Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon v Department of Interior Second Amended Complaint 4-18-2011
Case Summary – Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon v. Salazar
Case summary originally posted on Scribd.com
A Native American tribe in California has filed it’s Second Amended Complaint (SAC), in a lawsuit opposing the environmental document for a luxury resort development near Los Angeles. The Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon is requesting a preliminary and permanent injunction stopping the Tejon Mountain Village project in Kern County. The Southern California resort development is being sued alleging Unlawful Possession, violations of NAGPRA, Civil Rights and CEQA. County of Kern, California, Tejon Ranch Corporation, Tejon Mountain Village, LLC (TMV) and the Department of Interior are Defendant’s in the Eastern District of California court action.
The EIR for the project lists more than 50 Native American villages and cemetery sites within the project study area and states that the resort corporation, TMV, “own the remains” of the Kawaiisu, and artifacts found in and around the graves, not requiring repatriation to the Tribe as contemplated by NAGPRA. The SAC addresses numerous cases of sacred cultural resource destruction that have been so far identified in conjunction with the proposed development. Plaintiff’s Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon and Chairman David Laughing Horse Robinson filed the Second Amended Complaint on April 18, 2011.
The Kawaiisu are one of the ancient Great Basin Shoshone Paiute tribes whose pre-European territory extended from Utah to the Pacific Ocean and have continually inhabited the area from time immemorial. The Tribe descends from signatories to the 1849 Treaty with the Utahs, signed on December 30, 1849 and ratified on September 9, 1850. This treaty was the first tribal treaty signed by the United States after the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty. The Indian Non-Intercourse Act, 25 USC § 177 is incorporated in Article 4 of the 1849 Treaty and the legal proceeding.
The land, in controversy, was purchased by United States Indian Superintendent Edward F. Beale to establish the Tejon Sebastian Indian Reservation; it was the first Indian reservation in California. The reservation was established by Executive Order in 1853, 10 Stat. 226, 238.
SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT FILED FOR KAWAIISU TRIBE: U.S. FAILS TO HONOR INDIAN NONINTERCOURSE ACT
By Erica Laster Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
CALIFORNIA, United States – On April 18, 2011, the Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon filed its amended complaint in the Eastern District of California. The Kawaiisu Tribe seeks an affirmation that they hold aboriginal title to lands which the Defendant seeks to build resorts on. While the Non-Intercourse Act affirms that the Federal Government will prosecute any defendants making claim to said reservations, the U.S. government has refused to act on the Tribe’s behalf.
The complaint re-asserts land based claims of aboriginal title to approximately 49,000 acres of land in Kern County, California being encroached upon by Defendants seeking to establish resorts on sacred burial grounds.
The Kawaiisu are a Great Basin Shoshone Paiute Tribe whose territory extended from Utah to the Pacific Ocean before encroachment by Europeans occurred. Chairman of the Kawaiisu Tribe, David Laughing Horse Robinson, acting as attorney on the Tribe’s behalf, asserts claims based on the Non-Intercourse Act of 1857 which prohibits encroachment on Indian reservations and territory.
The second amended complaint asserts that various names have been used to refer to the Kawaiisu Tribe, including: Nochi, Cobaji, Cobajais, Covaji, Kahwissah, Kawaiasuh, Kawishm, Kowasah, Kubakhye, Newooah, Noches Colteches, Tahichapahanna and Tahichp. Many of these names have been confirmed as having been linked to the tribe through maps, history reports and Congressional filings.
This is confirmed in an early Spanish explorers account by the name of Father Garces. Father Garces created disenos or “rude maps” in which he uses these names to describe meetings and accountings with members of the Kawaiisu Tribe. Father Garces functioned as a Spanish missionary whose objected lied in helping to extend Spanish territory throughout and northward of California including Colorado, Arizona and parts of the Mojave Desert.
The amended complaint also details various historical and legislative documents as having confirmed the presence of the Kawaiisu Tribe. These documents indicate which lands the Tribe maintains aboriginal title to and preclude outsiders from encroaching upon these lands and reservations.
On December 30, 1849, the United States signed the Treaty of 1849 with the Utah Indians which confirms that “all cases of aggression against said Utah shall be referred to the aforesaid government for adjustment and settlement.” The Indian Non-Intercourse Act (NIA) was in effect at the time under 25 U.S.C. 177 proscribing that “no purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same be made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution.”
The complaint further alleges that a second Treaty, known as Treaty D, was forged between the members of the Kawaiisu Tribe and U.S. Commissioner George W. Barbour, ceding large portions of land in exchange for goods and other supplies. It is argued that the Treaty was purposely left un-ratified by the U.S. Senate to allow for further exploration and for Europeans to continue participating in the gold rush, uninhibited by aboriginal land titles.
