tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15084364812501545852024-03-12T20:26:51.549-04:00Native PrideThe culture, history, and philosophy of our past has to make it into our contemporary lives. Unfortunately, assimilation programs and generational whitewashing of our belief systems have dumbed down and created such a Disney version of who we are that there is a huge disconnect in our identity. This site is dedicated to taking the mystery out of our traditional beliefs so they cease to be beliefs at all and become understanding and awareness of what is real and what is natural.John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-325315266960085632020-02-03T13:24:00.000-05:002020-02-03T13:24:48.947-05:00<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z1pQiUl9KX4" width="560"></iframe>John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-59222603664196272842016-03-05T16:45:00.000-05:002016-03-06T16:43:53.419-05:00Ethnic Cleansing; But By Who and For Who? The Farce of Blood Quantum Requirements!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnroBIu1-sy-sMV5TNqBRSOD5LqeqP2XazWGntXX98N7TZFYUyZntHRYCSvEca_FAso5q0ynHA53AlX-3SFCPkahF_CW0keTBgRdFTqmQOb5lDGOlAXYSc2PRyD7LQ0gTgJ8FQQ8KNPA4/s1600/Ray-Halbritter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnroBIu1-sy-sMV5TNqBRSOD5LqeqP2XazWGntXX98N7TZFYUyZntHRYCSvEca_FAso5q0ynHA53AlX-3SFCPkahF_CW0keTBgRdFTqmQOb5lDGOlAXYSc2PRyD7LQ0gTgJ8FQQ8KNPA4/s320/Ray-Halbritter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">A picture of hypocrisy: Ray Halbritter, slayer of Redskins and protector of Bluebloods.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is probably no greater threat of extinction to Native peoples than the measure of those people by the irrelevant, scientifically false and prejudicial use of blood quantum or pedigree to determine a identity and inclusion/exclusion. There can only be one conclusion to this practice and that is what was always intended, our elimination. Blood quantum or "Indianness"is not a Native concept. It is not "traditional." No Native custom or culture ever measured their people by full, three quarters, half or one thirty-second. This was all a white man concept. And right from the beginning the idea of "watering down" the blood was a definite part of the genocide of our people. I am not just talking about the culture of rape that is well documented with Columbus' men and continues today. It's more intentional than that. A study of the sterilization of young Native women, a US government policy that began in residential schools and continued till fairly recently, reveals that the emphasis was on the "full-bloods" because the half-breeds were already on their way. Enrollment, blood quantum and residency all became tools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to simply eliminate us with a pen. Of course this is coupled with massacres, death marches, starvation, disease and the forced exodus and dispersement of our peoples from our lands.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ironically, today blood quantum is not an imposed policy of the US government (although Canada still dictates enrollment criteria on many levels). It is an all too common policy of those Native peoples who have been reduced to "tribes, bands or nations of Indians subordinate to the United States" to punish, control, manipulate and eliminate their people by disenrollment or denied enrollment over pedigree. This has been driven by greed, entitlements and general abuse of power but leads to only one end; ours.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many Native peoples have a range of methods to determining their identities, lineage and population. The Haudenosaunee and many others have a matrilineal system of identifying the distinction of peoples and family. The proverbial "you follow your mother" was the method to determine which clan and, specifically for the Haudenosaunee, which of the 49 families a person would identify as. This loose system is tens of thousands of years old and I say loose because the Haudenosaunee was always a culture of inclusion where adoption and absorption of peoples not physically born into these families was commonplace and a normal fact of life and would never be questioned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the "humanities" as determined by Greeks, Romans and Christians was built on hierarchies, class, and where individuals stood on the scales of civilization and human development. With Europeans came European ideas and influences. For the most part, the Haudenosaunee maintain the matrilineal system. Alienation has crept in other ways with the self righteous developing other means of exclusion but on blood quantum the Oneidas under the rule of their BIA recognized supreme leader Ray Halbritter stand alone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Halbritter used some of the influential Onondaga icons to seize power as the sole leader of the "Oneida Indian Nation (OIN) of New York" back in the late 1980s. He then rewrote Oneida customs by crafting his official enrollment list of Oneidas (that list includes "Oneidas in good standing" and those who aren't). Along with his new list was his new list of enrollment requirements which include…, you guessed it, blood quantum.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Halbritter's ascendency to the OIN throne came with enough Onondaga Faithkeeper Lyons bidding that a complete departure from "tradition" would have looked bad so he kept a matrilineal component but put a blood quantum requirement of "Indian" blood at a minimum of 25%. Now some would say that is reasonable and, of course, IT IS NOT for a variety of reasons that will ultimately haunt all those who do such a thing but there are several problems with Ray's quarters. According to the unwritten OIN rulebook "Indian blood" can only come from a "federally recognized tribe." So in spite of the fact that more Haudenosaunee live north of the imaginary line between the US and Canada, NO Native ancestry counts for Halbritter's OIN. Of course, all of the non Fed Wrecked Native peoples are also not OIN recognized either.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now add on to this arbitrary system of exclusion; politics, prejudice and "bad blood" and Oneida enrollment is just a game; a rigged game with bad consequences. Halbritter bursts on to the national stage as the "Redskin" slayer in a feeble attempt overshadow his failed handling of land claims, land title, gaming revenue and taxation while playing ethnic cleanser with his own version of "Bluebloods." There you go, Daniel Snyder, a name Halbritter would have to endorse.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Being Native is not about skin color or blood quantum. It is about being a people. It is about relationships, shared culture, language and distinction. While many Native people are concerned about loss of identity, rating each other by blood quantum is a fool's game. Dictating who the good Oneidas are and who the bad ones are or what is a "good Indian" forgets what Sheridan and so many others said: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."</span><br />
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John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-70713692914280380912014-06-10T23:28:00.002-04:002014-06-10T23:29:25.817-04:00WHITIE Compliant? You are Kidding, Right?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9g5Rkl2HRBWv1tm6taAxhWsB0zWuGKloSm4HC3G1dJ679y3LY8x0nKQ7Zv6OEl15y8NV2IGDar3vBkZxBV9zd3OdSsxwX_y3FVy37z-_yYNOWiNaJTB_WTW0-YbKxrrkgyC_2k1e50U/s1600/ETC+App.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9g5Rkl2HRBWv1tm6taAxhWsB0zWuGKloSm4HC3G1dJ679y3LY8x0nKQ7Zv6OEl15y8NV2IGDar3vBkZxBV9zd3OdSsxwX_y3FVy37z-_yYNOWiNaJTB_WTW0-YbKxrrkgyC_2k1e50U/s1600/ETC+App.JPG" height="395" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On June 2, 2014, every "member" of the Seneca
Nation of Indians (SNI) received a letter from his/her President announcing the
launch of the Seneca Nation's new Enhanced Tribal Identification Card (ETC)
program. The announcement of the program was couched in terms of preventing
terrorism, strengthening border security and facilitating ease of border crossing/travel
as well promoting a partnership between the SNI and the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) through their <i>Memorandum
of Agreement </i>(MOA).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The letter begins with the declaration that "the Western
Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requires U.S. and Canadian travelers,
including Seneca Nation members, to present a passport or other WHTI-approved
document that denotes identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. at land
or sea borders while traveling within the western hemisphere."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well let's clear up a few things right from the start. They
say WHTI, I say WHITIE. And in spite of this letter's contention that these
WHITIE-compliant ETCs are designed to "continue the protection of our
sovereign rights," this could not be farther from the truth. This WHITIE requirement
is a violation of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a direct abrogation on our sovereignty, as
well as a violation of our inherent rights and laws of nature. Note that I didn't
even bother to bring up their BS, double-talking, land stealing treaties. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There are almost too many problems with this thing to cover
it here, despite the fact there are really only five requirements for WHITIE
compliance. But before I get into those, let me hit a few huge shortcomings of
these cards and problems with the program. First, although it is stated pretty
clearly, it’s easy to overlook the most obvious flaw — this will not help with
travel into Canada or any place else. The WHITIE documents are for
"entering the U.S...." The SNI Application for an ETC says it even
more clearly — <i>"An ETC can be used...to
return to the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and some countries in the Caribbean at
land/sea border entries. However, Canada will not accept an ETC...to enter into
Canada."</i> So these things are
not for traveling from home. They are only to prevent DHS from denying our return.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The SNI application has significant violations of privacy and
goes well beyond basic identification information:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">FULL LEGAL NAME,
GENDER, HEIGHT, AGE, DOB, PLACE OF BIRTH, SSN, TRIBAL ENROLLMENT NO., CLAN,
PASSPORT #, HOME PHONE, MOBILE, WORK, PHYSICAL ADDRESS, MAILING ADDRESS, MARITAL
STATUS, MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME, LEGAL NAME OF FATHER, WERE THEY LEGALLY MARRIED?,
CHILDHOOD RESIDENCE, EMPLOYED?, EMPLOYER'S NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE, LEVEL OF
EDUCATION, COLLEGE(S) ATTENDED, DEGREE(S)/YEAR(S), CAN YOU READ AND WRITE
ENGLISH?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The applicant also has to sign a Confidentiality Statement
that acknowledges "legal penalties associated with... providing false
information" yet is provided no confidentiality agreement from the SNI,
DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection or whoever the WHITIE guys are. In fact
the MOA doesn't even detail the use of this information but rather only
mentions "validation of the Seneca Nation ETC information as specified in
the separate service level agreement developed between the parties."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These are among some of the issues that jump off the pages of
these documents without even getting into the WHITIE requirements. An
expiration date seems benign enough but "mandatory facial image
capture" sounds a little creepy. This is for compatibility with federal
facial recognition programs and databases. The fact that, according to the MOA,
the SNI clerk will retain this "capture" even if no card is issued
just adds to the creepiness. Beyond basic requirements for counterfeit protection
these WHITIE cards are required to have a Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) utilizing
Optical Character Recognition technology and an RFID chip that will allow
"unique identifiers" to be acquired; in the case of the RFID chip,
without the card ever having to come out of your pocket. These Unique
Identifiers will include digital photographs and other personal information and
can be acquired by readers merely in your vicinity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But clearly the kicker in this whole program is the U.S. or
Canadian citizenship requirement. The applicant MUST provide proof of "recognized
U.S. or Canadian citizenship to be approved and the WHITIE card must display
that citizenship prominently on its face. This requirement is essentially
tantamount to saying to any of us that if we manage to step over one of the
imaginary lines of the U.S. that we cannot return without a declaration of
citizenship to the U.S. or Canada.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This clearly is not an oversight. In fact, in the SNI ETC
Application the first note under the <i>"PROOF
OF "RECOGNIZED" U.S. OR CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP"</i> is: <b><i>*Note
that in submitting evidence of "recognized U.S. citizenship", the ETC
applicant is not admitting to/accepting U.S. or Canadian citizenship and is
first and foremost a citizen of the Seneca Nation."</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well that fixes everything. NOT! Now what member of the SNI
legal team thought that adding this note in the application would negate the
obvious implication of the WHITIE requirement? The MOA clearly states that
"Nation staff shall in every case confirm that the applicant is recognized
as a U.S. or Canadian citizen." <b><i>*Note that it does not say that the
applicant may qualify for U.S. or Canadian citizenship or meet to requirements
for such.</i></b> Again, this is not just a requirement for getting a WHITIE
card but it's a requirement that it is actually stated on the WHITIE card.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I can't help but interpret this buried and anything but a
legitimate disclaimer as an attempt to dupe the applicant. This is just
devious. This is not a statement promulgated by the Seneca Nation to the U.S. State
Department or anyone who would ever see these ETCs. And it certainly won't be
among the card's "Unique Identifiers" broadcasting from their RFID
chips. Where were these legal wizards, who clearly saw the problem, with their
challenges to WHITIE in the first place? Where was just one of these overpriced
consultants when these fear mongering, 9-11 obsessed, opportunistic WHITIE supremacists
put these racist requirements together? No nation can de-nationalize another or
force their citizenship upon a non-consenting people. These WHITIE cards are
not Seneca Nation identification cards. They are federal IDs with tribal logos
and enrollment numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We need to resist these WHITIE cards. The SNI boasts, in bold
print in the letters addressed to "Dear Seneca Nation Member," (not
Citizen), <b>The Seneca Nation is just the
third Indian tribe in the country to issue ETCs.</b> In almost 5 years since
this latest attempt at forced assimilation, only two other "Indian
tribes" were gullible enough to go through with this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, let's hope the Seneca people, the Onondowaka, are
smarter than their administration lawyers are or at least smarter than their
lawyers think they are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-45822885402391746332014-06-09T21:11:00.002-04:002015-10-07T17:58:17.323-04:00The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave (Oh yeah, Americans and Canadians live there, too)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift
from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of
Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise
and fall in our democratic faith." — Felix S. Cohen, 1953<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is little
question that what the white man found when he washed up on our shores was a
free and fearless people. But rather than learn our ways and study how a people
could live without kings, queens, courts and prisons or slavery, discrimination
and class warfare; the church — the very thing that created many of these institutions
and practices — was relied upon to spread all of this to a free world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Doctrine of
Christian Discovery, which has plenty of foundation in the Bible, got its first
shot as a stand-alone church doctrine with Portugal's invasion of West Africa
in the mid-15<sup>th</sup> century. A pope's decree that a Christian nation
could claim the lands and possessions of a pagan people and reduce them to "perpetual
servitude" would begin four centuries of the African slave trade. In 1493,
another pope would lay the foundation for all "Christian nations" to
begin the rape of our own Turtle Island and secure the racist Doctrine of
Christian Discovery as the law of the white man. In fact, it would be called the
"White Man's Burden." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Certainly, bits and
pieces of our cultures, philosophies and traditions were borrowed when the need
to shift colonial powers and authority would arise. But what was woven into the
American fabric was only done so in rhetoric and not in practice. Laws of
Nature, all created equal, governance by consent of the governed, inalienable rights
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; these not only sounded good,
they were good. These along with the concept that individuals would be placed
in the service of their people rather than as lords over them were, in fact,
the way of our people, a way that allowed our people to thrive for thousands of
years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The most consistent theme in the
descriptions penned about the New World was amazement at the Indians’ personal
liberty, in particular their freedom from rulers and from social classes based
on ownership of property. For the first time the French and the British became
aware of the possibility of living in social harmony and prosperity without the
rule of a king." — Jack Weatherford, <i>Indian
Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Changed the World, 1988. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the fake American history crumbles with
more access to truth and our abilities to tell our own truths, many have begun
to learn about the atrocities of the 500 years of the American Holocaust. And
while acknowledgement of the wrongs and perhaps some attempts to right them is
a good place to start, what's missed in all this is Felix Cohen’s warning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing about Cohen's analogy of us to the miner's canary
was that it was not about saving the canary. It was about saving the miners. It is the
white man with his "burden" and all that Cohen was warning of. It is
more than just an analogy to suggest that the atrocities committed against our
people paved the way for the poison gases of Auschwitz and those now affecting
climate change. Raping our children and our women are crimes against humanity
but raping our Mother Earth is a crime against Creation. And it's not just all
of man that will be affected but all of creation. But let's be honest, most of
Creation will not care less about toppled buildings, crumbled roads and flooded
homes. Only man — with his attempt to defy nature — is in real trouble when
nature strikes back.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cohen realized that in our people — the
treatment of and relationships with us — lay a barometer for mankind. The fall
in the white man's "democratic faith" was based on an ignorant
majority that could see its way to unspeakable crimes against the people
closest to Creation and never realize that what kills the canary also kills the
miner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, in reality, we are still free. It is
the white man that fell to Christendom, with emphasis on the "dom" or
domination. We have lost an inconceivable number of our people over five
centuries to extermination, removal, assimilation and termination. We are still
losing loved ones to poverty, alcohol, drugs and suicide. And we continue to
lose many to assimilation, including those finding comfort in the colonial
systems that continue to oppress our people. But we are not all lost.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many among us that continue to say the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen.
