Trademark board rules against Redskins name

Board strips Washington Redskins of trademark protection due to 'disparaging' name

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Patent Office ruled Wednesday that the Washington Redskins nickname is "disparaging of Native Americans" and that the team's federal trademarks for the name must be canceled.

The 2-1 ruling comes after a campaign to change the name gained momentum over the past year. The team doesn't immediately lose trademark protection and is allowed to retain it during an appeal, which is likely.

Redskins owner Dan Snyder has refused to change the team's name, citing tradition, but there has been growing pressure including statements in recent months from President Barack Obama, lawmakers of both parties and civil rights groups.

The decision means that the team can continue to use the Redskins name, but it would lose a significant portion of its ability to protect the financial interests connected to its use. If others printed the name on sweatshirts, apparel, or other team material, it becomes more difficult to go after groups who use it without permission.

The case involves six registered trademarks that involve the use of the word Redskins, but it does not apply to the team's logo.

The decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is similar to one it issued in 1999. That ruling was overturned in 2003 in large part on a technicality after the courts decided that the plaintiffs should have filed their complaint soon after the Redskins registered their nickname in 1967.

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Larry Brown, football player for Washington Redskins, breaking a Carl Lockhart tackle, football play …

The new case was launched in 2006 by a younger group of Native Americans, and was heard by the board in March of last year.

The group argued that the Redskins should lose their federal trademark protection based on a law that prohibits registered names that are disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable.

Suzan Shown Harjo, one of the plaintiffs who testified at last year's hearing, said she was "thrilled and delighted" with the decision. Snyder declined to speak to reporters as he walked off the practice field, but the team said it planned to release a statement later in the day.

In Washington, lawmakers who have pushed for a name change applauded the decision. In May, half of the Senate wrote letters to the NFL urging the team to change its name.

"Daniel Snyder may be the last person in the world to realize this, but it's just a matter of time until he is forced to do the right thing and change the name," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has said previously he will not attend home games until the team changes its name.

Pagan High Priest Claims Discrimination by City Officials in Beebe

BEEBE, AR - High priest Bertram Dahl's dream is to open Seekers Temple and a small spiritual goods shop in the garage and shop behind his Beebe home.

"When they knew we were going to open a church, it wasn't an issue," Dahl said. 

According to Dahl, he was well on his way, with help from the mayor. 

"We explained to him [the mayor] the house had a building that we could open the church in, and he had no problem," Dahl added. 

But when the city found out Dahl and his fellow temple members weren't Christian, but Pagan, he said officials began persecuting him. 

"We were basically given a cease and desist you know -- shut down. We hadn't even unpacked. We aren't even open -- how are we getting this," he said. 

The order was issued the same day the city's code officer received a letter from Mayor Mike Robertson, expressing his opinion that no conditional use or special use permits should be issued on Dahl's property for a worship place or shop. Dahl hadn't even applied yet. 

"It's zoned as residential," said City Attorney Barrett Rogers. "It's not zoned commercial, which is what's required for a place of worship or a retail business."

Rogers referred us to the city zoning code for provisions regarding R-2 properties, which Dahl's is qualified as. 

"Whatever the zoning code said is allowed is allowed," he said.

According to the city's code, though, places of worship and private nonprofits, which Seekers Temple is, are allowable in R-2 areas, with conditional and special use permits. 

"I haven't seen any of that paperwork. My understanding is he has not asked to be given the paperwork," Rogers said of Dahl's permit application. "Had he asked for the paperwork it would have been provided." 

Dahl insisted he had asked for permit application paperwork from the mayor's office, though he alleges he had been advised it wouldn't be approved. 

"I told them I understand you're not going to give me the permit, but can you give me the paperwork. We don't give paperwork," Dahl said. 

The mayor opted not to go on camera with us, referring us to the city attorney for an on camera interview. But when we asked questions about the permit paperwork Dahl would have to fill out, Robertson told us "there was no permit he could apply for."

According to Dahl, he wasn't looking for a fight. He simply wanted to provide a place for like-minded Pagans to call home. 

