Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Blue Self-Existing Night/ Blue Galactic Eagle - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 8





Image result for standing rock images




The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe recently won a major legal victory in federal court which may have the power to force the shutdown of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration failed to conduct an adequate environmental review of the pipeline, after President Trump ordered the Army Corps to fast-track and green-light its approval. The judge requested additional briefings next week on whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of a full review of a potential oil spill’s impacts on fishing and hunting rights, as well as environmental justice. The pipeline faced months of massive resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, members of hundreds of other indigenous tribes from across the Americas, as well as non-Native allies. We speak with Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault II and Nick Tilsen, executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Continued from yesterday's post.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we return to my conversation about the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline with Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault and Nick Tilsen of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He’s a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on the reservation. I asked Nick Tilsen about his family’s history.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about your family, your family’s history. You’re from Pine Ridge.

NICK TILSEN: Yeah. So my mother, JoAnn Tall Janis, is from Pine Ridge. My father, Mark Tilsen, is from the Minneapolis Twin Cities area. My grandfather, Ken Tilsen, was a civil rights attorney and attorney for the American Indian Movement. And my parents met around the time of Wounded Knee. And so I got to really grow up around like activist type of family.

AMY GOODMAN: And for those who don’t know what Wounded Knee was?

NICK TILSEN: Wounded Knee—Wounded Knee was the siege or occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973, that was organizing from different indigenous people from around the country, about—

AMY GOODMAN: In South Dakota.

NICK TILSEN: In South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, about three miles from where I live. And it was—it was—the generation before, it was their Standing Rock, right? It was the time in which people spoke out about all these grave injustices against all indigenous people. And it sort of sparked—sparked a movement throughout, you know, the future of Indian country about what it means. And so, I always compare—I was growing up in a family, hearing all these stories about Wounded Knee and about the American Indian Movement, and always asked, "I wonder what our Wounded Knee is going to be. I wonder what—I wonder what our generation’s Wounded Knee is going to be." And then Standing Rock happened.  And I think the most important point here is, if you looked at after Wounded Knee, the trajectory of Indian country began to change. Different policies were changed to our Indian country. And that’s one of the—that’s one of the stories, I guess, that we have here, one of the opportunities that we have as Indian country here, is that where we go from here for the indigenous rights struggle in this country is huge. There’s a consciousness that it’s raised. There’s people that are fired up. And have the—we have the possibility and the potential to shape what the next, you know, 40, 50 years looks like for indigenous people.

AMY GOODMAN: Your great-grandmother was Meridel Le Sueur?

NICK TILSEN: Yep.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us who she was?

NICK TILSEN: Meridel Le Sueur was—she was a poet. She was an activist. She was a writer. And she was a bold believer in a different world. And, you know, she was a poet. She was a writer of poetry books. But she also, you know, fought for the women’s right to vote. She was an organizer in the labor movement, big sacrificer for some of the rights that we have today and sort of—not sort of. She’s a legend, I guess, beyond our family and did a lot of—did a lot of things that helped shape this country. And to me, you know, as—to me and our generation, I think we still derive a lot of courage from the courage that she had.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you were arrested, September.

NICK TILSEN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And what were you doing?

NICK TILSEN: On September 14th, there was a group of us—there as a group of us that locked down to machinery. This was during the period of time where they moved—they moved the buffer zone. So, there was a buffer zone; there was no construction within 20 miles. But what the companies had done is they moved to a seven-day workweek outside of that 20 miles. So this whole time, they knew that they were going to get approval. They just moved out. So we said, "Well, instead of sit back and waiting for them, let’s take the fight to them. Let’s use nonviolent direct action, and let’s use our abilities to take the fight to them." And so we went to the—we went to a construction site, came upon the machinery. And immediately when they’ve seen us, they tried to run us over with the excavators. They swung the buckets at us, barely missed us. We ended up climbing, using our bodies, climbing up on the machinery and shutting the construction down.

AMY GOODMAN: What were you charged with?

NICK TILSEN: I was charged with four different charges. Three misdemeanors—disorderly conduct, obstruction of a government function—disorderly conduct, obstruction of a government function. The felony charge was reckless endangerment. And it was a felony charge. This is one of the first felonies that they—one of the first felony charges that they did in Standing Rock was on the day that I was arrested and with the folks that I was taking the action with.  And it was a pretty important thing, because they were trying to use it as a tactic. They were going to—they were trying to use it as a tactic to overcharge people, essentially, to use the political and the legal system to discourage people. And I think I was probably about the 40th person arrested. So their strategy to discourage people didn’t work. I think there was over 700 people, you know, after I was arrested, that were arrested.
But the disorderly conduct charge is a serious charge. I’m still facing that charge. I’m set to go to trial on August 17th. The difference between a misdemeanor disorderly—or reckless endangerment charge and a felony is that they’re basically saying I had extreme indifference for human life, for locking myself to a piece of machinery to protect water.

