DEBRA WHITE PLUME (Lakota) Director of Owe Aku (www.oweakuinternational.org) works to bring back our way of life which includes humanity's role in nature: we are a part of it, not outside of it, not having dominion over it. To achieve this Owe Aku works to stop mining that contaminates our water and land. Owe Aku has reestablished programs that utilize the wisdom of our ancestors in combatting the effects of inter-generational trauma caused by colonization and the intentional attempts for hundreds of years to destroy our culture.
In the Lakota Language Owe Aku means Bring Back the Way.

While the current fate of KXL North rests upon U.S. Presidential approval, KXL South's now lies in the broad-spectrum opposition it has garnered in the form of legal cases as well as the grassroots civil disobedience campaigns by groups like Great Plain Tar Sands Resistance and Tar Sands Blockade. Should KXL North be permitted to start construction, these groups along with grassroots indigenous organizations, several Lakota Nation tribal councils, and over 60,000 others have pledged resistance in the form of non-violent direct action to halt pipeline construction.

STEPHANY SEAY - Media Outreach Coordinator (www.buffalofieldcampaign.org)

Kill the Bills, Not the Buffalo! Twelve anti-buffalo bills were alive at the start of this legislative session. Thanks to you and other friends of the buffalo, only two survive!

HB 143, which would have made it mandatory for the Department of Livestock to immediately kill, capture, harass, quarantine and trap for slaughter all buffalo migrating into Montana, failed yesterday in its 3rd reading in the Montana House by a vote of 50 to 50.

HB 328, which allows wildlife officials to reveal the location of wild buffalo to hunters, unfortunately, was signed into law on Friday.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock is the last line of defense against the last two surviving bills.

HB 396 would grant unconstitutional powers to county commissioners, giving them full authority over any wild buffalo transferred or introduced in Montana. It would also make it legal for the Montana Department of Livestock to auction or sell wild bison and keep the money.

SB 256 would legislatively undo a long standing Montana Supreme Court precedent that wildlife does not belong to any owner by making the state liable for any private property damage or public safety hazard caused by reintroduced buffalo.

JANENE YAZZIE-COLLYMORE is a Dine independent scholar, entrepreneur, and human rights advocate. She is from the Black Streak Wood People clan, born for the Bitter water people. Her grandparents are from the the Comanche and White Mountain Apache Nations. As CEO of Sixth World Solutions (www.sixth-world.com) works on the front lines of community development, empowerment and liberation on the Navajo Nation. The goal of Sixth World is to nurture the development of community-owned programs, projects, and methodologies the promote economic, social and environmental justice that restore Hozho (balance), or community and individual prosperity as defined by Dine epistemology.

LISA JONES is an author and contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (www.hcn.org). THE WHITE MEDIA KILLS INDIANS AGAIN AND AGAIN (www.hcn.org/wotr/the-white-media-kills-indians-again-and-again) a column she wrote for Writers on the Range, a syndication service of High Country News in Western Colorado, this first week in April 2013.
She teaches memoir in Boulder and Denver and is the author of “Broken: A Love Story,” (www.brokenalovestory.com) a memoir about her friendship with Northern Arapaho horse gentler Stanford Addison.

JOHN KANE (Guest hosts with) JEREMIAH HOSEA STEVEN NEWCOMB (Lenni Lenape/Shawnee), Author of "Pagans in the Promised Land" is the guest on "First Voices Indigenous Radio" in NYC Thursday morning at 9am on WBAI FM 99.5. He will join me again, this time back home on "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane" Sunday night from 9-11 on WWKB 1520AM in Buffalo. Steven is the foremost authority on the Christian Doctrine of Discovery. Listen in and you'll learn what the Doctrine of Discovery has meant to Native people and more.

For the week of March 28 to April 4, 2013

Prof. EVAN PRITCHARD - www.algonquinculture.org - He is the author of Native New Yorkers, The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York.
He is also the author of the widely praised No Word For Time, the Way of the Algonquin People, and many other books, including an Algonkian language series. He discusses the area of Manhattan, NY before Columbus, before Henry Hudson and the idea of "occupation"; the history not often given or heard either in mainstream or altenative/progressive media.

THOMAS BANYANCA was a Hopi Native American traditional leader. One of four Hopis, including David Monongye, Dan Evehema, and Dan Katchongva, who decided or were appointed to reveal Hopi traditional wisdom and teachings, including the Hopi prophecies for the future, to the general public in 1946, after the use of the first two nuclear weapons on Japan. Banyacya was a member of the Wolf, Fox, and Coyote clans.

Banyacya grew up in the village of Moencopi and first attended Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California and then Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He lived in Kykotsmovi, Arizona on the Hopi Reservation. During World War II, Banyacya was a conscientious objector, who spent seven years in prison instead of registering for the draft.
Banyacya died on February 6, 1999 in Keams Canyon, Arizona.

IAN HANCOCK (Romani: Yanko le Red osko) (born August 29, 1942) (www.radoc.net) is a linguist, Romani scholar, and political advocate. He was born and raised in England, and is one of the main contributors in the field of Romani studies.
He is director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been a professor of English, linguistics and Asian studies since 1972. He has represented the Romani people at the United Nations and served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council under President Bill Clinton, who Hancock claims has Romani ancestry.[1] He also represented the Romani people at the 1997 Rafto Prize award. He has authored several books including The Pariah Syndrome

LLEWELYN VAUGHN LEE - short audio clip on the Sea Gypsies of Burma

The music has purpose here this week.

JOSEPH MARSHALL III (www.josephmarshall.com) born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux) tribe. Because he was raised in a traditional Lakota household by his maternal grandparents, his first language is Lakota. In that environment he also learned the ancient tradition of oral storytelling.
Joseph taught at the high school and college levels, and developed native studies curriculum as well. For several years he worked for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Now he writes full time, having published nine nonfiction works, three novels, a collection of short stories and essays, and has written several screenplays. Many of his books are published in foreign countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Korea, China, Japan, Romania, Brazil, Spain, and Israel. Joseph has won several awards for his books, both for the text and audio versions.

Joseph has appeared in several television documentaries, served as technical advisor for movies, and had a role in a major television network mini-series. He was a technical advisor and narrator for the Turner Network Television (TNT) and Dreamworks Television six-part mini-series Into the West, as well as playing the on-screen role of "Loved by the Buffalo," a Lakota medicine man. He is also a practitioner of primitive Lakota archery, having learned from his maternal grandfather the art of hand crafting bows and arrows. Joseph is also a specialist in wilderness survival.

ELLEN GABRIEL - Mohawk (Kanien'keha:ka Nation) www.facebook.com/ellen.gabriel

OTIS TAYLOR - Releasing album w/Mato Najin (Nakota) - My World Is Gone www.otistaylor.com

TA"KAIYA BLANEY - Sliammon First Nation - 11 yr. old who spoke at IDLE NO MORE and 2012 RIO+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and more! www.takaiyablaney.com

GUESTS

CHASE IRON EYES (Hunkpapa Lakota) - is a founding writer at www.lastrealindians.com, as well as a speaker and attorney. Chase was a principal organizer for the recent effort to reclaim Black Hills sacred land and is instrumental in organizing the 1st annual Wounded Knee Survivors Run.
JOSEPH BRINGS PLENTY (Hwokoju Lakota) - is a principal organizer of the Wounded Knee Survivors Run, a former Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and organizes the Sungmanitu Oti Boxing club keeping youth busy in the rural parts of the reservation.

DOUG GEORGE-KANENTIIO (Akwesasne Mohawk) - is the co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian and the author of "Iroquois On Fire". He resides in upstate Onieda Territory with his wife Joanne Shenandoah and family. www.aptn.ca for updates and www.idlenomore.ca The Hiawatha Institute www.Hiawatha.syr.edu
Idle No More Actions: Why the Natives are at the Point of Outrage
©by Doug George-Kanentiio

Dr. PAMELA PALMATER is a Mi'kmaw citizen and member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick. She is a mother of two boys, Mitchell and Jeremy ages 20 and 18 and comes from a large family of 8 sisters and 3 brothers. She has been a practicing lawyer for 14 years and she holds the position of Associate Professor and Chair in Indigenous Governance in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, and heads the Centre for Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University.

Pam's area of expertise is in Indigenous law, politics, and governance. She has been researching and writing on issues impacting First Nations governance. Her book, Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity, considers the legal, political and social problems of federal-imposed Indian registration with regards to band membership and self-government citizenship. She has also published in the areas of Aboriginal and treaty rights, legislation and law-making, First Nation education, poverty and politics. Her most recent contribution was the report entitled: Our Children, Our Future, Our Vision: First Nation Jurisdiction over First Nation Education for the Chiefs of Ontario in response to the National Panel on Education.

Pam also engages with Canadian society on these issues by speaking and delivering training sessions to unions, churches, universities, high schools, governments and businesses with a view to educating the public about the historical context and facts behind the inaccurate myths and stereotypes impacting First Nation and Canadian relations. She is known for her focus on fact-based discussions and debate and acts as a frequent political commentator for APTN National News, InFocus, CTV, CBC and other media outlets.

For further information about Pam, please consult her website: www.indigenousnationhood.com

UKUMBWA SAUTI is an adjunct instructor of Cultural Media Studies and video production at Franklin Pierce University and New England Institute of Art. He specializes in research in television and film on issues of indigenous cultures, modernity, christianity and colonialism, spirituality and the “nature narrative”.

He has been involved on different levels with Occupy Boston and more deeply with the Decolonize to Liberate working group. Ukumbwa is the author of a blog, Indigeny & Energetics and researching and writing a book by the same name. He is an initiated Elder in the Dagara tradition of Burkina Faso in West Africa .
Contact info:
http://ukumbwasauti.blogspot.com (educational information)

Elivra Colorado talks about an event ACH'JABIL a Maya Ceremony to be held on Dec. 21st at the American Indian Community House.
Shaun Finnerty also will be appearing at the AICH event and will discuss the implications of the myth created by non-Native peoples and the 2012 Dec. 21 Prophecy.

Dr. Pamela D. Palmater is a Mi'kmaw lawyer and member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick. Gives us a background and legal work, rallies, meeting, flash mob ceremonies and more concering the IDLE NO MORE movement in Canada and across the world.

Ross Hamilton - Author of Star Mounds: A Native American Legacy ties the Serpant Mound in Ohio - Draco constellation in the northern hemisphere and the syncronizing of it all to December 21, 2012 and the Maya people "Long Count" and dispels the myth of destruction and more.
December 20 - December 27th, 2012

JUAN GONZALEZ (Wakatel Balam) (wakatel_balam@hotmail.com) spoke at the 2012 Day of Mourning in Plymouth MA about the reality of the so-called Maya Prophecies. He spoke of the Council of Maya Elders Aj'qij'ab is the traditional way of organization
and represents all the Maya communities,
their work involves the many aspects of a society. How 'western society' has aggrandized the popularity and commercialization of a distorted version of the Maya and the Maya perspective of 2012.

CHARLES EISENSTEIN (www.charleseisenstein.net) I had a discussion of the views of western civilization and the "fear of language" of the ending time of the present day economy and mindset. What are we to do and how to approach a totally new or alternative way to involve ourselves past 2012 and beyond. We will ask Charles to be on the program in the future as our stations capabilities have compromised with limited phone service due to Full Moon Sandy.

Thanks for your patience once more WBAI studios are almost at full capacity.

An audio collage of speakers and music, prophecy, activism and spoken word from the archives of First Voices Indigenous Radio circa 1981 to 2010.
In order of appearance;
Arvol Looking Horse
John Trudell
Tim Bennett (Life At The End of Empire: What A Way To Go)
Tom Cook (In Bolivia)

EVAN PRITCHARD a descendant of the Micmac people (part of the Algonquin nations) is the founder of The Center for Algonquin Culture, and is currently Professor of Native American history at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he also teaches ethics and philosophy. www.algonquinculture.org

THE MAHINA MOVEMENT www.mahinamovement .com Gabriella Callendar, Erica DelaRosa, and Valmoana Niemeitolu. Talk about their upcoming SOUL JOURNEY TRUTH TOUR in November 2012 - Mahina Movement is the phenomenal 3-woman trio who combine poetry and song to create passionate music tied to flesh and bone, straight from the heart. Mahina Movement’s extraordinary melodies tell stories of the personal and political wrapped with courage, strength and awareness of human struggle and connection. 3 voices and one guitar blend into a powerful force, mixing folk, rock and rhymes in English, Spanish, and Tongan simmered with indigenous roots and culture. Please check on their local NYC events.

Prof. EVAN PRITCHARD- www.algonquinculture.org - He is the author of Native New Yorkers, The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York.
He is also the author of the widely praised No Word For Time, the Way of the Algonquin People, and many other books, including an Algonkian language series. He discusses the area of Manhattan, NY before Columbus, before Henry Hudson and the idea of "occupation"; the history not often given or heard either in mainstream or altenative/progressive media.

CHASE IRON EYES (Lakota) www.lastrealindians.com - Updates the listeners on the more than 1,940 acres of land in the Black Hills considered sacred to the Great Sioux Nation appear to be heading back to the ownership of the tribes after almost 140 years in private hands. The legal aspects of 9 participating 'tribes' in assisting the return of Pe S'la - one of the nations sacred sites in the Blacks Hills of South Dakota. The Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people know that the land is the sacred home to their creation story and essential to their culture and beliefs because of the role it plays in the Star Knowledge of their people.

MARIO MURILLO Guest Host's FVIR - In Cauca, Colombia, the war against indigenous people continues to escalate as the Nasa communities resist armed actors from all camps. On Sunday, a spiritual leader, or The Wala, was assassinated in his home in the municipality of Caloto.Segment #1: Context of the Current Crisis of Indigenous Resistance Across the Americas

Manuel Rozental, physician, activist, founding member of the Tejido de Comunicación or communication network of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, ACIN, in Colombia. Coordinator of the grassroots effort Pueblos en Camino.

Nicole Karsin, filmmaker and director of the feature documentary We Women Warriors and Flor Ilva Trochez, A Nasa indigenous leader from Cauca, Colombia and former governor of Jambaló, indigenous territory currently under siege by the Colombian Armed Forces. She is one of three indigenous women featured in the documentary by Nicole Karsin, currently showing at the IFC Docuweeks series sponsored by the International Documentary Association.

Leila Salazar-López- Amazon Watch Program Director (www.amazonwatch.com)
Belo Monte Dam Resistance

JOHN KANE - Guest Host: I talked predominantly about the misconception that "Indians" are "treated" better by Democrats. I speak directly on actions taken under both a Democratic governor and president that represents some of the most aggressive actions against our people in over 30 years. I speak of federal legislation with specifically and, arguably, "unintended" consequences for our people.

PART 1 of 2

Wisdomkeepers are the guardians of nature's mysteries within the Lakota ceremonies and their practices, the medicine that is ruled by them, the songs that infuse our senses and our spiritual body, and the forces they produce that are identical to nature and its motivating power. These oral and entirely spontaneous transmissions, given by the three holy men, Joe Flying By, Dave Chief, and Leroy Curley, are a rare treasure of the highest generosity, directed for the greatest good. Their stories are told with complete equanimity, vividly conveying, without rancor or judgement, how Western civilization lacks connection to the natural world. Because passing on elders' wisdom in the oral tradition to the next generation is almost impossible, given the fact that the three important elements of the Lakota culture--the land, the people, and the language--are all but gone, the film's producer/director has provided a great service to those who have an interest in, and wish to learn from, ancient Native American teachings that have rarely been exposed.


The narrator is Joseph Chasing Horse.

Wisdomkeepers is produced and directed by Ora Abel Russell

First Voices Indigenous Radio will be bringing to you a two part series on the Lakota culture. The Lakota were never defeated militarily, in fact they won every battle against the United States culminating with the defeat of General George Armstrong Custer at the Little Big Horn River in Southeastern Montana 1876. The massacre of 350 Mnicoujou Lakota with the majority of whom were old people, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890 is often misnomered as a battle by the very same 7th Cavalry - Custer's old regiment who is often thought to have sought revenge against the Lakota.
Today the Lakota fight on against all odds and just how they are overcoming them you will find some insight with the next two broadcasts of Wisdomkeepers.

You can find more about the Lakota Wisdomkeepers on OneWorldInConcert.com.
Next week we bring you part two of the series. This is Tiokasin Ghosthorse for First Voices Indigenous Radio. Thank you for joining us.

Notes: Credits:
www.Oneworldinconcert.org

ANDREW MILLER (www.amazonwatch.org) We discuss the current situation in Brazil regarding the Belo Monte "super" dam currently under construction. Various Native peoples who face extinction and other problems such as no more river(s) to maintain their once flourshing lands and peoples. This protest is specifically calling attention to the failure on the part of the dam building consortium to address the grave impacts to the lives and livelihoods of the region's indigenous inhabitants. These – already being felt just from early stages of dam construction – stem from the diversion of the majority of the flow of the Xingu River away from the 62-mile stretch known as the Big Bend. Among the concerns cited by the indigenous leaders are their inability to use the river for travel thereby isolated without access; serious decline in fish stocks, their main source of protein; decline in water quality which is used for drinking and bathing; health impacts from anticipated rise in malaria and dengue fever, among others.
On Monday, a local judge rejected an eviction order request from NESA (the dam building consortium) for the police to forcibly remove the occupiers. The judge ruled that the indigenous communities' grievances were legitimate and that the government and companies needed to negotiate with them and address their concerns. Tomorrow, officials from the Brazilian government agency FUNAI and Electronorte (State-owned power company and the main stakeholder in the dam) are scheduled to travel to the occupation to dialogue with the communities.

MAHINA MOVEMENT (www.mahinamovement.com) Live in-studio guests Mahina Movement is the phenomenal 3 women trio who combine poetry and song to create passionate music tied to flesh and bone, straight from the heart. Mahina Movement’s extraordinary melodies tell stories of the personal and political wrapped with courage, strength and awareness of human struggle and connection. 3 voices and one guitar blend into a powerful force, mixing folk, rock and rhymes in English, Spanish, and Tongan simmered with indigenous roots and culture. They will be going on their SOULJOURNEY TRUTH TOUR to Europe: Dublin, London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Florence Rome and other places in the world!!!!
PERFORMING at TWO MOONS ART HOUSE - 315 4th Avenue Brooklyn at Two Moon Art House & Cafe / 7pm FRIDAY JUNE 29th!

