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KEEPING IMPORTANT INDIAN COUNTRY NEWS AVAILABLE LONGER
ETP Seeks Dakota Access Expansion Argus Media - 31 MAR 2017
Houston, 31 March (Argus) — Energy Transfer Partners is
looking to expand its 470,000 b/d Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) even
before the controversial pipeline begins full service.
Energy Transfer has launched a supplemental open season for
incremental capacity on the line that will transport crude from the
Bakken shale in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois, for further
delivery to the US Gulf coast. The company is considering boosting
capacity on DAPL to as much as 570,000 b/d depending on shipper
interest.
The company is in the process of commissioning the pipeline
and preparing to place it into service in the second quarter after
completing a contested water crossing in North Dakota, according to
a court filing earlier this week. The company said on 23 February
that the line should be "fully line-packed and ready to go" prior to
1 June.
The open season also includes the Energy Transfer Crude Oil
pipeline which stretches from Patoka to Nederland, Texas. Shippers
have the option to sign up for a local DAPL tariff or a joint tariff
on the two systems which would provide a direct route from the
Bakken to the Gulf coast.
The open season notice did not specify a closing date.
DAPL was delayed for months amid large protests led by the
Standing Rock Sioux tribe and regulatory delays. Former President
Barack Obama's administration ordered new environmental reviews of
the $3.8bn project. But President Donald Trump moved to rescind the
order and an easement was issued for the final crossing on 8
February.
The Sioux Standing Rock tribe has vowed to continue a legal
fight against the pipeline.
Attorneys for Dallas Firm ETP's Dakota Access Pipeline Face
Religious Argument from Tribes Dallas News - 31 MAR 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. -- Attorneys for the developer of the Dakota
Access pipeline are fighting an attempt by Sioux tribes to argue
that oil under their water source potentially interferes with their
religion, even as the company steadily fills the line with oil.
The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes sued last
summer on other grounds, including that the pipeline threatened
cultural sites and water supply, which they get from Lake Oahe, a
reservoir on the Missouri River in North Dakota. Energy Transfer
Partners this week asked a federal judge to reject an attempt by the
tribes to amend their lawsuit in part to include the religion
argument....
TrumpCare Dies, XL Flies and the Secret Winner Is…
by Greg Palast, Nation of Change - 31 MAR 2017
When RyanCare-TrumpCare finally ended up face-down in the
swimming pool, triumphalist Democrats whooped and partied and
congratulated themselves on defeating the Trump-Ryan monstrosity.
But deep in their counting house, counting their gold, three
brothers cackled with private jubilation.
David and Charles Koch knew the day was theirs.
Joining them in the celebration was Brother Billy, William
Koch, who will share in their $21 billion windfall that the
President arranged for them only hours before TrumpCare crashed –
when Trump announced his State Department had formally approved the
Keystone XL Pipeline.
Let’s start with that $21 billion.
The XL Keystone Pipeline would take the world’s heaviest,
filthiest crude from Canada’s tar sands, and snake with it all the
way down to Texas.
Now here’s a question I never hear from our sleep-walking
media: Exactly why are we sending oil all the way across the United
States to Texas. I mean, doesn’t Texas already have a little oil?...
North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Meeting
by ND Human Rights Coalition on Facebook - 30 MAR
2017
DAPL panel discussion featuring Winona LaDuke (former vice
presidential candidate/environmentalist) and many others. Senator
Tim Mathern, BJ Nastacio, Rebecca Kemble, Dennis Kooren...
Here’s the Data Republicans Just Allowed ISPs to Sell Without Your
Consent
Privacy watchdogs blasted the vote as a brazen GOP giveaway to the
broadband industry.
by Sam Gustin, Motherboard - 28 MAR 2017
Financial and medical information. Social Security numbers.
Web browsing history. Mobile app usage. Even the content of your
emails and online chats.
These are among the types of private consumer information
that House Republicans voted on Tuesday to allow your internet
service provider (ISP) to sell to the highest bidder without your
permission, prompting outrage from privacy watchdogs.
The House action, which was rammed through by a vote of 215 -
205 on a largely partisan basis by the GOP majority, represents
another nail in the coffin of landmark Federal Communications
Commission consumer privacy rules that were passed in 2016. The
rules, which were set to go into effect later this year, would have
required broadband providers to obtain "opt-in" consent before
using, sharing, or selling private consumer data.
"Ignoring calls from thousands of their constituents, House
Republicans just joined their colleagues in the Senate in violating
internet users' privacy rights," Craig Aaron, CEO of DC-based public
interest group Free Press Action Fund, said in a statement. "They
voted to take away the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of
Americans just so a few giant companies could pad their already
considerable profits."...
The Keystone XL Pipeline — Bringing oil to Texas?!?
Greg Palast, YouTube - 24 MAR 2017
Why in the world would you have to ship oil to Texas? And how
do the Koch Brothers make money from such an environmentally obscene
venture? I followed the stench of the Koch's oil and money to find
out....
Big Mountain Resident Famous for HPL Resistance Passes On
by Krista Allen, Navajo Times - 30 MAR 2017
TUBA CITY -- Katherine Smith, a cultural educator, a
relocation crusader and resistor from Big Mountain, Ariz., has died.
She was 98 years old, according to records, but her family says she
was more than 100 years old.
Mary Katherine Smith, the daughter of Katherine Smith, said
her mother passed away at 11:18 a.m. on March 29.
Behind a fence holding a rifle outside her Hogan, wearing her
traditional outfit, is an iconic photograph of Katherine Smith that
shows her amid a territorial dispute between the Diné and the
Kiis’áanii.
This Diaspora is also the focus of “Broken Rainbow,” an
Oscar-nominated documentary that she took part in.
Katherine Smith was Tábąąhá, and born for Chíshí Dine’é. Her
maternal grandfather was Tł’ízíłání and her paternal grandfather was
Naakaii Dine’é.
Katherine Smith often drew on Diné philosophy to explain her
profound connection to her ancestors’ traditional land she called
home, and played an indispensable role protecting it when the
federal government removed thousands of Diné families from Hopi
Partitioned Lands.
In the mid-summer of 1979, a Bureau of Indian Affairs crew
set out to fence her property in Big Mountain – Dziłntsaa in Diné
Bizaad – only to find themselves staring into the muzzle of her .22
caliber rifle, according to history. She fired over their heads, and
when they scattered, she began pulling apart the fence.
Katherine Smith at that point in time was arrested on serious
charges, only to receive a directed verdict of acquittal from a
judge.
“That was just a representation of what she stood for,” Mary
Smith said in an interview with the Navajo Times on Wednesday night.
“One of her last words … a couple of days ago was, ‘I never sold
out. I never sold my land, I never left, I never took payment, and I
never got a relocation house. I stayed on my land where I was born,
and I feel like I won this battle.’”...
RED FAWN FALLIS’ FAMILY TO HOST FUNDRAISER DURING DENVER MARCH
POWWOW
by Darren Thompson, Native News Online - 22 MAR
2017
DENVER – Family and supporters of Red Fawn Fallis are hosting
an art auction fundraiser on Friday, March 27 from 7 pm to 10 pm at
the Corazon Gallery during the weekend of the annual Denver March
Powwow. The art auction will feature renowned artists, musicians,
appearances by the International Indigenous Youth Council and
leaders of the Water is Life movement.
Red Fawn Fallis was originally arrested near the Standing
Rock Indian Reservation on Thursday, October 27 along with 140
others when law enforcement forcibly removed water protectors
encamped on treaty land in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
She was initially charged with attempted murder of a police officer
by the State of North Dakota, but now faces separate Federal felony
charges of civil disorder, discharging a firearm in relation to a
felony crime of violence, and possession of a firearm by a convicted
felon.
If convicted of discharging a firearm, she faces a minimum of
10 years in in federal prison....
An anonymous letter claimed the Scotland Yard unit accessed
activists’ email accounts for ‘a number of years’.
Photograph: Kirsty O'Connor/PA
Met Police Accused of Using Hackers to Access Protesters' Emails
Exclusive: Watchdog investigates claim that secretive unit worked
with Indian police to obtain campaigners’ passwords The Guardian - 21 MAR 2017
The police watchdog is investigating allegations that a
secretive Scotland Yard unit used hackers to illegally access the
private emails of hundreds of political campaigners and journalists.
The allegations were made by an anonymous individual who says
the unit worked with Indian police, who in turn used hackers to
illegally obtain the passwords of the email accounts of the
campaigners, and some reporters and press photographers.
The person, who says he or she previously worked for
the intelligence unit that monitors the activities of political
campaigners, detailed their concerns in a letter to the Green party
peer Jenny Jones. The peer passed on the allegations to the
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is
investigating....
A Lesson Trump and the E.P.A. Should Heed
by William D Ruckelshaus, New York Times - 07 MAR
2017
In March 1983, President Ronald Reagan asked me to return to
Washington to run the Environmental Protection Agency. I had been
the E.P.A.’s first administrator, from 1970 to 1973, and over the
agency’s first 10 years, it made enormous progress in bringing the
country’s worst pollution problems under control despite resistance
from polluting industries and their lobbyists. A worried and
outraged public had demanded action, and the government responded.
Yet the agency and its central mission came under attack
during the 1980 presidential campaign. The Clean Air Act was
criticized as an obstacle to growth. The agency was seen as bloated,
inefficient, exceeding its congressional mandates and costing jobs.
The Reagan administration and its new administrator were going to
fix that. Sound familiar?
The E.P.A. I returned to in the spring of 1983, some 28
months into President Reagan’s first term, was dispirited and in
turmoil. Its administrator, Anne M. Gorsuch, had been cited for
contempt of Congress. Its budget had been reduced by almost 25
percent, with more cuts promised. Staffing had been slashed.
