This is from The Final Straw Radio and originally aired on February 17th, 2019 on 103.3FM radio in Asheville, North Carolina. Text, links, and show are from The Final Straw Radio. Be sure to listen and support Leonard Peltier’s struggle for justice. Listen here.

A Story of Leonard Peltier

This week, Paulette D’auteuil speaks about the life and case of Leonard Peltier. Peltier is one of the best known political prisoners currently held in the U.S. Paulette is the Director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, based near Coleman, FL, where Leonard is incarcerated and also is an advisor to the National Jericho Movement.

For the hour, Paulette tells about Leonard’s life, his case, his health, the resistance that Leonard was and continues to be a part of, COINTELPRO, and Leonard’s art. You can learn more about Leonard Peltier by visiting the ILPDC’s website, http://whoisleonardpeltier.info, where you’ll find lots more info, Leonard’s artwork, ways to plug in and do events to raise awareness of Leonard’s case and keep up on updates. You can also find the ILPDC on twitter and fedbook.

Interview begins at 9 min, 14 sec

Press Release from Unist’ot’en House Group of the Gilseyhu Clan. See their website chronicling their struggle and the original press release with documents here.

January 27, 2019

The Unist’ot’en House Group of the Gilseyhu Clan is demanding that Coastal GasLink Ltd. cease work immediately due to non-compliance with BCOGC and BCEAO permits and ongoing violations of Canadian and Wet’suwet’en Law.

RCMP and the Conservation Officers’ Service have refused to intervene in the destruction of active Wet’suwet’en traplines by Coastal GasLink bulldozers in blatant violation of Section 46 of the Wildlife Act. Unist’ot’en was told by the Conservation Officers’ Service this weekend that investigating this ongoing crime is not a priority for their office. CGL contractors have now completely bulldozed the section of trapline at Camp 9A, with many traps unaccounted for.

Under the conditions of Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) and BC Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC) permits, Coastal Gaslink (CGL) is required to have completed a site-specific archaeological survey before undertaking any clearing work on the proposed man-camp site in Unist’ot’en Territory known as Camp 9A. CGL acknowledged in their injunction application that these archaeological surveys have not been completed. The Office of Wet’suwet’en and Unist’ot’en House Group have not received evidence of these completed site-specific surveys, as is required by the EAO and BCOGC. Due to the Unist’ot’en House Group’s prolific use of their territory since time immemorial, it is critical that proposed work sites are properly assessed to prevent destruction of historical encampments and artifacts or gravesites.

The provincial Environmental Assessment Office, FLNRO, the BC Archaeological Branch and the BC Oil and Gas Commission have not taken substantive action in response to Unist’ot’en and Office of Wet’suwet’en requests for an immediate stop-work order to address and investigate potential ongoing violations of the conditions of their Environmental Assessment Certificate and their BCOGC permits.

The Coastal Gaslink Environmental Assessment Certificate also requires CGL to notify all tenure holders in the area affected by pipeline construction a full six months before undertaking any construction activity that could impact their tenure. Chief Knedebeas holds trapline tenure for Unist’ot’en territory, and was notified by CGL that site clearing and construction on Camp 9A would not begin until 2020.

Earlier this month, under the threat of police violence, Unist’ot’en Chiefs reached an agreement with the RCMP to comply with CGL’s temporary injunction. That agreement states that “there will not be any RCMP interference with our members regarding access to the territory for the purposes of trapping and/or other traditional practices.” In violation of this agreement, RCMP have threatened Wet’suwet’en trappers with arrest for attempting to access their traplines, and warned healing centre patients that they could be arrested for participating in ceremony. RCMP escorted CGL into active work zones, while refusing to allow or facilitate access of Unist’ot’en members to attend the ceremony and check on the safety of participants who were beyond the active workzone. CGL workers have been citing breach of the injunction and demanding healing centre clients remove small branches and minor debris from the road way while they were collecting firewood, without causing any obstruction to CGL work. Clients have identified feeling unsafe as a result of continual RCMP presence outside the healing centre and the unwarranted, confrontational conduct of CGL work crews.

Quotes from Freda Huson, Unist’ot’en House Group Spokesperson:

“We honored the terms of the injunction, even though we weren’t given enough time to mount a proper defence at the injunction hearing. We honored all the terms of the agreements we’ve made with the RCMP since the enforcement order came down.

