tagged w/ Indigenous Peoples
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This Thanksgiving as you sit down to your feasts, remember the indigenous farmers of our world whose long traditions of cultivation and caring for the earth have brought forth the fruits of their labor and love for this planet for all of us to benefit from.
Then make a pledge that you will fight to preserve these traditions that provide soil health, biodiversity, and life for them and us.
NO GMOS this Thanksgiving or any day!
To these great people I say, thank you with much love and respect. May we realize the gifts we have been given before it truly is too late.This Thanksgiving as you sit down to your feasts, remember the indigenous farmers of... more
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Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place the explorer's picture on a timeline through history.
Kolowith's students learn about the explorer's significance — though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.
"I talk about the situation where he didn't even realize where he was," Kolowith said. "And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy."
Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.
"The whole terminology has changed," said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. "You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to. 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?"
In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the "Columbian Exchange" — which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.
In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.
"In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy," teacher Laurie Crawford said.
Of course, the perspective given varies across classrooms and grades. Donna Sabis-Burns, a team leader with the U.S. Department of Education's School Support and Technology Program, surveyed teachers nationwide about the Columbus reading materials they used in class for her University of Florida dissertation. She examined 62 picture books, and found the majority were outdated and contained inaccurate — and sometimes outright demeaning — depictions of the native Taino population.
The federal holiday itself also is not universally recognized. Schools in Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle will be open; New York City, Washington and Chicago schools will be closed.
The day is an especially sensitive issue in places with larger native American populations.
"We have a very large Alaska native population, so just the whole Columbus being the founder of the United States, doesn't sit well with a lot of people, myself included," said Paul Prussing, deputy director of Alaska's Division of Teaching and Learning Support.
Many recall decades ago when there was scant mention of indigenous groups in discussions about Columbus. Kracht remembers a picture in one of his fifth-grade textbooks that showed Columbus wading to shore with a huge flag and cross.
"The indigenous population was kind of waiting expectantly, almost with smiles on their faces," Kracht said. "'I wonder what this guy is bringing us?' Well, he's bringing us smallpox, for one thing, and none of us are going to live very long."
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Well, it's about time. I can still remember the song they taught us for Columbus Day in grade school... In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue... across the ocean big and wide... he found our land on the other side... Good thing my father taught me what a barbarian he was. Truth in education. What a concept.Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take... more
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Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation – the World Seed Conference. Although the subject may appear obscure, the conference theme and the issues discussed, including plant variety protection and seed improvement techniques, could not be more important to millions of farmers in the developing world.
Between the heavy acronyms and technical terms used by the UN figures, government officials and industry representatives, the conference illustrated two clear themes; firstly, the desire of Northern-based business to continue a process of enclosure of key farming inputs such as seeds by way of technology. Secondly, a push by these same companies (supported by the US and EU countries) for an extension and tightening of intellectual property rights on plant genetic resources into the national law of poorer countries.
Under the guise of innovation and progress, breeding companies suggest that seed varieties developed in laboratories in the North and then sold to poorer farmers in the South can raise yields in crops, increase nutritional values, reduce pesticide and fossil fuels use as well as conserve biodiversity. In the words of one participant at the conference, his company utilised ‘the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind.’
Advocates from industry argue that to safeguard their investment in these manipulated ‘seed innovations’ governments should use a form of legal construction (intellectual property rights) to prevent farmers from re-using and changing seeds that are a ‘product’ of agribusiness. Industry lobbyists also suggest that such monopoly rights should extend to developed plants varieties that business cannot easily control by technology – for example due to natural reproduction.
However, the patenting of seeds, extension of plant variety protection and rollout of a global regime of intellectual property rights for agricultural inputs could have serious consequences for small-scale farmers in the developing world.
Techno-Fixes and Monopoly Control
Firstly, the intellectual property regime that many participants in the Conference wish to tighten and extend to poorer countries (what one participant called ‘the development of a new industry competitiveness on foreign markets’), legally prevents farmers from sharing and saving seeds for later harvests or for future generations.
Under a key intellectual property treaty first signed in the 1960s and last amended in 1991, called UPOV, and the later WTO TRIPS, governments agreed to prevent farmers from saving or sharing seeds with only a few limited exceptions. In countries that have accepted these intellectual property regimes, small-scale farmers have moved increasingly towards the use of imported seeds, suffering from a number of adverse effects including increased debt levels, displacement and worsening food security. Making the situation worse, under intellectual property laws, some governments refuse to subsidise or even prohibit the use of seeds that do not make an ‘official list’ – most often those that were previously shared and exchanged between communities.Last week marked a little-known and under-reported symposium held in Rome under the... more
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Survival International
Indigenous people from south-east Peru are suing Repsol-YPF and US company Hunt Oil over their plans to explore for oil on their land.
