Dear President Barack Obama
Remember, remember that day in November, the 5th, 2009, when "we the people", "all of us", were also heard, voices and skins, prayers & opinions, loud and proud, feet on the ground ... we will not quit, we will not go away. The Ancestors and those yet born ask no less, what do we ask of ourselves?
Inside the DOI you heard from 564 invited Native Americans about their issues and concerns on Indigenous Rights for Native Americans.
Outside the DOI you saw and heard, as you drove by, the uninvited Native Americans, voicing their issues and concerns in a peaceful and prayerfull way. Organizing for Native American Indigenous Rights is difficult in a fractured community ... but it will grow as yours has done ... please consider this as your invitation to join this movement.
May I offer a suggestion, grant 'executive clemency' for Leonard Peltier and the community ( 2-5 million strong ) will begin to listen with open hearts and believe - hope. It is in your hands to do the right thing. Review the facts, question evidence, talk to Leonard and you also will begin to question the "justice" in his case. You can do something about it. Please try.
I await your reply to my sincere request,
Larry Monterey, Eagleheart
For information from Leonard's family please contact them @
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/index1.htm
in the name of the fathers and their sons and the Colonialistswho proudly hailed toward some gleaming across the oceanby Natives saved from death the first winter, leaving twenty-threepaternalists never owning the genocide of nearly an entire racehistory not saying much different now, denying Native Sovereigntywhile descended from the Daughters of the American Revolutioni'm still steeped in false prides and dreams, woman and subjectamong slaves and Natives, would we comprise our own nationindivisible in shame, doubt and fear within, overlapping virtuesone with no pride, lying under a Governor that would tax Nativeswe shouldn't be prosecuting prostitutes for trying to earn a livingjust working to get where you are with the little she's been giventhat might be doubly enforceable if she had also been a Nativeraised lost herself, from life removed by her relations' massacressorrows handed down with depressions, as legacies like wealthas i strolled behind the scenes in the Museums of Natural Historynot one pre-Colombian pottery piece, closets filled with the samebear and animal skins collecting dust, spoils of hunts and safarishung on racks in rooms, like so many furs in a dry cleaning storei guess there was some point of a brass tribute to Roosevelt therewhen i and plenty of others with children cannot afford health carein school taught history, lessons of law and what is right or wronginsurance companies rape New York and politicians still get votescall the system "Admitted Carriers" crowned like elitist princessixty-nine articles or rules open to the public, i'm just small leaguecollaring poor Martha Stewart, rich woman in the patriarch gametrying to make it through the meet, entrenched to keep her securitygrowing girls away from indiscretion like we are born little whoresdo any damn newspapers print the true realities of life's hypocrisiesits been a man's world, and i am now told spirituality is on the riseto see common bonds between Christianity and Native religionsbeen there before don't you think, twist stories to fatten their hideswe've seen worse than prostitution from the abbots in the abbeyswhat more could we ask in lowering our commitment to this worldstewardship, self-determination, humbled by truths of generationsequality of birth; let no slave, Jew, Native or woman not earn honorspirituality belongs to the individual and their sacred conjugal rightsas each seeks their proper balance and a peaceful place in Natureto regain our status as human beings everywhere, perhaps in effectpermit globalization of the human society without a fear not to eatwhile we are sent back to school to keep up with new developmentstime has been calling us up, each and everyone to raise standardssmall groups march from West to East coasts to open new life cycleswe comfort in soft chairs behind screens to seek play and distractionwhile each have the power within to raise up our spirits' resurrectionredeem injustices suffered upon human beings, land and our futurewe need all wear the grimaces of foolish shame and shut our mouths same on all the faces of the leaders worn in a slide show i saw todayi'd never have thought i was good enough to run for elected officethat thought had left my mind some time just before my twelfth yeartrue leaders are born we are told, but heart can takes years to retrainthere is truly something on the rise, whether it be glorious or fearfulobviously we can't live under the crushing weight of our current lieshere comes the march upon each one, the place we meet our fatei can't apologize for yesterday, because i was meant to be here nowbut tomorrow will responsibility be sought for all that's yet to comejust what higher purpose may mean about grace and being rebornreality is a hard habit to break - salamandra
Written March 11, 2008, copyright MEWilson
POWWOW aeaa Earth Kids Project 7Nature-UsagiThe North Face x Oak-to-all-relations What is Powwow-aeaa Earth Kids Movement
SPIRIT / NATURE / TECHNOLOGYEarth is one big family, made up of 6.8 billion human beings and 30 million kinds of living species. What can we do to save the beautiful earth for our kids in the future? Spirit, Nature and Technology, the three in harmony is what we need as we dive into the mid-21st century. To obtain this balance, we need to go beyond the differences in religion, race and ideaology, and get out of the materialistic way of living. Each of us needs to start relating directly to the world in our own way and remember to dream. Powwow is a Native American ceremony of dance and music. aeaa stands for Asia, Europe, Africa, and America. It is an important message that kids from around the world hand in hand, start to act together to save the earth for children yet to be born. The seven nature Usagi reck, hiki, ras, yang, divan, song, and haman are fighting for our earth, to shift our way of living to a more sustainable way. Powwow-aeaa Earth Kids Project is an art movement, children and grown-ups - by thinking and expressing ideas about the earth - get connected to the earth through art, creating a movement. 7 nature usagi collection is made with the idea of Reuse-Reduce-Recycleand five percent of its profit will be donated to the KIDS EARTH FUND.
