Deși a trecut data pentru rugăciunea în grup acest articol ne arată multe site-uri care au nevoie de protecție Sacre și rugăciunea noastră.
Acesta poate fi bine să trimită la rugăciune site-ul cel mai apropiat de tine și să se concentreze pe această zonă.
Apoi trimite rugăciunile voastre la toate celelalte locații.
Marea suntem puternici ......... uniți suntem adevărate ....
uniți vom crea echilibrul ...... vă mulțumesc, Miriam
DIMINEAȚA STAR INSTITUTUL
611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 547-5531
Declaratie de Știri Pentru publicare imediată
16-24 iunie 2012 Set pentru NAȚIONALE ZILE SACRE RUGACIUNE LOCURI
Washington, DC (6/15/12)-ritualuri și ceremonii vor avea loc peste terenul din 16 iunie până în iunie 24 la marca 2012 Zilele Naționale de Rugăciune pentru a proteja nativ american Locuri sacre.
Respectarea în Washington, DC, va avea loc miercuri, 20 iunie la 08:30, pe Statele Unite ale Americii Capitol motive, zonă West față de ierburi (a se vedea detaliile de la Washington, DC, listarea în lista alfabetica de stat pe paginile următoare ).
Descrieri de locuri sacre și amenințări anumitor cu care se confruntă, precum și a orelor și a locurilor de comemorări publice sunt enumerate mai jos.
Unele dintre adunările evidențiate în acest comunicat sunt forumuri de învățământ, nu ceremonii religioase, și sunt deschise publicului larg.
Altele sunt ceremonial și pot fi efectuate în privat.
În plus față de cele enumerate mai jos, vor fi ritualurile și rugăciuni oferite în alte locuri sacre, care sunt sub amenințare și la cele care nu sunt puse în pericol în acest moment.
"Oameni nativi și non-nativi aduna la nivel national în acest moment pentru ceremonii Solstice și pentru a onora locuri sacre, dar toată lumea poate onora aceste terenuri prețioase și apele care tot timpul prin simpla respectare a ei și viața ei sprijină și nu le permite să fie prejudiciate, ", a declarat Suzan prezentate in aceasta Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee).
Ea este președinte al Institutului Morning Star, care organizează naționale de Sacre Locuri de zile de rugaciune.
"Ceremoniile sunt efectuate ca mult prea multe popoarelor indigene americane sunt angajate în luptele juridice cu agențiile federale care partea cu dezvoltatorii care pun în pericol sau să distrugă locuri sacre nativ", a declarat d-na Harjo.
"Din moment ce o hotărâre a Curții Supreme a SUA în 1988, că nu există nici o cauza constituțional sau legal de acțiune a-și apăra locurile natale sacre, americanii nativi sunt popoarele numai în Statele Unite, care nu au o usa la tribunal pentru a proteja locurile sacre sau site-ul specifice ceremonii ", a declarat d-na Harjo.
"Asta trebuie să se schimbe pur și simplu ca o chestiune de dreptate și echitate.
Națiunilor autohtone au fost cobbling împreună protectii bazat pe aparare destinate altor scopuri.
Unele agenții pot permite un loc la masă atunci când este în curs de dezvoltare avute în vedere, dar majoritatea nu o fac și popoarele native nu sunt luate în serios, deoarece agențiile și dezvoltatorii știu că Curtea Supremă de Justiție nu pare înclinat să audă procese care nu dispun de un drept croitor-a făcut de acțiune. "
În timpul campaniei sale prezidențiale din 2008, pe atunci senatorul Obama a abordat acest aspect, ca parte a platformei sale nativ politica americană pentru libertatea religioasă, drepturile culturale și protecția locurilor sacre: "nativ american de locuri sacre și site-ul specifice ceremonii sunt amenințate de dezvoltare, poluare , și vandalism.
Barack Obama susține protecției legale pentru locurile sacre și tradiții culturale, inclusiv motivele de înmormântare stramosilor nativ "și biserici."
Multe popoare nativ aprobat Candidat Obama, din cauza poziției sale pe locurile sacre nativ, dar s-au cuprins de disperare la decalajul tot mai mare între ceea ce face și ceea ce sprijinit Administrația președintelui a făcut pe locuri sacre.
Forest Service, Biroul de gestionare a terenurilor, Departamentul de Justiție și alte agenții federale sunt în pericol în mod activ locuri sacre și combaterea popoarelor indigene, care încearcă să protejeze locurile sacre în procesele judiciare și administrative.
Congresul National de indienii americani, cea mai veche organizatie mai mare și națională indiană, a cerut Congresului să adopte un statut care ar oferi un motiv de acțiune, pentru președintele pentru a actualiza și consolida Ordinul Executiv existent pe site-uri indiene Sacre și pentru Forest Serviciul de a utiliza legilor și politicilor existente pentru a proteja locurile nativ american sacre.
În același timp, Forest Service a touted ca o realizare pentru locurile sacre proiectul său de raport, care a fost denunțat fără menajamente, în țara indiană, precum și un raport revizuit este păstrarea secretă, în contradicție cu poziția Administrației privind consultarea tribale.
"Președintele a fost întrebat direct de a apela la Congres pentru a crea un drept de acțiune astfel încât să putem apăra locurile noastre sfinte, pentru a îmbunătăți Ordinul Executiv pentru locurile sacre indiene și pentru a opri Forest Service și alte agenții de la a continua lor de zeci de ani de-a lungul asalt împotriva locuri sacre nativ ", a declarat d-na Harjo.
"Sunt încă optimist că președintele poate și va face aceste lucruri, chiar dacă Congresul nu este în măsură să facă progrese în acest domeniu sau orice.
Încă o dată, ne rugăm ca acest lucru va fi ultimul an suntem negat justiție, prin puterea executivă, legislativă și judiciară. "
Raportorul Special al ONU privind drepturile popoarelor indigene a recomandat ca Statele Unite considera retragerea permisului federal, care este să permită o statiune de schi privată a utiliza apa de canalizare reciclate pentru a face zăpada de pe partea de sus a Peaks San Francisco, care sunt sacre pentru multe națiuni nativ în sud-vest.
Raportorul Special a cerut, de asemenea, pe SUA să se consulte și să se întoarcă cu locuri sacre pentru a popoarelor indigene.
"Popoarele native americane sunt incurajati ca presedintele a schimbat poziția SUA și a aprobat Declarația Organizației Națiunilor Unite privind drepturile populațiilor indigene, și așteptăm cu nerăbdare să aplicării sale la legislația și practica din SUA", a declarat d-na Harjo.
Declarația cuprinde următoarele afirmații referitoare la locurile sacre:
"Articolul 11, 1: popoarele indigene au dreptul de a practica și revitaliza tradițiile culturale și obiceiurile.
Aceasta include dreptul de a menține, proteja și dezvolta manifestările trecute, prezente și viitoare ale culturilor lor, cum ar fi situri arheologice și istorice, artefacte, desene, ceremonii, tehnologii și arte vizuale si interpretative și literatură.
"Articolul 11, 2: Statele trebuie să furnizeze căi de atac prin intermediul unor mecanisme eficiente, care pot include restituirea, dezvoltat în colaborare cu popoarele indigene, în ceea ce privește proprietatea lor culturale, intelectuale, religioase și spirituale luate fără consimțământul lor liber, prealabil și în cunoștință de cauză sau cu încălcarea lor legi, tradiții și obiceiuri. "
"Articolul 12, 1: popoarele indigene au dreptul de a manifesta, practică, dezvoltă și învață tradițiile lor spirituale și religioase, vamale și ceremonii, dreptul de a menține, proteja, și să aibă acces, în intimitate la site-urile lor religioase și culturale; dreptul la utilizarea și controlul obiectelor lor ceremoniale,. și dreptul de a repatrierii rămășițelor lor umane "
"Articolul 25: popoarele indigene au dreptul de a menține și consolida relația lor distinctiv spirituală cu lor tradițional deținut sau în alt mod ocupate și utilizate terenuri, teritorii, apele de coastă și mările și a altor resurse și să respecte responsabilitățile lor generațiilor viitoare în acest sens."
Din 2012 observări sunt zecea a Zilelor Rugăciune naționale de a proteja nativ american Locuri sacre.
Ziua Națională a Rugăciunii primul a fost efectuat la 20 iunie 2003, privind Motivele US Capitol și la nivel național pentru a sublinia necesitatea de a Congresului să adopte o cauză de acțiune pentru a proteja locurile sacre nativ.
Care au nevoie încă mai există.
Rugăciunile vor fi oferite pentru următoarele locuri sacre, printre altele:
Antilope Hills.
Apache Leap.
Badger Doi Medicină.
