Holding out for a hero

     Audacity. That is a word that I often use when speaking about White people. Honestly it fits like a glove. Liberals and conservatives have that attitude in abundance in all matters, no I am not exaggerating just read The Drudge Report of Huffington Post if you don't believe me. When it come to Native people they have that attitude in spades. I've got a couple of examples jut off the top of my head.
     Couple of years back I went to a garage sale. This tall, lanky shaggy White dude was walking around talking to everyone. He was showing off all these guns he was selling and telling me every little detail about them. I didn't care but I let him talk and I kept looking. I then came across a dreamcatcher, a foot long totem pole, a painting of a buffalo and a carved pipe. All of it looked like shit, it looked like a 6 year old was fucking around with some of his fathers woodworking tools. He was very impressed with his work, told me he knew I was Indian and that I could have the whole lot for only $30.00. I smiled at that. I asked him if he was Indian and sure enough, his great grandmother was a Cherokee. He said that he couldn't prove it of course but he has a "great respect for our people's ways". So I will review. Here is a White guy, hick as all get out, making Indian "crafts" from no less than four different nations, and he is passing them off as authentic for the low low price of $30.00 To me that takes a ton of nuts to do something like that and then to talk to an actual Indian and attempt to pass off this shit as real. He had no shame but he had plenty of audacity. No other culture experiences this. White's don't make dashiki's or Kinte cloth and pass them off as authentic. " My great gramma was Black and I've been researching our lineage and making these authentic carvings." (Asians do!) They don't copy Latino culture in that way. I have never seen White's make Guatemalan shirts or blankets and other little knick knacks and say, 'Look I made these! My great grandma was from Buenos Aries ya know."
     Last year I went over to a friends house for a graduation party for his kid. When I got there my friend came up to me followed by this very somber scruffy looking White dude in a Lynryd Skynrd T-Shirt, I am not making that up, and the guy says, "Mitakye Oyasin". In Lakota that means, "All my relations" and it is a statement and not a greeting. I looked around like I was on some hidden camera show because it was just too weird. I didn't respond and then for the next half hour this dude followed me around and was trying to get me to talk about Indian spirituality and my tribe and if I go to ceremonies and where and all of that. I was vague about everything and then he told me that he is a medicine man with the "United Cherokee Nation of North America" and because I am stupid I asked him, "What the hell is that?" He explained it is a group of Cherokee people who do not recognize the government of the U.S.A. and it's way of identifying Indian people. He then proceeded to tell me that the UCNNA is actually more traditional than the Cherokee of North Carolina and Oklahoma. I was just stunned, then he told me that as a medicine man he could read people's minds, communicate with spirits and animals, see into the future and even tell you what your clan was. Of course he charged for all of this but for members of the UCNNA he gave a discount. When asked how does one become a member of the UCNNA he said you had to apply then the grand governing council would review your application and then you get a tribal number and a I.D. card and for an extra $25.00 you would get a name that you would be called whenever you were at the meetings or amongst other members of the UCNNA. He was very pleased with himself until I told him to leave me alone, never speak to me again, that he was a lunatic and a racist and I wanted nothing more to do with him. He was PISSED because like I have said over and over, when it comes to identifying as Indian the one thing that will set a White person off like no one's business is calling them out as fake and telling them NO. They lose their shit so fast! He then of course went on a triad about "full bloods" of which I have never said I was one, and other stuff but I walked away did not pay him any mind. My friend was not happy with me and I told him to go fuck himself. In my life outside of social media I have my own dislike/block button. I tell people how I feel and it works the same way.
     Just this past Sa-turday I learned a very very valuable lesson about social media. I must do my own due diligence when accepting friendship requests from people. I friended a guy who lives in Coldwater, not more than 45 minutes from Jackson, and he said he was Cherokee also. Feeling generous I gave him the benefit of the doubt. That was my second mistake. My third mistake was engaging this ass clown in a conversation. He texted me and wanted to know more about the Justice Or Else movement that I am involved in and why Minister Farrakhan was reaching out to Native Americans. I forwarded the video of the speech that Minister Farrakhan gave to the Unity Conference and then the interview he did with Jay Winter Nighthawk. Few hours later this guy got a hold of me again. Suffering a bad case of the "I can't sleeps" I responded. The conversation started out odd, this guy was telling me that Farrakhan had a house in Union City Michigan and he would often see his bodyguards around. Then he asked if I could forward his information to 'Brother Farrakhan" and have him contact him. I asked what he wanted to talk to the Minister about. He replied that he wanted to speak to him about the upcoming danger that is happening in September, (RED FLAG!) and about he and his group coming and speaking at the march. That made me smile because my first thought was, "Wow this dude thinks he is that important that he wants to come to the march and speak to the entire nation." Being curious/knuckle headed I asked him if he had a website to which he responded, "Do you follow the ways of your forefathers?" at this point I re-checked his page. It had a lot of shit about Jade Helm, Waco, 9-11 and other government stuff. I just figured he was a slight conspiracy theorist and while I have pretty strong opinions, I know isn't THAT a surprise?, about these conspiracy I am more inclined to rage against the things right in front of us.
     Following due diligence protocol I told him to pause on the conversation so I could read thru his website. During this entire time he was messaging me about where Guaraini come from, where is my reservation, when did I begin following "The ways of our ancestors" and that he too was "Cherokee and Blackfoot but raised White." Now I have heard this whole "raised White" thing from every single wannabe I have ever met. I am not exaggerating that. Every Single ONE.
     Here is the website: http://www.theancientcherokeechurchoftheonegodyohewaah.org/
     Back to the word Audacity. Liberals, Conservatives and almost every White person I know who is in any position of authority has a smidgen of this attitude. Politicians, when it comes to Indians, have audacity AND a paternal outlook on us. Within Indian country we have been just infected with wannabes who come around and want to "help". When they say this what they really mean is they want to save us. In effect they want to save us from us. That is tantamount to a fly beseeching the help of the spider to get out of the web.
     There are people out there, mostly White but I have seen a few Blacks in there, who so desperately do not want to be White that they imitate as much about what they think Indian people are and do, that they are a hindrance to our progression. For instance, there is the pervasive idea that we are somehow "Extra" or "Uberspiritual", more spiritual than any other race on Earth. It is an unfair and outright stupid assumption. Here is a part of our conversation, this is the point I decided that being cordial was only influencing him to speak to me like I am a noob at being Indian. (FULL DISCLOSURE - I have been an Indian, of both North and South variety, since October 26th 1969, or 9 months porior if you want to be technical. I have always known I was an Indian, it is NOT a family rumor, I have ties to the Indian community, I know my clan, I know my family names, I know the soverginty issues that effect my nation in particular and I don't have anything to prove).

