#indigenousland — Public Fediverse posts

Contesting #Surveillance Infrastructure on #IndigenousLands

by #OpheliaRivas, #CaitlinBlanchfield, and #NinaKolowratnik

"The broad slope and rounded crest of O’ks Tak’am Do’ak outline the profile of a woman sitting and facing the west. Her name is O’ks Ta’kam. She is part the O’odham origin story, passed down through oral history. She sits there vigilant, a warrior protecting, and will warn the people when a catastrophic event will occur. When this event comes, she will stand and gather the smallest creatures in her skirt to protect them.

"The mountain forms part of the Tak’Va’Vak range which cuts through #TohonoOodham land, joining peaks like Han’a-mek and Ma’mke-mad. These mountains are known as a place to gather sweet fruits from the chu-chues (organ pipe cactus). They are home to caves, springs, and seasonal water holes. Each year ceremonies and hunts take place all across the Tak’Va’Vak, and trails lead through the mountain passes, connecting the springs at A’al Va’pai (Quitobaqito) to O’odham villages in Sonora, and leading all the way to the salty Ge-Ka-ch’k (Sea of Cortez). The mountains hold deer, mountain rams, javalina. They hold burial places. Medicines grow there. In the evening they are especially beautiful, bathed in crimson.

"The Tak’Va’Vak range also forms one border of the Tohono O’odham Nation. The boundary runs along the ridge line and separates the reservation from the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a United States national park to the west.

"The border with the #NationalMonument is one of three that divide Tohono O’odham Nation from the #UnitedStates; the reservation’s southern border is with #Mexico. It is this border that dominates the others—both in its real effects and in media representations—and with good reason, especially in the last decades, and acutely in the present moment. It separates the Tohono O’odham in Sonora from those in Arizona, dividing the people; and its securitization has brought violence and destruction to O’odham lands on both sides in different ways. Yet these two borders—one between nation states and one between reservation and national park—work together: they are part of the same process of colonialism and dispossession that have been constricting O’odham life for hundreds of years. The construction of the US-Mexico border is intertwined with the expropriation of #IndigenousLand and the subsequent creation of #NativeAmerican reservations as much as it is with United States expansionism and policies of exclusion. More than that, the US-Mexico border, and the many weapons, technologies of surveillance, and #BorderPatrol officers that comprise it, is an extension of the United States’ ongoing, violent, and racialized campaign to contain and assimilate Indigenous peoples—it is a settler colonial border. But as Salt River Pima-Maricopa scholar #FantasiaPainter reminds us, the #borderlands are not yet settled, and they are unsettled: this is because of the refusal of Tohono O’odham and other #IndigenousPeoples to see and accept their lands as not their own."

Read more:
https://urbannext.net/significant-impact-contesting-surveillance/

#SettlerColonialism #SurveillanceState #USPol #CulturalGenocide
#NoBorderWall #TrumpsBorderWall
#ProtectTheSacred #EnvironmentalProtectionAct
#RespectTheTreaties #AbolishICE #DefundDHS #MurderPatrol #BorderPatrol #IndigenousSacredSites
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

'#DataColonialism': Native Communities Fight #AI #DataCenters on #IndigenousLand

#DemocracyNow, April 22, 2026

"The artificial intelligence industry’s #DataCenter boom is the latest chapter in a long history of #EnvironmentalRacism and resource exploitation in vulnerable Native communities, says Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne activist #KrystalTwoBulls, the executive director of #HonorTheEarth, an Indigenous-led #EnvironmentalJustice organization that is tracking over 100 proposed data center projects on tribal and rural lands. We speak to Two Bulls about the myriad impacts of what she calls a 'modern-day iteration' of '#SettlerColonialism,' including #NoisePollution, #cancers and respiratory illnesses, water depletion, #EnergyGrid overload and even '#EcologicalCollapse.' As tech companies set their sights on Indigenous lands, Two Bulls says, 'We’re always the one that ends up having to sacrifice our relationship to land, air, water, our communities and our nonhuman relatives.' "

Read / listen / watch:
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/22/krystal_twobulls_indigenous_lands_data_centers

#AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #AISucks #AIDataCenters #CorporateColonialism #ResistAI

#LawEnforcement's #SecretSurveillance of Defenders at #ThackerPass, Peehee Mu'huh

#LithiumAmericas of Canada plans huge man camp in Winnemucca

By @bsnorrell.blogspot.com , #CensoredNews, Updated Aug. 12, 2025

"The #BIA and #BLM were part of 10 agencies in a joint #terrorism task force stalking defenders of Peehee Mu-huh, Thacker Pass, new documents reveal. The surveillance intensified when #MyronDewey supported. The Nevada Sheriff said there could be 'another #StandingRock,' and called in a 'spin master' to discredit #WaterProtectors, as he had done at Standing Rock.

"#ProPublica and #NevadaIndependent expose the surveillance. Censored News tracks back on the timeline. Interior Sec. #DebHaaland's BIA was part of the joint terrorism task force targeting the defenders of Peehee Mu-huh."

Original story:
THACKER PASS, Nevada -- "While descendants of the survivors of the massacre of Paiutes at #PeeheeMuhuh struggled to protect the sacred remains from the digging of a lithium mine, owned by Lithium Americas on Canada -- law enforcement had a spider web of surveillance. The law enforcement surveillance of defenders of Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass, began before
Myron Dewey was killed, and continued afterwards.