AMY GOODMAN: How many people are still facing trials, facing charges?

NICK TILSEN: Hundreds. I mean, I think—yeah, I was on the Water Protector Legal Collective email chain recently, and I think there’s still, you know, between 400 and 600 people facing charges.

AMY GOODMAN: Chairman Dave Archambault, you, too, were arrested.

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: When were you arrested? And has your case gone to trial?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes, I was arrested on August 12th. And last week, I just got done with my trial, and I was acquitted.

AMY GOODMAN: Was it a jury trial?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You alone?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: No, there was another, Councilman Dana Yellow Fat, that was in the court case with me. And then there was another lady, Alayna Eagle Shield, who was also going to court with us. And it was interesting. So, when we were arrested, the bond was set at $250. And I know Nick—

AMY GOODMAN: $250.

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes. I know when Nick was arrested, that had—it started going up, the cost. Just the bond was starting to increase. And the charges started to change. And the language, all the propaganda began, with the state and the state outlets—news outlets started saying that "These are terrorist acts. They’re inciting riots." And so, for my charge, it was disorderly conduct. I was probably the second day of the entire camp, is when I got arrested. So, there was maybe 12 people at that time, total, that got arrested. And the reason I got arrested was because I was trying to protect another lady, who was standing in the path of vehicles exiting. And I was met by a wall of law enforcement, and I tried to go around. And then—

AMY GOODMAN: Do they know you?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: No, they didn’t know me. And in the hearing, the officer who confronted me, who I ran into, said I had my hands on him and I was yelling, which was not true. So when I testified in our hearing, I said, "I don’t yell. What he was describing a lili that women, Lakota women, do. And he said I was doing that. And when you look at the video and you look at the pictures, my mouth is closed. And he said I had my hands on him, but my hands were back, and I was going through the line. And so, the prosecutor brought up another witness, another law enforcement that was close by, and asked him, "Was the chairman yelling?" And he said, "No." "Did the chairman have his hands...?" He said, "No." So, two officers saying two different things. And I was just—

AMY GOODMAN: These are Morton County sheriff’s deputies?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: One—yeah, I think they were both from Morton County. But, you know, the jury being able to hear actually what happened and making the decision was a relief, because this was something—that was the first thing. Right after that, the Dakota Access pipeline filed a temporary restraining order on me. And that was granted. So, the tribe filed a temporary restraining order on the company, and the judge said, "We’re not granting this." But as soon as they file one on me, the judge grants it. And then, after that, they filed a civil suit in federal court against me to try to pin all the costs and expenses that the protest is creating on me. And I would say maybe about three weeks ago that one was dismissed, because you can’t—you can’t pin a certain—I think it has to be $75,000 or more on one individual, and they couldn’t put that on me.

AMY GOODMAN: So you were charged with a misdemeanor. And what happened? Were you jailed?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes, I went to jail. And we bonded out the same day.

AMY GOODMAN: You were—were you strip-searched?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yeah
.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you put in an orange jumpsuit?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And you were jailed?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick, the same?

NICK TILSEN: Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, strip-searched, jailed. I had a broken foot at the time. Yeah, we weren’t treated very well in there. I mean, we didn’t get our bedding in. Actually, some of the other—there was other Native brothers that were in jail for other things, and they were the ones advocating for us to get our bedding and different stuff, because they had been in there for a while.

AMY GOODMAN: At this point, hundreds of members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribes and non-Native allies still face trial.

NICK TILSEN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response to this exposé about TigerSwan and them calling the resistance, meaning you, Chairman Dave Archambault, also you, Nick Tilsen, and so many others, the "insurgency"? What do you make of that, even referring to your resistance as a kind of "jihadi" insurgency, Nick?

NICK TILSEN: Insurgents. How is it possible? How is it possible that any indigenous people are insurgents on their own land? Our land has been overrun by corporations, by the militarization of our lands and our communities and our people. It’s impossible for us, as indigenous people on our only land, to be insurgents. If there’s insurgents, it’s the company. If there’s insurgents, it’s the private military company. It’s impossible for us to be insurgents on our own land. We did at Standing Rock what our ancestors did. We did at Standing Rock, which was stand in prayer, we did things founded in our culture, our spirituality. This is women, children, families, people that came there to sacrifice. We were not insurgents. We were people fighting for what was right, simply fighting for what we believed in and protecting water on behalf of 17 million Americans.  And to call us insurgents is a disgrace to the future generations. It’s also a reality that this is the political times that we’re in. When you rise up and you take political action and you do it in a peaceful way founded in your—founded in your beliefs, you’re faced with guns, you’re faced with water cannons, you’re faced with bullets, you’re faced with all kinds of violence. That violence was put on us. The water protectors never enacted violence on any of the—on any of the police. That was not—that was not something that happened. We trained our communities and our people in nonviolent direct action, and we did it collectively. And so, to call us insurgents is completely wrong. It’s an alternative fact.

