NATIVE LIFE, NATIVE TIMES, NATIVE SURVIVAL [HUNTER BEAR 12/22/05] UPDATED WITH IOWA NOTES, AND NORTH DAKOTA JUSTICE MATTERS, AND MY KPFA RADIO INTERVIEW ON NATIVE AMERICAN CHALLENGES, AND THUNDERHEART, AND MORE
MORE -- MUCH MORE -- THAN JUST SIMPLE SURVIVAL
"Lupus'll kill me before this does," said I to family
members the other day.
And, in a few moments, I'll explain that cordially terse little comment.
[In the meantime, please rest assured that I don't plan to cash in any time
soon.]
It's been an interesting week. The passing of Clinton Jencks almost a week
ago at San Diego -- a long life marked by vision and courage and
commitment -- is truly a great Mountain lifting into the sky. We now have a
webpage, "Clinton Jencks 1918-2005: Remembrance," to which we'll
judiciously add a bit now and then:
http://www.hunterbear.org/CLINTON%20JENCKS%201918%202005.htm
A few weeks of snow and ice and below freezing temps here in the mountains
of Eastern Idaho have made it impossible for me to walk safely -- even for
my now necessarily reduced hikes -- in the wild hills immediately above our
'way far up home. The weather is suddenly warm and the snow and ice are
fading but things are still slick -- and muddy. Others in our family here
have been out buying Christmas presents for all of us -- and shipping
treasure to those offspring [and their offspring] scattered to the Four
Directions. Somewhat depressed by many days of "house arrest" and icy fog
as well, I called a friend a decade older than even I who has been battling
some substantive illnesses and who often calls us.
Susan Kelly Power [Gathering of Storm Clouds Woman] of Chicago, and the
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota -- with which she keeps in
close touch -- is a fighting more-than-just-survivor. She and her daughter,
Susan Mary Power, are among our very oldest family friends -- going back
decades. A life-long and extremely effective Native activist [National
Congress of American Indians and much more], Susan, in the early 1950s soon
after she came to the Windy City, was one of the half dozen Native founders
of the first urban Indian center in the United States: the American Indian
Center of Chicago [on West Wilson in Uptown] of which she has been at
various times -- at least four -- the always very capable Chair. The
internal situation at the Center could, to use my words, be occasionally
characterized as "Turbulence within the Circle of Unity." During an
especially stormy period in the early '70s, all sides chose me as the
election judge in a hotly contested struggle -- and, after that long and
interesting day had finally concluded late at night, all sides felt it had
been a totally honest election. [It was so honest, in fact, that our side
lost that one.]
Susan's great grandfather was Mato Nupa [Two Bears], the Yanktonnai leader
who, in 1863 at age 67, fought a significant battle with the United States
at Whitestone Hill [south of present day Jamestown, N.D.] Her mother was
Josephine Gates Kelly -- first woman to head an Indian tribe after the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. And Josephine Gates Kelly [who was 95
when she went to the Spirit World] was a consistently tough, tough life-long
activist for the people at Standing Rock -- and for all the Native people of
the Land. Susan's daughter, "Little Susie" to us, is an extremely gifted
writer whose best selling 1994 Putnam book, "The Grass Dancer" -- the first
of several of her fine books -- went around the world.
Susan Kelly Power knew my voice immediately. Interestingly, although I have
had some hearing impairment as one of many deeply negative results of this
especially bad version of Systemic Lupus, I had no difficulty at all hearing
her. In typical Native fashion, our hour-plus conversation began with a
detailed outline of how each of our family members was doing, then moved to
cover a multitude of mutual friends -- extending to at least two dozen
different tribal nations north of Mexico. [We spent, I must admit, a moment
or two on old Adversaries.] That big dimension of the discussional
itinerary accomplished, we moved to discuss each other's substantial medical
challenges. And each of us, it emerged, is far more worried about the
other.
And, as always, we vigorously reiterated that we would always Keep
Fighting -- and fighting hard -- right down to the bone. Just as we and
those in our Circle always have. I could tell her that I hike as much as I
can. I write and correspond. I can drive my 4WD Jeep short distances. And she, in turn,
keeps up with the world via her daily sub to the New York Times, visits the
sick and shut-in, and keeps her hand actively in at the Newberry Library [a strong
Native focus] and at several Indian-interested museums and, certainly, the
Indian Center and its many activities.
