Nation during the final quarter of the
nineteenth century. The lands which included the Black Hills had been reserved
for the indigenous nation under provisions of the 1868 Fort Laramie
Treaty. It is worth noting that in the course of the litigation prompted
by this action, the Indian Claims Commission declared that 'A more ripe
and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability,
be found in our history,' and that both the Court of Claims, in 1979,
and the Supreme Court of that country 61 decided that the United States
Government had unconstitutionally taken the Black Hills in violation of
the United States Constitution. However, United States legislation
empowers Congress, as the trustee over Indian lands, to dispose of the
said property including its transfer to the United States Government.
Since the return of lands improperly taken by the federal Government is not
within the province of the courts but falls only within the authority
of the Congress, the Supreme Court limited itself to establishing a
$17.5 million award (plus interest) for the Sioux. The indigenous party,
interested not in money but in the recovery of lands possessing a very
special spiritual value for the Sioux, has refused to accept the monies,
which remain undistributed in the United States Treasury," according
to the information available to the Special Rapporteur.

Further, the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Mr.
Abdelfattah Amor drew special attention to the forced relocation of Navajos on
Black Mesa and the United States refusal to take into consideration the
spiritual practices of Navajos.

"On the subject of Black Mesa, the Special Rapporteur also calls for
the observance of international law on freedom of religion and its
manifestations. In the case of the Navajo elders, the reconciliation of their
human rights and other legitimate concerns were not taken into
account. No consideration was given their spiritual practices and beliefs by
the United States government in ordering their relocation."

As lands are seized or leased for energy developments, human rights
violations increase. On the Navajo Nation, coal mining and uranium mining
have been detrimental.

"Economic interests, such as the coal mine, have often prevailed over
Indigenous human rights. These are principally private ventures that do
not have a true public interest, and their activities rarely consider
the fundamental rights or freedom of others. International law had not
been observed with regard to the Navajo Elders," Amor stated.

There are over 1,000 abandoned uranium mines and mills on the Navajo
Nation that have not been reclaimed. It has been over 50 years since the
federal government or the corporations reaped millions of dollars in
the mining and milling processes. These contaminants pose a continuing
health hazard to traditional Navajos who live in close proximity to these
sites.

"The Navajo Nation, which spans the New Mexico-Arizona border, was
polluted in 1979 when an accident at the United Nuclear Corporation's
Church Rock Mill near Gallup, New Mexico released 94 million gallons of
radioactive waste into the Puerco River. The river flows through
reservation communities impacting a population of 10,000 Navajos who live along
the river using shallow wells and springs which flow from the Puerco to
draw water for livestock and personal needs. Despite the fact that the
spill is considered the second worst nuclear accident in U.S. history
after the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant meltdown in Pennsylvania
and the designation as superfund site by the EPA the area remains
un-reclaimed almost 30 years after the spill."

Nearby the Navajo Nation, Acoma and Laguna Pueblos were also victims of
radiation from uranium mining.

The Jackpile Mine on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico grew
to be the largest open pit uranium mine in North America from 1952-1982.
The mine site is 2,000 feet from the Laguna village of Paguate which
has a population of 2,500 people.

Water quantity and quality were directly impacted by the mining of
uranium in the Grants Mineral Belt in New Mexico. Surface water sources
like the Puerco River became contaminated due to the close proximity of
mines and mills which spread contaminants through run-off and wind. These
contamination issues have impacted domestic water consumption and use
as well as agriculture and livestock watering and have drawn
correlations to cancerous related illnesses among the impacted population.

Western Shoshone have been leaders in the fight against racism, nuclear
dumping and the abrogation of treaties. As Western Shoshone continued
their fight against the planned Yucca Mountain waste dump in Nevada,
Goshute fought a battle in Utah.

"Currently the Goshute Tribe in Utah is being considered for a low
level nuclear Monitored Retrievable Storage Site despite vehement
opposition by a majority of tribal members and the state of Utah. Disposal of
spent fuel and high level radioactive waste being proposed by the U.S
government at Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been an on-going proposal for
over 25 years. Yucca Mountain is a sacred site to the Western Shoshone.
Transportation of nuclear waste to repository sites poses a problem for
the entire country," the report states.

While the past tragedies are exposed, the Bush administration has
pressed for more development on Indian lands already suffering from
atrocities.

"As the Bush administration has advocated the use of nuclear power as
an answer to global warming and climate change indigenous peoples must
strongly consider the historical past that have left the legacy of
health impacts from human exposure, land, air and water contamination,
contamination to traditional food sources, sacred sites, tradition and
culture from past uranium exploration and production."

Indigenous Peoples at the borders are now the victims of Homeland
Security as Americans respond with paranoia and xenophobia.

"Under the guise of Homeland Security, and under the rubric of
'homeland security,' the United States has increasingly become paranoid and
isolationist, and is ahead of schedule in building a barrier, a steel wall
along 700 miles of the US Mexican border. This wall and US xenophobia
greatly affect Indigenous Peoples whose lands straddle both sides of
the border," the report statesm

The end result of US policies is many deaths of undocumented
immigrants, many of whom are Indigenous, including Mayans from Chiapas, Oaxaca
and Guatemala.

O'odham in Mexico Lt. Gov. Jose Garcia described the impact of the
border on his people in Sonora, Mexico. "Our people live on both sides of
the border, and we maintain relations with each other on a regular
basis, crossing the border to attend baptisms, weddings, funerals and our
traditional ceremonies, maintaining our Spiritual practice in spite of
the obvious difficulties the border poses for us.

"We understand that the United States is to build a steel wall on the
border and we are concerned as to how it will affect us, that it will
further divide our people. It will certainly be an obstacle not only to
immigrants but to the Indigenous Peoples of both the United States and
Mexico.

"We really need to look at it. It affects our centuries old traditions
and customs," Garcia said.

"It will block our customs and traditions and is not any solution to
the problem. The problem is one of poverty and the lack of economic
opportunity in Mexico. The migration of people, crossing into the United
States, will continue as people search of a better way of life.

Since July, Lipan Apache elders of El Calaboz, Texas have been the
targets of threats and harassments by Border Patrol, Army Corps of
Engineers and other US officials related to the proposed building of a fence on
their levee. The National Security Administration has demanded that
elders give up their lands. They have been told that they will have to
travel 3 miles to go through checkpoints, to walk, recreate, to farm and
herd goats and cattle on their own Apache lands.

Eloise Tamez, Lipan Apache in El Calaboz, describes the harassment and
threat of the seizure of her lands by eminent domain.

"In mid July 2007, I was informed by telephone that Homeland Security
plans to split my property with a wall/fence. The informant (Border
Patrol Agent Rick Cavazos) indicated that the government, under a National
Security Directive, plans to build a fence on my private property with
or without my consent or approval. For the record, land grant title
holders currently own properties which extend to north of the levee but
also south of the levee of the Rio Grande. Of this, the only 'choice'
given me is that I can access my land south of the levee via a proposed
checkpoint that will be built three miles east of my property (Garza
Road). Many elders in our community will be denied basic freedoms to access
their private property, due to the burden this 'access' will impose on
their daily lives. The government denies the economic, social and
cultural divides which are entrenched in the agrarian, land-based cultures
indigenous to South Texas. Significant sectors of our communities will
not be economically or socially positioned to travel three miles and
through a security check-point to access their land grant private
property holdings. Effectively, this measure would seriously sever an
indigenous community from cultural resources, and cause immeasurable injury to
community economic, social, ecological proprietorship and future
development."

Meanwhile, representatives of 19 Indigenous Nations of the Americas met
in Tucson, Arizona, on November 17, 2007, to examine the situation of
the Border and Indigenous Peoples. They issued a report, wherein they
expressed their "… collective outrage for the extreme levels of
suffering and inhumanity, including many deaths and massive disruption of way
of life, that have been presented to this Summit as well as what we
have witnessed in our visit to the border areas during the Summit as a
result of brutal and racist US policies being enforced on the Tohono
O'odham traditional homelands and elsewhere along the US/Mexico border."

In the report, the segments include: "Dishonored Treaty, Seeking
Recognition: The Winnemmem Wintu of Northern California, McCloud River;"
"Indigenous but with No Recognized Rights: the Native Peoples of Hawai'i,
Mauna Kea;" and "No recognition and no rights at all: The Taino, Native
Peoples of Puerto Rico, The Sacred Caguana Ceremonial Center in Utuado,
Borikén."

The recommendations to CERD are:

Racist Constitutional Doctrines:

· Although there have been no dialogues or conversations with
Indigenous Peoples with regard to the abolition of the racially discriminatory
constitutional doctrines described in this Shadow report, including the
so-called Trust Relationship, there is a well founded fear among many
that simply abolishing the present relationship between recognized
tribes and the United States would lead to individual States exerting
jurisdiction over Indigenous Peoples, the loss of land and its collective
nature, and many rights valued by recognized tribes as well as
unrecognized Indigenous Peoples. Consultations should take place with Indigenous
Peoples, including the right to free, prior and informed consent, with
the view of abolishing these racist doctrines while protecting the
rights of Indigenous Peoples as reflected by international customary law
and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

· That the United States recognize all Indigenous Peoples in the
United States as Indigenous Peoples with Indigenous rights, consistent with
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and
with international customary law, including terminated Tribes,
unrecognized Tribes, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawai'ians and the Taino Peoples
of Puerto Rico. It should also comply with its Charter responsibilities
of ensuring the well being of the Native Peoples of Guam and Puerto
Rico.

· The "Plenary Powers Doctrine" should be immediately abolished.
Consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, General recommendation XXIII, and customary international law,
Indigenous lands taken under this doctrine should be restored.

· The United States should begin a process of reinstating abrogated
and unrecognized Treaties with Indigenous Peoples, with the view of
respecting and adhering to their terms, and provide, with the free prior and
informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples affected, restitution and
where appropriate, compensation for damages as a result of their
abrogation or failure of recognition.

1. Sacred Lands and Religious Freedom:

· Consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, General recommendation XXIII, and customary
international law, Sacred Lands should be returned to Indigenous Peoples with
particular attention paid to the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Lakota
Nation.

· Indigenous Peoples should be allowed to practice their religion
without the necessity of permits or the observation and encumbrances of
tourists, bikers and rock climbers;

· Development that affects the Sanctity of Sacred Lands should
immediately cease and should only be allowed with the free, prior and informed
consent of the Indigenous Peoples affected; and,

· Prison Inmates, in both Federal and State prisons should immediately
be allowed their religious practice as is allowed all other religions
in United States prisons, including but not limited to, last rites for
condemned Indigenous inmates.

2. Environmental Racism

· Development with potential harm to Indigenous Peoples' rights,
whether on recognized reservations or not, should not be done without their
free, prior and informed consent. The United States should take
immediate steps to remediate and compensate for the legacies of development
harmful to Indigenous Peoples.

· The United States should be held accountable for its behavior and
that of US trans-national corporations that violate the rights of
Indigenous Peoples abroad. It should immediately cease these racist policies
and practices and take appropriate legislative and administrative
measures to prevent these adverse activities and to explore ways of holding
transnational companies registered in the United States accountable.
Particularly, the United States should:

— Outlaw the manufacture of banned pesticides for export.

— Stop the spraying of herbicides in Colombia and other countries

— Cease their economic and logistical support of paramilitary death
squads under the guise of "economic development."