AMY GOODMAN: So, I want to turn now to what’s happening now at Standing Rock. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is now leading an initiative to build a solar farm in Cannon Ball, less than three miles from the Dakota Access pipeline. Among the companies that will be helping build the solar farm is Native Renewables. This is Native Renewables co-founder Wahleah Johns, speaking Thursday at the Henry Wallace Award ceremony in New York City for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

WAHLEAH JOHNS: The father, the sun, it provides—it can provide power. It can empower us. And that’s been a lot of what we’ve been talking about with Native Renewables, is that empowering our communities to actually learn how it works, how solar works, but also building our capacity to manage and own projects to generate power. So far, a lot of tribes are being—like, our land base is being targeted by fossil fuel companies. And how do we shift away from that? And I’m from a big coal-mining community, and I chose this work because I wanted to see something different, and I want to protect our water, so our future generations have a future that is healthy and clean.

AMY GOODMAN: Chairman Dave Archambault, talk about what it is you’re doing now just a few miles from the Dakota Access pipeline, where the oil is flowing. The fossil fuel industry has succeeded in building that. But what are you now doing at Standing Rock?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: We have over 12 communities on Standing Rock. What would be a dream or goal is to have all 12 communities powered off of renewables. But we have to start somewhere. And the best place to start is in Cannon Ball, because it’s so close to where this pipeline is, where this fossil fuel bane exists. And so, at the community level, then at the national level, if tribes, Native tribal nations can say we are 100 percent powered and 100 percent that we consume renewable energy, that builds awareness for other communities and then maybe the nation.

AMY GOODMAN: So how are you doing this, with wind and solar?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: With the solar panels, we’re starting off with a 300-kilowatt project. On the commercial wind side, we have a resource, and that’s the wind, that can generate a lot of electricity in the Great Plains. And so, how do we develop it to where—to where the tribe is actually the owner of the project and not the investors or the developers? So we need to take a more active role, and so we’re exploring different ways to be the actual owners once this is developed.

AMY GOODMAN: Of a wind farm?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Of a wind farm. And it will be a commercial wind farm, so that we’re talking like 100 megawatts, producing on average maybe 40 to 50 megawatts annually. So we’ll be able to take those—that power and sell it commercially and then use the resources to offset or to evolve our homes, so that they can provide heat in a good way, rather than burning fossil fuels.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Nick Tilsen, what does this mean to you in Pine Ridge to have this kind of project?

NICK TILSEN: I think it means a lot to us in Pine Ridge and all of Indian country. I mean, tribal communities have been the place where negative resource extraction—it’s been the place where pipelines go through. It’s been the place where they store nuclear waste. It’s the—the Native nations in this country have been the dumping grounds for the energy industry for a long time. It just so happens to be that Native communities are also—have the potential to be the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy. These communities are also—you’ve got eight of the 12 poorest communities in all of America, are in North Dakota and South Dakota, and they’re all Indian communities. And so—

AMY GOODMAN: Explain that.

NICK TILSEN: Eight of the—eight of the 12 poorest communities in all of America are in North Dakota and South Dakota, and they’re all tribal communities. So this pipeline and projects—this pipeline, Keystone—Keystone XL pipeline, they’re not only just going through the heart of Indian country, they’re going through ground zero for inequity in America. They’re going through ground zero for poverty in America. And so, what we’re basically saying is we’re not just against these pipelines. We’re against these pipelines. We’re against—we believe that these pipelines are pipelines to the past. And we believe that we should be building sustainable infrastructure for the future, and so that we have the potential and we have the opportunity in tribal nations, like they’re doing in Standing Rock and like we’re doing on Pine Ridge with Thunder Valley—is building the communities of tomorrow and beginning the process of just transition and what that looks like.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re founding executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, which is what?

NICK TILSEN: It’s a nonprofit, grassroots, community-based organization doing sustainable economic development in one of the poorest communities in America. And we’re building a community from scratch based on renewable energy, sustainable housing and designing communities based on indigenous values.And so, what this means for us is, the time in Standing Rock, this was not just against the pipeline. We’re fighting for our very future. And, you know, we have to be able to meet the needs of our present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. And this is a very indigenous way of thinking, indigenous values way of thinking. It’s also a very practical way of thinking, because the past energy and economic model that this country has been operating on has continued to create a separation between the rich and the poor, exploit lands, and we’re fighting for something very different.  And so I think that this project at Standing Rock is one—this movement, having come to Standing Rock, let’s make sure something happens for the people of Standing Rock. Let’s make sure that this inspiration happening at Standing Rock benefits the people of Standing Rock. And I think that’s what Wahleah, Native Renewables, Give Power—they’re all collectively working to help make that happen. And so, this means inspiration for us, because if it can happen at Thunder Valley and Pine Ridge, and if this can happen in Cannon Ball and Standing Rock, this can have a ripple effect to what happens all throughout Indian country, and hopefully begin to reform the way that energy policy and and energy projects happen.


AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen, head of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. And from North Dakota, Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault.*





AKBAL



Kin 43: Blue Self-Existing Night


I define in order to dream
Measuring intuition
I seal the input of abundance
With the self-existing tone of form
I am guided by the power of self-generation
I am a galactic activation portal
Enter me.


The simple, most elegant means will always be true; therefore, it will be aesthetic and moral.*



*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.






The Sacred Tzolk'in



Sahasrara Chakra (Dali Plasma)






Tuesday, July 4, 2017

White Electric Wind/ White Resonant Wizard - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 7





Image result for Standing Rock images



The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe recently won a major legal victory in federal court which may have the power to force the shutdown of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration failed to conduct an adequate environmental review of the pipeline, after President Trump ordered the Army Corps to fast-track and green-light its approval. The judge requested additional briefings next week on whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of a full review of a potential oil spill’s impacts on fishing and hunting rights, as well as environmental justice. The pipeline faced months of massive resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, members of hundreds of other indigenous tribes from across the Americas, as well as non-Native allies. We speak with Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault II and Nick Tilsen, executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn now to the battle over the Dakota Access pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a major legal victory in federal court in June, which may have the power to force the shutdown of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled the Trump administration failed to conduct an adequate environmental review of the pipeline, after President Trump ordered the Army Corps to fast-track and green-light its approval. The judge requested additional briefings on whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of a full review of a potential oil spill’s impacts on fishing and hunting rights, as well as environmental justice. The pipeline faced months of massive resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, members of hundreds of other indigenous tribes from across the Americas, as well as non-Native allies.

Speaking at a rally, President Trump said, a few weeks ago, he signed the memo green-lighting the Dakota Access pipeline with his eyes closed.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’m pleased to announce that the Dakota Access pipeline, which I just mentioned, is now officially open for business, a $3.8 billion investment in American infrastructure that was stalled. And nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg. And I just closed my eyes and said, "Do it." ...
You know, when I approved it—it’s up. It’s running. It’s beautiful. It’s great. Everybody’s happy. The sun is still shining. The water is clean. But, you know, when I approved it, I thought I’d take a lot of heat. And I took none, actually none. People respected that I approved it. But I take so much heat for nonsense that it probably overrode—it probably overrode the other. It’s like a decoy.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I recently spoke withe Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault when he was here in New York. He was joined by Nick Tilsen, executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. I asked Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault about the tribe’s lawsuit challenging the Dakota Access pipeline.

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: From the very beginning, we asked the Corps of Engineers, "What impact will this pipeline have on our people?" And the Corps of Engineers never could answer that. Their response is, "We’re doing an environmental assessment, and we’re going to see what impact it will have on the environment." And there’s no impact. That’s their—that’s what they state. So when we say, "Well, we need to do a further look and see what really happens when infrastructure projects have an impact on our people"—and we’ve experienced many infrastructure projects in the past, such as a railroad system. The railroad system facilitated the near-extinction of buffalo herds. When we were at 70 million buffalo in 1800, by 1889 we’re down to less than a hundred. And it was the railroad track system that did that. There’s interstates. There’s telecommunications. There’s dams. All these infrastructure projects have a significant impact on us. So that’s the question we asked. And to get the answer, it required a full, in-depth environmental impact statement. So, we were able to, with the past administration, say, "Let’s at least do the environmental impact statement." With this administration, the EA: "There’s not going to be any impact to you or to your people," which we know is—if or when this pipeline breaks, we will be the first impacted.

AMY GOODMAN: There were leaks even before it went operational?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yes, there were.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what that means? It wasn’t operational, so how were there leaks?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yeah, they started putting pipeline—like, where the valves—to test the valves, they put oil through the pipelines. And it leaked significant amounts, even though it was a test. So, we understood and we knew that there were going to be leaks. It wasn’t even fully operational, and they were already experiencing leaks and getting fined for 200,000 gallons of oil being leaked. And so—and then they said, "We’ll clean it up, and we fixed it. It’s OK now." But, you know, that just goes to show that this pipeline is not clean. It’s not pretty. It’s not a beautiful thing. It’s something that’s going to come back and haunt—not us, maybe not us today, but the future.

AMY GOODMAN: Dave Archambault, can you respond to what President Trump said? He just closed his eyes and signed it.