We acknowledge our relationship to Creation and bow to no man. We know we are
free because our minds are free. We are not the caged canaries of the white man.
We are a free people. And while many bound within the colonial systems poke
those of our people, who were willing or succumbed to be their canaries, with
their sticks, and begin to question their own fate, more and more will look to
the free and the brave and desire to be among us. They'll pray that we are not
those "merciless savages" Thomas Jefferson wrote about and that we
still hold certain truths to be self-evident — even if they could not.</span></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-4655345285513371722014-05-30T23:16:00.002-04:002014-05-30T23:16:24.893-04:0050 Senators to the Rescue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmU-DS7KbMhoAMLj0OL9t9SPLTu3hWG_LPV_iEs_bPwnqXOiVjKO_0AcwZHAYJcsBlZoIx0-AMR-Kk34Unl_wAi6y-e4fw9gu1e-CJHsUbxlrqh_YkLK2DrQqcfbMJRVhmT_0ae9uAozE/s1600/Senate+letter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmU-DS7KbMhoAMLj0OL9t9SPLTu3hWG_LPV_iEs_bPwnqXOiVjKO_0AcwZHAYJcsBlZoIx0-AMR-Kk34Unl_wAi6y-e4fw9gu1e-CJHsUbxlrqh_YkLK2DrQqcfbMJRVhmT_0ae9uAozE/s1600/Senate+letter.JPG" height="384" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) wrapped
up its 13th session this week. Thousands of representatives of UN member
states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Indigenous Peoples
Organizations (IPOs) as well approved participants from academia and the media.
The latter was how I got in. For two weeks hundreds of speakers offered
statements and interventions, many of them from the Native people of Turtle
Island. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These interventions offered a full range of complaints
against Canada and the U.S. on issues including murdered and missing women,
environmental crimes, land claims, land use, poverty and prominent racist
policies very much still in full effect, including the Doctrine of Christian
Discovery and the wholesale whitewashing of our children through the adoption
agencies and policies of both countries. There was plenty of recounting of the
past but for the most part all the issues were contemporary. Today! Now!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">UN member states, such as the U.S., Canada and many more, had
representatives present. Those representatives had names you will never know,
offering statements not worth repeating that amounted to little more than lip
service to a UN event and focus that some countries wish didn't exist. No
elected officials showed in New York; no senators or members of Congress, no ambassadors
and certainly no one who really needed to hear directly from Native voices in
an international forum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now this is not to say that members of, perhaps, the most
dysfunctional Congress in the history of the United States weren't making news
on the BIG issues. No, in fact, as participants at the UNPFII were hammering
out strategies on how to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) — essentially how to hold nation states to this
minimum international standard — 50 United States senators decided to cut a
page out of the New York Oneida Ray Halbritter's playbook.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These 50 senators — who I am sure were absolutely oblivious
to the UNDRIP, the Permanent Forum and, most certainly, the Doctrine of
Christian Discovery — decided to pull a publicity stunt to distract from their
own failings. In about as partisan an act as possible, 50 Democratic senators
decided to lend their names to a letter that attempts to correct what they view
as "a matter of tribal sovereignty." I know, this sounds serious,
right? And if I stop right here, you have got to be thinking, alright, they're
scolding the states for violating our sovereignty or the tax department for
unlawfully trying to fleece our people and businesses or even the State Department
over passports or IDs. You might even be thinking they are admitting their
failure to address land claims or correct any number of the other racist
policies being addressed right then at the United Nations. But you'd be wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, these 50 elite politicians sent a letter to the NFL. And
unlike Mr. Halbritter who bought his way into this 30-year debate over the
Washington D.C. football team name, these guys just had a staffer stamp their name
on a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. But again unlike Mr. Halbritter,
who quite successfully deflected all attention from his "leadership",
including his destruction of the Oneida land claim and selling out to New York
State on gaming, tobacco, fuel and taxes by transforming himself into the
"Washington R-word" slayer, these guys not only hurt the cause with lending
their dismal approval rating to it, but they also come across as somewhere
between hypocritical and just plain silly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, why only 50? Why would the Democrats not ask a
single Republican to sign? This just lends itself to the notion that it was a
political stunt. Next, of course, is the timing. How could they ignore all that
was happening and being discussed in New York at the UNPFII only to join in on what
to call a bunch of men in tights? Another issue is the letter itself and the
complete lack of responsibility these senators have for the U.S. having to tip
toe around the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Step up.
Read the damn thing! And stop violating it!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The letter also seems to ignore the fact that the team’s name
has always been a racial slur. It was as racist 80 years ago as it is today.
This gang of 50 suggests that because a racist NBA team owner recently got
taken to the woodshed for being caught on tape saying very disturbing comments
about black people, that it is <i>now </i>time
for the Washington football team to abandon its racial slur moniker. It's
almost as though the team name has just gotten noticed. Must be all that Oneida
money. They could have at least been a little more honest and said that in
light of the L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s crime and punishment that
they can no longer continue to ignore the team name for the nation's capital.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The letter states, "This is a matter of tribal
sovereignty." No, it's not! This name and all use of Native mascots and
images are racist. It is not a violation of sovereignty. The state and federal
governments do that — not sports teams. It is insulting and perhaps even a
crime. If someone carries a likeness of RGIII's head in a noose into a football
stadium, I could see someone catching a hate crime charge but the Philadelphia
fan that takes an impaled "Indian head" to Washington football games
and Chicago hockey games actually gets praised and put on TV. But even if it is
a crime or a civil rights violation it is not a "matter of tribal
sovereignty." That just tells me, again, how clueless these 50 senators
are. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This letter also attempts to cast the Congress in stark
contrast to the NFL which supports this racist slur by listing the great
protections that the Congress has legislated for us. They seem to forget that
every law they cited was to counter racist governmental policy and actually
continues it by creating federal regulations for this "protection"
rather than ever really recognizing our sovereignty. That is, by the way,
"a matter of tribal sovereignty."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I agree with these senators that this team name should be
changed and, in fact, all use of Native mascots should end. This all comes from
the specific racism held against Native people and it is certainly emblematic
of the racist policies of state and federal governments. But perhaps the
Washington football team should keep the name, if only to demonstrate the
blatant evidence of the racism that Washington D.C. — the nation's capital — still
holds toward Native people. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lot more than just a football team name needs to change in
Washington. Respect Native sovereignty and stop the policies of assimilation.
Oh, yeah. And change the name.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-77219570622971469182014-05-21T10:17:00.001-04:002015-10-01T00:10:05.404-04:00We love what you've done with the place!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvSWfQxIaTnFTCcgCcaUsPl9Wwg_OutgVzeC05fdhlRY7LwuyBY3IphOeozxY3QSEIxEcl_JHoB_pmNpoDPAFYGjYiYiCJMcYzSLdujO1zRQz-ZiqErJM8zppRXWOkLP4gbLqKk2Ll2I/s1600/badges.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvSWfQxIaTnFTCcgCcaUsPl9Wwg_OutgVzeC05fdhlRY7LwuyBY3IphOeozxY3QSEIxEcl_JHoB_pmNpoDPAFYGjYiYiCJMcYzSLdujO1zRQz-ZiqErJM8zppRXWOkLP4gbLqKk2Ll2I/s1600/badges.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After spending the week in
New York City attending the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
and listening to dozens of speakers offering their interventions to the nearly
2,000 delegates and representatives, I have heard asked repeatedly a few
burning questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The first is: “What do want
from the UN or the international community?” Well, that's a loaded question
because there is what we <i>want</i> and what
we <i>expect</i>. Plain and simple, many
want action. For me, I come back to the warning about being careful what you
wish for. I just want some attention paid to our issues and to shame those
nations that continue to commit acts of genocide against us — plain and simple.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My expectations are low for
anything to have much in the way of fast results. Death may be quick but
survival is slow, particularly if we are talking about the survival of an
entire people and simply not a generation of them. I give less credit and
authority to those who are touted as leaders. I see this stage as an
opportunity to produce credible testimony to impact the court of public opinion
more than heads of state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The speakers were from across
the globe but the messages were repeated over and over again — loss of land,
assimilation, abuse of women, health, poverty and environment. Land claims and
environmental protections are the issues that concern the colonial powers most
because these directly affect their bottom line as it relates to their
economies. So the second question that is quick to be asked by the mainstream
media is: “What do you want to see come from land claims settlements? This
question is quickly followed up by: “Surely you don't want all the land back
after all this time? Do you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some of the Indigenous
people are quick to respond, "Oh, no. We wouldn't do that to you!"
But they never quite get around to answering just what they would like to see
as a resolution to long-standing battles over land. In 1922, the Chairman of
the New York State Indian Commission, Edward Everett, wrote in his report to
the State Legislature of the unlikelihood that Native people would have ever
shared lands had we known what the white man would do with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ninety-two years later, as
we observe economic collapse, aged or decrepit infrastructure and man-induced
climate change, all I can say is that we love what you have done with the
place. And this goes to the heart of another question: “What would <i>we</i> do with title to lost lands?” My answer
begins with another question; this one to the people living and/or working on
our lands. “How are you doing under state and federal oversight? Over taxed?
Roads and schools in the crapper? Unemployment? Environment? How is that
working for you?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Considering the bleak
outlook for even the immediate future, I would not shy away from the assertion
of Native stewardship and sovereignty on much of this conflicted land. But the
fact of the matter is that many of our people never quite get past the racial
bias at the core of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. And even with
repudiation and clear condemnation from the international community, this
remains at the foundation of U.S. and Canadian "Indian law" and is
still being used by courts today. With no clear path for reclamation, most of
our people never look that far down the road and certainly never develop comprehensive
land use plans. Perhaps a higher level of discontent with the state and feds
will pave the way for the "clean slate" approach to land use and just
one or two examples of business success stories and higher quality of life,
would certainly change the conversation. But these can't happen if we don't
really have a vision for our future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If one thing is learned from
hearing so much testimony on Indigenous issues, it is that capitalism and
imperialism got it wrong and buying into their failed systems for modeling our
own is just absurd. We need to assert our presence, fight for our regulatory
advantages and market these as building blocks to regional development.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am extremely disappointed
to say that no one brought up trade and commerce as a specific area of concern
for this world stage. Not one Native voice took the opportunity to cite the
articles of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that
specifically support our inherent rights to trade, commerce and our own
economic development. The absence of that conversation only adds to the
question as to what we are there for. If not there, where? If not then, when?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Minister of Human Rights
Purifacione Quisinbine told me more than 20 years ago at the UN that we needed
trade relations. That, she said, was the expression of sovereignty. She, like
me, viewed treaties as weak, one-sided documents. Contracts and invoices
represented equitability and it establishes relationships, not just between
governments but also between peoples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Many good and important
issues got well warranted attention on this world stage but the real life
impacts to local and global economies caused by racist dogma cannot and should
not be down played. Two weeks, once a year with a few more annual events thrown
in is not enough to affect change. These issues have to be a drumbeat that
becomes deafening with international attention and takes full advantage of the
media attention that comes with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our small corners of the
once vast lands which we tend to, need to be a reminders to all those who are
growing discontented with their lives — of what once was. We really don't like what
you've done with the place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-67934397797236634382014-05-15T13:03:00.004-04:002015-10-07T18:13:00.380-04:00Education and Conscience Versus Institutionalized Racism<div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAKGT4kbEHGx3Uogqjl-Te47c4iq0lQnsOY7jtyKbqst0pwDNCmTmxVj0fDh04z3cG9iOZIn0aSYFZkNdiNH8jsjRwnifL5FQbMSBgSlU2BJBneMxgHag6xzoG-jhFk9qpt2AteSYdM4/s1600/IMG_2126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAKGT4kbEHGx3Uogqjl-Te47c4iq0lQnsOY7jtyKbqst0pwDNCmTmxVj0fDh04z3cG9iOZIn0aSYFZkNdiNH8jsjRwnifL5FQbMSBgSlU2BJBneMxgHag6xzoG-jhFk9qpt2AteSYdM4/s1600/IMG_2126.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, now that everyone can feel better about their battle and stance on unacceptable racism in the wake of giving the old "what's for" to Donald Sterling, the racist owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, we can all go back to settling in with the institutional racism that keeps Daniel Snyder, the equally racist owner of the NFL's Washington R-word, warm and safe at night. I know "spic,” "wetback,” chink" and the R-word still can appear in print but if the N-word can't, then, in my book either can the R-word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, it is institutional racism — the team, its logo, merchandise and name are trademark-protected, NFL-licensed and owned by a white guy. Not to mention the fact that most Americans are perfectly comfortable with the NFL franchise in their nation's capital bearing a racial slur for a name.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now I won’t go off on another rant about how the dictionary defines the word or its history or even the damage the use of the word does to our youth. The simple truth is that a significant number of Native people are offended by it, yet most Americans are only offended by the fact that we are offended. That is to say, how dare <i>we</i> be offended by tens of thousands of mostly white people in red face, feathers, war paint, “costumes” and in an alcoholic stupor making a mockery of Native people? Not only is it not just this team or even just this sport. It's several teams in almost all sports. And it's not just the fans that are offensive. The opponents, sportswriters and TV producers can't resist the clichés or most outrageous comments or visuals. The Eagle's fan that brings the knife-impaled Indian head to the Washington games with “Red-Skin, Dead-Skin” written on the face, comes to mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But that's not the really bad part. Granted, this is all plenty offensive and SHOULD disturb more than just a number of Native people but that is not my ultimate problem with institutional racism. A team name or a mascot may seem trivial but what it really represents is the notion that a dominant society can appropriate a name or an image or even a racial slur against a people and <i>normalize</i> it in that culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The first impulse is to suggest this misappropriation "honors" us. Of course, that falls flat the moment we claim that we don't feel honored or that we are insulted by it. Then we are told that it's just a team name and that it is NOT meant to represent us. The best part is when they tell us that we aren't <i>those people</i> anyway — that we are no longer those "grand kings of the forests and the plains." I have heard Native people criticizing the mascot issue told to “go back to the reservation and drink a few.” Some honor, huh?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This acceptance of appropriating an image and then attempting to separate the affected people from it has consequences. It allows racist laws, policies and actions to continue year after year, decade after decade and century after century with no guilt and no real consequence to the dominant culture but with devastating impact on the affected people. Poverty, depression, suicide, alcoholism and little hope or prospect for the future is not caused by mascots. That's ridiculous! It's caused by the underlying racism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You might ask how can this be? Where does racism become institutionalized or normalized? The simple answer starts with the church. The Doctrine of Christian Discovery established the idea that a Christian people could claim the lands and possessions of pagan people, that a “godless” people could be subjugated to slavery and ownership. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court then codifies this concept into U.S. law and equates discovery with conquest. The establishment of the "ward-custodian" relationship draws a straight line from 15<sup>th</sup>-century popes to 19<sup>th</sup>-century judges. And when racism is both entrenched in church and legal doctrine that IS institutional racism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This institutional racism accepts racist mascots, team names and logos. And this racism is government driven and societally acceptable. The notion that the dominant society owns us; and that the once proud, brave, free and noble savage is gone, sucked into American history, has become the false narrative that is American history. And what are left is a people deemed wards of the state and barely a resemblance to what America now claims for naming their weapons and sports teams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And what do wards of the state need? Obviously, just welfare, a check or a budget line. Wards of the state don't need an economy, they don't need opportunity and they certainly don't need United Nations protection. Not in the good ole USA or in Oh Canada. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, that's not the way we see it and, interestingly enough, neither does the rest of the world. After half a millennium of our resistance to racist church dogma and court bigotry the United Nations declared to the world in 2007 that:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">"all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) also includes 46 articles that form the minimum standard the member nations insist should be respected.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So while American and Canadian societies hang on to the last vestiges of their state-sponsored racism, even as they declare themselves morally superior to the rest of the world, they remain clueless to the social advances all around them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We are not wards of the state. We have asserted our distinction, our rights and our sovereignty as we have begun to rebuild our economies. We fight for our lands and our resources. We have brought back our cultures and languages from the brink of extinction from acts of genocide and we are protecting the planet. We always knew we were right and had the right to do these things and now the rest of the world agrees with us. We know this fight is ours and it is a battle of education. But perhaps with international pressure we can open some minds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Racism is ignorance. Mascots are racist and, more importantly, so are the policies that discriminate against and hold Native people down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I believe Native mascots and team names must go but the racist policies are a bigger issue for me. I'd rather use the absurd racism that everyone sees to shine a light on what is hidden in plain sight. The singular concentration by some on mascots makes us seem shallow and superficial. And the worse thing that could happen would be for us to lose the battle to educate and enlighten people about racism yet force a name change or a ban on mascots leaving the dominant society and their leadership more entrenched in the racism with their harmful policies more firmly intact.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today, both the U.S. and Canada are actively waging a campaign of forced assimilation against Native people in direct violation of the UNDRIP. Canada's Bill C-10 and various U.S. state and federal laws, regulations and policies are attempting to criminalize our trade and our people. Protecting our women and children and creating a future for our people require that we protect our land, assert our sovereignty and create hope and opportunity now and for the future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I, for one, am prepared to use the UN or any international stage whenever possible to garner support and shame, if necessary, the U.S. and Canada into change. And who knows? Maybe we'll knock off an "R-word".</span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-6879983480926449752014-05-07T18:50:00.005-04:002014-05-07T18:50:54.829-04:00Lucky 13 for the UNPFII<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6KtTNf4sNyiQk04OlnpnQyEFtlAhx6a4ZdGhxNdGDiyRkEcTVRXNatjfUnEqIn2REKRr6GhsvDXlGkHsnZ2jOy0Y4v9BIwUdsWpZEmTSApXi5axk-1TiehX_3hDy47elmTMWX8MbqImc/s1600/The_United_Nations_Building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6KtTNf4sNyiQk04OlnpnQyEFtlAhx6a4ZdGhxNdGDiyRkEcTVRXNatjfUnEqIn2REKRr6GhsvDXlGkHsnZ2jOy0Y4v9BIwUdsWpZEmTSApXi5axk-1TiehX_3hDy47elmTMWX8MbqImc/s1600/The_United_Nations_Building.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On May 12, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues (UNPFII) will begin its 13th session at the United Nations in New York
City. The session will run for two weeks and cover a broad range of topics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The event is not open to the public. Only confirmed and
registered NGO and IPO representatives are allowed to participate. However, as
a UN accredited member of the media, I will be there, too. Yeah, that's right.
