THE SHADOWS THAT FOLLOW

SAND CREEK

Wounds-everyone has been wounded in some way either physically or emotionally during the course of their life -an inevitable part of the human experience.

What wounds one may heal in time and be overcome-while the same wound inflicted upon another may fester as a life long burden, a part of the shadow they cast that follows them everywhere they go.

In addition to individual wounds there are communal, tribal, national, and even global wounds that few if any can escape from.

As nations we inflicted wounds upon others long before they were in turn inflicted upon us with the arrival of the first foreign invaders and the age of steel set foot upon this hemispheres shores.

If theses wounds we inflicted can be remediated in any way all that can be said is that they were localized-they weren’t continental in nature, driven by a desire to own the width and the breadth of the land, or characterized “with the cross of Jesus going on before”.

As a people we were truly viewed in the context of the below refrain as being evil, demonic savages-something upright and bipedal perhaps but of a lesser humanity, much the same as blacks and other ethnicities have been portrayed.

At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

This song Onward Christian Soldiers I am quoting from goes on to say that the same path trod by “saints” is being trod, a united effort characterized by “charity”, and implores others to press “Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng”.

Charity and happiness-precious little of that to be found in the history that unfolded nor of circumstance that continues to this day.

Still, as a people we have a measure of our own happiness, practice charity in what remains of the tradition of tending to the needs of one another.

There is no greater gift than to help another in need, it is an effort to bind wounds, to soothe and heal.

If it is a physical wound, even an emotional one, the process can involve enduring a pain, brief in comparison to the time involved if left untreated, but necessary.

Some say it is better to ignore, to let that go, regardless of how deep a wound may run-that time heals all things -yet we have seen it does not, and is the reason we seek remediation in the courts to address them.

It is something of a military axiom to say never leave an enemy behind you- I say it applies to wounds as well, never leave them behind without first addressing them-if not they never heal. They become a part of the shadow that follows us through the course of our lives.

As a people we are inflicting wounds upon ourselves-the wounds of alcoholism, drug addiction, of spousal abuse, rape, commercializing ceremonies, and sadly, too often,  a dereliction of responsibilities to our children and communities.

We allow others to organize into gangs and so called movements to inflict their own brand of wounds upon us-some of them driven to prominence by a fawning media that is exempt from the bleeding, misery, and the enhanced spiritual decay and corruption of tradition suffering that ensues.

We can no more escape our shadow than we can the history and the present that is a part of ours, no matter how fast we run, unless we choose to live in darkness-a pallor that has been cast upon us for centuries.

We are children of the land who walk upright with the sun in our face and on our shoulders-the darkness that divides the day from night is essential, it is a time of rest, something natural not meant to contend with.

But there is another darkness that has haunted us these last few decades, an unnatural one-a darkness that inflicts wounds and comes in the night of lies like the proverbial thief-we can either leave that wound untended or seek to heal ourselves.

We have our own Manifest Destiny- and that is to be a free and sovereign people secure in our communities- free from oppression originating either internally or externally.

The treaties have been a lie- AIM and it’s leadership have been shown to be a lie- it’s time to heal those wounds and move on-time to rid ourselves of their shadow and feel the Sun on our face and the face of our children again.

A SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF THE LORD

Now I’m really rolling on the floor-I just saw on the Peltier Still Guilty site a “magician” Pastor has joined the fray-become a soldier in the army of Peltier and AIM.

Hey why not, truth is stranger than fiction as they say and Peltier and AIM have been attempting to pull a rabbit out of the hat and wool over peoples eyes for years-can’t help but  wonder if Pastor Timothy will be able to assist in that-look folks, nothing  up his sleeve.

Christian magic? Doesn’t that fly in the face of biblical admonitions against such things? Maybe not, but seems like I’ve read something to that effect.

The Magical Ministry Tour-kind of sounds like the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, and no doubt a play on words.

I think the good pastor would do better if he sticks to his ministry though- while he may be able to make some things disappear he can’t when it comes to the truth-and we still remember that it was his army that sought our complete subjugation.

