Plagiarism the new norm in Indian country journalism

An action packed week in Indian country! Where are the Indian country reporters? (Photos by Andrew Ironshell, Black Mesa Water Coalition and Dawn Dyer.)

Plagiarism the new norm in Indian country journalism

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

There's a great deal of action happening this week in Indian country, but you wouldn't know it by the national Indian news. Instead of having reporters out covering the news, most of the media now relies on plagiarizers.

Plagiarism is the new norm in national Indian country news. The deception is easy to spot. Writers who never leave their homes plagiarize and rewrite the hard work of others from the Internet. Then, they make a quick phone call to disguise their article. Finally, they top it off with a borrowed or stolen photo. They usually expect activists, and photographers, to do their work for them. The armchair journalist is the only one getting the credit, and getting paid.

This endangers journalism and more importantly, human rights and justice. When reporters are not present, they do not know the facts. Armchair journalists often rewrite the mainstream news, which usually misses the point in Indian country.

The routine pattern in mainstream news is to criminalize Native Americans, or promote corporate interests, and to forget about the real issues and how those impact Native people. The websites that post links, without doing any real journalism and ensuring the facts, do more harm than good while promoting select agendas.

Currently, there are no watchdog reporters for Indian country in DC. Corporations -- along with the Congressmen that cater to them for campaign dollars -- are seizing the opportunity to continue the exploitation of natural resources in Indian country, with the aid of corrupt local politicians.

Highly paid spin doctors, serving as public relations experts, deceive the public on issues like the carbon market scam. The so-called carbon credits allow the world's worst polluters, including coal-fired power plants, to continue polluting. Spin doctors disguise the backdoor deals of stolen Indian water rights.

Spin doctors hide the profiteering of non-Indians from casinos in Indian country, including the billions going to non-Indian casino management firms, attorneys, lobbyists, non-Indian charities, and the states. In many cases, a mere trickle of dollars ever reaches Indian people. Another censored issue is how gambling addictions are increasingly damaging families in Indian country.

Along with the truth about casinos, the most censored issues in Indian country include the targeting of American Indians to serve in the US military for bogus US wars; the theft of Indian water rights in so-called water rights settlements; and the global impacts on Indigenous Peoples of coal-fired power plants, oil and gas drilling, tarsands, mining, deforestation and toxic dumping.

The victories are also being missed since there are no staff reporters out in the field covering Indian country.

The collapse of journalism in Indian country is not about funding. There are plenty of dollars being spent on Indian country conferences, travel to conferences, and generally avoiding doing any real journalism.

The money would be wisely spent by hiring Native American journalists (who haven't spent the last decade plagiarizing, or suddenly decided late in life that they were Indians.) They should be placed as full-time reporters with travel budgets in key places in Indian country, including the Navajo Nation, Pine Ridge, DC, and in the Northwest. Freelance writers in other countries should be credited and paid, and hired based on their track record of producing authentic journalism and being present. Photographers should be credited and paid a living wage.

Journalists in Indian country should also be asked to fully disclose all of their current and former clients that they have carried out public relations work for. Columnists should also disclose this, along with all funding from federal and private grant sources. This would make clear any conflicts of interests and hidden agendas.

Readers can help stop the fraud in Indian country journalism by writing publishers, editors, reporters and broadcasters, and demanding authentic journalism and the truth.

Readers can also ask reporters, "Where you there?" Further, readers can analyze the advertising on websites, magazines and on radio news, and ask the producers and publishers why certain issues and truths are being ignored, censored or manipulated.

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 31 years. During the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation, she worked for the Navajo Times and served as a stringer for AP and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today in the Southwest, she was censored, then terminated, and created Censored News. Now in its 7th year, Censored News has no advertising or sponsors.  brendanorrell@gmail.com

Hickory Ground Poarch Creek 'Never Surrender' Ancestors Burial Grounds

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Poarch Creek continue to defend burial grounds from tribal casino

Censored News

Hickory Ground Poarch Creek were at Elmore County courthouse supporting Wayland Gray, Mike Deo, Mike Harjo, and a Cherokee from Alabama, "Maggot," in their court hearings today, Hickory Ground said in a statement.

