Wixaritari seek alliances to halt Canada's mining on sacred land in Mexico

Wixaritari support in Northwest

Efforts of Indian community to Indian community temporarily halt silver mining on sacred land

By Franks Landing Indian Community.
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo copyrights: Photo 1 Wixaritari meets with Franks Landing and Puyallup Indian communities in Washington State by Robert Free. Photo 2 by Brenda Norrell Cancun Climate Summit, Wixarika with Robert Free, O'odham Ofelia Rivas and Gwich'in Sarah James.

The Franks Landing Indian Community, located in Washington State near the Nisqually River, has long struggled to retain and exercise Indigenous sovereignty. The community makes alliances and supports other Indigenous peoples’ efforts to excise sovereignty and protect their territories and the resources within.

Recently Franks Landing Indian Community met with the Wixaritari of Mexico, responding to their request for help to stop a Canadian mining company from mining on their sacred mountains.

This was an Indian community to Indian community effort; Indian to Indian, with great results. Below is a link to a PowerPoint of our recent efforts to support the Wixaritari. It will update you on recent efforts of the anti-mining movement of the Wixaritari
https://frankslandingindiancommunity.sharefile.com/d/sa0b915309e8432c8

These efforts -- of Indian to Indian communities -- forced Real Majestic Silver Mine to declare a one year moratorium and not do any mining on the sacred mountain in Winakuta!

We reach out to all to join us in the ongoing efforts to stop mining companies on Indigenous lands. We are aware of the good work many do in public awareness with other NGOs in the global community. Several international NGOs are standing in solidarity with the Wixaritari and focusing on mining on Indigenous lands. We ask you to help focus and spotlight the role of Canada's mining companies.

Canada's companies are the largest extractors of mineral wealth on the planet. The devastation on Indigenous lands and peoples requires a strong alliance focusing on their role. We ask that a spotlighting campaign on mining on Indigenous lands in general be conducted.

1. Franks Landing Indian Community organized these recent events:
--A delegation of Wixaritari people to Washington State and to Canada for the month of May, at their request, to confront the global headquarters of the Real Majestic Silver Mining companies annual share holders meeting held in Vancouver BC.
--Provided meetings between tribal leaders and councils here to build solidarity and to educate and explore options. The delegates and talking sticks were received according to tribal protocols, with permission to speak in the territories of Coast Salish lands.
--Conducted three protest marches in Seattle and Vancouver, at Majestic World Headquarters and the Canadian and Mexican consulates.
--Wixaritari delegate Jesus Lara Chivarra was taken to northern Saskatchewan where he was adopted, given a name and presented with a Pipe made for the occasion with a butterfly noting the transformation of alliance between the north and south.
--The  Native American Church of Canada invited the Wixaritari. They were invited by Native American Church of Canada President Kelly Daniels and Floyd Favel of the University of Saskatchewan. Terry Daniels and other respected elders headed the elders reception that adopted Jesus and presented the Pipe of friendship and alliance.
Also, the mining resistance alliance of Canada fighting Goldcorp, joined with Native anti-mining efforts, and formed an alliance to support the Wixaritari struggle.

--Conducted two conferences in Vancouver, composed of several tribes and anti-mining alliances; held press conferences with the Union of BC Chiefs, national television interviews, including a special with the ATPN Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
--What is needed are more Indigenous organizations from the north stepping forward in the front line with the Wixarika people, who are facing the blatant destruction by these companies. The home of the Wixaritari, numbering 50,000 to 70,000 in Mexico, also known as Huicholes, is the place of the origin of the Hikuri (peyote) ceremonies, with over 1 million Indigenous practices here in the US and Canada.