Local indigenous organisation FENAMAD has filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to be placed on both the companies’ activities. The suit argues that the government did not consult with local people before giving the companies permission to work there, as is required under international law, and oil exploration would violate local peoples’ fundamental human rights to ‘enjoy a balanced environment’.
Hunt and Repsol-YPF own the rights to explore in an area known as ‘Lot 76’, which includes land belonging to the Yine, Matsigenka and Harakmbut tribes. At the heart of the Lot is the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, used by many villages in the region and the source of six rivers that are the only fresh water supply for an estimated ten thousand people.
‘FENAMAD hopes that this legal action will paralyze any activity inside the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, as otherwise the very existence of Madre de Dios’s indigenous peoples would be put at risk,’ said FENAMAD spokesperson Jaime Corisepa.
Representatives of villages potentially affected by the exploration met with two Hunt employees at a recent meeting organised by FENAMAD http://fenamad-indigenas.blogspot.com/2009/09/native-communities-of-madre-de-dios.html
The representatives told Hunt they rejected the company’s presence on their land.
Watch a film of the meeting with Hunt http://fenamad-indigenas.blogspot.com/ (in Spanish), entitled ‘See how the Peruvian Amazon’s indigenous peoples say ‘NO’ to Hunt Oil company’.Survival International
Indigenous people from south-east Peru are suing Repsol-YPF... more
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See Links to vote below:
Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's nonprofit environment projects in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Vote for the story by Donna Kumpula about the EarthKeeper Initiative and the Zaagkii Project
It was weekly winner in April but now its competing against about 19 others for the big prize . Money that would help fund the projects for a year.
You'll need to register - or login if you have voted before.
Its entitled:
Creating numerous environment projects that bring together diverse groups, students, American Indians
Link to story is near end of list on lower right hand side of page.
http://www.friendsofelsie.com/friends.asp?action=register
Or go directly to story – and register or log-in:
http://www.friendsofelsie.com/SingleSensations.asp?action=readStory&story=70
Brief summary of projects your vote would support:
The interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative:
The interfaith EarthKeepers planted twelve thousand (12,000) trees across northern Michigan for Earth Day 2009 thanks to over 100 churches/temples from 12 religions.
During past Earth Day projects, the EarthKeepers have recycled or properly disposed over nearly 400 tons of waste including cellphones, computers (and related equipment), printers, car batteries, poisons, pesticides, oil-based paint, pharmaceuticals and much more.
The Zaagkii Project:
This summer Native American youth and at-risk teens are repairing the ecosystem along a Lake Superior beach, built dozens of Mason Bee houses including some to be placed at the U.S. National Gardens in D.C.; Native American teens this month are helping build a greenhouse for native species plants on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community reservation.
Last summer the teens built dozens of butterfly houses for migrating Monarchs.See Links to vote below:
Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about... more
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Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's nonprofit environment projects in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Vote for the story by Donna Kumpula about the EarthKeeper Initiative and the Zaagkii Project
It was weekly winner in April but now its competing against about 19 others for the big prize . Money that would help fund the projects for a year.
You'll need to register - or login if you have voted before.
Its entitled:
Creating numerous environment projects that bring together diverse groups, students, American Indians
Link to story is near end of list on lower right hand side of pagfe.
http://www.friendsofelsie.com/friends.asp?action=register
Or go directly to story – and register or log-in:
http://www.friendsofelsie.com/SingleSensations.asp?action=readStory&story=70
Brief summary of projects your vote would support:
The interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative:
The interfaith EarthKeepers planted twelve thousand (12,000) trees across northern Michigan for Earth Day 2009 thanks to over 100 churches/temples from 12 religions.
During past Earth Day projects, the EarthKeepers have recycled or properly disposed over nearly 400 tons of waste including cellphones, computers (and related equipment), printers, car batteries, poisons, pesticides, oil-based paint, pharmaceuticals and much more.
The Zaagkii Project:
This summer Native American youth and at-risk teens are repairing the ecosystem along a Lake Superior beach, built dozens of Mason Bee houses including some to be placed at the U.S. National Gardens in D.C.; Native American teens this month are helping build a greenhouse for native species plants on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community reservation.
Last summer the teens built dozens of butterfly houses for migrating Monarchs.Please vote daily through August 30, 2009 for story about Rev. Jon Magnuson's... more
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(Valparaiso, Indiana) - Rev. Dr. George Cairns of Chesterton, Indiana delivers a Sunday homily about “the major evils of today – genocide and ecocide” entitled “Repent or the Time is Near” on May 31, 2009 at the Union Community Church in Valparaiso, Indiana.
