Thursday, August 18, 2011
ICTMN Printed My Article!
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/the-nhpas-cultural-resource-surveys-inefficient-and-too-expensive/
Monday, August 15, 2011
Rule #2: A Work in Progress.... Not Authored By Me
Tribal politics rule number two: Never apologize for speaking in front of elders, those elders are long gone and they were called traditional and they required you to stand by your word not apologize for them. Who ever started that fad must went to catholic school. Always stand by your word, man or woman, always speak what is in your heart and on your mind, NO APOLOGIES... Copyright, National Native Media, 2011
RULE #1 - A work in progress... Not authored by me...
First rule of tribal politics: Remember, the actions you take today for the benefit of others may not be appreciated, dont dwell upon that fact... live in the knowledge of your own purpose and your own absolution. Copyright, National Native Media, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
This is a difficult column to read, but it must have been even more difficult to write...
I found this on-line and it is quite provocative. It is not about my home or my people but it makes me think about the essence and nature of tribal leadership. The tribal, the native way of leading and being led is completely different than that of American society's. Sovereignty allows us to chose our own methods to remedy the social ills afflicting our people, so when we choose western methodologies and beliefs and begin applying them to issues, we are not acting as sovereigns. We have to quit hanging around the fort, as Roy C. would say...
The opiate for the masses
by Frank John King III
Columnist
I remember a while back when the hog plant issue was just starting
out, a councilman stood up and said, "Pigs are sacred to the Lakota
people".
He made this statement to justify the project when a few college
students stood before the council and said the land is sacred and
shouldn't be polluted with this project.
If there is one lesson that can be learned in this statement it's that
many times tribal council will do anything to hide or justify
political agendas even if it means making a mockery out of our
culture.
Time and time again our sacred Pipe, traditional religion, heritage
and ceremonies have been used to blind the people from the truth by
tribal council. They use our culture to control the people with spiritual
misinterpretations that clearly have nothing to do with reality.
They drug the tribal masses with the opiate of lies and deceit to hide
their corruption and malfeasance.
I have always said that no man is above the sacred Pipe, no man, and
yet today we still have tribal political figures who say they are
above everyone else, including the Pipe. They string along their
bought-and-paid-for spiritual leaders who will do anything and say
anything to keep them in
power.
Our Lakota religion is constantly being abused and misused by our own
people. I have heard stories about how unsuspecting followers are
sexually and financially taken advantage of by Lakota spiritual
leaders all across my reservation. These men lust for this god power
like the cult leader Jim Jones when he ordered all his followers to
commit mass suicide.
These self-proclaimed Lakota spiritual leaders are the biggest fakers
on our lands. They have no idea what our religion is about and know
that many tribal members are also in the same boat so they figure
whatever they say about religion, truth or not, can be used against
the people.
One man stood up in front of the university board on my reservation,
after they fired the university president for justifiable reasons, and
said, "Your children will suffer because you fired this man."
This has to be the biggest load of c-- I have ever heard and the
greatest insult of our Lakota traditions next to the "Pigs are sacred"
statement. But this abuse of our Lakota heritage happens all the time
because our people have learned not to respect our heritage.
You don't hear them say, "Jesus will kill your children" because they
are too afraid to use the name of Jesus in vain.
Our spiritual leaders on the Rosebud reservation involved with this
political issue are making a laughing stock out of our tribe. They are
abusing the culture with their lame statements. They are attacking the
people with their threats of spells and witchcraft as if our culture
could harm children if people don't obey them and their misleading
intentions. They use our traditions to drug the people into confusion.
I truly believe that a tyrant on any reservation will do anything to
stay in power even if that means abusing the culture of our people to
do so.
Today I don't believe in any of these medicine men on my reservation,
except for a couple and you know who you are. I believe many of these
cult leaders are scammers, fooling American Indians and non-Indians
alike to gratify their lust for sex, drugs, money and political power.
I am ashamed of them and what comes out of their mouths when they act
like spiritual leaders while they hide their true selves behind their
mask of deceit. They are play toys for the corrupt tribal leaders to
use against the people as a tool of oppression.
If our history has taught us anything, it's that we will always have
sellouts, thieves, ethnic abusers and cult leaders amongst us. But
when it comes down to it, it's the people who hold the true power on
our reservations. Our people are our greatest resource and if we truly
want to change our reservations into something better then we must
include every single tribal member in this change.
No one man is above the people and no one spiritual leader can harm
the nation with his lies and abuse of the Lakota ways when we as a
nation call on him to prove his power, a power no man has.
I will say this. Don't believe the c... that comes out of the
spiritual leaders' mouths if they are aligned with corruption because
when a forensic audit is conducted reality will set in and the money
trail will show every one the truth about who is abusing the people.
