Indigenous News

Indigenous News Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field and in the policy arena to protect America's last wild buffalo. Buffalo Field CampaignYellowstone Bison Update from the Field March 22, 2012 Find BFC on FaceBook! ------------------------------ ------------------------------* Yellowstone Buffalo Recently Reunited with Tribes Paid a Heavy Price to Get There * Update from the Field * Experienced Volunteers, Come on Home! * BFC Wish List: Cordless Tool Kit * Endangered Buffalo Fact of the Week * Well Said! Great Buffalo Letters to the Editor * By the Numbers * Last Words ~ USDA-APHIS Quarantine Notes------------------------------* Yellowstone Buffalo Recently Reunited with Tribes Paid A Heavy Price to Get There BFC holds great reverence for the sacred relationship between First Nations cultures and their relatives, the buffalo. We honor the reunion of the sixty-two buffalo that survived a perilous journey from quarantine pens in the Gardiner Basin to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Descendants of the great herds again walk some of the land that their wild ancestors roamed free upon less than 150 years ago. This reunion is certainly cause for celebration. Yet as we honor the return of the buffalo to the tribes we must also remember what it took for those sixty-two buffalo to get there. A young buffalo pauses from eating hay to look through the fence of its quarantine prison. BFC file photo. Click photo for larger image. During 2005 and 2006 a Quarantine Feasibility Study was initiated by the USDA's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Buffalo quarantine began in blood, as 100 calves and their families were hazed into traps inside Yellowstone National Park and on private land along Duck Creek. Hundreds of the calves' family members - mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins - were loaded onto livestock trailers and shipped to slaughter. During 2008, another 100 buffalo calves were sent to the quarantine facility during capture and slaughter operations, which amounted to the largest-scale wild buffalo slaughter since the 1800's. In those three years, more than 2,711 wild buffalo were senselessly slaughtered. The 200 baby buffalo entered into the quarantine experiment were purposely and unnecessarily orphaned. These young wild-born buffalo were then transported to the Corwin Springs, Montana quarantine pens, just a few miles from the northwest border of Yellowstone National Park, where they have been treated worse than livestock for the last seven years in a tiny enclosure. These pens are located right beside Highway 89, for all passers-by to see. View a short BFC video clip of wild-born Yellowstone buffalo and their quarantine prison. Click image to watch video. "Phase I [of the Quarantine Feasibility Study] included initial capture and testing of bison calves ... maintaining sero-negative bison through fall, and then randomly selecting half the calves, euthanizing them, and subjecting them to a battery of tests... In Phase II, remaining bison would continue to be raised in quarantine and would be allowed to breed at two years of age, all the while being tested... In Phase III, pregnant bison would be allowed to calve, with mothers and offspring subject to additional testing within 5 days after calving." Bison Translocation, Bison Quarantine Phase IV Environmental Assessment Decision Notice, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, February 2010. The buffalo were confined in paddocks, surrounded by a double wall of fencing. They were fed hay, fitted with ear tags, watered with irrigation, and routinely poked, prodded, and tested by scientists. Buffalo calves, all close in age, had no elder buffalo-wit to guide them, no big brothers or sisters to look after, spar, or play with them; no mothers to tell them when it was best to head in a certain direction, safe to take a nap, or which grasses were best to eat; no fathers, grandparents or family members to guide them down their ancestral migratory paths; no herds to teach them the skills they need to survive as wild buffalo. To try to follow their migratory instinct was to hit the brick wall of the "no trespassing" government fence they were confined in. If this sounds anthropomorphic, spend time with wild buffalo to see how alike we really are. All the buffalo that have survived the quarantine process have survived confinement and have been denied their natural instincts, their innate drive to migrate. Many did not survive. Throughout the quarantine process the buffalo were abused, tormented, and killed. This is what you will not read about in news stories: the serious injuries, deaths from stress, human handling, and the toll of confining a wild species in pens: several females were overfed during winter and died while trying to deliver their calves in spring; without adults and stressed by constant captivity, several young mothers abandoned their calves; buffalo were gored to death and crushed against the corral pens; a calf mysteriously died in a creek; many were simply sent