The Lie of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a Lie
by Tommi Avicolli Mecca‚ Nov. 21‚ 2006

Thanksgiving is a lie. Just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

There's no more truth to the Hallmark moment of Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a feast of squash, corn and turkey than there is to Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag. According to my favorite history text, "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen, it was all manufactured to create a feel-good beginning for this country.

Thanksgiving wasn't invented by the Pilgrims. By the time the Mayflower pulled up at Plymouth Rock in 1620, Native Americans in that part of the country already had a rich tradition of marking the fall harvest with a major fiesta. The day wasn't recognized nationally until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday. He had an entirely different motive than honoring the Pilgrims: Morale during the bloody Civil War. America needed a warm fuzzy holiday to make it feel good about itself again.

The Pilgrims were latecomers to the legend, not getting added to the mix until the 1890s.

Of course, some major revisions had to be done to make heroes of those guys. The truth is: When the Pilgrims arrived on the coast of Massachusetts, they found a deserted Native American settlement. Unburied human bodies were scattered everywhere. The survivors had vanished. The villagers had been wiped out by a plague, brought to the "new world" years before by the Europeans. The immune system of the native peoples had no defense against those diseases. Many in Europe couldn't be happier.

Good Christian that he was, King James of England called the death of millions of Native Americans "this wonderful plague." He thanked God for sending it. Other preachers of the day echoed this same sentiment. They believed that God had aided the conquest of the new land by sending disease to ravage the native populations, so that the English could have it. How convenient for them that God was on their side.

The Pilgrims, who were ill-equipped to survive in the harsh environment they found themselves in, immediately took advantage of the situation. They proceeded to rob food (including corn and squash) and pottery from the deserted Native village. They also stole from Indian graves. Within about 50 years of arriving, they had slaughtered most of the native population in the area that wasn't already killed by the plague.

Not the touchy-feelie story you'll see on TV this week.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical, southern Italian, atheist, working-class, queer performer, activist and writer who bakes a mean tofu lasagna around this time of year.
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The Unquiet Grave: A Book Review by Bob Robideau

The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country - A Book Review by Robert Robideau,
Co-Director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country by Steve Hendricks

Steve Hendricks' new book, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, is focused on the 1976 execution of Anna Mae Aquash, a Mic Mac from Nova Scotia, Canada.

Anna Mae Aquash was a leading member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) from 1970 to the time of her death and, although known for taking part in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, she is best known for her involvement with Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier during the aftermath of the June 26, 1975 Oglala shoot out with the FBI on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Because of her important role in AIM, she became a target of the FBI's Counterintelligence program ("COINTELPRO"). After the exposure of FBI informant Douglas Durham, at the higest levels of AIM, in the summer of 1974 the FBI began to spread rumors that Aquash, too, was an informant. This effort to discredit her and to divide our movement, through what is known as "badjacketing" in the language of the FBI, lead to Anna Mae's death.

I met Anna Mae for the first time in June of 1975, during an AIM convention in Farmington, New Mexico, when I and others were asked by AIM leadership to discern whether or not she was an informant. We reported that we believed she was not an informant. In the passage of 30 years there has not been any evidence to disprove us.

Several books have been written about AIM and the FBI. Twenty six years ago, I was privileged to meet, and work with, noted author Peter Matthiessen. Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse became the first important book written about events involving the federal government and Native Americans that took place between 1972 and 1976.

Peter Matthiessen called Hendrick’s book, "An impressive and important book." Peter also said in a phone conversation with me that there was “nothing new in the book,” I would disagree with Peter. I found new information, some revealing, while other skewed and unacceptable.

Hendrick’s book exposed further critical information about the FBI’s long and continuing war against the American Indian Movement, bringing into sharp focus the outrageous illegal actions of the FBI. Despite a few new revelations, he does not seriously explore the FBI’s COINTELPRO activities that creted the suspicions within AIM that Anna Mae might be an informant. Instead, Hendricks condemns AIM for the murder. It is believed within AIM that the FBI’s informer and provocateur, Douglas Durham, played a large role in the events that led to the killing of Anna Mae.