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Yeah, when President Trump comes out with statements like that, it just is revealing his true character. It tells America what kind of person he is, when we all know that his first agenda was to sign this presidential memorandum. He was actually calling it an executive order, and then they switched it to a presidential memorandum. But it’s because he has his own interest in this pipeline. He was sponsored, with his campaign, by Kelcy Warren. He had shares for Energy Transfer Partners. He had political interests. All the people who support him are saying this has to be done. So, for him to say, "I blindly did this," it’s a complete lie, and it tells what kind of character this man really has.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen, your response when you heard President Trump say he did this with his eyes closed, signing off on the final permit to allow the Dakota Access pipeline to be built under the Missouri River, and then that there was no response afterward?

NICK TILSEN: Yeah, I mean, I think that the reality of him signing with his eyes closed, that’s probably the truth. It’s probably what he did do. I mean, he’s been a—he’s been a prop of the energy companies, who are having their heyday. And that’s just the reality. I mean, we’ve seen, you know, one of the biggest outcries in protest in decades, and historical amounts of protest, in Dakota Access. And for him to—for him to say that there was—that it was met with no response is a total lie. That’s one of his—another alternative facts that he has, when the reality is, you know, tens of thousands of people sacrificed. We sacrificed our freedoms to protect this water. We sacrificed everything that we had. And it was women and children and families, and indigenous people with our allies from all over the country and all over the world. People around the world understand what happened at Standing Rock.
And I think this is a constant sort of PR thing that says, "Oh, nobody cares." But the reality is, people do care and that, now, you know, there’s an established movement in this country. There’s an established indigenous rights movement. It’s starting to converge with these other movements. And he’s not going to be able to say—you know, he’s going to be able to say those things all he wants, but there’s a growing movement across this country, and people are crying out in many different ways. And so, I think, you know, the president, Trump, saying these kinds of things is not true, and there’s millions of people who know it’s not true. But we have to continue to have our voices be the loudest ones in the room.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask about an explosive new investigation by The Intercept that reveals how international private security firm TigerSwan targeted Dakota Access water protectors with military-style counter-terrorism measures. TigerSwan began as a U.S. military and State Department contractor, hired by Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The investigation based on leaked internal documents, which show how TigerSwan collaborated closely with law enforcement agencies to surveil and target the nonviolent indigenous-led movement. In the documents, TigerSwan also repeatedly calls the water protectors "insurgents" and the movement "an ideologically driven insurgency," even uses words like "jihadi." Chairman Dave Archambault?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: You know, it just goes to show who law enforcement is going to listen to. And law enforcement listens to the political leaders. And the political leaders are bought by corporations. So, in North Dakota, we have a senator who has interests in the oil fields. We have a—

AMY GOODMAN: Who is that?

DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Senator Hoeven. He has an interest in the wells, that he owns. We have Senator Cramer and Senator—or, Congressman Cramer and Senator Heitkamp. They receive some of the largest amounts of contributions from the fossil fuel industry. We have a governor—at that time, Governor Dalrymple—who had some intermixings with China oil. And so, this whole political leadership in North Dakota will say, "We have to have this pipeline go in." And because they’re saying this, they’re only going to listen to the corporation and the company. And they’re going to give direction to the law enforcement.
And it’s frustrating to me, because we had countless meetings with law enforcement. And we let them know that there’s infiltrators. This is not all the demonstrators who are creating this. We don’t know who all the people are. All along, they’re listening to the company’s security, private security firms. They’re working hand in hand with the company’s private security firms. They’re having daily meetings, daily briefings, with the company’s security firms and ignoring completely tribal leadership. And all we were doing is trying to make sure that safety was the number one priority, where these guys, if the reports from TigerSwan—on TigerSwan are true, they weren’t—they weren’t looking out for safety. They were looking to incite and to harm. And that’s disturbing.

AMY GOODMAN: When we were there Labor Day weekend, when I first met you out there at the camps, you know, we could see the planes. And whenever I would point them out and ask, people would say, "Oh, they’re just surveilling us." It became business as usual. And, Nick, I was wondering if you could talk about this and the significance of when you have these private paramilitary firms—TigerSwan founded by a Delta Force member, former Delta Force member—where you have these companies, as Chairman Dave was just describing, working with local law enforcement and the effect it has. I mean, then I’d like to go into your own personal history and your remarkable family history. But what this means?

NICK TILSEN: I mean, I don’t think anybody is surprised, so any—any water protectors that were out there. These reports that are coming out basically prove—they prove that this is the—this is the modern form of COINTELPRO. That’s what it is.

AMY GOODMAN: The Counterintelligence Program of the FBI—

NICK TILSEN: Absolutely.

AMY GOODMAN: —that targeted Black Panthers and people of color for years under Hoover.

NICK TILSEN: I mean, I don’t think anybody is surprised, so any—any water protectors that were out there. These reports that are coming out basically prove—they prove that this is the—this is the modern form of COINTELPRO. That’s what it is.

AMY GOODMAN: The Counterintelligence Program of the FBI—

NICK TILSEN: Absolutely.