Badlands.
Urs Butte.
Lacul Ursu.
Urs Medicine Lodge.
Black Hills.
Black Mesa.
Blue Lake.
Boboquivari Munte.
Bunchgrass Munte.
Pestera Rock.
Șef Cliff.
Terenuri de coastă Chumash sfinte din Coasta de Gaviota.
Cocopah Îngroparea și Motivele ceremoniale.
Coldwater Springs.
Colorado River.
Columbia River.
Medicina Deer Rocks.
Dzil Nchaa Si O (Muntele Graham).
Eagle Rock.
Everglades.
Fajada Butte.
Ganondagan.
Mound mare (de jos Mound).
Golful Mexic.
Haleakala Crater.
Hatchet Munte.
Hickory solului.
Sfântul Munte.
Nation Hualapai formele de relief în Truxton și canioane Crozier.
Indian Pass.
Kaho'olawe.
Kasha-Katuwe.
Katuktu.
Kituwah.
Klamath River.
Kumeyaay Trupe funerare și Motive ceremoniale.
Lacul Superior.
Luiseno Ancestral origine Peisaj.
Mauna Kea.
Labirint.
Medicina Bluff.
Medicina Hole.
Medicine Lake Highlands.
Roți medicina.
Migi zii wa păcat (Eagle Rock).
Mokuhinia.
Moku'ula.
Muntele Shasta.
Muntele Taylor.
Mount Tenabo.
Nine Mile Canyon.
Ocmulgee Domenii vechi si Monumentul National.
Lacul Onondaga.
Palo Duro Canyon.
Petroglife National Monument.
Pipestone National Monument.
Puget Sound.
Puvungna.
Pyramid Lake Piatra Mama.
Quechan Îngroparea și Motivele ceremoniale.
Rainbow Bridge.
Rattlesnake Island.
Rio Grande Râul.
San Francisco Peaks.
Serpent Mound.
Snoqualmie Falls.
Sweetgrass Hills.
Sutter Buttes.
Tse Rusaliilor Village Zen.
STI-Litch Semiahmah Village.
Valea de Chiefs.
Valmont Butte.
Wakarusa zonelor umede.
Plimbare Locul Femeia.
Woodruff Butte.
Wolf River.
Yucca Mountain.
Zuni Salt Lake.
Locurile sacre ale tuturor Națiunilor eliminate nativ.
Toate apele și a zonelor umede.
Arizona: Muntele Graham, Dzil Nchaa Si O
Muntele Graham este sacru pentru oamenii de Vest Apache și este cunoscut pentru San Carlos Apache ca Dzil Nchaa Si O.
Acesta este un peisaj sfânt în cazul în care Gaan sau Spiritele Mountain ședere și ancestral Apache odihnă.
Acesta este un loc de ceremonii și plante medicina, și acasă la cale de dispariție Muntele Graham veverița roșie.
Munții Pinaleño sau la Muntele Graham este o comoară unică ecologic.
Acesta este cel mai înalt munte din sudul Arizona și cuprinde șase zone diferite de viață de la podea până la vale apogeul la 10720 ft Numit "Sky Island" ecosistem, pădurile vechi de creștere pe Muntele Graham summit-ul sunt echivalente Arizona a pădurilor tropicale.
Izvoarele abundente și pajiști de mare altitudine au oferit susținerea și o sursă de vindecare pentru persoanele care locuiesc în Apache deșert.
Caracteristicile reci umede ale muntelui au nutrit 18 plante diferite și animale găsite nicăieri altundeva în lume.
În anii 1980, Universitatea din Arizona si partenerii sai, la moment, inclusiv Vaticanul și Smithsonian Institution, a ales Muntele Graham ca site-ul pentru a construi un observator cu șapte telescoape mari, cunoscute sub numele de Proiectul Columb.
Începând din 1988, delegația Congresului Arizona a reușit să câștige scutiri pentru proiectul din specii pe cale de dispariție, de conservare a mediului, istorice și a altor legi.
În 1989, Universitatea din Arizona a fost acordat un permis de 20 de ani de utilizare specială Național Coronado Pădure și SUA Serviciile forestiere, precum și călăreți credit păstrat proiectului clătiți cu beneficii publice, fără a fi nevoie să respecte legile federale sau de lege, inclusiv federal indian legi destinate să protejeze libertatea religioasă, cimitirului și proprietăți culturale.
Purtătorii de cuvânt ai Vaticanului a declarat că Muntele Graham nu a fost un loc sacru sau religios.
Angajați universitare și grupurilor de interese au încercat să submineze reputația de lideri religioși Apache și practicieni, și păstrată cel puțin o San Carlos oficial tribala să depună mărturie că nu a fost Muntele sacru sau semnificativă a popoarelor Apache.
Timp de decenii, popoarele Apache, oameni de știință, de conservare și studenți s-au opus la Universitatea din Arizona decizia de a construi telescoape pe summitul Mountain.
Chiar dacă stratul de nori frecventă face telescop care vizionează marginală și Muntele Graham a fost clasat pe locul 38 într-un studiu de site-uri astronomice din SUA, delegația Congresului și Arizona University au persistat cu proiectul.
Astăzi, construirea de telescoape și închidere care rezultă federal de top Munte sunt profanarea Munte și relația acestuia cu popoarele de neînlocuit Apache.
Lupta continuă de a proteja patrimoniul natural și cultural al Muntelui Graham de la distrugere precedent-setare încă fiind cauzate de Universitatea din construirea Observatorul de pe Muntele Graham.
Eforturile de protecție culturale și organizațiile de mediu și de triburi afectate pentru a proteja sacralitatea de pe Muntele Graham continuă neabătut.
Universitatea din Arizona funcționează acum observatorul său fără un permis valabil utilizare specială.
De 20 de ani a expirat permisul federal în 19 aprilie 2009.
Universitatea a cerut Coronado Națională a Pădurilor pentru un nou permis, dar, din iunie din 2012, o decizie cu privire la acordarea permisului nu a fost încă făcut.
Forest Service a stabilit că trebuie să se pregătească o Declarație a impactului asupra mediului (EIS) pentru a aduna informații cu privire la argumentele pro și contra de acordare a unui nou permis.
Universitatea a opus cu înverșunare la un EIS noi.
Din ceea ce puține informații Muntele Coaliția Graham și San Carlos Apache Tribe au învățat, Forest Service și avocații Universității sunt "în discuții", pentru a stabili forma finală a procesului de reînnoire permisului.
Există o serie de motive pentru Forest Service a refuza o nouă autorizație.
Permis expirat a avut o serie de termeni și condiții care au fost încălcate de către Universitatea.
Multe dintre aceste condiții ar trebui să au condus la retragerea autorizației, dar nu.
Toate aceste încălcări trebuie să fie studiate pentru a stabili dacă Universitatea poate să respecte regulile de o nouă autorizație.
Condițiile de pe Muntele Graham s-au schimbat în mod substanțial de la permis a fost acordat și observatorul este chiar mai puțin compatibilă cu importanța religioasă și ecologică a Muntele Graham.
Din moment ce a fost acordată autorizația, "forma" de pe Muntele Graham a fost considerat eligibil pentru plasarea pe lista națională de locuri istorice.
În plus, Serviciul Forestier acum recunoaște că Muntele Graham este o proprietate culturale tradiționale de Vest oameni Apache și a luat măsuri pentru a consulta (deși mai are un drum lung de parcurs), cu Apache tradițională despre natura sacra a Muntelui și cum să protejeze aceasta.
Universitatea poate merge la Congres pentru încă o exceptare de la libertatea religioasă și de legislația de mediu și de a obliga Forest Service a emite o nouă autorizație.
Suporterii de pe Muntele Graham ar fi ultima să aud de orice lobby-ului de-a lungul acestor linii și trebuie să fie mereu vigilent pentru a opri acest lucru.
Pentru acestea și multe alte motive, este important pentru suporterii de popoare Apache și Graham Muntele să îndemne Forest Service a refuza Universitatea o nouă autorizație, și solicită ca telescoapele existente pe Muntele Graham fi șterse.
După 20 de ani de construcție, proiectul telescop mare nu este încă completă și întrebări foarte serioase să rămână cu privire la importanța acesteia, utilitatea și funcția dintr-o perspectivă astronomică.
Ceea ce nu este în cauză este infracțiune continuă la popoarele occidentale Apache.
La fel de clar este starea periculoasă a nativ Muntele Graham veverița roșie.
Cel mai recent studiu realizat de biologi estimează că doar aproximativ 214 a acestei specii unice, a constatat acum unde altundeva pe pământ, rămân.