For us, she is one of those who
richly and courageously exemplifies the social and human fact that, regardless
of all of the horrific attacks upon Native people and tribal nations that have
characterized the last more than 500 years, our people and our many hundreds of
consistently cohesive tribes and the accompanying many hundreds of always
healthy and vigorous tribal cultures, have survived in the most primary sense --
as will they always.
And now, coming back to the original point: Why did I say to my family the
other day that, "Lupus'll kill me before this does."
I had just announced that, after an abstinence of almost seventeen years
[1989], I am resuming Pipe Smoking. Physiologically, I have always been
hard-driving in whatever I do. I don't drink alcohol -- which, frankly, I
can like a little too much. So, to maintain at least relative internal
tranquility, I am simply returning -- with Zero apologies -- to that one of
many great and significant Native American contributions: Tobacco.
And thus today we [Eldri, Josie, and me] went to Pocatello's last real pipe
shop -- to me a setting of ritual and ceremony presided over by a priestly
Old Timer -- where I found my Heart's Desire: a splendid, longer stem Big
Bowl in the Canadian genre. In addition to that, I purchased the other
accruements for the Near-Holy Ritual: strong Borkum Riff, pipe cleaners,
pocket cleaning tool, a bottle of bowl sweetener.
Now, all I need is a Real Dragon to kill.
____________________________________________________________________
NATIVE NOTES ON IOWA [HUNTER BEAR DECEMBER 24 2007]
COMMENT BY LOIS CHAFFEE:
I'm not sure how much "enmeshed" covers, but
I'm reading that the Christian evangelicals account for 40% of the
expected Republican vote. Anybody have more detailed information? I
would estimate that some unknown portion of that 40% is clinging to
sanity, and there's the other 60%, of which some can be counted to round
out the sanity faction - so there may be hope for the reality-based
community. Lois
THUNDERHEART [HUNTER BEAR 12/30/05]
Comment by Hunter Bear: 12/30/05
I have never been a great movie goer. Some of
this may go back to being a
Depression child, especially with the limited film fare of those days, but,
for whatever complex of reasons, I've always preferred reading -- and
writing. [SHANE AND SALT OF THE EARTH were favorites of mine very, very
early on.] Lately, however, relatively house-bound [and restless], I've
spent more time in front of our family television and I've seen things I
wish I had seen earlier. One of these was CONSPIRACY [2001], which I
discussed in a post a year ago
http://www.hunterbear.org/reminiscence.htm
And another is THUNDERHEART [1992].
Now, almost always when I encounter these on HBO, I see them to the end.
When THUNDERHEART initially appeared, many of my University of North Dakota
students -- Native, Anglo, and Other -- strongly recommended it. But Eldri
and I went to virtually no movie houses and missed it. It was our
considerable loss. Finally seeing it on TV several months ago, I realized
significant dimensions of it certainly resonate deeply within me. And the
family has since given it to me on DVD as one of this year's Christmas
gifts.
The setting is the Badlands of South Dakota -- obviously depicting the
troubled Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Reservation in and around where much of it
was filmed. The cast is rich with Indians. Val Kilmer, himself part-Indian,
plays Ray Levoi, a young FBI agent, a good part Sioux,
who grew up in a large urban
area, and who with his superior, Frank Coutelle [played by Sam Shepard],
goes there officially to apprehend an alleged killer, a Native militant who
the FBI perceives as "an enemy of the United States."
Early on Levoi encounters tribal policeman and astute detective Walter Crow
Horse, a man of considerable courage, social conscience and wit, admirably
carried by Graham Greene [a Six Nations Oneida and always a special favorite
of our younger family members.] Despite outwardly differing cultural
backgrounds and perspective, the two men are slowly drawn toward each other.
Crow Horse, as with almost all of the Natives in THUNDERHEART, is politely
tolerant of Levoi -- but Levoi's personal story unwinds slowly on the
"Moccasin Telegraph": a Native father and high steel construction worker of
considerable courage himself, who tried to give his son some sense of Sioux
culture and identity, but who dies as a result of alcoholism. Some ice is
thawed, then broken, much of this due to the kindly reaction and
involvement by Grandpa Sam Reaches [Ted Thin Elk] to whom the young agent is
brought by Crow Horse. The venerable Elder, obviously aware of deep
conflicts not resolved in Levoi, also senses a very special quality in him.