There were internal conflicts, resignations of key officials,
complaints of documents being destroyed and reports of secret
meetings with officials from companies under investigation by the
agency. One political appointee, Rita Lavelle, was facing
accusations of lying to Congress, for which she would later be
convicted. And voters were taking notice. President Reagan
discovered that government backsliding on protecting Americans’
health and the environment would not be tolerated by an awakened,
angry and energized public.
While I awaited Senate confirmation hearings that April,
several chemical industry chief executives asked to meet with me. I
expected to hear complaints that over-regulation was stifling
economic growth, just as I had heard 10 years earlier.
Instead, I was stunned by their message. The public, they
told me, was spooked about the turmoil at E.P.A. Americans didn’t
believe anything was being done to protect their health and the
environment. They didn’t believe the E.P.A., and they didn’t believe
the chemical industry. These executives had concluded that they
needed a confident, fair and independent E.P.A. They knew that an
environmental agency trusted by the public to do its job gave their
businesses a public license to operate....
Louise
Erdrich, one of the most prolific American Indian authors
alive, awarded National Book Critics Circle Award.
Louise Erdrich Wins National Book Critics Circle Award for “LaRose”
by Levi Rickert, Native News Online - 17 MAR 2017
NEW YORK — Louise Erdrich, a tribal member of the Turtle
Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, won the National Book Critics
Circle Award for fiction on Thursday in New York for her latest
novel, “LaRose.” She won the award in 1984 for “Love Medicine.”
“LaRose” is the last in a trilogy that began with “Love
Medicine.”
In her acceptance speech, Erdrich veered in the political
climate that exists in current times:
“I’d like to thank my mother, a strong Native woman,” Erdrich
said. “And my 91-year-old father, the son of immigrants. We are all
in this together. It is so important right now, as truth is being
assaulted not just in this country, but all over the world. Let us
dig into the truth. Let us be fierce and dangerous about the truth.
Let us find in that truth the strength to demand that truth from our
government.”
Cherokee Nation Breaks Ground on 11 New Homes in Vinita Native News Online - 17 MAR 2017
VINITA, OKLAHOMA — The Cherokee Nation broke ground Friday on
11 new homes being built in a new addition in Vinita, a town of more
than 5,500 in Craig County.
The three-bedroom homes are being built through the New Home
Construction Program, which was implemented by Principal Chief Bill
John Baker in 2012. The homes will feature one and a half bathrooms
with 1,003 square feet of living space and a garage.
“Access to safe housing is a key to good health and remains a
critical piece of the foundation for success for Cherokee families,”
Chief Baker said. “In Craig County we have created jobs, expanded
health care and invested in public education. Now this opportunity
for Cherokee Nation citizens to become homeowners ensures our tribal
government is truly improving the lives of our people and building a
brighter future for the next generation.”
The Vinita home recipients will be selected from the Housing
Authority’s waiting list of local New Home Construction applicants
who do not own land. The monthly cost of the homes for the
recipients has not yet been determined....
Wisconsin
police guard a Trump rally on March 29, 2016 in Janesville,
Wisconsin. Hank Johnson and Michael Shank write that the Pentagon
and Homeland Security department have transferred tens of billions
of dollars’ worth of military equipment to domestic law enforcement
agencies and to the streets of America. While President Obama
limited the transfer of military-grade weapons to local law
enforcement via executive action, Trump is expected to roll back
those restrictions.
Scott Olson/Getty
Dumping Military Kit on Cops Makes Main Street a War Zone
by Hank Johnson and Michael Shank, Newsweek - 17
MAR 2017
As thousands of Native Americans protested across the country
this weekend, led in part by the Standing Rock Sioux, taking the
protest to the White House and to Trump Tower, it’s important to
remember that Standing Rock was recently a war zone.
Pictures of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the
heavily militarized police response attest to the war equipment,
military tactics and weaponry that were deployed against Americans.
North Dakota and Wisconsin State police forces, which have
been the most aggressive in using military equipment to enforce
domestic laws, are looking more and more like our troops in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
This is the new normal. We saw it at Standing Rock. We saw it
in Seattle. We saw it in Ferguson, and we’ll see more military
equipment being used to confront peaceful protesters across the
nation....
Tipi Action at the Trump Hotel, Washington, D.C. Indigenous Rising Media - 17 MAR 2017
During the #NativeNationsRise March a street performance was
held in front of the Trump Hotel, where a tipi was erected and
Indigenous Peoples conducted an interpretative dance, imitating how
the Bison protect their youth when threatened.
During the performance there was also a symbolic shaming of
Trump, as he has violated Indigenous Rights by approving the Dakota
Access and Keystone XL Pipeline.
Our non-violent direct actions during Native Nations Rise
were meant to send a clear message to the Trump Administration: we
are rising, in all directions, to protect our rights as Indigenous
Peoples.
VA’s Rule Establishes a Presumption of Service Connection for
Diseases Associated with Exposure to Contaminants in the Water
Supply at Camp Lejeune
VA to provide disability benefits for related
diseases Veteran's Administration - 14 MAR 2017
VA regulations to establish presumptions for the service
connection of eight diseases associated with exposure to
contaminants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune, N.C. are effective
as of today.
“Establishing these presumptions is a demonstration of our
commitment to care for those who have served our Nation and have
been exposed to harm as a result of that service,” said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Dr. David J. Shulkin. “The Camp Lejeune
presumptions will make it easier for those Veterans to receive the
care and benefits they earned.”
The presumption of service connection applies to active duty,
Reserve and National Guard members who served at Camp Lejeune for a
minimum of 30 days (cumulative) between Aug.1, 1953 and Dec. 31,
1987, and are diagnosed with any of the following conditions:...
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Issues New Fact Sheet in Form of Q & A
with Chairman Archambault
Chairman Archambault discusses the water protectors, allegations of
misuse, and the current state of the DAPL fight
ICMN Staff, Indian Country Media Network - 16 MAR
2017
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal chairman David Archambault II has
been a part of the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline
project’s intrusion on Lakota territory for the better part of three
years. The conflict arose in 2016 as DAPL was rerouted by its parent
company, Energy Transfer Partners, from Bismarck, North Dakota to a
path through the Great Sioux Nation treaty land, where it cut across
historic sacred sites and posed a threat to the source of Standing
Rock’s drinking water, the Missouri River.
Throughout last year, Chairman Archambault shared video
messages and issued updates on the need for prayerful and
non-violent actions as more and more water protectors arrived in
Cannon Ball, North Dakota to join in the Standing Rock nation’s
fight. Ultimately, more than 300 tribal nations, along with
non-Natives, celebrities, and supporters from around the globe
joined the Lakota on the frontlines.
As an increasing number of law enforcement arrived with
militarized gear at the behest of Energy Transfer Partners, Chairman
Archambault worked to maintain the focus of the water protectors.
Following violent actions by law enforcement—the excessive use of
water cannons, mace, and concussion grenades—a harsh winter, and the
Trump administration’s greenlighting the completion of the pipeline,
Chairman Archambault and the Standing Rock Tribal Council voted to
evacuate the camps on tribal property. They maintained that the
fight against DAPL had moved from the plains to the court system and
Washington, D.C.
In this release issued by the Standing Rock administration,
Chairman Archambault answers questions that address, among other
things, objections to the SRST Council’s decisions, the high cost of
the camps and the cleanup to the tribe, and allegations made against
his leadership....
Donald Trump signs a
presidential memorandum to revive the Dakota Access pipeline, we
speak to Standing Rock activist Bobbi Jean Three Legs. Last year,
she and Joseph White Eyes led a group of youth water runners on a
2,000-mile trek from Sacred Stone Camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota,
to Washington, D.C., where they delivered a petition against the
Dakota Access pipeline to the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters.
Video: "Water is Life, Water is Sacred": Standing Rock’s Bobbi Jean
Three Legs Speaks Out Against Trump
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! - First Aired on 25
JAN 2017 AMY GOODMAN: The Standing Rock Sioux issued a
statement on Facebook, reading, quote, "Today, Trump announced an
executive order on DAPL; it not only violates the law, but it
violates tribal treaties. Nothing will deter us from our fight for
clean water. We will be taking legal action, and will take this
fight head on. We urge you to fight and stand tall besides us. The
EIS statement"—environmental impact statement—"is still in process,
so please submit your comments to the link below. This helps us
compound our claim that the pipeline poses grave environmental
risks. Please also call your congressional representatives and let
them know that the people do not stand behind today’s decision.
Stand together as one and we will not fall." That’s the statement of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
We’re joined here in Park City by Bobbi Jean Three Legs. She
is a water protector who led other young people in a hundreds of
miles—well, how long was the run that you participated in, Bobbi
Jean, that went from, oh, North Dakota to Washington, D.C.? BOBBI JEAN THREE LEGS: Yes, it was about a 2,000-mile
relay run. My brother Joseph White Eyes and I led about 40 youth
from the ages of 30—from the ages of 13 to 30. AMY GOODMAN: And when you heard this news about the
presidential memorandum, the executive action, issued by President
Trump yesterday, what were your thoughts? BOBBI JEAN THREE LEGS: That he is waking up a lot of
people, that a lot of people are really paying attention to the
climate change now, that we’re never going to back down. AMY GOODMAN: Are you afraid?...
Letter from Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA, to North
Dakota Governor Amnesty International - 09 MAR 2017
Re: Serious Human Rights Concerns about the Treatment of
People Opposed to the Dakota Access
Pipeline
Dear Governor Burgum and Attorney General Stenehjem,
Amnesty International urges you to take immediate steps to
prevent human rights violations against
Indigenous Peoples and their allies opposed to the Dakota Access
Pipeline, and to ensure accountability
for any past human rights violations. The organization remains
deeply concerned about the treatment of
Indigenous Peoples and their allies by authorities, most recently in
relation to the clearing of camps and
the eviction of people near the pipeline construction site.
