Tribal Council Corruption – Thune Lawsuit

Tribal Council Corruption – Thune Lawsuit
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Navajo Nation Council Tables Water Rights Settlement

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Contact: Ron Milford Email: Hmailto:Haskan1990@yahoo.com Phone: 928-606-0787
Navajo Nation Council Tables Water Rights Settlement
Grassroots Dine’ (Navajo) Vow to Stand Against Oppression

By Dine' Water Rights

Photos: Copyright Dine' Water Rights
More photos at: http://www.dinewaterrights.org/

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Due to community pressure, the Navajo Nation Council decided to put off voting on the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement (NAIWRSA) and gave one week for public review but did not specify what that would look like. The Council is set to consider the legislation again on Friday, October 8th but the date is subject to change. Legislation No. 0422-10, also known as NAIWRSA, sponsored by Council Delegate George Arthur has faced increasing community criticism in the last few weeks.

More than 160 concerned Dine’ (Navajo) marched, rallied and packed the council chambers to send the message for the council to “VOTE NO!” on the water rights settlement. Children, elders, parents, students and others from throughout the Navajo Nation joined together in chanting, “Water is life! Save our Future!”

NAIWRSA was created by lawyers including a non-native with the Navajo Nation, Stanley Pollack, as an attempt to resolve water rights claims of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe for water from the Little Colorado River and from the lower Colorado River.

Dine’ community members have raised concerns that NAIWRSA gives the Navajo Nation only 31,000 acre-feet per year of 4th Priority Colorado River water, that would not be available in times of drought, and would require more than $500 million of new federal funding to pay for pipeline infrastructure to deliver water to communities in need. That money would have to be appropriated from U.S. Congress.

One pipeline would be built to send Colorado River water from Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border to the reservation.

During the special session Hope Macdonald, Council Delegate from Tuba City, raised concerns on the council floor regarding the document being “out of order." Specifically exhibit A not being located in the agreement and the issue of the agreement being distributed to delegates moments before the meeting. She motioned for the agenda item to be stricken but failed to gain votes.

Delegate Amos Johnson motioned to table the legislation and give one week for council delegates to take the agreement back to their communities for review, 49 voted in support, 32 against with 7 not voting.

“It is appropriate for the Navajo Nation to consider Hogan level family’s water rights and they have an obligation to do that, to take it to the communities for their input which has not been the case," stated Milton Bluehouse Sr. former Navajo Nation President. “The more informed the people are the better the decision will be made, with respect to their rights.”

"Why would we waive our rights to the water for just a promise of federal funding, when we know historically the appropriations have not come to Navajo?" said Hope Macdonald.

“Why was there no deliberate and detailed consultation with the affected Dine' communities?” said R. Begay a concerned Dine'. “Why has this process been so secret? What does Stanley Pollack have to hide? This is an extension of colonialism. We will stand against this oppression.”

“The most important thing to show our leaders is that we are watching them, we are making sure that they are accountable to their communities and what we hold sacred as Dine’ people,” stated Kim Smith, resident of St. Michaels. “Water is an essential part of our way of life, our ceremonies, our livestock and most importantly, it is our future. We are calling on all Dine’ people who value their future, their sacred water to join us when the council goes back into session and let them know we want them to VOTE NO!”

“This movement to oppose the Arizona Water Settlement is about our children, and we will not waive their water rights, not now not ever," stated Ron Milford, a concerned citizen for Dine’ Water Rights.

Concerned citizens for Dine’ Water Rights along with organizations such as Dine’ Care, To’ Nizhoni Ani, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Council Advocating an Indigenous Manifesto, ECHOES, and others are calling for another rally and march at the next council session.

The date and time have not yet been set. They are also urging the Dine’ People to contact their council delegates and urge them to vote no on the water settlement.
Visit http://www.dinewaterrights.org/ for further details.
“Only one percent of the water in this world is water we can consume,” stated Daniel Tullie a Dine’ student from Phoenix who made the trip with a caravan of ASU students to Window Rock to voice his concerns. “Worldwide water shortages are facing us, we need to protect what we have here, because it is sacred and we need to protect it for future generations.”
Note to editors: High Resolution Pictures Available Upon Request or at http://www.dinewaterrights.org/
Credit: http://www.dinewaterrights.org/

Message from Klee Benally:

Ya'a'teh!
Please forward far and wide!
Dine' People can take action today:
1. Call, email, or talk face to face with your Council Delegates
There is a great listing with contact info here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AuTy0AwDkD80dG5lbHQ4OThQbUdPeGZ2VTQ3VnEyU1E&hl=en&single=true&gid=0&output=html
2. Write letters to the editors.
Navajo Times: duane@navajotimes.com

Navajo-Hopi Observer (http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/Formlayout.asp?formcall=userform&form=1)

Gallup Independent: editorialgallup@yahoo.com
3. Sign the online petition to Protect Dine' Water Rights: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/dine-water-rights
4. Help spread the word! Educate your friends and relatives about this issue.
Come to Window Rock for the next Council session!

"Awesome"

Yesterday morning I got off the bus downtown, across from City Hall, and walked into Seattle's Best for my usual no-frills drink. The following conversation ensued:

Cashier, sporting wire-rimmed glasses and waist-length Rasta braids: Good morning. Can I help you?
Me: Yes. A small cup of coffee, please.
Cashier: Awesome. Room for cream?
Me: Yes, please.
Cashier: Awesome.

[Cashier fills the cup, brings it back to the counter.]
Cashier: That enough? Want more coffee in it?
Me: That's fine, thanks.
Cashier: Awesome. Great. Want your receipt for a refill?
Me: No, thanks.
Cashier: Awesome. Have a great day.

OK, I can appreciate courtesy and enthusiasm but when did the ordering of a cup of coffee come along with a serving of mindless superlatives?

EVO MORALES: Nature, Forests and Indigenous Peoples are Not For Sale

NATURE, FORESTS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ARE NOT FOR SALE

BY EVO MORALES AYMA
President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Press Statement

