Rivers: Border Rights and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo: Shannon Rivers speaks with Angie Ramon at the Border Roundtable/Photo Brenda Norrell.
Watch this presentation: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10935828

TUCSON -- Shannon Rivers, O’odham from the Gila River Indian Community, discussed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, during the Southern Border Indigenous Peoples Roundtable Symposium.

“As of today, the United States has not endorsed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," said Rivers, who serves as Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus Co-chair on the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Rivers pointed out that the US is now the only country in the world failing to act on the Declaration. The border panel, sponsored by the Indigenous Alliance without Borders on Nov. 18, is now available on the web at Earthcycles and Censored News.

Speaking on Indigenous Peoples border rights, Rivers pointed out that Article 36 of the UN Declaration states: “Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, economic and social purposes, with their own members as well as other peoples across borders.”

In 2007, the United Nations adopted the Declaration. However, four countries did not: the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand and Australia later moved to adopt the Declaration. Although Canada endorsed the Declaration in November, it was a provisional endorsement.

Rather than adopt the Declaration, Canada endorsed it. Rivers said Canada maintains that it has jurisdiction over Indigenous Peoples and they are subject to the laws of Canada.

“That brings into question the right of self determination, the rights of economic development, the rights of trade, right of free trade and the right of free and prior consent," Rivers said of Canada's conditional endorsement.

The US is currently reviewing the Declaration. Currently at issue is whether the United States and Canada will continue to dictate to Indigenous Nations, he said.

“The Declaration is a non-legal binding document. What that means is it has no legal teeth,” Rivers said. He said there are many policies, such as the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and others, that American Indians still are struggling to have the United States act upon and enforce.

Although NAGPRA was established, Native people still have funeral and sacred items, items of spiritual and cultural significance, that have not been returned. He said museums around the world took items from Indigenous communities and medicine people, at a time when no laws were in place to prevent this vandalism and theft.

“We need those items returned,” Rivers said.

Native Americans know the return of these items can bring about healing and assist people who are suffering because of the loss of these items. The return of human remains, and proper burial, is high on the priority of Indigenous Peoples.

Because NAGPRA has not been fully enforced, Native people have suffered.

Rivers said what is at stake is self-determination, cultural issues, economic development and border issues. Since 9/11, various laws have been created that waive tribal, state and federal laws, including laws to erect a wall that not only impacts Indigenous Peoples, but the environment.

The border wall impacts traditional ceremonies, because traditional people gather plants in the region for traditional ceremonies.

During the panel presentation, Rivers pointed out that Native people are asked to make cultural gestures, even "bless" fast food restaurants, but are not invited to the table by policy makers. Rivers said Indigenous Peoples are asked to "bless" fast food places such as MacDonalds which engage in practices that violate the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"Too often Indigenous Peoples are sought out to conduct cultural gestures: Blessings of restaurants and casinos and photo ops at state, county and national events. But when it comes to making real changes and true and frank discussions about serious issues, Indigenous Peoples are rarely invited to the table," he said.

Rivers urged Indian people to halt the cultural gestures, which continue colonization and genocide.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the government released this statement when it endorsed the Declaration, minimizing the impact of the Declaration:
"The Declaration is an aspirational document which speaks to the individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples, taking into account their specific cultural, social and economic circumstances. Although the Declaration is a non-legally binding document that does not reflect customary international law nor change Canadian laws, our endorsement gives us the opportunity to reiterate our commitment to continue working in partnership with Aboriginal peoples in creating a better Canada."

Rivers pointed out that Border rights are among those stated in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Article 36
1. Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, economic and social purposes, with their own members as well as other peoples across borders.
2. States, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, shall take effective measures to facilitate the exercise and ensure the implementation of this right.
Read more:
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/drip.html
Indigenous Border Roundtable Panel reveals racism in Arizona, violations of Native rights
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/11/live-now-southern-border-indigenous.html
Also watch: Tohono O'odham Angie Ramon 'My son was killed by the US Border Patrol'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/11/tohono-oodham-angie-ramon-my-son-was.html

Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, responds to threat of poisoned water

Poisoned water threat comes as more migrants die of dehydration on Tohono O'odham land

By Brenda Norrell
© Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photo: Mike Wilson with humanitarian water tanks on Tohono O'odham Nation. Photo by Brenda Norrell.

ARIZONA -- Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants on Tohono O'odham land as humanitarian aid, responded to an e-mail threat of poisoned water.

The anonymous e-mail said, "F you. I hope some real Americans will step up and put poison in the water. I hope you are the first to drink."

The e-mail threat, on Aug. 29, was sent in response to the article, "Tohono O'odham Nation surrendered its will to the Border Patrol." http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/03/mike-wilson-tohono-oodham-nation.html

Wilson said, "I'm not surprised by the threat, it is certainly expected and no one is immune. Humane Borders has received these threats for the last ten years, including the writing of 'veneno' (poison) on the sides of its water barrels in the desert.

"The subject government of the Tohono O'odham Nation, its elected leaders and its Imperial master, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, continue to deny and denigrate hundreds of migrant deaths in Indian Country. The B.I.A. is complicit in the decade long (2000-2010) humanitarian crisis on O'odham land. Continuing a legacy of selective neglect of American Indians, the B.I.A. feigns ignorance and silence when it comes to Latino and Indigenous People dying by hyperthermia and dehydration on the Tohono O'odham Reservation.

"This calculated silence by the B.I.A. in Washington, D.C. and in Sells (capital of the Tohono O'odham Nation) is an attempt to inoculate itself against the charge of willful complicity and to wash migrant blood from its hands.

"According to the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office, of 58 migrant deaths in the month of July, 44 were on the Tohono O'odham Reservation. This B.I.A. policy of silence is a self-fulfilling prophesy in the making, in that it achieves its own intended purpose of plausible denial. This deafening B.I.A. silence now assumes the legal consent and approval of migrant deaths on Tohono O'odham tribal land by the Tohono O'odham Nation, BIA, the Department of Interior and the Federal Government of the United States. Blood runs deep.

"Brady McComb's SPECIAL REPORT: DECADE OF DEATH was published in the Arizona Daily Star (Sunday, August 22, 2010). Also, author and reporter Margaret Regan's story, D.O.A., came out in the Tucson Weekly last Thursday, August 26, 2010.

"Both compelling stories are moral indictments against the Government and elected leadership of the Tohono O'odham Nation. The Tohono O'odham Nation continues its futile defensive strategy of presumed isolation and insulation.

"However, as both stories clearly demonstrate, tribal Chairman Ned Norris, Jr., Legislative Council Chairman Verlon Jose and Baboquivari District Council Chairwoman Veronica Harvey cannot insulate themselves against the stretch and scope of a free press.

"No amount of spin from the Tohono O'odham Nation's hired PR firm in Phoenix can protect the Tohono O'odham Nation from its culpability for Latino and Indigenous migrant deaths.

