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I found this great picture the other day, the work in this costume is amazing, awesome is a word over used today but I think it would apply here.

We all are said to live a number of times on this Earth, so why do we not accumulate this knowledge each time we pass this way?

People under hypnosis can recount life in ancient times that they could not have lived, with minute detail or speak a language to which they have no knowledge in their present incarnation. Yet back in this dimension they cannot recall this information at all.

I recently read some American Indian wisdom that said that we return to a point where we had something to overcome until we progressed past it, so that got me thinking, in which case then, why would we not come back with accumulated knowledge from our past lives to draw on in the current one?

The logical answer to this question seemed to me obvious when I looked at it a different way. The question puzzled me, but the solution was also a puzzle, like a jigsaw puzzle.

We progress through each lifetime, adding pieces, like completing a jigsaw puzzle, except for us we are building the puzzle face down, we only see the shape of the pieces, not the finished picture, that is all for a purpose.

Once we have lived the necessary amount of lives, we get to the end and the big reveal. This is where your spirit gets to go off to the big eternity, this is where you are shown the big picture and what everything is all about.

There has to be a point to our existence, otherwise we seem to be engaged in a pointless carousel of life cycles, which is a waste of our planet's resources if it has no end objective, surely? So there has to be a purpose to us.

Everything in nature makes sense, so we cannot be the exception, our existence has to make sense.

The cover picture shows what could be the end result of these lives, a guiding figure that helps the ones still gathering the pieces with guidance.

I am fortunate to live in an area where I can easily find woodlands and views of the hills to walk in, I find this a great resource.

I like the still of the forest, maybe the sound of a distant Woodpecker drilling a tree and the sound of the breeze moving the leaves breaking the silence.

That whole environment can slow you down and recharge you, if you relax and enjoy it. It allows you to switch off from anything that troubles you.

Although I was born and lived in small towns until I was about 34, I always loved to get out to the countryside.

Now that I live there, I am not bored with it, I can see the changes around me all through the year.

I try and avoid going back to towns if I can, I much prefer the rural life!

About 500 years ago, Big Cats were hunted to extinction, but until 1976, in England you could legally own a Big Cat like a Lion or Tiger without a permit at your house!

It sounds crazy, but it was true. However, with the 1976 Wildlife act becoming law, you had to have a permit, proper enclosure and insurance, so as a result, many large cats from Lynx upwards were turned loose into the countryside.

40 years later and large cat sightings are still being reported, as you can see from this tree, something needs a scratching post. This was from a Puma size cat. This proves that they are breeding and surviving.

Where I live, these big cats have an ideal habitat, forests, Sheep and Deer as a food source, water and cover. We caught  footage of 2 small ones on a dashboard video camera last year and a larger one walked across the road in front of a relative's car that did not have a camera, about 10 years ago.

I do  not publicise where this location is as I don't want people disturbing these large cats, but many people these days are obsessed with phones and tablet computers and don't go out walking in locations like this and know the signs to look out for.

These large cats have been in the field next to where I live and had a couple of Sheep over the years, you can tell from the way they have eaten what did it, I saw the remains.

These large cats are shy of people and very rarely attack. They keep a low profile and no one minds them being there.

I have only seen the signs of where they have been so far, maybe I might be very lucky to see one for myself one day. As far as I am concerned they have as much right to be here as me.

I recall reading that the Hopi Indian people referred to Meteorites as 'Diamonds from the sky.'

Here is a picture of a piece of the Brenham Meteorite that came to Earth in Kansas, it is mostly Iron, with small Nickel and Olivine Crystal inclusions.

Consider that these elements can be found on Earth but not in this make up. So I asked myself, this 4 + billion year old piece of the universe has been orbiting a great distance, so if it contains Earth elements, there must be somewhere out there maybe like Earth, perhaps populated too? Perhaps from where some of the Star People originate.

I have a couple of square pieces of the Brenham stone, I use one as a dowsing pendulum and it is very accurate. So how does this work? I think the Great Mystery has a hand in it.

Why then, should as most might say, an inanimate object be able to behave like a living entity and to be able to give accurate answers to questions a human asks with their thoughts? It must come down to the common energy force that is all around us and in the Universe, the Great Mystery.

Not everyone has the ability to divine the answers by dowsing, I think you have to have a given ability or gift to do so. The power of the mystery must be used wisely and not to try and predict lottery numbers say, it will not work for that and it may lose you effectiveness, if the mystery decides you are trying to use the conduit for improper reasons and cease to work for you or send you in the wrong direction as a lesson. My belief is that this gift must be used in an authentic way, as intended by the gift giver, to help others.

Perhaps many of are unaware of your purpose here, we learn and acquire knowledge, but if we have the spiritual understanding gift, we have the chance to help others for the better. You have to be a person who is in tune with the Earth and the unseen spiritual force that is all around us to be able to understand this, many don't and are unaware.

The American Indian people have largely not lost this connection, that is a unique gift for any people to have.

For those truly connected, you may at times have situations where you plan to so something or say something, but some unsaid counsel tells you not to, listen to that. It knows. Often I have been about to say or do something and this prompt not to, has saved me something that might be a future trouble.

Going back to the opening of this theme, the Lakota have a phrase Mahpiya, which can be translated as 'falling from the stars or the heavens'. It was a strange thing but when I was very young, I could not say my name Matthew properly for some time and what I did attempt, came out very similar to Mahpiya. Perhaps a coincidence, but perhaps something that had already been decided.

For those with enquiring minds, looking to enrich their knowledge, we sometimes come across by chance things that amaze us. I think how you live your life and treat others is truly your persona, they say 'what goes around, comes around.' It works out like that. Things are circular, seasons, orbits, perhaps life and lives. People who live bad lives, end up in bad situations. It catches up with them in the end.

We are truly living as a part of something with many connected pieces, perhaps that is the purpose for us humans, to collect the required parts so that in the end we move onto another dimension, whole and equipped to live in some sort of paradise where everyone lives harmoniously.

