Bourgeois media: more on "blackfeet"/lewis and clark

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Craven, Jim
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 10:54 AM
To: 'margot_roosevelt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: blackfeet/lewis and clark


margot,

I do not lump all journalists into the same category. But I do understand
the system--and associated imperatives-- under which they work which is why
there are fewer and fewer journalists of the stature of I.F. Stone or George
Seldes or Edward R. Murrow left--and the few of such stature have either
been driven out or marginalized into the "non-mainstream". If you were
assigned to do a retrospective on Henry Luce for example, and you dared to
research and write up his history fully (a principal financier of Hitler
from 1924 onwards, a member of the American Liberty League that formed a
conspiracy to overthrow FDR in 1935 and replace him with Maj. Gen. Smedley
Butler to lead dispossessed veterans as shock troops to support a fascist
dictatorship in America (Butler exposed the conspiracy and its members who
were never prosecuted), a member of Skull and Bones, a sick and twisted
satanic cult with some very bizarre and very "un-Christian" rituals and
practices, etc etc) you would either change what you wrote or be gone (and
the fact that you even dared to find out such historical facts would brand
you as a troublemaker or some kind of radical and your future at Time would
be limited). So many journalists can honestly say that they were never told
what to write or not write; that is because they were hired with a certain
working paradigm and (lack of real education) in-tact such that they do not
need to be told what to write or not write--they know instinctively what is
taboo, what brings/keeps access (that leads to the "scoop" that leads to
exposure, that leads to name recognition, that leads to expanded access) and
what brings ostracization and marginalization.

Being an Indian does not give me any kind of "credential" per-se to speak on
Indian issues, on Lewis and Clark or whatever; just as there are many
Americans who no know nothing about the realities of America, the
Constitution, American history etc, so there are many "Indians" (by "blood")
who know nothing about the realities of Indian Country, histories of their
Nations or Lewis and Clark's role in history vis-a-vis Indians etc. That is
why your having interviewed a bunch of Indians on various Rezes does not
mean much in and of itself; part of the genocide Indians have suffered
involves a corps of sell-out Indians doing the work of those intent on
exterminating them and perhaps--or perhaps not--you ran into some of them.
That is why I sent documents with evidence and not just my opinions on the
realities of genocide in America; I am also a scientist by training.

To answer your questions:
1) Genocide is defined legally in Article II of the 1948 UN convention on
Genocide: a) Killing members of a group; b) Causing serious bodily and
mental harm to members of a group; c) Deliberately inflicting upon a group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part; d) Imposing measures designed to prevent births within a
group; e) Forcibly transferring children of a group to another group. The
U.S. government did not finally ratify (and still is not fully ratified) the
UN Convention on Genocide until 1988--40 years after the Convention was
drafted. In the minutes of the 97th Congress, there was explicit mention
that if the U.S. ratified the Convention, the U.S. could easily be charged
with genocide due to Jim Crow laws against African-Americans and due to the
intended policies, practices and impacts of the U.S. government vis-a-vis
Indians throughout the whole of U.S. history; that is why the U.S.
Government continues to block the formation of a World Court to deal with
War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide etc as the U.S. Government
could be the first defendant for past and rpesent genocidal practices and/or
complicity in genocide etc.

When Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark mission, he had
already written several classified letters (e.g. Feb. 24, 1803 to William
Henry Harrison) laying out his plan for Indians: to remove them forcibly to
west of the Mississippii; to drive them into debt in order to acquire Indian
lands on the cheap and acquire "legal title"; to forcibly assimilate Indians
as "marginal citizens" and destroy any Indian cultures and values that
conflicted with "American culture and values"; etc. In other words, he laid
out a plan for cultural if not physical extermination of Indians. Lewis and
Clark were commissioned as recon or front-men for his "Manifest Destiny"
program to survey the exploitable resources and peoples to the West and he
explicitly stated so; hence my description of Lewis and Clark as "front-men
for genocide". There are also accounts in Blackfoot oral histories of Lewis
and Clark carrying vials of what they purported to be "smallpox baccillus"
which they threatened to unleash when cornered in an area of what is now
Montana. but in any case, the whole of American history in relation to
Indians and African-Americans, pre and post Lewis and Clark, is one of
outright genocide as defined in the UN Convention. The documentation is
overwhelming.

