Adam DeArmon forced himself to plead guilty in Arizona's Court for practicing his Native American religious rights

June 2022.- After the Arizona State and Yavapai County Superior Court dropped nine criminal charges out of ten filed, all related to Indigenous traditions, against Adam DeArmon, Founding Minister of the Oklevueha Native American Church of the International Center of Spiritual and Ancestral Wisdom (ONAC and ICSAW), he decided to plead guilty to the charge of paraphernalia (possession of a plastic bag containing something unrelated to methamphetamine or marijuana), in Arizona. Adam DeArmon decided to make this resolution after a year of an interminable previous path that has kept him isolated and separated from his religious duties and rights while paying large amounts of money in lawyers and state fines that are no longer sustainable and that have caused serious physical and psychological damage to him and his family.

Adam ¨YellowBird¨ DeArmon, is a tribal member of Choctaw Muskogee Yamassee Nation and is world renowned by the different indigenous nations of North, Central and South America, Australia, Japan and Germany, for his integrative work in the preservation of native traditions. He along with other members of the church were raided during a ceremony last February 2nd, 2021, at his federally recognized church and home located in Arizona, by PANT and the local Sheriff's Department carrying semi-automatic weapons. The law enforcement officers destroyed all sacred plants protected by federal law for which DeArmon is the designated spiritual custodian of the Oklevueha Native American Church for Native American tradition, confiscated all medicinal products, destroyed the farm and took all money, as well as sacred objects used during religious and spiritual ceremonies of great ancestral value to Native and non-Native Americans.

"Whether it is an assault on an indigenous church, a Christian church or an indigenous home, what has happened to me is a violation of our religious rights that has been happening for 500 years to our indigenous peoples of the world and now is the time to join efforts among all indigenous races and tribes to make governments listen to our voices from the North, Central and South America, united as the fingers of our hands and we can finally enforce our rich ancestral customs and sacred lands (protected by the RLUPA Act), and stop the abuses and injustices once and for all," said Adam YellowBird DeArmon.

"I call on all the country's media, bloggers, politicians, influencers and friends of indigenous communities and their rich customs, to raise their voices and support me, so that we can achieve the long-desired union in respect, justice and communion, of indigenous peoples and governments, the time is now", Adam emphasized.

In this regard, Patricio Dominguez, founder and president of the Institute of Natural and Traditional Knowledge and founding member of One People Tribal Nation, who has known Adam DeArmon since 1995 as one of the chosen ones for the union of the indigenous peoples of the world on the eve of the new era, assures that Adam YellowBird did nothing wrong. "The only reason Adam was targeted was because he started to succeed in his mission, he started to accumulate enough power to be noticed and the other side had to silence him in any way possible. Fortunately, Adam has a pure and impeccable life, and they could not find any criminal activity in his entire career against him. So, the government was forced to waive nine of the ten charges brought against him because they knew they were going to lose. This case is a precedent for any future cases in defense of indigenous peoples and the abuses they are subjected to by the authorities every day. We must all support Adam to get him completely free," said Patricio Domínguez.

In addition, human rights activist and founder of USA Refugees & Immigrants, Carmen J. Gimenez, in support of Adam and the protection and preservation of Indigenous Rights and traditions, invites all Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the United States and around the world to raise their voices and unite to reclaim the rights of First Nations to practice their cultural and religious customs in the way they were traditionally taught so that once and for all the abuses against native peoples and their religious practices can end, which only seek the growth of the state of Being by promoting and encouraging contact with the natural world and all that Mother Earth lovingly gives to humanity," Gimenez said.

Adam "YellowBird" DeArmon, currently residing in California and has been illegally stripped of all his property, money and health products that were taken and destroyed from his church and represent the work of over 20 years of preserving Peyote in Arizona. He is helpless and unable to afford the hefty sums being demanded by lawyers to defend him until he proves his innocence on the paraphernalia charge, which DeArmon sees as an excuse used to silence his voice and that of the indigenous people and their cultural and religious practices which he grew up with and which are part of the idiosyncrasies of the indigenous nations of the world.

This Native American Church leader has opened a gofundme account: https://gofund.me/8bc68bca  for those who want to contribute to his cause in order to pay the legal fees to get to the end of this matter and compensate for the loss of all the assets that the authorities have illegally taken from him and ONAC of ICSAW.

For more information about Adam YellowBird DeArmon and his biography: www.adamdearmon.com