From the Dakota Perspective look through my eyes as the Dakota Nation is alive and well. There is still much to do. The United States must face an international indictment for reparations for crimes against the Dakota First Nation Oyate/Tiwahe. This must happen in the International Court of Crimes.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Missing Manitoba Women: RIP: Divas (David Joseph) Boulanger
Missing Manitoba Women: RIP: Divas (David Joseph) Boulanger: On this Day in 2004, the body of Divas (David Joseph) Boulanger was discovered by hunters in some brush behind a Trans-Canada Highway rest s...
Missing Manitoba Women: Happy 24th Birthday Sunshine Wood
Missing Manitoba Women: Happy 24th Birthday Sunshine Wood: I got an email from a friend of mine who works for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. The subject of the email said: " SUNSHINE WOOD'S BIRTHDA...
The Bane of Indian Country
In 1934 Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act for federally recognized tribes. This act was meant to empower the tribes to establish and maintain their own governance systems individually from reservation to reservation. And it was meant to improve and enhance conditions which were favorable to the tribes.
In 1928 the Brookings Institute released the highly controversial Meriam Report which depicted the current social, economic and political status of Indian people and decimated and dismal.
It was partly as a result of this report that the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration initiated a process which resulted in the enactment of the Indian Reorganization Act which was passed by the United States Congress in June of 1934.
In consideration of the situation at the time there may have been legitimate reasoning behind the machinations that surrounded the enactment of the "1934 IRA" as it is currently referred to in Indian Country. But many, not even tribal members themselves could have foreseen what this legislation has perpetuated in many cases.
If you were to compare the 1934 IRA and the US Constitution side by side as working documents you may see an imbalance there.
In the 1934 governments there is no balance of power mechanism. There isn't a referendum system which doesn't require a sign-off by the Secretary of the Interior. There isn't a constitutional amendment vehicle that doesn't include the involvement of the Department of the Interior.
Most tribes have tribal courts, but an individual member cannot "sue" their tribe in these forums due to the sovereign or independent status of the tribe and it's members. In most internal cases the DOI will take a hands off position arguing that the tribe must handle it's own affairs when it comes to governance and administrative jurisdiction.
So there's a dichotomy of federal political positions when it comes to tribal "affairs".
This leaves most tribal members without a true vehicle for recourse when it involves tribal administrative change and or programmatic change for individual rights.
The DOI works as a taskmaster only when it's convenient to them and their standard of policy maintenance.
It is my belief that the 1934 IRA needs to be repealed in favor of a far more benefial system for the current situation of the tribes. This would require congressional action, but more so tribally based willingness to change an archaic system which has been denying tribes total and complete freedom and self-determination.
In 1928 the Brookings Institute released the highly controversial Meriam Report which depicted the current social, economic and political status of Indian people and decimated and dismal.
It was partly as a result of this report that the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration initiated a process which resulted in the enactment of the Indian Reorganization Act which was passed by the United States Congress in June of 1934.
In consideration of the situation at the time there may have been legitimate reasoning behind the machinations that surrounded the enactment of the "1934 IRA" as it is currently referred to in Indian Country. But many, not even tribal members themselves could have foreseen what this legislation has perpetuated in many cases.
If you were to compare the 1934 IRA and the US Constitution side by side as working documents you may see an imbalance there.
In the 1934 governments there is no balance of power mechanism. There isn't a referendum system which doesn't require a sign-off by the Secretary of the Interior. There isn't a constitutional amendment vehicle that doesn't include the involvement of the Department of the Interior.
Most tribes have tribal courts, but an individual member cannot "sue" their tribe in these forums due to the sovereign or independent status of the tribe and it's members. In most internal cases the DOI will take a hands off position arguing that the tribe must handle it's own affairs when it comes to governance and administrative jurisdiction.
So there's a dichotomy of federal political positions when it comes to tribal "affairs".
This leaves most tribal members without a true vehicle for recourse when it involves tribal administrative change and or programmatic change for individual rights.
The DOI works as a taskmaster only when it's convenient to them and their standard of policy maintenance.
It is my belief that the 1934 IRA needs to be repealed in favor of a far more benefial system for the current situation of the tribes. This would require congressional action, but more so tribally based willingness to change an archaic system which has been denying tribes total and complete freedom and self-determination.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Commercial Sexualization and Abuse of Women
I don't like the commercial sexualization of Native women. I don't know where artists think that they have the license to commercially trade on blatant sexuality and use Native women as sexual tools in order to sell their products.
When they do this they take a respected gender in Indian Country and place a "playboy/hustler" policy in place for Native women. The don't need to add to the "marketplace" theology of the American Sex Corporate model with half dressed Native women as a icon.
As it is Native women have been abused, sexualized, kidnapped, sold, raped, murdered, and sexploited in the US, Canada, and Central America for the perversions of the male perverted sex marketplace.
I take this position for all women, but only in Indian Country do I have any overt concern because I'm Native.
I don't want my children, grandchildren, nieces, aunties, mothers sexploited by anyone. I'm not saying that it's not happening, it is on a much larger scale than many care to believe.
But as a man I have an obligation to speak up and speak out whenever I see any commercialization of the female form in sexually provocative art.
And I believe you have an obligation too.
The perpetuation of sexploitation also perpetuates sexual abuse, they go hand in hand. And it's not the full page blowup that gets attention it's the small innuendo painting and facebook photo that flies around the world and gets the mass viewing and is taken for the norm, and it's far from normal, it's not even in the same universe.
When they do this they take a respected gender in Indian Country and place a "playboy/hustler" policy in place for Native women. The don't need to add to the "marketplace" theology of the American Sex Corporate model with half dressed Native women as a icon.
As it is Native women have been abused, sexualized, kidnapped, sold, raped, murdered, and sexploited in the US, Canada, and Central America for the perversions of the male perverted sex marketplace.
I take this position for all women, but only in Indian Country do I have any overt concern because I'm Native.
I don't want my children, grandchildren, nieces, aunties, mothers sexploited by anyone. I'm not saying that it's not happening, it is on a much larger scale than many care to believe.
But as a man I have an obligation to speak up and speak out whenever I see any commercialization of the female form in sexually provocative art.
And I believe you have an obligation too.
The perpetuation of sexploitation also perpetuates sexual abuse, they go hand in hand. And it's not the full page blowup that gets attention it's the small innuendo painting and facebook photo that flies around the world and gets the mass viewing and is taken for the norm, and it's far from normal, it's not even in the same universe.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Black Panthers and the American Indian Movement
Before the advent of the American Indian Movement there was the Black Panthers of the mid-1960's. A lot of the community organizing ideas that AIM pursued had been made popular by the Black Panther Party. Including the use of guns in an armed struggle for independence. Black Panther sponsored street patrols to monitor and record the brutality and harassment of community blacks were initiated in order to curtail the number of murders and beatings which were being perpetuated and justified by the police.
When Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther party in 1965 they used the political and philosophical arguments of W.E.B. Du Bois, Nate Turner, and Malcolm X as guideposts for their community work. They also used the Constitution of the United States as literal support for their actions of community self-defense and police confrontation.
Bobby Seale and Huey Newton were black pioneers when it came to political revolutionary commitment and the advocacy of black independence from colonialist rule. The direct action policy of confrontation and fearless reactionary work became a religious calling for a community that had been living a life of fear and intimidation when having to interact with the law enforcement agencies that were there to serve and protect. during the spring of 1967 a black man, Denzil Dowell was murdered and left for dead by the Richmond, California city police and the county sheriff became accomplices in that murder.
Subsequently the Black Panther Party for Self Defense organized community education rally's in order to expose and publicize the blatant indiscriminate killing of black men and the harassment and brutal beating of black women. In all during those few months no less that fifty murders were attributed to police action and involvement.
A lot of American citizens have been taught that colonialism is and has been dead for generations. And maybe in overt practice it has been, but in the subversive model of political planning and governmental policy development by the rich and powerful, colonialist thought has not changed. Anyone not white, male, wasp, is considered suspect of anti-americanism and subversionism.
During the 1970's both the American Indian Movement and the, by then very splintered, Black Panther Party had been targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program for disruption and destruction. Both organization had suffered jailings, beatings, murders, infiltration, espionage, wiretapping, legal and political attacks, and a very public, vicious, propaganda campaign to spread rumours and lies.
Russell Means, Dennis Banks, Vernon Bellecourt, Clyde Bellecourt of AIM and many others to numerous to mention have propelled the Indian communities sense of self determination as no one ever has before, in the same way that H.Rap Brown, Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party have redefined what it means to live Black and Proud in the urban ghettos of America's mainstream society.
When Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther party in 1965 they used the political and philosophical arguments of W.E.B. Du Bois, Nate Turner, and Malcolm X as guideposts for their community work. They also used the Constitution of the United States as literal support for their actions of community self-defense and police confrontation.
Bobby Seale and Huey Newton were black pioneers when it came to political revolutionary commitment and the advocacy of black independence from colonialist rule. The direct action policy of confrontation and fearless reactionary work became a religious calling for a community that had been living a life of fear and intimidation when having to interact with the law enforcement agencies that were there to serve and protect. during the spring of 1967 a black man, Denzil Dowell was murdered and left for dead by the Richmond, California city police and the county sheriff became accomplices in that murder.
Subsequently the Black Panther Party for Self Defense organized community education rally's in order to expose and publicize the blatant indiscriminate killing of black men and the harassment and brutal beating of black women. In all during those few months no less that fifty murders were attributed to police action and involvement.
A lot of American citizens have been taught that colonialism is and has been dead for generations. And maybe in overt practice it has been, but in the subversive model of political planning and governmental policy development by the rich and powerful, colonialist thought has not changed. Anyone not white, male, wasp, is considered suspect of anti-americanism and subversionism.
During the 1970's both the American Indian Movement and the, by then very splintered, Black Panther Party had been targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program for disruption and destruction. Both organization had suffered jailings, beatings, murders, infiltration, espionage, wiretapping, legal and political attacks, and a very public, vicious, propaganda campaign to spread rumours and lies.
Russell Means, Dennis Banks, Vernon Bellecourt, Clyde Bellecourt of AIM and many others to numerous to mention have propelled the Indian communities sense of self determination as no one ever has before, in the same way that H.Rap Brown, Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party have redefined what it means to live Black and Proud in the urban ghettos of America's mainstream society.
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