Greg Chester listens to Wub-e-ke-niew
Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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It
is only now that many of the Aboriginal Indigenous people
are protesting the stereotypical “Indian” identity in a language which
the
Europeans understand. We object to the
demeaning and derogatory identity which the Europeans are trying to
project
onto us, and if the alien European laws were honest and dealt fairly
with all
cultures, we would sue you for “defamation of character,” but the
imported
European courts are so crooked that we can’t get our case into a court
with
jurisdiction.
One
of the reasons that many of us are dissatisfied is that
the Europeans have categorized the Aboriginal Indigenous people, the
Métis with
European patrilines, and dark-skinned Moorish Europeans, all in the
same
invented stereotypical identity of “Indians.”
The European invaders have used the confusion which they have
intentionally created by the broad and vague term of “Indian” to
advance their
agenda of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and grand theft.
An
example is the “Indian Preference Act.” Because
of the dishonest and ambiguous way
in which the identity of “Indian” is defined by the W.A.S.P.s, the
European,
blonde, blue-eyed “Indian” is the one who gets the “Indian Preference”
jobs. (In jobs where “looking Indian”
is important, a brown, Moorish “Indian” is hired.)
An Aboriginal Indigenous Person never gets a job under the
“Indian Preference Act,” probably because “Indians” is a crooked
English word,
and we’re not “Indians.” The “Token
Indians” employed by the U.S. Government are European Indians, with no
Aboriginal Indigenous ancestors from this Continent at all.
Last
week, I was asked by a reader of this column to explain,
“who is an Indian.” I said, “Let’s call
the Department of the Interior, who created Indians, and have them
explain to
us just what an Indian is.” We talked to
Carl Caine, in the Solicitor’s Office in Washington.
His telephone number is (202) 208-3401. He
said that the United States had no comprehensive definition
for an “Indian;” that the U.S. Government uses an ad hoc definition of
“Indians,” crafted according to the vagaries of the particular statute
in which
“Indians” are defined. He added, in
response to a question about stereotypes, that the word “Indian” was
like the
word, “uh, ... negro” [which is a Spanish word with Latin roots meaning
“black”, so the African people here also have been inflicted with an
European
identity for the Europeans’ convenience].
When asked how the Bureau of Indian Affairs could manage the
affairs of
“Indians” when they couldn’t define them, the Solicitor suggested using
a computerized
data-base search of legal definitions in Title 25, United States Codes. If the Department of the Interior needs a
computer to figure out what the B.I.A., the U.S. Congress and the Queen
of
England mean by “Indian,” they’re in trouble.
“Indian” is a word with a circular definition: the longer you
look, the
less meaning you find, and finally you end up where you started,
without any
real meaning at all. There is no race
of people who are “Indians,” except maybe in India.
In further researching the identity of an “Indian,” it was
explained to me that a “real Indian” is from Asia, and many of them
have a red
“caste mark” in the middle of their forehead.
We
also asked about the meaning of “Native American,” and the
Solicitor’s office agreed that “technically, it means anybody born on
this
Continent.” In other words, “Native
American” is an euphemism for European, because Aboriginal Indigenous
People do
not call this Continent by the foreign European name of “America.”
When
pressed for more details about the meaning of the word
“Indian,” Solicitor Caine said, “call the American Indian Movement.” It sounded like the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and A.I.M. have a very cozy relationship, that the Bureau has the
American
Indian Movement in their hip pocket. The
Heart of the Earth Survival School is being funded by Federal
dollars, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, so maybe this isn’t
surprising. We called A.I.M., and
talked to a woman who identified herself as the “financial officer” and
Treasurer of the American Indian Movement.
She couldn’t define “Indian” or “Tribe,” and said, “I can’t
answer those
questions.” A.I.M. doesn’t define
themselves as Aboriginal Indigenous People, because they are immigrant
European
Indian Wanna-Be’s. The Treasurer knew she
didn’t like the word “Redskins,” but apparently she didn’t realize that
“Indian” is also a derogatory word, given the meanings “lazy,” “dirty,”
“drunken,” “savage,” “primitive,” “noble,” ad nauseam by the European
invaders
who coined the word so they could steal our land and resources. Would you do the same thing, if your
continent had been plundered to the bedrock by your ancestors? Would you go over to somebody else’s land
and call them dehumanizing names, so you could live with yourself after
you killed
them and stole their property? That’s
what the Europeans have done, and isn’t that what the Europeans who
call
themselves “Americans” are doing now, in Somalia, Iraq, South America
... Instead of living in harmony,
respecting and
getting along with other people, they are going around starting wars. Just because the resources of the Aboriginal
Indigenous People were stolen to create the immense “wealth” and power
of the
European-Americans doesn’t mean that they should go around bullying
everybody
else. Not too long ago, an
European-American could go anywhere in the world, and be treated at
least with
courtesy. The Ugly American has become
so arrogant, and has so much blood on his hands, that it’s dangerous to
travel
on an United States passport. The
Circle comes around.
THE FIRST AMENDMENT: According to a
complaint
received
by the Native American Press, Jim Beatty was seen taking all of the
copies of
the N.A.P., which at that time was a free paper. I
guess Jim Beatty was interpreting the First Amendment rights of
a “free press” to steal free newspapers, and keep other people from
reading
something he disagrees with. It’s bad
enough, that members of most minority groups don’t have a chance to
exercise
their First Amendment rights. The
airwaves are claimed as their personal “public property” by the
immigrant
Europeans, and are monopolized by the Capitalist values of the White
European
élite. The mainstream press and
news
media do scapegoating, Willie-Horton-bashing, and promote derogatory
stereotypes
about other people, and when a minority person writes a rebuttal, the
media
usually says, “sorry, it’s too volatile, too inflammatory, and we can’t
print
it,” and so they monopolize the First Amendment by exclusion. The very newsprint that the big metropolitan
papers are printed on is made from stolen Aboriginal Indigenous
Peoples’
resources. What the media are doing is
dominating mass communication with the White European élite’s
world-view, while
at the same time claiming that there is a “diversity of cultures here.” There is a great diversity of people, but in
the media there is only a “diverse” voice within very narrow and
tightly
controlled limits. Right-wing
“conservatives”
like Rush Limbaugh are pigging out on the First Amendment, trying to
hog it all
and not let anybody else have a voice.
I’m tired of listening to these neo-Fascists dominate the
airwaves. Whenever I turn on the radio or
the T.V.—all
I hear is these scapegoaters: their disharmony, their greed, and their
self-righteous violence. It’s time we
heard from all cultures, all the other points of view.
Everybody is a part of this world, and has
their part to contribute in making this a better place.
There are other people here besides just the
European Fascist Fundamentalists and the Bleeding Heart Liberals, who
occupy
two “poles” of an artificial and narrow dichotomy.
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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