Indigenous

By Jessica Bell; June 23, 2008 - AlterNet

It was below zero degrees Fahrenheit on the night of Dec. 2, 2002, when sisters and young indigenous mothers Chrissy and Bonnie Swain from the Grassy Narrows First Nation drove from their reserve, located in the southern fringe of the vast Boreal Forest in northern Ontario, to the logging road just a few miles from their home.  read more »

From: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info June 26, 2008

Greetings my relatives,

I say relatives because you are all my family. I am honored, greatly honored today that you would listen to my words and come together in this way so that our future generations' will not forget what happened here in this land.

You can't imagine how much I miss walking on the bare earth. Or brushing against a tree branch or hearing birds in the morning or seeing an antelope or deer cross my path. I have been here in federal prison for 32 years; if you could imagine being in your own  read more »

On June 4, 2008 some 200 Mexican troops and police engaged in aggressive actions against Zapatistas in the Patiwitz Canyon of the Lacandon Jungle. Specifically the heavily armed military / police convoy entered the corn and banana fields surrounding Zapatista communities. This threat to the communities' only food supplies provoked a desperate response by Mayan boys and girls, women, and men.  read more »

By Brenda Norrell Narco news June 4, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Unprovoked Columbus, Ohio police attacked Long Walkers, by first pointing a taser at the head of Michael Lane and then forcing Luv the Mezenger to the ground and handcuffing him.  read more »

May 21, 2008 

CANBERRA, Australia: (AP) Kangaroos and Tasmanian devils are beloved Australian icons that are tugging the nation's heartstrings for very different reasons. While authorities are cutting the population of the former, they are struggling to prevent the latter from dying out altogether.

The juxtaposition underscores Australia's challenges, failures and differences in opinion on caring for its unique fauna.  read more »

ST. PAUL (WCCO ) During the Minnesota Sesquicentennial celebration in St. Paul, a protest by a couple dozen American Indians carrying nooses turned violent.

A protester hit a Minnesota State Trooper on the head as police tried to clear the area at the state capitol. Police arrested at least three people for disorderly conduct.

Demonstrators want the state of Minnesota to apologize for breaking Indian treaties and removing Indians from the land.  read more »

Apr 30, 2008 14:39 GUELPH, Ontario

A group of non-native protesters blocked the Hanlon Expressway for about half an hour last night in a show of support for a group of Mohawks involved in a standoff near Deseronto, Ont.

About 20 young people stood in the southbound lanes below Paisley Road, near a small bonfire.

Three cars and a truck were stuck in the southbound lanes, between the intersection and the blockade.

Many other cars were temporarily caught in bottlenecks at the intersection. One man got out of his car to briefly push and yell at some of the protesters.  read more »

Latest: Tense native standoff ends; six protesters arrested

Canadian Press

April 25, 2008

DESERONTO, Ont. — Mohawk protesters and provincial police officers were involved in a tense standoff in Deseronto, Ont., on Friday after officers said they spotted at least one gun among the demonstrators.

Police say they saw a “long gun” being pointed at them from a location inside an occupied quarry, which protesters have controlled since March, 2007.

The protesters said they had no weapons at the quarry.

>> Read More  read more »

Monday March 31, 2008 PGA North America

Davis, CA- Student Leaders at Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl are preparing a demonstration at 5:30 pm tonight in front of the Yolo County Detention Facility after a series of arrests that took place today on D-Q University campus early this morning around 9:30 am. Seventeen Youth and Elders were arrested, most without being given the option of leaving. The Board of Trustees, accompanied by the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department have attempted to remove all the students from campus and brought in a locksmith to replace all the locks.  read more »

Mar 27, 2008
TACOMA, Wash. - Three Makah Tribe members accused of killing a gray whale during a rogue hunt off Washington state last September pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal misdemeanor charge, while two others plan to go to trial in April.

Theron Parker, William Secor Sr. and Frankie Gonzales each admitted in U.S. District Court in Tacoma that they violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, after prosecutors agreed they would not recommend jail time or seek to curtail the men's hunting rights.  read more »

By Penny McLintock Tuesday February 12, 04:24 PM ABC

Thousands of people have marched across the lawns of Parliament House to protest against the Federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Aboriginal people from across the country and non-Indigenous supporters gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy near Old Parliament House to hear leaders speak against the intervention.  read more »

The 150-Year Commemoration

February 19, 2008

Nisqually Chief Leschi & Quiemuth

"Honor & Celebration of Brothers"

Unity Walks: 1.5 & 5.0 or Run/Relay 12.5 miles

Nisqually Chief Leschi (1808-1858) On February 19, 1858  read more »

 Come See: UN POQUITO DE TANTA VERDAD (a little bit of so much truth)

This is a great documentary about the events in Oaxaca Mexico in the summer of 2006. It focuses on the role of community radio in coordinating the mobilizations of the people. In doing so it also gives a flavor of the spirit of the people in this largely indigenous region of Mexico. THIS IS A FREE EVENT! We think people should see it if they haven't.

Wednesday February 6th, 7pm @ TRADITIONS Fair Trade Cafe, 5th & Water St.

indymedia.org 20 Jan 2008

In an operation that began at 5:00 today [January 15], using a helicopter and coordinated by the police, Patricia Troncoso Robles, a political prisoner in hunger strike since October 10th 2007, is being transferred to a hospital. Patricia, condemned by the Antiterrorist Law, has spent five years in prison and will spend other five to serve her 10-year term, due to the irregular judgment of the case "Poluco Pidenco".  read more »

Mapuche Student Shot Dead; Political Prisoner Slowly Dying From Hunger Strike

13th January 2008

A peaceful protest by the Mapuche met a bloody end on 3rd January when police opened fire into the crowd, killing 22-year-old university student Matias Catrileo Quezada. The young Mapuche man was shot in the back upon retreating, when Chilean police began firing indiscriminately into the crowd with machine guns. Among the protestors were elderly civilians and children, and it was a miracle that nobody else was killed.

