People are “checking in” on Facebook to support North Dakota pipeline protesters.
What is Standing Rock and why are 1.4m ‘checking in’ there? – BBC News
hmmm
Category: The Americas,
Standing Rock: Unprecedented Unity of Indigenous Nations and People
White Wolf : Standing Rock: Unprecedented Unity of Indigenous Nations and People
It is amazing to consider how many groups are coming together.
Episcopal Church Executive Council stands with Standing Rock
[Episcopal News Service – New Brunswick, New Jersey] The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council asked Oct. 22 that law-enforcement officials “de-escalate military and police provocation in and near the campsites of peaceful protest and witness of the Dakota Access Pipeline project.”
…The Rev. John Floberg, council member and supervising priest of the Episcopal churches on the North Dakota side of Standing Rock, told the council’s Joint Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking for Mission Oct. 21 that the way the protest has been conducted has been “the most powerful experience I have had in my 25 years on Standing Rock.” And, yet, he said, he has been shaken by the racist responses that the protest has generated elsewhere in the state.
… The resolution asks the Episcopal Church at all levels to prayerfully and financially support the planned winter encampment, which it says is the Sioux Nation’s “right for peaceful assembly and protest.”
On the closing day of the meeting, Floberg presented to the Archives of the Episcopal Church housed in Austin, Texas, the now-tattered Episcopal Church flag that flew over the Oceti Skowin Camp in North Dakota for months. The flag, he said, was the only Christian church flag among the 300 flags of tribal nations that flew over the peaceful-protest encampment.
…The Episcopal Church’s entry into the protest is rooted in its 2009 repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, Curry said. “Part of that action was to say we have got to find more just, equitable and fair ways of being in relationship with our brothers and sisters in the Native communities in our country,” the presiding bishop said.
Episcopal Church Executive Council stands with Standing Rock
hmmmm
Violence apparently escalating on both sides of Dakota Access protests
“From dog attacks, to local women being stripped naked and left that way in jail overnight, to arrests used as a tool for intimidation — these reports are very disturbing,” WDN President Donna P. Hall said. “The DOJ must act immediately to investigate local North Dakota police and hold them accountable for any abuses of power.”
Violence apparently escalating on both sides of Dakota Access protests – UPI.com
The fact that the Justice Department is not there already is a crime in itself.
Culturally Appropriate Chicago Blackhawks Logo by First Nations Artist Goes Viral –
A ‘Much Cooler’ Chicago Blackhawks logo design by a First Nations artist goes viral.
Culturally Appropriate Chicago Blackhawks Logo by First Nations Artist Goes Viral – ICTMN.com
cool!
Shailene Woodley: The Truth About My Arrest
It took a non-native woman’s arrest to expose the North Dakota Access Pipeline
Shailene Woodley: The Truth About My Arrest | TIME
sigh…
Sympathetic Canadians Have a Message for Americans: You Guys Are Great – The New York Times
Some Canadians watching as American politics have hit rock bottom in recent weeks decided that the United States needed a cross-border pep talk.
…Canadians warmly praising the United States for things like its diversity, its space program and for being the birthplace of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.
…To a jaded American eye, it may all look like the most Canadian thing ever.
…Canada and the United States have a unique relationship. They share the longest land border in the world, and their economies, societies, law enforcement and defense operations are deeply entwined. Over $1.8 billion a day changes hands in cross-border trade, and roughly 400,000 people travel between the two countries daily.
…Ms. Walczak said that close relationship is one reason Canadians were watching American politics so closely. “Everything is so intertwined, we can’t help but realize that we’ll also be affected by the outcome of this election,” she said.
Sympathetic Canadians Have a Message for Americans: You Guys Are Great – The New York Times
Awwww
Canadians Invited To Share What Makes America Great : NPR
“Tell America It’s Great”
The “Tell America It’s Great” campaign, was started by a Toronto-based creative agency. It put out an open call for Canadians to share videos of what they like about America and what makes it great.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: But as you’re thinking about your future, we just want you to know that…
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: You guys are great.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: You really are great.
Canadians Invited To Share What Makes America Great : NPR
Awwww….
No matter how messed up we make this things, Canada always has our back. They’re, like, one of our two best next-door neighbors!
What Is Going On At The Border Isn’t Illegal Immigration. It’s Much Trickier.
…This distinction between the shifting demographics at the border isn’t just semantics. It’s not so much an illegal immigration problem, but rather, a steady stream of asylum-seekers.
U.S. officials have known for years that a significant number of Central American migrants are actually turning themselves in at Border Patrol stations and begging for protection. And because they’re asylum-seekers, agents can’t simply turn them away or immediately deport them. The United States has a legal obligation to accept the thousands of migrants until their asylum claims are processed.
