CRASH!

The stock market has been fluctuating so heavily that the Federal Reserve had to step in and they are lowering interest rates. I found this article from the Guardian UK.

Now, if there is anything I have learned in this world, it is what you are not being told. Mind you, you probably are not hearing about the potential CRASH in American news, but even in foreign news, what aren't we hearing?

They say housing loans are what are bringing in this heavy fluctuation...yeah...right. Like when I first heard about Howard and the Aborigines, I knew something was up, and that it was most likely a land grab, which it turned out to be.

I believe the stock market fluctuation has to do with a downturn in the economy due to the excessive illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the potential war with Iran (even potentials cost a lot of money). Jobs are disappearing into third world countries with no labor restrictions. Social safety nets are disappearing. They buying power, as it were, of the average U.S. citizen seems to be decreasing as the prices of houses inflates to outrageousness (Rhonda and I have been talking about this frequently, seeing tiny houses in our neighborhood going for upwards of $300,000).

Hold on tight, folks, this is only the beginning. So far they are holding back the crash, but they don't have enough tools when the general buying power of the public is being reduced and our economy is going overseas into illegal wars and our health care wealth is being sucked up by CEO's in the "Health Care Industry."

I smell smoke...and I'm hearing that violin playing a little bit louder.

Fry Bread Mix and Human Remains

Yesterday was quite the amazing day!

Rhonda, Louis, and I did "Mitakuye Oyasin" radio program, which was fun. I played a lot of fight songs and it is good having Rhonda on. We discussed pretty much all the stuff we've been discussing on this blog as well.

On the way out to the TV show, Rhonda and I stopped off at the Grocery Outlet on Division in Gresham and found "Sioux Fry Bread Mix" from Lisa Little Chief Specialty Foods. We thought it was just another racist exploitation at first, but then I remembered hearing something about this. We got to MCTV and looked it up on the internet, and sure enough, it is legit.

This man, standing between David Liberty and I, is Harvi Hood. This picture was taken a few minutes after the show was over. Harvi has an ancestor, a great great grand uncle named Curly Haired Jack. He was Modoc and fought with Captain Jack, but didn't make it to the Lava Beds for the final battle. Captain Jack, for those of you who don't know, was the leader of the Modoc during the Modoc war. The Modoc's were friendly, then the U.S. decided to finish the job, and the Modoc fought back. This fight lead to the Lava Beds in Southern Oregon, where the Modoc held off the U.S. military for 8 months. Their water was cut off and that was what lead them to surrender. How man masses of Modocs were fighting back to hold off the U.S. government for so long? 11 warriors. 11! Amazing!

Anyway, Harvi had a rough life, now around 60. He and his wife eventually became hairdressers and they own a shop here in downtown Portland at 1625 SW Morrison.

But wait, the story doesn't end there and now I have to hurry my ass as I was called in early to work to do the Eugene route. F***!

Three years ago, Harvi got a letter from the Smithsonian Institute. Basically it said: Hi, we have one of your ancestors. His name is Curly Haired Jack. His head is missing. We'd like to return his remains to you.

Harvi and his brother Julian recently went to DC to pick up the remains of Curly Haired Jack. They have yet to rebury the body as much discussion is going on as to how exactly that should be done.

The only other story that I know of that compares to this, yet not, is one a friend of mine told me. He had a 22 year old son show up at his door step that he never knew he had.

Well, best get my ass a movin'!

PS Rhonda and I went back to the Grocer Outlet to buy a bunch more of that fry bread mix. On the way out, we ran into Jim and Kelli, the producers of "Native Nations." They were heading in to buy some and worried we bought them out, laughing all the way. We didn't, which made them happy.

Kelli had told us a story that she was doing video for the ANPO encampment for some 8 nonths near Mt. Hood. She was getting teased by the folks that she never learned to cook fry bread. Now's her chance!

Olympic Style Genocide!

