A SIMPLE TOOL AND A FLAME REDUX

Posted by rezinate on July 11, 2011

I’ve been rolling a little stone around in my hand, a gift that was given to me and represents a lesson taken to heart. It is was given to me by an aged woman of the nations I have known
since childhood.

She is a as kind and gentle a person as you would ever meet, but has a great strength about her as well and a real sense of humor-she isn’t sure  of her exact age and it is of little importance to her as she has lived a life based not on calendars but on events and experience.

The present state of decline and acculturation dismays her no end, but despair is not a part of her character-and hope is a wellspring that flows eternal from her.

We’ve spoken on occasion about AIM, and the “liberators”-she holds them and the organization in low esteem, electing to say it, and they, are all lacking in substance, and in many ways like loud children without respect who only want to be seen, heard, and eat well-to have more than those around them.

Perception and a keen sense of right and wrong are attributes of hers-she has no romantic illusions or is fooled by any, as are the non indigenous, who buy into the we came, we saw, we liberated-when the reality is they came, they saw, fell all over each other for the media spotlight, and in turn employed it to launch careers and propel themselves into a higher income bracket.

Truths have begun to emerge, and I see now a greater awareness and acknowledgement of them beginning to take hold, an understanding that too many of the problems exist within the communities and the prevailing attitudes. We as individuals, as a people, need to learn, to remember if you will, that we do not need treaties, self labeled liberators, or the wealthy among us to determine our future-we need only ourselves, each other, and the will to do so.

All this while liberators sit in their personal comfort like Jaba the Hutt.  Loath to acknowledge or address topics raised, content to spin their version of reality and say look at me.

Like used car salesmen replete in the obligatory K-martesque attire, jingling change in their pocket and assuring one and the all the wreck they are attempting to sell is a real beauty-when the reality is you will need to bring a friend to help you tow it home.

It has been my great good fortune to know people such as this fine woman, and others who live tradition rather than talk it. They have, and continue to plant seeds that in turn will be planted elsewhere.

They have been instrumental in making me more than I probably would have been in their absence, and I will not forget that, or the gift of a little gray stone.

She has said it is important to learn the white ways, their words and knowledge-not to live them, but to know them, the better to equip the people-that what once was will never be exactly the same again and it is a matter of survival and preservation.

If not we will always stand in line waiting for a piece of bread and have others tell us what to do and how we will live. That there is a power in knowing these things if turned to our advantage-and a growing weakness if we do not and choose instead to accept the words of liberators as tradition and for our benefit.

I remember going for a walk with her once and she picked up this  small stone and gave it to me asking me what impressed me most about it-I told her that it had the feel of strength about it -and she said yes and because of that many good things could be made from stones-a tool, shelter, something to hunt with and provide food or protection, that when it came to the nations we should be like the stone with it’s many good qualities, and remember we were meant to endure, to always be a part of the land much the same as the stone is.

That men and women in their coming together should be like flint and stone that in contact become more, a compliment one to the other and capable of producing a spark that leads to a flame- a flame, an example,  to guide and insure the well being of the nations.

Simple words, but profound in the truth they speak-and I have yet to read or hear anything of comparable value emanate from liberators. I carry that little stone in my pocket at all times and sometimes find myself rolling it around in my hand like a marble and remembering we were meant to have strength and endure-to make good tools of ourselves for our loved ones and the people.

A concept the ” liberators” have never understood-but one I believe  Annie Mae did.

STANDING ON SACRED GROUND REDUX

STANDING ON SACRED GROUND
Posted by rezinate on June 4, 2011

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/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.

SNITCHES, RATS, MOLES, AND WHISTLE BLOWERS REDUX

Posted by rezinate on July 14, 2011

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/snitches-rats-moles-and-whistleblowers/

I just watched the latest video offered on the Annie fb page and would commend Paul DeMain for having said what should be understood by one and all-not verbatim as cited below but close enough to make the point.

“Silence is killing our children we need snitches who say there is a crack house here that is killing our children-my uncle is raping his niece.”

By the Liberators own definition and liberal application of the word snitch, one would have to say Russell Mean’s melodramatic, with perfectly timed breaking up of his voice finger pointing at Vernon during the Branscombe news conference serves to qualify him as one.

I don’t exactly view his participation as a public service, more one of an abortive attempt at damage control. The reality was that Branscombe was on the trail and the press conference would have taken place at some point with or without Mean’s and his homeboy Churchill, didn’t leave a lot of options.

The problem with the AIM leadership of that era is they actually believed their own lies and propaganda-it is a part of the pathology. They thought they were invincible, that the tide of misguided public opinion would insulate them, and the intimidation they had long practiced would suffice.

