Decolonize To Liberate/Calls to Action
5/8/12 CALL TO ACTION: “U.S. FOREST SERVICE, STOP ABUSING NATIVE WOMEN!”
Excerpt from a May 4th Press Releasefrom the office of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
Winnemem Wintu Tribe needs 4-day closure of 400-yard section of McCloud River to Perform Girls’ Traditional Coming of Age Ceremony
U.S. Forest Service Region 5 Forester Randy Moore has missed his May 1 deadline to respond to the Winnemem Wintu’s request for a mandatory river closure to protect their Coming of Age ceremony this summer. The tribe has had not received any intention of Mr. Moore to respond in a timely fashion, and because the government’s legal process is clearly a dead end, the Winnemem will now hold a H’up Chonas, or War Dance, in the near future to defend their cultural rites in a traditional way. Previous Coming of Age ceremonies have been disrupted by drunken recreational boaters motoring through the site and heckling the tribe with racial slurs.
Call to Action, from the Winnemem Wintu Tribe Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Winnemem-Wintu-Tribe/96167065518
Chief Caleen Sisk:"Winnemem Wintu women are demanding fair and just treatment to hold our traditional BaLas Chonas (Coming of Age) ceremony in peace and dignity on our river on our sacred grounds! We are calling on all the California Indian women, Native women, and all women to voice your concerns about women's rights! We are asking all good men to stand by us and protect us. This is not asking too much!!! Our grandmothers have endured too much for this to be passed on to our little baby girls. We stand with our relations in Canada!!! No more will we put up with this kind of DISCRIMINATION! STOP DISCRIMINATION AGAINST NATIVE WOMEN NOW!"
The women of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe have the right to a Coming of Age Ceremony held in an atmosphere of Peace and Dignity! Regional Forester Randy Moore of the US Forest Service has chosen to subject young Native women to continued abuse by ignoring [their] request to close the river.
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Call 707.562.8737 or email rmoore@fed.us to let Randy Moore know you support a river closure for Marisa's Coming of Age ceremony. Let him know that ignoring [the Winnemem Wintu] is unacceptable, and he should have the courage to implement a mandatory closure.
For more information:
Read the full press releaseFOREST SERVICE IGNORES TRIBE’S REQUEST FOR PEACEFUL SACRED CEREMONY; TRIBE PLANS WAR DANCE TO PROTECT TRADITIONAL WOMEN’S RIGHTS http://www.winnememwintu.us/2012/05/04/forest-service-response/
Video and Call to Action http://youtu.be/oglCy--o7oY
Radio interview with Chief Caleen Sisk on First Voices Indigenous Radio http://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/node/298