Powwow aeaa Earth Kids Project 7 Nature-Usagi Official Site
http://www.goldwin.co.jp/tnf/powwow/
image movie
http://www.oak-to-all-relations.com/overview/40year_prom.html
Piloting by Oak-to-all-relations /Natalija Ribovic &Toru Fujita music by Live Bacon Support Unit-Iceland
more infohttp://www.oak-to-all-relations.com
I would like to wish everyone in Ozaukee County a very Happy New Year! As a small business owner and mother of a first-grader, the Presidential inauguration represents for me the dawn of hope for the future--for our beloved family business struggling with rising costs and diminished sales, our great country, and our sacred planet. I would like to invite everyone, particularly teachers and parents of young children--to please join in this historic inaugural celebration by participating in some kind of service to the community, in the days leading up to the Inauguration and beyond. Perhaps you could attend and participate more than usual in services at your church, help a friend or neighbor in need, contribute time or talent to your favorite charity, buy one of those bags of food for the needy at the grocery store, or choose to shop at your local store rather than big chains or online. Every little bit helps.
The Musical Patriot
“Showt to Jehovah, al the earth”: Hymns of the Conquest
By DAVID YEARSLEY
Edward Winslow’s Good Newes from New-England published in 1624 in London begins its account in November of 1621. There is no word of the first Thanksgiving. That didn’t happen until 1623 and was a day of devout prayer and penance not one of overt celebration in the modern sense.
The Good Newes begins not with happy feasting between natives and newcomers, but with the threat of war: “the Great people of Nanohigganset, which are reported to be many thousands strong, began to breath forth many threats against us; the common talke of our neighbour Indians on all sides was of the preparation they made to come against us.” Rather than bringing gifts of “Indian Corne,” oysters, and venison, the natives were filling their quivers with new arrows. This Good Newes is bad news for the locals, and, eventually, for people across the continent...........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/yearsley11282008.html
By MIKE ELY
It is a deep thing that people still celebrate the survival of the early colonists at Plymouth — by giving thanks to the Christian God who supposedly protected and championed the European invasion. The real meaning of all that, then and now, needs to be continually excavated. The myths and lies that surround the past are constantly draped over the horrors and tortures of our present.
Every schoolchild in the United States has been taught that the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony invited the local Indians to a major harvest feast after surviving their first bitter year in New England. But the real history of Thanksgiving is a story of the murder of indigenous people and the theft of their land by European colonialists – and of the ruthless ways of capitalism. In mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast, delivering 102 exiles. The original native people of this stretch of shoreline had already been killed off. In 1614 a British expedition had landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox behind. Three years of plague wiped out between 90 and 96 per cent of the inhabitants of the coast, destroying most villages completely..........
ENTIRE ARTICE - http://www.counterpunch.org/ely11282008.html
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
There have been bleaker Thanksgivings, to be sure, than the one Americans celebrated yesterday. The circumstances of the storied first feast in 1621, (very interestingly discussed on this site this weekend by David Yearsley and Mike Ely) on the Massachusetts shoreline actually took place in the ruined Indian village of Pawtuxet. As every schoolchild knows, the Wampanoag Indians brought the little band of Puritans wild turkeys. Cortez had shipped turkeys back to Europe from Mexico and a decade later, by the 1530s they were well-known in Germany and England, hailed at the festive board as part of tradition immemorial. The Puritans had domestic turkeys with them in New England, gazing out at their wild relatives, offered by the Indians who regarded them as somewhat second-rate as food. They also brought along with corn and seasonal squashes.