Aaron F____ : The spirit has guided me to be on the Red Road. I have been told prophecies about the Rainbow Warriors coming to help.

Me: That "prophecy" is horseshit, It was made up by the guy who created Greenpeace. The Hopi have never had a prophecy looking for Whites to come and save us. What reservation are you from?

Aaron F_____: Eastern Band Cherokee. Grandpa was metis and Grandma was Blackfoot. I was raised White but I come to the Red Road guided by spirit.

Me: Sure. So were you like adopted or something?

Aaron F___: No Grandpa had to run off because he killed a man in self defense and feared retribution.

Doesn't that just sound ignorant? Thing is I have head everything from burned down courthouses with the birth records lost, everyone from a deputy to a Governor having a issue with a great great grandparent and some nefarious plot to keep the "Indian side" of the family suppressed. Then of course there is the grandmother who was Indian and never spoke about it because to do so would mean danger from the Whites. All of that is bullhockey and they know it and so do we. They always use a Grandmother because to use a man they have to admit that a Indian man laid with a precious White woman and because mixed marriages were also illegal. So not only do they dishonor us as a people but they dishonor their own ancestors by denying them as having any place in their own lives. If they knew anything about being an Indian they would know that what they are doing is a disgrace.

     The kid really pissed me off when he became condescending to me about spirituality. I wrote it off to pure White audacity and arrognace but it was more than that. It was because according to the church he belongs to he and his fellow members are the TRUE PRIESTS AND PROPHETS. They are the lost tribe of Israel and their job is to unite all of US, the Indians of America, with themselves in order to user in a kingdom that will rule in a righteous manner. They are our great White hope! This biblical prophecy is really just a way for Whites to define us and come up with an idea of where we come from because when Columbus stumbled upon us he could not say where or what we are because, unlike Blacks, Whites and Asians, we are not biblical. In order to fit the narrative of White Supremacy they must be able to identify us and put us in a position that is less than them.

     After he had seen the video of Minister Farakhan addressing Native youth he responded :

Aaron F___: Good video, but he seems a bit short sighted for not only are Blacks, and Reds suppressed, but whites, and yellows are too. Do you know why the white elitists, ariens, and Nazis that now control this country think they are the master race? Also no man no matter what color own any of this land or another.