It isn't long before Levoi, with help from Crow Horse and implicit
suggestion from Grandpa Sam Reaches -- a critic of the corrupt tribal
administration -- begins to slowly realize that there may be another agenda,
primary and sub rosa, on the part of his FBI superior in close conjunction
with the crafty and violent tribal chair, Jack Milton [played by Fred Ward,
also part-Indian] who has a legion of gun-waving goons. The nature of this
sinister scheme is sharpened specifically by a young, attractive and sharply
sensitive school teacher, Maggie Eagle Bear [Sheila Tousey] who has
discovered that a major river on the res is being polluted by uranium
spill-off. Levoi is drawn, deeply and almost subconsciously, to her.
Along the trail, the name of a historic holy man is told to
him by Grandpa Sam Reaches -- Thunderheart,
who was among the hundreds of unarmed victims of the United States Army's
Wounded Knee Massacre in late December, 1890.
And it is clear that the Elder sees Ray Levoi in the most direct, personal sense as Thunderheart.
In a major juncture,
Levoi in his vehicle falls suddenly into a very strange and deep sleep.
And in that state, he is suddenly running desperately with the other
Indians, men and women and children, away from gun-shooting cavalrymen. He
and the other Indians die. He awakens, visibly
shaken.
Compelled, Levoi
now visits the graveyard at Wounded Knee where these
many victims lie buried. On an old stone memorial are carved the names of
many of the leading targets of the Army on that horrific day and, as he
reads down the list, Levoi notes, in stunned and profoundly empathetic
fashion, the name, Thunderheart.
He tells his "dream" of running and death to an astonished, but not really surprised Crow Horse.
"That was no dream," his friend tells him. "That was a vision." And he
explains to Levoi that that comes only rarely and not to everyone.
And by now, increasingly critical of the FBI arrogance he is seeing, coupled
with mounting evidence of FBI frame-up endeavors, Ray Levoi, drawn powerfully
and irreversibly by his Native side and expanding consciousness, quietly
crosses the line into the Indian World.
By moon-lit night Crow Horse takes him to a special remote area to explore
the presence of nefariously and dangerously disturbed uranium -- of which
they find plenty of evidence. It's clearly obvious in the add-up that a
small handful of self-seekers, including his FBI superior Coutelle and
tribal chair Jack Milton and outside entrepreneurs, are planning to secure
and "develop" the yellow ore to enrich themselves -- at the expense of the
Indian people and the land and the water.
Suddenly seeing circling coyotes in the moonlight down in a draw, they
investigate further. The coyotes flee, and the two men then see the body of
Maggie Eagle Bear -- recently shot -- lying in a shallow grave.
They return to a key reservation settlement where the final climactic
excitement mounts rapidly. Coutelle and Milton, by now aware of the stance
of Levoi and Crow Horse who have just discovered another killing, arrive
accompanied by pickups full of armed goons. Pursued, Levoi and Crow Horse
flee on obscure roads in Levoi's vehicle while, in a CB radio conversation
with his one-time superior, Levoi traps Coutelle via a
tape recording.
The flight takes the two into an especially sacred area.
The road ends close to a high, cliffy ridge and the Levoi car banks down in
a ditch. The two men head on foot toward a complex of small canyons but
stop when an armed Coutelle, Milton, and the army of goons all level down on
them. In a tense, terse colloquy between Levoi and Coutelle, the latter
offers to receive Levoi back into the Fold along with an attractive deal.
If Levoi hesitates, it's only for a split second before walking over a few
steps and publicly affirming his stance with Crow Horse -- and the People's
cause.
Guns -- many of them -- are now aimed directly and purposefully at the two.
And then, to the sound of traditional singing, many of the People appear
over the up close ridges with their own guns -- appropriately aimed.
Grandpa Sam Reaches is obviously a major leader in this dramatically timely
appearance.
The other side wilts. It's clear that the Sun has won.
