KPFA - Bay Native Circle

Transcript for 04/05/2023 Bay Native Circle

0000:00:00 Show Theme 

00:01:00 Morning Star Gali 

Chimi Sunwi. Good evening and welcome to Bay Native circle here on KPFA, 94.1, KFCF 88.1 in Fresno and online at kpfa.org. This is Morning Star Gali. Your host for this evening. Tonight’s show is dedicated to all of you celebrating spring blessings and renewal. And enjoying this full moon evening tonight’s main native circle profiles some of our community warriors, Anthony Guzman of the Native American Health Center. In Oakland is the Chief Cultural Officer. Besides his community work, he is a father and a husband and considers that his most important role in life. We will hear an interview with James Jackson, a Vietnam veteran who interviews Bruce Gali, a Wounded Knee veteran, and Standing Rock Veteran. All of our veterans are honored and respected within our communities, we will also hear from our very own Bay Native circles, Rass K Dee, a musician, and former producer for BNC. Rass is a cultural and music warrior, blending and incorporating culture into a modern medium. 

01:59 James Jackson 

Hello, my name is Jimmy Jackson. I live in Tuba City Arizona on the Navajo reservation…I am Kinlichini…born for salt and my maternal grandparents are Towering House and my paternal grandparents are Bitterwater and…  

I recently went to visit the traveling wall of Vietnam Memorial and it was in Fort Verde, Arizona, and it was an odd experience to be amongst the Yavapai Apache people… who were forced March to San Carlos in the early, early, early times of Arizona. I went to see other veterans as well at the memorial. So that’s why I went there. Bruce Gali is an Elder from Northern California, he is from the Achomawi band of the Pit River Indian Nation… And he recently traveled to Wounded Knee, South Dakota for the 50th year Memorial of the Occupation there, as well as he is a veteran of Standing Rock, North Dakota Occupation 2016 excuse me… he endured quite a bit of hardship there, Bruce?  

00:03:35 Bruce Gali 

Thank you, Jimmy you know, for the introduction, yes. So, the question was…How did I end up in Wounded Knee?…well you know, back in the late sixties there, you know Alcatraz was going on Also there was some land struggles in Kashia Indian reservation…also Northern California, then they had fishing rights…in Yurok country…but through all these gatherings, especially Alcatraz, there was a number of tribal peoples, tribal nations coming from around the country to do that occupation on Alcatraz and later on they had went to Pit River because we were having a land struggle with PG&E and also the United States forest service on our four corners 

You know land struggles so when Wounded Knee started, the tribe had asked, or the tribal council had asked if there were volunteers to like to go over there because of the Sioux tribe had participated in Pit River at that time…so they had asked for volunteers asked for the tribal council had  

 had asked for volunteers, give me a second here… We had to ask for volunteers, and they asked that I go over there and not to fight the United States government but to go over there and protect the women, children, and elders. Just like the people from Alcatraz from other nations had done so…in order to return that favor. 

I volunteered to go back there that time our spiritual person in Pit River country was Charlie Buckskin, chief and Raymond Lego, and a couple of the other council people Talbert Wilson, Doc Jenkins , and they had ceremony for me and they asked that I go back there and that I would be protected and that ..you know not to fight the United States government but to protect the women, children and elders, back there and that I would be able to go back there and defend the people and be able to come back and give my report of what was going on at that time back there. So, when I had gone back there, started out in Pit River and went to UC Davis, we had to a safe house there, and probably 40 people in a room and I had walked in there and asked if I could participate in going back there if they had room …like that  

And so, at that time, there were 3 cars going back there and I had secured one of the seats in the vehicle and there were 21 of us that had gathered in UC Davis at that time and we all jumped in the cars and left that evening. Now that was probably the first night that it was the 27th…so probably the 28th when I arrived down there. 21 of us in three cars were packed in there like a bunch of sardines. But we were being followed, I think, through Reno, Nevada, and Colorado and then after that we ended up in Rapid City. We had gone over there, and we went to one of the Indian Centers or Indian community down in there. People started asking or saying they heard about that. There was a group coming in from California a lot of names were mentioned so we did feel that it was safe at that time 

Because we wanted to go into Wounded Knee, so we left there and Other people from the community had to stay in Rapid City overnight and then the next day we had went to Porcupine …we went through Porcupine, there were 21 of us going through that there at that time. 

So, we walked through the Wounded Knee, we got there probably …we left about 8 o’clock at night, we walked in when the sun was coming out, and they had a bunker over there …California…little California bunker. So other people were there from California, so a lot of people didn’t know the story remains that there was about 36 of us altogether…there were all different tribes within turtle island. 

But a lot of them came out from California…so you know it was kind of there were California tribal people, but there was 36 of us all together, and I remember that one evening when we were there, one of the folks that is no longer with us now, ..Charlie Steele had asked that he wanted everybody to introduce themselves, their name and what their purpose was for being there…went around in a circle…you know all 36 of us and there right after that the next day they had flesh offerings, and I went over there to see Wallace Black Elk and didn’t realize at that time how strong spiritually the prayer was, and I had taken flesh offerings from Wallace Black Elk. 

That second evening and he had told me the same exact word that my tribal council from Pit River that those bullets would go right through me, and I was there to protect the women children and elders and not to fight the United States government and I would be able to survive this day and bring back the message from their country back to Wounded Knee and here now today, I really understand and know that power of prayer. And the thing is going back to Wounded Knee on its 50th year anniversary, I had talked to some other people and if you really look at it when I moved back I was 23 years old, and at that time it was 1973, and I looked at it now and at this 50th anniversary and here now I’m just turning 73 years old, you know, and still surviving. 

So that’s what I’m trying to acknowledge to the people out there is how strong that prayer is. 

You know the Creator already knew my path in life…like I said…time tells everything…and like I honor that and I like to say that now, I like to acknowledge the women that were there inside Wounded Knee, inside the bunkers, either cooking or on security or bringing in supplies and even the women that were on the outside ..you know out there gathering fresh medical supplies, clothing, you know that stuff…people haven’t acknowledged that about women in their quest… and how their strength was helping us in order to be there…And hold that ground.. 

13:51 Jimmy: Did you see any people that you knew at the Memorial?  

13:56 Bruce:  Yeah, you know there were probably about five or six of us…we were standing around …after these 50 years A lot of things that you know we weren’t sure about or to confirm other things that have happened during those days in Wounded Knee and so, we were able to sit down and confirm or you know, just stand around whatever talking and conferring stuff that was going on 50 years ago… 

So that was quite interesting, and I talked about the repercussions of the aftermath about killings…the women that were missing…In the mountains, a lot of people were still around on that hillside, you know, and we asked or talked about quite a few of the other people there…whether they were still alive or what they were up to. You know in this present day, it was quite interesting  

15:53 Jimmy:  Do you have any last words: 

15:57 Bruce:  Yeah…probably last words I’d like to say like I say… acknowledging the women , acknowledging KPFA, for giving me time to speak about this 50th year anniversary like that…I’m not too sure if I’ll be able to go back again and I know and I know I’m not going to be able to be there for the 100th year anniversary and I want to give the acknowledgement, blessings for people that I honor very much that have helped me financially ..with the rooms or whatever to go back there like that…just so …I’m honored and blessed to have let me have the acknowledgement about myself being part of that back there…I had mentioned before that it wasn’t about me myself or I…it was about us being back there acknowledging the people that weren’t able make it because of hardships 

Maybe they were taking care of grandmothers, grandpas, grandchildren …children…so on the like that…trouble with their vehicles, maybe they didn’t have gas money to go there and come back…the hardships of them having to work like that…I said acknowledging the women that were part of Wounded Knee but weren’t on the inside worked on the outside gathering materials like that. So, I’m honored and blessed for all that… the Facebook page is Bruce Gali ok, talk to you guys later–HO!

<18:31 Transition theme>

00:18:39 Cathy Jackson  

We’re speaking with Anthony Guzman of the Native American Health Centers.  

Anthony, can you please introduce yourself?  

00:18:46 Anthony Guzman 

Sure, my name’s Anthony Guzman, and I am the Chief Culture Officer of the Native American Health Center? I’vebeen working here now for, you know, 2 1/2 years, when I first started working here working at the health center, I came in as the Director of Community Wellness. Also, in August of last year, the health center created a position called Cultural Officer and they hired me to fill it and so I’m really grateful for the opportunity to serve in that position. It’s a new job that’s going to pop up around urban Indian organizations across the country and really one of the things that’s the responsibility of that office is to insure that the traditional practices, ancestral wisdom is integrated into all aspects of the organization, and that culture doesn’t become a trinket in these types of organization and that it’s part of our value system and the way that we do business At the center, and so…several other organizations have one, such as Sac-Sacramento American Indian Health, Santa Clara Valley…and I think one of our partners up in Seattle…Urban Indian Health Institute are doing the same thing, so we followed suit…we saw the value in it…our leadership saw the value in it…so that’s my current role…yeah, really excited about it. 

01:54 Cathy Jackson 

And where are you from?  

01:55 Anthony Guzman 

I am from Randlett, Utah. I grew up on the Ute Indian Reservation in Northeastern Utah. You know, I remember growing up out there as a kid when I just couldn’t wait to get away from there, I wanted to get to the big cities and you know, I always just had this deep desire to be in the city. And now at 46 years old, I take every opportunity I get to go home, back to the middle of nowhere, high desert and ah, you know the mountain sage brush, clay sandstone hills where I grew up…it’s really important to me know…to go back home and spend as much time there with my family and.. 

But honestly when I go home…I find myself just wanting to be alone…as a kid where I grew up you know and walking around…walking around on the high desert, along the river…and really just listening to the sounds that’s ..really just nature…yeah, it sounds crazy just to talk about it now but…I remember then how badly I wanted out (chuckles) 

03:10 Cathy Jackson 

And before we start talking about your upcoming event at the Presidio. Can you tell the listeners why you chose to do the work that you do?  

03:22 Anthony Guzman  

That’s an interesting question, I really… I became a social worker, I worked in the school at the University of Utah, and got a master’s in social work. But before that, I went Haskell Indian Nations University, and I went to a boarding school at Anadarko, Oklahoma…and I never planned on  

ever going to college, let alone being a social worker …Social workers…where I grew up…it was…social workers weren’t seen as people that were there in support…help and build the community…they were kind of seen as people who took away kids and… diagnosed you…And so, I never sought out to do this work, I sure didn’t think I would be in the position I was in today. I think the work called me and you know, itjust seemed like it fit and navigated my way through school and again going through school was something that I never planned on doing either…I just think that Creator had a plan for me and to be able to do what I do today is such a blessing and so…that’s kind of how I answered that question…I don’t know if I really chose this path…it just kind of folded in front of me.

00:21:57 (Cathy Jackson) 

OK, I’m going to uh, throw in another question here before we talk about the event…ahm.. 

You spoke about having a son and I wanted to know what some of the differences are that you feel, or I don’t know how to really phrase. How are you raising your son differently from how You were raised? 

00:22:21 Anthony Guzman  

That’s a that’s such a beautiful question. You know, I think about both sides of my family: my, my dad was born in Tiajuana and so I’m half Mexican. My father moved from Tiajuana when he was five years old to Northen California and Watsonville, CA. So, I had a large family down there. And so, his father became an orphan in Mexico City when he was a child and grew up in orphanages. And my mom… both of her parents went to boarding school establishedon my reservation…and  both of those histories impacted the way both of my parents parented, you know it was a tough love it was you know I think that even when was going up…the first time… I ever said I love you to my mom and dad, I was probably about 29 years old and, it was really Awkward for myself, it was awkward for my parents too. Like they – I remember seeing how uncomfortable my mom and dad were when I said it to them. 

And I think that had a lot to do with the history of both people, the, the, the intergenerational trauma from alcohol and drugs and historical aspects of systematic oppression and colonization and both of my family …both sides. And so, a lot of my testament…to who I am as a father. I had to come through the school of social work, because I don’t think that if I went to that school and learned the skill set I did… I don’t know if I would be able to be the father, I am today, you know, a very active father.  

I bathe  my son…you know when he was a baby…I wash, I cook, I do the dishes, feed him and cloth him…changehis diaper, I love you…to the point now– you know I’ve never laid a hand on my son…which was very different for me…and I tell him that I love him and he’s beautiful every single day. 

You know, I think one of the things that I remember that being a father now…opposed to my dad, sleep with my son, cuddle with him, read him bedtime stories and just let him know how much I appreciate and I love him every single day don’t know if I Would have necessarily been.  

Able to do that without the school that I went through. And the work that I’ve done on myself I do, I’m actively in therapy…I’ve been in therapy, it’s one thing to do therapy with people, but some other things to know how it feels on the other side of that therapy chair. And to do my work as well. And so, I think the difference I think…my fatherhood style, my dad’s …night and day…and that’s nothing to say anything bad about my parents…that’s what they knew…that’s what their parents gave them…and their parents, I can’t imagine things they went through. Being a father is the most important thing to me, and it really helps me navigate the work in the community. 

So along with the question of the most important thing in my life is being a father…and a husband, you know it’s the most important thing, it’s the most sacred ceremony that I know that exists to me right now. The most beautiful and I’m glad to call myself a father. 

00:25:36 Cathy Jackson  

That was a really good answer. So, tell the listeners what obstacles you have encountered in providing the services you do– talk a little bit about the services…and um, what are some of the obstacles you encountered in providingthose services… 

00:26:07 Anthony Guzman 

Well you know when I think about providing services, it’s-it’s– I’ve worked my entire career in the Indian community-in the Native communities…I’m a social worker, I’ve worked for my own tribe for years, Friendship house ah, CRC, among various tribes, you know back home in Utah, but also worked in urban Indian organizations in Salt Lake City as well.. And I think the obstacles that we always face like…the sources of money that we get. 

Not always enough money -that always can be an issue, but it’s about the sources that we get that money from. So, if you’re getting money from the feds, from the county, from the state…private donors…attached to that funding is always the expectations that you have…and some of those expectations aren’t bad they’re very important. You know, data collection, what is your data telling you? And being able to justify the work that you’redoing with sometimes that that’s a double-edged sword  

Sometimes it feels like it’s just a bunch of obstacles and you know your heart’s making sure your community’s getting services that they need and wanting to see the community thrive and heal from all the disparities and trouble they’ve had… 

However, each one of those contracts and funders, you know, sometimes those challenges in which you expect or there’s a bureaucracy there. That’s just the slog at times. And you know, like, you know, there’s certain there’s certain contracts, and you got to know your contracts and grants to say, hey, this contract, you can buy food and have a cultural celebration where you feed the people, and   

and some say no… you can’t do that, or they say you can’t charge a traditional practitioner to this, and so I think one of the one of the obstacles to that and you know being able to have unrestricted fundings to do those types of work without having to ask or knowing all these little details of those contracts.  

But I don’t want to say those are bad things, you just have to be very astute in what you are doing on all those contracts, particularly when you have a lot of contracts, you just have to run through one of those and it’s a lot of awareness.  

So my hat goes off  to go to the organizations that you, that they know what they need and can put the money where they want to and I think sometimes that’s one of the obstacles with having a lot of contracts ..there’s some awesome things you can do, you have to think outside the box to fulfill those grants expectations when you have unrestricted funding to do the work that you do then that’s awesome.  Hey, let’s have a wonderful cultural celebration, and we bring in healers from all over and pay our relatives. What they deserve to be paid. That’salways been something that is important to me.  

I remember I had– I used to hold punk rock skateboard festival on my reservation. 

And I remember – You know, like you can’t do that like, but that’s not a substance abuse prevention– I’m like you bet it is, I had skateboard competitions, you know, punk rock, and heavy metal, you know, hip hop artist, some of which are now very well known in the country, which I’m really proud to see where they are right now. But you know, SAMSHA, IHS-Phoenix area office… 

So, you know, they might not be really able to see the connection on how those types of activities are prevention activities for youth and even some of the adult folks. So, bureaucracy is definitely a challenge there. And you know, sometimes it’s my colleagues. Sometimes I’m not saying anything about understanding the world in general. Sometimes we got folks that are burnt out with the work that they do and that really kind of comes through, and I’m fortunate my colleagues that we currently have right now are fantastic and they really believe in the mission of our organization to ensure that the Community gets you know, support physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. And um, so I’m really proud of that.  

00:30:04 Cathy Jackson  

We need to leave a few more seconds when we switch back and forth…ah.  

You do have a really good staff and I’d like you to talk a little bit about them if you if you can. 

00:30:16 Anthony Guzman  

Sure, you know, I think I’ve been really blessed to, you know, come into an organization you know, that’s been here doing this amazing work for  50 years doing this amazing, work  you know, With so many of our community partners out there and, you know, friendship House, IFH, CRC and these guys have been doing the work for so long I just hope that, you know, I can put a little bit of contribution into the fantastic work. That’s just, you know, what happens with these organizations and then blood, sweat and tears as you well know, for so long when somebody like me with, you know, I’m 46, but still there was the whole generation of people. And I stand on the shoulders of what we did, all that work for us to do what we’re doing right now. 

You know Marty Waukazoo’s our CEO…he has a leadership style that really allows people to meet their full potential, you know, really admire, you know, Marty and I actually worked for Helen as well at…the Friendship House and worked for Helen before I moved to the Bay Area. It was really eye-opening to see leaders like that. Everybody has challenges, you know in leadership. It’s really always something that’s complex and knowing and understanding that time. Marty’s been great, Natalie-Natalie Aguilera…she’s the chief administration officer. She herleadership is, you know, really comes through years 17 years of working here at the health center she really knows the organization and the departments. Michelle Shawnego who is a Chief People officer…really leads up a really massive department in our Human Resources…she really has to make very strong decisions and  

Understand the complexities of our workforce.  

That’s very big and diverse you know, out of 275 employees and were close to 100 native employees but our workforce is a is a reflection of the Community that where we are at in Fruitvale and the Mission a very diversecommunity of our very diverse workforce, African American Latino relatives, people from all- Of the world, really constitute our workforce and I’m really proud to see that our workforce is as diverse as it is. So those are some of our Native Leadership. 

Hat’s off to Dr. Jenkins…our chief medical officer Greg Garrett, our Chief Operations Officer, Alan Wong, our Chief Financial Officer, every single one of those people contributes to every day.  

 operation of the Native American Health Center, you know. Let me tell you I’ve had some pretty tough jobs and when I came here. I think a lot of people have the same experience, the pace of which we move every single day. It’s grueling and rigorous…I was just pretty blown away on how quickly I have to, you know, download information, make decisions, and move and be able to hold so much at one given time. You know, just didn’t realize that I had the capacity to, to work as I’m doing now, and it definitely takes its toll on me, but I make sure that my mental health is– I stay on top of it, and so that when I go home, I can manage it and be a father, a husband and friend, to the best of my ability to some of my colleagues and. At the health center we provide mental health services, clinical, dental. We have a WIC, we have a school-based services in 11 different schools, we have a Richmond site…ah provide rental assistance in San Francisco, prevention services, substance abuse-prevention services, perinatal programming, through community wellness department, and here’s ah, we do everything we can to insure that-that culture and traditional values, in an inter-tribal space is interjected in every aspect of our programming, and so again, very humbled and happy to be able to contribute to an organization that’s been doing great work for so long.

00:35:03 Cathy Jackson  

Thank you. Let’s talk about the event that’s coming up on Saturday, April 15th at the Presidio now. 

