GOOD WORDS

“Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave. They do not pay for all my horses and cattle.

“Good words cannot give me back my children. Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.

I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk.”……….Joseph

Neither do “good words” pay for the damage done, or the deaths of those at wk2 by the liberators.

The “good words” spoken about wk2 have failed to increase the well being of any-nor in the aftermath did they stop the dying or elevate a people.

They created no sanctuary, no home where a people could live in peace and care for themselves, and we should all be as Joseph said ” tired of talk that comes to nothing”.

HEAR NO EVIL_SEE NO EVIL_SPEAK NO EVIL

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish our own communities from those of any other-same problems,  same attitudes, same lack of vision and sense of direction.

Squalor, poverty, alcohol, drugs, rape, abuse of women and children, feral wannabes roaming the communities in  gangs and calling themselves warriors that will even emblazon that in ink across their body to proclaim it to be so  as the only visible sign of the fantasy they indulge.

War and warriors, for too many their vocabulary centers on those words, when the truth is any fool can pick up a  gun or exchange blows with another, or talk all the bs.  A further truth is the warriors of old would not only be  disgusted with this rendition but would also hand them their ass if they got stupid.

The battlefield today isn’t some isolated locale on the prairies but in the communities, the courts, and individual  lives that have taken the wrong direction. The weapons needed to prevail on this battlefield are neither guns, fists, or video commentaries-they are education,
pride, communal, and individual responsibility.

They are mothers and fathers who parent, adults who provide positive examples, leaders who are actually qualified to  lead and selflessly dedicated to the welfare of their people rather than themselves.

Those who have the necessary skills and abilities to lead aren’t the ones flooding the net with their wisdom and solutions,  yet they exist on every rez and in every community, if people will only look and listen they will find those who can truly  lead.

Leadership is about more than elections and campaign rhetoric-both of which are a foreign intrusion, and yet have become  as entrenched in the “political process” on the rez as they have anywhere else.

Next tribal election pay attention to these things and ask yourself what tradition it represents? Take note as well who is  the most adept at it-who makes the most promises and who uses the word I the most, or the euphemism “we”, when the intent is  to convey I.

Perhaps most importantly as a man or woman lead in your home in the things that you do-lead as a mother, lead as father,  lead as a care giver and a provider in the traditional way you would speak of-it is the key to change and restoration.

That is the way of the warrior-not just to fight, but to provide and care for. In that men and women become true warriors-the  rest is little more than mimicry, hollow words, and the stuff of youtube videos.

There is a sad humour that exists in rhetoric and titles now-and should be recognized for what they are- one of the countless  symptoms of the destruction of tradition. I can’t imagine of a time or a reason when Roman Nose, Gall, Quanah, Geronimo, or any  other would have referred to them self as a chief facilitator, minister of information, national director, or any of that. If I’m wrong about that I await correction.

Neither can I imagine a time when they would have elevated their physical comfort above those among them. Maybe they just weren’t  the real warriors and patriots some claim to be today. Maybe they just weren’t acculturated enough to see the benefits of speaking  one way and living another.

Maybe they didn’t have “elk medicine” or Face book friends and fans  enough to know what’s really  important-guess maybe they were just “primitives” and “archeological” enough to be out of the mix.

Welcome to the rez indeed. At times it is a profound burden to watch some of the videos that abound, or read the latest verbal  renderings of those “liberators”. Counterfeit stories, counterfeit deeds, and counterfeit lives, as if the nations haven’t enough to  wade through as it. Their voices sound like the words of the treaties and outdo them with the lies told and the manipulations affected.

Ever faithful, ever concerned with the welfare of the people, wanting only the best for us-and will educate with their brand of truth, spiritualize one and all with their example and their particular spiritual beliefs. What do they bring, what have they brought, that in the final analysis has been any better, or more of a truth?

Did they teach us respect for tradition with drunken parties called ceremonies-did they provide a positive example to the young in  dealing or using drugs, or respecting women and elders? The truth is only one thing has been missing-they forgot to put on a  blue coat and carry a sabre-somehow Top hats and  the Club Med stingy brim hats don’t suffice, and I wonder if Bermuda shorts and suspenders are in the offing.

