LIve Now! Window Rock: Dine' Mass Mobilization Protest in Navajo Nation Capitol

Live on Facebook: Livestream by Dine' Zuni Pueblo journalist Marley Shebala

https://www.facebook.com/marley.shebala 

Native American Film Series, Lincoln Nebraska, 'Crying Earth Rise Up'

Debra White Plume in 'Crying Earth Rise Up' at home on Pine Ridge before her passing to the Spirit World.

Native American Film Series features films from the far north in Alaska, to Dine' College on the Navajo Nation and Oklahoma, and begins with 'Crying Earth Rise Up' on Pine Ridge

Native American Film Series

Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center are proud to present a series of free screenings featuring short Native American films and tv programs from the VMM public broadcasting archives, spanning nearly 50 years of programming.

Unless otherwise noted, screenings in this series will take place on the second Monday of each month and are admission free and open to the public. Tickets available at the Ross box office (online ticketing not available for free screenings).

Ross Media Arts Center

313 N 13th St, Lincoln, NE 68508

https://theross.org/events/native-american-film-series/

CRYING EARTH RISE UP (2014)
MONDAY, APRIL 14 – 7:25pm

Followed by a talk with Daniel Snow & Dr. Arindam Malakar, moderated by Vision Maker Media’s Alana Stone.

“Water is our first home. Water is our first medicine. Without water, there is no life.” -Debra White Plume (Oglala Lakota), Activist | A Lakota mother studying geology seeks the source of the water contamination that may have caused her daughter’s critical health problems. Meanwhile, a Lakota grandmother fights the regional expansion of uranium mining. Crying Earth Rise Up exposes the cost of uranium mining and its impact on Great Plains drinking water. (57 minutes)

'Demon Mineral' Featured in International Uranium Film Festival 2025

'Demon Mineral' co-written by Dine' Tommy Rock, in Dine' and English, is featured at the International Uranium Film Festival 2025, which begins its global journey in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in May. The festival returns to Window Rock on Nov. 13 and 14, 2025. https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/uranium-film-festival-rio-de-janeiro-may-2025

The Clandestine Operation by the United States Government Meant Death for Dine' in the Uranium Mines

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8228

"They didn't tell us the rock was dangerous. They said they would use it to make weapons, to use against the Asians. But it came back on us."

This is the voice of a Dine' grandmother, speaking in Dine'.

In this Dine' family, there were eight horrible deaths. At the hospital, when the youngest one passed away, the doctors asked the family, "By any chance did you live near a mine?"

The family shares their story in the new film, 'Demon Mineral,' selected for the International Uranium Film Festival 2024.

The secrecy and clandestine operation of the United States government sent Dine' miners to their deaths in the uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. The United States government knew the radiation would kill Navajos, but did not tell them, and sent them into the uranium mines without protective clothing.

Dine' families breathed the dust, and washed the clothes covered with the radioactive dust brought home on the clothes of Dine' miners. Dine' ate the food that they grew in the fields covered with the radioactive dust, as did their livestock.

Dr. Tommy Rock, Dine', is the producer of the film from the lands of Dine' Bikeyah, the Navajo Nation, in what is known as Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The preview is available at https://vimeo.com/556699310

"From 1944 to 1986, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo lands. Today the mines are closed, but a legacy of uranium contamination remains, including over 500 abandoned uranium mines as well as radioactive contaminated homes and freshwater springs," said the International Uranium Film Festival, based in Brazil. The global film festival locations have included Window Rock on the Navajo Nation in previous years.

'Demon Mineral,' produced by Hadley Austin in 2023, was selected by the International Uranium Film Festival as one of the first films for its 13th edition at Rio de Janeiro's famous Modern Art Museum (MAM Rio) Cinematheque, May 25 to June 1, 2024. The festival will be in the United States in 2024. The film is nominated for the Munich International Documentary Film Festival Viktor Award.

The cast and crew include the Jones Benally family -- Jones, Clayson, and Jeneda -- and Leona Morgan, Dine', who has spent her life battling the uranium mining in her home region of Church Rock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation, the site of the deadliest radioactive uranium spill in U.S. history.

The filmmakers of Demon Mineral said:

A penetrating look at the radioactive desert of the Navajo Reservation suffering from the effects of decades of uranium mining, Demon Mineral paints a devastating portrait of bureaucratic inaction and its long-term impact on human life.

'Demon Mineral' with Dr. Tommy Rock, Dine'

This fascinating documentary, directed by Hadley Austin and produced by Dr. Tommy Rock, employs an array of well-sourced scientific data, coupled with archival and on-the-ground footage, to bring into vivid focus the heartbreaking toll of omnipresent radiation on the Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah Indigenous population.

With few avenues available to offset their suffering — compounded by sustained apathy from politicians who might be able to help — a group of Indigenous scientists, elders, and activists strive to reclaim Diné Bikeyah, the sacred land of the Navajo, and gain compensation for their contaminated lands. The illuminating 'Demon Mineral' is an essential vehicle for those directly impacted by this dire situation to draw attention to their plight. —Zaki Hasan

Read more at the International Uranium Film Festival

https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en

Ofelia Rivas 'O'odham Resistance: Human Rights Violations at the Border' April 6, 2025

 

O'ODHAM RESISTANCE: 

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AT THE BORDER 

12:30 p.m. Sunday, April 6
Holland Sanctuary at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson
4831 E. 22nd St., just east of Swan Rd.