*NOTICE* Due to agreements with AUDIOPORT.org and Pacifica Radio Network - we will be uploading a weekly boilerplate or a generic version of reference to your radio staion. In other words, no specific station ID's but for music at the Intro, 30min break and outro.
FVIR will be uploading one program for your station's rebroadcast in order to save and use less bandwidth space on AUDIOPORT.* IF you want another source to download FVIR's latest program it will be available every Thursday evening (day of original live broadcast) at www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives OR if you prefer an "RSS" feed www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/rss.

SISTER HERMINIA SUTAREZ - In January of 2011, the NCIP (National Commission for Indigenous People) awarded the Ati Community of greater than 40 families with a certificate of land title for two hectares of land in Boracay which includes the beach front.
When resort owners began arriving on the island the tourism soared, the Ati community was shoved aside.The Atis will continue to guard their land and hopes that they will eventually be heard so they can finally regain the land they have been waiting for. On a portion of land in dispute, the Ati will temporarily have ease of mind. But there is no certainty to the future of their fight. Right now, they are hoping to have access to the waters which was theirs. And be able to live far from those who have been discriminating them.
(Holy Rosary Parish - Ati Mission) 036 288 6582/ 01984415181 In the Philippines.

KAHONTINEH SWAMP of the Mohawk Nation.
who will be discussing RISE 2012.The Gathering of Condolence, Strength and Peace will be held at the Leech Lake Reservation from June 18th to June 23rd 2012. Kahontineh is fulfilling her father Jake Swamp's dream, his vision, need to heal and the spirit of hope for a new time to come. RISE 2012 (www.rise2012.com) has now been supported and sponsored by Indigenous Peoples from the East and the West of the United States and Canada, as well as from Indigenous Peoples from the rest of the Americas. Sister Hermenia Sutarez and Kahontineh Swamp

If you have any questions please feel free to email: Tiokasin@gmail.com

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON PENNSYLVANIA
*Originally broadcast March 29th, 2012 w/additional music.

DOUG GEORGE-KANENTIIO is an Akwesasne Mohawk. He is the co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian and the author of "Iroquois On Fire". He resides in upstate Onieda Territory with his wife Joanne Shenandoah and family. The Hiawatha Institute (www.Hiawatha.syr.edu)

Kanentiio@aol.com or via surface mail: Box 450, Oneida, NY 13421

The awareness and agenda of placing Mother Earth at the top or at least the basis of the OWS movement - seems to be lacking. Doug discusses another thinking process often overlooked and minimized...even by the "new OWS movement".
Many young Original Nation peoples are preparing to step up to a leadership role but seem to lack "a process of critical analysis of the West's historical processes, to seek out the actual nature of the roots of the exploitative and oppressive conditions which are forced upon humanity. At the same time, as we gain understanding of those processes, we must reinterpret that history to the people of the world. It is the people of the West, ultimately, who are the most oppressed and exploited. They are burdened by the weight of centuries of racism, sexism, and ignorance which has rendered their people insensitive to the true nature of their lives.
We must all consciously and continuously challenge every model, every program, and every process that the West tries to force upon us. Paulo Friere wrote, in his book, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that it is the nature of the oppressed to imitate the oppressor, and by such actions try to gain relief from the oppressive condition. We must learn to resist that response to oppression.
The people who are living on this planet need to break with the narrow concept of human liberation, and begin to see liberation as something which needs to be extended to the whole of the Natural World. What is needed is the liberation of all the things that support Life-the air, the waters, the trees-all the things which support the sacred web of Life.

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE SCRANTON, PENNYSLVANIA

STAR MOUNDS - A Native American Legacy Mystery - PART TWO of TWO

ROSS HAMILTON has lived in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area since the age of seven and has devoted his life to bringing to light the lost history of the North American continent. He has worked with activist Vine Deloria Jr., the former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians; Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman; and Iroquois chief Jake Swamp. He frequently gives interviews on the subject of the star mounds, most recently on the History Channel show Ancient Aliens. Star Mounds is a full-color illustrated study of the precolonial monuments of the greater Ohio Valley, woven together with over fifty "medicine stories" inspired by Native American mythology that demonstrate the depth of the knowledge held by indigenous peoples about the universe they lived in.

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA
SKYWAVES:Indigenous News Worldwide broadcasts within the first 15 minutes

SARAH DEER Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma (Washington) – Amnesty International USA (www.amnestyusatoday.org) condemned as “disturbing and shameful” the effort underway in the U.S. Senate to strip protections for Native American and Alaska Native women from legislation to help fight domestic violence and sexual assault.
Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is crucial especially this year, Amnesty International contends, because it incorporates key new protections for Native women found in the SAVE Native Women Act, such as clarifying tribal civil jurisdiction to issue and enforce protection orders. Amnesty International has long supported the VAWA.
Amnesty International’s groundbreaking 2007 “Maze of Injustice” report found enormous challenges when it comes to safety and justice for Native women who are victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. The protections in the SAVE Native Women Act help address these obstacles to protecting women and prosecuting abusers.

NIKKE ALEX of the Dineh (Navajo) Nation of Arizona - (www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com) From Censored News - She has worked with Indigenous communities around the world to help fight fossil fuel development. Nikke has carried out independent research in both uranium and coal mining on the Navajo Nation. Her research focused on the social impacts of mining on Navajo families. Nikke has worked at the US Department of Justice in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program and the US Environmental Protection Agency with the Tribal Science Council in Washington, DC. Currently, she serves as a community resource for grassroots Indigenous groups on the Navajo Nation. Arizona Senators Kyl and McCain visited the Navajo Nation to persuade tribal officials that they should agree to waive most of Navajo claims to the Lower Colorado River in order to receive $350 million worth in water development projects. During their visit they ensured the Navajo Nation president and council that there was no trickery involved and that they are negotiating this agreement in “good faith.”

LENNY FOSTER of the Dineh (Navajo) Nation - Tucson, Arizona - Casa de las Américas
MAY 11th -
182 E. 111th St.
(btwn. Lex. Ave. and 3rd Ave.)
Take the 6 train to E. 110th St.

Lenny will speak on five Native American issues: the illegal imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, land and resources taken from Native peoples by the U.S. government, stripmining, uranium mining and the pollution of the land, air and water, Native American freedom of religion and the demand to honor Native treaty rightsDirector of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project and the Spiritual Advisor for 1,500 Indian inmates in many state and federal prisons in the Western U.S. He has co-authored legislation in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado that allows Native American spiritual and religious practice in prison and results in significant reductions in prison returns.
He is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, a sun dancer and member of the Native American Church. He has been with the American Indian Movement since 1969 and has participated in actions including Alcatraz, Black Mesa, the Trail of Broken Treaties, Wounded Knee 1973, the Menominee Monastery Occupation, Shiprock Fairchild Occupation, the Longest Walk and the Big Mountain land struggle. He was a 1993 recipient of the City of Phoenix Dr. Martin Luther King Human Rights Award..
Sponsors: NYC LPDOC Chapter, NYC Jericho Movement, ProLibertad (list in formation)
For more info: nyclpdoc@gmail.com • 917-544-1577
Lenny will also be speaking at the United Nations Church Center, 777 First Avenue at 44th Street
on Wednesday, May 9th. This is part of UN events on Indigenous Issues.

EDITED EDITION FOR WFTE SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA

SKYWAVES: Indigenous News Worldwide also broadcasts within the first 15 minutes.

GREGORY CH'OC www.satiim.org.bz - Punta Gorda Town, Belize - Executive Director of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) is a community based indigenous environmental organization working in the far south of Belize, in a region in the Toledo District that lies between the Sarstoon and Temash Rivers. SATIIM co-manages, with the Belizean Forestry Department, the 41, 898 acre Sarstoon Temash National Park. The national park was declared by government in 1994 on lands traditionally used by the Garifuna and Maya communities who live in the area. What is now SATIIM began in 1997 as the Sarstoon Temash National Park Steering Committee, which was formed after the communities around the park came together to stake a claim in the management of the land and natural resources in and around the park.

SATIIM is facing a major challenge - ongoing oil exploration and proposed drilling in the Sarstoon Temash National Park and surrounding communities. US Capital Energy (USCE), an American oil company, was given permission by the Belizean Forest Department to begin seismic testing in the National Park -- permission that SATIIM’s Board and staff felt was illegal and unfair. In response, SATIIM mounted a multifaceted advocacy campaign that involved raising awareness of the oil exploration issue through public outreach and education, coalition building, legal action, policy research and analysis, mobilizing local supporters, lobbying Government ministers, generating international political, technical and financial support and preparing to monitor and mitigate activities in the STNP if oil exploration goes ahead.

DEMELZA CHAMPAGNE, MAIA RAMNATH, and GARY PERKINSON - www.anarchistbookfair.net - New York City, a center of anarchist life, culture, struggle, and ideas for 150 years, will host its 6th annual NYC Anarchist Book Fair, a one-day exposition of books, zines, pamphlets, art, film/video, and other cultural and very political productions of the anarchist scene worldwide, on April 13, 2012 at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan.
The emphasis on April 13th at 7 to 10PM will be VOICES OF INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY presented by the Native Resistance Network - www.NativeResistanceNewtwork.org

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON PENNSYLVANIA

DOUG GEORGE-KANENTIIOis an Akwesasne Mohawk. He is the co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian and the author of "Iroquois On Fire". He resides in upstate Onieda Territory with his wife Joanne Shenandoah and family. The Hiawatha Institute (www.Hiawatha.syr.edu)

Kanentiio@aol.com or via surface mail: Box 450, Oneida, NY 13421

The awareness and agenda of placing Mother Earth at the top or at least the basis of the OWS movement - seems to be lacking. Doug discusses another thinking process often overlooked and minimized...even by the "new OWS movement".
Many young Original Nation peoples are preparing to step up to a leadership role but seem to lack "a process of critical analysis of the West's historical processes, to seek out the actual nature of the roots of the exploitative and oppressive conditions which are forced upon humanity. At the same time, as we gain understanding of those processes, we must reinterpret that history to the people of the world. It is the people of the West, ultimately, who are the most oppressed and exploited. They are burdened by the weight of centuries of racism, sexism, and ignorance which has rendered their people insensitive to the true nature of their lives.
We must all consciously and continuously challenge every model, every program, and every process that the West tries to force upon us. Paulo Friere wrote, in his book, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that it is the nature of the oppressed to imitate the oppressor, and by such actions try to gain relief from the oppressive condition. We must learn to resist that response to oppression.
The people who are living on this planet need to break with the narrow concept of human liberation, and begin to see liberation as something which needs to be extended to the whole of the Natural World. What is needed is the liberation of all the things that support Life-the air, the waters, the trees-all the things which support the sacred web of Life.

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA
Saturday, March 17, 2012 - 3:00 pm -4:50 pm
@ PACE University - Room W615 New York, NY
www.leftforum.org

PANEL: Examines the struggles of Indigenous peoples defending their lands, sources, seizure of land, expropriation, environmental degradation, exploitation, re-colonization and re-occupation. Participants discuss indigenous activism and the potential/ problems for unity with Occupy Wall Street. In what ways does the “Occupy” movements reinforce the structures of greed that Indigenous peoples stand against? What form would the movement have to take if it is reconciled with the realities behind the foundation of American exceptionalism and mobilizes against the continued rape of Mother Earth?

Sally BermanzohnSally Bermanzohn, moderator, teaches Native American Studies, American Social Movements, and Truth & Reconciliation at Brooklyn College CUNY.

Janene Yazzie-Collymore Dine/ Navajo: An independent scholar and CEO of Sixth World Consultants, Janene works with her husband Kern Collymore on the Navajo Nation to help community chapters implement the Local Governance Act and pursue economic development in sustainable industries. While finishing her degree requirements in International Law with a concentration in Human Rights at Barnard College, Janene has also helped found a non-profit Indigenous Think Tank, Tecumseh Institute, in New York City. She is currently working with Owe Aku International Justice Project.

Debra White Plume Oglala Lakota author, artist, and activist from the Pine Ridge Homeland, has devoted her adult life to preserving her Lakota Way of Life, Treaty Rights and Human Rights. She works in all arenas, from the grassroots to the United Nations at Geneva and in NYC. White Plume has engaged in sacred water protection for the past decade, In addition to her well-known battles against uranium mining, she was arrested for trespassing at the White House while raising the consciousness of America and President Obama to the threats posed by the Keystone XL oil pipeline against the drinking water of the Oglala Lakota Nation. She is also a world-renowned

Kent Lebsock, a Lakota activist for more than 20 years, is the Director of Owe Aku International Justice Project which serves the traditional governing council of the Lakota Oyate, the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council. His particular contribution lies in international human rights forums ensuring international law and standards are applied to Indigenous peoples, our treaties, lands and territories.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is Mnicoujou, Itazipco and Oglala bands of the Lakota Nation. He sits on a panel at Harvard University's Cultures On the Air. He is a board member of several children's organizations that work with suicide, poverty, and Mother Earth cultural education through his musicianship. Ghosthorse is an author, university lecturer and scholar often presenting a dichotomous thinking process of Indigenous and non-Indigenous. He is a member of the Indigenous Think Tank, Tecumseh Institute, NYC.

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE SCRANTON PENNSYLVANIA

*FVIR will be in a fundraising mode until March 8th when regular programming will resume.

FVIR celebrates it 10th year on WBAI NY and Tiokasin Ghosthorse's 20th year on the radio!

Today is a compilation of various songs including:

What's Going On - Los Lobos
Geronimo's Cadillac - Dick Gaughan
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee - Luka Bloom
Thunder Heart Excerpt 1991
History Repeats Itself - Jane's Addiction
TED Talks "America's Native Prisoners of War" - Aaron Huey
Three Chiefs - Marty Stuart
Abundance - Coyote Oldman

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA

DEBRA WHITE PLUME- Manderson, SD - is the Director of Owe Aku or Bring Back the Way - a grassroots nongovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation of the Lakota Way of Life and Treaty Rights.

On Sunday January 15th, a group of powerful Native women held a day long conference called Winyan Ituwan or Women of Vision along with Kandi Mosset, Marie Randall, Tantoo Cardinal and many others to not only talk about women’s role in Native culture, but effects of oil and uranium effects of mining on water. We will be talking about the impacts of colonialism to Native Nations and how we will survive it. (www.oweakuinternational.org)

DR, ROBERTO RODRIQUEZ - Tuscon, Arizona - http://drcintli.blogspot.com/ While TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT claims that there are no banned books, the fact remains that administrators have come into Mexican American Studies classrooms (which no longer exist) and removed the MAS classroom materials, which includes books that were formerly utilized in the now suspended MAS program.
While TUSD claims that only 7 book titles were ordered boxed and carried off, the fact is that the confiscation, in some cases in front of the students, involved more than the 7 books that were listed by TUSD. 50 books (listed at the end of the Cambium report) are not banned, they are confiscated, or in the process of being confiscated... THUS THE BOOKS ARE NOW UNDOCUMENTED! They are as welcome in TUSD schools as undocumented migrants are welcome in this country.

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - Scanton, PA (go to audiport.org for your radio stations download)

KAHENTINETHA HORNE of The Kanion'ke:haka/Mohawk Nation (www.mohawknationnews.com) is a member of the Rotino'shonni:onwe/Iroquois Confederacy.

What are we going to do? Is the proverbial question being asked when the financial collapse is deepened beyond repair? Although many people have an idea of gloom and doom - the reality for the awakened Indigenous peoples is to know the world is not coming to an end. The Sky Is Not Falling. It’s continuing. We’re been lead to think that we are heading into a trap to be devoured if we don’t submit. Are they ready to live under the rules of nature? Kahentinetha gives us a perspective of the movement and relationship to the politics, economics and governments (u.s. and can.) and their treatment of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.

OFELIA RIVAS of the Tohono O'odham Nation (www.solidarity-project.org) her struggles with the current technology, mining and desecretion of their lands along the 2,000 mile border wall of the U.S. and Mexico. Her general awareness of being under duress because of her views from her own people, the government and the great militarization of the lands.

EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE SCRANTON, PA (Please go to Audioport.org for your stations downloadable version)

TOM WEISS rideforrenewables.com. December 21, 2011 (Port Arthur, TX) – Renewable energy advocate Tom Weis ended his 2,150-mile Keystone XL “Tour of Resistance” at the fence line community of West Port Arthur in the shadow of giant oil refineries spewing toxic air emissions. Weis launched the tour 10 weeks ago at the U.S./Canada border and has pedaled the entire U.S. length of the proposed tar sands pipeline in his “rocket trike” in support of landowners and communities in six states fighting Keystone XL. Pipeline opponents joined him in demanding that President Obama reject TransCanada’s presidential permit without delay.

FRED HO and CZARINA AGGABAO THELEN www.scientificsoulsessions.com Participate in a general discussion regarding the use of language and the latest article from "What If We Occupied The Language" by H. Samy Alim here is an excerpt from the article "the irony of a progressive social movement using the term “occupy” to reshape how Americans think about issues of democracy and equality has been clear. After all, it is generally nations, armies and police who occupy, usually by force. And in this, the United States has been a leader. The American government is just now after nine years ending its overt occupation of Iraq, is still entrenched in Afghanistan and is maintaining troops on the ground in dozens of countries worldwide. All this is not to obscure the fact that the United States as we know it came into being by way of an occupation — a gradual and devastatingly violent one that all but extinguished entire Native American populations across thousands of miles of land."