"Neither can the elected tribal leadership insulate itself against the putrid stench of another hundred decomposing migrant bodies on O'odham lands. The Government of the Tohono O'odham Nation needs to purchase Biological Hazard suits for when its leaders leave the reservation, if they can't smell the stench on themselves, others can."

More water,
Mike Wilson
Tohono O'odham
August 30, 2010

Censored News brendanorrell@gmail.com

Also see:
O'odham on the border to National Guard: 'We do not want you on our land'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/oodham-to-national-guard-we-do-not-want.html

Watch video: Tucson police turn mom and dad over to Border Patrol 'dog catcher' truck, as kids cry in the night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec9hxZiaKFg

More about this video by the Three Sonorans at Phoenix New Times:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/08/worse_than_joe_arpaio_tucson

National Guardsmen eager to smuggle cocaine on Arizona border arrested in sting operation:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/07/most-censored-national-guardsmen-cops.html

O'odham to National Guard: 'We do not want you on our lands'

O'odham to National Guard: 'We do not want you on our lands'

By Ofelia Rivas©, O'odham

Photo 1: National Guardsmen on Tohono O'odham land, south of Sells, Arizona, in 2007 aiding in the construction of the vehicle barrier at the US/Mexico border/Photo copyright Brenda Norrell. Photo 2: Ofelia Rivas on the border/Copyright Jason Jaacks
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Ofelia Rivas, traditional O'odham living on the border, released a statement to the National Guard, who are to arrive on the US/Mexico border in Arizona on Monday.

To the United States National Guard arriving in O'odham Lands,

We are not compliant people, we are people with great dignity and confidence. We are a people of endurance and have a long survival history. We are people that have lived here for thousands of years. We have our own language, we have our own culture and traditions.

You are coming to my land, you may find me walking on my land, sitting on my land and just going about my daily life. I might be sitting on the mountain top, do not disturb me, I am praying the way my ancestors did for thousands of years. I might be out collecting what may be strange to you but it might be food to me or medicine for me.

Sometimes I am going to the city to get a burger or watch a movie or just to resupply my kitchen and refrigerator. Some of us live very much like you do and some of us live very simple lives. Some of may not have computers or scanners or televisions or a vehicle but some of us do.

The other thing is that some of us are light-skinned O'odham and some of us are darker-skinned O'odham. Some of us spend a lot of time indoors or outdoors. Sometimes my mother might be of a different Nation (refers to different tribal Nation) or sometimes our father is Spanish or we may have some European grandmother or grandfather.

If you want to question who we are, we all have learned to carry our Tohono O'odham Nation Tribal I.D. Card. It is a federally-issued card which is recognized by the federal government which is your boss. This card identifies us and by law this is the only requirement needed to prove who we are. We do not have United States passports because most of us were born at home and do not have documents, but that does not make us "undocumented people." Your boss, the Department of Homeland Security, and the government of the Tohono O'odham Nation have negotiated an agreement which is, our tribal I.D. card is our identification card and no other document is required.

The O'odham, (the People) as we call ourselves, have been here to witness the eruption of volcanoes that formed the lands we live on. We have special places that hold our great-great-great-great-great great grandparents remains, our lands are a special and holy place to us. Some of us still make journeys to these places to pray. Some of these places hold holy objects that maintain specific parts of our beliefs. When you see us out on the land do not assume we are in the drug business or human smuggling business. Sometimes we are out on the land hunting for rabbits or deer or javelina to feed our families. We may be carrying a hunting weapon please do not harm me, my family loves me and depends on me.
When you are out on our land, be mindful that you are visitor on our lands, be respectful, be courteous and do not harm anything.

Sometimes you may see us gather all night long, dancing and sometimes we are crying loudly, do not approach us or disturb us in anyway, we are honoring a dead relative and preparing them for burial. Sometimes we are conducting a healing ceremony out on the land, do not approach us or disturb us. Sometimes we may be singing and dancing all night long, these are our ceremonies that we have conducted for thousands of years. We are not behaving in a suspicious nature, this is our way of life.

As original people of the lands we honor everything on our lands and we regard all as a part of our sacred lives, do not kill any plants and animals or people on our lands. Do not litter our lands with your trash. When we visit other peoples lands and cities and homes we do not litter or leave behind trash.

We might be driving our cars, sometimes old, sometimes very new, do not try to run us off the roads or tailgate me. I value my life and my family, I might have a newborn in my car or my grandmother or my mother and father, my brothers and sister or my aunts and uncles or my friends. These are all important people to me and I do not want to see them hurt or dead.

If I seem like I do not understand what you are saying, please call the Tohono O'odham Police and ask for an O'odham speaking officer to come and assist you. I might be laughing at you if you talk to me in English, I don't know what you are saying and I am laughing out of nervousness and fear because you are armed.

If you are afraid of us and draw your weapons on me, I am more afraid of you because I am unarmed and my family is in the vehicle with me or they are in my house when you come into my house. Sometimes my house might be in poor condition but it is my home, it is my sanctuary, be respectful. Sometime there are elders in my house that are already afraid of armed people in our communities such as the border patrol and other federal agents.

There are some people that do drug business or human smuggling business but we are not all doing that, we are not all criminals. Do not treat us like criminals.

We might call you killers and murderers as you just came from killing people. To the O'odham you are a dangerous person, to walk onto our lands bringing fresh death on your person is very destructive to us as a people. You may have diseases we do not know, illnesses of your mind that you might inflict on us. Please do not approach us if you are afflicted with fresh death.

Remember we do not want you on our lands, we did not invite you to our lands.

Do remember that we have invited allies that will be witnessing your conduct on our lands and how you treat our people.

From the the O'odham Lands
Ofelia Rivas

Please request permission before reposting: brendanorell@gmail.com

Eyes on Border Patrol's new abuser recruits

Eyes on Border Patrol's new abuser recruits

By Brenda Norrell©
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo: On the border by Brenda Norrell©
Border residents are on guard, ready to spot and video tape the invading Border Patrol and National Guardsmen arriving on the Arizona border to terrorize border residents.

The Border Patrol and new National Guardsmen will begin their stints of racial profiling and abusing people of color here on Monday.

There is nothing funny about it.

However, when they take a break from abusing people, it is always interesting to document their behavior.

During a day of Border Patrol watching in the middle of summer, in the region of Sasabe, I documented that every Border Patrol agent was either eating snacks at the Three Points store; eating snacks in the desert they had just purchased at the Three Points store inside their air-conditioned vehicles, or chatting on their cell phones in their air-conditioned vehicles.

There wasn't a migrant in sight.

So, now we're all waiting for the new abuser Border Patrol and National Guardsmen recruits to arrive in town in Tucson, watching out at Burger King, where the Border Patrol has a hamburger contract, and at all the convenience stores where they sell chips and junk foods.

Psst Border Patrol: We know who is leaving the Starbucks and designer coffee cups strewn across the desert and it is not the migrants. Stop throwing your trash out the car windows.

We're watching you.