3. US Apartheid and Coerced Assimilation

· The United States must cease its de facto system of apartheid on
Indian Reservations as places to warehouse its Native American poor,
leaving them only option for "an economic existence worthy of human dignity"
the abandonment of community, language and culture.

· The United States must comply with its Treaty Obligations as well as
customary international law, and provide the means by which Indian
Reservations can develop and provide for future generations in keeping
with their cultures and traditions.

· Congress should act to reauthorize and update the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act to reflect both current needs of Indian health and the
current health care systems enjoyed by most Americans. Equally
importantly, it should receive the necessary funding to be effective.

· In order to better protect tribal female citizens from sexual
violence, the United States should recognize full tribal criminal
jurisdictional authority over all crimes occurring within Indian country. In
addition, Congress should provide adequate funding to fully implement Title
IX of the Violence against Women Act.

· The United States should afford Native Americans the full right to
participate in government by addressing the rampant voting
discrimination practices throughout the nation, and particularly in South Dakota.

4. Articles 6 and 7 of the CERD Convention

· The United States should provide just and adequate reparation and
compensation for any damages suffered by indigenous victims of abuse by
the United States under its historical practice of mandating that Native
children attend federally sponsored boarding schools.

· The United States should promote the development of textbooks and
the teaching of culturally appropriate and historically accurate
curriculum for all school age children, particularly Native American children,
of the dignity and worth of Indigenous Peoples and cultures, as well as
their human rights.

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Thoughts of Racism, Politics and Spiritual Sovereignty by ben

2008-02-07T03:42:33Z

Thoughts of Racism, Politics and Spiritual Sovereignty

In the late 1990â€™s, I worked for a company in Oklahoma who had a
contract to lay phone cables for Southwestern Bell. At a job one day,
my boss and a phone repairman were talking about some land my boss had
purchased. The phone repairman said, â€œWell, if I bought some land some
Indians will probably come and take it away from me.â€ He knew I was
Native and that I heard everything he said, so I simply told him, â€œNo,
we wouldnâ€™t. I know what it feels like to be homeless in my
homelands.â€ He didnâ€™t know what to say, so I continued on working.

My comment reflected a thought that has been with me for a very long
time. I had wanted to pose this question to the late Vine DeLoria Jr.,
but the time is past. I know his answer would have been amusing, while
at the same time, thought provoking. If we were to have our lands
returned, and sovereignty recognized with the jurisdiction of our
authority restored tomorrow morning. What would it look like? Are we
even ready? And how would we treat the non-Native people who have been
here for generations? Would we just repeat what we have been taught
and nothing will have really changed? Would our leaders begin to fight
one another for control of territories? Will some nations begin
treating non-Natives as we had been treated? What of our relatives
from the South? They are just Spanish speaking Indians who are being
called illegal aliens or immigrants by the descendants of immigrants.

I find it very sad that my relatives from the South are being hunted
down and sent back home. Oklahoma had recently passed a law
prohibiting aiding any â€œillegal immigrantsâ€ with food, shelter, or
work, or even a ride to work. The Indian way is to provide our
relatives who visit with food, water and the comfort of shelter. In an
indirect way, our way of life is being criminalized in our homelands,
like in the 1800â€™s when they imposed the Code of Religious Offenses.

Many of us, including myself, have made the demand for the
recognition of our sovereignty. It is the reality of the past acts of
assimilation/ genocide has made that impossible for most of the First
Nations. The one exception would be the consensus making process of
the Iroquois Confederacy. The Clan Mothers of the confederacy have the
authority to direct the War Chief to throw out the Todaho if he acts
contrary to the wishes of the people. Benjamin Franklin thought their
form of government so effective that he patterned the US Constitution
after it. That is with the exception of including women.

In the 1700â€™s and 1800â€™s, the government made over 300 treaties with
the First Nations, often at the threat of being starved or murdered,
and in other cases, the Chiefs were given alcohol by the barrels to
get them to sign the treaty the government had written. Later, when
the Supreme Court ruled that treaties were made on a nation to nation
basis, the government began to pass acts of Congress, without the
consent or knowledge prior by Native people. By then most of the
Native people had been hunted down and placed under the custody of the
War Department. So in effect, our ancestors became prisoners of war.
That status had never been rescinded, with the exception of the Ft.
Sill Apaches who were pardoned a few years after the 1924 American
Indian Citizenship Act was passed.

The government had signed a treaty with my people (Choctaw) that
promised if we moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) it would never be
made into a state or a part of the Union. Originally, Indian Territory
was home to the Caddoâ€™s, Wichitaâ€™s, and Wacoâ€™s people. The land was
considered barren and useless, but to the government, it was an ideal
place to exile the Native prisoners of war. However, it wasnâ€™t long
before the rumors of statehood prompted Native people to draft a
proposal to Congress to allow them to form the State of Sequoyah, an
Indian state. This proposal was ignored, and the move to turn Indian
Territory into a state by non-Natives accelerated. My Choctaw people
made a proposal to the government to allow them to sell off their
lands so they could move to Mexico. This was also ignored.

By 1889, Senator Dawes decided that to make the Indians more
productive, they needed to begin farming their lands. His proposal,
the Dawes Allotment Act, was that each family would be allotted 180
acres per household and the remaining lands would be opened up for
settlement to pioneers.

Some Muskogeeâ€™s, Choctaws and Cherokees, including others followed
Chitto Harjo in an attempt to stop their people from signing up for
the allotment, but the government sent troops to quash the â€œCrazy
Snake Rebellionâ€. Those who did not sign up for allotments have
descendants today who cannot prove their ancestry as Native.

These surplus/stolen lands, called unassigned lands were the subject
of the 1889 Land Run. At the sound of a cannon shot, thousands of
people raced into Indian Territory to stake a claim. These people were
known as the â€œBoomersâ€, whereas another group of people who sneaked
into Indian Territory earlier were called the â€œSoonerâ€. Oklahoma is
known as the Sooner state and its flagship universityâ€™s football team
is called the OU Sooners. Dishonesty and thievery is deceitfully
herald in Oklahoma.

Many of the people we call Chiefs consider themselves Americans and
salute the flag that the cavalry waved as they murdered men, women,
and children at Wounded Knee, Sand Creek and so many other places of
pain. When the European immigrants arrived and embarked upon the
mission of Manifest Destiny to conquer and exploit the land. It was
the missionaries who came and stole our children away from their homes
to teach them their education. Then they sent them back to their
communities where government agents recognized them as the leaders.
Their minds had been colonized and they worked on behalf of the
colonizer.

The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act established procedures where
Natives could apply for federal recognition. They had to create
written democratic constitution and council system. In the mid 70â€™s,
the American Indian Self-determination Act was passed and more First
Nations began to seek federal recognition, some real and some
fraudulent. This Act permitted the First Nations to administer their
own programs through federal funding.

Since the cession of treaty making with First Nations, many of the
Acts of Congress has been to our detriment. Many of the so-called
Chiefs have been convicted of fraud and mismanagement of federal
funds. Their position has led to an abuse of office for self-serving
interest.

The huge minus to these Acts is when I went to the United Nations in
Vienna, Austria, I learned from the delegates that because of these
Acts, we no longer have a voice in the UN. We are considered a
domestic concern of the US government and if we have a problem, then
we have to take it up with them.

In 1993, then President Bill Clinton signed the apology resolution in
which he apologized for the illegal overthrow of the lawful Hawaiian
Kingdom by the United States military and it agents. The Native
Hawaiians began to seek liberation and full autonomous control of
their lands. In response the government has been trying to pass
legislation similar to the 1934 IRA to keep them under their control.
I testified at this hearing in opposition to the proposed action. I
urged the Kanaka Maoli to not accept this bill, because if they did
they would lose any chance at regaining their sovereignty. The senate
committee was so angry they turned off my microphone, recessed the
hearing and walked out. Meanwhile the people urged me to speak louder
so they could all hear what I had to say.

Politics is an unusual word if you really look at it. An armchair
definition I think is more appropriate here. Poly is defined as many,
and a tick is defined as a blood-sucking parasite. So we have a lot of
ticks in congress sucking up all the money and power they can. With
that bit of facetiousness said, my honest opinion is that our
sovereignty will not come from the government. We need to look elsewhere.

Sovereignty â€" A State of Mind
It was in prison that the birth of my activism took place. A brother
there offered a few words, which was the key to my freedom. He
explained that the Creator gave each of us free will, and that no one
has the power to take it away or deprive you of it unless you allow
them to do so. He asked me if the judges, cops or warden took away my
freedom? I sad no, I had pled guilty to my burglary charges. Then he
said do you think you can take it back? I looked around the yard and
said that if I could get on top of the rotunda across to the
administration building and then onto the other side of the wall and
fence without getting shot I could. He said that even if I could make
it to the other side of the fence and they shot me and placed me in
chains and put me in a cell, they still couldnâ€™t take away my choice
to be free. Their physical obstacles and threats of force is not
enough to keep you from choosing to be free. You can be free right
here and now without trying to escape.

To anyone else, this may have been the craziest mumbo-jumbo anyone has
ever heard, but the strangest thing is I understood him with such
clarity that all of a sudden everything in the prison changed for me.
I knew that I lived in a repressive environment, a maximum-security
prison, and even if I was out, I still lived in a very racist state. I
knew I would never allow the prison officials to manipulate me with
parole, loss of days off my sentence or threats of transfer to a more
restrictive prison. I knew that if I spoke out or challenged the
officials or guards, I could get into trouble, but I was no longer
going to be intimidated. I made my choice of my own free will to stand
upon my principles. I was not going to be controlled as a puppet on a
string, so I became well versed in the prison polices and procedures,
and studied constitutional & civil law as a law clerk in the prison
law library. I was left alone for the most part.

In 1986, I filed a lawsuit against prison officials to prevent them
from forcibly cutting my hair after a grooming code was put into
effect. At the same time, I discovered a letter written by the
director of the prison system who said that the Native American
religion is in the same category as the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan
Brotherhood, and was therefore non-religious in nature. His arrogance
in comparing our Native spirituality to two deadly white supremacy
organizations only fueled the ire of Native people from around the
country, and of socially conscious people worldwide. Media interviews
were requested and letters from around the world was written to prison
officials demanding that the Native prisoners be allowed to practice
their religion. Although the judge ruled against us, he instructed the
prison officials to develop a policy, which would allow Native
prisoners to apply for an exemption.

On December 10, 1987, I was given the Oklahoma Human Rights Award. The
first time in this country an award such as this was given to someone
currently serving a prison sentence. The only other exception was
political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, who received his award from the
country of Spain. This recognition caused further embarrassment to
prison officials. So much that caseworkers and other employees began
persuading me to apply for parole. After discussing this with a few of
my friends, I agreed. I had been waiving my parole appearances for a
number of years. The prison officials were overjoyed with the news. I
may have the distinction of being one of the few people kicked out of
a maximum-security prison and then the prison system altogether. By
then I had served over 7 1/2 years of a 12 year sentence for burglary.

Upon being paroled I was enrolled at the University of Oklahoma
studying Public Affairs and Administration. Within two months after my
release, the University paper featured a huge story about my
involvement the struggle for long hair in prison and immediately
22,000 students knew who I was. When the paper came out, I almost
didnâ€™t go to class, all day students and professors came up to me and
congratulated me for what I had done. Being a campus celebrity was not
the most comfortable thing I have been in my life, but it gave me more
of an opportunity to speak out about the rights of Native prisoners.