This was the way it used to be for the American Indian, perhaps to prepare them eventually, once they had lived their required amount of lives to then finally move the soul onto the ultimate perhaps eternal life once they had acquired the necessary knowledge.

I found a great astrologer named Kelley Rosano on youtube, she is really good with her forecasts.

She said often says that we live many lives, perhaps coming back to meet up with past partners from other times.

It is also strange that some people can be put under hypnosis and recount things from the past they could not know or speak languages they have no knowledge of.

Perhaps the revolving door of coming back is for a reason, I read some Lakota wisdom about we keep coming back to the same place until we learn enough to move forwards.

Perhaps now we have white people who discover wisdom and knowledge of the American Indian people and realise that they have been living and understanding these facets of life and wonder why and maybe they are confused by this.

The answer is simple, it is an irony, that they are coming back and living a modern life but from the point of view from an ancestor in spirit.

Consider the movement in late 1960's America that culminated in Woodstock, a lot of what the young people were stating was seen by many as a hopeless utopian dream, no consumerism, peace, love, a state where crime was not done, no violence, nature was power and to cared for.

Its almost like they took a guidebook how to be an American Indian and were seeking to live a lifestyle that had been 'normal' up until 1800, lived by the American Indians.

Many who visit spiritualists are told they have an Indian spirit guide, that is most likely as many people must have lived before and those in tune with real life are different to most other people. Indeed, those with a gift of spirituality, must share a common bond. A friend of mine called it 'finding people on the same wavelength. He was right.

Those people reading American Indian wisdom and thinking 'but this is my opinion too,' perhaps are being guided to some good purpose here. Maybe this will be the way of things, the start of a revised way of thinking, to save the people.

There's a youtube video called 'Rezonomics' about the people of Pine Ridge reservation which is sad to watch but gives hope for the future. It saddens me that in perhaps one of the richest nations, such deprivation is prevalent. There are people who seek to help.

The people at Pine Ridge need to create jobs, in a rural location this is hard, I know as I live in one myself. But, they are gifted people with an amazing entrepreneurial spirit to create their own prosperity and wealth, plus a great knowledgebase.

My experience in marketing, graphic design business development and tourism got me thinking, having read about the Lakota people, they face a need to create wealth and work but at the same time respecting the nature around them. It can be done and here are some ideas I came up with.Pine%20Ridgeideas.doc

Years ago, I used to watch a TV series about a man who would go around companies and advise them on how to restructure and get out of the quicksand. He was a very clever man who could see quickly where change needed to happen, I learned a lot from him. One thing I did learn was to ask at every situation, "What do we need to achieve here?" and then to make a proper plan.

With regard to the Pine Ridge situation, I think that the people's heritage is a big asset, along with their wisdom and knowledge. There are a lot of people who are looking for new solutions to consumerism and although asset rich are not spiritually so. The future is the past, is the future is my view.

There is a Lakota phrase 'All are one' which when you look into it, the Lakota heritage says that all creatures are related. With our recent research into genetics including RNA and DNA we have established this scientifically, a fact that was known hundreds of years previously!

How did social media start? With a fire and a blanket sending smoke signals.

The Sauna? The sweat lodge.

The new agers, in this age of Aquarius are looking for something new, a new direction. The American Indians have this knowledge. They have it taped as they say, by which I mean they had it right. Indeed, they had a perfect society, they sorted out their own disagreements and they never had to build any prisons because crime was dealt with largely before it became so. (We would be proud of this today in our own societies on the outside.)

They respected the Mother Earth long before the 1960's awareness of this, the Woodstock generation merely touched on aspects of what they considered a perfect environment, indeed, the Woodstockers merely performed a 'pick and mix' approach, taking aspects and making their own version. But at least the sentiment was there.

Talking of Woodstock, in the song of the same name by Joni Mitchell, there is a line 'We have to get ourselves back to the garden.' Look at the Lakota history and it will be plain to see they already knew that a respectful approach to living was the way forward. Not to take more than was needed as an example.

Remember, that there are people outside of the reservations who are willing to help and extend the hand of friendship and do not seek a reward.

As the late Russell Means would say 'Today is a good day' so let us add 'and we hope tomorrow is better.' It has to be.

 

Many of us remember learning and singing the bubbly little pre-school nursery rhyme "Ten Little Indians" as we sat in a circle with our legs crossed, Indian style. And what appeared to be an innocent way to educate and stir young imagination through “comic” song was also a peculiar way of mental conditioning. The coded historical narratives, found in many children’s nursery rhymes, were to circulate an ideology that followed generations; intended to define Indians as “inferior” and “backward.” The song coupled the Anglo-constructed definition of “savage” with American Indian consciousness, but the ultimate legacy of this children’s nursery rhyme was the systematic murdering of Indians, leaving “One little Indian boy livin’ all alone":

Ten little Injuns standin’ in a line, One toddled home and then there were nine; Nine little Injuns swingin’ on a gate, One tumbled off and then there were eight. One little, two little, three little, four little, five little Injun boys, Six little, seven little, eight little, nine little, ten little Injun boys. Eight little Injuns gayest under heav’n. One went to sleep and then there were seven; Seven little Injuns cuttin' up their tricks, One broke his neck and then there were six. Six little Injuns all alive, One kicked the bucket and then there were five; Five little Injuns on a cellar door, One tumbled in and then there were four. Four little Injuns up on a spree, One got fuddled and then there were three; Three little Injuns out on a canoe, One tumbled overboard and then there were two. Two little Injuns foolin’ with a gun, One shot t’other and then there was one; One little Injun livin’ all alone, He got married and then there were none (Septimus Winner, 1868).

The original version was written by songwriter Septimus Winner in 1868 and performed at minstrel shows—a form of American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music. The traditional folk tune has a Round Folk Song Index number 13512 to establish the traditional origin of the work. However, today’s modern lyrics are believed to be in public domain, allowing for various renderings of the song to be created, especially in nursery schools. Sure you can change the words to "Ten Little Indians" to "Ten Little Puppies," but it is still degrading when trying to compare spilled milk to spilled blood.

