Hackers expose racism's underbelly: Driving while black, brown or red in Arizona

Driving, and living, while Black, Brown or Red in Arizona
Article and photo by Brenda Norrell
Copyright Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photos: Arizona border victims by Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- When the ACLU released the report, "Driving while Black or Brown," exposing racial profiling by Arizona police, it came as no surprise to Native Americans who live in the state. When hackers exposed the racist e-mails of Arizona police officers last week, it came as no surprise to the Native Americans who are victims of excessive force by Arizona police in bordertowns.
When hackers exposed the fact that off-duty US Marine contract killers are patrolling the Arizona border with assault weapons, stalking migrants, it came as no surprise to human rights organizations in southern Arizona. When hackers exposed the fact that a school cop was reporting the diversity class at a Tucson high school to the Arizona Attorney General, that probably came as a surprise to many students and staff at Santa Rita High School. The district is engaged in an ongoing battle with the State of Arizona to save its ethnic studies programs.
What was a surprise when hackers spilled data from Arizona police files? The surprise was that they got caught. Arizona police, private security officers and white supremacists have carried out their abuse and crimes with impunity in the State of Arizona. The Governor, Arizona State Legislature and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have fueled the xenophobic attitude towards migrants and all people of color. This trio has attempted to create rule by white supremacists in a state populated by 21 American Indian Nations and diverse peoples and cultures.
"The good old boy" system crashed with the servers of the Fraternal Order of Police websites last week.
While the mainstream media fuels the racism, aiding private prison profiteers to fill their prisons with people of color, the media also paints Sheriff Arpaio as a colorful character, rather than examining the poisonous climate of hate he has injected into the region.
What was in those police e-mails hacked last week? There were racist chain letters forwarded by police about immigrants. There were insulting chain letters about President Obama. There was an e-mail praising torture from the police chief of Springerville, located near the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and White Mountain Apache Indian Nations.
The data exposed a registered sex offender who is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, and a stalker who was a potential candidate for police chief in Tucson in 2009. It also exposed that a Navajo police officer from Teec Nos Pos discovered Arizona state police were filing charges in state court, rather than tribal court, for crimes on Indian land. The Navajo officer was then targeted by his superior and discriminated against.
Although a group of the worst e-mails have been published, one e-mail was too vulgar to publish. The e-mail was sent to a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, who is a former employee of the private prison profiteer Corrections Corporations of America. The e-mail was vulgar sarcasm about what was actually down to the body of Osama bin Laden. It was sent by a person working at a lighting company in southern California. The same FPO member had an outgoing e-mail with too much profanity to publish.
The data exposed the fact that Arizona police are well aware of the white supremacists and hate groups in Arizona. There are few eyes to witness the murders and rapes in the Sonoran Desert. The victims who are people of color in Arizona are a low priority for Arizona prosecutors. When US Border Patrol agents have been charged with the murder of migrants in federal court in Tucson, they were not convicted.
The hacked e-mails show that Arizona police are well aware that their own data was used when the ACLU prepared the report, "Driving while Black or Brown." The report showed that Native Americans stopped by Arizona police are 3.25 times more likely to be searched than whites. The report says that these targeted searches were uncalled for, since whites are far more likely to be carrying contraband than Native Americans.
Here's a recap of stories from the e-mails and reports exposed by hackers during June, who sail under the names of Antisec, Anonymous and Lulzsec.
Hackers slam Arizona police a third time
