In response to public outcry, Leonard Peltier has been transferred back to Lewisburg Penitentiary from Canaan Penitentiary in Pennsylvania where he had been jumped and brutalized, held in solitary without proper food and medical attention and denied access to attorneys. A petition to assure Leonard's safety and his release is being prepared by "Hands Off Leonard Peltier - Free Him Now Campaign" The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LP-DOC) has launched a new, international public education/awareness and political action campaign on Leonard's behalf: AIM for Freedom.

NativeWeb has moved to a new and improved web server. As part of our upgrades to content and materials, which we call NativeWeb 2.0, we maintain several new ideas for our community of participants and viewers:

• NativeWiki - you've heard of Wikipedia? NativeWeb is exploring ways to make our site more interactive, so you can contribute original sites and materials.
• Blogs - you've heard of them, you may even write one. We'd like to offer space for native and indigenous peoples to post blogs on our site.
• Never saw what you wanted on our website? How about participating in a poll to tell us what you want?
• An announcement list with occasional messages of interest to Native peoples:

FOREST FIGHTERS - ASHANINKA INDIANS

Protests are spreading among Peru's indigenous tribes. Last month, more than 100 Amazonian communities declared a permanent "state of emergency" after Peru granted a large oil concession to Brazilian and Colombian companies. The last five years have seen several high-profile kidnappings of oil and mining employees, leading the Peruvian government to establish jungle garrisons in response. And the rhetoric is escalating. "We will not allow any more concessions in the indigenous Amazon Territories," Alberto Pisango, president of National Organization of the Amazon Indigenous People of Peru. The New Republic article by Alexander Zaitchik, 24 April 2009

A NATIVE GRANDMOTHER'S EPIC WALK FOR THE WATER

Josephine Mandamin set out six years ago to walk around the Great Lakes. She's made it 17,000 km so far. What Mandamin, an Anishinabe elder from Thunder Bay, wants illuminated is environmental collapse. Mandamin grew up on Manitoulin Island, eating fresh fish daily and drinking straight from Georgian Bay. During her lifetime, she has seen the Great Lakes nearly ruined - the fish killed by invasive species, the harbours poisoned, and, now, the water evaporating into the clouds of global warming. [Toronto Star article by Kevin McMahon, 4 April 2009]

MAPUCHE SCHOOL OF SELF GOVERNMENT OPENS

Based on sections of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Mapuche School of Self Government began its first day of classes January 14, 2009, in Temuko, Chile. Faculty at the new institution include an internationally famous Chilean jurist who helped prosecute former dictator Augusto Pinochet as well as noted attorneys and Mapuche legislators. The school's general aim is to create "an institutional space for the Mapuche communities to implement Articles 3 and 4 of the declaration relative to the rights of indigenous self-determination and self-government," according to a press statement issued by the Mapuche Council of All the Lands, the organization that created the new school.