From gars@netcom.com Mon Mar 9 11:04:34 1998 Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 20:15:31 -0800 (PST) From: Gary Night Owl To: Internet Recipients of Wotanging Ikche Subject: Wotanging Ikche--nanews06.010 _ __ _____ __ _ __ ___ ____ _ __ ___ ' ) / / ') / / ) ' ) ) / ) / ' ) ) / ) / / / / / / /--/ / / / ___ / / / / ___ (_(_/ (__/ ( / (_ / (_ (___/ '__/_ / (_ (___/ ' O ____ _ , ___ _ , ___ O o O / ' ) / / ) ' ) / / ' O o O / /-< / /--/ /-- VOLUME 06, ISSUE 010 O o o o o O __/_ / ) (___/ / ( (___, March 7, 1998 O o O KANOHEDA ANIYVWIYA Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin O o O Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min Aunchemokauhettittea O ( N A T I V E A M E R I C A N N E W S ) This issue contains articles from Big Mountain, Innu-L, Nat-Film & Lists; Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty; UUCP email; NASC News; Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native; http://www.bigskywire.com/gazette/wednesday/region/reg009.html Articles appearing have been previously posted for public dissemination and/or permission for inclusion has been secured. Letters of authorization are on file. A list of those granting permission to repost their words in this issue are listed at the end of part A. I thank each of you for allowing your words to be shared with the people. IMPORTANT!! ----------- To all who send copywrite protected articles, make very sure you have permission from the copywrite holder (a newspaper, the AP, a magazine, an author) because a new law is now in effect that says you can be prosecuted even if there is no monetary gain. Just because a newspaper has a website where it posts some or all of its editions does not grant permission for their redistribution. Be careful and be sure you pass on the items you do with full permission. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, all material appearing in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for educational purposes. <----<<<< >>>>----> This newsletter is a way of keeping the brothers and sisters who share our Spirit informed about current events within the lives of those who walk the Red Road. ++ It may be subscribed to via email by sending a request from your own internet addressable account to gars@netcom.com ++ It is archived at http://www.nanews.org Thanks to Borries Demeler all _Wotanging_Ikche_ (part a) submissions to AISESnet are archived under AISESnet and can be accessed easily by World Wide Web: 1994: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/94_dis.html 1995: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/95_dis.html 1996: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/96_dis.html 1997: http://aises.uthscsa.edu/97_dis.html This is a searchable index to the AISESnet Discussion mailing list database archive, and the keyword "Wotanging" will retrieve all issues for that year. Downloading Wotanging Ikche on AOL From: MAANG1419@aol.com Just thought I would share some info. I could not download on to a .txt because I kept getting the message (when I tried to retrieve it) that the text editor could not handle the volume. This time I downloaded it on to a .doc and when I retrieved it out of file manager, IT WORKED. "When the white people came first here, they were poor; but now they have got our lands, and are by them rich." "What little we receive goes soon away, but the land lasts forever." __ Gachradodow, Cayuga +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ | Indian Pledge of Allegiance | The Indian Pledge of Alleg- | | iance was first presented | I pledge allegiance to my Tribe,| on 2 December '93 during the | to the democratic principles | opening address of the Nat- | of the Republic | ional Congress of American | and to the individual freedoms | Indian Tribal-States Relat- | borrowed from the Iroquois and | ions Panel in Reno, NV. NCAI | Choctaw Confederacies, | plans distribution of the | as incorporated in the United | Indian Pledge to all Indian | States Constitution, | Nations. | so that my forefathers | | shall not have died in vain | Walk in Beauty! Night Owl +- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -+ O'siyo Brothers and Sisters! I received two very different notes this week. One questioned whether this newsletter has taken a more militant stand. The other asked why I included articles that seemed to oppose each other. Both reminded me it is time to again explain Wotanging Ikche's purpose. First, there is a reason the banner is in several languages, each more or less stating this is "The Peoples' News". From the time it was given me to serve as a messenger for the First Nations of Turtle Island, I welcomed anyone to send the title in their language if they wished it to be included. I would rather have two pages of titles in the languages of the First People than one line in the language of the occupation forces. The offer stands. For those who do not know here are the translations: Wotanging Ikche.................Lakota for News of the People Kanoheda Aniyvwiya..............Cherokee for Journal of the People Otapi'sin Atsinikiisinaakssin...Blackfoot for News for All the People Es'te Opunvk'vmucvse............Creek for People's New News Aunchemokauhettittea............Narragansett for Let Us Share News ni-mah-mi-kwa-zoo-min...........Ojibwe for We Are Talking About Ourselves Native American News............Occupation Forces Except on very rare occasions the _only_ words in this newsletter that are mine occur here in the editorial. Everything else reflects what has been sent or granted permission for redistribution. If the tone is more militant that means the contributions are more militant. If the tone is more conciliatory that means the articles submitted are of a conciliatory nature. I don't edit for content nor select to suit my personal views. It is tradition among most Tribes to keep council by giving voice to all who wish to be heard, then arriving at a consensus based on what has been offered. That is why there are often opposing views expressed in the same or closely released issues. It is not my place to push a view or set a venue. In fact, there are many times I do not agree with what one article or another might say. Again, I am not a censor. I am a messenger. You who read the words offered must decide the truth for yourself. I have seen that over a period of issues "The People" do come to a consensus. That is as it should be. That is how it will be so long as I continue to fulfill the vow I made to make a place for the People to share their news. =/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 08:48:16 EST From: Jswordy@aol.com Subj: Rod's scrapbook A scrapbook of e-mail notes, saved posts and other writings of Rod Whited (Eagle Feather), who died at age 48 on Feb. 22 following a stroke, is being compiled by Jim Steele (jswordy@aol.com). Anyone who wishes to write about Rod, or to send old postings he sent out, is welcomed to do so to Steele's AOL address. "The thought came to me that if I do this, his four-year-old twin daughters will have something in the future by which they can know about their father and the pride he had in his Tsalagi heritage," Steele said. "Some people have already responded with Tsalagi stories Rod posted, and I am thankful to them for providing the impetus for the idea. Notes about what he meant to people on listservers he posted to are also welcome." The scrapbook will be presented to Rod's wife, Denise. Peace! Night Owl , , Gary Night Owl gars@netcom.com (*,*) P. O. Box 672168 gars@nanews.org (`-') Marietta, GA 30067, U.S.A. gars@igc.apc.org ===w=w=== gars@bellsouth.net Fax: 770-528-9643 gars@juno.com ----------- News of the people featured in this issue ---------- - Woman Warrior Puts Faith in Words - Gitsxan Ask to Co-manage - A Mayan Visit to the Island Traditional Land - Tribal Jurisdiction Hearing Moved - Gardening Seeds Needed for - Justices Won't Revisit Ute Reservations Boundary Decisions - Healing Wounds - Urgent Chiapas Reports - Update on Standing Deer - Stop the Bloodbath - Leavenworth Prisoners Speak Out - IEN at Ward Valley - Ts'peten Defender Denied Bail - Cherokee Protest on Anniversary - Native Prisoner of Conflict - A Hundred Years Ago - Update on Tennessee Graves - Poem: Dances With Pain - Inco's Worst Nightmare - Verse: Hawaiian Book of Days - Lands for Life Call for Action - Free Verse: I Am Not a Man - Sechelt Band to End Negotiations - Conferences and Powwows --------- "RE: Woman Warrior Puts Faith in Words" --------- Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 11:38:04 -0800 From: Robert Dorman Subj: Woman Warrior Puts Faith in Words Mailing List: Big Mountain List The following is written by Jacqueline F. Keeler for Pacific News Service and is reprinted here with permission. A Woman Warrior Puts Faith in Words-- UN Investigates Navajo Removal Editor's Note: In a clear reversal of the usual international scenario, the United States is being investigated for violation of human rights. The specific charge involves allegations of religious intolerance in the Black Mesa area of Arizona. Jacqueline Keeler writes that these charges have resonance for her and thousands of Navajo people. Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Sioux works with the American Indian Child Resource Center in Oakland, CA. Her work has appeared in Winds of Change, an American Indian journal. By Jacqueline Keeler The United states is being investigated for violating the religious freedom of its citizens, the first time an international agency has ever made such a move. The United Nations "Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance," Abdelfattah Amor has visited the Navajo and Hopi Reservations to look into alleged violations that stem from a coal mining strip operation in Black Mesa, Arizona, one of the country's largest coal repositories. As a Navajo, or Dineh, as we call ourselves, I am hopeful that this initial investigation of may lead to an end that will allow our elders to pursue "hozho", "to walk in Beauty" as we say, again. Over the past thirty years, 10,000 traditional sheep-herding Navajos living near Black Mesa have been subjected to mass removal from their land, the desecration of 4,000 family graves and sacred sites, and repeated impoundment of their livestock and other harassment by Hopi officials, U.S. Agents, and the Peabody Coal Company. Nine thousand have been relocated, some to land along the Rio Puerco, the site of a uranium spill larger than 3-mile Island. This is the largest forced removal of people in the United states since the Internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II. It has cost U.S. taxpayers more than a quarter of a billion dollars. This particular issue has been looming over my family all of my life. I think I was seven when I first understood that my grandparents' land was "frozen"--which meant they could not have running water or electricity. We bathed at night after a long day of herding sheep by the light of a kerosene lamp in water hauled from far away. The land had been frozen by the courts when the Hopi Tribal Council sought title to it. Improvements were forbidden-- a homeowner could be fined, possibly arrested for doing simple repairs. My grandparents and other elders were to be removed from their homes to make way for Hopi progress. Both the Navajo and Hopi are heavily dependent on the money from coal strip-mining-- a method so destructive that some estimates are that the land will be uninhabitable for 75,000 years. Coal revenues account for nearly 40% of the Navajo Tribal budget and 80% of the Hopi Tribal budget. Peabody Coal, the British company that runs Black Mesa, also uses a slurry line-- where coal is mixed with water and sent through a pipeline-- to transport the coal across the desert. This has consumed nearly one billion gallons of drinking water from the Navajo and Hopi aquifer. All but the deepest wells are dry, and all Hopi wells may be completely dry in four years. Despite this, the coal company has been praised for its attempts to restore the land to its original state by planting trees. In this stripped soil, it is easy to see the neat rows of plastic pipes that mark the planting. Every one has a dead tree in it. Everywhere are signs that say "Keep our Mine Clean". All this stands in stark contrast to the lives of our elders, both Hopi and Dineh, lives based on a harmonious and respectful relationship with the land. The tribal governments' support for this form of "economic development" is a testament to the grinding poverty facing our nations. that our people have survived at all is a testament to the strength of spirit that our ancestors continue to give to us. My great, great grandfather, Big Horse, fought the U.S. Army in 1864. He was fifteen. As he and other warriors held out, the soldiers the force-marched 4,000 Dineh across the state of New Mexico in what was called the "Long Walk" and held in concentration camps for four years. I learned about him in a book by my great aunt Tiana. She wrote,"Right now, the young generation knows nothing. They don't know stories about anything. They just think that this is our land and it was given to us by the Great Spirit. But their great-grand ancestors didn't tell them. This land was fought for." "I make this book for the young generation to read and know the courage of the Navajo warriors, what our ancestors did for us....They paid for out land with their lives." This connection with ancestors and the land their ancestors bequeathed to them compels Navajo families who have held out these 30 years. Recently, Chris Interpreter, a young Dineh man from one of the communities near Black Mesa, came to visit us in Oakland. He told us how he had been arrested and beaten by Hopi Tribal Rangers when he tried to prevent them from impounding his grandmother's sheep. Later he was charged with trespassing on his own land. In response, he wrote to the editor of the Navajo and Hopi papers" I will pray with faith and hope...." When the UN representative makes his report to the world, I will be listening and so will the old grandmothers, the uncles, the young people, the ancestors and those not yet born. This connection to the land cannot be dismissed. It will not go away. Big Horse remembered his father's words."In Navajo, a warrior means someone who can get through the snowstorm when no one else can. In Navajo, a warrior is the one that doesn't get the flu when everyone else does-- the only one walking around, making a fire for the sick, giving them medicine, feeding them food, making them strong to fight the flu. In Navajo, a warrior is the one who can use words so everyone knows they are part of the same family. In Navajo, a warrior says what is in the people's hearts. Talks about what the land means to them. Brings them together to fight for it." Chris, presently on a national speaking tour, is a young warrior- he uses words and so do I. Jacqueline F. Keeler | American Indian Child Resource Program Coordinator | Center, Oakland, CA 21 Generations Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention | (510)208-1870 x 317 jfkeeler@there.net | (510)208-1886 FAX +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You are on the BIGMTLIST, a moderated mailing list of Big Mountain relocation resistance information (not discussion or debate). To unsubscribe, email redorman@theofficenet.com with "unsubscribe" in the subject header. For non-list members receiving this post as a forwarded message, you may subscribe by emailing redorman@theofficenet.