Later, I formed the Spiritual Alliance for Native Prisoners, which was
successful to a point in educating First Nation leaders and the
officials of the corrections department about our rights. Then I
became a National spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee and the League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations. Iâ€™ve
testified on behalf of Native people and the Kanaka Maoli (Native
Hawaiians) before three congressional committees. Iâ€™ve spoken with
delegates at the United Nations in Vienna and traveled to the South
American country of Columbia, as a Human Rights delegate, to meet with
Indigenous peoples there, including those in prison. Iâ€™ve served as a
Chaplain at the Oklahoma City bombsite counseling rescue workers and
as a Spiritual Advisor to state and federal prisoners. I lived with
Native Youth groups camped in the mountains of British Columbia
conducting roadblocks, occupation of federal buildings and reclaiming
Indigenous lands. I was at the occupation of a military base in
Ontario after the police murdered Dudley George who was protecting the
people when the police launched a raid to remove the Natives who were
reclaiming their land. Iâ€™ve participated in several major
demonstrations, including making the welcoming address on behalf of
the Piscataway Indian nation whose lands Washington, DC and the White
House sits upon.

All this and much more in the 19 years I have been out of prison. I
remember someone named Robert Gann said, â€œSovereignty is a state of
mind.â€ If we believe we are sovereign then we must conduct ourselves
as if we are sovereign. This was part of what has motivated me to do
what I have done, and the other part is my traditional spirituality.

Spirituality â€" A way of life
After completing my parole in 1991, I had been going to several
different ceremonies all around the country, and had begun to fulfill
a Sun Dance commitment. Although, I did not feel I was ready, Chief
Tayac of the Piscataway Indian Nation and his son, Mark, the Sun Dance
Chief urged me to go into the prisons as a Spiritual Advisor.

When I went into the prison and ran a sweat for my family there, I
have never felt anything more fulfilling. I was doing what the Creator
had set out for me, and I also saw more clearly how the assimilative
effects of conformity in prison was a barrier to our traditional
values and philosophies. One example is listening to some of the
brothers talking about what they were going to do when they got out. I
heard the word â€œbitchesâ€ used quite often around the fireplace of the
sweat. I waited until we were in the lodge and close the door. I spoke
to everyone about the language I heard around a place of prayer. I
told them being an ex-con; I understand where that language comes
from. I explained that the prison system originally held white males
and that they developed their code of honor according to their
culture. Later, when blacks and Indians were being held in prison,
they adopted that code of honor to conform. Most everyone wanted to be
known as a â€œGood Convictâ€, someone who is solid and wonâ€™t steal or rat
you out. So in order to conform, I told them they were doing nothing
more than trying to be a white prisoner. I asked them, â€œWhat is so
wrong with being a Native person here in prison? We donâ€™t have to be
like them. And think about who taught you to call your grandmothers,
mothers, sisters, aunties, cousins and nieces - bitches. Where is the
respect for the Woman Nation in that? Is that how you guys are going
to conduct yourselves when you get out?â€ You could feel the shame and
guilt pour out of these brothers.

Whether it is in prison or on the streets, without our spiritual or
cultural identity, we feel lost and find ways to conform with our
peers so that we can fit in.

When we make a pledge to Sun Dance, it isnâ€™t just for eight days of
the year or for the four years of our commitment, it is for the rest
of our lives. As a Sun Dancer, our life is lived in service to the
people. Adhering to these spiritual principles becomes a development
of our personal self on a physical, mental and spiritual level. In our
hearts, minds, and spirit, we need to remove the negative forces of
racism, sexism and elitism, and many other ismsâ€™ that blocks our path.
Often we have become our own worst enemies when we allow ourselves to
become corrupt with the desire for power, status and financial gain.
None of those negativities are fulfilling, they only eat away at your
life like an addictive drug. When those forces get in the way of our
visions, we lose the focus of our path.

Eagle Mountain â€" Sacred Sovereign Territory
For more than 25 years it has been my vision to have land where I/we
could build a community utilizing alternative forms of energy and have
ceremonies and host conferences. I was in Canada when the twin towers
went down on Sept. 11th. As I sat there watching the news, I realized
that I couldnâ€™t keep participating and conducting direct-action
activities. The ensuing result was that I would end up in prison for a
long time or I would end up dead. Not that I was afraid of those
things happening, but with the changes in the laws, it was time for a
different strategy. I decided to return to the states and make my
vision a reality.

Today we have 160 acres with water rights to two springs on the
foothills of the Sheep Mt.. We are almost ready to submit an
application for tax-exemption to act as a non-profit. And to date,
with the help of friends, family and past speaking engagements, we
have paid over half the value of the land. It has been our intention
that once the land is paid off, we would place it into a trust so that
it never be sold off or used as collateral for loans.

We can build energy efficient homes below ground that can maintain a
constant temperature without having to utilize excessive amounts of
energy or wood. We have clean spring water to sustain us, and we have
been collecting organic seeds to plant in our gardens.

We have friends who are Sun Dancers, Aztec dancers and Peyote people
who are planning on moving onto the land. There are future plans to
host a conference bringing in Indigenous Spiritual leaders from across
the hemisphere to share their prophecies with us. Next summer, we will
host the 3rd Annual Eagle Mountain Sun Dance.

I have sensed that there are so many important things that need to be
done within the next five years, and having this land is going to be
the only way I can accomplish it. In 1976, Thomas Banyacya, Hopi, told
a committee of the UN during a meeting in Vancouver that many of their
prophecies have been completed and that it is time for the people to
return to a spiritual path and leave the material one behind.

The end of the Mayan Calendar
www.water-conscious ness.com/ must/must_ article09, in 2012, signifies a
cross roads the world is coming to. In short, the Mayans have said
that we are in a period where the powers of darkness and light are at
their peak. One is on a conquest for power and control, while the
other is praying for peace and balance to be restored. Over the next
five years this spiritual battle between dark and light will determine
our future with the conclusion of the Mayan Calendar.

To help illustrate this point, consider how the government has been
using fear as a marketing tool to coerce people to give up their civil
and constitutional freedoms since the Oklahoma City bombing which
broadened police powers, and then so much more after Sept. 11. Those
police powers would have been abhorrent to people in the 1960â€™s, and
been reminiscent of fascist police states.

The Real ID Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-13), effective on Dec. 31,
2009, is being opposed by several states. This Act was attached as a
rider to a military spending bill and passed. The component of the
implementation of the Act is that no federal agency will accept any
driverâ€™s license as valid identification for federal purposes. The
federal Transportation Security Administration will not let you board
a plane without further screening. And employers will not hire you,
nor will banks provide services.

The National Animal Identification System is a program regulated by
the USDA (http://animalid. aphis.usda. gov/nais/ index.shtml). The first
step of this program is premises registration, which allows the USDA
access to your property at any time for inspection.

The second part of NAIS is that all of your livestock must be chipped
at your expense. If you have livestock that is not micro chipped, you
can be fined. The microchips are being implanted into livestock so
that the government can keep track of your livestock. If a cow leaves
your property to eat in a neighbors pasture and you donâ€™t report it.
You can be fined a thousand dollars a day, even if you werenâ€™t aware
of it. If your animals become infected with a curable disease, your
entire livestock could be destroyed without compensation. There are
several organizations that are opposed to NAIS, such as,
www.nonais.org. Consider that if everyone had to register his or her
firearm, and then one day the government decides to confiscate it.
They know where to look. If there is a food shortage, and the need
more, theyâ€™ll just show up and take it.

We have issues of Global Warming, and the chemtrails, along with the
GMO foods manufactured by Monsanto. If you live near one of their
â€œmanufacturingâ€ areas, and if the wind blows pollen from their
â€œproductsâ€ into your organic garden, they can have your garden
destroyed because they have the copyright.

Water is being currently bought up by the wealthy and powerful. Real
estate magnate, Warren Buffet has been said to sell off much of his
holdings prior to the market dropping out. Nearly 80 to 90 % of
sub-prime home loans are being foreclosed upon. Oil is nearly $100 a
barrel, which will be passed on to consumers in gas, commercial
travel, and products. For the first time in history, the Canadian
dollar is above the US dollar. And a possible war with Iran will bring
China and Russia against the US.

Somehow the future doesnâ€™t look so great.

In facing the current events of the world, the birth of the White
Buffalo Calfâ€™s is assuring that something spiritual is taking place.
In heeding the words of Thomas Banyacya and the Mayan Calendar, it may
not be such a bad idea for the Ghost Dance to make its return in the
form as it was presented to Wovoka. Not the versions in which people
believed that if the dance was done, the whites would disappear and
our ancestors would return, along with the buffalo. It has always been
difficult for me to believe the Creator would show us a ceremony to
eradicate our relatives. From what I have understood about Wovokaâ€™s
vision is that the dance was to bring peace and understanding to all
people.

My idea of sovereignty based upon a spiritual way of life. Through
this way of life, I have found a stronger connection to the Creator
and Mother Earth. There appears little can be done politically, Bushâ€™s
â€œselectionâ€ in 2000 seemed pretty obvious, and there was no national
outrage that I heard about. But if the news media is 95% corporate
controlled, it wouldnâ€™t be on the front page.

There is little we can do against a government with no honor or
morals. We do know the power of prayer and we have witnessed true
miracles according to todayâ€™s definition take place. So if we are to
return to a spiritual path, then I am thankful for all of my lifeâ€™sâ€™
experiences that have brought me here. There are terrible things
happening, and more are going to take place. This is a time to educate
one another and to become spiritual warriors devoid of any negativity.
Get out of the cities and acquire some land to grow & raise your own
food. Bring like-minded friends and families with you because there
may come a time that you need a community to help defend the land.
Being a spiritual person doesnâ€™t mean we have to turn the other cheek,
nor is self-defense an act of violence. If all of our prayers are
strong and sincere, it will be our defense and a way to bring peace
and balance into the world. Weâ€™ll see.

To All of My Relations,
Ben

posted in Nativepeoples - 7 replies

Lipan Apache Resolution Condemning Border Wall info and links

2008-02-05T09:58:18Z

Lipan Apache (El Calaboz) Resolution Condemning Border Wall:
www.petitiononline. com/dawnnlp1

Information & Action You Can Take:
www.petitiononline. com/dawnnlp

Eloisa Garcia Tamez has been ordered to appear in Federal Court #6, on February 7, 2008, Judge Hanen presiding. This is an official hearing for condemnation and taking, under the Department of Homeland Security's "Declaration of Taking", an act of unwarranted, hostile aggression against her, a respected elder and leader of the traditional people, the aboriginal people of El Calaboz rancheria--"the place where the Lipan pray".

At this time, we ask you to show your solidarity with indigenous women, Native American people, and the aboriginal pueblos indigenas of the Lower Rio Grande valley, and sign this petition.

At this time, we humbly ask you to circulate this petition widely through your circles, family, friends, ceremonial leaders, faith leaders, tribal officials, elected officials, representatives, and international leaders and ask them to sign this petition as well.