Several home businesses operate on the stretch of road where Dahl lives. While home occupation is allowed there, selling things isn't, which would restrict Dahl's shop.

Dahl claimed he also reached out to his alderman regarding city policy, but when we spoke to the alderman, the only comment he wanted to make on the record was "that man's God isn't my God." 

Chief Arvol Looking Horse Speaks of White Buffalo Prophecy

National disgrace? Marlene Bird attacked, burned but not national news

Jo Ann Lawrence | June 13, 2014

First Nations woman Marlene Bird will have both legs amputated

A YWCA director wants to know why a horrific attack June 1 on First Nations woman Marlene Bird in the northern Saskatchewan city of Prince Albert isn’t national news.

Marlene Bird, First Nations woman and victim of a vicious assault June 1 in Prince Albert, Sask. Photo: Handout.

Marlene Darlene Bird was assaulted and burned in an attack outside a community centre in the city of 35,000 that is home to a large aboriginal population. The aunt of the homeless woman says her niece has been upgraded to stable condition.

Lorna Thiessen said that Marlene Bird was to have her second leg amputated on Thursday because it was “burned to the bone.”

Thiessen said Bird is in a critical burn unit and has extensive burns all over her body and has had several skin grafts.

Marlene Bird, who is 47, was first taken to hospital in Prince Albert, then transferred to Saskatoon and then to Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital.

Prince Albert YWCA executive director Donna Brooks said it’s appalling that Bird’s story hasn’t received attention outside of Prince Albert.

“If this attack would have happened to a middle class woman in a suburban Toronto neighbourhood, I guarantee you it would have been on the national news, I guarantee you that,” she said.

“But, because it happened in Prince Albert, it happened to an aboriginal woman who is a part of the homeless community, because of all those factors I don’t think it received the media attention it should.”

Police continue to investigate and have asked anyone with video surveillance footage of the area where Marlene Bird was found to hand it over to them.

Marlene Bird is conscious and Thiessen said she has been speaking, but is heavily sedated most of the time.

“When she comes out, she’s going to need living accommodations, she’s going to need support for probably prosthetics, and probably maybe a scooter, or things in that line.”

She said Marlene Bird will also need a place to live and a support system around her.

YWCA staff is collecting letters of support and financial donations for Bird and her family, and has mailed the first batch to her in Edmonton.

“It’s very important to show her that she matters, that what has happened to her has saddened a lot of people in our community and that she is important and there are a lot of people who care about her,” Brooks said.

The Edmonton YWCA has also stepped up by helping Bird’s family during their stay in the Alberta city.

On June 6, more than 100 people marched through downtown Prince Albert in Bird’s honour and against violence. The march culminated in a prayer at the spot where Marlene Bird was found.

With file from the Canadian Press

Canada starved aboriginal people into submission: Goar

Prairie historian discovers that Sir John A. Macdonald ordered policies that systematically starved aboriginal people to clear the West.

                               Sir John A. Macdonald

Crowfoot (Isapo-Muxika) head chief of the Blackfoot tribe in 1887: his people were among those affected by policies of using starvation against aboriginals.

By: Carol Goar Star Columnist, Published on Tue Jun 10 2014

You were never taught this version of Canadian history in school. If the guardians of the nation’s collective memory are successful, your children will also shielded from the truth.

Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, deliberately starved thousands of aboriginal people to clear a path for the Canadian Pacific Railroad and open the prairies to white settlement. His “National Dream” cost them their health, their independence and – in many cases – their lives.

It is all meticulously documented in a new book, published in time for the 200th anniversary of Macdonald’s birth. “The consequences of Macdonald’s actions still resonate today,” says author James Daschuk, a professor of kinesiology and health studies at the University of Regina.

He never expected Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life – which began as a doctoral dissertation – to become a national bestseller. 

He never imagined it winning awards and prizes. It took him 20 years to get to the bottom of the chasm between Canada’s First Nations and the rest of the population. 

His questions kept getting bigger and more political. His publisher struggled to stay afloat. “I thought the project was cursed,” he said in an interview. “I am over that now.”

