Article by Brenda Norrell

Photo: In solidarity, Hopis and Navajos protest Peabody Coal in Denver today/Photo by Hopi-Navajo photographer Mano Cockrum.

SAN FRANCISCO -- From Black Mesa to the Western Shoshone's Mount Tenabo, the Bush extended corporation of thieves is seizing Indigenous lands in the final hours.
Barrick Gold is right now bulldozing the Western Shoshone's sacred Mount Tenabo, tearing the trees out by the roots as Barrick prepares to dig out the heart of the sacred mountain for an open pit gold mine with cyanide leaching. Barrick is targeting Indigenous lands around the world.
In Denver today, Navajos and Hopis in solidarity are protesting the latest threat to Black Mesa. A soon-to-be released environmental impact statement could reopen the Black Mesa Mine and more lands for coal strip mining. It could result in the relocation of more families from Black Mesa and give Peabody Coal Company a life-of-mine permit to mine Black Mesa. Peabody Coal could also be given the green light to suck dry the precious water of the Navajo Aquifer.
In the Arctic, the fight continues to protect the pristine region from oil drilling and the pollution of power plants. Black carbons from power plants, including those on Indian lands, and tailgate emissions are destroying the habitat for polar bear, walrus and seals in the melting Arctic.
The proposed Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo Nation is being pushed by elected Navajo officials who receive their salaries and travel funds primarily from energy profits.

By Brenda Norrell

ALCATRAZ ISLAND, Calif. -- Speaking at the Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering, Tohono O'odham Mike Flores described the assault by Homeland Security and the US Border Patrol on the Tohono O'odham people and their lands. Flores called for worldwide support to halt construction of the US/Mexico border wall and stop the militarization of Indigenous borderlands. Flores said the US is destroying endangered species, their habitat and migration routes. He said the truth is suppressed on Tohono O'odham land at the border, allowing the US to continue its lawlessness and abuse.
During interviews for the KPFA/Alcatraz Free Radio broadcast, cohost Tony Gonzales points out that the people of Palestine are also suffering from the isolation, militarization and horrors of a border wall. Gonzales said while walls are coming down in Europe, the US is building a wall.
On Alcatraz, the American Indian Movement called on the Obama administration to make real changes for Indian country. The challenge is voiced on today's Censored Blog Radio show, "AIM on Alcatraz," by Bill Means, with Pat Bellanger and Mike Flores.
Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, said the new administration in the U.S. offers hope. Means said the American Indian Movement is calling on the Obama administration to establish a new Presidential Treaty Commission; abolish the BIA and passage of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Barrick Gold has turned sacred Mount Tenabo into a construction site, blocking Western Shoshone from their sacred mountain and ceremonial grounds

By Brenda Norrell

CRESCENT VALLEY, Nev. - Barrick Gold is bulldozing the Western Shoshone sacred mountain of Mount Tenabo. Barrick construction crews blocked access to Western Shoshone ceremonial grounds this week with heavy machinery and pipes. Western Shoshone had planned a ceremony on Mount Tenabo, where the sweatlodge is located.

"Right now I am sitting here crying. The mining company is ripping out our hearts and guts," Shoshone elder Joyce McDade said today.

"We went to our scared site to build our Arbor, for the ceremonial gathering on Sunday. We couldn't drive in to deliver the materials for the boys to build the Arbor. The Canadian mining company shut us out, by putting big heavy waterpipes in alongside of our sweatlodge."

Western Shoshone said they will still hold a ceremony on Sunday, at a location to be announced. All are welcome. Western Shoshone ask for help and support.

By Brenda Norrell

Photos by Lisa Wolf (Update at end of article)

CRESCENT VALLEY, Newe Sogobi (Nevada) -- While most Americans enjoyed Thanksgiving this week, Western Shoshone protested the devastation on their sacred Mount Tenabo, as Barrick Gold ripped out pine trees by the roots on this ceremonial mountain for gold mining.

As Barrick Gold continues its practice of genocide, targeting Indigenous Peoples territories around the world, Barrick is destroying Mount Tenabo for one of the United States largest open pit gold mines. The Cortez Hills Expansion Project is at the flank of the mountain where Shoshone carry out sweatlodges and other ceremonies. (See protest photos at http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com )

Shoshone called for help and an immediate encampment to protect sacred Mount Tenabo.

