Paging Gazhekwe

[gazhekwe]

Bolivia Set to Pass Historic 'Law of Mother Earth' Which Will Grant Nature Equal Rights to Humans Monday, 18 April 2011 09:43 Written by Keph Senett



Evo Morales speaks at the UN Wikimedia Commons


With the cooperation of politicians and grassroots organizations, Bolivia is set to pass the Law of Mother Earth, which will grant nature the same rights and protections as humans. The piece of legislation, called la Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, is intended to encourage a radical shift in conservation attitudes and actions, to enforce new control measures on industry, and to reduce environmental destruction.

The law redefines natural resources as blessings and confers the same rights to nature as to human beings, including: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. Perhaps the most controversial point is the right "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".

In late 2005 Bolivia elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Morales is an outspoken champion for environmental protection, petitioning for substantive change within his country and at the United Nations. Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries, has long had to contend with the consequences of destructive industrial practices and climate change, but despite the best efforts of Morales and members of his administration, their concerns have largely been ignored at the UN.

Just last year, in 2010, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca expressed his distress "about the inadequacy of the greenhouse gas reduction commitments made by developed countries in the Copenhagen Accord." His remarks were punctuated by the claim that some experts forecasted a temperature increase "as high as four degrees above pre-industrial levels." "The situation is serious," Choquehuanca asserted. "An increase of temperature of more than one degree above pre-industrial levels would result in the disappearance of our glaciers in the Andes, and the flooding of various islands and coastal zones."

In 2009, directly following the resolution of the General Assembly to designate April 22 "International Mother Earth Day", Morales addressed the press, stating “If we want to safeguard mankind, then we need to safeguard the planet. That is the next major task of the United Nations”. A change to Bolivia's constitution in the same year resulted in an overhaul of the legal system - a shift from which this new law has sprung.

The Law of Mother Earth has as its foundation several of the tenets of indigenous belief, including that human are equal to all other entities. "Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family," Choquehuanca said. "We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values." The legislation will give the government new legal powers to monitor and control industry in the country.

"Existing laws are not strong enough," said Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5m-strong Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia [[a group that helped draft the law). "It will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional and local levels."

Bolivia will be establishing a Ministry of Mother Earth, but beyond that there are few details about how the legislation will be implemented. What is clear is that Bolivia will have to balance these environmental imperatives against industries - like mining - that contribute to the country's GDP.

Bolivia's successes or failures with implementation may well inform the policies of countries around the world. "It's going to have huge resonance around the world," said Canadian activist Maude Barlow. "It's going to start first with these southern countries trying to protect their land and their people from exploitation, but I think it will be grabbed onto by communities in our countries, for example, fighting the tarsands in Alberta."

Ecuador has enshrined similar aims in its Constitution, and is among the countries that have already shown support for the Bolivian initiative. Other include Nicaragua, Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.

National opposition to the law is not anticipated, as Morales' party - the Movement Towards Socialism - holds a majority in both houses of parliament. On April 20, two days before this year's "International Mother Earth Day", Morales will table a draft treaty with the UN, kicking off the debate with the international community.

http://www.pvpulse.com/en/news/world...2471470adf%2C0

[gazhekwe]

I'm kind of shocked there have been so many views here and not one has spoken up about this pro or con. It is a revolutionary idea for people living as we do today., yet not so far from what we need to happen, absent the limitations of thinking only to the bottom dollar. As we are seeing, this thinking benefits a few, while the many are falling fast into a poorer state. How can we revive ourselves and learn to live wholly?

If you go back in this thread where the Seven Prophecies of the Seven Fires were posted, you will see that we have come to the time of the Seventh Fire where we MUST make a choice for the future of the world. We really need to discuss this, and the possibilities it opens up for alternatives to our current ways.

Here are some more thoughts along the same lines:

Elder's Meditation of the Day - May 28

"The land is a sacred trust held in common for the benefit of the future of our nations."

-- Haida Gwaii - Traditional Circle of Elders

The Creator made the Earth to support life so that life would continue to reproduce, everything would support one another, and future generations would have the same benefits of supply and beauty as the generations the proceeded them. This cycle will only continue to the degree that we make choices and decisions for the future generations. Today, we are too greedy and selfish. We are cheating our children, grandchildren, and the children unborn.

Creator, let me see the consequences of my decisions, and show me how to make healthy corrections.

[gazhekwe]

Keep in mind that American Indians were not granted US citizenship until 1924.

American Indians served in the Civil War, including our own Company K, First Michigan Sharpshooters, an all Indian unit out of Michigan.

Less than ten years after the brutal massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee, many Indians volunteered to serve in the Spanish American War.

Over 12,000 served in WWI, including my grandfather and some of his brothers. There was an all Indian unit out of Oklahoma, the 142nd Infantry of the 36th Texas-Oklahoma National Guard Division. There was also a unit of Choctaw Code Talkers.

More than 44,000 served in WWII, of a total population of 350,000. Among these were my father and some of his cousins. Let us not forget the Code Talkers, Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota, Meskwaki and Comanche.

Large numbers served in Korea, including one of my uncles and several other members of our extended family.

In Viet Nam, more than 44,000 Indians served, only 10% of whom were conscripted. My brother, an uncle, and many cousins went into service, some of whom did not return alive.

American Indians have served in disproportionate numbers in Panama, Granada, Somalia, the Gulf, and continuing now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Highground, the National Native American Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was dedicated in Neillsville, WI in 1995.

http://www.thehighground.org/tributes/index.html

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker
http://www.spanamwar.com/NativeAmericans.htm

[gazhekwe]

Elder's Meditation of the Day - May 31

"Sell a country? Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the Earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?"

-- Tecumseh, SHAWNEE

The White Man's way is to possess, control, and divide. It has always been difficult for Indian people to understand this. There are certain things we cannot own that must be shared. The Land is one of these things. We need to re-look at what we are doing to the Earth. We are digging in her veins and foolishly diminishing the natural resources. We are not living in balance. We do not own the Earth; the Earth owns us. Today, let us ponder the true relationship between the Earth and ourselves.

