#nospiritualsurrender — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Cindy Milstein (they) @[email protected] · 2025-05-08 · 02:30 UTC

Friendly reminder: I’m still seeking submissions for the next zine I’m curating, titled “Ritual as Resistance: Defending the Sacred.”

Length: 125 words, give or take
Deadline: May 11
Email to: cbmilstein {at} yahoo [dot] com

Please share this “call” far and wide!

I’m looking for concrete examples of rituals you’ve held space for and/or participated in; that draw on your own cultural practices and/or ancestral traditions; that blur the lines between sacred and rebellious, or shake up what the spiritual+political feels like; and especially, that are collectively and/or publicly done. (See fuller description in my previous post.)

Here’s a sample of one that I’ll be using in the zine, as inspiration and to offer a sense of what I want (though please note, I am NOT only looking for Jewish rituals—though we anarchist Jews love our rad rituals!):

“Fascists sticker-bomb your neighborhood. This hurts. Not merely because the memory of eleven people killed at the Tree of Life building—your childhood shul—still lingers, but they’re crafty bigots. They deliberately drop provocative flyers on people’s doorsteps to try to break solidarity between Palestinians and Jews. This inspires you to counter with agitprop. The ritual technology of prayer, in Judaism, allows us to make the most mundane moments holy. The eating of bread and sipping wine. Through the language of our ancestors, we make these acts sacred, connecting us with all who’ve performed them across the axis of time. You arm yourself with new ritual implements: a paint scraper, sharpies, and wheat paste, along with an extending pole for higher spots. Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, even these moments where we cover up white supremacist drek can be holy!”
—Anastasia bat Lilith (@stormbringer_press)

(photo: glimpse of an elaborate, bilingual grief and ritual space that I and three beautifully caring anarchists set up for the whole weekend during the May 2023 @montrealanarchist)

#RitualAsResistance
#DefendingTheSacred
#TryAnarchismForLife
#NoSpiritualSurrender (with love and blessed remembrance to Klee Benally)

#ritualasresistance #defendingthesacred #tryanarchismforlife #nospiritualsurrender

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-02-10 · 23:11 UTC

#NavajoNation Dishonors Legacy of #KleeBenally: Agrees to #Uranium Transport Through #Navajo Communities

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, February 3, 2025

"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.

"The deadly trucks from the #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain uranium mine in the #GrandCanyon will pass through the #Havasupai's homeland, and then past the homes of #Paiute, #Dine' and #Hopi in Arizona before reaching the dumping ground: The Energy Fuels #UraniumMill in the #WhiteMesaUte Community in Southern #Utah.

"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.

"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai #Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,

"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"

#navajonation #kleebenally #uranium #navajo #brendanorrell #censorednews

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-02-10 · 23:11 UTC

#NavajoNation Dishonors Legacy of #KleeBenally: Agrees to #Uranium Transport Through #Navajo Communities

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, February 3, 2025

"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.

"The deadly trucks from the #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain uranium mine in the #GrandCanyon will pass through the #Havasupai's homeland, and then past the homes of #Paiute, #Dine' and #Hopi in Arizona before reaching the dumping ground: The Energy Fuels #UraniumMill in the #WhiteMesaUte Community in Southern #Utah.

"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.

"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai #Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,

"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"

#navajonation #kleebenally #uranium #navajo #brendanorrell #censorednews

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-02-10 · 23:11 UTC

#NavajoNation Dishonors Legacy of #KleeBenally: Agrees to #Uranium Transport Through #Navajo Communities

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, February 3, 2025

"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.

"The deadly trucks from the #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain uranium mine in the #GrandCanyon will pass through the #Havasupai's homeland, and then past the homes of #Paiute, #Dine' and #Hopi in Arizona before reaching the dumping ground: The Energy Fuels #UraniumMill in the #WhiteMesaUte Community in Southern #Utah.

"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.

"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai #Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,

"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"

#navajonation #kleebenally #uranium #navajo #brendanorrell #censorednews

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-02-10 · 23:11 UTC

#NavajoNation Dishonors Legacy of #KleeBenally: Agrees to #Uranium Transport Through #Navajo Communities

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, February 3, 2025

"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.

"The deadly trucks from the #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain uranium mine in the #GrandCanyon will pass through the #Havasupai's homeland, and then past the homes of #Paiute, #Dine' and #Hopi in Arizona before reaching the dumping ground: The Energy Fuels #UraniumMill in the #WhiteMesaUte Community in Southern #Utah.

"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.