Amnesty International has documented a number of instances
where the force used by law enforcement
officers appears to have been excessive; repeated instances of law
enforcement outfitted with military
equipment, in riot gear, and the display of weapons that appear
intended to intimidate peaceful protesters;
and a pattern of cases where people appear to have been excessively
charged as punishment for or
deterrence from taking part in future demonstrations against the
pipeline. Together with the passage of
several bills in the North Dakota legislature recently (HB 1293,
1304 and 1426), the organization is
gravely concerned about a serious erosion of the right to peaceful
protest, and violations of freedom of
assembly and expression in the state of North Dakota.
We urge you to take the following actions without delay to
prevent such human rights violations from
happening in the future, ensure accountability for human rights
violations that may have occurred, and
uphold the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly
guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution
and international human rights law:...
Wells Fargo's Dakota Access Financing Prompts a Shareholder Vote
by Laura J Keller, Bloomberg - 15 MAR 2017
Wells Fargo & Co. shareholders will vote next month on
whether to require the bank to adopt policies to help protect
indigenous groups after protesters targeted its role in financing
the Dakota Access pipeline.
The vote was requested by five investors who collectively
hold more than $10,000 of the bank’s stock, the company said in a
regulatory filing Wednesday. It’s among 10 items on the ballot for
the firm’s annual shareholder meeting set for April 25 in
Jacksonville, Florida.
Proponents, citing reputational damage from the controversial
pipeline project, said the bank should describe how it examines
whether deals will hurt indigenous groups, their cultures and access
to traditional lands. The company’s board recommended shareholders
reject it, because the firm already supports the right of indigenous
people to be consulted and strives to do business with customers who
abide by those principles and operate responsibly.
“We have a responsibility to respect human rights, including
the rights of indigenous peoples to determine their own way of life
on their own lands, according to their time-honored cultures,
traditions and beliefs,” the board wrote in the filing....
Anthony Van
Dunk (left), who is a chief of the 5,000-member
Ramapough Indians, with Jean Louis Bourgeois Goldwater.
J.C. Rice
Millionaire Returning $4M Piece of Manhattan to Indian Tribe
by Christy Smith-Sloman, NY Post - Originally
Published 18 DEC 2016
An eccentric millionaire is giving Manhattan back to the
American Indians — at least his small part of it.
Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, 76, an architectural
historian and activist for Native American causes, is in the process
of transferring the deed of his $4 million, landmarked West Village
house to a nonprofit controlled by the Lenape tribe, the original
Manhattanites.
“I have a romance with the history of the city, and I have
been generally appalled that the land that the city is on has been
taken by whites,” he told The Post.
“This building is the trophy from major theft. It disgusts
me.”
He said he feels “rage against what whites have done and some
guilt, no, a lot of guilt, that I have profited from this major
theft. The right thing to do is to return it.”...
Oceti Sakowin Site Was Not Disaster
by Ann Knudson, Bismarck Tribune - 08 MAR 2017
Some journalists have referred to the Oceti Sakowin camp as
an ecological “disaster.” That’s making a mountain out of a
molehill. The term “disaster” belongs to events like the Deepwater
Horizon spill of 2010, which set 210 million gallons of oil loose in
the Gulf of Mexico.
The Oceti Sakowin camp hasn’t yet spilled any oil into the
river. Yes, there were vehicles left when the camp closed. However,
even if the Corps of Engineers fails to get them out, the total oil
and gas in them was less than 420 gallons. If House Bill 1151
becomes law, anything under 420 gallons isn’t even worth reporting.
Check the North Dakota Department of Health Environmental Incident
Reports (http://www.ndhealth.gov/ehs/foia/spills/)
and you'll find a long list of actual spills, not potential spills.
They get little attention. It normally takes something like
the Belle Fourche spill, 176,000 gallons, to make the news. Double
standard much? There have been accusations that there was human
waste left in the camp. Up into December, the camp used
portapotties. After that, they switched to composting toilets, which
are accepted by the EPA (EPA 832-F-99-066). When the water
protectors left camp Feb. 22, their waste had been moved to
composting containers off site, where it will safely turn into rich
soil.
For comparison, in the flood of 2011, Omaha alone pumped 6
million gallons of raw sewage into the Missouri every day for
months. The water protectors had made great progress in cleanup, and
the material left was pretty tame: no herbicides, pesticides,
fertilizer, etc. Hay bales, firewood and lumber are much like the
trees and grass that wash into the river with every flood. Even if
the corps didn’t clean up another thing, what remained of Oceti
Sakowin after Feb. 22 was nowhere near a “disaster.”...
One Woman Against Big Oil and Patriarchy
Alicia Cawiya, an indigenous activist prepared to defy the powerful
to save Ecuador’s Yasuní, talks to Linda Etchart. New Internationalist Magazine - MARCH 2017 Issue
On 3 August 2013, Alicia Cawiya, Vice-President of the
Huaorani Nation of Ecuador, stood up to address the country’s
Constituent Assembly in Quito, broadcast live on national
television.
She was expected to follow the script given to her by her
President, Chief Moi Enomenga, to accede to oil drilling in her
homeland in the headwaters of the Amazon River.
Moi had already signed agreements with Chinese oil companies,
giving them the right to extract oil on the territory of the
Huaorani, Taromenane and Tagaeri peoples, in the Yasuní national
park, one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet, designated a
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1989.
Instead, Alicia defied her President and the government and
made a magnificent speech, first in her native Huaorani language,
then in Spanish, to denounce the oil companies and to speak up in
defence of her people, her indigenous brothers and sisters from
other groups, and their culture.
The message to the Ecuadorian government and to the
transnational companies was clear: keep out. ‘Seven companies have
been working in Huaorani territory and we have become poorer… How
have we benefited? Not at all,’ declared Alicia to applause from the
Assembly. ‘The animals are now in danger of extinction. Who is to
blame? Not us… We have been conservationists. We want our territory
to be respected. Let us live the way we want to live.’
The vote to save the Yasuní from oil drilling was lost that
day in the National Assembly, by 108 to 133 votes, but Alicia had
captured the hearts of Assembly members and the nation. Her message
was front-page news; from that moment Alicia became an inspiration
for indigenous women and a respected national political figure,
tirelessly campaigning for the rights of her people, of the
uncontacted groups of the Amazon and its environment.
But she had also made powerful enemies, among them her own
community leader. Alicia claims that following her speech, Huaorani
President Moi threatened to kill her....
Oklahomans take to
the streets to protest DAPL Saturday March 11, 2017.
(Fox 25, okcfox)
Oklahomans Take to the Streets to Protest Dakota Access Pipelines
by Shardaa Gray, Fox 25, okcfox - 11 MAR 2017
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Protests against construction of the
Dakota Access Pipelines have spread across the country. Saturday, a
few hundred people took to the streets in Oklahoma to keep the march
going.
Despite Saturday’s rain, a few hundred people showed up in
downtown Oklahoma City in reference to the controversial Dakota
Access Pipeline. Organizers tell Fox 25 if those pipelines were to
break, it would destroy their drinking water.
“We're trying to support our brothers and sisters from all
over the United States,” said OKC Pow-Wow Club, Tom Morgan.
The message Saturday was to support Native Americans to stop
construction of the Dakota Access Pipelines. Saturday's peaceful
march took place in downtown Oklahoma City, where organizers say the
construction would affect Oklahomans.
“One of those pipelines would break, it would destroy the
water, the drinking water,” Morgan said. “It just wouldn't be good
for the state of Oklahoma.”...
Standing Rock
Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II, photographed in
the offices of The Washington Post on Feb. 8, 2017.
(Thomas Simonetti/The Washington Post)
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman: "I Was Slighted. I Was
Disrespected."
by Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Joe Heim; The Washington
Post - 08 FEB 2017
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II arrived in
Washington on Tuesday afternoon expecting to make a last-minute
pitch to head off the Dakota Access Pipeline at a scheduled White
House meeting the next morning.
But as he walked through Reagan National Airport, he learned
on a phone call that he might as well have stayed in North Dakota.
The Army Corps of Engineers had decided to grant the company behind
the pipeline the critical easement it needed, rendering his meeting
with the Trump administration moot.
“I just feel that I was slighted. I was disrespected. I think
that I was set up,” said Archambault, whose tribe has been fighting
the pipeline since 2014 on the grounds that it would infringe on the
tribe’s rights and could pose a risk to its drinking water.
The machinery of the federal government often moves slowly.
But in the past two weeks, at President Trump’s urging, a process
that his predecessor had decelerated was suddenly moving forward,
culminating in the Army’s decision Wednesday to give Energy Transfer
Partners an easement to drill under a vast reservoir less than a
mile from the Standing Rock Sioux’s reservation....
The Native
Nations Rise march started just west of Union
Station, as thousands set out from 4th and G streets NW
on a course through downtown and to the Trump
International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.
American Indians from around the U.S. March on White House in Rally
for Rights
Protesters Opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline March in D.C.
by Joe Heim, The Washington Post - 10 MAR 2017
Jesse and Chantelle Beeson, members of the Mohawk nation,
drove to Washington Friday morning from Akwesasne, N.Y. Mae Hank,
who’s Inupiat, flew in from Point Hope, Alaska. Khannie Tobacco, an
Oglala Sioux member from Pine Ridge, S.D., made the long journey by
bus.
For a few hours on Friday, their paths crossed with those of
thousands of other protesters from across the country who had
trekked to the capital demanding treaty rights and meaningful
dialogue, and calling on President Trump to meet with their leaders.