We are witnessing police break all of the agreements they have made with our chiefs, watching them actively protecting CGL and its contractors as they violate the Wildlife Act and the conditions of their permits, and watching the agencies responsible for enforcing these conditions do nothing. We opened our gates assuming that everyone would be treated equally under the law. We see that the RCMP, the EAO, the BCOGC, and the NDP-Green coalition government have no intentions of enforcing any part of the Canadian law that causes any inconvenience to this rich, powerful corporation.

Coastal Gaslink is breaking all their own Canadian laws while we are upholding Wet’suwet’en laws and responsibilities to the land.”

See attached supporting documents, including permit conditions and photos of Camp 9A site and destroyed trapline. Traplines are culturally significant markers of continued use, and are a source of furs and sustenance. The location of this photograph documents the destruction of the trapline by Coastal GasLink LTD on Unist’ot’en Territory. The Unist’ot’en House Group of the Gilseyhu Clan holds title to a large area in Northwestern British Columbia. The company, Coastal GasLink is attempting to build a fracked gas pipeline without the Hereditary Chiefs’ consent.

Media Contact: Freda Huson
Email: [email protected]

This statement comes from Indigenous prisoner in struggle, Adrián Gómez Jiménez, after receiving a 20 year sentence for crimes he did not commit. The original in Spanish was published by the working group No Estamos Todxs and can be found here.

This statement was translated and first published by Voices In Movement and can be viewed on their excellent site here: http://voicesinmovement.org/statement-from-adrian-gomez-jimenez/

February 22^nd, 2019

To the Public

To the Media

To the National and International Sixth

To the Non-governmental Human Rights Defenders

To the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity

To the People of Mexico and the World

Statement of the organization, the Voice of Indigenous Resistance, adherent of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle of the EZLN, detained in Penal No. 5 San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico.

Compañeros and compañeras who follow us from outside the prison walls. For many centuries, the bad governments have caused much injustice, many abuses and have detained many innocent Indigenous people. My case is just one example. I am an Indigenous person. I am from San Juan Chamula. I speak Tzotzil. I have been imprisoned for fifteen years where the state has me kidnapped without having committed a crime. I was a victim of torture by the public prosecutor and judicial agents. They tortured me in different manners in order to force me to sign for crimes that they fabricated against me. With so much torture, I incriminated myself. I did it because I felt close to death. There were so many beatings and so much pain that my body couldn’t resist any more. With that evidence obtained from beatings that lasted three days and three nights, they put me in prison. I have been in prison since 2004, for more than 15 years, without a sentence.

On January 29^th, 2019, I asked the judge of the First Criminal Court of Local Jurisdiction, Cesar Rodriguez Robles, for my freedom. I asked for this, as there is no evidence against me. But as a poor, Indigenous and humble person, the judge unjustly sentenced me on February 22^nd, at 12:40 pm to 20 years in prison for crimes that I never committed in my life.

The powerful of above, they are those who are truly guilty. They are murders and kidnappers as is the case of the 43 normalistas of Ayotzinapa. It is the bad government that has caused so much pain and suffering. The public officials too who are corrupt and extortionists like they have always been. They are enriched at our expense. Because of the injustices, we organized ourselves in this prison to raise our voices. We struggle to recuperate our freedom that they have taken from us. They humiliate us and treat us poorly. They separate us from our families, which is the most sacred. They destroy our lives causing sicknesses. They see us as true criminals when that is not the truth.

The Judge César Rodrigues Robles of the First Criminal Court of Local Jurisdiction sentenced me to 20 years, violating my human rights, in spite of the complete lack of evidence against me. There is no reason for my imprisonment. For this reason, I make a statement against this judge and I urgently demand the governor Rutilio Escandón to take part in my judicial situation to intervene to have me released from this prison number 5: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.

We invite all the independent, state, national and international organizations and independent human rights organizations to continue demanding the truth and freedom for all the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

Uniting the voices and forces of the Mexican people, true justice will be achieved.

Sincerely,

Adrián Gómez Jiménez

Unjustly sentenced to 20 years in prison

The organization, the Voice of Indigenous Resistance

Juan de la Cruz Ruiz

February 22^nd, 2019

The following will be a series of responses made by Indigenous Anarchists from the IAF to questions posed by Kelly Weill, reporting for the daily beast. These are our complete answers that provide complete context. Stay tuned for part two of the responses. The original article with excerpts from our responses can be viewed at this link on The Daily Beast

So the federal government’s out. Does that mean we’re living in anarchy right now?