Hendricks has shared with the LPDC, the complex web of information he followed through the Freedom Information Act. His efforts exposed hundreds of documents from the FBI’s investigation: memorandums, reports and teletypes, that trace the movements of Anna Mae Aquash prior to her death, which the LPDC has been unable get access to. One very important revelation is that these documents confirm that the FBI knew 30 years ago who the shooters were who killed Anna Mae.

The investigation leads Hendricks into both the AIM and FBI camps, as he goes from one FBI agent to the next and then to members of AIM, prying obvious lies and half truths and emotionally charged expressions that reveal the mutual animosity for each other.

Although, the interplay of word games exposes that there are deep dark secrets being kept by both the American Indian Movement leadership and the FBI, it is clear that Anna Mae Aquash, a Canadian citizen, was threatened and abused by the FBI. She was found shot to death and her body dumped in a ravine.

An FBI-ordered autopsy failed to reveal the bullet wound in the back of her head, leading to more criticism and suspicisons that the FBI might have played a role in the killing (or at least the cover-up). This possibility is not seriously explored by Hendricks.

The indictment of two individuals, John "Boy" Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud 30 years later, when the FBI had gathered sufficient evidence to have brought the case to trial in the 1970’s, has renewed suspicions from AIM and other indigenous communities close to the events of foul play by the FBI.

Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, despite a deal made with the Feds for his cooperation. The trial, felt by many to be a sham, and disguise to cover up the FBI’s real purpose of retrying Leonard Peltier for the killing of their two FBI agents after the federal prosecutors had admitted publicly that the prosecution could not prove that Peltier shot and killed the agents.

The sensational testimony at Looking Cloud's trial, by Kamook Banks-Ecoffey, that Leonard Peltier had confessed to the killing of agents Coler and Williams, was contaminated by at least $42,000 in "moving expenses" and other fees that the FBI had paid Banks-Ecoffey for her testimony. Nevertheless, the slanderous allegations against Peltier lingered in the press for months to follow.

Kamook Banks later married Robert Ecoffey an ex goon, who became an investigator in the case, undoubtedly introduced both Kamook Banks and another AIM member, since expelled after turning informant, John Trudell, to the FBI.

In an hour-long interview with Mike McCormick, on KEXP 90.3 FM, Seattle, Washington, Steve Hendricks made the outrageous and ridiculous charge that the reason why the “FBI, who had the names of Anna Mae’s killers 30 years ago did not prosecute because they feared that their informant, David Hill, may have been too close to the murder.”

Steve Hendricks, unoriginal accusations that David Hill became an FBI informant after being arrested and released for the Mount Rushmore Bombings were first lauded by John Trudell twenty-six years ago, then adopted by Paul DeMain, Editor of News From Indian Country. Without proof, these are unacceptable and dangerous accusations to be throwing around. This behavior,on the part of Hendricks, is irresponsible, and under other circumstances that he, himself, describes in his book, would easily be interpreted as the activities of a provocateur.

It put me on my guard when Hendricks ask that we believe an FBI’s story that they rejected David Hill as an informant because he “knew nothing.” There is more then ample evidence to show otherwise and also that his actions in the 1970s were completely loyal to our struggle. If he had been an informant, arrest would have come much earlier then they did. Those of us in AIM who knew David Hill best are not buying these regurgitated stories and false accusations. Let Hendricks reveal his direct, documentary evidence on this allegation, or he should retract it.

Much of Hendrick’s information about David Hill undoubtedly came from John Trudell, who has labeled many individuals in the American Indian Movement and associates as informants. In my view, for many years, Trudell’s behavior has been that of provocateur.

