> Of course I went to the website before I wrote and read up on the subject.
>
> You are discrediting this struggle with claims that are overblown to
> the point of silliness. Many leftists try and lend themselves
> credibility by attaching their arguments to the suffering of
> brutally-treated people, using that terrible suffering to try and make
> their arguments somehow unassailable. I don't buy into it.
>
> The suffering of Native Americans doens't make YOUR arguments any more
> credible.
>
>
> boddi
Communicating the reality that Indigenous Americans endure is a thankless and minimized task. I have been doing it for nearly 24 years. My greatest teacher has been Pauline Whitesinger, who speaks no English, yet has shown me how to stand with her for sacred land with humor, strength and no compromise. She is one of very few Dineh who has never signed anything to maintain her presence on ancestral land in defiance of the US government and Peabody Coal Company.
I was a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia when i first started going to Big Mountain in 1984. At that time, thousands would gather in the spring, as well as during the Sundances in the summer, in support of traditional Dineh and Hopi resisters to the desecration of ancient land and life. I gave up pursuit of a degree in order to support Dineh resisters. I also feel that movements for justice who fail in recognizing the knowledge and resources that traditional people carry may be eliminating vital aspects of solution. Degrees and credentials are NOT the only indicaters of expertise.
I read about Pauline in Jerry Kammer's "The Second Long Walk". Her gutsy confrontation with the fencing crew sent to divide the lands with barbed wire lodged in my heart. I sought her out at the first Sundance i unintentionally attended and shook her hand. I wrote to her asking if i could come work for her in November of '84. My 5 year old daughter and i spent 3 weeks living with her in her hogan, herding sheep, chopping wood, carding wool, learning to cook frybread. If i hadn't spent so many years living similarly in the mountains of northeastern Washington, i doubt i would have been much use. It was very hard work living so remotely with no vehicle keeping alive and warm during the winter. Powerful experiece.
I witnessed for the first time the generational relationship to the land traditional Indigenous people express in all aspects of their lives. Every day is a ceremony, from sunrise to sunset, from sunset to sunrise. I could feel a spirit out there that defies words. It actually opened me up to my pre invasion roots in Ireland that i will never realize. I was given a glimpse of what most of us have lost. Tho i have not been one to seek inclusion in Indigenous ceremonies, Pauline began insisting that my child and i participate once she saw how hard i was willing to work. We have become very close.
As i listened to many hours of testimony and translation of the statements made by resisters, many of whom spoke only their Dineh Bizaad, i was pro- foundly struck by the incredible perpsectives that most people in this country never hear. Never. It highlighted for me the depth of american racism that silences all who do not fit the dominant paradigm.
In l998 i participated in a human rights delegation to Chiapas 7 months after the Acteal massacre. Graduates of the School of the Americas were involved in the killings as well as notorious Kabieles, CIA trained secretive death squads who engaged in some of the most horrific mutilations during massacres in Guatemala. Their hallmark was the hacking open of pregnant women, smashing the babies on rocks. One such crime was committed during the Acteal massacre of 45 women, men and children.
I have an interest in the roots of the SOA, it's techniques and the styles of mutilations that were used by the US Calvary during massacres of Indian people. Believe me, the stories of such attacks pass on from one generation to the next. I was shown by a Dineh woman the caves where survivors of Kit Carson's massacres and round ups hid escaping the forced long walk to the Bosque Redondo in New Mexico, which served as a model for Hitler's concentration camps.
I would suggest to you, boddi, to talk first hand to traditional Dineh and Hopi resisters yourself to get a handle on why i write the way i do. Talk to Bahe Katenay whose email address is on the Black Mesa website. He also has done alot of translating, writing and action around the issue for many years. The site does not tell the whole story, just a chunk. You most likely do not consider the facets of accumulative genocide to be valid. But traditional Dineh and Hopi people do. I did not name this struggle, they did and i have been asked to write about it as well as photograph and draw it, which i have done. I just do not have the means to copy it online. I do the best i can with the little i have to work with.
I also am working on the situation in Ciudad Juarez, the femicide in Guatemala as well. It is becoming evident that the nature of these killings indicates involvement by mutinous Mexican Army troops who are SOA graduates called Zetas, and are hired assassins for drug cartels. Kabieles are also involved with the drug trade along the US/Mexico border. I struggle to do research and make connections that are senseless to those who do not understand the scope of what we face in this country. Death squads are emerging everywhere. Now young women of relocatee families are being raped and murdered in Tuba City. I am not making this up and wish you had a little tolerance for unique ways of doing such work. I just know too much and it can be a burden....
In peaceful struggle, swaneagle
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