Standing Rock: many nations, one people

"It is not necessary for

eagles to be crows"

Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa

Its almost 2 AM and I made a Facebook post about the Kanaka Maoli who came to help protect the waters (Native Hawaiian's). This was very important to me as I recall the relationships that our people have made with them over the years, we've supported them for their independence from the US, which was reaffirmed by former President Clinton signing an apology to the Kanaka Maoli's for the unlawful overthrow of the lawful Hawaiian Kingdom in the by the United States military and its agents. The apology was toothless, but it acknowledged the truth they were illegally overthrown by force and if you have colonized a people and their lands, the only right thing is to relinquish your control over it. I know it bothers people that we all do not chose to be Americans, but I believe the quote above, attributed to Sitting Bull, is very relevant within the context of the colonization to eradicate our culture and our connections to the land. And you are in the lands of the Hunkpapa.

When I went to Hawai'i, I was not aware of the Akaka Bill hearings starting up in Honolulu until my friends, whom I was visiting on Kaua'i asked me if I was there for the hearings. I said I wasn't aware of a hearing on the Bill, which was almost a carbon copy of the Indian Reorganization Act. If passed, the bill would have submitted them to the authority and jurisdiction of the United States. Creating a roadblock to their independence. They called for a friends on their island to come and share their stories with me. We met at a bed and breakfast by the beach, built and owned by Michael and Sondra Grace, who were evicted from their home, previously, which was torn down (news report at 25:00).

The people who came told me of their history and their stories of resistance, it is no different than ours and they seek to do it in a Pono (good) way, as do the Hunkpapa's at Standing Rock, who put the call out for support in protecting the waters. There was one man who came, Henry Smith, he told me his brother was on a waiting list of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) for a very long time to move onto his lot where DHHL constructed his home, which was of sub-quality. He fought them for several years to repair his home, but lost and was going to be evicted. When the police came to evict him, he poured gasoline throughout his house and sat down in a chair in his home before he lit a match. It was powerful and tragic event at the same time. What has never left me is that while he was speaking, he collapsed. An ambulance took him to the hospital where he died from massive heart failure. As the medics were placing Henry on the stretcher, I went and placed my hands on his arm and told him I would make sure others would know his story. I shared it with the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs after a Kanaka said he would yield me his time to speak. After speaking against the Bill and sharing Henry's story, the committee turned of my microphone and walked out on me as I was still speaking.

I've shared what I remember with many people over the years, but it is important that I share it today with everyone because the next thing I want to share is what has been on my mind for a few days now, and somehow, with the Kanaka Maoli being there now - I felt everyone who needs to be there is there now, and I need to share the following with you.

Most people know that I have worked with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee over the years. And some may remember when I did the spiritual fast at the White House in 2009. It was there sitting across from the White House holding my pipe bag that I thought about all the years we have been coming to DC to raise awareness or push for legislation, and what had we accomplished in securing our independence as a sovereign nation, upholding the terms of those treaties, or reconciling the manipulation of their laws that resulted in further loss of lands and resources. I prayed and thought on those things during that time. And before the end of the fast that it seemed to come to me that a Grand Council of the Indigenous Nations in the Western Hemisphere needs to take place. It needs to happen with traditional Chiefs, Headmen, Clan Mothers, and spiritual leaders of the people to bring us of one mind.

I saw how our Native pride resurged in the Seventies through actions by young Natives led by traditionals, and I saw how the movement became fractured by the efforts of the FBI, federal government and corporations, with many of our people dead or in jail for standing up. Their sacrifices did awakened the spirit of our ancestors within us, and we began to stand against a system that has yet to deal honorably with us.

It is always a fight when it comes to returning stolen lands or money, as in the Cobell Settlement. Now it is seems they are intent on compromising our sovereignty with every lawsuit, settlement or Acts of Congress, and even the states are pushing harder, in some cases.  Those battles has us all over the country, including the UN, throughs the International Indian Treaty Council, on all types of issues, from mascots to traditional spirituality in the prisons, to water rights. Some people tried to weaken us by telling us what is more important, but what I have always know is that they are all important. They are all inter-connected, but today, we all know what is at the forefront, that is why you are there. And it looks like you will be there for a long time if DAPL is permitted to proceed.