Organizers of the Native Nations Rise march say it was intended as a
show of solidarity against a federal government that has long
shunted aside indigenous concerns on a range of environmental,
economic and social issues.
With wet snow falling, the demonstration started just east of
Verizon Center, as the marchers set out on a course through
downtown. Despite the foul weather, the protesters were in good
spirits, cheering loudly and chanting, “We’re cold, we’re wet, We
ain’t done yet!” Office workers peered out of windows, some waving
or giving the thumbs-up.
“I’ve never really protested before, but this is so important
for everyone,” said Elizabeth Turnipseed who came to the march with
her husband David, a member of the Puyallup tribe in Washington
state. “Our waters are being destroyed, and I’m just tired of them
disrespecting Mother Earth.”
The march was led in part by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,
which has been involved in a long-standing dispute over the Dakota
Access pipeline. The tribe has argued in court that the 1,172-mile
pipeline threatens its drinking water, crosses sacred lands and was
approved by the government without adequate consultation.
As the pipeline battle played out last year in a remote
section of one of the country’s least populated states, it was slow
to gain national attention. But by midsummer, Standing Rock’s
struggle began to resonate with a growing coalition of Indians and
environmentalists. The dispute soon galvanized hundreds of tribes to
offer support and funding to the Standing Rock Sioux and it also
helped propel a new wave of activism and engagement among Native
Americans across the country.
Guy Jones, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe who now
lives in Dayton, Ohio, said he wasn’t sure how many people would
turn out for Friday’s march. As wave after wave of demonstrators
walked past, he expressed his amazement.
“Two years ago I had to explain to everyone where Standing
Rock was. Now the whole world knows where Standing Rock is,” said
Jones, 61. “It has become a symbol.”...
Amal Clooney Is Trying to Stop Genocide and Instead We’re Talking
about Her ‘Blossoming Baby Bump’
by David Boddiger, Fusion - 11 MAR 2017
It appears that some members of the news media have learned
nothing from this week’s Day Without A Woman protest and
International Women’s Strike.
International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney stood before
the United Nations this week and urged the world’s governing body to
do something about ongoing acts of genocide committed by the Islamic
State. With her was Nadia Murad, who at 22 was enslaved, terrorized
and repeatedly raped by members of ISIS before she managed to escape
and flee to Germany.
But all of that was just a sideshow, because what really
mattered to more than a few publishing groups was a) Amal Clooney is
George Clooney’s wife, b) she’s pregnant, and c) she wears nice
clothes.
But wait, it gets better....
Haida Clan Strips Chiefs of Titles for Supporting Enbridge Pipeline
One of the chiefs admits he received money from the oil company
by Hilary Beaumont, VICE - 16 AUG 2016 -
Reprinted 12 MAR 2017
A Haida clan in British Columbia has stripped two hereditary
chiefs of their titles because they supported the construction of an
Enbridge pipeline that the Nation fought in court.
The two chiefs signed a letter in support of the pipeline,
and one of the chiefs told VICE News he met with the company and
received per diems, but he believes the issue is being blown out of
proportion. The chiefs have threatened a defamation suit for "lies"
they say are being spread about them.
On Saturday, in front of 500 people, clan members in Old
Massett held a ceremony marked with traditional dances in which the
hereditary chiefs were stripped of their leadership, and matriarchs
appointed new chiefs in their place. A ceremony like this one hasn't
happened since smallpox struck Haida Gwaii, an archipelago along the
coast of northern BC, in the 1800s....
ACLU Response to Warrant Issued to Search Facebook Page of a NoDAPL
Advocacy Group LRINSPIRE - 09 MAR 2017
Bellingham WA – On March 8th the American Civil Liberties
Union [ACLU] filed a motion to quash a warrant that had been issued
to police to search for information on a Facebook community page
dedicated to protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline.
According to an ACLU press release, “The warrant served on
Facebook seeks private, sensitive information about people’s
political views and opinions, images of political actions, and
personal information, including locations.”
The warrant specifically targets the Bellingham WA NoDAPL
Facebook page. The page highlighted issues surrounding the Dakota
Access pipeline and provided information on local environmental
justice related issues and events.
The motion filed by the ACLU argues that the warrant violates
both the First and Fourth Amendments. The motion will be heard March
14, 8:30 am 3rd Floor of Whatcom County Superior Court....
Striking Protest Photos Show the Power and Pride of Indigenous
Communities Mashable - 12 MAR 2017
"We exist. We resist. We rise."
This powerful statement was boldly brought to the White
House, through protest signs and spirit, on March 10 as part of the
Native Nations Rise protests.
Thousands of Native Americans from tribes across North
America marched to the White House to rally for Indigenous rights
and environmental protection. The protest was in response to
President Donald Trump's recent actions targeting Indigenous
populations.
Native demonstrators and their allies gathered to condemn the
construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. Recent
approval to construct these pipelines by Trump and his
administration, according to tribal leaders, are in violation treaty
law protecting Indigenous land....
"In the River: A Protest Song for Standing Rock" by Raye Zaragoza
Raye Zaragoza, Facebook - SEPT 2016
There is something especially beautiful and moving about the
simple presentation of just a beautiful voice and a guitar. It is
art in its purest form. It is pristine, honest, raw; and it is a
soul-baring experience for the artist. It is the performing arts
equivalent of standing naked before the world and saying, "Here I
am. This is who I am, and this is what I have to offer the world. I
share with you the gifts that Creator has seen fit to bestow upon me
in hopes that you will get a
blessing from this offering. Love me or hate me, but take the time
to see and appreciate this glimpse into my heart."
SENAA
International supports and encourages all young Indigenous
artists in all art forms as our way of showing the world that
the Indigenous People of Turtle Island (the big Turtle Island)
are among the most talented people on the planet, and that they
choose to use their gifts to support their people and to bring
attention to important indigenous issues.
We are happy to introduce Raye Zaragoza in her video "In the
River: A Protest Song" that she wrote and recorded in support of
the efforts to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline that became the
Standing Rock
#NoDAPL
movement.
This is just one of the songs that will be on her coming
debut album. This song will be on her debut album twice; once as
a fully orchestrated version, and again with just Raye and her
guitar.
We ask that you recognize and support this talented young
artist by purchasing one or more copies of her
soon-to-be-released debut album. More can be learned about her
first album on her Facebook page. Just click her name link in
the header of this post to visit her page. While you're there,
click "Follow" to follow her, and choose the "See First" option
to be sure and get any updates regarding the release date for
her debut album.
This song is from Raye Zaragoza's soon-to-be released debut
album.
Check back here or on SENAA International's Facebook page often for
the release date of Raye Zaragoza's premier album, or click the
title link above, log on at Facebook, follow Raye, and choose the
"See First" option to be sure to get her updates.
How Victory at Standing Rock Could Provide a Blueprint for
Resistance in Trump's America
by The Naked Truth - 29 DEC 2016
Protesters won a major victory over the Dakota Access
pipeline (DAPL) project. Braving water cannons, dogs, police
brutality, and extreme weather, #NoDAPL activists captured the
world’s attention and convinced President Obama the pipeline needed
to be rerouted away from sacred land. But as Donald Trump, who has
said he supports the project, prepares to take office, many in the
movement realize the struggle has just begun.
Standing Rock Activists Just Released Their First Brutally Effective
#NoDAPL TV Commercial
by Rafi Schwartz, FUSION - 09 MAR 2017
Since it began, the fight against the Dakota Access oil
pipeline has always existed in two separate, but related arenas: The
actual courtroom, and the court of public opinion.
This week, #NoDAPL activists at the Lakota Law Project
released what is perhaps the most direct appeal to that second arena
to date: A short, emotionally stirring TV commercial that highlights
not only the potential environmental risks posed by the oil
pipeline, but the blatant hypocrisy of those who argued to move its
path away from a city at the expense of the neighboring Standing
Rock tribe....
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples,
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
End of Mission Statement
3 March 2017
In my capacity as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the
rights of indigenous peoples, I carried out a visit to the United
States of America from 22 February to 3 March 2017 to study the
human rights situation of indigenous peoples, in particular with
regard to energy development projects, and to follow up on key
recommendations made by my predecessor, James Anaya, in both his
2012 report on the situation of indigenous peoples in the United
States (1) and his 2013 report on indigenous peoples and extractive
industries.(2)
Over the last ten days I have travelled to: Washington, D.C.;
Albuquerque, New Mexico; Window Rock, Arizona; Boulder, Colorado;
Fort Yates, Fort Berthold and Bismarck, North Dakota. I met with
representatives of the federal government in Washington, D.C.,
including federal and regional representatives from the Army Corps
of Engineers, the Department of State, the Department of the
Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of
Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, the Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation and the Department of Justice. In
North Dakota, I met with the Governor, and representatives from the
State Historic Preservation Office and the Commission on Indian
Affairs. I also met with members of the legislative branch including
the office of Senator John Hoeven, chair of the Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs, and the office of ranking member Norma Torres of the
House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs.
Finally, I met with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
I visited several tribal communities: the Navajo Nation in
Window Rock, Arizona, and other tribes from the Southwest, including
the Hopi Tribe, the Tohono O'odham Nation, and several of the
Pueblos, as well as tribes from the Great Plains, including the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the
Yankton Sioux Tribe, and the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. I
also met with leaders from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Southern
Ute Tribe, the Northern Ute Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray
Reservation, and the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. I received numerous
requests for visits from indigenous communities throughout the
country who described their difficult situations, but due to time
constraints I was unable to visit them all. I did however hold the
first-ever virtual consultation where I spoke with representatives
from indigenous communities around the country including from Alaska
and Hawaii. I also met with representatives of indigenous peoples
and a wide range of civil society and human rights organizations
working on indigenous peoples' rights....
