Monday, November 3, 2003

Moccasin Telegraph QUOTE OF THE DAY "We have cathedrals, huge cathedrals built. They are called old growth forests. That's our cathedral. We have statutes, but they are moving, breathing, flying, growing in our cathedrals. We have beautiful stained glass windows. We have the sunlight, the moonlight, the starlight that shines through the trees. That's our cathedral. We have universities where we study and learn. It's the university of our lives, as we contemplate and meditate on what our duties are to these 7 generations, over our whole lifetime. We ask our professors, our elders, our spiritual people, for guidance, for blessings, and they give it to us...  ...We have scientists, people who really know how things work, how to really make things beautiful artists, singers. So we have our institutions too." - - Anthony Guy Lopez  (Lakota) (From the documentary, A SEAT AT THE TABLE; Struggling For American Indian Religious Freedom) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - OCTOBER 1755 -- Penobscot Indians in Maine are declared to be "enemies, rebels & traitors" to His Majesty, & bounties are offered to colonists for scalps: £40 British pounds for a male, £20 for females, & male children under 12. (Girls under 12 were apparently worthless.) 1865 -- US: Mescalero Apache disappear from Bosque Redondo where Kit Carson had them jailed, & were untraceable for the next 7 years. 1969 -- US: President Nixon announces "Vietnamization" program to shift Vietnam fighting from US troops to US-trained South Vietnamese troops. 1986 -- Lebanon: A Lebanese magazine reports the US has been secretly & illegally selling arms to Iran in the hope of securing the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. Three days later, US intelligence sources confirm the operation, & 6 days after that, President Reagan admits he was aware of the arms-for-hostages sale. RHINO HERE: Lots of hot scoops on the Indian news wires & Indigenous cyber web, both better known as, "The Moccasin Telegraph." Here are a few stories worthy of your attention. It's not often that the struggle for American Indian religious rites & cultural rights gets to celebrate a victory, but one has recently occurred. Activists in Albuquerque defeated the road-building bond measure that would have contributed to the destruction of Petroglyph National Monument, a sacred area to local Pueblo people. The following link to The Sacred Lands Project gives some background: Petroglyph National Monument The conflict surrounding 17,000 petroglyphs west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, demonstrates that even a national monument is not safe when it comes to suburban development. A developer and the Albuquerque City Council want to build a six-lane highway through the northern portion of the park to give a new housing development access to the city of Albuquerque. At stake is not just a national monument, but an area of great spiritual significance... MORE: http://www.sacredland.org/petroglyph.html California Tribes Disaster Fund Since the major media seems to have ignored the struggle of the California Indian Tribes affected by the recent fires, I'll forward on a post from the Native News Wire known as YazzieNet. Be sure to note the Disaster Relief Fund info: Disaster Fund Created for Tribes Devastated by Fires YazzieNet, Thu, 30 Oct 2003 10:09:46 -0800 Sacramento, CA - A disaster relief fund has been established for California tribes and tribal members victimized by devastating fires throughout Southern California. The fund is being established at the Borrego Springs Bank in La Mesa by the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. A number of tribes were particularly hard hit by the flames. - Sixty-seven of 68 homes on the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians reservation were destroyed and two people were reportedly killed when fire swept Valley Center. - Forty homes and two small buildings were destroyed on the Barona Band of Mission Indians reservation near Lakeside. The tribal hall and daycare center were spared. All residents of the Barona Band of Mission Indians are safe and accounted for. - Twenty homes were lost on the Rincon San Luiseño Band of Mission Indians reservation in Valley Center. Ninety-eight percent of the vegetation on the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians reservation near Patton was destroyed, leaving the hillside reservation subject to potentially devastating erosion. Half of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians reservation near Alpine was burned, but fortunately no structures were destroyed. "Our hearts and prayers go out to these and other tribes that suffered so greatly in the fires," said Brenda Soulliere, chairwoman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. The fund is being established to provide immediate assistance to tribes directly impacted by the fires. It will be a permanent fund for future disasters. Persons wishing to contribute are asked to make checks out to: The Disaster Relief Fund for Tribes Borrego Springs Bank, ATTN: Joanne McBride 7777 Alvarado Road, Suite 114, La Mesa, CA 91941 Wisdom of the Grandmothers Rhino's Blog reader Nan Morton is founder of the non-profit organization, Wisdom of the Grandmothers Foundation; a team of Grandmothers (Native American Indian, Mayan, Australian Aboriginal, Celtic, etc.) that travels around the world and in a grass roots way, offers spiritual cultural gatherings to heal the walls of prejudice & war; peace through healing, one person at a time, beginning with the self. Wisdom of the Grandmothers Foundation is now planning a gathering in Viet Nam. They seek veterans to attend, who are interested in going back to Viet Nam and heal personal, government and land scars from that war. For more information, contact Nan Morton at: nan_morton@hotmail.com ...and/or visit the Wisdom of the Grandmothers Foundation website at: http://www.mmarch.com/wisdom 8:12:47 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Indigenous Peoples Force New Course For Their Country Bolivia's Indigenous Peoples Force New Course For Their Country Indian Country Today Editorial, October 27, 2003 The tens of thousands of Bolivian Indian protesters were going home this weekend. It took near to 70 killed by jittery police and army troops, but through demonstrations and civil disobedience they had brought down a head of state. It was the indigenous - los indios - who had done this, in Bolivia, the most American Indian of all the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Something very large happened in that land-locked Andean and Amazonian country of 8.5 million in the past month. The mass of Indian people, 70 percent and more of the population, but severely marginalized and impoverished after centuries of continued dispossession, declared that they had had enough. Demonstrations started against a plan to privatize and export natural gas through a $5 billion pipeline to be built by a multinational consortium. As with water, timber and other natural resources being targeted these days, the full privatization of natural gas promised nothing for the regular people of the country. The mobilization grew huge quickly to represent a nationalist sentiment that globalization costs too much to the poor people. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada fled to the United States on Oct. 17, after troops under his orders killed 65 people and wounded countless others holding demonstrations. After nearly two centuries of rule by elite politicians unaware or untouched by the reality of their indigenous counterparts, the Bolivian Indian mass is on the move. The common people in largely non-violent demonstrations brought down a government, presided over the installation of the vice president as new head of state and forced upon him a mandate to include more Indians in cabinet-level positions to address the issues of the poor. A cabinet level Department of Ethnic Affairs, headed by an Indian professional, was instituted. The events, which saw the evacuation of dozens of foreign personnel and clear lack of understanding by the U.S. embassy, rocked the Andean region and could be harbinger of much more to come... MORE: http://www.indiancountry.com/?1067276837 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:03:36 AM    comment

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