There’s been a rash of racist flyers distributed in South Dakota area recently. These flyers exemplify my concerns about the need for tolerance and respect for the spiritual beliefs of others. It’s been said that the flyer I’m including here has been circulated by church members. The flyer calls the sacred Lakota rite of Yuwipi, as well as hand games, ‘satanic,’ and claims our sundancers suffer from ‘mental illness.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. It amazes me that a religion based on the sacrifice of such a selfless, loving, and wise individual as Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Jew, could contain bigots, misogynists and racists, who’ve hid behind crucifixes as innocents were massacred by those who called themselves conquerors.RT @_RuthHopkins: Sorta weird when people tell me they love my column but they can't like it/share it for fear some 1 will see & be angry with them. #IndianUp
Diane Rehm hosts a panel discussion of the politics of the domestic violence bill here. Women living on reservations are particularly vulnerable. RT @NCAI1944: @drshow Charlotte Hays wrong #VAWA re: tribal provisions/courts - const. safeguards provided ncldng due-process rights.
Russell Means is in the news. An AP story is linked here.
6 comments:
Religion and racism seem to go hand in hand dont they? A couple of generations ago the same people that see themselves as pillars of the community now would have had sheet over their heads back then, go figure.
S. 1925 is an interesting piece of legislation. Interesting in that it continues to talk about enacting laws that "limit restrictions on the scope of inherent tribal sovereign authority." When fixing the problem demands just the opposite. After all we are talking about US citizens here. Haven't we learned anything in the last hundred years"
The Court in U.S. v. Lara, 541 U.S. 193 (2004), held that the Constitution confers on Congress the power
to enact legislation to limit restrictions on the scope of inherent tribal sovereign authority. In addition,
Lara makes clear that tribal prosecutions do not violate double jeopardy requirements. Just as federal and state prosecutors coordinate on a broad range of state and federal offenses, tribal and federal prosecutors also coordinate so that lower level crimes are handled in local tribal courts, and serious assault crimes are handled in federal court.
What is needed is equal treatment no matter who or what the crime is and prosecution guaranteed by a federal prosecutor that is based here on the reservation full time. Any time we start to make different laws for different races of people we start to go down a dirty road. We should be trying to get everyone under the same umbrella of coverage here not continue to prosecute from a distance for "certain crimes."
Sure it would cost money but like I said we are all US citizens and deserve the rights that our constitution gives us.
While I'm here let me bitch a little about the murders that have gone unsolved on the res. I noticed that the complaint is mainly with the federal governments lack of involvement in these cases and to some that means no arrest and no prosecutions. Well to tell you the truth there is plenty of blame to go around here.
Sure the feds have dropped the ball, but the tribe should have done its own investigations. Nobody knows the people like the people and outsiders are just that "outsiders." Nothing stopped the tribe from investigating these crimes they just didn't do it because either the BIA of the feds took the lead.
It was an interesting article that Giago wrote about Rooks. I to believe that Rooks is a good man but like Tim I think that Rooks catholic upbringing has colored his outlook of life here on the reservation.
There is no one religion that will make things right here, not the catholic faith, not the Mormon church, and not even the native spirituality, only the respect of your fellow man will start to heal the problems that remain here.
The same problems are here that have been here forever. poverty lack of jobs and hopelessness. They must not be to worried about it because I have written to three different people and the housing authority and tried to give them a business plan that would have put a hundred people to work and start at least three private companies. I even told them that I wouldn't have anything to do with it and it was just a plan for them to work with. No response, nothing. So much for trying to help my fellow man.
The Blindman
As you both surely know, the sundance, and other "heathen" religious ceremonies have always been viewed askance by established religious types and by those looking for any excuse to demonize, attack, and, most of all, Profit from weaker people. (In this case weaker due to economic, cultural, etc, causes.)
I believe an anti-Sundance scare played a major role in the murder of Sitting Bull. Right or wrong?
Yes, there are some "Christians" who are in truth horrific charlatans. Have been from the very beginning. Moses dealt with them, Jesus kicked them the hell out of the temple, and so on. Now we are faced with the massive corruption originating from the Vatican, mega-churches, tv preacher/politicians, etc. They are like cockroaches in many ways, including the fact that you can't kill them off entirely. They always resurface eventually.
Have you read the article Dr. Newquist wrote on Northern Valley Beacon about the Indian gentleman, Mr. Traversie, who was mutilated while a patient IN THE RC HOSPITAL!! Horrific.
Seeing the tribes lose their power to the individual states is the scariest part of the crime: that's ALEC and the red state governors conspiring to seize ground for exploitation.
I linked to Prof. Newquist's post in above text, DE: yes, it's a great read.
CENSORED NEWS with the latest:
I dont like blogs but here goes, this is coming from a 100% true Native, I have been raised in our sacred way of life, attending Sundance and helping pray during a Yuwipi Ceremony many times and was able to see my own healing as well as many others who were healed. I mean from major diseases, speaking for me it was non hodgkins lymphoms, stage 4, chemo therapy didnt help so my family arranged for ceremony. I told my oncologist and he agreed there wasnt much left for me to do and prayer was a good way as anything else was. So I had my port taken out and went to see this medicine man, a very young man i might add. I had a number of things to do an inipi, yuwipi, fasting and sundance were some of the things my family participated in but my healing was fast. A week after my final obligation I went to a specialist and they did a bone marrow test and we met in her office she said; get the hell out of here there is not one sigh of cancer in your body!!! Before we left her office she asked me what did you do? I said I went to ceremony and we prayed, she said well it was a miracle alright. To this day 7 years later, I remember the beauty of my healing ceremony and how they took my disease from me, We call it the power of prayer!
All My Relations
Thank you for sharing your story. Why this post or this blog?
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