Great Spirit, today, let me see the Earth as you would have me see Her.

Let the world's people of all directions and all colors see the Earth as you would have us see Her.

See above That's What I'm Talking About, RE: Bolivia's proposal to give human rights to Mother Earth.

Chief Raoni, leader of the Kayapo people, cried when he learned that the President of Brazil approved the Belo Monte dam project on the Xingu indigenous lands. Belo Monte will be bigger than the Panama Canal, flooding nearly a million acres of rainforest & indigenous lands. 40,000 indigenous and local people will be forced off their native lands [[as well as millions of unknown species & plants) In the name of "progress".

http://robot-heart-politics.tumblr.c...he-chief-raoni

Here is Chief Raoni opposing the Dam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tz_t6HdR44

[gazhekwe]

Announcement on June 6, by Eddie Benton-Banaise

Nin duh waymaw gunni doog, relatives, I wish to share a bit of great news and views with all, as many as will listen, pay attention on this bright 'n beautiful morning, June 6 2011.

Josephine Mandamin, a grandmother,Ojibwe, fish clan, the leader and inspiration of the The Mother Earth walk for Water, is about to complete a four directions water walk.

Native women and many supporters have walked from the oceans to the center of the Native nations @ Mide School, Cedar, Wisconsin, near the Bad River Reserve.

On the coming Saturday, June 11th @ noon. the Walk Finale will be celebrated with a prayer ceremony and a pledge to and for water:

That we, as the original people of this part of the world HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THAT WATER AND LIFE IS SACRED AND INTERTWINED WITH ALL OF CREATION, WHICH IS THE ELEMENTS OF OUR MOTHER THE EARTH AND THE SPIRIT.

All humans are welcome to attend. Migwetch, thank you.

[gazhekwe]

Stone Street Ancestral Recovery & Reburial Project
Flint, MI • May 17 thru July
Tuesdays thru Saturdays • 9am - 4pm

Stone Street burial site, Flint: Dozens of ancestors were unearthed when a developer started to dig home sites on top of a large and old Indian cemetery. The site is located on Stone just north of West 2nd Avenue.

The Ziibiwing Center has been given authority by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council and the Genesee County Land Bank to coordinate an ancestral recovery & reburial effort of the Stone Street site.

The ancestral human remains will respectfully be sifted from over 76,000 cubic ft. of dirt/construction debris piles and reinterred at the site.

Experience basic archeological recovery techniques taught by Principal Investigator, Dr. Beverley Smith from the University of Michigan - Flint.Learn about the history of early Anishinabek occupation of the area.

A video of the project, so you can see the work in progress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7b_ynOxQ-Q

[Wingnatic]

If anyone is looking for something to do this weekend , head over to the Gibraltar Trade Center-Mt.Clemens for the 21st annual powwow given by the SEMII . I've been to a couple of these and powwows elsewhere and its been fun to watch , especially if you have kids its a must see .
http://gibraltartrade.com/add2.php

Also at the Trade Center this weekend while your there , catch a classic car show co-sponsored by the VVA Chapter 154
The Chapter has their own version of moving wall and take it around the State for events . Their mission is to have a photo and story about every Michigan soldier killed in Vietnam which they put in a binder that travels with the wall .

http://www.vva154.com/movingwall.htm

[gazhekwe]

I keep seeing that message from the person that doesn't want to clean fish. It's making me hungry for some good fresh fish. Now, I grew up fishing, all the way from digging my own bait, of course putting it on the hook by myself, good squrimy crawlers, and of course, once we got some, cleaning it for the pan. My mom did most of the fish cooking in those days, but I am not beyond frying or poaching up a fish myself.

I was shown how to clean fish as a small fry myself. Let's see if I can remember. First you have to rinse the fish and descale it. Do this outside, scales will go everywhere. Take your knife and scrape it along the scales from the head to the tail along the side of the fish. Once the scales are gone, you are ready to operate.

There is a little hole on the bottom of the fish toward the tail end, "the vent." You put your good sharp knife there and carefully slice up to the gills. You want to cut through the flesh but not into the innards. Open the fish and pull out the innards. If there are any eggs, set them aside, they will be good later. Scrape off the blood vein along the backbone. Remove the fins by cutting around them and pulling. Wash the fish inside and out.

For little fish, like smelt or maybe bluegill, you can clean them by cutting from the gills through the backbone. Then you can snap and pull on the head and the innards come along with it. For those little guys, you don't even need to worry about the bones as they are soft and will kind of disappear with the cooking.

As for boning or fileting the fish, we always did that on our plate. Somehow we never developed the fishbone phobia that seems to plague a lot of people. But for a really big fish, fileting is the way to go. Lay the cleaned fish on its side and cut straight down behind the gills to the backbone. Turn the knife so it is parallel with the table and kind of saw along to the tail. Repeat on the other side. Now you have to pick any bones out of the filet. The big ones are easy. Feel along with your fingers once those are gone to find the tiny little bones.

Here is a good recipe for frying fish:

OJIBWE FISH MEAL

Clean and descale fish
Rinse
Fillet
In a bowl, add an egg, and a couple of drops of milk
Either cracker crumbs or bread crumbs
Swipe fish fillets in the egg/milk mixture and then in
crumbs
Let them sit for about half an hour
Lay in a frypan of hot grease [[commodity lard)
Fry until golden brown and flaked when tested

Poor shinob's tarter sauce:
Mix Mayo, relish, mustard, and a bit of lemon juice

Fish eggs

If you got enough fish eggs, you can have a nice little treat. Bread them the same as the fish, and fry them up. They are yummy!

And a recipe for poached fish.

