The "Turtle Island" marathon tour of this worldwide unique film festival on all #nuclear topics and #radioactive dangers includes more than 10 cities in 9 states.
#KleeBenally, #Diné artist, activist and filmmaker, died suddenly on December 30, 2023, just days after completing his designs for the 2024 IUFF tour of North America and the Window Rock festival. We are so sad about Klee's death! Our hearts are with him.
AT THE INTERSECTION OF MAGIC AND THE EVERYDAY, this fluid and mythical tale traces the mourning journey of a Diné (Navajo) man across the colonized continent. Lovely and poetic prose rich with imagery. A MINUS
KINŁÁNÍ-DOOK’O’OOSŁÍÍD – "Klee Benally died the morning of Dec. 31, 2023. He was 48.
"Benally’s family will be having a family meeting later today to share a formal announcement of Benally’s life, according to an #IndigenousAction social media post.
"Benally was from #Dziłyíjiin, Arizona. He was from the Tódích’íi’nii and #WanderingPeople clans. He relocated to #Kinłání, where he proudly stood tall with Dook’o’oosłííd.
"In his last interview with the Navajo Times on Dec. 7, Benally credited his father, #JonesBenally, a respected and known #hataałii, who shared the #Diné traditions and culture with him.
"Klee Benally’s teachings growing up laid a foundation for who he was as a Diné and led to him fighting for the sacred Dook’o’oosłííd.
"'For Diné people, it represents a part of our cosmology and being,' Benally said on Dec. 7.
'Each mountain is a part of our creation account set forward for our boundaries, Diné Bikéyah, where we walk around.'
"Benally described the mountains as leaders that hold and share teachings for Diné.
"Countless comments from people who knew and followed Benally shared their sudden sadness but described Benally as a 'one-of-a-kind' wise son, brother, uncle, or grandpa.
"Along with fighting for sacred elements, Benally was an #artist in many mediums, writer, musician, and filmmaker.
"On Thursday, Dec. 21, Benally launched his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender,' released in November.
"The book delves into Benally’s experience fighting for sacred places and why he does it to protect #nahasdzáán.
"Benally recounted the many times he had been #arrested in the Dec. 7 interview, along with tying himself to heavy machinery to send a message that he wasn’t going anywhere for the land’s sake.
"Benally’s work reflected his dedication and understanding of fighting for land and its #IndigenousPeoples.
"Benally worked endlessly for the community and land, which are grateful to have been protected by a dedicated Diné."
This hits home for me. I worked with Klee's family and provided #MutualAid when I was reporting on #BigMountainResistance years ago. My heart goes out to the Benally family and all those whose lives he touched. #RestInPower Klee. Link to fundraisers via #IndigenousAction at the end of the post.
"Our hearts are broken by the sudden passing of our friend Klee Benally. Reflecting on Klee's life, we remember the words of #CheGuevara that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.
"Klee never surrendered, he never surrendered to #capitalism, the media, or the forces of conformity that sought to change who he was.
"Ultimately, Klee taught us to regain our power, regardless of the road that led us to the present.
"#LouiseBenally, #Dine' of Big Mountain, said, 'Klee was our spokesman and leader. His departure only means we have to rise and carry on the work for justice for #nature and humanity. I will miss him Greatly and Honor him highly.'
"His roots come from Big Mountain, grandson of the late #RobertaBlackgoat.
"'He was an honorable young leader, well respected and moved with a lot of compassion. My nephew brother and my leader. A truly beautiful and amazing person who really lived up to his beliefs, and was not driven by money but by needs and concern, a real warrior.
"'He was our shining Star, he will continue to shine on us from the other side.
"'He always honored me, I will miss that,' Louise said.
"#MichelleCook, Dine', said, "We are deeply saddened and shocked by the news of the passing of our beloved warrior Klee Benally. We ask for prayers for his family during this time. For decades Klee led an uncompromising position, for the liberation of our peoples and lands developing and synthesizing an embodied praxis of #Indigenous-based political, economic, and social resistance against all forms of #SettlerColonialism that degrades people and the planet.
"Klee was our North Star guiding with his heart and mind. While some may not have shared his positions, no one can question his dedication, determination, and sheer drive to protect his people despite the risks and danger.
"He risked his life through forms of #CivilDisobedience and #DirectAction to protect our Dook’o’oosłiid, #HolyMountain, from development to maintain our ceremonial practices and way of life.
"Klee taught us all to be brave to fight against #genocide, the co-optation of our movements by the non-profit #IndustrialComplex. To be steadfast in what is right and wrong. To honor our ancient law and the sacred teachings of our ancestors and Grandmothers. His departure leaves a void in #DinehNation and #IndianCountry," Michelle said.