00:35:11 Anthony Guzman  

Yes, yes. You know, I want to say a fantastic big hat’s off to Laura Cedillo who’s one of the program managers at the health Center. She’s always been a fantastic community organizer and done so much great work, I know I learn from Laura all the time and the way that she engages in the community, you know? So, on Saturday April 15th from 11:00 to 4:00 PM, we have the Inter-Tribal Dance Gathering, dancing is our medicine. We have our brush dancers showing up. The bird dancers, round dance songs–you know, Mike Ballenger, All Nations Singers…and just the title, “Dancing is our medicine,” is so powerful…You know as a clinician you know, you learn all these different types of interventions, you know, and cognitive behavior therapy, motivational interviewing…EMDR you know, the list goes on and often times…they take these little Elements of human beings have used historically heal,   

and understand lives about people who have to function in the world.  

one of the things that I always notice was that all indigenous people all around the world danced for all things they danced for healing: they danced to grieve, they dance for joy and celebration, they dance to laugh Andso… You know I think that western psychology and medicine  is finally starting to catch up at understanding ah, how you integrate movement, and song and dance into the lives of human beings…it’s so crucial and important and I think the inter-national dance gathering is that, it’s a demonstration to say -hey look, these ways have always supported the growth and healing and driving of people. But it’s also opportunity to just come together and be in community and laugh and dance.  

You know, every single one of us I think that times and you know in our lives and get caught up and our work and titles and what we do and mission and we’re all out there achieving, but when we dance… All that goes away, and we become one with the people around you,   

We come one with the space that you’re in you can hear the trees and you can hear the birds. You can hear the ocean. We can hear the laughter of children and all that stuff goes away…and for a moment you’re tapped into everything around you, and that’s the way when we think about this event, that’s how I envision it… That’s how I feel when I hear the word dance…so get out there, shake your tailfeather, use your clapper, you know, wherever it may be…cause at the end of the day…when Indigenous people dance…it boils down to a couple of things…and some of it is…love and relationship.

00:38:40 Cathy Jackson  

Well, I’m sure people will look forward to that event at the Presideo…can you give the contact information for the event and maybe some of the social media contact- I saw a flyer maybe you could talk about that.

00:39:00 Anthony Guzman  

Sure, [if] you have any questions regarding the event, get a hold of Joseph Vasquez or Laura Cedillo, and you can get ahold of them at 415-417-3556 or you can e-mail at  [email protected] We also have our Instagram page I believe that is. Directions are 7 Gen 1D, Native American’s Health Center Instagram page, and from there, you will be able to get connected to the rest of our social media accounts on Twitter… And Facebook…I think right now, our Instagram has a lot of good stuff there and you can follow some of the things that we are doing not only in San Francisco, but also in Oakland, and the Richmond site as well.  

00:40:02 Cathy Jackson  

Well, I’d Like to thank you for taking the time to speak, to Bay native circle today. Are there any last words?

00:40:11 Anthony Guzman  

Yeah, you know, I think we covered a lot a lot of topics today. And I just want to thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to share a little bit about who we are and what we do at the health center…I think ah,  one of the things that I think is so important, you talked about and thank you for asking you know…as men in the community think about how important it is, that we ah, you know, we take care of our mental health…we cherish it, and when we see something that we need to you got to  make sure you talk to somebody and find the services that we need to in order for us to know as men, as fathers, as brothers as friends to all of our communities…that we take care of ourselves in that way, ..you know our women have carried us in community so, so strongly, and for so long.. But that wait can be very-that wait can wear…and so, they definitely need us I know there’s men out there, doing exactly what I’m talking about. 

But if you see a brother out there, and they’re suffering and they’re down…go over there, let them know how much you care about them, if you don’t know how to give them the support that they need…don’t be afraid to let them know, and normalize some of the help for mental health, it’s so important…and I’m saying that as someone that has practiced that myself. You know I’ve found that times that I’ve tried to power through things, but every time I’ve reached out to get support…I see that my resiliency’s a lot more–I bounce back quicker…and I learn something, I learn something about myself, and I stay in relation to other people, and to pass that on to other folks, too.  

And I see them if they might need help, or they reach out. 

So, I wanted to share a little bit about that, because I know how important that is support each other…it’ssuch a dynamic and fascinating time right now, so much going on…I’m so excited about our indigenous America right now…let’s do everything we can to fulfill our dreams in community. 

Again, thank you so much for the opportunity to share some thoughts, and yeah and (I think he said Wopila)  

00:42:31 Cathy Jackson OK, thanks.  

(Transition theme)

00:42:31 Cathy Jackson  

We’re here with Rass K’Dee…ah Rass please tell the listeners a little bit about yourself…and what you’ve been up to lately.

Rass K’Dee:  hey, how’s it going, been a while since I’ve been on air, thank you for having me Cathy…appreciate it–big fan of your program also, back in the day…yeah, I definitely have been a listener of Bay Native Circle…um…actually host for – I think nine years I hosted? 

So… It’s good to be back on air with you…and just share what we’ve been up to. I belong to the band AudioPharmacy…my name is Rass K’Dee…been performing with Audiopharmacy-this will be our 20th year coming up next year, so we’re excited to be celebrating 20 years of our work and music and cultural sharing in the bay area and beyond, and ah…yeah, we’re just gearing up for a bunch of events this spring, just coming on the air to share some music, and just some vibes with the people.  

44:28 

Cathy Jackson:  So, tell me a little bit about this film and concert that’s coming up  

44:31Rass K’Dee:   

Yeah, so we made a film called “Groundworks” which is, was…initially it was kind of a collaboration with Dancing Earth…this other group from Canada, Toaster Lab… another film group. We came together to kind of you know, create these short films…they were like 360 films, they were for virtual like virtual reality films? And um, for the virtual space, and um, we filmed a couple of them and through the process of filming these original films, we ended up making a feature- a full length documentary…uhm, which is not 360…just 2D space, but…it’s 57 minute film, and it features bunch of California Native Voices, and cultural bearers and one of them is myself, also Canyon Sayers Roots, Bernadette Smith, and L Frank Manriquez, some of the voices that you’ve probably heard a lot here on KPFA in the Bay Native Circle over the years, and we asked them what kind of…what do they want to share…what are the stories that they want to share…you Canyon, you know, talked about Indian Canyon, Bernadette talked about the acorn festival, and reviving the acorn festival…myself talked about my music, and work with the Nesta Media Arts Center here in Forestville building our sustainable artists hub here in Sonoma County, and Snag magazine, our native arts and culture magazine and then L Frank talked about her work-their work, artwork, and work that they do as well. 

Everyone kind of shares a little bit about their culture, and cultural piece…but yeah the film has had a lot of success, it aired on KQED last year…I think it was on…over a thousand stations, it went nationwide…so that was a good opportunity for folks to see it last November, we’re just following up with some screenings here in the bay area, we’re screening it at the San Francisco State…I think it’s on April 12th…at SF State from Noon to 1:30 and they’ll be a Q and A, and also a panel, the filmmakers won’t make it this time, but some members of AudioPharmacy…some members of the Native staff and teachers at SF State will be on the panel as well and that’s going to be at SF State on April 12th…um, and then we also have a concert that we’re doing. 

We’re following up with a concert on April 19th at the McKenna theatre in at SF State, and that concert is with AudioPharmacy, my band…you know for those that aren’t familiar…we’re world hip hop ensemble–anywhere from five to ten of us onstage at once…but we have a pretty, pretty well-known for getting the party jumpin’ in the bay area community. 

But that show will be on the 19th from 7 to 8:30 and for students out there, students of SF State or students in general…the first 200 tickets are free, so definitely jump on that, and there’s also some promo codes if you go to AudioPharmacy.com…you can find out more information about those. 

Cathy Jackson 48:25:  

Well, it sounds like you have been busy. Can you talk a little bit more about the film…and where people can see it now? 

Rass K’Dee 48:34: 

Yeah so if you have a KQED membership, you can watch the film, it is on KQED on the PBS stations in your city where you’re tuning in from, but you can just search “Groundworks” on KQED or search Groundworks Film…you can also see the trailer, search Groundworks trailer um you can see the film trailer, but yeah, the film was really kind of evolved from like really from a question we asked you know, these tribal leaders and members you know, what issues or what things do you want to talk about, what kind of things do you want to show from your community…as opposed to approaching them with our own hatched idea of what we want to share from their culture from their community, and I think that’s a little bit of a different approach…I think a lot of times us as culture bearers, community culture workers, or ceremony makers…or…yeah, so a lot of times, people come to us with projects that are kind of fully hatched, they want us to um just come on for a fifteen-minute land acknowledgement or open upthe band or sing a song you know, as artists and musicians…culture bearers… 

You know, we didn’t want to do that…we wanted the artist to share what they wanted to share, and what are the projects that you’re excited about, and it’s um, just more of a different approach, and I think that really opened up…I think…you know these artists that we’re showcasing opened up them to be able to really  hone in on the projects they want the world to hear about, and that’s what’s most important really is  that the ones that are near and dear to their hearts…you know. 

Cathy Jackson 50:20:  

That’s great so you’re really opening up space for other people…ok well anything else you’d like to add? 

Rass K’Dee 50:43 

Yeah…well I’d love to see–we have a bunch of shows coming up this spring and I recommend just checking us out and I think the best way to check out our calendar for April/May is to AudioPharmacy.com…and you can see all of our dates, we have a show at the Oakland Museum on May 5th, and then we’ll be in San Francisco at the Gongster’s paradise event on May 6th, the day after…we just have a bunch of shows in April and May, so I’ddefinitely check out audiopharmacy.com if you want to come to one of those…come see us in the community. But yeah, we’re excited for the spring…excited for the upcoming events…yeah just this new birth…time of renewal…so I’m giving thanks for you Cathy…thank you so much for having me on today. 

Cathy Jackson 51:43:  

Well, thank you so much and I’m sure that Falcon will pick out some music from your Radio Cafe to play…is there anything you’d like to suggest? 

Rass K’Dee 51:56 

We have a couple of new songs, there’s a new song called “Translucent” which just came out, and the music video is coming out soon…that, it’s already ready…music video, we also have a song called “Lose your Mind”…which is a really long song, you can play a portion of it…nine minute song…that one also has a music video, those are like newer songs, but anything from our catalog, you know, is great…you know audiopharmacy, we have several albums…and I know Falcon’s a big fan, so he’ll find something… 

52:34 Cathy:  Alright thanks a lot  

52:36 

Audiopharmacy song…to outro 

55:16 Morning Star Gali: Here’s the calendar for upcoming events with audiopharmacy…On April 12th, Groundworks films screening with audiopharmacy includes a Q and A, this will be held Wednesday April 12th from 12 to 1:30 p.m. at 1600 Holloway Ave in San Francisco…for more information visit groundworksfilms.com. On April 19th, audiopharmacy is playing a live cypher at San Francisco State University…this is a free event…this will be held from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. again on April 19th. 

Also, on April 19th audiopharmacy is providing a live theatre performance. This will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 1600 Holloway Avenue in San Francisco.  

For more information please visit audiopharmacy.com/events. 

On Saturday April 15th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., you’re invited to the Native American Health Centers Inter-Tribal Dance Gathering, “Dancing is our Medicine” this will be held at the Presidio in San Francisco. Dance in many indigenous communities is a prayer, an offering…a balancing our physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional selves, which in turn heals and strengthens our communities.  

The native American Health Centers welcomes Indigenous Communities and the greater public to enjoy healing dances by California tribes, Ohlone Hupa and Kumeyaay…round dance songs by Mike Ballenger, Kickapoo/Sac n Fox, screen printing by Smithsonian, featuring artist Calixto Robles, Zapotec, and beading with Kelly Roanhorse, Dine…and more. 

Purchase delicious foods celebrating the bay area’s diverse cuisines from Presidio pop up food and beverages, and vendors. Limited seating is available, please bring your own blanket or folding chair. 

For more information visit Park Conservancy.org, or nativehealth.org for the latest updates. 

Thank you for listening to our special edition of bay native circle…a special thank you to our engineer, Falcon-Miguel Molina, Jr. This is Morning Star Gali, you have been listening to Bay Native Circle…our producer is Janeen Antione, opening music is L. Frank, mixed with Rass K’Dee, Robert Mirabel, and Rare Tribal Mob. Thank you goes out to Mike Biggz for running the boards, and to Diane Williams for the opening prayer. We thank our musical artists, our guests, and our listening artists for your continued support. We want to give a shout out to our brother’s sisters listening on the inside, especially those on death row. Thank you to Creator, to the indigenous peoples on the lands we occupy, to our ancestors…and to those yet to come…blessings (end) 

The post Bay Native Circle – April 5, 2023 – Morning Star Gali Hosts. Cathy Jackson Interviews Anthony Guzman, Rass K’Dee & Jimmy Jackson Interviews Bruce Gali appeared first on KPFA.

Bay Native Circle 03-29-2023 

This transcript was edited and proofed for accuracy, made with the help of the built-in transcription & dictation feature in Microsoft Word. If you find any errors in this transcription, please feel free to leave us a message in the comments. You can listen to the episode on this page, or go here https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20230329-Wed1900.mp3 to download. 

00:00:00  

00:00:45 Tony Gonzales 

Anpetu Thayetu Waste Mitakuyapi – Good Evening Relatives & Welcome to Bay Native Circle here on KPFA & online at KPFA.org. This is Tony Gonzales your host Tonight, March 29th & this evening we will be speaking with Kenny Barrios of Tachi [Southern Valley Yokuts] Peoples of the San Joaquin Valley, south of Fresno out in Akron area. Kenny will talk to us about the floods & all the waters are feeding into the San Joaquin Valley into what was once Tulare. Lake Tulare had disappeared over the decades because of the damming of the four major rivers, in the Corcoran area. [Lake Tulare] is now reappearing, true to form, with all the water draining over the sidewalk canals, levees & waterways—now refilling Tulare Lake. So, Kenny will talk to us from his point of view & give us a little history of his people around that Lake [& their relocation]. [Kenny] will sing us a song of his people’s ancient song of this Western Hemisphere my relatives, I hope you will appreciate.  

We will [also] be speaking with Jean Roach. Many of, you know, over the years, she’s a longtime friend & supporter of Leonard Peltier [the] political prisoner—now, going on 48 years for a crime he did not commit. Jean Roach was at that firefight, that historic day back on June 26th, 1975, when three men were shot & killed two FBI agents Joe Stuntz was also among those killed. & by the way, an investigation on his death has not been initiated, nor concluded by the Department of Justice.  

Jean will talk to us about Leonard, Peltier, and all the various campaigns. Most importantly, [Jean will talk about] going to the United Nations, this April 17th through 28th, to attend the 22nd session of the Permanent Forum on indigenous history. So I’ll be sharing some of that history of the international arena with Jean [&] the impact of indigenous peoples of the world, on the United Nations Arena goes back, a hundred years now—[since] nineteen twenty-three, my relatives [when we] went for the first time, [when] Chief Deskaheh of the Cayuga Nation of the Iroquois [Haudenosaunee] Confederacy appeared in Geneva & [addressed] the League of Nations to tell them about the environment, & pollution. He went with his Wampum to talk about honoring treaties & many of the issues that are still relevant…today, [such as] protecting sacred sites. But this is a milestone in international indigenous development & we will be attending that permanent forum—& Jean, & her delegate advocates will be among them. [Jean will] share a bit of history with us, my relatives.  

But before we do that, I just wanted to express some concerns. Indian People all across the country [ha] gotten attention when President Joe Biden broke another campaign promise. & that is with the opening [of] northeastern Alaska for the Willow Project. & this Willow Project is to open up gas & oil drilling in that region. Formerly President Trump had opened up for leasing during his term & when President Biden came on board, he suspended it. But evidently [Biden is] backpedaling & now he’s opened up that region much to the consternation of Indian Peoples on both sides of that slope. & I’m talking about the NPR or the Northern Petroleum region and how that could be a major concern to the kitchen and other traditional peoples. On the Western Slope with reference to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That is where the Caribou [are], 300,000 Caribou my relatives, in that Northern Region way up there. The porcupine caribou needs the protection of the traditional people & for us to help them in that protection.  

So there’s a lot to be said, so I will try & get a story for you on that perhaps next week or as soon as possible to see how you can help. That’s the Conico drilling company in Alaska who will be doing some of that [drilling]. There is projected like six hundred million gallons of oil per year will be extracted from there. So, there’s much concern on how they just might begin to overlap into sacred ground of the porcupine caribou—referred to as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the ANWR, my relatives; that drilling would be in that North Slope area. Now, we need to be considering how to hold President Biden accountable and what is to be done & will there be some any lawsuits where legal challenges are ahead? This is the concern that seemed to be popping up & we’ll try & tell that story to my relatives.
 But also, I just wanted to say that Morning Star. Gali—she’s our co-host here on Bay Native Circle, as we rotate during the month & has a show with us—she’s now…the new vice-president… [for the] Pit River Tribe, where she’s been the preservation officer for many years. Well, now she is the vice chairperson of Pit River Tribe up there in Northern California. So that is terrific. Will be hearing some good news from her & her tribe as we move forward.  

All right, let’s go into that interview with Kenny Barrios…of the Tachi Indian peoples & [talk about] the work that he’s doing & bringing us the insights of the lake that once was Tulare Lake and is now once again. &…on the line I’ve invited the Kenny Barrios [who] lives out there in the central San Joaquin Valley & out there in the Corcoran area. Kennedy, I’ve invited you to talk to us here on Bay Native Circle…about the weather conditions in the San Joaquin Valley. & we’ve been hearing a lot about flooding of course & out on the West Coast, a lot of news & concern for the people there and in Pajaro. But in the central San Joaquin Valley, the weather conditions are such that people are in need as well. Can you introduce yourself & describe the people that you’re working with please? 

00:07:40 Kenny Barrios 

So, my name is Kenny Barrios. I’m a Tachi Yokut Tribal Member from the Central Valley. We’re the people of Tulare Lake. We’re the Mud Duck People, so…you see we the people of Tulare Lake. Our Tribe originated around the lake. 

00:07:52 Tony Gonzales 

Tulare Lake was a big majestic freshwater lake. It was considered the largest west of the Mississippi, Kenny & over the decades, over the century that is. [With] the dams that have been built there on the Sierra Nevada’s out in your area…with all this rain, a lot of water [had] nowhere else to go—but it seems like it’s naturally flowing into what was Tulare Lake and is today. [Kenny] tell us about the conditions in your particular community. 

00:08:30 Kenny Barrios 

So, we’ll go back to when it first started when we were getting all that rain. So, our sister Tribe—Tule River Tribe, took a big hit. A lot of flash floods throughout their tribe & they washed away the roadway & everything & then it started trickling down to the to the city. Yeah, our sister tribe, they took a really big hit [from the storm] They’re good now, you know, they’re back to working & everything. The conditions of the, the roadways & everything have been really bad, so [the Tule River Tribe] lost a lot of their back roads, [became] submerged underwater to back to its original place of Tulare Lake. The so where?  

Where [my tribe is] right now, we’re like 15 miles away from the water to where the water is starting right now. But eventually, when all the water is done, we should be at least 10 miles away. You know the lake gets pretty big. It is the largest freshwater lake, West of Mississippi. That’s 75 miles long & 45 miles away. We went from the great the base of the Grapevine, all the way up to the town of Lemoore & went from Corcoran all the way to Kettleman City. It is a big fresh body, and there were stories of when they were taking the lake down. They had so many fish in there…fish hatcheries that were around here until the lake was gone. 

