Smoke Signals 7
Broadsides From The Heart Of Native America
OCTOBER 15, 2005
MANKILLER continued
from page 6
that at the first meeting, they did
not put a chair out for her. "Instead
of starting something divisive," she
said, "I pulled a chair up from the
audience and sat down."
"I'm not a person who has a great
need to be loved," she said.
People say that Indians are sup
posed to adapt to American culture,
she said, "but nobody has ever
been able to explain to me what
they are trying to assimilate us
into. People describe the final epi
sode of The Survivor as a great
cultural experience," she said, "Is
that what you want for your cul
ture? I talk about values."
Among those values is context.
Mankiller described the difference
between the way the dominant
culture looks at a picture and the
way an Indian looks at it. The
first focuses on the subject. The
second focuses on the context in
which the subject rests.
"Too much is written about Na
tive people," she said, "and not
enough by Native people."
On the mainstream media,
Trudell said, "I wouldn't try to
reach the majority, just reach out
to those you can, and just be as
coherent as you can. How much
time do we waste because we don't
control the media? Use clarity and
coherence. Become less reactionary
and more thoughtful. It will cre
ate its own way of spreading.
Reach whoever you can, but don't
try to recruit. In a symbolic way,
we become the media."
"I agree with something Con
gresswoman Barbara Jordan of
Texas once said," said Mankiller.
'"If I thought that most Americans
really were racist, I couldn't get
out of bed in the morning.' I have
to believe that most people can be
educated, and every person has a
responsibility to educate them
selves and those around them. Al
ways be extending a hand and
say, 'Let's talk.'
Related were the pair's answers to
a question about leadership.
"I don't like the idea of being a
leader," said Mankiller. "I consider
myself a facilitator. You have to
never separate yourself from the
people. Your only role is that of a
spokesperson."
"The danger," she added, "is when
people look externally for solutions
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Tribal Council member Kathleen Tom
to problems when they really need
to look within themselves."
"I don't want to be a leader," said
Trudell. "I'm paranoid and don't
want people behind me." He said
that most times when people are
objecting about their leaders, they
are really just expressing how over
whelmed and powerless they feel.
"Listen to people," said
Mankiller. "Give them a voice."
And related to that was the
question to Trudell about the les
sons of AIM. "In AIM,
it was fun to be the
leader but it came with
consequences. I wore
that label (political ac
tivist) as an identity.
Only after I understood
how limiting it was. In
some ways, it limited us.
Recognize it as a tool
and not an identity. Be
careful of politics. Use
it like a tool but don't
believe in it. Believe in
as little as possible." He
pointed again to think
ing "clearly and coher
ently," a term he could
have said a hundred
times over the course of the
evening. The theme of the day
was "Conscious Unity for Our
Common Survival."
More specifically, Trudell said,
"It isn't about blame. It's about
responsibility... I'm not guilty for
what I did but I'm responsible for
it. Guilt doesn't teach us to learn,
it just produces more guilt."
And as an example, he took down
the most common label we hear to
day. "I don't trust democracy," he
said. "(In this society) it means the
right of the entitled to rule."
The solution to apathy, Trudell
said, is "we need to show some re
spect to ourselves."
Mankiller agreed. "I don't think
people are apathetic. They just
need clarity. Charlie and I, we'll
sit and talk to people to see what
they want to do next. We need to
see barriers as challenges. We
need to give people an opportu
nity to express themselves."
Too much of what we hear about
Native communities is negative,
said Mankiller. "What we need is
to celebrate ourselves and our
communities. Our languages are
still spoken. We still have a strong
sense of family, clan and nation.
And we're still standing."
Asked what to tell the children,
Trudell said, "To think. And it's not
enough to tell them. We have to
show them."
Said Mankiller: "We survived."
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One People, One Pride Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle Kennedy presented Wilma Mankiller and husband Charlie
Soap with gifts at a welcoming ceremony held at the University of Oregon's Many Nations Longhouse. "One day, a Supreme
Court Justice will be Indian, and it takes this kind of meeting to make it happen," said Kennedy.
No Evidence Of Mechanical Problems In Crash That Claimed Young Tribal Member
By Toby McClary
After nearly a year of investi
gation, the National Transporta
tion Safety Board (NTSB) has
developed a hypothesis on an
airplane crash near Grand
Ronde that fatally injured Tribal
member Travis Hofenbredl and
two other teens.
In mid-October of 2004, Certi
fied Pilot Ross Havel, 18, Kristi
Ward, 16, and Hofenbredl, 16,
were on an afternoon elk-scouting
trip in the foot hills of the
Coastal Mountain Range about
seven miles from Grand Ronde.
According to a newly released
report by the NTSB, an uniden
tified hunter, who was in the
general vicinity of the crash site,
reported hearing an airplane when
he looked up to see a light aircraft
approaching from a southerly direc
tion toward his position.
"I was a little concerned about his
altitude, which seemed to be rather
low for the hilly terrain and timber,"
said the hunter in the NTSB report.
"It looked very slow, almost at stall
speed. The tail seemed to be lower
than the front," he said. "I listened
hard for any indication of engine
trouble. The engine sounded
smooth and powerful. Then it dis
appeared over the timber to the
east," added the hunter.
The airplane was a 1971 Piper
PA-28-140. It was a single engine,
low wing, fixed landing gear air-
plane. It was
powered by a four cylin
der, air-cooled, normally
aspirated Lycoming O-320 engine,
rated at 150 horsepower. The air
plane was configured to carry a
maximum of four occupants.
After further investigation by the
NTSB, there has been no evidence of
a mechanical or control malfunction
that would determine the plane to be
uncontrollable. A toxicological screen
showed that alcohol and drugs were
A Piper Cherokee PA
28 similar to the one that the
teens crashed in.
not a factor.
The NTSB has not written
a final report on this inci
dent, however, low speed and
a low altitude seem to play a
major role.