A magician-a pastor, labeling those who call for truth and justice feds and stand around the forts. How’s that for irony? How’s that for some of that Agape love?

Perhaps the good pastor should read 2 CORINTHIANS 6:14 and reconsider the terms and associated cost of his enlistment.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXdidCFbp7k

LIMITS OF ENDURANCE

I think we’re all pretty much aware by now that for AIM, Graham, and the Peltierites nothing is about the truth, you could roll them in flour and fry them in a skillet with  it and they would still deny it’s existence.

A bizarre phenomena at the least, and a cruel cultivated conspiracy at the most where facts are anathema having  been replaced with ignorance and gullibility.

In the blog Crow Dog and the Grave Diggers Crow Dog’s own words as follows attest to the strategy and predictable ease to manipulate opinion and forgo any consideration of  facts and the obvious.

LCD: So what’s gonna’ happen is this. Somebody has to talk to these people.
CW: Which people?
LCD: The black people and those…
CW: The ones who are looking?
LCD: Yeah. Talk to them and calm ‘em down. While we get somebody to find them
and blame the Feds.

There has always been “somebody” to fabricate the lies  and dissemenate them,  there has always been and always
will be an audience eager to accept them.

Crow Dog and AIM know this, it is their bread and butter, an understanding that in the nations having been victims for centuries others will romanticize that to the degree that victims are incapable of victimizing other victims.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth-and the sad reality of it is that there is historical proof of it.

Proofs that exist in the murder of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are two examples-proofs that exist in victims after having been rounded up and confined to the stockyards known as the rez donned the blue coats of their captors to assist in the tracking and capture of others, to assist in “guarding” them, and even to loading them on rail calls to ship off to  other areas of confinement.

How is it in view of these things can any believe none have donned the blue coats of this modern age when culture and tradition have been weakened by assimilation?

How is that any would think the lure of celebrity, power, and wealth could not exist in this day and age?

Modern day oppressors victimizing and killing their own while posing as victims themselves, with a gullible audience aiding and abetting and blue coat websites promoting them.

For those so eager to free murderers on “technicalities” and lies they should be at least equally committed to  the truth and the pursuit of justice for those who have been murdered like Annie, Ray, and those countless others who lay in unmarked graves or suffered rape and any abuse at the hands of AIM. Maybe they just don’t see that as a romantic pursuit though, or a justice long overdue.

It isn’t as though we haven’t endured enough, it isn’t as though we deserve something better, so I’d like to personally take this opportunity to thank those delusional romantics of all races for their “good work” and “support” to elevate us as a people to better  things.

Your boot on our neck will surely facilitate that.

How To Speak The Truth

This was sent to me in a private message fresh from the pages of my mothers’ murderer. Normally I would not repeat the misinformation and fantasy that plagues that page but thought I would take the opportunity to use it to demonstrate how the truth gets twisted, manipulated, conveniently left out and forgotten in their attempts to victimize the guilty.

“ John was aquitted – found innocent – of murdering Anna Mae Aquash. The prosecution and accusers claimed he shot her in the head. Their theory was not proven in court because they had no evidence. Their entire case was the testimony of Arlo Looking Cloud (see in files info about Arlo and how he and the lead investigator’s wife framed John Graham) Their theory that AIM ordered her execution was not proven in court. Their theory of kidnapping was not proven in court. John is doing life without parole for a crime he did not commit. after the federal judge dismissed the charges they just handed him over to the state of south dakota who charged him with the murder of anna mae and they at the same time charged him with another murder count – kidnapping – and that charge would not be allowed today, if the murder happened today that charge would be deemed unconstitutional but because the murder happened in 75 it’s somehow not unconstitutional to charge him with that today. i believe the jury aquitted him because they heard no evidence against him and his lawyer brought out a lot during cross examination and then found him guilty at the same time because of the ‘why would he be here with law enforcement testifying against him if he did nothing wrong” in a nutshell he was charged with 2 counts and they aquitted on one -shooting her and convicted on the other – kidnapping that resulted in death. – all on the same evidence that showed neither happened.”

