Gauges to warn tribe of floods

For centuries, members of the Havasupai Tribe have relied on their senses to serve as a flood warning.

But after a flood ravaged the village and popular tourist destination near the Grand Canyon this summer, tribal members got an upgrade.

A team of workers finished installing a pair of flood gauges 20- and 45-miles upstream from the village earlier this month to provide more accurate information about the volume of water flowing through the 3,000 square-mile watershed.

Worst Companies in the World: US, Monsanto, Peabody and Barrick

Posted by Brenda Norrell – December 31, 2008 at 4:48 am
The United States was voted the Worst Company in the World, followed by Monsanto, Peabody Energy Corp. and Barrick Gold

By Brenda Norrell
Photo by Mano Cockrum
The United States was voted the “Worst Company in the World,” in a reader poll conducted by the Censored News blog that ended [...]

Smithsonian museum features tribe’s salmon-recovery effort

Washington, D.C.: Below the 45-foot model of a right whale named Phoenix, behind the case that holds a rare giant squid and not far from the remains of a prehistoric coelacanth that was caught off Africa is an exhibit highlighting Pacific Northwest salmon and the Nisqually Tribe’s efforts to restore a wild run.

Though it may not be the flashiest display in the new, $49 million Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, curators say that it’s a unique story about a fish that migrates thousands of miles against almost overwhelming odds before returning home to spawn.

There’s also a human side to the tale. Salmon are the lifeblood of a Native American culture that stretches from Northern California to Alaska, and restoring the dwindling runs is an almost sacred duty. The northwest Pacific Coast became the most heavily populated Native American region because of the salmon.

Oldest Spider Web Found, Scientist Says

London, England: The tiny tangled threads of the world’s oldest spider web have been found encased in a prehistoric piece of amber, a British scientist said Monday.

Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier said the 140-million-year-old webbing provides evidence that arachnids had been ensnaring their prey in silky nets since the dinosaur age. He also said the strands were linked to each other in the roughly circular pattern familiar to gardeners the world over.

“You can match the details of the spider’s web with the spider’s web in my garden,” Brasier said.

Tarahumara Feats Inspire Awe

Leadville, Colorado: Last weekend, Ken Chlouber was laboring up a dirt road about 25 miles into an ultra marathon when he was passed by two other runners. He looked at the runners, and then at their feet — which were bare except for sandals made out of used tires, leather thongs and nails. “Maybe I’m spending too much on shoes,” Chlouber half-joked as the runners passed him.

Those sandal-clad feet were the first to cross the finish line at the Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon, America’s highest and possibly most rugged ultra-marathon. The runners, Victoriano Churro and Cerrildo Chacarito, are Tarahumara [Raramuri] Indians from the Copper Canyon area of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental. The pair finished one-two after 20 hours while another Tarahumara [Raramuri], Manuel Luna, was fifth. And they did it their way, on sandals, called “huarachas,” pieced together from tires picked up at the Leadville junkyard.

“I think this will set the ultramarathon community on its ear,” smiled Kitty Williams, who, with Rick Fisher of Tucson, was primarily responsible for bringing the Tarahumaras [Raramuris] to Leadville.

Harvard for Free

Massachusetts: Harvard University announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers said, “When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution.”

All of their financial aid is awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need—there are no academic, athletic or merit-based awards. Harvard meets the full need of every student, including international students, for all four years.

Building on the success of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI), which eliminated the parental contribution from families earning $60,000 or less, Harvard recently announced major financial aid enhancements to ensure greater affordability for middle- and upper-middle income families. Beginning in the 2008–09 academic year, parents with incomes of $180,000 or less will be asked to contribute significantly less to the cost of a Harvard education. Additionally, home equity will no longer be considered in determining a family’s ability to contribute and students will not be expected to take out loans, which will be replaced by need-based Harvard scholarship.

Police seek help to find eagle feather, stone pipe

Ottawa, Canada: It must have looked like a decent haul for a quick thief: two duffel bags sitting in an unlocked car in a west-side parking lot. Inside one of the bags was camera equipment.

But what was inside the other bag was far more important to its owner: a pipe and an eagle feather, ceremonial objects sacred in First Nations spirituality.

Ottawa police are investigating the theft of the bags earlier this week, and Thursday asked for the public’s help in finding the sacred objects. The duffel bags were taken between Dec. 8 and Dec. 10, while a vehicle belonging to a Michigan man was parked in the 1300 block of Carling Avenue, police said.

Navajo Mountain desperate for water

WINDOW ROCK — The Office of the Speaker has been helping to coordinate efforts with various governmental entities to get the water supply returned to the Navajo Mountain community and to keep community roads operational.