You have the time and the people now, I simply ask everyone to consider if it is time to establish a coordinated plan to secure our sovereignty as a nation and not a semi-dependent nation? Shouldn't we be the ones to regulate the waters and other resources from our nation without asking for permission?

How we do this is through the support of the traditional leadership and a shared vision renewed through your defense of the waters. It wouldn't happen overnight since it took generations to bring us where we are now in a concerted effort, take time to conceive of what our world would look like if we were truly sovereign, along with understanding what it really implies on an international level. I worked with a group called the League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations with the idea of being many nations, but one people in how we rose to support one another across the hemisphere.
That is the thought I want to share with everyone. It is yours, do with it as you will. And should some people want to come together and discuss it to take it back to their communities, do so with one mind. The sacred fires have been lit and prayers have been made for what you are all doing. Yakoke! 



"Lets put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children" Sitting Bull

Liberation Day: Wounded Knee 1973

Bobby Onco (1950 - 2014) Wounded Knee 1973

Forty-one years ago tonight, the Elders said NO MORE! Thus began the siege at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Many of us know the history, we know the people who were there and we know that this was the moment necessity brought the people to. The occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC in Nov. 1972 was the fuse being lit to an explosive and deadly confrontation between Native people and the federal forces of the United States Government. It was a time when America realized that John Wayne had failed to kill us all in his Hollywood movies!

I was 12 years old when the Trail of Broken Treaties converged on DC, and when they went under cover of night and secured Wounded Knee, just a few weeks after the Custer Courthouse riot.  The narrative is best told by Carter Camp, who joined the ancestors a few months ago and is being honored this evening in Manderson, Pine Ridge Reservation:

Ah-ho, My Relations,

I ask you to remember that our reasons for going to Wounded Knee still exist and that means the need for struggle and resistance also still exist. Our land and sacred sites are threatened as never before. Even our sacred Mother herself is faced with unnatural warming caused by extreme greed.

In some areas of conflict between our people and those we signed treaties with, it is best to negotiate or "work within the system." But, because our struggle is one of survival, there are also times when a warrior must stand fast even at the risk of one's life. I believed that in 1973 when I was 30 and I believe it today at 70. But to me Wounded Knee '73 was really not about the fight, it was about the strong statement that our traditional way of living in this world is not about to disappear and our people are not a "vanishing race" as wasicu (white) education would have you believe. As time has passed and I see so many of our young people taking part in a traditional way of living and believing, I know our fight was worth it and those we lost for our movement died worthy deaths. [...]

Today is heavy with prayer and reminiscence for me. Not only are those who walk for the Yellowstone Buffalo reaching their destination, today is the anniversary of the night when, at the direction of the Oglala Chiefs, I went with a special squad of warriors to liberate Wounded Knee in advance of the main AIM caravan.

For security reasons the people had been told everyone was going to a meeting/wacipi in Porcupine, the road goes through Wounded Knee. When the People arrived at the Trading Post we had already set up a perimeter, taken 11 hostages, run the BIA cops out of town, cut most phone lines, and begun 73 days of the best, most free time of my life. The honor of being chosen to go first still lives strong in my heart.

That night we had no idea what fate awaited us. It was a cold night with not much moonlight,  I clearly remember the nervous anticipation I felt as we drove the back way from Oglala into Wounded Knee. The Chiefs had tasked me with a mission and we were sworn to succeed, of that I was sure, but I couldn't help wondering if we were prepared. The FBI, BIA and marshalls had fortified Pine Ridge with machine-gun bunkers and armored personnel carriers with M-60s. They had unleashed the GOON squad [Dick Wilson's Guardians of the Oglala Nation] on the people and a reign of terror had begun. We knew we had to fight, but we could not fight onwasicu terms. We were lightly armed and dependent on the weapons and ammo inside the Wounded Knee trading post, I worried that we would not get to them before the shooting started.