In essence the original Wall Street Corporations and Banks too big to fail-recipients of their own stimulus packages in the form of government grants, pay offs, and well meaning, if not coerced donations.

Now, as is the case with the present day thugs who have milked the stimulus cash cow and being seen for what they are, so too are the liberators. The question is who will be the poster boy ala Madoff? Will it be any of the top CEO’s, or will they attempt to toss a subordinate under the bus? Tricky situation and a dangerous game to play.

But then there’s the unsettling suspicion that is gaining momentum-that of is there, has there, been an ultimate insider all these many years?

That in the aftermath of the Jumping Bull event and the all out ramped up effort by the feds to pursue and capture the shooters was a deal struck in the liberator hierarchy to give up Peltier for personal immunity? Something LPDOC might consider taking a look at.

There are those who say a growing number of clues can be found that point in that direction-if it is true what a buffoon and tool Peltier has been, but he is so caught up in the myth that has been created for him that it would be a near impossibility for him to confront or even to consider such a thing.

I view this as an hypothesis that increasingly has the feel of merit- much of what has defied explanation begins to make sense when as pieces of the puzzle find their place a coherent picture begins to emerge. It is as I say a hypothesis, but one worth looking at, and perhaps time will tell.

This identical myth building is underway regarding John Graham-of course such things as chasing the wind and living a sundance life have already been taken by Peltier, in lieu of that this low level gopher, this hanger on, is cast in the roll of an activist and “land warrior”-in time with this crafted resume he will be referred to as founder and high ranking AIM leader just as the other low level subordinate Peltier has been. It is the established formula.

When Graham starts selling second rate art work and tomes of fiction we will know the makeover is in full swing.

Will people buy into it? Of course they will, too many love them some conspiracy, too many walk around in a self induced coma, too many are armchair activists who are capable of little more than than being a sponge that soaks up the party line.

There are people who champion Charles Manson, skinheads who do likewise of Hitler-should any be surprised that there are those who would champion Peltier, Graham, and the wannabe chiefs?

Surprised? I can’t see why-angered and disappointed yes-but we are adults and know these things exist-too many view themselves as, and want to be “rebels”, convincing themselves that allegiance to fairy tales and the ogres that populate them makes it so.

It’s been a while since I’ve browsed any of the many works of fiction regarding Annie Mae that have been breathlessly authored and advanced as the result of what we are told is a devotion to truth and the pursuit of justice, an unbiased and exhaustive devotional effort, that in effect does nothing more than to further muddy the water and assist those who have something to hide.

These “books” are almost singularly dependent on information selectively taken out of context by organizations such as LPDOC, Free John Graham, interviews with the accused (never with the accuser), their misguided supporters, and of the mighty “liberators” of oppressed people.

Facts are of secondary importance, and then only if they can be co opted, distorted , or spun. This is yellow journalism of the most obvious sort,-and a literary or journalistic effort that is both commercially and agenda driven.

In a very crude analogy it is the selling of bones, much as those of the buffalo were, or those of the Elephant Man-a public display of remains for profit, and maybe a little of that fifteen minutes based on the words of drive-by basketball players too cowardly to put in an appearance, and remnants of the pie patrol or those who wish they had of been and must content themselves to braid the hair of their heroes if not literally, then literarily.

In the wake of such transparent bias it doesn’t matter that one such as Thelma Rios confesses to her role in the abduction and murder of Annie Mae-I’ve seen numerous “explanations” why she did so-none of them willing to cede that she actually was involved or finally told the truth. No it has to be something else, anything else, for to admit the truth of what amounts to a deathbed statement from a dying woman is inconceivable and clearly illustrates that the works of fiction promoted as truth are exactly that-fiction, not even worthy of being viewed as indulging in creative or literary license.

It doesn’t matter that juries render a verdict, that literally dozens of witnesses testify-that more questions are asked, and silence, a refusal to respond is the rule of thumb. No, what this about is a conspiracy to destroy a morally and spiritually bankrupt organization that created absolute havoc in it’s wake and made untold millions in the process.

An organization and it’s leadership who believed that their “vision”, their sense of entitlement superceded all other considerations as they enriched themselves, divided up territory, and the spoils of the proclaimed war they initiated.

A war that included off shore accounts, firebombings of newspapers that dared to label them for what they were, drunken revelry at ceremonies, phoned in death threats, using and dealing drugs, the destruction of WK2, the incessant collection of donations that never were accounted for, the formation of untold charitable foundations and defense funds that have little to show for the money or time invested, rape and murder-all a blue print, a clone, of liberators who for centuries in every nation spanning the globe acted in the same manner, followed the same course.