The Olympic committee wouldn't deliberately commit genocide? Would they? OF COURSE THEY WOULD! There is vast amounts of money to be made from the Olympics, and if a group of indigenous folks have to pay by having their sacred sites and gathering sites destroyed by the excessive construction...SO BE IT!

Turns out that the 2010 Olypics will be destroying many indigenous sacred and gathering sites in Canada. The Native Youth Movement is calling for a boycott of the 2010 Olympics due to this...monetary oversight. But there again, not like Indians are really humans, huh!

For more information or to join the Anti-Olympic Coalition contact:

Native Youth Movement
nymcommunications@hotmail.com
(604)682-3269 ext. 7845 or

Warrior Publications
Warrior-Publications@hotmail.com

NYM Communications
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
FIGHT FOR LIFE
WARRIORS UNITE FROM ALASKA TO ARGENTINA

Land O Racism

Sweetly, I got off of work after only 6 hours today...F*** YEAH!

But before I got off of work delivering produce, I found this box at one of the restaurants and had to take a picture.

This is "Land O Lakes" food products, and they use this racist/sexist logo. You see, Indians are supposed to dress a certain way. This particular Indian woman is dressed in plains Indian fashion. Though probably supposed to represent Annishinabe, she is really pan Indian or plains. But this is a Hollywood style stereotype, and yes, racist.

The box photo is even funnier, if you will, considering it is for "half and half." We've been talking about mixed bloods, and the Indian woman portrayed in this stereotype logo is obviously mixed blood as well.

To me, the fact that she is on her knees is SEXIST. She is supposed to be submissive to the master, serving, if you will. A sexist stereotype I don't much appreciate.

Now, this is NOT the only racist stereotypes I see during my work delivering produce. I also see names like: chief, chieftain, and big chief. These usually have the Hollywood plains Indian stereotype logo.

This is a very important issue. You see, all this piles up to DEHUMANIZATION. It is not the ONLY source of dehumanization and humiliation of Indians by any means. It is a piece in the vast wall of oppression, genocide, rape, murder, economic destruction, environmental destruction, etc. This type of racism is INDEED destructive.

That is why the folks from South of the border made Frito's give up their "Frito Bandito." That is why blacks made "Black Sambos" quit using their racist logos. This is important. Don't downplay this. This is a piece of a greater system. A horrifying empire that occupies Indian land. This horrifying system is ran by the U.S. globally destructive empire. This is a piece of the system, and it doesn't stop there, and YES...I do know that.

Work is Kicking My Ass!

Work, yesterday, was rather labor intensive, as Tuesday's have been lately for me, but only lasted a sweet 8 hours.

I come home, take a shower, and Rhonda suggested I look for a job in Salem as we are again intending on getting our asses out of this noisy neighborhood. Next thing I know, I can't read. I can't focus on the words, though with effort I could read the words but not completely comprehend. Rhonda told me I didn't look well and should probably take a nap. A three hour nap later!...

I realized yesterday that I am indeed exhausted. I start my day between 3 and 4 in the morning which gives me the wake up time between 1:30 and 2:30 am. I drive to Eugene on my long days, which is an 11-15 hour day. I shouldn't stay up past 7 but often do because I feel like I'm missing out on life. I have split days off, Thursday and Sunday. I never fully recover from my work with that brief time.

Yesterday, I realized I need a month off. But where the f*** do I think I live? Europe!? This is America where humans are resources to be worked until DEAD!

This has really been rough on my short-term memory. One of many examples I could give you from just this morning is as I was tying my shoes, I forgot that I had tied my left one and went to tie it again.

Rhonda gave me a wonderful back rub yesterday, and we got to talking about abuse. This is like a re-enactment of my abuse. Abuse victims often do this shit. Recovery is a PROCESS. It doesn't simply heal then go away. You often have to work it and it often works its way into your life without you being aware of it. My work is abusive to me.

