tagged w/ Native American
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National Day of Mourning Statement from Leonard Peltier:
November 22, 2007
Greetings my Relations, As I sit here in my cell, thinking about you, and gathering my thoughts, I can't help but appreciate you remembering me.
I was told just the other day that people in Oklahoma protested Oklahoma's 100 year celebration of its statehood.
They protested or demonstrated and also celebrated their 100 years of survival of an adversed government that has violated all treaties and has gained control of most of their land.
I support those Indian people.
It also brings to mind those who - like Columbus came and did the same, take our lands, and also what has happened to all people all over the world- the Jews, the Palestians, as well as other indigenous countries and peoples.
Yet I have to say that America shares most of the responsibility to do the right thing.
What happened to the teachings or commandments of: Thou shall not lie Thou shall not kill Thou shall not steal
I can't remember all the commandments but what I do know is They have lied They have killed They have stolen.
They have mistreated our Mother- our Mother Earth, our rivers, our land, the air we breathe and the water we drink.
I consider global warming the wrong that has been done to our people.
Even the Mexican people state in their own way, "We did not cross the border, the border crossed us". The Mexican people are Indian people.
I have no doubt the Indian people of South America, North America, Central American will join in unison to make all the America's better.
A circle of Life is what dictates that the earth shall renew itself every spring.
We have said this for generations.
Go back and read our Elders sayings as we have been trying to tell Europeans that came here- to honor our traditional ways and to honor our Mother Earth and keep the Circle of Life.
Chief Seattle said: "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." Chief Seattle, 1855
This is just one of the many quotations from our ancestors.
Now today we have global warming.
We take no pride of solace in saying " We told you so."
But we do hope that the people of Europe and all around the world will start looking at the Native way of life.
Our Elders teach us that when we take from this earth, we must give back.
There is no greater resource on the face of this earth than our children.
America is leading in the wrongful influence of our youth.
Wrong medicine is being offered to our youth, commonly called alcohol and drugs.
It is up to each one of us, to get involved and make a difference in a positive way.
It is time to give back to our children.
I encourage each of you to take it upon yourself to stand up and find someway to help our youth.
The youth of the world are in jeopardy; let us not rob future generations of their future.
The greatest symbol of the Creator is the circle.
I encourage each of you to make the circle complete- the sacred cycle of the family, the cycle of the seasons, your personal cycle of life make them as strong as possible spiritually, mentally and physically.
Stay strong and never, never give up.
I can not say it enough or express my appreciation to each of you how much I appreciate those of you who came here today to remember me and to listen to what this prisoner has to say.
Again I simply say,
Thank you In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Leonard Peltier
#89637-132
USP Lewisburg PA
PO BOX 1000
Lewisburg ,PA 17837
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Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Toni Zeidan-Co-director LPDC
Website:
http://www.leonardpeltier.net
email:
info@leonardpeltier.net
National Day of Mourning Statement from Leonard Peltier:
November 22, 2007... more
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"The 13th of September 2007 will be remembered as an international human rights day for the indigenous peoples of the world," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairperson of the Permanent Forum, in an emotional tone filled with joy.
International civil society groups working for the rights of indigenous peoples also expressed extreme pleasure with Thursday's vote.
The United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand stood alone in voting against the resolution.
"The entire wealth of the United States, Canada, and other so-called modern states is built on the poverty and human rights violations of their indigenous peoples," said Manuel. "The international community needs to understand how hypocritical Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States are.""The 13th of September 2007 will be remembered as an international human rights... more
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"Maybe we should be developing our loyalty to this planet and this earth and our future, our descendants, more than we should be to governing political systems that have created all these problems.""Maybe we should be developing our loyalty to this planet and this earth and our... more
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Sainte-Marie has claimed that she was blacklisted and that she, along with other American Indians in the Red Power movements, was put out of business in the 1970s.
"I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that [President] Lyndon B. Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music," Sainte-Marie said in a 1999 interview with Indian Country Today at Dine' College... "In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked."
Additionally, she claims that in the United States, her records were disappearing. According to her, thousands of people at concerts wanted records, and although the distributor claimed that the records had been shipped, no one seemed to know where they were.
Said Sainte-Marie, "I was put out of business in the United States."Sainte-Marie has claimed that she was blacklisted and that she, along with other... more
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Leonard Peltier is an imprisoned Native American considered by Amnesty International, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Congress of American Indians, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rev. Jesse Jackson, amongst many other leaders, organizations and private citizens, to be a political prisoner who should be immediately released.
We have not forgotten.
Leonard Peltier is an imprisoned Native American considered by Amnesty International,... more
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By focusing on the Native American struggle for spiritual and cultural autonomy on disputed lands in the U.S. Southwest, ?Trespassing? unpacks a deadly political and ethical controversy around land rights, uranium mining, nuclear testing and the disposal of nuclear waste, and examines the ability of a culture to bring itself to the brink of annihilation while simultaneously producing "gatekeepers" to combat that annihilation. "Trespassing" offers an in depth and provocative examination of historical survival and struggle designed to impact the present generation and alter a deadly course of action.By focusing on the Native American struggle for spiritual and cultural autonomy on... more
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Racism, poverty, teen suicide on reservations, the derogatory perversion of American Indian names on Minnesota rivers and other locations across the country, and learning respect for the environment from Earth-based cultures were among the topics discussed at a Native American Roundtable held in northern Michigan.
TIP volunteer media advisor Greg Peterson reports on the roundtable.
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Inaugural Grand Island Conference in northern Michigan addressed racism, poverty, teen suicide, derogatory location names, and other issues; Centering prayer, Celtic spiritual issues discussed during Turtle Island Project conference
(Munising, Michigan) - Racism, poverty, teen suicide on reservations, the derogatory perversion of American Indian names on Minnesota rivers and other locations across the country, and learning respect for the environment from Earth-based cultures were among the topics discussed at a Native American Roundtable held Sept 13-15, 2007 in northern Michigan.