Indigenous brothers of the world: I am deeply concerned because some pretend to use leaders and indigenous groups to promote the commoditization of nature and in particular of forest through the establishment of the REDD mechanism (Reduction Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) and its versions REDD+ REED++.
Every day an extension of forests and rainforest equivalent to 36,000 football fields disappears in the world. Each year 13 million hectares of forest and rain forest are lost. At this rate, the forests will disappear by the end of the century.
The forests and rainforest are the largest source of biodiversity. If deforestation continues, thousands of species, animals and plants will be lost forever. More than three quarters of accessible fresh water zones come from uptake zones in forests, hence the worsening of water quality when the forest condition deteriorates. Forests provide protection from flooding, erosion and natural disasters. They provide non-timber goods as well as timber goods. Forests are a source of natural medicines and healing elements not yet discovered. Forests and the rainforest are the lungs of the atmosphere. 18% of all emissions of greenhouse gases occurring in the world are caused by deforestation. It is essential to stop the destruction of our Mother Earth. Currently, during climate change negotiations everyone recognizes that it is essential to avoid the deforestation and degradation of the forest. However, to achieve this, some propose to commoditize forests on the false argument that only what has a price and owner is worth taking care of.
Their proposal is to consider only one of the functions of forests, which is its ability to absorb carbon dioxide, and issue "certificates", "credits" or "Carbon rights" to be commercialized in a carbon market. This way, companies of the North have the choice of reducing their emissions or buy “REDD certificates" in the South according to their economic convenience. For example, if a company has to invest USD40 or USD50 to reduce the emission of one ton of C02 in a "developed country", they would prefer to buy a "REDD certificate" for USD10 or USD20 in a "developing country", so they can they say they have fulfilled to reduce the emissions of the mentioned ton of CO2.
Through this mechanism, developed countries will have handed their obligation to reduce their emissions to developing countries, and the South will once again fund the North and that same northern company will have saved a lot of money by buying "certified" carbon from the Southern forests. However, they will not only have cheated their commitments to reduce emissions, but they will have also begun the commoditization of nature, with the forests
The forests will start to be priced by the CO2 tonnage they are able to absorb. The "credit" or "carbon right" which certifies that absorptive capacity will be bought and sold like any commodity worldwide. To ensure that no one affects the ownership of “REDD certificates” buyers, a series of restrictions will be put into place, which will eventually affect the sovereign right of countries and indigenous peoples over their forests and rainforests. So begins a new stage of privatization of nature never seen before which will extend to water, biodiversity and what they call “environmental services".
While we assert that capitalism is the cause of global warming and the destruction of forests, rainforests and Mother Earth, they seek to expand capitalism to the commoditization of nature with the word “green economy". To get support for this proposal of commoditization of nature, some financial institutions, governments, NGOs, foundations, "experts" and trading companies are offering a percentage of the "benefits" of this commoditization of nature to indigenous peoples and communities living in native forests and the rainforest.
Nature, forests and indigenous peoples are not for sale.
For centuries, Indigenous peoples have lived conserving and preserving natural forests and rainforest. For us the forest and rainforest are not objects, are not things you can price and privatize. We do not accept that native forests and rainforest be reduced to a simple measurable quantity of carbon. Nor do we accept that native forests be confused with simple plantations of a single or two tree species. The forest is our home, a big house where plants, animals, water, soil, pure air and human beings coexist. It is essential that all countries of the world work together to prevent forest and rainforest deforestation and degradation. It is an obligation of developed countries, and it is part of its climate and environmental debt climate, to
contribute financially to the preservation of forests, but NOT through its commoditization. There are many ways of supporting and financing developing countries, indigenous peoples and local communities that contribute to the preservation of forests. Developed countries spend tens of times more public resources on defense, security and war than in climate change. Even during the financial crisis many have maintained and increased their military spending. It is inadmissible that by using the needs communities have and the ambitions of some leaders and indigenous "experts", indigenous peoples are expected to be involved with the commoditization of nature. All forests and rainforests protection mechanisms should guarantee indigenous rights and participation, but not because indigenous participation is achieved in REDD, we can accept that a price for forests and rainforests is set and negotiated in a global carbon market.
Indigenous brothers, let us not be confused. Some tell us that the carbon market mechanism in REDD will be voluntary. That is to say that whoever wants to sell and buy, will be able, and whoever does not want to, will be able to stand aside. We cannot accept that, with our consent, a mechanism is created where one voluntarily sells Mother Earth while others look crossed handed Faced with the reductionist views of forests and rainforest commoditization, indigenous peoples with peasants and social movements of the world must fight for the proposals that emerged of the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth: 1) Integrated management of native forests and rainforest not only considering its mitigation function as CO2 sink but all its functions and potentiality, whilst avoiding confusing them with simple plantations. 2) Respect the sovereignty of developing countries in their integral management of forests. 3) Full compliance with the Rights of Indigenous Peoples established by the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Convention No. 169 of the ILO and other international instruments; recognition and respect to their territories; revalorization and implementation of indigenous knowledge for
the preservation of forests; indigenous peoples participation and indigenous management of forest and rainforest. 4) Funding of developed countries to developing countries and indigenous peoples for integral management of forest as part of their climate and environmental debt. No establishment of any mechanism of carbon markets or "incentives" that may lead to the commoditization of forests and rainforest. 5) Recognition of the rights of Mother Earth, which includes forests, rainforest and all its components. In order to restore harmony with Mother Earth, putting a price on nature is not the way but to recognize that not only human beings have the right to life and to reproduce, but nature also has a right to life and to regenerate, and that without Mother Earth Humans cannot live. Indigenous brothers, together with our peasant brothers and social movements of the world, we must mobilize so that the conclusions of Cochabamba are assumed in Cancun and to impulse a mechanism of RELATED ACTIONS TO THE FORESTS based on these five principles, while always maintaining high the unity of indigenous peoples and the principles of respect for Mother Earth, which for centuries we have preserved and inherited from our ancestors.
EVO MORALES AYMA
President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Chilean Troops Flown in to Suppress Rapanui -- On the Verge of Extinction

CHILEAN TROOPS FLOWN IN TO SUPRESS RAPANUI - ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION

- September 29, 2010 Contact: Kihi Tuki-Hito 011 56 9 88190047
Levanate Araki 011 56 9 81506843
Santi Hitorangi 1 845 596 5402

This morning a C-47 military plane arrived on Rapanui (aka Easter Isalnd) with a contingency of SWAT teams to augment the already in-place armed forces set to remove indigenous Rapanui people from their ancestral lands.. Since July 31, the Rapanui have been non-violently re-occupied the land illegally taken from their grandparents and have been , asking for their legal title to be restored.

Tonight the Rapanui people are on high alert – expecting what may come in the wee hours of the morning.

This afternoon Marisol Hito, spokeswomen of the Hitorangi clan, presented the Rapanui case to the Human Rights Commission of the Chilean House of Representatives. The Commission unanimously voted to stay any order to harm or remove Rapanui people from their claims.

Marisol Hito stated that, “We have been asking to negotiate for 60 days with the Chilean government, but they have refused to negotiate and instead sent in armed troops to cause psychological and physical duress . From day one we have been expressing that our claim is for recognition of title to our lands, and the ability to manage our sovereignty. Under Chilean law only Rapanui people can legally hold title to land on the island.”

The Human Rights Commission filed a protective order for the 18 children that are in occupation at the Hanga Roa Hotel, reclaiming their land title and future. The Hanga Roa property was illegally sold during the Pinochet regime to a non-Rapanui person, and was subsequently transferred to a non-Rapanui corporation, in violation of Chilean law.

Kihi Tuki-Hito showed the Rapanui flag on the back of his jacket and spoke to press after the 8 hour meeting with the Human Rights Commission. He said, “ We want to peacefully restore our rights to our land and self government”.

Chile has refused to conduct serious and meaningful peaceful negotiations and has criminalize all the Rapanui claimants in violation of human rights and of the Universal Declaration of Indigenous Rights, to which Chile is a signatory.

Ironically Chile uses the Rapanui moai, the well-known monolithic stone statutes, on its currency and passports as a symbol colonial supremacy over Rapanui people.

Only 5,000 Rapanui people exist today . Any violence against them is an act of extinction to these legendary people who are a heritage and treasure of humanity. In 1994 UNSECO declared Rapanui as a “heritage of humanity.”

