Posts Tagged indigenous
UNESCO: Desaparecerán más de 200 lenguas indígenas en los próximos años
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 5, 2010
por Erick Gutiérrez @ Mapuchenoticias.com
Según los datos publicados por la UNESCO en los próximos 100 años desaparecerán al menos el 90% de los idiomas originarios, y en los próximos años sufrirían esta suerte al menos 248 idiomas indígenas en latinoamérica.
En Argentina las lenguas en peligro son el mapudungun de los mapuches, el choyote, el guaraní, el tapieté, el chaná y el tehuelche. Estos últimos se encuentran en un estado crítico, ya que el tehuelche es hablado por sólo 4 personas y el chaná por una sola persona.
Según el informe, en latinoamérica se encuentran a punto de desaparecer 64 lenguas en Brasil, 53 en México, 29 en Perú, 24 en Colombia y 18 en Bolivia.
Esto se puede revertir sólo si los gobiernos toman medidas urgentes, cosa que dificilmente harán, porque estos idiomas son considerados inútiles para el progreso y el desarrollo de los países.
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Stand beside us in defense of the land: Wet’suwet’en
Posted by carnalizmo in General, Turtle Island, indigenous on February 12, 2010
by Dawn Paley
Toghestiy (Warner Naziel) traveled from Smithers to Vancouver on Thursday in order to add his voice to the chorus of Olympic resistance.
He came with a message for activists gathered in Vancouver: he thinks the pressure for corporate development on Wet’suwet’en territory, which encompasses 22,000 square kilometers in central British Columbia, will increase when the B.C. government has to start paying down the deficit accrued because of the 2010 Games.
“When the time comes for them to actually pay off that bill, we know they’re going to start making their way into our territories, as well as other First Nations’ peoples territories that aren’t ceded yet, and they plan on paying off that bill by extracting resources from our lands, and doing it as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” he said.
There are two proposed oil pipelines that would cut through Wet’suwet’en territory: the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, and a separate Kinder Morgan pipeline, both of which to carry tar sands bitumen from Alberta to the BC Coast. The Wet’suwet’en have expressed their absolute and unconditional rejection of pipelines in their lands.
“The Wet’suwet’en want to protect our land, we want to protect it from any type of pollution, any type of industrial development, because we need to make sure the lands are available for our children and our unborn children,” Toghestiy told the Vancouver Media Co-op.
In the context of building post-Olympic movements in Vancouver, Toghestiy said that the Wet’suwet’en would like to have the support of people in the city as part of their struggle to defend their lands. “We’re looking at developing a larger network of people who can and will stand beside us,” he said.
The Wet’suwet’en nation withdrew from the B.C. Treaty process last October, after spending 16 years at the table with the provincial government.
“Now that Treaty is dead in our territory, one of the discussions that the clan groups had, we’re made up of five distinct clans, and one of the discussions that the clan groups have been having is ‘what are we going to do about occupation,’” said Toghestiy. “We need to go out and begin actually occupying our lands again.”
One of the ways that the Wet’suwet’en are reoccupying their lands is through a cabin building project, where a group people are learning to cut trees, mill them, and build log cabins. “They’re building them out in our territories, without permits or licences or anything like that from the government.”
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Host First Nations Bite the Olympic Hand
Posted by carnalizmo in General, News on February 12, 2010
February 9, 2010
Will the government meet its funding obligations before the Games?
by ZOE BLUNT
Chief Bill Williams at Ut'sam, 2006. Williams and other leaders of the Four Host First Nations are demanding the federal government meet its financial obligations to the communities before the Olympic Games.
VANCOUVER—It looked like the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee had everything sewn up tight: new venues built to order, ads from corporate sponsors, bylaws against ambush marketing, and smiling Indigenous people welcoming the world.
Now, the committee must be wondering whether it misjudged its First Nations “partners.”
Hard on the heels of Indigenous protests during the Olympic Torch Relay, the Four Host First Nations (FHFN) surprised the province and its international partners with an announcement in January. Chief Bill Williams, chair of the FHFN, declared they will use the power of international media to shame the province into honouring its commitments to economic development.
Thomas Leonard, president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council, fired the first shot. In a letter to BC Forests Minister Pat Bell last December, he wrote, “The fact that your government and its federal partner are spending $3 billion to stage the Winter Olympics is merely exacerbating the frustration and anger felt by our communities as they continue to be told that there is no money in the pot to address their situations, which, as you are fully aware, are of a most desperate nature.”
Williams explained the consequences for ignoring the FHFN’s ultimatum. “There’s going to be some 14,000 media people running around [at the Olympics],” he told the Globe and Mail. “Some of them are already contacting us. They want to know, ‘What’s it like to be an Indian in today’s world? How do you live?’ We are going to start letting those reporters know the reality of the poverty we face.”
The host nations—the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, and Lil’Wat Nation bands—signed partnership agreements with VANOC years ago, and until now, they’ve submitted to the demands of the international committee on everything from cutting old-growth forests to wearing faux regalia. Some, like Kwakwaka’wakw activist Gord Hill, have accused the FHFN of selling out, and cheaply.
Raising the price at this late date doesn’t make it right, and Hill calls the latest move an “attempted cash grab” by “native sell-outs.”
“What is truly hypocritical is for Williams to now raise the issue of Native poverty, or to express concerns about the social conditions for Native people, after several years collaborating with VANOC and the 2010 Olympics,” Hill told The Dominion.
Indeed, with the Olympic spectacle upon us, Indigenous leaders have upped the ante. Thomas said, “Our communities are tired of being told there is no new funding available—and that they might have to make do with even less than they already have—and at the same time being told they should be excited about the 2010 Winter Olympics.”
Thomas asked the province for an urgent meeting to resolve the issue, and said if steps aren’t taken, “The FNFC and its member first nations will reluctantly, but without hesitation, take advantage of the intense international media interest that will be focused on BC before and during the Winter Olympics.”
Along with his position as chair of the FHFN, Williams is vice-president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. He said the province is overdue in funding $6.2 million for developing aboriginal forestry businesses. According to a press statement, similar commitments from Ottawa for $135 million for mountain pine beetle salvage and recovery were pledged years ago but never materialized. A second letter to Federal International Trade Minister Stockwell Day requested a meeting to discuss the long-overdue funding from Ottawa.
Hundreds of reserves across Canada are mired in abject poverty, and thousands make do without safe drinking water, housing, health care, employment and education. Conditions for Indigenous people have only deteriorated since Vancouver and Whistler won the Olympic bid, Hill said. “During this period, hundreds of Natives have been made homeless in Vancouver, subject to police violence and harassment; yet where were Mr. Williams, the Four Host First Nations and their Olympic toad Tewanee Joseph? Kissing the ass of corporations, government and Olympic officials,” he charged.
Investing in forestry is a delicate issue for the Squamish and other First Nations who have fought to preserve the forests of their traditional territory from industrial clearcutting. But in many parts of the coast, unprecedented liquidation of old-growth and second-growth forests is underway, and raw log exports are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, unsettled Indigenous land claims languish in limbo.
Growing nations are desperate for jobs and economic development, and this is the trade-off they face. The Olympics represent development, but at the expense of traditional lands, foods, and wildlife.
Today, neither the province nor the chiefs are speaking to the media—likely because they are attempting to negotiate a truce. The chiefs are certainly aware that when provincial and federal governments are confronted by intractable First Nations threatening action, they often give in to the demands. That’s how Indigenous activists have won substantial concessions in the past.