And the next time you plan to attack a brown person and think no one is looking, better think again.
.
Also see:
O'odham on the border to National Guard: 'We do not want you on our land'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/oodham-to-national-guard-we-do-not-want.html

Watch video: Tucson police turn mom and dad over to Border Patrol 'dog catcher' truck, as kids cry in the night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec9hxZiaKFg

More about this video by the Three Sonorans at Phoenix New Times:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/08/worse_than_joe_arpaio_tucson

National Guardsmen eager to smuggle cocaine on Arizona border arrested in sting operation:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/07/most-censored-national-guardsmen-cops.html

In the News: Casinos and Blood Money

Navajo Family Fights New Casino and Obama: Too Little, Too Late
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

In today's news, Calvin Johnson, Navajo, writes about the Scott Family's fight against the Navajo Nation's plan for a new casino, east of Flagstaff.
Traditional Navajos have a saying: "Gambling will steal the future from the children."
While some Indian Nations in the US have used their revenues generously for charities and the betterment of their own people, in Arizona that has not always been the case.
The Scott family's statement of opposition comes as the National Congress of American Indians announced its support for the Tohono O'odham Nation's plan to build a casino in Glendale, in the Phoenix region.
However, NCAI should talk to the Tohono O'odham people, who are living in desperate poverty despite the Tohono O'odham's longtime lucrative Desert Diamond Casino near Tucson.
Tohono O'odham are desperate for housing and jobs, even food, and question where the millions of dollars in revenues are going from the casino.
Anyone who drives by the packed casino, then drives through the Tohono O'odham Nation, can see that something is extremely wrong.
Reporters covering Indian issues know that one of the most censored issues is the extensive poverty in southern Arizona Indian communities, where there are lucrative casinos.
In other news, President Obama announced he will give $125,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize award to the American Indian College Fund.
First of all, no amount of money can ever bring back a mother's son or daughter killed in these wars, wars based on the lies of politicians. The Nobel Peace Prize for a warmonger is essentially blood money, blood money which continues the deceit of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Further, the American Indian College Fund receives a mediocre rating on the charity rating charts. In simple language this means that the people who operate the American Indian College Fund spend far too much money on themselves, and too little on American Indian scholarships.
(The chief executive officer received compensation of $213,000 in 2008 and nearly $2 million was spent on fundraising.)
President Obama's announcement comes as the Obama administration declared a winter storm emergency in South Dakota for the storm in December, months after the disaster. Lakotas, repeatedly blasted by winter storms, pleaded for aid in January and February and were ignored. Cheyenne River Sioux in central South Dakota were without electricity for weeks and water for more than six days. Indian Nations and individuals rallied to their aid with online campaigns to deliver aid and buy propane. A telephone campaign, that was organized online, urging CNN to cover the disaster in the Dakotas resulted in less than a minute of news.
Read more on Censored News Homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
References:
Navajo Family Stands Strong Against Casino:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/03/navajo-family-stands-strong-against.html
Charity rating for American Indian College Fund:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3263

O'odham Ofelia Rivas Imprisoned in Mexico

O'odham Ofelia Rivas imprisoned for four days in southern Chiapas while supporting Zapatistas

By Brenda Norrell

Human Rights Editor
UN OBSERVER & International Report

http://www.unobserver.com/

Photo: Tapachula prison in Chiapas near Guatemalan border.

TUCSON -- O'odham human rights activist Ofelia Rivas was imprisoned in southern Chiapas for four days and crossed safely onto O'odham lands Wednesday night.
"There are inhumane border policies all across the world. My personal experience at home dealing with the Border Patrol helped me deal with confinement in the prison cell," Rivas said after crossing the border to her home.
Rivas was imprisoned in the Tapachula Immigration Prison in southern Chiapas near the Guatemalan border on false charges of crossing the border of Guatemala without documents. Rivas, however, had not crossed into Guatemala.
"Throughout our travel, by plane and bus, federal authorities reviewed my documents and allowed me to pass without problems. The federal police in Tapachula saw that an American was traveling with an Indigenous woman and arrested us.
"They wouldn't talk to me directly because I don't speak Spanish," said Rivas, who speaks O'odham and English.
Rivas was not provided with a translator when charged or during the four days she was imprisoned. "I signed papers without a translator when I was released. I still don't know what I was charged with."
"I was not read any rights," Rivas said. "When they were doing the paperwork, they said we were not being arrested. When we got to the detention center, they said 'You're not being arrested, you're not in handcuffs.'"
However, she had been arrested. She was taken to her cell, which she shared with a family from Colombia, which included a four-month-old baby and nine-month-old baby. They had been there for two months.
"What struck me was the powerful Somalian women that had walked across Central America and were in prison for two months in Panama. They have been waiting in Chiapas for two months for refugee status to be released to the United States. One Somalian woman said, 'I lost all my family, my mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, all killed in front of me. I only know of one uncle who survived.'"
"The strength of those women, everyday they sat together and sang their songs and told their stories, and it kept us all together. We were a community. We all took care of the babies and watched out for the rest of the children to make sure they ate when it was time to eat."
Rivas became ill from the chemicals used for cleaning the prison, which was done at night when she was locked in her cell. One morning, she felt too ill to get out of bed.
"I couldn't get up, but the women insisted that I get up and go eat."
The women's and men's cells were separated only by partitions and the noise was loud throughout the night.
At night, she could hear a man screaming in English and rattling his cell gate, "Get me out of here! Get me out of here!" he would scream, yelling for a bathroom.
"It was the jungle by the sea, so it was hot and sticky and there were mosquitoes."
"Everyone is sitting there waiting for papers. Someone somewhere is delaying those everyday."
After four days of imprisonment, and the intervention of the American Embassy in Mexico City and family members in the United States, Rivas and her traveling companion were released.
"We cancelled the rest of our trip and came directly home, since we don't know what we signed." "This severe enforcement of borders is because of the militarization of the Zapatista communities which continue to face threats."
"My entire trip was to build solidarity with the Zapatistas and to tell the story of the O'odham on the border. We were received with great respect and were honored to be invited to the communities to share our story. They made a statement to acknowledge our story and that our struggles are the same. They said they were honored to hear from the traditional O'odham people."
Ofelia Rivas is founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall. She lives on Tohono O'odham land on the US/Mexico border and exposes the human rights abuses of the US Border Patrol and ongoing militarization of the border and O'odham land. She exposed the digging up of O'odham ancestors' graves by Boeing during construction of the border wall in Arizona. She has been held at gunpoint, harassed, threatened and detained by the US Border Patrol on O'odham land in Arizona.