In 1869, Frank J. Green adopted the song as Ten Little Niggers which became a standard of the blackface minstrel shows, especially after the Civil War and later into the 1920’s lampooning black people as “dim-witted,” lazy, “buffoonish” and “musical.” Eventually the song became widely known in Europe, where it was used by Agatha Christie. The song was included in the first film version of And Then There Were None (1945), which largely took Green’s lyrics and replaced the already sensitive word “nigger” with “Indian” (in some versions “soldiers”) as African Americans began to score legal and social victories at the turn of the 20th century:

Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little Indian boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven. Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little Indian boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little Indian boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two Little Indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little Indian boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none (Frank J. Green, 1869).

In 1954, Bill Haley and the Comets did a rock 'n’ roll version of the song for Essex records. Haley and his Brylcreem split curl and electric hollow-body Gibson guitar, crooned, “John Brown had a little Indian . . . One little Indian boy.” And in 1962, The Beach Boys released their version on their album, Surfin' Safari. Three Little Indians was the second single from their record; and where the Indian word “Squaw,” originally meaning female or young woman, now a racist and sexist term meaning vagina, is repeated throughout the tune: “The first little Indian gave squaw pretty feather; The second little Indian made her an Indian dollar (Fighting over a squaw); Well the third little Indian gave her moccasin leather; The squaw didn't like em’ at all.” The song became The Beach Boys’ lowest charting single (number 49), on American radio.

Now, the song is called to attention by recent conversation at a local espresso shop. The waitress, an Italian and speaks perfect English, asked me how my Italian language lessons were going. I said, “Today I am learning how to count numbers.” She replied, “I learned how to count numbers in English by being introduced to the "Three Little Indians" song by my instructor.” She continues, “They are using that song in many Italian schools teaching students how to count.”

Some have argued if you erase the song, you erase a part of history. The thought that songs, poems, and couplets that belittle or denigrate a group of people have no place in today’s global world; and should be eradicated from the languages of humanity. The idea that whites still degrade people of color—any color—with the same centuries old stereotypes of inferiority is demeaning. It is also demeaning to whites as well. Any notion or behavior that has to tear down one portion of the human race for the superiority of another is detrimental to all; and that we can all count on.

 

 

"Vernon Bellecourt made the phone call. Clyde took the call and issued the order for her murder."

— Russell Means 2000

On February 24, 1976, the frozen body of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was found wrapped in a blanket in a ravine on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Aquash was with the militants who occupied the town of Wounded Knee, SD for 71 days in 1973, the culmination of a reservation Reign of Terror that saw over sixty "traditional" Indians murdered. Anna Mae, the highest ranking woman in the male-dominated AIM, had disappeared from Denver in December 1975.

Another FBI cover-up?

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) pathologist, Dr. W. O. Brown certified that she had "died from exposure.In reemergence of past "Indian War" ways,her hands were severed and sent to the FBI Washington D.C.for fingerprinting Why ? FBI Agent David Price, a maverick cowboy even within that lawless agency, had arrested Aquash June 25, 1975 and pressured her to cooperate with the authorities on a series of incidents; most specifically the famous shootout that left 

Native Joe Stuntz Killsright 

was shot by FBI sniper during FBI planned military assault against on AIM camp in Oglala June 26, 1975 & 2 of their own decoy agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams,dead. To this day Killsright is honoured for his bravery and as for Leonard Peltier,he is into his 43rd year after being the sole person convicted by the FBI kangaroo court while 2 others were acquitted in prior separate trial based on self-defense Leonard was not allowed to use self-defense at his trial even though he was listed as co-defendent Price famously told Aquash that she’d "be dead within a year" should she not cooperate.and, even more unusual, she was quickly buried in a pauper’s grave March 3rd, before any identification was made or any burial permit issued.

That same day, the FBI announced that the body was that of Aquash, a 30-year-old Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia. Her Canadian family was informed by the FBI that she had "died from natural causes."

At her family’s request, an exhumation order and a new autopsy was gained. On March 11, a second autopsy revealed the true cause of death, an execution shot to the back of the head and the .32 caliber bullet was recovered

Of course, this led to charges of an FBI cover-up.  

Who Done It?

Agent Price’s prediction obviously came true. But now the FBI claims that it was AIM itself who murdered Aquash as a suspected informer. There exists a video confession from Arlo Looking Cloud, who alleges that he was present when another AIM foot soldier, John Boy Graham, shot her. Looking Cloud was convicted of aiding a first-degree murder.

Graham admits in a 2001 interview that he helped abduct Aquash from Troy Lynn Yellow Wood’s Denver home. While still in the hands of her abductors, Aquash was taken to various locales for interrogation by AIM  just prior to her execution. Graham admits he was with her in the various places in SD where she was reportedly seen during the time before her execution. Also in on the Denver kidnap was Graham’s adopted aunt,

Theda Clark

the very woman who first accused Aquash of being an informer at the 1975 AIM convention in New Mexico. At Looking Cloud’s trial, FBI Agent Price admitted that his job was to recruit informants, but that Anna Mae was not among them!

Of course, this has split AIM. Various AIM members have chosen sides. Some AIM leaders have acknowledged that John Graham was the triggerman. Noted AIM spokesman, actor and visionary spoken word artist John Trudell testified to an exchange he had with Looking Cloud. Trudell was chairman of AIM at the time:

"He told me that he, and Theda, and John Boy did, in fact, take Annie Mae from Troy Lynn’s house to Rapid City. And when they were in Rapid City, that Annie Mae was kept in an empty apartment that belonged to Thelma Rios; or nobody was living in it. Anyway, she was kept in an apartment of some sort that belonged to Thelma. But it seems to me from my conversation with Arlo that Annie Mae was never in Rapid City for more than a couple of days at the very most; but it seems to me that she wasn’t there a real long time. She was taken from Rapid City by him, and John Boy, and Theda, to a house in Rosebud that was by the Indian hospital, and they went to this house, and they parked at this house. And according to Arlo, Theda and John Boy went inside this house, and they were in there for a period of time, and they came back out, and they got in the car. And then they went and drove to the spot where Annie Mae was killed. And John Boy and Arlo walked her out to a spot and made her kneel down; he said she was on her knees; and she was praying and talking about her children, and she didn’t want to die. And then John Boy shot her in the back of the head."