There are 2 parts: WE ask you to first sign the RESOLUTION. We ask you to become informed by reading the second petition, and write to the individuals listed there who we requested intervention from on behalf of Eloisa Garcia Tamez, and the El Calaboz lands, ecologies, sacred sites, burial sites, farmlands, traditional dwelling sites, archaeologically significant sites, and endangered species.
ahi'i'e
Margo Tamez

PLEASE SIGN THESE PETITIONS:

Lipan Apache (El Calaboz) Resolution Condemning Border Wall:
www.petitiononline. com/dawnnlp1

Information & Action You Can Take:
www.petitiononline. com/dawnnlp

__._,_.___

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Al Queda targeting native youth??? Interesting~

2008-02-03T19:11:41Z

Subject: Al Quaeda recruiting young people from the Nations to the UK

Hi Lil Sis...I had a very disturbing email from a lady who is of the Poarch/Creek Nation in the US. It appears her daughter who is 26 years old has been talking to a guy on the internet for the last six months and intends to fly to the UK at the end of next month to be with him. The mother is concerned as she spoke to her local FBI branch there in Florida and they have said he is a known Al Quaeda activist in the UK. My concern is that these extremists are preying on our vulnerable youngsters who may be looking for a way out of the rez or their homelife. Would you be able to put out a warning to the schools/band councils to warn of the dangers of what these people might offer to entice the Nations vulnerable young people away from home and safety? And of course to spread the word to whoever they know in other Nations..it is a very real danger.
Welalin Lil Sis.. Big Sis..

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY & RESISTANCE

2008-02-03T00:39:35Z

INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY & RESISTANCE
A revolutionary movement that does not address the reality of the original inhabitants of the land is a movement doomed to failure. We believe that one of the reasons that past revolutionary movements have failed miserably in their attempts to create a free, egalitarian society, is because they have not adequately addressed issues concerning the right of indigenous peoples to secession, sovereignty, or self-determination.
Movements that don't attempt to build egalitarian relations with Indigenous communities and assist them in their struggles for autonomy will never have the support of those communities. In fact, if a supposedly "revolutionary" movement does not address the issue of de- colonization, it will most likely only contribute to the marginalizing of Native peoples and turn them into enemies.

State-communist movements have been outright genocidal in their practice towards indigenous peoples. These movements regard indigenous peoples as "pre-capitalist" artifacts that stand in the way of socialist evolution and industrial progress. The conditions faced by indigenous people's under "revolutionary" "communist" governments and proto-governments in Russia, China, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Peru, Columbia, and elsewhere, have differed very minimally from the oppressive conditions they faced under capitalist governments.
The anarchist movement does not share the communist movement's gross history of subjugating indigenous peoples, but anarchists have largely failed to address the reality of indigenous peoples at all. This is extremely unfortunate because the anarchist movement finds natural allies in the Indigenous sovereignty movement.
Many anarchists regard Native issues as "nationalist" and therefore irrelevant. This is extremely flawed because it holds that any distinct culture that takes action against a colonial power is "nationalist". Some Indigenous movements are indeed "nationalistic" - but usually not in the sense of a nation-state, but rather in terms of a distinct culture with distinct customs that has the right to exist freely within its own bioregion. The efforts of Native peoples to declare their sovereignty is often fully consistent with the anarchist desire for decentralization.
Our movement needs to realize that the struggles of Native peoples are issues that should be of major concern to all who consider themselves opponents of oppression. Indigenous peoples have always engaged in struggles against the state, industrial expansionism, and corporate exploitation. They are the only communities that have maintained a relatively harmonious relationship with the natural world. They have and continue to wage impressive battles against the status-quo. These battles often have the objective of forcing corporations off of sacred land, rejecting the arbitrarily imposed laws and ordinances of the State, and ending industrial developments which threaten the well-being of humans and animals. These issues are fully consistent with anarchism, and here we find the potential for powerful alliances between sincere anarchists and radical ecologists, and Native peoples.

Anarchist solidarity with Native peoples must not resemble, in any shape or form, the "solidarity" of "New-Age" cultural appropriationists - whose idea of "solidarity" with Natives really consists of stealing their traditions and exploiting them for personal gain and profits. Rather, anarchist solidarity with Natives must be genuine, concrete, and, most importantly, egalitarian. When our support is welcomed by them, we should accept it and join them on the frontlines in the battle against colonial domination

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

thought you would like this.

2008-02-02T18:53:55Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqchJzmOE

I thought it was funny. (:

posted in Nativepeoples - 9 replies

A winter story

2008-01-29T23:59:51Z

Okay, it's time to tell you a story. It's called Wesakecak and the Wolves:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7iIiy5dXYYI

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

American Indian products selling big on the Web

2008-01-27T20:55:17Z

I read this on another site, thought it might make for some intereting conversation. I buy wild rice from White Earth, as well as their Maple Butter, which....if anyone hasn't had the experience...is AWESOME!!

American Indian products selling big on the Web
By Tom Robertson
Jan. 24, 2008

The Red Lake Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota has developed a booming business on the Internet. The band sells wild rice, jellies and traditional handmade crafts to customers worldwide. Red Lake is one of a growing number of American Indian tribes tapping the power of the Web to get the highest value for homegrown products and the effort is creating jobs and establishing new business networks in Indian Country.

Red Lake Reservation — Internet sales have exploded since Red Lake first started its Web site four years ago. Annual online sales for Red Lake Nation Foods jumped from around $10,000 the first year, to more than $250,000 in 2007.

Red Lake's products are being purchased worldwide, with the heaviest sales in Canada, Germany and the UK.

"The growth is phenomenal," says Joel Rohde, manager of Red Lake Nation Foods.

Rohde says before the Web site was created, most of the tribe's wild rice and other products were sold to wholesalers or small-scale retailers close to the reservation. The Internet has created unlimited opportunities for Red Lake to get the most out of its resources.

"We're very remote and our access to the big city, so to speak, our best access and most cost effective access is by the Internet," Rohde says. Farmed wild rice is Red Lake's biggest seller but the Web site also features homegrown jams and jellies, maple and berry syrups, and crafts made from birch bark.

Now that Red Lake has resumed its commercial fishing operation, Rohde says Internet customers will soon be able to purchase walleye and yellow perch fillets online.

Rohde says the Internet boom has created hundreds of seasonal and full time jobs on the reservation. He says that's a big deal for a place with nearly 70 percent unemployment.

"All of the birch bark work is hand crafted by tribal members locally. And those are also spin-off jobs, if you will," Rohde explains. "You know, the berry pickers, the fishermen, the basket makers, the birch bark folks, are all jobs that really didn't exist two, three, four years ago."

In the old days, the Red Lake Band's marketing, packaging and distribution was out-sourced to non-Indian companies. But the tribe is now doing more of that itself.

Last year, Red Lake got $1 million grant from the Shakopee Sioux community to set up its own packaging warehouse.

Red Lake is one of only a handful of tribes in the country doing direct sales online.

Tribal Chairman Buck Jourdain says that means more profit for the tribe. Jourdain says it also opens the door for cross-marketing and partnership opportunities with other American Indian tribes across the U.S.

"We have tribal nations from throughout the country that contact us and say, 'Hey, we saw your product online.' Working with other Indian companies and other Native Nations to help each other out and build networks on-line, I think that's the way things are moving right now," Joudain says.

Red Lake and about two dozen other tribes are working with a Montana-based non-profit organization called the Intertribal Agriculture Council.

The council's goal is to help tribes market their products globally using the Internet and through trade shows.

Western tribes are selling apples and salmon online. Tribes in the Dakotas sell bison meat. Southwestern tribes are marketing beans, potatoes and hominy.

Nathan Notah, director of an ag council program that focuses on overseas markets, says there's growing interest in Europe and Asia in American Indian foods, largely because it appeals to those who want a natural diet. He says there's also a big interest in tribal culture.

"They're under the impression, in Germany or even Japan, that Native Americans no longer exist in the United States," Notah says. "So we're doing a double educational program when we try to promote our Native American foods, they're also realizing that Native American people still do exist here in the United States and that we haven't been totally wiped out."

Notah brings marketing reps from each tribe to food shows around the world. They present gourmet Native American meals to potential buyers.

He says one of the goals is to get Native American products into overseas grocery store chains. Notah would also like to make Native American cuisine more popular in restaurants.

"There's a couple of high end restaurants in London that are very interested in our products. We just made some sales to the Hyatt-Regency restaurant chains in Japan," Notah says. "I think as people learn about what we have to offer from here in the U.S., I think the number of high end restaurants that are going to be utilizing our products is going to increase substantially."

It's not just tribal governments that are cashing in on the growing popularity of American Indian products. A few private entrepreneurs are doing quite well with Web sites of their own.

"I gotta bag up this rice. There's rice in there, there's hominy in there, jams," Kathy Lausche says as she puts together an online wild rice order.

The shelves of her home office near the Leech Lake Reservation are lined with jars of locally made jellies, candles and Native artwork, including decorative birch bark canoes.

Lausche says she's amazed at the online interest in Native American foods and crafts.

"It's grown way more than we could have ever anticipated, and faster," she says.

Internet sales began as just a hobby for Lausche and her husband, Tony Nyberg. They started out buying locally-harvested wild rice and Native crafts, then reselling them on Ebay.

In 2002 the couple decided to create their own Web site. They call it Bineshii which means little bird in Ojibwe.

The couple say their annual sales have nearly tripled each year. It's become their full time job. They say the site averages about 10,000 hits a day.

Bineshii provides seasonal income for nearly 100 people on the Leech Lake Reservation. Tony Nyberg says a handful of traditional crafters and artists are able to make a full-time living at it.

"They can go all year now, making product," Nyberg says. "Where (before), they just had a short time in the summer to try to sell to some stores in Bemidji or the local gift shops and resorts. And once that season was done, their income was done for the year."

Nyberg says they've sent large wild rice shipments to Japan. They have repeat customers in Australia and the UK. He says about a quarter of their business is overseas.

"It just snowballed, and actually from the start it snowballed. When she used to sell 10 pounds of rice, she had this little hoo-ha thing she did, you know, every time we sold 10 pounds of rice," Nyberg says with a smile. "And now 10 pounds of rice is nothing. It's just nothing... The Internet is what makes it possible."

Tony and Kathy say they they expect their business will continue to grow and their product line will expand. The couple is considering adding Native grown Thanksgiving turkeys to their product line, and maybe even smoked quails.

There's no way of knowing just how big the online industry is for Native American products, since no national studies have been done. According to Nathan Notah with the Intertribal Ag Council, tribal sales online could exceed a billion dollars a year across the country.
minnesota.publicradio.org/displ...siness

Bineshii Online: www.bineshiiwildrice.com
Intertribal Agriculture Council: www.indianaglink.com

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Cynical about Russell Means' declaration

2008-01-27T04:17:01Z

Russell Means, ex-president of the America Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, actor and book writer, has just declared that the Lakota nation is breaking away from America and I couldn't be much more annoyed. Local press reported that Lakota leaders know nothing about the declaration, distancing themselves from Means and calling him a "loudmouth."

I don't know the motivation for his shennanigans, but I suspect he's about to publish a book.

Then, someone informed me that he was visiting Hugo Chevaz and it made more sense. My suspicions were further confirmed when some group called lakotafree.com published a story about an alleged declaration of support from Russia's president Vladimir Putin. Russia has been using American Indians as an example of American hypocrisy since the Cold War. When Leonard Pelletier needed eye surgery, Russian doctors offered their services for free. At the time, Pelletier was seen by Russia as a political prisoner. The offer to fix his poor sight was meant to further shame America. It was the pettiness of the Cold War. Like stubborn boys, it seems the games are back on again. Pelletier, and now Means, willingly play the role of political pawns in this game to shame. The payback, for Means, is publicity. Publicity for what sake? I can never tell. Unless, as I earlier speculated, Means is about to release a new book.