As we stared silently into the darkness driving into the hamlet, I tried to foresee what opposition we would encounter and how to neutralize it. We were approaching a sacred place and each of us knew it. We could feel it deep inside. As a warrior leading warriors I humbly prayed to Wakonda for the lives of all and the wisdom to do things right. Never before or since have I offered my tobacco with such a plea or put on my feathers with such purpose. It was the birth of the Independent Oglala Nation.

Things went well for us that night, we accomplished our task without loss of life. Then, in the cold darkness as we waited for Dennis and Russ to bring in the caravan (or for the fight to start), I stood on the bank of the shallow ravine where our people had been murdered by the 7th Cavalry [in 1890]. There I prayed for the defenseless ones, torn apart by Hotchkiss cannons and trampled under hooves of steel by drunken wasicu. I could feel the touch of their spirits as I eased quietly into the gully and stood silently, waiting for my future, touching my past.

Finally, I bent over and picked a sprig of sage — whose ancestors in 1890 had been nourished by the blood of Red babies, ripped from their mothers' dying grasp and bayoneted by the evil ones. As I washed myself with that sacred herb, I became cold in my determination and cleansed of fear. I looked for Big Foot and YellowBird in the darkness and I said aloud:

"We are back, my relations, we are home."

The government hated that Native people found the perseverance to stand up for their rights and lashed back with corrupt criminal investigations and divisive tactics through the US Attorney Generals office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Examples were made of several Native people who dared to speak up, but the movement had already started and advances have been made, which is eloquently stated by Janet McCloud:

Old Acquaintance: The poetry and power of Janet McCloud

Before the organization of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, Indian reservations and urban Indian communities were pockets of poverty.

In some areas there was no employment for any Indians; average unemployment was 80%.

The infant mortality rate was one of the highest in the world, and diseases attributable to starvation and severe malnutrition were epidemic.

The average life span for all Indians was 42 years.

Large extended families lived in one room shacks and in abandoned, wrecked cars. Most Native Americans depended upon their two feet for transportation.

Health care for Indians would more properly be called health brutality. Indians were often used as human guinea pigs for abominable experiments.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs had total control over all Indians, their land, rights and resources, and it was open season for all exploiters. For a minimum fee the BIA had a green light to do any type of damage to Indians or take everything that Indians owned.

No rights were respected or defended — not human, treaty, civil, constitutional or an Indian's right arm.

AIM sacrifices The struggle of the American Indian Movement to create positive social changes for their people is well known, but not the sacrifices they made.

Some of these unsung warriors made the supreme sacrifice; they lie in unmarked, untended graves across the land. Many others sit forgotten in dingy prison cells. Yet all Indians benefit from these sacrifices.

There were and are other organized resistance groups of Indian people, like the Red Power movement of young college educated Indians who created a movement philosophy, and the fishing rights activists of the Northwest who organized an effective resistance to protect the aboriginal rights of Indian people. But the American Indian Movement was unique, for it was nationally organized and internationally known.

AIM's brave and daring efforts to uplift the lives of their people, to challenge a powerfully hostile enemy, and to promote a better social order for all Indian people, inspired not only their own people but the oppressed and downtrodden of the world. AIM became heroes for the North Vietnamese, the IRA of Ireland, the peasants of southern France, the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Africa. The entire world knew and admired AIM.

The greatest beneficiaries of the American Indian Movement are the tribal council leaders, who are quick to seize the opportunities created by the movement, and to claim unwarranted credit for the positive social changes won for Indian people. Tribal officials often hate and renounce AIM, and the BIA and FBI can always call on the worst of these tribal leaders to slander the AIM leadership.

Today, the beneficiaries of the movement live in new homes, drive cars, live longer, have better health, are better educated, have good-paying jobs, and much more. But AIM leaders are recipients of vicious, slanderous poison from the ungrateful and jealous-hearted.

Few will acknowledge that real change only began to take place across this land after the tremendous sacrifices of the young warriors of the American Indian people.

Where are the tribal leaders who take the credit for all the positive changes in Indian country? Back in Washington, D.C. fighting for more program monies, smoke shops and gambling or liquor licenses.