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject header. For Big Mountain and other activist internet resources, visit "The Activist Page" at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/welcome.html Also, for great internet tools please visit: http://www.msw.com.au/cgi-bin/msw/entry?id=1271 --------- "RE: A Mayan Visit to the Island" --------- Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 20:58:21 -0800 From: austin (by way of Robert Dorman ) Subj: IN LAK'ECH-A Mayan visit to the island Mailing List: Big Mountain List Khwe Friends: Juan Gonzalez visited us here on the island friday night, and spoke to a group of interested people at a gathering/potlache/fundraiser that the Native Heritage Center had quickly arranged. He apologised profusely, because the elder, Don Alejandro, a Guatemalan Quiche Mayan healer and president of the Mayan elders had been delayed and wasn't yet in the country. Don Alejandro was the "main event" that we'd advertised for the gathering. But, things change. Juan, whose Mayan name is quite different and quite beautiful, (Gonjalez is handed out like Smith in the US)called and agreed to come alone,drive down from Boston to explain that Don Alejandro had been ill,(he's 73) and had been asked at the last minute by the Elder Council in Guatemala to officiate at an eclipse ceremony, the last solar eclipse of the millennium. There are no phones in Don Alejandro's village, and an eight hour drive to receive or send messages. Juan's words to me: "Yes I'll say a few words to the people, to apologise for Don Alejandro's not coming to visit. The Council of elders have given me permission to speak for them." Juan is Don Alejandro's "apprentice" and translator when they travel around the country/world to bring the message of peace and unity from the Mayans. They've sat with Pope John Paul, with presidents. Next week they'll go toe-to-toe with the Harvard Divinity School, in a roundtable format. Should be interesting, as Harvard Divinity School is responsible, in no small part, for the decimation of the New England Native Traditional Religion from Colonial times, and sent many a christianized indian preacher out into the world to cure his pagan brethern of their evil ways) Juan Gonzalez was electrifying. We picked him up at the boat dock, drove him through the darkening island to a building full of strangers, and he strode in, long black hair tied back, a traditional woven "ghost shirt" for protection when traveling. He arranged his maps and posters and videos, lit his copal "god pot", (eyeing the ceiling for smoke detectors, an occupational hazard for native healers) and began to speak. I can't begin to tell you everything, except a few stray facts. In Maya country there are 8 and a half million indigenous out of 15 million "others." In Guatemala, the Council of Elders are a sleeping giant, an unofficial government conferred with by the World Bank about investment strategy. The ruins and sacred places are about to revert to the Maya, who very much want to share their heritage with he world, but in their way, not the crackerjack box dilutions of the Cultural MInistry and Maya Tours Inc. His audience was a mix of local people. We sent out invites to a few off-islanders, but no takers at the last minute. A woman Quaker minister was there, an African-American and her husband from Trinidad, both faith/holistic healers doing workshops and visiting for the weekend, a few nose-ringed, Doc Martin, health food store hippies, a Dine'h mixed blood friend far, far from his New Mexico home, a local tile setter just back from a Peruvian Shamanistic junket, (loaded for spiritual bear), a scottish story teller with an adopted Nez Perce name, a whole room full of attentive, smiling faces. Most notably were the absentees. We'd especially invited members of the local clergy. Invited them to meet Don Alejandro, a sort of healer to healer jam session. None showed. The Catholic priest had somebody call the day before, send out feelers, but we imagine the threat was too great to his own faith to meet this dream-walking, smoke-blowing, holy man face to face and on equal footing. Probably all for the best anyway, because Juan's words about the Mother Church were none too complimentary. We've learned a few things about the ways of churches in trying to reengage the native spirit here on this island. The Unitarians are really supportive, (the minister was on vacation for this one however. He would have come), the Catholics are completely in denial of any faith but their own, the Congregationists have zero outside-the-fold presence, as do the Methodists, the Baptists, the Episcopals. I think it's a subtle racist way of saying, "if you want to come to our church, and we can give you Christian Fellowship literature and a dunk in the baptizing pool, fine, but don't be talking about your Creator or your Prophecies or your smoky, feather-and-bead, cosmology around my door." Juan refused any offer of food while he was talking, just a glass of water. We never asked, but suspect that to impart this important message, that fasting is a part of the preparation. Then we showed a short video about Chiapas. By Kerry Appel, from Denver, (his company, The Human Bean, sells weavings and coffee from the Chiapas people) makes these movies from his trips down to Mexico. Juan's comments: "Not enough of the actual violence. I've lived it. My kids have lived it. Most of my friends from there are dead." I explained that perhaps the filmmaker might not have been permitted to film government abuses, that to do so would probably mean his own life. Juan agreed, and said the film was good, but he does have footage of actual atrocities, for any one needing to see for themselves. (We'll try and make copies) After the people had gone, around midnight, and the last straggler had pumped his hand and offered a ten or a twenty for Mayan resistance struggles, we began filling up garbage bags of paper plates and cups from the dinner, Juan grabbed a broom, helped us awhile, then went outside to look at the stars. The UMASS Field Station, for the study of marine biology and botany, where we hold our native gatherings, is perched right on Nantucket harbor. It was a calm, moonless, night, just the red flash of the channel lights way off, and a tiny house light further off, but mostly sky and star. Dark as a pocket. Juan came back in. "Reminds me of Big Mountain." They had been in Dine'h Country a while back. The next morning, we did a sunrise service. Five of us. The two Dine-h mixblood expatriates, then us, Laughing Crow and Little Bear, then Juan. We got there first, parking at the base of Alter Rock and walking up, (we don't like to disturb the spirits with our pony) a dizzying 90 ft above the ocean, but the spiritual heart of the long-vanished Wampanoags who once held the island as home. Then the two Dine'h, John and his younger brother, arriving in a noisy, Detroit ghetto-boat, swaying dreamcatchers and a large hoopdrum tucked into the naugahyde seat, an AIM decal in the cracked windshield. They took the hill, spinning gravel, whipped right by us, dropped out of sight, then hiked back up. Juan's eyes were closed, undisturbed, quietly loading copal into his godpot, whispering gentle Mayan offerings we'll never hear translated.(Mayans hate translations I think. Perhaps it defies and insults the spirits inside the words) The lowlands were shrouded in this dewy ocean fog, obscuring the heath plants and low scrub. Atop Alter Rock, it might as well be Everest or K2. At 6:15 the sun popped out of the Atlantic, a brilliant orangina. Juan drew a circle in the dirt with his finger, then drew a cross inside that, then four smaller circles in each cardinal corner. The two Dine'h brothers drew an identical, smaller, symbol next to it, almost without looking, and placed a burning stalk of sweetgrass inside their's. Juan's copal flamed up and smoked,a tiny fragrant bonfire the sweetgrass flared once, then threw a weaker tendril of pungy smoke. Two cultures, actually three, if you count Laughing Crow and Little Bear, the adopteds, actually four, because she's Russian, who have their own tribal ways. Laughing Crow is the true orphan of the group, on the red road, having denounced his wetu/suburban/middle class beginnings, but haunted by english and french ancestors who sneer at these spirit-walking aspirations. The sun was on fire by now, and my feet were cold, but those soft Mayan prayers were the heat of the Yucatan, Tikal, Chiapas, down into Guatemala, Belize, to the Gulf, all those places of Juan's homeland, of Don Alejandro, the Council of Elders, of Brother Subcomandante Marcos, savior of the Zapatistos, a nation of brown-eyed babies born with fierce, proud, Mayan blood in their veins. The Dine'h brothers passed around the pipe, then Juan blessed each of us with a touch on the forehead, a cleansing with a stone face deity he carries everywhere, a bright bundle of cloth with bits of copal, white for the south, black for the north. He told us there is a Mayan prophecy now coming true, that the Eagle from the North will fly with the Condor from the South. Native America will unite as one. Lak'Ech, meaning literally, "I mirror you/I am you and you are me." Mitakuye Oyasin, We Are All Related. I looked at the symbol traced into the ground enclosing the sacred smokes, the sweetgrass and the copal.The circle, the cross, the four cardinal points. I thought of our brothers and sisters united. The Hopi and the Dine'h, (who must remember the true enemy, the Peabody Coal Co and the BIA and all matters of the greed cancer spreading outward) the Mayan, Lakota, Wampanoag,Makah, Apache, Cree, Micmaq, Nipmuc, Abenaki, Cherokee, and on and on and on............................. Now the sun was high over the Atlantic. My feet weren't cold anymore, watching the copal smoke down to black ash, watching the sweetgrass merge with the chill ground to just a black smudge. Juan knelt and kissed Mother Earth, then the drum began to sing and we headed down the hill. In Lak'Ech. Wuniish, Laughing Crow and Gentle Breeze ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bob Dorman redorman@theofficenet.com The Activist Page http://www.theofficenet.com/%7Eredorman/welcome.html Also, for great internet tools please visit: http://www.msw.com.au/cgi-bin/msw/entry?id=1271 --------- "RE: Tribal Jurisdiction Hearing Moved" --------- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 15:51:55 -0500 From: Sonja Keohane Subj: Burns' hearing on tribal jurisdiction moved to handle big crowd http://www.bigskywire.com/gazette/wednesday/region/reg009.htm Prepared for the Web: Tuesday, February 24, 1998, 18:37 Burns' hearing on tribal jurisdiction moved to handle big crowd KALISPEL (AP) - Anticipating an overflow crowd, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., has moved a hearing on his proposal to reduce tribal jurisdiction on Montana Indian reservations. The hearing Wednesday night has been moved from a Kalispel hotel to the auditorium at Flathead High School, which has about twice the seating. "The interest generated by this issue has been so great that it became clear the original venue wouldn't be able to accommodate everyone," said Burns, who does not plan to be at the hearing. "The more people who participate, the better, and I think that moving to the high school auditorium will accomplish just that." Tribes on all seven Montana reservations oppose Burns' proposal to trim the tribes' civil jurisdiction over non-Indians on reservations. The authority over private property of non-Indians on reservations would move from tribal government to state government. The Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council has said more than 1,000 opponents of the Burns measure will be at Wednesday's hearing. Tribes have organized a rally and other activities earlier in the day. -------see complete article at url above------- --------- "RE: Justices Won't Revisit Ute Boundary Decisions" --------- Date: 98-02-26 03:28:27 EST From: wontkneel@mailexcite.com (Angie Hill) Subj: Justices won't revisit Ute boundary decisions <><><><><><><>NASC NEWS<><><><><><><> Desert News Archives, Monday, February 23, 1998 The U.S. Supreme Court will not revisit its 1994 decision involving the boundaries of the Ute Reservation. The ruling denying a writ of certiorari, submitted by Duchesne and Uintah counties, was made Friday and released Monday. Duchesne County commissioners say they will not appeal the case any further. Duchesne County spent close to $70,000 to file the writ last year, and still owes hefty legal fees in connection with the case. Uintah County spent a similar sum in 1997. Among court watchers there was little doubt the Supreme Court would decline to revisit the ruling issued four years ago. The January 1994 decision was hailed as a complete victory for Utah. The decision was interpreted among state and tribal leaders as dissolving boundaries of the original Uintah Valley Reservation, leaving only about 1 million acres in trust lands. Upon closer inspection by newly hired Ute Tribe attorneys, the ruling was argued in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds the high court did not erase the exterior boundaries of the reservation in the case, but only removed lands from within the reservation that were open for homesteading in the early 1900s. The Court of Appeals agreed and the two counties appealed that decision in September. About 50 percent of Duchesne County and portions of west Uintah are within the jurisdiction of the Ute Tribe. 1997 Deseret News Publishing Co. --------- "RE: Urgent Chiapas Reports" --------- Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 23:21:45 -0400 From: not@inthe.game (justanoldman) Subj: Chiapas URGENT! (1 of 4) Newsgroup: alt.native d'laan'te'h... back with both guns blazing... Check this out folks... 3 news articles for you to DO something about... And since this news has me breathing fire, I'll allow myself a rant about it... news from Chiapas last wk of Feb 98 follows in 3 parts follows, re: 1) Changing a Treaty already signed in Feb96... 2) Moving in artillery while "continuing the dialogue"... 3) Removing foreign witnesses from the area... Tactics sound familiar to Indian Nations, right? They're getting ready to move in for the kill... a friend just back from Chiapas 2 days ago tells me that the paramilitaries (govt terrorists), far from being disarmed, are actually manning roadblocks with the members of the Mexican army... Another fine example of what the Euro-christians call "honesty & integrity"... Must be, 'cause the sheep don't utter a bleat of protest about this... to the Mexican govt or to their own elected officials. Their silence speaks as loud as thunder these days... I'm calling your bluff, euro-christians... I'm tired of words about "good will". Let's see some ACTION... "There is no such thing as an 'innocent bystander' who '..just happens to witness' genocide and crimes against humanity. They are as guilty as the active participants in these heinous and diabolical crimes!" (Chief US Prosecutor at Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, 1946.) Then again, the Jews of Europe were white and the Maya men, women and children being rubbed out are not, so those lofty principles of American justice translates to "just-us", right? Yesiree, the "home of the free and the land of the brave..." And Europe is silent too, even those "champions of human dignity" in Scandinavia & France who cruise through alt.native now & then, dispensing pedantics that put you to sleep... but I'll bet you that those "academics" are going to do a thorough analysis of the the Maya blood that's spilled & they'll write many megabytes of long, drawn out pontifications & postulate reams about the psychological profiles of the murderers, etc... so we should be thankful to them, right?... After all, these "deep thinkers" can't be expected to get off their asses & actually DO something! Especially when it's not their rights being trampled..., their kids being butchered..., So much cleaner & easier to discuss the "many meanings" of butchery... And where's all those, "we are all one, let's share being Indian...", wannabees? Where's that "Rainbow Tribe"? Oh there you are..., playing ostrich with the silent christians & euros... Not that anxious to "share" this aspect of being Indian, are you...? Didn't think so... Repeat: "There is no such thing as an 'innocent bystander' who '..just happens to witness' genocide and crimes against humanity. They are as guilty as the active participants in these heinous and diabolical crimes!" (Chief US Prosecutor at Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, 1946.) (end of rant... Chiapas news to follow... in 3 parts) News from Chiapas for last wk of Feb 98 - (2of3) (Artillery moved in, looking for a target...