Pursuant to a Congressional Act of March 3, 1853, California Indian Superintendant Edward F. Beale established a reservation for the Tejon Indians at Tejon Pass on September 30, 1853.
The Defendants are seeking to build a series of residential areas, resorts, spas, golf courses, and other recreational facilities on these sacred historical, archaeological and burial grounds of the Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon.
Approximately 49,000 acres of this land is currently at issue in this case and the above documents have been used as proof that the Kawaiisu Tribe of Tejon have held aboriginal title to certain lands since time immemorial and continue to do so legally. Despite admitting that only a portion of the lands had been surveyed to determine ownership and after hearing from Attorney Robinson, the Native American Heritage Commission of California gave its approval for the Tejon Mountain Village project on October 13, 2009.
David Laughing Horse Robinson then filed suit in the Eastern District of California. The Indian Nonintercourse Act is a name given to a collection of six statutes passed by the United States Congress in 1790, 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1834. The Act has been the source of litigation for title to various lands throughout the United States for almost 200 years.
For more information please visit:
Indybay – Kawaiisu Tribe To Continue In Federal Court – 9 February 2011
Angelfire – Kawaiisu Tribe Homepage (Constitution)
The Mountain Enterprise – Second Lawsuit Seeks Injunction – 13 November 2009
Indigenous Peoples Issues – Kawaiisu Letter Writing Campaign – 26 February 2011
Oklahoma State University Library – Executive Orders Relating to Indian Reservations
Al-Qaeda Statement Confirms Death of OBL – Urges Uprising
Al-Qaeda statement calls the day “a historic day of the days of the great Islamic umma (nation) and in a noble stand of one of its great men and heroes across its blessed age and on the path taken by the will of all the mighty predecessors and those who will follow them, the Sheikh, the Mujahid & the Commander, the pious migrant fighter, Abu Abdullah Osama bin Muhammad bin Laden, may God have mercy on him was killed in a place where truth shines and where sincerity for good deeds and the call for truthfulness exist. Bin Laden was killed so he can follow the mighty caravan of the umma (the nation) with the great leaders, the loyal soldiers, and the honest knights who refused to abandon their faith for the mundane lives and to hand over the command to those who will be humiliate them and be humiliated and that’s why they confronted the weaponry with weaponry, force with force and accepted to challenge the arrogant masses that came out to fight with their killing machines, equipments, aircrafts and forces boastfully so they can be seen as men, and still this didn’t weaken their resolve and didn’t drain their strength, but instead he stood up for them face to face, a mighty mountain, a proud mountain and he was still in the midst of the battle that many got used to and his eyes were used to its sceneries but after that, he was yet to be excused and delivered his message and then he was shot bullets of betrayal and blasphemy delivering his soul to its maker while repeating: ‘Who sacrifice the blessed soul for his Lord to fight off the falsehood CANNOT ever be blamed’.”
“Congratulations to the Islamic Nation on the martyrdom of their devoted son Osama,
Even when the Americans managed to kill Osama, they managed to do ONLY that by disgrace and betrayal. Men and heroes only should be confronted in the battlefields but at the end, that’s God’s fate. Still we ask, will the Americans be able thru their media outlets, their agents, their instruments, soldiers, intelligence services and their might be able to kill what Sheikh Osama lived for and was killed for? How far! How impossible! Sheikh Osama didn’t build an organization that will vanish with his death or fades away with his departure.
In this context, we in al Qaeda Jihad organization promise God Almighty and we ask Him for help, support and steadfastness to continue on the path of jihad that our leaders, led by Sheikh Osama chose, and that we will not be reluctant, and will not deviate from that honorable path until God be the final judge between us and our enemy.
We also stress that the blood of the mujahid sheikh Osama bin Laden, may God have mercy on him is VERY dear to us and more precious to us and to every Muslim from being shed in vain and this blood (OBL’s blood) will be a curse that will chase the Americans and their agents, a curse that will pursue them inside and outside their country, and soon – with God’s help – we pray that their happiness turns into sorrow and may their bloods mix with their tears and let Sheikh Osama’s resonate again that “America will neither enjoy nor live in security until our people in Palestine live it and enjoy it. The soldiers of Islam in groups and as individuals will continue to plan and plot without any fatigue, boredom, despair, surrender or indifference until you receive from them a cunning misfortune that will gray the hair of the child even before he gets old.
