Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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In
the June elections at White Earth, held when Wadena’s
four-year term was already out, Bugger McArthur won the contest for
I.R.A.
tribal chairman. According to the
constitution of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Inc., the legal term of
office is
four years, not four years and a day, or four years and a week—so,
after the
election, Wadena was out, he had no business hanging around the tribal
offices. If they wanted a transition
period, they should have held the elections a month earlier.
Since
taking office, Bugger has been a center of controversy,
and many wanna-be candidates and sore losers are crying “foul ball,”
and want a
new election. It appears that some of
them want to get their sticky fingers into the coffers.
Chairman of the Sour Grapes Committee Chip
Wadena has been complaining vigorously—he and his pals need to go to
Camp
Justice and spend the next four years having protests, signing
petitions and
sucking eggs. Skip Finn said that the
Indians are like “crabs in the bottom of a bucket,” when one almost
gets to the
top, everyone else drags him back into the bottom.
The White man owns the I.R.A. Indian tribal councils, created
the
Indian identity in his image of Machiavelli, and made back-biting and
back-stabbing a part of the Indian culture.
To the newly elected Tribal Chairman—watch out for crooked
arrows in
your back. If Jesus Christ came back
and won as White Earth Tribal Chairman, there would be people at Camp
Justice still
hollering that it was a crooked election... they’d probably nail Him to
the
cross again. Hmmm
HONEST BOB: According
to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the GOP Candidate “Reveals
Economic
Plan.” One of the rules of thumb in
politics is that when you’re behind in the polls, you always promise
the
electorate a tax break. This sounds
like one of the planks in Malcolm Forbe’s platform.
But then, come to think of it, Reagan and just about every other
politician has used the old trick of buying people’s votes with their
own
money, including Clinton. On one hand,
they give you a tax break, but watch the other hand—the Federal Reserve
takes
twice as much away with inflation. Inflation
steals from everybody, and putting the money you save on
“welfare reform” into more cops on the street is an oxymoron. If they want to really solve social problems
and address crime, why aren’t they arresting the guys on the Federal
Reserve
Board, who have their hands in everybody’s pocket.
Inflation has been stealing from you for years, and nobody says
a
damn’ thing. I wonder if this is
because the American public is into S&M?
Wait until Ears gets a hold of this newest rehash of a tired old
economic
plan. Would you buy a car from “Honest
Bob.”
BOUNDARY WATERS MOTORIZED
AREA: Part
of the
“American Dream” is progress—destroying the old to make room for the
new. Other parts of this dream are a “high
standard of living” (lots of material goods and recreation), and always
remaining youthful (never growing up).
The Chosen People have been able to purchase ATV’s, motorboats,
snowmobiles, airplanes... and now they want to really “have it all,”
and come
into the very last bit of relatively undamaged nature with their
high-powered,
noisy and ecologically destructive toys.
Because of the American emphasis on remaining “forever young,”
they may
not see themselves as they react in a very juvenile way, throwing
tantrums as
they drive through a fragile ecosystem with their new toys, wrecking it. They’re just like bullies in a
schoolyard. After these spoiled brats’
toys damage the “pristine” nature of the B.W.C.A., skidders are not too
far
behind them, ready to engage in “multiple use,” flatten everything in
40 acres
as they turn around, and load up the clearcut so the good ol’ boys can
make
money. Why not make the people who are
making the decisions accountable for the consequences, instead of
letting them
hide behind the faceless bureaucracies, acronyms and organizations. For posterity, why not publish the names,
addresses and telephone numbers of all the people who want to destroy
the
Boundary Waters, as well as of those who want to save it.
In
Northern Minnesota, Paul Bunyan was the first
eco-terrorist—and he’s become an icon and a culture-hero.
Many people get their picture taken at the
Bemidji monument to Paul Bunyan. In the
nearly lost oral history of the local lumberjacks and wood-butchers,
there is a
previously unpublished story about Paul Bunyan when he was in his
logging
camp. It seems, he needed to hire some
cheap labor to help him clearcut. So,
he hired a boatload of immigrants from Egypt and North Africa who had
just
crossed the Atlantic. (These guys all
looked like “Indians,” so they fit right in.)
When Paul was interviewing these job applicants, he asked them
where
they were from, and if they knew how to cut trees.
They told him that they came from the Sahara Forest. Paul scratched his head, and then asked, “you
mean the Sahara Desert?” They replied,
“that’s what they call it now.” So Paul
Bunyan hired the whole boatload on the spot.
Now, the aboriginal ecosystems, with natural forests and
plentiful fish,
are gone. The tree farms that are
“replacing” them are not in balance or harmony—since they cut the
forests down,
there are only a few fish left in the lakes.
My
mailing address is P.O. Box 484, Bemidji, MN 56619, and my
telephone number is (218) 679-3984.
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