"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai #Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,

"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"

#waterislife #environmentalracism #informedconsent #nuclearweapons #utenation #nouraniummining

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-02-10 · 23:11 UTC

#NavajoNation Dishonors Legacy of #KleeBenally: Agrees to #Uranium Transport Through #Navajo Communities

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, February 3, 2025

"The Navajo Nation dishonored the memory and legacy of Klee Benally by agreeing to allow radioactive uranium trucks to travel through the Navajo Nation. It was what Klee spent the last years of his life fighting against.

"The deadly trucks from the #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain uranium mine in the #GrandCanyon will pass through the #Havasupai's homeland, and then past the homes of #Paiute, #Dine' and #Hopi in Arizona before reaching the dumping ground: The Energy Fuels #UraniumMill in the #WhiteMesaUte Community in Southern #Utah.

"Klee is being honored with a #NuclearFreeFutures Award in New York in March.

"Nuclear Free Futures said, in announcing the award, 'Klee Benally was a Navajo activist and musician and member of the Navajo #Tódichiinii Clan and the #Nakai #Diné Clan. In addition to a
musical career with his siblings in the band #Blackfire,

"'Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of uranium mines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the Navajo Nation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, '#NoSpiritualSurrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"The award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

"Klee, co-founder of #HaulNo!, warned of the danger to the water and rivers from the uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and the planned deadly transport of radioactive ore, before he passed in
December 2023: 'There is possible radioactive contamination to land, water, and air from the #CanyonMine, White
Mesa Mill, and transport of uranium would impact northern Arizona, southeast Utah, the #ColoradoRiver, #MoenkopiWash, the #SanJuanRiver, and the lands and cultural resources of the #Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute peoples.'"

#navajonation #kleebenally #uranium #navajo #brendanorrell #censorednews

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-02-08 · 04:57 UTC

And last, but not least, not a music video, but a plug for #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender

"No Spiritual Surrender: #IndigenousAnarchy in Defense of the Sacred is a searing #AntiColonial analysis rooted in frontline experience. Klee Benally (#Diné) unrelentingly agitates against #colonial politics towards #IndigenousAutonomy and total liberation of #Nahasdzáán (#MotherEarth)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6wWXP7_KmY&pp=ygUSa2xlZSBiZW5hbGx5IGNvdmVy

Available now from Detritus Books
detritusbooks.com

406 pages | $20
Nonfiction | Paperback
Available in select bookshops.

#RestInPowerKleeBenally #HaulNo # #IndigenousAnarchy
#NoUraniumMining #DefendTheSacred #NoMiningWithoutConsent #DefendMotherEarth #SaveOakFlat

#kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #indigenousanarchy #anticolonial #dine #colonial

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-01-22 · 19:23 UTC

#KleeBenally Honored as #NuclearFree Futures Awardee 2025

via #CensoredNews: "Klee was a passionate campaigner and filmmaker exposing the #colonialist legacy of #UraniumMines and working for the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines that continue to contaminate the #NavajoNation. A month before his death on December 30, 2023, Klee published his book, 'No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'" [Order Klee's book at the link at the end of the post.]

In addition to Klee, those honored by #BeyondNuclear include the @uraniumfestival founders #MárciaGomesDeOliveira and #NorbertSuchanek, #SPUdayakumar, #EdwickMadzimure, and #JoannaMacy. Klee's award will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally.

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/klee-benally-honored-as-nuclear-free.html

Order Klee's book here:
https://detritusbooks.com/products/no-spiritual-surrender-indigenous-anarchy-in-defense-of-the-sacred
#NuclearFreeFuture #UraniumFilmFestival #NoNukes #NoUraniumMining #NoSpiritualSurrender

#kleebenally #nuclearfree #censorednews #colonialist #uraniummines #navajonation

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2025-01-14 · 01:49 UTC

From Chapter 14 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndigenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"Although the #NavajoTribalCouncil established a mass scale farming initiative called '#NavajoAgriculturalProductsIndustry (#NAPI),' the farm has stated on its website that it plants genetic #HybridCorn seed purchased from '#PioneerSeedCompany, #Syngenta Inc., and #Monsanto companies.' In 2014, in an attempt to 'curb' the diabetes epidemic, the #NavajoNationCouncil created a law that raised the sales tax for cheap junk foods sold on Navajo Nation and another removing sales tax from fresh fruits and vegetables. Economic pressure on those already struggling while not addressing the root causes and environmental degradation is par for the course for the #colonial government and Navajo politicians.