Me: The Brown and the Black of this continent have been catching a level of hell from Whites that before now has never been seen in the world. The decimation of over 90% of us here in North America, the Middle Passage that has untold millions of bones of African people, the propaganda, the bounty, the lies, the theft of land and slavery. This entire nation actually stands only because Whites murdered us and made Blacks work for free. Now when you say "aliens" are you talking about like lizzard people? Like the Queen and George Bush are supposed to be lizard people from another planet? I gotta tell ya man, that is another load of garbage that I just can't buy into. Those people, the Queen, The Bush's, everyone from Prescott to W. are evil to the core. They don't have to be cold blooded creatures from another galaxy to inflict pain and suffering on the darker people of the Earth, they just have to be greedy, Republican devils and that is enough.

Aaron F___: Them: Are you Christian?
Me: No
Them: Are you Muslim?
Me: No
Them: Are you a Jew?
Me: No
Them: Are you Atheist?
Me: No
Them: So what are you?
Me: I am Cherokee. I am the True Israel. I am that I am. YHWH None above. None below. For ALL are Sacred, for ALL are of the One True Creator, and his voice is the Spirit of all Creation.
jesuit beast FREE ALL MY PEOPLE!

Me: Jesuit beast? Dude, I think you may need to speak to someone. Are you saying the Jesuits are to blame for all the ills of the world? And you are not Cherokee. You have nothing but family rumor. You don't attend any of our gatherings, you come to no ceremonies and it takes a lot more than saying something until YOU believe it to make it so. Believe me when I tell you being an Indian in America is really really over rated. It's not an easy thing to be/do at all.

     Where a lot of liberals have an advantage over conservatives is that they see this system, this capitalistic system, as detrimental to people. It is founded on White Supremacy and greed, The mantra of the wealthy in the 80's was "Greed is good" which is antithetical to Indian way of thought, To blame it on the Jews, the Jesuits, the Catholics or any religion is folly and juvenile. This guy had the whole paternal thing in abundance by thinking he was the TRUE anything and then to put the paranoia that only Alex Jones listners can come up with into one package makes for someone that I am not spiritually equipped to be around without verbally de-pantsing them. I'm not spiritually fit enough to ignore stupidity at this level. I always say something.

     He then write that the 'Jesuit Beast" has everyone fooled and has kept his kind of Cherokee away from the other Cherokee on purpose and has suppressed hidden knowledge  about Sequoya and his dealings with the government. He goes on to send me a picture of a White Owl and says that is his clan. I told him we don't have an Owl Clan, White, Blue or Purple. He says I am part of the "Governments Cherokee" and am lost. Then he wants me to pass on a message to 'Our brother Farrakhan" My curiosity got the best of me and I asked what the message was and of course it was "Tell him it is time to come home"

     I didn't bother to ask what that meant. 

   
     Here is what you will find on that website:

The Ancient Cherokee Church of One God Yo Hee Waah

     They have been recognized as legitimate by the Cherokee Nation of MEXICO (WTF?) by the Republic of Mexico.

     Senator James Inhofe gave them honors on the congressional record.

     An Article in Cowboys and Indians magazine

     They have gotten "Kudos" from the Dallas American Indian Chamber of Commerce. 

     And last but not least.............tribal rolls are OPEN NOW!

     Contradiction much? He tells me I am lost because I am part of a group of Indians recognized by the government of the U.S.A. and the way that the government recognizes us? Enrollment cards. How do they recognize each other? Enrollment cards. They hate the government because it is evil and corrupted by "Jesuit Beasts" yet they use the same tools as the government. By the way, enrollment into this happy band of wackadoos cost only $25.00 The hitch is that you MUST be approved by the Chief. 

Available for members only: White Chief must have approved application on file

Not a Member? 

Tribal Member Card

Member (age 18+)  $25.00 USD  Member (age 1-17)  $15.00 USD

 

     I DID NOT make that up. He is WHITE CHIEF has to approve you. He is White, A White guy approves you to be a member of the Israeli Cherokee Nation. You can also buy a certificate, a Shirt, a coffee mug and artwork by Spirithawk and Waterhawk.