Two Row Times columnist and radio show host John Kane will be there having the
conversations that may or may not be welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I'm not among the starry-eyed devotees of the UN. I am a
skeptic although I appreciate the good intentions of such a body and even the
nice words assembled in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(UNDRIP). But intentions are not actions and the UNDRIP clearly identifies
itself as the minimum standards that the world holds for the rights of Indigenous
peoples. And while I understand the most common denominator for the nations of
the world would almost have to accept a minimum standard, this Mohawk certainly
doesn't. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, the U.S. and Canada, the last UN nations to
conditionally endorse the Declaration, could not even accept this minimum
standard at face value but rather suggested they could only support the "aspirations"
of the document provided that its articles do not conflict with U.S. or
Canadian law, which kind of misses the point. Uh...if your laws conflict with
the UNDRIP, which they certainly do, as well as your policies, propaganda,
altered history, religions, schools and state sponsored racism, then you
obviously are not really supporting what the rest of entire world has endorsed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why go? Simple. Shame.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have made it my mission to encourage conversations on
Native issues. The more conversations that are had, the brighter the spotlight
shines on those issues. If it is nothing else, I see the UN as a grand stage
for conversations. But because the U.S. and Canada fail miserably by almost any
standard for compliance with the UNDRIP and because they have no intentions of
complying, our best recourse is the "court of public opinion" and
shame on that grand stage. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the biggest mistakes we make in fighting for our
inherent rights is treating them as gifts from our oppressors. Our rights are
neither "treaty rights" nor are they UN Declaration rights. They are
unalienable, inherent and original. Treaties may acknowledge them or even
suggest protection of them but they do not grant them. The UNDRIP makes no claim
to be the origins of our rights either. This declaration simply reiterates much
of the UN Declaration on Human Rights with certain other obvious international
standards such as "free, prior and informed consent" from people
affected by the actions of another. The UNDRIP recognizes rights. It does not
establish them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our job begins with asserting our inalienable rights based on
our inherent sovereignty. The language in their treaties may be used to
demonstrate and remind those that would violate our rights how many times they
acknowledged their limitations and just how little we ever really ceded to them
regarding our rights and liberties. The same goes for the UNDRIP. But unlike
all those treaties that our people were coerced into, for access to our lands,
the Declaration is not a <i>quid pro quo</i>
or a this for a that. It is simply a minimum standard. But it is pointless if
it is unknown or never cited.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So while our job begins with asserting our rights, it is also
incredibly important to specifically cite how and where our rights are being
violated within the context of the UNDRIP and our inherent sovereignty. We need
to make the violators of those rights painfully clear of the international
standards they are ignoring and alert the international community of the
violations and impacts, as well. There are 46 articles and a preamble loaded
with affirmations, acknowledgements, concerns, beliefs and specific points of
recognition to which we should hold the non-Native governments and do so with
every intent of leveling shame and embarrassment on these U.S. and Canadian hypocrites.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The opening day of the UNPFII, among other issues, is
scheduled to cover sexual health and reproductive rights. With more than 1,000
missing and murdered Native women in Canada alone and the highest rate of
childbirth mortality rates on the continent, how can the U.S. and Canada not be
shamed?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second day will focus on the impacts of the Doctrine of
Christian Discovery. This can't be just a study of past atrocities but must
include the ongoing ones, as well. The U.S. codified this racist doctrine in
1823 and it is still cited to this day to diminish everything from claims to
our stolen lands to our right to trade and develop our own economies. This
can't just be about condemning ugly history as though it's all better now. It
isn't! The suggestion that our "discovery" by Christian nations
equated to conquest is not just wrong today. It was just as wrong when the
house of cards that is "federal Indian law" was built on it then. The
UNDRIP should assist us in securing more equitable remedies, not just for past
grievances but current conflicts, too. The U.S. and Canada can keep their
"houses of cards" but if they don't want it toppled they should keep
us out of it. There is no shame in fairly and respectfully resolving conflict
but any nation claiming superiority based on race or religion should be truly
embarrassed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Redress, land disputes and land claims, Indigenous children
and Indigenous youth, and actual implementation of the UNDRIP are other
scheduled topics for discussion. And I will take every opportunity I can to
bend the ear of anyone that will listen to address the most critical issues to
our people — poverty today and bleak prospects for the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the access to sacred sites in the world can't fix poverty
and self-esteem. All the special days, decades and declarations the world over
will not secure a future for our unborn faces. We don't need world courts or
international sanctions. We need real international relations that support our
trade, our travel and our autonomy. We need interface between the voices that
call for our right to be respected and protected, and those whose laws fly in
the face of those calls.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's
see what a little "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane" at the UN
stirs up.</span></span>John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-92041825003133391262014-05-07T18:38:00.001-04:002014-05-07T18:38:26.888-04:00No Honor Among Thieves or Chiefs<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to begin my column this week by stating up front that
I am Haudenosaunee. I support traditional governance based on the Kaianerehkowa
and a culture grounded with the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (Words Before All Else)
and the Tiohateh (the Two Row Wampum). I must emphasize that it is traditional
governance I support rather than "traditional government." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are those who would suggest that the Haudenosaunee have
existed with all these things firmly in place in an unbroken testament to our
strength and durability as a people. I wish that were true. I wish our people
had continued to reject the Bible and the booze. I wish they always held our
women in the reverence that we like to claim. I wish we protected and preserved
our lands and language for our future generations. I wish we maintained the
concepts of governance by the people and the understanding that people who were
recognized for the best characteristics were placed as honorable servants to
their people rather than rulers placed above them. But most of these wishes
would bring me back several hundred years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We lost our way several times long before the first white man
ever appeared before us. Our Thanksgivings are reminders of those times and of
the time we came back together to right ourselves. The Kaianerehkowa represents
the last time wise men among us reminded us who we were and what we were
created for. In it are the descriptions of the characteristics we were to
strive for. No, it didn't say don't drink, gamble or dance. It placed honor on
a man who proved himself as a husband, a father and an uncle. What that means
should be self-evident. The Kaianerehkowa lays out the process to maintain
peace and resolve conflicts. It lays out checks and balances and defies any
notion that any of us have authority or higher standing than any others of us.
It also made clear that all those things that went into the Kaianerehkowa
should be retold and recited each year in every Haudenosaunee community and
recited at a gathering of all 49 families of the Haudenosaunee and any new
families that joined to enjoy the peace under the Kaianerehkowa every five
years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This basic call for maintenance through constant education
and "removal of the dust" that accumulates with time surely could
have prevented where we now find ourselves. This summer such an event is
planned for the Seneca community of Tonawanda and at this point there may be no
community in more need. But Tonawanda is certainly not the only community in
need. Between assimilated elected councils with pitiful voter turnout and no
connection to our culture or what defines us, and councils of
"chiefs" that claim to be "traditional" with a twisted view
of their authority or privilege, our communities are barely recognizable as
Haudenosaunee.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have seen unspeakable corruption and behavior out of men
claiming to be chiefs while loyalists chant "honor the chiefs." As
these men hide behind the banner of being "traditional" they
discriminate against some and disregard others while consolidating power,
wealth and recognition as royal families. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could review much of the fairly recent ugly history that
would explain the mess that is now the Oneida Nation of New York and the
current power struggle over leadership, control and federal recognition in
Cayuga that involves "traditional" chiefs, their lawyers and reliance
on the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Our ways? The Kaianerehkowa? Certainly
not! But one of the most blatant abuses of power today by those that claim to
be "traditional" is, indeed, in Tonawanda.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Tonawanda is a small Seneca community that claims to be
"traditional." The resident population is less than 500 with half of
those being non-Native and the majority of the Native population being
non-Tonawanda Seneca, meaning only about 20-25 percent of the residents are
"enrolled" Tonawanda Seneca. There is a relatively </span><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">sizable</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> Christian
population with notables that have historically included men like Ely Parker
who actually served as a chief on the Tonawanda Chiefs Council. While there is
one modest Longhouse and quite nice tribal offices, there is also a </span><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">sizable</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> church
within the community as well as churches attended by residents off-territory.