About 2 pounds of fish filets, Salmon, whitefish, trout
3 T real maple syrup
2 T brandy or bourbon or oh, heck any kind of firewater
1 T cider vinegar
2 T whole grain mustard
1 small onion, sliced
3/4 c water
1 T butter
1 T chopped chives

Slice onion and lay slices on bottom of skillet.
Whisk the syrup, cider, mustard and firewater in a small bowl and add to skillet. Add water to skillet, too.
Lay the filets, skin side up, on the onions in the skillet.
Set pan on high heat, bring to simmer, then lower the heat to low, cover pan and cook8-16 minutes, depending on thickness of filets. Center of thickest parts should be translucent. Remove onions and filets to plate to keep warm.

Now turn up the heat and simmer the liquid 4-5 minutes until reduced to about 4 T. Remove from heat and stir in butter and chives. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the filets from the onions, and put the sauce over them to serve.

[gazhekwe]

Negligent Homicide

US self-help guru convicted in ceremony deaths

FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press
Updated 04:09 a.m., Thursday, June 23, 2011

CAMP VERDE, Arizona [[AP) — They came in search of spiritual enlightenment, using the U.S. sweat lodge as a way to break through whatever was holding them back in life. James Arthur Ray told his seminar participants that it would be "hellacious" and that they would feel like they were dying, but would do so only metaphorically.

But three people did die following the October 2009 ceremony, and on Wednesday, Ray was found guilty of three counts of negligent homicide. He could have been convicted on an option of manslaughter, but the jury of eight men and four women decided on the lesser charge instead.

The conviction came quickly — after less than 10 hours of deliberations — following four months of testimony and hundreds of exhibits. Prosecutors asked that Ray be taken into custody immediately, but the judge denied their request.

The self-help guru faces a sentence ranging from probation to nearly 12 years in prison. But wherever he is headed, it will be a marked change for a man whose multimillion-dollar self-help empire landed him in the 2006 Rhonda Byrne documentary "The Secret," on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live."

Ray used free talks to recruit people to expensive seminars like the Sedona retreat that led to the sweat lodge tragedy. Participants paid up to $10,000 for the five-day program intended to push their physical and emotional limits.

More than 50 people participated in the two-hour sweat lodge, a sauna-like ceremony typically used by American Indians to rid the body of toxins. It was meant to be the highlight of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" seminar near Sedona, Arizona. Two people were pronounced dead at the scene; a third died after spending more than a week in a coma; 18 others were hospitalized.

Witnesses described the scene after the ceremony as alarming and chaotic — like a "battlefield" — with people vomiting and shaking violently, while others dragged "lifeless" and "barely breathing" participants outside. Volunteers performed CPR.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys disagreed over whether the deaths and illnesses were caused by heat or unknown toxins. Ray's attorneys maintained they were a tragic accident. Prosecutors argued Ray recklessly caused the fatalities.

They relied heavily on Ray's own words to try to convince the jury that he was responsible for the deaths.

"The true spiritual warrior has conquered death and therefore has no fear or enemies in this lifetime or the next, because the greatest fear you'll ever experience is the fear of what? Death," Ray said in a recording played during the trial. "You will have to get a point to where you surrender and it's OK to die."
Prosecutors said a reasonable person would have stopped the "abomination of a sweat lodge" when participants began exhibiting signs of distress about halfway through the ceremony.

The three victims were Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, New York; James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee; and Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minnesota. As the verdict was read, some of the victims' friends and family members held hands and smiled.

"We're satisfied that responsibility has finally been laid at Mr. Ray's feet," said Tom McFeeley, a cousin of one of the victims, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"Justice was served in there," said Neuman's ex-husband, Randy Neuman.

Mika Cutler, whom Brown visited in Utah a week before the ceremony, said: "There was not a moment in my mind that I didn't think he [[Ray) was responsible for this tragedy."

Ray quickly left the courtroom with his family after the hearing, and did not offer a comment.

Prosecutors have lined up nine witnesses to testify at a hearing next week that will determine whether any aggravating circumstances factor into Ray's sentencing. Those include Ray's position of trust with the defendants, and any emotional or financial suffering by the victims' families, according to documents filed by prosecutors.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/articl...#ixzz1Q6Em9USa

[gazhekwe]

Selling Magic; Delivering Death

By Steve Russell June 22, 2011

James Ray’s Arizona trial for manslaughter played like a bad movie; Harry Potter meets John Wayne. And now he’s been found guilty of negligent homicide.
For $9,695, Ray promised that Native American wisdom, imparted by him, would make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. People lined up to consume this swill in spite of the obvious fact that most real Indians are neither healthy nor wealthy.

Dennis Mehravar, one of the suckers, er, I mean participants, quoted Ray: “He asked, ‘Has anybody been in a sweat lodge before? Well, you’ve never been in my sweat lodge.’”

My Cherokee purification ceremonies involve water rather than heat. It’s also not for sale.

Having been in sweats conducted by Comanche, Cheyenne, and Lakota I’ve never seen plastic used in the construction of a sweat lodge, which was the case in Arizona. In Ray’s plastic tent, three people died and 18 were hospitalized. Ray considered the ceremony a near-death experience. The first time I sweated, the elder in charge told me to leave if I had trouble.

The whole Ray debacle reminded me of another death in the early nineties in Central Texas. A woman died in a “Native American sweat lodge” maintained by a non-Indian while in it by herself. No fire keeper. No singer. Nobody to remove her if she was unable to remove herself.

In spite of the fact that no Indian was involved, the tragic deaths at the bottom of the Grand Canyon brought calls to ban dangerous, pagan ceremonies. Those of us who leaped to the defense found ourselves cross-examined on the finer points of ceremonies. This is Comanche country, but I doubt any Comanche ever died in a sweat.

There’s a big legal problem around the abuse of Indian ceremonies that ties into the cultural problems we all experience.

Government has the power to ban practices that are dangerous. To put a finer point on it, practices that a reasonable legislator might believe to be dangerous. Dead people are a pretty strong evidence of danger.

