I will be commenting from time to time in this thread about issues that concern me. Most of the comments will be concerning American Indian issues. I look forward to comments.


traveling through Indian Country


traveling through Indian Country
the land you place your foot on
was here before you and I

Indians lived on this land
with Pride and Respect
for The Creator

our ancestors have shed blood
for your developments
Levitttown, progress?

our men have fought to protect
this land, at all times, in
uniform or war dress

our women have mourned the losses
of old times and now
we remember

our children are a part of this Country
whether you like it or not
we are still here

racism is ugly
yet exists
in 2004

Mourning Dove Caller ©2004


*****************
This is a Q and A exchange between John Lumpkin of the Associated Press and Gen. Whitcomb, concerning the armoring of Humvees and other military vehicles in Iraq. Paine in The Arse posted this in the Native American Community. Thanks

I am taking this part of the answer out to highlite the inane words of this military officer. The year is 2004 and our US military officers are comparing Iraqi insurgents to American Indians. "And I've got a couple of great noncommissioned officers, our best spokesmen here, Sergeant First Class Steve Mikes (sp) out of the 1486th Transportation Company, and Sergeant First Class Joe Litchard (sp) out of the same company, that were convoy commanders. They run that dangerous route that runs from Kuwait up into north of Baghdad. And incidentally, that route is about as far as driving from Wilmington, North Carolina to Canton, Ohio, except when you drive from Wilmington to Canton,**** it's not through Indian territory.****


*****************************
Q I wanted to ask – it’s John Lumpkin with the Associated Press. I wanted to ask less about the quantity of armored vehicles and more about the quality of the armor itself. Two different ways … kind of lines there.

One is, generally is there a sense that a lot of soldiers are going through and putting sort of improvised armor or other protection on their vehicles, either through scrap yards or other means? If so, does that suggest the vehicles are not coming to them armored in a satisfactory way? Along the same line is this level-three armor. Does it provide enough protection on the trucks, is it stopping enough attacks, or is there a need for heavy -- medium-heavy trucks with essentially a greater level of armored protection?

GEN. WHITCOMB: That's a great question. The answer is, how much is enough? If I can add another plate or another inch or more to the vehicle I'm riding in that gives me protection, it's better. I mean, that is absolutely the case. It's why we have a 72-ton M1A2 Abrams tank, because we reacted to the threats, the capability to produce a better round. So I think that's a prudent thing to do if a soldier has the capability.

Do I think that it is widespread that our soldiers are going out and trying to add armor? I do not have that indication. I don't want to say it's not happening, because I'm sure it is, but I don't -- in my opinion, it's not being done in mass numbers or mass quantities.

Does a level-three protection give you level one? No, it doesn't. And we make no bones about it. The good news is it does -- level one and level two do give you protection.

And I've got a couple of great noncommissioned officers, our best spokesmen here, Sergeant First Class Steve Mikes (sp) out of the 1486th Transportation Company, and Sergeant First Class Joe Litchard (sp) out of the same company, that were convoy commanders. They run that dangerous route that runs from Kuwait up into north of Baghdad. And incidentally, that route is about as far as driving from Wilmington, North Carolina to Canton, Ohio, except when you drive from Wilmington to Canton, it's not through Indian territory.

But both these great soldiers, Sergeant Mikes (sp) and Sergeant Litchard (sp), both were attacked when they were performing their duties and had level-one armor protect them. And I asked him, "Well, what would have happened if you hadn't had level-three armor, if you hadn't had the steel plating?" He said, "Well, sir, I would have been shot." I mean, that's pretty basic. And we also had attack with using the add-on armor, the level-two kind of capability. It protected these men, these soldiers.

That is not to say that we have not lost soldiers that had no armor, level one, level two, level three. We have. And it's tragic, and we accept that and we accept our responsibility to get our troops the best protection that we can. And that's what we are about doing.

Does that get to your question?

Q Yes, sir. Thank you.

Dee Brown writings.
Ohio- Land of Tecumseh. "A Sorrow in Our Heart"


What he said then rings true today. Every time one is fallen there it is a sorrow in the heart of those sent to serve, their blood, and the Nation as a whole.

The same holds true for the Sons of Abraham who live in Iraq.

Yes, a senseless loss all the way around.

"AIM"

so reach out with me,
Circle, brothers and sisters
in One, we are strong


Mourning Dove Caller ©2004

However you honor these coming days, do so with Pride in your Indian blood and Respect for that which came before us.


*****************

This is a statement about the Creation of AIM

The statement is from an AIM website:


http://members.aol.com/Nowacumig/aim.html


WHY WE STARTED: "Because of the slum housing conditions; the highest unemployment rate in the whole of this country; police brutality against our elders, women, and children; Native Warriors came together from the streets, prisons, jails and the urban ghettos of Minneapolis to form the American Indian Movement. They were tired of begging for welfare, tired of being scapegoats in America and decided to start building on the strengths of our own people; decided to build our own schools; our own job training programs; and our own destiny. That was our motivation to begin. That beginning is now being called 'the Era of Indian Power'." (Dennis Banks, 1992)

During the Summer of 1968, two hundred members of the Indian community came together to discuss various issues and critical developments within the Native American community. Amongst them were

Police Brutality
Slum Housing
80% unemployment rate

Disgraceful if not shameful practices of the Minneapolis public school system and its lack of concern regarding Indian education.
Racist and discriminatory policies of the Hennepin County welfare system toward Native American clients.
Questionable behavior of federal government in its regard to Native policies.
From this meeting came the birth of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Calling the meeting were long time community activists George Mitchell, Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt. Attending were some of Minneapolis's most active Native people: Mary Jane Wilson, Francis Fairbanks, Harold Goodsky, Melissa Tapio, Pearl Brandon, Darcy Truax, Charlie Deegan, George Millessay, Caroline Dickenson, Joanne Strong, Polly Chabwa, Arlene Dakota, Peggy Bellecourt, Ellie Banks, Bobby Jo Graves, John Red House, Audrey Banks, Alberta Atkin, Jeanette Banks. . .among others.

In addition to these issues, the Movement saw the need to protect treaty rights and preserve traditional Native Spirituality and culture. (Mandated boarding schools for Native children which took them away from their families and communities, forced relocation programs, and other government methods of "assimilation" had attempted to destroy Native culture and beliefs.) It also stressed the sovereignty of Native Nations.

"During the past twenty-five years, the American Indian Movement has taken on organizing and creating opportunities for people across the Americas and Canada. AIM is headquartered in Minneapolis and Chapters have formed in many cities and Indian Nations. The American Indian Movement is a spiritual and cultural movement with no formal membership.
The philosophy of self-determination that the Movement is built upon is deeply rooted in traditional spirituality, culture, language and history of Native peoples of the land. AIM develops partnerships to address the common needs of the people as well as to ensure fulfillment of treaties made with the U.S. government guaranteeing the survival of Indian Nations."

(Laura Waterman Wittsock)

"Wovoka and Wounded Knee"
slaughter so obscene
Wovoka rise up in Peace
our heart is weeping

Mourning Dove Caller ©2004

I have stood on the ground at Wounded Knee, I have seen, felt and heard the Spirits there....the fight for justice will never end.

We shall live again!

********************

I travel from Kansas City to Wounded Knee, South Dakota as often as I can. The beauty of the area is enough of an incentive, but for me it is a pilgrimage. A journey to honor those Indians who lost their lives at The Wounded Knee Massacre.

