John Trudell

I'm gonna try to not do this in not too angry of a post.

John Trudell is a long time Indian activist. He was involved heavily with AIM. John particpated in the occupation of Alcatraz and was one of it's leaders. His wife and children and mother-in-law were murdered on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, his wife, Tina, was quite the activist herself, and therfore quite possibly a target, but that is speculation and still a mystery. John is also quite the amazing poet. I have interviewed him once, and have seen him lecture, play music, read poetry, and do one helluva lot to further and inspire the aspirations of other Indians. (See the documentary, "Trudell," to have a further understanding of this great soul in our presence.) John Trudell has been accused in the past of particpating in or somehow being a part of the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, a powerful woman in AIM some 35 years ago. These stories turned out to be total BULLSHIT! Now, onto the current accusations being set forth.

Several months ago, the new director of "Native Nations" checked out a show where Rob Robideau was showing some of his art on NW 23rd. She invited him to come down to the television show and I just thought, whatever. I know who he is and what he has done and been through, but I just didn't think about it all that much, then all shit broke loose with the staff of the show. Rob Robideau, you see, is the current accuser of John Trudell being an FBI or federal informant of some kind, and with little or no evidence (my understanding is NO evidence) that such is ACTUALLY true. Some of the TV crew REFUSED to participate in the show, and I had to make the move to uninvite the man. You see, most of the members of my crew have been involved in Indian movement issues for DECADES, and know what's going on. They KNOW John personally and are well versed on Rob Robideau and many others from WAY BACK to the present.

A little background on Rob. Rob Robideau was one of the two other men involved in the case of the killing of the two FBI agents at Oglala, SD, in what, '73 was it? Rob Robideau and Dino Butler were both aquitted for reasons of self-defense, then Leonard Peltier was railroaded in what, '75, and is still in prison. There is a lot of questions about that case, but I won't go there in this post. Read Peter Mathiessen's book, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse."

Now a little background on the possibility of why Rob is perpetuating this bullshit:

I did an interview with Dino Butler some 8-10 years ago. I asked Dino about "Mr. X." Mr. X, for those of you who don't know, was some mysterious fella who claimed to be the actual shooter of those two FBI agents that Leonard is in prison for, not that it really matters. Dino said something that has stuck in my mind ever since. He said that Rob had called and asked him to get involved in this LIE. Dino refused. He told Rob that the only way you're gonna get Leonard out of prison, if at all, is with THE TRUTH.

Fast forward a bit:

Oliver Stone wants to make a movie about Leonard Peltier. He hires Rob Robideau as a consultant. Rob stands to make a lot of money. The Mr. X thing was going to be a part of this movie. My understanding is that Oliver got in contact with John Trudell, and somehow found out that the Mr. X thing was a buncha bullshit and decided not to make the movie, and thus, Rob was out a large chunka change.

Thus, the stage has been set for Rob to come forth with an UNSUBSTANTIATED article accusing John of being an FBI informant via his testimony on the case of the alleged shooter, who was it?, John Graham? Complete and total bullshit!

Now, let me tie this in with some modern Indian youth gangland stuff. Shusli and I talked with Niso Caywood, a consultant on gang issues, especially Indian youth gangs. We invited Niso to talk on the next "Mitakuye Oyasin," and hopefully he'll be there. He talked about how gang issues or accellerated when these kids are kicked out of school. They have nothing to do. Might as well hang more with the gang and do all sorts of gang stuff. However, the various Indian gangs on the rez's and in the city streets concentrate on something rather, well, common: EACH OTHER. Indian gangs for the most part spend time going after OTHER INDIAN GANGS. Indians attacking other Indians. How common is that?

What you have with this Rob attack on John is just that. Indian on Indian violence. Just no one is throwing fists.

Now to the FBI. The FBI did something to Anna Mae, which is why, no matter who the shooter and accomplices were, the FBI and the U.S. government hold ULTIMATE responsibility for Anna Mae's murder. (note: The U.S. gov. wanted to turn the Black Hills into a national sacrifice area, it turns out. They wanted to build some 26 nuclear and coal fired power plants to supply electricity to pretty much the whole nation for the wealth, of course, of the already excessively wealthy.) The tactic used by David Price, FBI agent in charge at the time, is called SNITCH JACKETING. After at least one mass arrest, Anna Mae was held for several hours longer than the rest. What this does is make it look like she was an FBI informant (sound familiar). It makes it look like she was talking. The feds knew she was an important person in this movement, and they wanted to get her out of the way. David Price even told her so. Some time later, Anna Mae is found with a bullet in her head.

Now, when I talk about ACTUAL substantiated allegations of Indian pedophiles, adult Indians who rape Indian children, I can't get a peep out of ANYONE let alone another fuckin' Indian. These are people whose VIOLENCE effects and often makes inneffective (see past posts about Cluster Bombs) children who are damaged by these actions for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES. Many can work to live functionally despite this, but most are effected the rest of their lives. NOT A FUCKIN' PEEP OUT OF ANYONE IN INDIAN COUNTRY!

It may seem that I'm jumpin' back and forth here, but I'm not.

In my opinion, Indian on Indian violence is doing the FBI and U.S. governments work for them. When all of those so many Indians go after John Trudell, they are helping the FBI and the U.S. government. You see, they could spend all that energy attempting to effect change in the U.S. government. They could use it to organize Indians to go after, say, the U.S. government for its way too numerous to mention crimes.

Give an Indian a bat, the desire and motivation to kill, and more than likely they'll go after another Indian.

One of the reasons I will hardly write about this is because, NOT DOUBT, this post will raise the hairs on the back of some Indians neck and soon will be attacking me or further attacking John or going after Rob or going after some other Indian for some stupid perceived reason. What, go after the U.S. government, the ACTUAL perpetrator of all these crimes? But it is so much easier and such an easy copout to go after an easier target and possible ally, another Indian. Organize all that gang energy where Indians are OPPRESSING other Indians, get them to start a movement helping other Indians, get all those Indians to fight off the oppressor and change our world and the whole fucking world(most likely not using arms since, as we've learned, the U.S. loves to kill and ALWAYS goes after the weak links with horrific force)...NAH! So much easier to oppress and kill our fellow Indians. Some deserve ACTUAL justice, like the above mentioned pedophiles, but, for some odd reason, most Indians aren't interested in stopping those internal monsters and instead, will go after other gang members or other AIM members.

Indians, fighting and killing other Indians. It's a long time tradition that I believe has got to come to an end.