Hackers slammed the Arizona Department of Police for a third time on Thursday night, exposing police e-mails with more racism directed at Arabs, anti-immigrant chain e-mails, and crude jokes about President Obama. The release, Chinga La Migra Comminque III, "Fraternal Ownage of Police," targets Arizona's Fraternal Order of Police. The Antisec movement said they are defacing and taking down their websites, on behalf of the rights of immigrants and working people. Read the worst e-mails:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/hackers-slam-arizona-police-for-third.html
Tucson: Hackers reveal data targeting ethnic studies
TUCSON -- Hackers have once again slammed Arizona police, exposing racism and corruption.
In the second release of data on Wednesday, June 29, in the Chinga La Migra Dos files, Tucson schools public safety officer Robert 'Bob' Barry of Tucson, sent a letter to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne urging an investigation of studies at Santa Rita High School in May.
Barry tells the Attorney General that students at Santa Rita High are being "indoctrinated" because they are being told about the genocide of Native Americans. Barry calls a diversity speech "hate speech." Read more:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/tucson-hackers-reveal-data-targeting.html
Hacked data reveals US Marines as contract killers, hunting migrants on the border
The hunting and murder of migrants by US Marines along the Arizona border was among the first facts revealed, after LulzSec hacked the Arizona Department of Public Safety on Thursday. The data exposes the fact that Arizona law enforcement officers were aware that migrants were being hunted by off-duty Marines patrolling the border with assault weapons. The information was in a report for the month of October, 2008, by Arizona's HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) Investigative Support Center.
"In other incidents reported in October, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered two subjects who claimed to be members of the Border Watch Group the Blue Lights based on the Caballo Loco Ranch. The subjects, armed with pistols and at least one M4 rifle, were dressed in full desert camouflage uniforms, similar to those of the United States military. They stated they were not members of the Minutemen, but paid contract employees who ‘get the job done’ and ‘were not just volunteers.’ They possessed valid United States Marine Corps identification cards."
Read more about this ranch near Sasabe, Arizona, south of Three Points, and alongside the Tohono O'odham Nation. The Caballo Loco is where Minutemen, Patriots, off-duty Marines and other white supremacists camp and stalk migrants:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/hacked-data-reveals-us-marines-contract.html
Also see:
ACLU Arizona Racial Profiling "Driving while Black or Brown"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/59087728/Arizona-Racial-Profiling-Report-Driving-Black-or-Brown
Columbus, Ohio Police Target Native American Long Walkers, on Friday, July 3, 2011, and in 2008:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/07/columbus-ohio-police-target-native.html
About the photos
At El Tiradito Shrine in Tucson, the organization "No More Deaths," remembered "Descondido" and thousands of other migrants who have died along the border of the United States and Mexico. Descondido was found hanged near the village of Cowlic in 2005 and is among the migrants meeting with violent death after crossing the border.
At El Tiradito Shrine in Tucson, volunteers with "No More Deaths," remembered migrants who have died along the border during a prayer vigil at a shrine in Tucson. When each migrants' name was read, those present said, "Presente" (Present) to show that they had not been forgotten. Thousands of names of migrants, who died from dehydration, assaults and other causes, were placed at the shrine.
Shrine outside federal courthouse in Tucson for Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, from Morelia, Mexico, murdered by US Border Patrol agent. Agent was found not guilty.
Angie Ramon, Tohono O'odham, mother of Bennett Patricio, Jr, 18, stands where her son was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol on Tohono O'odham land. Ramon sued the officers in federal court, alleging her son was murdered by officers when he walked up on Border Patrol agents transferring a load of drugs in the remote desert at 3 am. Ramon carried the case to the Ninth Circuit and found no justice.
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Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 29 years, living on the Navajo Nation for 18 years and in Tucson for a decade.
Copyright Censored News. To request permission to repost, please contact the publisher Brenda Norrell, brendanorrell@gmail.com
=================================================================