What has been created are personal fiefdoms-it has always been about that, and decades of history verifiy it is so. A deaf, dumb, and wilfully blind “leadership” that hears no evil, sees no evil, and cannot bring itself to speak of the evil long associated with the murder of Annie Mae-the murder of Ray Robinson and others.

Blind mice carrying a plague of their own creation and like that song about Yankee Doodle sticking a feather in their cap and bestowing names and titles on themselves.
Below I have included an excerpt from a article that illustrates the typical generic misdirection that is too often published and consigns itself to speaking of half the issues.

PRESS RELEASE BY THE
American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council
The American Indian Movement Peace Statement
September 15, 2001

The American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council vehemently condemns the recent acts of violence and terrorism perpetrated against innocent civilians in the United States. We condemn similar acts of violence and terrorism perpetrated by all governments and organizations against innocent civilians worldwide.

“Yes, terrorism on American soil is anything but new. And while there are clear and important differences between the twisted Taliban or al-Qu’aeda network on the one hand, and this nation’s founders, like Jefferson on the other, the fact remains — as mentioned previously — that dead is dead. To the victims of the latter, it hardly matters that in his better moments, he might have waxed eloquent about representative democracy.

And just as the heinous destruction of 6,000 or so lives at the hands of hijackers this month will be remembered forever, so too must these other acts of terror. That individually they may have involved lower body counts, and that we didn’t get to see the damage done on live television seems fairly irrelevant. Terrorism is not defined by the enormity of its death toll, after all.”

In this remembrance let there also be a remembrance regarding the historic acts of terrorism perpetrated against our own, at the hands of our own-such as Annie Mae and Ray Robinson, address that as well -let “The Grand (gotta love the abject misnomer  of Grand) Governing Council” speak of the terrorism that has, and does exist among our own.

Let them address the daily shame of terrorized, abused, battered, raped, and murdered women and children, and the growing abuse of our elders-because as has been said “Terrorism is not defined by the enormity of it’s death toll…..after all.”

Acts of terrorism go beyond body counts, and survivors must contend with their experience each day-it is the role of leaders to tend to the aggrieved-to address the issues that have led to their misery, not to give greater importance to themselves, prairie dogs, or syrup pots.

I say there are greater crimes than the theft of pots and prairie dogs doing what they do-and ask why they are not addressed with the same force and public display of videos, rewards, and hand delivered documents? In truth though, in the asking, the answer is already known.

A WITNESS

It is a simple matter for me that in having a voice I am obliged to use it when an issue arises.
We should all speak and do what we can in the immediacy of our daily lives, but also be willing to go beyond that-and one of the benefits of the internet is the ability to do so.

I’ve often felt the internet has become a global archive of misinformation, and that’s easy enough to see-but it also offers itself as a vehicle to address the misinformation- something that the Annie Mae site has striven to do for years, and without the internet would have struggled to obtain the level of justice and awareness that has thus far  been achieved.

Slowly we see difficult truths emerging on sites such as ICT, IWJ, White Buffalo Calf Woman Society and Pretty Bird Woman House- those who can’t wait to inform you of their latest escapade, foundation, or interpretations of all things from the Constitution to matriarchy should be the ones who just as eagerly, just as rabidly, are advocating for and supporting organizations such as these in the same volume and  manner they distribute  their words concerning everything else.

Apparently the issues that the Annie Mae, WBCWS, ICT, and PBWH sites are addressing are
of lesser importance to them.

Silence isn’t the final word or the determining factor though, and increasingly becoming less of a haven, for just as the internet can misinform, so too can it be an educator, a witness.

The global archive where fact and fiction can be separated, where words uttered and forgotten in years past can be readily exhumed and  compared as though they were just this day spoken.

A process where liberators are shown to be terrorists, and land warriors murderers of women. Where champions and patriots are shown to be denizens of first class flights that lead a life of comparative opulence to those around them. Where “defense” committees flourish, create their own wealth, add to the fiction, and accomplish nothing, save self perpetuation.