I'm further annoyed by this spectacle because Means, "the most famous Indian in America," does not come from, nor represent the political aspirations of most Indian people in North America, let alone the Lakota Nation. A general public who only knows Means from '70s media or the bookshelf at Borders, are ignorant to the discrepancies among Means, the American Indian Movement and tribal and traditional governments of today. To the average Joe, Means is an Indian and an Indian is an Indian.

Of course we are a sovereign nation. We seek every opportunity to remind the occupiers of our land.

Our communities send our orators, diplomats and constitutional lawyers to negotiate our status, rights and claims.

We prefer to negotiate, nation to nation, at the highest level available. We avoid courts, if possible. If we participate in the courts, we implicitly agree to their binding arbitrations. That's not good because the courts are biased against us and if one defendant loses, they could lose rights and claims for all.

It is a constant battle and we get better case by case, negotiation by negotiation. In 1997, Inuit negotiators managed to win back 808,000 square miles of land, an area about a quarter the size of America, Alaska included.

Canadian Indians have solid political representation. American Indians virtually have none. They are too fractured and have no singular entity that can negotiate at the level of congress. American Indians are managed by a federal department, the office of the Interior, the same cabinet responsible for the US Geological Service, National Parks and Mining.

What is Russell Means doing? I dunno. I do know that it makes people go crazy. I think it dumbs down the discussion, promotes extremist thinking and turns a very important and real struggle into mere media spectacle.

I mean really? What does the man hope to accomplish?

I feel for the true Indian leaders who have worked hard for well-earned victories who fall to obscurity whenever the bright lights of the empty-minded camera turns to such media hounds as Russell Means, John Trudell and Leonard Pelletier.

posted in Nativepeoples - 23 replies

Video: Mother Earth and her relatives

2008-01-26T05:55:51Z

My two-minute vlog about the big picture around Mother Earth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh4yL5rmnvk

posted in Nativepeoples - 10 replies

What Nourishes You?

2008-01-25T16:38:33Z

I like to eat baby spinach on sandwiches instead of lettuce.

ham and swiss on whole wheat with sprouts(with grain mustard)

Whole grain english muffins

apples

I love wildflower honey from Uppingill farm and their wicked good strawberries when in season.

blueberry anything!

fry bread
bannik with molasses

the birds singing at the feeders in the morning

being with the land, its sounds, its smells

watching the eagles fly up over the ridge

stone people

the wind...slow..fast..I dont care~

The mountains

the sea with its ebbs and flows

the sound of the seashore on a summer day

walking in the forest and leaving prayer stones as I go

lazing in the summer heat at Barton's Cove overlooking the river..watching the world go by

fishin!

Watching my husband fuss at the squirrles stealing seed

the quiet of a fresh fallen snow

Kimowon's videos and blog

the beautiful birches and ironwood that hang over my back yard creating a calm shade to relax in

red geraniums

picking fiddleheads in the spring and making fiddlehead soup...YUM

children laughing
Dylan, my grandson
the sound of native drums
Jim Boyd & Ulali

White Wolf

Biroregional Animsism Tribe
my street kids~

insanely wonderful people like all of you, who contribute to my life's learning, despite our differences

So...Nativpeoples....

What

Nourishes

You?

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

new to this site

2008-01-25T16:16:43Z

Hello,thank you for letting me join your fires.My name is Kim, Native name Usdi Tsayoga, Little Bluejay. I am of Cherokee heritage and love my people greatly. I'm not sure exactly how to use this here so I hope this comes through and I did it right. I look forward to reading and hopefully contributing all I can.
Again, Wado
Kim

posted in Nativepeoples - 8 replies

Declaration of Independence of the sovereign people

2008-01-24T22:30:29Z

Declaration of Independence of the sovereign people
17 Signatures
Published by Michael Pohlable on Jan 23, 2008
Category: Human Rights
Region: United States of America
Target: All citizens hearing the call of liberty and opposed to our criminal government.
Web site: http://new.revolutioni.st
Description/History:
This isn't legally binding - I'd love for it to be.

If anyone has comments on making this legal - please use the contact button.

After 1,000 signatures I'll probably be looking for something a little more official - such as either notarized or legally acceptable digital signatures.

It's time to take back our country from the terrorists that have seized it from us.

This is my last attempt and PLEA for a peaceful resolution.

The course of human events has once again led us into a time of great turmoil, where we are faced by threats to our sovereignty, not by a foreign King or country seeking to rule us through some ill conceived divine right, but by the government we created through privileges derived of our own rights, a government created to protect us from these great wrongs.

Since our privileged government has become destructive of the rights they were tasked with protecting, the time has come, once again, for the people to terminate the contract with their government in order to ensure our continued sovereignty, well being, and the retention of our unalienable rights.
Petition:
The course of human events has once again led us into a time of great turmoil, where we are faced by threats to our sovereignty, not by a foreign King or country seeking to rule us through some ill conceived divine right, but by the government we created through privileges derived of our own rights, a government created to protect us from these great wrongs.

Since our privileged government has become destructive of the rights they were tasked with protecting, the time has come, once again, for the people to terminate the contract with their government in order to ensure our continued sovereignty, well being, and the retention of our unalienable rights.

When this nation was created through the Constitution, all men were created equal; sovereign individuals who owned themselves whose rights were superior to all else. Each meeting of men was a meeting of Kings, true rulers of their own lives and bodies; truly free men. A republic was established wherein the rights of one man could not be abridged by all other men in this nation voting for, or choosing to take those rights away. These principles established a free society where the majority may rule only so long as the rights of every individual were superior to any act done in the name of the common good.

The founders created a government amongst themselves, not based on their desire to be ruled, but because they believed it to be a necessary evil in order to ensure that the equality of each sovereign citizen of this new land be preserved throughout the generations. They feared that the government may one day seek power over the rights of the people and established certain protections to ensure this did not happen. These protections were written into the Constitution as well as the Bill of Rights.

The founding fathers were very clear in their intentions; to create a privileged government ruling by the consent of the people, inferior to the rights of each individual, while working to protect these rights from international threats, and ensuring that all citizens would have equal access to legal recourse should their rights be violated.

Those protections have failed.

Congress has passed acts which establish corporate personhoods and collective groups with interests or rights superior to the rights of the individual citizens in violation of their established purpose; to protect the rights of the individual.

Congress has passed malum prohibitum acts, acts which ban the free exercise of certain of our unalienable rights in violation of the constitution.

Congress has deferred its delegated powers to other entities, as well as entities inside other branches of the Federal Government thus dismantling the balance of powers established in the constitution.

Congress has gone against the public opinion and constitutional grants of power to fund pre-emptive strikes against sovereign nations without establishing a threat to our national sovereignty, and without declaring war.

Congress has used distortion of the truth and subterfuge to pass spending bills and laws that no conscionable person could ever imagine, let alone vote for. It is commonly known that the bills passed through congress are no longer read. By failing to vote according to their knowledge of its contents, rather relying upon the emotional appeal of the title of a bill, Congress has failed to protect the rights of the citizenry.

Congress has usurped the authority of the people by seeking to redefine and reinterpret the limitations placed upon it by the constitution. By doing so, Congress has established itself as above the law of the land; the constitution that all members swore to uphold.

For these and other crimes against us, we, the sovereign citizens of these united states of America hereby disband Congress, both the House and Senate, strip all members of all titles, powers, and privileges garnished by their participation in either chamber. All members of either chamber, past and present, shall cease receiving benefits derived from their time in office that is over and above the commonly established welfare. Criminal charges shall be brought upon every member still alive to determine by jury trial if they were complicit in the crimes against the sovereign rights of the individual citizens through their voting record under U.S. code title 18 Chapter 13 sections 241 and 242, as well as any other applicable law.

The Executive branch has committed similar crimes against the sovereign people of this nation.

They have led us to attack sovereign nations without a Congressional declaration of war in violation of the good faith of the citizens of this nation.

They have signed the unconstitutional acts of Congress into law.

They have usurped the authority and rights of the people by issuing signing statements that are in direct violation of their constitutional grants of authority.

They have repeatedly failed to curtail the unconstitutional acts of Congress, acting in concert with them to achieve greater authority over the sovereign than the constitution allows for.

For these and other crimes against us, we, the sovereign citizens of these united states of America hereby disband the offices of President, Vice President, and all inferior offices of the executive as established either through constitutional grants of authority, or outside those grants. The current administration, at all levels, shall be tried by a jury to determine if any acts committed by each person through their office of authority, granted or not, criminally deprived any individual of their unalienable rights under color of law. Any acts against the rights of the people by use of government privilege will be punished under U.S. code title 18 Chapter 13 section 241 and 242, as well as any other applicable law.

The Judiciary has committed similar crimes against the sovereign people of this nation.

They have failed utterly to protect the citizens from the steady encroachment of their rights by invalidating the unconstitutional acts passed by congress. Instead, they have relied upon errors in court procedure to relieve those complaining of mistreatment while condemning the rest of the citizenry to suffer under the fascist authoritarian laws.

They have reinterpreted the constitution to allow for the expansion of the Commerce Clause to reach every level of every citizenâ€™s life in violation of their constitutional purpose, and often contradicting their own rulings in favor of governmental authority at the cost of individual liberty.

They have failed utterly to enforce the balance of powers established by the constitution and have aided both Congress and the Executive in their quest for power by ruling against the rights of the individual.

They have failed to protect the rights of the individual from special interest groups and corporations by allowing a slow progression to corporate personhood, wherein the rights of the individual are abrogated by the claimed necessity of the corporation.

They have failed to bring justice equally by creating procedural rules that deprive the common man of a fair and meaningful trial, while rewarding those with the resources to purchase their way out of punishments due to procedural errors derived from the unnecessary rules established.

They have deprived the people of their rights by taking these rights and making rules against the free exercise of these rights, in violation of their constitutional purpose. Examples include the right to a fair trial, the right to represent oneâ€™s self by appointing representation to all defendants, the right to assistance of counsel by appointing representation to all defendants rather than permitting a defendant to represent themselves with the assistance described in the 6th amendment, the right to demur in all cases by the creation of Rule 12 (1).

For these and other crimes against us, we, the sovereign citizens of these united states of America hereby disband the Federal Judiciary in its entirety. The Supreme Court justices currently sitting, or still alive, shall be placed on trial by jury to determine if their positions were in violation of the constitution as written and explained by the founders. Any rulings against the rights of the people in favor of government privilege will be punished under U.S. code title 18 Chapter 13 section 241 and 242, as well as any other applicable law.

Other general complaints include acts of defiance; treasonous acts against the sovereign people of this nation by those swearing to protect them.

Under the proclaimed act of â€œprotectingâ€ the American people, the government has undermined the very rights they were to be protecting.

Under the proclaimed act of â€œregulationâ€ the government has undermined the very property rights they were to be protecting.

Our government has failed to respect the sovereignty of foreign nations and has through deception of the people, led us into unfounded conflicts with our siblings and friends around the world.

Our government has squandered away the wealth of this nation in an attempt to police the world and build an empire. This is inconsistent with the powers granted to the government by the constitution, and is an act of treason against the sovereign people.

Our government has failed utterly in its stated purpose; to protect the rights of life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness for each person. With each violating act passed, signed, or ignored by the judiciary, this privileged government has committed treason against the sovereign American people.

Our government has failed utterly in its protection of all people regardless of their personal beliefs, races, creeds, or origins. This is in violation of the most basic of human rights, and cannot be tolerated by a government that is answerable to the people.

