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Part of the historical site at Wounded Knee is up for sale. Should it be developed as a landmark or left in peace out of respect for the Sioux people who died there? Almost as soon as the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee was over, the battle to define what happened on that bleak December day began. For decades afterwards, the official line from Washington was that the actions of the 7th Cavalrymen were heroic. The White House and its allies in South Dakota had invested much political capital in seizing tribal land for US use, and using the army to quell Native American resistance. What happened at Wounded Knee was promoted as a definitive end to these so-called "Indian wars", a final victory for the US government. The administration of President Benjamin Harrison praised the military tactics used by the 7th Cavalry and awarded 20 of the soldiers Medals of Honor. The New York Times told a different story, writing contemporaneously that the Native Americans had been "robbed when at peace, starved and angered into war, and then hunted down by the government." At Wounded Knee, as many as 300 unarmed men, women and children were killed. And official reports from some in government criticizing the massacre were simply buried.
As Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence continues her hunger strike on Parliament Hill in an attempt to get a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a grassroots protest movement of First Nations activists across Canada has united on social media...
American presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich recently claimed that the Palestinians are an “invented people.” That resulted in essays, blogs and commentaries to prove that Palestinians were not invented. In reality, said many, it is the Israelis who are the invented people. Israel displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 to form the state of Israel and enclosed millions of others in outdoor prison-like conditions where they still remain, despite universal condemnation by the UN member states — except for Israel and the United States. Israel’s manifest destiny is comparable to that of its closest ally, America, which massacred Native Americans and rounded up the rest in reservations to construct its homeland. Genocide of indigenous people is a common strategy employed by groups of people trying to lay claim to land and/or form a nation state. The Australians did it to the Aborigines. These nations all effectively defined themselves through a process of elimination of the Other.
Now more than ever, our government should uphold the federal trust responsibility and moral obligations to Native Americans. Where, Oh where, has @TrackerInBlue gone? Where, Oh where, could she be?...... 12/1/2011
“This ride is not about which trail we ride, or the remembrance of one particular group of people that traveled the Trail of Tears,” TrailOfTears-Remembrance.org states. “It is about the remembrance of the plight of the Native American people ripped from their homes, their lands and forced to endure the terrible hardship placed upon them when forced to a new land, forced to a land full of uncertainty, unknowing, and a feeling that their aggressors may again change their mind and force another removal, or worse annihilation.”
TULSA, Okla. — One of the nation's largest American Indian tribes has sent letters to about 2,800 descendants of slaves once owned by its members, revoking their citizenship and cutting their medical care, food stipends, low-income homeowners'...
MONTEVIDEO — Leonard Peltier, an indigenous rights activist jailed in the United States for decades, has received the first Mario Benedetti Foundation international human rights prize, the group said Monday. The group called Peltier, a Native American activist convicted in 1977 for the murder of two US FBI agents, the longest serving political prisoner in the Americas. The case stemmed from a shootout at a reservation in the US state of South Dakota. "Leonard Peltier, who on September 12, 2011 will turn 67, has spent more than half his life in prison. He is a symbol of resistance to repressive state policies by the United States, where there are people in jail for ethnic, racial, ideological and religious reasons," a foundation statement said. Ricardo Elena, a member of the foundation's honorary board, said Peltier's case "is one that is repeated over and over: violation (of rights); persecution, eviction, invasion and expropriation of the indigenous people from the time it was 'discovered' until now.
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Caleb Behn is a young, Indigenous warrior fighting to save his people's land and culture. Deep in the exquisite wilderness of northeastern British Columbia, the ancestral home of Caleb's Dene people, the multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry emits chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, the killing of brain and blood cells, and environmental harm. Caleb himself was born with a birth defect and spent long, painful years under the surgeons' knives, face cut, lips sewn. He cannot show that emissions from the industry caused his condition; still, it made him tough, gave him a deep aversion to gambling with children's health, and helped drive him to action....
WASHINGTON, Nov 28 2012 (IPS) - After 17 years in litigation, the U.S. government has announced that hundreds of thousands of Native Americans will soon be receiving payments from what has been described as the United States’ largest class-action lawsuit, which accused the government of massive mismanagement of trusts covering indigenous peoples’ monies and lands. In total, the settlement will amount to some 3.4 billion dollars, about half of which will now go to 350,000 individuals across the country. According to the plaintiff’s lawyers, initial checks of 1,000 dollars each should be in the mail before Christmas.... Obama plans to meet with representatives of all nearly 600 officially recognised Native American tribes in early December, in what will be the fourth White House Tribal Nations Conference, described as building upon the Obama administration’s “commitment to strengthen the government to government relationship with Indian Country”. Obama’s secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, whose agency oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was held accountable for the trust mismanagement, sounded a similar tone of finality and accomplishment.
There are few resistance figures in American history as noble as Crazy Horse. Native Americans’ resistance to the westward expansion of Europeans took two forms. One was violence. The other was accommodation. Neither worked. Their land was stolen, their communities were decimated, their women and children were gunned down and the environment was ravaged. There was no legal recourse. There was no justice. There never is for the oppressed. And as we face similar forces of predatory, unchecked corporate power intent on ruthless exploitation and stripping us of legal and physical protection, we must confront how we will respond.....
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC), in support of freedom for American Indian activist and political prisoner Leonard Peltier...
A photo gallery of street art by Jetsonorama that makes a statement about the Navajo Nation's tortured relationship with coal power.
Penobscot Indian Nation’s chief Kirk Francis is upset at the recent decisions of the Maine State Police Troopers.
View thew tentative route at: http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/walk.htm The "Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights" will depart from California (Alcatraz Island) on December 18, 2011, and arrive in Washington, DC, on or around Memorial Day 2012.
Nearly 30 tribal representatives from Indian Nations across North America traveled to New York City to attend the ceremony. Outside the Exchange, artists from the Redhawk Native American Arts Council performed traditional Indian dances and music for the public. “We performed our traditional pow wow dancing—men’s and women’s traditional, fancy dance, grass dance and jingle dance,” said Larry Ahenakew, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in Montana. Moments before ringing the bell, Smith thanked the attendees and singled out one tribe. “We want to thank the Shinnecock Nation for allowing us to have such a great time in your aboriginal homelands.” New York City is the ancestral backyard of the Shinnecock Indian Nation
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