To defend against the banning, we have to delve into matters of how the ceremonies are performed. Indian spiritual practices differ from Christianity in that “The spirit world takes care of its own business.” Which is to say, trying to convert others is silly and futile.

The Indian equivalent of the TV preacher gets no respect. A Comanche medicine man, now deceased, who was kind enough to teach me a little about the people on whose bones I walk, had more holes in his jeans than teenagers. I never saw him charge anything beyond expenses but I did see him refuse to reveal things and make merciless sport of anthropologists.

A lot of what is written about Indian ceremonies is unreliable. You can only learn by doing.

Why not ban the ceremonies when abused by non-Indians? Because the First Amendment protects all beliefs. A non-Indian may hold beliefs he takes to be traditionally Indian in a completely sincere manner, but the courts generally do not inquire into sincerity.

Sincerity? Look no farther than the tragedy in Arizona. Those people paid a lot of money. They were explicitly instructed that they would think they were going to die and they should not interfere with how others processed the experience.

According to some survivors, Ray’s staff floated the idea that the dead people had left their bodies on purpose and were having such a good time they decided not to come back! Now, that is [[er, was) sincerity.

Indians seeking a way out of being blamed for abuse of ceremonies they don’t want public in the first place have one weapon. The First Amendment does not apply to Indian nations, since the First Amendment bans “establishment of religion” and for many tribes spiritual practices have been the glue holding them together, in some cases for millennia.

Tribal governments can ban the sale of ceremonies. This ban could only be applied to tribal citizens but it could arguably be applied to them wherever they are. If they put the tribe’s spiritual heritage up for sale, disenroll them, so that they may claim to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, but not Indigenous.

Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and associate professor emeritus of criminal justice at Indiana University-Bloomington. He is a columnist for Indian Country Today. He lives in Georgetown, Texas, and can be reached at swrussel@indiana.edu.

Gazhekwe speaking: I have been in sweats here among the Three Fires People. The leader will always screen the participants for health problems. Being a diabetic, I was warned that I may have problems. When I wanted to go in anyway, I was not refused, but was cautioned to leave immediately if I began having problems like dizziness, dryness, blurry vision. No synthetic clothing is allowed inside. At regular intervals the flap is opened to let in air, and at that time anyone who wishes may leave. Close watch is kept on the participants for unusual behavior. For instance, we are told we can lie on the earth at the wall if we are too hot. When someone did that, they were asked how they were feeling and if they needed to go out. Also at regular intervals, water with berries in it is passed around the circle and everyone is supposed to drink. There is no plastic in the walls or roof of the lodge, so air is exchanged. It is still plenty hot inside.

[gazhekwe]

On this day in 1876, the Battle of the Greasy Grass, aka the Little Bighorn, took place. It was a battle between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army. It was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

This is making the rounds in Indian Country:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1o3YS2CcBs

[Ray1936]

Bad day for the folks in Monroe, Michigan, too.

Your recipe for the fish has brought an urge to pick up a Michigan non-resident fishing license in August and go in search of the mighty largemouth bass while I'm there. I may just do that; I left some fishing gear at my son's house in Livonia. I know of a little dam just north of Milford that backs up water into a great bass nesting area. By August, though, the nesting period is well over, but we'll give 'er a try anyway.

[gazhekwe]

I hope you catch a bunch, Ray. Yum! Is that the Huron River or a tributary? The Huron has been a bit wild this spring.

[gazhekwe]

Live Cam:

http://www.fdlrez.com/Museum/canoecamexternal.htm

[gazhekwe]

Native Family Attacked by Skinheads
By Valerie Taliman June 27, 2011

Johnny and Lisa Bonta, a Native family from the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, became the latest victims of a hate crime on May 24 when they were attacked at a gas station along I-80 in Fernley, Nevada, a border town between the Fallon and Pyramid Lake Indian reservations.

“I was pumping gas at Quick Stop on our way to Reno to look for another job when these skinheads in a blue car drove by real slow and checked us out. The driver jumped out with a baseball bat, and I asked them ‘why you holding a bat?” said Bonta. “He said ‘let’s do this’ and tried to pick a fight. I don’t know how to explain what happened—we didn’t do anything to them.”

Bonta, a Paiute member of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, tried to avoid the confrontation by telling them he didn’t want to fight. He got back in the car, with his son-in-law Shane Murray at the wheel, and they quickly drove away with the carload of skinheads in close pursuit.

As they approached the freeway ramp, they were cut off as the blue car swerved in front of them, then slammed on the brakes, causing Murray to crash into it. Murray said he recognized one of the attackers as Jacob Cassell, a former classmate and son of retired Lyon County Sheriff officer Jim Cassell.

“They all jumped out of the car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar, and we knew they were going to hurt us,” said Lisa Bonta, in an interview from Washoe Medical Center, where she was in treatment for seizures she suffers.

The fight broke out on the highway after 1 p.m. and while traffic was passing by, no one would stop to help them. Lisa and her daughter, Alyssa, were terrified watching the brutal and bloody fight as her unarmed husband and son-in-law tried to fight off the three young men in their 20s.

“I saw one of them hit my husband in the head with a bat, and the other one was trying to cut off his braid with a knife. Johnny was covered in blood and they just kept hitting him with a crow bar. They even tried to slit his throat,” she added.

“Jacob Cassell had my son-in-law on the ground in a chokehold and Shane was turning blue. My daughter was sobbing ‘they’re killing him’ and somehow she found the strength to hit Jacob in self-defense so he would release Shane.”

It was then, Lisa said, that Cassell turned his anger on her and her daughter, jumping on the hood of their car while swinging a baseball bat and cursing at them.

“I’m a 46 year-old woman with serious health problems, and I tried to defend myself, but he hit me across the lower back with his bat, calling us ‘niggers and river monsters,” said Lisa, who is Anglo. “He pointed at Alyssa and said he would rape her the next time he saw her in Fernley, where she lives.”

Meanwhile, Johnny Bonta was knocked unconscious with a bat, his nose and sinus cavities broken and bleeding, with stab wounds on his neck.