Yes, the Massacre....Wounded Knee was not a battle it was a group of Lakota men, women and children encamped at the site known as Wounded Knee. [A very good read is the book 'The Moon Of Popping Trees', gives a detailed historical version of the gathering in Wounded Knee]. The biggest threat to the military, in their eyes, was The Ghost Dancers. Truth was that the Ghost Dance that was put forth by Wovoka was a religious practice, not a military maneuver and yet the leaders of The Cavalry were determined to stop the practice.

Ironic that people who came to The[ir] New World to practice religious freedom had morphed into a Nation that would not allow religious freedom to the Indigenous Peoples of America. This become not just a tragedy for the Natives but an attempt at their demise at the hands of the US Cavalry and the US government that chose to adopt and condone The Indian Removal Programs. The programs, fortunately did not succeed to eradicate the Indians but it set a pattern of life, the reservation, that has been harmful to the descendants of The First Nation.

The Pine Ridge Reservation, Wounded Knee is within the boundaries of this rez, has the highest rate of unemployment in the United States. There are very few jobs on Wounded Knee rez and to find a decent paying job, people must travel to Rapid City, SD, a round trip of over 3 hours. Even making the trip does not guarantee a good job, there are just not many jobs available for Indians.

I have stopped and given Elders rides to the only supermarket on Pine Ridge, for most it is a one way trip of 15+ miles. There is no Elder Transportation for these people in their 80's and 90's. I have gone into the modest homes of Elders and seen that they are subsisting on small amounts of food because they are not able to make even a weekly trip for groceries. This year the cutbacks on the Propane for Elders funding has created hardships for those living in harsh winter climates.
It hurts my heart that people are being treated so badly because they are Indian. The monies tied up in the Indian Trust Fund by the government would provide adequate housing, food and transportation for those on all reservations.

The current Administration is proposing to give the money to the Interior Department to dispense through The Bureau of Indian Affairs. As we have seen with other Congressional and Administrative funding 'packages' the monies never go where they are needed, bureaucracy eats up the funds. I would remind you here, these monies are owed to the Indian Nations by the US government....monies that were to be paid to the tribes at the drawing up of each Treaty. The Treaties were broken and the monies stayed in the coffers of the government. Give the monies to the tribes and let them build an infrastructure to sustain the reservations, educate the children and create a better life for the Elders.

I am in mind of my grandmother Marie, taken off reservation near the turn of the century to 'un' become an Indian. She lived into her 80's and always urged me to work to help make a difference. I can only hope to honor her memory. Marie always carried the sadness of a childhood where her hair was cut and she was 'encouraged' to behave differently and to not live the way her family did but to be 'religious' and 'good'. Her crime, she was Indian.

I carry her blood in my veins, her memory in my heart and her fierce pride of being Indian in my Spirit.


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http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.htm


The Ghost Dance

A phenomena swept the American west in 1888 by Paiute holy man Wovoka from Nevada.. Wovoka, son of the mystic Tavibo, drew on his father's teachings and his own vision during an eclipse of the sun. He began spreading the "gospel" that came to be known as the Ghost Dance Religion. He claimed that the earth would soon perish and then come alive again in a pure, aboriginal state, to be inherited by the Indians, including the dead, for an eternal existence free from suffering.
To earn this new reality, however, Indians had to live harmoniously and honestly, cleanse themselves often, and shun the ways of the whites, especially alcohol, the destroyer. Wovoka also discouraged the practice of mourning, because the dead would soon be resurrected, demanding instead the performance of prayers, meditation, chanting, and especially dancing through which one might briefly die and catch a glimpse of the paradise-to-come, replete with lush green prairie grass, large buffalo herds and Indian ancestors.Kicking Bear, a Miniconjou Teton Lakota, made a pilgrimage to Nevada to learn about this new "religion". .

Together with Short Bull, another Miniconjou mystic, they gave another interpretation, choosing to disregard Wovoka's anti-violence and emphasizing the possible elimination of the whites. Special Ghost Dance Shirts, they claimed, would protect them against the white man's bullet.

The Wounded Knee Massacre

White officials became alarmed at the religious fervor and activism and in December 1890 banned the Ghost Dance on Lakota reservations. When the rites continued, officials called in troops to Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota. The military, led by veteran General Nelson Miles, geared itself for another campaign.

The presence of the troops exacerbated the situation. Short Bull and Kicking Bear led their followers to the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge reservation, to a sheltered escarpment known as the Stronghold. The dancers sent word to Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapas to join them. Before he could set out from the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, however, he was arrested by Indian police. A scuffle ensued in which Sitting Bull and seven of his warriors were slain. Six of the policemen were killed.

General Miles had also ordered the arrest of Big Foot, who had been known to live along the Cheyenne River in South Dakota. But, Big Foot and his followers had already departed south to Pine Ridge, asked there by Red Cloud and other supporters of the whites, in an effort to bring tranquility. Miles sent out the infamous Seventh Calvary led by Major Whitside to locate the renegades. They scoured the Badlands and finally found the Miniconjou dancers on Porcupine Creek, 30 miles east of Pine Ridge. The Indians offered no resistance. Big Foot, ill with pneumonia, rode in a wagon. The soldiers ordered the Indians to set up camp five miles westward, at Wounded Knee Creek. Colonel James Forsyth arrived to take command and ordered his guards to place four Hotchkiss cannons in position around the camp. The soldiers now numbered around 500; the Indians 350, all but 120 of these women and children.

The following morning, December 29, 1890, the soldiers entered the camp demanding the all Indian firearms be relinquished. A medicine man named Yellow Bird advocated resistance, claiming the Ghost Shirts would protect them. One of the soldiers tried to disarm a deaf Indian named Black Coyote. A scuffle ensued and the firearm discharged. The silence of the morning was broken and soon other guns echoed in the river bed. At first, the struggle was fought at close quarters, but when the Indians ran to take cover, the Hotchkiss artillery opened up on them, cutting down men, women, children alike, the sick Big Foot among them. By the end of this brutal, unnecessary violence, which lasted less than an hour, at least 150 Indians had been killed and 50 wounded. In comparison, army casualties were 25 killed and 39 wounded. Forsyth was later charged with killing the innocents, but exonerated.


Wounded Knee became a catch phrase for all the wrongs inflicted on Native Americans by the descendants of Europeans. In 1973, Indian activist, drawing on the courage of their ancestors, would stage another confrontation there.

I was caught by the thread title- can highly recommend A Traveler in Indian Territory by Ethan Allen Hitchcock U of OK Press ISBN 0-8061-2840-2


As I've posted previously on the Kerry forum, the US sadly needs a Truth & Reconciliation Commission to lay all our ghosts at rest, but especially those created by Manifest Destiny.

Can also recommend almost anything by Robert Conley- good winter reading. (A funny story from Tahlequah- Conley (a Cherokee) proudly displayed a shotgun-blasted copy of the latest McMuttry bestseller- as a 'friend's' book review.) Osiyo!

You are so very right about a Commision, a very good way to deal with the Indian Trust and other issues. Let the Natives handle their own affairs. There is a Holoucast Commision, why not Indian?

I will look for the book you have recommended and I love the 'book review' of McMurtry's work. lol

WELCOME TO ARIZONA, SPEAK ENGLISH!

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, Arizona has sponsored an Arizona constitutional measure to declare English as the state's official language. There is protest from the Native Nations.

The Navajo Code Talkers were used to maintain secrecy and security during WWII, now is Navajo an unwanted language?

IMHO, what bothers me most about this is the racist tone that goes with this desire to change the Arizona Constitution.

From the 1800's, the days of the Indian Removal Programs, to now, there have been exclusionary measures ranging from Indian Schools with their 'unbecome an Indian' policy to genocide of Indian peoples.

