Pahinh.Winh's blog

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives.  I've given speeches along the lines of today's post in the past, so for some this may be "old news".  But I believe these thoughts need revisiting every so often, so here they are today.

Today should be called "Human Rights Workers Day" most properly.  MLK Jr did not do much of anything alone, relative to the Civil Rights movement.   His contributions were substantial, yes, but he did not do the majority of the work.  He certainly didn't do it alone.

He was martyred, yes, but how many more of our  Indigenous men & women have been martyred, and we get no similar recognition?

And saddest of all, after all the work we Indigenous Human Rights workers put  into the Civil Rights movement, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been signed into law, and our leaders went to the black leaders of the movement to work out details regarding Indigenous Human Rights under the then-new law, they told us to 'get lost'.  They told us, "You have no money, no votes, no power; we have no reason to help you."

By then, MLK Jr was dead, so he isn't directly responsible of course.  Moreover, I believe that if he had not been assassinated, he would have been happy to work with us to see that we got fair treatment under the then-new law, instead of having to fight for every scrap we have gotten since then.

But we Indigenous Human Rights slave laborers are still laboring to get our fair share under the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and this part of history is another page in the ongoing Buffalo Soldier stories, which is what we older HR slave laborers call any activity in which blacks get better treatment under the law - & essentially get it automatically - while we Indigenous  Turtle Islanders, whose ancestors were here thousands of years before whites or blacks even knew this land existed, have to continue to fight our way through the courts to get our "rights".  Or, the blacks sell us Indns out & down the river after we helped them so much -  the same as they did after the War Between the States, after we had done so much for them via the Underground Railroad.

According to the Oxford Standard Dictionary of the English Language, and the US Supreme Court, "rights" can not be given away or taken away.  So how come, then, MLK Jr & company are honored every year with a federal holiday while we ITI still have to fight for our  "rights" under the same law?

In honesty, fairness, & fact, this day should honor Human Rights Workers; not just one man.  Mitakuye  oiasin  / all (are) my relatives.

Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives.  Two mornings ago there was a piece on National Public Radio that the Skull & Bones club at Yale (?) (or is it Harvard?) has put a skull "said to have been used as a ballot box" at Christie's Auction House in NYC.  The skull is "expected to bring $10,000 - $12,000" according to the NPR report.  Since then, there has been no mention of this skull.

I emailed Christie's & got no reply.  This doesn't surprise me,  since I've had dealings with them in the past & their attitude has been monumentally patronizing & racist every time.  That doesn't mean they should be allowed to get away  with selling human bones, however, especially ours.

I thought it is illegal to sell human bones, or at the very least that NAGPRA would cover this, but Chrisitie's either believes it is above the law or that we Indns aren't worth consideration.

I've emailed 2 of theApache tribes, since that's all I could find contact information for, but I hope someone reads this in time & if that skull is Geronimo's, stops the sale.  personally, I'm of the opinion that people who deal in our Peoples' bones should be staked out on a hot day & left to get thoroughly dry.  No matter what, selling skulls is suspicious  behavior for the Skull & Bones club, since they have never done right by us regarding their supposed possession of Geronimo's skull - & who know who else's.

Mitakuye  oiasin / All (are)  my  relatives.

Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives. 

On Prairie Public Radio yesterday morning, there was a news story that Christie's Auction House is going to sell a skull from the infamous Skull & Bones Club of Yale (?) or Harvard - whichever one "W" & other such went to for their "university experience".

We've all heard repeatedly that the Skull & Bones Club claims to have Geronimo's skull..  no mention of whose skull this is, which makes it  far more suspect, to me.  If it were a legitimate sale, I would expect there to be more information that just that 'a skull' is going to be sold.

Expected price, the report said, will be $10,000 - $12,000.

Trafficking in human bones should be illegal if it isn't already.  And if this is Geronimo's - or any other Indigenous Person's - skull, selling it at auction is past heinous.  Get after Christie's about this!  Pilamiyaye / Thank you.

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives.  We've all heard (& heard) about the so-called "healthy care system overhaul", anneh?  Hanh / yes.