Agent Orange exposed in toxic genocide targeting Indian communities

Agent Orange was used in the US, BC and Ontario, prior to and after the Vietnam War

Update in the news: Agent Orange sprayed along Ontario roadways until the 1980s:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/02/24/agent-orange-ont-highways485.html?ref=rss

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
PINAL MOUNTAINS, Ariz. -- Arizona was one of 21 states where Agent Orange was stored, or tested, prior to and during the Vietnam War, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The site in Arizona was in the Tonto National Forest in the Pinal Mountains near Globe, in the Apaches homeland.
The Department of Defense published studies showing that exposure to Agent Orange has led to adult onset diabetes. Medical studies have linked exposure to brain tumors, and diseases in grandchildren of those in contact with Agent Orange. The severe deformities and birth defects resulting from Agent Orange exposure of pregnant women in Vietnam can be seen online in the photos of their children.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs reveals that Agent Orange was tested and used in Florida and Texas as early as 1944. But even after it was banned in the US, it was sprayed in Canada.
In Canada, Agent Orange was sprayed in British Columbia during the 1980s. At Kapuskasing, Ontario, Agent Orange was sprayed about 20 kilometers from a First Nations community.
Agent Orange spraying in Gagetown and surrounding communities in Canada had far reaching effects, since soldiers from around the world trained there.
The spraying at Kapuskasing reveals the pattern of the US and Canada of targeting areas with Indian communities. Kapuskasing was not only the site of Agent Orange spraying, but was also the site of a WWI prisoner of war camp and later a power plant.
In a pattern of toxic genocide, areas near and on Indian communities have been used as prisoner of war camps, power plant sites and toxic waste dumps.
In Arizona, the WWII prisoner of war camps included sites on Gila River Indian Community and Colorado River Indian Nations. Coal-fired power plants are now on and around many Indian Nations, including the Navajo Nation. The Western Shoshone in Nevada and Goshute in Utah continue to be targeted with toxic and nuclear waste dumps.
Navajos in New Mexico, Havasupai in Arizona and Lakotas in Nebraska and the Dakotas are targeted with new uranium mining that could contaminate their drinking water. During the Cold War, Navajos, Acomas and Laguna Pueblos worked in uranium mines without protective clothing and many died of cancer and respiratory diseases. Today, radioactive tailings are strewn on the Navajo Nation.
Dene in Canada, like the Dine' in Arizona, were never told of the dangers of uranium mining during the Cold War, and worked in the uranium mines without protective clothing. In the Pueblos, the radioactive dust blew on their foods as they ate.
In the case of the Goshute in Utah, their neighbor continues to be a biological and chemical warfare testing site, the US military's Dugway Proving Ground.
John H.W. Hummel is pressing for an investigation of the use of Agent Orange in and around Indian communities in Canada and the United States.
"I think that herbicides (contaminated with dioxin) were sprayed on many of the forests and traditional territories of Indigenous people in North America. I think that this has harmed the health of many people," Hummel told Censored News.
"The infamous 'Agent Orange' was sprayed by the forest industry upon large tracts of Canadian forests in Ontario, New Brunswick, British Columbia and likely elsewhere in Canada and probably on American forests too.
"This should be investigated. It may well impact thousands of Indigenous people on this continent," Hummel said.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs now provides a list of sites where Agent Orange was tested and stored, beginning in 1944, in the US.
As more people who were exposed to Agent Orange develop cancer and other serious health problems, the liabilities multiply for the US. Veterans and other victims are now fighting for justice, both at Veterans hospitals for treatment and in court for restitution.
The US Veterans Affairs website states that Agent Orange was used to remove foliage providing cover for the enemy during the Vietnam War.
"Agent Orange was the most widely used of the herbicide combinations sprayed. Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam were tested or stored elsewhere, including some military bases in the United States," the Veterans Affairs website states.
"The U.S. military herbicide program in South Vietnam took place between 1961 and 1971. Herbicides were sprayed in all 4 military zones of Vietnam. More than 19 million gallons of various herbicide combinations were used. Agent Orange was the combination of herbicides the U.S. military used most often."
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/outside_vietnam_usa.asp#Arizona
"Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam were tested or stored elsewhere, including many military bases in the United States. Below is information from the Department of Defense (DoD) on projects to test, dispose of, or store herbicides in the U.S. For projects outside the U.S., go to Herbicide Tests and Storage Outside the U.S."