If we as humans can save the smallest inhabited place on the planet earth, Rapanui, then when we can learn how to heal and save our entire human existence on this planet.

This is a an S.O.S. for the world to save itself.

For more information go to www.SaveRapanui.org

Nice Suzuki

Foto de João Almeida Santos, no Olhares

Wild (by Tony Kelly)

American Indian Movement protests FBI raids

Coastal respite

Sunset photo of Haystack Rock and Cape Kiwanda from the beach at Pacific City.

Considering how busy we've been all year long, it was great to get away for two nights at the Oregon Coast with our longtime friends, Tom and Elsa. We'd been trying to plan a trip to their beachfront roundhouse in Pacific City since spring but circumstances caused us to postpone twice. What a delight to finally pull it off.

We arrived on a Saturday evening and left Monday afternoon. We ate well, drank generously, played a board game, walked on the beach and on neighborhood roads, brought each other up to date on ourselves and our kids, and just generally relaxed. Lori's birthday was Monday, so we celebrated the night before with a homemade dinner that featured Tom's grilled pork chops and Elsa's bread pudding. Yum.

Sunday was foggy and dreary, but we did take a drive into Netarts for lunch and afterward just chilled at the house. Monday morning we were in shirt sleeves on the beach as our dogs romped in the sand and surf. Around mid-day, the women went shopping and the guys played golf -- nine holes on the soggy but fun course in Neskowin.

 Haystack Rock from the tide pools at Cape Kiwanda.

Tom has done an amazing job of remodeling their house over the past couple of years since they bought it. We've seen it go through the metamorphosis from plain and neglected to spiffy, modern and comfortable. The place has a lot of great features but, really, nothing tops the magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean with its never-ending rolling, thrashing waves.

After a leisurely drive home, we unpacked, took a phone call from Simone (our trip to Pittsburgh comes up in two weeks!) and walked to dinner at a Japanese restaurant a few blocks from our home. October just may be our busiest month of the year, so it was nice to at least catch our breath at the coast.

Photos by Troy McMullin, Pacific Crest Stock

Debra White Plume on First Voices Indigenous Radio WBAI

Debra White Plume speaks out on uranium mining in

Lakota territory on WBAI New York

Photo: Debra White Plume delivering a symbolic blanket of smallpox to the Lewis and Clark Expedition/Photo Brenda Norrell
By Kent Lebsock

Debra White Plume of Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way) will be on Tiokasin Ghost Horse's First Voices Indigenous Radio on WBAI New York City this Thursday, September 30th, from 10 to 11 a.m. Debra is the Director of Owe Aku which is a traditional Lakota cultural preservation, human rights and environmental protection NGO operating from the banks of Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Debra will be updating the radio audience on Owe Aku's extensive work to protect sacred water in and around Lakota treaty territory against the unyielding drive by foreign and domestic corporations to destroy soil and water in order to rip uranium from deep in the Earth. Debra will be joined on the program by Owe Aku's coordinator from their International Justice Project, Kent Lebsock. He will briefly discuss the Lakota leadership's concentrated effort to now take the issue of sacred water, as well as many other issues governed under international law by the Lakota treaties of 1851 and 1868, to the International Court of Justice.
The list below contains the ways to access the program from the internet.
If you have any questions or would like any further information, please contact the New York City Office of the Owe Aku International Justice Project at 646-233-4406 or oweakuinternational@me.com.
FIRST VOICES INDIGENOUS RADIO
Thursdays 1Oam-11am
www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org (archived
212.209.2800 switchboard
STREAMS & BROADCASTS On All Stations!
WBAI NY 99.5 FM
120 Wall Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10005
www.wbai.org (10AM Eastern) also archived
WJFF 90.5 FM Jeffersonville, NY
W233AH 94.5 FM Monticello, NY
www.wjffradio.org (12AM Tuesdays)
WPKN 89. 5 FM Bridgeport - New Haven, Conn.
www.wpkn.org (12PM Thursdays) also archived
WPKM 88.7 FM Montauk, NY
Westerly, Rhode Island
New London, Conn.
www.wpkn.org (12PM Thursdays)
CKLB 101.9 FM Yellowknife, NT, Canada (rebroadcasts through week)
KVNF 90.9 FM Paonia, Colorado
www.kvnf.org (7 PM Mountain Sundays)
99.1 FM Grand Valley, Grand Junction
88.7 FM Lake City
98.3 FM Hotchkiss Crawford
88.9 FM Ridgway
90.1 FM Ouray
KVMT 89.1 FM Uncompahgre Valley
Montrose
Delta
Kent Lebsock
Coordinator
Owe Aku International Justice Program
oweakuinternational@me.com

TODAY: Dine' Water Rights March and Rally, Wed, Sept. 29, 2010

Click on image to enlarge.

Navajo statements on Navajo water rights giveaway
As a young person who values the land, the culture, and people I come
from, I am concerned about the Navajo people's right to water. I was
taught that water is sacred. I was taught that it should be respected
and used appropriately. I am also Tó'áhaní (Near the Water Clan).
Water and the people's access to it is a human right, and as the
indigenous people of this land we have aboriginal rights to water. Our
ancestors lived on this land, developed a relationship with the land
and understood the importance of land and water. Our ancestors
believed in the land so much that they fought and died for it.
It is because of their efforts and struggles that we the Diné are here
today. Our people need to remember who our ancestors were and
everything they did to get us here. Just like our ancestors, we too
need to fight for our land.
At this time, we especially need to fight for our water. We need to
question. We need to demand that our voices be heard and that our
Navajo government does right by the people and not give away our
water.
On Sept. 29, during special session, the Navajo Nation Council may
give away the Navajo people's water and waive our water rights
forever. The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement
Agreement includes several measures that will harm our people.
In addition to losing our rights to water, there is language that
allows non-Indian users unlimited amounts of C-aquifer water as well
as "underground flow." Non-Indians do not have to worry about what
impact this will have on Navajo use of the aquifers.
The list continues, including prohibiting more than 10,000 acres of
irrigated agriculture along the Little Colorado River. The water
settlement would limit our people to 31,000 acre-feet annually.
The Navajo people need to be warned about this bargaining of our
future, our livelihoods and sovereignty. I am especially concerned
about this legislation because it will affect those in my generation,
and it will forever affect all those who have yet to follow.
What do the council delegates have to worry about? They are all
middle-aged or past. They will not have to live with the effects of
their decision. Many of them will not even be in office when the new
council is seated next month.
It will be my generation who will be devastated and left with nothing.
Denying us access to the water on our land is to deny the survival of
our people. I find it absolutely disgusting that the Diné are expected
to happily accept a drop of water. If tribes like the Gila River are
able to secure 155,700 acre-feet per year for their 14,000 population,
then why can't we too secure an adequate amount of water for our
people?
Think about it, we have a population of 300,000, but yet we're
settling for a meager 31,000 acre-feet per year? This is far less than
Gila River currently claims. This amount is ridiculously low. There
are estimates that say the Navajo people could be claiming as much as
10 million acre-feet annually.
Why are our Navajo Nation officials not claiming our ancestral waters?
Our treaties as well as two Supreme Court cases recognize our rights
to water (Winters Doctrine of 1908 and Arizona v. California of 1963).
Both Supreme Court cases establish Indian water rights as "prior and
paramount" to all surface and groundwater resources on and near a
reservation.
So, when folks like Stanley Pollock and the Navajo Water Commission
say that water law is based on "use it or lose it," telling us that
since we haven't used our fair share of water, it isn't ours anymore,
this is absolutely false. The Winters Doctrine of 1908 secures a
tribe's future use of water. The Navajo tribe has senior water rights
that are not being asserted.
Now is the time for the Diné to act. Contact your council delegates
and make sure they are representing your best interests. How can
giving our water away be beneficial to our people?
Robyn Jackson
Wheatfields, Ariz.