00:10:16 Tony Gonzales 

OK, can you tell us if you are in Corcoran proper or an outlining incorporated [area]? 

00:10:30 Kenny Barrios 

So, we are like 10 miles away from Corcoran & it’s just a little bitty town. But the town is like, right on the edge of the shore of the Tulare. So once all the water comes, it passes right by Corcoran, & so Corcoran is taking a big hit of it right now. The Corcoran Prison is right next to it. They just showed another picture of the water, & they showed the I5 & it is big ready [to flood more] & there’s a lot of snow.  

Still in the mountain river, a lot of water is still coming down. We’re not done raining yet, you know? So that’s all these years that they were hiding the water, taking it away from the land & letting everybody in the valley suffer with no water. It’s all coming back all at once & now it’s going to be where you can’t control it. You can’t control what you thought you could control. It’s coming back to Mother Nature, you know, mother nature’s going to let you know who’s really in charge. This is her land, that this is created around. This is indigenous peoples land, this land right here. [Our land] speaks, this land is alive, this land & that lake have been asleep. It wasn’t gone, they tried to make it a memory, it is not a memory. It is alive & so itself again, just like that. 

00:11:49 Tony Gonzales 

Is it just your [personal] tribal community that you are working with? Is that the Tulare [River] Reservation you’re working at or? 

00:12:02 Kenny Barrios 

No, I work. I work at Tachi Yokut tribe. So, Tachi Yokut Tribe, we are the sister tribe of the Tule River [Tribe]. So, like I said, we’re the Mud Duck People, we’re the people from Tulare Lake. So, there’s five original tribes around the lake. There is the Tachi & the Nutunutu, Wo’lasi the Wowol and I think the Wo’noche (Wo’noche may be misspelled. If you know the proper spelling, please contact us) they were all they were all the five tribes that were around the lake. 

00:12:31 Tony Gonzales 

I understand though, when Tulare Lake was in its full development, you know, as a water body & that there are well over 30[to]50 Indigenous [tribes around the lake]. Your peoples…got relocated further east into the foothills? 

00:12:56 Kenny Barrios 

Yeah, so we had…over like 70,000 members in our tribe. So, when the first contact came, by the time a lot of it was done, we were down to like 200 tribal members & [then] we got down to like 40 Tribal Members. Then…that’s when the government came in & started saving us & helping us out & gave us a piece of land to where they gave us 40 acres where we reside on today. That is our original village of Waiu [on Mussel Slough].  

00:13:35 Tony Gonzales 

Kenny, are you reaching out? Is there a state of emergency call or? 

00:13:45 Kenny Barrios 

Well…so where we are at…we’re not in a state of emergency because we’re not. We’re like, if anything happens, we’re going to be on the shoreline, we will not be in the middle of the water. We’re not going to be in the way of the of the lake. So, us as indigenous people, we never put our villages where they will be in danger & this is the one of our original villages that we are on right now. So, we are in our original village of Waiu. So, if that water was to come back fully, if that lake was to fully return, we still would be safe because we’re on our original village & our original villages were never put in in harm’s way—because that’s as native people, we know where to put our villages.  

So our lake, we have stories about the lake. A long time ago, it was just our people. You know, our people, the stories are the animals created the world. So the story is that there was nothing but water. Well, Eagle & Raven were flying over & they seen a mud duck. So they went down & they saw the mud duck, had mud on his bill. So Eagle tells Mud Duck: “Hey Mud Duck! Where’d you get that mud at?” [Mud Duck] says: “I got it down at the bottom of the lake” & Eagle goes “Oh well, if you bring me one scoop of mud, I’ll give you 1 fish.” [Mud Duck] said “Oh, yeah, I could do that.” And Raven said “If you bring me one scoop of mud I’ll give you one fish too.” So…Mud Duck was bringing the mud up, Eagle was building his hills on the east side & Raven was building the hills on the West side. Well, Eagle said one day that he’s going to go off & look for more help & he tells Duck & Raven to keep building on his side so when he gets he can get building. So, when [Eagle] came back he found out that…Raven just built his [own] side. So Eagle tells Duck “I’ll give you two fish if you bring me two scoops of mud. So Duck said  “Yeah, I’ll do that, I’ll give you 2 scoops of mud and you bring me two fish.” So they kept doing that & kept doing that for a while until they were done. That’s why Eagles hills on the east side are bigger than the hills on the West side, because the Eagle had made Duck give him more mud so he could build his [side] up to catch up to Rave—but he passed [Raven] up & made his house bigger. So we have stories about the lake. These are legit stories. 

00:16:15 Tony Gonzales 

Yes…Kenny, I wanted to ask you again [about] some of the incorporated towns…that are surrounded indeed by corporate farming like that whole area is. There towns that [are] threatened by water & floods—towns such as Allensworth for example—unincorporated [towns]. But they’re surrounded by a corporation…the big company of Boswell. Can you share with us a little bit of history about who this rancher Baron is—Boswell—who feels he can also control water? 

00:16:49 Kenny Barrios 

Well, sure, Boswell, he is a man that has the government in his pocket. He’s no longer here, I heard he’s no longer here, whatever. But his family, they are very, very powerful. They can make the government do things that we can’t. So he’s the reason why the dams are built, because it flooded his cotton fields one year, so he had then divert the water [so that his fields would no longer be prone to flooding]. He made decisions like that, he controlled the water, every piece of water that comes out of the ground. [The Boswell family] owns the most of it. 

It’s hard because us as people, we need the water, we need the water to live. But everybody wants us to stop using the water so the farmers can grow whatever & make money for themselves. You know they don’t give anything back to any community. You know, like our community, for example, where we provide out everywhere you know, because we have our casino, we help out a lot of places & we hardly ever get [anything in return].  

But so all the farmers around us, every farmer around us, they all fighting for water. Well, us as native people, we don’t even have the water rights. They have a water board, but we aren’t allowed on it because we are a government. We are not a individual owning a piece of land. They found a loophole to keep us out because if we were on [the board] we’d have more power [to] keep our water to ourselves. 

00:18:18 Tony Gonzales 

And the water? The Boswell family ultimately corralled included several major rivers in that area, the Kings River among them. What are the other rivers that I hear that there’s four major rivers that are indeed a part of this flood now that is overcoming the land? 

00:18:32 Kenny Barrios 

Yeah it’s the Kings River, it’s the Tule River, it’s the Deer Creek & Cross Creek. Well, the those ones come from Kaweah, Deer Creek. I think that comes from Kaweah & Cross Creek comes from Kaweah. So we got Lake Kaweah, we got Lake Success, we got—which I can’t think of the name of it—but there’s another one down South too. They all bring the water to the to Tulare Lake & that’s what’s happening right now. They cannot stop it & they’re not going to stop it so. They actually, told Boswell that [they have] to let the water go into the lake.  

So I like the fact that…they are having to do what we had to do, but we are not doing it to them…You know, they did it to themselves. They put themselves in a situation where they won’t be able to help themselves or help anybody else. They’ve done so much damage to the Central Valley that it is all coming back to them & it’s nobody’s fault but their own. I feel bad for the ones that are in the path. That are going to be having stuff done to their homes and to themselves, but that’s nature. That’s the way Mother Nature works. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything if she’s going to destroy you, she’s going to destroy you. If you’re in her way, you’re in her path. She going to make you move if you don’t move, she’s going right over you. That’s what it is. That’s the way life is. & we had to deal with the fact that we couldn’t move around on our own land. We’re limited to what we did. So now it’s Creators way of telling you “this is what you’re going to do, & you’re not going to say nothing about it.” So yeah…we think the indigenous way & that’s who wea are. 

00:20:30 Tony Gonzales 

It’s full circle full circle with its corporate farming & now the push back because I understand that company is so powerful that they’re able to maneuver where the flooding should be, where it keeps the open fields as dry as can they be, so it doesn’t get flooded…trying to protect corporate interest. 

00:20:50 Kenny Barrios 

…who has that right to do these type of things to innocent people, you know? They should be held accountable for that. That is like they’re destroying peoples homes & it’s all because of greed because [they want] to make money at the end of the day. 

00:21:19 Tony Gonzales 

Well, I think the cities are going have to come to terms with that & try to deal with the corporation, which is almost like a government in itself. It’s so vast & powerful as you described it. Indeed, the damage, you know, the rain, the flood has creates so much damage. If you’re there because there’s a lot of farm workers that will be out of work for at least six, seven maybe eight months. I don’t know how many in your community are dependent on farm work, but that’s going be a big concern & a big need. Are there any other issues that you foresee in the future, Kenny, that your people are preparing for? 

00:21:54 Kenny Barrios 

So for our future I’m foreseeing more water. You know, we want to see more water. We’re fleeing everybody’s prayers are working here because we’re to see so far as it looks like it’s going to be a good, good turn out with it…so I just wanted to finish off with…a song about that lake. You know, we have songs about it…It talks about when the big floods come, you know, & then the Lake Grove & the natives would have to gather their stuff & move away from the lake. Then when summer time comes, the lake would shrink to move away from the people & so that people would have to gather their stuff up & move back to the lake. So this song, this song about the lake, it’s talking about how the natives thought that the lake didn’t like them. The lake did not want them by it because every time they moved by it, the lake would push them away or every time they moved back to it’ll move away from them. So this lake, we have a big connection to it. I’ve never seen this lake in my lifetime, you know, & I prayed for it, you know.  

00:23:02 Tony Gonzales 

Aho, an ancient song! 

00:24:19 Tony Gonzales 

Well thank you Kenny for reporting to us about the flooding that’s going on in the Corcoran area & a little history on Tulare Lake that is beginning to reappear. It’s still just a quarter…of the size it used to be as you described as 75 miles across. We’ll try to get back with you as the rain continues to let us know the damage going on & also what concerns your people may have, that we can get it out on the airwaves like we are today. Thank you very much. 

00:25:00 Kenny Barrios 

Alright, well if you all need anything else now let me know I hope you have a good day, Aho! 

00:25:10 Tony Gonzales 

Aho, I want to thank Kenny Barrios for his insights, his song & telling us about the water & the flood from an Indian point of view & how they perceive it—really making full circle from how it was a big, massive 75 miles across [lake]. From what I understand…the largest the West of the Mississippi & surrounded by over 40 California Central San Joaquin Valley tribes, including the Yokuts, the Tachi, & & many more. So, I want to thank Kenny for bringing that to us…Now let’s go into that interview with our good friend Jean Roach on behalf Of Leonard Peltier.  

My relatives, now I’ve invited Jean Roach to talk to us. Jean Roach is with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, & she’s been working the on behalf of Leonard Peltier & for his freedom since 1975. Well, I must say, Jean Roach has been on the airwaves here on Bay Native Circle on KPFA several times, because of our concern for Leonard Peltier. She’s launched many campaigns, both regional, national & international, & has been to many forms on behalf of Leonard Peltier.  

Jean, you know we’re right at the cusp if you will, of attention. Here giving these changes over the last couple of months, indeed from the walk to Washington, DC, from Minneapolis, the Democratic National Committee support for the release of Leonard Peltier, & that’s representative of 70 million Democratic voters. Supposedly, there was a former FBI agent who stepped forward? A woman who’s retired, who says that indeed it’s a vendetta that the FBI has about Leonard Peltier & & now Jean, we’re up to this moment.  

The United Nations is preparing their annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues, & this is the 22nd session. It will begin on April the 17th, on through the 28th. Jean Roach, myself, yourself, Ruthann Buffalo, attorney for Leonard Peltier, former federal Judge Kevin Sharp, is among the delegation going this April to the UN in New York. Please, that was a broad introduction to what we’re going to talk about, but if you can introduce yourself, Jean, tell us a little bit about some of the campaigns you’ve been involved in & the work that goes on at the UN…Jean Roach. 

00:28:20 Jean Roach 

Híŋhaŋni wašté good morning or good evening. My name is Jean, I’m a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. I’m a survivor of the 1975 Oglala firefight & I’ve been working on better freedom for yeah, many years since it happened. All along we’ve been saying that he was innocent. And there’s been so much FBI corruption & interference things & just straight up continued genocide. You know, when is this going to stop? And when it represents the treatment of our native people by the United States government.  

And you know, it’s been a long time that 47 years, that he’s been inside there. We can’t imagine the psychological mental stress that he’s feeling there…You know…not only that his body…he’s a diabetic, he’s not getting the right food. He’s an elder, I mean, we can go on & on about his health & we see that as his number one priority, is trying to get him health care. [It is] along the same lines of Freedom & Justice. I Mean it’s all part of a well-being, & I think that he represents the same thing our native people.  

We’re fighting for health care too. For him in a more way, because he has a aortic aneurysm that could explode at any time. Along with the diabetes, with the inadequate food, you know…it just continues on getting worse. You know, his eyes are being affected. So, you know, his health is really a big issue & people like the Bureau of Prisons, they ignore it. It’s such a big monstrous system that they have no personality &…they don’t treat you like human beings inside of the prison.  

So Leonard’s been suffering, not only physical, but mental anguish. You know, he has…people telling him lies. A lot of elder abuse is going on there, you know. And we at the board of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, are very concerned.  

You know we have attacks on our website we have other organizations that are trying to appear like they’ve been involved. I’ll tell you what our board has years of activism on a grassroots level & [we have] educated women. I mean, I’ve put this to the board right here, you know. Our next move is going back to the United Nations & keep putting that pressure on. I personally feel that. International pressure is really [important]. Alongside our tribal nations, we have several, you know, we have all the northern tribes pretty much that have signed resolutions or support letters & efforts to get Leonard Peltier freedom—& we’ve been ignored, you know.  

National Congress of American Indians, but [we have] several resolutions…we’re just hitting the pavement & you know, we want everybody [to help]. I mean, Amnesty International just launched another international campaign. You know, we have so much support in the past & in the present, there’s senators have signed on, we have church groups. I mean, what is it going to take for President Biden to do what the American public wants?  

And, you know, we focus on a lot of stuff along with Leonard. You know it represents, you know, like a total…representation of how our tribes are being treated. Until they give justice to Peltier, they’ll never come to the table in a good faith effort. As long as they let that atrocity of misinformation & manipulation continue to Peltier, you can’t trust them. 

I mean, it only takes common sense & I would advise the people worldwide the same every nation that has the issue of the United States government, we all need to actually combine our efforts & ask for some real [action]. We don’t just want to get token answers, we want some reality recognition & respect of our human rights. That’s all we are asking for & part of the human the basic human rights is being treated fairly & just because the color of our skin should not continue keeping us in prisons & in poverty.  

So this is a big case & it’s not only Peltier, but it’s prisoners & Native Americans & indigenous people worldwide. When they [imprison] a man for 47 years because they changed the laws to fit…what they want. You know, they wanted the scapegoat for the agents that were killed, but they didn’t tell the real story. You know, they attacked women & children in the camp, which they did at Wounded Knee. They did that & wounded in 1973 & 1890. I mean, they like to attack women & children & elders & never stopped in 1975.  

Let’s be real with the real story is so all I can say is that…people can help do stuff if they’d like to. [They can] write letters, they [can] ask other organizations to write resolutions. We have the website www.WhoIsLeonardPeltier.info. We have a board, we have a Facebook page, the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. All the women on our board are actually very educated on his plight & a lot of Native issues, you know: we have the MMIW; we’re fighting for the Black Hills; we’re fighting poverty & a racist city, also known as Rapid City, SD. We’re fighting for housing. I mean, we’re just focused on survival & that includes every one of those things we talked about. So health here is a forefront…So we continue on. 

00:33:43 Tony Gonzales 

Aho thank you, Jean Roach. You know for that layout & we also have a lot of young listeners that are, you know, tuning in & are becoming more & more familiar with Leonard felt here as we present this cases as frequently as often as we can here on KPFA. And there’s a book out if people want to read the details on the case of Leonard Peltier—a book by Peter Matheson, & that is in the spirit of Crazy Horse. And it’s a very detailed, because it also talks about what led to the shootout there, as Jean Roach just described—her being a part of their 1975 June at the Jumping Bull compound in South Dakota in 1975. What culminated there was a result of Wounded Knee ’73, & the years that led up to that moment. And then after the 71 day [about 2 and a half months] siege at Wounded Knee of ’73 from that period to 1975-1976, the reign of terror where so many over 60-70 men & women were killed murdered, assassinated, disappeared & still unaccounted for.  My relatives, the Department of Justice has not looked into the shooting of Joe Stuntz…who was killed there on June 26th of 75 along with the two FBI agents that were killed there on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  

My relatives well, there’s a lot that had happened since a trip to Russia—when it was the Soviet Union back in the 1980s. Bill Wahpepahi & Stephanie Autumn Peltier, had gone to Moscow & came back with millions of letters from the Russian people to the White House calling on for [Leonard’s] freedom. And since then, all these other campaigns, notably if I may, Jean, here in the Bay Area in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors unanimously last year adopted a resolution calling for February 24 as day of solidarity with Leonard Peltier, & in that resolution they also called on President Biden to immediately release Leonard Peltier.  

Last year or before Leonard Peltier was also struck with the COVID-19. So, there is a COVID-19 release there among the options that President Biden would have, along with the executive clemency or a compassionate release—all these avenues that are wide open for him, plus the support from the Democratic Committee as well. So, it’s all there & he’s the only person that can free Leonard Peltier so my relatives, you can go to the website, Jean Roach said: www.WhoIsLeonardPeltier.info or please call the White House. Call them today now & every day. At area code 202-456-1111 That’s 202-456-1111 & leave a message with those options that he has to free Leonard Peltier. But to do it now immediately, this is really a matter of urgency & the attention that right now beckons for his freedoms throughout the world.  

You know over the years have Jean, if I may go on the Nobel Peace Prize winners, at least 1015 of them have stopped. Forward that includes Rigoberta Menchu, two 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop of Canterbury & & many more celebrities. Nationally known celebrities across the country it’s all there, it & the campaigns that have been launched. So, it’s prayers at this moment that we have for seeking Leonard Peltier’s freedom as well my relatives.  

And do you know that we’re planning to go to the permanent forum—as I said earlier—on Indigenous issues. This year, the theme, vague as it may sound, there’s some work methodically that is done within the theme, as I will read, it’s called – Indigenous Peoples Human Heath, Planetary, Territorial Health & Climate Change: A Rights Based Approach. My relatives, that’s the theme for these two weeks that will begin April the 17th through the 28th.  

Jean Roach is helping to gather a team of advocates, young advocates that can be effective there at the United Nations & my relatives at this juncture, that 22nd session. This will be the first time that it’s a physical engagement. [In] the past three years [the forum] has been by zoom & prior to that the sessions had involved 3000-4000 Indian Indigenous peoples from throughout the world. That’s black Indians, white Indians, Red Indians of the Americas, Indians of Asia Indians of Oceana. This is the Big Gathering.  

My relatives, the international Indian movement, if you will, has been launched & that began, of course, with the efforts of The American Indian Movement & NGOs at that time 1977, the International Indian Treaty Council, was among them. From that 1977 outcome was a Declaration of Independence of Indigenous nations. My relatives & they cut a plan out, made a plan into the future that would include involvement in the international arena, which is where we take all the issues that Indian peoples—& it’s 400 million & plus at this point in terms of numbers according to the World Bank & other United Nations specialized bodies who have given counts of the Indian people throughout the world.  