First of all Graham was NOT acquitted and found innocent of murdering Anna Mae Aquash. The FACTS…an acquittal is not a definition of innocence, it means the government did not prove their case to convict, it has no bearing on whether an individual is innocent or not. The TRUTH…. his federal case was dismissed TO BE TRIED at the federal court level because the prosecution had no jurisdiction to try his case in a federal court based on his native status. (We had not even gotten to the trial stage and no evidence was heard) His lawyer had found a loophole where a law written in the 1800s stated that only a native of 50% blood quantum could be tried by a federal court for murder. Since Canada uses a matrilineal lineage and location formula to determine native status the US federal government could not determine if Graham was native enough to stand trial in the federal court. He did however qualify to stand court at the State level. As non-Indians are tried at the State level, so he was tried as a non-Indian in State court. The only acquittal Graham received was that of a second charge of first degree murder or premeditated murder during his actual trial.

     John Graham was NOT FRAMED. The Facts… it was the testimony of over 23 eye witnesses ( many of them AIM members) that described and confirmed each and every step of the kidnapping, interrogation, beating and execution that convicted Graham, NOT just the words of Arlo Looking Cloud and Kamook Nicoles ’ the lead investigators wife”. There was plenty of evidence , as a matter of fact enough to conduct 4 trials, resulting in two convictions, one guilty plea and one acquittal ( in the case of Richard Marshall) http://www.jfamr.net/doc/ The TRUTH …When the evidence was first heard and put on record Kamook was not married to the lead investigator Robert Eccoffey. They did not get married till after Arlos trial in 2004 . So again to say “the wife of the lead investigator” sounds so much more sinister than to say she busted this case wide open 10 years before we even got to trial by speaking her truth. Kamook and Robert Eccoffey have known each other since grade school well before Kamook even knew or met Dennis Banks, and the fact that they reunited and fell in love during a trial that dealt with an era they had both lived and suffered emotionally from has more to do with a lifetime of kinship and commonality during a very stressful time than a sinister plan to put some nobody like John Graham in prison.

     The FACTS AIM as an organization was not formally charged in Grahams trial so to say that “the theory that they ordered her murder was not proven” is again a LIE. The TRUTH… IT was the sworn testimony of eye witnesses that confirmed AIM ordered her murder that Graham followed out. Unless Graham’s people are accusing the AIM leadership of being feds and infiltrators, then it would make sense to suggest the feds had a hand in her murder. The Author of the passage above also uses words like ”theory“ there was no “theory” of kidnapping. The TRUTH…Graham was charged with Kidnapping, and first degree murder. He was convicted of kidnapping felony murder and acquitted of the premeditated first degree murder charge because the jury could not determine WITH OUT A DOUBT that his intention from the beginning of the kidnapping was to shoot her. It does not mean he is innocent, it means the government could not prove their case in that charge. Kidnapping Felony murder means he kidnapped her and the events led to her death. In State court that has a mandatory life sentence without parole. Unfortunately Grahams Lawyer’s attempts to get his client off on a technicality in federal court led his client to more severe rulings in State court. In federal court he would have been eligible for parole in ten years.

   Maybe Graham will consider speaking the truth now and tell us who in the Aim leadership ordered him to murder my mother and save himself ? I find it interesting that Graham’s lawyers and supporters argue the constitutionality of his ruling for kidnapping when they used a centuries old law to protect their client from entering a federal courtroom . What is unconstitutional is that my mother had to wait 25 years to have any shred of justice for the lies that we now know as a fact the AIM leadership and at least a dozen others kept secret for over 25 years. Had the statute of limitations for rape not expired after 25 years I am sure Graham would have also been charged with that, but luckily for him time ran out.

