Camp MniLuzahan & Creek Patrol Response

Camp MniLuzahan & Creek Patrol Response

On October 16, 2020 The Luzahan Creek Patrol set up some Tee Pees to help the unsheltered Indigenous Brothers and Sisters in Rapid City. The Rapid City Police department raided the camp, six people were arrested and released that Saturday  morning. The Luzahan Creek Patrol sought permission from the Pine Ridge, Rose  Bud and Cheyenne River Tribe to set up a camp for the unsheltered outside of  Rapid City.

They have made a call for help in supplying the camp. #LandBack

We answered that call and are organizing a fundraiser and Covid-19 testing supplies. Thank you to NextGen Laboratory for your help to supply needs to the camp, Pine Ridge, Rosebud and Cheyenne River.

Learn more from the NDN Collective reporting on Camp Mni Luzahan.

Blue Bird Flour Donations

Please help our relatives by providing quality flour. The next time you visit the Native American Trading Post, buy an extra bag of flour, and leave the donation at the store. We will pick up the donations and hand deliver them to the camp.

Native American Trading Post – 3971 S Redwood Rd, West Valley City, UT 84123

Camp Needs

Camp supplies wish list can be found here. Please donate Kitchen items before other supplies if possible.

Contacts for drop off locations:
​Salt Lake City Area – Lindsay Beebe (860) 490-7828 
Utah County – Dave John (801) 420-7288 (Please leave a message)
​Green River, Wyoming – Tomacita Ranger Becenti (307) 871-6131 ​

Support

Camp Mniluzahan needs volunteers, meals, security, first aid, medical support, monetary donations, and legal funds

​Visit their site to learn more about how you can help.​

Pandos MMIW+ Utah Michelle Brown Addresses Bountiful High Mascot

“Imagine googling the simple phrase “high school mascot.” An array of silly animal costumes from every beast imaginable begin to populate the screen. In addition to all the beasts used for entertaining crowds at sporting events and assemblies, picture a lone Native American more popularly known as “a Brave” at Bountiful High School.

Now imagine being a Native American from any tribe living in Utah, with the full understanding that the people in positions of power believe their portrayal of your race belongs among the lineup of the mascot beasts. It’s not a humanizing feeling.”

Read more of Michelle’s article published in the Salt Lake Tribune. 

 

Utah Public Radio HB116

“The passage of HB 116 is a significant step to confronting this problem, but it is only a part of the overall work being done by groups and individuals on this issue. 

Michelle Brown is the Chairperson for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Utah, a group working under the umbrella of PANDOS, a non-profit grassroots activism organization. She describes work that supports families and educates the public about individuals who are missing or who have been murdered. “

Read the entire article for more information and comments from Representative Angela Romero. 

 

Stand in Solidarity and Protect Gwandaii Goodlit

Stand in Solidarity and Protect Gwandaii Goodlit

On December 10 & 11 Carl Moore (Chairman) and Dave John (Treasurer) Headed to Washington DC to stand in solidarity with the Gwich’In Nation, Their Ancestral lands, including the coastal plain ( “Iizhik Gwats’ an Gwandaii Goodlit” / “the sacred place where life begins” of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Northeast Alaska. The coastal plain provides a sheltered calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd that has sustained the Gwich’In people since time immemorial. The Trump Administration is launching an aggressive oil and gas leasing schedule to attempt to auction off the fragile coastal plain for destructive drilling.

Read the story as The Tour Heads to Utah.

The Gwich’In Nation are among many Indigenous leaders fighting this Administration’s reckless “energy dominance” agenda.
This agenda furthers the destructive legacy of colonization in the United States. When our fights are picked off one at a time, we are discounted. We are stronger together. Tribes and our allies nationwide are standing together to unite against the Trump Administration’s attack on our human rights.