In this case, the FHFN demands are dwarfed by the scale of the Olympic money-pit. The province’s $6.2 million debt to First Nations forestry amounts to one-tenth of one per cent of Olympic spending. Ottawa’s contribution to pine-beetle salvage in First Nations communities would be a little over two per cent of the budget for the Games. Clearly, the host nations have the position and the leverage to negotiate sweeping changes. But what they stand to win by what some have called “selling out” appears to only be crumbs from the master’s table.
Zoe Blunt is a journalism school dropout on Vancouver Island.
For up-to-the-minute Olympics resistance coverage, check out theVancouver Media Co-op, and the Convergence website. Follow the VMC on twitter!
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Celebrate Freedom With Me (Feb. 6 Statement by Leonard Peltier)
Posted by carnalizmo in General, News, Prisoners of War/Political Prisoners, american indian on February 12, 2010
Sat, February 6, 2010
34 years. It doesn’t even sound like a real number to me. Not when one really thinks about being in a jail cell for that long. All these years and I swear, I still think sometimes I’ll wake up from this nightmare in my own bed, in my own home, with my family in the next room. I would never have imagined such a thing. Surely the only place people are unjustly imprisoned for 34 years is in far away lands, books or fairy tales.
It’s been that long since I woke up when I needed to, worked where I wanted to, loved who I was supposed to love, or did what I was compelled to do. It’s been that long-long enough to see my children have grandchildren. Long enough to have many of my friends and loved ones die in the course of a normal life, while I was here unable to know them in their final days.
So often in my daily life, the thought creeps in – “I don’t deserve this.” It lingers like acid in my mouth. But I have to push those types of thoughts away. I made a commitment long ago, many of us did. Some didn’t live up to their commitments, and some of us didn’t have a choice. Joe Stuntz didn’t have a choice. Neither did Buddy Lamont. I never thought my commitment would mean sacrificing like this, but I was willing to do so nonetheless. And really, if necessary, I’d do it all over again, because it was the right thing to do. We didn’t go to ceremony and say “I’ll fight for the people as long as it doesn’t cost too much.” We prayed, and we gave. Like I say, some of us didn’t have a choice. Our only other option was to run away, and we couldn’t even do that. Back then, we had no where left to run to.
I have cried so many tears over these three plus decades. Like the many families directly affected by this whole series of events, my family’s tears have not been in short supply. Our tears have joined all the tears from over 500 years of oppression. Together our tears come together and form a giant river of suffering and I hope, cleansing. Injustice is never final, I keep telling myself. I pray this is true for all of us.
To those who know I am innocent, thank you for your faith. And I hope you continue working for my release. That is, to work towards truth and justice. To those who think me guilty, I ask you to believe in and work for the rule of law. Even the law says I should be free by now, regardless of guilt. What has happened to me isn’t justice, it isn’t the law, it isn’t fair, it isn’t right. This has been a long battle in an even longer war. But we have to remain vigilant, as we have a righteous cause. After all this time, I can only ask this: Don’t give up. Not ever. Stay in this fight with me. Suffer with me. Grieve with me. Endure with me. Believe with me. Outlast with me. And one day, celebrate freedom with me. Hoka hey!
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488
Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206
Fax: 701/235-5045
E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
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2010 Protesters: Police Had Better Be Peaceful….
Posted by Nationalism.n.Matriarchy in Police State/Police Brutality, Statement, Turtle Island, indigenous on February 10, 2010
February 9, 2010 – 05:51 — no2010
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100208/bc_olympic_pro…
Police are expecting large crowds of protesters to mark the start of the Winter Games later this week, but international Olympic officials say they’re not concerned the demonstrations will pose any serious problems.
Anti-Olympic groups are planning a large event in downtown Vancouver to coincide with Friday’s opening ceremonies, and others are expected to follow throughout the ensuing 16 days of the Games.
Vancouver police have recently said they expect between 1,000 and 1,500 protesters in the first few days of the Olympics — a significantly larger number than many had previously expected — and protest organizers say they hope to exceed those figures.
But officials with the International Olympic Committee and the local organizing committee, known as VANOC, said they were confident protests will be peaceful and won’t cause any major disruptions during the Games.
Gerhard Heiberg, a member of the IOC’s executive board, said the committee has always been aware of the potential for protests during the Vancouver Olympics.
“I wouldn’t call it concerns,” Heiberg, who was also the chairman of the committee that evaluated Vancouver’s bid for the Games in 2003, said at a news conference Monday.
“We have to accept protests and there will be some and fine, let’s leave it. We are used to that.”
The IOC raised the issue of protests with VANOC during a final briefing on Monday, but Heiberg said he was curious — rather than concerned — about what will happen.
Several protest organizers held their own news conference on Monday, saying they hope everyone from activist groups to union members to disaffected members of the public show up out to denounce the Games.
“I hope thousands of them come out if the press stops scaring people talking about the possibility of violence,” said Bob Ages of the Council of Canadians. “I think it could be really big.”
Police have insisted they will respect protesters’ right to free speech, so long as they don’t break the law or interfere with the rights of anyone else.
However, Olympic critics have complained the RCMP-led unit overseeing Olympic security has harassed activists by approaching them on the street and speaking with their neighbours and members of their families.
They also complain that protesters from outside the country have been stopped or questioned at the border, most recently this past weekend when Martin Macias Jr., an American who led a group opposed to Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Games, was denied entry into Canada.
“The police have worked really hard to intimidate and discourage people from expressing themselves, so I hope they will be brave come the Olympics and realize we have nothing to fear if we have the numbers,” said Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the Olympic Resistance Movement.
The protest organizers said it will be up to the police, not them, to ensure protests remain peaceful.
For their part, police said they will set up so-called “safe assembly” areas for protests, rather than try to stop them.
The idea of creating areas where protesters could demonstrate safely was a key recommendation in a report into the 1997 APEC protests in Vancouver, when demonstrators were pepper sprayed, detained and strip searched. The event remains a stain on the reputation of the RCMP.
Protesters, however, have vowed not to use any area that police officially designated as a protest zone.
Friday’s protest is planned for a lawn outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, a traditional demonstration space that Vancouver police said they plan to leave alone during the Olympics.
Westergard-Thorpe said anti-Olympic protesters don’t plan to be violent.
“There’s never been any violence associated with an anti-Olympic protest — property damage that you might see in some cases is not violence,” she said.
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2009: Indigenous struggles, tragedies, and triumphs
During the 2009 calendar year, we have been witness to some of the most courageous, provocative and gut-wrenching struggles in recent memory: some of them triumphs so great that they set the standard for the rest of us ; and others, tragedies so vile we can’t bare to look at them—even though we must.
Of course, you wouldn’t know it either way if you rely on corporate news outlets like the Globe and Mail, social networking sites like Digg, and the incredible array of blogs and non-governmental organizations—all carrying their own take on what matters most.
Instead, you would have to be spending your time on websites like Censored News; Upside Down World; the Dominion Paper and the WW4 Report, among others. You would also have to be turning to the people themselves.
To highlight this fact, and mark the end of 2009, I would like to present you with a list of what I consider to be this year’s most under-reported struggles, tragedies and triumphs.
There are, of course, hundreds of stories that could be listed here, especially given the long trend of silence surrounding indigenous People (a trend that refuses to give way to necessity). However, for one reason or another, these stories stood out to me more than the others.