"Now with his absence from this material plane, we have no choice but to pick up his work, pick up the slack, carry on, and continue our journey as Dineh in a beautiful way.
"Klee's development and articulations of Indigenous peoples and archaism remain relevant for social movements within and outside of #TurtleIsland.
"He will forever remain in our hearts and minds as a guiding light and a growling voice, screaming freedom, for our earth and peoples. We love you Klee.
"Rest now our sacred warrior. Your work is done. We are so proud of the legacy you cultivated and left for this world. Journey well our sweet warrior until we meet again in the great Star Camp beyond," Michelle said.
"Klee passed to the Spirit World on Sunday, after being hospitalized.
"We send our sincere condolences to his family, his wife Princess, family Jones, Berta, Jeneda and Clayson, and all those who knew and loved him.
"From locking down in U.S. #BorderPatrol headquarters in Tucson, to chaining himself to equipment in defense of Sacred San Francisco Peaks, to battling the auctioneers of the sacred ceremonial items in Paris, and leading the #HaulNo movement to protect the #GrandCanyon region from #UraniumMining, to feeding the #unsheltered in Flagstaff, and standing strong for #Palestine, Klee's powerful actions remain a moving force to resound, and rivet us all, to struggle for a world without compromise.
"Klee recognized that the non-profit industry was designed to water down the resistance and turn the sacred movements into an ATM machine for a select few.
Raise a fist high and smash a wall down tomorrow, but for tonight honor that Klee Benally has joined the ancestors. ✊🏼 A real #Indigenous warrior through and through.
We've been playing, sharing, and supporting Klee's work in one form or another on BvlbanchaRadio.net since the very beginning of our broadcasting. Our prayers are up for his spirit, family, friends, community, and all those affected by his extensive work.
On the #peyote crisis which threatens to appropriate and commodify #Diné sacred ways.
"There are no English words that describe how the spiritual character of peyote is inextricably intertwined with its hallucinogenic properties, the land where it grows and the Indigenous Americans who consume it, says Jones. In the Navajo language, Jones describes this harmonic oneness as azee’ hinááh biníłch’idiyin, be’adínídíín."
Why #Navajo is the world’s hardest language to learn
The tonal #NativeAmerican#language differentiates words based on #pitch and makes Spanish conjugation look like child’s play.
by Tim Brinkhof, November 27, 2023
"Concentrated in #Arizona and #NewMexico, the Navajo are one of the largest Native American groups in the United States. Consisting of up to 400,000 tribal members, they are thought to have originated from northwestern #Canada and were forcibly moved to their present location by the federal government in the 1860s during #TheLongWalk.
"Traditional Navajo families live in circular mud-and-log homes called hogans, create intricate ceremonial paintings made of sand, and hold four-day runs (a ritual called kinaalda) to celebrate young girls turning into adult women.
"Arguably, the most important aspect of Navajo culture is their language. Also known as #Diné#Bizaad (the “people’s language”), Navajo is similar to #Apache, from which it separated between 1300 and 1525 AD. Both Navajo and Apache belong to a language family called #Athabaskan, which, providing evidence for their geographic origin, is also spoken by native tribes in #Yukon, #Alaska, and #BritishColumbia. As with other Native American languages, #globalization and #discrimination threaten Navajo’s survival. In 2017, the number of fluent speakers was estimated at 170,000, less than half of the tribe’s population.
"Learning Navajo isn’t easy. Compared to other complicated but more widely spoken languages, like Korean or Arabic, there are limited resources available to non-speakers. Mastery of Navajo language also requires a level of familiarity with Navajo customs, something even some Indigenous people no longer have access to.
"That said, the most daunting aspect of learning Navajo is the language itself. Described by linguists Robert W. Young and William Morgan as a 'hopeless maze of irregularities,' its unique grammar, syntax, and tonal pronunciation are so indecipherable to outsiders that, during the Second World War, the American army used Navajo as a form of military code."
"THERE is an abundance of reasons why it is folly to continue with building nuclear reactors.
"There is the cost which is huge compared with investing in more genuine sustainable energy. There is the problem with #RadioactiveWaste, for which there is no solution yet for the legacy waste, let alone producing more.
"There is the potential for attack: if wind turbines were attacked it would make for a difficult situation, but if a #NuclearReactor were to be sabotaged it would be the equivalent of a #NuclearBomb going off.
"And the latter also goes for a breakdown at a plant. We need to remember the effects of Chernobyl and Fukushima which continue to this day.
"Looking at #Britain, many of the nuclear reactors are sited on the coast and the proposed #SizewellC on the east coast. With #GlobalWarming, the sea level will rise and there is the chance of tidal surges with a threat to these reactors.
"But there is another factor which is never mentioned by the proponents of nuclear energy — the fuel used is uranium, and it will be in the future.