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MILITARY INCURSIONS CONTINUE; HEAVY ARTILLERY ENTERS LACANDON JUNGLE Military incursions into Zapatista communities continued throughout the first two weeks of February, as the Federal Army established dozens of new roadblocks across the state, entered at least nine communities looking for arms, and began moving heavy military equipment deep into the Lacandon jungle. The military operations were felt most heavily in the areas surrounding the Zapatista Aguascalientes of La Realidad, considered by the Federal Army to be the closest village to the headquarters of the General Command of the EZLN. On February 8th, 200 federal troops left their camp at the Euseba river and entered the communities of Benito Juarez, San Cristobal, Margaritas, and Las Reinas, all in close proximity to La Realidad. They told villagers they were looking for weapons. Inhabitants of La Realidad also denounced multiple incursions by the Federal Army into the community of Monte Flor (south of La Realidad, along the Guatemalan border) during the first week of February, and an incursion into San Agustin (along the Jatate river, a few kilometers to the north) on February 9th. Also on February 9th, three groups of 50 soldiers each were deployed outside the villages of Abasolo, Tenango, and Echetic (near Moises Gandhi, in Ocosingo), and proceeded to comb through the outlying areas looking for arms. They temporarily detained campesinos working in their fields, searched their clothes and their belongings, and subjected them to interrogations. On February 11th, the Army established a new checkpoint outside the community of Vicente Guerrero, on the road that runs from Las Margaritas to San Quintin (passing through Guadalupe Tepeyac and La Realidad). The roadblock seems to be operated jointly by Army and Immigration officials, with the apparent purpose of enforcing the Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives while looking for foreigners to deport. Anyone traveling to La Realidad must now pass through three roadblocks: the first is an immigration checkpoint a few kilometers past Las Margaritas; the second is the new checkpoint at Vicente Guerrero; and the third is at the military base of occupied Guadalupe Tepeyac (although the latter is operated only intermittently by the Army). Later, on February 12th and 13th, journalists stationed in La Realidad observed "an intense movement of military vehicles with characteristics never before seen in this area." Hermann Bellinghausen, the veteran La Jornada correspondent, reported a convoy of 40 new vehicles passing through La Realidad on February 12th, coming from either Las Margaritas or Guadalupe Tepeyac, and apparently heading toward either the military encampment at the Euseba river or the military base at San Quintin. Bellinghausen described the vehicles as "anti-riot vehicles, small tanks, equipment for the interception of radio communications, and armored vehicles with artillery cannons." More convoys passed the following day, including four heavy-artillery tanks and amphibious vehicles. Apart from including new vehicles and more deadly equipment, the convoys on the road through La Realidad have also become more numerous, having been increased from two to four a day. News from Chiapas for last wk of Feb 98 - (3of3) Treaty (signed Feb96) now renegotiated; Law re Indians to be unilaterally imposed) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Government Hardens Line Against EZLN On February 3rd, the federal government gave the Commission on Concordance and Pacification (COCOPA) a copy of its new 20-page counterproposal for constitutional reforms on the subject of indigenous rights and culture. The government's proposal is based on its remaining four objections to the COCOPA's original proposal on the subject, drafted in November 1996 in order to implement the San Andres Accords. The COCOPA, meanwhile, decided not to comment on the document or make it public, but rather to send it to the EZLN via the National Intermediation Commission (CONAI) for the rebels' evaluation. The CONAI, however, reported on February 7th that it was unable to deliver the document to the EZLN, due to the heavy militarization of the region surrounding the Zapatista community of La Realidad. In a press conference that day, CONAI president Samuel Ruiz Garcia explained: "When our emissary was going to deliver [the document], he had just returned from those areas, and he told us that the community had completely lost contact with the Zapatista command several days earlier; they don't know where they are located because they [the comandantes] are in constant movement, and in such circumstances all contact is lost. We have not had the possibility to deliver the document to its destination." In fact, it wasn't until February 10th (and on the third attempt) when the CONAI finally managed to deliver the government's proposal to a "local contact" in an undisclosed location, who would take charge of delivering it into the hands of the comandantes. As of this writing, however, the EZLN has still not publicly indicated receipt of the document. Meanwhile, in Mexico City, the government's war of words against the COCOPA's original proposal continued. On February 6th, Interior Minister Francisco Labastida declared that while the government would "totally respect the San Andres Accords," it would not lend its support to the COCOPA's proposal, which it now says "deviates" from those agreements. This statement is in keeping with the government's new strategy of trying to convince the public that its counterproposals, of which there now seem to be at least two, are actually in keeping with the two-year old accords (even though they include insertions of legal terminology which would effectively cancel important aspects of the accords, especially those sections related to indigenous autonomy); and that the COCOPA's proposal is based on "incorrect and unacceptable interpretations." Members of the COCOPA responded harshly to Labastida's accusations, affirming that there is no way in which the COCOPA's proposal could "deviate" from the San Andres Accords, since much of their proposal is simply copied word-for-word from the signed agreements. COCOPA members Hector Sanchez and Gilberto Lopez y Rivas also reacted to another declaration of Labastida, this time claiming that if the COCOPA or an opposition party (such as the PRD) wanted to present their proposal on indigenous rights and culture to Congress, then it should simply do so. Sanchez and Lopez y Rivas insisted that such an action would be fatal unless previous consensus is reached, since the proposal would be killed either by a PRI-PAN coalition in the Chamber of Deputies, or by the PRI majority in the Senate. The PRI, for its part, declared on February 9th that it would also not present a unilateral proposal on indigenous rights to the Congress until the EZLN and the federal government had reached consensus on such an initiative. Enrique Ku Herrera, the PRI's coordinator for indigenous affairs, affirmed that such a unilateral initiative "would not contribute to unity nor to a solution for the Chiapas conflict." Three days later, however, the official journal of the PRI--La Republica --published what is, in fact, a unilateral proposal for constitutional reforms on indigenous rights and culture, which it says will soon be presented to the Chamber of Deputies for its approval. The proposal was even drafted by Enrique Ku himself. The PRI did not lay out a timeline for when it would present its proposal, nor did it elaborate on the relationship between its initiative and the interior ministry's proposal which has been sent to the EZLN. Meanwhile, President Ernesto Zedillo presented a hard line to New York Times correspondent Sam Dillon, in an interview published on February 12th in the Times and February 13th in various Mexican journals. Among other things, Zedillo commented that the massacre in Chenalho would never have happened if the federal army had been present, and implied that the paramilitary groups in Chiapas are simply "trying to do what the authorities should be doing, providing justice." "What we have seen," said Zedillo, responding to a direct question about the PRI-backed paramilitary groups, "is a strategy of this group [the EZLN] to raise up a bastion of authority in that zone of Chiapas. They reject the presence of Mexican institutions there, and a consequence of the fact that the government has acted with prudence is that, since our institutions are not present in those areas, the EZLN has the capacity to affect other members of the communities. Unfortunately, an indirect effect of that situation...is that some people--not just now, but for a long time--have acquired arms, and have attempted to do what the authorities should be doing, providing justice." "And I should admit," he continued, "that in order to favor negotiations, I decided that the government would not have a strong presence in that region. Now I regret that, and I am plainly convinced that if the government had been present in Chenalho, then the terrible massacre we suffered last December would not have occurred....I think that in some occasions we have been too soft for the benefit of the negotiations, and I think the dramatic events of December demonstrate that such a policy is no longer convenient." After he had finished blaming the EZLN for the massacre and equating militarization with peace, Zedillo went on to exalt the work of the federal army in Chiapas: "You should see the army there," he told the reporter. "They are exemplary, they are insulted, beaten; women and children are sent out to insult them and beat them, and they withstand all those provocations because they are very conscious of the situation." News from Chiapas for last wk of Feb98 - (3of3) Govt propaganda regurgitates old "Zapatistas are foreign commies" myth; international observers being deported by the hundreds (no witnesses)... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TV AZTECA LANDS HELICOPTER IN LA REALIDAD, DESTROYS SCHOOLHOUSE On February 13th, the Tojolabal inhabitants of La Realidad received an unexpected and unwanted visit. Dolores "Lolita" de la Vega, anchorwoman for the national TV-Azteca news program "Hablemos Claro", decided to literally drop in on La Realidad to conduct unsolicited interviews. Chiapas governor Roberto Albores loaned Lolita's camera team a white helicopter the day before, supposedly so they could "visit the Lacandon jungle and the ruins of Tonin'." The first stop of the helicopter and its crew was the military base of Guadalupe Tepeyac, some 20 kilometers from La Realidad. The military commander gave the reporters permission to land in the Zapatista community--an act even the army has not attempted--saying there would be no problem. "What they want is publicity," said the commander. But when Lolita de la Vega and the "Hablemos Claro" team arrived in the heart of Zapatista territory just before noon, landing on the patio of the schoolhouse, they were quickly surrounded by very surprised--and angry--residents. No one had landed a helicopter in La Realidad since the uprising began; even when members of the COCOPA fly in to meet with members of the EZLN's General Command, they take a helicopter to Guadalupe Tepeyac and then enter La Realidad by road. Manuel de la Torre (the program's executive director and a former bureaucrat, as well as brother of the new Secretary of Cattle and Agriculture for the State of Chiapas) was the first to step out of the helicopter, and was approached by Araceli Hernandez, representing the Civil Peace Encampment in La Realidad. Hernandez told de la Torre that landing a helicopter in the middle of a community constantly threatened by helicopters and airplanes, and without having previously informed the inhabitants, was not a good way to enter. A Tojolabal community representative proceeded to ask the six crew members for their identification, as is normally the case when visitors come to La Realidad. The other members of the Civil Peace Encampment then approached, taking pictures of the helicopter and its occupants (who in turn were filming the villagers), while senior members of the community held an impromptu meeting to decide what to do. Shortly thereafter, the community leaders told Manuel de la Torre and Lolita de la Vega that they did not have authorization to remain in the village, and were therefore asked to leave. One insisted that the cameraman hand over his film. He did--but only a blank roll (which was not discovered until later). The helicopter then took off slowly and in a rather diagonal (rather than vertical) fashion, such that it ripped the roof right off the schoolhouse, showering the inhabitants of La Realidad with wooden tiles and sheet metal. Two small children were seriously injured when struck in the head by the flying debris. Two days later, the community authorities of La Realidad wrote a letter to the COCOPA, the CONAI, and to civil society. They explained what had happened, and demanded that TV Azteca pay damages for the destruction caused to the schoolhouse. But this was not the end of the story. Lolita de la Vega, apparently upset by the reception accorded her in La Realidad, decided to go ahead and air a program about the trip--a program which turned out to be inflammatory, provocative, and in complete disregard of the facts (or at least contrary to the versions of dozens of other witnesses--including journalists--to her arrival in the Zapatista community). The TV Azteca programs "Hechos" and "Hablemos Claro" both broadcast special reports about Lolita's helicopter adventure. They claimed she landed at the "General Headquarters of the EZLN", surrounded by "pure foreigners" talking among themselves and giving orders in English, French, and German. Manuel de la Torre even insisted to Proceso magazine that these "foreigners" were armed; Lolita added that they "spoke to us like Zapatista commanders," and are "manipulating our Indians." Of course, most of these "foreigners" she referred to were actually Mexicans. None of them were armed, a fact to which many other witnesses and even her own video can attest. They were the members of the Civil Peace Encampment, established