Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

June 25, 2016

In the Bittersweet Days of Summer Solstice

Clouds to the West, on the Road Home
Chuska and Tsaile Mountains
Photo by Brenda Norrell, Navajo Nation, Crystal, New Mexico

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The past few days have been bittersweet. We are sad to share with you the passing of Jim Boyd, Colville, who will be remembered for his kindness and his award-winning music.
From the south, we hear of the deaths of the teachers and their supporters shot by police as they took their last breaths for justice in Oaxaca.
We learned of the brutal US forces -- which included the US Border Patrol -- who trained Honduras military and the assassins who had Berta Caceres on their hit list.
From the north, we hear this news, that the publisher of Mohawk Nation News, Kahentinetha, Mohawk grandmother, was sitting in the dark, with her electricity cut off.
This comes with the uplifting news from Arlene Bowman, Dine', and her travel to the Dene Language Conference in Yellowknife. The news is that the language is alive -- from the far north, to the west coast of California, to the Southwest lands of Dine' (Navajo) and Apache.
And the struggle for justice, autonomy and dignity continues -- from the Zapatistas in Chiapas, to the Dine' resisters on Big Mountain, to the Dakota Access pipeline fighters at Sacred Stone camp in North Dakota, to the seed planters at the tarsands mine arrested in Utah, to the streets of St. Louis where Peabody Coal festers in the bowels.
Are the news rooms empty? Where are the journalists whose calling requires them to be present and out there covering the news. Are they on a permanent holiday in their easy chairs?

Censored News: www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

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