The contemporary notion that Tonawanda is a "traditional" community has
drawn deep lines separating people along family lines, occupations, religious
beliefs and even gender. There exists a sense of superiority for these
'traditional" leaders and their loyal followers over the vast majority of
the rest of the residents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">None of this could be more exemplified than by the current
situation where a Tonawanda Seneca business owner, out of favor with the
"chiefs," dies and despite a well documented will that clearly laid
out his intent to leave certain significant assets to his Tonawanda Seneca daughter,
has those intentions usurped by the deceased's greedy brother, mother and, at
least, certain Tonawanda chiefs. Literally, the uncle and grandmother conspired
to defraud a young woman out of her inheritance from her father and ultimately
they are assisted by corrupt chiefs to pull it off. As it stands today, both
the home, valued at over $3 million, and the businesses that have generated
significant wealth over the years, have been seized by the chiefs and it is
being done under some guise of "traditional" law or custom. The plain
and simple truth is that the daughter of the deceased has been determined
arbitrarily as undeserving of the inheritance and that is cause enough for a
corrupt and dysfunctional "government" to do as it likes against
whomever it wishes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is nothing in any legitimate or noble culture,
traditional or otherwise, that would deny a man the right to leave his daughter
assets that she would otherwise have the right to own or receive. And there is
nothing in the Kaianerehkowa that would remotely suggest or empower a chief to
seize an inheritance. This case is simply a theft by those that believe they
are above the people and what is decent and right.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It
will be a singular moment of reckoning when men guilty of such a crime have to
sit before all of us at a Kaianerehkowa recital knowing the abuse they have
inflicted even as that very abuse is being condemned before all. I will sit in anxious
anticipation of those days with only one hope — that they will reflect on their
actions and correct them before we all come together.</span></span>John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-68780714826378214732014-04-24T16:11:00.001-04:002014-04-24T16:11:20.175-04:00It's not Just the Pipe…It's What's in It<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg5T-9rptZQuA443qjDyL4VoJ34o9eg0CT1yqhAagiWswnyZqZ_d-9FsXsXC9NcoYTJ9kvtaK1EMpPvZt0wNuuS9gP8_i5wEQ99Em1Uo6ElEYxj462IzDm7S35r9KZn5ThUNoGTUAIPMs/s1600/Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg5T-9rptZQuA443qjDyL4VoJ34o9eg0CT1yqhAagiWswnyZqZ_d-9FsXsXC9NcoYTJ9kvtaK1EMpPvZt0wNuuS9gP8_i5wEQ99Em1Uo6ElEYxj462IzDm7S35r9KZn5ThUNoGTUAIPMs/s1600/Image.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Reject and Protect call to action this week in Washington, D.C.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As this column hits the press, thousands are gathering in Washington, D.C. to take a stand against the Keystone XL Pipeline. During a week that a decision was expected out of the Obama Administration on this issue, the Reject and Protect call to action will set up camp near the White House and tell the President to reject the pipeline. As it turns out, an announcement just came from the White House that the Administration has decided to kick the can on this decision for what seems like the tenth time.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whether this decision was made to take the wind out of the sails of this demonstration or somehow is part of some other political strategy, or if it is just more D.C. dysfunction, is always hard to say and harder to get anyone to admit to. But, regardless of the decision not to make a decision, it’s important that a message about this is made loud and clear.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the crazy things about this whole discussion is the lack of media coverage the actual tar sands oil extraction gets. Americans and Republicans, in particular, love to keep this conversation just about a pipeline; and you can be absolutely sure that FOX News and the Tea Party right will not be rushing to the aid of any ranchers, cowboy hats or not, that stand in the way of big oil profits. When Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy stakes his claim against the U.S. government — even at gunpoint under the clear threat of violence — cries of government oppression and praise to him as a patriot ring all over the political right.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But as this movement rages on — the movement that started on the Native lands in Alberta that are being raped by interests from China to Texas and, of course, a whole lot of Canada — the debate on the U.S. side continues to stay relegated to just a conversation about a pipeline. For most of us opposing this new "junkie's vein" for oil, the absence of the pipeline is simply a bottleneck to slow the environmental travesty that is tar sands oil extraction. Of course, the pipeline absolutely presents a significant environmental risk on its own and, worse yet, the entire justification sold to the American public is a lie. It's not about jobs; the pipeline will ultimately only produce about 40 permanent jobs. It's not about energy independence; it is still foreign oil. It's certainly not about securing a more politically correct supply for the good deserving people of this hemisphere; none of this "oil" is intended for American or Canadian consumption. It is all going to China.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now don't get me wrong. Alberta, Canada, the Koch brothers and a whole lot of "Big Oil" and all those others invested in tar sands oil stand to make billions. But the American and Canadian public? Nope! Just seized land for a dangerous easement from Montana to Texas and a wasteland the size of Florida will be left in Alberta.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The pipeline will endanger the Oglala aquifer, one of the largest on the continent, and join the ranks of all the other leaking pipelines that make a train wreck of tanker cars look like a soupy puddle from a dropped ice cream cone compared to what a busted or cracked pipe can do. And make no mistake, they all do or will leak. And all those who clamor about how a new pipeline will be safer? Well, NEWSFLASH! This isn't replacing old pipes or rail or truck or even tanker — it is adding to them.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is really the point for many of us. Beyond the lies and propaganda associated with the Keystone XL Pipeline is the plain and simple truth that this pipeline validates and facilitates the environmental travesty that is tar sands oil extraction. You can put all the lipstick you want on this pig, but it's still a pig. As are all those that are unconscionably destroying what was only recently pristine land that supported a beautiful people dependent on it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The fact that no American would ever let the destruction occurring on Native lands in Alberta to happen in their back yards is really just hypocrisy. And the fact that an American President can keep sidestepping exactly just what and where from the proposed "oil" is coming is just dishonest. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now why do I keep quotation marks around the word "oil"? I do it because technically it's NOT oil. It's bitumen. It's worse than crude oil from an environmental standpoint and to add insult to the inevitable injury it’s because it's not even technically crude oil. There is an exemption from paying into a clean-up superfund that would normally come from crude oil passing through a pipeline in the U.S.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s easy to draw a line connecting Native people to environmentalism. But for us this isn't about a preference or a social or even a philosophical stance. It is about our identity and how our land defines us. I know many identify with us and share this view. But as more and more of us come together on these and other environmental issues, don't forget our place in this debate. It has now been said by many that the fight for environmental justice starts with Native people. I would suggest that it is sustained with Native people and will end with us, too. With international calls for our "free, prior and informed consent" on all issues with implications for our future, Indigenous peoples globally are gaining confidence and recognition in these and other fights. But none of us will wait for the international community to catch up. Our resistance is today and we will do it without FOX news, armed resistance or the Tea Party darlings.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regardless of approval of this pipeline, our battle is against the destruction at the source of this issue. We will fight tar sands oil extraction however it is transported. Ultimately, our position on the issue will be more and more validated by others but until then many will label us not as Bundy patriots but as terrorists — and worse.</span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-90936994567386032482014-04-15T23:40:00.001-04:002014-04-15T23:40:20.474-04:00Who You Calling Formerly Colonized?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwtBLVlkmlUioUloHI0iRN_PRbCZP80VsKcuhiLH6V5RGBcZJhwFwe5kxG8nXi1bSzjHTqC2Wd-wQi2pU8P8WnMjgStoXy5Fqn00LJnu9MZX1Gg13WHteY6qI8vPhuMkXc7MOSb3LhWU/s1600/Sepia+JK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwtBLVlkmlUioUloHI0iRN_PRbCZP80VsKcuhiLH6V5RGBcZJhwFwe5kxG8nXi1bSzjHTqC2Wd-wQi2pU8P8WnMjgStoXy5Fqn00LJnu9MZX1Gg13WHteY6qI8vPhuMkXc7MOSb3LhWU/s1600/Sepia+JK.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During the past week I have had more
conversations about "decolonization" than I have had in my whole
life. As I mentioned in one of my Facebook conversations, I am not entirely comfortable
with the expression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Clearly as Native people continue to
carve out our existence with the dominant societies, cultures and politics
around us, we find ourselves getting caught up in the next word, policy or
social theory of the day. Sovereignty became almost synonymous with Native rights.
Self-governance and self-determination also began rolling off the tongues of
every "tribal leader" and "Indian expert." Oh yeah, and
let's not leave out “nation-to-nation” and “government-to-government”
relations. Those were good ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For me, the "trust
relationship" with a complete lack of the "trust" part makes
that one problematic for me but that one was easy to call. This decolonization
thing was a little more troublesome for me. I mean, I get it and the whole
"decolonize your mind" slogan does have a nice ring to it but for me
it still didn't feel right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I was finally able to put my finger
on it today when my good friend Kerry Hawk Lessard used University of Michigan
Associate Professor of Psychology and American Culture Joseph Gone's definition
in our discussion. Gone uses decolonization to describe </span><i><span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“the intentional,
collective, and reflective self-examination undertaken by formerly colonized
peoples that results in shared remedial action.”</span></i><span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Well, there you have it. Decolonization felt to me a little
too much like the abolition movement and Gone confirmed the problem for me.
Just like abolition was all about addressing and ending the very successful
dehumanizing institution that was American slavery, decolonization is about
remediating the problems associated with "formerly colonized peoples"
as though the act of colonization was both complete and successful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I understand that colonization is a clear and well-defined
concept, but at its core it is about claiming land. Just as the Doctrine of
Christian Discovery really had nothing to do with converting the pagans into
Christians but rather converting their land to Christendom, colonization was
less about colonizing people and more about taking their land for the
colonizer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So having said that, I certainly acknowledge that almost all
of our lands were stolen, defrauded, claimed and/or swindled from us for THEIR
colony and most Native communities, on either side of the imaginary line (U.S./Canadian
border) are led to believe their lands are held "in trust" for them
by the colonial powers. But the keyword here is "most" — not all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">One of the little-known facts about Native people is that 70 percent
of them do not live on Native lands and most of the remaining percent that do,
live on lands that the colonizers claim to hold the title to. But that is not
the case for the Haudenosanee territories I have lived on. Although our
ancestral lands have been greatly reduced, all of the peoples of the
Haudenosaunee still retain a portion of those once vast lands and they OWN it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The lands of which I speak are not under U.S. or state title.
And they are not "held for the use and enjoyment" of our people. Our
people OWN them. So to say it more clearly and in the context of this
discussion — our land is not part of their colony. <b>The land we still occupy has not been colonized.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Now I am not suggesting that we are the only people who can
claim to have not been colonized but I would say that if they can't claim our
lands then they can't claim us. I will also state for the record that I have
never ascribed to the notion that the U.S. and Canada hold our lands for us. But
I will say if you view yourself among the formerly colonized peoples then the
first step you need to take is to assert your connection to your homeland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Beyond the inability of the colonial powers to render us
landless, I maintain that there is no legal basis to claim our subjugation or
cite just when our clearly recognized sovereignty was ever transferred to them.
It is laughable that the foundation of U.S and Canadian "federal Indian
law" is still ONLY based on papal bulls from the fifteenth century. In
1823 when the U.S. codified the Doctrine of Christian Discovery into U.S. law
via <i>Johnson v. M'Intosh</i>, Chief Justice
John Marshall literally suggested that Native sovereignty was diminished upon
discovery. And in the wake of Marshall's legal dicta on this ruling there began
this absurd assumption that discovery could be viewed as tantamount to
conquest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Of course, even with this weak rationale building the foundation
for the imperialistic belief in Manifest Destiny, neither the U.S. nor the state
of New York ever claimed to own the land we retained. In fact, even when
attempting to relocate the Seneca during the Removal Act era, the U.S. was
forced to include language in its offer of lands west of the Mississippi that
even those lands would never be claimed by the U.S. or incorporated into any
state (an offer that was nonetheless rejected). As late as the second half of
the nineteenth century, New York State still acknowledged in its State Judicial
Reports that Seneca lands were not part of the state, that the Seneca were not
represented in their legislature and that the state could not tax them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I have many reasons for refusing to be considered a formerly
colonized person. I maintain that there are many of us that are among a long
line of people who have resisted and rejected subjugation and the assumption of
colonization. So excuse me for not embracing the decolonization movement. My
sovereignty is a birthright. That whole unalienable rights thing? That came
from us. The concept of seven generations doesn't just suggest that we consider
the effects of our actions on those unborn faces — it prohibits and denies any
legal and legitimate authority of anyone to sell out their future generations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I can't decolonize. That would suggest that I was colonized
in the first place. I wasn't and I'm not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-52075684949150973492014-04-15T23:16:00.002-04:002014-04-15T23:34:40.030-04:00The Unwritten Rules of the Cuomo Cabal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCfLoC3Rs0-eGRfSRi41DLuU53F8jZBLaDqeSo8Jl-YyVhqZSQCgCaQaDNrvv72kw0uijFbVLNm24jVCVsbo8achwUo36n26saNLEerwtHVf8xeF70-cIsS811MvpxolDajf974e5wZ64/s1600/andrew-cuomo-980.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCfLoC3Rs0-eGRfSRi41DLuU53F8jZBLaDqeSo8Jl-YyVhqZSQCgCaQaDNrvv72kw0uijFbVLNm24jVCVsbo8achwUo36n26saNLEerwtHVf8xeF70-cIsS811MvpxolDajf974e5wZ64/s1600/andrew-cuomo-980.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Three years ago a couple of "Let's Talk Native..."
regulars and I made the trip to the Albany to try to get some straight answers
to a couple of simple questions. Matt Hill, Paul Delaronde and I met with New
York State Senator George Maziarz, Republican from the 62nd Senate District of
New York, to see if a State Senator could get an answer to a question that the
State's tax department refused to give us. We sat with the Senator and first
queried him on his position on Native-to-Native trade and the State's authority
over our commerce and our manufactured goods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Senator Maziarz made it very clear where he stood on the
issues. Despite legislation that the State legislature had recently passed that
was to shut down State-licensed wholesalers from continuing a 30- year practice
of selling unstamped (untaxed) cigarettes to Native retailers, he felt strongly
that the State had no authority to interfere with Native-to-Native trade and he
was in full support of the trade we had established with Native-manufactured
product.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The problem that we encountered was that we could not get a
straight answer out of the Governor's office, the State Attorney General's
Office or out of the State's Department of Taxation and Finance clarifying the
State's legal, political or regulatory policy on Native-to-Native trade or on
Native- manufactured goods. They flat out refused to tell us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So we figured, surely a State Senator could get us an answer.
The Senator agreed to let me work with his staff to draft a letter to Thomas
Mattox, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance requesting
clarity on the State's position and intent. While at the State Capital, I also
decided to pursue support for answers from across the political aisle and asked
State Senator Timothy Kennedy, Democrat from the 63rd Senate District, if he
would sign onto such a letter. He agreed. So now we had Senators from both
political parties pressing for a public announcement of a policy that by law
should have been clear and unambiguous in the first place rather than a military
secret.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The letter sent from Senators Maziarz and Kennedy on May 16,
2011 stated clearly that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"It is our view that the State should not pursue an
effort to collect taxes on Native Brands because such an effort would be
contrary to the sovereign rights of the Native American Nations, and would be a
severe blow to the Native retail economy." <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The letter proceeded
to make a specific and quite reasonable request.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"[W]e request that you provide clarification to us as
soon as possible and in writing. It is very important that all of the citizens
of the State of New York and their elected representatives know what the
intention of your Department is with regard to the collection of State taxes on
Native Brand cigarettes and tobacco products."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To my surprise I
learned that even the guys who are credited with making these stupid laws
couldn’t get answers about their implementation or covert exaggeration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">More than a year later
I convinced Senator Maziarz to follow up on his prior unanswered request. This
inquiry was made in light of an absolute refusal to respond to his first letter
and action from the State Attorney General attempting to stop Native
manufacturers from shipping, selling and distributing products to Native
territories. This "cease and desist" order came in the wake of a
court ruling by the New York State Supreme Court ordering the State to release
a seized truckload of Native-produced cigarettes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Senator Maziarz on
June 27, 2012 again wrote to the Tax Commissioner:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"In my view, the recent court case acknowledges that
Native Brand cigarettes that are produced and sold on lands owned by Native
Nations constitute commerce that is Native to Native. As such these
transactions cannot (and should not) be regulated and taxed by the State of New
York. To do so would be contrary to the sovereign rights of the Native American
Nations, and have significant negative impact on the Native retail economy."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the Senator once
again restated his request:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Although the NYS Supreme Court case starts to provide
some direction on the status of the taxation of Native American cigarettes,
there is still much uncertainty in this area. Consequently, we request that you
provide written clarification to us as soon as possible."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As we approach three
years from the original request there is still a refusal by the State to
provide a written explanation of their policy or intent. This is not rule of
law. Hell! The lawmakers themselves can't get an answer from these
extortionists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This week, New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his new get tough policy/propaganda against cigarette
smuggling. He announced the formation of a 13-agency task force dedicated to
keeping illegal cigarettes out of the State. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This new law-enforcement strategy will help
to crack down on these illegal cigarette sales and capture those smugglers who
seek to evade the law and rob the state of the revenue it is rightly owed,”
Cuomo said.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The problem is that
neither the mob boss nor his minions will say where the Native tobacco trade
fits into this conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A recent study by a
non-partisan tax policy think tank, the Tax Foundation, revealed that almost
57% of the cigarettes consumed in New York State are brought into the state
illegally. Nothing in the Tax Foundation's report suggests any of this
percentage includes Native brands or Native sales nor does it imply that Native
sales are illegal or considered smuggling. The report clearly assigns the vast
majority of "smuggled" cigarettes to Virginia and three other low-taxed
states that do not affix tax stamps to cigarettes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So there we have it — New
York State policies so covert that the actual lawmakers from either party are
denied access while the “Boss” chases his tail on what is real revenue leakage
and where his revenue is actually leaking to.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-65719990839707090652014-04-07T22:51:00.001-04:002014-04-07T22:51:14.794-04:00Stirring the Ashes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN149sdX7erJD-Z5onLAZ-ZQEY9XZohLF7Y-QqS4krRx7Ytc3ePe80NXGYzOt4tND9w3HBwAMa6k9OSWOg5RhGR6RWiuYCKxOZD2zVz_V-aVSxMa9JuRfIWmryuHg93G2L7_bToI5ctIk/s1600/glowing+embers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN149sdX7erJD-Z5onLAZ-ZQEY9XZohLF7Y-QqS4krRx7Ytc3ePe80NXGYzOt4tND9w3HBwAMa6k9OSWOg5RhGR6RWiuYCKxOZD2zVz_V-aVSxMa9JuRfIWmryuHg93G2L7_bToI5ctIk/s1600/glowing+embers.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the biggest challenges for any people is broad
participation in the issues that affect everyone. And when you stop and think
about it, there is very little from the smallest ripples in a family to major
calamities in a community that occurs without impacting others. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The notion of "mind your own business" or "let
someone else handle it" has become commonplace in many cultures. As we
observe the flaws of some of these other cultures and societies there are those
among us that would like to think the Haudenosaunee lived in a utopian society
where conflict and controversy could never find a home. We speak of "the
good mind" as though our ancestors never had bad thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, this was not the case. And a proper inspection of
concepts captured in our language and our ceremonies make it clear that both
were developed to provide the necessary lessons to avoid repeating the mistakes
of those that came before us. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their wisdom is demonstrated in the timeless metaphors drawn
upon generation after generation, not only without losing their meanings but also
actually gaining in significance as time goes on. "Fire" is an
example of this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fire in its most basic form serves as a symbol for family.