This, in the last several work days, has produced sloppy work on my part. I'm f****** exhausted. I'm still doing damned good work, just making more mistakes than usual.

Hey, Ridwan! I forgot to e-mail you! We're going huckleberry picking this weekend. Unless you want to join us in the Giff on Sunday, we may have to postpone getting together until next week sometime. Good health to you, too, brother!

Where was I...shit, I forgot. Work is killing me.

Be sure to read the several other posts I made, I've been up since midnight 30 because I couldn't go back to sleep. I figured I'd catch up on my posting. Still far from catching up on my reading. Maybe this afternoon?

Divide and...?

Rhonda, Felicia, and I all went to the Siletz Powwow on Saturday. We ran into family from both sides, which was nice. We also saw this wonderful hoop dancer and the game of "Shinny" being brought back for the first time to the Siletz. It is a stick game played with two balls tied with a string. The idea is to touch the opposite teams goal post with the balls. What was great was the older kids would let the younger kids scrimmage for the balls quite a bit. Boys and girls were both playing. Thank you Carol Logan for your efforts in bringing this game back to our folks.

When Rhonda questioned a friend about Dennis Banks and AIM, this man had nothing good to say about these folks. He brought up Dennis' many kids many of whom he claims Dennis has never paid child support on and is still wanted as such. He also stated that AIM were poverty pimps and stole from the elders. He also claimed that the violence on the rez's was started because of AIM, not the Native oppressors who wanted to be more like whitey.

Truth is, I've read that there had been Indian on Indian violence, between traditionalists and the sell-outs since pretty much the rez system began. I've read about how Indians hunted down, and in many cases killed, Indians performing traditional ceremonies back in the day when such "freedom of religion" was ILLEGAL! Not, of course, taking into consideration racism, sexism, spousal abuse, child abuse, Indian on Indian violence, etc., has been rampant on pretty much all rez's to this day. Saying AIM brought the violence is pretty much like blaming the victim. Of course, my slow mind didn't think of these things until yesterday.

That said, this man is also doing work with Dino Butler. Dino was one of the two men aquitted for killing the two FBI agents that Leonard Peltier is doing life for, for reasons of self-defense. Dino was also a member of AIM back in the day, and I don't recall any stories of poverty pimping and stealing from elders of this man. Hmmm!

Then...the director of "Native Nations" TV show, of which I am one of the hosts, had invited Rob Robideaux to be on the show to talk about his art this Thursday. I've been living life half awake lately, but when I first heard about this I was concerned but just didn't take any action. Rob was supposed to come down and talk about his art. However, for those of you who don't know, Rob was the OTHER of the two defendents in the case of the killing of the two FBI agents beside Dino Butler.

The thing about AIM these days is that pretty much all have been accused of being FBI informants by other AIMsters with absolutely no evidence to substantiate these allegations. Recently, Rob accused John Trudell in a Portland Indy Media article of being an FBI informant. Divisive!

The story I'm hearing going around is this. About 10 years ago, I did an interview with Dino Butler. He talked about how Rob Robideaux wanted him to go along with the Mr. X fiasco (a man calling himself Mr. X claiming to be the actual killer of the agents but never showing his face) in an attempt to free Leonard Peltier. Dino said he told Rob that the only way they will get Leonard out of prison was with the truth, not lies, and Dino refused to play along. My understanding is that Rob and Dino no longer speak to each other, but that is unsubstantiated as of yet, as I plan on talking with Dino once I get is phone number.

I've heard, too, that John Trudell had something to do with Oliver Stone not making the movie about Leonard Peltier. Rob Robideau was supposed to be a consultant on the film, and I guess it had something to do with the Mr. X bullshit and John wasn't going to play along.

So I cancelled Rob being on the show. I may have to do the talking directly. David Liberty is scrambling for a CRITFC guest, and all shall be well.