    IF Graham is in any way innocent as his supporters want to fantasize and wish then surely he would have no problem sharing who was in that house in Rosebud where the orders were given to execute my mother. I am guessing that the AIM leadership and Peltiers public support of Graham is their calling card to CLAM UP or they will reveal his participation in acting on their orders in murdering my mother during their attempts to control the situation. Maybe Graham should confer with Leonard on how that deal has worked out for him? 35 years later…

In the Spirit of my mother,

~ Denise Pictou Maloney ~

ON THIS DAY

In the beginning we were made of the elements known to us- earth, wind, water, and fire, stone from the earth-we were a strong people, made tough and able to endure like stone. Our understanding grew  and we fashioned stones into sharp edged instruments to employ in our daily lives, to defend and to  hunt. We did this and found our place within the circle-we had no need of steel or the grief that  always accompanies it. The age of steel had not yet come to us, and when it did we would be decimated.

In stone there is an affinity, an animism we recognized-in steel there is none-it is cold, impersonal,  and above all indiscriminately deadly, belonging to a people completely unlike us, alien and different  in ways we could not begin to understand. We are trapped in this age of steel now and we may never be  the same again.

Our forward march was always in tune with the elements we were kindred to, a natural progression that  went with the flow rather than against it, and so all things remained in the original balance Creator  made.

The earth, the land, was the loving and beneficent mother whose breast we clung to and were nourished.  We respected her, listened to, and understood the things she spoke to us. We neither pillaged or raped  the land-we constructed no barriers, decimated the forests, befouled the air she exhaled for us to  breathe, or ravaged her body for monetary gain. We were brother and sister to all who shared her bounty.

Now in our separation we do as others do, those places we live show the same blight as the inner  cities-vacant abandoned buildings where the night crawlers gather,  broken down rusting cars and trucks,  refuse piled in proximity where we eat, sleep, and go about our lives with poorly clad children scrambling  about the monuments of decline in play,  and perhaps in search of some meaning.

It is not enough to accept and embrace the conditions the nations find themselves in, pride lost can be  pride regained. Unwilling tribal councils should be circumvented and vacant decaying buildings razed- a  tribal movement should begin to remove all this litter and the rusting monuments to the age of steel.

There is an undeniable responsibility that lays in accusation at the door of the oppressor, but likewise  there is one that lies at the door of the nations-it is one thing to be beaten down and live in squalor  without pride, it is another to be beaten down, live in squalor, and fight to retain some measure of pride.

It is fools errand to mark the days and wait for another to do something, it is a fools errand to mark the days and in an unwarranted act of reliance plead for the great black father to send a few blankets and trinkets to his distant children.

On this day while others gather at their tables to feast and give thanks for the destruction of the land, for a history fraught with betrayal, death, conquest, and greed, pause for a moment and remember who you are, where you came from, and more importantly where it is you would go-for now we have become like orphans, separated from the mother and not able to hear her voice as we once did-no longer nourished and suffering the loss for it. Casting about looking for direction, for the way home-failing to recognize that the mother dwells within us as is the way of all mothers, and in looking inward to find her we will find ourselves as

TO LET THAT GO

At times in the past I have posted a blog centered around a comment I have received, that is the nature of this one.

Below are a couple of comments I received yesterday and this morning in the Philip Nolan blog-they are well written and non confrontational, polite even, something not always the case.

After thinking about it a couple of things stand out to me I want to comment about-one “being whether or not his lineage is true”.

If it exists in the OST records it no doubt exists in other places, and were it not true for a man who went to great links to identify himself not only as Lakota, but as the “chief facilitator” for a non existent republic he claimed to have created for them, then the only reason I can think of for not  addressing it would have been to avoid being outed.

To say that no one is perfect is accurate, but to ignore that there are degrees of imperfection and wanton imperfection as a quasi defense is singularly without merit.

I say wanton in the context of willful, knowing the right or wrong of a thing and doing it anyway. It is something sociopaths are noted for-placing themselves and what they want above all other considerations. Though some would argue sociopaths haven’t the same understanding of right and wrong that others do- that they are without a conscience.