AMY GOODMAN: —that targeted Black Panthers and people of color for years under Hoover.

NICK TILSEN: This is a modern, contracted version of it, who’s designed in using basically all of the lessons that they have been building off of fighting terrorism, but using it on their own people. And this is—this is real. Like, in the camp and all the organizing and all the stuff that we did, we knew that this was happening. We couldn’t prove that it was happening, but we knew that, to an element, it was happening. We would show up at these protests. We’d have security officers and police who knew us by first name, who knew where we came from, who knew where in the camp we were staying. There was all kinds of stuff that happened during that time.
And I think the reality is, like the American public needs to realize that, you know, when we were organizing the camp, we were not allowed to fly our own planes over. We were not allowed to have our own observations. And we thought about doing that. We thought about getting resources to be able to do that. There was a no-fly zone. So there was a no-fly zone in place over the camp. Meanwhile, counterintelligence companies are allowed to come and surveil—survey us. This is the—this is a misuse of the democracy. And this is a fundamental issue of our time.
I’m glad that these reports are coming out now, and not 20 years from now, because them coming out now lets the broader movements that are now converging together understand that this is happening. And this is something that the public has have a public outcry over. To use—to use counterintelligence tactics against peaceful water protectors who are expressing our constitutional rights to—for freedom of speech, this is—this is an outrage. And I think that, moving forward, we have to be—we have to be diligent. Like the movement has to be diligent in recognizing that this is a reality. And those that support us have to recognize what we’re fighting against. You know, we show up with our prayers. We show up with our bodies. We show up with our children and our families to these protests. And these guys are showing up with all the technology that’s possible and all the weaponry that’s possible. And this is a—this is a fight over the future of this country. 

AMY GOODMAN: They have automatic weapons and actually MRAPs, right? These are military technology. You know, it seems like recycling today is sending the weapons back from Afghanistan and Iraq and giving them to the police departments and sheriff departments of our country.

NICK TILSEN: Absolutely. And I think this also represents a misuse of power. I mean, the former governor, you know, created a militarized state on purpose. He created—he created the militarized state. And the narrative is still the same. We showed up there. We showed up there in peaceful ways, in protest. And we were—we were compounded with violence. There was dogs that were attacked on our people. This happened, in the 21st century, in this country. And these are some of the realities, you know, that we’re faced with.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. We’ll be back with him and Standing Rock Sioux Chair Dave Archambault in a minute.*


To be continued...


IK



Kin 42: White Electric Wind


I activate in order to communicate
Bonding breath
I seal the input of spirit
With the electric tone of service
I am guided by the power of death.


The seventh mental sphere can only be accessed through the evolution of the third dimensional 
entity into a planetoid type of being whose crown center is the noosphere itself.*


*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.






The Sacred Tzolk'in 



Anahata Chakra (Silio Plasma)






Monday, July 3, 2017

Red Lunar Dragon/ Red Rhythmic Skywalker - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 6





Frances Crowe sits in her wheelchair with police close by.
 Courtesy Sugar Shack Alliance.
Frances Crowe sits in her wheelchair with police close by.





ING Bank Says It Will Not Finance Four Major Pipelines; 98-Year-Old Peace Activist Arrested Protesting Kinder Morgan Pipeline:

In March, the Dutch bank pulled $120 million from the Dakota Access Pipeline due to concerns about 'violence used against the protesters'


Acting in response to a letter of concern sent by an assemblage of 20 environmental groups, ING Bank said it will not invest in four major Canadian pipeline projects, including Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion, Keystone XL, Energy East, and Line 3 Expansion pipelines.

“The letter highlighted the proposed pipeline’s detrimental impact on the climate and its violations of Indigenous rights,” Greenpeace said in a press release.

“Processing oil sands is known to be energy intensive, producing significant greenhouse gas emissions,” ING said in a statement posted on its website. “This is in addition to potential social impacts, such as on the local native tribes historically using the land.”

 Tara Houska, ICMN contributing writer and campaigns director for indigenous environmental group Honor the Earth — one of the 20 groups who sent the letter to ING, lauded the bank’s decision. “ING’s commitment against project level financing of tar sands is a significant step in the right direction,” she said in a statement. “We are looking to banks to take on a leadership role and fully divest from funding tar sands and the companies that continue to extract the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world.”

In March, ING said after meeting with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in February, and learning of the tribe’s opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the bank would divest its $120 million from the project. “(We) publicly expressed our concerns about the project and the violence used against the protesters” and “decided to stop doing any new business with the companies, not renewing credit facilities that expire, effectively ending the relationship,” the bank said in a statement

“This is the latest reminder that financing pipelines that violate Indigenous rights, threaten water and undermine action on climate change is bad for business and carries considerable risk,” said Alex Speers-Roesch with Greenpeace Canada. “More and more banks and investment funds are realizing that in order to preserve their reputations and long-term financial performance, pipelines are not the way to go.”

The Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline will connect to two existing pipelines in western Massachusetts and will stretch for four miles.

Meanwhile, on June 28, Frances Crowe, a 98-year-old peace activist with the climate justice group Sugar Shack Alliance, was arrested with seven others during a protest against the pipeline, CNN reported. “The police came and said if we went any further they would arrest us. And we tried to go under the rope but we couldn’t get under it, so they arrested us where we were. They put us under arrest,” Crowe told News10.

Crowe, who has been arrested more than a handful a times while protesting, spent a month in federal prison for spray-painting “Thou Shalt Not Kill” on missile tube casings, Mass Live reported.

The Sugar Shack wrote on its Facebook page that 32 people have been arrested to date protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The action on June 28 launched the groups planned “Summer of Resistance.”

The Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion a $7.4 billion project that “will increase from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of oil per day,” Kinder Morgan-Canada reports on its website. Proponents of the pipeline argue it will create an estimated 15,000 jobs.*

By Lynn Cordova • July 2, 2017
Culture Editor Simon Moya-Smith contributed to this report.




IMIX



Kin 41: Red Lunar Dragon

I polarize in order to nurture
Stabilizing being
I seal the input of birth
With the lunar tone of challenge
I am guided by the power of space.


That which we think of as our mind or intelligence is merely a resonant quality of mind that is not contained in our body, brain or nervous system.*


*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.







The Sacred Tzolk'in 




Manipura Chakra (Limi Plasma)





Sunday, July 2, 2017

Yellow Magnetic Sun/ Yellow Overtone Human - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 5






1st place Winner of the Month, Dec 2016, & 1st place Winner of the Year for 2016: Moonlit Night Scene by Pudloo Pitsiulak
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
1st place Winner of the Month, Dec 2016, & 1st place Winner of the Year for 2016: 
Moonlit Night Scene by Pudloo Pitsiulak



10 Stunning Photos Snapped by Inuit of Their Homeland


Northern Canada has long held mystique for those of us who do not live there. Its ethereal aurora borealis, ice-dwelling sea creatures and otherwordly landscapes both entice and intimidate us.  The region’s inhabitants, the Inuit, have been there for thousands of years and know the terrain better than anyone.

Thanks to the Internet, the land claims agreement and digital technology, glimpses of these ancient scenes can now be delivered to the rest of us.

The Inuit land claims organization Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. sponsors a monthly photo contest that welcomes submissions from anyone enrolled under the treaty that created the territory of Nunavut. Every year since 2006 there has been an annual winner, and most months there are multiple submissions, and a monthly winner as well.

Here are 10 of the standouts for 2017, starring Mother Earth at her most majestic, with some others covered previously referenced below.*

By ICMN Staff • June 25, 2017




1st place, Jan 2017: "Winding Road" by Pudloo Pitsiulak
1st place, Jan 2017: “Winding Road” by Pudloo Pitsiulak



1st place, Feb 2017: Aurura by Josia Akpaliapik
1st place, Feb 2017: Aurura by Josia Akpaliapik


3rd place, Feb 2017: A light of Qulliq by Barry
3rd place, Feb 2017: A light of Qulliq by Barry



1st place, March 2017: Winter Tiriaq by David Kakuktinniq
1st place, March 2017: Winter Tiriaq by David Kakuktinniq



3rd place, March 2017: Building an Iglu by Pudloo Pitsiulak
3rd place, March 2017: Building an Iglu by Pudloo Pitsiulak


1st place, April 2017: Preserved In Ice by Pudloo Pitsiulak
1st place, April 2017: Preserved In Ice by Pudloo Pitsiulak



2nd place, April 2017: Mount Herodier by Nashook Qamaniq
2nd place, April 2017: Mount Herodier by Nashook Qamaniq



3rd place, April 2017: Arctic Hare by Pudloo Pitsiulak
3rd place, April 2017: Arctic Hare by Pudloo Pitsiulak


1st place, May 2017: Fishing Derby by Terri Angalik
1st place, May 2017: Fishing Derby by Terri Angalik




AHAU



Kin 40: Yellow Magnetic Sun


I unify in order to enlighten
Attracting life
I seal the matrix of universal fire
With the magnetic tone of purpose
I am guided by my own power doubled.


There are infinite sets of mathematical permutations in the ever-changing chemical composition of life.*



*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.










The Sacred Tzolk'in




Visshudha Chakra (Alpha Plasma)






Saturday, July 1, 2017

Blue Cosmic Storm/ Blue Self-Existing Monkey - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 4





Navajo women weavers circa 1914
                                       Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Navajo women weavers circa 1914.



The Power of Navajo Women:

Navajo men and women have always shared responsibilities and complemented each other, with no hierarchy


A Navajo woman’s day has always begun before dawn when she rises, goes outside, faces east and prays with white cornmeal.