In this two part homily video series, Rev. Cairns discusses the “Cosmic Christ” and a related story in “The Lutheran” magazine by Elaine Siemsen, the United Nations definition of genocide, the loss of language and other heritages in Indigenous peoples like the American Indian, Ecocide, the acclaimed ABC News Special “Earth 2100” and how many experts believes the Earth and its inhabitants are facing the “the Sixth Great Extinction” of the world.
Cairns talks about the results of the American Museum of Natural History national survey on Ecocide that “reveals a biodiversity crisis” and is entitled “Scientific Experts Believe we are in the Midst of Fastest Mass Extinction in Earth's History: Crisis Poses Major Threat to Human Survival; Public Unaware of Danger”
With the statute of limitations up, Rev. Cairns confesses his childhood antics to prevent a highway construction project from ruining the woods in which he played - now an interstate freeway has “vaporized” those woods that meant so much to him while growing up.
The other homilies on Celtic Christianity take a look at several topics including the European roots of the Celts (primarily Scotland and Ireland) and how Earth-based cultures can impact the future of civilization including actively protecting the environment, respecting fellow humans, different cultures and nature.
Cairns works closely with Rev. Gregory Jones on several social fronts.
Rev. Jones is the pastor of the Union Community Church and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University.
Founded in 2007, The non-profit Turtle Island Project is known for its ongoing work with Native American issues and the other wing involves other Earth-based religions like the Celts. Dr. Cairns is the co-founder of the nonprofit Turtle Island Project.
Rev. Cairns continues to work closely with the foremost Celtic group in the world, the Iona Community in Scotland.
Celtic Christianity Today
http://www.celticchristianitytoday.org
youtube & bliptv:
http://celticchristianity.blip.tv
www.youtube.com/celticchristianity
Rev. George Cairns, Spirit Cafe blog, United Church of Christ
http://i.ucc.org/FeedYourSpirit/SpiritCafe/CafeBlog/tabid/83/Default.aspx
Iona Community, Scotland
www.iona.org.uk
www.isle-of-iona.com
www.iona-nwf.org/links.htm
Union Community Church, Valparaiso, IN
http://unioncommunitychurchucc.blogspot.com
Rev. Gregory Jones, Theology Department at Valparaiso University
www.valpo.edu/theology/faculty/gregoryjones.php
http://faculty.valpo.edu/gjones
The Lutheran Magazine: Who is the Cosmic Christ? By Elaine Siemsen
http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article_buy.cfm?article_id=2696
United Nations: genocide
www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm
www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm
www.hawaii-nation.org/genocide.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide
Native American Genocide – then and now:
www.unitednativeamerica.com/aiholocaust.html
www.nemasys.com/ghostwolf/Native/genocide.shtml
www.exiledmothers.com/babies_taken_for_adoption/native_american_babies.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death
www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/01/a-native-american-language-goe.html
Ecocide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide
American Museum of Natural History survey on Ecocide:
http://www.well.com/~davidu/amnh.html
http://www.well.com/~davidu/extinction.html
http://www.well.com/
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/02/is-mass-species.html
ABC News Special “Earth 2100”
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Earth2100
The Sixth Great Extinction:
http://rewilding.org/thesixthgreatextinction.htm
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/issues/biodiversity/sixth.asp
http://www.well.com/user/davidu/sixthextinction.html(Valparaiso, Indiana) - Rev. Dr. George Cairns of Chesterton, Indiana delivers a... more
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The uprising In the Amazon is more urgent than Iran's - it will determine the future of the planet.
In the depths of the Amazon rainforest, the poorest people in the world have taken on the richest people in the world to defend a part of the ecosystem none of us can live without. They had nothing but wooden spears and moral force to defeat the oil companies – and, for today, they have won.
Here's the story of how it happened – and how we all need to pick up this fight. Earlier this year, Peru's right-wing President, Alan Garcia, sold the rights to explore, log and drill 70 per cent of his country's swathe of the Amazon to a slew of international oil companies. Garcia seems to see rainforest as a waste of good resources, saying of the Amazon's trees: "There are millions of hectares of timber there lying idle."
There was only one pesky flaw in Garcia's plan: the indigenous people who live in the Amazon. They are the first people of the Americas, subject to wave after wave of genocide since the arrival of the Conquistadors. They are weak. They have no guns. They barely have electricity. The government didn't bother to consult them: what are a bunch of Indians going to do anyway?
But the indigenous people have seen what has happened elsewhere in the Amazon when the oil companies arrive. Occidental Petroleum are facing charges in US courts of dumping an estimated nine billion barrels of toxic waste in the regions of the Amazon where they operated from 1972 to 2000. Andres Sandi Mucushua, the spiritual leader of the area known to the oil companies as Block (12A)B, said in 2007: "My people are sick and dying because of Oxy. The water in our streams is not fit to drink and we can no longer eat the fish in our rivers or the animals in our forests." The company denies liability, saying they are "aware of no credible data of negative community health impacts".
