Navajo Nation Drops Bid to Buy Dirty Power Plant, Ending Genocidal Monster

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Friday, March 22, 2019

Contacts available for comment:

Nicole Horseherder, Tó Nizhóní Ání, nhorseherder@gmail.com
Percy Deal, deal.percy@gmail.com
Lori Goodman, Diné CARE, lgoodmand89@gmail.com
Marie Gladue, Black Mesa Water Coalition, marie@blackmesawatercoalition.org

Navajo coal company drops bid to buy Navajo Generating Station and Kayenta coal mine as Navajo Council signals it's time for tribes' move to clean energy

Statements from Navajo grassroots community groups

On Thursday, March 21, the Naa'bik'iyati' Committee (Committee of the Whole) of the Navajo Council voted down a resolution to support Navajo Transitional Energy Co.'s proposal to buy and operate Navajo Generating Station and Peabody Energy's Kayenta coal mine, which supplies the power plant with fuel. The 11-9 defeat of the resolution led today to an announcement by NTEC that it was dropping its bid to buy the plant and mine.

In the immediate wake of the legislation's defeat, new legislation was introduced to end the Navajo Nation's nearly 50 years of economic dependence on coal. Legislation 0073-19 proposes rescinding the Navajo Nation's current energy policies, which are focused on coal, and replacing them with a vision that "declares the intention of the Nation to move beyond coal source revenues and forward to sustainable and renewable energy sources."

Groups that have spent many years on this issue, fighting for a sustainable future free of coal, provided the following statements in reaction to these historic developments:

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"It's been known for a long time that coal isn't the future, but this final certainty is crucial. For anyone who's been hesitant about moving strongly for renewable energy development, for building our economy in ways that will benefit our communities and our Mother Earth and Father Sky, now there is no reason or excuse to hold back. This moment is why our new council and president were elected. The legacy they will leave for the transition from coal starts now."
– Lori Goodman, Diné CARE

"This is an important time to remember that vast resources were once spent to install coal operations on Navajo Nation, and that vast wealth and benefit was extracted for decades over the heads of so many Navajo communities. Remembering this past shows the path ahead: full corporate responsibility for affected coal workers, full restoration of damaged land and water, and full commitment now from utilities to be customers for clean energy resources from Navajo land in ways that benefit Navajo people."
– Percy Deal, former Navajo Council member and former Navajo County Supervisor

"We are way behind in our planning for what comes next because so much time has been spent trying to keep Navajo Generating Station and Kayenta Mine running. It's time for us to come together and work cooperatively on building a clean energy economy that benefits all Navajo. There's much hard work ahead to create this transition, but with the leadership shown by the new Navajo Council and our new president, we have a bright future in front of us."
– Nicole Horseherder, Executive Director, Tó Nizhóní Ání

"This is an historic moment for the Navajo, and the Council delegates should be thanked for their courage in listening to the people. For a half century, coal has divided us, but we now have an incredible opportunity to come together to create something better, especially for places like Black Mesa. Now we will focus on building something better, a new economy more in line with Navajo culture and our way of life, protecting our land and water and benefitting all communities."
– Marie Gladue, Black Mesa Water Coalition

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National Native American Hall of Fame 2019 Nomination Process Begins

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2019 National Native American Hall of Fame Nomination Process Begins on March 22

(GREAT FALLS, Mont., March 22, 2019) — The National Native American Hall of Fame is opening up the 2019 Hall of Fame nomination process today to determine the 12 Native Americans who will be inducted this year. A list of 30 nominees has been made public via an online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019NativeHOF.

The public is being asked to vote on the nominees, which will assist in the process of determining the 12 individuals who will be recognized at the 2019 National Native American Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 2.

"The survey will be open for just two weeks so I urge you to complete the survey early and make sure your voice is heard," says National Native American Hall of Fame CEO James Parker Shield, Little Shell Chippewa.

After the survey closes, the organization's Board of Directors will tabulate the results and determine the 12 inductees, who will be announced at a later date.

"Our Board of Directors takes this process very seriously; and we have lively discussions on each potential nominee at every step during the selection process," notes Shield. "The public survey results are a huge asset in these discussions as it gives us an idea of how the Native public is weighing in about each of the inductees."

"It's a difficult process to narrow it down to only 12 inductees each year; and I commend my Board for making the tough decisions to do that, especially when there are so many deserving Native Americans," says Shield.

The survey will include a short biography about each nominee to help the public understand why they have been nominated.

To nominate other Native Americans in the future, the National Native American Hall of Fame is working on a nomination form that will be on the website (www.nativehalloffame.org). Until the form is online, send emails to: info@nativehalloffame.org with the name, short biography, and a digital photo of the individual being nominated as well as your contact information.