Quite the opposite. Because of the government shutdown, we are living with a state that has suspended its social functions, while maintaining its oppressive institutions full time. The government only deems groups like the military, the FBI, federal law enforcement, and of course the IRS as important enough to keep functioning. This pulls the veil from the supposed ‘social contract’ that the government is supposed to honor. The state has abandoned its obligations to provide what little healthcare it does offer and its obligations to protect our environment and natural spaces. The political theatre of the ‘shut-down’ does little to erode the coercive power of the US government, but it does help erode the notion that the government is interested in anything aside from maintaining power. Furthermore, anarchy would require other major changes to our society such as the abolition of borders, sexism, chauvinism, racism, and other forms of domination. Our society in the absence of the social services of the government is far from anarchism while the courts continue to prosecute humanitarians in Arizona, arrests migrants in Los Angeles, deploys Special forces in the global south, and maintains the surveillance of dissidents worldwide.

What do anarchists want to accomplish, besides abolishing the government?

Anarchists aren’t inherently against governance, but do want governance by the people, not elected or self-appointed rulers. Anarchism seeks a world where we come together and decide on what we want our society to look like and how we want to accomplish our goals. This can’t be done through the proclamations of strongmen, nor the edicts of elected officials that represent the money that elected them. Anarchism is, at its heart, the philosophy and political strategy that advocates for the abolition of domination, whether through hierarchy, sexual coercion, forced identity, wage slavery, or private property. We still will have people who will be tasked by the community to accomplish certain tasks that they want to help with. We will have a vibrant community where expression and self-identity are encouraged instead of repressed, we will have improved relations with the earth and a more whole understanding of resource extraction and reuse. We are inspired by the autonomous Indigenous villages in Oaxaca and the example of the Zapatista revolution in Chiapas. We are inspired and guided by them women in Chiapas and Rojava who have thrown off the yoke of patriarchy. We are inspired by every Indigenous person who persists despite every effort to eliminate our indigeneity and make our lives less livable. From the reservations to the cities, to the rural farms of America, indigenous people are awakening. This government shutdown is a demonstration that we can make it on our own, even if it’s hard. What does the federal government do for us that we can’t do for ourselves, if we challenge the systems of domination that hold us down? Unfortunately, the US government has so thoroughly subjugated our people, replaced our traditional governance with ‘federally recognized’ puppet governments, and maintained us in a state of poverty, debt, and incarceration, that we must demand whatever social services we can of the state.

How does your position as indigenous people affect your perspective of the shutdown? Is it different than that of non-indigenous anarchists?

Our perspectives align closely with those of non-Indigenous Anarchists, though we have additional concerns and struggles within our communities that arise out of the US government shut down. One of our major concerns is for our people, who are the victims of a government who neglects their treaty obligations to provide for the welfare of Indigenous people across the so-called United States. Tribes are being forced to find ways to help fund or substitute critical medical, psychological, and nutritional programs. Again, the fact that we have fighter jets flying over our lands everyday during the shutdown, but the nurses who care for our elders have to pay for their gas out of pocket is criminal negligence. The second area of major concern is the regulatory agencies that, why already extremely lax with corporations, are now absent from protecting our lands and waterways. These lands were stolen and now they aren’t even being managed. That said, Border Patrol, Marines, and Army soldiers all still walk and train on these lands. This goes to show; our ancestral lands are valueless unless they can be used for resource extraction or the training of imperial American troops.

And has the shutdown inspired any anarchist actions?

The shutdown has inspired small acts of mutual aid, a critical component of anarchism in action, across Indigenous communities. One example from my community is that people are giving up birthday money to help pay for gas and groceries for the BIA-contracted, now furloughed, nurses that care for our precious elders. We are finding ways of getting food distribution networks up should current food aid completely dry up.

Táala Hooghan Infoshop, Kinlani, Occupied
Flagstaff, AZ, will be hosting a convergence of
Anarchists both Indigenous as well as Anarchists
of Color on August 16-18th.

With the rising tide of federal invasion of our lands,
the continued ignorance by white anarchists
of what anarchism means for indigenous struggle,
and the need to build networks for action across the
country, this conference is important.

If you have never met another indigenous person
who links anarchism to our struggle, this is the place
to see that you are not alone, to make friends and
contacts, and to learn from Indigenous Anarchists
who have decades of experience to build from. Learning from our elders is important and this is the place where the experienced will be and where the novice can learn.

If you have suggestions for discussion, proposals for a workshop, or further questions about the Indigenous Anarchist Convergence, check out the event page at: http://www.taalahooghan.org/2019/02/save-the-date-indigenous-anarchist-convergence/