In the Ecuadorian Amazon, according to an independent report, toxic waste allegedly dumped after Chevron-Texaco's drilling has been blamed by an independent scientific investigation for 1,401 deaths, mostly of children from cancer. When the BBC investigator Greg Palast put these charges to Chevron's lawyer, he replied: "And it's the only case of cancer in the world? How many cases of children with cancer do you have in the States?... They have to prove it's our crude, [which] is absolutely impossible."
The people of the Amazon do not want to see their forests felled and their lands poisoned. And here, the need of the indigenous peoples to preserve their habitat has collided with your need to preserve your habitat. The rainforests inhale massive amounts of warming gases and keep them stored away from the atmosphere. Already, we are chopping them down so fast that it is causing 25 per cent of man-made carbon emissions every year – more than planes, trains and automobiles combined. But it is doubly destructive to cut them down to get to fossil fuels, which then cook the planet yet more. Garcia's plan was to turn the Amazon from the planet's air con into its fireplace.
Why is he doing this? He was responding to intense pressure from the US, whose new Free Trade Pact requires this "opening up", and from the International Monetary Fund, paid for by our taxes. In Peru, it has also been alleged that the ruling party, APRA, is motivated by oil bribes. Some of Garcia's associates have been caught on tape talking about how to sell off the Amazon to their cronies.
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Thank you to those who live in the Amazon who know what is most important to life on this planet. This of course didn't cause the Twitter frenzy the protests in Iran did, but nevertheless this too is about democracy... environmental democracy, and that to me is most important because without a sustainable environment you have nothing else.The uprising In the Amazon is more urgent than Iran's - it will determine the future... more
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Amazon Watch joined fourteen human rights and environmental organizations in urging the United States to take immediate steps towards addressing recent political violence in Peru. The Peruvian Government's actions to quell two months of nonviolent protests by Amazonian indigenous communities have resulted in numerous deaths of both indigenous protesters and police and hundreds injured.
The protests are against the passage of controversial "legislative decrees", new laws created by Peruvian President Alan Garcia purportedly to implement the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).
Today, a coalition of 15 environmental and human rights organizations is making public a letter sent last Friday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-level Obama Administration officials as well as key members of Congress, requesting that the U.S. Government immediately issue a formal response as to whether Peru would jeopardize the US-Peru TPA by repealing the contested decrees.
"The Garcia Administration has insisted that repealing the decrees would mortally wound the free trade agreement, opting for heavy-handed measures against protesters instead of good-faith dialogue." said Andrew Miller of Amazon Watch. "By clarifying the U.S. position on these decrees, the Obama Administration could help create the needed political space for a real dialogue between the Peruvian government and the Amazonian indigenous federation AIDESEP."
Last Thursday, the Peruvian Congress issued a 90-day suspension of legislative decrees 1090 and 1064, with the stated purpose of restoring dialogue with indigenous communities. However, the indigenous movement is demanding revocation of the decrees and is rejecting Congress's suspension as inadequate.
Beyond the indigenous federations, Peruvian legal scholars and Congressional committees have questioned the constitutionality of many of the controversial degrees. Congressional members of President Garcia's APRA party have maneuvered repeatedly to block discussions of the decrees' constitutionality on the floor of Congress.
"Whether or not the U.S. intended it, the reality is that the U.S.-Peru Trade Agreement gave license to the Garcia Administration to roll back indigenous rights and has contributed to increasing social conflict and human rights abuses in Peru," said Amazon Watch's Andrew Miller. "The Obama administration should send a clear signal that it is not willing to accept the erosion of democracy, stability, and human rights in pursuit of free trade."
The signatories to the letter urge the United States Government to call for Peru to respect indigenous peoples' rights as established in the Peruvian Constitution, ILO Convention 169, and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
end of excerptAmazon Watch joined fourteen human rights and environmental organizations in urging... more
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RAN is building a grassroots challenge to global corporate power from the ground up.
There’s work to be done in your high school, university or local community. We have the resources you need to make a difference.
Things you can do now: Take action onlineRAN is building a grassroots challenge to global corporate power from the ground up.... more
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URGENT: Peru Is Murdering Amazon Protesters!
In the past several days the Peruvian government murdered dozens of Indigenous protesters who tried to unite in peaceful protest against oil expansion in their forests.
Peru's President, Alan Garcia, says that in order to meet its Free Trade Agreement responsibilities to the United States Peru must prioritize the demands of international resource exploitation even as they undermine the land rights of Peru's Indigenous peoples.