     I get really angry when I know that these people give themselves names without going thru or following any traditional protocols. The only reason they can do it is because they don't respect us. They don't see us as legitimate and human. They are the worst type of White Supremacist. They are stuck in this false sense of self that they, and ONLY they, are the future of mankind. Only they can save us. For that mindset to be present you have to be delusional and have an over inflated sense of self. Without The Creator of All Natural Things I could never, ever, do anything for anyone.

     Like people who approve of using us as mascots, or stealing our sacred lands, or abusing our children or women (80% of assaults on Native women are perpetrated by non-Indian people), stealing our names and our ceremonies. They make "Indian" jewelry and pass it off as authentic, they go to protests and speak for us, they write articles or wear shirts or invade our organizations with the mindset of not helping but of showing us how it is done. These same people. this cancer to our society, they are the cause and not the cure for what is wrong in our communities.

     They are sick. They are a disease and instead of looking for "teachable moments" They should be exposed and ridiculed out from among us. They can not assist us in finding our authentic self. The warrior inside of us that is a warrior that loves because they don't accept themselves as what they are so how in the hell can they teach us anything about authenticity?

     So after I chewed on him a bit he wrote this:

Aaron F____: White supremacy i come to you remembering the faces of my fathers of the forgotten Cherokee Owl Clan. Spitting in the face of the One True Creator.  It is you Brother that has allowed yourself to be dividend from your Brothers n Sisters of All colors by the jesuit beast.   I will not judge fir you allow hate the teachings of the jesuit beast to blind you. I Spirit willing you will not be the last avenue of contact for this most high honor. May you find the Trye Red path so that you too may reach the path of all colors.

Me: IS that how you think that spiritual people speak? Is that your idea of how a elder or a medicine man or woman speaks? See that zen Indian bullshit is a Hollywood stereotype. That is a made up nonsensical thing that was made by some White guys in a room trying to romanticize us for the amusement of others. Unlike you, I have been to ceremony AND have participated. I have been gifted Eagle feathers AND a sacred pipe by real live actual holy men and women. I have sat in sweat lodges without any Whites AND I have never paid for any of it. This 'Face of my Ancestors or Fathers" or whatever the hell you called it. I know who our enemy is and I even know how our enemy got here and yes, this part kills people like you, I know your tricknology! I am not separated by color, that's absurd and if you knew me you would know that I don't play that shit. You would know that I look for ways tobe a servant to my Creator and my people on a daily basis. Here is something that you never considered. I know White people who would laugh at you in your face for the shit you are spewing. First words out of a couple of my bros from my wrestling days out of their mouths would be, "Dude WHAT THA FUCK?" and they would laugh their ass off!

     It ended when he told me he would pray for me to no longer be blinded by the Jesuit beast and the lies they have fed me. Remember the big deal that was made of that White woman who protrayed herself as Black and even was leader of a NAACP chapter? Remember when everyone made a  big big deal about it? Yeah, we got THOUSANDS of her in our community and I pity each one of them. I can't stand them but I do know that as part of creation they are part of me also. That's because I take my path in a serious manner. I am a servant to my people and the grind is EVERYONE is my people.

Everybody wants unity until it's time to unify.

     Anyone that knows me knows that I am a reader. Vociferously a reader. Two books a week is about what I average. It's my solace, it is my way of learning about worlds that I am not willing to explore myself out of laziness or apprehension. I've read some astounding things that has changed my way of looking at the world. Some have changed me in ways that I can't even begin to explain and or imagine. I have honed my critical thinking skills because of my want to know more. I don't take anything I read as gospel even if I admire the author and or the subject. I will study the hell out of a subject before I take a position on anything.

     That's how I am about Louis Farrakhan. The teachings of the Nation Of Islam as handed down by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, T.H.E.M., are the first teachings from any Black man that have included The Original people of Turtle Island, (You know it as North and South America) and here is what I find just fascinating. Back in the early 1930's there came a man from Mecca in Saudi Arabia who came to Detroit. This guy had straight black hair and white skin. He wasn't White though. His name was Fard Muhammad and he went door to door selling silk. While he was selling this silk he would talk to the customers, he was going door to door in "Black Bottom" Detroit, and telling his potential customers about their ancestors in Africa. So one day he comes across a small, very light skin, Black man from Georgia who had a third grade education. A third grade education of a Black person in the South in the 1900's which equates to no education really. So Fard and this guy, Elijah Poole, begin talking and Fard begins to teach him. They spend hours and hours pouring over books discussing Theology and the state of Black people here in America. The most interesting thing is that they discussed unity between Blacks and Red. These two men, in Black Bottom Detroit, in the early 1930's were actually discussing Indians. The only people outside of Indians who were discussing Indians at that time was the government and they were looking for ways to further annihilate us. At the time there were 17 million Blacks and 2 million Indians in North America. Fard, now known as Master Fard Muhammad, taught that the 17 million WITH the 2 million Indians made for 19 million of God's people here in "The Hells of North America". Am I the only one who finds that absolutely amazing that at this time in history, these two men speak about Natives in this way?