I hope you find it useful.
Ahni (intercontinentalcry.org)
1. Researchers in India discovered “the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment” — a veritable toxic stew of pharmaceutical ingredients used in ailments that range from heart disease to depression, gonorrhea, ulcers, and bacterial infections. If you haven’t already guessed: it’s in the water.
2. Indigenous people in Peru celebrated a major victory in their long-time struggle to protect the land from outsiders hoping to exploit it. On January 14, the Regional Government of Cuscoenacted a law that bans the practice of biopiracy, or “the appropriation and monopolization of traditional population’s knowledge and biological resources.” The move was heralded “a leading example” for the rest of the world.
3. Members of the indigenous Awa in southwestern Colombia reported that as many as 20 people were killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This would not be the last massacre of Awa in 2009.
4. Forty three Lepchas were arrested in connection to an ‘agitation’ carried out on the controversial Panan hydel power project in the Dzongu region of Sikkim, India. Most, if not all of the Lepchas arrested had nothing to do with the action.
5. In central Brazil, the Yanomami community of Paapiu began calling for the immediate expulsion of illegal gold miners occupying their land. Survival International reported, “[the Yanomami] say they are prepared to use bows and arrows to expel the invaders themselves if the authorities do not take immediate action.”
6. Russia’s state-controlled Hydro company, RusHydro, began pushing ahead with a renewed plan to construct a massive hydropower station on the Lower Tunguska river in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. The project means death to the Evenk’s culture and way of life.
7. A research team from COPAE confirmed that Goldcorp’s Marlin mine in Guatemala is poisoning local water supplies. The local Mayan community suffers from numerous health problems as a result of contaminants. However, Goldcorp claims it’s all the result of “bad hygiene”, a lack of water, and “fleas”.
8. The Toronto-based mining company, Uranium One—who’s “operations have been made possible with backing from the Canadian Embassy and CIDA”—was accused of human rights abuses and the systemic violation of workers rights at their Uranium mine in South Africa.
9. The Hadzabe People are considered by scientists to have the oldest genetic heritage of any other people on earth. However, today they find themselves on the edge of extinction, with no land rights, and a food supply that’s being “aimlessly” shot away by poachers.
10. The Kenyan government began a brutal campaign of violence against the indigenous Samburu people in north central Kenya–which is still ongoing.
11. More than 2,000 indigenous Embera people fled from their territory in Colombia to escape increasing violence from “a newly formed irregular armed group.” A total of 25 villages were left abandoned.
12. As many as 260 police officers tried to evict 500 Mayan families from a 6-acre lot of land they occupied in March. However, the eviction failed—though not before twelve Mayans and fifteen police were injured and about 100 homes were destroyed.
13. After years of conflict and tension, the few remaining non-indigenous rice farmers finally leftRaposa-Serra do Sol, an indigenous reserve in northern Brazil. The government had ordered them to do so far in the past, but the farmers resisted, repeatedly by terrorizing Indigenous People.
14. Hundreds of villagers in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of western China faced off against armed security forces at the site of a planned gold mine—on what the Tibetans consider to be a sacred mountain. Amazingly enough, several days later the Chinese government reportedly conceded to the Tibetans.
15. The Colombian House of Representatives approved a controversial program to convince Colombian Women to submit to sterilization. News of the bill arrived just as Peru’s right-wing government announced it would shelve an investigation into its own former sterilization program, in which thousands of indigenous women were sterilized against their will in the 1990s, with help from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
16. Over 70 human rights and environmental groups from around the world expressed outrage at the planned launch of the World Wildlife Fund’s Aquaculture Stewardship Council last month. Influenced by the aquaculture industry, the WWF is completely ignoring indigenous people in six separate locations around the world.
17. Representatives from 360 Mískito communities declared the secession of the entire Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, also known as the Mosquito Coast. They announced that the area, which accounts for 46% of Nicaragua’s territory and an estimated 11% of the population, would form the independent Nation of Moskitia.
18. A group of Maya Mam villagers set fire to a pickup truck and an exploration drill rig, after the Canadian company Goldcorp repeatedly failed to remove the equipment off the community’s land.
19. The government of Ontario, Canada, returned Ipperwash Provincial Park to the Kettle and Stony Point First Nations, bringing a welcomed end to a saga that goes back to the 1930s. Sam George—the brother of Dudley George, who was slain by police in 1995 for defending his land—passed away just days after the announcement.
20. In a first-of-its-kind action in the Christian world, the national Episcopal Church passed a landmark resolution repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and urging the U.S. government to endorse the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
21. A group of 30 indigenous elders and leaders from Ampilatwatja, in Australia’s Northern Territory, abandoned their community rather than live under the oppressive foot of the government’s so-called “intervention.”
22. Eight Maasai villages in Tanzania were burnt to the ground to make way for new a game hunting area. 3,000 people were left without any food, water or shelter.
23. A Russian-backed mining project in Burma’s war-torn Shan State was singled out for risking the homes and farmlands of 7,000 Pa-O villagers.
24. The government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak decided to ignore a landmark court ruling that recognized the rights of the Penan and other tribes to their land.
25. A major Indian travel company, “Barefoot India”, won a high court case allowing them to build an eco-resort close to the designated Jarawa reserve. Once the resort is built, the Jarawa People, who have lived in voluntarily isolation for centuries, will become their own personal tourist attraction.
26. Several Mapuche communities began to reclaim lands in Araucania, central Chile, which they say were stolen from them. At least 5 Roadblocks were set up—marking the beginning of an effort that continues even now.
27. Throughout India, tens of thousands of Indigenous People mobilized in an effort to demand an end to the brutal and repressive laws surrounding India’s forests. More than 2 dozen protests were organized.
27. The Guarani Kaiowá community of Apyka´y in Brazil was attacked by ten gunmen, who fired shots in to their camp, wounding one person. The gunmen also beat up and injured others with knives and then set fire to thier village. This was the second village torched in less than a week.
28. A US. federal ruling permitted a gold mining company to dump toxic waste into a pristine mountain lake in Alaska.
29. The Saami people came forward with major concernsthat a mining project in Northeastern Sweden, proposed by a Canadian company, threatens their traditional way of life and violates their basic human rights as recognized by the United Nations.
30. Under an historic settlement, PacifiCorp announced it will remove four dams on the Klamath River under a tentative agreement with tribes and other parties.
31. The biggest environmental demonstration in Turkey’s history, an estimated 20,000 people took to the streets to protest the 100m high Uzuncayir dam on the Munzur River.
32. As many as 300 troops from Panama’s National Police demolished a Naso village in Bocas del Toro–for the second time. No injuries were reported, however, some 150 adults and 65 children were left with no shelter and limited access to food and water.
33. In Canada, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl sent notice to the Algonquins of Barriere Lake that he will not recognize their legitimate leadership, but instead impose elections on the community in April, 2010 by invoking a section of the Indian Act that would abolish the customary method they use to select their leaders.
34. Following an overturned eviction, an Ava Guarani indigenous community in Paraguay’s Itakyry district was sprayed with toxic chemicals, most likely pesticide, resulting in nearly the entire village needing medical treatment.
35. The Awajun and Wampis people—who were violently confronted by police in Bagua, Peru in early June—detained a group of employees from the Canadian mining company IAMGOLD. According to statements from the indigenous organization AIDESEP, the company did not have any authorization to enter the territory. The employees, five in total, were arrested in protest of the fact. The company denies that anyone was arrested.