in La Realidad after the military offensive of February, 1995. Part of their duty has been to assist in the protection of the community by making themselves visible at all times to outsiders, and to serve as observers (and defenders, to some extent) whenever the community is threatened by the army. There were also a few foreigners present (from France, Italy, and Spain, in this case), as there often are in the Civil Peace Encampments, at the invitation of the community. This is nothing new, yet the "discovery" of their presence by TV Azteca was played out as "proof" that the EZLN is actually dominated by foreigners who "manipulate and exploit the authentic indigenous struggle." TV Azteca's xenophobic and erroneous report, apart from simply being a case example of bad journalism, served as a perfect excuse for the government to launch a new campaign against foreign human rights observers in Chiapas, thus attempting to distract public opinion from the continuing effects of the Acteal massacre and the omnipresent threat of a military attack against the Zapatistas. Emilio Rabasa, the government's official representative for peace talks with the Zapatistas, declared shortly after TV Azteca's reports were televised that "no permit or visa exists" which would allow foreigners to legally remain in indigenous communities as human rights observers. The National Immigration Institute (akin to the INS in the United States) has also stepped up its campaign against foreign presence in Chiapas. Alejandro Carrillo Castro, the Immigration Institute's director, affirmed that nearly 200 people had been expelled from Chiapas in the last 12 months, "for participating in marches, making signs, carrying out political indoctrination, and even substituting national authorities." Meanwhile, there have been an increasing number of cases of immigration officials in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas intercepting tourists in the streets, and asking for their documents. Many are threatened with expulsion, and subjected to interrogations (without the presence of a lawyer) regarding supposed political activities. One U.S. citizen was deported from the country on February 10th, for having supposedly held a pro-Zapatista banner in a march nearly one year ago. This anti-foreigner campaign comes at a time of increased military aggression in Chiapas, and seems to be at least partially designed in order to remove international witnesses from the so-called conflict zone. In political terms, it is also part of a recent verbal offensive meant to discredit the EZLN in the eyes of the public. The government now appears to have returned to its original theory about the Zapatista rebellion, which it promoted during the first days of the conflict in 1994: that the rebels are not even Mexican. --------- "RE: Stop the Bloodbath" --------- Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 09:29:09 -0400 From: not@inthe.game (justanoldman) Subj: Sisters Newsgroup: alt.native For those who use the word "sister" or "grandmother"... let's see if this is more than a word... get this out to any & all women's groups in your area NOW please The Mexican army has tripled the number of roadblocks in Chiapas in past 72 hrs... an attack is imminent.. UNLESS we can turn the eyes of the world back onto our relations there... Please ACT!! If not on the 6th (short notice) then as soon as possible masi:cho ________________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ ________________________________________________ From: "Karolina Ballesteros" STOP THE BLOODBATH IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO! The brutal massacre of 45 Tzotzil indigenous people, mostly women and children, by paramilitary groups connected to Mexico's ruling party, the PRI, in the village of Acteal in Chiapas on December 22, was a horrifying reminder that there is still no real democracy, peace or basic human rights in Mexico. The massacre was carried out by the proxy agents of the Mexican government as part of its "low intensity war" against the EZLN, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, and its mainly indigenous supporters, who rebelled against the threat to their land and communities posed by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), on January 1, 1994. At least 1150 indigenous people have been killed by army, police or PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party) paramilitary death squads, dozens of villages ransacked and burnt, and 7,000 displaced since a one-sided "cease-fire" was agreed in early 1994. The crisis was worsened a year ago when the Mexican government reneged on the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Autonomy it had signed with the EZLN, so undermining the peace process. Instead, the government increased its militarization of Chiapas and stepped up its murderous campaign against unarmed Zapatista communities, while claiming it was "working for peace". Following the massive national and international outcry against the PRI regime's complicity in the Acteal massacre, the Mexican government is now also under pressure from the European Union, with whom it recently signed a "free trade" agreement, the ratification of which depends on Mexico showing it has improved its abysmal human rights record. However, while promising to apprehend the killers responsible for the massacre and disarm the paramilitary groups, it has instead cynically taken advantage of the present confusion and terror to launch an offensive against the EZLN, with troops advancing deep into Zapatista-held territory and harassing the local population. These actions are in breech of the government's own Law for Peace and Reconciliation of 1995 which specifically ruled out military intervention against the EZLN while negotiations (stalled since September 1996 but not ended) continue. A xenophobic campaign against foreign human rights activists and observers in Chiapas, of whom 200 have been expelled and whose presence is the only protection many communities have from paramilitary and army attack, is also being whipped up to deflect criticism of the PRI regime and prepare the way for the extermination of the Zapatistas. Meanwhile, no serious attempt has been made to disarm the PRI paramilitary groups, which continue to threaten Zapatista communities. Once again, the corrupt and authoritarian PRI regime is "talking peace while making war" against a dissident civilian population. The ZAPATISTA ACTION PROJECT, a network of concerned groups and individuals, demand that the European Union suspend its Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and that the British government, as the current president of the EU, increase its pressure on the Mexican government to: Disarm, disband and punish the paramilitary groups and politicians responsible for the Acteal massacre and other atrocities. Demilitarize Chiapas and Mexico. Withdraw troops from Zapatista areas. Respect and implement the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights. PICKET THE MEXICAN EMBASSY! Friday, March 6, 12.30 - 2 p.m. 42 Hertford Street, London W1. (and the first Friday of every month at the same time) Nearest tubes: Hyde Park Corner & Green Park SEND MESSAGES OF PROTEST! Mexican Embassy: mexuk@easynet.co.uk tel/fax:0171-499 8586 President Zedillo: webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx Details from: ZAPATISTA ACTION PROJECT, c/o fhuman, BM CRL, London WC1N3XX. Tel: 0181-679 6930 email: fa6134@qmw.ac.uk Next meetings: Tues 10 & 24 March, 7.30 pm, Institute of Education Bar, Bedford Way. Tube: Russell Square FREEDOM JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY FOR THE INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF CHIAPAS AND MEXICO! FOR WOMEN AND AGAINST PATRIARCHY! Violence, based on the exclusive, authoritarian, vertical, elitist and patriarchal logic of capitalism, has become the fundamental characteristic of the neoliberal economic project of "deregulation" and "free trade" being forcibly imposed on the planet by unaccountable international organisms such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Once again women throughout the world are the most adversely effected by this assault on humanity. In Mexico, as in Britain and throughout the world, the attack on the most vulnerable sectors of society, such as women, has not been long in coming: the loss of workers rights during maternity, the explosion in prostitution, the total lack of health services in marginalised areas, the rape of indigenous women during gynecological examinations, the physical and psychological attack against feminine sexual identity of rape. At least 60 cases of rape perpetrated by members of the Mexican security forces and government-linked paramilitary groups in the "conflict zone" have been documented since June 1994 - the tip of the iceberg. The Acteal Massacre resulted in the horrifying death by bullet and machete of 45 displaced Zapatista sympathisers, 21 of whom were women (four had their stomachs cut open and foetuses torn out), 14 children, 9 men and one baby. These facts are yet further proof of the government's policies of violence, murder, torture, the disappearance of oppositionists, and impunity at all levels which the Mexican people are having to endure and resist, above all both indigenous and non-indigenous women. Lamentably, these mechanisms of barbarism, control and subjection are not exclusive to the Mexican state. The neoliberal structures on which it depends have led to the social globalisation of these practices of domination, reproduced in every sphere of life, in every continent in different proportions. As a result, the fightback against neoliberalism demands a global response, the development of a genuine internationalism which can unite popular struggles throughout the world, not out of "solidarity" but as the co-ordinated actions of equals, allowing us to strike a real blow against the global policies of neoliberalism and to develop viable alternatives. Women throughout the world have shown themselves to be symbols of resistance and rebellion during the course of history. The leading role that they play today in social movements and above all the exemplary struggle of Zapatista women represent a transformation of political practices beginning with being and acting as women. Let's make ours the cry of "Ya basta!" (Enough!) made by the Zapatistas on January 1 1994, constructing our own history based on the democratisation of all aspects of private and public life. But this will not be possible without a decisive and disinterested social militancy which demands "everything for everyone" and "leading by following".This International Women's Day is the right moment to remember and recognise the courageous contribution of the Zapatista women, armed and unarmed, of women rebels and dissidents throughout the world who have dared to say that history made without them will be badly made and meaningless. OUR HEARTS ARE SILENT NO MORE! We therefore invite all women to exercise the power of your voice and take part in the picket of the Mexican Embassy on March 6! ****** A-Infos News Service ***** News about and of interest to anarchists Subscribe -> email MAJORDOMO@TAO.CA with the message SUBSCRIBE A-INFOS Info -> http://www.ainfos.ca/ Reproduce -> please include this section --------- "RE: IEN at Ward Valley" --------- Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:59:48 -0800 (PST) From: Tom Goldtooth Subj: IEN AT WARD VALLEY - UPDATE UUCP email [This update on the Ward Valley occupation prepared by Tom Goldtooth, National Coordinator of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Date of update is February 19, 1998. Please post.] The National Coordinator of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) just returned from the Ward Valley occupation and encampment located approximately 22 miles west of Needles, California and 18 miles from the Colorado River. IEN has been networking with the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance, the tribal grassroots members, elders, and the various non-Native support groups and organizations during the past two years. The protest at the Ward Valley continues and everyone remains committed ' and motivated to protect the sacred site from further desecration. The encampment and occupation at Ward Valley continues with non-violent direct resistance by all Native and non-Native participants. Tribal members of the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance have maintained the sacred fire, sacred staff, and continue to offer songs and prayers. Ward Valley is a holy place according to the local tribal members and elders. They all feel the area should not be desecrated and should not be used as a nuclear dump. The site is located in a remote desert valley located right along Interstate Highway I-40. There is a Water Road exit on I-40 that leads directly to the proposed nuclear dump site. The site for the dump is along a dirt road located about one mile from I-40 - Water Road exit. The site is called "Ground-Zero" with an encampment of local tribal elders, tribal members, and Native and non-Native supporters from throughout the region and nation. The entrance to the encampment is a small one-lane dirt road bordered by a small wire fence that protects the desert tortoise. Another area near the Ground Zero site is designated for additional camping for supporters. This is called the "Landing" and is an area graded by BLM for airplane landings. The Ward Valley site is the only habitat where the threatened desert tortoise is increasing in numbers and is recovering from Upper Respiratory Tract Disease. The desert tortoise is sacred to the Fort Mojave peoples. The people of the Colorado River Native Nation Alliance - Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Cocopah, and Colorado River Indian Tribes are opposed to the land transfer, opposed to any more test well drilling at the site and area, and are opposed to any final construction of a radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley. Anti-nuclear activists, environmental groups, migrant farm worker groups, citizen groups, Native organizations, and environmental justice groups are standing in alliance with the tribes. Background California Governor Pete Wilson and the nuclear and medical industry are hoping to get the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to transfer the federal-public land to the State of California for the purpose of the State to build a 1,000-acre low-level radioactive waste dump at the site. The design specifications of the proposed dump site is to construct unlined trenches above an aquifer connected to the Colorado River via five potential pathways. The current issue at this time is the goal of BLM to secure Ground Zero, remove all encampment participants and make room for test well equipment to come in to begin constructing additional test wells. Protesters have lived at the Ground Zero camp since 1995. The BLM and the State of California are planning to do scientific drilling. The purpose of the testing is to determine the movement of tritium and related materials at depth at the site, as recommended in a 1995 report prepared by a panel of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Findings of tritium were reported at considerable depth below the surface at the Ward Valley site. The NAS was unable to determine the cause of the findings, and NAS recommended further sampling and analysis for tritium and chlorine-36 at the site. The testing is