And so far the US has been silent.
Act now and tell Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the US needs take a stand and formally demand that Peru end the violence now.
Your message will be sent as an electronic fax to Secretary Clinton in order to maximize your impact!URGENT: Peru Is Murdering Amazon Protesters!
In the past several days the Peruvian... more
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The rhetoric was sharp enough to cut down Amazonian hardwoods. Yesterday, Sunday June 7th, after a number of ministers had been paraded out Saturday and the day before, Peru's el Señor Presidente, Alan Garcia decided to make it personal. After a joint police-military operation aimed at stopping an Indigenous protest had gone awry, leaving many dead on both sides, Garcia declared the Indigenous elements to be standing in the way of progress, in the path of national development, wrenches in the gears of modernity, and part of an international conspiracy to keep Peru down. In a troubling statement on the resemblance of the Indigenous protestors to the infamous Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) armed insurrection, Garcia seemed to imply the Natives were a band of terrorists as he stood in front of hundreds of military officers in a nationally televised speech. He continued to decry the Indian barbarity and savagery, and called for all police and military to stand against savagery.
Clearly, the battle lines were being drawn. Garcia demonstrated he is not about to allow anything to get in the way of "our development" of the oil and mineral resources the Amazon has to offer. Especially by a bunch of confused savages (his words) who are pawns to the international market and to Indian elites and therefore have no real reason to be resisting. At this point, it was obvious he thought nothing of the Indigenous cause, and what they actually stood for. There is too much money to be extracted from oil, from minerals, from logging, and from possible agriculture in the Amazon region, the 2nd largest stretch outside of Brazil. All on land with less than 200,000 Indigenous people. All now supposed to be open for business, as a result of a series of laws passed under the auspices of Free Trade Agreements signed with both Canada and the United States.
All those who lost their lives - certainly more than the 30 or so officially cited - have in the end given their lives for these free trade agreements and their domestic implementation. After wresting a concession from Congress - a la Bush - Garcia was able to push through 99 changes to the law of Peru. A number of these were ruled unconstitutional later, one dealing with property law standing out. Indigenous groups disputed from the beginning that these laws threatened the integrity of the Amazon, its cultural and biological diversity. Since the beginning, they were ignored. Living up to their Amazonian warrior mythology, they decided to take action.
end of excerpt
From the link:
Ben Powless is Mohawk from Six Nations in Ontario. He is currently studying Human Rights, Indigenous and Environmental Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, after spending a year in an international exchange program, studying sustainable rural development between Alberta and Mexico. He has been involved with the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition since its inception, working at both the national level and with the Ottawa Chapter. He is also heavily involved with the Indigenous Environmental Network. He also sits on the board of the National Council for the Canadian Environmental Network, is on the Youth Advisory Group to the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and is very involved in the local Aboriginal community.The rhetoric was sharp enough to cut down Amazonian hardwoods. Yesterday, Sunday June... more
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(Munising, MI) - Northern Michigan residents helped fight American Indian teen suicide and family violence during December 13 third annual free benefit concert in northern MI.
The non-profit Turtle Island Project (TIP) in Munising organized the third annual "Cowboys and Angels" concert that was held to benefit the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) in Mission, South Dakota – the first Native American domestic violence shelter in the world.
The WBCWS battles domestic violence, sexual assault and an alarming increase in teen suicides on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, the home of the Sicangu Lakota people.
Poverty, depression, a lack of jobs, drugs, alcohol and other social problems are among the reasons behind Rosebud suicides and family violence.
Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard performed original songs and seasonal music during the concert on Saturday, Dec. 13 from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore at 104 East Munising Ave. in downtown Munising
The WBCWS was founded 30 years ago by a group of courageous Native American women including current executive director Tillie Black Bear.
"The White Buffalo Calf Woman's Society and its domestic violence shelter are vital to address social issues like teen suicide and domestic violence on the Rosebud reservation," said Dr. Hubbard, pastor of the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, MI. "Women and children are treated with dignity."
"The Rosebud Reservation has been described as a Third World Country in America's heartland," Hubbard said. "Social problems on the Rosebud can sometimes seem overwhelming but the answer starts with a person donating money or volunteering their time and praying for the people."
The TIP has organized numerous free benefit concerts in the U.P. and SD for the WBCWS including two by Iron County-based folk groups, White Water and Duo Borealis.