     Before anyone wants to bring up the "Hopi prophecy" of the "rainbow warriors" coming to save us with their light skin and a return to our ways you need to know that entire thing is made up and false from beginning to end and so it is hereby nullified as having anything to do with our unification.

     With is defined as accompanied by. The word was chosen carefully because it means that the Black and Red are equals as in the same.  No one was talking like this. Let's be honest, no one or hardly anyone talks like this now. Sure within teachings of Native Americans are the important and vital lessons of unity with all of mankind but to be honest, like the majority of society, the focus is on unity with Whites. Making friends with White folks is heavily emphasized within the Indian community. You can speak about unity with Black people but there is no action with it. Plenty of us will gladly go to any school and dress in regalia and teach young White kids about "our ways" and or go to a Boy Scout troop meeting and sing a song, explain our regalia and or do whatever dance is necessary to get them to understand/and like us. Go to the pow wow and you will see plenty of White people dressed in regalia knowing full and damn well that whatever Indian ancestry they had is gone from their bloodline but we excuse that and allow them and their ick twisted mindset to invade our gatherings. We turn a blind eye to culture vultures because confronting a phony is "not the Indian way" or whatever sad excuse we can come up with. Yet when a Black man, one who can actually command the attention and a stage the size that Farrakhan can, comes and asks us to unite what happens? We make excuses of what kind of man he is. We talk about the tings we read and or seen about him. He's "anti-semetic" he is "anti-White" he is a swindler, a con artist and a fraud. You won't say that shit about the church on your reservation or about Joel Osteen or Joyce Myer or even T.D. Jakes but so many of us are quick to point out that crazy Muslim.

     October 10th is the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March and this time Minister Farrakhan wants Native Americans to come and have a voice. He wants us to stand AS ONE, in the belly of the beast and show America that we are no longer buying into the bullshit. The first march was about atonement, this march is about unity under The Creator to show this government that the injustice against us MUST come to a stop. The murders and missing women of ours, the poverty, the alcoholism, the sickness, the abuse all of it MUST come to a stop and we need justice in order to get the healing to begin.

     The enviromental racism that is unique to Native people, the theft of land that continues, the removal of our children from Native homes all of these issues that are unique to our people can be addressed on 10-10-15 if, and ONLY IF, we make a decision to be a part of the mobilization. Look at line 5 here in Michigan. The danger is poses is well known but it is ignored because there is so few of us making enough noise. Now imagine if we get our Black and Brown family to join with us to make our voices heard and our demand for justice met. What kind of power do we really have when real and true unity, with the Black and Brown, confronts the power that be? Sure we have Whites joining us, I have no problem with them as allies, but the circle is not complete until we do the proper reach out to our entire human family.

     I had a guy who I respect a lot say to me, "It would be an easier sell if it was anybody but Farrakhan" and my response is, "Then why didn't YOU or any other 'leader' in our community call for something like this?" Tons of reasons but to be honest I will say it's because too many of us have bought into the propaganda about Black people that White supremacy has taught to us. Don't get me wrong, too many Blacks and 'Latinos" have also bought into the lies about us. This divisive tactic is on purpose in order to keep us seperate and therefore not use the power that we have. Our power is derived from a divine source and when we get together under the banner of a beneficent Creator we are unstoppable, I have said it a million times that once we get praying there is absolutely nothing that can stop us. Nothing stands a chance against our prayers,

     If I wanted to learn about Jesus how foolish would I be to go to Pontius Pilate and ask him? Wouldn't I be an idiot if I asked Judas to tell me the good things about Jesus? If I asked the pharisees or the Sadducee do you think I would get a good answer? Of course not. If I went to a disciple or even better, if I went to Jesus himself I would learn about him truly. Doesn't that make sense? So if I want to know the truth about Farrakhan, and
I am not comparing him to Jesus, wouldn't it make sense to go to one of his assistants or followers or even him himself? That's what I did. Back in 1992 i went to Mosque number 1 in Detroit with my kola Tony Goulet, author of The Four and God Help Me Tie My Shoes, and asked and saw for myself. Uninvited but welcomed beyond belief I met Rasul Muhammad who is the son of T.H.E.M and Dawud Muhammad and we became brothers. Real brothers. Pow Wow buddies and activist and sweat lodge brothers. I asked for myself. I listened to speeches and checked up on the things that they all said to see if they were valid. They were and are.