These authors, journalists, and supporters have invested too much of themselves, too much of what is referred to as personal integrity too even consider, much less admit they have been in error. That they in point of fact either knowingly or unwittingly have perpetuated injustice while claiming to serve it and making a few bucks in the process.

To admit to having been used and made a fool of is a difficult thing-I know, having once been a knee jerk Peltier supporter-but in the end it is a human being that finds a greater value in moving on to the truth and accepting they were foolish.

It is a human being who looks openly at the overall picture and says the liberators say this and yet have done that, finds the discrepancies, and asks why rather than ignore them, make excuses, or contrive tales of conspiracy.

The feds had moles in AIM-what is that, an anomaly? Proof of a sinister conspiracy to break the nations? They’ve had them in the Mafia and nearly any organized crime syndicate you can think of-I don’t hear anyone complaining about that or labeling it a conspiracy. I don’t hear anyone complaining about it when fraud and embezzlement are exposed in charities or foundations, or in Wall Street, the Banking industry, or huge Corporations. I don’t see anyone complaining when street gangs that terrorize their communities are taken down. I hear no one complain when whistle blowers expose corruption or unsafe conditions in the workplace.

People see a drunk driver weaving on the highway and phone it in-a party in their neighborhood gets out of hand and they phone in it. They see a billboard alert of a missing child and thinking they may have seen the child or have some information and phone it in. They see some suspicious activity and phone in it -what are they, snitches, or someone concerned with the public welfare and possibly their own safety or that of loved one?

I’m not advocating for a big brother society, which this country is rapidly becoming, only common sense and asking oneself what they would do in a similar situation? To ask them self what is more important, to assist and protect a victim, the survivors, or to aid and abet the perpetrator(s) in a coverup and escaping accountability?

Abduction, rape, murder, theft, fraud, drug dealing are all crimes-if you don’t think so ask Banks who has decried the theft of his pots, demanded action, and offered a reward. That’s pots-not rape and murder, all should ask them self if the theft of pots is more heinous, more criminal, than crimes of violence?

One should wonder if in view of Bank’s uncanny ability to identify the remains of Annie Mae weeks before anyone else could if he might not be better suited to wrap a turban around his head, get a crystal ball, and set up a fortune telling stand at a flea market? Surely he’s missing his calling.

All should ask themselves if one can be this vocal, this adamant about a theft, why not at least equally so about those in unmarked graves at WK2 or the murder of Annie Mae? One should ask them self if a truth has ever been spoken by liberators-if it ever will be?

This excuse making and willingness to ignore is relied upon, it is part of the manipulation and a proven tool. It’s all about choice-that “free to be responsible” thing we hear so much about.

The us against them attitude is understandable, predictable, and certainly justified by centuries of injustice and oppression-what needs to be recognized and acted upon now though is who “them” are, rather than being led by tricksters and Judas goats.

In the end it is about an organization and a leadership that refused to police itself-to set a standard of integrity and practice an actual dedication to service on a people first basis. It is about greed and gluttony, malice, avarice, and mayhem, death and dying, and perhaps more than anything else name recognition and celebrity.

I find that I have arrived at a point where all I can say about this is F*** every damn lying one of them, and make no apology for doing so.

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Kind of funny that in a conversation several months back I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Chase Iron Eyes being an attorney would interject himself  into John Graham’s case.

Sure enough that’s exactly what has happened – and again it doesn’t surprise me due to Last Real Indians hands off approach when it comes to anything that doesn’t pander to AIM.

CIE isn’t Clarence Darrow or F. Lee Bailey, that translates in my opinion to Graham will rightfully remain where he is, but it is also an opportunity to garner a little more attention and perhaps post more selfies.

I don’t know how a claim can be advanced that a persons focus is all about our youth and yet ignore the corrupting influence AIM has been, to ignore the murders of Annie Mae  Pictou Aquash, Perry Ray Robinson Jr, and several others.

I don’t believe that’s what “last real Indians” are about, if it is then I’ll be opting out and anyone can call me whatever they like – but at least I will have remained true to the blood of our ancestors that blankets this entire hemisphere.

WHAT ARE YOU MEN WILLING TO DIE FOR ?

“What are you men willing to die for?”
Posted by rezinate on March 9, 2011

I received the below in an email and wanted to share it also-the internet is rife with excuses for the issues addressed in this story-and that’s all they are-excuses. Warriors don’t wilt under pressure-they don’t run off and get drunk, do drugs, or abuse women and children- they fight what is wrong, protect, and provide. This title warrior was an earned one-now it has become a form of freeware for any to download and apply to themselves.

“Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend the Ontario Native Men’s Wellness Conference in Toronto. Each morning began with individual clan meetings to start the day.
My clan meeting was led by a Grandfather from the Wintu Tribe in California. One morning he shared this story. I loved it so much that I asked if I could keep it and share it, and he said yes. With gratitude I share it now, it is a story from the Wintu People.

The Wintu are also known as the Eagle People. Their Ancestral lands include the slopes and high peaks of Mt. Shasta. Each year the adults gather on the mountain for a meeting. After the ceremony has been finished on the first day, they divide up and the men go one way, thewomen remain at the firepit. While they are in their  meetings they talk about the issues of the Tribe. At the end of the day’s meetings the women will sing a song, and the men return and join them at the fire. Together they discuss their concerns.

The reason they are known as the Eagle People is because of the many, many eagles who nest on the rocky crags of Mt. Shasta. Eagles mate for life, the female’s choice, and here in the land of the Wintu the female eagle has a test that she uses to pick her life companion.

She will fly down to the valley floor, sometimes as much as a half mile below, and pick up the largest log of wood that she can carry in her talons. Flying back up into the sky she drops the log, and as it hurtles down toward the valley floor she screams….her shrill cries echo outward and down into the canyon.

Young male eagles, just entering their prime, hear her cries and come racing toward the hurtling log. They hit at it with their sharp talons as it falls, until one catches it and carries it upward where she waits on a narrow ledge, and drops it at her feet. She repeats this several times, watching to see who catches it most often and returns it again to her. This is the mate she chooses; the one she will never leave.

She and her mate build their nest together on the same ledge she has chosen for the test. Time passes, and soon there are eggs. One by one the eggs hatch, and the little eaglets become the responsibility of both parents. One day, a little eaglet decides that its time to leave his nest. There is no test drive, no practice run on the narrow ledge, and whether his tail feathers or wing feathers are strong or not – he leaps…. And if he isn’t mature enough he loses his balance and like the log, hurtles downward toward the valley floor hundreds or even thousands of feet below……and his mother screams.

The father Eagle hears her cries and remembers them from before. He races toward the hurtling eaglet and catching it in his talons, returns it to their nest.

Earlier in the same summer of this Toronto Gathering the Tribe had gathered for their annual meeting on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. When the women’s song called the men back to the fire, the Headwoman, a Grandmother, stepped into the light.

“What are you men willing to die for?” she asked as she faced them across the fire. “We see you dying for drugs, and alcohol, and all manner of violence, or throwing your lives away behind prison bars.
Our children are falling, they are crashing against the rocks…..the women scream for you now…..will you come?”

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/what-are-you-men-willing-to-die-for/

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A good day to die has become something of a cliche following the all too frequent and free handed use of such words to adorn book titles and romanticize rhetoric by those who would also make a cliche of our traditions and ceremonies in marketing them.

Everyday isn’t a good to die, it depends on the circumstances.

One could hardly say it would be a good day to die if they fell off a ladder and broke their neck, or stumbled into the street in a drunken stupor and were run over.

Dying isn’t required to address a great many of the issues the nations face – what is required is sense of responsibility, a desire for things to be better, and a true native pride.

What it requires is to live our lives as something more than an internet video – to forgo the expectations that come with that and instead look to the expectations of our own – our women,  children, elders, and communities….those are worth dying for, not drugs or alcohol.

MAD DOG REDUX

MAD DOG
Posted by rezinate on March 30, 2011

A few years ago while walking down a street in Minneapolis I saw a poster depicting an angry poodle with a Mohawk-it was a funny enough that it made an impression on me and every once in a while I will think of it and laugh.

The other day in a blog I mentioned that Annie’s supporters were not poodles or lap dogs, but rez dogs who weren’t going to let go-kind of got me thinking about that poodle with a Mohawk and I had a mental image of a rez dog mad as hell and looking to kick some ass and take names-one fed up with all the celebrity books and ruminations.

Not being able to draw, and envious of those with a such a talent, I explained the idea to one who is known to us as sister who is very accomplished in the arts and asked if she could breathe life into it, and as you can see in the attached drawing she did exactly that.

I had more or less entitled it Rez Dog-mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, but another involved in the fight for justice and closure for Annie Mae suggested Mad Dog with a good AIM-and so it is.

Mad Dog or Rez Dog-he’s had enough and expressing an opinion held by a growing number.
We have an idea to market it through CafePress as a poster, t-shirt, or something of that nature with all proceeds going to indigenous causes.

Anyone who would care to is welcome to post such a cause or if they too have a talent might consider doing something similar, maybe even an Ebook if they have a literary talent-it’s more than about the amount, it’s about doing what one can.

