Gathering at Phillip Deere Round House in Oklahoma: Native Americans and Rights of Nature

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 7, 2024

OKEMAH, Oklahoma -- The gathering at the Phillip Deere Round House began this morning with good words from Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca, and traditional Traditional Mvskoke and Chahta (Choctaw) from Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Mvskoke Samuel 'Bonnie' Deere, son of Phillip Deere who spent his life as a leader in the struggle for Native American rights, spoke on the creation of the Phillip Deere Round House, and the devastation of 57 Mvskoke ancestors being dug up in Alabama for a casino.

During the opening session of the Third Convening of the Four Winds, the struggles to protect the water and the fishes, and the role of Rights of Nature, were shared by Native Americans from across the nation.

"Water is the first medicine," William Dan Issac, Mississippi Chahta, told the gathering.

Casey Camp-Horinek said, "Water has memory," sharing that water has life, and carries your prayers. Casey, Ponca councilwoman and hereditary drumkeeper of the Women's Scalp Dance Society of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, is a longtime activist, environmentalist, actress, and published author.

Casey, speaking on the Rights of Nature and Rights of Rivers at noon today, said her people knew that they did not own the land, but that they had an inherent relationship with nature, and a role in protecting it for the future generations.

The rights of nature always existed, Casey said, "We were just recognizing it in a formal way."

Inspiring youths at the gathering, Talia Landry, Mashpee Wampanoag Native Environmental Ambassador, spoke on the youth movement to protect their herring and the inspiration of the Rights of Nature movement.

Water is the bottom line in survival and extinction.

"This is natural extinction event," said Charlotte Robbins Leonard, speaking on the struggle to gain tribal backing in the fight to rescue Choctaw's Kiamichi River in southeastern Oklahoma, during this morning's session.

The rights of rivers, false solutions to climate crisis, missing and murdered Indigenous Peoples, protecting Native waterways in Oklahoma, treaties, Indigenous youths movements, and the free, prior and informed consent within the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, are among the discussions today, Saturday, and tomorrow, Sunday.

Listen live and see coverage and schedule at Censored News today, Saturday, Sept. 7, and Sunday, Sept. 8, 2204

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