Trudell’s also testified in the trial of Robert Robideau and Dino Butler in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 22, 1976. Both men were acquitted of charges on grounds of self defense in the same shootout that brought about Peltier’s conviction.

Trudell testified: "Dennis (Banks) told me she (Anna Mae) had been shot in the back of the head. He told me this in February, about the 25th or 26th of February. He told me this in California. I was sitting in the car with Dennis and he said, ‘You know they found Annie Mae.’ No, he said it this way. He said, ‘You know that body they found? That is Annie Mae.’ I didn’t know about a body. As Aquash’s body was not identified until March 3rd at the earliest and the true cause of death not known until the second autopsy, how did Banks know?  Then he said that." Aquash had been having an affair with Banks the year she disappeared. Although he was in a common-law marriage with someone else,Darlene (Ka-Mook) Nichols Nichols was Aquash’s friend, but also her rival, as Dennis Banks’s common-law wife. Just a few months before the murder, she learned of his affair with Aquash Dennis Banks was more then likely had a hand in her murder As tight as he was with the Bellacourts,which continues today between him & Ckydet he common law wife walks free still  This photo shows the 2 of them going to jail together after Dennis was finished with his shootout car chase with police were he ran leaving them behind

Darlene had a hand in or knew of Anna's murder thru Dennis her husband

AIM leaders Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt,& Banks were there when Graham,and Looking Cloud took Aquash to those sites in South Dakota where she was interrogated and raped just before her murder Remember these 3 Arlo,Theda and John Boy were the ones who pulled the trigger that killed her. Both Bellecourts were also with Banks when he told his tale to Trudell. Vernon Bellecourt was seen mysteriously visiting the FBI during Looking Cloud’s trial.

A cover-up apparently exists after all.

We now know who did it. The remaining question is "Why was she killed?" AIM was plagued with Price’s informants during those years. On March 12, 1975, AIM head of security Douglas Durham was exposed as an FBI operative https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=36293. In yet another recorded interview, AIM leader Herb Powless detailed an AIM plan to kill Durham. However Durham, Vernon Bellecourt’s one-time protégé, escaped. It’s not that big a stretch to conclude that given that some members of AIM were fully prepared to kill a known FBI snitch, why would they not kill anyone else they suspected? It was just months earlier at the New Mexico convention that Theda Clark had laid the "snitch jacket" on Aquash. (A Snitch Jacket is when an agent makes claims or plants information that suggests an activist is a police informer.)

The Wannabes Get It Wrong

Now into this mix, we have the spectacle of various progressive groups also lining up ­ unfortunately upon the wrong side of justice. John Trudell, Dino Butler, Russell Means and other Aquash friends recently were vilified in a long, inaccurate article published in the Earth First! Journal. The EF!J should know better given the history of Earth First! and other allied radical groups like the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. Recent activist arrests have shown that both ALF and ELF have been penetrated by informers, if not flat-out FBI agent provocateurs like Durham The FBI admits that the ALF/ELF arrests were made as a result of "confidential informants." With all this on their plate, the EF!J somehow found the time to support the false innocence claims of Graham and his supporters and snitch jacket Trudell, who I’ll add was there shoulder to shoulder with us on anti-nuke, anti-war, pro-Indigenous rights, anti-FBI efforts… before the editors of the EF!J were even born.

Leonard Peltier has distanced himself with Graham, after first vehemently supporting him. Peltier even once filed libel lawsuits against an Indian publication over it. Upon Graham’s arrest, Peltier wrote: "I fear that John Boy will not receive a fair trial in the US anymore than I did. I must remind you, it is court record that the FBI lied to extradite me back to the US. I know that their behavior hasn’t changed just as I know that Anna Mae was not an informant. As much as I want justice for Anna Mae, I likewise do not want an injustice to be enacted against one of our own in the name of crime-solving–so that some finger-pointing government lackey can get a feather in his cap."

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was a genuine heroine. Her contributions to the cause of Indigenous peoples are irrefutable. She was instrumental in gaining support for AIM from various Hollywood celebrities, such as Marlon Brando. She also spoke out endlessly about on-going injustices towards Native peoples everywhere at various public and private meetings, even after she became very aware of the threats to her life.

Arlo Looking Cloud & John Boy Graham,both convicted for her murder2004 & 2010 both are serving life Theda Clark is in her 80s, feeble and in a nursing home. Clyde Bellecourt & his brother Vernon Bellecourt who died October 13, 2007 Clyde continues to deny the charges against them as laid out by yet another AIM leader, Russell Means (died October 22, 2012). Means held a press conference in Denver in 2000 where he stated unequivocally; "Vernon Bellecourt made the phone call. Clyde took the call and issued the order for her murder." 

John Trudell has a 17,000 page FBI dossier. His entire family — his heroic activist-in-her-own-right wife Tina, their four children and Tina’s mother died in a suspicious fire on their reservation in Nevada just twelve hours after John burned a US flag at FBI headquarters in DC. John is at present 12/6/2015 at end stage of cancer  

It’s time for progressives to drop the romantic "our Indians, right or wrong" nonsense and get behind the bringing to justice of ALL who were involved, not just the triggerman and their accomplices.