Call 906-202-0590 email turtleislandproject@charter.net
White Buffalo Calf Woman Society
Tillie Black Bear, director
P.O. Box 227
Mission, SD
57555
1-605-856-2317
http://www.wbcws.org
Turtle Island Project
Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard, Director/Co-founder
137 East Onota Street
Munising, MI. 49862
1-906-202-0590
http://www.turtleislandproject.org
Turtle Island TV (blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv
Rosebud Tribe official website:
http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov
Rosebud Reservation video stills by KOTA TV Sioux Falls, SD
Photos in "Sorrow on the Rosebud" graphic by photographer Lara Neel, Argus-Herald Leader newspaper
Kudos to reporter Steve Young, photographer Lara Neel & Argus Leader staff/management.
Why are young Lakota killing themselves?
South Dakota reservation's suicide rate said to be among highest in world
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS/809210301/-1/archive
Despite stable home, teen chose death
Mother struggles to understand reasons behind son's tragic act
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS/809210302/0/archive
Searching for solutions
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309210002/0/archive
Tribe takes steps to 'stop this pain'
Rosebud Sioux embracing range of strategies to stem tragic trend
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309230004/0/reservationsuicide
Opportunity presents hope for youth
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309230002/0/reservationsuicide
Son's death prompts desire to help
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309230003/0/reservationsuicide
Vids:
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=videonetwork
Falling Rock Café & Bookstore
Nancy & Jeff Dwyer, owners
Munising, MI
49862
http://www.fallingrockcafe.com(Munising, MI) - Northern Michigan residents helped fight American Indian teen suicide... more
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Munising, MI - Northern Michigan residents helped fight American Indian teen suicide and family violence during December 13 third annual free benefit concert in northern MI.
The non-profit Turtle Island Project (TIP) in Munising organized the third annual "Cowboys and Angels" concert that was held to benefit the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) in Mission, South Dakota – the first Native American domestic violence shelter in the world.
The WBCWS battles domestic violence, sexual assault and an alarming increase in teen suicides on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, the home of the Sicangu Lakota people.
Poverty, depression, a lack of jobs, drugs, alcohol and other social problems are among the reasons behind Rosebud suicides and family violence.
Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard performed original songs and seasonal music during the concert on Saturday, Dec. 13 from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore at 104 East Munising Ave. in downtown Munising
The WBCWS was founded 30 years ago by a group of courageous Native American women including current executive director Tillie Black Bear.
"The White Buffalo Calf Woman's Society and its domestic violence shelter are vital to address social issues like teen suicide and domestic violence on the Rosebud reservation," said Dr. Hubbard, pastor of the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, MI. "Women and children are treated with dignity."
"The Rosebud Reservation has been described as a Third World Country in America's heartland," Hubbard said. "Social problems on the Rosebud can sometimes seem overwhelming but the answer starts with a person donating money or volunteering their time and praying for the people."
The TIP has organized numerous free benefit concerts in the U.P. and SD for the WBCWS including two by Iron County-based folk groups, White Water and Duo Borealis.
Call 906-202-0590 email turtleislandproject@charter.net
White Buffalo Calf Woman Society
Tillie Black Bear, director
P.O. Box 227
Mission, SD
57555
1-605-856-2317
http://www.wbcws.org
Turtle Island Project
Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard, Director/Co-founder
137 East Onota Street
Munising, MI. 49862
1-906-202-0590
http://www.turtleislandproject.org
Turtle Island TV (blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv
Rosebud Tribe official website:
http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov
Rosebud Reservation video stills by KOTA TV Sioux Falls, SD
Photos in "Sorrow on the Rosebud" graphic by photographer Lara Neel, Argus-Herald Leader newspaper
Kudos to reporter Steve Young, photographer Lara Neel & Argus Leader staff/management.
Why are young Lakota killing themselves?
South Dakota reservation's suicide rate said to be among highest in world
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS/809210301/-1/archive
Despite stable home, teen chose death
Mother struggles to understand reasons behind son's tragic act
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS/809210302/0/archive
Searching for solutions
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309210002/0/archive
Tribe takes steps to 'stop this pain'
Rosebud Sioux embracing range of strategies to stem tragic trend
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309230004/0/reservationsuicide
Opportunity presents hope for youth
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309230002/0/reservationsuicide
Son's death prompts desire to help
http://beta.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/RESERVATIONSUICIDE/309230003/0/reservationsuicide
Vids:
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=videonetwork
Falling Rock Café & Bookstore
Nancy & Jeff Dwyer, owners
Munising, MI
49862
http://www.fallingrockcafe.comMunising, MI - Northern Michigan residents helped fight American Indian teen suicide... more
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How in this day and age can the United Nations now help my people. America has acknowledge its' wrong doing and its' illegal takeover our Kingdom and forcing our Queen to give up the thrown to save what Native Hawaiians were left. America gave her no choice, they were only 25 Police Officers, and some Palace guards against the United States of America and its’ Armed Forces and Provisional Government. How can they side with an; entity, corporation, business, whatever you wanna call it. The UN does nothing to assist the movement nor the intervention of American Affairs in Hawai’i, our people are dying from poverty, lack of education, imprisonment, lack of housing, lack of health care, lack of land rights, lack rights to language and culture (The law cited as banning the Hawaiian language is identified as Act 57, sec. 30 of the 1896 Laws of the Republic of Hawaiʻi, and on in the past 25 years or so has the language been reintroduced to my generation through my grandparents generation. The land, what is left of it is all that we have it should be protected for and be used for the best interest of the Hawaiians. When will the UN see that this is an Illegal trade of Stolen Land from the Hawaiian People? When will the government stop the desecration and Illegal Justice against my people? When will we be educated by the Billions Of Revenue from Ceded Lands create? Where is Healthcare? Where is protection against cultural and sacred places? Injustices against my people. We demand rights for the future and survival of Hawaiians and the Aloha Spirit, No Hawaiians, No Aloha Spirit.How in this day and age can the United Nations now help my people. America has... more
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Kepano
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(Marquette, Michigan) - The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Marquette is protecting pollinators like butterflies because billions of honeybees and bumblebees are dying worldwide in syndrome called “Colony Collapse Disorder.”