This is 2005 and still the Republican legislator, with his anachronistic thinking, is troubled by Indians. We must be doing something right.


********************

here is a link to other stories about this issue


http://indianz.com/News/2004/006072.asp




Tribal leaders decry official-English effort

Judy Nichols
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

Native American leaders visited the state Capitol on Tuesday for the 10th-annual Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day and expressed their displeasure with a proposal to make English the official language of Arizona.

More than 500 representatives of Arizona's 22 Indian tribes filled the gallery or sat among state legislators from their districts for introductions and prepared speeches.

Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, urged them to express their opinion on House Concurrent Resolution 2030, which would allow voters to declare English the official state language. The bill will be considered during this year's legislative session. advertisement




"In plain English, sir, we don't like it, and we don't want it," said Kathy Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. "As the first Americans, we never asked anyone to speak a specific language."

Vivian Juan-Saunders, chairwoman of the Tohono O'odham Nation and president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, called the measure "divisive, objectionable and unnecessary."

She said it was reminiscent of government boarding schools where Indian children suffered verbal and physical abuse for using their Native languages.

Ms. Juan-Saunders said Navajo Code Talkers and other Indian soldiers used their native languages to pass coded messages, helping win World War II.

Both women received standing ovations.

Speaking at lunch on the Senate lawn, Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., said he was beginning to feel like tribes are an endangered species.

"One hundred years from now, 500 years from now, we want to be Navajo people, talking in our Navajo language, telling our stories in our Navajo language," Shirley said.

In 1988, Arizona voters approved an English-only law but the state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because it violated free speech and equal-protection rights.

Former Sen. Jack Jackson Sr., honored as the father of the Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day, said he organized the event to try to deal with problems the tribes have, some dating back to drawing the state's borders without input or consideration of tribal lands.

"Down by Tucson, they put half the Tohono O'odham community in Mexico," Jackson said. "The Navajo Nation is in three different states."

Other tribes are split across county and city borders, causing jurisdictional nightmares.

On June 17, 1774, in America, the commissioners from the then-colonies of Maryland and Virginia negotiated at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a treaty with the native Americans of the Six Nations, the nation that gave the colonists of that time a good part of the foundation of the democracy in America that we in this day and age have inherited.

The native Americans, here since time immemorial, and successful on this land, as part of that treaty, were invited to send their boys to William and Mary College, a very old institute of higher learning in this country.

The next day, they declined the offer.

Those words declining that offer over two hundred years ago, now, are perhaps fitting today, and so I repeat them here for the public record, while there still is one to be consulted:

THE ANSWER OF THE SIX NATIONS:

We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you.

We are convinced that you mean to do us good by your proposal; and we thank you heartily.

But you, who are wise, must know that different nations have different conceptions of things and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours.

We have had some experience of it!

Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods ... neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counselors, they were totally good for nothing.

We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education; instruct them in all we know, and make men of them!

I am old now, of course, or if not old, well, not so young, as once I was, and if and when that happens, getting old, I mean, well, you have to shed ignorance by the pound, or maybe, you just never get to here, and if you do, well, there is still a whole mountain yet to climb after this one, and so .....

A man that was old, real old, a Shoshone man, he told me that people die of sadness, and loneliness, and he probably would have known as much about that as anyone, since he was then 100, or so, and had seen much in his lifetime, and me, well, I was lucky to be there to be told about it, and that is the way it is, or can be, anyway, if the purity of your seeking is of high enough quality ......

Old Indian people, men and women, can be possessed of the most amazing knowledge, and it is treated as worthless crap, because you can't make no money off of it, or buy whiskey .....

But try getting old without it, WHEN YOU HAVE NO MONEY!

Now, there is the trick, as any young animal out in the real wild knows!

And so ......

Washakie!

Crow Heart Butte!

Crows!

And Shoshones!

I wonder how many people in modern America know these names, at all?

Certainly, many people have seen Crow Heart Butte, because it is next to the "tourist trail" out in western Wyoming, going north, or south, either way, there it is, but who knows its tale, today?

Who knows it lessons, I wonder?

And who in this crazy age that has descended upon us all can see the sense in those lessons, this I wonder beyond all else, because we need more Washakies, but they are gone!

1860's, maybe, or 1870's, somewhere in there, the Crows came south, out of Montana, a band under the leadership of their "chief", or leader, however that was, and when they came onto what the Shoshones thought was "theirs", well, a band of them under the leadership of Washakie, then an older man, like me, although I think he was some older yet, in his sixties, as I recall, the Shoshones came to meet them, and the two bands went up on top of Crow Heart Butte, and they fought .....

Some time into the fight, Washakie observed that the two bands were fairly well-matched, which meant that they would fight all day, and destroy each other, and then, the tribes of both sides would suffer, and so .....

Washakie stopped the fight, for the moment, anyway, while he and the Crow chief discussed the matter, and came to an agreement, which is this:

Washakie and the Crow chief would fight, alone, and who survived, that was the side that won, and the losers, either side, would abide by that and quit the hunting grounds, for good.

By the story, which is known to some to this day, the Crow was a younger, stronger man than Washakie, but Washakie had what the young man could not have, which is the knowledge a long life of leadership in those days could give one like Washakie, and so, after a while, Washakie won!

And the Crow left, minus their leader of course, who had "lost heart", and so, was going nowhere, except back to the earth, after that, which is how it is, despite all these fairy-tales in this modern age about living forever, and being always young!

AND THE PEOPLE OF BOTH SIDES SURVIVED, because all the young men were not wasted in a fight neither side could win, without destroying itself in the process.

If you are alive after a fight, because Washakie and the Crow were willing to put their own lives on the line to save their peoples, well, as poor as you may be, there are possibilities, more so than when the PEOPLE are all dead, aren't there?

Joseph thought so, anyway, and so do I, but, of course, I am just old, and so, don't know much about "modern", and all of its attractions, whatever they in the end might be.

If George W. Bush had been a Washakie, think of all the lives that would not have been wasted in his war of aggression!

If he had been a Washakie, he would have gone to Iraq and fought Saddam with his own hands, as Washakie did with the Crow Chief .....

But those days are really gone, aren't they?

Aren't they ......

And it is something, isn't it, that an old man like Washakie was actually able to stop that fight, that the young men would actually listen to him, and do what he said, which was to stand back, and watch!

Save yourselves for another day!

If I fall, take care of the PEOPLE!

Would the young men listen today?

"From this day forward, I will fight no more, FOREVER!"

And so, the words of a coward?

Some do think so, of course, and I have met many of them, in my own lifetime!

What I say in return is to say those words yourself, and then stand there, with your hands by your side, and see!

Because when you do say those words, people come to test you, and then .....

If you lift your hands again, after saying those words, because someone has come to put those words right back down your own throat, right through your teeth and all, with their fist, or rifle butt, whichever, are you weak if you take the blow?

I wonder what Joseph would think on that, but ah, yes, he was a coward .......

A small boy I was, and the gorge was deep!

Across, on the other side, of course, was Indian country, but ....

I was too small!

I couldn't get there!

I was a small boy!

The cliff was high, and I could not go down!

But .....

It was Indian country, real Indian country, and the Indians, the real Indians, well ....

They ran right up the cliff, and over the top, and then, what ....

A thousand miles they ran?

Is that what it was?

All the way down to Georgia, I have heard, and out among the Mandan, too?

Is that where they ran?

It is what I have heard anyway, and I believe it, because I have seen the cliff, and that they ran right up, like it wasn't there at all!

The Indian Ladder!

The name stands to this day, and is that an insult, or a testimonial?

Ah!

Who ever knows nothing these days, and who cares!