The Indians had scant reason to rejoice since their numbers had been reduced by some 95 per cent by smallpox introduced in 1614 by an earlier British expedition. If he heard the thanks raised to heaven by the Puritan leader John Winthrop, the English-speaking Indian known as Squanto probably declined to translate it for his fellows.........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11282008.html
by Melanie Conklin @ commondreams.org
When Bobbi Webster, a member of the Oneida Nation, talks about being thankful, she mentions the strawberry harvest, tapping maple trees for syrup, the summer solstice and seasonal change. Feasting, family and giving thanks are the root of multiple thanksgiving celebrations spread throughout the year for the Oneida and other American Indians.
"This time of year we all celebrate Thanksgiving, but we have 13 ceremonies of thanksgiving ongoing throughout the year," Webster said. "Sometimes you have to take the best of the worlds around you, draw from all the cultures. Thanksgiving is a time we see what we have in common."
But because of the roots of today's holiday in the early encounters between European settlers and native populations, there's a multiplicity of viewpoints among American Indians about Thanksgiving.........
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/27-1
Mark Anthony Rolo, left, and his nephew Nick Rolo pick out a bagged turkey at Sentry Hilldale for their Thanksgiving family gathering. (Wisconsin State Journal)
Justice for Indian Country
Thanksgiving We Can Believe In
By STEVE HENDRICKS @ counterpunch.com
Seven years before Tisquantum (Squanto, to most of us) helped the Pilgrims recover from their disastrous first winter in America, he was kidnapped by an English cod fisher and fur trader who was diversifying into the human trade. Tisquantum and other stock were shipped to Spain under hatch, a murderous passage, and most of the survivors were sold into slavery. Tisquantum was among the lucky, rescued by friars before he could be auctioned, though perhaps held a few years to ensure his salvation by Christ. We do not know how Tisquantum made his way to London and finagled a job as guide and interpreter on a ship bound for New England. But in 1619, four years after his abduction, he returned to America only to find his town of Patuxet in ruins and nearly all its 2,000 Wampanoags dead of European pox. When the Pilgrims arrived the following winter, they founded Plymouth on Patuxet's remains--a cruel symbol, that.......
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/hendricks11272008.html
So now that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States, what changes will he make to focus concerns on the many under represented Native American people?
I hope that the voices of the First People of this continent are given a respectful place in his cabinet. I would want to see the next Secretary of the Interior be a Native person. At the least the head of the B..I.A. (Bureau of Indian Affairs) should be of Native ancestry.
- YogiFish -
As an American Indian I am concerned with how the President deals with the sovereign nations within the United States. After seeing Senator Obama's address at the Crow Agency my hope was renewed at least, that there may someday be a President of the U.S.A. that not only knows the definition of sovereign but will take steps to correct long standing problems within the system with regards to the B.I.A., Health care, and Education. Here is a link that I received that shows the other side of the coin in John McCain. http://acsa.net/cain2004.org/home.html
Does this woman just have a burning desire to kill everything that moves? Creationism teaches that animals have no souls and that Man has dominion over the earth. Ok. However, Creationism also teaches that "dominion over the earth" means that Man is reponsible for taking care of the earth. Man is not to exploit or damage the very environment that the Almighty created.
Hello... McFly....I mean Sarah - you can't have it both ways.
Her hypocrisy is astonishing. I believe she's a sadist that just enjoys the pleasure of watching a living creature die. While I am not a hunter, I do believe there is a need for it - whether for food or animal population control. But I truly don't understand her pathological need to kill anything in her path and encourage so-called "pleasure hunting" in her home state.
Her record on the environment is atrocious as well. She may want to stop tauting the fact that her husband is part Native American, since Native American culture believes in taking only from the environment what is needed.
Below is from www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm
1) Palin offered a bounty of $150 for each left front leg of freshly killed wolves
2) Palin promotes aerial hunting of wolves even though Alaskans voted twice to ban it (VIDEO)
3) Palin used $400,000 of state money to fund a propaganda campaign in support of aerial hunting
4) Palin believes man-made global warming is a farce
5) Palin strongly supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
6) Palin is suing the federal government to prevent listing the polar bear as an endangered species
7) Palin is opposed to listing the unique Cook Inlet beluga whale as an endangered species
Is anyone else as outraged as I am?
Yes, it is Time for A Change with Alaska Natives and Native Americans.
