AND SO I SAY AS I ALWAYS HAVE

I get asked at times what my opinion is about the feds at WK2, do I think they acquitted themselves in an entirely lawful manner?

My response is always the same – no I don’t, but I also won’t allow that to turn my attention away from the murders AIM committed.

The feds lost credibility the minute they opted to back Dick Wilson and his corrupt tribal government.

I’ve heard an argument that they were constrained to as Wilson’s was the “legally” and “duly elected administration”.

Maybe in the strictest of interpretations that’s an argument that can be advanced – the problem in doing so is that precedents exist where the feds have gone after corrupt politicians and Wilson and his administration were undeniably corrupt.

But as is always the case politics make strange bedfellows, especially when a shared “enemy” and common goals exist.

I usually ask in such a conversation if the individual I’m talking with lives in D.C. or in the Hoover building, when they reply no I then follow up with if a murder or murders is committed in either location or in their own neighborhood/ community which would they prioritize?

Inevitably the answer is in their own backyard – I tend to think that’s a response just about anyone would give.

That’s just about anyone, the exceptions would be those who have an agenda …. enter the AIM/ Peltier supporters.

Their goal is to convince everyone to look anywhere but their own backyard, and no lie too blatant to advance toward that end.

I think people need to be concerned not only about local, regional, and national issues but global ones as well.

And that concern needs to begin in the immediacy of where they are and what will impact them within that location.

Climate change and pollution affect everyone regardless of where they are – obviously that should be a concern.

Crime does as well, but it hits home if it occurs in proximity rather than across town, across the state, or across the nation.

People don’t want murderers, thieves, rapists, and liars in their communities, something easy to understand – but if as an indigenous person you say the same while pointing your finger at AIM and or Peltier then for some the dynamic somehow changes and you’re a sellout or fed.

Labels such as these don’t phase me, because as I say they are agenda driven, and a pretty transparent agenda at that.

The manner in which I live my life is my validation, not flying AIM’s rag banner or sticking a feather in my hair and calling myself a warrior.

I am validated by family, friends, and the ancestry that define me – not the words of drones, trolls, or wannabe warriors.

I don’t expect that to resonate with everyone but it isn’t as though I actually care if it does or not.

And so I say as I always have – everyone with any measure of complicity in the sum total of crimes committed at WK2 needs to be held to account, and I don’t give damn what nation they are from, what persona they’ve cultivated, or any government agency they may represent.

The feds had informants within AIM, some among the hierarchy, but I don’t believe for a moment they authorized the murder of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Perry Ray Robinson jr., Buddy Lamont, or any of the WK2 victims laying in unmarked graves – the AIM leadership is responsible for that and they need to be held to account unless a person thinks cold blooded murder is acceptable or can present a single shred of evidence that “the feds did it”.

I don’t believe there was a “planned invasion” of Jumping Bull consisting of two men armed with short range revolvers, in fact I believe anyone who does is a fool.

If anyone can prove otherwise I’m listening.

SOFT WORDS AND LIVES MATTER

Having received the below link from a sister what I’m about to say may not resonate with some.

I found the word “soft” when used to describe the choice of words employed by those who wrote the history and as taught in the classroom an apt description.

It’s a good opinion piece, a little over the top profanity wise but I view that as a forgivable editorial device.

Nonetheless when it comes to “soft” words and an inaccurate recounting of history I think it imperative for the nations at large to examine the “soft” words and the manipulation of history related to AIM.

Founders when applied to the euro boat people is a euphemism for an invading horde bent on acquisition, destruction, and subjugation – I think the same can be said of the “founders” of the American Indian Movement.

“Patriots” can only be viewed in a context restricted to the social realm, ideology, and mores of any group of people- to the “settlers” those who sought independence qualified as patriots and it didn’t matter what approach was taken with the indigenous people of this land.

It’s Charmin soft to speak in terms of patriots, liberators, and being victims when it comes to the AIM leadership considering the history.

