First Nations sainthood - Canadian Mohawk woman to become Catholic saint.

First Nations sainthood - Canadian Mohawk woman to become Catholic saint.(Yahoo).A Mohawk woman is set to ascend to sainthood in a ceremony at the Vatican's St-Peter Basilica next Sunday, 300 years after her death. Tekakwitha will become the first ever First Nations person from North America to be canonized, and it's an occasion being celebrated by the survivors of church-run residential schools — an unusual group given the terrible legacy of residential schools in Canada, where physical and emotional abuse was common. The former students say it was Tekakwitha's spirit that gave them the strength to live through their childhood traumas. In all, about 150,000 children were removed from their homes and forced to attend the government-run schools since the late 19th century.
Just south of Montreal this week, Kahnawake was preparing for next Sunday's celebration with several members of the Mohawk First Nations community flying to Rome to attend Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's canonization.
"If you look at her tomb, blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, on top is a word [that reads] Kaiatanoron … to the traditional people, that means 'a lady of quality,' she's special, a rose, it's spotless," said Ron Boier, the Deacon at St-Francis Xavier Mission in the Mohawk territory.
Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Ossernon, now known as Auriesville, NY. But she died while serving the Catholic church in Kahnawake, Que., and has for centuries since been a symbol of hope for aboriginals in Canada. According to reports, she suffered from smallpox at the age of four and was left scarred and partially blind. Tekakwitha was ostracized for wanting to devote her life to God. She left her village and made her way to the Catholic Mission of St. Francis-Xavier in Sault-Saint-Louis, Que., where she eventually received her First Holy Communion in 1677.
The devout woman made a vow of virginity and decided to remain devoted to Jesus Christ for her entire life. She died at the age of 24 after years of self-flagellation and deteriorating health. People who witnessed her death nearly 300 years ago said her scars disappeared shortly after her passing and her face was left beautiful and intact. She was then occasionally named "Lily of the Mohawks." She was declared "venerable" by the Catholic Church in 1943 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. To this day, Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be blessed by the church. The Catholic Church has four important steps to follow before allowing someone to become a saint. According to the church, the subject must have been a worthy follower of God and been washed away of all sins. Once a Bishop has reviewed the person's life, the subject becomes a "Servant of God." In order to become a "Venerable," one must have lived their life in virtue of the church and testimonies documenting the person's life are presented to officials at the Vatican to review. Tekakwitha was "blessed" by Pope John Paul II, which means substantial evidence proves that a miracle was performed by the candidate. In her case, Tekakwhita is credited with curing a boy of flesh-eating disease. Finally, a person can become a saint once a second miracle is attributed to them after being "blessed." However, a Pope has the right to waive this requirement if he sees fit.Read and see (Video) the full story here.

Official: Iran to Defend Rights of 'suppressed' Canadian Natives.

Official: Iran to Defend Rights of 'suppressed' Canadian Natives.(Fars).
"As we defend the oppressed Bahraini, Iraqi, Afghan and Palestinian people at international bodies, we will defend the oppressed Canadian aboriginals with an expressive and documented voice," Larijani said during the meeting in Tehran on Monday.
During the meeting, Nelson appreciated Iran for defending the rights of the Canadian aboriginals, and elaborated on a number of cases of the violation of the Canadian natives' rights by the government in Ottawa which he calls an "immigrant government".He lamented that the young native Canadians are deprived of their basic civil rights and they have been kept in illiteracy and poverty due to the policies adopted by the government.Nelson is currently in Tehran to seek help in exposing Ottawa's exploitation and abuse of aboriginal communities.Canada has had a very bad track record when it comes to the treatment of natives and most of the native Canadians suffer poor educational, economic and social conditions, and are among the poorest members of the Canadian society.Hmmmmm.........US First Nations turn to Turkey, Canadian First Nations turn to Iran?more here.Read the full story here.

Canada's First Nations people and IRAN continue their attacks on Canada’s human rights record.

Canada's First Nations people and IRAN continue their attacks on Canada’s human rights record.(Yahoo).In recent weeks, Press TV, Iran's state-run global television network, has spent an inordinate amount of time attacking the Canadian government's record on human rights. With former Manitoba chief Terry Nelson now in Tehran, they seem to have stepped it up a notch. Nelson, and his small delegation, arrived in Tehran late last week for meetings with Iranian officials to discuss Canada's treatment of its First Nations people.
On Sunday, Nelson and former Dakota Tipi First Nation chief Dennis Pashe were the station's special in-studio guests."The Indian Act...basically makes indigenous people living on the government reservation to be legally incompetent in the same category as children, alien enemies," said Nelson, seated in front of an ominous background. "There's no real economic development on reserves. The reservations have between 60 and 95 per cent unemployment. This is the root cause of the artificial poverty that's on reserves. It is economic sanctions. It is enforced by the Canadian government."
Pashe was a little more inflammatory with his comments evoking concepts such as extermination and concentration camps when describing Canada's approach with First Nations' communities. "It's part of the ongoing effort by the Canadian government to exterminate us," he said when asked about the high incarceration rates of Aboriginal women. "In the past they used a gun and [a] disease infested blanket to wipe out our people, to take our resources, to take our lands and to exploit them for their own profit. Today they use legislation as the gun, alcohol and drugs is the bullet so to speak. And they use alcohol and drugs to cause a lot of of social evil in our families and our communities to undermine our family values," he said.Hmmmm........US First Nations turn to Turkey, Canadian First Nations turn to Iran?Read the full story here.

Cherokee women to Elizabeth Warren: Stop ducking us!

