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News Release: Tribes File Human Rights Complaint on San Francisco Peaks Desecration

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Dated: Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Havasupai Tribe, Klee Benally, an activist Dineh (Navajo) youth, and the International Indian
Treaty Council, filed an Urgent Action / Early Warning Complaint with the United Nations (UN)
CERD Committee, on the desecration of Sacred San Francisco Peaks, Arizona. The complaint, filed late
Wednesday, August 17, 2011, focuses on recent actions by the Arizona Snowbowl’s clear-cutting of 40
acres of pristine forest and the laying of over 5 miles of a waste water pipeline in furtherance of a US
Forest Service and City of Flagstaff project to spray artificial snow made of waste water effluent on San
Francisco Peaks. On Thursday, August 18th, the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, in representation of 20
recognized Indian Tribes and Nations1 filed a letter asking that they also be named in the complaint as
co-petitioners.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, known internationally as the CERD
Committee is charged with monitoring compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination
of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

The United States ratified the ICERD on 21 October 1994, and has an internationally legally binding
obligation to respect and not violate the human rights recognized in the ICERD, and to ensure that it
is not violated by third parties, including its agency the US Forest Service, the City of Flagstaff, and
private interests such as the Arizona Snowbowl.

Up to 1.5 million gallons of treated sewage effluent would be sprayed on Holy San Francisco Peaks
every day or more than 100 million gallons over the course of the winter ski season. And the city
of Flagstaff, Arizona, would profit by selling 180,000,000 gallons of its treated sewage to Arizona
Snowbowl for this purpose.

“Neither the courts nor the public fully understand our spiritual ceremonies and practices and our
spiritual relationship to the Earth,” said Klee Benally, the Navajo youth petitioner. “We have no
guaranteed protection for our religious freedom as Indigenous Peoples in the US. The Holy San
Francisco Peaks have been sacred to us since time immemorial, thousands of years before there was a
Columbus or a United States. The desecration of this Holy site is an act of cultural genocide.”

“The actions committed by the Arizona Snowbowl Inc., and the USFS reflect a perpetual disregard and
disrespect, as well as a gross violation of Indigenous peoples First Nations fundamental human rights
to live in accordance to their traditional and sovereign ways of life,” said Shannon Rivers, a Gila River
Native Community activist. “The Indigenous Nations who deem this sacred land and place a sacred
site will not sit idly by while Sacred San Francisco Peaks and our cultural and spiritual practices are
violated. All remedies, international as well as national must be used.”

“The international community and international law do not discriminate between religions; all are to
be respected equally under international law,” said Andrea Carmen of the International Indian Treaty
Council, an Indigenous Non-Governmental Organization with consultative status at the United Nations
and one of the petitioners. “For every skier enjoying the fake, sewage effluent snow, there is a Native
American who feels the desecration of this Sacred Place.”

The CERD Committee is expected to formally communicate the complaint to the United States and ask
for a response as to its position on the matter and make a decision soon thereafter.

###

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Christine Prat

    September 2, 2011 at 1:08 PM

Add your comments (racist, sexist, & trans/homophobic comments will not be published)

#policestate

O’odham Executed by Border Patrol: Statement by Raymond Mattia Family

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Raymond Mattia of the Tohono O’odham Nation was executed by US border patrol agents on May 18th at his home. He was reportedly shot 38 times.

A peaceful gathering to support all victims of the
unmonitored violent actions of the Border Patrol and other agencies will be held at The Border
Patrol Station in Why, Az, and Tucson on Golf Links Road this Saturday, May 27th, from
10:00am-Noon.

For more information please visit: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/05/us-border-patrol-shoots-tohono-oodham.html

Statement by Mattia Raymond’s family:

We have been trying to find the strength to write this statement. This tragedy is so
grievous because it is apparent what had happened. Raymond called for help and, in turn, was
shot down at his doorstep. Raymond’s rights were violated by the authorities whom we trust to
protect our Nation. Improper and unprofessional actions of the agencies involved were witnessed
by family members present near the crime scene. Loved ones sat in agony, not knowing of
Raymond’s condition until they were told that he had passed hours later. Raymond lay in front of
his home for seven hours before a coroner from Tucson arrived.
In our eyes and hearts, we believe that Raymond was approached with excessive and
deadly force that took his life. He was a father, brother, uncle, friend, and an involved
community member. Raymond always fought for what was right, and he will continue to fight
even after his death. This is not an isolated incident, but it should bring awareness of the
oppression our people live through.
We want to thank so many of you for your condolences and support. A GoFundMe for
defense funds will be available soon. A peaceful gathering to support all victims of the
unmonitored violent actions of the Border Patrol and other agencies will be held at The Border Patrol Station in Why, Az, and Tucson on Golf Links Road this Saturday, May 27th, from 10:00am-Noon.