For years the Chilean judicial system has refused to deliver justice and
return the indigenous land illegally taken by the estate Santa Margarita,  read more »

URGENT ACTION ALERT!! DEADLINE APPROACHING!
YUCCA MOUNTAIN, SACRED TO THE SHOSHONE & MAJOR FAULT ZONE, IN IMMINENT DANGER!
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY MOVES PLANS FORWARD TO TURN YUCCA MOUNTAIN INTO NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY.
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD DEADLINE JANUARY 10, 2008.  read more »

Dec. 21, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.  read more »

Protesters in trees set to clash with work crew.

By Andrew MacLeod TheTyee.ca December 17, 2007

Construction is set to start any day on a highway interchange to serve the Bear Mountain Resort and Country Club west of Victoria, but first the authorities will have to deal [with] protesters who've camped for a year in the area and are determined to prevent the destruction of
what they say is an environmentally and archaeologically rich place.

Eight RCMP officers visited the camp on Dec. 14, writes activist Zoe  read more »

By Robert Jensen, AlterNet
Posted on November 23, 2006, Printed on November 22, 2007

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.  read more »

by Brenda Norrell
Saturday, November 10, 2007  read more »

Nung Aljani/MindaNews Thursday, 01 November 2007

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/31 October) --Hundreds of Subanon farmers, women and youth, trooped to different government agencies here Wednesday to protest the alleged encroachment of their lands by the Zamboanga City Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (Ecozone) in the mountain barangays of Patalon, Labuan and Limpapa.

The Subanons allege that 9,000 hectares of the 15,000 hectare Ecozone are their ancestral domain.

The group first staged their assembly in front of the Ecozone Office in Barangay San Ramon then proceeded to the regional office of NCIP and the Office of the Sangguniang Panglungsod (City Council).  read more »

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Mon Oct 29, 2007

NEW DELHI - Some 27,000 landless people gathered in New Delhi, hoping to march to Parliament with a single demand — give us land. But police locked them up Monday, chaining the gates to the vast Ramlila fairgrounds and barricading the demonstrators inside.  read more »

Summer 2007

Greetings from Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS),

  We have several calls for support that we want to
relay on behalf of The People on 'The
Land' (Black Mesa). You may have heard that the
decades-long 'Land Dispute' has been
resolved.
Indeed, there have been messages coming from the
political establishment that are quite a bit
different from the daily life of the People on The
Land but this is nothing new. The Dine’
(Navajo) families that we work with are still
struggling under Federally backed Hopi/Bureau
of Indian Affairs jurisdiction.  read more »

July 17, 2007 BBC

Watch Video

Police in the Mexican state of Oaxaca have fired tear gas at protesters in the state capital in the worst outbreak of violence there since last November.

Demonstrators set fire to buses and threw rocks as they tried to march to a stadium due to stage a major cultural festival from next week.  read more »

July 14, 2007 The Australian

INDIGENOUS people will never agree to the abolition of the permit system in the Northern Territory nor the land rights they fought so hard to earn, a Sydney protest has been told.  read more »

Al Pope, 10 July 2007 My Town

Last week, Tyendinaga Mohawk activist Shawn Brant surrendered to Ontario Provincial Police at Napanee, fulfilling a promise he made during the June 21st National Aboriginal Day of Action, and clearly establishing himself as a great leader.  read more »

By Claire Sibonney Fri June 29, 2007

TORONTO (Reuters ) - Canadian aboriginal groups staged protests across the country on Friday to bring attention to poverty, health and social problems facing Indians living on and off the country's reserves.  read more »

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press June 29, 2007

TORONTO - Scattered Indian protests began Thursday night ahead of a planned day of demonstrations against poverty and a lack of services on Canadian reservations. The country's passenger rail system suspended on two key routes amid a threatened rail blockade.

A group of Mohawks kicked off the demonstrations by using a school bus and a pickup truck to block a highway near Deseronto, Ontario, halting traffic in both directions, officials said.

Protesters in army-style fatigues, some with their hair braided back or shaved in traditional Mohawk style, began arriving at a makeshift camp outside Deseronto around sundown.  read more »

The Fight for Inclusion

by Gumisai Mutume, Africa Renewal
via infoshop news

The San, the indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, won a major victory in December 2006, at the end of the longest and most expensive court proceeding in that country's history. The High Court ruled that the state had wrongfully evicted them from a reserve four years earlier and that they could return home. Civil society activists around the world hailed the ruling as a historic precedent for the rights of indigenous people everywhere, especially in Africa, where many governments have been reluctant to recognize the concept of indigenous rights.  read more »

1 June 2007 All Africa.com
Fidelia Okwuonu

Lagos--Following the Bomu protest that has gone on for three days, Shell has been ramping production, cutting down on 150,000 barrels per day of output.

Villagers from K-Dere have since Tuesday, forcefully occupied the pipeline hub at Bomu, which feeds the Bonny shipping terminal destroying the environment by opening some pressure indicator valves.  read more »

5/16/07 No One is Illegal Montreal

“There’s only two ways to deal with white people, to have an effective resolution of the issues. You either pick up a gun and deal with the issue, or you stand between the white man and his money. On June 29, we’re going to stand between the white man and his money.” -- Terrence Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation in Manitoba  read more »