Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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Under
the Divine Mandate policy of “Manifest Destiny,” the
United States Government created the Boarding Schools.
From their inception into the 1940’s, the
specific target of these schools was the assimilation of the “Indian,”
along
with the annihilation of the Aboriginal Indigenous people.
When compulsory education for “Indians” was
established in the late 1800’s, it was explained that the schools were
an
integral part of the U.S. policy to “abolish the party of the second
part” to
the Treaties, along with germ warfare: epidemics of smallpox and
tuberculosis,
and chemical warfare, including alcoholism.
This explicit genocide policy was still in effect in the 1930’s
and
early 1940’s. The teachers bluntly told
us, “You are the Vanishing Americans, and you will go.”
The
U.S. open policy of genocide changed in the 1940’s
because of Adolf Hitler. The Englishmen
were subtle and refined about their genocide.
Rather than “ethnic cleansing” (to steal land, property and
resources)
with finesse, however, Hitler’s plebeian values led him to an unmasked
and
systematic program of killing. Hitler
studied Anglo “Indian policy,” and modelled his genocidal tactics after
those
of the United States Government and England.
He said of the Russians he proposed to conquer, “we will treat
them like
Indians.”
When
I was growing up, there were a lot of French people who
were living on the Red Lake Reservation.
They had been packed onto the “Indian Rolls” by the United
States
Government, but they identified themselves as “French Canadians.” They spoke French, and I remember the lively
French Creole music the old fiddlers played at their dances. I enjoyed watching people dance the jig and
reel. In the 1930’s and 1940’s, there
was also a movie theater in Red Lake.
Most of the movies they showed were Grade B Westerns, with
Cowboys and
Indians. The French Métis,
including
the very same people who are so fiercely “Indian” elders today—at that
time
they were cheering the massacre of the “Indians” by the cowboys and the
Cavalry. Now that all the “Indians”
were killed in the movies, the grandchildren of these formerly French
people
want to be Indian warriors and “medicine men,” and wear buckskin,
turquoise and
feathers, like “real Indians,” but with an identity problem.
CROOKED MATH: There are
several reasons why the Reservation schools don’t teach advanced math
(or
English). One of them is so that people
won’t be able to figure out that the odds are always against them in
all of the
gambling operations. Another reason is
because of the blood quantum.
Reservation genealogy records are also kept “confidential.” The way that the blood quantum is set up, it
leads to inbreeding. Both maintaining a
healthy community and maintaining blood quantum over the generations is
mathematically impossible. The
Aboriginal Indigenous people use their knowledge of their Dodemians and
Clans
to avoid inbreeding. The “Indians” are
not Aboriginal, and so in order to stay “Indian” they are caught up in
using
the White man’s scheme of blood quantum.
For quite some time, they have been in serious trouble with this
crooked
blood quantum. White writers do Indian
bashing about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which may be part of the problem. However, the diagnosis of “Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome” is being used to mask the consequences of “Indians” marrying
their
own close relatives to keep up their blood quantum.
Another
reason that higher mathematics isn’t taught in
Reservation schools is because of the Treaties. In
the 1864 Treaty, the Washington real estate thieves said they
were paying “four cents an acre” to the Red Lake Treaty Indians. The amount on the books as being paid (most
of which wasn’t actually paid) really came out to about a tenth of a
cent per
acre. Then, the White Government turned
around and sold the stolen land for $1.25 and up. So,
the Mille Lacs Indians who are talking about the “new Treaty”
had better start doing some more research, because you’re being ripped
of again
by the descendants of the same old immigrant European crooks.
VIOLENCE: My
mother died when I was three years old,
of tuberculosis. When I was seven years
old, my grandfather died, and I also lost my father.
In my formative years with my grandfather, I remember a lot of
love. My grandfather was a traditional
Anishinabe Ojibway man, and he never used violence.
Instead of physical punishment, even spanking, he used
non-violent teaching. The lessons he
taught were indelible, whereas the beatings that the White man uses
became just
a way of life, and the lessons were forgotten.
In the Mission School, instead of teaching kindness, the
“discipline”
was just the opposite. The Civilized Christians used violence. After a whipping, we were told, “don’t cry,
be a man.” There was nobody there to
come and hug you, nobody to say “I love you.”
I had to re-learn this from my children, who, after all the
years of
violence, taught me how to say, “I love you,” and to hug them. My children are in their late thirties, and
when they give me a hug and tell me that they love me.
Non-violence starts in the family.
Lately
in the media there has been a lot of news about
children carrying guns and knives to school, and about gang violence. The children are living out the violence of
the society, but they are also reflecting the values they have learned
at
home. How many of these gun-carrying
children have parents who give them a hug, and say “I love you?” There is supposed to be a diversity of
cultures in the United States, but the laws are all European laws
written to
benefit only the European people. After
people get a Rodney King Beating, how can you expect them to respect
the White
Law, when this European Law has no respect for the non-White people
under its
jurisdiction? There has to be an
alternative. We have to work for a
non-violent world, to make this a better place to live.
We can start in our families, by cherishing
our children and our parents, by hugging them and saying “I love you.” Or, are you too “macho” for that, living out
a White stereotype projection of a “man.”
Nonviolence works. I know
it. The Anishinabe Ojibway had a
non-violent society for millennia. I
have lived in both worlds.
WACO, TEXAS: Jesus
Christ was celibate the first time he
came around. Now that he’s been
reincarnated, he has at least fourteen wives—maybe he’s making up for
lost
time. There was a deadly raid on Jesus’
New Galilee compound, and Jesus opened fire on the other Christians. According to the papers, they were going to
arrest Jesus, alias Vernon Howell, alias David Koresh, for having an
assortment
of “high-powered weapons.” The Bible is
full of violence. No wonder this
reincarnated Jesus took up assault rifles.
There has been nothing but violence on this Continent for five
hundred
years, since the immigrant Europeans got here.
The Prophets in Christianity have always said, “if Jesus
returned,
they’d kill him again.” The moral of
this story is, don’t be reincarnated as Jesus Christ, because the Good
Christians will crucify you again. The
news media haven’t spelled out who is the “cult” and who is the “sect.” Both are violent.
My
telephone number is (218) 679-2382 and my mailing address
is P.O. Box 484, Bemidji, MN 56601.
Wub-e-ke-niew
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