Meanwhile, Agent Orange was used in BC, Canada, after the Vietnam War, during the 1980s.
Jorma Jyrkkanen said, "When I was habitat protection technician for the BC Fish and Wildlife Branch between 1981 and 1987, I got a request by the BC Ministry of Forests to use Estron 3-3E in a sensitive area near the mouth of the Lakelse River. Upon examination of the ingredients, I determined that it was in fact one of the Agent Orange (AO) concoctions and rejected the application along with a note to MOF that I was not very pleased that they had entertained such an option. Read more ...
http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/tag/pesticides%20orange
Ontario teens were soaked by Agent Orange spraying done at Kapuskasing: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940243--star-exclusive-agent-orange-soaked-ontario-teens
The Toronto Star reported that, "records from the 1950s, 60s and 70s show forestry workers, often students and junior rangers, spent weeks at a time as human markers holding red, helium-filled balloons on fishing lines while low-flying planes sprayed toxic herbicides including an infamous chemical mixture known as Agent Orange on the brush and the boys below."
Agent Orange was used in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil (see Wikipedia link in references below.)
"The Brazilian government used Agent Orange to defoliate a large section of the Amazon rainforest so that Alcoa could build the Tucuruí dam to power mining operations. Large areas of rainforest were destroyed, along with the homes and livelihoods of thousands of rural peasants and indigenous tribes," according to Wikipedia.
In Feb., 2011, the Toronto Star exposed the fact that powerline corridors were sprayed with Agent Orange.
Hummel said, "If dioxin contaminated Agent Orange was sprayed along these transmission corridors, the implications are horrendous. Especially for the First Nations and Métis people who may hunt, fish and pick berries anywhere near these corridors. These transmission line corridors pass through many of the First Nation and Metis peoples Traditional territories.
"Dioxin has been linked to approximately 50 diseases and medical conditions: http://www.vva.org/agent_orange.html including Type II Diabetes. If Ontario Hydro, Forest companies, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Natural Resources were spraying Agent Orange all over Ontario, you can bet it happened all over Canada and in the United States as well. We need a truly National, coast to coast, enquiry about all of this."
US sites where Agent Orange was stored and tested, US Department of Veterans Affairs:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/outside_vietnam_usa.asp#Arizona
Arizona Arkansas California Florida Georgia Hawaii Indiana Kansas Kentucky Maryland Mississippi Montana New York North Dakota Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Texas Utah Washington Wisconsin
Read more at Wikipedia:
Miscarriages and birth defects linked to Agent Orange spraying in US and Vietnam; Dow Chemical and Monsanto produced Agent Orange; Agent Orange used in Australia and New Zealand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
Also see:
VA links Agent Orange to brain cancer in court decision:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/02/prweb5080394.htm
Department of Defense: Agent Orange exposure leads to adult onset diabetes:
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=8662
Recent News Coverage
CANADA:
Agent Orange "soaked" Ontario teens:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940243--star-exclusive-agent-orange-soaked-ontario-teens
Agent Orange outrage - Timmins Daily Press:
http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2983915
Ontario probes Agent Orange poisoning: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940878--ontario-probes-agent-orange-poisoning
Agent Orange probe widens: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/941635--agent-orange-probe-widens
Agent Orange spraying in Gagetown and surrounding communities:
http://www.agentorangecanada.com/
LINKS
Transportation Ministry also used Agent Orange, say NDP. Minister investigates. - Winnipeg Free Press:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/health/transportation-ministry-also-used-agent-orange-say-ndp-minister-investigates-116829673.html
'Sources of Dioxins and Furans in British Columbia':
http://groups.google.com/group/friends-of-agg/browse_thread/thread/1e068b72934933e5
Agent Orange Use in British Columbia: http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/tag/pesticides%20orange
Ontario probes Agent Orange poisoning: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/940878--ontario-probes-agent-orange-poisoning
WHEN DID TRANSPORTATION MINISTER KNOW ABOUT AGENT ORANGE USAGE: Why Does It Take the Opposition to Tell the Truth:
http://www.gillesbisson.com/newsitem.php?id=836
Just added: Sources of dioxins and furans in British Columbia:
http://friends-of-agg.googlegroups.com/attach/ddf3302e6fc3b7b4/img-221143025-0001.pdf?view=1&part=4