Corporate greed, violence and human rights violations by the government are a national pandemic. Here in Southern Arizona, Tohono O'odham tribal elder and activist Ophelia Rivas, a founder of O'odham VOICE Against the WALL, will be in Tucson to speak about the human rights violations, Border Patrol violence and the impact of the occupation of the Tohono O'odham reservation at the Arizona- Mexico border by the U.S. Border Patrol, separating them from their families and sacred tribal ceremonial grounds on the Mexico side of the border.

Co-sponsored by the O'odham VOICE Against the WALL and the Social Justice Council of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson. Free event, but donations will be gratefully accepted to buy groceries, medicine and toys for O'odham families.

Standing Rock Chair on Greenpeace Verdict -- False, Self-serving Narrative in Insulting Lawsuit

 

Photo Rob Wilson Photography

STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBAL CHAIRWOMAN JANET ALKIRE STATEMENT ON THE JURY VERDICT AGAINST GREENPEACE

By Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire

Censored News, March 27, 2025

Translation into French by Christine Prat 

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8592

As Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I take offense to the jury verdict in the Energy Transfer SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace. We expect more from North Dakota judges and members of the jury from our neighboring communities.

Energy Transfer’s claims in this case were ridiculous. They were wholly disrespectful of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, our ancestors, and our youth, who started the movement in 2016 to protect our water from an oil spill from DAPL. Neither Greenpeace nor anyone else paid or persuaded Standing Rock to oppose DAPL.

Our young people and our elders urged us to protect our water and unci makah (grandmother earth). That is what happened, and is happening still. Energy Transfer’s false and self-serving narrative that Greenpeace manipulated Standing Rock into protesting DAPL is patronizing and disrespectful to our people.

We understand that many Morton County residents support the oil industry, even out-of-state pipeline companies such as Energy Transfer. But we are your neighbors, and you should not be fooled that easily. Energy Transfer does not know us. They don’t know who we are – an Indigenous Nation that has survived every attack because our ancestors are with us.

Greenpeace did not manipulate Standing Rock, but Energy Transfer has manipulated Morton County. DAPL crosses our Treaty and aboriginal land for hundreds of miles. 

Our ancestors occupied this land for thousands of years before North Daklota came into existence. The land between the Heart and Missouri River are our unceded Treaty lands under the 1868 and 1851 Fort Laramie Treaties. Our aboriginally-occupied territories extend east to the James River and beyond. That is a historical truth. If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about Sioux Nation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble.

The construction of Fort Rice on our northern boundary in 1864 was a violation of the Fort Laramie Treaties. This required our Tribe to be vigilant. No one should be surprised that warrior society burials are found in this area, near the pipeline route. 

And do not insult our cultural experts, who have wisdom over matters most residents of Morton County or bureaucrats at the State Historical Society know absolutely nothing about. Energy Transfer and its lawyers should be ashamed of themselves. Everyday North Dakotans on the jury should know better.

When it comes to the excessive police and private security response to the generally peaceful protests at Cannon Ball, believe your eyes. The scenes of guard dogs menacing Tribal members are reminiscent of the violence of white supremacists in the deep south during the 1950’s and 60’s, but it was in North Dakota, in this day and age. It was on the news and on the internet.

Many of the protesters were Native American veterans of the United States armed forces. Energy Transfer used attack dogs against peaceful protesters and war heroes. But the jury sided with the out-of-state, unlicensed security with the attack dogs, instead of North Dakota veterans who supported Standing Rock.

A Texas oil company has come to North Dakota, and its lawyers and propaganda machine are weaving stories about how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and our supporters have lied, and how the poor pipeline company, a trillion dollars richer than in 2016 when this all started, should receive extra millions from non-profit organizations. It’s a funny thing about liars – they always accuse everyone else of lying. The Greenpeace trial was marked by secrecy.

The court is not making the transcript public. The documents obtained by Greenpeace about Energy Transfer’s terrible safety record are protected by a secrecy order and are not available to the public. The judge exhibited so much bias in favor of Energy Transfer that a team of international human rights lawyers felt compelled to monitor the trial. One prominent monitor stated “In my six decades of legal practice, I have never witnessed a trial as unfair as the one against Greenpeace that just ended in the courts of North Dakota.”

Standing Rock has tried to work for greater transparency on DAPL. It is our experience with the Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer that all documents relating to DAPL pipeline safety are heavily redacted, and kept secret. What are they hiding? Who is looking out for the communities that may be affected by an oil spill? And why didn’t the North Dakota court allow Greenpeace to address these questions at the trial?

DAPL is a dangerous pipeline. It crosses our unceded Treaty and aboriginal land. Energy Transfer destroyed Tribal burials as identified by our cultural experts, and committed violence against our people. That is the history that North Dakota and Morton County must reckon with. After the Greenpeace verdict, that day seems farther off than ever.