UN sends a strong message to U.S. about the state of its indigenous people

The United Nation’s first report on The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, released on January 14, 2010, contains figures and an assessment that are both shocking and illuminating, even to those who are familiar with indigenous rights issues. The report evaluates the state of indigenous populations in specific countries and situations, in both the developed and developing world.

The report states that,

“Indigenous peoples suffer from the consequences of historic injustice, including colonization, dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, oppression and discrimination, as well as lack of control over their own ways of life. Their right to development has been largely denied by colonial and modern States in the pursuit of economic growth”

The United States is by no means exempt from the report’s critique. Despite increased state and federal acknowledgment of the challenges that Native Americans and Alaska Natives face in the U.S., the U.S. has made only incremental change and continues to generate appalling statistics and significant disparities. A recent study that applied the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (HDI) – which measures health, education and standard of living — to indigenous populations in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand found that while the U.S. ranked seventh overall (globally), U.S. American Indians and Alaska Natives ranked thirtieth.

The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples notes that nearly a quarter of Native Americans and Alaska Natives live below the poverty line in the U.S., compared to about 12.5 percent of the total population, and pinpoints the direct relationship that the educational deficit has upon economic opportunities and employment rates.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the U.S. face higher death rates than other Americans from diseases such as tuberculosis and diabetes, motor vehicle crashes, alcoholism, unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide. The UN report also addresses the particular vulnerability of indigenous women to violence and sexual violence.  It cites our Maze of Injustice report statistic that Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually violated than women in the United States in general.

In 2009, both Congress and the Obama Administration took instrumental steps to begin addressing some of the most pressing issues that Native Americans and Alaska Natives face in the United States. Our Amnesty team is also working to ensure that Congress and the Administration will make addressing issues of sexual assault and domestic violence against Native women a top priority. We are hopeful that passage of the Tribal Law and Order Act in 2010 will be a significant step in the right direction.

As President Obama remarked during the White House Tribal Nations Conference in November 2009,

“Together, working together, we’re going to make sure that the First Americans, along with all Americans, get the opportunities they deserve.”

We could not agree more.

AIUSA welcomes a lively and courteous discussion that follow our Community Guidelines. Comments are not pre-screened before they post but AIUSA reserves the right to remove any comments violating our guidelines.

46 thoughts on “UN sends a strong message to U.S. about the state of its indigenous people

  1. My gratitude to Angela Chang for bringing up the UN report on native peoples.

    Of course, Ms Chang, i agree with you calling the UN's findings "shocking & illuminating", but at the same time, of course, you know they're neither — they're the Centuries of Genocide starting with the first white invasion, ongoing & continuing INTO THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE….

    But after highlighting Indian reality, your comments collapse — again & as usual — but why ?? — into the forktongue systemic "same old song" "words in the wind" "circling the old rock'" doublespeak of the official hydrahead of the white settlerstate invasion.

    "State & federal acknowledgment of the challenges" Indians face, you say ? Of what actual use, these tired political wordgames ? They never helped or worked any in the 19th century anyway, but your system from Day 1 was too blind & bankrupt to alter course, & why should it, when its limited claque of beneficiaries could stay atop the pile ?

    Your system is afflicted with Custer's Condition — its ears don't work when Indians talk. It stays deaf to Indian ground opinion about the fundamentally flawed approach of your Congress & your Obama.

    You're trying to do good — but your system blunts & twists the good around to its own benefit .

    Real Native people don't suffer from the "Avatar" Syndrome. They don't believe in Avatars, reincarnated gods from the sky coming to help & save them.

    Whenever beneficial change has come among them, it has been by their own efforts .Not from the government. Nor from the socalled "Congress".

    The real change of all changes in future will come from the Native people themselves, & fundamentally from them alone.It's their struggles you can join & help & support to facilitate the process.

  2. "UN sends a strong message to US", you say.

    Correctly.

    But where's YOUR "strong message to US", Ms Chang & AI ?

    Where's YOUR critical approach & eye ??

    You sound ( vis a vis Congress & Obama ) just like CNN commentators — UNCRITICAL, ADULATORY, BEGGING, BLIND… & COMPLETELY UNWORTHY OF YOUR ROLE OF ACTIVIST REFORMERS.

    And this towards an assembly & a man who've proven consistently to be total sellouts on war, health, Israel, the economy, every issue where the poor & the oppressed & the perrenial targets of injustice are concerned.

    "We work from within the system," you may say.

    That doesn't mean you've to stop being a critical party within such work or arena.

    In fact if history be our teacher, especially the history of Obama, the suspension of the critical in the hope of accomodation or compassion spells the death of any balance in favor of the peoples' interests.

    Where's the strict impartiality you show towards 3rd World countries when you cover their issues ?

    Don't tell us that's just because you're not working from within THEIR systems ?

    And i'd just begun to get such a different & higher opinion of you all only a short while back.

    Indeed the coming of Obama's proved something incalculably spine dissolving for "liberals" & "moderates" within the US social & political spectrum …

    A survival mechanism for an imminent societal crash landing ?

  3. My gratitude to Angela Chang for bringing up the UN report on native peoples.

    Of course, Ms Chang, i agree with you calling the UN’s findings “shocking & illuminating”, but at the same time, of course, you know they’re neither — they’re the Centuries of Genocide starting with the first white invasion, ongoing & continuing INTO THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE….

    But after highlighting Indian reality, your comments collapse — again & as usual — but why ?? — into the forktongue systemic “same old song” “words in the wind” “circling the old rock'” doublespeak of the official hydrahead of the white settlerstate invasion.

    “State & federal acknowledgment of the challenges” Indians face, you say ? Of what actual use, these tired political wordgames ? They never helped or worked any in the 19th century anyway, but your system from Day 1 was too blind & bankrupt to alter course, & why should it, when its limited claque of beneficiaries could stay atop the pile ?

    Your system is afflicted with Custer’s Condition — its ears don’t work when Indians talk. It stays deaf to Indian ground opinion about the fundamentally flawed approach of your Congress & your Obama.

    You’re trying to do good — but your system blunts & twists the good around to its own benefit .

    Real Native people don’t suffer from the “Avatar” Syndrome. They don’t believe in Avatars, reincarnated gods from the sky coming to help & save them.

    Whenever beneficial change has come among them, it has been by their own efforts .Not from the government. Nor from the socalled “Congress”.

    The real change of all changes in future will come from the Native people themselves, & fundamentally from them alone.It’s their struggles you can join & help & support to facilitate the process.

  4. “UN sends a strong message to US”, you say.

    Correctly.

    But where’s YOUR “strong message to US”, Ms Chang & AI ?

    Where’s YOUR critical approach & eye ??

    You sound ( vis a vis Congress & Obama ) just like CNN commentators — UNCRITICAL, ADULATORY, BEGGING, BLIND… & COMPLETELY UNWORTHY OF YOUR ROLE OF ACTIVIST REFORMERS.

    And this towards an assembly & a man who’ve proven consistently to be total sellouts on war, health, Israel, the economy, every issue where the poor & the oppressed & the perrenial targets of injustice are concerned.