     On October 9th Minister Farrakhan has requested that on the mall in Washington DC we, the Indigenous people of the world, gather for a day of prayer for healing and unity. We gather in the name of our Creator and come together and seek out the power and healing that can only come when we, as Original people, come together and join forces for a better tomorrow. When we put aside all of our preconceived notions of what Black and Brown and White people are and do and take our grievances together so that we make America into the promise that it holds. We seek out real Justice, Freedom and Equality. The REAL stuff not this illusion that we live under but our Creator given rights as Original people.

     The young are catching on with a fire! It is people my age who want to kiss ass of White folks and not rock the boat, not disturb the pitiful things that we have now. Check out the response Minister Farrakhan gets from our youth in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhxmjHYwVKQ

justiceorelse.com

Be a part of history. Our children and WE deserve it.

Everybody wants to be an Indian but nobody wants to live like an Indian

     Allen Locke was a resident of Lakota Community Homes in Rapid City South Dakota. Allen attended a #NativeLivesMatter anti-police brutality march on a Friday in December, The next day, Saturday, he was shot five times and murdered in front of bystanders. Did you hear about this? Probably not. Native Americans are killed by police at nearly identical rates of Blacks but we don't hear about it on the news.
There are 45 million Black Americans (as of 2013) and 5.1 million American Indians but indigenous people are killed by law enforcement at rates that far outstrip our share of the population. #Blacklivesmatter has garnered plenty of attention from the main stream media and has become a rallying cry for justice but outside of the twitteverse and the indigenous blogosphere , which have all the horror stories one person can take, #nativelivesmatter has gotten no attention. Last year in November and December there were six Native men and women killed by police and yet we don't hear anything about it.
I can't say what is more frustrating, not hearing about it or hearing about it and not having a damn thing done to bring justice to those in uniform that murder us. The officers just walk after a short time of paid time off. There is not justice there.
We are not sovereign in our territories. There is no true sovereignty on our lands not with the government intruding into our affairs at the rate that they do. The long history of American government meddling into our affairs, the disproportionate rates of suicide substance abuse, disease, poverty, low education, employment and health care resources and the inability of the governmental agencies entrusted with indigenous care, the BIA and such, only make the already dismal circumstances worse. The systematic criminalization of indigenous people when combined with the systematic forces of substance abuse, mental health issues and unemployment paint a picture of utter deconstruction and genocide by design.
Take the story of Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket who at 18 years old was shot several times in Custer County Oklahoma or 34 year old Benjamin Whiteshield who was shot in the mouth in Clinton Oklahoma by police after both were experiencing episodes of mental illness.
Then what about Christina Tahhahwah who was bipolar and arrested during an episode and died after she went into cardiac arrest in Lawton Oklahoma inside of prison cell. Native News Online reports that she was handcuffed to her cell door for "unknown reasons" and the the 37 year olds parents were not notified of her transfer to the hospital where she was pronounced dead until many many hours after the fact. Inmates claim she was "tased repeatedly" for refusing to sing Comanche hymns.
Where is the justice there? We have been asking about justice for Trayvon while his killer walks free and has been arrested 6 times for violent offenses, we have been asking if it was just to murder Michael Brown and leave his body on display for four hours in the sun or kill Eric Garner or the list goes on and on. Brown and Black dying at the hands of police who are out of contril with no accountability.
Poverty, disease, suicide rates that are double that of the nation at large, enviromental racism that effects not only sacred sites but the miserable conditions on the reservations as it is,
The official poverty rate on reservations is 28.4 percent, compared with 15.3 nationally. Thirty-six percent of families with children are below the poverty line on reservations, compared with 9.2 percent of native famalies. Five of the lowest per capita incomes in the country are found on reservations. Allen, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, has the lowest per capita income in the country, at $1,539 per year. Overall, the per capita income of American Indians on Reservations is half that of all Americans. The median income on reservations is $29,097, compared to $41,994 nationally. According to the US census bureau some reservations have a 60 percent rate of poverty.
Where is there justice in THAT? For the Original People of this continent to be living in those conditions? At over 14 percent, the rate of homes without any electricity on reservations is ten times the national average. On the Navajo Reservation, nearly 40 percent of homes are without electricity. Furthermore, reservations are often the last to receive updated electrical infrastructure, and are the last places to which service is restored following an outage.