We call upon our Muslim people in Pakistan where our dear Sheikh Osama was killed on their soil to rise up and revolt so they can cleanse this disgrace that was brought upon them by a handful of traitors and thieves who have sold everything to the enemies of the Muslim nation, and disregarded the feelings of this great Muajhid (Pakistani) people and let them rise up and start a massive public uprising to cleanse their country (Pakistan) from the filth of the Americans who have wreaked havoc in the land”.
“The sheikh (OBL) didn’t leave this world before taking part in sharing the joy with his Muslim Umma (nation) regarding its revolutions when the nation has risen in the face of injustice and the tyrants and may God have mercy on him, the sheikh recorded an audio message one week before his killing that we will release soon, God willing and his audio message included a congratulation greeting, advices and a guidance. He ended his audio message with the following verses:
Saying the righteousness to the tyrants is the splendor & the gospel.
This is the path leading to the mundane life, this is the path leading to the hereafter.
You can die a slave if you wish or die a free man, this is your choice.
Moreover, we warn the Americans of any injustice to be made to the corpse of Sheikh Osama, God’s mercy be upon him or that he will be mistreated in any despicable manner and this warning includes the mistreatment of any member of the sheikh’s honorable family whether they are dead or alive and that the bodies must be handed over to the families because any inappropriate treatment will open the doors of double evil and you will only be blaming yourselves for your own deeds. We call upon all Muslims to do their duty in enforcing this right.”
Human Rights Violations The Norm In North Korean Prison Camps
David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia
SEOUL, North Korea – North Korean political prisoner camp is a place where public executions, death by starvation and torture are rampant.
Human Rights group, Amnesty International, conducted an investigation into this death camp. Amnesty held interviews with fifteen former inmates and prison guards, expressing their daily experiences in the camps and describing the lack of food, conditions of hard labor.
200,000 people are reported to held in these camps, which according to satellite imagery obtained by the Amnesty, are being built across central North Korea.
“North Korea can no longer deny the undeniable. For decades the authorities have refused to admit to the existence of mass political prison camps,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International Asia Pacific Director.
Satellite images show four of the six camps occupying huge areas of land and located in vast wilderness sites in South Pyongan, South Hamkyung and North Hamkyung provinces, and producing products ranging from soy bean paste and sweets to coal and cement.
As facilities expand common detainees include house prisoners accused of criticizing the leadership, those believed to be part of anti-government groups and even those caught listening to South Korean broadcasts.
“As North Korea seems to be moving towards a new leader in Kim Jong-un and a period of political instability, the big worry is that the prison camps appear to be growing in size.” reports Amnesty.
“Guilt-by-association” is reported to keep thousands confined to these camps.
Amnesty estimated that 40% of inmates die from malnutrition. And testimonials reveal that every former inmate at one camp had witnessed a public execution.
Conditions in these camps are very poor for children who are often tortured through inhumane living conditions.
One child was held for eight months in a “torture-cube-cell” so small it was impossible to stand or lie down.
Many witnesses say that other more common forms of torture include sleep deprivation, bamboo slivers under the fingernails, water-boarding and suspending prisoners whose feet and hands have been bound behind them.
One former inmate told Amnesty how he and his father were forced to witness the public execution of his mother and brother.
A former prison guard expressed how inmates would eat snakes, rats and pig feed for survival. In particular a former inmate told how she had picked, cleaned and eaten corn kernels from cow dung.
Education was limited or non-existent inside these camps; the youth are frequently worked until they collapse.
Aidan Foster-Carter, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University in England, said: “It is difficult to get hard data (on North Korea) for obvious reasons, and it could be that the numbers of people in the camps are growing. What may be happening is that as part of the changing political situation the government has conducted a purge of people opposed to the succession (of leader Kim Jong ll by his son Kim Jong-un).”
In its most recent human rights report on North Korea, the U.S. State Department describes the country’s human rights record as “deplorable.”
Amnesty International believes an estimated 40% of inmates at Yodok, the prison camp, died from malnutrition between 1999 and 2001.
“These are places out of sight of the rest of the world, where almost the entire range of human rights protections that international law has tried to set up for last 60 years are ignored.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people exist with virtually no rights, treated essentially as slaves, in some of the worst circumstances we’ve documented in the last 50 years,” said Sam Zarifi.
Amnesty International is urging North Korea to close its prison camps and release political prisoners.
For more information, please see:
CNN – Report: Torture, starvation rife in North Korea political prisons – 4 May 2011
Amnesty International – Images reveal scale of North Korean political prison camps – 3 May 2011
Arirang – Korea for the World, The World for Korea – 4 May 2011
Bangladesh News – North Korea jail camps ‘growing’ – 4 May 2011