If there is to be accountability, then we must hold those responsible
for corruption accountable, without mercy and without compassion.
If sovereignty is what we want, then along with the sovereignty comes
responsibility. If your relatives are stealing from the tribe then it
is their choice, not anyone else's and they must pay for the crime
like any other criminal.
The people can free themselves from the prison of the mind and when
this happens our nations will be reborn. We do this by understanding
the reality and power of the Great Spirit and sacred Pipe and condemn
those who abuse our culture for political gain.
Editor's note: Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the
Standing Stone Media Inc., publishers of Indian Country Today.
The opiate for the masses
by Frank John King III
Columnist
I remember a while back when the hog plant issue was just starting
out, a councilman stood up and said, "Pigs are sacred to the Lakota
people".
He made this statement to justify the project when a few college
students stood before the council and said the land is sacred and
shouldn't be polluted with this project.
If there is one lesson that can be learned in this statement it's that
many times tribal council will do anything to hide or justify
political agendas even if it means making a mockery out of our
culture.
Time and time again our sacred Pipe, traditional religion, heritage
and ceremonies have been used to blind the people from the truth by
tribal council. They use our culture to control the people with spiritual
misinterpretations that clearly have nothing to do with reality.
They drug the tribal masses with the opiate of lies and deceit to hide
their corruption and malfeasance.
I have always said that no man is above the sacred Pipe, no man, and
yet today we still have tribal political figures who say they are
above everyone else, including the Pipe. They string along their
bought-and-paid-for spiritual leaders who will do anything and say
anything to keep them in
power.
Our Lakota religion is constantly being abused and misused by our own
people. I have heard stories about how unsuspecting followers are
sexually and financially taken advantage of by Lakota spiritual
leaders all across my reservation. These men lust for this god power
like the cult leader Jim Jones when he ordered all his followers to
commit mass suicide.
These self-proclaimed Lakota spiritual leaders are the biggest fakers
on our lands. They have no idea what our religion is about and know
that many tribal members are also in the same boat so they figure
whatever they say about religion, truth or not, can be used against
the people.
One man stood up in front of the university board on my reservation,
after they fired the university president for justifiable reasons, and
said, "Your children will suffer because you fired this man."
This has to be the biggest load of c-- I have ever heard and the
greatest insult of our Lakota traditions next to the "Pigs are sacred"
statement. But this abuse of our Lakota heritage happens all the time
because our people have learned not to respect our heritage.
You don't hear them say, "Jesus will kill your children" because they
are too afraid to use the name of Jesus in vain.
Our spiritual leaders on the Rosebud reservation involved with this
political issue are making a laughing stock out of our tribe. They are
abusing the culture with their lame statements. They are attacking the
people with their threats of spells and witchcraft as if our culture
could harm children if people don't obey them and their misleading
intentions. They use our traditions to drug the people into confusion.
I truly believe that a tyrant on any reservation will do anything to
stay in power even if that means abusing the culture of our people to
do so.
Today I don't believe in any of these medicine men on my reservation,
except for a couple and you know who you are. I believe many of these
cult leaders are scammers, fooling American Indians and non-Indians
alike to gratify their lust for sex, drugs, money and political power.
I am ashamed of them and what comes out of their mouths when they act
like spiritual leaders while they hide their true selves behind their
mask of deceit. They are play toys for the corrupt tribal leaders to
use against the people as a tool of oppression.
If our history has taught us anything, it's that we will always have
sellouts, thieves, ethnic abusers and cult leaders amongst us. But
when it comes down to it, it's the people who hold the true power on
our reservations. Our people are our greatest resource and if we truly
want to change our reservations into something better then we must
include every single tribal member in this change.
No one man is above the people and no one spiritual leader can harm
the nation with his lies and abuse of the Lakota ways when we as a
nation call on him to prove his power, a power no man has.
I will say this. Don't believe the c... that comes out of the
spiritual leaders' mouths if they are aligned with corruption because
when a forensic audit is conducted reality will set in and the money
trail will show every one the truth about who is abusing the people.
If there is to be accountability, then we must hold those responsible
for corruption accountable, without mercy and without compassion.
If sovereignty is what we want, then along with the sovereignty comes
responsibility. If your relatives are stealing from the tribe then it
is their choice, not anyone else's and they must pay for the crime
like any other criminal.
The people can free themselves from the prison of the mind and when
this happens our nations will be reborn. We do this by understanding
the reality and power of the Great Spirit and sacred Pipe and condemn
those who abuse our culture for political gain.
Editor's note: Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the
Standing Stone Media Inc., publishers of Indian Country Today.
