A Martinez has the video below posted.  I didn’t know if it was the actor A Martinez, because people will put a celebrity’s pic up with the name and fake people out.   But I see it is the real deal when he appears near the end of the video.

In this video, A Martinez shows not only Standing Rock, but the massacre at Wounded Knee.  Wow, it really hurt to see the dead bodies…Holocaust.  Then he shows Carlisle school, which I wrote about briefly in my blog on Lost Bird.

Carlisle school is notorious with the tribes.  Children would be sent there away from their families to be molested, whipped, beaten for speaking their native language, nearly starved, and some died physically while, I would say, many if not all died spiritually.

One native from this area spoke about his experience.  He was hungry and took an apple — one apple — from the kitchen.  The priest who searched him found the apple and beat him severely.  An apple!

Other children were killed by staff and were buried without a name on the tombstone nor justice for the parents.  Carlisle school and other *Indian* schools did what smallpox and wiping out the buffalo could not — killed or tried to kill — their culture, their family connections, their spirituality.

I see this now being played out among the general American public.  It was done much sneakier, however, as the Feminist movement encouraged women to *break their chains* to get out of the home, put their kids into the care of strangers, and claim their *liberty* .  This, along with trying to humiliate women who wanted to breastfeed,  was the beginning of the end, as I see it looking back.

I have noticed that the first generation of children taken away from their mothers, via working moms putting their kids into childcare, have a disconnect with their elders and, a lack of ethics and morality.  I don’t see a spirituality growing with them, and some are even proud atheists.  They take without any conscience of giving back.  That scares me.  And this is not to look down on them, but an observation and fear of what is coming down the road.  They stole our children while we were busy making plans (like John Lennon said — life happens when you’re busy making other plans).

On with the video — Martinez shows the demonstration at the Mandan Court house.  You can see the eagle I wrote about on the side of the building.  I wish you all could feel the positive love and energy coming from those of us praying and drumming.  It truly was beautiful but can’t be felt just watching the video.

16:02 shows the full moon over the Oceti Sakowin camp.  It was truly that magical and beautiful.

And the sunrises are spectacular as you can see.

16:20 shows a white horse with brown spots.  I loved that horse.  He came up to my car and looked in at me like he wanted to say *hey, how you doin* 🙂

…has to be the epitome of cowardice..

We have DAPL employees showing up with assault rifles.  Who are the terrorists, again…?

The whole world is watching.  The whole world is watching.

Beautifully written. Applause. Applause. And it is no understatement that white folks in camp were trying to take over, when it was not their place. I was embarrassed to be white at those moments. And this is not looking down the nose, but an acknowledgement of white folks not being humble and respectful. And it’s not about making someone feel small, rather, but a lesson to learn. We white folks have been taught that we have all the answers…but alas, we do not. Or we would not be in the mess we’re in right now. We have forgotten to be humble — that anything given to us has been given by the Creator. We have forgotten to take care of the Earth as God’s creation.

As a side note~
Just this morning, I was reading about the Iroquois and our Constitution. First, the name Iroquois is a French insult meaning “venomous snakes” — their actual name is Haudenosaunee (pronounced Ho-deh-no-shaw-nee). What Benjamin Franklin, et al, left out of the Constitution were two very important attributes of the Haudenosaunee’s democracy: women could vote and Clan mothers could remove leaders from office. Interesting how that never made it into the Constitution, eh?

Another note on women and their diminished power came from a Native woman who was puzzled at the feminists of the 70s who sought to make women into men. She said her natural inclination was to bear children and nurture them…and yet the feminists were degrading that role. Her point was that she had strong women surrounding her, that also nurtured her as she was growing up. Yet feminists would have one believe that the two were mutually exclusive. Not so.

At camp, I remarked to an older lady that I was in awe about being amongst so many strong women. I had not known that in my home state. She looked at me with interest. I said, “I’m from Indiana.” With a knowing answer, she said, “I’m sorry.” All joking aside, this could be said of any place in the United States…or the world…as the rape culture, a flag as to the contempt of women, is worldwide.

A good report here on a small faction that is not keeping with the intent of the Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota) wishes of a peaceful protest using prayer.

It is absolutely stunning to me that these folks come to this, and then ignore the wishes of the very folks they say they are *helping*.   It is disrespectful.  It is arrogant and rude.  The negative energy of anger can be turned into a positive if used in a positive manner.

Being humble is one of the values of the Lakota, Nakota, Dakota, so those acting in such ways are not in keeping with being humble nor respectful nor patient.  They want immediate action and answers, but prayer is a request from God, not a demand.

**edited to add:  just wanted to add that the title of the report is somewhat misleading.  The police were dressed in riot gear and had billy clubs plus the armored vehicle loooong before this when all we were doing was praying and singing and saying “water is life”.

I have to give Jack Healy credit in that he at least included a Native American’s view on this…but most of the piece was slanted towards Big Oil and the Sheriff.  They repeatedly portray the peaceful demonstrations as riots, when they were not.  Singing and praying do not constitute a riot.

Last week, he and 49 other demonstrators decided to link arms and sit together by the overturned earth where the Dakota Access pipeline is slated to go. They were on what the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe considers sacred ancestral land, but from a legal perspective, it is owned by the pipeline company.

If this were based on LAW, then the land most definitely belongs to the Sioux…via the 1851 TREATY (Law!!) that gave them that land!

Well…that’s rather inconvenient, isn’t it??

Officials wrote numbers on their arms — his was 4838, he says — and held them overnight in cages in a parking garage, men and women separated by a plastic tarp.

Dehumanization…classic tactic to turn the public’s view against *others*.  If they’re not seen as human, there is more inclination to turn one’s head when they are harmed.

They spent the night singing and praying.

Powerful.   This is what the Dark side hates the most — IT really wants to break the connection to God, the Creator, but it’s hard to break the spirit of the Native tribes.

He sees out-of-state protesters occupying federal land and trespassing on private ranches. He sees tense confrontations, lost days off and threats to his fellow officers.

What does the comment *out of state protestors* have to do with anything??  Aren’t we all Americans?  Don’t we all drink water?  Doesn’t the Missouri River flow along many, many states where the occupants will be severely affected if they cannot drink the water??

If there are any lost days off (whine much?)…then that is the fault of the sheriff who has overreacted to protectors.  I never saw ANYONE threaten an officer and I would not be part of such an action, either. I would walk away if anyone started that.

“I’m the son of farmers, and we worked hard for everything we have,” he says.

So have the Native Americans.

For over 10,000 years, they CULTIVATED this beautiful land.  What the Europeans saw as a jungle was in fact a carefully cultivated ecosystem full of bounty because they only took what they needed.  And they left the oil in the Earth.  If one wants to see what America looked like before the plunder and pollution, one only needs to go to a National Park to stare in awe at the great beauty and wonderful ecosystems apparent by the diversity of animal life there.

Every time we’ve been out, we’ve seen weapons. People screaming down this road at 100 miles per hour.

Gee, did your pastor father teach you to lie like that??  Thou shalt not bear false witness, deputy, or have you forgotten that one?

Nobody had any weapons!!  And you notice that the writer didn’t bother to ask the deputy what exactly he considered a weapon?  Rattles?  Feathers? Drum?  (*snort*)

And we did not go 100 mi per hour down the roads.  That would have been impossible given they were unpaved roads!

Again, they were saying it was a riot when we were only singing and praying.  Prayer is only a threat to the Dark side.