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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2005)
Smoke Signals 9 AUGUST 15, 2005 odd BoaQDeirIPeDGDeir Klostt AiraQD-wair Coiraffeireiraee 7. a Host Siletz Tribal member Dino Butler introduced an anti-war conference hosted and organized by Grand Ronde Tribal member Klairice A Westley in Portland, Oregon earlier this year. At the conference, Butler presented a letter from Leonard Peltier. ANTI-WAR continued from front page cated to hold a conversation. The day long convention, "Custer Wants You... AgainNative Perspec tives on War & Militarism," was four months in development. Grand Ronde Tribal member Klairice A. Westley joined with Veterans For Peace mem ber Ted Kiser and activist and mom Shelly Cater to bring some peaceful perspectives to the community, and some resources to their children. "I have two boys that are draft age," said Westley. "We're not giv ing our young people the information (they need) to prevent them from en listing," she said. She hoped that this event would close that gap. On hand were representatives of the National Lawyers Guild describing GIs' rights and military recruiters' wrongs; Veterans for Peace came with a range of personal perspectives not generally seen in prime time; a relatively new group, Students for Peace and Justice, run by Lincoln High School juniors Rosa Lehman and Lila Zucker was there as was the Northwest Anarchist Federation and the Portland Youth and Elders Council. KBOO Reporter and Public Affairs Host Andrew Geller tied the war in Iraq to an unbroken string of U.S. aggressions going back 100 years. "The U.S. has sent troops into foreign lands every nine-and-a-half months for over a century," he said. Geller also brought to bear such ob servations about war as Nazi Hermann Goring's famous description of how leaders take a country to war: "Voice or no voice," Goring said, "the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the paci fists for lack of patriotism and expos ing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." (The quote comes from Gustave Gilbert's book, Nuremberg Diary). Geller quoted Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, who said in 1933, "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil inter ests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international bank ing house of Brown Brothers in 1909 1912 (Where have I heard that name before?' said Geller). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for Ameri can sugar interests in 1916. In China, I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." The "Brown Brothers" he mentions are the same Browns whose name is today the centerpiece of the Halliburton subsid iary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, busy this time with the war in Iraq, said Geller. But the biggest names at the event were Leonard Peltier and Dino Butler (Siletz). Peltier sent a hand-written wel come to the group, and Butler read it. About the continuing Indian wars against our nations, Peltier wrote: "These wars are not over." Today, however, the weapon of choice is the "ink pen," and Peltier ran down the list of anti-Indian laws that continue as "another act of genocide." Butler called it "a genocide of the mind." Butler has been a key figure in the struggle for Native rights since the early 1970s. He was with Peltier on June 26, 1975, during the FBI attack on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Oglala, South Dakota. Butler and fel low AIM member Bob Robideau were tried and acquitted for the murders of two FBI agents in a 1976 Cedar Rapids courtroom. Peltier was convicted in 1977, in a Fargo, North Dakota court room of complicity in the murders and is now in year 29 of two life sentences. "In the 1970s," Peltier wrote, "we decided we would resist the war (on the Indians) the longest war in history instead of lying down like a whipped dog with his tail between his legs. I have never surrendered, nor do I in tend to." "Teach yourselves to be leaders," he wrote. "If you learn to speak to our people, they will listen to you." Butler compared the war in Iraq with the one in Vietnam. "You can't win this war," he said. "(The people have their own) way of life. You can't take away a way of life." "Our minds are poisoned with hate and bitterness," he said. "Hate will destroy us. In 1975, 1 wanted nothing more than to kill or be killed. I felt I had nothing to live for. That's a geno cide of our minds and our hearts. Our young people are made to feel helpless. All they see is war waged all around us. (They think), what can I do? You can do something and it starts within your self. My church is right here (he pat ted his chest), right here inside of me." "Our power comes from our ances tors who suffered," he said. "Each and every one of us has to make a decision about who we are and where we're going. And that moment is now." "Today, I don't hate the white man or the U.S. government because they can't hurt me anymore." "Go within your dreams," he said. "You just have to listen." Others were taking no prisoners. "If you're thinking of joining the mili tary, don't give me that warrior (exple tive)! Please!" said Eugene Johnson. "Warriors aren't killers! Warriors are people who stand up for the rights, health, happiness, joy, pleasure, life, death and generosity of the people. Yet, somehow, we narrowed the focus of what a warrior is. A warrior is defined as someone who joins the military and kills their fellow human beings? (Exple tive) brave! Pulling a gun out and mur dering your fellow human beings to secure the wealth of billionaires." "I never signed up for the draft, let alone the military," Johnson added. "Why would I want to fight for the same people that have tried and con tinue to attempt to wipe Indians off of the face of the earth? I don't and I won't, of course." "Did you ever notice that when the U.S. goes to war, it attacks people of color?" asked Tribal member Perri McDaniel, who did not attend but fol lowed the development of the conven tion, "and who do they recruit to go on the front lines? More people of color. When are we going to get it?" With videos that included Martin Luther King, Jr. and Joseph Kennedy, Jr., and bits of other videos including, "Genocide by Sanctions," "Arlington West," 'Testimonies Out of Fallujah" and 'What I've Learned About U.S. For eign Policy," the conference connected many of the dots in a history that is largely ignored or forgotten by much of the press and the public. Leroy Big Boy (Oglalal Lakota), a drug and alcohol counselor for the Native American Rehabilitation Asso ciation, talked about post-war alcohol and drug use on reservations. Perfor mance Artist Queksta (Secwepemc Okanagan) read one of her poems, a letter to Peltier. Annette and Mark Pritchard of Military Families Speak Out, remembered their nephew, who died in Iraq. "When you leave here," said Peltier through Butler's voice, "don't forget what you've learned." c$?m few .q f, 1- VJV K ' Vi J h rgglll I If m - fit - V V ; ' ! &aHN ' - ' L Peaceful Grand Ronde Tribal member Klairice A. Westley of Portland joined with others to host the first Indian conference in the area against the war in Iraq. mtTEIT IE Is