Three of the ones arrested had their trespassing charges dropped. Wayland Gray was originally charged with terrorist threats and trespassing. The charges were amended to disorderly conduct after the Grand Jury found no evidence. Gray was offered a plea deal to plead guilty for disorderly conduct, in exchange the court would drop the trespassing charge and there would be no jail time, which carries up to three  months if found guilty. Gray, however, pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial on August 29.

On Monday, Hickory Ground members gathered to access the property at Hickory Ground.

Wayland Gray said, "They would not allow us in the fence and wouldn't tell us where the mass grave was located.

"They are cowards. When we got on the property a sudden wind came and started throwing debris off the building. A construction worker told us it tore up $4,000 worth of plastic off the roof. The creator and ancestors were with us. In the background is the towering monster they are building on our ancestors and sacred land.

"Never surrender," Gray said.

Gray said he is seeking support for "our War against the Poarch Creek Band Officials in Alabama that are desecrating our ceremonial ground and have dug up 56 remains and putting them in a Hitler style mass grave at the corner of the property so they can build their over $300,000,000 Casino Resort, Hotel, Bars, Retail Shops, Museum for the Artifacts and Funerary Objects to bring tourist from around the world is what they say.
"They also dug up seven chiefs out of the arbors then put them back and are building the casino around them. They must be stopped its a fight for all nations and nationalities cause if they win it will make it easier for developers in the future to build on everyone's sacred places and burials.we are calling on all nations, nationalities and countries to join us in this sacred and desecration war."
Gray's email is waylandgray@yahoo.com

Photos Navajo Action! Navajos pump CAP water, press end to dirty coal industry

Photos by Black Mesa Water Coalition

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Black Mesa Water Coalition said on Tuesday, June 18, 2013, "At 9am this morning Navajo people dropped pumps into the Central Arizona Project's canal and began pumping water into buckets then into the back of a water tank in the back of a truck. We came to demonstrate that water can be pumped using solar power. We came to demand Power Without Pollution and Energy Without Injustice! SRP can transition NGS to Solar. Navajos want a Just Transition!"

CONTACT: Enei Begaye, Black Mesa Water Coalition, 928.380.6296, eneibegaye@gmail.com

CONTACT: Raina T. Gearon, 915.342.2624, rt_gearon@yahoo.com

Unique Demo in Scottsdale: 
Navajo Community Members to Pump CAP Canal Water with Solar Power

Event to press Navajo Generating Station owners for transition from polluting coal industry on Navajo Reservation that has powered CAP pumps

WHEN: promptly at 9am Tuesday, June 18; Press Conference to follow at about 10am

WHERE: Scottsdale Soleri Bridge at the intersection Camelback Rd & Scottsdale Rd.

This Action will be followed by a Press Conference in the Scottsdale Fashion Square parking lot.

WHAT:

• Navajo community members using a solar-powered generator to pump CAP canal water into trucks and barrels that Navajo Nation residents use to haul water on the reservation.
• Colorful rally by dozens of Navajo tribal members and supporters with handmade signs and banners. Event slogan: Energy Without Injustice – Power Without Pollution
  

More than 50 Navajo Nation community members and supporters will park water trucks that families use on the reservation alongside the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal in Scottsdale today at 9am and use a solar-powered generator to pump water from the canal to the vehicles.

Tribal members are staging the demonstration to send a message to the owners of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) coal-fired power plant near Page, Arizona that Navajo families want a transition away from a polluting coal industry on Navajo land that has powered CAP pumps for decades at the expense of residents’ land, health, water, and culture.
Major NGS owners include Salt River Project (SRP)(plant operator) and the U.S. government’s Department of Interior. Today SRP provides Arizonans less than 1 percent solar power.
The “Energy Without Injustice – Power Without Pollution” action demonstrates solar power as a solution. There is enough old mine land on Black Mesa to generate thousands of megawatts of solar energy, providing thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars for the regional economy.

Aging Navajo Generating Station (NGS) is among the most polluting coal-fired power plants in America and after decades of coal industry on Navajo Nation, many Navajo families have not benefitted; thousands still lack electricity and running water to their homes and haul water in trucks every week for cooking, cleaning, and drinking.