The American Indian Movement supports the efforts of all the tribal leaders and programs that genuinely promote the health, education and welfare of Indian people. Neither AIM nor any other organized resistance movement of Indian people begrudges one benefit their people receive; they rejoice at all improvements, for this was what they fought for. But the warriors never grabbed the benefits for themselves, and the few who did were never true movement people.

That is how you tell the difference between leaders and opportunists.

Bureaucrats and sorcerers. The tribal leaders and others who denounce AIM justify their base actions by pointing out the human weaknesses of individual AIM leaders or warriors, with never a glance at their own. Individuals, unfortunately, do have weaknesses. But the survival of Indian Nations and sovereignty does not rest upon the shoulders of anyone man or woman, no matter how strong.

Indian people are in real need of effective social service programs. Four hundred years of abuse at the hands of European immigrants have left deep scars on Indians. It will take many years and many more dollars to improve the lifestyle of Indian people. Yet racists expect change overnight and clamor for an end to tax dollars spent to rectify the atrocities committed against Indian people.

Indian people with dedication and expertise are generally considered a threat by despotic tribal leaders. If they do not silently walk the sacred "program guidelines," they soon find themselves standing in long unemployment lines. The potentially good social service programs are constipated with bureaucratic red tape from D.C., which protects tribal leaders in all their outrageous acts against their people; the FBI and BIA are quick to come to the defense of the tribal bureaucrats.

And who protects the Indian people now that the FBI has almost destroyed the American Indian Movement? Nobody. Do tribal leaders who claim the credit for AIM's labors and sacrifices rush to protect and defend Indian people against the onslaughts they face today? If you call them for assistance or help, do they answer your calls? Do you get past their secretaries? Only rarely.

Our future as a distinct people in control of our destiny rests upon the strength of our collective unity and common purpose.

Indian people can disagree till doomsday about which defensive strategy is best, or whether we should even resist. If we continue to disagree on politics, policy and philosophy, and enter into destructive personality clashes, we will lose all. Our enemies never rest. They are ever unified around the purpose of achieving our total destruction.

A backlash is striking with deadly force, and without much opposition, at the most defenseless segments of Indian people. Our children in public schools are ganged up upon and beaten. Thousands are political prisoners in non-Indian foster homes. Indian women are being sterilized at an unprecedented rate. Racist courts overpopulate the prisons with Indian youth, where they are psychologically and physically brutalized and beaten, with no one to protect or defend them.

The American people themselves do not call the shots in this land. Policy and politicians are set and run by an international cartel of financiers, who constantly intrigue and plot for greater profit and control over the world's resources and human labor. Even the educational systems are set up to meet their needs for a never-ending supply of cheap, easy to control industrial slaves, cannon fodder and consumers. This master cult of financial sorcerers uses people as playthings and pits us one against another. We all end up the losers.

Remember our warriors. The war against Indian people and Nations is far from over. Indian people from Akwesasmi sit starving and freezing in ditches trying to protect their traditional chiefs and leaders from U.S.-puppet Indian leaders and the New York SWAT teams. The sacred Black Hills of the Sioux Nations are set to be exploited by uranium interests in 1980. Indian people from the Southwest are dying from low-level radiation poisoning. Indian children were still placed in foster homes in the International Year of the Child, and Indian clan-families are disappearing.

We need our warriors, and where are they? Dead in unmarked graves; in prisons; in hiding, pursued relentlessly by the FBI; or paroled to one county in one state, unable to travel or forbidden to talk for or about their people lest they be imprisoned again.

How many Indian people whose lives have improved remember our dead or imprisoned warriors?