expected to investigate the extent to which tritium released into the atmosphere during the 1950's and 1960's has migrated into the soil at the Ward Valley site. The results of the federal tests will be included in the supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS). There is fear the BLM, under intense pressure from the nuclear industry and Governor Pete Wilson will be rigging the test study to support the dump proposal. There is a feeling that the feds and the state have no credibility and the tests will not be performed honestly. The contractor to conduct the testing is one of the worlds biggest nuclear reactor builders. Most important is the fact the Ward Valley site and area is sacred to all the tribes within the Colorado River Native Nation Alliance. Ward Valley is sacred to the tribes because of its proximity to Spirit Mountain, the birthplace of their ancestors. The elders of the Fort Mojave and other area tribes recognize Ward Valley as the spirit path that must be protected. Current Status The BLM served a 5-day eviction notification to the Fort Mojave tribe on Saturday February 14th (since there had been a permit issued by the BLM to the tribe for using certain areas of the site for camping and parking cars). BLM's stated reason for this is all Ward Valley land is being closed to protect public safety and ensure site security and integrity of the testing. BLM feels the encampment will conflict with drilling operations. This 5-day eviction notice expired Thursday, February 19th. More tribal elders, tribal members and Native and non-Native supporters arrived on Wednesday, February 18th to strengthen the line of resistance. More supporters are expected this weekend. As of Thursday, February 19th, no action has been taken by the BLM law enforcement to start removing the participants. Participants include tribal elders, tribal members and other Native and non-Native supporters. Throughout the evening of Wednesday, February 18th and morning of Thursday, February 19th, tribal religious ceremonies have been taking place. A solidarity meeting held Wednesday evening demonstrated the strength of the line of resistance between the tribes, elders, Native and non-Native supporters. Approximately 300 people were reported to be present Wednesday night and today, Thursday, at the Ward Valley site. News media are there now. IEN and the Save Ward Valley Coalition have newspaper article clippings of the occupation. On Wednesday, February 18th, there had been reports of a local county sheriff department "prison bus" parked at the Needles, California sheriff department. This had not been confirmed. Since last week, the county sheriff's department has not been seen at the Ward Valley site. It appears the BLM law enforcement rangers are maintaining themselves as the main law enforcement within the BLM federal lands. The California State Patrol is reported to be limiting themselves to the jurisdiction of the interstate I-40 freeway and off-ramps. There have been aerial surveillance of the encampment and occupation by the California State Patrol through some agreement between BLM and the State Patrol. According to the BLM rangers this was done to maintain a count of the number of vehicles parked in "permitted" areas of the Ward Valley site. Since last week, the BLM established a command post at the I-40 off-ramp area. It consists of three small mobile trailers, with generators, and satellite dishes. The area is a closed area with wooden barricades prohibiting entrance. The BLM has established one of the trailers as a "press-media trailer" and say they will allow reporters and photographers with photo-identification media credentials access to the closed area. The BLM call their media and public relation department the "External Affairs." There have been reports from Department of Interior (DOI) sources and some "casual" remarks from local BLM officials that no arrest action will be taken against the encampment and occupation participants, however, nothing in writing has been forwarded either by BLM or higher-ups in the DOI department. Participants and the tribes are very cautious of the BLM and will continue to maintain the line of resistance to protect the sacred site. As of Thursday, most of the 7-BLM law enforcement ranger vehicles and personnel have been withdrawn and are no longer parked along the perimeter of the occupation. Both the recent 5-day eviction notice and the BLM closure notice effective February 13th (that was published in the January 29th Federal Register) provide the BLM "legal" authority to enforce the closure notices and evict and/or arrest all encampment participants that resist. On Wednesday, February 18th, the BLM officials met with the Fort Mojave and other Colorado River Native Nations Alliance representatives in Needles to discuss a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The BLM are trying to negotiate acceptance by the tribes to allow the testing or different levels of the testing to continue. According to the chairwoman of the Fort Mojave Tribal Council, they and the Alliance refused the offer and remain steadfast in opposing all BLM activities that would plan for the testing to take place. The tribal elected leaders are following the direction of their elders and tribal grassroots members to do everything possible to protect the sacred area from any further desecration. THE TRIBES, ELDERS AND NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE SUPPORTERS HAVE VOWED THAT THEY WILL NOT BE MOVED. THE TRIBES ALONG THE COLORADO RIVER ARE SAYING TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT THERE IS NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENSE OF THEIR SACRED LANDS AND THE PROTECTION OF THE COLORADO RIVER. Summary of IEN Comments IEN will continue to provide assistance and advocacy to these Indigenous River Peoples that are the true "guardians" and "river protectors" of the great Colorado River. IEN calls upon all people to take action to protect the beautiful and sacred lands of Ward Valley. This issue affects all people and all life that depend on the water from the Colorado River for their livelihood. The city of Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and all down-river communities use this water for irrigation of agricultural crops, drinking water, ceremony, etc. The quality of this Colorado River water also affects the populations that reside in Mexico. It could become an international border and NAFTA issue. The potential siting of this low-level radioactive waste dump in Ward Valley poses a great threat to the Colorado River, the ecosystem and threatens the perpetual life of the Mojave Peoples and other Tribal Nations that live along the River. I have witness the deep feelings the tribal elders have with this land and their opposition to the nuclear dump site. I have seen and felt their tears as they talked out against this federal, state and nuclear and medical industry partnership to build this dump against the wishes of our First Americans - the Indigenous Peoples of the River. If the U.S. government, State of California and the nuclear, research, and medical industry are successful in siting this low-level radioactive dump at Ward Valley, it will create great psychological pain to the tribal elders and tribal members. It is a form of spiritual genocide. The actions of the governments to push this test drilling activity and dump development upon the shoulders of our Native people is unethical and against all sane reasoning. Some of The Things That Have Been Done: IEN has worked with the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and the Save Ward Valley Coalition (non-Native coalition) to fight this proposal. The tribal leaders had actively sought U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Department of Interior (DOI), and direct requests to President Clinton's office to intervene in this issue, but with no action from these federal agencies or the U.S. administration. The tribal leaders once again do not see the U.S. government respecting it's own policy of respecting government-to-government responsibilities that were assured by President Clinton. The tribal leaders had previously asked the U.S. Administration and Secretary Bruce Babbitt, administrator of DOI to refuse to transfer the land from federal ownership over to the State of California. The tribal leaders have cited U.S. Administration policies on federal trust responsibilities including breach of responsibility under Presidential Executive Orders 13007 and 12898, Indian Sacred Sites and Environmental Justice. The tribes are feeling they have exhausted all remedies to stop this dump proposal. That is way they have formed the line of resistance. IEN fully supports them in this direct action. The tribal representatives, with support of IEN and the Southwest Network for Economic and Environmental Justice (SNEEJ) prepared public testimony to the US EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) requesting that the Ward Valley issue be declared an environmental justice issue and that an environmental justice analysis be conducted as part of the environmental assessment. An environmental justice analysis has now been mandated as part of the activities under the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) that is currently underway. IEN will be helping the tribes on this EJ process. Unfortunately the required digging of test wells is part of this SEIS. What You Could Do: IEN requests all Environmental Justice Networks, organizations and leaders to hold the U.S. Administration accountable to Executive Order 12898 and support the tribes in their defense of Ward Valley lands that are sacred and culturally significant to their communities. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NOW - NOT INJUSTICE! The Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and the Save Ward Valley Coalition have spent years of hard work defending this land. Many non-Native and Native unsung heroes and defenders of the site have come and gone and some still hanging in there. Send all these people your letters of support. Unfortunately it takes money these days to maintain offices, communications, travel to attend necessary meetings, and all the other activities necessary to maintain a campaign such as this. IEN is requesting all supporters to send donations to the Save Ward Valley Coalition Office, 107 F Street, Needles, CA 92363. The Coalition office works in partnership with the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and is the clearinghouse for all donations, information, etc. The Alliance and the Coalition is requesting your support. They are still requesting people to come to Ward Valley to support them in their line of resistance. If you plan to come to Ward Valley, report to the Save Ward Valley office located in Needles at 107 F Street, phone (760) 326-6267 and they will brief you and provide transportation and/or direction to the encampment. Please bring warm clothing for cool nights and your own supplies and camping equipment to be self-sufficient. Hotels are available in Needles for those that have money. Volunteering cooking is provided at the encampment and food is always needed. Bring your own water. Portable sanitation facilities are available at the site. The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is asking all supporters to do the following: Send letters, faxes, e-mails to President Clinton, The White House, Washington, DC 20500, ph: (202) 456-1111, fax: (202) 456-2461 , e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov; and, Bruce Babbit, Secretary of the Interior, Department of Interior, C St, 18th and 19th St SW, Washington, DC 20410, ph: (202) 208-7351, fax: (202) 208-6956. Tell them: 1) Public and tribal leaders are concerned about this issue and you request written assurances be made that no removal or eviction action be taken by the BLM or any other law enforcement entity against the people occupying the Ward Valley site; 2) That all plans for test drilling activities at the Ward Valley site be completely rescinded and withdrawn; 3) There be a federal declaration of recognition by BLM and DOI of the Ward Valley site as a Sacred and Historical Site. For further information contact: Save Ward Valley Coalition Office, 107 F Street, Needles, CA 92363 ph: (760) 326-6267, fax: (760) 326-6268, e-mail: swvl@ctaz.com (they are also a contact for the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance and could relay information to the various tribal contacts) Local tribe that is nearest to the Ward Valley site: Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, 500 Merriman Avenue, Needles, CA 92363 ph: (760) 629-4591 fax: (760) 629-2468 (please note this is a Tribal Nation headquarters and they are busy with many day-to-day activities of a governmental body - try to network all inquiries through the Save Ward Valley office listed above). Web sites that have info on the Ward Valley issue: http://www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html http://www.shundahai.org/swvaction.html http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley http://www.ctaz.com/~swvl http://banwaste.envirolink.org BLM web site: http://www.blm.gov (see California, we don't have the exact page on the Ward Valley site) Colorado River Native Nations Alliance Fort Mojave Indian Tribe Tribal Chair - Nora Helton, Vice-Chair - Llewellyn Barrackman Ward Valley Coordinator - Steve Lopez 500 Merriman Avenue Needles, CA 92363 ph: (760) 629-4591 fax: (760) 629-2468 Chemehuevi Indian Tribe Tribal Chair - Gjrjle Dunlap PO Box 1976 Havasu Lake, CA 92363 ph: (760) 858-4219 fax: (760) 858-5400 Colorado River Indian Tribes (C.R.I.T.) Tribal Chair - Daniel Eddy, Jr. Rt. 1 Box 23-13 Parker, AZ 85344 ph: (520) 669-9211 fax: (520) 669-5675 Cocopah Indian Nation Tribal Chair - Sherry Cordova Tribal Council Member - Pauline Allen Avenue G & County 15th Somerton, AZ 85350 ph: (520) 627-2061 fax: (520) 627-3173 Quechan Indian Tribe Tribal Chair - Mike Jackson Tribal Council Member - Claudette White P.O. Box 11352 Yuma, AZ 85366-9352 ph: (760) 572-0213 fax: (760) 572-2102 --------- "RE: Cherokee Protest on Anniversary of Conflict" --------- Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:10:07 -0600 From: Summerfield/Marvin&Linda Subj: 2/26 Cherokee Protest on Anniversary of Conflict -Muskogee Phoenix-By Donna Hales Newsgroups: alt.native,soc.culture.native The following article was published 2/26/98 in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix. Copyright 1998 Gannett Co., Inc. Reprinted with permission ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cherokees protest on anniversary of conflict Tribal members denied entry to planned meeting-Elders were the first allowed inside By Donna Hales, Phoenix Staff Writer TAHLEQUAH - About 45 Cherokees demonstrated peacefully Wednesday after being denied entry to a planned meeting with tribal councilors on the first anniversary of a constitutional crisis. Councilor Paula Holder expressed surprise that Principal Chief Joe Byrd left orders for demonstrators to be kept outside. "These people have business at the tribe, they have scheduled a meeting with leadership," Holder said. "Joe declined, but councilors didn't." Several hours later, Byrd gave instructions that tribal members could go inside the complex. He was not there but issued a press release saying he changed his mind when it became clear that "threatened violence was exaggerated." Byrd opponents rallied under the name of the "Cherokee Connection" and