In Praise of the Mighty Native Woman
by Ruth Hopkins
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“Native women, with their indomitable spirits and ability to create miracles through sheer force of will, are absolutely the reason why the indigenous people of the Western hemisphere managed to survive genocide, against all odds.”
Continue reading . . .
Author Archives: NRN
Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories
COMPAÑERAS is the untold story of the women of the Zapatista movement. Prior to 1994, the indigenous women of Chiapas had few, if any, rights. They were forced into arranged marriages and confined to the private sphere; they had little access to birth control, and domestic violence was widespread. But the Zapatista movement radically redefined gender roles as women left their homes to become guerrilla insurgents, political leaders, healers, educators, and members of economic cooperatives. Zapatista women played a key role not only in creating and maintaining indigenous autonomy, but also in bringing about the liberation and equality of indigenous women.
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From 1997 to 2003, community organizer Hilary Klein worked with women’s cooperatives in Chiapas and interviewed many Zapatista women, who had joined the movement to escape arranged marriages, or to acquire the education that had been denied them, or to rectify other injustices they had witnessed in their communities. Their stories shed light on one of the most compelling social movements in recent history and the birth of women’s rights in Chiapas. COMPAÑERAS is required reading for anyone interested in women’s studies, social and economic justice, or grassroots resistance to global capitalism.
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Author HILARY KLEIN spent six years in Chiapas, Mexico, working with women’s projects in Zapatista communities. After she compiled a book of Zapatista women’s testimony to be circulated in their own villages, women in the Zapatista leadership suggested that Klein compile a similar book for an outside audience. Klein has been engaged in social justice and community organizing for twenty years. She currently works at Make the Road New York, a membership organization that builds the power of immigrant and working-class communities.
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Face Out: Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories
Thursday , March 19, 2015
7-9PM
Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria.
2113 Amsterdam ave, (at 165 st)
New York, NY
Native Films at Paradigm Shifts Film Festival
Paradigm Shifts 2015 goes live March 19th!
Multicultural artist and filmmakers mix it up in a truly unique Music, Dance & Film Festival!
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The Engelman Recital Hall
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (at East 25th Street)
New York, New York 10010
Entrance on East 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues
Friday March 27, 2015
7:00 p.m.
Double Feature
Live Music: Native American Music & Ceremony
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Film: American Outrage
by George and Beth Gage
Two elderly Native American sisters battle the US government for land rights after their livestock herds are seized and they are sued for trespassing.
33 minutes
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Film: Standing on Sacred Ground – Pilgrims and Tourists
Directed by Christopher McLeod
In the Russian Republic of Altai, traditional native people create their own mountain parks, to rein in tourism and resist a gas pipeline that would cut through a World heritage Site. In northern California, Winnemem Wintu girls grind herbs on a sacred medicine rock as elders protest U.S. government plans to enlarge one of the West’s biggest dams and forever submerge this touchstone of a tribe.
Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe), Oren Lyons (Onondago), Satish Kumar and Barry Lopez provide insights on a growing global indigenous movement for human rights and environmental protections.
56 minutes
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Q&A with filmmakers via Skype
Lenny Foster Coming to Riverside Church
Lenny Foster: Native American Issues and Leonard Peltier
Saturday, April 25, 2015
2 to 5 p.m.
The Riverside Church
91 Claremont Ave., Rm 10T
Light Refreshments Will Be Served
Opening Flute by Frank Menusan
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Saturday, April 25, 2015
2 to 5 p.m.
The Riverside Church
91 Claremont Ave., Rm 10T
Light Refreshments Will Be Served
Opening Flute by Frank Menusan
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Lenny Foster of the Dine Nation is the Director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project and the Spiritual Advisor for more than 2,000 Native American inmates in ninety-six state and federal prisons in the Western U.S. He has co-authored legislation in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado allowing Native American spiritual and religious practice in prison and resulting in significant reductions in prison returns.
