Category Archives: spirituality

Dividing First Nations in other ways…

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Scott Sewell has this up on how things changed when the gaming commissions came to town.  A sly way to divide tribes, eh?

There is just something wrong with giving tribes two choices: nuclear waste or gambling casinos.

But the federal government says to Indian people, “I will recognize your sovereignty if you have either a nuclear or toxic-waste dump or casino.” That’s pretty much the only way you get your sovereignty recognized as Indian people.
Let me be clear about this: We are sovereign. I don’t care if the federal government recognizes me, my nation, and my people. That’s of little consequence to me in the long-term picture. The federal government, as far as I’m concerned, is by and large illegal. Most transactions are illegal. It’s like being recognized by a bunch of hoodlums. But under the law, they recognize your sovereignty in those two things, a dump or a casino. So Indian people are in an ironic situation, in that our choices for economic development are so limited.

In Minnesota, I see two examples. I see a reservation like Mille Lacs. They have two casinos. They built schools, houses, roads, clinics, and community buildings. They bought land. Nobody was going to do that for them. No federal appropriation was going to be made for those Indian people to do that, although their land was mostly taken from them. The federal government is supposed to provide those things for them. That’s not going to happen, so they did that with their casinos, and that’s right. They’re making some long-term investments that are smart. They don’t think those casinos are going to last forever, but they’re doing the right thing.

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I have heard of folks willing their land to a tribe native to the area. Cool.

Here is the Native Harvest website Winona mentions.

And the Indigenous Environmental Network.

The grassroots people of Kul Wicasa oppose the development of the power line infrastructure planned by Basin Electric.  The Lower Brule substation is to be located two miles from the Big Bend Damn.  The thick, corrosive nature of tarsands oil (which in its natural state is the consistency of peanut butter) requires a constant temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit and necessary dilutants to liquify it enough to be slurried through the pipeline. This will require an enormous amount of power.  Basin Electric stated at a public utilities commission meeting in Winner, SD “the pipeline apparently moves oil under 1440 pounds of pressure per square inch. If the line is to move 700,000 barrels of crude per day, each pumping station requires three 6500 hp electric motors running on 17 megawatts of power night and day.  If the flow rate is increased to 900,000 barrels per day, five 6500hp electric motors are required.  That would use 25 megawatts of power.”

This increasing demand for electricity forces the need for the additional power station at Lower Brule. Transmission studies indicate the current system has reached its load limit.   Given the location of the Lower Brule substation, 2 miles south of the Big Bend Damn, it is apparent Missouri River water will be used to produce electricity.

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Soooo…..they toss a few crumbs with wind turbines…but what they don’t tell them is that the pipeline is going to require even more energy…and precious water to move the “peanut butter” through the lines…um-hmmm…

This is just stunning:

…the land isn’t even there now; it’s an oil mine; there was a lake there that was 200 miles long and 100 miles wide.  Now, the elders are saying, for the first time, the shoreline is receding and the rocks at the bottom of the lake are exposed.  Water is being taken from the rivers and lakes to support the destruction by the tarsands mine. 

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It’s really hard to imagine that much water being used.  It’s gone.  No longer usable by humans or animals.

This pipeline would destroy farmland and jobs, contrary to Big Oil myth.  The First Nations are trying to support themselves with the food production, but once again Big Oil has other ideas.  If you know anything about history, the Native Americans were moved to areas out West…once oil was discovered, suddenly they were in the way and once again moved.  This continued on…and now we have the modern day version of it–pollute the land so it is no longer inhabitable.

 

The Life of Plants

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I just watched one of the most interesting Nature shows to date.  And no animal violence, go figure! /just a little snarky

The program was on plants and their ability to communicate with one another.

It started with showing a plant that could not produce its own food, so it was basically a vampire plant that sucked the life out of other plants.  It seemed to prefer certain plants over others–the tomato being one of them.  The scientists performed an experiment where they placed the vampire plant in the middle, with the tomato plant on one side, and another plant placed on the other side.

Using time-lapse photography, they showed the vampire plant doing this little whirling dance around and around until it finally latched onto the tomato plant.  It did this 9 times out of 10.  So, it basically chose the tomato plant.  Isn’t that interesting?

Then they went on to another plant in the west that was making a nuisance of itself.  The name escapes me, but it has destroyed native grasses that the cattle farmers rely on to feed the cattle.  The scientists were trying to find out why this particular plant was able to thrive.  The rancher pulled up a plant by its roots, and showed a small worm/larvae just going to town on the roots…and yet the plant was still thriving.  So there had to be another reason the plant was able to fend for itself.  They discovered that it was sending out chemicals via its roots that killed off other competitor plants’ roots.  Isn’t that amazing?

They also said they knew that plants sent off scents, but they discovered that they also send off warning scents, or what amounts to a “scream” by the plant when they are being attacked.   They illustrated this by stating that the smell associated with freshly mowed grass is the grass “screaming” from being attacked.  The theory is that the plants are trying to warn the other plants that they are being attacked.  The other plants in the area beef up their defense mechanisms.  Wow.

Finally, they wondered about “mother” trees aiding her “babies”.  The theory wasn’t new, they said, but they hadn’t been able to prove it.  So, a research team injected radioactive carbon into a douglas fir and then went back after a time with a geiger counter to see where the carbon ended up.  They found the most concentrated amount in baby firs nearby.  They also found it in carbon “trails” to other firs in the area that belonged to the same plant family. I had one issue, though, with this–and this may have been done, but the program didn’t show it–they didn’t run the geiger counter on the ground or around the trees before injecting the fir with the radioactive material.    This, to me, would have been a “control” to make sure that the radioactivity wasn’t already there from, God forbid, Fukushima or some other source.