36. In a major ruling , the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appealsblocked construction of the largest open pit gold mine in the United States: Barrick Gold’s Cortez Hills gold mine. However, just one day after the ruling, the company announced that it would ignore the ruling and continue construction.
37. In the face of mounting protests, Anglo Platinum destroyed the Sekuruwe’s last remaining farmland—what little they had left since their land rights were handed over to the company in 2008.
38. A suprising turn of events, the Ontario government reached an agreement with Platinex to abandon their mining concessions on the traditional territory of Big Trout Lake.
39. On June 19, Peru’s Congress overwhelmingly revoked two of the controversial laws that triggered this year’s biggest and most widely known mobilization—the mobilization of Peru—which culminated in the violent police-led confrontation of June 5, 2009.
40. Also on June 19, the Ngobe of Western Panama won a major victory of their own. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called for the suspension of all activities connected to the Chan-75 Dam, which is being built on Ngobe land.
41.Over the course of 5 weeks, thousands of Indigenous Penan mobilized to protect their forest lands in Malaysian state of Sarawak. The mobilization began in late July. Unfortunately, the effort did not end with success.
42. Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, was re-elected in a landslide victory on December 6. He won more that 63% of the votes. Bolivia’s landmark constitution, which supports indigenous self-government, was also passed this year.
43. In early September, the Indonesian military burned down a Village in West Papua, and terrorized its residents with random bursts of gunfire. Most of the villagers, defenseless and peaceful, sought refuge in a nearby forest.
44. Since January 18, 2009, when Israel declared its unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, numerous Palestinian civilians have been attacked, abducted, killed, and injured by Israeli forces. Among them, more than 150 farmers and fishermen.
45. A hunger strike aimed at the Norwegian mining company Intex Resources, came to a welcomed end in November, with the Philippine government suspending the company’s permit. Hopefully, the victory, like all others list here, will echo far into the future.
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DC: 11/05 Demonstrate for Leonard Peltier’s Freedom!
Posted by APOC-Philly in Prisoners of War/Political Prisoners, Turtle Island, events on October 28, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009 • 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Lafayette Park, Washington, DC
President Obama will host his first annual White House Tribal Summit on 05 November 2009. The Nations will be given the opportunity to interact directly with the president and other top administration officials. All of the 564 federally recognized tribes are invited to send a representative. This is a prime opportunity to be seen and heard on the issue of Leonard Peltier’s wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Please plan to attend.
Supporters will gather in Lafayette Park on Pennsylvania Avenue (across from the White House) at 6:00 a.m. Bring signs and banners, wear Peltier T-Shirts, etc. From Lafayette Park , supporters will walk to the Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, where tribal leaders will assemble for their meeting with President Obama.
In support of this action, tribal members are asked to (1) urge your Tribal Chairpersons to speak to Obama on Mr. Peltier’s behalf — Free Peltier NOW; and (2) lobby your Tribal Councils to pass resolutions calling for freedom for Peltier, the release of all case-related documents still withheld by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and a congressional hearing on the government’s role in the turmoil on Pine Ridge Reservation during the 1970s.
Clemency is one path to freedom for Leonard Peltier. However, there are other issues that deserve as much attention — an Executive Review by Attorney General Eric Holder, for example. We’ve pushed for a review recently, as you know. But there are other important initiatives that we all need to work on:
Congressional Hearing: In the early 70s, the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, or the Church Committee, investigated the counterintelligence activities of the FBI. The FBI conducted more than 2,000 COINTELPRO operations before the programs were officially discontinued in April of 1971. (While the programs themselves were discontinued, the FBI’s practices that the Church Committee found so objectionable were not.) The Church Committee had intended to investigate the American Indian Movement as another dissident group targeted by the Bureau. Witnesses had been investigated by congressional staff and called to provide testimony. However, one day after the firefight at Oglala, the Church Committee cancelled the hearings. We need to work hard to see that official misconduct in Indian Country — past and present — is finally addressed.
FOIA Documents: The FBI continues to withhold tens of thousands of documents related to the RESMURS investigation. These documents are over 25 years old and, at minimum, should be turned over to the National Archives. Why are the documents important? You have all heard about information uncovered after Mr. Peltier’s trial. Given the nature of that evidence — the withheld ballistics report, for example — there is every reason to expect that other evidence is contained in the documents that may allow Mr. Peltier to appeal his conviction.
On his first full day in office, President Obama signed an Executive Order with regard to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He encouraged accountability through transparency, and said FOIA should be administered with a presumption of openness. Due to subsequent guidelines established by AG Holder, the Peltier Legal Team may succeed at getting Peltier documents released. But the attorneys need your help to make that happen.
We need people to continue calling the White House Comment Line and the Attorney General every Friday to keep the pressure on: You can find the details here.
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info • www.FreePeltierNow.org
“I would like to ask you why when we speak you do not listen, and when you listen, you do not hear, and when you hear us, you do not choose to understand what we say. This is one time that I ask you to listen carefully and understand what we have to say.” — Frank Fools Crow
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Leonard Peltier Denied Parole
Posted by APOC-Philly in General on August 21, 2009
…BREAKING NEWS…
PAROLE HAS BEEN DENIED
LP-DOC RESPONSE
The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee acknowledges the receipt of the decision of the United States Parole Commission to deny parole for American Indian Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier. We wish to thank our thousands of supporters for their tenacious efforts, in particular during the months leading to Leonard’s recent hearing. Currently we are in the process of finalizing plans for efforts around exercising our right to challenge this decision, advocate for intervention by President Obama, and succeeding in getting both proper medical attention for Leonard and a transfer to a federal prison closer to home. We will be issuing directives within the near future.
LP DOC Leadership Team
AMERICAN INDIAN ACTIVIST DENIED PAROLE
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley says imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier has once again been denied parole.
Wrigley says the next scheduled hearing for Peltier is 2024, when Peltier would be 79 years old.
Peltier is serving two life sentences for the execution-style deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams during a June 26, 1975, standoff on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
He was convicted in Fargo, N.D., in 1977. He has claimed the FBI framed him, which the agency denies, and unsuccessfully appealed his conviction numerous times.
Peltier had a full parole hearing for the first time in 15 years last month at the Lewisburg, Pa., federal prison where he is being held.
Defense attorney Eric Seitz declined comment on the U.S. Parole Commission decision Friday, saying the Justice Department had not informed him.
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NorthEast Two-Spirit Society and Audre Lorde Project’s Executive Director Forced from Manhattan Pride March
Posted by APOC-Philly in General on July 7, 2009
June 29th, 2009 in United States Two-Spirits, People
NEW YORK – The NorthEast Two-Spirit Society (NE2SS) and Kris Hayashi, Executive Director of Audre Lorde Project were forcefully ejected from this year’s annual Heritage of Pride March in New York City yesterday.