His book, which was published a year ago, has won four Saskatchewan book awards, the Clio Prize for Prairie history and – in an ironic twist – the 2014 Sir John A. Macdonald Prize for the best scholarly book in Canadian history.

The University of Regina Press is delighted with the all attention and the accolades it has received. But what Daschuk finds most gratifying is that his “out of style” approach to history has unlocked one of the nation’s darkest secrets.

Unlike conventional historians, he works backwards. He starts with a deeply entrenched problem and traces it back to the source. 

He uses medical records, socio-economic data, environmental conditions and public attitudes, not dates and events. 

“I was lucky enough to work as a research assistant to Dr. Kue Young at the University of Manitoba medical school,” he explained. 

“Early on I realized you could look at poor health outcomes almost as a measure of oppression and marginalization.”

Both nature and disease conspired against the aboriginal peoples of the prairies. 

First, the European fur traders infected them with contagious diseases – smallpox, measles, influenza – to which they had no immunity. Then climate change, the building of the CPR and the near-extinction of the bison, on which they depended for food, left them hungry and desperate.

They turned to Ottawa, expecting Macdonald to honour the treaties he had signed with them, guaranteeing food in times of famine and a livelihood in the thriving agrarian economy he envisaged for the western plains.

But he spurned their request. He ordered officials at the Department of Indian Affairs in Prince Albert to withhold food from First Nations until they moved to federally designated reserves far from the path of the CPR. Once they complied, they were trapped. They could leave only with the permission of the government’s Indian agent. 

Aboriginal women were raped. 

Men could not farm or hunt because they had no land and no freedom. If they complained, their rations were cut. Even if they were pliant, the food was substandard. One contaminated shipment triggered a mass outbreak of tuberculosis.

None of this was accidental. 

Daschuk found the directives Macdonald sent to federal officials telling them to deny food to them to First Nations. 

He found public statements in which Macdonald boasted about keeping the indigenous population “on the verge of actual starvation” to save government funds. 

He tracked the infected food shipment to its source, an American company in which a senior official of the Canadian government had a large financial stake.

His conclusion: “The uncomfortable truth is that modern Canada is founded upon ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

These are shocking phrases – not ones Canadians associate with their peaceful, tolerant country; not ones mainstream historians are eager to incorporate in their accounts; not one that educators want to plant in young minds; and certainly not ones to burnish the image the government seeks to project.

If these record-keepers are successful, the sanitized official version of Canadian history will prevail. 

Sir John A. Macdonald’s 200th birthday (Jan. 11, 2015) will be celebrated in fine style. Our children will be taught that their nation’s founding father was a hero. And we won’t have to reflect on what Daschuk’s discovery says about our forebears or ourselves.

Note:  

Interestingly enough,  the Government of the United States at that time did the exact same things against Native Americans.

Both Canada and the United Sates were founded by the "real savages" who presented themselves as great people who were willing to help and build countries were all were equal.

Instead, their actions were ones of lies, abuse, starvation, imprisonment, rape, broken treaties that they never intended to keep, abuse of Native children, beatings, genocide, falsehoods and the list goes on.

Sounds similar to Adolf Hitlers Germany during World War 2.  

Same tactics and abuse of a race to further a cause.

Real history has shown that John A. MacDonald and George Washington were not hero's, but rather cowards hiding behind a force of government and the army to dictate genocide to a people whom they wished to destroy for their own greedy desires.

History proves these very facts about these men.

I see no reason to celebrate these men nor any like them. 

Their actions against a people who only wanted to live in peace were inhuman.

This would be the same as a person celebrating Adolf Hitler's birthday. 

Not a good thing.

This is what Canada and the United States were founded on to create these countries.

Genocide of a people. Torture and abuse. Rape, child abuse, death, cowardness, lies, beatings of men, women and children. 

I fail to see anything here that makes them heros.

If anyone should be remembered and  honoured, it should be the millions of children, men, women who suffered and died at the hands of these abusers of the innocent.