sought information on everything from finances to accountability. On Feb. 25, 1997, tribal marshals executed a search warrant and seized evidence from the complex leading to two criminal charges against Byrd for allegedly diverting funds. Byrd fired the marshals and ignored a tribal court order reinstating them, setting off a string of events that split the 193,000 member tribe, the second largest in America. Byrd's armed security guards Wednesday prevented tribal members from entering the tribal complex for several hours as law enforcement officers from the city, county and state were on alert across the highway. More than 21 law enforcement vehicles from the various agencies could be seen within a two-mile radius of the complex. Bureau of Indian Affairs police, who have been in charge of tribal law enforcement in the 14 counties of the Cherokee Nation since April, kept a low profile. A few were seen on duty inside the complex. "It's against the (tribal) law to carry guns on Cherokee Nation property, " tribal member Jack Blair told an armed security guard who ordered Cherokees away from the complex door. Several councilors agreed, but the guns stayed on. Five Cherokee elders were the first people allowed inside to talk to a group of councilors. The press was allowed to observe. The elders had to undergo a search for weapons from guards with hand- held metal detectors. Elders demanded the administration recognize the authority of the tribe's highest court, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal. Byrd has sanctioned what the tribunal ruled is an illegal court at the tribal complex. Elders also wanted an accounting of how money has been spent in the past year. Byrd blames his political enemies and says he has done nothing wrong. In a news release, he states he is convinced Wednesday's discussions "are a fresh first step at peace among all our people." He also said his administration is committed to the prompt resolution of the difficulties addressed. Pat Ragsdale, the only fired tribal marshal not offered a job back, is on paid administrative leave. "It's denigrating to have people stand out in the rain. People were denied their constitutional right to assemble," Ragsdale said before Byrd had a change of hear and opened the facility. "He (Byrd) said he wants to pull everybody together - but he wants to keep us out of the complex," said Cherokee businessman Jess Bryant. "He didn't invite us to his press conference yesterday and denied us access to him today. He knew it was coming. He just didn't want to meet with the people. He just doesn't want to answer questions." Marion Brown Hagerstrand, 76, expressed disgust as she waited outside - "We're such a dangerous group. I think it's disgraceful. Sioux Smith Vann, whose husband Raymond Vann, helped organize the peace rally looked around at the crowd. "These are mostly retired people - mothers, children, and housewives - and we're a threat to these people?" Sioux Vann said. "Do you know of a government who will not permit their citizens inside their administration" Other Cherokee held up signs and chanted in the background: WHAT DO WE WANT? JUSTICE. WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW." -------------------------------- Posted courtesy of your only independent Cherokee newspaper, THE CHEROKEE OBSERVER. http://www.cherokeeobserver.org --------- "RE: Update on Tennessee Graves" --------- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 20:54:07 EST From: Wanige@aol.com Subj: update on cemetary news UUCP email O~Si~Yo! You remember the information I sent you earlier regarding the Redstick Confederacy's attempts at establishing a Native American cemetary, and being granted the right to speak for the Ancestors in Chancery Court? Well, one of the Official Slimeballs of the State of Tennessee (aka the Attorney General) has filed a petition seeking to block our attempts to speak before the court. This could work to our advantage in the long run, because there may be a continuance of the case until March 23. Fund raising efforts have been slow, so that would give us more time to actually raise the needed funds to purchase cemetary land before the court date (which was originally set for March 2). On a related note, trees have been cut and roadways cleared for the site evaluation at West Meade; which will eventually lead to more desecration of Native Burial sites, so that the site can be rubber stamped for the erection of a Wal-Mart Super Center and Lowes Building Center which even the local residents are against. But neighborhood stability and respect for the dead takes a back seat to money and politics in the Yonegi society. Please keep all of these developments in your prayers and pass the information on to any and all who would be sympathetic to our stand on these issues. Wado, Dale --------- "RE: Inco's Worst Nightmare" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 08:12:03 -0400 From: Larry Innes Subj: Mick Lowe: "Mushaua Innu are, or should be, Inco's worst nightmare" Mailing List: Innu People Forum list This article comes form Mick Lowe, who visited Nitassinan a few weeks ago. - ed. ------------ I've begun to digest my experiences and am beginning to publish them. Thought you might be interested in the following, my first column on the Innu Nation. It was published under the headline, "Mushaua Innu are, or should be, Inco's worst nightmare" in my On the Rock column yesterday (Febr. 22.) UTSHIMASSIT (DAVIS INLET)--I don't know when it first dawned on me that the Voisey's Bay nickel deposit would not likely be developed - at least not in the first decade of the 2lst century, not in the form currently under study, and, in all probability, not by Inco. It may have been on the evening of Thursday, February 5th, as I sat in this village of 700 approximately 60 kms south of the proposed mine site and watched, in utter astonishment, as representatives of the Voisey's Bay Nickel Company explained the mine and mill Environmental Impact Statement to members of the Innu Nation. The meeting, which was resolutely shunned by everyone in the community except for a handful of elders, was opened by Jackie Penny, a human resources officer from VBNC's St. John's office. "We like to open all of our meetings with a safety tip," the youthful and personable Penny explained, awaiting the translation of her words into Innu-eimun, still the overwhelming first language of choice for most of the people here. "You know, it's winter outside, and when we come indoors we track in snow on our boots and it melts on the floor, and turns into water. And that makes the floor slippery. So I'd just like to caution everyone to be careful when they're walking on the floor here." One of the elders, a woman who I would learn later was named Monique Rich, immediately asked a question of the translator. I took it to mean: "What did she just say?" When told, Rich made a non-commital affirmation but I, and not for the last time that night, shook my head in disbelief. Here were gathered some of the most respected elders of the Innu Nation, a people whose abilities to survive for millenia in one of the most hostile environments on the face of the planet was often described as "heroic" by white anthropologists, journalists, and fur traders. And yet here was a representative of some far-away mining company who had arrived in the community only hours before, offering a doubtless well-meaning, if somewhat simple-minded "safety tip" to a group whose collective wisdom about safety and survival on their land should inspire admiration, awe, and the most profound respect. The moment was surreal, ironic and absurd. "If last night's meeting is the nub of the interface between VBNC and the Innu community, the company has a long, long way to go," I wrote in my notebook the next day. In hindsight I realize that observation represents a considerable understatement. *-* *-* *-* They are known as the Mushaua Innu, literally "The Innu of the Barren Lands" but I think of them now as "The People of the Caribou" because of their almost mystical attachment to the great George River Caribou Herd, which still migrates through northern Labrador each year in numbers that reach the tens of thousands. I also think of them as "The People of the Mists" because of their uncanny ability to materialize - men, women, elders and children - as if out of a fog, at almost any time and any place on Nitassinan, as they call their homeland. And in this, I suspect, they are, or should be, Inco's worst nightmare. Together with the Innu of Sheshatshiu, a community of 800 an hour-and-a-half by air to the south, the Mushuau Band constitute the 1,500 members of the Innu Nation of Labrador. Their brothers and sisters in Quebec are known variously as the Montagnais or Naskapi peoples, but they are all Innu. The Mushuau Innu are arguably the most materially and culturally intact First Nation left in North America, according to anthropologist Adrian Tanner of Memorial University in St. John's. They are, quite literally, but one generation removed from an almost entirely traditional aboriginal lifestyle, as Monique Rich and her fellow elders are about to make clear to the representatives of the Voisey's Bay Nickel Company. "She was born at Voisey's Bay," the translator says of Monique to Penny and her VBNC cohort Bill Napier. "She saw her first white person there when she was a little girl and her family went there to trade and hunt and fish. She's pissed at Voisey's Bay Nickel for coming around and starting digging a big hole in Mother Earth. This breaks her heart. That's her home. She was born and raised there, and her father was buried there." Through the translator other elders begin to berate the company representatives. "If the Innu people went to London and started drilling on Queen Elizabeth's backyard, we'd go to jail. It's not okay, it's a violation," says an elder named Edward. "Voisey's Bay is Innu land. We as the Innu don't talk about destroying the land," Edward continued. "My grandfather died there and was buried there, I think it was in 1922. What if I started drilling where your grandfather is buried? When the drilling started the Innu were not consulted. Did you ever hear that our leaders said you could drill?" Napier, who does most of the talking for the company this night, listens impassively. "We recognize the Innu claim to Voisey's Bay, that's why we're negotiating an IBA (an Impact and Benefit Agreement with the Innu.)" "I don't want no money. I don't want no money," Edward mumbles in pidgin English. "We're here to protect your homeland," Napier actually says. All of this is too much for Ruby, the young Innu woman who has been hired by the company to provide translation for the evening. "I have to say I'm very uncomfortable with what I'm being asked to tell my elders," she interjects, in English. *-* *-* *-* "How did you think it went?" Napier, who seems abashed by the meeting, asks me when the two-hour plus session ends. "Well, it's the start of a dialogue," I say hopefully. "But I wonder if these people want this project under any terms." "It's pretty hard, in this day and age, to get a project like this off the ground without the support of the local community," Napier observes. It is the most percipient and forthright statement I've ever heard from an Inco employee about the realities of Voisey's Bay. "But there just isn't much trust there," he concludes soberly. Well no shit, Sherlock. Next week: More on the Mushuau Innu and why they pose such a threat to the Voisey's Bay project. --------- "RE: Lands for Life Call for Action" --------- Date: 25 Feb 1998 22:59:49 GMT From: "Rain Girl" Subj: Lands for Life - call for action Newsgroup: alt.native Aanii, The Native and non-Native people in Ontario could soon be in a crisis situation regarding the land. A new policy being implemented called "Lands for Life" would take most of the land from the Southern most tip of Ontario way up to past Sault Ste. Marie, all the land is now crown land, and open all of it up for mineral exploration as well and forestry and logging. There are also parts of the Boreal forest up to Northern Ontario that hasn't been detailed for the public. Part of the problem is that most of the sessions happened last summer behind closed doors at Queens Park in Toronto. I will be getting more information on this within the next day, and maybe possible post a map with the outlining portion to be opened up. It's really rather scary because it's such a large part of Ontario. If any people in Ontario on this ng are aware of this and are planning some type of action to inform the public, please contact me. The reason I am writing this now is that one week from tonight a session will be held in my city for public input and not too many people are aware of the seriousness of this situation or even of this situation at all. I'm asking all you people out there that can help me with strategies to implement in my area within the next week to inform not only the First Nation communities in the area, but the general public also. This could also have a devastating effect on their lives....for they will no longer have any wilderness to enjoy. We really need to take action now for as I understand it deals have already been made with corporations to go ahead with these activities and these meetings are just a formality. However I feel that with enough public pressure the provincial government would have to re-examine the situation. Email me at raingirl@cyberbeach.net. I really need help and advice. The sooner the better. Meegwetch, Angela --------- "RE: Sechelt Band to End Negotiations" --------- Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 09:00:38 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Sechelt Band Expected to end current treaty negotiations :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. note: The BC Treaty Process continues to deteriorate. Even "moderate" Bands involved are increasingly disillusioned with this extinguishment and termination instrument. This recent full page Communique from the Sechelt Indian Band in the February edition of Kahtou magazine is a case in point: SECHELT LAND CLAIM COMMITTEE ANNOUNCES ITS INTENTIONS The Sechelt Indian Band will no longer tolerate the province of British Columbia's refusal to share resource revenues and will proceed with litigation against the province to prove its point. That decision is expected to end the current treaty negotiations and to have a significant impact on the entire BC Treaty process. The Sechelt Land Claim Committee announced today its intentions following the success of the native litigants in Delgammuukw (Supreme Court of Canada, December 11, 1997). "We are faced with an unacceptable situation at the bargaining table. The provincial negotiators kept taking items off the table that had been included in the framework. Our people have been forced to take these steps," said Chief Garry Feschuk, Sechelt's Chief Negotiator. "The province must wake up to the reality of what our negotiating team's mandate is as well as what the Supreme Court is telling them", Chief Feschuk said. For some time now, the Sechelt Indian Band has been generally regarded as having the most advanced negotiation within the BC Treaty Commission process. We were seen as the most likely to reach Stage 5 first. "But that was something of a myth," pointed out Chief Garry Feschuk, Sechelt Chief Negotiator. "The truth is that, given the intransigent Federal and Provincial positions, we were at a standoff." The major stumbling