Street roots., August 21, 2015, Page 12, Image 12

2015
Commentary
Page 13
COAL TRAINS, from page 12
Lundgren explains “Groups like CERA
tap into that undercurrent of local racism
Their stated purpose: to promote “equal
and provide a forum for people to express
rights” by teaching residents how to attack
their fears through the disguise of bogus
tribal sovereignty.
legal arguments. CERA provides
The conference was organized by Skip
manufactured legal arguments like the Kian
Richards - a man who organized militias for
provides white, hooded robes for people to
the Wise Use movement in the 90s. One of
hide behind.”
his meetings in October 1994 featured
Inside the anti-Indian conference in 2013,
conspiracy theories about a possible United
Philip Brendale outlined a legal strategy “to
Nations takeover of Washington state,
take these tribes down” and “to strike a
possibly aided by environmentalists. The
most devastating psychological blow to
meeting was co-hosted by Ben Sams — who
Northwest tribes’ pride and their sense of
had earlier submitted paperwork to
well-being.”
Snohomish County renouncing his
Who would fund this legal strategy?
citizenship and declaring his legal status as
Brendale is glad you asked: of course, it
a “white sovereign state citizen” - a
would be the “large coal companies and the
declaration other “sovereign citizens” use to
railroads that mine and haul millions of tons
dodge taxes under fake legal arguments.
of coal,” - an obvious reference to the
Just a few days after the October meeting
Gateway Pacific terminal near the Lummi
there was a cross-burning and shooting at a
Nation. Brendale went on to suggest that
nearby migrant workers’ camp.
deposit the money into his own non-profit
Richards’ 2013 conference was announced
organization - enabling them “to finance a
by local tea party activist Kris Halterman on
winning case without getting their corporate
his radio show. According to area journalist
hands dirty”.
Terri Hansen, Halterman also created two
The conference may have signaled a real
political action
change in strategy -
committees in the fall
after Lauri Hennessey
of 2013 to support
left the Alliance for
the anti-Indian, pro­
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coal agenda:
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Spokane attorney
SPOKANETRIBE Project has been
Dave Lundgren calls
tracking similar
the Citizens Equal
extreme right groups
Rights Alliance “The
who seek the return
Ku Klux Kian of
of a simpler and more
Indian Country,” saying their members “are
racist America. Like CERA, many of these
afraid of being regulated by brown people,
groups appropriate civil-rights language to
and by the efforts of tribes under federal law scrub the blood stains of American history,
to reclaim lost homelands.”
using the term “equal rights” to rationalize
One key to CERA’s strategy certainly
a hatred of minorities - indeed, imagining
appears to be bad history. According to
themselves to be the real minorities in
Terri Hansen of Mother Earth Journal, one
order to, “steal the injury.”
CERA group in southern Oregon calling
One of these groups is the Oath Keepers
itself the Klamath Basin Alliance publicly
- a group that claims its members have an
ultimate allegiance to protect the
opposed the return of land to the Klamath
Constitution. What does that mean? You can
Tribe that had been stolen by timber
look for yourself in their list of “Orders We
companies during the era of termination,
Will Not Obey” - which claims that its
claiming such an act of restoration would
members, including numerous sheriffs and
foster “separatism, apartheid, and racism.”
ex-military members, will never participate
They go on to ask “Why should the
in the hostile takeover of the United States
taxpayers foot the bill to buy land to
establish a separate country for the Klamath (perhaps by the United Nations?) or in the
imposition of “martial law.”
Tribes?” How such an argument fits with
The Oath Keepers took their central idea
history is beyond explanation, but it doesn’t
stop CERA from making them, or from filing of posse comitatus — essentially the divine
rule of the county sheriff — from a famous
lawsuits.
LEARN MORE
At the end of August, Jewell James, a
tribal elder and master carver at the
House of Tears Carvers of the Lummi
Nation, will be traveling through Portland
on a totem pole journey. This will be the
third of James’ regional journeys
drawing attention to the threat of fossil
fuels, both to the earth’s climate and the
local landscapes that we call home. The
gathering will take place at S t Phillip
Neri Catholic Church from 6:00 - 7:30
p.m„ August 24,2015.