Lisa said Jacob Cassell taunted the family as the sirens approached, telling them, “You hear those cops coming? They’re not going to help you. My daddy is a cop in this town, and nothing is going to happen to me. You fucking niggers are going to jail.”

When Lyon County Sheriff’s officers arrived, they took statements and began filling out police reports with Cassell and his friends, but they did not take statements from any of the victims. When Lisa asked why they were not being questioned for a statement, no one responded. “They ignored us,” she said, before she suffered a seizure and required medical attention.

Three ambulances responded to the scene and took Lisa, Alyssa and Murray away for treatment; Murray’s injuries included a crushed elbow and broken hand.

Johnny Bonta, bleeding and barely standing after being hit in the knees with a bat, was arrested on the scene and taken to jail. He said he was not allowed medical treatment for six days while he was in the county jail, all the while uncertain about what charges had been filed against him.

Assuming he was on his way to the hospital, Lisa Bonta had no idea her husband had been arrested. She finally located her husband in jail after calling other facilities repeatedly, and was very upset that he was not given medical treatment for his extensive injuries.

“I asked them to tell me what charges he was being held on and no one would say. They said they gave him the information, but he can’t read or write, so I needed to find out. At first they said there was a bench warrant for an unpaid $367 fine, and when we made arrangements to pay that, they charged him with battery with a deadly weapon, even though it was those boys who had the weapons. The booking papers say we owe $30,367.00. ”

Lisa Bonta is outraged that their attackers were all released at the scene of the crime and were not charged despite the fact they bragged about it on Facebook on May 24, the day of the attack.

Two hours after attacking the Bontas, Josh Janiszewski of Fernley wrote, “Just laid the fists and boots to some 6′ 5” tongan dude. what you got on little guys?” at 3:13 p.m. When asked if they gave them hell, Josh responded. “Oh we did. That’s for sure!” at 3:48 p.m. “Amen,” said Jacob Cassell at 4:07 p.m.

Jacob’s mother Dee Cassell also commented, “So…who has blood? You guys need to come home to mom?” at 4:48 p.m. She later added that she gave them First Aid. “Better have ur asses at home after I did 1st aid. Don’t piss off women – they r worse than men!” she wrote at 8:00 p.m.

When asked if they got “some good licks” in, Josh said, “sent em to the hospital, they got fucked up man, thats for sure.”

Meanwhile, Johnny Bonta stayed behind bars while Lisa and her family called the jail each day, asking if Johnny had been treated for his injuries. No one would tell her his condition. One morning, she says a surly guard told her “he’ll have to get his Indian doctor if he wants treatment,” then hung up on her.

Lisa appealed to the Reno Spark Indian Colony and said she was able to get two Indian Health Service doctors to agree to visit Johnny in jail, but was told by jail officials that could not be allowed. It was not until tribal police pursued Johnny’s release that he was finally released after six days and was able to see a doctor.

The family also lost their car following the attack. The Bontas could not locate their car after the Lyon County Sheriff’s office had it towed from the scene. When Lisa called to ask about their car, she was told the police had no information. She found the car two weeks later in a small towing yard, tires flattened and in need of repair. Since Johnny has not been able to work, they cannot afford to pay the impoundment fees or have it repaired. They are now walking to all of their medical appointments in Reno. The situation has created great hardship for them and their children.

“We lost everything as a result of this attack, and now we’re homeless since we can’t go back to Fernley,” said Lisa. “The FBI took our statement last week and we know they got a copy of the video from the gas station parking lot. We are asking for a full investigation into this hate crime.”

The Bontas said since this happened, at least four other Native families have told them they too were harassed and attacked by skinheads in nearby border towns. But people told her they don’t report the incidents because they don’t believe police will help them. These follow an April 2010 attack on Vincent Kee, Navajo, in Farmington, New Mexico, where three men took Kee from a McDonald’s and shaved a swastika symbol on the back of his head and branded him with the symbol using a coat hanger.

“Someone could have died that day,” said Lisa, “and the only reason this happened is because my husband and son-in-law have brown skin. We have a 10-year-old daughter, and I have to speak out about what happened for her sake. I just don’t understand why these young boys think they have the right to randomly beat others. We have to put a stop to this kind of behavior.”

Lisa also said they are hiring an attorney. “I want the police to know they can’t deny people medical treatment just because they feel like it. Johnny could have died from a head injury, and they violated his civil rights. They should be held accountable.”

Indian Country Today Media Network will continue to follow this story. The case has been classified as a hate crime and is under investigation by the FBI. ICTMN is currently waiting for approval for copies of the police report. Calls to the Reno office of the FBI were not returned.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...-by-skinheads/

[gazhekwe]

Natives Targeted Most for Hate Crimes By Valerie Taliman June 27, 2011

During his six-year term on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Chairman Arlan Melendez of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony saw more than his share of racism, discrimination and hate crimes against Native Americans.

But even he was surprised by the vicious attacks by skinheads against one of his tribe’s families, Johnny and Lisa Bonta, in Fernley, Nevada in late May.

“We know from hearings in Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota that hate crimes are continuing to happen against Native Americans, mostly in border towns near our reservations,” he said, citing a soon-to-be released report developed by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that compiled testimony in 2009 about hate crimes from hundreds of Americans Indians.

The report follows up on the 2005 Department of Justice report that showed the overall violent crime rate among American Indians and Alaska Natives was 100 per 1,000 persons, meaning that one out of 10 American Indians has been a victim of violence.
The study also found that “American Indians are more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race,” with 70 percent of reported violent attacks committed by non-Indians.

“Nevada was always known as the ‘Mississippi of the West’ for its rampant racism. Up until the late 1950s, Indians had to be off the streets by sundown or face arrest,” said Melendez. “Reno was a very racist place, but over the years it’s become more diversified as more Hispanic people moved into the area. Sadly, that’s not the case in many rural communities where there’s still a lot of good ‘ole boy attitudes.”

