IF THE TRUTH OFFENDS

The above was sent to me by a sister, had me rolling on the floor as I take the implication to be that I’m an equal opportunity offender when it comes to AIM and their poster boy Peltier.

She in her own right takes a no holds barred approach to issues she’s passionate about, like the environment and equity for all people, I like that.

No shrinking violet, talented and intelligent, and willing to get down to it if that’s what it takes. Tough or soft as circumstances dictate – a good friend, a good ally.

I recall more than one battle we’ve jointly waged in common cause and expect others will arise.

The murders and crimes AIM committed are offensive, they offend everything the nations have been and are – if the truth offends then so be it…it is what it is and nothing changes that.

NOT FIT TO STAND IN GRANDFATHER’S SHADOW

Was talking with a friend, a woman, who brought up John Graham, in doing so she referenced an earlier blog and an exchange that took place between Antoinette Nora Claypoole and myself.

Claypoole mentioned Graham’s age at the time he murdered Annie Mae Pictou Aquash and the fact that he had been in one of the boarding schools.

My friend asked if this was meant to somehow mitigate Graham’s guilt?

My response was that I didn’t know, but all one need do is follow the news to know that individuals younger than Graham kill.

As I say I don’t know if this was an attempt to lessen Grahams’ guilt or not, but what I do know is I know elders who were in the boarding schools who would never have so much as considered killing a woman as she knelt praying for her children…..any woman, much less one of the nations.

Nor would they have stuck a gun in a woman’s mouth while interrogating her with the option to kill as Peltier did of Annie Mae.

One in particular, Grandfather, who carries both the physical and emotional scars of his time in the “schools”.

A man so honorable I doubt I will ever meet another his equal.

To tell the truth it kind of aggravates me the more I think about it following this conversation if the intent was to somehow minimize Graham’s guilt when I look at a man like grandfather.

The boarding schools left an indelible mark upon those consigned to them, and upon the nations as well.

Lives were ruined, children ripped from their parents, shorn like sheep, beaten for speaking their own language, sexually and physically abused, some unto death.

Yet inspite of all this the great majority went on to lead a good life as decent human beings – inspite of all they had endured they prevailed, they remained true to who they were, true to the ancestors and traditions.

They raised children, sought to do their best by them and instill a sense of values and pride.

Sometimes I think I wish I could have been a man on the day when they came to came to take grandfather away, someone would have had to kill me as I would not have allowed it to happen.

Grandfather is not the kind of man who seeks attention, if he does a good turn for another he doesn’t want it known, the doing is enough. A man singularly without pretense or guile.

Grandfather would sooner be struck mute than to tell a lie, to fabricate a story as Graham did about DNA being gathered from a park bench, or that he dropped Annie off at a “safe house”.

Graham and his AIM cohorts aren’t fit to stand in grandfather’s shadow.

There are men of honor and dishonorable men – Graham is among the latter.

John Kay of Steppenwolf recorded a song by the name of God Damn The Pusher Man – I say God Damn John Graham, Leonard Peltier, and the AIM leadership.

WE ARE ALL RELATED

We are all related – sounds nice doesn’t it? Like were all going to sit around the campfire singing kumbaya.

Everyone knows that isn’t going to happen and what it pretty much comes down to is a relationship based on genus – like all birds are related or all fish are related by genus.

If this weren’t the way of it the world might be different, because the reality is the “relations” make war, abuse, insult, ignore, lie cheat and steal, murder, rape, and pillage.

Well, if we are all related then AIM’s made a career of abusing and murdering their own kith and kin.

AIM tosses this we are all related around about as much as they do that In The Spirit of Crazy Horse cliche, and when emanting from them it is just as meaningless. They think it makes them sound real ndn, apparently the more gullible do as well.

AIM as an entity murdered their relatives, their sisters and brothers.

From Johnny Moore to Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Perry Ray Robinson jr., Roque Duenas, Williams and Coler, Nogeeshik Aquash, those in unmarked graves at WK2, and undoubtedly others as well….that is if they really believe we are all related as they claim.

If we truly are all related in a way that transcends genus then every rapists rapes his sister, every murderer a modern day Cain – kind  of makes you think about tossing what has become the cliche of we are all  related around loosely doesn’t it?

But then AIM has little more than shopworn cliches like warrior, chiefs, liberators, ITSOCH, and spiritual leaders to drone on about – cliches, not realities.