    “We work from within the system,” you may say.

    That doesn’t mean you’ve to stop being a critical party within such work or arena.

    In fact if history be our teacher, especially the history of Obama, the suspension of the critical in the hope of accomodation or compassion spells the death of any balance in favor of the peoples’ interests.

    Where’s the strict impartiality you show towards 3rd World countries when you cover their issues ?

    Don’t tell us that’s just because you’re not working from within THEIR systems ?

    And i’d just begun to get such a different & higher opinion of you all only a short while back.

    Indeed the coming of Obama’s proved something incalculably spine dissolving for “liberals” & “moderates” within the US social & political spectrum …

    A survival mechanism for an imminent societal crash landing ?

  5. Very nice all these words but they have been said time and time again and nothing is really done.
    What is shocking? Nothing is what you said as it has been going on the moment the sails of the white man showed up. and it is still continuing and will never stop. It is up to us Native and I wish the term *indian* would be wiped out and the real term for us Natives is *ABORIGINAL* indian is for people in India. The stupid jerk who landed here thougth he was in India..and called us indians. If you type in indian in your seach bar..it will bring you to indian people in inda!
    To show how ridiculous they are..they used the word SQUAW to name some places, do you know what squaw means? Ask an aboriginal..

    Nothing is going to change, the Aborigials will always suffer because when the whiteman sees us his guilty concience pricks it and so the violence, genocides continue. As Hitler tried to wipe out the Jews..so has the white man tried in many instances to wipe out the Aboriginals ..with diseased ridden blanket, then giving money to all the scalps brought in etc etc.

    It's up to us to fight back and hold our ground. We can't count on reports that something will be done..it's all words..like the one who brought the word..CHANGE in his speech and there is no change worth talking about.

    It was a mistake to let the whiteman set foot on our land and we will pay for that mistake all our lives.

  6. As for the word Change, it has many interpetations, as does are White Nations Constitution and Laws and our Tribal Laws. While change may mean Assimilation to some, change may mean Self-Determination to others. Does change mean we should not protect our customs and beliefs, or does it mean that we should recognize that there better ways to perserve and protect our cutural beliefs and traditions. Change is constant, it has no beginning and has no end. Our culture has Changed since the internet ( one example ) and has become better and more informed, and one can still be a warrior for his people, by using words. Some consider me an elder because I can dance in the " Golden Age" but I still stand at end of Pow-Wow feast line because I'm able to, and it is the right thing for me to. I've just learned the internet, and I am still learning,I was afraid to try something new, but found out that there are so many doors that you can walk though to get information that can make my quality of life better. I think the best change we as Native American People can do, is to make ACCESS to internet top priority to our people to learn. I'm not just talking getting computers to our people, but being able to access the informational highway because that costs money to stay connected and alot of people can't afford it.If they don't have access, its like back in the days of B.C,(before casino) when the government built houses with modern day plumbing and negelected to hook up the water lines and sewer lines first. Soviernty to me means "SELF-DETERMINATION", Another Word that has many interpetations….

  7. Very nice all these words but they have been said time and time again and nothing is really done.
    What is shocking? Nothing is what you said as it has been going on the moment the sails of the white man showed up. and it is still continuing and will never stop. It is up to us Native and I wish the term *indian* would be wiped out and the real term for us Natives is *ABORIGINAL* indian is for people in India. The stupid jerk who landed here thougth he was in India..and called us indians. If you type in indian in your seach bar..it will bring you to indian people in inda!
    To show how ridiculous they are..they used the word SQUAW to name some places, do you know what squaw means? Ask an aboriginal..

    Nothing is going to change, the Aborigials will always suffer because when the whiteman sees us his guilty concience pricks it and so the violence, genocides continue. As Hitler tried to wipe out the Jews..so has the white man tried in many instances to wipe out the Aboriginals ..with diseased ridden blanket, then giving money to all the scalps brought in etc etc.

    It’s up to us to fight back and hold our ground. We can’t count on reports that something will be done..it’s all words..like the one who brought the word..CHANGE in his speech and there is no change worth talking about.

    It was a mistake to let the whiteman set foot on our land and we will pay for that mistake all our lives.

  8. Appreciate the UN finally issuing something…I have submitted a 'position paper' to our UN Deligation from South Dakota which calls for Per Capita payments to every individual member of the Great Sioux Nation. I have stated that the Tribe (IRA), the BIA, nor the Dept of Interior, can no longer be trusted to "Protect the Indian Nations against the commission of "Depredations' by the people of the United States" as stipulated in the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty. That every individual member that has never received an allotment of land are the True Sovereigns. They will never give up the land that they 'Stole'. So long as they occupy our territorities, they owe us rent and royalities. The Gold taken from the Black Hills was used to create the industrial rev., and the USA. They were broke when they came beggin for us to sign a Treaty. Now they are broke again because of their incessant greed. As for our own people, it was a matter of generosity and the grace of all that is sacred that the white settler's were allowed to live. Always remember this as this is Honorable in the ways of Natural Law. There is no honor anywhere here today, and there is no such thing as heriditary Chiefs, Headmen, or Treaty Signors. These positions are to be earned…

  9. As for the word Change, it has many interpetations, as does are White Nations Constitution and Laws and our Tribal Laws. While change may mean Assimilation to some, change may mean Self-Determination to others. Does change mean we should not protect our customs and beliefs, or does it mean that we should recognize that there better ways to perserve and protect our cutural beliefs and traditions. Change is constant, it has no beginning and has no end. Our culture has Changed since the internet ( one example ) and has become better and more informed, and one can still be a warrior for his people, by using words. Some consider me an elder because I can dance in the ” Golden Age” but I still stand at end of Pow-Wow feast line because I’m able to, and it is the right thing for me to. I’ve just learned the internet, and I am still learning,I was afraid to try something new, but found out that there are so many doors that you can walk though to get information that can make my quality of life better. I think the best change we as Native American People can do, is to make ACCESS to internet top priority to our people to learn. I’m not just talking getting computers to our people, but being able to access the informational highway because that costs money to stay connected and alot of people can’t afford it.If they don’t have access, its like back in the days of B.C,(before casino) when the government built houses with modern day plumbing and negelected to hook up the water lines and sewer lines first. Soviernty to me means “SELF-DETERMINATION”, Another Word that has many interpetations….

  10. Appreciate the UN finally issuing something…I have submitted a ‘position paper’ to our UN Deligation from South Dakota which calls for Per Capita payments to every individual member of the Great Sioux Nation. I have stated that the Tribe (IRA), the BIA, nor the Dept of Interior, can no longer be trusted to “Protect the Indian Nations against the commission of “Depredations’ by the people of the United States” as stipulated in the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty. That every individual member that has never received an allotment of land are the True Sovereigns. They will never give up the land that they ‘Stole’. So long as they occupy our territorities, they owe us rent and royalities. The Gold taken from the Black Hills was used to create the industrial rev., and the USA. They were broke when they came beggin for us to sign a Treaty. Now they are broke again because of their incessant greed. As for our own people, it was a matter of generosity and the grace of all that is sacred that the white settler’s were allowed to live. Always remember this as this is Honorable in the ways of Natural Law. There is no honor anywhere here today, and there is no such thing as heriditary Chiefs, Headmen, or Treaty Signors. These positions are to be earned…

  11. @MJC: Hitler's Germany only killed 10% of the European Jewish population. Many US and European history books describe this event as one of the most reprehensible in human existence. The world tracked down almost everybody responsible and either killed or imprisoned them.

