No DAPL: Protectors call on Justice Department.

Protestors face off with the Riot Police across the fenceline near a Dakota Access construction site. CREDIT: Facebook/Rob Wilson.

Protestors face off with the Riot Police across the fenceline near a Dakota Access construction site. CREDIT: Facebook/Rob Wilson.

Concerned and angered by the use of dogs, pepper spray, military tactics and strip searches against unarmed water protectors at the construction sites of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to step in.

“I am seeking a Justice Department investigation because I am concerned about the safety of the people,” Archambault said in a statement. “Too often these kinds of investigations take place only after some use of excessive force by the police creates a tragedy. I hope and pray that the Department will see the wisdom of acting now to prevent such an outcome.”

In a formal letter, Archambault called on U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate the alleged civil rights violations, outlining the ways in which the protectors’ safety is being compromised and their First Amendment rights jeopardized.

[…]

Archambault said protesters and tribal members have told him that “the militarization of law enforcement agencies has escalated violence at the campsite,” even as the tribe’s lawful efforts to keep the 1,172-mile-long pipeline from being routed through sacred burial sites and underneath the Missouri River a half mile from its reservation have drawn worldwide support.

“Firsthand accounts and videos filmed by participants reveal a pattern of strong-arm tactics targeting Native Americans and peaceful protestors,” the Standing Rock Sioux said in the statement. “The abuses include strip searches, violent security dog attacks, pepper-spraying of youth and intimidation by law enforcement.”

Archambault’s letter went further, describing roadblocks, checkpoints and unwarranted stops, all of which “are clearly targeted at Indian people, and are designed to intimidate free speech.”

Add to that the “constant surveillance, with low-flying planes and helicopters constantly overhead at the camps of the water protectors,” the confiscation of at least one drone and the shooting down of another, even those being used by journalists, plus the actual arrests of journalists such as Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, add up to a “larger effort by local law enforcement to intimidate the press and to prevent the full and fair reporting of the activities of law enforcement on this matter,” Archambault’s letter said.

“Rather than seeking to keep the peace, law enforcement personnel are clearly working in tandem with private security of Dakota Access,” the chairman wrote, adding that the tactics not only evoke the civil rights movement of 50 years ago but also bring up the collective memory of the U.S. government’s “long and sad history of using military force against indigenous people.”

Via ICTMN. In related news: Justice Dept Reaffirms It Will Not Grant DAPL River-Crossing Permits Anytime Soon.

“Who needs white when black lives matter”

Xavier University student in blackface.

Xavier University student in blackface.

On Monday night, a Snapchat photo of a female Xavier student wearing blackface with the caption “Who needs white when black lives matter” circulated on social media, leading to anger and frustration among students.

The following morning, another violent and graphic photo made the rounds. Individuals hanged a skeleton wearing a traditional West African dashiki from the window of the Fenwick building, which houses primarily sophomore year students.

The skeleton, which was arranged in such a way to replicate the act of lynching, was placed in a window that faces one of the college’s main lawns and was set up alongside a Donald Trump 2016 “Make America Great Again” flag.

The image of the skeleton in the window next to the Trump flag sends an important message. It is absolutely a message to non-white students on the college’s campus.

It is also an incredibly important statement on the state of this country in 2016 and the dangers of a Trump presidency — one that dangerously emboldens the growing white nationalist movement.

This is what bothers me, by magnitudes of order, when it comes to people making all manner of excuses for supporting Trump. This is now outright fascism, you can’t in honesty call it anything else, and it’s brainbreaking to see so many people simply shrug incidents like this off, or try to come up with excuses as to why this isn’t white nationalism and/or fascism. As someone sliding down the old age ladder, it’s seriously disturbing to see this isht in high schools and universities. There’s supposed to be hope in the new generations, not despair.

I’ll spare you the pain of looking at the tweet stream: “Germanic heritage” and “Halloween, Duh”.

Full story here.

43.

George W. Bush. Whitehouse.gov.

George W. Bush. Whitehouse.gov.

One year before winning the election of 2000, George Walker Bush, then Texas governor and Republican frontrunner in the presidential race, championed for states’ rights, which he believed trumped the rights of tribes.

During a trip to Syracuse, New York, in October 1999, Bush, already an adversary to Indian casinos in his home state of Texas, advocated a position that contradicted both the U.S. Constitution and more than 200 years of federal Indian law.

“My view is that state law reigns supreme when it comes to the Indians, whether it be gambling or any other issue,” he told the Syracuse Post-Standard on October 24, 1999.

[Read more…]

NO DAPL: Water Protectors Needed!

Courtesy Rob Wilson Photography.

Courtesy Rob Wilson Photography.