UN Expert Urges Consistent Policies for US on Indigenous Peoples’
Rights for Projects like Dakota Access Pipeline
UNSR Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - 03 MAR 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. / GENEVA (3 March 2017) – A UN human rights
expert has called on all levels of government in the United States
to adopt consistent practices when consulting with indigenous tribes
on projects that could affect their rights, like the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
The appeal was made by the United Nations Special Rapporteur
on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, at the
end of a mission to the US to assess the impact of energy
development projects. During the visit, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz, noted
that, in spite of a US commitment to positive and meaningful
engagement with tribal governments, challenges remained.
The Special Rapporteur said: "The legislative regime
regulating consultation, while well intentioned, has failed to
ensure effective and informed consultations with tribal governments.
The breakdown of communication and lack of good faith in the review
of federal projects leaves tribal governments unable to participate
in dialogue with the United States on projects affecting their
lands, territories, and resources."
Nevertheless, the Special Rapporteur saw encouraging steps
being taken by federal agencies to follow procedures set out in the
UN's Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. She said:
"Since 2012, the federal government has made commendable efforts to
develop policies toward more robust measures."
"I also applaud the January 2017 joint report from the
Departments of Interior, Army and Justice to solicit recommendations
on engaging tribes in infrastructure-related activities. I am
encouraged by the process of meaningful consultation with the tribes
that the United States undertook in creating this report, and
applaud the efforts made by the government to consider ways in which
to improve consultation processes."...
She added that given the impacts on indigenous peoples of the
Dakota Access Pipeline, she was deeply concerned by a presidential
memo on 24 January clearing away the last hurdle so that
construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline under Lake Oahe could
begin. The Special Rapporteur also expressed concern about similar
issues on other projects....
USA / Indigenous Peoples’ Rights: UN expert to Assess Impact of
Energy Development Projects
UNSR Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - 21 FEB 2017
GENEVA / WASHINGTON (21 February 2017) – United Nations
Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz will undertake a country
visit to the United States of America from 22 February to 3 March to
study the human rights situation of indigenous peoples, in
particular with regard to energy development projects.
"I will place particular focus on developments in areas of
extractive industries and examine, among other things, progress and
gaps, and make recommendations for the way forward for the current
administration," Ms. Tauli-Corpuz said recalling the recommendations
made in a 2012 report on the USA by her predecessor, James Anaya.
The independent expert mandated by the UN Human Rights
Council to monitor, report and advise on the human rights situation
of indigenous peoples around the world will travel to Washington,
D.C; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Window Rock, Arizona; Boulder,
Colorado; and Bismarck, North Dakota.
During her ten-day mission, the Special Rapporteur will meet
representatives of the Government and Congress, American Indian
tribes and individuals and civil society organisations working on
issues related to indigenous peoples' rights.
In the Great Plains region, she will pay particular attention
to the situation of Indian Tribes affected by recently adopted
executive order and presidential memoranda related to pipelines,
including Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline....
Feds Opening 73 Million Acres off Alabama, Gulf States for Oil and
Gas Exploration
by Leada Gore, al.com - 07 MAR 2017
The federal government is opening 73 million acres offshore
from Alabama and other Gulf Coast states to oil and gas exploration
and development, the Department of the Interior announced Monday.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said the department will
offer leases on all available unleased areas in federal waters off
Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Florida at its Aug. 16
auction. The sale is the first in a five-year program that will
including two auctions per year.
"Opening more federal lands and waters to oil and gas
drilling is a pillar of President Trump's plan to make the United
States energy independent," Zinke said. "The Gulf is a vital part of
that strategy to spur economic opportunities for industry, states
and local communities to create jobs and home-grown energy and to
reduce our dependence on foreign oil."...
U.S. Judge Rules Against Tribes Seeking to Stop Dakota Access
Pipeline RT.com - 07 MAR 2017
A federal judge has denied the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe’s
request to block the final phase of the controversial Dakota Access
Pipeline. The tribe had argued that the presence of the pipeline
desecrated its sacred land and water.
The final leg of the pipeline is set to be built under Lake
Oahe in North Dakota. The Cheyenne River Sioux sought a preliminary
injunction against the construction because they use the lake for
sacred ceremonies. They argued that the project would interfere with
their religious practices.
US District Judge James Boasberg dismissed the tribe’s
arguments on Tuesday.
“Cheyenne River’s religious-exercise claim ... involves a
government action — granting an easement to Dakota Access to build
and operate a pipeline — regarding the use of federal land —the land
under Lake Oahe — that has an incidental, if serious, impact on a
tribe’s ability to practice its religion because of spiritual
desecration of a sacred site,” he wrote in his 38-page decision.
Dakota Access, the company building the pipeline, had already
“modified the pipeline workspace and route more than a hundred times
in response to cultural surveys and Tribes’ concerns regarding
historic and cultural resources," Boasberg wrote, adding that
rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) around the lake “would
be more costly and complicated than it would have been months or
years ago.”
The problem with rerouting is that it would not just be a
simple change of plans, but would requiring the company to abandon
“part of a near-complete project and redoing the construction
elsewhere,” he continued.
While the tribe argued that its treaties with the United
States provided access to fresh water, Boasberg countered that legal
precedent defined that access in terms of agriculture, irrigation
and drinking water, not access for religious purposes.
It is not the first time Boasberg has ruled against Native
Americans fighting the pipeline. In mid-February, he dismissed a
request by a group of tribes to stop the construction of the final
link, which was also made on religious grounds. In that dismissal,
Boasberg stated there was no imminent harm to the tribes’ religious
practices as oil is not flowing through the pipeline yet....
Judge Won't Stop Construction of Dakota Access Pipeline
by Blake Nicholson, Associated Press, ABC News -
07 MAR 2017
A federal judge declined Tuesday to temporarily stop
construction of the final section of the disputed Dakota Access oil
pipeline, clearing the way for oil to flow as soon as next week.
The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux had asked U.S.
District Judge James Boasberg in Washington to direct the Army Corps
of Engineers to withdraw permission for Texas-based developer Energy
Transfer Partners to lay pipe under Lake Oahe in North Dakota. The
stretch under the Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota
is the last piece of construction for the $3.8 billion pipeline to
move North Dakota oil to Illinois.
The tribes argued that construction under the lake violates
their right to practice their religion, which relies on clean water,
and they wanted the work suspended until the claim could be
resolved.
When they filed the lawsuit last summer, the tribes argued
that the pipeline threatens Native American cultural sites and their
water supply. Their religion argument was new, however, and disputed
by both the Corps and the company.
Boasberg in his ruling Tuesday said the tribes didn't raise
the religion argument in a timely fashion....
New Interior Secretary Zinke Sets Sights on Balance
by TOM LUTEY, Billings Gazette - 04 MAR 2017
It might not be long before the inscription atop Yellowstone
National Park’s iconic Roosevelt Arch is posted in Ryan Zinke’s new
digs.
It’s what the new Interior secretary says is his mission for
the Department of Interior’s management of federal lands: “For the
Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.”
“Sitting in my office and I am now recognizing the task
before me. I’m excited about it. It’s great to be asked by the
president to be his voice on public lands,” Zinke said Friday. “I
look forward to going out in the field and visiting our parks, our
refuges and our holdings and just talking to the people. It goes
back to ‘the benefit and enjoyment of the people,’ and I intend to
live up to the model.”...
Confidential Dakota Pipeline Memo: Standing Rock Not a Disadvantaged
Community Impacted by Pipeline
Pipeline builder claimed that mostly white Bismarck
communities along its original route would have more minorities
impacted than one near tribe's reservation.
by Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News - 06 MAR
2017
As the Standing Rock Sioux tribe was mounting
opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline last spring, the pipeline
company told federal officials that its final route skirting the
reservation would not impact any minority or impoverished community.
A confidential environmental justice analysis comparing the
original proposed route north of Bismarck and the final one upstream
of the Standing Rock reservation was sent by Dakota Access LLC
employees to senior officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Its counterintuitive findings appear to have been largely
incorporated into the Corps' final environmental assessment of the
Standing Rock route last July, but weren't given to the tribe or
made public.
The 11-page memo, made available through court records,
concludes that the pipeline's original path near Bismarck would have
"more direct and more disproportionate" impacts to minorities. Those
communities surrounding Bismarck are 96 percent white and only 2
percent of residents live below the poverty line....
Magellan Has 28 Pipeline Spills in Iowa. Will Dakota Access Do
Better?
by Kevin Hardy, The Des Moines Register - 07 MAR
2017
The company whose pipeline dumped more than 46,000 gallons of
diesel on northern Iowa farmland in January has had more spills than
any other pipeline operator in the state over the past 16 years,
according to a Des Moines Register analysis.
Magellan Midstream Partners pipelines leaked 27 times in Iowa
between 2000 and 2016, spewing tens of thousands of gallons of
hazardous products, according to Iowa Department of Natural
Resources data. Magellan's spills are nearly double the 14 of
Enterprise Products Offering, the second most frequent offender.
Magellan reported its 28th spill Jan. 25 near Hanlontown,
Ia., where a rupture dumped thousands of gallons of diesel onto
snow-covered crop fields....
THE DIRTY 31: IS YOUR STATE ARGUING AGAINST CLEAN WATER?
by Janette Brimmer, Earthjustice - 28 FEB 2017
Editor’s note 2/28/17: Today, President Trump issued an
executive order directing the EPA to roll back the Clean Water Rule.