He is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, a sun dancer and member of the Native American Church. He has been with the American Indian Movement since 1969 and has participated in actions including Alcatraz, Black Mesa, the Trail of Broken Treaties, Wounded Knee 1973, the Menominee Monastery Occupation, Shiprock Fairchild Occupation, the Longest Walk and the Big Mountain land struggle.
Lenny Foster has received many accolades and honors for his groundbreaking work with Indigenous prisoners’ human rights. These include the Dr. Martin Luther King Civil Rights Award in Phoenix, Arizona (1993) and Kansas City, Missouri (1996); the Petra Foundation Human Rights Award in Washington, D.C. (1997) and the Citizen’s Award for Commendation of the Governor’s Religious Advisory Task Force in Salt Lake City, Utah (1997). His program was awarded High Honors from Harvard University Honoring Nations 2003 Tribal Governance Excellence. He was awarded a fellowship by the Windcall Foundation in Bozeman, Montana in June 2004. He was the recipient of the Unsung Hero Award by the Utah Division of Indian Affairs on Indigenous Day, November 22, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received the Volunteer of the Year Native American Spiritual Advisor from the Federal Correctional Complex in Tucson, Arizona in April 2009. He also received the 2013 U.S. Human Rights Network Movement Builders Award.
Sponsors: The Riverside Church Prison Ministry, NYC Free Peltier
For more info: nycfreepeltier@gmail.com • 646-429-2059
For more info: nycfreepeltier@gmail.com • 646-429-2059
Call for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
Celebrate the Spring Equinox
Join Neetopk Keetopk & the
Association of Native Americans of Hudson Valley
to celebrate the
Spring Equinox
Friday March 20, 2015 – 6:00 p,m, to 9:00 p.m.
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Reform Church in Bloomington
9 Church Street, Bloomington in Rosendale
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Smudging — Sacred Fire — Ceremony — Drumming –Songs — Dancing
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** Weather permitting we will begin ceremony outside,
followed by a potluck dinner inside the church basement.
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** Bring a potluck dish to share following ceremony
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Directions:
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FROM KINGSTON AREA-take Washington Avenue from the Thruway circle to Rt. 32. Turn right, taking Rt. 32 South for about two or three miles. You will be coming up a hill with a double lane going South. At the top of the hill, when the two lanes merge into one, turn left. That will be Main Street, Bloomington.
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You’ll come up behind the church where you’ll see the cemetary. Turn right just before the cemetary (after the Post Office) and you’ll see a parking lot on the right. Otherwise, swing around the cemetary to the front of the church.
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FROM NEW PALTZ-take 32 North for about nine miles. You’ll pass over the Wallkill River and Rondout Creek. About three miles North of the Rondout Creek (after passing over the Thruway), turn right between the Bloomington Fire Co. sign and United Reformed Church sign. Go to the end of the road and turn left. You can’t miss the church after that.
Wolf Patrol Art Exhibit and Fund Raiser
Wolf Patrol is a conservation movement founded on the principles of biocentricity, and indigenous cultural preservation. We believe in supporting the recovery of gray wolves in the lower 48 states and encouraging a greater understanding and tolerance for cultural world views that promote a harmonious co-existence with wolves and other predators.
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Wolf Patrol is a 100% volunteer-run organization working out in the field across the U.S. to document and report on wolf hunts. We believe it is far too early in Gray Wolf restoration efforts to be removing them from the federal endangered species list, but this is what these important predators are currently facing.
We want to show the world what happens during wolf hunts, including those run by large outfitters, during trapping seasons, and hunts conducted with the aid of hounds. We have already documented and reported on illegal wolf hunting activities in Montana, Minnesota and Wisconsin this past year, and plan to expand our efforts as more states seek to gain control of wolf population management, and bypass the endangered species listing.
To help raise funds for our ongoing work, we are holding an online fundraising art exhibition, starting March 9, 2015. This was the same date, back in 1978, that the Gray Wolf was federally listed as an endangered species in the U.S.
The exhibition will be held online at http://www.wolfpatrol.org, from March 9 – 31, 2015.
Please help us promote what is set to be an incredibly inspiring exhibit, and important fundraiser for Wolf Patrol’s work in the field.