More then any group or race in all of America the Alaska Native and Native American Population from birth to their death have more regulations and polices governing their very life and existence. Their rights and privileges like that of other Americans; for example, voting rights, it was not until 1924 that the Alaska Native and Native American population were granted citizenship. In Arizona, tribes were not granted voting rights and had to go to court to gain their right to vote in 1948. In the 2004 national election some tribes their voting was disenfranchised and again the tribes when to court to simply exercise their right to vote. The disenfranchisement was due to lack of photo identification.
Below is the text from an email sent to members of the Native Americans for Obama group. Please take time to read it -- this is very important!! As Alaskan governor, her policies toward Native Americans have been horrible. As VP or possibly President, we could see Native American rights all over the United States severely eroded! We cannot allow this to happen!!
-----------------
From Native Americans for Obama group this week:
-------------Date: Sep 9, 2008 8:03 PM
Tribal Sovereignty, subsistence hunting & fishing as well as the Indian Child Welfare Act must not be overturned.
Sarah Palin's Record on Alaska Native and Tribal Issues
(Joy Harjo writes: Thanks to Suzan Harjo for this. She says,"I had a very tiny hand in it, but it's best to say that it was written by Alaska Native people. I did fact-checking and cite-checking, and can verify its accuracy.")
1.Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence FishingPerhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoplesas the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary andtraditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence way of lifefor future generations.
Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those rights.
Once in office, Governor Palin decided to continue litigation thatseeks to overturn every subsistence fishing determination thefederal government has ever made in Alaska. (State of Alaska
v. Norton, 3:05-cv-0158- HRH (D. Ak).)
In pressing this case, Palindecided against using the Attorney General (which usually handlesState litigation) and instead continued contracting with Senator TedStevens' brother-in-law' s law firm (Birch, Horton, Bittner &Cherot).
The goal of Palin's law suit is to invalidate all the subsistencefishing regulations the federal government has issued to date toprotect Native fishing, and to force the courts instead to take overthe roll of setting subsistence regulations.Palin's law suit seeksto diminish subsistence fishing rights in order to expand sport andcommercial fishing.
In May 2007, the federal court rejected the State's main challenge,holding that Congress in 1980 had expressly granted the U.S.
Interior and Agriculture Departments the authority to regulate andprotect Native and rural subsistence fishing activities in Alaska.
(Decision entered May 15, 2007 (Dkt. No. 110).)
Notwithstanding this ruling, Palin continues to argue in thelitigation that the federal subsistence protections are too broad,and should be narrowed to exclude vast areas from subsistencefishing, in favor of sport and commercial fishing.
Palin opposes subsistence protections in marine waters, on many of the lands thatNatives selected under their 1971 land claims settlement with thestate and federal governments, and in many of the rivers whereAlaska Natives customarily fish. (Alaska Complaint at 15-18.)
Palin also opposes subsistence fishing protections on Alaska Nativefederal allotments that were deeded to individuals purposely tofoster Native subsistence activities.All these issues are nowpending before the federal district court.
2.Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Hunting
Palin has also sought to invalidate critical determinations theFederal Subsistence Board has made regarding customary andtraditional uses of game, specifically to take hunting opportunitiesaway from Native subsistence villagers and thereby enhance sporthunting.
Palin's attack here on subsistence has focused on the Ahtna Indianpeople in Chistochina.Although the federal district court hasrejected Palin's challenge, she has carried on an appeal that wasargued in August 2008. (State of Alaska v. Fleagle, No. 07-35723(9th Cir.).)
In both hunting and fishing matters, Palin has continueduninterrupted the policies initiated by the former Governor FrankMurkowski Administration, challenging hunting and fishingprotections that Native people depend upon for their subsistence wayof life in order to enhance sport fishing and hunting opportunities.
Palin's lawsuits are a direct attack on the core way of life ofNative Tribes in rural Alaska.
3.Palin has attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty
Governor Palin opposes Alaska tribal sovereignty.
Given past court rulings affirming the federally recognized tribalstatus of Alaska Native villages, Palin does not technicallychallenge that status.
But Palin argues that Alaska Tribes have noauthority to act as sovereigns, despite their recognition.
So extreme is Palin on tribal sovereignty issues that she has soughtto block tribes from exercising any authority whatsoever even overthe welfare of Native children, adhering to a 2004 legal opinionissued by the former Murkowski Administration that no suchjurisdiction exists (except when a state court transfers a matter toa tribal court).
Both the state courts and the federal courts have struck downPalin's policy of refusing to recognize the sovereign authority ofAlaska Tribes to address issues involving Alaska Native children.