Read more at Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Indigenous Peoples: Pollution and Diabetes

Bitter Sweet or Toxic?
Indigenous people, diabetes and the burden of pollution

Contamination of First Nations, Mohawk and O'odham lands linked to diabetes
By John Schertow
The Dominion
Excerpts:
WINNIPEG—Diabetes is now widely regarded as the 21st century epidemic. With some 284 million people currently diagnosed with the disease, it’s certainly no exaggeration—least of all for Indigenous people.
... There is growing evidence that diabetes is closely linked with our environment. More than a dozen studies have been published that show a connection between Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); carcinogenic hydrocarbons known as Dioxins; and the “violently deadly” synthetic pesticide, DDT and higher rates of the disease.
O'odham and Diabetes
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s experience bears a close resemblance to Grassy Narrows: the world’s highest rate of diabetes can be found in the southwest Arizona nation. According to Tribal health officials, nearly 70 per cent of the population of 28,000 has been diagnosed with the illness. The O’odham People make up the second largest Indigenous Nation in the United States.
Lori Riddle is a member of Aquimel O’odham Community and founder of the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE).
GRACE was instrumental in the 10 year struggle against a hazardous waste recycling plant that operated without full permits on O’odham land for decades. Owned by Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation, the plant continuously spewed effluents into the air until it was finally shut down in 2007.
The Romic plant was not the first contributor to the O’odham’s toxic burden, explained Riddle. Looking back to her childhood, she recalled: “For nearly a year, [when] a plane would go over our heads, you could see the mist. We never thought to cover our water. The chemicals just took over and they became a part of us.”
From the early 1950s until the late 60s, cotton farmers in the Gila River watershed routinely sprayed DDT onto their crops to protect them from bollworms. According to the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), each and every year, the farmers used roughly Twenty-three pounds of DDT per acre.
In 1969, the State of Arizona banned the use of DDT; by this time the river was gravely contaminated. According to the ATSDR, farmers then switched to Toxaphene, a substitute for DDT—until it was banned by the US government in 1990.
Because of these chemicals, Riddle explains, the O’odham were forced to abandon their traditional foods and adopt a western diet. Farms also went into a recession, forcing many families to leave their communities. Companies, such as Romic, began moving on to their territory, exasperating the situation. “It’s taken a toll on our quality of life,” she says. “I’ve cried myself to sleep.”
The O’odham are dealing with what Riddle terms “cluster symptoms” including miscarriages, arthritis in the spine, breathing problems, unexplainable skin rashes, and problems regenerating blood cells. This in addition to diabetes, which frequently leads to renal failure, blindness, heart disease, and amputations.
Read article ...
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-people-diabetes-and-the-burden-of-pollution/
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Zapatistas: In the Language of Love

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo: Maria Garcia cooking for Marcos and the Comandantes in Sonora, near the Arizona border. Photo Brenda Norrell

It is popular now for writers to try and explain the Zapatistas with intellectual rhetoric. But when we rode with the Zapatistas, it was in the language of love, it was in the spirit of resistance, and we were all prepared to die.

When the Zapatistas spoke of autonomous governments and dignity, it came from the depth of their beings, from the wellsprings of their souls, from the earth mother within them. Mayan corn farmers, with only their little plots of corn as a means of survival, were being driven off their lands by corporations and paramilitaries. Fighting for their land meant the survival of their families.

In our journeys from the Tucson barrio to Chiapas, spanning more than a decade, Maria Garcia ignited hearts with the understanding of the true spirit of the Zapatistas movement. It was this love of the Indigenous Peoples, this passion for the struggle for autonomy and justice, that drove us forward.

Not everyone could see, not everyone had two legs and not everyone could understand the languages and dialects, but always there was the unspoken language of love. Far beyond rhetoric, it was this love that has always powered the movement.

On the Zapatista caravan through Mexico, sitting next to me was Miguel, from Nogales. Without the gift of physical sight, he brought a special spirit, a special grace. We described to him the colors of Mexico, the colors of the flowers in the fields where the revolutionary Zapata once lived. It was on the Zapatista caravan, that the Nahuatl warrior from Guerrero came aboard our bus. With one leg, he hopped aboard, and rushed forward, serving as security. At home, he said, there was no food in the villages. He was lean, too lean, and about 20 years old. Others came, too, leaning on their canes, or with walkers. Still others came nursing their newborns, or mourning the loss of their loved ones killed by the paramilitaries.

A few years ago, Jose Garcia, Tohono O'odham, and his wife Maria, and I traveled to the Zapatistas stronghold near the Guatemalan border in Chiapas. With us were Mayo community leaders from the west coast of Mexico in Sinoloa. A huge Zapatista flag waved on a car at the entrance to their village, where most of the Mayo people survived by collecting firewood or herding their goats. Their village vowed to be the first autonomous Zapatista village in the western region of Mexico. After our trip, the two Mayos and their families were beaten by Mexican officers. The Mayo leaders were imprisoned.

In this sadness, in this intense struggle since the early 1990s, there was also humor. Walking through San Cristobal de las Casas with Hopi photographer Larry Gus, there was a stout looking 50-something-year-old US CIA agent type, with a shaved head. As he rushed past, the man snarled at us, "F---ing Navajos."

Another favorite story from that time was when I was lost on a mountain in Zapatista territory, with a Mexican military helicopter hovering overhead. It was at a time when the Zapatistas were being assassinated near Oventic and we were there as human rights observers, as human shields.

Maria remembers that it was her chiles that saved me as I came down the mountain. The bright red chiles had fallen, one by one, from the lunch bag all the way on the mountain trail. I followed the chiles back down, on the foot trails down the mountain. Unfortunately at the top of the mountain, none of the lunch was saved, as a horse ate the lunch bag hanging on a tree.

That was in 1995, when Jose, Maria and Larry were on the Indigenous delegation to Chiapas, along with Dakota, Tohono O'odham and Yaqui. We looked down the barrels of the Mexican military's AK47s, wore handkerchiefs over our faces in solidarity with Mayan corn farmers in the mountains, and stood in solidarity with the women and children who face death each day.

Since that time, Jose Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader who was a member of the delegation, cofounded the Indigenous Alliance without Borders. Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham, organized the Indigenous Border Summits of the Americas in 2006 and 2007. Their words have been their weapons.

Jose Garcia, Tohono O'odham, and his wife Maria, have kept alive the language of love. They lost ownership of the home where they lived in the barrio in Tucson for 30 years, where they now live as renters. But from that barrio in Arizona, stretching through the heart of Mexico, they carved out a home for all of us, in the language of love.