These failure can mean only that the government no longer has any interest in protecting the rights of those it has been tasked to protect, but has become willfully destructive of these rights. As stated in the original Declaration of Independence, we the people retain the right and duty to alter or abolish our government when it becomes destructive of the rights of the sovereign.

As this privileged government has failed in its intended purpose, and provides no other voluntary or necessary services and can claim no other purpose, it is the intent and will of the sovereign American people that this government be abolished and created anew.

This list of wrongs is by no means inclusive of all the evils done in the name of peace, liberty, and justice, but they establish firmly the grounds for our actions.

We would like to make it clear that it is not our estrangement with the currently elected officials that has forced our hand in this matter, but our dissatisfaction with the inherent flaws in the system that we feel must be addressed outside of the currently established channels for change. There has been a steady encroachment upon our liberties and rights by our constitutionally established government over the last two and a half centuries. At this time, we feel the need to dissolve the established government completely in order to eliminate the unconstitutional powers that have been taken over the years. We cannot do so effectively with the limited powers we have left. As such, we are resorting to our final measure; reclaiming our sovereign powers and resetting the constitution, reestablishing the government so that we may eliminate our previous errors in doctrine and vigilance, and to ensure our continued freedom.

As we, the people, are the sovereign, the rulers of this great land, we hereby revoke all privileged authority of the Federal Government and abolish it utterly. During the transition phase between the current government and the government yet to be established by a revised and amended Constitution, the state governments will remain to keep the peace and ensure the continued flow of commerce which our society has come so heavily to rely upon. Once a national government has been reestablished, it shall have its initial task be to ensure that all rights of the people are protected from the governments of the collective states making up the union.

We, the people of these united states of America, petition our brothers and sisters around the world to harbor our troops and civilians currently in your countries until we can safely bring them home, or their vacations have ended. We have wronged you in the past, as we have wronged ourselves by not staying vigilant against the steady encroachment of our rights. We ask for your forgiveness and thank you for your assistance during this time of unrest and restoration.

All military acts around the world are to cease immediately. All troops stationed outside the physical boundaries of American soil are to return to their bases and take up defensive postures, or return to American soil without any acts of aggression or violence towards the people of the land you occupy. We petition the world for peace for our men and women on those bases until we are capable of returning them to our country, and return the land we have taken from you to build our bases.

You can rest assured that the return of your land is one of the primary goals of the people of these united states of America.

This document embodies the will of the sovereign, free people, citizens of the world in which we all live, be it through divine intervention or happenstance. We solidly stand upon our rights as sovereign individuals, with natural rights superior to any act or whim of a ruling class or government, as defined in the founding documents of what we will again make the great nation of these united states of America.

So signed,
Sign the petition

The Declaration of Independence of the sovereign people petition to All citizens hearing the call of liberty and opposed to our criminal government. was written by Michael Pohlable and is hosted free of charge at GoPetition.

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Speaking Cree to the moon

2008-01-23T17:10:07Z

A brief visit, and joke, with the moon:
http://web.mac.com/kimowan/iWeb/portfolio/Studioblog/E29423F4-40B8-4700-B7C6-8E2E7E459248.html

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Images of Pine Ridge

2008-01-22T07:09:02Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH-Z0l24h88

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Aboriginal population passes the one-million mark

2008-01-20T23:03:14Z

Jean Levac/Canwest News ServiceCensus figures reveals that the aboriginal population is getting younger and has grown by 45% over the past decade

OTTAWA -- More than one million Canadians now identify themselves as aboriginal and about half of them are under the age of 24, says a report released on Tuesday by Statistics Canada.

The new analysis of the 2006 Census figures reveals that the aboriginal population is getting younger and has grown by 45% over the past decade, about six times faster than the 8% growth rate for the rest of Canada's population.

"They... have higher birth rates compared to the non-aboriginal population, but there's other factors too [that are] non-demographic," said Jane Badets, director of the social and aboriginal statistics division at Statistics Canada, in an interview.

In total, the report said that 1,172,790 people identified themselves either as a North American Indian (First Nations), Metis or Inuit, up from 976,305 people in 2001.

The report notes that 54% of aboriginal people now live urban areas, up from 50% in 1996. In the three aboriginal groups combined, 48% of the people are under the age of 24, while in the rest of the Canadian population, only 31% are under 24.

While the percentage of aboriginal people living in crowded homes with more than one person per room dropped from 17% to 11% over the past decade, one in four still live in a home that is in need of major repairs, the report says.

"It's a diverse population," said Ms. Badets. "That's important to remember. There's First Nations, Metis and Inuit, and where they live varies across the country and their conditions vary depending on the population."

Many native languages also appear to be suffering a decline, according to the analysis.

"It is stronger among the older generation, and in general that's what we saw," said Ms. Badets. "In terms of the First Nations going off [a] reserve, they had reported a lower proportion who could speak an aboriginal language compared to those living on reserves. So that's the trend. We've seen it for about 10 years."

The aboriginal group with the fastest growth is the Metis, which saw their population nearly double in size over the past decade up to 389,785 in 2006. The dramatic rise is mainly due to an increase in people who are now identifying themselves as a part of this group for the first time. But more than 97% of Metis who are under 45 said they do not speak an aboriginal language.

The Inuit population increased by 26 per cent to 50,485, and although 69% said they could speak Inuktitut, only 50% of these said they spoke it at home in 2006, versus 58% in 1996.

The North American Indians group saw a 29% increase in its population over the last decade, reaching 698,025 people. Only 29% of them could speak one of the 60 recorded aboriginal languages over the last decade. Cree was the most common one.

The Statistics Canada analysis says some of the recorded population growth is due to a higher birth rate, as well as an increase in the number of people who identify themselves as an aboriginal. The analysis notes as well that some reserves and settlements did not participate in the census in the past, although the number of incompletely enumerated reserves has dropped from 77 to 22 over the past decade. It mainly represents about 37,000 people in Mohawk communities according to preliminary estimates, said Badets.

Nearly eight out of 10 aboriginal people in Canada live in provinces west of Quebec, according to the report. Winnipeg is the city with the largest aboriginal population with 68,380 people, followed by Edmonton with 52,100 and Vancouver with 40,310. Toronto and Calgary each have 26,575 aboriginal people, the report says.

Aboriginal people comprise 3.8% of the total Canadian population, ranking second behind New Zealand, whose aboriginal population makes up 15% of its total. Australia and the U.S. are slightly behind Canada at 2%.

posted in Nativepeoples - 11 replies

Reverencing Norval Morrisseau, shaman artist

2008-01-19T20:57:15Z

http://web.mac.com/kimowan/iWeb/portfolio/Studioblog/BAF76323-22A3-4C9F-9945-33255660690A.html

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Recipients Announced for 15th Annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards

2008-01-15T05:57:39Z

OTTAWA, Nov. 15/07 – Fourteen exceptional achievers, coming from diverse backgrounds, both culturally and geographically have been named recipients of the 2008 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. They include a 14 year veteran of the National Hockey League, an activist fighting to protect the Innu way of life, an internationally acclaimed artist who made Woodland art an icon and 11 other esteemed individuals of accomplishment coming from across Canada’s Indigenous landscape.

“The 2008 award recipients have transformed their knowledge and experience into outstanding achievement” said Roberta Jamieson, CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. “We invite all Canadians and the world to join us in recognizing these extraordinary individuals who have contributed so much to the greater society around them.” The 14 recipients will be honoured at the 15th Annual event, returning to Toronto after 10 years on March 7, 2008 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, taped live, to be televised on both the Global and APTN television networks.

Hosting this year’s show is 22-year old Cree actress Larissa Tobacco, well-known to Much Music's VJ Search fans who enjoyed her energy, beauty and magnetic personality. For the second year, Jennifer Podemski is Creative Producer for the gala evening's events.

As part of this amazing honouring ceremony, the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards will be welcoming Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadian celebrities to join our team as special guest presenters. They include Juno and Gemini Award winners and Emmy-nominated actresses and performers, complimented by some of Canada’s best and emerging Aboriginal talent

The recipients and their categories for the 15th annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards are:

Norval Morrisseau (Ojibway, Red Rock Band, Nipigon, Ontario )
-- Lifetime Achievement Award --
is a shaman and self taught painter who painted for almost 50 years, gaining a worldwide reputation as one of Canada’s most original Master Artists. His enormous success and achievement as an artist has motivated a whole generation of Native artists and inspired by rock petroglyphs and Midwewin birchbark scrolls, he created what has become the Woodland or Anishnabe school of art. He was recognized by the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1970, and in 1978 became a member of the Order of Canada.

Boyd Wesley Benjamin (Vuntut, Gwitchin First Nation)
-- Special Youth Award --
dreamt of being a pilot when he was a boy, watching planes take off and land on a runway visible from the bedroom window of his home in Old Crow, Yukon. Today he has his pilot and helicopter licenses, works in the North and at a young age is already living his dream and looking toward future achievements. And he’s also a first-class fiddler!

Chief Jim Boucher – (Dene, Fort McKay First Nation)
-- Business and Commerce --
has stood firmly in achieving his goal of ensuring members of the Fort McKay First Nation share in the economic development of the Athabaska Oil Sands. He founded the Fort McKay-Industry Relations Corporation to build relationships, facilitate consultation processes, and to advocate on behalf of his people. At the same time, he remains committed to sustaining the identity and traditions of his people and serving the interests of all First Nations people throughout the Wood Buffalo Region.

Hubert Skye -- (Cayuga, Six Nations of the Grand River)
-- Culture, Heritage and Spirituality --
defied regulations and secretly taught the children in residential school their language in Moose Factory. Raised traditionally in the Longhouse, he is today a Faithkeeper in the Cayuga Longhouse conducting the ceremonies and speeches throughout the year for the seventeen ceremonies held for the seasons. He is multi-lingual in the Iroquoian languages. Elder Skye actively assists many cultural and educational organizations.

Dr. Marie Ann Battiste (Mi’kmaw)
-- Education --
born to Mi’kmaw parents who did not finish primary school, she attained a doctorate in education from Stanford University in 1984. She is one of the acknowledged leaders of the renaissance in Indigenous education, both nationally and internationally. As a unique world-class scholar, her influential books, essays and collective works have created a new legacy in educational thought and practice. Her achievements and commitments to Aboriginal knowledge, learning, anti-racism, and decolonization in mainstream education have created significant pathways for others to share and develop. She is a senior tenured professor at the College of Education of the University of Saskatchewan, and Director of the Aboriginal Educational Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, and co-director of Aboriginal Learning and Knowledge Centre, a national centre of Canadian Council on Learning.

Dr. Jeff Reading (Mohawk, Tyendinaga)
-- Health --
has achieved great strides in improving the health of Aboriginal people in Canada. He is the Scientific Director of the Institute of Aboriginal People’s Health. Dr. Reading has published extensively in the world’s health literature, covering areas from cardiovascular physiology, diabetes research, tobacco misuse, and health research capacity building. Perhaps one of his more notable achievements, Dr. Reading was instrumental in the development of the network of Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments (ACADRE) centres across Canada, dedicated to conducting and advancing capacity in Aboriginal health research.

Paul Andrew (Shuhtaotine ‘Mountain Dene’, Tulita, Northwest Territories)
-- Media & Communications --
is known throughout the north as “the one who tells stories”. He has been a CBC radio and TV broadcaster for many years, at the forefront of bringing his Dene language to life in his interviews and as a journalist. He instills and maintains Dene cultural identity with his broadcasts in the Dene language. Mr. Andrew is also a musician and featured performer in the “True North Concert”.