The internet for all it’s pluses and minuses is exactly what we make of it-in that is it’s redemption, or failure, much the  same as it is for those who avail themselves of it.

MAHPEVA

Received this from the parent of a young man with an artistic talent-Mahpeva, age six- and wanted to share it.
This isn’t the “liberation art” mentioned previously in another blog, but then maybe again in one sense of the word it is….as long as children have an awareness and express it some liberation may be said to exist in that.

BURDEN OF CHAINS

Others should be able to look at us in our daily lives and see that we are a constant in the things we do and say and live-our personal manifesto, and an example of integrity, worthy of trust and respect.

Maybe easier to make what we convince ourselves to be some minor trade off, an accommodation to further the moment, but the things of value that serve to define us shouldn’t be bartered or exist in a nebulous state of flux.

Surrender begins with the first step, and evolves incrementally from that point-if any would begin the process of surrender they need be aware of the consequences, if any would not, they need be aware of the benefits in refraining from doing so.

Too often we carry the unnecessary burden of chains, either of our own volition or that of others, and too often we make the wrong choices as a result.  Better if we are to make a mistake for it to be our own than that of another, better also to recognize it as such and make the necessary adjustment  than to rely on another to do so, or claim we were compelled by external forces .

Have faith in yourself, believe in who you are, and be worthy of it-in doing so know others will find a new direction as well, and  strong vibrant nations will emerge.

Change must always begin with the individual, a personal revival that nothing can be made a substitute for. As a people we are not so far removed by time from who we were that the way home has become eroded beyond recognition.

The clock is ticking for one and all, for that raggedy little child you see scampering about, that old one shivering in the winter, the forlorn drunk laying on the sidewalk, that woman bruised and battered-all a tragic and unnecessary reality illustrating the importance of the choices to be made by all us.

The choices are your’s to make as an individual, that will in turn find unity among many as a shared communal goal, a common good. Realize who you are, achieve that, invest it in those around you rather than those whose “service” has always been linked to their own personal advancement.

Ask yourself if you need a single title other than human being to do a common good, to be a decent person who provides, secures, advocates, or advances the welfare of your loved ones and the people as a whole?

If you find the answer is no then it should follow you would ask yourself why  another would whose titles were bestowed by their own hand?

How many pipe carriers are there now? How many Chiefs? How many medicine men? How many professing themselves to be wise elders, leaders, and patriots-and where did they all come from? Perhaps more importantly, what has led to all this, and where is it leading?

There was a time when even children among us were adept at reading signs and could identify what or who made them-a fourleg going in this direction, a mother with a child in tow, an enemy too close for comfort-read the signs, they are so plentiful and apparent a blind person is capable of doing so.

Wolves and other predators were to be commonly found on the periphery of the great herds, and over time their presence was accepted without alarm-knowing this hunters often draped themselves in the pelts of these predators as a tactic to draw near-and found great success in doing so.

Predators surround the people, have drawn near in their living among them-they too are clothed in a disguise intended to be familiar, and it is cause for alarm. For decades they have left a trail to follow, a well worn path that can be seen even from a great distance -no need to be a self described chief, pipe carrier, or medicine man to read the signs -only a human being.

Our identity, our sense of self, our connection to the past, belongs to us-no one can take it away, but we can surrender  it as trade goods, or an act of accommodation.

WALKERS AND TALKERS

I believe that everything I have written in his blog has been about, and in some way, a call for integrity-which I’ve included the definition for.

–noun
1.
adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
2.
the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.
3.
a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship’s hull.

This has been the problem among the nations for an extended period of time-a lack of integrity in traditions, lifestyle, language, and those, who by hook or by crook, have risen to the top as though they are the cream of the nations, when the truth is they are little more than curdled milk.

Integrity would imply that if an honest effort is to be made on behalf of the nations all would profit rather than a select few, that the voices of all would be heard rather than a select few.

When was the last time you saw a video of a “walk”, or a staged event when the microphone was passed among those who always remain in obscurity? When was the last time you saw the cast of familiar performers say theirs wasn’t the only voice and here speak to this one, or to that one, if it wasn’t one of the inner circle?