Yeah, it would be nice if the world were all one big happy family, never been the way of it though, and I for one don’t believe it ever will be.

In the context I can think of more than one “relative” I’d disavow, and I’m confident they would be more than willing to reciprocate.

SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT IN TOON TOWN

I’ve been thinking about the previous blog Hosapa Redux, in particular Carter Camp and his eternally conflicting recounting of AIM murder victim Perry Ray Robinson jr.

Camp never seemed to be able to keep his story straight, which actually makes him unrecognizable from Banks, Means, and the Bellecourts save for physical appearance.

With Camp’s and AIM’s ingrained penchant  for prevaricating the only storyline that hasn’t emerged is that Robinson shot himself, dug his own grave before bleeding to death, and in anticipation of his death pre emptively laid down in it to await the end.

Hey, why not? They’ve had Ray walking out of WK2 eating a candy bar to just disappearing as though abducted by aliens or part of a strategy to abandon his wife and children to decades of unrequited closure, to never having been seen…..by anyone.

At the CST conference a couple or so years ago poster boy for being a pompous ass Russell Means went so far as to portray the search for justice related to Ray as being some sort of conspiracy cobbled together by AIM haters to make it appear as though AIM had engaged in what he referred to as “illegality”.

“Illegality”? Duh………..

Poor delusional Russell, a man who spent his life defecating through his mouth rather than in the usual manner actually expecting people to believe him

Even the most ardent of AIM supporters surely must be aware of the Camp chronicles, the state of flux they existed in, frenetic and disjointed, yet it doesn’t seem to bother them never having heard an AIM lie they wouldn’t sell out to.

AIM lies from “chief of chiefs”, “spiritual adviser”, to bloated “political prisoners” who could body double for the character Fat Bastard in one of the Austin Powers movies.

From Walking Eagle to Man Whose Horse is Afraid the load is too heavy.

It’s not only bizarre and otherworldly, it’s unbelievably transparent theater – theater performed for a paying audience. An audience that is going to pay one way or another in some form.

The price of admission? Donations, scams, outright theft, misery, murder, mayhem, and the marketing of anything thought to turn a buck.

I keep asking for someone, anyone, to step up and tell me things such as these are “In the spirit of Crazy Horse”.

Hasn’t happened so far, and should be a clue for groupies if they feel they are unable to do so that something isn’t right in Toon Town.

Harsh words, harsh assessment? I suppose that depends on a person’s viewpoint, but nowhere near as harsh as the reality.

Not as harsh as the murder of Ray, the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, those who lay in unmarked graves, or that of federal agents who hadn’t a clue Peltier was even around or looking for him.

Not as harsh as the rapes and crimes AIM has committed, the hostage taking at WK2, the burning and sacking of the community……In the Spirit of Crazy Horse? not even when pigs fly.

HOSAPA REDUX

hosapa
Posted by rezinate on February 24, 2013

hosapa-the lakota word for black man. A word that can be spoken matter of factly or derisively, just as the word red man can -but for the purpose of this blog it should be seen in the context of a racist epithet related to murder of Perry Ray Robinson jr. at the event known as Wounded Knee 2.

For among other things the murder of Ray was precipitated in part on the basis that he was a black man.

A black man who came with good intent but refused to play the AIM game of warriors in picking up a gun or acknowledging that individuals like Leonard Crow Dog believed they held a racial superiority that demanded subservience.

Ray’s civil rights history is well known, worthy of respect, and speaks to a level of commitment that superceded concern for his own well being.

“One of the first Black civil rights workers into Jackson, Mississippi following the death of the three white civil rights workers, worked with CORE, worked with Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson,attended Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Later went to Alabama bought 10 acres to start a healthy food farm, clinic, eduction on taking blood pressure, how to use infant formula properly in the poverty communities, house bombed three times by KKK, Navy veteran who took brothers older birth date in order to get in service as a young man with connections to Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Was in Detroit a couple of times between 1968-73 following race riots working with Black Christian Church Movement, and down south with Clara and Jim Parker, Christian Socialist Movement in Atlanta,Georgia.

Lived in DC in Resurrection City following the Poor Peoples March. Went to Wounded Knee in late April, was not there the next day when one of the other people who came from Alabama with went in.”

I would say that’s quite a resume- I would also say if what befell Ray had befallen someone like Jesse Jackson there would have been a hue and cry to rival that following the murder of MLK.