"Instead of directly feeding ourselves and communities, we have become dependent on businesses and corporations that are more concerned with profits than our health and well-being. The #BoardingSchools were replete with capitalist indoctrination to forcibly assimilate #Diné children into colonial society. The curriculum was designed with a clear lesson: To feed our families we needed jobs. To have jobs we needed to be trained. To be trained we needed to obey. To not have a job means you’re poor. To employ other workers is to build wealth. To build wealth means success."

Page 302, KleeBenally, NoSpiritualSurrender.

#CorporateColonialism #FoodSecurity #FoodInsecurity #GMOs #BigAg #EndCapitalism #Colonialism #Decolonize #TraditionalFoods #Capitalism #CapitalismMustDie #CulturalGenocide

#kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #indefenseofthesacred #navajotribalcouncil #navajoagriculturalproductsindustry #napi

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-30 · 22:03 UTC

From #Wikipedia: #KleeBenally was an Indigenous activist, author, musician, and environmentalist from #NavajoNation.

Early life

"Benally was born in Black Mesa, Arizona to Jones and Berta Benally. He was from the Tódích’íi’nii and Wandering People clans. His father, Jones, was a traditional Diné and his mother, Berta is of Russian-Polish Jewish descent. Klee grew up with the traditions of his father. During his childhood, Klee's family was forcibly displaced due to a land dispute that resulted in thousands of Navajo people losing their homes. Benally spent most of his life in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Activism

#AntiColonialism

"Klee used his works to advocate for #AntiColonial #IndigenousResistance. In his book, #NoSpiritualSurrender, Benally argues for#IndigenousAnarchy to achieve total liberation of #Nahasdzáán (#MotherEarth). He also created the game #BurnTheFort, where each player takes the role of an Indigenous warrior fighting to stop #colonization of their land.

"In 2014, Benally protested outside the Super Bowl against the use of Washington Football Team's name "Redskin", which some considered offensive to Native Americans. The name was changed in 2022.

Environmentalism

"Benally advocated fiercely against the expansion of the #ArizonaSnowbowlSkiResort and the use of treated wastewater to make snow, arguing that it was destroying the local ecosystem. He also protested against pumice and #UraniumMining and transport in the area, advocating the clean up of mines from the Cold War Era. Klee typically framed the struggle for #environmental rights in the context of religious freedom for Indigenous peoples, stating that:

"'This is a struggle for cultural survival — the struggle to protect sacred spaces.'

Music

"In 1989, when Benally was 14 years old he founded the punk rock band Blackfire with his siblings, Jeneda and Clayson. The band mixed traditional #NavajoChants and music with #ProtestSongs about the oppression of Indigenous people. Benally was the band's guitarist. The band's first EP called# Blackfire was released in 1994 and produced by CJ Ramone. In 2002, the band released its first album, #OneNationUnder.

Personal life

"Klee was married to Princess Benally. Klee died at the age of 48, on December 30th, 2023 in a hospital in Phoenix. He is survived by his siblings, wife, and parents."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klee_Benally

#RestInPowerKleeBenally #RIPKleeBenally #HaulNo

#wikipedia #kleebenally #navajonation #anticolonialism #anticolonial #indigenousresistance

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 21:10 UTC

The last part of this section (The #AIM Song of Anguish) of chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender is something that I can relate to. After my negative experience with an AIM member, I formed an alliance with #RobertaBlackgoat and #CorbinHarney -- and told their stories (as well as providing #MutualAid). And yeah, not all resistance groups are created equal!

"AIM has been extraordinarily gloried but they weren’t the only radical #Indigenous organizations operating then; communities with forces such as #JanetMcCloud fighting for fishing rights in so-called Washington, Corbin Harney resisting #NuclearColonialism in so-called Nevada, grandmothers #KatherineSmith, #PaulineWhitesinger, and Roberta Blackgoat fighting coal mining and forced relocation on #BlackMesa, and so many more have fought for decades to protect sacred lands and waters. Occasionally AIM would be there alongside those struggles and sometimes they would not be welcome. In spite of this, the AIM song still echoes and invokes the spirit of resistance in #Tulalip, #WesternShoshone, and #Diné frontlines, and far beyond."

Page 184, Klee Benally, No Spiritual Surrender

#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #NoUraniumMining #BigMountainResistance

#aim #kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #robertablackgoat #mutualaid #indigenous

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 21:10 UTC

The last part of this section (The #AIM Song of Anguish) of chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender is something that I can relate to. After my negative experience with an AIM member, I formed an alliance with #RobertaBlackgoat and #CorbinHarney -- and told their stories (as well as providing #MutualAid). And yeah, not all resistance groups are created equal!

