intercontinental cry published this urgent action the other day about the miwok tribe in california that is being forced off of their land:
Because our pleas for help have been constantly ignored, we now have lost our only piece of tribal property to foreclosure and will be removed by force on June 17th, 2009 (Elders and children included). We are asking for your assistance…. if anyone of you that I am contacting have a way to contact Mr. Salazar or Mr. Echohawk to make them aware of our crisis…. please do so!!!!!
PLEASE HELP!!! PLEASE FORWARD THIS INFORMATION ON TO ALL WHO CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE.
We need to get the attention of Mr. Echohawk or Mr. Salazar, IMMEDIATELY!!!!
The Tribe has no money and nowhere to go…. we will be forced to barricade ourselves at the property for local and international news crews to hear what is happening to our Tribe and how the BIA is allowing this to happen.
Our Tribe will not go willing on the 17th (we have no where to go) and we will not allow our Tribal Governmental “Confidential” documents to be given to INDYMAC BANK. We are asking that someone help us get this important information to the attention of Mr. Salazar and/or Mr. Echohawk. The Tribe has been located at this property for over 7 years. The “TRIBE” and its legitimate members have vowed to not leave this property until we have a place to move to. That means we need Mr. Salazar, Secretary of the Interior and/or Mr. Larry Echohawk to CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY to help resolve this URGENT MATTER/CRISIS.
Again, PLEASE HELP!!!!
/s/
Silvia Burley
ChairpersonCalifornia Valley Miwok Tribe
http://www.californiavalleymiwoktribe-nsn.gov
Tribal Office 209.931.4567 or 209.487.9519
here is a short film clip on the subject for some context:
UPDATED: now please sign this petition:
We the students of UCSD, our friends, and allies stand in solidarity to the injustice that is occurring to our brothers and sisters of the California Valley Miwok Tribe (CVMT). They are a federally recognized Tribe, (listed in the Federal Register and in the Dept. of the Interior/Bureau of Indian Affairs, Tribal Leaders Directory, Winter 2009), yet they received an eviction notice to leave their tribal lands TODAY JUNE 17!
The entire tribe, elders and children included, is going to be removed by force from their land with no place to go. They are forced to barricade themselves in the tribal office. Using filing cabinets and anything else they can use to secure the building in hopes to protect their culture, their people, and basically everything they have.
We ask that Miwok tribe be allowed to stay in the land they have lived on for 7 years and be given the chance to dialogue with the appropriate legislatures and/or officials about the matter.
If you can help; by all means contact Silvia Burley, Chairperson of the California Valley Miwok Tribal Council, at 209 931 4567
More info: http://intercontinentalcry.org/alert-court-ordered-eviction-of-california-valley-miwok-tribe/
Thank you,
from the Office of Local Affairs at University of California: San Diego
email: aslocalaffairs [at] ucsd.edu
equally important indigenous news this week comes from russell means about the mohawk tribe’s latest battle with the canadian border police:
Akwesasne is a unique community in that it is divided in the middle by an entirely artificial border between this thing presently called the United States and the British dominion of Canada. This is the same boarder crossing where MNN publisher Kahentinetha Horn was attacked and beaten by Canadian boarder troops for which she had to be hospitalized.
This border is in the middle of a thriving Mohawk community, and the last thing people want is armed checkpoints in the middle of their community, like for example you see in the West bank. The people of Akwesasne said no, and occupied the border post themselves after Harper’s goons retreated and vacated the post.
Today, this border post remains fully liberated territory, in the hands of the community and the Haudenosaunee nations, even while the entire community of Akwesasne been sealed and blockaded by armed forces from both Canada and the United States, since Tuesday.
I can guarantee the U.S. and Canadian armed standoff has not and will not be reported in the mainstream press, as all significant issues involving indigenous people is deliberately censored in the western press. More disturbing, those press ambitious enough to try and report this story, as well as international observers, have been denied access to the area by the U.S. and Canadian governments.
While this community is held hostage by hostile armed forces, it remains determined not to give in. Nor do those involved believe this conflict will be kept contained and silenced by these governments. There is an effort to internationalize this crisis through the United Nations and OAS, as well as to consider the question that holding civilian populations as armed hostages is a war crime. Certainly I have made the resources of my office as ambassador, meager as they are, available to the Haudenosanee nation in there struggle, and I may have a chance to discuss these efforts with supportive national governments on my next trip later this month (as some know I was in Spain last week…).
In a way, we, all of us on Turtle Island, are all Akwesasne, held hostage by criminal and illegitimate governments serving the greed of the few. The community of Akwesasne needs your support. If you are in the area, and can go there, please do. Bear witness if nothing else. If you can, bring in supplies, by boat at night, and break the blockage.
body on the line 