Believe What You Like But Know What You Must

People are free to be consumed with contemplating their existence, their origins, the origins of the universe, supreme beings, controllers of destiny or anything else. But solving "the Great Mystery" is neither a requirement of being Ohnkwe Ohnwe nor does it provide a path to righteousness. I maintain that spirituality does not require faith or the leaps that faith requires but rather awareness. If it helps to believe that "God has a plan" and we just must have faith that "He" knows what "He" is doing, then walk that path. My interest is in taking the mystery out of life by pointing to the obvious that is ignored everyday in the midst of fanatical ideology and the sometimes not too subtle influences of promoting beliefs over knowledge. I have said it before: “beliefs are what you are told, knowledge is what you experience”. I support a culture that prepares us to receive knowledge and to live a life with purpose. I am certainly not suggesting there is only one way to do that.

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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Cayuga and Seneca Counties Sponsor Racist Web Site

Cayuga and Seneca Counties have launched a web site to be used as a tool to keep the Cayuga People from settling back in their homeland. NoCayugaLandintoTrust.net(see link in the sidebar) is sponsored by the counties and is set up to acquire as many comments against Cayugas returning home as possible. The web site is filled with misinformation and outright lies relating to the Cayugas claim to their homeland and the negative impact of their return. The intent of the counties is to use this process to gather as many negative opinions and comments on the Cayuga people and submit these comments as part of the federal process for setting aside land for Native use. The Cayuga People do not need the Fee-To-Trust process for reclaiming their land. The federal government is not acquiring it for them. The Cayuga Nation has compensated those that were misled into believing they had legal title to the reclaimed land, land that has never lost its status as part of the Cayuga land base held since time immemorial and recognized by the US in the treaties with the Six Nations.
The web site is racist and should be attacked from all sides. A comment submitted by this writer to the site criticizing the counties and the site was rejected for submission. There is no ability to view your submissions after-the-fact to determine the accuracy and editing/omissions used in their recording process. Only those who would want their words to be use to attack and continue to drive the Cayuga people from their land can be assured their words and voices will be seen and heard.
The name of the site itself is somewhat oxymoronic. While I agree that Cayuga Land should not be held by the federal government for their use; the title suggests acknowledgement of the fact that the Cayugas have land but oppose their right to use it as Cayugas. The rightful title to the land is held by the Cayuga women for the future generations. The title is absolute and neither the counties, the State nor the federal government can hold or claim its title.
I call on all our friends and relatives to take action against these two counties that attempt to rob our lands while calling themselves Cayuga and Seneca. The racism and discrimination as well as fraud and slander cannot be left unchecked.

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