Proposed Arizona water settlement cheats Diné

I'd like to get this off my thoughts/spirit and it's overdue. I do not
have sympathy for Stanley Pollack, the Navajo Nation's water rights
lawyer, who is believed to be the "indefatigable" person on water
rights.
It might be true on many small projects/bank accounts, but not on the
huge Colorado River, the largest bank account for Navajo.
The current proposed 31,000 acre-feet Arizona water settlement is
history repeating itself in terms of past Navajo Generating Station
deals in the upper Colorado River Basin (all on Navajo land) and land
swaps, no renegotiations for a higher royalty rate, contamination of
groundwater through uranium and coal mining, etc.
I compare Stanley Pollack with John Boyden, who worked for the Hopi
people and Peabody Coal at the same time. So we have Pollack working
for the Navajo government and adjacent states and multi-billion dollar
companies/corporations.
Navajo natural resources generate more than $60 billion and economic
spinoffs off the Navajo Reservation, and in return we are offered
31,000 acre-feet of water and $3.5 million in coal royalty renewal
negotiations.
This is total economic suicide/racism and ethnic cleansing and human
rights violations, which is condemned by U.S. senators when applied in
different countries yet it is applied here to the Navajo people in the
form of the Bennett Freeze, forced relocation, and the unclaimed water
rights to the Colorado River.
This settlement agreement affects/impacts all Navajo citizens with
census numbers because it totally wipes out past accomplishments by
our forefathers who persuaded the U.S. government, after eight
attempts, to come back to Dinéh land in 1849 and 1868 treaties. Our
forefathers did this in unity with one prayer, one song, one spirit
with less than 4,000 people strong yet we are over 300,000 people
using less than 20 percent of our political power on this water rights
settlement.
... get proactive and voice your concerns for a true honest government
by escorting Stanley Pollack off the Navajo Nation.
...rescind all chapter resolutions supporting the proposed water
rights settlement agreement, and write/call your delegates to oppose
this during any Council special session this fall and spring until all
Navajo citizens are aware of their potential true water rights to the
Colorado River.
Do you think you would excuse someone if they took 100 sheep from
Grandma and told you they will only give you back one to 10 sheep?
Well, this is exactly what is happening with this proposed, insane
31,000 acre-feet settlement. You are settling for less than 10 sheep!
Don't get me wrong, there are certain good honest non-Navajo citizens
working for the Navajo people.
Leonard Gilmore
Cameron, Ariz.
Water proposal is a huge scam
For the past few years, the Navajo Nation government has been working
on the Arizona water settlement for the Little Colorado River and the
lower basin of the main stem Colorado River.
Recently, council delegates and local leaders have been pushing for
voters to approve resolutions in support of this settlement.
From a grassroots point of view, the supposed Arizona water settlement
is a huge scam and we, as indigenous people who have been here for
many generations, will be losing our basic water rights for the sake
of money, power and control.
Back in 2007, I wrote a statement about the infamous Mohave Generating
Station negotiation agreement titled "Mohave Mediation Memorandum of
Recommended Non-Economic Terms." In that agreement, the $600 million
lawsuit brought against the federal government would have been
dismissed in exchange for giving away C-Aquifer water to the "Black
Mesa Project." In the same agreement, we, as a nation, would have
waived and released any and all claims against APS.
With the Arizona water settlement, we will have the same terms...In
order for Navajo Nation to approve (it), the Navajo Nation must waive
rights to water such as the Winter's Doctrine. I want to emphasize
that the treaties of 1849, 1868, and the Winter's Doctrine entitle the
Navajo people water rights.
To all farmers, ranchers, sheepherders, Navajo Times readers, the
great people of the Navajo Nation, please urge and demand your leaders
not to approve the Arizona water settlement.
Navajo Nation leaders should be fighting for and defending the
treaties of 1849, 1868 and the Winter's Doctrine.
Thank you for your time and as always be safe out there and keep
reading the Navajo Times.
Calvin Johnson
Leupp, Ariz.
We will lose what we have left forever
At the Western Agency Council meeting in Tuba City on Sept. 18, a
resolution was presented requesting to the Resource Committee to
renegotiate the lease reopener with Peabody Coal Company by upgrading
the lease to a rate beyond the 12.5 percent including other associated
offer by Peabody.
Although the resolution passed, two delegates - Jack Colorado of
Cameron Chapter and Kee Yazzie Mann of Kaibeto Chapter - objected and
actually attempted to prevent the resolution approval and tried to
convince the WAC that the presenters were lying.
Delegate Harriett Becenti of Rock Springs Chapter also opposes the
idea, likewise with George Arthur, the Resources Committee chairman.
What is going on here? There's a real problem with these individuals'
negative attitude on the matter. There's something fishy about their
resistance.
You would think these so-called leaders understood our people are
suffering the lack of tribal funding that is required for all their
dire needs of water, electricity, good roads, etc., and while all the
far away cities are enjoying the benefits from our resources, our
so-called leaders are again looking to continue selling our
high-quality coal dirt cheap.
Two coal leases on Black Mesa, Kayenta, and Black Mesa Mines, were
agreed on in 1964 and 1966, respectively, where the Navajo Nation and
the Hopi Tribe were literally cheated out of their high-quality coal
at dirt-cheap prices. The leases were amended in 1987 where 12.5
percent royalty was imposed and to date remains the same in spite of
the rising cost of living, not to mention the coal prices on the open
market has increased since 1987.
My goodness, that's nearly 15 years ago and prices of everything we
purchase today has about tripled and here we are with some ignorant
leaders going along with the notion that everything is static and are
ready to agree with another of the same.
We lost Mohave Generating Station in 2005; P&M mine just shut down in
December 2009; the Four Corners Power Plant is threatened to be shut
down by the Environmental Protection Agency.
And with the council's careless spending, the Navajo Nation is in the
red by $24 million. For crying out loud, how do we get these leaders
to come to their senses?
Presently there is another proposal coming before the Navajo Nation
Council at the Sept. 29 special session. This proposal is again
another shaft by the government and corporations: a 31,000-acre-feet
of water is offered to the Navajo Nation with another catch.
This one is if the council approves the offer it will be an agreement
to never sue the corporations, energy companies, and government ever
again. Simply meaning we won't be able to force better deals for our
resources, including our land, water, and whatever other precious
minerals that may be within our land.
Then what happens to the upcoming generations of our children, their
children and so forth?
If the council agrees to this new proposal of the 31,000 acre-feet
water settlement we will lose the rest of what we have left, forever.
For the sake of our present needs and our future generations the
council better vote this down.
Tulley Haswood
Rock Springs, N.M.

