Some Things You Just Don't Mess With

Many people like to co-opt pieces of Native life into whatever it is they are doing. This is some serious bullshit (see my "Truth" post). Many folks do this for their own glory.

Example: Tom Hastings, one of the local Peace Kings, calls his house "The White Feather House" and his community "The White Feather Community." White Feather, also known as Larry Cloud Morgan (Anninishinabe), was arrested in 1984 after he and a bunch of other folks smashed the lid to a Minuteman Missile launchpad site. When someone is not Native and uses a Native's name, there is a certain protocol. You ask the family. You are connecting yourselves to that family so you have to ask their permission. Tom has never done this. This is called Co-optation and is extremely disrespectful. Tom, of course, is not the only one, but I like talking truth about this disingenous bastard and his institutional forms of racism as well as his misogyny.

Now I have to tread carefully because there are certain spirit someones I fear offending.

Robert Greygrass does a great piece where he plays a spirit who had taken the form of many humans and helped a lot, too. This character talks about how they don't come around as much because the sacred sites had been destroyed, but they are still there. There are other sacred sites, however, where the powers are still powerful. Some sacreds aren't so easy to destroy. Some spirits still have a powerful energy that is respected by folks from many different walks of life. Many folks know this and they don't fuck around when it comes to these spirit types.

Shusli and I were at a cafe in NoPo yesterday, drinking coffee. She notices a poster about a Peace event (not the anti-war march this weekend) coming up in the future. She recognizes the style and all that. It is all she assumes since she has been a part of that circle.

I look a little closer and see an image on the poster. It is a painting. The image is of...a...certain spirit being whose energy is still powerful in this world. I almost yanked the poster down, I didn't care if the barista saw me or not. This was just too much and too wrong. Shusli encouraged me to wait until the barista wasn't looking. I decided not to by then because...hers...is a force you just don't mess with.

Shusli later sent me links to the artists website and a link to another painting she did of said spirit being. Holy shit! Hers is a power you just don't mess with and these artworks are incredibly disrespectful and the artist isn't even from that regions people. Some things you just don't fuck with. I have heard a lot of testimony from folks who had and pretty much all have paid for that. I'm sure these folks will be payin' too. Some things you just don't fuck with. Some things you have to be very respectful of.