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

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

Uranium Mining Begins at Grand Canyon

Uranium Mining Begins at Grand Canyon
Thousands of Claims Threaten Public Health and Sacred Lands

By Klee Benally
Indigenous Action Media
(http://www.indigenousaction.org/)

Photo (R): Havasupai gathered near Red Butte at the south rim of the Grand Canyon in July to oppose Denison Mines new uranium mining. Photo Brenda Norrell.

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. -- In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009.

Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium per day out of the "Arizona 1 Mine", which is set to operate four days per week. The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company's White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah.
After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1 million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn't include existing claims such as Denison's. The moratorium also doesn't address mining claims outside of the buffer zone.

The Grand Canyon is ancestral homeland to the Havasupai and Hualapai Nations. Although both Indigenous Nations have banned uranium mining on their reservations the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management may permit thousands of mining claims on surrounding lands.

Due to recent increases in the price of uranium and the push for nuclear power nearly 8,000 new mining claims now threaten Northern Arizona. Uranium mined from the Southwestern U.S. is predominately purchased by countries such as France (Areva) & Korea for nuclear energy.

In July of 2009 members of the Havasupai Nation and their allies gathered for four days on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at their sacred site Red Butte to address the renewed threat. Red Butte has long been endangered by the on-going threat of uranium mining.

Under an anachronistic 1872 mining law, created when pick axes and shovels were used, mining companies freely file claims on public lands. The law permits mining regardless of cultural impacts.

OBAMA APPROVES NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS AND INCREASED NEED FOR URANIUM

Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.'s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005.
Since 2007, seventeen companies have now sought government approval for 26 more reactors with plans to complete four by 2018 and up to eight by 2020. New reactors are estimated to cost more than $12 billion each.
Although nuclear energy is hailed by some as a solution to the current U.S. energy crisis and global warming, those more closely impacted by uranium mining and transportation recognize the severity of the threat.

THE COLORADO RIVER, WATER & URANIUM'S DEADLY LEGACY

Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects.
Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources.

Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.
The river that carves the Grand Canyon has been extensively used by the agricultural industry and cities that are dependent for drinking water, so much so that it now ceases to flow to the Gulf of California, forcing members of the Cocopah Nation (The People of the River) in Northern Mexico to abandon their homelands and relocate elsewhere.
Today there are more than 2,000 abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest. U.S. government agencies have done little or nothing to clean up contaminated sites and abandoned mines. At Rare Metals near Tuba City on the Diné (Navajo) Nation a layer of soil and rock is the only covering over 2.3 million tons of hazardous waste. A rock dam surrounds the radioactive waste to control runoff water that flows into nearby Moenkopi Wash. Throughout the Diné Nation, Diné families have been subject to decades of radioactive contamination ranging from unsafe mining conditions to living in houses built from uranium tailings. Well water is documented by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as undrinkable in at least 22 communities such as Black Falls on the Dine’ Nation. According to the EPA, "Approximately 30 percent of the Navajo population does not have access to a public drinking water system and may be using unregulated water sources with uranium contamination." Flocks of sheep and other livestock still graze among radioactive tailing piles and ingest radioactive water.

