June 12, 2014 Hey Clyde and Dennis Pretty damn good news about President Obama being in Standing Rock Reservation tomorrow. Chairman David Archambault of Standing Rock is making some really good impact in his leadership. ksfy/story/25712925/president-obama-to-visit-standing-rock-reservation-in-north-dakota-next-week Clyde, I am taking a week off to be in Pipestone AIM Sundance in July. I will leaving on July 7 and will be there till the Sundance is over. AIM Chairman Keith Lussier and I having been working on the pipes that will be presented on Tree Day Wednesday July 9. I want to hold the ceremony at Midnight July 9 to present the five pipes. As far as I know both David Blacksmith and Leonard Crowdog are still scheduled to be there at the Pipestone Sundance. Dennis, thank you again for inviting me into the Sweatlodge. It was a great. I am committing to be there for the AIM Conference in Onieda Wisconsin in October. I am putting information on my Facebook and in my mass email on both the AIM Sundance in Pipestone and the AIM Conference in Onieda. Sandra Ninham being the coordinator of the AIM Conference in Onieda, Green Bay Wisconsin ensures that it will be well attended. For me, the big issue is still oil and the pipelines from Canada. I was in Iraq in April 1998. Seven of us went there at the invitation of the Saddam Hussein Government. It was eleven days inside Iraq with a Television Camera crew. We still have 25 hours of that footage. Of course at the time, no one in western media gave a shit about the economic sanctions or the 567,000 Iraqi children that died in the first five years of economic sanctions. I studied oil and the global economics behind it. Media is always used to blind people on the issue of oil. All kinds of wars have been started over oil. I was in Iran in October 2012 and again as it was in Iraq, it is all about oil and the use of economic sanctions against people who either own oil or dont want to be run over by big Multi-National companies who can buy media. I took a lot of flack for that visit to Iran. As AIM leaders, we have never been afraid to take action. I miss Vernon and the conversations with him. His daughter Raven who lives in Winnipeg told me of the visit to Libya and how she went along as a 14 year old. The Arab Spring is not just people seeking democracy, it is about oil and the pressures put on people in those areas. Vernon died after he came back from Venezuela. As you both know, I am the only member of the Grand Governing Council to be from Canada and it was always my role to inform the leadership of AIM on Canadian issues and especially the issue of oil. You know that my heart is in AIM but as Grand Chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization, I have to think about how we help our people understand the big money that is behind all the media spin about oil. Even if it is not spoken out in public, this is going to be a big issue in the Obama visit to Standing Rock Reservation on Friday. I think that AIM has been infiltrated. Some of our best young people are now funded by the Tides Foundation. Most dont know that Tides is Warren Buffet. We can stop pipelines but it doesnt stop the flow of oil, it just makes money for other ways of transporting oil. As the leadership of AIM, we need to continue to look at the issue of oil and how it affects our people. We as AIM need to understand the economics of oil. We also must have our own agenda. Chief Bernard Ominayak of Lubicon Alberta and his people stay in poverty but the environmentalists who advise them, some of them live well on money donated by big business. lubiconlakenation.ca/. I met with the Lubicon. Again, we are not seeing the whole picture. I also talked to Chief Arlan Adams who is right in the Tarsands of Alberta. He is not totally against oil but he understands that when oil hits $40 a barrel, the oil industry will be gone and his people will be left lobbying the Government to clean up the mess of the Tarsands and all the environmental disaster. My question is how do we help our people deal with big oil if we never meet the decision makers. As SCO Grand Chief, I am being instructed by some of the Chiefs to organize information sessions on the pipelines. The biggest issue is the pipeline being proposed to come through Manitoba. The West East pipeline. I will organize that information. As Mulroney said, you cannot sell what you cannot ship. I arrive at the Sundance and at the AIM Conference in Onieda by car. That car needs gas. Until, we reduce the need for oil, we have not done anything to save Mother Earth. This is an emotional issue and there are a lot of AIM people who are deeply committed to stopping the pipelines at any cost. I have talked to both of you on this. AIM stronghold is northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. AIM Chapters are all over United States. We have heard the environmentalists for many years. Now I will hear from the oil industry and I will organize the forums that brings our leadership to hear that side of the information. As I told you, Sierra Club, one of the biggest and oldest environmental groups got $50 million donation from New York Mayor Bloomberg, nytimes/2011/07/22/nyregion/bloomberg-donates-50-million-to-sierra-club-coal-campaign.html?