Monday, August 8, 2011
RAPID CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT SHOOTING
A week ago, bullets from a gun held in the hand of a known gang affiliate, tore through the bodies of three Rapid City Police Officers. One officer died that day. Another died today. One more lay in a Rapid City hospital. When the three men woke that morning and readied themselves for duty they followed a ritual that includes arming themselves with their duty weapons, which should mentally prepare a person for the possibility of using lethal force on a suspect endangering the lives of people they swore to protect or themselves. In reality, that fateful morning was probably just another day on the job and they were thinking about their to-do lists at home, upcoming events, who knows. They knew they had a dangerous job but they never thought that responding to that call would have ended in gunfire and the loss of human life.
As a former PIO for the Collier County Sheriff's Office and a wife of a man who served on the SWAT Team, not a day went by that I didn't think about the reality of the criminal mind and how any day could be the last day. I must admit every time I part from my uniformed friends, I say a little prayer that I will see them again. I respect their calling as defenders of life and property.
I had not heard of this tragic incident until a Lakota friend from South Dakota sent me a text that said, "An Indian punk shot three cops in Rapid City... Two cops died and shooter died... Indian was named Daniel Tiger." The text made me stop what I was doing and pause to catch my breathe. "Indian punk shot three cops..." That statement alone made my head spin. As I read the links to the story and saw how this incident could lead to even more strained relations and quite possibly more deaths, I wondered what I would do... I wondered how this was being handled by the Mayor, the Tribes, the residents (both native and non-native) of a town with no more than 63,000 people.
I began to read the coverage and saw how the community and the Police Department are charactizing this incident along racial terms, "Indian man shoots three white police officers." This incident is not an issue of race - even for western Rapid City, South Dakota, a town widely-known in Indian Country for its racist activities.
I beg you all to look at this for what it is... A young 22-year old gang affiliate shot three innocent men doing their job. If this man is a known gang member, this is an issue of gang violence and its impact on society. This is a time for communities to get behind law enforcement to determine whether there is sufficient training in place for officers to identify known violent street-level offenders. Let's examine this issue for what it is and not for what we want it to be.
The issue of racism and oppression is REAL. Let's concentrate on the real issues at hand and let's explore the solutions together. Let's get people like Walter Lamar (Lamar and Associates) into these communities and provide proper training to both law enforcement and community members on the issue of gangs and all of the criminal activity that surround them.
Let's not cheapen the importance and significance of our men and women in law enforcement. Let's not ignore the effects of living in a racist society either... These incidents remind me of my favorite Bob Marley song, War...
"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior, is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, there is war. Until the day when the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes, there is war...."
We know it exists but let's look at what really happened here, at that given moment in time when 22 year old Daniel Tiger made the conscious decision to use his concealed weapon to fire upon the three police officers who confronted him about an open container and a disturbance. He did not shoot at three WHITE police officers, he fired a lethal weapon at three police officers. That decision belonged to Daniel Tiger.
Tribal Historic Preservation Is an Illusion!
"President Obama and I are committed to empowering American Indian people, restoring the integrity of a nation-to-nation relationship with tribes, fulfilling the United States' trust responsibilities and working cooperatively to build stronger economies and safer Indian communities." Secretary Ken Salazar, April 2009
One of the President's first official actions was to issue an Executive Order directing federal agencies under the control of his cabinet secretaries to develop tribal consultation policies. Regardless of whether these agencies moved at an acceptable pace or in an acceptable manner, the fact that this was on the assignment board for all secretaries was monumental. Two and a half years into his administration, Tribes have had more opportunities than ever before to identify problems, propose solutions, and advance their priorities to the highest level of American government.
Almost every national tribal association has spoken about tribal economies, economic development, sustainability, and land use issues (all under the cover of sovereignty). This is critical point when considering one primary point of contention for me during my tenure with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as an executive officer charged with the responsibility of the protection and preservation of our Tribe's historic resources, the THPO was one of my departments. Not a day would pass when we weren't reminded of how our issues never made it to the table even though our Tribal Chairman and Council, represented by legal counsel, put the BIA on notice.
The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), in addition to its layers of regulations protecting historic and cultural resources, also authorizes Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPO). Not to go into great detail, the NHPA requires cultural resource surveys whenever a federal action is initiated. This is critical because any development of any reservation is pretty much a federal action because of ground disturbing activity or funding sources, at the very least. I know - your eyes are glazing over - but stay with me here... Who performs cultural resource surveys? For our Tribe, the BIA Eastern Regional Office has to review and approve all actions. So...a cultural resource survey, performed according to the Secretary of Interior's standards, must be reviewed by the BIA's Regional Archaeologist. Did I mention that for all Tribes east of the Mississippi there is one archaeologist? One. Now, let's say the Tribe pays for the survey because the federal agency charged with the trust responsibility never did any environmental or cultural surveys on their own. The data collected by the Tribe or their consultant belongs to the Tribe. So,when the report goes to the BIA Archaeologist to review and approve, what information do they have to base their opinion? Wait, it gets more complicated because after the BIA approves, they send it to the SHPO or THPO for concurrence. Yep... the THPO!