brendanorrell@gmail.com
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

O'odham: Surviving apartheid on the illegal border

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

TUCSON – Tohono O’odham living on the border joined with activist Ward Churchill to speak out on “Apartheid in America, Surviving Occupation in O’odham Lands,” on Nov. 13. Ofelia Rivas and her brother Julian Rivas, O’odham living on the US/Mexico border, spoke of the impact and desecration of colonization and border militarization.
Ofelia Rivas said O’odham were never included in the dialogue determining the delineation of the US/Mexico border in the 1800s or the construction of the border wall.
“We were not at that table when they made that international border. We were not considered human,” she told the crowd of several hundred people.
Responding to questions from supporters seeking ways to help, Ofelia said, “Can you take that border down for us? Can you restore our way of life? Can you give the language back to our young people who have gone though the boarding school experience or those who went through relocation? Can you give those back to us?” she asked.
“In the beginning, when the world was made, we were here. We were made from this earth.”
She said when O’odham elders, the ancestors passed away, they became part of this earth since the beginning of time. “Our ancestors are every part of this land, not just our ancestors, but all the Indigenous Peoples of this world.”
Ofelia said she was inspired by the young people who came to learn because they care.
Describing the ongoing struggle of O’odham she said, “We are considered not human today. They can kill us, they can abuse us.” Now, the sacred routes have been closed that O’odham have followed since the beginning of time for ceremonies and to make offerings to the land.
“That is the way we live, that is our balance here as human beings.”
O’odham continue to struggle every single day because border policies make lives so difficult. Each day O’odham are confronted with the choice to compromise in order to survive and become part of the system. It is a system that makes O’odham “unhuman,” she said.
Ofelia said many look at the desert and speak only of the heat. But here, she said there is the beauty of the cactus, beauty of animals, beauty of the water that once flowed and the beauty of the original people of this land. She told those who want to make social change, the place to begin is to view O’odham as human beings. She said O’odham who happen to be born at home, in what is now another country, now need permission to travel.
When O’odham cross the border to visit their families and for ceremonies, O’odham undergo demeaning treatment on a daily basis from border agents because of this illegal border.
“They didn’t ask us to put that international border there," said Ofelia, founder of the O'odham VOICE Against the Wall.
When confronted by US Border Patrol agents, she said she uses her O’odham language to establish her right of passage. Still, the US Border Patrol has held a gun to her head and to the heads of O’odham elders. Her brother Julian was shot at crossing the border.
Ofelia said she tells young people to say prayers that the hearts of the human race will be changed. She said people need to remember their songs to give back the blessings to Mother Earth and live in harmony with the water, land and people.
Ofelia said the Tohono O’odham chairman held a ceremony recently in Washington for a card that gives permission for O’odham to travel on their own lands.
“I have a problem with that,” she said of the O’odham border card.
“As original people, we’ve always had permission from the Creator to travel on our own lands and that is the only permission we need.”
Ofelia asked for help in monitoring laws being passed in Washington. Currently, the lands of Indigenous Peoples have been contaminated by many forms of pollution, including atom bomb testing.
She pointed out that the US waived 37 laws to build the vehicle barrier on O’odham lands. The US dug up O’odham ancestors to build this vehicle barrier.
Julian Rivas said O’odham are continuing in the path of resistance fighters like Leonard Peltier. “Indigenous Peoples have a tie to the land, a tie to their beliefs. Their comfort zone is the earth. As non indigenous people, you create your own comfort zone.”
Speaking on Indigenous resistance, Julian said “We do it, we don’t just talk about it.”
Julian said he continues to cross the border even though his pickup truck has been shot at and has bullet holes in it.
“That’s our way of life in resistance.”
Julian said after 9/11 there were many changes at the border which affected the O’odham way of life. “They blocked off some of our traditional routes and it instilled a lot of fear in the people.” O’odham became fearful of crossing the border, which they have done since time immemorial, going back and forth in their homelands. Now, the militarization of the border involves at least seven enforcement agencies.
Still, traditional O’odham leaders in Mexico have been at the bargaining table with the Zapatistas in Mexico in order to bring further recognition to Indigenous Peoples in Mexico.
“We have no means of funding.”
Julian said O’odham along the border have applied to the Tohono O’odham Nation government in Sells, Arizona, for funds, but have received none.
“There is nothing coming out for that. We have to do our own fund raisers for the work we are doing.”
“We do follow a traditional order,” he said of the O’odham leadership in Mexico. He said that neither the Tohono O’odham Nation nor the Mexico government can dictate to the O’odham in Mexico. The O’odham traditional form of government is not written down, but it is known to the O’odham.
Julian said O’odham in Mexico have fought a toxic waste dump planned for their ceremonial community of Quitovac in Sonora, Mexico. O’odham in Mexico first learned about the toxic dump from people in Mexico. Although the Tohono O’odham Nation government knew about it earlier, the nation was not concerned with it, he said.
Activist groups across the Southwest helped traditional O’odham in Sonora fight this toxic dump, he said.
Julian said when 9/11 occurred Homeland Security brought in expensive vehicles to run over everything in the O’odham homeland, desecrating the land and sacred area. “They build roads wherever they want to.”
“Because of 9/11, everyone with brown skin is labeled a terrorist.”
Julian said the Tohono O’odham Nation government speaks of sovereignty, but it is not demonstrating sovereignty.
“It is always strings being pulled from somewhere else.”
“We survived 500 plus years of that. With this resistance, we’re going to last another 500 plus years,” he said.
Welcoming guest speaker Ward Churchill, Ofelia Rivas said Churchill has proven to be sympathetic and compassionate about what is happening on the border to Native lands.
During questions, Churchill said it should be the O’odham people who determine an action plan for the border. Churchill said video cameras could be used to curb the level of violence by vigilantes at the border. He said people can follow the Minutemen and other civilian border patrols around with video cameras, as the Black Panthers once did in Oakland. After the Panthers followed Oakland police around with video cameras, police brutality dropped more than 50 percent in six months.
Churchill encouraged Tucson area residents to establish “neighborly” relationships with O’odham to work toward change. He said there is no script for instant social change.
“The process is called ‘a struggle’ for a reason.”
During his talk, Churchill spoke of Leonard Peltier and Indigenous land rights. He described apartheid formulated in South Africa, which was strict segregation and flagrantly racist. He said people were outraged in the United States about apartheid, but it was adapted from Jim Crow. Jim Crow in the deep south was an antecedent to apartheid in South Africa.
For Native people, colonizers brought mainstreaming.
“Mainstreaming means assimilation.”
Churchill spoke of different forms of colonialism in South Africa, US, Poland and Germany. He spoke of how colonialism affected Native people, pointing out the short life expectancy for Native men as living conditions deteriorated and colonization increased.
Churchill described settler state colonizers and the struggle for decolonization which began in the 1940s.
Speaking of boundaries and walls, Churchill described the wall in Palestine and on O’odham land. Today in the US, O’odham have to go through “checkpoints,” just like Palestinians. Churchill compared the lethal actions of Israel toward Palestinians to the US Border Patrol’s lethal actions toward O’odham.
He said the dehumanizing of Palestinians is manifest in a similar fashion in the US. This dehumanizing of Indians is apparent in movies like the Oscar winning western “Unforgiven.”
Further, he spoke of racial profiling in the US, the popularity of Rush Limbaugh and vigilantes at borders.
Angie Ramon spoke of her son, Bennett Patricio, Jr., who was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol. Bennett was walking home through the desert at 3 a.m. when he was run over. Ramon believes, based on the evidence, that her son was intentionally run over and killed after he walked upon Border Patrol agents involved in a drug transfer. Ramon described her struggle for justice and asked why the US Border Patrol left her son crushed on the highway for so long without transporting him to a hospital.
"I know he must have still been alive," she said, describing how his fingers were still twitching as he lay dying on the highway.
She said both the US Border Patrol and the Tohono O'odham police know what really happened.
Ramon said the Tohono O'odham Nation government has not helped her financially with the case, which she took alone to the Ninth Circuit. She said the tribal government receives funds from the US Border Patrol.
During the event, the crowd enjoyed traditional O'odham tepary beans, baked squash and fry bread, cooked by Ramon and her family.
The event was a fundraiser for the O'odham Solidarity Project.
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

--Watch videos of this gathering, with additional O’odham interviews by Earthcycles and Censored News: http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles

Wikipedia: "The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.

Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated. These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the 1800-66 Black Codes, which had also restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964[1] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965."--Wikipedia

Onkwehonwe remove british border marker

Friday afternoon, October 30 2009 in Kanatakon. Onkwehonwe (Mohawks) removed one of the british land markers that were forced on Onkwehonwe Lands, back in the early 1900s, at the border of the US and Canada.

Let's hear it for the Mohawks!

By Brenda Norrell/Censored News
What a great time I had watching this video of the Mohawks ripping out this border marker with a backhoe. Reminded me of when the Mohawk Warrior Society came to the southern border, at the Indigenous Border Summit in 2007. Horrified over the building of the border wall on Tohono O'odham land, and the CAGE outdoor migrant prison and the federal US spy tower on O'odham land, the Mohawks spotted the US Border Patrol arresting a pitiful group of tiny Mayans, mostly women and children. Without a pause, the Mohawks jumped out of the cars and rushed the Border Patrol, who fled like scared dogs with their tails between their knees. Sadly, the pitiful migrants were smashed into the back of the vehicle and became another group of desperate and hungry Mayans arrested on Tohono O'odham land by the white agents of darkness, the US Border Patrol.
Watch video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsNap5EyQnk

Ward Churchill Benefit for O'odham Border Resistance

by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo Ofelia Rivas, O'odham

TUCSON -- Activist Ward Churchill will speak at a benefit for the traditional O'odham resisting oppression and abuse by US Border Patrol agents and protesting the construction of the US/Mexico border wall in their traditional homeland.
Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham VOICE against the Wall, said funds raised at the benefit will support the struggles of the O'odham living on both sides of the border, on O'odham lands in southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.
Rivas points out that the US border wall construction has resulted in the unearthing of O'odham ancestors, in violation of spiritual laws and federal laws. The wall is now a barrier to annual sacred pilgrimages of the O'odham.
"The wall has destroyed the sacred resting places of our ancestors and has closed our ceremonial routes," Rivas said.
Since Homeland Security has coopted the Tohono O'odham Nation government in the United States, Tohono O'odham police are working with the US Border Patrol agents and abuse O'odham on a daily basis. The region has been militarized by federal agents and basic human rights are denied.
"The O'odham are considered illegal undocumented persons in our own lands. The policies of the wall have criminalized O'odham. We are considered suspects in our own lands, interrogated and harassed," Rivas said.
Rivas has been held at gunpoint, handcuffed and repeatedly followed and harassed by US Border Patrol agents and Tohono O'odham police. Rivas' family lives on both sides of the US/Mexico border in the traditional O'odham homeland.
"O'odham VOICE is our resistance to continue our way of life, continue to maintain our Him'dag and continue to cross this illegal International Border across our lands," Rivas said.
Traditional O'odham oppose the construction of the border wall in their homeland. They are struggling to halt the abuse of O'odham and migrants by police and the various federal immigration agents that swarm their land.
Many migrants dying in the Sonoran Desert are Indigenous Peoples, Mayans and other Indigenous Peoples, from southern Mexico and Central America. Traditional O'odham upholding the Him'dag, the sacred way of life, oppose the oppression and militarization leading to the deaths of Indigenous Peoples on their lands.
Rivas said the O'odham VOICE Against the Wall, organized in 2003, advocates for the traditional O'odham leaders and elders of the O'odham communities in the southern territory of the United States and northern territory of Mexico.
Churchill will speak at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 E. 22nd St., on November 13, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Churchill's talk is part of the "Apartheid in America: Surviving Occupation in O'odham Lands" gathering, which features a concert by Resistant Culture, a punk rock/metal band from Southern California.
"The event is dedicated to raising awareness of the connections between repressive border policies at home and abroad," Rivas said.
Announcing the event, Rivas said, "Ward Churchill is a prolific American Indian writer, a member of the Rainbow Coalition Council of Elders, and on the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. In addition to his numerous works on Indigenous history, he has written extensively on U.S. foreign policy and the repression of political dissent. Five of his more than 20 books have received human rights writing awards.
"Former Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department, until July 2007 Ward Churchill was a tenured full Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado/Boulder, where he received numerous awards for his teaching and service. In April 2009 a jury unanimously found that he had been fired by CU in retaliation for his observations on 9/11 and in violation of the First Amendment. Professor Churchill is currently litigating to have that verdict upheld."
Rivas said Resistant Culture's music is best described as tribal grind core -- weaving the indigenous flute, rattle, tribal drum, and chant into a backdrop of extreme punk and metal. The concert will take place at Dry River, 740 N. Main (University and Main), November 13, at 10:00 p.m.
Supporting the O'odham struggle and in opposition to censorship and rigid conformity, the events will be broadcast live at www.livestream.com/earthcycles

Rivas said sponsors of the event include the Dry River Radical Resource Center, Earth First! Journal, and Voices Against the Wall.
"The event is open to the public. Donations of $10 to $20 are requested, but no one will be turned away. A delicious vegetarian meal will be served at 6:30 p.m.," she said.

Private prison hustlers target Indian country

PRIVATE PRISONS: PROFITEERING FROM MISERY
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogpsot.com

In the same way that coal mining, power plants, uranium mining and oil and gas drilling companies targeted Indian country for their cancer alleys, private prison profiteers and private security firms are now targeting Indian country, bordertowns and economically-desperate regions of the U.S. to profit from misery.
The private security firm American Police Force, operated by an ex-con in Hardin, Mon., is under probe. The links to CorPlan and the proposed Tohono O'odham migrant prison are now exposed.
Private prison profiteers proposed a migrant prison on San Xavier land of the Tohono O'odham Nation, near Tucson. Although the residents of nearby Sahuarita and O'odham halted those plans, the alternative plan calls for the migrant prison to be built east of Three Points, Ariz.
Tohono O'odham opposing the prison say the migrant prison violates their Himdaag, their sacred way of being.
Read Frank Smith's article for Censored News on the private prison fiascos in Montana, Oklahoma and Arizona:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/10/corrupt-prison-hustlers-linked-to.html
More articles at Google News on the probe of American Police Force:
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=American+Police+Force
Also see: NM targeted by private prison scam
http://newmexicoindependent.com/39009/private-prison-developer-behind-montana-fiasco-involved-in-construction-of-nm-private-prisons
Private prison developer behind Montana fiasco involved in construction of NM private prisons
"The company that built a Montana private prison, which eventually led to a national embarrassment with the involvement of American Police Force, is also the company that constructed a number of prisons around New Mexico..."