The rule was put in place by the Obama administration to help ensure
that ALL waters of the U.S. are protected, not just some. President
Trump also directs the EPA to further weaken its application of the
Clean Water Act, instructing the agency to follow an interpretation
designed to reject Clean Water Act protections for many waters
across the U.S.
The Clean Water Act was passed by a bi-partisan vote in the
early 1970s after decades of Congress trying unsuccessfully to get
the states to clean up pollution in our nation’s waterways. With
mounting public demand, Congress passed what remains one of the most
popular and effective environmental laws our nation has ever had,
the Clean Water Act. For years, steady progress has been made to
clean up our nation’s waters and protect valuable wetlands under
this law.
Despite the fact that a majority of Americans consistently
support stronger clean water protections, the president today bows
to the pressure of big polluting industries and the Dirty 31 states
that have been attacking the EPA’s Clean Water Rule in federal court
(see story below for more details). No one voted for dirtier air and
water in the last election, yet President Trump’s executive order
seeks to put our waters at risk. The president’s action is also
contrary to established science. A panel of some of the
most-distinguished and knowledgeable scientists advised the EPA at
length on the Clean Water Rule that the president seeks to destroy
with today’s order.
The president needs to stop listening to polluters and
instead pay heed to the wishes and actual needs of the American
people. Take action now.
“The
Dirty 31” is what we’re calling the 31 states that recently joined
the usual suspects—big polluting industries, corporate
agribusinesses and mega-developers—in attacking the EPA’s Clean
Water Rule in federal court.
These states aggressively argue that they should be allowed
to foster pollution and the destruction of waters within their
borders, outside the protections of the Clean Water Act. Is your
state among them?...
UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR: SACRED SITES NOT “DOTS ON A MAP” & FEDS’
FAILED CONSULTATION PROCESS MARRED BY “LACK OF GOOD FAITH”
by Native News Online Staff - 04 MAR 2017
WASHINGTON – Concluding a fact-finding mission to the US,
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, detailed significant flaws in the
federal government’s existing approach to tribal consultation and
made recommendations to rectify the process. “The legislative regime
regulating consultation, while well-intentioned, has failed to
ensure effective and informed consultations with tribal governments.
The breakdown of communication and lack of good faith in the review
of federal projects leaves tribal governments unable to participate
in dialogue with the United States on projects affecting their
lands, territories, and resources,” says Ms. Tauli-Corpuz.
The UN Special Rapporteur’s mission from February 22 to March
3 was to catalog the human rights situation of indigenous peoples,
with particular emphasis on the impacts of energy development on
tribal communities. Ms. Tauli-Corpuz met with representatives of the
Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation, several
Pueblo Nations, the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Yankton and Crow
Creek Sioux tribes, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, the
Piikani Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Ute Mountain Ute,
Southern Ute and Ute Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
“Throughout the course of my mission, I heard universally that there
is a pressing need for the federal government to precisely identify
requirements for meaningful consultation with Indian tribes and to
implement a consistent system across all federal agencies.”
Ms. Tauli-Corpuz found that many of the issues confronted by
tribes and tribal citizens in the face of energy development “are
rooted in a long history of land and resource dispossession.” The
Special Rapporteur acknowledged the shadow of historical trauma
suffered by tribes in federal and state prioritized extractive
industry operations, referencing the imposition of allotment through
the 1887 Dawes Act. The UN gave considerable focus to the crisis at
Standing Rock brought to a head by the Trump administration-backed
Dakota Access Pipeline, and the revived Keystone-XL Pipeline. “In
the context of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the potentially affected
tribes were denied access to information and excluded from
consultations at the planning stage of the project. Furthermore, in
a show of disregard for treaties and the federal trust
responsibility, the Army Corps approved a draft environmental
assessment regarding the pipeline that ignored the interests of the
tribe,” Ms. Tauli-Corpuz finds....
A License to Hate
by C.S. Hagen, HPR - 02 MAR 2017
FARGO - Militarized police armed with emergency declarations,
beanbags and bullets, zip ties and presidential orders, have
scattered most of the camps pitted against the Dakota Access
Pipeline, but local hatred against the movement remains.
And it’s being promoted across the state, from rural farmer
to urban politician.
As the activists’ camps consolidate to its last bastion,
Sacred Stone Camp, where the movement originally began, no one has
been killed. Many have been injured, and more than 750 have been
arrested in what was once North Dakota’s tenth largest community.
“What this past year has exposed is the ugly underbelly of
North Dakota,” Tom Asbridge, former Democratic candidate for the
House of Representatives in North Dakota, said. “We are as much or
more racist and authoritarian than the Old South. It is inescapable.
Our Christian values have not stood the scrutiny of our actions. I
have been ashamed of my state in ways I never imagined I could be.
Certainly our entire religious community must be challenged.”
Now, North Dakota political leaders, bolstered by the Trump
Administration, are more concerned with falling oil prices and
returning to a “whiter” America by toughening its stances on
protesters and immigration policies. North Dakota State Legislature
has proposed and recently passed an unholy trinity of draconian
bills targeting protests -- a fundamental right protected by the
First Amendment....
The Women Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline Aren't Done Fighting
by LINDSAY MILLER, Popsugar - 03 MAR 2017
Sara Jumping Eagle is a pediatrician, a mother of three, a
member of the Great Sioux Nation, and an activist to be reckoned
with. On Feb. 27, Donald Trump and the Army Corps of Engineers were
slapped with an emergency lawsuit over the contentious North Dakota
Access Pipeline, and Jumping Eagle is its lead plaintiff. In late
January, Trump issued an executive order to expedite the pipeline,
following a hard-won victory by protesters to stop the construction
late last year. But Jumping Eagle continues to fight. She is one of
more than a dozen Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, tribe
members behind this latest legal action, which demands an immediate
halt to construction on the pipeline.
Jumping Eagle's lead counsel, Bruce Afran, says the lawsuit
is two-pronged. In a statement to POPSUGAR, he wrote: "The Tribal
Members are alleging that the Trump administration failed to make
any, let alone, adequate environmental findings, to support the
grant of an easement allowing oil to flow under Lake Oahu, a
waterway in which the water rights are still retained by the Sioux
Nations and that is their exclusive source of drinking water. The
Tribal Members also allege that the easement violates their
religious practices because Lake Oahu is the source of sacred water
necessary to the Lakota faith." The White House has not responded to
POPSUGAR's request for comment on the suit.
We spoke with Jumping Eagle about why she's persevering, what
she wishes more people understood about the threat the Dakota Access
Pipeline poses to the Standing Rock Reservation, and her message for
Donald Trump....
City Finalizes Divestment Plans from Wells Fargo over Dakota Access
Pipeline
by Kate Cagle, Daily Press Staff Writer, Santa Monica Daily Press
- 04 MAR 2017
The City has officially split with Wells Fargo over funding
for the Dakota Access Pipeline. On Tuesday, the City Council made
the final vote to divest from the bank and submit a request for
proposal from a new financial institution large enough to deal with
the City’s billion-dollar annual banking transactions.
Councilmember Tony Vazquez, who brought the motion to divest
from Wells Fargo before the council last month, also cited Wells
Fargo’s past practice of secretly opening unauthorized accounts for
customers as a reason to break ties with the bank. In September, the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined the bank $100
million for the practice.
When opening a new account, City staff will not consider any
bank that has been cited by the CFPB or another regulatory agency
that protects consumers from improper sales practices.
About a dozen activists attended Tuesday’s City Council
meeting in support of the divestment. Many identified themselves as
Native Americans or protesters who had been to Standing Rock
themselves....
Dakota Access Pipeline Protest at Bank of America in Amherst Calls
on Customers to Move Their Money to Smaller Banks
by Brian Steele, Mass Live - 04 MAR 2017
AMHERST - A small group of protesters linked their arms
through 55-gallon drums and sat in the frigid cold outside the
downtown Bank of America branch for more than an hour-and-a-half on
Saturday morning, calling on customers to move their money to
smaller institutions.
At 9 a.m., three protesters describing themselves as
"guerrilla theater activists" covered themselves in prop oil and sat
under a sign decrying the bank's funding of the Dakota Access
pipeline, a controversial North Dakota energy project. A handful of
others taped off the area and distributed literature.
The bank entrance remained unobstructed.
The protesters are targeting financial institutions funding
the $3.7 billion, 1,200-mile-long pipeline that snakes through four
states. Supporters tout hundreds of millions of dollars in expected
tax revenue on oil sales, and the benefits from thousands of
construction jobs.
Marc Osten, of Pelham, said he was answering the call of
Native Americans who are trying to stop the pipeline from going
through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, located in North Dakota
and South Dakota....
How We Refer Pro Hoc Attorneys to Water Protectors
On-the-ground legal support for the Dakota Access Pipeline
resistance at Standing Rock Water Protector Legal Collective - Originally Published 28
FEB 2017
We are now seeing very serious federal charges being filed
against Water Protectors in addition to ongoing mass arrests and
pending misdemeanor and felony charges in state and tribal courts.
Of the 800+ people facing criminal charges, at least 300 do not have
counsel. Of the 500 who do have attorneys, some are dissatisfied and
asking that we help find new attorneys to take their cases. In an
ideal world we could link everyone up with attorneys immediately,
but the reality of the numbers means that it is impossible. So we
are prioritizing indigenous folks and those who are facing serious
felony charges or otherwise identified as being higher risk to be
connected with a pro hac vice volunteer attorney first. We also take
into account whether and when a trial date has been set.
The factors we consider can be loosely summarized as
follows:...
New Mexico Democrats Divest From Wells Fargo Over Dakota Access
Pipeline
by DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF NEW MEXICO, NM State, KRWG TV-FM
- 27 FEB 2017
Commentary: Albuquerque, N.M. – The Democratic Party of New
Mexico, in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and tribes
throughout New Mexico, made the decision to divest from Wells Fargo,
one of the many financial institutions supporting the Dakota Access
Pipeline.