Sooooo... to save everyone time and money, why bring sovereignty into it, can we either amend the regs or legislation to bypass the BIA when a Tribe has a THPO? The Seminole Tribe of Florida has its own site file, archaeologists, and archaeological collection inventoried and stored with the nation's first and only tribally-governed museum to earn accreditation. Capacity and ability are not an issue for the Tribe because they invest in the protection or preservation of its historic resources. This is Seminole. There are Tribes who do not have the funding to make historic preservation or its requirements a priority because they have people to feed, educate and shelter.
To expand on this issue yet again, do you know how much a cultural resource survey costs? Thousands of dollars per acre! This is not an inexpensive federal requirement for Tribes who wish to use the land held in trust by the federal government! Fences, wells, houses, government buildings, schools, clinics, utility lines, sheds, chickees, you name it - you dig a hole or disturb the ground and/or use one penny of federal funding, NHPA kicks in.
USET's tribal leaders (United South and Eastern Tribes) passed two resolutions (2010 and 2011) calling for the Secretary of Indian Affairs to add cultural resources to the matrix of budget priorities.
So for all who are preaching the importance of building tribal economies good luck with that until someone, anyone, is willing to discuss this in the daylight!
One of the President's first official actions was to issue an Executive Order directing federal agencies under the control of his cabinet secretaries to develop tribal consultation policies. Regardless of whether these agencies moved at an acceptable pace or in an acceptable manner, the fact that this was on the assignment board for all secretaries was monumental. Two and a half years into his administration, Tribes have had more opportunities than ever before to identify problems, propose solutions, and advance their priorities to the highest level of American government.
Almost every national tribal association has spoken about tribal economies, economic development, sustainability, and land use issues (all under the cover of sovereignty). This is critical point when considering one primary point of contention for me during my tenure with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as an executive officer charged with the responsibility of the protection and preservation of our Tribe's historic resources, the THPO was one of my departments. Not a day would pass when we weren't reminded of how our issues never made it to the table even though our Tribal Chairman and Council, represented by legal counsel, put the BIA on notice.
The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), in addition to its layers of regulations protecting historic and cultural resources, also authorizes Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPO). Not to go into great detail, the NHPA requires cultural resource surveys whenever a federal action is initiated. This is critical because any development of any reservation is pretty much a federal action because of ground disturbing activity or funding sources, at the very least. I know - your eyes are glazing over - but stay with me here... Who performs cultural resource surveys? For our Tribe, the BIA Eastern Regional Office has to review and approve all actions. So...a cultural resource survey, performed according to the Secretary of Interior's standards, must be reviewed by the BIA's Regional Archaeologist. Did I mention that for all Tribes east of the Mississippi there is one archaeologist? One. Now, let's say the Tribe pays for the survey because the federal agency charged with the trust responsibility never did any environmental or cultural surveys on their own. The data collected by the Tribe or their consultant belongs to the Tribe. So,when the report goes to the BIA Archaeologist to review and approve, what information do they have to base their opinion? Wait, it gets more complicated because after the BIA approves, they send it to the SHPO or THPO for concurrence. Yep... the THPO!
Sooooo... to save everyone time and money, why bring sovereignty into it, can we either amend the regs or legislation to bypass the BIA when a Tribe has a THPO? The Seminole Tribe of Florida has its own site file, archaeologists, and archaeological collection inventoried and stored with the nation's first and only tribally-governed museum to earn accreditation. Capacity and ability are not an issue for the Tribe because they invest in the protection or preservation of its historic resources. This is Seminole. There are Tribes who do not have the funding to make historic preservation or its requirements a priority because they have people to feed, educate and shelter.
To expand on this issue yet again, do you know how much a cultural resource survey costs? Thousands of dollars per acre! This is not an inexpensive federal requirement for Tribes who wish to use the land held in trust by the federal government! Fences, wells, houses, government buildings, schools, clinics, utility lines, sheds, chickees, you name it - you dig a hole or disturb the ground and/or use one penny of federal funding, NHPA kicks in.
USET's tribal leaders (United South and Eastern Tribes) passed two resolutions (2010 and 2011) calling for the Secretary of Indian Affairs to add cultural resources to the matrix of budget priorities.
So for all who are preaching the importance of building tribal economies good luck with that until someone, anyone, is willing to discuss this in the daylight!
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