Sponsored by the Turtle Island Project, a non-profit based in the Upper Peninsula, the conference was held at the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising.
The reasons for a shocking increase in teen suicides at American Indian reservations was discussed including the 600 attempts and 15 deaths over the past two years at the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The discussion included whether media coverage of the suicides would be different if the victims were white teenagers.
The TIP will bring more details on this effort in the near future, however the Rosebud official said the U.S. government has been ignoring requests for addition counselors and the four current counselors badly need help because each has over 100 teen cases.
The TIP believes this is another example of low-income Native Americans being overlook, yet the situation would make national headlines if the deaths were affluent white teens.
"I think one of the main reasons for suicide is loss of identity and hope and with that comes deep despair," said Pat Cornish-Hall, a Munising resident who is just discovering her mother's Native American heritage. I do believe that poverty certainly has an effect on suicide.
Counselor Joni Peffers of Gwinn said the media should report on the trends of teen suicides in their area but not give the individual details of each attempt or death.
"Each suicide should not be publicized for many reasons," said Peffers, owner of Celtic Cove Counseling at K.I. Sawyer.
TIP co-founder Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard said wars across the globe have been started in the name of religion - but that is not the case with Native Americans who fought over the theft of land or hunting rights, never over differences in religious belief.
"Native Americans never started a war over religious ideology," said Rev. Hubbard, TIP director and pastor of Eden on the Bay Lutheran church.
The perversion of the original Native American name of Minnesota's Rum River and similar derogatory names was placed on the agenda at the request of Thomas Dahlheimer, director of the Rum River Name Change Organization Inc. in Wahkon, Minnesota.
Minnesota State Rep. Mike Joros, D-Duluth, recently introduced a bill that would change 14 derogatory geographic place names that are offensive to American Indians.
The Rum River in Minnesota was named by whites referring to alcohol "spirits" instead of the original American Indian name that meant "Great Spirit."
"Two of these derogatory names were changed from the sacred Ojibwe name for their Great Spirit (Manido) to Devil, as was the custom throughout our nation," said Dahlheimer. "Racial hatred was why many geographic site names were changed from Native peoples' names for the Great Spirit to Devil."
Hubbard said one of the goals of the TIP is to "give Native Americans a venue in which their voices can be heard and listened to."
Racism, poverty, teen suicide on reservations, the derogatory perversion of American... more
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CHICAGO, Oct. 27 Chief Illiniwek has not yet left the campus.
Months after the University of Illinois decided to retire the mascot officially, banning him from university activities, the image of Chief Illiniwek, a buckskin-clad American Indian, was allowed to return to an event during homecoming celebrations this weekend on the Urbana-Champaign campus.
His likeness appeared on the side of a couple of floats, face-forward, fully framed in feathers.
In the name of free speech and in a reversal of policy, Chancellor Richard Herman lifted a prohibition on the use of the Chief Illiniwek logo on homecoming parade floats just a day before the parade rolled on Friday night.
The university values free speech and free expression, the university said in a statement, and considers homecoming floats, decorations, costumes and related signage all representations of such personal expression. Therefore, Chancellor Herman has directed the Homecoming Committee to strike the existing policy from the homecoming float guidelines.
A few thousand spectators showed up on campus for the parade, and about half of them were sporting some sort of Chief Illiniwek paraphernalia somewhere on their bodies. There were no protesters.
As an official mascot, Chief Illiniwek performed for the last time in February. He was retired under pressure from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and amid heated debate at the university, though the universitys sports teams retained the nickname Illini. A symbol of university and geographic pride to many, Chief Illiniwek came across to others as a racial stereotype from another time.
He was 81 years old.
....CHICAGO, Oct. 27 Chief Illiniwek has not yet left the campus.
Months after the... more
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Several state legislators have been pushing for the replacement of Columbus Day with Native American Day. This might not be the case if it were not for people like Giago, who was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the Class of 1991 and founder of The Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers. He founded and was the first president of the Native American Journalists Association, although, for some reason, this is not noted on the NAJA website. Several state legislators have been pushing for the replacement of Columbus Day with... more
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English colonists didnt invent racism in the Americasgold-obsessed Spaniards had a head start of nearly a centurybut their early antipathy to Virginias Indian tribes set the tone for the following centuries.
For the Indians that survived the initial period of contact, the future was bleak. The loss of their lands was bad enough, but they had the bad luck to live in the place that would become Virginia:
Jim Crow. The Confederacy. Eugenics.
Today, Virginia's 4,000 Indians are the direct descendants of Pocahontas and her people. Despite this famous forbear, Virginia's eight surviving tribes are forced to fight for the right to call themselves Indian. They seek recognition from the Federal Government, a process that would officially make them Indian, as well as grant them badly needed education and health care benefits.
Though this lack of recognition is the result of a kafka-esque history, tribal leaders have united for the first time to overcome their shared legacy of racism. Next year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America. Thanks to a truly grassroots effortan alliance of tribes has hired a lobbyist using bake-sale proceedsa bill is currently pending in congress that would offer recognition for six of the tribes.English colonists didnt invent racism in the Americasgold-obsessed Spaniards had a... more
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This reminds me of a crazy movie that I saw called Americathon starring John Ritter as a sex crazed president of a bankrupted America (thus having to do an Americathon to raise money) , in which Native Americans have taken over the sweat shops, the Chinese run the fast food and no one drives because there is no oil but cars are used as houses. But in this case it's more likely Nike just going after niche markets.This reminds me of a crazy movie that I saw called Americathon starring John Ritter as... more
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