Indian group objects to Texas Buffalo Soldier specialty license plate saying “we’re forced to relive an American holocaust” and “there are similarities between the all-black cavalry & the Confederacy.

First the controversy about Confederate license plates in Texas was quickly quelled after black leaders cried foul and now we have the president of the American Indian Genocide Museum objecting to the Buffalo Soldier specialty license plate being proposed. There is a great deal of irony in both instances because black leaders opposed the Confederate license plates on the basis of the racial injustice and degradation of blacks at the hands of whites in the South and the Buffalo Soldiers, an all-black cavalry, who helped to fight Native Americans in the Indians Wars from 1867-1888.

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News update posted Nov. 10, 2011
by Kate Sosin, Windy City Times
2011-11-16
http://www.windycitytimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=34727

The U.S. Conference on AIDS, held this year in Chicago for the first time, opened with a welcoming plenary breakfast that featured major names in HIV/AIDS prevention.
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services headlined the morning.

But the moment that left many talking later in the day was a protest that interrupted the introduction of Sebelius. As Sebelius was announced with much fanfare, a large group of protesters with posters marched out and stole the microphone.

The group, protesting on behalf of Asian Pacific Islanders, demanded that their voices be heard in HIV prevention. They came bearing signs that read “Our Lives Matter.”

“We cannot to wait,” said Sharon Day of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. “We, the first Americans, can no longer be the last in line for funding.”
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Angela McKenzie met up with Harlan Pruden, the co-founder of the Northeast 2 Sprit Society to talk about the historical importance of Native American Indian gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders to their indigenous culture. In 1990 after the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American/First Nations Gay/Lesbian American Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the American Indian LGBT community abandoned European gender and sexual orientation labels to self-identify as Two-Spirit people. Two-Spirit describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups.

Harlan is a member of the Cree nation from the Saddle Lake Indian Reservation in Northeasten Alberta, Canada, where he did not receive the necessary support systems to help him come to terms with his Two-Spirit identity. He now resides in New York City and is a dedicated advocate for First Nations, community organizing and progressive causes.

In this edition of Initiative Radio you will also hear a great selection of traditional Cree music and a couple of songs written by the Cree Nation’s most famous recording artist Buffy Saint-Marie.

Angela McKenzie is the Producer & Presenter of Initiative Radio

NYTIMES
Published: January 20, 2010

After more than a century of obstruction and delays, still another deadline looms for a settlement that would compensate hundreds of thousands of American Indians for billions of dollars lost by a government that failed miserably to manage tribal lands that had been entrusted to it.

A law passed in 1887 conveyed the land in trust to the federal government. The government-controlled trust accounts were mishandled and lost, cheating the Indian owners out of fees from grazing livestock and gas and oil royalties.

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Come show your PRIDE & SUPPORT once again as we march down 5th Avenue in the NYC Pride Parade

Join us Sunday, June 28, 2009
Meet us at 56th street between 5th and 6th Ave.
(by the Abercrombie and Fitch flagship store)
at 11am

EVERYONE WELCOME!!!

For more details, contact Harlan at 646.351.7360 or at harlan@ne2ss.org

Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation along with NorthEast Two-Spirit released the findings of a first-ever statewide assessment of LGBT health and human services needs. The assessment was undertaken by Somjen Frazer Consulting to identify gaps and disparities in how the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community accesses health and human services. For a copy of this report, click here or click on the above image.

Among issues identified as problems for LGBT New Yorkers are healthcare access, homelessness, hate violence and social isolation. The needs assessment also showed how particular groups within the LGBT community—transgender people, people of color, youth and seniors—are particularly affected in adverse ways.

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For more info. call Cliff at 718.686.9297 or visit www.redhawkcouncil.org

(Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of the First Nations, wears a traditional headdress as he attends the Pope Benedict’s general audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Wednesday. Photograph by: Max Rossi, Reuters)

http://www.vancouversun.com/Life/Pope+shows+sorrow+over+residential+school+abuse/1545844/story.html

By Peter O’Neil, Europe Correspondent, Canwest News Service
April 29, 2009 9:09 AM

PARIS — Pope Benedict expressed his “sorrow” Wednesday over the suffering of thousands of aboriginal Canadians in residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church.

The statement came in a communique issued by the Vatican after the pope met with Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, the Most Reverend James Weisgerber, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, and several B.C. aboriginal leaders.

“His Holiness recalled that since the earliest days of her presence in Canada, the Church, particularly through her missionary personnel, has closely accompanied the indigenous peoples,” the statement began.

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Gay and transgender Native Americans find acceptance in tradition
by John Rosengren
Utne Reader
January-February 2009

Image by Mike Dvorak

He checks his plaid skirt, stockings, and deep-cut white blouse. When another man’s eyes fall on his cleavage, Richard squeezes his breasts together and answers the silent inquiry: “They’re real!”

Beyond the bathroom doors, men and women dance around a drum in more traditional costume—feathers, fox pelts, moccasins, beads, and bells. They’re all here for the 20th annual International Two Spirit Gathering, a celebration of and for those who feel they carry both male and female spirits.

In late August 2008, some 85 Native lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from three dozen tribes in Canada and the United States traveled to the Audubon Center of the North Woods, 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

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(download flyer)

The NorthEast Two-Spirit Society presents for this year’s National Native American Heritage Month:

Rights Denied: the Struggle for the Sacred and the Sovereign
An examination of the successes and failures of the American Indian Religious Freedom & Indian Child Welfare Acts.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of two significant laws in which the United States “gave” Native peoples’ the right to openly practice our traditional religions and a separate government “decree” that included Native American governments in the decisions about the fate of our children. Religious freedom and future generations are the heart of cultural preservation. A panel of distinguished Native American leaders and activists will examine the struggle for the sacred and the sovereign in the context of these two legislative acts.

Tuesday, Nov. 11th
6:00 to 8:00pmLGBT Community Center
208 West 13th Street, Room #301
New York, NY 10011

Panelists
Sharon Day, Executive Director of Indigenous Peoples Task Force, a full service urban Native American institution that helps Native peoples face the daily battles of survival in an urban environment including housing, health, food, spiritual access and child welfare.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner, President and Founder of the American Indian Law Alliance. Dedicated to preserving the sovereignty and human rights of all Indigenous peoples, Tonya is the current North American representative of Indigenous peoples on the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations.

Debra White Plume, Executive Director of Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way. Owe Aku is a cultural and educational organization of traditional Lakota people who fight for sovereignty. Deeply involved in preservation of cultural foundations, Owe Aku, under Debra’s guidance, is on the front lines of defending sacred sites and communicating cultural tradition to future generations.

Moderated by Harlan Pruden

Admission is always free, though donations are accepted.

A growing List of co-sponsors (as of 10/25/08):

Hosted by the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society with the help of:
American Indian Community House, Audre Lorde Project, American Indian Law Alliance, First Voices Indigenous Radio, Indigenous Peoples Task Force, Native Peoples Forum of New York University, Native American Council of Columbia University, National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way).