EDITED VERSION FOR WFTE - SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA Saturday, March 17, 2012 - 3:00 pm -4:50 pm @ PACE University - Room W615 New York, NY www.leftforum.org

PANEL: Examines the struggles of Indigenous peoples defending their lands, sources, seizure of land, expropriation, environmental degradation, exploitation, re-colonization and re-occupation. Participants discuss indigenous activism and the potential/ problems for unity with Occupy Wall Street. In what ways does the “Occupy” movements reinforce the structures of greed that Indigenous peoples stand against? What form would the movement have to take if it is reconciled with the realities behind the foundation of American exceptionalism and mobilizes against the continued rape of Mother Earth?

Sally BermanzohnSally Bermanzohn, moderator, teaches Native American Studies, American Social Movements, and Truth & Reconciliation at Brooklyn College CUNY.

Janene Yazzie-Collymore Dine/ Navajo: An independent scholar and CEO of Sixth World Consultants, Janene works with her husband Kern Collymore on the Navajo Nation to help community chapters implement the Local Governance Act and pursue economic development in sustainable industries. While finishing her degree requirements in International Law with a concentration in Human Rights at Barnard College, Janene has also helped found a non-profit Indigenous Think Tank, Tecumseh Institute, in New York City. She is currently working with Owe Aku International Justice Project.

Debra White Plume Oglala Lakota author, artist, and activist from the Pine Ridge Homeland, has devoted her adult life to preserving her Lakota Way of Life, Treaty Rights and Human Rights. She works in all arenas, from the grassroots to the United Nations at Geneva and in NYC. White Plume has engaged in sacred water protection for the past decade, In addition to her well-known battles against uranium mining, she was arrested for trespassing at the White House while raising the consciousness of America and President Obama to the threats posed by the Keystone XL oil pipeline against the drinking water of the Oglala Lakota Nation. She is also a world-renowned

Kent Lebsock, a Lakota activist for more than 20 years, is the Director of Owe Aku International Justice Project which serves the traditional governing council of the Lakota Oyate, the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council. His particular contribution lies in international human rights forums ensuring international law and standards are applied to Indigenous peoples, our treaties, lands and territories.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is Mnicoujou, Itazipco and Oglala bands of the Lakota Nation. He sits on a panel at Harvard University's Cultures On the Air. He is a board member of several children's organizations that work with suicide, poverty, and Mother Earth cultural education through his musicianship. Ghosthorse is an author, university lecturer and scholar often presenting a dichotomous thinking process of Indigenous and non-Indigenous. He is a member of the Indigenous Think Tank, Tecumseh Institute, NYC.

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