Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalLast of the Crow war chiefs turns 101 in Montana
Last of the Crow war chiefs turns 101 in Montana
Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow was trained in the old warrior traditions, which he took with him into WWII
October 27, 2014 5:00AM ET
by Mary Hudetz - @marymhudetz
CROW AGENCY, Mont. — The last Crow war chief entered the log-cabin trading post at the edge of the Little Bighorn Battlefield just after noon on a Sunday, supported by his son on his left and a cane held firmly in his right hand.
Often, at tribal events such as powwows, he’ll swing his cane overhead in celebration. But on this October afternoon, with wind sweeping across the stretch of southern Montana that’s home to the Crows, the cane simply supported the centenarian — Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow in English or High Bird, his traditional name, in Crow.
“I was fortunate when I was growing up,” he said, after a lunch of stew, frybread and pie at the trading post’s cafe. “The Crow Indians were still retaining the culture, and they felt it was their duty to teach me to carry on the tribal heritage.”
In turn, he’s made it his duty to document and share it.
On Monday, Medicine Crow — tribal historian, storyteller, decorated World War II veteran, first in his tribe to attain a master’s degree, last to achieve the status of traditional Crow war chief and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom — turns 101. As he described in a recent letter to a longtime friend and colleague, “On Oct. 27, I will have seen 101 snows.”
And yet he still feels “young and strong.” The eldest in a tribe of more than 10,000 members whose communities are scattered across nearly 3,600 square miles of plains and mountains, he is perhaps as much beloved for his hold on history as he is for his humor.
More:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/27/the-last-of-the-crowwarchiefsturns101inmontana.html
HRW report on Colombia's neo-paramilitary "chop houses":
Colombia: Disappearances Plague Major Port
Criminal Groups Terrorize Neighborhoods, Displace Thousands
March 20, 2014
(Bogotá) – Paramilitary successor groups have abducted and disappeared scores, and possibly hundreds, of residents of the largely Afro-Colombian port of Buenaventura, Human Rights Watch said in a report and video released today. Thousands of residents have been fleeing their homes in the city each year, making Buenaventura the municipality with the highest level of ongoing forced displacement in Colombia today.
The 30-page report, “The Crisis in Buenaventura: Disappearances, Dismemberment, and Displacement in Colombia’s Main Pacific Port,” documents how many of the city’s neighborhoods are dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea. The groups maintain “chop-up houses” (casas de pique) where they slaughter victims, according to witnesses, residents, the local Catholic church, and some officials.
“The situation in Buenaventura is among the very worst we’ve seen in many years of working in Colombia and the region,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Simply walking on the wrong street can get you abducted and dismembered, so it’s no surprise the residents are fleeing by the thousands.”
Paramilitary successor groups emerged in Buenaventura after the deeply flawed official demobilization of right-wing paramilitary organizations a decade ago. Currently, the Urabeños and the Empresa are the main successor groups operating in the port city. The groups restrict residents’ movement – attacking people if they cross invisible borders between areas controlled by rival factions – recruit children, extort businesses, and routinely engage in horrific acts of violence against anyone who defies their will.
More:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/20/colombia-disappearances-plague-major-port
Bolivia's Morales blasts privatisation, urges support for farmers
Bolivia's Morales blasts privatisation, urges support for farmers
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Fri, 31 Oct 2014 14:20 GMT
By Chris Arsenault
ROME, Oct 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Bolivian President Evo Morales blasted water privatization and urged governments to fight poverty by doing more to support small farmers during an address at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Thursday.
Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca grower who became Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006, comfortably won a third term on Oct. 12 with an estimated 60 percent of the vote.
His anti-poverty programmes and prudent spending of funds from the nationalisation of natural gas and oil businesses have earned him wide support in the country long dogged by political instability.
"A government which privatizes water is not respecting individual or collective rights," Morales said to raucous applause from delegates at the meeting in Rome. "If you don't have water, you don't have life."
Social movements in Bolivia fought protracted battles against water privatization in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which were eventually successful.
More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20141031142024-kpml0/
Morales gets absolute majority in Bolivia legislature
Morales gets absolute majority in Bolivia legislature
By AFP Oct 29, 2014
In addition to his own reelection, Bolivia's President Evo Morales kept his absolute majority in congress in the October 12 general elections, authorities said Wednesday.
The Supreme Electoral Council said Morales, a socialist in power since 2006 and Bolivia's first indigenous president, won 61.36 percent of the vote against 24.23 percent for his closest rival, wealthy cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina.
~snip~
His government has nationalized a broad range of industries, including oil, gas, mining, telecommunications and water; rolled out welfare grants for the elderly, children and expectant mothers; and moved to empower previously marginalized groups, among them the indigenous people who make up 65 percent of the population.
Defying opponents' dire warnings of economic catastrophe, Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has instead seen a boom.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/morales-gets-absolute-majority-in-bolivia-legislature/article/411768
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