Just before 2PM, Lieutenant Connoly of the Midtown Taskforce demanded that the People of Color Contingent leave the parade. The reason given was that a delay of 6 blocks existed between the People of Color contingent and the contingent in front of them. NYPD raised the issue of the gap once and POC contingent marshals were in the process of closing the gap. Kris Hayashi, Executive Director of Audre Lorde Project (ALP), and Loyda Colon also of ALP explained to Lieutenant Connoly, that they were in the process of closing the gap and Lieutenant Connoly refused to listen. Lieutenant Connoly then insisted that the POC contingent leave the parade, and attempted to arrest both Colon and Hayashi. Lieutenant Connoly then ejected Harlan Pruden, the driver of NE2SS’ support vehicle and co-founder of NE2SS, other members of NE2SS (who led the People of Color Contingent), and Hayashi from the parade. Hayashi was physically dragged off the parade route.
“It should have been a day to celebrate and have fun,” Harlan Pruden, Co-founder of NE2SS.
After being ejected, Pruden and Hayashi asked to get NE2SS back into the parade. Pruden was repeatedly threatened with a summons and towing of the organization’s vehicle. After 30 minutes, the official answer from the NYPD as communicated by Heritage of Pride was that NE2SS could continue to march as long as Pruden was not included. Without their support vehicle, of which Pruden was the only driver, NE2SS could not continue.
Kevin VanWanseele, NE2SS member, “This was supposed to be a proud day for LGBT Native American people in New York City and in the end it was not!”
About NE2SS: NE2SS works to increase the visibility of the two-spirit community and to provide social, traditional and recreational opportunities that are culturally appropriate to the two-spirit community of NYC and the surrounding tri-state area. According to the 2000 US Census, our area is the home to the largest urban American Indian population in the country. At the heart of NE2SS effort is community development for all our peoples.
About ALP: The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. ALP coordinates the People of Color contingent at Manhattan Pride.
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Reclaiming Choice for Native Women
Posted by APOC-Philly in Uncategorized on June 25, 2009
By Jessica Yee, Racialicious
June 22, 2009 – 8:00am
I am Native. And I’m pro-choice. Many people seem to think this is an oxymoron – but to me, it makes perfect sense. I have unraveled much of the oppression I was forced to swallow and internalize over the years, which obstructed my ability to wholly see that concepts of “choice” and having “options” in our sexual and reproductive lives are really not new things at all. Moreover, I am entitled to advocate for choice from within my culture, which has always valued women’s choices and decision-making. First and second wave feminism did not “give” my people reproductive rights; in fact those of us in Native communities had them a long time ago. And how “pro-choice” identities play out in our communities now probably looks a lot different than what most people think.
Historically, in the Shuswap Nation we were and still are matriarchal. Within our Shuswap band, women were trained as midwives by grandmothers and elderly women. They were also trained in female ceremonies around the menstrual cycle, as well as the many powers of women and our development (from childhood to adulthood). Shuswap women used Native medicines to keep from becoming pregnant or to end a pregnancy. Pregnancy was ended if hardships occurred within family and community, such as shortage of food, long winters, etc. These hardships were things that could cause numerous deaths within the family and community and could not be prevented.
Shuswap Women had total control over their bodies. They were taught by women at an early age about roles and responsibilities as a child, youth, adult and elder.
- Wilma K. Boyce (Shuswap Nation) Canim Lake Band, Canim Lake, BC
Throughout history, many Indigenous women around the world have interacted with other Indigenous women through various women’s societies, which held respected positions of significant political power. Looking closer at traditional teachings and practices within First Nations, Inuit, and Métis nations throughout North America, it is evident that methods of family planning and birth control, including abortion, were performed as necessary procedures to ensure the health and welfare of communities which have women at its core. Although we are vastly diverse in terms of societal structure, whether matriarchal (e.g. Mohawk) or egalitarian (e.g. Inuit), it is clear that the right to govern one’s own body and take care of it they way we choose, is a foundational principle shared amongst us all.
My identity as an Inuk often comes into play when fighting for the right of choice. My identity as a woman is first and foremost when fighting for the right of my own body. If I intersect the two I will look at many factors to my decision. Inuit do not condemn abortion nor do they promote it. This is a choice we have as women. Our people are supportive because that has always been a part of our society, to be supportive in every decision there is.
I am woman and I own my choices, not the men in black robes who by the way are creepy to begin with…with their anti-slogans on Parliament Hill.
-Inuk woman, name withheld upon request
Choice is a critically important teaching which is sacred in principal. Yet this structure – in which the community is supportive of decisions made for the best interest of women and the community – is in many instances a far cry from where we are now. Although the debate between those who are “pro-life” and “pro-choice” won’t end as long as we live in patriarchal societies, this fight is a clear effect of generations of colonization and genocidal oppression – through which we are still suffering. Many of the values, practices, and traditions once held strong in our Aboriginal communities are now lost, and this most definitely includes the rightful place of our women to govern their own bodies.
For many nations, reproductive health issues were decisions made by the individual, and were not thrust into the political arena for any kind of public scrutiny. The core decision-making for Indigenous women takes place between her and the Great Spirit or Creator, whoever that may be for her. With the imposition of colonization and Christianity, which brought in cultural genocide and systemic assimilation, conflicting belief systems were forced upon our people to an extreme extent. Land was one of the major goal acquisitions of the colonizers, so women, who had ancestrally been head of families and land titleholders, therefore became the target to depose. Among other horrific atrocities that occurred throughout the centuries, this colonization erased traditional ways in which we exercised our innate rights over our own bodies to choose the number of children we wanted within our families, and shamed us into believing that talking about things like sexuality were wrong.
As a Cree woman in Canada, a healthy sexual identity was not part of my personal teachings growing into womanhood.
The one biology which distinguishes me from all others – my brown skin – haunts my ability to have true autonomy and agency when it came to a healthy sexual identity. It was much later; that I learned how colonization interfered with what information was transferred between my mother and myself regarding sexual health.
Today, I am clear, open and honest with my children regarding their body, their autonomy over it, and maintenance of it.
-Gloria Larocque, (Sturgeol Lake Cree Nation, Alberta) President of the KETA Society. Board Member of Options for Sexual Health
Very little is known in the present day regarding our historical understanding of women’s reproductive health, and with the widespread resistance policy makers display to making sexual and reproductive health a priority in First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, young people in particular are paying the price. While we know that access to abortion services are severely lacking in rural, remote, and Northern geographical areas where Aboriginal people are highly concentrated, we have yet to bring to the forefront the stories behind the lack of physical access, and the realities Aboriginal women face in seeking an abortion in places where she may face slander for doing what she as an Indigenous woman inherently has every right to decide for herself. It is not enough to say “services are bad” in these areas. Who are services lacking for and why?
As a person of Lakota and European descent, I have been raised in both worlds, but my strong tie is to my Native roots, being raised by grandparents for the first seven years of my life. I truly believe that “my body is my decision – as a woman!” Only I know what I can handle and it’s ironic that the medical profession has only recently started believing in that perspective.
Speaking with people that knew our traditions and ways of life, women had to make the sacrifice for the good of the tribe. Our people had only so much to live on during hard times, so some families had to make the decision not to bring a child into this world to suffer. We, as women, were not scorned for our decisions. The entire tribe knew the impact of those decisions and we did not fight about them. It’s ironic that “Western ideologies and religious concerns” have taken some of those very beliefs and turned them around on us.
-Diane Long Fox-Kastner, Lower Brule (Kul Wicasa Oyate) & Minneconjou (Cheyenne River)
This negligence has enabled coercive legislation and false mass assumptions about what Native communities believe. The Hyde Amendment, which in essence blocks low-income women and, often, women of color from having abortions, inspired similar actions to prohibit Medicaid funding of abortion to U.S. military personnel and their families, Peace Corps volunteers, federal prisoners, and Indian Health Service clients. Many of us raised the alarm and rallied together to take a stand against this total human rights violation, but who is listening? And more importantly, do we even have the total support of our own communities to continue fighting?
