To fill the following position...

Farr also noted that the report was presented without an ambassador at large in charge of international religious freedom, because Obama has not nominated a candidate.

I came upon this article here...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03218.html

As of now the State Department does not have an Ambassador of Religious Freedom. What if we get a petition drive going to nominate Russell Means or Oren Lyons? What do you say? How can we get this started immediately? Would Russell or Oren even want the post? We must make sure that an American Indian gets this post... who else can know the subject better then one of our own whose people's way were almost annihilated?

I'll petition... anyone in? First what do Russell and Oren think of this? Can anyone contact Oren? If not these two men then who would be our best choice for us to push for. Let's get on it now!!!!!

Here is the spot they still need to fill...

The Office of International Religious Freedom has the mission of promoting religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy. Headed by Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, its Office Director and staff monitor religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom.

Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

* Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries;

* Assist newly formed democracies in implementing freedom of religion and conscience;

* Assist religious and human rights NGOs in promoting religious freedom;

* Identify and denounce regimes that are severe persecutors of their citizens or others on the basis of religious belief.

The office carries out its mission through:

* The Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. The report contains an introduction, executive summary, and a chapter describing the status of religious freedom in each of 195 countries throughout the world. Mandated by, and presented to, the U.S. Congress, the report is a public document available online and in book form from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

* The designation by the Secretary of State (under authority delegated by the President) of nations guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom as "Countries of Particular Concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (H.R. 2431) and its amendment of 1999 (Public Law 106-55). Nations so designated are subject to further actions, including economic sanctions, by the United States.

* Meetings with foreign government officials at all levels, as well as religious and human rights groups in the United States and abroad, to address problems of religious freedom.

* Testimony before the United States Congress on issues of international religious freedom.

* Close cooperation with the independent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

* Sponsorship of reconciliation programs in disputes which divide groups along lines of religious identity. The office seeks to support NGOs that are promoting reconciliation in such disputes.

* Programs of outreach to American religious communities.

For information on religious freedom in the United States please check the website of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, which publishes a newsletter, Religious Freedom in Focus, covering cases involving religious freedom around the United States. In addition a number of NGOs who monitor human rights issues around the world also report on conditions in the United States

O and here's the site for the ambassador...

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/

Letter to President Obama about this position...

Email sent to President Obama at http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

Send this to your friends and relatives and ask them to write the President and I hope also that maybe we can get an online petition going ASAP!

Mr. President,

I have recently heard that you have an opening for The Ambassador of Religious Freedom, a position that is located under the State Department.

Sir, I would like to submit two names to you that I believe would fill this position perfectly.

Russell Means of the Lakota of South Dakota and Oren Lyons.

In 1968, Means joined the American Indian Movement and quickly became one of its most prominent leaders. In 1969, Means was part of a group of Native Americans who occupied Alcatraz Island for a period of 19 months. The takeover of federal property was a dramatic protest to highlight issues of American Indian rights.[3] He was appointed the group's first national director in 1970, at a period of protests and activism. Later that year, Means was one of the leaders of AIM's takeover of Mount Rushmore, a federal monument. In 1972, he participated in AIM's occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters in Washington, D.C.. In 1973 he led AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee, which became the group's most well-known action after armed conflict with Federal and state law enforcement.

In 1974, Means ran for the presidency of his native Oglala Sioux nation against the incumbent Dick Wilson. Although the official vote count showed Wilson winning by two hundred votes, Means charged vote fraud and intimidation by Wilson's agents. An investigation by a federal court concluded there had been fraud and ordered a new election. Wilson's government refused to carry this out, and the court declined to enforce the ruling.[citation needed]

Turning to international issues of rights for indigenous peoples, Means worked with the United Nations to establish the offices of the International Indian Treaty Council in 1977. At the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he helped create community institutions, such as KILI radio station and the Porcupine Health Clinic.

Oren R. Lyons (b.1930) is a Native American Faithkeeper of the turtle clan of the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Once a college lacrosse player, Lyons is now a recognized advocate of indigenous rights.

In 1977, Lyons helped create the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth at a meeting in Montana. Since then, the Circle has gathered annually at a different site in Indian country[1].

In 1981, he traveled with Stephen Gaskin and Ina May Gaskin to New Zealand to attend festival at Nambassa, where he delivered a number of lectures and workshops. At Nambassa he coordinated with Indigenous Maori land rights activists on questions of indigenous people sharing his Native American experiences[citation needed].

For over fourteen years he has taken part in the meetings in Geneva of Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, and helped to establish the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982[citation needed]. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, and is a principal figure in the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders. He was a negotiator between the governments of Canada, Quebec, New York State and the Mohawk Indians in the Oka crisis during the summer of 1990[citation needed].

Lyons appeared on a one-hour documentary produced and hosted by Bill Moyers broadcast on PBS, July 3, 1991[citation needed].

In 1992 he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations where he opened the International Year of the World's Indigenous People[citation needed].
[edit] Publications

Lyons has authored numerous books including Exiled in the Land of the Free; Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution; and Voice of Indigenous Peoples (1992), and Native People Address the United Nations (1994)

Mr. President, it would be a slap in the face of all who have struggled through religious persecution, here in the United States, if an American Indian is not placed in this position. Who else would know the sheer terror of what it is like to not be able to practice one's beliefs because of laws against them then an American Indian?

Mr. President I plead with you to nominate an American Indian to this position and am hoping that you will consider the two names submitted.

Sincerely,

Peter Deane

Very good-being a recognized faith keeper Oren would be a natural. I, as many others do,
have always viewed the Hopi as the spiritual gatekeepers of the nations and there are
several among them who should be on any short list of candidates.