to slaughter."In June 2006, 48 randomly selected sero-negative bison...were slaughtered... In October 2008, 41 randomly selected sero-negative bison ... were slaughtered... all animals were culture negative [brucellosis-free]." History & Status of the Bison Quarantine Feasibility Study, USDA-APHIS, April 2009 The whole idea behind quarantine, said the government, was to "create a brucellosis-free herd" to "restore wild buffalo" to public and tribal lands. The scientists told the objecting public that they would "teach the buffalo how to be wild" again. From the government perspective quarantine was "the only way" First Nations and the American public would ever see "wild" buffalo roaming the North American landscape. BFC strongly objected, maintaining that quarantine is unnecessary and inhumane, and a threat to the wild integrity that makes the Yellowstone bison so special and unique. We all know that brucellosis is more of an excuse used by the livestock industry to maintain control over wild bison and wild lands than it is an actual concern. The quarantine also threatens the long-term viability of buffalo by removing buffalo that carry resistance to livestock diseases. Quarantine threatens the wild integrity of wild bison and is an injurious insult to First Nations buffalo cultures who await the return of their relatives the buffalo."Hau Mitakuepi, The buffalo have just as strong a connection to their land as we Indian People do. And just like us, the buffalo are being severed from their land by being put on ranches and domesticated. They are trying to turn buffalo into cattle just as they tried to turn Indians into Whites by putting us on reservations and sending us to boarding schools. Buffalo are not cattle anymore than Indians are Whites. They can't live without their connection to their land. They must be allowed to roam free. Pidamaya. Mitakuye Owasin." ~ Nick Anderson, Cultural Chairman and Historian, Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community. In 2010, the first "cohort" of buffalo to survive this domestication process were ready to move on. They were supposed to go to public or tribal lands, as the government had promised they would, but Montana officials had failed to plan ahead to find them a home. While some First Nations expressed great interest in receiving these relatives, the state objected to their proposals. At the eleventh hour, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer contacted billionaire Ted Turner, asking for help. Turner agreed to house the buffalo on his Green Ranch, but for a price: 75% of the offspring of the quarantined buffalo originating from Yellowstone National Park would become Turner's property. Interestingly, the ranching community remained quiet about this agreement. BFC, Western Watersheds Project, and other groups filed a law suit challenging this decision which violated the public trust and made commodities of American wildlife. Watch this BFC video about why quarantined Yellowstone buffalo should not have gone to Ted Turner's ranch. Click the image to watch the video. After Montana's disastrous decision to send these buffalo to Ted Turner's ranch, the state attempted to save face by promising that the next group to survive quarantine would go to public or tribal lands. The livestock industry was incensed. Irrationally arguing that these "certified brucellosis-free"quarantined buffalo would spread the disease to cattle, the industry revealed its true motives: ranchers were afraid of buffalo returning to the land and eating grass that they wanted for their cattle. Even brucellosis-free buffalo are not welcome in Montana because it's never really been about brucellosis. In February 2012, the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission voted to approve the relocation of sixty-eight quarantined buffalo (all that remained in quarantine) to the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Indian Reservations in northeast Montana. One conservation group purporting to "defend" wildlife sent out numerous emails touting the transfer of the catchy-titled "Yellowstone 68." About a week before the transfer the same group announced the coming transfer of what had inexplicably become "The Yellowstone 65." What happened to the other three buffalo? The group didn't say. On Monday morning, livestock trucks arrived in the Gardiner Basin along with Montana Department of Livestock riders to haze, corral and load a uncertain number of quarantined buffalo onto the trailers for transport to the Fort Peck Reservation. Fort Belknap is scheduled to receive half of these buffalo after fencing projects are complete. After a 500-mile journey, 62 buffalo were unloaded. Three died as a result of being transported but we have yet to learn what happened to the other three. Last night, Buffalo Field Campaign filed a Right to Know request with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks requesting this and other details. Relatives welcomed home relatives with drumming and songs. Reunion has begun but the road will be challenging. The 62 buffalo will be held