So what is it you know of conditions and issues, of the manner it effects the lesser knowns, the real people, other than what you are told by the same ones time and again?

What real connection, what integrity, do they have in the midst and comfort of what can be best described as an upper class lifestyle among the nations?

Not that I begrudge them a single thing they have if it is the result of honesty and integrity. What angers me is that it is not-it has been earned at the expense of the people and nothing other than the usual verbiage trickles down.

Recently I saw on a forum what I would call an epiphany-a person of mixed blood who previously had, in my opinion, taken issue when an attempt was made to address the real issues and the lack of integrity so rampant today.

I quote the following excerpt: “its the same old wore out bullshit. We cause more division among ourselves than the whites ever have. You are not alone in your thoughts that you are to white for the reds and to red for the whites. It really does not matter how much blood you have even the full bloods try to out indian each other.

When I read stories like these it makes me very proud to have first nations blood (NOT) we have fallen very far from honorable men and women to thugs, baby killers and perverts. BUT DO NOT MENTION THESE THINGS !!! These are not what our problems are, our problems are whites and white greed..Pffft once yes now we are our own predators kind of like a snake eating itsself by swallowing its own tail.”

The profound and devastating impact white culture and it’s domination has had on the nations is undeniable-but as this individual implies the enemy within must be recognized and dealt with as well.

“Thugs, baby killers, and perverts”-difficult words, harsh, and stinging- but an unfortunate and entirely unnecessary reality none the less. Real issues that “walkers”, “talkers” and “actors” are remiss in addressing, save perhaps only in passing as an afterthought.

These things are no less a virulent plague among the nations than are diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease-yet you see no media events, no walks, no “video commentaries” to address them.

No, what you are more likely to see is talk of being warriors, autobiographies, movies, and of late, childish threats of deletions from FB lists.

Have you, do you ever wonder about any of this? Are you afraid, or unwilling to confront these issues?To ask the hard questions? Will you not demand something more from these walking talking actors? These upper class citizens of Indian country who are in action and deed the whitest among the nations?

This same individual I quoted above stated in another topic that Jesse Jackson was a race traitor who had enriched himself off of his own people- I think a strong case can be made for some of our own.

I think it is traitorous to have any involvement in the murder of Annie Mae-equally so to have knowledge and remain silent, or to studiously avoid addressing the issue or contribute to the pursuit of justice. But then there are well know reasons for that aren’t there?

I think it is a race traitor who enriches them self at the expense of their own, who is content to in effect say do what I say and not what I do.

As a people the nations are being stereotyped once again due to the stench of curdled milk and the unwillingness for each to accept responsibility in their own communities. This not only serves the walkers and talkers but will further the decline-but hey, if you have
“celebrities” who make their living telling you none of it is your fault easier to embrace that and fuel the fire than attempt to confront and extinguish the flames that will inevitably consume all.

Just as the majority are unaware of the names of those many people who comprise the nations likewise they don’t know the names of  the thousands of abused, abducted,raped, and murdered women and children among us-yet this doesn’t stop them from rallying around the names of the walkers and talkers in whom I suppose they take them to be as representative.

In the context of being representative do likewise of Annie Mae, her’s is the greater  credibility-she is more than just one woman-she is representative of too many and the face of a shameful reality that has, and does exist.

You want to be a friend on someone’s list? Then ask your friend to address the issue of Annie Mae and all those nameless women and children. If your only concern is to be a groupie, the nations, the people, don’t  need you-the celebrities do. And know this-the present round of difficulties origins began in the year  1968.

Ask Graham, Banks, Peltier, and any others who have been convicted, or are persons of suspicion to honor your support and dedication to them in the simple act of taking a polygraph-seems a small thing to ask doesn’t it? Ask them why they hide behind the fifth amendment?

The nations are not Panama, Uganda, or Haiti-we have no need of despotic “strongmen” like Noriega, Idi Amin, Papa Doc, or Baby Doc. We are not Syria or Libya, and have no need of raping and killing our own.