For more information about the 2019 Induction Ceremony and to become a sponsor, contact Chief Development Officer T.J. Hansell (tj@nativehalloffame.org or (602) 885-4454.

About the National Native American Hall of Fame

The National Native American Hall of Fame is an Indigenous 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Its mission is "To Recognize and Honor the inspirational achievements of Native Americans in contemporary history." The all-Native Board of Directors includes members from several nations, including: Blackfeet/Wichita, Comanche, Ojibwe, Northern Cheyenne and Sac and Fox. Future plans for the Hall of Fame include a traveling exhibit and an educational curriculum for youth focusing on the vast array of accomplishments by Native Americans in modern times. For more information and updates, visit https://www.nativehalloffame.org/.

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Note to Editors Only:

Photo:  Four of the 12 2018 Inaugural Inductees to the National Native American Hall of Fame: Lionel Bordeaux, Sicangu Lakota; LaDonna Harris, Comanche; John Herrington, Chickasaw and Billy Mills, Oglala Lakota. Photo Credit: Jolon Indian Media.

Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe)

LIZ HILL PUBLIC RELATIONS LLC

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Green River, Utah -- Longest Walk Photos by Bad Bear 2019

Photos by Western Shoshone Longwalker Carl Bad Bear Sampson, on the Longest Walk 2019 across the land for Indigenous rights.

Censored News -- The Struggle of the Human Spirit Keeps Hope Alive

Longest Walk 2019 photo by Bad Bear

Love is the founding force of revolution
We are still here

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
It has been 12 and one-half years since Censored News began. We have the honor of sharing some of the most censored facts of genocide, displacement and injustice. Today Christine Prat exposes the nuclear testing that the U.S. and France must be held accountable for. If you look through our archives, you will discover Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas exposing the planned U.S. and Israeli spy towers in her community, and the local resistance to this destruction.
You'll also see Mohawk Nation News and the articles of Kahentinetha Horn​​, taking on Canada. The articles by Lakota and Dakota who stand and live in resistance are among the most read articles, including one from Standing Rock Camp viewed 1.6 million times. There are many issues the mainstream media refuses to cover, including the number of US Border Patrol and ICE agents involved in drug running and murder.
Much of this would not be possible without the founding wisdom and resistance of Dine' and Hopi. From the resistance at Big Mountain, to the gathering by Dine' Care which brought together the Spiritual and  environmental leaders on the Navajo Nation 30 years ago at Dilcon, they are a foundation and pulse.
The words and actions of the Mohawk Warrior Society are a foundation of courage, fearlessness and clarity of purpose.
Around the world, Indigenous Peoples are being assassinated in the struggle for justice. Young women are being disappeared and murdered.
Still the Zapatistas and resisters keep hope alive, with the cry of autonomy, dignity and self reliance
It is the struggle of the human spirit and it keeps hope alive.
Please support the writers, photographers, runners, walkers, translators, great thinkers, and all who live their truth, from their homelands to the frontlines.
Censored News has no ads, grants or revenues.
It is a labor of love, the love that Che spoke of, and the love for the future generations, water, land, rivers, birds and all living things that led Buck Johnston of Taos to strap himself atop a drilling rig last week.
Walking across the land known as the United States is an act few can do. Thanks to Western Shoshone Carl 'Bad Bear' Sampson, who has done it many times on the Longest Walks, we have photos to share of these epic journeys.
I began Censored News after being censored and terminated as a staff writer for Indian Country Today. The editor warned me to stop writing about "grassroots" Native people.
Today, I wish I could do more, but we are all doing the best we can. Thanks to each of you, we are still here. -- Brenda

Nuclear Tests: Shoshone and Polynesian Leaders Prosecute U.S. and France for Genocide

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NUCLEAR TESTS: SHOSHONE AND POLYNESIAN LEADERS PROSECUTE THE U.S. AND FRANCE FOR GENOCIDE

By Christine Prat

March 15^th, 2019

Censored News

Nuclear tests have caused and are still causing many deaths and making lands uninhabitable. Many peoples in the world have been victims of 'tests' carried out without their consents. This article has been inspired by the stories told by Moëtai Brotherson, a member of the French Parliament from Tahiti (Paris, October 2018), and Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Shoshone Bands from Nevada (Las Vegas, September 2017). They both have decided to prosecute the French and US governments respectively, to have the consequences of nuclear tests officially recognized as genocide. Mr. Zabarte tries to have the genocide of his people recognized by the UN, Mr. Brotherson filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice. Mr. Brotherson is the only member of Parliament who is an independentist activist.