in a two-acre pasture for the next several months, until an eight-foot tall fence surrounding 2,100 acres is constructed. Later, half of the buffalo will go to the Fort Belknap Reservation. The livestock industry is waiting in the shadows to pounce on any "mistake" the buffalo or the tribes might make. Remembering what the buffalo had to suffer to return to their people, we celebrate the end result yet take serious issue with the process. Quarantine is not the solution. Loading buffalo onto cattle trucks and shipping them over highways is not the way. Wildlife migration corridors reconnecting the buffalo and their landscape and allowing them to restore themselves on their own four feet, with their own self-will: this is true wildlife restoration. The buffalo here in Yellowstone country attempt to do this year after year and would be successful if the government and livestock interests would only let them. Coexistence is the key. This young buffalo, not quite a yearling, is the age that the buffalo were when they were taken from their families, who were killed, and sent to quarantine prison. BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image. Quarantine is an insulting government program force-fed to First Nations as the only way to reconnect with buffalo. It is damaging to wild bison and the Tribes that would see them home again. Is that all we can do is abuse wildlife, create livestock situations and call it wildlife restoration? We can certainly do better in our efforts at "wildlife restoration" than to abuse and treat members of America's only continuously wild population of buffalo like livestock. Quarantine is no more than a fear-based response to unfounded livestock industry complaints that are nothing but efforts to protect a subsidized "lifestyle". This is what natural wild buffalo restoration looks like. Simple elegance that agrees with the land and the buffalo. All the buffalo need is for us to learn to co-exist, stand aside and let them roam free! BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image. We will continue to fight for the buffalo's right to roam and to help heal the broken relationships that have resulted from so much human arrogance, ignorance, and greed. Buffalo Field Campaign continues to honor Native Americans and their sacred relationships with the buffalo, and we will be here until buffalo resume their rightful place on the landscape as the self-willed wild creatures that they are. Corridors, not quarantine. Wild is the way!! ~ ROAM FREE------------------------------* Update from the Field A wee snapshot of the buffalo returning to Horse Butte. BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image. As the Spring Equinox arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, so, too, did nearly a hundred wild buffalo arrive on Horse Butte. Grizzly bears are also beginning to emerge from their dens, hungry for the winter-kill they so desire upon waking. After such a mild winter, there will be few winter-killed bison and elk, but grizzly bears are certainly known to take down living buffalo, though, not with out great challenge! If only hungry bears were the buffalo's main concern right now. With everything the last wild buffalo populations suffer at the misguided hands of humans, the fact that they still migrate and still trust their strong instincts seems a miracle. Yet every year, no matter the tragedy the government inflicts upon them, they continue to come. Their numbers are small, but their hearts are big, and the land herself flows in their blood, pulsing forward motion. The wild buffalo tides rise with the spring, and in this we truly celebrate. Another sign that the Montana Department of Transportation has put in place along Highway 191, helping to warn traffic that buffalo also use this road! Thank you MDOT! BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image. For a little while, maybe a month, maybe less, it is possible that the main human threat to wild buffalo here in the Hebgen Basin will be the road traffic they must encounter as they follow their migratory instincts to their favored calving grounds. But, should buffalo press their wet, black noses towards Montana's forbidden zones, towards the lands that are their birthright, agency action will certainly commence. We stand ready with the buffalo, armed with video and still cameras, and our passion, for what may come. This older bull has some great wisdom, as he's managed to avoid hunting and capture over the years and lives to continue his story. BFC file photo by Peter Bogusko. Click photo for larger image. Over in the Gardiner Basin, the pens have been emptied of quarantined buffalo (see above). The northern herd that roams the landscape are, of their own accord, making their way towards the Blacktail Plateau to their own calving grounds, which happen to lie within Yellowstone National Park. A small few buffalo remain in the Basin, watched over fiercely by Buffalo Field Campaign and the buffalo's many friends in the Gardiner area. So far, no management action has taken place there this season. Yellowstone National Park had plans to slaughter hundreds this year, but they were skunked by the buffalo. BFC is getting ready to focus all of our attention on the buffalo in the Hebgen Basin, as we know that the spring tides that bring the buffalo also bring those who harass and kill them. We have been blessed with a strong group of very passionate new volunteers this year who are ready to do whatever it takes to help tell the world the buffalo's story. For now, the buffalo are experiencing a respite, having had a mild winter and suffering no hazing or capture thus far. We give thanks, and we prepare for what we know is to come.