The Crisis, Native matters and some other things

["Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another very dark, early morning in Idaho.  Several coyotes are howling only
a  hundred yards from our house.  A couple of days ago -- from a  far up
ridge -- I saw a Bobcat chasing a rabbit about 200 yards below me.  They
disappeared into a thicket  -- neither emerged -- and I'm still wondering
how  all of that turned out.

There are some things in the Universe about which we can do nothing at
all -- even if we wanted to do so.   My inseparable companion -- my one-half
Bobcat cat [who I'm convinced is psychic] -- has just given me a  very sharp
"which side are you on?"  look.  But to her -- "Cloudy" -- I'm now quickly
telepathing, "I'm not taking sides on that issue."  We also have two huge
domestic pet rabbits.

But we certainly, of course, are taking sides on  many other things --
things that we can, as  all-of-us-together keep on keeping on, do a great
deal indeed about.

The "War" news is grim -- but the rising Peace Movement -- nationally,
globally -- shows tremendously encouraging promise.  Another Congress has
buckled into shallow and extremely dangerous "pragmatism" and is giving us
some of the most sinister anti-civil libertarian legislation since the late
'40s and the early-mid '50s -- and toss in the whole World War I / post-War
Red Scare epoch as well. We'll fight all that -- and, while it's going to be
interesting to see, for example, how the US court system handles this
frenetically passed repressive belladonna [nightshade], much of which was
designed to procedurally  bypass the courts -- the reality is, of course,
that vigorous and intensive and sensibly militant and continual grassroots
action is always and forevermore the most crucial dimension in the fight for
a full measure of bread-and-butter and a full measure of liberty.

It's always been that way, always will.  Grassroots organizing and
grassroots activism -- that's Genesis.

And an effective organizer is always very much aware that "the grassroots is
people" -- and that bona fide organizing -- the really effective stuff --
consistently serves the people.

One of the broad areas of victimization emerging from 9/11 is that many
local situations -- not always immediately seen as related to the publicly
predominate issues -- can literally "get lost in the shuffle."  One that --
long, long before September 11 -- could often get lost as far as much of
mainline United States and Canada are concerned -- is the "Native
situation." Much has been happening on that front -- as always -- purely and
simply because Indian people, and our committed non-Indian allies, are
continuing to push hard for social justice.

But it's been very difficult, as I mentioned a few days ago, to develop much
awareness of Native social justice matters in the current atmosphere of
sanguinary clouds and bloody rain -- and the destructive fires of fear and
hysteria and repression.

Three days ago, I did a major post [including an update of sorts] on the
still unsolved murders of three Native men last month at Grand Forks, North
Dakota [a town of about 50,000] -- and  I sent it around broadly to a number
of discussion lists.  [I also sent my post to Portside, as I had an earlier
one, and continue to hope that that excellent info posting service will
eventually run something on this.]

One of the reasons for my broad postings on these North Dakota Native
murders  is simply to publicize a very negative situation:  three murdered
Indians, no arrests to date after the passage of many weeks, a deteriorating
police/people-of-color situation [in a generally sinking police/community
relations milieu.]

And, as I also mentioned three days ago, we are  very much cognizant that,
in  the Great Plains, there have  been relatively recent, strange clusters
of unsolved murders of Native men.  While nothing has surfaced publicly in
these Grand Forks tragedies to indicate a tie with those, there is [among
other things] an intriguing dimension:  Two of the victims, Robert Belgarde
and his son, Damian, were found shot to death just south of town; the other,
Jerome Decoteau, was found dead  -- some days after the fact -- of multiple
injuries in his in-town apartment. But it appears that all three were killed
within the framework of a day or two.

The other reason for broad posting is to develop an awareness of this
situation for specific "Action Memo" purposes:  If there are no substantial
breaks in these killings in the quite near future, we shall ask people to
e-mail the Governor of North Dakota and [assuming he's not too busy
approving plans for concentration camps for radicals], the U.S. Attorney
General -- and demand rigorous investigative action  into all of this from
each of those governmental perspectives.

In any case, of course, we shall have periodic updates on this situation.

I have gotten some very positive comments from my posting of three days ago.
Examples:

  Our good comrade, Duane Campbell, who heads the Anti-Racism Commission of
DSA, quickly confirmed that, "The Anti Racism Commission of DSA, by
electronic vote, has endorsed  the  resolution [on the Native murders and
the generally deteriorating situation.]"

And a woman from Pennsylvania:  " [I] would like to know about the situation
and if there is anything specific I can do to facilitate any positive action
at this point?  Please let me know.  I cannot think of a group in this
country who has been screwed over more than Native Americans. . .  Now more
than ever we cannot afford to be divided in terms of ethnicity or anything
else.  All commarads need to stand together.  The young ones debate entirely
too much and act entirely too little in my opinion. At any rate, please let
me know what I can do to assist you.  I live in PA, but have a few
connections here and there around the country, perhaps a bit of
old-fashioned organizing is in order here.
In Solidarity, Judy

And from an old friend, a very active and very effective union organizer in
the Far West:
" . . .well, my brother, I have already forwarded it [my post] around and
we'll write as soon
as you give the word."

All bona fide  social justice organizers know that, in the final analysis,
with respect to the successful hatch of any organization -- or any broad,
transcendent movement -- everything always rests on what is done at the most
basic grassroots level.  Again, that's Genesis -- getting directly down to
the basic bone and marrow and life-blood: local people.

The Big Questions of War and Peace, Liberty and Repression, rage on -- and
very rightly engage the great and good efforts of all of us On The Side Of
The Sun.  But three just- murdered Indian people lie under the ground of now
heavily snow-covered North Dakota -- their hands reaching out and beyond
from that hideously blood-stained and centuries-old trail.
---------------
[Questions have recently come up -- in connection with these particular
posts of mine --about the "Native American situation."  So I'm now reposting
the link to our large website  www.hunterbear.org which goes directly to my
two very recent Indian articles:  "Native American Struggle: One Century
Into Another" and "Natives and Radicals."  Each of these pieces -- and there
is some natural overlap vis-a-vis certain background material and
specifically delineated Native goals -- has its own special focus.  Each is
scheduled to be published very shortly in American socialist journals.  The
link to my two new articles:
http://www.hunterbear.org/nativeamericans.htm  ]

Semper Fi -

Hunter Gray [Hunterbear]   Micmac / St Francis Abenaki / St Regis Mohawk --
and DSA, CCDS, SPUSA [and several labor unions]


Hunter Gray [Hunterbear]
www.hunterbear.org (social justice)

Left Discussion Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Redbadbear


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.