+American nuclear tests in Nevada started in January 1951. The very first bomb had exploded in New Mexico – in an unpopulated area, according to official media, but not far from the Mescalero Apache Reservation – on July 16^th, 1945, only a few weeks before dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also started with nuclear tests on Bikini, in the Marshall Islands, in 1946. Strangely enough, instead of causing protests and fear, it mainly gave a name to a new fashionable bath suit and to a silly popular song. Before the first test, the US authorities evacuated the Native population of Bikini, claiming that they could return soon. Bikini is still uninhabitable right now. In Nevada, tests did not take place "in the Desert", as media still claim, but in Shoshone territory. Over 1000 bombs have exploded there, between January 1951 and September 1992. Of course, the Shoshone population has been decimated. Further, the Mercury test site is hardly 70 miles (115 km) from Las Vegas (there is also a Paiute reservation between Las Vegas and Mercury).

+The French nuclear tests started in Reggane, Algeria, Tuareg Territory, from 1960 to 1961. Four atmospheric tests happened there. From 1961 to 1966, 13 underground tests took place in In Ecker, also in Tuareg Territory. Algeria became independent in 1962. The French managed to get in the Treaty that they could go on with nuclear tests until 1967. Thus, as soon as 1966, they started to explode nuclear bombs in 'French' Polynesia, in Mururoa and Fangataufa. From 1966 to 1974, 46 atmospheric 'tests' were carried out, and from 1975 to 1996, 147 bombs were exploded under Mururoa and Fangataufa.

Major media still fail to report about the damages caused to Indigenous Peoples and their territories. Even nowadays, many decades later, they only mention White victims, or otherwise claim that nuclear tests were carried out in 'deserts'. In a rather recent historical program, a French public radio – France Culture – claimed that the Trinity bomb – the first nuclear test ever – took place in the New Mexico Desert, "an uninhabited region"; that the US tests have been carried out in the Nevada "Desert"; that the French nuclear tests in Reggane, Algeria, did cause health problems and death among French militaries and their families, drafted soldiers (which is indeed shocking) and traders who followed the militaries, but they still don't say a word about the Indigenous Tuareg population in Reggane and In Ecker whose territory it is.

+It has been a bit different for "French" Polynesia. Protesters immediately expressed support for the Indigenous population. The reason might be that nuclear tests in Polynesia started during the Vietnam War, when all peace activists in the world were in the streets demonstrating to support the Vietnamese people and were thus conscious of the existence and plight of Indigenous Peoples. A poster, widely spread in the late 1960's, showed an image of Death with the hair and flowers of a Polynesian woman. However, it was not enough to make them stop the tests, repeated complaints by New Zealand probably had more effect. The attitude of the media is still obviously racist.

+Mr. Zabarte is also struggling against a project of deep burial site for nuclear waste, under Yucca Mountain, sacred for the Shoshone, situated on a volcanic region, and quite close to the Mercury nuclear test site. He has also been supporting the Timbisha people, a Shoshone people, living on the other side of the mountain range, in California, also very close to the tests site and also plagued by radioactivity. Mr. Zabarte is also supporting their case at the U.N. by showing that it all happened on unceded territory according to the Treaties. The Shoshone, as many other Indigenous Peoples in the US and Canada, never ceded their territories and are still "sovereign". The United States never respected a single Treaty signed with Indigenous Peoples.+

Mr. Brotherson reminded us that "French" Polynesia, just as Kanaky ("French New-Caledonia"), was on top of the first list of the United Nations of territories to be decolonized, established in 1946. In 1963, Polynesia has been illegally removed from the list following a request by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2003, France took the opportunity of changes in its Constitution to replace the word "Peoples" by "populations", concerning its overseas colonies – which it does not recognize as colonies, but as French "provinces". This allowed France to sign the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples Rights, without respecting it, as "there are no Indigenous Peoples in French territories"!

+Both Peoples have been devastated by nuclear activities. Mr. Zabarte said he owed his life to his mother who moved to San Francisco as soon as she became pregnant. When they went back to Shoshone territory, years later, Mr. Zabarte was shocked to find out that he had no more family, all his cousins had died. The whole territory of "French" Polynesia is impacted by radioactivity. Many people died of cancer, now people are still suffering of diseases, birth defects and very negative impacts on their environment, their fauna and their flora.+

The genocide is still going on. Do whatever you can to support their efforts to have it recognized by the world!

http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=5006

Copyright Christine Prat

Taos Water Guardian shares risk to aquifers after four days atop drilling rig

Buck Johnston shares why he strapped himself atop a drilling rig near Taos. The aquifers, local wells, rivers and all life are at risk.
Buck was arrested Sunday when he descended. Buck smoked the Sacred Pipe in handcuffs after spending four days and nights atop the drilling rig in the cold.
Buck was released from jail on Monday.
Watch Buck's video update:
.https://m.facebook.com/buck.johnston.31