2) No real Indian should be "celebrating" the Lewis and Clark expedition any
more than any Jew or real human being should be "celebrating" Hitler's
birthday; like "Columbus Day" it should be a national day or mourning. The
fact that "Columbus Day " is still "celebrated" in America shows how
backward, illiterate and inhuman this country and its system really are.

3) "Commemoration" of "there goes the neighborhood"; genocide, historical
revisionism, "Manifest Destiny" (America's version of the nazi concept of
"Lebensraum");

4) Educating the public about the real history, interests and intentions
behind Lewis and Clark before and after

5) No doubt there will be protests from various segments of Indian Country
and from non-Indian supporters who are not illiterate about American history
and the nature of the U.S. system that continues today;

6) We cannot tell our true history in media that focus on: "if it bleeds it
leads"; "find controversy, and if not, manufacture it"; 9-second sound
bites; profit for power and power for profit; keep access by not asking
nasty questions that will cause the gatekeepers in power to deny access and
or give the "scoop" to the competition as payback; We have to tell our story
through our own media and through our own demonstrations knowing full-well
that what will show-up in the "mainstream" media will be shallow,
superficial, cover-up and generally "within the established parameters of
what is called mainstream or orthodoxy".

7) Plans among the Blackfoot are being discussed in Blackfoot Ways; We do
plan to demonstrate against all public events "celebrating" Lewis and Clark
to give our version of what they were really about; we have links with other
Nations and plan coordinated actions and informational sessions etc; Of
course Blackfoot are not a homogeneous mass either, we have our traitors and
sell-outs and "official Indians" so I'm sure that some of them will be on
the other side.

In Aboriginal Law there are five fundamental mandates: 1)Truth, without
which there can be no 2)Justice; Truth and Justice without which there can
be no real 3) Healing; Truth, Justice and Healing without which there can be
no real 4) Reconciliation; Truth Justice, Healing and Reconciliation without
which there can be no 5) Prevention of Future Abuse.
As long as the lies and revisionist histories continue there can be no real
Justice, Healing, Reconciliation or Prevention of Future Abuses and any
purported "Reconciliation Ceremonies" around Lewis and Clark will be phony
and will be labelled/attacked as such along with those sell-out Indians who
dare to hold them in service to their white or nominally Indian masters.


Hope that answers your specific questions.

Jim Craven


 riginal Message-----
From: margot_roosevelt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:margot_roosevelt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 1:19 PM
To: jcraven@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: blackfeet/lewis and clark


jim, beware of lumping all reporters into one category--just as we should be
wary of generalizing about "native american attitudes."
 i try to avoid the "rolodex" syndrome--i just made two separate trips to
ft. berthold and standing rock and interviewed a lot of native americans
from all walks of life who were not in any rolodex. not to mention that you
weren't in my rolodex...

but, to be constructive, i am interested in your views and wonder if you
could elaborate on the following questions.
1) why do you consider lewis and clark to be "front men for genocide"?
2) should native americans be commemorating the bicentennial of the lewis
and clark trip?
3) what's to commemorate?
4) if not commemorating, what would you like to see native americans doing
as far as this anniversary goes?
5) you were quoted in some newspaper saying you thought there might be a
protest. do you still think that?
6) some native americans see this as an opportunity to tell their version of
history. do you think it is? will it happen?
7) specifically, what do you hear about what is or is not being done vis a
vis lewis and clark among the Montana Blackfeet(foot).

thanks.

[Craven, Jim]




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