STN Press Conference 1/29/09

At 2:30 PM on Jan. 29, 2009, a Press Conference was held on the (cold) North Steps of The Capitol Building in Hartford CT. The videos look shaky because I was shivering, but the words spoken came through loud and clear...

Chief Richard Velky of the Schaghticoke Tribal nation:

Kathyrn Saunders at Press Conference:

Russel Means at STN Press Conference 1/29/09 (Part 1):

Russel Means at STN Press Conference 1/29/09 (Part 2):

Tribal members also posted a petition at petitiononline.com, which they intended to present to Gov. Jodi Rell after the rally, as arranged at 3pm.

The petition calls on the governor "to investigate and order an immediate halt to the hate crimes, destruction, desecration of sacred lands and encroachment" that continues despite the tribe's requests for help.

Gov. Rell left the building sometime between 2:30 and 3pm.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation needs your support!
Petition for Federal Acknowledgment
Download the petition
calling on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to investigate the Bureau of Indian Affairs' reversal of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation's Federal Acknowledgment on October 12, 2005
Download the petition
Fill out the petition online

-- Stolen Land --by Bruce Cockburn

From Tierra del Fuego to Ungava Bay
The history of betrayal continues to today
The spirit of Almighty Voice, the ghost of Anna Mae
Call like thunder from the mountains -- you can hear them say
It's a stolen land...

Apartheid in Arizona, slaughter in Brazil
If bullets don't get good PR there's other ways to kill
Kidnap all the children, put 'em in a foreign system
Bring them up in no-man's land where no one really wants them
It's a stolen land...

Stolen land -- but it's all we've got
Stolen land -- and there's no going back
Stolen land -- and we'll never forget
Stolen land -- and we're not through yet

In my mind I catch a picture -- big black raven in the sky
Looking at the ocean -- sail reflected in black eye --
Sail as white as heroin, white like weathered bones --
Rum and guns and smallpox gonna change the face of home
In this stolen land...

If you're like me you'd like to think we've learned from our mistakes
Enough to know we can't play god with others' lives at stake
So now we've all discovered the world wasn't only made for whites
What step are you gonna take to try and set things right?
In this stolen land...

Bruce Cockburn - Dream Like Mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUUPr1tLh24