Blizzard Followup

Here's a bulletin from Save Our Tribal Youth (S.O.T.Y.) with a concrete way to help some of those hard-hit by the blizzard:

Many of you are aware of the severe blizzard that just past over South Dakota leaving much of the state and especially isolated reservations without power and ability to travel due to snow drifts of several feet high.

Residents are asking for help in many ways with heat, food, basic needs and warm clothing.

Here is a quick and direct way you can get help to them. Cangleska Inc. is a women & children's shelter on Pine Ridge Reservation that houses moms and their kids who are in domestic violence situations and/or have become recently homeless. One of our sponsored families who suffered a fire is now in shelter.

They are asking for items for winter and for the upcoming Christmas holiday. MANY children will receive nothing at all. Most families do celebrate this holiday. Every child wants to receive a gift on Christmas day. Especially those in shelters who generally are forced to leave their homes suddenly with only what they are wearing.
You can help!!

Cangleska Shelter is asking for (NEW) blankets, coats of all sizes (infant to large teens), NEW foot gear such as winter boots and sturdy athletic shoes, diapers, formula, non-perishable baby foots, cereals, powdered milk, etc.

If you have the ability and can find it in your heart, please send a new unwrapped toy (such as an art-type item ((crayons, paints & paper, art kits)) and other suitable gifts that don't require batteries or additional items to Cangleska to help with their holiday gift program for the kids. Teens could use winter clothing and age appropriate books or scientific non-battery operated game.

Please send all items directly to the shelter -- they will know how best to distribute them to their residents and in their community outreach program.

We thank you for your help and assistance.
Below are addresses you can send things via UPS, Fed-Ex or postal service:

Please let them know you heard about them from Save Our Tribal Youth - we have begun working with them to help.
Thank you!

Via UPS or FedEx Ground: (FED EX AND UPS WON'T SHIP TO PO BOXES)
Cangleska, Inc.
1 Cangleska Road
Kyle, SD 57752

VIA US MAIL - POSTAL SERVICE
Cangleska, Inc.
P.O. Box 638
Kyle, SD 57752

PILAMAYA!
S.O.T.Y.

ETA: SOTY also has PayPal for donations on their website, and has other programs for sponsoring children and youth in need: http://www.saveourtribalyouth.com/

Blizzard Slams the Black Hills, Reservations Hard-Hit

From Save the Sacred Sites Alliance

On Wednesday afternoon, areas of Western South Dakota were slammed with a major blizzard that lasted thru Thursday. The storm left thousands of people stranded and without power and heating. Winds were clocked at 105 miles per hour in some areas and remained at 60-80 mph throughout the 24 hour period. Areas of the Black Hills had snow drifts of over 20 feet in some areas. Record amounts of snowfall for one day, fell in the Hills. Temperatures with the wind chill were just above zero.


Many of the rez's were also hit hard including Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and no word about Standing Rock, or others further east as of yet. There are still hundreds of people on the rez's without power and heating and many roads still un-plowed.


The frustrating part is, the media gave us no warnings in the days prior, about this blizzard. They kept referring to 2-3 inches of snow on Thursday, nothing about a blizzard until it was already upon us and to late. This left people completely unprepared for what was to come. With the proper warning, folks could have gotten out of the countryside and into town until it was over.


My power was out for almost three days, my house was 45 degrees. Luckily enough in my case, power was restored this morning. However, there are elders and folks with small children on the rez's that endured this cold and still are. Some elderly that are on oxygen and/or dialysis, were having to go without because of no power and no way to travel.

Read the rest of the Bulletin

The Launch of BBC Alba

BBC Alba, television companion to Radio nan Gàidheal, kicked off in September with a broadcast of a version of Runrig's song, Alba, sung by a number of Gaelic singers.



Like Radio nan Gàidheal, this will provide excellent opportunities for the learning, practicing, and preservation of the Gaelic language.

Moran Taing to Debs at Living Tradition for passing this one along.

Anti-Semite on the Beaver's Head

So, Mel Gibson is filming a movie here. Unfortunately, they're building sets up on Mt. Sugarloaf.

Despite it having a bit of development up there already (a simple road, a couple parking lots, a picnic area and an observation tower) the site is sacred to the first peoples of this area, and many of us who live here now acknowledge the mountains and their role in the local creation/destruction legends. So some of us are pretty disgruntled they're building stuff and trucking in equipment up there.

Some folks protested the other day, but the coverage didn't mention the sacred site angle.

Any local folks want to protest this with us? I'm not too sure what the upcoming shooting schedule is, but I'll bet we could find out without too much trouble.

Update on Plymouth Protests against White Ego Fraud

Hartman has posted about his experience confronting White Ego Fraud (Rachel Holzwarth) last spring in Plymouth.

Hartman is one of the protesters who was attacked, pepper-sprayed and arrested, and the one whose blood Ego (Vampire) Fraud stole and rubbed on her drum.

It's good to hear more details on what happened. Other good news is that the case has been continued without finding, with no time served and no guilty verdicts.