    The USA killed more than 90% of the aboriginal population. The arguments used to justify many of those killings were much the same as the ones used against the Jews. I doubt there will be a Nuremberg for the USA, or that the UN (which represents non-indigenous societies) will really do much other than document another tragedy.

    And, yes, the world would be a much different place if the ships had been lit on fire instead of being welcomed. For one, European culture would have collapsed due to destructive farming techniques and economic stagnation.

  12. @MJC: Hitler’s Germany only killed 10% of the European Jewish population. Many US and European history books describe this event as one of the most reprehensible in human existence. The world tracked down almost everybody responsible and either killed or imprisoned them.

    The USA killed more than 90% of the aboriginal population. The arguments used to justify many of those killings were much the same as the ones used against the Jews. I doubt there will be a Nuremberg for the USA, or that the UN (which represents non-indigenous societies) will really do much other than document another tragedy.

    And, yes, the world would be a much different place if the ships had been lit on fire instead of being welcomed. For one, European culture would have collapsed due to destructive farming techniques and economic stagnation.

  13. Editors and Bill A:

    re: The above post Bill a made claiming that "only" 10% of the Jews of Europe were murdered. Bill is claiming the Jewish Holocaust was much smaller than it was, which is a form of Jewish Holocaust denial as practiced by the Iranian dictator and other neo-Facists around the world.

    United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/255
    Jewish Holocaust Denial (January 26, 2007)
    adopted by a vote of 103 to 1
    ( Iran, of course, being the only country on Earth to oppose )
    "Rejects any denial of the Jewish Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part"

    Is this site moderated or not ? Do you enforce your own blog's "terms of use against" racism, which is what Bill's post above is, or not?

    And more importantly, how does a post on aboriginal suffering become suddenly a forum for racist attacks on Israel and Jews by minimizing what the Nazis did? I suppose Jews are now at fault somehow for the extermination of the American Indians. We were not even there at the time. Go ahead, blame us for this too, why not, you raving lunatics. Next you will claim we Jews killed the dinosaurs also.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Jews
    "British historian Martin Gilbert used a similar approach in his Atlas of the Holocaust, but arrived at a number of 5.75 million Jewish victims, since he estimated higher numbers of Jews killed in Russia and other locations.[205] Lucy S. Dawidowicz used pre-war census figures to estimate that 5.934 million Jews died (see table below).[206]

    There were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the territories controlled directly or indirectly by the Nazis (the uncertainty arises from the lack of knowledge about how many Jews there were in the Soviet Union). The six million killed in the Holocaust thus represent 60 to 75 percent of these Jews. Of Poland's 3.3 million Jews, over 90 percent were killed. "

  14. Editors and Bill A:

    re: The above post Bill a made claiming that "only" 10% of the Jews of Europe were murdered. Bill is claiming the Jewish Holocaust was much smaller than it was, which is a form of Jewish Holocaust denial as practiced by the Iranian dictator and other neo-Facists around the world.

    United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/255
    Jewish Holocaust Denial (January 26, 2007)
    adopted by a vote of 103 to 1
    ( Iran, of course, being the only country on Earth to oppose )
    "Rejects any denial of the Jewish Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part"

    Is this site moderated or not ? Do you enforce your own blog's "terms of use against" racism, which is what Bill's post above is, or not?

    And more importantly, how does a post on aboriginal suffering become suddenly a forum for racist attacks on Israel and Jews by minimizing what the Nazis did? I suppose Jews are now at fault somehow for the extermination of the American Indians. We were not even there at the time. Go ahead, blame us for this too, why not, you raving lunatics. Next you will claim we Jews killed the dinosaurs also.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Jews
    "British historian Martin Gilbert used a similar approach in his Atlas of the Holocaust, but arrived at a number of 5.75 million Jewish victims, since he estimated higher numbers of Jews killed in Russia and other locations.[205] Lucy S. Dawidowicz used pre-war census figures to estimate that 5.934 million Jews died (see table below).[206]

    There were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the territories controlled directly or indirectly by the Nazis (the uncertainty arises from the lack of knowledge about how many Jews there were in the Soviet Union). The six million killed in the Holocaust thus represent 60 to 75 percent of these Jews. Of Poland's 3.3 million Jews, over 90 percent were killed. "

  15. Editors and Bill A:

    re: The above post Bill a made claiming that "only" 10% of the Jews of Europe were murdered. Bill is claiming the Jewish Holocaust was much smaller than it was, which is a form of Jewish Holocaust denial as practiced by the Iranian dictator and other neo-Facists around the world.

    United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/255
    Jewish Holocaust Denial (January 26, 2007)
    adopted by a vote of 103 to 1
    ( Iran, of course, being the only country on Earth to oppose )
    "Rejects any denial of the Jewish Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part"

    Is this site moderated or not ? Do you enforce your own blog's "terms of use against" racism, which is what Bill's post above is, or not?

    And more importantly, how does a post on aboriginal suffering become suddenly a forum for racist attacks on Israel and Jews by minimizing what the Nazis did? I suppose Jews are now at fault somehow for the extermination of the American Indians. We were not even there at the time. Go ahead, blame us for this too, why not, you raving lunatics. Next you will claim we Jews killed the dinosaurs also.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Jews
    "British historian Martin Gilbert used a similar approach in his Atlas of the Holocaust, but arrived at a number of 5.75 million Jewish victims, since he estimated higher numbers of Jews killed in Russia and other locations.[205] Lucy S. Dawidowicz used pre-war census figures to estimate that 5.934 million Jews died (see table below).[206]

    There were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the territories controlled directly or indirectly by the Nazis (the uncertainty arises from the lack of knowledge about how many Jews there were in the Soviet Union). The six million killed in the Holocaust thus represent 60 to 75 percent of these Jews. Of Poland's 3.3 million Jews, over 90 percent were killed. "

  16. What a marvellous morning for me, when i can finally listen to a forest of fresh Aboriginal voices finally cutting through forktongue chatter.

    Listen to these true voices, Amnesty !! All of them, so natural & real !!

    Marie Jacquelyne Clement. i hear you !! Every point you make is a fire arrow in the night ! When you say — "Nothing will change. It is up to us Natives…" that is Native truth, Aboriginal truth. When you speak scathingly of "the one who brought the word CHANGE in his speech…" you speak of stripping away all of the whiteman's illusions, you are Tecumseh's voice telling us again, "Put aside your hopes. Put aside your illusions. And you will see why the very leaves of the trees in the forest shed tears upon us as we walk under them."

