So what does an Indian think about on Columbus Day?

So what does an Indian think about on Columbus Day?


Well, yesterday I didn't do anything different than usual. But I did some thinking. And the Cobell vs Kempthorne Indian land trust case figured prominently in my thinking. It's still not resolved, but it should be. For 11 years two different administrations have ignored and fought the indefensible. It's an embarassment to our nation. A total shame.

So what I hope for in the future is a fair, just and equitable resolution to this case.

For more information here is a link to a column I wrote about the case for the Arizona Daily Wildcat and another link to the Indian trust website.

Federal government denied reservations their prosperity
By Bill Wetzel

http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/96/106/03_3.html

http://www.indiantrust.com/

and an old white guy stopped me in the grocery store to ask if the shirt was from the same group that took over Alcatraz many many years ago. I told him it was one in the same, at which time he said that he was glad that they were still around. We need a mobile group to help look after native needs in these times of incredible corporate incringement onto tribal lands.

Boycott Nestle Brands, and stop buying bottled water. If your water tastes funny, get a filter.


Hoka Hey!

I am wondering just how an activist will go over in that environment. :)

I saw one of the "Original Homeland Security" shirts today. It cracked me up. I got one laying around here somewhere.

and I noticed that there are several people there (BIA) who are working to help the various tribes. There are also thugs and bullies who would have worked for Border Patrol except that they are too stupid to learn elementary spanish. Be careful if you do go to BIA.

Just curious, why have you thought about BIA? to help the native peoples?. If so, think about volunteering with a native support group. Try as I might, I still find the BIA control on the rez to be that of a 'father knows best' position while they treat the locals like 'less thans'. I wish I had the patience to try to fix things from the inside, but I have an deep mistrust of the government.

Good luck.

that's what I'm looking to do. Writer-editor-research type stuff. I'm a Blackfeet, and one of my areas of knowledge is in tribal government and Indian policy. Right now the BIA is recruiting, they are looking to lose 40 percent of their people in the next five years and 70 percent by 2015. I want to be part of a modernizing process. I look at activism in a slightly different way than most people. I believe in utilizing the electoral process and the policy apparatus - agencies etc - as a way to enact activist ideas, which is to say good policy. I am so mistrustful of government and the status quo that I believe more activists need to run for office and/or work in policy say they can make a difference that way. I just think that I know what I want to do, and I know what ideas I want to put forward and enact, so instead of me personally marching in the street for somebody else to listen to me, I should just go and do it myself. That's not for everybody of course, but I believe both the grassroots organizational activist movement and a political office/ policy professional activist movement would augment each other perfectly.

I hope that there wil be more people like you in policy offices. Fix it from the inside.

Unless I get a chance to direct a screenplay I'm writing, then I'd maybe focus on my creative stuff for awhile. But I've actually prepared to have a career in policy or something related, while I did my writing etc on the side. I'm basically looking to do writing/research work for a living, while I do creative stuff on my own, and if I get a break, then good, I'll decide if I'll leave the 9 to 5 job to concentrate on the creative work, or just continue balancing like that. Either way I'm looking to be involved in Indian affairs.

then maybe the money isn't there?

the government has FIERCELY dragged it's heels for accurate info regarding the tribes moneys/assets.

why?

i want an answer to that now as much as i want the accounting.

I spoke with Eloise Cobell about 5 years ago, and she said that they can only account back 20 years or so, because the accounts were so screwed up there are no records of what happened with it. Basically the trust account became a slush found that nobody payed attention to, it could have been raided over and over by different agencies, it could have been hacked, it could have been embezzled time and time again by countless govt officials. Nobody knows. The accounting of it is more than shameful. As near as anybody could tell is the tribes are owed 2 billion going back about twenty years, from the original accounting in 1996. But you take that back to well over a century which nobody can accurately do, then you are looking at over 20 billion owed to tribes. And that's a conservative estimate.

They just got a new trial, but the government is fighting on that tooth and nail. Interestingly enough, the officials charged with fraud in this case are getting their legal fees paid by taxpayers. Good times.

accounting as possible.

that's 101 stuff and they need to do it.

it's gonna be ugly -- but they aren't doing anyone any favors by dragging it out.

it'll be humiliating -- but that's the job.

We pretty much know what the accounting is going to be and what it will look like. About the best that can be done is the accounting can only go back about thirty years from now, and somewhere around 3 billion will be owed. Compound that by another 130 years or so and it'll be over 30 billion. Somehow the government is going to have to reconstruct those accounts at a great cost and over a long period of time. That could take forever. What they should do is just sit down with Elouise Cobell, work out a figure and pay it. Otherwise they are just going to have to stonewall and stonewall until finally they have to do something and in the meantime they are wasting lots of time and money. It's ridiculous.

first nations folk short sheeted a bunch of money to provide an easier time for the government.

these monies will go a long way toward providing greater autonomy -- especially for on the res folk.

better ability to provide nation like services, infrastructure, etc -- creating virtual enterprise zones for people who have long been in need of it.


the more money -- the greater independence after.

anyway -- i do want to see it resolved -- just -- carefully.

people is so heinous as to be almost unthinkable. But from the gov's perspective, I think its all part of the plan to get the Indians off the reservations into the cities, so then the gov can steal the land (again). They have already conveniently erased the existence of so many Indians from the records, and IMO its so that their offspring have no rights to land or anything else. The extermination is still happening, its just real subtle. And since the entire population of American Indians who have tribal affiliation numbers is a whopping 1% of the US population, I'd say the job is pretty much done.

Screwing the American Indian is just a matter of course in this country. Mostly, no one gives it a second thought. It's good to be the king.

And Thomas Friedman writes about how good my life on the streets of Calcutta is all the time. :)

You must be so proud!

Our government (and a lot of "Americans") are still terrified of a race that has almost been wiped from the face of the earth.

Or is it just a week? Hell, it's so insignificant and poorly done I don't even know exactly what it is nowadays.

I know this, a lot of politicians don't even think Indians exist anymore. In Montana, they have several large Indian reservations, and I was talking to the Indian Affairs coordinator and few years ago and she told me that during one session of the Legislature they were debating Indian Education and one good ol' boy stood up and said something like " Why are we even talking about this? Are their even any Indians around anymore?" You just want to smack dumbasses like that. Those are the types who think minorities and women have it so good and have no reason to complain. Idiots like that actually think white men are the minorities nowadays. It's sickening.

in my early twenties. It was January, and this puffy white kid at work held up his forearm against mine and said "Hey! How'd you get so tan in January?" I said "Its not a tan, I'm part American Indian." He honest to God lifted his nose up and said "Well I'm a REAL American cuz I'm ALL white!" Well I ripped him a new asshole so big he was the color of a beet and crying for a few hours, then he never talked to me again! Those people (puffy white morans) really exist!

since 1492.

:kick:

who thought we were from India?

it ranges from the day to mourn for the dead due the genocide... all the way to the rise of a new cosmic race.

It really depends on what mythology you are paying to or what historical reality

but yes, it does depend. :)

Very well done. Thank you.

WB does good work