Marquette teens and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) youth spent this summer building the first of dozens of white cedar butterfly houses that will be created over the next three years. Lined with bark and slimmer than birdhouses, the shelters offer protection, rest and reproduction safety to Monarchs and other butterflies.
Butterflies are a close second to bees in transferring pollen from one plant to another.
Experts are unsure why bee colonies are collapsing but pesticides, climate change and other man-made reasons are among the suspects. Without pollinators the world food supply will dry up including fruits, vegetables, flowers, other plants and trees.
The Zaagkii Project was founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) in Marquette.
“The problem with disappearing pollinators is a cause for concern (because) all life is interconnected,” said Todd Warner, KBIC Natural Resource Director.
Sponsors are KBIC, CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court and the United States Forest Service (USFS).
“We are seeing a reduction in the number of bumblebees,” said Jan Schultz, Botany and Non-native Invasive Species Program Leader at the USFS eastern region office in Milwaukee.
The Zaagkii Project will plant native plants on the once-barren and polluted Sand Point, a Lake Superior beach that the KBIC is restoring from the effects of old copper mining waste. Marquette teens planted and distributed over 26,000 native plant seeds including at the Hiawatha National Forest greenhouse in Marquette.
The KBIC will use many of the plants at Sand Point Beach that was polluted about 90 years ago with stamp sands from the Mass Mill.
The first tribal Brownfield cleanup site in the Midwest, future plans include a nature tail, restoring a historic lighthouse, swimming, camping, boating, picnic areas and fishing ponds.
The goal is “the propagation of the native species rather than having the exotics come in and destroying what we have established,” said Evelyn Ravindra, KBIC NRD Natural Resources Specialist.
KBIC Summer Youth Program members Ethan Smith,17, and Janelle Paquin,15, and other NativeAmerican teens measured, hammered and painted the butterfly houses.
"We put the bark on the inside for the butterflies to rest on," Smith said.
Marquette teens were given a tour of a bee farm with about 60,000 honeybees.
If all bees disappeared the world food supply would be devastated as “fruits, vegetables, nuts and other commercial crops” vanish, said Beekeeper Jim Hayward of Negaunee Township. “We are all dependent on bees.”
The Marquette teens “went to libraries and studied about the Monarch butterflies and their life cycle and their migration patterns,” said Danny Weymouth, 16.
Restoring indigenous plants is vital to wildlife “so our native species don't get overruled and extinct by predator species,” said Justin Fassbender, 16.
Ensuring the future of native plants is important because “there are a lot of invasive species,” said Devin Dahlstrom, 15.
The public can help protect pollinators by being careful with insecticides, Schultz said.
“Apply the pesticide really early in the morning or at dusk when the pollinators aren’t active,” Schultz said.
The Zaagkii Project contributors include the Marquette Community Foundation, the Negaunee Community Fund, the Negaunee Community Youth Fund, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, theUpper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay.(Marquette, Michigan) - The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Marquette is protecting... more
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2010 Olympics promotional train tour becomes target for protests across Canada.
With more than a full year before the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics begin, the games have already encountered stiff opposition. A range of groups have expressed their disagreement with the way that the Olympics are being run on Canada's west coast. Their concerns include: environmental destruction, the rights of low or no income residents, lack of transparency and consultation in decision making, and development on indigenous land that has never been surrendered to Canada. Olympic sponsor Canadian Pacific Railway ran a promotional tour, known as the Spirit Train, across Canada which became a target for activists countrywide. One group went as far as to occupy the train tracks, thereby temporarily postponing the train while en route to its Toronto stop. The Real News spoke to Angela Sterritt who provided background information on the various reasons why the Olympics have created such a backlash. One of the major issues being raised by activists is the construction of Olympic venues on indigenous territory that has never been signed over to the Government of Canada via treaty or otherwise. The Real News also spoke to Leah George-Wilson, Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh nation, who is supporting the Olympics, to get her response to the points being raised by the protesters.