Cherokee women to Elizabeth Warren: Stop ducking us!(BH).On their first day in the Hub, a group of Cherokees hoping to confront Elizabeth Warren over her Native American heritage claims blasted the Democrat for trying to dismiss the ancestry controversy as a non-issue in the Bay State U.S. Senate race. “Poverty, teen suicide, our health care system,” said Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes in an interview today with the Herald. “Those are issues and those are the people she stepped on and used to benefit and now she says it’s not an issue. Well, of course, to her it’s not an issue because she doesn’t want to address that she did this.”
Ali Sacks, a Cherokee from Warren’s home state of Oklahoma, had harsher words: “It’s cowardly to ride the coattails of people who have lost so much for your own benefit and not accomplish what you can accomplish on your own benefits. I think it’s shameful and extremely disrespectful not just to Cherokees but to all tribes who have given so much to this country historically and lost so much.” “What is wrong with sitting down with the people she claims to be a part of?” said Sacks.
“That’s all we’d like to do — educate her. She has the same opportunity to educate us if we’re the wrong ones. But she runs and avoids because she knows there’s nothing to back her claims.”Read the full story here.

Hundreds of Cherokees form new group to challenge "Dances with Deceit" a.k.a. Elizabeth Warren.

Hundreds of Cherokees form new group to challenge "Dances with Deceit" a.k.a. Elizabeth Warren.(LI).By William A. Jacobson.A new group of over 150 Cherokees and growing has formed with the purpose of forcing Elizabeth Warren to give up her false claim to Cherokee heritage.
The group has a new blog, Cherokees Demand Truth from Elizabeth Warren, and corresponding Facebook page:Mission Statement

Cherokees Demand Truth from Elizabeth Warren is a group of authentic Cherokees and descendants devoted to sharing the truth about our history. Our mission is to help people understand what a real Cherokee is and to show why Elizabeth Warren claiming to be Cherokee without proof is harmful and offensive to us.

The group presently consists of 156 Cherokees and is growing:

We are a group of concerned enrolled Cherokees and descendants from the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes; the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; who demand that Elizabeth Warren tell the truth about her “Cherokee” ancestry and identity. Our group, 149 members strong and growing each day, is in it’s infancy so we are, at this time, an informal one with no specific organizational structure. Spokespeople for the group are Twila Barnes and David Cornsilk….
This is NOT a political group, but instead, a group that demands Elizabeth Warren and others like her understand OUR history belongs to us and no one has the right to try to rewrite it or make up fictitious stories so they can fit in it or take advantage of it. Only those who meet the requirements under Cherokee law should claim to be Cherokee. We hope to help educate the public on what is and is not true about our history and also why the false claims like Elizabeth Warren is making are harmful to the Cherokee people.

The first blog post is Elizabeth Warren – The Cherokees Will Not Be Silenced:

Many wonder why we Cherokees are so insistent on Elizabeth Warren coming clean about her false claims of Cherokee ancestry. This is not a political issue to us. We don’t care if Elizabeth Warren is a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent. We do care, though, if she goes around claiming to be Cherokee and has tried to benefit from that claim….

Hmmm....As i said before i hope the Indian Nation go's after her with all legal means to their disposal.Read the full story here.More here @ Breitbart.

Elizabeth Warren "Dances in Circles" and How to prove/claim Native American heritage on college applications.

Elizabeth Warren "Dances in Circles" and How to prove/claim Native American heritage on college applications. (DC).A prominent Native American group says Massachusetts Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren had “better be able to defend” her past claims of being an Indian-American minority.
The Democratic candidate is facing questions about her heritage following the revelation on Friday that she described herself as a Native American minority in professional law school directories during the 1980s and ’90s.
“Once you put that down, you better be able to defend it,” Ray Ramirez of the Native American Rights Fund told The Daily Caller on Monday.
Warren, who no longer publicly refers to herself as Native American, has disputed that she claimed Indian-American minority status then to give herself a professional advantage.
Asked for evidence of her ancestry to back up the candidate’s past statements, a Warren spokeswoman told TheDC on Monday that the campaign is “working on digging up some sort of evidence to appease” inquirers.
But the campaign hasn’t been able to immediately provide any documentation. The Boston Herald reported Friday that the Warren campaign said the “tales of Warren’s Cherokee and Delaware tribe ancestors have been passed down through family lore.”
Ramirez said anyone who claims in writing to be a Native American should have some sort of supporting documentation. “If you’re a member of a federally recognized tribe, then that means you would have a tribal enrollment number,” he said.
So how do you get or proof this heritage?
How to prove/claim Native American heritage on college applications?

Answer: Definition and origins of Native Americans:

Definition. As described in DoD Directive 1350.2 a Native-American or Alaskan Native is a person having origins in the original peoples of North America, AND who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition. (emphasis mine)

There is no one contemporary majority definition that establishes a person’s identity as a Native-American. The Bureau of Census states that “anybody who claims to be a Native-American” is a Native-American. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which is the organization responsible for monitoring Indian affairs and issues, general definition to be a Native-American, you must:

Be 1/4-1/2 Native-American blood at a minimum. 


Live on or near trust lands/reservations. 


Be on a tribal roll recognized by the federal government. 


Trace ancestry back three generations. 


Be approved by BIA officials. 

Enrollment in Native American heritage varies from tribe to tribe, but two requirements are the usual standard for claiming your tribe.
First, you must be a descendent from someone listed on the tribe's base roll or be a descendent of someone married to a Native American on the base roll.
Secondly, tribal residency or contact with your tribe are fairly common requirements.Read the full story here.