In disregard for the Reign of Terror, accelerated by the counter intelligent activities of the FBI to destroy AIM from 1973 to 1976 resulting in 60 murders, Trudell, in a interview with Indian Country Today recently charged that it was “…The explosion of militancy [ of AIM ] surging from many sources. In that summer of 1975, you had the shootout in Oglala, the killing of Joe Stuntz, the killing of the two FBI agents, you had the bombing at Mount Rushmore , there was a series of bombings at Pine Ridge in the fall. And the operative in my mind, as I consider it, was mostly in that group, hyping up the violence. Annie Mae had gravitated to that most active group and as the government tracked them, she was amongst the people that were accused of doing these things.”
SEE: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/reignofterror.htm

Despite Hendrick’s admission that Paul DeMain, “… will not disclose his sources,” he still regurgitates and validates DeMain’s accusations that accuse David Hill of being in a house where it is alleged the order to kill Anna Mae came. If DeMain’s sources are so good, why weren’t they called to testify at the Looking Cloud trial?
SEE: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/peeledapple.htm

There has been an ongoing effort for the past 30 years, without success, to get the U.S. Congress to investigate the Reign of Terror and culpability of the FBI, as sanctioned in a memo entitled "Para military activity in Indian Country," which was issued because of the 1973 Wounded Knee confrontation with the United States government.

Thirty years of investigations by the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee has contributed much to exposing criminal activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who, under the Nixon administration, was given Presidential authority to destroy the American Indian Movement and others dissent groups through the counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) a predecessor to today’s Patriot Act.

Hendricks references, but does not explore the important connections between the FBI’s domestic Conintelpro period to that of President Bush’s Patriot Act today. The Leonard Peltier and Anna Mae Aquash cases have inspired two other books to be written by Ward Churchill and Jim Vanderwall, Agents of Repression and The COINTELPRO PAPERS, but Hendricks barely mentions them.

It is evident that Hendricks agrees with the FBIs condemnation that Peltier shot the agents, but he concludes that Peltier should be freed because he has served 30 years in prison, and because of the illegal methods used by the FBI to gain the convictions. Hendricks then writes that if he were to ‘meet Leonard Peltier that he knew that he would not like him.’ These pronouncements left me wondering about Hendricks motivation for writing the book.

Steve Hendricks has not just written a book with a single purpose in mind. His web site, http://www.stevehendricks.org/, is indicative of a plan to create a long career from the tribulations, sufferings, sacrifices and struggles of our past and continuing wars with the United States. I hope that this is not true.

Hendrick’s book, The Unquiet Grave, despite its coverage of much information already written in other books, and its other shortcomings, deserves to be read by all who have an interest in learning the dynamics of this story, and how the story continues to be played out today.
Robert Robideau
Co-Director Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

Bob Robideau Comments on Columbus Day

October 10, 2006

The Historical Debt to Native People Has Still Not Been Paid
The Myth Keepers of Columbus

By ROBERT ROBIDEAU

In 1993, 500 years after European invaders of the Americas had brought the first Native Americans to Europe in chains, my plane landed in Barcelona, Spain, I had been invited to the International Cultural Symposium to speak on behalf of Leonard Peltier . The day after my arrival, I took a walk down their famous Rambler to the Placa del Portal de la Pau where I ran head long into a monument of Christopher Columbus. Built for the World Exhibition in 1888, the iron column is an impressive 197 feet tall and weighs 205 tons. On top the column stands a 26 foot statue of Columbus with head sculptured high, positioned to face out over its outstretched arm, with finger pointing over the Mediterranean sea and out to the distant horizon toward the Americas. As I moved around its base I discovered a series of relief's depicting the "new lands." What I saw was not the innocence that had been carved, but instead the first stages of colonization, the rape and plunder of the land and people of the Americas.