I think it’s important to open this debate to a wide audience of Aboriginal women. For me, personally, I know that there are seriously closed gatekeepers who threaten the very spirit of women who support abortion and women’s right to chose what goes on with their bodies.
Aboriginal women get pregnant under complex circumstances and their right to decide about their future must be supported with the best knowledge and options available. Teachings around their roles as mothers and life givers must be given in the contemporary context that we all live in, current and reflective of our past, present and future. The silence around abortion in our communities has made it taboo topic full shame and eternal damnation, and we have the opportunity to reclaim that space for our women to create safe spaces for dialogue and action based on women’s needs and women’s realities.
I want to be anonymous – isn’t that revealing of the circumstance?
-Name withheld upon request
Cecelia Fire Thunder, first female chief of the Oglala Sioux, was rumored to be ousted in 2006 when she publicly declared she would open up a Planned Parenthood Clinic on her reservation if abortion were made illegal in the state of South Dakota. Earlier this year, Run Bruinooge, new chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus in Canada, said that his “Aboriginal views” gave him a unique perspective conducive for his job to “protect the unborn.” And the tribal council of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa passed a law in October 2008 that would ban abortions on their land, even though many members say it was unconstitutionally passed during an illegal “closed-door” meeting.
I’d like to say that this is all a bad case of internalized oppression, and how quickly people forget or in most cases, had no opportunity to learn about. But as mainstream feminism simultaneously still does not acknowledge the origins of sex positive existence and matriarchy, this remains an unpopular uphill battle to wage, on all fronts.
They say that if we had our land; we wouldn’t have to depend on the system. I’d like to think of the day where we’ll not only get back Mother Earth to take care of her, but we’ll know how to work with our land once more to reclaim “choice” for Native women.
Read more of Jessica Yee in an article for Seventeen.
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22 Days into June and Still the US is Denying Mohawks Access to their Own Community
Posted by APOC-Philly in General on June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Reposted from: http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com/2009/06/22-days-into-june-and-still-us-is.html
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A voice from the Akwesasne border standoff: ‘Start listening to Mohawk people’
Posted by APOC-Philly in Uncategorized on June 23, 2009
By Jesse Freeston, Reprinted with permission from www.rabble.ca
Story Published: Jun 20, 2009
Story Updated: Jun 22, 2009
Photo by Shannon Burns
After Canadian Border Service Agency guards abandoned their posts May 31, Mohawks pulled down the American and Canadian flags, leaving only Akwesasne’s raised. The symbolic warrior flag was also hung over a CBSA sign.
CORNWALL, Ontario – For three weeks the border crossing that spans the St. Lawrence River between Cornwall, Ontario and Massena, N.Y. has been inoperable. On the north side, Canadian authorities have blockaded the Three Nations Bridge Crossing, while their U.S. equivalents do the same on the south shore of the river. On the island in the middle stands a community in protest.
The community of Akwesasne, part of the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Nation, has unified in resistance to the Canadian government’s plan to arm its border guards with 9mm pistols. The guns were set to appear June 1, but Canadian Border Services Agency guards walked off their posts at midnight May 31 in response to a non-violent protest by members of the Akwesasne community. Since then the bridges have been sealed and the feds have refused to speak with community representatives.
Only Akwesasne community members are being permitted to cross the north bridge, while New York State police maintain a total blockade from the south. After being denied entrance to the community by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Cornwall Police, the following interview with Sakoietah, a representative of Akwesasne’s Men’s Traditional Council, was conducted by telephone.
Jesse Freeston: What is the greatest misconception about the current dispute that is being put forward in the media?
Sakoietah: I guess the biggest misconception has been about the blocking of the bridges. A lot of the coverage leads you to believe that we, meaning the people, were blocking the roads, and that wasn’t the truth. And it still isn’t the truth. None of us are stopping anybody from traveling, north or south.
JF: For many this dispute will be difficult to understand, because most people do not have an international border running through their community. How did a border end up in the middle of your community?
S: You have to look at before this actual border came into our territory. It goes back to when the U.S. and Britain signed the Jay Treaty. Article 3 of the Jay Treaty said that we would be allowed to travel back and forth. And our people perceived that border line as being 10 feet above our heads, it didn’t matter to our people that it was there, this was a line dispute between Britain and the U.S., and this is how they settled that dispute. Article 3 allows for us to pass through our own country, unhindered. This goes way back before the construction of the border. The physical building and officers came into effect in the early 1950s. That’s the reason our people fight, because we don’t actually believe that there is a border here. This physical thing that sits here is not for us, it’s for the Canadian public and the U.S. public.
JF: How did the community arrive at the decision to oppose the arming of the guards?
S: The movement here is a people’s movement; it doesn’t follow any kind of council. I sit on the Men’s Council, but we’re not the leadership. This is why the people are so resolved. They’re not going to budge on this issue. Continually, the people have told Canada and the CBSA that the guns will not be allowed within our territory. Our situation is unique, the guard post sits in our territory, in a residential area, and there have been a lot of problems because of that. There are a lot of cases of abuse that are in court right now, and a lot of the people felt that if the arming of the border guards were to happen, it would create the potential for something drastic to happen.
JF: What is your relationship like with the local Canadian settler population? What has been their response to the dispute?
S: We have a good relationship with part of the population and a bad one with another part of the population. A lot of people feel that the law should be applied to everybody regardless of who you are. But the fact is that we are a nation, and we have our own laws. If we were to apply it to them, would they be happy with that?
The Mohawk nation, and in fact the whole Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Confederacy, signed a treaty known as the Two Row Wampum, and we apply that with any foreign nation or country that we come into contact with. The Two Row Wampum simply explains that we are two rows that travel down the same path together, their ship and our canoe. We travel side by side in this life. The ship has its own laws and customs and our canoe has its own laws and customs. Neither one is to set foot in the other in order to try and steer it.
JF: What has been the response from other original people communities?
S: We have received a lot of support from all over, not only other Mohawk communities but from all over the country. I believe everybody is becoming aware about what is happening here. Just the other night here with the people, a woman from British Columbia said that the people of her nation are aware and they’re burning a fire in support of us. So I think that the news is getting out all over even though the media is blacking out our voice and trying to present what the government of Canada wants to say.
JF: Speaking of the media, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to a couple of the arguments we are seeing in the reporting; the first being that ‘you don’t have anything to worry about with armed guards unless you are doing something wrong.’
S: The fact is that there is a record of mistreatment of our people over the years. And the issue didn’t just arrive. Forty years ago, they blocked the bridge in the same location. In 40 years nothing has changed, the abuse has happened over and over. It seems to happen more and more often. CBSA doesn’t seem to understand, and Canadians don’t seem to understand who we are and what we are. We are not lawless people here. We are in fact the most law-abiding people. But we abide by our laws. To push a foreign entity on us, to push a foreign law on us and continually abuse our people. To put our young people in this so-called justice system, for committing what they call a crime. This is important to understand for those who say that if we weren’t committing crimes we would have nothing to worry about. The physical abuse is happening; and could get worse with weapons.
JF: Could you give us an example of the abuse?