Dennis Banks is just a low life nobody who most likely received the order from Clyde then he gave the order for her torture and execution And was part of it & most likely gave the final order by telling the 3 to take her out to that lonely piece of ground & murdered her Of any one,Banks Anna believed would protect her Instead he betrayed her He's nothing but a A Plastic Hero for the Plastic Press http://goo.gl/LKM9q6 

For Banks to be still free,he has to be a former or current informative

No someone(s) much higher up in the organization clearly ordered Anna Mae’s death & who were clearly protected by the FBI no matter what they've said otherwise Russell told us who One is dead the other is alive

Clyde Bellacourt,You hear us now ?

Mitakuye Oyasin,~Myoglasi/Lookingglass/Oglala

The United Stated has wrongfully imprisoned Leonard Peltier for 46+ years. Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota was a leader of the American Indian Movement.

The American Indian Movement was founded in Minneapolis, MN to fight and protect the rights of Indigenous nations that were agreed upon in treaties, sovereignty and the U.S. Constitution and laws. AIM also focuses on the support of traditional spirituality, culture, history and language amongst Indigenous people.

In the 1970s AIM’s activism had grown popular during major conflicts between the United States regarding American Indian rights. During a time of extreme violence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota, a shoot out occurred for unknown reasons between over 40 Native Americans, the FBI, a team of SWAT members, BIA police and vigilantes resulting in the death of a young Native man (Joe Stuntz) and two FBI officers (Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams). While three deaths occurred, only the deaths of the FBI agents were ever investigated.

Those involved in the shooting, and the only three brought to trial were AIM members Bob Robideau, Darrelle Butler and Leonard Peltier. Robideau and Butler’s trial were held in front of a federal jury in Iowa in June 1976. Both were acquitted in July of the same year on both the shoot out and the murder of the FBI agents on grounds of insufficient evidence and self-defense.

Peltier’s trial was not held until 1977 after his fleeing to Canada in his accurate fear of being unfairly tried in the U.S. court system. After being extradited from Canada with a falsely acquired affidavit, Peltier was brought to Fargo, North Dakota for trial under U.S. District Judge Paul Benson. It was later discovered that the trial was supposed to be held in Sioux Falls under Judge Edward McManus, the same judge who presided over Robideau and Butler’s trial, but by an unidentified circumstance the judges and locations were switched.

During Peltier’s trial there were countless illegal actions done by the prosecutors representing the FBI. The actions included: withholding evidence from trial, intimidating witnesses into false testimony, manipulating federal investigatory documents, and intimidation/misleading of the jury and public. Judge Benson however allowed and supported the “evidence” that was used within the court for Peltier’s conviction. Thus leading to Peltier having to serve two life sentences (one for each of the dead officers) for a crime that he did not commit.

In the following link http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/peltier/peltierstatement.html Peltier gives his testimony and argument to Judge Benson and the courtroom during his June 1,1977 sentencing He knows his fate in the judicial system and continues to state the wrongs and misconducts of the case. The video later explains that the court allowed for his conviction and the manipulation of laws in order for the government to not allow a new trial for Peltier’s freedom. In the corner of the video there is a count through the 36, now 38 years he as been in prison.

Currently, in the media hash tags about Leonard have been trending in a flurry all over the Internet in recent years. However, the fight for the justice and freedom of Leonard Peltier has been going on for over 20 years and has now become more pressing due to Peltier’s dwindling health.He will be 78 in Sept & does not go up for parole again until June of 2024. Petitions and other countless movements have been created and held for Peltier’s freedom and righteous justice. Peltier’s trial has exemplified the corruption of the US government and judicial system among the rights of the Native American people. If freed and to have justice be served it would create a great and improved standing between the US government and the Indigenous people of America and the continent.

If you would like more information on Peltier and the trial or to sign one of the petitions for his freedom you can go to http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/ and join the movement.

Supporters for Peltier’s freedom include Robert Redford,the Dalai Lama, Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, the now late Nelson Mandela, Pete Seeger, and Mother Theresa,Amnesty International & the millions worldwide

Whoever wields the most power is most responsible, and mistakes/fatal error were made by all involved in the second battle at Wounded Knee 2, and continued to be ongoing. There were many who pulled the trigger that caused the death of the 2 agents, all inclusive and especially what and who led up to these deaths… all are responsible for these deaths – and should not be the pay back by one individual as the responsible party. It is probably the arguing principal for “collateral damage” kind of thing. There were a number of deaths related to this battle, as well as injury, disappearance,murder as well as a cornucopia of false information, and keeping Peltier in prison or putting him there in the first place doesn’t change this. But it is worse case scenario, by making Leonard the issue instead of recognizing what the core dynamics/truths that manifested this uprising and continued struggle in the first place. It is an american panacea that puts people in prison to pretend that takes care of a “problem”. Leonard Peltier, no matter his personality does not deserve the LIVING DEATH SENTENCE of life in prison, no parole, for this crime committed by many. He does not. It is simply true that Mr. Peltier DID NOT receive a fair trial. His trial helped set a stage for the contemporary demise of our justice system. This continues to contribute to the loss of other personal freedoms because this part of our country’s history IS governments persecution of it’s citizens, which government wants to amend by the imprisonment of one man. The more things stay the same with Manning, Assange, Snowden, Swartz(rip)… or ‘bad guys’ Hussein, Bin Laden,McVeigh, etc…

Peltier was/remains victim of time and place and much much much more. He was/is on the side of the people and that is who we have to listen to… is the people, not government or media telling us about the people. We have to take the real side of the real people not the governments side right? btw, Peltier has some good company on his side, speaking of people.

Did he do it? Personally, I think not, seems to be a finely designed agenda for a scapegoat that I continue to see replayed today. To me, one persons guilt is not the issue here – there is more. It is way past time to release Mr. Peltier for a healing that this country is in desperate need of, and time for a different way of doing/thinking things.  