"ProPublica and Nevada Independent expose the spy trail of law enforcement and private security of Lithium Americas. The surveillance web of 10 agencies included the BIA, and a counter-terrorism task force.

"During a meeting in April of 2021, the sheriff met with a spinmaster who linked the resistance to Standing Rock. This was six months before Myron Dewey was killed when a truck driven by a mining
engineer [an employee of #LithiumAmericas] hit Myron head on.

"Myron was well known for his reporting and drone coverage at Standing Rock 2016--2017. Myron was livestreaming the day before he was killed near his home in #YombaNevada, Sept. 26, 2021. Myron was fighting the #USMilitary's expansion of the bombing range on his #Paiute homeland."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/07/law-enforcements-secret-surveillance-of.html

#JusticeForMyronDewey #PoliceState
#SecretSurveillance #ACAB
#IndigenousLand #IndigenousNews
#LandDefenders #StandWithStandingRock
#ProtectPeeHeeMuhuh
#DefendTheSacred #NoLithiumMining
#StopThackerPass #LithiumAmericas
#LithiumAmericasCanada
#LithiumMining #NoMiningWithoutConsent #ReaderSupportedNews

Law Enforcement's Secret Surveillance of Defenders at #ThackerPass, #PeeheeMuhuh, Exposed by #ProPublica and #NevadaIndependent

#LithiumAmerica of Canada plans huge #ManCamp in #Winnemucca

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Updated July 31, 2025

THACKER PASS, #Nevada -- "While descendants of the survivors of the massacre of #Paiutes at Peehee Mu'huh struggled to protect the sacred remains from the digging of a #LithiumMine, owned by Lithium Americas on Canada -- law enforcement had a spider web of surveillance.

"The law enforcement surveillance of defenders of Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass, began before #MyronDewey was killed, and continued afterwards.

"ProPublica and Nevada Independent expose the spy trail of law enforcement and private security of Lithium Americas. The surveillance web of 10 agencies included the #BIA, and a #CounterTerrorism task force.

"During a meeting in April of 2021, the sheriff met with a spinmaster who linked the resistance to #StandingRock. This was six months before Myron Dewey was killed when a truck driven by a mining
engineer hit Myron head on.

"Myron was well known for his #reporting and #drone coverage at Standing Rock 2016--2017. Myron was livestreaming the day before he was killed near his home in #YombaNevada, Sept. 26, 2021. Myron was fighting the U.S. military's expansion of the bombing range on his #Paiute homeland. The Nevada legislators were pushing hard for the expansion, which Biden signed into law. Myron had also been delivering supplies to Thacker Pass in the months before he was killed."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/07/law-enforcements-secret-surveillance-of.html

#PoliceState #SecretSurveillance #ACAB #IndigenousLand #IndigenousNews #LandDefenders #JusticeForMyronDewey #StandWithStandingRock #ProtectPeeHeeMuhuh #DefendTheSacred #NoLithiumMining #StopThackerPass #LithiumAmericas #LithiumAmericasCanada #LithiumMining #NoMiningWithoutConsent #ReaderSupportedNews

*In case you missed reading this when it was first published last year.*

#Canada’s #NationalParks Are #Colonial #CrimeScenes.

Many see wilderness as a right of citizenship. But the concept of Canada as untouched #nature is unrecognizable to #Indigenous people

In 2017, it felt like the whole country was swept up in the rah-rah celebrations around Canada 150. It was a collective anniversary, a chance to celebrate our history. Well, some of it, anyway. Tied to the many calls to explore the country and take stock of its many wonders, #ParksCanada released its Discovery Pass, which granted free entry to all national parks that year. These natural spaces “represent the very best that Canada has to offer,” it announced in a press release. “They are the essence of our country because they tell stories of who we are, including the history, cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples.” But, as Robert Jago explored in his timely essay, Canada’s parks program was built on the displacement of Indigenous peoples and the capture of their territories—a form of “green colonialism.” Parks are wonderful spaces, but they have also acted as #political cover for the control of land, a tactic we still see used today.—Daniel Viola, senior editor, November 2023 issue.

https://thewalrus.ca/canadas-national-parks-are-colonial-crime-scenes/

#IndigenousLand #ColonialCrimes #CDNpoli #Landback #NativeLand #IndigenousCanada #NativeMastodon #NativeCanada #TRC #KKKanada #ColonialInjustice #TruthBeforeReconciliation #ColonialResistance #ColonialViolence #CanadianHistory #HistoryOfCanada #History #Decolonization

I received a notice from the city regarding a nearby property. The neighbours want to put an additional dwelling on the property, and the city wants to know if I have any issues with that. I said I personally have no problems with that so long as the big maple trees aren't damaged/destroyed, but I do want to know if the city contacts Six Nations re. any development. After all, this is their land, and they have placed a moratorium upon development. I'm curious to hear what the folks at City Hall have to say about that.

Edit: I heard back. Response in the comments. #HaldimandTract #ProtectTheTract #SixNations #IndigenousLand #LandBack #Haudenosaunee #Anishinaabeg @waterlooregion