This is vital to ensure that each day is successful and properly lived, Ruth Roessel, a lifelong educator, wrote in her 1981 book Women in Navajo Society (Navajo Curriculum Center,1801). Following her prayer, the woman would return to the hogan and build a fire—often using wood she herself had chopped.

Daylight hours were filled with responsibilities, including cooking, cleaning, sheep herding and hauling water, Roessel wrote. The Navajo woman’s day ends with weaving and storytelling before she tucks her family into bed.

“Finally, the Navajo woman would have her family asleep and a fire burning to keep the hogan warm,” Roessel wrote. “Then she herself finally would lie down and rest.”

Women were always busy, said Vivian Arviso, president of the Navajo Nation Women’s Commission. Arviso, a former Miss Navajo, looks to her late grandmother, Bah, for guidance.

The daughter of a hataałii, or medicine man, Bah was the revered matriarch of her extended family. The mother of 11 children, she was the keeper of wisdom and authority, and she never strayed from traditional teachings.

For example, Bah rose with the sun, wore moccasins every day and never sat in a chair, Arviso said. She was an herbalist who understood the role of plants—from medication to dyeing wool.

“In the morning, you could hear her pounding the loom, the sound echoing throughout the place,” Arviso said of her grandmother. “Then she would get a team of horses and hook them to the wagon, and put her loom in the wagon. She would drive the wagon behind the sheep. While the sheep were grazing she would sit at her loom. She was always busy.”

Since she was the matriarch, Bah’s word was law, Arviso said. Her entire extended family deferred to her authority.

“There was no doubt she was the center of the family,” Arviso said. “She didn’t have to raise her voice or argue. She explained her positions and everyone followed. When she said it was time to move the sheep, we went. If she said a ceremony was needed, it was done. She was very clear, very rational, as to why these things were needed.”

The Navajo woman was strong and independent, Roessel wrote. She knew how to accomplish her tasks and lead her family, and she did not rely on help from other people.

Her role “is not one in which the Navajo woman was dependent upon and subservient to her husband,” Roessel wrote. “She was not constantly asking him to do certain things because she was incapable or unwilling to do them herself.”

This independence stems from the teachings of Changing Woman, the first mother in the Navajo creation story. Changing Woman, raised by the Holy People, gave birth to twin boys who later became cultural heroes.

Navajo women learn their roles from Changing Woman, whose example provides guidance from infancy through adulthood, Roessel wrote. Girls are named before they are four days old, and their ears are immediately pierced. Relatives gather to celebrate the baby’s first laugh, and later to commemorate puberty with the Kinaalda ceremony.

All these ceremonies “reinforced the extended family roles,” Roessel wrote. “The role played by the women in the life of the Navajos’ home was one of primary importance. They were the center of the home, and around them revolved the life of each family.”

The Holy People taught Changing Woman how to dress, wear her hair, care for the home, prepare food and build a fire. Changing Woman did all of this on her own, without the support of a husband, Roessel wrote. She raised her boys alone, and gave them “great affection and love.” She taught them how to race, shoot a bow and arrow, approach danger and ask for help—and to always embrace the good side of things, or the “beauty way.”

Navajo women are expected to teach their children four main elements: religion and traditions; gathering and preparation of food; the importance of water; and instruction related to plants.

“Without the four elements, there could be no life,” Roessel wrote. “It is in the homes that these four essential areas were taught to the children so that they in turn could grow up and carry on the traditions that were handed to them.”

Audra Platero, a lifelong educator and principal of Tséhootsooi Diné Bi Ołta’ School in Fort Defiance, Arizona, said women traditionally held a variety of leadership roles. These roles occurred in the home, extended family and community.

“Traditionally, our role is to take care of our home and our children, but that’s never to say that’s a limitation, that’s all we’re here for,” Platero said. “That’s not the same concept as being barefoot and pregnant. We are the keepers of our homes, our children. We teach them language and culture, and we are responsible for making sure the home is a safe place.”

Men and women share responsibilities and complement each other, Platero said. One is not superior to the other.

“In the Navajo way of life, women nurture, support and provide guidance so there’s a harmonious balance,” she said. “They bring forth ideas and act as leaders, whether they’re wearing the mother hat, their community hat, their employment hat or the grandmother hat.”*

By Alysa Landry • June 29, 2017






CAUAC



Kin 39: Blue Cosmic Storm


I endure in order to catalyze
Transcending energy
I seal the matrix of self-generation
With the cosmic tone of presence
I am guided by the power of abundance
I am a galactic activation portal
Enter me.


 The greatest ally on the path is the power of imagination; this is the creative force that fuels our journey.*


*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.






 The Sacred Tzolk'in




Svadhistanha Chakra (Kali Plasma)