“It’s not just economic migrants that are trying to get to the United States for a better living,” Meyer said. “The numbers constitute a high degree of people fleeing for their lives.”
The Obama administration initially responded ..by filling up immigrant detention centers with mothers and their children while their asylum claims were assessed.
The intention was to swiftly process and deport the detainees.
[Authorities found] …that the vast majority of the detained families passed the first of many tests on their asylum applications — more than 86 percent of immigrants held in family detention showed a “credible fear” of returning to their home countries, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It meant they could remain in the United States to follow their applications to the end.
Illegal Immigration Is Changing. Border Security Is Still Catching Up – NBC News
hmmm
Native American Colleges Have Abandoned The Student Loan System
With graduates defaulting on their loans at sky-high rates, the vast majority of America’s 32 tribal colleges have stopped their students from borrowing.
…“We completely disagree with that idea that students are worse off without [access to] federal loans,” Billy said. “Particularly when you look at the demographics of our students — students who have lived with generational poverty, unemployment, who have no experience with credit — that’s a recipe for disaster when it comes to loans. Tribal colleges will do everything they can to make their students graduate debt-free.
Tribal colleges, like community colleges, are relatively inexpensive — around $6,000 a year, low enough that a $5,750 annual Pell Grant will cover most of the cost of tuition. But community college students sometimes borrow money to help pay for living costs and expenses like textbooks. That option isn’t available for tribal college students.
Those students often face staggering obstacles that make them more less likely to repay student debt, Billy said. Eighty-three percent of them are reliant on Pell Grants, which are only given to low-income students, compared to just 40% of college students nationally. Many tribal college students have little to no experience with borrowing money or credit. They’re also mostly first-generation college students.
…Leander “Russ” McDonald, the president of United Tribes Tech, said the school’s loan default rate has been driven up by the fact that so many of its students come from rural areas, especially reservations. They return home after graduation to some of the country’s most economically depressed places, hoping to help their communities but finding that even with their degrees, there aren’t enough jobs to go around.
Native American Colleges Have Abandoned The Student Loan System – BuzzFeed News
Hmmmm.
Student loans seem more and more like a lifetime sentence these days, so -as long the colleges are filling in the gaps in other ways- this doesn’t seem like a bad thing at all.
Ecuadorian Indigenous Organization, CONFENIAE, offices attacked by riot cops
Last Wednesday Amazon Watch received a very disturbing call: the headquarters of CONFENIAE, the regional organization of eleven indigenous peoples which represents nearly 1,500 communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, was being taken by storm.
AMAZON WATCH » Ecuadorian Indigenous Organization Resists Efforts To Divide and Undermine Its Work
Sigh…
Colombia: Government, FARC scramble to save peace deal
Both sides vow to “fix” issues after voters rejected a peace accord with the Marxist group to end 52 years of war.
Colombia: Government, FARC scramble to save peace deal – News from Al Jazeera
Sigh…
Here’s the century-long history behind Colombia’s peace agreement with the FARC
The 2016 peace accord looks to expand political participation to these rural areas.
I wish this was getting more press. Peace accords are just as important -if not more- than war.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Gives OK to Open Probe of New President Temer
Brazil’s Supreme Court gave the green light to prosecutors to open a probe into corruption allegations tying President Michel Temer to a sprawling graft scandal centered on the nation’s state-run oil company.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Gives OK to Open Probe of New President Temer – WSJ
It’s like watching bull riding. A wild ride where you can’t help wonder how long this guy is going to last and who is getting bucked off next?
Slavery’s legacies | The Economist
American ideas cannot simply be transplanted to Brazil. Differences in how the two countries were colonised, and how the slave economy operated, led to distinct ideas of what it means to be “black”—and different attitudes to compensatory policies and whom they should target.
In Brazil, unlike America, race has never been black and white. The Portuguese population—700,000 settlers had arrived at the start of the 19th century—was dwarfed by the number of slaves: a total of 4.9m arrived. Portuguese men were encouraged to consort with African women. Since most came without wives, such unions gained some legitimacy. Their offspring, referred to as mulatto, enjoyed a social status above that of pretos. They worked as overseers or artisans, but also doctors, accountants and lawyers. A mulatto, Machado de Assis, was regarded as Brazil’s greatest writer even during his lifetime in the 19th century.
…Both black and white Brazilians have long considered “whiteness” something that can be striven towards. In 1912 João Baptista de Lacerda, a medic and advocate of “whitening” Brazil by encouraging European immigration, predicted that by 2012 the country would be 80% white, 3% mixed and 17% Amerindian; there would be no blacks. As Luciana Alves, who has researched race at the University of São Paulo, explains, an individual could “whiten his soul” by working hard or getting rich. Tomás Santa Rosa, a successful mid-20th-century painter, consoled a dark-skinned peer griping about discrimination, saying that he too “used to be black”.