Livestream video will be available at http://ustre.am/FAE0

Images and video will be available after the event at http://www.facebook.com/blackmesawc and twitter@blackmesawc

Photos Oglala President arrested at White Clay protest

Photos by Andrew Ironshell

Oglala Lakota President Bryan Brewer was arrested on Monday, June 17, 2013, as he stood in solidarity with protesters against the liquor profiteers at White Clay, Neb., bordering Pine Ridge, S.D. Brewer was released Monday afternoon.

Video of arrest and message from President Brewer:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/oglala-president-taken-to-jail-by.html

Thank you Andrew Ironshell for permission to share your photos.

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Read more about police brutality at White Clay protest: http://ut4ps.tumblr.com/post/53294214180/lakota-people-and-allies-successfully-blockaded-a

Oglala President taken to jail by Nebraska lawmen, standing in solidarity at White Clay

VIDEO Published on Jun 17, 2013

PHOTOS by Andrew Ironshell at Censored News:
 http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/photos-oglala-president-arrested-at.html

VIDEO: Oglala Lakota President Bryan Brewer Sr. is taken to jail by Nebraska lawmen for standing with his people against the liquid genocide of White KKKlay Nebraska. The Sheridan County Sheriff’s office arrested Oglala Sioux Tribe President Bryan Brewer Monday morning in Whiteclay during a protest outside a beer store. Brewer paid a fine and was released Monday afternoon.
President Brewer said today:
Hau, to all my friends and relations. If any of you are trying to contact me, my phone is dead and the charger is in the office. I see a lot of support for what we are doing and I want to say Wopila to all of you. As long as the alcohol does stop we will not stop. I want to say a special thank you to the many people who went into White Clay this morning. We had some that were hurt, but all will be fine. I hope people understand that we are doing this for our children. Our reservation needs a lot of healing, alcohol is destroying our people and our children are suffering. I also want to say a special thank you to the lone councilman who went into White Clay with me, Dan Rodriquez, Wopila.


NAIS GAZETTE
Dutch translation, thank you Alice! http://www.bloggen.be/natam/

Bron Censored News : http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Bryan Brewer Sr.,President van de Oglala Lakota werd afgevoerd naar de gevangenis toen hij solidair was met zijn volk tegen de ‘liquid genocide’ door White KKKlay, Nebraska.

Op maandagmorgen arresteerde de Sheridan County Sherrif’s office hem in White Clay tijdens een protest bij een drankwinkel. Brewer betaalde de boete en werd in de namiddag terug vrijgelaten.

President Brewer legde volgende verklaring af:

Hau, aan al mijn vrienden en verwanten,

Ik ondervind heel veel steun voor wat wij hier doen en ik wil Wopila (dank)zeggen aan iedereen. Zolang er alcohol vloeit zullen wij verder gaan.

Ik wil nog een bijzondere dank zeggen aan al diegenen die met mij White Clay zijn binnengestapt. Sommigen werden gewond, maar het komt goed.

Ik hoop dat de mensen zullen begrijpen dat wij het doen voor onze kinderen. Ons reservaat heeft nood aan herstel, alcohol verwoest ons volk en onze kinderen lijden.

Ik wil ook nog Dan Rodriquez, het enige raadslid die samen met mij White Clay binnenging bedanken. Wopila

Native Americans prepare to defend homelands, walk across America

Red Butte Havasupai sacred land Photo Dawn Dyer

Native Americans prepare to defend homelands, walk across America

Longest Walk 1978

By Brenda Norrell
 
Native Americans focused on defending their homelands and upholding the Rights of Nature during June, as they prepared for non-violent resistance to the threats of the tarsands pipeline, uranium mining and coal-fired power plants.
Native Americans also prepared to walk across America for the fourth time to affirm Indigenous rights. The Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz, will depart from DC on July 15, returning home to Alcatraz Island for a ceremony on Dec. 22, 2013.

Zapatistas and Mohawks Vicam 2007

In Chiapas, Zapatistas planned a gathering in August to continue the efforts which began in Yaqui territory in Sonora in 2007.