Contact for support: justiceforraymattia@gmail.com

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Xenophobic Title 42 Ends, Biden’s Immigration Reform Nowhere to Be Found

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Indigenous Action recently supported @abolition.yumacounty (on Instagram) at the “US-Mexico” border. They are a crew of radical femme and queer folks who provide essential supplies to Indigenous people and other asylum seekers who are kept in holding with nothing but what they walked up to thousands of miles with. They also offer confidential pregnancy release support. Please $$$upport and volunteer if you’re in the “Yuma” area. Venmo: @ycabolition, Cash App: @YumaCountyAbolition

With Title 42 ending on May 11th, (a xenophobic policy that gave the government power to rapidly expel any migrant, without giving them a chance to make a case for crossing legally, including to seek asylum), Biden has made no attempt at immigration reform as he promised on the campaign trail, “I can only imagine what it’s like to see someone in your family deported. To me it’s all about family. Beginning, middle and end. That’s not going to happen in my administration. The idea you can’t even seek asylum on American soil. When did that happen? Trump. It’s wrong.”

These policies are well within Biden’s power to remedy, and yet, HE HASN’T. He’s had 2 years to prepare for the ending of Title 42 to introduce new policies that he claimed “offer hope and a safe haven to refugees.”

What we’re seeing now at the border is heinous. Shelters and detention centers at and near capacity. Hundreds of people turned away every day. Just last month, a fire at a detention center killed 40 people.

In 2022, more than 890 migrants died in border crossings, and that is only of the deaths that have been reported. To paint an even broader picture, since 2021, there have been 13,480 reports of murder, torture, kidnapping, rape and other violent attacks on migrants and asylum seekers blocked or expelled to Mexico under Title 42. 

The time is now to stand up against xenophobia. Let us be free to roam and free to rage wherever we please!

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#policestate

The Intercept and Grist begin release of 50,000 TigerSwan spy documents

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Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News
Reprinted with permission.

April 14, 2023

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075796248532

The Intercept and Grist began releasing new TigerSwan spy documents in new coverage of the mercenaries hired by the Dakota Access Pipeline. They now have 50,000 TigerSwan spy documents, and another 9,000 are held up in the court battle for now. The documents reveal TigerSwan spying on Water Protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota, Bold Iowa, and at other locations.

Reporters Alleen Brown and Naveena Sadasivam expose the new spy documents in their article, After Spying on Standing Rock, TigerSwan Shopped Anti-Protest ‘Countinsurgency’ to Other Oil Companies.

The article follows an expensive court battle by The Intercept seeking the release of the documents. The North Dakota Supreme Court ordered the release after TigerSwan was found operating without a license in North Dakota.

“The released documents provide startling new details about how TigerSwan used social media monitoring, aerial surveillance, radio eavesdropping, undercover personnel, and subscription-based records databases to build watchlists and dossiers on Indigenous activists and environmental organizations,” The Intercept writes. Read the article at The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/

Paiute journalist, drone activist and filmmaker Myron Dewey was among those that TigerSwan spied on and stalked at Standing Rock 2016-2017, as revealed in the new documents that were ordered released by the court.

On Tuesday, the driver that killed Myron Dewey on an isolated road near his family’s home in Yomba, Nevada, entered a surprise plea bargain deal that was cut with a new prosecutor assigned to the case in Nye County, Nevada.  John Walsh pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter.

This TigerSwan spy document, showing TigerSwan stalking Myron Dewey and Prolific the Rapper at Standing Rock on Dec. 17, 2016, is from the new documents at The Intercept. Document link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773105-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161217

Below: From the TigerSwan spy files just released: The power of the global movement, with its heart in Standing Rock.

Below: The first flood of documents show how rattled DAPL was over the involvement of celebrities, the Standing Rock Chairman at the United Nations, Bernie Sanders, the Palestinian flag flying, and big orgs. The doc is from a pitch that TigerSwan made for more work, hustling another pipeline to spy on resistance.

Above: TigerSwan surveillance used drones and helicopters.https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773104-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161014

Above: TigerSwan spy file at Bold Iowa. The mercenaries hired by the Dakota Access Pipeline called Bold Iowa Water Protectors “belligerents.” Document link:

TigerSwan spied on, and stalked the media, including Paiute journalist Myron Dewey, Amy Goodman at Democracy Now, and myself, publisher of Censored News, as revealed in the newly released documents by The Intercept and Grist. TigerSwan used its surveillance on the media in its pitches for more spy work to other oil and pipeline companies.

TigerSwan turned its surveillance at Standing Rock into a potential money maker, using it for powerpoints in its pitches to other oil and pipeline companies for spy work.

T

TigerSwan even stalked the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in its high-stakes spying for dollars.

TigerSwan’s Opposition Model, shown below, was used as a potential maker in PowerPoints to other oil and pipeline companies.

The Intercept described the battle for these documents.

“A discovery request filed as part of the case forced thousands of new internal TigerSwan documents into the public record. Energy Transfer’s lawyers fought for nearly two years to keep the documents secret, until North Dakota’s Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the material falls under the state’s open records statute,” The Intercept said.

“Because an arrangement between North Dakota and Energy Transfer allows the fossil fuel company to weigh in on which documents should be redacted, the state has yet to release over 9,000 disputed pages containing material that Energy Transfer is, for now at least, fighting to keep out of the public eye.”

TigerSwan spy documents on Water Protectors

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773105-tigerswan-document-daily-intelligence-update-20161217
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23773100-tigerswan-document-presentation-for-dominion

Note: The documents show that TigerSwan spied on Censored News, as shown in today’s article at The Intercept.

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