AIM had no need of a Ton Ton Macoute, yet they surely had the equivalent.  A Republic has no need of a Chief Facilitator, or a Republican Guard as did Iraq-for a  Republic is ruled by the people and consensus-a people who make their own laws and the manner in which they are enforced, and they choose the direction taken, not a committee or a Facilitator.

It is about freedom, integrity, and justice-none of which the walkers and talkers offer. Hope springs eternal, but it must be acted upon to become a reality.

“We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man a spirit home according to his deserts; If he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same………..Joseph

I believe as Joseph did, and I further believe no one has walked among the nations of greater stature or had more love for his people-equals perhaps, but none greater.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVSmLpNK45Q&feature=player_embedded#at=433

THREE CARD MONTE

Whoa-what a revealing meltdown-malign Mexicans, prairie dogs, and threaten FB
“friends” and “fans” with the dreaded delete button if they don’t do the Chief Facilitators bidding-WOW. (video link at bottom).

My suggestion? See this for exactly what it is – a tantrum and the  shop worn coercion intimidation tactics that have been employed for decades-then do yourself a favor and hit the delete button of your own accord. The typical bullying tactics of the school yard and of AIM-you’re the one who can get along without this friend-Russell’s proven repeatedly he can’t.

Years ago the televangelist Oral Roberts wanted several million dollars to bail out his ministry/school-donations were slow in coming so he made a spectacle of going to his “prayer tower” to pray and seek direction, after some number of days he emerged to announce that the “Lord” had told him if the money wasn’t forth coming he would take Oral “home”.

Bizarre isn’t it that any would respond to such a claim that the “Lord” would basically hold Oral for ransom and take him out if it wasn’t paid, and yet they did. Oral got his millions, and “Lord” knows where it went.

This is a re tooled version of that-in this it is the “friends” who are held captive, and if the ransom of phone calls isn’t forthcoming the penalty is DELETION-a fate worse than the one poor Oral was confronted with. NOT.

Question is-how would the facilitator know who called and who didn’t? Will he be given a list, or would there just be a randomized polgrom?  Or, “Lord” forbid, another tantrum?

The Sundance is the most sacred of ceremonies, and in the great professed love for the land, some accommodation, some effort, can surely be made to avoid damaging it . I don’t think one can exist without the other, and neither do I think because prairie dogs do and have that is an entitlement for others to-I’m willing to bet we aren’t being told the entire story-only the dramatized self serving one as  has always been the way of it.

I’ve often felt the “liberators” and “leaders” studied their craft  watching televangelists learning the shell game, and three card Monte-if I had any doubts I’m convinced now.

A “Harvard Law School” RoL Attorney General-how very….what’s the word I’m looking for here?….Oh yeah, that would be American-how very mainstream American.  I wonder, is the RoL AG Lakota, or from any other nation? One thing for certain with the racist rant unleashed and directed at Mexicans, whoever it is it’s a safe bet they aren’t Hispanic.

Glowering, blustering, rumbling, stumbling along-all that needs an update, doesn’t have the same cachet it once did. In being a “movie star” I would think multiple takes were called for and some serious editing. I think what the issue here is that Russell’s personal attentionometer is in free fall and it’s a little disturbing for him.

As watchable theater-an F rating, for making sense in a coherent fashion- an F rating-for being a window into another world, Russell’s world- an A+.

Since there may be children present I offer the following disclaimer, if the F rating is to be construed as indicative of the middle finger that is left solely to the readers discretion and any similarity to actual events,  persons, or person, living or deceased is purely intentional.

Damn those prairie dogs to hell-they’ve completely devalued an archeological site in discovering it. I’m thinking they may be COINTELPRO operatives-and let’s not even go there and suggest the faintest of possibilities it could be a burial site, or may be an operating room
where those Aztec’s performed open heart surgery on a scale never before seen or to be seen again.

Imagine if Annie Mae had been discovered by prairie dogs, or if Ray Robinson and others at wk2 were to be-the argument would be advanced then that all sharing responsibility could walk free as the discovery had been devalued. But then I’m sure there’s a bounty on prairie dogs anywhere in the vicinity of those unmarked graves.