Silver Shirt named Henry Beach from
Portland. The Silver Shirts, of course, was
the famous U.S. Nazi organization that
modeled themselves after the brown shirts
during WWII, and even took money from
Nazi Germany to build Hitler a world
conquest headquarters in Los Angeles, Calif.
In 2013, 21 Oregon sheriffs were members
of the parallel group Constitutional Sheriffs
and Peace Officers Association, according to
the Rural Organizing Project.
Last year in Josephine County, armed
Oath Keepers converged in Grants Pass
after two gold miners were informed by the
Bureau of Land Management that they were
out of compliance with regulations and had
to stop mining. The tension did not escalate,
but the situation certainly revealed that
these networks exist, and who they exist for.
The Christian anti-militia I
Thankfully, the dominant trend among
Christian churches has been toward an
alliance with their neighboring tribes, and
even toward a spiritual understanding of
ecology. In 1987, Christian churches in the
Northwest sent heartfelt letters of apology
to their local tribal governments and
spiritual leaders.
In 1997, these and more churches
re-affirmed “an apology for long-standing
participation in the destruction of traditional
Native American spiritual practices.” The
letters acknowledged the church’s role in
the violent colonization of the Pacific
Northwest, and the program of assimilation
that deprived Native Americans not only of
their land, but of their culture and spiritual
practices. Until 1934, it was still illegal for
Native Americans to practice their own
religions. Many Pacific Northwest tribes
continued to perform their ceremonies.
They did so discreetly, on American holidays
like the 4th of July, and told their federal
overseers that their dances and rituals were
celebrations of the United States, when in
fact they were in reverence for the land the
United States was sitting on, and for their
ancestors who were buried there.
“We offer our commitment to support you
in the righting of previous wrongs... to
encourage the members of our churches to
stand in solidarity with you on these
important religious issues,” reads the 1987
letter. “May the God of Abraham and Sarah,
and the Spirit who lives in both the cedar
and Salmon People, be honored and
celebrated.”
The first of these letters came from a
visit by Jewell Praying Wolf James, a
spiritual leader with the Lummi Nation who
has worked for over 30 years as a cultural
ambassador, indigenous rights advocate and
• environmental defender. James is a
descendant of the legendary Duwamish
leader Chief Seattle, and hearing him
explain Lummi history has a tendency to
evoke stunned tears from all those listening.
When he first came to the Christian
congregations to share stories from the
Lummi Nation, he made no request of his
audience, but they were so moved that they
circulated a lettef among Christian
leadership in the Northwest churches. This
letter became a formal declaration: the
churches wanted to atone for their past, and
they also wanted to move beyond guilt and
actively stand with the Lummi Nation.
According to Jessie Dye of Earth
Ministry, “Jewell pulled out the letter of
apology near thè end of 2011 and said ‘You
asked us to call when we need you. We need
you now.’” Church leaders were invited to
meet representatives of the Lummi Nation
at Lummi Bay. Not knowing what the
meeting was for, Church leaders showed up
to the beach, where they sat respectfully as
the Lummi announced their opposition to
the biggest coal port in North America,
unveiled a giant mock-up of a million dollar
check from the coal developers, and sent it
up in flames.
The turn of our local Christian churches
is not unique - reconciliation, and
decolonization, is happening everywhere.
Canada recently concluded a five-year
process of truth and reconciliation for
indigenous boarding schools, and their
Supreme Court has made numerous
decisions that honor the close relationship
indigenous peoples have with their land.
During a recent papal visit to Bolivia,
even Pope Francis apologized for the “grave
sins” of colonialism, saying, “I say this to
you with regret: Many grave sins were
committed against the Native people of
America in the name of God.”
With the pope now backing them up, the
Northwest Christian churches are joined by
Unitarians who are promoting their own
process of reconciliation, asking for support
from faith leaders and those spiritually
inclined, to protect sacred land and stand up
against hatred.
I