    Each one of you Aboriginal speakers are a window to your world, voicing important sides of Native truth. Laurence Swallow revisits the Laramie Treaty, & its unsurrendered Land. "They were broke when they came beggin us for a treaty. Now they're broke again for their incessant greed." What a historical perspective on today's Depression 2 ! i haven't heard any better !!

    And Bill A demystifies the UN : they represent "nonindigenous societies", hence they won't do much more than document "another" tragedy. If they did, there'd have been a judgement for the US to face at another Nuremberg.

    Bill A concludes with a tantalizing alternative vision of history "if the ships had been lit on fire instead of being welcomed." The whole world would have been so different, for "Europe's destructive farming techniques would have collapsed". It's a view from the root of the fruit of america's "Conquest".

    Amnesty, cure yourself of Custer's Condition of fatal deafness ! As that incisive Hunkpapa thinker, Vine Deloria, Jr., would say, "We Talk, You Listen." To approach any true change in the Native condition, you must be aligned with Native feeling & thinking & being. Clinging to Obama's bankrupt system or policies as the way to initiate or framework any "change" will alienate Native society from you, at the very time an issuebased cooperation between you two is both urgent & possible.

  17. Editors and Bill A:

    re: The above post Bill a made claiming that “only” 10% of the Jews of Europe were murdered. Bill is claiming the Jewish Holocaust was much smaller than it was, which is a form of Jewish Holocaust denial as practiced by the Iranian dictator and other neo-Facists around the world.

    United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/255
    Jewish Holocaust Denial (January 26, 2007)
    adopted by a vote of 103 to 1
    ( Iran, of course, being the only country on Earth to oppose )
    “Rejects any denial of the Jewish Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part”

    Is this site moderated or not ? Do you enforce your own blog’s “terms of use against” racism, which is what Bill’s post above is, or not?

    And more importantly, how does a post on aboriginal suffering become suddenly a forum for racist attacks on Israel and Jews by minimizing what the Nazis did? I suppose Jews are now at fault somehow for the extermination of the American Indians. We were not even there at the time. Go ahead, blame us for this too, why not, you raving lunatics. Next you will claim we Jews killed the dinosaurs also.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Jews
    “British historian Martin Gilbert used a similar approach in his Atlas of the Holocaust, but arrived at a number of 5.75 million Jewish victims, since he estimated higher numbers of Jews killed in Russia and other locations.[205] Lucy S. Dawidowicz used pre-war census figures to estimate that 5.934 million Jews died (see table below).[206]

    There were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the territories controlled directly or indirectly by the Nazis (the uncertainty arises from the lack of knowledge about how many Jews there were in the Soviet Union). The six million killed in the Holocaust thus represent 60 to 75 percent of these Jews. Of Poland’s 3.3 million Jews, over 90 percent were killed. “

  18. What a marvellous morning for me, when i can finally listen to a forest of fresh Aboriginal voices finally cutting through forktongue chatter.

    Listen to these true voices, Amnesty !! All of them, so natural & real !!

    Marie Jacquelyne Clement. i hear you !! Every point you make is a fire arrow in the night ! When you say — “Nothing will change. It is up to us Natives…” that is Native truth, Aboriginal truth. When you speak scathingly of “the one who brought the word CHANGE in his speech…” you speak of stripping away all of the whiteman’s illusions, you are Tecumseh’s voice telling us again, “Put aside your hopes. Put aside your illusions. And you will see why the very leaves of the trees in the forest shed tears upon us as we walk under them.”

    Each one of you Aboriginal speakers are a window to your world, voicing important sides of Native truth. Laurence Swallow revisits the Laramie Treaty, & its unsurrendered Land. “They were broke when they came beggin us for a treaty. Now they’re broke again for their incessant greed.” What a historical perspective on today’s Depression 2 ! i haven’t heard any better !!

    And Bill A demystifies the UN : they represent “nonindigenous societies”, hence they won’t do much more than document “another” tragedy. If they did, there’d have been a judgement for the US to face at another Nuremberg.

    Bill A concludes with a tantalizing alternative vision of history “if the ships had been lit on fire instead of being welcomed.” The whole world would have been so different, for “Europe’s destructive farming techniques would have collapsed”. It’s a view from the root of the fruit of america’s “Conquest”.

    Amnesty, cure yourself of Custer’s Condition of fatal deafness ! As that incisive Hunkpapa thinker, Vine Deloria, Jr., would say, “We Talk, You Listen.” To approach any true change in the Native condition, you must be aligned with Native feeling & thinking & being. Clinging to Obama’s bankrupt system or policies as the way to initiate or framework any “change” will alienate Native society from you, at the very time an issuebased cooperation between you two is both urgent & possible.

  19. Dear Amnesty,

    Thank you for your attention on this matter- I have recently posted a blog on the same topic with credit to AI and a link to this page. I am curious however, as to what strategies AI is undertaking to improve economic and social injustice in U.S. indigenous communities in a grassroots capacity. Bills in Congress are a necessary step, but what is AI's presence in these communities, if any at all?

    Thanks!

  20. Dear Amnesty,

    Thank you for your attention on this matter- I have recently posted a blog on the same topic with credit to AI and a link to this page. I am curious however, as to what strategies AI is undertaking to improve economic and social injustice in U.S. indigenous communities in a grassroots capacity. Bills in Congress are a necessary step, but what is AI’s presence in these communities, if any at all?

    Thanks!

  21. @Judo- thanks for lumping me in with the Nazis without considering the context or purpose of this discussion.

    That "bogus number" I came up with? I got it in a college course. It is also a number that my wife, ALSO JEWISH, uses often. So, instead of presuming that I might have been given bogus data by a college instructor (who claimed to have gotten it from the Simon Wiesenthal Center) and else I thought I could trust, you instantly lay down a whole screed of blame and invective at me before you even consider that I didn't lay ANYTHING at the feet of the Jews. REREAD THE THREAD. I laid the Holocaust of aboriginal Americans at the feet of the USA.

    Do you think that I really believe that a bunch of Rabbis got together and said "get the aboriginals"? Or that I would even for a minute, even half a minute, believe anything that some white power person told me? ME? That somehow aboriginals would ally themselves in any way with holocaust deniers? After what WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH? Who is the racist here?

    If anything, your own comments have proven the enormity of the horror that we have been discussing here, because the number I used about American aboriginal deaths was the conservative one. Dr. Brian Bibby puts the actual death toll for SURVIVING NATIONS at greater than 99%, not including nations that were completely wiped out. Unfortunately, most non-aboriginals don't think as much about that, because there isn't even a page in Wikipedia for that death toll. Tell me, as angry as you are, how much more angry would you be if someone deleted all reference to the Holocaust on Wikipedia and elsewhere, and then you got called a racist for bringing up a comparison to the death toll numbers? Try walking in someone else's shoes for a while before you call them a racist.

  22. @Judo- thanks for lumping me in with the Nazis without considering the context or purpose of this discussion.

    That “bogus number” I came up with? I got it in a college course. It is also a number that my wife, ALSO JEWISH, uses often. So, instead of presuming that I might have been given bogus data by a college instructor (who claimed to have gotten it from the Simon Wiesenthal Center) and else I thought I could trust, you instantly lay down a whole screed of blame and invective at me before you even consider that I didn’t lay ANYTHING at the feet of the Jews. REREAD THE THREAD. I laid the Holocaust of aboriginal Americans at the feet of the USA.