During June, Lakotas with Moccasins on the Ground in South Dakota trained to defend their lands and water from the threat of the dirty crude oil of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. Already farmers in Texas and Oklahoma have been jailed while defending their small farms from the pipeline’s destruction on the southern route.
At the Left Forum in New York, Debra White Plume joined Noam Chomsky, shown holding an announcement of her documentary film called Crying Earth Rise Up.
In Arizona, Native Americans prepared to protest the reopening of the Canyon Uranium Mine on Havasupai sacred land at Red Butte at the Grand Canyon.

White Plume and Chomsky/ Photo Owe Aku

Longest Walk 4 organizers said this weekend that the five month walk, Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz, will begin with a sunrise ceremony in DC on July 15 and follow closely the route of the original Longest Walk in 1978.
The walk will affirm Indigenous sovereignty. The guiding force is land based spiritual beliefs. The walk focuses on protection from the exploitation of the land, including the tar sands development and pipelines. Further, the walk focuses on protecting and maintaining traditional spiritual beliefs, protecting sacred sites and stopping the exploitation of Indigenous women and children.
“The time has come to make our voices heard again for our own Indigenous Peoples, as the original message affirming Indigenous Sovereignty has become clouded through the efforts of the nation-states. The threats to our continued existence and way of life are more severe than ever, yet it has become better disguised. We hope to help bring the original vision back to the forefront,” organizers for the Long Walk 4 said this weekend.
In Norway during June, the Indigenous Environmental Network made an intervention, as a group of Indigenous Peoples planned an Indigenous World Conference for 2014.
The intervention focused on the false green economy and the scam of the carbon credit market which allows the world’s worst polluters to continue polluting.

Photo Ben Powless

Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said, “This green economy regime places a monetary price on Nature and creates new derivative markets that will only increase inequality and expedite the destruction of Nature – of Mother Earth. We cannot put the future of Nature and humanity in the hands of financial speculative mechanisms like carbon trading, REDD, conservation and biodiversity offsets and payment for environmental and ecological services."
In the defense of the Rights of Nature, and preservation of languages and cultures, video and education continue to be tools for upholding autonomy and dignity.
Traditional grassroots Indigenous Peoples are continuing the work of protecting the Rights of Nature, as highlighted in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2010, and enacted in Ecuador and Bolivia. Efforts have increased to fight oil and gas drilling, mining, coal-fired power plants and deforestation, as Indigenous Peoples defend their homelands and rivers throughout the Americas.
In Chiapas, Zapatistas invited supporters to the Seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso to be celebrated in CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, beginning on August 17, 2013.
Zapatistas said the gathering is a continuation of the efforts that took shape during the First Encounter of Indigenous Peoples of America celebrated in October of 2007 in Vicam, Sonora, on Yaqui territory. The seminar Tata Juan Chávez Alonso will hold its sessions at different locations of indigenous America throughout the continent, in accordance with the geographies and calendars agreed upon by those who called for the seminar and those who join along the way.

Film capture by Censored News

In northern Arizona, a video made by Native American middle school students, in defense of San Francisco Peaks, was the most viewed video at the online Green Festival over the weekend. Doo'ko'oosliid : San Francisco Peaks, directed by Camille Manybeads Tso and Kira Butler, was the most viewed film at the Green Film Festival, Culture Unplugged.
The Arizona Snowbowl near Flagstaff, Ariz. -- in disregard for sacred San Francisco Peaks and the healing ceremonies of area Native Americans -- has fought American Indians in federal court in order to use recycled sewage water on the sacred mountain to make snow for skiers and tourists. Medicine men gather plants on the mountain for healing ceremonies. San Francisco Peaks is sacred to 13 area Native American Nations.
(Photo right: Camille Manybeads Tso, Navajo)
Author Brenda Norrell  brendanorrell@gmail.com
Also see:
Longest Walk 4 Return to Alcatraz 2013
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/longest-walk-4-return-to-alcatraz-july.html
Defend Havasupai sacred land from uranium mining
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/defend-havasupai-sacred-land-from.html
Zapatista Events Summer 2013
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/zapatistas-events-summer-2013.html
Owe Aku International Moccasins on the Ground
 http://www.oweakuinternational.org/moccasins-on-the-ground.html
World Indigenous Conference 2014 Intervention by Indigenous Environmental Network
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/world-indigenous-conference-2014.html
Dine youths’ Dooko’oosliid on Green Film Festival
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/06/dine-youths-dookooosliid-on-link-tv.html