Melendez said he was shocked and very concerned about the hate crime committed against tribal members, especially since the victims are now being portrayed as the perpetrators, despite evidence to the contrary.

“We need to put pressure on law enforcement and the judicial system to ensure the Bontas are treated fairly. Our main concern is that these attacks need to be taken very seriously and fully investigated as hate crimes,” he said. “Lots of times there are questions about who has jurisdiction in small towns near reservations, and we try to work cooperatively with them, but sometimes they want to sweep things under the rug. All we are asking for is fairness and equitable treatment.”

Melendez said it’s difficult to establish adequate and effective oversight to ensure border towns are respecting the civil and human rights of Americans Indians.
“How do we make sure their elected officials, law enforcement and judges are not prejudiced or have negative attitudes about Native Americans?” he asked. “I would hope they wouldn’t want their community to get a black eye and bad reputation for harboring racist attitudes.”

But one of the few large-scaled studies of hate crimes conducted in recent years indicates that only 10 percent of hate crimes against Natives are reported to law enforcement authorities, according to Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Ontario who interviewed nearly 300 American Indians in border towns. She said the low reporting rate was largely due to “historical and contemporary experience with the police, and the perception they do not take Native American victimization seriously.”

In her 2007 book “Anti-Indianism in Modern America,” Native American Studies professor Elizabeth Cook-Lynn said, “There has been little attempt by legal authorities or anyone else to understand the phenomenon of racially motivated violence in these communities. The first step is to acknowledge that anti-Indian hate crime is America’s essential cancer and that it is a mortal illness, as devastating as anti-Semitism has been to other parts of the world.”

Melendez said he’s spoken to other tribal leaders in the region and they are asking law enforcement in Nevada communities to keep an eye out for clusters of neo-Nazi skinheads or other organizations that promote hate against minorities.

“We hear stories all the time about racial slurs in businesses and stores, and we hear from Native people who are getting attacked because of racial hatred. We have to do more to make people accountable for their actions,” said Melendez.

“People should report these incidents no matter how minor they seem because small things lead to big things,” he said.

“Every Native American has the right not to be threatened or abused. We’ve kept quiet about these things for too long, and it’s time to publicly speak out against this type of unacceptable behavior.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...r-hate-crimes/

[gazhekwe]

Tell the Governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval to Investigate Law Enforcement in Fernley, NV

Petition the Governor and Attorney General of Nevada:
OVERVIEW

Law enforcement officials are turning a blind eye to Native American victims of hate crimes in Fernley, NV by jailing the victims and failing to offer them adequate medical care while incarcerated. The same officials allowed the perpetrators to go after taking only their statements and ignored victims questions or statements of the incident. After this incident other famliies have come forward reporting similiar assaults.

Sign the petition to call attention to nationwide concern for the civil rights of American Indians and other minority persons.

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell...-in-fernley-nv

PETITION LETTER

Gov. Brian Sandoval--Hate Crimes Have No Place in NV

Greetings,

I was repulsed and terrified after reading the news article in Indian Country Today Media Network regarding the attack on Native American families by skinheads in Fernley, NV. Law enforcement, when they arrived on the scene, arrested the victim and let the perpetrators go after taking only their statements!

Below is the link to the Indian Country Today Media Network link to the article.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...-by-skinheads/

The perpetrators are assaulting Native American families with impunity: "Lisa said Jacob Cassell taunted the family as the sirens approached, telling them, 'You hear those cops coming? They’re not going to help you. My daddy is a cop in this town, and nothing is going to happen to me. You fucking niggers are going to jail.' ICTMN

We urge you to let Brian Sandoval, Governor of Nevada, to pressure the FBI to follow through with their investigation of these assaults which the FBI has identified as hate crimes. Below is the link to the office of the Governor.

http://nv.gov/govforms.aspx?ekfrm=4294969014

We also urge you to contact Attorney General Cortez-Masto at:
http://ag.state.nv.us/about/contact/form.htm

Native American families deserve justice and the same rights to service and protection from law enforcement in their towns, counties, and states!!!
[Your name]

[gazhekwe]

Did anybody sign the petition? It's getting nationwide attention now. Let's hope the matter is investigated. It would be good for the whole story to come out.

Ray, any thoughts on the law enforcement angle?

Fernley is about 60 miles east of Reno on I-80. Desolate part of the state. The town is between two reservations. That can be a red flag to some people who seem to think Indian fighting is a good thing. Not so long ago, here in Michigan, our people were looked down on, scorned and shunned around reservations. White folk would say the name of the res, "Shawbeetown" "Bay Mills" "Shunk Road" with a look and a shrug to indicate scorn. People from the res were never expected to be good people. Being raised just off Shunk Road, I got my share of it growing up, so this story just seems to be more of the same. Still, reading between the lines, it sounds as if the several white men were accusing the two Indian men of being aggressors, possibly because one of the men is quite tall and husky. They think they really messed him up. Is fighting ever a good thing?

[Wingnatic]

Yes I signed it . My question is where in the hell is the Justice Dept. ? It seems to me Federal laws were broken [[hate crimes) and laws were broken by law enforcement . This brings back bad memories of growing up in Ferndale , my family was friends of the owner of the Golden Star Restaurant in Ferndale and knew Vincent Chin pretty well from the restaurant . What did the 2 guys get from beating him to death with a baseball bat ................ nada

[gazhekwe]

EPA Helps Tribes Clean the Air in Indian Country—Finally

By Rob Capriccioso July 5, 2011

WASHINGTON – A new and long-awaited set of rules released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aims to strengthen tribal regulation of clean air standards in Indian country, putting tribes on equal footing with states in regulating their own environments.

The action, which tribes have been pushing for since the early 1990s, had been long delayed as the agency put many priorities ahead of regulations that would improve the health and economies of tribal citizens.