EDITED VERSION FOR WBAI NYC (Open ended no intro - break - outro - please insert your station ID breaks)

One of the objectives of this technologic reality has to do with erasing the memories of the human beings, because we have a common collective experience. We are all the descendants of tribes. - John Trudell

From Descendants Now Ancestors 2001 (JohnTrudell.com)

EDITED VERSION FOR WJFF JEFFERSONVILLE, NEW YORK

PHILLIP DEERE (Muskogee Creek> Phillip was a traditional healer from Nuyaka Grounds, Okemah, Oklahoma, who became a spiritual leader, civil and human rights activist, oral historian and storyteller.
Phillip was a founder of the Traditional Youths and Elders Circle and a spiritual guide for the American Indian Movement (AIM). He was an elder and statesman for the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), and participated in the United Nations International Human Rights Commission held in Geneva, Switzerland.
He spoke about remembering traditional values, Muscogee prophecies, care for Mother Earth, and brought attention to injustices suffered by indigenous peoples of the Americas.

JOHN TRUDELL (Isanti Dakota) Poet and Human Being speaks on the values of becoming and being a human being through his experience as an Indigenous activist through the 1970's until the present.

EDITED VERSION FOR WBAI NEW YORK

LEFT ON RED www.leftonredmusic.com Live in studio with their new conscious aware music CD The Underground Busking Experience. Their October touris designed to promote and educate about fair trade chocolate and the child slavery in the cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast of Africa. It turns out %40 of the world's cocoa is sourced from the Ivory Coast in Africa where it's estimated over 200,000 children have been enslaved, many through trafficking. We are going into high school classrooms along the tour route to give workshops and concerts - as well as venues in the evenings. Some venues where you can catch their performance are The Huntington Cinema Arts Center on Long Island, Caffe Vivaldi in NYC, Ani DiFranco's Babeville in Buffalo, and Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. And the classrooms run the gamut of alternative education in Ithaca, NY to large inner city schools such as East High School in Rochester.

EDITED VERSION FOR WBAI 99.5 FM NEW YORK, NY

JENNIFER JESSUM & SIMON JOSEPH (www.holymanfilm.com)
Holy Man is the story of Douglas White, an 88 year old Lakota wicasa wakan or medicine man from Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in South Dakota, who spent 17 years in federal prison for a crime he did not commit. During the making of this film, filmmakers uncovered new evidence of White's innocence and brought the case back to Federal Court. HOLY MAN premieres at the 27th annual Boston Film Festival and coming soon to New York!

GROVER GAUNTT, BIRGIL KILLS STRAIGHT & ALEX WHITE PLUME For fifteen consecutive years the Zen Peacemakers (www.zenpeacemakers.org) have been conducting an international, multi-faith Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz – Birkenau in Poland, deeply plunging for five days through silence, prayer and ceremony into the genocide that was focused there in World War II. Since 2009 the Peacemaker Institute has led a bearing witness retreat in Rwanda, entering for five days the darkness that was the 1994 Tutsi genocide that still pervades every aspect of the consciousness and activity of the country.

There has not yet been a clearly defined event that has focused on the Native American genocide, oppression and neglect that began at the end of the fifteenth century and continues to this day. A defining event of this era is the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota on December 29, 1890.

100 million+ of Original Peoples were eliminated, destroyed, drastically reduced, or moved and thoroughly traumatized, for many reasons the Lakota of the western plains have gained the prominent position in the world psyche as an archetype of what has befallen the Native peoples of the western hemisphere. It is proposed that the center of the Black Hills, serve as the place for the August 2012 Black Hills Bearing Witness Retreat.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP 7 medicine people from the Lakota Nation are in need of sponsorship to attend the Bearing Witness Retreat Oct. 31 – Nov. 5th in Auschwitz.

Please send donation check or Money Order to:

Seventh Generation Fund
P.O. Box 4569
Arcata, CA 95521
Attn: Seventh Generation Fund for Black Hills BW 2012

Please include your return address and Seventh Generation Fund will send receipt for tax purposes.

EDITED VERSION FOR WBAI NY

Robbie Robertson, (born Jaime Royal Robertson, July 5, 1943); is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 78th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. The Band has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. As a songwriter Robertson is responsible for such classics as "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Up On Cripple Creek", "Broken Arrow" and "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", and has been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Robertson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother. He had his earliest exposure to music at Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, where he spent summers with his mother's family.

Mari Boine, previously known as Mari Boine Persen, (born 8 November 1956) is a Norwegian Sami musician known for having added jazz and rock to the yoiks of her native people. Born in Finnmark, Norway she grew up amid the Laestadian Christian movement as well as amidst discrimination against her people. She was asked to perform at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, but refused because she perceived the invitation as an attempt to bring a token minority to the ceremonies. Gula Gula (first released by Iđut, 1989, later re-released by Real World) was her breakthrough release, and she continued to record popular albums throughout the 1990s.[1]
In 2003 Boine was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize. She was appointed knight, first class in the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for her artistic diversity on September 18, 2009.

EDITED VERSION FOR KVNF PAONIA, Colorado

Guest Host: JOHN KANE

Crystal Shawanda www.crystalshawanda.co/. She has a short bio in her own words there.

Crystal Shawanda (born in Wikwemikong, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian country music artist. CMT documented her rise to fame in the six-part series Crystal: Living the Dream, which aired in February 2008. Signed to RCA Records in 2007, she released her debut single, "You Can Let Go," in Canada in January 2008. It was the fastest climbing single on the Canadian Country Singles Chart since reaching the Top 10 in 5 weeks. It was released in the United States on March 17, 2008.

Shawanda's debut album, Dawn of a New Day, was released in Canada on June 24, 2008; it was later released in the United States on August 19. The album debuted at number 2 on the Canadian Country Albums chart, and number 16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and became the hig hest charted album by a full-blooded Canadian First Nations country artist in the SoundScan era.

Shawanda is a First Nations member of the Ojibwe band. Her surname translates to "Dawn of a New Day."

Shawanda toured Canada and the United States with Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley as a special guest on the Paisley Party 2009 tour. She had previously toured with various artists across Canada and the northern United States in 2008. Her first single, "You Can Let Go," peaked at number 21 on the Hot Country Songs charts. In mid-2009, Shawanda parted ways with RCA Nashville and through her own record label, New Sun Records, and a distribution deal with EMI/On Ramp Records, released a Christmas album, titled I'll Be Home for Christmas.

In 2010, Crystal released a new single, "Beautiful Day" which made into the top twenty in Canada. "Beautiful Day" was released via her own label New Sun Records which made it the first ever song to chart that was released by a label that was owned by a First Nations woman. On her official website it was confirmed that Crystal's new single "Love Enough" will be released on August 15, 2011 in both Canada and the United States. At her fourth annual Homecoming Concert on July 29, 2011 she announced that her second studio album was complete and would be released fall 2011. It was made available for pre-order at her Homcoming.

EDITED VERSION FOR WPKN BRIDGEPORT - NEW HAVEN, CT

Guest Host: JOHN KANE (Mohawk)

www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com John has been involved in Native issues and specifically defending Native sovereignty most of his adult life. He was part of the First Nations Dialogue Team in the late 90's and worked extensively with the League of First Nations in battles with New York State over taxation.

Two New York state senators wrote letters to the NYS Tax Commissioner stating their opposition to any interference by the department in the sales and distribution of Native tobacco products and requesting that he announce his intent regarding Native brands tobacco on and off Native reservation boundaries.

JED MOREY is the publisher of the Long Island Press www.longislandpress.com, an alternative weekly newspaper with a circulation of 85,000, which welcomes more than 750,000 unique visitors every month. He serves on the boards of the Long Island chapter of the New York League of Conservation Voters and the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Nassau County, as well as the President's Council of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Long Island.

EDITED VERSION FOR KVNF PAONIA, COLORADO
from a 3-hour fundraising edition.

Peter Joseph presents a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter will transcend the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical "life ground" attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a "Resource-Based Economy" The Natural Laws, most, but not all Indigenous peoples abide by, can be heard between the lines of the speakers here.

EDITED FOR WPKN BRIDGEPORT-NEW HAVEN, CT

CORRINA GOULD Chochenyo Ohlone – www.protectglencove.org

Sogorea Te or Ssogoréate was a large village and
gathering/ceremonial ground utilized by dozens of tribes who lived near and around the San Francisco Bay Area, For over 3500 years, indigenous people gathered at Sogorea Te or Glen Cove, a large, shallow natural cove at the narrowest portion of the Carquinez Strait, ideal for making land crossings. The descendants recently reoccupied the 15 acred sacred site to rally against a development that would destroy burial grounds, shell mounds and other artifacts of the original peoples. They are into their 85 day with international support.

HOPI ELDERS

THOMAS BANYACYA was a Hopi Native American traditional leader. One of four Hopis, including David Monongye, Dan Evehema, and Dan Katchongva, who decided or were appointed to reveal Hopi traditional wisdom and teachings, including the Hopi prophecies for the future, to the general public in 1946, after the use of the first two nuclear weapons on Japan. Banyacya was a member of the Wolf, Fox, and Coyote clans.

Banyacya grew up in the village of Moencopi and first attended Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California and then Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He lived in Kykotsmovi, Arizona on the Hopi Reservation. During World War II, Banyacya was a conscientious objector, who spent seven years in prison instead of registering for the draft.
Banyacya died on February 6, 1999 in Keams Canyon, Arizona.

Thomas Banyacya was recorded by White Bison Media 1980.

DAN EVEHEMA was a Hopi Native American traditional leader. He is one of four Hopis (including Thomas Banyacya, David Monongye, and Dan Katchongva) who decided or were appointed to reveal Hopi traditional wisdom and teachings, including the Hopi prophecies for the future, to the general public in 1946, after the use of the first two nuclear weapons against Japan. Evehema died on January 15, 1999 at approximately 108 years of age. In his "final message" he stated that he was the last of the group of four fully knowledgeable Hopis still alive. Evehema was co-author, with Thomas Mails, of "Hotevilla: Hopi Shrine of the Covenant : Microcosm of the World" and "Hopi Survival Kit" and co-author of Techqua Ikachi, [1] the traditional Hopi newsletters produced from 1975 to 1986. The "Hopi Survival Kit" includes a signed affidavit from Dan Evehema approving the book, and is the only written account of the complete Hopi prophecies. Evehema was a member of the Greasewood/Roadrunner Clan.

EDITED VERSION FOR WPKN - BRIDGEPORT - NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

WILLIE CORDUFF - www.shelltosea.com Rossport, Ireland -
An Irish environmental activist from the farming community of Rossport, parish of Kilcommon, Erris COUNTY MAYO Ireland. Corduff's parents first arrived in Rossport in 1947, and reclaimed a farm by hand out of bogland. He became a campaigner against Shells' activities in his local area.
His farming existence changed with the discovery of gas eighty three kilometres offshore to the west of Broadhaven Bay. In 2000 he discovered the exploitation of the gas involved the construction of a high pressure pipeline, 70 metres from their house, to a new refinery to be built in Bellanboy townland, just across the bay from his farmIn 2005 Corduff refused Shell access to his land and was subsequently jailed for 94 days; along with four other local men now known as the Rossport Five; for defying a court order not to interfere with Shell's work. In 2006 he said he was "prepared to die" rather than see the pipeline cross his land. He was one of the founding members of the Shell to Sea campaign group.

ELIZABETH BOUISS - www.nofrack.org - New York - June 25th Rally at 1pm to Ban Fracking and why a ban is crucial. Why regulations will not work and the harm to water, farming and agricultural lands that fracking will cause. Frack waste evaporates and the toxic chemicals end up in the air, land and water. The beauty of upstate New York will be forever scarred.
Fracking is the process of extracting methane (a potent greenhouse gas, sometimes called "natural gas") or oil by drilling into the earth and injecting millions of gallons of water mixed wtih toxic and dangerous chemicals.

CHRISTINA CHAUVENET- www.survivalinternational.org- Washington D.C. –Today, S.I. called for tourists to boycott the main highway in India’s Andaman Islands – an illegal road which cuts through the land of the endangered Jarawa tribe.
The Andaman Trunk Road is both illegal – India’s Supreme Court ordered it closed in 2002, but it remains open – and highly dangerous for the Jarawa, who number just 365.The hunter-gatherer Jarawa have only had friendly contact with outsiders since 1998 and so tourists risk passing on diseases to which the tribe has little immunity. An epidemic could decimate the tribe. Thousands of tourists, both Indian and international, travel along the road each month. Rules supposed to protect the Jarawa are routinely broken, and the Jarawa reserve is in effect a human safari park.

BEN CARNES www.eaglemanz.blogspot.com - Oklahoma – Releases article after testifying at the Cobell Hearing: “Cobell Settlement: A knife in our backs”

“Real justice for these Indians may still lie in the distant future; it may never come at all. This reality makes a statement about our society and our form of government that we should be unwilling to let stand.” Judge Royce Lamberth

Those prophetic words by Lamberth became a reality on June 20 when the federal court in Washington, DC approved the Cobell settlement. There is much ado how this was a major victory as in a David and Goliath scenario. However, one only needs to read in between the fine print to know this was a serious setback. I had already suspected it was a foregone conclusion when the settlement was first announced and Obama signed off on it. This was an easy out for the government; they secured the victory, not us.

The basic provisions of the settlement are:
$1.4 billion to pay Individual Indian Money (IIM) account owners
$1.9 billion Trust Land Consolidation Fund to "purchase" fractionated Individual Indian trust lands.
Not more than $60 million for an Indian Education Scholarship Fund to assist Native people to attend college or vocational school.

More details are available at www.indiantrust.com

Initially, the estimates arrived by Cobell was that approx. 176 billion was missing from the IIM accounts. So why did she and the attorneys spend more than 2 million dollars encouraging people to accept this settlement? A settlement that only constitutes less than 2% of the original estimates?

EDITED VERSION for WBAI NEW YORK

LISA & JOHNNY BONTA , May 24th - A Pyramid Lake Paiute family was attacked by neo-Nazi skinheads at a Fernley, Nevada, convenience store, east of Reno. Family members were beaten with a crowbar and baseball bats, and stabbed. The neo nazis tried to cut off Bonta's braid. The victim, Bonta, was then arrested because of the white assailants connection with police. One of the attackers is the son of a retired Lyon County Sheriff officer. Bonta was denied medical treatment in jail. When the family called the jail, they were told that Bonta "would have to get his Indian doctor" if he wanted to be treated.
The convenience store clerk said there is a video showing the attackers jumping out of the vehicle with baseball bats.
Now the question remains if the US Justice Department will investigate the case, which includes police imprisoning the victim of a hate crime. CONTACT: ALYSSANBONTA@gmail.com

JAMES CRAVEN Washington D.C. – Strong opposition by thousands of Individual Indian Monies account/land holders to the $3.4 Billion “Cobell” settlement approved by Congress Nov. 2010 & signed by Pres. Obama in Dec. 2010, of only 19 will be heard on June 22, 2011.
The case raises interesting questions of statutory interpretation, the constitutional limits of aggregate litigation and class certification, whether material terms can be omitted from class notice, at what point class representative incentive payments create an impermissible conflict of interest, and whether class compensation allocation has to be rationally related to the alleged damages. The government also claims that Congress "can change the statutory rights of litigants, even where this change may retroactively eliminate an initially meritorious claim" against the government; we argue that that proposition has limits. CONTACT: JCRAVEN@clark.edu

ROSS HAMILTON Cincinnati, Ohio – Author of The Mystery of the Serpent Mound holds a conversation and challenges the mythos and fairie tales in cultures and lore across the planet. He talks of the differences in how we view history, especially in North America and how the “new comers” treat the history of Native peoples as dismissed in conjectural terminology. CONTACT: D.ROSS.HAMILTON@gmail.com

EDITED VERSION for KVNF PAONIA COLORADO

SEVERN SUZUKI In 1992 the UN Earth Summit was held in Rio - its findings contributed to the much-discussed Kyoto Protocol designed to combat climate change. Yet the enduring memory of that summit was a dramatic speech given by a 12 year-old girl from Canada.

Q'ORIANKA KILCHER has made a commitment to human rights and environmental activism. She speaks on behalf of various causes to achieve what she regards as environmental justice and basic Human Rights. Traveling frequently to speak at youth events, colleges and universities, Kilcher has been a featured keynote speaker for organizations such as Amnesty International, the IFG international Forum on Globalization,[9] Amazon Watch IFIP[10] and The United Nations panel discussions entitled "Indigenous Peoples: Human Rights, Dignity and Development with Identity", in collaboration with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Kilcher recently launched her own youth-driven human rights and environmental organization "On-Q Initiative",[14] to connect young Hollywood with youth activist leaders and projects from around the world, in support of environmental sustainability, corporate accountability, and basic human rights. Through her production company, IQ-Films, Kilcher is also producing several cause-driven documentaries and youth-programming projects.
In addition to public activism, Kilcher is a silent advocate for the environment, driving a Honda FCX Clarity, a hydrogen fuel cell zero-emissions vehicle. Kilcher is the first teenager to make her first car a hydrogen fuel cell. She has never pumped a single gallon of gasoline.

HOPI PROPHECY of the times foretold by the ancient peoples of North America and what will happen regarding the "purification" and the choices humankind must take to survive the changes wrought upon themselves.

EDITED VERSION WPKN BRIDGEPORT-NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
MADONNA THUNDER HAWK www.lakotapeopleslawproject.org is a co-founder of The Lakota Peoples Law Project (LPLP) The Lakota People’s Law Project (LPLP) is working in South Dakota to stop the illegal seizure of Indian children by the Department of Social Services. South Dakota, second only to Alaska, leads the nation in the number of Indian children removed from their homes; and 2/3 of all children placed in foster care in this state are Native American. Placed in non-Indian homes, the children are often subjected to sexual and physical abuse, medical over-drugging and inadequate education. In South Dakota 60% of Native American children who have been in the foster care system wind up drug addicted, incarcerated or dead by age 20. In South Dakota and many other states The Indian Children Welfare Act (ICWA), which was enacted to protect Indian children by keeping them in Indian homes, is being violated. The LPLP is working for federal enforcement and reform of ICWA so that Indian children stay with their families and/or on the reservation.

MARYAM HENEIN www.vanishingofthebees.com is the Director/Producer of the documentary Vanishing of the Bees. Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives.
Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.
Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.
Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery.