The popular fallacy is that Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. At age 14 he became a sailor, shipwrecked off of Portugal in 1470, he remained until his idea to sail west to India, known then as "Hindustan," was financed by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in 1492. He reached the Bahamas on October 12th, visited Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), where he left a small colony before returning to Spain on March 15th, 1493 bringing with him 6 captive Taino people, taken from the Caribbean islands, who were presented to Ferdinand and Isabella in the royal court of Barcelona as proof of his travel. A painting that today hangs in (government building) show the Taino people at the feet of the king and queen in servile postures of slaves. The 6 Tainos never saw home again, their spirits still linger in the streets of Barcelona.

In his delirium Columbus thought he landed in Paradise. He wrote in his journal that Taínos had beautiful, tall, slender olive bodies. They wore short haircuts with a long hank at the back of the head. They were clean-shaven and hairless. According to Columbus the Taíno tongue was "gentle, the sweetest in the world, always with a laugh."

Friendly relations did not last long, many Tainos were beaten and murdered. The Spanish brought diseases with them that the Tainos lacked immunity to. The weapons that the Spanish were far superior to the Tainos. An estimated fifty thousand Tainos perished within two years of Columbus landing. The Spanish jammed more then five hundred Taino prisoners into a boat for Spain. They became homeless in their own land. They were devastated by abuse, starvation, and disease. Life was never the same for Indians of the Americas after 1492. Puerto Rico, an Island once occupied by Tainos were almost wiped out within two decades.

With the arrival of Columbus begin the onslaught of genocide in the Americas that Europeans only whisper about. The legacy of Columbus has kept Native Americans at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Population surveys of the Americas estimates that at the time Columbus stumbled onto the Americas 100 million people inhabited it, a count far greater then that of all Europe in those times. More then 10 million resided in the United States, today less then a million remain in the United States. Many tribes have long become decimated and extinct.

The myth that continues to be propagated is that Native Americans were savages and the civilization brought by Europeans saved them. Reality is that the foods, medicines and political structures of Native Nations in the Americas not only saved Europeans from constant famine in Europe but also taught them much about freedom and democracy, later adopted by the forefathers of Euro Americans. The model of Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power) enabled the United States to form in part its constitution which, thanks to President Bush's Patriot Act, is well on the road to become myth. Today, the myth of democracy, has become a perverted tool to dominate, subjugate and colonize other countries around the world such as Iraq and Palestine.

The United States held their first celebration of the "discovery of America" in New York, on October 12, 1792. At that time the only statue of Columbus in existence was in New York. In 1876, Italian Americans of Philadelphia erected a statue of Columbus in Fairmount Park. In 1905 Italian Americans in Denver, Colorado were the first to observe Columbus Day. It was not until September 1934 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it national holiday. Finally, Columbus Day became a federal legal holiday in 1971 after lobbying from the National Columbus Day Committee. Columbus Day or "El Dia de la Raza" has brought a wave of dissent across the United States and Canada by many Native Americans who feel that it perpetuates a myth that breeds bias and racism toward them.

Since 1970 Native Americans have gathered to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving in remembrance of the genocide of millions of Native Peoples, theft of Native lands and the relentless assault on Native cultures since Columbus open the flood gates to European invasions of the Americas. It is curious that Columbus Day is, except for religious holidays, the only historical event which all Pan-American countries celebrate.

Since 1989 the Colorado AIM chapter has lead a protest against the Columbus Day Parade in Denver declaring, "As the original people of this land, we cannot and will not, tolerate social and political festivities that celebrate our genocide. We are committed to the active, open and public rejection of disrespect and racism in its various forms---including Columbus Day and Columbus Day Parades." For these last 17 years they have tried to educate the general public about their feelings for Columbus Day; they have protested, blockaded and gone to jail for their efforts to stop this parade of indoctrinated myth keepers.

The issue of Columbus and Columbus Day is not easily resolvable in a society spoon feed on its propaganda of myths and historical lies that propagate the idea that Europeans were a superior race of two legged homo sapiens that came to save the Indians from their barbaric ways. The Europeans who came and settled invented and schooled the myth that they had created the New World by their imaged "discovery, " just as they had come to create the creation myth of its origins known as the "Bearing Strait Theory." Native Americans just had to have come from somewhere, but not the western hemisphere.