block was put in place at a meeting held with the Honourable John Cashore, Minister of Native Affairs, on October 30, 1997. There, the Minister told the Sechelt representatives that the Province would not budge from what he called its "bottom line positions". Minister Cashore told the Sechelts that the Province would never agree to share resource revenues, and he insisted that Sechelt, the only self-governing Band in Canada, place all its lands under Provincial jurisdiction. He also indicated that no individual negotiations on the payment of taxes would be permitted; to get a Treaty you would have to fall in line with the Nisga'a AIP "8 & 12 formula" regardless of your circumstances. "We could not believe that the Minister was trying to box us into an unacceptable corner without any give on the government side, while expecting Sechelt to give on everything," Chief Feschuk said. The Sechelt Land Claim Committee congratulates its Gitskan and Wet'suwet'en brothers and sisters of their great legal victory which is now providing the Sechelt with legal opportunity. As a result, the so-called "bottom line positions" of the Province cannot possibly endure. "A huge obstacle of successful Treaty-making has been removed by Delgammuukw," commented Chief Feschuk. After this decision, it can no longer be a question of the Province's refusing to share resource revenues with native people. It may be more germane to consider on what possible legal basis the Province is plundering these resources 100% every day. After this decision, the Province must surely abandon its starry-eyed notion of asserting jurisdiction over S.91(24) lands. As Chief Justice Lamer noted in the judgement: "the judges in the court below noted that separating federal jurisdiction over Indians from jurisdictions over their lands wold have most unfortunate results - the government vested with primary constitutional responsibility for securing the welfare of Canada's aboriginal peoples would find itself unable to safeguard one of the most central of native interests - their interests in their lands." The question of taxation of native people should be referred back to where it belongs: the national level. "They've been trying to inflict a new injustice on my people," said Chief Feschuk, "In order for us to be recompensed for past injustices the principle is wrong, and it won't work. Let Jane Stewart and Phil Fontaine deal with the national issues." The Sechelt Land Claim Committee, mandated by the Band membership, now wish to move forward to take positive advantage of the apparent removal of the impediments to a fair Treaty. We have instructed the Band lawyers, Snarch and Allen to apply to court for a declaration that our people still hold aboriginal title to the Sechelt Traditional territory (approximately the area known as the "Sunshine Coast"). "We need to establish this important starting point," stated Chief Feschuk. Once the step has been taken, we want to demonstrate to the public of British Columbia that they need have nothing to fear from dealing fairly and honourably with native Treaty concerns. It is our intention to show that those predicting doom and gloom on account of Delgammuukw are wrong. We intend to show that, on the contrary, Treaties are NOW "do-able"-perhaps for the first time. "As the Chief Justice said," summarized Chief Feschuk, "We're all here to stay, and Sechelt has a young, growing population that has no interest in economic stagnation. We need jobs, economic opportunities, the chance to participate in increasing prosperity. My people are not just looking for a cheque. We want to fully SHARE in British Columbia's strong future in the 21st century." Sechelt Indian Band. Box 740, Sechelt BC VON 3AO Telephone: (604) 885-2273 Fax: (604) 885-3490 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ANSWER. CANADA IS THE PROBLEM :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. --------- "RE: Gitsxan Ask to Co-manage Traditional Land" --------- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 01:17:16 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Gitsxan ask to co-manage traditional land :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: GITSXAN ASK TO CO-MANAGE TRADITIONAL LAND Victoria Times Colonist, Feb. 19, 1998, page A8 [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] Terrace (CP) - Gitsxan native leaders want shared control with the province over their traditional lands in northern BC. An offer to co-manage land within their traditional territory was presented to Premier Glen Clark in a Feb. 2 meeting, said Don Ryan, the Gitxsan chief negotiator. The proposal also includes veto rights, revenue sharing and taxation powers for the Gitsxan. Ryan said the offer will help clear the cloud of uncertainty created by a Supreme Court of Canada decision Dec.11. The court significantly broadened the definition of aboriginal land rights in its decision in the Delgammuukw land claim case. The decision threw BC's treaty - making process into disarray as government and tribal leaders scrambled to figure out what it meant in practical terms. Many native groups say the decision requires more consultation with natives - perhaps even their consent - for resource use to continue while treaties are being negotiated. They also think the ruling opens the door to compensation for past resource extraction - something that could put the bill for each land claims settlement into the billions. Ryan said the government must act quickly to counter the chilling effect the court decision has had on resource companies and potential developments. "The big issue for everybody is to provide some kind of certainty and economic stability," he said. "Those are the two areas we're concerned about." Provincial officials haven't yet reacted other than to say they are studying the Gitxsan offer. Ryan said he will be tabling a similar proposal with the federal government. Other BC native groups are wondering if they aren't better off shelving treaty negotiations and launching court actions themselves. Nisga'a leaders are close to completing a treaty. But Willard Martin, a hereditary chief from the Nisga'a village of Kincolith, said the tribal council is under pressure to re-examine its course. "There's a lot of unrest," says Martin, adding he and others are seeking legal advice in light of the court decision. Haisla and Tsimshian leaders said they too, would stay in the treaty process. But Tsimshian chief negotiator Gerald Wesley admitted the Delgammuukw decision has made the court route look more attractive. "Some of our members say maximum leverage isn't in negotiations any more," said Wesley. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Letters to the Times Colonist: timesc@interlink.bc.ca In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. --------- "RE: Gardening Seeds Needed for Reservations" --------- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 15:30:20 EST From: Jswordy@aol.com Subj: Gardening seeds needed for the reservations. ------- FORWARD, Original message follows ------- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 21:43:18 -0600 From: cassman We are hoping you will take time to read and review the following message on behalf of the Lakota Nation of the Cheyenne River Reservation. The community of Green Grass, which is for the first time planning a very large community garden to learn to can and supply the foods needed to feed their families year round are in great need of some wonderful help from perhaps your corporation, if your group can assist the children and elders with some donations of canning supplies, Vegetable Seeds made in bulk perhaps together as a whole we can assist to end world hunger here in America. We appreciate any and all input that you can offer to this email..Thank You... What we found at the Cheyenne River Green Grass Community was a group of people who are wanting a way to find self sufficiency and a method to use to feed the elderly and care for the youth and young children. A double wide mobile home had been purchased by the community to be used for what is called "The Lakota YMCA Youth Center" the building will also be used to provide the nutrition center for the elderly of the Green Grass Community. Essentially the building, once repaired and fully equipped will become a functioning Youth Center and Elderly Center, which the community has a great need for. The Cheyenne River Reservation does not have a casino on it to help support the needs of the children & elders. The Green Grass Community must find a way to support the needs of their families. They would like help with a head start to progress toward self sufficiency for their community. This is what we are asking for on behalf of the Chief and his people. This is part of what you can send your gift certificates for to help eliminate the shipping costs of gifts. The Lakota like any other people are proud people and do not like to let others know that they are in need of this assistance. A time has come where a need is to ask for help in a big way..the children and elders are suffering. Suicide rates have risen amongst the teenagers. The elderly are going without proper nutritions to survive the cold winters. The double wide that was brought in for the Youth Center is in dire need of repairs. It is basically a shell with no insulation, improper roofing, no kitchen facilities, no steps to even enter the building, Please be sure to sit down before you jump to the ground to get out of the building after you crawl up into the building, is how I best describe the situation. We took with us an electrical engineer who is a friend of ours here in Bismarck so that he could help us look at this building on behalf of the Chief and the people and help best with an estimation cost to get the YOUTH/Elder Center up and running full swing. Not counting the official supplies children need to use while learning at the Youth Center. Please be sure you are sitting down now, and keep in mind if any of you know of a way to assist with this need, please think deep and make all connections possible to help this community. The estimated cost to actually do the plumbing, electric, kitchen facility, flooring, furnace, roofing, walls, windows and the addition added on to accommodate the number of people who are all ready lined up to use the facilities, the bathroom..etc. $50,000.00 yes $50,000.00 it is almost appropriate to build new and fresh rather than to repair but the cost would still be the same. If in any way you know of a fund raiser potential and can pull one off by all means contact us to let us know. If you are in a position to donate money to have as a 501 (c) 3 tax right off, please send your checks for the Youth Center to The Lakota YMCA Youth Center c/o Gladys Looking Horse, Board member of the Youth Center. If any of you are associated with a YMCA Center off of the Reservations and know they can ask that YMCA to consider assisting this Lakota YMCA Youth Center please share this information with them so that they too can assist with this large, very large project. The Youth/Elder Center has five acres available to them at this time, they want to plant a sizable garden to feed many members who will work together to insure the outcome of a good growth. 86 and counting children and 30 and counting elderly will benefit from the food provisions grown and the use of the Youth Center. This is where your gift certificates come in, the community needs: 2 dozen each GARDEN RACKS, HOES, SHOVELS, GARDEN HOSES, SPRINKLERS, FENCING (and a scarecrow maybe) the tools to plant a garden are in absolute need. CANNING JARS WITH LIDS AND CANNING EQUIPMENT IS GREATLY NEEDED. VEGETABLE SEEDS OF Squash, carrots, watermelon, beans, pole beans, tomatoes, beets, turnips, pumpkin, lettuce, tomatoes, fruit trees of apples and peaches, marigolds for companion plantings for insects, sunflowers, cucumbers, peppers, lima beans. Are all being requested for food purposes. With the right equipment gardens are successful for year round food. The ladies can and would like to be able to sew more proficiently for their families. They can earn income with their sewing skills. What is needed here again is a great starting opportunity. Sewing Machines, fabrics, threads, needles, beads, beading needles, patterns and the instructions as to how to complete the sewing and beading projects. Quilts are being made along with the clothing. The center is in great need of an industry size stove/oven appliance along with a refrigerator/freezer combination. Not to mention a proper toilet. The items that are needed inside of the finished building and also needed now until the building is complete, for the center is running out of a small log building located on the Chief's property at this time are: paper plates, regular dishes, large pots and pans to cook for many. silverware, towels, toilet paper, construction paper, crayons, pencils, paper supplies, two computers are needed, file cabinets, felt, threads, needles, paper towels, dish soap, hand soaps, black boards, art supplies (many strong artist have been seen amongst the youth) leather supplies and sports equipment such as baseballs, basket balls, kick balls, volley ball, horse shoes, bats and gloves, footballs, dolls for the girls, ribbons. (Not to mention brand new underwear needs are prevalent) Diapers, bottles, cribs, beds (children are sleeping on floors my friends) I have seen things that many do not want to see, and you can help change this condition for the better forever. Please consider what you have read here and contact us soon with your heart and your gifts. I would not be asking for these things had I not known and seen first hand the dire dire need that is on the reservations of South and North Dakota, I can only focus on one community at a time, and the Green Grass is in need to preserve the Traditional Spiritual Ways of a People of Peace. Again Thank you for reading this and for sharing this with your many friends and contacts. If anyone knows what they can do please do not hesitate to do such and help the children & elders of the Lakota, Green Grass Community. Dawn Cassada Morning Star Outreach 320 N. 31st #13 Bismarck, ND 58501 (with Gift Certificates or shipments) Gladys Looking Horse Green Grass Community PO Box 1519 Eagle Butte, SD 57625 for cash donations to the Youth Center made out to The Lakota YMCA youth Center. Blessings to all of you for reading. Earth Woman --------- "RE: Healing Wounds" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 11:59:30 EST From: diogenes_java@juno.com (J. C. York) Subj: Healing Wounds UUCP email To the editors of _Wotanging Ikche: Native American News_: I first began looking on the Internet for sources focusing upon Indian issues about a year ago, in the hope that I may find common ground with other members of Indian communities. I myself am of Choctaw heritage through my great-grandfather Jesse, though I have not had much opportunity to participate in a meaningful way with the Choctaw Nation itself. Owing to the ease and the immediacy of electronic communication, I jumped at the opportunity to connect with, to hear, and ultimately to participate, in the ongoing conversation among American Indians regarding our past, our present, and our future, even beyond the seventh generation of our children. I began subscribing to _Wotanging Ikche_ after having read a couple very good articles concerning the distinction which must of necessity be drawn between the traditions and practices of various nations and the bizarre amalgamation