Chairwoman Haaland, the first Native American state party
chair in the country, said, “The Democratic Party of New Mexico
knows that it's imperative tribes have a seat at the table and that
their voices are respected. Donald Trump's action to continue the
Dakota Access Pipeline is a direct assault on meaningful tribal
consultation, and now we must make sure our support is not only
heard but felt. We are closing our accounts at Wells Fargo, and we
encourage others who feel compelled by this issue to do the
same."...
German Bank BayernLB Seeks to Divest from Dakota Access Pipeline Last Real Indians - 23 FEB 2017; published 03 MAR
2017
February 23, 2017 – Today, the German bank BayernLB,
announced that they will “withdraw from the financing contract [of
the Dakota Access pipeline] at the earliest possible date.” Further,
they will not be renewing their contract with Energy Transfer
Partners.
BayernLB, who currently has $120 million invested into the
Dakota Access pipeline, has been a target of environmental groups
and supporters of water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
to divest from both the pipeline and fossil fuels and to invest in a
green future.
According to Andrea Marcos, who is active in pushing for
BayernLB to divest, “As a result of public pressure, Bavarian owned
public bank Bayern LB will divest $120 million from the Dakota
Access Pipeline. The Landesbank met in a private financial meeting
on Thursday and announced that they will divest. They are currently
in the process of making an exit plan. The larger context is that
the bank is in process with the government, being a gov-owned bank,
and the gov called them to a meeting to discuss the investment in
DAPL, and they collectively have decided to divest.”
On February 17th, an mass action was held at BayernLB where
over 260,000 signatures were delivered opposing the Dakota Access
pipeline....
Dakota Access Pipeline Too Risky
by Alyssia Veltri, The Grand Island Independent -
01 MAR 2017
I am sure you are aware by now of the Dakota Access pipeline
in North Dakota. You should also know that it is the worst idea in
the world. The online videos of the police blasting activists with
water cannons makes me sick and I am appalled that our leaders
allowed it. The governors of North Dakota and Nebraska should be
ashamed of themselves and their so-called family values pledge. We
should be holding the president accountable for choosing polluting
profits over our sacred children.
It’s not right that people can’t have the freedom to assemble
in a peaceful demonstration, especially when such hostile actions
were taken by local and state governments. I like to remind people
of the importance of the Missouri River because it provides water
for millions of people. If an oil spill were to occur, it could
pollute the drinking water of the Standing Rock native community and
travel downstream throughout the country. Our crops, livestock and
freshwater are all too important. This also violates historic
agreements such as the Treaty of Fort Laramie of April 29, 1868,
that describes the boundaries of the Great Sioux nation....
BIA Federal Police and Park Rangers Have Set Up a Hard Barricade at
Sacred Stones Camp
Johnny Dangers on Facebook - 01 MAR 2017
BIA Federal Police and Park Rangers will NOT allow LaDonna
Tamakawastewin Allard through the hard barricade on to her own
property at Sacred Stone Camp! LaDonna shares her thoughts on the
situation just outside the barricade in Cannonball.
Share and spread the word to the World about the injustice of
shutting down a Prayer Camp!
Follow Johnny Dangers and Johnny K. Dangers for continuing on
the ground updates and more on defeating the Black Snake that is the
Dakota Access Pipeline! Click where it says "Follow" on my profile
and change it to "See First" to not miss any #NoDAPL updates.
No Immediate Ruling Made on Dakota Access Pipeline Work
by Sam Hananel and Blake Nicholson, AP, Bismarck Tribune
- 28 FEB 2017
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday that he'll
decide within a week whether to temporarily halt construction of the
final section of the Dakota Access pipeline over claims that it
violates the religious rights of two Indian tribes.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg told lawyers at a hearing
that he wants to issue a ruling before oil begins flowing in the
pipeline, which could be weeks away.
Boasberg is considering a request by the Standing Rock and
Cheyenne River Sioux tribes to order the Army Corps of Engineers to
withdraw permission to lay pipe under Lake Oahe in North Dakota. The
pipeline has prompted months of protests and hundreds of arrests.
The stretch under the Missouri River reservoir is the last
piece of construction for the $3.8 billion pipeline, which would
move oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in
Illinois.
Tribal attorney Nicole Ducheneaux argued during the 1 ½ hour
hearing that the mere existence of an oil pipeline under the
reservoir that provides water to neighboring reservations violates
their right to practice their religion, which relies on clean water.
Boasberg asked Ducheneaux how there could be a contamination
issue if "the pipeline itself doesn't even touch the water."
"Can you claim a property interest in the land as well as the
water?" he asked....
Yurts for medics are among dozens of other dwellings in a
camp known as Eagle's Nest, an extension from the Sacred
Stone Camp on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. As of
Monday, February 27, medics and others began packing up to
leave the months-long movement to try and stop the Dakota
Access Pipeline after the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a
trespassing notice to campers.
After
the Razing at Standing Rock
After the Oceti Sakowin camp is razed at Standing
Rock, water protectors scatter, a few stand
Jenni Monet, Indian Country Media Network - 28 FEB 2017
STANDING ROCK, ND—A large circle had formed around a raging
fire fueled by stacks of wooden pallets. Its smoke blew west toward
a salmon-colored sun that was disappearing behind a pair of bluffs
known as the Twin Buttes.
Morgan Hale, 30, broke out in song.
“Father, grandfather, oh help me know, which direction I’m
supposed to go…”
The Nashville resident wore blue braids topped with a black
cowboy hat adorned with feathers. Thick, jagged designs were painted
around her eyes. She said she had arrived at Sacred Stone Camp fresh
off the trail from Burning Man, Nevada’s Black Rock Desert arts
festival centered around a temporary community. The Sacred Stone
Camp was the first encampment to form behind the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe’s push to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
“We’ve been fighting a pipeline and fighting racism, all
while praying,” said Hale. “It’s compassion, and there’s so much of
that here. And as far as I’m concerned, we won already.”...
Comments and Video of Disbanding of Sacred Stones Camp
Johnny Dangers on Facebook - 28 FEB 2017
At least 2 BI drove around camp with looking around Sacred
Stone Camp checking on the tremendous progress on moving over the
past 24 hours. Camp needs more time. 3 US Army Core and 1 Governors
office representative walked around back camp to decide where Army
Core property line land is.
Follow Johnny Dangers and Johnny K. Dangers for continued on
the ground updates and more on defeating the Black Snake that is the
Dakota Access Pipeline! Click where it says "Follow" on my profile
and change it to "See First" to not miss any #NoDAPL updates.
Arrest of Native American Using Sweat Lodge Was ‘a
Misunderstanding,’
Fargo Mayor Says
by Ryan Johnson, Forum News Service, Prairie Business Magazine
- 27 FEB 2017
FARGO — Fargo police will undergo cultural sensitivity
training after an officer arrested a man late last week for legally
using a Native American sweat lodge in southwest Fargo.
Mayor Tim Mahoney said a man was arrested Thursday, Feb. 23,
night at the sweat lodge, which is on an open patch of land just
west of 39th Street South between 36th Avenue South and 37th Avenue
South near a city salt and sand storage facility.
He said the Fargo Police Department officer, Jacob Rued, saw what
appeared to be a large fire at the site and didn’t know about the
sweat lodge, which has been there for three or four years. Mahoney
said participants use a fire outside to heat stones that are then
moved inside the makeshift shelter lined with blankets. It’s
shouldn’t have been an issue, the mayor said.
Rued went to check on it and he questioned a man who didn’t want to
comply with his orders because he said he had the right to be there,
Mahoney said.
The man arrested is Zebadiah Gartner, 20, Mahoney confirmed. He was
booked into the Cass County Jail at 10:24 p.m. Thursday and released
at 1:41 a.m. Friday, Feb. 24, according to jail records....
North Dakota Pipeline FORCED To Be Shut Down After LEAKING In The
Mississippi River Just Like Standing Rock Protesters Warned Alternative Media Syndicate - 27 FEB 2017
This is why water protectors continue to protest the Dakota
Access Pipeline, despite freezing temperatures and winter storms.
In case you missed it, “water protectors” have been camped
out near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, since April in protest of the
four-state Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). The pipeline threatens to
uproot burial ground, as well as contaminate the Missouri river.
It’s because of this that activists have put their lives on the
line.
In recent months, protestors of the DAPL have been maced,
tased, shot with rubber bullets, beaten with batons, and even hosed
down in freezing temperatures with water cannons. Now, even when
it’s below 0 degrees F and snowstorms threaten to take lives,
protestors – along with thousands of veterans – remain on the plains
to prevent Energy Transfer Partners from continuing the pipeline’s
construction....
Update
from Sacred Stones Camp (28 February 2017)
Myron Dewey, Digital Smoke Signals - 28 FEB 2017, approximately 14:00 hours (2:00 PM)
BIA coming through camp to do an assessment "NOT" arrest or
harass anyone.
This will determine if BIA will come through.
The Final Hours of Sacred Stone Camp. SHARE!
Johnny Dangers on Facebook - 28 FEB 2017
The final hours of Sacred Stone Camp Share!
Elder Uncle Robert Eder powerfully explains why he must tend the
Sacred Fire! Sacred Stone Water Protectors discuss their time at
camp and I once again sit by the Cannonball River. Love and
Solidarity
Follow Johnny Dangers and Johnny K. Dangers for continued on
the ground updates and more on defeating the Black Snake that is the
Dakota Access Pipeline! Click where it says "Follow" on my profile
and change it to "See First" to not miss any #NoDAPL updates....
