The Commons Brooklyn

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“Spirituality is the foundation of American Indian culture—the root of a traditional way of life. If American Indian peoples are denied the right to exercise their spirituality, we’re talking about a denial that borders on cultural genocide.” —Lenny Foster, 1997

Lenny Foster of the Diné Nation is the Director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project and the Spiritual Advisor for 1,500 Indian inmates in many state and federal prisons in the Western U.S. He has co-authored legislation in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado that allows Native American spiritual and religious practice in prison and results in significant reductions in prison returns.

He is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, a sun dancer and member of the Native American Church. He has been with the American Indian Movement since 1969 and has participated in actions including Alcatraz, Black Mesa, the Trail of Broken Treaties, Wounded Knee ’73, the Menominee Monastery Occupation, Shiprock Fairchild Occupation, the Longest Walk and the Big Mountain land struggle. He was a 1993 recipient of the City of Phoenix Dr. Martin Luther King Human Rights Award.

Lenny will speak on five Native American issues: the illegal imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, land and resources taken from Native peoples by the U.S. government, stripmining, uranium mining and the pollution of the land, air and water, Native American freedom of religion and the demand to honor Native treaty rights.

Opening Flute by Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Sponsors: NYC Leonard Peltier DOC, NYC Jericho Movement

For more info: nyclpdoc@gmail.com • 718-325-4407