    Do you think that I really believe that a bunch of Rabbis got together and said “get the aboriginals”? Or that I would even for a minute, even half a minute, believe anything that some white power person told me? ME? That somehow aboriginals would ally themselves in any way with holocaust deniers? After what WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH? Who is the racist here?

    If anything, your own comments have proven the enormity of the horror that we have been discussing here, because the number I used about American aboriginal deaths was the conservative one. Dr. Brian Bibby puts the actual death toll for SURVIVING NATIONS at greater than 99%, not including nations that were completely wiped out. Unfortunately, most non-aboriginals don’t think as much about that, because there isn’t even a page in Wikipedia for that death toll. Tell me, as angry as you are, how much more angry would you be if someone deleted all reference to the Holocaust on Wikipedia and elsewhere, and then you got called a racist for bringing up a comparison to the death toll numbers? Try walking in someone else’s shoes for a while before you call them a racist.

  23. bill:
    the 20 million Africans murdered by American, European and Arab slave traders, The Jewish Shoa, the 15 million Congolese murdered by Belgium a century ago, the 5 million Congolese that have died in the last 20 years of war, the million murdered in the Phillipines by the US Army, ……….

    Add to the list:
    reference: Canadian Medical Association Journal

    "Food insecurity among Inuit preschoolers:"
    "Results: Nearly 70% of Inuit preschoolers resided in households rated as food insecure "
    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.0912

    "Birth outcomes in the Inuit-inhabited areas of Canada"
    "The Inuit-inhabited areas had much higher rates of preterm birth, stillbirth and infant death compared with the rest of Canada and with other rural and northern areas."
    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.0820

  24. bill:
    the 20 million Africans murdered by American, European and Arab slave traders, The Jewish Shoa, the 15 million Congolese murdered by Belgium a century ago, the 5 million Congolese that have died in the last 20 years of war, the million murdered in the Phillipines by the US Army, ……….

    Add to the list:
    reference: Canadian Medical Association Journal

    "Food insecurity among Inuit preschoolers:"
    "Results: Nearly 70% of Inuit preschoolers resided in households rated as food insecure "
    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.0912

    "Birth outcomes in the Inuit-inhabited areas of Canada"
    "The Inuit-inhabited areas had much higher rates of preterm birth, stillbirth and infant death compared with the rest of Canada and with other rural and northern areas."
    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.0820

  25. bill:
    the 20 million Africans murdered by American, European and Arab slave traders, The Jewish Shoa, the 15 million Congolese murdered by Belgium a century ago, the 5 million Congolese that have died in the last 20 years of war, the million murdered in the Phillipines by the US Army, ……….

    Add to the list:
    reference: Canadian Medical Association Journal

    "Food insecurity among Inuit preschoolers:"
    "Results: Nearly 70% of Inuit preschoolers resided in households rated as food insecure "
    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.0912

    "Birth outcomes in the Inuit-inhabited areas of Canada"
    "The Inuit-inhabited areas had much higher rates of preterm birth, stillbirth and infant death compared with the rest of Canada and with other rural and northern areas."
    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.0820

  26. Dear Bill A,

    i'm in agreement with the spirit & the approach of both your pieces.

    Now, your comparison of the numbers of the dead from the 2 holocausts :
    the Jewish holocaust in the Hitler years, & the aboriginal holocaust spanning centuries, & still ongoing.

    Comparative studies or observations form an ESSENTIAL PART OF HISTORIOGRAPHY . Like similar comparisons by god knows how many historians, writers & observers, your own comparison here is very much a part of the flow of conscious effort to see & understand history in perspective.

    Your estimate of the Jewish death toll ( reportedly from the Wiesenthal Center ) covers ( according to your description ) the WHOLE of European Jewry, in Europe ( including the Soviet Union & her regions outside German control ) & arguably also in exile, NOT JUST in Nazi – occupied Europe. That's a considerable gap between the WHOLE & the SPECIFIED PART here, which should be considered.

    Judo Nimh's figure of 8 – 10 million, from my memory, is not wrong.

    The Wiesenthalers may be right about the whole European population percentage. i don't know right now.

    What i do know is this.If i wish to learn about the total population ratio to its own dead, i will do it just like a natural being, i'll do it ON MY OWN & INDEPENDENTLY LIKE ALWAYS, & i don't mind if anybody blames me for "Holocaust denial" because i'm asking questions or raising issues. i will make up my own mind in my own way, it won't do any good citing the UN to me when i wish to STUDY HISTORY & REACH MY OWN CONCLUSIONS. Like you, Bill, i'm my own man, & on my own.

    But it's highjly instructive, Bill, to study people who twist what you say, just like Judo Nimh went overboard accusing you of "racist attacks on Israel & Jews by minimizing what the Nazis did."

    It"s very instructive to study his words. The instant & automatic & mechanical & reflexive OVERSIMPLIFICATION & overreading & overreaching he does of your comparison is

    (a ) the result of the Zionist ( i wouldn't say Jewish ) conditioning of USING the Holocaust as an ongoing industry to defend Israel from any perceived attack or critique or even "belittling", & also the result of the Zionist conditioning of ALWAYS equating anything that doesn't put Israel or Jews right atop the pile ( even if its the piles of the dead ) as somehow demeaning & deminishing & threatening & negating Israel as well as the Zionists' idea of themselves & of their racial ethnic , though they're neither a race nor an ethnic entity, but a political growth, an enterprise of invasion which has paradoxically produced such a shaky psyche, that it has to shore up a tottering mound of its own dead as its own ULTIMATE shield.

    (b) a reflection of the nature of Israel's Jewish – racist settlerstate imperialism, a Bible based imperialism like the Puritans' , intolerant of all & all – destructive.

    (c) a result of the Zionists' consequent self – isolation, alienated from all natural beings & peoples & seeing the world of all Gentiles arrayed against them, with the captive population of the Palestinians in their midst.

    They're locked inside their own fortress, around which they're building walls of concrete, walls of steel, just like america building walls of iron & security — the circling of the wagons against the wilderness & the Indians outside.

    "The guilty flee when no one pursues." With the guilt of the genocide of the Palestinians ( & of aiding the genocide of native people in Central America, & elsewhere ) hanging over Israel, you now hear Judo Nimh accuse you of blaming the genocide of the aboriginal nations in america on Israel & the Jews, an entirely groundless & out of the blue accusation that will surprise anyone who has actually read your words here."Go ahead, blame us for this too, you raving lunatics", shouts Judo, switching to an unnamed plural collective of enemies.

    Are we at Macbeth's banquet here ??

    This is the spectacle our ancestors saw — the overreaching alien mind raging inside the locked stockade & the blockhouse in the horror & isolation of the pitiless frontier it has itself created.

    We join with our forebears outside & beyond those walls.

  27. bill:
    the 20 million Africans murdered by American, European and Arab slave traders, The Jewish Shoa, the 15 million Congolese murdered by Belgium a century ago, the 5 million Congolese that have died in the last 20 years of war, the million murdered in the Phillipines by the US Army, ……….

