By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- There were two events over the weekend that deserved national and international news coverage. Those events were the O'odham Solidarity Event "Apartheid in America" and the Southwest Weekend to End Torture, with a vigil and arrests at Fort Huachuca Army base. Only a few reporters covered these events. The University of Arizona's Wildcat sent a reporter and photographer to the O'odham Solidarity Event. Stanley Throssell, publisher of O'odham newspaper The Runner, also covered the event. The Sierra Vista Herald covered the torture protest. TV channel 13 KOLD did come to the torture resisters' training on Saturday.

By Brenda Norrell

Photo by Brenda Norrell: Angie Ramon, Tohono O'odham, prepares squash for 'Apartheid in America.'

During the vigil to halt US torture, soldiers remove one of five persons who crossed the line into Fort Huachuca Army Intelligence Center, to expose US torture training here. Photo by Brenda Norrell.

Updated Nov. 16, 2009

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Racism in America did not disappear when Barack Obama became president. Native American homelands are still targeted by corporations and some tribal governments, targeting the land for coal mining, power plants, oil drilling and toxic dumps.

By Brenda Norrell

Photo of Hopi imprisoned at Alcatraz

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. -- Hopi gathered at the 'Water is Life' conference in Kykotsmovi on Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, to protect their aquifer and waters from mining and contamination from Peabody Coal on Black Mesa. It is also a time to remember the 19 Hopi imprisoned at Alcatraz who refused to allow their children to be indoctrinated in US colonial boarding schools.

"I just get back junk mail from the White house." --Gerald Delorme

By Brenda Norrell

By Brenda Norrell

Photo: Ofelia Rivas at the Indigenous Uranium Foum at Acoma Pueblo/Photo by Brenda Norrell

By Brenda Norrell

Photo: Angie Ramon, Tohono O'odham, views the crosses in memory of the migrants who died crossing the Sonoran Desert, at the Dia de los Muertos on Oct. 31, 2009, in San Xavier, Tohono O'odham land. Ramon remembered her son Bennett Patricio, Jr., who was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol. Based on the evidence, Ramon said her son walked upon US Border Patrol agents invovled in drug smuggling in the desert at 3 a.m. and was intentionally murdered. She took the case to Ninth Circuit federal court, but found no justice. Photo Brenda Norrell.

Profiteering from misery: Alaskan Natives' private migrant prison for profit is disturbing trend in violation of the traditional teachings of Native Americans

By Brenda Norrell

Photo: Outdoor migrant detention center on Tohono O'odham land, where temperatures can reach 116 degrees in summer, known as 'The Cage." Photo by Ofelia Rivas.

TUCSON -- Native Americans say the disturbing trend of profiteering from foul and abusive private migrant prisons by American Indian Nations violates traditional teachings to honor the sacredness of life and all humanity.
The San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation has planned a migrant prison in secret for years. Recently, outcry from neighbors at Sahuarita, Ariz., halted the plan. However, a second site selected in secret is east of Three Points, Ariz. and has not been made public.

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- In a sudden change of heart, the editor of the Arizona Daily Starr said he would like to offer his neighborhood for the Navajo Generating Station.
After encouraging the EPA to forget about new clean air standards, he said he realized that this was an act of environmental racism. He said he realized that his desire to continue this polluting power plant on the Navajo Nation was wrong.