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/mad-dog/

 

The CafePress idea never came to fruition after looking at their fee. I know someone who went that way and they made something like twenty cents on a cup or shirt, not sure which.

The poodle poster mentioned can be found by typing in Poodle With a Mohawk in your search window. The initials JFAM on the dog tag stands for Justice for Annie Mae.

JOHNNY MOORE – ANOTHER VICTIM ? REDUX

JOHNNY MOORE-ANOTHER VICTIM ?
Posted by rezinate on November 15, 2011

Keeping an accurate count is at best challenging, and the true numbers may never be known. The most familiar AIM victims have been Annie Mae Pictou Aquash and Perry Ray Robinson, but a strong case can be made that 20 year old Johhny Moore, a Penobscot, found dead in a Nebraska AIM house can be added to the list.

The original official report listed the cause of Moore’s death as suicide, and the story was floated that he had become despondent. But this story was disputed by individuals who knew and had access to him.

The cloying scent of foul play that has clung to Moore’s death has resulted from the fact that he was under supoena to testify against Stanley Neptune-a fellow AIM member.

The investigation into Moore’s death was originally conducted by the Lincoln, Nebraska police department who listed it as a probable suicide, and it wasn’t until years later in a follow up investigation by the Nebraska State Police that the cause of death was changed to undetermined.

As I understand it when such is the case it is protocol to then pursue it as a possible homicide- and although I am not privy to any official information pertaining to such an investigation I do know that statements have been issued addressing the difficulty attributed to the now infamous code of silence.

I don’t know, and neither do I think does anyone what the nature of Johnny Moore’s testimony would have been-but the mere fact that he was supoenaed was apparently sufficient cause for the AIM “security apparatus” to label him a snitch. Sounds all too familiar doesn’t it?

And so once again all the elements were in place:
Motivation: A young man deemed as a threat and labeled a snitch, and effectively isolated among his peers by such a pronouncement just as Annie was.
Opportunity: Moore was staying at Wounded Knee Legal Defense flop house in Lincoln along with several others.
Result: Another senseless death, and AIM as usual has been struck deaf, dumb,and blind-nobody knows anything and have even less to say.

I didn’t know Johnny Moore but I suspect he was a decent young man who cared for his people, and in wanting something better for them fell for the bullshit AIM line-a line of bullshit and an association that ultimately cost him his life…..at a mere twenty years of age.

It is my sincere wish that people would just step back a moment, forget all the by rote defenses and factory issued conspiracy tales and objectively look at events that have transpired in the last few decades-I’m not suggesting they summarily toss their beliefs asides but to ask questions, to think, to employ even the most rudimentary forms of logic and reason.

If everyone would do so this would be a whole new ball game-silence is consent, it is a degree of participation by any formula, if we do not personally grieve for a loved one lost, a victim, we are no less removed from those who do.

That’s what the “we are all related” is about-and seemingly forgotten.

“A good example, the 1974 murder case of Johnny Moore (Penobscot) called to testify in the trial of Stanley Neptune for running over the foot of a US Marshall at Wounded Knee in 1973. The District Attorney for Lincoln, Nebraska was running for Attorney General that year and allegedly said he didn’t want to have the same kind of “AIM” problems SD was having. (I will find his name). Johnny Moore’s death was determined by him to be a suicide, after they say he became despondent after being accused of being an FBI spy, and surrounded by AIM members, he slashed a knife so hard to his face it chipped his cheekbone, then severed his neck through his esophagus where upon he bled to death — all self-inflicted, the then dreaming to be Attorney General determined. It took years for his mother, Jeanne, family and tribe, (and still living at Indian Island, Maine in 2011) to have the case reviewed by a special commission of the State Patrol who then ruled it “probably homicide” several years later, by then — the evidence was history, and people scattered far and wide.”

A copy/paste above of a comment made in the blog Not Exactly Sweet Like Syrup from 5-29-11 by Skabewis

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/not-exactly-sweet-like-syrup/

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/johnny-moore-another-victim/

“Probably homicide”….probably? More like obvious I would say – another one of those dirty little secrets the AIM leadership doesn’t know anything about or care to discuss.

I’d say the DA should have wound up in jail for obstructing justice, tampering, and in effect aiding and abetting  and at the very least should have led to a federal investigation.

But then that’s just another decades old crime the USAG and DOJ doesn’t want to burden themselves with considering Holder’s public announcement they aren’t interested in cases forty years old- like the AIM murder of Perry Ray Robinson jr. or any number of murders committed by AIM.