------------------------------* Experienced Volunteers, Come on Home! As a mild winter begins to make way for the coming spring, so too do the buffalo begin to make their way to their ancestral calving grounds and to the first fresh grasses of spring. We are all very excited for the opportunity to spend some quite time with wild bison on the landscapes they seek out before the insanity of helicopters and over anxious law-enforcement shatters the tranquility. But our volunteers are prepared for the inevitable and ready to document all actions taken against wild bison in Montana and Yellowstone. We have an incredible and dedicated crew of new volunteers this year and are putting a shout out for those with experience to come back to camp and help guide patrols and lead our newer family during hazing actions. If you have been here before and know your way around the landscape and issue we would love for you to come help us out this spring. If you have any questions please get in touch with me at 406-646-0070 or volunteer@buffalofieldcampaign.org. As always, we thank each and everyone of you for your individual support and dedication to making a difference for wild buffalo. Thank you! Peet Support Coordinator Buffalo Field Campaign------------------------------* BFC Wish List: Cordless Tool Kit We try to be as self-sufficient as we can here at Buffalo Field Campaign, and that includes fixing and building things ourselves. The right tools can make any job easier and much more efficient. This week we are featuring our wish for an 18 or 24-volt cordless tool kit (drill, saws all, charger, circular saw). If you are able to grant this BFC Wish, please contact Mike Mease at mease@wildrockies.org. Thank you so very much!! Click HERE to view BFC's complete Wish List------------------------------* Endangered Buffalo Fact of the Week Lovely buffalo lady, basking in the morning sun, reflected in her eyes. Timeless wisdom reflected in her eyes. BFC file photo by Stephany. Click photo for larger image. Bison are an important food source for predators and scavengers including birds, small mammals, gray wolves and grizzly bears. Dr. Sylvia Fallon, The ecological importance of bison in mixed-grass prairie ecosystems 2009.Download and review bison conservation papers HERE. Have a fact you'd like to share with us? Email it to Stephany.------------------------------* Well Said! Great Buffalo Letters to the Editor Most of the Letters to the Editor below were written in response to this Opinion Editorial by the president of the anti-buffalo Montana Farm Bureau Federation: March 10, 2012Opinion: Bison should not roam free in MontanaBillings Gazette March 18, 2012LETTER: Scare tactics misinform public about bison Billings GazetteLETTER: Montana Farm Bureau is spreading fear Billings Gazette March 17, 2012LETTER: Bison should roam free on Montana's public lands Billings GazetteLETTER: Brucellosis debate is a moot point Billings GazetteLETTER: Free-roaming bison hurt no one's property Billings GazetteLETTER: Free-roaming bison belong to all of us Billings Gazette March 16, 2012LETTER: No birth control for America's last wild bison Boulder Daily CameraAll the folks who wrote these wonderful buffalo-friendly letters should get in touch with Stephany for a free BFC t-shirt or calendar! Thank you for being a voice for America's last wild buffalo populations! Anyone can write Letters to the Editor! Here's how!------------------------------* By the NumbersAMERICAN BUFFALO ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S. The last wild population is currently estimated at fewer than 3,700 individual buffalo. Wild bison are currently ecologically extinct throughout their native range in North America. 