S: A grandma from our sister community Kahnawake was crossing, and because of a so-called lack of cooperation she was physically abused. And that is being looked at by the Human Rights Tribunal right now. My own son was involved in an incident where he was abused, charged and eventually acquitted. There are a lot of different incidents, piles and piles of reports that have been given to Mohawk Council and to the Traditional Men’s Council, detailing the abuse that is happening here.
JF: Another argument we see in the papers is that ‘the U.S. guards have been armed for years and there has never been a problem.’
S: That is true. This issue is bigger than the gun issue. The issue is that these buildings sit within our territory. And laws imposed on us in any way, whether it’s guns or Canadian law, must be questioned. Some of our people travel this so-called border seven to 10 times per day. Our families are here, our jobs are here. Yes, the U.S. customs has guns, but they never asked us whether or not they could have guns. The U.S. [has spent] millions of dollars to build a big [Customs and Border Protection] building across the way. For what? Seventy percent of the traffic at this border is our people. Are those holding cells that they’re building for us? The issue over there hasn’t been addressed as of yet, but it will be.
JF: Clearly this issue goes quite a bit deeper than arming the border guards. Have you proposed a long-term solution to the problems created by the border?
S: That would have to be a decision by the people. Right now we are all resolved to saying there will be no weapons here. The ball is in the court of Canada and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan. Van Loan says that border guards will not return here unless they’re armed, and the Mohawk community should realize that they have no say in this because it’s a Canadian law that has been enacted. The people will not allow guns here, so if it’s the case that border guards won’t be here, then they won’t be here. I mean, in the last week it’s been very nice here without the border guards, no problems. The only problems have been the police blockades on the Canadian and U.S. sides.
JF: What can people do to support your community in this dispute?
S: The main thing is to start asking the questions that we are talking about. Talk to your MPs and elected leadership and ask them these questions. Why isn’t the truth getting out? Why doesn’t the government come to Akwesasne and speak with the people? We need that kind of support. Hopefully there will be a peaceful resolution to this, but the Mohawk people are resolved to the fact that they’re going to stand as long as it takes. We hope that the public can bear with us, as I said we’re not the ones who blocked access to anywhere, and we didn’t overtake a building and throw people out. They simply left their post. And people want to help us out? Start getting out the truth, talk to the people you put in office, and start listening to what Mohawk people are saying.
Jesse Freeston is an independent journalist, currently working with The Real News Network.
Reposted from: http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/48483537.html
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Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics
Posted by APOC-Philly in Uncategorized on June 16, 2009
Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics. (LOW RES) from BurningFist Media on Vimeo.
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Leonard Peltier: Silence Screams
Posted by APOC-Philly in General on June 12, 2009
By Carolina Saldaña
Political graffiti in Los Angeles demanding “Lets Free Leonard Peltier:Source
The Message
Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.
But silence is impossible.
Silence screams.
Silence is a message,
just as doing nothing is an act.
Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and deed.
Yes, become who you are.
There’s no sidestepping your own being
or your own responsibility.
What you do is who you are.
You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message.
You are the message.
In the spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
34 years behind bars!
Native American artist, writer, and activist Leonard Peltier––one of the most widely recognized political prisoners in the world––has spent more than 32 years in some of the cruelest prisons in the United States , unjustly condemned to a double life sentence for the shooting death of two FBI agents in 1975. His situation is now aggravated by health problems.
At the age of 63, he keeps right on struggling for the rights of indigenous people from his cell in the federal prison at Lewisburg , Pennsylvania . He’s contributed to the establishment of libraries, schools, scholarships, and battered women’s shelters among many other projects. In February of 2008, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the fifth consecutive year.
“My crime’s being an Indian. What’s yours?”
In his autobiography My Life Is My Sun Dance, Leonard explains that his bloodline is mainly Ojibway and Dakota Sioux and that he was adopted by the Lakota Sioux and raised on their reservations “in the land known to you as America….but I don’t consider myself an American.”
“I know what I am. I am an Indian–an Indian who dared to stand up to defend his people. I am an innocent man who never murdered anyone nor wanted to. And, yes, I am a Sun Dancer. That, too, is my identity. If I am to suffer as a symbol of my people, then I suffer proudly. I will never yield.”
Leonard tells us that when he was nine years old a big black government car drove up to his house to take him and the other kids away to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding school in Wahpeton, Dakota del Norte. When they got there, they cut off their long hair, stripped them, and doused them with DDT powder.
“I thought I was going to die…that place…was more like a reformatory than a school…I consider my years at Wahpenton my first imprisonment, and it was for the same crime as all the others: being an Indian.”
He goes on to say that “We had to speak English. We were beaten if we were caught speaking our own language. Still, we did….I guess that’s where I became a “hardened criminal,” as the FBI calls me. And you could say that the first infraction in my criminal career was speaking my own language. There’s an act of violence for you….The second was practicing our traditional religion.”
When Leonard Peltier was a teen-ager, President Eisenhower launched a program to eliminate the reservations and move the people off, giving them a small payment. Leonard remembers that the words “termination” and “dislocation” became the most feared words in the people’s vocabulary. The process of fighting against dislocation was his first experience as an activist.
During the 60s, Leonard worked as a farm worker and, later, in an auto body shop in Seattle . At that time he got his first taste of community organizing. At the beginning of the 70s, he joined up with the American Indian Movement (AIM), initially inspired by the Black Panthers.
In 1972, he participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties, a march / caravan from Alcatraz in California to Washington D.C. , and also in the occupation of the BIA in the nation’s capital. He became a target of the FBI program to “neutralize” AIM leaders and was set up and jailed at the end of the year.
1973: The Occupation of Wounded Knee
One of AIM’s boldest actions was the occupation of the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the same place where the United States Army carried out its cowardly, infamous massacre of 300 Lakota people in 1890.
At the beginning of the 70s, AIM was getting together with the Lakota Indians who were true to their ancient traditions and wanted to hold on to their culture and their lands.
The BIA, worried about AIM’s growing influence in the area, imposed Dick Wilson as tribal chairman on the reservation, running roughshod over the will of the traditional elders and chiefs.
The puppet Wilson hated the AIM militants and allied himself with the FBI to destroy the movement that the agency saw as a threat to the American way of life. His paramilitary group known as the “GOONS” (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) had committed a long chain of abuses against the people.
On the night of February 27, around 300 Lakota and 25 AIM members occupied the town of Wounded Knee, joined by several Chicanos, Black, and white supporters. They opposed the murders of Native Americans on the reservation, the extreme poverty that the people lived in, and the corrupt tribal government. They demanded that the government respect the ancient treaties signed with native peoples to protect their territory and autonomy.
The next day, General Alexander Haig ordered an invasion. According to Ward Churchill and Jim Vanderwall in their book Agents of Repression, “In the first instance since the Civil War that the U.S. Army had been dispatched in a domestic operation, the Pentagon invaded Wounded Knee with 17 armored personnel carriers, 130,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition, 41,000 rounds of M-1 ammunition, 24,000 flares, 12 M-79 grenade launchers, 600 cases of C-S gas, 100 rounds of M-40 explosives, helicopters, phantom jets, and personnel, all under the direction of General Alexander Haig.”
The operation also relied on 500 heavily armed policemen, federal marshals, and BIA and FBI agents. They surrounded Wounded Knee and set up barricades all along the road.
The occupation lasted 71 days and ended only after the government promised to investigate the complaints, something that never happened.