"AIM has been extraordinarily gloried but they weren’t the only radical #Indigenous organizations operating then; communities with forces such as #JanetMcCloud fighting for fishing rights in so-called Washington, Corbin Harney resisting #NuclearColonialism in so-called Nevada, grandmothers #KatherineSmith, #PaulineWhitesinger, and Roberta Blackgoat fighting coal mining and forced relocation on #BlackMesa, and so many more have fought for decades to protect sacred lands and waters. Occasionally AIM would be there alongside those struggles and sometimes they would not be welcome. In spite of this, the AIM song still echoes and invokes the spirit of resistance in #Tulalip, #WesternShoshone, and #Diné frontlines, and far beyond."

Page 184, Klee Benally, No Spiritual Surrender

#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #NoUraniumMining #BigMountainResistance

#aim #kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #robertablackgoat #mutualaid #indigenous

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 21:10 UTC

The last part of this section (The #AIM Song of Anguish) of chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender is something that I can relate to. After my negative experience with an AIM member, I formed an alliance with #RobertaBlackgoat and #CorbinHarney -- and told their stories (as well as providing #MutualAid). And yeah, not all resistance groups are created equal!

"AIM has been extraordinarily gloried but they weren’t the only radical #Indigenous organizations operating then; communities with forces such as #JanetMcCloud fighting for fishing rights in so-called Washington, Corbin Harney resisting #NuclearColonialism in so-called Nevada, grandmothers #KatherineSmith, #PaulineWhitesinger, and Roberta Blackgoat fighting coal mining and forced relocation on #BlackMesa, and so many more have fought for decades to protect sacred lands and waters. Occasionally AIM would be there alongside those struggles and sometimes they would not be welcome. In spite of this, the AIM song still echoes and invokes the spirit of resistance in #Tulalip, #WesternShoshone, and #Diné frontlines, and far beyond."

Page 184, Klee Benally, No Spiritual Surrender

#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #NoUraniumMining #BigMountainResistance

#aim #kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #robertablackgoat #mutualaid #indigenous

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 21:10 UTC

The last part of this section (The #AIM Song of Anguish) of chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender is something that I can relate to. After my negative experience with an AIM member, I formed an alliance with #RobertaBlackgoat and #CorbinHarney -- and told their stories (as well as providing #MutualAid). And yeah, not all resistance groups are created equal!

"AIM has been extraordinarily gloried but they weren’t the only radical #Indigenous organizations operating then; communities with forces such as #JanetMcCloud fighting for fishing rights in so-called Washington, Corbin Harney resisting #NuclearColonialism in so-called Nevada, grandmothers #KatherineSmith, #PaulineWhitesinger, and Roberta Blackgoat fighting coal mining and forced relocation on #BlackMesa, and so many more have fought for decades to protect sacred lands and waters. Occasionally AIM would be there alongside those struggles and sometimes they would not be welcome. In spite of this, the AIM song still echoes and invokes the spirit of resistance in #Tulalip, #WesternShoshone, and #Diné frontlines, and far beyond."

Page 184, Klee Benally, No Spiritual Surrender

#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #NoUraniumMining #BigMountainResistance

#corbinharney #bigmountainresistance #nouraniummining #waterprotectors #waterislife #dine

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 21:10 UTC

The last part of this section (The #AIM Song of Anguish) of chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book #NoSpiritualSurrender is something that I can relate to. After my negative experience with an AIM member, I formed an alliance with #RobertaBlackgoat and #CorbinHarney -- and told their stories (as well as providing #MutualAid). And yeah, not all resistance groups are created equal!

"AIM has been extraordinarily gloried but they weren’t the only radical #Indigenous organizations operating then; communities with forces such as #JanetMcCloud fighting for fishing rights in so-called Washington, Corbin Harney resisting #NuclearColonialism in so-called Nevada, grandmothers #KatherineSmith, #PaulineWhitesinger, and Roberta Blackgoat fighting coal mining and forced relocation on #BlackMesa, and so many more have fought for decades to protect sacred lands and waters. Occasionally AIM would be there alongside those struggles and sometimes they would not be welcome. In spite of this, the AIM song still echoes and invokes the spirit of resistance in #Tulalip, #WesternShoshone, and #Diné frontlines, and far beyond."