Yet for completely inexplicable reasons it hasn’t. Hasn’t for going on four decades-not a word from CORE, the BCCM, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Al Sharpton, the Congressional Black Caucus, or Stan Holder the U.S.A.G.

No inclusion in black history month studies, and I’m willing to bet the majority of the black community both young and old don’t even know Ray’s name.

Even more bizarre to me is Whoopi Goldberg’s tweets related to Russell Means in his passing-tweets effusive in praise, and lacking any reference to Ray.

Could be Whoopi didn’t know about Ray-but she became aware of him and the facts surrounding his murder in short order as others responded. Yet as far as I know Whoopi hasn’t availed herself of the national audience her position on The View allows to focus any attention on Perry Ray Robinson Jr.

So the pervasive silence continues, and the burning question must be why? More to the point, why is Ray so studiously ignored by black leadership and celebrities when they can and will demand justice for other murders committed during that time period and farther back?

Why does Al Sharpton, who holds an anchor position on MSNBC, and frequently submits articles to the Huffington Post never speak to the murder of Ray Robinson when he will about any other thing that crosses his mind?

Why won’t Hollywood actor and social activist Danny Glover, who will campaign for what he refers to as “justice” for Peltier seek the same for Ray and his family?

Why won’t Pete Seeger, Jackson Browne, and other music industry luminaries write a song for Ray, or speak in his behalf? Would doing so cast a different light on AIM and by extention Peltier as well?

Have they selectively chosen one of several AIM authored stories? Stories like Carter Camp’s multiple and conflicting versions who has even gone on to say Ray was “caught” and murdered by the FBI or the GOONs in a kind of multiple choice pick one or both as a personal preference?

Why won’t hip hop artists who frequently lace their lyrics with references to social issues do likewise with the social issue of Ray?

Obviously it serves the purpose of AIM to relegate Ray to the dustbin of history having consigned him to an unmarked grave and the lies and propaganda they have authored related to his murder-but what purpose does it serve for any other-any hosapa to do likewise?

In the end when thinking about all this I wind up asking myself who actually buys into all this BS, and what is the motivation of those who do?

James Brown did a song-Say It I’m loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud-the black community should be saying Ray was black and they’re proud of him-and Ray needs to get what he deserves-Justice.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CisfU6vkLvo

GOOD NEWS

This is good news on two fronts – indigenous actors setting monetary considerations aside and taking a stand for cultural integrity.

Too begin with Adam Sandler being of Jewish ancestry should have a working knowledge of discrimination and cultural abuse in view of the history his own people have endured, he ought to understand that denigrating a people or their cultural beliefs has no comedic value.

What compounds the offensive nature of the script is that Sandler wrote it and apparently focused singularly on the revenue he thinks it will generate.

I can’t help but think of Russell Means “performance” in Natural Born Killers when portraying a Dine healer of sorts kicked the cultural integrity and beliefs of the Dine under the bus by handling snakes, which they consider to be unclean.

But when it came to personal integrity Means had none, it was always about the  money and the attention.

Hopefully AIM desperate for some positive feedback for a change will refrain from  inserting themselves into this and attempting to co opt it.

But with Dave “Mr. X” Hill on the set I’m kind of doubting it.

Good news as well in that the state of Montana has passed legislation to fund indigenous language immersion programs in schools – educational issues have been  ongoing for years related to access and even transportation for indigenous students, this is an incremental step in the right direction that hopefully will receive the attention it should and not be placed on the back burner.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/04/23/native-actors-walk-set-adam-sandler-movie-after-insults-women-elders-160110

http://mtpr.org/post/bill-funding-native-language-programs-passes

SLITHERING OUT OF WK2

I think it’s pretty obvious by now to one and all that everyone in the AIM leadership was aware of and played some role in the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash – even if it amounted to not lifting a hand to intercede, or to remain silent over the years.

Dennis Banks ability to identify the body as being that of Annie before anyone else could even while he was in California is a  declaration of complicity if not having actually ordered or approved her murder.

Russell Means declarations that nothing could occur on the Pine Ridge rez without his knowledge and consent also stands as an indictment.

In addition factor in that years later having pointed his snitch finger at Vernon Bellecourt in an effort to cover the multitude of sins involving various family members of his related to Annie’s murder he went on to say he knew who the culprit was but had given his “word” not to finger them while they yet lived.