There was nothing soft about the destruction, pillaging, rapes and murders that took place at what has become known as Wounded Knee 2.

There’s a pronounced softness in commemorating the anniversary of WK2 as an act of “liberation”.

There is nothing soft about the greed the leadership has displayed, the pimping of poverty, or the marketing of tradition and ceremonies.

Do Native Lives Matter? Of course they do, just as the lives of others do as well and I’m all for confronting those who murder and abuse whether they wear a badge and a gun or not….dead is dead and murder is murder, that’s the bottom line.

How about the lives of the literally hundreds, even thousands of missing indigenous women, or the lives of our children in alcohol or drug riddled homes?

Do their lives only matter if they’re shot in the back by a cop?

How about the native lives of Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Buddy Lamont, Nogeeshik Aquash, and countless others?

If lives truly matter then the issue of black on black, red on red, yellow on yellow, brown on brown, and white on white crimes of murder and abuse are equally important and require the same attention.

Failing to do so makes a mockery of  lives matter and relegates it to the latest meme.

AIM undoubtedly will do everything in their power to thrust themselves into the forefront of Lives Matter, when they do they should be reminded that red lives matter as well – Banks may even don another hoodie to capture the moment – with their soft history they need to step aside – we’ve had enough people killing us without AIM adding to the body count.

We need to know AIM’s bullshit and lies, we need to understand the “immature dicks” they have been and are.

Words may sting but realities can set your ass on fire.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/08/19/moya-smith-even-without-context-senator-mccains-comment-stings-161458

LEONARD PELTIER CLEMENCY

Advocates of a clemency or pardon for Leonard Peltier often raise the issue of the amount of time he has served-closing in on four decades.

That’s a long time, not a record, but nonetheless a long time.

What they seem to fail to grasp is that the passage of time is inclusive-that it doesn’t stop and remain fixed for any other than victims whose lives have been taken.

It stopped for Annie Mae Aquash, Ray Robinson, Buddy Lamont, Nogeeshik Aquash, Jack Coler, Ron Williams, Roque Duenas, Jancita  Eagle Deer, those who lay in hidden graves as the result of WK2, and others who may never be known.

The advocates will often talk of a complicity in these murders by the feds-if there is a value in that then they must likewise assert that as a member of AIM-more specifically one of Dennis Banks security grunts, then Peltier must likewise be complicit.  Begins to get a little murky and places an onus on the advocates doesn’t it?

Of those victims listed above no one to my knowledge has claimed that Peltier had a direct physical involvement in their deaths with the exception of Williams and Coler – despite the nagging time line, the exposed lies of when he was in jail in Canada, and Peltier’s own admission that he was in and out of the country during pivotal dates.

Yet time or the memory of these murders hasn’t stopped for the families  and friends as each fell-there is no pardon or clemency that can be  sought that will release their loved ones from the graves they lay in.

No surcease of sorrow-nothing to fill the void in a child’s life, or the vacancy left in a family-something to consider with each new attempt by Peltier to portray himself as a victim worthy of release.

He wants to mentor youth? What he has done for the now adults who were the youthful children of his victims?

Did he teach them to paint or counsel them in the right and wrongs of life, remember them during Christmas toy drives, or contribute to college scholarships?

Has he ever done a single thing to alleviate their suffering?

Did he tell them of the value of being a “warrior” which he claims to be and will never truthfully ever be able to make such a claim?

What has he done for the children of Annie and Ray to assist in obtaining the justice they deserve other than to obstruct, lie, support the murders, and in the end say he wouldn’t help put another indigenous man in prison?

Even Banks and OJ went through the motions of offering a reward or conducting an “independent investigation”.

Often overlooked is the fact that family members of a perpetrator are in some ways a victim, and made to suffer as well-what has Peltier done for them other than to construct a prison where they also serve  each day and allowed to live only a half life?