OFELIA RIVAS www.ikatun.org/kanarinka/ The Border Crossed Us is a temporary public art installation by the Institute for Infinitely Small Things that transplants the US-Mexico border fence in southern Arizona to the UMass Amherst campus.
From April 20 to May 1st, the UMass Amherst campus will be divided along its North-South boundary by a to-scale photographic replica of the vehicle fence that runs along the international boundary in southern Arizona. The particular stretch of fence being represented was erected in 2007 by Homeland Security and now divides the Tohono O’odham Nation – the second largest Native American reservation in the country – into two parts.
What happens when we divide a territory that the community imagines as contiguous? How does the international border in Arizona, seemingly remote from a college campus in northern New England, touch all of our lives here? The fence will run between the parking garage and the campus center. Over the course of two weeks it will serve as a provocation, a touchstone for conversation, and a site for talks and performances. Along with the fence’s insertion into daily life on campus, the project will invite a delegation of Tohono O’odham, including a tribal elder and several youth to speak about their experience. In addition, the Native American Studies Certificate Program in the Anthropology Department will hold a panel discussion on Borders & Indigenous Sovereignty as part of the campus’ annual Native American Powwow. Border issues affect several other tribes, including the Mohawk and Abenaki. The delegation of O’odham will speak along with others about these issues during the conference and participate in the powwow.

EDITED VERSION KFAI MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL

JOANNE SHENANDOAH www.joanneshenandoah A GRAMMY Award and 12 Time Native American Music award winning artist; and Wolf Clan member of the Iroquois Confederacy, Joanne Shenandoah has fulfilled the promise of her Native American name, Tekaliwah-kwa, (She Sings). " She's become one of the most acclaimed Native American recording artists of her time." Associated Press.

Since emerging as an artist in 1990, she has performed at such high-profile gigs at Carnegie Hall, the White House, Kennedy Center, Earth Day on the Mall, Woodstock '94, and the Parliament of the Worlds Religions in South Africa and the famous Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona Spain, Instanbull, Hwa Eom Temple, S. Korea and thousands of venues in the US.
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IRENA SALINA www.flowtheflim.com Award-winning documentary FLOW is investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

EDITED VERSION KVNF PAONIA COLORADO

MARILYN ELLE www.ipsecinfo.org INDIAN POINT - A nuclear power plant in upstate New York that is located on two major fault lines susceptible to earthquakes and the current controversy of keeping it open. With one reactor shut down with storage of spent enriched uranium reportedly leaking into the Hudson River - Gov. Cuomo wants it shut down - and two more active reactors with 1950's technology within 35 miles of NYC Times Square.

JUDITH DE LOS SANTOS www.protestbarrick.net is an independent New-York based writer and activist around issues of struggle and resistance within Africa and the Diaspora in the Americas. She has recently traveled to Cancun, Mexico to participate in the People's Alternative Forum to the UN COP16 Climate Talks. She is currently documenting the stories of Indigenous and African descendants confronting exploitation in the Caribbean, South America and the Great Lakes Region in Africa. She reported on Barrick Gold's exploitation of the Dominican Republic resources.

RICHIE O'DONNELLwww.thepipethefilm.com is the Director of "The Pipe" and award winning documentary following 3 family struggle to stop extraction giant Shell Oil from building a pipeline across County Mayo in northern Ireland. In a remote corner of the West of Ireland sits Broadhaven Bay. It is the perfect picture postcard, where the high cliffs of Erris Head and the Stags of Broadhaven stand sentry at the mouth of the bay against the mighty Atlantic, as if protecting the delicate golden sands of Glengad beach and the tiny village of Rossport, which nestles behind the dunes. However, this peaceful tranquility belies the turmoil that lies beneath, and the unique nature of the coastline which has sustained generations of farmers and fishermen, has also delivered to Shell Oil the perfect landfall for the Corrib Gas Pipeline.

Pine Ridge Billboard Project
AARON HUEY www.emphas.is (Pine Ridge Billboard Project) and www.honorthetreaties.org - a Contributing Editor/photographer for Harper's magazine. Huey's Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation work recently rose to prominence after he was invited to give a lecture on the subject at a TED conference. Launched a campaign of awareness to the public eye regarding condtions on Native American reservations in the U.S. and the broken treaties legacy consequently forcing poverty and loss of culture.

MAURA HARRINGTON www.shelltosea.com In a remote part of West Ireland clash of cultures in modern Ireland, the rights of Indigenous farmers and of fishermen has come in direct conflict with one of the worlds most powerful oil companies - Shell. When the citizens look to their state to protect their rights, they find that the state has put Shell’s right to lay a pipeline over their own right to live. In the last of week of 2010, the people of County Mayo awaited a decision about the multinational Shell continuing with the Corrib Gas Project. The Indigenous Irish people of County Mayo focused their actions against the project. But after the remains of the Irish government gave in late January for the shell high-pressure gas pipeline and refinery in county mayo, activists have been staging blockades, actions and protests against shell in solidarity with the residents and activists of Rossport in Northeastern Ireland.

PHIL LANE of the Dakota/Chickasaw Nations www.fwii.net FOUR WORLDS INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE In Feb. Chief Phil Jr. gathered an audience from across the nation for a radio talking circle on the Gulf Plague that is spreading across the Gulf of Mexico

KELSEY MILLER (www.kalpulli.drupalgardens.com) discusses Kapulli Turtle Island Multiversity and working to help bring people back to a sustainable, sane kind of life - is an organization dedicated to education of ecological restoration and cultural restoration. We are concerned with the effects of colonization all over the world and we strive to be a voice advocating an Earth-centered culture.

KAHENTINETHA HORN (www.mohawknationnews.com) 71, pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting police officers and obstructing justice. The charges arose when the publisher and editor of Mohawk Nation News was attacked at the Akwesasne Canada-US border on June 14, 2008 by Canadian Border Service Agents (CBSA.)
The judge gave her a sentence of an absolute discharge, with no criminal record.

Kahentinetha had a problem that occurred at the border two and a half years ago one June 14, 2008. She drove to the Canada-US checkpoint on Cornwall Island with two Mohawks, a man and a woman. She talks of continuing harrassment of U.S./Canada border guards toward Indigenous peop

MAURA HARRINGTON shelltosea.com In Dec. 2010, the people of County Mayo awaited a decision about the multinational Shell continuing with the Corrib Gas Project. If permission is granted, the people of County Mayo, West Ireland will direct action against the project. A senior figure in Shell said that there could be dozens of gasfields similar to a major one off Ireland's west coast that has become the focus of a bitter battle with local people, according to a Wikilieaks cable from the US embassy in Dublin.

CHRISTINA CHAUVENET survivalinternational.org On January 17th, Botswana’s Court of Appeal will begin a hearing to decide whether Kalahari Bushmen living on their ancestral lands have the right to water.The Bushmen, who returned to their lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve after a previous court victory, are appealing against a 2010 High Court ruling that denied their right to access a well in the reserve they had used for decades. The 2010 ruling, which came a week before the UN formally recognized water as a fundamental human right, has been slammed by Africa’s key human rights body for denying the Bushmen’s ‘right to life’. Without the well, the Bushmen are forced to make arduous nearly 300 miles journeys by foot or donkey to fetch water from outside the reserve.

THOMAS POWERS thekillingofcrazyhorse.com Discusses the importance of original languages, the transmission of Native and American history, and
one question at the heart of ‘the killing of Crazy Horse’ and that is: why did Crazy Horse let the Army kill him? He was a warrior first and last but he walked to his own death and resisted only in the final moments when it became impossible to trust the Army further.
The most comprehensive narrative about Crazy Horse the Lakota warrior as a human being as told by the tiyospayes (extended families).

WAZIYATAWIN a professor and author of Indigenous history at the University of Victoria in British Columbia remarked at Winona State University in Nov. 2010 that the Dakota people might have to reclaim lost tribal lands "by any means necessary" has drawn the scrutiny of federal authorities. Waziyatawin said she received a call this week from the FBI to discuss the remarks "All of you are going to have to figure out your role. For Dakota people, I know we're going to need to recover our land base, by any means necessary."

MAURA HARRINGTON www.shelltosea.com is a spokeswoman for the Shell to Sea campaign, from County Mayo, Ireland. The Shell to Sea campaign has been involved in a local community based protest against the SHELL OIL Company for over ten years. Kilcommon parish, Erris, County Mayo, Ireland opposes the proposed construction of a natural gas pipeline through Rossport, and also opposes the ongoing construction by Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Marathon Oil of a refinery at Bellanaboy intended to refine the natural gas from the Corrib gas field. The stated aim of the campaign is that the gas be refined at sea, rather than inland, as is done with Ireland's only other producing gas field off County Cork. They maintain the proximity of a natural gas pipeline is a risk to local residents.
BARBARA ELK reads from "The Unfolding" - a piece authored with audio from 500 Nations serving as historical background of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre of the Mnicoujou Lakota and eyewitness accounts with music of Ghostdance by Robbie Robertson and Someday by XIT.

SANTI HITORANGI (www.saverapanui.org)who was wounded by fourteen pellet shots in his back and legs while he filmed the events of December 3rd, was forced to leave the island without notice because he was hunted by the Chilean Special Forces to destroy his media and evidence of the undue violence. He has arrived safely back in the United States. On Dec. 3rd in Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, there were serious clashes between Chilean police and the Rapa Nui people; violence erupted when security forces tried to evict protestors who were occupying government buildings.

WADE DAVIS advocates for the world's indigenous cultures -- 50 percent of the world's 6,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children. He argues, in the most beautiful terms, that language isn't just a collection of vocabulary and grammatical rules. In fact, "Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind." A Harvard-educated ethnobotanist, believes humanity's greatest legacy is the "ethnosphere," the cultural counterpart to the biosphere, and "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." He beautifully articulates the intellectual, emotional and moral reasons why it's in everyone's best interest to preserve the world's Indigenous cultures.

Aaron Huey www.aaronhuey.com is a photographer for the National Geographic magazines, the Smithsonian Magazine, Harpers, The New Yorker, the New York Times, and many more in the foreign press. Huey has photographed Taliban ambushes and drug eradication in Afghanistan, antiquities smuggling in Mali, lost temples in Burma, and circling sharks in French Polynesia. Recently Huey has been recognized for his efforts to shine a light on the oppression of Native Americans through his photography. Huey recently spoke at a TED conference, a prestigious forum for the most important issues and Ideas of our time. His talk about Native American Prisoners of War has focused a great deal of energy and attention on the brutal history the United States government in its quest for Manifest Destiny.
Kent Lebsock Director of Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way) www.oweakuinternational.org tells us of the caveats of U.S., delaying any progress in agreeing to sign the 2008 UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples. It is the only country in the world that has not signed.
Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network www.ienearth.org . The United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico will be the final opportunity for 194 countries to negotiate the terms of climate change policies that have been set forth by Western countries since the Kyoto Protocol. These nations are also most responsible for the economic policies that have led to increased global temperatures and environmental disasters impoverishing many and claiming the lives of millions of disenfranchised people throughout the Americas, East Asia and Africa. Community groups from around the world will converge in Cancun to demand their terms and conditions be considered and incorporated.

DELANEY BRUCE www.whoisleonardpeltier.info Peltier Family Accuses U.S. Government of Medical Neglect “A man dies from prostate cancer every 16 minutes in this country. Why does my brother have to wait over a year to receive even a diagnosis?” Leonard Peltier, who maintains his innocence, was wrongfully convicted in connection with the shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1977. Imprisoned for 35 years—currently at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania—Peltier has been designated a political prisoner by Amnesty International. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and others—including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of Peltier’s appeals—have all called for his immediate release. Widely recognized for his humanitarian works and a six-time Nobel Prize nominee, Peltier also is an accomplished author and painter. Sister Betty Solano says Peltier began exhibiting symptoms commonly attributed to prostate cancer over a year ago. His age (he is 66 years old) and family history are risk factors for the disease. Pressured by Peltier’s attorneys, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) ran standard blood tests in June. Peltier received the results last week, over four months later. A physician only now says a biopsy is needed to make a diagnosis.

On Dec. 16th, any and all supporters in Washington D.C. to demonstrate LPODOC support of . If it is like last year, we will stand across the street from the Department of the Interior Building from sunrise until 5 pm.It is vital to all our efforts that we have a strong attendance. President Barack Obama will host the second White House Tribal Nations Conference on December 16.As part of his campaign, Obama promised to hold yearly meetings with tribes. His first summit took place November 5, 2009, and he ordered all federal agencies to come up with detailed consultation plans.All 565 federally recognized tribes are invited to send one representative to the conference. LP DOC Chapter Albuquerque, NM

REBECCA SPOONER www.survivalinternational.org Survival has sent a letter signed by more than fifty leading NGOs to oil companies Perenco, Repsol-YPF and ConocoPhillips to demand their immediate withdrawal from an area inhabited by uncontacted tribes in Peru.
Amazon Watch and Save America’s Forests join a global array of NGOs that have pledged their support to stop the companies from working in oil blocks 39 and 67 in the northern Peruvian Amazon.
Anthropological research has shown that the area is inhabited by at least two uncontacted tribes, who lack immunity to diseases brought by outsiders and who could face extinction if contact is made. Despite strong opposition from Peru’s indigenous organizations, Anglo-French Perenco has applied to the Peruvian Energy Ministry to build a pipeline in block 67 that will cut across 207 kms of land and affect the rainforest for 500 meters on either side.
Meanwhile, Spanish-Argentine Repsol-YPF along with its US partner, ConocoPhillips, has applied to cut 454 kms of seismic lines and construct 152 heliports in block 39.
Uncontacted Indians are thought to traverse the border between Peru and the Yasuní Park, where a large reserve has been set aside for them by the Ecuadorian government.
Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘Operating in this area demonstrates an utter disregard for some of the most vulnerable people on the planet, who may feel forced to defend their territory. If the companies have any sense, they will leave the area to its rightful owners before lives, and reputations, are ruined.’
Act now to help the Uncontacted Indians of Peru

*FVIR will broadcast at a new time 9AM beginning Nov. 18th
ZUBEN ORNELAS www.realityhouse.org OR www.AICH.org Crossing Generations an event HONORING OUR WARRIORS (VETERANS), sponsored by the American Indian Community House and Reality House, Inc., in association with Intertribal Healing Circle, has been scheduled for Wednesday, November 10, 2010 from 3pm to 7pm @ the American Indian Community House located at 11 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York.
CANUNPA GLUHA MANI www.lakotaoyate.net Discusses the fate of many Lakota children on the Pine Ridge Reservation being fostered and adopted out of their culture into a non-traditional values, at an alarming rate.
MARK CAMP www.cs.org of Cultural Survival . In Guatemala, community radio is the best tool to provide rural, Indigenous Guatemalans with the news and information that they need. Despite promises made in the Guatemalan Constitution and the Peace Accords, the telecommunications law does not allow licenses for nonprofit community radio. Only mainstream commercial radio and government-run radio are allowed. The country's 205 community radio stations, which broadcast locally in Spanish and Mayan languages, provide a crucial venue for educational programs, local and national news, preventative health care, and emergency relief.

JENNIFER KRIESBERG (Tuscarora Nation) of the Red Diva Project's "The Road Forward" which brings attention to missing and murdered aboriginal women, according to the Native Women's Association of Canada is: 582. The "unofficial" number is over 1,200 www.nwac.ca/
JAMES CRAVEN (Blackfeet Nation) www.jimcraven10.worpress.com discusses has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government and Yale University by 20 descendents of the Apache warrior Geronimo, who say that their famous ancestor’s remains were stolen from Fort Sill, Oklahama and are illegally in the possession of “Skull and Bones”– a secret society at Yale.

SANTI HITORANGI www.saverapanui.org Armed Chilean Police forcibly removed the unarmed Rapanui Hito family in the middle of the night from the Hanga Roa Hotel. The Hito family are being charged with criminal trespass and terrorism. They are in imminent danger of being taken from the island to prisons in mainland Chile.
Under Chilean law it is illegal for a non-Rapanui to own land on the island. The Chilean corporation, the Hotelera InterAmericana, illegally sold the Hangaroa Hotel by the Chilean government The new (old) Chilean government is the same party as the late dictator Pinochet.
LEN FOSTER (Dine') Spiritual Advisor and Director of the Navajo Nations Corrections Project discusses a joint report for the UN Periodic Review from the US Human Rights Network has been released. Unlike the US State Department's watered-down version of the testimony presented at the Listening Conferences, this 423-page document covers American Indian treaties and specific concerns expressed by Native Americans. EMAIL: len.foster@nndoh.org

JAMES SWAN of the United Urban Warrior Society is a group of people working to help reassure the community, and the Native American population, by conducting community policing in Rapid City, South Dakota. EMAIL: aimbhc@yahoo.com

KARAH WOODWARD Digital Warrior Media reports on a rally held at City Hall in NYC regarding Mayor Bloomberg remarks to Governor Paterson to "get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun" to enforce the collection of cigarette taxes from tobacco products sold on Indian reservations. The Native contingent demanded an apology for the racially insensitive and offensive comments.
JOHN KANE www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com comments on and counters Mayor Bloombergs statement of "the law of the land" and U.S. Constutional law. The Mayor's office did not return any calls or offer FVIR and statments.

SANTI HITORANGI and SUSAN HITO-SHAPIRO www.SaveRapanui.org 500 Indigenous Rapa Nui--a place more commonly known as Easter Island-- have been occupying more than two dozen sites over a land dispute that dates back to 1888. Over half of island's Indigenous population of 5,000, issued a letter to the Pacific Island Forum and President Pinera, requesting the Rapa Nui's right to secede from Chile.The letter proposes that the island, situated on the southeastern point of the Polynesian triangle, would be better off if it was an official part of Oceania.