“The plague boss, the plague” where’s Tattoo when you need him? He was much more convincing. I don’t believe the Lakota created themselves as Russell says-I think Creator did that. If it takes 3 years for the land to heal itself how does it achieve that for a recurring annual event? The correct pronunciation is DahveeLa, flat A’s ,short e’s.  I believe.

Some effort needs to be made to determine if this is a burial site, if it is even the Chief Facilitators van has no business being parked on it, nor it should it be left to prairie dogs- sorry Russell, but your personal desires and alleged “safety” issues don’t trump that, tantrum and racial slurs or not. This isn’t a call for help-it is demand accompanied by a threat-as comical as the threat is.

Been thinking about this and wanted to  add a little more as follows:  I say this with all sincerity and devoid of any malice-had I of been in Russell’s presence during the making of this video commentary featuring the slurring of word’s and disjointed meandering I would have been concerned he was either suffering some manner of stroke or possibly drunk. I would have attempted to verify one or the other and suggested taping at a later date.

This sort of performance only serves to increase his growing irrelevance, and one would think as a performer he would be aware of that-but then performers never seem to know when to make an exit do they?

Let’s think about this for a minute-an archeological site in close proximity to a sacred site-is there a clue in this, a hint, a possibility of something else? Wouldn’t common sense and concern at least suggest treating it as such until further discoveries define what it is?

What this may be about is since Russell’s “mission” to the UN wasn’t the media event it was hoped to be, something else has to be found to make up for that-what better way to do that than to play to peoples spiritual beliefs and claim they are being violated? It’s part and parcel of the long running Vaudevillian act of the liberators, and almost always guaranteed to elicit a response.

In fact I would say Russell was completely outshone, outmanuvered, at the UNPFII by none other than long time rival Clyde-the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and the insufferable wounding of pride and ego-he came, he saw, he was ignored.

Probably a single check book wasn’t opened either, no pledges of monetary assistance, no donations- so now he would have one and all believe the UNPFII is a bogus organization.

Makes me think of the character Norma Desmond in a classic 40′s movie entitled Sunset Boulevard-demanding star treatment, always waiting and convinced the studio will call, the next media event-her comeback, and proclaiming the great love of her fans. Yet all the cosmetics and poses struck failed to mask the truth.

We live in the real world, not the celluloid one of Tinseltown, or the digital version of youtube or video commentaries-long the compatriot, now they are the  microscope where not everything can be photoshopped, and a thing said, a position taken, is archived, not be to be denied as purpose and whim would dictate at a later date.

http://www.republicoflakotah.com/2011/call-for-help/

STANDING ON SACRED GROUND

The earth has been said to be the floor of heaven and  there seems to be a great truth in this, if this is so then all the land is sacred and we cannot pick and choose which should be fought over to protect-all must be protected.

Understandable that specific areas to specific peoples have a greater  personal significance, but the land is contiguous-fences cannot divide it, municipal boundaries, or the little picket fence-neither the great bodies of water beneath whose surface the land continues. It is illusion to think they do   This is a thing if understood and accepted would go a long way in
creating a better life for all who inhabit the land.

The history of all mankind has always been to claim and fight over a  portion here or a portion there for reasons to numerous to even begin to define.

Words have been invented to support such claims, words that led to “laws” and the legalization of theft- to deeds, treaties, to concepts such as eminent and public domain-all foreign, all conceptualizations, until this nation, foremost among all the other nations perhaps, has become a nation of words, stumbling over words, and constantly distorting
or inventing new ones to further pave the way. Problems exist? Go figure.

The great Sauk leader Black Hawk once said, “How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.”

He would be ashamed I think to find that modern day liberators selling syrup and autobiographies employ much the same tactic-to learn that an indigenous woman, any woman among our own could become prey for abuse, sexual assault, or to be abducted, beaten, raped, and murdered, and the response would be silence, or the spinning of words to make wrong look  like right and right look like wrong.

In all of this it has been forgotten that we stand on the floor of  heaven, that wherever our feet touch the land it is sacred . On scared ground  truth should be spoken.