Censored News Honors Heroes in Resistance 2019

Best of Censored News 2019 Heroes in Resistance

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Censored News honors our heroes, writers, photographers and translators, as we celebrate their wisdom, courage and fearlessness in the struggle for human rights and justice in the protection of the air, land, water and all living beings.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019 goes to Debra White Plume, Lakota, of the Owe Aku International Justice Project, for a lifetime of leading and resisting.

Speaking at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Debra spoke of protecting the water and the land and described the white man, the fat takers.

She told of the coming of a white man in heavy winter when there was deep snow. In those early times, fat was tied in the trees in a bladder or stomach bag of the buffalo. Fat was a very valuable substance because there is no fat on buffalo, elk or deer, except for a little around the kidneys.

The starving white man came for the bundles of fat. “He took them all, stuffed them all down his mouth. We called him the fat taker. He thought only of himself. He didn’t think of the women who worked for five months to gather the fat so we would have it through the five months of winter.”

Those words reflect the untold history of exploitation and greed when white men arrived on this continent. When Lewis and Clark re-enactors arrived in South Dakota, Debra gave them a symbolic blanket of smallpox.

Listen to Debra here, speaking from Red Warrior Camp at Standing Rock, as Water Protectors defend the Missouri River from Dakota Access Pipeline. Debra speaks on direct action and protection of the water. Recorded by Govinda Dalton and the team of Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio:
https://soundcloud.com/censored-news/debra-white-plume
Debra speaks on 'fat takers' at the University of Arizona in Tucson
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/debra-white-plume-wasichu-fat-takers.html

Censored News Heroes of the Year

Censored News celebrates our Heroes of the Year, the Kupuna arrested defending Mauna Kea from telescope construction in Hawaii. Their photos of being arrested in wheelchairs and after being locked down, tell the story:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/police-now-arresting-protectors-on.html

Censored News Best Series in 2019

Live from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica in May.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, testified on the militarization and abuse of O'odham on their homeland at the border by the United States. As a result, Ofelia was delayed two days in transit returning home by US Homeland Security, with repeated searches and delays, after an 'SSSS' was slapped on her boarding passes. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/us-homeland-security-aims-to-annihilate.html

Also see: Ofelia's video interview with Govinda Dalton, and article, describing how she was targeted after her testimony.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/militarization-at-standing-rock-and.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Series from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca, testified and described the abuse by the militarized police at Standing Rock. She described how she was arrested while in prayer and ceremony, then a number was written on her arm as was done to the Jews during the Holocaust, and she was caged in a dog kennel. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/brutalized-at-standing-rock-and.html

Also see: Casey Camp Horinek honors the Rights of Nature, and speaks out for murdered and missing women at Bioneers
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/ponca-casey-camp-horinek-honors-rights.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Series from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Speaking with power and certainty, Leoyla Cowboy, Dine', honored the political prisoners arrested at Standing Rock, including her husband, and read a message from Red Fawn. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/water-is-life-political-prisoners.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Michelle Cook, Dine', testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica. Michelle, lawyer and member of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, testified on the new state laws targeting and criminalizing protesters exercising their rights in the U.S. Michelle organized the delegation to Jamaica to testify, along with the Water Protectors Legal Collective and staff from the University of Arizona. Michelle is among the organizers of the Native women's divestment delegations to Europe and founder of Divest Invest Protect. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/criminalizing-indigenous-peoples-oil.html

Also see: Michelle Cook speaks in Paris: 'Spiritual Currency in the Age of Capitalism.'
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/dineh-michelle-cook-in-paris-spiritual.html

Censored News Best: Writers, Photographers and Truthtellers

Celebrating the Best of 2019, Censored News honors Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, who was among those standing at Oka. We share interviews with her daughter, including one of Kahentinetha's trip to Cuba at 19, and another of her evening with Marlon Brando. It is an honor to share her ongoing columns published at Mohawk Nation News. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/kahentinetha-horn-and-daughter-on.html
Mohawk Nation News
http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/

Censored News Photographer of the Year is Carl Bad Bear Sampson, Western Shoshone. Thank you for walking across this land on the Longest Walks and sharing your photos with Censored News! https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/03/walking-for-future-generations-longest.html