    Add to the list:
    reference: Canadian Medical Association Journal

    “Food insecurity among Inuit preschoolers:”
    “Results: Nearly 70% of Inuit preschoolers resided in households rated as food insecure ”

    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.091297v1?ijkey=1a29354aa78558cecba385b3891318279861bd23&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

    “Birth outcomes in the Inuit-inhabited areas of Canada”
    “The Inuit-inhabited areas had much higher rates of preterm birth, stillbirth and infant death compared with the rest of Canada and with other rural and northern areas.”

    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.082042v1?ijkey=83268091009b2b715cc16399b10df7cda67c0f41&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

  28. Dear Bill A,

    i’m in agreement with the spirit & the approach of both your pieces.

    Now, your comparison of the numbers of the dead from the 2 holocausts :
    the Jewish holocaust in the Hitler years, & the aboriginal holocaust spanning centuries, & still ongoing.

    Comparative studies or observations form an ESSENTIAL PART OF HISTORIOGRAPHY . Like similar comparisons by god knows how many historians, writers & observers, your own comparison here is very much a part of the flow of conscious effort to see & understand history in perspective.

    Your estimate of the Jewish death toll ( reportedly from the Wiesenthal Center ) covers ( according to your description ) the WHOLE of European Jewry, in Europe ( including the Soviet Union & her regions outside German control ) & arguably also in exile, NOT JUST in Nazi – occupied Europe. That’s a considerable gap between the WHOLE & the SPECIFIED PART here, which should be considered.

    Judo Nimh’s figure of 8 – 10 million, from my memory, is not wrong.

    The Wiesenthalers may be right about the whole European population percentage. i don’t know right now.

    What i do know is this.If i wish to learn about the total population ratio to its own dead, i will do it just like a natural being, i’ll do it ON MY OWN & INDEPENDENTLY LIKE ALWAYS, & i don’t mind if anybody blames me for “Holocaust denial” because i’m asking questions or raising issues. i will make up my own mind in my own way, it won’t do any good citing the UN to me when i wish to STUDY HISTORY & REACH MY OWN CONCLUSIONS. Like you, Bill, i’m my own man, & on my own.

    But it’s highjly instructive, Bill, to study people who twist what you say, just like Judo Nimh went overboard accusing you of “racist attacks on Israel & Jews by minimizing what the Nazis did.”

    It”s very instructive to study his words. The instant & automatic & mechanical & reflexive OVERSIMPLIFICATION & overreading & overreaching he does of your comparison is

    (a ) the result of the Zionist ( i wouldn’t say Jewish ) conditioning of USING the Holocaust as an ongoing industry to defend Israel from any perceived attack or critique or even “belittling”, & also the result of the Zionist conditioning of ALWAYS equating anything that doesn’t put Israel or Jews right atop the pile ( even if its the piles of the dead ) as somehow demeaning & deminishing & threatening & negating Israel as well as the Zionists’ idea of themselves & of their racial ethnic , though they’re neither a race nor an ethnic entity, but a political growth, an enterprise of invasion which has paradoxically produced such a shaky psyche, that it has to shore up a tottering mound of its own dead as its own ULTIMATE shield.

    (b) a reflection of the nature of Israel’s Jewish – racist settlerstate imperialism, a Bible based imperialism like the Puritans’ , intolerant of all & all – destructive.

    (c) a result of the Zionists’ consequent self – isolation, alienated from all natural beings & peoples & seeing the world of all Gentiles arrayed against them, with the captive population of the Palestinians in their midst.

    They’re locked inside their own fortress, around which they’re building walls of concrete, walls of steel, just like america building walls of iron & security — the circling of the wagons against the wilderness & the Indians outside.

    “The guilty flee when no one pursues.” With the guilt of the genocide of the Palestinians ( & of aiding the genocide of native people in Central America, & elsewhere ) hanging over Israel, you now hear Judo Nimh accuse you of blaming the genocide of the aboriginal nations in america on Israel & the Jews, an entirely groundless & out of the blue accusation that will surprise anyone who has actually read your words here.”Go ahead, blame us for this too, you raving lunatics”, shouts Judo, switching to an unnamed plural collective of enemies.

    Are we at Macbeth’s banquet here ??

    This is the spectacle our ancestors saw — the overreaching alien mind raging inside the locked stockade & the blockhouse in the horror & isolation of the pitiless frontier it has itself created.

    We join with our forebears outside & beyond those walls.

  29. This is all so hard to read as our people hear in Eagle Butte South Dakota have been calling and email government offices , agencies nationa guards red cross and yes thet WHITE HOUSE..the are under 10 feet of snow and 3 feey of ice with below zero temps all power lines are down they all snapped under the pressure of the ice..So they have no power, no heat ,the only food store shelveshave been empty..oh yes and no water or meds..babies have to be rationed to 1 diaper per day..we as real Native Americans are left to deal with it ourselves..we are collecting food and water and driving for 3 days straight to give them help..WHERE IS OBAMA and the officals where is the news there voices are quiet but will not be still..Its ignire them again (WOUNDED KNEE)..the people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe..Lakota have never left and never will..So if you read this raise your voice to the news to OBAMA.. we live in the year2010 it fells like 1800's..The children will be told to remember this for all generations ..When you are born Native be strong and stay close to each other because we are all we have..So OBAMA where does he stand? For now I prepare more packages and water to take to the Lakota people not to Haiti..Remember we need to always take care of our own first.

  30. This is all so hard to read as our people hear in Eagle Butte South Dakota have been calling and email government offices , agencies nationa guards red cross and yes thet WHITE HOUSE..the are under 10 feet of snow and 3 feey of ice with below zero temps all power lines are down they all snapped under the pressure of the ice..So they have no power, no heat ,the only food store shelveshave been empty..oh yes and no water or meds..babies have to be rationed to 1 diaper per day..we as real Native Americans are left to deal with it ourselves..we are collecting food and water and driving for 3 days straight to give them help..WHERE IS OBAMA and the officals where is the news there voices are quiet but will not be still..Its ignire them again (WOUNDED KNEE)..the people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe..Lakota have never left and never will..So if you read this raise your voice to the news to OBAMA.. we live in the year2010 it fells like 1800’s..The children will be told to remember this for all generations ..When you are born Native be strong and stay close to each other because we are all we have..So OBAMA where does he stand? For now I prepare more packages and water to take to the Lakota people not to Haiti..Remember we need to always take care of our own first.

  31. Thank you for reading our blog and taking the time to respond to this important issue. We understand this topic can be very emotional and we respect your individual views and encourage lively debate in our comments section. However, please try to keep your comments civil without engaging in nonconstructive defamatory personal attacks (per our terms of use here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/privacy-policy/terms-of

    Regarding some of your criticisms to our work with native populations, we at Amnesty worked very closely with a number of Native American and Alaska Native organizations and advocates who work to end violence against women within their own communities in writing our Maze of Injustice report.