Comment from Censored News
An eye on those non-Indian attorneys
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Today, Navajos march and rally at the Navajo Nation Council to defend their right to water.
Earlier, my Facebook access was frozen when I posted a comment about Navajo water rights and non-Indian attorneys working for Arizona Indian Nations.
The attorneys who worked for the Navajo Nation, and were involved with the removal of former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald in 1989, went to work for southern Arizona Indian Nations after his removal. Those attorneys were involved with water rights settlements for southern Arizona Indian Nations. That is all but one. She transferred to Washington D.C., where she worked on water rights. I ran into them through the years as a news reporter.
During the federal trial of Peter MacDonald in the early 1990s, when he was sentenced to federal prison on other matters, a Navajo businessmen said to me, "You know what this is really about: Water rights."
Few reporters followed the truth about the accusations about Peter MacDonald. Most failed to report that real estate broker Byron Bud Brown never gave MacDonald the millions as Brown claimed for the flip sale of the Big Boquillas Ranch. MacDonald served a decade in jail and federal prison, and underwent heart surgery in prison.
Brown admitted later in a federal court hearing in Phoenix that he never gave MacDonald the money.
Brown, it turns out, stashed those millions in his island bank account. Federal prosecutors could not prosecute Brown for lying under oath because he had earlier been given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony.
.
Also see: Kit Carson Returns: Navajo Water Settlement by Bill Edwards, Navajo Family Farms, Leupp:
http://www.censored-news.blogspot.com

Hot Vila do Conde

(Alta) Foto de Cesar Coriolano, no Olhares

Uma prendinha...

O @robertobarreiro enviou-me isto...

Norton Girl

Detalhes

Kate Winslet on Wheels

Fotografada por Brigitte Lacombe

Forgotten People: Bennett Freeze Development Act a disappointment

FORGOTTEN PEOPLE COMMENTS ON KIRKPATRICK DISCUSSION DRAFT OF THE “FORMER BENNETT FREEZE AREA DEVELOPMENT ACT”

By Forgotten People
September 24, 2010
Photo: Unremediated abandoned uranium pit on Navajo Nation/Forgotten People

Forgotten People supports James W. Zion, Esq.’s comments on Kirkpatrick discussion draft of the former Bennett Freeze Area Development Act herein attached. We agree with James Zion that the draft is a disappointment. First, it is authorization legislation, not required by the Constitution, and all it would do is set up a new trust, to be funded from sources that are not likely, and authorize appropriations that will never come.
The Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation (ONHIR) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have never served the victims and survivors of the Bennett Freeze and Relocation. Forgotten People doesn’t know what the Navajo Hopi Land Commission (NHLC) and Rep. Kirkpatrick are doing because they are operating in secret.

Read more:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/09/forgotten-people-navajos-say-bennett.html

UN: Bolivian Leader Proposes Alliance to Save Humankind

At UN, Bolivian leader proposes alliance to save humankind
President Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia
UN News Service

24 September 2010 – Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed the creation of a new alliance to save humankind by guaranteeing human rights, saving the environment and promoting equality and social justice for all during his address to the General Assembly’s annual high-level segment.
The provision of water and other basic services, including energy and electricity, are human rights, he said, also urging the protection of migrants.

“Walls were built for cattle and sheep,” Mr. Morales told world leaders gathered at the Assembly yesterday, criticizing the erection of barriers in Mexico and the occupied Palestinian territory. “We cannot confuse human beings with animals.”

Commerce can circulate freely but people cannot, he said, calling for an end to embargoes such as the one against Cuba put in place by the United States.

The new alliance would also help to conserve the environment, the President said, speaking out against the selling of so-called carbon bonds. “How can Mother Earth be turned into a business?” he asked.

The coalition must also promote equality and justice for all, which he said is the backbone for peace.

Its final objective, Mr. Morales said, is to strengthen the United Nations by democratizing it, which he said would be a “difficult task.”

In the Street Series

Newsy News: Reporter whistleblows on CNN censoring war crime

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Calma do Campo

In the street series

Tatoo you

City Girl

City Girl

In the street series

Invitaciones de Boda 2011

queremos que tengáis importante variedad de opciones a la hora de elegir tus invitaciones de bodas. Y es que una de las actividades más bonitas de la planificación de una boda es la elección de las invitaciones. Colores, detalles, formas…. mil opciones para poder elegir desde invitaciones de bodas naturales hasta invitaciones de bodas personalizadas únicas para cada pareja.



Hoy te proponemos originales diseños de invitaciones de bodas si has decidido realizar tu ceremonia de boda en una playa.



La empresa Tgkdesigns propone originales diseños de invitaciones si deseas realizar una boda para la playa. Existen diferentes diseños desde figuras de elementos marinos en alto relieve a dibujos con palmeras. Si aún no has decidido que invitaciones elegirás para tu boda, a continuación te proponemos las siguientes imágenes para que busques entre las diferentes opciones que propone Tgkdesigns.

Join the Caravan and Support Navajo Resisters at Black Mesa

Join the Caravan in Support of Indigenous Communities Resisting Massive Coal Mining Operations on Their Ancestral Homelands of Big Mountain & Black Mesa, Arizona
November 20-27, 2010

Photo Sierra Club: Black Mesa protesters

These Front-Line Resistance Communities, in their Struggle for Life, Land, & Future Generations, Have Always Maintained That Their Struggle Is For Our Collective Survival.
May They Be Supported Now and Always!
Greetings from Black Mesa Indigenous Support,
We are excited to extend the invitation from Dineh resisters of the Black Mesa region to join BMIS's caravan to support their ongoing struggle. On behalf of their peoples, their sacred ancestral lands and future generations, the Dine' and also Hopi communities continue a 36 year long struggle against the US Governments forced relocation efforts, Peabody Coal's financial interests, and an unsustainable fossil fuel based economy. They continue trying to halt and repair the devastating impacts of colonialism, coal mining, and forced relocation of their communities, sacred lands, and our planet. As one of their resistance strategies they call upon outside support as they maintain their traditional way of life in the face of the largest relocation of indigenous people in the US since the Trail of Tears.

By assisting with direct, on-land projects you are supporting a broad movement for climate justice and families right to stay on their ancestral homelands in resistance to an illegal occupation. The oil spill in the Gulf highlighted the dangerous and unsustainable reality of our fossil fuels based economy. Another example of this dangerous reality comes from Black Mesa. The recently approved carbon capture storage project will capture the coal firing plant emissions and use clean water to pump the carbon an estimated 9,000 feet into the ground to be stored near their major aquifer. False solutions to climate change and large scale coal extraction must be stopped! We propose participating in this caravan as one small way in supporting these courageous communities who are serving as the very blockade to coal mining on Black Mesa!