2011-2012 Total Buffalo Killed: 29 2011-2012 Government Capture: 2011-2012 Government Slaughter: 2011-2012 Held for Government Experiment: 2011-2012 Died In Government Trap: 2011-2012 Miscarriage in Government Trap: 2011-2012 State & Treaty Hunts: 28 2011-2012 Quarantine: 2011-2012 Shot by Agents: 2011-2012 Killed by Angry Residents: 2011-2012 Highway Mortality: 1 2010-2011 Total: 227 2009-2010 Total: 7 2008-2009 Total: 22 2007-2008 Total: 1,631 * Total Since 2000: 4,001* *includes lethal government action, trap-related fatalities, quarantine/experiments, hunts, highway mortality-----------------------------* Last Words ~ USDA-APHIS Quarantine NotesWARNING! This is very difficult to read, yet it is the reality of life for a buffalo in quarantine. "47-08 was euthanized. When gathered this 2- year pregnant cow tried to jump both another animal and impaled herself on an exposed [bolt limb]. This broke 2 ribs and made a small perforation into her peritoneal cavity. She remained with a group of about 15 animals as we tried to assess her. The smell of blood and change of behavior excited the group to the point where they started to gore 47-08. As we tried to cut out 47-08 for possible treatment, she started to externalize SI thru the hole, which had enlarged during the fighting. After 47-08 was separated, she became recalcitrant to move. We decided to immobilize her for DX-TX. While the dart was being prepared 47-08 stepped on and tore her loop of SI. She was darted w/A3080 xylazines > gave extra medetomidine. When lateral she was euthanized w/euthanasia solution. She was transported to DOL for incineration. [Side notes]: Go to Plum. Jean Terry 631-477-0011 #29." ~ From USDA-APHIS's bison quarantine appointment books (scroll down to Analysis and Decision Docs to review these heartbreaking and cold records), received by BFC after a formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was submitted. We submitted the FOIA because USDA-APHIS was not giving us the answers to the questions we were asking, and have still provided incomplete records in their FOIA responses to-date. This failure to disclose such information is part of BFC's legal complaint against the federal livestock overseer agency. Do you have submissions for Last Words? Send them to bfc-media@wildrockies.org. Thank you for all the poems, songs, quotes and stories you have been sending! Keep them coming!------------------------------ -- Media & Outreach Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758406-646-0070bfc-media@wildrockies.orghttp://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/BFC is the only group working in the field every day in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S.KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES Join Buffalo Field Campaign -- It's Free!Tell-a-Friend! ROAM FREE! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@From the Eagle WatchMarch 21, 2012This article is FORWARDED FWD For Your Interest FYI under fairuse. We did NOT write it.The Quebec government is using public money to develop mining in theNorth. Climate change is all too convenient for these pillagers whoare hellbent on digging up the North. Kittoh[] enclose our commentshttp://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674quebec_sets_out_new_budget/NEWS: Nunavik March 20, 2012 - 5:48 pm Quebec sets out new budgetBudget includes $10 million to study the possibility of extending thepower grid to Nunavik NUNATSIAQ NEWS This map shows the location of the Labrador trough and the site of aplanned iron mine in Nunavik. Quebec is proposing investing money in arail link project to the mine, a project which would cost “severalbillion dollars. (FILE IMAGE) Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand presented the Quebec budget March20, setting out total spending of $70.9 billion, a deficit of $1.5billion, and plans to maintain a two per cent cap on government spending,as tax revenues rise, to balance Quebec’s budget next year.Bachand also filled out details of the Liberal government’sPlan Nord, which he said would mean “anaverage of 20,000 jobs over 25 years.’‘“We must be grateful to the premier for having launched the Plan Nord,’’he said.Hydro Quebec will spend $10 million to study the possibility ofextending its electricity distribution network into Nunavik, Bachandsaid.“By extending the power transmission grid to Nunavik, it will bepossible to supply mining operations in theterritory, connect communities to Hydro-Québec’s main grid and integrateinto the grid the power supplied by future hydroelectric facilities inNunavik,” he said in a Quebec government news release. “It goes withoutsaying that mining companies will be called on to assume the costs of theplanned power transmission infrastructure.” [through theirgovernment subsidies...]As well, a plan, costing “several billion dollars,” is being consideredby CN and the Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec to extend a raillink to the mineral and metal-rich Labrador trough, south ofKuujjuaq, where Bachand said $20 billion in mining investments areplanned.“This railway will be built and operated in keeping with sustainabledevelopment principles and in collaboration with local and aboriginalcommunities, not only to minimize the project’s environmental impact, butalso to optimize the positive benefits for the communities,” Bachandsaid.Quebec will increase its fund to invest in the Plan Nord to $1 billion,from $500 million, taking options and minorityequity positions in mining companies, as part of a larger strategy toinvest more public money in natural resources.“The Plan Nord is taking shape,’’ Bachand said.Nicolas Marceau, the Parti Québécois finance critic, expressed surprisethat the Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec, which investsQuebecers’ public pension and insurancefunds, would participate in such a “risky’’ investment, which hesaid suggests “a lack of distance between the government and theCaisse.’