Just a bunch of crazy talk, anyway, Indians running up a cliff!

The Warrior's Trail!

What a crock!

"Hey, getta load of this moron, will you ......"

"Hey Billy, give me a beer bottle, will you, I want to crack his head for him, talking crazy like that ...."

If George W. Bush were NDN, he would be able to walk with Pride....now he has empty words and is called Walking Eagle

In his "society", the "society" of George W. Bush, the "mark" of a "man" is the emptiness of his words, coupled with the shallowness of his deeds.

In that "society", to "count coup" is to send some hired underling to steal from you, in the dead of the night, after you have gone home to sleep, after a feast where you were told not to worry, as all would be well with you for your friendship with the members of that society, whose words are empty!

And yes, I have heard of this name "Walking Eagle", and it is apt!

And I have passed on this thread of yours to native Americans that I know in the east of this country, and so ....

After the battle on Little Bighorn in 1876, Sitting Bull fled to Canada, where he was allowed to live in peace.

The "circumstance" of a "renegade" American Indian being treated well in Canada was a constant source of embarassment to the American government (which has not been a government "of the people" for a long time now, if it ever was, at all).

Finally, an American commission led by General Alfred Terry came to Canada to "entreat" (woo with lies) Sitting Bull and his small band of Souix to return to the United States, and "agency" (prisons not necessarily having actual walls) life.

Sitting Bull replied to General Terry's request by first reviewing all his tribe's experiences with the "Great White Father" (a term of respect given by Indians, but never earned by the one receiving the respect, in the case of Washington, D.C.), reminding him of the innumerable broken treaties and promises, and then, he continued:

"For 64 years, you have persecuted my people."

"I ask you what we have done to cause us to depart from our own country?"

"I will tell you!"

"We had no place to go, so we took refuge here."

"It was on this side of the boundary I first learned to shoot, and be a man."

"For that reason, I have come back."

"I was kept ever on the move until I was compelled to foresake my own lands and come here."

"I was raised close to, and today, shake hands with, these people."

[Here, Sitting Bull strides towards Canadian Commissioner Macleod and Superintendant Walsh, shakes hands with them, then turns to the American commissioners.]

"That is the way I came to know these people, and that is the way I propose to live."

"We did not give you our country, you took it from us!"

"Look how I stand with these people" [pointing to the Canadian North West Mounted Police].

"LOOK AT ME!"

"YOU THINK I AM A FOOL, BUT YOU ARE A GREATER FOOL THAN I AM!"

"This house, the home of the English, is a medicine house [the abode of truth] AND YOU COME HERE TO TELL US LIES!"

"WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THEM!"

"Now, I have said enough!"

"You can go back!"

"Say no more!"

"TAKE YOUR LIES WITH YOU!"

"I will stay with these people."

"The country we came from belonged to us; you took it from us; we will live here."

end quotes

What more could he have said?

Liars lie, as the eagle flies, and the fish swims!

It is the nature of all to be what they are, and when one sees the "eagle" who walks everywhere he goes, one might know something about that "eagle" .......

When going into battle, get there first!

Bring with you a sash, bright red in color, so as to be seen from a great distance, about ten feet in length, along with a sharpened stake, and a large rock, with which to pound the stake deep into the ground.

Tie the sash firmly around your waist, leaving about six feet free!

Then, bend down, and pound the sharpened stake firmly through the free end of the sash, thus pinning it securely to the ground at your feet.

Now!

Throw away the rock.

Beyond where you can reach with your outstretched arm, when at the limit of the sash .....

And now, you are ready ......

For everything!

at the center is Truth

choose to live your Truth and be free

or die a bit with each breath

One time, I got a phone call!

"Indians are going to be at such-and-such town hall!"

"I want to hear them speak!"

"Will you go with me?"

SO!

I went!

There was a mound in that town that someone wanted to sell for the gravel that was in it, and the Indians were there because in with the gravel, were the remains of ancient Indians!

"Oh this, and oh, that" said the Indians to the Town Council, and I could tell from the glazed eyes of the Town Council members that they were just biding their time, watching the Indians' lips move, without hearing no sounds coming out, and so, when the Indians were done, I asked for permission to speak, and when it was granted to me, I told the Town Board that I really wanted to speak to these Indians, and not them, because while the Indians had been speaking, I told the Town Council, I was watching you, and I know that you did not care about one single thing they were saying, and so, what I want to ask the Indians is why they could not see that for themselves, since they were there in the room, too?

"Is indifference not apparent to an Indian"?

"Cannot you see that they WILL NOT HEAR YOU?"

"You ask them to consider the bones of your ancestors?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"These are people who throw away their own old people , while they are yet living, and you expect them to be concerned for some bones of people who are now gone, people who have nothing that these people can take from them, like their homes, and lands?"

"Why would they honor the bones of your old people, when they will not honor the flesh of their own?"

The answer was silence!

Isn't it always?

"I am particularly fond of the little groves of oak trees."

"I love to look at them, because they endure the wintry storm and the summer's heat, and - not unlike ourselves - seem to flourish by them."

- Tatanka Yotanka, or Sitting Bull, Souix Warrior

"What Indians?"


Custer

I thought he said something like, "Now, I finally got all these Indians right where I want them!"

Or was it, "Holy crap, they're not running away!"

"We always had plenty; our children never cried from hunger; neither were our people in want ....."

"The rapids of Rock River furnished us with an abundance of excellent fish, and the land being very fertile, never failed to produce good crops of corn, beans, pumpkins and squashes ....."

"Here our village stood for more than a hundred years, during all of which time, we were the undisputed possessors of the Mississippi Valley ...."

"Our village was healthy and there was no place in the country possessing such advantages, nor hunting grounds better than those we had in possession."

"If a prophet had come to our village in those days and told us that the things were to take place which have since come to pass, none of our people would have believed him."

- Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk, Chief of the Sauk and Fox

Holy Mother Earth, the trees and all nature, are witnesses of your thoughts and deeds!

- Winnebago wisdom

"The Lakota was a true naturist - a lover of nature."

"He loved the earth and all things of the earth, the attachment growing with age."

"The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power."

"It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth."

"Their tipis were built upon the earth and their alters were made of earth."

"The birds that flew in the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew!"

"The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing!"

"That is why the old Indain still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life-giving forces."

"For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly; he can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him ...."

"Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle."

"For the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them and so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood, they spoke a common tongue."

"The old Lakota was wise."

"He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too."

"So he kept his youth close to its softening influence."

- Chief Luther Standing Bear, born 1868

The occasion for this following speech was an Indian council in the Valley of the Walla Walla in 1855, presided over by Isaac Stevens, governor of Washington Territory, and General Palmer, superintendant of Indian Affairs for Oregon.

Governor Stevens' objectives were to set up three reservations; one for the Cayuses, the Walla-Wallas, and Umatillas; a second for the Nez Perces; and a third for the Yakimas.

Young Chief, of the Cayuses, opposed the treaty, and grounded his objections on the fact that the Indians had no right to sell the ground which the Great Spirit had given for their support:

"I wonder if the ground has anything to say?"

"I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said?"

"I wonder if the ground would come alive and what is on it?"

"Though I hear what the ground says!"

"The ground says, it is the Great Spirit that placed me here."

"The Great Spirit tells me to take care of the Indians, to feed them aright!"

"The Great Spirit appointed the roots to feed the Indians on."

"The water says the same thing: the Great Spirit directs me, feed the Indians well."

"The grass says the same thing: feed the Indians well."

"The ground, water and grass say, the Great Spirit has given us our names."

"We have these names and hold these names."

"The ground says, the Great Spirit has placed me here to produce all that grows on me, trees and fruit."

"The same way the ground says, it was from me man was made."

"The Great Spirit, in placing men on the earth, desired them to take good care of the ground and to do each other no harm ......."

"God created the Indian country and it was like He spead out a big blanket!"

"He put the Indians on it."

"They were created here in this country, truly honest, and that was the time this river started to run."

"Then God created fish in this river and put deer in the mountains and made laws through which has come the increase of fish and game."

"Then the Creator gave us Indians life; we walked, and as soon as we saw the game and fish, we knew they were made for us."

"For the women, God made roots and berries to gather, and the Indians grew and mulitplied as a people."

"When we were created we were given our ground to live on and from this time, these were our rights."

"This is all true."

"We had the fish before the Missionaries came, before the white man came."

"We were put here by the Creator and these were our rights as far as my memory to my grandfather."

"This was the food on which we lived."

"My mother gathered berries; my father fished and killed the game."

"These words are mine and they are true."

"My strength is from the fish; my blood is from the fish, from the roots and berries."

"The fish and game are the essence of my life."

"I was not brought from a foreign country and did not come here."

"I was put here by the Creator!"

- Chief Weninock of the Yakimas, about 1915, arguing to be allowed to fish unmolested at traditional fishing places

Chief Weninock then continued on, as follows:

"We had no cattle, no hogs, no grain, only berries and roots and game and fish!"

"We never thought that we would be troubled about these things, and I tell you, my people, and I believe it, it is not wrong for us to get this food!"

"Whenever the seasons open, I raise my heart in thanks to the Creator of His Bounty that this food has come."

"I want this treaty to show the officers what our fishing rights were."

"I was at the Council at Walla Walla with my father, who was one of the Chiefs who signed the treaty."

"I well remember hearing the talk about the treaty."

"There were more Indians there at Walla Walla than ever came together at any one place in this country."

"Besides the women and children, there were two thousand Indian warriors, and they were there about one moon, during the same part of the year as now, in May and June."

"The Indians and Commissioners were many days talking about making the treaty."

"One day Governor Stevens read what he had written down and had one of the interpreters explain it to the Indians."

"After everybody had talked and Pu-Pu-Mox-Mox had talked, General Stevens wanted to hear from the head Chief of the Yakimas."

"He said, 'Kamiaken, the great Chief of the Yakimas, has not spoken at all'."

"His people have had no voice here today."

"He is not afraid to speak - let him speak out."

"Something has been said about more and more whites coming into the Indian Country, and then the Indians would be driven away from their hunting grounds and fishing places."

"Then Governor Stevens told the Indians that when the white man came here, the rights of the Indians would be protected."

"Then Chief Kamiaken said, 'I am afraid that the whitemen are not speaking straight; that their children will not do what is right by our children; that they will not do what you have promised, for them'!"

".... that they will not do what you have promised, for them'!"


did 'they' promise 'a good Indian is a dead Indian'?

Well, shawneedaughter, it is likely that they did!

Yes, that is likely a promise, made and kept!

But that is history, yes?

And today ........

How did that one guy say it, when they had done nailing him to the tree he was hung up to die on?

"Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do?"

Something like that, anyway!

And you know, shawneedaughter, that the words are true, for they don't have a clue!

"What is life?"

"It is the flash of a firefly in the night."

"It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time."

"It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

- dying words of Crowfoot of the Blackfeet people, born 1821, died April, 1890

And here, I want to expand on my own "belief system" somewhat, by referring to the "belief system" of the Navaho Indians, and their concept of hozho, or balance and harmony, which is the set of "qualites" at stake here, in this dialogue that shawneedaughter has started in here, AS I UNDERSTAND IT .......

From http://www.ancestral.com/cultures/north_america/navajo.html :

The Navajo believe the world to be an orderly place filled with interconnected objects all existing in a state of balance and harmony.

The bedrock of the Navajo religion is the concept of Hózhó, which means a combination of existing in a state of balance, harmony, wellness, peace, and completeness.

A sort of integrated oneness, with the universe running like an incredibly finely adjusted watch, with everything seamlessly working together.

It is a complex concept that is remarkably similar to the Chinese Tao.

The simplified translation of "to walk in beauty" trivializes the complexity of Hózhó.

For the Navajo, Hózhó is everything, and when it goes awry, the orderly universe is disrupted and must be restored to its natural order.

end quotes

And here, shawneedaughter, is where I would say that I am with this matter of the world we find ourselves a part of today!

To me, as well as for the Navajo, Hózhó is everything, and when it goes awry, as it seems to have done in this world of OURS, beginning God only knows when, THEN, the orderly universe is disrupted and must be restored to its natural order!

That is where I am with all of this, to be quite truthful, and this is something that comes from inside me, from my own heart, and hence, to me direct from what I perceive to be my own God!

As with the Navajo, for me, this issue is not one of aesthetics, as beauty is, but a fundamental characteristic of existence, itself, which is what I perceive as the province of God, in my system, anyway, which I never impose on anyone else to have to believe in, just because I might happen to do so!.

As to the Navajo, they periodically have Ways, or jí, which are chanting ceremonies done for every possible purpose imaginable.

These are also sometimes known as "sings" or as "chants".

Since there is so much more to these ceremonies than just singing or chanting, this page refers to them as "ways".

The Blessing Way, or Hózhó jí, is used as a general blessing ceremony to restore Hózhó, and ensures the recipient will have good luck, health, and prosperity.

The Enemy Way, or 'Anaa' jí, is used to expunge chindi or evil spirits which plague a person.

These are most commonly the result of violence, such as warriors who are plagued by the spirits of those they killed, but can also arise from failure to follow the Navajo rituals concerning ordinary death.

Here, shawneedaughter, is where I personally am with these people that you speak of in this world of OURS.

I would say that in my view, they are inhabited with chindi, and that it is affecting their balance as persons!

Because they are out of balance, their words and their deeds do not match, and that is apparent to anyone with vision who observes them!

The only thing afterwards is interpretation!

And treatment!

And that is how I see this discussion now, shawneedaughter, to be truthful!

In my belief system, which encompasses and borrows from many or perhaps all traditions, vengence belongs to the Lord!

In other words, it is not mine, and so, I never focus my thoughts in that direction, nor do I believe you do, and so ......

Outside of a huge healing ceremony for these people you speak of, to exorcise them of all the chindi who now plague them, the only other option that I see is standing way back out of the way, because in their maddened and crazed state, these people are capable of destroying the world, and everything in it, and when things come to that pass, then the earth itself will rise up and crush these people like bugs, and those who stand with them, or near them, will be crushed as well, just for being there, in that space, at that time!

As was said in a different time, and a different place, long ago - GET OUT OF SODOM AND GOMORAH, AND DO NOT LOOK BACK ......

One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a "battle" that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 'wolves' inside us all."

One is Evil.

It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good.

It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

'There is a disturbance in the Force'....one of my favorite lines....because it is so true....when our Mother is not in Harmony, neither are we. The manifestation of Energy both of Nature and man.

I agree with you on the forgiveness aspect, though by nature I am activist and so when something is seen as wrong, that wrong must be righted....sometimes it is something as simple as bringing food to an Elder in need....or comforting someone who is in pain....there is still much pain in Indian Country, there are still vestiges of the Indian Removal Programs to this very day....we must always have Hope for our children and if it means fighting to gain that Hope, then so be it.

The purest gift that one can give is of the heart....whether that gift is for good or evil depends on the giver.

Being an "activist", shawneedaughter, is both a blessing, and a curse, as you must know!

Because the world has within it great evil, then you become an "activist"!