Joseph Leon Handley (Metis, Saskatchewan)
-- Politics --
has held a deep commitment to public service since his early years as a public school teacher. He is noted for the care and concern he held for his students and later as the eighth Premier of the NWT. He communicates with people of all walks of life, shifting effortlessly from meetings with Prime Ministers and Premiers to local dances in small communities. He is indeed a man of the people.

Sylvia B. Maracle (Mohawk, Tyendinaga First Nation)
-- Public Service –
has tirelessly given of herself in service to urban Aboriginal peoples. She has become a living legend for her achievements and work with the National Association of Friendship Centres, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, the Assembly of First Nations and a long list of regional or local organizations, traveling extensively as a trainer and speaker for groups and communities. Ms. Maracle has created positive change on a national level in urban Aboriginal health, justice, employment and housing.

Reggie Leach (Beren's River First Nation, Ojibway)
-- Sports --
played 14 years in the NHL, becoming the first First Nations player to reach super-star status. His achievements have inspired junior and amateur hockey players worldwide. He is in the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame. Today Reggie teaches his skills to aboriginal youth across Canada, gives numerous presentations about his prolific NHL career and raises awareness about alcoholism education.

Shirley Cheechoo (James Bay Cree First Nation – Michigeeng First Nation)
-- Arts --
has devoted her life to promoting indigenous peoples and their cultures. She founded the acclaimed De ba Jeh Mu Jig Theatre Company, is co-owner of an art gallery promoting Aboriginal artists around the world and is co-owner of Spokensong film production company that promotes arts, culture, language, healing and indigenous life in Canada and internationally. Ms. Cheechoo's achievements have earned her numerous awards, including the CTV Fellowship Award and the Eagle Spirit Award. Her films have been selected for screenings at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, the AIF San Francisco and Vancouver Film Festival. Currently, Shirley founded the Weengushk film institute on Manitoulin Island.

Elizabeth (Tshaukuesh) Penashue, (Innu)
-- Environment & Natural Resources --
for decades has fought to protect her homeland and the Innu traditional lifestyle. Her activism work began in the early 1980’s in opposition to NATO low-level flying. Annually since 1996 she has led a 150-mile snowshoe trek throughout the traditional Innu lands. In the summer, she leads a month-long canoe trip on the Churchill River. Modestly and softly, she says she "is a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves, such as the animals, plants and other beings.” Ms. Penashue has been awarded an honourary doctorate of laws from Memorial University.

David C. Nahwegahbow, I.P.C. – (Whitefish River F.N., Ojibway)
-- Law & Justice --
has made significant contributions to the cause of Indigenous rights and entitlement in the planet’s forest resources through his involvement with the Forestry Stewardship Council. A founding member of Canada's Indigenous Bar Association, he has actively worked with indigenous professionals in other countries pursuing the rights of indigenous peoples internationally. Mr. Nahwegahbow is the senior partner of a successful Aboriginal law firm exclusively First Nation operated, and has been in the private practice of law for 25 years. Mr. Nahwegahbow continues to volunteer his time speaking at conferences, both nationally and internationally, as well as speaking at high schools and even elementary schools on the importance of the law as well as ensuring a positive bridging of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations.

Bernard McCue, (Chippewa, Beausoleil First Nation)
-- Technology and Trades --
Through perseverance and determination to seek a better life through education, Bernard achieved an education in chemistry equivalent to an Honours University Level by taking extension courses after working hours. He made significant contributions to the development of synthetic jet aircraft lubricants, was awarded 3 U.S. patents, and made process improvements for the television industry by new and innovative methods that greatly enhanced the colour characteristics of the television sets for RCA Ltd.

After a national call for nominations, the Achievement Award recipients are selected by a jury comprised of past award recipients and individuals representing First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples from diverse geographic regions of Canada and areas of economy.

The Achievement Awards gala events are produced by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Canada’s leading Aboriginal charity dedicated to providing financial assistance to Aboriginal students for post-secondary education. Since 1985 the Foundation has awarded more than $27.3-million in scholarships and bursaries to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students across the country in all disciplines, including law, medicine, education, psychology, fine arts, business and computer sciences. Over $3-million was distributed in the last year.

posted in Nativepeoples - 2 replies

Unseen and unheard, our heroes and leaders today

2008-01-15T05:40:33Z

I have been whining about the undue emphasis on ex-AIM associates ever since that Russell Means story. So I figured why not ask who are your unrecognized heroes and leaders today, as in, who do you think should have more widespread recocognition?

I suggested the following three at the end of a previous post:

Matthew Cooncome, who stood up to a massive hydroelectric corporation and won.
www.naaf.ca/html/m_cooncome_e.html

The Mohawk today, who stand toe-to-toe against military might.
www.nfb.ca/enclasse/doc...sau/index.php
William Commanda, the kind elder who visits the UN, builds canoes and holds diplomatic contracts from a time before Columbus.
www.nfb.ca/enclasse/doc...sau/index.php

posted in Nativepeoples - 10 replies

2Eagle Stories

2008-01-08T17:07:40Z

2Eagle Stories

Death of an Eagle
by Brookie Craig
Recently, I went to the Warm Springs reservation in Oregon and then to the Federal Eagle Repository in Ashland Oregon.
You probably never heard of Nathan Jim, Jr. He was a Yakima Indian who was arrested for illegal possession of Eagle Feathers and parts, by the Feds a couple years ago. He languished in fed jail for l4 months awaiting trial and was finally put on probation for this heinous crime. His lawyer appealed it under the new Religious Freedom act which guarantees Native Americans the right to eagle feathers to practice their religious ceremonies and again lost the appeal..He killed himself fearing that (in his mind) it would mean that the feds would rearrest him and sentence him to jail again.
This so moved his prosecuting US Attorney that he grabbed a bundle of eagle feathers at the Fed Eagle Repository (yes..our tax dollars at work) and drove to the reservation so they can use them for Nathan's spirit sending ceremony (burial) but arrived too late so Nathan didn't even get a feather in death.
I decided to continue the challenge to the Feds and drove to Ashland Oregon where they keep dead Eagles (yes..its true they have a Eagle repository there) and with much dread and fear (we NA do not TRUST the feds, having felt their wrath many times in the past) and trembled my way through the door fully expecting the worst. I was met at the counter by a little old lady who is a volunteer there. While holding my Bureau of Indian Affairs ID card in one hand and my Cherokee Tribal Registration card in the other, I tried to remember my Ancestors who would want my voice to be strong and proud. I stood a little taller and I said, "I want a Eagle Feather which is my right under the Religious Freedom Act." I expected a lightning bolt to come down but instead saw a gentle smile as she softly said, "Of course," walked over and handed me a a packet of federal forms to fill out with instructions to send in to the Portland office of the US department of Wildlife management.
I smiled as I read that I will have to have signed references from another Elder and Verification from the Bureau of Indian Affairs AND my Tribe to prove that I am, indeed a REAL Indian. References even for a Eagle Feather.
She asks..."Do you want a Bald or a Golden Eagle?" CHOICES!?!? I'm not prepared..."Do you want just a wing..or talons..or the head...or the whole eagle?" WHAT?!?!?! I come in expecting to be arrested for asking for ONE feather and they're offering me the WHOLE bird!?! I am confused by the offer and She sees that I'm unprepared for them offering me choices of parts of this sacred bird and smiles her suggestion that perhaps I might want to look at the drawings of the parts of the bird, circle what I want and include it with the forms...I am defeated instantly by her gentleness.
I ask her how they send an Eagle to me and she replies through the U.S. Mail..THE MAIL!?! I cannot envision receiving a dead Eagle through the mail and smile at the thought that I might owe postage due upon receipt.
Walking out the door I turn my head and see a stuffed Eagle, sitting silently perched proudly, in a glass cage, on display in the main lobby and overwhelming sadness fills my heart as I realize that another Eagle fell from the sky...a man, also fearful but who stood up for his beliefs, who will never be remembered by anyone for a cause that no one really cares about I guess...and the thought of his falling in vain fills me with a sense of profound grief, for our People believe that the Eagle is the sacred Messenger who brings the messages from our Creator...The thought hits me that no one will hear that message for the Eagle plunged to Mother Earth and perhaps mankind might have had a chance to have heard something sacred, but now...will never know.
There is something terribly tragic in that. I hope someone hears this message and cares about Nathan Jim, Jr. and the Eagle who fell from the sky.
There is something inherently evil in the system of a country, that was founded by people escaping religious persecution, that fills it's citizens with such fear that they kill themselves over what they consider to be a basic right of religious freedom.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Eagle Feather
by Randy Macey, Mohawk
When the world was new, the Creator made all the birds. He colored their feathers like a bouquet of flowers. The Creator then gave each a distinct song to sing. The Creator instructed the birds to greet each new day with a chorus of their songs. Of all the birds, our Creator chose the Eagle to be the leader. The Eagle flies the highest and sees the furthest of all creatures. The Eagle is a messenger to the Creator. During the Four Sacred Riguals we will wear an Eagle Feather in our hair. To wear or to hold the Eagle Feather causes our Creator to take immediate notice. With the Eagle Feather the Creator is honored in the highest.
When one recieves an Eagle Feather that person is being acknowledged with gratitude, with love, and with ultimate respect. That feather must have sacred tobacco burnt for it. In this way the Eagle and the Creator are notified of the name of the new Eagle Feather Holder. The holder of the Eagle Feather must ensure that anything that changes the natural state of ones mind (Alcohol and Drugs) must never come in contact with the sacred Eagle Feather. The keeper of the feather will make a little home where the feather will be kept. The Eagle feather must be fed. You feed the Eagle Feather by holding or wearing the feather at sacred ceremonies. By doing this the Eagle Feather is recharged with sacred energy. Never abuse, never disrespect, and never contaminate your Eagle Feather. The Mohawk man will have three Eagle Feathers standing straight up on his Kahstowa (feather hat).

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

What's in a name?

2008-01-04T08:12:36Z

Nanci has raised a question about labels. I got thoughts.

We've all inherited "nativepeoples." I don't know its origin. This will sound frivolous, but I really dig how our logo actually says "nativepeoples." Besides that, I was at first taken by the hybrid word. I kinda liked its distinct quality.

I think, among ourselves, we use all kinds of names. The labels we use tend to be more neutral in meaning. We just know who we mean and it's a pain in the butt to type out Naive American or Native North American Indian or American Indian, aboriginal or indigenous, Anishnabeg, Nehiyew and so on. It gets complicated became each term means something different from person to person.

I went through this label thing in the 1980s, the decade of identity politics, when I edited an Indian newspaper. I get a headache just thinking about this discussion. The political connotations are endless. In Canada, we say Indian in informal settings. We also use First Nations a lot, but in more formal settings. We type "aboriginal"because its a blanket phrase that means, "of the land" and is a catch-all phrase for Indians with federal recognition, those without, Metis peoples and Inuit. Aboriginal was a government-generated word and while technically correct, felt awkward because histirically is was seldom used. I worked fot the Aboriginal Multi-media Society. Now and then, someone would call and ask for places to see during their vacation to Australia, confusing aboriginal with aborigini, which brings me to another point.
If you want to ne easily found by the masses, you'll need to use something people would know to search. So, while hip and happening, First no one would know to search "first nations." Y'all know this problem whenever you deal with ebay. You gotta type in several phrases and cast a wide net. So, you get a bunch of "America" items, as well as "Indian" from India. Ican see the wisdom of the word "native," even though it is only half right, or wrong, depending on your pov.