For the wolves!
– The Wolf Patrol Team
teamwolfpatrol@gmail.com
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“We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be –the mythologized epitome of a savage ruthless killer – which is, in reality, no more than a reflected image of ourself.”
– Farley Mowat
Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz Coming to NYC
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz will be in the NYC area for a week and will be speaking at several events.
Friday, March 6, 4:15-5:45 PM*, Columbia University
Panel: “History and Activism¨,” Chair: Prof. Alice Kessler-Harris:
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Panelists: Prof. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, California State University, Native American rights activism; Prof. Nicola Foote, Florida Gulf Coast University, Histories of Choice: community-based learning around /Roe v. Wade: /Prof. Mary Poole, Prescott College, Maasai Community Partnership at the Conference on “History in Action: Historical Thinking in Public
Life”, Columbia University, 6-7 March 2015, in 501 Schermerhorn
http://historyinaction.columbia.edu/hia-programs/history-in-action-ii/
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NOTE: THIS IS PART OF A TWO-DAY CONFERENCE AND MAY NOT BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. CHECK WITH COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
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Sunday, March 8, 7PM, Bluestockings Bookstore
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Celebrating International Women’s Day!
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reading from the new edition of her memoir, /Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years,
1960: 1975./
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NOTE: BETTER COME EARLY FOR A SEAT.
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Monday, March 9, 6PM. Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville
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Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz will speak on: Unfinished Business: Legacy of Second Wave Feminism
Heimbold Visual Arts Center, RM.208
NOTE: THIS EVENT MAY NOT BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC OR MAY REQUIRE REGISTRATION. CHECK WITH SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE.
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Tuesday, March 10, 7:30 PM, Columbia University Faculty House
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Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz lecture: “Culture of Conquest and the Doctrine of Discovery: The United States as a Colonial Settler-State,” based on her new book, /An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States/
NOTE: THIS EVENT IS LIMITED TO 50 AND IS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. But, anyone is welcome to reserve a seat on first come basis, contact: Theresa Castillo tpc2005 <at> tc.columbia.edu
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Thursday, March 12, 6-8:30 PM*, Brooklyn College
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Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz will speak on: “A Common Resistance to
Settler-Colonialism: Indigenous Peoples of North America and Palestine Student Center (Corner of E27st and Campus Rd, Brooklyn. Served by 2 and 5 trains and B11, B6 and B44 buses)
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THIS EVENT IS ORGANIZED BY STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE AND IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Four Years After Fukushima
FOUR YEARS AFTER FUKUSHIMA and INDIAN POINT
The Manhattan Project, Shut Down Indian Point Now! & NYC Safe Energy Coalition invite you to
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FOUR YEARS AFTER FUKUSHIMA and INDIAN POINT
Tue. March 10, 2015
6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
Goddard-Riverside Community House
593 Columbus Avenue, NYC
(NE corner of 88th St & Columbus Av)
Subway: B/C to 86th st & 1 to 86th st
Click here to download flyer
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RSVP: aslater●rcn.com (please change ● to @)
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Experts and activists make the connection between what happens during uranium mining, the great damage it does to people and the land, for the fuel to power Indian Point and Fukushima.
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Hear an update about the ongoing and catastrophic effects of Fukushima from Prof. Hiroko Goto, Chiba University School of Law; Vice President of Human Rights Now.
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Jennifer Thurston of Information Network for Responsible Mining will give us on-the-ground report of environmental impacts of uranium mining in Colorado.
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Meet activist Leona Morgan of the Diné No Nukes. She will talk about her people and their fight against uranium mining on indigenous lands in the Southwest US.
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Klee Benally, a Diné based in Arizona, will address resource colonization in uranium mining, protection of sacred places, and tactics towards collective liberation.
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Learn from Marilyn Elie with the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition about the dangers of Indian Point only 25 miles from NYC and why we must shut it down.