A fire provides warmth and protection. With its light wisdom and learning are
provided and the soothing, almost hypnotic effect of dancing flames and glowing
embers is something unmatched in nature.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But beyond the family, the fire represents a council. In
fact, the fire is a symbol for our right of assembly. We refer to our process
of deliberation as an issue being handed across and around the fire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And while the fire and the tending of it is a significant
part of ceremony, council and the very foundation of our "Longhouse,"
there are some very basic concepts associated with fire that are either missed,
ignored or are interpreted far too narrowly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poets, songwriters, storytellers and holy men have crafted
messages and sermons with images evoked from "stirring the ashes."
But one of the most compelling and pragmatic cultural connections to this
expression is neither spiritual nor loaded with spooky connotations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it was explained to me, one of the concepts captured in
the act of stirring the ashes is specifically associated with inclusion and
encouraging participation. The very act of stirring ashes and poking around in
the almost dormant embers of a fire livens up those embers. By exposing them,
those not quite extinguished embers are made to glow with their own fire and
even those that seemed to have lost their fire can be re-ignited.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of our people are like those dormant or extinguished
embers. While the hot flames flash and dazzle with flamboyant energy, many
settle in to the quiet places allowing our fire to be fed primarily by the
hottest coals among us. By settling into the ashes, we preserve our thoughts
and opinions, protecting them from scrutiny. And in doing so we often believe
we retain the right to criticize quietly, away from direct engagement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The concept of stirring the ashes gives energy and life to
those hiding from responsibility when their contribution to our fire is needed
most. Stirring the ashes lights those up that may feel neglected as well as
those that wish to be. It is a symbol for inclusion and participation. Yet as
much sense as the image makes in this application, it is not widely held or
shared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am extremely fortunate to have people around me that
continue to share and explain these things. And because of these special
relationships, my responsibility becomes to continue the conversations offered
to me and to encourage this very concept of inclusion and participation above
all else.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is through these conversations that like-minded people
gather and those that are compelled to action can genuinely know that their
actions are either supported or condemned. We need not fear or ignore the
darkened embers. We need to stir the ashes to find the latent sparks among us.
There is no real consensus on any issue if the light of so many is left buried
in the ash.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the same way that we remove the dust with a seagull wing
from the knowledge passed down from those that came before us, we stir the ashes
of our fire to remove this dust from the knowledge quietly held right beside
us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those of us strong in their — and our — convictions, we
should welcome those voices rarely heard. And if they challenge us, then such a
challenge should be seen as an opportunity to teach those who have not as yet been
engaged or to learn from those waiting to become engaged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bed of hot coals is a strong foundation for a fire just
waiting to flare. And that sea of glowing embers is far more powerful than any
single match, torch or beacon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need participation far more than we need leadership.
Strong leadership is only needed with weak-minded people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The great men and women who came before us knew all this and
that is why concepts and expressions such as "removing the dust" and
"stirring the ashes" were specifically captured in our language and
incorporated in our stories and ceremonies. These are not phrases coined for
prayers to the sky world but rather concepts developed for teaching and
avoiding the mistakes common to the nature of man on Earth.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-26737151511109516102014-04-01T08:50:00.001-04:002014-04-01T08:50:34.863-04:00Embrace Our Sovereignty or Continue the Genocide?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">"The most consistent
theme in the descriptions penned about the New World was amazement at the
Indians’ personal liberty, in particular their freedom from rulers and from
social classes based on ownership of property. For the first time the French
and the British became aware of the possibility of living in social harmony and
prosperity without the rule of a king." – Jack Weatherford, "Indian
Givers"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">Almost immediately, all that
was known about society, government and social order had come into question for
the Europeans who washed up on our shores half a millennium ago. Social order
without a hierarchy? Equality? Even between genders? Unalienable rights
bestowed to all by Creation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">In the absence of a system
born out of beliefs in gods, kings and emperors, an entirely different
philosophy developed and shaped the culture of the Onkweh Onweh. As a result,
some very foreign concepts were embraced by the newcomers to our lands. Our
view of relationships, respect and commitments to our future and the future
generations were ultimately understood and welcomed by settlers. Our concepts
of liberty and equality would represent such a departure from what was known
and, in many ways, at the core of the problems with their "mother
land" that they would become not the reason but the rationale for a
Declaration of Independence for settler colonists from the rulers of their
homelands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">Of course not all of our
concepts were embraced and many that were would be altered beyond recognition.
But the fact of the matter is that a nation was born out of our lands and our
values, both of which were previously unknown to the white man. The reason our
lands and philosophies had such value was because they had not been contaminated
by European ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">It was separation — time,
distance and space that would allow a people to develop with such distinction
from the norms of Eurasian societies. And now, centuries after the cultural
exchanges that would lead to the creation of nations that would make claims to
world dominance, democracy and global standards for human rights we, the
original people, the Onkweh Onweh, fight everyday to maintain our distinction
and autonomy. Five hundred years of atrocities that earn the label of the
American Holocaust has not resulted in the successful genocide of our people.
And our fight is not the fight of armed insurrection. It is not an insurgency
of terrorism or vindictive vengeance. No, our fight is peaceful but strong. We
resist the controls of the dominant societies around us. We utilize our
sovereignty as an asset and exploit the regulatory advantages we fervently
refuse to concede.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">But why the fight? Do the
U.S. and Canada really consider us a threat? If so, to what or to whom are we a
threat? Even as we put our sovereignty to use in our economic development, our
economies serve your people! Our gaming, our retail, our manufacturing — all of
it depends on the patronage of Americans and Canadians. And how do your people
feel about our sovereignty? They support it and, in many ways, depend on it.
Our economy employs more of your people than our own. Our economy doesn't just
count on your citizens as patrons; we purchase from your vendors; we contract
with your suppliers and we hire your contractors. So even as we fight U.S. and
Canadian police, government agents, politicians and courts for the elements of
our sovereignty that provide the distinction and regulatory advantages
necessary to sustain our still limited economy, it is our solid and loyal relationship
with your own people that provides our market and much of our supply.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">The problems with our
economy are many. For one, it's narrow. For another, it is always under attack.
If it weren't under an unlawful constant assault it wouldn't be so narrow. Gas,
gaming and tobacco are not the only things our people, our lands and our
sovereignty are good for. We have much more to offer and, frankly, none of us
are comfortable being dependent on two vices and reliance on the oil industry.
Nor are we comfortable with them being our legacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">So here is my point of the
week. If our autonomy and distinction could create a philosophy that could
change the world centuries ago when change was slow, what could genuine respect
and support for our sovereignty and autonomy produce today? In a world where
the very regulatory advantages we fight for are sought after for outsourcing,
why trek halfway around the globe for what's in your own backyard? Our
sovereignty is not a threat to anyone's national security. But it may be a
proving ground for the new economic models that everyone is desperately
searching for. Back off and see what a clean slate in the neighborhood can do.
No need for bureaucratic economic development zones, White House "Promise
Zones" or New York State "tax-free" zones. No bipartisan
bickering over legislative fixes. Just simple respect for the sovereignty that
predates your very existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Haudenosaunee was the
model for what would be. We need the respect and support for our autonomy and
distinction today so we can be the model for what will be. Fighting us slows
down our development but it won't stop us. Fighting us is a battle against the
will of your own people. Embrace our distinction and abandon your genocidal
tendencies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-75594672541534109772014-04-01T08:49:00.000-04:002014-04-01T08:49:17.929-04:00Republican-Democrats, Liberal-Conservatives…What's the Difference?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sEldZw-MBjJDkdKwF3o3-51f9kqtMjeZUglxz-X8K9jaZUtTjHzRYgO-At0XMmi0LGBDbrkV3GM0VJayB27Qe0tyCAXBxiH73Amgo6Dl4OR4h3O1cxdwIjnyqBoU8Ms3_64X2Sdq27E/s1600/alg-obama-cuomo-jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sEldZw-MBjJDkdKwF3o3-51f9kqtMjeZUglxz-X8K9jaZUtTjHzRYgO-At0XMmi0LGBDbrkV3GM0VJayB27Qe0tyCAXBxiH73Amgo6Dl4OR4h3O1cxdwIjnyqBoU8Ms3_64X2Sdq27E/s1600/alg-obama-cuomo-jpg.jpg" height="475" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although I cannot embrace the rape of the planet and obscene
support for the rich lords of capitalism that seems bound to Republican DNA,
there is no question that some of the worst actions and most aggressive
policies our people have seen toward our trade and commerce has come from a
Democrat as Governor of New York State and a Democrat as President of the
United States.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Racism and the arrogant ignorance behind it seem to know no
bounds. Neither race nor political party affiliation affects the moral compass
or the conscience of elected officials in the American system.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was under David Paterson, Democrat and New York State's
first black governor that the State pushed through enough of its legal hurdles
to shut off its State-licensed wholesalers from selling tobacco products to
Native retailers. This plan was put into motion by Governor Mario Cuomo almost
20 years earlier and seemed to be held up by his successor, Republican Governor
George Pataki.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now don't get me wrong, we also clashed with Pataki. But this
guy changed his stance on attacking our commerce and got elected two more times
in spite of it. In other words, caving in to those his predecessor planned to
attack militarily under "Operation Gallant Piper" cost him nothing in
political capital.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But after 10 years of relative peace and even a huge growth
of Native tobacco retail due to remote sales (Internet and mail order), back
came the socially responsible Democrats. Democrat Eliot Spitzer got elected as
the tough "Sheriff of Wall Street" with every intention of shutting
us down but resigned in disgrace after a prostitution scandal. So that's how
New York ends up with its first black (un-elected) governor at the same time the
U.S. gets its first black president.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, one would think that Democrats with even some personal insight
on racial discrimination would be "sensitive" to Native issues. Not a
chance. Obama killed that retail growth of which I spoke by signing into law
the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act), outlawing our remote
sales and killing 3,000 jobs in the process. No one said a word about the job
losses. No one said a word about killing the revenue flow into Western New York
or the wiping out of the Master Settlement Act payments that the State was
getting from our sales. The PACT Act was pushed through as an anti-terrorism
bill and that sealed the deal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paterson tried to choke off supply by pushing through the
dormant work of Mario Cuomo and then handed it off to the next his successor,
Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo "The Younger" came into office with more than
just the normal dismissive attitude toward Native issues. He came in with a
chip on his shoulder. He proved that the only thing worse than two Democrats
named Obama and Paterson were Democrats named Obama and Cuomo. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While, nationally, many Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
recognized tribal leaders were falling at the feet of the first President
"of color" every chance they got and a fair number made sweetheart
deals with New York State's "Prince Andrew" over gaming dollars and
land claims, record numbers of armed raids by federal agents and seizures by
state authorities piled up under this Democrat rule. Law suits, indictments,
tax assessments and even a multi-million dollar federal sting operation over tobacco;
not guns, not drugs, not funding terrorism but tobacco, has been the hallmark
the Obama/Cuomo era.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I said from the start, I am certainly no fan of the
Republican right. I'll never understand how middle class (and below) white
Americans can support these guys under the ridiculous belief that they stand
for freedom. Freedom to subject an entire nation of people to the prison of
consumerism that destroys the planet and only makes the rich richer is not
freedom. But the Democrats are right there in defense of American capitalism,
too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have come to the conclusion that American political party
affiliation is all just window dressing. So whether the Republicans want to
play the arrogant, know-it-all, abusive dad under the cloak of conservatism or
the Democrats want dress up as the whining, let-me-take-care-of-you, incompetent
mom in her liberal house coat, we aren't playing. We aren't your children, your
wards or your subjects.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As more and more Americans and Canadians see the mess of
things their government officials have made and continue to make, the colonial
powers may be in for trouble with their own people. The "Great
Experiment" in democracy is failing as is the free market and the global
economy. While many patriotic Canadians and Americans talk about resisting
government abuse, we have been doing it for 500 years. Politicians come and go,
as do empires and wealth. We have lived here for tens of thousands of years.