In a few short scenes, before Ray Levoi heads out to publicly expose the
uranium schemes, Elder Grandpa Sam Reaches and the young man exchange
meaningful gifts in the context of solid relationship. Solid too, are the
ties between Levoi and Walter Crow Horse who reminds the now most likely
ex-FBI agent that he can always come back to the res. And, with specific
reference to the Wounded Knee massacre, he tells Levoi, "You were there,
Ray."
The Land -- the setting -- is very real. The acting, consistently excellent,
is mostly done by Indians. Almost all of the depicted homes and
settlements, and many of the vehicles, fit the economically marginal nature
of nearly all Indian reservations.
The themes are obviously powerful and are handled sensitively and well in
authentic fashion: Ray Levoi's ultimately well resolved and not uncommon
between-two-worlds socio-cultural identity conflict, and the struggle to
preserve the Earth and prevent the desecration of It and The People. The
frequent complexities of tribal factionalism -- bureaucracy with hovering
outside corporate interests opposed by strong and vital traditionalism with
vigorous traditional approaches -- are set forth with accuracy.
And Vision -- always rare and usually with great personal meaning: No
Indian would ever have any problem with that.
___________________________________________________________
hunter,
this was filmed during the period when we were living in n.d.
together, you, me, john, etc -- it was during the drought year --
'89? -- which you can see from the dryness of the foliage in the film.
at the same time, or in roughly that timeframe, the director michael
apted (british) filmed "incident at ogalalla," the documentary (narr.
robt redford) about peltier. if i recall rightly, the funding for
the documentary was tied into the funding for the film -- something
like, ok, we'll give you $$ for "incident" if you also bring us a
hollywood movie.
i've often thought that of course it would take a british director to
reduce this whole thing to its elements. my favorite scene is when
maggie says (something like), you want to solve some crimes? here
they are -- 200 uninvestigated murders of traditionals.
knock yourself out.
i always like that, since joe killsright stuntz's killer was never
prosecuted (june 26, 1975).
hope yr well and lkg fwd to a good 06,
kass [fleisher] 12/31/05
______________________________________________________________________
FROM AN INDIAN FRIEND VIA E-MAIL, WHOSE PATH
HAS
CROSSED MINE NUMEROUS TIMES OVER HALF A CENTURY
WITHOUT OUR EVER MEETING, AND WITH WHOM I FINALLY
SPOKE, OVER A THOUSAND-MILE DISTANCE (POCATELLO,
IDAHO) ON MY NOV. 25 KPFA BROADCAST A FEW WEEKS
AGO, WHEN I INTERVIEWED HIM. IT MAY BE HEARD AT
KPFA.ORG/ARCHIVES. HIS WEB SITE AND MAILING LISTS
ARE REMARKABLE FOR THEIR CONTENT AND THE HUMAN
BEING THEY REVEAL.
Bill Mandel 1/02/06 -- To a friend of his with my review of Thunderheart
_________________________________________________________________________________
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
NORTH DAKOTA JUSTICE MATTERS [HUNTER BEAR
1/03/06]
NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: January 3 2006
ENCOUNTER WITH BILL MANDEL [KPFA RADIO, BERKELEY] POSTED 11/26/05 [BASIC TOPIC OF MY TALK: NATIVE AMERICANS]
NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: 11/26/05
One of the most positive dimensions of our
discovery of the Net and e-mail
has been my meeting thereby a great number of very fine people -- some of
whom I have personally known, some of whom I have heard in years past,
others brand new friends. One of these great many souls has been Bill
Mandel. A special name and good works not unknown to me over the decades,
we met first on the Marxist List several years ago and Eldri and I soon
obtained and read his fine book, Saying No To Power [1999] -- which covers
much of Bill's radical saga in the context of rich global travels,
observation, and interpretation. It was clear even before I read that
monumental work that our respective trails had touched at many significant
junctures.
When he asked me awhile back to interview/speak November 25th on his well
known radio program at KPFA, out of Berkeley, I was most glad to do so. I
haven't, I should add, been in the Bay Area since I spoke at the San
Francisco Press Club years ago. [I've attached an excerpt from his
post-interview message to me.]