Acesta a fost identificat de către biologi ca fiind unul dintre cele mamifere, cel mai probabil pentru a merge dispărut în Statele Unite în viitorul apropiat.
Mai multe incendii au devastat partea de sus a Muntelui Graham în ultimii ani.
Ei s-au luptat pentru a proteja telescoape mai mult decât ecosistemului și, ca rezultat, daune de mult a fost făcut pentru a Munte, care ar fi putut fi evitate.
Forest Service a decis sa se subtieze pădure și manipula in alt mod ecosistemului pentru a încerca să protejeze ceea ce rămâne și pentru a restabili ceea ce a fost deteriorat.
Incendiile actuale de ardere în estul și sudul Arizona consolida pericolul ca acțiunile viitoare vor fi luate proteja structurile de peste valorile spirituale și faunei sălbatice.
Rugăciunile și a eforturilor depuse sunt necesare acum mai mult ca oricând pentru Mount Graham.
Ecosistemul este sub amenințare gravă la schimbările climatice și alte modele de distrugere; există o oportunitate pentru Serviciul forestier pentru a nega o nouă autorizație pentru telescoape și necesită acestea să fie eliminate, și există o șansă de a proteja ecosistemul existent și refacerea a ceea ce a fost pierdut.
Și, sacralitatea Muntelui Graham continuă să fie contestată și, în timp ce Mountain este capabil de a se proteja, suporterii pot ajuta să-l protejeze.
Pentru mai multe informații, contactați Muntele Coaliția Graham, Roger Featherstone, președinte, la greenfire@featherstone.ws, sau Dinah Urs, secretar, la Bear6@verizon.net
Arizona: San Francisco Peaks
Cele Peaks San Francisco sunt sacre pentru Apache, Hopi, Hualapai, Navajo, Yavapai și alte națiuni nativ.
Cele Peaks San Francisco sunt acasa, la multe fiinte sacre, locuri de medicina si site-uri de origine.
Myriad ceremonii se desfășoară acolo pentru vindecare, și ciclurile fiind, echilibru, comemorare, pasaje și în lume de apă și de viață.
Cele Peaks San Francisco se află pe teren federal în cadrul Forest Coconino National.
Într-adevăr, Statele Unite Forest Service a indicat faptul că Peaks San Francisco sunt sacru și sfânt la peste treisprezece triburi din sud-vestul Statelor Unite.
Fără a aduce atingere celor de mai sus, Forest Service și privat stațiunea de schi Snowbowl, care este situat pe culmile San Francisco, planul de a extinde zona de schi și să se folosească de canalizare reciclat pentru a face zăpadă artificială.
Extinderea și canalizare-la-planuri de zăpadă ar putea avea un impact dezastruos asupra religiilor nativ și a persoanelor și pe apă și sănătatea întregii regiuni.
Dezvoltarea târâtoare de agrement a vizat lideri spirituali nativ și funcționari tribale de zeci de ani, dar planurile actuale depășesc cu mult activitatea trecut, la stațiune.
Planurile Snowbowl lui la clare 74 de acri de habitat alpin rare, care este acasa, la specii amenințate, face pârtii noi de schi și teleschiuri, adăugați mai multe loturi de parcare și de a construi o conducta de 14.8 mile îngropat pentru a transporta până la 180 de milioane galoane (pe sezon) de apă uzată pentru a face zăpadă artificială pe 205 de acri.
In ciuda protestelor în curs de desfășurare și greve ale foamei, Snowbowl a început construcția conductei apelor uzate sale pentru zăpadă, cu aprobarea și protecție de către Serviciul Pădure și Departamentul Agriculturii din SUA.
Navajo Nation Comisia pentru Drepturile Omului Președintele H. Duane Yazzie depus mărturie în fața Comisiei Senatului pentru afaceri indian "2011 ședinței din punerea în aplicare a SUA, Declarația Organizației Națiunilor Unite privind drepturile popoarelor indigene:" Integrarea în Declarația de la legea existentă se va concentra în mod substanțial asupra valorii de site-uri sacre in loc de o povară excesivă asupra procedurii.
De asemenea, declarația va sublinia politica internațională în loc să se bazeze pe politica internă singur.
Abordarea legislativ jurisprudența legii indiene vor repara deposedarea de drepturi nativ american la locurile sfinte. "
Organizației Națiunilor Unite Raportorul Special privind drepturile popoarelor indigene recomandate în 2011 că "guvernul Statelor Unite se angajeze într-o revizuire cuprinzătoare a politicilor sale relevante și acțiuni pentru a se asigura că acestea sunt în conformitate cu standardele internaționale în ceea ce privește Peaks San Francisco și alte nativ american site-uri sacre, și că aceasta ia măsurile corespunzătoare de remediere .... Guvernul trebuie să reînceapă sau să continue consultările cu triburile ale căror practici religioase sunt afectate de operațiunile de schi pe culmile San Francisco și să depună eforturi pentru a ajunge la un acord cu ei asupra dezvoltării Ski Area.
Guvernul ar trebui să acorde o atenție deosebită la suspendarea permisului pentru modificările de până la Snowbowl astfel de acord poate fi atins sau până când, în absența unui astfel de acord, o determinare care se face în scris de către o autoritate guvernamentală competentă că decizia finală cu privire la zona de schi modificări este în conformitate cu Statele Unite "obligațiile internaționale în domeniul drepturilor omului.
"Raportorul Special dorește să sublinieze necesitatea de a se asigura că acțiunile sau deciziile facute de agentiile guvernamentale sunt în conformitate cu, nu doar dreptul intern, dar, de asemenea, standarde internaționale care protejează dreptul de nativ american de a practica și de a menține tradițiile lor religioase.
Raportorul Special este conștient de programe guvernamentale și politicilor existente să se consulte cu popoarele indigene și ia în considerare tradițiile lor religioase in guvern de luare a deciziilor cu privire la locurile sfinte.
Raportorul Special îndeamnă guvernul să construiască pe aceste programe și politici conforme cu standardele internaționale și de a face astfel încât să se stabilească o bună practică și a devenit un lider mondial, care se poate în protejarea drepturilor popoarelor indigene. "
Națiunilor native și organizațiile de mediu au încercat să protejeze Peaks San Francisco în instanța de judecată.
Judecătoria a hotărât pentru dezvoltarea în anul 2006.
Curtea de Apel Circuit al IX-lea a anulat decizia instanței inferioare în 2007 și condus de Tribul Hopi, Navajo Nation și altele.
Un complet de trei judecători al IX-lea a decis că Circuit Forest Service a încălcat legea religioasă restaurare Libertate și Legea privind Politica Națională de Mediu, permițând Resort Snowbowl sa se extinda peste 100 de hectare de ecosistem alpin rar, o parte din zona care este sacru pentru nativ popoare.
Guvernul federal a contestat această decizie și o petitie Circuit al IX-lea pentru rejudecare en banc.
Astfel de petiții sunt rareori acordate, dar Curtea a acordat aceasta.
Cazul a fost susținut în fața judecătorului 11-ro panoul banc de Circuit al IX-lea, în Pasadena, în decembrie 2007.
Circuit al IX-lea a emis decizia de Banc en panoul de la 8 august 2008, pronunțându în favoarea dezvoltării.
Națiunilor nativ prezentat un act de certiorari pentru Curtea Supremă a SUA.
Pe 8 iunie 2009, Curtea Supremă de Justiție a refuzat să reexamineze decizia.
Triburile au încercat să ajungă la un fel de cazare administrative cu noua administrație, dar aceste eforturi nu au dat roade.
Salvați Coaliția Peaks depuse ulterior proces împotriva guvernului federal cu privire la problema pe care ANPM Forest Service nu a reușit să ia în considerare în mod adecvat ingestia de apa canalizare regenerat.
Acestea au fost aceeași lege și fapte care anterior trei panoul de judecător a considerat că în găsirea Forest Service a omis să se conformeze cu ANPM.
Decizii prealabile a fost, cu toate acestea, pronunțată non-precedential de Banc en Curții în cauza Navajo.
Fără a aduce atingere raționament Circuit al IX-lea prealabil, judecătorul poate Murguia al Curții US District pronunțat împotriva Salvați Coaliția Peaks pe toate capetele de acuzare.
La scurt timp după aceea, numirea ei de către Obama a circuitului al IX-lea a fost confirmată.
Salvați Coaliția de guvernământ Peaks apel.
Un mod deschis ostilă de trei judecători al nouălea circuit nu numai pronunțat împotriva Coaliției, dar a afirmat că Salvați Coaliției Peaks și avocatul lor a abuzat procesul judiciar - cu nici o bază de sprijin pentru acuzațiile lor.
