Sunday, March 23, 2008

Longest Walk II, 1978-2008

The Longest Walk reached Denver over the weekend holding several events in the area before proceeding to Pueblo and to the site of the infamous Sand Creek Massacre where they will hold a ceremony honoring the children, women and men slaughtered by a Colorado militia in 1864.

After reading a proclamation from Colorado Governor Bill Ritter on the steps of the state capitol – the group walked to the corporate office of Newmont Mining Corporation. Security at the building which houses the offices of Newmont Mining threatened the peaceful gathering with arrest after several entered the building to deliver a written demand from the Western Shoshone for the mining company to cease mining at Mount Tenabo near Elko, Nevada.

Denver Police arrived and met with spokesmen for the gathering and told the participants they could continue their “protest” but that Newmont Mining did not want them to enter the building, stating that the building was privately owned and not a “public” building.

For a more comprehensive look into the Longest Walk 2 please visit their website at;

http://www.longestwalk.org/
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
fotos por Antonio Sanchez

Denver March Pow Wow

NDN Color Guard - "They have seen the enemy" stated the announcer as the color guard posted the sacred staff and flags for the 34th Annual Denver March Powwow.







The acknowledgement was an affirmation of the fact that indigenous members of various tribes, in the United States, have historically volunteered for induction into the various military organizations of this country - many having recieved the highest award for military service - the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Over 1700 dancers from various nations of the northern hemisphere packed the Denver Coliseum for the three day event.






Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Colorado Indian Market

The annual gathering was an opportunity to pick up a couple of unique gifts for family.

There was a special treat at this gathering.


Tom Ware of Blues Nation Band was at the market with his American Indian Music and Dance show.


Tom explained to the audience that one of the purposes of the performance was to create awareness and mostly to dispel myths about indigenous peoples, especially those accredited to Hollywood film-makers.

He mimicked the often depicted mannerism of smacking one’s lips while “whooping” and said, “No Indian would ever do that, why would you go around smacking your own lips? We’ve got better things to do with our lips.”

His oratory was not entirely humorous and he delved into a bit of commentary about the current political climate with the campaigning politicians buzzing all around vying for votes. “Watch out for those guys coming around asking to shake your hand.”

Very critical of the war in the middle East, he said, “ you might not agree with me but, we need to end this war and bring our kids back home.”

This drew some applause from the packed audience.

It was nice to see someone working the audience – getting a message across.

What’s the old adage “ the medium is the message.”

Tom Ware was working it.
So were the Danzantes from Mexico known as Ehecatl, a Nahuatl word meaning “wind” a name the group lives up to as they performed their rendition of the ancient danza azteca.

Their oratory was also about dispelling myths regarding the Nahuatl culture.
Fotos by Antonio Sánchez

Friday, January 25, 2008

Something awry in the sky.

If you have been looking up lately – say the last ten years or more – you have made an observation of something VERY unusual. There has been reported from virtually almost every country in the world – huge formations or lines in the sky.

Lines in the sky are not unusual – we see jet airliners streaking across all the time. As they traverse back and forth across the heavens – we can see the white smoke-like trail that emits from the back of the jet. These emissions are referred to as con-trails, a shortened version of two words actually – condensation trails – meaning that the emission is condensation, which is trailing behind the jet as it streams across at a high altitude. The condensation results from hot air leaving the jet engine combining with very cold air at high altitudes, resulting in condensation. That’s not unusual.
What IS unusual is the lines in the sky left by jets that seem to be leaving their trail by design – in many instances creating lines across the sky which eventually spread out into cloud-like formations in all directions. Some writings have referred to these strange creations as chem-trails, a shortened version of two words – chemical trails – meaning that the emissions caused is a deliberate effort to spew some foreign substance into our atmosphere.

Websites that address these lines in the sky, spell out various theories as to what is going on. Below are a couple of links about this issue – definitely worth looking into because of potential health issues.

http://www.carnicom.com/contrails.htm

http://www.educate-yourself.org/ct/

http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/

An interesting book on the subject – Death in the Air by noted author Dr. Len Horowitz maintains that “Silently killing us, our family and friends, the global plagues are here, yet where are we? Distracted by pastimes, passions, pleasures and psycho-sensory overload. The "Technotronic Era" is here. With it comes a New World of "non-lethal" biological and chemical weapons, and warfare applications, that are being waged against defenseless civilians. Regardless of what you now think, you are being manipulated and lethally affected, and this intelligence may be crucial to you and your family's survival."

I personally noticed these strange lines when I was driving back from Virginia with my two sons, on our way back to Colorado from attending my daughter’s wedding. We were in Saint Louis about mid afternoon when my younger son pointed out what he perceived as a giant “tic-tac-toe” formation of lines being caused by a couple of jets flying abnormally close to the ground. That is to say that the jets were flying much lower than passenger jets usually fly. Noting the strangeness of the unusual formations and the abnormal flight paths of the jets, I avowed to do some research into this when we arrived back to Colorado. That was in 2003 and upon return to Colorado I began in earnest and found the book referred to above and read through most of it as I sat in the Denver Public Library – skimming through and absorbing the key statements therein. It astounded me to say the least – the fact that our own government was behind the massive project to spew poisons into our atmosphere – poisons that are harmful to humans specifically children and elders.