You should never start a fight you can't finish.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-61835523015148765632014-03-11T21:47:00.000-04:002014-03-11T21:47:14.789-04:00"Sovereignty is not our Defense. It's what we Defend!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVb91fAbfI0im0QLswuzTLkTn1rNx-Wy-xWco5XlE0pz2xkb6hIjV2eM1A5C0axmwCiBAmGNTFlvgccca0ZOqBG62uXG6fJyVNrQxTGfxH9VcsgDPyw-nMEya7PHVR2GsmkRS1xeDwV0/s1600/2blockade090608.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVb91fAbfI0im0QLswuzTLkTn1rNx-Wy-xWco5XlE0pz2xkb6hIjV2eM1A5C0axmwCiBAmGNTFlvgccca0ZOqBG62uXG6fJyVNrQxTGfxH9VcsgDPyw-nMEya7PHVR2GsmkRS1xeDwV0/s1600/2blockade090608.jpg" height="499" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On my "Let's Talk Native..." radio show on Sunday, March
9, I announced my new campaign. No, I am not running for office. My campaign is
about truth telling and clearing away false assumptions about what the United
States and Canada believe they have reduced us to — namely, their subjects.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In spite of the lop-sided "deals" and, more often
than not, fraudulent acts committed by Europeans and their descendants to gain
access to the lands of our children, the characterization that we are dependent
on them is false. The very existence of the U.S. and Canada depends on their
claim to a land base. The fact of the matter is that they are completely
dependent on lands that we allowed them to occupy — but that occupation was and
is conditional. And neither of these "colonies" has been released
from the debt of those conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the egotistical view of Christian Europeans, the Earth was
created to be subdued and owned by man. With that assumption and with their own
view of such things, treaties were entered into with a people who by and large
were willing to help a poor and wretched class of humans that washed up on
their shores. In later years, these white men, cloaked in their religion, would
attempt to claim certain ownership of lands under decrees of their church and
the tenets of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. But in spite of the U.S. Supreme
Court's attempt to codify this racist and unlawful policy that literally says a
Christian people can just claim ownership of the lands of pagans, the early
American leaders crafted law after law acknowledging Native lands and our
exclusive ownership of those lands as well as the distinction of our autonomy
and sovereignty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no reconciling on the attempt by the U.S. or Canada
to create some uniform body of "federal Indian law" with the realities
of their own inconsistencies, ambiguities and outright lies. The crumbling
foundation of the concept of federal Indian law is built upon religious and
racist dogma addressed in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>"all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating
superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or
racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically
false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust." <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are not wards of the
state. The U.S. and Canada are not our custodians, our guardians, our trustees or
our superiors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those who choose to be victims of the American genocide are
certainly free to do so and the U.S. and Canada are happy to oblige. But for
those of us who continue to not just survive but actually fight back, we do so
to affect change and not just to find a kinder and gentler master. We fight and
defend our sovereignty for our children and those unborn faces to come and also
to transform those victims among us into survivors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I spend the next several months exposing the absurdity of
state, U.S. federal, provincial and Canadian federal policies and showing how
these policies are born out of blatant racism with a clear objective to
eliminate our claim to distinction and autonomy, I ask that others join me to
advance this campaign. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My goal in defending our sovereignty is to turn the tables on
those who attempt to criminalize us or assert unlawful controls over us. Let
them produce their documents defending their positions. Name the event that
transferred our sovereignty to them. Give us a date, a time and a place. When
and where was our consent given to their governments "instituted amongst
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed?" When
did we concede to subjugation?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even the self-righteousness of the U.S. and Canada cannot
give them the right to legislate or adjudicate away the sovereignty of another
people. It's fine to cry "rule of law" with mouse eyes but we have
been watching with the eyes of the eagle from a thousand feet in the air. We
see where justice stops and where law is used as a tool or a weapon against us
and others. If man's laws are needed at all, they need to be built on a
foundation of truth and integrity and must be just to be valid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When New York State claims our trade must abide by their laws
with no legal basis for making such claim and when the U.S. Treasury
Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sends armed and masked
agents into our lands to bolster the State's claim, this is not justice. This
is not rule of law. This is manipulation of law. This is secret oppression — undeclared
policy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has been almost three years since two New York State Senators
(Senators George Maziarz and Timothy Kennedy) asked the Commissioner of New
York State's Department of Taxation and Finance to disclose and provide in
writing what the State's policy was on Native-manufactured goods and Native-to-Native
trade. Commissioner Thomas Mattox has refused to accommodate this request even
as the New York State Attorney General pursues lawsuits against Native
manufacturers. These are not the actions of governments and agencies
demonstrating just powers. These actions are political and discriminatory, and
based on policies hidden from the view of those affected, their own citizens
and their own lawmakers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hold on. It is going to get nasty around here. This ends only
one way — with our sovereignty intact!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-59880822578140894792014-03-05T10:15:00.000-05:002014-03-05T10:49:52.674-05:00Economy? We Don't Need No Stinking Economy!<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjObaIYCy3DsqeP4tnCXWbCBfWp9vZeutlsIR_En7vx7-VV3wa3FeYOG3zLGi_c84soVsXHcQQjsfkuTiJZlHv-uNKklreJKlTSesVm6nF6IbsY9ZwvL6UH530rAbcTN-Ib1CWbDEBkRwE/s1600/Smokeshop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjObaIYCy3DsqeP4tnCXWbCBfWp9vZeutlsIR_En7vx7-VV3wa3FeYOG3zLGi_c84soVsXHcQQjsfkuTiJZlHv-uNKklreJKlTSesVm6nF6IbsY9ZwvL6UH530rAbcTN-Ib1CWbDEBkRwE/s1600/Smokeshop.jpg" height="418" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I haven't weighed in much on Canada's Bill C-10 issues but in
the overall scheme of things it is no different than any of the others on the
long list of anti-Native laws, regulations and policies that Canada and the U.S.
have attempted to impose on our people and lands for centuries and, of course,
this includes their provinces and states, as well. It all boils down to an
attempt to control, marginalize and criminalize our people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is particularly ironic that participation in a trade
industry that has been ours for thousands of years — actually introduced to
their ancestors by our ancestors — has been under attack since the moment we
began realizing any significant economic gain from it. But the attempt by the U.S.
and Canada to deny this inherent right is not the only egregious act by two of
the world's biggest hypocrite nations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kidnapper, hostage holder and pedophile John Rolfe (d. 1622) of
Pocahontas fame took the first steps to bastardize our tobacco by commercializing
the product for the European market. Philip Morris, Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds
and others finished the job by turning tobacco into nicotine delivery systems
praying on chemical addiction for market security. Governments and government
officials raked in billions with taxes, fees, surcharges, settlements,
political contributions, tobacco lobby perks and campaign contributions.
Lawyers saw the same; and both tobacco and anti-tobacco lawyers got rich and
famous. And while all this money was being spread, Big Tobacco continued
cranking out cigarettes. These guys played every angle possible to keep up
demand, supply and distribution. They even courted small, almost insignificant
Native smoke shops and the low or no-tax environments we operate in. Anything
for sales. But that all changed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soon the unholy marriage between Big Tobacco and small Native
smoke shops bore an offspring that would destroy the bliss — Native-manufactured
brands and products. Soon the very companies that used our people to skirt state
and provincial law were writing the federal legislation to snuff us out of the
business. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now don't get me wrong, even with Big Tobacco kind of in our
corner the U.S. and Canadian governments were hell bent on not letting us build
an economy on this or anything else. A few Big Tobacco executives even got
prosecuted for bending rules and breaking laws in dealing with the
"illicit reservation tobacco trade." But once these guys lined up
with the top cops it didn't matter where tobacco originally came from since
Team USA and Team Canada were going lie, cheat and steal to keep us out of the
game. We were now <i>terrorists</i> or at
very least funding them. What ensued were stings, seizures and set-ups of all
kinds, including creating sell-outs among Native businessmen and in tribal
councils.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But our shops continue to operate and Native brands and
Native-produced generics continue to roll off our shelves. Criminalizing our
businesses has not stopped them. It has just made it easier to call us
criminals. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And while the tobacco sideshow keeps everyone distracted,
Canada and the U.S. eye what's left of our lands and resources all the while calculating
how they might separate us from both. Even as most territories wallow in
poverty and the majority of Native people live ghetto lives in the cities where
they have been removed, coal, gas, oil and tar are raped from our lands leaving
destruction that would make George Washington and John Sullivan proud. While
people freeze to death in their homes due to the very extreme weather caused by
the world's "fat takers," diamonds, minerals, lumber, water and
energy resources are stripped from our lands leaving wastelands behind as well
as cancer, tainted fish and wildlife, polluted water and a stench in the air. And
this while poison seeps out of our own Mother in radioactivity and other seen
and unseen dangers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Almost no economic benefit ever makes it back to the people
from all this exploitation and the little that does only seems to validate or
encourage the practice. More jobs are created for cleanup of the inevitable
disasters associated with raping the planet. But, of course, real cleanup is
impossible. The fact of the matter is that Americans and Canadians are neither
the users of these energy resources nor are they beneficiaries of their revenue
either — except those Americans and Canadians that pocket the money on the
sales to China. The U.S. broke records last month exporting more than a billion
gallons of crude and petroleum products in a single week ending on February 21.
So all the hype about domestic supply and energy security is as big a lie as
the whole "Tobacco and Terrorism" scam.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">China has invested billions of dollars into the tar sands oil
extraction in Alberta and it's not to build a better Canada. It is to pull
billions and billions of dollars out of our Mother and do it at the greatest
rate and scale possible. The majority of Americans and Canadians are ignorant
about the issues at stake. Even in the liberal state of New York a recent poll
with more than 10,000 online participants had over 51 percent saying
"Frack Away," obviously believing the hype over the jobs and benefits
to be had destroying the Earth. The same goes for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Far
too many Canadians and Americans have bought into all the lies and propaganda
associated with this international crime against humanity because they have
been duped into believing they will somehow benefit from the dirtiest oil on
the planet flowing from Canada to the Texas Gulf so it can be sold to China.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not irony. This is criminal. While the U.S. and
Canada legislate to prevent any economy from developing or meagerly continuing
on Native lands they rape the land they stole from us or are stealing from us.
This is all being done while they lie to their own people and destroy the
ground beneath their feet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am not a fan of what the white man did to our tobacco but I
would rather be a criminal farmer, even of tobacco, than a lawful destroyer of
the planet.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-35025676173177893792014-02-26T09:25:00.000-05:002014-02-26T09:25:11.560-05:00Remove the Dust for our Survival<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really like the expression, "Remove the
Dust." Its most basic meaning evokes the image of sweeping away the dust
accumulated over years of neglect from our wampum belts or any other reminders
of our shelved knowledge. We use it as an expression that is generally
associated with maintaining our culture. But at some point the line between the
survival of our culture, distinction and autonomy and just plain survival will
be brushed away like a line drawn in the very dust we seem covered in now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We may not feel the need to learn survival skills
for the short time many of us have left before we go home to our Mother, but
the incredible short-term benefits and long-term needs should be clear. It's
fine to talk about conservation and consuming in moderation, but how is it even
possible when people are told every day that the very fabric of the
"American Dream" or of the "Global Economy" depends on
consumer confidence and consuming far beyond any ability to pay? And I am not
just talking paying in dollars; I'm talking about the debt incurred on society,
mortgaging our health and bankrupting the planet's resources.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Survival is about returning to reality — to real life.
It is about understanding our place in Creation. This is where we find out
whether the centuries of indoctrination into whatever belief systems you follow
were real or BS. Has your religion or culture or, more importantly, your
interpretations of them, prepared you to understand your place in Creation? Or
are you simply relying on prayer and tobacco burning to be the problem solver? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning survival skills isn't just about doing
with less. It is about realizing what is important. If removing the dust does
not help us reassess our priorities then perhaps we need a better broom. If we
hold sacred a planting ceremony but don't plant and if we perform our harvest
ceremony but don't harvest then I say we have missed something. We need to give
sincere thought to the lives we are living now if we have any hopes for our
children and grandchildren. We need to rethink what a home is, what a family is
and what a community is. To be Haudenosaunee or <i>Rohtinoshoni</i> does not mean you have a longhouse. It means you are
of the way of the longhouse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is fine to speak of sovereignty and standing
to defend it. But our word is <i>"Tewatahtawi"</i>
and it means “we carry ourselves.” When do we fight not just for the right to
carry ourselves but fight and prepare to actually do the carrying?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The world is changing around us. Capitalism and
industrialization have driven our environment over a cliff. All the
conservation in the world isn't going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
However, the world isn't coming to an end. This isn't about fear mongering or
predicting the apocalypse. It is about acknowledging the changes that are
coming.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Removing the dust isn't just learning the songs and
the ceremonies. It is learning what they acknowledge and taking the time to,
indeed, acknowledge those things. Maybe we don't need to grow our own food and
build our own homes but the time is now to begin to learn or relearn. We cannot
expect to build that skill set at the drop of a hat. That genetic memory and
knowledge handed down from those before us evolved over time. Much of that
knowledge can still serve us today but if we don't get our hands in the dirt
now we will be ill equipped for the changes that are coming. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empires rise and fall. We have seen plenty in the
500 years since European contact. We saw tremendous changes in the 10,000-plus
years before that, as well. The descendants of those that came long before us
are neither entitled to a sustainable future nor exempt from the fury of a
changing earth. We call ourselves <i>Ohnkwe
Ohnwe </i>and we say it means “real” or “original” people, but it is more than
that. It is a description of a human being who stays true to the world in which
he lives. He has a future that is connected to his past. He is real forever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">Archaeologists</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and anthropologists speak
romantically about the ancient civilizations of the Americas and hypothesize
about where they came from and what became of them. Yeah, we did the same
things other cultures did, too. We built cities and monuments. We created
religions and disparity. We waged war against man and Creation. But then we
stopped. We learned. We removed the dust. As we cast off the false reality we
created, the true <i>Ohnkwe Ohnwe</i> once
again came through. It didn't happen by accident or by divine intervention but
by planning and acknowledgement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of those we now call our own people will not
change their ways. They will march arm in arm in their sycophantic delusion
with their capitalist overlords or "Trustees" off the economic and
environmental cliff they have created. Choices will be made and continuing down
the same path is a choice. If we don't like what we see in ourselves when we
remove the dust, then Creation, the same teacher that brought wisdom and
knowledge to those that came before us, will teach those willing to learn once
again.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-35093283126272131712014-02-18T22:24:00.002-05:002014-02-18T22:31:33.067-05:00Did I hear you say 10 percent of the U.S.’s energy resources are on Native lands?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">My Let's Talk Native column for the February 19, 2014 issue of the Two Row Times</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KqSFEcItPRvvHfxUjxw5fjRVszwkY8iSHDOuOV7B7bnW9XW49KitVPLItCKwUxd6vadCD6qG9etatRHj4fMLcLSf7NU82yydXc5YvKkr24go6BrEMnc7k3ycxASmhZrrfYkENXs7TpA/s1600/Brian+Cladoosby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KqSFEcItPRvvHfxUjxw5fjRVszwkY8iSHDOuOV7B7bnW9XW49KitVPLItCKwUxd6vadCD6qG9etatRHj4fMLcLSf7NU82yydXc5YvKkr24go6BrEMnc7k3ycxASmhZrrfYkENXs7TpA/s1600/Brian+Cladoosby.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now wait a minute. Tell me, how do any resources on our lands
get tallied up as a percentage of someone else's resources?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, let me tell you how…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, it happens through blatant theft. That’s theft pulled
off through fraud and extortion...with a little religion thrown in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then we get the same theft continuing with a penny on the
dollar's worth thrown at an impoverished people and/or their corrupt leaders
to, somehow, legitimize the theft.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then we get to where the bought and paid for among us
wheel and deal our resources away for a fast buck with those claiming to be
"tribal leaders" calling it economic development or worse; calling
our resources not ours at all but rather the resources of the nation that has
stolen almost everything we hold dear and essentially pledging our resources to
make America proud of us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the annual State of Indian Nations address delivered
by the National Congress of American Indian’s (NCAI) President Brian Cladoosby
there were repeated references to what "we as Native people" mean to
the United States. He boasted about the revenue that Washington State receives
from "tribes," including his own Swinomish Tribe. And during all of
this talk of our place under the skirt of America the Beautiful was the
reference that 10 percent of the "Nation's" energy resources lies within
our territories.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now this isn't just a problem of misplaced or misspoken
possession, it is a problem of intent. Even as many of us draw a line in the
sand, not just tar sand, on mineral extraction and environmental degradation,
we have those among us who are surrounded by lawyers, lobbyists, consultants
and investors making million-dollar deals to sell off every barrel, every ton
and every cubic foot of anything worth having.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the biggest factors on negative environmental impact,
profitability and investor interest are scale and rate. How much can be
extracted and how fast? Of course, throw in a little "no one lives there
but a small number of marginalized people and a reduced requirement for real
oversight” and bingo! You've got the next hottest thing on the reservation
since...well, since bingo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This brings me to the place where I have to point out the
obvious. Now, I get it about who and what these "tribal leaders" are.
The federal government gives them their "recognition" and, therefore,
their authority. And while <i>their</i> jobs
may be to find a cozy spot within the colonial power that uses them, mine is
not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feminist activist Nikki Craft said, "The task of
activism isn't to navigate the systems of power with as much personal integrity
as possible, it is to dismantle those systems."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And our task as survivors of the longest attempted genocide
the world has ever seen and defenders of our future generations and protectors
of our Mother is certainly not to lie down with our abusers and negotiate a
comfortable spot in a system that uses everything up for profit. Our job is not
to protect the American or Canadian “Brand" or deliver "Made in
Canada" or "Made in the USA" to the global market. And it is not
our job to look the other way while greed rips into our lands to support
"Made in China" either.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we do choose to pursue a use for these resources they
should be used to produce as much value to our communities and our people as
possible. Raw materials should not stripped, piped and hauled out of our lands
to quench the insatiable appetites of those that would destroy the planet for
profit. Our small populations and the small areas of land we still control
should not only have a secure energy future but also the scale and rate
required for our own needs and desires should never exceed what the environment
can support. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet for all the vast amount of energy resources boasted about
by Mr. NCAI President, we have our own people freezing to death not on forced
marches or out in the wilderness but in their homes. Freezing to death in the
very lands that Mr. Obama and the French President chuckled over just this week
as they shared funny little stories of the Louisiana Purchase and what a great
deal it was while Mr. NCAI President looked on honored to be among them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So as the energy debate and the fight to block the Keystone
XL Pipeline and tar sands oil rages on we need to look at those faces close to
us — not just industry moguls. We need to shake them out of the delusion of
subjugation and the lure of the American dream. We need to be a beacon of hope,
not just for our own but also for the ever-increasing number of people looking
to us to help break the status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A gas well in Seneca territory should not be filling the
pipeline for the American utility companies. It should be supplying Seneca
people. It should be producing heat, electricity and automotive fuel. The
people should not be sucked dry by National Fuel to pay back investors funding
the contamination of Seneca lands and risking the health of the people and life
of the region.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
same should be said for coal, oil, gravel, water and trees on every one of our
territories. Selling off our land by the truckload, pipe or rail is still
selling out our future generations. And that is a system of power that needs to
be dismantled.</span></span>John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-14140403998587755642014-02-12T08:31:00.000-05:002014-02-12T08:38:23.558-05:00A Tale of Two Cases<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By John Kane - from the February 12, 2014 issue of the Two Row Times</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week two stories about the ongoing battle by New York State
and the U.S. federal government against the Native tobacco trade hit the papers.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the state case (<a href="http://www.mpcourier.com/article/20140204/DCO/702049802">http://www.mpcourier.com/article/20140204/DCO/702049802</a>),
the government prosecutor joined with defense attorneys in a motion to dismiss
felony charges against two men attempting to transport tobacco products from
Mohawk territory to Seneca territory in March 2012. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">District Attorney Mary E. Rain told the St. Lawrence County
Court Judge Jerome J. Richards that she had determined there was not enough
evidence to prosecute.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Among several issues that Rain described as representing
"all kinds of problems with this case" was evidence she found in the
case file that was favorable to the defendants. She specifically cited emails
to and from the former District Attorney Nicole M. Duve dated August 14, 2012
where "She indicated in the emails that the Mohawk tribe was being singled
out and local law enforcement was being unjust."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the federal level, the Kansas City Star reported that a
"New York company admits guilt in contraband cigarette case" (<a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/06/4803205/new-york-company-admits-guilt.html">http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/06/4803205/new-york-company-admits-guilt.html</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aaron Pierce, a Seneca and former candidate for the President
of the Seneca Nation was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator in a large
federal sting operation ran out of Kansas City between June 2010 and January
2012. His company, AJ's Candy and Tobacco LLC is the "New York state
tobacco wholesaler" that is the subject of the article.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to the Star, the</span><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> "wholesaler
pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Kansas City to trafficking
contraband cigarettes and agreed to pay up to $1 million in fines, forfeitures
and restitution."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
dismissal of the charges in the New York State case demonstrates what many of
us have suggested for years about the discriminatory nature of law and law
enforcement in the state. But even with the sweeping of this case under the
rug, there is still a failure to address any state policy, regulation or law
that clearly establishes any legal authority to criminalize the Native tobacco
trade. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
May 2011, I worked with New York State Senators George Maziarz and Timothy
Kennedy, both from Western New York, to make a formal request the Commissioner
of the State's Department of Taxation and Finance to state clearly and in
writing exactly what the state's policy was on the Native tobacco trade and
Native product, in particular. That letter and follow- ups to that request
remain unanswered but clearly lead authorities away from Seneca territory and
resulted in the concentration by State authorities on Mohawk territory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
federal case involving Aaron Pierce and AJ's Candy and Tobacco raises more
questions than it answers. The identity question for Aaron Pierce alone could
fill volumes but the core question here, too, is whether there is any clear and
legitimately established policy, regulation or law that criminalizes Native
trade? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
crux of this case is the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act (CCTA). This law
characterizes at a federal level, any cigarettes found in a state requiring a
tax and stamp indicating the tax has been paid without a stamp as contraband
with very specific exceptions, none of which include Native trade, Native
product or Native people and lands. So what is created is an unclear federal law
that uses unclear state law to criminalize Native trade that supports the
economy on lands that both the state and federal governments know is not
theirs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So
whether "AJ" pleads guilty to a crime, cooperates with state and
federal authorities to get convictions on him and others or buys his way out of
his fear of jail or a fight for sovereignty, does not mean a crime has been
committed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
question that I have for "AJ" is how can purchasing unstamped
cigarettes in Kansas City for sale on Native lands be a crime between 2010 and
2012 while AJ Candy and Tobacco buys and sells unstamped Native brands everyday
– including today? Is a pack of Marlboro's on the shelf of a Native smoke shop
contraband while a pack of Seneca's is not? Where is that written?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where
is the line? Who draws it? And who is willing to defend it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My
immediate assessment of these cases was there could only be one of three
explanations here. Either this is completely arbitrary with no real law behind
it with the state and feds making it up as they go along. OR they are conceding
that Native product in certain undefined areas can be traded by some people
under a different set of undefined laws from non-Native product. OR the entire Native tobacco trade is
criminal and they just don't know what to do about it or when to do it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
honestly think it’s the first one but would love to hear them admit the second. </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-91818152664826759822014-02-05T16:24:00.001-05:002014-02-05T16:24:11.548-05:00Latent Racism and Blatant Racism<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Previously published in the February 5, 2014 issue of the Two Row Times</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I am never quite sure if there is a real difference. "Latent" is defined as not visible or dormant. Well, to those of us who feel the effects of this sentiment, almost nothing is missed or 'not visible.’ Even the dormant talk in their sleep.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There is probably a third category that is simply ignorance. Of course, all racism is borne out of ignorance and when ignorance continues to feed racism, it is deplorable and condemnable. But the ignorance I am talking about is almost innocent. It is not meant as an insult or to be demeaning but is, rather, a function of not knowing or being oblivious to embracing racist ideas or practices with no ill intent. That being said, someone who is not racist certainly can do and say racist things. The difference is that when it is pointed out, they can see it, recognize it and make the proper adjustments.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The defining point for the latent racist is when they are called out on it. Now this goes beyond the guy who says, "What do you mean? I have a black friend" or "What do you mean? I like Indians." </span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">To me, there is almost a unique category of racism that pertains to Native peoples. As I mentioned, by and large most non-Native people are oblivious to us. The words 'Indian' and 'Native American' invoke visions of Pilgrims or cowboys and Indians from the movies. We aren't viewed as a threat or to have any impact on them whatsoever. But among this vast non-Native population an underlying racist attitude has been quietly, but no less insidiously, planted. The trick to all this, in my opinion, is raising awareness without pushing them over the racist cliff.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We see this with the mascot issue and any time we stand together. When the dominant culture around us feels threatened even with the idea of losing something as meaningless as a team logo, that line gets drawn.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">An Edmonton newspaper had to shut down its Facebook page in the midst of the Idle No More movement because of the ugly and overwhelming level of hate that erupted there. Every mainstream print, TV/radio and online media outlet that addresses the mascot issue and uses a forum for comments has at least half the comments filled with insult and hate. And depending on their political leaning, a whole lot more than half. This isn't even a real issue in and of itself; it is merely a demonstration and a symbol of the unique racism held toward Native people.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is tough to judge the real level of this racism. Clearly, many remain silent on the issues and in doing so are complicit in fostering this sentiment. The loudest and most well funded voices will always get heard above the silent majority but I can't help wonder where that silent majority really falls on this.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It’s great to hear people say that they never realized how offensive an expression or an image is and to be genuinely regretful for having been a part of promoting such things. I truly believe most people do not harbor ill will toward Native peoples, but certainly plenty do.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Many of those plugging up social media with hate speech are not the latent racist variety awakened from their dormant state but are simply the blatant racists, happy in their ignorance and wearing it proudly around their necks. These aren't just the guys or gals who struggle with generationally embedded racism; no, these are the ones on a mission to recruit more racists and advance social tensions and even violence. Michele Tittler and her attack on a 13 year-old Native girl wearing a "Got Land?" hoodie to school comes to mind. But it isn't just the lunatic fringe at home with their computers and the Internet that concerns me. There are also guys like Frank Parlato, the owner of the Niagara Falls Reporter, a small newspaper in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Every week, this little man publishes his racist views targeted specifically at the Seneca. He makes his case with lies and half-truths and actually suggests that the non-Native people of Niagara Falls are living under apartheid to the Seneca people. While he and his views may be insignificant, the fact that he generates enough ad revenue to print 20,000 copies weekly of this nonsense begs the question as to how widely held these racist views are and how effectively is he spreading them.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I believe it is our job as Native people in the media, as few as we may be, to enlighten people and provide the information to those willing to receive it. I, for one, feel well received by the non-Native community as I share my thoughts and views. I don't think promoting Native sovereignty, autonomy and distinction is the same thing as promoting racial tension or hostility. There are vast arrays of beliefs, philosophies, religions and behaviors that I do not embrace, some right within my own communities, but I feel no need to attack those that subscribe to these different views or condemn them unless they truly intend to do harm and use those views for justification or cause. As strong and animated as my own rhetoric may become, it will never be my intent to promote hate or violence or to express my freedom at the expense of others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For those harboring blatant racism, I hope much of it is generational and will die with them. And as for the latent racists, well, let's just hope they continue to sleep it off.</span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-2574730197372415402014-02-01T00:37:00.000-05:002014-02-01T00:37:34.013-05:00Start Spreading the News<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the past 11 years that WBAI-FM
99.5 in New York City has been airing “First Voices Indigenous Radio” (FVIR),
the show's host and executive producer Tiokasin Ghosthorse has slowly turned
his weekly live one-hour radio show into an international broadcast with
re-airings of this program on 45 stations in 15 states and one Canadian
province. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tiokasin has built a following of
loyal listeners and set a standard for what could and should be expected when a
Native voice is given an opportunity to be heard. He strove to provide a
platform and a voice to Indigenous issues globally and has, indeed,
accomplished his mission.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But 2014 has provided other
opportunities for Tiokasin and he has decided to step away from hosting for a
bit. Last week I traveled to New York to appear as Tiokasin's guest on FVIR. There
it was announced that I would be stepping in as Interim Host for Tiokasin while
he goes on a sabbatical to pursue various projects including work with
children. A media release was issued immediately following the show by Liz Hill
Public Relations, Ltd., in Washington, D.C. My appearance on the show did not
come as a surprise or anything new to the FVIR audience since I have been one
of the few guest hosts that Tiokasin has relied on over the last few years.
This was yet another chance for Tiokasin and me to share the microphone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tiokasin will remain FVIR's executive
producer and will be no stranger to the show while he pursues his year away as full-time
host. Liz Hill, who has produced several Native radio shows in various markets,
including producing for FVIR, will also serve as one of the show's producers.
Ms. Hill has worked as my publicist over much of the last year and brings her more
than 30 years of experience in public relations and media to this valuable
media resource.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will continue to produce and host
my own show, “Let's Talk Native...with John Kane” (LTN) airing Sundays at 9-11 p.m.
on ESPN Sports Radio WWKB- 1520 AM in Buffalo, N.Y. and streaming on-line
everywhere (on the TuneIn app or at <a href="http://www.espn1520.com/pages/17325417.php?">http://www.espn1520.com/pages/17325417.php?</a>)
and transition from my home on commercial radio to listener-supported radio of
WBAI in New York each week. The shows will be distinct from one other with LTN
maintaining its two hours of free-form style and its live, call-in talk radio
format while FVIR will make efficient use of the one hour with a little more
structure in one of the greatest media markets on the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LTN will naturally continue to have a
strong focus on Haudenosaunee issues but never shy away from Native issues from
all over Turtle Island or Indigenous issues globally. Sovereignty, autonomy,
distinction and identity will always be an undercurrent of “Let's Talk Native...”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“First Voices Indigenous Radio” will
address Native and Indigenous peoples’ issues in a global context. Even as
local and regional issues are tackled on the show and guests that will span the
spectrum from activism to the arts and politics to other topics so, too, will
there always be cognizance of the United Nations and the international
community it represents just in the background. FVIR will continue to provide
an opportunity to bring relevant Indigenous voices to the audiences of more
than 40 radio markets and everywhere the Internet reaches for its live stream
and archived shows access. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, the style and brand of
radio that I bring will offer a new look and sound to FVIR. A Haudenosaunee
and, dare I say it, Mohawk (Kanienkehaka) perspective will also be ever
present. My direct, unscripted, leaving little to interpretation style will
leave listeners knowing that Native voices and Native thoughts do more than
just linger in the Plains and the Woodlands or in desolate little known corners
of the globe, and that our voices matter and that our thoughts and concepts
resonate far beyond lines drawn in the sand or on a map.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are already a listener of “First
Voices Indigenous Radio” then you have likely heard me as a host. Please don't
view me as a replacement or substitute for Tiokasin but rather as a brother
carrying the torch for him for awhile. I'll likely shine the light in a few
different places but know that we are both looking for and illuminating the
same things. And when we finish this trip around the Sun, the light will be
squarely back in the hands of the man who built this program.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are a listener of “Let's Talk
Native...” and have never heard FVIR, check it out and start spreading the
news. I am heading to New York each week. I have plenty to say there and I'll
have plenty to say it with.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If two hours of LTN each week is too
much for you then catch one hour of FVIR. If two hours of LTN on Sunday night
leaves you wanting more, hang on till Thursday morning from 9-10. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Listen at <a href="http://www.wbai.org/">http://www.wbai.org/</a>. And check out the FVIR
website at <a href="http://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/">http://firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/</a>.
You will always find links and shows on my <a href="http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com/">Native Pride blog</a> and on
the “Let's Talk Native...with John Kane Facebook” group page.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-22772309376721451962014-01-25T00:35:00.000-05:002014-01-25T00:40:53.780-05:00John Kane Named Interim Host of “First Voices Indigenous Radio” at WBAI-FM in New York City<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: large;">By Liz Hill</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 23, 2014) –</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> John Kane, Mohawk activist and national commentator on
Native issues, has been named Interim Host of the long-running weekly one-hour
radio program, “First Voices Indigenous Radio” (FVIR) at WBAI-FM 99.5 in New
York City. Starting Thursday, Feb. 6, Kane will be filling in for one year for
Host and Executive Producer Tiokasin Ghosthorse, who is taking a sabbatical
from the show after 21 years (10 of those years at KAOS-FM in Olympia, Wash.
and 11 years at WBAI). In recent years, Kane has regularly joined Ghosthorse as
a guest and guest host.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">"Tiokasin has been an absolute
inspiration to me as I have pursued my work in radio and media in general,”
said Kane. “‘First Voices Indigenous Radio’ will give me an opportunity to help
bring a voice to Indigenous peoples’ issues beyond my passionate advocacy for
my people and our struggles with New York State and the federal government.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">“I’m totally confident that John
Kane will be a great, active host for FVIR while I am away,” said Ghosthorse.