But folks, look at this shit, would you! All this great energy going into pointing fingers at each other, tearing down each other, etc. We are doing "the man's" work for him so he doesn't have to. We greatly outnumber "the man," but hey, he's harder to get than say...EACH OTHER!

So Rhonda and I were joking about how "Native Nations" would become the "Jerry Springer Show" of the Native world with Rhonda claiming she just might be the first one throwing a chair after she does more research (CAN YOU ALL SEE WHY I LOVE THIS WOMAN SO MUCH!).

So, violence is still happening on the rez's and in the cities, though with "a kinder gentler machine gun hand" as Neil Young might say. And what is the best we can get out of our communities? Divisiveness? Yet...look at the Beauty!

Look at that hoop dancer. Shinny has been reintroduced to the Siletz Nation! There is so much Beauty in our communities, and so much REVOLUTIONARY energy! If we'd just stop beating ourselves and our community members up, maybe we would find ourselves FINALLY storming the Bastille!

Lower Falls

This is Lower Falls in the Gifford Pinchot.

This place, my brothers and sisters, is indeed a blessing from the creator and earth mother. I have purposely kept out my detailed pictures. If you want to see this place, it takes some effort in finding. It is easy to get to, but definitely no tourist destination, thank goodness. That helps preserve the Beauty.

The first time I saw this place was with my previous wife, the verbal abuser. I could hear the falls long before we got to them, and when I saw them...absolute amazment. It is an amazing place.

I wanted to take Rhonda there, who had never been before, to share in the amazement, and joyfully, it was my weekend with Felicia (who had been there before but forgot), so she came along as well.

We all had a great time taking numerous photographs (see Rhonda's blog, as well). We wandered down to the river and hung out on a flat rock formation that jutted into the river.

Rhonda pulled out her flute and started playing. Not long afterward, not 10 yards from us down river, a little river otter, a baby one, plopped into the water from the bank, paused to look at us, then scurried quickly (with a funny stumble) back onto the bank and into its hiding place/home. I didn't get my camera out quick enough to take a picture before the sweet creature disappeared.

We ended our journey with a little sign re-creation alla Rhonda. Indeed, dams are genocide, and if you want to know we aren't just talking out of our asses, read the UN Convention.

What a beautiful Beautiful day it was and what a wonderful way to spend the day with two wonderful people, Rhonda and Felicia. Thank you both so much.

Now, on to Huckleberry Picking!

Indians Doing What Indians Do

We went huckleberry picking. The fields where we picked were already pretty picked over, but there were plenty of ripe juicy berries to be had.

Picking huckleberries is a time consuming event. It takes a while to get a good amount, especially if you spend much of your time eating them right off the bush...mmmm mmmm!

We decided to go back next week and do some more picking as there were still a lot of berries not quite ripened.

Felicia decided to get close to the earth...and take a nap since she was down there. What better place.

And the view of Pahto...magnificent.

And then...all the berries, except for the ones Felicia picked, have disappeared. Rhonda searched high and low for them. Gotta watch out for that Coyote, he'll steal your berries. Well...I hope he has a good feast because they were, indeed, picked with much Love.

To Top It Off...

To top it off, we all shot three deer just before we got in to Carson. Here is one that I got.

They're At It Again

We went huckleberry picking this weekend, and the tale doesn't stop anywhere near there. That said, we drove up to see if those signs still had the "Kill Whitey" things on them and found that they had been changed. Enjoy!

Knife, Tinder, Spark

I hate vegans because they come at me with what THEY believe I should be.

They don't ask: "Who are you? What do you do in this world?"

Instead, they attack like ravenous meat eaters at the top of the food chain failing to notice we are kin: skin, flesh, bone, spirit...

They seem to believe they come from a high holy consciousness, so holy that the whole spirit world comes down and kneels before them because they are the one true god or goddess by the simplest means of dietary choice.

The holy people I know and have known are humble, not arrogant. They KNOW we are all sacred, they are more connected and they usually EAT MEAT!