_r=0. We as AIM are influenced by environmentalists because they tap into our peoples love of Mother Earth. As AIM, we are not financed by the Government. We need to keep our financial independence. We have always relied on our own ability to finance our activities but AIM Minneapolis does run programs. It is hard to see our people live in poverty while money is coming from our natural resource wealth. In the 33 SCO First Nations, the unemployment rate is between 60 and 95%. We need to look at all areas if we are to get our people out of poverty. I am heavily involved in the creation of Urban Reserves in order to bring investment into those First Nations. I see this as a means of being self-reliant. Clyde, I am asking in my email for financial help for the AIM Sundance and Dennis, I have asked some of my friends to help me donate a canvas top for your sweatlodge. Here is the email I sent to Lisa Meeches two days ago. Please review it and I am sending it out today as a massive email to over 400 people. Terry Nelson Hi Lisa I am in the process of inviting Native American leadership to Winnipeg for September 11 and 12. That is a Thursday and Friday. It is my hope to see 10 to 15 of the most powerful United States Tribal Chairs coming to Manitoba for those days. As you and I discussed, Manitoahbee is scheduled for September 10 to 14. I think it is a perfect time to invite Native American leadership to Winnipeg. As Southern Chief Organization Grand Chief, I will coordinate a two day meeting for the Native American leadership. manitoahbee.ca/homepage/ I had a very good meeting with Deputy Minister Wernick in Ottawa. I asked him if the Government of Canada ever lobbies Native Americans. To his knowledge, he did not believe that has ever happened. As you and I know Native Americans are very powerful, they have donated more to the elections of Senators and Congressmen than most. The Native American Gaming Industry has had close to $30 billion per year in the last few years and Gaming has revamped the economy of some of the U.S. tribes in the last twenty years or so. This is especially true in California. whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/05/op-ed-president-obama-indian-country-today Standing Rock Reservation where President Obama will be on Friday is not an oil reservation but of course there is oil in North Dakota and the Transcanada Pipeline, the XL pipeline is a big issue for both Canada and United States. A few years ago, Obama was confronted in Denver in a speech he was making by an AIM leader from Oglala Reservation about the XL Pipeline. I met with both President Bryan Brewer of Oglala and President David Archambault of Standing Rock Reservation. Both leaders gave me over an hour and half of their time. I continue to send them information on Canadian and international issues. Brian Mulroney in a recent speech in Ottawa outlined the Conservative Party position in a well thought out presentation. The speech was written for him but he would never present it if he did not believe in what he was saying to his audience. fullcomment.nationalpost/2014/04/08/brian-mulroneys-next-big-thing-for-canada/ Some of what Mulroney said. you cannot sell what you cannot ship Trade agreements are vital to access and to prosperity......we need a strong national commitment to build the infrastructure that will enable us to bring our abundance of natural resources – our most vital comparative advantage – to global markets, notably to the dynamic Asian economies where much of global growth is occurring. We need pipelines to carry our crude oil to our west and east coasts. And we definitely need to see the Keystone XL pipeline approved. A negative verdict by the U.S. government would contravene a major tenet of NAFTA under which the U.S. was guaranteed unfettered supply in exchange for unfettered access by Canadian exporters to its market. We have to understand that, while demand for much of what we have is strong, we operate in a highly competitive global market....We have to demonstrate convincingly that we are capable of doing what is required to earn their confidence that we are a reliable, efficient source of supply. (Regrettably, that is not the reputation we have today.) Never forget that, to get attention in Washington, you need to be relevant to America’s own agenda – domestic and global. Canada’s best asset and our best leverage in Washington should be our energy resources, not just because of what it can contribute to the U.S.’ economic prospects but also because of the heft it can give us with America’s global challenges and our own. By 2035 China’s energy consumption is expected to rise 60% surpassing that of the U.S. In India, demand will more than double. In the next four years alone the GDP of Asia is estimated to grow from $22 trillion to almost $ 29 trillion or 32%. The National Intelligence Council of the U.S. predicts that by 2030 “Asia will have surpassed North America and Europe combined in terms of global power based on GDP, population size, military power and technology investment.” We ignore that trend at our peril. There will be no powerful explosion of development in our entire energy sector unless there is agreement among the major players and interests. And who are they? The First Nations The affected provinces that control the resources The stewards of our environment Without their active involvement and enthusiastic cooperation, our natural resources will remain in the ground. Dead as a doornail. A vigorous national commitment to develop the resources and build the necessary infrastructure must be complemented by three essential undertakings: a