“He understands the historical aspects and current policies being directed
toward Native peoples. What FVIR needs is his candor and astute knowledge. It
really is a great honor to welcome him here; and I am sure that the listeners
in the New York City and tri-state area will be more than riveted with his
knowledge and insights.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">During the next year, Ghosthorse
will be turning his attention to various causes that he’s become involved in
over the years, including children’s organizations, and personal projects. He
will retain his role as FVIR’s executive producer. “Indigenous peoples’
worldwide voices are strengthening and are being heard at this time of Mother
Earth changes,” said Ghosthorse, who will also do occasional reporting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">"We were so blessed all these
years by Tiokasin's generous spirit which has greatly benefited thousands of
listeners and his colleagues here at the station," said Bob Hennelly, WBAI
interim program director. "We look forward to working with John Kane in
our shared mission of bringing ‘First Voices Indigenous Radio’ to an even
wider audience and building on Tiokasin's inspired foundation."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">“This is also an opportunity to
bring an Indigenous voice to conversations we are not usually associated with,”
says Kane. “WBAI broadcasting in the spotlight of the United Nations and from
one of the media capitals of the world is certainly not missed by me,
especially as Indigenous peoples’ issues gain more international attention. I
look forward to working with Bob Hennelly and having Tiokasin rejoin us
throughout the year."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">About “First Voices Indigenous
Radio”</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">“First Voices Indigenous Radio,”
which was the first Indigenous radio program in the northeastern U.S., has been
airing on WBAI for 11 years. With more than 1 million online hits annually, the
program has become known for bringing to the airwaves the experiences,
perspectives and struggles of Indigenous peoples worldwide whose exclusion from
mainstream, progressive and alternative media is deleterious to the whole of
humanity. Past shows are available at <a href="http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org</span></a>. FVIR has been
re-broadcasted on 45 stations in 15 states in the the U.S. and one Canadian
province, including: Colorado; Connecticut; Idaho; Illinois; Iowa; Maine;
Massachusetts; Minnesota; New Hampshire; New York; Northwest Territories;
Oregon; Pennsylvania; Tennessee; Vermont; and Washington. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">About WBAI-FM</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">WBAI-FM, a member of the Pacifica
chain, is listener-supported. It provides a vast array of original
programming to listeners in the Metropolitan New York City region and worldwide
on <a href="http://www.wbai.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">www.wbai.org</span></a>.
Pacifica was founded in 1949 by pacifist Lew Hill with the first
listener-funded radio station, KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. WBAI began broadcasting
in New York City in 1941 as WABF. It joined Pacifica in 1960. Today, Pacifica
has five radio stations in Berkeley, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.,
and more than 50 affiliate stations across the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span background:white="" color:black="" mso-bidi-font-family:arial="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: ";" times="">Liz Hill</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span background:white="" color:black="" mso-bidi-font-family:arial="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: ";" times="">Liz Hill Public Relations, Ltd.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span background:white="" color:black="" mso-bidi-font-family:arial="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: ";" times="">1514 17th Street, NW, #402</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span background:white="" color:black="" mso-bidi-font-family:arial="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: ";" times="">Washington, DC 20036</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span background:white="" color:black="" mso-bidi-font-family:arial="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: ";" times="">(202) 744-7629 (cell/work)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span background:white="" color:black="" mso-bidi-font-family:arial="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: "; font-size: large;" times="">(202) 483-3609 (fax) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="mailto:liz@lizhillpr.com"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">liz@lizhillpr.com</span></a></span></u><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-68963267983958064532014-01-21T23:58:00.004-05:002014-01-22T00:15:40.329-05:0030 Years and $33 Million<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3MK0dXoTAQs6IvemfIWVqqmGygdUdNKg1duOveQcAibS8KjI9B3gHMTPsgKDW9IiQAaXt0D7vdsZDkJQBx2QZWAoC5pOheQhmr8Z_95bhLK5BixfvBtypNMLG6GodlgHQjvonk4yaws/s1600/Frank+and+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3MK0dXoTAQs6IvemfIWVqqmGygdUdNKg1duOveQcAibS8KjI9B3gHMTPsgKDW9IiQAaXt0D7vdsZDkJQBx2QZWAoC5pOheQhmr8Z_95bhLK5BixfvBtypNMLG6GodlgHQjvonk4yaws/s1600/Frank+and+me.jpg" height="335" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conference Co-Chair Frank Ettawageshik and Unrecognized John Kane</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">It's not a prison
sentence. It just feels like one. And I’m sure it feels the same to many
others. It’s the cost for gaining “recognition” by the U.S. Bureau of Indian
Affairs. And $33 million is what it cost the Shinnecock people. However, as
exorbitant – and unbelievable – as this sounds they are actually the lucky
ones because unlike most that file a petition for federal acknowledgement these
guys actually got something out of it. In my opinion, it </span><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">wasn't</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> much but at
least it was something.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After what is almost a
lifetime for most Native people, the Shinnecock — who trace their origins back
thousands of years on Long Island, New York — officially got recognized as
"a tribe, band or nation of Indians under federal jurisdiction."
Doesn't sound much like sovereignty when you hear the BIA's definition, does
it? And since this new federal recognition only recognizes them as having
existed since 1934, the Fed's position is that they can't add to their land
base.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was all explained
quite thoroughly at a conference hosted by Arizona State University's Indian
Law Clinic on January 16 and 17. The conference, which was titled "Who
Decides You're Real? Fixing the Federal Recognition Process," posed one
question, identified a broken system and made some recommendations to fix it.
But to me, it left many questions not only unasked but also clearly unanswered.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was invited to speak
at this event. In fact, I was on the first panel and was given the enviable
position of being the last panelist to speak during a presentation titled
"Inherent Sovereignty." For me the subject is clear but in the
context of a conference on gaining recognition as a tribe, band or nation of
Indian subordinate to the laws and customs of the United States, the unasked
and unanswered question is — how can these two coexist? Again, for me it is
simple. They can't!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can check out my
comments from the video of the conference at:
<a href="http://mediasite.law.asu.edu/media/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=824c4937ac504f03abf9fe96c2757d811d.">http://mediasite.law.asu.edu/media/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=824c4937ac504f03abf9fe96c2757d811d.</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are a few of my
comments that brought home some of my main points:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Inherent sovereignty is a unique
concept. Throughout the world, especially in the dominant European world,
sovereignty was the biggest lie ever told. It was where “God” bestowed ruling
authority upon a certain family — a crown. Biggest lie ever told."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"OUR sovereignty — our right to
life and our freedom — is a product of Creation. When we do an opening [Ohenton
Karihwatehkwen] in my homeland, in the territory of Haudenosaunee, we do a
whole acknowledgement about relationships. We start by acknowledging the
people, everybody who is here. We acknowledge the ground to the stars. We talk
about relationships. The problem with the federal recognition process is it’s
all about ONE relationship between a specific Native people and the Bureau of
Indian Affairs."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I’m not recognized by the Bureau
of Indian Affairs. I’m not a tribe, band or nation of Indians subordinate to
the laws or customs of the U.S. There is no Mohawk Nation recognized by the
BIA. There is the St. Regis Tribe. And they actually threw the word Mohawk in
there not long ago, so they’re the St. Regis Tribe of Mohawks. But we’ve seen
this happen to all of us. Now, it’s the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, the Oneida
Indian Nation of New York, the Seneca Nation of Indians, and the Tonawanda Band
of Senecas. Somewhere along the line somebody drew a border right through
Kanienkehaka territory. Part of this border is the St. Lawrence River but most
of my people live on either side of this imaginary line. So the observation
about the non-federally recognized people asserting more sovereignty than
perhaps the federally recognized ones? I think we qualify for that
because we don’t let that stop us. You will never see us apply. You will
never see the Kanienkehaka submit a petition for federal recognition."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Now I understand the value of that
[federal recognition]. And let’s face it. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is
gaming — and federal funding. But we need to do more for each other. What’s
missing in the declaration that will be presented later and signed [at this
meeting] is trade and commerce among each other. We need to have THESE kinds of
relationships with one another. THAT is the definition of sovereignty, of
sustainability, and not what federal funding we can get or how many casinos we
can operate. Now I’m not condemning gaming but let’s be clear — gaming is not
possible because of IGRA. And it’s not possible because of Cabazon. It is
possible because of sovereignty. All Cabazon did was to recognize what we
already knew. Of course it paved the way for non-Native people to become our
vendors and opened the door for state governments to get into our businesses.
That’s what IGRA did. But it also opened the floodgates to a whole lot of
people anxious to get a casino. Federal recognition is the pathway for
that."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We need to start recognizing each
other. When I talk about our Ohenton Karihwatehkwen– that opening we do – we
talk about relationships. But if we’re not talking about these relationships,
and if all we’re talking about is a petition that ends up on the desk of
someone at the BIA, we’d better start thinking about decolonizing our
minds."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">After I finished, I received a standing
ovation from the several hundred in the audience. The question-and-answer
session that followed allowed me to make several other points that I simply </span><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">didn't</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> have time to address in my presentation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of those questions is worth
mentioning here. I was asked for my opinion why a Kanienkehaka would not pursue
federal recognition.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not skipping a beat, this is what I
said:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">“Distinction is [at the heart of] the
issue. The problem with the federal recognition process and what is recognized
is that it changes the dynamics of a people, because once it is granted there
seems to be this move toward more assimilation. There seems to be [the mindset
of], “Let’s build something that looks and feels like the state or federal
government,” whether it’s the regulatory systems [or something else]. It’s the
issue of distinction and autonomy. Sovereignty </span><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">doesn't</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> mean that we DON’T have
a relationship with the federal government. If someone receives federal funds,
and then someone says, “Oh, you’re not sovereign because you receive federal
funds,” then what does that say about, for example, Israel? What does that say
about any other nation that the federal government throw a ton of money at? In
the Mohawk language, the word we use for “treaty” is “we give up our land for
peace.” Well, we didn’t just give it up for peace. There were some obligations made
then. So when I sit here and hear commentary from a Justice Marshall that says
we’re “wards of the state,” or that we’re “domestic dependent nations,” that </span><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;">doesn't</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> mean that we’re not sovereign. We are not wards of the state. It is not
charity that comes into our territory. That’s obligation. That’s debt. We are
creditors. But this federal recognition process and what happens when the
federal government says “now we recognize you as a tribe, band or nation of
Indians subordinate to OUR laws, that’s the biggest obstacle that I have toward
it [federal recognition].”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I left many in Phoenix with plenty to
think about as they traveled home to their territories. The reality is these
issues need to be at the front of our minds here at home every day. Even as the
officials from the U.S. and Canada blow smoke up our backsides about
"tribal sovereignty," it is a lie. Their view of who we are is not <i>our</i> view and they cannot define us or
claim us as <i>their</i> own. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are Ohnkwe Ohnwe — Real, Original, Human
Beings. Forever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 24.533334732055664px;"><a href="http://tworowtimes.com/opinions/columns/lets-talk-native/30-years-33-million/">http://tworowtimes.com/opinions/columns/lets-talk-native/30-years-33-million/</a></span>John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1508436481250154585.post-4435957129092310152014-01-14T22:23:00.002-05:002014-01-14T22:23:57.173-05:00Back to Our Path is not a Trip Backward<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheE0w0oleGzW3nZOzzUSk53PIhd8gdKCJaMPIznyf6KpkskW1vsH1Jbzq7SzvgVrMJb5orzFNpPPgIKArvZ-MBCMGLRLrRda5urORF5xrfAMOo05bOupIupJlOFabcgJs1ikLXWHA2SP4/s1600/LightAtTheEndOfTheRoad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheE0w0oleGzW3nZOzzUSk53PIhd8gdKCJaMPIznyf6KpkskW1vsH1Jbzq7SzvgVrMJb5orzFNpPPgIKArvZ-MBCMGLRLrRda5urORF5xrfAMOo05bOupIupJlOFabcgJs1ikLXWHA2SP4/s640/LightAtTheEndOfTheRoad.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of us are familiar with our expression <i>Ohnkwe Ohnwe</i>. It is what we use to
describe ourselves as the original people of Turtle Island. The approximate
translation is “real human being, forever.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was never any question that we had a future. We were
never tied to a spot on a timeline. We were never frozen in history. We were
neither primitive nor at the end of our evolutionary scale. We continued to
develop. The entire concept of <i>Seven
Generations</i> was based on knowing that our growth and development would
require a priority placed on the impacts on the unborn faces — those ones who
would come long after us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But for all the certainty of those that have come long before
us, our future would not be a sure thing, certainly not over the last two
centuries and certainly not going forward from here. That path, so meticulously
crafted by the tens of millions of feet of those that came before us, has been
so neglected and deviated from that it is only Creation and our language that
guide our feet back to it. But that course correction back to that great path,
the <i>Kaianerehkowa</i>, is not a trip
backwards or back in time. It is a trip forward, into the future. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ohnwe</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> is forever. And forever is time in
both directions past and future. Those from our past laid down the <i>Kaianerehkowa</i> so that we would know the
path forward and keep it clear for those that would come after us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that path has become overgrown and obscured by neglect.
Part of clearing this way to our future involves starting with like minds with
a common goal. And the only way to find them is through conversation and honest
discourse. Utilizing the most basic concepts of the <i>Kaianerehkowa</i> is a start.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our fire symbolizes our family, our clans, our communities
and our right and power to assemble for a council and for counsel. Like minds
with a desire to take our path into the future must rekindle a fire. We need
participation and genuine engagement from the people. However small these fires
may be, they need to demonstrate a true return to the <i>Kaianerehkowa</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">None of this is about revolution or overthrow. It is about
our people using what's ours to solve problems, address issues and move
forward. We may not tackle every issue. But in the process of rekindling our
fire and getting those willing to not only stand together in crisis or for a
fight but also to sit together in council to build something and support each
other so we can begin setting the example for what is truly our responsibility
and our distinction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of individuals dictating their twisted views of our
"customs and traditions" or asserting power granted to them through
federal recognition or foreign powers, we need to begin the process of removing
the dust and clutter from the path laid down by those that came long before us.
Despite elected councils and titles or what some believe to be traditional
councils, this is the path forward. It doesn't require burning band cards,
stripping names from tribal roles, driving without licenses or crash courses in
treaties. There is no silver bullet, magic potion or dream sequence that will
lay a yellow brick road before us. We must begin the slow process of find our
way back to a path forward, a path that respects and moves with nature and
creation — the right path. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the absence of everyone speaking of our original languages
and virtually nowhere that currently demonstrates a true use of the <i>Kaianerehkowa</i>, we need to utilize our
most skilled language speakers to clarify much of what has been cluttered with
bad translations and efforts to mischaracterize our history. Nowhere should our
path forward defy nature or Creation. We need to acknowledge that while there
is much that we have to learn and much we may never learn, that our best teacher
is Creation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The path forward is not a trip backward. There is no need to
reject the tools of today as we go forward. The key is discerning what moves us
forward on <i>our </i>path and what leads us
off it. Facebook and text messaging cannot replace physically coming together.
The clan system cannot become a virtual thing. Communication may now travel at
the speed of light but counseling takes time. So let us use the speed technology
offers for sharing information and reaching out but let's still take the time
to build the fire and gather.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Man's concept for power ebbs and flows. Might, the power to
kill and destroy, and wealth, the accumulation of riches — these two desires have
had and may still have their moments in history. But <i>Ohnkwe Ohnwe</i> are real human beings and we are forever. I'll take
the path that considers seven generations above anyone's annual report or
inventory of weaponry. Our power will be demonstrated in our fight for our
future – for our <i>forever</i>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08258945528213164797noreply@blogger.com0