As you can see I was advised to “nit pick” about whatever I wanted, but I for one don’t consider addressing the issues this blog has as nit picking, nor do I consider it to be throwing stones- if it is then at least it hasn’t been bullets or fire bombs and I’ve left no bodies in my wake-but then I suppose I’m nit picking again.

Doing what a person thinks is right as some sort of qualification is a hollow attempt at best to qualify what cannot be qualified- I think rapists must think what they are doing is right, murderers must as well.

If a person cheats to gain an advantage they must also think it is right to do so, as must liars and thieves-but the consensus is that they are not. And that is what defines the individual.

Russell Means defined himself, just as we all do in the choices he made and the things he did, I can’t think of anything that changes that.

db
Submitted on 2012/11/19 at 9:36 pm

Whether or not his lineage is true, or whatever backbiting happens in the community, you have to let that go. No person is perfect. Russell Means was a famous face that could bring attention to the plight of all peoples. It doesn’t really matter what his bloodwork says, or what some documents say, or what other people say about the human behind the concepts. He was a positive influence as much as he was a negative influence. Nit pick about whatever you want, but Russell did what he thought was right, and he preached a lot of great things. Again, not perfect, but I ask that you not throw stones. I doubt you are perfect either.

Rezinate
db-not being perfect myself and never having expected it of anyone, I’ve attempted to live my life with a measure of integrity and principles- I  don’t think that is too much to expect of someone who attempts to portray themselves as a leader or “patriot”.

AIM’s desire has always been for people “to let that go”-to let go and forget the rampage at WK2, the murders of Annie Mae, Ray Robinson, and countless others-all which occurred as they were doing what they thought was “right”.

These things are never right under any pretext-and when what remains of the AIM leadership lets go of the lies and accepts responsibility for their actions, then, and only then, will I let go of what you so cavalierly refer to as nitpicking.

Russell Means was an unrepentant liar and con artist-if you are able to find a “lot of good things in that” it is your choice to do so, but I beg to differ.

db    
Submitted on 2012/11/20 at 1:43 pm | In reply to rezinate.

That is not to say that you have to forgive or forget what has happened in the past, buy it is best to accept it for what it is. There is no changing what happened in any of the circumstances you mention. How does AIM move forward is the real question. Letting go of that past to not let it cloud the present, and working constructively toward a brighter future.

As for Russell, he may have lied, he may have used certain things to his own personal advantage, but name me a leader who has not.

Rezinate
AIM moves forward by becoming a real peoples movement for the first time in it’s four plus decades history. Progress is made by addressing issues, not attempting to bury them as they did at WK2, or taking an abducted woman to a remote area and shooting her in the back of the head after first interrogating and abusing her.

A peoples movement that recognizes and empowers the individual, a movement that seeks direction either by consensus or majority and not by the  arbitrary decisions of a select few sitting at the top.

A novel concept for AIM and it’s leadership, but long past due.

It moves forward by a leadership whose hallmark is truthfulness and integrity, not self enrichment or the pursuit of power and celebrity. Something not a one of the leadership is known for.

If it is merely a matter or forgiving and forgetting then we should all set aside the injustices of the past-we should forgive and forget about the inequities of treaties and the violation of them.

We shouldn’t rail about the rape of our women at the hands of non indigenous while making excuses for such things if the perpetrater is one of our own.

But if we were to do that there would be no forward movement, no bright future, much the same as there will be none until AIM is held accountable.

In the “to accept it for what it is” nothing is remediated, wounds aren’t healed, and the justice graves cry out for is not obtained. It amounts to a free pass, and in a very real sense a license to kill, a continuation of pimping the poverty and misery of the nations.

My understanding of forgiveness is that it is interactive-admissions are made, an act of contrition occurs in doing so, and an understanding that the offense will not be repeated.

AIM and it’s leadership have never done so-they instead have fabricated lie upon lie, never accepted responsibility for anything, and continue in the same vein as they always have.

None of the leadership is worthy of forgiving and forgetting-they are not representative of either the nations or tradition, and have become indistinguishable from the greed and corruption so characteristic of the very system they claim to stand in opposition of.