But we’re coming together & we’re organizing an international movement…& Leonard Peltier is very much a part of that & is well known, & which is why at this forum at the in New York beginning of April 17th it’s expected 2000-3000 Indian peoples will come & it will give an opportunity to engage & talk about the issues that we have & for us. Jean Roach, myself, Ruth & Buffalo, Kevin Sharp, the attorney & a few others that we hope to bring on board, will advocate about Leonard Peltier so that they too can share their voice on the United Nations Forum on the floor, & depending on the items that are that are relevant to the subject matter of political prisoners, human rights defenders. And Leonard Peltier’s case can be brought up.  

This is what we ask. We’ll be asking the indigenous peoples who are there that when they speak on the floor, they make a statement to try to think about Leonard Peltier, the number one international indigenous political prisoner…I must say, & that it’s time for Leonard to come home. All of us, including myself & our organization AIM-West, are able to bring delegates. Of course, there’s maximum of 10 delegates per organization that can be credentialed into the UN, but from there we kind of flare out, if you will, & engage as many NGO’s, Indigenous peoples & including governments that are open to hear the case of Leonard Peltier. So, Jean Roach Tell us as we’re preparing, there’s a flight, there’s lodging, there’s travel while we’re there & that all cost money & yourself, including myself & others where we’re looking for ways to cut that expense. Can you tell us how you’re faring, how you’re coming along & what kind of support you might be able to need, how people can help you get to the Permanent Forum [On Indigenous Issues] in New York? 

00:43:08 Jean Roach 

Well, thanks. One of the things that I do have now is we have a donation button on our website. It’s called www.whoIsLeonardPeltier.info & you can donate there directly to [help cover the] cost for the US United Nations trip. I also have a fundraiser on Facebook from my [Facebook profile], Jean Roach & I’m raising funds for the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. The easiest way would be just going straight to the donation button on the website. We don’t have a GoFundMe, but that’s all we have right now. But we’re also looking for, you know, things to do while we’re there, other activities and so. You know…we’re going to have a side event if that all works out. And then outside the United Nations event. So yeah, there’s some cost available with that. I mean, well, lodging. Growth is outrageous. 

00:44:02 Tony Gonzales 

No, no, thank you. 

00:44:03 Jean Roach 

So, appreciate. Yeah, we appreciate everything you could do. Thank you. 

00:44:07 Tony Gonzales 

Yes Jean & your appeal for help & support for Leonard Peltier, & getting you, & our delegation there to New York for the annual session 22nd session of the Forum. It would be terrific for listeners to see if they can provide some help. And you mentioned the side event—that’s another word for a workshop there in UN jargon, my relatives. So, we’ve also requested for a side event that would include the case of Leonard Peltier & how people can help both in the international arena & at the local front, where the peoples come from, you know, in seeking help from coalitions & even the governments, they come as well.  

So the side events or workshops [was] announced on April 7th & the deadline for NGO’s or IPO’s, you know like AIM-West & [other] Indigenous People’s Organizations (IPO’s), they had until April the 2nd to submit for a side event if they choose to do so. But that will be an important moment for us & hopefully our side event or workshop will be during the first week because, my relatives it’s very difficult even for North American Indians, who are people who have most resources available & opportunities to access the UN system, particularly now because these sessions are held in New York now as opposed to Geneva, Switzerland, where they were in the years past. But it makes it very difficult for Indian peoples from Central America, South America, way out in, in the Pacific islands to gather the money to stay there the full 2 weeks & being in government dialogue as well, because those opportunities are there.  

You know the moments & the minutes that you do have at the UN on the floor with officials & with governments are the most valuable & sought after moments. But you go there with the payload—the drop that is the information that you bring because you want change & those are the moments to do that. That is the international lobbying that goes on at that level.  

And at this juncture, Jean, just before we ask you for closing words, just to give our listeners a little bit more history about indigenous people’s involvement in the international & United Nations Arena, well 100 years ago when the United Nations. It was called the League of Nations. [In] 1923 chief of the of the Iroquois [Haudenosaunee] Confederacy was representative there in Geneva, Switzerland at that time, & that’s Chief Deskaheh. So indeed, this month…100 years ago marks a milestone of Indian peoples coming to the United Nations for as Indian peoples that have not been representative among the General Assembly.  

Unless of course we do say countries like Bolivia with Evo Morales as president in several years back as being the first indigenous person. Then there’s been several others. I mean, we could say that the Mexico & all the other countries that as Latino as many of them…are indigenous people. This is a part of the consciousness, the awakening, the International Indian Movement, my relatives that we’re moving forward making progress & that includes even at the national level. 

if I can go further. Jean Roach, a case that where we refer to in the international arena a lot, goes to the Doctrine of Discovery or the Papal Bulls that the Vatican had issued out back in the 14th, 15th century that are still very much alive & active today. My relatives, I think we only have to go to the case of Johnson V Macintosh…1823 as well. And so, this marks 200 years of the Doctrine of Discovery…being active & used in the US Supreme Court.  

Both 1823 Johnson V McIntosh & Fast forward 2005 Justice Ruth Ginsburg had reintroduced the case of Papal Bulls, or the Doctrine of Discovery in the case of Wisconsin V Oneida. Nathan, my relatives. And that was the taking of more or neither Nation’s land & according to the Papal Bulls of that doctrine of discovery, very much alive. So, you know, yeah, we are. In very many milestones of history of Indian peoples, including Chief Deskaheh, as I said, Geneva, Switzerland, 1923 & the Johnson V McIntosh case 1823 & on to the present, this doctrine that has to be banished. That has to be acknowledged as invalid today because they are very much alive & in use in our Supreme Court. All right, Jean, so much good history & we’re going to be a part of that going to the permanent forum this year, April the 17th to the 28th. Any closing words for Leonard Peltier, Jean Roach, please? 

00:50:07 Jean Roach 

Yes, everyone should try to write a letter to him. You know they don’t allow postcards. You know, cheer him up. I mean, he needs some support. Also encourage your local governments & your local tribes, tribal nations—anybody can be part of this by writing a letter. We’ve gone international, so we have support all over the world, but we really need more [support] & if you get a chance, call the White House. [If] you aren’t doing anything, just call them. Know that you’re interested, & there’s certain hours [you need to call] that we have that on our website.  

So I’d Just like to encourage everybody to keep pushing & everything. It really does help, & as long as we can continue pushing for its freedom, hopefully soon it will come. We’re just really hoping & praying. 

00:50:57 Tony Gonzales 

Thank you, Jean Roach & Jean we’re broadcasting for Bay Native Circle for tonight here with KPFA. I believe April the 19th I will be hosting Bay Native Circle once again, after Morning Star Gali & my colleague Eddie Madrill [who] will have a show after her & then I will have it on April 19th. So, I’ll see about us being able to broadcast live, if you will, from the United Nations there in New York at that time. Alright, Jean Roach, thank you very much for your dedication, your commitment & your courage, Jean—your courage to go forward.  

00:51:46 Jean Roach 

Thank you very much, thank you. 

00:51:47 Tony Gonzales 

Aho Jean Roach. What a woman, what a person [with] her dedication & commitment to seek the freedom of Leonard Peltier. Everything that that she does, with local, regional, national & international, my relatives, & now with her & colleagues going on to the UN Permanent Forum that begins April 17th. So, a big shout out there & hopefully we’ll be able to succeed reaching out to include…various government officials & seek their support to send letters to President Biden for the Freedom of Leonard Peltier, the longest held indigenous political prisoner in the entire world, my relatives.  

And as we’re coming close to the [end of our show] my relatives. I just wanted to make a few announcements as Chumash Day is coming right up (note: this event has already occurred), that’s right! The Chumash people are having Native American powwow, & that’s going to be also an intertribal gathering that’s April 1st & that will be from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM at Malibu Bluffs Park. OK, try to make that one, [it] is the 23rd annual, so there’s a lot of experience there & a lot to see & do…& that will be at 2357 Live Civic Center way in Malibu Bluffs Park. Chumash Day Native American Powwow my relatives & see about going there.  

Also, we’ve been hearing that the Apache Stronghold is holding up good & Dr. Wendsler [Noise] caravanned all the way to the court case [at] the 9th district [court of appeals] …to rehear the case of their sacred sites & protection of Oak Flats. So hopefully with Dr. [Wendsler] Noise expressing protecting that site under the First Amendment. Also, the Treaty agreements that the Apache peoples have with the US [are being addressed as well], & that includes shoring it up with international laws, including the declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That would ensure sacred sites & for the governments to honor them, & that includes the United States, which signed that declaration by President Obama in December—when was that, 2010? So, all these efforts are now before the 9th District Court once again to protect the Oak Flat & the advocacy of Dr. Wendsler Noise.  

You know for that…Friday, March 31, [was] Cesar Chavez’s birthday, & it will be honored here in California, as…it’s a federal commemoration by President Barack Obama during his time. But several states have pushed on even further. That includes Arizona, California & Utah to make it a state holiday, my relatives. So, there’s time…to share the legacy, the history of Cesar Estrada Chavez. Cesar Chavez, as many of you know, is the co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers Association of America. Also, Co-Founder, as many of you know, Dolores Huerta was born in Yuma, AZ.  

In Santa Cruz on April the 1st my relatives, that’s on Saturday Cesar Chavez will be very much remembered & appreciate. Barrios Unidos is organizing & gathering there, & Cesar Chavez day, April 1st at from 12:00 to 5:00 PM my relatives (note: this event has already occurred). So, if you’re interested in going down to Santa Cruz, to be a part of body so neither they’re on Soquel St…I’m going to make that one, & I hope you do too… 

This has been Tony Gonzalez & you’ve been listening to Bay Major Circle & our producers, Jeanine Antoine. The opening music was L. Frank Manriquez mixed with Ross K’Dee, Robert Maribel & Rare Tribal Mob. Thank you goes out to Falcon Molina for helping engineer the show to Diane Williams for the opening prayer. We also thank our musical artists, our guests & you are listening to audience for your continued support, & we want to give a shout out to our brothers & sisters on the inside, especially those on death row. Thank you to Creator to the Indigenous Peoples whose lands we occupy, to ancestors & to those yet to come, blessings. 

00:57:59  

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On this editon of Bay Native Circle, on 03/22/23 Morning Star Gali hosts and Interviews poet activist yAyA; then Cathy Jackson interview two young Navajo women, owners of Dolii farms.

Below we have a rough transcript done by Cathy Jackson for the Dolii Farms interview.

Today we’re going to interview two young women who are farmers on the Navajo reservation.  Can you please say your names and the names of your company?  And where you live on the reservation.

Yes, my name’s Jeneva Ben  (speaks in Dine traditionally introducing herself by clan) Those are my clans and how I am recognized on the Navajo reservation.  And within the reservation, we live in a community called Shiprock, New Mexico…which is one of the biggest um farming communities on the reservation. And sitting with me is my sister, and she’ll introduce herself.

Hello, we represent Dolii Farms LLC, and my name is najazoni Rain Ben, my clans are ye’dine B….(introduces in Dine). And as she mentioned we both reside in Shiprock, New Mexico.

C question:  And how did you both decide to become farmers?

kl;

For me personally, this is Jeneva  I really dove into farming when I was going to New Mexico State University…I originally went there to become a veterinarian, and I also taken college courses with in my time at the high school..to get ahead on my veterinarian career that I was thinking about doing at the time.

And while I was at NMSU, it hit me that I really enjoyed farming, due to driving around the campus..they grow Alfalfa, and Pecans that surrounds the university.  And whenever I got really overwhelmed in schoolwork, or homesick– because it was about six hours away from where I reside on the Navajo reservation– it’s in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

And..whenever I really want to talk to my family– and I couldn’t get a hold of them..I would go to the fields, the alfalfa fields and just sit there and just smell the alfalfa. And it reminded me of home…reminded me of when I was young and loved by my family and they supported every decision I made..so far.

02:46

And that love and passion for my family and my nation..and for food overall..I realized that I wanted to become a farmer.  Well, I was a farmer at the time, but..getting a degree in farming.

I called my father and I told him that I no longer wanted to pursue my veterinarian career…but I wanted to become a legit farmer in the western society.  And asked what degree I could go for in that.

03:21

So he called a friend of his..and he called me back and told me that there is a degree called “Agronomy.”  So I went to my academic advisor and asked them if they had an Agronomy degree at NMS university and they said yes.

So they sent me to a professor– I went to talk with him, and he told me what Agronomy is..and can be for a community.  And from there on I decided that I wanted to be an Agronomist.

Agronomy– the definition is the science of soil management and crop production.  My emphasis is in crop consulting…that way when I do come home to the Navajo Nation I would be able to consult with my farmers ..farmer peers here on the reservation ..and help them understand the new techniques of farming…which I was educated through western universities.

04:20

So with that in mind, I really engulfed myself in my classes, different after school programs there at the university..one of the clubs I loved was horticulture club.. And then I knew my love for farming preceded

The veterinary career I wanted.  And that’s how I got into um, more interested in becoming a farmer.

04:57

Yes, hello, this is Najazhoni, and one underlying lesson we’ve learned is through education..we had to pursue it off- reservation..we understood the importance of kinship? And how we are really tied to our people in terms of wanting to help them…and just wanting to be back on the reservation once we got off.

So for me I was able to study at the University of New Mexico, which is in Albuquerque..and the drive isn’t too long…but itI was far enough– I was getting homesick pretty bad..on my first year there…and one thing I really noticed that ..I really missed looking at the stars…and not only that, but the constant reality of just having to step on cement all the time (chuckles) there’s not a lot of cement here in Shiprock…I think just those little things affected me, in wanting to come back.

06:19

And so..right now I’m studying economics at the university of New Mexico, and I’m on a gap year, and focusing on our farming business and expanding it in that way.

06:31

C:  Well..who in your family– was anyone in your family growing corn..before you guys or ..who in your family taught you about the process of drying the corn?

Yes..our father…Joe Ben junior…was the leader of showing us how to farm…put the seed in the ground..love it and create the product of dried steam corn.

07:12

He learned it from his father …and obviously the farming back then was different … they had to do hands on…more hands on work at the farm, meaning they would cultivate with hoes…whereas now we have tractors to do that…heavy hard work.

Other than that..the way of growing it and cooking it is the same..as he had done it before.

07:46

C:  Were you doing this before the pandemic? Or since the pandemic?

07:53

We farmed when we were young..ahm, back then it was more farming to feed our family– our immediate family. And then as we grew older.. I would say when we were getting more into middle school and high school–that’s when we started farming, or leasing from other farmers..and there on we decided to start selling the product to the communities, and during fairs, the flea market..ah getting orders for weddings and birthday parties, and that’s how we understood the business part of the selling to the community, communicating with them and understanding that there is a profit to be made on Navajo Nation farm.

08:49

Yes and…we just grew up in farming..it’s our way of life now ..as it was when we were younger.  So we would wake up early in the morning, go out to run on the fields, hoe..and irrigate, and all the way through the day..and then at night we would

Me and my sister started school we still had to do it Our dad still expected to help you at the farm and sell at in the weekend at the Flea Market, and we learned a lot of discipline..

09:31

And what type of person you have to be to continue this and make it your job?  Cause..it was just– when you’re younger you didn’t think about like..the money aspect.. But that was our only financial income coming into our family

09:50

Other than our father’s artwork?  So, it was really interesting.. In seeing that..that we’re able to survive off that and um…

10:02

And to share it with our community–but not only that..when we got into college, we understood the western methods of running a successful farming business, and the pros and cons of doing business with your family.

10:22

And…I’d say going to school and working with our father really helped us create our farming business

10:40

C:  Do you see any obstacles..in say doing business in the urban environment and..doing business on the rez? 10:51 Are there any obstacles you’ve had on either side of that?

10:58

Yes, definitely there are many obstacles..as being a indigenous farmer..on any reservation.  For Navajo Nation, particularly is what we see is there’s no Agriculture extension agents for us.

11:17

An Agriculture extension agent… what I’ve learned at NMSU is  a person who takes on the role of becoming an agent for the people..and for  farmers..and ranchers..and ranchers in particular.   And what they do is they go to them in the beginning of the year, and they lay out a whole farming plan with them, and advising them on what grants they can apply for, what type of fertilizers they can use, what type of chemical plants they can go to – to buy cheap fertilizer, where they can go to get their seeds, the different markets that are coming up..um, how to run a farming business..

11:57

So many different..ahm important aspects of farming they teach.  However…we do have a San Juan county extension agent– agriculture extension agent ..but they don’t cross the reservation border..they stay on New Mexico border.

12:15

And the reason?  I have no idea. Ahm, they help many farmers off reservation..if you drive east of Shiprock.. You’re coming to a community called Hogback– excuse me..Waterflow, New Mexico..and Waterflow..you’ll see many farms there.

12:38

And you keep driving up to Kirtland, New Mexico..again, there are farms there. How they get their big expensive equipment, their seeds, their fertilizers..that’s through the extension agent who helps them every year.

12:52

However, when you drive into Navajo Nation..you don’t get that necessity…you don’t get that knowledge..it’s not handed to us..and never has been.  How Navajo farmers got their agricultural knowledge from western people was through BIA .. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

13:14

Back in the 1900’s ..there they taught us how to farm our fields using the western methods.   And when I was at school..they said…how to prepare your land.. You have to do seven steps.

13:31

You gotta plow.. First you have to walk your field..look at the soil, see if it be able to hold a seed, and yield a lot..for example if the soil is too sandy or silty..it’s not gonna be a really good soil to hold a seed or hold the water..so it has to be a  pretty  good nice organic soil that can really grow the seed.

13:57

After that you have to plow the soil..many other different  agricultural terms – but basically you have to rip up the soil, and you do that after every season..after every harvest of your field.

14:10

However, at school we learned that’s not a really good way to farm..There’s different farming techniques that were learned by indigenous people such as…no till..which means when you grow ah..if you can visualize a corn field.. Your grow that, you harvest the field..you leave the cornstalks on the field, until next year.

14:32

Then all you do is disc it,..you don’t plow the corn stalks under where it goes, or you rake off the cornstalks you just leave the corn stalks on there..and you disc the field. So the cornstalks will still be on the field.

14:48  And then you plant over it. .

14:50

And that creates organic matter– and that’s how our fam– not our family but our ancestors..ahm..farmed, when they were here. (truck noise) Excuse me, there’s some farm trucks driving down our lane…with a lot of hay..(chuckles)

15:08

Sorry about that..so back to what I was saying..that type of farming, our father was able to teach us..on how to not really..ruin the land with chemicals, or overplowing or overdiscing ..and that’s how I want it to be.

15:27

So when I went to school, the things they taught me..I’ve learned..but I’ve also chose to leave some of those teachings behind… because I know that in the long run, it’s not healthy for the soil.

15:41

So, the teachings offered by western farmers and the different companies that help them, they don’t come to the Navajo Nation to teach us these new methods. So that’s why I was very grateful to go to New Mexico State and for them to teach me what is not taught on the reservations.

16:06

And again…I do not know –I don’t know why those agents don’t come to the reservation to teach us the most simplest things..and– but that’s ok, because what the Navajo Nation has is youth..youth that are wanting to learn..that are wanting to better our livelihood..that want to push our sovereignty and food energy , etc..and me and my sister are one of those youth that are spearheading that change for the Navajo Nation.