Native Village of Tanana v.State of Alaska, 3AN-04-12194 CI(judgment entered Aug. 26, 2008) (Ak. Super. Ct.); Native KaltagTribal Council v. DHHS, No. 3:06-cv-00211- TMB (D. Ak.), pending onappeal No 08-35343 (9th Cir.)).
Nonetheless, Palin's policy ofrefusing to recognize Alaska tribal sovereignty remains unchanged.
4.Palin has attacked Alaska Native Languages
Palin has refused to accord proper respect to Alaska Nativelanguages and voters by refusing to provide language assistance toYup'ik speaking Alaska Native voters.
As a result, Palin was just ordered by a special three-judge panel
of federal judges to providevarious forms of voter assistance to Yup'ik voters residing insouthwest Alaska. Nick v. Bethel, No. 3:07-cv-0098- TMB (D. Ak.)(Order entered July 30, 2008).
Citing years of State neglect, Palinwas ordered to provide trained poll workers who are bilingual inEnglish and Yup'ik; sample ballots in written Yup'ik; a writtenYup'ik glossary of election terms; consultation with local Tribes toensure the accuracy of Yup'ik translations; a Yup'ik languagecoordinator; and pre-election and post-election reports to the courtto track the State's efforts.
In sum, measured against some the rights that are most fundamentalto Alaska Native Tribes - the subsistence way of life, tribalsovereignty and voting rights - Palin's record is a failure.
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation Region - Reserve, Wisconsin
Thursday, October 2nd - Vice Presidential Debate, LCO Casino Big Screen 7-10:00 pm. Debate starts at 8 pm CST.
Tuesday, October 7th - Presidential Town Hall Debate, LCO Casino Big Screen 7-10:00 pm. Debate starts at 8 pm CST. Get Out the Vote Bus Tour tentatively scheduled to arrive here.
Wednesday, October 15th - Presidential Debate, LCO Casino Big Screen 7-10:00 pm
Saturday, October 18th - Community Canvas/Registration, Peter Larson Room, LCO Tribal Office, 10-4:00 pm. Looking to put together about seven, 3 Person Village Canvassing Teams (Registering Voters. Making sure they know where their polling site is. Collecting info about who needs ride on election day, gathering emails, phone numbers, identifying heads of households, etc.)
Sunday, October 26th - Family Get Out the Vote Rally, Casino Convention Noon-6 pm. Young People Raffles/Band - Food, How to Register Onsite on Election Day, PigRoast/Potluck? Concepts = Family/Clan/Community endorsement of candidates Family peer support for registration/targets young and 1st time voters. We are looking for donation of raffle items. It looks like we may have a local young peoples band, and will be raffling off an Ipod, gift certificates for Champs (shoes or shirts), certificates for body piercing and tattoos, and may have a local drum group like Grindstone Singers or Pipestone. The Family Get Out the Vote Rally is open to anybody in the region.
Tuesday, October 28th - (tentative) Straw Poll LCO Community College/High School Student Vote.
Tuesday, November 4th - Election Day Watch/Headquarters, LCO Casino Big Screen 7 am - Midnite or until the results are in. All day ride share coordination, get out the vote, election results, poll watcher command post, phone bank, legal assistance -- hurricane watch center. (Will need the comprehensive phone and cell number list. Maybe Walkie Talkies for Bus Service Coordination). Volunteers and hungry voters welcome.
Encourage your friends and family to join these Obama Campaign user groups to keep in touch with campaign event updates, clarifications, etc..
Chicago, Illinois (ICC) The Obama campaign announced the addition of senior Native American staff hires in the battleground states of Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota. The additions include Gyasi Ross, Montana Constituency Director; Amber Carrillo, New Mexico Native American Vote Director; and Jodi Gillette, North Dakota Native American Vote Coordinator.
The new hires join Chicago based Wizipan Garriott (Sicangu Lakota), First Americans Vote Director, and Nicole Willis (Cayuse/Nez Perce/Yakama/Oglala Lakota), First Americans Vote Deputy Director. Wizipan Garriott, Obama campaign First Americans Vote Director said, "Each one of these members of our team brings a great set of skills and expertise to the campaign. Senator Obama has the most progressive and detailed American Indian platform in recent history, and he is committed to bringing real change to Indian Country.
As a community organizer, Senator Obama brought people together and empowered them to strengthen their communities, and he brings that philosophy to his plan for our tribal communities across the country.
![[Mark Anthony Rolo, left, and his nephew Nick Rolo pick out a bagged turkey at Sentry Hilldale for their Thanksgiving family gathering. (Wisconsin State Journal)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/rolothanksgiving1127.jpg "rolothanksgiving1127.jpg")