Tina Cordova, Louise Benally & Anna Rondon a coalition of community groups affected by uranium mining and committed to renewable energy development — announces the 31st Anniversary Commemoration of the Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill of July 16 - 1979. The purposes of this event are to remember and honor the Diné communities that were affected by the largest release of radioactive waste in U.S. history, and to reaffirm the Navajo Nation’s ban on uranium mining and processing. www.sric.org

Valerie Taliman Publicist for the Iroquois National Lacrosse Team which has travelled with their own Haudenousaunee passports since 1977 were denied orginally by England and given assurances by the US State Dept. that they would be allowed to return to the U.S. The national lacrosse team is to particpate in the the 2010 World Lacrosse Championships today and competing against England in the opening game. www.iroquoisnationals.org

Ronald Holloway of The NJ Sand Hill Band Of Lenape & Cherokee Indians filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court in Newark NJ laying claim to the State of NJ as well as charging the then Governor Corzine, NJ Sec'ty of State Nina Wells; NJ Attorney General Ann Milgram and NJ Senate President, Richard Codey with violation of human rights, genocide, and breaking of treaties etc. Contact: 973.293.3884
Chanunpa Gluha Mani "He Walks As He Protects The Pipe" protest and form a blockade against Whiteclay, Neb. -situated on South Dakota/Nebraska border- and the illegal drug and alcohol trafficking occurring on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. www.battleforwhiteclay.org
Britton Schwartz www.amazonwatch.org Peruvian President Alan Garcia dealt a blow to the indigenous rights movement when he recently refused to sign a law that would give indigenous people more control over oil and mining projects on their traditional lands.
Daniel Pinchbeck www.2012timeforchange.com Presents an optimistic alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee João Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest for a new paradigm that integrates the archaic [sic] wisdom of [Indigenous] cultures with the scientific method.
Featuring: Sting, David Lynch, Gilberto Gil, Ellen Page, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Paul Stamets, Buckminster Fuller, Barbara Marx Hubbard and many others...

SCOTT RICHARD LYONS (Ojibwe/Dakota) is associate professor of English at Syracuse University, where he teaches Indigenous and American literatures. Author of the new book X-Marks: Native Signatures of Assent During the 18th and 19th centuries, North American Indian leaders leaders community signed treaties with the Europeans powers and the American and Canadian governments with an "X", signifying their and assent to the the terms. These "X-marks" indicated coercion (because the treaties were made under unfair conditiions), reistance (because they were often met with protest), and acquiescence (to both a European modernity and the end of a particular moment of Indian history and identity).
KAREN SUSSMAN Contact: 605-964-6866 International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros The keeping of 300 wild mustangs set for slaughter in various means by the Bureau of Land Management and other public lands users in contention with the ideals of ISPMB to rescue the horses.
ISPMB in Lantry, South Dakota is situated on the Cheyenne River Lakota Reservation undergoing a recent touchdown of more than 5 tornadoes (the morning of this interview).

Reports of 3 Blackhawk helicopters attempting to land on the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre site for "educational and historical" purposes is thwarted by the traditional Lakota and the logic used by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Indian Reorganization Act government to communicate. Censored News

OFELIA RIVAS Voice Against the Wall From the Sonoran Desert, the O’odham, the people of the Lightening Lands. Her visit to the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth, which was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia from April 20th to 22nd.

KAREN MARRERO SARAYAKU April 29th a group of men from Sarayaku were attacked with dynamite and firearms. Our comrades managed to see that some of the attackers were of African race.The reasons behind the attack have to do with the position of Sarayaku to not allow a group of outsiders to occupy a portion of land, within the territory legally alotted to Sarayaku, in order to construct a new airstrip. The intention of these persons is to settle there and form a pseudocommunity, that they call Kutukachi, in order to negotiate with the oil company AGIP.

KAREN REDHAWK DALLET (Shadow Catchers Institute) & BRAD GARNESS(Alaskan Inter-Council) and KAI LANDOW & TOM ANTHONY -Attny. Hawaii Kingdom
"On April 19-22, 2010, over 15,000 people and up to 70 governments from all over the world will gather to attend the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The event is in response to the failed COP15 in Copenhagen and aims to highlight the central role of peoples movements and social movements in the climate struggle and the critical alliance that must be forged between movements and progressive governments. We also discussed the meaning of the word "Indigenous". In collaboration with Govinda Dalton of Earthcycles, Mo Hollis of Seventh Generation Fund, Kerin Gould of Abya Yala Nexus and Karah Woodward - Digital Warrior Media

WILMA MANKILLER 64, the once dirt-poor Oklahoma farm girl who grew up to become an activist for American Indian causes and women's rights, an author and the first woman to hold the Cherokee Nation’s highest office, died Tuesday.

PETER BRATT – Director of La Mission Interview by Andrei Jacobs (Producer)

DARLENE PIPEBOY Converses about being a human being with the values of a Dakota woman as an elder. Contact number 605-932-3628

JOSE AYLWIN - MAPUCHE In the wake of February's 8.8 earthquake in Chile In contrast of official Chilean claims that ‘the situation is under control’, reports from the south of the country claim that rural communities are currently without ‘food, water, gas, electricity and telecommunications’. The status of the Mapuche-Lafkenche, who are based along Chile’s coastline, is of particular concern.

LETICIA GLADUE, DAPHNE OMINAYAK and DAWN SEESEEQUON- Lubicon Cree Nation of Little Buffalo, Alberta, Canada. It has been twenty years since the United Nations Human Rights Committee first ruled that the failure to resolve Lubicon claims to their traditional lands had led to ongoing violations of their human rights by the impact of oil development. Three young women come to the UN to speak about the shocking treatment of their people and how they are growing up without access to traditional lands cut off by loggin, and extraction corporations enforced by the Canadian government.

JOHN KANE of NATIVE PRIDE March 11th, US Senate passes the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act H.R.1676 | S.1147- the impact it has relating to the US Constitution and the Indian Commerce Clause. However, it does something else that isn’t so clear. It gives the states the power to enforce what is known as the Jenkins Act, a federal law, against tribal economic interests.

>MARIJO MOORE Author of The Boy With A Tree Growing From His Ear by Renegade Publishing and 17 other books. We review the motion within the pages of her newest books. Contact: 828-665-7630
RUDOLFO SALM Stop Belo Monte The Brazilian government is planning to build Belo Monte, what would be the world’s third- largest hydroelectric project on one of the Amazon’s major tributaries, the Xingu. One of more than 100 large dams being planned for the Brazilian Amazon, Belo Monte would divert the flow of the Xingu River and devastate an extensive area of the Brazilian rainforest, displacing over 20,000 to 40,000 people and threatening the survival of Indigenous peoples.Arikafu Xipaia at the Xingu River that will change if the Belo Monte Dam is built.

Dahoud Andre and Miriam Neptune Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees - speak regarding the relief efforts being denied by the U.S militarization in Haiti.
Joseph Brings Plenty- Cheyenne River (Lakota) Sioux Tribe- Chairman on the declared "disaster area" by the Governor Rounds of South Dakota - during the third of major ice and snowstorms that has devastated the CRSTs since early Dec. 2009. The noticeable effect of an "emergency" would be relief efforts by the Red Cross or Federal Emergency Management Agency, until this date 1-28-10 "FEMA has not shown up on Cheyenne River and what Red Cross aid there is for Natives on this reservation is sparse at best". The National Guard is assisting with restoring power and water resources but with 10-21 days. Meanwhile, subzero temperatures, no water, no gasoline, no stores or businesses, no schools and no power keep services inadequate for most of the members on and near the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux Reservations. For help and information, call the CRST Emergency Coordination Center at (605) 964-7711 (or -7712)

Environmental Justice & Indigenous Rights: Battling Climate Change and Protecting Sacred Sites

Native Activists Rally to Protect Sacred Medicine Lake in CA
Native American organizers and allies are fighting to protect Medicine Lake – a sacred place near Mount Shasta in the Highlands of Northern California. The Bureau of Land Management, California Energy Commission and Calpine Energy have been trying to build geothermal power plants in the area since the 1980s. Native peoples who are opposed to the power plants and their supporters are planning a protest next Tuesday, February 20th at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Office in Alturas, California. The BLM is planning to appeal a 9th Circuit court ruling on Medicine Lake.
Mark Lebeau, a citizen of the Pitt River Nation and Co-Chair of Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites.
For more Info: www.treatycouncil.org , Video Link: Pit River Nation Fights For Their Land, www.ienearth.org

U.S. Energy Policy and Climate Change – and the Harmful Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
The debate on global warming seems to have finally ended thanks to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which recently concluded there was a 90 percent chance human actions have been a major contributor to global warming. The panel of 2,500 scientists predicted more drought, heat waves and a slow gain in sea levels, even if greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels used in power plants, factories and cars are capped. So now the question is what do we do? Which is what legislators, government officials and business leaders from the 20 largest energy-consuming countries were asking and discussing yesterday at a Capitol Hill meeting. There were representatives from the G8 – or Group of 8 industrialized nations - Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States, Canada and Japan. There were also representatives from China, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil, which together produce 75% of the world’s greenhouse gases. The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases is the United States. Yesterday corporate moguls, policy experts and U.S. senators told the world forum the US must take the lead on global warming, especially if it wants to encourage China and India to follow suit. But as world leaders struggle to find ways to collaborate, there are still voices going unheard. Indigenous peoples in Canada, the US and throughout the Americas hold valuable land and water resources that have long been exploited by the provincial, state and federal governments and by corporations trying to meet the energy needs of an industrialized world. Indigenous peoples have disproportionately suffered impacts due to the production and use of energy, yet are among those who benefit least from these energy developments.
Jihan Gearon, Native Energy Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. Jihan is originally from Fort Defiance, AZ, which is on the eastern side of the Navajo Nation. She studied Energy Science and Technology at Stanford University and began her environmental justice career at Redefining Progress as a Program Associate for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). At the EJCC, she worked with a broad coalition of people of color, low-income, and Indigenous communities and organizations on climate justice issues. For more information: Indigenous Environmental Network – www.ienearth.org

Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas Suffers Water Crisis, Files Lawsuit For Rights to Reservoir Project; Language Teacher Succeeds in Making Lakota Part of High School Curriculum

Kickapoo Tribe Files Lawsuit Against U.S. and Local Officials for Water Rights
The Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas relies on water from the Delaware River for consumption, but they are suffering from a serious water shortage and water quality problem. Their plans for a solution have been blocked by a disagreement with local officials. In turn, the tribe announced a lawsuit against the local watershed board, the state of Kansas and the U.S. government. The tribe filed its lawsuit in the middle of June in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, naming 14 federal, state and local officials as defendants. The tribe’s proposed solution to their water problems is a reservoir project. Local officials say this can’t happen unless more money is offered. And now the question of who has senior water rights lies at the center of the dispute. Meanwhile, one tribal member told a reporter for the Kansas City Channel “We are crying for help. We must have water, or we won’t hold out much longer.”

Damon Williams, General Counsel for the Kickapoo tribe in Kansas. Link for more information: The Native American Rights Fund

Lakota Teacher Fights for Language Rights in Public School
The issue of language has been in the news recently as a component of the “path to citizenship” for immigrants coming to the U.S. In May, the Senate passed immigration legislation that would create a program permitting undocumented immigrants who had resided in the United States for five years or more to "earn" their citizenship after paying a fine and back taxes, learning English and holding a job for six years. But as lawmakers push for more incentives to learn English, how are the first languages of this continent faring? Throughout Indian country, the fight is on to keep ancient languages from crumbling under the weight of English. Language revitalization programs are on the rise as activists struggle to get the youth interested and to make it clear that the language is still relevant. In 1995, the Alaska Native Language Center found that of 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States, 155 were on the verge of disappearing because children no longer learned them.

Susana Geliga, director of the Little White Buffalo Project, teaches the Lakota language at a public high school in South Dakota. To contact the Little White Buffalo Project: P.O. Box 6203, Rapid City, SD 57709

News and Announcements

Fire Thunder Goes to Trial - Suspended president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Cecilia Fire Thunder, will go before the tribal council today for her third impeachment hearing. The hearing was called over Fire Thunder's public opposition to the state's restrictive abortion law. Fire Thunder said in an interview with Indian Country Today “I got really angry about a bunch of white guys in the state Legislature making decisions about my body, again." Fire Thunder was ordered not to talk to the media but she told ICT she couldn't remain silent as Native women continue to suffer sexual and physical abuse, many of them at the hands of non-Indians. She said ''The abortion issue is the key that opens the padlock to sexual deviancy that is occurring on the Pine Ridge reservation,” referring to rape and incest. Critics say her call to open a women's clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation went against traditional Lakota values. They say she solicited funds for the clinic in violation of tribal law. The tribal council subsequently suspended Fire Thunder and outlawed abortion. Some tribal members have started a drive to put a ban on abortion in the tribe's constitution.

EPA Know of Hazardous Waste Dump Near U.S./Mexico Border - Documents show a hazardous waste dump planned by the Mexican government and a private company near Tohono ceremonial grounds was kept secret from the Indigenous peoples. The documents show the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency knew about the dump nearly one year before in Mexico were informed. Indian Country Today obtained the EPA reports that describe the dump and say “No significant impacts” were expected. The EPA knew Mexico had issued state and federal permits to store 45,000 tons of asbestos, organocholorides and industrial waste sludge. The permit is for 50 years in the community of Quitovac, where annual sacred ceremonies are held. Whistle blowers exposed the hazardous waste dump in February 2006, but most learned of the dump months later. According to Indian Country Today, said the government entities are working in collusion and ignoring the impact on the traditional communities and their culture and spiritual well-being. in the state of Sonora said the hazardous waste dump would expose children to deadly toxins, contaminate underground well water, desecrate ceremonial grounds and affect those who depend on tourism for livelihood.

Canadian Native Groups Cancel Rail Blockade - Canadian aboriginal groups canceled a planned blockade of Canadian National Railway lines set for Thursday, after the company agreed to lobby Ottawa to help resolve natives' outstanding land claims, both groups said on Wednesday. CN Rail had asked the courts to stop Indian groups in the western province of Manitoba from carrying out threats to block rail lines in an effort to draw attention to their land claims disputes with the federal government. The groups requested on Wednesday that the matter be put aside in court after each had made oral commitments. According to Reuters, Rondeau River First Nation Chief Terrance Nelson said his community will rally next to a CN line about 60 miles south of Winnipeg that leads south to the United States. Another group intends to rally at a domestic CN line.

Interior Official Charged in Abramoff Scandal - The first official charge in connection with the Jack Abramoff scandal has been made against an Interior Department official. Roger Stillwell is expected to plead guilty next month to a misdemeanor charge. He worked closely with Abramoff, whose clients included U.S. territorial governments that fall under Interior's jurisdiction. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee released a report a week ago on its Abramoff investigation. The report urges tribes to develop contracting and conflict of interest laws to ensure that legal, lobbying and other contracts are subjected to an open and transparent process. The committee also urged tribes to strengthen their elections process.

Bush Administration Withholds $300M from Indian Housing - The Bush administration's decision to withhold up to $300 million in Indian housing funds came under fire on Wednesday. Key members of Congress questioned why the Department of Housing and Urban Administration appeared to be punishing nearly every single federally recognized tribe by denying them access to their money. They suggested a legislative fix may be needed to prevent what tribal housing leaders predicted would be a total disaster. Sen. Byron Dorgan, the vice chairman of the Senate Indian affairs committee said HUD was going overboard by tying up the entire program over a lawsuit filed by just one tribe. The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana filed a lawsuit after HUD claimed they received excess funds under the Native American Housing and Self-determination Act. Marty Shuravaloff, the newly elected president of the National American Indian Housing Council, said some tribes may have to stop building homes altogether as a result of the administration's move.

Ward Churchill To Appeal Dismissal - Ward Churchill has vowed to appeal his firing through university channels and file a federal lawsuit if his appeal fails. The University of Colorado professor now faces dismissal for alleged research misconduct. Churchill ignited a furious controversy with a 2001 essay that compared some of the World Trade Center victims to Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the Holocaust. On Wednesday he called the investigation of his work "a farce" and said he is being singled out because he is a dissident scholar. Ward Churchill told The Associated Press no scholar's work could stand up to the scrutiny he is under. University officials concluded his essay was protected by the Constitution but they ordered an investigation into his scholarship. A faculty committee concluded last month that Churchill committed "serious, repeated, and deliberate research misconduct," and Interim Chancellor Philip DeStefano said Monday the university should fire him.

Canadian Tribe Rejects Treaty Money as Insult - The Chief of the West Point First Nation in the Northwest territories of Canada is demanding more money from the federal government for annuities after receiving a check for an amount which she called “an insult”. The government sent Chief Karen Felker a check for $216, that’s $3 a person for the 72-member band for their hunting and fishing allowance. It’s a legal provision under a Treaty signed in 1921. The government originally agreed to send ammunition and twine for hunting and fishing but replaced it with money in the early 1990s without consulting the band. Chief Felker sent the check back to Ottawa this month with a warning that it won’t accept any more money until the federal government accounts for inflation or at least send actual hunting supplies. A spokeswoman for the federal government’s Indian and Northern Affairs Department said the West Point First Nation’s money will be put in a special fund and returned in full if the band eventually decides to collect it. Other bands are applauding the West Point Chief’s demand.

Announcement: Upcoming IEN Conference - Next week will be the 14th Annual Protecting Mother Earth Conference. An Indigenous International Grassroots Environmental Gathering. It begins next Thursday, July 6th and ends on Sunday the 9th. You can go to www.ienearth.org for more information. We’ll be webstreaming the many workshops and speeches taking place. There are activists convening from Alaska, Arizona, Montana, well, from all corners of Indian country. You can get information on webstreaming from the IEN web site: www.ienearth.org

Penobscot Nation Part of Unique Collaboration to Restore River and Salmon; Montana Coal Wars Veteran Gail Small on Energy Policies, Land Rights, Abramoff and More

Cecilia Fire Thunder Refuses to Be Silenced
In South Dakota, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecilia Fire Thunder is speaking out against a gag order issued by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council. She says a suspension letter she received from the Tribal council ordered her not to talk to the media. She called it a violation of her constitutional rights in an interview Tuesday, according to the Rapid City Journal. The tribal council suspended Fire Thunder last month for proposing an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and for allegedly raising money for the clinic. She proposed the clinic in response to South Dakota’s new abortion ban, which has since been referred to a statewide vote in November. The tribal council also banned abortions on the reservation. Last year there were two attempts to impeach Fire Thunder. She was suspended once and reinstated when charges were dismissed. She is the first woman elected as president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. A hearing to discuss impeachment has not yet been set.