principled partnership with First Nations and the provinces that moves beyond grievances from the past to opportunities for the future; a realistic plan, using new technologies first and foremost, to reduce carbon emissions. I say “realistic” deliberately because, while Canada clearly can and should do more, we are a relatively small part of the global problem. We can and should, however, contribute commensurate with our share; and a coherent plan to ensure that we are training people to harness the potential of our resource base. The Canada Job Grant program devised and led by Minister Jason Kenney is one very important step in that direction. But our education and training systems more generally need a major overhaul if we expect to have people with the right skills to exploit the huge potential of our resource rich economy. The statistics alone speak to the success of the FTA. Trade volumes more than tripled in less than twenty years – from $235 Billion to $743 Billion. Trade exploded into the largest bilateral exchanges between any 2 countries in the history of the world. In the two hours or so that we will be together this evening, more than $200 million in goods and services will be exchanged by Canada and the U.S. That is more than $1 million every minute of every hour of every day. Almost $2 billion in total, each and every day of every week of every month of every year. What Mulroney stated was a huge change in Conservative Government policy on First Nations. To look for a new arrangement between First Nations and Canada is simply economic reality. Canada sends 2.5 million barrels of oil a day to the United States. It is not only a million dollars a minute in trade, it must be made clear to Americans, that the 34 million Canadians purchase more American exports than the entire European Union put together. The United States gets huge economic strenght from Canadian natural resource wealth. The First Peoples of these lands need to share in that wealth. We need Native Americans to work together with First Nations to develop trade between the original peoples of North America. Trade between Canada and United States was $4.5 Trillion in the last ten years. President David Archambault of Standing Rock Reservation stated he needed 44,000 acres of land to be converted to reservation status. He was impressed with the Treaty Land Entitlement process in Canada. One of the strenghts of the Lakota, Dakota Nakota is that the Black Hills is the source of much of the gold in Fort Knox. It is stolen gold. A lawsuit by them against the United States would have huge impact. It is not only literally trillions of dollars worth of compound interest starting from the date of the theft but it is a lawsuit that can demand the return of the stolen gold. A Supreme Court of United States decision has already acknowledged in a previous settlement that the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota have a right to compensation for the theft of gold but that case was limited to a small amount of stolen gold. A larger lawsuit is something that they are considering. The Government of Canada will be invited to present information to the Native American leadership if we can organize this event properly. Manitoahbee is a big event and it would be great to see a contingent of Native American leadership involved. Southern Chiefs Organization is a very powerful organization at this time because Canada must build a pipeline through Manitoba. Several Chiefs have said no, we need to sit with the Government on Treaty issues before we can ever let any pipeline through our territory. I have been asked to organize SCO on the pipeline issue. I have grown increasingly concerned with the lack of a unified position on pipelines. Just saying no to pipelines is not saving Mother Earth. There is evidence of the Tides foundation funding environmentalists to engage Native Americans in stopping the pipelines. Most dont know that the oil is still flowing but on trains, not pipelines. Tides is a foundation owned by Warren Buffet who owns most of the trains in United States. I am not in favor of the Tarsands. I believe in saving our environment for future generations but stopping the pipelines makes no sense if the need for oil is still as high as it ever was. Stopping oil dependency requires reducing the need for oil, that is not happening with just stopping the pipelines. It is simply just shifting the means of transporting the oil, it doesnt stop oil from being transported, just the trains are making more money. I am concerned with AIM people on the pipeline route holding guns vowing to die before they ever let the XL pipeline through. As Vice Chair of the Grand Governing Council of AIM, I must do what our grassroots people are telling me to do but I dont want to see our AIM people dying just to help Warren Buffet make more money. Saying no to the pipeline is their right. The question is what happens after that. The Obama visit to Standing Rock Reservation is important because it proves Native Americans have a lot of influence on the United States. Manitoahbee is supported by the Province of Manitoba and I hope to have the Government of Canada help me in the invitation to the Native American leadership to be here in September. Look forward to working with you on this matter. Grand Chief Terrance Nelson
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 14:03:32 +0000
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