BUT HOW DO YOU MANIFEST THAT?

Do the Navaho fight chindi, by using other chindi?

I was on the Pine Ridge res some time ago, and I had the pleasure to sit and talk with a little old man who was a Lakota, but small, and with a deformed foot!

He would have been born before 1900, I think, out there, and so, you can well imagine what life must have been like for him, when young!

He is lucky that he was not simply "exposed", left on a rock for the coyotes to take, and it is a measure of Lakota compassion that he was not.

We sat in rocking chairs, and we conversed about this and that, and he told me a story about a person who was his age when they were young, but this person was very big and strong, as Lakota can be!

When this person was around 16, this old man told me, he could beat up full grown men, and so, that is what he started doing!

And then he would take their women, because he could!

No one could beat him, and so, he did what he wanted, and that was that!

But, shawneedaughter, time itself marches on, whether we make note of that or not, and one day, maybe twenty years later, a young man showed up at his door and recounted how that young man had grown up with stories of how this man had beat up his father, and had bothered his mother, and so, he was there to take a piece of that man for doing these things to that young man's family, so long ago!

And then another came, with the same story, and another and another and another, and each day, those young men got a little stronger, and each day, that other guy just got a little older!

And he spent his later years getting whipped, until he died, while this little man lived on, because he did not prey upon people when he was young!

When I met him, I believe he was in his eighties, and he was very content and serene and a pleasure to be around!

He was a very good host, and an example, to me, anyway, of what I think Indian people really are all about, if they stay "natural".

I would say that old man, out there on the Pine Ridge res, probably knew as much about hardship as anyone, because it was still there, when I was, hardship, that is, and plenty of it, but he was not bitter; rather, he was contemplative about life, and it must have worked because he lived a long life, where others, more strong than he, did not.

Perhaps because he was scrawny and weak, he did not develop a huge ego, and so, he had nothing in later life that he had to work to lose again, to find contentment in his life, as poor as it might have seemed to others who were richer and stronger than he!

People like that give me hope for my own future, shawneedaughter, because I am no longer young, and so, at some point, must prepare myself for my own journey back to home, and to do that, I must not become a further part of the disturbance in the field that you sense, and talk about in here, and I think that is about the best one can do, sometimes, is to not make it 100%.

Don't become a part of that disturbance yourself, and so, it can only be 99% instead, and then, when someone notices you, and they join you, on your side, then it is down to 98%, and when you have enough to form a circle ........

I go to Pine Ridge often, to visit in Manderson and Wounded Knee....there is still so much poverty and sorrow....sorrow from the Past and from Present times.

There is always the sense of our Ancestors and so we honor them....my own grandmother, who was taken 'off' rez to be 'unheathened' always carried her pain, in a deep place in her heart....for her, I live my Truth, that when I see somehting that can be changed, I do my best to change the wrong.

To rise above the evil, to bring food to hungry, to bring Hope in the face of sorrow and sometimes, like you, to just listen.

2 summers ago, I sat with a Lakota woman, at a small stand by the side of the road in Pine Ridge....she was selling jewelry to make money for a small grave marker for her 12 year old daughter....the girl was killed by a car....I sat with her for some time, gave her some of my lunch and some cold drinks and we talked sister to sister....we both left there knowing our 'connection'.

I will not start a fight but I will not back down from one and I will always stand up for those who can't. I htink you would, too.

On your journey home, you will most remember the words, 'What you do to the least of you, you do unto me.' I am not Christian but I believe that Creator is universal, we just each walk a different Path to that place.

You have a powerful heart, shawneedaughter, may the Creator watch over your path always, and may it always rise ....

And I would be like Washakie, I think!

If you want to take my people, then first, you must take me ....

And here you have spoken some very important words that need to be said, shawneedaughter, because it is not necessary to be a "christian" to be a human being, OR A GOOD PERSON, and many who call themselves christians would kill Jesus if they saw him on the street, as he would be as much a threat to them and their way of life as he was to the moneylenders in the temple.

Jesus never called himself a christian, and he never told anyone else to as well, but he did say what you have written above, and there is great truth to that part of it, or so my experiences as an infantryman in Viet Nam have shown me, to my satisfaction, anyway!

You made a statement about "un-heathenizing" Indians, and when I read that, although I knew you spoke with what I thought was some sadness in your heart, I chuckled to myself, because to me, the Indians knew the Creator quite well, before these missionaries came to them, and since the missionaries came, I wonder if they know the Creator quite as well as before!

I sat on a train next to a missionary on the way from Wyoming to Chicago, and this missionary wanted to read to me from the Bible, and so, I said, yes, go ahead, you can do that, if you please!

And then she would read this sentence, and then that one, and what she was doing was inventing something out of snippets that was false, overall, and I told her so!

I then asked her for her "book", and I demonstrated what I was saying, by reading what was in the spaces that she was leaving out, and her face got kind of funny, and she told me that she was not supposed to be reading those words, ONLY WHAT HER TEACHER TOLD HER TO READ, and I told her, "well, then, you have a false prophet for a teacher, don't you, and what you are engaging in here is a form of heresy, making the Bible say what you or your teacher want it to say so that you can then manipulate me!"

"Do not put false prophets and idols before me" is what I thought I heard God say to me, some years ago, and I do not question that, is what I told this missionary, and that was pretty much the end of the Bible reading for that day, anyway!

"Slaves to uncertainty" is what I call people like these, people who always must have a rock to cling to, instead of being free!

They are like people caught in the middle of a raging flood, hanging on for dear life to a rock, and the water is washing right over their head, and yet they won't let go, even though it is drowning them to stay there, out of fear of drowning if they let go of the rock, where they are being drowned anyway!

IF THE CREATOR CREATED ALL THINGS, IN WHICH PLACES IS THE CREATOR NOT?

The Indians, who are called heathens, knew that God was everywhere, and so, treated the earth and all things on it with respect due to the hand of the Creator!

The missionaries then come along and tell you that , "no, God is not in that rock, God is not in that tree, God is not in the cry of that eagle ...."

SO?

Who are the heathens?

Exactly, who are the heathens?

I have been told that my ways are wrong, that what I see and hear and feel are pagan, heathen and ungodly....I know that Creator walks with me on my Path and that there is Creator's hand on all things and Spirit in everything....when I place my hand on the bark of a tree, I feel the heartbeat....I see the being that is the rainbow.....doesn't make me a witch or a false prophet though I have been called both.

There is one thing that must be universal, that is Love, of self and others and all things....those who choose to place stipulations ie: only reading some passages, only wanting to associate with certain people or only seeing their 'way' have the sadness of seeing the rainbow in 1 dimension and with only one color....they do not hear or see or feel or hear the song of this Earth....we can only hope

Because the heartbeat is there!

I was a "dog soldier" in Viet Nam in 1969, with the power of life or death over others concentrated right in my index finger on my right hand!

One day, the Creator came to me and told me in no uncertain terms that my "way" right then was pagan, heathen and ungodly, and if I did not cease and desist immediately, with the killing of his creatures, that I was going to find out a whole lot about that saying about "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword", and since it was the voice of the Creator in my "ear", I took heed!

In March of 1969, I was seriously wounded in the back of the head by the exploding warhead of an RPG-7 rocket grenade that sent red-hot fragments of metal into the area of my spine, where they remain to this day!

The "pain" of that, if it can even be called pain anymore, at that level, was beyond my words to ever describe, and all I could "think" to do was to get as close to the earth as possible, to get the wound itself right into contact with the earth, which I did.

Pack the wound with bloody mud!

Or die!

I guess I was a heathen that night, too!

Here is my "contender" for that "honor", this Bruno fellow, who is by the way, one of those who carries the tail feathers of WALKIN' EAGLE, himself:

"Tribes: Bruno's apology lacking - Senate majority leader reaches out, but Indians say it's not far enough"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Saturday, July 2, 2005

ALBANY -- Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno issued an apology for his remarks about Native American leaders doing business beside campfires, but his statement didn't go far enough for some Indian officials.

"As far as the comments I made earlier this week regarding the decision-making process of tribal leaders, perhaps my attempts at humor were misinterpreted and unfortunate," Bruno stated Friday.

Equally unfortunate, he said, were responses by Indian representatives who said Bruno's offenses included both his remarks and actions, such as killing a bill that would have allowed a land claim settlement for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe because his son, Kenneth Bruno, is lobbying for a Wisconsin tribe's casino project.

Bruno, R-Brunswick, said such responses were meant "to distort my position on casinos and to personally attack me and my family."

Bruno continued: "If any of my words were offensive, I apologize."

"I noted at the time that my comments were not meant to be disparaging, and the tribal leaders that I have worked closely with for many years in honestly trying to negotiate the gaming compact and land claims know my position and my respect for their position, culture and traditions."

"That is not a statement to start any kind of healing," said Joseph Heath, a longtime lawyer for the Onondaga Nation who also represents traditional Cayugas.

He did not pull back from criticisms of Bruno's remarks, including alleging Ken Bruno influenced Bruno's stand against the Mohawk deal.

"The facts that I stated the other day are facts."

"I'm not making ethnic, offensive comments."

"We didn't resort to that."

"If he doesn't like the facts, don't do it," Heath said.

"It's certainly encouraging that at least he realizes he's created a problem."

"There are certain things that one cannot joke about," Heath said.

He said Onondaga leaders learned about Bruno's comments on Syracuse radio and were appalled.

Officials at other tribes declined to speak publicly but gasped when told of the remarks Bruno uttered Wednesday at a news conference.

The senator made his observations about Cayuga leaders deciding things around the campfire while talking about why the tribe couldn't resolve its land claim with Gov. George Pataki.

Bruno said he hopes Pataki will negotiate gaming compacts with three tribes for Catskills casinos, which he said will bring the state money for education and new jobs.

Pataki's aides say the governor is rethinking the strategy of casino expansion now that a judgment against the state in the Cayuga land claim case was dismissed by a federal appeals court.

Pataki had been using state-granted casino compacts as a bargaining chip to resolve claims.

M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

end quotes

In a land of plenty, ignorance, like a weed, blooms just as readily as do roses!

I heard these comments, myself, and I don't just listen to words, but tone of voice, and these comments were most offensive and vulgar, which is a sign of the one speaking, and not the intended target, which was the Native American people!

This is the world we live in, shawneedaughter, and it does not change that much, even as time passes us by!

This man Bruno, to me, was created by the Creator, just as were you and I, and then, he went off on his own path, for his own reasons, with his eyes full of the sparkle of glittering gold, and today, you are where you are, I am where I am, and he is where he is, no more, no less!

Outside of the Creator, who shall judge us, in the end, for our actions while down here on this earth of OURS!

To me, it is a measure of restraint that the Native Americans did not resort in kind by howling, "Oh you whites ...."!

Joe Bruno is simply Joe Bruno!

His ignorance is his!

He is not the spokesperson for a race or ethnic group, no more than I am, and that is the point that needs to be made to all Native American peoples out there - do not think all are ignorant and contemptuous of others just because some most definitely are, and pray that ignorance, like rabies, departs the land faster than it arrived!

There's quite a bit of talk up this way about these derogatory comments made by this Joe Bruno about Native American peoples sitting around a campfire, making their decisions, and the word employed most recently by a talk show person was BUFFOON!

"Joe Bruno sounds like a BUFFOON!"

And he does, when you think about the part the Iroquois peoples played in New York State's history, where Joe Bruno is the BIG BOSS of the State Senate!

The Long House tradition of the Iroquois used to be taught to schoolkids, because it was from the Longhouse tradition of the Iroquois that New York State actually got the basis for its early democratic government, which Joe Bruno openly mocks, when he mocks the Indians!

I would say that they were not "campfires" at all, but "council fires", instead, and in the democracy of the Indians, there is true debate on matters of importance, by all the people, unlike our state government here, where decisions are made behind closed doors by people like Joe Bruno, for the benefit of people like Joe Bruno, and his, and to OUR detriment, the common folks of this state who are not bigots, or hate-mongers, like this Joe Bruno is.

A measure of Joe Bruno's world is that his son now sells the father's "friendship", for a little while, anyway, to the highest bidders for the favors of the father!

Now, that is quite a statement, to me, anyway, and I am not alone in that feeling, and this is something that we can only shake our heads at, in wonder!

"How'd you like my daddy to be your friend for awhile?"

"Give me some money, and he'll be your best friend!"

"Oh, yeah, some whiskey, too!"

That's not something we got from the Indians, I don't think, anyway, and so, maybe what the Indians should do is to set up a teepee, or a brush arbor, maybe, and have a sing for Joe Bruno, and his son, who sells him like a piece of meat, to whoever can afford to pay to have Joe Bruno as their friend, for a little while, anyway!

As for me, shawneedaughter, I have had a fire going now for these last few days, and I work on my own small circle, even if I am the only one in it, because it is the circle, and not the numbers that are important, I think, anyway!

Purify one small patch of earth, where your feet stand, and start there!

Put your fireplace in the middle, and you on the outside, and just concentrate on keeping the circle round!

No sharp corners!

Stand on a line of earth energy, and all living beings who touch that line at the same time, touch you!

Since evil cannot overcome earth energy, standing on a natural line of earth energy keeps evil from touching you, and earth energy is healing to all who draw from it, FOR THAT PURPOSE, and so .........

Life is still the cry of an eagle, shawneedaughter, as it has always been ....

From that, take heart!

"Bruno blocks wetland shield - Senate leader's opposition to widely supported bill that would extend protection to smaller areas raises questions of conflict of interest"

By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, July 3, 2005

ALBANY -- For more than a year, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has blocked widely supported wetlands legislation that would limit development on luxury homesites his family's business recently sold for more than $1.1 million.

A wide margin of senators -- three-fourths of them by some lobbyist counts -- were prepared to for the proposed law, called the Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act, but Bruno refused to allow any full Senate vote.

The state Assembly passed the bill 115-28 on Feb. 2.

The act would have created basic state protection for small areas of wetlands -- ranging in size from one to 12.4 acres -- that the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 declared exempt from regulation by the federal Army Corps of Engineers.

Records obtained by the Times Union show a Bruno family investment, First Grafton Corp., has a history of resisting wetlands restrictions on a 625-acre development site in Grafton in eastern Rensselaer County.

In 1991, Bruno created a stir when his business mowed down forest and wetlands to create a road without any permits.

In 1995, state officials warned that extending that road and building homes on at least six planned lots "will impact federally protected wetlands."

In 2000, the Army Corps issued a stop work order when First Grafton began bulldozing and filling protected hemlock swampland to extend its road to accommodate the future home of Kenneth R. Bruno, the senator's son.

Last July, with Ken Bruno acting as a real estate broker, First Grafton began quickly selling off its 14 remaining lots to five buyers, including one $800,000 sale in February of 10 lots and raw land to a Massachusetts developer, who promised to extend the site's road another mile within a year.

The developer's lots and road right of way are dotted with wetland areas of six acres or less that would be covered by the proposed legislation.