The American Nightmare

Native American - Honoring our Ancestors, Culture & Spirituality with Golden Eagle Thompson and Nathaniel Johnson

A white man and an elderly Native man became pretty good friends, so the white man decided to ask him: What do you think about Indian mascots? The Native elder responded: Here’s what you’ve got to understand. 

When you look at black people, you see ghosts of all the slavery and the rapes and the hangings and the chains. When you look at Jews, you see ghosts of all those bodies piled up in death camps. And those ghosts keep you trying to do the right thing.

But when you look at us, you don’t see the ghosts of our little babies with their heads smashed in by rifle butts at the Big Hole, or the old folks dying by the side of the trail on the way to Oklahoma while their families cried and tried to make them comfortable, or the dead mothers at Wounded Knee, or the little kids at Sand Creek who were shot for target practice. You don’t see any ghosts at all. 

Instead, all you see is casinos and drunks and junk cars and shacks.

Well, we DO see those ghosts and they make our hearts sad and they hurt our little children. And when we try to say something, you tell us to "Get over it!! This is America! Look at the American dream!" 

But as long as you’re calling us Redskins and doing tomahawk chops, we can’t look at the American dream, because those things remind us that we are not real human beings to you. 

And when people aren’t humans, you can turn them into slaves or kill six million of them or shoot them down with Hotchkiss guns and throw them into mass graves at Wounded Knee. 

No, we are not looking at the American dream. And why should we be? 

We still haven’t woken up from the American nightmare.

Native Images

Babies dying in Canada while Harper donates taxpayers’ money abroad

DERRICK ON JUNE 3RD, 2014 

By anishinabeknews

Stephen Harper might have expected to hear nothing but praise for this week’s pledge to contribute an additional $3.5 billion over five years toward an international  maternal, newborn and child-health initiative.

But the prime minister’s generosity  in spending taxpayers’ money abroad has polarized public opinion at home.

Some say Harper is  investing public funds in polishing his personal legacy, others – like Niki Ashton, NDP critic for the Status of Women – wonder at whose expense such huge contributions are being made.

Ashton notes that, at the same time as the prime minister is writing such big cheques on the international scene, his government is eliminating a vital First Nations program: Strengthening Families – Maternal Child Health.

 

“This is a program that is proven to work. It was created in partnership with, and fostered by, Indigenous women and caregivers, and is saving the lives of women and their babies.“There are First Nations people in Manitoba who are vulnerable and poverty stricken, like people in the places where we send our development aid. This is blatant and devastating hypocrisy on the part of Stephen Harper.”

 

In Manitoba, infant mortality rates for Indigenous babies are twice as high as for non-Indigenous babies. The Strengthening Familiesprogram has been administered and run by Indigenous peoples, and has been hailed by the Health Council of Canada as a best practice. Despite its success, the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch announced they plan to end the program in 2015.

 

“The government has been consistently pulling away from its healthcare responsibilities to First Nations,” says NDP Aboriginal Health critic Carol Hughes (Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing). “They have no excuse. There is no reason why these infants should be dying in Canada in 2014. We must do better, not worse. New Democrats are demanding that the government continue and increase funding for maternal health care programs for First Nations.”

The Anishinabek News is published by the Communications Unit of the Union of Ontario Indians

See This 99 Year Old Beggar? You’ll Never Forget What He Does… This Will Melt Your Heart…

This man is old and homeless, but he has something more valuable than money, gold, or possessions. He possesses true compassion that is worth more this world’s possessions could offer. 

He has found the true meaning of living life unselfishly with true love in mind.  Just see what this 99 year-old does every day, and hope in humanity will be restored! This is true meaning, this is true love. 

Everyone should see what he does for children… Please SHARE this article. 


I wish we had more people in the world like this… This man could have spent his money on things for himself.  He could have spent his money on bettering his life and making life more comfortable for himself, but he would rather give it to the less unfortunate, the kids without families. We should learn from this mans example of love and give more, love more, and hate less. 

Read More Here: astoundable.com/99-year-old-beggar-homeless-man-shows-true-love/

Foster Care in the early days. Mass graves of Children. Nowadays they just cremate the bodies.