The Navajo Nation Declares State of Emergency
The Navajo Nation has declared a state of emergency in the wake of ongoing drought conditions and a series of recent wildfires, according to a press release. Of nine fires only one is still burning, said Selena Manychildren, Navajo Department of Emergency Management public information officer, according to the Farmington Daily Times of New Mexico. People who need fires for ceremonial purposes are required to obtain a BIA Burn Permit, which will only be issued for ceremonial use. The law enforcement department reportedly used all their funding last week to provide meals, water and other supplies, she said. The Department is seeking water, energy bars, toiletries and non-perishable food among other items.

US Supreme Court Decision Favors Native Hawaiian Programs
A lawsuit seeking to cut off public money used for Native Hawaiian programs has suffered a setback in the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit contended that programs through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should not receive state funding on the grounds that they only benefit people of Native Hawaiian ancestry. But the Supreme Court Monday told an appeals court to reconsider whether taxpayers have the right to sue over how the government spends their money. A lawyer for the Hawaii taxpayers making the claim said the Ninth Circuit Court could stand by its September ruling that taxpayers can challenge Hawaiians-only programs, or he could refile the lawsuit with new plaintiffs. Chief Justice John Roberts did not participate in the decision and the Supreme Court offered no explanation. Roberts was previously hired by the state to defend the Office of Hawaiian Affair’s Hawaiians-only voting restriction. In the case, the court ruled unconstitutional OHA's requirement that voters for its trustees must have Hawaiian blood.

Appeals Court Blocks Critical Trust Fund Reports
A federal appeals court ruled last Friday to suppress reports which contained information that the US Department of the Interior allegedly destroyed documents related to a class action lawsuit brought by Native Americans. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against the Department ten years ago, accusing the government of mismanaging an Indian trust in their names for a period of 120 years. The Native Americans say they are owed tens of billions of dollars. The author of the reports, Alan Balaran, was appointed by US District Judge Royce Lamberth. He supervised the exchange of information between parties in the lawsuit and investigated document destruction. Balaran's reports to the judge, including observations from personal visits, found the department had destroyed Indian records, sometimes intentionally, at federal depositories and Indian reservations in the West. According to the Associated Press, Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Indian plaintiffs suing the department, said Friday, "Most of the facts in those reports have been conceded as true" by the Interior Department. Interior officials nonetheless asked a federal appeals court to strike Balaran's reports from the record, saying he had improperly hired as an expert witness a former Interior contractor who had accused the department of fraud. Balaran resigned two years ago, saying the government wanted him off the case after he found evidence that private landowners near the Navajo Nation got as much as 20 times more money than Indian landowners from gas pipeline companies for rights to cross their land. Those findings have not been disputed by the government in the lawsuit.

Caledonia Update
From the Six Nations standoff in Caledonia: Violent incidents last Friday resulted in the arrest warrants for seven people. Ontario Premier McGuinty on Monday called an end to negotiations with native protestors and said it’s time the road blockades come down. He said the Native community must help search for the seven wanted people. Talks between the government and Six Nations people are set to resume today. Protestors have now removed barricades from the railway and roads, and say the government now has no excuse to avoid tackling their land claims. Negotiators will update the Six Nations community after the talks end tonight. Yesterday, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the traditional native government, issued a news release saying the seven people wanted by the OPP will not be at the protest site until the Confederacy completes its own investigation, according to the Hamilton Spectator. Also yesterday, Caledonia business owner launched a class action lawsuit to recoup tens of millions of dollars in losses, their lawyers said Wednesday according to the Canadian press. Only two businesses have signed on so far. The suit is expected to grow exponentially as homeowners may join the legal fight. Six Nations and other Aboriginal protestors have been occupying a half-finished housing development since the end of February.

Colorado University Panel Votes to Fire Ward Churchill
The committee at University of Colorado looking into charges against Ward Churchill issued a strongly worded report Tuesday. The panel, made up of nine CU faculty, a staff member and a graduate student, agreed unanimously with an investigative committee’s earlier findings that Churchill “has committed serious, repeated and deliberate research misconduct.” This includes plagiarism and fabrication of material. In a vote with secret ballots, a majority of the committee said the ethnic studies professor should be fired. The committee forwarded a 20-page report to the University’s Interim Provost and Dean. They will evaluate the report and then advise the Chancellor on what they think should happen to Churchill. The Chancellor will make the final decision, most likely in the next few weeks, according to the Rocky Mountain News. Churchill’s attorney, David Lane, has said Churchill will sue CU in federal court if he is fired. Churchill and Lane have called the investigation politically motivated and the committees’ findings without merit.

Three South Carolina Tribes Seek Federal Recognition
In South Carolina, the Commission for Minority Affairs met last week to consider the recognition petitions of three more tribes. The Croatan Pee Dee, the Piedmont American Indian Association-Lower Eastern Cherokee Nation and the Darlington County Pee Dee Tribe are the latest to seek state recognition. The commission has recognized two tribes so far. The Croatan Pee Dee group has since withdrawn after questions were raised about its status and Indian ancestry. One expert reportedly said the group is making claims that can not be supported by history or documentation.

Abramoff Investigation Update
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will meet on June 22 to vote on the Jack Abramoff lobbying investigation report, Indianz.com is reporting. Back in June 2005, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the chairman of the committee, said the committee would issue a report. He said it would make recommendations to prevent tribes from being duped by lobbyists. Five people have since been indicted in connection with their lobbying activities in Washington, D.C. Four of them have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors as the investigation targets members of Congress. The committee itself held five hearings as part of its investigation. Tribal leaders, lobbyists, former Bush administration officials and other people connected to the scandal testified, although in some cases, they refused to provide testimony.

Cherokees to Vote on Whether to Admit Freedmen
The Cherokee tribal council voted Monday night to have Cherokee voters decide whether the descendents of black freedmen should be allowed to enroll in the Cherokee tribe. The vote could come in a special election, at a cost of $150,000 to $350,000, or at the tribe’s next regular election — in July 2007. The Council failed on Monday to gather the majority needed to call the special election. The Cherokees’ Judicial Appeals Tribunal ruled in March that descendants of black freedmen — emancipated slaves who joined the Cherokees in the 1800s — must be recognized as citizens of the tribe. More than 800 descendants of freedmen have registered with the Cherokee Nation since the tribal high court’s ruling. Amending the constitution would remove them from the tribe’s citizenship rolls. According to the Muskogee Phoenix, most councilors said Indian blood should be required for tribal membership.

Native American Music Awards
The 8th Annual Native American Music Awards were recently held in Florida, co-sponsored by the Seminole Tribe. An equal mix of new artists and previous Nammy Award winners were nominated. The Nammys are also designed to make Native American music more accessible to a wide audience. Keith Secola won artist of the year for “Americana” and Best Male artist was Wade Fernandez with “Song of the Black Wolf.” This year’s Best Female Artist was Pura Fe’ with “Follow Your Heart’s Desire.” Jim Boyd won Songwriter of the Year for “Treaties.” Winner for Song/Single of the Year went to Bill Miller for “Sacred Ground.”

IEN Protecting Mother Earth Conference
The 14th Annual Protecting Mother Earth Conference will take place July 6 – 9 in Cass Lake, Minnesota at the Leech Lake Memorial Pow-wow Grounds. Hosted by the Indigenous Environmental Network, there will be workshops on Water of Life & Prayer for the Water, Toxic Contamination and Health of All Life, Energy & Climate Justice, Native Youth Resistance Movement, and more. For more information go to www.ienearth.org or contact Simone Senogles at +1 218 751- 4967 or simone@ienearth.org

Penobscot Nation Moves Forward With River Restoration Project
For years, the Penobscot Nation has fought to increase the number of fish annually making it to their homelands. But their journey has been halted by several dams on the Penobscot River owned by the PPL Corporation. In 2004, the federal government, the Penobscot Nation and the PPL Corporation all signed the Lower Penobscot River Multi-party Settlement Agreement. It is a collaborative effort to restore the Penobscot River. The Agreement allows for increased production at some PPL mills and calls for the removal of two dams. Another dam would be decommissioned and bypassed with a fishway. At the end of May, PPL Corporation started generating more power at other dams, signaling a step towards compensating for the loss of power generated by the dams which will be removed and decommissioned. The Penobscot River Restoration Trust is now working to raise $25 million to buy the three dams from PPL. The trust includes six conservation groups and the Penobscot Nation. John Banks, Penobscot and director of natural resources for the Penobscot Indian Nation. Visit this web site for more information: www.penobscotriver.org and www.penobscotnation.org

Montana Coal War Veteran Gail Small on Energy Policy, Food Politics and More
The largest coal strip mine and gasification complex in America lies just 15 miles from the Cheyenne Reservation. The Cheyenne people are living on one of the poorest Reservations in the country and yet for over 30 years, they have refused to strip mine their homeland for promises of riches. As a teenager, Gail Small was immersed in the infamous Montana Coal Wars – a grassroots struggle to reverse government policy allowing energy companies to mine the rich coal reserves underneath the Northern Cheyenne reservation. Prohibited from mining on the reservation, the coal companies have dug into nearby lands scarring the landscape with strip mines. After getting her law degree from the University of Oregon, Small returned to the Northern Cheyenne reservation and founded Native Action, a ground-breaking non-profit advocacy group dedicated to environmental and political reforms, education and other causes that directly affect the life of her tribe. Today Native Action is struggling to keep thousands of methane gas wells from surrounding the Northern Cheyenne reservation. In April 2005, they lost a battle to stop a ruling that is allowing 500 wells per year to be opened up in Southeastern Montana despite the fact that the environmental impact statement the Bureau of Land Management issued was declared invalid. The wells will be right up to the Cheyenne’s borders within two years if the industry has it’s way. Gail Small, Northern Cheyenne lawyer and founder of Native Action. For more information visit: www.nativeaction.org

Carrie Dann on the Pentagon's Cancelled "Divine Strake" Test Blast; Tohono O'odham Battle Secret Plans to Build a Hazardous Waste Dump Near Ceremonial Land; Winona LaDuke on Food Sovereignty: the New Arena of Colonialism

Divine Strake Test Called Off, Western Shoshone Protest Ongoing Violation of Land Sovereignty
The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency had planned to detonate a 700-ton non-nuclear fuels explosion at the Nevada test site tomorrow, June 2nd. But the test, called the "Divine Strake." was postponed by the National Nuclear Safety Administration because of questions about possible fallout. Members of the Western Shoshone Nation were at the forefront of opposition to the test. They and their supporters argue that the test site, along with most of Nevada and parts of California, Idaho and Utah, is still Western Shoshone land. Though Divine Strake has been delayed indefinitely, more than 200 people peacefully demonstrated on Sunday at the Nevada Test Site. More than 30 were arrested when they crossed over onto the site. Carrie Dann was one of those people. For over forty years, along with her late sister Mary, Carrie has been at the forefront of the Western Shoshone Nation’s struggle for land rights and sovereignty. Leading the political and legal battle to retain ancestral lands, Dann has squared off against international gold mining corporations, the nuclear industry and the U.S. government. Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Nation, working with the Western Shoshone Defense Project. Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network.

Opponents of Secretly Planned Toxic Waste Dump Near U.S.- Mexico Border Say it Poses Danger to Indigenous Communities on Border and Violates International Law

Plans to build a hazardous waste dump in Tohono territory south of the U.S. - Mexico international border have drawn fire from the indigenous communities straddling the border, local officials in Tucson, and citizens in Mexico. The plans have been secretly carried out without notifying in the surrounding communities, who fear for the effects of released toxins into the land, air and water. Pima county officials in Arizona said Mexico violated an international treaty when it failed to notify them about plans for the waste facility. It would be located about 125 miles southwest of Tucson, close to the Tohono community of Quitovac where sacred ceremonies are conducted. People on both sides of the border have voiced opposition during protests in April and May. Ofelia Rivas, member of the nation. Brenda Norrell, a journalist with Indian Country Today. Talli Nauman, co- director of the independent media project: Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness. She is a long time collaborator with the International Relations Center based in Silver City, New Mexico, of the Americas Program.

Links to articles:
Brenda Norrell's article "O'odham Oppose Planned Hazardous Waste Dump" in Indian Country Today.
Talli Nauman's article "Public Due Consideration on New U.S. - Mexico Border Toxic Waste Site Proposal" published by the Americas Program of the International Relations Center.

Winona LaDuke on Food Sovereignty: "The New Arena of Colonialism...is the Biological Make-up of the World"

Author and activist Winona Laduke, a Mississippi Band Anishinaabe, recently spoke at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City with Northern Cheyenne lawyer Gail Small. LaDuke (re)affirmed her commitment to preserve Native lands against the ravages of environmental abuse. She also spoke about recovering humanity, in the theme of her most recent book “Recovering the Sacred.” We play her speech from that night, in which she talks about food sovereignty and more. Winona LaDuke, activist and author. Her newest book is "Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming." She is the Program Director of Honor the Earth and the Founding Director of White Earth Land Recovery Project.

Mohawk Nation Clashes With Canadian Authorities; Lakota Elders Share Wisdom on Issues From Global Warming to Abortion

Mohawks Continue Peaceful Takeover to Halt Non-Indigenous Development on Tribal Land

We speak with Hazel Hill, an Onkwehonweh at Grand River community, currently in a jurisdictional dispute with the Canadian government. There is an effort by non-Indigenous people to build 300 houses on Onkwehonweh territory. Elder Iroquois women and other Indigenous peoples from various nations have stopped the development by staging protests and negotiating with the developers. Their struggle to preserve the land continues.

Hazel Hill, can be contacted at thebasketcase@ol.aibn.com

Lakota Elders Willard and Darlene Pipeboy Share Wisdom

Willard and Darlene Pipeboy speak about a range of issues, from Global Warming, to Immigration and Abortion. They are from South Dakota.

Abramoff Scandal's Impact on Indian Country; Native American Author Gabriel Horn on "Contemplations of a Primal Mind"

Abramoff Scandal Rocks Indian Country: Is There Going to be Permanent Damage as a Result?

Disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to almost five years in prison in a Miami case for wire fraud and conspiracy in a $147.5 million casino-boat purchase in 2000. For his lead role in orchestrating the use and misuse of between $66 million and $82 million in tribal fees and political contributions, Abramoff has pleaded guilty to the attempted corruption of public officials, among other things. Federal prosecutors praised his cooperation in the Washington case to the Miami court. They have suggested they'll ask for less than the 30-year prison term possible on the Washington charges, contingent on Abramoff's continuing cooperation. We get a report on the latest from Washington. We also look at the scandal's impact on Indian country. David Wilkins discusses American Indian nations' relationship with Washington lobbyists, the issues of sovereignty that are at stake, and mainstream media coverage of the issue. Wilkens recently wrote in a column for Indian Country Today that "Indian nations must end their dependency on non-Indians and instead look to develop a Native crop of strategists, liaisons and lobbyists trained in the values and traditions of their own nations."

Dr. David E. Wilkins (Lumbee) , professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He holds adjunct appointments in Political Science, Law, and American Studies. His research interests include federal Indian policy and law, comparative indigenous peoples, tribal governments, judicial politics, and tribal-sate relations. He has published several books, including American Indian Politics and the American Political System; The Navajo Political Experience, Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law (with Tsianina Lomawaima); and Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations (with Vine Deloria, Jr.). His articles have appeared in a range of social science, law, historical, and ethic studies journals.

Laura Strickler, a reporter based in Washington for Capitol News Connection with Public Radio International. She has been covering the Abramoff affair for Native American stations as well.

A Discussion with Native American Author Gabriel Horn

He is the author of "The Native American book of Knowledge" and "The Native American Book of Life", as well as "Contemplations of a Primal Mind." He shares his philosophical outlook, highlighting Native Americans' unique connection to Turtle Island (North America) and his struggle to understand Indigenous identity.

Gabriel Horn, a nationally recognized lecturer on Native American philosophy and its connection to the rights of indigenous people, animals, and the welfare of the environment. Horn was one of the original teachers who helped establish the American Indian Movement Survival Schools in Minnesota and is now a professor of writing and literature. Selected for Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, Horn has written the award-winning Ceremony -- In The Circle of Life, as well as Contemplations of a Primal Mind, The Book of Ceremonies, and the novel Transcendence, co-written with his wife Amy. He lives in Florida near the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Activist Alert!: Help Put a Stop to the Commercial Desecration of Bear Butte

Visit the web site www.Matopaha.org to sign the online petition to help stop this desecration. Bear Butte is sacred land in South Dakota for the Lakota. A developer is threatening to build a 600-acre biker bar and concert venue at the base of Bear Butte. Signatures are needed by April 4th to be presented at a public hearing with Commissioners in South Dakota.

Abortion Ban in South Dakota Draws Native Opposition, and Indigenous Peoples' Demands for UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights Continue into 11th Year

Native Women Unite in South Dakota to Fight Abortion Ban

Native American women are organizing at the grass-roots level to protest the bill that was recently signed by Governor Rounds of South Dakota that would ban virtually all abortions in the state. We find out how the abortion ban impacts Native women and communities and hear about efforts to combat it.

Charon Asetoyer, founder and executive director of the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, a grass-roots women's health institute on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota.

Indigenous Peoples Demand Formal Rights Declaration at UN Session, and The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai'i

Indigenous Women and men from around the world convened in Geneva to demand a formal United Nations declaration of Indigenous rights. About 90 representatives of governments, specialists from indigenous regions of the world, non-governmental organizations, as well as scholars and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples participated in the 11th session of the working group of the Commission on Human Rights. The agenda included the crucial issues of the indigenous rights to self-determination, lands, territories and resources, with an emphasis on the fundamental right to restitution.

