Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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December 13, 1992
[unpublished]
Minneapolis Star
Tribune
attention: Jim Dawson, Staff Writer
Dear Jim Dawson,
I
enjoyed seeing my article in the Commentary section of the
Minneapolis Star Tribune today.
I was particularly amused by the things that you chose to edit
out of
the article.
I
understand your linear and compartmentalized thinking, and
some of the phrases that whoever edited the article deleted are the
ones which
I figured would be the most threatening to people imprisoned within the
Indo-European
languages and world-view. To someone
outside of your culture, your fears and your unwillingness or inability
to face
reality are crystal-clear.
The
Indians who write, are writing out of the same world-view
as the other Europeans. They have the same
values, the same ways of thinking—and much of what they write is simply
fleshing out the “Indian” stereotypes which are given to them. What I write comes from the Anishinabe
Ojibway tradition, from my Dodem and my Clan and my identity as
Anishinabe Ojibway. Much of what I write
is not mine alone, but
is explaining to you in your language what my people have been saying
to you
(in the Anishinabe Ojibway language) for as long as you have been here. You couldn’t or wouldn’t listen, so my
people have to tell you in English.
What I write comes from my love for this land, from my roots
which
according to our history are more than one hundred thousand years deep
in this
land. It’s a feeling that you Europeans
do not have access to on this continent.
I don’t need to wrap myself in any flag (particularly an
European one)
to prove how “patriotic” I am. It seems
blasphemous to have to pay foreign European taxes for Grandmother
Earth, where
I come from and where I shall return.
When
the Euro-American immigrants finally get the courage to
face reality, and understand themselves clearly—only then will you be
able to
do what you need to do in making this a better place for all people. Everybody is put here for a purpose, and
everybody has something valuable to contribute to this planet.
For
your information, I am enclosing a copy of my next column
for the Native American Press.
The reason that this particular article is written very
aggressively, is
because the Chippewa Indians are trying to steal Anishinabe Ojibway
land at Red
Lake, again. These “Chippewa Indians”
are not Anishinabe Ojibway—they are White, French Métis
or African
people and we can prove it. We have
been researching your documents relating to their genealogies for eight
years,
and correlating this with Anishinabe Ojibway oral tradition. It was a good scheme while it lasted, but
now that there are a number of Anishinabe Ojibway who are fluent in
English,
this scheme is coming to an end.
Wub-e-ke-niew
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