New Jersey Revolutionary Radio Welcomes Lou Hastings!

Welcome one and all, to a heartwarming edition of Wine, Women, and Revolution! We’re coming at you from New Jersey Revolution Radio, New Jersey’s one and only socialist podcast. Today’s special guest has a story that might just bring tears to your eyes. This summer at a conference, Heather had the pleasure of meeting indigenous rights activist Lew Hastings. Hastings is not indigenous himself, but his interests began at a very young age. His father was in the military, which meant that as a child he traveled through the country often. As a family tradition, on weekends, he would get to visit assorted historical places of interest. Now, wherever he goes, he’s seeking that indigenous story. Ever compelled, he attended Rutgers for Anthropology and Archaeology, with a specialty in prehistoric Native American History – this is something that has stayed with him for his whole life.

These days, Lew is a travel blogger, from the great nation of New Jersey! Although he was born in New York, he lives here. He travels a lot and he has a podcast about his journeys called Lessons From the Red Road. On this blog, he chronicles his journeys to indigenous locations. Another blog he has is called Tunes Less Traveled, which Lew describes as a fun log of his music as he travels throughout the country. He also enjoys producing content for the Red Road blog, but the content is much less lighthearted, as he discusses that ugly history which is swept under the rug by dominant society.

We’re All Currently Standing On Stolen Land

As Heather and Lew delve into the podcast, they preface the discussion by acknowledging that we’re all currently standing on stolen land, noting that New Jersey specifically is Lenape land. At the convention where Heather and Lew met, he told the story of Sitting Bull and the history of what was done to his tribe. This is a story about working with tribes in the Dakotas, most specifically the Lakota tribe out in Standing Rock. Sitting Bull was from Standing Rock. Many know of Standing Rock from the pipeline issues, but Sitting Bull and his people, the Hunkpapa, were chased around the West/Great Plains up into Canada after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. This battle took place in Montana, and here, Colonel Kuster was defeated by an overwhelming force of warriors led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other indigenous leaders. This was both a great victory and a terrible loss for the Lakota people, being a loss because the win now meant that there were targets on their backs and they had to keep moving to avoid being caught.

The United States government knew to dishearten and beat these warriors they had to remove their freedom of movement. This is why they decided to take away these people’s horses. Some of the soldiers kept the horses and the rest were turned out to the wild. The horses were not considered a beast of burden by people of Native tribes. Rather, they were an integral part of life, used for a variety of daily tasks. Beyond being used as tools or even kept as pets, the horses were regarded as relatives; these beings were seen as sacred members of the tribe. The United States government and military did everything in their power to break the spirit of the Native people, particularly the Lakota tribe. When the tribe was forced off of their land and onto reservations, separated from their horses, and then ultimately separated from their children, it broke them deeply. Descendants of these tribes will testify that the confiscation of horses was what set them on a spiral into the crippling issues they face today. The Lakota were known as the best horsemen on the continent, if not in the world. They still haven’t come back from losing these essential partners.

Meanwhile, The Horses Live On

Lew flashes back to the horses, which had been separated from the Lakota people and were running free. They were still there, reproducing and gro