Anne Keala Kelly, Native Hawai'ian journalist and filmmaker. She is working on a documentary called "Noho Hewa Ma: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai'i." It chronicles how the American war machine took hold in Hawai'i, and how to the detriment of the Hawai'ian people it has expanded throughout the Pacific.

Confronting Myths: From the Legend of Pocahontas to the Discourse on Palestine

Louisiana's Coastal Tribes Appeal For Help

In southern Louisiana, leaders of four coastal Native American tribes, the Bayou Lafourche, Grand Caillou/Dulac, Isle de Jean Charles Bands of the Biloxi-Chitimacha and the Pointe au Chien Indian tribes are issuing a call for help again. The tribes were all left reeling in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and still need relief assistance. Randy Verdun, Chief of the Bayou Lafourche Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe said, "It's a call to action, a call that we hope is heard. Help us preserve our distinct cultures and traditions. Without help, they will surely be lost." We speak with: Patty Ferguson, Tribal Attorney for the Pointe au Chien Indian Tribe.
Full Press Release
For more info, to make a donation or provide grant information to the affected tribes contact:

* Patty Ferguson - Tribal Attorney, Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe 480-425-2637 Ferguson@SacksTierney.com
* Marlene Foret - Chairwoman, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha (985) 594-6593 mmforet@mobiletel.com
* Albert Naquin - Chief, Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha (985) 232-1286 whitebuffaloa@netscape.net
* Charles Verdin - Chairman, Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (985) 856-5336 pacit@cowscorner.com
* Randy Verdun – Chief, Bayou Lafourche Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha (225) 485-8765 bccmi@aol.com
* Naomi Archer - Coordinator, Four Directions Relief Project (828) 230.1404 fourdirections@riseup.net
* Or Visit the Four Directions Solidarity Network

Confronting Stereotypes in "The New World", Shattering the Myth of Pocahontas

Nearly two weeks ago, the film "The New World" opened in theaters around the country. The film attempts to retell the mythical story of Pocahontas and John Smith as a passionate love story, with the settlement of the Jamestown colony taking place in the backdrop. Few reviews have criticized the film for perpetuating racist and sexist stereotypes, suggesting these ideas are so enmeshed in American culture that they are overlooked without protest.

Camilla Townsend, Associate Professor of History at Colgate University. She specializes in Native American and Latin American history. She is the author of several books, including "Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma" and "Burying the White Gods: New Perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico."

Free Speech or Racist Propaganda?: Multi-Faith Coalition Mobilizes to Respond to Anti-Palestinian Ad

In a recent issue of The Nation magazine, a full-page ad by the organization called Facts and Logic About the Middle East, or FLAME, claims to confront myths about Palestine. The ad says the nationhood of Palestine is a myth. The group's ad has outraged many people, including the group WESPAC. We speak with some representatives.

UPCOMING EVENTS

February 3, 2006: Tiokasin Ghosthorse will play the flute and introduce the documentary film, "Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story." The film, by Robert Redford and Michael Apted shows the mockery made by the U.S. government of its own judicial system. It shows the FBI-led reign of terror perpetrated on the Lakota Reservation in 1973. Tiokasin will have a Q&A session following the film. Begins 7:30 pm, at Everything Goes Book Cafe, 208 Bay Street, Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Everything Goes Book Cafe & Neighborhood Stage

February 3, 2006: the 30th anniversary of Leonard Peltier's capture in Canada.
NYC Jericho and ProLibertad will show the film "Warrior: the Life of Leonard Peltier" by Susie Bear. 6:30 pm, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 521 W. 125th Street, Manhattan.
Call 718-220-6004.

Burial Ground Threatened, the Abramoff Scandal, Mohawks Under Siege

Slave and Native American Burial Ground Threatened by Development

A historic burial ground reported to hold the remains of slaves, Native Americans and early Dutch settlers, which is privately owned, is slated for development. The Coalition for the Preservation of Teaneck's Indian-Slave Cemetery is attempting to raise $100,000 by next week in order to save the Pomander Walk and prevent the graves from being desecrated. As fundraising efforts continue, we speak with a member of the coalition about the issue. Northjersey.com reports the ongoing battle.

Laura Zucker, of the Coalition to Preserve Teaneck 's Native American/African Slave/Settler Cemetery

Tribal Chairman Sprague on How Abramoff Cost Tribe Millions

Republican Lobbyist Jack Abramoff tried to stop the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish tribe of Michigan from building a casino that would have created thousands of jobs for scores of unemployed people. Abramoff allegedly stymied these efforts because he and partner Michael Scanlon were paid more than $14 million by a past tribal council of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe to prevent development of competing casinos in Michigan. These included the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish tribe's proposed casino, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe. We speak with the Chairman about the details and efforts to recover.

D.K. Sprague, Chairman of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribe, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe.

Kanehsatake Mohawks: We Were Invaded by Mercenaries, Arrested and Given Unfair Trial

We speak with two members of the Kanehsatake Mohawk community about the recent trial and sentencing of Mohawks arrested almost a year ago for rioting under questionable circumstances. They describe last month's trial as "a sham" and go into detail about how Mohawk sovereignty was violated and U.S. law was broken. We speak to two members of the community: Pearl Bonspille and John Harding.

Here are today's guests:

* Marijo Moore, Author and former commentator on First Voices Indigenous Radio, speaks about her new book called "Confessions of a Madwoman": go to her web site www.marijomoore.com.
* Leslye Abbey, social worker and independent filmmaker, she is screening a testimonial film called "Houma Nation vs. Hurricanes" this Sunday, December 11th at 11am, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens. Learn more about how Katrina and Rita impacted the Houma nation. Phone 516-679-8216 for more information.
* Charles Verdin, Chair of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe in the lower bayou of southern Louisiana. He speaks about the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on his community, and the historical context of the tribe. Interview by John Hamilton, producer at Democracy Now!.
* Stephen Martin, working with LakotaKidz. He speaks about how the rising cost of fuel will impact Native reservations in South Dakota this winter. Prices will be extremely high there, where the winters are deadly cold, reaching well below 0 degrees. His organization works to deliver services, but faces major logistical obstacles.

Show Headlines

Nevada Tribe Hit by Fire Still Waiting on BIA For Assistance

Members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of Nevada were hit by a fire three months ago and are still waiting for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to provide assistance. The fire destroyed 3,000 acres of reservation land on the Nevada-Oregon border. Reservation members have applied for monetary aid and supplies through the BIA social services, but the agency says first the Red Cross must investigate the applications. A BIA spokeswoman said, "It appears the federal government can do more. I do not know when the Red Cross will go out there." The tribe has been meeting with state officials and members of Congress, including democratic Senator Harry Reid. Members are also struggling to get firewood and the US service Forest Service has said it's against federal law for them to provide free wood. Also pending is the $1,700 bill for drinking water delivered the day of the fire. Tribal members were without water for a week.

Lummis Enlist Fire, an Old Ally, As They Battle Scourge of Drugs

The Lummi nation in Washington state reportedly set a boarded-up house on fire in a community effort to battle rampant drug abuse. The family owning the house agreed to the ceremony. The Seattle Times reports that illegal drugs were sold out of the house. The Lummi nation launched a major anti-drug campaign in 2002 after tragedies related to drug abuse skyrocketed. Tribal members report increasing drug-related prosecutions and establishing more youth treatment facilities and even banishing dealers from the rez. Members say they have returned to the teachings of their ancestors and the power of fire.

AIM Calls for Newspaper Columnist To Be Fired For Criticizing Deloria

The Colorado branch of the American Indian Movement is calling for Rocky Mountain News columnist Vincent Carroll to be fired after words on Vine Deloria Jr, who passed away November 13. The controversy center around the following passage Carroll wrote: But what the obituaries and tributes have for the most part danced around or ignored is the utterly wacky nature of some of his views. [In a 1996 book] Deloria rejected the Bering land bridge theory of prehistoric migration to the Western Hemisphere since he believed Indians existed here 'at the beginning' - probably as contemporaries of dinosaurs. And this bizarre claim only hints at his contempt for much science. Deloria insisted that we shouldn't sanitize America's past. Fair enough. But let's not sanitize his legacy, either."

This was AIM's response: Would you have disrespected Martin Luther King in the same way? No. Would you have disrespected any European-American leader in that manner? No. Recently, you rightfully gave the death of Rosa Parks prominent, multiple day coverage in your paper. Why not for Deloria? Is it because American Indians could not possibly have done anything important enough to merit such coverage? Is it because you and your staff are entirely unaware of Deloria and his contributions? If so, we hope that the racism inherent in such ignorance is obvious to you. A couple dozen AIM members signed the letter.

Supreme Court Nominee Alito Voted to Support Indian's Religious Freedom

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has a miniscule record when it comes to Indian issues, but there is one decision that looks favorable for Indians. A couple of years ago the US court of appeals for the third circuit heard the case of Dennis Blackhawk, a man brought up in a traditional Oglala Lakota home. Pennsylvania officials tried to force Blackhawk to obtain an exotic wildlife dealer permit to keep several black bears. Blackhawk sued, saying that violated his right to religious expression. Blackhawk conducted ceremonies with the bears, as advised by Lakota elders. The court sided with Blackhawk with Alito writing the majority opinion.

Supreme Court Rules State Can Tax Reservation Fuel, Blow Dealt to the Potawatomi Nation

The Supreme Court has ruled that states have the right to tax fuel sold on Indian reservations. A Prairie band Potawatomi attorney called it "an utter failure to give federal protection to tribal sovereignty" In a 7-2 vote, justices ruled that Kansas could tax distributors selling fuel at the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe's gas station near Topeka. Tribal attorneys argued the Potawatomi tribe already taxes the fuel to pay for reservation roads traveled by tribal members and non-Indians alike. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy agreed, saying the fuel is "effectively double-taxed." They also said that forcing the tax could result in the gas station going out of business. The ruling spells bad news for other tribes as well. Sixteen other states that impose a motor fuel tax and have Indian lands within their borders had urged the high court to hear the case. They argued that a restriction on their ability "to tax uniformly throughout the state will inhibit their ability" to fund highway construction and maintenance.

Tex Hall, former leader of the National Congress of American Indians and the current chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nation blasted the ruling. He said: "The Supreme Court's ruling today puts Indian tribes into a situation that they were never supposed to be in under the United States Constitution - fighting political battles within the state legislatures to fend off or repeal state laws like Kansas'. If sovereignty means anything, it means that no tribe should have to go hat in hand to the non-Indians of the state they live in and ask for the right to exercise their inherent sovereign powers. Seven of the Justices sitting on the Court don't get this. I think Indian Country is getting fed up with this kind of nonsense, and we are going to have to step up our role in deciding whether or not Samuel Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court."

Angus Hemlock, legal researcher for the traditional governing body for the Kanienkehaka nation (Mohawk nation)

Lola Forester, Aboriginal host and programmer for the National Aboriginal Radio Program for SBS Radio in Australia.

Fundraiser: Pro-Choice Movement in Mexico partnering with Zapatistas2

September 1st, 2005 at 8pm
Carlito's Cafe 1701 Lexington Avenue, between 106 and 107
El Barrio of East Harlem

"Aborto Sin Pena" ("Abortion Without Shame/Abortion Without Penalty") is almost complete! Fundraiser tonight to complete the project. Clips from the film to be screened, special surprise raffle and DJ Alex Rivera spins. Help support this unprecedented political event! Sliding scale suggested donation, $5 - $10, no one turned away.

News on Colombia from Mario Murillo and Maori Music

We speak with Nicholas Przybyla, veteran of Operation: Enduring Freedom and East Timor and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Nicholas Przybyla speaks about the new documentary film, which he helped produce, Operation: Veteran Freedom. The film chronicles the events of March 2005, when thousands of people assembled outside of Ft. Bragg, North Carolina to protest two years of occupation in Iraq. The group was primarily veterans and family members of soldiers who had fought and died in the war-torn regions of the Middle East. Go to the web site to view trailers.

Listen to the song "the Immaculate Woman" by Mato, a band that Tiokasin Ghosthorse performs with, by downloading the MP3.

We speak with Mario Murillo, host of the Friday edition of Wakeup Call and producer of many other programs on WBAI. Murillo is a veteran radio journalist and currently assistant professor in the School of Communication at the Hofstra University. He is author of "Colombia and the United States: War, Unrest and Destabilization." Mario reports from Bogota, Colombia and discusses the Indigenous communities in southern Cauca, a hotbed for vocalized resistance to the Free Trade of the Americas accord, continued militarization and military intervention of the United States. Murillo reports the Colombian government is targeting Indigenous leaders by various threatening means and that Indigenous communities fear government incursions could lead to massive displacements.

A brief discussion with James Webster, a Maori musician, is accompanied by beautiful flute performances. Webster makes the flutes which he plays.

New York Station Links to Indigenous Radio Station in Colombia

Santander de Quilichao, Cauca, Colombia
“Brothers and sisters of the Nasa people, you are my family, we are one family, that’s what I feel. We come from one common mother, Mother Earth.” With these words, Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), indigenous broadcaster and journalist from WBAI Pacifica Radio, expressed the spirit of the communication web that was established between Radio Payu’mat of Santander de Quilichao in northern Cauca, and WBAI Pacifica Radio in New York, during the initial broadcast that inaugurated the relationship of these stations. The broadcast, part of the Friday edition of Wake-Up Call in New York and the morning news program of Radio Payu’mat, took place on August 12, 2005 at 7:00am.

The 40-minute live broadcast was one of the concrete results of the visit by radio journalist and educator Mario Murillo, veteran broadcaster with WBAI, who was in Northern cauca from August 5 through the 12th. Mario was hosted by the Association of Northern Indigenous Councils, ACIN, and visited a number of indigenous communities, including Toribío, Jambaló and Canoas.

“It’s impossible to know the truth of what is happening in Colombia without visiting some of these communities that are directly affected by the conflict,” said Murillo during the roundtable discussion, hosted in New York by Mimi Rosenberg and Tiokasin. “Not even the people in Bogota or in other big cities of the country know the reality because their sources of information continue being the major corporate media and the official voices that distort the truth.” He added, “if this is the case within Colombia, imagine the level of disinformation that is making it to the United States and the perspective people have of the conflict.”

The agenda of the weeklong visit was directed towards various aspects of the ACIN’s Communication “web” set up within the context of aggression, resistance and promotion of the indigenous community’s life plan. The goal was to establish concrete links of solidarity through community communication media, and particularly radio. In Northern Cauca, along with Radio Payu’mat, there are two other community indigenous radio stations, Voces de Nuestra Tierra in Jambalo, and Radio Nasa, in Toribio, shut down by the Ministry of Communication in 2004, but brought back on the air in June 2005 by order of a tribunal of the local indigenous council.

As a result of the meetings with the ACIN’s Communication “web,”, a number of proposals were made with the hopes of developing the sister-station relationship:

1. Establish a permanent correspondence on the air every week, both on WBAI Radio from reporters of Radio Payu’mat, and vice versa, with voices from New York. The first of these broadcasts will air on Friday, September 9, 2005 at 7am ET on WBAI Radio, and at 8:10am Cauca time over Payu’mat. This will allow audiences in both locales to hear voices of each community discuss matters of importance affecting each country.
2. Establish an internet-link through the web pages of WBAI ( HYPERLINK "http://www.wbai.org" www.wbai.org) and the ACIN, in order to make information from both sites available to visitors to each.
3. Begin to develop plans to coordinate a North American delegation of community media activists from WBAI and other local media projects to visit Colombia in June-July of 2006 in order to have a direct exchange of ideas, strategies and experiences.
4. Explore the possibility of inviting a delegation from Cauca to the United States with the objective of fortifying the Communication “web” between the two countries. This would allow audiences in New York to meet directly with these delegates and hear experiences first hand. Along with this, we would explore ways of sending a delegation from Cauca to the “Our Media” international forum, to be held in Bangalore, India in December 2005.
5. Develop a campaign of material support in the U.S. for the ACIN’s media program, organizing events in the community to collect funds and other resources to strengthen the production capacity of the three indigenous stations in Northern Cauca. With respect to this, Mario Murillo said: “It was inspiring to see the tremendous capacity and commitment that existed at the community level to the issues relating to communication despite the serious limitations that exist impinging the development of these activities. For example, the people can barely even count on the most minimum production equipment such as recorders and microphones, but they’re still producing every day.”

“My message for those listeners in the United States is to keep struggling for your freedom, to recognize that to win freedom means to struggle against dependence, disinformation, propaganda and consumerism,” said Dora Muñoz, indigenous journalist from Radio Payumat. She added “from this point on, the direct communication between the two communities is a reality. We’ll now both be able to hear voices that would normally never be heard.”

Ultimately it will now be possible to weave a communication of solidarity and of truth between peoples and processes. “These proposals can serve as a model that we should develop with other community media around Colombia, throughout Latin America and the rest of the world” said Gustavo Ulcué of the ACIN’s internet project, known as the Telecentro.

Northern Cauca has been the center of indigenous mobilizing in Colombia for over thirty years, and is currently at the center of an intense military campaign on the part of the Colombian Armed Forces and the guerillas of the FARC. Indigenous leaders describe this as a direct threat to the many social gains made over the years by the movement.

INDIGENOUS NEWS: South African Government Charged With Ignoring Indigenous Needs.

A United Nations expert on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, has called for the South African government to improve efforts to meet the needs of Indigenous peoples. During a 12 day visit, Stavenhagen met with government officials and representatives of Indigenous groups. Leaders from the five main Khoi-San groups condemned delays in the government's delivery of public services. However, the UN representative reportedly acknowledged the South African government's "tremendous efforts" to end inequalities. Among the Indigenous leaders' criticisms were charges that the government was ignoring issues such as language, culture, health and economic transformation and land rights. Petrus Vaalbooi from the Kumani-San tribe said "Our letters (rock art) are seen as a national treasure, but we do not benefit. The museums are full of Bushmen but to what benefit of our people?"

