Venezuelan Aid for American Indians

Venezuela Considers Cheap Heating Oil For Indians,
The Bismarck Tribune,

August 14, 2006

"Everett, WA: Venezuela's state-owned oil company wants to offer deep discounts on home heating oil to American Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest, The Herald of Everett reported Saturday. Representatives of oil-giant Citgo Petroleum Corp. have contacted the Tulalip Tribes near Marysville, the Yakama Nation in central Washington, the Nez Perce and Coeur D'Alene tribes in Idaho, and others with information about a possible 40 percent discount on home heating oil.

Citgo is the Houston-based subsidiary of an oil company controlled by Venezuela and its controversial elected president, Hugo Chavez.

The idea is still in the exploratory stage, Citgo spokesman Jorge Toledo said.

'We're going to meet with some tribes in the West Coast within the next few weeks to consider the feasibility of a program there,' he said. A local meeting is scheduled Wednesday at a SeaTac hotel.

While heating oil is widely used on the East Coast, it's been mostly replaced by natural gas in the West. Heating oil is essentially the same product as diesel fuel. Citgo first delivered discounted heating oil to low-income communities last year in Massachusetts, New York and other Northeast states. Using the slogan, 'From the Venezuelan heart to the U.S. hearths,' Citgo sold fuel to eligible homes and nonprofit organizations. By spring, the company had delivered nearly 40 million gallons of heating oil to 181,000 American households, company President Felix Rodriguez said.

The city of Chicago declined a deal with Citgo for fueling public buses that could have saved $15 million. City leaders said they were reluctant to deal with Chavez."

Rejecting Papal Bull

Indigenous in Americas Just Say 'No' To Papal Bull,"

Brenda Norrell,
Indian Country Today,
August 16, 2006

"Phoenix, AZ: Indigenous in the Americas are demanding that the 'doctrines of discovery,' the papal bulls that led to the seizure of American Indian homelands, be rescinded. At the Summit of Indigenous Nations on Bear Butte in South Dakota, delegations of indigenous nations and nongovernmental organizations passed a strongly worded resolution condemning the historical use of the doctrine of discovery as an instrument of genocide.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, coordinator at Tonatierra in Phoenix, said the effort at Bear Butte continues the indigenous battle to halt genocide of indigenous peoples and seizures of their homelands in the Americas. Tonatierra was among the organizations at the Summit of Indigenous Nations taking action to rescind the doctrines of discovery:

Papal Bull Inter Caetera of 1493 and the 1496 Royal Charter of the Church of England. 'The Indigenous Nations have resolved, here at the base of Mato Paha [Bear Butte], that the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Queen of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury rescind these doctrines of discovery for having served to justify and pave the way for the illegal dispossession of aboriginal land title and the subjugation of non-Christian peoples to the present day,' according to the summit's statement.

Forty delegations of indigenous spiritual and political leaders, as well as NGOs, signed the resolution. 'These papal bulls have been the basis for the extinguishment of aboriginal land title and the subjugation of indigenous peoples of Abya Yala [North and South America]. The implementation of the papal bulls evolved in the United States through the Supreme Court decision of Johnson v. McIntosh [1823] which established the precedent for the denial of aboriginal title to American Indian lands in the United States,' according to the summit.

'It has been resolved by 23 Nations and NGO's and 100 individual signatories that the 'Doctrine of Discovery' is a legal and political fiction in violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and intellectual act of oppression which continues to serve to suppress and repress the indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere.'"

www.Indiancountry.com

"Natives" and "Terrorism": Keeping the Hysteria Raw

Given the increased hostility towards "brown-skinned" people (as they have been termed on the front page of one of Canada's national dailies), and the extravagantly sloppy application of the term "terrorist" anytime three Natives carrying placards are to be found, it's not surprising that in this new round of heightened hysteria and paranoia that Native sovereignty should also come into question as a potential "security" risk.

In the article below, from The Buffalo News, the worry is that Aboriginal reservations spanning the US-Canada border might also provide conduits for those pesky "terrorists" of which there have been so many (?) since September 11, 2001. After all, as the article implies, these are already lawless zones of drug smuggling. Please read on:

Terrorists could easily enter U.S. at New York's northern border

By LOU MICHEL and PATRICK LAKAMP

News Staff Reporters

8/13/2006

ST. REGIS MOHAWK RESERVATION - There is a lot of anxiety along the U.S.-Canadian border here, where it's not always clear who is in control, but where officials say there is little doubt a terrorist could slip through.

This 12-mile stretch along the St. Lawrence River - with its islands, peninsulas and three other rivers - is where smugglers since Prohibition have established pipelines for cigarettes, cash, illegal aliens, drugs - you name it.

Beyond the 12-mile shoreline of the reservation, the northern border in Franklin County stretches 48 miles, mostly through forests.

And during a time of heightened concern over terrorism, this tangle of borders and Indian sovereignty presents challenges to homeland security.

A half dozen reservation roads cross into Canada without border checkpoints. Those driving off-road vehicles can wind their way through farmland and wilderness with little fear of being stopped.

Consequently, this Mohawk territory is considered one of the most vulnerable stretches along the 4,000-mile northern border of the United States.

See the complete article at: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/
20060813/1027153.asp