Censored News Best in 2019: The words of Buffy Sainte Marie, Cree, on the genocide and slavery of Native People. Buffy was interviewed by Tony Gonzales, director of AIM West, during the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz. Listen to her words on this audio, recorded by Govinda Dalton. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/01/buffy-sainte-marie-in-san-francisco.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Video interview with Dr. LaNada War Jack, Shoshone Bannock, at AIM West in San Francisco, during the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz, and book review of War Jack's new book 'Native Resistance.' https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/10/backfire-lanada-war-jacks-new-book-on.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Video interview with Rumšen Am:a Tur:ataj Ohlone Tribal Chair Dee Dee Manzanares Ybarra, co-chair of Southern California AIM, during the AIM West Unthanksgiving dinner, at events of the 50th Anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz. Ybarra said President Trump's promise to halt the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women is no more than an empty promise aimed at getting votes. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/native-leader-says-trumps-empty.html

Best of 2019: Censored News honors Zapatista women for fearlessness and courage, speaking out for murdered and disappeared women at the Second Gathering of Women who Fight in Chiapas in December. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/zapatista-women-fight-for-your-lives.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Celebrating our fabulous French translator Christine Prat who works tirelessly to translate Censored News articles into French, and transcribe the powerful talks of Indigenous Peoples in Paris. Here is one of them, the talk of Wampanoag Hartman Deetz in Paris. And like everyone at Censored News, Christine works without pay. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/wampanoag-hartman-deetz-no-thanks-no.html

Best of 2019: Standing Rock: The movement that rocked the world, and accelerated the defense of the water and the land into a global movement. Celebrating the work of editors Nick Estes and Jaskiron Dhillon, and all the writers within this book, 'Standing with Standing Rock.' https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/blood-memory-rising-book-review-of.html

Best of 2019: 'No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to the Standing Rock Movement,' photographs of Standing Rock by Ryan Vizzions, with forwards by Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Lakota, and Pte San Wastewin (White Buffalo Woman) Jennifer Weston, Hunkpapa Lakota from Standing Rock. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/no-spiritual-surrender-dedication-to.html

Our award for Best Reporting for Censored News in 2019 goes to San Carlos Apache Sandra Rambler for her passionate coverage and the defense of Oak Flat from copper mining.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/apaches-standing-strong-to-defend.html

Censored News honors Louise Benally and all those living at Big Mountain and on Black Mesa, for their decades of resisting relocation and struggle against coal mining and coal-fired power plants. For 40 years, they never gave up.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/08/big-mountain-standing-with-mauna-kea.html

Censored News Best in 2019: Censored News honors our new columnist Lisa DeVille, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, as a voice from the land, and proof that one person can make a difference. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/why-i-oppose-keystone-xl-pipeline-by.html

Censored News honors Robert Free for sharing his journey as he returned to Alcatraz and put the tipi that stood during the Occupation of Alcatraz, 1969 -- 1971, in the hands of Native youths to seek a national historic designation for it.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/when-warriors-were-warriors-robert-free.html

Radio and Global Reporting
Censored News Radio Host of the Year is Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Lakota from Cheyenne River, for his radio programs on subjects often censored by others. Tiokasin's radio show First Voices Radio is in its 28th year and aired on 92 radio stations throughout North America. The producer is Liz Hill, Red Lake Ojibwe, and the guest host is Anne Keala Kelly, Kanaka 'Ōiwi .
https://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/

Censored News Broadcaster of the Year is Govinda Dalton, honored for his decades of volunteer service in creating Indigenous grassroots Indigenous radio stations. This year Govinda is honored for his reporting from the Texas border, where Native land defenders Carrizo Comecrudo battle the border wall and destruction of a veterans cemetery for the border wall construction. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/sacred-land-sacred-river-carrizo.html

Best reporting in North America in 2019: Censored News honors investigative journalists Will Parrish and Jaskiron Dhillon for exposing the Canadian police snipers ready to kill Indigenous Peoples in Canada, published in The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents

Special thanks to Orin Langelle for live coverage from the protests and struggle for Indigenous rights in Chile for Censored News:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/12/mapuche-lonko-alberto-curamil-acquitted.html

Congratulations to all the winners of the Native American Music Awards.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/11/native-american-music-award-winners.html

Censored News Bogus Award
Censored News Most Bogus Award for 2019 -- for flandering -- goes to the U.S. government's delegation responding to the testimony of Native women at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Jamaica in May.

The U.S. delegation's testimony meandered and was hard to follow. Ultimately the US blamed excessive force at Standing Rock on TigerSwan and other private security, and not on the hundreds of militarized police that beat Water Protectors, gassed them and shot them with rubber bullets and projectiles. Further, if the US delegation made an intelligent response to the abuse by US Border Patrol on the Tohono O'odham Nation, it was not discernible during their mumbling. (Flandering: to attempt a conversation while unintentionally thoroughly confusing your listener, approving and negating a topic in the same sentence, to open up a conversation on one topic and randomly change to another.)
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2019/05/united-states-blames-excessive-force-at.html