[Marxism] THE TORTURE OF CHIEF IRON THUNDERHORSE

[Richard Menec <menecraj@xxxxxxx>]

http://orbstandard.com/News/Veterans/Torture_of_Chief_Iron_Thunderhorse.html

OrbStandard

THE TORTURE OF CHIEF IRON THUNDERHORSE
by Tom Big Warrior

On June 7th, 2005, ranking officers of the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice (TDCJ), at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, attacked an
elderly and legally blind inmate, Iron Thunderhorse, while he was attempting
to go to the chowhall. They knocked the glasses and UV shields from his face
and sprayed chemical pepper spray directly in his eyes. They proceeded to
spray him all over with the chemical irritant, kicking him and wrenching his
crippled arm behind his back.

For weeks, Iron had been denied entry into the chowhall, or any food at all,
as the TDCJ was attempting to starve him into complying with an order to
submit to a haircut, despite the fact that a federal court had recently
upheald that his civil rights were being violated. This was the latest
outrage in a struggle that has been going on for almost thirty years.

After being railroaded by the FBI's COINTELPRO program, along with many
other dissidents and activists around the country, in the early 70s, Iron
went to court to assert his rights as a Native American spiritual
practicioner. He got off the bus from jail to prison armed with a court
order requiring the TDCJ to respect these rights, including his right to
wear long hair. He was met by the warden and a "goon squad" of inmate
"building tenders" armed with baseball bats and axe handles. The warden tore
up Iron's court order and had his "goons" beat Iron unconscious and then
forcibly cut his hair.

Year after year, Iron has suffered repeated beatings and torture, including
years in solitary confinement in the sweltering Texas heat. His blindness
stems from repeated gassings and being sprayed in the eyes with pepper
spray. His body is covered with scars, only a few of which he received as a
soldier in Vietnam.

Iron is the hereditary chief of the Quinnipiac Renapi, a branch of the
greater Lenape Nation, whose homeland runs along the Quinnipiac River in
Connecticut. His people have the dubious distinction of being the first
North American tribe to be placed on a reservation by the English settlers
at New Haven, in the early 1600s.

Iron's long ordeal began when he stopped at a diner for a cup of coffee on
his way home from work, more than thirty years ago. Some of the local
Connecticut white boys, who saw him pull up on his classic Indian
motorcycle, thought it might be fun to give this long-haired Indian a hair
cut.

After years in the rough and tumble Indian boarding schools, his muscles now
hardened by long hours of construction work, Iron defended himself well. It
was a clear case of self-defense, but the white boys were sons of the local
establisment, and so the cops arrested Iron. But this was the least of his
problems, as the white boys, enraged by their deserved ass-whipping, began
to stalk Iron waiting for a chance to get revenge. It happened one winter
night when two of them spotted his car and gave chase. They ran the car off
the road, but Iron wasn't in it.

After the highway patrol informed him that his young wife and child had been
killed in the resulting "accident," Iron begain drinking heavily. Then he
donned his war-paint, got on his motorcycle, and went looking for revenge.
He found the boys before the police did, and when they arrived, they
arrested Iron for aggravated assault. It was then that the Army stepped in,
and Iron was released into the custody of a coloniel recruiting for special
service in Vietnam.

Having frequently run away from boarding school, Iron fine-tuned the
woodlands skills he had been taught as a child by living off the land in
wilderness areas. These skills, coupled with the rage he was going through,
made him an ideal candidate for the covert operations he was groomed for at
Fort Bragg and other army training schools. Placed under the direction of
the CIA, Iron was sent to Vietnam, where he took part in secret operations,
as well as elsewhere in S.E. Asia. But eventually, he and his team refused
to obey an illegal order, and they were sent back to California and
discharged.

Iron gravitated to the American Indian Movement (AIM) and to others standing
up to the system, and he became a target of COINTELPRO, the FBIs illegal
campaign to infiltrate, entrap, frame-up, assassinate and otherwize suppress
activists in the anti-war and other movements for social justice that had
emerged in the 60s. Their intent was to lock him up and throw away the key.

Iron went into prison in top physical condition and highly trained in
martial arts. Over the years, he fended off several attempts to assassinate
him, but now his health is precarious and he is virtually blind. "I suffer
from corneal dystrophy and have cataracts and open angle glaucoma, my
corneas no longer produce tears," Iron wrote in a complaint over the June
7th attack, explaining the excruciating pain he was in when he was at last
taken to the medical unit. "Lt. Lawrence and Sgt. Sheffield refused to allow
the duty nurse to conduct a proper PHD exam....Officers refused her
admonishment to un-handcuff me due to excruciating pain in [my] shoulder."
Iron had a pass, repeatedly renewed by doctors since 1992, prohibiting his
being cuffed behind his back due to his crippled arm. This was confiscated
after the attack.

"Officers refused to allow the nurse to flush my eyes with water or
otherwise decontaminate my person from the pepper spray. The OC pepper spray
saturated both eyes, face, head, ear canals, neck, torso, arms, palms,
buttocks and thighs. Officers kept saying, 'LET HIM BURN!'"

Iron also suffers from rhinitis and sebhorric dermatitis, both of which are
specifically mentioned on the precautions list for use of OC pepper spray.
This was known by the officers prior to this premeditated attack, and Iron
had reported that he had been repeatedly threatened with this type of
assault. It was obvious that an allergic reaction was taking place to the
pepper spray, yet Iron was prevented from showering until more than 12 hours
later.

This torture is compounded by medical neglect. Iron suffers from high blood
preasure, heart arrhythmia, sleep apnea, recurrent shingles and only has one
functioning lung. All of these conditions were aggravated by the assault,
yet his requests to see a doctor were not only denied, so were his regular
prescribed medications for these conditions.

According to his wife, Ruth Thunderhorse: "The warden tells me that Iron's
glasses were lost in the property confiscation after the 'assault,' but if
they cannot find them, they will get new ones. Anything to keep Iron from
his legal work, I assume. Since the warden hemmed and hawed when I asked if
Iron had his fan, that probably is not in his possession, either. He also
ignored my question as to whether Iron has his magnifier." Meanwhile, Iron's
glasses, UV shields and his navigational cane, which were confiscated, have
not been replaced, and his typewritter has been confiscated. Basically, the
TDCJ is doing all it can to frustrate Iron's efforts to defend his civil
rights, including deliberately endangering his health.

President Bush, who was formerly the Governor of Texas, can claim all he
wants that, "We do not condone torture," but the facts show otherwise. The
torture of Iron Thunderhorse continued throughout his term as governor and
it continues today. The federal court had more than enough justification to
put Iron in federal protective custody while he is litigating against the
TDCJ. The very essence of this case is the suppression of religious freedom
for Native Americans here in the USA, the history of which spans the whole
history of the US.

Ruth asks for letters of support addressed to Iron. His adddress is:

Iron Thunderhorse, #624391

Polunsky Unit, 3872 FM 350 South,

Livingston, TX 77351.

© OrbStandard.com / Natural Philosophers International



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