Snowbowl trece, în prezent, după reclamanți și de avocatul lor pro bono, personal, pentru despăgubiri în valoare de aproximativ $ 280.000.
Aceleași trei judecători auzit de propunere Snowbowl lui.
În interimar, Snowbowl urmărește urmărirea penală a protestatarilor pașnici și caută "pedeapsă" de la ei.
Unii membri ai comunității Flagstaff au început o grevă a foamei.
Ca o chestiune juridică și practică, cu toate acestea, Snowbowl este acum liber să profaneze a Sfinților din San Francisco Peaks cu impunitate.
Pentru informații suplimentare, contactați: Howard M. Shanker, avocatura Shanker, PLC, în Tempe și Flagstaff, Arizona, la (480) 838-9433 sau howard@shankerlaw.net
California: McCloud River - Winnemem Wintu Trib se pregătește pentru Balas Chonos
Winnemem Wintu Tribul din California de Nord se pregătește pentru Balas Chonos, Venirea Ceremonia Varsta, în ciuda opoziției de către Serviciul american Forest.
Tribul a cerut Forest Service de a închide 400 de metri de râul McCloud pentru boaters de agrement cu motor pentru cele patru zile de festivitatea de premiere, 6.treizeci-07.trei.
Forest Service susține că acesta este frânat de către Biroul de politica indian pentru afaceri "recunoaștere federale și nu poate închide, deoarece râul Tribul nu este recunoscut federal.
Trib spune că recunoașterea federală este doar una dintre cele mai relațiilor federale cu popoarele tribale.
În California, 90% dintre triburi care nu au fost incluse pe o listă de recunoaștere foarte scurt, care a fost eliberat fără a avertiza în timpul administrației Reagan.
Chiar și cei cu o relație de lungă inregistrata istorice ca triburi cu guvernul Statelor Unite - cei care au semnat tratate neratificate și cele de pe rolă Hotărârea din California, de exemplu - au fost excluse din această listă de recunoaștere.
Unii 300.000 de oameni tradiționale și drepturile lor umane la ceremonia sunt afectate din cauza acestei politici.
În conformitate cu Legea indian american libertatea religioasa, toate agentiile federale au obligația de a proteja și conserva nativ american de locuri sacre și ceremonii, precum și să se consulte cu liderii principala religioase tradiționale, indiferent de statutul lor de recunoaștere federale sau non-federale.
Winnemem Wintu Trib afirmă dreptul său la ceremonia de femei indigene în temeiul articolului 11, 12 și 25 din Declarația Organizației Națiunilor Unite privind drepturile populațiilor indigene.
Winnemem șef Caleen Sisk cere închiderea obligatorie a râului McCloud pentru Venirea Ceremonia de vârstă pentru Marisa Sisk, care va fi șef Winnemem următoare.
Deși Wintu Winnemem ar prefera să se concentreze pe celebrant, Trib spune că "trebuie să continue pe drumul lung la justiție, educarea lumea ca despre ceea ce înseamnă să fii tradițional în Statele Unite ale Americii."
După întâlniri cu oficialii nesatisfăcătoare Serviciilor forestiere, sef Sisk solicitat pentru un dans război, sau Chonos H'up, o ceremonie de realizat atunci când nu există nimic care poate fi făcut decât să se roage.
Peste 200 de persoane au venit de la în măsura în nord Olympia, Washington, și în măsura în sud, ca și Los Angeles pentru a sprijini Winnemem cu un sistem de închidere non-violentă, comunică cu boaters despre faptul că a fost o ceremonie și cerându-le să respecte acest lucru.
Unul sută la sută din boaters de agrement cu respect întors.
Trib a spus că interferența "doar pentru aceasta ceremonie non-violente a fost SUA Forest Rangers, care a venit prin intermediul de zi cu zi, în două vehicule, unul fiind o unitate canina, și buzzed-ne cu bărcile lor, susținută de către Garda de Coasta auxiliare; în a treia zi (Forest Service) sumar de oprirea eforturilor noastre de închidere. "
Winnemem spun ca Forest Service neagă închidere, chiar dacă aceasta are: 1) o dovadă clară de hărțuire rasială, interferențe și sănătatea și periclitarea siguranței de boaters beți, excesul de viteză, care ignoră Serviciul Forest "închidere voluntară"; 2) Bill agricole that gives authority to close areas and rivers for ceremony; 3) the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 4) the California AJR 39 joint resolution, which asserts that the state of California recognizes the Winnemem Wintu and urges the US Congress to recognize the Tribe; 5) an informal poll by the local Redding newspaper, which shows that the public supports honoring the right to ceremony, as well as overwhelming internet support; and 6) resolutions of support from Indigenous leaders at the 2012 UN Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Tribe calls the show of force and the federal recognition issue “smoke and mirrors, and when the smoke clears, the Tribe suspects that the US Forest Service under the influence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs may be acting on behalf of special interests — the Bureau of Reclamation and Westlands Water, the largest water corporation in the world, which owns the area that is sacred to the Winnemem.” Westlands wants the Shasta Lake Dam Project, which will raise the dam by several feet. The Tribe says the project “will drown all of the sacred places which currently come out of the water for a few weeks each year, such as the Women's Healing Place and the Puberty Rock, and they will be lost forever.”
Chief Sisk says the Winnemem plan to “go forward with a dignified Ceremony, shored up by the War Dance prayers and backed by the promise of 300 – 400 supporters returning June 29 to close the 400 yards of the McCloud for four days for Marisa's Coming of Age. It is important for Marisa to know what she needs to do in these difficult times as a leader. The times are not peaceful, so a peaceful and dignified ceremony cannot be a lost goal. The goal is to do the best one can and never give up being Winnemem.
“The Winnemem Wintu ask for the prayers of all the good people gathered for National Prayers for Sacred Lands for the human right to ceremony without distinction between federally recognized and unrecognized, and specifically for the right for tribal women to ceremony. Women are the sacred center of life. We ask for prayers that the Shasta Lake Dam will not be further raised and for protection of our sacred Winnemem River, the sacred women's doctoring places, the Puberty Rock and the Children's Rock, as well as the safe return of the Tribe's salmon from New Zealand to their home waters above the dam. We ask for prayers that the Winnemem way of life will continue on. Hee Chala Bes-ken!”
Contact: Winnemem Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk at caleenwintu@gmail.com or Misa Joo at misa@misajoo.com
California: Medicine Lake Highlands and Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains
Medicine Lake Highlands is a critically important tribal region located northeast of Mount Shasta in the mountains of northern California. The Pit River, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk, Wintu and other Tribes revere the area for its natural healing powers and for its connections to their Tribes' longstanding histories. For example, the Pit River Tribe believes that the Creator and his son bathed in Medicine Lake after they created the earth, and the Creator imparted his spirit to the waters. Because of the Lake's sacredness, Tribes from the coast of California to the Rocky Mountains use the surrounding area as a training ground for medicine people. The Highlands is also sought after by geothermal energy companies that have applied for development permits from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service (USFS), which manage the area.
Since the 1990s, the Pit River Tribe, Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and other supporters of the protection of the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands in northeastern California have been challenging the BLM and USFS failure to undertake adequate environmental review and tribal consultation for industrial-scale energy development in the Highlands. On November 6, 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the BLM and USFS original extension of Calpine Corporation's geothermal leases in the Highlands violated both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The agencies should have prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before renewing the leases and should have included a “no action” alternative. Because the agencies violated NEPA and NHPA, both the five-year lease extensions and the subsequent 40-year extensions were undone. The Court also said that BLM and USFS violated their fiduciary duty to the Pit River Tribe by failing to complete an EIS before extending the Calpine leases.
When the case was sent back to the trial court to implement the Ninth Circuit's decision, the trial judge ruled that, notwithstanding the invalidation of the lease extensions, the 1988 leases were still intact. In response, Stanford Environmental Law Clinic (SELC) filed an appeal challenging the lower court's interpretation, which went directly against the original Ninth Circuit ruling. At the new hearing on March 10, 2010, the SELC attorneys maintained that the leases, originally issued in 1988 for a duration of five years, and renewed once, expired by their own terms when the 1998 renewals for 40 years were declared null and void by the Ninth Circuit judges.
In August 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court Order indicated that while the Fourmile Hill lease extensions and the project decision remain unacceptable, the underlying leases themselves, granted to Calpine in 1988, continue to be in force. The Federal Agencies (Forest Service and BLM) will need to do a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) involving more environmental review and consultations with the Tribe in order to evaluate whether or not these leases should be extended.
The court ruled that the agencies retain full discretion regarding the Fourmile Hill lease extensions. Therefore, all parties, the Pit River Tribe, BLM, United States Department of Justice and Cal Pine Energy Corporation continue negotiations on how a new EIS will look.