~Pilamayaye Myoglasi~

Some or all of you may know this already and there is far more depth and detail in respect to this history I came across today:-

Sir Richard Grenville captured a Roanoke Island American Indian and named him Raleigh (for Sir Walter Raleigh) and brought him to Bideford, England following a skirmish in 1586. He was baptised at Saint Mary the Virgin's Church, Bideford in March 1588 and died from influenza in Sir Richard Grenville's house on April 2, 1589. He was laid to rest at that same church five days later. He is said to have been the first American Indian to have a Christian conversion and an English resting place.

In the 17^th century Chief Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas spent some of her life in London two years after she married English colonist John Rolfe at age twenty-one. Pocahontas died due to an unknown disease and was laid to rest at St George's Church in Gravesend, England. She had a son called Thomas Rolfe.

Lakota tribes arrived in England as part of ‘Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show’. An Oglala 'gun-slinging and horse-riding stuntman' and a year old boy named Red Penny died during the tour in 1887. They were laid to rest at West Brompton cemetery in London. A Brule tribesman Paul Eagle Star died at a show in Sheffield on August 24, 1891 at age twenty-seven. He apparently fell from his horse and broke an ankle. He was also laid to rest in West Brompton. A fifty-nine-year-old Oglala Sioux called Long Wolf died during the tour as a result of pneumonia on June 13, 1892. He was laid to rest in West Brompton cemetery. Two months later, a two-year-old girl named White Star Ghost Dog died when she fell from her mother's arms during horseback. Her remains shared the same grave as Long Wolf's remains. Long Wolf and White Star Ghost Dog's coffin were repatriated to the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1997. Two years later; Paul Eagle Star's coffin was repatriated to the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Descendants include John Black Feather (Long Wolf's great grandson), Moses Eagle Star and Lucy Eagle Star (Paul Eagle Star's two grandchildren).

Blackfoot Sioux chief Charging Thunder visited Salford; Manchester in 1903 aged twenty-six as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He was described as an exceptional horseman who performed 'thrilling' stunts in Buffalo Bill's show in front of huge crowds, on the site of what is now ‘Lowry’ in Salford Quays. When the show left England he stayed here and married Josephine, an American horse trainer who had just given birth to their first child, Bessie and together they settled in Darwen, Lancashire (Northern England) before moving to Gorton, Lancashire. His name was changed to George Edward Williams, after registering with the British immigration authorities to enable him to find work. He became an elephant keeper at the Belle Vue Zoo. He died on July 28, 1929 from pneumonia at age fifty-two. His was laid to rest in Gorton's cemetery.

• It would still have the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.
• It would include provisions of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• It would include provisions of the Declaration on Principles of International Law Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
• It would have much more direct democracy.
• It would have to have at least one public news outlet not controlled by the wealthy.
• Its economy would be more focused on sustainability than growth.
• Its most powerful people would be more focused on personal happiness than oppressing others.
• And there would likely be an additional reward system that gives people status outside of the monetary system.

As a Native person of this country, I've come to the conclusion that I must support the Palestinian people and the pursuit of an autonomous Palestinian state.

Although many view both American Indians and Palestinians as "indigenous and displaced people," this is not the reason that I feel a sense of kinship with Palestinians.

Instead, this fraternal feeling for my brothers and sisters in Gaza and on the West Bank is due to a much more basic and primal feeling of fear: the realization that what befalls one oppressed group inevitably befalls others.

Indigenous people, as well as other oppressed groups worldwide, regardless of race or religion, have a vested interest in learning from the genocidal atrocities that the U.S. government initiated on American Indians. Every person who strives for humanity also has a strong interest in preventing those same atrocities from occurring in another place at another time to another group of people -- in this particular situation, to the Palestinians.

Palestinians, like Natives, are captives in their own lands. They, too, have no place to go, no geographical recourse. Lebanon, Syria and Egypt have all shown their callousness to Palestinian people and have used them like human chess pieces against Israel.

Short on options, Palestinians, like Natives, have no choice but to continue to be a thorn in the side of the oftentimes apathetic and oppressive governments that have come to power by whatever means available.
By comparison, Natives have been fortunate. We have used gaming revenues and population explosions to gain political strength. Palestinians have chosen -- rightly or wrongly -- to use different methods. Although one might feel compelled to view the suicide bombings employed by a small minority of Palestinians as "wrong," one must also recognize that many Palestinians have been working nonviolently for a just political solution, which the Israeli government spurns.

My sense of kinship with Palestinian people thus comes from a reminder of my own people's suffering, and from an interest in stopping such suffering from happening ever again.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said.

So when I see such injustices carried out anyplace, I think of my young nieces and nephews, living in fear that their homes could one day be raided -- possibly with their parents being used as human shields, as in Jenin, in the West Bank.

I get the same uneasy feeling that I got upon first viewing photos of the dead Jewish children at the hands of the Sonderkommando, the same feeling as when I first watched "The Killing Fields" and saw the bodies of thousands of dead Cambodian children. It's the same feeling I got when my mother told me about the 7th Calvary's massacre of Indian women and children at Wounded Knee on Dec. 29, 1890.

There are enough similarities among these events that people should awaken to the pain and agony of blood being spilled -- whether that blood be Palestinian,American Indian,Black, Israel or yours.

During the entire history of America until the turn of the twentieth century, Indigenous Americans were hunted, killed, and forcibly removed from their lands by European settlers.This includes the paying of bounties beginning in the colonial period with, for example, a proclamation against the Penobscot Indians in 1755 issued by King George II of Great Britain, known commonly as the Phips Proclamation 

The proclamation orders, “His Majesty’s subjects to Embrace all opportunities of pursuing, captivating, killing and Destroying all and every of the aforesaid Indians.” The colonial government paid 50 pounds for scalps of males over 12 years, 25 pounds for scalps of women over 12, and 20 pounds for scalps of boys and girls under twenty-five British pounds sterling in 1755, worth around $9,000 today —a small fortune in those days when an English teacher earned 60 pounds a year.Well, the term "scalp" offended the good Christian women of the community and they asked that another term be found to describe these things. So, the trappers and hunters began using the term "redskin"...they would tell the owner that they had bearskin, deer skins....and "redskins." The term came from the bloody mess that one saw when looking at the scalp...thus the term "red"...skin because it was the "skin" of an "animal" just like the others that they had...so, it became "redskins". So, you see when we see or hear that term...we don't see a football team...we don't see a game being played...we don't see any "honor"...we see the bloody pieces of scalps that were hacked off of our men, women and even our children...we hear the screams as our people were killed...and "skinned" just like animals.