of generic "Indian" practices which characterizes so-called "New Age philosophy." I was so impressed from this first reading that, after finally having opened a dialogue with my family (after many years of silence) concerning what it is to be who we are, I convinced my mother to subscribe to your publication as well. However, in recent issues I have noticed that the discussion within the electronic pages of _Wotanging Ikche_ has taken a more militant tenor, which I find at best disturbing. The first impulse of any people who have been given the long train of abuses and disease which all of us and our grandfathers before us have endured, from the first landing of Columbus to Cortez to the Trail of Tears to Wounded Knee, is to seek armed resistance against the transgressor, so that justice may be done and, as some contributors of _Wotanging Ikche_ have suggested, that a circle will be mended. Nevertheless, I remain unconvinced that a militant stance by those who are left is the proper way to mend the circle which surrounds the American Indian. One cannot wash out blood with blood. But there are those who insist that the only way to gain the justice and respect we deserve as the first people on this land is to lead the charge against white oppression. To strengthen their cause such men bring to their side (though perhaps unconsciously) the teachings of such learned men as Karl Marx, indicating that the Indian is alienated from his land and his home by white society (as well as, I might add, by Tribal Councils) in the same manner that the proletarian is alienated by the bourgeoisie from his means of production. The view that even Tribal Councils are apparently co-opted, citing examples of alleged financial corruption, say, among the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and therefore not to be seen as truly representative of Indian interests is reminiscent of the statement made by Marx and his colleague Friedrich Engels in the _Communist Manifesto_ that "Political power, properly speaking, in merely the organized power of one class for oppressing the other." (Chapter II, second paragraph from the end.) One need only look so far as the tenets held by the Tupac Amaru in Peru to see that some people seek to actualize these opinions. To these opinions I respond with the question raised by Maria Campbell at the end of her memoir about growing up as mixed-blood Cree woman in Canada: "I realize that an armed revolution of Native people will never come about; even if such a thing were possible what would we achieve? We would only end up oppressing somebody else." Even if, or rather especially if, Marx's formulation of political power were correct, Ms. Campbell's response would remain the same. Given the opportunity under the climate which, if indeed the character of the contributors to _ Wotanging Ikche_ were indicative of Indian communities as a whole, a militant people rise up against those against whom they weigh their grievances, the result would undoubtedly be bloodshed to which the aggrieved themselves would be guilty. Let us not try to heal our wounds with the blood of other men; let us fight no more, forever. --------- "RE: Update on Standing Deer" --------- Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:02:19 -0500 From: United American Indians of New England (by way of ishgooda ) Subj: Update on Standing Deer UUCP email There were some internet postings earlier this month about Standing Deer, a 65-year-old Native political prisoner, being in the hole at Huntsville, Texas. I spoke today to Anna Standing Deer Wilson. She said that Standing Deer had been in the hole for 15 days, 5 of them without food or medicine. They held him all that time without a charge. He is now out of the hole. Standing Deer is a brother who has spent many years paying for his refusal to participate in a U.S. government conspiracy to murder Leonard Peltier at Marion USP. He has been a staunch and well-known advocate for the rights of Native and all prisoners. Standing Deer has quite a few medical problems. Anna asked if readers of this message could write letters to prison authorities asking that Standing Deer be put into the Geriatric Unit of the prison. Letters should be sent to: Warden Figueroa Estelle Unit Huntsville, TX 77340 (telephone 409/291-4200, fax 409/295-5407) Please send copies of any letters to: Robert Vincent Medical Director Estelle Unit Huntsville, TX 77340 Dr. Dickerson [Standing Deer's physician] Estelle Unit Huntsville, TX 77340 Wayne Scott P.O. Box 99 Huntsville, TX 77342 Please also send copies of letters to Anna Standing Deer Wilson P.O. Box 690 Mohegan Lake, NY 10547. Last, but certainly not least, please write to Standing Deer himself: Standing Deer (a/k/a Robert Wilson) #640289 Estelle Unit Huntsville, TX 77340 Thank you for helping to get this information out. -Mahtowin for UAINE --------- "RE: Leavenworth Prisoners Speak Out" --------- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 01:47:01 -0500 From: Lara Johnson Subj: Leavenworth prisoners speak out - Jericho 98 UUCP email CROSSPOSTED TO VARIOUS LIST - APOLOGIES FOR DUPLICATES------------ JERICHO 98 THOUGHTS FROM POLITICAL PRISONERS IN LEAVENWORTH by Jaan Laaman, Tom Manning, Leonard Peltier, and Luis Rosa. JERICHO 98 -- As many people already know and we hope many more soon will know, is the nationwide March 27th rally in Washington DC, calling for the recognition and release of all political prisoners in America. In these remaining weeks before the rally, we'd like to make a specific appeal to all justice and freedom loving people to seriously make the, acknowledge costly and significant, effort to come to Washington on March 27. Here are some of the principle reasons we think this rally is so important. By important we mean not only for us, the political prisoners, but for the Freedom Struggle overall. 1). America's political prisoners have been in captivity a long long time. The approximately 200 political prisoners, and the fact that there is no complete listing of political prisoners is another sign of the lack of significant public awareness and low priority that many otherwise progressive and revolutionary organizations give to this issue, have all been locked up for 12, 15, 20, 25 and more years. Ruchell Magee, close comrade of long ago assassinated author and revolutionary George Jackson, has been in prison for over 30 years! Amerkcan Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier has been in captivity over 22 years. The 15 Puerto Rican indepentistas have been behind walls for 18 years. North American social justice activist Bill Dunne has 19 years in prison. Two separate International Tribunals, empaneled under the authority of universally recognized international law and procedure, have heard the specific cases of over 100 American political prisoners and called for the U.S. government to release us. The "Special International Tribunal On The Violation of Human Rights of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War In United States Prisons And Jails," convened and heard testimony in New York City in December 1990. The "International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples' And Oppressed Nationalities In The USA," convened and heard testimony in San Francisco in October of 1992. From Guatemala to Cuba to South Africa and many other countries, political prisoners are being released and the U.S. government has publicly and positively commented on these moves. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa is even pardoning the confessed police torturers and murderers of leaders like Steve Biko. Yet anti-apartheid activists in the U.S. continue to languish in prison, unseen, locked down and with no foreseeable release dates for decades to come. 2). JERICHO 98 is especially significant because it is the first national demonstration in support of political prisoners in the U.S. in modern history. This rally has the potential to make a major political impact on the government, the media, the public and even the international community. The larger the turnout, the more the impact. 3). The U.S. government pontificates and browbeats countries all over the world about political prisoners. Yet within its own madly expanding prison system, the U.S. denies the very existence of political prisoners. We must and can call the government to account for this. 4). The reality that political prisoners, activists and freedom fighters of the 60's, 70's, and 80's, have been locked down for decades, has to weigh heavily on the minds of at least some present day activists. It's only logical for people to speculate and worry that they would wind up buried and perhaps forgotten in prison, for their activism. 5). JERICHO 98 will aid all political prisoners held by the U.S. Some more well known cases like Leonard Peltier or the Puerto Rican anti-colonial activists, have active amnesty petitions in front of Clinton. Most of us don't have actual petitions or the public campaigns necessary to launch an amnesty effort, but the JERICHO rally will benefit us all. 6). We are women and men, fathers, mothers, spouses, children of aging parents, some of whom have passed in our years of captivity. We are some of the people who opposed colonialism and the war in Vietnam, fought for justice, equality, human and economic rights, and for a peaceful world. It's time to recognize our existence and bring us back to our families and communities. Come to Washington on March 27 -- Help blow the JERICHO horn of justice and freedom. Feb 1998. Leavenworth federal prison. Jaan Karl Laaman, Ohio-7 political prisoner -- in captivity since 1984 Tom Manning, Ohio-7 political prisoner -- in captivity since 1985 Leonard Peltier, AIM political prisoner -- in captivity since 1976 Luis Rosa, Puerto Rican POW -- in captivity since 1981. +------------------------------------------------------+ |>> http://www.amandla.org <<>> ljohnson@amandla.org <<| +------------------------------------------------------+ | Masakhane - South African 'Nation Building' | | OSEPP-Org' for Sensible & Effective Prison Policy | |GMPPJ-Grassroots Movements Promoting Peace and Justice| +------------------------------------------------------+ --------- "RE: Ts'peten Defender Denied Bail" --------- Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 01:38:50 -0800 From: SISIS@envirolink.org (S.I.S.I.S.) Subj: Ts'peten Defender OJ Pitawanakwat denied Bail :-:-:-:-:-:-:-Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty-:-:-:-:-:-:-: PAROLE FOR GUSTAFSEN POLITICAL PRISONER OJ PITAWANAKWAT DENIED The BC Parole Board hearing has rejected Ts'peten Defender OJ Pitawanakwat's the February 26th application for parole. In turning down the accelerated parole request, the board cited insufficient personal information concerning Mr. Pitawanakwat. However it noted the many letters of support received on Mr. Pitawanakwat's behalf and expressed a "greater appreciation" of the circumstances surrounding Gustafsen Lake as a result. While disappointed in the hearings results, elder Bill Lightbown of the Ts'peten Defence Committee, who attended the hearing and was permitted to address the BC board, said that members thanked him for his submissions. "I think they learned some things they didn't know before," said Lightbown. The board invited Pitawanakwat to reapply again this summer, when it would reconsider this refusal. Write to OJ: James "OJ" Pitawanakwat Political Prisoner c/o Mission Institution P.O. Box 60, Mission, BC V2V 4L8 Canada For further information: Elder Bill Lightbown Spokesperson Ts'peten Defence Committee Phone/Fax: (604) 251-4949 Vancouver or visit: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/GustLake/support.html http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: SISIS@envirolink.org WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. --------- "RE: Native Prisoner" --------- Date: Thu, 5 Mar 98 08:00 -0500 From: Janet Smith (evestar@juno.com) Subj: Contacting those in the Ironhouse UUCP email From my mailbag..... Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 19:23:03 -0500 From: Meg Subject: native Prisoner Hi Janet- I have a friend in prison that needs a penpal, and to find out about his family history. He is an Oxendine, and a Tuscarora. He does not have access to a computer, but here is his address. Micheal A. Oxendine 15114-057 PO Box 2000 Butner, NC 27509-2000. He sure would appreciate someone to talk with. Thank you, Meg Those interested in Native American prisoners seeking pen pals can find a full listing at http://www.brooks.simplenet.com/penpal.html. The list is compiled from contributions by Wotanging Ikche readers, other friends and from Laura Brooks' research on Native American Spiritual Freedom in Prison. If you know of a Native American prisoner who would like to be included here, please e-mail Janet Smith at jans@atlcom.net. My thanks to Laura Brooks for giving this list a home on the web. Reminder and Caution: It is common for prisoners to be moved abruptly. If your correspondent suddenly quits writing, don't assume it's by choice. Inquire about his location and situation -- often the prison chaplain can help you with this. If you know a prisoner on our list has been moved, please let me know. If your correspondent requests that you send him anything, particularly ceremonial items, check the prison to ensure the requested items are not contraband. Sometimes items of religious significance that are ordinarily banned may be given to the prisoner by the chaplain. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From Free the Wolverine Campaign: Wolverine (William Jones Ignace) "OJ" Pitawanakwat Political Prisoner Political Prisoner Box 4000 Box 4000 Abbotsford, BC Abbotsford, BC V2S 5X8 V2S 5X8 For more information, please contact the Free the Wolverine Campaign: Box 13-2147 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4B3 Spokespeople: Splitting the Sky - Phone/Fax: (604) 543-9661 Bill Lightbown - Phone: (604) 251-4949 or see the SISIS pages at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html Also we have a listing of native political prisoners around the world, at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/links/POW.html --------------------------------- Please especially remember - this is the "Year of Leonard". Leonard Peltier #89637-132, Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048 --------- "RE: A Hundred Years Ago" --------- Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 09:21:37 -0500 Subj: HISTORY - A HUNDRED YEARS AGO - CARLISLE - WEEK 43] From: Landis Mailing List: NAT-FILM [Editorial Note: These reprints are being included in this newsletter so that you might know the mind of those who ran institutions like Carlisle.] THE INDIAN HELPER ---------------------------------------------- PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY --AT THE-- Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa., BY INDIAN BOYS. ---> THE INDIAN HELPER is PRINTED by Indian boys, but EDITED by The man-on-the-band-stand who is NOT an Indian. ---------------------------------------------- P R I C E: --10 C E N T S A Y E A R ============================================== Entered in the P.O. at Carlisle as second class mail matter. ============================================== Address INDIAN HELPER, Carlisle, Pa. Miss M. Burgess, Manager. ============================================== Do not hesitate to take the HELPER from the Post Office for if you have not paid for it some one else has. It is paid for in advance.