Accepting this is far from being the “best” choice-it is surrender, an admission of defeat, another bogus treaty made with self serving oppressors.

EXTINCTION

Dear Warriors, your women are dying. Men are beating them, kicking them, shoving guns in their mouths, killing them and dumping their bodies on the side of the road.

Dear Warriors, your children are dying. Watching their mothers get beaten and killed and suffering the same abuse themselves is hopeless and they are killing themselves with alcohol and drugs.

 Dear Warriors, you are dying, each and every time you ignore this travesty and numb yourself with lies, blaming others and superficial causes.

 Dear Warriors, your ancestors died knowing you hold the ability to bring about change.

Dear Warriors, wake up! The women soon will no longer need you and can become their own warriors.

The above from the Justice for Annie Mae Pictou Aquash Warrior Woman fb page as posted by Emma Rosenthal
https://www.facebook.com/AnnieMaePictouAquash

Species extinction occurs as an independent natural process, but it can also be influenced by a number of circumstances.

It is estimated that 27,000 to 30,000 species go extinct annually, and that by the year 2022  an estimated 22% to of 30% all species will be extinct if something isn’t done to reverse the trend.

When speaking of extinction we tend to think of animals, birds, fish, and insects, but there is another extinction that looms over the nations-that of the loss of tradition and cultural identity.

In the natural non human world extinction is fueled primarily by such things as loss of habitat, predation, and pollution, each in their own  way can even lead to genetic mutations. And it’s beginning to appear as though the same could be happening in the nations.

Alcohol, drugs, stress, poverty, and diet can produce not only deformities but over time genetic and behavioral variances.

Assimilation can also rightfully be said to be an engine of extinction, as it too changes habitat on a cultural level and produces a unique pollution of it own, such as those mentioned above.

This loss of cultural resources among the nations in my opinion can be directly linked to the influences cited above, but also to AIM as it exists today as a result of the direction leadership chose to take it.

One of the tools of the reservation system was an attempt to introduce the concept that every man was a chief and to instill the principles of a patriarchal system of male dominance- and as we see chiefs and patriarchy abound.

Despite all the for the net consumption not all the nations have a history of matriarchy, and of those that did many abandoned it.

What we see now in being promoted as tradition is an aberration-an aberration where those who are unqualified proclaim themselves to be chiefs, leaders, and even warriors. And they are a vehicle that are leading us to  cultural extinction.

A fellow blogger, once made a statement that a great sadness exists in children thinking the grocery store is the farm, it is where food is produced-but a greater sadness is that even so much as a single child of ours would think what AIM and it’s leadership produce is the wellspring of our culture- or that men who drink and abuse, who father children and leave them and their mothers to fend for themselves, that gangs, rape, and male dominance are the characteristics of warriors.

It may be too late to reverse the global trends of resource and habitat destruction but it isn’t too late to reverse those of a looming cultural extinction the nations face-but it will require something more than talk of native pride, more than talk of loving the land the people compose, of going to ceremony and pow wow, of talk of being a warrior-it will take men and women embracing a standard and adhering to it.

There isn’t a rez or a city near one where you will not find drunken men staggering around, and drunken women offering themselves up-neither can claim any high ground, nor can they make a meaningful claim of cultural identity, each needs to take personal responsibility for their actions.

Government policy, the invasion, Manifest Destiny, the wars, and the reservation system were all predicated on a core principle that sought extinction for warriors- what is happening today is the continuation of that process from within.

I had come to believe that in the passing of the AIM leadership a window of opportunity would open for the nations to reclaim their heritage, and to a degree I still think such an opportunity will present itself.

But with a growing awareness of those grooming themselves to fill the void, and the mutations they have adopted, I think the task will be made more difficult.