Discrimination against American Indians is the longest held racism in the United States. It dates back to the arrival of the pilgrims and the subsequent invasion of the continent. In an effort to obtain much of North America as territory of the United States, a long series of wars and massacres forced displacements (including the well-known Trail of Tears), restriction of food rights, and the imposition of treaties. Ideologies justifying the context included stereotypes of Native Americans as "merciless Indian savages" and the quasi-religious doctrine of manifest destiny, which asserted divine blessing for U.S. conquest of all lands west of the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific.

When you hear the word racism, most people think African American or Hispanic, but there is an entire other race in America who experiences racism on every level without a real sense of justice, it is the American Indian.

Racism far exceeds just Black and White or Hispanic and Asian. Often forgotten, the American Indian has experienced a great deal of racism in the U.S. Although many people overlook or excuse the behavior of the settlers, this was the home of the Indian person before Christopher Columbus. Contrary to popular belief, Columbus didn't discover America, the Indians already called this vast land home. And like any person defending their home or territory, the Indians fought to keep their land.

It seems a shame that Native Americans are subjected to racism in a country they called their own but they do. According to the United States Department of Justice Native Americans experience per capita more than twice the rates of violence as the average American citizen. American Indians are the victim of violence by those of other races more than 70 percent of the time. So why then is the public not aware of these statistics? The answer is horrifyingly simple; the justice system in American does not tend to care for its native sons and daughters.

According to the US Department of Justice, by its own admission, crimes against Native Americans go unpunished. The DOJ states that some of the problem is reporting of crimes by Indians but they also admit that police officers nationwide are not equipped with the knowledge needed to fight crime within Native tribes. Many times because tribal members live on reservations local police are reluctant or discouraged from responding to crimes against natives. In affect this leaves many tribes policing themselves that can get difficult because of tribal ties.

Racism against Native Americans

Hundreds of native peoples made up of millions of individuals occupied the lands that would become the United States of America. During the colonial and independent periods, a long series of Indian Wars were fought with the primary objective of obtaining much of North America as territory of the U.S. Through wars, massacre, forced displacement (such as in the Trail of Tears), restriction of food rights, and the imposition of treaties, land was taken and numerous hardships imposed. Ideologies justifying the context included stereotypes of Native Americans as "merciless Indian savages" (as described in the United States Declaration of Independence) and the quasi-religious doctrine of Manifest Destiny which asserted divine blessing for U.S. conquest of all lands west of the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific. The most rapid invasion occurred in the California gold rush, the first two years of which saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Indians. Following the 1848 American invasion, Native Californians were enslaved in the new state from statehood in 1850 to 1867.

Military and civil resistance by Native Americans has been a constant feature of American history. So too have a variety of debates around issues of sovereignty, the upholding of treaty provisions, and the civil rights of Native Americans under U.S. law.

Discrimination, marginalization

Once their territories were incorporated into the United States, surviving Native Americans were denied equality before the law and often treated as wards of the state. Many Native Americans were relegated to reservations--constituting just 4% of U.S. territory--and the treaties signed with them violated. Tens of thousands of American Indians and Alaska Natives were forced to attend a residential school system which sought to reeducate them in white settler American values, culture and economy--to "kill the Indian, saving the man."

Further dispossession continued through concessions for industries such as oil, mining and timber and through division of land through legislation such as the Allotment Act. These concessions have raised problems of consent, exploitation of low royalty rates, environmental injustice, and gross mismanagement of funds held in trust, resulting in the loss of $10-40 billion. The World watch Institute notes that 317 reservations are threatened by environmental hazards, while Western Shoshone land has been subjected to more than 1,000 nuclear explosions.

While formal equality has been legally granted, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders remain among the most economically disadvantaged groups in the country, and suffer from high levels of alcoholism and suicide.

Forgotten Story of Indian Slavery

When Americans think of slavery, our minds create images of Africans inhumanely crowded aboard ships plying the middle passage from Africa, or of blacks stooped to pick cotton in Southern fields. We don't conjure images of American Indians chained in coffles and marched to ports like Boston and Charleston, and then shipped to other ports in the Atlantic world.

Yet Indian slavery and an Indian slave trade were ubiquitous in early America. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, tens of thousands of America's native peoples were enslaved, many of them transported to lands distant from their homes.

Our historical mythology posits that American Indians could not be enslaved in large numbers because they too readily succumbed to disease when exposed to Europeans and they were too wedded to freedom to allow anyone to own them. Yet many indigenous people developed resistance to European diseases after being exposed to the newcomers for well over a century. And it is a racist conception that "inferior" Africans accepted their debased position as slaves - a status that American Indians and Europeans presumably could never have accepted. This is a gross misconception of history.

We are just scratching the surface of what this all means. For the enslavement of Indians forces us to rethink not only the institution of slavery, but the evolution of racism and racist ideologies in America.

Scholars long have known about the Indian slave trade, but the scattered nature of the sources deterred a systematic examination. No one had any conception of the trade's massive extent and that it played such a central role in the lives of early Americans and in the colonial economy.

Indian slavery complicates the narrative we have created of a white-black world, with Indians residing outside on a vaguely defined frontier. The Indian slave trade connects native and European history, so that plantations and Indian communities become entwined. We find planters making more money from slave trading than planting, and if we look more closely we find Indians not only enslaved on plantations but working as police forces to maintain those plantations and receiving substantial rewards for returning runaway slaves.