  But how many people have noticed that it doesn't cover dental care, vision care, acupuncture/acupressure, chiropractic, nutraceuticals, herbal medicine or any of ourTraditional Indigenous health care modalities.  Some overhaul.

  As I read this bill, it's basically a great big boondoggle aimed at maintaining the insurance industry's & the AMA's chokehold on chemical & surgical 'medicine'.

  In short, the overhaul is anything but all-inclusive, & everything about exclusive.  It excludes dental care, vision care, acupuncture/acupressure, chiropractic, nutraceuticals, herbal medicine or any of ourTraditional Indigenous health care modalities.

Dental care is vital to good health - we are what we eat & what we don't, after all; & if we can't process our food properly, our health suffers.  Acupuncture/acupressure are over 4,000 years old - hardly unproven modalities, and without the ugly side-effects common to m.c. chemical "medicines". Indigenous Traditional Ways have gotten short shrift since Europeans first came to Turtle Island, although in a few parts of this land, our Ways have been treated with respect..  but very few.

As a lifelong Traditional healer, first trained by my grandmother Pearl, who was trained by her mother & grandmother & they by theirs.... I am profoundly offended by this sham overhaul of the m.c. health care system - particularly since if we don't buy insurance, we would be fined!  I haven't been to a m.c. doctor in something like 10 years, & when I last went, for a severe allergic reaction, they had nothing 'in stock' to treat me!  I ended up buying an OTC treatment from a supermarket.  At 10 o'clock at night.

When we had "W" & company, we had 'anything goes' & 'those with the  most money got away with the most'.  So people voted in droves for Mr.Obama, mainly - I  believe - in the name of 'hope' (a word no Indigenous Turtle Island language has a word for, I note) - & now we appear to have swung way too far toward socialism & government herding us all in whatever direction.  I wonder where the 'happy medium' went?  It's been a long time since we had anything like it operating in this land.  I miss it.

But more than anything, I think what's really getting overhauled is us, the People.  Or maybe that's  'keelhauled'....  No matter how I slice it, it isn't good for anyone except insurance companies & the  AMA chemical-surgical 'medico's.  Ever notice that 80% of the word "shame" is sham?

Mitakuye  oiasin.  All (are) my relatives.

Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives.

There are some almost built-in mythconceptions about us that need address, as we all know. Such as, we all get big government checks & we don't need money & we're all thieves.  (so who was it stole whole continents from the original inhabitants, hm??  Not us!  It was those pale-skinned ones with the black robes & black book & black designs on everybody-but-each-of-them, as I recall.  And it hasn't changed much even yet.

Then there are the myth-conceptions about those of us who live off the Reservations that our own People hold - my favorite is that if you live off the Rez, you're 'a millionaire' meaning that we're wealthy.  I know of a couple of The People who don't lack for  mazaska / PteDhoWakan/ the Holy Green Buffalo / money,  but it sure isn't most of us, we all agree.

And, I ask those washichu who claim we don't need money or jobs or all get big government checks - if those things were true, how come so many of us are on assistance? It isn't lack of knowledge or ability in the case of jobs & money.. And if we got big government checks, we wouldn't need assistance.

I often wonder how some of these myths get started.  The only reason I can come up with is, some kind of jealousy. Some version of "the grass is always greener in someone else's area".

Recently I began listing "job applicant" as my current occupation because I'm so tired of job-hunting. On the other hand, I need to eat, just like everyone else & I can't go out & shoot my own meat any old time, any more.  Instead of relying on need & our Tradtional teachings & taboos, we now have the washichu import "seasons" for these things. And because so many of us have been infected by the white man's disease "greed", we now also have possession limits to deal with, as if somehow we only need to keep certain kinds of food a certain length of time or eat a certain amount or that everyone eats the same foods. Nothing could be further from the truth. I, for example, have always hated asparagus. To me, it stinks like July  roadkill.  Yuck! But some people go crazy for this stinky stuff.

One interviewer recently asked me some of those myths I mentioned above. I was really stunned, because such questions are illegal.  But this is North Dakota, where employers get away with violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the  EEOA & the Constitution regularly; & even if you complain, the Dept of Labor & Human Rights does nothing. The Dept exists only for show, so it can be said there is one here.  I was once asked by an employer if I could tell her "why all Indns are so fat, lazy, & sloppy".  Which, of course, is ridiculous. That's like saying all Caucasians are liars & thieves.  Hardly.

