Ice Dancing & Us IndigenUs

Hanh mitakuyapi.  I've lived my life operating on the premise "never assume anything" & it has served me well.  I expect many of us watched the Olympics & saw the performance by 2 of the Russian skaters that parodied the IndigenUs People of Australia.  To characterize it in one word would be tough - we have so many to pick from - but mine is "revolting".  Closely seconded by offensive, boorish, & disgusting.

As a lifelong human rights slave laborer, I've seen the back side of the iron door a few times & never regretted anything that got me t here because the reason for my time there was always a good one.  Had I been in Vancouver when the Russian boneheads done their dance, I can assume - even, expect - I'd have gone again.

Had I been in Vancouver, I would, of course, have been at the games.  And I would have gone prepared to make a strong, unmistakable & completely understandable statement that would require no translation whatsoever, although I am literate in Russian.

I would have taken a sandwich bag of whatever kind of cheshli - manure - I could have found lying around (most likely, dog) - & thrown it on the ice when they finished their 'dance'.

I would have gone entirely prepared to stand before whatever judge they hauled me to & put into the very public court record that I have no remorse for my action, unless maybe that I only hit the ice, not the skaters.  But hey, takoszja, my arm isn't what it was when I was 20.  Or even, 30.  Still, the statement would have been made.  Actions speak louder than words - it occurs to me that we Lakota are among the forefront of the 'walk your talk' people of us IndigenUs.  Ina put that phrase to us so often, I think it's the one teaching I will remember her most for. :)

And too, sometimes 'civil' disobedience just doesn't do the job.  Dissent needs to be uncivil in order to be truly heard, in some cases.  The incredibly boorish piece of garbage the Russian skaters put out as their 'art' tells me this would be one of those times.

Music that sounded like idiots or monkeys; the male dragging the female by her hair; the female wearing red, which just is not done in the Australian Aborigine's way....  Ohanh!, if I have any regret about not being at the Vancouver Olympics, it is that I couldn't make the above statement in person. 

But like me, if you agree strongly about the offensive nature of the Russian performance, you can email & snail-mail the Olympic Committee & tel them how outraged you are.  World-wide, we IndigenUs need to stand together.  The  washichu are everywhere, after all.  And ignorance coupled hand-in-hand with arrogance is the hallmark of the washichu way.

Please join me in educating them about these things.  It doesn't matter how little they want to hear these things.  It doesn't matter how excessively high their opinion of themselves is.  In the story of how we got the Holy White Buffalo Calf Pipe, it was arrogance, not the woman or the cloud, that killed the one hunter.  Just as it was showing respect that saved the other one.  As Ina taught us kids, "if you don't walk your talk, you just make wind; you don't make a difference".   Mitakuye oaisin / All, my relatives.  Thank you for hearing me in a good way now.