Sarah Sunshine Manning highlights and details the need for more water protectors to make their way to the camps.

On October 18, water protectors called for reinforcements as the Dakota Access construction is quickly closing in on the Missouri River in North Dakota.

Water protectors, skilled in non-violent direct action, should plan to make their way to Standing Rock as quickly as you can get here.

This massive call-to-action is endorsed by more than 10 groups, including the Indigenous Peoples Power Project (IP3), The Ruckus Society, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor The Earth, the Oceti Sakowin Camp, the Sacred Stone Camp, West Coast Women Warriors Media Cooperative, Ancestral Pride, Digital Smoke Signals, Greenpeace USA, and The Other98.

“If we’re going to beat the pipeline, we’re going to need more people,” Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, and co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples Power Project, told me.

An informational video was released in accompaniment with the joint-statement made by the groups with the title, “Warriors Wanted.”

“We’re asking for reinforcements to come stand with us, to pray, and to protect,” Tilsen said. “Of all the times to take action, the time is now.”

On October 22, water protectors in the camps reported that Dakota Access construction was just a few miles from the camp, and approximately 5 miles from the Missouri River.

[…]

In another Facebook video posted by Mark K. Tilsen, Oglala Lakota from Porcupine, South Dakota, Tilsen delivered a poignant message to allies across the globe:

“I’m asking you to come to Standing Rock,” he said. “Follow local leadership, but you will be given autonomy to choose your actions, and how you choose to creatively stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Please. Come to Standing Rock.”

Mark Tilsen has been stationed at the Oceti Sakowin camp for the past two months, also assisting in non-violent direct action trainings.

“We need help. We need bodies on the ground,” said Tilsen. “We need people here who are dedicated and willing. This is not a tourist action. This is not a party. We’re here to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Thank you.”

There’s much more here, including a video about strip searching protesters who were arrested for disorderly conduct. This is an obvious tactic on the part of the Keystone cops here to humiliate those who dare to protect the earth and water. Even Chairman Archambault was subjected to this.

In other NO DAPL news:

[Read more…]

Renee Davis, Killed by Cops.

Native single mom Renee Davis was five months pregnant when she was killed by deputies on Friday (Facebook.com)

Native single mom Renee Davis was five months pregnant when she was killed by deputies on Friday (Facebook.com)

Renee Davis was five months pregnant when she was fatally shot by King County sheriff’s deputies checking on her welfare Friday night, according to her foster sister, Danielle Bargala.

Davis, 23, had struggled with depression, and had texted someone earlier that night to say she was in a bad way, according to Bargala. That person had alerted law enforcement, leading the deputies to arrive at Davis’ house on Muckleshoot tribal lands shortly after 6:30 p.m.

Bargala, a Seattle University law student, said Saturday that she and other family members have a lot of questions about what happened next. The sheriff’s office declined to comment Saturday beyond what it said Friday night — that the deputies, investigating a report of someone suicidal, found a young woman with a handgun and two small children in the house.

The children were Davis’, ages 2 and 3, according to Bargala. The single mother had a third child, 5, who was at the home of a family friend Friday.

Yesterday, I posted about Native Lives Matter, and an article about the high percentage of Native people who die at the hands of cops. More Indigenous people are killed by cops than any other group. The complete lack of interest in that post was not in the least unexpected, but it left me with a bitter, burning sadness I can’t begin to describe. Yesterday, three people were good enough to actually click over and read the article linked, and one kind person shared the post. I don’t know who you are, but I thank you, from the depth of my heart.

On Friday, Renee Davis was gunned down by cops who were supposedly there to do a wellness check. Obviously, nothing good happened to Ms. Davis. It’s doubtful that any judgment will go against the cops, they seldom do, and yet another Native person is dead at the hands of cops.

Via The Seattle Times.

“All the stuff, I am against.”

Nevada voter named Barbara speaks to CBS News (screen grab).

Nevada voter named Barbara speaks to CBS News (screen grab).

Following the third presidential debate, Face the Nation host John Dickerson spoke to a group of voters in Nevada about why they supported either Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

A voter named Barbara explained that she was motivated to support Trump because “morality and values” were important to her.

“Based on what the country was based on,” she said. “I think that the laws that Obama has passed, the way the country has — I call it down turning. Some of the other people are proud of it and happy for it. I personally am against it, the homosexuals, the abortions. All the stuff, I am against.”

“When Donald Trump says ‘Make American Great Again,’ is that what you hear?” Dickerson wondered. “That it’s going to go back to before the time that you’re now describing?”

“That’s part of it,” Barbara agreed.