So…all of this is not news to the Native Americans, whom have always believed that plants had a “life”. Everything is connected–plants, too.

Yeah, we’re slow as always in catching up to the wisdom.  But at least we’re getting there. 🙂

Canada’s Spy Agency and the First Nations

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The Canadian gov’t  was vewy vewy skeered of those pesky indigenous whom honor their traditions and refuse to be completely assimilated.  Good Grief.  They act like these people have tanks, helicopters, drones, etc….like it’s a freaking war.  Who…or What are they fighting against…?

And the quote that CSIS would not be involved if there wasn’t sufficient threat…who are they kidding?

My other posts:

Here we have a First Nations woman removed from a public meeting for…well, we don’t know because she wasn’t doing anything.  Her mere presence, apparently, made her “guilty” of a crime.

First Nations protests

Setback for First Nations protestors.

First Nations continue to stand up

Finally, this celebration on sacred Native American grounds that Mall of America was built on.

 

 

Dear White People… **edited

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DN! has a piece up today on a documentary entitled “Dear White People…”

We need the conversation to begin, so I’m glad that they are taking it on…but as I viewed the excerpts, I started to get that feeling of dread.  Because a young African American woman states that we (black folks) are all different and another clip one states that because she is the person of color in the room, suddenly she becomes the “voice” of the African American community.  But it seems lost on the black community that perhaps whites feel the same way?  We don’t all think alike and because one treats you badly or is prejudiced does not mean that we all agree with that person’s actions.  Most white folks have good hearts but don’t realize some of the stuff that is said and done is hurtful (as the producer of the documentary states.)

During the interview with “Reggie” –he talks about his personal life and how he lived on an all-black floor in college.  He said it helped to be with his “people’ after having people touch his hair and professors say “stuff” to him….my thought was:  doesn’t he think some white people could understand that?  Again, it is a block put up to sharing a common bond.  White people whom have been bullied, put down, ostracized can all understand how being singled out feels.  They may not understand how it is to be black, but they can understand pain.

And the tipping thing?  Hello! Women are also stereotyped for being bad tippers.  A long time ago, when I had a life, I sat in a restaurant and waited while the white waitresses were gossiping for twenty minutes until one finally came over to take my order.  And it was cold when she brought it out.  And yeah, I left a penny tip.  Screw that.

In other instances, I would leave 15% tips when the going rate was 10%.  Sometimes the service warranted that, but most times it was just okay, but I left the bigger tip because of the prejudice against women.

As far as his admission that black folk use their blackness as a tool sometimes to navigate the world…but it creates barriers. As I experienced in Ft. Wayne, an African American guy had created a serious problem for the entire building that could have meant injury or death for the residents.  When one of the white fire fighters said something to him because he was yelling at them to shut the alarm off (they could not do that–it was a door alarm and they had the door open to let all the smoke out)** edited, he immediately blamed it on racism.  He went on and on about it instead of taking a step back and realizing HE was the problem, not his skin color.  And this is not a condemnation of the guy–he wasn’t a bad person, but had a screwed up view of the world.

It’s funny that this came up today, because when I was getting dressed this morning, I thought about seeing the Light in others.

Buddhists popped into my head –the Buddhists don’t believe in a God as one Supreme Being, but that God resides in each of us.  Their greeting “Namaste” means that they recognize God within you and within themselves.

Even if one doesn’t believe in the Buddhist religion, if we could stop looking at each other’s skin color…or anything physical…and recognize the Light within the other, we could move past the prejudice.  Our hearts involved in decision making instead of just our heads…

**edited for link to DN and further explanation above.

Wall of Women stand opposed to Kinder Morgan

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First Nations and Greenpeace women stand together against pipeline expansion…

“We’re standing here together to link arms to build the wall of women to say no, we do not want that in our communities, we will not accept this in our communities, we want better,” said Nahanee. “Canada has a responsibility to protect their communities, we have the right to live in healthy environments— healthy environments to raise our children, to take care of our grandparents, to drink healthy water, to eat healthy food. It’s basic human rights.”

– Mandy Nahanee

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Who would have thought that we would actually have to protest keeping our water clean and healthy??

Good on the women standing together, protecting the Earth. She needs us.

More eye candy

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iMackenzie has a wonderful pic up called Glittering River.

I can hear the water moving…smell the scent of fish and wet soil…feel the breeze off the mountains…and the warmth of the sun upon my face…

(and I try not to think about the amount of heavy metals/pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers that have made their way into the life-giving water…but blocking it out and enjoying the moment isn’t always possible.)

 

Native American Drawings

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Scott Sewell has several drawings posted on his blog:

Four Winds

Her Powwow Pride

Wace.  This one I love.  Such tenderness.

Dreams of Old Days

This is kinda funny.  The Native American society was not a hierarchy, like white society.  I found out recently that the Chief system was forced upon them by the whites–they had been an egalitarian society prior to that, so there were no princes or princesses…strictly a figment of someone’s vivid imagination.

The very name for whites–wasichu –was because of white people’s way of taking for themselves without regard for the others.  This name means “one who takes the fat” because the very first white man that walked into an Native American village was hungry.  He was offered some meat from a deer killed recently.  Since the deer is very lean, the Native Americans reserved the fat for the elderly and the children.  They saw this white man as selfish for his actions.

Also, if a Native American acquired wealth, he/she is expected to share that in what they called the “giveaway”.  Once a year, the wealthy will spread their things out on a blanket and those who are in need could come and take what they needed.

And they saw America as a complex ecology that required careful cultivation.  They were careful to always leave plants behind instead of taking them all.  Same with animals.  They always treated the animals with respect and prayed over the ones they used for meat, clothing and tools.