Though only a few black and mixed-race Brazilians ever succeeded in “becoming white”, their existence, and the non-binary conception of race, allowed politicians to hold up Brazil as an exemplar of post-colonial harmony
Slavery’s legacies | The Economist
hmmmm
The Secret History of Colombia’s Paramilitaries and the U.S. War on Drugs
After decades of atrocities, the warlords were finally being held to account. Then the Americans stepped in.
The Secret History of Colombia’s Paramilitaries and the U.S. War on Drugs – The New York Times
Sigh…
Gov. Brown signs sweeping legislation to combat climate change
California will become a petri dish for international efforts to slow global warming under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday, forcing one of the world’s largest economies to squeeze into a dramatically smaller carbon footprint.
Gov. Brown signs sweeping legislation to combat climate change – LA Times
hmmmm
Joint Statement from the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior Regarding Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior issued the following statement regarding Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:
“We appreciate the District Court’s opinion on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act. However, important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain. Therefore, the Department of the Army, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior will take the following steps.
The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws. Therefore, construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time. The Army will move expeditiously to make this determination, as everyone involved — including the pipeline company and its workers — deserves a clear and timely resolution. In the interim, we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe.
“Furthermore, this case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects. Therefore, this fall, we will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on two questions: (1) within the existing statutory framework, what should the federal government do to better ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights; and (2) should new legislation be proposed to Congress to alter that statutory framework and promote those goals.
Well, alright….
Well done, bureaucrats! Good on ya!!!!
Stand-off in the Great Plains as Native Americans fight oil pipeline construction
CANNON BALL, N.D. — Currently, there’s a standoff in the Great Plains. Two-hundred Native American tribes are fighting the construction of an oil pipeline. North Dakota’s governor has called in the National Guard.
The clashes near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, have at times been rowdy and physical, with protesters pepper-sprayed and construction equipment damaged.
The estimated 5,000 Native Americans and environmentalists now encamped on federal and private land, say the pipeline was approved by the Army Corps of engineers without proper permits, and without consulting the tribe, ignoring the land’s historical and cultural significance.
Source: Stand-off in the Great Plains as Native Americans fight oil pipeline construction – CBS News
Native American tribes sense a reawakening in fight over oil pipeline
The simmering showdown here between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the company building the Dakota Access crude-oil pipeline began as a legal battle.
Native American tribes sense a reawakening in fight over oil pipeline – Chicago Tribune
Sigh…
A Pipeline Fight and America’s Dark Past
This week, thousands of Native Americans, from more than a hundred tribes, have camped out on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which straddles the border between the Dakotas, along the Missouri River. What began as a slow trickle of people a month ago is now an increasingly angry flood. They’re there to protest plans for a proposed oil pipeline that they say would contaminate the reservation’s water; in fact, they’re calling themselves protectors, not protesters.
…Originally, the pipeline was supposed to cross the Missouri near Bismarck, but authorities worried that an oil spill there would have wrecked the state capital’s drinking water. So they moved the crossing to half a mile from the reservation, across land that was taken from the tribe in 1958, without their consent. The tribe says the government hasn’t done the required consultation with them—if it had, it would have learned that building the pipeline there would require digging up sacred spots and old burial grounds.
…In fact, the blade of a bulldozer cut through some of those burial grounds on Saturday—during a holiday weekend, days before a federal judge is supposed to rule on an emergency petition filed by the tribe which would slow the project down, and immediately after the tribe identified the burial grounds’ locations in a filing to the court.
…Pictures from that confrontation recall pictures from Birmingham circa 1963. But the historical parallels here run much deeper—they run to the original sins of this nation. The reservation, of course, is where the Native Americans were told to live when the vast lands they ranged were taken by others. The Great Sioux Reservation, formed in the eighteen-sixties, shrunk again and again—in 1980, a federal court said, of the whole sad story, “a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” In the nineteen-fifties and early sixties, the Army Corps of Engineers—the same Army Corps now approving the pipeline—built five large dams along the Missouri, forcing Indian villages to relocate. More than two hundred thousand acres disappeared beneath the water.
A Pipeline Fight and America’s Dark Past – The New Yorker
Sigh…
FARC-Colombia peace deal finalized
Negotiators seeking to end the insurgency in Colombia, one of the world’s longest-running conflicts, said they had reached a final peace deal.
FARC-Colombia peace deal finalized – CNN.com
Whoa… This is huge!
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