In honor of the sacred ancestral homelands of the Dine' and Hopi peoples that we'll be traveling to, and in honor of this years host family who are so graciously offering their home so that we can gather together, and in regards to the positive feedback as well as constructive criticism from past caravan attendees, we've placed a limit to the number of caravan participants. Caravans in years past were a tremendous success however when the numbers get too big it becomes difficult to manage.

This year we're already getting a huge response. This is another reason why we're encouraging you to join regional BMIS groups leading up to the caravan and after it is over. Most of the regional groups are working in their communities year-round in supporting indigenous leadership such as those of Black Mesa.

Supporting Indigenous leadership and creating models for support that are based on the priorities and visions of their communities is a major goal of BMIS. While BMIS wishes for this caravan and the support network as a whole to be an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to listen to and work with the families of Black Mesa, we are prioritizing the participation from already-politicized accountable movement builders. We are particularly seeking people of working-class based struggles, environmental, global justice organizations, indigenous people, people of color, LGBT and queer-identified participants, members of movement organizations, women, organizers working in anti-war/occupation movements.

We are also encouraging the participation of returning supporters and those who plan to come before or stay weeks after the caravan, as well as anyone who is planning to be involved long term. Supporters who have experience operating chainsaws or chopping wood, are carpenters, and/or can drive your trucks on back country roads, we encourage to apply as well.

This years caravan will be held at some amazing organizers' homes so we are excited to focus on movement building, strengthening resistance movements and support networks that will make victories possible not only on Black Mesa, but in communities all across the world. We are creating a space for sharing updates from 'The Land' and for dialogue about the connections between Black Mesa and various struggles in which they are interconnected. We encourage regional organizing and fundraising to support the participation and leadership of people most impacted by interlocking systems of oppression. We are prioritizing the participation from people who are deeply invested in and on the front-lines of movements for social, economic, environmental justice in their communities, as they will have the most to offer and gain from gathering, talking with, and working with each other and the elders. We are also encouraging the participation of returning supporters or those who plan to come before or stay after the caravan, as well as anyone who is planning to be involved long term. We look forward to seeing how caravan participants can integrate their work, their lessons, and of course the communities' stories and visions into their work and life!

The U.S. Government began relocating Black Mesa residents from their ancestral homelands in 1974 to pave the way for Peabody's mining. Families are in their FOURTH DECADE resisting this travesty. And, since relocation laws have made it nearly impossible for younger generations to continue living on their homelands, many of the residents are elderly and winters can be extremely rough in this remote high desert terrain. The aim of this caravan is to honor the elders' requests and, under their guidance, carry out direct, on-land support: chopping and hauling firewood, doing minor repair work, offering holistic health care and sheep-herding before the approaching cold winter months arrive.

"The Big Mountain matriarchal leaders always believed that resisting forced relocation will eventually benefit all ecological systems, including the human race," says Bahe Keediniihii, Dineh organizer and translator. "Continued residency by families throughout the Big Mountain region has a significant role in the intervention of Peabody's future plan for Black Mesa coal to be the major source of unsustainable energy, the growing dependency on fossil fuel, and escalating green house gas emissions. We will continue to fight to defend our homelands."

Peabody Energy's Disastrous Coal Mining Operations on Black Mesa:
At this moment, decision makers in Washington D.C. are planning ways to continue their occupation of tribal lands under the guise of extracting "clean coal," with false solutions to climate change such as carbon storage and cap and trade carbon offsets. In 30 years of disastrous operation, Peabody's coal mining has ravaged Dineh and Hopi communities by forcibly relocated thousands of families, draining 2.5 million gallons of water daily from the only community water supply, and has left a toxic legacy along an abandoned 273-mile coal slurry pipeline. Peabody's Black Mesa mine has been the source of an estimated 325 million tons of CO2 that have been discharged into the atmosphere. Coal from the Black Mesa Mine could contribute an additional 290 million tons of CO2 to the global warming crisis!*

As a result of hard and strategic work from the Black Mesa resistance community, Black Mesa Water Coalition, To Nizhoni, The Forgotten People, the Sierra Club and others, Peabody's mine expansion project is temporarily slowed. As a way to honor and continue that work, now is the time to strengthen networks of direct support to the resisters, to ensure that when they try again for the expansion, resistance communities are prepared and resilient.

Peabody Coal Co. plans to seize another 19,000 acres of sacred land beyond the 67,000 acres already in Peabody's grasp at Black Mesa. Peabody Energy, previously Peabody Coal Company, is the world's largest private-sector coal company, supplying 10% of U.S power and 2% of worldwide electricity. Peabody's coal mining will exacerbate already devastating environmental and cultural impacts on local communities and significantly add fuel to the fire of global climate chaos!

We are at a critical juncture and must take a stand in support of communities on the front lines of resistance now! Indigenous and land-based peoples have maintained the understanding that our collective survival is deeply dependent on our relationship to Mother Earth. Victory in protecting and reclaiming the Earth will require a broad and multi-pronged movement.

BMIS wishes for this caravan to be an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to listen and work with the families of Black Mesa to generate more awareness that relocation laws and coal mining need to be stopped, that these communities deserve to be free on their ancestral homelands. We hope to come together to strengthen our solidarity and find ways to work together to protect Black Mesa and our Mother Earth for all life.

Ways you can support:
Join the Caravan and Be Self-Sufficient! By connecting with a regional coordinator and joining one of the volunteer work crews from your region, you are expected to be adequately prepared and self-sufficient prior to your visit on Black Mesa, which is a very remote area in a high desert terrain. There is no electricity, no central heating, and no running water. You must come prepared, and bring everything you will need. There could be extreme weather, and it will be cold especially at night. Each participant will need to bring food, water, outdoor camping gear (although we will likely be staying inside with families), very warm clothing, and appropriate attire for hands-on manual work. Coming equipped with chainsaws, trucks, shovels, axes and mauls dramatically increases your effectiveness as a work crew!

Read and sign the Cultural Sensitivity and Preparedness Guide: All direct, on-land supporters of Black Mesa are required to thoroughly read over and sign the Cultural Sensitivity and Preparedness Guide. This document is an in-depth guide that contains important information that you will need prior to and during your visit with a host family on Black Mesa. This guide gives you crucial information about how to be adequately prepared, background of the struggle and current his/herstory, safety and legal issues, cultural sensitivity, code of conduct, and a suggested list of what to bring with you. We want to ensure that each person is informed about the agreements and basic requests from these communities, that each person is safe and accounted for, and that we have your emergency contact info should an emergency arise. It is of the utmost importance that each caravan participant understands and respects the ways of the communities that we will be visiting. Please print out and bring this guidebook with you during your visit to Black Mesa http://blackmesais.org/tag/cultural-sensitivity/

Pre-register: To help us estimate how many people to expect as well as to help us make necessary accommodations for all. For participants coming from areas with BMIS designated regional coordinators, please register with them - see our website.

Host or attend regional organizational meetings in your area: We strongly urge participants to attend or organize regional meetings. Caravan coordinators are located in Prescott, Phoenix and Flagstaff, AZ; Denver, CO; Santa Cruz, CA; Eugene and Portland, OR; and the San Francisco's Bay Area. The meeting locations and dates will be posted at the BMIS website and Face Book as coordinators set them u p. This caravan will be collaborating with the annual Clan Dyken Fall Food and Supply Run on Black Mesa.