Russell’s devoted ovine followers overlook the fact that Vernon was dead at the time Means made this statement. So which was the lie? One or the other was, and that says one thing and one thing only – that Russell Means was not only a liar but by AIM’s definition a snitch.

A question germane to this is who had Russell given his “word” to and for what reasons?

Surely it must have been someone in the leadership, someone he had a relationship with like Banks – if not in the leadership when he didn’t hesitate to finger Vernon then why would he give his word to a grunt or protect them unless it would open the can of worms involving his family?

Vernon was supposed to be the head of security – how could he not of known?

And bumbling, stumbling, mall floor flopping brother Clyde was as at Bill Means house when the kill order was received via the telephone.

That’s the telephone – someone want to try to convince me Bill’s phone wasn’t tapped, or that phone records didn’t exist?

I’d bet anything that those records exist in a fed file somewhere, and they indicate the call to Bill’s came from California where Banks, Vernon, and Trudell were hanging and cruising.

I think logic and commonsense dictate a winnowing of the field of suspects.

We know who the actual participants in Annie’s abduction and murder were, what remains are the AIM Ayatollahs who issued the fatwah, in particular the one who by the very nature of having a relationship with Annie would have been essential to have onboard…..that would be the self styled “spiritual leader” Dennis Banks.

Dennis Banks – the one who knew whose body had been discovered before any other – the one who above all other cohorts would have monitored the situation.

Also the one who could have interceded or given advance warning to Annie to get out of town….but then Banks has a long history of self preservation at the expense of women – he’ll kick them to the curb in a heartbeat if he feels threatened just as he did during the Oregon RV stop and when he slithered out of WK2.

How’s that for being “spiritual”, or a “warrior”? How’s that for living in the spirit of Crazy Horse?

Dennis Banks – Mr. Too Big to Fail, Mr. My Life Is in Danger I Need to Clear Out and to hell with women or anyone else.

I ask as a matter of curiosity – can anyone name a true warrior who would have done likewise? Would have put their life above that of women or children?

Children? That’s right when you consider that Kamook, Banks then woman, already being the mother of his children was pregnant when he abandoned her in Oregon when it hit the fan.

Children – like AIM’s M O of threatening the lives of children if the parents didn’t remain silent.

Those five stars Banks adorns his lapel with? They aren’t a generals stars, they’re part of the symbolism of the laughable Star Knowledge crowd – a symbol like the Rosicrucians and Masons have, or perhaps more appropriately like the skull and bones fraternity that produced “leaders” like Bush.

https://rezinate.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/revisions-and-galapagos-tortoises/

SEWAGE PONDS AND OCEANS

Strikes me as ironic that Mathiessen would employ the phrase In the Spirit of Crazy Horse as the title for his book and immediately the thugs and grifters of the AIM leadership and gofers like Peltier would begin using it as some sort of provenance attached to every word they say and deed they do.

Neither I nor anyone else I believe has ever heard of Crazy Horse stealing from his own people, or murdering a woman of the nations, not even looting and burning a village belonging to his own people such as AIM did at WK2.

The differences that separate Crazy Horse from these pretenders is as vast as the ocean – it’s like comparing a sewage pond to the Pacific or Atlantic.

Crazy Horse never gave himself a title, he in fact relinquished one when he felt he didn’t deserve it.

Can anyone imagine a Means, Banks, Crow Dog or Peltier doing likewise?

Peltier has it backwards, AIM isn’t and has never been a people’s movement, it’s been an organization run by criminals.

Free Leonard? How about actually trying to live in the spirit of Crazy Horse for a change?

PRAYER AND AIM MATERIAL

The approach people take to prayer is as varied as they are…some a by rote incantation, some selfish, some a genuine expression, some for show, and others accompanied by offerings.

Offerings have taken many forms, detours, from animal to ritual human sacrifice – something I doubt Creator would find necessary.

Offerings are a part of praying among the nations, from tobacco to what many have referred to as primitive self mutilation in the Sundance.

Ultimately the only thing a person can truly say they own is their body, and it is the most personal of possessions.

To offer any portion of it depending on circumstance is either praised or denounced.

An example would be a person who loses life or limb in an attempt to save another, they are seen as praiseworthy.

A person who commits suicide or into self mutilation due to emotional problems is thought of as being sick, “self harming”.

There are a lot of negative influences impacting the ceremonies of the nations, none more so than those surrounding the Sundance, which is increasingly being seen as a resume builder or an event to name brand and sell tickets and licenses for.

