Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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Bemidji
Mayor Douglas Peterson proclaimed last Friday, May 7,
to be Arbor Day in Bemidji. According
to the Bemidji Pioneer, in his proclamation address he said “I urge all
citizens to support efforts to care for our trees and woodlands and to
plant
trees to gladden the hearts and promote the well-being of present and
future
generations.” (I guess the City of
Bemidji’s icon, Paul Bunyan, wasn’t thinking about the next generations. For Arbor Day, they should have taken Paul
Bunyan’s statue down, tarred and feathered him, and run Paul and his
Blue Bull
out of town—and planted a tree there by the lake instead.
Paul Bunyan and Arbor Day go together like
drinking and driving.) Mayor Peterson
said that whenever trees are planted, “they are a source of joy and
spiritual
renewal.” The Pioneer quotes nothing
about primeval forests providing joy—and also nothing about the
abundant and
beautiful ecosystem which the Anishinabe Ojibway maintained. Apparently, the only trees which the White
man sees as “beautiful” is the ones that he’s planted and “owns.” The Bemidji area economy depends, in large
part, on the continuing destruction of the ecosystem.
You are just now starting to glimpse the price you will pay for
plundering and squandering the fat of this land.
A
healthy forest is much more than trees, and planting trees
will not restore an ecosystem which has been demolished.
They say that the Europeans “can’t see the
forest for the trees.” Don’t get me
wrong—I’m certainly not against planting trees—but no matter how many
trees you
plant or tree farms you make, no matter how much public pomp and
circumstance,
and no matter how many scientific foresters with Ph.D.s, a tree farm
has very
little resemblance to the harmonious, intricate, and balanced ecosystem
of the
Anishinabe Ojibway. A tree farm will
not stop your lakes from drying up; it will not provide what forests
must
provide in order for the lakes and rivers to be full of fish. The spear-and-release fisherman [that’s how
the Europeans think—the D.N.R. had to publicize a regulation
prohibiting
spear-and-release for the White spearfishing season] are going to have
to do
more than plant a few trees (or scapegoat “spearfishing Indians”) in
order to
have fish.
The
ecosystem in this area is in serious trouble. The
forest products companies will not—and
cannot—restore what they are looting and ransacking.
A few trees cut down, will grow back in an intact forest, but
forest ecosystems, once destroyed, are not renewable.
Just one example is what we called “fish flies.”
Ask any old-timer about the clouds of fish
flies, so thick they looked like smoke, that swirled and hummed every
May. I haven’t seen even one fish fly in
four or
five years. They may be “pesty,” but
they are a necessary part of the ecosystem.
When you destroy the forests, you destroy everything. If you fishermen really cared about the
fish, instead of hollering about “Indians,” you would be chasing the
wood-butchers out of the woods, and doing something about the D.N.R.
poison-spraying programs that are killing the fish flies.
All of the insects (including mosquitos!)
are here for a purpose. Everything is a
part of the ecosystem—it’s about time you immigrants came to terms with
that. But, most of the White people I’ve
met are either so domesticated, so brainwashed, or so afraid, that
they’ll
swallow the propaganda about scapegoats hook, line and sinker, and not
even
dare to think about addressing the real problems.
FIRST “ENVIRONMENTALISTS”:
Have you noticed that this concentration camp
called a Reservation doesn’t have as much garbage laying around as it
used
to? There have been people out in
crews, picking up garbage along the roadside.
The Red Lake I.R.A. Tribal Council finally provided some
leadership, at
least with roadside litter.
Congratulations. This is a
milestone event, which should have been done years ago—but better late
than
never. Picking up roadside trash is
only half the project. Not only is the
clear-cutting wrecking the ecosystem, but the loggers are really
leaving a
mess: piles of slash, stumps, wasted wood, oil spills, oil cans dumped
all over
the place, trash everywhere. The slash
and trash of the Anishinabe Ojibway forests is going on under the
misnamed
“Forest Management” bureaucracy of the racist crooks in the Bureau of
Indian
Affairs. They have no jurisdiction to
be cutting Sovereign Anishinabe Ojibway forests in the first place, and
they’re
adding insult to injury by letting the irresponsible wood pirates who
leave
such a mess come back and cut again on another contract.
Several
people have asked me to write about taking the
asphalt removed as a part of the Nebish Road repair, and dumping it in
the
woods. The road crews should have
crushed it, and used it again in the road.
It looks like they’re going to cover the mess they made up with
dirt—it
will be here for millennia. There is
also absolutely no excuse for taking “cleanup” toxins from a Bemidji
oil spill,
and dumping it up here on the Reservation.
Did the Tribal Council take a payoff and grant them permission
to do
this—or is it that they don’t have the power (or the guts) to stop
outsiders
from dumping poisons on this land and in the water.
Maybe the Red Lake Chippewa I.R.A. Tribal Council’s paper
“sovereignty” doesn’t have any substance.
ROGER JOURDAIN’S DREAM
COME TRUE: Former Chairman-for-Life Roger Jourdain
finally got a “National Indian Month,” which is happening this May. It would been better to have a “invite a
mythological Wanna-Be to dinner month”—guess who’s coming to dinner. The National Celebration could be kicked off
with stereotypical colonial “Indian Food” like fry bread and hangover
soup.
THE TRUTH IN LYING: Senator
Packwood of Oregon is weaseling out
of the hot seat, using crooked linear thinking. Now
that he squeaked back into the Senate, Packwood admits that
he sexually harassed women. The
Oregonians are accusing Packwood of lying to his constituents, and are
pressing
the Senate to expel him for telling lies.
The Catch-22 is that the Senate can’t set the precedent of
invalidating
Packwood’s election for telling lies—because if that precedent were
set, the
entire U.S. Congress would have to pack their bags and go home, and
admit that
they’re liars. If that precedent were
set, then the U.S. Government would also have to abolish the Bureau of
Indian
Affairs, because the entire “Indian” identity is a lie.
There are no “Indians” here, and there never
were any “Indians” on this Continent.
The entire “Indian” mystique is a myth, and it needs to be
debunked. I am not an Indian.
I am Anishinabe Ojibway. We, the
Anishinabe Ojibway and other
Aboriginal Indigenous People have a right to exist as a Sovereign
People on our
own land, without being saddled with the projected European identity
and racist
lie of “Indian,” which is an illusion and a demeaning caricature, and
an
abusive mythology which serves the vested interests of the European
colonializers.
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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