16:39

And the change is just basically gaining knowledge on how to better our farms.  Our people ..the food ..and the other things that we face ..that really hurt us as farmers is the lack of responsibility of our western neighbors when it comes to natural catastrophes..such as the Gold King Mine spill.

17:10

We weren’t compensated as how the western farmers were compensated, we had no natural catastrophe aid during the Gold King Mine spill ..meaning no one came over here to haul water for us

17:27

Our own government also lacked that, because they didn’t know how …how to keep thousands of acres of Navajo farms alive when we couldn’t use that river back in 2016.

17:42

So, in that year..over 95 per cent of the farms died..because we couldn’t use the water due to  the heavy metal contamination. However, the western farmers..they had water supplied such as dams that they created in case – which means, they already knew that..maybe one day in the Rockies..those mines might break and come into the water, so we have to have a contingency plan.

18:12

And Navajo Nation did not have a contingency plan..we did not think further ahead on the different evils we could face as farmers ..and due to that we lacked so many things during that catastrophe

18:30

But also we weren’t offered any help at all. So due to all these real life situations we face as indigenous farmers ..and the lack of assistance ..me and my sister realized we have to be the ones to speak..not only for ourselves as indigenous farmers, not only for the nation ..but for our land..our water ..our water rights ..and our air rights.

19:00

And with all this experience..as a young Navajo woman farmer..our love for continuing our traditional way of farming ..our product, dried steam corn..we had to really look into ..what are we going to do as a business..not just to make profit..but..how are we going to help our people..

19:30

How are we going to pull in all these ..aids, such as grants..or being able to speak up in Chapter meetings and having a say in ..ahm off-reservation things pertaining to the water..As a young Navajo woman..you have to realize that things won’t be handed to you..you have to work hard for it.

19:59

And fortunately, we had a father who really made us work hard during our youth – but to us it was fun, and it is still fun to this day..farming..but it really instilled in us  Integrity, self-discipline ..ahm, love..compassion for each other, kinship, and many more things that are unspoken..

29:26

C:  I’m hoping that someone out there listening will be able to direct you on some of the resources that are available ..especially for women in business ..is there anything else you’d like to add?  And please give your contact information.

20:46

I believe one thing I could add..is..what we’re trying to combat..me and my sister is bringing in the youth to farming.  What I mean by that is ..if you look at the numbers of how many number of farmers here today in Shiprock..how many of them are over the age of 65..over 85 per cent of these farmers here in Shiprock are over the age of 65.

21:22

Meaning..there are no young farmers..there’s probably–  say 25 per cent of the farmers are around my sister and my age..and below the age of 30.  And that’s not a really good ratio.  Cause what happens when elders– elder farmers pass on.

21:45

Who are they passing their farms to?  And what are those farmers gonna do with those farms?  A lot of the farms here are in probate..people are fighting in court..and/or people just don’t care… and they just leave Navajo Nation because they don’t know how to farm.

22:04

That part is what me and my sister really want to emphasize and helping our reservation is by going to the schools to do little class exercises with the children with agriculture, and having the kids understand that their land is worth something..

22:27

Their land is very valuable, their water is very valuable..and I believe these teachings are just understanding is very not widely spoken on..and the resources that are out there..aren’t readily accessible to the people that are living on the Navajo Nation right now..today.

22:50

Just as we said..there’s no office on the Navajo Nation, nor in the biggest community –farming community in the Navajo Nation ready to take on these type of questions or having actionable plans to help the people.

23:11

Yes..ahm..one thing that I’d say – would really help us is just for my sister and I is to really build our foundation of our business in order to be that advisor ..that agent, that leader in our culture community here on the Navajo Nation to spearhead all these different issues and come up with solutions with the youth.

23:45

And hopefully gain trust with our elders farmers and hopefully pass that down to us and their children and to be comfortable with that.

Yes, and you may contact us at a phone number which is 505 420 7167 or send us a message on Instagram or Facebook under the name of Dolii Farms LLC to get in contact with us.

 24:15

C: Can you spell Dolii Farms for the people please?

It’s DOLII Farms FARMS LLC.

C:  Thank you so much.

The post Bay Native Circle March 22 2023 – Morning Star Gali Interviews yAyA & Cathy Jackson interview two young Navajo women, owners of Dolii farms appeared first on KPFA.

March 15th 2023 Eddie Madril Hosted Bay Native Circle. On this edition of BNC, Eddie Interviews Paloma Flores & Jack Kohler & plays some cool Native tunes

The post Bay Native Circle March 15 2023 Eddie Madril Hosts & Interviews Paloma Flores & Jack Kohler appeared first on KPFA.

The Bay Native Circle weekly program presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine. This episode and the following few weeks are temporally preempted for KPFA’s Annual Winter Fund Drive. Feel free to support this station by clicking the donate button you can find on KPFA’s homepage!

The post Bay Native Circle – Preempted from 2/22/23 through 3/8/23 for KPFA Fund Drive appeared first on KPFA.

On this edition of Bay Native Circle Tony Gonzales Interviews Chief Gary Harrison. BNC is weekly program presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

This rough transcript was made using the built-in transcription A.I. in Microsoft Word. There may be errors in this transcription. To listen to the original audio, go to https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20230215-Wed1900.mp3 to listen or download.

Pictured is Chief Gary Harrison on the left and Tony Gonzales on the right.

00:00:45 Tony Gonzales

Anpetu Thayetu Waste Mitakuyapi, good evening relatives and welcome to Bay Native Circle here on KPFA and online at kpfa.org. This is Tony Gonzales your host tonight, February 15th. As you might have read or heard…Berkeley unnamed, its 5th building my relatives That’s right! There at Berkeley, UC Berkeley, founding fathers, who was Bernard Moses, 19th century intellectual and of course, his name was one of the buildings there—one of the philosophy buildings that’s now been changed, my relatives. Now it’s just called Philosophy Hall! Name changes are coming down in that fear of racism and what it surrounds. In the US, we heard, for example in Fresno County, now we have Yoka Valley instead of the S**** valley and the S**** ski resort has been changed to Palisades [ski resort]. Well, right here at UC Berkeley, these names are coming down, and that includes, as you well know, John Bolt

Bill Hall has now been changed. Also, the slaveholder John and Joseph Laconti, who they fought in the Confederacy that that has been changed there in the physics building, including the early UC President David Prescott Barrows, that’s now changed the social science building in anthropology at UC Berkeley, the pioneer, Alfred Kroeber, the famous anthropologist that has also changed at all across the Bay, including here in San Francisco, UC Hastings is no longer my relatives. It’s now UC College of law, and so is that name changing is going on and in sports as well.

My relatives, you might have seen the Super Bowl game that was held just this past Sunday with the Kansas City football team, where there was a protest there outside of the stadium about a mile away, that is. That’s where the protesters or people for the rally against the issue of the mascots that are portrayed in Kansas City were held. And this is the continuation of mascots and sports, there’s time for that Kansas City team to change. Of course, on their culture, perpetuating racism, as you saw the Tomahawk chop was on display singing the Woo Woo that the people are involving—these are all gestures of racism that we have to continue to educate the public. We’ll hear more about this, and I want to salute the people that were there, Manny Pino, and of course, Amanda Black Horse was helping to lead the charge. There will continue to hear more about the progress to change the Kansas City football team name.

And this evening we will be speaking with Chief Gary Harrison of Chickaloon Village, Alaska. It is near Palmer and he’s at the Baskin and Chief Gary Harrison has a lot of information on how Indigenous peoples in the Arctic region, in particular, have focused on their issues and where to be effective, and that includes the work that he’s involved in at the regional, national and the international arena. My relatives, [this is] very important information on how they also work in the Arctic Circle with the Arctic Council of Governments. There’s about five or six different governments involved with Indigenous peoples in that region including Russia, the United States, Canada, the Scandinavian region. Very good dialogue that goes on after the protection of the natural resources against mining and oil industries and protecting the salmon and importantly, the Porcupine Caribou In that region, particularly on the northeastern slope of Alaska, the Anwar region or the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, so pay particular attention to that my relatives, as it is very insightful.

But before that I want to let you know about the passing of a great warrior woman. That is Hinewirangi Kohu Morgan of the island of Aotearoa [New Zealand]. And she is also a board member with the International Indian Treaty Council. She has been a longtime advocate for human rights. Particularly for Māori peoples of Aotearoa—New Zealan that is, [since] the 1848 Treaty of Waitangi. So more information will be coming, my relatives, but her passing on Tuesday she will be missed, my relatives… And so now let’s [talk] to Gary Chief Gary Harrison and his advocacy in the National and International arena.

Aho all my relations here now I have asked Chief Gary Harrison of the N Alaska, the Chickaloon village and Chief Gary Harrison has been representative of Chickaloon village. Well, you know, since the 1980s and 90s were well represented at the. Different forums, both international conferences and at the United Nations Arena and various bodies, and Gary is here in the Bay Area for a few days and I haven’t seen him in the ceremony and taking the opportunity later to invite you to the show tonight. Chief Gary Harrison, It’s an honor for you to be here and welcome please. If you were to introduce yourself as well.

00:06:11 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, thank you, Tony, I’m Chief Gary Harrison. I’m a traditional Chief from Chickaloon Native Village where Athna Athebaskan people…and maybe I could just say (Chief Gary Harrison greets Tony and the radio audience in his native language spoken by the Indigenous Peoples of Chickaloon Village, called Nay’dini’aa Na’, in Athna) which basically [translates to] good day I’m Gary Harrison, I’m Water Clan and I’m from Chickaloon. And yeah, I’m the traditional Chief of our people.

00:06:45 Tony Gonzales

Chief Gary, I wanted to ask you if you would please give our listeners a little insight as to your representation if you will outside of the village itself or chick alone, but as a representative advocate at various levels and in the more recent times you attended the COP or the Conference of the Parties, what is number 27 said that in Egypt?

00:07:17 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, it was in Sharma, Sheikh.

00:07:19 Tony Gonzales

Please can you share with us what occurred there in summary, yes.

00:07:25 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, I can only tell some stuff. A lot of the stuff I wasn’t really a part of. I was on a couple of side panels, and it was incredible because it is an environmental gathering, right? Well, the carbon footprint just to make the place was incredible. And then to have all of these thousands of people descend on this area, I mean it, it was…

00:07:51 Tony Gonzales

…A contradiction of [it’s values].

00:07:53 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, it was. It was kind of really different because of the, you know, you got everybody there from all over the world trying to sell you their environmental products or what is some of them supposedly environmental and…

00:08:08 Tony Gonzales

…This is the climate change conference…

00:08:09 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, the COP on climate change. What do they call it? Compromise of the parties? Yes, that’s not what it is, but that’s basically what generally happens. There is a compromise of the parties and…

00:08:27 Tony Gonzales

Conference of criminals.

00:08:28 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, that could be too, but what happens there is you got a bunch of the countries that wanted to still do economic development at the detriment of the environment and not just the environment that they’re in there, but the larger environment because of the carbon footprint that a lot of these things do, for instance, coal mining, oil and gas, I mean they have a big influence on many of these countries because that’s what their countries revenue depends on.

So, it’s not in their interest in the short run, but in the long run it’s in the interest of all of humanity to start cutting your carbon footprint and a lot of them are very short sighted, which is why there’s such a big argument when you get down there between the different states. They call them states, but they’re countries. So, you got like, all of these countries arguing about. Well, we don’t want to, you know, we want to cut down the melting or the [temperature] raised by 1 1/2 degrees. Even that could be very tragic for a lot of places.

There are a lot of low-lying places that would be flooded, even at the raise of 1.5, and you can also see that it’s raised some already. You see these horrific storms there used to be storms, but not as horrific as the ones that they have been seeing this now.

00:10:03 Tony Gonzales

That you went to that conference itself, how did your resolve in those workshops and the outcome match with the UN’s 20-30 Sustainable Development goals? We advocate there are Indigenous. Peoples involved in that 2030 goals.

00:10:22 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, there’s a lot of people that came down there and it’s incredible how many people and how many places are being affected. And it’s almost like we’re all being affected basically and by the same type of people like the oil companies want to come in and pollute the land. You got coal companies, you got the other mining that comes in and takes out the resources and leaves a mess. And if you even mention revenue sharing with the Indigenous people, people think you’re [crazy.] That’s yet we sit there, and we have the coal companies come in, the oil companies, the mining companies come in and they just take what are our resources and leave us nothing but a mess. And it’s incredible when you even mention it, how they think you’re insane.

It’s like, wait a minute…If somebody came into your house and took your coffee table and left, what would you think? Oh and broke a bunch of stuff on the way out and peed on the floor and crapped on the floor and took off. What would you think? Only they don’t think of it in that method. They think of it “well, it’s ours Manifest destiny You know, it’s all ours.”

00:11:36 Tony Gonzales

And Chief, Gary, you take those outcomes of conferences like that for example to other bodies that you associate with at the international level to provide them with this kind of attitudes and perspectives you know. To share with them as well. See what can you tell us that other international Arctic body that you are associated with?

00:12:05 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, we try to, but a lot of times, many of the actors are at both places, so that’s when you try and cross over a lot of times. You got to be very specific on things that both have agreed upon to try and push them into doing what’s right and you’re talking about the Arctic Council, which is made-up of eight northern countries, the US because of Alaska, Canada, Denmark, because of Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, and Russia. And in that they have permanent participants, which is the Indigenous peoples, and there’s six of them, there’s the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which is in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia.

There’s the Saami Council, which is in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, that there’s a Russian Indigenous peoples Congress, which is 30, some different Indigenous peoples in Russia. And you got to be in either two different countries or in more than one group in one. So, then there’s the Gretchen International, which is in Alaska and Canada, there’s the Alured International, which is in Alaska and Russia, and then there’s the Arctic Athabaskan Council, which is what I’m presently the international chairman of, which is in Alaska and Canada, and it’s supposed to be a very unique situation. They’re the Indigenous people. The permanent participants sit with what they call the senior Arctic officials of the eight different countries, and we don’t really have a vote, but we kind of have a veto. So, if we say, well, no, we don’t really want that to happen and we stick together, well then, the Arctic Council has to try and figure out how to deal with that, rather than just move on.

So, it’s kind of different and since the war things have changed a lot because they’re supposed to come to us with whatever is going on and talk with us, and we’re supposed to be part of the discussion and conversation, and they’ve been having discussions, not meetings. But discussions without the Indigenous people there and the reason they’re not having meetings is because Arctic Council’s on a pause and when it’s on a pause, you can’t really have any official meetings. But they’ve been talking back and forth because right now Russia has a chair.

The chairmanship changes every two years, so we’re coming up on the end of the two years that Russia has been chair. So, for the last year since the war, we haven’t been able to really do anything. Norway is the incoming chair, so the senior Arctic official chair from Russia has been talking to the incoming senior official chair to try and have a transition. And right now, at the IPS the Indigenous People Secretariat, which was formed before the Art Council and even the Art Council secretariat, it rotates between the six Indigenous peoples organization and it. It’s now with ICC and nuclear circumpolar conference, but it’s supposed to switch next to the Russian Indigenous Peoples Congress next.

Is problematic with this war going on, so we’re trying to figure out a way to work our way through this and also how to make the Arctic of Council function without including Russia—and Russia, has about 49% of the Arctic. So, it’s pretty hard to do and so right now there’s a lot of problems there with how things are going to be going. People don’t know, we’re not sure, we wish the war would get over soon for more reasons than one, you know, because there’s a lot of human lives being lost. They’re unnecessarily in many of our thoughts, and so we, and we also need the other Council to get back to what its original mission was, which is a high-level environmental group or however you want to call it. It’s not part of the UN, but it is an international body.

00:16:42 Tony Gonzales

And should the war come to terms and some kind of peaceful resolve is still to be reckoned with as a as a body within that Arctic? Yeah, circle council.

00:16:54 Chief Gary Harrison

But if that happens, then, then we’ll, you know, we’ll. We’ll deal with it, and I think that it’ll be closer to getting things back to normal. Whatever normal is going to be anymore after the war because some of the country officials that I’ve talked with are like, not sure how the different various governments are going to deal with. Russia after this? So, it’s kind of a complicated, difficult, and also…

00:17:32 Tony Gonzales

…It’s the bear in the living room, Chief Gary undeniable.

00:17:40 Chief Gary Harrison

It’s very complicated because we don’t need to offend Russia and make things worse, you know, and some people get offended very easily and we don’t want to do that. That is because the Arctic Council needs to get back to what it was originally planned on doing, which is to help work on the environment.

Which is one of the things that they talk about the Sustainable Development Goals. I don’t remember how the how it’s all pronounced anyhow part of it is in the environment and that’s what the conference of the Parties on climate change is about is about how to. Do that so the two bodies do recognize each other and try and incorporate in their work the different things that each body puts out for the for the good of the environment.

00:18:39 Tony Gonzales

And Chief Gary how do you bring this advocacy back down to the Community level and reckon with some of the issues as well? You know, [those issues] you deal with?

00:18:54 Chief Gary Harrison

That’s also a very complicated issue because a lot of people have no idea what the Arctic Council is about, and when they do, they don’t recognize it as a working body that can do anything. But they’ve made several different agreements, which in essence will affect the different areas. One of them is in emergency preparedness, like for instance, when they have these big storms, or someone gets caught out on the ice, or something like that. They’ll do search and rescue for, you know, on an international scale in the morning and they help each other out, and it’s already happened in the past.

For instance, when Nome [Alaska] was running out of fuel oil and none of the Ice Breakers would make it in there, the Russians came in with an ice breaker and broke away into Nome so that they could get fuel on the community and the community wouldn’t freeze to death or whatever else. Because almost everything nowadays is run on fossil fuels, and that’s one of the areas where they’ve been complementing each other on one or the other areas. In as much of the scientific research that goes on because, there’s a lot of scientific research that the Arctic Council does, so that they can actually come to a realistic solution to some of these problems, which are still ongoing there. I don’t think anybody’s found the magic wand yet that’s going to fix everything, because as I mentioned, when you go to the COP, you got various different states arguing over not only resource extraction—but then you know a lot of different things.

00:20:53 Tony Gonzales

And what has been part of your determination through the many years of your advocacy, even at that international arena level, to Gary, and I think bringing more credence to those roles that you’ve been involved in. For example, those two arenas in particular that we just referred to. You put in more emphasis and credibility to that recent UN body that you’re now associated with—along with the International Indian Treaty Council that is, and a colleague—having to do with fish. If you can explain that to us, please?

00:21:27 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, the Treaty Council is in the International Planning Committee at the UN Food and Agricultural and it’s made-up of various different parts and I’m involved in the fishing part of. It is the United Nations Food and Agricultural International Planning Committee. A working group on small scale fisheries at the Committee on Fisheries. I think there’s some more acronyms and stuff in there, but I don’t always get them all right.

So anyhow, with that is all of the countries have committed to the voluntary guidelines and the voluntary guidelines talk about things on a human rights basis. And basically, it comes in from that and it’s not just Indigenous peoples human rights, it’s all of the basically small-scale fisheries which make up a small percent of the total harvest—because the big producers, the commercial fishing producers are the ones who break most of the harvest in. But the small-scale fisheries are very important, especially to the communities, and you know, the fishing communities. And to a lot of the Indigenous people and the poor and marginalized people and women are a big part of that. As many people know, in many cases they’re the backbone to the fisheries, even though sometimes the men may go out and get it when they bring it back in, who takes care of a lot of this well? A lot of times it’s the women.