Personally, I think we just call ourselves whatever. People walk on egg shells too much. Where I come from, people just say Indian or they use the Indian word for themselves. Its a regional thing.

I don't know if you wanna get into this. Warning: It will be a semantic and political quagmire.

The thing I want to do is to rewrite the descriptive blurb. Without looking at it right now, I recall thinking that it could be better. So this is good because after newspaper writing, I went on to corporate communications, so I'm good at writing that kind of stuff. I guess I'm asking for your trust in rewriting that thing. And to be honest, I am not interested in taking on a "writing-by-committee" project. It is pure hell when people start to quibble over tiny words. The results tend to be awful. My motto is to keep it lighter, tighter, brighter.

Anyway, lots to consider here. Thanks, Nanci.

posted in Nativepeoples - 22 replies

Touching Home

2008-01-03T22:07:16Z

This is an entry from my blog a while ago...thought I'd share...

****

I had the urge upon waking this morning to call "home" ... to the reserve at Tobique First Nation. It's the one reserve, that although we did not grow up there...we feel most at home when we go to Canada. Most places we go, we are always made to feel welcome amoungst our peoples because that's just the way we are in the NorthEast...inclusive, rather than exclusive. Tobique is much different though...it is where many of our extended family are. The resrve is across the St. John's River, pictured here. It is hidden beyond the lower tree line and the higher ground id the Nation burial ground. (Picture taken a couple of summers ago)
My favorite part of traveling there is skirting across the narrows onto the main reserve...because I know I'm really home then...rez dawgs, gas bar, bingo hall rutted roads and all...I'm home!
I called up "Mom"..who is Passmaquoddy Elder Hazel Perley. Whenever we go to the reserve...we stay with her and her house is like a central gathering spot on the rez...there is always much hubbub going on there, food , people, kids, singing, drumming, etc. She holds mini pow wows at the Bingo hall during the winter months for the children of the reserve. She has a little hot dog stand out front of her property in the good weather to feed the kids and community..she makes fry bread there too! And holay!!!you should taste her fry bread. She is a little pixie of a woman,, long grey and black hair flowing down her back.. with love enough to go around for everyone...whether you are red, brown, kinda white...white or otherwise. She is gracious beyond description.
She answered the phone and when I said "Mom?" she exclaimed with utter joy: "Oh Dus..is that you?" (Dus is an Indian word for like honey...sweetie...sweetie pie...flower.. along those lines.) "EE-yah...it's good to hear you, dus...things are well, eh? We do some catching up with the family..who's doing what...what kids are where...who's in university...who's got new babies, babies on the way.
Mom tells me she has finished her little lodge out back on the porperty finally. She was still working on it last April whenI visited. Even though she has a nice reserve house...she still prefers the solitude of her hand built lodge out in the very back of the property. She has her medicines drying in there, a fire going all the time, bedding for herself, her sacred things...it's her quiet place. She likes to be with the little ones!
She collects cast iron and has it all over her craft room in the basement; from fry pans iron door stoppers. Everyone in the family gives her these as gifts. She relishes every one and labels them as to who gave her which piece! She has a tiny doll house size cast iron stove with tiny pans in her lodge for the little ones. : ))
Now come the other usual things we discuss...the wood is in? had snow? starting the tipping? collecting boogoo? Tipping is where you gather the ends of pine tree branches, there by pruning the trees for new growth in the Spring. Mom makes wreaths with the boughs and sells them to get through the winter months to supplement her "welfare". Along with the other crafts she does quite well for herslef and is very independant. BooGoo is pine tar, which she gathers as a medicine for healing breaks and sprains and other things along those lines. We talk about coming for a visit in the Spring..."Oh dus...eeyah...I can't wait, eh?" Having caught up on all the reserve happenings, gossip, and goings on, the call comes to an end. We say our goodbyes until next phone call, when I will be just as excited to hear Mom say Oh dus...is that you? EEE-Yah" : ))
I guess the reason I feel compelled to share this piece of my life is that we become so caught up in our expectations of everyone else. Who's Indian...who's not and how much?? I am reminded that Hazel is who we should all endeavor to be like. She is my husband's family and from the first that I met her, she has shown me nothing but love and acceptance. She does not care if I am not as red as her or that my hair is blonde and my eyes are blue or that my blood is mixed...she does not care whether I have a band card or not...to her I am her family and she is our family...as it should be when you think of the inclusiveness of the colors of the four directions. She also brings to mind the virtue of humility. She never thrashes you for saying or doing something wrong...she just says "Oh now dus...you know..." (as she's handing you a cup of coffee) and she gently explains the right way, which allows me to walk away with an understanding rather than an attitude.
My personal meditation for the day, I guess~ Tau hau!

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply

Another Native tribe on tribe

2008-01-03T10:10:25Z

I was trying to untangle the recent miscommunications regarding the Means' Proclamation. Do you like how I gave it a name? More about this later.

While surfing, I found this other Indian tribe. It's moderated by a guy named Kalona. He's an artist and a professer, just like your's truly .Also, he looks like he might be an actual Indian, also like your's truly. Not that you have to be Indian to join this tribe, it's just nice to have actual Native people in a tribe called nativepeoples. So I've asked where he's from, but haven't a reply, yet.I've asked him to come join us. I tried to appeal to his artistic sensibility and told him our logo looks better than his.

Anyway, the real reason for this post: Kalona was asking advice about newagers and wannabees. And, Nanci, one of our members suggested this reply to new agers: "Thank you for your interest, but we feel the follwing tribes may be a better fit:

Nativepeoples . . . Nativepeoples!? Noooooo. Anyway, Nanci, I'm just teasing you.

Here's the link to that other tribe:
http://1stnationstribes.tribe.net/

posted in Nativepeoples - 30 replies

News from the NorthEast ... we are stil here ; )

2008-01-01T23:05:54Z

Nora Bernard Aboriginal activist is found dead in her home and
police are now suspecting foul play.

December 16, 2006

By David Rodenhiser
The Daily News
"Bitter fight comes to end"

Millbrook's Nora Bernard played key role in multibillion- dollar
native-school settlement

They picked the wrong kid to mess with when they dragged nine-year-
old Nora Bernard off to the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in 1945.

Sixty-one years later, the determined Millbrook woman has won
what's being called the largest class-action settlement in Canadian
history - worth somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion - for
an estimated 79,000 survivors of the residential school system.

"I just want to tell the survivors that I am so happy for them that
this is over," Bernard, 71, said yesterday. "I love every one of
them."

The first lawsuits over abuse suffered at residential schools were
filed in 1990. But there was no consolidated effort until five
years later when Bernard convinced Halifax lawyer John McKiggan to
represent her and other Shubenacadie survivors in a class-action
suit.

"I firmly believe that if it wasn't for Nora's efforts, and other
survivors like her across Canada, this national settlement never
would have happened," McKiggan said.

"After we filed our lawsuit, a number of other students from other
schools filed similar class actions. Those class actions eventually
merged into the one national class action that has now been
approved by the courts."

Only two left

Judges in 10 provinces and the Yukon endorsed the settlement
yesterday, leaving Nunavut and the Northwest Territories as the
only jurisdictions left to OK the deal.

In his written decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice Warren
Winkler described the residential school system as a "seriously
flawed failure." His verdict included the Shubenacadie survivors.

"The effects of the residential school legacy were lasting and
profound," Winkler wrote.

Bernard, her three sisters and two brothers all went to the
Shubenacadie school. She spent five years there; her youngest
sister, nine.

"It was no place for a child," she recalled. "Once you entered
those big doors in the front and they slammed behind you, it was just
like going into a prison."

A federal Indian agent threatened Bernard's mother into turning the
kids over to the school, warning that if she didn't sign the
papers, the welfare system would apprehend the children.

It was a common experience. Noel Knockwood, now 74, went to the
Shubenacadie school in 1939 after an Indian agent threatened to
jail his father. McKiggan said he has clients who were taken away by
Indian agents while Mounties held their parents at bay at gunpoint.

The Roman Catholic Church operated the Shubenacadie school for most
of its existence. It opened in 1930 and finally closed in 1967. It
took in aboriginal children from the Maritime provinces,
Newfoundland and parts of Quebec.

As Knockwood describes it, the goal of the residential school
system, which dated back to the late 1800s, was "cultural genocide."

"They were trying to get rid of what Parliament referred to as 'the
Indian problem' by assimilating aboriginal people into Canadian
culture, so that they would no longer have to spend money on the
Department of Indian Affairs and on reserves," McKiggan
explained. "It is an incredibly sad part of Canadian history."

At Shubenacadie, the kids weren't allowed to speak the Mi'kmaq
language. Disobedience often resulted in a slap across the mouth by
one of the Sisters of Charity.

"The goal was to take our culture and our language away from us,"
Bernard said. "Also, what they were doing was training us as
domestic help. The boys were trained for farm work."

Effects still felt

She and Knockwood, a Mi'kmaq spiritual leader, were able to retain
their language. Others were not, and met with ostracism when they
returned to the reserve.

The hurt caused by this attack on their culture has rippled down
through the generations.

Knockwood credits Bernard with making "a tremendous contribution to
Canada as a whole in standing up for liberty and justice and
freedom." He says she deserves the Aboriginal Achievement Award.
Bernard, though, remains humble.

"I guess, probably, I have a real big heart," she laughs.

But, when asked what inspired her battle, she's suddenly serious.

"Justice," Bernard replies without hesitation. "I wanted justice
for
my First Nations people that attended the residential schools - not
only down here - throughout Canada."

posted in Nativepeoples - 3 replies

Standing at the sacred fire

2008-01-01T19:09:16Z

My latest blog entry: http://web.mac.com/kimowan/iWeb/portfolio/Studioblog/CC6B2FE7-612B-42AC-8444-F5FC4A5A3860.html

And while I have the chance. I wish you, your family and friends, a good year in 2008.

posted in Nativepeoples - 0 replies

Statemenr Re: Lakota Freedom

2007-12-31T22:11:21Z

Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council Response to Russell Means Press Release

In response to the Press Release by Russell Means:

There is a provision within the Treaty of 1868 that our ancestors including my great-great grandparents had included. Article 12 says the Treaty of 1868 could not be changed except by three-fourths of the adult male vote. This was done expressly to protect the people, the land, and our way of life. What are now called reservations, were originally created as prisoner of war camps by the USA when they invaded our territory.

In the late 1870s, two other leaders, Spotted Tail and Red Cloud, were coerced into trying to change the treaty by the US. Even though they eventually signed what the US wanted, they also knew that without three-fourths of the adult male approval, the treaty could not be changed. Russell Means is only one man and has not received the three-fourths adult male approval. His efforts, however, remind the world that we still have an international treaty with the USA.

Thank you for your interest in this issue.

Sincerely,
Charmaine White Face, Spokesperson
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council
(established in 1893 by Chief He Dog)

Firefly (Lilia Adecer Cajilog)
Tawo Seed Carrier
POB 1456
South Pasadena, CA 91031

"I do not believe that the Great Spirit
Chief gave one kind of men the right
to tell another kind of men what they
must do."

Chief Joseph

posted in Nativepeoples - 1 reply