Page 184, Klee Benally, No Spiritual Surrender

#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors #NoUraniumMining #BigMountainResistance

#aim #kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #robertablackgoat #mutualaid #indigenous

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 20:57 UTC

So, the next section takes to task the glorification of #AIM leaders like #DennisBanks and #RussellMeans, and some of the #ToxicMasculinity within the group's ranks. I experienced this first hand with a coven-mate (who was a member of AIM) -- he and I would butt heads about a lot of things, and he truly had the attitude that he was always right and that he should be running the show. It got old after a while and I eventually left the groups (both my coven and our political group, the #ThomasMortonAlliance). Ego and emotional / physical abuse used to be a part of a lot of groups -- even Winona LaDuke was caught up in an incident that happened under her watch involving an abuse of power and sexual coercion. So yeah, I agree 100% with Klee's assessment of some of AIM's leadership and the "cult of personality" around certain figures.

"As Billie Pierre stated in her defense of Graham and Looking Cloud, 'A basic principle of any resistance movement is non-collaboration with our enemy.'

"The context of extreme State repression and consequential internal paranoia and divisions within movements and how it
impacts ongoing struggles today is necessary to study. AIM and their Indigenous feminist counterpart Women of All Red Nations, have lessons unlearned that should be studied, challenged, and confronted outside of settler colonial state narratives that continue to undermine and attack Indigenous resistance. There are also serious reasons many young Indigenous People are wary of AIM, from the toxic misogynistic legacy that has remained unaccounted for, to the imposition of force in frontlines where they have tended to overbear local organizers. Though they’ve maintained leadership with their 'Grand Council' over scattered semi-autonomous chapters, AIM’s contemporary presence has depended on its legacy. It’s largely an institution that dwells on its past achievements. Though those achievements may be great, this doesn’t provide much opening for reflection and necessary transformation to be relevant to young folks who have grown up in what we might consider a 'post-Red Power, post-AIM' world. As AIM has aspired to be 'a catalyst for Indian Sovereignty,' the terms have only grown muddied with the actions of their celebrities. From Russell Means abusing a Diné elder, then attempting to dodge accountability by attacking Navajo Nation tribal sovereignty, to the trails of women used and abused by him, Dennis Banks, and the other personalities that still comprise AIM’s celebrity forces.

"This anguishing resentment of AIM and their ongoing impositions, is part of what motivated a young Indigenous person
to cut down the AIM flag that was flying over a sacred fire at the Winnemucca Community Resistance Camp in so-called
Nevada in 2021."

Pages 183-184, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#AIM #AmericanIndianMovement #IndigenousAnarchy

#aim #dennisbanks #russellmeans #toxicmasculinity #thomasmortonalliance #kleebenally

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 20:42 UTC

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndigenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"Darlene 'Kamook' Nichols who had been married to #DennisBanks, received $42,000 from the #FBI to spy on #AIM and help build the case against #ArloLookingCloud and #JohnGraham [in the murder of #AnnaMaeAquash]. Kamook subsequently married the US Marshal who re-opened the case.

"The voluntary state-collaboration of John Trudell against Graham and Looking Cloud also became a flashpoint. John Graham’s extradition from so-called Canada would not have been possible without Trudell’s identification of him to the FBI.

"Though Looking Cloud confessed, he later recanted it stating that he was coerced with drugs given to him by State agents.

"In 2003 #LeonardPeltier issued this statement regarding the John Graham trial,

" 'When we talk of sovereignty, we must be willing to solve our own problems and not go running to the oppressor for relief…We have been and still are at odds with the most dangerous, well-funded, strongest military and political organization in the history of the world [the US government]. Whatever the result of any trials conducted in the courtrooms of our oppressor—the same ones’ ultimately responsible for Anna Mae’s death—we will continue to advance in our movement towards victory, inspired by her memory and her spirit.' "

Pages 182-1823, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaePictouAquash
#ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement
#AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #FBI #COINTELPRO

#kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #indefenseofthesacred #dennisbanks #fbi #aim

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 20:20 UTC

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndigenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"In the book #LakotaWoman, #MaryCrowDog and #RichardErdoes
shared this prophetic quote by #AnnaMaeAquash in 1975,

'[The FBI] offered me my freedom and money if I’d testify the way they wanted. I have those two choices now. I chose my kind of freedom, not their kind, even if I have to die. They let me go because they are sure I’ll lead them to Peltier. They’re watching me. I don’t hear them or see them, but I know they’re out there somewhere. I can feel it.' "

Page 181, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaePictouAquash
#ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement
#AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #MMIW #FBI #COINTELPRO

#kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #indefenseofthesacred #lakotawoman #marycrowdog #richarderdoes