Statistics are kept related to crimes…murder, rape, assault, robbery, and even “suicide”.

It would be interesting to see how many people commit suicide by first slashing their face and then cutting their throat with such a ferocity as to sever their esophagus.

Especially Actuarial charts kept by insurance companies who know this sort of thing forward and backward.

Apparently Moore didn’t have a life insurance policy, for if he had of it’s reasonable to assume insurance investigators would have entered the fray and it would have been an entirely different ballgame.

Since this involved AIM and a U.S. Marshall the feds surely would have been in the loop,  as in monitoring the approach and whether there was a a proper investigation that could have led to indictments – that implies to me they would have been aware of the “findings”, had access to the coroners report if in fact they didn’t oversee it, and any related documents they deemed germane.

Yet it took  years for a “special commission” to arrive at the conclusion that Johnny Moore’s death was “probably murder”?

That’s a commission convened by the State Patrol, not any federal agency.

You know that cliche about there’s no such thing as a perfect crime? Apparently that’s bs, or an urban myth, as AIM seems to have committed them on a routine basis if the lack of prosecution is to be the definition.

Am I saying AIM’s hand was in murder of Moore? I surely am, and that can only mean either some or all within the leadership knew what was going on.

People haven’t any reservations to address the heinous character of serial murderers like Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, or a host of others – yet among them are those who absolutely refuse to acknowledge what is before their very eyes when it comes to AIM, it’s leadership, or wannabe poster boy Leonard Peltier.

Why that is I haven’t a clue, and seriously doubt I ever will as such a position is completely without merit.

I WAIT WITH BATED BREATH

Now I’m really rolling on the floor – just paid a visit to cafepress, more specifically Leonard Crow Dogs “store”.

The usual cups, calendars, tote bags and such, but I see you can also purchase an iPad case, iphone case, a “throw blanket” and even a shot glass.

A shot glass! Can’t help but wonder if those will be on sale at Whiteclay…kind of an added inducement to get drunk, puke all over yourself, and fall down in the street.

I find the Crow Dog specific “goods” marketed laughable, but the shot glass yet another slap in the face for the nations, like the selling of ceremonies, standing watch over the unmarked graves of AIM’s victims at WK2, or calling yourself a “chief of chiefs”.

But if you think about it there may be a connectivity to these items, the well equipped drinker doesn’t have to worry about damaging their iPad or iphone if it’s incased in an official Crow Dog protective covering while they’re stumbling around, the shot glass adds a certain savoire faire as opposed to chugging straight from the bottle, and the blanket is a real stroke of genius….if you pass out in the winter a companion could cover you with it – might even save your life in doing so.

I wait with bated breath for the sundance licenses to be offered.

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/crow-dog-and-the-grave-keepers-reblog/

 

INDIFFERENCE OR COMPLICITY ?

A good friend who follows the blog laughingly told me I’ve been on the warpath of late and not taking any prisoners, but also allowed that sometimes that’s what it takes.

Maybe I have been-but if so I offer no apology and think I’m going to stay mounted up a while longer.

Some people will point to an event and ask if the FBI isn’t complicit in this why didn’t they investigate or prosecute?

Depending on the circumstances and the motivation of the individual asking it can be a valid question, or an attempt to deflect attention away from those who committed the crimes-other times times it may have to do with indifference rather than complicity.

The historical lack of prosecutions in rape cases where indigenous women are the victim is in my opinion a prime example of indifference-as if to  say well it wasn’t a white woman so no big deal.

But one could argue as well that indifference is a form of complicity.

The existence of off rez liqour stores like those in Whiteclay and others in close proximity to every rez is in this country is another example of indifference, and perhaps complicity on the part of alcohol licensing boards.

Russell Means desire to open his own liquor store in Whiteclay took indifference and complicity to an entirely new level.

The indifference to the value of a human life as demonstrated by the AIM leadership does as well.

The lack of prosecution after decades of an “ongoing investigation” by it’s very nature narrows the field to either indifference, complicity, or both on some level.

Complicity as in immunity granted to members and leaders of an organization noted for it’s criminal activities.

Literally millions of dollars can and have been spent in high profile cases, I doubt it would take that much to drag them all in as Trudell said, but the problem may well be in doing so if even one begins to talk both would be princes and knaves could begin to fall.

The recent results in the Boston bombing speak to how efficiently and rapidly authority can respond, how it can leave no stone unturned and produce results in days or a couple of short weeks-and they should be applauded for their efforts.

Does anyone think if this were to drag on for four plus decades there wouldn’t be a public hue and cry? Does anyone think the same resources and technology couldn’t be applied elsewhere, to other investigations, and  undoubtedly produce the same results?