‘Total private investments received for 11 existing Plan Nord projectswere also revised upward from $8.2 billion to $9.2 billion in the budgetwhile three new projects, with additional investments of $1.35 billion,have been added.Based on that, Quebec will dedicate another $276 million to the Fond duPlan Nord, budget documents said.The Charest government’s “disproportionate attention” on developingQuebec’s north is a bid “to hide the fact that the rest of Quebec’seconomy” is faring poorly, Marceau said.with files from Postmedia News@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Three weeks ago, 17-year old Trayvon Martin was gunned down by self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. Despite Zimmerman admitting to following, confronting, and killing Trayvon, he has yet to be arrested or charged with any crime.1Just minutes before Trayvon was killed, Zimmerman had called police stating that Trayvon looked "suspicious." Trayvon was unarmed and walking back to his father's home in Sanford, Florida when Zimmerman accosted him.At the crime scene, Sanford police botched their questioning of Zimmerman, refused to take the full statements of witnesses, and pressured neighbors to side with the shooter's claim of self-defense.2 As it turns out, Sanford's police department has a history of failing to hold perpetrators accountable for violent acts against Black victims, and the police misconduct in Trayvon's case exemplifies the department's systemic mishandling of such investigations.3 And now, the State Attorney's office has rubber-stamped the Sanford police's non-investigation, claiming that there is not enough evidence to support even a manslaughter conviction.4Trayvon's family and hundreds of thousands of people around the country are demanding justice.5 Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice to take over the case, arrest Trayvon's killer, and launch an independent investigation into the Sanford police department's unwillingness to protect Trayvon's civil rights. It takes just a moment:http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/TrayvonWalking home from the store shouldn't cost you your life, but when Black youth are routinely assumed to be violent criminals, being randomly killed is a constant danger.6 Before Zimmerman decided to get out of his parked car — gun in tow — to pursue Trayvon on foot that night, he called the police to identify Trayvon as a "suspicious person" — apparently because he was wearing a hoodie and walking too slowly in the rain for Zimmerman's liking. Despite being instructed not to follow Trayvon, Zimmerman proceeded to confront and fatally shoot the boy in the chest within a matter of minutes.7The case has been compromised from the beginning. When Sanford police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman was first approached by a narcotics detective — not a homicide investigator — who "peppered him with questions" rather than allowing him to tell his story without prompting. Another officer "corrected" a witness giving a statement that she'd heard Trayvon cry for help before he was shot, telling her she had heard Zimmerman instead.8 And beyond the questions of professional competence or even the police's disregard for the facts, Florida's notorious "Shoot First" law takes a shooter's self-defense claim at face value — incentivizing law enforcement not to make arrests in shooting deaths that would lead to murder charges in other states.9Sanford has a history of not prosecuting when the victim is Black. In 2010, the white son of a Sanford police lieutenant was let go by police after assaulting a homeless Black man outside a downtown bar. And, in 2005, a Black teenager was killed by two white security guards, one the son of a Sanford Police officer. The pair was arrested and charged, but a judge later cited lack of evidence and dismissed both cases.10Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice to arrest Trayvon's killer and launch an investigation into the Sanford police department's mishandling of the case and when you do, ask your friends and family to do the same:http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/TrayvonThanks and Peace,-- Rashad, Gabriel, Dani, Matt, Natasha, Kim and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team March 19th, 2012Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don't share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:http://www.colorofchange.org/donateReferences1. "Witnesses in Trayvon Martin death heard cries before shot," Miami Herald, 03-15-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1228?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=72. "Orlando Watch Shooting Probe Reveals Questionable Police Conduct," ABC News, 03-13-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1219?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=93. "Trayvon Martin Case Salts Old Wounds And Racial Tension," Huffington Post, 03-14-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1220?