00:23:11 Tony Gonzales

What percentage of the fishing industry, for example?

00:23:18 Chief Gary Harrison

I’m thinking, I don’t really know the percentage, but it’s a very small percent, like maybe 2%, but it’s a very big deal. And right now, they’ve got this report out they call the hidden harvest—which I don’t really like the name of it—but what it does is it shows the how many times the small-scale fisheries help the communities like number 1 it brings in food number 2 it brings in lives goods and feeds the people and all of the attributes that come from that. I can’t think of them all right now. But you know, that’s basically what it’s about.

But in some places when you have different fishing groups pitted against another one and you bring in something that says the hidden harvest. It’s like “I knew you were you were hiding something!”

And so, in some communities, it’s going to create some confusion and some animosity but that’s not what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to point out the good things that come from the small scale fisheries.

00:24:32 Tony Gonzales

And yet your competition, if you will, are large scale fishing companies. Give us a little description if you can like for example, during the harvesting season if you will.

00:24:46 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, there’s a couple of different ones, for instance. In the Gulf of Alaska, they got this spot that’s called the doughnut hole, and that’s an international area where people are aren’t supposed to be fishing.

And most of the international have agreed to it because it’s where a lot of the fish go to reproduce are not reproduced, but well, some of them probably.

00:25:10 Tony Gonzales

And how sure is that?

00:25:10 Chief Gary Harrison

But they but they grow, I don’t know, but anyhow.

00:25:14 Tony Gonzales

OK.

00:25:15 Chief Gary Harrison

And then you have these different vessels that come in and have 30-mile Nets and they can wipe out whole run right there. And the fish there, if it’s salmon…they’re not fully developed either. So, they’re taking them before their time even, and then when they come back—for instance, to Alaska—they come up the different rivers and then you have the commercial fisheries that’s at the mouth of the rivers which scoop up the salmon before they even get into the river.

And most of the subsistence fisheries is on the river system upstream, and we take less than 1%, and yet we’re some of the first ones who are cut off. And we also have to compete obviously with commercial fishermen. But then we have to compete with the sports fishery as well, and now they got the personal fisheries, which is the subsistence fishery, is subordinate to all of these different fisheries.

So, when it comes time, they want to cut off the subsistence first, and the subsistence as I mentioned before, I don’t really like that name because of what sustenance is and we need sustain. And it’s not somewhere below that, but it has international connotations. So, we still use the word subsistence and the Indigenous peoples.

What we really need is we need to set aside in front of all of the other fisheries because, in many cases, we used to trade salmon, and in the history books, it shows where they used to have dried Yukon [Salmon] they would trade on the coast. So, we had an economy of fish, but it wasn’t like, oh, “scoop it all up and take it out of here”. No, we would take it, we would dry it, process, fish ourselves and in that manner, you wouldn’t take as much as these people are just scooping it out and gone, which is the reason why we still had fisheries.

Another when the colonist showed up and started taking everything, and that’s another thing they never decolonized Alaska. In the proper form under the UN, because the United States was part of the agreement, making the agreement for the International Treaty on the UN Charter, they were part of the group that made that. And then they signed it and ratified it, and in that they were supposed to decolonize certain areas.

They never decolonized Alaska and Hawaii in the manner that they had agreed upon in the UN Charter. As a matter of fact the only the original people were supposed to vote when it came time for decolonization. And they were supposed to have different things on the ballot besides statehood. There’s free association, Commonwealth or something like that.

But anyhow, there were several different ones, but they didn’t have that on the ballot in Alaska, nor Hawaii. And in Alaska they had a prerequisite. The voting that if you were native, you had to prove that you spoke English and you had to have five white people sign that you were competent. So well, this was on the books when they voted for statehood. And so, who voted for statehood? It was the colonists and the military. The military got paid 5₵ or $5 extra if they could prove that they voted in this.

The Indigenous people, my cousins were not allowed to vote. They got in a fist fight and can’t roll over it, and I thought it was in the papers, but I’ve been trying to find it in some of the old newspapers, but I can’t find it. And so, it was probably just a little clip, but I know a guy who was a young he was a not a child, but a young guy at the time, a teenager, and he witnessed the fight at in Cantwell at the voting between my relatives and the colonists.

So, it’s a real thing that this happened, and a lot of people don’t want to realize it, which is one reason why the land claims came later, which was a genocidal. Correct, and it was meant to destroy the tribes in Alaska, and it also left out the children, which is another plank of genocide. So, it’s a double plank of genocide and what’s going on now is many of the corporate leaders, in my opinion, have got like what you would call the Stockholm syndrome.

00:29:57 Tony Gonzales

That was the Alaska Land Claim settlement of 1971.

00:30:02 Chief Gary Harrison

And now the corporations are now trying to take a lot of the tribes rights and responsibilities, which is filicide, which means you’re destroying your own people. And that’s what’s happening now is we’ve not only got genocide happening, but they’re also pushing our own people into filicide.

00:30:23 Tony Gonzales

And in the process of the Alaska settlement was the creation of the 14 corporations…as opposed to the reservations?

00:30:34 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, here, here’s what happened during the negotiations, they said. We don’t want them to be the same as the reservations down the states. We don’t want them to have the same rights as the reservations have down there because they started to realize that the reservations were—even though they put them on reservations and took everything else later on, it also proved that the people were even there because later on the calling us down in the states were saying, well, prove to us you were even here because we’re taking this land. It’s ours now.

So not only did that happen, but also that was the same thing that happened when they gave out native allotments. It also was there to break up the land base and but it also later on proved that they [the Indigenous People] were there because there were native allotments. So, they didn’t want that to happen in Alaska. So, what the feds did is they confiscated all of the land. They gave 1% to the people who were already there. And bought land from the federal government cause and then they gave a bunch of land to the state of Alaska. And then they made the 13 corporations and they said you natives if you want anything, you’re going to have to become part of these corporations. And not all of my family got in there, only about half of them did so there’s also a big fight about that half the time because half of my family is not in there and half is and it’s….

00:32:15 Tony Gonzales

In fact, there [are] several communities that have retained their somewhat autonomous and traditions, like Gwich’in people which in Arctic village. How about Chickaloon itself?

00:32:29t Chief Gary Harrison

In some cases, they have and haven’t to varying degrees. Because when they wanted to use their land and tax it like they used to, they went to court, and they lost. So, there’s a certain amount of stuff, but we all still fight, and we’ve never given up our sovereignty. We’ve never given up our land. We’ve never given up any of our rights. So, what’s happened to us is they’ve all taken it. So, we’re still striving and struggling for sovereignty. [Our territory], yeah, unceded [our land has] never been ceded.

So, and but like I said, now that we’ve got these corporations, it makes things even more [complicated]. And now [these corporations] want to say…”we want to work together”. Well, their idea of working together is that the corporations get more rights and more money and more, while the tribes get less. [The corporations] are basically trying to take some of the tribes rights and resources [for themselves]. And you’ve probably seen it in this COVID money where the corporations ended up getting a bunch of the tribes COVID money. And there was a big lawsuit about it and the Corporations won and they got a bunch of the COVID money. And I don’t mind them getting money, but it needs to be their own money, not on the backs of the tribes, which is the problem.

And a lot of people say, well, you just hate the corporations. Well, in a way, yeah. But I also realize what kind of economic driver they are for our people. And so the way politics and everything is now, I don’t want to see them go down, but I don’t want them taking any more of the tribes rights either. And that’s the problem. So, when I talk about that, they think, oh, you’re just you just want to take away all the corporations and all that. And that’s not really true. I just want them to operate in a proper manner and I want them to operate for all of our peoples, not just the chosen people who are leading the corporations.

00:34:36 Tony Gonzales

Well, Chief Gary Harrison, given all that knowledge and the representation that you bring, and now clarifying it further, within this new body within the UN, the Food Agricultural Organization, presenting this particular knowledge, it really begins to pave a way for an additional wider arena, where more Indigenous peoples can get involved and present. You know, these [environmental] calamities in their particular regions [are getting] closer to the countries [previously unaffected by those environmental disasters]. To begin to change their policies at that level, you know, given all that and bringing that home to Arctic village itself. Can you tell just a little bit about what you’re confronted with at the ground level? I know there’s a coal mine that’s a big industry in, in your region. Please if you can come back to that, you were going to say something.

00:35:31 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, first I wanted to also bring in the intercept fisheries. And the bycatch because they got these big trawlers out there. Dutch and Fish and the bycatch, a lot of it is salmon and like they get 50,000 kings as bycatch, they just throw it away. And I think that at minimum they should be giving it to the Indigenous people up and down the river who are now not allowed to catch any king salmon because they’re so low in numbers yet, the trawlers and the bycatch, you know it’s craziness on what’s going on out there in the fishing industry. So I wanted to get to that before I got back to—what was the question you asked?

00:36:18 Tony Gonzales

Your involvement of these arenas, many that you’ve brought for our listeners, your involvement with the International Treaty Council at the sub body of the file, the Food and Agriculture Organization. You know, bringing this advocacy, but I wanted to bring it back home to your home front in Arctic Chickaloon village, yourself and what you’re confronted with. If you can give us a little history of, for example, the mining industry, the coal mine that was major, is it still operating at the same extent?

00:36:52 Chief Gary Harrison

No, it’s not, thank goodness. But what happened was during World War One, they found the world’s highest-grade coal in my community in Chickaloon and they drilled nine tunnels in the side of the hill and, then hey brought in the train and the train came from Seward and up to Chickaloon. They fueled the Pacific fleet with the coal out of Chickaloon and it was melting down the boilers.

So they went further down to a spot called Moose Creek. We have our own Indigenous names for him [Moose Creek], too, but this will suffice. And they built a railroad up there and they mined some lesser grade coal to mix with the higher-grade coal, so that it wouldn’t melt the boilers on the warships. And when they did that, they in both places, it messed with the salmon. And number one, in Moose Creek, it created a fall [in the Salmon population]. So, there was only the salmon at the mouth of the river and in Chickaloon it was close enough to the mouth that [after] they mined there long enough, it basically wiped out the salmon there. And there’s salmon coming back now, but it’s been over 100 years, and they’re not coming back in the numbers that they should repopulate to where we can then fish salmon for our sustenance.

So, we have to go over to Copper River, which is also part of our people there and the peoples where my grandfather is from over there and my grandmothers from in between. And so, we go over there to my grandfathers, traditional—or my great grandfather actually—his traditional fishing camp, which is under threat right now too by the Catholic church and it’s kind of a messed-up deal.

They bought it for $10 and now they want to sell it back to a small village—which they’re our relatives, but it’s not our village—for about $2,000,000 and in the meantime they built a school there and you know what happened in Catholic schools, all of the molestation and everything else.

The Catholic boarding school anyhow, it burnt down and left a big toxic mess, so they had to clean it up. And so, they want to charge this $1,000,000. At least it’s what they say or almost $2,000,000 to the village to take it back because they got to pay for the cleanup cost. Catholic Church is the richest organization in the world, and it still is praying upon the poorest people in the world because that village and us, we’re not we’re not rich people. We don’t have a bunch of money, and we rely on catching fish and we’re not allowed to sell them anymore…You know, it’s ridiculous the way the Catholic Church is dealing with us and our people and our fish camps. So, our Fish Camp is on that land, so we’re very unsure on whether we’re going to be able to continue our traditional fishing there or not, because how the Catholic Church is treating the land anyhow, that’s another [thing].

00:40:10 Tony Gonzales

Well, yes, in shedding light on the remains of the waste left by. The mining in your area, and your region and coal in particular, which in other regions is still going on from what I understand.

00:40:26 Chief Gary Harrison 00:40:27 Chief Gary Harrison

Well after World War One, they converted the ships into oil. Or, you know, diesel oil, fuel. And so the mining fell off. There was some mining still left around because a lot of the people still had coal-fired furnaces. But then coal started being hard to get. It wasn’t very good coal, and so the coal mining dropped off and everybody else switched over to diesel fuel furnaces and things. And then you got the gasoline cars and so on. So, everything has moved over to petroleum-based stuff.

Then on top of it. You got the plastics these plastics are a real problem…a very big problem in the ocean. Because in places like New York, they used to—and some people say still do—send barges of trash out into the open ocean and dump it. Well, all of that plastic and trash doesn’t just stay in one spot, and now there’s a lot of plastic in the oceans. And this is not including the fish nets and stuff…that are made out of nylon and things like that petroleum base which doesn’t break down for many, many years, and they’re still fishing on the bottom of the ocean, some of those old fish nets.

But now they’ve done some studies, and this is one of the things that they’ve done at the Arctic Council. They’ve done some studies on how much plastics in the animals in the Arctic, there’s a lot of plastics it’s showing up in everything. So that’s one of the things that the Arctic Council has a special thing…and hopefully they’ll get around to not only figuring out how to advocate for the other countries to clean up the plastics, but they’ll also do a lot of it themselves. Because sometimes a lot of it is, they just do a bunch of studies and pass it off to someone else. And I’m of the of the type of person that it’s like, OK well. Let’s do something about it. Rather than just study it.

So, I’m hoping that we’ll get around the Arctic Council will get around to that as well. And that comes back to the health of our people as a whole, not only in Alaska but the fishing community around the world, and that’s bringing some of this stuff home on what’s happening in some of these international arenas. And then you have climate change involved, which is what that other was about and how the climate change is. Well, not only changing the weather to where you have these horrific storms. But also, it’s melting the permafrost, which has a detrimental effect on a lot of different things, like for instance, the traditional trails. If you can’t go on these trails anymore, how are you going to get to some of your food sources?

00:43:25 Tony Gonzales

And talking about food sources and as we’re culminating this time with the interview Chief Gary Harrison, the Porcupine Caribou and of interest as a traditional food, sustenance, subsistence. Food for the witch and peoples and many others described the listeners a little bit about the Porcupine Caribou and how it’s important that it be sustained there.

00:43:55 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, the porcupine Caribou herd is one of the biggest migrations left in the world, and it migrates from the Arctic plains, the coastal plains in what they call the Arctic. Anyhow, it’s over to Canada and the Gwich’in people are in most of the area where these Caribou are at and they depend on these Caribou for a livelihood. Also, the Inupiat are also on the on the on the North Slope up by where Anwar is as well.

00:44:29 Tony Gonzales

Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

00:44:33 Chief Gary Harrison

And what happens is the Caribou go there and they calf and they cave there for several different reasons. Number one, in the summertime there, the weather is nice. To where they it’s warm enough for them to cap, and the winds and everything there keep the bugs down. And also there’s not as many predators there as there is in other places, at least not big predators that can take them out so.

That’s why it’s imperative for them not to drill in Anwar, because not only would it leave a big bus, but they’ve also found out from some of the reindeer herders, which some of the Indigenous people knew already, that the vibrations and just the things. Of oil and gas development bother the Caribou when they’re trying to calve, and things which causes a lot of miscarriages and things like that with the with the Caribou, and that’s one of the reasons why Anwar is so important is because. It’s where the as I mentioned, one of the world’s largest migrating herds are. That’s where it’s beginning of life is.

00:45:52 Tony Gonzales

Is there a number approximately Chief Gary Harrison of the Porcupine Caribou and that migration is considered the northern Serengeti, similar to Africa and the migration of the wildebeest, for example, we were talking about maybe half a million throughout? And there’s pockets of herds, like a stream.

00:46:05 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, probably. I don’t really know. Through public pockets are around Alaska as well. But that’s one of the biggest herds left. There’s no China herd that goes in between the Talkeetna Mountains and the White Mountains in Canada, the Talkeetna Mountains. Alaska and I happen to live there in the Talkeetna Mountains, so I know about that. And there’s also mountain Caribou that lives there, and they’ve been decimated. To where there’s. Hardly any of them. And the Nelchina heard has not only been decimated, it used to be about 130,000 or 120,000, whatever. And now if it gets up to 60,000, they say, “oh, that’s too many, we got to shoot it back down to 30,000.”

00:46:59 Tony Gonzales

Interestingly, Chief carriers in the Porcupine Caribou very much a part of the culture of the peoples of the Arctic, including those of Alaska, and it ties the other regions that you mentioned as well you know that are involved in that Arctic Council.

00:47:18 Chief Gary Harrison

Yeah, and yeah, and that is part of it, is how it’s kind of complicated, how it all ties together and works together.

00:47:25 Tony Gonzales

Yes, and how is the porcupine Caribou again threatened among that relationship? For example, do you have any information on Sweden and the Saami? Peoples, I understand that there’s a new, not discovery, but of a finding of rare minerals such as lithium, perhaps that that may cause disruption of…

00:47:51 Chief Gary Harrison

…the Saami Reindeer herding. Saami are the Indigenous people of the north and Norway, Sweden, and Finland…And when we were in school, they [used to] call them Laplanders, but they’re Saami, and they still migrate with their herds too. And because as most people who raise cattle and horses and things, if you can over graze an area and so you can’t just stay in one spot. You got to move and then let it rebuild and you know, come back later. And that’s the way the Saami do reindeer herding as they move from area to area and in some of these areas is where they not only have one mine, like for instance in northern Sweden and Kiruna, there’s an iron mine and when it started out, it took the Samis reindeer herding area out of that area.

They know it’s such a big deal that there was a town there. When I went there that they tore down the town so that they could continue mining the iron ore under the whole. And that’s just one of the things also they talk about renewable energy, but they don’t talk to the song me about where they want to put these windmills because they found that the windmills bother the female Caribou when they’re trying to calve, and it bothers them all. Because of the sound. And the vibrations which we can’t feel it, but they can. And so, they don’t propagate as much and when they do, they have more miscarriages and things like that.

So, it’s very detrimental on where they put even some of the renewable energy and then they find the lithium and the other rare earths, and they want to mine that and most of them are in these pasture areas for the Caribou. They haven even wanted to mine uranium in one of my friends pastures. And so, there’s a lot of pressure on the Saami and the reindeer hurting people there. And so that’s one of the things that we talked about at the Arctic Council as well. There are all of these things, these pressures. There’s on the different peoples that live in the Arctic.

00:50:15 Tony Gonzales

And did you recently come from the Arctic Council Conference or similar?

00:50:23 Chief Gary Harrison

Council is on a pause now because of the war. We went to the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø Norway. We’ve had some discussions, but we haven’t had any meetings because you can’t have meetings if it’s on a pause and the problem is it’s very complicated with the war and the chairmanship.

00:50:46 Tony Gonzales

With the Ukraine and Russia, yeah.

00:50:49 Chief Gary Harrison

And the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, now being in Russia, as you said, transferred to Norway, and that’s complicated. And now the Inuit Circumpolar Conference has the chairmanship for the Indigenous People Secretariat, and that’s supposed to transfer from the Inuit to Ripon, Russian Indigenous peoples Congress. But with the war on, that’s very complicated, too. And we’ve been trying to figure out a way through these, you might say, Gordian knots to try and have the Arctic Council still function as a working Council that works for all of the people in the Arctic.

We are there so that they can still continue us to be a part of the Arctic—because you know how when they when they come into a environmentalists come into an area and they want to say, oh, we want this to be pristine. Well, the reason that it’s anywhere near pristine now is because most of the time it’s because of the Indigenous people are the ones who have been taking care of it. That’s where the most biodiversity is in the world is in these areas, it’s very, very good.