The realm, history, contemporary challenges of the people known as American
Indians or Native Americans [the latter term formally embraces, of course,
Eskimos/Inuit and Aleuts as well], makes up a Big Mountain Range indeed. I
should add that, like many of us, I tend to use these two terms
interchangeably -- along with that of First People.
I try to be a reasonably well organized speaker and Bill, of course, is an
excellent host who, avoiding the extremes of non-directiveness and
interference, walks a judiciously fine and spare and thoughtfully effective
path. In addition to brief mention of my critical view of "Thanksgiving,"
I was able to cover the mountain peaks we deem especially significant: among
them, the multiplicity of tribal nations and tribal cultures, primary
Native loyalty thereto, and the consistent and effective Native resistance
to assimilation by the so-called Euro-American mainstream culture. I sought
to delineate key issues such as the necessity of development of tribal
self-determination within the context of treaty rights and the importance of
those rights; the fight to restore lost sovereignty to the Indian nations;
the critical importance of protecting Native lands and natural resources;
the always high priority of tribal economic development and the deepening
and broadening of Native health services and strengthening and expansion of
Indian educational systems.
In the course of this I sketched something of my own Indian background:
growing up in Northern Arizona and Western New Mexico with always extremely
close ties to Navajo Nation and Laguna Pueblo; important multi-ethnic
influences; my shooting of the Great Bear as a coming-of-age ritual; life
long social justice community organizing; my father; our historic family
ancestral culture models -- John Gray [Ignace Hatchiorauquasha] and
Marienne Neketichon Gray, Mohawk activists in the Far Western fur trade. In
a quick discussion of theology, I was glad to say a good and balanced word
for the Jesuits, their frequent respect for the Native cultures, and the
resultant phenomenon of syncretism -- the blending of Catholicism with the
traditional theologies.
[Got Tougaloo College and Navajo Community College [now Dine' College] very
nicely into all of this!]
Expressing our own gratitude for the fact that I have been able to work
effectively and with cultural sensitivity with people of a range of
racial/cultural backgrounds over many epochs, I pushed [as always]
grassroots community organizing as Genesis -- sensibly militant and tough
and democratic with the critical two dimensional focus: the here-and-now
needs of the people, and the Vision Over the Mountains Yonder.
Took a shot at capitalism and spoke well of socialism. And I closed with
that most basic current of all in the ethos of all of the Native tribal
nations: The primary emphasis on serving one's community -- rather than
serving one's self.
Now this was all a very big meal -- if I do say so myself -- and it was
inclusively possible because Bill Mandel is a Host of the first rank. Got
all of this in with deliberate speed and without an ounce of "preachiness."
I was also very pleased to mention our support for continuation of his
excellent radio program on KPFA. For that struggle, past and current,
please see:
FROM BILL MANDEL: 11/25/05
Hunter:
Thanks from the bottom of my heart for appearing on my
show. The board operator seems to have hung up before it was
possible for me to say anything privately.
The listeners must have been puzzled by both of us in
one respect. They have all heard the tapes of my encounters
with witch-hunters, on which I come across as one tough
character. Likewise, I think they found it hard to relate
the calm and even gentle academic I was talking to, with the
man with the bloody head and pistol in his hand I
described, plus your mention of the unnamed disease you are
now fighting.
If they have thought about it, I imagine they realize
that they were listening to two elders in the positive
traditional sense of the term, men who've seen it all and
feel no need to raise their voices with another whose
experiences have been more or less equally rich.
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR]
Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR:
12/24/05
My family and I very much appreciate these kind
words and Links by Robert
Livingston. It's a pleasant Holiday message indeed -- up here in our rather
isolated Idaho mountain existence. It was more than just pleasant to be on
Bill's very capably conducted KPFA radio broadcast: it was an honor and an
opportunity to be effective in the Cause. We are, again, most appreciative
to Bill and to Mr Livingston. Our very best, H
Dear Bill Mandel, Riva Enteen, Hunter Gray, and Maria Gilardin,
I hope you do not mind me writing you all as a bunch.
I just listened to the last three programs of "Thinking Out Loud":
* The November 25th program interviewing Hunter Gray (John R. Salter).
As a child I loved the same book about Father Nicolas Point that Gray
mentioned ("Wilderness Kingdom".)