Dead warriors
Tina Trudell and family
Anna Mae Aquash
Dallas Thundershield
Buddy Lamont
Pedro Bissonette
Hilda Red Bear
Richard Oakes
Raymond Yellow Thunder
Wesley Bad Heart Bull
Philip Celeay
Frank Clearwater
Clarence Cross
Maurice LeDeaux
Angelo Martinez
Joe Stuntz
Jimmy Little
Frank Condon
Byron DeSersa
George Gap
Hobart Horse
Sandra Wounded Foot, Jr.
Calvin George
Nelson Small Legs, Jr.
John Waubanascum
Arlin Pamanet
Baby Girl Yellow Bird
Jancita Eagle Deer
Robert Rosares
Tom Bad Cob, Sr.
Jeanette Bissonette
Richard Lee Lamont
Charley Killsree
Terry Williams
Filmore Stands
David Dobbs
Leon Gaze
Lloyd Broncheau

Political prisoners, Dec. 1979
Leonard Peltier
Rocque Duenas
Ted Means
Russell Means
Dennis Banks
Vance Yellowhand
Mary Settler

It is time Indian people, the beneficiaries of the American Indian Movement, took some time to count their blessings, to give credit where credit is due, to send a card and a few dollars for legal defense to the imprisoned warriors. An investment in them is an investment in the future.

Don't forget them. We may never see their like again.

I pray and feel confidant that this spirit will arise as the need calls for it. I only hope that we all remember the success'es as well as the excess'es of those times. It is a lesson for us to learn from and continue to grow so that one day, we may not observe a Liberation Day, but an Independence Day of our own.

This Sunday, March 2nd, join me on my show Eaglemanz: Chahta Nation as  we visit with some of the veterans of Wounded Knee.

Empowering the Chahta People

Some of you have heard about the Choctaw Voting Block through my posts or other sources. Its' emergence in the world of the Chahta people is one that came from the people themselves. The ones who got an up-close and personal look at how things are being ran by executives and upper management of the Choctaw Nation administration; the ones who experienced unfairness and double-standards; and from those who were here at the beginning.

This is not an indictment against every employee of the CNO, but those who have the power to make things better or worse for a Chahta citizen. Such abuse of power should never be allowed to grow to the extent it has, and to some of our people it is frightening. I am outraged that our own people feel they cannot openly express themselves with fear of losing their job/services or that a relative may be terminated upon baseless allegations from which there is no recourse.


Recently, we held a public meeting of the CVB in Broken Bow and we had a good discussion in our small group about the history of the current CNO, constitutional issues, and elections, resulting in abuses of power. I imagine as we travel to other Chahta communities,we will hear a lot more, and we want to hear more so that as our numbers grow we can develop strategies to bring transparency, fairness and equality.


It will be a long process to get where we need to be since elections for tribal districts 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 12 will be next year. And in 2015, elections for the Chiefs Office and 
Tribal Districts 1,2,3,5,8, and 11 will take place. One method, along with public meetings in the districts is to establish chapters of the CVB in each district to organize community discussions of these issues and the needs of the people and our children and their children. If some of the executives and managers had their way, the CNO would just be a plain old corporation, but as we have been informed, the CDIB holders are in the way.


The people who run for these offices are our public servants, they should be working for us. Without us, there is no Choctaw Nation. It is important that we begin to consolidate our voices so that the future candidates will know what is expected of them.

So as this organization develops, stay connected with us and consider inviting us to your area. We would be happy to discuss issues, possible strategies in putting outspoken and committed representatives in the positions of council and Chiefs office. One popular discussion is how we can bring about a constitutional amendments or revisions with checks and balances that will hold those elected accountable to the people.


If your Chahta and want to stay current of what we are doing, subscribe to my blog and the CVB. I feel it is an important and sacred responsibility that every Chahta citizen and voter know what we will stand for and hope to achieve, the more our voices come together, the more effective we will be. This is the CVB position:

Mission:
To ensure the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is revered and cared for with the empowerment of Choctaw people in mind.  Ensuring success, we will nurture and provide the tools our Choctaw people require so that our Choctaw Nation caretakers will be Choctaw tribal members.

Vision:
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in the future will be a proud people whose government put their welfare above all else.  Choctaw children will be encouraged and empowered to become future leaders of our nation, our elders will be revered and respected.  Our businesses will support the education, the employment and the entrepreneurial spirit of our Choctaw people.