2. We propose to groups, communities, NGOs and schools the following:
Wixaritari representatives, such as Jesus Lara Chivarra, who are designated by his community and an elected representative of the Wixaritari Defense front, address the conferences and present first hand the experiences they are facing and the strategies being planned. It is an opportunity for all to be part of these efforts and make mining a spotlighted issue facing Indigenous Peoples.
--We are asking for help to sponsor their trip to conferences, allow the delegate, (or delegates) time on agendas and for groups and communities to receive them and build alliance and solidarity.
3. Upcoming events:
---In the fall of 2011: The Wixaritari is preparing to confront the Canadian parliament, when new rules of conduct for Canadian mining companies will be debated.
4. Major concerns of the Wixaritari:
Many NGOs are speaking and writing articles on websites, raising money and resources on the Wixaritari's behalf without asking for their presence to speak for themselves.
Most NGOs are paternalistic to the Wixaritari, talking down to them and keeping them in the dark as to the NGO activities.
More transparency is needed regarding their resources and funding. So far, none of the NGOs have shown a financial report to them.
5. We are hoping to have an Indigenous organization that could be the role model for other organizations to follow. To that end, maybe your boards and its staff could be that model by:
--Working directly with the Wixarkari, to help in the fight against Canadian mining in Mexico.
--Using your web/media site in consultation with the Wixaritari to articulate their battle.
--Help raise funds on websites and link to their NGO in Mexico, via PayPal, to support them and list their needs.
--Develop a mutual relationship at the same level possible, with global travel to have them speak on the issues themselves.
--The Wixaritari have taken on the Mexican and Canadian governments and companies. The issues of NAFTA, environment destruction, and sacred sites all are some of the relevant issues. These same efforts of grassroots peoples and organizations are occurring on the Wixaritari territories. Their sacred site, where the sun was born and the annual prayers for the earth are conducted, is paramount to the Wixarkari. The siphoning off of the water by the mining is crucial to the valleys where 90 percent of their sacred medicine Hikuri comes from.
--The recent efforts in May show the sophistication of strategy being implemented between grassroots peoples and communities and their allies. A huge rally in Mexico City involved thousands of marchers and demanded a moratorium on mining. There, a letter was delivered to the President of Mexico in May. Two delegates were sent to address the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York and to create alliances and awareness. Three demonstrations occurred on the same day at the Vancouver mining headquarters, Canadian and Mexican consulates in Seattle and Los Angeles. Alliances were made with local tribes, as well as with the international Indigenous spiritual gathering in Lillooett, BC, where they stayed and spoke.
--Most of all their videos and publications are in Spanish. They need websites that have the English versions to help educate the NGOs and others not yet aware of this effort.
--Lets discuss how to make this alliance between northern communities, NGOs and the Wixaritari a reality. The Frank's Landing community provided months of support and organizing towards the effort and look forward to expanding support for the Wixaritari.
--If they were to be invited by your community or group to speak and participate, a letter is needed to get a visa. We would need your group to support them with a plane ticket and other accommodations.
--Frank's Landing provided the financial resources to the Wixaritari’s northern tour and can no long continue at this time. The Wixaritari feel that it is paramount to prepare for the talks in Canada on mining regulation and create more alliances with groups and ask for their participation and support. Influencing the upcoming laws will have a profound and long time impact on Indigenous lands, in the north and south and globally.
We hope the PowerPoint gives you a sense of the leaders we are working with and the efforts underway.
To put it simply, we are trying to get NGOs to stand with the Wixaritari, or behind them, but not in front of them.
We look forward to working and collaborating together to protect our Mother Earth.
In solidarity,
Suzette Bridges
Sid Mills
Franks Landing Indian Community

Please follow up with Robert Free, FLIC Community Liaison: robtfree@gmail.com
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Faking the News: Where were the reporters?

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

SKY CITY, Acoma Pueblo, N.M. -- Where were the news reporters during the 7th Southwest Uranium Forum? Only two people identified themselves as news reporters at the gathering, a correspondent for Washington Post and another from the Four Corners Free Press.

Where was the American Indian media? Where were the Native American newspapers and radio stations?

Recently, Associated Press and the Arizona Republic were quick to attack environmentalists by rewriting the press releases of politicians and corporations. But where were their reporters when Indigenous Peoples gathered to tell their stories of how uranium mining, and the radioactive waste strewn and left behind, caused the deaths of their children, parents, brothers and sisters?