One fifth of reservation households lack running water, compared with one percent of households nationwide. Nearly one half of Navajo and Hopi Reservation residents lack plumbing. Nearly 20 percent of reservation homes lack basic kitchen facilities, including piped water, a range or cookstove, and a refrigerator. On the Navajo Reservation, nearly half of all households lack these necessities. This is compared to three percent of American Indians nationwide and only one percent of all households in the country.

Modern telecommunications are also extremely lacking. More than half of households on reservations do not have phone service, compared with five percent nationally, and nine percent among nonmetropolitan area. Fewer than 10 percent of reservation residents have internet access. Furthermore, many larger, rural reservations are without cell phone reception. The lack of telecommunications infrastructure severely limits the potential for economic exchange.

This is by design and there needs to be a way to address these grievances.  Please continue to check back as I will further go into the creation of reservations and the plight of the Original People today and what we ARE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT on 10-10-15.

We talk. You Listen

     We as The Original People of this planet have been stigmatized, terrorized and traumatized for well over 500 years. Everything that our open enemy has thought of has been tossed our way. If you don't recognize who our open enemy is then stop reading and finish watching Duck Dynasty or the Kardashians or those God awful duck hunters.

     Vine DeLoria Jr wrote a book in 1970 titled 'We Talk You Listen" and what this preeminent scholar and philosopher of NDN people understood then is that when we have something to say, and we always do, especially when it concerns us, White people do not listen. Their arrogance, the over inflated sense of self, the ingrained bigotry and supremacy makes it damn near impossible for them to seek out our people when it concerns us. Liberals are masters of taking a parental approach to the Indian problem. Whites, already knowing best, know exactly how to handle us without ever having to consult us in the first place. When decisions are made on our behalf without consulting us it is a slap in the face, it si disrespectful and paternalistic.

     In 1990 four Original Women from Eastern Michigan University approached the president at that time, President Shelton, about removing the offensive severed head logo of the Huron, which had been the logo of EMU for 62 years at that point. These four sisters were joined by a Navajo man in this endeavor and they put in a massive amount of work speaking to various regent members, faculty and staff and student leaders. The president of the Student body, Jeff Rose, threw his influence behind the change wholeheartedly. Jeff was one of the first Caucasian student leaders to do so, I mention that because any type of assistance from Whites would come few and far and not much at all.

     The Huron Restoration League is a typical conservative right wing republican voting "Murica love it or leave it" reactionary group. They are identical to the Tea Party in that the stated goal is one thing while the truth of it's goal is another. The Tea Party's goal is to usurp the authority of the truly elected American citizen president Barack Obama. He's Black and well............he just should not be in the position that he is. (Taxes are actually LOWER under Barack than they were under the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Supreme Court appointed president George Bush. As Ronnie Reagan said ," Facts are stupid things")

     After all of the hard work, the time, energy and effort that these brave and brilliant sisters put in the Huron logo was removed. A vote was sent out to the students to choose a new logo and the EMU was actually close in the running but the Eagle won out. I'd like to point out that if you ask a Native person what it would be like to be compared to an Eagle they will automatically tell you it is an honor and humbling. There is part of the rub, if we were ever bothered to be asked in what manner we would like to be honored we could answer but that is not the case. Whites just know better so they tell us that naming a assault vehicle or a sports team where the violence is inherent, after us is an honor we should shut p[ and take their word for it.

     The two sisters who spearheaded the movement graduated and commenced to build a life for themselves outside of the university. Barb Gentry was the faculty person who was in charge of the Multi-Cultural center and Connee Sagataw who was acquiring her degree in human resources were left with a few other Native people and they were busy planning the first traditional pow wow for EMU. That was the year I arrived. Both of these sisters had commissioned an artist to render a painting of a Eagle to present to President Shelton as thanks at the first Board Of Regents meeting and they had asked if I would present it to him on behalf of the Native American Student Association (NASO). They both told me to be careful because at previous meetings there were members of the students and alumni who wanted the logo back and they would verbally harass and physically intimidate Native students because of the logo. Both Connee and Barb told me they had been kicked, pushed and followed by these people. Over a logo......think about that a second. The fact that these sisters made a stand on behalf of Native people and the way that we are presented to the world AND had the audacity to win caused them such psychological difficulty that they resorted to acts of violence, That is a special type of sick.