We are also learning a great deal more about American-Indian peoples. Most importantly we can now tell the stories - the tragedies - that befell so many who were killed in slaving wars or spent their days as slaves far from their homes. They and their peoples have been largely forgotten. The Natchez, Westo, Yamasee, Euchee, Yazoo and Tawasa are among the dozens of Indian peoples who fell victims to the slaving wars, with the survivors forced to join other native communities. These are tales that Indians themselves have not told: Just as the story of Indian slavery was excluded from the European past, it was largely forgotten in American-Indian traditions.

Americans often wish the past would just go away, save for those symbols we celebrate: Pocahontas saving John Smith, the "noble savage," and the first Thanksgiving. The image of Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal is one of the most cogent images we have of American Indians and of the colonization of this continent.

A joint force of American and British military attacked treasonous subjects of the British Crown and fairly defeated them in battle. However, after accepting these traitors' surrender the British left their American allies in charge. With the British gone, the Americans proceeded to sack the town and murdered the wounded prisoners.

This happened about 175 miles from my home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The massacre became a rallying cry among those forces whom the British regarded as traitors: Remember the Raisin!

The year was 1812. The war has been called the Second Revolutionary War, but is better known as the War of 1812. The victims of this massacre called themselves citizens of the United States, the Crown's opinion notwithstanding. The leader of the American forces perpetrating the massacre was a Shawnee chief named Tecumseh.

This and other violent conflicts between US citizens and indigenous Americans, shaped the popular notion that the people group we call Indians (and native Americans call Indians) were murderous savages.

Right or wrong, this is what US citizens and soldiers were thinking when they fought Indians in Ohio, Michigan, and parts further west. And before you feel too sympathetic about the Indians (or the Brits), you should remember the Raisin.

Nobody has clean hands.

As the US gained power and the power of Indian nations declined, the popular notion changed from murderous savages to worthy foes.

In 1820, an Ohio lawyer, Charles Robert Sherman, named his son William Tecumseh after the Indian chief. If you asked any South Carolina native after the Civil War, the murderous savages were those fellas in blue shirts following General William Tecumseh Sherman. (My ancestors served the Union elsewhere.)

The notion of Indians as worthy foes lasted much longer. If you read Louis L'Amour westerns (and you should), you'll see Indians depicted in this fashion. (I wish I could watch the original 3D version of Hondo.)

However, the death of Louis L'Amour accompanied the decline of the Western genre (as well as the decline of decent writing in that genre).

And in the late '60s the popular concept of Indians changed. Whereas the "heathen" part of heathen savages was once regarded as a Bad Thing, the post-Christian pop culture found the animist religion of Indians a Good Thing. (Or maybe just an excuse to use peyote.)

With a large dollop of New Age fuzzy thinking, the Indians were recast as mystic savants who could be counted on to kick the racist, evil White Man's butt in the 3rd reel when he gets back from his spirit quest.

In particular, I'm thinking of Billy Jack. However, I've recently enjoyed the character, Henry Standing Bear in the TV show Longmire who carries himself like a mystic savant (as contrasted with the character Jacob Nighthorse who is a casino owner).

And that brings us to today and my question: Is "mystic savant" going to be replaced by "casino owner" in the popular imagination?

Today there are memorials to him, statues, and buildings named after him, - Gen. W, T. Sherman, Union Civil War 'Hero'.

He is also famous for something else... For the instrumentation and racial cleansing and genocide of the American Indian

On June 27, 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman was given command of the Military District of the Missouri, which was one of the five military divisions into which the U.S. government had divided the country.

Sherman received this command for the purpose of commencing the 25-year war against the Plains Indians, primarily as a form of veiled subsidy to the government-subsidized railroad corporations and other politically connected corporations involved in building the transcontinental railroads.

These corporations were the financial backbone of the Republican Party. Indeed, in June 1861, Abraham Lincoln, former legal counsel of the Illinois Central Railroad, called a special emergency session of Congress not to deal with the two-month-old Civil War, but to commence work on the Pacific Railway Act. Subsidizing the transcontinental railroads was a primary (if not "the" primary) objective of the new Republican Party.

What Sherman called the “Final" solution of the 'Indian' problem involved “killing hostile Indians and segregating their pauperized survivors in remote places.” During the Civil War, Sherman had practiced a total war of destruction of property. Now the army, in its 'Indian' warfare, often wiped out entire villages. Sherman's sentiments were that 'Indians' to be subhuman and racially inferior to whites and therefore deserving of extermination if they could not be controlled” by the white population.

Sherman’s goal was also to eliminate the possibility racial amalgamation (the action, process, or result of combining or uniting )that might occur elsewhere in the United States, by undertaking to effect a “racial cleansing" of the land beginning with extermination of the Indians. Sherman's troops conducted more than one thousand attacks on Native American villages, mostly in the winter months, when families were together. The U.S. army’s actions matched its leaders’ rhetoric of extermination.

Sherman gave orders to kill everyone and everything, including dogs, and to burn everything that would burn so as to increase the likelihood that any survivors would starve or freeze to death. The soldiers also waged a war of extermination on the buffalo, which was the Plains Natives  source of food, winter clothing, and other goods.

The escalation of violence against the Plains Indians actually began in earnest during the War Between the States. Sherman and Sheridan’s Indian policy was a continuation and escalation of a policy that General Grenville Dodge, among others, had already commenced. Dodge said after  John Chivington - Sand Creek Massacre "These Indians must be punished, their women and children captured and held as hostages" They were running for there life's Notice there was no men mentioned in that sentence

It was not necessary to kill tens of thousands of Native Americans and imprison thousands more in P.O.W./concentration camps (today “reservations”) for generations in order to build a transcontinental railroad. Nor were the wars on the Plains Indians a matter of “The white population’s” waging a war of extermination.

Sherman, along with others utilized the state’s latest technologies of mass killing developed during the Civil War and its mercenary soldiers to wage their war because they were in a hurry to shovel subsidies to the railroad corporations.General William T. Sherman, a true war criminal.