What exactly does it take to deploy a team of cadaver dogs at PR other than a search warrant? Does it require an act of Congress, a presidential order, or a referendum for the public to vote on?

Does “probable cause” not exist-when search warrants have been issued on the strength of a single “snitches” word in untold numbers of cases?

There are no legal hurdles, no technicalities to overcome, and that leaves either indifference or the complicity of granted immunity.

As long as there are crimes committed and criminals there will be deals made granting immunity-that’s just the way it works. But if it is to be a tool then the public has a right to know why and how-after all the story line is that public servants are just that isn’t it-that they serve the  public? And it is the public that in the final analysis is the employer and foots the bill.

Every employer, every citizen, has the right to know what those who claim to serve them do, where the money is spent, and by what process decisions are arrived at.

National Security and ongoing investigations have become little more than trite cliches- the fall back excuse of choice.

Neither security or service should ever trump truth and rights-if they do the battle is half lost already. And once this is the way of it who should anyone trust?

More to the point-with the accompanying history we drag around with us who should the nations trust?

Who comes to us with open hand and heart and asks what can I do, how can I help? Who comes to us with no other motivation than a selfish or personal one?

Who comes to us looking not to conceal but to reveal-to conceal nothing and reveal everything? Who comes to us devoid of vested interest?

Williams and Coler, don’t look there look here-Leonard Peltier, don’t look here look there-the murder of Annie and Ray, don’t look there look here-the AIM leadership and events WITHIN WK2, don’t look there look here-the BIA takeover and the tens of thousands in ransom the AIM leadership partied and absconded with, don’t look there look here- the Abourezks, Janklow, Yellow Thunder Camp, Hill, uranium and water rights deals,decades of lies and scams, don’t look there look here-grave diggers and grave keepers, don’t look there look here-immunity and deals made, don’t look there look here.

A lot of places not to look, and in doing so what is left? Half truths, if even that?

There are people who attempt to make it all about complicity-if the feds knew they are complicit and therefore ultimately guilty, where the buck stops.

This is a very narrow and self serving approach-complicity as defined by Webster means:  “association or participation in or as if in a wrongful act”

By that definition or any other I can think of it means if the feds are complicit then AIM is also-that the person who issues the orders, the person whose finger pulls the trigger,the person who strikes the match or makes and tosses the bomb, the person or persons who dig unmarked graves to bury their victims in and then do all in their power to coverup and obstruct justice are complicit-but those who distort the meaning of this word never mention that.

What they attempt is to say that complicity and guilt are  selective, exclusive and cannot be shared, that the actual shooters, arsonists, and murderers have no guilt to bear.

That’s not only asinine but blatantly stupid and agenda driven as well.

An agenda that seeks to protect the criminals among us.

Apparently what everyone has forgotten or chosen to ignore is that I have stated repeatedly over the course of various blogs is that I want EVERYONE with any measure of COMPLICITY held to account-whether they’ve forgotten or chosen to ignore that doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me, for as I’ve also stated I belong to the nations, those I care about and who care about me, whether family, loved ones, or friends…..and no one else.

The words of a wannabe sundancing firekeeper mean no more to me than a game of musical chairs about whether Hill was “exonerated” on the word of a lone individual making an “official” statement, or that a politician twice accused of rape and convicted of taking a persons life while driving drunk was actually a caring foster parent.

What everyone has also apparently forgotten or chosen to ignore is that my focus is on those shooters, rapists, arsonists, con men and liars in our midst- believing as I do that  when they are exposed it will reverberate up the food chain, and AIM won’t be the only ones to wind up in the frying pan.

Anybody doesn’t like that-again I don’t give a damn-for the only worthwhile goal is a shared one to own what belongs to us, and that is the truth.

:The man’s body is sacred, and the woman’s body is sacred;    
No matter who it is, it is sacred;    
Is it a slave? Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf?    
Each belongs here or anywhere, just as much as the well-off—just as much as you;    
Each has his or her place in the procession.    
 
(All is a procession;    
The universe is a procession, with measured and beautiful motion.)    
 
Do you know so much yourself, that you call the slave or the dull-face ignorant?    
Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?    
Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float—and the soil is on the surface, and water runs, and vegetation sprouts,    
For you only, and not for him and her?” ….Walt Whitman from Leaves of Grass

The only ignorance is one that is nurtured and embraced, one that results from the lack of openness and honesty-a thing crafted and disseminated by those who think that they own a proprietary good sight and the truth as they say it to be.

What some have may have forgotten is that nations are no longer slaves to anyone, nor are we dull faced ignorant immigrants.