The culturally-important Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains and the surrounding lands in Traditional Pit River Indian Territory are in jeopardy of being destroyed, due to a plan to build 49 monolithic windmill energy turbines and related roads and ancillary, interconnections, operations and maintenance facilities in the heart of this region. Hatchet Ridge Wind Company, an affiliate of RES America Developments and Renewable Resources, is initiating its windmill construction project. The project would significantly and negatively alter over 100 acres of this natural region and include up to 49 turbines on steel towers with a height of up to 503 feet. Ancillary facilities would include a substation, an overhead transmission circuit, a switching/interconnection facility and a control room/operations and maintenance building. Access roads would be built, including 6.5 miles of 20-foot-wide permanent roads, and one mile of additional roads.
The project would have severe negative impact on sacred and cultural places, as well as on the winged and four-legged beings. Native people could no longer access particular ceremonial plants on Hatchet Mountain as part of their cultural practices and they do not support the project. The visual impact of the towers on the ridge destroys the integrity of the setting of this sacred area. Birds traditionally important to the local tribal culture, such as eagles, ospreys, ducks and geese, cross the ridge and would be shredded by the blades. Migration routes of deer across the ridge could be disrupted. Sound quality issues would also affect the serenity and isolation of the ridge, disrupting human experiences in the area.
Bunchgrass Mountain is just north of the area impacted by the project. An ancient trail runs along the top of the ridge top, connecting the Pit River to Goose Valley and sites downriver; in addition to regular travel, this trail is used to reach remote areas during vision quests and such quests continue among some young men. Clearly, the proposed windmill project will have severe negative impacts on the natural world, as well as the well being and cultural rights of Native peoples. Although these turbines have been built and are up and running, we are firm that this project is in violation of federal law and the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites and their allies have protested against the project, will continue to do so and will not sit idly by and allow the destruction of important sacred and cultural regions to take place.
For more information on the efforts to protect the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands and Hatchet and Bunchgrass Mountains from the building of massive energy power facilities, contact the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites: Radley Davis, Pit River Nation, 530-917-6064; Mark LeBeau, Pit River Nation, 916-801-4422; and James Hayward, Sr., Redding Rancheria, 530-410-2875
California: Needles – Ft. Mojave Indian Tribe, at the Topock Maze area
Saturday, June 23, 2012, at 6:00 am
The Ft. Mojave Indian Tribe remains in urgent need of prayer to protect the Maze and surrounding sacred areas along the Lower Colorado River. The Maze is both a physical manifestation and a spiritual pathway for the afterlife. It has always been, and will always be, an integral and significant part of the Mojave way of life, beliefs, traditions, culture and religion. The Mojave will observe the Prayer Day at the Topock Maze site.
Pacific Gas & Electric, by its ownership and operation of the Topock Natural Gas Compressor Station near Needles, California over the last 50 years, has polluted the groundwater under and around the Maze with hexavalent chromium, a toxic chemical that can cause numerous human and ecological health problems. PG&E, BLM and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control proceeded with Interim Measures to contain and investigate the contamination, which included the construction of a new Treatment Plant within the Maze area and the drilling of about 150 wells in California and Arizona, on either side of the Colorado River.
These, taken together, create continuing cumulative adverse impacts to the Mojave people, its sacred landscape and tribal religious beliefs.
In 2005, Ft. Mojave filed a state lawsuit seeking the removal of the plant, total restoration of the sacred area, an environmental baseline of prior to the plant's construction and any other actions that could serve to remedy the desecration. Settlement negotiations concluded in November 2006 aimed to achieve each of these goals and secure other remedies including repatriation of portions of the sacred area to tribal ownership, sensitivity training for PG&E employees and contractors, a written public apology and reimbursement of past and future Tribal costs.
In 2011, during selection of the Final Groundwater Remedy, DTSC made a finding that the Topock Cultural Area is an historic resource under state law and the BLM determined that a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) or property of traditional religious and cultural significance within a 1,600 acre Area of Potential Effect is eligible for listing on the National Register under Criterion A, as part of what tribes have identified as a larger area of traditional and cultural importance.
Yet, DTSC and BLM failed to consult with the Tribe on the final mitigation measures, assuming they knew what was best for all the Tribal Governments along the Lower Colorado River and how the sacred area could be best protected. DTSC's failure to complete a legally adequate environment document, and failure to live up to certain terms in its settlement agreement with the Tribe, is the subject of a second lawsuit brought by the Tribe under state environmental laws. In its approval of the Final Groundwater Remedy, BLM has continued to put off dealing with mitigation for the continued impacts of up to 170 new wells and related infrastructure into the Tribe's sacred area, putting the sustainability of the Tribe's cultural and spiritual practices of the Tribe at further risk for decades to come.
Prayer is needed:
1) for DTSC and PG&E to swiftly bring to conclusion their settlements with the Tribe, and recognize the sovereignty of the tribal government and the agency's public policy goals of truly inclusive and transparent decision making,
2) for BLM and DOI to follow through on promises to require meaningful mitigation for tribal cultural concerns during groundwater and soils remedy design and to improve its management of the area,
3) for additional sacred land in this area to be repatriated to the Tribe and
4) to ask for forgiveness for any continuing desecration that may occur until the offending facilities, including the interim measure treatment plant, are finally removed and until other required restoration of the landscape occurs.
This issue is national in scope: the Maze has been officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978 and is formally recognized as nationally significant. Moreover, the failure of state and federal agencies to fully consider direct, indirect and cumulative impacts to Native Sacred Places during pollution remediation activities remains a national problem requiring Congressional Oversight. Pray that this oversight occurs at the highest levels.
Contact: Nora McDowell-Antone, Tribal Topock Project Manager, at (928) 768-4475, NoraMcDowell-Antone@fortmojave.com, or Courtney Ann Coyle, Tribal Attorney, at (858) 454-8687, CourtCoyle@aol.com
California: Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, Luiseño Ancestral Origin Landscape
Pechanga is in need of urgent prayer to continue to assist it in protecting the Luiseño Ancestral Origin Landscape from the Granite Construction Company's proposed Liberty Quarry. The proposed quarry would be located on a sacred mountain within the Luiseño People's sacred place of origin. Parts of this Origin Landscape have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 as the Murrieta Creek Archaeological Area (exva Temeeku) and are also listed in the state's Sacred Lands File Inventory.
After many public hearings before the Riverside County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, the quarry was DENIED this year! However, the Board on a 3:2 margin voted to APPROVE the inadequate environmental document under CEQA, potentially laying the groundwork for Granite to come back in the near future with a revised application to mine. This unusual turn of events means that the Origin Area is still at risk.
Granite wants to blast out the mountain, home to the Kammalam (ancestors in the form of rocks), so that it can produce aggregate. The quarry could operate for 75 years and, even after reclamation, would remain a permanent scar within the sacred landscape. It would also be located at the headwaters of the Santa Margarita River, the last remaining free flowing river to reach the Pacific Ocean in southern California, and be adjacent to the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, which also includes part of the Origin Landscape.
The quarry would kill the mountain and forever disturb the sanctity of this incredibly beautiful and scenic area, located next to the reservation and at the doorstep of the City of Temecula.
In addition, the quarry would also pose environmental hazards to the Pechanga Community: air and water quality, visual and noise impacts, fire and emergency response, as well as sever a key wildlife linkage to and from the reservation. The Tribe was not consulted by the County of Riverside on these impacts during environmental review.
Pechanga respectfully requests prayer that:
1) Efforts to permanently prevent mining in any form at this location are successful and that
2) Tribal efforts to have this Origin Landscape formally recognized and protected will be successful.
For more information on the efforts to protect the Luiseño Ancestral Origin Landscape from the Liberty Quarry, contact Paul Macarro, Pechanga Cultural Coordinator at: pmacarro@pechanga-nsn.gov or (951) 770.8102 or Jacob Mejia at: jmejia@pechanga.com or (951) 770.2595.
California: Redlands – California-Pacific Committee on Native American Ministries of The United Methodist Church at the University of Redlands, Saturday, June 16, at 7:15 am
The California-Pacific Committee on Native American Ministries (CONAM) of The United Methodist Church will have prayer for sacred places on the Quad at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. The public is welcome to join on Saturday, June 16, at 7:15 am
Contact: Suanne Ware-Diaz at soozware@yahoo.com or (571) 236-7274 for more information.
California: Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians – Burial & Ceremonial Grounds –
Traditional Mourning Ceremony, Saturday, June 23, Ocotillo Area, 7:00 pm
For over two years, the Viejas Band has been waging legal, political and public relations battles to save tribal burial grounds and ceremonial sites from destruction by local and federal agencies. Viejas has positive news to report one on front and heartbreaking news to report on another.