According to the Navajo Nation up to 2.5 million gallons of uranium contaminated water is leaching out of the Shiprock Uranium Mill near Shiprock, New Mexico into the San Juan River every year. At the Church Rock Mine in New Mexico, which is now attempting to re-open, up to 875,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste continue to contaminate the land.
In July 1979 a dirt dam breached on the Navajo Nation at a uranium processing plant releasing more than 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and nearly 100 million gallons of contaminated fluid into the Rio Puerco (which ultimately flows into the Colorado River) near Church Rock, NM. This was the single largest nuclear accident in US history. Thousands of Diné families that live in the region, including those forced to relocate from the Joint Use Area due to coal mining, continue to suffer health impacts resulting from the spill.

In 2005 the Diné Nation government banned uranium mining and processing within its borders due to uranium's harmful legacy of severe health impacts and poisoning of the environment. And yet, high cancer rates, birth defects and other health impacts still bear out the uranium industry's dangerous legacy.

NUCLEAR WASTE & INDIGENOUS SACRED LANDS

Today the US has nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear waste stored in concrete dams at nuclear power plants throughout the country. The waste increases at a rate of 2,000 tons per year. Depleted Uranium (DU) is a byproduct of uranium enrichment and reprocessing which has controversial military uses including armor piercing projectiles. DU has been found to cause long-term health effects ranging from harming organs to causing miscarriages and birth defects.
In 1987 Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the U.S.'s toxic waste at Yucca Mountain located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Yucca Mountain has been held holy to the Paiute and Western Shoshone Nations since time immemorial.

In February 2009 Obama met a campaign promise to cut funding for the multibillion dollar Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The controversial project was initially proposed in 1987 with radioactive waste to be shipped from all over the U.S. via rails and highways. Currently a new proposal for an experimental method of extracting additional fuel from nuclear waste called "reprocessing" renews the threat to desecrate the sacred mountain on Western Shoshone lands.

Western Shoshone lands, which have never been ceeded to the U.S. government, have long been under attack by the military and nuclear industry. Between 1951 and 1992 more than 1,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated above and below the surface at an area called the Nevada Test Site on Western Shoshone lands which make it one of the most bombed nations on earth. Communities in areas around the test site faced exposure to radioactive fallout which has caused cancers, leukemia & other illnesses. Western Shoshone spiritual practitioner Corbin Harney, who has since passed on, helped initiate a grassroots effort to shutdown the test site and abolish nuclear weapons.

Indigenous Peoples in the Marshall Islands have also faced serious impacts due to U.S. nuclear testing. In her book, Conquest: Sexual Violence & American Indian Genocide, Andrea Smith reports that some Indigenous Peoples in the islands have all together stopped reproducing due to the severity of cancer and birth defects they have faced.

CONTINUING RESISTANCE

In March 1988 more than 8,000 people converged for massive 10 day direct action to "reclaim" the test site, nearly 3,000 people were arrested. Groups such as the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) and Shundahai Network continue their work to shut down the test site and resist the corporate and military nuclear industry.

Throughout the 1980's a fierce movement of grassroots resistance and direct action against uranium mining near the Grand Canyon had taken shape, galvanized by the Havasupai, Hopi, Diné (Navajo), Hualapai tribes and a Flagstaff group, Canyon Under Siege. Prayerful and strategic meetings were held once a year throughout the 80s. In 1989 a group known as the 'Arizona 5' were charged for eco-actions including cutting power-lines to the Canyon Uranium Mine. Attributable in some part to the resistance and but mainly to a sharp drop in the price of uranium, companies like Dennison were forced to shut their mines down.

Mt. Taylor, located on Forest Service managed lands in New Mexico between Albuquerque and Gallup, has also faced the threat of uranium mining. The mountain sits upon one of the richest reservers of uranium ore in the country, it is held holy by the Diné, Acoma, Laguna, Zuni & Hopi Nations. In June 2009 Indigenous Nations and environmental groups unified to protect the holy Mountain and through their efforts Mt. Taylor was given temporary protection as a Traditional Cultural Property.

For 7 years Indigenous People from throughout the world have gathered to organize against the nuclear industry at the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum on the Acoma Nation.