The next three years were known as the “reign of terror” on Pine Ridge. More than 300 people associated with AIM were violently attacked and many of their homes were burned. During these years more than 60 Native American people were killed by paramilitaries armed and trained by the FBI. There was also an increase of FBI SWAT team agents on the reservation.
It’s now known, as a result of a suit based on the Freedom of Information Act, that AIM activities on and off the reservation were under FBI surveillance and that the FBI was preparing the paramilitary operations on Pine Ridge a month before the shootout at Oglala.
Oglala: The fatal shootout
In a situation that was getting worse all the time, the Council of Elders on the Jumping Bull ranch near the town of Oglala asked AIM to come back to the reservation to protect them. Leonard Peltier, along with many other AIM members and non-members responded to the call and set up camp on the ranch.
On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, followed a red pick-up truck onto the Jumping Bull ranch. They were supposedly looking for young Jimmy Eagle, who was said to have stolen a pair of cowboy boots.
A shootout began between the FBI agents and the people in the pick-up, trapping a family in the crossfire. Several mothers fled the area with their children while other people fired in self-defense. More than150 FBI SWAT team members, BIA police, and GOONS surrounded approximately 30 AIM men, women, and children and opened fire. Leonard Peltier helped a group of young people to escape from the rain of bullets.
When the shootout ended, AIM member Joseph Killsright Stuntz was found dead, shot in the head. His death has never been investigated.
Coler and Williams were wounded during the shootout and then killed at point blank range. The two agents had in their possession a map with the Jumping Bull ranch marked on it.
According to FBI documents, more than forty Native Americans participated in the shootout, but only four were charged with killing the two agents: three AIM leaders––Dino Butler, Bob Robideau, and Leonard Peltier–– and Jimmy Eagle.
Butler and Robideau were the first to be arrested, and at their trial they stated that they had fired in self-defense. The jury believed the act was justified due to the atmosphere of terror that prevailed at Pine Ridge at the time. They were both found innocent.
The FBI was furious about the verdict and dropped the charges against Jimmy Eagle, according to their memos, “…in order to direct the full weight of
the prosecution on Peltier.
Meanwhile, Leonard Peltier went to Canada , believing that he would never have a fair trial. On February 6, he was arrested and then extradited to the United States due to the statement of a woman named Myrtle Poor Bear, who said she had been his girlfriend and had seen him fire at the agents. As a matter of fact, she had never known him and was not present at the time of the shootout. In a later statement, she said that she had been coerced into giving false testimony as a result of being terrorized by FBI agents.
Two life sentences!?
The only evidence against Leonard Peltier was the fact that he was present at the Jumping Bull ranch during the fatal shoot-out. These are just a few examples of the injustice of the trial:
-The case wasn’t brought before the judge who had presided over the trial of Robideau and Butler , but instead before another judge with a reputation for making decisions favorable to the prosecution.
-Myrtle Poor Bear and other important witnesses were forbidden to testify about FBI misconduct.
-Testimony about the “reign of terror” on the Pine Ridge Reservation was severely limited.
-Important evidence, such as conflicting ballistic reports, was deemed inadmissible.
-The red pick-up that had been followed onto the ranch was suddenly described as Peltier’s “red and white van.”
-The jury was isolated and surrounded by federal marshals, making jurors believe that AIM was a security threat to them.
-Three young Native Americans were forced to give false testimony against Peltier after having been arrested and terrorized by FBI agents.
-The prosecutor couldn’t produce a single witness who could identify Peltier as the shooter.
-The government said that a cartridge found near the bodies was fired from the presumed murder weapon, and alleged that this was the only pistol of its kind used during the shootout and that it belonged to Peltier.
As a result of the Freedom of Information Act suit, FBI documents turned over to the defense showed that:
1. More than one weapon of the type attributed to Peltier had been present at the scene. 2. The FBI intentionally hid the ballistics report showing that the cartridge could not have come from the presumed murder weapon.
3. There was no doubt whatsoever that the agents followed a red pick-up onto the territory, and not the red and white van driven by Peltier.
4. Strong evidence against several other suspects existed and was withheld.
None of this evidence was presented to the jury that found Leonard Peltier guilty. He was given two consecutive life sentences.
Two consecutive life sentences?! How do they plan to implement that? Doesn’t the sentence reflect a deep fear of the spirit of Crazy Horse?
Bill Clinton: at the service of the FBI
A new trial was sought after several of these abuses came to light. During one hearing, the federal prosecutor admitted that “…we can’t prove who shot the agents”. The court realized that Peltier could have been found innocent if the evidence hadn’t been unduly withheld by the FBI, but a new trial was denied on the basis of technical errors.
The former Leonard Peltier Defense Committee stated:
“In 1993, Peltier requested Executive Clemency from President Bill Clinton. An intensive campaign was launched and supported by Native and human rights organizations, members of Congress, community and church groups, labor organizations, luminaries, and celebrities. Even Judge Heaney, who authored the court decision [denying a new trial], expressed firm support for Peltier’s release. The Peltier case had become a national issue.
On November 7, 2000, during a live radio interview, Clinton stated that he would seriously consider Peltier’s request for clemency and make a decision before leaving office on January 20, 2001.
In response, the FBI launched a major disinformation campaign in both the media and among key government officials. Over 500 FBI agents marched in front of the White House to oppose clemency. On January 20, the list of clemencies granted by Clinton was released to the media. Without explanation, Peltier’s name had been excluded.”
Current defence efforts
Mr. Peltier has recently applied for and been granted a parole hearing. The hearing is scheduled for July 27, 2009.
The recent efforts of the defense team have been focused on obtaining thousands of documents that are still being retained by the FBI, around 142,579 pages according to Peltier’s legal team which brought a new suit against the FBI in Minnesota in March of this year. Of particular interest are documents dealing with the extent to which the Federal Bureau of Investigation paid informants to infiltrate Leonard Peltier’s defense team. Alleging that the information would reveal confidential sources, harm national security and impede the transnational “war on terrorism”, the FBI has refused to release the documents that would reveal their illegal activities on Pine Ridge and the continued violations of Leonard Peltier’s basic human rights.
Petitions are also being circulated urging George W. Bush to grant clemency for Leonard Peltier and urging Congress to investigate FBI misconduct on Pine Ridge and the “reign of terror” that existed between 1973 and 1976.
Furthermore, preparations are now underway for an important Parole Hearing scheduled for December of 2008, which should be a focus of an international campaign in the coming months. There is absolutely no legitimate reason to continue to hold Leonard Peltier in prison. If he is not granted clemency or does not win parole this year, he will not have another Parole Hearing until 1917.
On the cultural front, sponsors, donations, and spaces are being sought for a series of stage productions of My Life is My Sundance. Co-author Harvey Arden describes the play starring Lakota actor and singer Doug Good Feather, as a “soul-transforming theatrical experience that is a living expression of his own words, his own pain, his own dreams –as well as the suffering and dreams of his People.” To help organize a performance, see http://www.mylifeismysundance.com.
In a recent letter Leonard said: “If my case stands as it is, no common person has real freedom. Only the illusion until you have something the oppressors want….
In the spirit of Crazy Horse, who never gave up.”
Let’s don’t let it stand as it is.
What will you do?
Write a letter to Leonard:
Leonard Peltier # 89637-132
USP Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO BOX 1000
Lewisburg , Pennsylvania 17837
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