    It was and continues to be our hope that our work on Maze of Injustice can be a starting point from which to build a greater understanding and partnership between our organization and tribal communities so that we may continue working to address and impact the human rights issues that we all care about.

    Our more tangible goal here is to ensure that the U.S. government lives up to its legal and moral trust responsibilities. In particular, this includes addressing the maze of historic legislation that has, thus far, undermined the authority and ability of tribal nations to address the pressing concerns that their communities face, such as holding responsible those who commit egregious acts of violence against Native American women and children.

    By finally addressing Indigenous issues on a comprehensive and global level, the UN has created a greater space for which organizations and individuals alike can engage in a constructive dialogue that ensures that governments are held responsible for failing to uphold the basic rights and protections of their Indigenous communities.

  32. Thank you for reading our blog and taking the time to respond to this important issue. We understand this topic can be very emotional and we respect your individual views and encourage lively debate in our comments section. However, please try to keep your comments civil without engaging in nonconstructive defamatory personal attacks (per our terms of use here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/privacy-policy/terms-of

    Regarding some of your criticisms to our work with native populations, we at Amnesty worked very closely with a number of Native American and Alaska Native organizations and advocates who work to end violence against women within their own communities in writing our Maze of Injustice report.

    It was and continues to be our hope that our work on Maze of Injustice can be a starting point from which to build a greater understanding and partnership between our organization and tribal communities so that we may continue working to address and impact the human rights issues that we all care about.

    Our more tangible goal here is to ensure that the U.S. government lives up to its legal and moral trust responsibilities. In particular, this includes addressing the maze of historic legislation that has, thus far, undermined the authority and ability of tribal nations to address the pressing concerns that their communities face, such as holding responsible those who commit egregious acts of violence against Native American women and children.

    By finally addressing Indigenous issues on a comprehensive and global level, the UN has created a greater space for which organizations and individuals alike can engage in a constructive dialogue that ensures that governments are held responsible for failing to uphold the basic rights and protections of their Indigenous communities.

  33. Thank you for reading our blog and taking the time to respond to this important issue. We understand this topic can be very emotional and we respect your individual views and encourage lively debate in our comments section. However, please try to keep your comments civil without engaging in nonconstructive defamatory personal attacks (per our terms of use here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/privacy-policy/terms-of

    Regarding some of your criticisms to our work with native populations, we at Amnesty worked very closely with a number of Native American and Alaska Native organizations and advocates who work to end violence against women within their own communities in writing our Maze of Injustice report.

    It was and continues to be our hope that our work on Maze of Injustice can be a starting point from which to build a greater understanding and partnership between our organization and tribal communities so that we may continue working to address and impact the human rights issues that we all care about.

    Our more tangible goal here is to ensure that the U.S. government lives up to its legal and moral trust responsibilities. In particular, this includes addressing the maze of historic legislation that has, thus far, undermined the authority and ability of tribal nations to address the pressing concerns that their communities face, such as holding responsible those who commit egregious acts of violence against Native American women and children.

    By finally addressing Indigenous issues on a comprehensive and global level, the UN has created a greater space for which organizations and individuals alike can engage in a constructive dialogue that ensures that governments are held responsible for failing to uphold the basic rights and protections of their Indigenous communities.

  34. Thank you for reading our blog and taking the time to respond to this important issue. We understand this topic can be very emotional and we respect your individual views and encourage lively debate in our comments section. However, please try to keep your comments civil without engaging in nonconstructive defamatory personal attacks (per our terms of use here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/privacy-policy/terms-of-use/page.do?id=1041145)

    Regarding some of your criticisms to our work with native populations, we at Amnesty worked very closely with a number of Native American and Alaska Native organizations and advocates who work to end violence against women within their own communities in writing our Maze of Injustice report.

    It was and continues to be our hope that our work on Maze of Injustice can be a starting point from which to build a greater understanding and partnership between our organization and tribal communities so that we may continue working to address and impact the human rights issues that we all care about.

    Our more tangible goal here is to ensure that the U.S. government lives up to its legal and moral trust responsibilities. In particular, this includes addressing the maze of historic legislation that has, thus far, undermined the authority and ability of tribal nations to address the pressing concerns that their communities face, such as holding responsible those who commit egregious acts of violence against Native American women and children.

    By finally addressing Indigenous issues on a comprehensive and global level, the UN has created a greater space for which organizations and individuals alike can engage in a constructive dialogue that ensures that governments are held responsible for failing to uphold the basic rights and protections of their Indigenous communities.

  35. Dear Christine,

    No, this is not the year 2010 in LAKOTA LAND or Indian country.

    It"s still the winter of 1890 at Wounded Knee. It's still the year 1879 in the Bear Paw Mountains & Chief Joseph is saying,"It is cold & we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death."

    But it IS the year 2010 in sunny Hawaii where Obama took off for his family vacation when the crisis struck in Pine Ridge, year 2010 at the Hawaii golf course & ice cream parlour.

    The US corporate media has blacked out all news of snowbound Pine Ridge.

    Only Brenda Norrell's Censored News is full focus broadcasting the urgent story of the emergency in Lakota Land.

    What you say is the naked truth. The oyate have only each other. Nothing more.

    Was always that way.

    As for the US aid going to Haiti you mention, even that's not what it looks like.

    Know who's inside that little aid package ?

    The US 82nd Airborne Division.

    That's the folks who put on civvies & secretly took charge of the overall U.S. military operations against the Independent Oglala Nation at Wounded Knee in 1973.

    Today they've already turned Haiti into a base. Didn't even need a special agreement to do it.

    All things considered, better not to get that kind of "aid".

    Praying for you. Praying for all my Relations on Pine Ridge.

  36. Dear Christine,

    No, this is not the year 2010 in LAKOTA LAND or Indian country.

    It”s still the winter of 1890 at Wounded Knee. It’s still the year 1879 in the Bear Paw Mountains & Chief Joseph is saying,”It is cold & we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death.”

    But it IS the year 2010 in sunny Hawaii where Obama took off for his family vacation when the crisis struck in Pine Ridge, year 2010 at the Hawaii golf course & ice cream parlour.

    The US corporate media has blacked out all news of snowbound Pine Ridge.

    Only Brenda Norrell’s Censored News is full focus broadcasting the urgent story of the emergency in Lakota Land.

    What you say is the naked truth. The oyate have only each other. Nothing more.

    Was always that way.

    As for the US aid going to Haiti you mention, even that’s not what it looks like.

    Know who’s inside that little aid package ?

    The US 82nd Airborne Division.

    That’s the folks who put on civvies & secretly took charge of the overall U.S. military operations against the Independent Oglala Nation at Wounded Knee in 1973.

    Today they’ve already turned Haiti into a base. Didn’t even need a special agreement to do it.

    All things considered, better not to get that kind of “aid”.

    Praying for you. Praying for all my Relations on Pine Ridge.

  37. Who or what is / are the initiators or motive forces behind TLOA ?

    "Senator" Dorgan doesn't represent any Native opinion.

    CAN or even SHOULD such an act be passed without a DISCUSSION, DEBATE, & REFERENDUM by Native peoples themselves ?