WE’VE BEEN LIVING IT 2

 I had a discussion today with a person who is fully supportive of the blog.

A conversation that was meant to encourage and to address another aspect-that people tell me on occasion that I often blog  about issues some may not want to hear about or confront, and in fact may make them angry-that We’ve Been Living It is one such blog.

They may be right but things don’t go away if they are ignored, and there’s certainly a wealth of sites doing just that.Or if they do address such issues they almost always do so in a patronizing manner.

That being the once proud and independent nations we were comes with some sort of exemption-that all we have to do is say we’ve been victims and then everything makes sense.

Well, maybe it does to some, or maybe it’s just a convenient excuse to latch on to, but it doesn’t to me.

As a people we sacrificed and bleed for our children,our women,  elders, and our communities in the past when we we’re outgunned,  out manned, and out resourced-yet somehow today it’s a different story?

Now it’s about complaining and making excuses rather than taking control of our lives and communities?

There’s a significant amount to complain about- and we generate our share of it.

Compounding a bad situation can hardly be referred to as a solution-it’s pouring fuel on the fire, self immolation.

Every time we tolerate another rape in our midst, another abused or neglected child, suffer so much as single gang banger in our communities we strike another match to the fire that is consuming  us-that is making a mockery and lie of everything we have been, and every sacrifice our ancestors made.

If we don’t like being victims then we should stop victimizing ourselves and our own.

As to whether someone doesn’t like what I say it doesn’t alter the reality, because these are truths everyone should be speaking and seeking to correct….and if any believe it can be shown to be otherwise then they need to step up and offer a rebuttal.

LAMANITES AND NEPHITES

Mormonism has held that the indigenous people of this nation are “of the House of Israel” and no less that it’s founder Joseph Smith and his successor Brigham Young referred to us as Lamanites.

Young took it a step further when stating that:

“There is a curse on these aborigines of our country who roam the plains, and are so wild that you cannot tame them. They are of the House of Israel; they once had the Gospel delivered to them, they had the oracles of truth; Jesus came and administered to them after his resurrection, and they received and delighted in the Gospel until the fourth generation when they turned away and became so wicked that God cursed them with this dark and benighted and loathsome condition”.

Young had it wrong from start to finish-for in the first place it was not their country as he claimed, and what we have seen as salvation and a saintly way of life in the manner it has been directed at us has been anything but.

The LDS-Latter Day Saints as they refer to themselves, have been on a mission to proselytize the nations since Smith first claimed to speak for God, and consulted with while receiving from the angel Moroni golden plates containing what has become the book  of Mormon.

They have alternately pursued the adoption of our children and sought to attack us when it served their purpose. A behavior difficult to call saintly.

This doctrine of the nations being Lamanites is based upon a belief that the American Indians are a “lost tribe” of Israel-that sometime in the distance past we migrated here and prospered, but as is the way of all dramatic literature we more or less fell from grace, killed a kindred tribe known as the Nephites, and were summarily cursed with a dark skin and what Mormon doctrine has characterized as a “degraded condition”.

We could only be returned to our previous lifestyle and regain our former white coloration if we accepted Jesus and his teachings- a mandate Smith claimed was heaven sent.

Seems like a lot of people have attempted to “save” us, but perhaps it was their frustration at our resistance that led to their attempts to slaughter us as well.

The Catholics and Protestants had a run at it as did the Mormons-yet here we remain, “cursed”, dark skinned, and “uncivilized”.

Manifest Destiny sought to save us with sword and pen-the proponents of which at various times felt like the only good Indian was a dead Indian, and while decrying our “savagery” thought nothing of killing our women and
children or making tobacco pouches out of the breasts of our women or the scrotums of our men.

Failing to accomplish that on a scale that exceeded any other genocidal event I am aware of they determined if we were confined to reservations an indoctrination process that included taking our children hostage in the boarding schools would bear the fruit of assimilation and problem solved.

If the nations continue on the path many of have chosen these “saviors” and their “good works” may actually achieve what they set out to, as we are separating and being separated in an incremental way from what has defined us.

Traditions are spoken of and yet routinely ignored-ceremonies are being commercialized and corrupted on an unprecedented scale, our sense of family, community, and responsibility is waning.

We are becoming “civilized” in a way that is reflective of the worst of what those who sought to “save” us could offer.

The crime rate on the rez alone attests to that-the alcohol and drug abuse does as well. The decline in real time of the stature of women, children, and elders is another indicator….we are becoming or own version  of a fallen people, and we have ourselves in large part to blame for that.

Better I say to remain dark skinned and uncivilized as we once were, for during that time we thrived as a people, flourished in our sense of well being and community, and lived as an upright and proud people.