     At the meeting while I was speaking the logo people were making hissing noises and actually booed me when I was finished. I was then asked for a quote for the Eastern Echo and the Ypsi Press. Certain student groups asked me to come and speak about the logo to new students. Professors and other teachers asked me to come to explain. This made me a target and I began to get harassed on campus while working in the kitchen, walking to class, while eating at the dining hall, having notes left on my dorm door and eventually I began getting phone calls. I was told I was a "dead red nigger", that "I should shut up if I knew what was best for me" and on and on. I made friends with a guy who was a member of the Nation Of Islam and he and I would hang out often. This made me a racist. I made an alliance with the Black Student Association and the Latino Student Association and this caused them issues. Numerous times when I would come to Board of Regents meetings there would be yelling at "Squaws" and "Here comes Davi and his niggers". Of course the Huron Restoration could deny this as being from them and not condoning it and saying it was "a few bad apples" yet the escalation of the Huron Restoration to get the logo reinstated directly corresponded to escalation of verbal and physical attacks against us. It was not a coincidence.

     Flash forward to 2012. President Martin made the decision without consulting the Native students to put the logo back onto the band uniforms. The committee to make the new uniform had a member of the Huron Restoration Committee on it. NOT a coincidence. SHe has since apologized but her apology is lame, weak, tired, insincere and late. She made the conscious decision to spit in the face of those of us who put in work to remove that logo and then make sure it stayed gone. The logo is on the inside flap of the jacket. They try to be slick by hiding it but it is nothing more than them saying, "we can give you the illusion that you get what you want". That's how they treat us because they don't give a damn about us. They don't care about us as humans let alone as Original people.

     The student group has offered to purchase the tools AND donate the time to remove the logo but President Martin is a liar and says that doing so will damage the uniform. I have asked Andrea Pierce, a good sister who I refer to as " The Odawa Martha Stewart" because of all the amazing things she does with material, and she said the tool is specifically deigned to NOT damage the material. SO, not only is President Martin flippant and unconcerned with a specific membership of EMU but she perpetuates a lie. I specifically asked her this question because I wanted her to lie to me and she did.



     On April 11th Nate Phillips an Omaha Native was walking down Normal street in Ypsilanti near the EMU campus when he came across members of the swim and wrestling teams dressed in head dresses and face paint. They referred to themselves as "Huron's". He told them they were disrespectful and this courageous group of young White men began verbally abusing him telling him to , 'go back to the reservation" and threw a full can of beer amongst other things at him. He is pressing charges. Then on campus the hostility to Native people is increasing. All of this is in direct correlation to the powers that be in EMU being real life "Indian givers". NASO held a press conference and Amber and Michelle and Christopher all from NASO did a fantastic job of laying out concisely and succinctly the problems arising from the return of the logo. I was then given the honor to address the attendees, unsurprisingly when I got up to talk the Ann Arbor news people shut down. They remember me and my radical militant nature and the fact that I unabashedly remained close to members of "Farrakhans group" which as I stated earlier I still do to this day. They are my family, there are members of the Nation who's parents I refer to as "mom" and they do the same to me. During my speech I warned everyone in attendance, "If you choose to ignore these young sisters and brothers who are being so nice, so kind and are deeply concerned not only for themselves but others you do so at your own peril. The days of Native people going away quietly are over. The day of justice has arrived and if you ignore the nice then you get to meet me and those like me. The "not so nice" and we are not in the mood to beg or play." We are going to make some noise and our concerns will be addressed. We are not coming in the spirit of compromise, we are coming in the spirit of Crazy Horse, Running Canoe and  the warriors of our people looking to create a better tomorrow for the seventh generation. You all have no idea how infuriating it is to know that these beautiful, genius nephews and nieces of mine on this campus are fighting the exact same fight that we fought almost 25 damn years ago.

     We come peacefully to be heard. We will be heard. We will talk and you WILL listen.

     On June 16th we are having a rally and I am asking that you please come and hear from some students and community members about what we plan to do to get our repect, what we will do to protect ourselves and what we demand in terms of justice. 2:00 pm in front of Welch hall on th campus of EMU. Let's gather as a family, present the best of us, dress clean, bring our hand drums, our spirit, our love and our loyalty to each other as Original people. Hear the truth being spoken to power as only WE can do it. Read this closely. When WE, The Original People, begin to pray there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING that can stop what is in motion.