THEY JUST MAKE THAT SHIT UP
“If you want to motivate people, you don’t rely on logic and reasoning. No, what
people need is a symbol. A slogan, a flag, the face of a hero to stick on a T-shirt.
So what do you do if the real world doesn’t provide you with something people can
rally around? You just make that shit up.”
The confusion seems to be who is worthy of being immortalized on a tee shirt? Whose life and leadership is symbolic enough to rally round? Black Kettle, Joseph, Crazy Horse, Manuelito,Quanah, Geronimo, Lozen, Annie Mae, and the countless others who are the real heroes, or the carefully crafted and packaged for public consumption peacocks that strut around today selling not only the culture and ceremonies, but the very people themselves?
Wannabe chiefs crisscrossing the country for the love of money and notoriety spewing their revisionist version and personal take on things as though they are representative-as though they are The One whose every word should be taken as inviolate. Some so flagrant as to imply that perhaps they channel a fallen hero, or worse, are the hero returned in some new age mystical incarnation.
Some so brazen as to say they know who took Annie Mae’s life but are obliged by their word not to reveal it. Their word? That along with the appropriate amount of money and a hefty gratuity might get you a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop. That is, might.
No such sense of duty or obligation seems to compel them to observe the very traditions of respect and honor that once precluded such a wanton display of greed, avarice, and cultural genocide that comprises their lives and the taking of Annie Mae’s, Ray Robinson’s, and who knows who else.
Laughable caricatures who call themselves medicine men and sell dvds of traditions and ceremonies on the web with the appropriate links to purchase and be the first on your block to know the ways.
They pander to an unknowing non indigenous audience who cannot seem to get enough and in their fascination with all things “Indian” develop a pseudo militancy characterized by cries of “free Leonard” and “free Graham” that are mistakenly thought to be evidence of solidarity and a compassionate spirit.
These are the personal money tree for the true apples and they flagrantly shake it for all to see and then laugh on the way to the bank while drooling their personal propaganda and producing yet another You Tube video.
I’ve even heard this justified once the money is in hand as “they owe us”-what is owed can not be paid-there is no monetary figure that can be affixed it to-payment requires complete sovereignty and much more than money, not personal aggrandizement. If this is not is the case then just select a card from this pack of jokers and make a pledge to tithe whatever amount deemed appropriate on a monthly basis.
Why not make it easier and just direct deposit so their hands will remain pristine and untainted by filthy lucre and they can devote even more time to that never ending battle of fighting for truth and justice-not to mention that commercial aspect of the American Way they so love to engage in?
The reality is that the money spent on one of these farcical books or dvds that are so prevalent would in itself provide a warm jacket for a child, a blanket for an elder, even food-that is a thing to consider. These so called leaders and champions aren’t facing the same needs.
If all the money funneled into the undeserving free Leonard and free Graham movements had gone to address the real needs of indigenous people it could have made a difference in many lives. It is a good and honorable thing if a person sees a misery and would help, I would encourage any to do so, but I would also encourage them to know where there money goes. To dedicate it where the intent is best served, as it is not the familiar voices who have the need of it but those whose voices are never heard.
The innocent lambs Peltier and Graham……send more money, buy my book and the dvds, and whatever you do don’t forget the sacred feminine, Niburu, 2012, Aztec open heart surgery, or the absurd assertion that no evidence of pre Colombian warfare exists, and all the rest of that.
Neither forget to train young impressionable teenage girls you have impregnated in the art of weaponry to be the warrior you can never be and confront the man when he comes for you while you make good your escape-for some there has been a history of that.
Elk medicine? It has more the appearance and stench of that which covers the landscape that you step in while in the pasture.
Yeah, they just make that shit up.
Infighting, the question of Dine sovereignty, and the Lakota Oyate Statement.
The following links should illustrate some of the very real issues that abound and all too often are ignored by authors and film makers.
The issue of sovereignty is a recognized rallying point, but embracing the extent and ramifications of it seems to be a matter lacking consistency.
AIM circa that era was nothing, more specifically the leadership who made it that way and attempted to make it into a cancerous commercial venture as quoted from the Lakota Oyate statement and attributed to a Mic’maw elder.
And as the Oyate said:
“Wakan Inyan will forgive you, even if men do not. AIM is nothing. Truth is everything. Hau.”
This commercialization and seeking of personal fame effectively eroded the traditional role of the elders and the results were and have been devastating.
It wasn’t that long ago I read a statement by an individual who portrayed himself as “hardcore Aim” in which he stated that during those days if the elders didn’t approve of something they were ignored/bypassed in preference to AIM’s agenda.
What a telling and remarkable statement, a window that circumvents all the rhetoric and fairy tales about devotion to tradition and culture, about Sun Dances, spiritual leaders within the ranks, and visions.
The last link opens a page containing the Oyate ’99 statement-it is based on TRADITION and TRADITIONAL leadership-I’d like to know what explanations any might have that justifies circumventing it ? Which “traditional”
internet warriors choose to ignore it and how they go about justifying it?
Maybe one of the “liberators” has an explanation?
http://www.aimovement.org/moipr/onrussellmeans.html
http://tlj.unm.edu/tribal-law-journal/articles/volume_1/spruhan/content.php
-thanks for the truth, research, and I posted your ‘grifters’ article on my facebook page after someone posted a rediculous sentimental story about the Black Hills as seen through the eyes of Alex White Plume and Olawan Thunder Hawk Martinez, telling their story of woe to a white man photographer…
-needless to say I said some comments and immediately posted your blog and told everyone to read it… getting pushy in my old age…
Thanks for the repost Joan-by now you’ve probably been called a “sell out” etc in response-that seems to be the norm when expressing opinions based on a truth that cannot be denied.
After being steamrolled and pushed by AIM and the Peltierites for decades I’d say being “pushy” in return is a good thing- kind of serving notice, and seems to confuse them.
If so inclined feel free to link your fb or anything else you would here when commenting.
The victim card is played as frequently as the race card, and while neither can be denied, something more is required if the nations are to move forward-we can sit and bemoan our fate while holding a cup out in the hopes of catching some change tossed our way, or we can do the work to clean up our communities and become self reliant.
To do so may not be an easy task, but it is and will be a defining moment-every infant whether of our variety or of the fourlegged and winged ones goes through withdrawal and a measure of angst when
weaned, but it is an essential element of growth and a mother’s wisdom to see it is so.
The need to wean ourselves from governmental dependency must become THE priority-to do so will create a barrier to, and reverse the process of assimilation-a process made manifest in the decline of our
culture and traditions and having given rise to ones like the “liberators”.
Talking the talk is one thing-but walking the walk is what counts. Helping another or one’s community has a far greater significance than waving a banner, as does acknowledging and confronting ALL the issues rather than avoiding the ones that don’t reflect well.