00:52:04 Tony Gonzales

Chairman Gary Harrison. You know, I really much appreciate your insight and you’re describing your work both at the regional, national, and international arena providing that insight, any closing words [that] you have here for Bay Area and across the World Wide Web?

00:52:25 Chief Gary Harrison

Well, I happen to be chairman of our tribe right now too, but I’m really the Chief and there’s a big difference. I’m the traditional Chief and that goes back to our traditional laws and things like that. Whereas the chairman is more of the new way that the United States government wants to deal with the tribal people so that it’s easier for them to push us around.

And what I got for the for the Bay Area people. Well, is you’re going to be affected too [by climate change], as you haven’t noticed all of the big rainstorms that have been here and washed a lot of places away and that and prior to that the drought because the weather is changing all over and it’s like the old adage “it’s either feast or famine” and that’s what’s going on here. Either you have rain, or you have drought, and that’s due to the changing weather patterns because of climate change.

00:53:25 Tony Gonzales

Well, thank you for those closing words, Chief Gary Harrison.

00:53:29 Chief Gary Harrison

Thank you, Tony.

00:53:30 Tony Gonzales

All my relatives, I want to thank Chief Gary Harrison for that information, very valuable and knowledgeable person that he is and [and for how] continues to advocate, how he provided us with insight on how the struggle for their self-determination continues. Let’s pay particular attention to the Saami people that he referred to. And there in Sweden, the mining industry that is tending to dislocate the Saami peoples from their traditional homelands and threaten the reindeer that they follow through in that Arctic region.

And my relatives, let’s continue to push hard for the freedom for political prisoner Leonard Peltier. As of February 6th, this past week or so begins his 48 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Go to his website and know more about him and how you can lend to freedom for his release. And that’s WhoisLeonardPeltier.info and [also] call the White House immediately and call on President Joe Biden. Leave a message to provide executive clemency to our friend, our elder Leonard Peltier.

Also, my relatives be sure to see Eagle and Condor on Sundays at TV channel 29 in San Francisco. They have public access channel or see it live streaming at sfc.tv or you can go to the American Indian Movement Website at AIM-west.org. That’s Sundays at 3:30. Sometimes it moves to 4:00, o’clock by relatives. But it’s live streaming. Check it out this coming week will be a brief discussion on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo February 2nd. And I’ll have a guest in the studio, and that’s Doctor Jose Cuellar, AKA Doctor Loco. Professor Cuellar will guide us through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Comments will go into a webinar that is facilitated by Doctor Armando Rendon. He’s the author, also of the book Chicano. Manifesto 1971 set the tone for the Chicano movement and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Shortly after that will be a video called Reflections. This is a testimony interview, if you will, with Lenny Foster. He’s also the spiritual advisor for Leonard Peltier, but Lenny will walk through the American Indian movement campaigns he’s been involved in, and that includes his relationship with Leonard. Not too long before he was incarcerated and his advisor up to the present. And leading up to the 50 year anniversary coming up of wounded knee in South Dakota 1973, where men and women went there to the village to protest the mining and uranium, and to honor the Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868. And hence the siege 71 days they were surrounded by the US military forces and several people were wounded and killed there. So, let’s listen in on that

be sure that you consider February 27th coming up as the significant date for the wounded knee that set the tone for the American Indian struggles today. The American Indian movement flag waves at every campaign and the spirit of the struggle and justice and honoring treaties continues. My relatives and that said…this is Tony Gonzales and you’ve been listening to Bay Native Circle. Of producer Janeen Antoine. Music was L Frank Manriquez mixed with Ras K’Dee, Robert Maribel and rare tribal mob. Thankyous go out to Diane Williams for the opening prayer. We also thank our musical artists; our guests and you are listening to audience for your continued support. We want to give a shout out to our brothers and sisters on the inside, especially those on death row. Thank you to creator, to the Indigenous peoples whose lands we occupy, to ancestors and to those yet to come, blessings.

To listen to the original audio, go to https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20230215-Wed1900.mp3 to listen or download.

The post Bay Native Circle – February 15, 2023: Tony Gonzales interviews Chief Gary Harrison appeared first on KPFA.

The Bay Native Circle weekly program presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

The post Bay Native Circle – February 8, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

Bay Native Circle – February 1, 2023 Tony Gonzales interviews Jean Roach and Dr. Jose Cuellar – transcript below:

The Bay Native Circle weekly program presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

00:00:51 Tony Gonzales

Good evening relatives and welcome to Bay Native circle here on KPFA and online at kpfa.org. This is Tony Gonzales, your host this evening February the 1st and tonight we’ll have for you an interview with Miguel Molina and Doctor Jose Cuellar, AKA Doctor Loco, where they talk about the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848. And this is an interview that they did on flashpoints last Friday and I thought it would be interesting for you to listen to that because it was signed on February the 2nd, and so it it’d be very interesting to know how this Treaty has been implemented or whether it hasn’t [and] what are the challenges?

So TuneIn on that my relatives and then later we’ll be speaking with Jean Roach and that Jean has been on the trail for freedom for Leonard Peltier from day one… In fact, she was at that firefight in June 26, 1975 where the shooting occurred and the deaths of three different people there on the Jumping bull compound. She’ll talk to us about that and the significance of February the 6th and what has occurred since then in their campaigns for Leonard’s Freedom. And she’ll talk to us about the 50-year reunion of Wounded Knee veterans that would be on February the 27th. So, she’s got some details on those dates leading up to the 27th beginning on the 24th in Rapid City my relatives are two men on that and also, we do have an exclusive interview with theEx FBI agent Miss Coleen Rowley, who as some of you might have read about twoweeks ago, [where] she wrote a letter to the President Biden [saying] that is time for Leonard to come home [and] that it’s a vendetta that the FBI and the Department of Justice [has against Leonard Peltier], that’s what they’re waging against Leonard Peltier. She says that it’s time for Leonard to come home. So, listen up on that interview.

…[and] my friends…we’ll [be playing music by] Buffy Sainte Marie with “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” Now let us go to that interview now with Miguel Molina and Dr. Jose Cuellar AKA Doctor Loco.

00:03:32 Dennis Bernstein

My name is Dennis Bernstein. I’m here with Miguel Gavilan Molina. He is the host of La Onda Bajita for decades here at KPFA in the Bay Area and Miguel, why don’t you take it from here and welcome at our next guest?

00:03:46 Miguel Gavilan Molina

Thank you Dennis and I’d like to say welcome Bienvenido Dr Cuellar. It’s good to have you with us, thank you very much.

00:03:53 Dr. Jose Cuellar

Good to be here and it’s great.

00:03:55 Miguel Gavilan Molina

We’re so appreciative local thank you so much for joining us Jose.

You know all of the stuff this week has been tragic, and it everyone is on high alert stress anxiety, but there’s something coming up next week That really deals with a lot of issues and that is the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and that’s the treaty that ended the war of aggression the United States inflicted on Mexico. The treaty was the signing of the end of that war, where Mexico lost half of its territory to the United States. That’s something that’s always been in the back burner of everyone that I grew up with. You know, Mexicanos, Chicanos, Latinos.

You know it’s the Treaty it’s a living document, but [it] really pointed out the conditions and terms of the agreement that gave us certain undeniable rights. You know the rights to our education, the rights to our language, our history, and for those that lived within the now new territories of the United States. You know the rights to the land, the rights to its resources, but like every other treaty that this U.S. government has signed in the last 200 plus years, it’s violated each and every one of them.

That said, Dr. Cuellar, what does it mean to you? These people are calling this movement and movimiento the “Brown Civil Rights Movement”… what do you see that…playing in today’s world, can it be applied? Can we move it forward? Can we sit with the government in some kind of world court and suppress the Treaty of Guadalupe to be actually honored and applied to the masses of people? Is that possibly?..Then also the land issue? Recently there’s been talks here in the state here in the Bay Area [about] reparations to the African American community. Is there somewhere in the future that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo can be addressed? [Where we] look and reparations for Chicano was within the United States territories?

00:06:03 Dr. Jose Cuellar

Well can you imagine? All of those issues are just the tip of the iceberg. When we begin to think and talk about the Treaty of Guadalupe, the Treaty of 1848 and as you said, set the terms for the establishment of that border that goes from Ground Zero to San Diego, ground zero…to Tijuana.

That border that crosses through hundreds of individual and collective Indigenous territories separating indigenous in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas dividing to this day, I mean all of the issues that are happening at the border have a relationship to just treating that gap as the boundary in and of itself. But I think one of the issues that as you raised it, one of the things that becomes a real concern that you think about the Treaty. The reality is that the Treaty itself was written up with one guy by one person, one who was an emissary to Mexico, [Nicholas] Trist. He voted against the idea—not necessarily within the context of what President [James K.] Polk at the time with what he wanted. So [Trist] wrote a rogue treaty that he got the Mexico to sign [on February 2nd, 1848]. Then he brought it back to the US Congress. Then the US Congress…on March 4th , 1848 they took out a lot of provisions that have to do with the right and privileges that those ancestors of ours were of both Indigenous and Mexican ancestry.

Who living north of the Rio Grande N that that border borderline is affecting in the present? A lot of the issues that were contending with, but the land rights that was just taken out. Indigenous rights were taken out by the Congress when the ratified the treaty. So did it go back to Mexico and get reapproved? What are the issues?

It was the first treaty that the US signed when the treaty that when they got that territory and they got Mexico with that treaty to cease to Texas. That only got the US Texas, the next rebel slave state, which is what they have been wanting, so the treaty led to the increase of slavery, particularly in Texas over the last to be enslaved. Many had fled the South to Texas because Mexico had [banned slavery in Texas] and declared all Mexican territory slave free. So, all of those issues arise with its validity and I thin [we should starting thinking about taking it] to the UN, challenging it. And with us,I think it’s really important for the rest of us to visit to really study what is in that treaty. What is significant and what do we need to do? What can we take away [learn] from that treaty?

00:09:11 Miguel Gavilan Molina

Yeah, it’s the interpretation of it, but there’s a lot of talk, especially with Texas and Arizona banning books. And also, here in California the struggle with ethnic studies, the struggle with Chicano studies and the governor in a sense, vetoing bills that would allow that. So here we are, an elitist liberal, a Governor Gavin who vetoed an initiative that would have opened up ethnic studies and teaching of those histories to college and High school level students…

00:09:40 Dr. Jose Cuellar

If I may, I think that we need to think more about the debate and discussion that went on behind the scenes around this ethnic studies requirement, the so-called requirement…

What we don’t because you know, we have ethnic studies for a variety of contexts…right? So I think I think it really be who’s supposed to really investigate what happened and why did Newsom not sign it? [Why didn’t he] support [it] and [could he be] convinced to supported it.

That’s the right thing to do or that you know the there are a lot of issues. This ethnic studies received ethnic studies departments watered down.

Then they will credit place and then they were on.

They would say, well, all of these other courses also kind of justice studies and no longer are we looking at these issues that there were initially the objective of an expense.

Education for liberation education to free our minds.

To feed our souls to be able to become you human beings in the new context, free ourselves and colonialism.

We ourselves in capitalism free ourselves from the forces by drinking fluid, working through and putting into practice the ideas that we were learning about our history and our heritage and about the society that we were giving and the world that we’re living in, and how do we how could we improve?

You know that passion with other folks who think your education for occupation will happen and how that how are they going to get living there expense? How are they going to get a job?

It’s a different objective and I think that’s one of the issues that we face in our community, because that’s just so you know, how work oriented that we are. That is the just education and it’s not really true for the purpose of getting a better job. So there’s all these issues I think business facing moving into the into the next phase you get that is going to be very challenging.

00:11:46 Miguel Gavilan Molina

The challenge is, you know, are they…going to change. But I think at this point one of the things that is really concerning is even in higher education. I mean, even in schools, I mean we know at this point at this moment that violence has penetrated every level of the society. Gun violence is everywhere.

It’s more than ever, you know, even higher education going to universities.

We saw the recent murderers of the students. Those four students.I mean, it’s like there’s no way that people feel safe. But how can we? We’re already a lot of us, you know that come from the indigenous brown cultures we’ve grown up with. Our parents being undocumented always in fear of them being raided or in fear of them being taken away or fear of being stopped by the police and may be killed. I mean we see that it just happens everywhere back in June up in Sonoma County, the deputy serves Sonoma County chased down this farm worker in the town of Healdsburg, which is wine country.

And they chased him for 45 minutes and then shot him to death for an alleged somehow. I guess maybe 30 yards away they said he picked up a rock and he had a little hole in his hand or something and he was shot to death. And then just it happened it was [briefly] covered and [then the story] it went away.

So how do we push education, how do we [keep] going on?

Even though you know kids are growing up in these climates of violence and being afraid of not only going to school, but afraid for their parents, getting picked up by ICE picked up by the INS. So how do we as a people doctor…be able to move on and say hey, regardless of these threats, regardless of these situations here we’re going to keep moving ahead.

Do we need to come to a place Dr. Cuellar, to where we’re going to have to start protecting ourselves, do you see that? How do we address this? Because you know somebody said “I don’t want to go to school.” “It’s dangerous, what do we do?” What can educators do to at least calm the community and encourage students, to say there is safety, you know, within the institutions or the administrators of the collegiate systems talking about safety on campuses? Is there any talk? Have you heard anything about that local or are you thinking that maybe at some point coming up with something to assure people that it’s safe to go to school?

00:14:06 Dr. Jose Cuellar

Tremendous, tremendous several questions that really are taking it to the many dimensions that are involved in this phenomenon that we’re facing.

But I think that one of the keys, is when you mentioned Community, I think we use that word to lose it. I think we should we need to think about what that word because these are people, people who come together have relationships and those relationships have to do it right, and responsibility is one of the things that happen under stress, and it breaks down to where the COVID goes down.

Less interaction, more individualization, less responsibility for one another. I think going back to the idea of mutual aid societies of 200 you know 200 years or so ago they had these mutual aid societies with what he said. But people would come together and have—putting money in and support one another when someone got sick. There was a little socially going there they pick up, but they got people together and encourage people to look after each other.

We need to look for strategies that bring people together and encourage people to look for one out for one and other and support one another in the best way possible and that’s the challenge, I think. How do we maintain and even develop community develop more relationships in positive ways with one another under these challenging times? When everything…Everything tells us to individualize? You become much more of a collective as we approach these struggles. Yes, I…I think that’s one of the strategies of the many that we might explore right now.

00:15:55 Dennis Bernstein

Right, how can we figure out ways, strategies to move strategies to work together collectively to harness our power…This is Dennis here with Miguel and Dr. Loco. Just to for this in—on the one hand, you’ve got the United States just to put on the assembly line 30 new long range nuclear bombers. Each one is a billion dollars. Each bomb is a billion dollars. We just lost an environmentalist in in Atlanta who was trying to protect the forest against a fully $50 million, essentially creating a police city police training city where they have mock villages. I guess where they can go in and arrest and kill black people.

But there’s a of work ahead of us. We’ve got a first grader shooting this teacher where are we in this world?

00:16:55 Dr. Jose Cuellar

That’s the challenge. Absolutely, absolutely. We’re in isolation…with folks who often commit violence. Often times they’re the ones that have felt most isolated as opposed to take to more integrated into the fabric of the community…You know you were talking to…the vice mayor, that was one of the things that impressed me by his just his tone and his perspective was to be bringing these people together and kind of appear.

You know, please meet these people as members of communities, not as isolated individuals.

And I think, the isolation, when we lose someone to isolation, that’s when there’s potential danger.

Where there’s this guy who killed those four students in Idaho, or the one who killed those all those folks in those in El Paso ones who what we have to we have to begin to think about, right?

Both externally and internally. How do we get to weave our relationships, so we have networks to support the people who wind up in these situations and lash out?… kind of the larger perspective, as you’re pointing out that has you know and is military industrial prison complex that you know that those are the largest struggles and issues in this post nuclear and post industrial [age].

What are we selling? What is the value that come with those weapons. But it’s you know it’s a it’s a multi layered challenge. You’re living in a multiverse that is more complex than even 30 years ago. You know, when we were in earlier years Dennis and Miguel. It’s a challenge and we need to encourage younger people to step up to the chart to step to the, to the plate. That’s one of the challenges that we have. How do we support these other people to take on these responsibilities?

Or…how do we prepare them for that?

00:19:11 Dennis Bernstein

Yeah, and one gets the feeling Miguel and I talk about this all the time, but one gets the feeling that that this country doesn’t love its children anymore. If you judge, you know if you you’re willing to spend a billion dollars on a long range nuclear bomb and but you can’t give you know, a preschool. No programs and lunch programs.

There’s not enough there’s not 5,000,000 dollars for milk program and it blows my mind.

I used to be a teacher very young children in the some of the poorest neighborhoods in New York, and I see these kids come to school hungry and with it was like heaven sent to be able to just put a bowl of cereal down in front of them. You can’t teach your kid who’s like suffering from lead poisoning and is hungry how to spell the word love. So anyway, Doctor Loco.

00:20:10 Dr. Jose Cuellar

Yeah, but a challenge because that hints to the largest section maybe then. Like you cannot really spell love, but understand the significant love isn’t really for the larger society—with [people working] for $9 an hour at a mushroom farm, this beautiful place called Halfmoon Bay. So that’s where we get to hang out. Relax, yeah, that’s the challenge, absolutely.

00:20:36 Dennis Bernstein

it’s a challenge, but listen, we are grateful to have you right here right at this time. Miguel and I were delighted to know that you would join us, and, uh, we’re not going to wait so long. Next time, hopefully we can keep this going, so thank you Sir.

00:20:50 Dr. Jose Cuellar

Thank you so much for inviting me, thank you, thank you.

00:21:02 Tony Gonzales

Want to thank Gavilan for letting us use that [interview] on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Now let’s talk with Jean Roach on freedom for Leonard Peltier and February 26th

Aho my relatives and for tonight I invited Jean Roach to talk to us about Leonard Peltier. Of course many of you are becoming more familiar with Jean over these months, and indeed over the years where she has been advocating for his release and kept us up to date, informed on what’s happening with the campaign to free Leonard Peltier. And here we’re coming around to February the 6th Monday and it is a very significant day in the Odyssey that is the journey through the prison system for Winter Park here. Welcome to the show, introduce yourself and the significance again—the happenings of February 6th, 1976.

00:21:59 Jean Roach

Yeah, good evening, everybody. My name is Jean Roach.

I’m from the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe located in South Dakota, I’m a survivor of the 1975 firefight in Oglala, South Dakota—the reason why Leonard Peltier is in prison. And I just wanted to talk about February 6th. It’s the anniversary. It’s going to be the starting of 48 years that Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned. I mean, 48 years of can you even imagine. You know we have a lot of things happening worldwide. We have several, you know you could call them if you want, actions, rallies, prayer circles worldwide pretty much. Some of those places we have in excuse me in Europe include seven cities in Germany and the part of the uh. We have, you know we have I can’t even say the name to them. But we have a Berlin and we have well, I can’t say their names. I’m not sure how to say their name but we have this [information] if you go to our website.

00:23:10 Tony Gonzales

Yeah, just to do that. It’s good to mention the topic so that people can feel the gravity and the emotion around the world for Leonard Peltier, so that would be a Berlin and go ahead. You had told me before last night stuck there, go ahead.