Thirty small skeletons were discovered in an unmarked mass grave-site at the Port Alberni BC United Church of Canada residential school for native children.

It is not the first time the Canadian government has suppressed evidence of child genocide. 

Since the 1800's and through the 1990's thousands of native children were forced under the care of Catholic, United Church of Canada and Anglican residential schools jointly owned by the Canadian government. 

A grave-site was unearthed near the Anglican-run Mohawk Institute for native children in Brantford, Ontario. In September 2011 the Canadian government stopped recovery efforts after four days of digging and upon discovery of an underground torture chamber, plus human remains. 

After a year of litigation, it was determined that over 50,000 Canadian children were missing. 

Six international judges issued 40 arrest warrants, including two for the Vatican. This successful court action was believed the motivation behind Catholic Pope Benedict Ratziner’s February 11th 2013 resignation. 

The cover-up involved Canadian, US and European officials, the Archbishop of Canterbury in London, Rowan Williams, the Anglican Primate in Canada, Fred Hiltz, Buckingham Palace, Canadian Prime Minister Brent Harper, Vatican officials and other elites.”

The United Church child burial site was accidentally found in September by pipe fitters and two months after a July 17 2013 Brampton Guardian article accused the school of deliberately starving children to death in government experiments.

Evidence of US and Canadian church and state’s genocide of children dated to the 1800's and continued through the 1990's. This abuse, rape and murder of “throw-away” children is thought covered up by the Canadian-US governments and military doing mind control experiments in connection with Lutheran, Catholic and United Churches, plus 80 US and Canadian institutions including 44 colleges and universities. 

The torture and murder of native children in Canadian residential schools through the 1990's is under investigation by the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A tribal council appointed by the Canadian Government, announced a series of forums for Port Alberni survivors. 

Generations of brown children were deliberately starved and tortured to death as part of a clear Eugenics program to exterminate Indian nations in order to get their land and resources. “Then there plan was to hide or destroy the bodies and physical evidence, and bury the documents for years until the legal coast is clear. However, the evidence will not go away.” #indigenous #aboriginal #native

Mass Execution of aboriginal Children from the Mohawk Residential School located in Ontario. 

The soldiers took all those children and stood them up next to a big ditch, then they shot them all and they all fell into the ditch. 

Some of the kids were still alive and they just poured the dirt in on top of them. Buried them alive.

Prisoners of the church. This mass murder happened in 1943 – in Brantford, Ontario, on land occupied by the Canadian Army, at its Basic Training Camp Number 20

Lorna McNaughton of Ohsweken, Ontario: is a survivor of the infamous “Mush Hole”, the Brantford Mohawk Indian residential school, run by the Church and Crown of England until 1970.

Why were these children shot?

The school was overcrowded just then. She was there, Lorna saw the army bring in all these cots for lots of new kids who showed up from all over the country. 

They must have just wanted to get rid of all the extra hungry mouths; it was wartime and everything was rationed. 

One day those new kids were in the dorms, then they were all taken out, and were never seen again.

A probable site of this mass burial of the executed children has been located, and is now under the protection and jurisdiction of the Onkwehonwe Mohawk Nation and its clan mothers.

The investigation into the Canadian Genocide continues.

The Mohawk residential school Institute, 1832-1970 – Church of England (Anglican) operated - Ontario. ‪#‎indigenous‬

Note: Here are some other articles on this site which also deal with this topic.

Simply copy & paste in the search box.


MASSIVE DEATHS OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN IN CANADA IS OFFICIALLY ADMITTED

Residential school survivors demand access to documents detailing use of electric chair

American Holocaust of Native American Indians (FULL Documentary)  Please watch.

Lawsuit Proceeds for Canada’s Lost Generation of Stolen Babies 

History On Residential Schools. A Canadian & American Disgrace Against Humanity

Residential school survivors outraged over Duncan’s residential school statement

RCMP unaware of abuse at residential schools due to 'closed system': report

The World Needs To Hear Stories of Residential Schools

Canadian Indian Residential School System