Padre Dam Site:
Over this last year, with your help, we made much progress towards protection and repatriation of a burial ground and ceremonial site on Padre Dam Municipal Water District property, which sought to develop a reservoir and pumping station on the site.
Settlement of the litigation is close at hand in which the site would be restored, protected in perpetuity and the land repatriated to the Tribe. Viejas is deeply grateful for the support it has received from the local community, Governor of California, Native American Heritage Commission and the Courts, which have sided with the Band on many different levels.
Viejas respectfully requests prayer for:
1) An appropriate alternative location for the project to be secured by the District,
2) The soils previously taken off site by the District to be returned to the property in as gentle a manner as possible and as quickly as possible, and
3) Forgiveness that the impacts occurred and that they will never happen again.
Ocotillo Express Wind Farm:
Meanwhile, Viejas and other tribes have been forced to defend our ancestors from further attacks and potential destruction of tribal cultural resources, sacred places and burial grounds by a number of major renewable energy and other utility projects in the local mountains and deserts that would forever alter the Cultural Landscape of the Kumeyaay Nation. These include: the Sunrise Powerlink Project, Tule Wind Project, Ocotillo Wind Express Project, Eco Station Project, Imperial Solar Project and others.
Just last month, over the strong objections of Kumeyaay Bands and the Quechan and Cocopah Peoples, local community members, environmental groups, unions, recreationists and state park supporters, the massively destructive Ocotillo Wind Express Facility was approved by the County of Imperial and the BLM. Ocotillo Express (Pattern Energy) wasted no time and immediately began clearing, scraping and destroying the area and would not agree to hold off on construction until a TRO could be heard.
The so called “Refined” Project would include 112 industrial-sized wind towers up to 460 feet high, 42 miles of new roads, 81 miles of undergrounded fiber optic cable, a 31-acre substation and switchyard, operation and maintenance building and other infrastructure such as parking, ponds and laydown areas that were not part of the NEPA and CEQA documents. The project Right of Way is across about 12,000 acres of federal public land and is surrounded by designated wilderness, Cultural Preserves, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and shares a 5-mile border with Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
The project is within a valley that slopes from the mountains to the desert, and is mostly undeveloped Class L (Limited Use) lands. One ceremonial site, the Spoked Wheel Geoglyph, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2003, long before any wind project was proposed, and includes the whole viewscape from the site. The valley is ringed with sacred mountains — Coyote, Signal, Sombrero and Pinyon — and is used as a teaching area for tribal youth. Over 35,000 person hours were spent surveying and recording the massive amount of physical archaeology present at the site. The BLM relied solely on archeological values during the survey and only at the end of the NHPA Section 106 process acknowledged that the project area is a TCP within a larger TCP. Tribal Values considerations were an afterthought in the environmental documents and consultation was severely rushed due to arbitrary deadlines set by BLM to meet federal wind subsidy deadlines currently set for the end of 2012.
On June 23, Viejas and other Kumeyaay Bands will be holding a traditional Mourning Ceremony in the Ocotillo Area. The ceremony will begin at 7:00 pm and continue through the morning. The tribes will grieve for what has been lost and bring attention to efforts to save what is left of the area where the ancestors are laid to rest.
Viejas respectfully requests prayer that:
1) Preliminary Injunctions will issue to halt the destruction,
2) The BLM accepts historic human remains detection dog teams as a legitimate tool for identifying and avoiding ancestral cremation areas,
3) Subsidies and loans from federal and other entities are NOT granted for the project,
4) The Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) is NOT extended by Congress, and
5) That something good for the Tribal Peoples of our region comes out of this experience in the form of UNITY, DOCUMENTATION and RESPECT for traditional religious practices.
For more information, please contact: Robert Scheid, Viejas Public Relations Director, at (619) 659-2316 or by email at: rscheid@viejas-nsn.gov
Colorado: Boulder – Native American Rights Fund – Sunrise Ceremony, Wednesday, June 20
Please join us for a Sunrise Ceremony beginning at 7:00 am, on Wednesday, June 20, on the front lawn of the Native American Rights Fund, 1506 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado. The program and prayer service will last about one hour, followed by a potluck breakfast. Community members have been invited to speak, as well as other NARF staff. Speakers will be followed by a moment of silence to show concern for the sacred places that are being damaged and destroyed today.
In the United States, Native Americans are more closely tied to the land than any other group, yet the increasing exploitation of natural resources and population expansion has caused previously undisturbed tribal sacred places to become vulnerable to destruction. As part of its mission, the Native American Rights Fund has long advocated for sacred site protection, religious freedom efforts and cultural rights. Recently, NARF's Board of Directors has asked us to expand our efforts to protect lands that are sacred and precious to Native Americans.
Please show your solidarity for the protection of sacred places by joining us for the June 20 program. We ask you to bring food and/or beverages to share at the completion of the program.
Please join us! If you have any questions please contact Rose Cuny at 303-447-8760.
Kansas: Lawrence – Wakarusa Wetlands, Haskell Medicine Wheel – Open to the Public
Wednesday, June 20, at SUNRISE
Haskell Wetland Preservation Organization (WPO) and Save the Wakarusa Wetlands will observe National Prayer Day at SUNRISE, June 20th, beside the Wakarusa Wetlands at the Haskell Medicine Wheel, south of Lawrence, Kansas. Haskell WPO is a Native student organization. Save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Inc., is an association of local supporters, including Haskell Indian Nations University, Washburn University and Baker University alumni, students and supporters from all parts of the Lawrence community.
The ceremony will be held at the medicine wheel, where participants will erect a lodge pole at sunrise to mark the exact position of the Summer Solstice.
The event is open to all who wish to add their prayers to save this sacred place from the highway builders. Participants will ask for the protection of the Wakarusa Wetlands (aka, Haskell-Baker Wetlands), threatened by an eight-to-ten lane highway project approved by the Army Corps of Engineers, but delayed by a federal law suit filed by WPO and a consortium of supporter groups, including Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Jayhawk Audubon, Kansas University Environs, Save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Kansas Sierra Club and KU EcoJustice.
Update:
On January 20, 2012 a panel of federal appeals court judges heard oral arguments challenging the state's efforts to construct 8-10 lanes of traffic across wetlands that once served as the primary refuge for Native children resisting cultural genocide. The written opinion could come at any time, but may not be released before mid-summer. For more than two decades, Haskell students and their allies have managed to block efforts to pave this sacred place, which was “surplussed” away from Haskell during the Eisenhower termination era. More than two thirds of Haskell's campus was “given away” by BIA officials at the time.
Last year, Republican Governor Sam Brownback announced that $192 million in Kansas taxpayer funds was being allocated for completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway. The SLT began as a scheme to help local developers turn the southern edge of Lawrence into a regional shopping mecca. In recent years, the SLT project has been hijacked by trucking interests that dream of turning two nearby closed military bases into national hubs for NAFTA product distribution. Thus, the SLT has mushroomed into an eight-to-ten lane behemoth promoted as key infrastructure. This latest version of the old frontier booster fable that the metro area is destined to be “the next Chicago” has all the officials of nearby towns clamoring for completion of the SLT.
Ironically, while in Congress, then-Senator Brownback sponsored a US apology to Native Americans for past egregious actions, but it specifically prohibited Native Peoples from taking any legal action that would provide redress or remedy for any of the actions, causing many Native people to call it a “hollow apology.”
About 600 acres of the Wakarusa Wetlands were located directly south of the dorms at Haskell Institute, the nation's largest and most tribally diverse federal off-reservation boarding school. This last major remnant of the wetlands was a crucial refuge where Native children from all across the country survived sustained government efforts to exterminate their cultures. Indian students took refuge in the Wakarusa Wetlands refuge — where they could speak their languages, sing their sacred songs and conduct ceremonies and dances that were federally punishable with starvation and jail time — and refused to let school authorities “kill the Indian” in them.
Parents and other tribal leaders camped, sometimes for weeks or months, beside these wetlands on the north bank of the Wakarusa. They were awaiting permission from school officials to let them reclaim or at least visit their children. These elders used the Wakarusa Wetlands as an outdoor classroom to pass on final lessons about healing and other traditional knowledge.
The wetlands quickly became the most essential place where Haskell students could get news about family and friends. The wetlands was where they heard about what was happening back home in the crucial era of allotments and the “surplussing” of their homelands. The wetlands also provided the least censored opportunity to send messages home whenever someone speaking a related language arrived in camp. Otherwise, the children had to learn enough English to send a letter home by way of school censors, and then further screened by the Indian agent when it reached their reservation, and again modified when the interpreter read their message to parents who often could neither read nor speak English. This place is soaked in Indian history, layered with the stories of Native elders and is the last resting place of some who came to Haskell in its darkest days. Spirit release ceremonies and clandestine burials took place in these wetlands. The disappeared and runaways are remembered here.