Other Nations and Organizations that stood in solidarity with the Gwich’In Nation that attended.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Navajo Nation, Lummi Nation, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Muisca Tribe, Pokanoket Tribe, Senrca Nation, Corrizo/ Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Oglala Lakota, Ponka Nation, Ahtna Dene, Native Nations, FANG, Utah Dine Bikeya, Indigenous Environmental Network, Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders, Society of Native Nations, L’eau est la vie camp and of course Pandos.
For more info: www.gwichinsteeringcommittee.org

Pandos Jennifer Boyce Shares Insight About MMIW+ At Westminster College Panel

Pandos Jennifer Boyce Shares Insight About MMIW+ At Westminster College Panel

Salt Lake City Weekly discussing the Urban Indian Health Instute Report, insight, and figures from the Center for Disease Control. Read the entire article on City Weekly.

“Boyce’s family history wasn’t the only part of the Westminster panel. Students also conversed about the role of privilege in white Americans’ understandings of U.S. history. Before concluding the talk, Boyce took back the mic and left the young people with a few parting thoughts. “We can continue this conversation beyond this room. Because that is what needs to happen,” she said. “This needs to be cared about before we can try and get a huge database or legislation overnight to fix the problem. We have to want to fix it first.”

After stepping down from the podium, Boyce told City Weekly this sort of outreach is critical to MMIW’s work. Bridges must be built so that vulnerable members of an already-historically exploited group can be protected. “We can’t do everything on our own, with just Natives working on this,” Boyce said. “It needs to stop. In order for something to stop, you have to at least know about it, or know that it’s happening.”

Conversations like the one at Westminster College are an important part of both the healing process and in stopping the scourge, Boyce says. The stakes are high—violence against women has global economic consequences, to say nothing of the moral imperative of alleviating the tribulations of millions of people. “Unless we start addressing this issue or accepting the fact that is an issue, then we will reap the consequences of being complicit,” Boyce says. “It will come back to us in some way or another.”

Boyce thinks it can be difficult for people to grasp the enormity and scale of such violence and suffering—she says it’s tough for people who aren’t Native American to accept such horror is a reality for many people living in cities and reservations throughout the U.S. “It’s a big ask,” she says, but merely acknowledging this violence means a lot. “Every time someone has said, ‘Wow that’s hard, that’s a hard thing,'” they accept that it’s true. That actually takes some of the weight off my shoulders. That makes it lighter.”

 

 

Pandos at University of Utah PowWow Raising Awareness for MMIW+

Pandos at University of Utah PowWow Raising Awareness for MMIW+

Cassandra Begay and Carol Surveyor bring awareness to the University of Utah. Read more in the Daily Chronicle to read the full story.

“These stories are really hard to process, to hear about and to have happen in our communities, to our families, to our sisters, to our cousins, to our aunties,” Pechanga said. “For me, dancing in honor of them is a way to heal my own heart and strengthen myself and strengthen my community. I dance for those who can’t.”

U Pow Wow Honors Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

This Isn’t Just an Indigenous Issue; It’s a Human Right’s Issue

“You don’t really know about things unless you go to the grocery store and run into someone,” says PANDOS Education Chair Rose Yazzie, a Diné elementary teacher. “You only heard about it through word of mouth.” Yazzie now lives in West Valley City, but taught on the Navajo Nation when 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike was abducted and murdered there in 2016. That, Yazzie says, pushed residents into action on social media channels during the search.

“People woke up,” she says.

Read more in the City Weekly article.

Pandos Presents Bears Ears Documentary Film Preview

Pandos Presents Bears Ears Documentary Film Preview

Attend a special pre-screening of our Bears Ears documentary Borders, and stay for a discussion to follow the screening. You will also get a preview of our First Annual “Defend the Sacred” Pow Wow, coming up in September. You will have the opportunity to bid on silent auction items, with proceeds to benefit the Pow Wow fund.

Pandos has been working hard since September 2016 to fight for Indigenous rights and Environmental Rights. Your financial support would be greatly appreciated. You can help us fulfill our mission and help promote cultural understanding and education while bidding on beautiful works of art during this silent auction. We will also have speakers during this event letting the public know about PANDOS and what issues we have been working on and what events we are planning for the near future. This is a free event to enter.

Speakers for the evening:
Carl Moore
Lindsay Beebe
Dave John
Carol Surveyor