The Navajo Mountain community has experienced a water supply shortage because of damage to the system from recent adverse weather conditions.

“Our office will continue to coordinate these efforts until the problems are resolved and the community’s water supply has been restored,” Speaker Lawrence Morgan said. “We have been working diligently to gather numerous resources to help clear the roads and make them safe once again for local residents.”

Honoring Floyd Westerman and the Miwok Youths

Honoring Floyd Westerman and the Miwok Youths
Listen to Censored Blog Talk Radio
Honoring the land, honoring the youths
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

Article and photos by Brenda Norrell

Censored Blog Talk Radio offers a tribute to Floyd Red Crow Westerman, sharing his songs and words. Westerman speaks on the Spirit World and what is happening to Mother Earth.
“America is dying from within, because they forgot the instructions of how to live on earth,” Westerman said. He said without the understanding of the spritiual reality of living on earth, “It is likely you will not make it.”
“We are here on earth only a few winters, then we go to the Spirit World.”
Westerman describes how the United States is creating monstrous conglomerates to facilitate energy for America, polluting sacred water and sacred mountains to do it.
America is destroying itself, but Native people will live on.
“We will outlive their ways. Our ways will outlive America’s ways. It is because we regard the earth as sacred,” Westerman says in the series of recordings.
“Our Mother is a sacred entity.”
Westerman said it is important to educate people that the people coming across the border are Indian people. Speaking on broken treaties, Westerman said, “The United States of America is an occupation of Indian land.”
With warnings for America and its spiritual state, he said, “You shouldn’t let the dollar control what you are doing.”
“America, you won’t be here long.”
Westerman said great changes are coming and when one looks at evolution, one knows, “It is time.”
Censored News also honors the Native American youths on the Longest Walk, with traditional songs and conversations with the Miwok youths from Shingle Springs, California, Daniel, Junior and Vinny, with Everett, Washo. The Miwok youths sing with clapper sticks made from elderberry branches.
On the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol at Harrisburg, Mohawk and Tuscarora welcome the Longest Walk to the east with songs and prayers. Jerry McDonald, Mohawk, speaks of respecting and honoring Mother Earth and of universal peace. Longest Walk Carl Bad Bear Sampson also speaks at the gathering, where the Pennsylvania governor’s representative heralds the Long Walk for honoring the earth and protecting sacred sites.
Longest Walk recordings by Earthcycles on the Longest Walk.
Listen at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

Photos: Floyd Westerman with the International Indian Treaty Council at the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas in San Xavier, Arizona, on the Tohono O’odham Nation in 2006. Photo Brenda Norrell.
Photo 2: Daniel and Junior on the Longest Walk in Eureka, Nevada, after singing Miwok songs for Western Shoshone Carrie Dann in the spring of 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell
Photo 3: Vinny, Miwok walker and runner, at the Indigenous Environmental Network’s annual Honoring Mother Earth Conference, held this year on Western Shoshone land in Southfork, Nevada, in July 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell.

Express outrage: Peabody coal mining on Black Mesa

Interior Approves Permit for Coal Mining on Hopi Lands
Black Mesa Trust Calls for Telephone, Letter Campaign

By Vernon Masayesva
KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz., Dec. 29 — As expected, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation (OSM), the sole regulatory agency overseeing mining on Black Mesa, has made a formal decision approving Peabody Western Coal’s application for a life-of-mine permit that would combine mining operations at Black Mesa Mine and Kayenta Mine.
The decision was announced during the Hopi Soyalung ceremonies throughout our villages. Soyalung is when Hopis plant their prayers for the coming year. It is a time the priests carry out sacred rituals to renew the earth, and pray for peace and harmony throughout the world. It is similar to the Jewish Chunaka observance, of bringing light to darkness.
This is the ancient ritual OSM has rudely interrupted. It is a blatant action sanctioning Peabody to exploit our natural resources for the benefit of its wealthy owners, officers and stockholders.
Black Mesa Trust appeals to people all over the world to express their outrage by writing or calling:

Dirk Kempthorne
Secretary of Interior
US Department of Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202/208-3100

Al Klein
Western Regional Director
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
P. O. Box 46667
Denver, CO 80201-6667
Phone: 303/293-5001
aklein@osmre.gov

Brent Wahlquist, Director
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
1951 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202/208-2719

Dennis Winterringer, Director
Western Region, Southwest Branch
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
P. O. Box 46667
Denver, CO 80201-6667
Phone: 303/293-5030
E-mail dwinteringer@osmre.gov.