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=114. "Police: No Grounds For Arrest in Trayvon Martin's Death," WESH-2 Orlando, 03-16-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1227?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=135. “Trayvon Martin Family Seeks FBI Investigation of Killing by Neighborhood Watchman,” ABC News, 03-18-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1221?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=156. "Ramarley Graham: NYPD Slays Unarmed Black Teen as Outrage over Targeting of People of Color Grows," Democracy Now!, 02-08-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1222?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=177. “Trayvon Martin would be alive if Neighborhood Watch rules followed,” Orlando Sentinel, 03-14-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1223?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=198. See reference 2.9. "Teen's death suggests review of 'Stand Your Ground Law' needed," Tallahassee Democrat, 03-16-12http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1224?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=2110. "Five years since Florida enacted 'stand-your-ground' law, justifiable homicides are up, Tampa Bay Times, 10-17-10http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1225?akid=2382.605349.V3ygfZ&t=23 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Mohawk Nation NewsAppreciate the many comments. Thanks for reading the MNN newsletter. Our revised website is almost finished. Would like your comments when it's launched. Hope like this one. TURN ON THE TV - to see what those crazy white people are up to? MNN. MAR. 19, 2012. Our visitors are constantly depicting themselves as murdering and killing each other to set things as they want without compromise. They plan and scheme the murders and atrocities. They say "Sorry" for what they've done to us while violating us until they think they've got us. Shadows and voices are in their minds. They fear opening up their perverse minds for others to see, while showing their hand anyway. They look for ghosts which are themselves. Their invented ideology is based on who they are and where they come from [from who knows where!]. They create their history and write ours to conform to their fables. What is their Achilles heel? The truth. That is why it's burn, burn, burn. Out of the ashes rewrite history. Get rid of the evidence, quick! They walk alone because they are alone, to avoid being found out. They must fight and win against those who disagree with them, right or wrong. Their brain is constructed so they cannot compromise or see the other's view, but pretend to do so. They see us as different and want to hurt us. For our protection we're usually not alone. Mohawks always go with three to corroborate what we see or hear or give different insights. Guilt over what they've done is in their minds. They know they violated our psyche, our being and our lives. Many of their stories are based on sexual violations or stealing something or someone he or she thought was theirs. Our visitors who committed and benefitted from the wrongs are suffering because the cover-up is based on half truths and lies, which they celebrate. When we die, we return to our mother, the earth. When our visitors die, they are consecrated to our ground and send their souls to heaven above where they came from. Their atrocities are not buried. Ghosts remain forever. A wrong goes on and on in their descendents. Is that why they are not having children to pass their evil guilt onto? It won't be over until they go. That's why they're going. If it's not on tv, they don't believe it. Dire Straits said it in Money for Nothing: "Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it. You play the guitar on the MTV. That ain't working, that's the way you do it. Money for nothing and chicks for free." @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Hundreds expected at funeral ceremony for Onondaga Nation clan motherhttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/hundreds_expected_to_say_goodb.html UNA News Audrey Beavers @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ S.P.I.R.I.T. STATEMENT OPPOSING THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE Posted by: "MIKECHEROKEE@aol.com" MIKECHEROKEE@aol.com unitednative Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:50 pm (PDT) SOCIETY TO PRESERVE INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND INDIGENOUS TREATIES(S.P.I.R.I.T.)STATEMENT OPPOSING THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINEWe as a group do hereby join with and urge all members of the Society to Preserve Indigenous Rights and Indigenous Treaties (S.P.I.R.I.T.) to unite in solidarity with brothers and sisters to resist the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico; in keeping Mother Earth sacred and protecting our homelands, the homes and graves of our families and ancestors from desecration. S.P.I.R.I.T. hereby adopts the following:Northern