KEYS TO SURVIVAL

                                                                                               (photo by Ansel Adams)

“take away the winged and nothing will survive, take away all the bugs and things that crawl and nothing will survive, take away all the green in the world and nothing will survive, take away the four legged and nothing will survive. But take away the Human Being and EVERYTHING will flourish” -Russell Means

Russell, like all politicians, was a great one for taking something and adding a dash or two attempting to make it original wisdom.
Following in that vein I will say:

Take away murder and Annie Mae Aquash and Ray Robinson would have survived, take away the rape and abuse of our women and children and they will emotionally survive, take away all the green in the AIM world, as in ill gotten gain, and AIM would not survive, take away the lies and deceit of AIM leadership and it will not survive. But take away Means, Banks, Bellecourt, Crow Dog, and their wannabe replacements standing in the wings, and the NATIONS will flourish.

Ansel Adams whose photographs have achieved legendary status once said:

“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”

For the nations it has been equally horrifying that we have to fight our own to save our traditions and culture, a proof as E.O. Wilson once said that “People would rather believe than know.”
For without this misplaced belief in the frauds and criminals who have walked, and still walk among us, these customs would not be the battered and bruised remnants they are today.

Wanting to believe rather than to know isn’t much of an excuse.

HONOR AND DISHONOR

” HOW CAN YOU HONOR SOMETHING THAT HAS NO HONOR”

I saw this comment made in response to the above photo on the Leonard Peltier Still Guilty site- it of course is made in reference to the flag Russell is posing in, and a fair enough question if it represents the poster’s opinion.

But I would ask another-HOW DO YOU HONOR A MAN WHO HAD NO HONOR ?

A man that lied, scammed, hustled, and promoted his way through life.

A man who when push came to shove following his assault on his then eighty year old father in law and the Dine attempted to exercise their sovereign right to hold him accountable immediately launched into his now infamous Chinle defense where he made  every effort to kick sovereignty not only for the Dine, but for all the nations under the bus to save his own singularly sorry ass.

Has everyone forgotten that’s what the nations have been fighting for for over five centuries? Have they forgotten the  body count- the reservation system, the boarding schools? Have they forgotten our children had their heads bashed in, our women raped and gutted even if pregnant-their breasts made into tobacco pouches?

Would they say now that in the past when reservations agents enriched themselves at our expense it is somehow different if Means, Banks, and their cronies have done likewise? Is this what the last real Indians is about?

The better question is what has become of the last real Indians-where are they to be found? On the net pushing their wares or promoting themselves and their sites? Or showing up at rallies for an appearance fee? Are they the ones who have the “foundations”always dunning people for a donation for some “project”?

Are they the ones who obstruct and deny justice and closure for victims and their survivors-the same one’s who call anyone seeking those things feds, rats, and whatever other lies they can spew off their  last real Indian tongues?

Are they the same ones who don’t have a damn word to say about the reality of rape and abuses  our women and children face?

If so what does that make them-merely “controversial”?

How do you honor a man who says he knew who was responsible for the murder of Annie Mae but had  given his “word” not to tell-choosing instead to prolong  the grief of her children and family?

How do you honor a man who not only assisted in leading the assault on WK2 that ransacked, murdered, pillaged, and  looted,the homes, businesses, and lives, of indigenous people, and  then lied and boasted about it for decades? One cannot say his people because he was not Lakota.

How do you honor a man who was the equivalent of a Mafia Don in a criminal organization?

I know how it is done-by refusing to address the  realities and instead say Russell was a “controversial figure” and leaving it at that.

But then genocide regardless of whose hands it is at is always “controversial” isn’t it?  As are all the other crimes he and cohorts are guilty of.

I don’t much care about a lot of codes, like Manifest Destiny, and treaties that can be said to be “codes”, and I haven’t forgotten that the code of this flag represented death and destruction for our people just the same as AIM’s flag has-and I sure as hell don’t care about the code of Me-ism Russell lived his  life by.

A personal code that commodified the misery, history, and poverty of indigenous people.