Venezuela Grants Indigenous Land Rights

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez formally recognized six Indigenous communities as the original "owners" of their ancestral lands by granting land titles in a ceremony last Tuesday. The territory covers more than 300,000 acres. One Indigenous woman from the Kari'na community said of Chavez, "He has been the first president who has kept his word to a people who have been stripped of their lands." However, Chavez warned that national unity must ultimately take precedence over Indigenous land claims. Chavez urged other Indigenous groups not to ask for "infinite lands of territory." An estimated 300,000 Venezuelans belong to 28 Indigenous groups, many living in the country's sparsely populated southeast.

Bush's Energy Bill: A Strike Against Native Communities

In the United States, it looks like Native Americans will be significantly impacted by the massive energy bill President Bush signed this week. Native activists are denouncing the new legislation, citing the major benefits for energy companies and the revival of the nuclear power industry. Title V section of the bill deals directly with energy development on Indian lands, including Alaska. The provision releases the federal government of its traditional "trust responsibility" to tribes in the negotiation and enforcement of energy development agreements. Some tribal activists fear unfair deals will be made between powerful energy corporations and tribal governments.

NCAA Bans 18 Racist Mascots

The National Collegiate Athletic Association launched a storm of controversy when it announced last Friday that it is banning the use of 18 Indian mascots and nicknames during NCAA-sanctioned events beginning next February. Among those banned are the Florida State Seminoles, sparking criticism from Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Governor Bush said the decision insulted the Florida State University and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Bush said, "It's ridiculous. How politically correct can we get? The folks that make these decisions need to get out more often." Florida State University is planning an appeal and Attorney Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential recount, has agreed to represent FSU if needed. The Native community has been working for more than 50 years to ban images and names like Cleveland's chief wahoo, the Washington Redskins, the Kansas city chiefs and the Atlanta Braves.

A Spokesperson from the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media said: "The American public has been conditioned by the sports industry, educational institutions and the media to trivialize Indigenous culture as common and harmless entertainment. On high school and college campuses Native American students do not feel welcome if the school uses as its mascot a Chief, the highest political position you can attain in our society. Using our names, likeness and religious symbols to excite the crowd does not feel like honor or respect, it is hurtful and confusing to our young people."

Colleges and universities subject to the new policy:

* Alcorn State University (Braves)
* Central Michigan University (Chippewas)
* Catawba College (Indians)
* Florida State University (Seminoles)
* Midwestern State University (Indians)
* University of Utah (Utes)
* Indiana University-Pennsylvania (Indians)
* Carthage College (Redmen)
* Bradley University (Braves)
* Arkansas State University (Indians)
* Chowan College (Braves)
* University of Illinois-Champaign (Illini)
* University of Louisiana-Monroe (Indians)
* McMurry University (Indians)
* Mississippi College (Choctaws)
* Newberry College (Indians)
* University of North Dakota (Fighting Sioux)
* Southeastern Oklahoma State University (Savages)

Hawai'i: Occupied Territory Past and Present

Guests:

* Noenoe Silva, Associate Professor of Political Science and Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawai'i's Manoa. She is the author of "Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism."
* Keala Kelly, Native Hawaiian journalist and filmmaker.

Our two guests explain that Hawai'i is more than a vacation paradise - Hawai'i is an illegally and militarily occupied country. Noenoe Silva describes how histories of Hawai'i have been based exclusively on English-language sources, failing to take into account the thousands of pages of newspapers, books, and letters written in the mother tongue of Native Hawaiians. Silva refutes the long-held idea that native Hawaiians passively accepted the erosion of their culture and loss of their nation. While Silva describes a history, Keala Kelly gives voice to today's ongoing resistance to political and cultural domination.

Last Saturday, 15,000 Native Hawaiians marched down the streets of Honolulu in opposition to a 9th Circuit Court Ruling that invalidates the Hawaiian-only admissions policy of a school established in 1887, prior to the US-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It was established as part of the will of a Hawaiian princess. Keala Kelly protested the decision because she says it infringes on Hawaiian self-determination. Keala Kelly and Noenoe Silva also speak about what the Akaka bill could bring to Hawai'i and the impending threat of military expansion on Hawaiian lands. The Akaka bill, if passed, will open up more land to the seizure of the US government, which Kelly argues will be used for military expansion. She made a film that can be accessed at www.nohohewa.com.

Ponca v. Carbon Black Company

"The Continental Carbon Company has exhibited a callous disregard towards the Ponca Tribe of Indians and our people by continuing to pollute our people, our lands, and our air. The Ponca Tribe was forced to take this land at gunpoint by the government, and now it is all we have left," Ponca Tribal Chairman Dwight Buffalohead said in a statement.

The Ponca Tribe and individual tribal members filed a federal class action lawsuit on April 20 aimed at halting Continental Carbon Co. from spewing carbon black over Ponca land and tribal members and coating everything surrounding the factory in black soot. The class action suit seeks a court order forcing Continental Carbon Co. to halt polluting the land and air. Further, it demands the company clean up the properties it continues to pollute and seeks damages for the Ponca Tribe and its people.

The federal complaint alleges trespass, private nuisance, public nuisance, failure to warn, personal injuries, negligence, medical monitoring, unjust enrichment and punitive damages. The defendants are Continental Carbon Co.; China Synthetic Rubber Corp. and its domestic corporation, CSRC USA; and Taiwan Cement Corp. The parent company is a publicly traded corporation in Taiwan, which owns the Ponca City carbon black facility. CSRC is the fourth-largest producer of carbon black in the world.

In 2004, a delegation of Ponca tribal members traveled to Taiwan and attempted to meet with the corporate owners and stockholders in session. While the Ponca delegation was surrounded by Taiwanese police, the stockholders voted not to hear the concerns of the Ponca delegation.

Gracie Horne announces the World Peace and Prayer Day 2005 at Paha Sapa, known to many people as the Black Hills, South Dakota. Sounds like it'll be a great time. This event is on June 21, and will be preceded by the Prayer Run for World Peace, which begins on May 15 and ends on June 15 in Piedmont, South Dakota.

Tama Waipara and Ataahua Papa visit the studio to promote the Pacifika - New York Hawaiian Film Festival and to share their Maori perspectives and wisdom with us. Ataahua has a sister showing a film that sounds very interesting. It provides on view on how New Zealanders were impacted by the events of 9/11.

Kent Lebsock comes down to the studio to speak about Globalization and Indigenous Peoples. Kent is Executive Director of the American Indian Law Alliance, an organization that has been committed to struggling for the rights of Indigenous peoples for the past 16 years. He discussed the nuances of globalization and highlighted that globalization is a concept that is not alien to many Indigenous societies.

Mac Suara Kadiwel, a Brazilian Indigenous Land Rights Activist, comes to the studio to speak about the racists policies of the Brazilian government and the disparities Indigenous peoples face regarding human rights and land rights. Amnesty International released a report on Indigenous peoples on March 30, 2005 and their treatment in Brazil.

It was a show brimming with brightness and awareness - Indigenous Voices cutting through the silence! We hope you can listen to our next show, which won't be until after the May fund-drive ends at WBAI. We will be on the air on May 11th to raise funds.

On Indians and Patriotism

April 28, 2005, Indian Country Today, Steven Newcomb - Indigenous Law Institute
After the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, millions of Americans became more fervent in their patriotism toward the United States. In this era of the Patriot Act, those who dare to question ''patriotism'' are made to feel that they may be ''treading on thin ice.'' One American Indian leader even suggested that you can tell who a ''real'' Indian is because a ''real'' Indian is patriotic toward the United States.

This made me wonder about my own thoughts on patriotism. After considerable reflection, I have decided that because of my spiritual beliefs, and because of all that our Native ancestors have suffered at the hands of the United States, I consider myself to be a ''matriot.'' A matriot is someone who loves, is loyal to, and promotes the interests of Mother Earth. I consider myself deeply matriotic.

As a result of those who had a patriotic dedication to promoting the patriarchal interests of the American empire, entire Indian nations no longer exist: their ancestral lands that made their way of life viable were taken over by an imperial country. Look east of the Mississippi River, where highly intelligent and vibrant Indian civilizations once thrived on hundreds of millions of acres of land, with their own languages, cultures, economies and spiritual traditions. How many of those Native civilizations still exist there?

Thanks to U.S. patriotism and the Indian Removal Act, relatively few Indian nations exist east of the Mississippi, on extremely small areas of their once-vast ancestral lands. Almost all Indian nations west of the Mississippi have been squeezed into smaller areas of land, the vast majority of their ancestral lands stripped from them.

Look at all the lands where my matrilineal and matriotic Delaware ancestors once lived, in what is now known as Manhattan Island, Delaware, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. With patriotic fervor, first European colonists and later the United States took over our lands, thereby destroying our traditional world and spiritual way of life.

Think of the many thousands of years in which our respective indigenous languages evolved, accumulating knowledge and wisdom over eons. And think of all the patriotic effort that U.S. government officials and Christian missionaries dedicated to destroying our respective Native languages, right down to their cognitive roots.

In their patriotic fervor, such people had no regard for our rich heritage, only contempt for our cultural and spiritual knowledge. Their patriotic work involved an ardent and greed-laden desire to destroy us in order to fatten and enrich themselves, as ''God's chosen people,'' on our lands and resources, to which they felt eminently entitled based on the ''promised land'' narrative of their ''good book.''

Because our indigenous languages reflect our own indigenous conceptual systems, which are rooted in our brains, the systematic abuse of American Indian children by the United States in an effort to destroy our Indian languages affected those Indian children to their core. Those children were our ancestors, our aunts and uncles, our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers - relatives of all the members of our respective nations.

One of the things U.S. boarding schools beat into American Indian children was patriotism toward the American flag and devotion to the Bible, in part by working to make Indian children ashamed of their own Native spirituality. As a spiritual matter and as a matter of conscience, how can I feel patriotic toward a political entity that worked so hard to destroy us as distinct nations and peoples that have existed in this hemisphere for thousands and thousands of years?

However, I am extremely matriotic toward Mother Earth. Matriotism is entirely consistent with our traditional cultural and spiritual way of life. I believe that a society dedicated to the values of matriotism would honor and respect motherhood and ''the motherland.'' It would acknowledge women as a source of life. It would support women and help them to thrive and excel by powerfully nurturing their innate intelligence. It would not abuse them emotionally, physically or sexually. A matriotic society would not regard women, or men, as a kind of property.

A society dedicated to matriotism - a sacred regard for the Earth and all living things - also would not allow poisons, such as pesticides, petroleum and toxic nuclear wastes, to leach into the veins of Mother Earth.

One example of Mother Earth being poisoned is found in the town of Moab, Utah, on the edge of the Colorado River where, according to a recent report in the San Diego Union-Tribune, some 58,000 gallons of radioactive liquid leach each and every day into sacred waters upon which animals, fish and millions of people rely.

Another such example is the Columbia River. For generations, highly radioactive liquid has been leaching from decomposing steel drums at the Hanford nuclear facility into the groundwater that runs into the Columbia River and the fish that live there. Now the U.S. government plans to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain in the Western Shoshone territory.

Given such patriarchal desecrations, I am content to be matriotic like my Shawnee and Delaware ancestors. As they and all our indigenous ancestors knew, we only have one Mother Earth, and we are all her children.

Steven Newcomb is the indigenous law research coordinator at Kumeyaay Community College on the Sycuan Indian Reservation, co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and a columnist for Indian Country Today.

Congress: Make the streets safe for Indian women too!

April 28, 2005, Indian Country Today, Suzan Shown Harjo
The streets of Indian country aren't safe for American Indian and Alaska Native women. Nearly 90 percent of the perpetrators of violent crimes against Native women are non-Indians - 60 percent are white men - and Native nations can't touch them.

Congress created this haven for non-Indian criminals on reservations and it's up to Congress to fix it. The 109th Congress has a chance to do that very thing this year, when it considers reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

VAWA 2005 is being drafted now to address the deplorable situation of women in America, where physical abuse is a feature of one-quarter of all marriages and where one-third of women who are treated in emergency rooms are victims of domestic violence.

While Native women also sustain injuries in abusive relationships, most of the men who assault Native women are strangers or acquaintances (80 percent) rather than intimate partners or family members (20 percent), according to a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report, ''American Indians and Crime (1992 - 2002),'' issued in December 2004.

This statistical profile and a raft of other studies, including the 2000 National Violence Against Women Survey, report that:

* American Indian and Alaska Native women are more than twice as likely to be victims of violent crime as other women in America.
* American Indian and Alaska Native women suffer sexual assaults at a rate of more than three times that of women of other races.
* More than one in three American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped during her lifetime.
* The rate of violent crime experienced by American Indian women is nearly 50 percent higher than that reported by black males, the second highest gender/race category victimized by violent crime.

Most violent crimes are committed intra-racially, as with white-on-white crime. This is not the pattern in Indian country, where 88 percent of the perpetrators of violent crime against Indians are non-Indians.

Why can't Indian governments punish these violent non-Indians and why should Congress step in? It's a long, complex history, but the short answer is that the federal government made this jurisdictional mess and should take every opportunity to clean it up.

Over a century ago in the name of ''Indian civilization,'' the federal government criminalized tribal traditions and took control of the reservations. When the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government did not have jurisdiction over Indian murders of Indians, Congress enacted the Major Crimes Act, authorizing federal jurisdiction over murder and other serious offenses involving Indian people.

Congress expanded federal jurisdiction, effectively restricting tribal authorities, under the Assimilative Crimes Act and myriad gaming, environmental, repatriation, arts and other laws. Tribal jurisdiction and remedies were limited under the federal tribal termination policy. Starting in the 1940s, Congress gave selected states certain criminal and civil authorities over Indian offenses. In the 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act, Congress restricted the sentencing authority of tribal courts to a one-year imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. The Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that Indian tribes cannot prosecute non-Indians in criminal matters.

That brings us to the present situation, where Native nations cannot punish non-Indians who harm Indian women in Indian territory, or can only give them a slap on the wrist. There are many reasons why the federal and state governments aren't doing a better job at bringing these bad men to justice. Basically, it comes down to geography and connectedness. The federal and state agents don't live where the crimes are being committed and the victims aren't their neighbors.

Only the reinstatement of tribal jurisdiction and remedies has a chance of reversing the epidemic levels of violence against Native women. In VAWA 2005, Congress can address the jurisdictional void that prevents Indian tribes from prosecuting non-Indians perpetrating these crimes. VAWA was signed into law in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000. VAWA 2000 mandates that protection orders from one tribe or state be afforded full faith and credit in outside jurisdictions. It also clarifies that Indian tribes have full civil jurisdiction to enforce protection orders, including authority to enforce any orders through civil contempt proceedings, the exclusion of violators from Indian lands and other ''appropriate mechanisms.''

Some states do not comply with the federal mandate and exhibit hostility toward affording full faith and credit to protection orders issued by tribal courts. Alaska's executive branch has challenged a state judge's decision allowing enforcement of a banishment order issued by the Native village of Perryville. The Minnesota Supreme Court in 2003 rejected a proposed statewide court rule for the consistent enforcement of all tribal court orders.

Advocates are working with legislators and staffers on the reauthorization of VAWA, which is set to expire this September. Advocates in Indian country would do well to work (and work fast) with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the judiciary committees to develop a bill that could stand alone or be folded into VAWA 2005.

A meaningful VAWA provision for Indian country would restore tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians in the area of violent crime against women. Proponents should be prepared for the inevitable discussion about review of tribal court decisions and opt-in/opt-out mechanisms.

At the very least, Congress should provide necessary funding to study full faith and credit implementation problems, in particular with regard to tribal domestic violence protection orders, and should withhold certain federal monies (unrelated to domestic violence prevention and response) from states that refuse to comply with VAWA's full faith and credit mandate.

VAWA's effect in Indian country would be strengthened by provisions ensuring tribal law enforcement officers' access to national databases that track criminal history; a national database of tribal protection orders and tribal adult sex offenders to track serial offenders who travel between different Indian nations; an increase in funding for tribal governments and programs providing infrastructure and services to survivors of rape, stalking and domestic and dating violence; and a tribal division within the Office on Violence Against Women to act as the liaison to tribal governments on issues unique to Indian nations and Indian women.

Congress can continue with the same jurisdictional system that devalues Native women and handicaps Native nations, or it can fill the jurisdictional void with something that might just work. If Congress fails to act, the reservation streets will remain safe for violent non-Indians - and the Indian women and their children and grandchildren will suffer. How is that good for anyone but the bad people?

Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today.

Peru Plans Reserve for Isolated Indigenous Group

The Peruvian government has created a commission that is in the early stages of designing plans for a reserve for the Mashco-Piro Indigenous group, one of 11 Indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation in the Peruvian Amazon. There is no reliable data on the Mashco-Piro, but there are estimates that there are 800 members of the group. The commission is planning to create “transitory territorial reserves” to enable to Mashco-Piro to maintain extensive routes to move freely about. A commission member, an anthropologist, said that the reserves will be assigned “until they decide, through their own community organization, to obtain recognition and ownership titles over land.” The Alto Puros province, home to 2,800 members of 8 Indigenous groups, is threatened by illegal logging that causes displacement of Indigenous communities and engenders social violence. Peru, one of the six South American countries that share the Amazon, loses 265,000 hectares of tropical rainforest annually to logging.

Brazil Formalizes Indigenous Reserve

The Brazilian Justice Ministry decided on Friday, April 15 to formalize the demarcation of the Raposa Sierra del Sol reserve in the northern state of Roraima, recognizing the right of 15,000 Indigenous members of five ethnic groups to the territory. The 1.74 million hectare reserve in on the border with Guyana and Venezuela and has been the site of contention and violence between Indigenous groups and white landowners growing rice and raising cattle for more than three decades. More than 20 Indigenous activists have died during the 30 year struggle to regain ancestral territory and the right to fish and hunt on their own land. A one-year deadline has been set for the large landowners to pull out of the territory. The Roraima Governor Ottomar Pinto said he would appeal the decision as soon as President Lula signed it, and rice growers announced calls for protest demonstrations. In January 2004, rice growers staged violent protests calling to break up the reserve in which three Catholic missionaries were briefly taken hostage.