Alberta, the region that tar sands oil is extracted, is home to many indigenous populations and important parts of their cultural traditions and livelihood are coming under attack because of tar sands operations; and Tar sands oil production is one of the most destructive strip mining techniques on earth and results in deforestation, habitat loss, ground water contamination, pillaging of native lands, and three times the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere than that of traditional oil; andThe proposed Keystone XL pipeline is a project that would transport extremely toxic tar sands oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada through the middle of the US heartland to the Texas Gulf coast for refining; andTar sands oil is amongst the dirtiest and carbon-intensive fuels on earth, and a spill along the pipeline’s route will be catastrophic for the environment, the residents in the region, fish and wildlife, and the food supply; andThe Keystone XL pipeline would traverse six U.S. states and cross major rivers, including the Missouri River, Yellowstone, and Red Rivers, as well as key sources of drinking and agricultural water, such as the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies two million Americans; andThe destruction of Mother Earth, our homelands and the desecration of sacred sites and ancestral grave sites are imminent; andNumerous indigenous and native groups, supporters, organizations and American Indian Nations actively oppose the Keystone XL pipeline with scientists, environmentalists and supporting groups ALL are opposing the Keystone XL pipeline; andWE CAN STOP THE PROPOSED KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE BY STANDING TOGETHER IN SOLIDARITY AND UNITY. The Society to Preserve Indigenous Rights and Indigenous Treaties (S.P.I.R.I.T.) is in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and pledge to join with likeminded groups and individuals from this date forward to stop the pipeline; andS.P.I.R.I.T. calls upon all members and supporters to join us by taking action now to call, write, e-mail, and personally stand with us to STOP THE PROPOSED KEYSTONE XL pipeline.Migwetch, Aho, Wado, Mvto, Pilamaya ! Society to Preserve Indigenous Rights & Indigenous Treaties_spiritwomenrawk@yahoo.com_ (mailto:spiritwomenrawk@yahoo.com) _www.facebook.com/OKspirit_ (http://www.facebook.com/OKspirit) _www.myspace.com/oklaspirit_ (http://www.myspace.com/oklaspirit) @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Aim Santa Barbara 1:25pm Mar 15 “Chumash people have been attacked, by I call them “white chiefs” or white anthropologists, certain different institutions, academia, the museums, all of them are telling us who is Chumash and who is not. That day is over with…The Barbareno Chumash Council is declaring to the world that we are going to express with no uncertain terms our right to be Indigenous, our right to be Chumash our RIGHT to be who we are. The methodology has been divisive. Individuals have made a living sucking the culture, sucking the lives, and the bones and everything of our culture, that’s to stop.” Marcus Lopez Sr. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Workshop Sat 3/31 Santa Barbara, CAby Aim Santa Barbara on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 1:20pm ·Please share, repost, and Mark your Calendars to attend- UNITED NATIONS DECLARATIONON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES WORKSHOP FEATURINGGeorgina Sanchez(Barbareno Chumash council)FRED COLLINS(NORTHERN CHUMASH COUNCIL) Also With Darlene Garcia(Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation)&Gabriel Altamirano, Chumash(Rapporteur, North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus 2011) The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly during its 62nd session at UN Headquarters in New York City on 13 September 2007. “It was drafted and formally debated for over twenty years prior to being adopted on 29 June 2006 during the inaugural session of the Human Rights Council. The document emphasizes the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and traditions and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations.”http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/FAQsindigenousdeclaration.pdf Workshop Topics include:United Nations DRIP document and the collective Community & Human rights What is the United Nations permanent forum on indigenous issues?How can this Document be used as a tool for change on a community level? Where:American Indian Health & Services 4141 State Street. Suite B11Santa Barbara, Ca. When:Saturday March 31,2012 Time: 10:am-4:00 pm Sponsored By:Barbareno Chumash CouncilAmerican Indian Movement Southern California More info & registration:805- 969-1076 (leave message)\ Special thanks to:Fund for Santa Barbara, The Seventh Generation Fund,American Indian Airwaves/Coyote Radio, and American Indian Health & ServicesAnd American Indian Health & Services @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ -- "When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen