Anthony Goulet came into the Multicultural centers office looking for Barb. A man named David Bomar who was a member of the BSU, I believe he was vice president at the time, and an editor of the Multicultural Times had sent Tony to the office to join NASO and help us with the second Pow Wow.
I had taken the summer and preformed imperfectly at many different Pow Wow's. I got to meet the rest of Kevin's family and instantly fell in love with Mama Gasco and his older sister Karen. She was amazing and had a strong presence. I just enjoyed listening to her, she would talk often about her own mistakes while we were talking and use herself as an example of how to persevere in difficult situations. She would talk about the importance of dancing at gatherings and of sticking close to community and family. She has passed on but she remains one of my idols. Kevin was a bit conservative in those days and we would travel and have long conversations often on opposite sides of the issue. Kevin is damn near genius and so what I enjoyed most about these conversations were that they were not the typical up all night solve all problems college situations. Kevin had real world experience and while we were both Indian men we had different experiences up to that point. Kevin would try to temper my anger towards White people by using examples within our spiritual thought. That summer was amazing to me as I also met my hero Thurman Bear a man whose feet I would sit at for hours and learn about networking and "Indian Thought" which basically is- if what you are doing does not serve the betterment of Indian people - do something else. I also met Aunt Majel DeMarsh and her mother. I LOVED LOVED LOVED her mom. She would tell me about how Pow Wow's used to be run and talk to me about racial issues and the work I was doing. She encouraged me often and was just so sweet. As I write about these people, some have passed on I think how blessed I was to get to know them personally.
Tony came into the office shadowed by a large broad handsome man with a genuine smile and a gracious personality. He was Sam and he didn't speak. Tony was short but built like a tank and had a attituide. He seemed put out when I told him that Barb was gone for the day. I asked him if he was looking for the Latino student association and he cut me off and said, "No. I want to join the Indian group." I told him that was my group and asked him what his nation was, he didn't understand the question so I said, "Tribe" he said he was Sioux. I corrected him and said Lakota he stuck his chin out and said, "Yeah Lakota Sioux" I didn't correct him because he already seemed just pissed. I was going to grab my lunch and then get to class and asked them both if they wanted to join me. They agreed and we went to the dining hall. Tony had some kind of benefit card and got a ton of stuff free and he seemed to know a lot of people. Sam didn't say one word and I began to wonder if he was mute or bored. I asked him if he was Grand Traverse Bay Indian considering his size and he smiled that big Sam smile and said he was Cuban. He and I talked, or I talked and he smiled and laughed, and then Tony and I began talking. He asked me what the deal was with the HRL. I had to get ot class and told him to meet me at the NASO office in a couple of hours. I didn't see him again for two weeks.
Elections were due for our student group and Tom was graduating that year and wanted to be president. I gave in on two conditions. 1.) We had to get Ron Lewis, the only Native faculty member, to be our student advisor and 2.) I was going to continue to be speaking out against the HRL unimpeded and not being told what and how to say anything. This had become a discussion point amongst the Pow Wow committee. Some members that were supporters, the more middle of the road/conservative members, thought that my rhetoric was too heated and alienating. I reminded everyone that I was doing this all alone. I was getting threatened and beaten up and maligned in my own classes. My rhetoric then and now is actually tempered. While some were looking for White people to give us some slack by appealing to their morals I was saying that Whites are amoral and therefore are in no condition to give u what they don't have. When HRL was in public they wore suits or tshirts over a pair of Khaki pants and they spoke like lawyers. Cool and measured. They would talk about middle ground and compromise and "meting halfway" while in actuality they were a violent, racist lying pack of mutt dogs who knew no middle ground only what they wanted and they were going to put us in our place.
Connee suggested I be vice president and we get on with the business of promoting the Pow Wow. It was suggested that I may not be the best face to put out for recruiting people for the Pow Wow considering my reputation on campus. The HRL began it's harassment almost immediately after school started. Members of the BSU who came out with me, most times because we were friends and liked to hang out, were shouted at as "Davi's niggers" and such. Board of regent meetings became more vile and the campus police were now showing up because we, the Original People, were showing up in force to counteract the HRL.
This is the situation I threw Tony into. Barb and Connee and I volunteered him to work on the Pow Wow committee to handle all the traders and assorted miscellaneous tasks. In actuality we had him doing the shit I done the year before which was the job that no one else wanted.
I very much enjoyed Tony's friendship and soon he was on the drum and we were hanging out n weekends and such. He was traveling the Pow Wow circuit and soon became closer than a brother. He was very close to Joe as they were both Lakota and Tony soon began absorbing knowledge about our people. The spiritual aspect of the drum was enticing and soon Tony was at sweat-lodges with us and was right along side me in learning more about our place in this world. Tony is half White but never once did he think my 'rehtoric' was racist or over the top. He never once attempted to silence me or change what I was saying. If anything he became just a big as an encouragement as Barb and Connee. Tony then took on his own style of delivering our message.