Faith Gemmill came all the way from the Arctic Circle in Alaska to this gathering, telling of the climate change devastating the way of life of her people and the land, water and air of all life there. Charmaine White Face of Defenders of the Black Hills came from South Dakota, revealing the secrecy of the uranium mining and the waste that poisons the land and water of the Oglala. Winona LaDuke, Anishinabe, came from White Earth, Louise Benally, Navajo, came from Big Mountain, Margene Bullcreek, Goshute, came from Utah and Supai Waters from the land of the Havasupai.

This Indigenous Uranium Forum was broadcast live with streaming video by Earthcycles. As of Monday morning, there were more than 68,500 views of the sessions from Thursday, Friday and Saturday. News reporters have access to these sessions at no cost. Will they tell the story of the Navajos who buried their children after they died of brain tumors, or the children who grew up without their mothers who died of lung cancer from the uranium mines in Monument Valley, Red Valley and Cove, Arizona?

Will they tell the story of the children taken away, vanished from their families, after their parents died working in the uranium mines without protective clothing? Will they tell the story of the Acoma and Laguna Pueblos who ate the radioactive dust with their meals near Jackpile Mine? Will they tell the story of the Havasupai who now must sacrifice their own money to fight the new threat of uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, uranium mining that could poison their water? Will they expose how Cyprus Tohono Corporation's copper mining released uranium into the Tohono O'odham water supply and there is now a cancer alley.

Will they listen to John Redhouse, Navajo, tell of the hate crimes toward Navajos and Pueblos here. Will the news reporters reflect and consider that uranium mining has long been a hate crime in Indian country?

Sky City on Acoma Pueblo is located between the Navajo Nation and Albuquerque. It is alongside the interstate highway, but no local reporters came. If they did, they did not identify themselves at the beginning or the conclusion of the gathering.

Censorship is the sad state of the media today. Faking news coverage is what the media does when reporters are lazy and editors do not send reporters to hear the stories of the grassroots people.

It is far easier for editors and reporters to rewrite the press releases of corporations and politicians than to go and listen to the truth and the voices of the people. A quick phone call will not do justice to the long standing genocide, greed and destruction by energy companies and the US government in Indian country.

This was an opportunity missed for the media who did not make it a priority. Please write the reporters and editors and hold them accountable.

Indigenous Uranium Forum session videos:
http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles

Brenda Norrell is a contributor to Narco News, CounterPunch, Americas, Sri Lanka Guardian, Atlantic Free Press and the UN OBSERVER & International Report.

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Comment

Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Oyate Tokaheya Wicakiye
FIRST VOICES INDIGENOUS RADIO, New York

Comment published with permission

"Faking the News: Where were the reporters?":
"Yes!! the "mainstream" Native American radio stations that are too afraid to bite the hand that feeds them and who can really afford to be there should have been there.

Those of us who want to be and do not have a budget because of the easily accepted Native "American" or America's Indian mentality to not rock the boat. These are the "indians" who America pays attention to rather than the real story. I wish I could have been there. I really do. If there was a travel account for me to go to these events across country without being taking from my personal expenses. I have been "volunteering" for 17 years on the radio.

I will download and use on several radio stations with your permission.

Thank you for doing this."

Listen to First Voices Indigenous Radio, Thursdays 10am-11am

http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/ CRAZY HORSE (His Horse Is Enchanted) 1877 said this smoking a pipe with Sitting Bull 4 days before his assassination. "Upon suffering beyond suffering: the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am that place within me, we shall be one."

COMMENT AT NARCO NEWS

Link to article on uranium mining on tribal lands in India

Submitted October 27, 2009 - 11:38 am by Tonya Hennessey
Hi Brenda,
I'm a Fieldhand; this is my first post over here. The organization I work with, CorpWatch, recently ran a feature written by a journalist in India on this same topic -- the hate crime that is uranium mining, and again, on tribal lands. When the most recent hearing was held on mine expansion, Indigenous voices were locked out.
You can find the article here, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15450
Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands
by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch October 7th, 2009
Saludos,
Tonya

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NOTE: Yes, permission is given from Govinda at Earthcycles and Brenda at Censored News Blog Radio to radio stations around the world, to rebroadcast our audio recordings, in whole or part in news programs.