"This is mined mainly on the lands of indigenous people across the world. Countries and regions where uranium is mined include the land of the #FirstNations in Canada, the lands of the Navajo (Dine) in the southern United States, the land of the indigenous people of #Australia, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC), Niger, Greenland and #Kazakhstan.
"The miners and their families have suffered over the years from mining this dangerous radioactive mineral in poor conditions, with illness and early death.
"In a recent statement printed in the Morning Star, the people of Niger (note this is not Nigeria but Niger, a former French colony) said that they were fed up, 'because for over 50 years, #France has relied on uranium from #Niger for its energy security. We know that French farmers were generously compensated when their land was requisitioned in the 1970s to build nuclear reactors. But for our people the mines have only meant dangerous working conditions, ill health, and historically poor remuneration.'
"From the #DRC, a former Belgian colony, Joe-Yves Salankang Sa Ngol, of the Congolese Civil society in South Africa, said: “Before the uranium would destroy life in #Japan referring to the nuclear bombs the US dropped on [#Hiroshima and #Nagasaki] it first started by destroying life in Shinkolobwe.'
"The #Shinkolobwe mine in the DRC was owned by a Belgian company which sold its first 4,200 metric tons of uranium to the US for the #ManhattanProject.
"Here is what #JoshuaFrank said in his book, #AtomicDays, about the conditions. “Paid very little, at times less than the minimum wage, these miners would enter deep uranium shafts and chip away at the walls, often 1,500 feet below the earth’s crust.
“They filled their wheelbarrows with the uranium ore, all the while choking on soot and dust particles. It was dark. There was no ventilation. It was tremendously difficult, perilous work. They ate in the mines and drank water that dripped from the walls. The water contained high quantities of radon — a radioactive gas emanating from the ore.”
"He continued: '#Radon exposure causes lung diseases, the dangers of which were well known to scientists and the medical community prior to World War II. But the Dine the [#Navajo] were deemed expendable.'
"And Frank also said: 'In addition to the impact on #Dine health, their land too was ravaged. Upwards of three billion metric tons of waste was created as a result of extraction on Dine lands, a dizzying amount to poison native communities throughout the south-west [of the US] to this day.'
"These, and many more stories of the same situation across the globe, show how supporters of nuclear power have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the miners and their families, not to mention the devastation done to their land.
"However, in different regions the local people are fighting back. For example, in #Greenland, in 2021, a ban on uranium came into force after the Inuit government’s successful election campaign.
"There had been a ban earlier, but this was then overturned in 2013. But with the indigenous #Inuit now in control of the government, the ban will probably hold.
"If we turn to Britain, there is no significant amount of uranium to be found and there is no commercial mining. So, Britain must import uranium from #Canada and #Namibia.
"No thought seems to have been given by the two main political parties which support new nuclear build, or the trade unions, or the media proponents of nuclear power, to the shameful history of uranium mining which will continue if new reactors are built. It has been called nuclear colonialism.
"Several recent reports show that there is no need for nuclear; 100 per cent genuine #renewables can provide Britain with enough energy.
"Supporters of nuclear power should think hard about their positions. Surely, for example, workers in Britain would want to act in solidarity with their mining comrades across the world?"
"On this week’s #MakingContact, we bring you a special encore of an episode that first aired in June. We’ll hear an extended interview with #IveyCamilleManybeadsTso, a #queer#Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning #documentary Powerlands.
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, November 8, 2023
"A federal appeals court ruled in favor of law enforcement who fired rubber bullets, bean bags and projectiles at Standing Rock water protectors, and blasted them with water hoses in freezing temperatures, at Backwater Bridge on November 20, 2016.
"Water protectors suffered critical injuries while seeking to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. However, the federal appeals court ruled against them in the class action, civil rights lawsuit which revealed excessive force by law enforcement.
"The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of North Dakota law enforcement -- Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and Morton County; City of Mandan and Police Chief Jason Ziegler; Stutsman County and Sheriff Chad Kaiser.
"The federal appeals court upheld the lower district court's ruling and affirmed the dismissal of the case on Friday. The court stated that it was not clearly established that law enforcement’s use of force violated the water protectors' constitutional rights. The court said that there was insufficient evidence of deliberate indifference by the supervisors named in the case.
"Dr. Michelle Cook, #Dine' director of Divest, Invest, Protect, said, 'We are not defeated. Our victory is our continued fight for liberation, land, love, water joy, and peace.'"
The long tail of toxic emissions on the #NavajoNation
Communities contend with ongoing air quality issues tied to #gas and #oil wells.
