Marya Mann : Blog : Thanking Native Elders | Phone Obama On Light Friday

Thanking Native Elders | Phone Obama on Light Friday

First Light Friday | Peaceful Resistance

On NOVEMBER 25TH, 2016, CELEBRATE LIGHT FRIDAY

I hear their cries. Do you? Can we celebrate Thanksgiving with a clear conscience knowing the rights of indigenous people — and of all people to have clean water — are being disrespected?

Thanksgiving used to be considered a time to celebrate the peaceful cooperation of Native Americans and European immigrants.

Today, we face one of the most glaring wounds of the United States, the ongoing environmental genocide of our Native American elders by corporate greed and broken treaties

Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude, and I want to tell you how grateful I am for you, dear reader. Whether you come to study Yoga and the Quantum Arts with me, you have purchased my book or video, or you are an ally, colleague, or friend – or you are all of these — whether you knew it or not, you supported the non-profit work I do with ArtWavEs Nourish the Children. I appreciate that we can complete the full circle of love and giving. I would like to invite you to expand the full circle of love a little further with me on the first Light Friday, an antidote to Black Friday.

TRANSFORM BLACK FRIDAY INTO LIGHT FRIDAY

Fire up the White House Phone Lines. Declare Black Friday lives no longer. It’s time for Light Friday! We all know Black Friday is a commercial hoax to profit large corporations by seducing people into thinking they need more stuff.

Light Friday is exactly the opposite – it’s a day to fire up the inner light, to rest assured we are enough and we have enough, and to use the light sabers at our fingertips to phone into the White House this Friday, November 24th. Light up the Presidential switchboard with comments to Barack Obama, asking him to do everything he can to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), part of the larger plan for the Keystone Pipeline that most Americans don’t want.

Why is it we’re investing in more fossil fuels instead of clean solar, wind and hydropower projects anyway? So a few people can make excessive amounts of money. For a few to profit, for state-sponsored forces are being allowed to use excessive violence and police harassment against our Native American elder cultures in North Dakota?

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock who have gathered to create Sacred Stone Camp oppose the poisoning of people and natural resources. Our planet has suffered enough. Indigenous people have suffered enough. Water Protectors are the doctors who are staunching one of the largest wounds in North America: the ongoing genocide of the Native American people.

DAPL will, if it’s allowed to go through, further contaminate the drinking water for 18 million people, poison the Ogallala Aquifer, and carry contaminants from the Missouri to the Mississippi and down to the Gulf of Mexico, a body of water already beset by large dead zones from the BP oil spill.

For weeks, the main highway to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation has been cut off, according to Linda Satchell, my brave West Hawaii friend who has invested in a tipi to help maintain the presence of Protectors during the cold winter months. When she was at Sacred Stone Camp last month, DAPL private security forces used mace and vicious attack dogs against the peaceful protestors, “women and children who have no guns, only prayer,” Linda said. “The DAPL people intentionally tried to provoke violence. When company workers bulldozed gravesites on sacred land, we formed peace walks, not marches.”

She described a spirit fire in the center of the Sacred Stone encampment that never goes out. Thousands of people from all over the world have joined perhaps the largest prayer circle ever organized.

Some come to the site physically; others come in heart and mind; more are donating to the cause and calling the White House on Light Friday.

With winter coming, the main highway still cut off, and no movement by the state to address a public safety risk, a peaceful gathering last Sunday was met with police spraying people with water cannons in 26- degree weather. That water is a deadly force in freezing weather.

“They want to kill people for clearing a road? When will our cries be heard? Stop the Dakota Access,” says Tara Houska, a director for Honor the Earth.

Do you hear their cries?

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving knowing that when the phone lines open on Friday, you’ll be one of the first to use your light to help make this a focused and powerful Light Friday by helping to stop the DAPL. Tell President Obama to do everything he can to stop the environmental genocide of our brothers and sisters and promote clean energy production.

What Else You Can Do To Support The Water Protectors at Standing Rock:

DONATE: You can send support to the camps in various ways – online, through PayPal, or by check.

Sacred Stone Camp
Via PayPal: sacredstonecamp@gmail.com
Mailing Address:
Sacred Stone Camp
P.O. Box 1011
Fort Yates, ND 58538

Sacred Stone Legal Defense
Via PayPal: freshetcollective@gmail.com Donate Online
Mailing Address:
Please make checks out to “Freshet Collective” 3941 23rd Ave. S
Minneapolis MN, 55407
Send Supplies and Labor

Red Warrior Camp Donate Online
Red Warrior Camp Legal Defense
Mailing Address:
Red Warrior Camp #2 Agency Ave
Fort Yates, ND 58538 United States

Support all those who are Protecting the Earth and Standing Up for Standing Rock, working at the intersection of extractive industries, violence against women, and environmental genocide

Standing Rock Winter Tipis — Linda Satchell’s Volunteer Effort Donate Here Now

RISE UP
· Sign petitions, continue to activate across social media
· Write Letters to the Editor
· Contact your elected officials
· Divest your money from banks supporting and explain why.
(for a list of banks funding DAPL, visit: http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/how-to-contact-the-17-banks-funding-the-dakota-access-pipeline-20160929
· Support indigenous groups who are leading the actions in your community, organize events in support.

Wherever you are, join with others to resist the insane notion that we can poison our water and live safely on Earth. Water is life. Support the Water Protectors everywhere!

Let them know you hear their cries!

#RiseInSolidarity

Thank YOU for sharing your light! Again, the White House Comment line is 202.456.1111. Call on Friday. Please help spread the word…

Blessings, Marya