Update from Sacred Stone Camp
Indigenous Life Movement - 26 FEB 2017
Summary of BIA raid and evacuation of Oceti Oyate Camp on 23
February 2017.
North Dakota [and BIA] Dismantles #NoDAPL Oceti Oyate Camp
Video URL:
https://livestream.com/unicornriot/events/7046185/videos/150255396 Unicorn Riot - 24 FEB 2017
Cannon Ball, ND – The water protector camp that for months
formed a beachhead against Dakota Access Pipeline construction was
destroyed midday Thursday, February 23rd. A combination of law
enforcement and military units forced aside the last inhabitants so
the remaining structures could be demolished, while a Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) helicopter orbited overhead.
The Army Corps of Engineers’ deadline of Wednesday, February
22nd, demanding water protectors clear out of the main #NoDAPL camp,
passed without law enforcement entering the camp, although several
journalists were attacked (see our full report).
The main camp, which several weeks ago hosted thousands of
people, known as Oceti Sakowin or Oceti Oyate, often called ‘Oceti’
for short, was dismantled with 46 arrests reported on Thursday
(AP)....
As Police Evict Water Protectors, Tribes Vow to Continue the Fight
“This isn’t the end by any means. This is the spark.
The whole world is waking up now.”
by Jenni Monet, Yes! Magazine - 24 FEB 2017
On Thursday, as North Dakota police moved in with a fleet of
bulldozers, Humvees, and armored MRAP vehicles, Gov. Doug Burgum
signed into law four bills that would bring harsher punishment for
protest-related activity in the state. The bills, his press
statement said, were meant to protect landowners’ rights. But for
the 46 people arrested that day, their stand was about defending
historic treaty territory.
“We’ve always been around this river, and that’s why we’re
here to protect this river,” said Harold Frazier, chairman of the
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the sister nation to Standing Rock.
“That river brings life to the people.”
Frazier has become a vocal supporter in the ongoing yet
shifting movement to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. Despite
Thursday’s razing of the main demonstration camp, Oceti Sakowin, he
and dozens of water protectors, or protesters, have vowed to
continue the fight to guard the Missouri River from a potential oil
spill—if and when the pipeline is completed....
An End and a Beginning at Standing Rock
by Jenni Monet; Reveal, from The Center for Investigative
Reporting - 24 FEB 2017
It was the kind of operation I had expected, although it
happened a day later: a heavily militarized evacuation of the last
protesters at Oceti Sakowin, the main camp behind the movement at
Standing Rock.
By midday Thursday, the Humvees and helicopters had moved in
and as many as 33 people had been arrested on federal lands managed
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Another 60 or so people who had
defied the corps’ Feb. 22 evacuation order had fled, crossing the
frozen Cannonball River to escape arrest.
The ultimate goal, according to Lt. Tom Iverson with the
North Dakota Highway Patrol, was to “speed up this cleanup process.”
Iverson was referring to Gov. Doug Burgum’s call to clear the
network of camps behind one of the largest indigenous gatherings in
history. The stated urgency: spring flooding.
Starting Thursday morning, bulldozers dug into temporary
structures and police slashed open teepee-style dwellings. Like the
fast-tracking of the final stretch of the $3.8 billion energy
project, the razing was on the radar of President Donald Trump.
In a White House briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said
the Trump administration had “been involved with the tribe and the
governor” about the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
“We are constantly in touch with them,” Spicer said.
Representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe were quick
to deny their portion of the secretary’s remarks....
NORTH DAKOTA'S PEACE OFFICER CODE OF CONDUCT AND OATH by Al Swilling, SENAA International
- 24 OCT 2016
North Dakota Law Contains a Detailed Code of Conduct and Oath of
Office That Its Peace Officers Must Vow to Uphold--That Applies to
the Morton County, ND, Sheriff, His Deputies, and Reinforcements
from Other Sheriff's Departments Who Are Working Temporarily for the
Morton County Sheriff, or for any other Law Enforcement entity in
the state of North Dakota....
A Word About Brenda
Norrell and Censored News Al Swilling, SENAA International - 14 FEB 2015 For those wondering why the vast majority of shared
posts on SENAA International's Web site and Facebook page are from
Brenda Norrell's Censored News, it's very simple—and very complex. For
many years, Brenda Norrell was a major journalist for (forgive me,
Brenda) Indian Country Today (ICT) until they censored Brenda's articles
and terminated her without cause. After leaving Indian Country Today,
Brenda created the appropriately
named Censored News.
While at
ICT, Brenda was a voice for the Dineh (Navajo) people at
Black Mesa, Arizona, where bed partners Peabody Coal and the BIA were trying to
forcibly remove Dineh residents from their ancestral homes in order to
strip mine the land of its coal. That greed took the form of a
contrived, fictional "land dispute" between Dineh' and Hopi....
Censored
News by Journalist & Publisher Brenda Norrell Censored News - 12 FEB 2015
Censored News was created in 2006 after staff reporter Brenda
Norrell was censored repeatedly, then terminated by Indian Country
Today. Now in its 9th year, with 3.7 million page views around the
world, Censored News is published with no advertising, grants or
sponsors.
Today, Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today,
whose reporters have relied on plagiarism of others' hard work for
years, instead of being present to cover news stories. Now, with a
collective of writers, Censored News focuses on Indigenous Peoples and
human rights.
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Please Donate to and Support this important voice for Indigenous
people and human rights. --Al Swilling, Founder, SENAA International
Worldwide Prayer Gatherings Will Resume Weekly
by SENAA International - 28 OCT 2014 What Is a Worldwide Prayer
Gathering?
Though the specific details may vary from one support group to
another, and from one geographical location to another, the essential
concept remains the same.
A Worldwide Prayer Gathering is not so much a physical gathering into
one physical location as it is the spiritual gathering of individuals
and groups from around the world who are of one mind and one accord into
one spiritual place for a common purpose, which is to ask for the
Creator's help to bring about the circumstances that will accomplish our
common goal according to His promise.
TUTORIAL
LSO MANAGEMENT: What They Are
and What to Do About Them SENAA International - 16 FEB 2010
Introduction
The computing public is becoming increasingly aware
of the existence of Local Shared Objects (LSOs),
also called "Flash cookies" or "Persistent
Identification Elements" (PIEs), the dangers they
pose, and the unethical ways that they are placed on
our machines. LSOs are the busybodies of the
Internet, sticking their
noses in your personal
business at every opportunity without
your knowledge or consent; and like most
busybodies, they're being found out.
With growing public awareness of LSOs comes a growing
demand for effective, real time control of them. Most
LSO management solutions offer management or deletion of
LSOs after potentially malicious ones have had time to
do their damage. Stand-alone LSO management utilities do
not offer real time protection, either. This tutorial
provides real-time management of LSOs....
IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, LEARN THEM! READ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
Transcripts of the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of
Rights (1st 10 amendments), and other Constitutional Amendments for your
perusal. A public service endeavor of SENAA International.
GoFundMe - 21 NOV 2016 Sophia Wilansky is a water protector from New York.
She left New York City several weeks ago to help with the struggle
at Standing Rock. She been an active participate and family to the
activist groups NYC Shut It Down and Hoods4Justice. Sophia has
always been committed to confronting injustice through vigilance and
resistance.
Sophia was giving out bottles of water to protectors holding
down the space when she was shot with a concussion grenade. The
explosion blew away most of the muscles, femural and ulnal
arteries were destroyed, and one of her forearm bones was
shattered. She
was air lifted to County Medical Center in Minneapolis were she’s
currently undergoing a series of extensive, hours-long surgeries from
the injuries
sustained from the blast.
We
must to support our comrades when they need us the most. She needs
all of us right now. After all she is our family.
Please consider donating to help pay for her treatment.
Vanessa has been on the front lines fighting DAPL and working
security for Oceti Sakowin since September 11. During the action on
November 20 at the Backwater bridge, she was intentionally shot in the eye with a
tear gas canister from 6 feet away. It was aimed directly at her face by
a Morton County officer. She was seen at Bismarck Sanford hospital
and released because she had no insurance. She has a detached retina
and needs surgery to ensure her vision. She is now seeking medical
attention in Fargo. Donations will be used for the cost of the 2 ER
visits, surgery, medications, and recovery.
BEGINS: 03:30,
08 DEC 2016 ENDS: When the Judge's Decision Has Been Rendered LOCATION: Pray from wherever you are. Your prayers will
join others.
SENAA International will be hosting
a second Worldwide Prayer Gathering of the month, from 08 December through 09
December 2016 to pray that on Friday, 09 December 2016, the
judge will uphold the Army Corps of Engineers' denial of the
easement to drill beneath Lake Oahe and the Missouri River;
and to pray for protection for those remaining at the Water
Protectors camps at Standing Rock, as they brave brutal North
Dakota winter conditions
In addition to prayers for protection for the Water Protectors
and Veterans, we ask that you continue your prayers for Vanessa
"SiouxZ" Dundon, who sustained serious injury to her eye after being
struck in the eye by a teargas canister fired from close range;
and for Sophia Wilansky, who faces multiple surgeries after her
forearm was almost severed by a concussion grenade thrown at her
by a Morton County Sheriff's Deputy or one of the department's
hired mercenaries. They are both in need of and deserve our
prayers.
We ask for everyone to lend their spiritual energy to this 2-day
prayer vigil.
One voice singing in an auditorium is sweet to hear, but low in
volume. A hundred voices singing in harmony is beautiful and
powerful enough to shake the rafters and move the soul.
Please join us and add your voice to the choir.
Wado!
The PATRIOT Act's Impact on Your Rights - ACLU
The
ACLU’s National Security Project is dedicated to ensuring
that U.S. national security policies and practices are
consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human
rights.