Values:
Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

1. Respect all things that are placed on this earth whether it is a person or plant
2. Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes, and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.
3. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
4. All people make mistakes. All mistakes can be forgiven.
5. Bad thoughts cause illness of mind, body, and spirit. Practice optimism.
6. Avoid hurting the heart of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.
7. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
8. Respect other beliefs. Do not force your beliefs on others.
9. Keep yourself balanced. Your mental self, spiritual self, emotional self, and physical self all need to be strong, pure, and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
10. Serve your people with a clean spirit – take nothing that doesn’t belong to you and take care of what belongs to us all

If you live near Broken Bow, feel free to send me a message. Those of us who were at the recent meeting will make some plans to have discussions about these issues, and we'll announce a time & place.

A Call to the Citizens of the Chahta (Choctaw) Nation!

Choctaw Voting Block

Voters Registration & Potluck Dinner

100 W. Circle Dr. - Broken Bow, OK

July 21 (Sat.)

 Meeting 5 PM (dinner 6:30 or 7 PM) 

CHAHTA'S BEING POLITICALLY PROACTIVE!

The Chahta People will be having council & Chief elections in the upcoming years, 2013 & 2015. As a people who survived the Trail of Tears and Death, we owe to our ancestors and future generations to shape our nation as we wish it, and that is an administration that is responsive and ACCOUNTABLE to the people!

We are all familiar with the problems, but let us come together and create our solutions together. It didn't become this way overnight, and it will take time to bring our voices together from across our Chahta Nation and across the land so that we can state what we expect from future candidates; whether it is Constitutional Amendments, employee rights or modifying the way our elections operates.

Please tell your Chahta friends & relatives, even if they live in different districts, to come and join us for more information and a dinner, please bring a dish. For more information, Contact Ben between 6 PM & 7:30 PM about the meeting/dinner or Stephanie at 417-439-9791 about the meeting. 

If you are online and want to learn about more issues being freely expressed. go to this blog:  http://choctawvotingblock.wordpress.com/

Yakoke!

The Cobell Four: standing firm for justice

There is no doubt about how important the Cobell case is to so many people, but take a moment to weigh how really important this case is, and if the settlement is really the kind of justice your ancestors really deserve? I know some people have been upset with some of the class members appealing the settlement and putting the disbursement checks on hold indefinitely. I've spoken with a few people who have said that in some cases, they weren't allowed to file their own lawsuit, and if they did, it was consolidated in the Cobell case. The first round of hearings is scheduled for February 16, in Washington, DC.


I wrote about my experience and thoughts from the hearing last summer in Washington, DC. It was really long, but you cannot detail it simply, so I'll try it here, but you can read more at this link: http://eaglemanz.blogspot.com/2011/06/cobell-settlement-knife-in-our-backs.html


This morning, Tim Giago wrote a piece about the "Cobell Four" and I'm indebted to him for inspiring me to write in support of Kimberly Cravens, Carol Good Bear, Mary Lee Johns, and Charles Colombe. I would also encourage other writers to consider writing about the settlement. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/slamming-the-door-on-the-_b_1254499.html


The necessity for creating this awareness isn't something trivial. Recently, the Cobell attorneys publicly released the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the Cobell Four, and told people to ask them why they were not getting their settlement checks. This action resulted in threatening and harassing phone calls. “To put my name out there for the public, I think that's scary that these attorneys would use this tactic and intimidate me into dropping my appeal,” (Carol Good Bear) said. “I don't have protection. If somebody is upset about all this and comes at me with a gun, what am I supposed to do?” Since then, their names have been removed from the letter. http://nativetimes.com/news/federal/6766-objectors-of-indian-trust-deal-decry-open-letter


Now lets' take a look at this objectively. These attorneys, Dennis Gingold, et al., are attorneys, and it is difficult to understand that they could not explain the basis of the appeal to the members of the Cobell class members. Instead, they said "Ask them!" Pretty childish way to address a question. I feel it has more to do with the fact that any changes to the settlement would scuttlebutt their multi-million dollar payday! This tactic was a way to "punish" the Cobell Four for holding up the settlement. We usually call it divide and conquer, where you manipulate a group of people to turn on each other. With actions by these attorneys, they are worse than the snake-oil salesman I compared them to.