You cannot honor such a person-you can only honor the truth by speaking it. Something these last real Indians can’t seem to bring themselves to do.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Truth_about_story_of_Annie_mae_Pictou_Aquash_and_Wounded_Knee_1975_event_and_all_victims_of_that_event/

FLAGS OF SHAME

 

“THERE IS NO FLAG LARGE ENOUGH TO COVER THE SHAME OF KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE”.
 HOWARD ZINN

I’ve come to like Howard Zinn, the historian and social commentator, he neither minces words or is beguiled by politicians.

He has said “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” And yet the reality is untold numbers of innocents have been killed across the width and breadth of this planet we call Earth. Something we as a people know well.

It is always “patriotism” that unfurls the flags of war, at times it may be unavoidable and could rightfully be called patriotic when done so in defense of the homeland.

More often than not though I think wars are waged for mercenary geopolitical reasons and cloaked under a flag of patriotism- but it is as Zinn has said, no flag covers the shame, or the sin, or killing innocents.

AIM made the same claim of a patriotic war when they invaded Wound Knee under their flag of shame, but there as elsewhere innocents were slain, willfully slain, and their blood and the shame of it rests solely upon the hands of AIM.

Solely upon the hands of a leadership composed of Russell Means, Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, and Leonard Crow Dog.

AIM cannot even assert that as an army the collateral damage was to be expected and therefore “acceptable”, for they were anything but an army. I have no doubt a few among them actually believed their’s was a just cause, but the reality of the murders and pillaging that ensued cannot be justified then or now.

There is a natural law often ignored that speaks in protest and defiance of such things-a natural law that once was a core element of our beliefs, a part of the balance the nations strove to live in and maintain.

Our failing to observe this natural law has come with a heavy price, a price that has yet to be extracted in full measure.

Show me a man who observes this balance, who follows this natural order of things and I will show you a man worthy of listening to and following- a trait sorely and visibly lacking in the AIM leadership whose greatest love isn’t their people, but the sound of their own voice, with money running a close second.

No recompense has been forthcoming for the blood of these innocents,or the damage done, no admission, no apology-only denials and self aggrandizing tales of would be warriors.

I would say the colors on this AIM flag of shame are appropriate, red for the blood spilled, white for the innocence of those slain, yellow for the cowardice of leadership, and black for the color of their hearts and intentions.

Colors they took from something noble and soiled with their own hands, much the same as they have done with everything else they’ve touched.

“YOU HAVE LEARNED SOMETHING.”

“You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.” H.G. Wells

I think to some degree that is at the root of the resistance AIM supporters and the Peltierites exhibit in refusing to accept anything that contradicts their opinions-a fear of losing something.

Perhaps a fear of admitting that they have been duped and will appear foolish in having been, perhaps they have self identified to such a degree as a Peltier or AIM supporter they feel they themselves are threatened by the truth, and surely for those higher up in being exposed as liars- if such is the case then it speaks more to ego than a quest for the truth, and I would think a shallow, stagnant well to draw from.

It may rightfully be said that in learning a type of loss is incurred, perhaps even an innocence, but difficult for any to argue that the truth hasn’t a greater value  and benefit than lies or misconceptions-even more so when the misconceptions based upon lies are the result of what has been a crafted and a well organized manipulation spanning decades.

There is an adage that the truth will set you free, and it can do exactly that, but it also can come with a cost as Peltier can attest to, and AIM is beginning to understand all too well as they increase their efforts to staunch the flow of it.

If the truth wounds it is a wound that will heal in time, the same cannot be said for the wounds inflicted by lies-they always remain, if not as a bleeding reality then as emotional scars.

AIM has become this generations Norma Desmond-aging, lacking whatever meaningful relevance they might once have had or believe they did.

Fading stars whose waning popularity  no amount of cosmetics can obscure,  and who now find themselves watching videos of what they consider  to be the highlights of their careers while they furiously write new scripts to appear in and attempt to market.

Truth comes either with a sword or a caress, but always makes it’s presence known-whether it comes as friend or foe will be determined by who a person is and what they stand for.

It is the sword of Damocles hanging over the head  of AIM and Peltier, and finally in this time of learning things they  have no place to run, no place to hide.