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Speakers:
Professor Hiroko Goto, Professor of Chiba University School of Law in Japan; Vice President of Human Rights Now; Board member of Japan Association of Gender and Law; Board member of Japanese Association of Victimology; Member of Science Council of Japan; and as a former expert member on violence against women for the Gender Equality Bureau was involved in the Basic Plan for Gender Equality in Japan. After receiving her LL.B. and LL.M. degrees from Keio University in Tokyo, where she also completed her Ph.D. studies in criminal law, Professor Goto became a leading expert on Japanese juvenile law and gender law. She has published many works in both English and Japanese on these topics. She is also the chief of the Human Rights Now’s Earthquake Relief Project whose activities include fact-finding missions, policy proposals, lobbying activity, and seminars to raise awareness on the human rights situation in Fukushima and other areas affected by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in 2011.
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Leona Morgan is a Diné (Navajo) organizer working with several community organizations based in the Southwest focused on addressing effects from past uranium mining and threats of new uranium operations in New Mexico since 2007. In 2014, she co-founded a network, Diné No Nukes, an initiative to nurture wide-scale awareness of nuclear and uranium development initiatives in the “Four Corners” region by providing multi-media educational materials and industry analyses to the Navajo electorate & elected officials. The goal of Dine No Nukes is to increase public awareness and civic participation to ensure that informed decisions are made on nuclear issues across the Navajo Nation and within the Four Sacred Mountains—for the protection of health, water, land, cultural resources and the sovereignty of the Diné people.
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Marilyn Elie has been working to close the Indian Point nuclear power plant for the last 20 years. She is a co-founder of Westchester Citizens Awareness Network and one of the original members of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, IPSEC, a coalition of grassroots and environmental organizations in the lower Hudson Valley. She became involved in this issue because of her concern about the unsolvable problem of high level radioactive waste; a toxic legacy that we are passing on to untold generations. Marilyn has also learned to watchdog the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She regularly attends Nuclear Regulatory Commission meetings and has seen three regional directors come and go. She has learned how to read NRC reports for what is hidden between the lines and, on occasion, is the only person in the room who can attest to changes in the regulatory position because she was there at the original meeting. She firmly believes that the next year is critical in determining if the reactors at Indian Point will be relicensed to operate for another 20 years or if they will be denied a new operating license.
Signs of the Tribes
SIGNS OF THE TRIBES
by Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa
smiling injun showing pearlie whites
looking shifty in wide-eyed caricature
with a single feather sticking up
from the back of his head
a band holding it in place
he’s stuck to the plastic cap
of a boy of summer playing hit the ball
and run the bases
before a sea of mostly pale faces
and arms moving up and down in
a tomahawk-choppy motion
to the helter-skelter rhythm of balls and strikes
runs, out, and errors
but an error is a mistake
the Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee
were not events
that the children of Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge
did not mean to do
they meant it and weren’t sorry for even as long
as it takes to blink an eye
or steal first, second or third
they stole home
called this “pilgrims’ progress”
“pioneer spirit”
“taming the frontier”
and other turns of phrases
to cover the trail of murders and thefts they lay
on the road to today
where the logos and mascots of their fun and games
mock the people they considered fair prey
o’er the land of the free
and atlanta’s the home of the braves
but they
and cleveland injuns and washington redskins
cannot speak for themselves
because decals and mascots can’t talk
and Leonard Peltier, like me, can’t run free
but must walk, pacing back and forth in a cage of history
repeating itself
and i
being foreign to this place
could ignore these signs of the tribes
but for the thought in my head
that little black sambo’s turned red.
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From NYC’s Anarchist Black Cross:
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) were members of the Black Panther Party, and their case was, and continues to be, controversial. The Omaha Police withheld exculpatory evidence at trial. The two men had been targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), that operated against and infiltrated anti-war and Civil Rights groups, including the Omaha Black Panthers. The US section of Amnesty International recognizes we Langa and Poindexter as political prisoners. The state’s parole board have recommended the men for release, but political leaders have not acted on these recommendations. For more information, visit n2pp.info
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The short video below questions the validity of the state’s star witness in Mondo’s case.