Though the protestor's aim of destroying the drum was not achieved at that action, I think it was the brutality shown by the cops and the "peaceful" nuagers, as well as Ego Fraud's chilling blood incident, that really got the ball rolling on this. Hartman and his crew are my heroes for their bravery that day, and I'm relieved they haven't had to serve any time for it.

Thanks to their confrontation, word and outrage spread, so it was a success.

May it continue to spread, till the bloody fraud drum is destroyed and Holzwarth is forced to find a new career.

The Bureau of Caucasian Affairs

THE BUREAU OF CAUCASIAN AFFAIRS

by Lehman Brightman, President of U.N.A.

United Native Americans is proud to announce that it has purchased the state of California from the whites and is throwing it open for Indian settlement.

UNA bought California from three winos found wandering in San Francisco. UNA decided the winos were the spokesmen for the white people of California. These winos promptly signed the treaty, which was written in the Lakota language, and sold California for three bottles of wine, one bottle of gin, and four cases of beer.

Lehman L. Brightman, the Commissioner of Caucasian Affairs, has announced the following new policies: The Indians hereby give the whites four large reservations of ten acres each at the following locations: Death Valley, The Utah Salt Flats, The Badlands of South Dakota, and the Yukon in Alaska. These reservations shall belong to the whites "for as long as the sun shines or the grass grows" (or until the Indians want it back).

All land on the reservations, of course, will be held in trust for the whites by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs, and any white who wants to use his land in any way must secure permission from Commissioner Brightman.

Of course, whites will be allowed to sell trades and handicrafts at stands by the highway. Each white will be provided annually with one blanket, one pair of tennis shoes, a supply of Spam, and a copy of 'The Life of Crazy Horse'.

If you are competent enough, you will be able to be a BCA reservation superintendent. Applicants must have less than one year of education, must not speak English, must have an authoritarian personality, proof of dishonesty, and a certificate of incompetence. No whites need apply.

Commissioner Brightman also announced the founding of four boarding schools, to which white youngsters will be sent at the age of six (6). "We want to take those kids far away from the backward culture of their parents," he said. The schools will be located on Alcatraz Island, the Florida Everglades, Point Barrow Alaska, and Hong Kong. All courses will be taught in Indian languages, and there will be demerits for any child caught speaking English. All students arriving at the school will immediately be given IQ tests to determine their understanding of Indian language, spirituality and hunting skills.

Hospitals will be established for the reservations as follows: Whites at Death Valley may go to the Bangor, Maine Hospital; those at the Utah Salt Flats may go to the Juneau, Alaska Hospital; those at the Yukon may go to the Miami Beach Hospital; and those at the Badlands may go to the Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. Each hospital will have a staff of two part-time doctors and a part-time chiropractor who have all passed first aid tests. And each hospital will be equipped with a scalpel, a jack knife, a saw, a modern tourniquet, and a large bottle of aspirin.

In honor of the whites, many cities, street cars, sports teams and products will be given traditional white names.

One famous Indian movie director has even announced that in his upcoming film, 'Custer's Last Stand', he will use many actual whites to play the parts of the soldiers, speaking real English. But of course, the part of Custer will be played by noted Indian actor Jay Silverheels.

Certain barbaric white customs will, of course, not be allowed. Whites will not be allowed to practice their heathen religions, and will be required to attend Indian ceremonies. Missionaries will be sent from each Indian Nation to convert the whites on the reservations. White churches will either be made into amusement parks or museums, or they will be torn down and the bricks and ornaments sold as novelties, souvenirs and curiosities.

Hope everyone found some way to protest today.

Warriors and Wolf Maidens

In Indigenous Feminism and Cultural Appropriation, Jessica Yee takes on the frustrations of trying to define an Indigenous feminism that supports strength and power vs "preciousness", while struggling with both the racism of the mainstream feminist movements and the sexism of many of the cultural groups.

Good read. Excellent challenging of the stereotypes and misconceptions that abound on both (all) sides of the issues.

Uma metodologia para trabalho com Crann Ogham

And again translated into Portuguese: Uma metodologia para trabalho com Crann Ogham

More Graves Desecrated, Ancestors Remains in Boxes on Shelves

From Irish Indymedia:

Tara Campaigners worldwide are supporting a petition to the Irish Government calling on them to re-inter the remains of individuals whose graves have been desecrated by the ongoing construction of the M3 Motorway in the Gabhra Valley near the historic Hill of Tara in Co. Meath. The petition went live on Saturday 19th July.

Campaigners demand that the ancient remains be reburied in a dignified manner and as closely as possible to the ceremonial layout of the original graveyards. It is estimated that over 60 bodies were disturbed and removed from the Collierstown site and over 27 from Ardsallagh to make way for the double-tolled M3 Motorway. Over the last 15 years of the Celtic Tiger, thousands of bodies have been removed from the earth and stored in warehouses.

The Gabhra Valley is the putative site of the last battle of the Fianna in 284 A.D. and they were said to be buried where they fell along with Cairpre Lifechair king of Tara son of Cormac mac Airt.

Full Story, with pictures of desecrated graves...

Sign the Petition