Vice President Cheney profiteered from private prisons, migrant xenophobia
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

While vice president, Dick Cheney profiteered from private prisons by way of his investments. During the same time, the Bush/Cheney administration fanned the flames of racism toward migrants.
Private prisons flourished, especially in Texas and border states, and were filled with migrants and people of color.
Grossly mismanaged, the private prisons are now pits of sexual abuse, violence and murder.
In Nov. 2008, Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were indicted in Texas.
Although they have not been prosecuted, their link to profiteering at private prisons was exposed. Cheney invested in Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison operator GEO (formerly Wackenhut Corrections.)
AP reported in Nov. 2008, "Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted. The indictment in Willacy County has not yet been signed by the presiding judge.
Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of those privately run prisons."

O'odham: Militarization and border abuses accelerate

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

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mike Flores, Tohono O’odham, questioned why President Obama has not taken any action to halt the militarization of the border and human rights abuses by US Border Patrol agents, or the construction of the US border wall that is violating all federal laws, including laws designed to protect the environment and Native American remains.
Flores, a former tribal councilman, said the Tohono O’odham Nation government is embedded with Homeland Security, because of federal funding. Because of this, US Border Agents are abusing O’odham on their own land and even getting away with murder.
“Our aboriginal territory is divided by this international border,” said Flores, a member of the American Indian Movement. Speaking at the Anarchist Book Fair in San Francisco on March 14, Flores said of the 25,000 Tohono O’odham, about one-third live in northern Mexico in the state of Sonora.
Since 9/11, O’odham have felt the impacts, because the people have had to deal with an influx of US military. Now, the O’odham homeland is occupied by the military violating human rights. Even in their own backyards, O'odham are abused by the US military. He said most Americans do not have to deal with the soldiers and agents in their own backyards.
In the most recent death of an O’odham by the US Border Patrol, an O’odham was suspiciously killed by a border agent on the highway in February. The family now has an investigation underway.
In most cases, the Tohono O’odham Nation government takes no action when an O’odham is murdered by the US Border Patrol.
“In our case, the tribal government is embedded with Homeland Security because of Homeland Security funds,” Flores said.
Flores said when the US Border Patrol kills one of the tribal members, it is considered collateral damage by the tribal government. "It is really frustrating when you have to go and bury your nephew because of these things that are going on there.”
Encouraging young people to come to the Tohono O’odham Nation and document the human rights abuses, Flores said the Tohono O’odham Nation government is not allowing people to take photos of the community members being violated or the border wall being constructed and violating sovereign Tohono O’odham land.
Further, in violation of federal law, Homeland Security and the border wall contractor Boeing, dug up the Tohono O’odham ancestors for the border wall.
“We’ve had to go back and rebury some of our ancestors that the contractors and Homeland Security dug up along this border.”
O’odham daily life is constantly violated. Before 9/11, O’odham children living in their homeland, within one half a mile of the international border, went to school on the United States side of the border without constant harassment. However, since 9/11, children need security clearances to go to school.
“What kind of policy is that when you have to check a fourth grader’s backpack when he crosses the international border to go to school?” O’odham children have also had to obtain additional forms of identification to attend school.
“This is our ancestral land; before 9/11 we were able to go back and forth freely.”
O'odham ceremonies are also being violated. O’odham ceremonies in Sonora, Mexico are conducted by medicine people who live on the US side of the border and go to Sonora to conduct the ceremonies. Now, the ceremonial people are being told they have to obtain passports and other forms of identification.
“We feel this is a violation of our religious freedom, but these are some of the policies that are being put upon us. It creates tensions among us as tribal members as well.”
As the largest American Indian Nation on the southern border, with 25,000 people, Flores said O'odham must deal with this oppression more than others.
“We’re the ones that are subdued because of the inability of our tribal leaders to see through what is going on.”
Flores said the general media is not reporting the truth.
“I doubt if any of you heard about the killing of one of our tribal members by a member of Homeland Security," he said of the most recent O'odham death by the US Border Patrol in February.
Meanwhile, many people cross the border to look for work. Many of these are Indigenous Peoples who have songs and ceremonies of their own. They are being forced to flee from their homelands and seek refuge somewhere else. They are being denied the right to live in accordance with their traditions, he said.
In the summertime in O’odham territory in the Sonoran Desert, located south of Phoenix, Flores said temperatures can reach 118 degrees. Mayan Indians from Guatemala, coming from the tropics into the desert, struggle to survive.
Referring to Mike Wilson, Tohono O’odham, and others, Flores said some O’odham are providing water stations in the desert to prevent the deaths of those forced to travel on foot in search of work and survival.
Because of this humanitarian action, these O’odham are now being accused of being terrorists and criminals, he said.
Tohono O’odham tribal police and other agents slash the water jugs or remove them at the water stations.
“That is allowing people to die without compassion.
“As Indigenous Peoples we believe it should not be that way.
“We need everyone’s help."
Flores said these policies are violating the communal way of living; the O’odham’s communal way of life has been disrupted by the border wall going up on their land.
Describing his efforts in Chiapas with the Zapatistas in the 1990s, Flores said he went to Chiapas with an O’odham delegation and provided humanitarian aid in the jungles with the EZLN.
“We supported them in any way we could.
“During that time, we could see the oppression of the people.
“We don’t have it as bad as our brothers and sisters in the south.”
Urging youths to mobilize and bring attention to the human rights violations and oppression, Flores said there was optimism when Obama was running for president. However, Flores said he personally took the approach of: “We’ll see what happens.”
“We heard the campaign talk about stopping construction of this border wall.”
However, Flores said there has been no action by Obama to halt the border wall, human rights abuses and desecration. Right now, there are tons and tons of iron, tons and tons of cement arriving for construction of this border wall.
Flores urged those present to e-mail Obama and press him to address this issue.
“People are dying out there that don’t need to be dying.”
Flores described finding a tiny grave in the desert on O’odham land, marked with the beads of a Mayan child.
“We’ve come across graves out there.” Describing this tiny grave, he said he was sure the parents would have wanted their child buried back in their own community, in their own homeland.
“People are dying needlessly,” he said, urging people to mobilize and effect change.
“If these practices continue on, we will be living under 100 percent military occupation.”
Flores, who lives 12 miles north of the international boundary on O’odham land, said there was once O’odham elders who came across to talk with the youths and share with them how to take care of the community and the people. But now, they are told to get documents to cross.
The militarization of the O'odham homeland is accelerating.
“Right now there’s even a proposal to send in more National Guard troops.”
Flores said the troops and border agents have interfered with and disrupted O’odham ceremonies. Each time, during one of the ceremonies, which includes the ceremonial hunting of a deer, the hunters were detained by the National Guard.
This creates a state which is outside the harmony of natural law, he said.
“To be detained for eight hours disrupts the whole ceremony.” Each time, there has to be a purification to sanctify the ceremony and begin again. This is not in the order of natural law, he said.
Stressing that the O’odham people have survived since time immemorial with their own language and dialect in tact, he said, “We can do these things if we put our minds to it.”
Urging action because of the shortness of time and global crisis, Flores asked those present to contact the Tohono O’odham Nation and Chairman Ned Norris, Jr., and ask the elected leaders what they are doing. He said people should put pressure on the Tohono O’odham Nation government so there will not be more deaths of people coming across the border, or more deaths of the O’odham people.
Flores said it is important to know the truth, as opposed as to what is being shown on CNN.
Flores, coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples Border Summits of the Americas in 2006 and 2007 on Tohono O’odham land at San Xavier, Ariz., said the summits were successful in bringing Indigenous Peoples together from Canada, Mexico and the United States to share problems and support one another. He is now working with members of the Cocopah Nation, who live near the California border, who are also experiencing similar problems.
In closing, Flores offered words of respect to the Ohlone People, the traditional Indian people of what is now called San Francisco.
“Without them, no one would be here.”
Flores was introduced by Mark Anquoe, Kiowa, of the American Indian Movement, who spoke on systems of governance in Native societies.