Mark Armao, August 30, 2023
"Sitting in his office a few miles away, former Chapter President Samuel Sage said he often smells the gas that collects in certain valleys. Sage, who has provided written testimony to Congress on the issue, said officials with the #BLM and the #BureauOfIndianAffairs never discussed the dangers posed by #fracking during oil-leasing negotiations with allotment owners. 'The first thing that was mentioned was, ‘If you sign this, you will get this much money,’ and of course, there was no hesitation,' he said.
"While oil tankers tear up the dirt roads that branch off the highway, Sage said the industry’s presence has frayed the fabric of the community, pitting locals who support oil and gas development against those who are opposed to the industry encroaching on the landscape. Undeterred by the controversy, Pinto plans to continue putting pressure on regulators and the industry by documenting emissions and raising awareness of their potential health impacts.
"'It’s not good for us, it’s not good for wildlife, it’s not good for plants,' Pinto said. “Are people getting paid enough to bear all these negative impacts — is it worth it?'"
About the author:
"Mark Armao (#Diné) hails from the high desert in northern Arizona. Now based in California, his recent reporting has focused on #environmental issues facing #Indigenous communities."
This is an important and timely article on conducting research ethically and collaboratively with Indigenous peoples, in the context of microbiome research but relevant in much wider contexts.
I recently saw some folks confuse the #Dine peoples (Navajo; Southwestern US area) with the #Dene peoples in Western sub-Arctic Canada. I can understand the confusion if you just look at spelling or if you've heard them both pronounced the same way.
Junction Ruin
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, AZ
The ruin is named (by us bilagáana at any rate) because it is located at the junction between the main canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and Canyon del Muerto. It is closer to the canyon mouth than White House Ruins that I've featured previously. View point is on the main southern road.
"This ceremony is about bravery, and I was hoping my instinct to take on the butchering would pay off. This ceremony is also about showing yourself to the world for the first time. So I was hoping to emulate that in any way I could; to be an example, an uncle, no longer a child." —Jake Skeets for @emergencemagazine
The 4th of July seems like a good time for some reminders:
If you’re eligible to vote and aren’t registered, register. If you are registered, check your registration and make sure it’s up to date. Correct your address if you’ve moved. Make sure you’re still registered. Some states purge rolls without informing you.
Register people to vote. Talk to people you know about voting and elections.
To see your state's voter registration requirements or to register: https://vote.gov/
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One of the images that stayed with me the most from the last presidential election was watching these #Dine people ride horseback for an hour or more to vote. There are many obstacles for mail in voting for those on reservations: https://narf.org/vote-by-mail/ .
It was these #Indigenous votes that were absolutely critical in winning the election, not only in Arizona, but also in other states like Wisconsin.
Beneath all the complicated #ColoradoRiver issues is a big, simple question that media hasn't adequately covered or even really approached: why don't #Indigenous communities have water? Literally just WHY. Without crazy loopy wonky theatrics. Ag has water. #Arizona Suburbs have water. Why don't tribes?
Finally, @ProPublica and HCN are addressing that question. It's a major investigative series. They've published the first of their findings:
"The whole system sets up this adversarial relationship between states and tribes... When you're off the reservation, the state is fighting for your water interests. When you're on the reservation, the state is opposing your water interests."
---Dr. Andrew Curley (#Diné), assistant professor in the School of Geography, Development, & Environment at the University of #Arizona
Hear him speaking with @ProPublica reporters on #Native America Calling 🎙️👇
"When a foreign company started exploratory drilling for the possible return of uranium mining near #ChurchRock, community members say they were not informed in advance.
“It was a complete shock,” Jonathan Perry, the director of Eastern Navajo #Diné Against Uranium Mining, said of the process that started this winter.
"The eastern Navajo Nation communities have stood largely in opposition to future uranium mining for decades.
"'The majority of Diné people have been personally impacted by (uranium),' Leona Morgan, an activist and member of Navajo Nation, said.
"The Navajo Nation has a moratorium dating back nearly two decades that prohibits uranium extraction, but the Eastern Agency consists of what is known as checkerboard. That means federal and state lands are intermixed with Navajo, or Diné, lands and allotment lands.
"#LaramideResources, a Canada-based company, plans on extracting uranium from an area within the checkerboard that is not tribal land.
"The work would occur near the same location where, in 1979, a dam breach released 1,100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of #RadioactiveWater into the #RioPuerco, which the nearby Navajo communities relied upon for water.
"Decades later, the spill, along with mine and mill sites in the area, remain unremediated. Earlier this year, the U.S. NRC issued a record of decision as well as a license amendment that will allow the #UnitedNuclearCorporation—which owned the site where the spill occurred—to dispose of mine #waste from the old uranium mine at the old mill site.
"Morgan said there are concerns that this disposal method in an unlined pit could lead to a second spill happening, especially as climate change increases the risks of extreme weather events like monsoon floods."