US Says No to Indigenous Rights

The US, the self-proclaimed protector of human rights, has failed to vote in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) at the UN, Kenneth Deer, the representative of US and Canada Mohawk Indians, said that Washington had refrained from recognizing the UN declaration on indigenous rights.

Deer described the conditions of the Indians living in the US and Canada as catastrophic, saying that they enjoy the minimum life requirements.'

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Catholic Church Reluctant to Release Residential Schools Records

The Roman Catholic Church is balking at the release of Indian residential schools documents that name individual church members, insisting its concern is purely about respecting Canada’s privacy laws and not an attempt to cover up new allegations of abuse.

But the research director for Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission says the denominations involved in residential schools are being unco-operative, and suggests the Catholic church in particular fears more abuse stories will come out against living members.

The Conservative government and the churches that helped run Canada’s Indian residential schools are sitting on mountains of archived material, but not a single page has yet been turned over to the commission.'

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Destroying Indigenous Populations

The Fort Laramie Treaty once guaranteed the Sioux Nation the right to a large area of their original land, which spanned several states and included their sacred Black Hills, where they were to have "the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the land.

However, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, President Ulysses S. Grant told the army to look the other way in order to allow gold miners to enter the territory. After repeated violations of the exclusive rights to the land by gold prospectors and by migrant workers crossing the reservation borders, the US government seized the Black Hills land in 1877.

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Playground Bones Force Canada to Face Genocide Of Indian Children

IN OVERGROWN deserted school playgrounds across Canada lie the bones of thousands of native Indian children who were stolen from their families.

Historian John Milloy is helping to uncover their stories in official research on burial sites. "We know that children were buried in unmarked graves, children who disappeared and were never heard from again," he said. The research is part of Canada's attempts to face up to a disturbing legacy of its residential school system, an attempt to "assimilate" native children that resulted in thousands of deaths and ruined lives.

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