This sacred wetland, a place between land and water, is the largest intact trace of the original Wakarusa Bottoms, an 18,000-acre prairie wetland environment. It existed for thousands of years before white school officials obtained federal funds to drain it. Before Haskell opened, this place supplied Native Peoples of the region with valuable medicinal plants, important ceremonial items, waterfowl, furbearers and other relatives central to their ways of life.
Elders have said the Creator caused the course of the Wakarusa River to go directly east toward the rising sun, in sharp contrast to the other rivers in the region, as a sign of the abundant gifts to be found there.
Despite massive efforts to drain the wetlands in the early twentieth century — and Haskell's loss of all but a few acres of this property during the termination era — the Wakarusa Wetlands, like Haskell Indian Nations University itself, has survived and flourished. The entire historic Haskell campus, including the Wetlands, is being considered for designation as a National Historic Heritage area, but should have been declared a Traditional Cultural Property long ago.
Contact: Cleta Labrie cletalabrie@gmail.com President of Haskell Wetlands Preservation Organization (WPO); Dr. Dan Wildcat (WPO faculty adviser) at dwildcat@sunflower.com; or Michael Caron at (785) 842-6293 or by email at mcaron@sunflower.com with Save the Wakarusa Wetlands, Inc. Friend the Wetlands Preservation Organization on FACEBOOK.
Nebraska: Lincoln – National Congress of American Indians, Mid-Year Session
Nebraska State Capitol Grounds, North Plaza
Tuesday, June 19, Sunrise Ceremony
The National Congress of American Indians will sponsor a Sunrise Ceremony on Tuesday morning, June 19, at the Nebraska State Capitol grounds on the North Plaza. The NCAI is conducting its 2012 Mid-Year Session in Lincoln, Nebraska, June 17-20.
The NCAI Sunrise Ceremony will be held as a part of the observances and ceremonies during the National Days of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places, from June 16 through June 24.
The public is invited to attend NCAI's respectful observance to honor sacred places, sacred beings and sacred waters, and all those who care for them and protect them from harm. Participants are asked to arrive no later than 7:00 am
For information about NCAI's Sunrise Ceremony, contact NCAI Deputy Director Robert Holden, 202.466.7767, email: rholden@ncai.org
New York: Ganondagan State Historic Site, at the Great White Pine Tree of Peace
Wednesday, June 20, at Noon
At Ganondagan State Historic Site in New York, there will be a Gahnonyoh (Thanksgiving), starting at Noon, on Wednesday, June 20, to protect sacred places and to promote world peace. “We invite spiritual leaders and the general public to join us on that day as we offer words of Thanksgiving or Gahnonyoh in Seneca,” says G. Peter Jemison (Seneca), who is the Caretaker of Ganondagan.
“We will gather before noon near the Great White Pine at the head of the Trail of Peace to offer words of Thanksgiving to the Creator,” says Jemison. “The event is open to the general public and all are welcome, but no photography, please.”
Ganondagan is the site of the seventeenth century town, once the capitol of the Seneca Nation, which was destroyed by the French in 1687. Today, it is the only historic site in New York dedicated to a Native American theme. Ganondagan is sacred to the Seneca People because nearby are the remains of Jikonhsaseh the Mother of Nations, who was the first person to accept the message of Peace brought by the Peacemaker, who united the Haudenosaunee or Five Nations: Seneca Nation, Cayuga Nation, Onondaga Nation, Oneida Nation and Mohawk Nation.
Contact: G. Peter Jemison at (585) 924-5848 or by e-mail at mailto:pjemison@rochester.rr.com
New York: New York City – Prayer of Remembrance for Sacred Places
Thursday, June 21, 1:00 pm
Hudson River at Bethune & West Streets
A Prayer of Remembrance for Sacred Places will take place on Thursday, June 21, at 1:00 pm The group will gather at the Hudson River in New York City at Bethune and West Streets.
The event is sponsored by Spiderwoman Theater, The Silvercloud Singers and the American Indian Community House.
Contact: Murial Borst-Tarrant at mborst1@msn.com or 551-208-3536.
Ohio: Peebles – Serpent Mound, Wednesday, June 20, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Newark – Newark Earthworks, Great Circle entryway, Thursday, June 21, 6:00 am/8:00 pm
Chillicothe – Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Mound City
Thursday, June 21, 7:00 pm
Oregonia – Fort Ancient Earthworks, Saturday, June 23, 5:30 am
In Ohio, there will be gatherings at the four major remaining earthworks sites to honor the brilliant achievements of the Indigenous Peoples who lived in the Ohio Valley 2,000 years ago and built enormous earthen architecture. Gatherings will occur near Peebles, in Newark, near Chillicothe and near Oregonia to acknowledge the original landscape, what has been lost and all that continues into the future. The public is invited to observe the National Day of Prayer to Protect Sacred Places at these places.
Two thousand years ago, Indigenous Peoples built more than 600 groups of earthworks, each group consisting of several large earthen geometric shapes with specific purposes. The earthworks were built by design, near creeks and rivers. Many of the earthworks are enormous, measuring from 20 to more than 50 acres in area, with walls varying from 3 to 30 feet tall and connected by walled earthen roadways; the design guided the Peoples through the earthworks along a ceremonial road. Large circles with entryways facing the east, squares with rounded corners and entryways, octagons with eight entryways, huge rectangular flat-topped or oval mounds, tall conical mounds and ceremonial roadways mark the Ohio Valley as a sacred landscape. In addition to using geometric forms to convey meaning and purpose, the builders used a standard unit of measure and other mathematical consistencies in the spacing of the earthworks. Distances between earthworks at Newark can be measured in multiples of 1,054 feet.
The Newark Earthworks consisted of four large earthworks built 2,000 years ago over a four-square mile area by the Peoples of the Hopewell Culture. Two remain preserved. The Octagon Earthworks is an astronomical calendar tracking the 18.6-year lunar cycle, marking the lunar standstills in spectacular moonrises. It was built in the shape of a circle and an octagon connected by a walled ceremonial road. The nearby Great Circle is itself nearly 1,200 feet in diameter and possibly had many uses, as a ceremonial center, for formal games such as stickball and as places of gathering. The Ellipse was a walled cemetery with many burial mounds and contained a number of earthen circles open to the east before it was excavated to clear the land for canals, railroads and heavy industry. The Wright Square stood between the Great Circle and the Ellipse cemetery, but has been destroyed by development.
Of the four major remaining sections of the Newark Earthworks, all but one have been acknowledged as sacred places and have become state parks/monuments. However, the Octagon Earthworks are leased to a private country club and open to the public only four days per year. The Ellipse cemetery is owned privately and currently being prepared for sale as an industrial park.
Serpent Mound is one of two effigy mounds in Ohio, and one of the largest anywhere in the world. Its iconic aerial outline is known far beyond the borders of this state. Nearly a quarter of a mile long, the undulating coils made of three foot tall earthen walls curve from a spiral tail to a head pointing across the Brush Creek valley at the point on the southwestern horizon where the sun sets on the summer solstice. Recent scholarly work points to a construction of this unique mound at about 1070 CE, later than many of the more geometric enclosures around Ohio. The landscape is also marked by geological interest. A “crypto-explosion” crater cradles the arc of the valley where Serpent Mound lays on a bluff; the result of a meteorite that folded the crust of the earth when it struck 250 million years ago. This bluff of sandstone also has interest, as a visitor may walk down to creek side and look back up at the point where the “serpent's head” ends, and see a snake headed prow of stone poke out over the water below.
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park is made up of five sites in and around the city of Chillicothe, Ohio, where once could be seen the largest concentration of earthworks complexes anywhere in the world. Mound City is the name for the central enclosure, a rounded-cornered square that was one of the ancient cemeteries alongside the Scioto River where the National Park Service has its visitor center. Almost entirely destroyed during World War I by the construction of training camps and industry to support the war effort, it was rebuilt from the original foundations and above surviving parts of mounds during the 1930s and in another major effort during the 1960s and 1970s. An alignment along three of these reconstructed mounds, pointing towards a southwestern corner gateway of Mound City, is a dramatic view, and casts the entire complex into vivid contrast. The possible astronomical alignments for this and other units, such as the Hopewell Mound Group west of the city, are still being studied, using both old maps and surveys, and non-intrusive studies that can trace where walls and their associated clays still can be seen.