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-04 · 16:49 UTC

From Chapter 8 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndigenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

[More from Billie Pierre's 2006 article] "Pierre also addressed how #COINTELPRO operated at the time:

"'This tactic of the FBI’s Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) undermined valuable members of a group by casting them in suspicious situations. Wherever Pictou-Aquash went, arrests would follow. She’d be released, while other AIM members were slapped with charges and high bail. In September 1975, FBI Agent David Price attempted to force her to sign an affidavit implicating Peltier for the murder of the two FBI agents. She refused to cooperate, and Price promised her that she wouldn’t live to see the year’s end. They quickly arranged for her to be buried as a Jane Doe. After this cover-up came to light, the FBI released a statement announcing that Pictou-Aquash was not a government informant. As intended, this statement insinuated that AIM might have believed Pictou-Aquash to be an informant and murdered her.'"

Page 181, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender

#FreeLeonardPeltier #AnnaMaeAquash #AnnaMaePictouAquash #ACAB #AIM #AmericanIndianMovement #AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #MMIW

#kleebenally #nospiritualsurrender #indefenseofthesacred #freeleonardpeltier #annamaeaquash #annamaepictouaquash

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-08-30 · 16:00 UTC

Going to the #ShiprockFair, #KleeBenally Remembered the #UraniumDump on the Banks of the #SanJuanRiver

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, August 29, 2024

SHIPROCK, #NavajoNation -- "In his book published shortly before his passing, Klee Benally writes of going to the #NorthernNavajoFair and the #UraniumDump in #Shiprock that no one talks about. It is along the San Juan River, the same river that flooded this week, now eight months after Klee's passing.

"'The Northern Navajo Fair at Tsé Bit A'í (#ShiprockNewMexico) has been held for more than one hundred years,' Klee writes in 'No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred.'

"Klee describes how the fair each fall marks the changing of the seasons and the #harvest. He describes the neon glow of the carnival in the cold, dusty nights, and the #uniper fires that burn.

"All of this revelry is held right on #UraniumBoulevard just a couple miles from a massive 105-acre #Radioactive dump containing 2.5 million tons of #RadioactiveWaste on a site that was a former #UraniumMill (which is just 600 feet from the San Juan River.)'

"The Shiprock Uranium Disposal Cell studies showed that more than 1.8 million liters of #groundwater were contaminated with uranium, #selenium, #radium, #cadmium, #sulfate, and #nitrate.

"Now the #NavajoNation again is targeted by the #Nuclear Industry and #DebHaaland's radioactive agenda is being ignored.

"Speaking in Farmington, Interior Sec. Haaland said the transition to green energy in the #FourCorners region will be led by the #AtomicBomb industry, #LosAlamos National Laboratory, which has already poisoned #Pueblo lands in northern #NewMexico.

"There is no mention of the fact that there is no safe way to store #NuclearWaste.
Now, adding to the layers of deception, the U.S. #EPA is deceiving the public. The EPA doesn't actually clean up the uranium dumps and strewn #RadioactiveTailings from #ColdWar #UraniumMining on the Navajo Nation -- it only announces plans and promises to do it.

"#EricJantz, legal director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, told the Inter-American Commission on #HumanRights in March that the #EPA has not completed any of the cleanups.

"There are 524 uranium mine sites waiting to be cleaned up on the Navajo Nation. Zero -- none of these -- have been fully cleaned up, Jantz told the international commission.
The truth is people seldom talk about the uranium dump at Shiprock because there is so much strewn radioactive waste, and so many unreclaimed uranium mines, with radioactive waste strewn from Cameron to #MonumentValley, and across the Four Corners region.

"During the 1990s, on assignment for USA Today, I talked with #Dine' in #RedValley and Cove, south of Shiprock, down the mountain from where I lived. In every family, there was cancer. In every family, someone was dying of #cancer, or had already died, from cancer because of the uranium mining.

"One Dine' grandmother in her 80s was living in a stone home built of radioactive rock. We had a Geiger counter with us."

#KleeBenallyRIP #KleeBenallyRestInPower #UraniumMining #NoSpiritualSurrender #IndigenousAnarchy #DefendingTheSacred #IndigenousActivism #HaulNo #CorporateColonialism #WaterIsLife #NoLithiumMining #CorporateColonialism #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CopperMining #Greenwashng #NuclearWeapons #NoNukes #NoWar #NoNuclearWeapons

#shiprockfair #kleebenally #uraniumdump #sanjuanriver #brendanorrell #censorednews