What good does Columbus Day contribute by celebrating racist propaganda and myths that perpetuate genocide in institutions of education. Nazi Germany is perfect example of where such false, racist and opportunistic ideas lead. The most popularly believed myth of scholars is that native Americans were Jews. Louis Hennepin, in his New Discovery of a Vast Country in America wrote, "These savages originally sprung from the Jews," because they lived "in a form of tents, like as did Jews" and they are "subtle and crafty as Jews."

The first thought that crept to mind was that the encounter with the statue of Columbus must represent some sort of warning and I had better watch my step. Sure enough in 1996 I was teased back to Barcelona, Spain where I began a new life out of the reach of the FBI and the emergence of fascist rumblings in the States.

Europe too, I felt, had a historical debt and there was social need to transmit that Indian cultures had not been completely destroyed. We still existed despite 500 years of genocide and so I founded an AIM museum to bring awareness of it to Europeans so that they would not forget.

Robert Robideau is Co-Director of theLeonard Peltier Defense Committee.
He can be reached at: robertrobideau@yahoo.com

Message from Leonard Peltier -- FREE PELTIER!

September 13, 2006

Crazy Horse in Chains
30 Years in Prison and the Struggle Continues
By LEONARD PELTIER

Well here it is another year. Another birthday. This one makes me 62 years old. Also this makes it my thirty plus years in prison. I believe it was right after I was illegally convicted in Fargo, North Dokota when I wrote a statement telling everyone that my freedom would only come after the masses had demanded it. But first we would have to unite and organize, to reach them.

So far we have been unable to do so. Yes we have reached millions who have signed my petitions we have circulated throughout the world asking for my release. True most of those good peoples are from Europe, but we have also made a lot of gains here in the United States. At one time we had fifty five (55) members of Congress sign a letter for a new trial or my release.

Fifty-five members is historical. No other prisoner in history has ever been able to accomplish this, nor has anyone else, individually I mean, and there are other accomplishments we have made and won here in the United States.

Still I sit in prison not because I am guilty of the alleged crime I was illegally convicted of but because we still are unable to reach the masses here in America. The reason for this is not because the American people do not care or want to help, but because we have been unable to reach them.

Personally I believe the majority of them do care and want to help. We sense this from the ones we are able to reach. We are moving forward very slowly in this freedom campaign of mine. The reason is we just do not have the financial resources to move forward at the pace we would like to be.

This is the real and only reason that we have not been able to reach the people in the United States. Nothing is free here in America, not justice or the media. So although there is still no light at the end of the tunnel for me or my freedom, we continue struggling forward. I continue to search for the hope and strength I need to survive.

I continue to pray and hope that one day I will get the support I need from the American people and one day I will still be able to walk out of prison. So my hopes and spirits are still high at my 62 years of age. I continue on this continued struggle.

We are still finding bits and pieces of new evidence to file new appeals on. Those of you who have followed my case closely I can imagine are thinking How can this be, as there has been so many constitutional violations already. But the same old problem exists. The courts continue to cover up the continued criminal acts of my conviction committed by my prosecutors.

Your help is needed, Give what you can to FreedomWalk.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Leonard Peltier

Six Nations Warriors Request Support for Winter

TORONTO (CP) - Aboriginal protesters occupying a former housing development site in Caledonia, Ont., are asking for donations to help them make it through the winter.

The Six Nations protesters, who have occupied the land since February, are calling for building supplies to help them finish constructing the 11 houses on the disputed territory.

Janie Jameson, spokeswoman for the protesters, says no one wants to see the half-built houses "rot away" when they could be used for shelter during the winter.

She says protesters also need non-perishable food and warm clothing to help them maintain their occupation, which she says will only end when the land is returned to the Six Nations people.