 When I turned it in, the "investigator" at NDDOL told me, "I must side with the employer, because they are the employer! That's what they taught me when they trained me here!"  And then she said, "besides, I don't see what's so racist about this remark, anyway."  I asked her if she got her information about us from John Wayne movies & left. (And filed another complaint, against  the NDDOL & that "investigator" in particular, for those remarks.  It went nowhere either, of course. Although I was asked by the then-head of the NDDOL if I "could't drop the complaint, because it was embarrassing".  No, I could not.)

These kind of ridiculous remarks make me sigh, particularly when I think how humans claim to be the animals that think.  And they need more address than this blog post.  How about you,  pitching in?  We are all either part of  the problem or part of t he solution, after all..

Mitakuye oaisin - All, my  relatives.

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives. I trust this finds you all well & happy, or getting there.

 I just figured out now how to do this, or you'd have heard from me before. Not that that's a big deal, but it is 'so'. I'm kind of a techno-dinosaur, anneh.. :~D

Recently, I was cleaning in one of the local public schools, (in
Bismarck) as a temp or contract worker.  I nearly always wear a hat with 4 Channunpa on it, partly because it is my spirituality & I'm proud of it; partly because I Sun Dance, & am proud of that; & partly to remind people that not all of us have knuckled under to the whiteman's ways, but still follow our authentic Traditional Ways.  That we Indns have no "acculturated" or "assimilated" & we are still here & so are our cultures.  The Channunpa are central to our cultures up here on the Northern Plains, after all.

Someone in official-dumb asked me to remove my hat & not wear it, on the grounds that "it makes some people uncomfortable".  Well, hooo-eeee, ain't that a sad thing; that reminders of the Holy Pipe make "some people uncomfortable".  I asked who & was told I didn't need to know. ( ! )

My expectation is, it's some of the considerable over-supply  we have around here of "born-agains" who call themselves part of the majority culture's supposed religious way. You know - the one where they're forever trying to stuff those 10 "commandments" they don't keep, down our throats..  Well, hey, takoszja,  I'm a born-again, too!  A born-again Pagan, through the  Sun Dance, & way proud  of it. It takes a lot of hard work & courage & determination to Sun Dance successfully. We earn our  rightful pride about it.. the humble kind. But that does not mean we should hide it!  Not hardly. All those who wander lost & in misery need to be reminded that some are keeping these Ways, & so be encouraged to do so, too.

Therefore, I refused, on the grounds of the Civil Rights  Act of 1964, the EEOA, and the Constitution & Bill of Rights - specifically the First Amendment, the sections about religious freedom & freedom of expression.  This person complained to my supervisors at the temp agency, who actually asked if the hat & the Pipe & making this essentially silent statement are all that important!

Yes, they are.  How many millions of us died for the Sun Dance & other Sacred Ceremonies, doing them in secret & getting hauled to prisons & mental institutions for it? It happened to me, in 1994. That's not particularly long a go. So - Yes, they most certainly are. I told them that.

The school district now doesn't want me cleaning in 'their' (public, remember) schools unless I agree not to wear "the hat".

I complained to the School Board, the local Human Relations Commission, & the mayor about this.  So far, everyone is ducking & trying not to address the "issue".  Denying hard & hearty that there was - or is - any discrimination or bigotry involved..  One has even said, "You misunderstood.."  HAH!

I'm a grandmother, takoszja - I most surely do "understand".  I did then, I do now, & I will into the future. I've walked the earth awhile, but I'm nowhere near senile & just 'cuz I'm Traditional & adamantly anti-assimilation hardly means I don't understand their culture. And they know it; which apparently scares them pea-green.

The truth being the most powerful weapon there is to deal with reigns of terror & general bigotry, and the Internet being such a terrific tool for spreading the truth about such things, I write it down here for you so you will know about it. Perhaps some of you will want to do something about it.  After all, if you don't speak up, you can't be heard!

Mitakuye oiasin. All, my relatives.