Angela Sterritt is a grassroots organizer, artist and writer from the Gitxsan Nation of Northwest British Columbia. She currently works as a support worker in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Women's Centre and is a member of the Olympic opposition group, the Native 2010 Resistance. Angela recently completed a nationwide speaking tour of Canada regarding the 2010 Olympics.
Leah George-Wilson is the Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, located in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Chief George-Wilson is a Co-Chair of British Columbia's First Nations Summit, a forum for issues related to treaty negotiations in the province. As Chief, Leah represents her nation as a member of the Four Host First Nations Society, a group made up of leaders from the four indigenous nations that will be hosting the Olympic Games on their lands.2010 Olympics promotional train tour becomes target for protests across Canada.... more
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Thousands gather for 62-mile march to demand justice and land.
10,000 indigenous Colombians are marching against President Alvaro Uribe's policies. The protest comes one week after violence erupted during demonstrations to press for land reform and dialogue with the government.
Thousands gather for 62-mile march to demand justice and land.
10,000 indigenous... more
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President George W. Bush's apparent lack of understanding on tribal sovereignty is examined by Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard, executive director and co-founder of the non-profit Turtle Island Project in Munising, Michigan.
This video was made as Hubbard made two presentations on September 24, 2008 during the third annual UNITED Conference at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.
This video is about infamous comments about Native American Tribal Sovereignty made by President George W. Bush on August 6, 2004 at the UNITY conference in Washington D.C.
President Bush was asked the tribal sovereignty question by Mark Trahant, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Page Editor, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe in Idaho and former president of the Native American Journalists Association.
Bush answered the question but that answer was so bizarre it caused journalists to laugh:
"Tribal sovereignty means that. It's sovereign," President Bush said. "You've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."
The conference involved about 7,500 journalists of color from the Native American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Asian-American Journalists Association
Hubbard said it's funny, scary and sad that President George W. Bush doesn't understand the important issue of Native American tribal sovereignty.
The Turtle Island Project thanks Democracy Now for the use of their video of President Bush's remarks on tribal sovereignty.
http://www.democracynow.org
Related Links:
White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc. (WBCWS)
PO Box 227
Mission, S.D.
57555
http://www.wbcws.org
Javier H. Alegree
Public Relations Specialist
Media and Education
(605) 856-2317
(605) 856-2494 (fax)
Official website of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe - Sicangu Lakota
http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov/
Northern Michigan University (NMU)
http://www.nmu.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Michigan_University
NMU Center for Native American Studies
Northern Michigan University
1401 Presque Isle Avenue
Marquette, MI 49855
http://webb.nmu.edu/Centers/NativeAmericanStudies
906-227-1397
nasa@nmu.edu
April Lindala, Director
Grace Chaillier, NMU Adjunct Assistant Professor
Sicangu Lakota band of the Rosebud Sioux
906-227-1390
Uniting Neighbors in the Experience of Diversity (UNITED):
http://www.nmu.edu/UNITED
http://webb.nmu.edu/UNITED/SiteSections/2008Schedule.shtml
Organizers:
Dr. Judith Puncochar, NMU Professor
906-227-1366
Turtle Island Project
Non-Profit Munising, Michigan
http://www.turtleislandproject.org
Founders:
Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard
Rev. Dr. George Cairns
Turtle Island TV bliptv
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv
Turtle Island TV youtube
http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse
Turtle Island myspace
http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject
email:
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net
Anishinaabe News NMU Native American student newspaper
http://webb.nmu.edu/Centers/NativeAmericanStudies/SiteSections/Resources/NAS/NishNews.shtml
Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org
27 minutes into the 1 hour video Jesse Jackson jokes about comment & interview with reporter who asked Bush the question
Video & Audio - several formats:
http://www.archive.org/details/dn2004-0810_vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5xVRXLgLxw
White House Press Release: What Bush meant to say:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040806-1.html
"Pagans in the Promised Land" by Steven T. Newcomb (2008):
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28405454.html
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28407494.html
http://www.indypendent.org/2008/04/25/discoverer-delusions
Lakota Sioux & Rosebud Reservation:
http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov/history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosebud_Indian_Reservation
Native American Religious Freedom Act (1978)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Religious_Freedom_Act
President George W. Bush's apparent lack of understanding on tribal sovereignty is... more
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