But Jason Clark, of the Caledonia Citizens Alliance, says residents are at their "wit's end" and can't contemplate the occupation - which has been marred by barricades and violent clashes - lasting into the winter.

He says it's time both levels of government stepped in to end the occupation.

For more information, contact: www.reclamationinfo.com

Zionism and Manifest Destiny Redux

The most recent, and currently unfolding, example of Zionist psychopathy in Gaza and Lebanon by the Israeli state warrants a reprinting of Bob Robideau's column from February of this year. We hope that Native people can see the transparent similarities between U.S. policy towards our indigenous nations and the zionist repression of the Palestinian people. For current accounts of the situation, without the mainstream U.S. media bias, visit Al Jezeera at: http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

Here is the article from our brother Bob Robideau. The original article may be found at http://www.counterpunch.org/robideau02012006.html

February 1, 2006

"God Given Right"
Palestine and Native America
By ROBERT ROBIDEAU

The recent election windfall victory of Hamas has sent shock waves through the United States and the European Union. They swiftly announced their threat to withhold $400 million in aide if Hamas refused to recognize the state of Israel and disarm.

Hamas, which has promoted itself as a militant alternative to the discredited Fatah government, now has to live up to its own rhetoric of providing an alternative to the long suffering Palestinian people.

Mr Zahar, the leader of Hamas who rose to power in 1989, reportedly said, "Spies and thieves must fear us," and "thieves are those who steal our land". As a member of the American Indian Movement, I know full well that the roads into the Americas were paved by thieves. It was A government spy sent to create internal disruption, who set the stage for the execution of Anna Mae Aquash, an icon in Indian country; and while over 150 government police terrorized communities on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation in the summer of 1975, the federal government stole one eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation land.

The state of Israel sets on land that was originally Palestinian but Zionist movements in Europe and the United States claimed that the "land was given to them by God" and their belief that their race possessed some "natural superiority". Euro- Americas pray to "god and country" and teach their future generations to pray homage to the gangsters, outlaws and thieves who stole the country from Indian nations in god,s name.

The European idea that they possessed a "God given superiority" not only had brought them into conflict with the Palestinian people, but also North American Indian Nations in the 1800s.

In contrast, Euro-Americans and Europeans began their westward expansion of North America under the banner of manifest destiny. A belief that they had a "divinely inspired mission" to expand. Euro-American expansion meant the thief and occupation of Native American Indian lands. A big part of William Henry Harrison´s responsibility, who as the Territorial Governor of Indiana, was to obtain title to American Indian lands so that white settlement could expand in the area, asked the Indiana legislature: "Is one of the fairest portions of the globe to remain in a state of nature, the haunt of a few wretched savages, when it seems destined, by the Creator, to give support to a large population, and to be the sea of civilization, of science, and true religion?" Isn't this the Zionist attitude toward Palestine?

The United States continued the European practice of recognizing only limited land rights of Native American Indians who they regarded as "savages" who stood in the way of Euro-American expansion. The same mentality has prevailed with Israel people in their dealings with the Palestinian people.

In the time of Manifest Destiny, this idea was clear and simple, "Indian Removal". The "Indian wars" between Native Indian Nations and Euro-American armies, which are now well recorded, ended in more then 300 treaties that won some tribes large sections of land, but today these lands have all but melted away into the hands of Euro-Americans.

Euro-American's believed that Native American Indians were "destined to melt and vanish before the advancing waves of Anglo-American power..." but the large land sessions won by the Tribes through treaty in fact allowed future generations to survive, even as their lands continued to be lost through one passage after another of Congressional Acts that swindled tribes out of millions of acres of land.

Today Native lands have become checker boarded with Euro-American ownership and continue to be subject to Congressional Acts to defraud Native people of even more land and the natural resources.

The Palestinian people continue to struggle through various groups like Hamas in self defense of their sovereignty and to keep their remaining lands. So too, has North American Indian people continued to struggle to keep what is left of their lands and recover stolen lands.

The Federal Government offers the Lakota Nations 100´s of millions for their sacred Black Hills, but the Lakota people have refused the federal paper dollars, firmly stating, "Our sacred land is not for sale!"

Of the numerous Native American Indian groups that have historically formed to confront the continued Euro-American intrusions into our lives and sovereign rights, the American Indian Movement (AIM) has become best known. Like the PLO, Hamas and other Palestinian liberation groups, we too were criminalized by the invaders and thieves who attempt to undermine our rights as a liberation group with aggression, violence and name calling. As with the Palestinians, we too will not be denied, through threats of violence, our right of self defense.

On September 2005 the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched a three day aerial attacks killing and wounding Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. An action by the Israel government to demoralize Palestinian victims through acts of terror are common tactics used by occupying forces.

For 30 years Congress has failed to fully investigate their law enforcement agency the FBI´s role in the "Reign of Terror" on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota that resulted in 240 assaults and 60 murders in a 3 year period. It also failed to investigate the gross misconduct of the FBI in the case of Leonard Peltier, a member activist of the American Indian Movement who has now spent 30 years in federal prisons for defending the lives of his people against the violent and aggressive attacks of the FBI. The order to eliminate Mr. Peltier was apparently authorized by the federal government.

If the United States and the European Union fail to buy Mr. Zahar out with "aid money", we can expect that they will use military units with similar powers given to law enforcement agencies here in the United States under the old Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) or the one now known as the Patriot Act to eliminate him in the name of God.

United States history attest to the genocide of North American Indians and most educated Euro Americans and Europeans would agree that a genocide has been committed on this continent in the name of God and riches, but when it comes to the Muslim world the racism is disgusting.

The "Gods" must be crazy to think that their programs of racism and genocide will stop freedom fighters around the world from carrying on with their struggles for liberation and self defense.

ROBERT ROBIDEAU is co-director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. He can be reached at: americanindianm@telefonica.net

CANADA ORDERS EXTRADITION OF GRAHAM FOR AQUASH MURDER

Thursday, June 22, 2006 | 8:29 PM CT
CBC News

Federal Justice Minister Vic Toews has ordered the extradition of former Yukoner John Graham, who is wanted in the United States for the 1976 murder of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Aquash was shot in the back of the head at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Graham, who now lives in Vancouver, was a member of the American Indian Movement, as was Aquash, at the time she was killed. He was arrested for the murder in December 2003.

In 2005, the B.C. Supreme Court decided that Graham should be sent to the U.S. to face the charges. The extradition order issued Thursday by the federal government follows that up.

Graham's lawyer Greg Delbigio says Graham will launch a joint appeal on both the extradition order and the court decision. Delbigio said he expects a court date for the appeal will be set Friday. He will also ask the B.C. Court of Appeal that Graham be granted an extension of his bail.

Colorado AIM Supports Western Shoshone Against Bomb Test

MERCURY, Nev. - The ''Divine Strake'' detonation has been halted, but Western Shoshone continued their protest at the Nevada Test Site over Memorial Day weekend to demand respect for Western Shoshone land rights at the site, as stated in the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863.

Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother, was among 45 people arrested after they crossed the boundary onto the Nevada Test Site in an act of civil disobedience. Security from the site and Nye County sheriff's deputies arrested them and placed them in a holding facility.

''Enough is enough,'' Dann told the crowd before being arrested, which resounded the ''Ya basta!'' (''Enough is enough!'') battle cry of the Zapatistas fighting for indigenous rights in Mexico.

Glenn Morris, attorney, university professor and member of the Colorado Chapter of the American Indian Movement, was arrested. Morris told officers that they were in violation of the Treaty of Ruby Valley and the U.S. Constitution. Other members of Colorado AIM participated in the rally, but were not arrested.

''This is treaty land,'' said several Western Shoshone as they were arrested. Non-Western Shoshone received permits to be on the land from the Western Shoshone Nation Council.

Julie Fishel, attorney and advocate for the Western Shoshone Defense Council, and Steven Newcomb, Indian Country Today columnist, were among the 30 women and 15 men arrested.''It doesn't have to be hostile, it can be done in a good way,'' Fishel told Indian Country Today. She said it was the first time she was arrested and as an attorney considered the choice carefully. She said her decision was based on the lawlessness in this country and the United States' refusal to honor decisions of the United Nations, while continuing to violate Western Shoshone and indigenous human rights.

Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney, Tom Goldtooth, of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and Tupac Enrique, of Tonatierra in Phoenix, led the day's events, which centered on tradition and respect for mother earth. Several hundred people attended the protest and march to the Nevada Test Site. The 45 arrested were cited and released.

The 700-ton explosion named Divine Strake was halted after Western Shoshone filed a lawsuit in federal court and 42 national and international organizations joined forces, including environmental justice, environmental, political, nonproliferation activists, peace activists and indigenous groups.

The ''Not so Divine Strake Protest'' turned into a victory celebration for Western Shoshone, environmental activists and downwinders May 28 at the Nevada Test Site. Downwinders, those who could be affected by the release of radioactive particles from previous blasts, celebrated in Western states including Utah, Idaho and Montana. (Exerpt from article by Brenda Norell, Indian Country Today, 5 June 2006.)

Mapuche suspend hunger strike

Jailed Mapuch activists have agreed to suspend their hunger strike.

After 63 days on hunger strike, four jailed Mapuche rights activists agreed to temporarily suspend their protest on May 14 after reaching an agreement with Chilean legislators. In exchange for an end to the fast, the government promised to give urgent attention to a proposed law allowing supervised release, introduced by Socialist Party (PS) senator Alejandro Navarro. Navarro and fellow PS senator Jaime Naranjo helped broker the agreement, with mediation from Temuco bishop Manuel Camilo Vial and from lonko (Mapuche community leader) Jose Cariqueo. full report

Surprise, surprise-natives back protest

This from the National Post.

Canada's Aboriginals overwhelmingly back the long-running Six Nations demonstration in Caledonia and predict the number of similar land-claims protests is about to rise, a new survey has found.

According to a poll conducted for the National Post, 62% of natives believe protesters in the Hamilton bedroom community and in eastern Ontario -- where natives briefly blocked a rail line in sympathy last month -- were right to demonstrate. That compares with just 12% who said the demonstrators were wrong.

"We're talking about a margin of 5-1 and civil disobedience is involved," said Conrad Winn, president of polling firm Compas full article

The support for the Six Nations and reclamation actions in general is most likely higher than this poll indicates.

Protect Bear Butte-new website

There is a new website to support the efforts to protect Bear Butte. There are suggested actions and an address for those who want to make donations. Pay a visit to the site and help protect Bear Butte. Protect Bear Butte

Six Nation profiles

There are hundreds of people who are helping to resist further erosion of the Six Nation traditional territory. Some have been at the camp for months while others come and go. The Hamilton Spectator profiles 4 of the Six Nation Defenders. The 4 are Clyde Powless, Michael Laughing, Hazel Hill and Janie Jamieson.

Clyde Powless
""I'm looking at the long run. Maybe my grandchildren won't have to do this," he says, in his matter-of-fact style."

Michael Laughing
"I've learned I can lead people."

Hazel Hill
"We could hand out fliers every day and we'd never get any response," she said. "Canada has a history of only responding when action is taken -- peaceful action ... Canada always resorts with guns."

Janie Jamieson
She says police helicopters fly over her house but it will take more than that to scare her off."They don't know what I've endured. They'll have to come up with more than that." full article

This encampment has been sustained for 3 months. For an encampment to continue this long, community support is a necessity. These are but 4 people who are a part of a greater movement that is supported not only by their community and nation, but by native nations across turtle island.