Barrick Gold, coring out mountains around the world for small amounts of gold, is ready to carve the sacred mountain of the Western Shoshone into a crater, with cyanide leaching

By Brenda Norrell

CRESCENT VALLEY, Nev. -- The U.S. Department of Interior, through its Bureau of Land Management, has approved one of the largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines in the United States on the flank of Mount Tenabo, an area well-known for its spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. Western Shoshone, Timbisha Shoshone and the Great Basin Resource Watch filed a complaint today in federal court to halt the desecration.

Western Shoshone grandmother Carrie Dann said, "The destruction of the water is like the destruction of the blood of the earth; you are destroying life of the earth and the people and wildlife that depend on it. Dewatering is taking the life of future generations. Water is sacred, all life depends on it.

Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicted for criminal conspiracy in private prison profiteering, resulting in prisoner assaults

By Brenda Norrell

WILLACY COUNTY, Texas -- US Vice President Dick Cheney was indicted today for a prison profiteering scheme and charged with abuse of prisoners. Cheney invested millions in the Vanguard Group, an investment management company with interests in the prison companies in charge of detention centers. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was also indicted in the prison profiteering scheme, resulting in ongoing prisoner assaults and at least one murder.
Human rights activists urged a probe into prison profiteering after the private prison corporations GEO Group and CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) began receiving enormous federal contracts to build detention centers to imprison migrants. GEO's new migrant prisons including prisons in Laredo, Texas and Jena, Louisiana.

The name of the US drone, 'Predator,' reflects what the United States has become

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- The bad news is that the US Border Patrol has four drones flying out of Fort Huachuca over the US/Mexico border for surveillance. One drone has already crashed near Nogales and these unmanned aerial planes, provided first by Israel's Apartheid spy technology maker, Elbit Systems, are a risk to the lives of those on the ground in Arizona.

The good news is that Airforce pilots are not flying over in their planes. Airforce pilots in Tucson were so eager to smuggle cocaine in uniform, that the FBI halted Operation Lively Green. More than 50 Army, Navy, Marine and National Guard soldiers have been sentenced for smuggling cocaine for cash, from Nogales to Phoenix.

UPDATE: More death threats to border reporters before Rodriguez buried 

FronteraNorte Sur reports in "A Border Press Emergency," that the threats to border reporters continues. There were even death threats to others before Armando Rodriguez was buried.

"Even before murdered El Diario de Juarez reporter Armando Rodriguez was buried last week, more Ciudad Juarez journalists reported getting death threats. In one case, the director of a popular online news site took the threats so seriously he immediately left behind his property, packed up the family and fled to the United States.

"According to the Mexico City-based Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), Jorge Luis Aguirre, director of the La Polaka news service, received a call on his cell phone last Thursday, one day after Rodriguez’s murder, which warned the news manager that he 'was the next in line.'" Read article.

By Brenda Norrell

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- News reporter Armando Rodriguez was the fifth reporter murdered in Mexico this year, and the 20th news reporter murdered in Mexico since 2000, when he was gunned down as he took his child to school on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. These numbers increase when the number of independent journalists murdered are added to the list of media assassinated in Mexico.

Rodriguez, a reporter for El Diario, the largest privately-owned daily in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, was shot dead outside his home.

Reporters without Borders said, "Rodriguez, aged 40, became the latest victim in a bloody war between the country’s major drug cartels which is centred on Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua State, with more than 1,300 casualties since the start of the year."

No one is illegal -- Somos un solo rio/We are all one river"

Article and photo by Brenda Norrell

SAN FRANCISCO -- AIM-West is hosting the 40th Anniversary Reunion of the American Indian Movement, Nov. 24 -- 28. With the theme, "No one is illegal -- Somos un solo rio/We are all one river," the topics include the militarization of the US borders, treaty rights, protection of sacred places, international Indigenous rights and religious freedom for prison inmates.

Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, is among the featured speakers at the sunrise gathering on Alcatraz Island on Thursday, Nov. 27. The weeklong AIM-West reunion includes Native Americans who have made history in the struggle for Indigenous Peoples rights, including Madonna Thunder Hawk, Manny Pino, Lenny Foster, Mike Flores, Charlie Hill, Patricia Bellanger and others.

NCAI urges new protections for sacred places, while Homeland Security seeks to keep secret the digging up of Native American graves during construction of the border wall

By Brenda Norrell

Photo Save the Peaks