The attacks on Tony were swift and vicious. In the classroom, while walking to class, while in the hallways, from cars and windows and across the street Tony became the newest target. HRL became bold around him. Once Tony and I were manning the NASO booth at a beginning of the year event where student groups had booths talking about what they did and recruitment members. Some asshole thought it would be funny to put the HRL and our booth across the hall from one another. HRL was constantly sending members over to question us and keep us away from doing what were were there to do. The old crone I wrote about earlier Ila, came over and while Tony was explaining the racism behind the logo she pur the back of her hand next to Tony's face. "He's White just like me, why is he aying we are racist he's White too. He's sitting with that one, meaning me, who's the real racist calling us racist when he is White." I swear to you those were her words and I will never forget them. I told her, because Tony was just about to slap this old bitch, to "Get behind me Satan!" which got me laughing which in turn made Tony laugh. Some other cave bitch in a HRL shirt came over and told us to respect our elders. I told her that Ila wasn't a elder she was just old and she needed to back up because I wasn't beyond punching a White woman. I sufficiently stunned her so she walked away. Then here comes this Black woman who began acting stupid about the logo. It would have worked had I not seen her speaking to the leader of the HRL a few minutes before. She spoke innocently asking if we were perhaps sensitive and why we couldn't see that it was an honor to be a mascot. It kept us in the public mind. Tony being a pro by now, nothing like a good baptism by fire. God bless him he answered every question she had but she was on a mission and then turned it to what she was really there for. She said she supported the name change back to Huron's and as a woman of color did not see it as racial at all. Tony tried to explain that in our view it was and he had a paper we were passing out talking about the psychological effects of negative stereotypes. She was relentless and began telling him how unfair it was to call people who just want to honor us racist and that it musst be the furthest thing from the truth. She busted herself when she said, "We had hoped a changing of the guard would bring a more open understanding". I jumped! I interrupted and it was clear by the look on her face that me speaking to her was repulsive. I said something along the lines, "We are asserting our rights to be recognized as humans and not mere mascots. We are making a stand here in order to rectify the oppression that plagues our people by the use of us as non-humans. We are here, we are Original people and this si something you morons can't understand. We are Original people and thus we can come in any color on the human spectrum because all colors of mankind come from us. Our people can be a light as Tony and as dark as Geronimo. Done talking now move along. The logo is gone and it is not coming back. Period. You lose. We won." She was pissed and told me to go to hell I told her of course I would be in hell because someone had to hold the door open for all these devils.
I could write pages and pages of shit that happened to me and Tony and Carla Collins and Tonya Jackson and Roberta Simpson and on and on and on. My points are that there were those of us doing the damn thing long before these johnny come lately's come and sit on the water tower, or write a 'stern' letter or starts a petition or whatever. The thing that makes me most happy is that after all these years I've been proven right. All this talk about the Redskins was talk I had made twenty some years ago but back then there were those of us too busy tying to see if "we could all just get along" and poo pooing my talk of White Supremacy and Institutionalized racism as overheated and demagogic speech. Now, it's known the effects that logo's have on our people, it is obvious that Redskins or any name using a Native person or Nation is racist. I've been saying that for twenty plus years. Tony, Barb, Stacie, Connee, Desha and Aunt Majel, Uncle Thurman we were way ahead of our time and we paid the price of it from Whites AND our own people. Those of you fighting this are walking on trails burnt before you by those of us who sacrificed ourselves with our time and energy.
Just this last year the new President of EMU allowed the band uniforms to have the Huron logo stitched into the inside the vest pocket. This is unacceptable. This is a slap in the face to those of us who did this damn work before. What are we doing about it? Do we need a Idle No More rally? Do we need to go back to the Board of Regents? I learned from Charity Hicks, the Queen of Shut 'em down, Tony and I started it but we actually did shut that University down. We took over the admin office, we were not alone of course not. We had learned a couple of things about Unity in order to get something done. We didn't unify with the FOI or BSU for the sake of numbers, we recognized family as family and our cause as one and the same.
The Huron Restoration League is a violent racist group. They want things 'back to the good old days' which were days when we, the Original People, knew our place and let them run roughshod over our reservations and communities. These are people who have been driven to madness because we are chipping away at their well placed foundation and returning to our way, one more thing I was doing before it was cool, we are no longer waiting around for that White savior to come and make sense of it all, we know a return to our true roots is key. Our roots have nothing to do with Europe and as we can see that entire thought process has led to devastation across the earth. We are not going to be relegated to a mascot or an inanimate object. We are a living, breathing, beautiful, strong, divine, complex, vital people who by divine right deserve better. We can't wait for them to come around, being quiet allowed them to put the logo back in their uniform, we must stand now because we are already late.
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