Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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Rumor
has it that Al Gore is reinventing government by
cutting back on bureaucracy, and, guess what, the cutbacks are hitting
the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. The B.I.A.
has always been a pork-barrel political patronage organization and a
dumping
ground for political hacks, filled with bureaucrats slopping at the
public
trough.
The
1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which was also known as
the “Indian New Deal,” is the legislation upon which
Wanna-be-Chairman-for-Life
Roger Jourdain entrenched his Red Lake Chippewa Tribal Council. The problems of 1934 I.R.A. “corruption or
bad judgement on the part of the Indian councils” was described by
professor
Graham Taylor, “Their dilemma was real and should not be viewed
simplistically. It would be easy to
portray the Indian New Deal as a fraud in which puppet councils danced
to the
tune of hypocritical administrations mouthing worthless slogans about
Indian-self government” and Indian Self-Determination.
Dr. Taylor wrote this description in 1980,
and if there has been any change it has been change for the worse. Cutting back on the B.I.A. is a good
idea. But, if the Bureau of Indian
Affairs is going to withdraw from the Reservations, they’d better take
their
Indians with them.
MORE BAD
JUDGEMENT:
According
to Dirk Johnson, in the December 27, 1993 New York
Times, the sound of Indian drums is being heard in Boulder, Colorado. Trishuwa, a member of the Church of Gaia,
Council
of the Six Directions, has been performing Indian rituals.
In 1978, when the United States Congress
passed the Indian Freedom of Religion Act, Chief Jim Crow and his
squaw,
Ap-ar-theid were the main proponents and lobbyists for this bill. The N.C.A.I. thought that the I.C.R.A. gave
Federally Recognized Indians exclusive rights to discriminate against
other
people with regard to the Indian Religion established by U.S. Congress. Recently, the N.C.A.I. approved a
“declaration of war” against the New Age practitioners of Earth
Religions,
endorsed by John Lavelle, who says he’s a Sioux Indian.
Is he going to use Bad Medicine and sage
smoke-signals in his war? Before he
“declares war,” Injun John needs to get an Act of Congress, because the
U.S.
Congress owns the I.F.R.A. Also, as an
Indian, Lavelle is a ward of the U.S. Government under trusteeship, and
he has
to get approval of the United States Department of the Interior before
he
declares war. Monsieur Lavelle also
says that Ed McGaa, who is a Sioux Indian medicine man, is “a huckster
and a
disgrace to his tribe.” Lavelle is
upset with McGaa for saying, “If we don’t share our medicine, we’ll
lose
it. We’re all brothers.”
No wonder M. Lavelle’s Indians can’t get
together, they’re too busy backstabbing, and shooting arrows in each
others’
backs. It seems like the Wanna-Be
Indians are fighting each other about who has the hotline to the Great
White
Father (they’re not sure if he’s in Washington, D.C. or in the Sky),
instead of
understanding that there are many different ways to find one’s balanced
and
harmonious path in life, and that every human being is on this earth
for a
reason, even White people and N.C.A.I. Professional Indians.
The
N.C.A.I. Indians are angrily criticizing the New Age
People for trying to heal the earth.
New Age Pam Gershen was quoted as saying, “Healing the earth is
something we all need to do. I’m not
trying to be an Indian. But the
connectedness to the earth—that’s God-given to everybody.”
These White people came to this continent
looking for Freedom of Religion, and now the Indians are being racist
and
denying to the Whites, Freedom of Religion.
The Circle comes around, and then the Circle comes around again. As far as I’m concerned, if White people
want to get connected to Grandmother Earth and help heal her, more
power to
them. Go ahead and practice Indian
religion. Grandmother Earth is very
vulnerable and fragile. Respect, and
the harmony of the efforts of people of every color, is what is needed.
James
W. Baugh wrote in the August 9, 1992 San Diego Union,
“The writer [of an August 1 article on Religion & Ethics] cites a
Gallup
Poll in which 63 percent of Americans believe that religion can answer
all or
most of today’s problems. No wonder
we’re in so much trouble. Thousands of
years of organized religion have done nothing to solve any problems and
have
almost always exacerbated them by promoting fear, superstition, and
irrational
mythologies. Kneeling in prayer to some
imaginary supernatural entity seeking ‘divine guidance’ or, even more
implausibly, ‘divine intervention,’ is not only a waste of time, it is
counterproductive because it lulls the supplicant into inactivity. We must stand up, open our eyes and face
life’s challenges head-on in a problem-solving approach that is
reality-based
...”
FAMILY
VALUES:
There
is an old story about a young man who came to an
ignominious end. Convicted of a capital
crime, he was tortured, then executed.
Some folks weren’t surprised.
After all, the mother had gotten pregnant out of wedlock. The father had disappeared—the record is
unclear whether he died or just up and left, but at any rate he never
paid any
child support. As a young adult, the
son abandoned the family business. He
never again held a paying job, never married, dropped out of sight for
18 years
without contacting his family, and often hung out with prostitutes,
shysters,
and the homeless. He always maintained
that there is a higher power. They
crucified two thieves, and put Him in the middle. So
much for family values.
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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