Bruno spokesman John McArdle scoffed at claims the senator purposefully killed the wetlands bill or that the senator's interest in First Grafton Corp., which was placed in a blind trust, represented any conflict of interest.

"It's outlandish to use First Grafton as an excuse," McArdle said.

"That argument doesn't hold any water."

Bruno has repeatedly said he opposes the wetlands plan because it is unfair to landowners who want to make their own decisions about what happens on their property.

Nevertheless, environmentalists who work in the capital are outraged and outspoken.

"We did a survey of senators on how they would vote and we know we had more than sufficient votes," said Bill Cooke of Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

"What happened?"

"Joe Bruno is what happened."

"Joe stopped the legislation."

"Is his conduct criminal?"

"I don't know," Cooke said.

"Is it outrageous, unreasonable and bordering on the immoral?"

"You bet."

"It's a disservice to the voters in this state."

The bill was sponsored by Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Carl L. Marcellino, R-Syosset, and co-sponsored by 10 other senators, including two Republicans on Marcellino's committee.

Marcellino first introduced the bill in last year's session.

Lobbyists say 20 Democratic senators also asked to be co-sponsors.

The Senate Environmental Conservation Committee approved the bill 11-1.

Marcellino did not respond to requests for comment, nor did most of the bill's sponsors or any other legislators contacted by the Times Union.

Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Queens, and the Senate vice president, is still committed to the legislation.

"He'll do whatever he has to do to keep it in focus," Peter Potter, his spokesman, said.

Potter declined to say whether Padavan planned to press Bruno for the bill to be put to a vote next session.

Marcellino's bill would give the Department of Environmental Conservation regulatory jurisdiction over 270,000 wetland areas around the state of between one and 12.4 acres.

The Supreme Court's 2001 decision left those areas without any oversight.

The legislative session closed again this year without a vote on Marcellino's bill just as the Times Union published a June 23 report on First Grafton and Bruno's perceived conflicts of interest.

The Senate majority leader was a 25-percent stockholder in the business, which was run by Bruno friend and lobbyist James Featherstonhaugh.

Bruno transferred his stock to a so-called blind trust in 1992 to remove any direct financial interest that could have raised ethical conflict of interest issues under state law.

Peter Bruno of Glens Falls, the senator's brother, continued to own a one-eighth interest in First Grafton.

The company dissolved in May.

In a 1995 letter to Army Corps brass, First Grafton engineer Peter A. Chiefari urged federal officials to be swift in allowing the project to move forward after First Grafton was cited for building a 1.7-mile road over wetlands without a permit.

"The price range for the lots has been set at from $250,000 to $400,000 each," wrote Chiefari, who did not return a call or e-mail for comment.

"Failure to obtain a timely approval may result in serious financial harm to First Grafton with consequent liability."

In April 2001, the Army Corps of Engineers lifted a stop work order prompted by further road construction after receiving a remediation plan.

Two months later, Ken Bruno, then Rensselaer County's district attorney, purchased a 10.8-acre lot near the end of the extended wetlands road for $44,000.

That summer, Ken Bruno received permission from the Rensselaer County Health Department to build his septic system without a county inspection, according to documents obtained by the Times Union.

The remainder of the development includes a total of 49 small wetlands areas covered under Marcellino's bill.

"The fact Sen. Bruno was involved with an enterprise that violated federal wetlands laws helps explain why he's working hard to stop a bill that would regulate destructive development on New York's treasured wetlands," said John Stouffer, who is the legislative director for the Sierra Club's Atlantic chapter.

Wetlands serve as natural water filters, absorbing contaminants, as they protect water quality in streams, lakes and rivers, advocates explained.

That's critical for municipalities that rely on surface supplies of water, like New York City and Albany.

Bruno's stance against the wetlands bill contrasts with his usual support for environmental legislation and issues.
In April, he joined Gov. George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in signing a memorandum of understanding that makes $30 million available for local communities to develop strategies to clean up and reuse brownfields.

A supporter of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's new $20 million center for future energy systems, Bruno also took the lead in passing a tough anti-smoking law in 2003.

In August 2000, he delivered a $400,000 state grant to Troy to renovate Riverfront Park and improve the view.

In 1998 he rolled out $6.6 million in pork barrel grants for historic preservation and environmental conservation around the Capital Region.

Bruno spokesman McArdle said detractors may as well blame First Grafton for all of what ails the Legislature, including its failure to restore the death penalty.

The Senate majority leader became more defensive this year after a May report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a downstate think tank, slapped him for "standing in the way of progress" as he continues to control what legislation sees the light of day.

Cooke, of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a Schoharie County farmer, said he and his colleagues persuaded tens of thousands of New Yorkers to ask their state senators to support the wetlands bill.

Cooke owns 14 acres and rents another 80 or so.

He acknowledged the bill would prevent him from developing the majority of his property.

"I'm a conservative Republican, and I still recognize the need to protect it," he said.

"This issue is not about Joe Bruno and Bill Cooke," Cooke said.

"It's about our children and their children."

"I understand about peoples' property rights, but that's life."

"We regulate everything, including the fence height in between peoples' houses -- and we can't protect our wetlands?"

"Come on."

"Is it public need?"

"Or personal greed?"

Rob Moore, a lobbyist with Environmental Advocates, was another of many who urged state lawmakers to pass the wetlands legislation, which would require any development that encompasses a smaller wetland to obtain a DEC permit.

Moore agreed with his colleagues that Bruno's refusal to allow votes on certain bills seems to follow a pattern directly related "to his reported personal and business interests."

"The thumb was already put on this early," he said.

"It didn't get a debate on the floor."

"That doesn't happen in any other state."

Well, shawneedaughter, I for one hope you are well, and that your path continues ever upwards!

And I hope that as a result of your thread, here, some insight comes through to others as to who the Native American peoples over here really were, and are, outside of the stereotypes that have been created and portrayed over time, by such things as the "television", which often is a gushing fountain of filth and ignorance, pouring its foul contents into living rooms and kitchens, all over OUR America, which undeniably, used to be yours!

The world is as the world is, and that is that!

One day, an old Shoshone told me that ALL human beings have two hands, a left and a right, and that I should never forget that that fact, regardless of whose company that I was in, or what their nationality, and I have never forgotten those words, or the speaker of them, who was born before 1900, over in Idaho, and was then brought over the Rocky Mountains, or Wind River mountains, into Wyoming, carried in a cradle board, as an infant!

What that old man saw in his youth is probably inconceivable to most people today, and in most ways, with all our supposed "book learning", we are some of the most ignorant people who have ever populated this earth, as well as some of the most rapacious, and greedy, and of all peoples who came before, perhaps it is us who have the most capacity to totally destroy this earth of OURS, as well as the will to do so, even if out of insanity, and ignorance!

Every man, woman and child, regardless, has two hands, a left, and a right, which to that old man, meant that within us all is the capacity for both good and evil!

Who wins?

Depends on which "wolf" you feed!

Be well, shawneedaughter!

I have been very busy with taking care of my brother, many trips to the hospital in the last weeks.

To learn to live 'in the rythmn' of Mother Earth is amazing....what I so love about The Black Hills is the energy. The pollution and over use of this Earth is staggering....not sure they will learn.

I watched a PBS program about the TVA and the Army Corps of Engineers and the impact the projects had on the Appalachian residents, somewhat like the genocide of the ndn, just that the Appalachians died of hunger and some lost their Spirit.

One of the saddest things about living in these times, there is such an hypocrisy and disrespect for what is the right way....we have a 'great leader' who is neither, we have invaded a country for no other reason than to further 'der leader's' agenda and we are setting a tone for a world that our great-grandchildren have to live in that is destructive.

'We are all related' is forgotten.