Raise Awareness: about Black Mesa and the caravan. You can obtain literature from BMIS.

Organize fundraisers: At the weeks prior to every caravan, grassroots supporters from all over throw benefits to raise the much-needed funds, for such things as supplies, wood, and direct, on-land people-support. Please contact BMIS for guidelines prior to any fund-raising in the name of Big Mountain and Black Mesa.

Collect supplies: Chainsaws, axes, mauls, axe handles, shovels, tools of all kinds, organic food, warm blankets, and especially trucks --either to donate to families or to use for the week of the caravan--are greatly needed on the land to make this caravan work! Check back on the BMIS website for an ongoing list of specific requests from the land.

Donate: We are not receiving nor relying on any institutional funding for these support efforts, but are instead counting on each person's ingenuity, creativity, and hard work to make it all come together. We are hoping to raise enough money through our community connections for gas, specifically for collecting wood and food for host families, and for work projects.

Stay longer than the caravan with a family on Black Mesa: Families living in resistance to coal mining and relocation laws are requesting self-sufficient guests who are willing to give three or more weeks of their time, especially in the winter. By coming prepared to stay longer, you can conserve resources by making 2 trips out of one. If you are returning for your second caravan, please consider this, as one of our goal is to create connections between families and support. Since it is crucial to have good help out there and not create more work for the families, all supporters are required to read and sign the Cultural Sensitivity Preparedness Guide. Contact BMIS in advance so that we can make arrangements prior to your stay, to answer any questions that you may have, and so we can help put you in touch with a family.

The communities request support throughout the year: If you cannot attend the caravan and still want to support the resistance, please contact BMIS! We will provide support options or help facilitate your stay with a resisting family any time through the year!

If you're not able to participate in the fall caravan, remember that BMIS is available to support YOU in connecting and staying with a host family any time of the year. Please get in touch with regional coordinators in your area regarding fundraisers, report-backs, education, outreach, other support efforts, and actions that they might be planning leading up to and after the caravan. If you do not have a regional coordinator in your area, please contact us for ways to support the courageous resistance taking place on Black Mesa.

So, please be sure to let BMIS know sooner rather than later! Thank you everybody for your continued support!
BMIS
We can't wait to see you in November! Give back to the Earth! Give to future generations!

Black Mesa Indigenous Support
Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS) is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization dedicated to working with and supporting the indigenous peoples of Black Mesa who are targeted by and resisting unjust large-scale coal mining operations and forced relocation policies of the US government in their struggle for Life and Land.
Address: P.O. Box 23501, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
Voice Mail: 928.773.8086
Email: blackmesais@gmail.com
Web: www.blackmesais.org
Facebook: Black Mesa Indigenous Support

In the street series

Reflections of Injustice: Haudenosaunee Lacrosse

Reflections of Injustice

Artwork and comments by Mohawk artist Tracy Thomas

PHOTO: This is Everson Museum pic of my new mirror painting titled "Reflections of Injustice" my statement on what happened to the Iroquois Nationals this summer.
This my statement on what happened to the Iroquois Nationals in July of 2010:

It was a sad feeling, that the team didn't get to go the World Lacrosse Games.
But to us they're heroes of what are ancestors fought for ... our survival, that
is why we are still here today. They instilled pride into our children, and that
they can never take away. Our sovereignty, meant more than a trophy, it was a great day for all indigenous peoples, that we showed the World, who we are, The Haudenosaunee-People of the Longhouse.

Also thanks to Mike Greenlar for letting me use his photograph, to make
this picture, for the exhibition.

--Tracy Thomas

Native Voice TV: Defending Sacred Sites with Wounded Knee

NATIVE VOICE TV on the web: Cihuapilli Rose Amador talks with activist Wounded Knee De Ocampo and Native Voice TV, still photographer,Cipactzin David Romero about the desecration of sacred sites on Native lands around Turtle Island

ALL NATIVE VOICE TV SHOWS CAN NOW BE SEEN streaming live on SATURDAYS AT 4:00pm P.S.T. and MONDAYS at 8:00pm@ http://www.creatvsj.org/

Steve Macias is one of the original founding members of the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, a bass player, former jet dragster driver turned associate producer, director and editor for Native Voice TV in San Jose, California. We're trying to meet and help promote Indigenous people from the music, movie and entertainment industries as well as artists and craftsmen of Native art. We also keep the Native community up to date with local and national political issues that affect the Native community and interview guests who are active and involved with the issues of today.

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

Old Bike

Nathalie Canguilhem Girls and Fixies

In the street series

Undar the radar: Sarah Harmer

What is it about Canada and its ability to produce so many talented singer-songwriters? The list begins with Neil Young and the incomparable Joni Mitchell but it also includes k.d. lang, Sarah McLachlan, Nelly Furtado, Robbie Robertson, Kathleen Edwards, Leslie Feist...and Sarah Harmer.

Sarah is probably the least well known of the bunch but she writes and plays some fine music. I saw her in concert at the Aladdin Theater Thursday night with her band and, during a 90-minute set that covered two dozen songs, she alternated between rock, pop and folk. She reminds me of Sheryl Crow, both in style and appearance, and sounds like Feist.

I learned of her a couple years ago and told myself I'd keep an eye out if she ever came to Portland. Evidently, she hadn't been here in about five years. But with a new CD to promote -- "Oh Little Fire" is her fifth album -- she's touring the U.S. and Canada and no doubt garnering new fans.

If you don't know her music, give a listen to "Basement Apartment." It's 10 years old but it's the tune that caught my attention. Maybe it'll catch yours.



Photograph by Anita Doron

Gilera Girl (II)

Gilera Girl

A brush with Europe

I've never been to Europe. Not even close. So it was fun to have breakfast this morning with someone from the other side of the pond: Steffi Dobmeier, a German journalist who's been working in The Oregonian newsroom this summer as part of an international exchange program.

The Arthur F. Burns Fellowship seeks to develop reporters who are interested in and informed about U.S.-German and U.S.-European relations. Each summer, 10 reporters are selected from both Germany and the United States and placed in newsrooms in each other's country, where they produce work for their host news organization as well as their home audience.

Steffi, 32, hails from Erfurt, a city of about 200,000 in central Germany, and has been writing for her hometown newspaper since she was a teenager, beginning with contributions to the youth page. (Just like me, except that I started writing about high school sports.) Steffi's been working with our politics and business team, and I had the opportunity to edit a piece she wrote on the 20th anniversary of German reunification. It will appear in the Sunday Opinion section this weekend, in advance of the Oct. 3 ceremonies, and serve as a fitting end to her two-month stint in our newsroom.

We had breakfast at Mother's Bistro, a downtown institution. Steffi said the restaurant, with its comfortable interior and huge windows providing ample natural light, reminded her of France and that Portland, with its compact downtown and excellent public transportation, felt very much like a European city. I could only imagine what that might be like on both counts.

Lori and I hope to make it to Europe sometime in the next couple of years. By then, we'll have decided on which countries we want to see most. Leading contenders at the moment: Italy and Greece, though I'm lobbying for Ireland too.