No, Barbara, morality and values aren’t important to you in the least. You wouldn’t know morals, values, or ethics if they leaped up and bit your nose. What is important to you? The need to control, dominate, and oppress others. The need to be sitting on top of the people heap. The need to be a judgmental asshole, pointing a finger in accusation and screaming about prayer. People like yourself Barbara, have this awful sadistic need to stomp all over other people you perceive as lesser, giving them the convenient label of sinner. You dream of an America that never was, like most ignorant white asses. I have a bit of news for you, Barbara – all your stuff, I am against. I suggest you run and hide, because all the liberal, queer, and thinking people, they are coming to get you, Barbara.

Full story here.

Books: Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Courtesy University of Nebraska Press Plans for cultural genocide as well as the stories of courage and oppression at the famous/infamous residential Carlisle Indian Industrial School appear in an unprecedented collection of essays, poems and photos entitled “Carlisle Indian Industrial School/Indigenous Histories, Memories and Reclamations,” recently published.

Courtesy University of Nebraska Press
Plans for cultural genocide as well as the stories of courage and oppression at the famous/infamous residential Carlisle Indian Industrial School appear in an unprecedented collection of essays, poems and photos entitled “Carlisle Indian Industrial School/Indigenous Histories, Memories and Reclamations,” recently published.

Plans for cultural genocide as well as the stories of courage and oppression at the famous/infamous residential Carlisle Indian Industrial School appear in an unprecedented collection of essays, poems and photos entitled “Carlisle Indian Industrial School/Indigenous Histories, Memories and Reclamations,” recently published by University of Nebraska Press and edited by Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Susan D. Rose.

This compelling gathering of work examines the legacy of the Carlisle experience through verse by noted poets N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) and Maurice Kenney (Mohawk) along with essays by distinguished historians and scholars such as Fear-Segal, Rose, Barbara Landis and Louellyn White (Mohawk). It also includes the recollections and reflections of some descendants of the more than 10,000 Native children who attended the school between 1879 and 1918.

The book is divided into six parts—1) A Sacred and Storied Space; 2) Student Lives and Losses; 3) Carlisle Indian School Cemetery; 4) Reclamations; 5) Revisioning the Past; and 6) Reflections and Responses—and provides a panoramic view of the experience, including many poignant and heartbreaking stories.

The anthology starts out with a comprehensive introduction to the school, the historical context of Manifest Destiny, Native dispossession and a compelling re-imagining of how the Native children must have felt after being seized and sent far away to be forcibly “assimilated” into white culture. The removal of children, in effect the tearing apart of families and communities, was part of the attempt to “Kill the Indian, and save the man,” a seminal quote from the school’s founder and superintendent, Richard Henry Pratt who sought to change the children, beginning with their names.

One of the many themes in the book involves names, the white names given to Native children and the names on tombstones in the school’s cemetery.

“Names are especially important in Native American culture,” Momaday wrote in “The Stones at Carlisle.” “Names and being are thought to be indivisible. One who bears no name cannot truly be said to exist, for one has being in his name… In this context we see how serious is the loss of one’s name. In the case of the tombstones at Carlisle we are talking about the crime of neglect and negation. We are talking not only about the theft of identity, but the theft of essential being.”

The full article is at ICTMN. This goes right to the top of my reading list. The book is available from the University of Nebraska Press, and an excerpt can be read here.

Reno Truck Assault: Driver Charged.

Courtesy Louis Magriel/Reno Gazette-Journal.

Courtesy Louis Magriel/Reno Gazette-Journal.

The 18-year-old man who drove through a crowd of 40 protestors was charged Friday with provoking assault and released on a $1,000 bond, police said.

Five people were injured when Nick Mahaffey rammed his white Nissan pickup truck into a group of Columbus Day protestors in Reno, Nevada, last week.

Police also charged two protesters involved in the incident. James Fletcher and Samuel Harry were both charged with simple battery, CBS News reported.

ICTMN has the full story.

Beautiful.

Oct 21, 2016; Miami, FL, USA; National Anthem singer Denasia Lawrence kneels as she sings the anthem prior to the game between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports.

Oct 21, 2016; Miami, FL, USA; National Anthem singer Denasia Lawrence kneels as she sings the anthem prior to the game between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports.

A singer knelt while performing the national anthem at a Miami Heat basketball game on Friday and opened her jacket to reveal a shirt that read “Black Lives Matter,” a variation on a protest that has punctuated many U.S. sporting events since the summer.

[…]

Lawrence, a social worker, wrote on Facebook that the opportunity at the preseason Heat game “was bigger than me.”

“Right now, we’re seeing a war on Black & Brown bodies – we’re being unjustly killed and overly criminalized,” she continued. “I took the opportunity to sing AND kneel; to show that we belong in this country AND that we have the right to respectfully protest injustices against us. I took the opportunity to sing AND kneel to show that, I too, am America.”

Well done, Ms. Lawrence, you’re a light in the world.

Full story here.

Native Lives Matter.

I have mentioned, often, that in uStates, the highest percentage of extrajudicial killings are of Indigenous people. To say this isn’t well known would be quite the understatement. It isn’t known at all, and when people do find out, they don’t much care. The Guardian has kept track, along with all the other groups of people who are consistently killed by cops. Very few of these murders get any press at all. The murder of Loreal Tsingine got a little bit, and so did the murder of John T. Williams. Those people who read Indian publications are aware of most of the others, but they don’t get any write up at all. Indigenous people also have the highest rates of dying in captivity, and cops casually toss off excuses like “hey, she overdosed on meth”, as they did in the case of Sarah Lee Circle Bear, who was only 24 years old. The cops neglected to explain how she could have died from a meth overdose while in custody for two days. Sarah’s case, and that of so many others, has been a cause of deep outrage in Indigenous circles, but once again, if you aren’t reading native publications, you aren’t likely to know about any of them.

Chase Iron Eyes started NLM in 2014, but once again, it’s been a slow take because about the only people who care about native lives are natives. In These Times has a very good article about Native deaths at the hands of law enforcement, and the bigotry Natives face every single day. Please, go read. Please, share. I thank you.

n1

n2

n3

n4

n5

n6

The Police Killings No One Is Talking About.

God’s Alpha Male.

Donald Trump in Cleveland prayer huddle -- (YouTube screen grab)

Donald Trump in Cleveland prayer huddle — (YouTube screen grab)

Over at The Oak Initiative (never heard of it before today, yet another dominionist Christian joint), a case is being made for God’s Alpha Male, which is, of course, Trump.

Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Trump could be a modern-day Cyrus and as President a great defender of the Christian religion and the church. Only time will tell.

I suppose it would be a plus if Mr. Trump had the external character of President Jimmy Carter, who had one marriage, was a Southern farmer and Baptist Sunday School teacher. But then again, Mr. Carter as President didn’t work out too well, remember?

The Carter/Trump comparison is an excellent example of the two-fold nature of a man’s character. Jimmy Carter was the first well-known “born again” Christian in our modern era to run for the Presidency, yet was one of the worst Presidents. Carter had impeccable outward character of speech, fidelity, and humility, yet he greatly lacked in the internal character traits of what God intended for men. Trump on the other hand is often flawed in visible outward character, but excels in his internal manly attributes. By internal standards, he exhibits tremendous alpha male characteristics of courage, fearlessness, and aggressiveness blended with a natural ability to lead people. These internal God-given traits are what would make Trump an exceptional President leading and protecting a nation.

Let me end this letter to encourage you in faith and practice to understand that God’s ways are not our ways and He often does things and works His plan with vessels we cannot understand. For who can know the mind of God?

Oooh, he’s just bristling with internal manly manliness! If anyone can whip those beta males in line, it would be him, oh yes. Sure, he’s crude, and toxic, nastier than all hells, and shallow as pond scum, but the manly, you cannot ignore the manly! Trump’s being a con-man, fraud, and criminal? Oh, just manliness at work!  I think we need more nasty women. Also standing up for the poor maligned Alpha Male of all Males is Jesse Lee Peterson, who is not content with ‘nasty women’, oh no. No, women are Accusers, which he is at pains to point out, is a kenning for…Satan! Oooh. Yeah, I’m just shakin’ here. Apparently, like all women, I have lived my whole life for no other purpose than to falsely accuse every single man I have run across. I’ve been busier than I thought.

“Every man is guilty now, every man, and these accusers pour that out at will,” Peterson said on his radio program yesterday. “They get angry about something, you don’t return their call or text, they can just accuse you, because generation after generation of young girls have been taught to do this.”

In a clip from the show that Peterson posted on his YouTube channel, which he labeled “Trump’s ‘Sexual Assault’ Accusers Are Literally Satan’s Daughters,” he accompanied this assertion with an image of Bill Cosby.

“Did you know that Satan was called ‘the Accuser’?” he asked. “That was his primary name. Satan’s primary name was ‘the Accuser.’ Just let that sink in. Satan’s primary name is ‘the Accuser.’ And that’s what we have in our country now, accusers.”

Peterson lamented that boys today go out and “in their minds they are having a good time not realizing that the accuser is lurking.”

Sigh. And here I thought this was going to be yet another busy day of painting, but no. I am going to have to go seek out men to destroy. A woman’s work, never done.

Via RRW, here and here.