Protection of Sacred Sites: Invite & Challenge

Greetings!
Hundreds of people gathered the other today in front of the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals in San Francisco, unified in efforts to save a sacred
mountain in Arizona from desecration by a proposed ski resort development.
The mountain is sacred to 22 Native American tribes. This past weeks
events that took place on behalf of protecting the Sacred San Francisco
Peaks were so powerful and inspiring!! Be sure to see the colorful
pictures & videos linked below!

The indigenous resistance campaigns to protect sacred sites across North
America and internationally too, is growing more powerful, more organized
& focused, and also quickly becoming more collaborative. Native peoples
have been and are joining with each other regionally and globally, as well
as with compatible non-native groups. The call is out!

Victory in reclaiming the earth will require a very broad movement that
can help bridge cultures, issues, and nations. The progress of these
struggles as defined by fist nations, needs active protection and support
in order to be solidly realized. Indigenous peoples need partners from the
outside--not leadership, but supporters and collaborators, especially from
the environmental and anti-globalization movements, women's movements,
human rights, and others.

There was an amazing show of support from the Bay Area Native American
communities for the Southwestern tribes and environmental groups efforts
to protect the Sacred Peaks in Arizona. I was saddened not to also see
more non-native Bay Area activists out there in a show of support. Maybe
that is exactly how it was supposed to happen, but my challenge to you is
to support indigenous cause. Because whatever our movements can do to
further the indigenous cause, in its many struggles and forms, also
furthers our own, and our childrens. As an ally, I say it's important to
support indigenous issues as they directly affect all our movements. It
is often indigenous peoples who embody a worldview which is vastly
different from the dominant euro-centric worldview. The campaigns to
sacred sites are being determined by indigenous peoples, on their own
terms. Now the time is more critical than ever to protect sacred sites.

Some more events are approaching, one of them is on Indigenous People's
Day: HELP TOHONO O’ODHAM PEOPLES OF SONORA, MEXICO AND THE U.S. STOP A
HAZARDOUS WASTE DUMP FROM BEING BUILT NEAR THEIR SACRED SITE IN QUITOVAC!
JOIN THE PROTEST!
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2006
11:30 A.M. Rally & Treaty Council Drum
in front of Mexican Consulate
532 Folsom Street, San Francisco (between 1st/2nd Streets)
12:30 March to US EPA office

see attachment.

thankyou.
In solidarity,
~dixie
dixieb [at] riseup.net

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NEWS RELEASE FROM SAVE THE PEAKS:


....“This is a precedent setting case, which threatens to undermine Native
American religious freedoms and environmental integrity.” Said Rudy
Preston of the Flagstaff Activist Network. “The significance of this case
is shown through the unity of the plaintiffs made up of Indigenous
Nations, environmental groups, and individual community members. This is
not just an issue of indigenous rights violations, this is an extreme
environmental and human rights crisis.” MORE:
http://www.savethepeaks.org

Check this video out: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/
2006/09/15/18311895.php

Awesome pics and writeup for SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS 9th Circuit Court Trial:
http://www.franciscodacosta.com/articles/firstpeople006.html

Beautiful black and white prints:
http://www.oneworldensemble.com/albumview.php?lid=43&cur_page=0




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If we remain unable to imagin