According to the Native Times article:

"Each objector is appealing the settlement for his or her own reasons. Craven and Johns both say the settlement does not include an accounting for how much money was lost, which is what Cobell originally set out to accomplish, and that many class members did not understand that they could have opted out of the deal.

Johns and Good Bear both object to the class of landowners that the settlement creates, saying each is different and their claims should be assessed differently. Johns added that the tribes should have been involved in the process from the beginning, not just individuals."

Internet gossip states that they are only after more money. A few months ago, I spoke with a woman whose family has been fighting to be paid from a mining company that has been taken resources from their lands, which would amount to millions. When she contacted Gingold about opting out and why, she said Gingold told her that he would fight her on it. When the Cobell Four were filing their appeals, Gingold attempted to force them to put up a multi-million dollar surety bond. The court ruled against this request.

Here are just a few of the points about why the settlement is like a term of surrender, and more info on the settlement can be found at http://www.indiantrust.com:

• The federal government violated a trust, and in any case where this happens, the guardian is removed from that position. IN the early 1800's, we were decreed to be wards of the federal government, and that is why our lands are restricted or held in trust, and have Individual Indian Money Accounts. That is also why they manage our natural resources. If they were removed, they would lose control of this power. I objected and ask for dissolution of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but it was ignored.

• The 3.4 billion doesn't all come to us, only 1.4 billion. The Interior Department will be given 2 billion to purchase selected fractionated lands, which they state will be given to the tribes. My feeling is that these selected fractionated lands will be high in natural resources, and the tribe will be leasing to some corporation with the Interior Department in the middle.

• Any unused funds from the Interiors 2 billion will revert back to the US Treasury.

• If an heir to fractionated lands cannot be found, his share will be purchased anyway. And if that person does not claim his money within 5 years, it is taken out.

• Another aspect that I raised in conjunction with the forced sale of these fractionated lands is that we have an inherent right of sovereignty attached to these lands. The real estate will be purchased at fair market value, but what is the fair market value of sovereignty? Also, didn't we once care for these lands in common, the fractionation didn't become an issue until the government made it one. When these lands are gone, it is gone.

• The 60 million dollar education fund? Lets assume four years of college is $20,000 as an average. Do the math and tell me how many students will go to college on just 60 million. You'll find that it doesn't even make a drop in the bucket.

• And opting out was a very difficult decision for many to make in light of the likelihood another attorney would take a case that resulted in a settlement that took over 14 years. And some were not allowed to opt out or didn't understand they could. It would have been better if the decision was made first if the settlement was approved or not, before allowing people the choice to opt out.

• And of the 1.4 billion awarded, subtract the expenses the attorneys, which will make it 1.3 billion, and then all the associated costs with the administration of cutting checks. The likelihood of the settlement running out of money before everyone is compensated is real.

• One of the bad deals is that everyone will waive any claims to sue the government if they discover that they were ripped off for millions and can then prove it. They will have accepted their small checks and it is over.

These are just some of the downfalls to the Cobell Settlement. Some people will get more than the $1,500 people have heard about. I could use even that amount, I won't lie, but I don't believe that is what our ancestors suffered for all across this land in trying to hold on to what we have left, nor is it what our children deserve. I hear a lot of arguments that we can't wait because people are dying who will never see a check. You know what? People have been dying since this injustice started over a hundred years ago. It isn't about us, it is about our children and this lawsuit was about getting a full accounting so we could have justice for once.

Only for lack of having the finances to file my own appeal, the Cobell attorneys could not put my name out there as a target. My communications to the court went unanswered as to whether I could file an appeal without paying fees. I couldn't afford justice, but fortunately these four warriors have stood up for us and maybe this despicable settlement will be scrapped, and the fight for true justice may continue.

And for all those who are badmouthing and threatening these people, three whom are women, I know your mother did not raise you to threaten or speak badly of women like these. You only bring shame to your family and your nation. This is not how Native people are suppose to act, like rats being thrown pieces of rotten meat to turn on another. I expect better than that, so remember who you are and that this battle is for the birthright of our future generations!