(For personal reasons, I particularly liked what he said about grass
roots organizing with an analogy to rivers:
)
* The December 9th program in which the discussion was about the war ,
Cindy Sheehan's fascinating prospects, and hopeful impeachment of Bush.
* The December 23rd program about privatization of education-- what
could have been a more productive topic for our youth? This was an
extremely valuable program.
You may be curious as to how I accessed these three programs when they
are not displayed at the KPFA archives. I am no technical guru-- but I
figured out that all of KPFA's programs have archived numbers, and I
simply guessed which ones belonged to the programs.
They are:
I use Linux with an mplayer plug-in; for some reason, the streaming mp3s
stopped abruptly midway through each program, but I was able to save the
entire programs by going to the temporary storage of the download on my
computer hard drive and relabelling it as an mp3 file. Thus, I was able
to hear the entire prorams. While listening, I became especially
incensed recalling the attacks against Bill on the internet (calling him
an "egotist")-- how far from the truth.
It is a shame that few people may ever hear these programs. I certainly
hope that Bill will explore other opportunities to broadcast in some
other form.
A special note to Hunter Gray:
I am glad Bill Mandel had you as a guest. I hope to read your book
about Jackson, Mississippi-- and I very much am enjoying exploring your
website. I am sorry that you have not been well. I will take your
words to heart: "Always Keep Fighting!"
May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
Robert B. Livingston
San Francisco
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
Check out our big page on the art and practice of Community Organizing
http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the
high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down
on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings. Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunter Bear]
HUNTER BEAR RESPONSE TO A QUESTION: NATIVES AND POLITICS 12/23/05
Ward Churchill's failings speak for
themselves. Many of us, frankly, are
really tired of that issue. Please do your own research, C.,
on that
one.
Almost all Native Americans involved as office-holders in American electoral
politics are Democrats. Southwestern legislatures -- e.g., Arizona and New
Mexico -- have had a number of American Indians, in most cases Navajo, since
the passage and implementation and the powerfully good impact of the 1965
Voting Rights Act which, among other things, eliminates so-called "literacy
tests" and provides for bi-lingual assistance at the polls. There are many
other examples of elected Native people, again mostly Democrats, in the
so-termed mainline American stream in a number of settings and this has
included at several points the U.S. House.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell switched from Democrat to Republican during the
Clinton administration -- and, given the nature of that Democratic mess, no
one can blame him. In instances where there are or have been Republican
office holders who are Native, their Republicanism is almost always quite
moderate in nature. A case in point who Beba will remember is our good
friend in North Dakota, Art Raymond, Rosebud Sioux. North Dakota
Republicanism, I should add, has never been stridently conservative. On rare
occasions, I have -- with no apologies -- supported local Republicans in
North Dakota. At several points in the now increasingly distant past, the
national Republican Party showed more interest in supporting Native
self-determination than did the Democrats -- though the national Republican
commitment to honoring the treaty rights -- absolutely crucial to the
Native world -- has always been consistently thin.
[We consider self-determination in the context of fully maintained treaty
rights to be fundamentally critical -- always and with no exceptions.
Maximum sovereignty for the Indian nations is an extremely key dimension.]
A few years ago, the excellent Larry Echohawk, Pawnee, a Democrat, was
elected AG of Idaho -- and, in the subsequent election, came extremely close
to winning this state's gubernatorial race.
In recent decades, the national Democratic Party has been somewhat -- I say
somewhat -- more responsive to Native concerns. In 2000, the Nader effort
with Winona LaDuke [White Earth Chippewa] as his running mate, attracted a
significant number of Native voters [including me and most of our family].
Most Native voters in 2004 supported Kerry and Edwards. [I, however, here in
Idaho, wrote in the Socialist Party USA candidates.]
Many of us welcome any increased sensitivity by any political party to our
concerns -- but the from the Republicans little is now expected. And now
and for the foreseeable future, the Democrats have the great majority of
Native "mainline" voters.
There is a deep and basic unity among Native Americans -- but any surface
stereotyping, including political, is quite risky. And many Native people
are far more interested, frankly, in our own elections -- tribal, Indian
centers, Native programs etc. -- than those in an alien world.
Yours, Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR]
Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
Check out our big page on the art and practice of Community Organizing
http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the
high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down
on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings. Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunter Bear]