Journal Entry July 8 09

Soon I will have to bike ride to stretch my leg muscles.

Been working on paper work.  Slow as a turtle.

Wrote a response to an article in this newspaper:

http://elenemigocom un.net/2625/ x/en

I really do wonder how we can get out of this. I think to keep on working on video and film ideas as I do to overcome as an indigenous person because it’s the only thing I know real well. An Indian woman responded to me saying Indian people have problems because of ourselves. One hand she’s correct.  I have found First Nations filmmakers do not help each other out, not that much when a person needs technical help or feedback.  It’s more like to bring each other down.  I feel among Indian people there is not any room for diversity among each other.  I feel Indian people want people to conform to each other.  Not all Indian people are like this. Some people are real opened minded. We’re all different though. That’s for sure.

Sometimes it is good to be among Indian people, but it’s rare. However I wanted the public to know about the following information. Getting information out to the public is important about indigenous people because it educates people about what Indian people are doing. If the mainstream media isn’t going to do it, I will help out.  Here it is:

The 30th Anniversary Commemoration of the

Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill

Thursday, July 16, 2009

7 am to 9 pm

Public Event

The Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, a coalition of community groups affected by uranium mining and committed to renewable energy development, announces the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Church Rock uranium tailings spill on July 16.

The purposes of the event are to remember and honor the Dine communities that were affected by the largest release of radioactive waste in U.S. history, and to reaffirm the Navajo Nation’s ban on uranium mining and processing, as set forth in the Dine Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005.

A prayer walk will be held on State Route 566 from Red Water Pond Road next to the Northeast Church Rock Mine to the site of the spill across from the United Nuclear Corp. mill site and ending at the King Family Ranch on Old Churchrock Mine Road at SR 566 – a distance of about five miles. Prayers for healing will offered at the start of the walk and at the spill site. The walk will end at the King Ranch with a press conference where Navajo Nation elected officials will reaffirm the Navajo Nation ban on uranium mining.

The Church Rock Spill occurred when an earthen tailings dam at the UNC Church Rock Uranium Mill spilled on the morning of July 16, 1979. The mill’s radioactive fluids spilled into the Puerco River in New Mexico and traveled downstream to Chambers, Ariz. According to MASE, more radiation was released in the spill than in the Three Mile Island reactor accident, which occurred in March of that same year, and the spill ranks second only to the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown in the amount of radiation released. The spill, combined with more than 20 years of discharges of untreated and poorly treated uranium mine water, has contributed to long-term contamination of the Puerco River in New Mexico and Arizona.

Commemorating the Church Rock spill is a reminder that the burden of the uranium legacy is still being carried by the Dine people and communities throughout the Grants Mineral Belt. A formal cleanup plan for the Northeast Church Rock Mine was issued in June, 27 years after the mine closed. Red Water Pond Road residents living next to the mine will have to move temporarily this later this year as more work is done to remove contamination from their community. Full reclamation of the Old Church Rock Mine across from the King Ranch remains to be done. MASE groups from Laguna Pueblo to Milan to Church Rock continue to press federal and state agencies for a comprehensive plan to address the uranium legacy.

Here’s another link from Facebook about it:

New Mexico Environmental Law Center | Facebook

Journal Entry June 25 09

New buildings being built in a downtown Canadian city. Salmon berries sprout from bushes. What a mixture in June Vanc 09.

Today was strange. It started out okay. Mark and I went shopping for food for the month. We unloaded the food from my VW bus into our apartment. I had to work on my paper work.  After I finished rehearing vhs copies of some mini dv tapes, I turned on the tv to see what was going on.  I heard that Michael Jackson died.

For me it was a shock to hear that.  Wierd to hear that. The news said he died of a cardiac heart arrest.   The news also said he was going to tour in July, next month. He had a set of concerts he was going to undertake. Ticket sales were good in London.  One woman interviewed today said, she didn’t think that it was going to amount to much like maybe something might happen to falter it because she said it has happened before. I thought, that’s really negative.  I was kind of rooting for him to succeed.  The news also said the police were going to investigate his death.

I was a fan of Michael Jackson.  Always have been.  I always think people will live a long time. Not to die suddenly like this.

After the negative events happened to him about the child molestation, some people in the media called him names like Jacko Wacko, which I resented. That’s very childish of the media to do that.   In fact it’s down right cruel.

I liked his earlier stuff until “Bad.”  He could dance really well. I’m betting when  he was small, he watched James Brown dance and do his moves.  After that I didn’t keep up with it. I’ve always liked Black rhythm and blues music all my life since I was 11 or 12 years old. I heard Black music on the a.m. station in Phoenix, Arizona, where I grew up.  I can dance to that music very well.  I am a very good social dancer of rhythm and blues music.

I remember once getting into an argument with someone about Michael Jackson and his music.   I always defended him.  I never hated him or disliked him because those negative things happened to him.  For me the music overshadowed those negative events in his life.  I could held no prejudice against him.  I know some people hated him.  All I can say to you people is that you don’t know what it’s like to dance and move to his music.   It makes you want to dance. His music made him.

To remember Michael Jackson.

This last Saturday was fun to do. I and Mark attended an Aboriginal craft fair at the Aboriginal Center in Vancouver. Mark and I played/sang songs for the craft vendors and shoppers who came to buy aboriginal jewelries and food. I was prepared on one hand for the open mic because Salish Seas, the organizer of the event said that we were allowed to sing/play three songs, but then I could see, that not many people were singing and playing songs, other than us.  So Salish Seas said, we could sing more, but I wasn’t prepared to sing anymore.  I had to improvise.  Mark had a long list.  He had lots of songs to sing. Now I know, but I knew this before generally,  be prepared for anything because if the organizer says you can sing and play longer, then do it.

The atmosphere of the place was positive. I knew two people there. One of the women vendors who sold bakery goods worked on the Graffiti as a production assistant.  I hadn’t seen her in a long time. She said she graduated from Simon Fraser University in archeology.  She received her Bachelor of Arts degree.  Great!

To be among Indian people can be beautiful sometimes.  _________________________________________________

Was brought down today for reasons. I kind of felt low.  I’m over it now. The sun came out. It made me feel happier.

I worked on my paper work. It will be finished by the end of this week or next week I am happy to say.  I plod through this.  I make myself do it. It’s hard work to do. I thought I’d never see the end of the tunnel. At first it seemed so overwhelming to start on.  Once this paper work is finished, I’ll be freer.  A huge weight will be lifted.  I will await the decisions after the paper work is turned in.

I like it that the sun and light stays out until 10:45 p.m. at night literally.  I mean I view blue light in the west still at night. By 10 p.m. the sky’s not black and the stars are not out yet.  It seems like about 6 p.m.  Sad to see it go away.

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Hunter that small cottontail I found out died the same day we brought him into the Critter Care.  I heard two reports from two different people. I called on June 12 to find out about him.  I was a little perturbed about that because I felt very happy about the first report that he made it, but then on Sunday, it was a complete different story. Another woman said, he died.  That was sad.  He had a lot of puncture wounds.  Was such a small rabbit that I ever seen in my life. When we found him,  I saw a huge fly hovering by and a few insects surrounded him.  Intuitively I felt he was going to die because he was in such bad shape.

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And then I heard about the Amazonian Indian massacre in Baqua, Peru during June 8-12, that the mainstream press shuns and does not pay attention to. To constantly be ignored.  All the things that happen in the world to Indian people, sometimes it makes me sad a lot.  Some of it’s good, but we are definitely overshadowed  or to be more precise, censored out.

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But I luv the sun and heat.  It makes  me happy. I miss where I come from a lot.