    Will TLOA empower federal "law enforcement" & BIA police plus puppet tribal cops & courts to FURTHER THEIR ENCROACHMENTS AGAINST Native Peoples AND their struggles for Sovereignty ?

    Angela Chang, you don't address any of these concerns.

    You speak as if such concerns didn't even exist !!

    Your words are as transparent as those of the US Government itself.

    Who are the "native organisations & advocates" you say Amnesty is working with ?

    i've heard no Native voice or ground organisation working & struggling on Native issues call for TLOA.

    So, again — who & what is really behind TLOA ?

    Where does it come from ?

    Where is it really going ?

  38. Who or what is / are the initiators or motive forces behind TLOA ?

    “Senator” Dorgan doesn’t represent any Native opinion.

    CAN or even SHOULD such an act be passed without a DISCUSSION, DEBATE, & REFERENDUM by Native peoples themselves ?

    Will TLOA empower federal “law enforcement” & BIA police plus puppet tribal cops & courts to FURTHER THEIR ENCROACHMENTS AGAINST Native Peoples AND their struggles for Sovereignty ?

    Angela Chang, you don’t address any of these concerns.

    You speak as if such concerns didn’t even exist !!

    Your words are as transparent as those of the US Government itself.

    Who are the “native organisations & advocates” you say Amnesty is working with ?

    i’ve heard no Native voice or ground organisation working & struggling on Native issues call for TLOA.

    So, again — who & what is really behind TLOA ?

    Where does it come from ?

    Where is it really going ?

  39. The UN is just as impotent and corrupt and hypocritical as any other type of governing body they have peacekeepers (contradiction) that rape children and solicite sex from children in exchange for a sandwhich etc… please research how they are no different from any other government and you really don’t need their help besides they also just sit there and let things happen like an idiot with his thumb up his A**.
    Talking Heads!!!

  40. Sung Manitu – Tanka !

    So true, your picture of the UN's impotence & corruption.

    One reason for this — they're a council of mostly false ( unreal ) nations.

    For a real World Council we've to wait for the breakup of these artificial ( imposed ) nationstates.

    Out of their ruins, the Original Sovereign Nations may grow , & make a true Council of Peoples.

    A dream informing the struggle today.

    Mitakuye oyasin.

  41. Sung Manitu – Tanka !

    So true, your picture of the UN’s impotence & corruption.

    One reason for this — they’re a council of mostly false ( unreal ) nations.

    For a real World Council we’ve to wait for the breakup of these artificial ( imposed ) nationstates.

    Out of their ruins, the Original Sovereign Nations may grow , & make a true Council of Peoples.

    A dream informing the struggle today.

    Mitakuye oyasin.

  42. The Great Lakota Nations, South Dakota Thousands, are without, heat, hydro, and water, for eleven days, following an ice storm that knocked down more than 3,000 hydro poles, on the Great Lakota Nations reservation, in South Dakota. CNN news, has censored this tragedy, leaving the devastated area residents to spread the news by the" word of mouth media"and hampering efforts to receive aid, from the world. A State of Emergency, is expected to be declared, by President Obama, who has shown a great interest in some reservation properties, including those in South Dakota, for wind farms. The undeniable devastation in Haiti, combined with , the CNN censored news,has hampered efforts to obtain government and world assistance. The basic necessities of life, are being denied to the North American, Indigenous Peoples of South Dakota. President Obama, must declare this disaster, a "State of Emergency". The CNN news, must report this as world news, The people of the world, want to know, how the government, media and citizens, of North America, USA and Canada respond to this devastating tragedy.

  43. The Great Lakota Nations, South Dakota Thousands, are without, heat, hydro, and water, for eleven days, following an ice storm that knocked down more than 3,000 hydro poles, on the Great Lakota Nations reservation, in South Dakota. CNN news, has censored this tragedy, leaving the devastated area residents to spread the news by the” word of mouth media”and hampering efforts to receive aid, from the world. A State of Emergency, is expected to be declared, by President Obama, who has shown a great interest in some reservation properties, including those in South Dakota, for wind farms. The undeniable devastation in Haiti, combined with , the CNN censored news,has hampered efforts to obtain government and world assistance. The basic necessities of life, are being denied to the North American, Indigenous Peoples of South Dakota. President Obama, must declare this disaster, a “State of Emergency”. The CNN news, must report this as world news, The people of the world, want to know, how the government, media and citizens, of North America, USA and Canada respond to this devastating tragedy.

  44. Attention, America !

    Attention, the US Government !

    Attention, CNN !

    Attention, Amnesty International !!

    World opinion is urgently calling upon the US Government and CNN to immediately break the media blackout and administration's silence, and take instant emergency measures,regarding the mounting state of disaster caused by natural catastrophe and compounded by joint media / administration indifference and neglect on the reservation lands of the Lakota Nations in South Dakota. .

    For eleven days now & counting, thousands of people in the Lakota Nations have been living completely without benefit of any electricity, water or medicine, in the grip of darkness & the iron cold.

    CNN adds to this ice blockade with a total media blackout and news censorship of this human rights disaster.

    World opinion urgently demands —

    1. The US government must take instant measures for the immediate restoration of food and water supplies, and of medical and humanitarian relief, throughout the affected zones of the Lakota and Sioux Nations' reservations in South Dakota. The work of restoration of the basic electrical facilities must also immediately begin.

    2. CNN must report and reveal instantly, and in depth, this mounting and unaccountably unacknowledged tragedy .

    3. Amnesty and its team working on Native issues, please immediately activate and bring these pressing issues of the very basic human rights on the Lakota / Sioux reservations in South Dakota to the attention of the US administration and of CNN.

    Enough time has already been allowed to pass in inexplicable silence regarding this disastrous situation .

    There is not a moment to lose anymore.

  45. Attention, America !

    Attention, the US Government !

    Attention, CNN !

    Attention, Amnesty International !!

    World opinion is urgently calling upon the US Government and CNN to immediately break the media blackout and administration’s silence, and take instant emergency measures,regarding the mounting state of disaster caused by natural catastrophe and compounded by joint media / administration indifference and neglect on the reservation lands of the Lakota Nations in South Dakota. .

    For eleven days now & counting, thousands of people in the Lakota Nations have been living completely without benefit of any electricity, water or medicine, in the grip of darkness & the iron cold.

    CNN adds to this ice blockade with a total media blackout and news censorship of this human rights disaster.

    World opinion urgently demands —

    1. The US government must take instant measures for the immediate restoration of food and water supplies, and of medical and humanitarian relief, throughout the affected zones of the Lakota and Sioux Nations’ reservations in South Dakota. The work of restoration of the basic electrical facilities must also immediately begin.

    2. CNN must report and reveal instantly, and in depth, this mounting and unaccountably unacknowledged tragedy .

    3. Amnesty and its team working on Native issues, please immediately activate and bring these pressing issues of the very basic human rights on the Lakota / Sioux reservations in South Dakota to the attention of the US administration and of CNN.

    Enough time has already been allowed to pass in inexplicable silence regarding this disastrous situation .

    There is not a moment to lose anymore.

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