Vestidos de novia - Colección Gipsy – Giorgio Novias 2010

Fotos y modelos de vestidos de novia de la colección Gipsy de Giorgio Novias 2010

Cuál eliges?

bd253698

Plan de belleza para novias: El cuidado de la cara

La cara es el espejo del alma. Luce un rostro fresco e hidratado para que el maquillaje sólo tenga que darle brillo. Para que nuestra piel absorba plenamente los componentes activos de las cremas y geles hidratantes, debe estar limpia. Solo de este modo los principios que aportan los tratamientos de belleza alcanzan su mayor eficacia. Por eso la limpieza facial es el paso previo de cualquier tratamiento hidratante.

La piel del rostro es muy delicada y debe limpiarse al menos dos veces al día pero sin excedernos ya que una limpieza excesiva podría resecarla. El proceso de limpieza apenas exige unos minutos pero sus resultados resultan óptimos a largo plazo. Como regla general recuerda que la piel no debe estirarse bajo ningún concepto y que los movimientos de aplicación de los productos de higiene deben ser siempre hacia arriba y circulares, usando para ello las puntas de los dedos. De este modo activaremos la micro circulación de la zona.

Los pasos básicos de una higiene facial correcta pasan por el uso de una leche limpiadora en el cuello y cara que servirá para retirar los restos de maquillaje y eliminar las impurezas. Si utilizas esponjas faciales evita las de material plástico y opta por las naturales o por los cepillitos con cerdas suaves que hay que mantener limpios y en lugar seco.

El uso de tónico o astringente es aconsejable pero no indispensable. Su función tradicional ha consistido en limpiar los residuos de la leche limpiadora y ayudar a cerrar los poros pero en la actualidad los modernos tratamientos de limpieza aúnan estos efectos en un único producto.

Recuerda que lucir una piel cuidada, es lucir una cara bonita.

bd253698

Serious Risk: Navajo Nation Water Rights

SERIOUS RISK OF NAVAJO NATION WATER RIGHTS
Article and photo by Calvin Johnson, Navajo, Leupp, Arizona

NAVAJO NATION COUNCIL DELEGATES: DO NOT WAIVE THE TREATIES OF 1849, 1868 AND THE WINTERS DOCTRINE
For the past few years, The Navajo Nation Government has been working on the Arizona Water Settlement for the Little Colorado River and the Lower Basin of the main stem Colorado River .

Recently, Council Delegates and local leaders have been pushing for voters to approve resolutions in support of this settlement.

On September 17, 2010 Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan announced a Special Session, set for September 29, 2010 at the Navajo Nation Council Chambers. The session is to start at 10 a.m. (DST) with water rights settlement as an action item listed under new business. The agenda lists Council Delegate George Arthur (T'iistoh Bikaad/San Juan/Nenanezad), the current chairman of the Resources Committee, as the sponsor of Legislation No. 0422-10 “Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement legislation” and per Office of the Speaker press release states the settlement “would settle the Navajo Nation’s and Hopi Tribe’s water rights claims in the lower basin of the Colorado River and Little Colorado River system.”

Preliminarily and from a grassroots point of view, the supposed Arizona water settlement is a huge scam and we as indigenous people who have been here for many generations will be losing our basic water rights for the sake of money, power and control.

Recently at Tolani Lake Chapter meeting, Delegate Leonard Chee stated to the public that it was “the fault of the people that the Navajo Nation will be only receiving 45,000 acre-feet/year total from the C-aquifer”. It was “they who were saying NO to water." Well, with all due respect if Mr. Chee took the time to read all the agreements/settlement and spoke to activist who understand water rights, he would have read that Navajo water is NOT FOR ALL THE NAVAJO PEOPLE.

Back in 2007, I wrote a statement about the infamous Mohave Generating Station negotiation agreement titled “Mohave Mediation Memorandum of Recommended Non-Economic Terms." In that agreement, the $600 million dollar lawsuit brought against the Federal Government would have been dismissed in exchange for giving away C-Aquifer water to the “Blackmesa Project." In the same agreement, we as a Nation would have waived and released any and all Claims against APS, Southern California Edison, Salt River Project, Nevada Power, Tucson Electric Power and LADWP, waived of certain natural resources damages claims, waived sovereign immunity. With the Arizona water settlement, we will have the same terms because the Treaties of 1849, 1868 and the Winters Doctrine (Winters v. United States, 1908) guarantees the Navajo People water rights to the Little Colorado River and the Lower Basin of the main stem Colorado River.

In order for Navajo Nation to approve the Arizona Water Settlement for the Little Colorado River and the Lower Basin of the main stem Colorado River, the Navajo Nation must waive our rights to water such as the Winters Doctrine. I want to emphasis again, that the Treaties of 1849, 1868, and the Winters Doctrine entitles all the Navajo People as a nation water rights whether it’s brown, clear or underground.

Additional serious and grave concerns regarding the Little Colorado River and the Lower Basin of the main stem Colorado River Settlement are the lucrative terms such as:

• Allowing of non-Indian users to pump unlimited amounts of C-aquifer water from wells beyond 18 miles south of the Navajo Nation boundary;

• Allowing of non-Indian users unlimited amounts of C-aquifer water 18 miles south of the Navajo Nation boundary –even though excessive pumping will reduce flows in the River and may bring more salty water to Navajo wells .

• Allowing of non-Indian water users to pump as much “underground flow” as they want without regard for impact on Navajo use of same aquifers.

• Waiving all Navajo priority and reserved water rights to the Little Colorado and Colorado Rivers for other uses forever .

To all farmers, ranchers, sheep herders, elders, youth, the great people of the Navajo Nation please call the speaker’s office at (928) 871-7160 or the Navajo Nation Council’s Office at (928) 871-6380 and urge your local leaders, delegates to VOTE NO on the Arizona Water Settlement for the Little Colorado River and the Lower Basin of the main stem Colorado River.

The Navajo Nation leaders should be fighting and defending the Treaties of 1849, 1868 and the Winters Doctrine. Every drop of what belongs to Navajo is will deserved, not by giving it away to greedy corporations or entities who in return do not help our nation. Also, a clarification of Mr. Chee’s accusation of the residents of Canyon Diablo who were saying no water for Peabody was due to the fact that impacted residents were not to receive a single drop of water even if the pipeline was directly in front of their homes. Same goes for the Dilkon Water Project: Water will be piped to Dilkon but impacted residents living in front or directly of the line will NOT receive any water. Would you say yes to such a project if you were not to get water for 15 years down the road?

Calvin Johnson
Leupp, AZ
caljohnson2006@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions officially of my employer or the Leupp Schools Inc., its employees, staff and/or its board.
Calvin Johnson
PO Box 5527
Leupp, AZ 86035



Also see: Secret negotiations exposed on Navajo water rights
Navajos urge Navajo Nation Council to vote 'No' on Sept. 29 to this settlement of Navajo water rights, a giveaway of Navajo water rights
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/09/secret-negotiations-released-on-navajo.html
Download or print this document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/37688923/Navajo-water-rights-give-away-exposed