This...is an example.

...an example of how we fight amongst each other.

Put auto pilot on bullshit and attack the immediate.

Empire likes this. I would say empire designed it that way.

Good we fight amonst each other in our sufficient safety and not go after the source (see "Storm the Bastille").

Change the word "vegan" to whatever human group, the word "I" to you, and you just might see what I'm sayin'.

We here at the bottom are doing the work of empire when we beat ourselves or each other up.

Empire doesn't have to do the work. We are safe and it is safer to beat each other up than to organize and fight empire.

And what is empire made of, other than our fellow human beings who've organized well enough to threaten folks into submission in order to steal everything for themselves. We have become so afraid they don't even have to threaten our safety to control us...we do it for them.

This...we call freedom.

I don't blame you all, we were designed this way. Many of us have chosen to break from that mold and question our allegations of freedom.

Coyote took stone knives into the body of the monster serpent that swallowed him. He lit fires in him to let all the creatures the monster swallowed escape. He went to the heart of the monster and cut it with his stone knives killing the beast.

Although the monster convinces us we haven't been eaten, we have indeed been swallowed up. I offer you and me and all of us imaginary stone knives, tinder, and spark.

I will think good thoughts for you and ask that you think good thoughts for me.

May one, some, or all of us find the heart of the monster and kill the beast before it destroys the world.

PS It's destruction may be on auto-pilot.

Many Posts

I just want you all to know, I have many things to post, but little time currently in which to do so. So expect things forthcoming, most likely a few things at a time once I have time to sit down here and do it. Thanks for your patience.

PS...Rhonda, You are so AWESOME!

Storm the Bastille?

I really Love my fellow human beings. I see from my safe place that I would Love to really get out and fight for them. Sometimes I think of doing something all by myself, but realize that the system will probably use that as an excuse to murder more of my fellow human beings. So, like I told Felicia on Thursday when we went shooting together and I forced her to listen to Howard Zinn lecture; "I am planting seeds. Someday you will be touched by a spark and you will remember something that was said or you heard from me, some sort of connection and it will light a fire in your soul." Felicia's mother is very mainstream, white bread, if you will. So Felicia doesn't like doing things like seeing fantastic people lecture or hearing them on CD's or reading books or anything like her father does. I expose her to things that her mother would never even think of. I discuss issues with her honestly, like sex, that her mother would never think of. And that is what I try to do with you all. I don't believe we will ever storm the Bastille, as it were, but I hope I am planting the seeds of Revolution in your soul because the world as I see it isn't all that pretty. People are suffering, like nurses and patients, so a handful of people can have close to EVERYTHING. We here at the bottom, as it were, use the tools empire has forced down our throats (racism, sexism, capitalism, identity politics, etc.), to fight amongst ourselves instead of direct our fight energies against those that truly deserve it. Maybe somewhere down the line, maybe never, someone or someones will feel some sort of fire, not necessarily started by a seed I planted, but maybe amongst a grouping of seeds, and things will grow in their soul and something may actually get done to change the world for the better. It just makes more sense to me if we all got together and used our fight energies against those that truly deserve than against each other. Feh! Who the hell knows what is really going to happen, eh? In some ways, though, it is truly...TRULY...exciting to be alive during this crazy and wild time in this world's long and wonderful history.

"...Throw All the Ingredients Into the Bowl and Mix."

I am a mixed-blood. I have ancestry from many nations: Alsea, Klickitat, Lower Umpqua, Finnish, English, Dutch, Scots, and Irish. Although I am half white, no one asks me about my whiteness because I "look" Indian. People have asked me about my whiteness but only after I told them the above and ONLY as a joke. I have NEVER been mistaken for white. However, if you saw my naked belly (which you probably never will) or my naked ass (which you never will), you will realized that indeed, I am part white.