00:23:27 Jean Roach

OK, so well, the most read OK. Well let’s start over. OK, let’s start with Germany. We have Berlin stride. That skirt we picked. And those in Frankfurt and then in Italy we have Milan. We have Rome, France. We have Paris, Switzerland. We have Geneva and I know we have one more German city and I can’t seem to find the name of that. But we have several United States. You know we have one in Rapid City, SD. That’s one that the international and the Culture Defense Committee is hosting and we’re going to be on the federal building steps. You know, the message of Leonard Peltier. You know he needs his freedom. We have Rapid City. We have Minneapolis, MN Fargo, ND, Tampa, FL, San Jose, NM, Albuquerque, NM. San Francisco, CA San Jose CA Sacramento CA Columbia Tulsa, Oklahoma and Washington, DC, and I think there’s more and I haven’t updated my list today.

00:24:38 Tony Gonzales

You know that’s terrific Jean and this part of the international work that you’ve also been doing and networking with so many people and people on their own picking up the ball and deciding to do it on their own. And that’s like my relatives. Are you out there that are listening and the international community that the times that you mentioned? They’re on the worldwide web listing in jeans, so you know that they’re hardened, hardened by that.

Lot of strength, but please go on.

00:25:07 Jean Roach

Yes, and one of our biggest developments that we have recently like within the last couple of weeks was the FBI, ex FBI agent, and yeah, her name is Colleen…Yeah, and she was the FBI agent during the time period of the when the shootout happened and the aftermath, and basically, she talks about how it is a vendetta case and it’s linked to the COINTELPRO tactics. You know, beyond investigations you know where they plant rumors, they blackmail people you know, and she just goes on and on, and there is like if you go to our website who is on it called whoisleonardpeltier.info we have an [hour and a half] Interview done with her by Red Nation [you can watch].

00:26:00 Tony Gonzales

Oh, very good, very good.

00:26:02 Jean Roach

So you can hear for yourself, you know, and she’s not the first one that’s come forward. You know we have the Reynolds letter who came out twice when we had to work for justice in DC. He came out and he joined the rally…yup James Reynolds…the former prosecutor during that time… and then we also have several [other US] senator’s [support] you know. We just we’ve been really pushing really hard, getting as much support whether it’s tribal or in the United States Senate [or House] in the Congress, you know.

So we have the recent letter by Senator Markey who joined Senator Schultz, in urging President Biden to commute Leonard’s sentence for clemency. So, you know…Leonard has a great lawyer, Kevin Sharp, who has really who’s an ex federal judge and believes in his innocence. And you know when he when we do speak with [Kevin] he talks about the Constitution and how he made an oath to serve it. And whatever oath he made is doing right from wrong, and the right thing is telling the truth, you know? It’s not like the COINTEL program has urged them to, you know, continue this vendetta way past [what a served sentence should be]. You know, the FBI agent that was caught with a dead informant in his trunk only got 10 years.

Oh my goodness and Leonard Peltier. It’s been proven over and over again how they’ve you know planted evidence, coerced witnesses. I mean they did everything to make sure that he was scapegoated into prison. And now on February 6th, we’re going to the 48th year in prison. Wow, that’s slap into all peoples faces, especially our tribes to keep him in there…

00:27:59 Tony Gonzales

—you described it very well. You know, to the extent that he was framed. All this showing up false information by the FBI and prosecution. He is, you know, totally framed. So Jean, now what do you call upon people to do?

00:28:29 Jean Roach

In their communities on February 6th, yeah, well, like the you know the things that I mentioned before you could hold a prayer circle you could go to the capital, you could go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That’s where we’re going right here in Rapid City where it started where it continues.

We live in a racist area here in South Dakota. They call us the deep north and it’s true. Our People are imprisoned, incarcerated at bigger, larger numbers [arrest rate and incarceration rate] than the white people—and with [African-Americans] we are about equal to their [arrest rate and incarceration rate]. But yeah, the racism continues and we’re here to try not to break down.

Our people are suffering, you know. Leonard represents a bigger position among our people of how we’re being treated by the United States government. And the tribes recognize that too. Right now we have the full support of the newly elected Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Starr, whose parents were actually in Oglala organizing [in 1975]. That’s why Leonard and everybody was there, to help the communicable ground to pull away from the corrupt reign of terror government of Dick Wilson during that time period. So now we’re back to circle. We have the son who is the tribal president, and he also represents the tribal chairman’s board, which represents nine different nations, and we’re hoping to get their full support.

00:29:54 Jean Roach

We have several different tribes already that have written support letters. The Oglala Sioux Tribe has been the major cutting edge every year. They come out with their support letter. They dedicated letter Leonard Peltier day. I mean they’ve been full support of his freedom.

And you know, I think one of the things that the United States government is fearing is the repatriation of the of what they have to pay to Leonard for this wrongdoing. You know they need to pay him for money or something because for going on 48 years and for a crime that if any other people were guilty, they would have been out of prison by now.

00:30:34 Tony Gonzales

Oh, yes, including that he wasn’t charged with murder convictions, but charged aiding and abetting…

00:30:42 Jean Roach — Yeah, that’s a good question.

00:30:47 Tony Gonzales

…And the two other defendants Dino Butler and Robert Robideau they got off charges for self-defense—then and they’re charging Leonard Peltier for aiding and abetting!

.

00:30:49 Jean Roach

That’s how twisted it is…that’s like making up the rules as they go along and just to serve their own purpose. And that’s what they do every time. We all know that. So let’s make a change, you know, talk to your people, I know care who, even each child of yours if they can support Leonard. We’re all important. We’re all human. Basic human rights, that’s all we wanted.

00:31:25 Tony Gonzales

Indeed, this is the momentum now generated on behalf of Leonard for his freedom has never really been higher in all these 4 1/2 decades or so, now 48 years that Leonard’s been incarcerated and we’re right at the cusp of it hopefully. We’re all optimistic good news that the president, who’s the only person that can free Leonard Peltier, will find it in his heart that it is time for Leonard to go home.

As you said the former FBI agent Collene Rowley, who has said that it’s a vendetta that that it’s a part of the FBI culture to cite the case of Leonard Peltier and using him as an example. Yeah, so all of this is coming to a good peak including—I don’t know if you had mentioned the Democratic National Committee last September also wrote a letter to the president that unanimously [asked for Leonard’s freedom], they wrote a letter for Leonard’s freedom and that represents well over 70 million Democratic voters across the country that speaks a lot to the power because it’s the Democrats got him in in the White House in the 1st place. So on top of that, and this vigil raising that attention, indeed we have to go keep the momentum going Jean.

00:32:58 Jean Roach

Well, we also have, you know we’ve been making some great upgrades to our website. We have 3 postcards that are ready if you want to go to our website at who is on at whoisleonardpeltier.info you can download the postcards and print them out and send them to the president…Yeah, so we keep the latest updates on there…Keep going, keep pushing like I said, everybody’s important.

00:33:47 Tony Gonzales

Jean can you clarify again—I know you’re concerned with how people write articles have been writing articles on kid as I referred to earlier and not murder charges but aiding and abetting. Can you speak to that a little bit about how journalists continue to perpetuate that?

00:34:03 Jean Roach

Yeah they continue to perpetuate that. That’s one of the stereotypes, and that’s part of COINTELPRO works, presenting this false narrative of who Leonard Peltier is you know. Dehumanizing, and they use that since 19- I mean 1890 or first contact. When you talk about the first wounded knee, you know they downgraded us to the public. As you know less than human so they could justify massacring the people.

In 1890 at Wounded Knee. We have wounded in 1973 that when the American Indian movement came to Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation. Because people. So…the rights were being violated, left and right, and when AIM came it changed.

00:34:55 Tony Gonzales

I’m glad you mentioned that Jean because that takes us into the next phase of [this] interview, and that is Wounded Knee and what led up to the shooting with Leonard Peltier, Robert Robideau, and Dino Butler there on Jumping Bull Compound South Dakota. June 26, 1975. If this is the aftermath, we’re talking about the aftermath of wounded knee. But during that time from 1973, after leaving Wounded Knee for, it was for the next couple of years to 1975-76. At that time in the shooting, it was referred to as the Reign of Terror. Over 60 men, women and young people were disappeared, assassinated, murdered, disappeared. Can you talk about that climate? Because we’re now coming to the celebration, the commemoration that is in reunion of the Warriors of Wounded Knee.

00:36:05 Jean Roach

This will be the 50th anniversary of Wounded Knee take over. And, uh, like you talked about the reign of terror that the aftermath of people standing up for their basic human rights, where the United States government did a full-fledged military assault on the people at Wounded Knee. I mean, yeah, they talked about we had weapons, but we’re like 22 single shots against automatic weapons. APC, you know the latest technology. And that was, uh, basically to protect the corrupt government of Dick Wilson that was running the Oglala Sioux Tribe at the time where tribal members were being run over shot at. You know, if anybody that had braids or if anybody believed in the sacred ceremonies and prayed in or Lakota ways, were targets. And they’re also labeled as AIMs. You know, because AIM brought back spirituality, or it came forward. It was here.

But our traditional came people came out and shared their knowledge because we all knew.

That after being beaten in the Catholic schools or whatever, that was not our way. There was a major change, a shift there. So when Leonard Peltier and people were there and Oglala, they were helped to organize and doing security because people just praying were targets of drive-bys and killing. So whenever we talked about what was going on in Oglala, it was all because the people went and invited Leonard and his people to the Oglala Sioux [Reservation]…

00:37:41 Tony Gonzales

Jean, I don’t want to keep you too much longer on the interview. It seems like the cold that you have can you know can’t stay down, but I do want to let our listeners know that it’s a four-day occasion that begins February 24th in Rapid City and with the concert and gathering there, and also a powwow in Rapid City as well as a film. Go ahead please.

00:38:06 Jean Roach

Yes there is a Powwow yes, on Saturday there is a Powwow. Yeah and then also in Porcupine on the 25th they will have the voices of resistance, which is a collection of native rappers and singers and also of some films being showed in the Porcupine school. The Warrior women’s one of them. There’s two different things going on at that time. So and then on Sunday, there’s another Powwow that one will be in Porcupine, so that would be Sunday the 26th and then on Monday the February 27th will be the four direction walk.

00:38:41 Tony Gonzales

The four direction, walk to Wounded Knee Cemetery and the village itself.

00:38:58 Jean Roach

Yeah, so then it’ll be like there’ll be feeds. They’ll be things at the Powwow so there’s. A lot of different. And Umm, the sponsors are going to be the cooler air grassroots. The international community generation, indigenous ways the Indian collective, Good Warrior Society…some. Chicano…and Grand Council in Minneapolis. So, we have a lot of people that are coming together and we’re going to celebrate all the things that are relatives have accomplished making that one of the initial stands that wounded, need and will also Several events of honoring us and feeding the people. All the you know could be a good time, a four day event. So starting in Rapid City on Friday the 24th.

00:39:58 Tony Gonzales

OK.

00:39:59 Jean Roach

But we do have, uh, we’ll have it on our website also.

00:40:01 Tony Gonzales

Alright well Jean Roach thank you very much. I hope you get well soon and for my relatives.

The details as we’re trying to explain to you. It also includes a welcome to you, the public, to make arrangements to come and join us. I’ll be there myself, Jean, as well as some of the KPFA a crew.

To cover some of the events there and also to celebrate the radio station KILI there in the in the where. Where is that in Porcupine? There in South Dakota and said that they’re having their 40 year anniversary as well. But for the public and our listeners, you’re welcome to come.

I mean all the programs that that you mentioned. Some will be enlightened and they need to come to a Powwow. If you’ve never been to a Powwow, this would be the place to go and also my relatives. And the story of Leonard Peltier, there’s a movie “The Life of Leonard Peltier” and also a book in the spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matheson and more locally here in the Bay Area.

If I may Jean, in the Bay Area in San Francisco proper, there’s a newspaper that that will look there and I’d like to, you know, give them an honorable mention. They’re out of here in the Mission District and it comes out In this month’s issue, Jean, with an excellent article, that Leonard Peltier deserves.

You know, and this is a guest commentary opinion, and it’s like Alejandro Murguia was a professor at San Francisco State University and Port laureate here in the Bay Area. So without that handle you are composing that commentary. That commentary, on behalf of Leonard Peltier, a lot more people will be convinced that it is time for Leonard to come home so people can go to the website. Uh, Jean mentioned. That http://www.whoisLeonardpeltier.info

Jean any closing words?

00:42:13 Jean Roach

Yeah, just like everybody to thank everybody that’s been out there and helping Leonard over these years and continue the fight because he would. You know we’re not going to stop even when he gets out, but let’s have some prayers for his release and come join us and meet me, you know? A great celebration and we have a really nice commemorative T-shirt that we just came out with honor honoring our…and it has a picture of a Leonard Crow, Doug, and Leonard house here and we have that available on our website too (http://www.whoisLeonardpeltier.info) and we’re using that to raise funds, so if you have a chance check it out.

00:42:54 Tony Gonzales

All right, very good.

00:42:55 Jean Roach

Thank you for everything.

00:42:56 Tony Gonzales

And my relatives, the shootout that was the mentioned it that was mentioned by Jean on 26th in 1975, there in South Dakota. Was with the deaths of three men there and always forgotten. Not much mentioned but. Two kills, right? Stunts was also among those three that were. You know if there is an investigation of his death, who did the shooting, that has never been accounted for. My relatives and yes we prayers up for the three of them that includes those FBI agents that shouldn’t have come onto the grounds in military fashion the way they did. That’s Jack Kohler and Ronald Williams. I want too, so thank you once again Jean Roach.

I want to thank Jean Roach for her time and her commitment.

Her dedication for freedom for Leonard Peltier, For our listeners, please go to Leonard Peltier’s website. http://www.whoisLeonardpeltier.info

Now Lets go to that interview now with the ex FBI agent Miss Colleen Rowley.

00:44:14 Nick Estes

And the FBI surveillance of the American Indian movement was largely ignored during the church hearings and investigations which you know coincidentally took place the same year as the shootout in Oglala, and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in June of 1975. And this was at the height of the reign of terror which you mentioned. So given what we know about the hostility towards Peltier and AIM by the FBI in the past, but also today with, you know, with the letter what needs to be done in this particular moment and what kinds of investigations and inquiries would you like to see?

00:44:58 Colleen Rowley

You know, probably one of the reasons, perhaps why the infiltration and disruption the COINTELPRO activities directed on American Indian movement may be one of the reasons why the trip might be more than one, but one of the reasons why the church committee. Or that might have been the shootings?

So it was such an emotional hot, you know, politicians. No matter what. Don’t like to wade into any kind of hot button issue, so that might have been it. They knew the FBI would never at that point in time be able to see, you know again, very emotional at that time. So that might be a reason why it was kind of ignored. I know Frank Church himself was a target of the NSA, so he would have been more motivated for all of the surveillance during Vietnam that went crazy.

00:45:51 Nick Estes

Project Minaret, right?

00:45:52 Colleen Rowley

Yeah, the NSA had this project called Project Minaret. The FBI had its COINTELPRO, and the CIA had one, I think the Name was chaos. Just like in “Get Smart” and not very little is known about minaret in chaos because they did not have a whistleblower type like William Sullivan. So William Sullivan ended up telling the church committee about some of these workings of the of COINTELPRO because he was at the table. I think he had a thing Sullivan had a famous quote, something like, well, we all sat around the table coming up with these ideas, one of which was to encourage Martin Luther King to commit suicide letter.

We all had these ideas and sat around and no one said is it right? Is it wrong? Not a soul, a handful of these high level people so. But there was nobody who talked about minaret and so all to this day, it’s still classified somehow. One little bit lagged out that showed that he had seven of the targets. There were many, many more targeted and one of them was Senator Frank Church. Whether he knew it or not, there was columnist, newspaper columnist, humorist, Art Buchwald, Muhammad Ali of course, which wouldn’t be surprising because he was a opposed to Vietnam… A couple of editors, mainstream newspaper editors, and another senator.

So when you know that these were the again, if the public knows that our national security agencies are actually spying on our own publishers, journalists, government officials. I mean you can’t have it. I mean that we can’t have. That’s the rule of law completely breaking apart.

So, so I think the church committee was more. They had a lot to look. At that’s the other thing.

They had a lot, so they probably looked at some of the things that were nearest and dearest to them at the time and. I don’t know why they didn’t, you know that those would be my guesses as to why they did they more or less ignored the AIM.

So towards the end of when I was the legal counsel in 1990s, I mean, Leonard Peltier had been in jail for Oh what 30 years? Or something like that 25-30 I mean. But now it’s nearly 50 years. Because of that you know it really is not In Sync with any other murder prosecution. Most of you know it’s an average convictions. Now the average prison term of about 16 years. And I was well aware of this horrible case of the FBI agent who murdered his informant female informant and drove with her body and his FBI trunk for two or three days. Yeah, Mark Putnam. I was aware of that case that was also talked about quite a bit and he only served 10 years.

So you have this contrast and you know I thought, well, this is about the time where mercy and the real reasons for having criminal justice. Of course, the reason I joined the FBI that I learned in law school. Four a reasons- One is accountability, which is kind of a revenge accountability thing. The other one is to prevent recidivisms to create an example so people know so that there’s less other crime. People don’t follow that example because there’s accountability. And the last one is rehabilitation, and so if there’s no danger to the public from recidivism is this. And certainly when people, when their health deteriorates, and their whatever, it’s almost always the case that they are able to pardon, and so when you see this letter and it kind of jumps out to you all after nearly 50 years, and there’s no mercy in these other.

And basically it is just now very vindictive case, which of course was you know which.

Began on an emotional level at the time of the murders, but you know it by now.

It should have faded to the background and we should have been more objective in that.

(The full hour and a half interview can view watched at http://www.whoisLeonardpeltier.info)

00:50:34 Tony Gonzales

My relatives, let’s go into the song now Buffy Sainte Marie.

(Music Break Song By Buffy Sainte Marie titled “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”)

00:55:50 Tony Gonzales

Yeah alright Buffy Sainte Marie “Bury my heart at Wounded Knee” don’t forget the reunion.

Wounded Knee Warriors 50 year anniversary in South Dakota.

It’s open to the public. You’re welcome to go to the website. http://www.whoisLeonardpeltier.infoor also the American Indian Movement at aimovement.org for more details and information. Also there was just a quick mention on February 7th at Sacramento State Capitol grounds between 12th and 13th there will be a missing murdered indigenous peoples day of action, so don’t forget that’s at 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Sacramento State Capitol on February the 7th OK, and let’s see. Yeah. For more information, contact [email protected]. That’s [email protected] And that’s February 7th of capital Steps, Sacramento

All my relatives were at the hour now and this is Tony Gonzales, you’ve been listening to Bay Native Circle. Our producer is Janinne Antoine. Thank you for music by Al Frank Manriquez mixed with Rass K’dee, Robert Maribel Rare Tribal Mob. thank you goes out to Diane Williams for the opening prayer. We also thank our musical artists, our guests and you are listening audience for your continued support.

We want to give a shout out to our brothers and sisters on the inside, especially those on death row.

Thank you to creator the indigenous peoples whose lands we occupy to ancestors and to those yet to come blessings.

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The Bay Native Circle weekly program presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

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The Bay Native Circle weekly program presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

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