Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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The
Indians clear across the country, including here at Red
Lake, celebrated their “Independence” on the Fourth of July. There were many dancing contests with
big-bucks prizes, drumming and singing.
The Warrior Societies were celebrating their many wars, and
honoring two
hundred and eighteen years of “freedom” for the Indians, under their
“unique”
relationship with the United States of America, “the land of the Free
and the
home of the Brave.”
S. 1021:
If
you don’t know what Senate Bill 1021, of the 103rd U.S.
Congress, first session is, then you Indians had better find out quick. The short title is: “Native American Free
Exercise of Religion Act of 1993.” In
the United States Constitution, the First Amendment is often cited as
guaranteeing “freedom of religion,” which isn’t exactly what it
does—the text
of this part of the First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise
thereof.” Because there was no explicit
Constitutional guarantee, under the alien Roman and English Law of the
United
States, or under the Indian Law derived from it, the United States
Department
of War and Department of the Interior had no problem generating
bureaucratic
regulations and actions naming “Indians” but aimed at annihilating Ahnishinahbæótjibway and other Aboriginal
Indigenous peoples’ religious
philosophies and practices.
I
spent nine years as a political prisoner of the United
States Government, in the Roman Catholics’ boarding school—held there
under the
immigrant Europeans’ regulations which were enforced under imported
Roman
Law. We were told that because of our
ancient Midé tradition, we were “Pagans,” and that we
“worshipped the Devil.” Our own resources
were used (disbursed by
the United States), to pay intolerant people, including the Catholic
Nuns who
told us, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian,” and “you are the
Vanishing
Americans, and you will go.” The
formative documents of present United States “Indian Policy,” including
both
the transcripts of the Lake Mohonk Conferences and the Annual Reports
of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, are filled with references to their
long-term
goals of abolishing the Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples’ religion,
language and
culture, and then, forcible Christianization of the survivors of this
Holocaust. “Indians” have always been
used by the Euro-Americans as an euphemism to obscure what is being
done to the
Aboriginal Indigenous People.
The
policy-makers of the United States Government know that
they are descendants of illegal immigrants to this Continent, and that
they are
a Judeo-Christian State, “one Nation under [their foreign] God;” which
runs
into conflict with the egalitarian, harmonious and non-violent
Aboriginal
Indigenous Traditional philosophies/religions.
It is clear from scrutinizing S. 1021 that long-term policy of
the
Euro-Americans hasn’t changed in the last century.
The snake-oil salesmen and the shyster lawyers who work in the
back rooms for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs have masked the
genocidal
and historical revisionist intent of their proposed legislation behind
flowery
language and reeking red herrings. The
way that S. 1021 hedges its definitions, cites authorities for
jurisdiction
including the elastic clause of the U.S. Constitution, and uses a
purportedly
altruistic purpose to try to redefine Aboriginal Indigenous people as
“Indians”
under the jurisdiction of the Indian Tribal Councils and the related
system of
Indian Law which the U.S. created, makes it clear that the authors and
sponsors
of the Bill know exactly what they are doing.
One of the things which S. 1021 does, is establish an Indian
cult—a
cheap imitation of the Aboriginal Indigenous religions/philosophies.
No
matter what they say or write, Euro-American law has no
jurisdiction over the Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples of this Continent,
nor over
the land. Judeo-Christianity is used as
the reference point in this Bill because the Honorable Senators
apparently
understand enough of their own history to know that the U.S. claims to
the
eminent domain on this continent rest on imported Judeo-Christian dogma
and
brazen assertion backed by force. There
is no need for an “Indian Freedom of Religion Act” for Indians, who
were born
subjects of the Judeo-Christian empire, and in fact the requirement in
S. 1021
for “aboriginal ancestry” excludes a great many of the U.S.’ Federally
Recognized blood-quantum Indians from “protection” under the proposed
legislation. The United States
Government is promoting “Indian law” to obscure both their bloody
history and
their present intent. So-called “Indian
law” has absolutely nothing to do with Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples’
philosophies, laws, religions, culture, traditions, and values. Aboriginal Indigenous People are always
invisible
in United States laws, except for attempts to re-define us and our land
as
“Indian.” The land of this Continent
has never been “Indian land,” and we, the Ahnishinahbæótjibway have our own ancient
identity, and do not need to
have a racist parody of an identity imposed on us by illegal aliens.
Senator
Wellstone and Senator Inouye: “have you no sense of
decency?”
DÉJA-VU:
The
Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune featured an interview
with the versatile lawyer, Jeff Chaffee, who is said to argue either
side of a
case “with enthusiasm.” At the Mille
Lacs Treaty Trial in Minneapolis, which side he is on doesn’t make much
difference, because it’s all Roman Law, so the White man was already
the
“winner” before the Trial opened under his rules. As
an attorney for the State, Mr. Chaffee questioned Mille Lacs
elder Herman Kegg, and according to the Star Tribune, thus “established
...
that he accepted the authority of the state to regulate natural
resources”
because Mr. Kegg bought State hunting and fishing licenses. Was Mr. Kegg accepting the invaders’ and
immigrants repressive, racist Roman Law, and does he also accept the
Indian law
which is derived from Roman Law? The
author of the newspaper article, Pat Doyle, does not write whether Mr.
Kegg is Ahnishinahbæótjibway with a Dodem, or if he
has a White patriline—although
some of the people involved in the Mille Lacs Trial know.
The issue is critical, because if he is an
Indian with a White patriline, he is automatically under State
jurisdiction and
has to buy a license, whether it’s from the Federal Instrumentality of
the 1934
I.R.A. Mille Lacs R.B.C., or from the State of Minnesota.
If he is Ahnishinahbæótjibway, with a Dodem, then the
only reason he was buying a
license was to avoid harassment—but if he has a Dodem, then his
testimony at
the Treaty Trial is irrelevant, because the Indian Treaties and United
States
Roman/English laws have no jurisdiction over him.
POLITICS:
The
Independent Republicans nominated the Reverend Allen
Quist as their endorsed candidate for Governor of the State of
Minnesota. To get this endorsement, Quist
vowed that he
would stand by the planks in the I.R. Party Platform.
But now, he is standing by a huge bonfire he has made out of the
Party planks that are not in accord with his fundamentalist Kristianity. When questioned about the issue of abortion,
Quist said that there should be a State-mandated waiting period. His evangelical right-wing philosophy is
about nine months.
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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