I've been thinking about mixed bloodness all day. How racism is thrown at mixed bloods from all sides. The stories I've heard from people I knew that were Indian and white and how their Indian folks refused to accept them because they were part white and how whitey refused to accept them because they were part Indian. I've been thinking about what my sweetie, Rhonda, goes through. I've been thinking about what Felicia goes through. Too white to be Indian, too Indian to be white.

I'm sure you all have seen "Braveheart," that Mel (Rot In Hell) Gibson made about William Wallace in 13th century Scotland. I'm sure you remember the scene after the king reintroduced the law that stated noblemen get to rape Scots women on the day of their wedding. Why? Do you remember what the king said? It was something like: If we can't destroy them as a people, we'll breed it out of them.

In my self-educated opinion, mixed blood as "race" is by design. There is a BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) document that states: stick to the 1/4 blood quantum, encourage intermarriage, and we'll breed the Indians out of existence and thus solve our "persistent Indian problem." Mixed bloodness is by empirical design that has existed long before Euro's came here and started doing it to us Indians. Mixed bloods are "designed" to be the people they are today. People who are torn but more often than not pulled to an indigenous pathway. Many mixed bloods are lost. And there is a reason for this. It was done by a eugenics lie. It is a design and tool of empire in my opinion. And mixed bloods WILL get shit from all sides.

Mixed bloods in the Indian world aren't Indian enough to be Indian nor white enough to be white. They never belong. It is more liberal today, than say 30 years ago, and the darker folks are more accepting (at least in Indian country) of mixed bloods now than they were. They are, indeed, still racist against mixed bloods.

I have seen and/or heard of the same shit happening in Black and Asian communities. I'm sure it happens in most communities.

I was talking with a friend of mine about this. She has a neice and nephew by the same parents; a Hispanic father and white mother. She worries that these kids "will" to through getting shit from ALL sides. They will find acceptance amongst some folks for sure, but somewhere at sometime, people from all sides will give them shit. You are not dark enough to be Hispanic, not white enough to be white. The other issue here is, that the neice can pass for white.

I believe, and we can discuss this here or not because it is going to be something that eats at me for a while, is that "mixed race" is created by imperical design. It is a tool in order to create a lack of unity amongst a people to the point where they can organize and fight back effectively against empire. Fact is, though, folks, we are all mixed. There is no such thing as "racial purity." There never has been, there never will be. But NOT ONLY will empire beat us to f***ing death with our various races, we will too. Empire has "designed" us to fight amongst each other so they don't have to do their own dirty work.

Take this same pattern, and you can overlay it on sexism, classism, and many other isms I'm sure. We have been "designed" to fight amongst ourselves, "mixed blood" being part of that design.

This doesn't happen so much to me because people don't get to see my white belly or white ass. As well, I'm probably about the darkest Indian in my family. Racism has so many different facets it's like a crystal that hangs in a window. Not only do you get the various sparkly faces of the jewel, but it shoots off all sorts of colors all over the room.

All Kindsa Hammers

Get a hammer, then REALLY get hammered. Two great? tastes that don't sound like they go so great together. [Taken at Cascade Locks, Oregon]

Darn Tootin Shootin

I took Felicia out shootin', today. I got two deer, she got one.

We went into the Lava Beds of the Gifford Pinchot. It is a place I don't recall having been to before, but wasn't as amazed by it as I am other parts of the Giff. There were lots of campers there, it being a Thursday was pretty amazing the amount of campers.

We drove all the way to Goose Lake, in the Northern part of the Lava Beds. There were old stumps coming out of it. I don't know the story about that.

I also took pictures of Felicia on top of an old stump by the lake.

I have on loan to her my old Nikon. I told her she has to earn it. To earn it she has to show me at least four photos she has taken, more if she wants, every time she comes over to visit, otherwise I WILL TAKE IT BACK. She HAS to do this for at least two months. There are reasons for this, but I won't go into them here.

All in all, it was a fun and good journey. Hey, we got two deer!