On one drive from Denver to Trinidad Spring 2008 these lines were observed over every metropolitan area Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Walsenburg and Trinidad. SOMEONE is going to a huge expense to spew whatever it is - into the atmosphere.

This stuff is pervasive and has been observed in television commercials and made for tv movies. If you use the great outdoors for your photo/video shoot – then you might as well get used to the idea that there are going to be those unsightly lines in the sky.

These unsightly lines appear almost on a daily basis – except on days when the wind is really kicking up. Try looking to the skies early in the morning – especially a clear day when the sky is crisp and clear and devoid of clouds – you will see the lines forming across the sky – creating huge X’s or H’s or W’s. Then the lines will start billowing outward and eventually the sky will be filled with a cloud-like formation – very much resembling the real thing – but you will know that this is not the case because you will have observed that the “cloud” formation was man-made.

And for what purpose?

Truly – it is hard to say – but one thing is for sure – the lines are there BY DESIGN. They are not just random lines made from the exhaust fumes of random flights from regular passenger jets. There is a big difference in the plume left behind by a passenger jet. For one thing the plume left by a passenger jet dissipates rather quickly after it appears and the plume is not as wide as the lines in question. AND passenger jets fly much higher than the jets leaving the strange formation of lines left by the lower flying ones.

NOPE – the photos here spell it out – the pilots of these flights are following a planned pattern and they do it on almost a daily basis, creating huge X’s, H’s and W’s in the sky or sometimes tic-tac-toe patterns.

Chem-trails or con-trails?

As with everything else I tell people about – I encourage one to do their own research.

I only report what my aging Apache eyes observe.

For sure you won’t see any reports on the nightly “news” and if you do the reporters will probably report with grin of skepticism, alluding to yet another conspiracy theory.

My feeling is – as always – there are no conspiracy theories – only conspiracies.

After all this was a nice planet til us humans showed up and began the strictly human trait of conspiring. Humans are some conspiring mofo’s.

Keep Looking Up!!
Fotos by Antonio Sánchez

Holy Man Film to feature photos of Yellow Thunder Camp

In 1980 – Frank Black Elk was the director of the American Indian Movement in Colorado and, as such, called a press conference to announce that AIM was establishing an encampment in the Black Hills just outside Rapid City, South Dakota.

Yellow Thunder Camp was named after Raymond Yellow Thunder who had been beaten to death by two white men in a small Nebraska town bordering the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The 800 acres which was being utilized was located in the Black Hills or Paha Sapa as Frank Black Elk explained, which has always been a sacred place to the Lakota people. Black Elk further explained that the area in question was part of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 guaranteeing that the Black Hills belonged to the Lakota “as long as the grass grows and rivers flow.”

At the time of this press conference there was a new media organization working in the Denver area – Multi-Cultural Communications. This was a group of individuals from various colleges and universities in the Denver/Boulder area. Known as MCC – several individuals from that organization undertook a video project to tell the story of what AIM was doing at Yellow Thunder Camp.

At the end of 1980 a film crew of four individuals took off to Yellow Thunder Camp and shot several hours of video on the Pine Ridge reservation and at Yellow Thunder Camp in the Black Hills. The end result of that project was a film called Return to Paha Sapa.

During this trip – I was able to photograph the camp and obtained some incredible images some of which were published in various community newspapers in Denver and one being published in New Age Magazine.

Recently I was made aware of a film project and was asked if some of these images might be available for inclusion into the film Holy Man. I sent 40 images to the film makers and they picked 12 for possible inclusion into their project.

Last word I got was they were working on a final draft for submission to Sundance film festival in Utah. No word yet as to whether or not they were able to finish post production in time to get it to Sundance.




fotos by Antonio Sánchez

Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos –first Friday ArtWalk on Santa Fe Drive – Denver Colorado – November 2, 2007

The art walk on Santa Fe Drive every first Friday of the month is a treat any time of the year – but is a must see on Día de los Muertos, especially at a small gallery known to most as CHAC or the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council.

The photos here speak to the colorful event which is attended by hundreds, perhaps thousands as the evening wears on. Earlier in the evening there was a procession of Danzantes Aztecas and the air was filled with the pungent smell of copal and sage smoke as the standing room only crowd milled about taking in the creations of various Denver area artists.
Visit CHAC at their website:
Fotos by Antonio Sánchez

Free Spirit Debute

Kudos to Producer/Director Rafaela Castellanos and Director of Photography Laffrey Witbrod for their efforts in the production of Free Spirit, which showed December 13, 2007 at the King Center on the Auraria Campus in Denver, garnering five nominations and one award for Best Cinematography.


The awards ceremony was a presentation of the Colorado Film School Festival.

Free Spirit also received nominations for best editing and sound track, best direction and best production. The Free Spirit website acknowledges that, “The short film was made possible thanks to the collaboration of friends, relatives, co-workers, students from The Colorado Film School and sponsors.”

The photos here show Free Spirit on the screen and Rafaela on-stage with Laffrey, after receiving an award for best cinematography.

http://web.mac.com/freespirit.mac/iweb

Free Spirit
Produced and Directed by Rafaela Castellanos
Director of Photography Laffrey Witbrod


fotos by Antonio Sánchez