Fort Ancient is a vast, irregular enclosure with three miles of wall atop a pair of plateaus next to the Little Miami River valley. Military language was attributed to this location by early European occupants, who named features “North Fort” and “South Fort,” but later studies show that combat and conflict seem to have been entirely absent from this sacred site. Fort Ancient is the archaeological label used for a later cultural phase in Ohio, but much of the site was built around the same time as Newark and Chillicothe. Reflecting pools of water were built into the site to create a sense of place – world above, world below. More recent surveys have shown that four compass aligned stone mounds in the “North Fort,” were built alongside the traces of a circle, perhaps a “woodhenge” where posts in a circle aided in astronomical calculation and prediction. Fires were built on top of stone mounds into the historic era. From one of those stone mounds, on mornings near the summer solstice, a particular entryway to the northeast pours a path of light across the leveled plaza, until it paints the surface of the mound.
Many of the major earthworks in Ohio are now under consideration for designation as World Heritage Sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and a proposal is being prepared. For additional information about the Earthworks, see: http://whc.unesco. org/en/tentative lists/5243/. For more information about Solstice events see: www.AncientOhioTrail.org
Tennessee: Muscogee “Creek” Citizens Gathering, The Great Mound of Mound Bottom, Saturday, June 23, 10:00 am
Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area, Lebanon, Wilson County
Sunday, June 24, 2:00 pm
A Muscogee “Creek” Citizens Gathering will take place on Saturday, June 23, at 10:00 am, at The Great Mound, Mound Bottom archaeological site, in observance of the National Sacred Places Prayer Days. “This gathering will be ceremonial to honor and lift up the Mound,” said Melba Checote-Eads (Muscogee), who is organizing the gathering. “We will observe a day of prayer, singing, gifting and feasting at Mound Bottom, as is Muscogee tradition. Water will be furnished by Muscogee Citizens.”
Ms. Checote-Eads asks people to reserve a space by calling her at 615-765-5854, to bring a bag lunch and beverage, to wear hiking boots and to meet in the picnic area: “We will meet at the picnic area near the Harpeth River beside the Mound. We will walk one mile to the Mound and transportation will be provided for those unable to make the walk.” The group will tour the Mound at 10:00 am with Ranger Gary Patterson.
Mound Bottom is located in Cheatham County along the horseshoe bend of the Harpeth River. Mound Bottom is approximately one mile north of the point where US Route 70 crosses the Harpeth River, on the outskirts of Kingston Springs, Tennessee. The site is managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation as part of Harpeth River State Park. The Great Mound of Mound Bottom dates to the Mississippian era (900 AD-1300). Mound Bottom is about 100 acres and is nearly surrounded by the Harpeth River.
The flat-topped embankment that dominates the view from Mace Bluff is the largest of at least 14 Mounds that remain. The Great Mound stands 25 feet tall and 47 square feet in area; the remains of an earthen ramp leading from the plaza to the top of this Mound can still be seen. The entire complex, which is believed to have included hundreds of houses, was surrounded by an earthen wall topped with a palisade of upright logs. Mound Bottom likely began as a ceremonial meeting place around 950 AD and grew to become a fortified city with a population numbering in the thousands. Mound Bottom was part of a vast trade network that extended to Native Peoples in the Great Lakes area, Gulf Coast region and the Appalachian Mountains.
There also will be a gathering at the Sellars Farm on the following day, Sunday, June 24, at 2:00 pm The Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area is located in Wilson County: off Hwy-70 left at Poplar Rd., in Lebanon, Tennessee. The group will tour the Mound area and walk the path around the Mound, which is near Spring Creek, a tributary of the Cumberland River. Participants are asked to bring a bag lunch.
Ms. Checote-Eads describes the Mound site as covered with trees, grasses and wild flowers. It was a large village and trade area during the Mississippian Period. In 1939, a farmer dug up four statues, which were made between 600 and 800 years ago. Two of the statues are in the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and have been featured on a US postage stamp.
For additional information, contact: Melba Checote Eads at melbaceads@dtccom.net or 615 765-5854.
Washington, DC: United States Capitol, West Front Grassy Area
June 20, Wednesday, at 8:30 am
The observance in Washington, DC, will take place at the US Capitol on the West Front Grassy Area on Wednesday, June 20, at 8:30 am The public is invited to attend this respectful observance to honor sacred places, sacred beings and sacred waters, and all those who care for them and protect them from harm. The observance will take the form of a talking circle.
All are welcome to offer good words, songs or a moment of silence for all sacred places, beings and waters, especially for those that are being threatened, desecrated or damaged at this time.
This observance is organized by The Morning Star Institute, a national Native rights organization founded in 1984 and dedicated to Native Peoples' cultural and traditional rights, including religious freedom and sacred places protection. The observance will be conducted by Mary Phillips (Omaha & Laguna Pueblo).
Contact: The Morning Star Institute at (202) 547-5531, Suzan Shown Harjo at suzan_harjo@yahoo.com or Mary Phillips at trumpetnative@aol.com or 510-205-4501.
Washington: Snoqualmie Falls, at the Cedar Tree, Friday, June 22, 11:30 am
Water is universally a Sacred Being, part of sacred ceremonies in all faiths and religions.
Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State is a place recognized as Sacred for thousands of years. For the Snoqualmie and other Tribes of the Puget Sound region, this is the Transformer's gift to the People.
It is a 268-foot waterfall listed on the Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. Over two million people come from all over the world to visit Snoqualmie Falls annually. Puget Sound Energy owns and operates a hydroelectric facility there. Snoqualmie Falls is impacted and desecrated by diversion of a significant portion of the water from the river by a hydroelectric facility before it can complete the Sacred Cycle of reaching the base of the falls and creating a healing connection by its transformation to legendary mists that connect worlds, carry prayers, and deliver blessings.
Puget Sound Energy, a public utility, owns and operates a public park located there. A popular hiking trail down to the viewing area near the base of the falls continues to be closed to visitors until sometime in 2013. Access to the base of the Falls, specifically a spiritually powerful location, is blocked.
On Friday, June 22nd, at 11:30 am, there will be a gathering, rain or shine, at Snoqualmie Falls.
We welcome anyone who would like to respectfully join together in Spirit for observance of our Sacred Places across the globe that are in need. Join us and others that are gathering to pray, each in our own way for their protection.
“When one is uplifted, we all are uplifted”.
“We give thanks for the teachings of the Sacred. We give thanks that we are still here. We give thanks for the breath of the Spirit”.
We pray for one another.
In the Spirit of Snoqualmie Falls, Lois Sweet Dorman.
Contact: Lois Sweet Dorman, Snoqualmie, at nightfishes@qwest.net.
World Peace & Prayer Days – Gray Horn Butte (Devil's Tower), June 16
Medicine Wheel, June 17
Grand Tetons, June 18 – 21
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 21
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe: “Once again I am sending my voice to all Nations upon Mother Earth, those who can hear my sincerity with their hearts – - unite together at our Sacred Sites creating an energy shift of a great healing on this June 21st. We need to see and listen to the wamakas'ka (the animals) who are more than ever now showing their sacred color of white, there are so many. This color represents the direction of when physical life now goes into the spirit journey. They are trying to warn us to pay attention to our responsibilities as a Global Nation. In order to protect the remaining sacredness that is trying to survive upon Mother Earth, which includes even our own children, we now have no choice but to unify and make positive decisions together.
“To honor the birthplace of World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites where it all began in 1996, we will gather at Gray Horn Butte, aka “Devils Tower” on June 16th. Peace Riders who made the '96 journey from Canada to
Gray Horn on horse back, will join us and offer prayers as well and plant a Peace Pole reading “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in 4 different languages. We will do the same offering on June 17th at Medicine Wheel. On June 18th we will gather at the Grand Tetons to begin one of the many events of WPPD throughout the world. The Grand Tetons will be the beginning of a four day event to bring attention for the need to protect the last of the true wild Buffalo (bison) that exist in Yellow Stone National Park, they are in constant danger of being massacred when caught off park property.
“On June 21st I will pray with thousands of People at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As part of the various gatherings and celebrations that will be held as part of the Sacred Earth Gathering in Aldeia Nova Terra during the month of June parallel to the conference, there will be a very special ceremony to celebrate World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites along with various representatives of the Brazilian indigenous tribes and spiritual leaders from different nations. The intent is to honor this day not only in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but to also invite the participation of other WPPD activities worldwide to join though simultaneous acts of prayer and song so as to be united spiritually on this June 21st to celebrate the 2012 World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites. Onipiktec'a (that we shall live).”
Contact: Paula Horne-Mullen, Wolakota.org http://wppd2012.com/
The Morning Star Institute, 611 Pennsylvania Ave., SE #377, Washington, DC 20003 (202) 547-5531