Listen to this talk by Mike Flores and Mark Anquoe at:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Related articles:
Tohono O'odham Women on the Border: Angie Ramon's 18-year-old son was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol; Ofelia Rivas describes the abuse by Border Patrol and border wall contractors.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/12/tohono-oodham-women-on-border.html
In Cold Blood, Border Patrol agent murders migrant youth:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2008/10/cold-blood-us-border-patrol-agent-trial-murder

Tohono O'odham Women on the Border

By Brenda Norrell

SAN MIGUEL, Arizona -- Tohono O'odham women describe the militarization of the US/Mexico border on Censored Blog Radio today. The US/Mexico border wall is now a barrier on the annual O'odham ceremonial route. The contractor Boeing has dug up the graves of O'odham ancestors on Tohono O'odham Nation land. US Border Patrol agents harass and threaten O'odham, holding O'odham women and elderly at gunpoint on a regular basis and routinely searching O'odham without cause.

Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham Voice Against the Wall, and Angie Ramon, whose 18-year-old son Bennett Patricio, Jr., was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol, describe the sorrow caused by this US military invasion of O'odham land.
Angie Ramon and her family members believe that Bennett walked upon an illegal drug transfer between US Border Patrol agents and was intentionally killed as he walked home in the desert in the predawn hours. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did not rule in the family's favor. The family continues to seek justice for the death of Bennett, now seeking an attorney to file murder charges against the Border Patrol agent.
The US militarization and border wall, with out of control border agents, result in death and intrusion for O'odham, who have lived in this region where the desert meets the sea since time immemorial.
"I don't know how to live my life without visiting my family members," said Ofelia Rivas, of her family members in Mexico. "I'm going to be stuck in the United States now since I don't have a passport."
Rivas said the border wall is a barrier on the annual O'odham ceremonial route. Without the ceremonies, there will be catastrophes in the universe.
"Our ceremonies, our Him'dag, it is our way of life."
"We have not migrated anywhere," Rivas said, adding that O'odham Creation stories tell how the O'odham were created here and have not migrated.
In May of 2007 the border wall contractor Boeing dug up the O'odham ancestors, who were later reburied.
During the interview, as the border wall is being constructed, Rivas says, "It is our Mother Earth and they are raping her and they are sticking these metal objects into her. It really impacts our spiritual being as O'odham people.
"Our tribal government doesn't seem to understand that this is impacting our people.
"Who is going to stand up against this government to take this wall down? This is our land, our O'odham land.

Listen at Blog Radio. Original interview recorded by Amanda Shauger, with Brenda Norrell:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Censored Blog Radio: AIM on Alcatraz

AIM to Obama: Abolish BIA; establish treaty commission and pass UN Declaration

By Brenda Norrell

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

ALCATRAZ ISLAND -- Speaking at the Alcatraz Sunrise Ceremony, the American Indian Movement called on the Obama administration to make real changes for Indian country. The challenge is voiced on today's Censored Blog Radio show, "AIM on Alcatraz," by Bill Means, with Pat Bellanger and Mike Flores.

Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, said the new administration in the U.S. offers hope. Means said the American Indian Movement is calling on the Obama administration to establish a new Presidential Treaty Commission; abolish the BIA and for passage of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On Alcatraz, Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham, described the assault by Homeland Security and the US Border Patrol on Tohono O'odham lands. Flores called for worldwide support to halt construction of the US/Mexico border wall and stop the militarization of the Tohono O'odham Nation and all Indigenous borderlands. Flores said the US is destroying endangered species, their habitat and migration routes.

On the broadcast, KPFA/Alcatraz Free Radio cohost Tony Gonzales points out that the people of Palestine are also suffering from the isolation, militarization and horrors of a border wall. Gonzales said while walls are coming down in Europe, the US is building a wall.

Bellanger, Anishinabe from Minnesota, shares a memory of Phillip Deer and the imaginary border. Bellanger said she has been with AIM since the beginning and it has been an incredible journey. She said the gathering at Alcatraz was a time to celebrate what has been accomplished and a time for giving thanks.

"We beat daddy Bush and we beat baby Bush," Bellanger says of the fight against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

Means also points out the rise in power of the Maori in New Zealand, a rising world voice empowering Indigenous Peoples.

Means said what happened on Alcatraz and at Wounded Knee, along with the fishing rights struggle, the struggle of Pitt River and the struggles elsewhere, led to sovereignty and self-determination.

Listen to today's show and three others in this week's series:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

--The first show, "American Indian Resistance," includes interviews with Morning Star Gali about the Shellmound Walkers. Long Walker Harry talks about service with the Black Mesa Caravan. Mohawk Mark Maracle speaks about Tyendinaga, at the AIM-West 40-Year Reunion in San Francisco. The show includes a segment from Alcatraz Island, with Clyde Bellecourt and Lenny Foster, Dine' speaking on Native religious freedom rights (30 minutes.)

--The second show, "Emergence of the American Indian Movement," includes Bill Means remembering Raymond Yellow Thunder, a Lakota whose murder in Gordon, Nebraska, changed the course of history for the American Indian Movement. Award-winning Anishinabe singer Keith Secola sings Fry Bread and NDN Cars. Clyde Bellecourt speaks on the importance and early years of AIM, during the AIM West 40-Year Reunion in San Francisco (90 minutes.)

--The third show, "Indigenous Voices of Resistance," includes Western Shoshone call in guests describing how Barrick Gold is currently bulldozing the Shoshone's sacred Mount Tenabo. During the first days of December, Barrick cut off Western Shoshone access to their ceremonial grounds. The show includes news and music. The All Nation Singers in California and the Longest Walk Northern Route at Cahokia Mounds, recorded by Earthcycles, sing the AIM song. (90 minutes.)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell