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Western Shoshone Defense Project
Shundahai Network
Joint Press Release
April 4, 2006 Defense Project
Shundahai Network
Joint Press Release
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Western Shoshone Defense Project
Shundahai Network
Joint Press Release - April 4, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
U.S. Defies U.N. Decision -
Plans Massive Military Detonation on Western Shoshone Land
Western Shoshone call for halt to planned
June 2 "Bunker Buster" detonation at the Nevada Test Site
Speaking with media last week, US military spokesman James Tegnelia
confirmed U.S. plans to detonate a 700 ton explosion at the Nevada Test
Site on June 2, 2006 in a test called "Divine Strake." The location of
this test would be on Western Shoshone land, and would be in direct
violation of a recent decision by the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In its decision, made
public March 10, 2006, the CERD Committee urged the United States to
"freeze", "desist" and "stop" actions being taken, or threatened to be
taken, against the Western Shoshone Peoples of the Western Shoshone
Nation. In its decision, CERD stressed the "nature and urgency" of the
Shoshone situation informing the U.S. that it goes "well beyond" the
normal reporting process and warrants immediate attention under the
Committee's Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure.
The CERD decision explicitly cited ongoing weapons testing at the Nevada
Test Site as well as efforts to build an unprecedented high-level
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV.
James Tegnelia of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was quoted by
Agence France Presse as saying, "I don't want to sound glib here but it
is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las
Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," and notes further that
this is the "largest single explosive that we could imagine." The
Department of Defense announced in late October 2005 that the Robust
Nuclear Earth Penetrating (RNEP) weapon project was being dropped in
favor of a more conventional methodology.
The detonation plan also runs contrary to earlier public statements made
in late March to the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Linton F. Brooks,
administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. In his
statement, Mr. Brooks announced that the Bush administration had no
plans to start detonating warheads at the Nevada Test Site. "We have
absolutely no evidence that we're going to need to test. ... We don't
see any specific reason now that leads us to believe we'll need a test,"
Mr. Brooks said. "On the other hand," he said, "we don't know everything
about the future."
According to Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National
Council, "We're opposed to any further military testing on Shoshone
lands. This is a direct violation of the CERD finding and an affront to
our religious belief - Mother Earth is sacred and should not be harmed.
All people who are opposed to these actions by the U.S. should step
forward and make their opposition known."
Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother and Executive Director of the
Western Shoshone Defense Project, "The U.S. has named this 700 ton
explosive 'Divine Strake'. It's a mystery why they use 'devine.' Isn't
'devine' used for your deity, God, Your sacredness? Why don't they call
it 'Hell Strake?' I believe when you are working testing weaponry of
destruction of life, you should not associate it with 'devine.' We want
this insanity to stop - no more bombs and no more testing."
Eileen McCabe-Olsen, Associate Director of Shundahai Network noted,
"This test, besides being an egregious violation of Western Shoshone
sovereignty, is an escalation that should outrage anyone concerned with
peace, justice and care of our environment."
Pete Litster, Executive Director of Shundahai Network said "Ongoing
weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site violate international law. They
violate the standing treaty between the U.S. Government and the Western
Shoshone people. They also violate the spirit of non-proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction. The Test Site is located on Western
Shoshone territory, and must not continue to be misused in bold
violation of standing agreements between the U.S. government and the
Western Shoshone nation."
Although approval for the test was sought and obtained from the state of
Nevada in January 2006, the test detonation can be cancelled. The
Western Shoshone National Council, the Western Shoshone Defense Project,
and Shundahai Network call for the United States Government to do so
immediately. Concerned citizens can call or write to express their
opinions:
President George W. Bush
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
202-456-1111
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
http://www.dod.gov/faq/comment.html
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
James Tegnelia [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
(800) 701-5096
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Attn: James Tegnelia
8725 John J Kingman RD Stop 6201
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201
CONTACTS:
Julie Fishel, Western Shoshone Defense Project 775-468-0230 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Pete Litster, Shundahai Network 801-637-1500 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Western Shoshone Defense Project's (www.wsdp.org
<http://www.wsdp.org%20>) mission is to affirm Newe (Western Shoshone)
jurisdiction over Newe Sogobia (Western Shoshone homelands) by
protecting, preserving, and restoring Newe rights and lands for present
and future generations based on cultural and spiritual traditions. The
W.S.D.P. was established in 1991 by the Western Shoshone National
Council to provide support to Mary and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone
grandmothers who were facing the confiscation of the livestock that they
graze on Western Shoshone lands.
Shundahai Network (www.shundahai.org ) is dedicated to breaking the
nuclear chain by building alliances with indigenous communities and
environmental, peace and human rights movements. We seek to abolish all
nuclear weapons and an end to nuclear testing. We advocate phasing out
nuclear energy and ending the transportation and dumping of nuclear
waste. We promote the principles of Environmental Justice and strive to
insure that indigenous voices are heard in the movement to influence
U.S. nuclear and environmental policies. All of our campaigns and events
incorporate the values of community building, education, spiritual
ceremonies and nonviolent direct action.
Western Shoshone Defense Project
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
775-468-0230
775-468-0237 (fax)
www.wsdp.org <http://www.wsdp.org>
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:www.wsdp.org>
Bear Butte - S.D.
March 7, 2006
Help Protect Bear Butte
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warriors protect #1
warriors protect #2
semi-road grader front gate
dragpipes
1000 words
Click on any snapshot to view full size version.
www.matopaha.org <http://www.matopaha.org>
www.bringbacktheway.com <http://www.bringbacktheway.com> Sturgis, SD
Hau Mitakuytepi, Anpetu ki le cantewasteya nape ciyuazepelo! Jay Red
Hawk he miyelo.
Greetings, Relatives, I shake your all of your hands with goodness in my
heart.
Most of you I'm e-mailing know about the issue of this giant concert
venue/barn size ikerbar and who knows how many beer gardens and illegal
drugs and noise and violence this "Sturgis County Line" campground will
bring right to the foot of our Sacred Mountain, Mato Paha or Bear Butte
as it is commonly called in the foreign language if English. Bear Butte
International Alliance, Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, Owe
Aku (Bring Back the Way) and many other groups and individuals have
exhausted many hours and efforts to stop this desecration of our Holy
Mountain, which my family and i live at the foot of, literally.
Today, they started bringing in the heavy equipment. My 3 sons (6, 3 &
2yrs) and I drove over there around 4pm. and we came back with our
digital camera and some offerings to the spirit that lives inside the
mountain. We brought spitiual food, a wa luta (red cloth offering with
cansasa, or indian tobacco) and an arrow. It is this mountain that
opened up and a spirit came forth and gave the Cheyenne Nation their
Sacred Arrows.
Please, if you can pray wherever you are at, pray, or as one of my Leksi
(Uncle) said, we don't pray, we send forth a voice to Creation.Please,
send forth your voices! If you can donate to any one of the non-profits
donate. We have a websites: http://www.matopaha.org
http://www.bringbacktheway.com
Attached are some pictures we took today and you can see for yourself
how close it is to the mountain. The same time the Sturgis Bike Rally
happens, 2 weeks in August, there are hundreds of Cheyenne and Lakota,
Dakota, Nakota and people from 34 or more other tribes praying here.
500,000 bikers descend on Sturgis, population 6, 232 and the are around
Bear Butte, with a rural population of less the 10,000 for many square
miles. We are going to a hearing to set a date for the liquor liscense,
and we can object based on the location of his business venture. There
is no zoning in Meade County, but his application can be denied based on
location or character.
Check out our websites and if you can, you or get your Tribal Councils
to write or fax a letter objecting to issuing a liquor liscense to this
business based on the proximty of it to our most Sacred Mountain on the
Northern Plains.
Please help in any way you can.
Pilamayapelo!
Jay Red Hawk
volunteer, Bear Butte International Alliance P.S. My oldest Cetan
Okinyan (Flying Hawk) is 6 and he sent forth his voice to Creation and
said "Tunkasila, (Grandfather) please don't let the bulldozer hurt our
Sacred Mountain, they might wake up the Bear."
Urgent! To Senator Hatch: no nuclear dumping on Indian Land!
Dear friends,
Please tell Senator Orrin Hatch that if Utah and Nevada do not hang to
gether on Nuclear waste, they will hang seperately!
The following letter gives background and instructions on dealing with
an unnecessary conflict between Utah and Nevada over high-level nuclear
waste. We feel that this conflict is being egged on by Senator Hatch,
and could be resolved if the Senator would join the rest of Utah's
leading political leaders and those from the State of Nevada to oppose
the faulty and unjust nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada- near the
center of Western Shoshone territory.
We also feel that this action is critical to stopping the related
high-level nuclear waste dump proposed for the land of the Skull Valley
Band of Goshute Indians in Utah
This is an urgent action. It would also be appreciated, when you contact
the Senator's office, if you drop us a line by replying to this alert.
Thank you for your dedication to environmental justice on Native lands!
Sincerely,
Shundahai Network
--------------------------------------------------------
Urge U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch to protect Utah by protecting Nevada
Only by working together can Nevada and Utah stop both the Yucca and PFS
dumps that threaten both states
To contact Sen. Hatch's Washington DC office, call 202.224.5251, fax a
short letter to 202.224.6331, or fill out Sen. Hatch's internet web form
at http://hatch.senate.gov/email_form.htm. Urge Sen. Hatch to oppose the
Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump targeted at Nevada, so
that Nevada's U.S. Senators will help block the Private Fuel Storage
high-level radioactive waste dump targeted at Utah.
Dear Friends and Colleagues in Utah,
The proposed Yucca Mountain, NV and Private Fuel Storage (PFS), UT
radioactive waste dumps are joined at the hip. They are a package deal.
Even if just Yucca opens but PFS doesn't, Utah would still get hurt by
Yucca-bound "Mobile Chernobyl" waste shipments. As the old saying goes,
Utah and Nevada can either hang together, or hang separately. The time
has come to hang together.
Utah's U.S. Representative Rob Bishop has come very close to delivering
a bad blow to the PFS dump. With the support of the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance, Rep. Bishop has proposed legislation that would
create a Cedar Mountains Wilderness Area near Skull Valley, Utah and
block the railway needed by PFS to deliver high-level radioactive waste
to its proposed parking lot on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian
Reservation. The proposed wilderness bill is attached to the Fiscal Year
2006 Defense Authorization Bill, which is currently in the final stages
of conference committee negotiation.
Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, however, is opposing Rep. Bishop's
wilderness bill. Sen. Ensign hopes to pressure Sen. Hatch to abandon his
long-time support of the Yucca dump targeted at Nevada. Both Sen. Ensign
and Sen. Hatch should look to the healing actions of Sen. Harry Reid of
Nevada and Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah. Just last week, Sen. Reid sent
letters to key decision makers urging support for Rep. Bishop's
wilderness proposal to block the PFS railway. And just three months ago,
Sen. Bennett abandoned his long-time support for the Yucca Mountain
dump, publicly admitting the dangerous mistake it represents. The
governors of Nevada and Utah have long worked together to oppose both
dumps simultaneously, a healthy, smart, and effective path that Sen.
Hatch should follow. The nuclear industry has long tried to divide and
conquer Utah and Nevada, pitting the two states against each other, in
hopes of opening both Yucca and PFS. Utah and Nevada could most
effectively stop both dumps by standing together.
Very significantly, Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the strongest
supporter of the Yucca dump in the U.S. Senate, recently said that the
Yucca dump's science and economics are flawed. The U.S. Department of
Energy has admitted it is performing a major overhaul of its Yucca plan,
a change guaranteed to cause very significant delays and cost increases.
Sen. Hatch should review his position on Yucca based upon these recent
developments. Sen. Hatch's opposition to Yucca would very likely end
Sen. Ensign's opposition to the creation of the Cedar Mountains wilderness.
Sen. Hatch has other good reasons to oppose Yucca. If Yucca opens, 90%
of the waste shipments bound for Nevada would pass through Utah. Thus,
even if PFS never opens, Utah could still face the dangers of many
thousands of "Mobile Chernobyl" truck and train shipments, vulnerable to
severe accidents or terrorist attacks releasing catastrophic amounts of
radioactivity. Also, even if Yucca opens, its capability to accept
commercial irradiated nuclear fuel is limited by law to 63,000 metric
tons. By 2010, that much will already exist in the U.S. PFS, which
received its construction and operating license from the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission last September, could very well still serve as the
overflow storage for Yucca Mountain. In fact, the nuclear power
establishment plans on generating enough irradiated fuel to fill both
Yucca and PFS, and still have more stuck back at reactor sites. Thus,
Yucca must be stopped, or else PFS is all the more likely to happen.
Phone calls into Sen. Hatch's office are crucial right now, as key
decisions could be made at any time. Urge Sen. Hatch to join with Utah
Governor Huntsman and Utah's junior U.S. Sen. Bennett in opposition to
the Yucca dump. This olive branch extended to Nevada's Sen. Ensign could
help secure the creation of the Cedar Mountains wilderness to block
PFS's radioactive railway.
To contact Sen. Hatch's Washington DC office, call 202.224.5251, fax a
short letter to 202.224.2849, or fill out Sen. Hatch's internet web form
at http://hatch.senate.gov/email_form.htm. Urge Sen. Hatch to oppose the
Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump targeted at Nevada, so
that Nevada's U.S. Senators will help block the Private Fuel Storage
high-level radioactive waste dump targeted at Utah.
If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 202.328.0002 ext. 14.
Thanks!
---Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist, Nuclear Information and
Resource Service, Washington, D.C., 202.328.0002 ext. 14, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, www.nirs.org <http://www.nirs.org>
For more information contact: WSDP 775-468-0230
or Hager & Hearne at 775-329-5800.
Press Release for Immediate Release
Land " Giveaway" Bill Confirms Western Shoshone Predictions
Nov. 4, 2005. Crescent Valley, NV (Newe Sogobia). Confirming Western
Shoshone predictions about massive federal land giveaways, the House
Resources Budget Package was amended last week [1]
<http://www.wsdp.org/alerts.htm#_ftn1> to include what Congressman
Rahall has dubbed a "blazing fire sale of federal lands to domestic and
international corporate interests". [2]
<http://www.wsdp.org/alerts.htm#_ftn2> Subtitle B of the bill lifts the
moratorium on privatization or patenting of lands by mining companies
and opens up virtually all federal or "public" lands at a small fraction
of its true value . The measure could come to the House floor for a
vote as early as next week.
This "liquidation sale" would include the vast majority of lands home to
the Western Shoshone Nation - lands formally recognized by the U.S. as
owned and occupied by Western Shoshone under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby
Valley and now the subject of ongoing federal lawsuits and international
proceedings. The land area is called Newe Sogobia in Shoshone and spans
across the states of Nevada, Utah, Idaho and into Death Valley,
California covering approximately 60 million acres of land, 80-90% of
which is claimed as federal or public lands by the United States. The
area is the 2 nd largest gold producing area in the world and the U.S.
Geological Service touts it as North America's number one investment
opportunity for the extractive industry. It contains Yucca Mountain,
where the U.S. has been pushing to open a permanent nuclear waste
repository. And importantly, it is also home to one of the most visible
and well-established Indian land struggles in U.S. history - that of the
Western Shoshone. Congressman Richard W. Pombo (R-WA), Chairman of the
House Committee on Resources, defends his legislative measure by
claiming that the sale of public lands will raise money to pay federal
debts and will encourage "sustainable economic development". The
Western Shoshone do not agree and instead stand committed in their
resolve to uphold their land title and protect their lands and waters
from irresponsible corporate exploitation.
Just last year, in the face of Congressional promises of resolving the
long standing land issues in "good faith" by compelling the Shoshone
people to sell their land for 15 cents an acre, the Western Shoshone
National Council and seven of the nine tribal councils opposed
Congressional efforts and predicted that the real beneficiaries of the
"Indian money" would be multinational mining and energy companies
standing to gain billions of dollars by privatization of "public" lands
and expanded resource exploitation. The handwriting was on the wall
even then - while Congress tried to push the one-time payment on the
Shoshone people, the Executive Branch, through the Department of
Interior was destroying the economic livelihood of Western Shoshone by
conducting military-style seizures of Western Shoshone cattle and
horses. The land base was recently announced as the 2 nd largest gold
producing area in the world. Some $ 30 billion dollars in gold has been
extracted from the region to date. In one instance, only months after
removal of horses belonging to Western Shoshone grandmothers Mary and
Carrie Dann, Placer Dome, the world's 5 th largest gold company,
announced a doubling of its gold estimate from the same lands where the
horses were seized. Other large gold corporations operating in the area
include Barrick, Newmont, and Kennecott. The gold is microscopic and
the mining is open pit, cyanide heap leach mining employing dewatering
of up to 70,000 gallons of water per minute for one mine alone. The
Shoshones' predictions, which some dubbed "conspiracy theories" and
others saw as "synchronized thievery" have now come to fruition with the
latest Congressional maneuver to make any and all alleged "public" lands
part of a liquidation sale to bail the United States out of debt.
"Western Shoshone title is still intact. We have been fighting this for
years and will continue to fight. The U.S. thought when they made some
notations in their bookkeeping that the Shoshone would be "paid" and any
cloud to land title would be lifted. Well, they were wrong and we're
still here. We've never accepted their money and never will - our land,
the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue
our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator's law ." Stated
Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council.
Bob Hager, Attorney for the Western Shoshone added: "What we have here
is an attempt by the United States to swindle the indigenous people, the
public and investors. Western Shoshone land title is in litigation in
the federal courts and the subject of a United Nations human rights
inquiry. The U.S.' behavior on this issue has already been found to
violate basic human rights to property, due process and equality under
the law. This latest maneuver only compounds those violations and draws
in the complicity of the corporations. You can't sell what is not yours
in the first place and the companies lining up for the dole should keep
that in mind."
1.resourcescommittee.house.gov/issues/more/reconciliation/cmteprintbudgetrec.pdf
<http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/issues/more/reconciliation/cmteprintbudgetrec.pdf>
(see Subtitle B).
2. www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ii00_democrats/budgetmininglaw.html
<http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ii00_democrats/budgetmininglaw.html>
PRINTER FRIENDLY .DOC VERSION
<http://www.wsdp.org/MAIL-wsdp/House%20Budget%20110405.doc>
-[+]----------[+}----------
--
"I must fight with all my strength so that the little positive things that my
health allows me to do might be pointed toward helping the revolution. The only
real reason for living."
-Frida Kahlo
emma rosenthal is a disabled artist, writer, educator, activist and consultant,
living in southern california.
emma rosenthal
po box 1664
baldwin park, ca 91706
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
emma's web page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~emmarosenthal
emma's blog: In Bed With Frida Kahlo
http://inbedwithfridakahlo.blogsource.com/
The writing empowerment project http://home.earthlink.net/~theweproject
-educational and organizational consulting and dialogue.
cafe intifada http://home.earthlink.net/~cafeintifada
-art for social justice
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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