At the 2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit on the Diné Nation, community organizations such as Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) joined participants from Australia, India, Africa, Pacific Islands, and throughout North America in issuing a declaration demanding "a worldwide ban on uranium mining, processing, enrichment, fuel use, and weapons testing and deployment, and nuclear waste dumping on native lands."

Klee Benally (Diné) is a collective member of Indigenous Action Media, on the Board of Directors of the Shundahai Network, and is a musician with the group Blackfire.
Author Mary Sojourner assisted editing this article. For further information and action:

Southwest Research and Information Center
http://www.sric.org/

Shundahai Network
http://www.shundahai.org/

Nevada Desert Experience
http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/

The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Grand Canyon Trust
http://grandcanyontrust.org/

Uranium Watch
http://www.uraniumwatch.org/
World Information Service on Energy: Uranium Project
http://www.wise-uranium.org/

Western Mining Action Network
http://wman-info.org/

Network Sortir du Nucléaire
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/

Sources:
Addressing Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation - Map of contaminated wells
http://epa.gov/region09/superfund/navajo-nation/contaminated-water.html
Tuba City Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/tubacity_title1.html#_ftn51
EPA summit addresses uranium cleanup
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/08august/081408epa.html
Conservation groups challenge uranium mining threat to Colorado River
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/30/conservation-groups-challenge-uranium-mining-threa

A peril that dwelt among the Navajos - L.A. TImes - November 19, 2006
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/19/nation/na-navajo19
Uranium Mining & Milling
http://www.wise-uranium.org/indexu.html#UMMCI
Colorado River Facts
http://www.azhumanities.org/movingwaters/faq.html
Nuclear power inches back into energy spotlight
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-03-29-nuclear-power-energy-return_N.htm
AREVA: France’s nuke power poster child has a money melt-down
http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=506&lang=en
Environmental Working Group - January 2008 - Report: Grand Canyon Threatened by Approval of Uranium Mining Activities
http://www.ewg.org/reports/grandcanyon
Shiprock Mill Site
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html
Grand Canyon Trust
http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/
The Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Southwest Research and Information Center
http://www.sric.org/

Nuclear Free Future
http://www.nuclear-free.com/

Klee Benally
indigenousaction@gmail.com
http://www.indigenousaction.org/ - Independent Indigenous Media
http://www.oybm.org/ - Indigenous Youth Empowerment!
http://www.savethepeaks.org/ - Protect Sacred Places
http://www.taalahooghan.org/ - Flagstaff Infoshop
http://www.blackfire.net/

www.myspace.com/eelk
www.twitter.com/eelk
Skype: indigenousaction

CENSORED NEWS: This uranium mining, transport and processing threatens the water supply and health of Paiute, Havasupai, Hualapai, Navajo and Ute in this immediate region, as well as visitors, other residents and those living along the Colorado River.
GRAND CANYON TRUST: "Denison Mines, a Canadian company, recently revived operations at the Arizona 1 uranium mine on the Arizona Strip adjacent to Grand Canyon. This industrial activity threatens not only the visitor experience at Grand Canyon National Park, but the water supply for twenty-five million people in Nevada, southern California, and Arizona, as well as seeps and springs in the park. Worse yet is the fact that much of the uranium will be shipped to Korea."

Uranium Mining in Region Resumes

By CYNDY COLE

Arizona Daily Sun

Driven by a rebound in prices, uranium mining has resumed in northern Arizona after a hiatus of about 20 years.
Employees working for Denison Mines began removing high-grade ore at the Arizona 1 mine north of the Grand Canyon in late December, according to the company’s president, and trucking it to a mill near Blanding, Utah.
The mine is about 45 miles southwest of Fredonia in Mohave County, and about 10 miles from the boundary for Grand Canyon National Park. Read more ...