The finalized rules, announced by the Obama administration on June 13, are officially meant to ensure that Clean Air Act permitting requirements are applied consistently to tribal facilities to better protect the health of people living near them, according to EPA officials who said pollutants covered under these permits can cause a number of serious health problems including aggravated asthma, increased emergency room visits, heart attacks, and premature death. In practice, the rules will also strengthen tribal control over sources that pollute on Indian lands, while giving tribes the opportunity to host increased economic development.

In short, the actions put in place requirements for issuing clean air permits to both large and small pollutant sources in Indian country, and set specific timelines for phasing them in. They formally establish a federal process to issue permits to smaller sources – those emitting less than 100 or 250 tons per year – in all areas of Indian country and to large sources – those emitting more than 100 tons per year – in areas of Indian country that do not meet national air quality standards. A rule already in place details requirements for EPA to issue permits to major sources in areas of Indian country that meet national air quality standards.

“These actions will limit harmful pollutants, provide the health protections tribal families deserve and allow for an open and transparent permitting process,” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, in a statement. “The actions also bring clean air permitting programs for Indian country in line with state and federal programs.”

Philip Baker-Shenk, a partner with the Holland & Knight law firm who focuses on Indian issues, said EPA’s release of the New Source Review [[NSR) regulations arm the EPA and tribes with the tools to better protect both tribal air and tribal sovereignty. “While tribal sovereignty is constrained by tribal borders, tribal air blows over tribal boundaries, as does the air from neighboring areas that formerly were Indian country,” he said. “The new EPA NSR rules will not only help clean up tribal air, but also give federal blessing to air permits issued by Indian tribes in the exercise of their geographic jurisdictional sovereignty. Since tribal sovereignty is defined in practical terms by how others respect it, the new EPA rules represent a significant restoration of tribal sovereignty.”
...
Both tribal and federal officials agree that the new rules were a long time coming. \

It was twenty long years ago that the U.S. Congress created this statutory authority in forward-looking amendments to the Clean Air Act,” Baker-Shenk said. “In other words, two decades ago, the Congress told EPA to treat Indian tribes as states for purposes of federal air regulation. For the next two decades, the EPA busied itself writing and rewriting regulations on virtually every topic other than treating tribes as states.”

McCabe said that the effort to get the rules in place actually started in 1997, and said that since about 2005 or 2006, there has been a major effort to involve tribes to get their input on what the rules should look like, as well as to get input from the regulated community.

“It’s taken a long time in part because we wanted to get as much input as we could from the tribes,” she said.

It was in 2006 that the Bush administration released draft regulations designed to implement the 1991 Clean Air Act amendments on Indian lands, but little happened until the current Obama administration rules were released five years later.

“Generally,” McCabe added, “tribes have been very desirous of having the rule in place because they see it as a disadvantage not to have it.”

Tribes also have the ability to seek to implement the rules themselves, so their tribal sovereignty is protected in a way it was not when states were the lone entities that were trying to issue permits that would affect Indian country.

“The rule clarifies that the tribes have primacy to either take over delegation of the rules, or the agency has it,” said Laura McKelvey, head of the tribal group in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “So, for the most part the states don’t have jurisdiction, and it makes sure that the states know that.”

Baker-Shenk said that despite the delay, “late is of course better than never.” But he added a word of caution: “If this new NSR rule is to have any real value in this era when the EPA is in a defensive posture under political siege from Capitol Hill, top EPA officials will have to insist that EPA mid-level officials give top priority to timely processing of tribal applications under the new NSR rules. Otherwise, the last two decades of a regulatory gap will be followed by more decades of bureaucratic inaction that keeps what remains of Indian country an impoverished archipelago.”

On the matter of implementation, EPA released a fact sheet, which said that training and technical assistance will be guided by the agency in close collaboration with tribes.

“EPA Regions will primarily be responsible for implementing this rule until a tribe requests delegation of the federal program or until a tribe develops and gets approval of a Tribal Implementation Plan to run these programs,” according to the fact sheet.

Another long-awaited new development from the EPA is its establishment ofa National Tribal Toxics Committee [[NTTC) in an effort to provide tribes greater input on issues related to chemical safety, toxic chemicals and pollution prevention. Creation of the NTTC is part of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s emphasis on improving chemical safety, building strong tribal partnerships and expanding the conversation on environmental justice, according to an EPA press release.

“As we focus on chemical safety and identify ways to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals and prevent pollution in Indian country, it is absolutely critical that we listen to our tribal partners,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a statement. “We want to ensure that we address the ways that tribal members are affected by toxic substances and promote pollution prevention efforts that reflect their interests and needs.”

Agency officials expect that the NTTC will help the agency better tailor and more efficiently address a variety of issues, including preventing poisoning from lead-based paint, expanding pollution prevention and safer chemical initiatives in Indian country, and better evaluating chemical exposures that may be unique to tribes and their members.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...%80%94finally/

[gazhekwe]

Belo Monte Dam will inundate all the lands of indigenous peoples in a huge area of the country. What provisions are being made, with the lessons of the US and Israel standing ready to teach? What impact will flooding 100,000 acres of rain forest have on the world at large? What will happen to the more than 40,000 people who will be displaced?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...azilian-amazon

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/STO...15916875163270

[gazhekwe]

A Dam Brings a Flood of Diabetes to Three Tribes

Herbert Wilson arrived on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota in 1954. A Vermont-bred 33-year-old, fresh from Harvard with a tour as a bombardier in World War II and a stint in the Coast Guard, Wilson arrived in the tiny town of Elbowoods to serve as the sole doctor for three tribes that had spent the years since white colonization the same way they had spent the preceding centuries—raising corn, beans and squash in the fertile floodplain of the Missouri River.

“Very few people were overweight,” recalled Dr. Wilson. “There was no welfare, no commodity food, and did I mention there was no diabetes?”

But even as Wilson and his wife unloaded their four small children and cat from their 1946 Hudson sedan, the disease that has become the scourge of Native American health was on its way.