Lost in all this is understanding, an understanding that the dancer is praiseworthy when he dances for the right reasons, that he is offering his body for a specific reason, often for others, forhis people.

In times past a sundancer didn’t make a point of droning on about it as so many do now – it was a sacred thing, the intent known and honored.

An individual who boasted about it like the AIM wannabes, Peltier, or any other would have lost respect, not gained it.

Pipes and their significance are something else that is misunderstood and have been corrupted – the “last real Indians” will go on about how sacrilegious it is to photograph one while routinely fashioning them for sale or employing them as props.

There is a difference between a true pipe carrier and one who merely carries a pipe as a prop. Those who do will say all pipes are sacred, I say that isn’t true, that if a person fashions one and carries it for show it is no more sacred than than one of those Dr. Grabow’s they could buy at a tobacco shop as intent becomes the arbiter.

This misunderstanding and corruption can be directly linked to the AIM leadership and resident flunkies, an indisputable reality that can be verified by examining the time frame related to the creation of AIM and the decline/corruption of tradition and ceremonies – I challenge anyone who disagrees to prove me wrong.

In an attempt to legitimize themselves there was a headlong rush by the leadership and associates to participate in ceremonies, not just for the theatrical value they attached to them, but to own them.

The same reason, the same attempt at legitimacy they felt compelled them to build a tipi at WK2 with the media in mind – the laughable part being not a one of them knew how to go about it and had to enlist the help of a white man.

Kind of deromanticizes the imagery they sought to cultivate doesn’t it?

Peltier has gone so far as to claim his life is a sundance in what amounts to yet another corruption of values and ceremonies.

Banks, Crow Dog, Clyde Bellecourt, and Russell Means have all name branded their counterfeit versions.

What a person should be asking themselves in view of all the talk about “In the spirit of Crazy Horse” is do they think Crazy Horse would have name branded a ceremony, sold licenses to conduct one, or destroyed a village belonging to his own people?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions then you’re definitely AIM material and deserve to be duped.

WORD PERFORMANCE ARTISTS AND ENERGY

You know, I kind of wonder about John Trudell at times, being a “word performance artist” and all….how much is word and how much is performance?

Trudell has become conjoined with the word energy, his “performances” liberally laced with references to it and how energy, whether positive or negative, defines a person – having honed his delivery he’s got a lot to say about it.

But he has a tendency to go about it like one of those fan dancers of burlesque fame, the fans are always moving but reveal only part of  the story.

That’s the way I liken his approach to AIM’s murder victims, having been vocal and somewhat specific when it comes to the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash the same can’t be said of Perry Ray Robinson jr. or those who lay in unmarked graves as a result of AIM’s rampage at WK2.

So how much is word and how much is performance?

A lot of people believe Trudell knows more than he’s saying, me included – now it could be he’s told the feds more than the public and been admonished that his celebrity ship could could very well sink if his lips get loose.

Or it could be having been all up in AIM Trudell believes some form of discretion is the better part of personal valor.

It could also be Trudell knows if he were to tell all there’s more than one person who would call him a fed and a snitch, and if that were to occur the “energy” quite possibly could negatively impact his career.

Ultimately though if he knows more but keeping it to himself I can’t help but wonder what kind of energy that produces – surely a negative one that impacts the survivors of AIM’s victim….being an “energy” expert it’s reasonable to assume he would be aware of that and it is a secondary consideration.

As the AIM leadership ages and individually ride their hobby horses off into the sunset tales are circulated that they are talking, making a clean breast of it so to speak – so far such rumors have been nothing more than tales and I expect that to continue being the case.

They’ve got resident plastic shaman grave keeping Leonard Crow Dog mumbling scripture from “paradise” that it’s all good because everybody is forgiven on the other side, and cling to that as though indisputable, a desperation born of guilt ,feeble unfounded hope, and unbridled ego.

If I were in their shoes I wouldn’t place all my eggs in the same basket by failing to admit that the process of being forgiven begins in this life,
you can’t wait until it’s over and then say, Oh yeah, by the way I’m sorry.

For all the talk of native pride and last real Indians no convenience exists when it comes to pride or honor, they are earned and observed by the recipient and practitioner.

Talking the talking doesn’t get it, and it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference how many fb “likes” a person may have, how many videos they upload, or how many words they speak.