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/state-and-regional/article_94ceacc4-005e-11df-8ee1-001cc4c03286.html

TELL DENISON TO STOP:

Denison Mines is mining uranium on the lands of the Havasupai, Hualapai and Paiute at the Grand Canyon; Ute and Navajo in Utah and First Nations in Saskatchewan. TELL THEM TO HALT: Denison Mines Corp. Atrium on Bay 595 Bay Street, Suite 402 Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C2 Telephone: 416-979-1991 Fax: 416-979-5893 info@denisonmines.com

Floyd Hand: 'Spiritual vampires' desecrate sweatlodge way of life

BLACK HILLS SIOUX NATION TREATY COUNCIL
MEMBER RESERVATIONS
Cheyenne River
Crow Creek
Fort Peck
Lower Brule
Pine Ridge
Rosebud
Standing Rock
Yankton
Contact: Natalie Hand @ 605-867-5762
November 24, 2009
By Natalie Hand
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

On November 2, 2009, Floyd Hand, Jr., (Oglala Lakota Sioux) Oglala Delegate to the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, along with Ivan H. Lewis (Pima/Maricopa/Yavapai), filed a lawsuit (Case No.: CV-09-8196-PCT-FJM) in the U.S. District Court in Arizona against James Arthur Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center.
In the petition, Hand and Lewis assert that Ray caused the desecration of the sacred Lakota ceremony, “Inikaga,” commonly referred to as sweat lodge, by causing the deaths of three participants. The suit contends that Angel Valley Retreat Center is culpable for allowing individuals like Ray to rent their property which offers a sweat lodge for paying participants. Furthermore, Ray and Angel Valley Retreat Center committed fraud by impersonating Native Americans and must be held responsible for causing the deaths of the victims and serious injuries to the survivors.
In the immediate aftermath of the deaths, Ray fled the scene and Angel Valley Retreat Center staff dismantled the sweat lodge, thus tampering with a crime scene.
Hand contends that the “Inikaga” and other ancient Lakota rituals is a way of life, not a religion.
“Ray is a spiritual vampire who will use whatever means necessary to turn a profit. He and others like him that profit from our culture must be held accountable for their continual fraud and desecration. This ceremony comes from the Lakota. We maintain our cultural identity today and people like Ray are trying to mock it as a means to acquire material possessions. They cannot hide behind the Religious Freedom Act. This is NOT a religion," stated Hand.
The Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868 between the United States and the Great Sioux Nation is a legal binding agreement that is the “supreme law of the land."
Article 1 of the Treaty states that “… if bad men among the whites or other people subject to the authority of the United States shall commit any wrong upon the person or the property of the Indians, the United States will … proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained …”
For Ivan Lewis, this lawsuit is a long overdue. “I joined with my Lakota brothers to stop the desecration. These new-agers have been selling our native ceremonies for years here on our homeland. The non-natives are taking everything from us. Ray and the Angel Valley folks are a dime a dozen in Yavapai territory. My hope is that this lawsuit will put light on our treaties with the U.S. and will show the people of Arizona that we have sovereign rights," stated Lewis.
Importantly, Hand and Lewis want to emphasize that they are not affiliated with a group calling themselves the “Council of Indigenous Traditional Healers."
“This group claims that they will authenticate and qualify individuals, including non-Indians, to conduct our ceremonies. Our people know who is a real healer and who isn't. Yes, everyone is entitled to pray, but our ceremonies belong with us in our native tongue," noted Lewis.
To date, the plaintiffs have received notification that a judge has been assigned to the case. The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office's homicide investigation continues and hopes to submit evidence to the County Attorney's Office in December.

Comments:

Alex White Plume, Lakota
"Thank you for this. The elders in a meeting at Billy Nills Hall discussed this. They said, we never say no, now they are getting out of hand with our ways. The Lakota make wopila, not to charge for personal gain. A society leader was acknowledged. This society is created to stop people from this type of outright capitalization of ceremonies. They are young, sober, and strong Lakota. We know they will defend our way. This society is sovereign, and can act any where they see our ceremonies being violated. I think the concept will grow across our country."

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.

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/