It was coming in the form of water—the recently constructed Garrison Dam was destined to flood that town and seven other Native communities strung along a 30-mile stretch of the Missouri River, which meant the resident Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people had to move to high, barren ground, processed food and a five-decade descent into obesity, hypertension, kidney disease and diabetes. Ironically, the flood would drown the only hospital the reservation has ever had.

As dramatic as it is, their story differs from that of other tribes only in the details. Native Americans in the United States have become 2.2 times more likely to develop diabetes than non-Hispanic whites. And they have all gotten there in pretty much the same way—they lost their land, became sedentary, consumed cheap and unhealthy food, and received worse health care than any other group of people in the country. On Fort Berthold, where health needs are poorly met by a leaky network of clinics, a new $20 million clinic will open later this year, but it will take a lot more than that to turn the tide of a health crisis inundating this and other reservations.
....
...in the mid 1940s, the U.S. government decided it needed a dam.

Of all the variable things in creation,” wrote the editor of the Sioux City Register in 1863, “the most uncertain are the actions of juries, the state of a woman’s mind, and the condition of the Missouri River.” In 1943, the restive Missouri had jumped its banks three times, inundating Iowa and Nebraska and angering precisely the wrong person—Colonel Lewis Pick, the short-fused director of the regional office of the Army Corps of Engineers. “As the floodwaters rose in the streets outside his offices, Pick jumped up on a desk and bellowed at his subordinates: ‘I want to control the Missouri!’ ” wrote Paul VanDevelder in Coyote Warrior, a history of the Garrison Dam and its effect on the tribes....

President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Pick and the Bureau of Reclamation to hammer out a plan. They called for a series of dams on the Upper Missouri—at its center, the 200-mile-long Lake Sakakawea, which would flood 436 of Fort Berthold’s 531 homes, as well as every square foot of the enviable farmland tilled by the people of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nations.

The Indians fought back. But as the news from the government the tribes had trusted for nearly 150 years went from bad to worse, the people of Fort Berthold were stunned, then angry. When now-General Pick appeared at an Elbowoods hearing in 1946, a rancher with a third-grade education and a full-feathered war bonnet named Thomas Spotted Wolf stood up and stuck his finger into the general’s face.

“You have come to destroy us!” he shouted, according to his grandson, Jim Bear. “If you look around in our town, we build schools, churches.… We’re becoming civilized! We’re becoming acculturated! Isn’t that what you white people wanted us to do? So we’re doing that! And now you’ll flood our homeland?”

...But these arguments were no match for the government’s determination to tame the Missouri and spare any ill effects being visited upon its constituent white farmers—who owned less than 10 percent of the land lost to the series of dams the Pick-Sloan Flood Control Act of 1944 installed above Yankton, South Dakota. The rest was all Indian land.

[In the years following the opening of the dam and the flooding of the fertile farmlands of the three tribes, the people were moved to the barren plains settlement called New Town. Unemployment ran 80%, alcoholism took many lives, and health problems escalated.]
...
Some found low-paying desk positions for the government or service jobs, some took the bus to distant cities like Los Angeles or Chicago as part of the 1956 Indian Relocation Program, but unemployment hovered at around 80 percent, according to Mark Fox, who is now the director of the tribal tax department. The people were so poor that a 1964 BIA investigation reported that starvation was a real possibility on Fort Berthold. But with the hard work of subsistence farming behind them, the Three Tribes became more and more sedentary. About 40 percent of them started receiving commodity foods from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1970, less than 20 years after the creation of Lake Sakakawea, an IHS doctor named James Brosseau found 200 cases of diabetes on Fort Berthold. He was surprised and dismayed. “There were probably a lot more that were undiagnosed,” he said. ....

Excerpted from a long article:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...-three-tribes/

[gazhekwe]

So named by Native Americans for the time of year when bucks sprout new antlers, the Full Buck Moon will be visible tonight and tomorrow night according to Livescience.com. Also known as Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon.

The special thing about this year’s Full Buck Moon is that, to the naked eye, it will look full as it rises on both evenings around sunset.

Visit Farmersalmanac.com to view a list of all the full moon names of 2011 and what they have come to be called by Native Americans, who named them to keep track of the seasons.

[gazhekwe]

Haida Manga is a new style of Haida comics and print cartoons that explores the elements of both traditional North Pacific indigenous arts and narrative, while also adapting contemporary techniques of artistic design from the Eastern portion of the North Pacific, namely the Japanese manga from which its name derives. Haida manga have so far been published in several countries including but not limited to Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Macao, France, and Canada.

History and style
Haida Manga has been recently popularized by artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas who is considered the father of Haida Manga, making its first debut in 2001 in his book, A Tale of Two Shaman which led to a series of exhibits [[such as at Expo 2005 and Tokyo Designers Week 2003) and multiple print runs in Japan and Korea. Asian interest in the graphic appeal of Haida design is enhanced by the narratives which advocate a hopeful and empowering message.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas expresses his own interest in Haida Manga in that it is “not part of the settler tradition of North America [[like Archie or Marvel comics, for example).”

Haida Manga may also appear as ink or watercolor on paper, and has also shown up on reassembled automobile parts and disassembled bone trays displayed in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.

A more recent ink on paper version appeared as a book called Flight of the Hummingbird – A Parable for the Environment. It was released in 2008 and soon became available in five languages including English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. It was also featured in an animated version on Youtube, narrated by Lark Clark and animated by Chris Auchter.

While Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas remains the main author of Haida Manga, the popularization of his works and efforts over the years have sparked interest in general Haida narrative and art form, leading to other works such as Raven Steals the Light, an animation telling the traditional Haida legend of the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars, created by Thomas Oz and narrated by Kristin.

http://nativeamericanencyclopedia.com/haida-manga/

Flight of the Hummingbird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5u7A9DRAc

Raven Steals the Light:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB3SgMP9QW8

[Pam]

Gaz - have you ever heard of this person? My Mom showed me something about her in the Michigan Catholic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kateri_Tekakwitha